The Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame is perhaps the most-respected of pro wrestling’s various halls of fame, but even it has one inexplicable omission.

This year’s Observer Hall of Fame issue came out this week, and the late Capt. Lou Albano once again came up short in the voting. On the bright side, the legendary former WWWF/WWF manager is getting closer to taking his rightful place among the industry’s all-time greats.

Albano received 95 votes (52 percent), 14 votes shy of getting the 60 percent required for induction. That’s way up from the 19 percent that he got last year.

As often seems to be the case with recently deceased candidates for the Observer Hall of Fame, Albano – who died last October at 76 – somehow became more deserving in the minds of the voters (active and former wrestlers, reporters and historians) now that he is no longer with us.

Getting into the Observer Hall of Fame primarily for managing isn’t easy – only Bobby Heenan and Jim Cornette have done so. Those two certainly belong, but I think Albano’s induction is every bit as much of a no-brainer, if not more so.

During the territory days of the WWWF/WWF in the ’70s and early ’80s, the charismatic Albano consistently was the top heel in the area, and he transferred his heat to the men in his stable as well as any pro wrestling manager ever has. When one of Albano’s men was wrestling a top babyface such as Bruno Sammartino, Pedro Morales, Bob Backlund or Chief Jay Strongbow, fans bought tickets in droves primarily because they hated Albano and wanted to see his wrestler get his comeuppance.

In the mid-80s, Albano – through his association with pop star Cyndi Lauper – was instrumental in the WWF becoming a pop culture phenomenon. The Rock and Wrestling Connection story line with Albano, Lauper, Hulk Hogan and Roddy Piper laid the ground work for the first WrestleMania.

Observer editor Dave Meltzer wrote in this week’s issue that he also believes Albano should be in the Hall of Fame.

“It was researching his career and life after his death that hit home to me that he belongs in, as opposed to just being one of a lot of guys on the ballot,” Meltzer wrote.

Anyone who ever saw Albano in his prime has to know that he truly was one of a kind. Or, to use Albano’s words, he was “often imitated, never duplicated.” Hopefully, the Hall of Fame voters will do right by The Captain next year.

Note: The 2010 Observer Hall of Fame class consists of Chris Jericho, Rey Mysterio and historical figure Wladek Zbyszko.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 10:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (12)
        

I conducted a phone interview earlier this week with Intercontinental champion Dolph Ziggler. Ziggler will be among the WWE stars appearing on Friday’s live episode of Smackdown, as the show makes its debut on SyFy.

Do you and the other talent look at Smackdown moving to a new network as a chance to make a first impression?

Of course. Moving to SyFy is exciting for the Smackdown brand itself and also to us. Every time something new comes up like this or a pay-per-view – Hell in a Cell is coming up Oct. 3 – you get a chance to make a name for yourself. We’re moving to a new network and possibly a new audience. I, being the ham that I am, always want people looking at me. I want to show off on a regular basis, but the live show this Friday is a big chance for a lot of guys to step up. I’m really excited and I want to be the one that people remember from this move.

You had an outstanding amateur wrestling career, including at the collegiate level at Kent State, and you also were a big pro wrestling fan growing up. How did your desire to be a pro wrestler go over with the amateur wrestling community, and do you get any grief now about being a pro wrestler from your old amateur wrestling friends?

Actually, back then I got it a lot more than I do now. I was a big fan of amateur wrestling and I loved it and dedicated my whole life to it for 20-something years, and it’s not really a glory-getting sport. But it does toughen you up and I have a lot of respect for all those guys and the time we all put in, and it really helped me develop my career now. But I used to get a lot of grief then – “Yeah, you want to do that phony stuff, that fake stuff.” I don’t get it as much now because whenever I get a chance I recognize what I did to get here and how hard those guys sacrificed. I have more respect for amateur wrestlers, especially collegiate ones, than anyone else. It’s a gutsy sport with no real payoff except for knowing that you were better than someone else. It doesn’t have big crowds, it doesn’t have big money, but it is fun going one on one. You can’t put the blame on a team – it’s on you to be the best or not be the best.

Coming into pro wrestling, you obviously had the athletic background. Was it a challenge to pick up the entertainment aspect of it?

Honestly, I could see some other guys having that problem when they make the transition from sports. Me, I’ve always been a big fan and supporter of the entertainment part. That’s what I tried to do in high school and college – make entertaining matches. I tried to somehow have the opposing team hate me or be a jerk. I loved it. Everyone’s watching you and you stand out, and I love standing out. I live for everyone watching me and watching me do something I’m great at, and that was amateur wrestling and now sports entertainment.

Who were some of the wrestlers that you liked growing up?

When I was 5 years old, Hulk Hogan was the world to a lot of little kids. I even got the weight set with the sand in it. Even though my mom didn’t want me working out at 5, my dad let me do pull-ups, pushups and sit-ups. As I became a fan and studied – not just watched and enjoyed but actually studied the wrestlers and their matches – I became a big fan of Shawn Michaels and Ric Flair. Those two guys would orchestrate a 40- or 60-minute match and they had total control, total presence, and they were so smooth and great in the ring that you always wanted to see what they were going to do next no matter how many times you had seen them in the ring. They were so great at what they did, and that’s how I want people to view me one day. It’ll be like, “Oh, we didn’t like him, but damn it we had to watch him.”

How frustrating was it to get a couple stints in WWE – with the Spirit Squad and as Chavo Guerrero’s sidekick – several years ago only to get sent back down to Ohio Valley Wrestling? Did you ever begin to doubt whether you’d make it?

I never doubted that I would work hard and put it all on the line and get my shot, but it is a cut-throat business. It’s about entertaining fans, and sometimes you get one shot, sometimes you get two, sometimes you get three. You never know what’s going to happen. The first two times – when I did the caddy with Chavo and the Spirit Squad – those were all six months and a year into just learning how to wrestle. I always thought if I got another chance, I’m going to make it worth my while. For years I was going to two and three practices a day trying to catch up, and those experiences I drew from. Man, I got a little taste of what it’s like – I want to be a main guy. That drove me to work harder, and honestly, I thought I worked harder than everybody else – and it still doesn’t guarantee that you’re going to get a shot. But the harder you work, the luckier you get sometimes, and that’s how it’s panned out for me.

When you first came on WWE TV as Dolph Ziggler, you were doing the bit where you kept introducing yourself to everyone. Was that some kind of a rib or an inside joke?

I don’t think it was a rib or an inside joke, but it was a way for me to get noticed, and I’ve always been kind of big on getting noticed and getting my name and my face out there, and that was the perfect way to do it. It just slowly put me in the back of the casual WWE Universe viewer’s mind. It was, “Let’s see what he’s going to do,” and then finally build up to a match. Honestly, the character is me in my real life, if not turned down a little bit. I’m a little over the top; I love when everyone looks at me; and I love beating people. I just love showing that I’m better than everyone else, and it’s not even being cocky, it just that’s how I am and sometimes I have to tone it down a little bit.

That’s different. Most guys usually say their character is them with the volume turned up, but you’re saying that character is you turned down.

I feel like I am the only person on our roster that tones down his real-life persona for his character.

You are one of quite a few young guys who are jockeying for spots in WWE. What is that like – is it a friendly competition? Obviously, there are only so many spots there.

That’s true, man. There are only so many spots and there’s a bunch of guys training in [Florida Championship Wrestling] and you’ve got the whole Nexus – at some point they’re all going to be on their own. The young guys have made their move and made their point, but, technically, I’m still a young guy even though I’ve been here for five and a half years. I’m 30 years old, and a lot of our top guys who have been world champions, they’re in their mid-30s, late-30s or older. So I think I’m on pace to be a great world champion in the next couple years. The competition is friendly, but it’s also not. It’s like, hey, we’re buddies, and a lot of us have trained together and worked hard, but when it comes down to it, I want the top spot, not you.

Do you view your program with Rey Mysterio last year as sort of a turning point for you, something that really put you on the map?

