When the Main Event Mafia formed last week, the question was when, not if, Scott Steiner would join Kurt Angle, Sting, Booker T. and Kevin Nash in the faction.

We didn’t have to wait long to find out, as “Big Poppa Pump” returned to TNA last night on Impact and became the fifth member of the star-studded veteran group. He had been out four months because of a torn anterior cruciate ligament.

I have always found Steiner entertaining, and being in the MEM is a much better role for him than playing mentor to “Little Petey Pump.”

With the addition of Steiner, the MEM should be complete. Adding any more members would be overkill, and except for Jeff Jarrett (who needs to remain a babyface for now), there isn’t anyone else in TNA who fits the qualifications anyway.

Other thoughts on last night’s show:

I’m still waiting for the episode in which Sting finally commits some dastardly deed worthy of a member of the company’s top heel faction. Once again he did nothing to incite the fans, and for the second straight week he did not participate in the beat-down of the babyfaces.

This time he came into the ring after much of the damage had been done, and he was actually checking on Styles to see if he was OK. Are you kidding me? Sting really needs go back to Heel School. Styles responded by spitting in his face, and Sting then hit the Scorpion Deathdrop on him. So the way this segment played out, Sting came off as a compassionate human being, and Styles came off as a disrespectful punk – which is exactly what Sting says he is – who literally and figuratively spit on an “icon.” Ugh. …

Styles did a nice job on his promo to open the show. He and Samoa Joe were actually cheered, and when Styles mentioned the MEM members by name, the crowd mostly booed – including when Sting’s name was brought up. …

It was nice to see Styles and Joe defeat Booker and Nash in a tag-team match. The leaders of the young babyface faction – Mike Tenay called them the TNA Originals, which isn’t very original – really needed a victory. …

I like the fact that there is some question as to the The Motor City Machine Guns’ sincerity in going along with the revolution led by Styles and Joe. It makes Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin stand out from the pack. …

Good news: The MCMG appeared in several segments. Bad news: I had to listen to their awful entrance music three times. …

Eric Young adding a serious side to his character was certainly a pleasant surprise. I have always thought that Young was a good worker. Hopefully we have seen the last of Super Eric. …

I am really not digging Roxxi’s new character. With her look and wrestling style, she already was different from the other women in TNA, so she really doesn’t need the potty-mouth gimmick to distinguish herself. Plus, all the bleeping while she is talking is annoying. …

If anyone needs a gimmick makeover it’s Petey Williams, who deserves better than to be cast as Steiner’s Mini-Me. I’m guessing that Williams will be changing his look in the near future since he’s a babyface now and his association with Steiner is likely coming to an end. I noticed during the MEM’s attack on the babyfaces that Steiner twice stopped himself from hitting Williams with his pipe. …

I was surprised to see The Beautiful People lose to a makeshift team such as ODB and Christy Hemme. …

For the second straight week, a wrestler was pinned after having beer spit in his face. We’ve seen guys kick out after being hit over the head with chairs, but apparently no one gets up from the lethal beer shower.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 5:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (25)
        

Just as Evan Bourne was starting to take off, “Air Bourne” has been abruptly grounded. It was reported on various wrestling Web sites yesterday that Bourne will likely be sidelined for four months after suffering torn ligaments in his ankle during the six-man tag match on ECW Tuesday night.

The timing of the injury must be extremely frustrating for Bourne. The fans almost immediately took to him because of his unique (for WWE) acrobatic style. I don’t think WWE was expecting Bourne to become as popular as he has, but the company listened to the fans and decided to give him a push.

ECW – and Raw, to some degree – will be a bit less exciting without Bourne on the scene. If the time frame on his recovery is correct, Bourne should be back by March. And if that is the case, I would bet that he will be a participant in the Money in the Bank ladder match at WrestleMania 25 on April 5.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 7:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

This is the fourth and final installment of an interview I conducted with Bruno Sammartino in his hotel room in Elkton on Oct. 18.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 10:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Video interviews
        

First, Chris Jericho wanted to “save us,” and then his mantra became “save me.” Now, he is playing a role in helping 11 female singers who are seeking redemption.

Jericho is the host of Fuse TV’s Redemption Song, a reality competition show in which down-on-their-luck singers with troubled pasts vie for their last chance at musical stardom. The show debuts tonight at 11.

I spoke with Jericho on the phone today about the show and, of course, his wrestling career.

What was it about Redemption Song that made you want to get involved with it?

I like the fact that it has a heart behind it. There are so many rowdy shows, and what makes one different than the next? So many of them are sensationalistic, and there are a lot of girls making out with girls, and people going crazy and bad girls. The thing about this show is, there is that element of it, but the fact is that there is a really big prize at stake. The winner gets a contract with Geffen Records, and all these girls can really sing, so it’s not just a train wreck of a bunch of chicks who just want to get on TV. It’s not Jericho of Love where the prize is a date with me.

The prize is actually to become a star in the music industry, and these girls have the chops to do that. But they just have these checkered pasts, these troubled lives that they’ve led – not really getting a lot of breaks, making bad decisions, making choices that they shouldn’t have. And now this gives them a shot at redemption. So it is very sensationalistic … but it gives them a chance to change their lives around and make something out of themselves before they just end up going down the wrong road completely. I thought it was such an interesting twist from what we usually see on a lot of these shows.

The press release about the show says the contestants have “troubled pasts filled with bad attitudes, emotional ups and downs and hard-partying.” Sounds a lot like the WCW locker room from the late 1990s.

(Laughs). Exactly. I could have been involved in Redemption Song had it been 10 years ago.

What is your role on the show? I know that you are the host, but are you kind of stirring the pot, as well?

I was a jack of all trades. I was the host of the show, so I piece everything together; I do all the inserts and let them know what’s going on and what they have to do. On each show there is a challenge, something they have to accomplish, whether it’s something vocally or with their image or with physical fitness – everything that goes into making it in the music industry and show business. So sometimes I was a drill sergeant if need be, kind of very stern and strict. Other times I’d be kind of a mentor giving out advice. Other times I’d be more of a shoulder to cry on if they needed that. But it got to the point where they got really scared of me. I was like the Angel of Death whenever they saw me because they knew something was going to go down.

I remember one time in particular, they were all loaded and they were fighting and throwing food at each other. There was a big argument going on and they sent me in the kitchen where they were, and as soon as I got there, there was an audible like, “Oh, no, Chris is here.” It was kind of like the principal walked in the room. So it was interesting to have that role. Seeing the show now that it’s been all cut and edited, there’s so much stuff that I never saw, that I wasn’t privy to, because I was just there when something needed to be done or someone was being eliminated. I never saw what these girls were really, really like. I saw the front that they gave me and had suspicions of what they might be like, but now actually seeing all the behind the scenes stuff is very interesting for me as well, because I became the authority figure in the house, which was kind of fun.

So you had to cut promos on them?

Oh, yeah, a couple times, especially near the beginning when the girls had a lot of attitude. I had to let them know very specifically at the beginning that this is my show and you will do what I tell you, and they figured that out pretty quickly.

How were the girls eliminated? Was it by judges?

Yeah, but not like a panel of judges. It wasn’t like an American Idol-type thing. It was different judges, different Geffen executives, different video producers, different heads of the company. There was a vocal coach, someone who had worked with them from the start, who had a lot of input on the judging, as well. There was not really any kind of a cliched nice Paul Abdul, middle-of-the-road Randy and a mean Simon. And I wasn’t one of the judges. I was just the mouthpiece and the host that connected everything together.

With reality shows, a lot of the conflict comes across to me as contrived. Was that the case at all with this show?

No, this was real. This was something where you didn’t have to contrive anything, because these girls were all a little bit crazy. They all had a lot of attitude and a chip on their shoulders. Some of them had chances in the past to make it and failed. Others had no idea how they could make it; they just knew they had talent, but they made bad decisions. You had all different types of chicks – strippers and madams, piercings and tattoos, and fighting and throwing other chicks through windows. All this type of crazy stuff that they stay away from on your typical Idol-type thing. And like I said, there wasn’t just a date at stake – “if you win you get to go out with Bret Michaels for two weeks before he dumps you.”

This was much bigger than that. The fact that you’re dealing with the biggest record company on the planet, and this is what’s at stake – you could be signed to Geffen. You know, I would enter this contest for a chance to get signed at Geffen. This is a real dogfight, and you can see that throughout the course of the show. So you didn’t have to contrive anything, because you stick all these girls in a house together, add some alcohol and some bad attitudes and you see what’s going to happen.

Switching gears a bit, are you working on another book?

Yeah, I am working on it, but not as much as I’d like to be. All the stuff has been committed to paper, so to speak, and I have it all organized. I just have to actually write the thing. It’s a big project to write a book, and I’m really busy right now, so it’s hard to get into that mind-set. But there will be another one.

I can’t let you go without asking a few wrestling questions.

Sure.

Like a lot of people, I was a big fan of your program with Shawn Michaels. How much creative freedom did the two of you have?

Most of the best programs and story lines have a lot of input from the principal characters, and I’ve never been the type of guy to just have somebody write something for me. Obviously, behind the scenes, some of the things that you do from Monday to Monday I have no control over, but I do a lot of writing for all the promos, and Shawn and I did a lot of writing together for some of the things that we did.

The story line was supposed to be a month-long thing, and then it ended up blossoming into me winning the world title as a result of it going seven months. So it really did get bigger than it was ever supposed to, and we took a lot of pride in that because we worked long and hard on it. I think for both of us it was one of the best angles that we’ve ever been involved in. To me, it was definitely the most intricate, and it was fun because people didn’t know for sure if it was real or not. There was so much stuff that happened that was so outside of the box of what you usually see on our shows, and people really took notice of that.

Speaking of real, I’m guessing the punch to Rebecca Michaels’ face wasn’t supposed to be as real as it was. What was Shawn’s reaction once you both got through the curtain, and what did you say to him and Rebecca?

I mean, what could you say? It was one of those things where there’s always the X factor that something could happen like that, and we all knew what the danger of it was. Obviously, Shawn and I felt terrible. Rebecca did not. She loved it. She thought it was awesome. And the fact that she didn’t end up with any permanent damage – no broken teeth, a fat lip for a couple weeks – it’s probably the best thing that could have happened. That really kick-started the angle and took it to a different place. Obviously, I felt so bad about it, but when all was said and done, it actually worked out for the best.

On the flip slide of the last question, what did your wife say when you came home with a broken tooth?

She wasn’t happy about it, but it was more that she was sad that I got hurt. My son wasn’t happy about it either, but that’s the business. I’m a warrior and sometimes things like that happen. I’ve never lost a tooth before; I hope I don’t ever lose one again. You live with it. You look like Lloyd Christmas from Dumb and Dumber until you get to the dentist. And then the next thing you know, you get the crown on there and you never notice anything different.

It’s a war wound and that’s the way I treat it. I think it made that match even more dramatic. I think a lot of people said that was the best ladder match they had ever seen, and that’s probably one of the reasons for it, because they knew it was real. Once again, something happened that was outside the box of what a “normal” wrestling match is. I’m actually lucky that I didn’t lose more teeth. The dentist told me that I should have lost all four of the teeth. So I’ll take the half-tooth and just consider myself lucky.

Would you say your work the past several months has been the best of your career?

Well, I don’t know if I’d be that specific with it, but I did say that I wouldn’t come back unless I was ready to be better than ever. I had some ideas of things I wanted to do when I came back. I wanted to make a transformation of this character, and it took me three of four months to figure out a way to do that. But once it kind of locked it, it was very organic. To hear some people say that it’s the best work of my career, I appreciate that, because I think in a lot of ways it is. I think when I first came back a lot of people were like, “Oh, it’s Jericho doing the same old thing,” and that’s kind of the way I wanted to do it. I didn’t want to make a complete disconnect, but I knew there was a different direction that I wanted to go in, because I don’t want to be the same thing.

I’ve never been into nostalgia, doing the same thing over and over again. It’s got to be a constant evolution. I’ve said this for a long time, and it sounds kind of funny, but I consider myself to be like the Madonna of wrestling. She constantly reinvents herself, constantly reinvents her songs. She still has links to her past, but she has no interest in living there. That’s the same way that I’ve been. A lot of people are like, “We love Y2J. Why don’t you go back to this, grow your hair back?” It’s like, that was cool, that was me in the ’90s and early 2000s, but this is me now, and I think that what I’m doing is just as exciting if not more exciting than it’s ever been.

I thought your title reign ended prematurely. What are your thoughts?

Well, certain things happen at certain times, and there’s different reactions from Vince [McMahon]. And when he makes a decision, you have to go with it. But let me just say that it’s not completely the way that it seems right now – there’s going to be a lot more to it. Vince usually has a lot of different plans, and whether it’s the end of it for good or whether I win the title again, I’m not sure, but it doesn’t matter to me. I think there’s a lot of over-analyzing of different things. To me, the most important thing was that I got it in the first place, which was never supposed to be the case.

I was very happy with the work I did while I had it on this run, and how long you keep a title has nothing to do with me. That’s up to the boss, and whatever he wants to do, I’ll be happy to do it. And I’ll get my chance again, and when I do, I’ll do exactly the same thing I did when I had it the last time, which is do the best work that I possibly can and make people hate me even more. Usually in Vince’s grand scheme of things, even though things sometimes don’t seem like they’re the right way to do things at the start, in the big picture they usually always are. And I’ve been around long enough to know that you have to trust the boss when he has a feeling, and that’s what I’m going to do.

In an interview I did with Rob Van Dam last January, he basically said that when he signed with WWE, you became insecure about losing your spot to him. What is your response?

I’ve never been insecure about anything with my spot. I tried to help Rob, because he was supposed to be a heel and he still was interested in being a babyface. Rob wants to be Rob. He doesn’t want to play along, because he’s RVD and he’s going to do what he wants to do. I’m about business. If I’m a heel, I want to be hated; if I’m a babyface, I want to be cheered. When he was a heel, he wanted to be cheered, so I tried to help him with that. He thought I was insecure about my spot, and I’m sorry that that’s the case. I’ve always been a fan of Rob’s even when most people in the office weren’t, and I always stood up for him. So, if he feels that way it’s too bad, because I was actually one of his biggest supporters.

Do you have any other projects that you want to talk about, or any final words about Redemption Song?

I’m really excited about the show, and I know Fuse is really excited about it. We’re getting great reviews for it, so I’m happy to be a part of it. Every project that I do I give a hundred percent, and I’m very careful with the projects that I pick. And the people who dig what I do usually dig everything that I do because of that. You always know you’re going to get the best quality when Jericho is involved, and this is another in a long line of those things.

