Feb. 8 2010 Observer Newsletter: A look at Jack Brisco, Royal Rumble news, ECW redux, new MN Wars PDF Print E-mail
Wrestling Observer Newsletter

PO Box 1228, Campbell, CA 95009-1228 ISSN10839593 February 8, 2010

WWE ROYAL RUMBLE PPV POLL RESULTS
Thumbs up147 (66.8%)
Thumbs down 29 (13.2%)
In the middle 44 (20.0%)

BEST MATCH POLL
Royal Rumble136
Undertaker vs. Rey Mysterio43
Christian vs. Ezekiel Jackson13

WORST MATCH POLL
Mickie James vs. Michelle McCool99
Randy Orton vs. Sheamus36
The Miz vs. MVP19
Christian vs. Ezekiel Jackson18

STRIKEFORCE POLL RESULTS
Thumbs up83 (66.9%)
Thumbs down 5 (04.0%)
In the middle36 (29.0%)

BEST MATCH POLL
Robbie Lawler vs. Melvin Manhoef90
Nick Diaz vs. Marius Zaromskis24

WORST MATCH POLL
Herschel Walker vs. Greg Nagy38
Bobby Lashley vs. Wes Sims30
Jay Hieron vs. Joe Riggs12*
*Match didn’t air on television, based on response from those attending live Based on e-mails, phone calls and fax messages to the Observer as of Tuesday, 2/2

The death of Jack Brisco at the age of 68, on 2/1, brings back a slew of memories for anyone who saw him during his prime.

Brisco, one of the greatest natural athletes of his generation in pro wrestling, and portrayed as the game’s best technical wrestler, which wasn’t a far stretch from reality at the time, was the living embodiment of an era in pro wrestling.

For fans of a certain generation in the state of Florida, St. Louis, and to a lesser extent, many other places in the United States, the name Jack Brisco defined a style of wrestling based on working dramatic matches that appeared to be legitimate athletic contests, completely different from all but his few true peers in the game. He didn’t brag. He didn’t bleed. He didn’t brawl unless he was pushed past the breaking point. He wasn’t a big man, at 6-1, and while announced usually at 236 pounds, he was closer to 215. But while barely he size of a junior heavyweight, his presence and skill level was such that no matter how big the opponent was physically, there was always the feeling it was the opponent who was physically overmatched. He simply had a technical excellence, athletic grace and fluidity of movement that couldn’t be taught, and that perhaps only one of his contemporaries, British star Billy Robinson, could fully match.

But Brisco had a unique charisma that was perfect for its era. Wrestling was sold as sport and Brisco was an athlete of the highest level. Kids around the country would get into arguments and fights over who would win a real fight between a boxer and a wrestler, and the names picked more often than not were Brisco and Muhammad Ali.

By the mid-70s, the game had changed. There were the steroid superstars and the bombastic talkers who copied Ali, and while Brisco remained a main event star until the day he flew South for the winter and never looked back in 1984, the true Jack Brisco era had passed.

Brisco, who had been battling health problems for years, circulatory issues, back problems that at times were so painful he needed to use a wheelchair to get through airports, and worst of all, emphysema, from his years of heavy smoking. When he was found to have 80% blockage of an artery leading to the heart, he underwent triple bypass surgery on Jan. 2. A few weeks later, while in a rehabilitation center, he collapsed and flatlined. He was able to be revived, but never fully recovered.

For the older promoters, who grew up on Lou Thesz as the epitome of what a world champion was supposed to be, Jack Brisco was the only true replication. The similarities were uncanny, from their love of pro wrestling as children–Brisco would talk about growing up poor, going to newsstands and pouring through the wrestling magazines, until the store owners would yell at him, because he was too poor to actually buy them. His childhood hero was Thesz. Later, when he started wrestling in high school because his football coach thought it would be a good idea, he gained a second hero in Danny Hodge.

Brisco had the same smoothness and reflexes, and the same quiet confidence. Brisco was not someone who was an open braggart, but he believed in his own ability. I remember when Cael Sanderson went unbeaten for four seasons in college, and Sanderson was about Brisco’s size, somebody asked him what he thought of Sanderson and how he, in his prime would do.

He remarked that Sanderson would be the toughest opponent he would have ever beaten.

Brisco was a three-time high school state champion wrestler, losing one match as a sophomore and going unbeaten as a junior and a senior. In fact, between high school and college, Brisco only lost two matches. He was also an all-state fullback and linebacker in football at Blackwell High School. The native American, from the Chocktaw and Chickasaw tribes in Oklahoma, was one of the most heavily recruited football players in the state, with the strong interest coming from Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Nebraska, Kansas and Washington State. Bud Wilkinson, a legendary coach, told him he could do both sports, and he was headed to Oklahoma. Myron Roderick, the Oklahoma State coach made a last pitch, telling him that if he came to Oklahoma State, he would make him a national champion. Plus, Roderick had connections with Leroy McGuirk, and Jack’s goal was get into pro wrestling.

But at the time, Wilkinson was like a God to Brisco and there was no way he could say no, plus, there was the lure of wrestling in the same wrestling room and wearing the same uniform as Hodge, who went to Oklahoma. He signed a letter of intent, and then immediately second-guessed himself. He decided his goal was to be a pro wrestler, and he saw Roderick as the better coach, and the one with the connections to McGuirk. Plus, he decided he would have more success as a wrestler if he didn’t also play football. Roderick got his mother a job, and the family moved from Blackwell to Stillwater, got Jack a job, and got them a place to live.

Brisco placed second in the 1964 NCAA tournament at 191 pounds, losing to Harry Houska (who later placed third in the 1967 world championships). It was the last time he lost in competition, being an undefeated national champion at 191 pounds in 1965, and was then recruited by Leroy McGuirk to go into pro wrestling.

He quickly made a name for himself in his home territory, a headliner from the start due to his national championship. But that didn’t carry much weight when he went elsewhere, as he starved in the Tennessee and Amarillo territories. It was his treatment that caused a major dislike for the promoter, Dory Funk Sr. Brisco felt that Sr. brought him into the territory to work with his son, Dory Jr., as a way to show the Texas audience that Dory Jr., himself a great technical wrestler, was the caliber of wrestler that could beat a legitimate national champion.

Still, promoters like Sam Muchnick in St. Louis and Jim Barnett in Australia became big supporters. Muchnick met him just a few months into his career when Brisco was called to come in from the Tennessee territory at the last minute to do a television job for Sonny Myers. After the two had a great television match, Muchnick told Brisco how impressed he was, that he should gain some weight and get some experience, and they could do something with him in a couple of years.

It was in Australia that Brisco met Billy Robinson for the first time, and the two got into a beef over which style of wrestling was superior, the hooking style Robinson learned at the Snake Pit in Wigan, England, or the American style that Brisco was a champion in. One night in a hotel, they moved the furniture out of the way, set up some beers and went at it all night. Brisco was never one who sung the praises of masters of submissions. He felt that sure, they could hook non-wrestlers, but most of them couldn’t handle a top level wrestler. But he always praised Robinson as the exception to the rule.

But Brisco’s career break came when Eddie Graham brought him in and built the Florida territory around Brisco, who became a genuine local sports hero, pushing almost from the start that he was destined to become world champion.

Brisco and his arch-rival, Dory Funk Jr., toured the world, wrestling each other in the greatest wrestling matches of their era. They were Ricky Steamboat and Ric Flair or Mitsuharu Misawa and Kenta Kobashi of their own generation. Two of the greatest in-ring performers who meshed perfectly and created timeless magic embedded in people’s memories as the greatest matches they ever saw.

Memories of course become glamorized by time. Brisco and Funk had been going at it regularly around the country for years. Brisco won several non-title matches, which in those days was a big deal. Frequently they exchanged holds in 60 minute draws, which were the state-of-the-art matches of their time, with Brisco always on the verge of winning as time was running out. They were matches of two athletes who relied more on subtly and story telling in the guise of convincing people they were witnessing an authentic sports championship contest. Sure, there was nonsense on the undercard, but there must be something different about the championship match, because it was wrestled in a different style than every other match on the card. But still, there was always the fluke. Somehow, Funk Jr. always retained the title.

Every city in Florida had seen the match multiple times. They drew frequent sellouts. The concept they were selling was Funk Jr. was more experienced, and crafty, but at the end of the day, Brisco was the superior wrestler. And there would come a day when he would capture what was purported to be the greatest prize in the sport.

That day ended up coming, but there was a detour. Brisco ended up winning the NWA world heavyweight title on July 20, 1973, in Houston, from Harley Race, and was presented with the famous red world championship belt. He dropped it for a week in Japan to Giant Baba in exchange for a $25,000 bonus. And he finally lost it on December 10, 1975, to Terry Funk in Miami Beach.

In 1972, Graham got the backing to get the title for Brisco, and Paul Boesch in Houston got to promote the match on March 2, 1973. A few days earlier, the news came that Dory Funk Jr. was in a vehicle accident on the family ranch in Amarillo. There was always skepticism regarding it. The Funks have always maintained it was legitimate. For what it was worth, Jack Brisco, Boesch and Eddie Graham thought it was a ploy to avoid losing the title.

Promoters around the country were unhappy because the NWA was without a champion for six weeks. Muchnick contacted Brisco and Terry Funk, and had them share fulfilling Dory’s schedule. To keep promoters happy, Brisco was sent as the No. 1 contender, while Terry as the brother of the champion. Both lost to the local stars every night, strengthening those stars for future title shots once the alliance had a healthy champion.

Six days after Dory returned, he dropped the title on May 24, 1973, to Harley Race in Kansas City. Race had a reputation as somebody that you didn’t cross. Plus the Funk family was close with not only Race, but also Bob Geigel, the promoter in Kansas City. Dory Sr. died of a heart attack a few weeks later.

It created the second round of Funk vs. Brisco, this time with Brisco as champion. The storyline was that the champion of four-plus years, who had defended it numerous times against Brisco without losing, was no longer the champion, but Brisco still had never beaten him. They continued to wrestle many one hour matches, but Brisco did get wins.

Brisco burned out on the schedule, particularly when Barnett took over from Muchnick booking the champion. The champions schedule was generally three weeks on the road, usually working six or seven nights, and then a week home. Of course, there were always promoters who had a big show during that week off and the champion was constantly asked to do favors. Muchnick would often do so, but Barnett had an even harder time saying no.

Brisco was 34 when he dropped the title. Eddie Graham created one more storyline to protect him. Brisco was scheduled to face Dory Jr. once again in Miami Beach, his biggest rival. In reality, Dory was in Japan that week. So Terry replaced him. The story was that while Dory and Terry were brothers, as wrestlers, they were the complete opposite. Brisco prepared for Dory, while Terry prepared for Brisco. In a finish that became a staple in Ric Flair matches as a near fall, as well as in Mexico because of Dr. Wagner Jr. idolizing Terry Funk, Brisco went for the figure four, his finisher, and Funk caught him with an inside cradle.

Brisco went on to wrestle through 1984, and was always considered one of the top names in the game. One day, while working for the WWF, in the middle of a December blizzard in the Northeast, he told younger brother Gerald that he was going South. He took the next plane out, went back home, and never wrestled again. He remains the only star of anywhere near his caliber who decided to quit on his own, nobody forcing him out, and when he made the call, he never looked back.

While Brisco was champion, he could no longer be counted on to carry the Florida territory because of all his traveling. While he was not involved in the angle that turned Dusty Rhodes babyface, he was still a key part in the story. A short time before Gary Hart and Pak Song turned on Rhodes, when Rhodes & Song were tag team partners in 1974, Brisco defended the title against Rhodes in Tampa. Brisco did not work as an overt heel, but from a psychology standpoint, he did subtle things in putting Rhodes over during the match, that after 45 minutes, a lot of the crowd started getting behind Rhodes, hoping to see a title change. Then Rhodes finally delivered his elbow drop, and Brisco at the count of two draped his foot over the rope. It’s a spot that’s done in nearly every long title match on PPV, and it was a staple of every world champion beforehand. But the crowd exploded with that elbow, and the guy they came into the match hating they were somehow behind, and set the stage for the angle a few weeks later.

Brisco also was partially responsible for Hulk Hogan getting into wrestling, as Hogan was playing bass guitar at a night club Brisco was at. Brisco sent him to Hiro Matsuda, and helped get him started. A notorious practical joker, while Hogan claimed that he was never smartened up and his first match, with Brian Blair, was a shoot because he didn’t know better, the reality was obviously different, as they weren’t going to have a shoot match in front of fans.

Blair said that Hogan, then a big masked man called The Super Destroyer, was facing him in his pro debut, and they were scheduled to go 20:00. They both gave it their all, going back and forth with their time cues. The rib was that with both exhausted, the timekeeper at the 20:00 mark, instead of ringing the bell, after being told by Brisco, said “20 minutes have elapsed, 10 minutes left.”

Jack Brisco, as well as his brother Gerald, had stock in the Georgia Championship Wrestling office. Jack was given stock on the advice of Eddie Graham, when Ray Gunkel’s old company was folded and a new company was formed, during the famed Atlanta promotional war. Brisco was given a cut, with Graham convincing the NWA that by doing so, Brisco would work Georgia as much as he can since he had points in the company, and he was such a big star he would be a difference maker.

When Georgia Championship Wrestling got on satellite with the expansion of WTCG (now TBS), Jack pushed Barnett to go national, since the show had a national following. Barnett didn’t want to go into other people’s territories. But the company started struggling, and Jack later said that he felt with the cost of television production going up, and the top talent starting to congregate in the major markets, that he was afraid his stock would be worth nothing in a few years. As it was, in the early 80s, there were periods where the company was losing money, and even when they were making money, Jack felt that General Manager Ole Anderson, who Barnett had signed to a lucrative contract, was the only one making the money. The Brisco Brothers got several of the shareholders together, and without Anderson’s knowledge, sold a majority interest to Vince McMahon, creating Black Saturday, the one year where McMahon was on TBS, and eventually the seeds of McMahon’s hatred for Ted Turner when Turner went to kick him off the station after McMahon had paid $750,000 for the stock. Through a deal brokered by Barnett, McMahon ended up selling the rights to the time slot to Jim Crockett for $1 million, so he did make money on the deal, but was still resentful he was being kicked off what was then the No. 1 cable station in the country.

Jack & Jerry Brisco were NWA world tag team champions in the Carolinas at the time of the sale, dropped the belts to Wahoo McDaniel & Mark Youngblood, and because of how much heat it got with the NWA promoters at the time, dropped out of sight. When the sale went through, they went to work for the WWF, but by the end of the year, Jack had retired, and Jerry has remained with the company in a front office role.

We are way behind on bios due to the large volume of news and number of high profile deaths. But while those are some thumbnail highlights of Brisco’s sports career, they hardly scratch the surface.

*******

The 3/1 date has been confirmed as the start of the new era of Monday Night Wars in pro wrestling.

Spike TV accidentally on its web site, when listing the schedule for the first week of March, listed Impact on 3/1 from 9-11 p.m. On 3/4, in the usual Thursday night time slot, they have UFC listed until 9:30 p.m., followed by a show called “Playbook.” A few sources in the company have confirmed 3/1 as the day the game changes, with a live show that night and a 3/2 taping for the 3/8 show. Like with the Jan. 4 date, which was known at the time Hogan signed, nobody can publicly say it until Spike and TNA make the joint announcement. Shortly after Impact was listed on the schedule for that time slot and word got out, Spike changed the schedule listing “To Be Announced” in that time slot. But removing Impact from Thursday, particularly for UFC programming which is on all the time and would do lower ratings than even a regular time slot replay of a Monday Impact, indicates that would be the time the permanent change is made.

The decision to go with 3/1 as a live show on Monday was actually made at least by mid-September, because certain decision changes were made and Universal was given the new date for a taping, as they originally had 3/8 and 3/9 as taping dates. Originally, TNA had an Australian tour that would have much of the crew in that country on that date. The tour didn’t have a strong advance, and after one group of promoters lost their shirts on the Hulkamania tour, which had better advances and there’s little chance a TNA tour would be able to do anywhere near whatever walk-up business that one did, it made sense to cancel.

While not confirmed, it is believed that will become the official weekly time slot. That’s a mistake because they would draw a much higher rating from 8-9 p.m. opposed only by ROH on HDNet which has minor penetration. The 8-9 p.m. hour when they went three hours on Jan. 4 drew significantly higher than the other two hours. In fact, 8-10 p.m. on Mondays is almost guaranteed success because by TNA standards, they would probably do significantly bigger numbers than they do now by being unopposed. Of course, that would change if WWE went three hours. Going 9-11 p.m. has its risks. It has been confirmed WWE and the USA Network are seriously considering such a move, after WWE was resistant to it last year. With WWE getting an hour head start, it makes the game even more difficult for TNA.

With the arrivals of Hulk Hogan, Eric Bischoff and Ric Flair, ratings have increased, peaking with a 1.38 rating on 1/28, the highest for the show in its regular time slot. However, there was both good and bad news, as the show opened with a 1.51 quarter, which may have been the largest in company history. But then, every quarter except the main event with Jeff Jarrett vs. Mr. Anderson saw the audience decline. It’s very rare with television shows, and particularly sports shows, for the audience to decline from start-to-finish. At times in blow-out games, people may tune out when the score gets out of hand, and all wrestling shows have their ups and downs during the show, but it’s almost unheard of for virtually every segment to go down.

It would be the sign of two things. The first is that more people right now are interested in TNA than ever before. The second is that a lot of people didn’t like the show to the point they turned it off and didn’t return. There were key storyline segments involving big names and the audience still declined. TNA can claim, and this very well could be, that the big opening quarter came from the cliffhanger ending of the show the prior week, either Kurt Angle talking about quitting and going to WWE, or the bloodied Eric Bischoff firing Mick Foley. Still, setting the record rating is an overall positive. In wrestling, star power usually trumps storylines that make sense and good matches. But there are limits. The most notable is WCW in 1998, where they were loaded with stars and had a banner year, but the storylines got weaker and weaker. Still, business was great all year, even though WWF did surpass WCW in ratings, the WCW ratings remained strong and attendance and PPV numbers remained up. However, bad storylines for a lengthy period of time are going to hurt. This led to 1999, where the same star power was there, but from a business standpoint, the company hit the iceberg in every category. But even though TNA’s storylines right now have major logic holes and there are arguments about being repetitive, in no way does this television have the kind of complete turn-off and out of touch with their audience factor that WCW in 1999.

Still, there are growing pain issues. The unhappiness of some of the audience to recent changes at Universal could be explained by them being fans with too much familiarity with the product. But the reactions in several cities on the U.K. tour were similar, most notably when Dixie Carter got in the ring in London and while the shows were well received, people booed what they perceived as changes. Then again, the people who bought tickets were the loyal fans the old TNA got that were willing to pay high ticket prices to see the product, and were there to see the old product. The argument is that there simply weren’t enough of those people and this new regime is there to expand that audience. My belief is with football over, without the changes, TNA would be doing 1.2s consistently, and maybe some 1.3s, like they did in July. So they are up from their best ever numbers, but whether rises of .06 to .16 are worth the kind of money they are spending in new salaries is a question. It also should be noted that generally speaking, the new viewers that have been brought to the table fit Spike’s target demographics, as the increases have been heavily skewed in Males 18-34, so from a Spike standpoint these increase are slightly more valuable then just looking at the flat rating would indicate.

For a comparison, in July, when Impact was doing strong numbers built around the Jeff Jarrett vs. Mick Foley power struggle angle, it averaged a 1.22 rating with an 0.84 average in Males 18-34 and 1.06 in Males 35-49. Over the past three weeks, the rating average is up 6.6% to a 1.30, honestly, disappointing considering the kind of money that was spent. However, 18-34 Males are up 28.6% to a 1.08, and Males 35-49 are up 8.5% to a 1.15. It’s a key point that bringing in Hogan, Bischoff and Flair as key new characters have helped the most with the audience Spike covets the most. But that still has to be tempered by Hogan’s WWE history of diminishing returns after frequent exposure, that he’s most effective coming in for a short period of time and then getting out. But this is also a different role, as he’s not playing wrestler as having to be taken as a main event babyface ass kicker, to where perhaps his limitations start becoming apparent and the nostalgia wears off. Now his role is as a personality and doing promos, which all three newcomers are top level at.

But the theory is even though they won’t be doing house shows, that just having Hogan and Flair associated with the TV will elevate the TNA name and increase house show and merchandising business, plus swing overseas television deals. Plus, they will be appearing on PPV shows and that should increase business. And it should be noted that Spike TV kicked in a percentage of the money to bring the newcomers in. In theory, all of those revenue streams should go up, although the first PPV didn’t appear to do as well as several of the 2009 shows. To really have a gauge on how effective this will be as far as PPV and arena dates won’t be fairly evaluated before March, and at that point the game changes greatly once again.

While three hour Raws have traditionally had weak first hours, that’s because a percentage of the audience forgets about the early starting time. If and when Raw is regularly starting at 8 p.m., the audience will quickly become familiar with the pattern. Raw will have at least some advantage with it being live weekly while TNA will be taped. How much that actually means for ratings in 2010 will be interesting to see, but if it turns out to be a major difference then TNA can fix that by going live weekly, which most figure is going to be the end result at some point.

It’s also a risk going from Thursday, because the rating for this past week was higher than the two opposed hours drew on Jan. 4, on a show with far more hype. In theory, being on Monday would appear to have more potential for growth because it’s the night most wrestling fans are conditioned to watch wrestling. But we also saw on Jan. 4 how little crossover there was switching back- and-forth. I believe if TNA went 8-10 p.m. and WWE stayed at 9-11 p.m., that there is no way TNA wouldn’t do better on Monday than Thursday.

On 1/29, Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff appeared on Bubba the Love Sponge for a combination work/shoot interview segment that included one internal surprise, which was Bischoff’s knocking Sting for missing the last set of tapings.

Sting missed the PPV and television due to a family emergency. Exactly what it was is not known, other than nobody was questioning its legitimacy, since Sting has been in the business for years and has never had a reputation for coming up with excuses to not work.

When asked, Bischoff said that everyone in the company has to be completely committed or things won’t work out, and Hogan said he doesn’t see how they can use anyone if they don’t make their dates. It was noted internally that if this was to send a message to Sting, it’s unlikely he’ll get it, because he pays no attention to the business except on the days he’s working, and doesn’t follow the Internet at all. Plus, the belief was Sting had a very legitimate reason for not being there.

“Sting’s a great talent.

Love him to death. My problem is now that we’re trying to do this big picture. I understand how big picture it is for the wrestling business. Sting had life-and-death personal issues, but from a business side, it totally screws us up. If at any time that happens, I got a personal issue, now we have to switch gears on who we use, you can’t build the world around them..

Bischoff then said, “Everybody has got to make a commitment. It’s easy to say we want TNA to be No. 1, but if you’re not willing to put TNA as a priority above almost every situation, then it’s probably not going to work out.”

Hogan also teased the idea of doing a match with A.J. Styles down the line, although that was more a caller asking who he’d like to face. Eric Bischoff then threw out the Ric Flair name as a Hogan opponent and Hogan joked Flair couldn’t keep up (clearly meant to build it). since

*******

Vince McMahon announced on the 2/2 ECW television show, the end of the nearly 16-year-old Extreme Championship Wrestling brand name.

The show and brand name will be used for the final time presumably on 2/23, in a show taped in Milwaukee. McMahon announced the name and brand would end in three weeks and be replaced by a new show, which would presumably debut on 3/2 in Wichita.

PWInsider reported the new show would be called WWE NXT, which would seem to mean it would be the next generation of WWE stars. Two other company sources have said they have been led to believe that. For what it’s worth, there is an independent promotion called NXT based in Rutherglen, Scotland.

The ECW name dates back to Paul Heyman’s changing of Eastern Championship Wrestling to Extreme Championship Wrestling on August 30, 1994, when Shane Douglas threw down the NWA world championship belt he had won in a tournament in Philadelphia and declared the new championship that of Extreme Championship Wrestling. McMahon, who purchased the rights to the name and its intellectual property in bankruptcy court in 2001, used the name in the 2001 Invasion angle. After the video “The Rise and Fall of ECW” became one of the best selling pro wrestling video tapes in history, McMahon, on the urging of Rob Van Dam, followed up with a “One Night Stand” PPV in 2005. The show was a big success, although there was strangely no follow-up. However, in 2006, the decision in conjunction with the second One Night Stand was to recreate the brand. The original idea is Shane McMahon would run it and it would be broadcast on the Internet and run shows on the road as a third brand. In hindsight, that concept was doomed to failure. Instead, Bonnie Hammer got ECW a time slot on the Sci-Fi Network. The television ratings were good, but attempts to tour on the road in smaller buildings didn’t do well, with shows generally doing about 1,000 to 1,200 fans and in the $25,000 gate range. Those were deemed unsuccessful because by the end of 2006, all ECW house shows were canceled and the wrestlers were mostly used in prelim matches on Smackdown shows. Whatever was left of the original brand meaning was largely gone with the disastrous December to Dismember PPV, which only did 55,000 buys in North America, which also led to the end of Paul Heyman in WWE.

The brand remained the past three years as a “C” brand, largely the first step from wrestlers called up from developmental, sprinkled with a few veterans who they either had no ideas for on the major shows, or, like Christian and William Regal of late, were good workers who could guide the less experienced talent.

McMahon only said the new WWE show in the Tuesday night at 10 p.m. time slot on Syfy would be the next stage of the evolution of WWE television. He then walked away, offering no details.

It is not certain exactly what form the new show will take. Among ideas floated around in recent weeks are to somehow do a Sci-Fi version of wrestling, with the idea it at least fits with the network. There has also been talk of a reality show type of product. A third idea has been an interactive show. The strongest rumors are a combination of some form of the latter two.

The downside of that idea is a fan participation show would have to air live. With most tapings held in the Eastern time zone, that would lead to the problem of having to tape Smackdown first, and then go live with the new show, which is still supposed to have the same basic type of talent, wrestlers being brought up from developmental sprinkled in with some veterans in the roles of teachers. The interactive concept, previously used on the Taboo Tuesday and Cyber Sunday TV shows has another downside, and that is, if you build the show that way, it’s difficult to impossible to do long-term booking because of giving up full control of aspects of the show. There is the ability to manipulate the audience, but that’s not 100%. It’s also the concept that flopped on PPV, but PPV where you have to pay and television for free have completely different viewer mentalities so it not working on PPV doesn’t mean it won’t work as free television. And because it’s a “C” brand, it at most contributes one match, usually a prelim match, on PPV shows so the building of matches and long-term storylines isn’t nearly as important as on Raw or Smackdown.

As noted before, ECW had been the one show on the WWE lineup that would not be considered a success. Raw remains one of the most popular shows every week on cable. Smackdown is one of the few shows left on MyNetwork TV, and by far its highest rated program. Superstars on WGN America is the highest rated program on that station (ironically on the Chicago version of WGN, the show was canceled due to low ratings a few weeks ago, but a deal was made and it will be returning this coming weekend).

ECW of late has been doing 0.9 ratings, which would be average or Syfy. The problem is that wrestling, because of the perception in television that it draws a low-rent audience, ad sales for WWE programming go at a much lower rate than the same ratings for virtually any other show. As long as wrestling’s ratings are good, it’s not that big of an issue in that case because it also costs far less to produce a wrestling show than a first-run comedy or drama. A downside is wrestling doesn’t have the advantage regarding long-term revenue to a network of being able to syndicate the shows, where big money comes in, during its after-life.

But on a station that caters to Science Fiction shows, a pro wrestling show that draws average ratings, isn’t compatible with the rest of the network programming, and can’t draw good ad rates is far less valuable than it was when it was at times the highest, and for much of its run, among the highest rated shows on the network.

********

For the second time in three years, an injured wrestler came back early, making a surprise appearance, and ended up winning the Royal Rumble.

Edge returned eight months after suffering a torn Achilles tendon in a 7/3 house show match in San Diego against Jeff Hardy, and undergoing surgery, to be a surprise entrant and won the WWE’s second biggest event of the year on 1/31 at the Phillips Arena in Atlanta.

The Rumble was a good show, largely due to several different stories told in the Rumble match itself. The undercard was decent, with no great matches, but some good storylines.

The only title change was Mickie James beating Michelle McCool in a 20 second match to win the women’s title. Instead of a match, it was more of a television angle skit, with the quick bout, and then all the babyface women throwing a cake onto McCool and Layla, who had been harassing James for weeks on Smackdown.

Undertaker pinned Rey Mysterio in the best match on the undercard. Undertaker, less than two weeks removed from arthroscopic knee surgery, was limited in what he could do.

The other title match, where Cody Rhodes interfered and got Randy Orton disqualified, was more the backdrop for a Legacy implosion, as Orton, frustrated that he didn’t win the title, exploded on Rhodes and Ted DiBiase, while the crowd heavily cheered him. Still, the next night on television, against Shawn Michaels, he was back to being a heel, but the status of legacy was left open ended. Rhodes and Orton had no interaction. DiBiase said he felt sorry for Orton, who just stared at him, glared at him, and walked away.

With WrestleMania on 3/28 in Phoenix, it’s clear Shawn Michaels vs. Undertaker and Vince McMahon vs. Bret Hart (or Vince & Batista vs. Hart & John Cena) are going to be the big matches.

But the title situation is anyone’s guess, because on 2/21 in St. Louis, they are doing two Elimination Chamber matches with both titles at stake. The Raw chamber match has champion Sheamus vs. HHH vs. Orton vs. Kofi Kingston vs. DiBiase vs. Cena. The Smackdown chamber has champion Undertaker vs. John Morrison vs. R-Truth vs. C.M. Punk vs. Mysterio vs. Chris Jericho. In theory, Edge faces the winner of one of those matches. One would be led to believe, since the build for months was in that direction, that Jericho wins, plus Jericho doing so many jobs would also lead you to that conclusion. But with WWE, trying to read into booking and long-term planning is fruitless, because they are into surprises, and also change direction daily. At the start of Raw, they teased Edge vs. Sheamus. The two key names not in the Chamber match are Shawn Michaels and Batista, and at least as of the weekend, the two were scheduled for a singles match.

Among the key Rumble stories was C.M. Punk owning the ring early, until HHH threw him out. Michaels threw out HHH, but went crazy when he got tossed out by Batista when he was one of the final four, along with Cena and Edge. Edge entered at No. 29 as the surprise.

The show drew an advanced sellout announced at 16,697 to the Phillips Arena (about 13,500 paying $800,000).

A. The Bella Twins & Gail Kim & Eve Torres & Kelly Kelly beat Alicia Fox & Katie Lea Burchill & Maryse & Natalya & Jillian Hall. Sloppy match with several missed spots. Kelly pinned Hall with a crossbody off the top rope.

1. Christian retained the ECW title pinning Ezekiel Jackson in 11:59. Savannah announced Jackson at 209 pounds instead of 309, and Howard Finkel of all people ripped into her (also for not announcing Jackson as the challenger) on the Internet, saying you shouldn’t be making those mistakes on a big show. William Regal, who at first was scheduled in the Rumble, was instead removed from the match and put in Jackson’s corner. He was tossed out by the ref at 4:00. These two had worked for the past few weeks at house shows. Jackson hasn’t looked anything but bad when he’s had to go more than 5:00 on his own in the past. It was the usual Christian style of his usual moves, near falls and the reversals out of teased attempts at the finishers. It ended with Jackson picking Christian up like he was going to powerslam him, but smashing him into the turnbuckles twice. Christian maneuvered off Jackson’s back, hit the killswitch and got the pin. ***

There was a skit with Teddy Long and Tiffany in a discussion. Cryme Tyme showed up. Apparently there was only room for one of them in the Rumble and they had to decide which one. Then they tried to convince Khali to drop out of the Rumble, saying he could kiss Tiffany if he gave up his Rumble spot. Ranjin Singh told him not to do it. While they were all talking, Miz showed up. He said that five years from now, nobody will remember any of these guys but they will remember that he won the Rumble. Well, if he did win the Rumble, that would be the case. Long for some reason was so mad that he ordered Miz to defend next against MVP. Cody Rhodes then told Randy Orton he was there for him, but unfortunately, Ted DiBiase wasn’t. He said Ted told him he wanted to win the Rumble and then challenge and beat Orton for the title.

2. The Miz pinned MVP to keep the U.S. title in 7:30. There were dueling chants, some saying Miz was “awesome” while others said he was “awful.” Decent match ending when Miz cradled MVP as he came through the ropes. After the match, MVP hit the playmaker on Miz. Crowd booed him for doing that. **1/4

Chris Jericho and Big Show acted like broken up lovers. Jericho talked about how Miz was selfish and self centered and gave all his bad faults, with the idea that he was totally unaware he had all those same faults. Well, into Show kind of said so. Jericho said if it came down to Jericho and Miz, Show will throw out Miz. Show said if it came down to Jericho and Miz and himself, he’s throwing both out. He left and R-Truth came out and said he’d throw out Jericho. Orton was in a bad mood and DiBiase told him that if he needs him, he’ll be there. He said, unfortunately, he can’t say that about Cody. He said Cody has been saying he’s going to win the Rumble and face Sheamus for the tile at Mania, and that Cody has said he doesn’t think Randy can bat Sheamus. Orton got mad and said that he doesn’t want either DiBiase or Rhodes helping him.

3. Sheamus beat Randy Orton via DQ in the WWE title match in 12:24. A slow, deliberate match. At times the crowd was strongly pro-Orton and at other times they were quiet. The match never reached the level of what you expect from a WWE title match. The finish itself sucked, just a cheap DQ for Rhodes attacking Sheamus, but it led to the post match where Orton attacked Rhodes and DiBiase, which was good. Mostly Orton working the left knee and Sheamus working the left shoulder. Orton got out of the razor’s edge and went back on Sheamus’ knee. He did the draping DDT for a near fall but Sheamus grabbed the ropes. It ended with Sheamus outside the ring and Rhodes attacking him. Sheamus got in the ring, and Orton hit the RKO, but since Rhodes attacked right in front of ref Scott Armstrong, Armstrong called for the DQ. Orton then went crazy and attacked Rhodes. Crowd was heavily behind Orton at that point. DiBiase ran in and tried to stop Orton. Orton attacked DiBiase and there was a loud “RKO” chant. But then Sheamus recovered and laid out Orton with the kick to the face. **

4. Mickie James pinned Michelle McCool in :20 to win the women’s title. McCool claimed James wasn’t there and started calling her Piggie. Then Layla came out wearing the fat suit again. James came out and threw Layla into the barricade. McCool went to kick James, who moved, and kicked Layla off the apron. James used the DDT for the pin. After the match, Kelly Kelly, Gail Kim, Maria, Eve Torres and the Bella Twins came out with a big giant cake and threw it in McCool and Layla’s faces. The segment was real strong face getting revenge after being emotionally harassed for weeks. Basic wrestling. The cake stuff worked, and it was better then doing a regular match in this segment would have been.

5. Undertaker pinned Rey Mysterio in 11:07 to retain the World title. Undertaker dominated early with power. Mysterio came back and looked to have broken Undertaker’s nose, probably when Mysterio’s kneebrace nailed him as that’s busted up guys in the past. It was either on a 619, or when Undertaker went for a tombstone and Mysterio upside down started throwing knees to get out of it. Finish here was two 619's by Mysterio, followed by a springboard Thesz press, but Undertaker caught him, and gave him a last ride power bomb for the pin. ***1/4

6. Edge won the Royal Rumble in 49:24. It was the shortest Rumble match since 1995, and of Rumbles on PPV, that is the only one shorter (the 1988 Rumble was also shorter, but that was a USA Network special). They announced entrances every 90 seconds, but like every year, they don’t follow the clock, and have them come in I guess when they figure it’s time. Dolph Ziggler opened with Evan Bourne. Ziggler used the Zig Zag early, but didn’t get Bourne out. C.M. Punk came in at 1:50, and started a 10:00 period where he dominated the match. He threw out Bourne in 2:27 and Ziggler at 2:29. Then he cut a promo until JTG arrived at 3:26. Punk threw JTG out in 4:02 and Punk was talking some more. Great Khali was in at 4:53. Khali used the Khali chop and head squeeze on Punk. Punk looked about done when Beth Phoenix arrived at 6:20 as a surprise entrant. She kissed Khali hard, which caused Khali to float over the top to the floor at 7:04. With Khali gone, Punk gave Phoenix the GTS. Zack Ryder was in at 7:52. Punk threw out Phoenix at 8:07. At 8:42, Punk threw out Ryder and cut another promo until HHH entered at 9:25. Drew McIntyre was in next at 11:08. Punk had HHH up for the GTS, but HHH countered, got away, and threw out Punk in 12:03. DiBiase was in at 12:40. DiBiase and McIntyre at this point were beating up HHH. John Morrison was in at 14:11. He did the Starship pain on McIntyre. Kane arrived at 15:42. Cody Rhodes was in at 17:16, followed by MVP at 19:00. However, MVP never got to the ring and Miz ran from the backstage and laid out MVP from behind with a belt shot. Carlito came in at 20:29. Carlito was nailing everyone, even giving HHH a back stabber. Miz came in at 22:01. MVP came running out from the back, since he was supposed to enter, but got laid out before he could get in the ring. Miz and MVP started going at it. MVP clotheslined Miz over the top, but Miz held on and both were eliminate at 22:30. At 23:33, Matt Hardy entered to one of the biggest pops on the show. Kane threw out Hardy in 24:02. That’ll teach those finals for cheering for him. HHH threw out Kane in 24:06. HHH then went crazy giving everyone slams and spinebusters. Shawn Michaels was in at 24:52. Michaels backdropped Carlito over the top in 25:15. Michaels threw out Rhodes in 25:22. Michaels then threw out DiBiase in 25:36. Michaels threw out Morrison in 25:59. At 26:30, Michaels & HHH worked together to clothesline McIntyre. John Cena came in at 26:44. HHH hit a pedigree on Cena. Michaels then superkicked HHH out in 28:13. Shelton Benjamin was in at 28:14. He was doomed as every ECW guy in this match was treated as a joke. Cena threw out Benjamin in 29:16. At 29:49, Yoshi Tatsu came in. Cena threw out Tatsu in 30:27. Second ECW got whose gone quickly. Big Show was in at 31:20. Mark Henry was in at 32:51. Chris Masters was in at 34:15. Show threw out Masters in 34:54. R-Truth came out at 35:24. Tatsu eliminated Henry in 35:38. Jack Swagger was in at 38:44. Kofi Kingston was in next at 38:19. Kingston flipped over Swagger in 39:00. Kingston threw out Truth at 39:43. Chris Jericho entered at 39:51. Cena threw out Kingston at 41:22. Crowd turned on Cena for that one. Edge came in at 41:44. He had his ankle taped up really heavy. Edge threw out Jericho in 42:32. Batista was the 30th guy in at 43:12. Batista threw out Show in 45:58. This left Cena, Batista and Edge. Cena threw Batista out at 48:45. Edge then caused Cena to go over at 49:24.

******

Herschel Walker lived up to his billing as an amazing athlete, and paced the 1/30 Strikeforce show to do the second biggest audience for an MMA event on premium television on a night where both Strikeforce and UFC scored big while going head-to-head.

We don’t have full details, but the show did 517,000 viewers. That would figure to be a 1.8 rating. Showtime’s all-time record was the 8/15 Gina Carano vs. Cris Cyborg match that did 571,000 viewers and a 2.17 rating.

The show went head-to-head with a taped airing of the 12/12 UFC 107 show on Spike, which did a 1.64 rating and 2.2 million viewers, peaking at 1.93 and 2.5 million viewers for the Frank Mir vs. Cheick Kongo match. The B.J. Penn vs. Diego Sanchez main event did a 1.80 rating.

The show did a 1.55 in Males 18-34 which is not unusual, but was shocking is that in the Males 35-49 category, the show did a 2.45. There have been shows where UFC’s 35-49 outdraws 18-34, although that isn’t the case most of the time. But no UFC show has ever had that kind of disparity between the two age brackets. Even though it was a taped show, it was the highest rated show on cable television in both of those demos for the entire day.

The 1.64 number was the second largest number for a taped showing of a major event in history, behind only the 1.7 rating that a tape of the Brock Lesnar vs. Randy Couture UFC 91 did. It even beat the replay showing of UFC 100. This is another example of the drawing power of probably both Penn and Mir. In fact, this beat the ratings for most live UFC events on Spike. Some of the taped numbered PPV shows have beaten it, but when it comes to shows on Spike that aren’t on a night headlined by Kimbo Slice, it was better than any Fight Night or Ultimate Fight final dating back 17 months. Coming off a 1.20 rating for the 1/11 Fight Night that had tons more publicity going in, this was very impressive.

A secondary benefit is that the Countdown to UFC 109 special aired right after the show ended, and that did 881,000 viewers, significantly above what a normal Countdown show does.

For Strikeforce, it’s pretty clear the rating was drawn by Walker and Bobby Lashley, who were the two big stars on the show to the casual audience, even though they were in prelim matches. A lot of MMA fans were critical of both being on the main card. There were complaints Lashley’s match didn’t feature fighters of as high caliber as the Joe Riggs vs. Jay Hieron fight, which didn’t make television, and that Walker, at 47, and with less than three months of training in the sport, didn’t belong in a high profile position.

The crowd of 8,156 fans at the BankAtlantic Center in Sunrise, FL, was the coldest crowd I’ve seen for a major MMA show in a long time. Aside from Walker and Lashley, and to a much lesser extent Nick Diaz, the audience didn’t react to anyone when they came out. The most competitive Cris Cyborg fight to date, against Holland’s Marloes Coenen, was the first Cyborg fight in the U.S. that didn’t get over huge to the live audience. There was a gigantic reaction to the finish of the Melvin Manhoef vs. Robbie Lawler fight, which was almost a copy of the Scott Smith vs. Cung Le finish on the 12/19 show in San Jose. Manhoef was beating Lawler to death, particularly brutalizing his right leg to where Lawler was limping, had limited mobility and was on the brink of losing. Then Lawler caught Manhoef flush with a punch that stunned him bad, and followed with a second punch that knocked him out cold. But that was the only big reaction of the show, which to me was an average show live since the prelims weren’t much. As a television show, it was good. Three of the five fights were very good. Walker vs. Greg Nagy was not a good fight, but it was still something to see and an amazing performance by a 47-year-old man. Lashley vs. Wes Sims went as predicted, with Lashley taking Sims down and pounding him out quickly.

It may be Walker’s only fight. He got a payday in excess of $100,000, which went to charity, but put his life on hold for nearly three months, moving to San Jose away from his business based in Georgia and training with a high caliber pro fighting team. He said it was the hardest training he had ever done for any sport in his career. That’s a heavy statement from someone who was a two time Pro Bowl NFL star, one of the greatest college football players of all-time (ESPN once ran down the 50 greatest college football players ever and Walker was listed at No. 3), a world class track athlete who nearly made the Olympic team in the 100 meter dash and 4x100 meter relays, and an Olympic bobsled racer. The feeling was Walker wanted to do this once, to show he could still compete at age 47 in a new sport. Granted, he was given an opponent who wasn’t very good, and Walker was far from a polished fighter. But he showed good wrestling. He had no submission skill at all, but did get out of some submission attempts. His stand-up didn’t look good, but he was able to take Nagy down and beat him up, but didn’t show finishing skill. While he did get a third round finish, it was more a mercy stoppage as Nagy was just getting hammered and showing no ability to get out of a bad position, as opposed to it being the type of beatdown usually associated with a stoppage. But what was absolutely amazing was his conditioning. Physically, his body looked like a smaller version (at 215 pounds) of Lashley, but it wasn’t just cosmetic muscle. He never breathed heavy in a three round fight. Even people in the best of condition in their 20s often will breathe heavy just because of nerves. His trainers noted that was where his high-level football and other sports experience helped because they said beforehand that when the cage door shuts, he wasn’t going to panic like most do in their first match. Even Randy Couture, who is in incredible condition for his age, usually is breathing heavy after a few minutes.

As far as doing it again, the question is whether he would be willing to give up three months again to train, and the reality is, at his age, time is likely too far against him being able to become a top fighter, even though trainer Javier Mendez said he could make him an elite fighter in three years, and if he was 22 or 23 today, that with his athletic ability, he would become the greatest MMA fighter who ever lived.

Even though South Florida was loaded with NFL writers, in for the Pro Bowl the next day, and the Super Bowl, there didn’t appear to be any football writers at the show. Walker’s fighting was covered by ESPN and did well on Showtime, but not record numbers, and was not a publicity bonanza. I’m told that the feeling of the writers is that Walker had been out of the league for so long, and it was a Saturday night and it wasn’t a big enough event that the football writers deemed it important.

Lashley didn’t show anything that wasn’t known going in. It was a quick takedown and punches on the ground. The punches weren’t monstrous punches, but Wes Sims wasn’t able to get up. The funny part is that Sims was the guy running around playing pro wrestler all weekend. Sims, who has done some indie wrestling and tried out for WWE in 2004, without getting picked, came off last season of Ultimate Fighter where he was always in his Brutus Beefcake character. Here, he was more playing big bully, showing up with a big scowl and with sunglasses on. He made a scene in the ring after the stoppage. He went to the post-show press conference and looked like he was shooting an angle for TNA, shoving Lashley, challenging him to another fight and then doing press interviews, saying Lashley illegally grabbed his throat, saying that Lashley is going to be back working security because he doesn’t cut good enough promos to make it in pro wrestling, and made steroid accusations against Lashley.

Scott Coker talked about matching Lashley next with Brett Rogers. Lashley said he wanted to fight again in two months, but if he was against a quality opponent, he’d want four months. The idea was to slowly build Lashley up, but in a business where the ardent fan base that doesn’t understand business seems to have a lot of influence, nobody has patience and wants newcomers to fight top guys right away. Lashley would be better served facing a Shane Del Rosario (who his people turned down) or Brandon Cash next, because he really needs to face someone of higher quality than he has before going in with Rogers.

The main event saw Nick Diaz become the first Strikeforce welterweight champion, with a first round knockout win over Marius Zaromskis, the current Dream welterweight champion, in an exciting match.

Cyborg kept he women’s title on a third round stoppage over Coenen.

It was clear the crowd for the most part had no idea who international stars like Manhoef, Zaromskis or Coenen were, as they didn’t react at all too them. The shocking thing was the lack of reaction to Cyborg. When all of the Strikeforce stars at ringside were introduced, like Rogers, Scott Smith, Cung Le, Josh Thomson and Gilbert Melendez, there was barely recognition to them. The only two names in the building who were really over were Georges St. Pierre and Dan Henderson. Walker and Lashley got the biggest of the fighters, but neither got the kind of reaction you’d think. It was more a recognition reaction, similar to what Diaz got. Cyborg got almost nothing. There was a complete lack of interest in Cyborg vs. Coenen, which wasn’t a good sign for post-Gina Carano women’s MMA, but I wouldn’t read a ton into it because it was an unusual crowd.

Coker talked of Cyborg vs. Erin Toughill for the title next, and trying to match Carano vs. Coenen. While Coker talked of Carano returning in the summer, there is a lot of questioning going around whether she will fight again, particularly if her acting career goes somewhere, then fighting wouldn’t be in her best interest.

1. John Kelly (4-0) beat Sabah Homasi (2-1) at 2:14 of the second round with a choke.

2. Hayder Hasan (3-1) beat Ryan Keenan by ref stoppage after a left to the jaw at 2:42 of the second round.

3. In a big surprise, Pablo Alfonso (6-1) beat Marcos DaMatta (7-1) via armbar in 1:47. DaMatta was the first guy the crowd knew, an ATT BJJ expert who ended up being submitted.

4. David Gomez (1-2) beat Craig Oxley (0-3) via 30-27 scores across the board.

5. Joe Ray (1-0) beat John Clarke (0-1) in 3:14 with a knee to the chin and punches on the ground. Both men were making their debuts.

6. Jay Hieron (19-4) beat Joe Riggs (32-11) on scores of 30-27, 29-28 and 30-27. Crowd hated the fight. First round was standing and not a lot of action. Second round saw Hieron get a takedown and throw punches to the ribs on both sides of the body, as well as some to the head. Crowd was booing the lack of action. Hieron had some good shots to the head late. Riggs hurt Hieron with a punch to start round three. Riggs followed with a takedown. Hieron was bleeding from a nasty cut over the left eye (an hour after the show, he was still bleeding, with people being critical of the commission doctors for still not taking care of his cut). Riggs was bleeding from the left eye, and the blood was all over his face and body and he was having trouble seeing. His left eye was starting to swell. Hieron knocked Riggs down with a left, and threw body punches from the top position. By this point Riggs was bleeding from the nose, and blood was all over his body. Don’t know how a judge could have given it 29-28 because Hieron clearly won all three rounds.

7. Bobby Lashley (5-0) beat Wes Sims (22-13-1, 2 no contests) in 2:06. Sims was out of shape, saying he hadn’t trained hardly at all in getting the fight on such late notice. Well, he looked like he hadn’t trained. Sims came out and did a Hogan posing routine. Nobody reacted at all. Sims did more muscle poses to no reaction, and then when the match started, put his hand up as if to challenge Lashley to a pro wrestling test of strength. Nobody in the arena reacted. Lashley got the double leg takedown and threw punches to the face over-and-over. Sims turned his back and Lashley kept punching until the ref stopped it. Lashley thanked Sims after for taking the fight on such short notice, but after Sims started walking around like a bully after, Lashley said that he needed to beat him fast because the guy was going to use the taking the fight late as an excuse if it wasn’t a quick fight.

8. Robbie Lawler (17-5, 1 no contest) beat Melvin Manhoef (24-7-1) in 3:33. Manhoef came out dancing to the ring. Nobody reacted. He was also noticeably smaller than in Japan. It started slow for the first minute and just as the crowd started booing, Manhoef threw a wicked kick to the body. Manhoef was tearing Lawler up, mostly kicking the right leg and following up with punches. Lawler was limping, being less and less able to move, and taking more kicks. The leg was shot and he couldn’t move or do anything to get away from the kicks. Suddenly, Lawler connected with a right to the jaw that staggered Manhoef bad, and as Manhoef was falling, a left put his lights out. It was a Scott Smith level finish and the place went crazy. Lawler noted after the fight that his strategy was to try and take Manhoef down, but he was so afraid that if he changed levels, he’d get kneed in the head so he never did it. He said the second strategy was that when Manhoef had someone just about beat, he holds his hands low and starts firing, so he’d make his move then. He said he was lucky that he has the unique attribute of being able to punch with power even on one leg and said when he connected, he knew he’d better finish him because he didn’t know if he could take many more leg kicks. Between fights they interviewed Rex Ryan, the coach of the New York Jets. This was a real sign that most of this crowd was sports fans more than MMA fans, because Ryan got double the reaction of Henderson and St. Pierre. They booed him, and he flipped off the live crowd, which wasn’t shown on TV, but a fan with a cell phone camera captured it and put it on the Internet. This ended up being a major sports story in New York, and the photo of him flipping off the crowd was put on the front page of the New York Post two days later. Virtually every story said Ryan was at a “MMA event in Florida” as opposed to a Strikeforce show. The branding of the Strikeforce name to the public is non-existent. When you watch a UFC show on Spike, you are hammered to death about UFC. When you watch Strikeforce, it’s like you are watching an MMA show on Showtime or CBS. Ryan ended up having to make a public apology over it, and was later fined $50,000 by the Jets.

9. Herschel Walker (1-0) beat Greg Nagy (1-2) via ref stoppage at 2:17 of the third round. Walker got a slightly bigger reaction than Lashley. The level of a recognizable UFC star on an average show, not even as big as your random undercard Canadian in Las Vegas. Walker, who was a huge pro wrestling fan of Georgia Championship Wrestling, started dancing around like he was copying either Dusty Rhodes or Rufus R. Jones. Walker took Nagy down and held him in a front headlock position. He’d get his back and punch. Nagy would turn and get punched some more. Nagy went for an ankle lock but Walker escaped. Walker then just pinned him on the ground but didn’t do much damage, just some punches to the head that weren’t that hard. Second round opened with a low kick and a takedown by Walker. He got Nagy’s back and flattened him. Nagy turned and was mounted, but Walker had no finishing skills. Nagy got to his feet while Walker held him in a front headlock. The crowd would yell “knee” and Walker would throw a knee. Walker took him back down and dominated him on the ground, back in mount and was beating him up with punches at the end of the round. Nagy came out punching in round three and Walker smothered him into the cage and took him down again. The crowd started booing at this point because it was a bad fight. Nagy went for an armbar from the bottom and Walker escaped. More booing. Walker was on top in full mount but wasn’t punching hard enough to finish. He threw punch after punch and Nagy wasn’t getting away, but the punches weren’t hurting. Walker started throwing a series of punches to the armpit of all places, and the ref stopped it. Kind of a weird finish. Nagy was given every chance to escape, and he was getting beaten up and not improving his position, but the punches weren’t that hard. It was a flat stoppage and the crowd gave Walker polite applause, recognizing at his age, even against someone who wasn’t good, it was still a two-year veteran who was more than 20 years younger and Walker at no point looked his age out there. Honestly, I’ve seen NCAA champs debut after a lot more training and look worse.

10. Cris Cyborg (9-1) beat Marloes Coenen (17-4) at 3:40 of the third round. Dead silence for Coenen’s intro. Cyborg got a reaction from about 20% of the crowd who knew her and saw her as a star, and the other 80% had no idea. First round was a lot of clinching against the cage with each turning the other. Cyborg got the first takedown and got some punches in. Coenen got up. Cyborg started unloading with punches. Coenen came back, but Cyborg was theor rwoing and landing more. Coenen got her against the cage again to close the distance. After breaking a clinch, Coenen threw a punch, but Cyborg fired back and got the better of it. Cyborg hit a nice spin kick at the end of the round, and clearly won it. Second round saw Cyborg throw Coenen down. Coenen stayed on her back, so Cyborg started kicking her legs. Cyborg went to the ground and was punching. Coenen tried to wrap her legs around Cyborg’s head, but Cyborg went for a power bomb and Coenen blocked it. Coenen got up. Cyborg was landing punches until Coenen tried a takedown, couldn’t get it, but managed to pull guard to get Cyborg down. Cyborg hit more punches on the ground. Coenen was going for a triangle but never came close. Another easy Cyborg round. Cyborg seemed fresher going into the third round. She bulled Cyborg into the cage. Cyborg threw punches and took Coenen down again. Cyborg was throwing body punches and then head punches. Coenen from her back as Cyborg was standing, threw an up kick to the knee that Cyborg was hurt by. Coenen got up, and threw her best punch. Cyborg came back with punches. Coenen tried a takedown but Cyborg ended up on top and was unloading. She stared hurting Coenen with the punches before ref George Ortiz stopped the match. Good fight as far as Coenen being Cyborg’s best opponent, but the crowd not being into it hurt it live.

11. Nick Diaz (21-7, 1 no contest) beat Marius Zaromskis (13-4) at 4:38 to become the first Strikeforce welterweight champion. They started with a staredown and came out trading punches. Diaz was just too fast with his hands and had too much reach for Zaromskis. It was the same as Diaz’s recent fights with Frank Shamrock and Scott Smith where it wasn’t like the punches were hard, but there were so many coming from all angles and the guys get overwhelmed. Diaz had Zaromskis hurt from so many punches right away, but Zaromskis hit a knee. Diaz went for a takedown, couldn’t get it and threw knee after knee to Zaromskis’ thigh. There must have been about two dozen with Zaromskis doing nothing to block them. Diaz finally got him down, but Zaromskis got right back up. They were trading and Diaz was connecting more, but Zaromskis knocked Diaz down with a punch and got his back. Diaz got back up and recovered. They started trading and Diaz again got the better of it. The crowd started a “Diaz,” chant, the first time they were alive during a match itself except for the Lawler knockout. Diaz continued connecting to the head and body over and over until Zaromskis went down, and it was called off. Diaz looked very impressive. A funny story after is that Diaz had to give a post-fight urine sample for his drug test, and he was there until 2 a.m. with the commission not leaving until he finally did it.

*******

What would have under normal circumstances been considered a normal incident involving a couple of wrestlers drinking too much after the end of a tour ended up being a publicity black eye to World Wrestling Entertainment.

Gregory Helms and Chris Irvine (Chris Jericho) were both arrested for public intoxication at 5:41 a.m. at a Shell gas station in Crescent Springs, KY, near Cincinnati, on 1/27, after both had wrestled at the Smackdown tapings the night before at the U.S. Bank Arena.

Both men reportedly drank too much after the show at a local bar called “KJ’s,” and along with Matt Hardy and two others, Gary Kelley and Ashley Storer, described as friends of Matt that they were socializing with, were making some noise in front of the establishment, and grabbed a cab. Erlanger, KY, police Lieutenant Kevin Gilpin said that at 4 a.m., an officer patrolling in Crescent Springs noticed five people “being rowdy” in the parking lot at the Buttermilk Crossings shopping center. The officer told the group to disperse and they hailed a cab.

While in the cab, Helms started playing around and did what was described as play fighting. Apparently due to the alleged drinking, as the play fighting got rougher, Helms lost his cool and struck Jericho and Kelley. Storer, the only woman in the cab, sitting between Helms and Jericho, allegedly took an inadvertent blow, which she described as an elbow to the cheek that wasn’t meant for her as Helms was trying to get at Jericho. The cab driver panicked, dropped them off at the gas station, and called police.

At that point, Helms allegedly ran from the scene. Hardy ran after him, trying to get him to go back and not make a scene which would result in him getting into even more trouble.

Helms returned to the gas station where he and Jericho were arrested on misdemeanor public intoxication charges. A court date is scheduled on 2/16 is scheduled where they can contest the charge, or pay a small fine ($25) and court costs ($134) which would dispose of the charge. Hardy never returned, but no action is being pursued against him. Helms was not charged with assault because Storer said she would not press charges. Kelley told police on the scene that he was thinking it over.

“We get there and they basically say Helms kind of turned into an ass and starts kind of getting physical inside the cab,” Gilpin said.

Helms had a cut above his right eye in his mug shot that was first posted on the TMZ.com site, although it was not stated where the cut came from. Jericho’s face didn’t appear marked in his mug shot, but on a closer look, the eye looks like it was starting to swell. Jericho had a very noticeably messed up eye at the Royal Rumble and it was also obvious in the days prior to the Rumble on a Fox News appearance. He was claiming the eye injury came from taking an accidental shot in his match with R-Truth that took place on the Cincinnati Smackdown taping.

Storer, who was crying when police got there, later said the cab driver overreacted to a minor incident, but felt she may have made it worse by her demeanor when the police arrived. She told TMZ.com that the police blew the situation out of proportion, but she may have been the reason, saying, “I was crying and drunk and tired from being out all night and I just wanted to leave.”

“It’s hard to say exactly how in depth this fight was,” said Gilpin. “There was a disagreement while they were inside of a cab. When we got there, obviously they were out of the cab and made contact with the police, and were arrested a short time after that.”

Officers arrested them on the intoxication charge, saying they were too drunk to let them go. Both men were cooperative with the officers when they arrived. Kentucky law doesn’t allow police to arrest someone on assault charges unless the party assaulted presses charges, or the police directly witness the assault. Helms was found with one soma pill on him, and claimed it was prescribed, but didn’t have a prescription on him. The police decided against charging him because it was only a single pill. There was no proof Helms had taken any somas that night, but even though it has been commonplace for wrestlers mixing somas and alcohol. To say that isn’t recommended is an understatement.

One would have to presume Helms has a prescription for the drug. The WWE’s current drug policy is such that every prescription a wrestler has is supposed to be filed ahead of time with Dr. David Black, and prescriptions are supposed to be written by the company doctors who travel with the crew. The attempt is to eliminate the mark doctors wrestlers have traditionally relied on, who offer writing prescriptions in exchange for being able to be friends and hang out with celebrities.

If Helms didn’t have a prescription for the drug, even though the police are not going to take legal action against him, WWE would be forced to suspend him for 60 days on a Wellness policy violation. Helms has a prior strike for his name showing up on the Signature Pharmacy list for usage of Growth Hormone in 2007. His name came up in a prior investigation for usage of Growth Hormone, which he claimed was for a knee injury in 2005 when that came out, and predated WWE having a Wellness policy in place. The Signature evidence showed he continued to receive packages through February 2007. It should be noted that Signature Pharmacy used doctors that would write prescriptions without actually having a face-to-face examination, so the wrestlers whose names came up were prescribed their steroids, Growth Hormone and other drugs, but the nature of the prescriptions violated the WWE Wellness policy. Helms has never failed a WWE drug test (by drug test I mean for a drug other than marijuana, because marijuana positives remain private and are the subject of fines, but not suspensions).

There was a lot of talk regarding Helms’ future with the company, particularly since he was a lower rung wrestler. He was pulled from the Royal Rumble match, and at first, from television. Losing the Rumble spot, where he would have been an insignificant character in the match, cost him a payoff that would have been in the $5,000 range, varying based on the success of the show. Helms was later put back on television, and his publicity was mentioned twice during the 2/2 ECW show. The first time was early in the show when Zack Ryder, a heel, talked about how Helms, who he also noted was Hurricane, had embarrassed ECW, and Christian, the babyface, stuck up for him, saying he made a mistake and everyone make mistakes. It was clearly designed to garner sympathy for Helms. Later, William Regal was being interviewed by Helms, doing his reporter role sans the Hurricane gimmick, and mentioned how it’s been a bad week for him. Helms responded that he would get through, and he was here doing his job. Regal said unfortunately, it was only going to get worse, and Regal & Ezekiel Jackson gave him a beatdown. It didn’t seem severe enough of a beatdown to be a writing one out of the script beatdown, and the indication was what was done was designed to keep him as a babyface.

Hardy made a post that night on Twitter, saying that he had a few too many hanging with a certain person I follow, saying he wished someone special was with him (writing “u know who u r”) but by the time the story broke, the post had been deleted.

Both Irvine, 39, and Helms were cooperative with the police. They were taken in and released at about 6:30 a.m. when Jay Reso (Christian) and Phil Brooks (C.M. Punk) came to the station and posted $120 bond for each.

The incident got several stories throughout the next two days on TMZ.com, and was picked up by a number of other media outlets, most notably the New York Daily News. It was also covered as a news story throughout the Cincinnati media, and because the wrestlers are celebrities, while there was some complaining that TMZ.com made a minor incident bigger than it was, the Cincinnati media with its police connections covering it would have guaranteed it getting out.

One major person in the organization noted that after Smackdown tapings, it’s not unusual for wrestlers to have already checked out of their weekend hotel to try and save one night’s bill since wrestlers are responsible for their own road expenses. The standard operating procedure is to go out after the show and relax, perhaps go to Denny’s and eat and kill a few hours, or go out drinking with friends to kill time and take the first flight out in the morning, and sleep on the flight home. This may have been what happened several months ago involving Jeff Hardy, who wasn’t allowed on a morning flight home after a Smackdown taping last year because airline personnel believed he had been drinking too heavily.

Also brought up is that in late August, there was an incident where Helms and TNA’s Christopher Daniels were both twittering all night about how much they were drinking and destroying their livers together. Daniels was pulled over later that night for driving while impaired. Wrestlers drinking is part of the industry, but the rule of thumb is that it’s supposed to be something done privately and to avoid publicly making a scene. The twittering about it was considered bad judgment and one of the reasons WWE doesn’t want talent twittering after midnight.

Helms was apologetic to WWE officials for his behavior, but later tried to make light of it, twittering a few days later, “Been off the grid for a few days, what I miss?”

Jericho was upset with TMZ, and had cameramen from the web site kicked out of an in-store album signing later in the week.

*******

The reality of just how socially acceptable and mainstream the perception of the UFC is got a sobering message this past week with a Marist poll of New York voters showing, by more than a two-to-one margin, they agree that mixed martial arts should not be allowed in the state.

The poll came in response to a number of news stories throughout the state in recent weeks, because Governor David Patterson has pushed for the sport to be legalized, opening the door for a show in Madison Square Garden, which would bring in millions in revenue to the state between the show itself and spending in the area by people coming to the event.

Patterson reportedly put the idea that an event would generate $2 million in additional tax revenue as part of his budge for 2010-11.

However, a poll of voters showed 68% against changing the state law passed in 1997 banning such events. New York is the only major state left that has a specific law on the books banning the sport. Very few states ever had actual laws against the sport, but that combat sports needed to be regulated through the athletic commission, and MMA was not approved in those states by the commission.

The poll had 68% against legalization, 29% for legalization and 3% undecided.

The surprising result was due to older people and women in huge numbers being opposed to legalization. Ever since UFC hit it big on television five years ago, there has been a generational divide. Even putting up impressive television numbers and record-setting PPV numbers, many established media sources will give little coverage to even the biggest events, although every year that breaks down more-and-more. When I was doing MMA columns for the Los Angeles Times web site before working for Yahoo!, I was told the reaction at the paper was that everyone over the age of 40 could not understand why the Times was even acknowledging the sport, and everyone under the age of 40 couldn’t understand why there wasn’t far more coverage. When it came to actual response on the web, the MMA stories did better than everything except major stories involving local market major sports teams.

According to the poll, 82% of women voters believe it should be banned while 55% of men voters also agree the law shouldn’t be overturned.

Even among the youngest group of voters, in the 18-29 age group, it was split 50-50. Between the ages of 30 and 44, that goes up to 54% against the enacting of a new law, 73% between the ages of 45 and 59 and 82% of those above the age of 60.

From a geographical standpoint, within the city of New York, 74% of voters opposed legalization of the sport, while the rest of the state, both New York suburbs as well as the rest of the state, comes in 66%.

One can argue the majority viewpoint makes little sense, given the rate of serious injuries in MMA is not appreciably different from other sports allowed. More importantly, exactly what are they trying to accomplish when it comes to protecting the public because both live and taped televised MMA events air in prime time several nights per week. People who don’t want to see the events, or think children shouldn’t be watching, are far more likely to see them or have their kids see them while flipping the TV dial than on shows that require paying high ticket prices and going to a major arena to see .

UFC really only has one major political opponent, assemblyman Bob Reilly, who successfully blocked legislation in past years. During that period there were no major polls in the state, so both sides could make claims that the public itself did or didn’t want the sport. This poll gives Reilly strong ammunition that he’s in line with the public on the issue, which would likely strengthen his resolve as the issue has given him some visibility.

Still, it’s hard to understand exactly what not allowing live events in New York accomplishes other than putting events that would be in New York into places like Newark, NJ, where the 3/27 event is taking place, leaving that state to garner whatever economic impact there is.

Raw on 2/1 did a 3.63 rating and 5.29 million viewers. It showed that Bret Hart’s second appearance didn’t boost the overall rating of the show. We didn’t get the exact final quarter, but were told it was huge. The show did a 2.94 in Males 18-49.

Impact on 1/28 set its all-time record rating for a Thursday night show, with a 1.38 and 1.87 million viewers (the record is 1.97 million). The show did a 1.01 in Males 18-34 and 1.31 in Males 35-49.

In the segment-by-segment, and every segment dropped, Desmond Wolfe vs. Sean Morley and lots of backstage stuff with Jeff Jarrett, Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff, lost 68,000 viewers. Daniels vs. Hernandez lost 27,000 viewers. The Team 3-D vs. Nasty Boys in-ring promo battle and Awesome Kong & Hamada & Tara vs. The Beautiful People lost 14,000 viewers. Hulk Hogan’s promo with Eric Bischoff, with Hogan telling Bischoff to make it right with Foley, Ric Flair & A.J.Styles backstage and Kurt Angle promo where Hogan came out and made Angle apologize also lost 14,000 viewers. That was put at the top of the hour which usually gains, and they had that quarter loaded with stars, so it losing is a surprise. Then Brian Kendrick & The Machine Guns vs. Generation Me & Amazing Red in a short match, leading to Doug Williams winning the X title from Red in 26 seconds, lost 203,000 viewers. Then, the Bischoff and Foley backstage discussion lost 68,000 viewers. You’d think after the way that was built up that it would do better. Jeff Jarrett vs. Mr. Anderson gained 108,000 viewers to a 1.30 main event.

Superstars on 1/28 did a 1.0 rating and 962,000 viewers. It was the most viewers in the history of the show.

ECW on 1/26 did a 0.9 rating and 1.16 million viewers, another of the lowest marks the show has ever done.

Raw on 1/25 did a 3.59 rating and 5.14 million viewers. The show did 2.99 in Males 18-49.

While the 1/15 Smackdown show set a record in the major markets, many of which have major Hispanic influence, featuring the Rey Mysterio vs. Batista cage match, when the final numbers came in, they were right at normal levels with a 2.1 rating and 3.62 million viewers

******

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********

RESULTS

1/15 Jackson, TN (WWE Raw): Ted DiBiase & Cody Rhodes b MVP & Even Bourne, Paul Birchill b Johnny Curtis, The Miz won four-way to keep U.S. title over Chavo Guerrero, Jack Swagger and Chris Masters, Bella Twins b Alicia Fox & Maryse, Randy Orton b Kofi Kingston, WWE title: Sheamus b Mark Henry, HHH b Big Show

1/16 Birmingham, AL (WWE Raw): Santina Marella b Chavo Guerrero, Paul Burchill b Johnny Curtis, Ted DiBiase & Cody Rhodes b Mark Henry & Evan Bourne, The Miz won three-way to keep U.S. title over Jack Swagger and Chris Masters, Bella Twins b Alicia Fox & Maryse, Big Show b MVP, Randy Orton b Kofi Kingston, WWE title: HHH b Sheamus-DQ

1/19 Tokyo Differ Ariake (Pro Wrestling NOAH SEM - 280): Keith Walker b Ricky Marvin, Bison Smith b Atsushi Aoki, Shuhei Taniguchi & Taiji Ishimori b Naomichi Marufuji & Kento Miyahara, Yoshihiro Takayama ref: Akira Taue & Chris Hero & Claudio Castagnoli b Takashi Sugiura & Takeshi Morishima & Genba Hirayanagi-DQ

1/19 Mexico City Arena Coliseo (CMLL TV tapings - 12,000/kids free): Ramstein & Apocalipsis b Los Rayos Tapatios I & II, Disturbio & Artillero & Super Comando b Delta & Molotov & Starman, Yeska & Raven Hiroka & Comandante b Lady Apache & Estrella Magica & Dalis la Caribena, Fuego & El Hijo del Fantasma & Blue Panther b Virus & Polvora & Euforia, Felino & Tetsuya Naito & Rey Bucanero b Brazo de Plata & Hector Garza & La Sombra

1/20 Orlando (TNA Impact TV tapings): Samoa Joe b Jesse Neal, Taylor Wilde & Sarita b ODB & Traci Brooks, Kevin Nash b Mick Foley, Pope D’Angelo Dinero b Orlando Jordan, Kurt Angle & Mr. Anderson b Desmond Wolfe & Hernandez, Matt Morgan b Suicide, X title: Doug Williams b Amazing Red, Velvet Sky & Madison Rayne & Lacey Von Erich b Tara & Angelina Love, Robert Roode & James Storm b Brutus Magnus & Rob Terry

1/20 Tokyo Korakuen Hall (Dragon Gate - 1,700): Yasushi Kanda & Kennichiro Arai & Kzy b Naoki Tanisaki & Anthony W. Mori & Shisa Boy, Kagetora & Shinobu b Akira Tozawa & Super Shenlong, BxB Hulk & Masato Yoshino b Dragon Kid & Gamma, Masaaki Mochizuki & Don Fujii & Super Shisa b K-ness & Susumu Yokosuka & Genki Horiguchi, Takuya Sugawara won three-way over Naruki Doi and Shingo Takagi, Yamato b Cima

1/22 Cape Girardeau, MO (WWE - 4,262): Yoshi Tatsu b Zack Ryder, Ted DiBiase & Cody Rhodes b Mark Henry & Evan Bourne, Prime b Johnny Curtis, The Miz won four-way to keep U.S. title over Carlito, Jack Swagger and MVP, Santina Marella ref: Gail Kim & Bella Twins b Alicia Fox & Maryse & Jillian Hall, Randy Orton b Kofi Kingston, WWE title: John Cena b Sheamus-DQ

1/22 Mexico City Arena Mexico (CMLL TV tapings): Apocalipsis & Inquisidor b Sensei & Trueno, Diamante & Metalico & Pegasso b Bronco & Dr. X & Hooligan, Angel de Oro & Fuego & Metro b Cancerbero & Raziel & Virus-DQ, Torneo Parejas Increibles Nacionales: Mascara Dorada & Atlantis b La Sombra & Dragon Rojo, Maximo & Mr. Niebla b Blue Panther & Misterioso Jr., Mistico & Averno b Ephesto & Euforia, Volador Jr. & El Terrible b El Hijo del Fantasma & Mephisto, Mascara Dorada & Atlantis b Maximo & Mr. Niebla, Mistico & Averno b Volador Jr. & El Terrible, Mascara Dorada & Atlantis b Mistico & Averno, CMLL heavyweight title: Ultimo Guerrero b Hector Garza

1/22 Okinawa (New Japan - 2,750 sellout): Jushin Liger & Super Delfin & Hab otoko &Golden Pine b Ryusuke Taguchi & Cicer Oh & Mil Magnujsu & Menore Oyagi, Yuji Nagata & Mitsuhide Hirasawa b Riki Choshu & Kazuchika Okada, Masahiro Chono & Koji Kanemoto b Super Strong Machine & Tiger Mask, Toru Yano & Takashi Iizuka b Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma, Manabu Nakanishi & Hirooki Goto & Wataru Inoue b Shinsuke Nakamura & Gedo & Jado, Hiroshi Tanahashi b Tomohiro Ishii

1/22 Tokyo Korakuen Hall (All Japan - 2,000 sellout): Nosawa won three-way over Kaz Hayashi and Minoru, Osamu Nishimura won three-way over Seiya Sanada and Kai, Minoru Suzuki won three-way over Masayuki Kono and Akebono, Toshizo b Masa Fuchi, Minoru Suzuki won three-way over Nosawa and Osamu Nishimura, Shuji Kondo & Suwama b Satoshi Kojima & Hiroshi Yamato, Keiji Muto & Masakatsu Funaki & S-1 Mask (Ryota Hama) b Taru & Hate & Toru Owashi

1/22 Mito (Pro Wrestling NOAH - 800 sellout): Yoshinobu Kanemaru b Kentaro Shiga, Naomichi Marufuji DCOR Genba Hirayanagi, Keith Walker b Kento Miyahara, Jun Akiyama & Yoshinari Ogawa & Taiji Ishimori b Akitoshi Saito & Kishin Kawabata & Atsushi Aoki, Kensuke Sasaki & Takeshi Morishima b Bison Smith & Ricky Marvin, Yoshihiro Takayama & Takuma Sano b Chris Hero & Claudio Castagnoli, Takashi Sugiura & Shuhei Taniguchi d Takeshi Rikio & Mohammed Yone 30:00

1/23 Evansville (WWE Raw - 7,000): Yoshi Tatsu b Zack Ryder, Over the top rope challenge: Mark Henry b Jack Swagger, Ted DiBiase & Cody Rhodes b Evan Bourne & Primo, Chris Masters b Johnny Curtis, The Miz won three-way to keep U.S. title over MVP and Carlito, Santino Marella ref: Gail Kim & Bella Twins b Maryse & Alicia Fox & Jillian Hall, Randy Orton b Kofi Kingston, Street fight: HHH b Big Show, WWE title: John Cena b Sheamus-DQ

1/23 Hammond, IN (WWE Smackdown - 4,000 sellout): R-Truth b Dolph Ziggler, David Hart Smith & Tyson Kidd b Slam Master J & Jimmy Wang Yang, Tyler Reks b Goldust, Mickie James & Maria b Beth Phoenix & Layla, Matt Hardy b Fit Finlay, ECW title: Christian b Ezekiel Jackson, IC title: Drew McIntyre b John Morrison, Rey Mysterio & Kane b Chris Jericho & C.M. Punk

1/23 Glasgow, Scotland (TNA - 1,500): Amazing Red b Chris Sabin, Global title: Eric Young b Suicide, Hernandez b Rhino, Kurt Angle won three-way over Daniels and Desmond Wolfe, Hamada b Sarita, Team 3-D won three-way tables match over Robert Roode & James Storm and Doug Williams & Brutus Magnam as ead singer, from TNA title: A.J. Styles b Samoa Joe

1/23 Rahway, NJ (Jersey All Pro Wrestling 12th anniversary show - 1,200): D.J. Hyde b Scotty Vortroels kekz b Azrieal, Devon Moore b Archadia, Sami Callihan b Corvis Fear, South Side Playaz Club b Osirian Portal, Sara Del Rey b Madison Rayne, Egotistico Fantastico won best of the light heavyweights, Bandido Jr. b B-Boy, CZW title: Drake Younger b Ruckus, Teddy Hart & Jack Evans b Mark & Jay Briscoe, JAPW title: Dan Maff b Eddie Kingston, Homicide b Masato Tanaka, Da Heavy Hitters won three-way over Hillbilly Wrecking Crew and H8 Club to keep tag titles

1/24 Cleveland (WWE Smackdown - 9,000): Drew McIntyre won four-way to keep IC title over Matt Hardy, R-Truth and John Morrison, Mickie James & Maria b Beth Phoenix & Layla, Tyler Reks b Goldust, David Hart Smith & Tyson Kidd b Jimmy Wang Yang & Tyson Kidd, ECW title: Christian b Ezekiel Jackson, Fit Finlay b Dolph Ziggler, Rey Mysterio & Kane b C.M. Punk & Luke Gallows, HHH b Chris Jericho

1/24 Champaign, IL (WWE Raw - 6,000): Yoshi Tatsu b Zack Ryder, Chris Masters b Johnny Curtis, Ted DiBiase & Cody Rhodes b Mark Henry & Evan Bourne, The Miz won four-way to keep U.S. title over Carlito, MVP and Primo, Santino Marella ref: Gail Kim & Bella Twins b Alicia Fox & Maryse & Jillian Hall, Over the top rope rules: Big Show b Jack Swagger, Randy Orton b Kofi Kingston, WWE title: John Cena b Sheamus-DQ

1/24 Boca del Rio, Mexico (Ind - 10,000): Lady Apache & Marcela b Amapola & Princesa Blanca, Mascara Dorada & Maximo & Principe b Arkangel de la Muerte & Ephesto & Estudiante, Tzuki & Ultimo Dragoncito b Pequeno Damian 666 & Universito 2000, Mistico & La Sombra & Superman Sur b Atlantis & Mr. Niebla & Felino

1/24 Tokyo Korakuen Hall (Pro Wrestling NOAH - 2,100 sellout): Ricky Marvin & Taiji Ishimori b Satoshi Kajiwara & Kento Miyahara, Kensuke Sasaki & Yoshinari Ogawa b Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Kentaro Shiga, Bison Smith & Keith Walker & Chris Hero & Claudio Castagnoli b Takeshi Rikio & Mohammed Yone & Akitoshi Saito & Genba Hirayanagi, Jun Akiyama b Naomichi Marufuji, Takeshi Morishima & Atsushi Aoki b Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma-DQ, Global tag league finals: Yoshihiro Takayama & Takuma Sano b Takashi Sugiura & Shuhei Taniguchi to win tournament

1/24 Mexico City Arena Coliseo (CMLL TV tapings): Astro Boy & Super Camaleon b Durango Kid & Cholo, Angel Azteca Jr. & Angel de Plata & Fabian el Gitano b Escandalo & Tiger Kid & Puma King, Mascarita Dorada & Pequeno Olimpico & Electrico b Pierrothito & Pequeno Black Warrior & Pequeno Nitro- DQ, Sagrado & Rouge & Toscano b Sangre Azteca & Dragon Rojo & Misterioso Jr., El Terrible & El Texano Jr. & Negro Casas b Brazo de Plata & Hector Garza & El Hijo del Fantasma

1/25 Columbus, OH (WWE Raw/Superstars TV tapings - 10,000): Bella Twins b Katie Lea Burchill & Jillian Hall, Chris Masters won three-way over Primo and Chavo Guerrero, Shawn Michaels & HHH b Ted DiBiase & Cody Rhodes, Big Show b MVP, Maryse b Eve Torres, Non-title: Kofi Kingston b The Miz, Gail Kim b Alicia Fox, Non-title: Sheamus b John Cena-DQ

1/25 Paris, France (TNA - 2,500): Suicide won three-way over Chris Sabin and Amazing Red, Robert Roode & James Storm b Eric Young & Rob Terry, Taylor Wilde b Hamada, Kurt Angle b Desmond Wolfe, Hernandez b Rhino, Tables match: Team 3-D b Doug Williams & Brutus Magnus, A.J. Styles won three-way to keep the TNA title over Samoa Joe and Daniels

1/26 Cincinnati (WWE Smackdown/ECW/Superstars TV tapings): JTG b Tyler Reks, William Regal & Ezekiel Jackson b Christian & Kane, Yoshi Tatsu & Hurricane & Goldust b Caylen Croft & Trent Barretta & Zack Ryder, David Hart Smith b Matt Hardy, HHH b C.M. Punk-DQ, R-Truth b Chris Jericho, IC title: Drew McIntyre b John Morrison, Michelle McCool b Layla, Shawn Michaels NC Rey Mysterio, Undertaker & Rey Mysterio & Shawn Michaels & HHH b C.M. Punk & Luke Gallows & Batista & Chris Jericho

1/26 Bournemouth, U.K. (TNA - 2,000): Chris Sabin won three-way over Suicide and Amazing Red, Eric Young b Hamada, Pope D’Angelo Dinero b Rhino, Kurt Angle & Hernandez won four-way over Doug Williams & Brutus Magnus, Robert Roode & James Storm and Team 3-D, I Quit match: Samoa Joe b Daniels, Velvet Sky & Madison Rayne b Taylor Wilde & Sarita, TNA title: A.J. Styles b Desmond Wolfe

1/26 Mexico City Arena Mexico (CMLL TV tapings - 2,000): Camaleon & Principe b Cholo & Zayco, Electrico & Mini Fantasy & Shockercito b Nitrito & Pequeno Violencia & Universito 2000, Cancerbero & Raziel & Virus b Angel Azteca Jr. & Angel de Oro & Angel de Plata, Fuego & Metro & Stuka Jr. b Okumura & Sangre Azteca & Vangelis, Hector Garza & La Sombra & Sagrado b Atlantis & Felino & Rey Bucanero-DQ

1/27 Cardiff, Wales (TNA - 2,000): Amazing Red won three-way over Chris Sabin and Suicide, Hamada referee: Taylor Wilde & Sarita b Velvet Sky & Madison Rayne, Global title: Rob Terry b Eric Young to win title, Tables match: Team 3-D & Kurt Angle b Hernandez & Pope D’Angelo Dinero & Rhino, I quit match: Samoa Joe b Daniels, Robert Roode & James Storm b Doug Williams & Brutus Magnus, TNA title: A.J. Styles b Desmond Wolfe

1/27 Chiba (New Japan - 900): Koji Kanemoto b Taichi, Tomohiro Ishii & Takashi Iizuka b Mitsuhide Hirasawa & Tiger Mask, Yuji Nagata & Wataru Inoue b Riki Choshu & Nobuo Yoshihashi, Gedo & Jado & Toru Yano b Prince Devitt & Ryusuke Taguchi, Non-title: Yujiro & Tetsuya Naito b Hiroshi Tanahashi & Kazuchika Okada, Manabu Nakanishi & Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma b Giant Bernard & Karl Anderson & Shinsuke Nakamura

1/28 Coventry, U.K. (TNA - 1,600): Suicide b Chris Sabin, Madison Rayne & Velvet Sky b Taylor Wilde & Sarita, Pope D’Angelo Dinero b Desmond Wolfe, Rumble rules match: Team 3-D & Robert Roode & James Storm b Doug Williams & Brutus Magnus & Rob Terry & Eric Young, Amazing Red b Hamada, Kurt Angle & Hernandez b Rhino & Daniels, TNA title: A.J. Styles b Samoa Joe

1/28 Tokyo Differ Ariake (Pro Wrestling NOAH SEM - 410): Naomichi Marufuji b Yoshinobu Kanemaru-DQ, Shuhei Taniguchi b Ricky Marvin, Takuma Sano b Atsushi Aoki, Takeshi Rikio & Mohammed Yone & Genba Hirayanagi b Takashi Sugiura & Takeshi Morishima & Taiji Ishimori

1/29 Manchester, England (TNA - 5,500): Amazing Red won three-way over Chris Sabin and Suicide, Global title: Rob Terry b Eric Young, Pope D’Angelo Dinero b Rhino, A.J. Styles retained TNA title in four-way over Samoa Joe, Daniels and Hernandez, Kurt Angle b Desmond Wolfe, Taylor Wilde & Sarita b Velvet Sky & Madison Rayne, Team 3-D won three-way tables match over Doug Williams & Brutus Magnus and Robert Roode & James Storm

1/29 Mexico City Arena Mexico (CMLL TV tapings - 9,500): Diamante & Sensei b Artillero & Durango Kid, Bracito de Oro & Mascarita Dorada & Ultimo Dragoncito b Pequeno Black Warrior & Pequeno Damian 666 & Pierrothito, Angel Azteca Jr. & Pegasso & Rey Cometa b Arkangel de la Muerte & Escandalo & Loco Max-DQ, Second block of Torneo Parejas Increibles Nacionales: Shocker & Sagrado b Valiente & Rey Bucanero, Negro Casas & La Mascara b Rouge & El Texano Jr., Hector Garza & Toscano b Felino & Sangre Azteca, Stuka Jr. & Ultimo Guerrero b Brazo de Plata & Ray Mendoza Jr., Negro Casas & La Mascara b Sagrado & Shocker, Hector Garza & Toscano b Stuka Jr & Ultimo Guerrero, Negro Casas & La Mascara b Stuka Jr. & Ultimo Guerrero

1/29 Los Angeles (ROH - 775): Colt Cabana & El Generico b Scott Lost & Scorpio Sky, Necro Butcher b Erick Stevens, Roderick Strong b Delirious, Tyler Black b Joey Ryan, Jerry Lynn b Kenny King, Jonny Fairplay ref: Larry Zbyszko b Scott Taylor (Scotty 2 Hotty), Kevin Steen b Human Tornado, Austin Aries b Jushin Liger, Chris Hero & Claudio Castagnoli & Eddie Edwards & Davey Richards b Mark & Jay Briscoe & Nick & Matt Jackson

1/29 Shirakawa (New Japan - 1,000): Koji Kanemoto b Mitsuhide Hirasawa, Tomohiro Ishii & Takashi Iizuka b Taichi & Tiger Mask, Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma b Riki Choshu & Nobuo Yoshihashi, Yuji Nagata & Wataru Inoue b Hirooki Goto & Kazuchika Okada, Hiroshi Tanahashi & Prince Devitt & Ryusuke Taguchi b Gedo & Jado & Toru Yano, Yujiro & Tetsuya Naito & Manabu Nakanishi b Giant Bernard & Karl Anderson & Shinsuke Nakamura

1/30 Macon, GA (WWE Tri-branded show): Yoshi Tatsu b Zack Ryder, IC title: Drew McIntyre b John Morrison, Bella Twins b Layla & Natalya, Fit Finlay b Tyler Reks, U.S. title: The Miz b MVP, ECW title: Christian b Ezekiel Jackson, Big Show b Mark Henry, HHH & Shawn Michaels & Kofi Kingston b Ted DiBiase & Cody Rhodes & Randy Orton, WWE title: John Cena b Sheamus-DQ

1/30 London, England (TNA - 7,000/5,000 paid): Hamada ref: Velvet Sky & Madison Rayne b Taylor Wilde & Sarita, Desmond Wolfe b Pope D’Angelo Dinero, Samoa Joe & Hernandez b Eric Young & Rhino, Robert Roode & James Storm won three-way over Team 3-D and Doug Williams & Rob Terry, Ultimate X match for X title: Doug Williams won over Suicide, Chris Sabin, Amazing Red and Daniels, TNA title: A.J. Styles b Kurt Angle

1/30 Tokyo Korakuen Hall (New Japan - 2,005 sellout): Tomoaki Honma b Nobuo Yoshihashi, Tiger Mask & El Samurai & Koji Kanemoto b Super Strong Machine & Wataru Inoue & Mitsuhide Hirasawa, Hirooki Goto b Kazuchika Okada, Gedo & Jado & Tomohiro Ishii & Takashi Iizuka b Riki Choshu & Ryusuke Taguchi & Togi Makabe & Taichi, Yuji Nagata & Yujiro & Tetsuya Naito b Tajiri & Karl Anderson & Giant Bernard-DQ, Shinsuke Nakamura & Toru Yano b Manabu Nakanishi & Hiroshi Tanahashi, IWGP jr. title: Naomichi Marufuji b Prince Devitt

1/30 Los Angeles Airport Hilton (Pro Wrestling Guerrilla - 1,100 sellout): Cutler Brothers & Christina Von Erie & Ryan Taylor b Johnny Goodtime & LTP & Candice LaRae & Malachi Jackson, Brandon Gatson b Brandon Bonham, Human Tornado b Super Crazy, Davey Richards b Kevin Steen, Great Muta & Kai b Joey Ryan & Scott Lost, Jushin Liger b El Generico, Paul London & Brian Kendrick b Generation Me, Rob Van Dam won three-way over Chris Hero and Roderick Strong

1/31 Mexico City Arena Mexico (CMLL TV tapings - 11,200): Bengala & Trueno b Apolo Estrada Jr. & Apocalipsis, Princesa Blanca & Princesa Sugei & Amapola b Lluvia & Lady Apache & Marcela, Okumura & Sangre Azteca & Misterioso Jr. b Fuego & Metro & Valiente, Toscano & Mascara Dorada & El Hijo del Fantasma b Negro Casas & Dragon Rojo Jr. & Felino-DQ, Atlantis & Ultimo Guerrero & Mistico b Volador Jr. & Maximo & Mr. Niebla

1/31 Tokyo Differ Ariake (New Japan - 1,800 sellout): Super Strong Machine & Tiger Mask & El Samurai b Koji Kanemoto & Nobuo Yoshihashi & Taichi, Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma b Tamon Honda & Kentaro Shiga, Takashi Iizuka & Tajiri b Yuji Nagata & Wataru Inoue-DQ, Kenny Omega & Kota Ibushi b Gedo & Jado, Yujiro & Tetsuya Naito & Ryusuke Taguchi & Prince Devitt b Toru Yano & Tomohiro Ishii & Giant Bernard & Karl Anderson, Hiroshi Tanahashi b Kazuchika Okada, Shinsuke Nakamura & Masato Tanaka b Manabu Nakanishi & Hirooki Goto

1/31 Tsuchiura (Pro Wrestling NOAH - 850 sellout): Yoshinari Ogawa b Akira Taue, Atsushi Aoki b Genba Hirayanagi, Naomichi Marufuji b Taiji Ishimori, Yoshinobu Kanemaru b Ricky Marvin, Takeshi Rikio & Mohammed Yone b Kishin Kawabata & Takuma Sano, Jun Akiyama & Yoshihiro Takayama & Minoru Suzuki b Takashi Sugiura & Akitoshi Saito & Shuhei Taniguchi

1/31 Mexico City (Perros Del Mal - 5,000 sellout): Turbo b Black Thunder, Cosmico & Mini Puebla b Mini Talisman & Mini Mr. Aguila, Veneno & Pesadilla & Super Crazy b Lizmark Jr. & Super Nova & Celestial, X-Fly d Charly Manson, Damian 666 & Halloween & Mr. Aguila b Groon XXX & Oriental & El Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr., El Hijo del Santo & L.A. Park b Perro Aguayo Jr. & Blue Demon Jr.-DQ

2/1 Nashville (WWE Raw/Superstars TV tapings - 15,184 sellout/12,000 paid): Katie Lea Burchill & Alicia Fox b Eve Torres & Kelly Kelly, Evan Bourne b Carlito, John Cena b Cody Rhodes, HHH b Jack Swagger, Randy Orton b Shawn Michaels, Ted DiBiase b Mark Henry, Kofi Kingston b Big Show-DQ, WWE title: John Cena b Sheamus-DQ

2/2 Memphis (WWE Smackdown/ECW/Superstars TV tapings): Vance Archer b Shelton Benjamin, Yoshi Tatsu b Trent Barretta, Non-title: Christian b Zack Ryder-DQ, John Morrison & Matt Hardy & Great Khali b David Hart Smith & Tyson Kidd & Drew McIntyre, John Morrison won three-way over Kane and Drew McIntyre, R-Truth b Mike Knox, C.M. Punk b Batista-COR, Chris Jericho b Matt Hardy, Mickie James & Beth Phoenix b Michelle McCool & Layla, Rey Mysterio b Dolph Ziggler, World title: Undertaker b Batista

Special thanks to: Suju Abraham, Mohammed Al Housani, Stewart Allen, Bryan Alvarez, Leo Avila, Matt Barker, Bill Behrens, Matthew Biesiad, Patrick Brandmeyer, Craig Broadfoot, Tom Brooks, Shane Browne, Joe Burrows, Albert Cerda, Jeremy Chapman, Mark Coale, Devin Cutting, Jimmie Daniel, Jonathan D’Antoni, Christopher DePetrello, Diane Devine, Joseph Duncan, Cody Endres, Matthew Evans, David Farmer, Shaun Farrugia, Mike Fitzgerald, Brandon Flarity, Jason Frost, Steve Garrison, Geoffrey Gillott, Manuel Gonzalez, Larry Goodman, Tim Graefe, Dan Graulich, Michael Gregson, Bradley Grover, Bruce Grummert, Ian Hamilton, Bob Johnson, Chris Kazmerzak, Tony Khan, Timo Knopf, Bryan Koval, Mike Kuzmuk, Greg Lambert, Jerry Lane, Patric Laprade, Dan Lennard, Patrick Lennon, Joel Lowitt, Stephen Lyon, Chris Marullo, Alex Marvez, Dr. Thomas Matthews, Lee Maughan, James McDaniel, James Mitkonis, Robert Miqueli, Shawn Moniz, Colin Moore, Anthony Morone, Rob Myers, Tim Noel, Michael O’Brien, Robbie O’Daniel, Steve Ogilvie, Caleb Palmer, Bruno Rail, Brian Robertson, Mark Schreiner, Graeme Shelvey, Charles Short, Ed Simpson, Thomas Simpson, Steve “Dr. Lucha” Sims, Rob Slater, Paul Sosnowski, David Spalding, James Stanios, Steve Stone, Andy Stowell, Anthony Sullivan, Sebastian Svensson, Scott Teal, Steve Te Tai, Greg Tingle, Bob Trobich, Casey Trowbridge, Dominick Valenti, Dan Wahlers, Cory Walker, Jereme Warneck, James Witcombe, Kyle Wolf, Ryan Woolslayer, Kris Zellner

CMLL

El Terrible & El Texano Jr. were suspended from Guadalajara for 60 days by the commission for fighting with a fan.

Ephesto will be out of action about two months with a leg injury.

Tinieblas Sr., who is about 70 or 71, announced he would be retiring at the end of the year, doing a retirement tour in the spring and summer.

They had a healthy crowd of 9,500 on 1/29 at Arena Mexico, headlined by the B block of the Parejas Increibles Nacional tournament (incredible partners teamed together best on home state). It came down to Negro Casas & La Mascara representing the Distrito Federal beating Hector Garza & Toscano of Monterrey when Mascara pinned Garza clean with la magistral. Casas & Mascara beat Shocker & Sagrado in the semifinals and Valiente & Rey Bucanero in the first round.

The 1/31 show at Arena Mexico was a rare Sunday outdrawing the Friday show, as they put 11,200 in for an increibles match where heels Atlantis & Ultimo Guerrero teamed up with long-time rival Mistico, against faces Volador Jr. & Maximo, teaming with heel Mr. Niebla. Even though Mistico is not an official heel, he played cowardly heel especially with Volador Jr. On 1/22, he played aggressive heel and people booed him. Apparently the response to him as cowardly heel wasn’t nearly as good. In the third fall, Mistico unmasked Volador Jr., who laid down with his hands over his face and allowed himself to be pinned to protect his identity.

They are expecting 15,000 fans for the 2/5 show on the 26th anniversary of the death of El Santo, headlined by Mistico vs. Volador Jr. and A block winners Mascara Dorada & Atlantis (representing Guadalajara) against Casas & Mascara for the tournament final. The tournament has done well, as the Mexico City fans have cheered for the Mexico City teams big-time.

AAA

The 1/24 TV show did a 2.4 rating, but the show also aired at Noon on Sunday, away from its normal time slot. Televisa in the usual slot aired the Saints vs. Vikings game, which did a 3.7, or about the same as AAA has been doing of late, and half of what AAA was doing in the time slot a year ago. The Raw show the same day, in the normal time slot, did a 7.9 rating, about 20% lower than usual, but still more than double the game to determine who goes to the Super Bowl.

The major changes are supposed to go into effect this week. There is expecting to be a booking change with Dorian Roldan giving up a lot of the work. Vampiro is supposed to be back as part of a crew running the dressing room and attempting to teach discipline and professionalism. Amazing is all I can say.

There are talks about an invasion angle ala the NWO angle which could take place within the next two weeks. Two of the biggest names in the country are both being talked with.

Teddy Hart has been suspended for two months and it’s questionable whether he’ll even be brought back. When instructed to do things, he did the opposite one time too many. Plus people here are tired of him constantly telling them how is uncle Bret is getting him into WWE to join the Hart Dynasty. I think the Hart Dynasty’s best interests is not to want him around, because he’s a guaranteed heat magnet and the last thing they need is to be painted with his brush.

Josip Radocaj, the wrestlers’ father claimed Sanford manipulated his son into marriage after his son got a $49,000 insurance settlement after an auto accident that left him with a broken neck.

Chasyn Rance, who has appeared in the past in ROH as well as on TNA television, is on the cast of “Tool Academy 3,” a reality show on VH-1 that debuts on 2/14 in a Sunday at 9 p.m. time slot. The theme of the show is that the people were bad at relationships and were sent by their partners thinking they are in some sort of a competition, but in reality are put into a charm school like atmosphere teaching them to be better partners. Each week someone is eliminated, and their significant other than decides whether they’ve improved enough or not, and decides whether or not to break up with them. There’s a $100,000 first prize to the last person standing.

Joey Kovar of MTV’s Real World and Celebrity Rehab 3 is now training in Illinois with the POWW promotion and owner Jimmy Blaze.

William Mueller (former WWE wrestler Trevor Murdoch, more recently Jethro Holliday in TNA) and wife Amanda are now running “T. Murdock’s Bar and Grill” in Eldon, MO. One of the items on the menu is the Harley Hamburger Steak, named after the usual order from his trainer, Harley Race.

A correction on the Art Crews mention a couple of weeks ago. The prison he’s running is in Wisconsin, not Oregon.

Human Tornado is being talked with about coming in as a tag team with Jack Evans.

Remember never to go too crazy publicly about a major company. Juventud Guerrera’s own promotion isn’t doing very well, and CMLL has no interest in him, so he’s trying to return here. Due to all the issues he caused with the Roldans and Konnan, it doesn’t look like he’ll be brought back. The guy has so much talent but he’s managed to get where every major promotion in the world doesn’t want him.

They have two TV tapings coming this week, as 2/5 in Puebla has Latin Lover & Mesias & La Parka vs. Dr. Wagner Jr. & Electroshock & Silver King and Alan Stone & Elegido & Pimpinela Escarlata vs. Chessman & Alex Koslov & Zorro.

2/7 in Salamanca has Mesias & Marco Corleone vs. Wagner Jr. & Electroshock and Cibernetico & The Clowns vs. Konnan & Chessman & Zorro & Koslov.

PERROS DEL MAL

The company had its most successful show to date on 1/31 in Mexico City, putting 5,000 fans into a 4,000-seat Sala de Armas for a show that included El Hijo del Santo. In the top two matches, Damian 666 & Halloween & Mr. Aguila beat Oriental & Groon XXX & El Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr., while Santo & L.A. Park beat Perro Aguayo Jr. & Blue Demon Jr. via DQ. Lots of post match talk with the first public challenges for a mask vs. mask vs. mask vs. hair match. Aguayo Jr. has talked of building up all year to that match.

DRAGON GATE

Cima is off the January tour due to injuries from the 1/23 show in Chicago, including torn ligaments in his left leg.

Jack Evans, L.A. Park and El Hijo del Rey Misterio will be in for the 3/26 and 3/27 shows in Phoenix.

ALL JAPAN

There’s a loaded show featuring several outside stars on 3/14 at the Saitama Super Arena. Announced matches are Keiji Muto & Kai vs. Satoshi Kojima & Kaz Hayashi, plus Masahiro Chono vs. AKIRA, and Masakatsu Funaki, Kota Ibushi, Jinsei Shinzaki, Takashi Sugiura, Yoshihiro Takayama, Taka Michinoku, Atsushi Aoki and Taiji Ishimori.