It really did. It showed that I can go with a top guy and not have all the responsibility be with him. I can actually hold my own. That’s something that I thought for a long time and they actually believed in me that we could go. We had several pay-per-view matches and I was really proud of almost all of them. I really thought that I deserved a shot at being Intercontinental champion. Some people would be like, “Oh, it’s cool. I had a shot.” I wanted to be champion, and on my schedule, I was prepared to win it a year ago. It just drove me that much harder to make sure that I got it this year.

Who is the one person in WWE you’d like to have a program with that you haven’t yet?

I wish Shawn Michaels was still around. I think he’s the best ever and I honestly think I have the gas in the tank to go 60 minutes back and forth and show that I could hang with the best ever. As far as guys on Smackdown right now, I’ve never even been in the ring with The Undertaker. It’s honestly a little chilling to think you’d be standing across from him in a match on TV. When it puts shivers up my back thinking about it, then that means that it’s a very special thing that I’d like to do one day.

Photo courtesy of World Wrestling Entertainment

Posted by Kevin Eck at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)
Categories: Q&As
        

• WWE made it official that Tuesday night’s episode of NXT would be the final one on SyFy. Beginning next week, NXT will be shown exclusively on nxt.wwe.com. The show didn’t exactly go out with a bang. It consisted of two challenges, a re-airing of the final segment from last week’s Smackdown and the Raw Rebound. There were no wrestling matches. Even worse, there was no CM Punk on commentary. It was never explained why Punk wasn’t there after he said last week that he would be back.

• Vickie Guerrero and Kaitlyn had a pull-apart at the end of the show, and it was announced that they would face each other in a wrestling match on next week’s program. It’s looking more and more likely that Kaitlyn is going to end up being a WWE Diva regardless of whether or not she wins NXT Season 3.

• Kaitlyn and A.J. both came off as likable in their video packages.

• A.J. won the “Diss the Divas” challenge, in which the rookies had 60 seconds to cut a promo on the other women. She did an OK job, but I thought Maxine’s promo was a lot better. Maxine cut a heel promo, however, so she had no chance since the winner was determined by audience reaction. The only other rookie to cut a halfway decent promo was Naomi.

• Kaitlyn won the wheelbarrow race challenge, which was pretty much just an excuse to get Hornswoggle on the show.

• The “This Week in WWE History” feature focused on a Raw show at Madison Square Garden in 1997. Among the highlights was Cactus Jack (Mick Foley) defeating Triple H in a Falls Count Anywhere Match. It’s pretty interesting that WWE plugged Foley’s book on Raw Monday and then showed him beating Triple H the next night.

• The first elimination of NXT Season 3 will take place next week. Here’s how I would rank the rookies based on their potential to make it as a WWE Diva:

1. Naomi
2. Kaitlyn
3. A.J.
4. Maxine
5. Jamie
6. Aksana

Posted by Kevin Eck at 8:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (26)
        

WWE Diva Tiffany (real name Taryn Terrell) has been cleared of assault charges stemming from a domestic disturbance between her and husband Drew McIntyre last month in Los Angeles, according to multiple reports.

Tiffany, who has not appeared on WWE television programming since her arrest, reportedly was suspended as a result of the incident, although WWE never made an official announcement in that regard.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 3:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

It appears that Chris Jericho has made his last appearance on Raw for a while. Now ain’t that a kick in the head?

In the main event of Monday night’s Raw, WWE champion Randy Orton defeated Jericho by disqualification (thanks to outside interference by Sheamus) and then proceeded to give him a stiff-looking punt to the head after the match. Jericho was taken from the ring on a stretcher.

Jericho and WWE reportedly could not come to terms on a new contract, so this was an angle to write him out of the show. It is widely believed that Jericho, who will embark on an overseas tour with his band Fozzy next month, will eventually be back in WWE, but how long he’ll be gone is unknown. My guess is that he’ll return before WrestleMania XXVII in April.

Jericho’s swan song on Raw (for now) was emblematic of his WWE career. He cut an entertaining promo, participated in a good match and, in the end, put someone over.

The man who says that he is the best in the world at what he does just might be. WWE is definitely not as fun when he’s not around, so hopefully Jericho will be back sooner rather than later to once again perform for all of us parasites and hypocrites.

Other thoughts on Monday’s show:

Having Orton make good on his threat to take out Jericho was an effective way to reinforce that Orton is not a typical babyface. Sheamus, who witnessed Orton kicking Jericho in the head from ringside, did a nice job of selling the realization that he could be Orton’s next victim when they meet in the Hell in a Cell match at the Hell in a Cell pay-per-view on Sunday. …

Jericho reciting the names of all the guys that he supposedly has beaten was funny. It started out with the usual names – Steve Austin, The Rock, Triple H, The Undertaker, etc. – and then WWE cut to a commercial. When the break was over, Jericho was still in the ring rattling off names, including a bunch of Japanese wrestlers, Villainos I, II, III and IV, and Kevin Nash, Diesel and Oz. …

The bit with Edge interviewing the anonymous Raw general manger (who was using a computer-generated voice) and later destroying the computer was pretty amusing. I couldn’t help but laugh when Edge grabbed the computer and the voice started calling for Michael Cole to step in and do something. …

It’s always good to see a match between longtime rivals John Cena and Edge, although it was too short to be anything special. It was obvious that the GM was going to re-start the match after Edge seemingly got the win by pinning Cena while Cena’s foot was under the bottom rope. …

Having Sheamus brutalize The Great Khali was a good way to get Sheamus over as a threat to Orton heading into their pay-per-view match. Khali isn’t exactly a top contender these days, but seeing someone beat up a guy his size is still an effective visual. …

Sheamus cut a promo about an old Irish tale and proclaimed himself “the fiery red hand of the WWE.” Well OK then, fella. …

In the most surreal moment of the night, Cole gave a shout-out to Mick Foley and plugged Foley’s new book, “Countdown to Lockdown,” which chronicles the build-up for Foley’s match against Sting at TNA’s Lockdown pay-per-view in 2009. Wow. …

Rather than booking another match between U.S. champion Daniel Bryan and The Miz at Hell in a Cell, WWE has added John Morrison to the mix and it will be a triple threat submission match with falls counting anywhere. Sounds good to me. I’m just glad that Morrison will be on the pay-per-view. …

Nexus got decent heat from the crowd for their beat-down of Evan Bourne after Heath Slater and Justin Gabriel defeated Bourne and Mark Henry. …

It’s looking like The Hart Dynasty is headed for a breakup, with David Hart Smith possibly turning heel. There was dissension between him and Tyson Kidd after they failed to regain the WWE tag team title from Drew McIntyre and Cody Rhodes. …

Lay-Cool’s commentary during the Divas No. 1 contender’s battle royal was absolutely unbearable. …

I was surprised to see Melina be the first one eliminated in the battle royal, and even more surprised (pleasantly so) that Natalya won it. So in notching that victory, Natalya earned the right to job to a member of Lay-Cool in an upcoming WWE Divas title match. …

It was announced that Johnny Knoxville will be the guest star on next week’s Raw. I’m not a “Jackass” fan at all, but I did think that Knoxville did a good job as The Rock’s sidekick in “Walking Tall.”

Posted by Kevin Eck at 4:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (50)
        

In my review of last Sunday’s Night of Champions pay-per-view, I included a line about The Undertaker possibly bringing back Paul Bearer from the dead to help him “urn back” his dark powers.

Sure enough, there was the morbid manager rising from a casket, urn in hand, to reunite with The Undertaker at the end of Smackdown Friday night.

You didn’t need to have supernatural powers to figure out that Bearer’s return to WWE after a six-year absence was imminent. No Undertaker-Kane program would be complete without him, and with The Undertaker needing something to help him get back on track, it was a no-brainer.

The Undertaker – who was shown several times throughout the show sitting alone and despondent backstage – immediately perked up when he saw Bearer. Suddenly, he looked like The Undertaker of old rather than an old Undertaker, and he got the better of a physical exchange with a stunned Kane. As expected, it was announced that Kane will defend the world heavyweight title against The Undertaker in a Hell in a Cell match at the pay-per-view of the same name on Oct. 3.