And I’m just focusing on the WWE and working as hard as I can there. I’m trying to do this other book when I get a chance. I’ve done some more acting – I did a show for the Disney Channel called Aaron Stone that comes out in February and March. So there are a lot of projects in the works and it’s an exciting time for me. Like I said, it’s cool to know that whenever I do something, that people usually follow me to check it out. I’m very fortunate.

To watch a trailer for Redemption Song, click here.

To watch Redemption Song online, click here.

Photo credit: Carin Baer/Fuse 2008

Posted by Kevin Eck at 10:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (12)
Categories: Q&As
        

This is the third installment of an interview I conducted with Bruno Sammartino in his hotel room in Elkton on Oct. 18. We were originally going to post the interview in three parts, but we ultimately decided to do it in four. Check back for the fourth and final (really) part of the interview.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 11:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Video interviews
        

I thought Raw was a pretty average show last night. Everything was OK, but nothing was great and nothing was terrible. The most compelling segment as far as execution and story line involved Randy Orton and, believe it or not, Mike Adamle.

Orton is so good at drawing heat that he actually got the crowd to get behind Adamle. Probably because Adamle didn’t have to say much, this was the best work he has done since coming to WWE.

Orton cut an intense promo on Adamle, saying that he has failed in every job that he has had in WWE. No one would disagree with that, but then Orton “crossed the line” by saying that if he talked to Adamle’s wife and kids, they would also say that he’s a failure as a husband and a father. That line prompted the fans to tell Orton exactly what they thought of him.

Adamle’s facial expressions while being dressed down by Orton were very good, as he was believable and not over-the-top. The segment ended with Adamle slapping Orton and the two of them going nose-to-nose.

The major development coming out of this was that Orton threatened to quit if Shane and Stephanie McMahon did not fire Adamle. What happens next should be interesting.

Other thoughts on last night’s show:

The Rey Mysterio-Evan Bourne match is an early candidate to be the best-televised bout of the week. I don’t know what is more entertaining, Mysterio and Bourne as opponents or as a team. The only problem I had with last night’s match was that Mysterio was inconsistent with his selling at one point. Right after selling a knee injury after slipping off the ropes and then having Bourne attack the knee, Mysterio was up and running all over the ring with no problem. …

I was a little surprised to see CM Punk and Kofi Kingston win the tag team title from Ted DiBiase Jr. and Cody Rhodes. I don’t see Punk and Kingston having a long reign, but neither one has a singles program right now, so at least this gives them something to do. …

The Batista/Shawn Michaels versus Chris Jericho/JBL main event was all right, but it came across more like a house show match. JBL’s backstage beat-down of Michaels was pretty good, though. Obviously, JBL and Michaels are going to work a program together. It’s a fresh matchup between two veterans, but JBL has suffered so many losses lately that it’s hard to consider him a threat against top-level guys. …

That was the best John Cena video yet. I’m just not sure how effective it’s going to be in getting Cena the desired big babyface reaction when he returns. For his vocal detractors, I think these videos will only make them hate him even more. …

Charlie Haas impersonating a diva wasn’t something that I saw coming. As Haasarella, he redeemed himself after last week’s inferior Stone Cold imitation. …

It came a day later than I expected, but The Honky Tonk Man got in his guitar shot on Santino Marella. I think Marella was hurt more last week when he delivered a guitar shot than he was last night taking one. By the way, does anyone remember the last time HTM worked as a regular in WWE? I believe it was about 10 years ago, when he unveiled his new protégé, Rockabilly (Billy Gunn/Kip James), which was actually a worse gimmick than Billy and Chuck. …

The six-woman tag match (Kelly Kelly, Mickie James and Candice Michelle versus Jillian Hall, Katie Lea and Layla) was decent. Kelly Kelly especially looked good in the ring. Then again, Kelly Kelly looks good anywhere.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 7:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (17)
        

Congratulations to Ryan McBride and Zachary Shane for being named candidates for Pro Wrestling Illustrated’s 2008 Rookie of the Year award. Both are staples of Baltimore-based promotions Maryland Championship Wrestling and the Eastern Wrestling Alliance.

McBride, 24, of Pasadena, and Shane, 23, of Hagerstown, are joined on the ballot by, among others, four sons of famous wrestlers: Bret DiBiase, Joe Hennig, Reid Flair and Ricky Steamboat Jr. Past winners of the award include Ric Flair, Steve Austin, Kurt Angle, Randy Orton, Goldberg and The Big Show.

Both McBride and Shane will be in action this Saturday at the MCW show at The New Green Room in Dundalk, and Nov. 9 at the EWA show at Tall Cedars Hall in Parkville.

To cast your vote for McBride or Shane for Rookie of the Year, send an e-mail to pwiawards@yahoo.com.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 8:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
        

Conrad Efraim, better known as S.D. “Special Delivery” Jones to wrestling fans in the Northeast in the ’70s and ’80s, died yesterday at 63 after suffering a stroke, according to pwinsider.com.

I grew up watching Jones, who – along with Johnny Rodz and Jose Estrada – was one of the top WWWF and WWF enhancement performers (or preliminary wrestlers, as they were called back in the day).

Despite a less than sterling won-loss record, Jones was popular with fans because he usually got in a lot of offense against the top heels before putting them over, and he projected a happy-go-lucky personality. At house shows, Jones would almost always win when he was matched up against a fellow preliminary wrestler.

I remember Jones getting a minor push around 1981, as he returned to the WWF after being off television for a while and started accumulating victories. Eventually, however, he was back in his old position of jobber to the stars. At one point, he and Tony Atlas (whom Jones inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame two years ago) formed a team and unsuccessfully challenged for the tag team titles.

Until last March, Jones had the dubious distinction of suffering the quickest loss at WrestleMania. He was beaten by King Kong Bundy at WrestleMania I in 1985 in what was officially announced as nine seconds (but it was actually more like 20-some). The record was broken when Kane defeated Chavo Guerrero in eight seconds (legit) at WrestleMania XXIV.

My condolences go out to Jones’ family.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 4:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (14)
        

There was no saving Chris Jericho this time.

I can’t say I’m all that surprised that he lost the world heavyweight title to Batista at last night’s Cyber Sunday pay-per-view. As I have said before, Batista had to get the belt at some point after getting screwed so many times in recent title matches. And with “Stone Cold” Steve Austin as the special referee, it would have been difficult to come up with a scenario in which Jericho would retain, Batista would still come out looking strong and Austin wouldn’t appear to have been outsmarted by Jericho.

Nevertheless, I thought it was too early in Jericho's title reign to take the belt off him, and I expected him to escape one more time. But then again, I am an admitted Jerichoholic, and it probably was wishful thinking on my part.

Now that Batista is the champion, things should get interesting with the imminent returns of John Cena and Randy Orton. There is plenty of history between the three, and since it was Batista who injured Cena, one would think a Batista-Cena title match is coming soon.

Overall, I thought the show was really good. Every match was solid (I don’t even consider the Santino Marella-Honky Tonk Man a match), and the top three bouts – Jericho-Batista, Triple H-Jeff Hardy and Big Show-Undertaker all delivered.

Here is a match-by-match look at last night’s show:

Batista defeated Chris Jericho to win the world heavyweight title: In what was the lock of the night, “Stone Cold” Steve Austin won by a landslide in the voting to determine the special referee. This was a fun match, as Shawn Michaels and Randy Orton – the other two candidates in the voting – got involved, as did JBL. At one point, Jericho hit the Codebreaker, but Austin was incapacitated. Michaels then entered the ring in his ref shirt and made the slowest count in the history of wrestling, which allowed Batista to kick out. Later, Jericho eluded a Stunner by Austin, but the distraction led to Batista hitting a spinebuster and then a Batista Bomb for the pin. The manner in which he lost gives Jericho ammunition to claim that he would have retained the title if not for biased officiating by Michaels and Austin.

WWE champion Triple H defeated Jeff Hardy: Despite WWE pushing hard on Smackdown for Vladimir Kozlov to be in this match, there really was never any doubt that Hardy would win the voting. For the second straight pay-per-view, Triple H and Hardy had an awesome match, and Triple H again did a great job of making Hardy look like he is every bit his equal. Hardy was on offense most of the way, but his one mistake – going for a second Swanton Bomb right after connecting on one – cost him. After Hardy missed the second Swanton, Triple H recovered and went on to hit a Pedigree off the top turnbuckle for the win. I was convinced that Kozlov was somehow going to get involved, but I guess he will be getting his title shot at Survivor Series next month.

The Undertaker defeated The Big Show in a last man standing match: The match, which went about 20 minutes, could not have been booked any better, as The Undertaker overcame quite a beating to win, and The Big Show cemented his standing as a monster heel. Big Show physically dominated The Undertaker for much of the match, and at one point Show was even no-selling punches to the face. After nearly losing several times, Undertaker caught Big Show in the unnamed submission hold (the gogoplata, but never called that in WWE) that Smackdown general manager Vickie Guerrero had banned earlier this year, and choked him out. I thought it was weird that the announcers made no mention of the fact that the move is outlawed. I fully expect Guerrero to overturn the decision or penalize The Undertaker in some fashion Friday on Smackdown.

ECW champion Matt Hardy defeated Evan Bourne: As expected, Bourne was the runaway winner in the voting. This was a very good, fast-paced match and both guys performed well. It lasted approximately 11 minutes, and I thought another five minutes or so would have made it even better.

Rey Mysterio defeated Kane in a no holds barred match: This was the best Kane match I have seen in a while. For the second consecutive pay-per-view, these two worked well together despite the huge contrast in size and styles. While the matches between Mysterio and Kane have been good, no one really cares about this feud, so this might have been the conclusion to it.

The Honky Tonk Man defeated Intercontinental champion Santino Marella by disqualification: I can’t believe the WWE Universe almost blew this one, as the final results were: Honky Tonk Man, 35 percent; Roddy Piper, 34 percent; and Goldust, 31 percent. Sure, Piper is a legend, but after all that buildup with The Honk-O-Meter, one would think that HTM would have won by larger margin. And how in the world did Goldust get that many votes? Anyway, a win is a win, or so I’ve heard. I knew this would be kept short due to HTM’s limitations, but I was thinking four or five minutes, not one. After Beth Phoenix tripped HTM, the ref called for the DQ and that was it. Marella wasn’t happy with Phoenix, but they’ll probably make up tonight on Raw. I can’t believe that HTM didn’t nail Marella over the head with a guitar after the match.

John Morrison and The Miz defeated Cryme Tyme: This was a pretty straightforward tag match. The crowd was into it and all four guys worked hard. This match-up beat out CM Punk/Kofi Kingston versus Ted DiBiase Jr./Cody Rhodes by three percentage points. So Punk has gone from being world champion to not even making it onto the pay-per-view.

Mickie James won the Divas Halloween costume contest: The voting proved once again that whether or not she has the women’s title or is even involved in a story line, James is the most popular woman in the company. She won this contest for the second straight year despite showing a lot less skin than some of the others. Nice job here by the WWE Universe.

WWE.com exclusive match – U.S. champion Shelton Benjamin defeated R-Truth: I wasn’t surprised that R-Truth didn’t win the title, but I was surprised that Benjamin won clean. What’s up?

Posted by Kevin Eck at 2:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (29)
        

Since some of the match-ups and all of the stipulations are not known until the last minute, Cyber Sunday is the toughest WWE pay-per-view to predict. But I’ll give it a shot.

World heavyweight champion Chris Jericho vs. Batista: Fans will choose whether the guest referee is Steve Austin, Shawn Michaels or Randy Orton. Orton has no shot. Michaels makes the most sense from a story line standpoint, but there is no way that Austin isn’t winning. As for the match, at some point the creative team is going to run out of ways to screw Batista in title matches, but it probably won’t be tonight. It’s possible that Austin could cost Jericho the title, but I think Jericho will once again find a way to walk out with the belt – and then Austin will hit a stunner on him after the match.

WWE title match: Fans will choose whether Triple H defends against Jeff Hardy, Vladimir Kozlov, or both in a triple threat match. No matter how hard Kozlov has been pushed on television, I just don’t see him winning the voting. I suppose there is a chance the triple threat could win, but the smart money is on Hardy, and that’s who I’m going with. I think Hardy will be in control for most of the match but come up just short at the end once again. Here’s my scenario: Hardy hits a Swanton and gets a three count, sending the crowd into a frenzy. But then the referee discovers that Triple H had his foot on the rope. While the referee explains this to Hardy, Triple gets up (behind Hardy’s back), hits the Pedigree and retains the title. Suddenly, Vickie Guerrero rolls out in her wheelchair onto the stage. She says that since Triple H mocked her on Smackdown Friday, she is going to teach him a lesson by ordering him to defend the title against Kozlov – right now. Kozlov then goes over clean and becomes the new champion.

The Big Show vs. The Undertaker: Fans will choose whether it’s a last man standing match, knockout match or I quit match. Even though Big Show has knocked out Undertaker a few times, I don’t think the fans will vote for the knockout. I’m guessing the I quit match gets the nod. There’s no chance of The Undertaker submitting, so it’s going to have to be Big Show who utters the two words. For Show not to lose his heat and to keep the feud going, I don’t think a simple submission hold will do him in. I think we’ll see a violent finish similar to the famous Magnum T.A.-Tully Blanchard I quit match in 1985, when Magnum forced Blanchard to quit by driving a splintered piece of a chair into his forehead.

ECW title match: Fans will choose whether Matt Hardy defends against Evan Bourne, Finlay or Mark Henry: It would be a major surprise if Bourne doesn’t win the voting, and a Hardy-Bourne match could steal the show if they are given sufficient time. Hardy will retain, as it’s too early to put the belt on Bourne.

Kane vs. Rey Mysterio: Fans will choose whether it’s a falls-count-anywhere match, no holds barred match or two-out-of-three falls match. Falls-count-anywhere is the likely choice. Mysterio will make it interesting, but Kane will win.

Intercontinental title match: Fans will choose whether Santino Marella defends against The Honky Tonk Man, Goldust or Roddy Piper. Piper is the biggest star of the three challengers, but I’d be shocked if The Honky Tonk Man doesn’t win after all those weeks of the Honk-O-Meter on Raw. Because of HTM’s limitations, this will be kept short. Marella will win, but HTM gets his heat back after the match by smashing a guitar over Marella’s head. A lot of people think Charlie Haas will get involved in some way, and I could see that happening.

Tag-team match: Fans will choose whether it’s William Regal/Layla versus Jamie Knoble/Mickie James, John Morrison/The Miz versus Cryme Tyme or Ted DiBiase Jr./Cody Rhodes versus CM Punk/Kofi Kingston. You can forget about the mixed tag winning. Because of Punk’s popularity, I’m tempted to pick his match, but I’m going with Morrison and Miz against Cryme Tyme. Believe it or not, Miz does have a loyal following. Remember, he won the voting to receive a shot at then-ECW champion Punk at last year’s show. Morrison and Miz will beat Cryme Tyme.

