All the trash-talking is over and it's finally time for Baltimore Sun sports columnist/blogger Peter Schmuck and I to settle things in the ring.

At Maryland Championship Wrestling's Shamrock Cup tonight at The New Green Room in Dundalk, I'll be teaming with Ronnie Zukko and Cole Callaway against Schmuck and Fed-Up in a six-man tag team match.

The show also features the Shamrock Cup tournament, former WWE Diva Mickie James and hardcore icon Tommy Dreamer in action and an MCW heavyweight title match between champion Kent Brink and 2009 Shamrock Cup winner Ryan McBride

Posted by Kevin Eck at 1:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (14)
        

Raven gave Tommy Dreamer a tongue lashing Thursday night on TNA Impact – literally.

After saving Dreamer from an attack by Abyss, Raven suddenly turned on his fellow ECW alum. While Dreamer was down, Raven talked some trash and then began licking Dreamer’s face.

I have no idea why Raven was slobbering on Dreamer’s mug, but believe it or not, it wasn’t even the most disgusting thing on the show. No, that would be Orlando Jordan spitting out his chewing gum and shoving it in SoCal Val’s mouth.

But I digress.

Raven’s disturbing public display of disaffection aside, the fact that he and Dreamer are adversaries again instead of allies means that all is right in the world of extreme. If you’re going to have an ECW nostalgia pay-per-view, you have to have these two longtime rivals facing each other.

Other thoughts on Thursday’s show:

I know TNA has to promote the Aug. 8 Hardcore Justice pay-per-view, but an Impact main event involving Dreamer just doesn’t do much for me. The match between Dreamer and Abyss (which Abyss won) wasn’t great, but to be fair, Dreamer was working with a torn medial collateral ligament. …

Eric Bischoff announced that the Aug. 12 episode of Impact – the first show after Hardcore Justice – will feature “pay-per-view quality matches.” That sounds good and all, but doesn’t Impact routinely have marquee match-ups and gimmick matches? …

Speaking of which, The Motor City Machine Guns and Beer Money stole the show again. The third meeting in their best-of-five series was a steel cage match, which the Guns won. The result was predictable since Beer Money was up 2-0, and the match was a bit rushed (it went about eight minutes), but it still was very good. It was nice not to see a ref bump this time and have only one Hebner officiating. …

Since the ECW name and intellectual property is owned by WWE, the crew of former ECW stars is now being referred to as EV2.0 (as in Extreme Version 2). EV2.0 doesn’t sound very extreme to me. …

Hulk Hogan standing in the ring with the likes of Dreamer, Raven and Stevie Richards and endorsing ECW was weird to say the least. …

When Dreamer was trying to convince Brother Ray to participate in Hardcore Justice, he compared the ECW reunion to the original members of Kiss getting back together and putting the makeup on. As a longtime member of the Kiss Army, I take offense at EV2.0 being mentioned in the same breath with the reunion of the greatest rock group of all-time. …

Before Brother Ray agreed to do Hardcore Justice, he asked Devon if they would get to light someone on fire, and Devon said that they would. My guess is that Axl Rotten and Balls Mahoney’s night is going up in flames. …

I thought the angle with Matt Morgan, Mr. Anderson, Jeff Hardy and the two security members named Murphy and Gunner was booked completely backwards. First we have Anderson hitting Morgan low and showboating (heel moves). Then Morgan makes a super-fast recovery from the low blow and takes advantage of Anderson’s showboating to seize the advantage (babyface moves). From there, Hardy enters the ring and we have two babyfaces beating up one heel. And lastly, two security guards intervene and proceed to manhandle two of the company’s top babyfaces. By the way, the segment began with Morgan imitating Anderson’s shtick. Not to put myself over, but I think my Anderson impression was better than Morgan’s. …

Ric Flair announced that Beer Money got the final two spots in Fortune. Kazarian then got on the mic and said that Fortune was “not a silly gang of angry rookies,” an obvious shot at The Nexus. I wish the people in TNA would realize that the company just looks minor league when they say stuff like that. What made it worse was that Kazarian went on to lose to Rob Terry in a 30-second squash and Beer Money also got beat. Meanwhile, the “silly gang of angry rookies” is coming off a dominant performance on Raw and is main-eventing SummerSlam. …

Why TNA would book Kazarian to look so weak when it’s trying to get Fortune over is beyond me. I don’t recall The Four Horsemen’s Arn Anderson ever doing 30-second jobs to Lex Luger or Nikita Koloff back in the day. …

I was glad to hear Jay Lethal’s name mentioned this week, but, unfortunately, it was when Flair said that he was wrestling Lethal in a street fight on next week’s show. TNA has really dropped the ball on Lethal’s push. After his big win over Flair at the Victory Road pay-per-view on July 11, Lethal lost clean to Hardy on the very next Impact and then was not even on Impact for two straight weeks. Now he is wrestling Flair again. I thought that issue was already settled. I get it that Flair’s never going to retire, but he should only be wrestling a few times a year on big shows so that his appearances actually mean something. …

A.J. Styles said that the Global title, which was formerly the Legends title, will now be known as the TNA TV title. Good lord, just pick a name for the championship and stick with it. …

The Angelina Love-Sarita match (which Love won) wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t as good as I thought it would be. …

Poor Eric Young. After proving that he has the ability to portray a serious character both as a babyface and a heel, he is back to playing a simpleton. As Jim Ross would say, “Please, stop the pain.” …

With Young bringing a mannequin to the ring on this show and Al Snow being involved in the ECW reunion, perhaps Young and Snow are “headed” for a showdown.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 5:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (26)
        

Shawn Michaels has made a YouTube video in which he announces that he is going to be launching his official website, theshawnmichaels.com. He also addresses the issue of other websites and Facebook and Twitter accounts that claim to be associated with him or his family.

Michaels says that one of the main reasons for starting the website is to keep in touch with the fans. “I want to let you in on some of the things I’m going to be doing in the future,” he says in the video, “and, I guess, let you know the things I’m actually really not doing.”

Posted by Kevin Eck at 12:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (12)
        

• Husky Harris was in the bottom two of the voting by the pros and fans for the second consecutive poll, but he again managed to avoid elimination. On Tuesday night’s episode of WWE NXT, Eli Cottonwood became the second rookie to be sent home. Unlike when Titus O’Neil was eliminated in the first poll last month, I didn’t agree with the decision this time. I would have booted off Harris.

• Here are the results of the voting (my rankings are in parentheses): 1. Michael McGillicutty (4); 2. Kaval (1); 3. Alex Riley (2); 4. Percy Watson (3); 5. Lucky Cannon (6); 6. Harris (7); 7. Cottonwood (5).

• McGillicutty vaulting from No. 3 in the first poll to the top spot surprised me. Perhaps fans are taking the win-loss records seriously, as McGillicutty is 5-0, while Kaval – who was No. 1 in the initial poll – is 1-4.

• Cottonwood did not go quietly after he was eliminated, as he beat up several of the rookies and shoved his pro, John Morrison. With Cottonwood’s size (he’s around 7 foot) and odd facial expressions, I’m willing to bet that he’ll be on Raw or Smackdown in the near future and will end up making a bigger impact than most of his fellow rookies.

• It’s pretty obvious that WWE sees something in Harris, as it has put him over strong the past two shows in an effort to help him get votes. Last week he scored a pinfall victory over MVP in a tag team match, and Tuesday he defeated Kaval. Kaval losing to Harris is a joke, although he did have an “out,” as he was distracted by Lay-Cool being knocked off the ring apron.

• The pros were back on the apron for all of the matches this week. You knew someone was bound to get knocked down at some point.

• I thought Cottonwood’s power moves looked good during his match against McGillicutty, who pulled out the victory after Cottonwood has been on offense most of the way.

• Cottonwood tried to play off the horrible promo he cut three weeks ago (when he was given the word “moustache” to talk about) by wearing a t-shirt that just had “Mustache” written on the front. Morrison also wore one. It might have been better just to pretend that promo never happened.

• Speaking of promos, the rookies were all given an opportunity to speak for 60 seconds at the top of the show about any subject except why they shouldn’t be eliminated. Riley was by far the best. Cannon’s wasn’t that bad, but the fans booed him as soon as he started speaking. McGillicutty, in his promo, decided to confront The Miz about calling him “mediocre” last week. Bad decision. The Miz owned him. Cottonwood’s promo focused on the word “eyes,” and Michael Cole said, “He can look in my eyes and put me to sleep.”

• Watson got a big win over Zack Ryder. You could really see in this match that Watson is very athletic but still green. He throws a great dropkick and I love the standing splash that he does in which he changes direction in mid-air. His float-over DDT wasn’t the smoothest, though. It was said in commentary that Ryder wrestled despite having walking pneumonia.

• I like how the pros are out of character for the most part when evaluating the rookies in the video packages. Cody Rhodes said of Kaval: “If we lived in a fair world, Kaval would be the next breakout star.” Mark Henry said that “Kaval is probably the most polished of all the WWE rookies.” Probably?

• After Kaval cut a promo on Harris backstage, Michelle McCool punctuated it by saying, “That’s real talk.” I thought that worked well.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 2:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (24)
        

When the Nexus angle began on Raw seven weeks ago, I wrote that it was going to be a challenge to get fans to buy into the idea that the NXT Season 1 “rookies” posed a legitimate threat to established WWE stars in the ring.

Yes, The Nexus has come across as a dangerous gang of thugs when attacking people seven-on-one, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that Wade Barrett and company can be taken seriously in a fair fight against the WWE’s elite.

The main goal of Monday night’s Raw was to drive home the point that The Nexus are indeed worthy adversaries for the team of Raw stars they are facing in the main event at the SummerSlam pay-per-view on Aug. 15. To that end, The Nexus totally dominated a team of Raw mid-carders in a seven-on-seven elimination match (not one Nexus member was eliminated).

So, was WWE’s effort to build The Nexus’ credibility successful? Well, from a booking standpoint, the company had the right idea, but I have to admit that I had trouble suspending my disbelief enough to accept that the likes of Michael Tarver, David Otunga, Heath Slater and Darren Young could so easily destroy a team that included Evan Bourne, Mark Henry and WWE unified tag team champions Tyson Kidd and David Hart Smith.

However, I do think the other plot device WWE is using to make the SummerSlam elimination bout not seem like a mismatch is working – that being that The Nexus is 100 percent united while the John Cena-led Raw team is in disarray. The members of Cena’s team bickered amongst themselves throughout the show.

Other thoughts on Monday’s show:

I liked how the issue between WWE champion Sheamus and Money in the Bank winner The Miz intersected with the Nexus/Team Cena story line, as the main event pitted Cena and Chris Jericho against Sheamus and The Miz. The finish saw Jericho turn on Cena, leading to The Miz pinning Cena for the victory. After the match, all of the members of Cena’s team (except Bret Hart, who wasn’t there) were shoving each other. …

After Hart was revealed as a surprise member of Cena’s team at the end of last week’s Raw, it seemed strange for him not to be on the show this week. …

I get it that Yoshi Tatsu is not very high in the pecking order, but he has been established as a solid wrestler and was coming off a competitive match against Jericho on WWE Superstars, so the fact that he was pinned a minute into the elimination match with a powerslam by Tarver of all people was a joke. I also thought Bourne and The Hart Dynasty were made to look weak in the match. …

The verbal exchange between Cena and Jericho at the top of the show was good. I especially liked when Cena used Jericho’s “do you understand what I am saying to you” phrase against him. The only thing I didn’t care for about the segment was when Cena started doing lame comedy right in the middle of his serious promo. His “Superfriends” jokes were totally wrong for the situation. Jericho, however, successfully managed to inject some humor into the segment without taking anything away from it. I loved when he said to Cena, “Don’t you ever … denigrate me with your sarcasm.” …

The fans are dying to cheer for Jericho. There was a “Y2J” chant when he interrupted Cena’s promo, but he quickly squelched it by insulting the fans. It was made clear that Jericho is not turning babyface just because he is a member of Cena’s team for the match against The Nexus. …

Randy Orton was nicely showcased, as he scored an impressive win over Jey Uso and then took out both Sheamus and The Miz with RKO’s after the match. Miz was about to cash in his Money in the Bank contract on Sheamus when Orton hit the move out of nowhere. …

The Miz has teased cashing in his MITB contract two weeks in a row now. WWE has to be careful not to go to the well too often or it could make it anti-climactic when Miz finally does cash in for real. …

When Edge said that The Great Khali would be booted from Team Cena if Edge defeated him, I bet a lot of fans were rooting for Edge. The match ended in a no-decision, so for now at least, the big guy is still on the team. …

It was odd that The Nexus allowed The Great Khali to leave the ring unscathed after they had surrounded him and were seemingly about to pounce. I wonder if it will be explained that they see him as a weak link and thus want him to remain on Cena’s team. …

This week’s Raw general manager tease was that it could be Shawn Michaels or Triple H, as one of the anonymous GM’s e-mails had the “I’ve got two words for you” line. It was probably not a coincidence that WWE went for a DX reference on a night that the show was in San Antonio, where Michaels lives. …

I like R-Truth but he definitely does not have a future as a color commentator judging by his performance during the Ted DiBiase Jr.-John Morrison match. …

Alicia Fox continues to be put over as a dominant champion, as she easily defeated Brie Bella. …

Young’s hair has gone back to terrible after a one-week stint as being just bad.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 2:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (53)
        

Vote in the poll below and feel free to leave comments.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 12:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (47)
        

Just in case anyone hasn't seen this news elsewhere, Jim Ross posted on his blog and on his Twitter page that WWE Hall of Famer Ricky Steamboat was released from the hospital a few days ago and is convalescing at a relative's home in Florida.

