Monday night’s Raw, which celebrated the 900th episode of the show, seemed like a three-hour special jammed into a two-hour-and-10-minute time slot.

With the stars of Smackdown also appearing on the program, there was a lot going on, but much of it came off rushed. There were two matches that didn’t even last a minute.

Overall, it was a disappointing show for a “special episode.” It was fun to see some of the old clips (especially the “This is Your Life” skit with The Rock), but the announcers constantly mentioning that it was the 900th episode and that a bunch of iconic TV shows did not run as long got old fast, and by the end of the show it was downright obnoxious.

The most noteworthy development on Raw occurred in the main event, a five-on-five tag team elimination match that saw The Nexus defeat John Cena, Randy Orton, Sheamus, Edge and Chris Jericho. Wade Barrett scored the decisive pinfall over Orton, and prior to that, Justin Gabriel pinned Cena and Heath Slater pinned WWE champion Sheamus. That’s a pretty impressive showing for The Nexus.

Other thoughts on Monday’s show:

The other noteworthy thing on the show involved Jericho, who said during a backstage interview with Josh Matthews that he would leave WWE if he doesn’t win the WWE title in the six-pack challenge at the Night of Champions pay-per-view on Sept. 19. It’s no secret that Jericho’s contract is about to expire. According to a report on wrestlingobserver.com, Jericho wants to stay with WWE, but the two sides are at an impasse, most likely in regard to the number of dates he would work per month. …

The way the main event was booked was interesting to say the least. Cena – who played second fiddle to Orton – getting pinned by Gabriel was a shock, and I also was stunned to see Slater beat Sheamus. My first thought was that Barrett, not Slater, should have pinned Sheamus since he is in the six-pack challenge, but the decision made more sense when Barrett beat Orton. Even though Sheamus is the champion, a win over Orton is more impressive because he is a bigger star than Sheamus. Slater and Gabriel pinning two WWE main-eventers gives them a big credibility boost and helps combat the perception that The Nexus is Barrett and four flunkies. …

I really wish WWE would just stop advertising that Bret Hart is going to wrestle. If you actually believed the Hart-Undertaker match was going to take place, you probably also expected to see “Stone Cold” Steve Austin storm down the aisle when his music played during CM Punk’s promo. …

Instead of a match between Hart and Undertaker, we ended up getting a corny segment with Kane suddenly possessing The Undertaker’s supernatural powers. The bit with the lights flickering on and off was overdone. And whatever happened to Hart, who appeared to vanish into thin air? …

For a guy supposedly still in a weakened state, The Undertaker was looking pretty good against The Nexus until the lights went out. …

The comedy segment with Punk and The Big Show was entertaining. Punk has the ability to get under the fans’ skin and make them laugh at the same time. …

It was nice to see Jack Swagger get a convincing victory, as he forced Evan Bourne to tap out to the ankle lock. …

Alberto Del Rio got solid heel heat for attacking Bourne after the match. I wonder if Mark Henry making the save is going to lead to a match between him and Del Rio. They are on two different shows, but when has that ever mattered? …

What was the point of having the match that pitted John Morrison and R-Truth against Drew McIntyre and Cody Rhodes to determine the No. 1 contenders to the WWE tag team title? If you’re just going to do a 50-second double disqualification, why even bother putting the match on the show? …

The women’s tag match that saw Melina and Eve defeat Lay-Cool also went less than a minute and was equally as lame. Eve never even tagged in. …

As expected, it was announced that there will be a match at Night of Champions to unify the two women’s championships. However, it was not specified whether Melina will be facing Layla or Michelle McCool. The whole co-champions thing with Lay-Cool is just stupid. …

I wish the triple threat tag team match in which The Miz and Alex Riley defeated Daniel Bryan/Kaval and Kofi Kingston/Michael McGillicutty would have been given some more time. I guess I shouldn’t complain, though. It did go a whole three minutes, which means it was the second-longest match on the show.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 11:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (42)
        

"My Italian Dinner with Bruno Sammartino," presented by Baltimore sports radio station WNST (1570 AM), has been rescheduled for Saturday, Oct. 9 at Amicci's in Little Italy in downtown Baltimore.

Guests will have the opportunity to dine and interact with pro wrestling’s “Living Legend" from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. I will be co-hosting the event along with WNST’s Nestor Aparicio.

For more information and to purchase tickets, click here.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 6:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
        

When it comes to horror movies, there is never a shortage on sequels and remakes, so it’s only fitting that the feud between WWE’s two scary movie-inspired characters just won’t die.

Thirteen years after the first Kane-Undertaker program, “The Big Red Monster” and “The Dead Man” are about to go at it yet again. Their verbal exchange was the focal point of Friday night’s Smackdown.

For longtime fans such as me who have seen all of the feuds and subsequent reconciliations between the “Brothers of Destruction,” another Kane-Undertaker series is hardly anything to get excited about. But to be fair, it has been six years since their last program, so for newer fans, this may be the first time they’ve seen Kane versus The Undertaker. And WWE at least has added a couple of new wrinkles to the rivalry, as The Undertaker is actually the underdog this time (being in a vegetative state for a few months takes its toll you know) and the world heavyweight title is at stake.

With that being said, however, I really do hope that this is the final chapter in the Kane-Undertaker saga. Beyond the been-there, done-that aspect of it, I just find the supernatural elements of the story line and all the spooky music and special effects to be too corny for my tastes.

Other thoughts on Friday’s show:

WWE did a very good job of following up on Alberto Del Rio’s strong debut last week. After Rey Mysterio lost to Kane in the opening match, Del Rio – dressed in his dapper street clothes – came down to ringside and taunted Mysterio (who was selling an arm injury) before delivering a vicious beat-down on him. After just two live appearances on Smackdown, Del Rio – who later in the show won a squash match over an enhancement talent in impressive fashion – already has massive heel heat. Mark my words: Del Rio is a future world champion. …

I thought the Kane-Mysterio no-disqualification match was better than their SummerSlam bout. With Del Rio attacking Mysterio’s “injured” arm after the match, it looks as if Mysterio may finally be getting that time off that he reportedly had been promised a while ago. …

The Intercontinental title match between champion Dolph Ziggler and Kofi Kingston was good and I liked the finish. As both guys were about to get back in the ring at the count of nine, Vickie Guerrero pulled Ziggler off the apron. That allowed Kingston to beat the count and win the match – but not the title. The stipulation was that if Ziggler got disqualified, he would lose the championship, so this finish kept the program going. …

It was great to see CM Punk booked so strongly. Not only did a more-aggressive Punk make quick work of JTG, but he brought back the Anaconda Vise to get a submission victory. …

It will be interesting to see what becomes of The Straight Edge Society. Punk told Luke Gallows that he would be kicked out of the group if he didn’t beat The Big Show, and Gallows did lose. We already know the SES will be without Serena going forward. This show marked her last appearance with WWE, which has finally acknowledged her release on its website. ..

I was glad to see Jack Swagger dominate MVP in the Jack Swagger Senior Invitational Shootout, which was an amateur wrestling-style takedown competition. Given Swagger’s background, anything short of that would have been ridiculous. …

Matt Striker said that it was The Undertaker who had unmasked Kane, repeating what Kane had said in his promo last week. It was actually Triple H who defeated Kane in a match in which the stipulation was that Kane would unmask if he lost. …

The only comment I’m going to make about Rosa Mendes “exercising” with the Shake Weight is that I bet Vince Russo is kicking himself for not doing it first on TNA Impact with members of The Beautiful People.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 4:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (26)
        

The best match on paper on Thursday night’s TNA Impact was the eight-man tag team main event pitting Fourtune (that’s the correct spelling) against Kurt Angle, Jeff Hardy, Mr. Anderson and “The Pope” D’Angelo Dinero.

But as the saying goes, matches aren’t wrestled on paper, they are wrestled by little people inside our TV sets (or something like that), and the best match inside my TV set was the non-title bout between TNA world tag team champions The Motor City Machine Guns and Generation Me.

It wasn’t an instant classic like the Guns’ recent series of matches against Beer Money, but the fast-paced, six-minute match was highly entertaining nonetheless.

Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley gave Max and Jeremy Buck an opportunity to shine in defeat, and the Bucks came through by pulling off several breath-taking double-team moves. The Bucks definitely have a bright future.

Other thoughts on Thursday’s show:

The star-studded eight-man tag match wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t as good as I thought it would be. By the way, Fourtune facing four top guys seems like more of a fair fight than Fourtune versus the old ECW crew. …

It was made clear that Fourtune is Abyss’ “they.” During the TNA Reaction show that followed, however, it wasn’t as definitive. Nothing can be simple in TNA, the only company that could create a Four Horsemen-inspired group and put six members in it. …

TNA was going for shock value in the opening segment when TNA president Dixie Carter’s husband was beaten down by Fourtune, but I don’t think it really worked, as Carter’s acting wasn’t very believable. Still, the segment did do a nice job of setting up the main event, as Hulk Hogan, Angle, Hardy, Anderson and Dinero made the save. …

Right after Carter had announced that she was suspending Ric Flair for 90 days, Hogan said that he was over-ruling her and negating the suspension. His reasoning was that putting Flair on the shelf would be going too easy on Flair, but Hogan going against Carter’s wishes could be more proof that Hogan is turning heel and that Sting and Kevin Nash are ultimately going to be revealed as babyfaces. Hogan and Eric Bischoff also looked pretty heelish when Bischoff distracted Sting and Hogan hit him from behind with a chair. And Sting choking Flair with his baseball bat and telling him that Fourtune was next on his hit list also seemed to indicate that Sting and Nash are misunderstood babyfaces rather than heels. Whatever is going on here with all these guys (and Jeff Jarrett), I just wish TNA would deliver the payoff already. …

The segment with Samoa Joe turning down Jarrett’s request for him to be in Jarrett’s corner for his match against Nash was an effective way to establish Joe as an anti-hero with no allegiances. …

Tommy Dreamer’s on-air role is way too prominent in my opinion. There’s no way he should be wrestling a top guy such as A.J. Styles on the next pay-per-view (No Surrender, Sept. 5). …

Beer Money’s victory over The FBI was pretty much a squash, which is exactly how I would have booked the match. …

Stevie Richards going toe-to-toe with Abyss in a backstage brawl was a little hard to believe. …

I think Desmond Wolfe and Magnus will make a fine tag team, but it seems odd for them to be getting a title match at No Surrender when they haven’t even teamed together once on Impact. …

It was nice to see Angelina Love and Velvet Sky kiss and make up – in the figurative sense. It would have been extremely nice to see them kiss and make up in the literal sense. …

Styles coming down the ramp for the main event with a big feather from his robe on his head was unintentionally hilarious.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 11:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (22)
        

Former women’s wrestler Luna Vachon was found dead at her mother’s home, according to various Internet reports. She was 48.

Vachon (real name Gertrude Vachon) had been staying with her mother after her own house had recently burned down. There are no other details at this point.

Known for her gravelly voice, wild hair and garish makeup, Vachon worked for the WWF, WCW and ECW during the 1990s. A member of a famous family of pro wrestlers, she was the daughter of “Butcher” Paul Vachon and the niece of Maurice “Mad Dog” Vachon.

Her most high-profile run was with the WWF in the late ’90s when she managed Goldust and feuded with Sable. In her previous WWE stint several years earlier, she managed Bam Bam Bigelow.

My condolences to her family and friends.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 3:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)
        

The start-up national wresting promotion based out of Florida that has been a topic of discussion on pro wrestling websites and newsletters over the past month has hit a “bump in the road.”

Worldwide Wrestling Promotions – which is being backed by entrepreneur Milton Wilpon, whose family owns the New York Mets – originally was scheduled for a fall launch, but the start date has been pushed back to early next year, according to various Internet reports that cited an e-mail from the company’s vice president to the wrestlers that have signed contracts with the group.

Here is an excerpt from the e-mail, which was published in its entirety on pwinsider.com:

“With WWP we are not just launching a new independent promotion or something that is going to be on the long list of fly by night wrestling companies that have come and gone. We are planning on being here for the long run and in becoming over the next decade the premiere wrestling company in the world. That obviously does not happen over night nor does it happen without hitting some bumps in the road.

"That said guys this is a tough process and those working with us on the financing side realize now that there were mistakes made in setting things up and in order to guarantee that this company will not be one of the countless entities that have come out with a bang and have fizzled and burnt out before ever really leaving the ground we have had to make some painful decisions that we are not at all happy about. The most serious decision is that we have been told our original time table is not at all feasible.”

According to pwinsider.com, 50-65 wrestlers have signed contracts with WWP. Among the names that have been linked to the project are Booker T., Sean Waltman, Scott Steiner, Vader, Larry Zbyszko, Paul London, 2 Cold Scorpio, Super Crazy and Sonjay Dutt. It also has been reported that some top Ring of Honor talents may be on board as well.

WWP reportedly plans to do tapings and then attempt to find a national television outlet. One aspect of the group that makes it unique in the wrestling industry is that it is offering the talent medical benefits as well as 401K and stock options.

I wish the company the best of luck and it would certainly be good for wrestlers to have another viable place to work, but it’s going to be very difficult for a startup group (especially one that is recruiting wrestlers who are in their 40s and 50s) to even compete with TNA, the No. 2 U.S. promotion, much less WWE.

The fact that the launch is being delayed due to concerns from the financial backers doesn’t seem like a good sign, but time will tell.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 3:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)
        

Here is an interview I conducted with TNA star Kurt Angle recently at The National Sports Collectors Convention at The Baltimore Convention Center.

One question had to be edited out because of audio difficulties, but I have transcribed it below.

Q: How are you feeling physically?