Divas Halloween costume contest: Mickie James, who won the contest last year, is the most over of any of the divas, so I would expect her to repeat. Of course, there is always the chance that the diva who shows the most skin could win, perhaps someone like Kelly Kelly.

Note: There will be a U.S. title match on wwe.com 15 minutes prior to the start of the pay-per-view. Fans will choose whether Shelton Benjamin defends against Festus, MVP or R-Truth. MVP’s losing streak will continue, as he will finish a distant third. Festus has a cult following, but fans have taken to R-Truth and I think he’ll win. I wouldn’t be surprised if R-Truth won the title, as it would be a great way for WWE to promote the idea that fans shouldn’t miss the pre-show wwe.com exclusive matches. However, I think R-Truth should chase the title for a while before winning it, so I’m going with Benjamin to retain, but not necessarily by pinfall.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 4:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)
        

By doing a great job of selling for their adversaries Friday night on Smackdown, Triple H and The Undertaker did a great job of selling Sunday’s Cyber Sunday pay-per-view.

During a very good main event between the two WWE superstars, The Big Show interfered and took out both of them, and then Vladimir Kozlov came in to get in some additional shots on Triple H.

With Triple H and The Undertaker engaging in a hard-hitting match and then getting beaten down afterward, the message was sent that both will be at less than 100 percent at Cyber Sunday.

It’s rare that Triple H and The Undertaker ever go into a big match as underdogs, but Kozlov – who is one of the candidates to challenge Triple H for the WWE title Sunday – and Big Show, who will face The Undertaker in a gimmick match Sunday – could not have been booked any stronger heading into the pay-per-view.

Triple H was especially good Friday night in a role that he doesn’t often play – a babyface in peril. He hit Big Show with a chair, but it had little effect and Triple H ended up getting choke-slammed. Kozlov then continued the assault on “The Game” after Big Show left.

WWE has done an excellent job of getting Kozlov over as a legitimate threat to the title. Never bet against Jeff Hardy in what is essentially a popularity contest – which Hardy himself pointed out last night – but I really hope Kozlov is involved in the WWE title match Sunday, whether it’s one-on-one or in the triple threat.

As an aside, I think a Triple H-Undertaker program would be a big draw. The two veterans are the only major stars from the Attitude Era still in WWE, and while they have wrestled each other in the past (including at WrestleMania X-7), they haven’t faced each other often enough for it to be redundant.

Other thoughts on Friday night’s show:

The MVP losing streak gimmick is starting to really irritate me. Jobbing to Triple H, Jeff Hardy and R-Truth is one thing, but losing to Kung Fu Naki is another entirely. …

Speaking of the wrestler formerly known as Funaki, did I really hear Jim Ross mention Funaki and Ricky Steamboat in the same sentence? Funaki’s new karate gimmick is every bit as ridiculous as TNA’s “Stone Cold” Shark Boy and Super Eric. …

I never thought I would hear the fans chanting The Great Khali’s name – I mean without the word “sucks.” As I have said before, I find the kissing Khali entertaining, although Friday night’s segment went a little long. …

Festus dressed up as a mariachi was funny enough, but it was hilarious when the bell rang and he maniacally chased the mariachi band up the ramp. Somebody needed to teach that bulbous mariachi how to sell, though. …

Wake me up when the Chavo Guerrero-Bam Neely feud is over.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 11:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)
        

I remember the last time a wrestling company proclaimed that something “would change the face of professional wrestling forever.” It was in WCW in 2000. I was the editor of WCW Magazine at the time, and I was aware of what the big news was going to be (actually, I don’t think it was a well-kept secret). I also knew that WCW was setting itself up for failure.

For those who might not remember, the earth-shattering development was that Goldberg turned heel. To say that WCW made an overstatement would be a huge understatement. To this day, I don’t understand why WCW promised something that it couldn’t possibly deliver. No matter how bad things were going for WCW at the time (really, really bad), setting up the fans for a letdown only made things worse and reeked of desperation.

Last night on a live edition of Impact (now in HD, not that it matters to me) from Las Vegas, TNA once again took a page out of WCW’s book. Mick Foley had a major announcement to make, one that, in the words of Mike Tenay, would “rock professional wrestling.”

After the announcement was pushed hard throughout the show, Foley finally revealed the shocking news that … wait for it, wait for it … he was now a major shareholder in TNA! The only thing missing was Tony Schiavone screaming, “This is the single biggest announcement in the history of professional wrestling!”

All kidding aside, Foley becoming part owner of TNA is a decent plot twist and should make for some entertaining scenarios. It would have been better, however, if TNA had simply said that Foley had a big announcement to make about his future in TNA. By making ridiculous claims, TNA just made the announcement feel anticlimactic.

Other thoughts on last night’s show:

I liked Kurt Angle’s “major announcement” better than Foley’s. Angle revealed that he, Kevin Nash, Booker T. and Sting have formed a faction known as the Main Event Mafia (not to be confused with the Voodoo Kin Mafia). That’s a lot of star power there. The group’s name isn’t that great, but at least it’s better than The Millionaires Club. …

I continue to be amazed by Sting’s “heel turn.” He now is officially aligned with the top heels in TNA, but he still doesn’t come off as a villain. He did put on a suit and act a little cocky, but I think it speaks volumes that he did not participate in MEM’s beat-down of Samoa Joe and A.J. Styles at the end of the show. I’m betting that somewhere down the line Sting either renounces the group or they boot him out (like the Four Horsemen did in 1990). …

Could it have been more obvious that Joe was blading himself after taking the belt shot from Nash or that the referee picked the blade up off the mat? That’s live TV. …

I don’t know how Angle and Nash kept a straight face when Booker kept repeating the word “respect” in his accent every time one of them would say it. I know I was laughing out loud. …

Booker’s facial expressions during his verbal confrontation with Christian Cage were hilarious, too. Booker and Cage are clearly the two most entertaining performers in TNA right now. I can’t comment on Cage’s Lil John jokes, however, because I am not familiar with Mr. John’s work. I assume that he is no relation to Elton. …

Booker’s TNA Legends title belt is an obvious takeoff of Ted DiBiase’s old Million Dollar belt. Booker is putting his belt on the line against Cage with the stipulation that Cage has to join MEM if he loses. I don’t care for the idea of wrestlers competing for titles that don’t really exist. And no disrespect to Christian, but, story-line wise, does he have the qualifications to be in the group? The four members all were world champions in either WWE or WCW, but Christian was never more than a mid-carder before coming to TNA. …

It was definitely time to put the TNA women’s title back on Awesome Kong, and this sets up a title program between Kong and Roxxi. Taylor Wilde never really got over as a babyface champion. Gail Kim’s departure has left a major void. …

What better way to kick off TNA’s first high-definition broadcast than with a match involving The Beautiful People? As someone who does not have HD, I can only use my imagination as to how Velvet Sky’s ring entrance looked up close and personal. …

Sky’s match against Christy Hemme wasn’t exactly smooth, but the effort was definitely there, and because it was the opening match, the crowd was hot for it. …

Perhaps I wasn’t paying close enough attention, but I was almost as confused by the rules for the tag-team gauntlet match as I was for the double gauntlet match on Raw Monday. I was even more confused by Team 3D playing to the crowd. Did they turn babyface while I was making a sandwich? By the way, why was Brother Devon unable to kick out of a pin attempt after only having beer spit in his face? …

What’s the over/under on how long it will be before Matt Morgan turns on “best friend” Abyss? …

I was enjoying the Sheik Abdul Bashir-Jay Lethal match – while it lasted. I am shocked that Bashir won so cleanly and quickly. …

Could the TNA creative team have made Rhino look any dumber? After grabbing Bashir by the throat backstage and cutting a promo on him, Rhino let him go and turned his back to walk away. Of course Bashir jumped him and dished out an intense physical and verbal beat-down. With Rhino left for dead, Lauren then asked, “Are you OK?” That was almost as funny as Booker’s material.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 2:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (14)
        

I’m a pretty big baseball fan, but I just cannot muster any excitement about a Tampa Bay Rays-Philadelphia Phillies World Series. Yes, the Rays going from worst-to-World Series is impressive, but the lack of marquee names, larger-than-life personalities and a compelling story line have made me a world-weary cynic when it comes to this World Series.

If only the World Series could be more like WrestleMania. By that, of course, I mean scripted. One of the reasons WrestleMania rarely disappoints is because Vince McMahon and his creative team are pulling the strings to insure star-studded matchups and intriguing story lines.

Imagine if instead of Rays-Phils we had a Red Sox-Dodgers World Series. You’d have Manny Ramirez, Derek Lowe and Nomar Garciaparra facing their former team. Just like a popular babyface turning heel, the three ex-Boston fan favorites would become the enemy. Plus, the Red Sox would once again meet ex-Yankee skipper Joe Torre in the postseason.

How about Red Sox-Cubs? The team that finally ended its curse a few years ago versus the team whose curse continues. And how cool would it be for the two Series venues to be Fenway Park and Wrigley Field?

We also missed out on a Crosstown Classic between the Cubs and White Sox, as well as the Battle of Los Angeles between the Dodgers and Angels.

Like I said earlier, the Rays are a nice Cinderella story. They are the baseball equivalent to CM Punk, but I would not want to see Punk wrestle Kane – who, like the Phillies, is good but not great – in the WrestleMania main event.

It’s not just this year’s World Series that doesn’t measure up to the standard of WrestleMania. I will concede that the Series has produced some memorable moments. Over the past two decades we have seen the Mets’ improbable comeback in 1986, Joe Carter’s walkoff homer in 1993 and Kirk Gibson’s pinch-hit homer off Dennis Eckersley in 1988. During that same span, however, there were a lot more “Wrestlemania moments,” and, I dare say, a number of them were more spectacular than the aforementioned Series highlights.

Take Gibson’s homer for example. Sure, a hobbled Gibson limping to the plate against the nearly unhittable Eck (best nickname ever) was dramatic, but the Dodger slugger coming through on a bum knee does not compare to the gutsy performance put on at WrestleMania in 1998 by Shawn Michaels, who wrestled in the main event against “Stone Cold” Steve Austin despite suffering from several degenerative disks in his back.

Let’s also not forget what Kurt Angle did in the 2003 WrestleMania main event. He had bone spurs touching his badly bruised spinal cord and problems with four vertebrae and two disks. Doctors recommended that he retire. Instead, Angle wrestled a well-worked, physical match against Brock Lesnar.

And then there's Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling being lauded as a hero in the 2004 Series for pitching well on an injured ankle. A big deal was made over him having a speck of blood on his sock, but if you’re talking about real sanguine drama, nothing beats Austin – who had blood spurting out of a deep gash on his head – refusing to submit while caught in Bret Hart’s Sharpshooter at WrestleMania in 1997.

Now that was a bloody good show. Conversely, this year’s World Series is just anemic.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 5:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (23)
        

This is the second installment of an interview I conducted with Bruno Sammartino in his hotel room in Elkton Sunday. Check back for the third and final part of the interview.

Note: While nearly all of the interview was a shoot, Bruno did not break kayfabe on his feud with Larry Zbyszko.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 2:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Video interviews
        

There’s no denying that Evan Bourne is on the verge of becoming a breakout star on ECW. However, the guy who I believe is eventually going to end up becoming a world champion on Raw or Smackdown is Jack Swagger.

Since Swagger made his debut on ECW last month, I have been more and more impressed with him each week. I can see why Swagger, who wrestled under his real name of Jake Hager in Florida Championship Wrestling, was considered the crown jewel of WWE’s developmental system.

Swagger, who is listed at 6 feet 4 and 263 pounds, certainly has all the physical qualities of a main-eventer. An accomplished amateur wrestler (as well as a football player) at the University of Oklahoma, he is athletic and appears to be a natural in the ring.

He also has “it.” Swagger carries himself like a star and has the cocky facial expression down pat. If he continues to develop on the microphone and fine tunes his character, it will just be a matter of time before Swagger is wearing gold.

Going back to Bourne, it’s good to see the powers that be in WWE are listening to the fans and giving him a push. Not only is he one of three candidates in the running to receive an ECW title shot against Matt Hardy at the Cyber Sunday pay-per view this weekend, but it’s clear that WWE wants him to win the voting. Bourne won a triple threat match between the three potential challengers last night on ECW by pinning Mark Henry.

A Bourne-Hardy title match could be awesome, and it would be a surprise if Bourne doesn’t win the voting. Henry, a heel, doesn’t figure to get a lot of votes, and it’s doubtful that Finlay has enough fan support to beat Bourne.

The one thing that is holding Bourne back is his promos. Right now, he isn’t even serviceable on the mic. If he can improve his speaking skills, the sky might be the limit for “Air Bourne.”

Posted by Kevin Eck at 9:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)
        

One of the great things about live TV is the sense of spontaneity. One of the not-so-great things about live TV is that you only get one take and there is no post-production to fix miscues.

For Raw last night, it was the latter scenario. Speaking of which, it’s a good thing there wasn’t a “ladder scenario” last night, because there’s no doubt that someone would have slipped while climbing. It was just one of those nights in which nothing seemed to go right. As isolated incidents, none of them were that bad, but they added up.

Here’s a look at some of the lowlights:

*Raw general manager Mike Adamle seemed to lose his train of thought during the opening segment, and then he missed his cue during the ill-conceived double gauntlet match between Chris Jericho and Batista. I decided to keep an open mind after Adamle got the GM role, but this just isn’t working.

*There was no heat for the gauntlet match, which wasn’t a surprise because the object of the match was not explained well. It was so nonsensical that I thought Vince Russo was back writing for WWE.

*When hyping Sunday’s Undertaker-Big Show match at the Cyber Sunday pay-per-view, Jerry Lawler forgot that the voting for the match stipulations is being done on wwe.com and not by text. Lawler was confused, and after an uncomfortable moment, Michael Cole jumped in to make the save.

*CM Punk slipped coming off the top rope during the tag team match pitting Punk and Kofi Kingston against John Morrison and The Miz. Punk did manage to land on his feet, however.

*When Santino Marella smashed a guitar over Hacksaw Jim Duggan’s head, Duggan ended up without a scratch on him, but a splintered piece of the guitar hit Marella in the face and cut his lip wide open.

*Comedy promos by Morrison/Miz and Marella were met mostly with silence. And Charlie Haas – as “Stone Cold” Steve Haas-tin – wasn’t nearly as funny as he had been in previous weeks.

The absence of Shawn Michaels and Randy Orton also hurt the show. Unless I missed it, there was no explanation given for them not being there.

The rating for Raw reflects the quality – or lack thereof – of the episode, as it did a 2.9 rating, according to pwinsider.com, down from last week’s 3.1. I blame it all on that horrible Jackass segment from last week.