Steamboat, 57, is scheduled to return to Florida Championship Wrestling to continue training WWE developmental talent in about a month, Ross said.

Steamboat had been hospitalized since June 30 after suffering bleeding on the brain due to a capillary burst.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 1:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
        

I really enjoyed the wrestling portion of Smackdown Friday night, as the show featured three good matches ranging in length from 13 to 20 minutes.

The best (and longest) of them was the main event, a two-out-of-three falls contest between Rey Mysterio and Jack Swagger that determined who is getting the title shot against world heavyweight champion Kane at SummerSlam on Aug. 15. Mysterio and Swagger really work well together, which is impressive considering the vast size disparity (Swagger is more than a foot taller and around 100 pounds heavier).

The other two matches that impressed me were the non-title bout between Intercontinental champion Kofi Kingston and Dolph Ziggler and the tag-team contest that pitted Drew McIntyre and “Dashing” Cody Rhodes against Christian and Matt Hardy.

As I have said before, Raw may have more star power, but Smackdown has an impressive roster of guys who can go in the ring. It’s exciting watching rising stars such as Swagger, Kingston, McIntyre, Ziggler and Rhodes – none of whom are even 30 yet – getting an opportunity to shine.

Other thoughts on Friday’s show:

I was expecting Kane to come out during the third fall of the Mysterio-Swagger match and chokeslam both guys to make the match a no-decision. I figured that would lead to the revelation that Kane was the one who injured The Undertaker, thus setting up a match between the “brothers” at SummerSlam. Mysterio beat Swagger to earn the title shot, however, so it appears that we’re not getting Kane-Undertaker at the pay-per-view. My money still is on Kane being behind the attack. …

I’m not big on Kane being world champion at this stage of his career, but I do have to give him credit for his performances as of late. He cut another good promo to open the show (although I could have done without the cheesy mood music), and his facial expressions were great when he attacked Mysterio after Mysterio’s win over Swagger. I also thought it was a nice touch (as well as a foreshadowing of his heel turn) that Kane initially made nice with Mysterio before returning seconds later to ambush him. …

As much as I enjoyed the Mysterio-Swagger match, it didn’t make sense to me that Mysterio would have to beat a guy that he has defeated on the past two pay-per-views to get a world title rematch against Kane. I’m curious to see what’s next for Swagger now that he’s out of the world title picture. …

I was very pleased that Ziggler defeated Kingston to presumably set up an Intercontinental title match between the two at SummerSlam. Kingston’s “out” for the loss is that he was wrestling with a bad neck coming off last Sunday’s Money in the Bank ladder match. …

The finish to the tag match that saw McIntyre and Rhodes defeat Christian and Hardy was well done. As Hardy was checking on Christian after accidentally punching him, McIntyre landed a big boot to Hardy’s face for the win. So the tension between Christian and Hardy continues. It looks as if Christian may be turning heel, which wouldn’t be a bad thing. …

Joey Mercury was finally revealed to be the mysterious Straight Edge Society member, as he was unmasked while getting squashed by The Big Show. Just like CM Punk’s unmasking last week, there was no buildup to it. I hope Mercury gets an opportunity to cut a promo about why he joined the SES. His real-life drug issues are well-documented, but what isn’t common knowledge is that Punk legitimately helped Mercury through some tough times. The danger in telling that story, however, is that it could make Punk’s character come off like a babyface. …

Rhodes’ grooming tips segment in which he demonstrated the proper way to trim nose hair was so silly that it was funny. Remember: Always be careful not to touch the mucous membrane. Words of wisdom. …

I’m officially bored with the Alberto Del Rio vignettes. I’m ready to see him in action.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 4:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (15)
        

Baltimore’s Axl Rotten said that he is signed for TNA’s ECW-themed pay-per-view, Hardcore Justice, and will be teaming with longtime tag partner Balls Mahoney at the Aug. 8 event.

Although no official announcements have been made regarding what other former ECW talent will be working the show, Jerry Lynn, The Sandman and Sabu all appear in the Hardcore Justice commercial. It is believed that Lynn will wrestle TNA world champion Rob Van Dam, as the two had a series of outstanding matches together in ECW back in the day.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 2:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (12)
        

It was explained during the final segment of Thursday night’s episode of TNA Impact that the crew of former ECW stars banded together in TNA to make love, not war.

Tommy Dreamer cut a teary-eyed promo (does he cut any other kind?) talking about the similarities between the original ECW and TNA and how he quit his job with WWE (although he never mentioned the company by name) because he couldn’t stand what it did to the ECW brand.

He concluded by begging TNA president Dixie Carter for “one night to show the world what we had and then our legacy can live forever.” She agreed to it.

To sum it all up, we’re getting TNA’s version of One Night Stand, the ECW-themed pay-per-view that WWE did in 2005 and 2006. TNA announced on its website that it has changed the name of its Aug. 8 pay-per-view from Hard Justice to Hardcore Justice. In addition to the former ECW talent that’s already in TNA, more ECW originals are going to be brought in for the show.

I’m glad that TNA is doing a one-off ECW reunion show rather than a long-term ECW invasion story line (at least that’s how it appears at this point). I just don’t think the latter would work in 2010. Plus, it’s no secret that TNA’s pay-per-view numbers are abysmal, so a nostalgia show will almost certainly do a significantly better-than-usual buy rate for the company.

Other thoughts on Thursday’s show:

Look, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with a man who cries, and I’ve been known to be an emotional guy myself, but Dreamer’s constant whimpering during his promos has become a turn-off. I also think that the legend of ECW has made the company seem better than it really was. There’s no denying that ECW was innovative and edgy during its heyday, but I never fully drank the Kool-Aid. …

Beer Money and The Motor City Machine Guns had another good match, although it wasn’t at the level of their match on last week’s show or the one at the Victory Road pay-per-view. This week it was a street fight, and Beer Money once again stole the victory to go up 2-0 in the best-of-five series. Look for the Guns to win the next two. …

The ref bumps with the Hebners in the Beer Money-MCMG matches are starting to get old. …
Jeff Hardy and Samoa Joe had a good match that ended in a 10-minute draw. I just wish they would have done a time-limit draw with Hardy and Jay Lethal last week instead of killing Lethal’s momentum with a clean loss. …

Matt Morgan suffered yet another quick, clean pinfall loss, this time to Mr. Anderson. After the match, Morgan attacked Anderson and busted him open with the microphone. So it appears that Morgan’s gimmick is that he’s a sore loser. Just mind-boggling. …

The angle with the current and former members of The Beautiful People is hard to follow. We have two heels (Madison Rayne and Velvet Sky) feuding, another heel (Lacey Von Erich) who has been acting sort of like a babyface and is torn between her two heel partners, and a babyface (Angelina Love) who is a natural heel. Oh, and there’s also a mystery woman on a motorcycle. …

After Kevin Nash cut a cryptic promo, Jeff Jarrett said, “I have no idea what you’re talking about.” That made two of us. It’s challenging enough trying to get people to care about an angle involving Nash and Jarrett, but when that angle is incomprehensible, it really has no chance. …

How many more times are Jarrett’s three daughters going to be referenced in promos? Enough already. …

I liked the Kurt Angle-Hernandez match, although I would like to have seen it go a little longer. I was surprised when Hernandez tapped out to the ankle lock, as I thought for sure he was going to make it to the ropes to get a break and keep the match going. Angle took some high-impact bumps and Hernandez looked good in defeat. …

In a company in which it’s often hard to distinguish the heels from the babyfaces, the last thing we need is Angle and Nash hugging each other to further confuse things. …

The Global title instantly became more prestigious with A.J. Styles’ championship victory over Rob Terry. …

When Brother Devon asked Brother Ray why he didn’t have the ex-ECW guys’ backs last week, I thought Ray’s answer made perfect sense. He said that he and Devon have accomplished way more than the ex-ECW crew and that they have nothing left to prove with those guys.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 10:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (23)
        

Baltimore Sun columnist and blogger Peter Schmuck posted another video about the upcoming six-man tag team match in which he and I will be on opposite sides. In his latest clip, Schmuck shares the screen with his biggest fan.

I hope for Pete’s sake that he is spending as much time at the gym as he is in the Baltimore Sun video production room.

Despite having some fun with a video of my own that I posted earlier this week, I am not taking the match lightly. I’ve been training at Gillberg’s Pro Wrestling Academy, where Duane “Gillberg” Gill and his fellow instructors have taught me a few tricks (see photo below) just in case I find myself in the ring with one or both of Schmuck’s tag partners (Fed-Up) at some point in the match.

The six-man tag team bout pitting Cole Calloway, Ronnie Zukko and me against Fed-Up and Schmuck takes place on July 31 at The New Green Room in Dundalk as part of Maryland Championship Wrestling's Shamrock Cup.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 12:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)
        

Here is an interview I conducted last week with Duane Gill (aka Gillberg), a Maryland-based independent wrestler who gained fame in the WWF during the Monday Night Wars in the late '90s by doing a parody of then-WCW star Bill Goldberg.

Earlier this month, Gill opened Gillberg's Professional Wrestling Academy in Severn, Md.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 1:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: Video interviews
        

• The rookies participated in an obstacle course competition on Tuesday night’s episode of WWE NXT, with the winner getting immunity in next week’s elimination poll. Michael McGillicutty won the challenge and afterward said, “I don’t need [immunity], but I got it.” My thoughts exactly.

• Husky Harris was next-to-last in the previous poll, so you’d think he’d have gone all out to win the obstacle course challenge and gain immunity, but he didn’t even attempt to complete it properly (which may have been scripted). Then again, it’s not as if winning or losing the NXT Season 2 competition really matters in the big picture. Just as we have seen in the past with Tough Enough and the Diva Search, if WWE sees something in someone, it will offer them a contract, and the runners-up often go on to become bigger stars than the winners.

• Speaking of Harris, he really struggled to get out his promo. He did, however, score the pinfall over MVP during the tag team match in which he and Cody Rhodes defeated MVP and Percy Watson. Sucks to be MVP. He was left out of Smackdown’s Money in the Bank ladder match and now he’s jobbing to Harris.

• MVP forgave Watson for turning on him last week, saying that when he first came to Smackdown, he would have done the same thing if he had the opportunity. OK, I’ll buy that.

• I was laughing out loud when the referees were trying to get Eli Cottonwood to go back and re-do his push-ups during the obstacle course and he just ignored them and kept going as they chased after him. I think Kaval was about the only one who did legitimate push-ups.

• When Kofi Kingston dubbed McGillicutty’s fans “The McGillibuddies,” Cole said in his deadpan delivery, “Oh my lord.” I really like Cole’s heel announcer shtick on NXT. He’s obviously having fun with it.

• I was surprised at how quickly Alex Riley defeated Lucky Cannon (I don’t think the match even lasted two minutes). Cannon did get in a lot of offense before losing, but he still came off looking weak. Is WWE trying to send a message to viewers that they should not vote for Cannon?

• The Miz and Mark Henry were not standing on the apron during the Riley-Cannon match, so that experiment seems to be over after one week.

• The Miz does a great job on the video packages in which the pros evaluate the rookies. On McGillicutty, the son of “Mr. Perfect” Curt Hennig, Miz said: “Daddy was good; you’re mediocre.” On Cannon, Miz said: “I almost forgot about him. He’s forgettable.”