It will be interesting to see if WWE addresses the fact that the last time we saw Bearer, The Undertaker seemingly murdered him by burying him in an enclosed case filled with cement. How did Bearer survive? And why has he chosen to side with The Undertaker rather than his “son” Kane?

Whether or not it was by design, the timing couldn’t be more perfect for WWE to be doing a story line with these three characters, as Smackdown officially moves to SyFy this coming Friday.

Other thoughts on Friday’s show:

In an attempt to make the best of the unfortunate situation of Christian suffering a torn pectoral muscle, WWE got heat on Alberto Del Rio, who attacked and “injured” Christian. In the story line, Del Rio has now put out both Christian and Rey Mysterio, who will be returning on next week’s show to wrestle Del Rio. …

Kane again did some good mic work, but I’m begging WWE to stop playing the hokey music when he’s speaking. The story line is hokey enough already. …

The Kane-Chris Masters match that opened the show was pretty boring. The crowd was dead silent during the spot in which Masters had Kane in The Masterlock, as no one believed for a second that Kane wasn’t going to break the hold. …

WWE NXT Season 2 winner Kaval isn’t getting quite the same push that Season 1 winner Wade Barrett is getting. Barrett is feuding with John Cena and wrestling in pay-per-view main events. Kaval, on the other hand, just jobbed to Chavo Guerrero. I had no problem with Kaval losing a very competitive match to Drew McIntyre in his Smackdown debut, but putting over Chavo? What the [heck]? …

McIntyre and Cody Rhodes’ successful defense of the WWE tag team title against The Hart Dynasty was an OK match. By the way, why was this match taking place on Smackdown? Aren’t David Hart Smith and Tyson Kidd officially members of the Raw roster? Ah whatever. …

I’m not too optimistic about the future of the Vance Archer/Curt Hawkins tag team, as they were squashed by The Big Show in a handicap match that lasted a little over a minute. Ouch. …

I was surprised at the finish to the match between Intercontinental champion Dolph Ziggler and MVP, as Ziggler walked away during the contest and was counted out. I thought for sure MVP was going to lose, but the result of this match seems to indicate that there will be a title program between the two. MVP is in and out if the doghouse so often that you never know from one week to the next whether he’ll be getting a bit of a push or jobbing on WWE Superstars. …

Vickie Guerrero was shoved down by her NXT Season 3 rookie, Kaitlyn, during the Ziggler-MVP match. I f figured it would be weeks before we saw anything like that between the two women. WWE definitely isn’t wasting any time with advancing this story line. …

Luke Gallows got in a lot of offense before losing to CM Punk. I still think WWE disbanded the Straight Edge Society way too prematurely, and it feels like the talented Punk is just treading water right now. …

I think The Dudebusters are supposed to be babyfaces now, but taking the jump rope away from Rosa Mendes while she was using it was a heel move in my book. Look, Dudes, never, ever interrupt Rosa when she is jumping up and down. OK? Thanks. …

Looking ahead to Smackdown’s debut on SyFy this Friday, it was announced that both Cena and The Nexus will appear on the show.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 7:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (29)
        

After listening to Rob Van Dam’s misguided cool and calm phone interview on TNA Impact last week, I had visions of him showing up at the Impact Zone on Thursday night’s show with a smile on his face and without a scratch on him.

Fortunately, that didn’t happen. Not only did RVD look like someone who was just six weeks removed from being found backstage lying in a pool of his own blood after being savagely attacked by Abyss and his board of nails, but he came across as an angry and frustrated guy seeking revenge.

RVD, who was all bandaged up and walked with a limp, cut a good promo that was uncharacteristically emotional, which was exactly what was needed to get his angle with Abyss over. As expected, RVD and Abyss will meet at the Bound for Glory pay-per-view on Oct. 10 (or as Abyss would say, “10, 10, 10!”)

I’m still scratching my head as to how last week’s segment with RVD – who was basically no-selling the heinous attack – even made it on the air.

Other thoughts on Thursday’s show:

The main event – which saw A.J. Styles defeat Sabu in a ladder match to determine whether Fourtune or EV 2.0 got the man-advantage in the Lethal Lockdown match at BFG – was pretty lackluster as far as ladder matches go. Mike Tenay said that it was “a match that people have wanted to see for years.” Really? …

Styles’ TV title was not on the line against Sabu. Has Styles defended the TV title on TV even once since winning it two months ago? …

After Abyss attacked Jeff Hardy backstage, he carried Hardy’s limp body to the ring and then cut a promo. Abyss must have used a sleeperhold on Hardy off camera, because Hardy seemed to be taking a nap in the ring while Abyss spoke. Hardy laid there motionless the entire time, which was unintentionally funny. …

A Rob Terry match is not a great way to open a show. Then again, a Rob Terry match isn’t really a pleasurable viewing experience any time. Inexplicably, Terry defeated Abyss by disqualification. So the unstoppable monster has now been pinned by Steve Richards and beaten by Terry in recent weeks. …

I really liked Kurt Angle’s promo during his exchange with Mr. Anderson, as he talked about how he is nothing without wrestling. ...

“The Pope” D’Angelo Dinero came off a bit heelish when he was complaining to Eric Bischoff about not being in the three-way match for the TNA world title at BFG, but I don’t expect him to turn. He’s aligned with Sting and Kevin Nash, and it’s obvious at this point that those two are going to be revealed as babyfaces at BFG. By the way, Dinero’s argument as to why he should be added to the three-way match made no sense. He said that since Angle and Hardy got in without winning a semifinal match, why not him, too? The difference, of course, is that Hardy and Angle wrestled to two no-contests, but Dinero was defeated by Mr. Anderson in the semifinals. …

The Dinero-Samoa Joe match wasn’t bad. …

Lacey Von Erich’s profanity-laced tirade backstage was almost as cringe-worthy as her wrestling ability. Speaking of which, during the tag team match that saw TNA Knockouts tag team champions Taylor Wilde and Hamada defeat Von Erich and Velvet Sky, LVE executed the worst-looking hurricanrana ever. She also failed to realistically sell the effect of Madison Rayne hitting her in the back with a motorcycle helmet, which was the finish. With all that being said, however, I never get tired of looking at Lacey. …

One thought on TNA Reaction: Nash talked about his days as the booker in WCW and how Hulk Hogan repeatedly invoked his creative control clause and turned down ideas because he thought they would cost him money. That’s fascinating and all and I’d love to hear more about it on Nash’s next shoot DVD, but that kind of stuff is really out of place within the context of a wrestling show. Even though Reaction has a realistic feel to it, I don’t think openly acknowledging that the business is a work while simultaneously trying to get angles over is a great idea.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 9:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (14)
        

Christian suffered a torn pectoral muscle and is expected to be out of action for about six months after undergoing surgery this week, according to a report on pwinsider.com.

While Christian has not been pushed as a main-eventer in WWE, he is without a doubt one of the company’s unsung heroes and a consummate professional. He has good-to-great matches with everyone he gets in the ring with and a victory over him means something.

I wish him a speedy recovery.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 5:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (26)
        

If you are among the many who skipped WWE NXT Tuesday night, you missed a highly entertaining hour of television.

No, the show wasn’t that good. It was that bad. Actually, it was so bad that it was good, as WWE has decided to turn the lame duck show into an intentional weekly train wreck.

The commentary was hilarious. Not only did we get the witty CM Punk joining Josh Matthews at the announce table, but Michael Cole made his return halfway through the broadcast after saying that he was quitting at the end of last week’s episode.

I actually believed that Cole was done with NXT, and I was expecting someone such as Byron Saxton to take his place. I marked out when Punk’s music hit at the beginning of the show and the Straight Edge superstar made his way down the entrance ramp clad in his wrestling gear and a hideous brown corduroy jacket. I was laughing already, and Punk hadn’t even said one sarcastic word yet.