Other thoughts on last night’s show:

Raw actually did get off to a good start. It’s never a bad thing when Kelly Kelly is on, and the women’s tag match was decent. That match was followed by a fine promo by Jericho about him being shown a lack of respect. His verbal assault on Lillian Garcia was a nice touch.

Jericho’s interaction with Batista was good, as well. I could have sworn Batista was going to use Jericho’s old “Would you please shut the hell up?” line, but he instead said, “Would you please shut up and stop whining?” The Miz, however, did steal one of Jericho’s former signature phrases when he referred to himself as “The Highlight of the Night.” …

I know that William Regal is never going to be a money player, but he deserved better than to be squashed so quickly in the gauntlet match. I wasn’t wild about Mark Henry being in the match and getting pinned, either. Why not throw Snitsky out there? …

Jericho has suffered pinfall losses to Punk and Kane on consecutive shows, so shouldn’t they be in line to face the winner of Sunday’s Jericho-Batista match? …

Speaking of Punk, WWE certainly hasn’t done him any favors over the past couple weeks. Last night he did the job to The Miz – of all people – in the tag match, and two weeks ago on ECW he was pinned in an eight-man tag. He did pin Jericho last week on Raw, but only after Jericho had him beaten clean, and Batista laid out Jericho with a Batista Bomb. I wonder if Punk is doing one of those losing streak gimmicks, perhaps leading to a heel turn? …

Marella was very close to committing gimmick infringement. With the makeup on his face and the blood pouring out of his mouth, it appeared as if he was doing Gene Simmons’ schtick. …

When Hulk Hogan’s music played last week, there was a tepid reaction from the crowd. However, when Steve Austin’s played last night, there was a huge pop. Either everyone knew last week that it was going be Haas doing a Hogan impersonation, or else people just doesn’t care about Hogan anymore.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 8:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (26)
        

This is the first installment of an interview I conducted with Bruno Sammartino in his hotel room in Elkton Sunday.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 2:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)
Categories: Video interviews
        

I have had a number of cool experiences writing about pro wrestling for The Baltimore Sun and other publications over the past 15 years, but listening to Bruno Sammartino tell stories about the old days over breakfast just might be the coolest of them all.

I met with Bruno yesterday morning at a hotel in Elkton, where he had spent the night after participating in an autograph signing along with Tito Santana and Nikolai Volkoff at a mall in Newark, Del., Saturday. Before heading up to Bruno’s room to conduct a videotaped sit-down interview with him, I had the tremendous honor of breaking bread with wrestling’s “Living Legend.”

He truly is one of the classiest individuals you’ll ever meet in or out of wrestling. I had done a Q&A with Bruno over the phone a while back, but I had never spoken with him in person until yesterday. Still, he greeted me as if we were old friends.

We were actually supposed to do the interview on Saturday at the mall before the signing, but due to time constraints, it didn’t happen. Even though it was no one’s fault, Bruno was very apologetic about any inconvenience that re-scheduling may have caused me.

It actually couldn’t have worked out any better. For someone like me who started following wrestling right around the time that Bruno began his second reign as WWWF champion in 1973, engaging in an informal conversation with him about his contemporaries such as Killer Kowalski, Don Leo Jonathan, Gorilla Monsoon and Ken Patera is something that I will never forget.

At one point, Bruno told a story about the time he taught a hard lesson to an opponent who didn’t want to do business. He said he caught the guy in a front facelock and cinched it in tight. Bruno told him that either he was going to say “I quit” loud enough so that everyone in the arena could hear it, or else, well, let’s just say it would be in his best interests to do so. His opponent wisely decided to do things the easy way.

After we wrapped up the interview in his room, Bruno wanted to demonstrate the front facelock on me so that I could truly understand how it effective it was. How could I say no to Bruno? Well, actually I did, but he insisted, saying, “I give you my word that I won’t hurt you.”

So I leaned over and the strongest 73-year-old in the world locked me in the hold and squeezed, turning my head in an awkward position that was quite uncomfortable. Fortunately for me, Bruno does know his own strength. After releasing me, he explained that if he were to yank upward when applying the hold, it “would break any man’s neck.” I certainly wasn’t going to argue with him.

I will be posting the first part of the video interview with Bruno within the next day or two. The whole interview lasted about 50 minutes, as Bruno discussed the late Kowalski, his feud with Larry Zbyszko and their famous cage match at Shea Stadium, what he thinks about Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair, his impressions of a young Vince McMahon, why he turned down a chance to be NWA world champion, why a proposed match with Muhammad Ali never happened and more.

I want to give special thanks to former WCW announcer Chris Cruise for putting me in touch with Bruno, and BK Entertainment’s Bryan and Karen Martin, who organized the signing at the mall and worked with me in setting up the interview.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 9:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (24)
        

It seems pretty clear that WWE wants fans to vote for a Triple H versus Vladimir Kozlov WWE title match at the Cyber Sunday pay-per-view next Sunday.

Not only did “The Moscow Mauler” score a convincing win over Jeff Hardy Friday night on Smackdown, but Triple H, who was doing commentary for the match, said that his preference was to face Kozlov one-on-one at Cyber Sunday. WWE also hammered home the point that Kozlov has consistently gotten the better of Hardy.

Time will tell if fans have gotten the hint. It’s certainly not a sure thing. It has always been my understanding that the voting for Cyber Sunday is legitimate, and when someone with a large and loyal fan base such as Hardy is involved, anything can happen.

Besides Triple H-Kozlov, the other options fans can vote for are Triple H-Hardy and a triple threat between Triple H, Kozlov and Hardy. I have a feeling that WWE wouldn’t mind the triple threat winning, but it seems like they really don’t want another Triple H-Hardy match at this time.

Personally, I would like to see the triple threat.

Other thoughts on Friday’s show:

As I was watching the show, I kept getting this feeling that there was something missing. Then I realized what it was, or, rather, who it was – Edge. I’m all for guys taking some time off to heal their bodies and get a break from the constant traveling, but Edge’s absence definitely takes the show down a notch. …

I like R-Truth as much as anybody, so I’m glad to see him wracking up victories, but watching MVP lose every week is disappointing. I’m hoping the payoff to this losing streak – assuming there is one – happens soon. MVP is a main-eventer waiting to happen, and I’m getting tired of waiting. …

It made me laugh when The Big Show was yelling at Chavo Guerrero for struggling to set up a table and not holding the microphone high enough for him. …

I also got a chuckle out of Festus offering a flower to Maria backstage. I can’t wait to see where this leads. …

Just when you think you’ve seen it all in wrestling, WWE comes up with a fuzzy dice on a pole match. Maria winning – and thus earning a shot at Michelle McCool’s WWE divas title at Cyber Sunday – was a pleasant surprise. Well, it wasn’t really a surprise, because I read the spoilers, but you know what I mean. I would have expected Maryse to win, but it was no dice for her. …

McCool’s condescending behavior toward Maria after the match makes me think that McCool might be turning heel. I don’t think she’s a very good babyface, but I could see her being a decent heel. …

Big Zeke looked like a monster during his squash match against Super Crazy. …

Speaking of crazy, you might think I’m crazy (as Ric Ocasek once said), but I’m starting to enjoy watching The Great Khali. That’s right, I said it.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 3:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (18)
        

The latest reality show from Hulk Hogan makes its debut tomorrow night on CMT. No, it’s not about his son trying to profit off the car accident that left his friend in a vegetative state. It’s Hulk Hogan’s Celebrity Championship Wrestling, an elimination competition in which “celebrities” are trained to wrestle.

On the trailer for the show, which is being produced by Eric Bischoff and Jason Hervey’s production company, the competitors are described as “10 celebrities brave enough to step into Hulk Hogan’s ring.” What it should have said is: “10 D-list celebrities who have extremely limited options these days step into Hulk Hogan’s ring.”

According to show’s Web site, the contestants will be judged on “their performances througout various challenges, which include mastering complex moves, trash talk to intimidate the opponent and working a live audience.”

The cast members are a virtual who’s who of has-beens and never-wases: Danny Bonaduce, Todd Bridges, Butterbean, Trishelle Cannatella (who?), Dustin Diamond, Erin Murphy, Dennis Rodman, Frank Stallone, Tiffany (the girl who used to sing in malls, not Teddy Long’s assistant on ECW) and Nikki Ziering. I guess Cousin Sal and American Idol reject Ace Young were too busy – or too “famous” for this show.

Predictably, the judges and trainers for the program are all Hogan associates and hangers-on. Bischoff and Jimmy Hart are the judges, and Brian Knobbs and Brutus Beefcake serve as trainers.

The trailer also has a line about the show being “more than you think it is.” Judging by the clips, however, it’s exactly what I think it is. All the staples of reality shows are there, including bottom-of-the-barrel celebs, contrived conflicts with lots of yelling and crying, and the requisite “serious” moment (Rodman suffers a shoulder injury and is taken to the hospital in an ambulance).

I am not a fan of reality competition shows, but as a wrestling fan, I have to admit that I am intrigued by the subject matter. And this series might just be so bad that it’s good. What I’m having a hard time getting past is that it is a Hulk Hogan project. I can’t see Hogan without being reminded of the reprehensible comments that he made about John Graziano – the Hogan family friend who was critically injured in the accident – during taped jailhouse conversations with his son, Nick.

I will at least watch tomorrow’s episode for sure. As far as who will emerge as the celebrity wresting champion, I’m going with Bonaduce. Luckily for him, I don’t think the show tests for steroids.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 7:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (16)
        

It makes sense that TNA would want its top heel, Kurt Angle, to get his heat back after losing to Jeff Jarrett at the Bound for Glory pay-per-view Sunday. But Angle got so much of his heat back last night on Impact that he came off as by far the toughest guy in the company, and he made several babyfaces look worthless and weak in the process.

The story line was that Angle wanted a rematch with Jarrett, who stated that Sunday’s match was a one-shot deal. Angle said that he was going to keep laying out TNA talent until Jarrett agreed to the match.

The Motor City Machine Guns were Angle’s first victims. After winning an entertaining, fast-paced match over Sheik Abdul Bashir and Sonjay Dutt, Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin were brutalized by Angle. That’s right; Angle single-handedly took out one of TNA’s best tag teams. Did he attack them from behind? No. Did he use a steel chair, baseball bat or some other weapon? No. He looked them both right in the eye and battered them. Oh, and he also laid out Dutt.

Later, Angle beat up all three members of The Prince Justice Brotherhood as well as The Rock and Rave Infection. He also attacked ring announcer David Penzer. Actually, I didn’t really mind any of that.

What I didn’t like was when a horde of security and referees tried to stop the attack on Penzer, and Angle effortlessly shoved them all down. Jarrett then entered the ring and tried to get a piece of Angle after Angle had insinuated that he would harm Jarrett’s kids. Jarrett, however, was unable to get his hands on Angle because security and the referees restrained him – the same security and referees that were no match for Angle, the one-man wrecking crew.

The final burial of the night was of Matt Morgan, who had been handpicked by Jim Cornette to be the man to stop Angle’s reign of terror. Angle, however, ended up becoming the first man to kick out of Morgan’s finisher, and he went on to score the clean pin.

TNA had been doing a good job of steadily moving Morgan up the ladder, but this killed his momentum. Imagine if someone had kicked out of Goldberg’s spear-and-jackhammer combination when he was on the rise in WCW a decade ago. Hopefully, TNA will try to turn the loss into a positive for Morgan, perhaps by having him cut a promo about learning from his mistake and vowing never to lose focus again.

So, let’s take a look at the final tally. In one night, Angle beat up two tag teams and a trio (plus another wrestler and a ring announcer); pushed around a group of security and referees; and kicked out of a rising star’s finisher before pinning him. And, despite what Don West said about Angle “blindsiding” people, he actually was coming at them head-on.

In other words, the company’s top heel was booked to like its top babyface.

Other thoughts on last night’s show:

When it comes to being a heel, it’s obvious that Sting doesn’t get it, but Kevin Nash sure does. Nash – who turned on Samoa Joe and helped Sting win the TNA World title at Bound for Glory – received his typical babyface reaction last night when he came out to cut a promo. Nash, however, did not slap hands with the fans on his way to the ring. And when he was cheered for running down Samoa Joe and A.J. Styles, Nash unleashed his vitriol at the fans, saying that they were the only ones dumber than Joe and Styles.

He then pulled out a couple tried-and-true heel clichés: He basically said that he’s rich and the fans aren’t, and that the guys who brought their wives with them to the show are stupid because the wives are fantasizing about being with him. Within a matter of a minute or so, the fans went from cheering for Nash to chanting “You suck.” It proved that it really isn’t that hard to turn the fans against you – if your heart is in it. Sting just refuses to embrace the role.

Despite having won the title from the company’s top babyface with help from a full-fledged heel in Nash, Sting still played to the fans last night and encouraged them to cheer – which the majority of them did. When Samoa Joe’s name was mentioned, the fans booed. They also booed Styles when he came out to confront Sting. If Sting would just take a page out of Nash’s book and hurl a few insults at the fans, he would get heel heat and this angle would be the better for it. Sting and Nash are teaming together next week on Impact to face Joe and Styles, so perhaps Sting will get booed due to guilt by association. …

The TNA creative team is mostly to blame for the fans booing Joe. No top babyface should ever be booked to look gullible or come off as a whiner, and that’s exactly how Joe has been portrayed during his association with Nash. If Joe is ever going to make it as a money player in TNA, he not only has to score a convincing victory over Nash in the near future, but he needs to administer a brutal, bloody beat-down on his former mentor. Anything short of Nash getting his complete comeuppance will make Joe look unworthy of his spot. …

I can’t imagine that anybody bought Mick Foley’s farewell speech, especially when considering that Foley’s image has been on Internet ads for next month’s Turning Point pay-per-view all week. The whole idea of having a farewell for somebody who had made just a few appearances was silly. …

When Kip James became part of The Beautiful People’s act two months ago, I wrote that Angelina Love and Velvet Sky were already over, so why try to fix what wasn’t broken. Upon further review, I do think that “Cute Kip” has helped The Beautiful People attract even more heel heat. James is just so naturally unlikable that he makes it almost impossible for people (especially men) to cheer Love and Sky no matter how attractive they are.