Posted by Kevin Eck at 1:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)
        

Since Monday’s episode of Raw was taking place the night after the Money in the Bank pay-per-view, I would have bet anything that the show was going to open with a talking segment involving some combination of John Cena, Sheamus and The Nexus.

I was pleasantly surprised, however, when Raw was kicked off by a triple threat match between Randy Orton, Edge and Chris Jericho to determine the No. 1 contender for Sheamus’ WWE title at the upcoming SummerSlam pay-per-view.

While the outcome of Orton winning was predictable, the three superstars put on a pay-per-view quality match that went about 15 minutes and had a number of exciting near falls. The finish saw Orton hitting RKO’s on Jericho and Edge in succession, and then pinning Edge. The crowd popped big for Orton’s victory. He has picked up a lot of steam as a babyface lately.

It was a nice change of pace to open the show with a match instead of a promo, and it was even nicer to have the match be a star-studded one with something on the line.

So it will be Orton versus Sheamus for the WWE title at SummerSlam on Aug. 15. It is believed that the original plan was for Triple H to return at that show to face Sheamus, but Triple H reportedly underwent surgery to repair a torn tendon in his upper arm earlier this month and is expected to be out of action for at least two more months.

Other thoughts on Monday’s show:

This was an entertaining episode that immediately began the build for the top two matches at SummerSlam. The other big match will be a seven-on-seven bout pitting The Nexus against Cena, Edge, Jericho, John Morrison, R-Truth, The Great Khali and Bret Hart, who made his dramatic return at the end of the show. I really don’t care to see Hart wrestle anymore, but it’s not like he will have to do much in this type of match. …

The Nexus got a lot of heat for administering a beat-down on heels Edge and Jericho. It should be interesting watching these two trying to co-exist with each other as well as the other members of Team Cena. …

It was obvious that Cena was going to put together a team to go against The Nexus, but there were a few surprises as far as his choice of partners. Instead of Hart, Khali and R-Truth, I figured it would be Evan Bourne, Mark Henry and Yoshi Tatsu. Bourne and Tatsu were both beaten up by The Nexus last week, and Henry had just lost a match against Wade Barrett due to a distraction by the other Nexus members. …

It made for an exciting moment when it appeared that The Miz was going to cash in his MITB contract on Sheamus after he had laid him out with the Skull-crushing Finale on the MITB briefcase following Sheamus’ win over Bourne. The crowd was popping in anticipation of Miz beating Sheamus for the WWE title before R-Truth came out, which prompted Miz to call off the match, which he could do since the bell never sounded to start it. R-Truth got some boos for foiling Miz’s plan. I think part of that reaction was because the fans really wanted to witness a WWE title change, but also because they prefer anyone – even a guy with as much heel heat as Miz – as champion over Sheamus. …

Barrett couldn’t quite pull off his finisher (forward fireman’s carry slam) on Henry. He nearly lost the big guy off his shoulders before managing to dump him onto the mat. Barrett grabbed his back after the match, and I’m not sure if he was selling or legitimately in pain. …

It will probably get old at some point, but right now I’m finding the Santino Marella/Vladimir Kozlov tag team to be effective comic relief. …

The Eve Torres-Maryse match was odd. Just a little over a minute into the contest, Torres landed a kick to the head and scored the pin, as the referee did not see Maryse’s foot on the rope. …

Darren Young’s hair has improved from terrible to just bad.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 11:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (37)
        

The entire wrestling world is buzzing about the upcoming six-man tag team match in which Baltimore Sun columnist and blogger Peter Schmuck and I will be on opposite sides. The match takes place July 31 at Maryland Championship Wrestling's Shamrock Cup show at The New Green Room in Dundalk.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 6:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (34)
        

If you ordered WWE’s Money in the Bank pay-per-view Sunday night primarily for the two MITB matches, you definitely got your money’s worth. The Raw and the Smackdown ladder matches both delivered in a big way.

The world championship match between Rey Mysterio and Jack Swagger also was very good, and the tag team and two women’s title matches were adequate.

As for the main event – the steel cage match between WWE champion Sheamus and John Cena – it wasn’t a bad match, but I have to be honest: I have a really hard time mustering up any enthusiasm for a one-on-one title match that involves Sheamus. Plus, everyone knew that The Nexus was going to get involved in the finish, so until they showed up (which was at about the 20-minute mark), I wasn’t all that invested in the action.

The big news is that Kane not only won the Smackdown MITB ladder match, but the world title as well. After Mysterio successfully defended his title against Swagger, Kane cashed in his contract and pinned Mysterio in less than a minute to capture the championship.

All signs point to Kane being the one who attacked The Undertaker and a match between the two “brothers” taking place next month at the SummerSlam pay-per-view – whether anyone likes it or not. The Undertaker was even shown in a SummerSlam commercial during the broadcast.

The Raw MITB briefcase went to The Miz, who scored the biggest victory of his career and solidified his standing as a guy on the verge of superstardom.

Here is a match-by-match look at the show:

WWE champion Sheamus defeated John Cena in a steel cage match (23:01): The match had a pretty slow pace until the final few minutes. At about the 20-minute mark, Cena hit the Attitude Adjustment, but Sheamus kicked out at two. Then The Nexus made their way to ringside. Michael Tarver was carrying bolt-cutters, but a referee on the outside of the ring took them away from him, so Tarver still can’t do anything right. The Nexus then tried to intimidate another referee on the floor into giving them the keys to the cage, but he tossed the keys into the crowd. Inside the ring, there was a ref bump, followed by Cena applying the STF to Sheamus. The champion was tapping, but there was no referee to see it. Cena then attempted to climb out of the cage. Justin Gabriel cut him off at the top of the cage, but Cena shoved him down to the mat. Cena continued to try to escape the cage, but he was thwarted by The Nexus. Meanwhile, Sheamus recovered and climbed over the opposite side of the cage. Heath Slater tried to stop him but was unsuccessful, as Sheamus dropped to the floor to win the match. I suppose that means that Sheamus is not associated with The Nexus. After the match, a furious Cena clothes-lined Tarver and hit him in the head with the ring steps.

World champion Rey Mysterio defeated Jack Swagger (10:45): Prior to the match, Swagger was backstage on the cell phone with his mother and he cut a hilarious promo on her, telling her at one point to shut up and that his father got what he deserved on Smackdown Friday night because he was trying to steal his spotlight. Swagger and Mysterio put on a well-worked, back-and-forth match that told a good story and kept the crowd engaged. The finish was reminiscent of the Eddie Guerrero-Kurt Angle match at WrestleMania XX. Mysterio, who sold an ankle injury the entire match, had loosened his boot just prior to Swagger attempting the ankle lock. As Swagger pulled on Mysterio’s foot, the boot slipped off and Mysterio hit a huracanrana for the win. After the match, Swagger jumped Mysterio and put him in the ankle lock. Kane made the save, beating on Swagger and chasing him up the ramp and to the back. Seconds later, Kane’s music hit and he re-appeared on the stage, this time carrying the Money in the Bank briefcase that he had won earlier in the night. It was announced that he was cashing in the contract right now.

Kane defeated world champion Rey Mysterio to win the title (0:54): A weakened Mysterio tried to avoid Kane but he couldn’t hold him off. Kane hit a chokeslam followed by a Tombstone piledriver for the victory. Kane is now a two-time world champion (he held the WWE title for one day in June 1998 when he defeated “Stone Cold” Steve Austin for the title at the King of the Ring pay-per-view and lost it back to him the next night on Raw).

The Miz won the Raw Money in the Bank ladder match over Evan Bourne, Ted DiBiase Jr., Edge, Mark Henry, Chris Jericho, John Morrison and Randy Orton (20:27): With everyone down about seven minutes in, Maryse – who had accompanied DiBiase to the ring – took off her high heels, entered the ring and began to climb the ladder for some reason. She didn’t get very far before she was pulled down by Morrison. The action intensified at about the 16-minute mark, when Bourne hit the Shooting Star Press on Orton. At that point, Jericho was hanging from the ladder with his leg caught between the rungs, and everyone else was selling. Bourne climbed the ladder and it appeared that he was going to win, but Jericho finally managed to free himself, and he knocked Bourne off the ladder by smashing him in the head with the briefcase. Rivals Jericho and Edge battled on the ladder before Orton took out Jericho with an RKO off the ladder, and then pulled down Edge. Orton was the only man standing at the 19-minute mark, and the crowd was popping in anticipation of his victory as he climbed the ladder. The cheers quickly turned to jeers, however, as The Miz tipped over the ladder. Miz then climbed the ladder and unhooked the briefcase for the win. After the match, Miz cut an intense promo in which he called out all of fans and critics who said that he’d never make it (yes, I was among them at one time). “You are all living in my moment,” he said. “I made it!”

Kane won the Smackdown Money in the Bank ladder match over The Big Show, Christian, Matt Hardy, Kofi Kingston, Drew McIntyre, Cody Rhodes and Dolph Ziggler (26:17): This was the best match of the night, and while it had its share of high spots, it also told good stories. One of the main themes was that six of the competitors at times worked together in an attempt to neutralize the two biggest men in the match – The Big Show and Kane. There also was quite a bit of interaction between the two sentimental favorites and ladder match specialists – Christian and Hardy. The biggest spot of the night occurred about 10 minutes in when Kingston hit the Boom Drop from a ladder outside the ring onto McIntyre, who went crashing through the announce table. It had been established early in the match that a normal ladder would not hold Big Show, as he broke one of the rungs with his foot on an attempted climb. He later brought in the super-sized ladder that he unveiled on last Friday’s Smackdown (he at first tried unsuccessfully to pull it over the top rope into the ring before ultimately bringing it through the ropes).

At the 20-minute mark, Big Show was pushed off the giant ladder and over the top rope by Kane. Once Big Show was down on the floor, the other participants all buried him with ladders to effectively take him out of the match. It appeared at the 25-minute mark that it had come down to Christian and Hardy, as the two battled at the top of the ladder while everyone else was down. They ended up knocking each other off the ladder simultaneously. At that point, McIntyre – who had been incapacitated on the floor for about 15 minutes since taking the Boom Drop – crawled into the ring. The crowd booed loudly as it sensed that McIntyre was going to steal the victory. As McIntyre slowly climbed the ladder, however, Kane recovered, climbed up the other side of the ladder and chokeslammed McIntyre. Kane then grabbed the briefcase for the victory.

WWE unified tag team champions The Hart Dynasty defeated The Usos (5:53): This was a solid but not spectacular match. David Hart Smith got the win for THD when he forced Jimmy Uso to submit to the Sharpshooter. THD came off as the superior team, but the Usos made a decent accounting of themselves in defeat.

WWE Divas champion Alicia Fox defeated Eve Torres (5:52): Fox dominated the match, which made it all the more surprising that she ended up winning. She concentrated her attack on Torres’ back. Torres attempted a somersault off the ropes during her comeback, but Fox got her knees up and nailed Torres in the back. She followed up with a scissors kick for the victory. This was an impressive showing for Fox.

WWE women’s champion Layla defeated Kelly Kelly (3:59): It wasn’t the smoothest match, but the pace was quick and outside interference by Michelle McCool and Tiffany helped make it entertaining. The finish saw Kelly Kelly attempt a sunset flip off the middle rope, but Layla shifted her weight, sat on top of KK and hooked both of her legs for the pin. Rosa Mendes surprisingly did not come out during the match to show off her formidable jump-roping skills.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 11:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (29)
        

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

WWE champion Sheamus vs. John Cena in a steel cage match: The final scene on Raw this past Monday was of Sheamus and Cena fighting side by side against The Nexus. I don’t buy it, as I think Sheamus is secretly aligned with the heel faction. Although the cage is supposed to prevent outside interference, look for Wade Barrett and company to get involved and help Sheamus prevail.

World champion Rey Mysterio vs. Jack Swagger: WWE has done a very good job of getting Swagger over as a vicious heel in recent weeks, as he has injured both Mysterio and The Big Show with his ankle lock. It appears to me that the scene has been set for Mysterio, already the ultimate underdog because of his size disadvantage, to once again overcome the odds and retain the title despite his bad ankle. However, after the match is over ... (see my prediction for the Smackdown MITB match below).

Raw MITB ladder match (Evan Bourne, Ted DiBiase Jr., Edge, Mark Henry, Chris Jericho, The Miz, John Morrison and Randy Orton): I don’t give Bourne, DiBiase, Henry and Morrison any chance of winning, so that leaves the big stars (Edge, Orton and Jericho) and The Miz. Edge winning MITB has a “been there, done that” feel, and Jericho’s long-term future in WWE seems uncertain, so scratch off those two. WWE is trying to get Orton over as a huge babyface, and back-dooring his way into a world title by cashing in his MITB contract is more of a heel thing, so I don’t think he will win either. Therefore, the winner will be … The Miz!