A: Right now I’m fine. My knees, my lower back and my neck are always stiff, but from a working perspective I haven’t felt better. Since I started professional wrestling in late ’99, early 2000, I think this is probably the best I’ve felt, and it has a lot to do with the reduced work schedule in TNA where they’re not using me at every house show. So having that lighter schedule has allowed my body to recuperate more.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 6:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: Video interviews
        

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

Posted by Kevin Eck at 3:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (26)
        

• The next-to-last episode of NXT Season 2 surprisingly focused on a couple of pros rather than the three rookies. There was only one match on Tuesday night’s show, as Cody Rhodes defeated MVP in a bout that went nearly 25 minutes. Downplaying the rookies this late in the competition doesn’t make much sense to me.

• I like both Rhodes and MVP and was expecting a decent match from them, but it really dragged. I often complain about certain televised matches needing more time, but this was one match that should have been cut in half.

• I enjoy playing trivia games, so I thought the segment with the rookies competing in a WWE trivia contest was fun. It got off to an inauspicious start, however. Kaval, Alex Riley and Michael McGillicutty all stood frozen for a few seconds when asked who wrestled in the Iron Man match at WrestleMania XII. McGillicutty finally buzzed in and said, “Shawn Michaels and [long pause] Bret Hart.” It’s hard to believe that none of those guys knew the answer right away, especially McGillicutty, the son of “Mr. Perfect” Curt Hennig.

• The one question that none of the rookies answered correctly was: What mode of transportation did the Dynamic Dudes use to come to the ring? The answer was skateboards. Matt Striker, who was hosting the segment, said, “None of you remember the Dynamic Dudes? Best of luck in all of your future endeavors.” For those who didn’t get the joke, the Dudes were a WCW tag team in the late ’80s that consisted of a pre-Franchise Shane Douglas and Johnny Ace, aka John Laurinaitis, the WWE executive vice president of talent relations.

• Kaval handled himself well in his verbal exchange with Rhodes in the opening segment. As good as Riley is on the mic, Kaval is clearly the best all-around performer of the three rookies.

• I liked the little shove that Striker gave Riley after Riley tried to yank the microphone out of his hand while Striker was still talking.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 3:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (15)
        

John Cena is still the top guy in WWE, but it was clear watching Raw Monday night that Randy Orton isn’t far behind and is steadily closing the gap.

Orton, who has been getting crowd reactions equal to or greater than Cena’s as of late, was showcased in a triple threat match that saw him defeat John Morrison and Ted DiBiase Jr. Orton won the match by hitting an RKO on Morrison in mid-air after Morrison spring-boarded off the top rope, and then he RKO’d DiBiase after the match.

He also was the only man standing at the end of the show, as he was part of an angle in which Raw’s top guys were hitting their finishers on one another. The final move of the segment was Orton’s RKO on Cena, perhaps symbolic of an imminent changing of the guard.

If Orton keeps picking up steam, the question is whether WWE will make the bold decision to turn Cena heel and have the two megastars feud against each other with their usual roles reversed.

Other thoughts on Monday’s show:

I was surprised at the lack of follow-up to The Nexus kicking Darren Young out of the group last week. Young wasn’t on the show and The Nexus were not featured prominently. …

It was a cool spot at the end of the show when Sheamus, Orton, Cena, Edge and Chris Jericho circled Wade Barrett and attacked him, but where was the rest of The Nexus to make the save? …

I liked the way the six-pack challenge match for the WWE title at the Night of Champions pay-per-view on Sept. 19 between the aforementioned six wrestlers was set up. The anonymous Raw general manager had given Sheamus the power to pick his challenger, but when Sheamus tried to beat the system by choosing Zack Ryder, the GM overruled him and made the six-pack challenge match. …

The best match on the program was a 13-minute contest between Cena and The Miz. Miz looked like a star here, as he more than held his own against Cena and got some nice near falls before winning the match by disqualification when Daniel Bryan interfered. …

Michael Cole was great on commentary when Bryan was attacking The Miz. “This is a travesty!” he yelled. “Get that idiot off him!” …

After losing to Nexus members in one-on-one matches last week, Jericho and Edge got their heat back with clean victories over The Great Khali and R-Truth, respectively. Jericho getting the win by forcing Khali to tap out to The Walls of Jericho was a bit of a surprise, but it’s actually more plausible that Jericho could maneuver the big guy into a submission hold as opposed to a pinning combination. While the Jericho-Khali bout was by no means a classic, it was better than a typical Khali match, mostly because of Jericho running into Khali’s offense and bumping for him. …

Edge spearing Jericho during the final segment caught me off guard, as I thought they were pals again. Their relationship is almost TNA-like. …

Orton’s mid-air RKO on Morrison was cool, but the timing was just a tad off and thus was not as impressive as the spectacular mid-air RKO Orton hit on Evan Bourne last month. …

Sheamus cutting a promo on kids at ringside to get heat was kind of weak, but I did chuckle when he kept referring to the kids as “fella.” …

I know Ryder is pretty low in the Raw pecking order, but he didn’t deserve to be humiliated the way he was in his “match” against Sheamus. After the bell rang, Sheamus immediately hit the Brogue Kick and pinned him for the victory in mere seconds. That spot was tailor-made for Santino Marella. …

I’m glad that The Miz offered an explanation as to why he didn’t cash in his Money in the Bank contract at SummerSlam when Sheamus was vulnerable, but I’m not sure it made sense. He said that he was focused solely on being a member of Team WWE, but why couldn’t he have done both? …

Melina’s screaming was even more annoying than usual this week. …

The tag team match that saw Marella and Vladimir Kozlov defeat the Usos was entertaining for what it was. It has to be somewhat disappointing for the Usos to go from being serious tag team title contenders to pawns in a comedy story line involving Marella and Tamina, but I think Jimmy and Jey will be fine in the long run. The twin brothers just turned 25 and have only been wrestling for three years, so just being on the roster for WWE’s “A” show is an accomplishment.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 12:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (33)
        

Serena has been released by WWE, according to multiple reports.

Citing sources in WWE, pwtorch.com said that Serena was let go because she was not “living out” The Straight Edge Society gimmick in public.

WWE has not yet acknowledged the release on its website.

Ironically, Serena – who made her WWE debut in January – just wrestled her first match on WWE television, and the stipulation was that she and tag team partner Luke Gallows would be thrown out of the SES if they lost. Serena and Gallows went on to defeat Kelly Kelly and The Big Show.

It’s a shame that things didn’t work out for Serena, 24, in WWE. I thought she played her role well and she obviously had a unique look.

It will be interesting to see what WWE does with CM Punk’s SES going forward. The group has cooled off as of late after getting off to a hot start, and now that it is down a member, disbanding the SES may be an option.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 12:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (35)
        

WWE megastars John Cena and Randy Orton have wrestled each other numerous times on pay-per-view the past several years, but here’s one match between them that you probably haven’t seen.

It’s a televised match from Ohio Valley Wrestling – which was WWE’s developmental territory at the time – in 2002. I came across the video on YouTube recently and thought this would be the perfect time to post it since The Ring Posts 25 – with Cena and Orton at Nos. 1 and 2, respectively – just went up a few days ago.

Unlike their WWE rivalry, Orton is the babyface here and Cena – then known as The Prototype – is the heel. It’s pretty amazing to see Orton, then just a 22-year-old kid, as a pandering pretty boy, and Cena, then 25, as a cocky villain.

Enjoy.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 3:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (18)
        

After watching Alberto Del Rio vignettes on Smackdown week after week for the past two months, it seemed as if it was taking forever for him to make his actual debut on the show.

It took him practically no time at all to make a huge impact once he finally got there, however.

During the opening segment of Friday night’s Smackdown, Del Rio interrupted Rey Mysterio’s promo and engaged in a verbal exchange with the popular star. That set up a match between the two in the show’s main event, and not only did Del Rio go on to defeat Mysterio, but he stunned the crowd by forcing him to tap out.

Other than winning the world title, I don’t think Del Rio could have been put over any stronger in his in-ring TV debut.

I was impressed by what I saw from him, both on the mic and in the ring, and I’m looking forward to seeing how WWE follows this up.

Other thoughts on Friday’s show:

Kane did a tremendous job cutting a lengthy promo in which he explained why he attacked The Undertaker, but I’m still not interested in seeing another chapter in The Brothers of Destruction’s dysfunctional relationship. And despite Kane’s performance, the scary music and sound effects made the segment beyond corny. …

I didn’t care for the ending to the Intercontinental title match between champion Dolph Ziggler and Kofi Kingston (Ziggler was disqualified when Vickie Guerrero interfered right in front of the referee), but I liked the post-match angle in which Ziggler showed a sadistic side. After using the sleeperhold to render Kingston defenseless, Ziggler stomped his foot hard on Kingston’s jaw. A slow-motion replay showed that the stomp legitimately connected. …

Christian and Drew McIntyre had a really good match, which is no surprise since these two seem to have strong matches no matter who they are facing. The match told a good story, as McIntyre worked over Christian’s injured arm and was in control most of the way, but Christian hung in and managed to pull out the victory. After the match, Cody Rhodes – who had been doing commentary during the bout – joined McIntyre in an attack on Christian. Matt Hardy, selling his foot injury from last week, came down to make the save, but he also got taken out. …

Rhodes was pretty entertaining doing his “dashing” gimmick while commentating on the Christian-McIntyre match. …

It was nice to see Serena finally get a chance to wrestle, as she and Luke Gallows defeated The Big Show and Kelly Kelly. …

OK, so Jack Swagger and MVP are going to compete in the Jack Swagger Senior Invitational Shootout (whatever that is), and if Swagger wins, he gets to hosts MVP’s VIP Lounge, but if MVP wins, he’s going to throw a huge party and Swagger has to pick up the tab. Note to self: Never have Swagger negotiate the terms of a bet for me. …

Poor Swagger. Not only does it appear that Del Rio is taking his spot, but he’s also stealing his lines. Del Rio referred to Mysterio as “the worm in the bottom of my tequila bottle.” A few weeks ago, Swagger called Mysterio a “dirty little tequila worm.” …

Why is Smackdown general manager Teddy Long still allowing Layla and Michelle McCool to each carry around a half of the WWE women’s title belt?

Posted by Kevin Eck at 12:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (20)
        

I wanted to publicly extend my congratulations to Maryland Championship Wrestling star Pat Brink for signing a developmental deal with WWE.

This will be Brink’s second stint with WWE developmental and Florida Championship Wrestling. Brink, an Atholton High graduate who grew up in Laurel, Md., wrestled as Kaleb O’Neal in FCW in 2008 and 2009 before being released because of disciplinary issues.

Brink went through a difficult time when he was in FCW (he had to deal with the deaths of his younger sister, grandmother and several close friends) and I’m glad that he is getting another opportunity to make it on a national level.

“I couldn't be more humble, proud and thankful that the WWE is giving me a second chance,” Brink, 29, wrote on his Facebook page.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 3:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

In the spirit of the PWI 500 – Pro Wrestling Illustrated’s annual ranking of wrestling’s top 500 stars – here is the Ring Posts 25 (formerly known as The Ring Posts 20).

This is my ranking of the top 25 wrestlers over the past year, using criteria similar to Pro Wrestling Illustrated’s: titles won, major feuds, prominence within their individual promotion, won-loss records and quality of opponents. Attributes such as charisma, promo skills and in-ring ability were not taken into account.

Unlike the PWI 500, I did not consider wrestlers from Japanese or Mexican promotions. My list is composed entirely of WWE and TNA wrestlers. As talented as some of the Ring of Honor guys are, the fact is that ROH is a distant No. 3 in terms of prominence.

The grading period goes from Aug. 1, 2009 to July 31, 2010.

Let the arguments commence.

1. JOHN CENA
2. RANDY ORTON
3. THE UNDERTAKER
4. BATISTA
5. A.J. STYLES

6. KURT ANGLE
7. SHEAMUS
8. REY MYSTERIO
9. CM PUNK
10. CHRIS JERICHO

11. SHAWN MICHAELS
12. TRIPLE H
13. ROB VAN DAM
14. EDGE
15. STING

16. JEFF HARDY
17. JACK SWAGGER
18. THE BIG SHOW
19. MR. ANDERSON
20. ABYSS

21. MATT MORGAN
22. KOFI KINGSTON
23. THE MIZ
24. “THE POPE” D’ANGELO DINERO
25. SAMOA JOE

To read the 2009 Ring Posts 20, click here.

To read the 2008 Ring Posts 20, click here.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 2:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (24)
        

WWE’s Skip Sheffield suffered a broken ankle during a tag team match at a house show in Hawaii Wednesday night and is expected to be out of action “for some time,” according to wrestlingobserver.com.

That’s a tough blow for Sheffield, who originally signed a WWE developmental deal in 2005 and didn't make it to the main roster until a couple months ago for The Nexus angle. Although he didn’t stand out on NXT Season 1, Sheffield has been getting over as the powerhouse of the heel faction.

With Darren Young having been kicked out of The Nexus on Raw this past Monday, Sheffield’s injury means the group is down to five members.

Sheffield was teaming with fellow Nexus member David Otunga against WWE tag team champions The Hart Dynasty when the injury occurred.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 7:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (13)
        

I want to like the Fortune-EV 2.0 story line. Really, I do. And after last week’s intense angle at the end of TNA’s “The Whole F’n Show,” I was excited about seeing TNA Impact Thursday night.

However, after watching Impact – which featured Tommy Dreamer wrestling in the main event against A.J. Styles – I’m actually less interested in the story line. The main problem for me is that EV 2.0 (man, I hate that name) simply doesn’t have enough star power.

While I respect what Dreamer has accomplished in the wrestling business, I just don’t buy him as the frontman for a faction that’s involved in a major story line.

Rob Van Dam would have been perfect for the role, but he’s going to be off TV for a while to sell the injuries he suffered last week in the attack by Abyss. Mick Foley certainly has the star power and the promo skills, but he’s limited in what he can do in the ring at this stage.