What initially turned me off to the James/Beautiful People alliance was the fact that James was playing an outdated stereotypical gay character, but he quickly reverted back to being effeminate without being too over-the-top flamboyant. …

I was happy to see the talented Machine Guns win a match for a change, and that’s why I was especially frustrated with the way Angle manhandled them, completely negating anything they had gained by winning. Also, it was curious that there was no hint of a heel turn by Shelley and Sabin this week. …

By beating up Penzer, Angle was exposed as a liar. I distinctly heard Angle say that he was going to attack “TNA talent,” and everyone knows that Penzer doesn’t have any talent. Oh, I kid Penzer. …

Just wondering: Why didn’t Shane Sewell fight back when Angle was shoving all the security and referees around? And since when did Morgan and Abyss become “best friends?” …

I’m not so sure about the new direction for Roxxi, who has suddenly become a potty-mouth. I guess to be hardcore you have to cut profanity-laced promos. The cursing gimmick would be more suited for ODB. …

It looks as if Christy Hemme and The Rock and Rave Infection are now babyfaces. To me, Hemme is a natural heel. …

It wasn’t a great night for Consequences Creed. He came off looking like a total jobber in his match against Nash, and his pre-match promo wasn’t very good. He’s trying to imitate Apollo Creed from the Rocky movies, but this promo was more like Apollo Creed on speed.

NOTE: For what it’s worth, Karen Angle’s photo is back up on TNA’s Web site. It was removed earlier this week as reports surfaced that she had been released. Last week on Impact, it was announced that Karen, who reportedly is going through a divorce from Kurt, was leaving TNA to spend more time with her family. Is she really back? Was she ever really released? Is any of this is a work? Your guess is as good as mine.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 1:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)
        

I knew that nothing good could come of Johnny Knoxville and his fellow jackasses appearing on Raw last night, but it was far worse than I imagined. In fact, I think it was one of the worst segments in the history of Raw.

The segment actually got off to a great start. Santino Marella was being his usual entertaining self, cutting a promo about his three potential opponents at the Cyber Sunday pay-per-view on Oct. 26 – The Honky Donky Man, Rodney The Piper and Golden Dust – and then Knoxville was introduced into the proceedings.

After some not-so-interesting banter, Beth Phoenix scooped up Knoxville and attempted to slam him, but she ended up dropping him. It was quite embarrassing, but as Chris Jericho would say, the worst was yet to come.

From there, some of my least favorite WWE characters – Hornswoggle, The Boogeyman and Big Dick Johnson – took turns interacting with Knoxville and Jackass cohort Chris Pontius. Pontius, by the way, was wearing a Pittsburgh Steelers T-shirt, confirming that he indeed is a jackass.

At one point, Pontius and the grotesque Johnson danced around the ring in thongs. Yeah, that’s just what the predominantly male WWE audience wants to see. The scene mercifully ended with The Great Khali taking out Knoxville. Khali instantly became my new favorite wrestler.

As all of this was going on, I kept thinking that I had dozed off and was having a nightmare. I kept expecting The Shockmaster to come out and trip getting into the ring, The Gobbledygooker to emerge from a giant egg and Master P and the No Limit Soldiers to start chanting “Hoody hoo!”

I hope I just didn’t give anyone on the WWE creative team any ideas.

Other thoughts on last night’s show:

Except for that WrestleCrap-worthy segment, the rest of Raw wasn’t bad. The best part was the show-long angle of Jericho and Batista trying to outsmart each other. …

I have mixed feelings on how CM Punk was booked. On one hand, it makes him look like a big deal for Batista to have hand-picked him to face Jericho. But the finish of the match kind of made Punk look weak. Jericho hit his Codebreaker finisher and was about to cleanly defeat Punk, but Batista refused to make the three-count. Batista then power-bombed Jericho, and Punk pinned him. It will go down in the official record book – who is in charge of keeping the official record book anyway? – as Punk pinning the world heavyweight champion, but the way it occurred probably hurt Punk more than it helped him.

I think a better finish would have been Jericho and Punk both falling down after knocking heads, and Jericho just happening to land on top of Punk. Then Batista refuses to count the three, and after Jericho confronts Batista, Punk hits the GTS for the win. But that’s just me. …

Batista looked a little silly wearing a ref shirt that was too small with his wrestling trunks. At least he could have worn long pants. …

The Batista-Shawn Michaels match wasn’t as crisp as one would think, and the pace was a tad slow. It could have been because Michaels was still hurting from the ladder match against Jericho at the No Mercy pay-per-view on Oct. 5. He was selling that he was banged up from that match, but it might not have been just an act. …

I thought the handshake between Batista and Michaels was a good way to bring closure to their feud. It wouldn’t have made any sense for a Batista Bomb or Sweet Chin Music to occur after the handshake. …

As soon as JBL referred to himself as a “real American,” you knew Charlie Haas was coming out as Haas Hogan. The big boot to the face never looked so good, brother. Just wondering: How did Haas know that JBL was going to say that he was a “real American?” …

The biggest exaggeration of the night: Jerry Lawler calling Knoxville “a huge star.” Actually, he might be if we’re comparing him to Cousin Sal.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 9:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (23)
        

For those who may have missed it, there were two surprising releases today: Lance Cade by WWE, and Karen Angle by TNA.

Cade, who was aligned with world heavyweight champion Chris Jericho and played a major role in the finish of Jericho’s fantastic ladder match against Shawn Michaels at the No Mercy pay-per-view on Oct. 5, was getting the biggest push of his career. It now appears that Michaels brutalizing Cade with repeated chair shots last week on Raw was an angle to write out Cade.

I wasn’t sold on Cade ever becoming a main-eventer, but I thought he was perfectly suited to be the Cowboy Bob Orton to Jericho’s Roddy Piper. Cade wasn’t bad when given a chance to cut a promo, he had a good look and he was decent in the ring. He also had the benefit of having been trained by Michaels. It seems odd that WWE would abruptly let him go.

Angle being released is one that perhaps we should have seen coming. She and Kurt reportedly are going through a divorce, but the two of them were going to try to continue working for the same company. Apparently, that wasn’t working out. If TNA felt the need to send one of the Angles packing, the choice was obvious.

Speaking of seeing things coming, the Angles' marriage is the latest of many in wrestling to end in divorce when both parties were contracted talent. When Karen first entered TNA in the summer of 2007, I wrote: "Kurt might want to talk to Randy Savage, Marc Mero, Diamond Dallas Page, Kevin Sullivan and Steve McMichael about how things worked out for them when they brought their wives into wrestling." When I interviewed Kurt at the Impact Zone last March and asked him about the subject, he said: "Thank God, it’s actually brought us closer together. We spend more time together, and it actually did the opposite of what it’s done in the past to others. It’s been great."

Oops.

I thought Karen initially was good as a heel, but she became overexposed on television. Her “Karen’s Angle” interview segments on TNA Impact were OK overall, although some of them were not good. She really wasn’t a major character anymore, so her departure isn’t a big loss – although I’m sure Jeremy Borash is probably taking it pretty hard.

Wouldn’t it be something if Vince McMahon decided to sign Karen as a way to stick it to Kurt, who in the past has had some not-so-flattering things to say about his former employer? I could see McMahon scripting a story line in which he and Karen are having an affair, much like he did with Rena “Sable” Mero.

TNA and Johnny Devine also parted ways today, although it reportedly was Devine who asked to be released, as his career in TNA wasn’t really going anywhere. I have never been a huge fan of Devine as a character, but he is a good worker. TNA probably could have done more with him, as he showed a lot more personality on TNA’s YouTube clips than he ever did on television.

Note: I’m still working on an entry looking at last night’s Raw. That post will be up later.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 7:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)
        

Actress and former WWE diva Stacy Keibler graces the cover of the November issue of Maxim, which just hit newsstands.

Looking at the Rosedale native on the cover of the magazine just reminded me of an incident that took place while I was at the Colts-Ravens game yesterday in Indianapolis. First, I have to say that overall the good people of Indianapolis were pretty gracious before, during and after the game. However, there was a pre-game routine on the field that I thought was a little mean-spirited. Several men in drag dressed up as Ravens cheerleaders and gyrated to the song, "Dude Looks Like a Lady."

Taking shots at our refined, lovely young ladies from Baltimore is not only classless, it’s also incredibly off-base. If any cheerleaders are hard on the eyes, it's Indy's, not ours.

If you don’t believe me, take a look at Keibler, a former Ravens cheerleader, on the Maxim cover:

And now look at what a Colts cheerleader looks like (and this is the prettiest one):

OK, I’ve gotten that out of my system. I promise the next blog entry will actually be about wrestling.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 7:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)
        

After waking up at 4 a.m. for a 6:15 flight this morning from Indianapolis to Baltimore and then catching a couple hours of sleep before heading into the office, I’ve had the Festus facial expression (before the bell rings) for most of the afternoon.

It wasn’t just the lack of sleep that had reduced my gaze to a blank stare either. It was a real downer to travel 500 miles only to see the Ravens put up as much of a fight against the Colts as Colin Delaney did against The Big Show.

But thanks to a steady intake of coffee and sugar, I’m starting to feel more like myself (although if Cryme Tyme gets significant air time tonight on Raw, I can’t guarantee that I won’t tap out and give in to sleep), so I figured it was time to take a look at how I fared on my two predictions for yesterday in regard to football and pro wrestling.

From Saturday’s blog: "Greetings from Indianapolis – the city that Dick The Bruiser made famous – where I’ll be watching the Ravens lay the smack down on the Colts tomorrow at Lucas Oil Stadium."

Result: Colts, 31-3. Unlike wrestling, there was no ref stoppage due to a participant being defenseless while getting pummeled.

Comment: There hasn’t been that much of a one-sided contest in Indianapolis since The Undertaker squashed Jake “The Snake” Roberts at WrestleMania XIII at the Hoosier Dome.

From Friday’s blog: "It was announced that there will not be a rematch [between Samoa Joe and Sting] regardless of the outcome, which makes me think that Sting might win the [TNA world] title [at Bound for Glory]. My prediction is that Kevin Nash will make a surprise appearance and turn on Joe. I have a hunch that Nash going public about his uncertain status with TNA and the fact that his photo and bio have been removed from TNA’s Web site is all a work to make people think he is no longer with the company."

Result: Bingo.

Comment: Even if I – and I’m sure others – did see it coming, I’m glad that there will be a payoff to the Nash-Joe story line that has been months in the making. Having Joe as the hunter again rather than the hunted is probably better for his character. It will be interesting to see how long of a run Sting gets with the title. His previous runs as world champion in TNA lasted a month and two days, respectively.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 5:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)
        

Greetings from Indianapolis -- the city that Dick The Bruiser made famous -- where I’ll be watching the Ravens lay the smack down on the Colts tomorrow at Lucas Oil Stadium.

Speaking of Smackdown -- how’s that for a smooth segue? -- I thought last night’s show was pretty entertaining.

WWE continues to do a great job of getting Vladimir Kozlov over as a monster heel. His constant menacing facial expression and mauling style in the ring set him apart from everyone else.

Last night, Kozlov was all over the show, engaging in a stare-down with The Big Show and physically getting the better of Triple H and Jeff Hardy,

So far, he has almost exclusively wrestled in squash matches. It will be interesting to see how he looks in matches that are more give-and-take. We won’t have to wait much longer to find out, as he faces Hardy next Friday on Smackdown.

Other thoughts on last night’s show:

No one can say that Triple H wasn’t making his foes look good. He not only sold big for Kozlov, but also for The Big Show during their WWE title match. And Triple H allowed Hardy to take him out with a post-match Twist of Fate as well. ...

The crowd never seems to know how to react when Hardy does something heelish. I like the fact that he suckered Triple H. It shows that he will not be played for a fool by "The Cerebral Assassin." ...

Hardy and MVP had the best match of the night, although the result was never in doubt. Isn’t MVP ever going to be allowed out of the doghouse? I really hope the losing streak is leading to a story line that results in a big push for him. By the way, did we really need Hurricane Helms to pile on MVP? I’m just sayin.’ ...

I guess Vickie Guerrero being in a wheelchair and neck brace is going to be a recurring gimmick. It definitely adds to her heat. I’m still waiting for the "Excuse me!" T-shirt. ...

That had to be The Great Khali’s most entertaining match ever. Bell rings. Two of his three opponents bail. The poor guy still in there takes one chop to the head and gets pinned. I’m betting that Khali as a goofy babyface gets over. ...

I wouldn’t say the same about Kung-Fu-Naki. ...

Whoever made the call to go to a break during R-Truth’s entrance should be fired. ...

It looks as if there might be a Maria-Festus story line. Now that’s one I am definitely looking forward to. I’m guessing that Maria has seen that dazed over, drooling look from men before. ...

That was one heck of a vicious clothesline by Natalya on Brie Bella. She got hit so hard I bet her twin sister could feel it. ...

Kizarny could be an interesting character, but the wrestling carny-speak might get old fast.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 3:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)
        

Hardcore legend Mick Foley makes his first appearance on a TNA pay-per-view this Sunday at Bound for Glory. Foley, who signed with TNA after his WWE contract expired last month, will serve as the special enforcer referee for the Kurt Angle-Jeff Jarrett match.

I conducted a phone interview with Foley yesterday.

What went into your decision to leave WWE?

I just had a real feeling that I had done everything that I possibly could in WWE. I was just dead weight, showing up once in a while doing things like being a judge on “Raw Idol” and for an occasional backstage vignette. I was given a chance to try announcing, and it was a job that in the end I did not care for very much. And so I was really just looking for an opportunity to do something meaningful in wrestling.

Was Vince McMahon yelling in your ear while you were commentating a big part of the reason why you didn’t care for it?

Yeah. It’s funny, because it’s a very small circle of people who’ve actually had experience commentating for WWE, and for those people there is actually no explanation necessary. It’s something that the guys all kind of laugh about. But in my opinion, his style of producing makes things a lot more difficult than they need to be. I think in most cases Vince’s judgments are right, but when it comes to producing announcers, I know in my case it wasn’t the most effective way.

How has your relationship with Vince evolved over the years? Did it change in 2005 when you almost when to TNA?

To answer your second question, it definitely did. There was a definite evolution in that for the first two years I was with WWE, I was somebody who worked there but who was not necessarily someone who was close at all with Mr. McMahon. That changed in ’98, ’99 and 2000. It became strained in 2001 when I felt like I had done everything that I could and was feeling a little bit like dead weight. I’d say the relationship was definitely strained when I almost when to TNA – strained to the point where I no longer felt comfortable going into Vince’s office and pilfering food. So that’s a telltale sign when you no longer feel comfortable taking free food from your boss; you know there’s been a strain.

What is it about TNA that made you want to work there?

I always felt like the wrestling business was better off with two viable mainstream promotions. I was extremely dedicated to WWE during the wrestling wars, but I came to feel that there should be more than one place, and I really had a lot of empathy for guys who were really good and worked really hard but didn’t seem to fit into what it was that WWE was looking for in wrestlers. Probably better than anybody, I realized that I could have easily been one of those guys who was not seen as being a WWE-type guy. I thought I was in a position to change things a little bit in 2005, and did live with a little bit of guilt about not making the move. Therefore, when I had a chance to go in 2008, it seemed like a natural move to make.