PRO WRESTLING NOAH

Kenta Kobashi underwent both right knee and right elbow surgery back on 1/6, and what was supposed to be a two-hour procedure lasted seven hours. There is no word when or if he’ll be able to return.

Akira Taue promoted a show in his home town of Tsuchiura on 1/31, drawing a sellout in the 850-seat gym. Taue actually lost to Yoshinari Ogawa in the opener. The main event was the first time trio of Jun Akiyama & Yoshihiro Takayama & Minoru Suzuki of All Japan, as a unit, beating Takashi Sugiura & Akitoshi Saito & Shuhei Taniguchi.

Atsushi Aoki vs. Minoru Suzuki has been added to the 2/28 Budokan Hall show.

NEW JAPAN

Naomichi Marufuji returned to defend the IWGP jr. title against Prince Devitt on 1/30 at Korakuen Hall before a sellout of 2,005 fans. Marufuji won in 12:19 with the Tiger frosien. After the match, Koji Kanemoto challenged Marufuji to get the belt back for New Japan. In a big surprise in the semi, Shinsuke Nakamura & Toru Yano beat Hiroshi Tanahashi & Manabu Nakanishi when Tanahashi went for the high fly flow (frog splash), and Yano got his knees up, and then Yano pinned Tanahashi. They also built the Yuji Nagata vs. Tajiri match as Nagata & Yujiro & Tetsuya Naito beat Tajiri & Giant Bernard & Karl Anderson via DQ when Tajiri blew the mist in Nagata’s eyes. They also honored the late Black Cat (Victor Mar) in a trios match bringing back El Samurai to team with Tiger Mask & Kanemoto to beat Super Strong Machine & Wataru Inoue & Mitsuhide Hirasawa.

Kazuchika Okada had his final match in New Japan, perhaps for as long as a year or two, losing to Tanahashi the next night at Differ Ariake before another sellout of 1,800. It was billed as his Sayonara match as he’s leaving for TNA as they want him gone for a while to gain experience, because Okada has good size and athletic ability and they see him as a future star. Yano came in with scissors and went after Tanahashi’s hair. He didn’t get the hair, but did hit him with a chair and cut his face, so they are doing a program. Kenny Omega & Kota Ibushi came to New Japan, the first time Omega has worked for the promotion, beating Gedo & Jado. Jado was carried out on a stretcher. Not sure what happened or if it was legit, but sounded it, since he was rushed out of the arena in an ambulance. Gedo & Jado were doing a move and hit heads and Jado was knocked out cold, so it wasn’t a stretcher job from a beat down or anything. Nagata gained revenge in a tag match (Nagata & Inoue vs. Tajiri & Iizuka) by blowing mist in Tajiri’s eyes to help build their 2/14 singles match at Sumo Hall. Recently fired NOAH wrestlers worked the show as Tamon Honda & Kentaro Shiga lost to Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma.

OTHER JAPAN NOTES

Asashoryu (Dagvadorj Dolgolsuren), the biggest sumo star of the decade has his career in jeopardy after allegedly punching someone that he knew in a drunken tirade. The 29-year-old Mongolian, who has two brothers who were pro wrestlers (Sumiyabazar Dolgolsuren, who also lost to Kurt Angle in the 1996 Olympics, and Blue Wolf), was reported as being drunk outside a pub in Nishiazabu on 1/16 and slugging a man in charge of the dance club that he had been drinking at. Weekly gossip magazines alleged he punched the man, whose name wasn’t identified, in the chest while leaving the club. Later, Asashoryu told the man that they should talk in his car. The man said that the punch to the chest should be water under the bridge. Asashoryu’s driver came down a street where police were at because of an auto accident. As they drove past the police, the man screamed “Help, I’m being attacked,” and police came to his aid. Allegedly Asashoryu hit him in the face. The man was treated for injuries including a broken nose, as well as a cut on the lip and bruises on the back of the head. Asashoryu on 1/24 won his 25th Emperor’s Cup tournament, putting him in third place for major tournaments won in the history of the sport. The next day he admitted to drunken behavior as was reported in the magazines and was reprimanded by the Japanese Sumo Association. Sumo officials said that if criminal charges are brought against Asashoryu, due to the strict code of the sumo association, he would likely be forced to immediately retire. To avoid that, Asashoryu reached “an amicable settlement” with the man according to Japanese Sumo Association officials on 1/30. The settlement is said to include that the man does not file charges. The Sumo Association will determine any punishment in the sport itself sometime this month.

When Akebono & Shinjiro Otani won the NWA Intercontinental tag team titles from Ikuto Hidaka & Munenori Sawa on 1/27 in Tokyo at Shinjuku Face, it became something unprecedented in Japanese wrestling history. Akebono was champion simultaneously in three of the company’s five biggest promotions, holding the new title he had won in Zero-One, the All-Asian tag team titles with Ryota Hama in All Japan, and the Open the Triangle Gate trios belts in Dragon Gate. Toshiaki Kawada returns to defend the Zero-One world title on 3/2 against Ryoji Sai.

Vader, 53, teams with son Jesse White, making his debut, on 4/29 in Tokyo or the Vader Time promotion. Jesse White was the most heavily recruited center in the country, but after signing with Oklahoma, where he’s set to graduate this year, he suffered back injury and couldn’t play.

Tajiri vs. Tommy Dreamer will be one of the main events on Tajiri’s first Smash event on 3/26 in Tokyo. The only other names listed for the promotion thus far are Hajime Ohara and Kushida.

HERE AND THERE

With all the New Orleans Saints “Who dat” chants that have gotten so much national publicity, it should be noted that the chants originated in 1980 at the Downtown Municipal Auditorium in New Orleans during Junkyard Dog matches. The chant was, “Who dat think they can beat that Dog, Who dat, Who dat.” After JYD left Mid South Wrestling for WWE and wasn’t wrestling in town almost every week, the same chants started getting popular at Saints games. I don’t know that any media has made that connection.

In another quasi-Super Bowl reference, the first-ever NFL championship game, which was played indoors with dirt imported into Chicago Stadium because of a blizzard on an 80-yard field. The game was in 1932 with the Bears beating the Portsmouth Spartans. The score was 0-0 in the fourth quarter, when the ball was handed off to Bronko Nagurski (who later became a NWA world champion as a pro wrestler), who threw a pass to Red Grange in the end zone. After a late safety, the Bears won 9-0.

The new updated Observer index, which lists the lead stories in every issue of the Observer dating back to the first issue 27 years ago, is available for $18 in the U.S. and Canada and $28 overseas at grantsindex@nexicom.netThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . . Pro Wrestling Guerrilla had the biggest show in its history in conjunction with Sal Corrente’s Wrestle Reunion convention (which featured a ton of huge names including RVD, Bruno Sammartino and Bret Hart and the convention was said to be a success) at the Los Angeles Airport Hilton. They drew about 1,100 fans on 1/30, outdrawing ROH the night before. They used the ROH lighting and entrance, making it the most major league looking event they’ve done. Among the stars on the show were Rob Van Dam, Great Muta and Jushin Liger. They also did a Brian Kendrick & Paul London vs. Generation Me match. RVD’s win over Chris Hero and Roderick Strong headlined in a good match. RVD did more than people expected in his first U.S. match in recent memory and used the five star frog splash on Hero for the pin. He didn’t have to do anything as he was so over, but kept up with the other two, but the match was more a showcase for him. London & Kendrick vs. Generation Me was set up earlier in the show when The Young Bucks came out, said they were now Generation Me, and turned on Kendrick. London, who was not advertised on the card, made the save. London had some ring rust, and missed a lot of spots. Long match that ended with London using a shooting star press for the finish. Generation Me played heels like they were leaving the fans behind and going t TNA and playing it up. Liger pinned El Generico in a match the fans loved. Muta & Kai from All Japan beat Joey Ryan & Scott Lost. Muta sold more than expected, did all his trademark moves, and let Kai carry things and he looked good. Davey Richards beat Kevin Steen with an armbar. Richards challenged PWG champ Kenny Omega for a title shot. Hero also issued a title challenge. Human Tornado pinned Super Crazy.

An update on Gene Kiniski. He is currently in a nursing home in Blaine, WA, battling congenital heart failure from recent water weight gain, although he is making a comeback from his cancer. He’s most frustrated with his losing his eyesight, as he has always been a voracious reader. Since retirement, he would read as much as eight hours a day. He’s still sharp as a tack mentally at 81, and he’s still fighting.

The second week was better news for Dwayne Johnson’s movie, “Tooth Fairy,” as the drop was only 29% from opening weekend. The general rule is you hope for a drop of less than 40% and pray it’s not more than 50%. Except for “Avatar,” it had the lowest drop, and was actually in second place behind “Avatar” among movies that weren’t released this weekend. It was fourth overall behind “Avatar” and new releases “Edge of Darkness” and “When in Rome.” Weekend No. 2 2was $9,998,102 for a two- weekend total of $26,104,387. The movie has done strong international business, as it has surpassed $50 million worldwide in two weeks out, so the news is a lot more positive on it than it was a week ago.

There was a wrestling convention horror story, but it was a U.K. convention. Molly Holly, Bushwhacker Luke Williams, The Barbarian, Fred “Typhoon” Ottman, Nikolai Volkoff and Mr. Fuji were all detained by immigration agents as they arrived, and told they didn’t have the necessary paperwork to work in the country. They were allowed to stay until the next flight available would take them home. Several others, including Terry Funk and Howard Finkel, did get in. The local promoter told the fans about the no- shows that a rival promoter called immigration and said the wrestlers were terrorists to sabotage his event, but the UK immigration officials and they needed to have the right documents in place to enter the country to work.

Wrestler/historian Matt Farmer, who did the research work on the greatest drawing cards of all-time feature we did in several issues last year, while researching Australia, came upon some interesting notes. In 1965 and 1966, when Jim Barnett promoted weekly shows at Sydney Stadium (which held about 14,000 fans), the average weekly attendance was 9,000. Granted, Memphis did numbers just under that during the heyday of Jerry Lawler and Arena Mexico in its best year a few years back was probably ahead of that, but historically, you’ll find very few cities in history pulling that kind of an average per week. It also noted that during that period, Killer Kowalski, the biggest star in the country at the time, paid taxes on $140,000 income during one year there and Bruno Sammartino was paid $20,000 for a three-week tour. It cost Barnett a lot more than that, because he had to pay Vince McMahon Sr. a hefty price to pull his champion away from all his cities for three weeks.

CHIKARA Pro set its all-time attendance record with 600 fans for the 1/31 show at the Arena in Philadelphia.

Retired wrestler Torrie Wilson wrote something strange on her Twitter account on 1/27. She wrote that she was alone in her house, felt scared, pulled out a loaded pistol and fired a shot into her bathroom that went through the ceiling.

Another retired wrestling personality, Jackie Haas (formerly Jackie Gayda) is in a contest to become a cover model for the fitness magazine Status. In her bio, she mentions being a college athlete (track and field) and a professional wrestler, and now a mom.

I’ve been reading a book called “Swimming with Piranhas,” which is a pro wrestling book written by Howard Brody (former many year NWA president although he won’t rank up there with Sam Muchnick for historical value) on the last few flights. I’m surprised nobody has talked bout this book because in some ways it’s one of the best wrestling books out there. Everyone who has any intention of getting into pro wrestling from a business standpoint should read it because every type of hustler and con artist imaginable shows up during Brody’s journey through the pro wrestling business. It’s the most real book about wrestling outside of WWE/TNA, most notably the underbelly of the business, that I’ve seen. I’m not saying people should read it because it will scare them away from getting into the business (although that would be the sane reaction), but simply you need to be armed with the knowledge of the kind of people you meet, so at least you are forewarned. Quite frankly, I think people who want to work in the MMA business should read the book, because the kind of people who came out of the woodwork in the 90s and early 00s and wanted to bring pro wrestling to their country, or get involved in running pro wrestling shows, for the most part are wanting to do MMA in this decade. There are a lot of interesting characters involved, some of whom people that have been really into the indie scene over the years would know. But it’s really a story about a guy who so badly wanted to make it in wrestling and always seemed on the verge of a big score, only to find out that the business people, one after the other, were con men themselves hoping for their own score, that never came.

ROH

A lot has gone down and we’ll have a major story hopefully next week on it, but Davey Richards, who was thought to be on the way out, choosing Dragon Gate USA and Evolve, and then having the tag titles taken from he and Eddie Edwards, signed a new contract the first week of January. Richards got a raise from the $350 per night he was making to $500, the same as he was making with Dragon Gate USA and Evolve. ROH offers more dates. Richards is also done with Dragon Gate in Japan, and apparently has a spot in this year’s New Japan Super Juniors tournament. There was been a lot of legal threatening, as ROH threatened Richards, and talked of getting an injunction against Richards working the Dragon Gate USA shows in Phoenix. Gabe Sapolsky said Richards told him he had signed and would be finishing up on 1/22, two weeks after he signed the deal. Sapolsky asked him to at least honor his commitments and work the Phoenix shows, which are the same weekend in the same city as ROH events. He went back-and- forth on it, saying yes. Dragon Gate did not want Richards beating Masaaki Mochizuki for the FIP title, since they thought he was leaving. Sapolsky convinced them to have their guy lose since Richards would then put over BxB Hulk in Phoenix in a title match that would give Hulk a big win. Then Richards told Sapolsky he wasn’t doing the show. There have been claims, denied by ROH, that Richards was offered the ROH title as well.

ROH filed a lawsuit on 1/28 against Richard Fliehr (Ric Flair) alleging that he still owes the company in excess of $41,420 for dates paid for in advance, as well as other damages. According to the lawsuit filed on 1/28 in Bucks County, PA, Flair signed to do five house shows for $50,000 in February with the money paid in advance. The contract also called for a $2,500 increase in pay if Flair worked as a referee or a manager (which never came into play). The contact said that if Flair missed one of the dates, he would have three business days to return the $10,000. Flair worked four dates. The lawsuit claimed he missed a 7/24 date in Montreal (that 7/24 date was actually in Toronto and Bret Hart was booked for that date well in advance, while Flair did appear on 7/25 in Toronto which was his final ROH appearance). But he did four dates and never returned that $10,000. Flair signed a second contract in April where he was paid $35,000 to appear at seven television tapings. He only appeared at one and hadn’t refunded the remainder of the money according to the suit. There was blow up between the sides after Flair said he wouldn’t appear on television. Flair at the time claimed it was his choice to pull out of the television show. WWE had made it clear to Flair that they didn’t like the idea of him appearing for ROH on television, which was why I was surprised at the time the deal went down, since Flair was still in the mind set at the time of wanting to maintain a cordial relationship with WWE. ROH was going to use Flair in the role as the company ambassador, with the hope that his name affiliated with the product would help them in marketing shows overseas. Flair appeared at one set of tapings, and then before the second set of tapings, Flair said he would appear as advertised but could no longer appear on television as he was going back to WWE. It had been more than six months with the company not being paid back by Flair, who has been financially strapped due to large alimony payments to ex-wives. While Cary Silkin wouldn’t directly comment on it, those in ROH had said the Flair situation was one of the real disappointments for Silkin, since getting Flair with the promotion was a crowning achievement for him at the time. When Flair went to ROH, he was hoping Mark Cuban, the owner of HDNet, would get behind the promotion, back them, and it would become a major company with him as the face of the company. He also hoped ROH would be a place where his son, Reid Fleihr, could work and be protected early in his career and start to make a name in the business. Someone that inexperienced being able to make it in ROH, even with Flair involved, would be difficult given the high expectations of ROH fans when it comes to match quality. Reid ended up being arrested on drug charges and ROH decided against using him. WWE also made it clear they didn’t want to use Flair any longer if Flair was appearing on what they considered a rival television show.

The 1/29 show in Los Angeles as part of Sal Corrente’s Wrestle Reunion convention drew 775 fans, which was considered a big success, considering when ROH ran at a convention a few years back at the Cow Palace in San Francisco they only did 300 fans. Then again, this convention was umpteen times more successful than that one. Scott Taylor (Scotty 2 Hotty) wrestled Larry Zbyszko with Jonny Fairplay as referee. Fairplay came too the ring with Alexis Arquette (David’s brother) and cut a promo saying David was the only real world champion at the convention (which included Bruno Sammartino and Bret Hart). Zbyszko did the famed Zbyszko stall and the people turned on this match bad. Zbyszko also won with a schoolboy when Fairplay distracted Taylor. Then Taylor went to give Fairplay the worm, but Colt Cabana attacked Taylor, and he gave Fairplay the worm and stinkface. Kevin Steen pinned Human Tornado with a package piledriver. The bottom rope broke and while repairing it, they had a dance-off with Adam Pearce, Todd Sinclair, Bobby Cruise and Tornado, who danced while still selling his back and neck from the prior match. While he was dancing, Steen attacked him again. Austin Aries beat Jushin Liger in a non-title match. Liger went for his palm strike but Aries put the ref in the way. With the ref down, Aries used a low blow and brainbuster. People weren’t happy with that kind of finish in an ROH match, let alone with a Japanese star, but it was Liger who came up with the finish. Fans were really into Liger and the match itself was good. Main event saw the American Wolves & Chris Hero & Claudio Castagnoli beat Briscoes & Generation Me in a match with one move after the other, Ending with Eddie Edwards making Nick Jackson submit to the Boston crab. Also said to be great, and the best match of either weekend show.

Super Parka debuts on the 4/3 show in Charlotte. Oh dear. , , The Briscoes vs. Dark City Fight Club has been added to the 2/13 show in New York as has Necro Butcher & Eddie Kingston vs. Erick Stevens & Joey Ryan.

Added to the weekend TV tapings are a 2/5 match with Chris Hero vs. Jay Briscoe and a 2/6 match with Mark Briscoe vs. Claudio Castagnoli.

TNA

Kurt Angle’s name came up in a federal trial of nine men associated with Applied Pharmacy in Mobile that is going on this week. Assistant U.S. Attorney Donna Dobbins said there were doctors hired to write sham prescriptions in her closing arguments on 2/2, saying owners made millions of dollars in profits dealing steroids from 2003 to 2005. “Each one of them (the defendants) participated in this conspiracy. They operated a steroid mill, and they would dispense anabolic steroids to anyone whose credit card was good.” She noted that they dispensed steroids to people in 41 states, and mentioned Angle and Jose Canseco as clients.

Ric Flair’s role, besides being A.J. Styles’ manager, is to be his hands-on wrestling coach. The feeling is Styles is phenomenal inside the ring, and Flair is supposed to teach him how to play the role of world champion outside the ring. This could change, but from what we’re hearing, they are looking at asking Styles to bleach his hair for the Nature Boy gimmick. Part of the idea is to make him be a guy who stands out in a crowd.

Rob Terry won the Global title from Eric Young on the 1/27 in Cardiff, Wales, which is about a half hour from Swansea, Wales, where Terry is from. So he played the local babyface. TNA was filming the match so clips will probably air on Impact. His family was there and they were also doing interviews with them. It’s been a long time since they’ve done a title change off television. It may have been a last minute change. At the very least, Terry didn’t know about it until the day of the show. No surprise if you think about it because Hogan comes from the 80s and in the 80s a guy like Terry, whether he could work a lick or not, would have been pushed as a main eventer.

Regarding RVD, he said there hasn’t been any serious talks of late with TNA. He said for a long time he really didn’t consider going, because he knew going would shut a door for him with WWE and wasn’t really wanting the door shut. He said he’s less concerned about shutting that door now. But he said he’s happy to do his few European tours per year that he can go on with his wife and take days off to hit Amsterdam, which is one of his favorite places. He also said if TNA goes to live weekly TV, he’s really not interested, because flying from Los Angeles to Orlando would have to take place the day before a taping, and then he’d have to fly out the day after, so it’s three days a week on the road and a fourth day recovering and he doesn’t want that life. He’s not interested in regularly working indies but would be open to guest appearances if offers came from either company. “I do have some interest right now in what’s going on with the big companies,” he told Alex Marvez this past week. “I know Hogan would like to have me. Eventually (TNA) may start to wear me down and my `no thanks’ will become, `well, maybe.’ I have some interest, but I don’t know what’s going to happen. I don’t see myself going back to the full-time, ridiculous never-ending WWE schedule. I couldn’t wait to get away from it before.” He’s also noted that he can see retirement from the ring pretty soon. He’s now 39 and doesn’t see himself wrestling well into his 40s. While almost everyone says that, and continues to wrestle because, well, what other job is a wrestler going to hold where he can remain a celebrity and make the same type of income, Van Dam walked away at his peak and spent years on the sidelines not rushing back, so that says he can walk away.

After doing Raw in Nashville on 2/1, Bret Hart went out with TNA personnel, as Jeremy Borash showed a photo of Hart with them on his Twitter page.

Scott Hall & Sean Waltman being removed from the video open of the show is not indicative of a negative sign. It was done for storyline reasons. The idea is that Hall & Waltman in storyline aren’t under contract, and thus, why should they appear in the open? The feeling is that they are going to be used until the planned storyline they are in runs its course. At that point, they’ll decide what to do next.

Hogan has been complaining to friends about frustrations because he feels pressure to push people he doesn’t want to. Apparently Dixie Carter doesn’t want the old crew buried, but there are people in the old crew who Hogan sees nothing in and wants to get rid of. Hogan was high on Tomko saying he at least looks like a wrestler.

Lockdown will take place on 4/18 at the Family Arena in St. Charles, MO. The deal was just put together after whatever the original location they had ended up canceling them as WWE came in and booked the arena and insisted on a non-compete within a time frame that aced TNA out. Something to remember the next time Vince McMahon cries about being bumped. They will be doing a fan fest on 4/17 in conjunction with the event.

Awesome Kong put together a group called Wrestlers 4 Haiti and raised $6,000 at a club in Lancaster, PA on 1/15. Kong spent a day-and-a-half promoting the event on local radio, and got the help of 24 wrestlers and her efforts raised $3,500. Mick Foley then donated another $2,500. Kong said that Foley’s agreement to match anything the first $2,500 that was donated really gave the rest of them impetus for the project.

At press time, there was nothing new on Kong’s future with the company. The belief was no news meant that she was staying.

Taz was contemplating knee replacement surgery this past week. He said he may opt for three injections into the knee joint which he hopes will relieve enough pain for a few years before needing the knee replacement, although figures at some point he will need the surgery.

Eric Bischoff is still trying to recruit Jim Ross to be an announcer. Ross’ short-term contract extension with WWE expires in mid-March, but WWE would likely try and lock him down for a long-term deal before the expiration. Besides the obvious factors like money, exposure and fun, don’t think there is a new wrinkle in what Ross wants and doesn’t want to do, having to do with the deaths of several close friends in a short period of time, not to mention the health issue with Gerald Brisco and his own Bell’s Palsy has seen him make major lifestyle changes pertaining to exercise, diet and weight loss.

Ed Leslie was backstage at the last night of TNA tapings in Orlando on 1/20.

As far as Honky Tonk Man goes, it’s one of two things. Either he was just saying he was going to TNA and indicating it on his web site as a way to keep himself in the news, or he believed he was going based on what has been said was a crank phone call from Lacey Von Erich. The story is that as a prank, Von Erich called Honky up and said he was Dixie Carter, and started negotiating with him. When Bischoff and Hogan were asked about the story on Bubba the Love Sponge, Bischoff said he would rather drive a rusty ice pick through his thigh than do business with Honky Tonk Man and that he couldn’t draw flies if he was rolling in shit. Honky Tonk Man had a brief run in WCW in the mid-90s, which didn’t last because he refused to put people over that they asked.

Hogan said the plan was to push the envelope and not be the family-friendly product WWE is trying to be. He also talked about wanting to bring in Randy Savage to manage Jay Lethal, which I can’t imagine would ever happen. Hogan ripped on Vince Russo, as when his new book was talked about, Hogan said, “Who the fuck is going to read it?” Hogan said Lacey Von Erich didn’t have a clue how to work while Bischoff said they can teach her and she’s got a great personality. Hogan said he’s tired of watching The Pope lose. I’m not sure why he’d be losing then. Bischoff called him one of his favorite personalities. Hogan put over Abyss, saying that he’s his favorite character in the promotion, calling him “my next John Cena.” In a funny one, Hogan claimed he had inside sources in WWE who told him that the original plan for Mania was Bret Hart vs. Michaels. When asked who from WWE he would most want, Hogan said Cena and Orton, and then also mentioned Show (who is one of his friends). Bischoff said Show was lazy. Hogan said he wasn’t lazy when he was training to be a boxer. They also praised Desmond Wolfe, with them implying they want him to be a James Bond character and talked about his new second, Chelsea, like she’s a Bond girl. Hogan also praised Jericho (Jericho carried Hogan to one of Hogan’s best matches of the last decade on television about seven years ago). Bischoff said he thinks Jericho is very good but doesn’t see him as a headliner and that evidently Vince McMahon doesn’t either. Jericho responded immediately via his twitter saying, “Bischoff’s right, I can’t headline in TNA cos I’m not in my 50s.” . . As far as anyone knows, B.G. James working as an agent at the PPV was just a one-time thing because Scott D’Amore was unable to be there.

A funny marketing story from the company. The company track record is they go into markets, draw okay if they’ve never been there and tell the marketing people they’ve done a good job. Then, a year later, they go back, market the exact same way, the crowds are way down, and blame the marketing people for not promoting well. The company is going on the belief that house show attendance will increase because of Hogan and Flair in the company even though they aren’t doing the house shows. Actually, at least before the U.K. tour, which has been down in most markets from the last time, that seemed to be the case the first two weekends in the U.S.

The next TNA epics show will air after Impact on 2/11, and be based around Sting.

Bubba the Love Sponge and his people on 2/2 attempted to get Wrestling Observer Live pulled from Sirius. They claimed that it’s one thing for Opie & Anthony, who are full-timers, to get knocking Bubba, but that part-timers shouldn’t be doing so. They were confused, as apparently someone sent him a tape, which they played, of a discussion on our radio show on the web site (which is not on Sirius) and he thought it was the Sirius show, which I haven’t had a part of for more than two years. It was a discussion where I thought no matter what you think of Bubba, that Awesome Kong’s actions can’t go unpunished and that while what Bubba did saying “Fuck Haiti” trying to be in his shock jock role was stupid and horrible timing, that isn’t justification for him to be punched. Bryan was less sympathetic to Bubba’s plight. I wasn’t really sympathetic to Bubba either, but even though Kong was absolutely justified in being mad, that isn’t justification for starting a fight. Anyway, Bubba’s producer called me up very early in the morning (before 7:30 a.m. because I didn’t get the message until waking up) leaving an insulting message, but at the same time inviting me on the air, and also saying that you’re going to lose your radio show (which I don’t even have in the first place). They complained to Sirius, claiming that on their airwaves, hosts were advocating people to physically attack Bubba. Sirius investigated, found that nothing was said on their airwaves even remotely close to what they were claiming, and apparently the situation is over.

The deal about the six-sided ring already being sent to the U.K. which is why it was used on this tour isn’t technically correct. TNA has a six-sided ring that has been in storage in the U.K. since their first tour.

Overall it was said to be the smoothest international tour so far. Nobody was in a bad mood or brought morale down, the way Booker T did on the last tour. There were chants of “We Want Six Sides” in several of the cities, even though the ring had six sides, but I guess they realize this is probably the last time for that. Crowds were down from the first time. Most of the crowds were hot and virtually every report said the shows themselves were really good. Some cities the crowd wasn’t as hot and in Manchester, there were a ton of complaints over the fact the show was advertised around doing a ladder match for the title, and they didn’t do it. The way they got out of it was to have Styles say he wasn’t going to participate in a ladder match to put heel heat on him, but with Dixie Carter sitting right there and the big gimmick advertised not happening, it didn’t go over well. The actual reason was that they couldn’t find a ladder suitable for a ladder match. All the ladders in the building, including the one brought to the ring, were one-sided and made of aluminum so they couldn’t stand up to the match and by the time they found it out, it was too late to have someone look for a store to buy a new ladder.

Matt Morgan didn’t go on the tour, so no tag title matches, because he went back home to stay with his father, who underwent surgery to remove a cancerous tumor in his brain. The belief was the surgery was a complete success and Morgan described it as miraculous.

1/26 in Bournemouth, U.K., drew 2,000. A.J. Styles beat Desmond Wolfe in the title match main event. After Styles won, he told the crowd the reason TNA has grown in popularity is because of him. Styles played the heel. Most didn’t know that Styles was a heel and there were a lot of Styles signs in the crowd. Velvet Sky & Madison Rayne arrived for the show to beat Sarita & Taylor Wilde in a bad match doing a spraying perfume in Wilde’s eyes. It was Wilde’s 24th birthday and they did get the crowd to sing Happy Birthday to her. Samoa Joe, on the show he injured his rib, beat Daniels in an I Quit match. Said to be the blow away match on the show. Joe won with a guillotine. Kurt Angle & Hernandez won a four-way over British Invasion, Team 3-D and Beer Money when Angle pinned Magnus with an Olympic slam. Pope D’Angelo Dinero came in after recuperating from a stomach infection and beat Rhino. The crowd thought Rhino was the face. It was pretty clear from reactions that much of the crowd didn’t watch TNA on television. Rhino did insult the audience and turned the crowd on him. Eric Young beat Hamada in a Global title defense. Opener was Chris Sabin winning a three-way over Suicide and Amazing Red. Earl Hebner came to the ring dressed up like Bret Hart in the 90s, with the sunglasses and the leather jacket.

1/27 in Cardiff, Wales, drew 2,000 fans. Red beat Sabin and Suicide in the three-way, in a great match, billed as to determine the No. 1 contender for the X title. Wilde & Sarita beat Rayne & Sky with Hamada as referee. Hamada was ref when Earl Hebner, playing heel, refused to appear until he got the respect he deserved. Rayne and Hamada argued. Rayne slapped Hamada, who head-butted Rayne and Sarita then pinned Rayne. Rob Terry came out, billed from Cardiff, Wales instead of Swansea. He came in carrying a Welsh flag and did all the things WWE makes Regal not do when he’s in the U.K. Hebner again dressed as Hart to referee, playing heel throughout the match. Hebner was also signing autographs with the phrase, “I screwed Bret.” Young said Terry worked for him in World Elite, even though World Elite was dropped a few weeks ago. Terry won with a running powerslam. 3-D & Angle beat Hernandez & Dinero & Rhino in a tables match. Angle & 3-D worked as the faces, even though Hernandez & Dinero are not heels on television. Angle used an Olympic slam on Rhino through a table to win. Crowd was into Angle a lot more than 3-D. When he wasn’t in, the crowd would chant “We Want Angle.” If Bubba or Devon would tag in the other, the crowd would boo. Joe beat Daniels in the I Quit match. Both were cheered but Joe more than Daniels. Joe won with a choke. Beer Money beat British Invasion. British Invasion was cheered coming out until they ripped on Rob Terry, saying he’s no longer part of the group and they were babysitting him, just like the British have been babysitting the Welsh. It was advertised as a flag match but they just did a regular match. Main event was Styles over Wolfe. Styles worked as the babyface, not even showing hints of being a heel or a Nature Boy. The pin came with a Styles clash. Dixie Carter thanked the crowd for coming.

On 1/28 in Coventry, England, they drew 1,600. The last time in the city they sold out. Styles beat Joe to keep the title in the main event. Angle & Hernandez beat Rhino & Daniels. Angle got the biggest reaction. They did a singles match where Red beat Hamada, as well as a Rumble entrance style eight- man with Beer Money & 3-D over The Invasion & Terry & Young, who were all back together. Wolfe was pinned by Pope. Not sure why they wouldn’t use Wolfe as a babyface for the U.K. and to do media as the local guy who is usually a heel but gets cheered at home, as that’s a role people get behind. Then again, who would ever think like that when you can use Rob Terry from Wales in that role in England.

1/29 in Manchester drew 5,500 in the big MEN Arena, but the way they blocked the arena off, it looked packed. The crowd was super hot for the sow. Red won a three-way over Suicide and Sabin and an opening spotfest style match the crowd liked, with Red using the Canadian Destroyer on Suicide for the pin. Terry pinned Young to keep the Global title. Borash called the Wales-born Terry, “one of the most promising British wrestlers for a long time.” Terry did get a big pop coming out with the belt. Young tried to carry him, but a few minutes in, the crowd saw through him and started chanting “You can’t wrestle,” at Terry. Match was sad and the crowd started chanting “You stole T-shirts” at Hebner (in reference to what he was allegedly fired by WWE for). The Pope beat Rhino. Both were cheered coming out, but Rhino yelled at the crowd to turn himself heel. Still, 30% of the fans cheered him and there were dueling chants. Rhino pinned a gore and Pope used a neckbreaker. In the non-ladder match, Styles won over Daniels, Joe and Hernandez. Styles said that he phoned up Flair and his lawyers and said he wouldn’t have a ladder match or defend the title. Dixie Carter came from the crowd and said she was the boss and it was going to be a title match in a four-way. At one point Styles put the figure four on Daniels and then got up and strutted around like Flair. Styles kicked out of Joe’s muscle buster and ended up winning with the Styles clash on Daniels. Good match but there were a lot of “We want ladders” chants. Angle pinned Wolfe in 8:00 with the Olympic slam. Wolfe got a big pop coming out, but he decided to play heel, saying how Manchester fans were “gap-toothed, whippet-breeding inbred northern monkeys,” how he’s from London, and how Chelsea (the rival of both Manchester soccer teams) was his favorite team. Big chant of “Chelsea Rent Boy” (“Rent Boy” means male homosexual prostitute). Good match but short. Wilde & Sarita beat Sky & Rayne when Rayne shoved ref Hamada, who shoved her back into Wilde’s schoolgirl. They headlined with 3-D over Beer Money and the British Invasion in a tables match. The crowd cheered all three teams big. They were really into seeing Williams come to the ring with the X title. They turned the Invasion by having Beer Money say they were going to give backstage passes out to the fans. The Invasion grabbed the passes and ripped them up. Lots of “Beer Money” chants, ending with a 3-D on Magnus through a table. 3-D and Beer Money drank beer in the ring while 3-D said Beer Money was the future of tag team wrestling.

The final show of the tour was 1/30 at Wembley Arena in London, before 7,000 fans, with a little over 5,000 paid. The first time in Wembley they did 8,100, which is the largest crowd in company history. So this would have been probably the second or third largest crowd in company history. Sky & Rayne beat Sarita & Wilde with Hamada as ref by Sky using perfume in the eyes to win. Wolfe pinned Pope clean with the Tower of London. Pope worked as the heel since trying to make Wolfe the heel in London was going to be fighting the crowd. Joe & Hernandez beat Young & Rhino with Joe over Rhino with the muscle buster. Beer Money won a three-way over 3-D and the Invasion (on this night being Magnus & Rob Terry). The British Invasion worked as heels here. 3-D put Terry through a table after the match. The big thing on the show was an Ultimate X match, and Doug Williams, who they announced won the X title, retained over Suicide, Sabin, Daniels and Red. Among the highlights were Daniels being slammed on the structure above the X and Suicide dropping from the structure above the X and crotching himself on the cable, which allowed Williams to get the belt and win. Styles pinned Angle in the main event with a brainbuster on the title belt. Even though they acknowledged Williams as champion, which took place on the show two days earlier, they still used Earl Hebner as referee, even though Hogan had suspended him on the same show.

Notes from the 1/28 TV show. The show continues to be easier to follow and generally filled with better promos. The storylines may actually make even less sense, but the show is more loaded with star power so it’s a plus. The show opened with Hogan and Bischoff in the ring. When we last saw Bischoff, he was a bloody mess. A week later, and he’s fine. He noted that he fired Foley so the problem was taken care of. Hogan then called out Foley. Yes, he was fired, but he was there. He came out and Hogan said he wanted the two of them to work out their differences because Foley could be a true asset to the company. Bischoff still wanted Foley gone. Foley claimed he never attacked Bischoff or else Bischoff would still be showing the signs of it and he’d be in the hospital. Jeff Jarrett and Bubba were talking like they were best friends and Bubba was looking out for him. Keep in mind this was after they were doing their “it’s a shoot” radio interview where they were yelling and screaming at each other, which aired on last week’s show. Good to see that in storytelling, we’re still in an A, B, C, D, E, story, going from A to D to D without the to, B or C. Mr. Anderson did an interview with Christy Hemme. They played it up like they were good friends from the WWE. At least I think that was the idea, as Anderson was acting like the two of them went way back, like they were sleeping together in high school, and given they were living nowhere near each other in high school, that couldn’t have been it. Anderson said he had an open challenge and hoped Abyss would answer it. He should stick to wanting Abyss to stand behind him while he cuts interviews. Next, we had a tournament to determine the No. 1 contender. We did that over the holidays. Lashley won. He still hasn’t gotten the title shot and it hasn’t been mentioned in weeks. It’s called the Eight Card Stud tournament. I guess because eight guys are in it, and somebody watched poker in the middle of the night in the last week. Desmond Wolfe pinned Sean Morley. We learned Wolfe’s valet is named Chelsea. They didn’t have the balls to call her Stephanie. I guess the name isn’t British enough. So they named her after the ex-president’s kid or that woman who does the late night comedy show. Usual 3:00 TV match. Crowd didn’t care an iota about Morley. Morley was on the top rope when Wolfe swept his leg and Morley crotched himself. Wolfe won with the Tower of London. Jarrett was backstage with Hogan and Bischoff. Remember how this Hogan vs. Jarrett feud was supposed to portray both as faces. Then they turned Jarrett because the fans were booing Hogan. Well, now Jarrett is back as a face. Jarrett apologized for something, I guess because the fans booed Hogan. He wanted to get a fresh start. Bischoff didn’t like it, but said Anderson needed an opponent and he needed a main event. Jarrett thought he wanted a PPV match, but Bischoff said it was the TV main event tonight. The storyline is Jarrett hadn’t wrestled for seven months, wasn’t in ring shape and now had to wrestle Anderson. A.J. Styles and Ric Flair were with a model showing a ton of expensive suits and Styles wanted Flair’s advice over which one to buy. Flair told him he’s the champ, so he should buy all of them. Flair can give him lessons on picking up women. He can give him lessons on working the crowd and doing promos and how to get in the ring and make the other guy look like a star. But he should not be giving him advice on spending money as champion. Flair and Styles talked about going on a 30-day vacation and Styles was going to get a bunch of women, and they were going to have a party. Styles was better this week and Flair was hilarious. Hernandez pinned Daniels in the tournament after a Dominator. Daniels made Hernandez look like something here. They did an in-ring with Mike Tenay and the Nasty Boys. 3-D came out. They went back-and-forth and announced a match for 2/14. The funniest line was when Sags called Bubba “fat boy,” with Knobs, who suddenly makes Bubba look like Cody Rhodes, standing next to Sags. Pretty good segment. The Nasty Boys claimed they beat the Hart Foundation, the Road Warriors (not sure when that would be) and Hall & Nash (not sure about that either) while 3-D talked about how in the ten years since the Nasty Boys left, they had won tag team titles in every organization. Crowd took to 3-D as the faces. Bubba called the Nasty Boys “Knobs and Skanks.” The Beautiful People did a promo talking about wanting the tag titles. They did the thing where they motioned for the belts around their waist. When they did the motion, Lacey Von Erich couldn’t figure out why they wanted the belts “in our bellies.” She’s actually quite good in playing that role and Russo writes some good stuff for her. Bischoff met with Bobby Lashley. Bischoff was all nice to him, saying he and Hogan have talked it out, talked about what a great athlete Lashley is, then fired him. Lashley then freaked out as security pulled him away. Let me get this straight. Lashley spends three weeks trying to quit, and then freaks out when he’s fired. He’s no longer a “two-sport superstar” under this regime. Good to see they are doing the same storyline for Lashley and Foley, and it makes no sense with either one. I guess the idea is to put all the heel heat on Bischoff. That should help PPVs and house shows to no end, given Bischoff never wrestles. At least with WWE and Vince, they always made sure to keep the upper echelon guys looking strong. In a trios match, Sky & Rayne & Von Erich beat the three champions, Tara & Kong & Hamada. Kong only did a double clothesline spot. Fans were chanting about how she beat up Bubba. Kong didn’t look happy at all. I mean, her gimmick isn’t to be out there smiling and looking happy, but she looked a lot more annoyed just being there. Von Erich tagged in and did a quick arm twist and that was it. It was mostly Hamada trying to work with Rayne and they couldn’t get it done. Hamada gave Rayne a moonsault, but Sky saved. Hamada then hit Rayne with a moonsault but Sky saved. Von Erich hit Hamada with the ugly stick and Rayne pinned her. Rayne then hit Tara with the ugly stick. Kong chased Sky to the back. Angelina Love then did a run-in to make the save. Hogan was backstage with Earl Hebner and asked why he called for the bell. Hebner first said that he saw Angle tap. The old Nick Patrick defense. Hogan didn’t buy that one. Hogan mentioned the Bret Hart angle in 1997 and him doing the same thing then. While we’re at it, why not have Styles punt Hogan and Bischoff in the head and have Bischoff’s kid who Ernest the Cat taught karate to make the save and run off Styles, Flair and whoever else is a heel this week? Hogan said they’ve both been in the business 30 years and he can’t figure out why he did it. Join the club. Hebner said that Vince didn’t screw Bret, Shawn didn’t screw Bret, he screwed Bret. He said he screwed Angle because Flair paid him big money to do so. Okay, now we know these storylines aren’t realistic. The least he could have said was Flair put the NWA title belt that actually meant something up to him as collateral. Hogan told Hebner he’s suspended and has to leave the company. So of course, Hebner is at all the shows this week playing heel referee. Flair and Styles were now partying with four women. Flair was holding the belt. Bubba (as in the Love Sponge, not the 3-D guy) was talking with Foley. Bubba was worried Foley was going to be fired again by Bischoff. Foley said he owns a 2002 Minivan and doesn’t owe anyone in the world a dime, so no matter what happens, he’ll be fine. Some people see the glass as half-empty and he sees it as half-full. Angle came out and said his match with Styles at Genesis was the best match of his career (it wasn’t even his best match in the last few months), but he couldn’t understand why Styles did what he did, you know, winning with outside interference. Yes, Kurt Angle couldn’t understand why Styles would use outside interference. He said Flair was using Styles. Angle vowed to win the tournament and get a shot at the title. Based on TNA track records, if he wins the tournament, he’s the only guy in the company not getting a shot at the title. Hogan came out and said Angle spitting in his face last week was not acceptable. He said he’d fire Angle if it ever happened again. Angle apologized. The two shook hands and Hogan left. Scott Hall & Sean Waltman then attacked Angle. Waltman is called 6- Pac. Security kicked out Hall & Waltman, who noted to security they’d be back next week. Unless they’re booked for a match, in which case one would no-show and the other would arrive at the last minute. Chris Sabin & Alex Shelley & Brian Kendrick beat Generation Me & Amazing Red in 2:36. Yes, these guys had the second shortest match on the show. They rushed through spots until Sabin & Shelley had Red down and out. Shelley kicked Red and pinned him. Sabin & Shelley weren’t happy Kendrick stole their win. The British Invasion continued to beat down Red. I have no idea where Generation Me went. Rob Terry was about to cash in his briefcase, but Brutus Magnus told him to give it to Doug Williams. They started arguing. When they came back, Red who was all beaten down by a bunch of guys, was fine and doing high spots until Williams used the Chaos Theory suplex to win the title in :26. Foley and Bischoff had their meeting. Foley wondered what Bischoff did in faking the bleeding and blaming him. Bischoff never explained his actions, but it was made clear Foley never attacked him and Bischoff made it up. Foley did a long speech about how he would rather clean up real life shit (a deuce) than work for Bischoff. Keep in mind Bischoff has been wanting to fire the guy for weeks, and Foley has also said for weeks he’d never work for Bischoff. So Bischoff told Foley that if Foley quits, he’s firing his friends Abyss and Jeremy Borash. So now Bischoff is forcing him to stay even though he wants him gone. You could probably make sense of that in some way, but nobody tried. Bischoff then walked from his office into the party with Styles and Flair. He didn’t want to join in. He told them that they have to cut short their vacation because they are defending the title on the 2/14 show. Bischoff said he wanted to fire Flair, but Flair signed his contract before they got there and it was a no-cut contract so they’re stuck with him. Anderson pinned Jarrett in the main event. Jarrett was super over as a face. The gimmick is Jarrett has to start from the bottom and work his way up. Now, that’s an age old angle, where headliners lose a few, and vow to start from the openers against job guys and work their way back up. In the 2010 WCW remake version, starting from the bottom means starting in a main event, but having your entrance music taken away. The match was very good as far as making Kennedy look like a star and getting over Jarrett. The MVP of the match was neither guy, but Jeremy Borash (who even though in storyline he’s off television, remained in his role of crowd cheerleader. Before the match, he gave the crowd a pep talk basically telling them how to react, what the storyline was, and well, they listened). The crowd being so into Jarrett made both men come across as big stars. I think for storyline because the whole deal they were selling was Jarrett being rusty having not wrestled for so long and not knowing he was going to wrestle, but there he was in his regular ring gear. This should have been explained, either by saying with veteran wrestlers, there’s a saying, “always bring your gear.” Either that or he should have worked the match in somebody else’s gear for authenticity (reminiscent of when Kelly Kelly’s baggage was lost at the airport a few weeks ago on Raw, or when Bob Sapp walked out on a match with Ernesto Hoost at the last minute, and Peter Aerts, who was at the show in Amsterdam to be an announcer, stepped in, and had to wear Semmy Schiltt’s gear (made for someone who is a legit 6-11 ½). Jarrett went for the stroke, but Anderson used a low blow and got the pin. He also beat down Jarrett after the match and gave him the mic check, while announcing his name. Anderson came off like a big- time star here and really throughout the show. They showed Bischoff in the office watching the monitor all happy that Jarrett lost. Anderson attacked Jarrett after the match, gave him the mic check and made the announcement for his win.

UFC/WEC

The 4/10 show in Abu Dhabi will be held at the Ferrari World Concert Center in Yas, the same site which holds an annual Formula One racing show. They are going to push it as the biggest event ever outside of North America, which as far as a lineup goes, it is. The press conference was hosted by Marshall Zelaznik and Lorenzo Fertitta, with five of the six main eventers. As noted, Dana White didn’t go because he wasn’t allowed to fly after nasal surgery, and Matt Hughes also didn’t attend. Fertitta said the plan is to run one show a year in Abu Dhabi, but they’d like to see how the first one goes before finalizing that decision.

Brock Lesnar has been wanting to fight as soon as possible, and the date being talked about is the 5/29 show in Las Vegas even more than the 7/3 show, which was the original thought. . . WEC General Manager Reed Harris mentioned on a radio interview that the first WEC PPV would be in May for the Jose Aldo Jr. vs. Urijah Faber match. He also said it would be priced at $44.95, the same as UFC shows. May could be a problem because 5/1 is Mayweather vs. Mosley, 5/8 is UFC from Montreal and 5/29 is UFC from Las Vegas. So they have 5/15 as a Saturday, which will go against a Juan Manuel Marquez HBO boxing match, or 5/22. The problem with May is doing a WEC event on PPV on a month where there are already two UFC events sounds like too many shows in one billing period. There has been talk for a while of WEC going on PPV, and last year the Mike Brown vs. Urijah Faber fight was at first announced by Dana White to go on PPV, but they got cold feet and put it on Versus. They were going to budget the show to where they would come out okay with 50,000 to 60,000 buys (that was the level they were hoping for, less than 50K and they weren’t going to be happy, at 75K they’d be doing cartwheels). It’s an experiment to see if Faber is big enough to draw on PPV. I’m a little surprised at the price tag, but that is the going price for MMA on PPV and I don’t know that going at $34.95 would really mean more people would buy. Boxing does small PPV events aimed at the Mexican audience, and that was the model they talked about since the belief is those shows are profitable. Boxing does usually charge a lower price for them. The fight itself is “PPV worthy” in the sense it’s the biggest fight in the history of the promotion. I don’t want to make a prediction right now because it all depends on marketing in the last week, Countdown shows, the undercard to a degree (although WEC drawing or not drawing on PPV is more can they with the right match and they won’t have more of a right match, or if not enough of the public considers WEC a PPV promotion). But for sure, if it was up to me, I’d run April or June, because it’s going to be lost in the shuffle in May.

The UFC video game sales have topped the 3.5 million mark worldwide. THQ credited the game with the company setting revenue records in July.

The evolution of UFC and with fighters making more money has led to two issues. The top fighters since they aren’t financially pressed, now have more leverage when it comes to turning down fights. You can never force people to fight each other, but when fighters need money they aren’t going to turn down fights. When they don’t need money, if there is a guy who they feel is either better than his reputation or a bad style match-up, they’ll be more apt to steer clear of them now than ever before. One of the things with UFC that a lot of people have praised is that it’s not like boxing in the sense that when there is a big match that the public wants, it happens, although UFC isn’t going to use people in main event matches that they don’t have locked down to contracts. But the natural evolution of the sport is that aspect, both the bad people involved, and those issues in boxing are almost inevitable to surface in MMA. The other big matchmaking issue right now, and it’s getting worse, is that the top fighters are for obvious reasons, more and more gravitating to a select few major camps. It’s really notable with the Greg Jackson team at light heavyweight, AKA at welterweight and Xtreme Couture at lightweight where you’ve got several top contenders who won’t fight their buddies or training partners.

Starting on 3/27, UFC PPVs are going to have a Spanish language announcing team with a separate live Spanish language broadcast through all major U.S. PPV providers, as well as a French language broadcast and team, for Canadian PPV providers. UFC is really gearing up at making a push toward the Hispanic demo. Troy Santiago and Victor Davila will be the Spanish language hosts.

Mostapha Al-Turk, who was scheduled to face Rolles Gracie in a prelim match on the 2/6 PPV, had to pull out because a visa issue made it impossible to come to the U.S. UFC had known about the problem for at least some time and Joey Beltran had been contacted as the replacement, and it became official on 2/2. Beltran (10-3) is coming off a TKO stoppage win over Houston Alexander on a 1/16 indie show in Tulsa.

The 2/23 Sacramento Kings vs. Detroit Pistons NBA game will be Urijah Faber Night.

Robert DeNiro personally called Randy Couture and said he wanted to go to the fight on 2/6. As of last word, he didn’t fully commit to going but gave the indication he probably would.

A few more matches have been announced for WEC on 3/6 in Columbus, OH. Chad Mendes (5-0), the much talked about featherweight from Urijah Faber’s camp, makes his debut against Erik Koch (8-0). Mendes was a college wrestling star at Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo, who was ranked first at 141 for most of the 2008 season (he ended up placing second), and always talked about getting into MMA. Everyone raves about him. Also added to the show is Karen Darabedyan, coming off a win over Razor Rob McCullough, faces Bart Palaszewski, off a win over Anthony Pettis.

Carlos Condit’s return is expected against Rory MacDonald on the 6/12 show in Vancouver. After Condit sliced his hand in an accident when working his garage, which forced him off the Jan. 2 show and a fight with Paul Daley, he ended up getting a staph infection, and surgery. Also on that show is expected to be Pat Berry vs. Gilbert Yvel, which should be a stand-up war of heavyweights.

Fredson Paixao vs. Bryan Caraway has been added to 3/6 in Columbus, OH. The Jens Pulver vs. Javier Vazquez fight on this show is scheduled for a prelim fight as opposed to being on television, even though from a popularity standpoint, Pulver would easily be the most popular fighter on the show. In his case, it is understandable because of the feeling nobody wants to see him look bad again.

Efrain Escudero suffered tendon damage in his arm when he waited too long to tap in his 1/11 fight with Evan Dunham. He’s having an MRI done this week to determine the extent of the damage. There were reports of Escudero vs. Dan Lauzon on the 5/29 show in Las Vegas. That is all dependent upon how extensive the damage to Escudero’s arm is.

Diego Sanchez vs. England’s John Hathaway (12-0) in Sanchez’s first match back as a welterweight will be on the 5/29 show in Las Vegas.

STRIKEFORCE

Pat Miletich said this past week that they are working on an announcers fight with him against Frank Shamrock. Several weeks back in talking with Scott Coker when the subject of Shamrock came up, the two names he was talking about were Miletich and Cung Le. What’s tough regarding Shamrock now is that his price is high, and coming off losses to Le and Nick Diaz, it’s going to be hard to have him as the main event on a major show.

They are working on a The 3/26 show in Fresno is headlined by the return of Lavar Johnson of Fresno, who will headline against Lolohea Mahe of Hawaii. Johnson, a 6-4, 250 pound heavyweight with some high level crowd appeal, had beaten Carl Seumanutafa in :18 on 5/15 and seemed to be in line for a push as a rising star. But on 7/4, while attending a family barbeque in Bakersfield, a few teenagers on the street started shooting in the house. Johnson was shot in the stomach and his cousin died. Johnson spent one month in the hospital and lost 60 pounds. He was finally cleared to start training in December. The rest of the show, which will air at 11:45 p.m. that night on Showtime, will have Abongo Humphrey vs. George Bush III, Luke Stewart vs. Andre Galvao, Zoila Frausto vs. Meisha Tate in a women’s match and Justin Wilcox vs. Bryan Travers.

Besides Bobby Lashley, new names in the EA Sports MMA video game are Nick Diaz, Marius Zaromskis, Joe Riggs and Melvin Manhoef.

K-1/DREAM

The first Dream show of the year will be 3/22 at the Yokohama Arena with Bibiano Fernandes vs. Joachim Hansen (who will cut down from the 155 weight class, which he was too small for, to 138) for the featherweight title. It would be expected to air on HDNet. If it airs live on HDNet, that would mean it would start a few hours after the UFC show in Broomfield, CO. They announced plans for this year for shows in April, May, July, September and October, as well as being part of the traditional New Year’s Eve show. There is talk of one of the shows in South Korea and one in Macau, as well as a tournament to crown a light heavyweight champion, and possibly a middleweight champion.

OTHER MMA

HDNet announced a multi-year television deal with Terry Trebilcock’s King of the Cage promotion, for live monthly shows debuting with a 2/12 show at 10 p.m. Eastern. The show, which will be titled “Mark Burnett Presents King of the Cage,” is built around the name of the man behind shows like “Survivor,”and “The Apprentice.” His name has bounced around MMA, as he was going to be behind Elite XC’s attempt to get a reality show, and produces “Bully Beatdown” on MTV.

Another celebrity who debuted over the weekend was Jason David Frank, a former member of the Power Rangers, who won his debut on 1/30 in Houston beating Jonathan Mack with an uma plata submission in the first round. Frank fought at 220, but said he wants to get down to fighting at 185. The match was taped for HDNet and I’m guessing will air on Inside MMA.

Wilson Gouveia, cut by UFC after his 12/12 loss to Alan Belcher in Memphis, has signed with the Maximum Fighting Championships.

Tim Sylvia has a March fight signed with Wes Sims.

Former WCW promoter Gary Juster will be promoting the first MMA show in Greenville, SC at the Bi-Lo Center on 2/5, built around the debut of local kickboxer Steven Thompson.

Former UFC fighter Kuniyoshi Hironaka debuts in shoot boxing on a 2/13 show at Korakuen Hall. Shoot boxing is a Japanese sport which is similar to San Shou and to an extent WWE Brawl for All, where it’s a combination of boxing and takedowns but you are stood up after a takedown, which scores points. He’s been training in boxing and wants to return to Dream as a better boxer.

Alex Reid, an MMA fighter in the U.K., who gained some publicity for being the former boyfriend of U.K. model Jordan (real name Katie Price), just won the current season of “Celebrity Big Brother,” in that country. They pushed him on the show as being a far bigger star in MMA than he actually is. Reid is 8-8-1 and fought for the Cage Rage promotion in the U.K., but hasn’t fought since 2007. He’s not considered a UFC prospect with the idea of capitalizing on the fame. He has fought a number of name fighters, losing to Jorge Rivera, Tony Fryklund, Murilo Ninja Rua, Mark Weir and Dave Menne. Apparently the TV audience hated Reid when the show started several weeks ago, but he “turned public perception around” according to the European wire services and won a telephone vote over a number of celebrities. One of the people he beat in the competition was Vinny Jones, who co-starred in “The Condemned” with Steve Austin.

Former world Greco-Roman champion Joe Warren has signed with Bellator for its featherweight tournament starting in April. Warren should probably have won MMA rookie of the year honors as he came into the Dream featherweight tournament with no pro fights, and ended up going to the semifinals of a 15-man before losing to eventual winner Bibiano Fernandes. In doing so, he won a close decision over one of the biggest names in the sport, Kid Yamamoto.

WWE

With very little fanfare, considering what a big fuss was made over a similar situation in Denver last year, the Smackdown tapings on 2/9 in New Orleans have been moved to Baton Rouge at the River Center. The city of New Orleans scheduled a downtown Super Bowl parade that would be taking place at the same time as the tapings. Tickets for the New Orleans show will be honored at a 5/28 house show scheduled for the New Orleans Arena.

A correction from last week’s awards issue is Michael Hayes should have been listed at No. 4 as best booker with 89 votes.

WrestleMania 27 was officially announced for April 3, 2011 at the Georgia Dome. The plan is for Raw to be held the next night at the Phillips Arena. The official announcement was on 2/1 in a press conference at the Georgia Dome, attended by Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed. This shows just how big Mania has become, because you now have major cities putting in bids for it because of the amount of money it brings to the local economy. The Atlanta Sports Council pushed hard to get the event. Rich McKay, the president of the Atlanta Falcons, who play at the Dome, was there and escorted to the podium by Eve Torres and Kelly Kelly, and joked about how glad he was that Arthur Blank (the Falcons owner) had a schedule conflict and he would have to sub for him here. He joked about how the Falcons would love to sign Big Show, but he was positive they couldn’t compete with what Vince pays him. Show probably earns along the lines of what the NFL average is, but he meant it as a joke anyway. Vince talked about Atlanta’s great wrestling tradition. On a local sports radio show, Vince talked about was working with Ray Gunkel (who was the top Georgia babyface of the 60s before Tim Woods, and ran the promotion for years) on a documentary the two were doing for HBO. I’ve never heard of it and the timing doesn’t sound right since Gunkel died of a heart attack before HBO existed. Edge, Batista, Mysterio, Henry, Cena and Show all spoke. Batista and Edge did a storyline argument that most in attendance didn’t understand. Several in the sports media were critical of the event, claiming WWE will only bring trailer trash to the city, which is beyond ludicrous. Jeff Schultz of the local Atlanta Journal-Constitution noted how Vince was laughed out of the football business, but the Falcons put their logo on the backdrop at the press conference, and brought four players and the team president. He noted the Falcons are co-promoters of the event, and part of their role in the promotion of the show is to sell corporate sponsorships. It was the same deal WWE made with the Arizona Cardinals for the upcoming show. Vince said that wrestling has been an exhibition since Abraham Lincoln was a pro wrestler. Lincoln was a wrestler, that much is certain. I don’t know about it being an exhibition that far back, but everything I’ve read indicates the opposite.

The talk is that WWE isn’t going to renew a lot of the legends marketing contracts when they start expiring this year.

It was announced by WWE Japan on 2/1 that Antonio Inoki would be inducted into the Hall of Fame this year, with Stan Hansen doing the inductions. That’s unique, because even though Inoki and Hansen did have a famous feud in Japan from 1979-82, including a 1980 match where Hansen ended Inoki’s five-year run as NWF champion (New Japan’s world title at the time), Hansen is far better remembered for being the top foreigner for All Japan, Inoki’s rival group, and that was a bitter promotional rivalry. It would be equivalent to when Hogan went in, having Verne Gagne induct him. Inoki was a larger-than-life superstar in Japan, culturally bigger than even Hogan in the U.S., second only to Rikidozan. But this would be the first time WWE would have inducted someone based on being a Japanese star. It will be interesting to see if Inoki is called a former WWE champion. On November 30, 1979, in Tokushima, Japan, in an NWF vs. WWF title match, Inoki beat Bob Backlund to win the title. I’m not sure all the politics that went down, but it was a mess at the time. The deal in those days is that Baba set a precedent where he’d offer a $25,000 bonus to get the belt for a week, which he did a few times and the champs like Jack Brisco and Harley Race were glad to get that kind of a payoff. Inoki likely did something similar with Backlund. This set up a rematch on December 6, 1979, where Backlund pinned Inoki to win the title due to interference of Tiger Jeet Singh, since Inoki wasn’t going to do a clean job in Japan. However, and this part may or may not have been agreed to, when the match was over, Hisashi Shinma, the figurehead WWF president at the time and New Japan’s booker, announced that due to the interference, the result was overruled and Inoki was still champion. Backlund went back to the U.S. with the belt while in Japan Inoki was recognized as champion. In Japan, they were pushing a storyline that Inoki and Backlund would fight over the vacant title on December 17, 1979, in Madison Square Garden, which was an event TV-Asahi was broadcasting and several of the New Japan wrestlers were scheduled for. However, in New York, they were in the middle of a Backlund vs. Bobby Duncum feud. There were several days where there was a lot of commotion in the Japanese press regarding negotiations and such, and how it was reported (and I presume much of this was kayfabed) was that Inoki was stepping aside and would be defending his World Martial Arts title against the Great Hossein Arab (who was better known as the Iron Sheik) while Backlund and Duncum would meet for the vacant title. In New York, it was billed as Backlund defending (and Backlund defended the belt at house shows for a week prior). However, as a concession to the Japanese storyline, Backlund did not come to the ring with the belt, and it was brought in by an official, and when Howard Finkel did the ring announcing, Backlund was not announced as champion before the match.

Honky Tonk Man claimed on his web site that he turned down an invitation to be inducted in the WWE Hall of Fame this year. It makes sense, since he lives in Phoenix, which is where the show is coming from. He said he was asked on 1/22 by John Laurinaitis and officially turned him down five days later. He said his reasons were he was booked for the Wizard World Comic Convention in Toronto the same weekend and didn’t want to cancel a booking on the Wizard World people. He said he didn’t want to pull out because they had already advertised his appearance, and because they have seven bookings for him this year, which total ten times what he would be making if he did the Hall of Fame (believed to be $50,000 vs. $5,000). He said WWE also wanted a non- compete for several months after doing the Hall of Fame and he’d have no way to earn money during that period. He said he would earn more for a weekend with Wizard World then for doing the Hall of Fame. Later, Honky Tonk Man made clear that John Laurinaitis treated him with the utmost of respect in the talks, praised him, saying Laurinaitis has a difficult job since he’s middle man in all his talks but he can’t make the final calls because that’s Vince’s role. He thanked Laurinaitis for trying to get him into the Hall of Fame.

President Obama’s budget plan includes a provision allows the IRS to have the power to require reclassification of many workers currently considered independent contractors and have them labeled as employees. It would require companies to pay payroll and unemployment taxes on wages that they avoid with independent contractors. This hasn’t been passed into law, but is currently under discussion. Based on if, and what the bylaws are, this could affect wrestlers, whose independent contractor status has been up for debate for a long time.

The episode of “Psych” with Cena that aired on 1/27 did 4.4 million viewers, up 6% from usual last season’s opener. That’s a natural variation, but when 18-34 was up 51% and the other demos didn’t move, I think we can attribute that rise to Cena. Cena got good news this past week as he had an MRI to check on his neck and back pain, and the damage wasn’t as bad as feared. He had been taking it easy in the ring as much as possible without making it obvious the past few weeks, and we’ll see if he starts doing more longer singles matches again.

Notes from the 2/1 Raw show in Nashville. For Superstars, they taped Katie Burchill & Fox over Kelly & Torres, plus a hot match with Bourne pinning Carlito. The show was based around matches to determine who gets in the Raw Elimination Chamber title match. Show opened with Edge out. He said he can decide which title to go after. He said he watched the Slammys and when Jericho thanked him saying his injury was the reason Show & Jericho won tag team of the year, it made him motivated to rehab harder than ever and get back. He said when Jericho mocked him like that, the room went silent, and not just because Dennis Miller bombed with anther brutal joke. It’s funny, because when Edge delivered that line, the room went silent as it was a reference to something nobody in the audience seemed to remember or care about. He said he had missed two Manias during his career for injuries and was determined to make it back in time for this one. When he first came out, a lot of people cheered just because he was back. But when he did his promo, particularly when he called himself the “Ultimate Opportunist,” the crowd booed him thinking he was still a heel. He made a joke about Jericho saying that he’s now got a Slammy as well as having his mug shot on TMZ. He noted that he wrestled Undertaker two years ago in the Mania main event and lost, and unlike Michaels, he’s not obsessed with doing it again. He said what is the smart move to make, facing a guy who is 17-0 at Mania or facing a guy who has never even wrestled at a Mania, in reference to Sheamus. Sheamus came out and Edge called him “an evil Ronald McDonald.” He basically intimated he’s waiting until after the Elimination Chamber PPV to make his decision. Sheamus said that he’s never wrestled at Mania, but he beat Cena. Sheamus said he was leaving the Chamber as champion and told Edge to leave the ring or he’d put him out for good. Edge got in his face and Sheamus attacked, but Edge came back and laid out Sheamus with a spear. Cena beat Rhodes with the Attitude Adjustment in 2:51 in the first Chamber qualifying match. Rhodes did a moonsault block right before the finish. Match was too short but they had a lot to get to on this show. Vince told Josh that Bret wasn’t going to be there, in that code word way of making sure everyone knew Hart was coming out later. Vince went into his office and then saw someone. He cut a promo on the guy making you think it was Bret Hart having snuck into his office, and made reference to being a Canadian. As it turned out, it was William Shatner, who is Canadian, and said he couldn’t wait for Hart to embarrass Vince later in the show. HHH pinned Swagger in 9:07 in another qualifying match. HHH gave Swagger almost the entire match. Swagger then pointed to the Mania banner like he was going, and HHH hit the pedigree for the pin. Michael Cole made a reference to HHH as “The canniest player in the game.” Sounds too much like the Flair “Dirtiest Player in the game.” They taped a comedy bit where Shatner was dramatically saying the words to WWE entrance music like Michaels, Cena, HHH and Mysterio. It was a spoof on Shatner’s overacting and that he did a comedy album like that at one point. Kind of predictable but Shatner was pretty funny doing a dramatic reading on Mysterio’s “Booyaka, Booyaka.” DX and Hornswoggle were backstage. Michaels was all depressed and distracted, not being able to handle that he didn’t win the Rumble and can’t get a shot at Undertaker. Kind of a weird deal because it was portrayed that if he won the Rumble he’d get a shot, but with Undertaker in the Chamber, in theory, Undertaker would only have a slim chance of even being champion, so winning the Rumble wouldn’t give him the match. Hornswoggle seemed to be there just to give him moments to do his gibberish and just be there. HHH acted like he was mad at Michaels for eliminating him, but then joked it off. He first said that he’d have never done that to Shawn, and then said, “Who am I kidding, I’d have done it, I just didn’t have the chance to.” He told Michaels to win his match, that with the two of them in the Chamber, they can work together and it would be a lock one would win, then could defend against the other, and they’d have the best match at Mania. Michaels seemed out of it. Orton pinned Michaels in 6:37 in a qualifying match. Match didn’t have time to develop into anything special, but was solid stuff with a good finish. Michaels did his nip up and in doing so, Orton schoolboyed him clean. Michaels went back into even more depression. There are very few guys in this business who could pull off this Michaels storyline without becoming a whiny face and having it backfire. Orton still worked as a heel. DiBiase then came up to Orton and told him he was sorry about what happened in the match with Sheamus, but that Rhodes wasn’t sorry. Orton gave him that nasty stare face-to-face and walked off. It feels to me they are building a Legacy three- way match. It’s a funny deal right now. The original plan was for DiBiase to go face. DiBiase has the kind of look they like and is a ring technician given the level of experience that all the top guys like working with. But Rhodes has surpassed him as a personality. And everything this past week is leading toward Orton as a face. DiBiase beat Henry in a qualifying match by working the left arm and hitting the divorce court for the pin in 3:05. Henry is difficult to have a match with, and there was no heat at all. They played a video package of Jack Brisco. It was the Hall of Fame video package from last year. It had the same issues as that package in the sense Jack was portrayed as the member of a famous tag team, which he was in the latter stages of his career. But the peak of his star power was as a singles wrestler all over the world. In that sense, I’d say it was a nice gesture, and one that I expected given Gerald’s long tenure with the company, the fact that key people like Jack, and that he didn’t die young or under drug-related circumstances. But he was a bigger star at his peak (Top five in the world from 1970-75, arguably No. 1 for part of that time, at a time when the depth of wrestling stars was far greater than today) then the video would have shown. Jerry Lawler spoke a little about him. Lawler’s first-ever world title match in Memphis was against Brisco. Maryse, Kim and Kelly had a discussion. At one point the Divas title match with Maryse vs. Kim in the tourney finals was scheduled on this show, but I’m guessing if you look at the show, it was cut over time constraints. They didn’t say it would be next week but built up that it’s coming. Maryse said she was embarrassed by the Smackdown feud with McCool vs. James and said that she wanted her and Kim to be at a higher standard. Kim and Kelly were acting surprised and skeptical. She said something in French, which I think people were to presume was an insult that they didn’t understand, but really said, “I just wanted to let you know that in the end, I’m gonna have the title, okay?” There was a backstage segment with Miz & Show talking about wanting a tag title shot at DX. Punk & Gallows & Serena came out and said Long took away the title shot they earned (winning a four-way) last week so they deserved the shot. Miz & Show said they weren’t even on Raw, as the justification they deserved the shot. Shatner came in and did a “Negotiator” role as a takeoff on the “Priceline” TV commercials he does. He ordered a three- way for the belts on TV next week and then smiled for the camera like the Priceline commercial ends. He then told the camera to go to a freeze frame, but they didn’t. I wasn’t really looking forward to Shatner, but his ability to do skits basically designed to laugh at himself like he and everyone is in on the joke worked. Plus, it was a plus that he didn’t do the tired routines with Marella and Hornswoggle that most of the other guest hosts have done. More HHH & Michaels. HHH told Michaels, still in his depression, that there are plenty of other guys to wrestle at Mania and Michaels said, “Not for me.” I know we’re early, and at this point last year Orton had punted Vince in the head and each week that angle fell more and more apart, but so far, the build for what are probably going to be the two biggest drawing matches (Vince vs. Hart; Undertaker vs. Michaels) has been tremendous. Next week’s guest host for a show from Lafayette, LA, is NASCAR driver Carl Edwards. Kingston beat Show via DQ in 8:17 to be the final guy in the chamber. Miz was at ringside and when he was taunting Kingston, MVP came out of the crowd and jumped on Miz and they brawled to the back. After MVP has been squashed by Show and pinned clean by Miz the night before in a match spring on Miz, you’d think they would move Miz into a new program. The match fell apart as Kingston was on the top rope and was either going to do a missile dropkick or crossbody, but lost his balance on the rope and fell down. He then got up, and decided to throw a missile dropkick even though Show was out of position and it looked terrible. Between that and the Orton thing, I can see people burying Kingston this week. He did get it back together for the finish. Kingston poked Show in the eye, and Show couldn’t see, threw a punch, and KO’d the ref. Show had Kingston down and got all frustrated about the ref being down. He waved for a new ref to come down and Scott Armstrong ran down. As Show laid out Kingston, Armstrong DQ’d show for knocking out the first ref. Instead of Show attacking Armstrong, he acted all frustrated and kept saying it was an accident. Really weird booking here because it only made Kingston, the weakest guy in the main event, and a face to boot that people don’t see at that level, backing into the Chamber. The only logic is if they’ve decided to turn Kingston and this was stage one. Even though there was some laughing at Show as the heel for getting screwed, Show’s reactions were more comedy oriented than something to get heat, which takes away from his monster character. I guess we’ll have to wait and see how it plays out, but it didn’t make sense at all and the crowd groaned at it. If Kingston isn’t turning, it’s mind-boggling to tie another anchor to his foot. Lawler came into the ring to introduce Shatner. Shatner pretended to trip on the ropes and both guys fell down. That one came off a little too staged looking. Shatner then introduced Bret Hart, calling him “My hero.” Hart came out and he and Vince really hit a home run here. Hart said he came back to make peace with everyone but that he was naive. He then said he wanted Vince to come out. Vince gave a great promo, saying he regrets nothing he ever did to Bret and Bret said that was the first honest thing Vince had ever said. He called Vince the world’s greatest liar. He said Vince talked like he was a father to him but in reality, he couldn’t lace his fathers’ jock. He said Vince was a pathetic human being. He said he understood being pathetic. He then talked about having the stroke and being stuck in a wheelchair and crying himself to sleep. He said that at one point he made the vow that he would never be pathetic again, and that he would get out of the wheelchair. Then he came back and Vince kicked him in the gut and he felt pathetic again. He talked about working 300 days a year for Vince for 14 years, with his knees aching and other injuries, and that at the end, Vince never appreciated it. He said Vince talked about him being chewing gum that outlived its usefulness and all the flavor was gone. He said he had enough flavor to kick Vince’s ass. Vince then said Bret was pathetic and he could never figure out why people liked him in the first place, because he had zero personality and later said he had no charisma. He said if it wasn’t for people like Michaels, Mr. Perfect and Austin, he would have been a footnote in wrestling history. He said he has the face of a bloodhound, no command of the English language and dressed like a hobo, and deserved to get screwed. He then said he was thinking of inducting Stu Hart into the Hall of Fame, but changed his mind because Stu didn’t deserve it. Hart pulled Vince’s jacket over his head, and threw punches. The key here was that Hart, who comes from Canada and is a huge hockey fan, wanted to replicate a real fight like a hockey fight as opposed to a pro wrestling punch out to make it different from what you usually see and thus create a believability. He also laid the punches in, to the point, Vince was checking his teeth when it was over. He teased the sharpshooter when Batista came in. Batista started throwing similar punches, and then teased a power bomb (that wouldn’t have been good), but instead held him so Vince could spit in his face. It’s a funny story because people were talking about the brilliance of the scripting of the verbiage here, but it was not a scripted promo. Most of the verbiage was not discussed ahead of time between the two. Vince may have had help with his material. The idea was both would come up with their own material, and both were to make it come across as real as possible. The spot where Vince said Stu didn’t deserve to go into the Hall of Fame was the go-home spot, which both knew ahead of time. When Vince thought the time was right, he’d give the line about Stu not going into the Hall of Fame and that was the time Hart was to react and unload with the punches. The physical stuff was brief enough that it didn’t expose limitations, and probably better because it was done without bumps. The crowd was chanting for “Cena” as the show went off the air with Hart helpless. The finish also indicated they may go with Cena & Hart vs. Vince & Batista, instead of two singles matches. For selling Mania, the singles match is better but there are risks in the delivery because of both men’s physical limitations. Cena and Batista can carry the load, set up Vince vs. Bret for a couple of key spots that wouldn’t go too long, but it might be slightly less effective in selling the match. But if the limitations of Vince vs. Bret are such that the match, which looks to be the most anticipated on the show at this point, can’t deliver well enough, it’s best to do the tag. After the show ended, it was Cena who made the save. This led to a Cena vs Sheamus dark match. Instead of the fluke DQ finish (similar to the Raw match) that they’ve done at house shows, this ended when Batista came in and destroyed Cena, including power bombing Cena on the ring steps. However, the crowd still got to go home happy. Batista left. Sheamus stood over the fallen Cena holding the belt, when Cena recovered, not selling his beating, and used the Attitude Adjustment on Sheamus. It was very interesting live because up close you could see Cena giving Sheamus complete directions. At one point he said, “Put the fucking mic down, start to pick me up and drag me to the middle of the ring.” “OK, stand above me and hold the belt in the air.” “Go around the ring when you’re facing the announcers both with the belt in the air, I am going to get up and FU you.” The last angle, at least up until the part where Cena made his comeback, was taped for Smackdown on 2/5.

Notes from the 2/2 tapings in Memphis. It opened with ECW. Abraham Washington had Christian as his guest. Before Christian was out, Washington said he was offered the job as Conan O’Brien’s guest host, and at $40 million a year, but turned it down out of loyalty to WWE fans. He said Jay Leno took it over. He said he knows the fans would miss him, so he wanted the fans to make up the $40 million he lost. Christian came out, followed by Ryder and Mendes. Ryder said he’s going to do something nobody had the guts to do. He showed Helms’ mug shot. Christian defended Helms saying he made a mistake, but we all make mistakes. Ryder said with Hurricane gone, that he’s both the heart and soul of ECW but also the superhero of ECW. Ryder bragged he was in the Rumble. Christian said he must have blinked since he didn’t remember it. Archer pinned Benjamin in 9:46 using his feet on the ropes for leverage. Archer didn’t miss any spots, but he has this unique ability to suck life out of any crowd. This match seemed forever in length. They did an absolutely super video package of Vince & Hart. Tatsu pinned Barretta in 3:56 with a high kick. Goldust and Caylen Croft were at ringside. Barretta controlled until Tatsu made a comeback and hit his finish. Tatsu & Goldust are now called The Odd Couple. Tatsu is also the Cardiac kid. Vince did his announcement about the end of ECW. Helms was interviewing Jackson and Regal. Regal noted this was a very difficult week for Helms, but then said he was going to make it worse. Jackson grabbed Helms and laid him out with a uranage. Regal followed with a knee trembler. Christian made the save with a kendo stick. In the main event, Christian beat Ryder via DQ in 5:25 when Jackson and Regal interfered. Regal hit the knee trembler and then Jackson threw Christian into the steps. For Superstars, Matt Hardy & Morrison & Khali beat Hart Dynasty & McIntyre. Smackdown opened with Jericho wanting a shot at Undertaker at Mania. Edge & Christian did an interview together, so maybe they’re going to be aligned. Morrison qualified by beating Kane and Masters. Truth pinned Knox to get in the Chamber. Punk beat Batista via count out for the upset to get into the Chamber. Jericho pinned Matt Hardy to get into the Chamber. James was doing a promo when Phoenix talked about how she made history and she’s a woman in a league of their own (the name of a movie on women’s baseball) and could win the belt from James anytime she wanted to. James & Phoenix beat McCool & Layla. During the match, Phoenix walked out on James. Phoenix ended up taking out both James and McCool, so it looks to be a three-way program. Mysterio pinned Ziggler to qualify. Next was a Cutting Edge segment. Edge said he could beat either Sheamus or Undertaker for the title. Jericho came out and said Edge didn’t deserve to win the Rumble. Jericho said he was the face of Smackdown. Edge said he was tired of Jericho saying he was the best in the world. Punk talked about how he was the savior of the WWE and he made Undertaker tap. Undertaker and Edge cleaned house together, and then had a staredown. Dark match was Undertaker pinning Batista in a match where Jericho, Hardy, Punk and Mysterio all interfered.

Austin’s return on the 3/15 Raw from San Diego is to help promote the movie “Damage,” which he stars in and comes out on DVD on 3/23.

The big difference between the women’s matches in TNA and WWE is as much agenting as anything. In TNA, they usually would use the top agent they had to, move-for-move, structure the women’s matches. In WWE, the women are out there largely doing it themselves. That explains why Gail Kim looked so great in TNA and in WWE, she’s nowhere close to that level.

Cena is done shooting “Brother’s Keeper,” so will be available to do more house shows.

I finally had a chance to watch FCW, the 1/10 show, which is the first I’ve seen of it in months. Byron Saxton is now the lead announcer and is working with Wade Barrett (a British developmental wrestler who used to be Stu Sanders). Saxton is a lot better here than in ECW. You can tell he’s got the “I’m scared to say something stupid so won’t say anything” thing going while in FCW he can say what he wants. Not saying that he’s good, just well spoken and gives out good basic info. Barrett is a really good talker. He didn’t impart a lot of analogies like JBL or Striker, but his delivery was top notch. It opened with Alberto Banderas (formerly Dos Caras Jr.) vs. Johnny Curtis, with Banderas winning. Without the mask, Banderas looks like a young Cien Caras. In every match they bring up that Banderas used to fight MMA, once fought MMA while wearing a mask, and is the nephew of Mil Mascaras, but never say he’s the son of Dos Caras. They do acknowledge he was a big star in Mexico under a mask. He’s agile for a big guy, but has less charisma unmasked that he had with the mask. The thing in Mexico is that even without charisma, he had size and a physique that were unique there, plus the name. Here, he doesn’t have a name, his physique post- Wellness isn’t nearly as impressive, and FCW is filled with big guys so his size doesn’t stand out. Next was Heath Slater, who is good, against Duke Rotundo. Duke looks like a guy with Kendall Windham’s face on Bam Bam Bigelow’s body, but not quite as big (looks to be 6-2, 295). He moves well, but bad look and body and if he wasn’t the son of a pro wrestler, he’d have never gotten in the door even with his athletic ability. Michael Tarver interfered, KOing Duke so Slater won. Michael Tarver has gone from an MMA gimmick to a boxer gimmick. They are building Slater & Tarver vs. the Rotundo Brothers. Abraham Washington did an interview segment. He’s super talented as a talker and it’s the format in ECW that makes him such a negative. They are doing an angle where IRS (Mike Rotunda) is after him for cheating on his taxes. He claimed he wasn’t worried because he’d hired the best lawyer around, Johnny Cochrane. Well, his female assistant, who used to be Jenny Cash and is now Penny Cash, whispered Cochrane had passed away and he was doing the heel squirming bit. He brought out Eli Cottonwood, who is a giant, looks to be maybe 6-9, doing this gimmick of a giant from the woods. It was the same gimmick Ryan Wilson did as Jacob Duncan, and a lot better, a few years back before being cut. Aksana, the female fitness model, is the girlfriend who he’s too crazy and backwoodsy to figure out. Rosa Mendes & Naomi Night lost to A.J. Lee & Courtney Taylor when Taylor pinned Mendes. Surprising to see someone pin a roster wrestler. This was the best I’ve ever seen Mendes look in the ring. Not that she’s good, but a million times better than her WWE matches. They said this was Night’s debut. She’s a former Orlando Magic dancer and in her first match she was better than most WWE women are after 2 or 3 years. She didn’t know what she was doing, but all her stuff looked good. Lee at one point was the girlfriend of Jay Lethal (and for all I know may still be). She’s doing the tiny girl who never gives up role. Main event was Skip Sheffield & Titus O’Neill losing to Vance Archer & Alex Riley when Archer pinned O’Neill with a reverse DDT. Aside from the finisher, they kept Archer and O’Neill away from each other. O’Neill, also makes his pro debut, is a former University of Florida football player who is also huge. They played it up like he was a big deal there, as Saxton, who went to the University of Florida, said O’Neill was a Hall of Famer at the school. Since they change everyone’s name, I’m not sure who he is other than he physically looked like a young Bearcat Wright. He’s even bigger than Archer but at this point he works like a guy with some very basic training who is green as hell in the ring. He mostly did football player spots. Sheffield (Ryan Reeves), is doing a goofy cowboy gimmick. He plays it well but it comes off as a first match cartoon gimmick, always saying, “Yip, Yip, Yip,” encouraging the crowd to chant. He may make it as an undercard comedy babyface since he’s really into the gimmick but the gimmick is like a cowboy Marella thing that limits upward mobility. On one of the shows they had him come to the ring with toilet paper coming out of his trunks.

There have been reports of Joey Mercury coming back to Smackdown. Mercury ran his own angle on the indies more than a year ago claiming he was coming back to WWE, but it was only an angle. Mercury was John Morrison’s partner on the MNM tag team (which stood for Mercury, Nitro (Morrison was Johnny Nitro at the time) and Melina) which held the tag team titles after being brought up together after establishing a great act in OVW. Mercury was sent to rehab once for a pain killer issue, which broke up the team. He was released in early 2007 and as best we can tell, hasn’t wrestled in a long time.

In an interview, B.G. James said that he had talked with WWE about returning after TNA let him go, but it “wasn’t meant to be.” He did say he felt at 40, he was too old to be in the ring and he didn’t want to be like Ric Flair, because he couldn’t be. When asked about the Voodoo Kin Mafia angle, he said TNA dropped the ball because they never followed up with the ideas they had.

Matt Hardy is talking about writing another book on wrestling. His first book was good, and on the honesty scale, was a lot higher and more open than most WWE books. I remember when Mick Foley read Hardy’s book (it was the Hardy brothers book but it was really Matt with some input from Jeff), he couldn’t believe he was able to get away with saying as much as he did. Then again, in the end, once the book came out and sold well, they jobbed Matt to death.

Super Nova, the brother of El Texano Jr. (and son of El Texano), who had announced he had signed and would be going to FCW, and shown his contract in a prior interview, instead was at a Perros Del Mal press conference on 1/29 saying that he never signed the contract after all. He said that he’s waiting to hear from WWE, but until that happens, will work for Perros Del Mal in Mexico and Nu Wrestling Evolution in Europe.

The joke of the weekend at the Rumble in Atlanta among the wrestlers was to avoid all taxis.

Tyson Kidd wrote about not being in the Rumble, “Guess they found 30 guys better. Either that or I drew No. 31.” WWE didn’t make the Rumble 30 person final lineup until the last minute, with many of final week changes. Several people were brought in who didn’t know until the day of the show whether they were in or out.

The only house show of the weekend was 1/30 in Macon, GA, which was a tri-branded show. Tatsu pinned Ryder with a spin kick off the top rope. McIntyre pinned Morrison to keep the IC title with his feet on the ropes. Bella Twins beat Natalya & Layla in a match said to be bad. Finlay pinned Tyler Reks with the shillelagh, Miz pinned MVP with the skull crushing finale. Christian beat Jackson with the killswitch. Show pinned Henry with a knockout punch in seconds. DX & Kingston beat DiBiase & Rhodes & Orton when Rhodes was pinned after both a superkick and a pedigree. Main event saw Cena beating Sheamus via DQ in a match similar to the one on TV when Sheamus shoved the ref to save the title via DQ.

Feb. 8 2010 Observer Newsletter: A look at Jack Brisco, Royal Rumble news, ECW redux, new MN Wars PDF Print E-mail
Wrestling Observer Newsletter

PO Box 1228, Campbell, CA 95009-1228 ISSN10839593 February 8, 2010

WWE ROYAL RUMBLE PPV POLL RESULTS
Thumbs up147 (66.8%)
Thumbs down 29 (13.2%)
In the middle 44 (20.0%)

BEST MATCH POLL
Royal Rumble136
Undertaker vs. Rey Mysterio43
Christian vs. Ezekiel Jackson13

WORST MATCH POLL
Mickie James vs. Michelle McCool99
Randy Orton vs. Sheamus36
The Miz vs. MVP19
Christian vs. Ezekiel Jackson18

STRIKEFORCE POLL RESULTS
Thumbs up83 (66.9%)
Thumbs down 5 (04.0%)
In the middle36 (29.0%)

BEST MATCH POLL
Robbie Lawler vs. Melvin Manhoef90
Nick Diaz vs. Marius Zaromskis24

WORST MATCH POLL
Herschel Walker vs. Greg Nagy38
Bobby Lashley vs. Wes Sims30
Jay Hieron vs. Joe Riggs12*
*Match didn’t air on television, based on response from those attending live Based on e-mails, phone calls and fax messages to the Observer as of Tuesday, 2/2

The death of Jack Brisco at the age of 68, on 2/1, brings back a slew of memories for anyone who saw him during his prime.

Brisco, one of the greatest natural athletes of his generation in pro wrestling, and portrayed as the game’s best technical wrestler, which wasn’t a far stretch from reality at the time, was the living embodiment of an era in pro wrestling.

For fans of a certain generation in the state of Florida, St. Louis, and to a lesser extent, many other places in the United States, the name Jack Brisco defined a style of wrestling based on working dramatic matches that appeared to be legitimate athletic contests, completely different from all but his few true peers in the game. He didn’t brag. He didn’t bleed. He didn’t brawl unless he was pushed past the breaking point. He wasn’t a big man, at 6-1, and while announced usually at 236 pounds, he was closer to 215. But while barely he size of a junior heavyweight, his presence and skill level was such that no matter how big the opponent was physically, there was always the feeling it was the opponent who was physically overmatched. He simply had a technical excellence, athletic grace and fluidity of movement that couldn’t be taught, and that perhaps only one of his contemporaries, British star Billy Robinson, could fully match.

But Brisco had a unique charisma that was perfect for its era. Wrestling was sold as sport and Brisco was an athlete of the highest level. Kids around the country would get into arguments and fights over who would win a real fight between a boxer and a wrestler, and the names picked more often than not were Brisco and Muhammad Ali.

By the mid-70s, the game had changed. There were the steroid superstars and the bombastic talkers who copied Ali, and while Brisco remained a main event star until the day he flew South for the winter and never looked back in 1984, the true Jack Brisco era had passed.

Brisco, who had been battling health problems for years, circulatory issues, back problems that at times were so painful he needed to use a wheelchair to get through airports, and worst of all, emphysema, from his years of heavy smoking. When he was found to have 80% blockage of an artery leading to the heart, he underwent triple bypass surgery on Jan. 2. A few weeks later, while in a rehabilitation center, he collapsed and flatlined. He was able to be revived, but never fully recovered.

For the older promoters, who grew up on Lou Thesz as the epitome of what a world champion was supposed to be, Jack Brisco was the only true replication. The similarities were uncanny, from their love of pro wrestling as children–Brisco would talk about growing up poor, going to newsstands and pouring through the wrestling magazines, until the store owners would yell at him, because he was too poor to actually buy them. His childhood hero was Thesz. Later, when he started wrestling in high school because his football coach thought it would be a good idea, he gained a second hero in Danny Hodge.

Brisco had the same smoothness and reflexes, and the same quiet confidence. Brisco was not someone who was an open braggart, but he believed in his own ability. I remember when Cael Sanderson went unbeaten for four seasons in college, and Sanderson was about Brisco’s size, somebody asked him what he thought of Sanderson and how he, in his prime would do.

He remarked that Sanderson would be the toughest opponent he would have ever beaten.

Brisco was a three-time high school state champion wrestler, losing one match as a sophomore and going unbeaten as a junior and a senior. In fact, between high school and college, Brisco only lost two matches. He was also an all-state fullback and linebacker in football at Blackwell High School. The native American, from the Chocktaw and Chickasaw tribes in Oklahoma, was one of the most heavily recruited football players in the state, with the strong interest coming from Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Nebraska, Kansas and Washington State. Bud Wilkinson, a legendary coach, told him he could do both sports, and he was headed to Oklahoma. Myron Roderick, the Oklahoma State coach made a last pitch, telling him that if he came to Oklahoma State, he would make him a national champion. Plus, Roderick had connections with Leroy McGuirk, and Jack’s goal was get into pro wrestling.

But at the time, Wilkinson was like a God to Brisco and there was no way he could say no, plus, there was the lure of wrestling in the same wrestling room and wearing the same uniform as Hodge, who went to Oklahoma. He signed a letter of intent, and then immediately second-guessed himself. He decided his goal was to be a pro wrestler, and he saw Roderick as the better coach, and the one with the connections to McGuirk. Plus, he decided he would have more success as a wrestler if he didn’t also play football. Roderick got his mother a job, and the family moved from Blackwell to Stillwater, got Jack a job, and got them a place to live.

Brisco placed second in the 1964 NCAA tournament at 191 pounds, losing to Harry Houska (who later placed third in the 1967 world championships). It was the last time he lost in competition, being an undefeated national champion at 191 pounds in 1965, and was then recruited by Leroy McGuirk to go into pro wrestling.

He quickly made a name for himself in his home territory, a headliner from the start due to his national championship. But that didn’t carry much weight when he went elsewhere, as he starved in the Tennessee and Amarillo territories. It was his treatment that caused a major dislike for the promoter, Dory Funk Sr. Brisco felt that Sr. brought him into the territory to work with his son, Dory Jr., as a way to show the Texas audience that Dory Jr., himself a great technical wrestler, was the caliber of wrestler that could beat a legitimate national champion.

Still, promoters like Sam Muchnick in St. Louis and Jim Barnett in Australia became big supporters. Muchnick met him just a few months into his career when Brisco was called to come in from the Tennessee territory at the last minute to do a television job for Sonny Myers. After the two had a great television match, Muchnick told Brisco how impressed he was, that he should gain some weight and get some experience, and they could do something with him in a couple of years.

It was in Australia that Brisco met Billy Robinson for the first time, and the two got into a beef over which style of wrestling was superior, the hooking style Robinson learned at the Snake Pit in Wigan, England, or the American style that Brisco was a champion in. One night in a hotel, they moved the furniture out of the way, set up some beers and went at it all night. Brisco was never one who sung the praises of masters of submissions. He felt that sure, they could hook non-wrestlers, but most of them couldn’t handle a top level wrestler. But he always praised Robinson as the exception to the rule.

But Brisco’s career break came when Eddie Graham brought him in and built the Florida territory around Brisco, who became a genuine local sports hero, pushing almost from the start that he was destined to become world champion.

Brisco and his arch-rival, Dory Funk Jr., toured the world, wrestling each other in the greatest wrestling matches of their era. They were Ricky Steamboat and Ric Flair or Mitsuharu Misawa and Kenta Kobashi of their own generation. Two of the greatest in-ring performers who meshed perfectly and created timeless magic embedded in people’s memories as the greatest matches they ever saw.

Memories of course become glamorized by time. Brisco and Funk had been going at it regularly around the country for years. Brisco won several non-title matches, which in those days was a big deal. Frequently they exchanged holds in 60 minute draws, which were the state-of-the-art matches of their time, with Brisco always on the verge of winning as time was running out. They were matches of two athletes who relied more on subtly and story telling in the guise of convincing people they were witnessing an authentic sports championship contest. Sure, there was nonsense on the undercard, but there must be something different about the championship match, because it was wrestled in a different style than every other match on the card. But still, there was always the fluke. Somehow, Funk Jr. always retained the title.

Every city in Florida had seen the match multiple times. They drew frequent sellouts. The concept they were selling was Funk Jr. was more experienced, and crafty, but at the end of the day, Brisco was the superior wrestler. And there would come a day when he would capture what was purported to be the greatest prize in the sport.

That day ended up coming, but there was a detour. Brisco ended up winning the NWA world heavyweight title on July 20, 1973, in Houston, from Harley Race, and was presented with the famous red world championship belt. He dropped it for a week in Japan to Giant Baba in exchange for a $25,000 bonus. And he finally lost it on December 10, 1975, to Terry Funk in Miami Beach.

In 1972, Graham got the backing to get the title for Brisco, and Paul Boesch in Houston got to promote the match on March 2, 1973. A few days earlier, the news came that Dory Funk Jr. was in a vehicle accident on the family ranch in Amarillo. There was always skepticism regarding it. The Funks have always maintained it was legitimate. For what it was worth, Jack Brisco, Boesch and Eddie Graham thought it was a ploy to avoid losing the title.

Promoters around the country were unhappy because the NWA was without a champion for six weeks. Muchnick contacted Brisco and Terry Funk, and had them share fulfilling Dory’s schedule. To keep promoters happy, Brisco was sent as the No. 1 contender, while Terry as the brother of the champion. Both lost to the local stars every night, strengthening those stars for future title shots once the alliance had a healthy champion.

Six days after Dory returned, he dropped the title on May 24, 1973, to Harley Race in Kansas City. Race had a reputation as somebody that you didn’t cross. Plus the Funk family was close with not only Race, but also Bob Geigel, the promoter in Kansas City. Dory Sr. died of a heart attack a few weeks later.

It created the second round of Funk vs. Brisco, this time with Brisco as champion. The storyline was that the champion of four-plus years, who had defended it numerous times against Brisco without losing, was no longer the champion, but Brisco still had never beaten him. They continued to wrestle many one hour matches, but Brisco did get wins.

Brisco burned out on the schedule, particularly when Barnett took over from Muchnick booking the champion. The champions schedule was generally three weeks on the road, usually working six or seven nights, and then a week home. Of course, there were always promoters who had a big show during that week off and the champion was constantly asked to do favors. Muchnick would often do so, but Barnett had an even harder time saying no.

Brisco was 34 when he dropped the title. Eddie Graham created one more storyline to protect him. Brisco was scheduled to face Dory Jr. once again in Miami Beach, his biggest rival. In reality, Dory was in Japan that week. So Terry replaced him. The story was that while Dory and Terry were brothers, as wrestlers, they were the complete opposite. Brisco prepared for Dory, while Terry prepared for Brisco. In a finish that became a staple in Ric Flair matches as a near fall, as well as in Mexico because of Dr. Wagner Jr. idolizing Terry Funk, Brisco went for the figure four, his finisher, and Funk caught him with an inside cradle.

Brisco went on to wrestle through 1984, and was always considered one of the top names in the game. One day, while working for the WWF, in the middle of a December blizzard in the Northeast, he told younger brother Gerald that he was going South. He took the next plane out, went back home, and never wrestled again. He remains the only star of anywhere near his caliber who decided to quit on his own, nobody forcing him out, and when he made the call, he never looked back.

While Brisco was champion, he could no longer be counted on to carry the Florida territory because of all his traveling. While he was not involved in the angle that turned Dusty Rhodes babyface, he was still a key part in the story. A short time before Gary Hart and Pak Song turned on Rhodes, when Rhodes & Song were tag team partners in 1974, Brisco defended the title against Rhodes in Tampa. Brisco did not work as an overt heel, but from a psychology standpoint, he did subtle things in putting Rhodes over during the match, that after 45 minutes, a lot of the crowd started getting behind Rhodes, hoping to see a title change. Then Rhodes finally delivered his elbow drop, and Brisco at the count of two draped his foot over the rope. It’s a spot that’s done in nearly every long title match on PPV, and it was a staple of every world champion beforehand. But the crowd exploded with that elbow, and the guy they came into the match hating they were somehow behind, and set the stage for the angle a few weeks later.

Brisco also was partially responsible for Hulk Hogan getting into wrestling, as Hogan was playing bass guitar at a night club Brisco was at. Brisco sent him to Hiro Matsuda, and helped get him started. A notorious practical joker, while Hogan claimed that he was never smartened up and his first match, with Brian Blair, was a shoot because he didn’t know better, the reality was obviously different, as they weren’t going to have a shoot match in front of fans.

Blair said that Hogan, then a big masked man called The Super Destroyer, was facing him in his pro debut, and they were scheduled to go 20:00. They both gave it their all, going back and forth with their time cues. The rib was that with both exhausted, the timekeeper at the 20:00 mark, instead of ringing the bell, after being told by Brisco, said “20 minutes have elapsed, 10 minutes left.”

Jack Brisco, as well as his brother Gerald, had stock in the Georgia Championship Wrestling office. Jack was given stock on the advice of Eddie Graham, when Ray Gunkel’s old company was folded and a new company was formed, during the famed Atlanta promotional war. Brisco was given a cut, with Graham convincing the NWA that by doing so, Brisco would work Georgia as much as he can since he had points in the company, and he was such a big star he would be a difference maker.

When Georgia Championship Wrestling got on satellite with the expansion of WTCG (now TBS), Jack pushed Barnett to go national, since the show had a national following. Barnett didn’t want to go into other people’s territories. But the company started struggling, and Jack later said that he felt with the cost of television production going up, and the top talent starting to congregate in the major markets, that he was afraid his stock would be worth nothing in a few years. As it was, in the early 80s, there were periods where the company was losing money, and even when they were making money, Jack felt that General Manager Ole Anderson, who Barnett had signed to a lucrative contract, was the only one making the money. The Brisco Brothers got several of the shareholders together, and without Anderson’s knowledge, sold a majority interest to Vince McMahon, creating Black Saturday, the one year where McMahon was on TBS, and eventually the seeds of McMahon’s hatred for Ted Turner when Turner went to kick him off the station after McMahon had paid $750,000 for the stock. Through a deal brokered by Barnett, McMahon ended up selling the rights to the time slot to Jim Crockett for $1 million, so he did make money on the deal, but was still resentful he was being kicked off what was then the No. 1 cable station in the country.

Jack & Jerry Brisco were NWA world tag team champions in the Carolinas at the time of the sale, dropped the belts to Wahoo McDaniel & Mark Youngblood, and because of how much heat it got with the NWA promoters at the time, dropped out of sight. When the sale went through, they went to work for the WWF, but by the end of the year, Jack had retired, and Jerry has remained with the company in a front office role.

We are way behind on bios due to the large volume of news and number of high profile deaths. But while those are some thumbnail highlights of Brisco’s sports career, they hardly scratch the surface.

*******

The 3/1 date has been confirmed as the start of the new era of Monday Night Wars in pro wrestling.

Spike TV accidentally on its web site, when listing the schedule for the first week of March, listed Impact on 3/1 from 9-11 p.m. On 3/4, in the usual Thursday night time slot, they have UFC listed until 9:30 p.m., followed by a show called “Playbook.” A few sources in the company have confirmed 3/1 as the day the game changes, with a live show that night and a 3/2 taping for the 3/8 show. Like with the Jan. 4 date, which was known at the time Hogan signed, nobody can publicly say it until Spike and TNA make the joint announcement. Shortly after Impact was listed on the schedule for that time slot and word got out, Spike changed the schedule listing “To Be Announced” in that time slot. But removing Impact from Thursday, particularly for UFC programming which is on all the time and would do lower ratings than even a regular time slot replay of a Monday Impact, indicates that would be the time the permanent change is made.