I’m hoping that Jeff Hardy ends up joining the group. Even though he wasn’t in the original ECW, he is “extreme” and RVD is his buddy, so I think it would work. Hardy isn’t a great talker by any means, but he obviously would significantly boost EV 2.0’s credibility and make the feud feel more like a main event-level program.

Other thoughts on Thursday’s show:

The big news is that Eric Bischoff stripped the “injured” RVD of the TNA World title and announced that there would be an eight-man tournament, with the first round taking place on this show. He said that the final match would go down at the Bound for Glory pay-per-view in October. That’s the part that didn’t make sense to me. Why be in such a rush to take the belt off RVD if you’re going to go two months without a champion anyway? …

None of the four tournament matches were long enough to be anything special (they all went about five minutes or less). The Kurt Angle-Douglas Williams match was the best, and the Mr. Anderson-Jay Lethal and “The Pope” D’Angelo Dinero-Matt Morgan matches weren’t bad, but the Hardy-Rob Terry bout was pretty rough – and it wasn’t only because of Terry. Hardy just seemed off. The tournament continues at next month’s No Surrender pay-per-view, as Hardy faces Angle and Anderson meets Dinero. …

The show began with taped footage of a brawl between Hardy and Abyss that took place before Impact went on the air. I understand what TNA was trying to do with the segment, but I don’t think it worked. The fact that the Impact Zone was mostly empty and commentators Mike Tenay and Taz seemed confused and were asking the production guys what to do was supposed to make it seem realistic, but I think it actually made TNA look minor league. As for the fight itself, it was actually pretty boring and didn’t look very stiff at all. It didn’t help that Hardy’s jeans were riding low and his exposed butt crack had to be digitized. That was hilarious. …

Ric Flair was out of control – and not in an entertaining way – during his verbal exchange with Foley. As Foley was trying to get a point across, Flair kept maniacally talking over him. It got so bad that Foley asked for Flair’s mic to be cut off. …

Styles needed outside interference from Abyss to defeat Dreamer. That’s just wrong. …

We still don’t know if Fortune (which apparently has six members now, with Morgan and Williams as part of the group) is “They” or if “They” even really exist anywhere but in Abyss’ mind. …

TNA president Dixie Carter announced that the EV 2.0 guys have been given TNA contracts, but didn’t Rhino, Stevie Richards and Raven already have contracts? I suppose TNA wants us to pretend we don’t remember those three being in TNA prior to this story line. …

Why does TNA continue to torture viewers with the backstage politics story line involving Hulk Hogan, Bischoff, Kevin Nash, Sting and Jeff Jarrett? …

Nash is supposed to be a heel, but the live crowd cheered him and booed Jarrett during their verbal confrontation. Then again, Nash and Sting weren’t acting very heelish during the segment. Nash, after years of saying both in and out of character that he is only in wrestling for the money, said that he actually loves what he does for a living. And when Hogan challenged Sting to fight like a man without his bat, Sting immediately tossed the weapon aside. Just as Nash and Sting were about to square off with Hogan and Jarrett, the lights went out, and when they came back on, Fortune was attacking Nash and Sting. Hogan and Jarrett were both knocked out, but we never saw Fortune actually touch them. It’s looking more and more like Hogan, Bischoff and Jarrett are aligned with Fortune, and Nash and Sting are the only guys who see through them. The question is: What is the payoff to all of this? …

It’s good to see Angelina Love and Velvet Sky back together. The Beautiful People act was the most entertaining when it was just the two of them.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 6:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (29)
        

We all know The Miz can cut an excellent promo, but it turns out that his mic skills go beyond his gift of gab.

I just watched the clips of WWE stars performing karaoke on George Lopez’s show last week, and The Miz tore down the house with his version of “Jump Around.”

As for the other WWE guys on the show, Dolph Ziggler did a decent job with “I’m Too Sexy,” but I expected better from R-Truth, whose version of “Kryptonite” was rather flat. And David Otunga showed that he doesn’t take himself too seriously, as he “sang” an off-key rendition of “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going,” a song made famous by his fiancé, Jennifer Hudson.

It was all pretty entertaining stuff, and the fact that it aired on SuperStation TBS – a station with a strong pro wrestling tradition – was not lost on me. WWE stars performing karaoke on the same station that made Tommy "Wildfire" Rich and Ole Anderson household names? The great Gordon Solie must have been turning over in his grave.

To watch all of the WWE karaoke clips, click here.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 6:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (20)
        

• And then there were three. Percy Watson and Husky Harris were eliminated from WWE NXT Season 2 Tuesday night, so it’s down to Kaval, Alex Riley and Michael McGillicutty with two episodes remaining. Harris’ elimination was overdue in my opinion. As for the other cut, I could have gone either way between Watson and McGillicutty. Ultimately, I think Watson will be the bigger star of the two because of his athleticism and charisma. The crowd definitely wasn’t happy about him getting the boot.

• Unlike past eliminations, the complete rankings were not revealed this time. I’d put Kaval at the top and Riley at No. 2.

• During the opening segment, the rookies were each given a minute to cut a promo. Kaval, trying to show his versatility, did a rap in which he cut down the other rookies. It was a nice effort, but he stumbled a bit at one point and then showed incredibly poor judgment with his closing line. “I’m the only reason for total nonstop action,” he said. Huh? Michael Cole and Josh Matthews seemed stunned that Kaval actually said those three words on WWE television, and both remarked how stupid it was without going into specifics.

• None of the rookies’ promos were home runs, although Riley was smooth on the mic as usual. McGillicutty’s wasn’t bad, although it came across a little bit like a guy trying really hard to cut a wrestling promo. Watson didn’t say anything especially clever, but his charisma and mannerisms always carry him through. Harris’ promo – which was about his cowboy boots – missed the mark.

• Cody Rhodes cut the best promo of the night at the end of the show after his rookie, Harris, was eliminated. Rhodes went ballistic and ran down his fellow pros as well as the other rookies. There was an awkward moment when Harris tried to get Rhodes under control and get a few words in, but Rhodes blew him off. As they came in contact, I think I heard Harris say, “Don’t touch me,” to Rhodes. Not sure what that was all about.

• The second-best promo was the one by Cole before the second elimination. He was in total heel mode as he made the case for Riley to win the competition and Kaval to be sent home.

• The show-closing brawl that involved Rhodes, Harris, Kaval, MVP and Kofi Kingston seemed kind of pointless, but at least Kaval got to stand tall (figuratively speaking) at the end.

• It was nice to see Kaval finally score a pinfall on Harris. Harris, by the way, appeared to get lost at one point during the match and some of his offense looked sloppy.

• I wish Kingston and Riley would have been given more than two minutes for their match. I don’t expect Riley to beat Kingston, but he should be able to at least last five minutes with him.

• Zack Ryder and McGillicutty had a decent match. I’m glad WWE threw Ryder a bone and let him win this one.

• NXT is definitely less entertaining when The Miz isn’t on it.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 4:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)
        

Monday night’s episode of Raw was all about The Nexus getting its heat back after losing to Team WWE in the main event of Sunday’s SummerSlam pay-per-view.

I'm sure not everyone will agree with me, but I think that goal was achieved.

Wade Barrett set the tone for the evening with a solid promo to open the show. He used the old “whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” line and said that everyone was worried about what was going to happen if The Nexus won at SummerSlam, but no one asked what would happen if they lost. Barrett vowed that the consequences would be dire and that Nexus would be even more ruthless.

It was then announced by the anonymous Raw general manager that members of The Nexus would face members of Team WWE in a series of individual matches throughout the night, and there would be swift punishment if any Nexus members interfered. Barrett added that any Nexus wrestler who lost would be exiled from the group.

Nexus went on to win all of its matches except the final one, which saw John Cena (insert your Super Cena remark here) defeat Darren Young. While I’m sure some fans will point to the fact that three of Nexus’ five wins had fluke finishes, the bottom line is that when given the opportunity to get rid of Nexus one by one, some of WWE’s biggest stars ultimately failed to get the job done.

And when you also consider that the elimination match at SummerSlam was very competitive and went down to the wire, I have to agree with something else that Barrett said in his opening promo – that reports of Nexus’ demise have been greatly exaggerated.

Other thoughts on Monday’s show:

It will be interesting to see what happens next with Young, who was beaten down by Nexus and kicked out of the group after his loss to Cena. My guess is that Young stays on the Raw roster as a babyface, perhaps as an ally of Daniel Bryan. Young was given a decent amount of offense against Cena and he showed guts by saying that he wanted to be the one to take on Cena (the GM had said that the Nexus guys could each pick which Team WWE wrestler they wanted to face, with the exception being Barrett, who was booked against Chris Jericho). …

Barrett and Jericho had a good match, and to the surprise of no one, Jericho did the clean job to his former protégé. The other clean victory for Nexus saw Skip Sheffield pin John Morrison after a clothesline in the tag team match that pitted Sheffield and David Otunga against Morrison and R-Truth. Sheffield didn’t really impress me on NXT Season 1, but he has been one of the stars of Nexus since the angle began. The former “Corn-fed Meathead” is very believable as an intense powerhouse. As for Morrison, unfortunately it’s really beginning to look as if Miz is right about him being the Marty Jannetty of their former tag team. …

Let’s take a look at Nexus’ three “fluke” wins: Michael Tarver, after being dominated by Bryan, got the pin with a roll-up thanks to The Miz and Alex Riley distracting Bryan; Justin Gabriel defeated Randy Orton (who was a substitution for Bret Hart) by countout after Orton began brawling with Sheamus outside the ring; and Heath Slater beat Edge by countout in a competitive match when Edge missed a spear outside the ring. From a booking standpoint, I thought all three finishes worked since the idea was for Nexus to win without the WWE stars losing credibility. Critics can say that the Nexus guys were made to look weak in victory, but winning matches they didn’t deserve only increases their heel heat in my opinion. Plus, these matches were a lot more believable than the elimination match three weeks ago when Nexus totally dominated the likes of Evan Bourne, The Hart Dynasty and Mark Henry. …

If my math is correct, Bryan, who was on the losing side at SummerSlam before falling to Tarver on Raw, is now 1-12 on WWE television, with his lone victory coming against Santino Marella in an eight-on-four tag match on Raw in May. Even worse is the fact that he is 0-2 against Tarver. [CORRECTION: Bryan's record on WWE TV is actually 3-11. He defeated The Miz in a singles match on Raw on May 31, and he was obviously on the winning side, not the losing side, at SummerSlam. Thanks to all who alerted me to the error of my ways. I'm blaming it on lack of sleep. Or memory loss due to old age. Or both.] …

When Riley got a chance to cut a promo with The Miz after their attack on Bryan, he again proved that from a mic skills standpoint he is ready to be in WWE right now. …

I was wondering how WWE was going to get out of delivering the advertised Hart-Gabriel match, as I knew there was no way those two could have a match given Hart’s physical limitations. Having the GM say, “I’ve never liked Bret Hart and I don’t want to ever see him compete on Raw again,” and then inserting Orton into the match worked because the fans were more excited to see Orton than they were disappointed that Hart wasn’t wrestling. By the way, no, I am not the Raw GM. …

Orton’s facial expressions and intensity were tremendous during his beat-down of Sheamus with a chair, and the crowd was really hot for the segment. Orton leaving and then coming back to deliver an RKO on the floor was a nice touch. On a side note, with Sheamus out cold, The Miz missed another golden opportunity to cash in his Money in the Bank contract. …

Cena’s humor has been mostly off the mark as of late, but he had some pretty funny lines when he was making fun of each Nexus member during the opening segment. …

Cena once again made a joke about the resemblance between him and Young. Actually, I think Young physically looks like a mishmash of WWE stars. Not only does he have the face of Cena, but he also has the body of The Rock and the hair of Sheamus. Too bad he also seems to have the charisma of Steve Blackman. …

In the biggest surprise of the night, Jillian Hall pinned Eve Torres clean in the six-woman tag match that saw Hall, Alicia Fox and Maryse defeat Torres, Melina and Gail Kim. …

It was announced that the word “unified” will no longer be used in regard to the WWE tag team title, and The Hart Dynasty was presented with a new set of belts. Those changes should have been made a long time ago, although it’s not really a big deal. …

Three actors from the upcoming romantic comedy “Going the Distance” were on hand to promote the movie. I recognized one of them as the guy who dates Drew Barrymore and used to do those Mac/PC commercials, but I had no idea who the other two were. I do know that they were on screen for all of about 15 seconds before they wore out their welcome. I guess WWE couldn’t get Barrymore, who also stars in “Going the Distance,” to be on the show. Heck, I would have flown to Los Angeles for Raw if she would have been there. My man-crush on Shawn Michaels pales in comparison to my borderline unhealthy infatuation with Drew. Too much information?

Posted by Kevin Eck at 5:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (79)
        

Former WWE star Batista wants everyone to know that he’s very serious about crossing over into MMA. But in making that point in a recent interview with Fight Magazine, something he said actually had me laughing out loud.

When asked what his biggest assets are as far as competing in MMA, Batista said that one of them was his durability.

And he said it was a straight face.

“I’m real durable. I think I’ve proven that over the years with WWE,” he said. “I think any professional wrestler is if nothing else durable. … If there’s one requirement in professional wrestling, it's durability, and I’m as durable as they come.”

Anyone who has followed Batista’s career in WWE over the years knows that he had a reputation for being as injury-prone as anyone in the business. Missing extended periods of time because of severe muscle tears was almost as much of a trademark for him as the Batista Bomb.

Perhaps what Batista was really trying to say was that there is a lot of wear and tear on the body in pro wrestling and that you have to be resilient. That would have been a better choice of words, because when I think of wrestlers “as durable as they come,” I think of a guy like Chris Jericho, not Batista.

The durability issue aside, Batista came off well in this interview, and he does seem to be committed to making a go of it in MMA. I certainly didn’t get the impression that he is in any hurry to return to pro wrestling.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 3:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)
        

WWE Hall of Fame announcer Jim Ross wrote on his blog Sunday morning that the SummerSlam pay-per-view taking place later that evening was “essentially a three-match show.”