Your deal with TNA has been labeled a “short-term deal.” I don’t know how specific you can be, but how short is short term?

TNA understood that I was getting out of a serious relationship, so to speak, and that I wasn’t quite sure whether I was ready to jump back in again. So they kind of gave me the legal leeway to dip my toes in the water before taking a big plunge. But I’m really enjoying it, and the more I see of it the more confident I am that it’s a place I’ll want to stay for a while.

What will your role be in TNA? How often will you wrestle?

I think what limited my role when I was WWE commissioner in 2000 was my reluctance to get back in the ring every now and then. As a matter of fact, if I had to go back in time and change one thing in my career, it would be my reluctance to get back in and wrestle Vince at WrestleMania 17 in 2001. If I do end up in a regular non-wrestling role with TNA, I feel like I would need to step in there every once in a while to make the role as productive as it could be.

Besides former WWE guys that you’re familiar with such as Kurt Angle, Booker and Christian, who on the TNA roster impresses you and who are some of the guys you would like to work with?

Samoa Joe is a perfect example of why there needs to be a second promotion. He’s a guy I pushed for hard to get a shot at WWE, but he just was, for whatever reason, not seen as a WWE guy. And so in some way, shape or form I’d like to get involved with Joe. Sting is a guy who in my mind really put me on the mainstream map in 1991, so it might be fun to revisit that history. And there are a lot of younger guys that I was able to see in 2005 when I was refereeing independent shows who have since gone on to be a big part of TNA, like Homicide, Jay Lethal, Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin. The one thing I can say in all good conscience is that, top to bottom, I think TNA has a better actual wrestling lineup than WWE.

How realistic is it for TNA to ever become legitimate competition for WWE?

You know, I’m not sure that’s the goal any more than it was [TNA majority shareholder] Panda Energy’s goal to be competition for Exxon Mobil. [TNA president] Dixie Carter’s father kind of saw the future in alternate fuel services, and has proven that you don’t have to out-drill Exxon Mobil to be very successful in the energy business. So I don’t think that we need to out-produce WWE in order to be very successful. I think that’s the goal – to be very successful, not to try to claim some bogus bragging right to being No. 1.

I don’t want to put you on the spot, but Kurt Angle has said in a number of interviews that he feels TNA eventually will be on par with WWE.

To me, it is viable that we could be beating them in the ratings, because I look at the Monday Night Wars when there was about 70 percent more people watching wrestling on a given night than there is now, and I do think it’s possible to get a lot of those fans back, or at least some of them, and tilt the favor to TNA’s side. As far as trying to compete on every level, that would kind of be like the Tampa Bay Rays trying to out-Yankee the Yankees, but that doesn’t mean that Tampa Bay didn’t have a better team this year.

You led me right into my next question when you mentioned the Monday Night Wars. If Impact went head-to-head with Raw or Smackdown, could the Monday Night Wars be recreated?

Could I be like one of those politicians who claim that they don’t answer hypotheticals? [laughs] I’ll just leave it at that. I don’t know if it will ever come to that. If it does, I’ll do my best to make it an interesting competition.

I want to get your opinion of one of the most polarizing figures in the business: Vince Russo, who is on the TNA creative team. You worked with him closely in WWE during a very successful period, and then he went to WCW and things were not so successful there. There are two schools of thought regarding Russo: He’s either a genius or a goof. What is your take?

You know, I always thought highly of him. And people who doubt my word can go back and see what I put in writing. I think I said that it turned out that he needed some direction for his ideas and that Vince [McMahon] was the guy who provided the direction. But I always have confidence in his ideas, and I think he was a big part of the reason why the Mankind character became so successful. Part of his talent was in letting the guys have the freedom to come up with their own ideas. It was just such a relief for me these past few weeks to go out there and hear my music in the Impact Zone and realize, wow, I can say what I want and it’ll feel fresh because I haven’t been asked to explain myself to 10 different people.

Another polarizing figure is Triple H. I don’t think anyone can deny that you played a big role in helping him become a legitimate headliner. Yet I read in The Wrestling Observer recently that he might have been one of your detractors backstage. What are your thoughts?

I don’t know whether or not he was one of my detractors. If he was, I’d like to think it was based purely on business He wouldn’t be alone in thinking that I’m not able to contribute at the level I once did. But I think there were other people who’d hear the reaction that I would get when I’d go out there, and say, “You can’t tell me that you can’t do something productive with this guy.” But as far as looking back and feeling like you owe somebody a debt because they worked well with you in the ring, that might be overstated. I am grateful to a guy like Sting for providing me the opportunity to move up in my career, but I haven’t walked around feeling like I owe him a debt for the last 17 years. I’ve had a bunch of people who’ve been very beneficial to my career, and believe me I was more than happy to do what I could to help [Triple H]. Let’s face it: It was my job.

I know that you don’t want to put yourself over too much, but you really did play a significant role in helping other guys like Edge and Randy Orton get to where they are. How satisfying is that for you?

It’s always nice to be acknowledged. I feel like my contributions are acknowledged often enough. Believe me, I do not feel like I’ve slipped though the cracks of public perception.

Who do you think is the most underutilized guy in WWE?

For years it probably would have been Edge, and then he finally got his chance. If you ask my 16-year-old, he’ll tell you it’s Shelton Benjamin. There are a handful of guys that probably have been hit with the label of being a mid-card guy who, if given the chance, could probably burst through that glass ceiling.

A lot of people compare the Abyss character to the Mankind character that you created. What are your thoughts?

I think it’s pretty flattering. I guess I might find it threatening if I was still the 1997 Mankind, but I find it more of a tribute than a threat. I guess I was one of his favorites and I think it shows.

I know you always have things going on outside of wrestling. Any acting opportunities coming up or perhaps another book in the works? I’ve also heard there might be a Foley family reality show.

[Laughs]. We did a pilot for A&E where A&E moved into our house for 16 hours a day over the course of eight days.

I heard it wasn’t picked up because your family was just too normal.

Well, I wouldn’t necessarily use the word normal. There just wasn’t enough conflict in the family. So if they’d just waited until my wife brought home my Pomeranian that I strongly attempted to persuade her not to get, there would have been plenty of conflict [laughs]. But you never know. We’ve got hundreds of hours of footage and it wouldn’t be hard for another company to film a new scene or so and put it on somewhere. But the truth is, although I was disappointed, I was mostly relieved, because a reality show is not without its drawbacks.

It certainly didn’t turn out too well for the Hogans.

No. Probably all things considered, they may not have made the same decision if they had the same opportunity again.

What about any acting opportunities for you? Every now and then I read that you’re up for certain roles.

Yeah, every now and then something comes up. I’m flattered that people want to build shows around me, but I really think if someone wants me in a show, a producer from a successful show could call me up and make me like the third or fourth banana. I really have no aspirations to carry the weight of a show on my shoulders. Although I may give it a try again in the next year or so. I’ve got a couple of investment opportunities, and the more the economy struggles, the more likely it is that I may actually try something a little different.

And what about your writing career?

I want to see how the next couple years develop and see if I have stories worth telling. I’m always batting around ideas for fiction and I would like to give a children’s book another try. I might talk to Give Kids the World and see if I could donate the royalties to their great organization.

When I spoke to you a few years ago you mentioned that you were thinking about writing a book in which the narrator was an African-American woman.

Yeah, but you know, I think that’s setting myself up for harsh judgment. So I’m thinking of a way to tell the same story through the voice of a white male.

What is the story about?

I’d rather not say because I’m not sure if I’m going to use my name on it. I might throw it out there and see if it can gain attention without a wrestler’s name attributed to it.

I have a couple outside-the-box questions for you. To use wrestling vernacular, who do you think is going over in the presidential election?

[Laughs]. Oh man. I have to tell you, I think every wrestler should study this heel turn that McCain has undergone. A couple of the right promos and all of a sudden people who really looked up to the guy are now saying, “What in the world has happened to John McCain?” I always liked him and respected him but, man, it’s kind of hard for me to feel good about him these days. You know, in both my novels, the father characters become what they fear the most, and I think, unfortunately, McCain is kind of becoming what it is he loathes.

What did you think of the candidates’ appearance on Raw?

I’m not sure that anyone told Senator Obama that he would later be parodied. I think it’s a case where less is more. Senator McCain threw every wrestling cliche at the wall and tried to see what would stick, and Senator Obama went with, “Do you smell what Barack is cooking?” and that one line meant more than all the muddling of cliches that John McCain threw together. And speaking of babyface and heel turns, I think Senator Clinton did a very subtle heel turn followed by a couple of tremendous babyface speeches [laughs]. Life imitates wrestling to such an incredible degree.

Final question. What is your biggest claim to fame: Being a former WWE champion, being a best-selling author or being a close, personal friend of Christy Canyon?

[Laughs]. Well, one of the three means a lot more at parties, believe me. It’s a definite icebreaker.

Mick, do you have any final thoughts or is there anything else you wanted to discuss?

I’m going to Sierra Leone at the end of the month. It’s a trip that’s been postponed twice, but it looks like I might actually be going there. So maybe in a month or so I’ll have something from the real world to talk about.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 8:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)
Categories: Q&As
        

TNA did exactly what it should have done on last night’s episode of Impact, which was the go-home show before Sunday’s Bound for Glory pay-per-view. Unlike the final show before last month’s TNA pay-per-view, there were no beauty pageants or silly skits last night. All of the focus was on getting over Sunday matches.

It’s also good to see that Bound for Glory does not have an overabundance of gimmick matches with complicated rules. There definitely is something to be said for keeping things simple.

Other thoughts on last night’s show:

I liked the intense pull-apart between Samoa Joe and Sting during the official contract signing in the final segment. I just wish that Sting would have been the one to take the cheap shot during the handshake, because Joe is the one who came off looking like a heel. Not that it really matters at this point, because it’s obvious that Sting is remaining a babyface. …

It will be interesting to see what happens in the Joe-Sting TNA world title match. It was announced that there will not be a rematch regardless of the outcome, which makes me think that Sting might win the title. My prediction is that Kevin Nash will make a surprise appearance and turn on Joe. I have a hunch that Nash going public about his uncertain contract status with TNA and the fact that his photo and bio have been removed from TNA’s Web site is all a work to make people think that he’s no longer in the company. …

I was glad to see that Kurt Angle did not make any more references to Jeff Jarrett’s deceased wife, but I thought it came across as unrealistic that Jarrett would shake Angle’s hand one week after he made such a disgusting remark. …

I always love it when Jim Cornette is on the show. In Cornette and Mick Foley, TNA has two of the all-time best promo guys in the business. Could you imagine how much more entertaining Raw would be if Cornette was the general manager instead of Mike Adamle? …

Roxxi seems to be getting over more than TNA women’s champion Taylor Wilde. I’d like to see Roxxi win the title in the three-way with Wilde and Awesome Kong Sunday. With Kong pinning Roxxi last night, if Roxxi wins the title by pinning Wilde, it would set up a program between Roxxi and Kong. …

I wonder how Rhino feels about being in a match called a Bimbo Brawl. …

The four-way match to determine the No. 1 contender for the X Division title between Consequences Creed, Jay Lethal, Petey Williams and Sonjay Dutt crammed a lot of action into five minutes. All four guys looked good. …

Just what wrestling fans everywhere were waiting for: the return of former WCW wrestler/announcer Steve “Mongo” McMichael. He might have been a great football player, but as a wrestling commentator he makes Adamle look like Jim Ross, and as a member of the Four Horsemen he makes Paul Roma look like Ric Flair. McMichael will be the special guest referee for the Monsters’ Ball match at Bound for Glory. He said the “barbaric, hardcore match is right up my alley.” I know one thing: That toupee or whatever it was McMichael had on his head last night definitely is not hardcore.

Note: I conducted a phone interview with Foley yesterday that I hope to have posted later today or tonight. He talked about his decision to leave WWE and sign with TNA, his relationship with Vince McMahon, his thoughts on Triple H and Vince Russo and more.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 3:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (10)
        

TNA has always promoted its women’s division as real wrestlers, not bikini/fitness models who attempt to wrestle. In other words, TNA is contending that its Knockouts should be taken more seriously than WWE’s Divas.

Whether that is true or not is a debatable point, but the way TNA is marketing its new Knocked Out DVD certainly isn’t doing anything to help its case.

Is Awesome Kong, who is portrayed the most dominant female wrestler in the company, on the DVD cover? No. What about Gail Kim? She was still with TNA when the DVD was made and she is featured, but, no, it’s not her either. ODB is perhaps the most popular woman in TNA, but she also isn’t cover-worthy.

Karen Angle, of all people, is on the cover. Now, don’t get me wrong. She looks great in her cut-off T-shirt and short shorts, but she hasn’t wrestled a single match. If TNA was trying to push the fact that they have hotter women than WWE, then Karen would be a fine choice, but that’s not what they’re saying.

Karen being on the cover isn’t even the funniest part. On the Web site for the DVD, the other woman featured besides Karen is a scantily clad Christy Hemme. And on the DVD trailer, Hemme, Traci Brooks and Salinas all take shots at the Divas, who are referred to as "Barbies playing dress-up."

Maybe I’m crazy, but if I were trying to project an anti-Barbie image, I would have Awesome Kong, ODB, Roxxi and Jacqueline featured prominently. There’s no denying that sex sells, but if TNA wanted to go in that direction, at least it could have put someone like Angelina Love – who actually can wrestle – on the cover.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 5:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (14)
        

As an admitted longtime Jerichoholic, I am entertained by just about anything that involves Chris Jericho. As far as last night’s Raw, however, while there was nothing wrong with Jericho’s performance, his character’s story line certainly won’t get any points for originality.

With Raw general manager Mike Adamle absent from the show because he supposedly was in meetings with Shane and Stephanie McMahon, Jericho was left in charge for the night. Predictably, Jericho abused his power by trying to screw over his chief rivals, Batista and Shawn Michaels. It’s an angle we’ve seen hundreds of times.

Watching the show, I felt like I had been transported back to 1998. Just as Mr. McMahon tried to stack the deck against Steve Austin by naming himself as the special referee and his Stooges (Pat Patterson, Jerry Brisco) as ring announcer and timekeeper a decade ago, Jericho forced Batista to put his No. 1 contender status on the line against JBL in a match in which Jericho appointed himself referee, Randy Orton guest commentator and William Regal timekeeper. And just as Austin did, Batista overcame the odds and foiled the plan.

While the main angle undeniably had a “been there, done that” feel to it, perhaps I shouldn’t be too critical of WWE’s creative team. I’m sure it’s not easy to come up with five hours of original programming 52 weeks a year – especially with a hands-on, intimidating boss like Vince McMahon constantly hovering over you. And if you do need to rely on an old plot device every now and then, I suppose it’s better to go with a proven formula such Austin-McMahon than something from the dying days of WCW.