The decision to go with 3/1 as a live show on Monday was actually made at least by mid-September, because certain decision changes were made and Universal was given the new date for a taping, as they originally had 3/8 and 3/9 as taping dates. Originally, TNA had an Australian tour that would have much of the crew in that country on that date. The tour didn’t have a strong advance, and after one group of promoters lost their shirts on the Hulkamania tour, which had better advances and there’s little chance a TNA tour would be able to do anywhere near whatever walk-up business that one did, it made sense to cancel.

While not confirmed, it is believed that will become the official weekly time slot. That’s a mistake because they would draw a much higher rating from 8-9 p.m. opposed only by ROH on HDNet which has minor penetration. The 8-9 p.m. hour when they went three hours on Jan. 4 drew significantly higher than the other two hours. In fact, 8-10 p.m. on Mondays is almost guaranteed success because by TNA standards, they would probably do significantly bigger numbers than they do now by being unopposed. Of course, that would change if WWE went three hours. Going 9-11 p.m. has its risks. It has been confirmed WWE and the USA Network are seriously considering such a move, after WWE was resistant to it last year. With WWE getting an hour head start, it makes the game even more difficult for TNA.

With the arrivals of Hulk Hogan, Eric Bischoff and Ric Flair, ratings have increased, peaking with a 1.38 rating on 1/28, the highest for the show in its regular time slot. However, there was both good and bad news, as the show opened with a 1.51 quarter, which may have been the largest in company history. But then, every quarter except the main event with Jeff Jarrett vs. Mr. Anderson saw the audience decline. It’s very rare with television shows, and particularly sports shows, for the audience to decline from start-to-finish. At times in blow-out games, people may tune out when the score gets out of hand, and all wrestling shows have their ups and downs during the show, but it’s almost unheard of for virtually every segment to go down.

It would be the sign of two things. The first is that more people right now are interested in TNA than ever before. The second is that a lot of people didn’t like the show to the point they turned it off and didn’t return. There were key storyline segments involving big names and the audience still declined. TNA can claim, and this very well could be, that the big opening quarter came from the cliffhanger ending of the show the prior week, either Kurt Angle talking about quitting and going to WWE, or the bloodied Eric Bischoff firing Mick Foley. Still, setting the record rating is an overall positive. In wrestling, star power usually trumps storylines that make sense and good matches. But there are limits. The most notable is WCW in 1998, where they were loaded with stars and had a banner year, but the storylines got weaker and weaker. Still, business was great all year, even though WWF did surpass WCW in ratings, the WCW ratings remained strong and attendance and PPV numbers remained up. However, bad storylines for a lengthy period of time are going to hurt. This led to 1999, where the same star power was there, but from a business standpoint, the company hit the iceberg in every category. But even though TNA’s storylines right now have major logic holes and there are arguments about being repetitive, in no way does this television have the kind of complete turn-off and out of touch with their audience factor that WCW in 1999.

Still, there are growing pain issues. The unhappiness of some of the audience to recent changes at Universal could be explained by them being fans with too much familiarity with the product. But the reactions in several cities on the U.K. tour were similar, most notably when Dixie Carter got in the ring in London and while the shows were well received, people booed what they perceived as changes. Then again, the people who bought tickets were the loyal fans the old TNA got that were willing to pay high ticket prices to see the product, and were there to see the old product. The argument is that there simply weren’t enough of those people and this new regime is there to expand that audience. My belief is with football over, without the changes, TNA would be doing 1.2s consistently, and maybe some 1.3s, like they did in July. So they are up from their best ever numbers, but whether rises of .06 to .16 are worth the kind of money they are spending in new salaries is a question. It also should be noted that generally speaking, the new viewers that have been brought to the table fit Spike’s target demographics, as the increases have been heavily skewed in Males 18-34, so from a Spike standpoint these increase are slightly more valuable then just looking at the flat rating would indicate.

For a comparison, in July, when Impact was doing strong numbers built around the Jeff Jarrett vs. Mick Foley power struggle angle, it averaged a 1.22 rating with an 0.84 average in Males 18-34 and 1.06 in Males 35-49. Over the past three weeks, the rating average is up 6.6% to a 1.30, honestly, disappointing considering the kind of money that was spent. However, 18-34 Males are up 28.6% to a 1.08, and Males 35-49 are up 8.5% to a 1.15. It’s a key point that bringing in Hogan, Bischoff and Flair as key new characters have helped the most with the audience Spike covets the most. But that still has to be tempered by Hogan’s WWE history of diminishing returns after frequent exposure, that he’s most effective coming in for a short period of time and then getting out. But this is also a different role, as he’s not playing wrestler as having to be taken as a main event babyface ass kicker, to where perhaps his limitations start becoming apparent and the nostalgia wears off. Now his role is as a personality and doing promos, which all three newcomers are top level at.

But the theory is even though they won’t be doing house shows, that just having Hogan and Flair associated with the TV will elevate the TNA name and increase house show and merchandising business, plus swing overseas television deals. Plus, they will be appearing on PPV shows and that should increase business. And it should be noted that Spike TV kicked in a percentage of the money to bring the newcomers in. In theory, all of those revenue streams should go up, although the first PPV didn’t appear to do as well as several of the 2009 shows. To really have a gauge on how effective this will be as far as PPV and arena dates won’t be fairly evaluated before March, and at that point the game changes greatly once again.

While three hour Raws have traditionally had weak first hours, that’s because a percentage of the audience forgets about the early starting time. If and when Raw is regularly starting at 8 p.m., the audience will quickly become familiar with the pattern. Raw will have at least some advantage with it being live weekly while TNA will be taped. How much that actually means for ratings in 2010 will be interesting to see, but if it turns out to be a major difference then TNA can fix that by going live weekly, which most figure is going to be the end result at some point.

It’s also a risk going from Thursday, because the rating for this past week was higher than the two opposed hours drew on Jan. 4, on a show with far more hype. In theory, being on Monday would appear to have more potential for growth because it’s the night most wrestling fans are conditioned to watch wrestling. But we also saw on Jan. 4 how little crossover there was switching back- and-forth. I believe if TNA went 8-10 p.m. and WWE stayed at 9-11 p.m., that there is no way TNA wouldn’t do better on Monday than Thursday.

On 1/29, Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff appeared on Bubba the Love Sponge for a combination work/shoot interview segment that included one internal surprise, which was Bischoff’s knocking Sting for missing the last set of tapings.

Sting missed the PPV and television due to a family emergency. Exactly what it was is not known, other than nobody was questioning its legitimacy, since Sting has been in the business for years and has never had a reputation for coming up with excuses to not work.

When asked, Bischoff said that everyone in the company has to be completely committed or things won’t work out, and Hogan said he doesn’t see how they can use anyone if they don’t make their dates. It was noted internally that if this was to send a message to Sting, it’s unlikely he’ll get it, because he pays no attention to the business except on the days he’s working, and doesn’t follow the Internet at all. Plus, the belief was Sting had a very legitimate reason for not being there.

“Sting’s a great talent.

Love him to death. My problem is now that we’re trying to do this big picture. I understand how big picture it is for the wrestling business. Sting had life-and-death personal issues, but from a business side, it totally screws us up. If at any time that happens, I got a personal issue, now we have to switch gears on who we use, you can’t build the world around them..

Bischoff then said, “Everybody has got to make a commitment. It’s easy to say we want TNA to be No. 1, but if you’re not willing to put TNA as a priority above almost every situation, then it’s probably not going to work out.”

Hogan also teased the idea of doing a match with A.J. Styles down the line, although that was more a caller asking who he’d like to face. Eric Bischoff then threw out the Ric Flair name as a Hogan opponent and Hogan joked Flair couldn’t keep up (clearly meant to build it). since

*******

Vince McMahon announced on the 2/2 ECW television show, the end of the nearly 16-year-old Extreme Championship Wrestling brand name.

The show and brand name will be used for the final time presumably on 2/23, in a show taped in Milwaukee. McMahon announced the name and brand would end in three weeks and be replaced by a new show, which would presumably debut on 3/2 in Wichita.

PWInsider reported the new show would be called WWE NXT, which would seem to mean it would be the next generation of WWE stars. Two other company sources have said they have been led to believe that. For what it’s worth, there is an independent promotion called NXT based in Rutherglen, Scotland.

The ECW name dates back to Paul Heyman’s changing of Eastern Championship Wrestling to Extreme Championship Wrestling on August 30, 1994, when Shane Douglas threw down the NWA world championship belt he had won in a tournament in Philadelphia and declared the new championship that of Extreme Championship Wrestling. McMahon, who purchased the rights to the name and its intellectual property in bankruptcy court in 2001, used the name in the 2001 Invasion angle. After the video “The Rise and Fall of ECW” became one of the best selling pro wrestling video tapes in history, McMahon, on the urging of Rob Van Dam, followed up with a “One Night Stand” PPV in 2005. The show was a big success, although there was strangely no follow-up. However, in 2006, the decision in conjunction with the second One Night Stand was to recreate the brand. The original idea is Shane McMahon would run it and it would be broadcast on the Internet and run shows on the road as a third brand. In hindsight, that concept was doomed to failure. Instead, Bonnie Hammer got ECW a time slot on the Sci-Fi Network. The television ratings were good, but attempts to tour on the road in smaller buildings didn’t do well, with shows generally doing about 1,000 to 1,200 fans and in the $25,000 gate range. Those were deemed unsuccessful because by the end of 2006, all ECW house shows were canceled and the wrestlers were mostly used in prelim matches on Smackdown shows. Whatever was left of the original brand meaning was largely gone with the disastrous December to Dismember PPV, which only did 55,000 buys in North America, which also led to the end of Paul Heyman in WWE.

The brand remained the past three years as a “C” brand, largely the first step from wrestlers called up from developmental, sprinkled with a few veterans who they either had no ideas for on the major shows, or, like Christian and William Regal of late, were good workers who could guide the less experienced talent.

McMahon only said the new WWE show in the Tuesday night at 10 p.m. time slot on Syfy would be the next stage of the evolution of WWE television. He then walked away, offering no details.

It is not certain exactly what form the new show will take. Among ideas floated around in recent weeks are to somehow do a Sci-Fi version of wrestling, with the idea it at least fits with the network. There has also been talk of a reality show type of product. A third idea has been an interactive show. The strongest rumors are a combination of some form of the latter two.

The downside of that idea is a fan participation show would have to air live. With most tapings held in the Eastern time zone, that would lead to the problem of having to tape Smackdown first, and then go live with the new show, which is still supposed to have the same basic type of talent, wrestlers being brought up from developmental sprinkled in with some veterans in the roles of teachers. The interactive concept, previously used on the Taboo Tuesday and Cyber Sunday TV shows has another downside, and that is, if you build the show that way, it’s difficult to impossible to do long-term booking because of giving up full control of aspects of the show. There is the ability to manipulate the audience, but that’s not 100%. It’s also the concept that flopped on PPV, but PPV where you have to pay and television for free have completely different viewer mentalities so it not working on PPV doesn’t mean it won’t work as free television. And because it’s a “C” brand, it at most contributes one match, usually a prelim match, on PPV shows so the building of matches and long-term storylines isn’t nearly as important as on Raw or Smackdown.

As noted before, ECW had been the one show on the WWE lineup that would not be considered a success. Raw remains one of the most popular shows every week on cable. Smackdown is one of the few shows left on MyNetwork TV, and by far its highest rated program. Superstars on WGN America is the highest rated program on that station (ironically on the Chicago version of WGN, the show was canceled due to low ratings a few weeks ago, but a deal was made and it will be returning this coming weekend).

ECW of late has been doing 0.9 ratings, which would be average or Syfy. The problem is that wrestling, because of the perception in television that it draws a low-rent audience, ad sales for WWE programming go at a much lower rate than the same ratings for virtually any other show. As long as wrestling’s ratings are good, it’s not that big of an issue in that case because it also costs far less to produce a wrestling show than a first-run comedy or drama. A downside is wrestling doesn’t have the advantage regarding long-term revenue to a network of being able to syndicate the shows, where big money comes in, during its after-life.

But on a station that caters to Science Fiction shows, a pro wrestling show that draws average ratings, isn’t compatible with the rest of the network programming, and can’t draw good ad rates is far less valuable than it was when it was at times the highest, and for much of its run, among the highest rated shows on the network.

********

For the second time in three years, an injured wrestler came back early, making a surprise appearance, and ended up winning the Royal Rumble.

Edge returned eight months after suffering a torn Achilles tendon in a 7/3 house show match in San Diego against Jeff Hardy, and undergoing surgery, to be a surprise entrant and won the WWE’s second biggest event of the year on 1/31 at the Phillips Arena in Atlanta.

The Rumble was a good show, largely due to several different stories told in the Rumble match itself. The undercard was decent, with no great matches, but some good storylines.

The only title change was Mickie James beating Michelle McCool in a 20 second match to win the women’s title. Instead of a match, it was more of a television angle skit, with the quick bout, and then all the babyface women throwing a cake onto McCool and Layla, who had been harassing James for weeks on Smackdown.

Undertaker pinned Rey Mysterio in the best match on the undercard. Undertaker, less than two weeks removed from arthroscopic knee surgery, was limited in what he could do.

The other title match, where Cody Rhodes interfered and got Randy Orton disqualified, was more the backdrop for a Legacy implosion, as Orton, frustrated that he didn’t win the title, exploded on Rhodes and Ted DiBiase, while the crowd heavily cheered him. Still, the next night on television, against Shawn Michaels, he was back to being a heel, but the status of legacy was left open ended. Rhodes and Orton had no interaction. DiBiase said he felt sorry for Orton, who just stared at him, glared at him, and walked away.

With WrestleMania on 3/28 in Phoenix, it’s clear Shawn Michaels vs. Undertaker and Vince McMahon vs. Bret Hart (or Vince & Batista vs. Hart & John Cena) are going to be the big matches.

But the title situation is anyone’s guess, because on 2/21 in St. Louis, they are doing two Elimination Chamber matches with both titles at stake. The Raw chamber match has champion Sheamus vs. HHH vs. Orton vs. Kofi Kingston vs. DiBiase vs. Cena. The Smackdown chamber has champion Undertaker vs. John Morrison vs. R-Truth vs. C.M. Punk vs. Mysterio vs. Chris Jericho. In theory, Edge faces the winner of one of those matches. One would be led to believe, since the build for months was in that direction, that Jericho wins, plus Jericho doing so many jobs would also lead you to that conclusion. But with WWE, trying to read into booking and long-term planning is fruitless, because they are into surprises, and also change direction daily. At the start of Raw, they teased Edge vs. Sheamus. The two key names not in the Chamber match are Shawn Michaels and Batista, and at least as of the weekend, the two were scheduled for a singles match.

Among the key Rumble stories was C.M. Punk owning the ring early, until HHH threw him out. Michaels threw out HHH, but went crazy when he got tossed out by Batista when he was one of the final four, along with Cena and Edge. Edge entered at No. 29 as the surprise.

The show drew an advanced sellout announced at 16,697 to the Phillips Arena (about 13,500 paying $800,000).

A. The Bella Twins & Gail Kim & Eve Torres & Kelly Kelly beat Alicia Fox & Katie Lea Burchill & Maryse & Natalya & Jillian Hall. Sloppy match with several missed spots. Kelly pinned Hall with a crossbody off the top rope.

1. Christian retained the ECW title pinning Ezekiel Jackson in 11:59. Savannah announced Jackson at 209 pounds instead of 309, and Howard Finkel of all people ripped into her (also for not announcing Jackson as the challenger) on the Internet, saying you shouldn’t be making those mistakes on a big show. William Regal, who at first was scheduled in the Rumble, was instead removed from the match and put in Jackson’s corner. He was tossed out by the ref at 4:00. These two had worked for the past few weeks at house shows. Jackson hasn’t looked anything but bad when he’s had to go more than 5:00 on his own in the past. It was the usual Christian style of his usual moves, near falls and the reversals out of teased attempts at the finishers. It ended with Jackson picking Christian up like he was going to powerslam him, but smashing him into the turnbuckles twice. Christian maneuvered off Jackson’s back, hit the killswitch and got the pin. ***

There was a skit with Teddy Long and Tiffany in a discussion. Cryme Tyme showed up. Apparently there was only room for one of them in the Rumble and they had to decide which one. Then they tried to convince Khali to drop out of the Rumble, saying he could kiss Tiffany if he gave up his Rumble spot. Ranjin Singh told him not to do it. While they were all talking, Miz showed up. He said that five years from now, nobody will remember any of these guys but they will remember that he won the Rumble. Well, if he did win the Rumble, that would be the case. Long for some reason was so mad that he ordered Miz to defend next against MVP. Cody Rhodes then told Randy Orton he was there for him, but unfortunately, Ted DiBiase wasn’t. He said Ted told him he wanted to win the Rumble and then challenge and beat Orton for the title.

2. The Miz pinned MVP to keep the U.S. title in 7:30. There were dueling chants, some saying Miz was “awesome” while others said he was “awful.” Decent match ending when Miz cradled MVP as he came through the ropes. After the match, MVP hit the playmaker on Miz. Crowd booed him for doing that. **1/4

Chris Jericho and Big Show acted like broken up lovers. Jericho talked about how Miz was selfish and self centered and gave all his bad faults, with the idea that he was totally unaware he had all those same faults. Well, into Show kind of said so. Jericho said if it came down to Jericho and Miz, Show will throw out Miz. Show said if it came down to Jericho and Miz and himself, he’s throwing both out. He left and R-Truth came out and said he’d throw out Jericho. Orton was in a bad mood and DiBiase told him that if he needs him, he’ll be there. He said, unfortunately, he can’t say that about Cody. He said Cody has been saying he’s going to win the Rumble and face Sheamus for the tile at Mania, and that Cody has said he doesn’t think Randy can bat Sheamus. Orton got mad and said that he doesn’t want either DiBiase or Rhodes helping him.

3. Sheamus beat Randy Orton via DQ in the WWE title match in 12:24. A slow, deliberate match. At times the crowd was strongly pro-Orton and at other times they were quiet. The match never reached the level of what you expect from a WWE title match. The finish itself sucked, just a cheap DQ for Rhodes attacking Sheamus, but it led to the post match where Orton attacked Rhodes and DiBiase, which was good. Mostly Orton working the left knee and Sheamus working the left shoulder. Orton got out of the razor’s edge and went back on Sheamus’ knee. He did the draping DDT for a near fall but Sheamus grabbed the ropes. It ended with Sheamus outside the ring and Rhodes attacking him. Sheamus got in the ring, and Orton hit the RKO, but since Rhodes attacked right in front of ref Scott Armstrong, Armstrong called for the DQ. Orton then went crazy and attacked Rhodes. Crowd was heavily behind Orton at that point. DiBiase ran in and tried to stop Orton. Orton attacked DiBiase and there was a loud “RKO” chant. But then Sheamus recovered and laid out Orton with the kick to the face. **

4. Mickie James pinned Michelle McCool in :20 to win the women’s title. McCool claimed James wasn’t there and started calling her Piggie. Then Layla came out wearing the fat suit again. James came out and threw Layla into the barricade. McCool went to kick James, who moved, and kicked Layla off the apron. James used the DDT for the pin. After the match, Kelly Kelly, Gail Kim, Maria, Eve Torres and the Bella Twins came out with a big giant cake and threw it in McCool and Layla’s faces. The segment was real strong face getting revenge after being emotionally harassed for weeks. Basic wrestling. The cake stuff worked, and it was better then doing a regular match in this segment would have been.

5. Undertaker pinned Rey Mysterio in 11:07 to retain the World title. Undertaker dominated early with power. Mysterio came back and looked to have broken Undertaker’s nose, probably when Mysterio’s kneebrace nailed him as that’s busted up guys in the past. It was either on a 619, or when Undertaker went for a tombstone and Mysterio upside down started throwing knees to get out of it. Finish here was two 619's by Mysterio, followed by a springboard Thesz press, but Undertaker caught him, and gave him a last ride power bomb for the pin. ***1/4

6. Edge won the Royal Rumble in 49:24. It was the shortest Rumble match since 1995, and of Rumbles on PPV, that is the only one shorter (the 1988 Rumble was also shorter, but that was a USA Network special). They announced entrances every 90 seconds, but like every year, they don’t follow the clock, and have them come in I guess when they figure it’s time. Dolph Ziggler opened with Evan Bourne. Ziggler used the Zig Zag early, but didn’t get Bourne out. C.M. Punk came in at 1:50, and started a 10:00 period where he dominated the match. He threw out Bourne in 2:27 and Ziggler at 2:29. Then he cut a promo until JTG arrived at 3:26. Punk threw JTG out in 4:02 and Punk was talking some more. Great Khali was in at 4:53. Khali used the Khali chop and head squeeze on Punk. Punk looked about done when Beth Phoenix arrived at 6:20 as a surprise entrant. She kissed Khali hard, which caused Khali to float over the top to the floor at 7:04. With Khali gone, Punk gave Phoenix the GTS. Zack Ryder was in at 7:52. Punk threw out Phoenix at 8:07. At 8:42, Punk threw out Ryder and cut another promo until HHH entered at 9:25. Drew McIntyre was in next at 11:08. Punk had HHH up for the GTS, but HHH countered, got away, and threw out Punk in 12:03. DiBiase was in at 12:40. DiBiase and McIntyre at this point were beating up HHH. John Morrison was in at 14:11. He did the Starship pain on McIntyre. Kane arrived at 15:42. Cody Rhodes was in at 17:16, followed by MVP at 19:00. However, MVP never got to the ring and Miz ran from the backstage and laid out MVP from behind with a belt shot. Carlito came in at 20:29. Carlito was nailing everyone, even giving HHH a back stabber. Miz came in at 22:01. MVP came running out from the back, since he was supposed to enter, but got laid out before he could get in the ring. Miz and MVP started going at it. MVP clotheslined Miz over the top, but Miz held on and both were eliminate at 22:30. At 23:33, Matt Hardy entered to one of the biggest pops on the show. Kane threw out Hardy in 24:02. That’ll teach those finals for cheering for him. HHH threw out Kane in 24:06. HHH then went crazy giving everyone slams and spinebusters. Shawn Michaels was in at 24:52. Michaels backdropped Carlito over the top in 25:15. Michaels threw out Rhodes in 25:22. Michaels then threw out DiBiase in 25:36. Michaels threw out Morrison in 25:59. At 26:30, Michaels & HHH worked together to clothesline McIntyre. John Cena came in at 26:44. HHH hit a pedigree on Cena. Michaels then superkicked HHH out in 28:13. Shelton Benjamin was in at 28:14. He was doomed as every ECW guy in this match was treated as a joke. Cena threw out Benjamin in 29:16. At 29:49, Yoshi Tatsu came in. Cena threw out Tatsu in 30:27. Second ECW got whose gone quickly. Big Show was in at 31:20. Mark Henry was in at 32:51. Chris Masters was in at 34:15. Show threw out Masters in 34:54. R-Truth came out at 35:24. Tatsu eliminated Henry in 35:38. Jack Swagger was in at 38:44. Kofi Kingston was in next at 38:19. Kingston flipped over Swagger in 39:00. Kingston threw out Truth at 39:43. Chris Jericho entered at 39:51. Cena threw out Kingston at 41:22. Crowd turned on Cena for that one. Edge came in at 41:44. He had his ankle taped up really heavy. Edge threw out Jericho in 42:32. Batista was the 30th guy in at 43:12. Batista threw out Show in 45:58. This left Cena, Batista and Edge. Cena threw Batista out at 48:45. Edge then caused Cena to go over at 49:24.

******

Herschel Walker lived up to his billing as an amazing athlete, and paced the 1/30 Strikeforce show to do the second biggest audience for an MMA event on premium television on a night where both Strikeforce and UFC scored big while going head-to-head.

We don’t have full details, but the show did 517,000 viewers. That would figure to be a 1.8 rating. Showtime’s all-time record was the 8/15 Gina Carano vs. Cris Cyborg match that did 571,000 viewers and a 2.17 rating.

The show went head-to-head with a taped airing of the 12/12 UFC 107 show on Spike, which did a 1.64 rating and 2.2 million viewers, peaking at 1.93 and 2.5 million viewers for the Frank Mir vs. Cheick Kongo match. The B.J. Penn vs. Diego Sanchez main event did a 1.80 rating.

The show did a 1.55 in Males 18-34 which is not unusual, but was shocking is that in the Males 35-49 category, the show did a 2.45. There have been shows where UFC’s 35-49 outdraws 18-34, although that isn’t the case most of the time. But no UFC show has ever had that kind of disparity between the two age brackets. Even though it was a taped show, it was the highest rated show on cable television in both of those demos for the entire day.

The 1.64 number was the second largest number for a taped showing of a major event in history, behind only the 1.7 rating that a tape of the Brock Lesnar vs. Randy Couture UFC 91 did. It even beat the replay showing of UFC 100. This is another example of the drawing power of probably both Penn and Mir. In fact, this beat the ratings for most live UFC events on Spike. Some of the taped numbered PPV shows have beaten it, but when it comes to shows on Spike that aren’t on a night headlined by Kimbo Slice, it was better than any Fight Night or Ultimate Fight final dating back 17 months. Coming off a 1.20 rating for the 1/11 Fight Night that had tons more publicity going in, this was very impressive.

A secondary benefit is that the Countdown to UFC 109 special aired right after the show ended, and that did 881,000 viewers, significantly above what a normal Countdown show does.

For Strikeforce, it’s pretty clear the rating was drawn by Walker and Bobby Lashley, who were the two big stars on the show to the casual audience, even though they were in prelim matches. A lot of MMA fans were critical of both being on the main card. There were complaints Lashley’s match didn’t feature fighters of as high caliber as the Joe Riggs vs. Jay Hieron fight, which didn’t make television, and that Walker, at 47, and with less than three months of training in the sport, didn’t belong in a high profile position.

The crowd of 8,156 fans at the BankAtlantic Center in Sunrise, FL, was the coldest crowd I’ve seen for a major MMA show in a long time. Aside from Walker and Lashley, and to a much lesser extent Nick Diaz, the audience didn’t react to anyone when they came out. The most competitive Cris Cyborg fight to date, against Holland’s Marloes Coenen, was the first Cyborg fight in the U.S. that didn’t get over huge to the live audience. There was a gigantic reaction to the finish of the Melvin Manhoef vs. Robbie Lawler fight, which was almost a copy of the Scott Smith vs. Cung Le finish on the 12/19 show in San Jose. Manhoef was beating Lawler to death, particularly brutalizing his right leg to where Lawler was limping, had limited mobility and was on the brink of losing. Then Lawler caught Manhoef flush with a punch that stunned him bad, and followed with a second punch that knocked him out cold. But that was the only big reaction of the show, which to me was an average show live since the prelims weren’t much. As a television show, it was good. Three of the five fights were very good. Walker vs. Greg Nagy was not a good fight, but it was still something to see and an amazing performance by a 47-year-old man. Lashley vs. Wes Sims went as predicted, with Lashley taking Sims down and pounding him out quickly.

It may be Walker’s only fight. He got a payday in excess of $100,000, which went to charity, but put his life on hold for nearly three months, moving to San Jose away from his business based in Georgia and training with a high caliber pro fighting team. He said it was the hardest training he had ever done for any sport in his career. That’s a heavy statement from someone who was a two time Pro Bowl NFL star, one of the greatest college football players of all-time (ESPN once ran down the 50 greatest college football players ever and Walker was listed at No. 3), a world class track athlete who nearly made the Olympic team in the 100 meter dash and 4x100 meter relays, and an Olympic bobsled racer. The feeling was Walker wanted to do this once, to show he could still compete at age 47 in a new sport. Granted, he was given an opponent who wasn’t very good, and Walker was far from a polished fighter. But he showed good wrestling. He had no submission skill at all, but did get out of some submission attempts. His stand-up didn’t look good, but he was able to take Nagy down and beat him up, but didn’t show finishing skill. While he did get a third round finish, it was more a mercy stoppage as Nagy was just getting hammered and showing no ability to get out of a bad position, as opposed to it being the type of beatdown usually associated with a stoppage. But what was absolutely amazing was his conditioning. Physically, his body looked like a smaller version (at 215 pounds) of Lashley, but it wasn’t just cosmetic muscle. He never breathed heavy in a three round fight. Even people in the best of condition in their 20s often will breathe heavy just because of nerves. His trainers noted that was where his high-level football and other sports experience helped because they said beforehand that when the cage door shuts, he wasn’t going to panic like most do in their first match. Even Randy Couture, who is in incredible condition for his age, usually is breathing heavy after a few minutes.

As far as doing it again, the question is whether he would be willing to give up three months again to train, and the reality is, at his age, time is likely too far against him being able to become a top fighter, even though trainer Javier Mendez said he could make him an elite fighter in three years, and if he was 22 or 23 today, that with his athletic ability, he would become the greatest MMA fighter who ever lived.

Even though South Florida was loaded with NFL writers, in for the Pro Bowl the next day, and the Super Bowl, there didn’t appear to be any football writers at the show. Walker’s fighting was covered by ESPN and did well on Showtime, but not record numbers, and was not a publicity bonanza. I’m told that the feeling of the writers is that Walker had been out of the league for so long, and it was a Saturday night and it wasn’t a big enough event that the football writers deemed it important.

Lashley didn’t show anything that wasn’t known going in. It was a quick takedown and punches on the ground. The punches weren’t monstrous punches, but Wes Sims wasn’t able to get up. The funny part is that Sims was the guy running around playing pro wrestler all weekend. Sims, who has done some indie wrestling and tried out for WWE in 2004, without getting picked, came off last season of Ultimate Fighter where he was always in his Brutus Beefcake character. Here, he was more playing big bully, showing up with a big scowl and with sunglasses on. He made a scene in the ring after the stoppage. He went to the post-show press conference and looked like he was shooting an angle for TNA, shoving Lashley, challenging him to another fight and then doing press interviews, saying Lashley illegally grabbed his throat, saying that Lashley is going to be back working security because he doesn’t cut good enough promos to make it in pro wrestling, and made steroid accusations against Lashley.

Scott Coker talked about matching Lashley next with Brett Rogers. Lashley said he wanted to fight again in two months, but if he was against a quality opponent, he’d want four months. The idea was to slowly build Lashley up, but in a business where the ardent fan base that doesn’t understand business seems to have a lot of influence, nobody has patience and wants newcomers to fight top guys right away. Lashley would be better served facing a Shane Del Rosario (who his people turned down) or Brandon Cash next, because he really needs to face someone of higher quality than he has before going in with Rogers.

The main event saw Nick Diaz become the first Strikeforce welterweight champion, with a first round knockout win over Marius Zaromskis, the current Dream welterweight champion, in an exciting match.

Cyborg kept he women’s title on a third round stoppage over Coenen.

It was clear the crowd for the most part had no idea who international stars like Manhoef, Zaromskis or Coenen were, as they didn’t react at all too them. The shocking thing was the lack of reaction to Cyborg. When all of the Strikeforce stars at ringside were introduced, like Rogers, Scott Smith, Cung Le, Josh Thomson and Gilbert Melendez, there was barely recognition to them. The only two names in the building who were really over were Georges St. Pierre and Dan Henderson. Walker and Lashley got the biggest of the fighters, but neither got the kind of reaction you’d think. It was more a recognition reaction, similar to what Diaz got. Cyborg got almost nothing. There was a complete lack of interest in Cyborg vs. Coenen, which wasn’t a good sign for post-Gina Carano women’s MMA, but I wouldn’t read a ton into it because it was an unusual crowd.

Coker talked of Cyborg vs. Erin Toughill for the title next, and trying to match Carano vs. Coenen. While Coker talked of Carano returning in the summer, there is a lot of questioning going around whether she will fight again, particularly if her acting career goes somewhere, then fighting wouldn’t be in her best interest.

1. John Kelly (4-0) beat Sabah Homasi (2-1) at 2:14 of the second round with a choke.

2. Hayder Hasan (3-1) beat Ryan Keenan by ref stoppage after a left to the jaw at 2:42 of the second round.

3. In a big surprise, Pablo Alfonso (6-1) beat Marcos DaMatta (7-1) via armbar in 1:47. DaMatta was the first guy the crowd knew, an ATT BJJ expert who ended up being submitted.

4. David Gomez (1-2) beat Craig Oxley (0-3) via 30-27 scores across the board.

5. Joe Ray (1-0) beat John Clarke (0-1) in 3:14 with a knee to the chin and punches on the ground. Both men were making their debuts.

6. Jay Hieron (19-4) beat Joe Riggs (32-11) on scores of 30-27, 29-28 and 30-27. Crowd hated the fight. First round was standing and not a lot of action. Second round saw Hieron get a takedown and throw punches to the ribs on both sides of the body, as well as some to the head. Crowd was booing the lack of action. Hieron had some good shots to the head late. Riggs hurt Hieron with a punch to start round three. Riggs followed with a takedown. Hieron was bleeding from a nasty cut over the left eye (an hour after the show, he was still bleeding, with people being critical of the commission doctors for still not taking care of his cut). Riggs was bleeding from the left eye, and the blood was all over his face and body and he was having trouble seeing. His left eye was starting to swell. Hieron knocked Riggs down with a left, and threw body punches from the top position. By this point Riggs was bleeding from the nose, and blood was all over his body. Don’t know how a judge could have given it 29-28 because Hieron clearly won all three rounds.

7. Bobby Lashley (5-0) beat Wes Sims (22-13-1, 2 no contests) in 2:06. Sims was out of shape, saying he hadn’t trained hardly at all in getting the fight on such late notice. Well, he looked like he hadn’t trained. Sims came out and did a Hogan posing routine. Nobody reacted at all. Sims did more muscle poses to no reaction, and then when the match started, put his hand up as if to challenge Lashley to a pro wrestling test of strength. Nobody in the arena reacted. Lashley got the double leg takedown and threw punches to the face over-and-over. Sims turned his back and Lashley kept punching until the ref stopped it. Lashley thanked Sims after for taking the fight on such short notice, but after Sims started walking around like a bully after, Lashley said that he needed to beat him fast because the guy was going to use the taking the fight late as an excuse if it wasn’t a quick fight.

8. Robbie Lawler (17-5, 1 no contest) beat Melvin Manhoef (24-7-1) in 3:33. Manhoef came out dancing to the ring. Nobody reacted. He was also noticeably smaller than in Japan. It started slow for the first minute and just as the crowd started booing, Manhoef threw a wicked kick to the body. Manhoef was tearing Lawler up, mostly kicking the right leg and following up with punches. Lawler was limping, being less and less able to move, and taking more kicks. The leg was shot and he couldn’t move or do anything to get away from the kicks. Suddenly, Lawler connected with a right to the jaw that staggered Manhoef bad, and as Manhoef was falling, a left put his lights out. It was a Scott Smith level finish and the place went crazy. Lawler noted after the fight that his strategy was to try and take Manhoef down, but he was so afraid that if he changed levels, he’d get kneed in the head so he never did it. He said the second strategy was that when Manhoef had someone just about beat, he holds his hands low and starts firing, so he’d make his move then. He said he was lucky that he has the unique attribute of being able to punch with power even on one leg and said when he connected, he knew he’d better finish him because he didn’t know if he could take many more leg kicks. Between fights they interviewed Rex Ryan, the coach of the New York Jets. This was a real sign that most of this crowd was sports fans more than MMA fans, because Ryan got double the reaction of Henderson and St. Pierre. They booed him, and he flipped off the live crowd, which wasn’t shown on TV, but a fan with a cell phone camera captured it and put it on the Internet. This ended up being a major sports story in New York, and the photo of him flipping off the crowd was put on the front page of the New York Post two days later. Virtually every story said Ryan was at a “MMA event in Florida” as opposed to a Strikeforce show. The branding of the Strikeforce name to the public is non-existent. When you watch a UFC show on Spike, you are hammered to death about UFC. When you watch Strikeforce, it’s like you are watching an MMA show on Showtime or CBS. Ryan ended up having to make a public apology over it, and was later fined $50,000 by the Jets.

9. Herschel Walker (1-0) beat Greg Nagy (1-2) via ref stoppage at 2:17 of the third round. Walker got a slightly bigger reaction than Lashley. The level of a recognizable UFC star on an average show, not even as big as your random undercard Canadian in Las Vegas. Walker, who was a huge pro wrestling fan of Georgia Championship Wrestling, started dancing around like he was copying either Dusty Rhodes or Rufus R. Jones. Walker took Nagy down and held him in a front headlock position. He’d get his back and punch. Nagy would turn and get punched some more. Nagy went for an ankle lock but Walker escaped. Walker then just pinned him on the ground but didn’t do much damage, just some punches to the head that weren’t that hard. Second round opened with a low kick and a takedown by Walker. He got Nagy’s back and flattened him. Nagy turned and was mounted, but Walker had no finishing skills. Nagy got to his feet while Walker held him in a front headlock. The crowd would yell “knee” and Walker would throw a knee. Walker took him back down and dominated him on the ground, back in mount and was beating him up with punches at the end of the round. Nagy came out punching in round three and Walker smothered him into the cage and took him down again. The crowd started booing at this point because it was a bad fight. Nagy went for an armbar from the bottom and Walker escaped. More booing. Walker was on top in full mount but wasn’t punching hard enough to finish. He threw punch after punch and Nagy wasn’t getting away, but the punches weren’t hurting. Walker started throwing a series of punches to the armpit of all places, and the ref stopped it. Kind of a weird finish. Nagy was given every chance to escape, and he was getting beaten up and not improving his position, but the punches weren’t that hard. It was a flat stoppage and the crowd gave Walker polite applause, recognizing at his age, even against someone who wasn’t good, it was still a two-year veteran who was more than 20 years younger and Walker at no point looked his age out there. Honestly, I’ve seen NCAA champs debut after a lot more training and look worse.

10. Cris Cyborg (9-1) beat Marloes Coenen (17-4) at 3:40 of the third round. Dead silence for Coenen’s intro. Cyborg got a reaction from about 20% of the crowd who knew her and saw her as a star, and the other 80% had no idea. First round was a lot of clinching against the cage with each turning the other. Cyborg got the first takedown and got some punches in. Coenen got up. Cyborg started unloading with punches. Coenen came back, but Cyborg was theor rwoing and landing more. Coenen got her against the cage again to close the distance. After breaking a clinch, Coenen threw a punch, but Cyborg fired back and got the better of it. Cyborg hit a nice spin kick at the end of the round, and clearly won it. Second round saw Cyborg throw Coenen down. Coenen stayed on her back, so Cyborg started kicking her legs. Cyborg went to the ground and was punching. Coenen tried to wrap her legs around Cyborg’s head, but Cyborg went for a power bomb and Coenen blocked it. Coenen got up. Cyborg was landing punches until Coenen tried a takedown, couldn’t get it, but managed to pull guard to get Cyborg down. Cyborg hit more punches on the ground. Coenen was going for a triangle but never came close. Another easy Cyborg round. Cyborg seemed fresher going into the third round. She bulled Cyborg into the cage. Cyborg threw punches and took Coenen down again. Cyborg was throwing body punches and then head punches. Coenen from her back as Cyborg was standing, threw an up kick to the knee that Cyborg was hurt by. Coenen got up, and threw her best punch. Cyborg came back with punches. Coenen tried a takedown but Cyborg ended up on top and was unloading. She stared hurting Coenen with the punches before ref George Ortiz stopped the match. Good fight as far as Coenen being Cyborg’s best opponent, but the crowd not being into it hurt it live.

11. Nick Diaz (21-7, 1 no contest) beat Marius Zaromskis (13-4) at 4:38 to become the first Strikeforce welterweight champion. They started with a staredown and came out trading punches. Diaz was just too fast with his hands and had too much reach for Zaromskis. It was the same as Diaz’s recent fights with Frank Shamrock and Scott Smith where it wasn’t like the punches were hard, but there were so many coming from all angles and the guys get overwhelmed. Diaz had Zaromskis hurt from so many punches right away, but Zaromskis hit a knee. Diaz went for a takedown, couldn’t get it and threw knee after knee to Zaromskis’ thigh. There must have been about two dozen with Zaromskis doing nothing to block them. Diaz finally got him down, but Zaromskis got right back up. They were trading and Diaz was connecting more, but Zaromskis knocked Diaz down with a punch and got his back. Diaz got back up and recovered. They started trading and Diaz again got the better of it. The crowd started a “Diaz,” chant, the first time they were alive during a match itself except for the Lawler knockout. Diaz continued connecting to the head and body over and over until Zaromskis went down, and it was called off. Diaz looked very impressive. A funny story after is that Diaz had to give a post-fight urine sample for his drug test, and he was there until 2 a.m. with the commission not leaving until he finally did it.

*******

What would have under normal circumstances been considered a normal incident involving a couple of wrestlers drinking too much after the end of a tour ended up being a publicity black eye to World Wrestling Entertainment.

Gregory Helms and Chris Irvine (Chris Jericho) were both arrested for public intoxication at 5:41 a.m. at a Shell gas station in Crescent Springs, KY, near Cincinnati, on 1/27, after both had wrestled at the Smackdown tapings the night before at the U.S. Bank Arena.

Both men reportedly drank too much after the show at a local bar called “KJ’s,” and along with Matt Hardy and two others, Gary Kelley and Ashley Storer, described as friends of Matt that they were socializing with, were making some noise in front of the establishment, and grabbed a cab. Erlanger, KY, police Lieutenant Kevin Gilpin said that at 4 a.m., an officer patrolling in Crescent Springs noticed five people “being rowdy” in the parking lot at the Buttermilk Crossings shopping center. The officer told the group to disperse and they hailed a cab.

While in the cab, Helms started playing around and did what was described as play fighting. Apparently due to the alleged drinking, as the play fighting got rougher, Helms lost his cool and struck Jericho and Kelley. Storer, the only woman in the cab, sitting between Helms and Jericho, allegedly took an inadvertent blow, which she described as an elbow to the cheek that wasn’t meant for her as Helms was trying to get at Jericho. The cab driver panicked, dropped them off at the gas station, and called police.

At that point, Helms allegedly ran from the scene. Hardy ran after him, trying to get him to go back and not make a scene which would result in him getting into even more trouble.

Helms returned to the gas station where he and Jericho were arrested on misdemeanor public intoxication charges. A court date is scheduled on 2/16 is scheduled where they can contest the charge, or pay a small fine ($25) and court costs ($134) which would dispose of the charge. Hardy never returned, but no action is being pursued against him. Helms was not charged with assault because Storer said she would not press charges. Kelley told police on the scene that he was thinking it over.

“We get there and they basically say Helms kind of turned into an ass and starts kind of getting physical inside the cab,” Gilpin said.

Helms had a cut above his right eye in his mug shot that was first posted on the TMZ.com site, although it was not stated where the cut came from. Jericho’s face didn’t appear marked in his mug shot, but on a closer look, the eye looks like it was starting to swell. Jericho had a very noticeably messed up eye at the Royal Rumble and it was also obvious in the days prior to the Rumble on a Fox News appearance. He was claiming the eye injury came from taking an accidental shot in his match with R-Truth that took place on the Cincinnati Smackdown taping.

Storer, who was crying when police got there, later said the cab driver overreacted to a minor incident, but felt she may have made it worse by her demeanor when the police arrived. She told TMZ.com that the police blew the situation out of proportion, but she may have been the reason, saying, “I was crying and drunk and tired from being out all night and I just wanted to leave.”

“It’s hard to say exactly how in depth this fight was,” said Gilpin. “There was a disagreement while they were inside of a cab. When we got there, obviously they were out of the cab and made contact with the police, and were arrested a short time after that.”

Officers arrested them on the intoxication charge, saying they were too drunk to let them go. Both men were cooperative with the officers when they arrived. Kentucky law doesn’t allow police to arrest someone on assault charges unless the party assaulted presses charges, or the police directly witness the assault. Helms was found with one soma pill on him, and claimed it was prescribed, but didn’t have a prescription on him. The police decided against charging him because it was only a single pill. There was no proof Helms had taken any somas that night, but even though it has been commonplace for wrestlers mixing somas and alcohol. To say that isn’t recommended is an understatement.

One would have to presume Helms has a prescription for the drug. The WWE’s current drug policy is such that every prescription a wrestler has is supposed to be filed ahead of time with Dr. David Black, and prescriptions are supposed to be written by the company doctors who travel with the crew. The attempt is to eliminate the mark doctors wrestlers have traditionally relied on, who offer writing prescriptions in exchange for being able to be friends and hang out with celebrities.

If Helms didn’t have a prescription for the drug, even though the police are not going to take legal action against him, WWE would be forced to suspend him for 60 days on a Wellness policy violation. Helms has a prior strike for his name showing up on the Signature Pharmacy list for usage of Growth Hormone in 2007. His name came up in a prior investigation for usage of Growth Hormone, which he claimed was for a knee injury in 2005 when that came out, and predated WWE having a Wellness policy in place. The Signature evidence showed he continued to receive packages through February 2007. It should be noted that Signature Pharmacy used doctors that would write prescriptions without actually having a face-to-face examination, so the wrestlers whose names came up were prescribed their steroids, Growth Hormone and other drugs, but the nature of the prescriptions violated the WWE Wellness policy. Helms has never failed a WWE drug test (by drug test I mean for a drug other than marijuana, because marijuana positives remain private and are the subject of fines, but not suspensions).

There was a lot of talk regarding Helms’ future with the company, particularly since he was a lower rung wrestler. He was pulled from the Royal Rumble match, and at first, from television. Losing the Rumble spot, where he would have been an insignificant character in the match, cost him a payoff that would have been in the $5,000 range, varying based on the success of the show. Helms was later put back on television, and his publicity was mentioned twice during the 2/2 ECW show. The first time was early in the show when Zack Ryder, a heel, talked about how Helms, who he also noted was Hurricane, had embarrassed ECW, and Christian, the babyface, stuck up for him, saying he made a mistake and everyone make mistakes. It was clearly designed to garner sympathy for Helms. Later, William Regal was being interviewed by Helms, doing his reporter role sans the Hurricane gimmick, and mentioned how it’s been a bad week for him. Helms responded that he would get through, and he was here doing his job. Regal said unfortunately, it was only going to get worse, and Regal & Ezekiel Jackson gave him a beatdown. It didn’t seem severe enough of a beatdown to be a writing one out of the script beatdown, and the indication was what was done was designed to keep him as a babyface.

Hardy made a post that night on Twitter, saying that he had a few too many hanging with a certain person I follow, saying he wished someone special was with him (writing “u know who u r”) but by the time the story broke, the post had been deleted.

Both Irvine, 39, and Helms were cooperative with the police. They were taken in and released at about 6:30 a.m. when Jay Reso (Christian) and Phil Brooks (C.M. Punk) came to the station and posted $120 bond for each.

The incident got several stories throughout the next two days on TMZ.com, and was picked up by a number of other media outlets, most notably the New York Daily News. It was also covered as a news story throughout the Cincinnati media, and because the wrestlers are celebrities, while there was some complaining that TMZ.com made a minor incident bigger than it was, the Cincinnati media with its police connections covering it would have guaranteed it getting out.

One major person in the organization noted that after Smackdown tapings, it’s not unusual for wrestlers to have already checked out of their weekend hotel to try and save one night’s bill since wrestlers are responsible for their own road expenses. The standard operating procedure is to go out after the show and relax, perhaps go to Denny’s and eat and kill a few hours, or go out drinking with friends to kill time and take the first flight out in the morning, and sleep on the flight home. This may have been what happened several months ago involving Jeff Hardy, who wasn’t allowed on a morning flight home after a Smackdown taping last year because airline personnel believed he had been drinking too heavily.

Also brought up is that in late August, there was an incident where Helms and TNA’s Christopher Daniels were both twittering all night about how much they were drinking and destroying their livers together. Daniels was pulled over later that night for driving while impaired. Wrestlers drinking is part of the industry, but the rule of thumb is that it’s supposed to be something done privately and to avoid publicly making a scene. The twittering about it was considered bad judgment and one of the reasons WWE doesn’t want talent twittering after midnight.

Helms was apologetic to WWE officials for his behavior, but later tried to make light of it, twittering a few days later, “Been off the grid for a few days, what I miss?”

Jericho was upset with TMZ, and had cameramen from the web site kicked out of an in-store album signing later in the week.

*******

The reality of just how socially acceptable and mainstream the perception of the UFC is got a sobering message this past week with a Marist poll of New York voters showing, by more than a two-to-one margin, they agree that mixed martial arts should not be allowed in the state.

The poll came in response to a number of news stories throughout the state in recent weeks, because Governor David Patterson has pushed for the sport to be legalized, opening the door for a show in Madison Square Garden, which would bring in millions in revenue to the state between the show itself and spending in the area by people coming to the event.

Patterson reportedly put the idea that an event would generate $2 million in additional tax revenue as part of his budge for 2010-11.

However, a poll of voters showed 68% against changing the state law passed in 1997 banning such events. New York is the only major state left that has a specific law on the books banning the sport. Very few states ever had actual laws against the sport, but that combat sports needed to be regulated through the athletic commission, and MMA was not approved in those states by the commission.

The poll had 68% against legalization, 29% for legalization and 3% undecided.

The surprising result was due to older people and women in huge numbers being opposed to legalization. Ever since UFC hit it big on television five years ago, there has been a generational divide. Even putting up impressive television numbers and record-setting PPV numbers, many established media sources will give little coverage to even the biggest events, although every year that breaks down more-and-more. When I was doing MMA columns for the Los Angeles Times web site before working for Yahoo!, I was told the reaction at the paper was that everyone over the age of 40 could not understand why the Times was even acknowledging the sport, and everyone under the age of 40 couldn’t understand why there wasn’t far more coverage. When it came to actual response on the web, the MMA stories did better than everything except major stories involving local market major sports teams.

According to the poll, 82% of women voters believe it should be banned while 55% of men voters also agree the law shouldn’t be overturned.

Even among the youngest group of voters, in the 18-29 age group, it was split 50-50. Between the ages of 30 and 44, that goes up to 54% against the enacting of a new law, 73% between the ages of 45 and 59 and 82% of those above the age of 60.

From a geographical standpoint, within the city of New York, 74% of voters opposed legalization of the sport, while the rest of the state, both New York suburbs as well as the rest of the state, comes in 66%.

One can argue the majority viewpoint makes little sense, given the rate of serious injuries in MMA is not appreciably different from other sports allowed. More importantly, exactly what are they trying to accomplish when it comes to protecting the public because both live and taped televised MMA events air in prime time several nights per week. People who don’t want to see the events, or think children shouldn’t be watching, are far more likely to see them or have their kids see them while flipping the TV dial than on shows that require paying high ticket prices and going to a major arena to see .

UFC really only has one major political opponent, assemblyman Bob Reilly, who successfully blocked legislation in past years. During that period there were no major polls in the state, so both sides could make claims that the public itself did or didn’t want the sport. This poll gives Reilly strong ammunition that he’s in line with the public on the issue, which would likely strengthen his resolve as the issue has given him some visibility.

Still, it’s hard to understand exactly what not allowing live events in New York accomplishes other than putting events that would be in New York into places like Newark, NJ, where the 3/27 event is taking place, leaving that state to garner whatever economic impact there is.

Raw on 2/1 did a 3.63 rating and 5.29 million viewers. It showed that Bret Hart’s second appearance didn’t boost the overall rating of the show. We didn’t get the exact final quarter, but were told it was huge. The show did a 2.94 in Males 18-49.

Impact on 1/28 set its all-time record rating for a Thursday night show, with a 1.38 and 1.87 million viewers (the record is 1.97 million). The show did a 1.01 in Males 18-34 and 1.31 in Males 35-49.

In the segment-by-segment, and every segment dropped, Desmond Wolfe vs. Sean Morley and lots of backstage stuff with Jeff Jarrett, Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff, lost 68,000 viewers. Daniels vs. Hernandez lost 27,000 viewers. The Team 3-D vs. Nasty Boys in-ring promo battle and Awesome Kong & Hamada & Tara vs. The Beautiful People lost 14,000 viewers. Hulk Hogan’s promo with Eric Bischoff, with Hogan telling Bischoff to make it right with Foley, Ric Flair & A.J.Styles backstage and Kurt Angle promo where Hogan came out and made Angle apologize also lost 14,000 viewers. That was put at the top of the hour which usually gains, and they had that quarter loaded with stars, so it losing is a surprise. Then Brian Kendrick & The Machine Guns vs. Generation Me & Amazing Red in a short match, leading to Doug Williams winning the X title from Red in 26 seconds, lost 203,000 viewers. Then, the Bischoff and Foley backstage discussion lost 68,000 viewers. You’d think after the way that was built up that it would do better. Jeff Jarrett vs. Mr. Anderson gained 108,000 viewers to a 1.30 main event.

Superstars on 1/28 did a 1.0 rating and 962,000 viewers. It was the most viewers in the history of the show.

ECW on 1/26 did a 0.9 rating and 1.16 million viewers, another of the lowest marks the show has ever done.

Raw on 1/25 did a 3.59 rating and 5.14 million viewers. The show did 2.99 in Males 18-49.

While the 1/15 Smackdown show set a record in the major markets, many of which have major Hispanic influence, featuring the Rey Mysterio vs. Batista cage match, when the final numbers came in, they were right at normal levels with a 2.1 rating and 3.62 million viewers

******

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********

RESULTS

1/15 Jackson, TN (WWE Raw): Ted DiBiase & Cody Rhodes b MVP & Even Bourne, Paul Birchill b Johnny Curtis, The Miz won four-way to keep U.S. title over Chavo Guerrero, Jack Swagger and Chris Masters, Bella Twins b Alicia Fox & Maryse, Randy Orton b Kofi Kingston, WWE title: Sheamus b Mark Henry, HHH b Big Show

1/16 Birmingham, AL (WWE Raw): Santina Marella b Chavo Guerrero, Paul Burchill b Johnny Curtis, Ted DiBiase & Cody Rhodes b Mark Henry & Evan Bourne, The Miz won three-way to keep U.S. title over Jack Swagger and Chris Masters, Bella Twins b Alicia Fox & Maryse, Big Show b MVP, Randy Orton b Kofi Kingston, WWE title: HHH b Sheamus-DQ

1/19 Tokyo Differ Ariake (Pro Wrestling NOAH SEM - 280): Keith Walker b Ricky Marvin, Bison Smith b Atsushi Aoki, Shuhei Taniguchi & Taiji Ishimori b Naomichi Marufuji & Kento Miyahara, Yoshihiro Takayama ref: Akira Taue & Chris Hero & Claudio Castagnoli b Takashi Sugiura & Takeshi Morishima & Genba Hirayanagi-DQ

1/19 Mexico City Arena Coliseo (CMLL TV tapings - 12,000/kids free): Ramstein & Apocalipsis b Los Rayos Tapatios I & II, Disturbio & Artillero & Super Comando b Delta & Molotov & Starman, Yeska & Raven Hiroka & Comandante b Lady Apache & Estrella Magica & Dalis la Caribena, Fuego & El Hijo del Fantasma & Blue Panther b Virus & Polvora & Euforia, Felino & Tetsuya Naito & Rey Bucanero b Brazo de Plata & Hector Garza & La Sombra

1/20 Orlando (TNA Impact TV tapings): Samoa Joe b Jesse Neal, Taylor Wilde & Sarita b ODB & Traci Brooks, Kevin Nash b Mick Foley, Pope D’Angelo Dinero b Orlando Jordan, Kurt Angle & Mr. Anderson b Desmond Wolfe & Hernandez, Matt Morgan b Suicide, X title: Doug Williams b Amazing Red, Velvet Sky & Madison Rayne & Lacey Von Erich b Tara & Angelina Love, Robert Roode & James Storm b Brutus Magnus & Rob Terry

1/20 Tokyo Korakuen Hall (Dragon Gate - 1,700): Yasushi Kanda & Kennichiro Arai & Kzy b Naoki Tanisaki & Anthony W. Mori & Shisa Boy, Kagetora & Shinobu b Akira Tozawa & Super Shenlong, BxB Hulk & Masato Yoshino b Dragon Kid & Gamma, Masaaki Mochizuki & Don Fujii & Super Shisa b K-ness & Susumu Yokosuka & Genki Horiguchi, Takuya Sugawara won three-way over Naruki Doi and Shingo Takagi, Yamato b Cima

1/22 Cape Girardeau, MO (WWE - 4,262): Yoshi Tatsu b Zack Ryder, Ted DiBiase & Cody Rhodes b Mark Henry & Evan Bourne, Prime b Johnny Curtis, The Miz won four-way to keep U.S. title over Carlito, Jack Swagger and MVP, Santina Marella ref: Gail Kim & Bella Twins b Alicia Fox & Maryse & Jillian Hall, Randy Orton b Kofi Kingston, WWE title: John Cena b Sheamus-DQ

1/22 Mexico City Arena Mexico (CMLL TV tapings): Apocalipsis & Inquisidor b Sensei & Trueno, Diamante & Metalico & Pegasso b Bronco & Dr. X & Hooligan, Angel de Oro & Fuego & Metro b Cancerbero & Raziel & Virus-DQ, Torneo Parejas Increibles Nacionales: Mascara Dorada & Atlantis b La Sombra & Dragon Rojo, Maximo & Mr. Niebla b Blue Panther & Misterioso Jr., Mistico & Averno b Ephesto & Euforia, Volador Jr. & El Terrible b El Hijo del Fantasma & Mephisto, Mascara Dorada & Atlantis b Maximo & Mr. Niebla, Mistico & Averno b Volador Jr. & El Terrible, Mascara Dorada & Atlantis b Mistico & Averno, CMLL heavyweight title: Ultimo Guerrero b Hector Garza

1/22 Okinawa (New Japan - 2,750 sellout): Jushin Liger & Super Delfin & Hab otoko &Golden Pine b Ryusuke Taguchi & Cicer Oh & Mil Magnujsu & Menore Oyagi, Yuji Nagata & Mitsuhide Hirasawa b Riki Choshu & Kazuchika Okada, Masahiro Chono & Koji Kanemoto b Super Strong Machine & Tiger Mask, Toru Yano & Takashi Iizuka b Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma, Manabu Nakanishi & Hirooki Goto & Wataru Inoue b Shinsuke Nakamura & Gedo & Jado, Hiroshi Tanahashi b Tomohiro Ishii

1/22 Tokyo Korakuen Hall (All Japan - 2,000 sellout): Nosawa won three-way over Kaz Hayashi and Minoru, Osamu Nishimura won three-way over Seiya Sanada and Kai, Minoru Suzuki won three-way over Masayuki Kono and Akebono, Toshizo b Masa Fuchi, Minoru Suzuki won three-way over Nosawa and Osamu Nishimura, Shuji Kondo & Suwama b Satoshi Kojima & Hiroshi Yamato, Keiji Muto & Masakatsu Funaki & S-1 Mask (Ryota Hama) b Taru & Hate & Toru Owashi

1/22 Mito (Pro Wrestling NOAH - 800 sellout): Yoshinobu Kanemaru b Kentaro Shiga, Naomichi Marufuji DCOR Genba Hirayanagi, Keith Walker b Kento Miyahara, Jun Akiyama & Yoshinari Ogawa & Taiji Ishimori b Akitoshi Saito & Kishin Kawabata & Atsushi Aoki, Kensuke Sasaki & Takeshi Morishima b Bison Smith & Ricky Marvin, Yoshihiro Takayama & Takuma Sano b Chris Hero & Claudio Castagnoli, Takashi Sugiura & Shuhei Taniguchi d Takeshi Rikio & Mohammed Yone 30:00

1/23 Evansville (WWE Raw - 7,000): Yoshi Tatsu b Zack Ryder, Over the top rope challenge: Mark Henry b Jack Swagger, Ted DiBiase & Cody Rhodes b Evan Bourne & Primo, Chris Masters b Johnny Curtis, The Miz won three-way to keep U.S. title over MVP and Carlito, Santino Marella ref: Gail Kim & Bella Twins b Maryse & Alicia Fox & Jillian Hall, Randy Orton b Kofi Kingston, Street fight: HHH b Big Show, WWE title: John Cena b Sheamus-DQ

1/23 Hammond, IN (WWE Smackdown - 4,000 sellout): R-Truth b Dolph Ziggler, David Hart Smith & Tyson Kidd b Slam Master J & Jimmy Wang Yang, Tyler Reks b Goldust, Mickie James & Maria b Beth Phoenix & Layla, Matt Hardy b Fit Finlay, ECW title: Christian b Ezekiel Jackson, IC title: Drew McIntyre b John Morrison, Rey Mysterio & Kane b Chris Jericho & C.M. Punk

1/23 Glasgow, Scotland (TNA - 1,500): Amazing Red b Chris Sabin, Global title: Eric Young b Suicide, Hernandez b Rhino, Kurt Angle won three-way over Daniels and Desmond Wolfe, Hamada b Sarita, Team 3-D won three-way tables match over Robert Roode & James Storm and Doug Williams & Brutus Magnam as ead singer, from TNA title: A.J. Styles b Samoa Joe

1/23 Rahway, NJ (Jersey All Pro Wrestling 12th anniversary show - 1,200): D.J. Hyde b Scotty Vortroels kekz b Azrieal, Devon Moore b Archadia, Sami Callihan b Corvis Fear, South Side Playaz Club b Osirian Portal, Sara Del Rey b Madison Rayne, Egotistico Fantastico won best of the light heavyweights, Bandido Jr. b B-Boy, CZW title: Drake Younger b Ruckus, Teddy Hart & Jack Evans b Mark & Jay Briscoe, JAPW title: Dan Maff b Eddie Kingston, Homicide b Masato Tanaka, Da Heavy Hitters won three-way over Hillbilly Wrecking Crew and H8 Club to keep tag titles

1/24 Cleveland (WWE Smackdown - 9,000): Drew McIntyre won four-way to keep IC title over Matt Hardy, R-Truth and John Morrison, Mickie James & Maria b Beth Phoenix & Layla, Tyler Reks b Goldust, David Hart Smith & Tyson Kidd b Jimmy Wang Yang & Tyson Kidd, ECW title: Christian b Ezekiel Jackson, Fit Finlay b Dolph Ziggler, Rey Mysterio & Kane b C.M. Punk & Luke Gallows, HHH b Chris Jericho

1/24 Champaign, IL (WWE Raw - 6,000): Yoshi Tatsu b Zack Ryder, Chris Masters b Johnny Curtis, Ted DiBiase & Cody Rhodes b Mark Henry & Evan Bourne, The Miz won four-way to keep U.S. title over Carlito, MVP and Primo, Santino Marella ref: Gail Kim & Bella Twins b Alicia Fox & Maryse & Jillian Hall, Over the top rope rules: Big Show b Jack Swagger, Randy Orton b Kofi Kingston, WWE title: John Cena b Sheamus-DQ

1/24 Boca del Rio, Mexico (Ind - 10,000): Lady Apache & Marcela b Amapola & Princesa Blanca, Mascara Dorada & Maximo & Principe b Arkangel de la Muerte & Ephesto & Estudiante, Tzuki & Ultimo Dragoncito b Pequeno Damian 666 & Universito 2000, Mistico & La Sombra & Superman Sur b Atlantis & Mr. Niebla & Felino

1/24 Tokyo Korakuen Hall (Pro Wrestling NOAH - 2,100 sellout): Ricky Marvin & Taiji Ishimori b Satoshi Kajiwara & Kento Miyahara, Kensuke Sasaki & Yoshinari Ogawa b Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Kentaro Shiga, Bison Smith & Keith Walker & Chris Hero & Claudio Castagnoli b Takeshi Rikio & Mohammed Yone & Akitoshi Saito & Genba Hirayanagi, Jun Akiyama b Naomichi Marufuji, Takeshi Morishima & Atsushi Aoki b Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma-DQ, Global tag league finals: Yoshihiro Takayama & Takuma Sano b Takashi Sugiura & Shuhei Taniguchi to win tournament

1/24 Mexico City Arena Coliseo (CMLL TV tapings): Astro Boy & Super Camaleon b Durango Kid & Cholo, Angel Azteca Jr. & Angel de Plata & Fabian el Gitano b Escandalo & Tiger Kid & Puma King, Mascarita Dorada & Pequeno Olimpico & Electrico b Pierrothito & Pequeno Black Warrior & Pequeno Nitro- DQ, Sagrado & Rouge & Toscano b Sangre Azteca & Dragon Rojo & Misterioso Jr., El Terrible & El Texano Jr. & Negro Casas b Brazo de Plata & Hector Garza & El Hijo del Fantasma

1/25 Columbus, OH (WWE Raw/Superstars TV tapings - 10,000): Bella Twins b Katie Lea Burchill & Jillian Hall, Chris Masters won three-way over Primo and Chavo Guerrero, Shawn Michaels & HHH b Ted DiBiase & Cody Rhodes, Big Show b MVP, Maryse b Eve Torres, Non-title: Kofi Kingston b The Miz, Gail Kim b Alicia Fox, Non-title: Sheamus b John Cena-DQ

1/25 Paris, France (TNA - 2,500): Suicide won three-way over Chris Sabin and Amazing Red, Robert Roode & James Storm b Eric Young & Rob Terry, Taylor Wilde b Hamada, Kurt Angle b Desmond Wolfe, Hernandez b Rhino, Tables match: Team 3-D b Doug Williams & Brutus Magnus, A.J. Styles won three-way to keep the TNA title over Samoa Joe and Daniels

1/26 Cincinnati (WWE Smackdown/ECW/Superstars TV tapings): JTG b Tyler Reks, William Regal & Ezekiel Jackson b Christian & Kane, Yoshi Tatsu & Hurricane & Goldust b Caylen Croft & Trent Barretta & Zack Ryder, David Hart Smith b Matt Hardy, HHH b C.M. Punk-DQ, R-Truth b Chris Jericho, IC title: Drew McIntyre b John Morrison, Michelle McCool b Layla, Shawn Michaels NC Rey Mysterio, Undertaker & Rey Mysterio & Shawn Michaels & HHH b C.M. Punk & Luke Gallows & Batista & Chris Jericho

1/26 Bournemouth, U.K. (TNA - 2,000): Chris Sabin won three-way over Suicide and Amazing Red, Eric Young b Hamada, Pope D’Angelo Dinero b Rhino, Kurt Angle & Hernandez won four-way over Doug Williams & Brutus Magnus, Robert Roode & James Storm and Team 3-D, I Quit match: Samoa Joe b Daniels, Velvet Sky & Madison Rayne b Taylor Wilde & Sarita, TNA title: A.J. Styles b Desmond Wolfe

1/26 Mexico City Arena Mexico (CMLL TV tapings - 2,000): Camaleon & Principe b Cholo & Zayco, Electrico & Mini Fantasy & Shockercito b Nitrito & Pequeno Violencia & Universito 2000, Cancerbero & Raziel & Virus b Angel Azteca Jr. & Angel de Oro & Angel de Plata, Fuego & Metro & Stuka Jr. b Okumura & Sangre Azteca & Vangelis, Hector Garza & La Sombra & Sagrado b Atlantis & Felino & Rey Bucanero-DQ

1/27 Cardiff, Wales (TNA - 2,000): Amazing Red won three-way over Chris Sabin and Suicide, Hamada referee: Taylor Wilde & Sarita b Velvet Sky & Madison Rayne, Global title: Rob Terry b Eric Young to win title, Tables match: Team 3-D & Kurt Angle b Hernandez & Pope D’Angelo Dinero & Rhino, I quit match: Samoa Joe b Daniels, Robert Roode & James Storm b Doug Williams & Brutus Magnus, TNA title: A.J. Styles b Desmond Wolfe

1/27 Chiba (New Japan - 900): Koji Kanemoto b Taichi, Tomohiro Ishii & Takashi Iizuka b Mitsuhide Hirasawa & Tiger Mask, Yuji Nagata & Wataru Inoue b Riki Choshu & Nobuo Yoshihashi, Gedo & Jado & Toru Yano b Prince Devitt & Ryusuke Taguchi, Non-title: Yujiro & Tetsuya Naito b Hiroshi Tanahashi & Kazuchika Okada, Manabu Nakanishi & Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma b Giant Bernard & Karl Anderson & Shinsuke Nakamura

1/28 Coventry, U.K. (TNA - 1,600): Suicide b Chris Sabin, Madison Rayne & Velvet Sky b Taylor Wilde & Sarita, Pope D’Angelo Dinero b Desmond Wolfe, Rumble rules match: Team 3-D & Robert Roode & James Storm b Doug Williams & Brutus Magnus & Rob Terry & Eric Young, Amazing Red b Hamada, Kurt Angle & Hernandez b Rhino & Daniels, TNA title: A.J. Styles b Samoa Joe

1/28 Tokyo Differ Ariake (Pro Wrestling NOAH SEM - 410): Naomichi Marufuji b Yoshinobu Kanemaru-DQ, Shuhei Taniguchi b Ricky Marvin, Takuma Sano b Atsushi Aoki, Takeshi Rikio & Mohammed Yone & Genba Hirayanagi b Takashi Sugiura & Takeshi Morishima & Taiji Ishimori

1/29 Manchester, England (TNA - 5,500): Amazing Red won three-way over Chris Sabin and Suicide, Global title: Rob Terry b Eric Young, Pope D’Angelo Dinero b Rhino, A.J. Styles retained TNA title in four-way over Samoa Joe, Daniels and Hernandez, Kurt Angle b Desmond Wolfe, Taylor Wilde & Sarita b Velvet Sky & Madison Rayne, Team 3-D won three-way tables match over Doug Williams & Brutus Magnus and Robert Roode & James Storm

1/29 Mexico City Arena Mexico (CMLL TV tapings - 9,500): Diamante & Sensei b Artillero & Durango Kid, Bracito de Oro & Mascarita Dorada & Ultimo Dragoncito b Pequeno Black Warrior & Pequeno Damian 666 & Pierrothito, Angel Azteca Jr. & Pegasso & Rey Cometa b Arkangel de la Muerte & Escandalo & Loco Max-DQ, Second block of Torneo Parejas Increibles Nacionales: Shocker & Sagrado b Valiente & Rey Bucanero, Negro Casas & La Mascara b Rouge & El Texano Jr., Hector Garza & Toscano b Felino & Sangre Azteca, Stuka Jr. & Ultimo Guerrero b Brazo de Plata & Ray Mendoza Jr., Negro Casas & La Mascara b Sagrado & Shocker, Hector Garza & Toscano b Stuka Jr & Ultimo Guerrero, Negro Casas & La Mascara b Stuka Jr. & Ultimo Guerrero

1/29 Los Angeles (ROH - 775): Colt Cabana & El Generico b Scott Lost & Scorpio Sky, Necro Butcher b Erick Stevens, Roderick Strong b Delirious, Tyler Black b Joey Ryan, Jerry Lynn b Kenny King, Jonny Fairplay ref: Larry Zbyszko b Scott Taylor (Scotty 2 Hotty), Kevin Steen b Human Tornado, Austin Aries b Jushin Liger, Chris Hero & Claudio Castagnoli & Eddie Edwards & Davey Richards b Mark & Jay Briscoe & Nick & Matt Jackson

1/29 Shirakawa (New Japan - 1,000): Koji Kanemoto b Mitsuhide Hirasawa, Tomohiro Ishii & Takashi Iizuka b Taichi & Tiger Mask, Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma b Riki Choshu & Nobuo Yoshihashi, Yuji Nagata & Wataru Inoue b Hirooki Goto & Kazuchika Okada, Hiroshi Tanahashi & Prince Devitt & Ryusuke Taguchi b Gedo & Jado & Toru Yano, Yujiro & Tetsuya Naito & Manabu Nakanishi b Giant Bernard & Karl Anderson & Shinsuke Nakamura

1/30 Macon, GA (WWE Tri-branded show): Yoshi Tatsu b Zack Ryder, IC title: Drew McIntyre b John Morrison, Bella Twins b Layla & Natalya, Fit Finlay b Tyler Reks, U.S. title: The Miz b MVP, ECW title: Christian b Ezekiel Jackson, Big Show b Mark Henry, HHH & Shawn Michaels & Kofi Kingston b Ted DiBiase & Cody Rhodes & Randy Orton, WWE title: John Cena b Sheamus-DQ

1/30 London, England (TNA - 7,000/5,000 paid): Hamada ref: Velvet Sky & Madison Rayne b Taylor Wilde & Sarita, Desmond Wolfe b Pope D’Angelo Dinero, Samoa Joe & Hernandez b Eric Young & Rhino, Robert Roode & James Storm won three-way over Team 3-D and Doug Williams & Rob Terry, Ultimate X match for X title: Doug Williams won over Suicide, Chris Sabin, Amazing Red and Daniels, TNA title: A.J. Styles b Kurt Angle

1/30 Tokyo Korakuen Hall (New Japan - 2,005 sellout): Tomoaki Honma b Nobuo Yoshihashi, Tiger Mask & El Samurai & Koji Kanemoto b Super Strong Machine & Wataru Inoue & Mitsuhide Hirasawa, Hirooki Goto b Kazuchika Okada, Gedo & Jado & Tomohiro Ishii & Takashi Iizuka b Riki Choshu & Ryusuke Taguchi & Togi Makabe & Taichi, Yuji Nagata & Yujiro & Tetsuya Naito b Tajiri & Karl Anderson & Giant Bernard-DQ, Shinsuke Nakamura & Toru Yano b Manabu Nakanishi & Hiroshi Tanahashi, IWGP jr. title: Naomichi Marufuji b Prince Devitt

1/30 Los Angeles Airport Hilton (Pro Wrestling Guerrilla - 1,100 sellout): Cutler Brothers & Christina Von Erie & Ryan Taylor b Johnny Goodtime & LTP & Candice LaRae & Malachi Jackson, Brandon Gatson b Brandon Bonham, Human Tornado b Super Crazy, Davey Richards b Kevin Steen, Great Muta & Kai b Joey Ryan & Scott Lost, Jushin Liger b El Generico, Paul London & Brian Kendrick b Generation Me, Rob Van Dam won three-way over Chris Hero and Roderick Strong

1/31 Mexico City Arena Mexico (CMLL TV tapings - 11,200): Bengala & Trueno b Apolo Estrada Jr. & Apocalipsis, Princesa Blanca & Princesa Sugei & Amapola b Lluvia & Lady Apache & Marcela, Okumura & Sangre Azteca & Misterioso Jr. b Fuego & Metro & Valiente, Toscano & Mascara Dorada & El Hijo del Fantasma b Negro Casas & Dragon Rojo Jr. & Felino-DQ, Atlantis & Ultimo Guerrero & Mistico b Volador Jr. & Maximo & Mr. Niebla

1/31 Tokyo Differ Ariake (New Japan - 1,800 sellout): Super Strong Machine & Tiger Mask & El Samurai b Koji Kanemoto & Nobuo Yoshihashi & Taichi, Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma b Tamon Honda & Kentaro Shiga, Takashi Iizuka & Tajiri b Yuji Nagata & Wataru Inoue-DQ, Kenny Omega & Kota Ibushi b Gedo & Jado, Yujiro & Tetsuya Naito & Ryusuke Taguchi & Prince Devitt b Toru Yano & Tomohiro Ishii & Giant Bernard & Karl Anderson, Hiroshi Tanahashi b Kazuchika Okada, Shinsuke Nakamura & Masato Tanaka b Manabu Nakanishi & Hirooki Goto

1/31 Tsuchiura (Pro Wrestling NOAH - 850 sellout): Yoshinari Ogawa b Akira Taue, Atsushi Aoki b Genba Hirayanagi, Naomichi Marufuji b Taiji Ishimori, Yoshinobu Kanemaru b Ricky Marvin, Takeshi Rikio & Mohammed Yone b Kishin Kawabata & Takuma Sano, Jun Akiyama & Yoshihiro Takayama & Minoru Suzuki b Takashi Sugiura & Akitoshi Saito & Shuhei Taniguchi

1/31 Mexico City (Perros Del Mal - 5,000 sellout): Turbo b Black Thunder, Cosmico & Mini Puebla b Mini Talisman & Mini Mr. Aguila, Veneno & Pesadilla & Super Crazy b Lizmark Jr. & Super Nova & Celestial, X-Fly d Charly Manson, Damian 666 & Halloween & Mr. Aguila b Groon XXX & Oriental & El Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr., El Hijo del Santo & L.A. Park b Perro Aguayo Jr. & Blue Demon Jr.-DQ

2/1 Nashville (WWE Raw/Superstars TV tapings - 15,184 sellout/12,000 paid): Katie Lea Burchill & Alicia Fox b Eve Torres & Kelly Kelly, Evan Bourne b Carlito, John Cena b Cody Rhodes, HHH b Jack Swagger, Randy Orton b Shawn Michaels, Ted DiBiase b Mark Henry, Kofi Kingston b Big Show-DQ, WWE title: John Cena b Sheamus-DQ

2/2 Memphis (WWE Smackdown/ECW/Superstars TV tapings): Vance Archer b Shelton Benjamin, Yoshi Tatsu b Trent Barretta, Non-title: Christian b Zack Ryder-DQ, John Morrison & Matt Hardy & Great Khali b David Hart Smith & Tyson Kidd & Drew McIntyre, John Morrison won three-way over Kane and Drew McIntyre, R-Truth b Mike Knox, C.M. Punk b Batista-COR, Chris Jericho b Matt Hardy, Mickie James & Beth Phoenix b Michelle McCool & Layla, Rey Mysterio b Dolph Ziggler, World title: Undertaker b Batista

Special thanks to: Suju Abraham, Mohammed Al Housani, Stewart Allen, Bryan Alvarez, Leo Avila, Matt Barker, Bill Behrens, Matthew Biesiad, Patrick Brandmeyer, Craig Broadfoot, Tom Brooks, Shane Browne, Joe Burrows, Albert Cerda, Jeremy Chapman, Mark Coale, Devin Cutting, Jimmie Daniel, Jonathan D’Antoni, Christopher DePetrello, Diane Devine, Joseph Duncan, Cody Endres, Matthew Evans, David Farmer, Shaun Farrugia, Mike Fitzgerald, Brandon Flarity, Jason Frost, Steve Garrison, Geoffrey Gillott, Manuel Gonzalez, Larry Goodman, Tim Graefe, Dan Graulich, Michael Gregson, Bradley Grover, Bruce Grummert, Ian Hamilton, Bob Johnson, Chris Kazmerzak, Tony Khan, Timo Knopf, Bryan Koval, Mike Kuzmuk, Greg Lambert, Jerry Lane, Patric Laprade, Dan Lennard, Patrick Lennon, Joel Lowitt, Stephen Lyon, Chris Marullo, Alex Marvez, Dr. Thomas Matthews, Lee Maughan, James McDaniel, James Mitkonis, Robert Miqueli, Shawn Moniz, Colin Moore, Anthony Morone, Rob Myers, Tim Noel, Michael O’Brien, Robbie O’Daniel, Steve Ogilvie, Caleb Palmer, Bruno Rail, Brian Robertson, Mark Schreiner, Graeme Shelvey, Charles Short, Ed Simpson, Thomas Simpson, Steve “Dr. Lucha” Sims, Rob Slater, Paul Sosnowski, David Spalding, James Stanios, Steve Stone, Andy Stowell, Anthony Sullivan, Sebastian Svensson, Scott Teal, Steve Te Tai, Greg Tingle, Bob Trobich, Casey Trowbridge, Dominick Valenti, Dan Wahlers, Cory Walker, Jereme Warneck, James Witcombe, Kyle Wolf, Ryan Woolslayer, Kris Zellner

CMLL

El Terrible & El Texano Jr. were suspended from Guadalajara for 60 days by the commission for fighting with a fan.

Ephesto will be out of action about two months with a leg injury.

Tinieblas Sr., who is about 70 or 71, announced he would be retiring at the end of the year, doing a retirement tour in the spring and summer.

They had a healthy crowd of 9,500 on 1/29 at Arena Mexico, headlined by the B block of the Parejas Increibles Nacional tournament (incredible partners teamed together best on home state). It came down to Negro Casas & La Mascara representing the Distrito Federal beating Hector Garza & Toscano of Monterrey when Mascara pinned Garza clean with la magistral. Casas & Mascara beat Shocker & Sagrado in the semifinals and Valiente & Rey Bucanero in the first round.

The 1/31 show at Arena Mexico was a rare Sunday outdrawing the Friday show, as they put 11,200 in for an increibles match where heels Atlantis & Ultimo Guerrero teamed up with long-time rival Mistico, against faces Volador Jr. & Maximo, teaming with heel Mr. Niebla. Even though Mistico is not an official heel, he played cowardly heel especially with Volador Jr. On 1/22, he played aggressive heel and people booed him. Apparently the response to him as cowardly heel wasn’t nearly as good. In the third fall, Mistico unmasked Volador Jr., who laid down with his hands over his face and allowed himself to be pinned to protect his identity.

They are expecting 15,000 fans for the 2/5 show on the 26th anniversary of the death of El Santo, headlined by Mistico vs. Volador Jr. and A block winners Mascara Dorada & Atlantis (representing Guadalajara) against Casas & Mascara for the tournament final. The tournament has done well, as the Mexico City fans have cheered for the Mexico City teams big-time.

AAA

The 1/24 TV show did a 2.4 rating, but the show also aired at Noon on Sunday, away from its normal time slot. Televisa in the usual slot aired the Saints vs. Vikings game, which did a 3.7, or about the same as AAA has been doing of late, and half of what AAA was doing in the time slot a year ago. The Raw show the same day, in the normal time slot, did a 7.9 rating, about 20% lower than usual, but still more than double the game to determine who goes to the Super Bowl.

The major changes are supposed to go into effect this week. There is expecting to be a booking change with Dorian Roldan giving up a lot of the work. Vampiro is supposed to be back as part of a crew running the dressing room and attempting to teach discipline and professionalism. Amazing is all I can say.

There are talks about an invasion angle ala the NWO angle which could take place within the next two weeks. Two of the biggest names in the country are both being talked with.

Teddy Hart has been suspended for two months and it’s questionable whether he’ll even be brought back. When instructed to do things, he did the opposite one time too many. Plus people here are tired of him constantly telling them how is uncle Bret is getting him into WWE to join the Hart Dynasty. I think the Hart Dynasty’s best interests is not to want him around, because he’s a guaranteed heat magnet and the last thing they need is to be painted with his brush.

Josip Radocaj, the wrestlers’ father claimed Sanford manipulated his son into marriage after his son got a $49,000 insurance settlement after an auto accident that left him with a broken neck.

Chasyn Rance, who has appeared in the past in ROH as well as on TNA television, is on the cast of “Tool Academy 3,” a reality show on VH-1 that debuts on 2/14 in a Sunday at 9 p.m. time slot. The theme of the show is that the people were bad at relationships and were sent by their partners thinking they are in some sort of a competition, but in reality are put into a charm school like atmosphere teaching them to be better partners. Each week someone is eliminated, and their significant other than decides whether they’ve improved enough or not, and decides whether or not to break up with them. There’s a $100,000 first prize to the last person standing.

Joey Kovar of MTV’s Real World and Celebrity Rehab 3 is now training in Illinois with the POWW promotion and owner Jimmy Blaze.

William Mueller (former WWE wrestler Trevor Murdoch, more recently Jethro Holliday in TNA) and wife Amanda are now running “T. Murdock’s Bar and Grill” in Eldon, MO. One of the items on the menu is the Harley Hamburger Steak, named after the usual order from his trainer, Harley Race.

A correction on the Art Crews mention a couple of weeks ago. The prison he’s running is in Wisconsin, not Oregon.

Human Tornado is being talked with about coming in as a tag team with Jack Evans.

Remember never to go too crazy publicly about a major company. Juventud Guerrera’s own promotion isn’t doing very well, and CMLL has no interest in him, so he’s trying to return here. Due to all the issues he caused with the Roldans and Konnan, it doesn’t look like he’ll be brought back. The guy has so much talent but he’s managed to get where every major promotion in the world doesn’t want him.

They have two TV tapings coming this week, as 2/5 in Puebla has Latin Lover & Mesias & La Parka vs. Dr. Wagner Jr. & Electroshock & Silver King and Alan Stone & Elegido & Pimpinela Escarlata vs. Chessman & Alex Koslov & Zorro.

2/7 in Salamanca has Mesias & Marco Corleone vs. Wagner Jr. & Electroshock and Cibernetico & The Clowns vs. Konnan & Chessman & Zorro & Koslov.

PERROS DEL MAL

The company had its most successful show to date on 1/31 in Mexico City, putting 5,000 fans into a 4,000-seat Sala de Armas for a show that included El Hijo del Santo. In the top two matches, Damian 666 & Halloween & Mr. Aguila beat Oriental & Groon XXX & El Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr., while Santo & L.A. Park beat Perro Aguayo Jr. & Blue Demon Jr. via DQ. Lots of post match talk with the first public challenges for a mask vs. mask vs. mask vs. hair match. Aguayo Jr. has talked of building up all year to that match.

DRAGON GATE

Cima is off the January tour due to injuries from the 1/23 show in Chicago, including torn ligaments in his left leg.

Jack Evans, L.A. Park and El Hijo del Rey Misterio will be in for the 3/26 and 3/27 shows in Phoenix.

ALL JAPAN

There’s a loaded show featuring several outside stars on 3/14 at the Saitama Super Arena. Announced matches are Keiji Muto & Kai vs. Satoshi Kojima & Kaz Hayashi, plus Masahiro Chono vs. AKIRA, and Masakatsu Funaki, Kota Ibushi, Jinsei Shinzaki, Takashi Sugiura, Yoshihiro Takayama, Taka Michinoku, Atsushi Aoki and Taiji Ishimori.

PRO WRESTLING NOAH

Kenta Kobashi underwent both right knee and right elbow surgery back on 1/6, and what was supposed to be a two-hour procedure lasted seven hours. There is no word when or if he’ll be able to return.

Akira Taue promoted a show in his home town of Tsuchiura on 1/31, drawing a sellout in the 850-seat gym. Taue actually lost to Yoshinari Ogawa in the opener. The main event was the first time trio of Jun Akiyama & Yoshihiro Takayama & Minoru Suzuki of All Japan, as a unit, beating Takashi Sugiura & Akitoshi Saito & Shuhei Taniguchi.

Atsushi Aoki vs. Minoru Suzuki has been added to the 2/28 Budokan Hall show.

NEW JAPAN

Naomichi Marufuji returned to defend the IWGP jr. title against Prince Devitt on 1/30 at Korakuen Hall before a sellout of 2,005 fans. Marufuji won in 12:19 with the Tiger frosien. After the match, Koji Kanemoto challenged Marufuji to get the belt back for New Japan. In a big surprise in the semi, Shinsuke Nakamura & Toru Yano beat Hiroshi Tanahashi & Manabu Nakanishi when Tanahashi went for the high fly flow (frog splash), and Yano got his knees up, and then Yano pinned Tanahashi. They also built the Yuji Nagata vs. Tajiri match as Nagata & Yujiro & Tetsuya Naito beat Tajiri & Giant Bernard & Karl Anderson via DQ when Tajiri blew the mist in Nagata’s eyes. They also honored the late Black Cat (Victor Mar) in a trios match bringing back El Samurai to team with Tiger Mask & Kanemoto to beat Super Strong Machine & Wataru Inoue & Mitsuhide Hirasawa.

Kazuchika Okada had his final match in New Japan, perhaps for as long as a year or two, losing to Tanahashi the next night at Differ Ariake before another sellout of 1,800. It was billed as his Sayonara match as he’s leaving for TNA as they want him gone for a while to gain experience, because Okada has good size and athletic ability and they see him as a future star. Yano came in with scissors and went after Tanahashi’s hair. He didn’t get the hair, but did hit him with a chair and cut his face, so they are doing a program. Kenny Omega & Kota Ibushi came to New Japan, the first time Omega has worked for the promotion, beating Gedo & Jado. Jado was carried out on a stretcher. Not sure what happened or if it was legit, but sounded it, since he was rushed out of the arena in an ambulance. Gedo & Jado were doing a move and hit heads and Jado was knocked out cold, so it wasn’t a stretcher job from a beat down or anything. Nagata gained revenge in a tag match (Nagata & Inoue vs. Tajiri & Iizuka) by blowing mist in Tajiri’s eyes to help build their 2/14 singles match at Sumo Hall. Recently fired NOAH wrestlers worked the show as Tamon Honda & Kentaro Shiga lost to Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma.

OTHER JAPAN NOTES

Asashoryu (Dagvadorj Dolgolsuren), the biggest sumo star of the decade has his career in jeopardy after allegedly punching someone that he knew in a drunken tirade. The 29-year-old Mongolian, who has two brothers who were pro wrestlers (Sumiyabazar Dolgolsuren, who also lost to Kurt Angle in the 1996 Olympics, and Blue Wolf), was reported as being drunk outside a pub in Nishiazabu on 1/16 and slugging a man in charge of the dance club that he had been drinking at. Weekly gossip magazines alleged he punched the man, whose name wasn’t identified, in the chest while leaving the club. Later, Asashoryu told the man that they should talk in his car. The man said that the punch to the chest should be water under the bridge. Asashoryu’s driver came down a street where police were at because of an auto accident. As they drove past the police, the man screamed “Help, I’m being attacked,” and police came to his aid. Allegedly Asashoryu hit him in the face. The man was treated for injuries including a broken nose, as well as a cut on the lip and bruises on the back of the head. Asashoryu on 1/24 won his 25th Emperor’s Cup tournament, putting him in third place for major tournaments won in the history of the sport. The next day he admitted to drunken behavior as was reported in the magazines and was reprimanded by the Japanese Sumo Association. Sumo officials said that if criminal charges are brought against Asashoryu, due to the strict code of the sumo association, he would likely be forced to immediately retire. To avoid that, Asashoryu reached “an amicable settlement” with the man according to Japanese Sumo Association officials on 1/30. The settlement is said to include that the man does not file charges. The Sumo Association will determine any punishment in the sport itself sometime this month.

When Akebono & Shinjiro Otani won the NWA Intercontinental tag team titles from Ikuto Hidaka & Munenori Sawa on 1/27 in Tokyo at Shinjuku Face, it became something unprecedented in Japanese wrestling history. Akebono was champion simultaneously in three of the company’s five biggest promotions, holding the new title he had won in Zero-One, the All-Asian tag team titles with Ryota Hama in All Japan, and the Open the Triangle Gate trios belts in Dragon Gate. Toshiaki Kawada returns to defend the Zero-One world title on 3/2 against Ryoji Sai.

Vader, 53, teams with son Jesse White, making his debut, on 4/29 in Tokyo or the Vader Time promotion. Jesse White was the most heavily recruited center in the country, but after signing with Oklahoma, where he’s set to graduate this year, he suffered back injury and couldn’t play.

Tajiri vs. Tommy Dreamer will be one of the main events on Tajiri’s first Smash event on 3/26 in Tokyo. The only other names listed for the promotion thus far are Hajime Ohara and Kushida.

HERE AND THERE

With all the New Orleans Saints “Who dat” chants that have gotten so much national publicity, it should be noted that the chants originated in 1980 at the Downtown Municipal Auditorium in New Orleans during Junkyard Dog matches. The chant was, “Who dat think they can beat that Dog, Who dat, Who dat.” After JYD left Mid South Wrestling for WWE and wasn’t wrestling in town almost every week, the same chants started getting popular at Saints games. I don’t know that any media has made that connection.

In another quasi-Super Bowl reference, the first-ever NFL championship game, which was played indoors with dirt imported into Chicago Stadium because of a blizzard on an 80-yard field. The game was in 1932 with the Bears beating the Portsmouth Spartans. The score was 0-0 in the fourth quarter, when the ball was handed off to Bronko Nagurski (who later became a NWA world champion as a pro wrestler), who threw a pass to Red Grange in the end zone. After a late safety, the Bears won 9-0.

The new updated Observer index, which lists the lead stories in every issue of the Observer dating back to the first issue 27 years ago, is available for $18 in the U.S. and Canada and $28 overseas at grantsindex@nexicom.netThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . . Pro Wrestling Guerrilla had the biggest show in its history in conjunction with Sal Corrente’s Wrestle Reunion convention (which featured a ton of huge names including RVD, Bruno Sammartino and Bret Hart and the convention was said to be a success) at the Los Angeles Airport Hilton. They drew about 1,100 fans on 1/30, outdrawing ROH the night before. They used the ROH lighting and entrance, making it the most major league looking event they’ve done. Among the stars on the show were Rob Van Dam, Great Muta and Jushin Liger. They also did a Brian Kendrick & Paul London vs. Generation Me match. RVD’s win over Chris Hero and Roderick Strong headlined in a good match. RVD did more than people expected in his first U.S. match in recent memory and used the five star frog splash on Hero for the pin. He didn’t have to do anything as he was so over, but kept up with the other two, but the match was more a showcase for him. London & Kendrick vs. Generation Me was set up earlier in the show when The Young Bucks came out, said they were now Generation Me, and turned on Kendrick. London, who was not advertised on the card, made the save. London had some ring rust, and missed a lot of spots. Long match that ended with London using a shooting star press for the finish. Generation Me played heels like they were leaving the fans behind and going t TNA and playing it up. Liger pinned El Generico in a match the fans loved. Muta & Kai from All Japan beat Joey Ryan & Scott Lost. Muta sold more than expected, did all his trademark moves, and let Kai carry things and he looked good. Davey Richards beat Kevin Steen with an armbar. Richards challenged PWG champ Kenny Omega for a title shot. Hero also issued a title challenge. Human Tornado pinned Super Crazy.

An update on Gene Kiniski. He is currently in a nursing home in Blaine, WA, battling congenital heart failure from recent water weight gain, although he is making a comeback from his cancer. He’s most frustrated with his losing his eyesight, as he has always been a voracious reader. Since retirement, he would read as much as eight hours a day. He’s still sharp as a tack mentally at 81, and he’s still fighting.

The second week was better news for Dwayne Johnson’s movie, “Tooth Fairy,” as the drop was only 29% from opening weekend. The general rule is you hope for a drop of less than 40% and pray it’s not more than 50%. Except for “Avatar,” it had the lowest drop, and was actually in second place behind “Avatar” among movies that weren’t released this weekend. It was fourth overall behind “Avatar” and new releases “Edge of Darkness” and “When in Rome.” Weekend No. 2 2was $9,998,102 for a two- weekend total of $26,104,387. The movie has done strong international business, as it has surpassed $50 million worldwide in two weeks out, so the news is a lot more positive on it than it was a week ago.

There was a wrestling convention horror story, but it was a U.K. convention. Molly Holly, Bushwhacker Luke Williams, The Barbarian, Fred “Typhoon” Ottman, Nikolai Volkoff and Mr. Fuji were all detained by immigration agents as they arrived, and told they didn’t have the necessary paperwork to work in the country. They were allowed to stay until the next flight available would take them home. Several others, including Terry Funk and Howard Finkel, did get in. The local promoter told the fans about the no- shows that a rival promoter called immigration and said the wrestlers were terrorists to sabotage his event, but the UK immigration officials and they needed to have the right documents in place to enter the country to work.

Wrestler/historian Matt Farmer, who did the research work on the greatest drawing cards of all-time feature we did in several issues last year, while researching Australia, came upon some interesting notes. In 1965 and 1966, when Jim Barnett promoted weekly shows at Sydney Stadium (which held about 14,000 fans), the average weekly attendance was 9,000. Granted, Memphis did numbers just under that during the heyday of Jerry Lawler and Arena Mexico in its best year a few years back was probably ahead of that, but historically, you’ll find very few cities in history pulling that kind of an average per week. It also noted that during that period, Killer Kowalski, the biggest star in the country at the time, paid taxes on $140,000 income during one year there and Bruno Sammartino was paid $20,000 for a three-week tour. It cost Barnett a lot more than that, because he had to pay Vince McMahon Sr. a hefty price to pull his champion away from all his cities for three weeks.

CHIKARA Pro set its all-time attendance record with 600 fans for the 1/31 show at the Arena in Philadelphia.

Retired wrestler Torrie Wilson wrote something strange on her Twitter account on 1/27. She wrote that she was alone in her house, felt scared, pulled out a loaded pistol and fired a shot into her bathroom that went through the ceiling.

Another retired wrestling personality, Jackie Haas (formerly Jackie Gayda) is in a contest to become a cover model for the fitness magazine Status. In her bio, she mentions being a college athlete (track and field) and a professional wrestler, and now a mom.

I’ve been reading a book called “Swimming with Piranhas,” which is a pro wrestling book written by Howard Brody (former many year NWA president although he won’t rank up there with Sam Muchnick for historical value) on the last few flights. I’m surprised nobody has talked bout this book because in some ways it’s one of the best wrestling books out there. Everyone who has any intention of getting into pro wrestling from a business standpoint should read it because every type of hustler and con artist imaginable shows up during Brody’s journey through the pro wrestling business. It’s the most real book about wrestling outside of WWE/TNA, most notably the underbelly of the business, that I’ve seen. I’m not saying people should read it because it will scare them away from getting into the business (although that would be the sane reaction), but simply you need to be armed with the knowledge of the kind of people you meet, so at least you are forewarned. Quite frankly, I think people who want to work in the MMA business should read the book, because the kind of people who came out of the woodwork in the 90s and early 00s and wanted to bring pro wrestling to their country, or get involved in running pro wrestling shows, for the most part are wanting to do MMA in this decade. There are a lot of interesting characters involved, some of whom people that have been really into the indie scene over the years would know. But it’s really a story about a guy who so badly wanted to make it in wrestling and always seemed on the verge of a big score, only to find out that the business people, one after the other, were con men themselves hoping for their own score, that never came.

ROH

A lot has gone down and we’ll have a major story hopefully next week on it, but Davey Richards, who was thought to be on the way out, choosing Dragon Gate USA and Evolve, and then having the tag titles taken from he and Eddie Edwards, signed a new contract the first week of January. Richards got a raise from the $350 per night he was making to $500, the same as he was making with Dragon Gate USA and Evolve. ROH offers more dates. Richards is also done with Dragon Gate in Japan, and apparently has a spot in this year’s New Japan Super Juniors tournament. There was been a lot of legal threatening, as ROH threatened Richards, and talked of getting an injunction against Richards working the Dragon Gate USA shows in Phoenix. Gabe Sapolsky said Richards told him he had signed and would be finishing up on 1/22, two weeks after he signed the deal. Sapolsky asked him to at least honor his commitments and work the Phoenix shows, which are the same weekend in the same city as ROH events. He went back-and- forth on it, saying yes. Dragon Gate did not want Richards beating Masaaki Mochizuki for the FIP title, since they thought he was leaving. Sapolsky convinced them to have their guy lose since Richards would then put over BxB Hulk in Phoenix in a title match that would give Hulk a big win. Then Richards told Sapolsky he wasn’t doing the show. There have been claims, denied by ROH, that Richards was offered the ROH title as well.

ROH filed a lawsuit on 1/28 against Richard Fliehr (Ric Flair) alleging that he still owes the company in excess of $41,420 for dates paid for in advance, as well as other damages. According to the lawsuit filed on 1/28 in Bucks County, PA, Flair signed to do five house shows for $50,000 in February with the money paid in advance. The contract also called for a $2,500 increase in pay if Flair worked as a referee or a manager (which never came into play). The contact said that if Flair missed one of the dates, he would have three business days to return the $10,000. Flair worked four dates. The lawsuit claimed he missed a 7/24 date in Montreal (that 7/24 date was actually in Toronto and Bret Hart was booked for that date well in advance, while Flair did appear on 7/25 in Toronto which was his final ROH appearance). But he did four dates and never returned that $10,000. Flair signed a second contract in April where he was paid $35,000 to appear at seven television tapings. He only appeared at one and hadn’t refunded the remainder of the money according to the suit. There was blow up between the sides after Flair said he wouldn’t appear on television. Flair at the time claimed it was his choice to pull out of the television show. WWE had made it clear to Flair that they didn’t like the idea of him appearing for ROH on television, which was why I was surprised at the time the deal went down, since Flair was still in the mind set at the time of wanting to maintain a cordial relationship with WWE. ROH was going to use Flair in the role as the company ambassador, with the hope that his name affiliated with the product would help them in marketing shows overseas. Flair appeared at one set of tapings, and then before the second set of tapings, Flair said he would appear as advertised but could no longer appear on television as he was going back to WWE. It had been more than six months with the company not being paid back by Flair, who has been financially strapped due to large alimony payments to ex-wives. While Cary Silkin wouldn’t directly comment on it, those in ROH had said the Flair situation was one of the real disappointments for Silkin, since getting Flair with the promotion was a crowning achievement for him at the time. When Flair went to ROH, he was hoping Mark Cuban, the owner of HDNet, would get behind the promotion, back them, and it would become a major company with him as the face of the company. He also hoped ROH would be a place where his son, Reid Fleihr, could work and be protected early in his career and start to make a name in the business. Someone that inexperienced being able to make it in ROH, even with Flair involved, would be difficult given the high expectations of ROH fans when it comes to match quality. Reid ended up being arrested on drug charges and ROH decided against using him. WWE also made it clear they didn’t want to use Flair any longer if Flair was appearing on what they considered a rival television show.