As it turned out, it was actually a one-match show. Fortunately, that match – the seven-on-seven elimination main event between Team WWE and The Nexus – delivered in a big way and saved the pay-per-view from being a major disappointment.

Even with the well-booked, exciting main event, SummerSlam was a mediocre show and did not live up to its standing as WWE’s second-biggest event of the year.

The big news is that the seventh man on Team WWE turned out to be Daniel Bryan. It had appeared that it was going to be The Miz, who had said earlier in the show that he would join the team, but captain John Cena told him that he waited too long to make up his mind and they had to get someone else.

Bryan joining Team WWE makes perfect sense in the story line and the crowd popped when he was revealed as the final piece to the puzzle. I was all set to give WWE credit for booking a nice surprise, but then I read that wwe.com actually spoiled the angle by announcing before SummerSlam went on the air that Bryan had returned to the company. Once that post went up, the news quickly spread on Twitter.

I’m not sure if that was a blunder on WWE’s part or a deliberate attempt to gain some last-minute buys. Luckily, I wasn’t on Twitter at that point, because as someone who likes to be surprised and avoids spoilers, I wouldn’t have been too pleased about WWE letting that get out.

(CLARIFICATION FROM KE: I was incorrect about wwe.com posting the story on Bryan returning before the show went on the air; it was actually posted during the show prior to Bryan being revealed as the seventh man. So it looks to have been a mistake of someone hitting the button a little too early but obviously was not done to create a buzz and spark last-minute buys).

The result in the main event was a bit of a shock, as I think most people expected The Nexus to win, but Cena ended up being the sole survivor. The rest of the show was pretty predictable, including The Undertaker appearing at the end of the Kane-Rey Mysterio match and revealing that it was Kane who had attacked him, and Sheamus retaining the WWE title by disqualification over Randy Orton.

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

Team WWE (John Cena, Bret Hart, Edge, Chris Jericho, John Morrison, R-Truth and Daniel Bryan) defeated The Nexus (Wade Barrett, Justin Gabriel, David Otunga, Heath Slater, Skip Sheffield, Darren Young and Michael Tarver) (35:18): The Miz cut a great promo earlier in the show in which he declared that he would be the seventh man on Team WWE. When Miz’s music hit during the entrances and he made his way to the stage, however, Cena interrupted and said that they already had their seventh man – Bryan. Michael Cole – who was very entertaining throughout this match insulting Bryan and putting over The Miz – went nuts. Bryan made an immediate impact, as he locked the crossface on Young and forced him to tap out just 42 seconds into the match. Three minutes later, Morrison hit Starship Pain on Tarver and pinned him. It was noted in commentary that this was the first time Nexus has ever been at a numbers disadvantage. Sheffield evened things up by using wicked clotheslines to pin Morrison (at 7:32) and R-Truth (7:59). Hart entered the match at the 10:30 mark and began wailing away on Slater. Hart, wearing jeans, a t-shirt and sneakers, looked old and out of shape and seemed to get winded pretty quickly. He was disqualified for hitting Sheffield with a chair at 12:08, giving Nexus its first advantage at 5-4. It’s painfully obvious that Hart just shouldn’t be in the ring anymore.

After Jericho hit the Codebreaker on Sheffield, Edge speared the big man and pinned him at 13:13. It would be six minutes before the next elimination, which saw Jericho make Otunga tap out to the Walls of Jericho. Team WWE had a 4-3 advantage at that point, but then things started to fall apart for them. After Jericho and Cena collided accidentally, Slater pinned Jericho at 20:05. Edge and Cena began to argue, and Slater knocked Edge into Cena and pinned Edge at 20:38 to give Nexus a 3-2 advantage. Edge speared Cena off the apron onto the floor, where Jericho kicked and slapped him and yelled, “You’re a stupid man!” before he and Edge left together. Cena took a beating in the ring for a while before making the hot tag to Bryan, who turned Slater’s roll-up attempt into a crossface, and Slater tapped at 29:02. With the referee distracted, The Miz then entered the ring and clobbered Bryan with the briefcase. That allowed Barrett to pin Bryan at 29:32 and it was down to Barrett and Gabriel against Cena. Barrett took Cena outside the ring, moved the mat away and landed a DDT on the floor. He then threw Cena back in the ring and tagged Gabriel, who attempted to finish off Cena with the 450 Splash. Cena moved out of the way, however, and pinned Gabriel at 34:50.

That left the two team captains – Cena and Barrett. Cena quickly caught Barrett in the STF, and Barrett tapped out at 35:18 to give the match to Team WWE. I was surprised that Nexus didn’t win, but I really liked how the match was laid out. I’m sure the Cena detractors will be upset that he once again overcame the odds, but that’s what his character is all about. Plus, Nexus has been getting the better of him for the past two months; it was probably time for Cena to win one of the battles. My guess is that Nexus does something on Raw tonight to get its heat back. I also liked the angle to bring Bryan back and I’m really looking forward to a program between him and Miz. I also have to give WWE credit for being able to take eight mostly green guys who were wrestling in obscurity in Florida Championship Wrestling six months ago and get them over as legitimate threats in the main event of a major pay-pay-per-view. Think about that.

Randy Orton defeated WWE champion Sheamus by disqualification (18:55): The stipulations were that if anyone interferes on Sheamus’ behalf, they will be indefinitely suspended, and if Orton loses, he does not get a rematch and goes to the back of the line. The match had a slow pace most of the way but the last five minutes or so were good. There were some nice near falls, including one sequence that saw Orton slip out of the High Cross and go for an RKO, but Sheamus escaped it and then connected with the Brogue Kick for a two-and-a-half count. Sheamus was stunned that Orton kicked out. The champion grabbed a chair and brought it into the ring, but the referee tried to take it away from him. Sheamus won the tug of war and sent the referee tumbling to the floor. The referee called for the bell and disqualified Sheamus, who smiled. After the match, Orton ducked a chair shot and landed a low blow. He then hit an RKO on Sheamus on the announce table (which did not break). With Sheamus laid out on the floor, I was half-expecting The Miz to show up and cash in his Money in the Bank contract, but it didn’t happen. Jerry Lawler said, “That was about as good a match as you’re ever going to see.” Come on now, King.

World heavyweight champion Kane defeated Rey Mysterio (13:31): The crowd was pretty quiet for most of the match. With a casket sitting ringside that Kane had brought with him, I think everyone was just waiting for the spot when The Undertaker was going to pop up out of it. The match was not as good as the Kane-Mysterio pay-per-view matches from a couple years ago, but it was serviceable. Kane won clean after a big boot to the face and a chokeslam. After the match, Kane continued to assault Mysterio and then attempted to put him in the casket. When Kane opened the lid – surprise! – The Undertaker was inside. The Undertaker was wearing makeup that made him look haggard to sell the effects of being in a “vegetative state” the past few months (well, either that or Michelle McCool must have been a wild woman on the honeymoon). Undertaker confronted Mysterio about being his attacker, but he concluded that Mysterio was innocent. He then turned his attention to Kane and grabbed him by the throat. Kane, however, also grabbed Undertaker by the throat and was able to overpower him and deliver a Tombstone Piledriver. So the new wrinkle in a feud that has – pardon the pun – been done to death – is that The Undertaker is not as powerful as he once was, thus making him vulnerable against his “brother.”

Intercontinental champion Dolph Ziggler and Kofi Kingston wrestled to a no-contest (7:05): Kingston’s aggressiveness cost him early, as he knocked Ziggler outside the ring and attempted a dive, but Vickie Guerrero moved Ziggler out of the way and Kingston crashed. Ziggler dominated the next four minutes or so before Kingston mounted a comeback. After exchanging near falls, Ziggler locked on the sleeperhold. A few seconds later, The Nexus hit the ring and attacked both men, causing the match to be thrown out. The Nexus tossed Ziggler out of the ring and proceeded to beat down Kingston. I hate to see any match that I’m interested in – much less one on a pay-per-view – end like that, but I understand what WWE was trying to do. This was the opening match and WWE wanted to establish The Nexus as a dangerous threat right from the start.

The Big Show defeated CM Punk, Luke Gallows and Joseph Mercury in a handicap match (6:45): Before the match started, The Big Show removed the tape from his “broken” hand to reveal that it was fine. The big guy sure is a fast healer. The action was OK, as the Straight Edge Society tried to make the most of its numbers advantage and Big Show kept thwarting them. It was kind of funny that the announcers weren’t even sure about the rules as far as whether the SES would have to tag in and out or not (they didn’t). Punk eventually decided to bail with Serena, leaving the overmatched Gallows and Mercury alone with Big Show. Big Show choke-slammed Mercury on top of Gallows and pinned them both. I’m not crazy about the finish, since the SES now has zero credibility, but it does reinforce Punk as a self-serving leader and sets up a singles match between him and Big Show.

Melina defeated WWE Divas champion Alicia Fox to win the title (5:20): Melina looked as if she had raided Cher’s closet, as she came out wearing this ridiculous-looking outfit with feathers and a headdress. I haven’t seen a wrestler look that silly since Triple H dressed up like Conan The Barbarian at WrestleMania 22. I thought these two would have a decent match, but it was nowhere close. Melina appeared at one point to injure her left knee, but Fox for some reason then started working over her arm and shoulder. The match just never got going and then the finish came out of nowhere, as Melina got the pin with a variation of The Stroke and The Skull-Crushing Finale. A flat finish to a flat match. After it was over, Melina, who is now a five-time champion, had a “Tommy Dreamer moment” as she was about to be interviewed in the ring by Josh Matthews. Before Melina could say a word, however, self-professed co-WWE women’s champions Lay-Cool came out and attacked her. When Fox tried to get in a cheap shot on Melina, Lay-Cool took her out as well. It appears that WWE may be doing a women’s title-unification match at next month’s Night of Champions pay-per-view.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 5:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (54)
        

This week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter reported that pro wrestling trainer/former wrestler Les Thatcher visited with Ricky Steamboat during the past week.

Thatcher said that Steamboat, who was released from the hospital a few weeks ago after spending three weeks there because of bleeding in the brain caused by a capillary burst, is expected to make a full physical recovery but will never wrestle again.

Thatcher added that Steamboat, 57, has been able to do some work on an elliptical machine but is not allowed lift anything heavier than five pounds.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 4:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
        

There has been speculation leading up to tonight’s SummerSlam pay-per-view that John Cena will turn heel during the seven-on-seven main event between Cena’s Team WWE and The Nexus.

Cena has added fuel to the fire by tweeting the following during the past hour:

“CeNation. Staples center is somber, quiet. Calm before storm. I feel nervous, on edge. I want to thank everyone out there who has supported me over the years, as I feel this is one of the most important days in my career. In closing, I will say that if you do not watch summerslam tonight, u will be missing an epic day in wwe history.”

Cena, the face of the company for the past five years and a hero to women and children everywhere, turning heel would certainly be “an epic day in WWE history.” So do I think he’s really going to embrace his dark side?

No. I just think that Cena is aware of the speculation and he is using social media to try and sell some pay-per-views. What he said is vague enough that you can read into it whatever you want.

I could be wrong – and I think a heel Cena would give WWE a shot in the arm from a creative standpoint – but I really don’t see WWE turning a guy who is its top merchandise seller and has a squeaky clean public image due to his charity work and vocal support of the U.S. military.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 3:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (19)
        

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

Team WWE (John Cena, Bret Hart, Edge, Chris Jericho, John Morrison and R-Truth) vs. The Nexus (Wade Barrett, Justin Gabriel, David Otunga, Heath Slater, Skip Sheffield, Darren Young and Michael Tarver) in an elimination match: The big question going into the match is who the seventh member of Team WWE will be. Daniel Bryan makes the most sense from a story line standpoint, but I don’t think it will be him. Nor will it be Triple H or Vince McMahon. Evan Bourne is a possibility, but I seriously doubt it. That leaves The Miz, who said on TV this past week that he would consider joining the team and would give his answer at the show. I think it will be Miz, but he will end up turning on Team WWE and costing Cena and company the match. It will then be revealed that he is part of The Nexus. To set up the swerve, I wouldn’t be surprised if WWE shoots an angle tonight in which it appears that Miz has been attacked by The Nexus backstage, prompting him to join Team WWE despite being “injured.” On a side note, it’s going to be interesting to see how Hart is going to be eliminated (assuming that he will be) since he cannot take any bumps. I suppose he’s going to have to get counted out or disqualified.

WWE champion Sheamus vs. Randy Orton: The stipulations for this match are that if anyone interferes on Sheamus’ behalf, they will be indefinitely suspended, and if Orton loses, he does not get a rematch and goes to the back of the line. I would love to see Orton get the belt back tonight, but I don’t think he’s going to. I think WWE is going to keep the title on Sheamus until Triple H is ready to make his return and challenge him for it. Look for Orton to win by disqualification.

World heavyweight champion Kane vs. Rey Mysterio: Like just about everyone else, I expect The Undertaker to show up either during this match or right after it to name his attacker. My money is on Kane to retain his championship and also be the guilty party, setting up a Kane-Undertaker match at the Night of Champions pay-per-view next month. I would love to see WWE pull a big swerve and have the attacker be anyone other than Kane, but I don’t see that happening.

Intercontinental champion Dolph Ziggler vs. Kofi Kingston: I expect this match to open the show and get things off to a good start. I don’t see Ziggler dropping the belt this quickly after his long road to gold. My guess is that Ziggler escapes with his title when Kingston’s newfound aggressive streak costs him the match. I wouldn’t be surprised if Vickie Guerrero’s interference also plays a role in the finish.