Other thoughts on last night’s show:

It will never top his feud with Michaels, but Jericho’s program with Batista should be good. The thing is, I don’t think Jericho should lose the title yet, but Batista has to get a world title again at some point. How many more ways can WWE come up with for him to look strong but not get the belt, which has happened on three pay-per-views over the past few months. …

Is there really any doubt that Austin is going to win the voting to determine the special referee for the Jericho-Batista match at the Cyber Sunday pay-per-view on Oct. 26? …

Orton continues to be the most compelling performer on the show. It was interesting how Jericho involved him in his plan to screw over Batista, yet Orton did not get involved and said he didn’t care what happened either way. …

Just wondering: Why would Stephanie and Shane call a meeting with Adamle on a Monday night when Raw is going on? Couldn’t they have done it in the afternoon or on another day? Also, if Jericho really wanted to cheat Batista, why didn’t he just count to three even though Batista got his shoulder up (like Earl Hebner did during the infamous Hulk Hogan/Andre The Giant match in 1988)? …

The “Rough Cuts”-type segments on John Cena and his injury were very well done. They really portrayed Cena in a positive light and played up his toughness and passion for the business. And he still will probably get booed by a large segment of the audience when he comes back. …

I’m not at all excited to see Johnny Knoxville getting involved in an angle, but I am looking forward to seeing The Great Khali in a comedic role. His indestructible giant gimmick has definitely been played out. I’m not sure why Khali keeps appearing on Raw, though. Isn’t he a Smackdown guy? I guess Raw and Smackdown must have one of those talent exchange agreements. …

Somebody important must enjoy humiliating Lillian Garcia. First she had to kiss Viscera, and now Khali. She deserves hazardous duty play. At least she hasn’t been ordered to strip down to her underwear and bark like a dog – yet. …

Unless fans screw up the voting, it looks like we’re getting Santino Marella versus The Honky-Donky Man at Cyber Sunday. I’d love to see Jimmy Hart in Honky’s corner screaming “Hit him Honky!” through his megaphone in his high-pitched voice. …

Cryme Tyme and John Morrison and The Miz all talking at the same time during the Kelly Kelly-Jillian match made for horrible television. …

I missed Charlie Haas not being on the show. Regular Ring Posts commenter Mina, who was at the show in Seattle, reported that Haas, as “Rowdy” Charlie Piper, lost to Dolph Ziggler before Raw went on the air.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 5:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (27)
        

I’m going to be honest: If it wasn’t for the Chris Jericho-Shawn Michaels ladder match headlining the show, I might have opted to watch the Steelers-Jaguars game last night instead of WWE’s No Mercy pay-per-view. I just wasn’t all that excited about the other matches on the card. Even Triple H versus Jeff Hardy, which I initially was interested in, lost some luster as the focus was put on Vladimir Kozlov.

As it turns out, I’m glad I skipped the football game – and not just because the hated Steelers won. The ladder match lived up to high expectations, and the rest of the No Mercy card exceeded my expectations.

Sure, some of the results were predictable, but every match was laid out well and the booking made sense.

Here’s a match-by-match look at last night’s show:

World heavyweight champion Chris Jericho defeated Shawn Michaels in a ladder match: Amazingly, these two keep managing to top themselves. This was a tremendous back-and-forth match that featured a number of painful-looking ladder spots and a fantastic finish. Both men will be sore for sure, but Jericho appeared to have gotten the worst of it. Early in the match, Jericho was bleeding from the mouth and had a broken tooth after being nailed in the face with a ladder. Later, he and Michaels both took a big bump off a ladder through the announce table, and Jericho also was sent flying off a ladder onto the floor. It appeared that he might have legitimately injured his knee on that one, but I think he was just selling. Near the end of the match, Jericho got his leg caught in the ladder and it looked as if Michaels was going to win, but Lance Cade interfered and stopped Michaels from grabbing the belt. The finish saw Jericho and Michaels both tugging at the belt before the two inadvertently bumped heads, which knocked Michaels off the ladder and allowed Jericho to snatch the belt.

WWE champion Triple H defeated Jeff Hardy: This reminded me of a vintage Ric Flair title defense, when Flair would barely escape with the championship, and the challenger would come out of the match looking as if he was every bit Flair’s equal. There were a lot of near falls and the finishing sequence was awesome. After Hardy missed the Swanton Bomb, Triple H went for the Pedigree, but Hardy countered with the Twist of Fate. Hardy then nailed the Swanton Bomb, and for a moment I thought he was actually going to win the title. But Hardy made a nonchalant cover, and Triple H hooked his arms and pinned him. I kept waiting for Vladimir Kozlov to interfere, but he never did. I’m glad he didn’t, because it would have ruined a great match. Kozlov did have a stare-down with Triple H backstage after the match.

The Big Show defeated The Undertaker: The match was a lot better than I thought it would be, and the finish was a bit of a surprise. I didn’t expect either man to win decisively, but The Big Show went over in convincing fashion. The referee stopped the match after Big Show landed a couple of hard shots to Undertaker’s head – including a rabbit punch – that knocked him unconscious. Undertaker did a great job of selling the beating after the match.

Batista defeated JBL: I was pretty sure that Batista was going to win this match, which determined the No. 1 contender for the world heavyweight title, but it turned out to be more one-sided than I thought. It makes sense, though, for Batista to make quick work of JBL so he looks strong heading into his title match with Jericho. The losses are piling up for JBL, however, and it’s going to be hard to keep him in the top tier at this rate.

ECW champion Matt Hardy defeated Mark Henry: Hardy and Henry have surprisingly good chemistry in the ring, as evidenced by this match and their prior meeting on ECW in August. Hardy worked on Henry’s legs to neutralize his size and strength advantage, and he eventually hit the Twist of Fate for the victory after slipping out of The World’s Strongest Slam. Finally gaining a win over Henry legitimizes Hardy’s title reign, and Henry looked good in defeat.

Rey Mysterio defeated Kane by disqualification: The quality of the match far exceeded the quality of the Mysterio-Kane story line heading into the show. Despite the contrast in size and styles, these two worked very well together and made the match look believable. Kane ended up being disqualified for smashing Mysterio in the face with a chair as Mysterio went for a splash from the top rope onto the floor. The finish allowed Mysterio to keep his mask and Kane to keep his heat. Mysterio was clutching his knee after the match, and he was either doing a great sell job or he was really hurt.

WWE women’s champion Beth Phoenix defeated Candice Michelle: The match only went about four minutes and was a little sloppy at times, as Michelle’s timing is still off. “The Glamazon” won clean, but the tension between her and Santino Marella is building, as his interference nearly backfired. It looks as if Phoenix is going to end up turning babyface whenever the inevitable split occurs.

Other notes: It looks as if MVP might be headed for a babyface turn. He had an entertaining verbal confrontation with Randy Orton, Ted DiBiase Jr., Cody Rhodes and Manu. Well, I thought it was entertaining; the crowd started a “boring” chant during it. The segment ended with the three second-generation stars brawling with MVP, CM Punk and Kofi Kingston. For a second I thought Punk and Kingston were turning heel, as they initially acted like they were setting up MVP before they helped him. … Jeff Hardy squashed Triple H in a text voting poll that asked fans who they were rooting for in the WWE title match. Hardy got 72 percent of the vote. I’m guessing a lot of teenage girls were texting like crazy. … I was happy to see the Cryme Tyme segment. Hey, it’s a long show and you have to use the bathroom at some point.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 4:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (24)
        

Predictions for tonight’s WWE pay-per-view:

World heavyweight champion Chris Jericho vs. Shawn Michaels in a ladder match: This could be a classic. Before all is said and done, I do think Michaels will get another brief run with the title, but Jericho has been too good as champion to take the belt off of him at this point. By some nefarious means (perhaps outside interference from Lance Cade), Jericho will escape with the title.

WWE champion Triple H vs. Jeff Hardy: Based on what has been happening on Smackdown, one certainly would expect Vladimir Kozlov to get involved in some fashion. I think Hardy will win the title eventually, but it won’t be tonight. Kozlov will interfere, setting up a triple threat match.

The Big Show vs. The Undertaker: I don’t believe Undertaker is losing here, but I don’t expect him to go over decisively either. I’m guessing there is some kind of non-finish, maybe a double disqualification, to keep the program going.

Batista vs. JBL: This match is to determine the No. 1 contender for the world heavyweight title. I think Batista will win and go on to face Jericho for the belt.

ECW champion Matt Hardy vs. Mark Henry: This could go either way. I could see Henry regaining the title, thus setting up a rematch, or Hardy doing what he didn’t do last month in the Championship Scramble – defeat Henry. I’m going with the latter. I think Henry will dominate the match but Hardy will get the win out of nowhere.

Kane vs. Rey Mysterio: The stipulation is that if Mysterio loses he must unmask. That guarantees a Mysterio victory. There is no way WWE is going to make the same mistake that WCW did by taking the mask off Mysterio. Mysterio without the mask just isn’t Mysterio. Not only that, but have you ever noticed how many kids there are in the audience wearing Mysterio masks?

WWE women’s champion Beth Phoenix vs. Candice Michelle: I can envision a scenario in which Santino Marella’s interference backfires and costs Phoenix the title, but I think it’s too soon in their relationship for that to happen. Michelle has looked a bit rusty since coming back and Mickie James has overtaken her in terms of popularity, so I think Phoenix will retain the title.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 10:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
        

The first episode of Smackdown on MyNetworkTV Friday night reminded me of baseball’s All-Star Game. The show featured top talent from all three WWE brands, but, like the All-Star Game, it came across as a glorified exhibition that had no meaningful impact on the season.

Wait, that’s actually a bad analogy. I forgot that the All-Star Game now determines home field advantage for the World Series. I swear baseball commissioner Bud Selig is so inept and clueless that he ought to be the general manager of Raw.

But I digress.

The show didn’t do much in regard to story line development or building up today’s No Mercy pay-per-view, but I still enjoyed it. It served its purpose as far as not being an ordinary episode, and I always like it when wrestlers from all the shows get together. In fact, it wouldn’t upset me at all if WWE just dropped the separate brands concept and went back to one big roster, but that isn’t happening.

Other thoughts on Friday’s show:

I liked the triple threat match between champions Triple H, Chris Jericho and Matt Hardy. I know what you’re thinking: It was so predictable that the finish would be Triple H pinning Hardy. And you’re right – it was. But it’s also the right call. Triple H is the top guy on Smackdown and he should have gone over on the debut episode on the new network. The only other finish that would have made any sense would have been for Triple H to have Hardy beaten, but somehow Jericho sneaks in and pins Hardy. …

And now I am going to contradict what I just said about Triple H rightfully winning the multi-brand triple threat because he is on Smackdown. Even though Michelle McCool is the Smackdown women’s champ and Beth Phoenix is the Raw champ, any result other than Phoenix winning would have been – as the late, great Gorilla Monsoon used to say – a miscarriage of justice. …

As I have said before, the build-up to today’s WWE title match between Triple H and Jeff Hardy has been odd to say the least. The focus has been on Vladimir Kozlov rather than the issue between the two contestants in the match. …

The eight-man tag match pitting Batista, Jeff Hardy, Rey Mysterio and Finlay against Kane, JBL, MVP and The Brian Kendrick was fun and a good way to kick off the show. I hated to see MVP do yet another job, but somebody had to, and if it was either going to be him or Kendrick. …

I’m not sure what the point was of The Great Khali and Mark Henry’s beat-down of Chavo Guerrero. If it was to be entertaining television, it failed. …

It’s great to see Santino Marella winning some matches, even though they are always of the “slip on a banana peel” variety. His win over Shelton Benjamin was merely a device to further the program between Benjamin and R-Truth. …

Speaking of R-Truth, I can’t get that “What’s Up?” song out of my head. The first time I see that entrance live I’m going to bust a move in the aisle, thus proving that the stereotype about Caucasians and dancing is absolutely true.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 4:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)
        

I didn’t keep count, but it seemed to me that Vince McMahon’s name was mentioned more times on TNA Impact last night than Samoa Joe’s, Sting’s and Kurt Angle’s – combined.

Angle and Jeff Jarrett made the WWE chairman the focus of their angle, and even Mick Foley took a shot at his former boss in his much-anticipated debut promo.

TNA’s obsession with McMahon is nothing new. They’ve parodied him in the past, and let’s not forget those lame anti-WWE segments that were done by VKM (Vincent Kennedy McMahon, get it?).

The constant mentions of McMahon, the “machine up North,” past WWE story lines and current WWE stars make TNA look second rate and desperate for attention. How many times do you think WWE will reference TNA tonight on Smackdown or Monday night on Raw? There’s a better chance of Ted Nugent endorsing Barack Obama for president than there is of Samoa Joe or Jarrett getting a shout out from Triple H or Chris Jericho (both of whom were mentioned on Impact last night, by the way).

I understand that to hardcore TNA fans McMahon is the enemy, and that a heel will get heat by praising him, and a babyface will get a pop by insulting him. But I don’t think it will sell tickets or pay-per-views.

When ECW in its heyday went after WWE and WCW it was cool because they were the outlaw company rebelling against “the man.” It was what ECW was all about. TNA is not ECW and this is not 1997. The company would be better served concentrating on its own talented roster and story lines than on Vinny Mac.

Other thoughts on last night’s show:

This is what I wrote on June 1 of last year in regard to the death of Jarrett’s wife, Jill, who lost her battle with cancer the week before:

“I just don’t want to see a heel bring up Jill’s death in a disrespectful manner in order to get heat and start a feud with Jarrett.”

Sure enough, Angle, who reportedly is going through a divorce from his wife, Karen, said in his promo that he “wasn’t the only one who has lost his wife.”

As I have said before, I know this is wrestling and that real-life personal issues are often brought into story lines. I’m usually OK with it, but I draw the line at death. I wasn’t comfortable with MVP trying to get heat by bringing up Jeff Hardy’s dog, who died when Hardy’s house burned down last March, but, as much as I love dogs, a pet is not a human being. To bring the death of a wrestler or a wrestler’s spouse into a story line is disgusting.

I didn’t like it when WWE did it with Eddie Guerrero and I don’t like it now with Jarrett’s wife. It amazes me that Vickie Guerrero and Jeff Jarrett go along with it, but wrestling people are just a different breed, and using deaths in story lines has been going on in the business for decades. ...