The 1/29 show in Los Angeles as part of Sal Corrente’s Wrestle Reunion convention drew 775 fans, which was considered a big success, considering when ROH ran at a convention a few years back at the Cow Palace in San Francisco they only did 300 fans. Then again, this convention was umpteen times more successful than that one. Scott Taylor (Scotty 2 Hotty) wrestled Larry Zbyszko with Jonny Fairplay as referee. Fairplay came too the ring with Alexis Arquette (David’s brother) and cut a promo saying David was the only real world champion at the convention (which included Bruno Sammartino and Bret Hart). Zbyszko did the famed Zbyszko stall and the people turned on this match bad. Zbyszko also won with a schoolboy when Fairplay distracted Taylor. Then Taylor went to give Fairplay the worm, but Colt Cabana attacked Taylor, and he gave Fairplay the worm and stinkface. Kevin Steen pinned Human Tornado with a package piledriver. The bottom rope broke and while repairing it, they had a dance-off with Adam Pearce, Todd Sinclair, Bobby Cruise and Tornado, who danced while still selling his back and neck from the prior match. While he was dancing, Steen attacked him again. Austin Aries beat Jushin Liger in a non-title match. Liger went for his palm strike but Aries put the ref in the way. With the ref down, Aries used a low blow and brainbuster. People weren’t happy with that kind of finish in an ROH match, let alone with a Japanese star, but it was Liger who came up with the finish. Fans were really into Liger and the match itself was good. Main event saw the American Wolves & Chris Hero & Claudio Castagnoli beat Briscoes & Generation Me in a match with one move after the other, Ending with Eddie Edwards making Nick Jackson submit to the Boston crab. Also said to be great, and the best match of either weekend show.

Super Parka debuts on the 4/3 show in Charlotte. Oh dear. , , The Briscoes vs. Dark City Fight Club has been added to the 2/13 show in New York as has Necro Butcher & Eddie Kingston vs. Erick Stevens & Joey Ryan.

Added to the weekend TV tapings are a 2/5 match with Chris Hero vs. Jay Briscoe and a 2/6 match with Mark Briscoe vs. Claudio Castagnoli.

TNA

Kurt Angle’s name came up in a federal trial of nine men associated with Applied Pharmacy in Mobile that is going on this week. Assistant U.S. Attorney Donna Dobbins said there were doctors hired to write sham prescriptions in her closing arguments on 2/2, saying owners made millions of dollars in profits dealing steroids from 2003 to 2005. “Each one of them (the defendants) participated in this conspiracy. They operated a steroid mill, and they would dispense anabolic steroids to anyone whose credit card was good.” She noted that they dispensed steroids to people in 41 states, and mentioned Angle and Jose Canseco as clients.

Ric Flair’s role, besides being A.J. Styles’ manager, is to be his hands-on wrestling coach. The feeling is Styles is phenomenal inside the ring, and Flair is supposed to teach him how to play the role of world champion outside the ring. This could change, but from what we’re hearing, they are looking at asking Styles to bleach his hair for the Nature Boy gimmick. Part of the idea is to make him be a guy who stands out in a crowd.

Rob Terry won the Global title from Eric Young on the 1/27 in Cardiff, Wales, which is about a half hour from Swansea, Wales, where Terry is from. So he played the local babyface. TNA was filming the match so clips will probably air on Impact. His family was there and they were also doing interviews with them. It’s been a long time since they’ve done a title change off television. It may have been a last minute change. At the very least, Terry didn’t know about it until the day of the show. No surprise if you think about it because Hogan comes from the 80s and in the 80s a guy like Terry, whether he could work a lick or not, would have been pushed as a main eventer.

Regarding RVD, he said there hasn’t been any serious talks of late with TNA. He said for a long time he really didn’t consider going, because he knew going would shut a door for him with WWE and wasn’t really wanting the door shut. He said he’s less concerned about shutting that door now. But he said he’s happy to do his few European tours per year that he can go on with his wife and take days off to hit Amsterdam, which is one of his favorite places. He also said if TNA goes to live weekly TV, he’s really not interested, because flying from Los Angeles to Orlando would have to take place the day before a taping, and then he’d have to fly out the day after, so it’s three days a week on the road and a fourth day recovering and he doesn’t want that life. He’s not interested in regularly working indies but would be open to guest appearances if offers came from either company. “I do have some interest right now in what’s going on with the big companies,” he told Alex Marvez this past week. “I know Hogan would like to have me. Eventually (TNA) may start to wear me down and my `no thanks’ will become, `well, maybe.’ I have some interest, but I don’t know what’s going to happen. I don’t see myself going back to the full-time, ridiculous never-ending WWE schedule. I couldn’t wait to get away from it before.” He’s also noted that he can see retirement from the ring pretty soon. He’s now 39 and doesn’t see himself wrestling well into his 40s. While almost everyone says that, and continues to wrestle because, well, what other job is a wrestler going to hold where he can remain a celebrity and make the same type of income, Van Dam walked away at his peak and spent years on the sidelines not rushing back, so that says he can walk away.

After doing Raw in Nashville on 2/1, Bret Hart went out with TNA personnel, as Jeremy Borash showed a photo of Hart with them on his Twitter page.

Scott Hall & Sean Waltman being removed from the video open of the show is not indicative of a negative sign. It was done for storyline reasons. The idea is that Hall & Waltman in storyline aren’t under contract, and thus, why should they appear in the open? The feeling is that they are going to be used until the planned storyline they are in runs its course. At that point, they’ll decide what to do next.

Hogan has been complaining to friends about frustrations because he feels pressure to push people he doesn’t want to. Apparently Dixie Carter doesn’t want the old crew buried, but there are people in the old crew who Hogan sees nothing in and wants to get rid of. Hogan was high on Tomko saying he at least looks like a wrestler.

Lockdown will take place on 4/18 at the Family Arena in St. Charles, MO. The deal was just put together after whatever the original location they had ended up canceling them as WWE came in and booked the arena and insisted on a non-compete within a time frame that aced TNA out. Something to remember the next time Vince McMahon cries about being bumped. They will be doing a fan fest on 4/17 in conjunction with the event.

Awesome Kong put together a group called Wrestlers 4 Haiti and raised $6,000 at a club in Lancaster, PA on 1/15. Kong spent a day-and-a-half promoting the event on local radio, and got the help of 24 wrestlers and her efforts raised $3,500. Mick Foley then donated another $2,500. Kong said that Foley’s agreement to match anything the first $2,500 that was donated really gave the rest of them impetus for the project.

At press time, there was nothing new on Kong’s future with the company. The belief was no news meant that she was staying.

Taz was contemplating knee replacement surgery this past week. He said he may opt for three injections into the knee joint which he hopes will relieve enough pain for a few years before needing the knee replacement, although figures at some point he will need the surgery.

Eric Bischoff is still trying to recruit Jim Ross to be an announcer. Ross’ short-term contract extension with WWE expires in mid-March, but WWE would likely try and lock him down for a long-term deal before the expiration. Besides the obvious factors like money, exposure and fun, don’t think there is a new wrinkle in what Ross wants and doesn’t want to do, having to do with the deaths of several close friends in a short period of time, not to mention the health issue with Gerald Brisco and his own Bell’s Palsy has seen him make major lifestyle changes pertaining to exercise, diet and weight loss.

Ed Leslie was backstage at the last night of TNA tapings in Orlando on 1/20.

As far as Honky Tonk Man goes, it’s one of two things. Either he was just saying he was going to TNA and indicating it on his web site as a way to keep himself in the news, or he believed he was going based on what has been said was a crank phone call from Lacey Von Erich. The story is that as a prank, Von Erich called Honky up and said he was Dixie Carter, and started negotiating with him. When Bischoff and Hogan were asked about the story on Bubba the Love Sponge, Bischoff said he would rather drive a rusty ice pick through his thigh than do business with Honky Tonk Man and that he couldn’t draw flies if he was rolling in shit. Honky Tonk Man had a brief run in WCW in the mid-90s, which didn’t last because he refused to put people over that they asked.

Hogan said the plan was to push the envelope and not be the family-friendly product WWE is trying to be. He also talked about wanting to bring in Randy Savage to manage Jay Lethal, which I can’t imagine would ever happen. Hogan ripped on Vince Russo, as when his new book was talked about, Hogan said, “Who the fuck is going to read it?” Hogan said Lacey Von Erich didn’t have a clue how to work while Bischoff said they can teach her and she’s got a great personality. Hogan said he’s tired of watching The Pope lose. I’m not sure why he’d be losing then. Bischoff called him one of his favorite personalities. Hogan put over Abyss, saying that he’s his favorite character in the promotion, calling him “my next John Cena.” In a funny one, Hogan claimed he had inside sources in WWE who told him that the original plan for Mania was Bret Hart vs. Michaels. When asked who from WWE he would most want, Hogan said Cena and Orton, and then also mentioned Show (who is one of his friends). Bischoff said Show was lazy. Hogan said he wasn’t lazy when he was training to be a boxer. They also praised Desmond Wolfe, with them implying they want him to be a James Bond character and talked about his new second, Chelsea, like she’s a Bond girl. Hogan also praised Jericho (Jericho carried Hogan to one of Hogan’s best matches of the last decade on television about seven years ago). Bischoff said he thinks Jericho is very good but doesn’t see him as a headliner and that evidently Vince McMahon doesn’t either. Jericho responded immediately via his twitter saying, “Bischoff’s right, I can’t headline in TNA cos I’m not in my 50s.” . . As far as anyone knows, B.G. James working as an agent at the PPV was just a one-time thing because Scott D’Amore was unable to be there.

A funny marketing story from the company. The company track record is they go into markets, draw okay if they’ve never been there and tell the marketing people they’ve done a good job. Then, a year later, they go back, market the exact same way, the crowds are way down, and blame the marketing people for not promoting well. The company is going on the belief that house show attendance will increase because of Hogan and Flair in the company even though they aren’t doing the house shows. Actually, at least before the U.K. tour, which has been down in most markets from the last time, that seemed to be the case the first two weekends in the U.S.

The next TNA epics show will air after Impact on 2/11, and be based around Sting.

Bubba the Love Sponge and his people on 2/2 attempted to get Wrestling Observer Live pulled from Sirius. They claimed that it’s one thing for Opie & Anthony, who are full-timers, to get knocking Bubba, but that part-timers shouldn’t be doing so. They were confused, as apparently someone sent him a tape, which they played, of a discussion on our radio show on the web site (which is not on Sirius) and he thought it was the Sirius show, which I haven’t had a part of for more than two years. It was a discussion where I thought no matter what you think of Bubba, that Awesome Kong’s actions can’t go unpunished and that while what Bubba did saying “Fuck Haiti” trying to be in his shock jock role was stupid and horrible timing, that isn’t justification for him to be punched. Bryan was less sympathetic to Bubba’s plight. I wasn’t really sympathetic to Bubba either, but even though Kong was absolutely justified in being mad, that isn’t justification for starting a fight. Anyway, Bubba’s producer called me up very early in the morning (before 7:30 a.m. because I didn’t get the message until waking up) leaving an insulting message, but at the same time inviting me on the air, and also saying that you’re going to lose your radio show (which I don’t even have in the first place). They complained to Sirius, claiming that on their airwaves, hosts were advocating people to physically attack Bubba. Sirius investigated, found that nothing was said on their airwaves even remotely close to what they were claiming, and apparently the situation is over.

The deal about the six-sided ring already being sent to the U.K. which is why it was used on this tour isn’t technically correct. TNA has a six-sided ring that has been in storage in the U.K. since their first tour.

Overall it was said to be the smoothest international tour so far. Nobody was in a bad mood or brought morale down, the way Booker T did on the last tour. There were chants of “We Want Six Sides” in several of the cities, even though the ring had six sides, but I guess they realize this is probably the last time for that. Crowds were down from the first time. Most of the crowds were hot and virtually every report said the shows themselves were really good. Some cities the crowd wasn’t as hot and in Manchester, there were a ton of complaints over the fact the show was advertised around doing a ladder match for the title, and they didn’t do it. The way they got out of it was to have Styles say he wasn’t going to participate in a ladder match to put heel heat on him, but with Dixie Carter sitting right there and the big gimmick advertised not happening, it didn’t go over well. The actual reason was that they couldn’t find a ladder suitable for a ladder match. All the ladders in the building, including the one brought to the ring, were one-sided and made of aluminum so they couldn’t stand up to the match and by the time they found it out, it was too late to have someone look for a store to buy a new ladder.

Matt Morgan didn’t go on the tour, so no tag title matches, because he went back home to stay with his father, who underwent surgery to remove a cancerous tumor in his brain. The belief was the surgery was a complete success and Morgan described it as miraculous.

1/26 in Bournemouth, U.K., drew 2,000. A.J. Styles beat Desmond Wolfe in the title match main event. After Styles won, he told the crowd the reason TNA has grown in popularity is because of him. Styles played the heel. Most didn’t know that Styles was a heel and there were a lot of Styles signs in the crowd. Velvet Sky & Madison Rayne arrived for the show to beat Sarita & Taylor Wilde in a bad match doing a spraying perfume in Wilde’s eyes. It was Wilde’s 24th birthday and they did get the crowd to sing Happy Birthday to her. Samoa Joe, on the show he injured his rib, beat Daniels in an I Quit match. Said to be the blow away match on the show. Joe won with a guillotine. Kurt Angle & Hernandez won a four-way over British Invasion, Team 3-D and Beer Money when Angle pinned Magnus with an Olympic slam. Pope D’Angelo Dinero came in after recuperating from a stomach infection and beat Rhino. The crowd thought Rhino was the face. It was pretty clear from reactions that much of the crowd didn’t watch TNA on television. Rhino did insult the audience and turned the crowd on him. Eric Young beat Hamada in a Global title defense. Opener was Chris Sabin winning a three-way over Suicide and Amazing Red. Earl Hebner came to the ring dressed up like Bret Hart in the 90s, with the sunglasses and the leather jacket.

1/27 in Cardiff, Wales, drew 2,000 fans. Red beat Sabin and Suicide in the three-way, in a great match, billed as to determine the No. 1 contender for the X title. Wilde & Sarita beat Rayne & Sky with Hamada as referee. Hamada was ref when Earl Hebner, playing heel, refused to appear until he got the respect he deserved. Rayne and Hamada argued. Rayne slapped Hamada, who head-butted Rayne and Sarita then pinned Rayne. Rob Terry came out, billed from Cardiff, Wales instead of Swansea. He came in carrying a Welsh flag and did all the things WWE makes Regal not do when he’s in the U.K. Hebner again dressed as Hart to referee, playing heel throughout the match. Hebner was also signing autographs with the phrase, “I screwed Bret.” Young said Terry worked for him in World Elite, even though World Elite was dropped a few weeks ago. Terry won with a running powerslam. 3-D & Angle beat Hernandez & Dinero & Rhino in a tables match. Angle & 3-D worked as the faces, even though Hernandez & Dinero are not heels on television. Angle used an Olympic slam on Rhino through a table to win. Crowd was into Angle a lot more than 3-D. When he wasn’t in, the crowd would chant “We Want Angle.” If Bubba or Devon would tag in the other, the crowd would boo. Joe beat Daniels in the I Quit match. Both were cheered but Joe more than Daniels. Joe won with a choke. Beer Money beat British Invasion. British Invasion was cheered coming out until they ripped on Rob Terry, saying he’s no longer part of the group and they were babysitting him, just like the British have been babysitting the Welsh. It was advertised as a flag match but they just did a regular match. Main event was Styles over Wolfe. Styles worked as the babyface, not even showing hints of being a heel or a Nature Boy. The pin came with a Styles clash. Dixie Carter thanked the crowd for coming.

On 1/28 in Coventry, England, they drew 1,600. The last time in the city they sold out. Styles beat Joe to keep the title in the main event. Angle & Hernandez beat Rhino & Daniels. Angle got the biggest reaction. They did a singles match where Red beat Hamada, as well as a Rumble entrance style eight- man with Beer Money & 3-D over The Invasion & Terry & Young, who were all back together. Wolfe was pinned by Pope. Not sure why they wouldn’t use Wolfe as a babyface for the U.K. and to do media as the local guy who is usually a heel but gets cheered at home, as that’s a role people get behind. Then again, who would ever think like that when you can use Rob Terry from Wales in that role in England.

1/29 in Manchester drew 5,500 in the big MEN Arena, but the way they blocked the arena off, it looked packed. The crowd was super hot for the sow. Red won a three-way over Suicide and Sabin and an opening spotfest style match the crowd liked, with Red using the Canadian Destroyer on Suicide for the pin. Terry pinned Young to keep the Global title. Borash called the Wales-born Terry, “one of the most promising British wrestlers for a long time.” Terry did get a big pop coming out with the belt. Young tried to carry him, but a few minutes in, the crowd saw through him and started chanting “You can’t wrestle,” at Terry. Match was sad and the crowd started chanting “You stole T-shirts” at Hebner (in reference to what he was allegedly fired by WWE for). The Pope beat Rhino. Both were cheered coming out, but Rhino yelled at the crowd to turn himself heel. Still, 30% of the fans cheered him and there were dueling chants. Rhino pinned a gore and Pope used a neckbreaker. In the non-ladder match, Styles won over Daniels, Joe and Hernandez. Styles said that he phoned up Flair and his lawyers and said he wouldn’t have a ladder match or defend the title. Dixie Carter came from the crowd and said she was the boss and it was going to be a title match in a four-way. At one point Styles put the figure four on Daniels and then got up and strutted around like Flair. Styles kicked out of Joe’s muscle buster and ended up winning with the Styles clash on Daniels. Good match but there were a lot of “We want ladders” chants. Angle pinned Wolfe in 8:00 with the Olympic slam. Wolfe got a big pop coming out, but he decided to play heel, saying how Manchester fans were “gap-toothed, whippet-breeding inbred northern monkeys,” how he’s from London, and how Chelsea (the rival of both Manchester soccer teams) was his favorite team. Big chant of “Chelsea Rent Boy” (“Rent Boy” means male homosexual prostitute). Good match but short. Wilde & Sarita beat Sky & Rayne when Rayne shoved ref Hamada, who shoved her back into Wilde’s schoolgirl. They headlined with 3-D over Beer Money and the British Invasion in a tables match. The crowd cheered all three teams big. They were really into seeing Williams come to the ring with the X title. They turned the Invasion by having Beer Money say they were going to give backstage passes out to the fans. The Invasion grabbed the passes and ripped them up. Lots of “Beer Money” chants, ending with a 3-D on Magnus through a table. 3-D and Beer Money drank beer in the ring while 3-D said Beer Money was the future of tag team wrestling.

The final show of the tour was 1/30 at Wembley Arena in London, before 7,000 fans, with a little over 5,000 paid. The first time in Wembley they did 8,100, which is the largest crowd in company history. So this would have been probably the second or third largest crowd in company history. Sky & Rayne beat Sarita & Wilde with Hamada as ref by Sky using perfume in the eyes to win. Wolfe pinned Pope clean with the Tower of London. Pope worked as the heel since trying to make Wolfe the heel in London was going to be fighting the crowd. Joe & Hernandez beat Young & Rhino with Joe over Rhino with the muscle buster. Beer Money won a three-way over 3-D and the Invasion (on this night being Magnus & Rob Terry). The British Invasion worked as heels here. 3-D put Terry through a table after the match. The big thing on the show was an Ultimate X match, and Doug Williams, who they announced won the X title, retained over Suicide, Sabin, Daniels and Red. Among the highlights were Daniels being slammed on the structure above the X and Suicide dropping from the structure above the X and crotching himself on the cable, which allowed Williams to get the belt and win. Styles pinned Angle in the main event with a brainbuster on the title belt. Even though they acknowledged Williams as champion, which took place on the show two days earlier, they still used Earl Hebner as referee, even though Hogan had suspended him on the same show.

Notes from the 1/28 TV show. The show continues to be easier to follow and generally filled with better promos. The storylines may actually make even less sense, but the show is more loaded with star power so it’s a plus. The show opened with Hogan and Bischoff in the ring. When we last saw Bischoff, he was a bloody mess. A week later, and he’s fine. He noted that he fired Foley so the problem was taken care of. Hogan then called out Foley. Yes, he was fired, but he was there. He came out and Hogan said he wanted the two of them to work out their differences because Foley could be a true asset to the company. Bischoff still wanted Foley gone. Foley claimed he never attacked Bischoff or else Bischoff would still be showing the signs of it and he’d be in the hospital. Jeff Jarrett and Bubba were talking like they were best friends and Bubba was looking out for him. Keep in mind this was after they were doing their “it’s a shoot” radio interview where they were yelling and screaming at each other, which aired on last week’s show. Good to see that in storytelling, we’re still in an A, B, C, D, E, story, going from A to D to D without the to, B or C. Mr. Anderson did an interview with Christy Hemme. They played it up like they were good friends from the WWE. At least I think that was the idea, as Anderson was acting like the two of them went way back, like they were sleeping together in high school, and given they were living nowhere near each other in high school, that couldn’t have been it. Anderson said he had an open challenge and hoped Abyss would answer it. He should stick to wanting Abyss to stand behind him while he cuts interviews. Next, we had a tournament to determine the No. 1 contender. We did that over the holidays. Lashley won. He still hasn’t gotten the title shot and it hasn’t been mentioned in weeks. It’s called the Eight Card Stud tournament. I guess because eight guys are in it, and somebody watched poker in the middle of the night in the last week. Desmond Wolfe pinned Sean Morley. We learned Wolfe’s valet is named Chelsea. They didn’t have the balls to call her Stephanie. I guess the name isn’t British enough. So they named her after the ex-president’s kid or that woman who does the late night comedy show. Usual 3:00 TV match. Crowd didn’t care an iota about Morley. Morley was on the top rope when Wolfe swept his leg and Morley crotched himself. Wolfe won with the Tower of London. Jarrett was backstage with Hogan and Bischoff. Remember how this Hogan vs. Jarrett feud was supposed to portray both as faces. Then they turned Jarrett because the fans were booing Hogan. Well, now Jarrett is back as a face. Jarrett apologized for something, I guess because the fans booed Hogan. He wanted to get a fresh start. Bischoff didn’t like it, but said Anderson needed an opponent and he needed a main event. Jarrett thought he wanted a PPV match, but Bischoff said it was the TV main event tonight. The storyline is Jarrett hadn’t wrestled for seven months, wasn’t in ring shape and now had to wrestle Anderson. A.J. Styles and Ric Flair were with a model showing a ton of expensive suits and Styles wanted Flair’s advice over which one to buy. Flair told him he’s the champ, so he should buy all of them. Flair can give him lessons on picking up women. He can give him lessons on working the crowd and doing promos and how to get in the ring and make the other guy look like a star. But he should not be giving him advice on spending money as champion. Flair and Styles talked about going on a 30-day vacation and Styles was going to get a bunch of women, and they were going to have a party. Styles was better this week and Flair was hilarious. Hernandez pinned Daniels in the tournament after a Dominator. Daniels made Hernandez look like something here. They did an in-ring with Mike Tenay and the Nasty Boys. 3-D came out. They went back-and-forth and announced a match for 2/14. The funniest line was when Sags called Bubba “fat boy,” with Knobs, who suddenly makes Bubba look like Cody Rhodes, standing next to Sags. Pretty good segment. The Nasty Boys claimed they beat the Hart Foundation, the Road Warriors (not sure when that would be) and Hall & Nash (not sure about that either) while 3-D talked about how in the ten years since the Nasty Boys left, they had won tag team titles in every organization. Crowd took to 3-D as the faces. Bubba called the Nasty Boys “Knobs and Skanks.” The Beautiful People did a promo talking about wanting the tag titles. They did the thing where they motioned for the belts around their waist. When they did the motion, Lacey Von Erich couldn’t figure out why they wanted the belts “in our bellies.” She’s actually quite good in playing that role and Russo writes some good stuff for her. Bischoff met with Bobby Lashley. Bischoff was all nice to him, saying he and Hogan have talked it out, talked about what a great athlete Lashley is, then fired him. Lashley then freaked out as security pulled him away. Let me get this straight. Lashley spends three weeks trying to quit, and then freaks out when he’s fired. He’s no longer a “two-sport superstar” under this regime. Good to see they are doing the same storyline for Lashley and Foley, and it makes no sense with either one. I guess the idea is to put all the heel heat on Bischoff. That should help PPVs and house shows to no end, given Bischoff never wrestles. At least with WWE and Vince, they always made sure to keep the upper echelon guys looking strong. In a trios match, Sky & Rayne & Von Erich beat the three champions, Tara & Kong & Hamada. Kong only did a double clothesline spot. Fans were chanting about how she beat up Bubba. Kong didn’t look happy at all. I mean, her gimmick isn’t to be out there smiling and looking happy, but she looked a lot more annoyed just being there. Von Erich tagged in and did a quick arm twist and that was it. It was mostly Hamada trying to work with Rayne and they couldn’t get it done. Hamada gave Rayne a moonsault, but Sky saved. Hamada then hit Rayne with a moonsault but Sky saved. Von Erich hit Hamada with the ugly stick and Rayne pinned her. Rayne then hit Tara with the ugly stick. Kong chased Sky to the back. Angelina Love then did a run-in to make the save. Hogan was backstage with Earl Hebner and asked why he called for the bell. Hebner first said that he saw Angle tap. The old Nick Patrick defense. Hogan didn’t buy that one. Hogan mentioned the Bret Hart angle in 1997 and him doing the same thing then. While we’re at it, why not have Styles punt Hogan and Bischoff in the head and have Bischoff’s kid who Ernest the Cat taught karate to make the save and run off Styles, Flair and whoever else is a heel this week? Hogan said they’ve both been in the business 30 years and he can’t figure out why he did it. Join the club. Hebner said that Vince didn’t screw Bret, Shawn didn’t screw Bret, he screwed Bret. He said he screwed Angle because Flair paid him big money to do so. Okay, now we know these storylines aren’t realistic. The least he could have said was Flair put the NWA title belt that actually meant something up to him as collateral. Hogan told Hebner he’s suspended and has to leave the company. So of course, Hebner is at all the shows this week playing heel referee. Flair and Styles were now partying with four women. Flair was holding the belt. Bubba (as in the Love Sponge, not the 3-D guy) was talking with Foley. Bubba was worried Foley was going to be fired again by Bischoff. Foley said he owns a 2002 Minivan and doesn’t owe anyone in the world a dime, so no matter what happens, he’ll be fine. Some people see the glass as half-empty and he sees it as half-full. Angle came out and said his match with Styles at Genesis was the best match of his career (it wasn’t even his best match in the last few months), but he couldn’t understand why Styles did what he did, you know, winning with outside interference. Yes, Kurt Angle couldn’t understand why Styles would use outside interference. He said Flair was using Styles. Angle vowed to win the tournament and get a shot at the title. Based on TNA track records, if he wins the tournament, he’s the only guy in the company not getting a shot at the title. Hogan came out and said Angle spitting in his face last week was not acceptable. He said he’d fire Angle if it ever happened again. Angle apologized. The two shook hands and Hogan left. Scott Hall & Sean Waltman then attacked Angle. Waltman is called 6- Pac. Security kicked out Hall & Waltman, who noted to security they’d be back next week. Unless they’re booked for a match, in which case one would no-show and the other would arrive at the last minute. Chris Sabin & Alex Shelley & Brian Kendrick beat Generation Me & Amazing Red in 2:36. Yes, these guys had the second shortest match on the show. They rushed through spots until Sabin & Shelley had Red down and out. Shelley kicked Red and pinned him. Sabin & Shelley weren’t happy Kendrick stole their win. The British Invasion continued to beat down Red. I have no idea where Generation Me went. Rob Terry was about to cash in his briefcase, but Brutus Magnus told him to give it to Doug Williams. They started arguing. When they came back, Red who was all beaten down by a bunch of guys, was fine and doing high spots until Williams used the Chaos Theory suplex to win the title in :26. Foley and Bischoff had their meeting. Foley wondered what Bischoff did in faking the bleeding and blaming him. Bischoff never explained his actions, but it was made clear Foley never attacked him and Bischoff made it up. Foley did a long speech about how he would rather clean up real life shit (a deuce) than work for Bischoff. Keep in mind Bischoff has been wanting to fire the guy for weeks, and Foley has also said for weeks he’d never work for Bischoff. So Bischoff told Foley that if Foley quits, he’s firing his friends Abyss and Jeremy Borash. So now Bischoff is forcing him to stay even though he wants him gone. You could probably make sense of that in some way, but nobody tried. Bischoff then walked from his office into the party with Styles and Flair. He didn’t want to join in. He told them that they have to cut short their vacation because they are defending the title on the 2/14 show. Bischoff said he wanted to fire Flair, but Flair signed his contract before they got there and it was a no-cut contract so they’re stuck with him. Anderson pinned Jarrett in the main event. Jarrett was super over as a face. The gimmick is Jarrett has to start from the bottom and work his way up. Now, that’s an age old angle, where headliners lose a few, and vow to start from the openers against job guys and work their way back up. In the 2010 WCW remake version, starting from the bottom means starting in a main event, but having your entrance music taken away. The match was very good as far as making Kennedy look like a star and getting over Jarrett. The MVP of the match was neither guy, but Jeremy Borash (who even though in storyline he’s off television, remained in his role of crowd cheerleader. Before the match, he gave the crowd a pep talk basically telling them how to react, what the storyline was, and well, they listened). The crowd being so into Jarrett made both men come across as big stars. I think for storyline because the whole deal they were selling was Jarrett being rusty having not wrestled for so long and not knowing he was going to wrestle, but there he was in his regular ring gear. This should have been explained, either by saying with veteran wrestlers, there’s a saying, “always bring your gear.” Either that or he should have worked the match in somebody else’s gear for authenticity (reminiscent of when Kelly Kelly’s baggage was lost at the airport a few weeks ago on Raw, or when Bob Sapp walked out on a match with Ernesto Hoost at the last minute, and Peter Aerts, who was at the show in Amsterdam to be an announcer, stepped in, and had to wear Semmy Schiltt’s gear (made for someone who is a legit 6-11 ½). Jarrett went for the stroke, but Anderson used a low blow and got the pin. He also beat down Jarrett after the match and gave him the mic check, while announcing his name. Anderson came off like a big- time star here and really throughout the show. They showed Bischoff in the office watching the monitor all happy that Jarrett lost. Anderson attacked Jarrett after the match, gave him the mic check and made the announcement for his win.

UFC/WEC

The 4/10 show in Abu Dhabi will be held at the Ferrari World Concert Center in Yas, the same site which holds an annual Formula One racing show. They are going to push it as the biggest event ever outside of North America, which as far as a lineup goes, it is. The press conference was hosted by Marshall Zelaznik and Lorenzo Fertitta, with five of the six main eventers. As noted, Dana White didn’t go because he wasn’t allowed to fly after nasal surgery, and Matt Hughes also didn’t attend. Fertitta said the plan is to run one show a year in Abu Dhabi, but they’d like to see how the first one goes before finalizing that decision.

Brock Lesnar has been wanting to fight as soon as possible, and the date being talked about is the 5/29 show in Las Vegas even more than the 7/3 show, which was the original thought. . . WEC General Manager Reed Harris mentioned on a radio interview that the first WEC PPV would be in May for the Jose Aldo Jr. vs. Urijah Faber match. He also said it would be priced at $44.95, the same as UFC shows. May could be a problem because 5/1 is Mayweather vs. Mosley, 5/8 is UFC from Montreal and 5/29 is UFC from Las Vegas. So they have 5/15 as a Saturday, which will go against a Juan Manuel Marquez HBO boxing match, or 5/22. The problem with May is doing a WEC event on PPV on a month where there are already two UFC events sounds like too many shows in one billing period. There has been talk for a while of WEC going on PPV, and last year the Mike Brown vs. Urijah Faber fight was at first announced by Dana White to go on PPV, but they got cold feet and put it on Versus. They were going to budget the show to where they would come out okay with 50,000 to 60,000 buys (that was the level they were hoping for, less than 50K and they weren’t going to be happy, at 75K they’d be doing cartwheels). It’s an experiment to see if Faber is big enough to draw on PPV. I’m a little surprised at the price tag, but that is the going price for MMA on PPV and I don’t know that going at $34.95 would really mean more people would buy. Boxing does small PPV events aimed at the Mexican audience, and that was the model they talked about since the belief is those shows are profitable. Boxing does usually charge a lower price for them. The fight itself is “PPV worthy” in the sense it’s the biggest fight in the history of the promotion. I don’t want to make a prediction right now because it all depends on marketing in the last week, Countdown shows, the undercard to a degree (although WEC drawing or not drawing on PPV is more can they with the right match and they won’t have more of a right match, or if not enough of the public considers WEC a PPV promotion). But for sure, if it was up to me, I’d run April or June, because it’s going to be lost in the shuffle in May.

The UFC video game sales have topped the 3.5 million mark worldwide. THQ credited the game with the company setting revenue records in July.

The evolution of UFC and with fighters making more money has led to two issues. The top fighters since they aren’t financially pressed, now have more leverage when it comes to turning down fights. You can never force people to fight each other, but when fighters need money they aren’t going to turn down fights. When they don’t need money, if there is a guy who they feel is either better than his reputation or a bad style match-up, they’ll be more apt to steer clear of them now than ever before. One of the things with UFC that a lot of people have praised is that it’s not like boxing in the sense that when there is a big match that the public wants, it happens, although UFC isn’t going to use people in main event matches that they don’t have locked down to contracts. But the natural evolution of the sport is that aspect, both the bad people involved, and those issues in boxing are almost inevitable to surface in MMA. The other big matchmaking issue right now, and it’s getting worse, is that the top fighters are for obvious reasons, more and more gravitating to a select few major camps. It’s really notable with the Greg Jackson team at light heavyweight, AKA at welterweight and Xtreme Couture at lightweight where you’ve got several top contenders who won’t fight their buddies or training partners.

Starting on 3/27, UFC PPVs are going to have a Spanish language announcing team with a separate live Spanish language broadcast through all major U.S. PPV providers, as well as a French language broadcast and team, for Canadian PPV providers. UFC is really gearing up at making a push toward the Hispanic demo. Troy Santiago and Victor Davila will be the Spanish language hosts.

Mostapha Al-Turk, who was scheduled to face Rolles Gracie in a prelim match on the 2/6 PPV, had to pull out because a visa issue made it impossible to come to the U.S. UFC had known about the problem for at least some time and Joey Beltran had been contacted as the replacement, and it became official on 2/2. Beltran (10-3) is coming off a TKO stoppage win over Houston Alexander on a 1/16 indie show in Tulsa.

The 2/23 Sacramento Kings vs. Detroit Pistons NBA game will be Urijah Faber Night.

Robert DeNiro personally called Randy Couture and said he wanted to go to the fight on 2/6. As of last word, he didn’t fully commit to going but gave the indication he probably would.

A few more matches have been announced for WEC on 3/6 in Columbus, OH. Chad Mendes (5-0), the much talked about featherweight from Urijah Faber’s camp, makes his debut against Erik Koch (8-0). Mendes was a college wrestling star at Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo, who was ranked first at 141 for most of the 2008 season (he ended up placing second), and always talked about getting into MMA. Everyone raves about him. Also added to the show is Karen Darabedyan, coming off a win over Razor Rob McCullough, faces Bart Palaszewski, off a win over Anthony Pettis.

Carlos Condit’s return is expected against Rory MacDonald on the 6/12 show in Vancouver. After Condit sliced his hand in an accident when working his garage, which forced him off the Jan. 2 show and a fight with Paul Daley, he ended up getting a staph infection, and surgery. Also on that show is expected to be Pat Berry vs. Gilbert Yvel, which should be a stand-up war of heavyweights.

Fredson Paixao vs. Bryan Caraway has been added to 3/6 in Columbus, OH. The Jens Pulver vs. Javier Vazquez fight on this show is scheduled for a prelim fight as opposed to being on television, even though from a popularity standpoint, Pulver would easily be the most popular fighter on the show. In his case, it is understandable because of the feeling nobody wants to see him look bad again.

Efrain Escudero suffered tendon damage in his arm when he waited too long to tap in his 1/11 fight with Evan Dunham. He’s having an MRI done this week to determine the extent of the damage. There were reports of Escudero vs. Dan Lauzon on the 5/29 show in Las Vegas. That is all dependent upon how extensive the damage to Escudero’s arm is.

Diego Sanchez vs. England’s John Hathaway (12-0) in Sanchez’s first match back as a welterweight will be on the 5/29 show in Las Vegas.

STRIKEFORCE

Pat Miletich said this past week that they are working on an announcers fight with him against Frank Shamrock. Several weeks back in talking with Scott Coker when the subject of Shamrock came up, the two names he was talking about were Miletich and Cung Le. What’s tough regarding Shamrock now is that his price is high, and coming off losses to Le and Nick Diaz, it’s going to be hard to have him as the main event on a major show.

They are working on a The 3/26 show in Fresno is headlined by the return of Lavar Johnson of Fresno, who will headline against Lolohea Mahe of Hawaii. Johnson, a 6-4, 250 pound heavyweight with some high level crowd appeal, had beaten Carl Seumanutafa in :18 on 5/15 and seemed to be in line for a push as a rising star. But on 7/4, while attending a family barbeque in Bakersfield, a few teenagers on the street started shooting in the house. Johnson was shot in the stomach and his cousin died. Johnson spent one month in the hospital and lost 60 pounds. He was finally cleared to start training in December. The rest of the show, which will air at 11:45 p.m. that night on Showtime, will have Abongo Humphrey vs. George Bush III, Luke Stewart vs. Andre Galvao, Zoila Frausto vs. Meisha Tate in a women’s match and Justin Wilcox vs. Bryan Travers.

Besides Bobby Lashley, new names in the EA Sports MMA video game are Nick Diaz, Marius Zaromskis, Joe Riggs and Melvin Manhoef.

K-1/DREAM

The first Dream show of the year will be 3/22 at the Yokohama Arena with Bibiano Fernandes vs. Joachim Hansen (who will cut down from the 155 weight class, which he was too small for, to 138) for the featherweight title. It would be expected to air on HDNet. If it airs live on HDNet, that would mean it would start a few hours after the UFC show in Broomfield, CO. They announced plans for this year for shows in April, May, July, September and October, as well as being part of the traditional New Year’s Eve show. There is talk of one of the shows in South Korea and one in Macau, as well as a tournament to crown a light heavyweight champion, and possibly a middleweight champion.

OTHER MMA

HDNet announced a multi-year television deal with Terry Trebilcock’s King of the Cage promotion, for live monthly shows debuting with a 2/12 show at 10 p.m. Eastern. The show, which will be titled “Mark Burnett Presents King of the Cage,” is built around the name of the man behind shows like “Survivor,”and “The Apprentice.” His name has bounced around MMA, as he was going to be behind Elite XC’s attempt to get a reality show, and produces “Bully Beatdown” on MTV.

Another celebrity who debuted over the weekend was Jason David Frank, a former member of the Power Rangers, who won his debut on 1/30 in Houston beating Jonathan Mack with an uma plata submission in the first round. Frank fought at 220, but said he wants to get down to fighting at 185. The match was taped for HDNet and I’m guessing will air on Inside MMA.

Wilson Gouveia, cut by UFC after his 12/12 loss to Alan Belcher in Memphis, has signed with the Maximum Fighting Championships.

Tim Sylvia has a March fight signed with Wes Sims.

Former WCW promoter Gary Juster will be promoting the first MMA show in Greenville, SC at the Bi-Lo Center on 2/5, built around the debut of local kickboxer Steven Thompson.

Former UFC fighter Kuniyoshi Hironaka debuts in shoot boxing on a 2/13 show at Korakuen Hall. Shoot boxing is a Japanese sport which is similar to San Shou and to an extent WWE Brawl for All, where it’s a combination of boxing and takedowns but you are stood up after a takedown, which scores points. He’s been training in boxing and wants to return to Dream as a better boxer.

Alex Reid, an MMA fighter in the U.K., who gained some publicity for being the former boyfriend of U.K. model Jordan (real name Katie Price), just won the current season of “Celebrity Big Brother,” in that country. They pushed him on the show as being a far bigger star in MMA than he actually is. Reid is 8-8-1 and fought for the Cage Rage promotion in the U.K., but hasn’t fought since 2007. He’s not considered a UFC prospect with the idea of capitalizing on the fame. He has fought a number of name fighters, losing to Jorge Rivera, Tony Fryklund, Murilo Ninja Rua, Mark Weir and Dave Menne. Apparently the TV audience hated Reid when the show started several weeks ago, but he “turned public perception around” according to the European wire services and won a telephone vote over a number of celebrities. One of the people he beat in the competition was Vinny Jones, who co-starred in “The Condemned” with Steve Austin.

Former world Greco-Roman champion Joe Warren has signed with Bellator for its featherweight tournament starting in April. Warren should probably have won MMA rookie of the year honors as he came into the Dream featherweight tournament with no pro fights, and ended up going to the semifinals of a 15-man before losing to eventual winner Bibiano Fernandes. In doing so, he won a close decision over one of the biggest names in the sport, Kid Yamamoto.

WWE

With very little fanfare, considering what a big fuss was made over a similar situation in Denver last year, the Smackdown tapings on 2/9 in New Orleans have been moved to Baton Rouge at the River Center. The city of New Orleans scheduled a downtown Super Bowl parade that would be taking place at the same time as the tapings. Tickets for the New Orleans show will be honored at a 5/28 house show scheduled for the New Orleans Arena.

A correction from last week’s awards issue is Michael Hayes should have been listed at No. 4 as best booker with 89 votes.

WrestleMania 27 was officially announced for April 3, 2011 at the Georgia Dome. The plan is for Raw to be held the next night at the Phillips Arena. The official announcement was on 2/1 in a press conference at the Georgia Dome, attended by Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed. This shows just how big Mania has become, because you now have major cities putting in bids for it because of the amount of money it brings to the local economy. The Atlanta Sports Council pushed hard to get the event. Rich McKay, the president of the Atlanta Falcons, who play at the Dome, was there and escorted to the podium by Eve Torres and Kelly Kelly, and joked about how glad he was that Arthur Blank (the Falcons owner) had a schedule conflict and he would have to sub for him here. He joked about how the Falcons would love to sign Big Show, but he was positive they couldn’t compete with what Vince pays him. Show probably earns along the lines of what the NFL average is, but he meant it as a joke anyway. Vince talked about Atlanta’s great wrestling tradition. On a local sports radio show, Vince talked about was working with Ray Gunkel (who was the top Georgia babyface of the 60s before Tim Woods, and ran the promotion for years) on a documentary the two were doing for HBO. I’ve never heard of it and the timing doesn’t sound right since Gunkel died of a heart attack before HBO existed. Edge, Batista, Mysterio, Henry, Cena and Show all spoke. Batista and Edge did a storyline argument that most in attendance didn’t understand. Several in the sports media were critical of the event, claiming WWE will only bring trailer trash to the city, which is beyond ludicrous. Jeff Schultz of the local Atlanta Journal-Constitution noted how Vince was laughed out of the football business, but the Falcons put their logo on the backdrop at the press conference, and brought four players and the team president. He noted the Falcons are co-promoters of the event, and part of their role in the promotion of the show is to sell corporate sponsorships. It was the same deal WWE made with the Arizona Cardinals for the upcoming show. Vince said that wrestling has been an exhibition since Abraham Lincoln was a pro wrestler. Lincoln was a wrestler, that much is certain. I don’t know about it being an exhibition that far back, but everything I’ve read indicates the opposite.

The talk is that WWE isn’t going to renew a lot of the legends marketing contracts when they start expiring this year.

It was announced by WWE Japan on 2/1 that Antonio Inoki would be inducted into the Hall of Fame this year, with Stan Hansen doing the inductions. That’s unique, because even though Inoki and Hansen did have a famous feud in Japan from 1979-82, including a 1980 match where Hansen ended Inoki’s five-year run as NWF champion (New Japan’s world title at the time), Hansen is far better remembered for being the top foreigner for All Japan, Inoki’s rival group, and that was a bitter promotional rivalry. It would be equivalent to when Hogan went in, having Verne Gagne induct him. Inoki was a larger-than-life superstar in Japan, culturally bigger than even Hogan in the U.S., second only to Rikidozan. But this would be the first time WWE would have inducted someone based on being a Japanese star. It will be interesting to see if Inoki is called a former WWE champion. On November 30, 1979, in Tokushima, Japan, in an NWF vs. WWF title match, Inoki beat Bob Backlund to win the title. I’m not sure all the politics that went down, but it was a mess at the time. The deal in those days is that Baba set a precedent where he’d offer a $25,000 bonus to get the belt for a week, which he did a few times and the champs like Jack Brisco and Harley Race were glad to get that kind of a payoff. Inoki likely did something similar with Backlund. This set up a rematch on December 6, 1979, where Backlund pinned Inoki to win the title due to interference of Tiger Jeet Singh, since Inoki wasn’t going to do a clean job in Japan. However, and this part may or may not have been agreed to, when the match was over, Hisashi Shinma, the figurehead WWF president at the time and New Japan’s booker, announced that due to the interference, the result was overruled and Inoki was still champion. Backlund went back to the U.S. with the belt while in Japan Inoki was recognized as champion. In Japan, they were pushing a storyline that Inoki and Backlund would fight over the vacant title on December 17, 1979, in Madison Square Garden, which was an event TV-Asahi was broadcasting and several of the New Japan wrestlers were scheduled for. However, in New York, they were in the middle of a Backlund vs. Bobby Duncum feud. There were several days where there was a lot of commotion in the Japanese press regarding negotiations and such, and how it was reported (and I presume much of this was kayfabed) was that Inoki was stepping aside and would be defending his World Martial Arts title against the Great Hossein Arab (who was better known as the Iron Sheik) while Backlund and Duncum would meet for the vacant title. In New York, it was billed as Backlund defending (and Backlund defended the belt at house shows for a week prior). However, as a concession to the Japanese storyline, Backlund did not come to the ring with the belt, and it was brought in by an official, and when Howard Finkel did the ring announcing, Backlund was not announced as champion before the match.

Honky Tonk Man claimed on his web site that he turned down an invitation to be inducted in the WWE Hall of Fame this year. It makes sense, since he lives in Phoenix, which is where the show is coming from. He said he was asked on 1/22 by John Laurinaitis and officially turned him down five days later. He said his reasons were he was booked for the Wizard World Comic Convention in Toronto the same weekend and didn’t want to cancel a booking on the Wizard World people. He said he didn’t want to pull out because they had already advertised his appearance, and because they have seven bookings for him this year, which total ten times what he would be making if he did the Hall of Fame (believed to be $50,000 vs. $5,000). He said WWE also wanted a non- compete for several months after doing the Hall of Fame and he’d have no way to earn money during that period. He said he would earn more for a weekend with Wizard World then for doing the Hall of Fame. Later, Honky Tonk Man made clear that John Laurinaitis treated him with the utmost of respect in the talks, praised him, saying Laurinaitis has a difficult job since he’s middle man in all his talks but he can’t make the final calls because that’s Vince’s role. He thanked Laurinaitis for trying to get him into the Hall of Fame.

President Obama’s budget plan includes a provision allows the IRS to have the power to require reclassification of many workers currently considered independent contractors and have them labeled as employees. It would require companies to pay payroll and unemployment taxes on wages that they avoid with independent contractors. This hasn’t been passed into law, but is currently under discussion. Based on if, and what the bylaws are, this could affect wrestlers, whose independent contractor status has been up for debate for a long time.

The episode of “Psych” with Cena that aired on 1/27 did 4.4 million viewers, up 6% from usual last season’s opener. That’s a natural variation, but when 18-34 was up 51% and the other demos didn’t move, I think we can attribute that rise to Cena. Cena got good news this past week as he had an MRI to check on his neck and back pain, and the damage wasn’t as bad as feared. He had been taking it easy in the ring as much as possible without making it obvious the past few weeks, and we’ll see if he starts doing more longer singles matches again.

Notes from the 2/1 Raw show in Nashville. For Superstars, they taped Katie Burchill & Fox over Kelly & Torres, plus a hot match with Bourne pinning Carlito. The show was based around matches to determine who gets in the Raw Elimination Chamber title match. Show opened with Edge out. He said he can decide which title to go after. He said he watched the Slammys and when Jericho thanked him saying his injury was the reason Show & Jericho won tag team of the year, it made him motivated to rehab harder than ever and get back. He said when Jericho mocked him like that, the room went silent, and not just because Dennis Miller bombed with anther brutal joke. It’s funny, because when Edge delivered that line, the room went silent as it was a reference to something nobody in the audience seemed to remember or care about. He said he had missed two Manias during his career for injuries and was determined to make it back in time for this one. When he first came out, a lot of people cheered just because he was back. But when he did his promo, particularly when he called himself the “Ultimate Opportunist,” the crowd booed him thinking he was still a heel. He made a joke about Jericho saying that he’s now got a Slammy as well as having his mug shot on TMZ. He noted that he wrestled Undertaker two years ago in the Mania main event and lost, and unlike Michaels, he’s not obsessed with doing it again. He said what is the smart move to make, facing a guy who is 17-0 at Mania or facing a guy who has never even wrestled at a Mania, in reference to Sheamus. Sheamus came out and Edge called him “an evil Ronald McDonald.” He basically intimated he’s waiting until after the Elimination Chamber PPV to make his decision. Sheamus said that he’s never wrestled at Mania, but he beat Cena. Sheamus said he was leaving the Chamber as champion and told Edge to leave the ring or he’d put him out for good. Edge got in his face and Sheamus attacked, but Edge came back and laid out Sheamus with a spear. Cena beat Rhodes with the Attitude Adjustment in 2:51 in the first Chamber qualifying match. Rhodes did a moonsault block right before the finish. Match was too short but they had a lot to get to on this show. Vince told Josh that Bret wasn’t going to be there, in that code word way of making sure everyone knew Hart was coming out later. Vince went into his office and then saw someone. He cut a promo on the guy making you think it was Bret Hart having snuck into his office, and made reference to being a Canadian. As it turned out, it was William Shatner, who is Canadian, and said he couldn’t wait for Hart to embarrass Vince later in the show. HHH pinned Swagger in 9:07 in another qualifying match. HHH gave Swagger almost the entire match. Swagger then pointed to the Mania banner like he was going, and HHH hit the pedigree for the pin. Michael Cole made a reference to HHH as “The canniest player in the game.” Sounds too much like the Flair “Dirtiest Player in the game.” They taped a comedy bit where Shatner was dramatically saying the words to WWE entrance music like Michaels, Cena, HHH and Mysterio. It was a spoof on Shatner’s overacting and that he did a comedy album like that at one point. Kind of predictable but Shatner was pretty funny doing a dramatic reading on Mysterio’s “Booyaka, Booyaka.” DX and Hornswoggle were backstage. Michaels was all depressed and distracted, not being able to handle that he didn’t win the Rumble and can’t get a shot at Undertaker. Kind of a weird deal because it was portrayed that if he won the Rumble he’d get a shot, but with Undertaker in the Chamber, in theory, Undertaker would only have a slim chance of even being champion, so winning the Rumble wouldn’t give him the match. Hornswoggle seemed to be there just to give him moments to do his gibberish and just be there. HHH acted like he was mad at Michaels for eliminating him, but then joked it off. He first said that he’d have never done that to Shawn, and then said, “Who am I kidding, I’d have done it, I just didn’t have the chance to.” He told Michaels to win his match, that with the two of them in the Chamber, they can work together and it would be a lock one would win, then could defend against the other, and they’d have the best match at Mania. Michaels seemed out of it. Orton pinned Michaels in 6:37 in a qualifying match. Match didn’t have time to develop into anything special, but was solid stuff with a good finish. Michaels did his nip up and in doing so, Orton schoolboyed him clean. Michaels went back into even more depression. There are very few guys in this business who could pull off this Michaels storyline without becoming a whiny face and having it backfire. Orton still worked as a heel. DiBiase then came up to Orton and told him he was sorry about what happened in the match with Sheamus, but that Rhodes wasn’t sorry. Orton gave him that nasty stare face-to-face and walked off. It feels to me they are building a Legacy three- way match. It’s a funny deal right now. The original plan was for DiBiase to go face. DiBiase has the kind of look they like and is a ring technician given the level of experience that all the top guys like working with. But Rhodes has surpassed him as a personality. And everything this past week is leading toward Orton as a face. DiBiase beat Henry in a qualifying match by working the left arm and hitting the divorce court for the pin in 3:05. Henry is difficult to have a match with, and there was no heat at all. They played a video package of Jack Brisco. It was the Hall of Fame video package from last year. It had the same issues as that package in the sense Jack was portrayed as the member of a famous tag team, which he was in the latter stages of his career. But the peak of his star power was as a singles wrestler all over the world. In that sense, I’d say it was a nice gesture, and one that I expected given Gerald’s long tenure with the company, the fact that key people like Jack, and that he didn’t die young or under drug-related circumstances. But he was a bigger star at his peak (Top five in the world from 1970-75, arguably No. 1 for part of that time, at a time when the depth of wrestling stars was far greater than today) then the video would have shown. Jerry Lawler spoke a little about him. Lawler’s first-ever world title match in Memphis was against Brisco. Maryse, Kim and Kelly had a discussion. At one point the Divas title match with Maryse vs. Kim in the tourney finals was scheduled on this show, but I’m guessing if you look at the show, it was cut over time constraints. They didn’t say it would be next week but built up that it’s coming. Maryse said she was embarrassed by the Smackdown feud with McCool vs. James and said that she wanted her and Kim to be at a higher standard. Kim and Kelly were acting surprised and skeptical. She said something in French, which I think people were to presume was an insult that they didn’t understand, but really said, “I just wanted to let you know that in the end, I’m gonna have the title, okay?” There was a backstage segment with Miz & Show talking about wanting a tag title shot at DX. Punk & Gallows & Serena came out and said Long took away the title shot they earned (winning a four-way) last week so they deserved the shot. Miz & Show said they weren’t even on Raw, as the justification they deserved the shot. Shatner came in and did a “Negotiator” role as a takeoff on the “Priceline” TV commercials he does. He ordered a three- way for the belts on TV next week and then smiled for the camera like the Priceline commercial ends. He then told the camera to go to a freeze frame, but they didn’t. I wasn’t really looking forward to Shatner, but his ability to do skits basically designed to laugh at himself like he and everyone is in on the joke worked. Plus, it was a plus that he didn’t do the tired routines with Marella and Hornswoggle that most of the other guest hosts have done. More HHH & Michaels. HHH told Michaels, still in his depression, that there are plenty of other guys to wrestle at Mania and Michaels said, “Not for me.” I know we’re early, and at this point last year Orton had punted Vince in the head and each week that angle fell more and more apart, but so far, the build for what are probably going to be the two biggest drawing matches (Vince vs. Hart; Undertaker vs. Michaels) has been tremendous. Next week’s guest host for a show from Lafayette, LA, is NASCAR driver Carl Edwards. Kingston beat Show via DQ in 8:17 to be the final guy in the chamber. Miz was at ringside and when he was taunting Kingston, MVP came out of the crowd and jumped on Miz and they brawled to the back. After MVP has been squashed by Show and pinned clean by Miz the night before in a match spring on Miz, you’d think they would move Miz into a new program. The match fell apart as Kingston was on the top rope and was either going to do a missile dropkick or crossbody, but lost his balance on the rope and fell down. He then got up, and decided to throw a missile dropkick even though Show was out of position and it looked terrible. Between that and the Orton thing, I can see people burying Kingston this week. He did get it back together for the finish. Kingston poked Show in the eye, and Show couldn’t see, threw a punch, and KO’d the ref. Show had Kingston down and got all frustrated about the ref being down. He waved for a new ref to come down and Scott Armstrong ran down. As Show laid out Kingston, Armstrong DQ’d show for knocking out the first ref. Instead of Show attacking Armstrong, he acted all frustrated and kept saying it was an accident. Really weird booking here because it only made Kingston, the weakest guy in the main event, and a face to boot that people don’t see at that level, backing into the Chamber. The only logic is if they’ve decided to turn Kingston and this was stage one. Even though there was some laughing at Show as the heel for getting screwed, Show’s reactions were more comedy oriented than something to get heat, which takes away from his monster character. I guess we’ll have to wait and see how it plays out, but it didn’t make sense at all and the crowd groaned at it. If Kingston isn’t turning, it’s mind-boggling to tie another anchor to his foot. Lawler came into the ring to introduce Shatner. Shatner pretended to trip on the ropes and both guys fell down. That one came off a little too staged looking. Shatner then introduced Bret Hart, calling him “My hero.” Hart came out and he and Vince really hit a home run here. Hart said he came back to make peace with everyone but that he was naive. He then said he wanted Vince to come out. Vince gave a great promo, saying he regrets nothing he ever did to Bret and Bret said that was the first honest thing Vince had ever said. He called Vince the world’s greatest liar. He said Vince talked like he was a father to him but in reality, he couldn’t lace his fathers’ jock. He said Vince was a pathetic human being. He said he understood being pathetic. He then talked about having the stroke and being stuck in a wheelchair and crying himself to sleep. He said that at one point he made the vow that he would never be pathetic again, and that he would get out of the wheelchair. Then he came back and Vince kicked him in the gut and he felt pathetic again. He talked about working 300 days a year for Vince for 14 years, with his knees aching and other injuries, and that at the end, Vince never appreciated it. He said Vince talked about him being chewing gum that outlived its usefulness and all the flavor was gone. He said he had enough flavor to kick Vince’s ass. Vince then said Bret was pathetic and he could never figure out why people liked him in the first place, because he had zero personality and later said he had no charisma. He said if it wasn’t for people like Michaels, Mr. Perfect and Austin, he would have been a footnote in wrestling history. He said he has the face of a bloodhound, no command of the English language and dressed like a hobo, and deserved to get screwed. He then said he was thinking of inducting Stu Hart into the Hall of Fame, but changed his mind because Stu didn’t deserve it. Hart pulled Vince’s jacket over his head, and threw punches. The key here was that Hart, who comes from Canada and is a huge hockey fan, wanted to replicate a real fight like a hockey fight as opposed to a pro wrestling punch out to make it different from what you usually see and thus create a believability. He also laid the punches in, to the point, Vince was checking his teeth when it was over. He teased the sharpshooter when Batista came in. Batista started throwing similar punches, and then teased a power bomb (that wouldn’t have been good), but instead held him so Vince could spit in his face. It’s a funny story because people were talking about the brilliance of the scripting of the verbiage here, but it was not a scripted promo. Most of the verbiage was not discussed ahead of time between the two. Vince may have had help with his material. The idea was both would come up with their own material, and both were to make it come across as real as possible. The spot where Vince said Stu didn’t deserve to go into the Hall of Fame was the go-home spot, which both knew ahead of time. When Vince thought the time was right, he’d give the line about Stu not going into the Hall of Fame and that was the time Hart was to react and unload with the punches. The physical stuff was brief enough that it didn’t expose limitations, and probably better because it was done without bumps. The crowd was chanting for “Cena” as the show went off the air with Hart helpless. The finish also indicated they may go with Cena & Hart vs. Vince & Batista, instead of two singles matches. For selling Mania, the singles match is better but there are risks in the delivery because of both men’s physical limitations. Cena and Batista can carry the load, set up Vince vs. Bret for a couple of key spots that wouldn’t go too long, but it might be slightly less effective in selling the match. But if the limitations of Vince vs. Bret are such that the match, which looks to be the most anticipated on the show at this point, can’t deliver well enough, it’s best to do the tag. After the show ended, it was Cena who made the save. This led to a Cena vs Sheamus dark match. Instead of the fluke DQ finish (similar to the Raw match) that they’ve done at house shows, this ended when Batista came in and destroyed Cena, including power bombing Cena on the ring steps. However, the crowd still got to go home happy. Batista left. Sheamus stood over the fallen Cena holding the belt, when Cena recovered, not selling his beating, and used the Attitude Adjustment on Sheamus. It was very interesting live because up close you could see Cena giving Sheamus complete directions. At one point he said, “Put the fucking mic down, start to pick me up and drag me to the middle of the ring.” “OK, stand above me and hold the belt in the air.” “Go around the ring when you’re facing the announcers both with the belt in the air, I am going to get up and FU you.” The last angle, at least up until the part where Cena made his comeback, was taped for Smackdown on 2/5.

Notes from the 2/2 tapings in Memphis. It opened with ECW. Abraham Washington had Christian as his guest. Before Christian was out, Washington said he was offered the job as Conan O’Brien’s guest host, and at $40 million a year, but turned it down out of loyalty to WWE fans. He said Jay Leno took it over. He said he knows the fans would miss him, so he wanted the fans to make up the $40 million he lost. Christian came out, followed by Ryder and Mendes. Ryder said he’s going to do something nobody had the guts to do. He showed Helms’ mug shot. Christian defended Helms saying he made a mistake, but we all make mistakes. Ryder said with Hurricane gone, that he’s both the heart and soul of ECW but also the superhero of ECW. Ryder bragged he was in the Rumble. Christian said he must have blinked since he didn’t remember it. Archer pinned Benjamin in 9:46 using his feet on the ropes for leverage. Archer didn’t miss any spots, but he has this unique ability to suck life out of any crowd. This match seemed forever in length. They did an absolutely super video package of Vince & Hart. Tatsu pinned Barretta in 3:56 with a high kick. Goldust and Caylen Croft were at ringside. Barretta controlled until Tatsu made a comeback and hit his finish. Tatsu & Goldust are now called The Odd Couple. Tatsu is also the Cardiac kid. Vince did his announcement about the end of ECW. Helms was interviewing Jackson and Regal. Regal noted this was a very difficult week for Helms, but then said he was going to make it worse. Jackson grabbed Helms and laid him out with a uranage. Regal followed with a knee trembler. Christian made the save with a kendo stick. In the main event, Christian beat Ryder via DQ in 5:25 when Jackson and Regal interfered. Regal hit the knee trembler and then Jackson threw Christian into the steps. For Superstars, Matt Hardy & Morrison & Khali beat Hart Dynasty & McIntyre. Smackdown opened with Jericho wanting a shot at Undertaker at Mania. Edge & Christian did an interview together, so maybe they’re going to be aligned. Morrison qualified by beating Kane and Masters. Truth pinned Knox to get in the Chamber. Punk beat Batista via count out for the upset to get into the Chamber. Jericho pinned Matt Hardy to get into the Chamber. James was doing a promo when Phoenix talked about how she made history and she’s a woman in a league of their own (the name of a movie on women’s baseball) and could win the belt from James anytime she wanted to. James & Phoenix beat McCool & Layla. During the match, Phoenix walked out on James. Phoenix ended up taking out both James and McCool, so it looks to be a three-way program. Mysterio pinned Ziggler to qualify. Next was a Cutting Edge segment. Edge said he could beat either Sheamus or Undertaker for the title. Jericho came out and said Edge didn’t deserve to win the Rumble. Jericho said he was the face of Smackdown. Edge said he was tired of Jericho saying he was the best in the world. Punk talked about how he was the savior of the WWE and he made Undertaker tap. Undertaker and Edge cleaned house together, and then had a staredown. Dark match was Undertaker pinning Batista in a match where Jericho, Hardy, Punk and Mysterio all interfered.

Austin’s return on the 3/15 Raw from San Diego is to help promote the movie “Damage,” which he stars in and comes out on DVD on 3/23.

The big difference between the women’s matches in TNA and WWE is as much agenting as anything. In TNA, they usually would use the top agent they had to, move-for-move, structure the women’s matches. In WWE, the women are out there largely doing it themselves. That explains why Gail Kim looked so great in TNA and in WWE, she’s nowhere close to that level.

Cena is done shooting “Brother’s Keeper,” so will be available to do more house shows.

I finally had a chance to watch FCW, the 1/10 show, which is the first I’ve seen of it in months. Byron Saxton is now the lead announcer and is working with Wade Barrett (a British developmental wrestler who used to be Stu Sanders). Saxton is a lot better here than in ECW. You can tell he’s got the “I’m scared to say something stupid so won’t say anything” thing going while in FCW he can say what he wants. Not saying that he’s good, just well spoken and gives out good basic info. Barrett is a really good talker. He didn’t impart a lot of analogies like JBL or Striker, but his delivery was top notch. It opened with Alberto Banderas (formerly Dos Caras Jr.) vs. Johnny Curtis, with Banderas winning. Without the mask, Banderas looks like a young Cien Caras. In every match they bring up that Banderas used to fight MMA, once fought MMA while wearing a mask, and is the nephew of Mil Mascaras, but never say he’s the son of Dos Caras. They do acknowledge he was a big star in Mexico under a mask. He’s agile for a big guy, but has less charisma unmasked that he had with the mask. The thing in Mexico is that even without charisma, he had size and a physique that were unique there, plus the name. Here, he doesn’t have a name, his physique post- Wellness isn’t nearly as impressive, and FCW is filled with big guys so his size doesn’t stand out. Next was Heath Slater, who is good, against Duke Rotundo. Duke looks like a guy with Kendall Windham’s face on Bam Bam Bigelow’s body, but not quite as big (looks to be 6-2, 295). He moves well, but bad look and body and if he wasn’t the son of a pro wrestler, he’d have never gotten in the door even with his athletic ability. Michael Tarver interfered, KOing Duke so Slater won. Michael Tarver has gone from an MMA gimmick to a boxer gimmick. They are building Slater & Tarver vs. the Rotundo Brothers. Abraham Washington did an interview segment. He’s super talented as a talker and it’s the format in ECW that makes him such a negative. They are doing an angle where IRS (Mike Rotunda) is after him for cheating on his taxes. He claimed he wasn’t worried because he’d hired the best lawyer around, Johnny Cochrane. Well, his female assistant, who used to be Jenny Cash and is now Penny Cash, whispered Cochrane had passed away and he was doing the heel squirming bit. He brought out Eli Cottonwood, who is a giant, looks to be maybe 6-9, doing this gimmick of a giant from the woods. It was the same gimmick Ryan Wilson did as Jacob Duncan, and a lot better, a few years back before being cut. Aksana, the female fitness model, is the girlfriend who he’s too crazy and backwoodsy to figure out. Rosa Mendes & Naomi Night lost to A.J. Lee & Courtney Taylor when Taylor pinned Mendes. Surprising to see someone pin a roster wrestler. This was the best I’ve ever seen Mendes look in the ring. Not that she’s good, but a million times better than her WWE matches. They said this was Night’s debut. She’s a former Orlando Magic dancer and in her first match she was better than most WWE women are after 2 or 3 years. She didn’t know what she was doing, but all her stuff looked good. Lee at one point was the girlfriend of Jay Lethal (and for all I know may still be). She’s doing the tiny girl who never gives up role. Main event was Skip Sheffield & Titus O’Neill losing to Vance Archer & Alex Riley when Archer pinned O’Neill with a reverse DDT. Aside from the finisher, they kept Archer and O’Neill away from each other. O’Neill, also makes his pro debut, is a former University of Florida football player who is also huge. They played it up like he was a big deal there, as Saxton, who went to the University of Florida, said O’Neill was a Hall of Famer at the school. Since they change everyone’s name, I’m not sure who he is other than he physically looked like a young Bearcat Wright. He’s even bigger than Archer but at this point he works like a guy with some very basic training who is green as hell in the ring. He mostly did football player spots. Sheffield (Ryan Reeves), is doing a goofy cowboy gimmick. He plays it well but it comes off as a first match cartoon gimmick, always saying, “Yip, Yip, Yip,” encouraging the crowd to chant. He may make it as an undercard comedy babyface since he’s really into the gimmick but the gimmick is like a cowboy Marella thing that limits upward mobility. On one of the shows they had him come to the ring with toilet paper coming out of his trunks.

There have been reports of Joey Mercury coming back to Smackdown. Mercury ran his own angle on the indies more than a year ago claiming he was coming back to WWE, but it was only an angle. Mercury was John Morrison’s partner on the MNM tag team (which stood for Mercury, Nitro (Morrison was Johnny Nitro at the time) and Melina) which held the tag team titles after being brought up together after establishing a great act in OVW. Mercury was sent to rehab once for a pain killer issue, which broke up the team. He was released in early 2007 and as best we can tell, hasn’t wrestled in a long time.

In an interview, B.G. James said that he had talked with WWE about returning after TNA let him go, but it “wasn’t meant to be.” He did say he felt at 40, he was too old to be in the ring and he didn’t want to be like Ric Flair, because he couldn’t be. When asked about the Voodoo Kin Mafia angle, he said TNA dropped the ball because they never followed up with the ideas they had.

Matt Hardy is talking about writing another book on wrestling. His first book was good, and on the honesty scale, was a lot higher and more open than most WWE books. I remember when Mick Foley read Hardy’s book (it was the Hardy brothers book but it was really Matt with some input from Jeff), he couldn’t believe he was able to get away with saying as much as he did. Then again, in the end, once the book came out and sold well, they jobbed Matt to death.

Super Nova, the brother of El Texano Jr. (and son of El Texano), who had announced he had signed and would be going to FCW, and shown his contract in a prior interview, instead was at a Perros Del Mal press conference on 1/29 saying that he never signed the contract after all. He said that he’s waiting to hear from WWE, but until that happens, will work for Perros Del Mal in Mexico and Nu Wrestling Evolution in Europe.

The joke of the weekend at the Rumble in Atlanta among the wrestlers was to avoid all taxis.

Tyson Kidd wrote about not being in the Rumble, “Guess they found 30 guys better. Either that or I drew No. 31.” WWE didn’t make the Rumble 30 person final lineup until the last minute, with many of final week changes. Several people were brought in who didn’t know until the day of the show whether they were in or out.

The only house show of the weekend was 1/30 in Macon, GA, which was a tri-branded show. Tatsu pinned Ryder with a spin kick off the top rope. McIntyre pinned Morrison to keep the IC title with his feet on the ropes. Bella Twins beat Natalya & Layla in a match said to be bad. Finlay pinned Tyler Reks with the shillelagh, Miz pinned MVP with the skull crushing finale. Christian beat Jackson with the killswitch. Show pinned Henry with a knockout punch in seconds. DX & Kingston beat DiBiase & Rhodes & Orton when Rhodes was pinned after both a superkick and a pedigree. Main event saw Cena beating Sheamus via DQ in a match similar to the one on TV when Sheamus shoved the ref to save the title via DQ.

Feb. 1 2010 Observer Newsletter: 2009 Awards Issue, Possible biggest wrestling news story of 2010 PDF Print E-mail
Wrestling Observer Newsletter

PO Box 1228, Campbell, CA 95009-1228 ISSN10839593 February 1, 2010


2009 WRESTLING OBSERVER

NEWSLETTER AWARDS

The following are the results of the 30th annual Wrestling Observer Newsletter readership awards, along with a listing of the previous winners in the various categories. On a world wide basis, these are the most covered mainstream international pro wrestling awards. Readers are encouraged to send in their comments on the results.


"CATEGORY A" AWARDS - WINNERS

DETERMINED BY POINTS ON A 5-3-2 BASIS.

FIRST PLACE VOTES IN PARENTHESIS

LOU THESZ/RIC FLAIR AWARD

(WRESTLER OF THE YEAR)

1. CHRIS JERICHO (269)1,815

2. Hiroshi Tanahashi (97)1,057

3. Naruki Doi (51)751

4. C.M. Punk (53)714

5. Randy Orton (67)692

6. Jeff Hardy (46)464

7. John Cena (32)272

8. Davey Richards (11)268

9. Bryan Danielson (20)266

10. Kurt Angle (13)254

HONORABLE MENTION: Mitsuharu Misawa 227, KENTA 182, Shawn Michaels 137, Rey Mysterio 90

Jericho, 39, winning for the second straight year wasn’t a big surprise, but his margin of victory was. This was a year without the kind of usual standout performer who would be expected to win. I think Randy Orton, as far as being the pushed guy, headlining WrestleMania, in the big angle where he kicked all the McMahons heads in, and being in most PPV main events came the closest to the traditional winner. C.M. Punk was great in his run on top with Jeff Hardy, but ended up dress coding himself down the card. Him losing the title while doing such a good job as champion was a momentum killer, although his new angle has him back in the spotlight. Jeff Hardy was also a possibility, but he left in August and it’s difficult to win this award missing key time, plus his feud with Matt Hardy ended up being a ton of build-up and back story for a feud the company pulled out of quickly. Jericho was a great all-around performer, one of the best in the ring and probably the best on promos. But in year of title changes at almost every PPV, he never held either major company singles title. He did dominate the tag team titles for the last six months of the year, taking them from belts that were essentially meaningless and rarely defended on PPVs, to belts that headlined the final PPV of the year. Jericho had more of a Wrestler of the Year type year last year, winning a close three-way race with Shawn Michaels and Edge. But he won based on the lack that one person who would be the winner in a normal year. Hiroshi Tanahashi was with a struggling organization, but was its top guy and IWGP champion most of the year. Naruki Doi was with a smaller promotion. Jericho becomes the first American to repeat as a winner of this award since Ric Flair in 1989 and 1990. During the last 20 years, only one other performer has repeated, Kenta Kobashi, winning 2003-2005. This should strengthen Jericho’s claim as a Hall of Famer, as in the 30 years the award has been presented, the only wrestlers not in the Hall of Fame are Mistico (2006) and John Cena (2007), both of whom aren’t eligible and both of whom should be first ballot locks.

PREVIOUS WINNERS: 1980 - Harley Race; 1981 - Harley Race; 1982 - Ric Flair; 1983 - Ric Flair; 1984 - Ric Flair; 1985 - Ric Flair; 1986 - Ric Flair; 1987 - Riki Choshu; 1988 - Akira Maeda; 1989 - Ric Flair; 1990 - Ric Flair; 1991 - Jumbo Tsuruta; 1992 - Ric Flair; 1993 - Vader; 1994 - Toshiaki Kawada; 1995 - Mitsuharu Misawa; 1996 - Kenta Kobashi; 1997 - Mitsuharu Misawa; 1998 - Steve Austin; 1999 - Mitsuharu Misawa; 2000 - HHH; 2001 - Keiji Muto; 2002 - Kurt Angle; 2003 - Kenta Kobashi; 2004 - Kenta Kobashi; 2005 - Kenta Kobashi; 2006 - Mistico; 2007 - John Cena; 2008 - Chris Jericho


MIXED MARTIAL ARTS MOST VALUABLE



1. BROCK LESNAR (432)2,734

2. Georges St. Pierre (92)1,615

3. Fedor Emelianenko (17)653

4. Anderson Silva (7)301

5. Frank Mir (3)213

6. B.J. Penn (10)205

7. Kimbo Slice (1)189

8. Gina Carano65

9. Quinton Jackson64

10. Rashad Evans41

PREVIOUS WINNERS: 2007 - Randy Couture; 2008 - Brock Lesnar

Lesnar, 32, was the most talked about fighter of the year, even though he only had one fight, due to being seriously ill the last few months of the year. He won the award by being the biggest drawing card in MMA history, with his match with Frank Mir headlining UFC 100, and drawing an estimated 1,600,000 buys, the fourth highest total in the history of PPV. St. Pierre had two dominant wins over top contenders, first beating B.J. Penn on a fourth round stoppage in the second biggest fight of the year, and then winning five straight rounds in a decision over Thiago Alves, setting the UFC record for most consecutive rounds won, dating back to losing one round in an August, 2007, match with Josh Koscheck. Emelianenko, generally considered the greatest MMA fighter in the short history of the sport, got MMA and the Strikeforce promotion onto CBS for a date on 11/7. The guy when it comes to actual value who was shortchanged here was Kimbo Slice, who single-handedly took a Tough Enough show that hadn’t really done strong ratings since season three in 2006, and delivered most of the highest rated shows in the history of the series. Lesnar becomes the first MMA fighter to be MVP two consecutive years since Kazushi Sakuraba in 2000-2001. Even more impressive, is it was Lesnar’s first two full years in the sport.

New category in 2007. Highest place winner from MMA in previous Thesz/Flair award balloting: 1994 - Royce Gracie; 1995 - Ken Shamrock; 1996 - Mark Coleman; 1997 - Maurice Smith; 1998 - Frank Shamrock; 1999 - Frank Shamrock; 2000 - Kazushi Sakuraba; 2001 - Kazushi Sakuraba; 2002 - Bob Sapp; 2003 - Randy Couture; 2004 - Wanderlei Silva; 2005 - Kid Yamamoto; 2006 - Tito Ortiz;



MOST OUTSTANDING WRESTLER



1. BRYAN DANIELSON (218)1,838

2. Davey Richards (161)1,719

3. KENTA (212)1,380

4. Chris Jericho (44)489

5. Kurt Angle (19)292

6. Shingo Takagi (12)284

7. Kota Ibushi (9)269

8. Nigel McGuiness/Desmond Wolfe (22)267

9. Shawn Michaels (29)233

10. Rey Mysterio (24)229

HONORABLE MENTION: Christian 173, Naruki Doi 158, A.J. Styles 151, Randy Orton 142, Hiroshi Tanahashi 115, Jeff Hardy 85, Katsuhiko Nakajima 82

“The best wrestler in the world,” Danielson, 28, won a close race over Davey Richards, to take this award for the fourth straight year. He breaks the record of three straight years that he held jointly with Kurt Angle (2001-2003) and Jushin Liger (1990-1992). Richards, 26, becomes the heir apparent, as with Danielson having signed with WWE, it is doubtful he will get the opportunity to do the kind of long matches he specializes in.

PREVIOUS WINNERS: 1986 - Ric Flair; 1987 - Ric Flair; 1988 - Tatsumi Fujinami; 1989 - Ric Flair; 1990 - Jushin Liger; 1991 - Jushin Liger; 1992 - Jushin Liger; 1993 - Kenta Kobashi; 1994 - Kenta Kobashi; 1995 - Manami Toyota; 1996 - Rey Misterio Jr.; 1997 - Mitsuharu Misawa; 1998 - Koji Kanemoto; 1999 - Mitsuharu Misawa; 2000 - Chris Benoit; 2001 - Kurt Angle; 2002 - Kurt Angle; 2003 - Kurt Angle; 2004 - Chris Benoit; 2005 - Samoa Joe; 2006 - Bryan Danielson; 2007 - Bryan Danielson; 2008 - Bryan Danielson


MOST OUTSTANDING FIGHTER OF THE YEAR



1. GEORGES ST. PIERRE (326)1,929

2. Anderson Silva (79)1,050

3. Jose Aldo Jr. (65)898

4. B.J. Penn (20)399

5. Fedor Emelianenko (19)331

6. Lyoto Machida (7)327

7. Brock Lesnar (29)311

8. Gegard Mousasi (17)185

9. Shinya Aoki (2)55

10. Dan Henderson (4)52

St. Pierre, 28, retained the welterweight title he won on April 19, 2008, in his home city of Montreal, with his two wins this year before being out for the second half of the year with a torn abductor muscle. Named by Rogers Sportsnet in Canada in an Internet poll the Canadian Athlete of the Year the past two years (a sportswriters poll had him finishing second behind NHL star Sidney Crosby), St. Pierre won for the second straight year, joining Frank Shamrock (1998-1999) as the only repeat winner in history. He won virtually every Fighter of the Year award this past year. Silva fought twice this year, winning a terrible fight over Thales Leitis, and rebounding by making Forrest Griffin, a former world champion a weight class above him, look like a rank amateur in his second win. To me, to win this award with all the competition out there, you have to win big, and Silva lost rounds with Leitis and didn’t finish, although the way Leitis fought made it difficult. St. Pierre beat better opposition and did so more convincingly overall. Aldo went 4-0, winning all four by knockout, three in the first round, including winning the featherweight title from Mike Brown with a dominant performance. But Brown was his only real top flight opponent. Penn scored dominant wins over Kenny Florian and Diego Sanchez in lightweight title defenses, making two No. 1 contenders seem to be out of their league. But his loss to St. Pierre probably decided the award. Emelianenko scored first round knockouts over Andrei Arlovski and Brett Rogers. Machida went 2-0,winning the light heavyweight title from Rashad Evans, but most thought he lost his first title defense to Mauricio “Shogun” Rua. If he had scored a convincing win, he’d have been a strong candidate for first. Lesnar was limited by only having one fight. Mousasi went 4- 0, all stoppages, three in the first round and one in the second, but with opposition of Gary Goodridge, Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou, Mark Hunt and Renato Sobral, he wasn’t a contender for first based on quality of opposition.

PREVIOUS WINNERS: 1997 - Maurice Smith; 1998 - Frank Shamrock; 1999 - Frank Shamrock; 2000 - Kazushi Sakuraba; 2001 - Wanderlei Silva; 2002 - Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira; 2003 - Randy Couture; 2004 - Wanderlei Silva; 2005 - Fedor Emelianenko; 2006 - Mirko Cro Cop; 2007 - Quinton Jackson; 2008 - Georges St. Pierre



BEST BOX OFFICE DRAW

1. BROCK LESNAR (513)2,857

2. John Cena (62)1,308

3. Georges St. Pierre (10)876

4. Frank Mir (5)335

5. Mistico (16)227

6. Jeff Hardy (4)223

7. Gina Carano (14)201

8. Kimbo Slice132

9. DX (3)90

10. Hiroshi Tanahashi79

HONORABLE MENTION: Randy Orton 69

Lesnar won for the second straight year, largely off the buy rate of UFC 100, which he headlined. John Cena, who headlined more shows that drew 10,000 or more fans in 2009 than any wrestler had done since the boom period, placed second. Still, the shows that drew big were promoted more around the WWE brand, usually Raws or PPV shows, so while Cena is a big draw, the number, which would be historically strong in any era, doesn’t really mean as much as it would at any other point in history. St. Pierre, the biggest PPV draw in the history of Canada, headlined UFC’s two most successful events of the year.

PREVIOUS WINNERS: 1997 - Hulk Hogan; 1998 - Steve Austin; 1999 - Steve Austin; 2000 - The Rock; 2001 - Kazushi Sakuraba; 2002 - Bob Sapp; 2003 - Bob Sapp; 2004 - Kenta Kobashi; 2005 - Kenta Kobashi; 2006 - Mistico; 2007 - John Cena; 2008 - Brock Lesnar

BEST BABYFACE PREVIOUS AWARD WINNERS: 1980 - Dusty Rhodes; 1981 - Tommy Rich; 1982 - Hulk Hogan; 1983 - Hulk Hogan; 1984 - Hulk Hogan; 1985 - Hulk Hogan; 1986 - Hulk Hogan; 1987 - Hulk Hogan; 1988 - Hulk Hogan; 1989 - Hulk Hogan; 1990 - Hulk Hogan; 1991 - Hulk Hogan; 1992 - Sting; 1993 - Atsushi Onita; 1994 - Atsushi Onita; 1995 - Perro Aguayo Sr.; 1996 - Shawn Michaels

BEST HEEL PREVIOUS AWARD WINNERS: 1980 - Larry Zbyszko; 1981 - Don Muraco; 1982 - Buzz Sawyer; 1983 - Michael Hayes; 1984 - Roddy Piper; 1985 - Roddy Piper; 1986 - Michael Hayes; 1987 - Ted DiBiase; 1988 - Ted DiBiase; 1989 - Terry Funk; 1990 - Ric Flair; 1991 - The Undertaker; 1992 - Rick Rude; 1993 - Vader; 1994 - Love Machine (Art Barr); 1995 - Masahiro Chono; 1996 - Steve Austin


FEUD OF THE YEAR



1. C.M. PUNK VS. JEFF HARDY (302)2,201

2. Brock Lesnar vs. Frank Mir (207)1,482

3. Chris Jericho vs. Rey Mysterio (96)1,327

4. Quinton Jackson vs. Rashad Evans (23)315

5. New Japan vs. Pro Wrestling NOAH (25)281

6. Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels (4)272

7. Mistico vs. Negro Casas (14)265

8. American Wolves vs. Steen & Generico (2)248

9. John Cena vs. Randy Orton (13)220

10. KENTA vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima (14)162

HONORABLE MENTION: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Shinsuke Nakamura 142, Matt Hughes vs. Matt Serra 71

Punk and Hardy’s Summer-long feud, starting with Punk cashing in his Money in the Bank stipulation from WrestleMania right after Hardy had beaten Edge to win the world title in a grueling ladder match, and continuing to headline several TV shows and house shows, as well as three PPV events, got the mod by a pretty solid margin over Lesnar vs. Mir, which actually drew more money in one match than all others did in multiple matches. Jericho vs. Mysterio had great angles on television and strong matches on PPV, topped off by Mysterio putting his mask at stake against Jericho’s IC title, and winning in one of WWE’s best matches of the year on 6/28 in Sacramento. What really stands out was the lack of good feuds this year in any promotion, when No. 4 was Jackson vs. Evans, who didn’t even have a match this year.

PREVIOUS WINNERS: 1980 - Bruno Sammartino vs. Larry Zbyszko; 1981 - Andre the Giant vs. Killer Khan; 1982 - Ted DiBiase vs. Junkyard Dog; 1983 - Freebirds vs. Von Erichs; 1984 - Freebirds vs Von Erichs; 1985 - Ted DiBiase vs. Jim Duggan; 1986 - Hulk Hogan vs. Paul Orndorff; 1987 - Jerry Lawler vs. Austin Idol & Tommy Rich; 1988 - Midnight Express vs. Fantastics; 1989 - Ric Flair vs. Terry Funk; 1990 - Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Mitsuharu Misawa; 1991 - Jumbo Tsuruta & company vs. Mitsuharu Misawa & company; 1992 - Moondogs vs. Jerry Lawler & Jeff Jarrett; 1993 - Bret Hart vs. Jerry Lawler; 1994 - Los Gringos Locos vs. Mexican AAA; 1995 - Dean Malenko vs. Eddie Guerrero; 1996 - WCW vs. NWO; 1997 - Steve Austin vs. Hart Foundation; 1998 - Steve Austin vs. Vince McMahon; 1999 - Steve Austin vs. Vince McMahon; 2000 - HHH vs. Mick Foley; 2001 - Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Wanderlei Silva; 2002 - Ken Shamrock vs. Tito Ortiz; 2003 - Brock Lesnar vs. Kurt Angle; 2004 - HHH vs. Shawn Michaels vs. Chris Benoit; 2005 - Batista vs. HHH; 2006 - Tito Ortiz vs. Ken Shamrock; 2007 - Undertaker vs. Batista ; 2008 - Chris Jericho vs. Shawn Michaels


TAG TEAM OF THE YEAR



1. EDDIE EDWARDS & DAVEY RICHARDS (209)2,052

2. Matt & Nick Jackson (232)1,806

3. Chris Jericho & Big Show (178)1,367

4. Robert Roode & James Storm (47)679

5. Prince Devitt & Ryusuke Taguchi (15)619

6. Chris Sabin & Alex Shelley (22)283

7. Kevin Steen & El Generico (6)217

8. Volador Jr. & La Sombra (9)199

9. Ted DiBiase & Cody Rhodes (1)87

10. Shawn Michaels & HHH (3)79

HONORABLE MENTION: Mark & Jay Briscoe 75, Minoru Suzuki & Taiyo Kea 75, David Hart Smith & Tyson Kidd 73

The first close race saw The American Wolves take it even though The Young Bucks had more first place votes. The Bucks likely were strengthened by appearing on the Dragon Gate USA PPV shows, but will have a hard time repeating since they’ve been signed by TNA, and will likely become a preliminary afterthought. A strong argument can be made for Jericho & Show, since they (well, starting with Jericho & Edge as a team before Edge suffered a torn Achilles tendon) elevated the tag title belts. Even at worst with them doing the comedy role, DX should have finished higher as they were a legitimately strong headlining tag team.

PREVIOUS WINNERS: 1980 - Freebirds (Terry Gordy & Buddy Roberts); 1981 - Terry Gordy & Jimmy Snuka; 1982 - Stan Hansen & Ole Anderson; 1983 - Ricky Steamboat & Jay Youngblood; 1984 - Road Warriors; 1985 - British Bulldogs (Dynamite Kid & Davey Boy Smith); 1986 - Midnight Express (Dennis Condrey & Bobby Eaton); 1987 - Midnight Express (Bobby Eaton & Stan Lane); 1988 - Midnight Express (Bobby Eaton & Stan Lane); 1989 - The Rockers (Shawn Michaels & Marty Jannetty); 1990 - Rick & Scott Steiner; 1991 - Mitsuharu Misawa & Toshiaki Kawada; 1992 - Miracle Violence Combination (Steve Williams & Terry Gordy); 1993 - Hollywood Blondes (Brian Pillman & Steve Austin); 1994 - Los Gringos Locos (Love Machine Art Barr & Eddie Guerrero); 1995 - Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi; 1996 - Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama; 1997 - Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama; 1998 - Shinjiro Otani & Tatsuhito Takaiwa; 1999 - Kenta Kobashi & Jun Akiyama; 2000 - Edge & Christian; 2001 - TenKoji (Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima); 2002 - Eddie & Chavo Guerrero; 2003 - KENTA & Naomichi Marufuji; 2004 - KENTA & Naomichi Marufuji; 2005 - America's Most Wanted (Chris Harris & James Storm); 2006 - LAX (Homicide & Hernandez); 2007 - Mark & Jay Briscoe; 2008 - The Miz & John Morrison

MOST IMPROVED



1. THE MIZ (68)664

2. Cody Rhodes (87)619

3. Kofi Kingston (50)482

4. Zack Ryder (17)356

5. Dolph Ziggler (20)344

6. Brutus Magnus (19)310

7. Chris Hero (50)282

8. Goldust (29)265

9. Prince Devitt (12)235

10. Kenny King (14)195

HONORABLE MENTION: Eddie Edwards 166, Sheamus 147, Kenny Omega 146, Maryse 133, Yamato 123, Jack Swagger 80

The Miz (born Mike Mizanin, now 29) won for the second year in a row, in a close race where Cody Rhodes had more first place votes. There really wasn’t the obvious candidate this year, and voting was spread out, unlike last year where Miz and Tyler Black ran away from the field. PREVIOUS WINNERS: 1980 - Larry Zbyszko; 1981 - Adrian Adonis; 1982 - Jim Duggan; 1983 - Curt Hennig; 1984 - The Cobra (George Takano); 1985 - Steve Williams; 1986 - Rick Steiner; 1987 - Big Bubba Rogers (Ray Traylor); 1988 - Sting; 1989 - Lex Luger; 1990 - Kenta Kobashi; 1991 - Dustin Rhodes; 1992 - El Samurai; 1993 - Tracy Smothers; 1994 - Diesel (Kevin Nash); 1995 - Johnny B. Badd (Marc Mero); 1996 - Diamond Dallas Page; 1997 - Tatsuhito Takaiwa; 1998 - The Rock; 1999 - Vader; 2000 - Kurt Angle; 2001 - Keiji Muto; 2002 - Brock Lesnar; 2003 - Brock Lesnar; 2004 - Randy Orton; 2005 - Roderick Strong; 2006 - Takeshi Morishima; 2007 - MVP; 2008 - The Miz


BEST ON INTERVIEWS



1. CHRIS JERICHO (292)2,328

2. C.M. Punk (205)1,836

3. Frank Mir (67)914

4. Dana White (38)393

5. Eddie Kingston (29)205

6. Jim Cornette (16)150

7. Quinton Jackson (15)146

John Cena (5)146

9. Brock Lesnar (10)129

10. Nigel McGuinness/Desmond Wolfe (2)126

HONORABLE MENTION: The Miz 112, Chris Hero 106, Shawn Michaels 103, Randy Orton 72, Pope D’Angelo Dinero 63, Santino Marella 62

Jericho and Punk ran away from the field and that was to be expected. Punk wasn’t even top 20 last year and this year was a genuine challenger for the crown. John Cena, who won in 2007, seemed to be the victim of bad material this year. Falling fro m No. 2 to No. 16 was Santino Marella, whose comedy gimmick seems to have past its peak and is on the downslide. Edge, another top finisher in recent years, was out much of the year with injuries. Even though Dana White’s stuff was so much better this year than last, he remained at No. 4. So many of last year’s top finishers weren’t around much this year, as Edge was injured, Ric Flair was largely off television, Larry Sweeney was out of the national picture, Cibernetico was off television for the early part of the year, and Jimmy Jacobs wasn’t in as high profile situations. It was the third time Jericho has won the award, joining a select group of three time winners like Roddy Piper, Jim Cornette, Ric Flair, Mick Foley and Steve Austin.

PREVIOUS WINNERS: 1981 - Lou Albano and Roddy Piper (tied); 1982 - Roddy Piper; 1983 - Roddy Piper; 1984 - Jimmy Hart; 1985 - Jim Cornette; 1986 - Jim Cornette; 1987 - Jim Cornette; 1988 - Jim Cornette; 1989 - Terry Funk; 1990 - Arn Anderson; 1991 - Ric Flair; 1992 - Ric Flair; 1993 - Jim Cornette; 1994 - Ric Flair; 1995 - Cactus Jack (Mick Foley); 1996 - Steve Austin; 1997 - Steve Austin; 1998 - Steve Austin; 1999 - The Rock; 2000 - The Rock; 2001 - Steve Austin; 2002 - Kurt Angle; 2003 - Chris Jericho; 2004 - Mick Foley; 2005 - Eddie Guerrero; 2006 - Mick Foley; 2007 - John Cena; 2008 - Chris Jericho


MOST CHARISMATIC



1. JOHN CENA (115)958

2. Jeff Hardy (124)904

3. Brock Lesnar (76)862

4. Hiroshi Tanahashi (52)685

5. Yamato (47)604

6. Chris Jericho (38)469

7. C.M. Punk (28)297

8. Shawn Michaels (29)284

9. Frank Mir (9)187

10. Randy Orton (11)139

HONORABLE MENTION: Dr. Wagner Jr. 120, Rey Mysterio 117, Kenta Kobashi 115, Gina Carano 103, Quinton Jackson 102, The Miz 90, Lyoto Machida 81

Cena, 32, won a three-way race over Jeff Hardy and Brock Lesnar. It makes the fourth year in a row he’s won it. Had Hardy not taken a sabbatical and Lesnar not have been out of action, the race would have likely been closer. With four first place finishes, Cena joins a select group of Hulk Hogan (six), Ric Flair (five) and The Rock (four).

PREVIOUS WINNERS: 1980 - Ric Flair; 1981 - Michael Hayes; 1982 - Dusty Rhodes and Ric Flair (tied); 198 3 - Ric Flair; 1984 - Ric Flair; 1985 - Hulk Hogan; 1986 - Hulk Hogan; 1987 - Hulk Hogan; 1988 - Sting; 1989 - Hulk Hogan; 1990 - Hulk Hogan; 1991 - Hulk Hogan; 1992 - Sting; 1993 - Ric Flair; 1994 - Atsushi Onita; 1995 - Shawn Michaels; 1996 - Shawn Michaels; 1997 - Steve Austin; 1998 - Steve Austin; 1999 - The Rock; 2000 - The Rock; 2001 - The Rock; 2002 - The Rock; 2003 - Bob Sapp; 2004 - Eddie Guerrero; 2005 - Eddie Guerrero; 2006 - John Cena; 2007 - John Cena; 2008 - John Cena


BEST TECHNICAL WRESTLER



1. BRYAN DANIELSON (401)2,478

2. Kurt Angle (55)963

3. Davey Richards (92)922

4. Nigel McGuinness/Desmond Wolfe (37)682

5. Naruki Doi (6)324

6. Prince Devitt (18)287

7. Mike Quackenbush (29)243

8. Johnny Saint (5)204

9. William Regal (2)129

10. KENTA (14)107

HONORABLE MENTION: Chris Jericho 97, Atsushi Aoki 90, Yuji Nagata 72

Another landslide win for Danielson, whose fifth straight win is unprecedented and ties Chris Benoit as the only five-time winner in history. Nigel McGuinness, even with the name change, placed top four for the fourth straight year. A notable figure on the list is 67-year-old Johnny Saint, who debuted in 1958, before anyone else in the top ten was born. Saint, one of the great ring technicians of the 70s doing the British style, retired in 1996, but came back for some matches in CHIKARA pro.

PREVIOUS WINNERS: 1980 - Bob Backlund; 1981 - Ted DiBiase; 1982 - Tiger Mask (Satoru Sayama); 1983 - Tiger Mask (Satoru Sayama); 1984 - Dynamite Kid and Masa Saito (tied); 1985 - Tatsumi Fujinami; 1986 - Tatsumi Fujinami; 1987 - Nobuhiko Takada; 1988 - Tatsumi Fujinami; 1989 - Jushin Liger; 1990 - Jushin Liger; 1991 - Jushin Liger; 1992 - Jushin Liger; 1993 - Hiroshi Hase; 1994 - Chris Benoit; 1995 - Chris Benoit; 1996 - Dean Malenko; 1997 - Dean Malenko; 1998 - Kiyoshi Tamura; 1999 - Shinjiro Otani; 2000 - Chris Benoit; 2001 - Minoru Tanaka; 2002 - Kurt Angle; 2003 - Chris Benoit; 2004 - Chris Benoit; 2005 - Bryan Danielson; 2006 - Bryan Danielson; 2007 - Bryan Danielson; 2008 - Bryan Danielson

BRUISER BRODY MEMORIAL AWARD

(BEST BRAWLER)



1. NECRO BUTCHER (107)837

2. Samoa Joe (112)796

3. Masato Tanaka (89)685

4. Togi Makabe (49)666

5. Chris Hero (90)550

6. Abyss (28)342

7. Fit Finlay (17)335

8. Takeshi Morishima (24)306

9. Undertaker (28)`254

10. Eddie Kingston (3)197

HONORABLE MENTION: Takashi Sugiura 155, John Cena 146, Mike Knox 144, Mick Foley 99, Kevin Steen 81

Butcher won close race, winning the second straight year, over Joe, who finished a close second last year as well, and had the most first place votes. Born Dylan Summers, now 35, Butcher has had a cult following on small shows for years, strengthened by appearing in the movie “The Wrestler,” doing a Hardcore match with the lead character, played by Mickey Rourke, in the movie.

PREVIOUS WINNERS: 1980 - Bruiser Brody; 1981 - Bruiser Brody; 1982 - Bruiser Brody; 1983 - Bruiser Brody; 1984 - Bruiser Brody; 1985 - Stan Hansen; 1986 - Terry Gordy; 1987 - Bruiser Brody; 1988 - Bruiser Brody; 1989 - Terry Funk; 1990 - Stan Hansen; 1991 - Cactus Jack (Mick Foley); 1992 - Cactus Jack; 1993 - Cactus Jack; 1994 - Cactus Jack; 1995 - Cactus Jack; 1996 - Mankind (Mick Foley); 1997 - Mankind; 1998 - Mankind; 1999 - Mick Foley; 2000 - Mick Foley; 2001 - Steve Austin; 2002 - Yoshihiro Takayama; 2003 - Brock Lesnar; 2004 - Chris Benoit; 2005 - Samoa Joe; 2006 - Samoa Joe; 2007 - Takeshi Morishima; 2008 - Necro Butcher



BEST FLYING WRESTLER

1. KOTA IBUSHI (389)2,282

2. Evan Bourne (82)1,037

3. Dragon Kid (111)817

4. Pac (10)611

5. Mistico (41)502

6. Prince Devitt (9)460

7. A.J. Styles (49)432

8. Rey Mysterio (44)391

9. Taiji Ishimori (2)253

10. Jack Evans (22)237

Kota Ibushi, 27, placed second to Evan Bourne last year, and this year things were in reverse, except the race wasn’t even close. Seven of the top ten are in foreign promotions.

HONORABLE MENTION: Nick Jackson 228, John Morrison 127, Matt Jackson 120, BxB Hulk 115, La Sombra 110, Amazing Red 97, Yoshitsune 96, Masato Yoshino 88, Aero Star 70

PREVIOUS WINNERS: 1981 - Jimmy Snuka; 1982 - Tiger Mask (Satoru Sayama); 1983 - Tiger Mask (Satoru Sayama); 1984 - Dynamite Kid; 1985 - Tiger Mask (Mitsuharu Misawa); 1986 - Tiger Mask (Mitsuharu Misawa); 1987 - Owen Hart; 1988 - Owen Hart; 1989 - Jushin Liger; 1990 - Jushin Liger; 1991 - Jushin Liger; 1992 - Jushin Liger; 1993 - Jushin Liger; 1994 - Great Sasuke; 1995 - Rey Misterio Jr.; 1996 - Rey Misterio Jr.; 1997 - Rey Misterio Jr.; 1998 - Juventud Guerrera; 1999 - Juventud Guerrera; 2000 - Jeff Hardy; 2001 - Dragon Kid; 2002 - Rey Mysterio; 2003 - Rey Mysterio; 2004 - Rey Mysterio; 2005 - A.J. Styles; 2006 - Mistico; 2007 - Mistico; 2008 - Evan Bourne


MOST OVERRATED



1. HHH (86)836

2. Team 3-D (43)475

3. Kane (39)439

4. Vladimir Kozlov (39)332

5. Kevin Nash (33)313

6. Batista (23)282

7. Tiger Mask (31)267

8. Great Khali (19)226

9. Mark Henry (24)208

10. Sheamus (22)193

HONORABLE MENTION: John Cena 182 Eric Young 177, Randy Orton 169, Michelle McCool 162, Booker T 161, Big Show 143, Ezekiel Jackson 63, Bobby Lashley 60

HHH, 40, won it for the fourth time, following up first place finishes 2002-2004. Last year’s winner, Kozlov, fell to fourth this year.