At the end of the show, Punk said that he will be back next week. I can’t wait.

Other thoughts on Tuesday’s show:

NXT got off to an inauspicious start, as Lay-Cool came out during the opening segment and the crowd responded with a heavy dose of go-away heat. I have no problem with Layla, but I really don’t need to see Michelle McCool on a pay-per-view, Raw, NXT and Smackdown all in the same week. Kelly Kelly got what was probably the biggest pop of her career for interrupting the Lay-Cool promo, which was dying a slow, painful death. …

In the train wreck to end all train wrecks, we had another installment of the “talk the talk challenge.” Jamie and Naomi were both disqualified because they refused to stay on topic (Jamie’s was “teeth,” and Naomi’s was “toupee"). “I give the little boy robot an F,” Punk said about the muscular Jamie. After Naomi couldn’t think of one thing to say about toupees, she said, “Aren’t we here to wrestle? I’m here to show you all how good I am, and I don’t think doing this is going to prove that.” The crowd popped for that one. Then we had Aksana, who was given the word “llama.” She had no clue what a llama was, so after she stalled for a bit, Matt Striker took pity on her and gave her “camel” instead. “What is camel?” she asked. You can’t make this stuff up. Her 60 seconds seemed more like 60 minutes before the buzzer mercifully sounded. “I thought she had it,” Punk said. A.J., who cut a promo about caffeine, ended up winning. She wasn’t very good, but she was like The Rock compared to the rest of them. …

The other challenge was a game of musical chairs. It came down to A.J. and Naomi. A.J. prevailed in a photo finish, as she sat down on the last chair a split-second before Naomi. “The controversy is through the roof on NXT Season 3,” Punk said. …

The finish to A.J.’s win over Maxine was odd, as Maxine hit a suplex, but A.J. didn’t sell it and then rolled on top of Maxine and pinned her. …

During that match, Punk said that “A.J. can be lethal.” Wink, wink. …

Naomi looked decent in the ring during the six-woman tag team match in which she, Kelly Kelly and Jamie defeat Lay-Cool and Kaitlyn. Lay-Cool attacked Kaitlyn after the match and McCool appeared to legitimately kick her hard in the face. …

Aksana confided in Goldust during a backstage segment that she was having immigration problems. He said they would fix it. Do I hear wedding bells?

Posted by Kevin Eck at 11:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (18)
        

Monday night’s episode of Raw scored a 2.8 rating, the lowest number the show has done in nearly two years.

The rating surprised me because I thought the show was really good, plus it was the night after the Night of Champions pay-per-view. Raw ratings traditionally drop off somewhat during NFL season, but not to this extent.

It will be interesting to see how WWE reacts, as the company has often gone into hot-shotting mode when Raw ratings dipped in the past. Next week's show, by the way, is already in the can, as it was taped Monday.

If the WWE decision makers are on the fence about a potential John Cena heel turn, perhaps Monday’s rating will convince them to pull the trigger on it and really shake things up.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 7:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (32)
        

Former WWE Diva Mickie James has come to terms on a contract with TNA, according to a report on pwinsider.com.

The report said that James is expected to make her debut with the company next month, likely on the live Impact on Oct. 7 or the Bound for Glory pay-per-view on Oct. 10.

Signing James, who worked in TNA during the early days of the eight-year-old company as Alexis Laree, would obviously go a long way in reinvigorating TNA’s once-mighty women’s division.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 6:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (14)
        

WWE followed up a rather ordinary Night of Champions pay-per-view Sunday night with a hot episode of Raw on Monday.

I thought everything clicked on this show, from the opening verbal exchange between Randy Orton and Sheamus to the closing gauntlet match that pitted John Cena versus The Nexus. In between, there was a strong segment with The Miz and Daniel Bryan, another good John Morrison-Chris Jericho match and more.

Because the next pay-per-view – Hell in a Cell on Oct. 3 – is less than two weeks away, there was a refreshing sense of urgency in the pacing of the show, and the enthusiastic crowd in Indianapolis also helped to make the program entertaining.

As expected, the pay-per-view will feature new WWE champion Orton against Sheamus in a Hell in a Cell match, and Cena versus Wade Barrett. The stipulations for the latter are that if Barrett wins, Cena has to join Nexus, and if Cena wins, Nexus has to disband.

Other thoughts on Monday’s show:

It turned out that the reports on various wrestling websites that said Jericho had wrestled his last match in WWE at Night of Champions were incorrect. Based on Jericho’s cryptic comments on Twitter after NOC, I really wasn’t surprised to see him on Raw. However, I don’t think you’ll see Jericho in WWE – at least for a little while – after his appearance on next week’s Raw, when he faces Orton in a non-title match. Orton pretty much guaranteed that he was going to put Jericho out of action, and it’s no secret that Jericho’s band, Fozzy, is embarking on an overseas tour in October. …

Morrison put on another strong in-ring performance in his victory over Jericho. Before the match, Morrison was shown backstage doing one-armed pushups off a wall. Playing up Morrison’s impressive conditioning and even something as subtle as Morrison growing a beard have helped to get him over as a more intense character. If he can ever find his voice on the mic, he has a chance to be a superstar. …

I know some fans and critics are going to complain that The Nexus was buried in their gauntlet match against Cena, but I thought it was well-booked. First, Cena pinned Heath Slater; then he beat David Otunga with a small package after Otunga spent too much time showboating when he had the advantage; and then he made Michael Tarver – who was noticeably limping and had his upper leg wrapped – tap out to the STF. Before a decision could be rendered between Cena and Justin Gabriel, the other Nexus members interfered, so Cena won by DQ. It all seemed perfectly logical to me. Let’s not forget that Cena is a nine-time world champion and one of the biggest stars in the industry, while The Nexus guys were all “rookies” on NXT not that long ago. Slater certainly shouldn’t beat Cena in a fair fight; Otunga’s inexperience and cockiness cost him; and Tarver could barely walk, so of course he was easily taken out. As for Gabriel, he held his own with the weakened Cena before the outside interference. And the DQ was necessary since the point was to hold off Cena versus Barrett until the pay-per-view. …

Cena and Barrett both handled themselves well on the mic at the end of the show. …

Cena used a dropkick for the second night in a row. Take that, haters. …

Orton did a nice job in the opening segment of playing to the crowd while still maintaining his edge. The subtle smile was a nice touch. …

The Miz showed great intensity during the beat-down he and Alex Riley administered to Bryan after Bryan’s match against Edge. Miz got a ton of heat from the crowd and the segment got Bryan over as an underdog babyface. …

I like that Bryan is portrayed as a geeky guy outside the ring but someone to be reckoned with inside it, but WWE has to be careful not to go overboard with Bryan’s geekiness. I think having him use “Ride of the Valkyries” as his entrance music is taking it a step too far. Bring back the generic metal music. …

When The Miz was discussing whether poor officiating had anything to do with him losing the U.S. title to Bryan at NOC, he said, “I don’t like to complain about referees. I’m not Ray Lewis.” Normally, I would rush to the defense of a Baltimore Ravens player (especially when the person taking a shot at him is from Cleveland), but I won’t do it this time. For one thing, I thought Lewis came off like a sore loser by complaining about the officials after Sunday’s loss to the Cincinnati Bengals when he should have been pointing the finger at his team’s lackluster offense. And secondly, The Miz can say whatever he wants because he’s The Miz, and he’s … awesome! …

The anonymous Raw general manager overturning Edge’s win over Bryan and awarding the decision to Bryan by disqualification would seem to indicate that noted Bryan-basher Michael Cole is not the mystery man. …

Speaking of Cole, he was pretty funny when he was ragging on The Hart Dynasty’s brutally bad commentary during the match that saw new WWE tag team champions Drew McIntyre and Cody Rhodes defeat Santino Marella and Vladimir Kozlov. Honestly, who thought it was a good idea to put microphones in front of David Hart Smith and Tyson Kidd? Kidd actually said, “That was so funny I forgot to laugh,” which I don’t think I’ve heard since the second grade. The one positive is that Smith did a pretty good impression of McIntyre. …

I was surprised that Kozlov – not Marella – did the job in the tag match. …

The backstage segment with Edge, Bryan and Zack Ryder was funny. Edge’s facial expressions were especially hilarious. …

My fear that WWE unified the women’s titles just so Michelle McCool and Layla can each carry around a title belt was realized. I can’t wait for this to run its course and there to be just one champion. …

It was nice to see the underrated Layla get a clean win over Melina. She did it in impressive fashion, hitting a blockbuster/stunner type move (Masato Tanaka’s Diamond Dust) off the second rope. …

I have no idea what “get crunk” means, but I do enjoy watching Eve Torres dance to R-Truth’s new entrance music. Any chance we could keep Eve’s dancing but dump the crunk and bring back “What’s Up?” …

So either Ted DiBiase Jr. or Maryse has a secret admirer. If this was still the Attitude Era, the mystery person would be Orlando Jordan and he’d have a crush on both of them.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 11:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (47)
        

If there’s one sure thing year in and year out about WrestleMania, it’s that The Undertaker is going to extend his undefeated streak. The only question in the months leading up to the show is: Who will his victim be this time?