The Big Show vs. CM Punk, Luke Gallows and Joey Mercury: If the Straight Edge Society is to be taken seriously at all, it has to win a three-on-one match, right? Although it wouldn’t really surprise me if Big Show KO’s Mercury for the win, I’m going with the SES to prevail.

WWE Divas champion Alicia Fox vs. Melina: With Mickie James no longer in the company, Melina is WWE’s most popular woman and she will get the title back tonight. Fox continues to improve in the ring and Melina is a solid worker so this could be a decent match if they are allowed to go more than three or four minutes.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 3:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)
        

Solid but not spectacular is the best way to describe Friday night’s Smackdown, which was the final episode of the show before today’s SummerSlam pay-per-view.

Unlike Raw this past Monday, which featured a show-long story line focusing on the turmoil within Team WWE and concluded with an in-ring showdown between them and The Nexus that sent the crowd into a frenzy, Smackdown did not have any such fireworks.

Instead, WWE took a basic approach and mixed and matched the four competitors participating in the two Smackdown singles matches at SummerSlam. In non-title matches, we had world heavyweight champion Kane facing Kofi Kingston, and Intercontinental champion Dolph Ziggler going against Rey Mysterio.

In addition, Smackdown had interesting match-ups involving talent that is not scheduled to appear at SummerSlam, as Drew McIntyre took on Matt Hardy, Cody Rhodes faced Christian and Jack Swagger wrestled MVP.

So while this show didn’t blow me away and probably didn’t get anyone more excited for SummerSlam than they already were, it was an enjoyable program with decent wrestling matches. Smackdown clearly does not have the star power of Raw, but I really like makeup of the Smackdown roster, as it has a number of guys on their way up as well as underrated veterans who can work.

Other thoughts on Friday’s show:

The Mysterio-Ziggler match (which Mysterio won) was good, but it was not at the level of the matches they had together last year when Ziggler was challenging for Mysterio’s Intercontinental title. …

I was a little surprised to see Kane score a clean victory over Kingston. I figured WWE would keep Kingston strong heading into his Intercontinental title match against Ziggler at SummerSlam and book a disqualification or something along those lines. …

It was nice to see Swagger back on the show this week and that he didn’t drown in the Gulf of Mexico two weeks ago. It wasn’t a triumphant return, however, as he got pinned by MVP, who hasn’t exactly been on a roll as of late. I like both of these guys, so I don’t know whether to be happy that MVP got back in the win column or sad that Swagger lost to a guy who has been buried. I hope WWE hasn’t given up on Swagger being a top guy. …

Rhodes is clearly being “groomed” for a higher spot on the card. Christian, the man he defeated this week, not so much. Christian at least had an “out” for the loss, as he was wrestling with a bad shoulder and Rhodes took advantage of it. …

McIntyre got a convincing win over Hardy, which makes up for the jobs that McIntyre has done to him in the past. It was one of those deals in which Hardy looked courageous in defeat, as he refused to quit after injuring his ankle during the match. I thought it was a nice touch when Hardy appeared to have blood on his sock after he removed his boot following the spot in which McIntyre stomped the steps on his ankle. Matt Striker pointed it out, saying, “You can see the injury seeping through.” …

OK, if no one is going to say it, I will: Vickie Guerrero has been looking pretty good lately. She isn’t a swimsuit model, but she’s not an unattractive 42-year-old woman. She has clearly lost weight, so it looks as if the WWE writers are going to have come up with new ways to have babyfaces insult her other than making fat jokes. …

When Mysterio again accused Kane of attacking The Undertaker, Kane repeatedly mouthed, “I would never hurt my brother.” Well, at least not in the past five or six years. What made Kane’s statement even funnier was that I just watched a Raw episode from April 1998 on WWE On Demand that was building up a pay-per-view match between the “brothers” in which the object was to set your opponent on fire. …

The Big Show squashing three jobbers in a handicap match reminded me of the ’70s and early ’80s when Andre The Giant would do the same thing on WWE’s syndicated shows. The only difference was that Big Show didn’t do Andre’s “butt bump in the corner” spot. …

More greatness from CM Punk: As the Straight Edge Society stood on the stage after Big Show’s match, Luke Gallows began cutting a promo. Punk quickly cut him off and said, “Wait, a second. Who gave you a microphone? Give me that. If I wanted you to address him, I would have told you to address him.” …

It would be nice at some point of it was explained – even if it’s just in passing – why Joey Mercury joined the SES. …

I have been bored by most of the Alberto Del Rio vignettes, but the compilation that aired this week wasn’t bad at all. It was announced that he will finally make his debut next week. Hopefully he has a better match in his TV debut that Kizarny did a while back.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 4:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)
        

In case anyone missed it, news broke on Friday that WWE Diva Tiffany (real name Taryn Terrell) has been suspended by WWE following her arrest last Sunday in Los Angeles that stemmed from a domestic disturbance between her and husband Drew McIntyre of Smackdown at a hotel they were staying in.

According to pwinsider.com, Terrell was charged with a misdemeanor against McIntyre and taken into custody Sunday morning. She was released later that afternoon on $20,000 bail.

Her suspension was described as “indefinite” in the pwinsider.com report.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 6:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (21)
        

The debut of TNA Reaction as a weekly series airing after Impact could not have come on a better night. The innovative show began immediately after the big angle at the end of Impact, which saw bloody beat-downs of EV 2.0 and Rob Van Dam by Fortune and Abyss, respectively.

The documentary-style, behind-the-scenes footage and interviews gave a realistic feel to the chaotic situation at the Impact Zone. We saw RVD being taken out in an ambulance and other EV 2.0 members nursing their wounds and vowing vengeance, and we also heard from the guys behind the attacks and what their motives were.

Ever since the Monday Night Wars era, viewers have been taken behind the curtain and into the locker room, but Reaction takes it a step further. You really get that fly-on-the wall feeling in some of the scenes, such as the one in which Beer Money’s Robert Roode and James Storm were discussing what happened and where things are headed. During their conversation, Storm’s cell phone rang and it supposedly was Ric Flair. Storm answered it and said, “Yes sir, by any means necessary.”

In addition to the attention given to the main angle, TNA world tag team champions The Motor City Machine Guns were shown discussing their big win over Beer Money in the best-of-five series and reflecting on their journey in TNA, and Angelina Love, Velvet Sky and Madison Rayne all talked about their issues.

What I really like about Reaction is that the talent (with the exception of Abyss) comes off like real people speaking from the heart rather than characters reading from a script. Kurt Angle was especially good at giving a shoot-style interview while still not breaking kayfabe. Even though he is a babyface, when Angle was discussing the Fortune-EV 2.0 feud, he said that the former ECW crew popped ratings and probably significantly increased pay-per-view buys, but that they shouldn’t be around long term. He said he’d rather see a TNA group such as Fortune succeed.

As much as I enjoyed the show, however, it felt like an hour was too long. After two hours of Impact and three hours of wrestling if you watched WWE Superstars, Reaction would be more effective as a 30-minute show, especially considering that there is not going be a huge angle to feature every time like there was this week.

One thing about the program that bothered me right off the bat was that after Mike Tenay had ended Impact by saying that Fortune obviously is Abyss’ “They,” Reaction featured guys such as Angle and Mr. Anderson questioning whether “They” only exist in Abyss’ mind. If Fortune really is “They,” I’m interested to hear how Abyss went from being a Hulkamaniac who hated Flair to suddenly taking orders from him.

On a side note, I like the new voice-over guy TNA is using, as I always thought the James Earl Jones-sounding guy was too over-the-top.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 5:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
        

Since Thursday night’s TNA Impact, which was dubbed “The Whole F’n Show,” was presented like a pay-per-view (well, except for the commercials), that’s how I’m going to cover it.

This was a special episode that was indeed special. From an in-ring standpoint, the spectacular deciding match in the best-of-five series between TNA world tag team champions The Motor City Machine Guns and Beer Money alone made this a thumb’s up show, but viewers also were treated to an outstanding match between Kurt Angle and A.J. Styles and an entertaining brawl between TNA world champion Rob Van Dam and Abyss in the main event.

What put this program over the top as the best TV wrestling show of the year, however, was the big angle that followed the main event. Hulk Hogan called out Tommy Dreamer and a bunch of other EV 2.0 guys for what was supposed to be a final curtain call for the former ECW crew. It ended up turning into an intense, bloody beat-down, as Fortune (plus Matt Morgan and Douglas Williams) sneak-attacked and brutalized EV 2.0.

During the chaos, Ric Flair came out with a big smile on his face and suddenly began screaming at TNA president Dixie Carter that she had brought this on herself. Meanwhile, Abyss and RVD fought to the back, and the final shot was of Abyss standing over a blood-drenched RVD, with the inference that Abyss has attacked him with the board of nails. Mike Tenay said that Fortune must be the “They” who Abyss has been referring to.

I thought the angle was very well done and the EV 2.0 guys bleeding all over the place definitely added to it, although RVD looking as if he had just lost a battle with Leatherface (“The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" guy,” not Hogan) may have been a bit much.

While I had initially hoped that the “ECW originals” were in TNA simply for a one-off nostalgia pay-per-view and not a major story line, I think this could be good. For one thing, it has been clearly established that the issue is between Fortune and EV 2.0, with the heel and babyface roles clearly defined. It’s not just another invasion-type angle in which the home company’s heels and babyfaces band together to fight outsiders. If done correctly, this program could really get Fortune over as something special.

Here is a match-by-match look at the show (match times are approximate):

TNA world champion Rob Van Dam defeated Abyss in a Stairway to Janice match (18:00): This was a good hardcore match that involved ladders, a table wrapped in barbed wire, broken glass and thumbtacks. “Janice,” Abyss’ board of nails, was suspended above the ring but wasn’t used – nor will it ever be, for obvious reasons. At about the 14-minute mark, RVD took a scary-looking bump when Abyss pushed him off a ladder and over the top rope, and he appeared to hit his face on a ladder on the floor. RVD recovered and hit a Van Terminator on Abyss, who had the barbed-wire table placed in front of his face. RVD followed up with the Five-Star Frog Splash for the win. Earlier in the match, Abyss had taken RVD’s Rolling Thunder with the barbed-wire table laying on top of him, as well as his usual bumps into thumbtacks and broken glass. On a side note, special guest referee Eric Bischoff did not turn heel as I expected, and in fact, he was no factor at all in the match.

TNA world tag team champions The Motor City Machine Guns defeated Beer Money in a two-out-of-three falls match to win the best-of-five series, 3-2 (21:00): Not only was this the best match of this fantastic series, but it’s on the short list of the best matches in the industry this year. It had fast-paced, non-stop action from bell to bell (literally, as there was no rest period between falls) and the crowd reaction was off the charts. Kudos to Chris Sabin, Alex Shelley, Robert Roode and James Storm for their work rate, athleticism and innovation. I’m not going to even attempt to describe all the great spots in this match. Beer Money took the first fall after hitting the DWI on Shelley at about the eight-minute mark. The Guns evened things up two minutes later after landing their neckbreaker/frog splash combination on Roode. If I have one criticism of this match it would be that the second fall was too short, but I understand that time was a factor and everyone knew the Guns were going to win that fall anyway. The deciding fall went the longest (about 11 minutes), and this time the Guns had to hit their neckbreaker/frog splash finisher twice to finish off Storm and win the match.

I was a little surprised the Guns retained the title, but I think it’s the right call. Beer Money has already had multiple reigns as tag team champs; this series was about validating the Guns, who had a long climb to the top, and once they got there, they had to constantly rally from behind to stay there. They trailed 2-0 in the series and were down one fall in this match before ultimately prevailing. On a side note, I was worried that this series was going to be marred by an angle involving referees Earl and Brian Hebner, but, thankfully, after ref bumps played a role in the outcome of the first two matches (as well as the Guns-Beer Money match at last month’s Victory Road pay-per-view that preceded the series), the referees did not get in the way – literally and figuratively – in the past three.

Kurt Angle defeated TNA TV champion A.J. Styles in a non-title match (8:00): A really good opener with some great near falls, but what else would you expect from a match between these two? Angle got the victory with the ankle lock. It’s just too bad they couldn’t have had a little more time. Since the story line is that Angle will retire if he loses a match before making his way to the top spot in TNA’s rankings, TNA had to make this a non-title match, which from a realistic standpoint doesn’t make any sense. How can the TV champion be wrestling on a TV special episode and the belt not be on the line?

Matt Morgan defeated Mr. Anderson and “The Pope” D’Angelo Dinero in a three-way match (3:00): This mach was Exhibit A as to the fact that doing a pay-per-view-level card on two-hour commercial television does have its limitations. With another 10 to 12 minutes these guys probably could have had a really good match, but this was just too short. The story was that Anderson and Dinero worked together at first, but that didn’t last long, and Morgan ended up stealing the win. After Anderson hit the Mic Check on Dinero, Morgan broke up the pin and covered Dinero himself for the three count. Regardless of the circumstances, it was great to see Morgan back in the win column.

Angelina Love defeated TNA Knockouts champion Madison Rayne to win the title (4:00): All I could think about while watching this match was how far the Knockouts division has fallen since the days when Awesome Kong and Gail Kim used to have great title matches together. Love got the win thanks in part to the referee being preoccupied with Velvet Sky attacking Rayne’s masked bodyguard outside the ring. It looks as if we’re headed to a Beautiful People feud with originals Love and Sky on one side and Rayne and Lacey Von Erich on the other.

Jeff Hardy defeated Shannon Moore (7:00): While Moore is a good worker, it was a letdown that he turned out to be the mystery opponent for Hardy’s “open challenge to the wrestling world,” as TNA was clearly teasing that it was going to be someone from outside TNA. The action was solid, as Hardy gave his real-life buddy most of the match before he hit the Swanton Bomb for the victory.

Note: I’ll post my thoughts on TNA Reaction later today, and hopefully Smackdown as well.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 7:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (16)
        

Former WWE wrestler Lance Cade (real name Lance McNaught) died this morning of what is believed to have been heart failure, according to various reports. He was 29.