PREVIOUS WINNERS: 1980 - Mr. Wrestling II (Johnny Walker); 1981 - Pedro Morales; 1982 - Pedro Morales; 1983 - Bob Backlund; 1984 - John Studd; 1985 - Hulk Hogan; 1986 - Hulk Hogan; 1987 - Dusty Rhodes; 1988 - Dusty Rhodes; 1989 - Ultimate Warrior; 1990 - Ultimate Warrior; 1991 - Ultimate Warrior; 1992 - Erik Watts; 1993 - Sid Vicious; 1994 - Hulk Hogan; 1995 - Hulk Hogan; 1996 - Hulk Hogan; 1997 - Hulk Hogan; 1998 - Hulk Hogan; 1999 - Kevin Nash; 2000 - Kevin Nash; 2001 - The Undertaker; 2002 - HHH; 2003 - HHH; 2004 - HHH; 2005 - Jeff Jarrett; 2006 - Batista; 2007 - Great Khali; 2008 - Vladimir Kozlov


MOST UNDERRATED



1. EVAN BOURNE (205)1,561

2. Christian (76)640

3. Jack Swagger (49)625

4. Alex Shelley (29)280

5. William Regal (23)226

6. Shelton Benjamin (17)216

7. Mike Knox (12)215

8. Paul Burchill (26)197

9. Tyson Kidd (17)178

10. MVP (14)157

HONORABLE MENTION: Dolph Ziggler 151, Primo 103

Bourne (Matt Korklan, 26), won by a substantial margin in a category where all nine of the ten wrestlers listed in the top ten came from WWE.

PREVIOUS WINNERS: 1980 - Iron Sheik; 1981 - Buzz Sawyer; 1982 - Adrian Adonis; 1983 - Dynamite Kid; 1984 - Brian Blair; 1985 - Bobby Eaton; 1986 - Bobby Eaton; 1987 - Brad Armstrong; 1988 - Tiger Mask (Mitsuharu Misawa); 1989 - Dan Kroffat (Phil LaFon); 1990 - Bobby Eaton; 1991 - Terry Taylor; 1992 - Terry Taylor; 1993 - Bobby Eaton; 1994 - Brian Pillman; 1995 - Skip (Chris Candito); 1996 - Leif Cassidy (Al Snow); 1997 - Flash Funk (Too Cold Scorpio); 1998 - Chris Benoit; 1999 - Chris Jericho; 2000 - Chris Jericho; 2001 - Lance Storm; 2002 - Booker T; 2003 - Ultimo Dragon; 2004 - Paul London; 2005 - Shelton Benjamin; 2006 - Shelton Benjamin; 2007 - Shelton Benjamin; 2008 - MVP

PROMOTION OF THE YEAR



1. Ultimate Fighting Championships (379)2,167

2. Dragon Gate (131)1,539

3. World Wrestling Entertainment(45)889

4. New Japan Pro Wrestling (32)724

5. CHIKARA (21)461

6. Ring of Honor (2)426

7. World Extreme Cagefighting (18)403

8. Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (21)355

9. Strikeforce (1)242

10. Total Nonstop Action (3)92

Honorable Mention: Consejo Mundial Lucha Libre 71

This marks the fourth consecutive year of UFC on top, tying New Japan (1995- 1998). It was not as dominant a first place finish as the prior year, which was a 3,340 to 1,329 margin over WWE. Dragon Gate was No. 4 last year, so moved up two notches based on strong PPV shows airing in the U.S.

PREVIOUS WINNERS - 1983 - Jim Crockett Promotions; 1984 - New Japan Pro Wrestling; 1985 - All Japan Pro Wrestling; 1986 - Mid South Wrestling; 1987 - New Japan Pro Wrestling; 1988 - New Japan Pro Wrestling; 1989 - Universal Wrestling Federation Japan; 1990 - All Japan Pro Wrestling; 1991 - All Japan Pro Wrestling; 1992 - New Japan Pro Wrestling; 1993 - All Japan Pro Wrestling; 1994 - AAA; 1995 - New Japan Pro Wrestling; 1996 - New Japan Pro Wrestling; 1997 - New Japan Pro Wrestling; 1998 - New Japan Pro Wrestling; 1999 - World Wrestling Federation; 2000 - World Wrestling Federation; 2001 - Pride Fighting Championships; 2002 - Pride Fighting Championships; 2003 - Pride Fighting Championships; 2004 - Pro Wrestling NOAH; 2005 - Pro Wrestling NOAH; 2006 - Ultimate Fighting Championships; 2007 - Ultimate Fighting Championships; 2008 - Ultimate Fighting Championships


BEST WEEKLY TV SHOW



1. WWE SMACKDOWN (242)1,986

2. UFC Ultimate Fighter (157)1,567

3. Ring of Honor (130)1,563

4. Dragon Gate Infinity (190)1,549

5. WWE ECW (4)498

6. WWE Raw (6)348

7. TNA Impact (3)229

8. New Japan World Pro Wrestling (13)155

9. Inside MMA (8)133

10. CMLL (5)107

HONORABLE MENTION: AAA 63

WWE Smackdown broke four straight years of Ultimate Fighter on top. The show featured strong programs all year, including C.M. Punk vs. Jeff Hardy, Edge vs. Jeff Hardy, Chris Jericho vs. Rey Mysterio and Mysterio vs. Batista. Ultimate Fighter had its record ratings, but worst season of fights in season ten, built around Kimbo Slice. I’m really surprised to see ROH finish where it has. I just don’t see the show at that level. Last year, Raw was No. 2 and Smackdown was a distant No. 4, but the roles reversed this year.

PREVIOUS WINNERS: 1983 - New Japan World Pro Wrestling; 1984 - New Japan World Pro Wrestling; 1985 - Mid South Wrestling; 1986 - Universal Wrestling Federation (Mid South Wrestling: 1987 - CWA 90 Minute Memphis live show; 1988 - New Japan World Pro Wrestling; 1989 - All Japan Pro Wrestling; 1990 - All Japan Pro Wrestling; 1991 - All Japan Pro Wrestling; 1992 - All Japan Pro Wrestling; 1993 - All Japan Pro Wrestling; 1994 - Extreme Championship Wrestling; 1995 - Extreme Championship Wrestling; 1996 - Extreme Championship Wrestling; 1997 - New Japan World Pro Wrestling; 1998 - WWF Raw is War; 1999 - WWF Raw is War; 2000 - WWF Raw is War; 2001 - New Japan World Pro Wrestling; 2002 - WWE Smackdown; 2003 - Pro Wrestling NOAH; 2004 - WWE Raw; 2005 - UFC Ultimate Fighter; 2006 - UFC Ultimate Fighter; 2007 - UFC Ultimate Fighter; 2008 - UFC Ultimate Fighter


WORKED MATCH OF THE YEAR



1. UNDERTAKER VS. SHAWN MICHAELS 4/5 HOUSTON (304) 2,110

2. Davey Richards vs. Shingo Takagi 9/6 Chicago (81)855

3. KENTA vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima 3/1 Tokyo (51)737

4. Bryan Danielson vs. Naruki Doi 9/6 Chicago (66)706

5. KENTA & Go Shiozaki vs. Kensuke Sasaki & Katsuhiko Nakajima 6/22 Tokyo (63)517

6. Davey Richards vs. KENTA 4/3 Houston (29)432

7. Rey Mysterio vs. Chris Jericho 6/28 Sacramento (19)322

8. Bryan Danielson vs. Davey Richards 9/25 Boston (19)199

9. Samoa Joe vs. Christopher Daniels vs. A.J. Styles 11/15 Orlando (4)187

10. KENTA vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima 2/11 Tokyo (2)143

HONORABLE MENTION: Bryan Danielson vs. Takeshi Morishima 12/27/08 New York 143, Kurt Angle vs. Desmond Wolfe 11/15 Orlando, John Cena vs. Randy Orton 9/13 Montreal 112, C.M. Punk vs. Jeff Hardy 8/25 Phoenix 90, Rey Mysterio vs. John Morrison 9/1 Cleveland 82

It was pretty much a lock Undertaker vs. Michaels would be No. 1, since it was at WrestleMania which is a gigantic edge that is hard to overcome. Even though some were questioning it even being the best match of that week in Houston (Davey Richards vs. KENTA on the ROH show two days earlier placed No. 6, and probably would have placed higher if the finish hadn’t been botched). The dominant wrestler looks to be KENTA, who had three of the top six matches and four of the top ten. Richards had three of the top eight. It was the fourth time a WrestleMania match had finished first, with Randy Savage vs. Ricky Steamboat (1987), Shawn Michaels vs. Razor Ramon (1994, which beat out the Misawa vs. Kawada match that year) and Bret Hart vs. Steve Austin (1997). Another note is that the 9/6 Dragon Gate USA show in Chicago produced No. 2 and No. 4, yet it didn’t even win best major show of the year. In winning his third match of the year award, Michaels trails only Ric Flair (4), Kenta Kobashi (6) and Mitsuharu Misawa (5) on the all-time list.

PREVIOUS WINNERS: 1980 - Bob Backlund vs. Ken Patera 5/19 New York Madison Square Garden; 1981 - Pat Patterson vs. Sgt. Slaughter 4/21 New York Madison Square Garden; 1982 - Tiger Mask (Satoru Sayama) vs. Dynamite Kid 8/5 Tokyo; 1983 - Ric Flair vs. Harley Race 11/24 Greensboro; 1984 - Freebirds vs. Von Erichs 7/4 Fort Worth; 1985 - Tiger Mask (Mitsuharu Misawa) vs. Kuniaki Kobayashi 6/12 Tokyo; 1986 - Ric Flair vs. Barry Windham 2/14 Orlando; 1987 - Ricky Steamboat vs. Randy Savage 3/29 Pontiac; 1988 - Ric Flair vs. Sting 3/27 Greensboro; 1989 - Ric Flair vs. Ricky Steamboat 4/2 New Orleans; 1990 - Jushin Liger vs. Naoki Sano (Takuma Sano) 1/31 Osaka; 1991 - Rick & Scott Steiner vs. Hiroshi Hase & Kensuke Sasaki 3/21 Tokyo; 1992 - Dan Kroffat & Doug Furnas vs. Kenta Kobashi & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi 5/25 Sendai; 1993 - Manami Toyota & Toshiyo Yamada vs. Dynamite Kansai & Mayumi Ozaki 4/21 Osaka; 1994 - Shawn Michaels vs. Razor Ramon (Scott Hall) 3/20 New York Madison Square Garden; 1995 - Manami Toyota vs. Kyoko Inoue 5/7 Tokyo; 1996 - Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama vs. Steve Williams & Johnny Ace 6/7 Tokyo; 1997 - Bret Hart vs. Steve Austin 3/23 Chicago; 1998 - Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Kenta Kobashi 10/31 Tokyo; 1999 - Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Kenta Kobashi 6/11 Tokyo; 2000 - Atlantis vs. Villano III 3/17 Mexico City; 2001 - Keiji Muto vs. Genichiro Tenryu 6/8 Tokyo; 2002 - Chris Benoit & Kurt Angle vs. Edge & Rey Mysterio 10/20 Little Rock; 2003 - Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Kenta Kobashi 3/1 Tokyo; 2004 - Kenta Kobashi vs. Jun Akiyama 7/10 Tokyo Dome; 2005 - Kenta Kobashi vs. Samoa Joe 10/1 New York; 2006 - Dragon Kid & Ryo Saito & Genki Horiguchi vs. Cima & Naruki Doi & Masato Yoshino 3/31 Chicago; 2007 - Bryan Danielson vs. Takeshi Morishima 8/25 New York; 2008 - Shawn Michaels vs. Chris Jericho 10/5 Portland, OR


SHOOT MATCH OF THE YEAR



1. DIEGO SANCHEZ VS. CLAY GUIDA 6/20 LAS VEGAS (299)1,940

2. Ben Henderson vs. Donald Cerrone 10/10 San Antonio (62)753

3. Mike Brown vs. Urijah Faber 6/7 Sacramento (41)744

4. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira vs. Randy Couture 8/29 Portland (35)556

5. Hideo Tokoro vs. Abel Cullum 5/26 Yokohama (69)542

6. Miguel Torres vs. Takeya Mizugaki 4/5 Chicago (39)408

7. Brock Lesnar vs. Frank Mir 7/11 Las Vegas (42)308

8. Minowa-man vs. Choi Hong-man 10/6 Yokohama (17)178

9. Fedor Emelianenko vs. Brett Rogers 11/7 Chicago (14)163

10. David Heath vs. Mike Nickels 10/2 Edmonton78

HONORABLE MENTION: Cris Cyborg vs. Gina Carano 8/15 San Jose 73

The incredible Sanchez vs. Guida match, one of the best in UFC history, finished well ahead of Henderson vs. Cerrone. It’s interesting that even though UFC was the dominant promotion, running more matches than any other year, only three matches made top ten. Interesting that a complete freak show match with Minowa- man vs. Choi Hong-man cracked the top ten, and Lesnar vs. Mir may have been the biggest match of the year, but it was largely one-sided and while heated, hardly felt like a match of the year candidate.

PREVIOUS WINNERS: 1997 - Maurice Smith vs. Mark Coleman 7/27 Birmingham; 1998 - Jerry Bohlander vs. Kevin Jackson 3/13 New Orleans; 1999 - Frank Shamrock vs. Tito Ortiz 9/24 Lake Charles; 2000 - Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Royce Gracie 5/1 Tokyo Dome; 2001 - Randy Couture vs. Pedro Rizzo 5/4 Atlantic City; 2002 - Don Frye vs. Yoshihiro Takayama 6/23 Saitama; 2003 - Wanderlei Silva vs. Hidehiko Yoshida 11/9 Tokyo Dome; 2004 - Quinton Jackson vs. Wanderlei Silva 10/31 Saitama; 2005 - Forrest Griffin vs. Stephan Bonnar 4/9 Las Vegas; 2006 - Diego Sanchez vs. Karo Parisyan 8/17 Las Vegas; 2007 - Randy Couture vs. Tim Sylvia 3/3 Columbus; 2008 - Forrest Griffin vs. Quinton Jackson 7/5 Las Vegas


ROOKIE OF THE YEAR



1. FRIGHTMARE (205)1,451

2. Ricky Steamboat Jr. (89)1,074

3. Brutus Magnus (94)751

4. Ryota Hama (50)694

5. Cody Deaner (23)269

6. Strong Man Jon Anderson (14)246

7. Rouge (6)167

8. Bo Rotundo (6)108

9. Jesse Neal64

10. Chris Jones49

The latest CHIKARA creation scored a win over the son of a Hall of Fame wrestler and a former member of the U.K. Gladiators television show. An interesting note is that in the 80s, five of the winners (Steve Williams, Road Warrior Hawk, Bam Bam Bigelow, Brian Pillman and Gary Albright) have passed away. Many winners in the past became superstars like Barry Windham, Steve Williams, Bam Bam Bigelow, Brian Pillman, Jun Akiyama, Big Show, Bill Goldberg and Shingo Takagi. Many became Hall of Famers, like The Road Warriors, Jushin Liger and Steve Austin, with Rey Misterio Jr. a lock and Perro Aguayo Jr. a top candidate down the line. Still, there are no guarantees. Brad Armstrong had a long career and some success, but never really reached the heights his ability should have taken him. Brad Rheingans had a solid career, particularly in Japan, but was never a superstar. Jack Victory really didn’t have much of a career. Tom Zenk had a decent career. Dustin Rhodes had a good career, probably highlighted during his initial Goldust run. But like Victory, others like Mikey Whipwreck, Mr. Aguila, Rayman, Sean O’Haire and others never really achieved the stardom expected when they started.

PREVIOUS WINNERS: 1980 - Barry Windham; 1981 - Brad Armstrong and Brad Rheingans (tied); 1982 - Steve Williams; 1983 - Road Warriors; 1984 - Tom Zenk and Keiichi Yamada (Jushin Liger) (tied); 1985 - Jack Victory; 1986 - Bam Bam Bigelow; 1987 - Brian Pillman; 1988 - Gary Albright; 1989 - Dustin Rhodes; 1990 - Steve Austin; 1991 - Johnny B. Badd (Marc Mero); 1992 - Rey Misterio Jr.; 1993 - Jun Akiyama; 1994 - Mikey Whipwreck; 1995 - Perro Aguayo Jr.; 1996 - The Giant (Paul "Big Show" Wight); 1997 - Mr. Aguila; 1998 - Bill Goldberg; 1999 - Blitzkrieg; 2000 - Sean O'Haire; 2001 - El Hombre sin Nombre (Rayman); 2002 - Bob Sapp; 2003 - Chris Sabin; 2004 - Petey Williams; 2005 - Shingo Takagi; 2006 - Atsushi Aoki; 2007 - Erick Stevens; 2008 - Kai


BEST NON-WRESTLER



1. VICKIE GUERRERO (296)2,022

2. Jim Cornette (76)695

3. Don West (115)689

4. Prince Nana (15)479

5. Vince McMahon (10)464

6. Teddy Long (26)345

7. Dana White (28)249

8 Generalissimo Takada (21)199

9. Abraham Washington (7)111

10. Larry Sweeney (3)107

Vickie Guerrero, who lost a close race to Larry Sweeney last year, ran away with it this year, even though she took much of the summer off. Sweeney, who suffered a breakdown in April, only finishing 10th. A big surprise was Don West, who worked as both a manager and an announcer this year, finishing third.

PREVIOUS WINNERS: 1999 - Vince McMahon; 2000 - Vince McMahon; 2001 - Paul Heyman; 2002 - Paul Heyman; 2003 - Steve Austin; 2004 - Paul Heyman; 2005 - Eric Bischoff; 2006 - Jim Cornette; 2007 - Larry Sweeney; 2008 - Larry Sweeney

MANAGER OF THE YEAR PREVIOUS WINNERS: 1983 - Jimmy Hart; 1984 - Jim Cornette; 1985 - Jim Cornette; 1986 - Jim Cornette; 1987 - Jim Cornette; 1988 - Jim Cornette; 1989 - Jim Cornette; 1990 - Jim Cornette; 1991 - Sensational Sherri (Sherri Martel); 1992 - Jim Cornette; 1993 - Jim Cornette; 1994 - Jim Cornette; 1995 - Jim Cornette; 1996 - Jim Cornette


BEST TELEVISION ANNOUNCER



1. JIM ROSS (305)2,091

2. Matt Striker (156)1,178

3. Joe Rogan (100)984

4. Taz (36)646

5. Mike Hogewood (12)408

6. Michael Schiavello (19)391

7. Don West (28)288

8. Mike Tenay (11)131

9. Mike Goldberg (4)126

10. Dave Prazak115

HONORABLE MENTION: Mauro Ranallo 99

Even though out of action for the last few months of the year after an attack of Bells Palsy, Jim Ross, 58, won the award for the record setting 13th time. The top three were a repeat from last year, only with Matt Striker first and Ross second last year. Striker clearly lost being a contender with his trying to be intellectual and making stories up, thus hurting his credibility. Taz made a big step up the ladder moving to TNA. Frank Mir dropped out of the top ten, never living down being such a homer for Miguel Torres, making it seem like Torres was breezing to a win over Takeya Mizugaki in what was a very close decision. Mike Tenay, a five-time winner, fell from 6th to 8th place this year.

PREVIOUS WINNERS: 1981 - Gordon Solie; 1982 - Gordon Solie; 1983 - Gordon Solie; 1984 - Lance Russell; 1985 - Lance Russell; 1986 - Lance Russell; 1987 - Lance Russell; 1988 - Jim Ross; 1989 - Jim Ross; 1990 - Jim Ross; 1991 - Jim Ross; 1992 - Jim Ross; 1993 - Jim Ross; 1994 - Joey Styles; 1995 - Joey Styles; 1996 - Joey Styles; 1997 - Mike Tenay; 1998 - Jim Ross; 1999 - Jim Ross; 2000 - Jim Ross; 2001 - Jim Ross; 2002 - Mike Tenay; 2003 - Mike Tenay; 2004 - Mike Tenay; 2005 - Mike Tenay; 2006 - Jim Ross; 2007 - Jim Ross; 2008 - Matt Striker


WORST TELEVISION ANNOUNCER



1. MICHAEL COLE (397)2,571

2. Jerry Lawler (47)1,159

3. Todd Grisham (34)484

4. Don West (31)325

5. Mike Hogewood (34)286

6. Matt Striker (22)233

7. Byron Saxton (5)224

8. Dave Prazak (10)192

9. Michael Schiavello (21)152

10. Mike Tenay (6)125

HONORABLE MENTION: Taz 87, Josh Matthews 71

The voices of Raw, Michael Cole and Jerry Lawler, finished 1-2 this year. Cole, who had really come into his own working with Taz and JBL on Smackdown, has been put in a terrible position on high pressure Raw. His delivery, smooth before, seems forced, largely because he is forced to say a lot of things that he doesn’t deliver as natural. You can sense the same for Lawler. Cole had won the worst announcer award in 2001.

PREVIOUS WINNERS: 1984 - Angelo Mosca; 1985 - Gorilla Monsoon; 1986 - David Crockett; 1987 - David Crockett; 1988 - David Crockett; 1989 - Ed Whalen; 1990 - Herb Abrams; 1991 - Gorilla Monsoon; 1992 - Gorilla Monsoon; 1993 - Gorilla Monsoon; 1994 - Gorilla Monsoon; 1995 - Gorilla Monsoon; 1996 - Steve McMichael; 1997 - Dusty Rhodes; 1998 - Lee Marshall; 1999 - Tony Schiavone; 2000 - Tony Schiavone; 2001 - Michael Cole; 2002 - Jerry Lawler; 2003 - Jonathan Coachman; 2004 - Todd Grisham; 2005 - Jonathan Coachman; 2006 - Todd Grisham; 2007 - Don West; 2008 - Mike Adamle


BEST MAJOR WRESTLING SHOW



1. DRAGON GATE USA OPEN THE HISTORICAL GATE 7/25 PHILADELPHIA (144)1,229

2. UFC 100 7/11 Las Vegas (150)1,066

3. Dragon Gate USA Open the Untouchable Gate 9/6 Chicago (94)1,030

4. WWE WrestleMania 25 4/5 Houston (47)587

5. TNA Turning Point 11/15 Orlando (40)357

6. New Japan Jan. 4 Tokyo Dome (39)255

7. WWE Backlash 4/26 Providence (32)254

8. WEC 6/7 Sacramento (17)228

9. PWG 7/31 Reseda (19)210

10. ROH Supercard of Honor 4/3 Houston 199

Honorable Mention: WWE No Way Out 2/15 Settle 172, Pro Wrestling NOAH 3/1 Budokan Hall 148, UFC 92 12/27/08 Las Vegas 112, ROH Glory By Honor 9/26 New York 89, WWE SummerSlam 8/23 Los Angeles 89, TNA Bound for Glory10/18 Irvine 66

Dragon Gate USA ran two shows that aired on PPV in 2009, and they finished No1. and No. 3. The only promotion besides Dragon Gate USA to have two shows in the top ten were WWE, with Mania at No. 4 and Backlash at No. 6.

PREVIOUS WINNERS: 1989 - WCW Great American Bash 7/23 Baltimore; 1990 - WWF/New Japan/All Japan U.S. and Japan Wrestling Summit 4/11 Tokyo; 1991 - WCW Wrestle War 2/24 Phoenix; 1992 - All Japan Women Wrestlemarinpiad 4/25 Yokohama; 1993 - All Japan Women Dream Slam I 4/2 Yokohama; 1994 - New Japan Super J Cup 4/16 Tokyo; 1995 - Weekly Pro Wrestling Multi-Promotional show 4/2 Tokyo; 1996 - WAR Super J Cup Second Stage 12/13/95 Tokyo; 1997 - WWF Canadian Stampede 7/16 Calgary; 1998 - ECW Heat Wave 8/2 Dayton; 1999 - ECW Anarchy Rulz 9/19 Chicago; 2000 - EMLL first PPV 3/17 Arena Mexico; 2001 - WWF WrestleMania X-7 4/1 Houston Astrodome; 2002 - WWE SummerSlam 8/25 New York Madison Square Garden; 2003 - Pride Final Elimination 11/9 Tokyo Dome; 2004 - Pro Wrestling NOAH 7/10 Tokyo Dome; 2005 - Pro Wrestling NOAH Destiny 7/18 Tokyo Dome; 2006 - Ring of Honor Glory By Honor V 9/16 Manhattan Center; 2007 - ROH Man Up 9/15 Chicago; 2008 - WWE WrestleMania 25 3/30 Orlando


"CATEGORY B" AWARDS - WINNER

DETERMINED BY FIRST PLACE VOTES

WORST MAJOR WRESTLING SHOW



1. TNA VICTORY ROAD 7/19 ORLANDO478

2. WWE Breaking Point 9/13 Montreal22

3. Ultimate Chaos 6/27 Biloxi19

4. WWE Bragging Rights 10/25 Pittsburgh15

5. WWE The Bash 6/28 Sacramento13

TNA Hard Justice 8/16 Orlando13

7. WWE Hell in a Cell 10/4 Newark9

8. TNA Genesis 1/11 Charlotte6

9. UFC 97 4/18 Montreal5

PREVIOUS WINNERS: 1989 - WrestleMania V 4/2 Atlantic City; 1990 - WCW Clash XII 11/20 Jacksonville; 1991 - WCW Great American Bash 7/14 Baltimore; 1992 - WCW Halloween Havoc 10/25 Philadelphia; 1993 - WCW Fall Brawl 9/19 Houston; 1994 - UWF Blackjack Brawl 9/25 Las Vegas; 1995 - WCW Uncensored 3/29 Tupelo; 1996 - WCW Uncensored 3/24 Tupelo; 1997 - WCW/NWO Souled Out 1/25 Cedar Rapids; 1998 - WCW Fall Brawl 9/13 Winston-Salem; 1999 - Heroes of Wrestling 10/10 Bay St. Louis; 2000 - WCW Halloween Havoc 10/29 Las Vegas; 2001 - WCW Unleashed 2/14 Los Angeles; 2002 - WWE King of the Ring 6/23 Columbus, OH; 2003 - WWE Backlash 4/27 Worcester; 2004 - WWE Great American Bash 7/27 Norfolk; 2005 - WWE Great American Bash 7/24 Buffalo; 2006 - UFC 61 7/8 Las Vegas; 2007 - WWE ECW December to Dismember 12/3/06 Augusta; 2008 - WWE Survivor Series 11/23 Boston


BEST WRESTLING MANEUVER



1. YOUNG BUCKS MORE BANG FOR YOUR BUCK127

2. Evan Bourne shooting star press90

3. Kota Ibushi Golden Star press74

4. Shinsuke Nakamura bom a ye58

5. John Morrison starship pain45

6. Randy Orton RKO40

7 C.M. Punk Go to sleep37

8.Dragon Kid dragonrana36

9. Randy Orton punt31

10. Taiji Ishimori superstar elbow21

HONORABLE MENTION: Masato Tanaka sliding D 18, Sheamus Razor’s edge 9

PREVIOUS WINNERS: 1981 - Jimmy Snuka Superfly splash; 1982 - Super Destroyer (Scott Irwin) superplex; 1983 - Jimmy Snuka Superfly splash; 1984 - Davey Boy Smith power clean in combination with Dynamite Kid dropkick off the top rope; 1985 - Tiger Mask (Mitsuharu Misawa) tope con giro; 1986 - Chavo Guerrero Sr. moonsault block; 1987 - Jushin Liger shooting star press; 1988 - Jushin Liger shooting star press; 1989 - Scott Steiner Frankensteiner; 1990 - Scott Steiner Frankensteiner; 1991 - Masao Orihara moonsault off top rope to floor; 1992 - Too Cold Scorpio 450 splash; 1993 - Vader moonsault; 1994 - Great Sasuke Sasuke special; 1995 - Rey Misterio Jr. flip dive into Frankensteiner on floor; 1996 - Ultimo Dragon running Liger bomb; 1997 - Diamond Dallas Page diamond cutter; 1998 - Kenta Kobashi burning hammer; 1999 - Dragon Kid dragonrana; 2000 - Dragon Kid dragonrana; 2001 - Keiji Muto shining wizard; 2002 - Brock Lesnar F-5; 2003 - A.J. Styles clash; 2004 - Petey Williams Canadian Destroyer; 2005 - Petey Williams Canadian Destroyer; 2006 - KENTA Go 2 Sleep; 2007 - KENTA Go 2 Sleep; 2008 - Evan Bourne shooting star press




MOST DISGUSTING PROMOTIONAL TACTIC



1. PIGGY JAMES ANGLE166

2. Vickie Guerrero being called a pig109

3. Using the death of Jeff Hardy’s dog in the Hardy Boys angle46

4. WWE not acknowledging the death of Umaga on TV19

PREVIOUS WINNERS: 1981 - LeBelle promotions usage of The Monster claiming he was built in a laboratory; 1982 - Bob Backlund as WWF champion; 1983 - WWF pretending Eddie Gilbert had re-broken his neck after original legit injury in an auto accident; 1984 - Blackjack Mulligan fake heart attack by Championship Wrestling from Florida; 1985 - Usage of Mike Von Erich's near fatal illness to sell Cotton Bowl tickets by World Class; 1986 - Equating an angle of Chris Adams' blindness with the real death of Gino Hernandez; 1987 - World Class' handling of the death of Mike Von Erich; 1988 - Fritz Von Erich's fake brush with death; 1989 - Jose Gonzalez's babyface push by WWC; 1990 - Atsushi Onita stabbing angle with Jose Gonzalez; 1991 - WWF exploiting the Persian Gulf war; 1992 - WCW push of Erik Watts; 1993 - WCW Cactus Jack amnesia angle; 1994 - WCW retiring Ric Flair; 1995 - WCW Gene Okerlund 900 line come-ons and lies; 1996 - WWF teases and usage of fake Razor Ramon, Diesel and Double J; 1997 - WWF Melanie Pillman interview on Raw the day after Brian's death; 1998 - WCW exploiting Scott Hall's drinking problems for angles; 1999 - WWF continuing Over the Edge PPV after the death of Owen Hart; 2000 - WCW making David Arquette world champion; 2001 - Stephanie McMahon interview on 9/13 TV equating the bombing of the World Trade Center to her father's steroid trial; 2002 - WWE Katie Vick necrophilia angle; 2003 - McMahon family all over television; 2004 - Kane/Lita pregnancy/wedding/miscarriage angle; 2005 - WWE not editing off the show its terrorists angle the day of bombing in England; 2006 - WWE exploiting the death of Eddy Guerrero; 2007 - TNA signing Pacman Jones and having him do the Making it Rain on television when his doing that at a strip club led to the paralysis of a wrestler; 2007 - WWE teasing a Jeff Hardy drug overdose on the Internet to try and garner late interest in a PPV show

READERS' FAVORITE WRESTLER PREVIOUS WINNERS: 1984 - Ric Flair; 1985 - Ric Flair; 1986 - Ric Flair; 1987 - Ric Flair; 1988 - Ric Flair; 1989 - Ric Flair; 1990 - Ric Flair; 1991 - Ric Flair; 1992 - Ric Flair; 1993 - Ric Flair; 1994 - Sabu; 1995 - Manami Toyota; 1996 - Ric Flair; 1997 - Chris Benoit; 1998 - Mick Foley; 1999 - Chris Jericho; 2000 - Chris Benoit; 2001 - Keiji Muto; 2002 - Kurt Angle; 2003 - Kurt Angle

READERS LEAST FAVORITE WRESTLER PREVIOUS WINNERS: 1984 - Ivan Putski; 1985 - Hulk Hogan; 1986 - Hulk Hogan; 1987 - Dusty Rhodes; 1988 - Dusty Rhodes; 1989 - Ultimate Warrior; 1990 - Ultimate Warrior; 1991 - Hulk Hogan; 1992 - Erik Watts; 1993 - Sid Vicious; 1994 - Hulk Hogan; 1995 - Hulk Hogan; 1996 - Hulk Hogan; 1997 - Hulk Hogan; 1998 - Hulk Hogan; 1999 - Hulk Hogan; 2000 - Kevin Nash; 2001 - Undertaker; 2002 - HHH; 2003 - HHH

WORST WRESTLER PREVIOUS WINNERS: 1984 - Ivan Putski; 1985 - Uncle Elmer (Stan Frazier); 1986 - Mike Von Erich; 1987 - Junkyard Dog; 1988 - Ultimate Warrior; 1989 - Andre the Giant; 1990 - Junkyard Dog; 1991 - Andre the Giant; 1992 - Andre the Giant; 1993 - Equalizer (Dave Sullivan); 1994 - Dave Sullivan; 1995 - Renegade (Rick Wilson); 1996 - Loch Ness (Giant Haystacks); 1997 - Hulk Hogan; 1998 - Warrior; 1999 - Kevin Nash; 2000 - Kevin Nash; 2001 - Big Show; 2002 - Big Show ; 2003 - Nathan Jones

WORST TAG TEAM PREVIOUS WINNERS: 1984 - The Crusher & Baron Von Raschke; 1985 - Uncle Elmer (Stan Frazier) & Cousin Junior (Lanny Kean); 1986 - Junkyard Dog & George Steele; 1987 - Jimmy Valiant & Bugsy McGraw; 1988 - Nikolai Volkoff & Boris Zhukov; 1989 - Warlord & Barbarian; 1990 - Giant Baba & Andre the Giant; 1991 - Giant Baba & Andre the Giant; 1992 - Bushwhackers; 1993 - Colossal Kongs; 1994 - Bushwhackers; 1995 - Dick Slater & Bunkhouse Buck (Jimmy Golden); 1996 - Godwinns; 1997 - Godwinns; 1998 - Kurrgan & Golga (John Tenta); 1999 - Mideon & Viscera; 2000 - Kronik; 2001 - Kronik; 2002 - Rosey & Jamal; 2003 - Rene Dupree & Sylvan Grenier


WORST TELEVISION SHOW



1. TNA IMPACT382

2. WWE Raw256

3. WWE ECW28

4. AAA13

5. WWE Superstars10

PREVIOUS WINNERS: 1984 - WWF All-Star Wrestling; 1985 - Championship Wrestling from Florida; 1986 - California Championship Wrestling; 1987 - World Class Championship Wrestling; 1988 - AWA on ESPN; 1989 - ICW Wrestling; 1990 - AWA on ESPN; 1991 - Herb Abrams' UWF; 1992 - Global Wrestling Federation on ESPN; 1993 - Global Wrestling Federation on ESPN; 1994 - WCW Saturday Night; 1995 - WCW Saturday Night; 1996 - AWF Warriors of Wrestling; 1997 - USWA; 1998 - WCW Nitro; 1999 - WCW Thunder; 2000 - WCW Thunder; 2001 - WWF Excess; 2002 - WWE Raw; 2003 - WWE Raw; 2004 - WWE Smackdown; 2005 - WWE Smackdown; 2006 - WWE Raw; 2007 - TNA Impact ; 2008 - TNA Impact

WORST NON-WRESTLING PERSONALITY PREVIOUS WINNERS: 2000 - Vince Russo; 2001 - Stephanie McMahon; 2002 - Stephanie McMahon; 2003 - Stephanie McMahon

WORST MANAGER PREVIOUS WINNERS: 1984 - Mr. Fuji; 1985 - Mr. Fuji; 1986 - Paul Jones; 1987 - Mr. Fuji; 1988 - Mr. Fuji; 1989 - Mr. Fuji; 1990 - Mr. Fuji; 1991 - Mr. Fuji; 1992 - Mr. Fuji; 1993 - Mr. Fuji; 1994 - Mr. Fuji; 1995 - Mr. Fuji; 1996 - Sonny Onoo; 1997 - Sonny Onoo; 1998 - Sonny Onoo; 1999 - Sonny Onoo


WORST MATCH OF THE YEAR



1. SHARMELL VS. JENNA MORASCA 7/19 ORLANDO535

2. HHH vs. Randy Orton 4/5 Houston40

3. Anderson Silva vs. Thales Leitis 4/18 Montreal25

4. Kane vs. Great Khali 8/23 Los Angeles18

5. Santina Marella vs. Chavo Guerrero vs. Vickie Guerrero 6/7 New Orleans16

PREVIOUS WINNERS: 1984 - Fabulous Moolah vs. Wendi Richter 7/23 New York Madison Square Garden; 1985 - Fred Blassie vs. Lou Albano Nassau Coliseum; 1986 - Roddy Piper vs. Mr. T 4/2 Nassau Coliseum; 1987 - Hulk Hogan vs. Andre the Giant 3/29 Pontiac; 1988 - Hiroshi Wajima vs. Tom Magee 4/21 Kawasaki; 1989 - Andre the Giant vs. Ultimate Warrior 10/31 Topeka; 1990 - Sid Vicious vs. Night Stalker (Bryan Clark) 11/20 Jacksonville; 1991 - P.N. News & Bobby Eaton vs. Terry Taylor & Steve Austin scaffold match 7/14 -Baltimore; 1992 - Rick Rude vs. Masahiro Chono 10/25 Philadelphia; 1993 - Four Doinks (Bushwhackers & Men on a Mission) vs. Bam Bam Bigelow & Head Shrinkers & Bastion Booger (Mike Shaw); 1994 - Jerry Lawler & Queasy & Sleazy & Cheesy vs. Doink the Clown & Dink & Wink & Pink 11/23 San Antonio; 1995 - Sting vs. Tony Palmore 1/4 Tokyo Dome; 1996 - Hulk Hogan & Randy Savage vs. Ric Flair & Arn Anderson & Meng & Barbarian & Kevin Sullivan & Ze Gangsta (Tiny Lister) & Ultimate Solution (Jeep Swenson) & Lex Luger 3/24 Tupelo; 1997 - Hulk Hogan vs. Roddy Piper 10/26 Las Vegas; 1998 - Hulk Hogan vs. Warrior 10/24 Las Vegas; 1999 - Al Snow vs. Big Bossman Kennel from Hell 9/26 Charlotte; 2000 - Pat Patterson vs. Gerald Brisco evening gown match 6/25 Boston; 2001 - Undertaker & Kane vs. Kronik (Brian Adams & Bryan Clark) 9/23 Pittsburgh; 2002 - Bradshaw & Trish Stratus vs. Christopher Nowinski & Jackie Gayda 7/8 Philadelphia; 2003 - HHH vs. Scott Steiner 1/19 Boston; 2004 - Steven Richards vs. Tyson Tomko 9/12 Portland; 2005 - Eric Bischoff vs Teddy Long 11/27 Detroit; 2006 - TNA Reverse Battle Royal 10/24 Orlando; 2007 - Chris Harris vs. James Storm 4/15 St. Charles, MO blindfold match; 2008 - HHH vs. Edge vs. Vladimir Kozlov 11/23 Boston


WORST FEUD OF THE YEAR



1. CHAVO GUERRERO VS. HORNSWOGGLE358

2. HHH vs. Randy Orton78

3. John Cena vs. Big Show41

4. Main Event Mafia vs. Front Line39

5. Kane vs. Great Khali38

6. Randy Orton vs. Shane McMahon33

7. John Cena vs. The Miz19

8. Santina Marella vs. Vickie Guerrero18

PREVIOUS WINNERS: 1984 - Andre the Giant vs. John Studd; 1985 - Sgt. Slaughter vs Boris Zhukov; 1986 - Machines (Andre the Giant & Bill Eadie) vs. King Kong Bundy & John Studd; 1987 - George Steele vs. Danny Davis; 1988 - Midnight Rider (Dusty Rhodes) vs. Tully Blanchard; 1989 - Andre the Giant vs. Ultimate Warrior; 1990 - Ric Flair vs. Junkyard Dog; 1991 - Hulk Hogan vs. Sgt. Slaughter; 1992 - Ultimate Warrior vs. Papa Shango; 1993 - Undertaker vs. Giant Gonzalez; 1994 - Jerry Lawler vs. Doink the Clown; 1995 - Hulk Hogan vs. Dungeon of Doom; 1996 - Big Bossman vs. John Tenta; 1997 - DOA vs. Los Boricuas; 1998 - Hulk Hogan vs. Warrior; 1999 - Big Bossman vs. Big Show; 2000 - Hulk Hogan vs. Billy Kidman; 2001 - WWF vs. The Alliance; 2002 - HHH vs. Kane; 2003 - Shane McMahon vs. Kane; 2004 - Kane vs. Lita & Matt Hardy; 2005 - McMahon Family vs. Jim Ross; 2006 - DX vs. McMahons; 2007 - Kane vs. Big Daddy V; 2008 - Rey Mysterio vs.. Kane


WORST PROMOTION OF THE YEAR



1. TNA424

2. IWA Mid South195

3. Combat Zone Wrestling61

4. Affliction55

5. WWE53

6. AAA25

7. Hustle20

PREVIOUS WINNERS: 1986 - AWA; 1987 - World Class Championship Wrestling; 1988 - AWA; 1989 - AWA; 1990 - AWA; 1991 - Herb Abrams UWF; 1992 - Global Wrestling Federation; 1993 - WCW; 1994 - WCW; 1995 - WCW; 1996 - AWF; 1997 - USWA; 1998 - WCW; 1999 - WCW; 2000 - WCW; 2001 - WCW; 2002 - XPW; 2003 - World Japan; 2004 - New Japan Pro Wrestling; 2005 - New Japan Pro Wrestling; 2006 - World Wrestling Entertainment; 2007 - Total Nonstop Action; 2008 - Total Nonstop Action


BEST BOOKER



1. JOE SILVA242

2. Mike Quackenbush137

3. Gedo & Jado119

4. Gabe Sapolsky65

5. Adam Pearce21

6. Sean Shelby19

7. Sanshiro Takagi18

8. Vince McMahon 16

PREVIOUS WINNERS: 1986 - Dusty Rhodes; 1987 - Vince McMahon; 1988 - Eddie Gilbert; 1989 - Shohei Baba; 1990 - Shohei Baba; 1991 - Shohei Baba; 1992 - Riki Choshu; 1993 - Jim Cornette; 1994 - Paul Heyman; 1995 - Paul Heyman; 1996 - Paul Heyman; 1997 - Paul Heyman; 1998 - Vince McMahon; 1999 - Vince McMahon; 2000 - Vince McMahon; 2001 - Jim Cornette; 2002 - Paul Heyman; 2003 - Jim Cornette; 2004 - Gabe Sapolsky; 2005 - Gabe Sapolsky; 2006 - Gabe Sapolsky; 2007 - Gabe Sapolsky; 2008 - Joe Silva


PROMOTER OF THE YEAR



1. DANA WHITE547

2. Sanshiro Takagi62

3. Vince McMahon42

4. Cary Silkin27

5. Mitsuharu Misawa20

6. Scott Coker14

PREVIOUS WINNERS: 1988 - Vince McMahon; 1989 - Akira Maeda; 1990 - Shohei Baba; 1991 - Shohei Baba; 1992 - Shohei Baba; 1993 - Shohei Baba; 1994 - Shohei Baba; 1995 - Riki Choshu; 1996 - Riki Choshu; 1997 - Riki Choshu; 1998 - Vince McMahon; 1999 - Vince McMahon; 2000 - Vince McMahon; 2001 - Antonio Inoki; 2002 - Kazuyoshi Ishii; 2003 - Nobuyuki Sakakibara; 2004 - Nobuyuki Sakakibara; 2005 - Dana White; 2006 - Dana White; 2007 - Dana White; 2008 - Dana White


BEST GIMMICK



1. C.M. PUNK STRAIGHT EDGE SOCIETY287

2. Pope D’Angelo Dinero51

3. Yoshikawa39

4. A Double Austin Aries37

5. Santino Marella24

6. Zack Ryder21

7. The Beautiful People20

8. King Mo19

PREVIOUS WINNERS: 1986 - Exotic Adrian Street; 1987 - Ted DiBiase Million Dollar Man; 1988 - Rick Steiner Varsity Club; 1989 - Jushin Liger; 1990 - The Undertaker; 1991 - The Undertaker; 1992 - The Undertaker; 1993 - The Undertaker; 1994 - The Undertaker; 1995 - Disco Inferno; 1996 - NWO; 1997 - Stone Cold Steve Austin; 1998 - Stone Cold Steve Austin; 1999 - The Rock; 2000 - Kurt Angle; 2001 - Hurricane; 2002 - Mattitude; 2003 - John Cena as a rapper; 2004 - JBL; 2005 - Mr. Kennedy; 2006 - Latin American Exchange; 2007 - Santino Marella; 2008 - Santino Marella


WORST GIMMICK



1. HORNSWOGGLE112

2. Abraham Washington86

3. Samoa Joe Nation of Violence82

4. Santino Marella31

5. ODB25

6. Dr. Stevie19

7. Tiffany15

8. Pretty Ricky10

PREVIOUS WINNERS: 1986 - Adorable Adrian Adonis; 1987 - Adorable Adrian Adonis; 1988 - Midnight Rider (Dusty Rhodes); 1989 - Ding Dongs; 1990 - Gobbledy Gooker; 1991 - Oz (Kevin Nash); 1992 - Papa Shango; 1993 - Shock Master (Fred Ottman); 1994 - Dave Sullivan; 1995 - Goldust; 1996 - New Razor Ramon, New Diesel and New Double J; 1997 - New Goldust; 1998 - Oddities; 1999 - Powers that Be; 2000 - Mike Awesome That 70s Guy; 2001 - Diamond Dallas Page Bob Patterson gimmick; 2002 - Richard & Rod Johnson as giant penises; 2003 - Rico; 2004 - Mordecai; 2005 - Jillian Hall as Mole Girl; 2006 - Vito as the toughest guy in a dress; 2007 - Black Reign; 2008 - Great Khali kiss cam

MOST EMBARRASSING WRESTLER PREVIOUS WINNERS: 1986 - Adrian Adonis; 1987 - George Steele; 1988 - George Steele; 1989 - Andre the Giant; 1990 - Dusty Rhodes; 1991 - Van Hammer; 1992 - Papa Shango; 1993 - Bastion Booger; 1994 - Doink the Clown; 1995 - Hulk Hogan; 1996 - Hulk Hogan; 1997 - New Goldust; 1998 - Hulk Hogan; 1999 - Hulk Hogan; 2000 - Hulk Hogan; 2001 - Buff Bagwell; 2002 - Big Show; 2003 - Nathan Jones


BEST PRO WRESTLING BOOK

1. MIDNIGHT EXPRESS 25TH ANNIVERSARY SCRAPBOOK BY JIM CORNETTE211

2. Queen of the Ring (Mildred Burke) by Jeff Leen199

3. Drawing Heat the Hard Way by Larry Matysik110

4. Total MMA by Jonathan Snowden105

5. Blood in the Cage by L. Jon Wertheim77

6. WWE Encyclopedia by Brian Shields/Kevin Sullivan44

7. Got Fight? by Forrest Griffin31



8. My Life in Wrestling by Gary Hart30

9. My Life Outside the Ring by Hulk Hogan12

PREVIOUS WINNERS: 2005 - Death of WCW by Bryan Alvarez and R.D. Reynolds; 2006 - Tangled Ropes by Superstar Billy Graham and Keith Greenberg; 2007 - Hitman by Bret Hart and Marcy Engelstein; 2008 - Gorgeous George by John Capouya


BEST PRO WRESTLING DVD



1. MACHO MADNESS111

2. Rise and Fall of WCW88

3. Dragon Gate USA Open the Historic Gate85

4. Starrcade: The Essential Collection64

5. Best of Saturday Night’s Main Event52

6. Guest Booker: Jim Cornette27

7. Best of Smackdown 10th anniversary12



PREVIOUS WINNERS: 2005 - Rise and Fall of ECW; 2006 - The Bret Hart Story; 2007 - Ric Flair and the Four Horsemen; 2008 - Ric Flair Definitive Collection

*******



DRAGON GATE FREEDOM FIGHT PPV POLL RESULTS
Thumbs up45 (100.0%)
Thumbs down 0 (00.0%)
In the middle 0 (00.0%)

BEST MATCH POLL
Yoshino & Doi vs. Dragon Kid & Shingo36
Yamato vs. Davey Richards 9

WORST MATCH POLL
BxB Hulk vs. Brian Kendrick13
Based on e-mails, phone calls and fax messages to the Observer as of Tuesday, 1/26.

I’m not sure when the announcement will be officially made, but the decision has been made behind the scenes that Impact will be going to Mondays full-time.

The time of the change is at this point expected to be early March. We don’t yet know whether it’ll be from 8-10 p.m. or 9-11 p.m.

As things are planned right now, they will be taping every other week, doing Monday and Tuesdays with the Tuesday show being taped for the next Monday. Because of occasional odd number of weeks between PPVs, it’s possible there would be times they would either tape three shows or come back with a taping where they’d fly people in just for one live Monday. From a cost standpoint, it would be so much less expensive, and TNA is a company that still needs to watch its budget, in that situation to do three weeks at a time. This harkens back to the original days of Raw where they would do three weeks of tapings, with the first show live and the other shows taped. There was never a time period where live vs. tape made a difference in the ratings, but the 90s are very different than today.

The feeling is that the Thursday ratings are not as important as building a base for the Monday switch, because the whole nature of the ratings change at that point. From there, the shows will be micro-analyzed for minute-by-minute patterns and trying to time hot segments when Raw is in commercial breaks, figuring you can hit viewers switching away. TNA drew a bigger audience on Jan. 4 than it ever had for a Thursday show, but it was also the most publicized show in company history. But as a test, it did seem to show there was more potential for growth of the audience and product interest running on Monday, as well as increase the profile of the company with the idea they are going head-to-head with WWE.

My guess would be they would do what is currently planned with going live on alternate weeks for a little while. If the ratings for the taped shows were significantly down, that would be a sign they need to go to live every Monday. I would expect them to, on the taped show, maybe not show key segments with angles to the studio audience with the idea of keeping them getting out on spoilers if they believe it’ll hurt ratings. To me, I wouldn’t even worry about spoilers and such because in the big picture it doesn’t matter statistically, but when you’re in the wrestling Internet bubble, it’s a big thing.

As noted here from the start, those close to Hogan noted from the time he signed that part of the deal was a commitment from Spike to go live on Mondays, so this has been something at least heavily discussed and to a degree, in the works, since October.

If TNA goes 8-10 p.m., it wouldn’t shock me to see Raw go three hours. USA has wanted Raw to go to three hours, but I think Vince & Stephanie (and actually this goes for about 70% of the people I’ve spoken with who really know wrestling on both sides) have said that in a perfect world, the perfect length for a wrestling TV show is 90 minutes. Two hours drags in points and one hour today is too short. But television isn’t structured in a way where you can easily do 90 minute prime time shows, and certainly not on USA network, so two is clearly better than one. I think we’ve seen three is worse than two, but WWE is extremely protective about Monday nights and USA network probably isn’t familiar with whatever lessons there were when Nitro moved from two to three hours, which was a positive in the ratings early on but turned out quickly to be a negative.



*******

UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar claimed his intestines were healthy and he would be returning to fight this summer in an interview on ESPN Sports Center on 1/20.

Lesnar described his ordeal, saying that he wasn’t getting in a good training camp and couldn’t figure out what was wrong with him in October, preparing for an 11/21 title defense against Shane Carwin. When describing the situation, he said the original diagnosis of mononucleosis he didn’t think was right because he thought he had the disease as a kid.

He said that in November, while unable to train, he went up to Canada to hunt, and woke up one day feeling like he had been shot in the stomach. He said he was rushed to a hospital in Manitoba, and the first thing he did was decide he needed to get away from Canadian Health Care, and got himself transferred to the Medcenter One in Bismark, ND.

“Probably the lowest moment was getting care from Canada,” he said. “I hate to bash them. Our health care system is a little radical, but listen, we’ve got the best doctors I believe in the world here. It does need some restructuring, but I don’t believe a total reform is the answer.”

He said he believed those doctors, as well as his wife, saved his life. In a press conference, he went off on Canadian health care, calling it third world.

“I knew that I had to get out of there,” he said. “My wife saved my life. She got me out of there and drove 100 miles an hour to get me down to Bismark, ND, to Medcenter One. I was in excruciating pain. That’s when I made the phone call to (Dana White), cussing him out and telling him to send a jet for me.”

“Don’t get me wrong, I love Canada. I own property in Canada. But if I had to choose between getting care in Canada or the United States, I would definitely want to be in the United States. I love Canada. Some of the best people and best hunting in the world.”

He stayed in Bismark for 11 days before being transferred to Minnesota.

He credited Dr. Brent Bruderer at Medcenter One for saving his career, and his life with a quick diagnosis of him having a severe case of diverticulitis and diverticulosis, and draining 14 Ccs of fluid from three pockets that had formed. Doctors were ready to perform surgery, but held off to give him a chance to heal. He said his body healed and he was fully cured and would fight again.

“That man definitely saved my career and maybe even my life,” he said. “They took the CT picture, got a proper diagnosis...and came back with a plan based on the information they now had thanks to the state-of-the-art equipment.”

Bruderer immediately put Lesnar on an IV and would not allow him any solid food. He remained at the Bismark hospital for 11 days. He noted the doctors there also recommended surgery, and told him his chances of fighting again after the surgery were significantly less than 50%.

While most U.S. coverage of Lesnar’s return centered on his fighting again, his remark about being in a Canadian hospital being like being in a third world country was covered as the focal point of the story in Canada. In addition, Lesnar’s comments made political web site fodder on the right wing side in the U.S., since he railed on Obama’s health care plan.

Unlike at UFC 100, when his actions and controversy was by design, and I’ve always assumed coached somewhat, he was not looking for controversy when talking about Canadian Health care, which turned into a national story in that country, particularly in the Winnipeg area since it was a Manitoba hospital he was complaining about.

On 1/25, he called up mentor Paul Heyman, fired up, in a lengthy phone call, saying, “I’m not going to shut up about this.

Well, I survived something, and I went through–first hand–the problems in the health care system, and I want to talk about it.

He noted the doctors in Brandon wanted to do immediate major surgery, which Lesnar believes would have ended his career right there.

“I entered the hospital around 4 a.m. on a Saturday morning,” he said. “And I spent two nights there. No one talks about that. Their CT machine was broken, and they were waiting for a replacement. They could not take a picture of my stomach. If they would have had the ability to take the picture, they would have seen I had holes inside me. If I stayed at that Canadian hospital, at best I would have been retired and would have to wear a colostomy bag. At worst, I could have died.”

“They didn’t have any state-of-the-art equipment, and I was in their facility. So first thing that Monday morning, when doctors came in, and they still didn’t have a way to take a picture of my stomach...still didn’t have a way to operate that CT machine...my wife and I knew we had to get out of there.”

“It was scary, I thought we were going to lose him,” said Brock’s older brother Chad Lesnar, who lives near in Cromer, Manitoba, on the Manitoba/Saskatchewan border. Brock suffered the painful attack at his brother’s home while he had gone there to get away from Minnesota and do some hunting, while trying to recover from mononucleosis, or at least what he thought was mononucleosis based on his diagnosis in the U.S.

Chad drove Lesnar to the Brandon (Manitoba) Hospital in Brandon, MB., about 75 miles from Cromer, Manitoba, where Lesnar was nearly paralyzed by a painful attack. Chad had wanted to drive Brock to Winnipeg once he found out the hospital in Brandon’s scanner would be out of order for a few days, but said the doctor told him that wasn’t necessary. He noted the Brandon hospital was the one which diagnosed Brock’s problem as diverticulitis, but questioned some of their care decisions.

“They were giving him the wrong medicine and feeding him food while he had a hole in his stomach,” said Chad Lesnar to the Winnipeg Sun. “He was in more and more pain as they fed him. That could have been a bad deal.”

Brandon Regional Heath Authority CEO Carmel Olson said she was offended by Lesnar’s remarks, saying he was property diagnosed and was treated by a skilled doctor, but didn’t want to say much more on the subject, noting Lesnar’s right to privacy laws.

“I take real exception to being referred to as a third-world country operation,” said Olson to Canada’s national newspaper, The Globe and Mail.

“We have state-of-the-art equipment here. We are hardly a one-horse operation. The attending physician was very qualified and very respected. He’s been in the business for more than 30 years. And he has the skills to diagnose a condition such as diverticulitis without a CT scan.”

She noted they deal with diverticulitis on a regular basis and Lesnar was diagnosed correctly. It was the Brandon hospital that was the first to recognize diverticulitis.

“I wouldn’t be so arrogant as to compare ourselves to the Mayo Clinic, they’re the experts,” said Olson. “But I really take exception to someone giving us that kind of media coverage for their own political reasons.”

Lesnar did admit his statements were partially politically motivated.

“The reason I’m saying that is because there’s millions of people that don’t want health care reform (in the U.S.) and I’m one of them,” he said. “I’m not a believer in socialism and I don’t want that going on.”

“I’ve paid plenty of taxes in Canada (Lesnar owns land in Manitoba), so I have a right to talk about this. This is what happens with socialized medical care. I’ve paid into the system, and the system did not take care of me. It almost put me out for good. I think people should know about this.”

Dana White plugged Lesnar facing the winner of the 3/27 match with Frank Mir vs. Shane Carwin, and if for some reason the winner of that fight is banged up, then he’d face the winner of the 2/21 fight between Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira vs. Cain Velasquez. Lesnar himself, with his pro wrestler background and mentality, had also been interested in fighting Randy Couture, believing the fight could be built up huge, given that his contract calls for a percentage of the PPV revenues, but Couture’s loss to Nogueira, and his recent drop to the light heavyweight division, pretty much eliminated that possibility. White through out the 5/29 date, but that would probably be pushing things and would require the Mir vs. Carwin winner to come out of the fight unscathed. The Nogueira vs. Velasquez winner, unless they suffered a significant injury, would more than likely be ready for late May. If the late May date doesn’t work, the next major show would likely be 7/3 in Las Vegas, or 8/28 in Boston.

Lesnar said he’s been to four or five doctors who have given him the okay to fight, starting with his examination on 1/5, although skeptics would say the miracle healing was overplayed. Lesnar did admit before his January exam that the Mayo Clinic doctors expected he would need surgery that would have threatened his career.

Based on what he said, he would be ten pounds under his normal weight, which in the off-season can be close to the 300 pound range and while training is usually near 280 pounds. He said he was 288 pounds at the time he was taken ill but that was with being run down and unable to train the way he would have liked. He dropped as low as 248, and said he was currently 273 pounds.

Lesnar blamed his problems on a high-protein, low-fiber diet, being a meat-and-potatoes person who would eat copious amounts of food like hamburgers at restaurants and not eat vegetables. He was able to maintain world class condition with that diet through the luck of the genetic draw as well as extremely hard training. He felt he needed a constant high-calorie diet to maintain his weight due to how hard he was training.

“I’m a carnivore,” he said. “I’m not a big fan of PETA. I’m a member of the NRA and whatever I kill, I eat. Basically, I was just for years surviving on meat and potatoes. When the greens came by, I just kept passing them.

White noted Lesnar had made some dietary changes to help heal his intestine, cutting back on the heavy met eating and eating more fiber and vegetables, and had also tried holistic health procedures. Even if Lesnar’s case was a best-case scenario, someone with that disease is prone to a reoccurrences, although ironically Vince McMahon had diverticulitis years ago and as best can be known has never had a relapse. Jim Ross also had both diverticulitis and diverticulosis, which were life threatening, in 2005, but had surgery.

“It’s now a part of my life,” he said about the new diet. “When I’m at home, which I’m there a lot, I have total control of my diet. When I’m on the road, it’s kind of a little more harder to do.

Why would I go back to my old ways? I don’t want to be back in that position ever again.”

*******

Georgiann Makropoulos, one of the longest lasting fixtures in the pro wrestling community, passed away from a heart attack on 1/25 at the age of 68.

Makropoulos was a part of the wrestling scene almost constantly since becoming a fan in 1959. She first ran the Buddy Rogers Fan Club, and later was best known for running the Bruno Sammartino Fan Club, which was likely the biggest of its kind during the 60s and 70s. She also put out the most complete Sammartino career record book and was not only one of Sammartino’s best friends but probably his biggest fan. She was a good friend to so many in this industry, and spearheaded the fund raising efforts that led to Konnan getting his life saving kidney transplant a few years ago. She had been doing the Wrestling Chatterbox newsletter monthly for nearly 20 years and worked with various wrestling web sites since day one. Pretty much everyone at any significant level who has been around wrestling for any kind of a decent tenure knew her and there was literally nobody else like her in wrestling, nor who could come even close to filling her shoes.

“I’d known for her 50 years,” said Sammartino, 74, who met her when Capital Sports, run by Vincent James McMahon, did television tapings at Sunnyside Gardens in Queens, near her home in Astoria. “She was the president of the Buddy Rogers Fan Club, and then when I became champion, she was president of my fan club. “

”When people pass away, people say all kinds of nice things that maybe aren’t true, but I’d like to find someone who could say anything negative about her. It would be impossible”

“She was a giver and not a taker,” he said. “She would do things for people and never want anything in return. Once, I had two autograph session offers at the same time she got for me, and told her that since she did the work to get them, to take a few hundred dollars for herself for all her trouble. She told me that I had insulted her. She said, `We’ve been friends for a long time and now you want to make it into a business relationship.’”

I remember her first as Georgiann Orsi, as a wrestling magazine writer in the early 70s who was always at ringside in the days when the most ardent fans had permanent ticket reservations. She also did the fan club column for “Wrestling World” magazine as well as wrote articles, and was one of the better known wrestling writers at the time. My own start in doing a wrestling newsletter in 1971, and continuing was based on the plugs, more from the late James Melby, who always gave my stuff an extra push, as well as from her.

Even before the second Madison Square Garden opened in 1968, she had developed enough tenure as a fan to have a permanent second row seat, which she sat in at every show through 1984.

When Vincent Kennedy McMahon eliminated permanent reservations at Madison Square Garden, making the move to change the visual look of the ringside area, as with those in the first few rows getting their permanent seats based on tenure, it by that time was filled with older people, which was not the image he wanted to project. In 1984-85, he sold to the media that wrestling was drawing a young, hip audience, different from his father’s wrestling (which often, like in the late 70s when Superstar Billy Graham was champion and people like Sammartino and Dusty Rhodes were challengers, was drawing a pretty hip and almost always sold out audience, but you’d still the same faces at ringside every month). The move worked, in the sense media stories on wrestling in 1984 noted the change in the crowds, and some TV stations would even show the fans at ringside, with the new planted ringsiders who got free tickets looking younger as compared to those who always paid and hadn’t missed a show in decades that had earned their ringside seats based on the old rules.

But even after the decision to make sure young faces were in the first few rows, she was still given what we be considered semi-official permanent ringside seats for the shows, through her friends in the company or those at the Garden itself, where she sat well into the 90s. She was at virtually every MSG wrestling event, from the early 60s, for probably a 35-year period.

She was born Georgiann Mastis, the name she first used for her fan clubs and writing wrestling magazine columns. She was married to Tony Orsi in the 60s and early 70s. After divorcing, married George Makropoulos about 35 years ago. She continued to attend until well into the 90s, when she started losing interest in attending the live shows.

Makropoulos, who called almost everyone “sweetie,” was very good friends with many in the WWE organization, particularly the long-timers, many of whom have since passed away, and a lot of the wives of the office people from that era. She was someone that I’ve known for probably 30 years and I would consider her one of my closest friends. She made it a point to know the names of people’s children, whether they were wrestlers or fans she knew. I’d be surprised if anyone around wrestling had as many friends as she did, and she was loyal to her friends. I’d actually only met her a handful of times but we probably talked once a week, sometimes a lot more. A common theme was the time she spent on the phone with people, as in recent years. A lot of people we spoke with noted that they hadn’t seen her, as she no longer attended the live events and her interest in the actual wrestling product had waned. But she had great empathy for the performers, both old and new, and did watch enough television to keep up on everything. Last year, she decided to give up her newsletter because subscriptions had fallen and she was losing money producing it. Her readers would hear nothing of it, willingly offering to contribute extra money if she would keep it going.

She’d had health problems in recent years, battling ovarian cancer in particular and getting a full hysterectomy in 2004. She never complained about it, even when she was in a lot of pain, and it’s not like she took any time off from her life, she didn’t miss doing her newsletter and it wasn’t like I didn’t hear from her any less often. It should be noted that when she first found out she had cancer, she didn’t want the word to get out because for as much sympathy as she showed every wrestler who was in bad health, and she was always keeping up on how the wrestlers from all generations were doing, she didn’t want people to have that sympathy for her. However, she did come out to talk about it largely as a message to tell people who get checked up on a regular basis for cancer.

Sammartino said he was shocked when he got the news, because they had just talked the day before, while Sammartino was hospitalized with a painful blood clot in his bladder (Sammartino noted that he would still be appearing at the weekend convention in Los Angeles as scheduled). At first he couldn’t believe it, and later, after dozing off, woke up and at first thought it was a nightmare, but a few seconds later realized that it wasn’t.

“I still have a hard time believing I’m not going to be talking to her again,” he said. “I don’t mind telling you, I had tears coming out.”

Every month we’d get the newsletter filled with the upcoming dates of WWE events. We used to joke about WWE, how so many of her friends in the company were afraid to talk with her because of the newsletter deal, and how they would make it so difficult for her to get the schedule of dates. We both understood the quirky nature of the company but joked about how ridiculous it all was, because all she was doing was letting people know ahead of time about live events so they could plan their schedules and get tickets. She would always find someone in the company who would sneak her the schedule but she noted that with more and more turnover in the office, it was getting more difficult.

She had done all sorts of things, including constantly being a middle- person in arranging for wrestlers that she knew to get autograph show bookings in recent years. In the past, she had gone to bat for a number of wrestlers she had befriended early in their careers to help get them career breaks. She loved wrestling and still followed the personalities even though she admitted not really caring about the current wrestling scene, and watching it less and less over the years. She was nice to everyone, but she was also brutally honest behind-the-scenes, even though she always wrote with a very fan-friendly style. While remaining in contact with everyone, she would in recent years talk more about her Atlantic City trips to play the slots than matches she had seen on television.

She was tireless, often calling here in the middle of the night her time if she heard news, and she was one of those people that the mortality rate of the current generation hit very hard. She always called everyone “sweetie,” and almost everyone who has been around wrestling for any length of time has a story about talking with her and how nice she was. She was a lot more perceptive about what was going on than she’d let on, and it hurt her to watch people she knew turn into statistics, and despite it hitting her hard, in most cases, she was not all that surprised.

In recent years, Steve Williams was one of her favorites who she constantly talked about. She could understand what he was going through in his own battle with cancer and she lived it with him, feeling a personal victory when he had apparently beaten the disease a few years ago, and devastated when it came back worse than ever. Although we’d talked a few times since, it was horrible because I was the one who called with the news Williams had passed away a few weeks ago.

She was also very tight with Afa, who wrote a column in her newsletter. It was largely due to her insistence that Sammartino and I became friends. When John Tolos, who along with brother Chris Tolos were two of the first wrestlers she socialized with, passed away a few months ago, she had mentioned to me, “I don’t know if I could handle it if something happened to Bruno.” “The Tolos Brothers, they loved her,” said Sammartino. “They talked to her all the time over the phone.”

Besides Sammartino and Rogers, she also during the 60s and 70s did fan clubs for Bob Orton Sr., Bill Dromo and Ken Patera.

“The funny thing is, she was one of my best friends, but it’s been almost 20 years since the last time I saw her,” Sammartino said. “I know people who told me they were the closest of friends to her, but they hadn’t seen her in 10, 15 years. Unless she and her husband went to Atlantic City (her favorite pastime was playing the slot machines), she liked to stay in her apartment and work on the computer.”

“In many ways, Georgiann was professional wrestling’s best friend, and she always took tremendous pride in the fact that she loved the wrestling business and was `house mom’ to those involved,’” wrote Paul Heyman, who first met Makropoulos in 1979. “A truly genuine individual without a malicious bone her body, all Georgiann wanted to do was help people, and go to Atlantic City. We extend our deepest condolences to her husband George, her family, and her network of friends, all of whom were considered by her to be her family, around the world.”

“A wonderful woman, a legend and pillar of the New York wrestling scene,” said former WWE writer and independent promoter Court Bauer. “She loved wrestling and was an incredible treasure chest of old school stories. I remember when I was in high school and subscribed to her newsletter and somehow found her on AOL instant messenger. She gave me the time of day and helped lay out options and advice about breaking into the business. She’s primarily responsible for linking me up with Afa and Samu in Allentown. She was just a fantastic person, very positive oriented and a rare find in terms of a true quality human being that just loved wrestling and cared. With her passing, a piece of the last half century of New York wrestling is gone forever.”

“She was always friendly, knew wrestling and was friendly with wrestlers when they had to be careful about being around fans and exposing the business,” remembered former record company executive Mike Omansky, who met her 42 years ago at a Sammartino vs. Hans Mortier Texas death match in Madison Square Garden. “She had lamented in recent years about how much better wrestling at the Garden used too be, when it was the center of the WWWF and WWF universe, ran every three or four weeks, and wasn’t just another whistle stop on the tour.”

Sammartino even told the story of the photo that circulated this past week with her being flanked by Sammartino and Rogers at a wrestling convention put together by John Arezzi in the early 90s, shortly before Rogers passed away.

“Buddy Rogers and I never liked each other,” Sammartino said. “It’s seems silly now, but we were on bad terms. You would never see Buddy and I together. But Georgie was the one person I could never say no to. She came up to me and said, `Bruno, I have a favor to ask, I’d like to take and photo of you and Buddy.’ For anyone else there was no way I would do it. I told her, `I don’t like him, this seems silly to say now when you look back, but if you ask him and he’ll do it then I’ll do it.’ She was such a giving person, so I would never say no to her.”



******

Dragon Gate USA did its fourth PPV taping on 1/23 at the Congress Theater in Chicago before a slightly disappointing crowd of about 450 fans.

The crowd was down a little from the first Chicago event, even though that 9/6 show was as good a show as could be possible. The scorecard on these events is that they are an all-hardcore crowd, which goes down slightly with each return visit. The expensive seats all sell, but the General Admissions are a tough sell. Those who come spend a ton on merchandise, and DVD sales of the first shows are excellent. The PPV numbers for the first airing, in September, were okay. I wasn’t given a number, but to me, a number of 10,000 would be termed very good for a promotion at this level doing a taped show (ROH peaked at the 10,000 level), so it’s probably closer to 5,000 to 7,500, because I’d think less than 5,000 would be considered disappointing numbers. The problem with that is the second show isn’t expected to have done as well as the first show because so many systems didn’t air the show on the Friday night premiere, and nobody aired it on Sunday, where a lot of the buys take place because wrestling fans are familiar with buying Sunday night PPVs. The third PPV, which aired on 1/22, was hurt because The Dish Network didn’t carry the show, so it’s likely to be down 10 to 20% from the second show.

The show taped over the weekend will air starting on 3/5.

There are some changes going forward with the promotion. The plan is to bring the stars in from Japan six times this year. The second will be shows on 3/26 and 3/27 in Phoenix, for WrestleMania weekend. The 3/26 show will be exclusively for DVD sales, headlined by BxB Hulk vs. Davey Richards for the Open the Freedom Gate title. The 3/27 show will be a PPV taping that will air in May.

On the other four trips, the plan has changed from a single show to running two shows on the weekends. There will be a major show which will be taped for PPV, and then a smaller show on the night before, taped for DVD sales. The idea is it’s more effective since the guys are being flown in for three days, so they just sit around a day anyway. Of those four trips, one will be a return to Philadelphia, and another will be a 9/25 show in Chicago. The other two shows will be in new markets, which have yet to be finalized.

The show was said to be very good, with no match of the year candidates, but the top three matches were all said to be excellent.

The first four matches were not taped for the PPV, although the TJP vs. Gran Akuma match, said to be really good, may be fit into the show.

1. Kyle O’Reilly won a six-way match over Arik Cannon, Johnny Gargano, Brad Allen, Jon Moxley and Lince Dorado.

2. Silas Young pinned Hallowicked to retain the AAW championship, which is an indie group that runs in nearby Berwyn, IL.

3. Moxley pinned Darin Corbin in a quick squash



Brian Kendrick and Moxley, who were put together as a team on the last PPV, came out and challenged Tommy Dreamer to come out. They called him old, and washed up. Kendrick said he was mad because Dreamer was an office stooge in WWE and kept him from getting any success.

4. TJP beat Gran Akuma with a variation of a sharpshooter. TJP looked very impressive here, and expect him to get pushed on future shows. The “TJP” name for the former T.J. Perkins is a takeoff on GSP for Georges St. Pierre.

5. Mike Quackenbush & Jigsaw beat Cima & Super Crazy in a good match. The purpose here was to push Quackenbush & Jigsaw as the company’s top babyface tag team, taking the place of the Young Bucks, who are now in TNA. Very fast paced with a lot of comedy.

6. Brian Kendrick beat Jimmy Jacobs. Kendrick vowed he would beat Jacobs in he game of psychological warfare, and brought out Lacey, who was Jacobs’ love interest in ROH. They had a good match. At the finish, Lacey teased going back with Jacobs, but instead distracted him, allowing Kendrick to come from behind and get the pin. After the match, Kendrick and Moxley beat down Jacobs and left. Jacobs got on the mic and started insulting Kendrick’s wife (who wasn’t there, who for a trivia note is the former Taylor Matheny, who lost to Nidia Guenard for the women’s spot in the first Tough Enough season). Kendrick and Moxley came back out and Kendrick said they are going to hurt Jacobs a lot worse than beating him up. Kendrick teased kissing Lacey, but instead, Moxley clotheslined her. Dreamer than came out and brawled with Moxley for several minutes, finally laying Moxley out with a DDT. The Dreamer stuff won’t air on PPV because he’s still under a non-compete from WWE.

7. Davey Richards beat Masaaki Mochizuki to regain the FIP heavyweight title. This didn’t have the kind of flashy moves that Richards’ previous Dragon Gate USA matches have had. It was more hard kicks back and forth. The crowd was quiet, but when it was over, they gave both men a standing ovation. Richards won with a triangle.

8. In a three-way, Masato Yoshino & Naruki Doi won over Shingo & Yamato and The Young Bucks. It was an elimination match, with the Bucks going out first, and the final finish being Yoshino using an armbar on Shingo. Said to be an excellent match with Yoshino in particular standing out.

9. BxB Hulk retained the Open the Freedom Gate title over Dragon Kid in another excellent match. Hulk had the dancers with him on this show, but apparently they weren’t very good. Hulk won the match clean, and then Richards, Yamato and Akuma hit the ring and laid out both Hulk and Dragon Kid. Cima came in for the save. Shingo Takagi came in to save Dragon Kid, as the two have been a team, Shingo, who teams with Yamato in Japan these days, went with his new partner and attacked Dragon Kid. Mike Quackenbush and Lince Dorado came out for the save and Cima ended up with a broom attacking all the heels.

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Raw on 1/25 did a 3.58 rating. We’ll have more details on it next week.

TNA on 1/21 did a 1.26 rating and 1.9 million viewers. It was the same rating as the week before, but viewership was up, particularly among Males 35-49. Males 18-34 did a 1.02 but Males 35-49 did a 1.24.

In the segment-by-segment,. Matt Morgan & Hernandez vs. British Invasion for the tag titles lost 166,000 viewers. Backstage with Hogan & Nash plus Pope vs. Orlando Jordan lost 60,000 viewers. Lots of backstage interviews with Angle, Nash & Bischoff and Bobby Lashley and Bischoff lost 60,000 viewers. Angelina Love vs. Madison Rayne plus Hogan & Bischoff out and Mick Foley coming out gained 271,000 viewers. Nasty Boys vs. Kevin Nash & Eric Young lost 45,000 viewers. The Mr. Anderson/Abyss thing, plus Bischoff yelling at Abyss backstage and Bischoff and Mick Foley backstage gained 60,000 viewers. Kurt Angle vs. A.J. Styles for the title stayed even and did a 1.32 final quarter. The peak quarters were all 1.32: the opening quarter with Flair & Styles interview and Angle & Hogan coming out; the Anderson/Abyss quarter and the main event quarter.

Superstars on 1/21 did a 1.1 rating, the show’s all-time record number, for a show headlined by Kane vs. Chris Jericho, so TNA after all the new stars, barely beat out Superstars.

ECW on 1/19 drew a 0.9 rating and 1.19 million viewers, another of the lowest rated episodes in the history of the show.

Raw on 1/18 did a 3.58 rating and 5.29 million viewers. The show did a 2.79 in Males 18-34. No surprise, but the show did fewer viewers without competition from TNA or UFC, but once you compare the guest hosts each of those nights, you can see why.

The debut of the Best of Pride Fighting Championships on 1/15 on Spike did 589,000 viewers. That’s below what a usual many time replayed episode of Unleashed does, and with far less promotion, and barely half of the station’s usual prime time average. It’s on par with a Countdown show, but Countdown shows aren’t about ratings, they are expected to do below usual numbers but they are a major factor in driving PPV numbers. This show may help drive sales of Pride merchandise for the future in expanding the brand, but that’s limited. They are showing Pride matches with fighters generally familiar to at least Hardcore fans, concentrating on former Pride names on the UFC roster.

Smackdown on 1/8 did a 2.2 rating and 3.73 million viewers.



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CMLL


Only ratings for the weekend we have right now were Smackdown doing a 9.6 and CMLL doing a 3.3. CMLL had been doing year-in- review shows that did above the usual rating as this was the first weekend where they were back to showing the Friday night card. Boxing did an 8.6 and the Saturday soccer games ranged from 2.7 to 10.0.

The combination of the A block of the national parejas increibles tournament (face and heel teams, paired up based on what state they were born in), and a CMLL world heavyweight title match with Ultimo Guerrero vs. Hector Garza, drew 12,000 fans on 1/22 at Arena Mexico. It was the largest crowd so far this year, but the paid was significantly lower as it was family night. One adult could bring as many as five kids free. The tournament came down to long-time rivals Mistico & Averno of the Distrito Federal losing to Atlantis & Mascara Dorada of Guadalajara, when Atlantis beat Averno in the middle with a torture rack. The most popular of the teams was Maximo and heel Mr. Niebla. They lost to Atlantis & Dorada in the semifinals when Maximo, who does the exotico act, tried to kiss Atlantis, who moved, so he ended up kissing partner Niebla. As they acted all shocked, both were rolled up. The fans hated the finish. The other semifinals saw Mistico & Averno beat the Monterrey-based team of Volador Jr. & El Terrible. Volador Jr. first pinned Averno and Mistico then made Terrible submit. This left long-time face partners on the Super Sky team, Mistico vs. Volador Jr. Both men exchanged flying moves with the story they were trying to one-up the other. Mistico turned on Volador Jr. first, making him the heel, and they tore up each others’ masks. Then Mistico used a heel finish, as after distracting the ref, he used a low blow and pinned Volador Jr. Mistico then over the house mic said that “All is fair in war.” The fans booed Mistico. Afterwards, in a dressing room interview, Mistico said that if Volador Jr. wanted revenge in a singles match for one of his world titles, he would be happy to accept, so it looks like they may keep it going. Mistico teasing a heel turn got a lot of press coverage. The tournament continues with another eight-team tournament on 1/29 at Arena Mexico. Dorada & Atlantis face the winner of that tournament on 2/5, which is a national holiday major show as the 26th anniversary of the death of El Santo. The first Mistico vs. Volador Jr. singles match will headline that show. The teams in the 1/29 tournament are El Texano Jr. & Rush (Texano’s teaming with an 80s rock band?), Ultimo Guerrero & Stuka Jr., Shocker & Sagrado, Valiente & Rey Bucanero, Felino & Sangre Azteca, Hector Garza & Toscano, Negro Casas & La Mascara and Brazo de Plata & Ray Mendoza Jr. In the main event on this week’s show, Guerrero beat Garza in 13:49 when he used the Guerrero special. Because the tag team tournament went so long, they cut the title match short because it didn’t start until after 11 p.m.

Due to construction of a bridge near Arena Coliseo, they can’t run there on 1/31 so they’ve moved the Sunday show this week to Arena Mexico, and are going with an increibles match with Mistico teaming with usual rivals Guerrero & Atlantis against Volador Jr. & Maximo & Niebla. Mistico will be coming in from a rare U.S. appearance as on 1/30 he’s headlining a show in El Paso.

Volador Jr. & La Sombra defend the CMLL tag titles against Niebla & Felino on 2/1 in Puebla after Niebla & Felino won the deciding fall against them in a trios match, where Guerrero was the third man on the heel side and Shocker was the third man on the face side.

Besides Tetsuya Naito, who is already there, and Taichi, who starts as a regular in February, New Japan will sometime this year be sending Giant Bernard, Jushin Liger and Hiroshi Tanahashi here.

There was a kids benefit show on 1/24 in Boca del Rio, drawing 10,000 fans, the largest crowd outside of Arena Mexico that this promotion has drawn in some time. Since it was aimed at kids, the minis worked the semifinal and Mistico & La Sombra & Superman Sur (a gimmick used just for this event) beat Atlantis & Mr. Niebla & Felino

AAA


Expect major changes in the promotion, maybe to the point of an overhaul in the next week or so. The mentality seems to be in a weird way almost exactly like Mid South Wrestling had around 1986. The idea was that they could see based on how everything was going, that the days of a regional promotion are over so they had to become national or they would die. Unfortunately, in their case, they went national and died because the fans would only support two national groups and they were No. 3, even if in many markets they had the highest rated television show, but they didn’t have the star power. In the case here, they’ve seen from the last year that the idea of a Mexican national promotion is not going to fly over the long haul, and that it’s a worldwide business and there is more money to be made in merchandising and other forms of revenue, but they need the worldwide exposure. The problem, is that U.S. entertainment in almost all forms exports better in much of the world than Mexican and Japanese stuff, which is why so much of the balance of power in the world wrestling economics have changed. But they are making a big push for the U.S. market including the idea of opening offices. The key is a television deal. If they can get on Univision, which is actually far more popular than USA, although only hits one demographic strong for the most part, they would at least have the exposure to be able to do ratings. Whether they could draw well is another story, because the Mexican-American fans in the U.S. are numerous, but the difference between 1994 and 2010 is their wrestling of choice is WWE and not Lucha Libre style.

Although Konnan and probably Vampiro will be around as older wrestlers, along with Dr. Wagner Jr., but Wagner Jr. can still go, the idea for this year is to build around Marco Corleone, Jack Evans, Zorro and Laredo Kid.

Teddy Hart’s future here is hanging by a thread due to heat with so many wrestlers and having the reputation for going into business for himself and not listening to direction.

They held a tryout on 1/19 in Van Nuys and were extremely happy with what they found. There were three guys and four women in particular who they ended up having interest in. Two of the three guys were Brian Cage and Shawn Ricker. Ricker had been trained by Les Thatcher but I’m not familiar with him. The other was Brian Cage, who started out at All Pro Wrestling in California and went to WWE with a developmental deal and used the name Kris Logan, and was a recent cut. Of the women, three of the standouts were Lizzy Valentine, who they said looked great and had improved greatly as a wrestler after training with Juventud Guerrera, Christina Von Eeerie and a Southern California based heel named Nikki.

The AAA animated movie, which those who saw it said was good, opened on 1/22 in Mexico. They are wanting to follow it up with a Saturday morning cartoon.

Takeshi Morishima will be coming here this week for television as a replacement for Go Shiozaki, who broke his arm.

PUERTO RICO


After Ray Gonzalez won the Wrestler of the Decade Cup on the 1/16 show in San Juan, on 1/23 in Caguas, before 600 fans, he lost the Cup to El Mega Campeon de AAA (Mesias from AAA) after Orlando Colon threw powder in Gonzalez’s eyes. Hiram Tua, who lost a loser leaves town match last week, was back this week under a mask as La Sombra.

DRAGON GATE


The 1/20 show at Korakuen Hall was built around setting up the 2/10 main event of Takuya Sugawara against Yamato in a no rope match for the No. 1 contendership for Naruki Doi’s Open the Dream Gate title, on a show that includes Cima & Gamma defending the Open the Twin Gate titles against Doi & Masato Yoshino.

Sugawara won a three-way over Doi and Shingo Takagi, finishing by pinning Doi (the second time he’d beaten Doi, and when he challenged for a title match, Doi turned him down), and Yamato beat Cima with a choke in 26:30. The winner of the no rope match will challenge Doi for the title on the company’s biggest event of the year, scheduled for 3/22 at Sumo Hall.

They also have a Generation war three-way trios match with Cima & Gamma & Masaaki Mochizuki vs. Doi & Yoshino & Hulk vs. Susumu Yokosuka & Sugawara & Genki Horiguchi.

Sugawara had won the Battle of Tokyo tournament on 1/19, with wins over Kagetora, Gentaro and Super Shisa.

ALL JAPAN


They had a unique tournament on the 1/22 Korakuen Hall show. They did three different three-way matches to start, with Nosawa winning over Minoru and Kaz Hayashi, ending with Nosawa scoring a pin over the jr. champion; Osamu Nishimura won a three-way over Seiya Sanada and Kai, pinning Sanada; and Minoru Suzuki won a three-way over Akebono and Masayuki Kono, beating Kono with a choke. This led to the finals, billed as for $30,000, where Suzuki won over Nishimura and Nosawa when he pinned Nosawa in 5:13 with a Karl Gotch style piledriver. Joey Cabray, the head of the Ireland based AWR promotion, was at the show and he announced he was bringing All Japan over for a European tour.

PRO WRESTLING NOAH


Yoshihiro Takayama & Takuma Sano won the 2010 Global Tag League tournament, beating Takashi Sugiura & Shuhei Taniguchi in the finals on 1/24 before a sellout 2,100 at Korakuen Hall. It was the third annual tournament which used to be held in the spring, but new president Akira Taue wanted to try it out in the position of kicking off the new year schedule. Takayama & Sano went unbeaten in the tournament, a rarity in the parity booked style of modern Japanese tournaments. This sets them up for a title shot at GHC tag team champs Takeshi Rikio & Mohammed Yone, which takes place on 2/28 at Budokan Hall as part of a double headliner with Takashi Sugiura vs. Togi Makabe for the GHC heavyweight title. That’s going to be tough, and NOAH isn’t in the position right now where they can afford for the big shows to flop.

On 1/22 in Mito, Takayama & Sano clinched sole possession of first place in the B block, beating Chris Hero & Claudio Castagnoli when Sano pinned Castagnoli in 12:40. In the A block, it came down to champs Rikio & Yone and Sugiura & Taniguchi, who went to a 30:00 draw, which meant Sugiura & Taniguchi would advance based on points. In the finals, Sano pinned Taniguchi with a rolling kick to the face in 24:05. Final A block standings were: 1. Sugiura & Taniguchi 2-0-1, 5 points; 2. Rikio & Yone 1-1-1, 3 points; 3. Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma and Bison Smith & Keith Walker, 1-2, 2 points.

Final B block standings were: 1. Takayama & Sano 3-0, 6 points; 2. Kensuke Sasaki & Takeshi Morishima 2-1, 4 points; 3. Go Shiozaki & Akitoshi Saito 1-2, 2 points; 4. Hero & Castagnoli 0-3, 0 points.

The Korakuen Hall finals also had an interesting singles match where Akiyama, the veteran, still beat Marufuji, who many consider the company’s most valuable wrestler on its roster right now, using a guillotine submission in 15:55.

One of the goals of the tournament was to revitalize Sano as a top guy.

Masao Inoue, who has been out of action since July after a dislocated left hip, was at the 1/24 show. He said he would be returning soon and noted that for a lot of people, it would have been a career ending injury.

Next tour is 2/14 to 2/28 with Eddie Edwards, Bobby Fish and Bull Buchanan as the foreigners.

At the 1/19 SEM show at Differ Ariake, Yoshihiro Takayama refereed the main event. Even though having a headline wrestler referee, almost always leading to an angle for a match, is standard U.S. operating procedure, it is almost never done in Japan and I can’t think of a time NOAH has ever done it. It was the first time Takayama has ever refereed a match. The match was Akira Taue & Chris Hero & Claudio Castagnoli against Takashi Sugiura & Takeshi Morishima & Genba Hirayanagi. Takayama found Hirayanagi bringing a foreign object to the ring and Hirayanagi gave Takayama a low blow. When Hirayanagi then gave Taue a low blow, Takayama called for the DQ, which is a rare main event finish in this promotion.

Kensuke Sasaki has added Satoshi Kajiwara, 21, to his roster. Kajiwara was trained by Ultimo Dragon and started wrestling in Mexico two years ago. He was an amateur wrestler who went to the same high school as Marufuji.

NEW JAPAN


It appears the company has gone through heavy budget cutting with the start of the new year. The biggest surprise, coming right after Masahiro Chono announced he was taking six months off to heal all of his nagging injuries, was that Chono was not being signed to a new contract. Chono’s time off coincided with the expiration of his contract at the end of January. Chono had a big party this past week for the end of his 25th year as a pro wrestler. He’s going to become a free agent when he returns later in the year and said he would like to still work events for New Japan at that time. Chono was the next to last main event link to the glory days of the promotion, along with Riki Choshu, but Choshu had years away from the company. His last match on his contract was 1/22 in Okinawa, working mid-card teaming with Koji Kanemoto to beat Super Strong Machine & Tiger Mask, when Chono pinned Machine with a shining kekka kick. Tatsumi Fujinami of Dradition contacted Chono, but Chono didn’t agree to work for his group. Fujinami is building his promotion now around the theme of being the place for 80s New Japan wrestling, with himself, Choshu, The Original Tiger Mask and Hiro Saito, plus he wants Super Strong Machine and Chono (who was more a 90s star although he started his career in 1984).

Takao Omori, 40, is going to fade away from wrestling and focusing on managing a Family Inn that his wife has been running in Kanazawa. He said he’s not planning on retiring, but will be greatly cutting back on his schedule, and expects to remain affiliated with New Japan. The story behind this is Omori was also not going to be signed to a new contract so this is a way for everyone to publicly save face.

OTHER JAPAN NOTES


Hall of Fame wrestler Akira Maeda, 50, announced he would be running a summer election to the House of Councilors from the Minshuto party. He announced it in a story that came out in this month’s issue of Kakutogi-Tsushin magazine (as it turned out, this is the next to last issue in the history of the publication, as the magazine, the premiere MMA magazine in Japan since its debut in 1986, announced it was folding with next month’s issue. Maeda said he actually made the decision a few months ago when stories about this broke and said he’d been thinking about it for a few years. He claimed what spurred his interest in running for national public office was having a son at the age of 48, saying he wanted to work for a better Japan for the next generation. Maeda was a groundbreaking figure in Japanese sports, in the sense his charisma and the success of the UWF promotion in the late 80s paved the way for the popularity of MMA. He was also the teacher of Kazuyoshi Ishii when it came to the concept of how to promote characters and big matches. Ishii worked for Maeda’s RINGS organization, a pro wrestling group that marketed itself as shootfighting (in RINGS would be the first true pro wrestling organization to go from doing 80-90% worked matches when it started to doing 100% shoot matches by the end of its run, although it was far more popular in the former stage, but the success of Pride pretty much killed it). It was there that he took his own background in Seido Kaikan Karate and mixed it with how pro wrestling created characters and match-ups and built the K-1 dynasty. Ironically, Maeda himself was something of a fraud, as he was marketed as the supreme shooter in 1984 with the original UWF promotion, even though they were just doing stiff worked matches. Maeda himself, who was a former karate champion recruited to be the next Antonio Inoki by then New Japan booker Hisashi Shinma because of his size (6-3 athletic Japanese with strong martial arts backgrounds in the 80s were not exactly growing on trees), look and athletic ability. When Shinma was excommunicated from New Japan after a business scandal, he formed the UWF, and Maeda, against the wishes of Shinma who wanted to make it a New Japan style company but focusing on young wrestlers, took it in the stiff shoot style and he became something of a cult hero, although the group at first was super popular with the Tokyo hardcore fans but not popular elsewhere. After it folded and Maeda went back to New Japan, he was a huge star and major drawing card, only losing two matches in two years. After doing a cowardly act, kicking Riki Choshu in the face as a shoot in 1987 while Choshu wasn’t defending himself as he held a scorpion deathlock on Osamu Kido, he was suspended and later fired. But as the guy who New Japan kicked out because he threw a real kick resonated differently with the public, which saw it as Maeda, who always professed wanting to fight for real (even though Maeda himself never had any real shoots, although he did have matches that fell apart and got pretty real due to tempers like with Satoru Sayama and Andre the Giant), was being kicked out for being too real. Maeda became even bigger and the second UWF was a short-lived major success, including drawing the first-ever pro wrestling sellout to the Tokyo Dome in 1989.

Another Hall of Famer, Genichiro Tenryu, announced he would be forming a new promotion in the spring with Hustle having folded. Tenryu turns 60 this week, and has his first match (on a show promoted by Masao Orihara) on 2/22 at Shinjuku Face in Tokyo.

And another one, Toshiaki Kawada, 46, debuts on stage as an actor on 1/30 and 1/31 in a comedy drama play in Osaka.

In a big surprise on an FMW show on 1/25 in Tokyo (Atsushi Onita was not on this show), the guy playing Super Leather was knocked out, and then the old Super Leather music played and Mike Kirchner, the original Super Leather in the old FMW, came out with his chainsaw.

HERE AND THERE


Jack Brisco, 68, one of pro wrestling’s all-time legends, is recovering from triple bypass heart surgery. Brisco, the older brother of Gerald Brisco, was a lifelong pro wrestling fan of Lou Thesz and Danny Hodge, who got into amateur wrestling and became the 1965 NCAA champion at 191 pounds, and then immediately became a pro wrestler for Leroy McGuirk. Eddie Graham brought him to Florida and immediately began pushing him as the top star in the territory. The 1970-73 chase by Brisco of NWA world champion Dory Funk is one of pro wrestling’s all-time great rivalries, which also spun off in tag matches involving younger brothers Gerald Brisco and Terry Funk. Brisco held the NWA title twice, beating Harley Race, on July 20, 1973, in Houston, losing to Giant Baba, regaining it a week later from Baba, before losing to Terry Funk on December 10, 1975, in Miami. He remained a major name until his retirement in 1984 while involved in a tag team title program with Jerry Brisco against WWF tag champs Dick Murdoch & Adrian Adonis. While in the Northeast in a winter snowstorm, he told his brother that he had enough, and flew back home to Tampa. Since that time, he was probably the only major pro wrestling star of the past 30 years who retired and never came back.

Gene Kiniski’s condition worsened this past week. He was hospitalized over the weekend in Bellingham, WA, with pneumonia, believed to be because his immune system is breaking down due to all his chemotherapy treatments in fighting cancer.

“The Tooth Fairy” opened this past weekend, doing $14,010,409 domestically and $20,372,100 worldwide in the its first week out, finishing in fourth place in the opening weekend behind Avatar, Legion and The Book of Eli. The movie had a $48 million budget so that doesn’t sound like a great open. Movies marketed to children are done with the expectation of doing well in the home video market. In comparison, Johnson’s previous two kids-oriented movies, “Game Plan” did $23.0 million domestically on its first weekend, ending up doing $147.9 million worldwide ($90.6 million domestic), while “Race to Witch Mountain,” opened at $24.4 million in its first weekend, and finished at $106.4 million worldwide ($67.2 million domestic). “Tooth Fairy” only got 12 good reviews out of 79 media reviews on rottentomatoes.com. The reactions from those who saw the movie either liked it or hated it with little middle ground, and didn’t fare overall as well as “Game Plan,” which did phenomenal reactions among actual ticket buyers and thus had such strong legs. When Dwayne Johnson was making the media rounds for “Tooth Fairy,” he spent much of the day on 1/21 at ESPN, and met up with sports anchor and former BUTT of Rock jokes, Jonathan Coachman. Johnson said the last time he saw him, he could still grow hair.

Wrestlelicious promotion is taping a television show this month for MavTV in the U.S. and Bite TV in Canada. It will debut in prime time on Monday nights and Friday nights on both stations starting in March. The show, expected to be similar to the 1980s GLOW wrestling, even features two executives from the original GLOW promotion in the front office, Steve Blance and Johnny Cararella, as well as Jimmy Hart, and is being funded by 21-year-old Powerball lottery winner Jay Vargas, who is himself a television character on the show playing the role of a millionaire playboy. MavTV is Ch. 361 on The Dish Network and is available in several U.S. markets. In all, the show is expected to be available in 29% of U.S. homes. The show, called “Take Down,” will also be syndicated, airing in 15 markets, the biggest being Dallas and Atlanta, starting in February. The show will also air on the America One network which is 155 generally small stations around the country, in an 11:30 p.m. Saturday night time slot starting on 3/6. The network has aired wrestling in the past and it’s meant nothing in the big picture. They claim that they have 17 of the top 50 female wrestlers in the country (based on the Pro Wrestling Illustrated issue ranking the top 50 women) in the promotion.

Linda Bollea reached an out of court settlement with the Graziano family in their auto negligence civil suit against Terry (Hulk), Nick and Linda. The suit still remains with Terry and Nick as defendants. Attorney George Tragos, representing Debra Graziano, the mother of John Graziano, Nick’s best friend who suffered severe brain damage in a well publicized 2007 auto accident, said “Debra Graziano is happy that Linda Bollea did the right thing.” Terms of the settlement were confidential. Linda legal position as a defendant wasn’t nearly as damaging as that of Nick, as the actual driver, or Hulk. “Linda, she was obviously in a different position than everyone else,” said Tragos to the St. Petersburg Times. “She was in California at the time of the accident and she did not sign for Nick Bollea’s drivers license as Terry did, so she’s in a different legal position.” Earlier, Danny Jacobs, who drove the second car that Nick was in many reports said to have been racing at the time of the accident, had previously settled out of court in the case. Hulk Hogan has always maintained that surveillance camera footage of the two cars driving showed that they were not racing. Linda Bollea’s tell-all book that she had been talking about writing last year is back in play.

An examination of the body of former pro wrestler, boxer, UFC fighter, bodyguard, powerlifter, politician, singer, book author and actor Tony Halme revealed the cause of death as a suicide, as had been reported. Halme is listed as having shot himself with a pistol on 1/8, and he had been dead for two days before his body was found.

One of wrestling’s oldest questions got a new answer this past week. In the Hogan vs. Sting match at the 1997 Starrcade, where Nick Patrick was supposed to count fast for the pin, leading to Bret Hart coming out and saying he wouldn’t let Sting get screwed, and then Sting coming back and winning the title, was screwed up when Patrick delivered a normal count. This led to Hart looking like a goof trying to reverse it, and it killed the incredible momentum Sting had. Sting vs. Hogan did 650,000 buys for that show, which would have been in the range of what the 1989 Hogan vs. Savage WrestleMania match did as the biggest PPV number in the history of pro wrestling. Nick Patrick, while working at WCW, had always claimed that he thought he had counted fast. Nobody believed him since he was an experienced ref, and one of the best refs in the business and the mistake in cadence was considered unfathomable. Anyway, 12 years later and out of wrestling, in an interview with James Guttman, Patrick said, “I believe what had happened was that I got conflicting stories about what they wanted me to do. I had one faction telling me they wanted one thing from me. I had another faction telling me they wanted another thing from me. So I kind of split it down the middle.” The belief had always been that Hogan’s side, which would have been the only side that would have wanted the fast count to not happen and make it look like a legit win, had gone to Patrick ahead of time and this would seem to make sense. What’s notable is Bischoff was super gung ho on the fast count as the way to introduce Hart and make the Sting title win huge. If it wasn’t for the ascension of Bill Goldberg in 1998, that could have been the end of the peak right there. But WCW never did another buy rate at that level (using Karl Malone and Dennis Rodman in a tag match came close, one could argue if they had done Hogan vs. Goldberg with a good build they’d have beaten it but they never did) again. Patrick said he had to make a choice, and you never knew who would be in charge.