It was refreshing to hear Sting say this week that he and Ric Flair “didn’t always see eye to eye.” That’s quite an understatement to anyone who watched them feud for over a decade in WCW, but at least it’s better than Sting referring to Flair as “a confidant and a brother.” …

Rhaka Khan definitely was a surprise as ODB’s mystery partner against The Beautiful People. Khan was a little clumsy in the ring, but she did show some personality as a babyface. …

I loved Robert Roode’s lid, but not nearly as much as Jacqueline’s shirt.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 5:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (17)
        

I sat down for an interview yesterday afternoon with WWE star Jeff Hardy at the Westfield Montgomery Mall in Bethesda, where he was making a personal appearance to promote Smackdown’s move to MyNetworkTV (WUTB-24 in Baltimore) beginning tonight. Hardy is scheduled to wrestle Triple H for the WWE title this Sunday at the No Mercy pay-per-view.

To say you had a difficult week last March would be a huge understatement. Now that six months or so have passed, can you talk about what it was like to go through the suspension and your house burning down in the same week?

Well, first of all, I have titled that the saddest day of my adult life — by far. The night I lost the Intercontinental title I had been suspended, which is to everybody’s knowledge now because I have been very open about that, and then that Friday night I lost everything, and the saddest thing is I lost my dog Jack. You hear about fires all the time, but then you experience it, man, it’s just like, “Wow, this really happens to people.” It’s a night I’ll never forget, naturally. A week or so later I found Jack’s body in the ruins. I got a little closure to that and cried a lot, was sad a lot and had bad dreams. When I came back we actually made that somewhat of a story line, but I was confident enough in myself and with Beth and everything that we got past that. You know, you can’t just die with everything you lost. You have to live for what you lost. So that’s what I’m doing now and everything’s much better. Our new house is under construction. It’s looking great, and hopefully by spring we’ll be in there. Thank God I had Matt, because if I didn’t I’d be renting an apartment somewhere. Matt’s been very cool to have open arms and invite us into his home.

How much did the support of your fans help you get through it all?

Actually it’d blow your mind, man, to see what’s still in Matt’s basement to this day. Naturally, people wanted to send clothing, memorabilia, stuff like that. Once Matt put that address out on his myspace, it was just a flood — every day we had to go to the post office. Beth was the one to go through all that. It was just amazing how much response we got — how many actions figures, how many clothes. It might not have been my certain style, but just the care that was there and the meaning behind it. It’s amazing the support I had from the fans. Even today, man, seeing such a foundation right in front of me of all these humans that are behind me, it’s just very motivational.

How difficult was it for you not to be at WrestleMania, because you were supposed to be an integral part of it. Did you even watch it?

It’s so strange, you know, because I was going to be a huge part of that in the Money in the Bank match, and Matt was hurt at the time and he was able to return at Mania, so, naturally, I watched it. I would have watched it anyway because I’m a huge ladder match fan and just to see how good the match would be. In a sense I was kind of sickened by the whole thing. But I did something wrong according to the Wellness Policy and I had to pay the price. So here I am on my last strike right now, and one more and I’m out, so I’m just trying to keep it all good. As far as WrestleMania goes, as angry or sad as I was that I missed it, I also was supposed to take part in an art show down there. I think Jerry Lawler was in it as well. I missed out on that just over what to me was a small mistake, but to them it’s huge.

Can you talk about the recent incident at the Nashville airport, when you were denied boarding a flight?

Oh, of course. That was extremely blown out of proportion. So many wrestlers drink at times, and I had been drinking a lot that night. I’m not going to lie — I’ve been on planes a lot drunker than that. There was nothing rude done; I wasn’t violent or anything like that. I guess I was stumbling boarding the plane or something, and somebody must have just said that I was drunk, because I was asleep on the plane. This is Southwest, you know, open seating and everything. The first thing I remember is just waking up and security — it wasn’t police, it was security — saying, “Mr. Hardy, you have to get off the plane. We feel you’ve had too much to drink.” Matt got up and was like, “What’s the problem?” They were like, “He’s had too much to drink.” I go, “I was asleep. I’ll wake up in Raleigh. I’ve been like this before.” But I just cooperated and left the plane.

Do you think the company lost any confidence in you over the incident?

No. Right away, once I got home I called who I needed to call and just told them what happened. It does make me sick when — especially with me — anything negative, the Internet wants to highlight right away. One [site] actually said that Beth was with me and she was the one that was too drunk and she was handcuffed. I was never handcuffed. There were these crazy things like, “He got caught with contraband.” It was nothing like that.

Your brother Matt is enjoying the best run of his career. Is there a friendly rivalry or competition between the two of you?

I think with him more than me. Whether I ever become WWE champion in my career, I’m proud of what I’ve done. If this weekend was my last match, I would be extremely proud after looking back and seeing everything. Matt is more the competitive type. I think he probably feels a little supreme that he became a heavyweight champion before I did. It’s in ECW, but I’m sure he feels a little like he’s ahead of the game when it comes to brotherly competition, but I’m nowhere near as competitive as he is. I’m just very proud of him, and maybe I can do the same. We’ll see.

You’re known for doing incredible high-risk maneuvers. I’m curious as to how the process works. Do you present an idea for a big move, such as the Swanton off the scaffold with Randy Orton, to creative, or do they come to you and ask if you would feel comfortable doing something?

Most of the time they’ll come to me with the idea — even that [Swanton] was suggested. There’s been things that have been suggested that I’ve turned down — I’m like, “I don’t feel confident doing that.” Any time it’s a Swanton, I’m confident. But if I feel I can’t do it, I won’t do it. The one to Randy Orton was pretty crazy, man, because that was extremely high. And even the one off the truck to Umaga was creepy, too. Anybody that would go out there and check out the setup themselves would say, “Wow, it takes a lot of nerve to do this.”

You said that you have turned down things that have been suggested to you. Have you ever come up with something and Vince McMahon or someone said, “No, that’s too dangerous”?

One thing that stands out is when Brock Lesnar was still with us, I had this idea of somehow Paul Heyman would be laid out near the middle of the ring, but Brock would be underneath the turnbuckle I was jumping off of . And I’d go to Swanton Paul Heyman, and Brock Lesnar spears me in the air while I’m upside down. They said no. I was like, “My momentum’s going that way anyway. I feel confident in it.” But they were like, “No way.” I needed a couple action figures just to show it to them.

When I interviewed you back in January, you said that you don’t practice high-risk stunts, you just do them in one take. How do you know you can pull them off before you do them?

They put a lot of faith in me. I’m like, “Nah, I’m doing that one time and one time only. If it goes wrong, it goes wrong, but, nevertheless, it’s going to be on TV so it’s got to be good.” But, yeah, they just have faith in me, especially with any kind of Swanton. As many as I’ve done over the years, they have confidence that I can get it done.

Do you feel like Sunday’s match against Triple H at No Mercy is the biggest of your career? And do you feel like you have something to prove?

No, I don’t think I have anything to prove to people. But I know in most people’s eyes they think I have to get the WWE championship to prove that I’m No. 1 or whatever. Naturally it would be nice to become WWE champion, especially for all my fans that have always waited for that, but, yeah, I think it probably is the biggest match of my career. When I wrestled Randy Orton, that was probably the biggest match of my career at that point, because that was when I had the other shot at the WWE championship. Here I am again in another scenario for the WWE championship, and we’ll see.

Do you have a favorite match or favorite moment from your career?

I’d say all those TLC matches, but probably the most memorable one for me — I think it was in Raleigh. It was the first time anybody had ever hung from the rings — that was my idea. I even tried to do it in the first ladder match that we had, because I had that in my mind, but the rings weren’t strong enough to hold a body. But just to pull of something like that that comes from your brain is always spectacular for you because you’re like, “Wow, I thought this up and we brought it to reality.” It was me and Devon [Dudley], and it was just an awesome spot. I’ll never forget the feeling. Everybody just went, “Whoa! What is going on? This is crazy.”

Is there anybody that you haven’t worked with that you would like to?

Yeah, Rey Mysterio. I’ve tagged with him before. During the draft it was kind of a bummer because when he went to Raw I was like, “Yeah, me and Rey are going to get to tear it up.” I had no idea I was going to Smackdown. Then when I got drafted I was like, “Oh well, throw that out the door.”

Another question I asked you in January was whether you had any interest in having a feud with Matt. You said that you did and you’d like to wrestle him at WrestleMania XXV. Is there any chance of that happening then or some other time in the future?

Yeah, for sure. Matt and I both are big fans of Bret Hart-Owen Hart feud matches. I remember us being brothers and watching brothers wrestle on pay-per-view and were like, “How cool would that be?” Matt and I wrestled each other all the time back in the OMEGA days, so how cool would that be for us to be wrestling each other [in WWE]? I’m sure a lot of people would like to see that, too. I know people always say, “Nobody wants to see The Hardy Boyz fight,” but if it was done right, it could be phenomenal.

Any final thoughts before we wrap up?
Just watch MyNetwork TV tomorrow night (laughs).

Yes, that’s why we’re here, right?
Yeah, it’s like a recorder that’s broken in my head because I’ve said it so many times.

OK, I’ll set you up with a question. Do you feel like going to another network is a fresh start for Smackdown?

Yeah, it’s kind of exciting. I remember back in the day when Raw switched channels; it’s always exciting to try something new. Even now on Smackdown I’m more comfortable than I was at first. It has become my place to do my thing. So, yeah, if I switch brands, why not switch channels?

Photo courtesy of WWE

Posted by Kevin Eck at 2:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (16)
Categories: Q&As
        

The Baltimore-based Eastern Wrestling Alliance will debut on local television this weekend.

EWA Ringside TV will air on Baltimore City Comcast ch.75 every Saturday morning at 11 a.m., and on Sundays at 10:30 p.m.on Harford County Comcast ch. 21 and Harford County Armstrong ch. 7.

The independent promotion also announced that it will host a free show at noon on Oct. 11 at JD Byriders in Glen Burnie. For more information, visit ewamaryland.com.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 7:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

I apologize for not blogging about Raw yesterday, as I usually do every Tuesday, but watching the Ravens-Steelers game on Monday night threw my schedule out of whack. I taped Raw and watched both it and ECW last night.

Before going any further, I want to say that I appreciate those of you who e-mailed me and expressed concern about my well-being due to the lack of posts the past few days. Yes, I am feeling fine (just a little overworked), and no, I was not “future endeavored” by The Baltimore Sun.

Now that I’m all caught up, here’s my take on Monday’s Raw, and as a special added bonus, last night’s ECW (try to contain your enthusiasm).

RAW:

Overall, I thought the show was entertaining, but as the go-home show for Sunday’s No Mercy pay-per-view, it seemed a little flat.

The main angle was that Shawn Michaels needed a tag-team partner for his match against Chris Jericho and Lance Cade. After hinting that it might be Hulk Hogan, Steve Austin or Bret Hart (now that was funny), Michaels said he would try to find someone who actually liked him. I’m betting that a few people watching thought Kevin Nash was going to show up (he reportedly has not signed his TNA contract and his picture has been removed from the company’s Web site). It was pretty obvious, though, that it was going to be Triple H, especially when considering he, Jericho and Matt Hardy are wrestling in a triple threat match Friday on Smackdown.

I’m always happy to see DX reunited, but this time I thought it took away from Michaels’ feud with Jericho. Their conflict has been so intense and personal that seeing Michaels crotch-chopping in his DX t-shirt seemed out of place. …

Randy Orton’s promos are becoming one of the most anticipated segments every week. It’s been interesting how he gets a babyface pop for interrupting a heel (or in this case, an inept Raw general manager), but then cuts a heel promo and turns the crowd against him. …

Speaking of heel promos, I thought Cade did a pretty good job on his. The more I see of Cade, the more I think he has the tools to become a star, but I don’t know if he has the “it” factor to become a breakout superstar. …

The eight-man tag match (Kane, Ted DiBiase Jr., Cody Rhodes and Manu versus CM Punk, Kofi Kingston, Rey Mysterio and Evan Bourne) was exciting. Everyone seemed to be over with crowd, especially Punk. …

I can’t believe WWE actually acknowledged that Kane’s father was Paul Bearer. That story line is best forgotten. Actually, you could say that about most of Kane’s story lines. It’s amazing that the Kane character is still over with fans after some of the preposterous angles he has been involved in. …

The Great Charli was hilarious. Charlie Haas had The Great Khali’s walk and mannerisms down pat. …

Beth Phoenix had the move of the night when she reversed Kelly Kelly’s rollup into the Glam Slam. …

Santino Marella had a good line when he said that if there was a Moolah-meter, Phoenix would be 22 years behind. I think it’s actually more like 27, but it was still funny. …

Why is Jamie Knoble getting so much screen time lately? The Knoble/William Regal/Layla angle is not holding my interest. …

Hopefully, Mickie James teaming with Knoble is a one-time thing and not the start of a romance angle between the two. That’s a big step down to go from John Cena to Knoble. …

How awful was that Dirt Sheet clip, in which John Morrison and The Miz masqueraded as the fathers of JTG and Shad Gaspard? TNA’s Prince Justice Brotherhood now has some competition for most groan-inducing “comedy.”

ECW:

I can see why Jack Swagger was regarded as the top prospect in developmental. He just might end up being a bigger star than Morrison, DiBiase, Rhodes or any of the other twentysomethings on the roster. …

Matt Striker said that Swagger looked like a cross between Gary Busey and Barry Windham. I was thinking Busey and Jani Lane, the former lead singer of hair metal band Warrant (“Cherry Pie”).

Jani Lane, of course, is no relation to Lenny Lane, Swagger’s opponent last night. I almost didn’t recognize Lenny, who, as Striker pointed out, now bears a resemblance to ’80s mid-carder Buck Zumhoffe. You might remember Lane from his WCW days when he was part of the Lenny and Lodi tag team. He also is a former WCW cruiserweight champion and one-time lackey of Chris Jericho. Speaking of Jericho lackeys, has anyone seen Ralphus lately? …

I thought the six-man main event (Mark Henry, Miz and Morrison versus Hardy, Bourne and Ricky Ortiz) was good. The fans were into all of them – even Ortiz – and Henry is doing a great job as a monster heel. …

The highlight of the show was the commentary by Striker and Todd Grisham. Both of them were entertaining, but for completely different reasons. Striker has quickly become the best color commentator in the business. He explains the holds and has a vast knowledge of wresting history as well as a quick wit. His best line of the night was when describing a wrestler’s resourcefulness: “If you run out of toilet paper, you do a handstand in the shower.”

Grisham, on the other hand, had a bad night. It almost was Adamle-like. Here is a sampling of some of the nonsensical things that came out of his mouth:

“Tommy Dreamer and Mike Knox are almost mirror images of each other.” Yeah, except for the fact that they look nothing alike and play totally different characters.

“Morrison looks like a scratch-off lottery ticket.” Like Striker, I have no idea what he was going for on that one.

“There’s a couple of kicks to the back of Morrison’s back.” To which Striker replied, “As opposed to the front of his back, which would be his chest.”

Posted by Kevin Eck at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (25)