Cade, who was trained by Shawn Michaels, was probably best known for the odd couple tag team that he formed with Trevor Murdoch several years ago. The duo won tag team gold in WWE three times between 2005 and 2007.

I always thought that Cade, who had a good look and was decent in the ring, would someday get a singles push in a student versus teacher program with Michaels, but it never happened. Cade, however, did have a role in the high-profile feud between Michaels and Chris Jericho in 2008, as he was aligned with Jericho and helped him win a ladder match over Michaels on pay-per-view.

A week later, however, Cade surprisingly was released by WWE. It was reported at the time that Cade’s release was the result of him suffering a seizure on an airplane and having to be removed from the plane because he required emergency medical care. It was believed that the seizure was caused by the use of pain killers or muscle relaxers.

Cade re-signed with WWE the following year but he was never used on the main roster and was eventually let go about six months later. During that stint, Cade reportedly asked WWE officials to send him to rehab, and he completed a 30-day program.

He had been working recently with All Japan Pro Wrestling.

My condolences to Cade’s family and friends.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 5:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (13)
        

Here is an interview I conducted with TNA star Rob Van Dam last Saturday at The National Sports Collectors Convention at The Baltimore Convention Center. The interview was done the day before the Hardcore Justice pay-per-view, and RVD at that point was still expecting to face Jerry Lynn, who ended up having to pull out of the match due to a back injury.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 3:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Video interviews
        

I conducted a phone interview Wednesday with The Big Show, who will face CM Punk, Luke Gallows and Joey Mercury in a handicap match Sunday at WWE’s SummerSlam pay-per-view.

As one of WWE’s most tenured performers, are you someone that younger guys seek out for advice? How do you approach your role as a veteran?

I approach the veteran role very quietly. A lot of guys have the ability to be the veteran: they set policy, they set tone in the locker room; that’s never been my idea. I don’t try to go out and seek attention. “Oh, I’m a veteran, I’ve been around 15 years, I’ve been through mud and blood and crud.” I always just try to go out and have the best performance I can have, do whatever I need to do for the company, for the WWE Universe, and always be an open ear for the guys, whether they’re a rookie or a veteran. If somebody wants to talk, I listen and I give my honest opinion. It may not be the right answer, but it’s my honest opinion. That’s the thing about this business. You can take advice and take opinions from people but you still have to work it out and filter it out in your own brain and apply it how you need to be successful.

What is the best piece of advice you could give a young guy in the business?

Always keep your mind open. You have to evolve and absorb everything around you – from your other superstars, from the audience, how our product changes. You have to keep an open mind and be willing to grow and not get set on doing something one way. There are so many different ways to do our business, to perform, and there’s something for everyone out there that wants to be successful. You just have to be open to find it.

Back in the territorial days, guys would move from territory to territory to stay fresh, but that’s no longer the case in the era of the big companies. You’ve been with WWE for the better part of the past 12 years. How much of a challenge is it to be in one place for that long and not get stale?

It’s a tremendous challenge. Quite frankly, I hear all the time from the powers that be, “Oh, we put you on TV too much, we overexpose you. You’re such a unique attraction. We should really capitalize on that. By the way, you’re working 304 days this year.” [laughs]. The only thing that comes in is the fact that sometimes the roster dictates with guys being injured or younger guys not able to step up to the plate quite yet because they’re still learning their way on television how the system works that to push the product you rely on your veterans. I’m thankful for the fact that they appreciate my work enough to consider me a guy that they can count on to go out and work hard and deliver a good match. I’ve survived this long and I’m in a pretty good place. I like working and performing and hopefully that will be my contribution to the business – that I’ll actually be considered a pretty good worker for a big guy, so we’ll see.

Have you started to think at all about life after wrestling? Do you see yourself still wrestling to some extent into your fifties?

I think I want to stay in the ring as long as I can competitively. Right now I’m able to work and I can handle this 300-day-a-year schedule and the once-a-month-trip overseas, whether it’s Mexico, Europe, Japan, South America or wherever we’re going. I’m 38 now. Hopefully they’ll keep me around for a few more years and then we’ll see where my career leads from there. Perhaps I’ll do more stuff with WWE Films as it starts to grow, which I’m sure it’s going to. If the younger superstars step up to the plate and there might not be as much room for someone like me, then maybe I’ll move to more of an attraction role and more of an ambassador role. Right now I’m just staying positive. I enjoy the work and if I can still compete at this level, I’ll do this until I’m 50 without a doubt. If I can’t compete at a positive level then you have to step down.

You mentioned your work with WWE Films. Tell me about the comedy you did called “Knucklehead.” That’s going to be a theatrical release, correct? When can we expect to see that?

It’s going to have a limited theatrical release – I think it’s Oct. 22 – and then it’ll be on DVD. I’m pretty proud of the project. When I first got the script a couple years ago it was a Rated-R script – it was meant to be a lot more adult humor. I worked with [WWE Studios executive vice president] Mike Pavone and we really wanted to do a family movie. There’s enough stuff out there that’s funny that an adult can go see, but I have a 12-year-old daughter, so I actually want to go to a movie with her and have a laugh where it doesn’t involve a talking animal or a cartoon, because that’s about all that’s out there for adults to go see movies with their kids. I worked really hard on “Knucklehead,” put a lot of heart into it, and it’s got some fantastic actors. … It’s a nice little story, a nice little adventure. A guy has lived in an orphanage his whole life, he’s 35 years old, he’s this monstrous man who in the right era probably would have been swinging a battleaxe and been a conqueror, but instead he’s humble, scared to death of the head nun, and his best friend is a 12-year-old kid. It’s kind of like “Kingpin” meets “Waterboy” meets “Fight Club” meets “The Apple Dumpling Gang.” So there you go.

Staying on the subject of family entertainment, not long after you got into wrestling the content started becoming raunchier. Now we’ve seen it swing the other way. What are your personal feelings on WWE as a company making the move back to a more family-friendly direction?

I think family friendly is the smartest way to go. There’s so much reality-based crap out there. Sorry, pardon my language. That’s real family friendly – crap [laughs]. I just get frustrated. The American family, families in general, need to find more things they can do together. Coming to our live event shows as a family is a great experience as far as the dollars you spend. It’s quality family entertainment. Families need more family time. Kids are into cell phones and texting, and mom and dad are into this and doing that, but you can pull together as a family and put the PDA devices down and go see stuff together and enjoy it, and there’s something for everyone. Now that we’ve become more family friendly, we’re encouraging more positive sponsors – Gillette, National Guard, Subway and 7-Eleven – and it’s making our product just better all the way around. Doing things more family friendly can sometimes be harder. It’s always easy to take an easy way out and do something that would be wild and reckless and attitude, but it’s a shortcut. You have to work harder to be proper, and I like what we’re doing, I really do. I like the direction we’re taking the company with our international exploits and the countries we’re going to and the lives that we’re touching. It’s definitely a product that I’m proud to walk down the ramp and be a part of. I’m a father, so I consider that stuff now. When I was younger, OK, maybe I wasn’t that concerned about it. I was into seeing all the crazy stuff, but my values have shifted, just like all us – we have kids, our life shifts.

You were one half of two pretty entertaining tag teams over the past year or so, one with Chris Jericho and the other with The Miz. Now I can picture you and Jericho – two established veterans who both came up in WCW – hanging out backstage and putting your heads together to come up with stuff, but you and Miz were a true odd couple. I just can’t picture you and The Miz hanging out together. What was it like to work closely with Miz and what are your impressions of him overall?

I’ll be honest with you: I really like Miz. He came from being a reality TV star who I wouldn’t have given a snowball’s chances in Hades of ever being successful in our business. I just thought there’s no way this kid’s going to make it. He’s too soft. This business will eat him alive. And Miz has proved me wrong. I respect Miz for that. He has fought and dug and clawed for everything that he has. If Miz has a superpower it’s the fact that he can make anyone hate him. My analogy is that Mother Teresa would spend four hours in the car with him and want to bash his head through the window. He just has that gift to be annoying, and he uses it to his advantage. With Jericho and I, it was two veterans going back and forth and contributing different philosophies and ideas. I actually really learned a lot from Jericho. He’s had a lot of great experiences from Japan and Mexico and Canada and all the different places he’s wrestled. Jericho is really a fountain of information for wrestling knowledge. Partnering with The Miz – he talks a lot of trash on the microphone and in public, but Miz is a sponge when it comes to information. He sits there and absorbs it and calculates. I think that’s why he’s so successful. I was really impressed when I was tag-teaming with Miz in how he wanted to absorb everything – every story, every detail, every experience. I mean you could just see him processing it and breaking it down and saving it to apply for himself later. That’s how you become successful in this business. You have to learn from the people around you and apply it and make it work for yourself, and I think Miz is excellent at that.

When you stepped from WWE a few years ago there was talk about you getting into professional boxing. How serious were you about becoming a boxer?

[Laughs] I think I was really serious until I got punched in the face. You know, the boxing thing was something I was interested in doing to change my lifestyle and get into shape and really improve my health. I met some friends and the idea was kicked around and talked about, and I trained quite hard for it. I went through the same training that any boxer does between training camps in getting ready for fights. And then, you know, I couldn’t get fights, couldn’t schedule fights. I mean, I’m not going to step in the ring and compete against Lennox Lews right off the bat. I need to get experience against guys with the same experience level I had, and those guys didn’t want anything to do with me because I’d kill them. I was sparring with Oliver McCall, who is a former heavyweight champion. It takes a lot of courage to step over that rope and go in there basically knowing the other guy is going to be hitting you in the face as hard as he can and you have to hit him as hard as you can. It was a unique, eye-opening, great experience because I left all my stature, all my credibility as The Big Show, in the locker room and I came out there as a guy learning how to box and I had to earn my respect from the guys in the boxing gym, and I think I did. I just realized that boxing, to be competitive, I was too old to do it. It’s something that I wish I could have started as a young man, like 10 or 11 years old. If I could have foretold the future and found out that I was going to be this size and have the hand speed that I have and the athletic ability and have been able to do boxing as a young man, I think I could have changed the world of heavyweight boxing forever. But being an old fart trying to do that, I’ve got no business being there, so my respect to them.

Photo courtesy of World Wrestling Entertainment

Posted by Kevin Eck at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Q&As
        

Here are some recent pro wrestling headlines and my take on them:

News: Ring of Honor champion Tyler Black reportedly signs a developmental deal with WWE.

My view: I can see it now: Black will be renamed Taylor Bland and paired with pros Santino Marella and Vladimir Kozlov on NXT Season 3. He’ll consistently finish first or second in the polls despite losing every match and constantly being ridiculed by Michael Cole. All kidding aside, this is a good signing for WWE. I don’t know that Black has all the intangibles to be a WWE headliner, but the 24-year-old is a talented worker with a decent look, and you can never have too many performers with those qualities under contract. As for ROH, having top guys leave for WWE and TNA is a fact of life for a company of its size, and losing Black is compounded by the fact that another of its stars – Davey Richards – has announced that he is retiring at the end of the year.

News: A.J. Styles has made history by becoming the first TNA performer to be ranked No. 1 in the PWI 500, Pro Wrestling Illustrated’s annual listing of the top 500 stars in wrestling, which is on newsstands now.

My view: Styles is a fantastic wrestler who was on top in TNA for the majority of PWI’s grading period (June 1, 2009 to May 31, 2010) and certainly deserves a high ranking. However, WWE is still the industry standard-bearer, and therefore I think one of its stars has to occupy the top spot. Who would I put at No. 1? Stay tuned. I’ve been working on my own PWI-style list of the top 25 wrestling stars, which I hope to have posted sometime next week.

News: Baltimore native and former WWE Diva Stacy Keibler was a celebrity participant in a flag football game that was shown prior to the NFL Hall of Fame game on NBC Sunday night. When Keibler was introduced, a graphic on the screen listed her college as “WWE.”

My view: What, no love for my alma mater, Towson University? By the way, not only did Keibler attend the Baltimore-area school (which was formerly known as Towson State), but so did WWE television production executives Kevin Dunn and “Big” John Gaburick (who you may remember from “Tough Enough”).

News: Legendary Japanese wrestler Manami Toyota will make her American debut Sept. 18 on the Chikara show at Baltimore’s Du Burns Arena against Daizee Haze.

My view: Most U.S. fans have probably never heard of her, but Toyota was considered one of the elite workers in the industry – male or female – in the ’90s while competing for All-Japan Women’s Pro Wrestling. I’m looking forward to seeing perhaps the greatest in-ring female performer of all time wrestle in person.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 4:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (12)
        

Here is the second and final part of an interview I conducted with former WWE Diva Mickie James after her match with Mia Yim at the Maryland Championship Wrestling show July 31 in Dundalk.

James discusses whether WWE was supportive of her singing career, rumors that WWE was unhappy with her weight, the Piggy James angle and her upcoming match with Awesome Kong in October.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)
Categories: Video interviews
        

• You know the old saying about how it’s better to be lucky than good? Well, it didn’t hold true on Tuesday night’s episode of WWE NXT, as Lucky Cannon was eliminated in the pros/fans voting. Cannon being sent home certainly wasn’t a surprise to anyone – including Cannon himself, judging by his facial expression when it was revealed that he and Alex Riley were the bottom two in the poll. Cannon has a good look and he showed some potential in the ring, but he just never connected with the audience. Fittingly, Cannon bombed when delivering his farewell address.

• Unlike Cannon’s elimination, Riley’s slip from third to fifth in the poll was a shock. Riley actually dropped one spot behind Husky Harris, which is absurd. Here are the complete poll results: 1. Kaval; 2. Michael McGillicutty; 3. Percy Watson; 4. Harris; 5. Riley; 6. Cannon. It was announced that there will be two eliminations next week.