Jake Roberts, 54, says that this will be his last year in wrestling. He said he wants to do a retirement tour at the end of this year and is looking for dates. Due to the track record of wrestlers’ retirements, not sure too many are going to take it seriously. I guess the best line is something Steve Corino claimed Terry Funk told him in an interview with Alex Marvez this past week: “There are no real retirements from wrestling until you die.” . . Jersey All-Pro Wrestling ran its 12th anniversary show on 1/23 in Rahway, NJ, before 1,200 fans for a show which included Homicide beating Masato Tanaka and Teddy Hart & Jack Evans over Mark & Jay Briscoe. It was by far the biggest crowd in the history of the promotion. The two aforementioned matches were the best ones on the show. People there were amazed at how big the crowd was, particularly in that area where it’s become very hard to draw more than a few hundred for indie shows.

Booker T is now saying that he’s going to Los Angeles to try acting.

Nick Pacchiano, who worked for Stampede Wrestling, mostly as an opening match wrestler, usually losing, from 1968-76 on-and-off, passed away over the weekend.

ROH


They will be introducing a TV championship, and do an eight- man tournament on 2/5 and 2/6 for the belt at the television tapings. The bracketing was done like a legitimate wrestling tournament or tennis tournament, with seedings. First round matches are Kevin Steen (No. 1 seed) vs. Rhett Titus (8), Colt Cabana (3) vs. Eddie Edwards (6), Delirious (5) vs. Davey Richards (4) and El Generico (7) vs. Kenny King (2).

Jim Cornette in the U.K. Sun did an interview on deaths in wrestling. “It is never easy when a friend dies. But at first it was, `Oh my gosh,’ then it was, `Oh no,’ then it was, `Not again,” and finally you’re not surprised anymore. It is never good, but it isn’t shocking. That’s the sad thing. It is more shocking if a professional wrestler from the 1980s is actually found in good health and living a nice life with no problems. When I was a kid watching wrestling in the 1970s, every couple of years you would hear of a few wrestlers dying in a car wreck. Now a month doesn’t go by that you don’t hear about some wrestler dying at an early age, because of drugs or byproducts of drugs, which are byproducts of the unfortunate work environment that they found themselves in.” He noted the popularity of pushing physiques as one of the problems. “It is no secret that in WWE, a guy of average ability with a great physique will always get a bunch more chances then a guy with great ability and a less impressive physique. That is what Vince has always tried to book and always tried to push.” He said, “A lot of the guys in the 1980s got on this shit and it creates a dependence, a mental if not physical one. Of course no one ever told you that you had to take steroids to get a job and there wasn’t a bunch of 10 boys in the locker room sticking needles in their asses out in the open. But just look at the hiring practices. Who got the pushes and who didn’t.” He also blamed the lack of companies and the bigger bumps for other drug issues. “There are also guys who lose their push and need surgery, but put it off and off because they have the mentality that, not only does the show need to go on, but also somebody else might take their spot and they might not get it back. Then you take into account that wrestlers’ careers are so much shorter because there is no territory system and they’re on national television every week. Many more get burnt out. Guys get depressed when all of a sudden, after being stars for three or four years, they can’t get a job because there is no place else to work.” He also noted that the drug testing itself isn’t the deterrent it’s cracked up to be. “Top guys with a lot of money to spend can always get the good stuff if they want it to beat tests, although for the guys who don’t make much money, then they have to get clean now that they are doing legitimate testing.” Regarding the idea people will label him bitter to dismiss those comments, he said, “Some people do say it (what he just said), but it is dismissed as sour grapes. They are written off as jealous or guys who never made it. But they are the ones with their eyes open. Nobody can dispute the facts. They just try to shoot the messenger.” . . Blue Demon Jr. and Cassandro were both announced for the 4/3 show in Charlotte.

Generico vs. Davey Richards has been added to the 2/13 8th anniversary show at the Manhattan Center and they’ve teased Rasche Brown facing three men.

TNA


The reaction to last week’s PPV and months worth of tapings in Orlando varied by the individual, but different terms from different people coming out of it included “The Twilight Zone,” “Surreal,” “Total Madness,” Everything was crazy,” and “Nutty.” Of course the Awesome Kong situation with Bubba the Love Sponge topped much of the talk. For something which played out just like an angle would play out on Bubba’s radio show, everyone in the company believes it to be real (I’m pretty much 100% on it being real). I was told the description Bubba gave on his radio show was pretty close to exactly what happened. The incident took place at about 5 p.m. on 1/18, a little before the first night of Impact tapings were getting started. They were on the set where they have all the backstage stuff they film (the Eric Bischoff office, the various fake dressing room sets) about 50 feet from the Impact Zone. Kevin Nash was shooting an interview and Bubba was there. Kong was loudly screaming “Haiti” and “Babies” and just going nuts, probably all worked up about seeing babies in Haiti who were orphaned or lost their homes and parents, and she had done a fund raiser a few days earlier. One person said that she had relatives in Haiti so was particularly worked up about it, but it may just have been because she had just done the fund raiser. Apparently she was very unhappy about the current situation. There is a feeling across the board that with new management, almost nobody’s position is safe so everyone is watching out for themselves and nobody is trying to help or push anyone else. Kong herself reportedly said she was just going to yell at him, but blamed her lack of sleep, her depression from the death of Ed Chuman who helped her get started, and ended up punching him. After she left the tapings in Orlando, she flew to Chicago to attend Chuman’s funeral. I was told there were more than three punches thrown, as well as a knee to either the stomach or groin before Kong was pulled off. It was a sucker punch and Bubba did never fight back. After she was dragged off him, she ended up lying on the crowd and was crying and hysterical. She didn’t work that night, but did work the second night. She then gave her notice and said she wanted out. She didn’t get punished immediately because Bubba is not particularly well liked by anyone outside of the Hogan cronies and a few others. Dixie Carter was very serious about fund raising so no way she could have been happy with what Bubba did, but as mad as people thought so many in the company were, Bubba was on TV doing interviews after all, and doing the angle with Jarrett and was all over TV this week. Still, you can’t have a working environment where stuff like that goes down and is unpunished. Kong was also said to have been unhappy at Hogan and Bischoff trying to turn the situation into some work/shoot angle.

After the speech to the crowd, the feeling was that the crowd was up and down during the tapings. One of the changes has been to put the guys who had usually been given front row seats right in front of the camera to move them back several rows so they don’t have the opportunity to take over the shows as easily.

Alissa Flash (Melissa Anderson, 27) is gone from the company as well. No details at this point other than she was released and it happened after TV, but she wasn’t booked for any of the TV. I had heard a few rumblings having nothing to do with the Hogan regime of people who noted how impressive she looked in some of her early matches once she got rid of the Raisha Saeed gimmick, but that she hadn’t looked as good in more recent matches, which probably explains her not having been used. She would have never been seen by the Hogan side. She had been with the company for two years, with the Saeed character being introduced in January 2008 to do promos for Kong, who they thought was more effective as a monster who didn’t talk, as well as a manager who could do outside interference to create ideas for finishes in keeping a feud going with Gail Kim. Since Spike wouldn’t allow men to do anything physical to women on television, an interfering manager had to be a woman. She had gotten over great a few times she had worked as Cheerleader Melissa in dark matches, and in July, the decision was made to use her as a wrestler, Alissa Flash. For a very brief period, the Flash name was used because she’d wear a jacket with a zipper while wrestling and during the match, pull the zipper down, teasing the idea she’d flash people. She did both roles at the same time for a few months before they broke up Kong and Saeed, with Kong injuring Saeed in October by power bombing her through the entrance stage to write off that character.

Kong, Bobby Lashley and Alex Shelley (herniated disc in his neck) were all off the U.K. tour. They also were doing completely different matches than advertised, but WWE does that on every tour there so people accept it. Still, there is no possible excuse that can be given for Lashley being advertised.

Shelley’s neck had been bothering him for some time, but it got worse and he had to take time off. No word on how long but nobody had the impression he’d be out a lengthy period unless he had surgery.

How’s this for a telling stat. Before the Genesis PPV, the last time Sean Morley won a match on PPV was in the year 2000. The last time Morley was on a PPV was 2002.

The reason the U.K. tour used the six-sided ring is because the ring had already been shipped before Hogan made the call to eliminate it.

Nick Bollea (Nick Hogan) was at the TVs after the PPV. As best we can tell, there is no talk about Nick or Brooke being involved in angles, but having heels (Flair) beat up Nick to set up Hulk facing them is such an easy and obvious angle that I can’t believe they wouldn’t do it.

Everyone was walking around on eggshells particularly around Eric Bischoff because it became obvious that the people who are making the decisions know almost nothing about any of the wrestlers and that with very few exceptions, everyone’s position is tenuous.

So much is up in the air about where things are going. The feeling is they aren’t happy at all with Scott Hall and Sean Waltman, but will use them through this angle. Everyone figured going in that Hall was a lost cause, but there was a lot of disappointment in Waltman, figuring that since this would appear to be his last shot with a major U.S. promotion, he’d show up in better shape.

On the other hand, now that he was in a second time and getting to know people, Flair was being treated with ridiculous reverence. Flair was telling everyone that he loved being there since he felt he was being utilized by managing the world champion. People were raving about his interviews and the wrestlers and agents were all in awe of him. It reminded me of when I was with Eddie Gilbert after the show after the first time he ever worked with Flair and he was wearing this V-neck sweatshirt to show his chest beat to shit and had this big smile on his face because it was Flair who did it. They later had their issues when on the same booking team but it was that little kid hero worship deal. It was said to be funny how almost everyone who worked with him in almost every capacity from the agents to the wrestlers were all excited just to be able to work on his stuff, and a lot of the people who had never been around him in the past all wanted to hang out drinking with him after the shows.

The idea of the Flair character right now is to be the J.J. Dillon of 2010, except that he can do interviews like Flair.

Honky Tonk Man is claiming that he’s very close to signing a contract to wrestle here. I’ve got no idea how accurate this is or isn’t as hadn’t heard the name talked about, but nothing would surprise me. He may just be working an angle, but he’s put the TNA logo on his web site and has the TNA show open video playing on the site as well. As far as doing a few weeks of TV as something different, bringing back older wrestlers works, but for any longer, in most cases it ends up being a case of rapidly diminishing returns. He also could be just being brought in for a match with Jay Lethal, because Randy Savage feuded with Honky Tonk Man in 1988. Maybe they can get really inside since they want to spoof Montreal and have Honky do a backstage skit where he refuses to do a job on live television and they have to come up with a DQ finish at the last minute.

Hogan won a court case from his wife. It’s the one where Linda took all the stuff from the house with her to California when she gave Hogan the house as part of the settlement. A judge ruled Linda had to return the chandeliers, a tanning bed, several fixtures including an antique toilet seat (that Linda had taken to Florida and put on her wall and used it as a frame for a photo of Hulk, seriously).

Lashley vs. Wes Sims was made official on 1/21, nine days prior to the 1/30 match in Sunrise, FL, on the Strikeforce show. They had gone through one opponent after another. Lashley’s camp turned down Shane Del Rosario, and then between the Florida boxing commission and Showtime, several other names agreed upon by the promotion and Lashley’s side were turned down. Finally, everyone approved Sims, who has also done some indie pro wrestling and is a big fan, who has been seen in the front row at WWE tapings when they come to Ohio. Sims, who is 6-8 and about 250 pounds, is 30, and has been fighting for nine years. He’s the guy on the Ultimate Fighter season ten show who was trying to be Brutus Beefcake. He’s 22- 12-1 with 2 no contests, who on the TUF show, lost in the first round of the tournament to Justin Wren. He fought in UFC in 2003-04, most notable for a DQ and knockout loss to Frank Mir.

Of the newcomers, I was told the big surprise was Orlando Jordan, who was better than expected. The rest were not impressive, although apparently the Jeff Jarrett vs. Mr. Anderson match was one of the best matches of the three nights.

ODB had minor surgery to fix her left breast implant this week.

Bubba the Love Sponge and Jeff Jarrett continue to do worked stuff on his radio show, where they argue and Jarrett knocks everything Hogan does to play up the angle. Jarrett’s storyline is that he pushed for Hogan to come, but then Hogan mistreated him once he got there, and called the current product on the air crap.

Within the company, the talk was that they thought most fans thought the Bubba/Kong thing was a work, and it was real, but that people believed the Bubba/Jarrett arguments to be real, and they were the ones that were a work. I don’t know. I do know that most everyone thought Bubba/Kong to be a work and probably still do. Besides, once it was on the air and Hogan was pushing for a match and such, it became a work. I don’t know of anyone who thought the Bubba/Jarrett stuff to have been anything but a work, and actually that incident got almost no discussion.

Bubba went on the Howard Stern radio show and buried TNA, talking about Kong. Stern didn’t believe it was real either. Bubba said the company was in shambles and he tried to help them out as a favor to Hogan. He said he tried to recruit his listeners to attend the tapings so “they wouldn’t have the same 40 people showing up at their event.” He claimed he brought 1,800 people with him but they weren’t allowed in. Bubba now claimed in the “fight” with Kong that after the punches, he grabbed her around the neck and was ready to hit her back but stopped because he thought he might get kicked off the airwaves for beating up a woman. Stern thought he was being worked because Bubba said after all that, he didn’t want her fired. Bubba then said, and you’ll love this, he really did want her fired but went public with the idea he didn’t because he didn’t want heat from the public as having cost someone their job. Yes, he said on Stern, which has tons more listeners than Bubba, that he wanted her fired except that was the kayfabe secret. The impression I was given is that after the incident happened, Hogan and Bubba the next morning brought it up immediately because it was a lock the story would get out, and they wanted their version of the story out first, plus Bubba coming off as the bigger guy in not hitting her when attacked, and most notably, not wanting her fired, plus in Hogan’s mind it brings interest to the product. The incident actually took place before the start of the tapings of the show that aired on 1/21, and Bubba and Jarrett’s stuff from the next day was edited into the show with holes left in the original filming, but the Bubba and Hogan stuff regarding Kong wasn’t talked about.

Hogan went on Bubba’s show and said he’s thinking of canceling all the house shows because the company isn’t where it should be. He called Kong a “bitch” and said her actions were probably menstrual cycle related.

On the PPV, it was Bischoff’s call to limit the number of screw jobs underneath and not overbook things so the angle at the end where Flair helped Styles win would come across as shocking and different as opposed to how the exact same angle would have come across on most of the TNA show of the past two years, with people groaning and thinking “not another finish like that.” It’s a great argument against gimmicked finishes in prelims, because they kill the impact of gimmicked finishes if you need them in the main events.

A funny story from Mexico about the domed cage that Homicide couldn’t get out of. Since AAA debuted the cage, there have been at least three incidents exactly like what happened with Homicide. Those who have gotten to the top and then been unable to get out have been Konnan, Cibernetico and Brazo de Plata. I think they had to heavily edit TV in each case. My mind is just blown thinking they actually booked a match of that type with Porky climbing upside down in that contraption and risked the idea that he couldn’t get out.

The Montreal screwjob finish was the third time TNA has done that finish in a title match. The first was on September 15, 2005, when they did that finish so Jeff Jarrett could beat Raven for the title in Windsor, Ontario, right before starting on Spike. The second time was June 18, 2006, when they did that finish when Jarrett won the King of the Mountain match. Both of those times, as well as the recent one with A.J. Styles and Kurt Angle, were done with Earl Hebner as referee. The difference is it’s probable Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff would have had no idea of either of those cases. Vince Russo probably would have.

When interviewed by The Sun , Styles said about WWE: “All the horror stories I’ve heard about WWE, there is no reason why I’d want to go. I’m going to tell you what I know as the main difference between the two companies. Desmond and I are going to work together to make this company the best, for everybody. Whereas in the other company, they will stab each other in the back to get themselves to the next level.” “Some people might have different opinions of certain things, but ultimately everybody wants to be positive, go in the right direction and for the company to succeed, not just themselves.” Well, they sure picked the right guys to head things given their track records. Regarding the change in rings, “For us, it does not make a difference in any way. You can put me in a six-sided ring or put me in a square ring, it’s all the same. You throw somebody into the ropes and they come back. It’s not any different, so that’s why it was so bizarre to me at first why they would change it. But then I heard that maybe the reason for the change was so we could be taken more seriously as a company and I can understand that.” . . While promoting Wrestlelicious in Canada on Bite TV this past week, Jimmy Hart hinted of coming back to TNA, possibly as the manager of the Nasty Boys.

Funny Ken Anderson post. He plugged Bubba the Love Sponge, and some of his followers got on him for having anything to do with Bubba due to his Haiti comments. “Don’t want to get into a big debate here, but what if every time you said or did something, peeps took the same approach to forgiveness for your transgressions? We also live in a country where we are allowed to voice our opinions, however stupid they may be.” . . B.G. James was working as an agent at the shows this week because they were a man short with Scott D’Amore out.

Velvet Sky & Madison Rayne were called to come to Europe for the rest of the tour with Kong not there.

Pope didn’t go on the European dates because he had a stomach infection.

Samoa Joe suffered a dislocated rib on the 1/25 show in Paris, but isn’t going to miss any dates. He did note that he had to explain the loud screaming from his hotel room as D-Lo Brown popped the rib back in place.

The European tour opened on 1/23 in Glasgow, Scotland, before 1,500 fans. Amazing Red pinned Chris Sabin in the opener with a standing shooting star press in 8:00. Good match with cool spots. Eric Young pinned Suicide to keep the Global title. This is the one that Young never defends in the U.S., so at least they got some use for it. He also was never to defend it against an American. I guess Suicide is from parts unknown, and thus it’s possible he’s a foreigner. Hernandez pinned Rhino clean. Angle won a three-way over Daniels and Wolfe when he pinned Wolfe after an Angle slam. Very good match. Early part was Daniels and Wolfe working as a unit beating on Angle, until they finally turned on each other. The Knockouts tag title matches scheduled ended up as singles bouts with Kong not going on the tour as Hamada pinned Sarita in 7:00 with a Michinoku driver. In what was billed as Matt Morgan & Hernandez vs. 3-D in a tables match, instead no Morgan, and Hernandez had already worked. So it was a non-title three way where 3-D beat Beer Money and the British Invasion in a tables match, using a 3-D on Brutus Magnus through a table. Beer Money vs. Invasion. Invasion did mic work to make sure they were booed. Beer Money was more popular than 3-D. Main saw Styles over Joe in 12:30. Earl Hebner was ref. Hebner was knocked down and Joe put Styles in the choke. Styles choked out, but no ref. As Joe went to help up Hebner, Styles used a low blow and Styles clash to get the pin. Styles tried to do a Flair style promo asking for all the women to call him.

The 1/25 show in Paris, which was moved from the original 1/24 date due to the arena being used for a fund raiser for Haiti, drew 2,500. Wrestling is pretty hot in France right now as I don’t even think TNA has television in the country right now and they drew better than most places where they do have television. Styles beat Joe and Daniels in the main event for the title. Said to be a fantastic main event. 3-D beat British Invasion in a tables match. Dixie Carter flew to the show and gave a speech to the fans, thinking them for their support of the product and telling them they would return to France in the future. Angle beat Wolfe in the other top match. Besides the main eventers, the crowd was really into Angle and Beer Money and we heard raves about the quality of the show overall.

Notes from the 1/20 TV tapings. I’d expect that most of this stuff will either air on 2/4 or 2/11. Samoa Joe pinned Jesse Neal after a muscle buster. Taylor Wilde & Sarita beat ODB & Traci Brooks when Wilde pinned Brooks. Eric Bischoff did an interview and said Hulk Hogan told him that for business, he and Mick Foley have to get along. He then said Foley was being difficult. Foley came out and said that he likes everyone in TNA and loves being there, but that he can’t stand Bischoff. He said Bischoff is the opposite of everything he believes in. Well, you wouldn’t exactly want to worship the guy. Foley said how Bischoff was messing with the lives of his friends like Abyss and Jeremy Borash. Bischoff said Foley’s problem is he won’t get on the same page as them. Foley didn’t want to be on their page because they haven’t learned anything from the death of WCW. This led to Bischoff making Foley vs. Nash in a no DQ match. They had an in-ring with Mike Tenay, with both Team 3-D and the Nasty Boys. They went back-and-forth on each other on promos. Nash pinned Foley after a kick to the face. After the match, Hall & Waltman attacked and laid out Nash. Pope D’Angelo Dinero got his revenge from earlier in the week when he pinned Orlando Jordan clean. In a match with the four wrestlers going into the title shot tournament at Against All Odds, with them mixing up heels and faces on the team, doing the parejas increibles gimmick, Angle & Anderson beat Wolfe & Hernandez. Angle and Anderson ended up almost getting into it. The finish saw Angle lay out Wolfe with the Angle slam, but Anderson slapped Angle’s back constituting a tag and jumped on Wolfe, stealing the pin. Next, and this would be for the go-home show, Hogan said that for the past month, everyone has been talking about TNA. He said because Waltman & Hall attacked and laid out Nash last week, they were banned from the building. Eric Young then came out and said that Nash wanted them allowed back. Hogan said that the building is locked down and he can’t let them in, but if Nash wants them, he said Nash should leave the building and find them and bust them up. Morgan pinned Suicide with the Carbon footprint. Doug Williams pinned Amazing Red with the Chaos Theory suplex. In a 3-on-2 match, Velvet Sky & Madison Rayne & Lacey Von Erich beat Angelina Love & Tara. Lacey hit Love wit the ugly stuck and Velvet pinned her. After the match, they went after Tara and Lacey hit Tara with the ugly stick. Angle came out and challenged Hall & Waltman to come out, so I guess they got in anyway. Waltman and Hall came out through the crowd. Angle was doing well until Waltman pulled out Brass Knux and nailed Angle. Hall & Waltman were putting the boots to Angle. Hogan came out. Hall & Waltman held Angle for Hogan to attack him with the Knux, but Hogan then attacked Hall & Waltman, laying them out, and left.

Notes from the 1/14 TV show. The good news is they aren’t cramming as much into the two hours as before, although it’s still being over written, particularly at the end when in the middle of Kurt Angle going crazy in a tired and groan-inducing Survivor Series 1997 repeat, Eric Bischoff walked out bleeding and fired Mick Foley, basically stepping right over whatever they were supposed to be getting out of the deal with Angle. Has anyone ever looked back and realized that nobody has ever drawn a dime with the Montreal finish, and that every wrestling fan has seen it 35 times? I mean, the first time I saw someone copy it in 1998 on an indie show, the crowd crapped all over it then, not to mention how bad it came across the last time WWE did it a few months ago. Just the idea they’d consider that finish is mind boggling, but I guess it shouldn’t be, because you’ve got a crew in charge that are in 1998. But this was better than a lot of episodes of Raw and one thing TNA does have is with Flair, Bischoff, Hogan, Foley, Sting and Angle, they are loaded with great promo guys. The show opened with Flair and Styles getting out of a limo. Styles was wearing a suit and tie and there were three models with them. Flair came out and finally did his first promo in TNA and it was great. He mentioned that he hated Hogan. He went on a descriptive tangent about seducing Dixie Carter and when he was done, she told him to name his price to come in. He announced that Styles was going to be the next Ric Flair. Aside from the fact stylistically, Styles is better as a babyface because of his moves, he on the surface seems like the worst fit for being the next Nature Boy. The least he could have done was bleached his hair to fit the role. The crowd cheered Flair and they were piping in fake noise of people booing, which wasn’t getting it done. When Styles talked, they had to edit the hell out of it, as the crowd chanted, “You’re married,” and he got lost in his promo. It was edited well enough that even though Styles came off as a bad fit in the gimmick, it still was a very good segment. I’m told Styles did get a lot better over the next few days as being the new Flair. But it’s tough, as Styles is so completely overshadowed when it comes to standing there and being a star when he’s next to Flair. Hogan and Angle came out. Angle did no talking and just stared while Hogan said that he was rescinding the stipulation on the PPV where Angle couldn’t get another title shot as long as Styles was champion, and was making the match for later in the show, and if Flair interfered, Angle would become champion. Even though dumping the stip you pushed in the PPV buildup is kind of a bait-and-switch, Hogan was very good on his promo. Matt Morgan & Hernandez beat Doug Williams & Brutus Magnus to retain the tag titles. Rob Terry came out with his Feast or Fired briefcase. He gave it to Magnus, who went to hit Hernandez, but he moved and Magnus hit Williams with it. Hernandez pinned Williams. Magnus and Terry started arguing when Foley showed up, and he attacked all three members of the Invasion before giving Williams his double arm DDT. He said he was coming to get at Bischoff. They aired the first of two segments of Jarrett on Bubba the Love Sponge working their angle. Hogan & Bischoff were in the office. Hogan said they needed to take care of the Cactus Jack problem, and then told Nash to team with Eric Young. Nash said that he liked Hogan but Hall & Waltman were his guys and Hogan said how they were all “for life.” Finally Nash agreed he’d do the match as a favor to Hogan. Pope did an interview for his match with Orlando Jordan. He kept calling Jordan “Whoopi,” for Whoopi Goldberg, in tribute to Jordan’s new hair, and talked about seeing him in a bunch of movies Whoopi was in over the years, most of which were a long time ago. Jordan pinned Pope with a downward spiral. Jordan looked better than I expected. It was a short match, but good. The crowd was shocked at the finish. Considering how quickly Pope has gotten over, he shouldn’t be losing on TV to anyone except maybe a hard fought loss to a top guy as opposed to a 3:00 loss clean to a guy who isn’t over. By the way, management is very high on Pope and want to give him a big push. Hopefully it works out better than that big push for the Front Line. Angle did a promo saying hit would be a new Angle. Bubba and Jarrett got into an argument on his radio show where Jarrett said TNA was doing fine before Hogan and Bischoff came in. He said they were profitable, and that how could you put Hogan and Bischoff in charge after they killed WCW. Eric Young asked Nash if he was with him. He said he was. Another clip of Bubba and Jarrett was Jarrett pointing out that the crowds had been booing Hogan and they didn’t like the changes being made. Jarrett talked about suing to get back in power in TNA and Bubba backed off like he was scared of Jarrett’s high-priced Tennessee attorneys. Geez, the first guy they brought in playing Jarrett’s attorney was hardly intimidating. Lashley met with Bischoff and was contrite and just said that he wanted to wrestle and wanted to wipe the slate clean. Bischoff said he couldn’t give him an answer until he talks to Hogan. On next week’s show, they fire Lashley. Let’s see. They start this angle where Lashley, due to his wife, goes heel, then quits, but even though he quit, is on the show every week but his wife isn’t. Now, after going heel for a couple of weeks, he acts like a babyface. Why is any of this even on TV? Angelina Love beat Madison Rayne quickly with a bicycle kick. After the match, Love took Rayne’s shirt off and began choking her with it, with Rayne having noting but a bra on. Lacey Von Erich and Velvet Sky came out. Love was holding her own but eventually Von Erich hit her with the ugly stick. Bubba was interviewing Hall& Waltman. I thought Waltman did a great job of playing someone so loaded he shouldn’t be on TV. Then I was told he wasn’t playing. To Hall’s credit, he was able to speak coherently, and called Waltman “Cheech.” Hogan and Bischoff came out. Hogan said he was tired of people screwing around, and kicked Hall & Waltman out of the building. Foley came out and wanted to meet with Hogan and Bischoff. Nash promised to straighten things out for Hall & Waltman. Nasty Boys beat Nash & Young. Sags has lost a lot of weight. Unfortunately, Knobs found it all and then some. Young did all he could here, but Nash vs. Nasty Boys was pretty bad. Luckily it was short and the Nasty Boys are at least new enough they didn’t wear out their welcome. Sags pinned Young clean with a pump handle slam. 3-D then backstage hit the Nasty Boys with chair shots to the head. To their credit, they held back greatly on the chair shots and those shots weren’t hurting anyone for real. Mr. Anderson got in the ring. They did the deal where the 1970s ring mic came down from the ceiling and he cut a promo. Abyss came out from behind him and told the crowd to be quiet. Anderson started making fun of Abyss, not knowing he was there. This was silly, but Abyss and Anderson both played it perfectly. Abyss is the one guy who seems to have benefitted from the new regime from a personality standpoint. Abyss attacked Anderson, who quickly bailed. Styles beat Angle to keep the title. They worked well together, but this was rushed so it was nowhere near the level of their previous matches. Styles got the ankle lock on and immediately Earl Hebner called for the bell. It was so lame. The crowd started with the “You screwed Bret” chants, which is just great, since that’s the main Mania angle for the opposition. Angle was going crazy. Hogan came out and Angle spit in his face, like Hart did to Vince. The crowd started chanting “Thank you Kurt” over that one, which clearly wasn’t the desired reaction. Angle didn’t break TV monitors, but did say that if he’s going to be treated like this, he’s going to WWE and Vince. I am so sick of people writing TNA television having this penis envy of Vince. When I watch a wrestling show that isn’t WWE, I don’t want to be reminded or told that everything in this promotion I’m watching doesn’t count, that it’s stars aren’t really stars, and that all the guys on the other station in the other promotion are the real deals. Angle grabbed Mike Tenay’s chair and started smashing things with it when Bischoff came from the back and acted like he was half out of it, with his forehead bleeding, a and fired Foley to end the show.

UFC/WEC


The 4/10 show is now a virtual lock to be in Abu Dhabi, since a press conference in Abu Dhabi was scheduled for 1/27 with Lorenzo Fertitta, Marshall Zelaznik and the fighters. Dana White isn’t scheduled to go because he was having nasal surgery done and wouldn’t be able to fly by that date. The top three matches are Anderson Silva vs. Vitor Belfort, B.J. Penn vs. Frankie Edgar and Renzo Gracie vs. Matt Hughes. It will be the first outdoor show in UFC history because they don’t have an indoor facility that could properly house a show of that magnitude. I think the indoor arena they have holds 6,000 and they are going to set up an outdoor arena similar to how Caesar’s Palace did in the 90s for boxing (think 1992 Mania) for the show. There was talk of building an indoor arena in the city that would host UFC events, but no way it could be done in time for this date. The show will be a real test when it comes to PPV, because this is by far the strongest marquee lineup for a PPV that starts at Noon on the West Coast, which is where the highest percentage of U.S. buys come from. One would think this show held in the U.S. would do a minimum 800,000 buys and that’s a conservative estimate. Most of the European shows in that time slot do 250,000 or less with the record believed to be around 360,000 for UFC 99, but they’ve also never had a show comparable.

Updates on the attendance for the past two shows. The Jan. 2 show drew 13,529 fans in total according to the Nevada State Athletic Commission. Those are different numbers than announced that night or numbers from the building. The live attendance and gate were the same as we reported, with 8,004 paying $1,969,670, so there were 5,314 comp tickets, and of those paid tickets, a couple of thousand were casino buys, so there were actually more fans who didn’t pay for tickets in the arena than paid. For 1/11 in Fairfax, VA, the sellout crowd was 8,078, which was 7,400 paid and $753,962, the all-time record gate for the Fight Night show.

Georges St. Pierre did an interview on “Inside MMA” this week where he downplayed the idea of vacating the title and going for the Olympics. He did say it was a goal of his, and time would be running out in the sense 2016 would probably be less viable for him to be competitive than 2012. He also said that right now if he competed at that level in wrestling he would lose, and he’d have to devote himself completely and make significant improvements to be competitive at that level.

The new season of Ultimate Fighter started filming on 1/21 with Tito Ortiz and Chuck Liddell as coaches. An interesting note is that Liddell has brought in Jake Shields, the Strikeforce middleweight champion, as one of his team’s assistant coaches, which tells you the kind of pull Liddell has. The filming takes place from now until the end of February. They brought in 28 middleweight fighters. Not sure how it will work because they’ve promised a new format for this season, which debuts on 3/31, airing right after the completion of the Fight Night from Charlotte. One would think with that number they are fighting there way onto the show, but not sure why 28 and not 32, unless maybe they had 32 and four of them didn’t make weight or pulled out at the last minute. I did hear that the promos on the first day were very good.

For Australia on 2/21, they are both opening up closed-circuit at a 900-seat theater adjacent to the Acer Arena in Sydney for $50, and if that sells out quickly, there is talk of opening up a second theater. They will be sending a fighter or two to watch that show with the fans. There will also be a three-and-half hour Sunday afternoon live national broadcast of the show on Ch. One in Australia, so they are giving up what would be likely their best PPV numbers in Australia in exchange for trying to get the masses to see the show. Because tickets sold out so quickly, there is a push to return to Sydney before the end of the year. The argument is that because running Sunday morning/afternoon in Sydney is 10 p.m. Eastern time, they don’t have the usual issue when it comes to overseas events in limiting PPV buys in North America so it’s more profitable potentially than running Europe or the Middle East. MMA is not regulated in Melbourne so they can’t run, so at this point if they run Australia, it’s Sydney.

As far as advances, we don’t have anything on the 2/6 show in Las Vegas, but Sydney on 2/21 is sold out with 15,800 paid and $2.15 million U.S. 3/21 Spike show in Broomfield, CO had 4,000 paid and $400,000. They are set up for a little under 6,000 so with two months to go, it should sell out. 3/27 in Newark, NJ, has a few scattered seats but is essentially sold out at about 12,000 paid and at $3 million.

From a press standpoint, Australia has been very favorable. The Sydney Morning Herald is running a series of articles by Cain Velasquez leading up to the fight. The Daily Telegraph is having articles by Michael Bisping leading to the fight while the Brisbane Times has stuff with Chris Haseman. While the fight won’t be airing live on the North American PPV, in Australia, they are heavily pushing Chris Haseman vs. Elvis Sinosic in a grudge match battle of Australians as one of the big matches. Apparently the two of them take it very seriously as when doing press, Haseman in particular has problems being anywhere near Sinosic.

Randy Couture is in the unique position of being the guy that every top heavier weight fighter has been asking for a match with. Because the top guys are paid on a PPV percentage, all three champions, Brock Lesnar, Anderson Silva and Lyoto Machida have asked for matches with Couture, figuring he’d be their biggest drawing opponent. I don’t see Couture vs. Silva happening. It’s not a fight people are clamoring to see and the end result won’t make anyone happy. Lesnar’s biggest drawing opponent would be Frank Mir, but of all the other heavyweights, because of the story involved, and Lesnar is a businessman who understands a good story draws (plus he’s still very tight with Paul Heyman), Couture would draw more than any other. But I don’t see that as happening because Couture’s loss to Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and his move to light heavyweight, plus the depth of the heavyweight division, to me makes that impossible to make right now. If Couture beats Mark Coleman impressively on 2/6, I could easily see Machida vs. Couture, although the Machida-Rua winner more logically would face the Jackson-Evans winner.

There has been a lot of talk in the Toronto media over the past week regarding UFC coming. There’s still no timetable, as Ken Hayashi, the head of the athletic commission in Ontario believes MMA is against how he interprets federal law, even though MMA is run in several other provinces. UFC figures show that 40% of the tickets sold for the event this past April in Montreal were sold to people within the province of Ontario, and those in UFC have long talked about the idea of running Rogers Centre, which could hold 65,000, for a first event in Toronto. Marc Ratner talked of drawing 35,000 to 40,000, and many think he’s underestimating what can be drawn since Toronto is one of the best PPV markets in the world and sports bars are slammed on nights of major UFC events. Giogrio Mammoliti, who is running for mayor, said he wants to see it in the city because it would bring tourism revenue. Mammoliti called upon opponents of UFC to try and justify why UFC is still not allowed. “If they can show that it’s any more dangerous than hockey or football or karate or any of the other contact sports that we have accepted in society, then I would say no to it. But I don’t think anybody has done that yet.” Councilor Doug Holyday told the Toronto Star that he was opposed to it, but said that since Vancouver is running a show, he’s open to the idea that if it goes well in Vancouver, he could change his opinion. Councilor Rob Ford said he doesn’t understand why it’s popular, but said the city and province should be open to shows, but wants them restricted with nobody under 18 allowed to attend.

Tito Ortiz told MMAjunkie.com that he was completely healthy (don’t laugh) and that if he isn’t healthy for his fight with Chuck Liddell, that he will withdraw ahead of time rather than make an excuse after the fact.

The UFC Undisputed video game is among five nominees in the category “Fighting Game of the Year” at the 13th annual Interactive Achievement Awards ceremony that will take place on 2/18 in Las Vegas, hosted by Jay Mohr. Other nominees are Punch Out, Fight Night Round four, Street Fight IV and Tekken 6.

Jay Silva was cut after his 1/11 loss to Chris Leben . . Very tentative plans right now would be for Chuck Liddell vs. Tito Ortiz to headline the July show in Las Vegas (probable date 7/3). The 6/12 show in Vancouver seems to be the odd show out. If everything goes right, they want to headline with a welterweight title match, with the GSP vs. Dan Hardy winner against the Jon Fitch vs. Thiago Alves winner, although that requires both winners on 3/27 coming out healthy.

Corey Hill, who suffered at least the most physically graphic injury in the history of UFC, as his shin literally snapped in two throwing a kick 13 months ago in a UFC match against Dale Hartt, returned to fight on a show in Niagara Falls, NY. Hill won a unanimous decision over Jason Trzewiecynski on the 1/23 show. After seeing that injury, it’s amazing he was able to return so quickly.

Chael Sonnen, should he beat Nate Marquardt on 2/6, is getting his mouth ready for a potential fight with Anderson Silva for the title in an MMAmania interview . “If he wants to leave the division, leave the sport, who cares. Beat it. Nobody tunes in to watch him anyway, and his little fake `I don’t speak English.’ You want me to let you in on a secret. Anderson Silva speaks perfect English. He just has such a low amount of respect for you and the rest of the media that he pretends he doesn’t. I’ve had conversations with Anderson Silva in perfect English, and on top of that, he’s so boring to listen to that he and his rocket scientist manager, Ed Soares, who is also about as exciting as watching grass grow, have decided that Ed is better on the mic than Anderson, so just let Ed do the talking.

That guy is no more the top fighter out there than Bigfoot is roaming the woods. That is an absolute myth, and all these guys can buy into it.” Some background on Sonnen is that besides being an All-American college wrestler, he also tried out for WCW (didn’t make it but did train in the 90s at the Power Plant) and also has run for public office, so you can see where he’s practiced promos.

The much talked about Forrest Griffin vs. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira match looks to be second from the top on the 5/8 Montreal show with the Shogun Rua vs. Lyoto Machida bout.

The main event of the 3/31 Charlotte show on Spike looks to be Kenny Florian vs. Takanori Gomi. I guess they figure the 3/27 show is now loaded enough as the original idea was for that fight to be on the PPV.

Terry Etim of England, who may be the best British fighter in the UFC but doesn’t have the charisma of Michael Bisping or Dan Hardy, faces Rafael Dos Anjos on the 4/10 show in Abu Dhabi.

Caol Uno vs. Gleison Tibau and Jason Brilz vs. Eric Schafer have been added as prelim matches on 3/21 in Broomfield, CO, a show billed as “UFC on Versus 1.” Clay Guida, who is the most popular fighter appearing on the show and probably has the best history of having great matches of anyone in the company, is scheduled for a prelim match with Shannon Gugerty as opposed to a main show match. I guess the choice came down to Anthony Johnson (in theory more potential as a contender) vs. John Howard (basic unknown) and Paul Buentello vs. Cheick Kongo (heavyweights who will slug it out and on paper should have a good fight) for two of the three slots. Still, with the theory of wanting to open up strong, Guida in the first match because it’s almost a lock the crowd will be into him, to me should be the way to go.

New matches added to the WEC show on 3/6 in Columbus, OH, are Ricardo Lamas against the debuting Bendy Casimir (19-5-2), Chad George vs. Scott Jorgenson (another person in line for a possible bantamweight title match after beating Takeya Mizugaki on 12/19), Danny Castillo vs. Anthony Pettis and Deividas Taurosevicius vs. L.C. Davis. The company was really high on Pettis as a potential lightweight title contender, but he dropped a split decision to Bart Palaszewski on 12/19.

STRIKEFORCE


There will be a Challengers Series show on 2/26 live from the San Jose Civic Auditorium. Trevor Prangley vs. Karl Amoussou of France will headline along with unbeaten Sarah Kaufman (10-0) facing Takayo Hashi (12- 1) in a match to create the women’s 135 pound championship which will be called the World’s Women’s welterweight title. Hashi was the champion of Japan’s Smackgirls all-women’s promotion, and has won her last eight fights. The other top match has Luke Rockhold vs. Paul Bradley. Rockhold is a local fighter that everyone raves about. Other matches announced involve local fighters against guys from outside with James Terry of San Jose against Tare Saffiedine of Temecula; and Raul Castillo of Half Moon Bay against Yancy Medeiros of Hawaii.

There is also a Showtime date on 3/26 in Fresno for a Challengers show.

Talk of a big show in March on Showtime is no longer on the books. After the 1/30 show in Sunrise, FL, the plan is for the next big show to be the CBS show in April. The date mentioned is 4/17 but no date or location is official right now.

Scott Coker talked about doing an eight-women’s tournament, either at 135 or 145, to determine a title contender. The working idea would be on a May Challengers Series show, do four first round matches, and then in late June or July, do the final four in one night like they do in Japan, with the semifinals and finals being two round fights.

On the women’s side, the working idea is if Cris Cyborg beats Marloes Coenen, she would probably face Erin Toughill for the title next. If Coenen wins, they’ll probably put Coenen vs. Gina Carano over the summer. If Cyborg retains, Carano’s first opponent could be one of a few different fighters, with Coenen and Kerry Vera under consideration.

A lot of the players who are playing in the Pro Bowl on 1/31 have requested tickets to the show. This show is unique in how it’s laid out. To the public, the main event is Herschel Walker, but from a standpoint of who should in what spot based on tenure, he should be in the opener. The second biggest star is Bobby Lashley, who at this point is scheduled to be in the opener with Walker either second or third, probably with Melvin Manhoef vs. Robbie Lawler in the middle, and Cyborg in the semi and Nick Diaz vs. Marius Zaromskis as the main event. As far as public interest as judged by Internet trends, if Walker is 100, Lashley is 44, Diaz is 19, Cyborg, Zaromskis and Manhoef are all a 2, which is the best indicator of who would draw the ratings and theory, who you’d want on last to not lose audience. Obviously there are reasons it won’t be that way, but I can’t think of any show where it is the prelims that are going to determine what level of success the show has. The goal at this point is to get 9,000 to 10,000, which would be more than Kimbo drew in the same arena in essentially his home town 14 months ago.

In an interview with Loretta Hunt, Cris Cyborg noted that she only trains with men: “No, just with men. I prefer to train with men. I feel more comfortable. I’m afraid of hurting the women.” Regarding her offer from Playboy, she said she was embarrassed the news of the offer got out. “I probably commented to only two or three people that knew about it. Less than 24 hours later, I went online and saw my picture with everyone talking about Playboy. I just wanted to die. I went into desperation made; how did everybody know about it? It was very, very uncomfortable because it wasn’t something I’d said yes to. It was just a possibility. I hadn’t even had a chance to talk to my husband about it, but once I did, he wasn’t very happy about it at all. It wasn’t supposed to come out.

Joe Villasenor, who beat Evangelista “Cyborg” Santos in a Challengers main event in June, is back with the organization having signed a four-fight contract.

K-1/DREAM


Sadaharu Tanigawa said that in early February he would be talking with Masato about taking a role as General Manager, to help give the rub to younger stars and work in matchmaking.

There has been little talk regarding Dream since the New Year’s Eve event, but they are apparently starting to prepare for a next show, which has not been announced, but will be in March. Fiveouncesofpain.com reported they are looking at having featherweight champion Bibiano Fernandes defend against Joachim Hansen, who is dropping from 155 to 145. Hansen was very small at 155, frequently coming in several pounds under the limit so in today’s state of the art he should cut down.

At a press conference this past week, Tanigawa announced they would be adding a 132 pound weight division on the K-1 Max shows. This will be built around Hiroya, who will no longer be able to fight in the high school age division having turned 18. He also said Dream would be running shows outside of Japan this year, talking about South Korea and Macau, and a long-term goal of running in the U.S.

OTHER MMA


Travis Tygart of the U.S. Anti-Doping Association did an interview with the Grand Rapids Press regarding the falling apart of the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight. He noted that he talked with both camps before the fight fell apart. “Out of respect for that process, I don’t want to go into a ton of detail, but it’s safe to say that the Mayweather camp wanted the carte blanche gold- standard program that we run, and the other side didn’t want to do that.” He also said, “The current state of drug testing done by these state commissions is a joke. They don’t test for EPO. They don’t test for designer steroids. They test for basic, simple menu that anybody with a heartbeat will escape.” I’m glad he didn’t say anyone with a brain because then I’d have to investigate whether Josh Barnett had a lobotomy. He said “Just a couple tests here and there that everyone knows about, or 72-hour notice that you’re going to be tested, or 48-hour notice, it has to be true no-notice testing. And it has to be a broad menu of tests.” He said you have to do both urine and blood testing, noting some forms of EPO (Micera for example) and HGH can only be tested by blood. Actually, I’m still very skeptical if HGH can be tested effectively for, given that in the last Olympics, when the new test rolled out, they didn’t catch anyone. He also said that the way commissions are doing the out of competition random testing, where they call a guy up and give him 48-hours to give a urine sample at a local clinic, is time for him to mask steroids or EPO, as the Olympic style testing means you’ve got to provide a sample whenever the tester shows up. With WWE, they also do that, but people know generally they are going to be tested on TV day, so knowing how long it takes to get stuff out of your system (in the case of cocaine, for example, only a few days), a lot of guys time it and nobody has gotten busted for cocaine usage in a long-time, even though it is said to still exists to at least a small degree. As far as the 14-day limit that Mayweather agreed to, he said for blood doping it would stay in your system longer than 14 days but for HGH, you could use that drug at the end even under the system Mayweather agreed to. What is interesting to me is that the media has largely put the heat on Mayweather for the fight falling apart, and to me, given the nature of how it did, the heat should be strong on both sides. Mayweather had already given up full comprehensive testing, so at that point, 14 days or 24 days, it’s not worth losing the fight over. Pacquiao was so clearly throughout the negotiations acting like someone hiding something, but since he had never failed a test and he’s the babyface, he was getting a pass because his stance was completely ridiculous except in the kayfabed version of drug testing that exists. But he even got his way to a degree, and still allowed the difference between 14 and 24 days to kill the fight, so he’s at best equal to blame, and really more to blame, for the fight not happening.

Two-time NCAA heavyweight champion Cole Konrad, a regular training partner of Brock Lesnar, made his MMA debut on 1/23 in Fargo, destroying Gary Hamen with a neck crank in 1:13. Lesnar was at the show. Konrad, who would cut to make 285 as a heavyweight at the University of Minnesota, made 265 and estimated he was 285- 290 at match time. Konrad, 25, was an undefeated NCAA champion in 2006 (he beat Cain Velasquez via criteria decision in the semifinals and beat Steve Mocco 5-2 in the finals that year) and 2007 after being high school national champion in 2002. He won his last 76 matches in college and only lost three times as a sophomore in 2005.

There has been a lot of talk regarding the local Edmonton Combative Sports Commission approving the use of Dream rules for an upcoming show. This would be the first North American commission to go against the unified rules. The Association of Boxing Commissions has publicly come out against allowing MMA under different rules, mainly the allowance of knees to a grounded opponent, judging based on simply the judge deciding a winner based on the fight as a whole as opposed to the ten point must system, and ten minute first rounds and five minute second rounds as opposed to three five minute rounds. ABC president Tim Luecknhoff sent Edmonton commission executive director Pat Reid a letter saying the ABC is against MMA events happening under those rules. If they allow it, there would be talk of removing the Edmonton commission from its associate member status in the ABC.

Charles “Krazy Horse” Bennett, a star fighter with Elite XC who was in one of the most watched MMA matches in history, was arrested again on 1/18 on suspicion of felony aggravated battery. He apparently got into a fight with a teammate. Sherdog.com quoted Tom Vaughn of FIT NHB in Albuquerque, saying, “During routine sparring, tempers flared between Charles and the other fighter, and Charles ended up getting dropped by the larger training partner. They were quickly broken up and Charles left the mat, got dressed and left the building. He returned about 15 minutes later, walked down to the training area and pulled out a heavy piece of steel he must have found in the parking lot and began attacking the other fighter with intent to do serious damage. He was tackled by two other fighters and disarmed.” Vaughn said the fighter assaulted was okay and that Bennett, who had been training at the gym on-and-off for six months, was kicked out of the gym. Bennett beat K.J. Noons on the first MMA show on Showtime, and on December 31, 2005, Bennett’s win over Japanese actor Ken Kaneko drew a 27.7 rating, one of the largest ratings in history for an MMA match.

WWE


WWE officials are trying to get Conan O’Brien as a guest host. Apparently the situation is that he has a clause in his contract that he can’t guest host another show until September. So WWE is trying to make it that he would not be hosting a variety show, but that he would be General Manager and perhaps frame the show as a quasi-sports event and not a talk show. The feeling is it would be cool if it happens but it’s not something they are discussing seriously right now.

In a weird coincidence, the first Smackdown show after the Super Bowl is 2/9 at the New Orleans Arena. They are already working on a major Punk promo regarding the game, particularly if the Saints lose.

As figured a long time ago, since I never took this one seriously, WWE creative has been told there is no chance of Rock vs. Cena at Mania and right now are back to Cena vs. Batista. In recent interviews, Rock has seemed pretty clear he wasn’t looking to wrestle when he does an appearance later this year. In talking with Live Audio Wrestling, Johnson said that he had no interest in doing a match with Cena even if he was to wrestle. He also said he’s been very intrigued with the Bret Hart/Vince McMahon storyline. He talked about guest hosting Raw over the summer. Even though there was talk of dropping the guest hosting thing after Mania, there is talk of continuing it indefinitely, particularly if TNA goes to Mondays. . . There was a mini unplanned back-and-forth over Jeff Hardy appearing on Impact, starting when DiBiase was on Live Audio Wrestling and was asked about Hardy on Impact, said, “Jeff has his own demons he’s battling right now, I guess, but what can you do? Maybe it’s something he had to do. I wish him the best because he was a great performer, but it was a little disappointing, I guess.” In response, Beth, Hardy’s fiancé, wrote, “I think it’s silly that people use the generalized term `demons’ when talking about Jeff, especially when they have had their own share. Just sayin’, Oh and BTW, Jeff appearing on TNA was anything but a disappointment.” . . WWE is scheduled to make a decision on WrestleMania 27 (for the 2011 show) and make it official on 2/1. The Georgia Dome in Atlanta seems to be the frontrunner, and the timing of the decision would also indicate it, being the day after the Royal Rumble, which takes place at the Phillips Arena in Atlanta. There are still other sites in the running but it’s the favorite. Gary Stokan , the President of the Atlanta Sports Council, was on Rich Tate’ radio show and they were under the impression the decision had come down to the Georgia Dome and Sun Life Stadium in Miami, which is an outdoor stadium. Atlanta would have the advantage because it is indoors, and running outdoors in Orlando was far more costly. Even though the Orlando WrestleMania 24 did bigger numbers than Houston this past year on PPV and an even bigger disparity on DVD, the Houston show was tons more profitable (the two key differences were being indoors and also the Orlando show had the cost of Floyd Mayweather involved). The Georgia Dome holds 71,228 seats for football, and you can get probably 6,000 or more seats on the floor, but the WWE set up with the big Mania stage cuts out a lot of seats as well. The listed capacity at Reliant Stadium in Houston for football is 71,500 (69,500 actual seats plus 2,000 luxury box seats), but the shoot number of tickets available for the show was 66,953 (actual attendance was 61,661 even though they announced 72,744). Given the two buildings are almost identical in size, one would expect a shoot capacity for Mania, depending upon the stage, to be in the same 66,000 or 67,000 range, and for them to announce a number slightly higher than whatever the building record for any event is. Sun Life Stadium, which hosts the Pro Bowl this week and the Super Bowl next week, holds 75,540. The advantage of running there is they can announce 80,000, whether real or not, claim the second biggest number of all-time and also claim that WrestleMania outdrew the Super Bowl. Miami also has the edge over Atlanta for being a stronger tourist destination. Indianapolis had been the front runner. An advantage for Atlanta is that the city has drawn well at the Dome in the past for wrestling, with a few shows more than 30,000, while Miami has no such history and the few big events at the Orange Bowl in the old days didn’t draw nearly as well as hoped. Toronto’s Rogers Centre is the front-runner for 2012. Stokan said the Atlanta Sports Council had lobbied hard for the event. He said he was the one who proposed going after Mania, and at first, some of the board laughed at the idea. He then showed the economic impact studies from the past few years and at that point the board was all for getting.

The Royal Rumble final lineup is the Rumble, Sheamus vs. Orton for the WWE title, Undertaker vs. Mysterio for the World title, Christian vs. Jackson for the ECW title and McCool vs. James for the women’s title. In the promotion this year, there is a marked difference. Last year it was almost stunning how little they built up the Rumble itself, almost seeming that they figured the Rumble was going to draw based on the name and without hype. Last year’s numbers were 465,000 worldwide and 288,000 in North America. Sheamus vs. Orton is different, but I don’t feel it’s a ticket seller. Undertaker vs. Mysterio should be, even with the face vs. face dynamic, because of Mysterio’s tremendous worldwide popularity. The negative is I don’t think anyone thinks Mysterio has a chance of winning. McCool vs. James actually has the strongest storyline build for a women’s title match in a long time, although this show is drawing based on the Rumble and with Undertaker-Mysterio as perhaps something that will add Hispanic buys in the U.S. and strengthen the numbers in Mexico. Of course as a general rule, WWE PPV business is down pretty significantly in the U.S., so even with better promotion, being even with last year’s numbers should be considered a success.

Regarding Mania, apparently there was talk that Michaels winning the Rumble would be too predictable and they may do something where a Raw guy (HHH) will win, and challenge Sheamus, forcing Michaels to go into the Smackdown chamber, which he would then win, to get the shot at Undertaker. There was also talk of doing Batista vs. Michaels in a singles match at No Way Out for the shot at Undertaker, but making it a singles match doesn’t make sense, plus the Elimination Chamber aspect of the show is why the buys for the February show have increased so greatly, so it makes no sense to have a title qualifier in February and not put it in the Chamber. You’re only sacrificing money because either way, the same guy would win. It’ll change five times between now and the weekend anyway.

Bret Hart returns on the 2/1 Raw in Nashville. Originally Hart was to be on just about every Raw from 1/18 through 2/22. I think, wisely, they realized in the case of this angle, less is more. I’d have actually built the confrontation for the Rumble because even though less people would see it, it means so much more when it’s at the Rumble than on Raw. Plus, in theory, this is one of the rare things they have that people who don’t follow the modern product are intrigued by. With the exception of perhaps one well built up blow that Vince sells big for, any physicality between the two should be more in the guise of teases and pull-aparts with as little touching as possible, with the exception of one last heat angle, which shouldn’t take place until after the Elimination Chamber PPV show.

The lawsuit filed by Jody Hamilton against WWE was settled out of court this past week with terms sealed. Hamilton ran the WWE developmental program, Deep South Wrestling, out of suburban Atlanta from 2005- 2007. There had been a lot of complaints from talent about how bad things were there, and thing appeared to get mad when WWE fired Bill DeMott as the head coach for allegedly being too rough and making it to much like a brutal boot camp, and Hamilton, with his own mentality coming from an era when it was extremely tough to get into the business, was heavily supportive of DeMott. The program was probably dropped more because John Laurinaitis wanted everyone in Florida under one roof. WWE came in one day and with no warning, pulled everything and told the wrestlers to leave and not to have anything to do with Hamilton. Hamilton sued last year for breach of contract and intentional interference with contractual and business relationships. Hamilton had contracts for house shows and couldn’t produce the shows with no talent. Hamilton sued based on the contract which stated both sides needed 90 days notice to pull out of the agreement. WWE had argued there were reasons they had to pull out. Hamilton in the lawsuit said that John Laurinaitis had a meeting with the wrestlers and told them that anyone that set foot in the building again or had anything to do with Hamilton would never work for WWE. What led to the settlement is that two wrestlers, both no longer with WWE, were willing to testify against WWE in the suit, so it was settled before going to trial.

NASCAR driver Carl Edwards will guest host the 2/8 show from Lafayette. Cheech & Chong will guest host the 3/1 show in Oklahoma City. From a timing and location standpoint, I wouldn’t be shocked if Jim Ross appeared on the show. If nothing else, he’d almost surely appear before the live crowd before the live show starts. Ross’ short-term contract would expire in March, so it also makes sense for that to be when he and Vince McMahon sit down and figure out if there will be a new deal, and if so, what his role would be going forward.

In an interview with Esto in Mexico, Mysterio said that he was two to three years away from retirement, and it depends on how his reconstructive knee surgery, which he’ll be getting in April (provided he can go that long) goes. I would be shocked if he actually is retired within ten years because nobody retires in wrestling. He probably will slow down his schedule. I wouldn’t even be shocked if in three years he leaves WWE and goes to Mexico, if a Mexican promotions can at least hang in at a level where he could make top money with a lesser schedule. When asked who will be the replacement as the top Mexican star when he leaves, noting Dos Caras Jr. (Alberto Banderas ring name), Super Nova (the son of El Texano) and Incognito all in the developmental system, he said he doesn’t see any of them as replacements because WWE doesn’t work that way. When doing the interview, he said the Rumble match would be a three-way with Undertaker and Batista. That was probably the plan when he did the interview but changed.

Barrons upgraded WWE stock to a buy, believing it will grow profits 15-20% per year through 2012, in particular citing the new Mattell toy licensing deal as a “game changer.” . . Undertaker had his knee scoped after the 1/19 Smackdown show in Greenville, which is why he wasn’t working the house show on 1/24 in Cleveland. He was booked because it was a major arena and they felt his name would help draw. When he couldn’t work, they pulled HHH from the Raw show in Champaign, IL, since with Cena working the Raw weekend shots, the feeling was it had more star power and Cleveland was the bigger market. So HHH pinned Jericho on the Smackdown house show main event. Undertaker will probably be less than 100% for the Rumble, but he was moving very slowly and said to be in excruciating pain at the shows the week before. At first, he was supposed to do more on the Knoxville Raw, but was in so much pain when he got there that all he could do was walk to the ring, do his opening promo, and walk back. He did work the 1/26 tapings in Cincinnati, but all he did was a run-in where he choke slammed Mysterio and Michaels at the same time.

Mysterio nearly suffered a major injury on the Cleveland show. Mysterio & Kane vs. Punk & Gallows was the semifinal. At the 2:00 mark of the match, with Punk down, Mysterio got on Kane’s shoulders, they clasped hands but Kane started moving before Mysterio was balanced and he bell backwards toward the turnbuckle and ended up with all of his weight landing on the left leg. He crumpled in the corner. They immediately stopped the match. Jack Doan was referee and he talked with Mysterio, who confirmed he was hurt and rolled out of the ring. He stayed on the floor for a while. They restarted the match with Kane working alone for about 2:00. Mysterio did come back, but only did two quick spots while limping, and he limped to the back. He did work two nights later at TV. I remember in the early 90s seeing him in a match in Tijuana where he landed badly, I think from a dive, and was in incredible pain, saying it was (up to that point in time obviously) the worst injury he ever had in his career. Two nights later in Los Angeles he did a ****3/4 match.

Maria will be taken off Smackdown for a while. I guess in the contact where she did “Celebrity Apprentice,” she couldn’t appear on any TV during the period the show is on the air.

Notes on the 1/25 Raw from Columbus, OH. Good show, not so much the matches but that they gave the feel that things are serious from the start of the show. For Superstars, they taped two matches. Bella Twins beat Katie Burchill & Hall, and then Masters won a three-way over Guerrero and Primo in a match where the winner got in the Rumble. They also did an angle where Jericho did a promo talking about winning the Rumble, and R-Truth came out and they brawled, so it looks like they may be doing something with Killings post-Rumble. They opened with DX comedy, and Michaels announced that he had sent Hornswoggle home because it’s time to get serious with the Rumble coming. Michaels asked HHH just this one time not to be selfish because his dream is to beat Undertaker and to get that match he has to win the Rumble. HHH said that his dream is to win the title again, so he has to win the Rumble. He said that if he has to step over Shawn’s dreams to reach his own dreams, then that’s what he’s going to do. DX then beat DiBiase & Rhodes once again in 10:00. They did a few teases of dissension between HHH and Michaels. Whatever they did last week with DiBiase & Rhodes teasing never played a part in the match, although was sort of acknowledged in a promo later in the show. HHH had Rhodes set up for the pedigree when Michaels tagged himself in, which HHH didn’t seem happy about. Michaels superkicked DiBiase for the pin. James Roday of “Psych” had an emergency appendectomy over the weekend (it was announced, and the story was legit), so he wasn’t there, and Dule Hill was guest host on his own. It was funny, because “Psych” is one of the highest rated shows on cable and a major player on USA, but they had the wrestlers bury the show several times. Miz came out for a promo. He was really tremendous. It’s really something because, nothing against Sheamus, but if I was to judge Miz, Sheamus and Swagger on who is the most over and who is the most ready for main events, it would be Miz easily at the top, followed by Swagger and then Sheamus. But Miz should be a main event singles heel. MVP came out and he and Miz again went back-and-forth on the mic, with MVP mainly saying how Miz would be very popular in the prison he spent nine years in. Miz and Show are now friends in storyline. Show then pinned MVP with a choke slam in 1:01. What the hell was that? Show made him look like a jibroni last week, and then again. Whatever excitement Miz and MVP built up in that promo was taken away with the idea that MVP was such a nothing. It’s not even the right time for Show to beat him, but if he does, at least make it like it’s a contest and there’s a fight as opposed to a squash. DiBiase and Rhodes were backstage and kind of teased some problems but Orton came out and said how they’ve all been at each others’ throats. He said while they were arguing backstage, they didn’t have his back last week against Sheamus and wanted to make sure they were with him at the rumble. Cena and Dule Hill were backstage. Cena cut a funny promo to watch the episode of “Psych” this week that he’s on. Miz came out and said he had no idea who Hill was. Maryse pinned Torres in 2:04 with the DDT, called the French kiss, in a Divas title tournament semifinal. Torres’ selling was bad and fans didn’t care once the bell rang. During the match there was an explosion as Dule Hill was fooling around and pushed one of the buttons. Vince came out to build the Bret Hart return next week. Vince was very good here. He said that there wasn’t one good reason to bring Hart back. He then went into the stands and asked a bunch of fans if they could give him one good business reason to bring Hart back. Suffice to say, nobody could. The bad part of this is the WWE audience came off every bit as bad as the TNA audience when they interviewed people on Hogan coming back. Vince said both Undertaker and his own son-in- law, HHH, said that people would think he’s a coward for not bringing Hart back but that he’s not a coward. There was some good heat and “We Want Bret” chants. It wasn’t deafening, but it was louder than any reaction for anything else on the show. Vince finally announced that Hart would never be allowed back because it made no business sense. Cena came out and said that he’d never had a problem with Vince (well, except for the last 100 times that he did), but when Vince said that wrestlers were like gum and that you chew them up until they no longer have any flavor, and then you discard them, he had a problem. He talked about how unhappy he was when Roddy Piper came to Madison Square Garden with the way Vince treated him. He said what happens in the future with Michaels, Undertaker and even himself. If Cena had done promos like this all year, the PPV numbers would have been significantly higher. He said Vince was pathetic and that the wrestlers and the fans are just commodities for him to feed his ego and his pockets. He said if Vince didn’t bring Hart back next week he would show every wrestler and every fan that was the case. He also said that on August 24, 2035, which would be Vince’s 90th birthday, that he would hunt Vince down, throw him out of his wheelchair and knock his false teeth down his throat. Personally, I think the angle would have been far better served for McMahon to have banned him and have Hart show up ala Austin ten years ago and get in, with McMahon locking himself in the office so Hart couldn’t get to him and security hauling Hart out. This way it makes Hart too much of a pawn of Vince’s desires as opposed to a strong independent character. Although there is probably a reason that’s the case as well. It was the best thing on the show. Kingston pinned Miz in a non-title match. MVP’s music played and Miz was distracted, allowing Kingston to use the Trouble in Paradise kick in 3:38. They still haven’t announced when the Miz vs. MVP title match takes place. I don’t think this loss hurt the program because Miz is the heel so he can lose, and it at least had distraction and was competitive. But I do think the program is cooler after the last two weeks. Carlito and Hill were talking and Carlito showed Hill the production truck. The production guy showed him stuff, including cuing up a Carlito photo. Hill then said he was going to do a lottery for a match with Carlito after the break. Carlito was in clothes and was all negative saying he hadn’t warmed up and stretched and wasn’t dressed for a match. Then the name Kelly Kelly showed up, and Carlito was fine with it. There was no such match. Kelly came out all unhappy she was going to have to wrestle Carlito. Before it started, Marella came out and gave a plug for the Best of Raw 2009 DVD, that came out the next day. Marella noted that he was in the DVD a lot, usually looking stupid. He said this was a new year. He told Kelly that he would take her place against Carlito. But before anything happened, Swagger showed up and threw Marella over the top rope. Next was a great Rumble video package. It was similar to a package they did last year, talking about all the different Rumble records, such as the number of people who have been in the Rumble, noting how No. 1 is the worst number and No. 30 is the best, but the two people with each number have gone on to win, and how No. 27 as far as entering is the number with the most wins. They noted the records like Kane throwing out 11 guys one year, Austin throwing 36 for a career, Mysterio being in the longest the year he won and that 70% of the Rumble winners have ended up winning a title at Mania. Fox was backstage also making it clear she had no idea about the TV show “Psych.” She asked Hill if he was a Psychic (Roday plays the fake psychic on the show) and who would win the match between him and Kim. Hill said he would. She said he’d better be right or else. He had no idea what or else meant. Cena than cut a promo saying it could mean a lot of things, and mentioned a bunch of goofy things, ending with she could ask Mark Henry gave you a personal appendectomy. Kim pinned Fox in 1:54 when Kim dropped back but had her foot up and drove it into Fox. Sort of like a codebreaker. It’s the move she’s done in the past. Kim didn’t even get a ring entrance. Fox’s selling didn’t look good but this was world’s better than her performance last week. So Maryse vs. Kim in the finals, which Maryse should win. Fox was so mad at Hill because he told her he was the psychic and he told her she was going to win, only to be wrong. She confronted him and he explained that he wasn’t a real psychic, and that he was a television actor, and she slapped the hell out of him. Seriously. They didn’t announce when the tournament final would take place, but with James vs. McCool at the Rumble, it should be at Raw next week. I also want to note that in the first move of the match, Kim went to hit a reverse Frankensteiner on Fox. Keep in mind that the most acrobatic Luchadores will only try that spot with their favorite opponent, like maybe Mysterio would do it with 2-3 guys who he totally trusts but nobody else. And she’s doing it in the first move of the match against Alicia Fox. The spot was kind of botched but really, considering everything, it wasn’t botched too badly. They announced William Shatner as guest host next week. Sheamus beat Cena via DQ in a non-title match in 9:49. This was made earlier in the show by Vince, who was mad at Cena showing him up. Even though Cena was all buddy buddy with Hill, and also at one point in a backstage skit had Roday on the phone, neither made it a title match. Match was okay. Cena got the STF but Sheamus made the ropes. They were both outside the ring when Sheamus laid out Cena with a bicycle kick. With Cena laid out and they teased him getting counted out, Orton hit the ring and laid out Sheamus with an RKO. The crowd cheered, but again, didn’t get behind Orton as much as I’d imagined. After the match, Orton went to give Cena a draping DDT back into the ring, but Cena blocked it and instead gave Orton an Attitude Adjustment. So the show ended with Cena standing in the ring and Sheamus and Orton both laid out. Made perfect sense if they were building up a three-way on the PPV. Of course, that’s not the match.

Notes from the 1/26 tapings in Cincinnati. They opened with a dark match with JTG pinning Reks. Looked to be the beginning of looking at JTG as a singles wrestler. ECW opened with a Regal and Jackson promo. Christian came out and quoted from the book of Ezekiel about getting revenge. This led to a tag match where Regal & Jackson beat Christian & Kane in 18:15, which would be the longest WWE television match in recent months. Christian worked much of the way with Regal and they work well together. Jackson did power man spots with Kane and they kind of limited them in together early, but it went too long and the match started dragging as past the power spots with both men being strong, Jackson vs. Kane is very limited and Jackson doesn’t really have it to do long heat spots on Christian. Christian used the killswitch on Regal, but Regal tagged out to Jackson, who used a uranage on Christian and pinned him clean. Backstage, Benjamin did this unbelievably stiff and unconvincing promo. I mean, you couldn’t have said “I’m not into this material one bit” any better if you didn’t open the promo by saying it. His delivery was so awful that it was welcome when Archer jumped him from behind in mid-sentence. Main event saw Goldust & Tatsu & Hurricane over Ryder & Barretta & Croft in 14:52. They teased future issues with Mendes and Savannah as during the intros, both were giving the other the evil eye. Not a big deal, but Mendes was so much more attractive with brunette hair. Match was mostly working over Hurricane until he made the hot tag to Tatsu. Tatsu did a spin kick off the top rope on Barretta, but there was a save. After Goldust & Hurricane cleared the ring, Tatsu used a high kick on Barretta for the pin. After the match, Mendes started yelling at Croft & Barretta for costing them the match. Smith pinned Hardy in the Superstars match. This was a set up for Khali coming out and throwing everyone over the top rope, basically to push Khali being a monster for the Rumble. Smackdown opened with a DX promo. Mysterio came out in mid- promo mad at Michaels, saying that Michaels doesn’t believe he can beat Undertaker and win the title. Punk, Gallows & Serena came out and Punk started talking about being a member of the Straight Edge Society. HHH said that he was surprised Punk was straight. He did some more comedy on him until Long came out and said the tag title match is out, I guess because Long remembered what he was taught when he broke in, “Funny equals no money.” So instead, he announced Mysterio vs. Michaels and Punk vs. HHH, which is better anyway. HHH beat Punk via DQ. Gallows and Serena interfered. They were all beating HHH down and teased shaving his head. Please. Michaels then ran in and got rid of Gallows. Michaels and HHH went after Punk, but he put Serena in front of him and they stopped. He kissed Serena and left the ring, leaving her with them. Michaels teased doing a superkick, but no can do. R-Truth pinned Jericho clean for the second straight week, so I guess Truth is the latest in the list of guys they have plans to push. McIntyre pinned Morrison in a no DQ match to keep the IC title. Morrison set him up for Starship pain, but McIntyre got his knees up. McIntyre brought in the title belt and used his Kobashi DDT on Morrison on the belt for the pin. McCool did an interview pushing her match with James on the PPV. She said she’s sending Piggy James back to the barnyard for good, and she’ll go wee, wee, wee, wee, wee, wee, all the way home. McCool then issued an open challenge. Layla came out, wearing a fat suit with a pig news dressed up like James. She chased McCool around, got gassed, missed a splash and McCool pinned her. This segment did not get over at all. Backstage, Batista confronted Michaels and told him to stay out of his way in winning the Rumble. That seems to tease Michaels vs. Batista for the Smackdown title shot or the two of them as the two stars in the Smackdown chamber match. Michaels vs. Mysterio ended up as a no contest. Mysterio went for the springboard splash, but Michaels countered with a superkick. Batista then hit the ring and speared Michaels, and then gave Mysterio a spinebuster. HHH made the save and clotheslined Batista over the top rope. Undertaker then came out and choke slammed both Michaels and Mysterio at the same time.

Notes from the 1/22 Smackdown show by Bryan Alvarez. I didn't mind this show at all when I was watching it, though I later learned that it had approximately 20-21 minutes of wrestling in the entire two hours and approximately 18 of that was in one match, which should tell you something about the rest of the program. If you love angles, this was the show for you. It opened with Batista beating the piss out of Finlay in a match, flipping out and gouging his eyes for the DQ in about a minute. He gave him a violent beating and then did a promo saying that if you could imagine that same beating 29 times, that's what we were going to get in the Rumble. "This is Shawn Michaels!" he screamed as he booted Finlay. "This is HHH!" He then vowed to win the entire thing and get the title shot against Undertaker at Mania. So now there is a guy on each show that wants that badly. Good intrigue. Punk and Gallows came out and shaved Serena Deeb. This was pretty much the same thing he does every single week, except this time it was more compelling since a woman was involved and had a lot of hair to shave. It was actually used as a hook to keep people from tuning out during a commercial break. The shaving was also, how can I say this, almost overtly sexual, which was really weird to watch in 2010 on a PG show. She REALLY wanted to be saved by Punk, if you know what I mean, and he was more than happy to take advantage of her. For what it was, everyone played their roles very well. R-Truth & Morrison beat McIntyre & Jericho. So last week I was doing my damndest to figure out why Jericho pinned Morrison if the IC Title feud is Morrison vs. McIntyre. Well, this week I was equally baffled when Truth pinned Jericho. Unless they're leading to a four-way or something I have no earthly idea what any of this is doing for the McIntyre/Morrison feud. Clearly the same people who are booking Miz and MVP are booking this nonsense. The match itself was very good as they teased the hot tag forever and the place went batty when Truth got it. This was also the one that got about 18 minutes. Aside from the finish, can't complain at all. McCool and Layla were in the ring with party table set up with tons of food and such on it. They said James was on her way to leaving Smackdown forever, but on the way out they wanted to give her a little going away party. This was a party she'd love, they said, because everywhere you looked there was FOOD. So who should come out to defend Mickie but Maria, the Diva Maria, who actually cut a really great promo on the heels. There was a presumably intentionally hilarious line when McCool actually told Maria that she looked underfed. So James came out and did this promo about how she was representing the common girl, and "this is what a real woman looks like". A real woman with huge fake boobs, I guess. It says something for the heels in that James playing the role of your average woman in the crowd is taken as a babyface deal. I mean, seriously, how many women watching this show look anywhere near as good as James, who is portrayed on TV as the plain, average woman in this feud? So anyway, they got into a brawl and Phoenix hit the ring. She was torn about who to help, but ended up siding with the heels. They tossed Maria outside, then smashed a pig-shaped cake in James’ face and poured punch all over her. James was a complete mess, weeping with make-up streaking down her face. The crowd reacted to this like they were really appalled, and not in a bad way, but rather a heavy heat angle sort of way. Really, if ever there was a woman's angle in WWE that might sell a few PPV buys, this was it. Cryme Tyme NC Knox and Haas in 10 seconds when Kane came out and threw everyone over the top rope. Lame. Hart Dynasty lost to Khali and Hardy. This was mind-boggling. First, again on a PG show, Natalya tried to distract Khali with her breasts. Not joking about this, she grabbed her jacked and pulled it open and thrust out her chest as if to say, Khali, these are my tits, grab them! So he went to grab them and she led him towards the back. This left Hardy all alone with both of the Harts. He then proceeded to pin Harry with a small package. No earthly idea. So finally we got Mysterio calling out the Undertaker in another non-wrestling segment. He did the usual promo about how he was an undersized guy but he had heart, never gave up, and wasn't scared of Undertaker. He said Shawn and Taker were jumping the gun talking about a match since he was going to spoil all the plans and win the belt at Rumble. Taker came out and said he respected him for doing this, but wanted him to know that he was going to his own grave. He said Mysterio would be just like everyone else who tried to make a name at his expense, but then as he was leaving Mysterio screamed, "I'm not like the rest!" Suddenly, Batista hit the ring and laid Mysterio out with a spinebuster and a power bomb. Taker meandered to the ring exactly as fast as he normally does, which gave Batista enough time to have gotten to Australia if he'd wanted to. An odd twist to end the show.

Toy stores legally have until the spring to sell their remaining Jakks Pacific WWE stock. While many of the stores have cleared out all the older stuff, there are stores that are selling both the Jakks Pacific line and the new Mattel line. Jakks Pacific now has a deal with TNA, and was originally going to release a line of action figures and toys in October, but the time frame has been pushed up to May.

Whatever issues with Stan Kroenke and WWE have, maybe not been settled, but they are doing business, as WWE has booked the Pepsi Center in Denver for a show on 3/12.

Shawn Michaels on retirement, which at one point was going to be after Mania this year: “I’d like to go on record as saying I have been trying to retire for the last three years,” he said. He said the company makes it difficult. “Vince McMahon is nuts. I try to walk away, then WrestleMania comes up, they put me in a match, I do well, and (Vince) doesn’t make it very easy.” He said he expects DX to disband after the Royal Rumble since both men will have singles matches at Mania.

Chicago fans who wrote to WGN’s local station complaining about Superstars being dropped (losing coverage in both Chicago and Canada) were told, “Unfortunately, it didn’t attract enough viewers.” However, the complaints were listened to, and the plan now is for the show to return in a Sunday afternoon time slot on 2/7.

WWE has plans for a sitcom with Marella as the lead character. Marella told the U.K. version of AOL about the plans for a show, with Kozlov (as his best friend) and Phoenix (as his girlfriend). He said they were filming three episodes which will first air on the web site before they shop it around. Marella talked about a network deal, but I sense this at best as one of those web site feature attempts and not getting any farther. Chris McCumber, the EVP of the USA Network, when asked about it, said, “I’m not aware of it. I need to see it. He’s quite a comedic character, so no doubt he will have a good sitcom.” Evidently he didn’t see ECW last week as Marella and Kozlov, in a segment designed to get them over as buddies as the prelude to the web site show, bombed like it was Hiroshima in 1945.

The Saugus Wicked ran another story on the Orton incident in the Kowloon’s Restaurant parking lot after the 1/8 show in Boston. The story revolved around an eye-witness account from Stephen Addonizio of Wakefield, MA., who was sitting in a car as Orton left the restaurant. His description was that Orton left and walked toward his car and about a dozen kids asked to pose for photos with him. He refused and one of the kids yelled profanities at him. Orton went in the direction of the kid who swore at him but two other wrestlers pulled Orton away and Orton never came close to the kid, and just walked past them and got into his car. Addonizio did admit something could have happened that he didn’t see.

Orton signed a long-term contract, one report has it as a ten-year deal. He also got a $600,000 Mania payoff this year.

Jericho’s fourth album, “Chasing the Grail,” was released on 1/26.

Undertaker missed the 1/24 house show in Cleveland because of the death of a family member. Since he was the headliner, WWE had HHH move from the scheduled Raw show that night in Champaign, IL, to the Cleveland show to make up for it.

Serena Deeb, who got her head shaved by C.M. Punk, had her FCW name changed from Mia Mancini to Serena Mancini, which will likely be her Smackdown name. Norman Smiley, who along with Billy Kidman are the head trainers at FCW, is now doing a television role as the Lt. GM. They are building up a second generation tag team feud with champs Brett DiBiase & Joe Hennig against Bo & Duke Rotundo.

Brian Meyers (Curt Hawkins of the Edgeheads tag team) was given a tryout this past week in FCW as a color commentator.

Zivile Raudoniene, the Lithuanian fitness model who won the 2009 Arnold Classic fitness contest, made her pro debut on 1/21 in Tampa for FCW teaming with A.J. Lee (former New Jersey indie wrestler April Jeanette) and Savannah (ECW ring announcer) losing to Serena Mancini & Naomi Knight(former cheerleader Trinity McCray) & Liviania (Karlee Perez). . . Maryse broke three teeth in the match on Raw on 1/18 and had them fixed on 1/22.

A web site called WWEwatch.yalostie.com had complete statistics of Royal Rumble history. Among them were: Most all-time eliminations: 1. Steve Austin 36; 2. Undertaker 35; 3. Kane 33; 4. Shawn Michaels 31; 5. Hulk Hogan 24. Kane or Michaels could challenge Austin’s record this year.

Most career time in: 1. HHH 213:21; 2. Michaels 192:49; 3. Kane 165:47; 4. Austin 165:09; 5. Chris Benoit 157:19.

Most Royal Rumble matches: 1. Kane 13; 2. Michaels 11; 3. Undertaker 10 and Rikishi/Fatu 10; 5. Mabel/Viscera 9.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer had a long article on Miz, noting that he grew up working at his father’s Mr. Hero sandwich shop in Parma, OH. It noted that in high school at Normandy High, he ran cross country, played baseball and was the student body president. He was a sophomore at Miami of Ohio (the same college Brian Pillman went to) when he tried out for MTV’s “Real World.” He said he grew up watching wrestling PPVs with 20 to 30 friends at his dad’s house on Sundays. A funny story is that his father went on a business trip and was at a WrestleMania and brought him back a program with it signed by all the wrestlers. Later, when he became a wrestler, he found out his father had forged all the signatures. He noted spending a few years in indies (UPW in Southern California) before getting on the 2004 Tough Enough season, where he placed second. He said when growing up, he figured he’d own his own Mr. Hero place and be living in Parma and raising three children.

Kelly, while on a media tour of the U.K. to promote Royal Rumble, spoke about the death of Andrew “Test” Martin, saying, “I liked to talk about him, to tell the world how great a man he was. He was a big part of my life, we were together for two-and-a- half years. When I first started, Andrew looked after me. We were there together, we had some good times and some hard times, he wanted more than anything to be healthy. I honestly could not say enough about him, he was the love of my life. Not a day goes by when I don’t think about Andrew. He was an amazing person who had so much love to give the world. He loved wrestling.” . . A house show on 2/14 in Guadalajara is sold out.

Candice Michelle on her own web site said her biggest regret in hindsight was coming back too quickly from injuries, saying it pretty much killed her wrestling career.

They are filming two Legends Roundtable shows this week for future airing on 24/7. Gene Okerlund will host a panel of J.J. Dillon, Pat Patterson, Michael Hayes and Nick Bockwinkel on Wrestling in the 70s and Tag Team Wrestling. The Legends Roundtable shows were in jeopardy just a few months ago as a cost-cutting measure so it’s good to see they are filming a new batch.

Cena had an MRI on 1/24 to see the damage to his lower back and neck, as it is believed he’s working with a bulging disc. As noted, they have cut back on his workload to a degree, doing shorter matches and more tags, plus taking him out of the PPV title match where he’d have to go a hard 15+ minutes, but he was still doing main event matches at the house shows over the weekend.

The WWE web site ran a story on Dan Spivey, noting that he’s running a construction company, Spivey Utility Construction, out of Odessa, FL. He talked in glowing terms about his time in All Japan in the 90s, but also felt the physical style took five years off his career.

The Raw tour opened on 1/22 in Cape Girardeau, MO, before 4,262 fans, a strong turnout for that sized market. Cena beat Sheamus via DQ in the title match. Orton pinned Kingston in a good match. The only other title match was Miz retaining the U.S. over MVP, Carlito and Swagger. . .The 1/23 show in Evansville drew 7,000, the biggest crowd in the city for wrestling since the Austin era. Tatsu pinned Ryder in the opener, which is different since the ECW guys usually travel with the Smackdown crew. Henry beat Swagger in an over the top rope challenge similar to what happened on Raw. DiBiase & Rhodes beat Bourne & Primo when Rhodes pinned Primo clean with Crossroads. Johnny Curtis did heel mic work and then Masters came in and beat him quickly with the Masterlock. Miz won a three-way to keep the U.S. title over MVP and Carlito. MVP used the playmaker on Carlito and Miz threw MVP out of the ring and pinned Carlito. Best match on the show. Kim & Bellas beat Hall & Fox & Maryse when Kim pinned Hall in a match with Marella as ref. Orton pinned Kingston after two RKO’s, as Kingston kicked out of the first one. HHH beat Show in a street fight. HHH kicked out of a choke slam. Hornswoggle did the Michaels spoof with sweet shin music on Show, who didn’t sell it, but it allowed HHH to grab a sledge hammer and hit Show with it for the pin and HHH and Hornswoggle did the DX celebration. Cena beat Sheamus via DQ in a title match. Sheamus was about to lose when he shoved down the ref who called for the DQ. Cena gave him an attitude adjustment after the match.

1/24 in Champaign, IL, before 6,000 fans, was a similar show. This was the show HHH was pulled from and moved to the Smackdown show in Cleveland. In fact, on this show they had an entire card advertised and the main event was the only match that took place as advertised. Cena beat Sheamus via DQ in the match they did all weekend. With HHH out, Show beat Swagger in an over the top rope match rules match with Show as the face, and winning in 2:00. Orton pinned Kingston with the same finish of doing two RKO’s, with Kingston kicking out of the first but getting pinned by the second. The four-way U.S. title saw Miz retain over MVP, Primo and Carlito. Primo and Carlito went at it a lot and their work was the strongest of the match. MVP had Carlito pinned after the playmaker but Miz stole the pin. . . Smackdown opened on 1/23 in Hammond, IN, drawing a sellout 4,000 fans. Mysterio & Kane beat Jericho & Punk in the main event. They did the simultaneous pins finish which seems to be the standard finish on house show main events when they do tags and trios matches. McIntyre beat Morrison in the IC title match with his feet on the ropes. Crowd still not that into McIntyre. Christian beat Jackson in the ECW title match with the killswitch. I know Goldust’s role is to put over younger heels, but he lost on this show to Tyler Reks, who hasn’t even been on television in months. Reks did a heel promo before the match so people knew to boo him, and then beat Goldust. They brought out a “fan” who said he was a drinker and Punk shaved his head to have him join the straight edge society. The segment went long and didn’t seem to work well on the house show. Matt Hardy beat Finlay in a prelim match. Finlay did the worked knee injury gimmick he’s so fond of that he hasn’t done in a while. Even so, after doing it and turning himself heel, Hardy pinned him.

1/24 in Cleveland drew 9,000. HHH vs. Jericho was the main event here. HHH was pulled from the Raw show with the idea they had Cena, while the Smackdown show in a major market city had neither Undertaker nor Batista, so they figured they needed a star as a make-good. HHH pinned Jericho. Mysterio & Kane beat Punk & Gallows with the same double pin after Kane choke slammed Gallows and Mysterio did a splash off the top on Punk. Finlay pinned Ziggler. Punk & Gallows shaved another plant’s head. Christian pinned Jackson to keep the ECW belt. The opener saw McIntyre win a four-way over Matt Hardy, R-Truth and Morrison. That’s scary booking, putting three faces against one heel, and then he survives against all odds anyway.


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Feb. 1 2010 Observer Newsletter: 2009 Awards Issue, Possible biggest wrestling news story of 2010 PDF Print E-mail
Wrestling Observer Newsletter

PO Box 1228, Campbell, CA 95009-1228 ISSN10839593 February 1, 2010


2009 WRESTLING OBSERVER

NEWSLETTER AWARDS

The following are the results of the 30th annual Wrestling Observer Newsletter readership awards, along with a listing of the previous winners in the various categories. On a world wide basis, these are the most covered mainstream international pro wrestling awards. Readers are encouraged to send in their comments on the results.


"CATEGORY A" AWARDS - WINNERS

DETERMINED BY POINTS ON A 5-3-2 BASIS.

FIRST PLACE VOTES IN PARENTHESIS

LOU THESZ/RIC FLAIR AWARD

(WRESTLER OF THE YEAR)

1. CHRIS JERICHO (269)1,815

2. Hiroshi Tanahashi (97)1,057

3. Naruki Doi (51)751

4. C.M. Punk (53)714

5. Randy Orton (67)692

6. Jeff Hardy (46)464

7. John Cena (32)272

8. Davey Richards (11)268

9. Bryan Danielson (20)266

10. Kurt Angle (13)254

HONORABLE MENTION: Mitsuharu Misawa 227, KENTA 182, Shawn Michaels 137, Rey Mysterio 90

Jericho, 39, winning for the second straight year wasn’t a big surprise, but his margin of victory was. This was a year without the kind of usual standout performer who would be expected to win. I think Randy Orton, as far as being the pushed guy, headlining WrestleMania, in the big angle where he kicked all the McMahons heads in, and being in most PPV main events came the closest to the traditional winner. C.M. Punk was great in his run on top with Jeff Hardy, but ended up dress coding himself down the card. Him losing the title while doing such a good job as champion was a momentum killer, although his new angle has him back in the spotlight. Jeff Hardy was also a possibility, but he left in August and it’s difficult to win this award missing key time, plus his feud with Matt Hardy ended up being a ton of build-up and back story for a feud the company pulled out of quickly. Jericho was a great all-around performer, one of the best in the ring and probably the best on promos. But in year of title changes at almost every PPV, he never held either major company singles title. He did dominate the tag team titles for the last six months of the year, taking them from belts that were essentially meaningless and rarely defended on PPVs, to belts that headlined the final PPV of the year. Jericho had more of a Wrestler of the Year type year last year, winning a close three-way race with Shawn Michaels and Edge. But he won based on the lack that one person who would be the winner in a normal year. Hiroshi Tanahashi was with a struggling organization, but was its top guy and IWGP champion most of the year. Naruki Doi was with a smaller promotion. Jericho becomes the first American to repeat as a winner of this award since Ric Flair in 1989 and 1990. During the last 20 years, only one other performer has repeated, Kenta Kobashi, winning 2003-2005. This should strengthen Jericho’s claim as a Hall of Famer, as in the 30 years the award has been presented, the only wrestlers not in the Hall of Fame are Mistico (2006) and John Cena (2007), both of whom aren’t eligible and both of whom should be first ballot locks.

PREVIOUS WINNERS: 1980 - Harley Race; 1981 - Harley Race; 1982 - Ric Flair; 1983 - Ric Flair; 1984 - Ric Flair; 1985 - Ric Flair; 1986 - Ric Flair; 1987 - Riki Choshu; 1988 - Akira Maeda; 1989 - Ric Flair; 1990 - Ric Flair; 1991 - Jumbo Tsuruta; 1992 - Ric Flair; 1993 - Vader; 1994 - Toshiaki Kawada; 1995 - Mitsuharu Misawa; 1996 - Kenta Kobashi; 1997 - Mitsuharu Misawa; 1998 - Steve Austin; 1999 - Mitsuharu Misawa; 2000 - HHH; 2001 - Keiji Muto; 2002 - Kurt Angle; 2003 - Kenta Kobashi; 2004 - Kenta Kobashi; 2005 - Kenta Kobashi; 2006 - Mistico; 2007 - John Cena; 2008 - Chris Jericho


MIXED MARTIAL ARTS MOST VALUABLE



1. BROCK LESNAR (432)2,734

2. Georges St. Pierre (92)1,615

3. Fedor Emelianenko (17)653

4. Anderson Silva (7)301

5. Frank Mir (3)213

6. B.J. Penn (10)205

7. Kimbo Slice (1)189

8. Gina Carano65

9. Quinton Jackson64

10. Rashad Evans41

PREVIOUS WINNERS: 2007 - Randy Couture; 2008 - Brock Lesnar

Lesnar, 32, was the most talked about fighter of the year, even though he only had one fight, due to being seriously ill the last few months of the year. He won the award by being the biggest drawing card in MMA history, with his match with Frank Mir headlining UFC 100, and drawing an estimated 1,600,000 buys, the fourth highest total in the history of PPV. St. Pierre had two dominant wins over top contenders, first beating B.J. Penn on a fourth round stoppage in the second biggest fight of the year, and then winning five straight rounds in a decision over Thiago Alves, setting the UFC record for most consecutive rounds won, dating back to losing one round in an August, 2007, match with Josh Koscheck. Emelianenko, generally considered the greatest MMA fighter in the short history of the sport, got MMA and the Strikeforce promotion onto CBS for a date on 11/7. The guy when it comes to actual value who was shortchanged here was Kimbo Slice, who single-handedly took a Tough Enough show that hadn’t really done strong ratings since season three in 2006, and delivered most of the highest rated shows in the history of the series. Lesnar becomes the first MMA fighter to be MVP two consecutive years since Kazushi Sakuraba in 2000-2001. Even more impressive, is it was Lesnar’s first two full years in the sport.

New category in 2007. Highest place winner from MMA in previous Thesz/Flair award balloting: 1994 - Royce Gracie; 1995 - Ken Shamrock; 1996 - Mark Coleman; 1997 - Maurice Smith; 1998 - Frank Shamrock; 1999 - Frank Shamrock; 2000 - Kazushi Sakuraba; 2001 - Kazushi Sakuraba; 2002 - Bob Sapp; 2003 - Randy Couture; 2004 - Wanderlei Silva; 2005 - Kid Yamamoto; 2006 - Tito Ortiz;



MOST OUTSTANDING WRESTLER



1. BRYAN DANIELSON (218)1,838

2. Davey Richards (161)1,719

3. KENTA (212)1,380

4. Chris Jericho (44)489

5. Kurt Angle (19)292

6. Shingo Takagi (12)284

7. Kota Ibushi (9)269

8. Nigel McGuiness/Desmond Wolfe (22)267

9. Shawn Michaels (29)233

10. Rey Mysterio (24)229

HONORABLE MENTION: Christian 173, Naruki Doi 158, A.J. Styles 151, Randy Orton 142, Hiroshi Tanahashi 115, Jeff Hardy 85, Katsuhiko Nakajima 82

“The best wrestler in the world,” Danielson, 28, won a close race over Davey Richards, to take this award for the fourth straight year. He breaks the record of three straight years that he held jointly with Kurt Angle (2001-2003) and Jushin Liger (1990-1992). Richards, 26, becomes the heir apparent, as with Danielson having signed with WWE, it is doubtful he will get the opportunity to do the kind of long matches he specializes in.

PREVIOUS WINNERS: 1986 - Ric Flair; 1987 - Ric Flair; 1988 - Tatsumi Fujinami; 1989 - Ric Flair; 1990 - Jushin Liger; 1991 - Jushin Liger; 1992 - Jushin Liger; 1993 - Kenta Kobashi; 1994 - Kenta Kobashi; 1995 - Manami Toyota; 1996 - Rey Misterio Jr.; 1997 - Mitsuharu Misawa; 1998 - Koji Kanemoto; 1999 - Mitsuharu Misawa; 2000 - Chris Benoit; 2001 - Kurt Angle; 2002 - Kurt Angle; 2003 - Kurt Angle; 2004 - Chris Benoit; 2005 - Samoa Joe; 2006 - Bryan Danielson; 2007 - Bryan Danielson; 2008 - Bryan Danielson


MOST OUTSTANDING FIGHTER OF THE YEAR



1. GEORGES ST. PIERRE (326)1,929

2. Anderson Silva (79)1,050

3. Jose Aldo Jr. (65)898

4. B.J. Penn (20)399

5. Fedor Emelianenko (19)331

6. Lyoto Machida (7)327

7. Brock Lesnar (29)311

8. Gegard Mousasi (17)185

9. Shinya Aoki (2)55

10. Dan Henderson (4)52

St. Pierre, 28, retained the welterweight title he won on April 19, 2008, in his home city of Montreal, with his two wins this year before being out for the second half of the year with a torn abductor muscle. Named by Rogers Sportsnet in Canada in an Internet poll the Canadian Athlete of the Year the past two years (a sportswriters poll had him finishing second behind NHL star Sidney Crosby), St. Pierre won for the second straight year, joining Frank Shamrock (1998-1999) as the only repeat winner in history. He won virtually every Fighter of the Year award this past year. Silva fought twice this year, winning a terrible fight over Thales Leitis, and rebounding by making Forrest Griffin, a former world champion a weight class above him, look like a rank amateur in his second win. To me, to win this award with all the competition out there, you have to win big, and Silva lost rounds with Leitis and didn’t finish, although the way Leitis fought made it difficult. St. Pierre beat better opposition and did so more convincingly overall. Aldo went 4-0, winning all four by knockout, three in the first round, including winning the featherweight title from Mike Brown with a dominant performance. But Brown was his only real top flight opponent. Penn scored dominant wins over Kenny Florian and Diego Sanchez in lightweight title defenses, making two No. 1 contenders seem to be out of their league. But his loss to St. Pierre probably decided the award. Emelianenko scored first round knockouts over Andrei Arlovski and Brett Rogers. Machida went 2-0,winning the light heavyweight title from Rashad Evans, but most thought he lost his first title defense to Mauricio “Shogun” Rua. If he had scored a convincing win, he’d have been a strong candidate for first. Lesnar was limited by only having one fight. Mousasi went 4- 0, all stoppages, three in the first round and one in the second, but with opposition of Gary Goodridge, Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou, Mark Hunt and Renato Sobral, he wasn’t a contender for first based on quality of opposition.

PREVIOUS WINNERS: 1997 - Maurice Smith; 1998 - Frank Shamrock; 1999 - Frank Shamrock; 2000 - Kazushi Sakuraba; 2001 - Wanderlei Silva; 2002 - Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira; 2003 - Randy Couture; 2004 - Wanderlei Silva; 2005 - Fedor Emelianenko; 2006 - Mirko Cro Cop; 2007 - Quinton Jackson; 2008 - Georges St. Pierre



BEST BOX OFFICE DRAW

1. BROCK LESNAR (513)2,857

2. John Cena (62)1,308

3. Georges St. Pierre (10)876

4. Frank Mir (5)335

5. Mistico (16)227

6. Jeff Hardy (4)223

7. Gina Carano (14)201

8. Kimbo Slice132

9. DX (3)90

10. Hiroshi Tanahashi79

HONORABLE MENTION: Randy Orton 69

Lesnar won for the second straight year, largely off the buy rate of UFC 100, which he headlined. John Cena, who headlined more shows that drew 10,000 or more fans in 2009 than any wrestler had done since the boom period, placed second. Still, the shows that drew big were promoted more around the WWE brand, usually Raws or PPV shows, so while Cena is a big draw, the number, which would be historically strong in any era, doesn’t really mean as much as it would at any other point in history. St. Pierre, the biggest PPV draw in the history of Canada, headlined UFC’s two most successful events of the year.

PREVIOUS WINNERS: 1997 - Hulk Hogan; 1998 - Steve Austin; 1999 - Steve Austin; 2000 - The Rock; 2001 - Kazushi Sakuraba; 2002 - Bob Sapp; 2003 - Bob Sapp; 2004 - Kenta Kobashi; 2005 - Kenta Kobashi; 2006 - Mistico; 2007 - John Cena; 2008 - Brock Lesnar

BEST BABYFACE PREVIOUS AWARD WINNERS: 1980 - Dusty Rhodes; 1981 - Tommy Rich; 1982 - Hulk Hogan; 1983 - Hulk Hogan; 1984 - Hulk Hogan; 1985 - Hulk Hogan; 1986 - Hulk Hogan; 1987 - Hulk Hogan; 1988 - Hulk Hogan; 1989 - Hulk Hogan; 1990 - Hulk Hogan; 1991 - Hulk Hogan; 1992 - Sting; 1993 - Atsushi Onita; 1994 - Atsushi Onita; 1995 - Perro Aguayo Sr.; 1996 - Shawn Michaels

BEST HEEL PREVIOUS AWARD WINNERS: 1980 - Larry Zbyszko; 1981 - Don Muraco; 1982 - Buzz Sawyer; 1983 - Michael Hayes; 1984 - Roddy Piper; 1985 - Roddy Piper; 1986 - Michael Hayes; 1987 - Ted DiBiase; 1988 - Ted DiBiase; 1989 - Terry Funk; 1990 - Ric Flair; 1991 - The Undertaker; 1992 - Rick Rude; 1993 - Vader; 1994 - Love Machine (Art Barr); 1995 - Masahiro Chono; 1996 - Steve Austin


FEUD OF THE YEAR



1. C.M. PUNK VS. JEFF HARDY (302)2,201

2. Brock Lesnar vs. Frank Mir (207)1,482

3. Chris Jericho vs. Rey Mysterio (96)1,327

4. Quinton Jackson vs. Rashad Evans (23)315

5. New Japan vs. Pro Wrestling NOAH (25)281

6. Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels (4)272

7. Mistico vs. Negro Casas (14)265

8. American Wolves vs. Steen & Generico (2)248

9. John Cena vs. Randy Orton (13)220

10. KENTA vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima (14)162

HONORABLE MENTION: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Shinsuke Nakamura 142, Matt Hughes vs. Matt Serra 71

Punk and Hardy’s Summer-long feud, starting with Punk cashing in his Money in the Bank stipulation from WrestleMania right after Hardy had beaten Edge to win the world title in a grueling ladder match, and continuing to headline several TV shows and house shows, as well as three PPV events, got the mod by a pretty solid margin over Lesnar vs. Mir, which actually drew more money in one match than all others did in multiple matches. Jericho vs. Mysterio had great angles on television and strong matches on PPV, topped off by Mysterio putting his mask at stake against Jericho’s IC title, and winning in one of WWE’s best matches of the year on 6/28 in Sacramento. What really stands out was the lack of good feuds this year in any promotion, when No. 4 was Jackson vs. Evans, who didn’t even have a match this year.