Smackdown MITB ladder match (The Big Show, Christian, Matt Hardy, Kane, Kofi Kingston, Drew McIntyre, Cody Rhodes and Dolph Ziggler): I’d like to see McIntyre win this match and I think there’s a decent chance that he will. However, my gut feeling is that it’s not going to happen. I hope I’m wrong about this, but I think Kane is going to win the match and then cash in his contract at the conclusion of the Mysterio-Swagger match and defeat a weakened Mysterio for the title. Then it will be revealed that Kane was the one who attacked The Undertaker. Again, I hope I’m wrong.

WWE unified tag team champions The Hart Dynasty vs. The Usos: Jimmy and Jey Uso haven’t really gotten over, so I expect Tyson Kidd and David Hart Smith to make a successful title defense.

WWE Divas champion Alicia Fox vs. Eve Torres: Look for Torres to regain the title she lost at last month’s Fatal Fourway pay-per-view.

WWE women’s champion Layla vs. Kelly Kelly: Layla will retain the championship with an assist from her Lay-Cool partner Michelle McCool. The wild card is Rosa Mendes. If she (and her trusty jump rope) make an appearance, whom will her presence benefit?

Posted by Kevin Eck at 3:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (28)
        

With Jack Swagger’s frequent referencing of his “daddy,” you knew it was just a matter of time before the elder Swagger showed up on Smackdown.

He did so on Friday night’s episode – well, sort of. “Mr. Swagger” was actually former WCW wrestler Bunkhouse Buck (aka Jimmy Golden).

Jack Swagger brought his father to the show to prove to Kane that he was not the person who attacked The Undertaker during Memorial Day weekend. Swagger proceeded to show photos on the video screen of father and son participating in various activities, including a fishing contest, chicken-wing eating contest and a 5K.

Kane wasn’t impressed, and he ended up delivering a chokeslam and Tombstone piledriver to Swagger’s daddy. Jack had opportunities to rescue his father but he chose to save himself instead. That was a great heel move.

It made for an entertaining segment that furthered the Kane/Undertaker story line as well as the program between Swagger and world champion Rey Mysterio, who hobbled to the ring on his bad ankle and hit the 619 on Swagger while Swagger had Kane in the ankle lock prior to Kane getting his hands on “daddy.”

Other thoughts on Friday’s show:

WWE did a good job of featuring the eight wrestlers who are in the Smackdown Money in the Bank ladder match at Sunday’s MITB pay-per-view. In addition to Kane’s show-closing angle, The Big Show had a fun segment with The Straight Edge Society, and there were three singles matches involving the six other MITB participants. …

The “WWE Universe” now knows what CM Punk looks like bald, as The Big Show removed the SES leader’s mask after a verbal exchange turned physical. Punk sold it great and the look on his face was hilarious, but the big reveal of Punk’s appearance should have been more dramatic. Someone in the industry had told me a few weeks ago that Punk was still completely bald, so I figured WWE was building to a match in which Punk’s mask would be on the line. Punk underwent arm surgery right after that, however, so I’m guessing that’s why plans changed. The whole thing is flawed either way because it doesn’t make sense that Punk would still be bald nearly two months after having his head shaved. It will be interesting to see if he continues to wear the mask going forward. …

The best match on the show was Drew McIntyre’s victory over Christian, although Dolph Ziggler’s win over Matt Hardy was also good. It was nice to see fresh match-ups involving guys with similar abilities. In both of these matches I think the right guy won. …

During the Ziggler-Hardy match, Hardy got a dramatic near fall in which Ziggler barely – and I do mean barely – broke up the pin by getting a fingertip on the bottom rope. It would have been interesting to see what the referee would have done if Ziggler had failed to reach the rope. The referees are instructed to officiate the match like it’s a shoot, which in this instance would have meant Hardy winning a match he wasn’t supposed to. …

The opening contest between Kofi Kingston and Cody Rhodes was decent until Kane showed up and chokeslammed both guys. My fear was that Kane was going to interfere in the two other matches involving MITB competitors, but fortunately that was not the case. …

When Jack Swagger was walking to the ring with his father, the announcers acted as if they didn’t know who the older guy was. We’ve never seen Mr. Swagger on camera before, so it made sense that they didn’t recognize him – well, except for the fact that there was a graphic on the screen that said “Mr. Swagger” beneath Jack’s name. Gotta read the fine print, guys. …

The mixed tag that saw Kelly Kelly and Chris Masters defeat Layla and Trent Barreta wasn’t much of a match, but looking at Kelly, Layla and Rosa Mendes on my TV is never a bad thing. Barreta and Caylen Croft swinging the jump rope for Rosa Mendes outside the ring in the middle of the match was so corny that I had to chuckle. Ditto for Mendes skipping rope back up the ramp after the match.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 1:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (12)
        

At the end of Thursday night’s episode of TNA Impact, the Impact Zone in Orlando was looking a bit like the ECW Arena in South Philly.

The four former ECW stars who have been sitting in the crowd in recent weeks (Tommy Dreamer, Stevie Richards, Raven and Rhino) hopped the rail and attacked Abyss, who was about to take out Rob Van Dam with his board of nails.

That touched off a wild brawl between the ex-ECW guys and TNA wrestlers. How wild was it? So much so that Team 3D’s Brother Devon and TNA producers Al Snow and Pat Kenney (formerly Simon Diamond) – who all have ECW ties – fought against their TNA colleagues.

TNA president Dixie Carter eventually got on the mic and ordered everyone to stop fighting. She said that she was the one who invited the ex-ECW guys. Mick Foley also made his return to TV during the segment, as he appeared on the ramp right before the ex-ECW faction hit the ring.

As far as the execution of the angle, I thought it was a bitter of a cluster-mess. I get it that TNA was trying to create a chaotic situation, but I found the brawl too hard to follow. Unlike WWE’s Nexus invasion angle, the battle lines here were not clearly drawn. Instead of thinking, “Wow, the ex-ECW guys attacked the TNA guys,” I was distracted by the fact that Snow – someone a lot of fans probably didn’t even know worked for TNA – was punching Jay Lethal.

I’m guessing that TNA will make things clearer next week, but I’m still not sure about doing an ECW invasion angle in 2010.

Other thoughts on Thursday’s show:

One thing you can’t say about this episode is that it was boring. In addition to the big angle at the end, there was a ladder match, a street fight and an “I quit match. There also were a couple other marquee matchups and some good promos. …

The new TNA Top 10 rankings were announced, and Abyss was the No. 1 contender, with Jeff Hardy at No. 2. Didn’t Hardy just beat Abyss a couple weeks ago? I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that Hardy did better than Abyss in the online fan voting as well. ...

Judging by the fact that Dreamer, Richards, Raven and Rhino attacked Abyss, the ex-ECW guys must not be Abyss’ “they.” …

When the ex-ECW guys hit the ring, Taz said, “They don’t even work here.” That line has been so over-used over the years. It’s especially silly in this instance. Rhino and Richards have been with TNA for quite a while, and Raven made his return to TV months ago. That’s one of the problems with this angle – three of the four invaders are guys that most TNA fans know have been on the roster all along. ...

After stealing the show at the Victory Road pay-per-view last Sunday, The Motor City Machine Guns and Beer Money did it again. This time it was a ladder match, and it was the first bout in a best-of-five series between the teams for the Guns’ TNA world tag team title. James Storm won it for Beer Money when he smashed Chris Sabin over the head with a beer bottle and took the contract (which stated that the winning team gets to pick the stipulation for Match 2) that had been hanging above the ring from him while referees Earl and Brian Hebner were incapacitated. I’m really looking forward to the next four matches (you know the series is going to go five). I just hope that the developing angle with the Hebners doesn’t get in the way. …

Abyss cut a decent promo in the opening segment. Chewing on the slab of raw meat was a great visual. Disgusting, but a great visual, and very effective in getting him over as a madman ala Abdullah The Butcher. Slicing a watermelon with his board of nails didn’t produce quite the same effect. That was more Gallagher than Abdullah. …

I was excited about the match between Lethal and Hardy going into it, but it did not live up to my expectations. And why TNA would kill Lethal’s momentum by having him lose clean to anyone – even a big star such as Hardy – in a four-minute match is beyond me. I’m not saying that I think Lethal should have beaten Hardy. I would have made it an inconclusive finish, perhaps even a 10-minute draw since TNA does time limits. …

Speaking of questionable booking, what’s up with Matt Morgan jobbing to “The Pope” D’Angelo Dinero in a match that didn’t even go two minutes? I don’t care that Morgan got his heat back after the match; there’s no way he should lose that easily. He’s also been losing far too frequently as of late. …

I liked how Dinero gave a little nod to Mr. Anderson rather than shake his hand after Anderson saved Dinero from Morgan after the match. It would be unrealistic for Dinero to suddenly become buddy-buddy with the guy who put him on the shelf. …

Sarita and Taylor Wilde had an entertaining street fight that was pretty stiff. The problem is that there was no buildup to this feud. We have no idea why these two went from BFFs one day to trying to kill each other the next. …

The first thing I thought of when Sarita was choking Wilde with a purse was Bryan Danielson choking ring announcer Justin Roberts with Roberts’ tie during the Nexus angle in WWE. I wasn’t the only one thinking it, as Taz said, “You can get fired for that in some companies.” Now that was funny. Wilde was even making the “choke face” like Roberts did. …

One silly spot during the street fight was when Sarita threw water in Wilde’s face and Wilde sold it like the water hurt her. …

Velvet Sky was really good on the mic during the exchange with Madison Rayne and Angelina Love. How funny was it when Love of all people made a remark about Sky having “big fake boobs?” …

Ric Flair made it official that A.J. Styles and Kazarian are the first two members of Fortune. Nothing against Kazarian, because I think he is really talented, but it amazes me that TNA sees more in him than it does in Desmond Wolfe, who was blown off by Flair. Wolfe also continued to get the cold shoulder from Chelsea, and he did the job to Samoa Joe in a threeway match that involved Rob Terry. Who in the world did Wolfe tick off? …

I wonder if Styles becoming part of Fortune means that he will not be turning babyface any time soon. …

I can’t say I’m too excited about a program between Kevin Nash and Jeff Jarrett. Heck, I wasn’t excited about it 10 years ago in WCW. …

I bet a lot of people fell off their couches laughing when Nash said that he was the best worker in the business. Then he made it clear that he was talking about backstage politics not five-star matches. In that sense, he’s definitely one of the top five of all time. …

The “I quit” match between TNA X Division champion Douglas Williams and Brian Kendrick was fine, but there was little doubt that Kendrick would win since it was non-title. …

Magnus was pretty entertaining doing commentary during the Joe-Wolfe-Terry match. …

So now we know that there’s more to Miss Tessmacher than meets the eye. Apparently, she has her own agenda and is just pretending to be a bimbo.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 1:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (19)
        

• As soon as I saw that Chris Jericho was going to be wrestling on Thursday night’s episode of WWE Superstars, I knew there was no way I was going to blow off the show this week. Jericho defeated Yoshi Tatsu in a good match. It was nice to see Jericho actually get someone to submit to the Walls of Jericho.

• During the match, Jericho busted Tatsu open above the eye when he lowered his kneepad and delivered a kneedrop. While the medics were tending to Tatsu on the floor, Jericho kept the crowd engaged by sitting on a chair in the ring and nonchalantly inspecting his fingernails to convey that he couldn’t care less about Tatsu.

• Something extremely rare happened on this show: Chavo Guerrero scored a clean win. No, I’m not kidding. He defeated JTG, who didn’t really get in a whole lot of offense. That doesn’t bode too well for the former Cryme Tyme member.

• Vance Archer and Curt Hawkins were impressive in their win over two enhancement guys.

• The Divas tag team match that saw the Bellas defeat Jillian Hall and Maryse was entertaining. The old switcheroo works again for the twins.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 7:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)
        

I conducted a phone interview Thursday with WWE Intercontinental champion Kofi Kingston, who will be one of eight participants in Smackdown’s Money in the Bank ladder match at the Money in the Bank pay-per-view Sunday.

You got your degree in communications from Boston College, so how did you end up becoming a pro wrestler? And what was your family’s reaction when you decided to pursue a wrestling career?