• The main event was a good match between former tag team partners The Miz and John Morrison. My how times have changed. When The Miz beat Morrison clean at the Bragging Rights pay-per-view 10 months ago, I thought it was outrageous. I didn’t bat an eye, however, when Miz scored the clean win over Morrison on this show. Miz has really made Morrison look inferior on the past two NXT episodes. Last week, Miz clearly won a verbal exchange between the two, and then on Tuesday he made Morrison eat his words after Morrison challenged Miz to a match and said that he would prove that Team WWE didn’t need Miz at SummerSlam.

• The six-man tag team rematch from Raw (which pitted Kaval, Watson and Cannon against Riley, McGillicutty and Harris) had a lot of energy and the crowd was surprisingly into it. I was amazed that WWE actually booked Kaval to score the winning pinfall over McGillicutty. As far as in-ring ability, it’s obvious that Kaval is far above his fellow “rookies.”

• This week’s rookie challenge was pretty straight forward, as the competitors’ punching power was measured by hitting a speed bag that was connected to a machine. Riley won it with a mark of 890, beating out McGillicutty (863). Harris nearly missed the bag and finished with a score of 380, which was less than half of what commentator Josh Matthews got during a demonstration at the top of the show.

• While Cannon was cutting his painful-to-watch promo at the end of the show, Michael Cole said, “Will somebody please punch him in the mouth?” Hilarious.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 5:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (24)
        

Here is the first part of an interview I conducted with former WWE Diva Mickie James after her match with Mia Yim at the Maryland Championship Wrestling show July 31 in Dundalk.

James discusses her country music career, her release from WWE and what’s next for her in wrestling.

Check back tomorrow for the second and final part of the interview.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Video interviews
        

The road to SummerSlam sure has been a rocky one for Team WWE. The John Cena-led squad went from seven members to five to four. As of now, it’s back up to six.

Edge and Chris Jericho, who both quit the team last week on Raw, decided during the final segment of Monday night’s Raw that it was in their best interests to re-join the team. Earlier in the show, however, The Great Khali was taken out by The Nexus, so Team WWE is still one member short for its main event elimination match against The Nexus at the SummerSlam pay-per-view on Sunday.

The Miz told Cena and Bret Hart that he would consider being on the team but that he wouldn’t give them his answer until Sunday. It will be interesting to see if WWE goes with The Miz or if he is just being teased to swerve people and WWE ends up filling the spot with a big name making a surprise appearance.

Other thoughts on Monday’s show:

The crowd really popped at the end of the program when Jericho and Edge stood alongside the other members of Team WWE opposite The Nexus and a brawl broke out between the two groups. It was an ideal way to end Raw’s go-home show for SummerSlam. …

The best segment on the show was the verbal/physical confrontation between Randy Orton and Sheamus. Orton played his anti-hero role perfectly and Sheamus more than held his own with “The Viper” on the mic and with his facial expressions. I’m still not a big fan of Sheamus being WWE champion, but after seeing this segment I am more interested in the Orton-Sheamus match at SummerSlam than I was before. …

Jericho was great on the mic as usual during the opening segment with Hart. …

What was with Hart competing in the main event (he and Cena faced Edge and Jericho in a tag team match with The Nexus as lumberjacks) in a Batman t-shirt, jeans and sneakers? We all know that Hart is very limited as far as what he can do physically in the ring, but shouldn’t he at least give the appearance that he is going to wrestle? …

Evan Bourne pulled off a move during his losing effort against The Miz that I don’t think I have ever seen before. With his back to the ring, Bourne spring-boarded off the second rope and hit a huracanrana in one fluid motion. …

Speaking of cool, innovative moves, I don’t know what to call that flip move that John Morrison did to Zack Ryder during the tag match in which Morrison and R-Truth defeated Ryder and William Regal, but it was fantastic. …

I understand what WWE was trying to accomplish in the story line by having The Nexus “take out” Khali and potential Team WWE members The Hart Dynasty and Mark Henry, but none of the beat-downs looked so severe that the guys wouldn’t be able to compete by Sunday. …

It was curious that Ranjin Singh was not with Khali this week. That could mean nothing, or it could mean that Singh is turning on Khali. The Singh character doesn’t do much for me, so I really don’t care to see him with an expanded role. …

It came as no surprise that Melina defeated WWE Divas champion Alicia Fox in their non-title match. It was announced afterward that Melina will challenge Fox for the title at SummerSlam. Fox, by the way, looked as if she hit her head hard on the mat when taking Melina’s Last Call finisher. …

In the six-man tag match featuring the remaining NXT Season 2 rookies, Husky Harris pinned Kaval. Again. Whatever. …

No, the Divas Summertime Spectacular match was not a technical wrestling classic, but it featured six Divas in swimsuits, so what’s not to like? I was surprised to see The Bellas get the win over the teams of Eve Torres/Gail Kim and Maryse/Jillian Hall. And they did it without resorting to the Old Switcheroo. …

It looks as if Santino Marella’s new love interest is going to be Tamina. I suppose this will lead to a program between Marella and Vladimir Kozlov and The Usos.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 3:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (51)
        

I didn’t watch Hardcore Justice, TNA’s ECW-themed pay-per-view, Sunday night, and after reading multiple Internet reports on the show, I don’t feel like I missed out on anything special.

I’m not trying to put a damper on things for anyone who is a die-hard fan of the old ECW and enjoyed the night of nostalgia. Hardcore Justice was designed to appeal to you. It just didn’t appeal to me. As I have said before, I liked ECW back in the day (and I continue to watch old ECW shows occasionally on WWE On Demand), but I never loved it.

There’s no denying the impact that ECW had on the wrestling industry in the ’90s, as its edgy content clearly spawned the WWF’s hugely successful Attitude Era. And I have the utmost respect for Paul Heyman as a booker and for the talent that pushed their bodies to the limit to entertain the fans. But I always saw ECW for what it was – a low-budget organization that carved out a nice niche for itself but was not in the same league as the WWF and WCW.

As for Hardcore Justice, it sounds as if Rob Van Dam and Sabu put on a good show in the main event (which doesn’t surprise me) but that the rest of the card was pretty forgettable. The word I saw used by several people on various websites to describe the pay-per-view was “sad.” And while it was advertised that there would be "plenty of surprises," the only one that really would have mattered -- that being Heyman showing up at the Impact Zone -- didn't happen.

I’d love to hear from those of you who bought the show as to whether you feel you got your money’s worth.

One final thought: I have always found it amusing that ECW promoted itself as anti-establishment and its fan base was programmed to hate WWE, but Vince McMahon was secretly pouring money into the company to keep it in business. That’s why I had to roll my eyes when I read that the crowd at the Impact Zone began a profane chant directed at McMahon during the in-ring celebration at the end of the show.

I think, “Thank you, Vince” would have been more appropriate.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 4:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (58)
        

The story began making the rounds on the Internet Saturday that Jerry Lynn, who was scheduled to face Rob Van Dam in one of the two main events at TNA’s Hardcore Justice pay-per-view tonight, had suffered a back injury and would be unable to compete.

About an hour ago, TNA president Dixie Carter revealed on her Twitter page who would take Lynn’s place against RVD.

It will be Sabu.

When I first saw the reports Saturday evening about Lynn’s injury, the first person I thought of to fill the spot was Sabu, who had already been listed on TNA’s website as appearing on the show.

RVD and Sabu have a history, and quite frankly, as good as the RVD-Lynn series of matches were back in the day, Sabu is viewed as a much bigger star than Lynn among die-hard ECW fans.

On a side note, I spent some time with RVD Saturday afternoon, as he was in Baltimore along with several other TNA stars for the National Sports Collectors Convention, and he did not seem to know anything about Lynn having to back out of the match. In fact, during an interview that I conducted with him, RVD said how much he was looking forward to getting in the ring again with Lynn.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 5:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
        

In the climax to Friday night’s Smackdown, Rey Mysterio finally said what I and a lot of other wrestling fans have been thinking for a couple months now: “It was you, Kane!”

Mysterio, who was accused by Kane of being The Undertaker’s attacker on last week’s show, said that he knows it was actually Kane who was responsible for taking out his own brother. Kane’s twisted mind seemed to have a hard time processing this, as he fell to his knees and began murmuring, “I love my brother.”

I don’t think there is any chance of this happening, but it would be tremendous if WWE pulls a huge swerve and it is revealed that the culprit really is Mysterio. Or possibly someone else. Just anyone but Kane.

Other thoughts on Friday’s show:

I was thrilled to see Dolph Ziggler finally win some gold, as he defeated Kofi Kingston for the Intercontinental title. However, I thought the finish was a bit anti-climactic. …

To say that Kingston got his heat back after the match would be an understatement, as he totally destroyed Ziggler. Kingston’s sudden aggressive streak just might be what his character needs to get to the next level. …

It was odd not seeing Jack Swagger on the show this week. I hope he didn’t go down for the count in the Gulf of Mexico. …

It was nice to get a fresh match-up – both in the ring and on the mic – as Mysterio and Drew McIntyre opened the show with a verbal exchange and concluded it with a physical one. I thought their talking was segment was just OK, but their match – which Mysterio won – was solid. …

The co-women’s champions shtick with Lay-Cool has officially jumped the shark. This was the night that Smackdown general manager Teddy Long was supposed to put and end to the foolishness, but Layla and Michelle McCool appear to have out-smarted him. After McCool turned over her title belt to Long, she engaged in a tug-of-war with Layla over the other belt, which broke into two pieces ala Lay-Cool’s BFF necklaces. So now instead of McCool and Layla each having their own belt, they have two halves of one belt. Come on, Teddy. Do your job! …

I really liked CM Punk’s promo in which he berated his Straight Edge Society disciples for being happy. Ordering them to get down on their knees and saying, “I don’t remember telling any of you that you could be happy … happiness is weakness,” was classic. …

Is MVP back in the doghouse? It’s one thing to be constantly stuck in the mid-card, but this is ridiculous. Not only was MVP teamed up with low-level guys such as JTG and Chris Masters in a six-man tag match against the SES, but he was the one who did the job. My hope is that this latest burial of MVP leads to a heel turn and a push, but I’m certainly not counting on it. …

The Cody Rhodes-Matt Hardy match was decent. It was a mild surprise to see Rhodes get the clean victory. …

I’m warming up to Rhodes’ “dashing” gimmick. Not only do I find him entertaining, but I’m picking up some valuable grooming tips.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 3:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (30)
        

Here is an interview I conducted with former ECW star and Baltimore native Axl Rotten at the Maryland Championship Wrestling show last weekend in Dundalk.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 12:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Video interviews
        

I wasn’t sure if I was watching TNA Impact Thursday night or a “Best of the ’90s” special on WWE On Demand.

The opening segment featured Raven and Tommy Dreamer still arguing over Beulah McGillicutty, and the show concluded with a dramatic appearance by The Sandman,

In between, we saw Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash and Eric Bischoff “shooting” about backstage politics, and Sting – in red face paint – and Jeff Jarrett doing run-ins. Oh, and there also was a match in which Ric Flair ended up in his underwear and was bleeding all over the place.

Now for the best part: Hogan told Nash that it wasn’t about the old stars anymore; TNA is all about the next generation. Oh, the irony.

In all seriousness, I certainly can understand the former ECW stars being a focal point since this was the go-home show for Sunday’s ECW-themed Hardcore Justice pay-per-view, but do we really need a re-hash of the nWo Black and White versus the nWo Wolfpac feud?

As for Flair’s street fight against Jay Lethal, I don’t know who should be more ashamed, Flair for embarrassing himself again or TNA for allowing one of the all-time greats to continue to tarnish his legacy. I found no entertainment value whatsoever in watching Flair, with his 61-year-old rear end exposed and wearing just his underwear and one sock and one shoe, bleed profusely and get smashed in the head with a garbage can.

Other thoughts on Thursday’s show:

TNA obviously believes that the concept of an ECW reunion show and promoting that certain stars will appear is enough to entice fans to purchase Hardcore Justice, as only two matches for the pay-per-view were announced: Dreamer vs. Raven (with Mick Foley as special referee) and Rob Van Dam vs. Jerry Lynn. It’s interesting that Sabu – one of the bigger stars among the ECW Originals – is listed on TNA’s website as being on the show, but he was not mentioned on TV (at least I didn’t hear it). …

Personally, I’m a lot more excited about next week’s special edition of Impact (which is being called “The Whole F’n Show”) than I am about Hardcore Justice. Not only is it a loaded show, but it’s free. Here’s the lineup:

• TNA world champion RVD vs. Abyss in a ladder match (with Eric Bischoff as special referee)
• Kurt Angle vs. A.J. Styles
• Best-of-five series finale: TNA world tag team champions The Motor City Machine Guns vs. Beer Money
• Jeff Hardy vs. a mystery opponent
• TNA Knockouts champion Madison Rayne vs. Angelina Love
• Mr. Anderson vs. “The Pope” D’Angelo Dinero vs. Matt Morgan

Next week’s RVD-Abyss ladder match – which will have Abyss’ board of nails (which he refers to as “Janice”) suspended above the ring – is being called a “Stairway to Janice” match. Ugh. By the way, I fully expect Bischoff to turn heel and cost RVD the match. …

I know I write this every week, but it never gets old: The Guns and Beer Money had another great match. This time it was an Ultimate X contest, which the Guns won to even the series at two matches apiece. I hate to see this program end. …

I’m not thrilled that Lethal lost to Flair in the street fight, but at least the match was booked in such a way that made it clear that Lethal should have won convincingly. Lethal lost due to the interference of TNA X Division champion Douglas Williams, which presumably leads to a title program between the two. I have no problem with that, although I do hope that TNA explains why Williams got involved. …

The slow-motion slugfest between Hogan and Nash was almost as bad as my RKO on The Baltimore Sun’s Peter Schmuck at the Maryland Championship Wrestling show last Saturday. …

It was great to see Hamada back on TV and it was a pleasant surprise when she and Taylor Wilde defeated The Beautiful People for the TNA Knockouts tag team title. …

Lacey Von Erich is great to look at it, but she is clearly the worst female worker in either TNA or WWE – by a lot. The Divas match between Layla and Tiffany on WWE Superstars Thursday night looked like Jack Brisco vs. Dory Funk Jr. compared to the “action” when LVE was in the ring. …

It was announced that TNA Reaction (the documentary-style backstage interview show) will finally debut as a weekly series next Thursday after Impact. I like the concept of the show but that means wrestling will now be on TV from 8 p.m. to midnight every Thursday. Oh well, having a life is overrated anyway.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 3:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (34)
        

Here is an interview I conducted with TNA's Tommy Dreamer last Saturday at the Maryland Championship Wrestling show in Dundalk:

Posted by Kevin Eck at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Video interviews
        

TNA stars Kurt Angle, Mick Foley, Rob Van Dam, Velvet Sky, Madison Rayne and Lacey Von Erich will be signing autographs at The National Sports Collectors Convention at The Baltimore Convention Center Saturday afternoon.