PREVIOUS WINNERS: 1980 - Bruno Sammartino vs. Larry Zbyszko; 1981 - Andre the Giant vs. Killer Khan; 1982 - Ted DiBiase vs. Junkyard Dog; 1983 - Freebirds vs. Von Erichs; 1984 - Freebirds vs Von Erichs; 1985 - Ted DiBiase vs. Jim Duggan; 1986 - Hulk Hogan vs. Paul Orndorff; 1987 - Jerry Lawler vs. Austin Idol & Tommy Rich; 1988 - Midnight Express vs. Fantastics; 1989 - Ric Flair vs. Terry Funk; 1990 - Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Mitsuharu Misawa; 1991 - Jumbo Tsuruta & company vs. Mitsuharu Misawa & company; 1992 - Moondogs vs. Jerry Lawler & Jeff Jarrett; 1993 - Bret Hart vs. Jerry Lawler; 1994 - Los Gringos Locos vs. Mexican AAA; 1995 - Dean Malenko vs. Eddie Guerrero; 1996 - WCW vs. NWO; 1997 - Steve Austin vs. Hart Foundation; 1998 - Steve Austin vs. Vince McMahon; 1999 - Steve Austin vs. Vince McMahon; 2000 - HHH vs. Mick Foley; 2001 - Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Wanderlei Silva; 2002 - Ken Shamrock vs. Tito Ortiz; 2003 - Brock Lesnar vs. Kurt Angle; 2004 - HHH vs. Shawn Michaels vs. Chris Benoit; 2005 - Batista vs. HHH; 2006 - Tito Ortiz vs. Ken Shamrock; 2007 - Undertaker vs. Batista ; 2008 - Chris Jericho vs. Shawn Michaels


TAG TEAM OF THE YEAR



1. EDDIE EDWARDS & DAVEY RICHARDS (209)2,052

2. Matt & Nick Jackson (232)1,806

3. Chris Jericho & Big Show (178)1,367

4. Robert Roode & James Storm (47)679

5. Prince Devitt & Ryusuke Taguchi (15)619

6. Chris Sabin & Alex Shelley (22)283

7. Kevin Steen & El Generico (6)217

8. Volador Jr. & La Sombra (9)199

9. Ted DiBiase & Cody Rhodes (1)87

10. Shawn Michaels & HHH (3)79

HONORABLE MENTION: Mark & Jay Briscoe 75, Minoru Suzuki & Taiyo Kea 75, David Hart Smith & Tyson Kidd 73

The first close race saw The American Wolves take it even though The Young Bucks had more first place votes. The Bucks likely were strengthened by appearing on the Dragon Gate USA PPV shows, but will have a hard time repeating since they’ve been signed by TNA, and will likely become a preliminary afterthought. A strong argument can be made for Jericho & Show, since they (well, starting with Jericho & Edge as a team before Edge suffered a torn Achilles tendon) elevated the tag title belts. Even at worst with them doing the comedy role, DX should have finished higher as they were a legitimately strong headlining tag team.

PREVIOUS WINNERS: 1980 - Freebirds (Terry Gordy & Buddy Roberts); 1981 - Terry Gordy & Jimmy Snuka; 1982 - Stan Hansen & Ole Anderson; 1983 - Ricky Steamboat & Jay Youngblood; 1984 - Road Warriors; 1985 - British Bulldogs (Dynamite Kid & Davey Boy Smith); 1986 - Midnight Express (Dennis Condrey & Bobby Eaton); 1987 - Midnight Express (Bobby Eaton & Stan Lane); 1988 - Midnight Express (Bobby Eaton & Stan Lane); 1989 - The Rockers (Shawn Michaels & Marty Jannetty); 1990 - Rick & Scott Steiner; 1991 - Mitsuharu Misawa & Toshiaki Kawada; 1992 - Miracle Violence Combination (Steve Williams & Terry Gordy); 1993 - Hollywood Blondes (Brian Pillman & Steve Austin); 1994 - Los Gringos Locos (Love Machine Art Barr & Eddie Guerrero); 1995 - Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi; 1996 - Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama; 1997 - Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama; 1998 - Shinjiro Otani & Tatsuhito Takaiwa; 1999 - Kenta Kobashi & Jun Akiyama; 2000 - Edge & Christian; 2001 - TenKoji (Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima); 2002 - Eddie & Chavo Guerrero; 2003 - KENTA & Naomichi Marufuji; 2004 - KENTA & Naomichi Marufuji; 2005 - America's Most Wanted (Chris Harris & James Storm); 2006 - LAX (Homicide & Hernandez); 2007 - Mark & Jay Briscoe; 2008 - The Miz & John Morrison

MOST IMPROVED



1. THE MIZ (68)664

2. Cody Rhodes (87)619

3. Kofi Kingston (50)482

4. Zack Ryder (17)356

5. Dolph Ziggler (20)344

6. Brutus Magnus (19)310

7. Chris Hero (50)282

8. Goldust (29)265

9. Prince Devitt (12)235

10. Kenny King (14)195

HONORABLE MENTION: Eddie Edwards 166, Sheamus 147, Kenny Omega 146, Maryse 133, Yamato 123, Jack Swagger 80

The Miz (born Mike Mizanin, now 29) won for the second year in a row, in a close race where Cody Rhodes had more first place votes. There really wasn’t the obvious candidate this year, and voting was spread out, unlike last year where Miz and Tyler Black ran away from the field. PREVIOUS WINNERS: 1980 - Larry Zbyszko; 1981 - Adrian Adonis; 1982 - Jim Duggan; 1983 - Curt Hennig; 1984 - The Cobra (George Takano); 1985 - Steve Williams; 1986 - Rick Steiner; 1987 - Big Bubba Rogers (Ray Traylor); 1988 - Sting; 1989 - Lex Luger; 1990 - Kenta Kobashi; 1991 - Dustin Rhodes; 1992 - El Samurai; 1993 - Tracy Smothers; 1994 - Diesel (Kevin Nash); 1995 - Johnny B. Badd (Marc Mero); 1996 - Diamond Dallas Page; 1997 - Tatsuhito Takaiwa; 1998 - The Rock; 1999 - Vader; 2000 - Kurt Angle; 2001 - Keiji Muto; 2002 - Brock Lesnar; 2003 - Brock Lesnar; 2004 - Randy Orton; 2005 - Roderick Strong; 2006 - Takeshi Morishima; 2007 - MVP; 2008 - The Miz


BEST ON INTERVIEWS



1. CHRIS JERICHO (292)2,328

2. C.M. Punk (205)1,836

3. Frank Mir (67)914

4. Dana White (38)393

5. Eddie Kingston (29)205

6. Jim Cornette (16)150

7. Quinton Jackson (15)146

John Cena (5)146

9. Brock Lesnar (10)129

10. Nigel McGuinness/Desmond Wolfe (2)126

HONORABLE MENTION: The Miz 112, Chris Hero 106, Shawn Michaels 103, Randy Orton 72, Pope D’Angelo Dinero 63, Santino Marella 62

Jericho and Punk ran away from the field and that was to be expected. Punk wasn’t even top 20 last year and this year was a genuine challenger for the crown. John Cena, who won in 2007, seemed to be the victim of bad material this year. Falling fro m No. 2 to No. 16 was Santino Marella, whose comedy gimmick seems to have past its peak and is on the downslide. Edge, another top finisher in recent years, was out much of the year with injuries. Even though Dana White’s stuff was so much better this year than last, he remained at No. 4. So many of last year’s top finishers weren’t around much this year, as Edge was injured, Ric Flair was largely off television, Larry Sweeney was out of the national picture, Cibernetico was off television for the early part of the year, and Jimmy Jacobs wasn’t in as high profile situations. It was the third time Jericho has won the award, joining a select group of three time winners like Roddy Piper, Jim Cornette, Ric Flair, Mick Foley and Steve Austin.

PREVIOUS WINNERS: 1981 - Lou Albano and Roddy Piper (tied); 1982 - Roddy Piper; 1983 - Roddy Piper; 1984 - Jimmy Hart; 1985 - Jim Cornette; 1986 - Jim Cornette; 1987 - Jim Cornette; 1988 - Jim Cornette; 1989 - Terry Funk; 1990 - Arn Anderson; 1991 - Ric Flair; 1992 - Ric Flair; 1993 - Jim Cornette; 1994 - Ric Flair; 1995 - Cactus Jack (Mick Foley); 1996 - Steve Austin; 1997 - Steve Austin; 1998 - Steve Austin; 1999 - The Rock; 2000 - The Rock; 2001 - Steve Austin; 2002 - Kurt Angle; 2003 - Chris Jericho; 2004 - Mick Foley; 2005 - Eddie Guerrero; 2006 - Mick Foley; 2007 - John Cena; 2008 - Chris Jericho


MOST CHARISMATIC



1. JOHN CENA (115)958

2. Jeff Hardy (124)904

3. Brock Lesnar (76)862

4. Hiroshi Tanahashi (52)685

5. Yamato (47)604

6. Chris Jericho (38)469

7. C.M. Punk (28)297

8. Shawn Michaels (29)284

9. Frank Mir (9)187

10. Randy Orton (11)139

HONORABLE MENTION: Dr. Wagner Jr. 120, Rey Mysterio 117, Kenta Kobashi 115, Gina Carano 103, Quinton Jackson 102, The Miz 90, Lyoto Machida 81

Cena, 32, won a three-way race over Jeff Hardy and Brock Lesnar. It makes the fourth year in a row he’s won it. Had Hardy not taken a sabbatical and Lesnar not have been out of action, the race would have likely been closer. With four first place finishes, Cena joins a select group of Hulk Hogan (six), Ric Flair (five) and The Rock (four).

PREVIOUS WINNERS: 1980 - Ric Flair; 1981 - Michael Hayes; 1982 - Dusty Rhodes and Ric Flair (tied); 198 3 - Ric Flair; 1984 - Ric Flair; 1985 - Hulk Hogan; 1986 - Hulk Hogan; 1987 - Hulk Hogan; 1988 - Sting; 1989 - Hulk Hogan; 1990 - Hulk Hogan; 1991 - Hulk Hogan; 1992 - Sting; 1993 - Ric Flair; 1994 - Atsushi Onita; 1995 - Shawn Michaels; 1996 - Shawn Michaels; 1997 - Steve Austin; 1998 - Steve Austin; 1999 - The Rock; 2000 - The Rock; 2001 - The Rock; 2002 - The Rock; 2003 - Bob Sapp; 2004 - Eddie Guerrero; 2005 - Eddie Guerrero; 2006 - John Cena; 2007 - John Cena; 2008 - John Cena


BEST TECHNICAL WRESTLER



1. BRYAN DANIELSON (401)2,478

2. Kurt Angle (55)963

3. Davey Richards (92)922

4. Nigel McGuinness/Desmond Wolfe (37)682

5. Naruki Doi (6)324

6. Prince Devitt (18)287

7. Mike Quackenbush (29)243

8. Johnny Saint (5)204

9. William Regal (2)129

10. KENTA (14)107

HONORABLE MENTION: Chris Jericho 97, Atsushi Aoki 90, Yuji Nagata 72

Another landslide win for Danielson, whose fifth straight win is unprecedented and ties Chris Benoit as the only five-time winner in history. Nigel McGuinness, even with the name change, placed top four for the fourth straight year. A notable figure on the list is 67-year-old Johnny Saint, who debuted in 1958, before anyone else in the top ten was born. Saint, one of the great ring technicians of the 70s doing the British style, retired in 1996, but came back for some matches in CHIKARA pro.

PREVIOUS WINNERS: 1980 - Bob Backlund; 1981 - Ted DiBiase; 1982 - Tiger Mask (Satoru Sayama); 1983 - Tiger Mask (Satoru Sayama); 1984 - Dynamite Kid and Masa Saito (tied); 1985 - Tatsumi Fujinami; 1986 - Tatsumi Fujinami; 1987 - Nobuhiko Takada; 1988 - Tatsumi Fujinami; 1989 - Jushin Liger; 1990 - Jushin Liger; 1991 - Jushin Liger; 1992 - Jushin Liger; 1993 - Hiroshi Hase; 1994 - Chris Benoit; 1995 - Chris Benoit; 1996 - Dean Malenko; 1997 - Dean Malenko; 1998 - Kiyoshi Tamura; 1999 - Shinjiro Otani; 2000 - Chris Benoit; 2001 - Minoru Tanaka; 2002 - Kurt Angle; 2003 - Chris Benoit; 2004 - Chris Benoit; 2005 - Bryan Danielson; 2006 - Bryan Danielson; 2007 - Bryan Danielson; 2008 - Bryan Danielson

BRUISER BRODY MEMORIAL AWARD

(BEST BRAWLER)



1. NECRO BUTCHER (107)837

2. Samoa Joe (112)796

3. Masato Tanaka (89)685

4. Togi Makabe (49)666

5. Chris Hero (90)550

6. Abyss (28)342

7. Fit Finlay (17)335

8. Takeshi Morishima (24)306

9. Undertaker (28)`254

10. Eddie Kingston (3)197

HONORABLE MENTION: Takashi Sugiura 155, John Cena 146, Mike Knox 144, Mick Foley 99, Kevin Steen 81

Butcher won close race, winning the second straight year, over Joe, who finished a close second last year as well, and had the most first place votes. Born Dylan Summers, now 35, Butcher has had a cult following on small shows for years, strengthened by appearing in the movie “The Wrestler,” doing a Hardcore match with the lead character, played by Mickey Rourke, in the movie.

PREVIOUS WINNERS: 1980 - Bruiser Brody; 1981 - Bruiser Brody; 1982 - Bruiser Brody; 1983 - Bruiser Brody; 1984 - Bruiser Brody; 1985 - Stan Hansen; 1986 - Terry Gordy; 1987 - Bruiser Brody; 1988 - Bruiser Brody; 1989 - Terry Funk; 1990 - Stan Hansen; 1991 - Cactus Jack (Mick Foley); 1992 - Cactus Jack; 1993 - Cactus Jack; 1994 - Cactus Jack; 1995 - Cactus Jack; 1996 - Mankind (Mick Foley); 1997 - Mankind; 1998 - Mankind; 1999 - Mick Foley; 2000 - Mick Foley; 2001 - Steve Austin; 2002 - Yoshihiro Takayama; 2003 - Brock Lesnar; 2004 - Chris Benoit; 2005 - Samoa Joe; 2006 - Samoa Joe; 2007 - Takeshi Morishima; 2008 - Necro Butcher



BEST FLYING WRESTLER

1. KOTA IBUSHI (389)2,282

2. Evan Bourne (82)1,037

3. Dragon Kid (111)817

4. Pac (10)611

5. Mistico (41)502

6. Prince Devitt (9)460

7. A.J. Styles (49)432

8. Rey Mysterio (44)391

9. Taiji Ishimori (2)253

10. Jack Evans (22)237

Kota Ibushi, 27, placed second to Evan Bourne last year, and this year things were in reverse, except the race wasn’t even close. Seven of the top ten are in foreign promotions.

HONORABLE MENTION: Nick Jackson 228, John Morrison 127, Matt Jackson 120, BxB Hulk 115, La Sombra 110, Amazing Red 97, Yoshitsune 96, Masato Yoshino 88, Aero Star 70

PREVIOUS WINNERS: 1981 - Jimmy Snuka; 1982 - Tiger Mask (Satoru Sayama); 1983 - Tiger Mask (Satoru Sayama); 1984 - Dynamite Kid; 1985 - Tiger Mask (Mitsuharu Misawa); 1986 - Tiger Mask (Mitsuharu Misawa); 1987 - Owen Hart; 1988 - Owen Hart; 1989 - Jushin Liger; 1990 - Jushin Liger; 1991 - Jushin Liger; 1992 - Jushin Liger; 1993 - Jushin Liger; 1994 - Great Sasuke; 1995 - Rey Misterio Jr.; 1996 - Rey Misterio Jr.; 1997 - Rey Misterio Jr.; 1998 - Juventud Guerrera; 1999 - Juventud Guerrera; 2000 - Jeff Hardy; 2001 - Dragon Kid; 2002 - Rey Mysterio; 2003 - Rey Mysterio; 2004 - Rey Mysterio; 2005 - A.J. Styles; 2006 - Mistico; 2007 - Mistico; 2008 - Evan Bourne


MOST OVERRATED



1. HHH (86)836

2. Team 3-D (43)475

3. Kane (39)439

4. Vladimir Kozlov (39)332

5. Kevin Nash (33)313

6. Batista (23)282

7. Tiger Mask (31)267

8. Great Khali (19)226

9. Mark Henry (24)208

10. Sheamus (22)193

HONORABLE MENTION: John Cena 182 Eric Young 177, Randy Orton 169, Michelle McCool 162, Booker T 161, Big Show 143, Ezekiel Jackson 63, Bobby Lashley 60

HHH, 40, won it for the fourth time, following up first place finishes 2002-2004. Last year’s winner, Kozlov, fell to fourth this year.

PREVIOUS WINNERS: 1980 - Mr. Wrestling II (Johnny Walker); 1981 - Pedro Morales; 1982 - Pedro Morales; 1983 - Bob Backlund; 1984 - John Studd; 1985 - Hulk Hogan; 1986 - Hulk Hogan; 1987 - Dusty Rhodes; 1988 - Dusty Rhodes; 1989 - Ultimate Warrior; 1990 - Ultimate Warrior; 1991 - Ultimate Warrior; 1992 - Erik Watts; 1993 - Sid Vicious; 1994 - Hulk Hogan; 1995 - Hulk Hogan; 1996 - Hulk Hogan; 1997 - Hulk Hogan; 1998 - Hulk Hogan; 1999 - Kevin Nash; 2000 - Kevin Nash; 2001 - The Undertaker; 2002 - HHH; 2003 - HHH; 2004 - HHH; 2005 - Jeff Jarrett; 2006 - Batista; 2007 - Great Khali; 2008 - Vladimir Kozlov


MOST UNDERRATED



1. EVAN BOURNE (205)1,561

2. Christian (76)640

3. Jack Swagger (49)625

4. Alex Shelley (29)280

5. William Regal (23)226

6. Shelton Benjamin (17)216

7. Mike Knox (12)215

8. Paul Burchill (26)197

9. Tyson Kidd (17)178

10. MVP (14)157

HONORABLE MENTION: Dolph Ziggler 151, Primo 103

Bourne (Matt Korklan, 26), won by a substantial margin in a category where all nine of the ten wrestlers listed in the top ten came from WWE.

PREVIOUS WINNERS: 1980 - Iron Sheik; 1981 - Buzz Sawyer; 1982 - Adrian Adonis; 1983 - Dynamite Kid; 1984 - Brian Blair; 1985 - Bobby Eaton; 1986 - Bobby Eaton; 1987 - Brad Armstrong; 1988 - Tiger Mask (Mitsuharu Misawa); 1989 - Dan Kroffat (Phil LaFon); 1990 - Bobby Eaton; 1991 - Terry Taylor; 1992 - Terry Taylor; 1993 - Bobby Eaton; 1994 - Brian Pillman; 1995 - Skip (Chris Candito); 1996 - Leif Cassidy (Al Snow); 1997 - Flash Funk (Too Cold Scorpio); 1998 - Chris Benoit; 1999 - Chris Jericho; 2000 - Chris Jericho; 2001 - Lance Storm; 2002 - Booker T; 2003 - Ultimo Dragon; 2004 - Paul London; 2005 - Shelton Benjamin; 2006 - Shelton Benjamin; 2007 - Shelton Benjamin; 2008 - MVP

PROMOTION OF THE YEAR



1. Ultimate Fighting Championships (379)2,167

2. Dragon Gate (131)1,539

3. World Wrestling Entertainment(45)889

4. New Japan Pro Wrestling (32)724

5. CHIKARA (21)461

6. Ring of Honor (2)426

7. World Extreme Cagefighting (18)403

8. Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (21)355

9. Strikeforce (1)242

10. Total Nonstop Action (3)92

Honorable Mention: Consejo Mundial Lucha Libre 71

This marks the fourth consecutive year of UFC on top, tying New Japan (1995- 1998). It was not as dominant a first place finish as the prior year, which was a 3,340 to 1,329 margin over WWE. Dragon Gate was No. 4 last year, so moved up two notches based on strong PPV shows airing in the U.S.

PREVIOUS WINNERS - 1983 - Jim Crockett Promotions; 1984 - New Japan Pro Wrestling; 1985 - All Japan Pro Wrestling; 1986 - Mid South Wrestling; 1987 - New Japan Pro Wrestling; 1988 - New Japan Pro Wrestling; 1989 - Universal Wrestling Federation Japan; 1990 - All Japan Pro Wrestling; 1991 - All Japan Pro Wrestling; 1992 - New Japan Pro Wrestling; 1993 - All Japan Pro Wrestling; 1994 - AAA; 1995 - New Japan Pro Wrestling; 1996 - New Japan Pro Wrestling; 1997 - New Japan Pro Wrestling; 1998 - New Japan Pro Wrestling; 1999 - World Wrestling Federation; 2000 - World Wrestling Federation; 2001 - Pride Fighting Championships; 2002 - Pride Fighting Championships; 2003 - Pride Fighting Championships; 2004 - Pro Wrestling NOAH; 2005 - Pro Wrestling NOAH; 2006 - Ultimate Fighting Championships; 2007 - Ultimate Fighting Championships; 2008 - Ultimate Fighting Championships


BEST WEEKLY TV SHOW



1. WWE SMACKDOWN (242)1,986

2. UFC Ultimate Fighter (157)1,567

3. Ring of Honor (130)1,563

4. Dragon Gate Infinity (190)1,549

5. WWE ECW (4)498

6. WWE Raw (6)348

7. TNA Impact (3)229

8. New Japan World Pro Wrestling (13)155

9. Inside MMA (8)133

10. CMLL (5)107

HONORABLE MENTION: AAA 63

WWE Smackdown broke four straight years of Ultimate Fighter on top. The show featured strong programs all year, including C.M. Punk vs. Jeff Hardy, Edge vs. Jeff Hardy, Chris Jericho vs. Rey Mysterio and Mysterio vs. Batista. Ultimate Fighter had its record ratings, but worst season of fights in season ten, built around Kimbo Slice. I’m really surprised to see ROH finish where it has. I just don’t see the show at that level. Last year, Raw was No. 2 and Smackdown was a distant No. 4, but the roles reversed this year.

PREVIOUS WINNERS: 1983 - New Japan World Pro Wrestling; 1984 - New Japan World Pro Wrestling; 1985 - Mid South Wrestling; 1986 - Universal Wrestling Federation (Mid South Wrestling: 1987 - CWA 90 Minute Memphis live show; 1988 - New Japan World Pro Wrestling; 1989 - All Japan Pro Wrestling; 1990 - All Japan Pro Wrestling; 1991 - All Japan Pro Wrestling; 1992 - All Japan Pro Wrestling; 1993 - All Japan Pro Wrestling; 1994 - Extreme Championship Wrestling; 1995 - Extreme Championship Wrestling; 1996 - Extreme Championship Wrestling; 1997 - New Japan World Pro Wrestling; 1998 - WWF Raw is War; 1999 - WWF Raw is War; 2000 - WWF Raw is War; 2001 - New Japan World Pro Wrestling; 2002 - WWE Smackdown; 2003 - Pro Wrestling NOAH; 2004 - WWE Raw; 2005 - UFC Ultimate Fighter; 2006 - UFC Ultimate Fighter; 2007 - UFC Ultimate Fighter; 2008 - UFC Ultimate Fighter


WORKED MATCH OF THE YEAR



1. UNDERTAKER VS. SHAWN MICHAELS 4/5 HOUSTON (304) 2,110

2. Davey Richards vs. Shingo Takagi 9/6 Chicago (81)855

3. KENTA vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima 3/1 Tokyo (51)737

4. Bryan Danielson vs. Naruki Doi 9/6 Chicago (66)706

5. KENTA & Go Shiozaki vs. Kensuke Sasaki & Katsuhiko Nakajima 6/22 Tokyo (63)517

6. Davey Richards vs. KENTA 4/3 Houston (29)432

7. Rey Mysterio vs. Chris Jericho 6/28 Sacramento (19)322

8. Bryan Danielson vs. Davey Richards 9/25 Boston (19)199

9. Samoa Joe vs. Christopher Daniels vs. A.J. Styles 11/15 Orlando (4)187

10. KENTA vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima 2/11 Tokyo (2)143

HONORABLE MENTION: Bryan Danielson vs. Takeshi Morishima 12/27/08 New York 143, Kurt Angle vs. Desmond Wolfe 11/15 Orlando, John Cena vs. Randy Orton 9/13 Montreal 112, C.M. Punk vs. Jeff Hardy 8/25 Phoenix 90, Rey Mysterio vs. John Morrison 9/1 Cleveland 82

It was pretty much a lock Undertaker vs. Michaels would be No. 1, since it was at WrestleMania which is a gigantic edge that is hard to overcome. Even though some were questioning it even being the best match of that week in Houston (Davey Richards vs. KENTA on the ROH show two days earlier placed No. 6, and probably would have placed higher if the finish hadn’t been botched). The dominant wrestler looks to be KENTA, who had three of the top six matches and four of the top ten. Richards had three of the top eight. It was the fourth time a WrestleMania match had finished first, with Randy Savage vs. Ricky Steamboat (1987), Shawn Michaels vs. Razor Ramon (1994, which beat out the Misawa vs. Kawada match that year) and Bret Hart vs. Steve Austin (1997). Another note is that the 9/6 Dragon Gate USA show in Chicago produced No. 2 and No. 4, yet it didn’t even win best major show of the year. In winning his third match of the year award, Michaels trails only Ric Flair (4), Kenta Kobashi (6) and Mitsuharu Misawa (5) on the all-time list.

PREVIOUS WINNERS: 1980 - Bob Backlund vs. Ken Patera 5/19 New York Madison Square Garden; 1981 - Pat Patterson vs. Sgt. Slaughter 4/21 New York Madison Square Garden; 1982 - Tiger Mask (Satoru Sayama) vs. Dynamite Kid 8/5 Tokyo; 1983 - Ric Flair vs. Harley Race 11/24 Greensboro; 1984 - Freebirds vs. Von Erichs 7/4 Fort Worth; 1985 - Tiger Mask (Mitsuharu Misawa) vs. Kuniaki Kobayashi 6/12 Tokyo; 1986 - Ric Flair vs. Barry Windham 2/14 Orlando; 1987 - Ricky Steamboat vs. Randy Savage 3/29 Pontiac; 1988 - Ric Flair vs. Sting 3/27 Greensboro; 1989 - Ric Flair vs. Ricky Steamboat 4/2 New Orleans; 1990 - Jushin Liger vs. Naoki Sano (Takuma Sano) 1/31 Osaka; 1991 - Rick & Scott Steiner vs. Hiroshi Hase & Kensuke Sasaki 3/21 Tokyo; 1992 - Dan Kroffat & Doug Furnas vs. Kenta Kobashi & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi 5/25 Sendai; 1993 - Manami Toyota & Toshiyo Yamada vs. Dynamite Kansai & Mayumi Ozaki 4/21 Osaka; 1994 - Shawn Michaels vs. Razor Ramon (Scott Hall) 3/20 New York Madison Square Garden; 1995 - Manami Toyota vs. Kyoko Inoue 5/7 Tokyo; 1996 - Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama vs. Steve Williams & Johnny Ace 6/7 Tokyo; 1997 - Bret Hart vs. Steve Austin 3/23 Chicago; 1998 - Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Kenta Kobashi 10/31 Tokyo; 1999 - Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Kenta Kobashi 6/11 Tokyo; 2000 - Atlantis vs. Villano III 3/17 Mexico City; 2001 - Keiji Muto vs. Genichiro Tenryu 6/8 Tokyo; 2002 - Chris Benoit & Kurt Angle vs. Edge & Rey Mysterio 10/20 Little Rock; 2003 - Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Kenta Kobashi 3/1 Tokyo; 2004 - Kenta Kobashi vs. Jun Akiyama 7/10 Tokyo Dome; 2005 - Kenta Kobashi vs. Samoa Joe 10/1 New York; 2006 - Dragon Kid & Ryo Saito & Genki Horiguchi vs. Cima & Naruki Doi & Masato Yoshino 3/31 Chicago; 2007 - Bryan Danielson vs. Takeshi Morishima 8/25 New York; 2008 - Shawn Michaels vs. Chris Jericho 10/5 Portland, OR


SHOOT MATCH OF THE YEAR



1. DIEGO SANCHEZ VS. CLAY GUIDA 6/20 LAS VEGAS (299)1,940

2. Ben Henderson vs. Donald Cerrone 10/10 San Antonio (62)753

3. Mike Brown vs. Urijah Faber 6/7 Sacramento (41)744

4. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira vs. Randy Couture 8/29 Portland (35)556

5. Hideo Tokoro vs. Abel Cullum 5/26 Yokohama (69)542

6. Miguel Torres vs. Takeya Mizugaki 4/5 Chicago (39)408

7. Brock Lesnar vs. Frank Mir 7/11 Las Vegas (42)308

8. Minowa-man vs. Choi Hong-man 10/6 Yokohama (17)178

9. Fedor Emelianenko vs. Brett Rogers 11/7 Chicago (14)163

10. David Heath vs. Mike Nickels 10/2 Edmonton78

HONORABLE MENTION: Cris Cyborg vs. Gina Carano 8/15 San Jose 73

The incredible Sanchez vs. Guida match, one of the best in UFC history, finished well ahead of Henderson vs. Cerrone. It’s interesting that even though UFC was the dominant promotion, running more matches than any other year, only three matches made top ten. Interesting that a complete freak show match with Minowa- man vs. Choi Hong-man cracked the top ten, and Lesnar vs. Mir may have been the biggest match of the year, but it was largely one-sided and while heated, hardly felt like a match of the year candidate.

PREVIOUS WINNERS: 1997 - Maurice Smith vs. Mark Coleman 7/27 Birmingham; 1998 - Jerry Bohlander vs. Kevin Jackson 3/13 New Orleans; 1999 - Frank Shamrock vs. Tito Ortiz 9/24 Lake Charles; 2000 - Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Royce Gracie 5/1 Tokyo Dome; 2001 - Randy Couture vs. Pedro Rizzo 5/4 Atlantic City; 2002 - Don Frye vs. Yoshihiro Takayama 6/23 Saitama; 2003 - Wanderlei Silva vs. Hidehiko Yoshida 11/9 Tokyo Dome; 2004 - Quinton Jackson vs. Wanderlei Silva 10/31 Saitama; 2005 - Forrest Griffin vs. Stephan Bonnar 4/9 Las Vegas; 2006 - Diego Sanchez vs. Karo Parisyan 8/17 Las Vegas; 2007 - Randy Couture vs. Tim Sylvia 3/3 Columbus; 2008 - Forrest Griffin vs. Quinton Jackson 7/5 Las Vegas


ROOKIE OF THE YEAR



1. FRIGHTMARE (205)1,451

2. Ricky Steamboat Jr. (89)1,074

3. Brutus Magnus (94)751

4. Ryota Hama (50)694

5. Cody Deaner (23)269

6. Strong Man Jon Anderson (14)246

7. Rouge (6)167

8. Bo Rotundo (6)108

9. Jesse Neal64

10. Chris Jones49

The latest CHIKARA creation scored a win over the son of a Hall of Fame wrestler and a former member of the U.K. Gladiators television show. An interesting note is that in the 80s, five of the winners (Steve Williams, Road Warrior Hawk, Bam Bam Bigelow, Brian Pillman and Gary Albright) have passed away. Many winners in the past became superstars like Barry Windham, Steve Williams, Bam Bam Bigelow, Brian Pillman, Jun Akiyama, Big Show, Bill Goldberg and Shingo Takagi. Many became Hall of Famers, like The Road Warriors, Jushin Liger and Steve Austin, with Rey Misterio Jr. a lock and Perro Aguayo Jr. a top candidate down the line. Still, there are no guarantees. Brad Armstrong had a long career and some success, but never really reached the heights his ability should have taken him. Brad Rheingans had a solid career, particularly in Japan, but was never a superstar. Jack Victory really didn’t have much of a career. Tom Zenk had a decent career. Dustin Rhodes had a good career, probably highlighted during his initial Goldust run. But like Victory, others like Mikey Whipwreck, Mr. Aguila, Rayman, Sean O’Haire and others never really achieved the stardom expected when they started.

PREVIOUS WINNERS: 1980 - Barry Windham; 1981 - Brad Armstrong and Brad Rheingans (tied); 1982 - Steve Williams; 1983 - Road Warriors; 1984 - Tom Zenk and Keiichi Yamada (Jushin Liger) (tied); 1985 - Jack Victory; 1986 - Bam Bam Bigelow; 1987 - Brian Pillman; 1988 - Gary Albright; 1989 - Dustin Rhodes; 1990 - Steve Austin; 1991 - Johnny B. Badd (Marc Mero); 1992 - Rey Misterio Jr.; 1993 - Jun Akiyama; 1994 - Mikey Whipwreck; 1995 - Perro Aguayo Jr.; 1996 - The Giant (Paul "Big Show" Wight); 1997 - Mr. Aguila; 1998 - Bill Goldberg; 1999 - Blitzkrieg; 2000 - Sean O'Haire; 2001 - El Hombre sin Nombre (Rayman); 2002 - Bob Sapp; 2003 - Chris Sabin; 2004 - Petey Williams; 2005 - Shingo Takagi; 2006 - Atsushi Aoki; 2007 - Erick Stevens; 2008 - Kai


BEST NON-WRESTLER



1. VICKIE GUERRERO (296)2,022

2. Jim Cornette (76)695

3. Don West (115)689

4. Prince Nana (15)479

5. Vince McMahon (10)464

6. Teddy Long (26)345

7. Dana White (28)249

8 Generalissimo Takada (21)199

9. Abraham Washington (7)111

10. Larry Sweeney (3)107

Vickie Guerrero, who lost a close race to Larry Sweeney last year, ran away with it this year, even though she took much of the summer off. Sweeney, who suffered a breakdown in April, only finishing 10th. A big surprise was Don West, who worked as both a manager and an announcer this year, finishing third.

PREVIOUS WINNERS: 1999 - Vince McMahon; 2000 - Vince McMahon; 2001 - Paul Heyman; 2002 - Paul Heyman; 2003 - Steve Austin; 2004 - Paul Heyman; 2005 - Eric Bischoff; 2006 - Jim Cornette; 2007 - Larry Sweeney; 2008 - Larry Sweeney

MANAGER OF THE YEAR PREVIOUS WINNERS: 1983 - Jimmy Hart; 1984 - Jim Cornette; 1985 - Jim Cornette; 1986 - Jim Cornette; 1987 - Jim Cornette; 1988 - Jim Cornette; 1989 - Jim Cornette; 1990 - Jim Cornette; 1991 - Sensational Sherri (Sherri Martel); 1992 - Jim Cornette; 1993 - Jim Cornette; 1994 - Jim Cornette; 1995 - Jim Cornette; 1996 - Jim Cornette


BEST TELEVISION ANNOUNCER



1. JIM ROSS (305)2,091

2. Matt Striker (156)1,178

3. Joe Rogan (100)984

4. Taz (36)646

5. Mike Hogewood (12)408

6. Michael Schiavello (19)391

7. Don West (28)288

8. Mike Tenay (11)131

9. Mike Goldberg (4)126

10. Dave Prazak115

HONORABLE MENTION: Mauro Ranallo 99

Even though out of action for the last few months of the year after an attack of Bells Palsy, Jim Ross, 58, won the award for the record setting 13th time. The top three were a repeat from last year, only with Matt Striker first and Ross second last year. Striker clearly lost being a contender with his trying to be intellectual and making stories up, thus hurting his credibility. Taz made a big step up the ladder moving to TNA. Frank Mir dropped out of the top ten, never living down being such a homer for Miguel Torres, making it seem like Torres was breezing to a win over Takeya Mizugaki in what was a very close decision. Mike Tenay, a five-time winner, fell from 6th to 8th place this year.

PREVIOUS WINNERS: 1981 - Gordon Solie; 1982 - Gordon Solie; 1983 - Gordon Solie; 1984 - Lance Russell; 1985 - Lance Russell; 1986 - Lance Russell; 1987 - Lance Russell; 1988 - Jim Ross; 1989 - Jim Ross; 1990 - Jim Ross; 1991 - Jim Ross; 1992 - Jim Ross; 1993 - Jim Ross; 1994 - Joey Styles; 1995 - Joey Styles; 1996 - Joey Styles; 1997 - Mike Tenay; 1998 - Jim Ross; 1999 - Jim Ross; 2000 - Jim Ross; 2001 - Jim Ross; 2002 - Mike Tenay; 2003 - Mike Tenay; 2004 - Mike Tenay; 2005 - Mike Tenay; 2006 - Jim Ross; 2007 - Jim Ross; 2008 - Matt Striker


WORST TELEVISION ANNOUNCER



1. MICHAEL COLE (397)2,571

2. Jerry Lawler (47)1,159

3. Todd Grisham (34)484

4. Don West (31)325

5. Mike Hogewood (34)286

6. Matt Striker (22)233

7. Byron Saxton (5)224

8. Dave Prazak (10)192

9. Michael Schiavello (21)152

10. Mike Tenay (6)125

HONORABLE MENTION: Taz 87, Josh Matthews 71

The voices of Raw, Michael Cole and Jerry Lawler, finished 1-2 this year. Cole, who had really come into his own working with Taz and JBL on Smackdown, has been put in a terrible position on high pressure Raw. His delivery, smooth before, seems forced, largely because he is forced to say a lot of things that he doesn’t deliver as natural. You can sense the same for Lawler. Cole had won the worst announcer award in 2001.

PREVIOUS WINNERS: 1984 - Angelo Mosca; 1985 - Gorilla Monsoon; 1986 - David Crockett; 1987 - David Crockett; 1988 - David Crockett; 1989 - Ed Whalen; 1990 - Herb Abrams; 1991 - Gorilla Monsoon; 1992 - Gorilla Monsoon; 1993 - Gorilla Monsoon; 1994 - Gorilla Monsoon; 1995 - Gorilla Monsoon; 1996 - Steve McMichael; 1997 - Dusty Rhodes; 1998 - Lee Marshall; 1999 - Tony Schiavone; 2000 - Tony Schiavone; 2001 - Michael Cole; 2002 - Jerry Lawler; 2003 - Jonathan Coachman; 2004 - Todd Grisham; 2005 - Jonathan Coachman; 2006 - Todd Grisham; 2007 - Don West; 2008 - Mike Adamle


BEST MAJOR WRESTLING SHOW



1. DRAGON GATE USA OPEN THE HISTORICAL GATE 7/25 PHILADELPHIA (144)1,229

2. UFC 100 7/11 Las Vegas (150)1,066

3. Dragon Gate USA Open the Untouchable Gate 9/6 Chicago (94)1,030

4. WWE WrestleMania 25 4/5 Houston (47)587

5. TNA Turning Point 11/15 Orlando (40)357

6. New Japan Jan. 4 Tokyo Dome (39)255

7. WWE Backlash 4/26 Providence (32)254

8. WEC 6/7 Sacramento (17)228

9. PWG 7/31 Reseda (19)210

10. ROH Supercard of Honor 4/3 Houston 199

Honorable Mention: WWE No Way Out 2/15 Settle 172, Pro Wrestling NOAH 3/1 Budokan Hall 148, UFC 92 12/27/08 Las Vegas 112, ROH Glory By Honor 9/26 New York 89, WWE SummerSlam 8/23 Los Angeles 89, TNA Bound for Glory10/18 Irvine 66

Dragon Gate USA ran two shows that aired on PPV in 2009, and they finished No1. and No. 3. The only promotion besides Dragon Gate USA to have two shows in the top ten were WWE, with Mania at No. 4 and Backlash at No. 6.

PREVIOUS WINNERS: 1989 - WCW Great American Bash 7/23 Baltimore; 1990 - WWF/New Japan/All Japan U.S. and Japan Wrestling Summit 4/11 Tokyo; 1991 - WCW Wrestle War 2/24 Phoenix; 1992 - All Japan Women Wrestlemarinpiad 4/25 Yokohama; 1993 - All Japan Women Dream Slam I 4/2 Yokohama; 1994 - New Japan Super J Cup 4/16 Tokyo; 1995 - Weekly Pro Wrestling Multi-Promotional show 4/2 Tokyo; 1996 - WAR Super J Cup Second Stage 12/13/95 Tokyo; 1997 - WWF Canadian Stampede 7/16 Calgary; 1998 - ECW Heat Wave 8/2 Dayton; 1999 - ECW Anarchy Rulz 9/19 Chicago; 2000 - EMLL first PPV 3/17 Arena Mexico; 2001 - WWF WrestleMania X-7 4/1 Houston Astrodome; 2002 - WWE SummerSlam 8/25 New York Madison Square Garden; 2003 - Pride Final Elimination 11/9 Tokyo Dome; 2004 - Pro Wrestling NOAH 7/10 Tokyo Dome; 2005 - Pro Wrestling NOAH Destiny 7/18 Tokyo Dome; 2006 - Ring of Honor Glory By Honor V 9/16 Manhattan Center; 2007 - ROH Man Up 9/15 Chicago; 2008 - WWE WrestleMania 25 3/30 Orlando


"CATEGORY B" AWARDS - WINNER

DETERMINED BY FIRST PLACE VOTES

WORST MAJOR WRESTLING SHOW



1. TNA VICTORY ROAD 7/19 ORLANDO478

2. WWE Breaking Point 9/13 Montreal22

3. Ultimate Chaos 6/27 Biloxi19

4. WWE Bragging Rights 10/25 Pittsburgh15

5. WWE The Bash 6/28 Sacramento13

TNA Hard Justice 8/16 Orlando13

7. WWE Hell in a Cell 10/4 Newark9

8. TNA Genesis 1/11 Charlotte6

9. UFC 97 4/18 Montreal5

PREVIOUS WINNERS: 1989 - WrestleMania V 4/2 Atlantic City; 1990 - WCW Clash XII 11/20 Jacksonville; 1991 - WCW Great American Bash 7/14 Baltimore; 1992 - WCW Halloween Havoc 10/25 Philadelphia; 1993 - WCW Fall Brawl 9/19 Houston; 1994 - UWF Blackjack Brawl 9/25 Las Vegas; 1995 - WCW Uncensored 3/29 Tupelo; 1996 - WCW Uncensored 3/24 Tupelo; 1997 - WCW/NWO Souled Out 1/25 Cedar Rapids; 1998 - WCW Fall Brawl 9/13 Winston-Salem; 1999 - Heroes of Wrestling 10/10 Bay St. Louis; 2000 - WCW Halloween Havoc 10/29 Las Vegas; 2001 - WCW Unleashed 2/14 Los Angeles; 2002 - WWE King of the Ring 6/23 Columbus, OH; 2003 - WWE Backlash 4/27 Worcester; 2004 - WWE Great American Bash 7/27 Norfolk; 2005 - WWE Great American Bash 7/24 Buffalo; 2006 - UFC 61 7/8 Las Vegas; 2007 - WWE ECW December to Dismember 12/3/06 Augusta; 2008 - WWE Survivor Series 11/23 Boston


BEST WRESTLING MANEUVER



1. YOUNG BUCKS MORE BANG FOR YOUR BUCK127

2. Evan Bourne shooting star press90

3. Kota Ibushi Golden Star press74

4. Shinsuke Nakamura bom a ye58

5. John Morrison starship pain45

6. Randy Orton RKO40

7 C.M. Punk Go to sleep37

8.Dragon Kid dragonrana36

9. Randy Orton punt31

10. Taiji Ishimori superstar elbow21

HONORABLE MENTION: Masato Tanaka sliding D 18, Sheamus Razor’s edge 9

PREVIOUS WINNERS: 1981 - Jimmy Snuka Superfly splash; 1982 - Super Destroyer (Scott Irwin) superplex; 1983 - Jimmy Snuka Superfly splash; 1984 - Davey Boy Smith power clean in combination with Dynamite Kid dropkick off the top rope; 1985 - Tiger Mask (Mitsuharu Misawa) tope con giro; 1986 - Chavo Guerrero Sr. moonsault block; 1987 - Jushin Liger shooting star press; 1988 - Jushin Liger shooting star press; 1989 - Scott Steiner Frankensteiner; 1990 - Scott Steiner Frankensteiner; 1991 - Masao Orihara moonsault off top rope to floor; 1992 - Too Cold Scorpio 450 splash; 1993 - Vader moonsault; 1994 - Great Sasuke Sasuke special; 1995 - Rey Misterio Jr. flip dive into Frankensteiner on floor; 1996 - Ultimo Dragon running Liger bomb; 1997 - Diamond Dallas Page diamond cutter; 1998 - Kenta Kobashi burning hammer; 1999 - Dragon Kid dragonrana; 2000 - Dragon Kid dragonrana; 2001 - Keiji Muto shining wizard; 2002 - Brock Lesnar F-5; 2003 - A.J. Styles clash; 2004 - Petey Williams Canadian Destroyer; 2005 - Petey Williams Canadian Destroyer; 2006 - KENTA Go 2 Sleep; 2007 - KENTA Go 2 Sleep; 2008 - Evan Bourne shooting star press




MOST DISGUSTING PROMOTIONAL TACTIC



1. PIGGY JAMES ANGLE166

2. Vickie Guerrero being called a pig109

3. Using the death of Jeff Hardy’s dog in the Hardy Boys angle46

4. WWE not acknowledging the death of Umaga on TV19

PREVIOUS WINNERS: 1981 - LeBelle promotions usage of The Monster claiming he was built in a laboratory; 1982 - Bob Backlund as WWF champion; 1983 - WWF pretending Eddie Gilbert had re-broken his neck after original legit injury in an auto accident; 1984 - Blackjack Mulligan fake heart attack by Championship Wrestling from Florida; 1985 - Usage of Mike Von Erich's near fatal illness to sell Cotton Bowl tickets by World Class; 1986 - Equating an angle of Chris Adams' blindness with the real death of Gino Hernandez; 1987 - World Class' handling of the death of Mike Von Erich; 1988 - Fritz Von Erich's fake brush with death; 1989 - Jose Gonzalez's babyface push by WWC; 1990 - Atsushi Onita stabbing angle with Jose Gonzalez; 1991 - WWF exploiting the Persian Gulf war; 1992 - WCW push of Erik Watts; 1993 - WCW Cactus Jack amnesia angle; 1994 - WCW retiring Ric Flair; 1995 - WCW Gene Okerlund 900 line come-ons and lies; 1996 - WWF teases and usage of fake Razor Ramon, Diesel and Double J; 1997 - WWF Melanie Pillman interview on Raw the day after Brian's death; 1998 - WCW exploiting Scott Hall's drinking problems for angles; 1999 - WWF continuing Over the Edge PPV after the death of Owen Hart; 2000 - WCW making David Arquette world champion; 2001 - Stephanie McMahon interview on 9/13 TV equating the bombing of the World Trade Center to her father's steroid trial; 2002 - WWE Katie Vick necrophilia angle; 2003 - McMahon family all over television; 2004 - Kane/Lita pregnancy/wedding/miscarriage angle; 2005 - WWE not editing off the show its terrorists angle the day of bombing in England; 2006 - WWE exploiting the death of Eddy Guerrero; 2007 - TNA signing Pacman Jones and having him do the Making it Rain on television when his doing that at a strip club led to the paralysis of a wrestler; 2007 - WWE teasing a Jeff Hardy drug overdose on the Internet to try and garner late interest in a PPV show

READERS' FAVORITE WRESTLER PREVIOUS WINNERS: 1984 - Ric Flair; 1985 - Ric Flair; 1986 - Ric Flair; 1987 - Ric Flair; 1988 - Ric Flair; 1989 - Ric Flair; 1990 - Ric Flair; 1991 - Ric Flair; 1992 - Ric Flair; 1993 - Ric Flair; 1994 - Sabu; 1995 - Manami Toyota; 1996 - Ric Flair; 1997 - Chris Benoit; 1998 - Mick Foley; 1999 - Chris Jericho; 2000 - Chris Benoit; 2001 - Keiji Muto; 2002 - Kurt Angle; 2003 - Kurt Angle

READERS LEAST FAVORITE WRESTLER PREVIOUS WINNERS: 1984 - Ivan Putski; 1985 - Hulk Hogan; 1986 - Hulk Hogan; 1987 - Dusty Rhodes; 1988 - Dusty Rhodes; 1989 - Ultimate Warrior; 1990 - Ultimate Warrior; 1991 - Hulk Hogan; 1992 - Erik Watts; 1993 - Sid Vicious; 1994 - Hulk Hogan; 1995 - Hulk Hogan; 1996 - Hulk Hogan; 1997 - Hulk Hogan; 1998 - Hulk Hogan; 1999 - Hulk Hogan; 2000 - Kevin Nash; 2001 - Undertaker; 2002 - HHH; 2003 - HHH

WORST WRESTLER PREVIOUS WINNERS: 1984 - Ivan Putski; 1985 - Uncle Elmer (Stan Frazier); 1986 - Mike Von Erich; 1987 - Junkyard Dog; 1988 - Ultimate Warrior; 1989 - Andre the Giant; 1990 - Junkyard Dog; 1991 - Andre the Giant; 1992 - Andre the Giant; 1993 - Equalizer (Dave Sullivan); 1994 - Dave Sullivan; 1995 - Renegade (Rick Wilson); 1996 - Loch Ness (Giant Haystacks); 1997 - Hulk Hogan; 1998 - Warrior; 1999 - Kevin Nash; 2000 - Kevin Nash; 2001 - Big Show; 2002 - Big Show ; 2003 - Nathan Jones

WORST TAG TEAM PREVIOUS WINNERS: 1984 - The Crusher & Baron Von Raschke; 1985 - Uncle Elmer (Stan Frazier) & Cousin Junior (Lanny Kean); 1986 - Junkyard Dog & George Steele; 1987 - Jimmy Valiant & Bugsy McGraw; 1988 - Nikolai Volkoff & Boris Zhukov; 1989 - Warlord & Barbarian; 1990 - Giant Baba & Andre the Giant; 1991 - Giant Baba & Andre the Giant; 1992 - Bushwhackers; 1993 - Colossal Kongs; 1994 - Bushwhackers; 1995 - Dick Slater & Bunkhouse Buck (Jimmy Golden); 1996 - Godwinns; 1997 - Godwinns; 1998 - Kurrgan & Golga (John Tenta); 1999 - Mideon & Viscera; 2000 - Kronik; 2001 - Kronik; 2002 - Rosey & Jamal; 2003 - Rene Dupree & Sylvan Grenier


WORST TELEVISION SHOW



1. TNA IMPACT382

2. WWE Raw256

3. WWE ECW28

4. AAA13

5. WWE Superstars10

PREVIOUS WINNERS: 1984 - WWF All-Star Wrestling; 1985 - Championship Wrestling from Florida; 1986 - California Championship Wrestling; 1987 - World Class Championship Wrestling; 1988 - AWA on ESPN; 1989 - ICW Wrestling; 1990 - AWA on ESPN; 1991 - Herb Abrams' UWF; 1992 - Global Wrestling Federation on ESPN; 1993 - Global Wrestling Federation on ESPN; 1994 - WCW Saturday Night; 1995 - WCW Saturday Night; 1996 - AWF Warriors of Wrestling; 1997 - USWA; 1998 - WCW Nitro; 1999 - WCW Thunder; 2000 - WCW Thunder; 2001 - WWF Excess; 2002 - WWE Raw; 2003 - WWE Raw; 2004 - WWE Smackdown; 2005 - WWE Smackdown; 2006 - WWE Raw; 2007 - TNA Impact ; 2008 - TNA Impact

WORST NON-WRESTLING PERSONALITY PREVIOUS WINNERS: 2000 - Vince Russo; 2001 - Stephanie McMahon; 2002 - Stephanie McMahon; 2003 - Stephanie McMahon

WORST MANAGER PREVIOUS WINNERS: 1984 - Mr. Fuji; 1985 - Mr. Fuji; 1986 - Paul Jones; 1987 - Mr. Fuji; 1988 - Mr. Fuji; 1989 - Mr. Fuji; 1990 - Mr. Fuji; 1991 - Mr. Fuji; 1992 - Mr. Fuji; 1993 - Mr. Fuji; 1994 - Mr. Fuji; 1995 - Mr. Fuji; 1996 - Sonny Onoo; 1997 - Sonny Onoo; 1998 - Sonny Onoo; 1999 - Sonny Onoo


WORST MATCH OF THE YEAR



1. SHARMELL VS. JENNA MORASCA 7/19 ORLANDO535

2. HHH vs. Randy Orton 4/5 Houston40

3. Anderson Silva vs. Thales Leitis 4/18 Montreal25

4. Kane vs. Great Khali 8/23 Los Angeles18

5. Santina Marella vs. Chavo Guerrero vs. Vickie Guerrero 6/7 New Orleans16

PREVIOUS WINNERS: 1984 - Fabulous Moolah vs. Wendi Richter 7/23 New York Madison Square Garden; 1985 - Fred Blassie vs. Lou Albano Nassau Coliseum; 1986 - Roddy Piper vs. Mr. T 4/2 Nassau Coliseum; 1987 - Hulk Hogan vs. Andre the Giant 3/29 Pontiac; 1988 - Hiroshi Wajima vs. Tom Magee 4/21 Kawasaki; 1989 - Andre the Giant vs. Ultimate Warrior 10/31 Topeka; 1990 - Sid Vicious vs. Night Stalker (Bryan Clark) 11/20 Jacksonville; 1991 - P.N. News & Bobby Eaton vs. Terry Taylor & Steve Austin scaffold match 7/14 -Baltimore; 1992 - Rick Rude vs. Masahiro Chono 10/25 Philadelphia; 1993 - Four Doinks (Bushwhackers & Men on a Mission) vs. Bam Bam Bigelow & Head Shrinkers & Bastion Booger (Mike Shaw); 1994 - Jerry Lawler & Queasy & Sleazy & Cheesy vs. Doink the Clown & Dink & Wink & Pink 11/23 San Antonio; 1995 - Sting vs. Tony Palmore 1/4 Tokyo Dome; 1996 - Hulk Hogan & Randy Savage vs. Ric Flair & Arn Anderson & Meng & Barbarian & Kevin Sullivan & Ze Gangsta (Tiny Lister) & Ultimate Solution (Jeep Swenson) & Lex Luger 3/24 Tupelo; 1997 - Hulk Hogan vs. Roddy Piper 10/26 Las Vegas; 1998 - Hulk Hogan vs. Warrior 10/24 Las Vegas; 1999 - Al Snow vs. Big Bossman Kennel from Hell 9/26 Charlotte; 2000 - Pat Patterson vs. Gerald Brisco evening gown match 6/25 Boston; 2001 - Undertaker & Kane vs. Kronik (Brian Adams & Bryan Clark) 9/23 Pittsburgh; 2002 - Bradshaw & Trish Stratus vs. Christopher Nowinski & Jackie Gayda 7/8 Philadelphia; 2003 - HHH vs. Scott Steiner 1/19 Boston; 2004 - Steven Richards vs. Tyson Tomko 9/12 Portland; 2005 - Eric Bischoff vs Teddy Long 11/27 Detroit; 2006 - TNA Reverse Battle Royal 10/24 Orlando; 2007 - Chris Harris vs. James Storm 4/15 St. Charles, MO blindfold match; 2008 - HHH vs. Edge vs. Vladimir Kozlov 11/23 Boston


WORST FEUD OF THE YEAR



1. CHAVO GUERRERO VS. HORNSWOGGLE358

2. HHH vs. Randy Orton78

3. John Cena vs. Big Show41

4. Main Event Mafia vs. Front Line39

5. Kane vs. Great Khali38

6. Randy Orton vs. Shane McMahon33

7. John Cena vs. The Miz19

8. Santina Marella vs. Vickie Guerrero18

PREVIOUS WINNERS: 1984 - Andre the Giant vs. John Studd; 1985 - Sgt. Slaughter vs Boris Zhukov; 1986 - Machines (Andre the Giant & Bill Eadie) vs. King Kong Bundy & John Studd; 1987 - George Steele vs. Danny Davis; 1988 - Midnight Rider (Dusty Rhodes) vs. Tully Blanchard; 1989 - Andre the Giant vs. Ultimate Warrior; 1990 - Ric Flair vs. Junkyard Dog; 1991 - Hulk Hogan vs. Sgt. Slaughter; 1992 - Ultimate Warrior vs. Papa Shango; 1993 - Undertaker vs. Giant Gonzalez; 1994 - Jerry Lawler vs. Doink the Clown; 1995 - Hulk Hogan vs. Dungeon of Doom; 1996 - Big Bossman vs. John Tenta; 1997 - DOA vs. Los Boricuas; 1998 - Hulk Hogan vs. Warrior; 1999 - Big Bossman vs. Big Show; 2000 - Hulk Hogan vs. Billy Kidman; 2001 - WWF vs. The Alliance; 2002 - HHH vs. Kane; 2003 - Shane McMahon vs. Kane; 2004 - Kane vs. Lita & Matt Hardy; 2005 - McMahon Family vs. Jim Ross; 2006 - DX vs. McMahons; 2007 - Kane vs. Big Daddy V; 2008 - Rey Mysterio vs.. Kane


WORST PROMOTION OF THE YEAR



1. TNA424

2. IWA Mid South195

3. Combat Zone Wrestling61

4. Affliction55

5. WWE53

6. AAA25

7. Hustle20

PREVIOUS WINNERS: 1986 - AWA; 1987 - World Class Championship Wrestling; 1988 - AWA; 1989 - AWA; 1990 - AWA; 1991 - Herb Abrams UWF; 1992 - Global Wrestling Federation; 1993 - WCW; 1994 - WCW; 1995 - WCW; 1996 - AWF; 1997 - USWA; 1998 - WCW; 1999 - WCW; 2000 - WCW; 2001 - WCW; 2002 - XPW; 2003 - World Japan; 2004 - New Japan Pro Wrestling; 2005 - New Japan Pro Wrestling; 2006 - World Wrestling Entertainment; 2007 - Total Nonstop Action; 2008 - Total Nonstop Action


BEST BOOKER



1. JOE SILVA242

2. Mike Quackenbush137

3. Gedo & Jado119

4. Gabe Sapolsky65

5. Adam Pearce21

6. Sean Shelby19

7. Sanshiro Takagi18

8. Vince McMahon 16

PREVIOUS WINNERS: 1986 - Dusty Rhodes; 1987 - Vince McMahon; 1988 - Eddie Gilbert; 1989 - Shohei Baba; 1990 - Shohei Baba; 1991 - Shohei Baba; 1992 - Riki Choshu; 1993 - Jim Cornette; 1994 - Paul Heyman; 1995 - Paul Heyman; 1996 - Paul Heyman; 1997 - Paul Heyman; 1998 - Vince McMahon; 1999 - Vince McMahon; 2000 - Vince McMahon; 2001 - Jim Cornette; 2002 - Paul Heyman; 2003 - Jim Cornette; 2004 - Gabe Sapolsky; 2005 - Gabe Sapolsky; 2006 - Gabe Sapolsky; 2007 - Gabe Sapolsky; 2008 - Joe Silva


PROMOTER OF THE YEAR



1. DANA WHITE547

2. Sanshiro Takagi62

3. Vince McMahon42

4. Cary Silkin27

5. Mitsuharu Misawa20

6. Scott Coker14

PREVIOUS WINNERS: 1988 - Vince McMahon; 1989 - Akira Maeda; 1990 - Shohei Baba; 1991 - Shohei Baba; 1992 - Shohei Baba; 1993 - Shohei Baba; 1994 - Shohei Baba; 1995 - Riki Choshu; 1996 - Riki Choshu; 1997 - Riki Choshu; 1998 - Vince McMahon; 1999 - Vince McMahon; 2000 - Vince McMahon; 2001 - Antonio Inoki; 2002 - Kazuyoshi Ishii; 2003 - Nobuyuki Sakakibara; 2004 - Nobuyuki Sakakibara; 2005 - Dana White; 2006 - Dana White; 2007 - Dana White; 2008 - Dana White


BEST GIMMICK



1. C.M. PUNK STRAIGHT EDGE SOCIETY287

2. Pope D’Angelo Dinero51

3. Yoshikawa39

4. A Double Austin Aries37

5. Santino Marella24

6. Zack Ryder21

7. The Beautiful People20

8. King Mo19

PREVIOUS WINNERS: 1986 - Exotic Adrian Street; 1987 - Ted DiBiase Million Dollar Man; 1988 - Rick Steiner Varsity Club; 1989 - Jushin Liger; 1990 - The Undertaker; 1991 - The Undertaker; 1992 - The Undertaker; 1993 - The Undertaker; 1994 - The Undertaker; 1995 - Disco Inferno; 1996 - NWO; 1997 - Stone Cold Steve Austin; 1998 - Stone Cold Steve Austin; 1999 - The Rock; 2000 - Kurt Angle; 2001 - Hurricane; 2002 - Mattitude; 2003 - John Cena as a rapper; 2004 - JBL; 2005 - Mr. Kennedy; 2006 - Latin American Exchange; 2007 - Santino Marella; 2008 - Santino Marella


WORST GIMMICK



1. HORNSWOGGLE112

2. Abraham Washington86

3. Samoa Joe Nation of Violence82

4. Santino Marella31

5. ODB25

6. Dr. Stevie19

7. Tiffany15

8. Pretty Ricky10

PREVIOUS WINNERS: 1986 - Adorable Adrian Adonis; 1987 - Adorable Adrian Adonis; 1988 - Midnight Rider (Dusty Rhodes); 1989 - Ding Dongs; 1990 - Gobbledy Gooker; 1991 - Oz (Kevin Nash); 1992 - Papa Shango; 1993 - Shock Master (Fred Ottman); 1994 - Dave Sullivan; 1995 - Goldust; 1996 - New Razor Ramon, New Diesel and New Double J; 1997 - New Goldust; 1998 - Oddities; 1999 - Powers that Be; 2000 - Mike Awesome That 70s Guy; 2001 - Diamond Dallas Page Bob Patterson gimmick; 2002 - Richard & Rod Johnson as giant penises; 2003 - Rico; 2004 - Mordecai; 2005 - Jillian Hall as Mole Girl; 2006 - Vito as the toughest guy in a dress; 2007 - Black Reign; 2008 - Great Khali kiss cam

MOST EMBARRASSING WRESTLER PREVIOUS WINNERS: 1986 - Adrian Adonis; 1987 - George Steele; 1988 - George Steele; 1989 - Andre the Giant; 1990 - Dusty Rhodes; 1991 - Van Hammer; 1992 - Papa Shango; 1993 - Bastion Booger; 1994 - Doink the Clown; 1995 - Hulk Hogan; 1996 - Hulk Hogan; 1997 - New Goldust; 1998 - Hulk Hogan; 1999 - Hulk Hogan; 2000 - Hulk Hogan; 2001 - Buff Bagwell; 2002 - Big Show; 2003 - Nathan Jones


BEST PRO WRESTLING BOOK

1. MIDNIGHT EXPRESS 25TH ANNIVERSARY SCRAPBOOK BY JIM CORNETTE211

2. Queen of the Ring (Mildred Burke) by Jeff Leen199

3. Drawing Heat the Hard Way by Larry Matysik110

4. Total MMA by Jonathan Snowden105

5. Blood in the Cage by L. Jon Wertheim77

6. WWE Encyclopedia by Brian Shields/Kevin Sullivan44

7. Got Fight? by Forrest Griffin31



8. My Life in Wrestling by Gary Hart30

9. My Life Outside the Ring by Hulk Hogan12

PREVIOUS WINNERS: 2005 - Death of WCW by Bryan Alvarez and R.D. Reynolds; 2006 - Tangled Ropes by Superstar Billy Graham and Keith Greenberg; 2007 - Hitman by Bret Hart and Marcy Engelstein; 2008 - Gorgeous George by John Capouya


BEST PRO WRESTLING DVD



1. MACHO MADNESS111

2. Rise and Fall of WCW88

3. Dragon Gate USA Open the Historic Gate85

4. Starrcade: The Essential Collection64

5. Best of Saturday Night’s Main Event52

6. Guest Booker: Jim Cornette27

7. Best of Smackdown 10th anniversary12



PREVIOUS WINNERS: 2005 - Rise and Fall of ECW; 2006 - The Bret Hart Story; 2007 - Ric Flair and the Four Horsemen; 2008 - Ric Flair Definitive Collection

*******



DRAGON GATE FREEDOM FIGHT PPV POLL RESULTS
Thumbs up45 (100.0%)
Thumbs down 0 (00.0%)
In the middle 0 (00.0%)

BEST MATCH POLL
Yoshino & Doi vs. Dragon Kid & Shingo36
Yamato vs. Davey Richards 9

WORST MATCH POLL
BxB Hulk vs. Brian Kendrick13
Based on e-mails, phone calls and fax messages to the Observer as of Tuesday, 1/26.

I’m not sure when the announcement will be officially made, but the decision has been made behind the scenes that Impact will be going to Mondays full-time.

The time of the change is at this point expected to be early March. We don’t yet know whether it’ll be from 8-10 p.m. or 9-11 p.m.

As things are planned right now, they will be taping every other week, doing Monday and Tuesdays with the Tuesday show being taped for the next Monday. Because of occasional odd number of weeks between PPVs, it’s possible there would be times they would either tape three shows or come back with a taping where they’d fly people in just for one live Monday. From a cost standpoint, it would be so much less expensive, and TNA is a company that still needs to watch its budget, in that situation to do three weeks at a time. This harkens back to the original days of Raw where they would do three weeks of tapings, with the first show live and the other shows taped. There was never a time period where live vs. tape made a difference in the ratings, but the 90s are very different than today.

The feeling is that the Thursday ratings are not as important as building a base for the Monday switch, because the whole nature of the ratings change at that point. From there, the shows will be micro-analyzed for minute-by-minute patterns and trying to time hot segments when Raw is in commercial breaks, figuring you can hit viewers switching away. TNA drew a bigger audience on Jan. 4 than it ever had for a Thursday show, but it was also the most publicized show in company history. But as a test, it did seem to show there was more potential for growth of the audience and product interest running on Monday, as well as increase the profile of the company with the idea they are going head-to-head with WWE.

My guess would be they would do what is currently planned with going live on alternate weeks for a little while. If the ratings for the taped shows were significantly down, that would be a sign they need to go to live every Monday. I would expect them to, on the taped show, maybe not show key segments with angles to the studio audience with the idea of keeping them getting out on spoilers if they believe it’ll hurt ratings. To me, I wouldn’t even worry about spoilers and such because in the big picture it doesn’t matter statistically, but when you’re in the wrestling Internet bubble, it’s a big thing.

As noted here from the start, those close to Hogan noted from the time he signed that part of the deal was a commitment from Spike to go live on Mondays, so this has been something at least heavily discussed and to a degree, in the works, since October.

If TNA goes 8-10 p.m., it wouldn’t shock me to see Raw go three hours. USA has wanted Raw to go to three hours, but I think Vince & Stephanie (and actually this goes for about 70% of the people I’ve spoken with who really know wrestling on both sides) have said that in a perfect world, the perfect length for a wrestling TV show is 90 minutes. Two hours drags in points and one hour today is too short. But television isn’t structured in a way where you can easily do 90 minute prime time shows, and certainly not on USA network, so two is clearly better than one. I think we’ve seen three is worse than two, but WWE is extremely protective about Monday nights and USA network probably isn’t familiar with whatever lessons there were when Nitro moved from two to three hours, which was a positive in the ratings early on but turned out quickly to be a negative.



*******

UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar claimed his intestines were healthy and he would be returning to fight this summer in an interview on ESPN Sports Center on 1/20.

Lesnar described his ordeal, saying that he wasn’t getting in a good training camp and couldn’t figure out what was wrong with him in October, preparing for an 11/21 title defense against Shane Carwin. When describing the situation, he said the original diagnosis of mononucleosis he didn’t think was right because he thought he had the disease as a kid.

He said that in November, while unable to train, he went up to Canada to hunt, and woke up one day feeling like he had been shot in the stomach. He said he was rushed to a hospital in Manitoba, and the first thing he did was decide he needed to get away from Canadian Health Care, and got himself transferred to the Medcenter One in Bismark, ND.

“Probably the lowest moment was getting care from Canada,” he said. “I hate to bash them. Our health care system is a little radical, but listen, we’ve got the best doctors I believe in the world here. It does need some restructuring, but I don’t believe a total reform is the answer.”

He said he believed those doctors, as well as his wife, saved his life. In a press conference, he went off on Canadian health care, calling it third world.

“I knew that I had to get out of there,” he said. “My wife saved my life. She got me out of there and drove 100 miles an hour to get me down to Bismark, ND, to Medcenter One. I was in excruciating pain. That’s when I made the phone call to (Dana White), cussing him out and telling him to send a jet for me.”

“Don’t get me wrong, I love Canada. I own property in Canada. But if I had to choose between getting care in Canada or the United States, I would definitely want to be in the United States. I love Canada. Some of the best people and best hunting in the world.”

He stayed in Bismark for 11 days before being transferred to Minnesota.

He credited Dr. Brent Bruderer at Medcenter One for saving his career, and his life with a quick diagnosis of him having a severe case of diverticulitis and diverticulosis, and draining 14 Ccs of fluid from three pockets that had formed. Doctors were ready to perform surgery, but held off to give him a chance to heal. He said his body healed and he was fully cured and would fight again.

“That man definitely saved my career and maybe even my life,” he said. “They took the CT picture, got a proper diagnosis...and came back with a plan based on the information they now had thanks to the state-of-the-art equipment.”

Bruderer immediately put Lesnar on an IV and would not allow him any solid food. He remained at the Bismark hospital for 11 days. He noted the doctors there also recommended surgery, and told him his chances of fighting again after the surgery were significantly less than 50%.

While most U.S. coverage of Lesnar’s return centered on his fighting again, his remark about being in a Canadian hospital being like being in a third world country was covered as the focal point of the story in Canada. In addition, Lesnar’s comments made political web site fodder on the right wing side in the U.S., since he railed on Obama’s health care plan.

Unlike at UFC 100, when his actions and controversy was by design, and I’ve always assumed coached somewhat, he was not looking for controversy when talking about Canadian Health care, which turned into a national story in that country, particularly in the Winnipeg area since it was a Manitoba hospital he was complaining about.

On 1/25, he called up mentor Paul Heyman, fired up, in a lengthy phone call, saying, “I’m not going to shut up about this.

Well, I survived something, and I went through–first hand–the problems in the health care system, and I want to talk about it.

He noted the doctors in Brandon wanted to do immediate major surgery, which Lesnar believes would have ended his career right there.

“I entered the hospital around 4 a.m. on a Saturday morning,” he said. “And I spent two nights there. No one talks about that. Their CT machine was broken, and they were waiting for a replacement. They could not take a picture of my stomach. If they would have had the ability to take the picture, they would have seen I had holes inside me. If I stayed at that Canadian hospital, at best I would have been retired and would have to wear a colostomy bag. At worst, I could have died.”

“They didn’t have any state-of-the-art equipment, and I was in their facility. So first thing that Monday morning, when doctors came in, and they still didn’t have a way to take a picture of my stomach...still didn’t have a way to operate that CT machine...my wife and I knew we had to get out of there.”

“It was scary, I thought we were going to lose him,” said Brock’s older brother Chad Lesnar, who lives near in Cromer, Manitoba, on the Manitoba/Saskatchewan border. Brock suffered the painful attack at his brother’s home while he had gone there to get away from Minnesota and do some hunting, while trying to recover from mononucleosis, or at least what he thought was mononucleosis based on his diagnosis in the U.S.

Chad drove Lesnar to the Brandon (Manitoba) Hospital in Brandon, MB., about 75 miles from Cromer, Manitoba, where Lesnar was nearly paralyzed by a painful attack. Chad had wanted to drive Brock to Winnipeg once he found out the hospital in Brandon’s scanner would be out of order for a few days, but said the doctor told him that wasn’t necessary. He noted the Brandon hospital was the one which diagnosed Brock’s problem as diverticulitis, but questioned some of their care decisions.

“They were giving him the wrong medicine and feeding him food while he had a hole in his stomach,” said Chad Lesnar to the Winnipeg Sun. “He was in more and more pain as they fed him. That could have been a bad deal.”

Brandon Regional Heath Authority CEO Carmel Olson said she was offended by Lesnar’s remarks, saying he was property diagnosed and was treated by a skilled doctor, but didn’t want to say much more on the subject, noting Lesnar’s right to privacy laws.

“I take real exception to being referred to as a third-world country operation,” said Olson to Canada’s national newspaper, The Globe and Mail.

“We have state-of-the-art equipment here. We are hardly a one-horse operation. The attending physician was very qualified and very respected. He’s been in the business for more than 30 years. And he has the skills to diagnose a condition such as diverticulitis without a CT scan.”

She noted they deal with diverticulitis on a regular basis and Lesnar was diagnosed correctly. It was the Brandon hospital that was the first to recognize diverticulitis.

“I wouldn’t be so arrogant as to compare ourselves to the Mayo Clinic, they’re the experts,” said Olson. “But I really take exception to someone giving us that kind of media coverage for their own political reasons.”

Lesnar did admit his statements were partially politically motivated.

“The reason I’m saying that is because there’s millions of people that don’t want health care reform (in the U.S.) and I’m one of them,” he said. “I’m not a believer in socialism and I don’t want that going on.”

“I’ve paid plenty of taxes in Canada (Lesnar owns land in Manitoba), so I have a right to talk about this. This is what happens with socialized medical care. I’ve paid into the system, and the system did not take care of me. It almost put me out for good. I think people should know about this.”

Dana White plugged Lesnar facing the winner of the 3/27 match with Frank Mir vs. Shane Carwin, and if for some reason the winner of that fight is banged up, then he’d face the winner of the 2/21 fight between Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira vs. Cain Velasquez. Lesnar himself, with his pro wrestler background and mentality, had also been interested in fighting Randy Couture, believing the fight could be built up huge, given that his contract calls for a percentage of the PPV revenues, but Couture’s loss to Nogueira, and his recent drop to the light heavyweight division, pretty much eliminated that possibility. White through out the 5/29 date, but that would probably be pushing things and would require the Mir vs. Carwin winner to come out of the fight unscathed. The Nogueira vs. Velasquez winner, unless they suffered a significant injury, would more than likely be ready for late May. If the late May date doesn’t work, the next major show would likely be 7/3 in Las Vegas, or 8/28 in Boston.

Lesnar said he’s been to four or five doctors who have given him the okay to fight, starting with his examination on 1/5, although skeptics would say the miracle healing was overplayed. Lesnar did admit before his January exam that the Mayo Clinic doctors expected he would need surgery that would have threatened his career.

Based on what he said, he would be ten pounds under his normal weight, which in the off-season can be close to the 300 pound range and while training is usually near 280 pounds. He said he was 288 pounds at the time he was taken ill but that was with being run down and unable to train the way he would have liked. He dropped as low as 248, and said he was currently 273 pounds.

Lesnar blamed his problems on a high-protein, low-fiber diet, being a meat-and-potatoes person who would eat copious amounts of food like hamburgers at restaurants and not eat vegetables. He was able to maintain world class condition with that diet through the luck of the genetic draw as well as extremely hard training. He felt he needed a constant high-calorie diet to maintain his weight due to how hard he was training.

“I’m a carnivore,” he said. “I’m not a big fan of PETA. I’m a member of the NRA and whatever I kill, I eat. Basically, I was just for years surviving on meat and potatoes. When the greens came by, I just kept passing them.

White noted Lesnar had made some dietary changes to help heal his intestine, cutting back on the heavy met eating and eating more fiber and vegetables, and had also tried holistic health procedures. Even if Lesnar’s case was a best-case scenario, someone with that disease is prone to a reoccurrences, although ironically Vince McMahon had diverticulitis years ago and as best can be known has never had a relapse. Jim Ross also had both diverticulitis and diverticulosis, which were life threatening, in 2005, but had surgery.

“It’s now a part of my life,” he said about the new diet. “When I’m at home, which I’m there a lot, I have total control of my diet. When I’m on the road, it’s kind of a little more harder to do.

Why would I go back to my old ways? I don’t want to be back in that position ever again.”

*******

Georgiann Makropoulos, one of the longest lasting fixtures in the pro wrestling community, passed away from a heart attack on 1/25 at the age of 68.

Makropoulos was a part of the wrestling scene almost constantly since becoming a fan in 1959. She first ran the Buddy Rogers Fan Club, and later was best known for running the Bruno Sammartino Fan Club, which was likely the biggest of its kind during the 60s and 70s. She also put out the most complete Sammartino career record book and was not only one of Sammartino’s best friends but probably his biggest fan. She was a good friend to so many in this industry, and spearheaded the fund raising efforts that led to Konnan getting his life saving kidney transplant a few years ago. She had been doing the Wrestling Chatterbox newsletter monthly for nearly 20 years and worked with various wrestling web sites since day one. Pretty much everyone at any significant level who has been around wrestling for any kind of a decent tenure knew her and there was literally nobody else like her in wrestling, nor who could come even close to filling her shoes.

“I’d known for her 50 years,” said Sammartino, 74, who met her when Capital Sports, run by Vincent James McMahon, did television tapings at Sunnyside Gardens in Queens, near her home in Astoria. “She was the president of the Buddy Rogers Fan Club, and then when I became champion, she was president of my fan club. “

”When people pass away, people say all kinds of nice things that maybe aren’t true, but I’d like to find someone who could say anything negative about her. It would be impossible”

“She was a giver and not a taker,” he said. “She would do things for people and never want anything in return. Once, I had two autograph session offers at the same time she got for me, and told her that since she did the work to get them, to take a few hundred dollars for herself for all her trouble. She told me that I had insulted her. She said, `We’ve been friends for a long time and now you want to make it into a business relationship.’”

I remember her first as Georgiann Orsi, as a wrestling magazine writer in the early 70s who was always at ringside in the days when the most ardent fans had permanent ticket reservations. She also did the fan club column for “Wrestling World” magazine as well as wrote articles, and was one of the better known wrestling writers at the time. My own start in doing a wrestling newsletter in 1971, and continuing was based on the plugs, more from the late James Melby, who always gave my stuff an extra push, as well as from her.

Even before the second Madison Square Garden opened in 1968, she had developed enough tenure as a fan to have a permanent second row seat, which she sat in at every show through 1984.

When Vincent Kennedy McMahon eliminated permanent reservations at Madison Square Garden, making the move to change the visual look of the ringside area, as with those in the first few rows getting their permanent seats based on tenure, it by that time was filled with older people, which was not the image he wanted to project. In 1984-85, he sold to the media that wrestling was drawing a young, hip audience, different from his father’s wrestling (which often, like in the late 70s when Superstar Billy Graham was champion and people like Sammartino and Dusty Rhodes were challengers, was drawing a pretty hip and almost always sold out audience, but you’d still the same faces at ringside every month). The move worked, in the sense media stories on wrestling in 1984 noted the change in the crowds, and some TV stations would even show the fans at ringside, with the new planted ringsiders who got free tickets looking younger as compared to those who always paid and hadn’t missed a show in decades that had earned their ringside seats based on the old rules.

But even after the decision to make sure young faces were in the first few rows, she was still given what we be considered semi-official permanent ringside seats for the shows, through her friends in the company or those at the Garden itself, where she sat well into the 90s. She was at virtually every MSG wrestling event, from the early 60s, for probably a 35-year period.

She was born Georgiann Mastis, the name she first used for her fan clubs and writing wrestling magazine columns. She was married to Tony Orsi in the 60s and early 70s. After divorcing, married George Makropoulos about 35 years ago. She continued to attend until well into the 90s, when she started losing interest in attending the live shows.

Makropoulos, who called almost everyone “sweetie,” was very good friends with many in the WWE organization, particularly the long-timers, many of whom have since passed away, and a lot of the wives of the office people from that era. She was someone that I’ve known for probably 30 years and I would consider her one of my closest friends. She made it a point to know the names of people’s children, whether they were wrestlers or fans she knew. I’d be surprised if anyone around wrestling had as many friends as she did, and she was loyal to her friends. I’d actually only met her a handful of times but we probably talked once a week, sometimes a lot more. A common theme was the time she spent on the phone with people, as in recent years. A lot of people we spoke with noted that they hadn’t seen her, as she no longer attended the live events and her interest in the actual wrestling product had waned. But she had great empathy for the performers, both old and new, and did watch enough television to keep up on everything. Last year, she decided to give up her newsletter because subscriptions had fallen and she was losing money producing it. Her readers would hear nothing of it, willingly offering to contribute extra money if she would keep it going.

She’d had health problems in recent years, battling ovarian cancer in particular and getting a full hysterectomy in 2004. She never complained about it, even when she was in a lot of pain, and it’s not like she took any time off from her life, she didn’t miss doing her newsletter and it wasn’t like I didn’t hear from her any less often. It should be noted that when she first found out she had cancer, she didn’t want the word to get out because for as much sympathy as she showed every wrestler who was in bad health, and she was always keeping up on how the wrestlers from all generations were doing, she didn’t want people to have that sympathy for her. However, she did come out to talk about it largely as a message to tell people who get checked up on a regular basis for cancer.

Sammartino said he was shocked when he got the news, because they had just talked the day before, while Sammartino was hospitalized with a painful blood clot in his bladder (Sammartino noted that he would still be appearing at the weekend convention in Los Angeles as scheduled). At first he couldn’t believe it, and later, after dozing off, woke up and at first thought it was a nightmare, but a few seconds later realized that it wasn’t.

“I still have a hard time believing I’m not going to be talking to her again,” he said. “I don’t mind telling you, I had tears coming out.”

Every month we’d get the newsletter filled with the upcoming dates of WWE events. We used to joke about WWE, how so many of her friends in the company were afraid to talk with her because of the newsletter deal, and how they would make it so difficult for her to get the schedule of dates. We both understood the quirky nature of the company but joked about how ridiculous it all was, because all she was doing was letting people know ahead of time about live events so they could plan their schedules and get tickets. She would always find someone in the company who would sneak her the schedule but she noted that with more and more turnover in the office, it was getting more difficult.

She had done all sorts of things, including constantly being a middle- person in arranging for wrestlers that she knew to get autograph show bookings in recent years. In the past, she had gone to bat for a number of wrestlers she had befriended early in their careers to help get them career breaks. She loved wrestling and still followed the personalities even though she admitted not really caring about the current wrestling scene, and watching it less and less over the years. She was nice to everyone, but she was also brutally honest behind-the-scenes, even though she always wrote with a very fan-friendly style. While remaining in contact with everyone, she would in recent years talk more about her Atlantic City trips to play the slots than matches she had seen on television.

She was tireless, often calling here in the middle of the night her time if she heard news, and she was one of those people that the mortality rate of the current generation hit very hard. She always called everyone “sweetie,” and almost everyone who has been around wrestling for any length of time has a story about talking with her and how nice she was. She was a lot more perceptive about what was going on than she’d let on, and it hurt her to watch people she knew turn into statistics, and despite it hitting her hard, in most cases, she was not all that surprised.

In recent years, Steve Williams was one of her favorites who she constantly talked about. She could understand what he was going through in his own battle with cancer and she lived it with him, feeling a personal victory when he had apparently beaten the disease a few years ago, and devastated when it came back worse than ever. Although we’d talked a few times since, it was horrible because I was the one who called with the news Williams had passed away a few weeks ago.

She was also very tight with Afa, who wrote a column in her newsletter. It was largely due to her insistence that Sammartino and I became friends. When John Tolos, who along with brother Chris Tolos were two of the first wrestlers she socialized with, passed away a few months ago, she had mentioned to me, “I don’t know if I could handle it if something happened to Bruno.” “The Tolos Brothers, they loved her,” said Sammartino. “They talked to her all the time over the phone.”

Besides Sammartino and Rogers, she also during the 60s and 70s did fan clubs for Bob Orton Sr., Bill Dromo and Ken Patera.

“The funny thing is, she was one of my best friends, but it’s been almost 20 years since the last time I saw her,” Sammartino said. “I know people who told me they were the closest of friends to her, but they hadn’t seen her in 10, 15 years. Unless she and her husband went to Atlantic City (her favorite pastime was playing the slot machines), she liked to stay in her apartment and work on the computer.”

“In many ways, Georgiann was professional wrestling’s best friend, and she always took tremendous pride in the fact that she loved the wrestling business and was `house mom’ to those involved,’” wrote Paul Heyman, who first met Makropoulos in 1979. “A truly genuine individual without a malicious bone her body, all Georgiann wanted to do was help people, and go to Atlantic City. We extend our deepest condolences to her husband George, her family, and her network of friends, all of whom were considered by her to be her family, around the world.”

“A wonderful woman, a legend and pillar of the New York wrestling scene,” said former WWE writer and independent promoter Court Bauer. “She loved wrestling and was an incredible treasure chest of old school stories. I remember when I was in high school and subscribed to her newsletter and somehow found her on AOL instant messenger. She gave me the time of day and helped lay out options and advice about breaking into the business. She’s primarily responsible for linking me up with Afa and Samu in Allentown. She was just a fantastic person, very positive oriented and a rare find in terms of a true quality human being that just loved wrestling and cared. With her passing, a piece of the last half century of New York wrestling is gone forever.”

“She was always friendly, knew wrestling and was friendly with wrestlers when they had to be careful about being around fans and exposing the business,” remembered former record company executive Mike Omansky, who met her 42 years ago at a Sammartino vs. Hans Mortier Texas death match in Madison Square Garden. “She had lamented in recent years about how much better wrestling at the Garden used too be, when it was the center of the WWWF and WWF universe, ran every three or four weeks, and wasn’t just another whistle stop on the tour.”

Sammartino even told the story of the photo that circulated this past week with her being flanked by Sammartino and Rogers at a wrestling convention put together by John Arezzi in the early 90s, shortly before Rogers passed away.

“Buddy Rogers and I never liked each other,” Sammartino said. “It’s seems silly now, but we were on bad terms. You would never see Buddy and I together. But Georgie was the one person I could never say no to. She came up to me and said, `Bruno, I have a favor to ask, I’d like to take and photo of you and Buddy.’ For anyone else there was no way I would do it. I told her, `I don’t like him, this seems silly to say now when you look back, but if you ask him and he’ll do it then I’ll do it.’ She was such a giving person, so I would never say no to her.”



******

Dragon Gate USA did its fourth PPV taping on 1/23 at the Congress Theater in Chicago before a slightly disappointing crowd of about 450 fans.

The crowd was down a little from the first Chicago event, even though that 9/6 show was as good a show as could be possible. The scorecard on these events is that they are an all-hardcore crowd, which goes down slightly with each return visit. The expensive seats all sell, but the General Admissions are a tough sell. Those who come spend a ton on merchandise, and DVD sales of the first shows are excellent. The PPV numbers for the first airing, in September, were okay. I wasn’t given a number, but to me, a number of 10,000 would be termed very good for a promotion at this level doing a taped show (ROH peaked at the 10,000 level), so it’s probably closer to 5,000 to 7,500, because I’d think less than 5,000 would be considered disappointing numbers. The problem with that is the second show isn’t expected to have done as well as the first show because so many systems didn’t air the show on the Friday night premiere, and nobody aired it on Sunday, where a lot of the buys take place because wrestling fans are familiar with buying Sunday night PPVs. The third PPV, which aired on 1/22, was hurt because The Dish Network didn’t carry the show, so it’s likely to be down 10 to 20% from the second show.

The show taped over the weekend will air starting on 3/5.

There are some changes going forward with the promotion. The plan is to bring the stars in from Japan six times this year. The second will be shows on 3/26 and 3/27 in Phoenix, for WrestleMania weekend. The 3/26 show will be exclusively for DVD sales, headlined by BxB Hulk vs. Davey Richards for the Open the Freedom Gate title. The 3/27 show will be a PPV taping that will air in May.

On the other four trips, the plan has changed from a single show to running two shows on the weekends. There will be a major show which will be taped for PPV, and then a smaller show on the night before, taped for DVD sales. The idea is it’s more effective since the guys are being flown in for three days, so they just sit around a day anyway. Of those four trips, one will be a return to Philadelphia, and another will be a 9/25 show in Chicago. The other two shows will be in new markets, which have yet to be finalized.

The show was said to be very good, with no match of the year candidates, but the top three matches were all said to be excellent.

The first four matches were not taped for the PPV, although the TJP vs. Gran Akuma match, said to be really good, may be fit into the show.

1. Kyle O’Reilly won a six-way match over Arik Cannon, Johnny Gargano, Brad Allen, Jon Moxley and Lince Dorado.

2. Silas Young pinned Hallowicked to retain the AAW championship, which is an indie group that runs in nearby Berwyn, IL.

3. Moxley pinned Darin Corbin in a quick squash



Brian Kendrick and Moxley, who were put together as a team on the last PPV, came out and challenged Tommy Dreamer to come out. They called him old, and washed up. Kendrick said he was mad because Dreamer was an office stooge in WWE and kept him from getting any success.

4. TJP beat Gran Akuma with a variation of a sharpshooter. TJP looked very impressive here, and expect him to get pushed on future shows. The “TJP” name for the former T.J. Perkins is a takeoff on GSP for Georges St. Pierre.

5. Mike Quackenbush & Jigsaw beat Cima & Super Crazy in a good match. The purpose here was to push Quackenbush & Jigsaw as the company’s top babyface tag team, taking the place of the Young Bucks, who are now in TNA. Very fast paced with a lot of comedy.

6. Brian Kendrick beat Jimmy Jacobs. Kendrick vowed he would beat Jacobs in he game of psychological warfare, and brought out Lacey, who was Jacobs’ love interest in ROH. They had a good match. At the finish, Lacey teased going back with Jacobs, but instead distracted him, allowing Kendrick to come from behind and get the pin. After the match, Kendrick and Moxley beat down Jacobs and left. Jacobs got on the mic and started insulting Kendrick’s wife (who wasn’t there, who for a trivia note is the former Taylor Matheny, who lost to Nidia Guenard for the women’s spot in the first Tough Enough season). Kendrick and Moxley came back out and Kendrick said they are going to hurt Jacobs a lot worse than beating him up. Kendrick teased kissing Lacey, but instead, Moxley clotheslined her. Dreamer than came out and brawled with Moxley for several minutes, finally laying Moxley out with a DDT. The Dreamer stuff won’t air on PPV because he’s still under a non-compete from WWE.

7. Davey Richards beat Masaaki Mochizuki to regain the FIP heavyweight title. This didn’t have the kind of flashy moves that Richards’ previous Dragon Gate USA matches have had. It was more hard kicks back and forth. The crowd was quiet, but when it was over, they gave both men a standing ovation. Richards won with a triangle.

8. In a three-way, Masato Yoshino & Naruki Doi won over Shingo & Yamato and The Young Bucks. It was an elimination match, with the Bucks going out first, and the final finish being Yoshino using an armbar on Shingo. Said to be an excellent match with Yoshino in particular standing out.

9. BxB Hulk retained the Open the Freedom Gate title over Dragon Kid in another excellent match. Hulk had the dancers with him on this show, but apparently they weren’t very good. Hulk won the match clean, and then Richards, Yamato and Akuma hit the ring and laid out both Hulk and Dragon Kid. Cima came in for the save. Shingo Takagi came in to save Dragon Kid, as the two have been a team, Shingo, who teams with Yamato in Japan these days, went with his new partner and attacked Dragon Kid. Mike Quackenbush and Lince Dorado came out for the save and Cima ended up with a broom attacking all the heels.

********

Raw on 1/25 did a 3.58 rating. We’ll have more details on it next week.

TNA on 1/21 did a 1.26 rating and 1.9 million viewers. It was the same rating as the week before, but viewership was up, particularly among Males 35-49. Males 18-34 did a 1.02 but Males 35-49 did a 1.24.

In the segment-by-segment,. Matt Morgan & Hernandez vs. British Invasion for the tag titles lost 166,000 viewers. Backstage with Hogan & Nash plus Pope vs. Orlando Jordan lost 60,000 viewers. Lots of backstage interviews with Angle, Nash & Bischoff and Bobby Lashley and Bischoff lost 60,000 viewers. Angelina Love vs. Madison Rayne plus Hogan & Bischoff out and Mick Foley coming out gained 271,000 viewers. Nasty Boys vs. Kevin Nash & Eric Young lost 45,000 viewers. The Mr. Anderson/Abyss thing, plus Bischoff yelling at Abyss backstage and Bischoff and Mick Foley backstage gained 60,000 viewers. Kurt Angle vs. A.J. Styles for the title stayed even and did a 1.32 final quarter. The peak quarters were all 1.32: the opening quarter with Flair & Styles interview and Angle & Hogan coming out; the Anderson/Abyss quarter and the main event quarter.

Superstars on 1/21 did a 1.1 rating, the show’s all-time record number, for a show headlined by Kane vs. Chris Jericho, so TNA after all the new stars, barely beat out Superstars.

ECW on 1/19 drew a 0.9 rating and 1.19 million viewers, another of the lowest rated episodes in the history of the show.

Raw on 1/18 did a 3.58 rating and 5.29 million viewers. The show did a 2.79 in Males 18-34. No surprise, but the show did fewer viewers without competition from TNA or UFC, but once you compare the guest hosts each of those nights, you can see why.

The debut of the Best of Pride Fighting Championships on 1/15 on Spike did 589,000 viewers. That’s below what a usual many time replayed episode of Unleashed does, and with far less promotion, and barely half of the station’s usual prime time average. It’s on par with a Countdown show, but Countdown shows aren’t about ratings, they are expected to do below usual numbers but they are a major factor in driving PPV numbers. This show may help drive sales of Pride merchandise for the future in expanding the brand, but that’s limited. They are showing Pride matches with fighters generally familiar to at least Hardcore fans, concentrating on former Pride names on the UFC roster.

Smackdown on 1/8 did a 2.2 rating and 3.73 million viewers.



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CMLL


Only ratings for the weekend we have right now were Smackdown doing a 9.6 and CMLL doing a 3.3. CMLL had been doing year-in- review shows that did above the usual rating as this was the first weekend where they were back to showing the Friday night card. Boxing did an 8.6 and the Saturday soccer games ranged from 2.7 to 10.0.

The combination of the A block of the national parejas increibles tournament (face and heel teams, paired up based on what state they were born in), and a CMLL world heavyweight title match with Ultimo Guerrero vs. Hector Garza, drew 12,000 fans on 1/22 at Arena Mexico. It was the largest crowd so far this year, but the paid was significantly lower as it was family night. One adult could bring as many as five kids free. The tournament came down to long-time rivals Mistico & Averno of the Distrito Federal losing to Atlantis & Mascara Dorada of Guadalajara, when Atlantis beat Averno in the middle with a torture rack. The most popular of the teams was Maximo and heel Mr. Niebla. They lost to Atlantis & Dorada in the semifinals when Maximo, who does the exotico act, tried to kiss Atlantis, who moved, so he ended up kissing partner Niebla. As they acted all shocked, both were rolled up. The fans hated the finish. The other semifinals saw Mistico & Averno beat the Monterrey-based team of Volador Jr. & El Terrible. Volador Jr. first pinned Averno and Mistico then made Terrible submit. This left long-time face partners on the Super Sky team, Mistico vs. Volador Jr. Both men exchanged flying moves with the story they were trying to one-up the other. Mistico turned on Volador Jr. first, making him the heel, and they tore up each others’ masks. Then Mistico used a heel finish, as after distracting the ref, he used a low blow and pinned Volador Jr. Mistico then over the house mic said that “All is fair in war.” The fans booed Mistico. Afterwards, in a dressing room interview, Mistico said that if Volador Jr. wanted revenge in a singles match for one of his world titles, he would be happy to accept, so it looks like they may keep it going. Mistico teasing a heel turn got a lot of press coverage. The tournament continues with another eight-team tournament on 1/29 at Arena Mexico. Dorada & Atlantis face the winner of that tournament on 2/5, which is a national holiday major show as the 26th anniversary of the death of El Santo. The first Mistico vs. Volador Jr. singles match will headline that show. The teams in the 1/29 tournament are El Texano Jr. & Rush (Texano’s teaming with an 80s rock band?), Ultimo Guerrero & Stuka Jr., Shocker & Sagrado, Valiente & Rey Bucanero, Felino & Sangre Azteca, Hector Garza & Toscano, Negro Casas & La Mascara and Brazo de Plata & Ray Mendoza Jr. In the main event on this week’s show, Guerrero beat Garza in 13:49 when he used the Guerrero special. Because the tag team tournament went so long, they cut the title match short because it didn’t start until after 11 p.m.

Due to construction of a bridge near Arena Coliseo, they can’t run there on 1/31 so they’ve moved the Sunday show this week to Arena Mexico, and are going with an increibles match with Mistico teaming with usual rivals Guerrero & Atlantis against Volador Jr. & Maximo & Niebla. Mistico will be coming in from a rare U.S. appearance as on 1/30 he’s headlining a show in El Paso.

Volador Jr. & La Sombra defend the CMLL tag titles against Niebla & Felino on 2/1 in Puebla after Niebla & Felino won the deciding fall against them in a trios match, where Guerrero was the third man on the heel side and Shocker was the third man on the face side.

Besides Tetsuya Naito, who is already there, and Taichi, who starts as a regular in February, New Japan will sometime this year be sending Giant Bernard, Jushin Liger and Hiroshi Tanahashi here.

There was a kids benefit show on 1/24 in Boca del Rio, drawing 10,000 fans, the largest crowd outside of Arena Mexico that this promotion has drawn in some time. Since it was aimed at kids, the minis worked the semifinal and Mistico & La Sombra & Superman Sur (a gimmick used just for this event) beat Atlantis & Mr. Niebla & Felino

AAA


Expect major changes in the promotion, maybe to the point of an overhaul in the next week or so. The mentality seems to be in a weird way almost exactly like Mid South Wrestling had around 1986. The idea was that they could see based on how everything was going, that the days of a regional promotion are over so they had to become national or they would die. Unfortunately, in their case, they went national and died because the fans would only support two national groups and they were No. 3, even if in many markets they had the highest rated television show, but they didn’t have the star power. In the case here, they’ve seen from the last year that the idea of a Mexican national promotion is not going to fly over the long haul, and that it’s a worldwide business and there is more money to be made in merchandising and other forms of revenue, but they need the worldwide exposure. The problem, is that U.S. entertainment in almost all forms exports better in much of the world than Mexican and Japanese stuff, which is why so much of the balance of power in the world wrestling economics have changed. But they are making a big push for the U.S. market including the idea of opening offices. The key is a television deal. If they can get on Univision, which is actually far more popular than USA, although only hits one demographic strong for the most part, they would at least have the exposure to be able to do ratings. Whether they could draw well is another story, because the Mexican-American fans in the U.S. are numerous, but the difference between 1994 and 2010 is their wrestling of choice is WWE and not Lucha Libre style.

Although Konnan and probably Vampiro will be around as older wrestlers, along with Dr. Wagner Jr., but Wagner Jr. can still go, the idea for this year is to build around Marco Corleone, Jack Evans, Zorro and Laredo Kid.

Teddy Hart’s future here is hanging by a thread due to heat with so many wrestlers and having the reputation for going into business for himself and not listening to direction.

They held a tryout on 1/19 in Van Nuys and were extremely happy with what they found. There were three guys and four women in particular who they ended up having interest in. Two of the three guys were Brian Cage and Shawn Ricker. Ricker had been trained by Les Thatcher but I’m not familiar with him. The other was Brian Cage, who started out at All Pro Wrestling in California and went to WWE with a developmental deal and used the name Kris Logan, and was a recent cut. Of the women, three of the standouts were Lizzy Valentine, who they said looked great and had improved greatly as a wrestler after training with Juventud Guerrera, Christina Von Eeerie and a Southern California based heel named Nikki.

The AAA animated movie, which those who saw it said was good, opened on 1/22 in Mexico. They are wanting to follow it up with a Saturday morning cartoon.

Takeshi Morishima will be coming here this week for television as a replacement for Go Shiozaki, who broke his arm.

PUERTO RICO


After Ray Gonzalez won the Wrestler of the Decade Cup on the 1/16 show in San Juan, on 1/23 in Caguas, before 600 fans, he lost the Cup to El Mega Campeon de AAA (Mesias from AAA) after Orlando Colon threw powder in Gonzalez’s eyes. Hiram Tua, who lost a loser leaves town match last week, was back this week under a mask as La Sombra.

DRAGON GATE


The 1/20 show at Korakuen Hall was built around setting up the 2/10 main event of Takuya Sugawara against Yamato in a no rope match for the No. 1 contendership for Naruki Doi’s Open the Dream Gate title, on a show that includes Cima & Gamma defending the Open the Twin Gate titles against Doi & Masato Yoshino.

Sugawara won a three-way over Doi and Shingo Takagi, finishing by pinning Doi (the second time he’d beaten Doi, and when he challenged for a title match, Doi turned him down), and Yamato beat Cima with a choke in 26:30. The winner of the no rope match will challenge Doi for the title on the company’s biggest event of the year, scheduled for 3/22 at Sumo Hall.

They also have a Generation war three-way trios match with Cima & Gamma & Masaaki Mochizuki vs. Doi & Yoshino & Hulk vs. Susumu Yokosuka & Sugawara & Genki Horiguchi.

Sugawara had won the Battle of Tokyo tournament on 1/19, with wins over Kagetora, Gentaro and Super Shisa.