(Laughs) Initially my family just didn’t know how big the WWE was. I started training on the independent scene, and these are definitely not the most glamorous arenas. When I told my parents I wanted to be a WWE Superstar coming out of college, and actually having worked a legit job where I’m supposed to be climbing that corporate ladder and working towards retirement, to all of a sudden tell them that I wanted to kind of throw that all away and pursue a different career, they were definitely hesitant to support me on it, for sure. But I felt in my heart that WWE was where I wanted to be. Ever since I was a kid this was all I’ve wanted to do. I think your standard path is that you go through high school and college and you get your degree and then you really start working toward your retirement. You sit in that cubicle and that’s the path that a lot of people take, and that works for some people but it just didn’t work for me. So I just chose to follow my dream and I’m definitely glad that I did because there’s nothing like being a WWE Superstar.

You mentioned starting in the independents and how it wasn’t glamorous. You were signed to a WWE developmental deal relatively quickly, though. You didn’t toil in the independent scene for years like some guys, correct?

Yeah, I was only wrestling for about a year. We happened to have a tryout at our [wrestling] school up in Boston and all the WWE producers were there. It was just a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity where we actually got a legit tryout and they were there to see us, and I just happened to stand out to them. Luckily, they just liked what they saw. One thing led to another and before I knew it I was on my way down to Atlanta to Deep South [Wrestling] to train in developmental. It’s been a wild ride so far.

How did you feel about dropping the Jamaican character and the accent last year? Were you concerned at all that the fans wouldn’t react as positively to the new persona?

When I first came to WWE there were a lot of people playing characters, and for me, Jamaica actually had a very big influence on my life growing up – the culture, the laid-back attitude and the music in particular. I remember when I was training I would always be listening to the Damian Marley CD “Welcome to Jamrock” driving from work to Chaotic Training Center and back home. WWE and reggae music were kind of all in one when I was first coming up, so this seemed like the right direction to go. Now as far as the change and how people are going to react, I thought it was time to do that. I don’t think that people really care so much where you’re from. I don’t think that people were cheering for me because, “Oh, I like Jamaica. This guy’s from Jamaica. I’m going to cheer for him.” I think it’s more because I came out there with a lot of energy and a good attitude and I’m appreciative of the people out there, and they see that. And I do a lot of unique things in the ring, which they like to see, too.

Obviously a turning point in your career was the program you had with Randy Orton. What was that experience like? Did you view it as something of a test to see if you could succeed at a higher level?

Oh yeah, for sure. Everyone knows just how great Randy Orton is in the ring – he’s one of the best of our time, undeniably. Just to have the opportunity to be in the ring with him was great, and I feel I had to step my game up. I always say that Randy and I were enemies with benefits. We didn’t really like each other, but he forced me to take my game to a new level and show a different side of Kofi Kingston that a lot of people necessarily hadn’t seen. He really brought that out. It was a great experience and I’m glad that I was able to go out there and do some things with a guy of his caliber. I definitely learned a lot.

Performers with great athleticism and high-flying ability often get derogatorily labeled as “spot guys.” Has it been a learning curve for you as far mastering the art of telling a story in the ring?

To be honest, that’s kind of the way that I’ve been brought up. When I first started training up in Boston, the coach that I had, Mike Hollow, is probably the best on the East Coast, and it was all about storytelling. I was just very lucky to have been brought up in the independent scene with a great foundation and somebody who really prepared me for the WWE style. Anyone can go out there and do the moves. I was an amateur wrestler in high school, so as far as like a suplex, I would always get that on the first try. It’s just how you put it together. It’s like a good book. Anyone can put big words in a book, but it’s really how those words connect and that’s what makes a good story. The WWE is the same way. We are all about storytelling.

Just out of curiosity, have you ever measured your vertical leap?

[Laughs] Actually no, I have not. I really kind of just jump with all my might and try to get up there.

You’ve been in a couple Money in the Bank ladder matches at WrestleMania, but on Sunday there will be two Money in the Bank ladder matches on the same show for the first time. Is there any competition – either spoken or unspoken – between the Raw guys and the Smackdown guys as far as who is going to have the best match?

Absolutely. That’s kind of what fuels us. We’re all pretty egotistical. Everyone wants to go out there and be the best and be at the top of their game. So when you have an event like this where you have not one but two Money in the Bank ladder matches – which is going to be awesome by the way. As everyone knows, Money in the Bank has been one of the staple matches of WrestleMania and most entertaining, and the fact that we have two of them on one pay-per-view is just going to be incredible. But getting back to competition – oh yeah, absolutely – Smackdown wants to put on the better performance and Raw wants to do the same thing. I think it’s the best thing for the WWE Universe.

There was a memorable spot in the Money in the Bank match at this past WrestleMania in which you used two halves of a broken ladder as a pair of stilts. How did you come up with that and pull that off?

I kind of get influences from all over the place – Japanimation, kung fu movies, comic books and whatnot – and I’m always trying to do things that are innovative and people haven’t seen before. Obviously, WWE’s been in business for quite some time, and to be able to do something that is completely fresh is very, very hard to do, but I think it’s a good challenge for us. I’m a student of the game and I watch all different types of sports entertainment, so to be able to bring that to WWE is something I kind of take pride in.

I know that you played a heel at one point before coming to WWE. Have you thought about tapping into that side of your persona in the future?

Who knows what the future holds? People talk about good guys and bad guys but over the past few years the line has really kind of been blurred. Back in the day somebody like “Stone Cold” Steve Austin would definitely have been perceived as a bad guy, and that was not the case when “Stone Cold” was around, so who knows how the WWE Universe is going to react to you? I think as far as me being a good guy or a bad guy it’s really kind of up to the WWE Universe and how they perceive me. As long as they keep liking me, I guess we’ll go that route, but you never know what the future holds.

It’s good to know you can turn it on if you have to, right?

We’ll see. I’m always trying to step up. Once I’m called to do a certain thing I usually deliver, so if that role was delegated on to me I think I’d definitely step up and fill that void.

Photo courtesy of World Wrestling Entertainment

Posted by Kevin Eck at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (13)
Categories: Q&As
        

• Tuesday night’s episode of WWE NXT was all about putting The Nexus over as a force in WWE, as Wade Barrett and the five other rookies from NXT Season 1 (Darren Young was still selling his injuries from the attack by John Cena last week on Raw) returned to the program for a special appearance. The Season 2 rookies were pretty much an afterthought. The presence of The Nexus spiced up the show a bit, although not quite as much as I had expected.

• The setup for the 20-man battle royal main event felt contrived. During Percy Watson’s talk show segment – which was his reward for winning the Talk the Talk Challenge last week – he joked with his pro, MVP, for a few minutes before suddenly turning serious and saying, “Sorry it has to be this way.” Watson’s fellow rookies came out and surrounded MVP, but the pros were right behind them and there was a standoff in the ring. Matt Striker then booked an impromptu battle royal between the rookies and the pros, but Barrett said The Nexus also wanted to be involved, so Striker added them to the match. The happy-go-lucky Watson turning on MVP and forming a union with the guys he’s competing against didn’t make sense to me. Since the pros have a large say over who wins the competition, wouldn’t the rookies want to stay on good terms with them?

• Barrett had declared that he was going to win the battle royal just like he won the Season 1 competition, but The Nexus worked as a unit and all six members were left standing at the end of the match. At the start of the battle royal, The Nexus stood on the floor, and as wrestlers were eliminated, Barrett and company attacked them.

• Cody Rhodes was the last man to be eliminated from the battle royal. For some reason, he thought he could make friends with The Nexus. That really made him look like an idiot, because The Miz had unsuccessfully tried to do the same thing earlier in the match (Miz ultimately decided to eliminate himself when he realized he was about to get a beating). The Nexus tossed Rhodes over the top rope and then continued to assault him after the match.

• The only other match on the show was a tag team contest that saw Mark Henry and Lucky Cannon defeat The Miz and Alex Riley. It wasn’t bad. After being laid out by The Miz the night before on Raw, Henry got some heat back by pinning Riley and then dumping trash on him (which is what Miz had done to Henry).

• I thought Rhodes accurately assessed Riley when he said: “It seems like he’s playing a character. I’d rather he be a character.”

• The Nexus now has a catch phrase. Barrett said, “You’re either Nexus, or you’re against us.” I like it.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 1:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (11)
        

The Nexus got a lot of screen time on Monday night’s episode of Raw, but it was Randy Orton and Edge who made the biggest impressions.

Orton – along with Evan Bourne – was responsible for the highlight of the night, as he hit an RKO on Bourne while Bourne was in mid-air for a Shooting Star Press attempt. It was an amazing spot that required perfect timing.

That was part of a post-match angle that took place after Orton and Edge had put on the best match of the show. Edge also cut a good promo hyping the Raw Money in the Bank ladder match that takes place at the MITB pay-per-view Sunday.

Other thoughts on Monday’s show:

The main event, which pitted the six Nexus members (Darren Young was not on the show, as he was selling the injuries from John Cena’s attack last week) against Cena, was well-booked. Cena put up a valiant fight but he ultimately couldn’t overcome the numbers disadvantage. After the match, a chair-wielding Sheamus came out to help Cena fight off The Nexus. I thought for sure that Sheamus was going to hit Cena with the chair, but he didn’t. …

Sheamus running from The Nexus backstage earlier in the show had me laughing out loud. The more I think about it, the more I think that Sheamus is secretly aligned with the group and his saving of Cena is a swerve. …

The Nexus continued to be put over as a dangerous gang, as they beat up Bourne, John Morrison and Yoshi Tatsu in separate incidents backstage. …

The Orton-Edge match started slowly but really picked up during the latter stages. Edge got the win thanks to a distraction from Chris Jericho, but Orton got his heat back by hitting an RKO on Jericho and then pulling off the mid-air RKO with Bourne. …

I liked Edge’s promo when he was talking about listening to the voice in his head, but I’m thinking that Orton should call gimmick infringement. …

I’m glad Wade Barrett and Jericho finally crossed paths. They were friendly, which may or may not mean anything as far as The Nexus angle is concerned. …

The comedy elements in Cena’s promos lately have been worse than usual. And speaking of lame comedy, could the writers have possibly come up with anything less funny than the material that Morrison was given for his exchange with Ted DiBiase Jr. and Maryse? I felt sorry for the guy. I don’t think even The Rock could have gotten any laughs with those lines. …

I like that The Miz is showing more of a vicious, serious side. He got a lot of heat after he dumped trash all over a fallen Mark Henry (who, by the way, was named as R-Truth’s replacement in the MITB match). ...

The finish to The Miz-Henry match was strange, as Henry basically knocked himself out by crashing into the GM’s podium after Miz moved out of the way. …

The backstage segment with guest host Florence Henderson, Santino Marella , William Regal and the laugh track was somewhat amusing. …

Here’s one for the Surreal Moments Hall of Fame: Carol Brady putting a liplock on The Great Khali. ...

Last week the anonymous general manager was using “Stone Cold” Steve Austin lines. This week, he dropped in Roddy Piper’s classic “Just when you think you’ve got all the answers, I change the questions.” …

I have no problem with Alicia Fox getting a push but it was tough to watch the talented Gail Kim being used as a glorified enhancement talent to get Fox ready for her WWE Divas title defense against Eve Torres at Sunday’s pay-per-view. Eve, by the way, was not very good on commentary during the match. …

The six-person tag team match that saw the Usos and Tamina defeat The Hart Dynasty was fine while it lasted (which was about three minutes).

Posted by Kevin Eck at 11:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (48)
        

According to a report on pwinsider.com, it seems like a question of when, not if, Paul Heyman will be joining TNA.

Sources told the website that Heyman will be coming in to oversee a “complete makeover of the company roster and TNA’s front office.” The story said that both sides are saying that nothing is official yet, but the reporter said he believes “they are much closer to a deal than they are letting on.”

A report on wrestlingobserver.com also stated that a deal has not been finalized “but talks are very much alive.”

In an interview with The Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer after the Brock Lesnar-Shane Carwin UFC fight on July 3, Heyman made it clear that he would not come to TNA simply to be the booker – he wants compete control of the company and would settle for nothing less.

I can’t imagine the Carter family giving Heyman or anyone that much power, but time will tell. It’s also possible that Heyman’s “all or nothing” attitude could just be a negotiating ploy.

It’s interesting that Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff have been less visible as the Heyman-to-TNA talk has heated up. Hogan and Bischoff were not at Sunday night’s Victory Road pay-per-view and will not be at the Impact tapings this week either.