According to this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter, WWE officials are currently discussing plans for some of the main matches at WrestleMania XXVII, including one involving The Undertaker.

Believe it or not, the word is that Sheamus is projected to be the man standing across the ring from “The Phenom” at WWE’s signature event on April 3 in The Georgia Dome in Atlanta, and more will be on the line than just The Undertaker’s undefeated streak, as it will be a world title unification match (neither man currently holds either of the top championships).

Of course, as The Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer pointed out in the newsletter, plans will likely change a number of times over the next several months, so I wouldn’t put too much stock into this story.

In fact, I will be shocked if WWE actually ends up going with Undertaker versus Sheamus. I know WWE thinks highly of Sheamus, but I can’t imagine many fans would find that matchup to be very compelling. Undertaker versus John Cena makes a lot more business sense.

As far as the world titles being unified at WrestleMania, I know that story has been making the rounds, but I won’t believe it until it actually happens.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 8:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (37)
        

Sunday’s Night of Champions pay-per-view featured three title changes and a title unification, but even with all that gold changing hands (or, in the case of the tag team championship, copper changing hands), there wasn’t anything particularly memorable about the show. There were some good matches, but I just don’t know that Night of Champions lived up to the $45 price tag (especially with the Hell in a Cell pay-per-view just two weeks away).

The big news is that Randy Orton won the six-pack elimination challenge to capture the WWE title. Orton is the hottest wrestler in WWE and I’m glad the company decided to just put the belt on him now rather than draw out his chase any longer.

The other noteworthy development is that Chris Jericho was eliminated from the six-pack challenge in less than two minutes in what perhaps was his final WWE match for the time being. The announcers seemed confused as to whether the stipulation that Jericho had to leave WWE if he lost was still in effect, although several wrestling websites reported Sunday night that Jericho was indeed done.

Jericho addressed the reports after the show via Twitter: “Since I've apparently made my last appearance in the WWE, I guess I have nothing to do tomorrow. … The websites have spoken!!! Whatever, I’m goin to Calgary tomorrow so I'll let y’all hash it out.”

In other title changes, Daniel Bryan defeated The Miz for the U.S. title in what I thought was the best match of the night, and Drew McIntyre and Cody Rhodes captured the WWE tag team title in a tag team turmoil (gauntlet) match. Michelle McCool became the unified women’s champion in a match with Melina that was bad on several levels.

World heavyweight champion Kane and Intercontinental champion Dolph Ziggler were the only champions to make successful title defenses.

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

Randy Orton defeated WWE champion Sheamus, Wade Barrett, John Cena, Edge and Chris Jericho in a six-pack elimination challenge to win the title (21:28): It took only 1:29 for the first elimination to occur, as Orton hit the RKO on Jericho and pinned him. Jericho slowly walked to the back with a stunned look on his face. A few minutes later, Orton and Cena cleared the ring and engaged in a stare-down, but Barrett broke it up before the two babyfaces could touch. The same situation with Orton and Cena occurred about a minute and a half later, and this time they actually did go at it briefly. It was made clear that Sheamus may have been the champion, but Orton and Cena were the biggest stars in the match. The second elimination did not occur until the 15-minute mark, as Cena took out Edge with the Attitude Adjustment after a series of finishing move attempts. There was a very good near fall a few minutes later, as Cena trapped Sheamus in the STF in the middle of the ring, but Sheamus managed to get to the rope for a break.

At that point, the rest of The Nexus showed up and attacked Cena, which led to Barrett pinning him with his Wasteland slam at 18:33. The Nexus then targeted Orton, but Cena, who was still at ringside, attacked them with a chair. That allowed Orton to recover and eliminate Barrett with the RKO at 20:32. As expected, it came down to Orton and Sheamus. Sheamus snuck up behind Orton and landed the Brogue Kick, but Orton kicked out, which got a huge pop. Sheamus then went for the High Cross, but Orton slipped out and hit the RKO for the win to become a seven-time world champion. Orton was booked to look strong in this match and is clearly being positioned above Cena at this point. As Orton celebrated after the match, I half-expected The Miz to come out and cash in his Money in the Bank contract, but it didn’t happen. We’re likely getting a rematch between Orton and Sheamus at Hell in a Cell, as well as a match between Cena and Barrett. The seeds continue to be planted for Cena to turn heel and feud with Orton down the line.

World heavyweight champion Kane defeated The Undertaker in a no holds barred match (18:29): The match, which featured a lot of brawling outside the ring and had a methodical pace, told a good story. The Undertaker put up a strong fight, but Kane kept cutting off his comebacks, solidifying his status as the dominant brother now. Undertaker went on the offensive before the bell even sounded, as he charged Kane on the ramp while Kane was making his entrance. Kane, however, survived the initial onslaught and went on to control the majority of the match. The Undertaker hit a choke slam at the 17:40 mark and then set up for a Tombstone Piledriver. Kane, however, reversed it and hit a Tombstone of his own for the clean victory. The Undertaker really sold the beating as he slowly made his way to the back after the match. It’s pretty much a lock that there will be a rematch between the two at Hell in a Cell. Perhaps The Undertaker should summon Paul Bearer from the dead so that he can “urn” back his supernatural powers.

Daniel Bryan defeated U.S. champion The Miz to win the title (12:29): Bryan scored the biggest win of his career, while The Miz put on one of the best in-ring performances of his. These two worked very well together and the atmosphere was intense. There were some great near falls, including one that was set up by Miz delivering a wicked flying clothesline off the top rope onto Bryan, who was straddling the top rope after being crotched. Bryan got the win when he forced Miz to tap to the LeBell Lock. The finish occurring at that point surprised me, as I really thought Miz was going to make it to the ropes to force a break.

Intercontinental champion Dolph Ziggler defeated Kofi Kingston (12:42): The stipulation was that Ziggler would lose the title if he was disqualified or counted out. The first five minutes were slow but then the pace really picked up and there were some good near falls, the first of which occurred at the 9:15 mark when Ziggler barely got his foot on the rope after Kingston hit the SOS. Kingston attempted the move again less than two minutes later, but Ziggler caught him in a sleeperhold, which Kingston reversed into a sleeper of his own. Ziggler broke the hold by sending Kingston into the ropes. Vickie Guerrero teased that she was going to slap Kingston, but Ziggler warned her not to get him disqualified. As Ziggler turned around, Kingston went for Trouble in Paradise, but Ziggler ducked just in time and then hit the Zig Zag for the victory. This was probably the biggest win for thus far for Ziggler, who came out on top despite the odds being stacked against him. Although Ziggler and Guerrero were all smiles at the end, there was a hint of tension between them, and also between Guerrero and Kaitlyn, who came to the ring with Ziggler and Guerrero but was sent to the back by Guerrero early in the match.