ALL JAPAN


They had a unique tournament on the 1/22 Korakuen Hall show. They did three different three-way matches to start, with Nosawa winning over Minoru and Kaz Hayashi, ending with Nosawa scoring a pin over the jr. champion; Osamu Nishimura won a three-way over Seiya Sanada and Kai, pinning Sanada; and Minoru Suzuki won a three-way over Akebono and Masayuki Kono, beating Kono with a choke. This led to the finals, billed as for $30,000, where Suzuki won over Nishimura and Nosawa when he pinned Nosawa in 5:13 with a Karl Gotch style piledriver. Joey Cabray, the head of the Ireland based AWR promotion, was at the show and he announced he was bringing All Japan over for a European tour.

PRO WRESTLING NOAH


Yoshihiro Takayama & Takuma Sano won the 2010 Global Tag League tournament, beating Takashi Sugiura & Shuhei Taniguchi in the finals on 1/24 before a sellout 2,100 at Korakuen Hall. It was the third annual tournament which used to be held in the spring, but new president Akira Taue wanted to try it out in the position of kicking off the new year schedule. Takayama & Sano went unbeaten in the tournament, a rarity in the parity booked style of modern Japanese tournaments. This sets them up for a title shot at GHC tag team champs Takeshi Rikio & Mohammed Yone, which takes place on 2/28 at Budokan Hall as part of a double headliner with Takashi Sugiura vs. Togi Makabe for the GHC heavyweight title. That’s going to be tough, and NOAH isn’t in the position right now where they can afford for the big shows to flop.

On 1/22 in Mito, Takayama & Sano clinched sole possession of first place in the B block, beating Chris Hero & Claudio Castagnoli when Sano pinned Castagnoli in 12:40. In the A block, it came down to champs Rikio & Yone and Sugiura & Taniguchi, who went to a 30:00 draw, which meant Sugiura & Taniguchi would advance based on points. In the finals, Sano pinned Taniguchi with a rolling kick to the face in 24:05. Final A block standings were: 1. Sugiura & Taniguchi 2-0-1, 5 points; 2. Rikio & Yone 1-1-1, 3 points; 3. Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma and Bison Smith & Keith Walker, 1-2, 2 points.

Final B block standings were: 1. Takayama & Sano 3-0, 6 points; 2. Kensuke Sasaki & Takeshi Morishima 2-1, 4 points; 3. Go Shiozaki & Akitoshi Saito 1-2, 2 points; 4. Hero & Castagnoli 0-3, 0 points.

The Korakuen Hall finals also had an interesting singles match where Akiyama, the veteran, still beat Marufuji, who many consider the company’s most valuable wrestler on its roster right now, using a guillotine submission in 15:55.

One of the goals of the tournament was to revitalize Sano as a top guy.

Masao Inoue, who has been out of action since July after a dislocated left hip, was at the 1/24 show. He said he would be returning soon and noted that for a lot of people, it would have been a career ending injury.

Next tour is 2/14 to 2/28 with Eddie Edwards, Bobby Fish and Bull Buchanan as the foreigners.

At the 1/19 SEM show at Differ Ariake, Yoshihiro Takayama refereed the main event. Even though having a headline wrestler referee, almost always leading to an angle for a match, is standard U.S. operating procedure, it is almost never done in Japan and I can’t think of a time NOAH has ever done it. It was the first time Takayama has ever refereed a match. The match was Akira Taue & Chris Hero & Claudio Castagnoli against Takashi Sugiura & Takeshi Morishima & Genba Hirayanagi. Takayama found Hirayanagi bringing a foreign object to the ring and Hirayanagi gave Takayama a low blow. When Hirayanagi then gave Taue a low blow, Takayama called for the DQ, which is a rare main event finish in this promotion.

Kensuke Sasaki has added Satoshi Kajiwara, 21, to his roster. Kajiwara was trained by Ultimo Dragon and started wrestling in Mexico two years ago. He was an amateur wrestler who went to the same high school as Marufuji.

NEW JAPAN


It appears the company has gone through heavy budget cutting with the start of the new year. The biggest surprise, coming right after Masahiro Chono announced he was taking six months off to heal all of his nagging injuries, was that Chono was not being signed to a new contract. Chono’s time off coincided with the expiration of his contract at the end of January. Chono had a big party this past week for the end of his 25th year as a pro wrestler. He’s going to become a free agent when he returns later in the year and said he would like to still work events for New Japan at that time. Chono was the next to last main event link to the glory days of the promotion, along with Riki Choshu, but Choshu had years away from the company. His last match on his contract was 1/22 in Okinawa, working mid-card teaming with Koji Kanemoto to beat Super Strong Machine & Tiger Mask, when Chono pinned Machine with a shining kekka kick. Tatsumi Fujinami of Dradition contacted Chono, but Chono didn’t agree to work for his group. Fujinami is building his promotion now around the theme of being the place for 80s New Japan wrestling, with himself, Choshu, The Original Tiger Mask and Hiro Saito, plus he wants Super Strong Machine and Chono (who was more a 90s star although he started his career in 1984).

Takao Omori, 40, is going to fade away from wrestling and focusing on managing a Family Inn that his wife has been running in Kanazawa. He said he’s not planning on retiring, but will be greatly cutting back on his schedule, and expects to remain affiliated with New Japan. The story behind this is Omori was also not going to be signed to a new contract so this is a way for everyone to publicly save face.

OTHER JAPAN NOTES


Hall of Fame wrestler Akira Maeda, 50, announced he would be running a summer election to the House of Councilors from the Minshuto party. He announced it in a story that came out in this month’s issue of Kakutogi-Tsushin magazine (as it turned out, this is the next to last issue in the history of the publication, as the magazine, the premiere MMA magazine in Japan since its debut in 1986, announced it was folding with next month’s issue. Maeda said he actually made the decision a few months ago when stories about this broke and said he’d been thinking about it for a few years. He claimed what spurred his interest in running for national public office was having a son at the age of 48, saying he wanted to work for a better Japan for the next generation. Maeda was a groundbreaking figure in Japanese sports, in the sense his charisma and the success of the UWF promotion in the late 80s paved the way for the popularity of MMA. He was also the teacher of Kazuyoshi Ishii when it came to the concept of how to promote characters and big matches. Ishii worked for Maeda’s RINGS organization, a pro wrestling group that marketed itself as shootfighting (in RINGS would be the first true pro wrestling organization to go from doing 80-90% worked matches when it started to doing 100% shoot matches by the end of its run, although it was far more popular in the former stage, but the success of Pride pretty much killed it). It was there that he took his own background in Seido Kaikan Karate and mixed it with how pro wrestling created characters and match-ups and built the K-1 dynasty. Ironically, Maeda himself was something of a fraud, as he was marketed as the supreme shooter in 1984 with the original UWF promotion, even though they were just doing stiff worked matches. Maeda himself, who was a former karate champion recruited to be the next Antonio Inoki by then New Japan booker Hisashi Shinma because of his size (6-3 athletic Japanese with strong martial arts backgrounds in the 80s were not exactly growing on trees), look and athletic ability. When Shinma was excommunicated from New Japan after a business scandal, he formed the UWF, and Maeda, against the wishes of Shinma who wanted to make it a New Japan style company but focusing on young wrestlers, took it in the stiff shoot style and he became something of a cult hero, although the group at first was super popular with the Tokyo hardcore fans but not popular elsewhere. After it folded and Maeda went back to New Japan, he was a huge star and major drawing card, only losing two matches in two years. After doing a cowardly act, kicking Riki Choshu in the face as a shoot in 1987 while Choshu wasn’t defending himself as he held a scorpion deathlock on Osamu Kido, he was suspended and later fired. But as the guy who New Japan kicked out because he threw a real kick resonated differently with the public, which saw it as Maeda, who always professed wanting to fight for real (even though Maeda himself never had any real shoots, although he did have matches that fell apart and got pretty real due to tempers like with Satoru Sayama and Andre the Giant), was being kicked out for being too real. Maeda became even bigger and the second UWF was a short-lived major success, including drawing the first-ever pro wrestling sellout to the Tokyo Dome in 1989.

Another Hall of Famer, Genichiro Tenryu, announced he would be forming a new promotion in the spring with Hustle having folded. Tenryu turns 60 this week, and has his first match (on a show promoted by Masao Orihara) on 2/22 at Shinjuku Face in Tokyo.

And another one, Toshiaki Kawada, 46, debuts on stage as an actor on 1/30 and 1/31 in a comedy drama play in Osaka.

In a big surprise on an FMW show on 1/25 in Tokyo (Atsushi Onita was not on this show), the guy playing Super Leather was knocked out, and then the old Super Leather music played and Mike Kirchner, the original Super Leather in the old FMW, came out with his chainsaw.

HERE AND THERE


Jack Brisco, 68, one of pro wrestling’s all-time legends, is recovering from triple bypass heart surgery. Brisco, the older brother of Gerald Brisco, was a lifelong pro wrestling fan of Lou Thesz and Danny Hodge, who got into amateur wrestling and became the 1965 NCAA champion at 191 pounds, and then immediately became a pro wrestler for Leroy McGuirk. Eddie Graham brought him to Florida and immediately began pushing him as the top star in the territory. The 1970-73 chase by Brisco of NWA world champion Dory Funk is one of pro wrestling’s all-time great rivalries, which also spun off in tag matches involving younger brothers Gerald Brisco and Terry Funk. Brisco held the NWA title twice, beating Harley Race, on July 20, 1973, in Houston, losing to Giant Baba, regaining it a week later from Baba, before losing to Terry Funk on December 10, 1975, in Miami. He remained a major name until his retirement in 1984 while involved in a tag team title program with Jerry Brisco against WWF tag champs Dick Murdoch & Adrian Adonis. While in the Northeast in a winter snowstorm, he told his brother that he had enough, and flew back home to Tampa. Since that time, he was probably the only major pro wrestling star of the past 30 years who retired and never came back.

Gene Kiniski’s condition worsened this past week. He was hospitalized over the weekend in Bellingham, WA, with pneumonia, believed to be because his immune system is breaking down due to all his chemotherapy treatments in fighting cancer.

“The Tooth Fairy” opened this past weekend, doing $14,010,409 domestically and $20,372,100 worldwide in the its first week out, finishing in fourth place in the opening weekend behind Avatar, Legion and The Book of Eli. The movie had a $48 million budget so that doesn’t sound like a great open. Movies marketed to children are done with the expectation of doing well in the home video market. In comparison, Johnson’s previous two kids-oriented movies, “Game Plan” did $23.0 million domestically on its first weekend, ending up doing $147.9 million worldwide ($90.6 million domestic), while “Race to Witch Mountain,” opened at $24.4 million in its first weekend, and finished at $106.4 million worldwide ($67.2 million domestic). “Tooth Fairy” only got 12 good reviews out of 79 media reviews on rottentomatoes.com. The reactions from those who saw the movie either liked it or hated it with little middle ground, and didn’t fare overall as well as “Game Plan,” which did phenomenal reactions among actual ticket buyers and thus had such strong legs. When Dwayne Johnson was making the media rounds for “Tooth Fairy,” he spent much of the day on 1/21 at ESPN, and met up with sports anchor and former BUTT of Rock jokes, Jonathan Coachman. Johnson said the last time he saw him, he could still grow hair.

Wrestlelicious promotion is taping a television show this month for MavTV in the U.S. and Bite TV in Canada. It will debut in prime time on Monday nights and Friday nights on both stations starting in March. The show, expected to be similar to the 1980s GLOW wrestling, even features two executives from the original GLOW promotion in the front office, Steve Blance and Johnny Cararella, as well as Jimmy Hart, and is being funded by 21-year-old Powerball lottery winner Jay Vargas, who is himself a television character on the show playing the role of a millionaire playboy. MavTV is Ch. 361 on The Dish Network and is available in several U.S. markets. In all, the show is expected to be available in 29% of U.S. homes. The show, called “Take Down,” will also be syndicated, airing in 15 markets, the biggest being Dallas and Atlanta, starting in February. The show will also air on the America One network which is 155 generally small stations around the country, in an 11:30 p.m. Saturday night time slot starting on 3/6. The network has aired wrestling in the past and it’s meant nothing in the big picture. They claim that they have 17 of the top 50 female wrestlers in the country (based on the Pro Wrestling Illustrated issue ranking the top 50 women) in the promotion.

Linda Bollea reached an out of court settlement with the Graziano family in their auto negligence civil suit against Terry (Hulk), Nick and Linda. The suit still remains with Terry and Nick as defendants. Attorney George Tragos, representing Debra Graziano, the mother of John Graziano, Nick’s best friend who suffered severe brain damage in a well publicized 2007 auto accident, said “Debra Graziano is happy that Linda Bollea did the right thing.” Terms of the settlement were confidential. Linda legal position as a defendant wasn’t nearly as damaging as that of Nick, as the actual driver, or Hulk. “Linda, she was obviously in a different position than everyone else,” said Tragos to the St. Petersburg Times. “She was in California at the time of the accident and she did not sign for Nick Bollea’s drivers license as Terry did, so she’s in a different legal position.” Earlier, Danny Jacobs, who drove the second car that Nick was in many reports said to have been racing at the time of the accident, had previously settled out of court in the case. Hulk Hogan has always maintained that surveillance camera footage of the two cars driving showed that they were not racing. Linda Bollea’s tell-all book that she had been talking about writing last year is back in play.

An examination of the body of former pro wrestler, boxer, UFC fighter, bodyguard, powerlifter, politician, singer, book author and actor Tony Halme revealed the cause of death as a suicide, as had been reported. Halme is listed as having shot himself with a pistol on 1/8, and he had been dead for two days before his body was found.

One of wrestling’s oldest questions got a new answer this past week. In the Hogan vs. Sting match at the 1997 Starrcade, where Nick Patrick was supposed to count fast for the pin, leading to Bret Hart coming out and saying he wouldn’t let Sting get screwed, and then Sting coming back and winning the title, was screwed up when Patrick delivered a normal count. This led to Hart looking like a goof trying to reverse it, and it killed the incredible momentum Sting had. Sting vs. Hogan did 650,000 buys for that show, which would have been in the range of what the 1989 Hogan vs. Savage WrestleMania match did as the biggest PPV number in the history of pro wrestling. Nick Patrick, while working at WCW, had always claimed that he thought he had counted fast. Nobody believed him since he was an experienced ref, and one of the best refs in the business and the mistake in cadence was considered unfathomable. Anyway, 12 years later and out of wrestling, in an interview with James Guttman, Patrick said, “I believe what had happened was that I got conflicting stories about what they wanted me to do. I had one faction telling me they wanted one thing from me. I had another faction telling me they wanted another thing from me. So I kind of split it down the middle.” The belief had always been that Hogan’s side, which would have been the only side that would have wanted the fast count to not happen and make it look like a legit win, had gone to Patrick ahead of time and this would seem to make sense. What’s notable is Bischoff was super gung ho on the fast count as the way to introduce Hart and make the Sting title win huge. If it wasn’t for the ascension of Bill Goldberg in 1998, that could have been the end of the peak right there. But WCW never did another buy rate at that level (using Karl Malone and Dennis Rodman in a tag match came close, one could argue if they had done Hogan vs. Goldberg with a good build they’d have beaten it but they never did) again. Patrick said he had to make a choice, and you never knew who would be in charge.

Jake Roberts, 54, says that this will be his last year in wrestling. He said he wants to do a retirement tour at the end of this year and is looking for dates. Due to the track record of wrestlers’ retirements, not sure too many are going to take it seriously. I guess the best line is something Steve Corino claimed Terry Funk told him in an interview with Alex Marvez this past week: “There are no real retirements from wrestling until you die.” . . Jersey All-Pro Wrestling ran its 12th anniversary show on 1/23 in Rahway, NJ, before 1,200 fans for a show which included Homicide beating Masato Tanaka and Teddy Hart & Jack Evans over Mark & Jay Briscoe. It was by far the biggest crowd in the history of the promotion. The two aforementioned matches were the best ones on the show. People there were amazed at how big the crowd was, particularly in that area where it’s become very hard to draw more than a few hundred for indie shows.

Booker T is now saying that he’s going to Los Angeles to try acting.

Nick Pacchiano, who worked for Stampede Wrestling, mostly as an opening match wrestler, usually losing, from 1968-76 on-and-off, passed away over the weekend.

ROH


They will be introducing a TV championship, and do an eight- man tournament on 2/5 and 2/6 for the belt at the television tapings. The bracketing was done like a legitimate wrestling tournament or tennis tournament, with seedings. First round matches are Kevin Steen (No. 1 seed) vs. Rhett Titus (8), Colt Cabana (3) vs. Eddie Edwards (6), Delirious (5) vs. Davey Richards (4) and El Generico (7) vs. Kenny King (2).

Jim Cornette in the U.K. Sun did an interview on deaths in wrestling. “It is never easy when a friend dies. But at first it was, `Oh my gosh,’ then it was, `Oh no,’ then it was, `Not again,” and finally you’re not surprised anymore. It is never good, but it isn’t shocking. That’s the sad thing. It is more shocking if a professional wrestler from the 1980s is actually found in good health and living a nice life with no problems. When I was a kid watching wrestling in the 1970s, every couple of years you would hear of a few wrestlers dying in a car wreck. Now a month doesn’t go by that you don’t hear about some wrestler dying at an early age, because of drugs or byproducts of drugs, which are byproducts of the unfortunate work environment that they found themselves in.” He noted the popularity of pushing physiques as one of the problems. “It is no secret that in WWE, a guy of average ability with a great physique will always get a bunch more chances then a guy with great ability and a less impressive physique. That is what Vince has always tried to book and always tried to push.” He said, “A lot of the guys in the 1980s got on this shit and it creates a dependence, a mental if not physical one. Of course no one ever told you that you had to take steroids to get a job and there wasn’t a bunch of 10 boys in the locker room sticking needles in their asses out in the open. But just look at the hiring practices. Who got the pushes and who didn’t.” He also blamed the lack of companies and the bigger bumps for other drug issues. “There are also guys who lose their push and need surgery, but put it off and off because they have the mentality that, not only does the show need to go on, but also somebody else might take their spot and they might not get it back. Then you take into account that wrestlers’ careers are so much shorter because there is no territory system and they’re on national television every week. Many more get burnt out. Guys get depressed when all of a sudden, after being stars for three or four years, they can’t get a job because there is no place else to work.” He also noted that the drug testing itself isn’t the deterrent it’s cracked up to be. “Top guys with a lot of money to spend can always get the good stuff if they want it to beat tests, although for the guys who don’t make much money, then they have to get clean now that they are doing legitimate testing.” Regarding the idea people will label him bitter to dismiss those comments, he said, “Some people do say it (what he just said), but it is dismissed as sour grapes. They are written off as jealous or guys who never made it. But they are the ones with their eyes open. Nobody can dispute the facts. They just try to shoot the messenger.” . . Blue Demon Jr. and Cassandro were both announced for the 4/3 show in Charlotte.

Generico vs. Davey Richards has been added to the 2/13 8th anniversary show at the Manhattan Center and they’ve teased Rasche Brown facing three men.

TNA


The reaction to last week’s PPV and months worth of tapings in Orlando varied by the individual, but different terms from different people coming out of it included “The Twilight Zone,” “Surreal,” “Total Madness,” Everything was crazy,” and “Nutty.” Of course the Awesome Kong situation with Bubba the Love Sponge topped much of the talk. For something which played out just like an angle would play out on Bubba’s radio show, everyone in the company believes it to be real (I’m pretty much 100% on it being real). I was told the description Bubba gave on his radio show was pretty close to exactly what happened. The incident took place at about 5 p.m. on 1/18, a little before the first night of Impact tapings were getting started. They were on the set where they have all the backstage stuff they film (the Eric Bischoff office, the various fake dressing room sets) about 50 feet from the Impact Zone. Kevin Nash was shooting an interview and Bubba was there. Kong was loudly screaming “Haiti” and “Babies” and just going nuts, probably all worked up about seeing babies in Haiti who were orphaned or lost their homes and parents, and she had done a fund raiser a few days earlier. One person said that she had relatives in Haiti so was particularly worked up about it, but it may just have been because she had just done the fund raiser. Apparently she was very unhappy about the current situation. There is a feeling across the board that with new management, almost nobody’s position is safe so everyone is watching out for themselves and nobody is trying to help or push anyone else. Kong herself reportedly said she was just going to yell at him, but blamed her lack of sleep, her depression from the death of Ed Chuman who helped her get started, and ended up punching him. After she left the tapings in Orlando, she flew to Chicago to attend Chuman’s funeral. I was told there were more than three punches thrown, as well as a knee to either the stomach or groin before Kong was pulled off. It was a sucker punch and Bubba did never fight back. After she was dragged off him, she ended up lying on the crowd and was crying and hysterical. She didn’t work that night, but did work the second night. She then gave her notice and said she wanted out. She didn’t get punished immediately because Bubba is not particularly well liked by anyone outside of the Hogan cronies and a few others. Dixie Carter was very serious about fund raising so no way she could have been happy with what Bubba did, but as mad as people thought so many in the company were, Bubba was on TV doing interviews after all, and doing the angle with Jarrett and was all over TV this week. Still, you can’t have a working environment where stuff like that goes down and is unpunished. Kong was also said to have been unhappy at Hogan and Bischoff trying to turn the situation into some work/shoot angle.

After the speech to the crowd, the feeling was that the crowd was up and down during the tapings. One of the changes has been to put the guys who had usually been given front row seats right in front of the camera to move them back several rows so they don’t have the opportunity to take over the shows as easily.

Alissa Flash (Melissa Anderson, 27) is gone from the company as well. No details at this point other than she was released and it happened after TV, but she wasn’t booked for any of the TV. I had heard a few rumblings having nothing to do with the Hogan regime of people who noted how impressive she looked in some of her early matches once she got rid of the Raisha Saeed gimmick, but that she hadn’t looked as good in more recent matches, which probably explains her not having been used. She would have never been seen by the Hogan side. She had been with the company for two years, with the Saeed character being introduced in January 2008 to do promos for Kong, who they thought was more effective as a monster who didn’t talk, as well as a manager who could do outside interference to create ideas for finishes in keeping a feud going with Gail Kim. Since Spike wouldn’t allow men to do anything physical to women on television, an interfering manager had to be a woman. She had gotten over great a few times she had worked as Cheerleader Melissa in dark matches, and in July, the decision was made to use her as a wrestler, Alissa Flash. For a very brief period, the Flash name was used because she’d wear a jacket with a zipper while wrestling and during the match, pull the zipper down, teasing the idea she’d flash people. She did both roles at the same time for a few months before they broke up Kong and Saeed, with Kong injuring Saeed in October by power bombing her through the entrance stage to write off that character.

Kong, Bobby Lashley and Alex Shelley (herniated disc in his neck) were all off the U.K. tour. They also were doing completely different matches than advertised, but WWE does that on every tour there so people accept it. Still, there is no possible excuse that can be given for Lashley being advertised.

Shelley’s neck had been bothering him for some time, but it got worse and he had to take time off. No word on how long but nobody had the impression he’d be out a lengthy period unless he had surgery.

How’s this for a telling stat. Before the Genesis PPV, the last time Sean Morley won a match on PPV was in the year 2000. The last time Morley was on a PPV was 2002.

The reason the U.K. tour used the six-sided ring is because the ring had already been shipped before Hogan made the call to eliminate it.

Nick Bollea (Nick Hogan) was at the TVs after the PPV. As best we can tell, there is no talk about Nick or Brooke being involved in angles, but having heels (Flair) beat up Nick to set up Hulk facing them is such an easy and obvious angle that I can’t believe they wouldn’t do it.

Everyone was walking around on eggshells particularly around Eric Bischoff because it became obvious that the people who are making the decisions know almost nothing about any of the wrestlers and that with very few exceptions, everyone’s position is tenuous.

So much is up in the air about where things are going. The feeling is they aren’t happy at all with Scott Hall and Sean Waltman, but will use them through this angle. Everyone figured going in that Hall was a lost cause, but there was a lot of disappointment in Waltman, figuring that since this would appear to be his last shot with a major U.S. promotion, he’d show up in better shape.

On the other hand, now that he was in a second time and getting to know people, Flair was being treated with ridiculous reverence. Flair was telling everyone that he loved being there since he felt he was being utilized by managing the world champion. People were raving about his interviews and the wrestlers and agents were all in awe of him. It reminded me of when I was with Eddie Gilbert after the show after the first time he ever worked with Flair and he was wearing this V-neck sweatshirt to show his chest beat to shit and had this big smile on his face because it was Flair who did it. They later had their issues when on the same booking team but it was that little kid hero worship deal. It was said to be funny how almost everyone who worked with him in almost every capacity from the agents to the wrestlers were all excited just to be able to work on his stuff, and a lot of the people who had never been around him in the past all wanted to hang out drinking with him after the shows.

The idea of the Flair character right now is to be the J.J. Dillon of 2010, except that he can do interviews like Flair.

Honky Tonk Man is claiming that he’s very close to signing a contract to wrestle here. I’ve got no idea how accurate this is or isn’t as hadn’t heard the name talked about, but nothing would surprise me. He may just be working an angle, but he’s put the TNA logo on his web site and has the TNA show open video playing on the site as well. As far as doing a few weeks of TV as something different, bringing back older wrestlers works, but for any longer, in most cases it ends up being a case of rapidly diminishing returns. He also could be just being brought in for a match with Jay Lethal, because Randy Savage feuded with Honky Tonk Man in 1988. Maybe they can get really inside since they want to spoof Montreal and have Honky do a backstage skit where he refuses to do a job on live television and they have to come up with a DQ finish at the last minute.

Hogan won a court case from his wife. It’s the one where Linda took all the stuff from the house with her to California when she gave Hogan the house as part of the settlement. A judge ruled Linda had to return the chandeliers, a tanning bed, several fixtures including an antique toilet seat (that Linda had taken to Florida and put on her wall and used it as a frame for a photo of Hulk, seriously).

Lashley vs. Wes Sims was made official on 1/21, nine days prior to the 1/30 match in Sunrise, FL, on the Strikeforce show. They had gone through one opponent after another. Lashley’s camp turned down Shane Del Rosario, and then between the Florida boxing commission and Showtime, several other names agreed upon by the promotion and Lashley’s side were turned down. Finally, everyone approved Sims, who has also done some indie pro wrestling and is a big fan, who has been seen in the front row at WWE tapings when they come to Ohio. Sims, who is 6-8 and about 250 pounds, is 30, and has been fighting for nine years. He’s the guy on the Ultimate Fighter season ten show who was trying to be Brutus Beefcake. He’s 22- 12-1 with 2 no contests, who on the TUF show, lost in the first round of the tournament to Justin Wren. He fought in UFC in 2003-04, most notable for a DQ and knockout loss to Frank Mir.

Of the newcomers, I was told the big surprise was Orlando Jordan, who was better than expected. The rest were not impressive, although apparently the Jeff Jarrett vs. Mr. Anderson match was one of the best matches of the three nights.

ODB had minor surgery to fix her left breast implant this week.

Bubba the Love Sponge and Jeff Jarrett continue to do worked stuff on his radio show, where they argue and Jarrett knocks everything Hogan does to play up the angle. Jarrett’s storyline is that he pushed for Hogan to come, but then Hogan mistreated him once he got there, and called the current product on the air crap.

Within the company, the talk was that they thought most fans thought the Bubba/Kong thing was a work, and it was real, but that people believed the Bubba/Jarrett arguments to be real, and they were the ones that were a work. I don’t know. I do know that most everyone thought Bubba/Kong to be a work and probably still do. Besides, once it was on the air and Hogan was pushing for a match and such, it became a work. I don’t know of anyone who thought the Bubba/Jarrett stuff to have been anything but a work, and actually that incident got almost no discussion.

Bubba went on the Howard Stern radio show and buried TNA, talking about Kong. Stern didn’t believe it was real either. Bubba said the company was in shambles and he tried to help them out as a favor to Hogan. He said he tried to recruit his listeners to attend the tapings so “they wouldn’t have the same 40 people showing up at their event.” He claimed he brought 1,800 people with him but they weren’t allowed in. Bubba now claimed in the “fight” with Kong that after the punches, he grabbed her around the neck and was ready to hit her back but stopped because he thought he might get kicked off the airwaves for beating up a woman. Stern thought he was being worked because Bubba said after all that, he didn’t want her fired. Bubba then said, and you’ll love this, he really did want her fired but went public with the idea he didn’t because he didn’t want heat from the public as having cost someone their job. Yes, he said on Stern, which has tons more listeners than Bubba, that he wanted her fired except that was the kayfabe secret. The impression I was given is that after the incident happened, Hogan and Bubba the next morning brought it up immediately because it was a lock the story would get out, and they wanted their version of the story out first, plus Bubba coming off as the bigger guy in not hitting her when attacked, and most notably, not wanting her fired, plus in Hogan’s mind it brings interest to the product. The incident actually took place before the start of the tapings of the show that aired on 1/21, and Bubba and Jarrett’s stuff from the next day was edited into the show with holes left in the original filming, but the Bubba and Hogan stuff regarding Kong wasn’t talked about.

Hogan went on Bubba’s show and said he’s thinking of canceling all the house shows because the company isn’t where it should be. He called Kong a “bitch” and said her actions were probably menstrual cycle related.

On the PPV, it was Bischoff’s call to limit the number of screw jobs underneath and not overbook things so the angle at the end where Flair helped Styles win would come across as shocking and different as opposed to how the exact same angle would have come across on most of the TNA show of the past two years, with people groaning and thinking “not another finish like that.” It’s a great argument against gimmicked finishes in prelims, because they kill the impact of gimmicked finishes if you need them in the main events.

A funny story from Mexico about the domed cage that Homicide couldn’t get out of. Since AAA debuted the cage, there have been at least three incidents exactly like what happened with Homicide. Those who have gotten to the top and then been unable to get out have been Konnan, Cibernetico and Brazo de Plata. I think they had to heavily edit TV in each case. My mind is just blown thinking they actually booked a match of that type with Porky climbing upside down in that contraption and risked the idea that he couldn’t get out.

The Montreal screwjob finish was the third time TNA has done that finish in a title match. The first was on September 15, 2005, when they did that finish so Jeff Jarrett could beat Raven for the title in Windsor, Ontario, right before starting on Spike. The second time was June 18, 2006, when they did that finish when Jarrett won the King of the Mountain match. Both of those times, as well as the recent one with A.J. Styles and Kurt Angle, were done with Earl Hebner as referee. The difference is it’s probable Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff would have had no idea of either of those cases. Vince Russo probably would have.

When interviewed by The Sun , Styles said about WWE: “All the horror stories I’ve heard about WWE, there is no reason why I’d want to go. I’m going to tell you what I know as the main difference between the two companies. Desmond and I are going to work together to make this company the best, for everybody. Whereas in the other company, they will stab each other in the back to get themselves to the next level.” “Some people might have different opinions of certain things, but ultimately everybody wants to be positive, go in the right direction and for the company to succeed, not just themselves.” Well, they sure picked the right guys to head things given their track records. Regarding the change in rings, “For us, it does not make a difference in any way. You can put me in a six-sided ring or put me in a square ring, it’s all the same. You throw somebody into the ropes and they come back. It’s not any different, so that’s why it was so bizarre to me at first why they would change it. But then I heard that maybe the reason for the change was so we could be taken more seriously as a company and I can understand that.” . . While promoting Wrestlelicious in Canada on Bite TV this past week, Jimmy Hart hinted of coming back to TNA, possibly as the manager of the Nasty Boys.

Funny Ken Anderson post. He plugged Bubba the Love Sponge, and some of his followers got on him for having anything to do with Bubba due to his Haiti comments. “Don’t want to get into a big debate here, but what if every time you said or did something, peeps took the same approach to forgiveness for your transgressions? We also live in a country where we are allowed to voice our opinions, however stupid they may be.” . . B.G. James was working as an agent at the shows this week because they were a man short with Scott D’Amore out.

Velvet Sky & Madison Rayne were called to come to Europe for the rest of the tour with Kong not there.

Pope didn’t go on the European dates because he had a stomach infection.

Samoa Joe suffered a dislocated rib on the 1/25 show in Paris, but isn’t going to miss any dates. He did note that he had to explain the loud screaming from his hotel room as D-Lo Brown popped the rib back in place.

The European tour opened on 1/23 in Glasgow, Scotland, before 1,500 fans. Amazing Red pinned Chris Sabin in the opener with a standing shooting star press in 8:00. Good match with cool spots. Eric Young pinned Suicide to keep the Global title. This is the one that Young never defends in the U.S., so at least they got some use for it. He also was never to defend it against an American. I guess Suicide is from parts unknown, and thus it’s possible he’s a foreigner. Hernandez pinned Rhino clean. Angle won a three-way over Daniels and Wolfe when he pinned Wolfe after an Angle slam. Very good match. Early part was Daniels and Wolfe working as a unit beating on Angle, until they finally turned on each other. The Knockouts tag title matches scheduled ended up as singles bouts with Kong not going on the tour as Hamada pinned Sarita in 7:00 with a Michinoku driver. In what was billed as Matt Morgan & Hernandez vs. 3-D in a tables match, instead no Morgan, and Hernandez had already worked. So it was a non-title three way where 3-D beat Beer Money and the British Invasion in a tables match, using a 3-D on Brutus Magnus through a table. Beer Money vs. Invasion. Invasion did mic work to make sure they were booed. Beer Money was more popular than 3-D. Main saw Styles over Joe in 12:30. Earl Hebner was ref. Hebner was knocked down and Joe put Styles in the choke. Styles choked out, but no ref. As Joe went to help up Hebner, Styles used a low blow and Styles clash to get the pin. Styles tried to do a Flair style promo asking for all the women to call him.

The 1/25 show in Paris, which was moved from the original 1/24 date due to the arena being used for a fund raiser for Haiti, drew 2,500. Wrestling is pretty hot in France right now as I don’t even think TNA has television in the country right now and they drew better than most places where they do have television. Styles beat Joe and Daniels in the main event for the title. Said to be a fantastic main event. 3-D beat British Invasion in a tables match. Dixie Carter flew to the show and gave a speech to the fans, thinking them for their support of the product and telling them they would return to France in the future. Angle beat Wolfe in the other top match. Besides the main eventers, the crowd was really into Angle and Beer Money and we heard raves about the quality of the show overall.

Notes from the 1/20 TV tapings. I’d expect that most of this stuff will either air on 2/4 or 2/11. Samoa Joe pinned Jesse Neal after a muscle buster. Taylor Wilde & Sarita beat ODB & Traci Brooks when Wilde pinned Brooks. Eric Bischoff did an interview and said Hulk Hogan told him that for business, he and Mick Foley have to get along. He then said Foley was being difficult. Foley came out and said that he likes everyone in TNA and loves being there, but that he can’t stand Bischoff. He said Bischoff is the opposite of everything he believes in. Well, you wouldn’t exactly want to worship the guy. Foley said how Bischoff was messing with the lives of his friends like Abyss and Jeremy Borash. Bischoff said Foley’s problem is he won’t get on the same page as them. Foley didn’t want to be on their page because they haven’t learned anything from the death of WCW. This led to Bischoff making Foley vs. Nash in a no DQ match. They had an in-ring with Mike Tenay, with both Team 3-D and the Nasty Boys. They went back-and-forth on each other on promos. Nash pinned Foley after a kick to the face. After the match, Hall & Waltman attacked and laid out Nash. Pope D’Angelo Dinero got his revenge from earlier in the week when he pinned Orlando Jordan clean. In a match with the four wrestlers going into the title shot tournament at Against All Odds, with them mixing up heels and faces on the team, doing the parejas increibles gimmick, Angle & Anderson beat Wolfe & Hernandez. Angle and Anderson ended up almost getting into it. The finish saw Angle lay out Wolfe with the Angle slam, but Anderson slapped Angle’s back constituting a tag and jumped on Wolfe, stealing the pin. Next, and this would be for the go-home show, Hogan said that for the past month, everyone has been talking about TNA. He said because Waltman & Hall attacked and laid out Nash last week, they were banned from the building. Eric Young then came out and said that Nash wanted them allowed back. Hogan said that the building is locked down and he can’t let them in, but if Nash wants them, he said Nash should leave the building and find them and bust them up. Morgan pinned Suicide with the Carbon footprint. Doug Williams pinned Amazing Red with the Chaos Theory suplex. In a 3-on-2 match, Velvet Sky & Madison Rayne & Lacey Von Erich beat Angelina Love & Tara. Lacey hit Love wit the ugly stuck and Velvet pinned her. After the match, they went after Tara and Lacey hit Tara with the ugly stick. Angle came out and challenged Hall & Waltman to come out, so I guess they got in anyway. Waltman and Hall came out through the crowd. Angle was doing well until Waltman pulled out Brass Knux and nailed Angle. Hall & Waltman were putting the boots to Angle. Hogan came out. Hall & Waltman held Angle for Hogan to attack him with the Knux, but Hogan then attacked Hall & Waltman, laying them out, and left.

Notes from the 1/14 TV show. The good news is they aren’t cramming as much into the two hours as before, although it’s still being over written, particularly at the end when in the middle of Kurt Angle going crazy in a tired and groan-inducing Survivor Series 1997 repeat, Eric Bischoff walked out bleeding and fired Mick Foley, basically stepping right over whatever they were supposed to be getting out of the deal with Angle. Has anyone ever looked back and realized that nobody has ever drawn a dime with the Montreal finish, and that every wrestling fan has seen it 35 times? I mean, the first time I saw someone copy it in 1998 on an indie show, the crowd crapped all over it then, not to mention how bad it came across the last time WWE did it a few months ago. Just the idea they’d consider that finish is mind boggling, but I guess it shouldn’t be, because you’ve got a crew in charge that are in 1998. But this was better than a lot of episodes of Raw and one thing TNA does have is with Flair, Bischoff, Hogan, Foley, Sting and Angle, they are loaded with great promo guys. The show opened with Flair and Styles getting out of a limo. Styles was wearing a suit and tie and there were three models with them. Flair came out and finally did his first promo in TNA and it was great. He mentioned that he hated Hogan. He went on a descriptive tangent about seducing Dixie Carter and when he was done, she told him to name his price to come in. He announced that Styles was going to be the next Ric Flair. Aside from the fact stylistically, Styles is better as a babyface because of his moves, he on the surface seems like the worst fit for being the next Nature Boy. The least he could have done was bleached his hair to fit the role. The crowd cheered Flair and they were piping in fake noise of people booing, which wasn’t getting it done. When Styles talked, they had to edit the hell out of it, as the crowd chanted, “You’re married,” and he got lost in his promo. It was edited well enough that even though Styles came off as a bad fit in the gimmick, it still was a very good segment. I’m told Styles did get a lot better over the next few days as being the new Flair. But it’s tough, as Styles is so completely overshadowed when it comes to standing there and being a star when he’s next to Flair. Hogan and Angle came out. Angle did no talking and just stared while Hogan said that he was rescinding the stipulation on the PPV where Angle couldn’t get another title shot as long as Styles was champion, and was making the match for later in the show, and if Flair interfered, Angle would become champion. Even though dumping the stip you pushed in the PPV buildup is kind of a bait-and-switch, Hogan was very good on his promo. Matt Morgan & Hernandez beat Doug Williams & Brutus Magnus to retain the tag titles. Rob Terry came out with his Feast or Fired briefcase. He gave it to Magnus, who went to hit Hernandez, but he moved and Magnus hit Williams with it. Hernandez pinned Williams. Magnus and Terry started arguing when Foley showed up, and he attacked all three members of the Invasion before giving Williams his double arm DDT. He said he was coming to get at Bischoff. They aired the first of two segments of Jarrett on Bubba the Love Sponge working their angle. Hogan & Bischoff were in the office. Hogan said they needed to take care of the Cactus Jack problem, and then told Nash to team with Eric Young. Nash said that he liked Hogan but Hall & Waltman were his guys and Hogan said how they were all “for life.” Finally Nash agreed he’d do the match as a favor to Hogan. Pope did an interview for his match with Orlando Jordan. He kept calling Jordan “Whoopi,” for Whoopi Goldberg, in tribute to Jordan’s new hair, and talked about seeing him in a bunch of movies Whoopi was in over the years, most of which were a long time ago. Jordan pinned Pope with a downward spiral. Jordan looked better than I expected. It was a short match, but good. The crowd was shocked at the finish. Considering how quickly Pope has gotten over, he shouldn’t be losing on TV to anyone except maybe a hard fought loss to a top guy as opposed to a 3:00 loss clean to a guy who isn’t over. By the way, management is very high on Pope and want to give him a big push. Hopefully it works out better than that big push for the Front Line. Angle did a promo saying hit would be a new Angle. Bubba and Jarrett got into an argument on his radio show where Jarrett said TNA was doing fine before Hogan and Bischoff came in. He said they were profitable, and that how could you put Hogan and Bischoff in charge after they killed WCW. Eric Young asked Nash if he was with him. He said he was. Another clip of Bubba and Jarrett was Jarrett pointing out that the crowds had been booing Hogan and they didn’t like the changes being made. Jarrett talked about suing to get back in power in TNA and Bubba backed off like he was scared of Jarrett’s high-priced Tennessee attorneys. Geez, the first guy they brought in playing Jarrett’s attorney was hardly intimidating. Lashley met with Bischoff and was contrite and just said that he wanted to wrestle and wanted to wipe the slate clean. Bischoff said he couldn’t give him an answer until he talks to Hogan. On next week’s show, they fire Lashley. Let’s see. They start this angle where Lashley, due to his wife, goes heel, then quits, but even though he quit, is on the show every week but his wife isn’t. Now, after going heel for a couple of weeks, he acts like a babyface. Why is any of this even on TV? Angelina Love beat Madison Rayne quickly with a bicycle kick. After the match, Love took Rayne’s shirt off and began choking her with it, with Rayne having noting but a bra on. Lacey Von Erich and Velvet Sky came out. Love was holding her own but eventually Von Erich hit her with the ugly stick. Bubba was interviewing Hall& Waltman. I thought Waltman did a great job of playing someone so loaded he shouldn’t be on TV. Then I was told he wasn’t playing. To Hall’s credit, he was able to speak coherently, and called Waltman “Cheech.” Hogan and Bischoff came out. Hogan said he was tired of people screwing around, and kicked Hall & Waltman out of the building. Foley came out and wanted to meet with Hogan and Bischoff. Nash promised to straighten things out for Hall & Waltman. Nasty Boys beat Nash & Young. Sags has lost a lot of weight. Unfortunately, Knobs found it all and then some. Young did all he could here, but Nash vs. Nasty Boys was pretty bad. Luckily it was short and the Nasty Boys are at least new enough they didn’t wear out their welcome. Sags pinned Young clean with a pump handle slam. 3-D then backstage hit the Nasty Boys with chair shots to the head. To their credit, they held back greatly on the chair shots and those shots weren’t hurting anyone for real. Mr. Anderson got in the ring. They did the deal where the 1970s ring mic came down from the ceiling and he cut a promo. Abyss came out from behind him and told the crowd to be quiet. Anderson started making fun of Abyss, not knowing he was there. This was silly, but Abyss and Anderson both played it perfectly. Abyss is the one guy who seems to have benefitted from the new regime from a personality standpoint. Abyss attacked Anderson, who quickly bailed. Styles beat Angle to keep the title. They worked well together, but this was rushed so it was nowhere near the level of their previous matches. Styles got the ankle lock on and immediately Earl Hebner called for the bell. It was so lame. The crowd started with the “You screwed Bret” chants, which is just great, since that’s the main Mania angle for the opposition. Angle was going crazy. Hogan came out and Angle spit in his face, like Hart did to Vince. The crowd started chanting “Thank you Kurt” over that one, which clearly wasn’t the desired reaction. Angle didn’t break TV monitors, but did say that if he’s going to be treated like this, he’s going to WWE and Vince. I am so sick of people writing TNA television having this penis envy of Vince. When I watch a wrestling show that isn’t WWE, I don’t want to be reminded or told that everything in this promotion I’m watching doesn’t count, that it’s stars aren’t really stars, and that all the guys on the other station in the other promotion are the real deals. Angle grabbed Mike Tenay’s chair and started smashing things with it when Bischoff came from the back and acted like he was half out of it, with his forehead bleeding, a and fired Foley to end the show.

UFC/WEC


The 4/10 show is now a virtual lock to be in Abu Dhabi, since a press conference in Abu Dhabi was scheduled for 1/27 with Lorenzo Fertitta, Marshall Zelaznik and the fighters. Dana White isn’t scheduled to go because he was having nasal surgery done and wouldn’t be able to fly by that date. The top three matches are Anderson Silva vs. Vitor Belfort, B.J. Penn vs. Frankie Edgar and Renzo Gracie vs. Matt Hughes. It will be the first outdoor show in UFC history because they don’t have an indoor facility that could properly house a show of that magnitude. I think the indoor arena they have holds 6,000 and they are going to set up an outdoor arena similar to how Caesar’s Palace did in the 90s for boxing (think 1992 Mania) for the show. There was talk of building an indoor arena in the city that would host UFC events, but no way it could be done in time for this date. The show will be a real test when it comes to PPV, because this is by far the strongest marquee lineup for a PPV that starts at Noon on the West Coast, which is where the highest percentage of U.S. buys come from. One would think this show held in the U.S. would do a minimum 800,000 buys and that’s a conservative estimate. Most of the European shows in that time slot do 250,000 or less with the record believed to be around 360,000 for UFC 99, but they’ve also never had a show comparable.

Updates on the attendance for the past two shows. The Jan. 2 show drew 13,529 fans in total according to the Nevada State Athletic Commission. Those are different numbers than announced that night or numbers from the building. The live attendance and gate were the same as we reported, with 8,004 paying $1,969,670, so there were 5,314 comp tickets, and of those paid tickets, a couple of thousand were casino buys, so there were actually more fans who didn’t pay for tickets in the arena than paid. For 1/11 in Fairfax, VA, the sellout crowd was 8,078, which was 7,400 paid and $753,962, the all-time record gate for the Fight Night show.

Georges St. Pierre did an interview on “Inside MMA” this week where he downplayed the idea of vacating the title and going for the Olympics. He did say it was a goal of his, and time would be running out in the sense 2016 would probably be less viable for him to be competitive than 2012. He also said that right now if he competed at that level in wrestling he would lose, and he’d have to devote himself completely and make significant improvements to be competitive at that level.

The new season of Ultimate Fighter started filming on 1/21 with Tito Ortiz and Chuck Liddell as coaches. An interesting note is that Liddell has brought in Jake Shields, the Strikeforce middleweight champion, as one of his team’s assistant coaches, which tells you the kind of pull Liddell has. The filming takes place from now until the end of February. They brought in 28 middleweight fighters. Not sure how it will work because they’ve promised a new format for this season, which debuts on 3/31, airing right after the completion of the Fight Night from Charlotte. One would think with that number they are fighting there way onto the show, but not sure why 28 and not 32, unless maybe they had 32 and four of them didn’t make weight or pulled out at the last minute. I did hear that the promos on the first day were very good.

For Australia on 2/21, they are both opening up closed-circuit at a 900-seat theater adjacent to the Acer Arena in Sydney for $50, and if that sells out quickly, there is talk of opening up a second theater. They will be sending a fighter or two to watch that show with the fans. There will also be a three-and-half hour Sunday afternoon live national broadcast of the show on Ch. One in Australia, so they are giving up what would be likely their best PPV numbers in Australia in exchange for trying to get the masses to see the show. Because tickets sold out so quickly, there is a push to return to Sydney before the end of the year. The argument is that because running Sunday morning/afternoon in Sydney is 10 p.m. Eastern time, they don’t have the usual issue when it comes to overseas events in limiting PPV buys in North America so it’s more profitable potentially than running Europe or the Middle East. MMA is not regulated in Melbourne so they can’t run, so at this point if they run Australia, it’s Sydney.

As far as advances, we don’t have anything on the 2/6 show in Las Vegas, but Sydney on 2/21 is sold out with 15,800 paid and $2.15 million U.S. 3/21 Spike show in Broomfield, CO had 4,000 paid and $400,000. They are set up for a little under 6,000 so with two months to go, it should sell out. 3/27 in Newark, NJ, has a few scattered seats but is essentially sold out at about 12,000 paid and at $3 million.

From a press standpoint, Australia has been very favorable. The Sydney Morning Herald is running a series of articles by Cain Velasquez leading up to the fight. The Daily Telegraph is having articles by Michael Bisping leading to the fight while the Brisbane Times has stuff with Chris Haseman. While the fight won’t be airing live on the North American PPV, in Australia, they are heavily pushing Chris Haseman vs. Elvis Sinosic in a grudge match battle of Australians as one of the big matches. Apparently the two of them take it very seriously as when doing press, Haseman in particular has problems being anywhere near Sinosic.

Randy Couture is in the unique position of being the guy that every top heavier weight fighter has been asking for a match with. Because the top guys are paid on a PPV percentage, all three champions, Brock Lesnar, Anderson Silva and Lyoto Machida have asked for matches with Couture, figuring he’d be their biggest drawing opponent. I don’t see Couture vs. Silva happening. It’s not a fight people are clamoring to see and the end result won’t make anyone happy. Lesnar’s biggest drawing opponent would be Frank Mir, but of all the other heavyweights, because of the story involved, and Lesnar is a businessman who understands a good story draws (plus he’s still very tight with Paul Heyman), Couture would draw more than any other. But I don’t see that as happening because Couture’s loss to Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and his move to light heavyweight, plus the depth of the heavyweight division, to me makes that impossible to make right now. If Couture beats Mark Coleman impressively on 2/6, I could easily see Machida vs. Couture, although the Machida-Rua winner more logically would face the Jackson-Evans winner.

There has been a lot of talk in the Toronto media over the past week regarding UFC coming. There’s still no timetable, as Ken Hayashi, the head of the athletic commission in Ontario believes MMA is against how he interprets federal law, even though MMA is run in several other provinces. UFC figures show that 40% of the tickets sold for the event this past April in Montreal were sold to people within the province of Ontario, and those in UFC have long talked about the idea of running Rogers Centre, which could hold 65,000, for a first event in Toronto. Marc Ratner talked of drawing 35,000 to 40,000, and many think he’s underestimating what can be drawn since Toronto is one of the best PPV markets in the world and sports bars are slammed on nights of major UFC events. Giogrio Mammoliti, who is running for mayor, said he wants to see it in the city because it would bring tourism revenue. Mammoliti called upon opponents of UFC to try and justify why UFC is still not allowed. “If they can show that it’s any more dangerous than hockey or football or karate or any of the other contact sports that we have accepted in society, then I would say no to it. But I don’t think anybody has done that yet.” Councilor Doug Holyday told the Toronto Star that he was opposed to it, but said that since Vancouver is running a show, he’s open to the idea that if it goes well in Vancouver, he could change his opinion. Councilor Rob Ford said he doesn’t understand why it’s popular, but said the city and province should be open to shows, but wants them restricted with nobody under 18 allowed to attend.

Tito Ortiz told MMAjunkie.com that he was completely healthy (don’t laugh) and that if he isn’t healthy for his fight with Chuck Liddell, that he will withdraw ahead of time rather than make an excuse after the fact.

The UFC Undisputed video game is among five nominees in the category “Fighting Game of the Year” at the 13th annual Interactive Achievement Awards ceremony that will take place on 2/18 in Las Vegas, hosted by Jay Mohr. Other nominees are Punch Out, Fight Night Round four, Street Fight IV and Tekken 6.

Jay Silva was cut after his 1/11 loss to Chris Leben . . Very tentative plans right now would be for Chuck Liddell vs. Tito Ortiz to headline the July show in Las Vegas (probable date 7/3). The 6/12 show in Vancouver seems to be the odd show out. If everything goes right, they want to headline with a welterweight title match, with the GSP vs. Dan Hardy winner against the Jon Fitch vs. Thiago Alves winner, although that requires both winners on 3/27 coming out healthy.

Corey Hill, who suffered at least the most physically graphic injury in the history of UFC, as his shin literally snapped in two throwing a kick 13 months ago in a UFC match against Dale Hartt, returned to fight on a show in Niagara Falls, NY. Hill won a unanimous decision over Jason Trzewiecynski on the 1/23 show. After seeing that injury, it’s amazing he was able to return so quickly.

Chael Sonnen, should he beat Nate Marquardt on 2/6, is getting his mouth ready for a potential fight with Anderson Silva for the title in an MMAmania interview . “If he wants to leave the division, leave the sport, who cares. Beat it. Nobody tunes in to watch him anyway, and his little fake `I don’t speak English.’ You want me to let you in on a secret. Anderson Silva speaks perfect English. He just has such a low amount of respect for you and the rest of the media that he pretends he doesn’t. I’ve had conversations with Anderson Silva in perfect English, and on top of that, he’s so boring to listen to that he and his rocket scientist manager, Ed Soares, who is also about as exciting as watching grass grow, have decided that Ed is better on the mic than Anderson, so just let Ed do the talking.

That guy is no more the top fighter out there than Bigfoot is roaming the woods. That is an absolute myth, and all these guys can buy into it.” Some background on Sonnen is that besides being an All-American college wrestler, he also tried out for WCW (didn’t make it but did train in the 90s at the Power Plant) and also has run for public office, so you can see where he’s practiced promos.

The much talked about Forrest Griffin vs. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira match looks to be second from the top on the 5/8 Montreal show with the Shogun Rua vs. Lyoto Machida bout.

The main event of the 3/31 Charlotte show on Spike looks to be Kenny Florian vs. Takanori Gomi. I guess they figure the 3/27 show is now loaded enough as the original idea was for that fight to be on the PPV.

Terry Etim of England, who may be the best British fighter in the UFC but doesn’t have the charisma of Michael Bisping or Dan Hardy, faces Rafael Dos Anjos on the 4/10 show in Abu Dhabi.

Caol Uno vs. Gleison Tibau and Jason Brilz vs. Eric Schafer have been added as prelim matches on 3/21 in Broomfield, CO, a show billed as “UFC on Versus 1.” Clay Guida, who is the most popular fighter appearing on the show and probably has the best history of having great matches of anyone in the company, is scheduled for a prelim match with Shannon Gugerty as opposed to a main show match. I guess the choice came down to Anthony Johnson (in theory more potential as a contender) vs. John Howard (basic unknown) and Paul Buentello vs. Cheick Kongo (heavyweights who will slug it out and on paper should have a good fight) for two of the three slots. Still, with the theory of wanting to open up strong, Guida in the first match because it’s almost a lock the crowd will be into him, to me should be the way to go.

New matches added to the WEC show on 3/6 in Columbus, OH, are Ricardo Lamas against the debuting Bendy Casimir (19-5-2), Chad George vs. Scott Jorgenson (another person in line for a possible bantamweight title match after beating Takeya Mizugaki on 12/19), Danny Castillo vs. Anthony Pettis and Deividas Taurosevicius vs. L.C. Davis. The company was really high on Pettis as a potential lightweight title contender, but he dropped a split decision to Bart Palaszewski on 12/19.

STRIKEFORCE


There will be a Challengers Series show on 2/26 live from the San Jose Civic Auditorium. Trevor Prangley vs. Karl Amoussou of France will headline along with unbeaten Sarah Kaufman (10-0) facing Takayo Hashi (12- 1) in a match to create the women’s 135 pound championship which will be called the World’s Women’s welterweight title. Hashi was the champion of Japan’s Smackgirls all-women’s promotion, and has won her last eight fights. The other top match has Luke Rockhold vs. Paul Bradley. Rockhold is a local fighter that everyone raves about. Other matches announced involve local fighters against guys from outside with James Terry of San Jose against Tare Saffiedine of Temecula; and Raul Castillo of Half Moon Bay against Yancy Medeiros of Hawaii.

There is also a Showtime date on 3/26 in Fresno for a Challengers show.

Talk of a big show in March on Showtime is no longer on the books. After the 1/30 show in Sunrise, FL, the plan is for the next big show to be the CBS show in April. The date mentioned is 4/17 but no date or location is official right now.

Scott Coker talked about doing an eight-women’s tournament, either at 135 or 145, to determine a title contender. The working idea would be on a May Challengers Series show, do four first round matches, and then in late June or July, do the final four in one night like they do in Japan, with the semifinals and finals being two round fights.

On the women’s side, the working idea is if Cris Cyborg beats Marloes Coenen, she would probably face Erin Toughill for the title next. If Coenen wins, they’ll probably put Coenen vs. Gina Carano over the summer. If Cyborg retains, Carano’s first opponent could be one of a few different fighters, with Coenen and Kerry Vera under consideration.

A lot of the players who are playing in the Pro Bowl on 1/31 have requested tickets to the show. This show is unique in how it’s laid out. To the public, the main event is Herschel Walker, but from a standpoint of who should in what spot based on tenure, he should be in the opener. The second biggest star is Bobby Lashley, who at this point is scheduled to be in the opener with Walker either second or third, probably with Melvin Manhoef vs. Robbie Lawler in the middle, and Cyborg in the semi and Nick Diaz vs. Marius Zaromskis as the main event. As far as public interest as judged by Internet trends, if Walker is 100, Lashley is 44, Diaz is 19, Cyborg, Zaromskis and Manhoef are all a 2, which is the best indicator of who would draw the ratings and theory, who you’d want on last to not lose audience. Obviously there are reasons it won’t be that way, but I can’t think of any show where it is the prelims that are going to determine what level of success the show has. The goal at this point is to get 9,000 to 10,000, which would be more than Kimbo drew in the same arena in essentially his home town 14 months ago.

In an interview with Loretta Hunt, Cris Cyborg noted that she only trains with men: “No, just with men. I prefer to train with men. I feel more comfortable. I’m afraid of hurting the women.” Regarding her offer from Playboy, she said she was embarrassed the news of the offer got out. “I probably commented to only two or three people that knew about it. Less than 24 hours later, I went online and saw my picture with everyone talking about Playboy. I just wanted to die. I went into desperation made; how did everybody know about it? It was very, very uncomfortable because it wasn’t something I’d said yes to. It was just a possibility. I hadn’t even had a chance to talk to my husband about it, but once I did, he wasn’t very happy about it at all. It wasn’t supposed to come out.

Joe Villasenor, who beat Evangelista “Cyborg” Santos in a Challengers main event in June, is back with the organization having signed a four-fight contract.

K-1/DREAM


Sadaharu Tanigawa said that in early February he would be talking with Masato about taking a role as General Manager, to help give the rub to younger stars and work in matchmaking.

There has been little talk regarding Dream since the New Year’s Eve event, but they are apparently starting to prepare for a next show, which has not been announced, but will be in March. Fiveouncesofpain.com reported they are looking at having featherweight champion Bibiano Fernandes defend against Joachim Hansen, who is dropping from 155 to 145. Hansen was very small at 155, frequently coming in several pounds under the limit so in today’s state of the art he should cut down.

At a press conference this past week, Tanigawa announced they would be adding a 132 pound weight division on the K-1 Max shows. This will be built around Hiroya, who will no longer be able to fight in the high school age division having turned 18. He also said Dream would be running shows outside of Japan this year, talking about South Korea and Macau, and a long-term goal of running in the U.S.

OTHER MMA


Travis Tygart of the U.S. Anti-Doping Association did an interview with the Grand Rapids Press regarding the falling apart of the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight. He noted that he talked with both camps before the fight fell apart. “Out of respect for that process, I don’t want to go into a ton of detail, but it’s safe to say that the Mayweather camp wanted the carte blanche gold- standard program that we run, and the other side didn’t want to do that.” He also said, “The current state of drug testing done by these state commissions is a joke. They don’t test for EPO. They don’t test for designer steroids. They test for basic, simple menu that anybody with a heartbeat will escape.” I’m glad he didn’t say anyone with a brain because then I’d have to investigate whether Josh Barnett had a lobotomy. He said “Just a couple tests here and there that everyone knows about, or 72-hour notice that you’re going to be tested, or 48-hour notice, it has to be true no-notice testing. And it has to be a broad menu of tests.” He said you have to do both urine and blood testing, noting some forms of EPO (Micera for example) and HGH can only be tested by blood. Actually, I’m still very skeptical if HGH can be tested effectively for, given that in the last Olympics, when the new test rolled out, they didn’t catch anyone. He also said that the way commissions are doing the out of competition random testing, where they call a guy up and give him 48-hours to give a urine sample at a local clinic, is time for him to mask steroids or EPO, as the Olympic style testing means you’ve got to provide a sample whenever the tester shows up. With WWE, they also do that, but people know generally they are going to be tested on TV day, so knowing how long it takes to get stuff out of your system (in the case of cocaine, for example, only a few days), a lot of guys time it and nobody has gotten busted for cocaine usage in a long-time, even though it is said to still exists to at least a small degree. As far as the 14-day limit that Mayweather agreed to, he said for blood doping it would stay in your system longer than 14 days but for HGH, you could use that drug at the end even under the system Mayweather agreed to. What is interesting to me is that the media has largely put the heat on Mayweather for the fight falling apart, and to me, given the nature of how it did, the heat should be strong on both sides. Mayweather had already given up full comprehensive testing, so at that point, 14 days or 24 days, it’s not worth losing the fight over. Pacquiao was so clearly throughout the negotiations acting like someone hiding something, but since he had never failed a test and he’s the babyface, he was getting a pass because his stance was completely ridiculous except in the kayfabed version of drug testing that exists. But he even got his way to a degree, and still allowed the difference between 14 and 24 days to kill the fight, so he’s at best equal to blame, and really more to blame, for the fight not happening.

Two-time NCAA heavyweight champion Cole Konrad, a regular training partner of Brock Lesnar, made his MMA debut on 1/23 in Fargo, destroying Gary Hamen with a neck crank in 1:13. Lesnar was at the show. Konrad, who would cut to make 285 as a heavyweight at the University of Minnesota, made 265 and estimated he was 285- 290 at match time. Konrad, 25, was an undefeated NCAA champion in 2006 (he beat Cain Velasquez via criteria decision in the semifinals and beat Steve Mocco 5-2 in the finals that year) and 2007 after being high school national champion in 2002. He won his last 76 matches in college and only lost three times as a sophomore in 2005.

There has been a lot of talk regarding the local Edmonton Combative Sports Commission approving the use of Dream rules for an upcoming show. This would be the first North American commission to go against the unified rules. The Association of Boxing Commissions has publicly come out against allowing MMA under different rules, mainly the allowance of knees to a grounded opponent, judging based on simply the judge deciding a winner based on the fight as a whole as opposed to the ten point must system, and ten minute first rounds and five minute second rounds as opposed to three five minute rounds. ABC president Tim Luecknhoff sent Edmonton commission executive director Pat Reid a letter saying the ABC is against MMA events happening under those rules. If they allow it, there would be talk of removing the Edmonton commission from its associate member status in the ABC.

Charles “Krazy Horse” Bennett, a star fighter with Elite XC who was in one of the most watched MMA matches in history, was arrested again on 1/18 on suspicion of felony aggravated battery. He apparently got into a fight with a teammate. Sherdog.com quoted Tom Vaughn of FIT NHB in Albuquerque, saying, “During routine sparring, tempers flared between Charles and the other fighter, and Charles ended up getting dropped by the larger training partner. They were quickly broken up and Charles left the mat, got dressed and left the building. He returned about 15 minutes later, walked down to the training area and pulled out a heavy piece of steel he must have found in the parking lot and began attacking the other fighter with intent to do serious damage. He was tackled by two other fighters and disarmed.” Vaughn said the fighter assaulted was okay and that Bennett, who had been training at the gym on-and-off for six months, was kicked out of the gym. Bennett beat K.J. Noons on the first MMA show on Showtime, and on December 31, 2005, Bennett’s win over Japanese actor Ken Kaneko drew a 27.7 rating, one of the largest ratings in history for an MMA match.

WWE


WWE officials are trying to get Conan O’Brien as a guest host. Apparently the situation is that he has a clause in his contract that he can’t guest host another show until September. So WWE is trying to make it that he would not be hosting a variety show, but that he would be General Manager and perhaps frame the show as a quasi-sports event and not a talk show. The feeling is it would be cool if it happens but it’s not something they are discussing seriously right now.

In a weird coincidence, the first Smackdown show after the Super Bowl is 2/9 at the New Orleans Arena. They are already working on a major Punk promo regarding the game, particularly if the Saints lose.

As figured a long time ago, since I never took this one seriously, WWE creative has been told there is no chance of Rock vs. Cena at Mania and right now are back to Cena vs. Batista. In recent interviews, Rock has seemed pretty clear he wasn’t looking to wrestle when he does an appearance later this year. In talking with Live Audio Wrestling, Johnson said that he had no interest in doing a match with Cena even if he was to wrestle. He also said he’s been very intrigued with the Bret Hart/Vince McMahon storyline. He talked about guest hosting Raw over the summer. Even though there was talk of dropping the guest hosting thing after Mania, there is talk of continuing it indefinitely, particularly if TNA goes to Mondays. . . There was a mini unplanned back-and-forth over Jeff Hardy appearing on Impact, starting when DiBiase was on Live Audio Wrestling and was asked about Hardy on Impact, said, “Jeff has his own demons he’s battling right now, I guess, but what can you do? Maybe it’s something he had to do. I wish him the best because he was a great performer, but it was a little disappointing, I guess.” In response, Beth, Hardy’s fiancé, wrote, “I think it’s silly that people use the generalized term `demons’ when talking about Jeff, especially when they have had their own share. Just sayin’, Oh and BTW, Jeff appearing on TNA was anything but a disappointment.” . . WWE is scheduled to make a decision on WrestleMania 27 (for the 2011 show) and make it official on 2/1. The Georgia Dome in Atlanta seems to be the frontrunner, and the timing of the decision would also indicate it, being the day after the Royal Rumble, which takes place at the Phillips Arena in Atlanta. There are still other sites in the running but it’s the favorite. Gary Stokan , the President of the Atlanta Sports Council, was on Rich Tate’ radio show and they were under the impression the decision had come down to the Georgia Dome and Sun Life Stadium in Miami, which is an outdoor stadium. Atlanta would have the advantage because it is indoors, and running outdoors in Orlando was far more costly. Even though the Orlando WrestleMania 24 did bigger numbers than Houston this past year on PPV and an even bigger disparity on DVD, the Houston show was tons more profitable (the two key differences were being indoors and also the Orlando show had the cost of Floyd Mayweather involved). The Georgia Dome holds 71,228 seats for football, and you can get probably 6,000 or more seats on the floor, but the WWE set up with the big Mania stage cuts out a lot of seats as well. The listed capacity at Reliant Stadium in Houston for football is 71,500 (69,500 actual seats plus 2,000 luxury box seats), but the shoot number of tickets available for the show was 66,953 (actual attendance was 61,661 even though they announced 72,744). Given the two buildings are almost identical in size, one would expect a shoot capacity for Mania, depending upon the stage, to be in the same 66,000 or 67,000 range, and for them to announce a number slightly higher than whatever the building record for any event is. Sun Life Stadium, which hosts the Pro Bowl this week and the Super Bowl next week, holds 75,540. The advantage of running there is they can announce 80,000, whether real or not, claim the second biggest number of all-time and also claim that WrestleMania outdrew the Super Bowl. Miami also has the edge over Atlanta for being a stronger tourist destination. Indianapolis had been the front runner. An advantage for Atlanta is that the city has drawn well at the Dome in the past for wrestling, with a few shows more than 30,000, while Miami has no such history and the few big events at the Orange Bowl in the old days didn’t draw nearly as well as hoped. Toronto’s Rogers Centre is the front-runner for 2012. Stokan said the Atlanta Sports Council had lobbied hard for the event. He said he was the one who proposed going after Mania, and at first, some of the board laughed at the idea. He then showed the economic impact studies from the past few years and at that point the board was all for getting.

The Royal Rumble final lineup is the Rumble, Sheamus vs. Orton for the WWE title, Undertaker vs. Mysterio for the World title, Christian vs. Jackson for the ECW title and McCool vs. James for the women’s title. In the promotion this year, there is a marked difference. Last year it was almost stunning how little they built up the Rumble itself, almost seeming that they figured the Rumble was going to draw based on the name and without hype. Last year’s numbers were 465,000 worldwide and 288,000 in North America. Sheamus vs. Orton is different, but I don’t feel it’s a ticket seller. Undertaker vs. Mysterio should be, even with the face vs. face dynamic, because of Mysterio’s tremendous worldwide popularity. The negative is I don’t think anyone thinks Mysterio has a chance of winning. McCool vs. James actually has the strongest storyline build for a women’s title match in a long time, although this show is drawing based on the Rumble and with Undertaker-Mysterio as perhaps something that will add Hispanic buys in the U.S. and strengthen the numbers in Mexico. Of course as a general rule, WWE PPV business is down pretty significantly in the U.S., so even with better promotion, being even with last year’s numbers should be considered a success.

Regarding Mania, apparently there was talk that Michaels winning the Rumble would be too predictable and they may do something where a Raw guy (HHH) will win, and challenge Sheamus, forcing Michaels to go into the Smackdown chamber, which he would then win, to get the shot at Undertaker. There was also talk of doing Batista vs. Michaels in a singles match at No Way Out for the shot at Undertaker, but making it a singles match doesn’t make sense, plus the Elimination Chamber aspect of the show is why the buys for the February show have increased so greatly, so it makes no sense to have a title qualifier in February and not put it in the Chamber. You’re only sacrificing money because either way, the same guy would win. It’ll change five times between now and the weekend anyway.

Bret Hart returns on the 2/1 Raw in Nashville. Originally Hart was to be on just about every Raw from 1/18 through 2/22. I think, wisely, they realized in the case of this angle, less is more. I’d have actually built the confrontation for the Rumble because even though less people would see it, it means so much more when it’s at the Rumble than on Raw. Plus, in theory, this is one of the rare things they have that people who don’t follow the modern product are intrigued by. With the exception of perhaps one well built up blow that Vince sells big for, any physicality between the two should be more in the guise of teases and pull-aparts with as little touching as possible, with the exception of one last heat angle, which shouldn’t take place until after the Elimination Chamber PPV show.

The lawsuit filed by Jody Hamilton against WWE was settled out of court this past week with terms sealed. Hamilton ran the WWE developmental program, Deep South Wrestling, out of suburban Atlanta from 2005- 2007. There had been a lot of complaints from talent about how bad things were there, and thing appeared to get mad when WWE fired Bill DeMott as the head coach for allegedly being too rough and making it to much like a brutal boot camp, and Hamilton, with his own mentality coming from an era when it was extremely tough to get into the business, was heavily supportive of DeMott. The program was probably dropped more because John Laurinaitis wanted everyone in Florida under one roof. WWE came in one day and with no warning, pulled everything and told the wrestlers to leave and not to have anything to do with Hamilton. Hamilton sued last year for breach of contract and intentional interference with contractual and business relationships. Hamilton had contracts for house shows and couldn’t produce the shows with no talent. Hamilton sued based on the contract which stated both sides needed 90 days notice to pull out of the agreement. WWE had argued there were reasons they had to pull out. Hamilton in the lawsuit said that John Laurinaitis had a meeting with the wrestlers and told them that anyone that set foot in the building again or had anything to do with Hamilton would never work for WWE. What led to the settlement is that two wrestlers, both no longer with WWE, were willing to testify against WWE in the suit, so it was settled before going to trial.

NASCAR driver Carl Edwards will guest host the 2/8 show from Lafayette. Cheech & Chong will guest host the 3/1 show in Oklahoma City. From a timing and location standpoint, I wouldn’t be shocked if Jim Ross appeared on the show. If nothing else, he’d almost surely appear before the live crowd before the live show starts. Ross’ short-term contract would expire in March, so it also makes sense for that to be when he and Vince McMahon sit down and figure out if there will be a new deal, and if so, what his role would be going forward.

In an interview with Esto in Mexico, Mysterio said that he was two to three years away from retirement, and it depends on how his reconstructive knee surgery, which he’ll be getting in April (provided he can go that long) goes. I would be shocked if he actually is retired within ten years because nobody retires in wrestling. He probably will slow down his schedule. I wouldn’t even be shocked if in three years he leaves WWE and goes to Mexico, if a Mexican promotions can at least hang in at a level where he could make top money with a lesser schedule. When asked who will be the replacement as the top Mexican star when he leaves, noting Dos Caras Jr. (Alberto Banderas ring name), Super Nova (the son of El Texano) and Incognito all in the developmental system, he said he doesn’t see any of them as replacements because WWE doesn’t work that way. When doing the interview, he said the Rumble match would be a three-way with Undertaker and Batista. That was probably the plan when he did the interview but changed.

Barrons upgraded WWE stock to a buy, believing it will grow profits 15-20% per year through 2012, in particular citing the new Mattell toy licensing deal as a “game changer.” . . Undertaker had his knee scoped after the 1/19 Smackdown show in Greenville, which is why he wasn’t working the house show on 1/24 in Cleveland. He was booked because it was a major arena and they felt his name would help draw. When he couldn’t work, they pulled HHH from the Raw show in Champaign, IL, since with Cena working the Raw weekend shots, the feeling was it had more star power and Cleveland was the bigger market. So HHH pinned Jericho on the Smackdown house show main event. Undertaker will probably be less than 100% for the Rumble, but he was moving very slowly and said to be in excruciating pain at the shows the week before. At first, he was supposed to do more on the Knoxville Raw, but was in so much pain when he got there that all he could do was walk to the ring, do his opening promo, and walk back. He did work the 1/26 tapings in Cincinnati, but all he did was a run-in where he choke slammed Mysterio and Michaels at the same time.

Mysterio nearly suffered a major injury on the Cleveland show. Mysterio & Kane vs. Punk & Gallows was the semifinal. At the 2:00 mark of the match, with Punk down, Mysterio got on Kane’s shoulders, they clasped hands but Kane started moving before Mysterio was balanced and he bell backwards toward the turnbuckle and ended up with all of his weight landing on the left leg. He crumpled in the corner. They immediately stopped the match. Jack Doan was referee and he talked with Mysterio, who confirmed he was hurt and rolled out of the ring. He stayed on the floor for a while. They restarted the match with Kane working alone for about 2:00. Mysterio did come back, but only did two quick spots while limping, and he limped to the back. He did work two nights later at TV. I remember in the early 90s seeing him in a match in Tijuana where he landed badly, I think from a dive, and was in incredible pain, saying it was (up to that point in time obviously) the worst injury he ever had in his career. Two nights later in Los Angeles he did a ****3/4 match.

Maria will be taken off Smackdown for a while. I guess in the contact where she did “Celebrity Apprentice,” she couldn’t appear on any TV during the period the show is on the air.

Notes on the 1/25 Raw from Columbus, OH. Good show, not so much the matches but that they gave the feel that things are serious from the start of the show. For Superstars, they taped two matches. Bella Twins beat Katie Burchill & Hall, and then Masters won a three-way over Guerrero and Primo in a match where the winner got in the Rumble. They also did an angle where Jericho did a promo talking about winning the Rumble, and R-Truth came out and they brawled, so it looks like they may be doing something with Killings post-Rumble. They opened with DX comedy, and Michaels announced that he had sent Hornswoggle home because it’s time to get serious with the Rumble coming. Michaels asked HHH just this one time not to be selfish because his dream is to beat Undertaker and to get that match he has to win the Rumble. HHH said that his dream is to win the title again, so he has to win the Rumble. He said that if he has to step over Shawn’s dreams to reach his own dreams, then that’s what he’s going to do. DX then beat DiBiase & Rhodes once again in 10:00. They did a few teases of dissension between HHH and Michaels. Whatever they did last week with DiBiase & Rhodes teasing never played a part in the match, although was sort of acknowledged in a promo later in the show. HHH had Rhodes set up for the pedigree when Michaels tagged himself in, which HHH didn’t seem happy about. Michaels superkicked DiBiase for the pin. James Roday of “Psych” had an emergency appendectomy over the weekend (it was announced, and the story was legit), so he wasn’t there, and Dule Hill was guest host on his own. It was funny, because “Psych” is one of the highest rated shows on cable and a major player on USA, but they had the wrestlers bury the show several times. Miz came out for a promo. He was really tremendous. It’s really something because, nothing against Sheamus, but if I was to judge Miz, Sheamus and Swagger on who is the most over and who is the most ready for main events, it would be Miz easily at the top, followed by Swagger and then Sheamus. But Miz should be a main event singles heel. MVP came out and he and Miz again went back-and-forth on the mic, with MVP mainly saying how Miz would be very popular in the prison he spent nine years in. Miz and Show are now friends in storyline. Show then pinned MVP with a choke slam in 1:01. What the hell was that? Show made him look like a jibroni last week, and then again. Whatever excitement Miz and MVP built up in that promo was taken away with the idea that MVP was such a nothing. It’s not even the right time for Show to beat him, but if he does, at least make it like it’s a contest and there’s a fight as opposed to a squash. DiBiase and Rhodes were backstage and kind of teased some problems but Orton came out and said how they’ve all been at each others’ throats. He said while they were arguing backstage, they didn’t have his back last week against Sheamus and wanted to make sure they were with him at the rumble. Cena and Dule Hill were backstage. Cena cut a funny promo to watch the episode of “Psych” this week that he’s on. Miz came out and said he had no idea who Hill was. Maryse pinned Torres in 2:04 with the DDT, called the French kiss, in a Divas title tournament semifinal. Torres’ selling was bad and fans didn’t care once the bell rang. During the match there was an explosion as Dule Hill was fooling around and pushed one of the buttons. Vince came out to build the Bret Hart return next week. Vince was very good here. He said that there wasn’t one good reason to bring Hart back. He then went into the stands and asked a bunch of fans if they could give him one good business reason to bring Hart back. Suffice to say, nobody could. The bad part of this is the WWE audience came off every bit as bad as the TNA audience when they interviewed people on Hogan coming back. Vince said both Undertaker and his own son-in- law, HHH, said that people would think he’s a coward for not bringing Hart back but that he’s not a coward. There was some good heat and “We Want Bret” chants. It wasn’t deafening, but it was louder than any reaction for anything else on the show. Vince finally announced that Hart would never be allowed back because it made no business sense. Cena came out and said that he’d never had a problem with Vince (well, except for the last 100 times that he did), but when Vince said that wrestlers were like gum and that you chew them up until they no longer have any flavor, and then you discard them, he had a problem. He talked about how unhappy he was when Roddy Piper came to Madison Square Garden with the way Vince treated him. He said what happens in the future with Michaels, Undertaker and even himself. If Cena had done promos like this all year, the PPV numbers would have been significantly higher. He said Vince was pathetic and that the wrestlers and the fans are just commodities for him to feed his ego and his pockets. He said if Vince didn’t bring Hart back next week he would show every wrestler and every fan that was the case. He also said that on August 24, 2035, which would be Vince’s 90th birthday, that he would hunt Vince down, throw him out of his wheelchair and knock his false teeth down his throat. Personally, I think the angle would have been far better served for McMahon to have banned him and have Hart show up ala Austin ten years ago and get in, with McMahon locking himself in the office so Hart couldn’t get to him and security hauling Hart out. This way it makes Hart too much of a pawn of Vince’s desires as opposed to a strong independent character. Although there is probably a reason that’s the case as well. It was the best thing on the show. Kingston pinned Miz in a non-title match. MVP’s music played and Miz was distracted, allowing Kingston to use the Trouble in Paradise kick in 3:38. They still haven’t announced when the Miz vs. MVP title match takes place. I don’t think this loss hurt the program because Miz is the heel so he can lose, and it at least had distraction and was competitive. But I do think the program is cooler after the last two weeks. Carlito and Hill were talking and Carlito showed Hill the production truck. The production guy showed him stuff, including cuing up a Carlito photo. Hill then said he was going to do a lottery for a match with Carlito after the break. Carlito was in clothes and was all negative saying he hadn’t warmed up and stretched and wasn’t dressed for a match. Then the name Kelly Kelly showed up, and Carlito was fine with it. There was no such match. Kelly came out all unhappy she was going to have to wrestle Carlito. Before it started, Marella came out and gave a plug for the Best of Raw 2009 DVD, that came out the next day. Marella noted that he was in the DVD a lot, usually looking stupid. He said this was a new year. He told Kelly that he would take her place against Carlito. But before anything happened, Swagger showed up and threw Marella over the top rope. Next was a great Rumble video package. It was similar to a package they did last year, talking about all the different Rumble records, such as the number of people who have been in the Rumble, noting how No. 1 is the worst number and No. 30 is the best, but the two people with each number have gone on to win, and how No. 27 as far as entering is the number with the most wins. They noted the records like Kane throwing out 11 guys one year, Austin throwing 36 for a career, Mysterio being in the longest the year he won and that 70% of the Rumble winners have ended up winning a title at Mania. Fox was backstage also making it clear she had no idea about the TV show “Psych.” She asked Hill if he was a Psychic (Roday plays the fake psychic on the show) and who would win the match between him and Kim. Hill said he would. She said he’d better be right or else. He had no idea what or else meant. Cena than cut a promo saying it could mean a lot of things, and mentioned a bunch of goofy things, ending with she could ask Mark Henry gave you a personal appendectomy. Kim pinned Fox in 1:54 when Kim dropped back but had her foot up and drove it into Fox. Sort of like a codebreaker. It’s the move she’s done in the past. Kim didn’t even get a ring entrance. Fox’s selling didn’t look good but this was world’s better than her performance last week. So Maryse vs. Kim in the finals, which Maryse should win. Fox was so mad at Hill because he told her he was the psychic and he told her she was going to win, only to be wrong. She confronted him and he explained that he wasn’t a real psychic, and that he was a television actor, and she slapped the hell out of him. Seriously. They didn’t announce when the tournament final would take place, but with James vs. McCool at the Rumble, it should be at Raw next week. I also want to note that in the first move of the match, Kim went to hit a reverse Frankensteiner on Fox. Keep in mind that the most acrobatic Luchadores will only try that spot with their favorite opponent, like maybe Mysterio would do it with 2-3 guys who he totally trusts but nobody else. And she’s doing it in the first move of the match against Alicia Fox. The spot was kind of botched but really, considering everything, it wasn’t botched too badly. They announced William Shatner as guest host next week. Sheamus beat Cena via DQ in a non-title match in 9:49. This was made earlier in the show by Vince, who was mad at Cena showing him up. Even though Cena was all buddy buddy with Hill, and also at one point in a backstage skit had Roday on the phone, neither made it a title match. Match was okay. Cena got the STF but Sheamus made the ropes. They were both outside the ring when Sheamus laid out Cena with a bicycle kick. With Cena laid out and they teased him getting counted out, Orton hit the ring and laid out Sheamus with an RKO. The crowd cheered, but again, didn’t get behind Orton as much as I’d imagined. After the match, Orton went to give Cena a draping DDT back into the ring, but Cena blocked it and instead gave Orton an Attitude Adjustment. So the show ended with Cena standing in the ring and Sheamus and Orton both laid out. Made perfect sense if they were building up a three-way on the PPV. Of course, that’s not the match.

Notes from the 1/26 tapings in Cincinnati. They opened with a dark match with JTG pinning Reks. Looked to be the beginning of looking at JTG as a singles wrestler. ECW opened with a Regal and Jackson promo. Christian came out and quoted from the book of Ezekiel about getting revenge. This led to a tag match where Regal & Jackson beat Christian & Kane in 18:15, which would be the longest WWE television match in recent months. Christian worked much of the way with Regal and they work well together. Jackson did power man spots with Kane and they kind of limited them in together early, but it went too long and the match started dragging as past the power spots with both men being strong, Jackson vs. Kane is very limited and Jackson doesn’t really have it to do long heat spots on Christian. Christian used the killswitch on Regal, but Regal tagged out to Jackson, who used a uranage on Christian and pinned him clean. Backstage, Benjamin did this unbelievably stiff and unconvincing promo. I mean, you couldn’t have said “I’m not into this material one bit” any better if you didn’t open the promo by saying it. His delivery was so awful that it was welcome when Archer jumped him from behind in mid-sentence. Main event saw Goldust & Tatsu & Hurricane over Ryder & Barretta & Croft in 14:52. They teased future issues with Mendes and Savannah as during the intros, both were giving the other the evil eye. Not a big deal, but Mendes was so much more attractive with brunette hair. Match was mostly working over Hurricane until he made the hot tag to Tatsu. Tatsu did a spin kick off the top rope on Barretta, but there was a save. After Goldust & Hurricane cleared the ring, Tatsu used a high kick on Barretta for the pin. After the match, Mendes started yelling at Croft & Barretta for costing them the match. Smith pinned Hardy in the Superstars match. This was a set up for Khali coming out and throwing everyone over the top rope, basically to push Khali being a monster for the Rumble. Smackdown opened with a DX promo. Mysterio came out in mid- promo mad at Michaels, saying that Michaels doesn’t believe he can beat Undertaker and win the title. Punk, Gallows & Serena came out and Punk started talking about being a member of the Straight Edge Society. HHH said that he was surprised Punk was straight. He did some more comedy on him until Long came out and said the tag title match is out, I guess because Long remembered what he was taught when he broke in, “Funny equals no money.” So instead, he announced Mysterio vs. Michaels and Punk vs. HHH, which is better anyway. HHH beat Punk via DQ. Gallows and Serena interfered. They were all beating HHH down and teased shaving his head. Please. Michaels then ran in and got rid of Gallows. Michaels and HHH went after Punk, but he put Serena in front of him and they stopped. He kissed Serena and left the ring, leaving her with them. Michaels teased doing a superkick, but no can do. R-Truth pinned Jericho clean for the second straight week, so I guess Truth is the latest in the list of guys they have plans to push. McIntyre pinned Morrison in a no DQ match to keep the IC title. Morrison set him up for Starship pain, but McIntyre got his knees up. McIntyre brought in the title belt and used his Kobashi DDT on Morrison on the belt for the pin. McCool did an interview pushing her match with James on the PPV. She said she’s sending Piggy James back to the barnyard for good, and she’ll go wee, wee, wee, wee, wee, wee, all the way home. McCool then issued an open challenge. Layla came out, wearing a fat suit with a pig news dressed up like James. She chased McCool around, got gassed, missed a splash and McCool pinned her. This segment did not get over at all. Backstage, Batista confronted Michaels and told him to stay out of his way in winning the Rumble. That seems to tease Michaels vs. Batista for the Smackdown title shot or the two of them as the two stars in the Smackdown chamber match. Michaels vs. Mysterio ended up as a no contest. Mysterio went for the springboard splash, but Michaels countered with a superkick. Batista then hit the ring and speared Michaels, and then gave Mysterio a spinebuster. HHH made the save and clotheslined Batista over the top rope. Undertaker then came out and choke slammed both Michaels and Mysterio at the same time.

Notes from the 1/22 Smackdown show by Bryan Alvarez. I didn't mind this show at all when I was watching it, though I later learned that it had approximately 20-21 minutes of wrestling in the entire two hours and approximately 18 of that was in one match, which should tell you something about the rest of the program. If you love angles, this was the show for you. It opened with Batista beating the piss out of Finlay in a match, flipping out and gouging his eyes for the DQ in about a minute. He gave him a violent beating and then did a promo saying that if you could imagine that same beating 29 times, that's what we were going to get in the Rumble. "This is Shawn Michaels!" he screamed as he booted Finlay. "This is HHH!" He then vowed to win the entire thing and get the title shot against Undertaker at Mania. So now there is a guy on each show that wants that badly. Good intrigue. Punk and Gallows came out and shaved Serena Deeb. This was pretty much the same thing he does every single week, except this time it was more compelling since a woman was involved and had a lot of hair to shave. It was actually used as a hook to keep people from tuning out during a commercial break. The shaving was also, how can I say this, almost overtly sexual, which was really weird to watch in 2010 on a PG show. She REALLY wanted to be saved by Punk, if you know what I mean, and he was more than happy to take advantage of her. For what it was, everyone played their roles very well. R-Truth & Morrison beat McIntyre & Jericho. So last week I was doing my damndest to figure out why Jericho pinned Morrison if the IC Title feud is Morrison vs. McIntyre. Well, this week I was equally baffled when Truth pinned Jericho. Unless they're leading to a four-way or something I have no earthly idea what any of this is doing for the McIntyre/Morrison feud. Clearly the same people who are booking Miz and MVP are booking this nonsense. The match itself was very good as they teased the hot tag forever and the place went batty when Truth got it. This was also the one that got about 18 minutes. Aside from the finish, can't complain at all. McCool and Layla were in the ring with party table set up with tons of food and such on it. They said James was on her way to leaving Smackdown forever, but on the way out they wanted to give her a little going away party. This was a party she'd love, they said, because everywhere you looked there was FOOD. So who should come out to defend Mickie but Maria, the Diva Maria, who actually cut a really great promo on the heels. There was a presumably intentionally hilarious line when McCool actually told Maria that she looked underfed. So James came out and did this promo about how she was representing the common girl, and "this is what a real woman looks like". A real woman with huge fake boobs, I guess. It says something for the heels in that James playing the role of your average woman in the crowd is taken as a babyface deal. I mean, seriously, how many women watching this show look anywhere near as good as James, who is portrayed on TV as the plain, average woman in this feud? So anyway, they got into a brawl and Phoenix hit the ring. She was torn about who to help, but ended up siding with the heels. They tossed Maria outside, then smashed a pig-shaped cake in James’ face and poured punch all over her. James was a complete mess, weeping with make-up streaking down her face. The crowd reacted to this like they were really appalled, and not in a bad way, but rather a heavy heat angle sort of way. Really, if ever there was a woman's angle in WWE that might sell a few PPV buys, this was it. Cryme Tyme NC Knox and Haas in 10 seconds when Kane came out and threw everyone over the top rope. Lame. Hart Dynasty lost to Khali and Hardy. This was mind-boggling. First, again on a PG show, Natalya tried to distract Khali with her breasts. Not joking about this, she grabbed her jacked and pulled it open and thrust out her chest as if to say, Khali, these are my tits, grab them! So he went to grab them and she led him towards the back. This left Hardy all alone with both of the Harts. He then proceeded to pin Harry with a small package. No earthly idea. So finally we got Mysterio calling out the Undertaker in another non-wrestling segment. He did the usual promo about how he was an undersized guy but he had heart, never gave up, and wasn't scared of Undertaker. He said Shawn and Taker were jumping the gun talking about a match since he was going to spoil all the plans and win the belt at Rumble. Taker came out and said he respected him for doing this, but wanted him to know that he was going to his own grave. He said Mysterio would be just like everyone else who tried to make a name at his expense, but then as he was leaving Mysterio screamed, "I'm not like the rest!" Suddenly, Batista hit the ring and laid Mysterio out with a spinebuster and a power bomb. Taker meandered to the ring exactly as fast as he normally does, which gave Batista enough time to have gotten to Australia if he'd wanted to. An odd twist to end the show.

Toy stores legally have until the spring to sell their remaining Jakks Pacific WWE stock. While many of the stores have cleared out all the older stuff, there are stores that are selling both the Jakks Pacific line and the new Mattel line. Jakks Pacific now has a deal with TNA, and was originally going to release a line of action figures and toys in October, but the time frame has been pushed up to May.

Whatever issues with Stan Kroenke and WWE have, maybe not been settled, but they are doing business, as WWE has booked the Pepsi Center in Denver for a show on 3/12.

Shawn Michaels on retirement, which at one point was going to be after Mania this year: “I’d like to go on record as saying I have been trying to retire for the last three years,” he said. He said the company makes it difficult. “Vince McMahon is nuts. I try to walk away, then WrestleMania comes up, they put me in a match, I do well, and (Vince) doesn’t make it very easy.” He said he expects DX to disband after the Royal Rumble since both men will have singles matches at Mania.

Chicago fans who wrote to WGN’s local station complaining about Superstars being dropped (losing coverage in both Chicago and Canada) were told, “Unfortunately, it didn’t attract enough viewers.” However, the complaints were listened to, and the plan now is for the show to return in a Sunday afternoon time slot on 2/7.

WWE has plans for a sitcom with Marella as the lead character. Marella told the U.K. version of AOL about the plans for a show, with Kozlov (as his best friend) and Phoenix (as his girlfriend). He said they were filming three episodes which will first air on the web site before they shop it around. Marella talked about a network deal, but I sense this at best as one of those web site feature attempts and not getting any farther. Chris McCumber, the EVP of the USA Network, when asked about it, said, “I’m not aware of it. I need to see it. He’s quite a comedic character, so no doubt he will have a good sitcom.” Evidently he didn’t see ECW last week as Marella and Kozlov, in a segment designed to get them over as buddies as the prelude to the web site show, bombed like it was Hiroshima in 1945.

The Saugus Wicked ran another story on the Orton incident in the Kowloon’s Restaurant parking lot after the 1/8 show in Boston. The story revolved around an eye-witness account from Stephen Addonizio of Wakefield, MA., who was sitting in a car as Orton left the restaurant. His description was that Orton left and walked toward his car and about a dozen kids asked to pose for photos with him. He refused and one of the kids yelled profanities at him. Orton went in the direction of the kid who swore at him but two other wrestlers pulled Orton away and Orton never came close to the kid, and just walked past them and got into his car. Addonizio did admit something could have happened that he didn’t see.

Orton signed a long-term contract, one report has it as a ten-year deal. He also got a $600,000 Mania payoff this year.

Jericho’s fourth album, “Chasing the Grail,” was released on 1/26.

Undertaker missed the 1/24 house show in Cleveland because of the death of a family member. Since he was the headliner, WWE had HHH move from the scheduled Raw show that night in Champaign, IL, to the Cleveland show to make up for it.

Serena Deeb, who got her head shaved by C.M. Punk, had her FCW name changed from Mia Mancini to Serena Mancini, which will likely be her Smackdown name. Norman Smiley, who along with Billy Kidman are the head trainers at FCW, is now doing a television role as the Lt. GM. They are building up a second generation tag team feud with champs Brett DiBiase & Joe Hennig against Bo & Duke Rotundo.

Brian Meyers (Curt Hawkins of the Edgeheads tag team) was given a tryout this past week in FCW as a color commentator.

Zivile Raudoniene, the Lithuanian fitness model who won the 2009 Arnold Classic fitness contest, made her pro debut on 1/21 in Tampa for FCW teaming with A.J. Lee (former New Jersey indie wrestler April Jeanette) and Savannah (ECW ring announcer) losing to Serena Mancini & Naomi Knight(former cheerleader Trinity McCray) & Liviania (Karlee Perez). . . Maryse broke three teeth in the match on Raw on 1/18 and had them fixed on 1/22.

A web site called WWEwatch.yalostie.com had complete statistics of Royal Rumble history. Among them were: Most all-time eliminations: 1. Steve Austin 36; 2. Undertaker 35; 3. Kane 33; 4. Shawn Michaels 31; 5. Hulk Hogan 24. Kane or Michaels could challenge Austin’s record this year.

Most career time in: 1. HHH 213:21; 2. Michaels 192:49; 3. Kane 165:47; 4. Austin 165:09; 5. Chris Benoit 157:19.

Most Royal Rumble matches: 1. Kane 13; 2. Michaels 11; 3. Undertaker 10 and Rikishi/Fatu 10; 5. Mabel/Viscera 9.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer had a long article on Miz, noting that he grew up working at his father’s Mr. Hero sandwich shop in Parma, OH. It noted that in high school at Normandy High, he ran cross country, played baseball and was the student body president. He was a sophomore at Miami of Ohio (the same college Brian Pillman went to) when he tried out for MTV’s “Real World.” He said he grew up watching wrestling PPVs with 20 to 30 friends at his dad’s house on Sundays. A funny story is that his father went on a business trip and was at a WrestleMania and brought him back a program with it signed by all the wrestlers. Later, when he became a wrestler, he found out his father had forged all the signatures. He noted spending a few years in indies (UPW in Southern California) before getting on the 2004 Tough Enough season, where he placed second. He said when growing up, he figured he’d own his own Mr. Hero place and be living in Parma and raising three children.

Kelly, while on a media tour of the U.K. to promote Royal Rumble, spoke about the death of Andrew “Test” Martin, saying, “I liked to talk about him, to tell the world how great a man he was. He was a big part of my life, we were together for two-and-a- half years. When I first started, Andrew looked after me. We were there together, we had some good times and some hard times, he wanted more than anything to be healthy. I honestly could not say enough about him, he was the love of my life. Not a day goes by when I don’t think about Andrew. He was an amazing person who had so much love to give the world. He loved wrestling.” . . A house show on 2/14 in Guadalajara is sold out.

Candice Michelle on her own web site said her biggest regret in hindsight was coming back too quickly from injuries, saying it pretty much killed her wrestling career.

They are filming two Legends Roundtable shows this week for future airing on 24/7. Gene Okerlund will host a panel of J.J. Dillon, Pat Patterson, Michael Hayes and Nick Bockwinkel on Wrestling in the 70s and Tag Team Wrestling. The Legends Roundtable shows were in jeopardy just a few months ago as a cost-cutting measure so it’s good to see they are filming a new batch.

Cena had an MRI on 1/24 to see the damage to his lower back and neck, as it is believed he’s working with a bulging disc. As noted, they have cut back on his workload to a degree, doing shorter matches and more tags, plus taking him out of the PPV title match where he’d have to go a hard 15+ minutes, but he was still doing main event matches at the house shows over the weekend.

The WWE web site ran a story on Dan Spivey, noting that he’s running a construction company, Spivey Utility Construction, out of Odessa, FL. He talked in glowing terms about his time in All Japan in the 90s, but also felt the physical style took five years off his career.

The Raw tour opened on 1/22 in Cape Girardeau, MO, before 4,262 fans, a strong turnout for that sized market. Cena beat Sheamus via DQ in the title match. Orton pinned Kingston in a good match. The only other title match was Miz retaining the U.S. over MVP, Carlito and Swagger. . .The 1/23 show in Evansville drew 7,000, the biggest crowd in the city for wrestling since the Austin era. Tatsu pinned Ryder in the opener, which is different since the ECW guys usually travel with the Smackdown crew. Henry beat Swagger in an over the top rope challenge similar to what happened on Raw. DiBiase & Rhodes beat Bourne & Primo when Rhodes pinned Primo clean with Crossroads. Johnny Curtis did heel mic work and then Masters came in and beat him quickly with the Masterlock. Miz won a three-way to keep the U.S. title over MVP and Carlito. MVP used the playmaker on Carlito and Miz threw MVP out of the ring and pinned Carlito. Best match on the show. Kim & Bellas beat Hall & Fox & Maryse when Kim pinned Hall in a match with Marella as ref. Orton pinned Kingston after two RKO’s, as Kingston kicked out of the first one. HHH beat Show in a street fight. HHH kicked out of a choke slam. Hornswoggle did the Michaels spoof with sweet shin music on Show, who didn’t sell it, but it allowed HHH to grab a sledge hammer and hit Show with it for the pin and HHH and Hornswoggle did the DX celebration. Cena beat Sheamus via DQ in a title match. Sheamus was about to lose when he shoved down the ref who called for the DQ. Cena gave him an attitude adjustment after the match.

1/24 in Champaign, IL, before 6,000 fans, was a similar show. This was the show HHH was pulled from and moved to the Smackdown show in Cleveland. In fact, on this show they had an entire card advertised and the main event was the only match that took place as advertised. Cena beat Sheamus via DQ in the match they did all weekend. With HHH out, Show beat Swagger in an over the top rope match rules match with Show as the face, and winning in 2:00. Orton pinned Kingston with the same finish of doing two RKO’s, with Kingston kicking out of the first but getting pinned by the second. The four-way U.S. title saw Miz retain over MVP, Primo and Carlito. Primo and Carlito went at it a lot and their work was the strongest of the match. MVP had Carlito pinned after the playmaker but Miz stole the pin. . . Smackdown opened on 1/23 in Hammond, IN, drawing a sellout 4,000 fans. Mysterio & Kane beat Jericho & Punk in the main event. They did the simultaneous pins finish which seems to be the standard finish on house show main events when they do tags and trios matches. McIntyre beat Morrison in the IC title match with his feet on the ropes. Crowd still not that into McIntyre. Christian beat Jackson in the ECW title match with the killswitch. I know Goldust’s role is to put over younger heels, but he lost on this show to Tyler Reks, who hasn’t even been on television in months. Reks did a heel promo before the match so people knew to boo him, and then beat Goldust. They brought out a “fan” who said he was a drinker and Punk shaved his head to have him join the straight edge society. The segment went long and didn’t seem to work well on the house show. Matt Hardy beat Finlay in a prelim match. Finlay did the worked knee injury gimmick he’s so fond of that he hasn’t done in a while. Even so, after doing it and turning himself heel, Hardy pinned him.

1/24 in Cleveland drew 9,000. HHH vs. Jericho was the main event here. HHH was pulled from the Raw show with the idea they had Cena, while the Smackdown show in a major market city had neither Undertaker nor Batista, so they figured they needed a star as a make-good. HHH pinned Jericho. Mysterio & Kane beat Punk & Gallows with the same double pin after Kane choke slammed Gallows and Mysterio did a splash off the top on Punk. Finlay pinned Ziggler. Punk & Gallows shaved another plant’s head. Christian pinned Jackson to keep the ECW belt. The opener saw McIntyre win a four-way over Matt Hardy, R-Truth and Morrison. That’s scary booking, putting three faces against one heel, and then he survives against all odds anyway.


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