Each of them will appear for two hours. Here are the start times:

• Foley, 10:45 a.m.
• Angle, 11 a.m.
• Sky, Rayne and Von Erich, 12:30 p.m.
• RVD, 12:45 p.m.

For more information about the TNA signing event, click click here.

For more information about the sports collectors convention, click here.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 6:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

I’m sure by now most of you have heard the news about TNA suspending Samoa Joe for disciplinary reasons. According to various Internet reports, Joe felt as though the finish to his match with Jeff Hardy on the July 22 episode of Impact was telegraphed (it ended in a time-limit draw), and he voiced his displeasure about it in the production truck after the match. It is believed that he will be suspended for about a month.

Of course I don’t know exactly how heated the situation got, but my initial impression is that a one-month suspension for an outburst over creative differences is a bit harsh, especially for one of the company’s top guys. It makes me wonder if there have been other instances of Joe having attitude issues and management feeling as if it had to take a stand.

If Joe acted unprofessionally (apparently entering the production truck to complain was a breach of etiquette), I won’t defend his behavior, but I will say this: Based on how poorly his character has been booked at times during the past couple years, I could certainly understand how he would be frustrated (although he has been booked much better as of late).

On a side note, I wonder what the odds are that TNA will make a story line out of this when Joe returns to TV.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 2:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (17)
        

• The opening segment of NXT Tuesday night, which saw the six remaining rookies participate in a kissing contest, was pure WrestleCrap, but it was so awful that I couldn’t take my eyes off it (the old train-wreck principle). Lay-Cool, who hosted the contest, is always hit or miss, and this was a big whiff. Layla and Michelle McCool teased that they would be the ones kissing the rookies, but I knew that wasn’t happening for two reasons: 1. The segment wouldn’t be “funny” unless the woman was unattractive (I thought for sure Mae Young was showing up; instead it turned out to be an obese woman with cold sores named Margarita); 2. No one kisses Mrs. Undertaker except Mr. Undertaker.

• Lucky Cannon kissed Margarita like he meant it and won the contest. Unfortunately for him, the winner did not receive immunity in next week’s poll (and boy does Cannon need it). After Cannon emerged as the victor in the liplock challenge, Lay-Cool told him that he – and all the rookies – “won” gingivitis, halitosis, athlete’s foot and cooties. Cannon ended up looking like a complete idiot, but the worst was yet to come for him. Later in the show, Cannon was squashed by Michael McGillicutty in about a minute.

• Kaval lost to Husky Harris for the second straight time, and unlike last week’s defeat, this one was clean. I don’t know which is the bigger joke: Kaval losing to Harris not once but twice or the fact that Kaval is now 1-5.

• OK, we get it. WWE wants Harris to remain on the show and Cannon to get voted off. Could it be any more obvious? By the way, Josh Matthews was wrong when he said that the kissing contest was “the only thing Lucky Cannon is going to win on NXT.” How could he forget about Cannon’s monumental victory in the keg-carrying challenge five weeks ago?

• The main event between The Miz and McGillicutty (his win over Cannon was for the right to face The Miz) wasn’t bad for a five-minute match. McGillicutty is no longer perfect, as The Miz scored the clean victory to hand McGillicutty his first loss in seven matches.

• The Alex Riley-Percy Watson match (which Riley won) also was fine but short.

• John Morrison should just quit trying to talk smack to The Miz. It should be obvious to Morrison that he can’t win that battle. When Morrison tried verbally sparring with his former tag team partner this week, The Miz responded by saying, “Since we’ve been done, I’ve done everything and you’ve done nothing.” Game over.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 3:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (20)
        

Things went from bad to worse for John Cena’s SummerSlam team Monday night on Raw.

A week after Raw ended with the bickering team members shoving each other, both Edge and Chris Jericho quit the squad. So that leaves Team Cena – at least for now – at a seven-on-five disadvantage for its pay-per-view match against The Nexus on Aug. 15.

In a related development, longtime rivals Edge and Jericho buried the hatchet and joined forces. They will take on Cena and Bret Hart in a tag team match next week on Raw, with The Nexus surrounding the ring as lumberjacks.

To further complicate things for Cena’s bunch, The Nexus is trying to convince The Great Khali to leave Cena and join them.

I’ll say this: The WWE creative team is certainly doing everything it possibly can to make Team Cena appear to be the underdogs heading into SummerSlam. It’ll be interesting to see what happens next week with Hart in the mix.

Other thoughts on Monday’s show:

The best part of the show was the match between Cena and Jericho and their post-match interaction. The stipulation – which was Jericho’s idea – was that the loser of the match had to leave the team. The match told a good story. Jericho dominated the action, and it was suggested in commentary that Cena was distracted and his heart wasn’t really in it. When Cena gained the advantage and went for the STF, Jericho quickly tapped out before Cena could even fully apply the hold. It wasn’t explained why Jericho gave up so easily. After the match, Cena pleaded with Jericho to stay on the team. Jericho thought it over and teased that he would before eventually walking away to a loud chorus of boos. …

The main event between Randy Orton and The Miz was good. The Miz got in a lot of offense before falling to the RKO. …

WWE champion Sheamus was put over strong, as he scored a quick squash victory over Goldust. It’s a shame that Goldust is being made to look like such a jobber, but I understand why WWE booked this match the way it did. Sheamus needs to come across as force heading into his SummerSlam title defense against Orton, and his dominant performance against a guy he had a lot of trouble defeating a year ago (clips of Sheamus-Goldust matches from ECW were shown) illustrates just how far he has come. …

It was nice to see R-Truth – rather than someone such as Cena or Jericho – interrupt Edge’s promo during the opening segment. R-Truth did a fine job on the mic. …

The Edge-Wade Barrett match was decent and had a logical finish. After demanding before the match that no one on Team Cena get involved, Edge ended up running away when the six other Nexus members showed up to interfere. …

The six-woman tag match that saw WWE Divas champion Alicia Fox, Jillian Hall and Tamina defeat Eve Torres, Gail Kim and Natalya was entertaining. I thought for a second that Natalya was going to beat Fox to set up a title program between them, but it turned out to be wishful thinking, as Fox pinned Natalya for the win. It became clear to me at that point that WWE was keeping Fox strong for a program with the returning Melina, who has been out since December after suffering a torn anterior cruciate ligament. Sure enough, out came Melina in street clothes to lay out Fox. It was no secret that Melina’s return was imminent, but I had been thinking that she was going to be reunited with John Morrison to take on Ted DiBiase Jr. and Maryse before getting back into the title picture. …

The trailer for the new Cena movie, “Legendary,” looked interesting. After “The Marine” and “12 Rounds,” it’s refreshing to see him doing something other than another by-the-numbers action flick. …

There was no guest host again this week, but we did get one taped skit with Will Ferrell, Mark Wahlberg and The Bella Twins. It wasn’t bad. Ferrell and Wahlberg were promoting their upcoming movie, “The Other Guys,” which also has Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson in it. …

I don’t know how many markets this aired in, but an ad for TNA’s Hardcore Justice pay-per-view aired during one of the commercial breaks. The funny thing is that the show was referred to by its original name of Hard Justice and all of the typical TNA stars were featured, including Sting. There was no footage of Tommy Dreamer, Raven, etc.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 3:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (29)
        

Here are the highlights of the six-man tag team match that pitted me, Ronnie Zukko and Cole Callaway against Baltimore Sun sports columnist and blogger Peter Schmuck and Fed-Up at Maryland Championship Wrestling's Shamrock Cup Saturday night at The New Green Room in Dundalk.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 1:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (36)
        

Baltimore Sun sports columnist and blogger Peter Schmuck has posted his thoughts on his humbling experience at Maryland Championship Wrestling’s Shamrock Cup Saturday night.

Predictably, Schmuck is a sore loser. It’s a shame that RKO didn’t pound any sense into him.

To read his comments, click here.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 6:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
        

Peter Schmuck pulled every dirty trick in the book, but it wasn’t enough.

The smart-aleck Baltimore Sun sports columnist and blogger finally got his comeuppance (not to mention a thorough butt-kicking) before a standing-room-only crowd of more than 700 at Maryland Championship Wrestling’s Shamrock Cup Saturday night at The New Green Room in Dundalk, as Ronnie Zukko, Cole Callaway and I defeated Schmuck and Fed-Up in the Battle of the Bloggers six-man tag match.

I’ll admit that things looked bad for our side for a while and I was pretty frustrated by Schmuck repeatedly avoiding any physical contact with me except to pick his spots and deliver cheap shots, but once I saw an opening, I seized it.

When I realized that I had Schmuck cornered, it was like an out-of-body experience. I was practically salivating as I waited for Schmuck to turn around so that I could deliver the RKO Heard Around Dundalk.

Hopefully, Schmuck learned his lesson about insulting pro wrestling and Dundalk. I had a great time getting in the ring (one more thing I can cross off my bucket list) and managed to get through the match without breaking my neck (although my chest is still sore from all the chops I took from Fed-Up). I appreciate the fans who supported me, as well as the efforts and patience of my trainers – Zukko, Earl The Pearl and Duane “Gillberg” Gill. I suppose I even have to thank the Fed-Ups boys, because if they didn’t agree to team with Schmuck, there wouldn’t have been a match.

My only regret is that by being backstage all night I missed what was by most accounts a fantastic show. Ryan McBride defeated Kent Brick for the MCW championship in a match that really popped the crowd, Christian York won the Shamrock Cup and Mickie James and Tommy Dreamer both wrestled.

There will be video footage of my match as well as video interviews with James, Dreamer and Axl Rotten in the coming days.

Two winners at MCW's Shamrock Cup: Mickie James and me

Posted by Kevin Eck at 5:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)
        

After watching Friday night’s Smackdown, we now know who attacked The Undertaker over Memorial Day weekend and left “The Dead Man” in a vegetative state.

Kane opened the show by announcing that The Undertaker finally came to and managed to speak. He said his “brother” uttered just two words: “Rey Mysterio.”

Kane said that means that Mysterio is the guilty party. Well, in reality, it was during a match with Mysterio that The Undertaker suffered the injury (broken orbital bone) that put him on the shelf. Of course, we all know that Kane’s claim really proves that Kane himself is the attacker.

I thought it was odd that the announcers didn’t really seem fazed by the fact that Mysterio – one of WWE’s most beloved babyfaces – was being accused of committing such a heinous attack. I also figured such a shocking development would be referenced throughout the show and that Mysterio would be given a chance to defend himself in an interview, but neither happened. I’m guessing that Mysterio will address the situation on next week’s show.

Other thoughts on Friday’s show:

Kane again did a great job on his promo, but I really wish WWE would quit playing that cheesy music while he’s speaking. The Undertaker and Kane characters and story lines are hokey enough already. …

I enjoyed the wild no-disqualification match between Mysterio and Jack Swagger, which spilled out of the arena in Corpus Christi, Texas and into the Gulf of Mexico. Kane appearing at the end to chokeslam Mysterio into the water was predictable but effective. …

I liked the Dolph Ziggler-Kofi Kingston match, although I didn’t understand the logic behind Ziggler having to beat Kingston a second straight week in order to get a shot at Kingston’s Intercontinental title. Shouldn’t Ziggler have automatically received a title shot after pinning Kingston in a non-title match last week? Nevertheless, I’m looking forward to their title match on next week’s show. …

Kingston showed an uncharacteristic amount of fire during the match, as he went ballistic after getting slapped by Vickie Guerrero and proceeded to get disqualified for his relentless attack on Ziggler. Kingston having more of an edge is a good thing. …

Christian and Drew McIntyre had another good match, although there were two giveaways that Christian was going to win: 1. McIntyre was dominating the match; 2. McIntyre defeated Christian two weeks ago, so it was Christian’s turn to win. …

It was nice to see The Straight Edge Society looking strong again, as they brutally attacked The Big Show’s right hand. CM Punk, by the way, looks awesomely evil with a shaved head and scraggly beard. …

I didn’t really mind the co-women’s champions deal with Lay-Cool since they were referred to as “self-professed” and when it came time to defend the title, it was always Layla (the official champion) who did so. That changed on this show, however, as Guerrero announced before Layla’s title defense against Tiffany that it would in fact be Michelle McCool putting the title on the line. My first thought was: Why doesn’t Smackdown general manager Teddy Long overrule Guerrero and force Layla to wrestle? As it turned out, after McCool retained the championship, Long announced that there could only be one champion, and that if Lay-Cool doesn’t decide which one of them it’s going to be by next week, he will. It would have been nice if Long had done that before the match. As for letting McCool and Layla choose who is going to be champ, I get from a story line standpoint that it sets up a conflict between them, but from a logic standpoint, Long should have just ruled that Layla is the recognized champion and that’s that.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 4:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)