Bischoff had said publicly that he was taking the week off to spend time with his family. As for Hogan, pwinsider.com said the word on him was that he was still recovering from the back surgery he underwent last week.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 8:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (25)
        

As regular readers of Rings Posts know, I rarely watch/report on TNA pay-per-views (mostly as a concession to my family because of all the time I devote to wrestling), but the lineup for Sunday night’s Victory Road looked really good on paper so I decided to make this one of those rare occasions.

After having watched the show, I wouldn’t say that I regret the decision, but Victory Road did fall a bit short of my expectations. Except for an outstanding match between The Motor City Machine Guns and Beer Money for the vacant TNA world tag team title, nothing really stood out.

Here is a match-by-match look at the show:

TNA world champion Rob Van Dam defeated Mr. Anderson, Abyss and Jeff Hardy in a fourway match (12:28): The babyfaces worked together to triple-team Abyss during the early stages of the match before it eventually became every man for himself. The match wasn’t bad but it never had a pay-per-view main event feel to it. The finishing sequence saw Hardy hit a Swanton Bomb on Anderson; Abyss chokeslam Hardy onto Anderson and go for a cover; and RVD land a Five Star Frog Splash onto Abyss. Hardy and Abyss rolled off Anderson, and RVD covered him for the win. It was a flat ending, as I think the crowd was expecting Anderson to kick out (I was). After the match, Abyss went after RVD with his board that has the nails sticking out of it, but RVD escaped. There was no story line advancement as to the mysterious “they” Abyss keeps referring to.

Kurt Angle defeated “The Pope” D’Angelo Dinero (12:07): This was a well-worked, physical match, but the crowd was not into it as much as one might have expected. I think that’s because there really wasn’t much suspense as far as the outcome. In fact, all of Angle’s matches are going to have that issue, as he has said that he will leave TNA if he loses any of his matches as he makes his way through the top 10 contenders, so it’s a foregone conclusion that he’s going to win. The finish saw Dinero tap out to the ankle lock.

Jay Lethal defeated Ric Flair (12:05): The crowd was hot for this match, as there were dueling chants for each man at various points. The match itself was fine, but it was kind of sad to see Flair looking so old in the ring. It was like watching a typical Ric Flair match, only in slow motion. Lethal won when he got Flair to submit in the figure-four leglock. That was the absolute right booking decision. Taz ridiculously called it a big upset. Yeah, a 25-year-old rapidly rising up the card who has recently beaten the likes of A.J. Styles and Matt Morgan defeating a 61-year-old with ring rust is a real shocker. That would be like John McEnroe losing a tennis match today to a 20-year-old up-and-comer and the announcers saying how stunning it was that the young guy beat a legend.

Hernandez defeated Matt Morgan in a steel cage match (10:44): Morgan had a chance to leave the cage and win the match at around the five-minute mark, but he decided to dish out more punishment instead. That gave away that Hernandez was going to win. During Hernandez’s comeback, he tried twice to hit the Border Toss but he lost Morgan both times, which looked bad. Hernandez went for a splash off the top of the cage but Morgan moved out of the way. Morgan then handcuffed Hernandez to the rope and began to climb the cage. He hesitated while at the top, however, and Hernandez broke the handcuffs and burst through the cage door for the victory. As the babyface seeking revenge, Hernandez had to win, but I’m glad that Morgan was booked to look strong in defeat, as he only lost because of his arrogance. There’s more money in Morgan than Hernandez going forward.

The Motor City Machine Guns defeated Beer Money to win the vacant TNA world tag team title (15:57): This blew away everything else on the show. It was fast-paced, all four guys worked hard and their moves were crisp. At approximately the 13-minute mark, James Storm went to spit beer in Chris Sabin’s face, but Sabin ducked and referee Brian Hebner got it. With Hebner blinded, his father, referee Earl Hebner, came out to take over the match. Storm rolled up Alex Shelley for a pin at the same time that Sabin covered Robert Roode for a pin. Simultaneously, Brian Hebner counted three on Shelley and Earl Hebner counted three on Roode. Beer Money’s music started playing and Brian Hebner raised their hands, but Earl Hebner – as the senior official – ruled that the match would be re-started. Neither pin should have counted because I think Shelley and Roode were the legal men, although all four guys were in there for quite a while so it was easy to lose track. About a minute after the re-start, the Guns hit a combination crossbody off the top/neckbreaker on Roode for the victory. It’s great to see Shelley and Sabin finally get the tag team belts, although I don’t think it would have been a bad idea either if Beer Money had won and the Guns chased them for a couple months.

A.J. Styles and Kazarian defeated Samoa Joe and Rob Terry (8:09): The story is that Styles and Kazarian were able to get on the same page and work together for the victory. Joe and Terry controlled the majority of the match, but the heels rallied and Styles finished off Terry with a springboard 450 splash. All four guys performed well during the match – yes, even Terry. The burial of Desmond Wolfe continued, as he interfered during the latter stages of the contest but was quickly taken out, and then Joe hit the Muscle Buster on him after the match.

Brother Ray defeated Jesse Neal and Brother Devon in a threeway match (5:57): For the first five minutes of the match it was just Ray versus Neal, as Devon was locked in his dressing room, presumably by Ray. Devon eventually made it to the ring, and when he did, Ray had the advantage over Neal. Ray and Devon both looked down at Neal, teasing that they were going to work together. Ray, however, tried to sucker-punch Devon, but Devon was ready for it and the two Team 3D members began exchanging blows. Neal got up and went for a spear on Ray, but Ray moved and Neal nailed Devon. Ray then hit the Bubba Bomb on Neal for the win. The crowd was into this match but I felt as if TNA pulled a bit of a bait and switch by not having Devon participate until the final minute. This came off more like an angle for Impact than a pay-per-view match.

Angelina Love defeated TNA Knockouts champion Madison Rayne by disqualification to win the title (4:42): The credibility of the Knockouts championship took another hit due to poor booking. The stipulation was that if either Velvet Sky or Lacey Von Erich interfered on Rayne’s behalf that she would be disqualified and Love would be awarded the title. After a few minutes of decent back-and-forth action, a woman wearing a black bodysuit and a helmet that concealed her identity rode to ringside on a motorcycle and proceeded to attack Love. The referee called for the bell and declared Love the new champion. Even though he could not see the woman’s face, he somehow determined that it was one of the Beautiful People. Ugh. Rayne then got on the back of the motorcycle with the mystery woman and they rode off together. My guess is that Rayne will be able to prove that it couldn’t have been Sky or Von Erich and Love will be stripped of the title. The mystery woman reportedly was the returning Tara.

X Division champion Douglas Williams defeated Brian Kendrick in an Ultimate X/submission match (10:06): These two put on a decent match, but anyone expecting anything crazy because of the Ultimate X set-up had to be disappointed. The story of the match was that Kendrick was determined to win by submission even though that strategy didn’t play to his strength, especially considering Williams’ fear of heights. With Kendrick down outside the ring, Williams pulled out a pair of “climbing gloves” and began to make his way up the scaffold and across the cable towards the belt. Kendrick recovered, caught up to Williams and tried to apply the Cobra Clutch while they were hanging from the cable. Both guys lost their grip and tumbled to the mat. Williams then caught Kendrick in a chokehold and Kendrick passed out.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 1:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (20)
        

As a Drew McIntyre fan, I’m happy that his visa issues were resolved quickly and that he was back on Smackdown Friday night after just a one-week absence. I’m even happier that McIntyre defeated Kofi Kingston to earn a spot in Smackdown’s Money in the Bank ladder match at the MITB pay-per-view on July 18.

The McIntyre-Kingston contest was the highlight of the show, as these two had yet another good match together. McIntyre was booked to look strong, as he not only scored the win over the Intercontinental champion (it was a non-title match), but he also kicked out of Kingston’s Trouble in Paradise finisher.

The match was set up during the opening segment, as Smackdown general manager Teddy Long made McIntyre get down on his knees and grovel for inclusion in the MITB match (payback for McIntyre humiliating Long in similar fashion three weeks ago) only to then inform him that he still had to beat Kingston to get in.

Other thoughts on Friday’s show:

Dolph Ziggler defeated MVP and Chavo Guerrero in a triple threat match to capture the other remaining spot in the MITB match. In addition to McIntyre and Ziggler, the participants are: Kingston, The Big Show, Christian, Matt Hardy, Kane and Cody Rhodes. …

I thought for sure that Ziggler and Chavo bickering with each other during the triple threat was going to result in a victory for MVP but I was wrong. Chavo’s facial expressions when he “went into business for himself” and was trying to win the match (as opposed to helping Ziggler win, which was Vickie Guerrero’s plan) were funny. …

I’m glad that Ziggler is in MITB, but it’s a shame that MVP is on the outside looking in. It goes to show that while Raw may have the bigger stars at the top of the card, Smackdown does have good depth. …

I’m really liking Jack Swagger’s vicious streak. It has helped him become a multi-dimensional character and done more to get him over as a top guy than anything he did during his reign as world heavyweight champion. On this show, Swagger brutally attacked the already-injured ankle of world champion Rey Mysterio, and then he left Big Show writhing in pain after DDT-ing his ankle on the stage after their match ended in a double countout. …

Mysterio must have a lot of heat backstage because not a single person tried to intervene while Swagger brutalized him. …

The show concluded with Kane grabbing Swagger and throwing him into the “red room” backstage. Kane is now convinced that Swagger is the one who attacked The Undertaker, but Swagger said that he has an alibi that he’ll reveal next week. I’m starting to lose interest in this story line. I’m going to lose all interest in it if Kane ends up being the guilty party. …

I’m curious to see what happens next with the Straight Edge Society, as CM Punk forgave Serena for falling off the wagon, and his compassion angered Luke Gallows. This story line is an entertaining way of keeping Punk on TV while he recovers from arm surgery. …

The crowd booed Christian when he double-crossed Hardy in their tag team match against Vance Archer and Curt Hawkins, but I didn’t see it as a heel move because it was just payback for Hardy attacking him last week during the “Peep Show” segment. …

With Hardy left vulnerable, Archer and Hawkins took advantage of the situation and scored the win. As I have written in the past, Archer and Hawkins have talent, but there is just something missing. I think it’s called charisma. It’s too bad there are no managers in pro wrestling anymore. Perhaps they would benefit from having a diva become part of their act. …

Rhodes looked good in his convincing win over JTG. By the way, the digital mirror gimmick during Rhodes’ entrance is cool, but I didn’t care much for his new music.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 3:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (15)
        

A strong episode of TNA Impact Thursday night was highlighted by a non-title match pitting TNA world champion Rob Van Dam against Samoa Joe and a verbal confrontation between Ric Flair and Jay Lethal. The show was focused and did a fine job of hyping Sunday’s Victory Road pay-per-view, which, on paper, looks very promising.

The first RVD-Joe match in TNA was pretty much what you would expect from these two in that it was hard-hitting and entertaining. I liked the finish, which saw Joe trap RVD in a chokehold, but RVD managed to push off the turnbuckle and flip backward on top of Joe for the pin while Joe still had the hold applied. This was a good win for RVD, and Joe looked strong in defeat. It also planted the seed for a future program between the two.

The Flair-Lethal exchange was really well done. Lethal was cutting a solid promo when Flair interrupted him, got in his face and started ranting and raving, including insulting Lethal’s ill mother. It was a very intense confrontation, as Lethal said little but never backed up – even after a seething Flair demanded several times that he do so. Flair was on fire in this segment, and I also was quite impressed by Lethal’s facial expressions and how he carried himself. He looked like a star.

Other thoughts on Thursday’s show:

I was really surprised that the main event between Jeff Hardy and Mr. Anderson ended with a clean finish, as Hardy scored the pin in a match that only went a little over three minutes. The run-ins from Abyss and RVD that I was expecting didn’t happen until the post-match. …

TNA has done a good job of building up Sunday’s TNA world title match between the four guys mentioned above. You have the question of whether Hardy can trust Anderson; RVD facing long odds of retaining his title; and Abyss being portrayed as a bloodthirsty monster. …

The A.J. Styles-Kazarian match – which ended in a double count-out – was good but I wish it would have gone longer than six minutes. I figured these two would be facing each other on the pay-per-view, but it was announced that Flair booked them in a tag team match against opponents to be announced. …

Brother Devon delivered some strong mic work, which he usually does when he gets the opportunity. I’m interested to see what happens in the three-way match between him, Brother Ray and Jesse Neal at Victory Road. …

I thought it was unnecessary to have Samoa Joe beat up the referee after his match with RVD. I suppose it was an attempt to get Joe over as an anti-hero but it just made him seem like a sore loser to me. …

The six-man tag match that saw Beer Money and Matt Morgan defeat The Motor City Machine Guns and Hernandez was entertaining. I liked that Morgan and Hernandez – who will meet in a steel cage match at Victory Road – never touched, as Morgan played chicken heel. …

It was great to see Daffney back on television, but I’m disappointed that she was squashed by Angelina Love. Obviously Love needed to win since she is challenging for the TNA Knockouts title Sunday, but I don’t understand why the match wasn’t booked to be at least a little more competitive. By the way, is it just me or does Love appear to be getting skinnier by the week? …

It was an interesting booking decision to have X Division champion Douglas Williams lose a non-title ladder match to Jeremy Buck of Generation Me on the show before Williams’ title defense against Brian Kendrick at Victory Road, but it actually made sense. The point was to establish that Williams has a fear of heights, and therefore his title is in jeopardy Sunday because it’s an Ultimate X Match. Hopefully, TNA follows up and Buck gets a title shot against the winner. ...