The Big Show defeated CM Punk (4:43): Since the show was in Punk’s hometown of Chicago, he was cheered when he came out, but he cut a great heel promo to turn the crowd – well, some of it anyway – against him. There was a “CM Punk chant” a couple minutes into the match after Punk hit a head-first dive over the top rope onto Big Show, who was down on the floor. The finish saw Big Show spear Punk in mid-air after Punk spring-boarded from the top rope, and then nail him with the knockout punch. I think Punk’s promo lasted longer than the match.

Drew McIntyre and Cody Rhodes defeated WWE tag team champions The Hart Dynasty, Evan Bourne and Mark Henry, The Usos and Santino Marella and Vladimir Kozlov in a tag team turmoil match to win the title (11:42): This gauntlet match began with The Hart Dynasty against The Usos. Shockingly, The Usos beat THD in just over two minutes, thanks to interference from Tamina. Taking the belts off of THD is one thing, but jobbing to The Usos like that? It will be interesting to see where David Hart Smith and Tyson Kidd go from here. Marella and Kozlov were out next, but they only lasted about a minute, as Tamina distracted Marella, causing him to lose. The Usos’ run was ended by Bourne and Henry, as Bourne scored the pin on one of the twins after hitting the Shooting Star Press. Those three decisions were all rendered in just over five minutes. McIntyre and Rhodes were the final pair to enter, and Rhodes scored the victory by hitting Cross Rhodes on Bourne after about six and half minutes of action between the two teams. Once THD was eliminated, it was pretty obvious that McIntyre and Rhodes were going over. McIntyre and Rhodes now getting to appear on both Raw and Smackdown sounds good to me.

Michelle McCool defeated WWE Divas champion Melina in a Lumberjill match to unify the women’s titles (6:34): What a poorly booked mess this was. To start with, it was a unification match with one competitor who isn’t even really a champion. Then we had the Lumberjills, who were supposed to toss the competitors back in the ring whenever they were thrown out to the floor, but the girls all just stood there looking clueless for the most part. When the Lumberjills did decide to get involved, they all ganged up on McCool (the heel), thus giving Melina (the babyface) an unfair advantage. But even with the odds stacked against her, McCool prevailed, thanks to a distraction from Layla. I don’t know why Layla would help McCool after McCool duped her out of a spot in this match on Smackdown Friday, but I sure hope McCool and Layla are not going to be co-unified women’s champions. There was an unintentionally funny spot when the Lumberjills were mixing it up outside the ring that saw Rosa Mendes start to throw a punch at Jillian Hall and then change her mind just as she was about to make contact. Hall said something to her and then Mendes walked away. Only Rosa Mendes (well, probably Lacey Von Erich, too) could botch a punch.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 1:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (27)
        

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

Six-pack elimination challenge for WWE title: Champion Sheamus vs. Wade Barrett vs. John Cena vs. Edge vs. Chris Jericho vs. Randy Orton): Because of the elimination format, this figures to be the best match on the show. Orton has been on such a roll as of late that a victory by him is almost too obvious. I’m guessing that Orton’s inevitable title win is delayed a bit longer and Sheamus somehow walks out tonight still the champion.

World heavyweight champion Kane vs. The Undertaker in a no-holds-barred match: The Undertaker will put up a valiant effort but Kane will just be too much for “The Dead Man” in his current weakened state, setting up a rematch at next month’s Hell in a Cell pay-per-view.

U.S. champion The Miz vs. Daniel Bryan: I expect The Miz to win due to outside interference by Alex Riley.

Intercontinental champion Dolph Ziggler vs. Kofi Kingston: The stipulation is that Ziggler will lose the title if he gets disqualified or counted out. Look for a title change here.

The Big Show vs. CM Punk: This is the only match on the show that isn’t for a championship. I’d love to see Punk get the win, but I just don’t think it’s going to happen.

WWE Divas champion Melina vs. Michelle McCool in a Lumberjill match to unify the women’s titles: Yes, we have a title unification match in which one of the competitors isn’t even a champion. What is this, TNA? Layla, the officially recognized WWE women’s champion, is the wild card here. Will Layla cost McCool the match because she is angry about being duped out of a spot in the bout by her BFF on Smackdown Friday, or will Layla forgive McCool and help her win? I’m guessing it’s the former and Layla goes babyface.

WWE tag team champions The Hart Dynasty vs. opponents to be determined: I’m guessing that Drew McIntyre and Cody Rhodes, who beat THD in a non-title match on Smackdown Friday, will get the shot. A three-way match that also involves John Morrison and R-Truth is a possibility as well.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 12:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (13)
        

The climax to Friday night’s Smackdown focused on getting over the big Kane-Undertaker match taking place at the Night of Champions show Sunday, but I thought the best segments on the program included three guys who aren’t even scheduled to be at the pay-per-view.

Kofi Kingston and Jack Swagger put on a very good match that went more than 15 minutes, and Alberto Del Rio and Christian had a strong verbal exchange at the beginning of the show and then another confrontation later during Christian’s match with CM Punk.

The only drawback to the Kingston-Swagger match is that the outcome – a pinfall victory by Kingston – was obvious since Swagger was in control for most of the bout. I realize that Kingston had to get the win since he is challenging Dolph Ziggler for the Intercontinental title at NOC, but I hate to see Swagger relegated to the role of the guy who gets the challenger ready for a pay-per-view match. Swagger’s performance in this bout further proved that he is the real deal, and I hope he’s back in the thick of things sooner than later.

WWE did a good job on this show of getting heel heat on Del Rio for refusing to accept Christian’s challenge for a match at NOC and building anticipation for the inevitable meeting between the two. Del Rio first turned down Christian after Christian slapped him hard in the face in an attempt to force his hand, and then after Del Rio’s distraction caused Christian to lose to Punk, Del Rio teased that he was finally going to accept before again saying that he wasn’t interested.

Other thoughts on Friday’s show:

In delivering a thorough beat-down to The Undertaker, Kane stole his “brother’s” move-set and mannerisms, which was a nice touch. It was shocking to see The Undertaker looking so overmatched. WWE has done a fine job of getting Kane over as the heavy favorite going into his world heavyweight title defense Sunday. …

Punk versus Christian was OK but it wasn’t nearly as good as I thought it would be. …

Del Rio has been doing a great job with his scripted promos, but he was pretty underwhelming on commentary during the Punk-Christian match. ...

Kingston usually gets a very good crowd reaction but the live audience didn’t seem too enthusiastic about his promo. …

So we now know that it will be Michelle McCool against Melina in the women’s title unification match at NOC. McCool getting the spot instead of Layla (the official WWE women’s champion) disappoints me but it certainly doesn’t surprise me. The fact that Layla discovered that McCool had rigged the contest to determine who faces Melina (McCool had Kaval pick a name out of a hat, but it turned out that all of the pieces of paper in the hat had McCool’s name on them) seems to indicate that LayCool is splitting up. We’ll see. …

It was announced that The Hart Dynasty will indeed be defending the WWE tag team championship at NOC, but we still don’t know who their opponents will be. It certainly would make sense if it ends up being Drew McIntyre and Cody Rhodes, who defeated THD in an entertaining non-title match on this show. …

All I can say about that segment with Hornswoggle, Teddy Long and a nun (did I really just write that?) is please, stop the pain. …

Why was Rosa Mendes teaming with Kelly Kelly against LayCool? I thought the reason Rosa has been working out all this time is because she wanted to join McCool and Layla. Did I miss something?