I’m a bit confused as to what the deal is with Kevin Nash waiting to speak with Eric Bischoff. If the idea is that Nash’s job is in jeopardy because he is being held accountable for the actions of Scott Hall and Sean Waltman, wouldn’t he have already been punished by now? And if Nash is in trouble, why were he and Eric Young allowed to participate in the TNA world tag team title tournament?

Posted by Kevin Eck at 1:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (12)
        

Triple H underwent surgery this week to repair a torn tendon in his upper arm, which would put him out of action for an additional two-to-four months, according to various website reports.

It is believed that the plan had been for Triple H -- who has not been on WWE programming since doing the angle at the Extreme Rules pay-per-view on April 25 in which he was “injured” by Sheamus -- to return at SummerSlam on Aug. 15 to wrestle Sheamus.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 5:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)
        

Duane Gill, best known for his appearances in WWE over the years as Gillberg, is holding the grand opening for his state of the art pro wrestling training center Saturday.

Gillberg’s Professional Wrestling Academy is located in Severn, Md., and the event is open to the public from noon to 6 p.m.

Gill and other Maryland-area wrestlers will be on hand to mingle with fans and there will be wrestling-related prizes and food.

For more information, click here click here or call 410-969-8077.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 4:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

Baltimore radio station WNST (1570 AM)’s “My Italian Dinner with Bruno Sammartino,” which was scheduled for July 18 at Tall Cedars Hall in Parkville, has been postponed until the fall due to Bruno’s wife undergoing emergency knee replacement surgery earlier this week.

The rescheduled date has not yet been finalized for the event, which will be co-hosted by WNST’s Nestor Aparicio and me.

For more information, click here.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 3:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
        

It’s no secret that LeBron James is a pro wrestling fan, and I’m convinced that he and his handlers took their cues from WWE when putting together the mega-hyped special on ESPN Thursday night in which James revealed that he was signing with the Miami Heat.

Was it a dog-and-pony show? Absolutely, but it's all anyone has been talking about, and if you’re even a casual sports fan, you couldn’t resist watching even if you loathed the idea of such a spectacle.

Personally, I found the whole thing more entertaining than any NBA game this past season except for Game 7 of the NBA Finals between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Boston Celtics. It was great theater and it stirred people’s emotions.

Vince McMahon couldn’t have done it any better himself.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 11:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (28)
        

WWE's im Ross posted the following on Twitter today in regard to the health condition of WWE Hall of Famer Ricky Steamboat:

“Steamboat out of ICU & should be released from Tampa hospital in a few days. Should be good 2 go in a month.”

Steamboat, 57, has been hospitalized since June 30 with what was initially believed to be a brain aneurysm, but subsequent reports said that Steamboat had bleeding on the brain due to a capillary burst.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 7:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
        

WWE star Chris Jericho was among the celebrities mentioned as potential cast members for the upcoming season of ABC's “Dancing with the Stars” in an associatedcontent.com story.

The writer makes it clear in the story that nothing is confirmed and she is merely speculating on “some celebrity names that have been floating around.”

If Jericho – who was considered for the show last season – does end up as a contestant, he would have to take a break from WWE because DWTS airs live on Monday and Tuesday nights.

The new season of DWTS begins on Sept. 20. The cast lineup will be announced next month.

Jericho is currently the host of the summer game show "Downfall," which also airs on ABC.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 5:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)
        

• The Talk the Talk Challenge was the centerpiece of Tuesday night’s episode of WWE NXT. This is the deal in which the rookies are each given a word and instructed to cut a 30-second promo about it. Percy Watson was declared the winner, which was determined by audience applause. His word was “glasses,” which at least gave him something to work with since he wears glasses as part of his gimmick. What he said wasn’t particularly clever, but he delivered the promo in entertaining fashion. Alex Riley did a decent job with the word “pigeon” but none of the other rookies stood out. In all fairness, being asked to cut an impromptu promo on words such as “chicken,” “mustache” and “doorknob” in front of a live crowd with the cameras rolling is almost a no-win situation for these guys. I suppose the challenge is a way for WWE to get a sense of how composed the rookies are under pressure as well as their ability to be creative and think on their feet.

• The match between The Miz and Kaval wasn’t bad. The Miz won clean, as expected, but Kaval got in a decent amount of offense.

• The match between Watson and Michael McGillicutty was too short (it went about three minutes) to make much an impression either way. I was surprised that a sunset flip by McGillicutty was the finish.

• The tag team match that saw Cody Rhodes and Husky Harris defeat Mark Henry and Lucky Cannon was OK.

• For someone who isn’t on the show anymore, Titus O’Neil sure had a presence. He was the subject of one of the video packages in which the pros evaluate a rookie, but with him being voted off last week, it seemed kind of pointless. Some of the comments from the pros as well as the multiple replays of O’Neil’s fall in last week’s keg-carrying challenge made it seem like WWE was needlessly burying him. Then again, the fact that WWE devoted that much screen time to O’Neil may be a good sign for him as far as the future is concerned.

• I was surprised at how high the pros were on Harris. I’m just not seeing it right now.

• Things have definitely come full circle for The Miz. He mocked O’Neil for messing up his “make it a win” promo, but I remember early in Miz’s WWE career when he was hosting the WWE Diva Search on Smackdown and he forgot his lines and had to read them off his hand.

• When discussing Kaval’s international experience, Michael Cole said “Kaval has entertained all over the globe.” It’s just so silly that the word “wrestling” can’t be used in this context.

• Along those same lines, I’m betting that Harris got a demerit for saying “professional wrestler” in his promo.

• A new wrinkle was added to the show this week during the two singles matches, as the pros stood on the apron while their rookies were in the ring, and vice versa.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 7:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (14)
        

Talking about the upcoming six-man tag team match in which Baltimore Sun columnist and blogger Peter Schmuck and I will be on opposite sides. The match takes place July 31 at Maryland Championship Wrestling's Shamrock Cup show at The New Green Room in Dundalk.

To watch Schmuck's video, click here

Posted by Kevin Eck at 3:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (40)
        

Baltimore Sun sports columnist and fellow blogger Peter Schmuck cannot hide behind his keyboard or a microphone any longer.

Earlier tonight, Schmuck was once again making light of pro wrestling, its fans (and my hometown of Dundalk), this time on the “Sportsline” radio show that he was co-hosting on WBAL (1090 AM). I called in to the show and challenged him to settle our differences inside the ring.

I proposed that we be on opposite sides in a six-man tag team match at the upcoming Maryland Championship Wrestling show. To my surprise, he actually accepted (although the way I put him on the spot, he didn’t really have much of a choice).

So it’s official: It will be Cole Calloway, Ronnie Zukko and me against Fed-Up and Schmuck at the Shamrock Cup on July 31 at The New Green Room in Dundalk.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 10:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (42)
        

There appeared to be a stunning revelation in regard to the identity of the anonymous general manager on Monday night’s episode of Raw.

The mystery person used the phrases “and that’s the bottom line because the GM said so” and “gimme a hell yeah” in his e-mail messages, so that can mean only one thing:

It’s a stone cold lock that the Raw GM is … not Steve Austin. I think the not-so-subtle suggestion that Austin is the GM is just a clever red herring to get people talking.

Hiding behind a computer doesn’t fit the “Texas Rattlesnake” character. I also think the GM is going to be aligned with Nexus, and I don’t see Austin coming back to WWE as a heel. Plus, Austin as Raw GM has already been done.

Other thoughts on Monday’s show:

I really liked the show-closing angle with John Cena and Wade Barrett (who was back after resolving the work visa issues that kept him off of last week’s show). The GM had ordered Cena and Barrett to shake hands and call a truce, but Cena refused and attempted to give Barrett the Attitude Adjustment. The Nexus guys then came out to gang up on Cena, and that brought out a bunch of babyfaces to make the save. In the end, Nexus’ Darren Young was caught in the ring with Cena, who locked the STF on him. The GM ruled that, as punishment for his actions, Cena would face all seven Nexus members next week in a handicap match. Cena responded by delivering a brutal beat-down to Young, including throwing the ring steps at him. Cena showed great intensity here and the crowd popped huge for him. …

The big development in the Nexus story line story is that WWE’s locker room is no longer united against the seven upstarts. The heels have refused to join the babyfaces in the fight, and Edge and Chris Jericho even talked about aligning themselves with Nexus. Another key point was Barrett saying in his promo at the top of the show that everything Nexus has done is part of a much bigger picture and even Vince McMahon did not know their true agenda. …

To add another wrinkle to the angle, some doubt has been cast as to whether Randy Orton is truly committed to combating Nexus. During a backstage segment, David Otunga, Heath Slater and Michael Tarver said that it would be in Orton’s best interests not to join Cena in a “holy war” against them, and it could even help him win the WWE title. It’s interesting that Orton did not join the other babyfaces in the brawl with Nexus at the end of the show. …

The tag team match that saw Orton and Evan Bourne defeat Edge and Jericho was solid. I liked that Bourne scored the winning pin (on Jericho, of course) and also that Orton hit the RKO on Bourne after the match. Orton needs to do things like that to show that he hasn’t lost his edge now that he’s a fan favorite. …

R-Truth is out of Raw’s Money in the Bank ladder match at the MITB pay-per-view on July 18 after doing an injury angle with The Miz. No replacement was announced. I’m not sure why R-Truth was removed from the match, but there were reports that he suffered a groin injury recently. …

Arn Anderson cut a really good promo during his backstage segment with Sheamus. …

Maryse was quite entertaining on commentary during Ted DiBiase Jr.’s win over John Morrison. Morrison has zero momentum right now. …

Speaking of zero momentum, things sure haven’t been going well lately for William Regal. On Monday he did a quick job to Vladimir Kozlov in a comedy tag team match and then was laid out by his partner The Great Khali afterward. The only way it could get any worse for Regal is if Hornswoggle is traded to Raw and the two are put together in a program. …

Kozlov and Santino Marella are fun to watch as a tag team. Marella said of their partnership: “Italy and Russia together again. It’s just like World War II. Only this time, no Nazis.” ...

After teasing a split between The Great Khali and Ranjin Singh on last week’s show, they seemed to be getting along fine this week. I don’t know what’s going with them, but I’m certain that I don’t care. ...

Alicia Fox handled herself well on the microphone during her brief backstage interview with Josh Matthews. She does a good job playing her character. …

For the second time in three weeks there was no celebrity host. According to reports, the guest host format isn’t dead, but it will likely be something done on occasion, perhaps every other week.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 6:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (69)
        

When Ted DiBiase Jr. and Cody Rhodes were first put together with Randy Orton to form Legacy, the popular opinion (and one that I shared) was that when it came time for the inevitable breakup of the group, DiBiase was going to become a superstar, while Rhodes was destined to be a solid mid-carder.

At this point, however, it is Rhodes who is higher on the card and is the more compelling character of the two.

On Friday night’s Smackdown, Rhodes appeared in three segments and wrestled in the main event, teaming with Jack Swagger against world champion Rey Mysterio and The Big Show.

I’m still not sure I like the “dashing” nickname, but Rhodes is playing the character well and he carries himself like a star in the ring. I loved the backstage segment in which he held up a comb like it was a microphone and interviewed himself in the bathroom mirror.

In all fairness to Raw’s DiBiase, it’s definitely easier to move up the card on Smackdown, where you don’t have to compete with the likes of John Cena, Randy Orton, Edge, Chris Jericho and others at the top, but Rhodes still deserves credit for making the most of his opportunity.

At least DiBiase does have one perk that Rhodes doesn’t: he gets to work with Maryse.

Other thoughts on Friday’s show:

Six of the eight slots have been filled for the Smackdown Money in the Bank ladder match at the Money in the Bank pay-per-view on July 18: Rhodes, The Big Show, Christian, Matt Hardy, Kane and Kofi Kingston. I have read where CM Punk and Drew McIntyre were originally supposed to be the other two participants, but Punk is out for four-to-eight weeks after undergoing surgery on his arm and McIntyre was written out of the story line because his work visa expired. Since McIntyre’s issues have been resolved, I wouldn’t be surprised if he still ended up in the match. Dolph Ziggler and MVP also are candidates. Unlike the Raw MITB match that is evenly divided (four babyfaces, four heels), the Smackdown match right now is babyface-heavy (although Kane hates everybody these days). …

“The Peep Show” segment with Christian and Hardy was strong. I liked the shoot aspect to the dialogue, as they both talked about being under-appreciated by WWE management and not being the “chosen ones.” I’ve never really been impressed with Hardy’s delivery on the mic but this was one of his better performances. …

I liked the angle with Serena being caught on video drinking alcohol in a bar and I’m interested to see where it leads, but I don’t get why Kane would so easily accept that as proof that the Straight Edge Society had nothing to do with the attack on The Undertaker. …

The action was good in the main event, and the finish – Swagger again was disqualified for refusing to release the ankle lock, this time on Mysterio – solidified the idea that Swagger is a dangerous threat to the world title. …

The Kingston-Ziggler match was solid but I was shocked that Ziggler didn’t win this non-title match with the Intercontinental champion to set up a title bout. One of these days Ziggler is going to be a champion. I’m really surprised that it hasn’t happened yet. …

Vickie Guerrero wasn’t very pleased with Ziggler losing, so that could be the end of them as a couple. I hope not. …

The Big Show said during his promo that no one wants Swagger to be world champion again. That’s not true. Let’s see, there’s me, Jack Swagger’s daddy, and, well, I’m sure a whole lot of other people. …

The Kelly Kelly-Michelle McCool match (won by KK) was entertaining for what it was, thanks in part to the stuff going on outside the ring with Tiffany and Layla. …

Before facing MVP, Chavo Guerrero said that after he wins the match, he deserves an Intercontinental title shot. MVP burst out laughing – as did I and probably everyone else in the “WWE Universe” who was watching. Of course MVP won clean in about two minutes. …

Matt Striker’s best line of the night occurred when he was discussing how good-looking Rhodes is: “He makes those ‘Twilight’ kids look like Sir Oliver Humperdink.” I’m such a mark for Striker’s references that only the old-school fans get. …

I got a kick out of the “This Week in WWE History” segment, which featured Lex Luger body-slamming then-WWF champion Yokozuna on the U.S.S. Intrepid on July 4, 1993. As the video package showed, Luger subsequently embarked on a cross-country bus tour known as “The Lex Express,” as WWE attempted to turn Luger into a Hulk Hogan-like babyface leading up to his match against Yokozuna for the championship at SummerSlam. The voiceover during the piece said that Luger was successful against Yokozuna, and the video showed Luger celebrating in the ring and balloons falling from the ceiling. In reality, Luger only won that match by count-out, and he never did capture the title. The “Lex Express” was a colossal flop.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 3:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (22)
        

Eric Bischoff has had a lot less camera time since he turned babyface, but after watching Thursday night’s TNA Impact, I have a feeling we’re going to be seeing a lot more of the old “Easy E” in the near future.

On this episode, Bischoff and Hulk Hogan convinced TNA president Dixie Carter to suspend Sting for 30 days without pay. When Carter confronted Sting and informed him of the suspension, he told her that she was being conned. She asked him to stop speaking cryptically, and he said that he would explain it “in childlike terms” for her. Before Sting could say another word, however, Bischoff appeared out of nowhere and had security remove him from the building. The no-so-subtle implication was that Bischoff has something to hide.

My hunch is that Bischoff not only is conning Carter, as Sting contests, but that he is part of the mysterious “they” that Abyss keeps speaking about.

During the opening segment of the show, Bischoff came out to stop Hogan from going at it with Abyss. Bischoff slapped Abyss and called him an “ungrateful [expletive].” Instead of attacking Bischoff, however, Abyss went after the security guys in the ring. Hogan then hit Abyss with a chair and Jeff Hardy also got involved, so Abyss never did get his hands on Bischoff.

I'm guessing that Bischoff is turning heel but that Sting is actually wrong about Hogan, who will remain a babyface and join forces with Sting against Bischoff, Abyss and the rest of “they.”
Then again, I could be completely wrong about all of it.

Other thoughts on Thursday’s show:

One of the highlights of the show was a promo by “The Pope” D’Angelo Dinero, who returned to TV after being out for a couple months with a shoulder injury. Dinero received a great reaction from the crowd and he seemed to legitimately get choked up. I’m glad that he mentioned that he had not forgotten that it was Mr. Anderson who injured him, even though Anderson has seemingly turned babyface. …

The Hardy-Abyss main event (with TNA world champion Rob Van Dam as guest referee) was OK. Hardy won clean but Abyss got his heat back after the match by laying out Hardy, RVD and Anderson – his three opponents in the fourway main event at the Victory Road pay-per-view on July 11. During the post-match, Anderson “accidentally” hit Hardy with a chair, so the doubts about Anderson’s sincerity as a babyface remain. …

Despite the heinous things that Sting has done as of late, the crowd at the Impact Zone booed when Carter suspended him and when Bischoff had security take him away. …

Taz questioned whether the ECW faction – which now consists of Tommy Dreamer, Stevie Richards, Raven and Rhino – could be Abyss’ “they.” The fact that Taz raised the question probably means the answer is no, which I hope is the case. …

I liked the opening of the show with Abyss on the loose, throwing chairs and scaring the heck out of SoCal Val and some kids at ringside. …

If Hogan and Bischoff really want Abyss gone from TNA so bad, why don’t they just fire him? I suppose it’s the same reason that Chelsea doesn’t just leave Desmond Wolfe. …

Speaking of Wolfe, it pained me to see him tap out to Brian Kendrick. No disrespect to Kendrick, but Wolfe should be in the TNA world title picture, not jobbing to the No. 1 contender for the TNA X Division title. …

The Samoa Joe-A.J. Styles match was good while it lasted. Styles tapping out was a little surprising, but it does play into Styles’ story line with Ric Flair and Kazarian. …

The Jay Lethal-Matt Morgan match was entertaining. The finish – Hernandez’s interference allowed Lethal to get the win – was predictable but logical. Before the match, Morgan said that Flair offered to make him the first member of Fortune. Back in February I wrote a post on the speculation that TNA was starting a Four Horsemen-type faction led by Flair, and I said that the ideal group would be Styles (who was a given at the time), Morgan, Wolfe and Robert Roode. …

Sarita turned heel and attacked her former tag team partner Taylor Wilde after Wilde lost to Madison Rayne. That seemed to come out of nowhere, but apparently there has been dissension between Sarita and Wilde on the TNA Xplosion syndicated show. …

I enjoyed The Motor City Machine Guns-Ink Inc. match, which was won by TMCMG. It would be fun to see what these two teams could do if they were given more than five minutes. …

So a TNA camera guy followed Dreamer all the way to Yonkers, N.Y., just to get blown off when he asked about Dreamer’s presence at the Impact Zone? Wouldn’t it have been easier to confront Dreamer while he was at the Impact Zone?

Posted by Kevin Eck at 11:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (16)
        

WWE’s Jim Ross tweeted the following earlier today:

“Ricky Steamboat's condition is stable. He did not have an aneurism nor is his condition related 2 Raw. He's still hospitalized but improving.”

Steamboat has been hospitalized since Wednesday night with what initial reports said was a brain aneurysm.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 7:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)
        

• I thought Thursday night’s WWE Superstars was the best episode of the show in several weeks. Even though none of the “big stars” appeared on the program, all three of the matches were entertaining.

• The best match was the tag team bout that saw Zack Ryder and Primo Colon defeat Goldust and Yoshi Tatsu. This was a case of four good workers being given enough time (approximately 12 minutes) to tell a story in the ring. I was a little surprised that the heels won this one clean.

• Christian defeated Curt Hawkins in the main event. I can’t remember the last time Christian had a match that wasn’t good, and Hawkins also made a good accounting of himself here.

• Even though the Bella Twins as an act are pretty much a one-trick pony (“the old switcheroo”), I enjoyed Nikki Bella’s match against Jillian Hall. Hall’s aggressive offense looked good as she dominated the match before being duped by the Bellas and taking the loss.

• It was weird watching the Raw recap that showed The Nexus’ attack on Ricky Steamboat on the same day that the news broke about Steamboat being hospitalized after suffering a brain aneurysm. It was even weirder to hear Matt Striker and Todd Grisham doing their somber voices after the video package as they talked about Steamboat’s worked injuries stemming from the angle.

• Michael Cole talked about what a great guest host Rob Zombie was on Raw Monday. Yeah, for the whole two minutes that he was on the show. Cole also said that he was a fan of Zombie’s latest CD and that his favorite song was “Sick Bubblegum.” I have the CD and “Sick Bubblegum” is a great song, but I just can’t picture Cole singing along and pumping his fist to it (the lyrics are not PG). He strikes me as more of a Barry Manilow kind of guy.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 6:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
        

This has been out there for a couple days, but in case anyone missed it, Bryan Danielson (aka Daniel Bryan) posted a blog on his website in which he discussed the circumstances surrounding his release from WWE.

“WWE is very serious about adhering to their PG guidelines, and apparently my actions during the NXT attack on John Cena, namely choking announcer Justin Roberts with his tie and spitting in Cena’s face, crossed the boundaries of what is considered ‘PG,’ ” Danielson wrote.

Danielson said that he is “very angry” about getting fired, but that he does not fault WWE for how they handled his release. As for his plans once his 90-day no-compete is up, Danielson said that he is not in a rush to make any decisions.

“I’ve ‘heard’ that TNA is interested,” he wrote. “There are petitions going around to get me back into WWE and the last several weeks there have been fans chanting my names at their shows. People have even brought signs showing their support. And though most of the signs get taken away and though WWE may not be listening to your chants or petitions, I truly appreciate all the support over the last several weeks. It is both overwhelming and heartwarming.”

To read the entire blog entry, click here .

Posted by Kevin Eck at 4:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (14)
        

WWE Hall of Famer Ricky Steamboat, who suffered a brain aneurysm Wednesday night, is listed in stable condition in a Tampa, Fla., hospital, pwinsider.com reported.

According to the report, Steamboat underwent a surgical procedure Thursday to determine the severity of the aneurysm, and there is no timetable for when he will be released from the hospital.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 3:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

I have tried to take the high road but enough is enough.

My colleague Peter Schmuck (yes, that is his real name), the respected Baltimore Sun sports columnist and blogger, posted a vitriolic entry on his blog Tuesday in which he bashed pro wrestling and its fans (not only that, but he insulted my hometown of Dundalk).

Then on Wednesday, he issued a sarcastic apology on his blog.

I, for one, do not accept it.

Being on the receiving end of insults and wise cracks just goes with the territory when you’re a wrestling fan, and most of the time I just ignore it. But few things make me angrier than when a “legitimate sports journalist” speaks condescendingly about wrestling and how it’s not a real sport, the fans are all rednecks, blah, blah, blah.

Pete, do us all a favor and stick to writing about subjects that you actually know something about: bad baseball teams, all-you-can-eat buffets and male-enhancement products.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 10:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (95)
        

The visa issues of WWE stars Wade Barrett and Drew McIntyre have been resolved, according to a report on wrestlingobserver.com.

Barrett, who was not on Raw Monday because his work visa had expired, is expected to be back on this coming Monday’s show. Obviously, that’s good news for the Nexus angle, which would have been significantly weakened if Barrett – the group’s leader and best all-around performer – was off TV for multiple weeks.

As for McIntyre, his expired work visa was integrated into the story line, so he will return to Smackdown when the creative team feels the time is right to bring him back.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 8:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)
        

WWE Hall of Famer Ricky Steamboat suffered a brain aneurysm Wednesday night and is currently being hospitalized, according to a report on wrestlingobserver.com. His prognosis is good to excellent.

WWE had announced on its website earlier today that Steamboat, 57, went to the hospital Wednesday night after experiencing pain in his neck and shoulder, but there was no mention of a brain aneurysm.

Steamboat was taken from the ring on a stretcher after taking part in an injury angle on Raw Monday night, but according to WWE, “his condition is most likely not related to his performance on Monday night.”

Posted by Kevin Eck at 4:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (15)