Posted by Kevin Eck at 10:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)
        

Jaded pro wrestling followers often believe everything is a work until proven otherwise, so it’s no surprise that some are questioning whether the ongoing Matt Hardy saga is an angle. I have no inside knowledge as to whether it is or isn’t, but I seriously doubt Hardy and WWE are trying to fool everyone into thinking he is on thin ice with the company. It just wouldn’t make any sense. However, I wouldn’t discount the possibility that Hardy is working his own angle. With his tweets and YouTube videos, it seems that he is doing everything in his power to tick off WWE officials so much that they release him, which would then allow him to eventually join his brother, Jeff, in TNA. If that is what’s going on and WWE has figured it out, the company very well could keep Hardy under contract just to spite him. It will be interesting to see how it all plays out. …

Even before the Hardy saga created a buzz this past week, Hardy had been the subject of criticism among wrestling fans and critics for his weight gain. I personally never understood what all the fuss was about. Yes, Hardy has noticeably put on weight around his midsection and it has slowed him down somewhat in the ring, but I certainly would not categorize him as fat. I get it that wrestling is a cosmetic business, but the reality is that everyone has different genetics, and as guys (and girls) in the business get older, it’s going to become increasingly difficult to maintain their physiques. Letting one’s physical condition deteriorate to the point that it’s embarrassing would be one thing, but Hardy hasn’t done that. Would it make people happier if Hardy started taking performance-enhancing drugs so that he could look the way he did 10 years ago? I just think it’s unfair that Hardy gets criticized for gaining some weight, yet guys with much worse physiques such as Samoa Joe and Husky Harris are revered by the Internet Wrestling Community. …

The Pro Wrestling Illustrated Female 50, which ranks the top women’s wrestlers in the United States and Canada over the past year, is currently on newsstands. WWE’s Michelle McCool took the top spot. I’m currently working on my own list (the second annual Ring Posts Female 20), and it’s definitely been more difficult to compile than last year’s. Thanks to several top stars disappearing from the national scene due either to getting released or injured, the past 12 months haven’t exactly been great when it comes to women’s wrestling. …

Speaking of women’s wrestling, I’m bummed that legendary Japanese wrestler Manami Toyota is making her American debut tonight in my hometown and I won’t be there to see it. Toyota, who was considered one of the elite workers in the industry regardless of gender in the ’90s while competing for All-Japan Pro Wrestling, is wrestling Daizee Haze on the Chikara show at Baltimore’s Du Burns Arena. Unfortunately, duty calls, and I am working late tonight at The Baltimore Sun. If anyone goes to the show, I’d love to hear how it went.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 6:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)
        

The ending of Thursday night’s TNA Impact was déjà vu all over again.

After an inconclusive (and disappointing) finish to the highly acclaimed Kurt Angle-Jeff Hardy TNA world title tournament semifinal match at No Surrender a couple weeks ago, it was announced by Eric Bischoff at the beginning of Impact that Angle, Hardy and Mr. Anderson would square off in a three-way match to determine the new champion at the Bound for Glory pay-per-view on Oct. 10.

However, TNA president Dixie Carter then came out and overruled Bischoff. She said that Angle and Hardy would face each other again later that night on Impact, and that this time there would be a winner, who would then go on to face Anderson at BFG.

Fortunately for Carter, she didn’t guarantee that there would be a winner. Angle and Hardy ended up having another good match that went more than 20 minutes, but once again, nothing was settled. So Bischoff – apparently against the wishes of Carter – reinstated his original plan for there to be a three-way match between Angle, Hardy and Anderson at BFG.

The finish to Thursday’s match was every bit as absurd as the time-limit draw/stoppage due to blood ending to the Angle-Hardy match at No Surrender. This time, the finish saw Angle and Hardy applying simultaneous ankle locks. Both guys had their shoulders down, and referee Brian Hebner counted one pin, while his father Earl (who had entered the match in the waning moments after Brian had been temporarily incapacitated) counted the other.

The crowd at the Impact Zone and I (and I’m guessing quite a few other viewers) let out a collective groan. It was preposterous that neither Angle nor Hardy would think to pick their shoulder up while the referee was making the count.

I have no problem with the match at BFG being a three-way – and I understand that TNA wanted to further the Carter-Bischoff power struggle story line – but I could have done without another long, exciting match being marred by an illogical and unsatisfying finish.

Other thoughts on Thursday’s show:

Angle said that he – just the like the rest of us – didn’t even know that there was a 20-minute time limit for his match with Hardy at No Surrender. When a participant in a match of that magnitude says he didn’t know there was a time limit, it makes TNA look really minor league. TNA has not even tried to offer an explanation as to why there was a time limit for that match, much less why it wasn’t announced before the match. …

It was a smart idea to have the Angle-Hardy match spill over onto TNA Reaction. …

TNA promoted that Carter would express her thoughts about Bischoff making the TNA world title tournament final a three-way on Reaction. However, when she was asked about the situation, she simply said, “No comment.” That felt like a bait and switch. …

I didn’t think the Tommy Dreamer promo with Fourtune was ever going to end. It’s just unfathomable that TNA would give someone at Dreamer’s level that much mic time (it went at least 10 minutes). To the surprise of no one, Dreamer got choked up during the segment. ...

I was hoping that Fourtune would accept Dreamer’s offer of a truce just so the Fourtune-EV 2.0 feud would go away. …

I liked how during the Dreamer/Fourtune segment that A.J. Styles – not Ric Flair – was positioned as the leader of the group. …

Matt Morgan losing to Brian Kendrick was ridiculous, even if it was portrayed as a bit of a fluke. By the way, what the heck was Kendrick wearing when he came out to make the save for Dreamer? …

I get it that Rob Van Dam’s promo style is that he’s cool and laid-back rather than loud and intense, but I think he really should have turned it up a notch for the phone interview he did with Mike Tenay. Remaining so calm when talking about a guy who literally left you lying in a pool of your own blood after attacking you with a board with nails sticking out of it came off extremely unrealistic. Beyond that, I would have saved RVD’s first interview since he was left for dead for next week’s show, when he will be at the Impact Zone. …

Did RVD really use the term “TNA Universe” to describe TNA fans? …

Mr. Anderson is usually money on the mic, but his commentary during the Angle-Hardy match was pretty worthless. He sounded very unsure of himself. …

The scene with Abyss torturing a couple of unknown guys backstage was embarrassingly bad. To add to the silliness, Abyss, who has a board of nails that he calls “Janice,” now also has a branding iron that he referred to as “Bob.” The inside joke is that those are the names of Dixie Carter’s parents. Ugh. …

Generation Me tried really hard to cut a heel promo, but the fact that they both look like they’re about 13-years-old makes it hard to take them seriously in this role. …

The Jay Lethal-Douglas Williams match – which saw Lethal win the TNA X Division title – was OK, but I expected better from these two. I’m all for Lethal getting a push and a title reign, but it seems a little premature to take the belt off Williams. …

Lacey Von Erich tries, but she just looks awkward in the ring, even when doing something as simple as kicking out of a pin attempt. …

What was the point of a 10-second “interview” with Dreamer at a gas station in Yonkers, N.Y.? …

It appears that “The Pope” D’Angelo Dinero is now aligned with Sting and Kevin Nash in their quest to expose Bischoff and Hulk Hogan as frauds. I’m guessing Mr. Anderson ends up turning heel along with Bischoff, Hogan and Jeff Jarrett. …

I enjoyed the second part of the Jesse Neal piece on Reaction. It was interesting that TNA ignored the story line of Rhino having trained Neal and instead went with the real story of Team 3D training him. …

Dreamer said the dreaded “this isn’t a wrestling angle” line on Reaction. I like the concept of the show, but TNA really needs to stop hitting viewers over the head with the “wrestling is fake but this is real” stuff. Instead of making the show more realistic, it actually does just the opposite.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 11:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (21)
        

At this point, it almost seems as if the question is when, not if, Matt Hardy will be future-endeavored by WWE.

I’m assuming that most everyone is familiar with the Hardy saga that has been playing out on pro wrestling websites and Twitter the past several days, but for those who are not, here’s a brief synopsis:

It was initially reported by pwinsider.com that Hardy had been sent home from WWE’s European tour this past Sunday because of “concerns about Hardy’s condition that manifested themselves backstage at an event on the tour.”

Hardy responded to the story by posting a video on YouTube from his hotel room in England. By showing that he was still there, Hardy said it proved that the report that he was “sent home” was inaccurate. It turned out that Hardy was playing a game of semantics, as WWE later confirmed to Newsday that Hardy had indeed been sent away from the arena.

There also was an incident involving Hardy at a house show last week in White Plains, N.Y., as Hardy reportedly left the arena before his scheduled match and did not return after WWE officials had expressed their concern to him about his condition.

After reading some of Hardy’s comments on Twitter the past few days, he seems resigned to the fact that his WWE career is coming to a close.

On Tuesday, he wrote:

“Here’s a quick hello to all my people & a reassurance to everyone that I'm fine, healthy, & in good spirits. Thx for all of your support. When the time is right, I'll put everything out there as far as what ‘really’ went down. I know I have to protect me & my brand, & I will. I appreciate my fans so much that I'll always be honest with them, & the whole story certainly isn’t out there now. I appreciate all of the things the WWE has done 4 me in the past, they have been gracious to me-but now, it’s decision time for me. Thx all.”

My guess is that a Hardy Boyz reunion in TNA is imminent.

I don’t know what is really going on with Hardy, but I did find his YouTube video to be disturbing. You can watch it by clicking here and judge for yourself.

For Hardy’s sake, if he does have any problems that need to be addressed, I hope that he takes care of them.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 8:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (28)
        

Aloisia (real name Lindsay Hayward), the 6-foot-9 rookie diva who was pulled from WWE NXT Season 3 before the first episode aired, confirmed to diva-dirt.com that she has been released by WWE.

It had previously been reported that she was still under a WWE developmental deal even though she had been removed from NXT.

No official reason was ever given for WWE taking her off NXT, but there were reports that the company did so after discovering suggestive photos of her online.

Because of Aloisia’s unique look, I’m betting that we haven’t heard the last of her on the national wrestling scene. Although TNA reportedly had no interest in her in the past, I wouldn’t be surprised if that has changed based on the recent Internet buzz about her.

No matter how limited she may or may not be in the ring, if booked smartly, Aloisoa, 23, could be the monster heel the TNA Knockouts division has been missing since Awesome Kong left. Pairing Aloisia with an undersized heel who could use some help to get over also seems like it would be a no-brainer.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 6:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)
        

Someone was eliminated on Tuesday night’s episode of WWE NXT, but it wasn’t any of the rookie divas.

Just before the show ended, commentator Michael Cole announced that he was quitting NXT and then walked off in a huff.

Cole had been even more sarcastic than usual throughout the broadcast, as he mercilessly busted on the show itself and the participants. On a couple of occasions, he even stood up and banged on a gong (a nod to the farcical “Gong Show” from the 1970s and early ’80s) to display his displeasure with the content of the show. Cole’s frustration finally built to the point where he just couldn’t take it anymore.

Cole’s sudden departure makes me wonder if he is about to be revealed as the anonymous general manager on Raw. It also casts further doubt on the future of NXT.

I’m definitely going to miss him on this show. Cole has been highly entertaining ever since he began his gradual heel turn during NXT Season 1, and I have enjoyed his banter with fellow commentator Josh Matthews.

As the straight man announcer gone bad, Cole is thriving in the role that WWE originally tried several years ago with Jonathan Coachman, who wasn’t able to fully pull it off.

Other thoughts on Tuesday’s show:

There were two challenges on this episode – a joke-telling contest and an obstacle course competition. The “joke off” was a total train wreck. Jamie won that one (as determined by audience reaction), while Kaitlyn had the winning time in the obstacle course. …

The tag team match that saw Dolph Ziggler and Kaitlyn defeat Primo and A.J. wasn’t bad. Primo looked especially good in the match. …

Vickie Guerrero wasn’t pleased with Ziggler and Kaitlyn celebrating their victory with an embrace. Looks like a love triangle story line is coming. …

After watching Jamie and Aksana wrestle in a singles match, Kelly Kelly and The Bella Twins don’t look so bad now, do they?

Posted by Kevin Eck at 7:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (22)
        

Former WWE Diva and Baltimore native Stacy Keibler discussed her love of the Baltimore Ravens with my colleague Matt Vensel on his Virtual Vensanity blog today.

When asked how she thinks the Ravens will do this season, she said: "I'm planning on going to the Super Bowl, so I'm looking for a hot purple dress to wear to the celebration party. Does that answer your question?!"

To read the entire Q&A with Stacy, click here .

Posted by Kevin Eck at 4:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

The curious case of Chris Jericho and the six-pack challenge took another twist on Raw Monday night.

Jericho was inserted back into the six-way main event for the WWE title at Sunday’s Night of Champions pay-per-view just one week after being taken out of the match.

What this means as far as Jericho’s future in WWE is concerned is anyone’s guess. Jericho, whose contract reportedly expires sometime this month, said on TV two weeks ago that he would leave WWE if he didn’t win the title at Night of Champions, but I do not recall that specifically being said on Monday’s show after he regained his spot in the match.

To get back into the six-pack challenge, Jericho had to defeat WWE tag team champions The Hart Dynasty in a steel cage handicap match. Usually I hate when a promotion books an individual to defeat its tag team champs, but the way this was done didn’t really bury David Hart Smith and Tyson Kidd (although they did come off as not the brightest guys in the world).

Instead of double-teaming Jericho and pinning him, Smith and Kidd decided to both scale the cage at the same time. Smith got out, but Jericho caught Kidd and pulled him down. That made it a one-on-one match, and in that scenario, obviously the right guy won.

Personally, I would like to have seen John Morrison gain entry into the six-pack challenge. It was announced on Monday’s show that Morrison – who defeated Jericho last week to knock Jericho out of the match for the time being – would be in the Night of Champions match if he defeated WWE champion Sheamus in a non-title falls count anywhere match on Raw.

Unfortunately, Morrison lost, but it was a good brawl and Morrison has looked much more like a star the past two shows than he has in quite a while.

I actually thought Morrison was going to win it when he hit a crossbody off the video wall onto Sheamus on the stage, but Sheamus kicked out at two. Jericho then appeared and hit Morrison with a chair, allowing Sheamus to gain the victory. I think would have been better if Jericho had broken up Morrison’s pin attempt with the chair shot rather than having Sheamus kick out. That way, Morrison looks stronger, Jericho gets more heat for costing Morrison the match and Sheamus doesn’t come off looking like Superman when no one buys him as such.

Other thoughts on Monday’s show:

The Raw Roulette concept was brought back for this show, which meant that every match had a stipulation based on the spin of a wheel. Unlike past years, HLA and bra and panties matches were not options. …

The star-studded main event saw Randy Orton defeat John Cena in a wild tables match. Seeing as how The Nexus had not appeared on the show all night, it was obvious that they were going to interfere. Sheamus, Jericho and Edge also got involved in the match. Orton and Cena fought off all of the intruders, and the match ended with Orton reversing an Attitude Adjustment in mid-move and turning it into an RKO through a table for the victory. That was an ambitious spot, although they didn’t completely pull it off, as Orton also partially went through the table as well. It’s interesting that Orton once again got the better of Cena and is clearly being positioned as the favorite to win the title Sunday. It almost seems as if WWE is setting up a Cena heel turn, but I seriously doubt that will happen. …

So after having Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger host Raw last year, WWE booked Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Chad “Ochocinco” Johnson on Monday’s show. Yet when Raw was in Baltimore last November, we got Mini-Me instead of Ravens great Ray Lewis. What about us? What about Ravens? Sorry, I couldn’t resist. …

Johnson is such a jerk that he managed to turn the crowd in Cincinnati against him just seconds after they had given their local sports star a big ovation when he was introduced. His ring announcing, by the way, made Lauren Mayhew (remember her?) sound like Howard Finkel. By the way, I loved when The Miz ran down Johnson and the Bengals. …

The Miz faking a hernia so that he could get out of his submission match against Daniel Bryan was a great heel move. I liked how Bryan ended up getting the last laugh by making both Alex Riley (Miz’s replacement in the match) and The Miz tap out. …

Morrison landing on his feet after being tossed off the stage by Sheamus was impressive. The Parkour training that he was doing backstage was pretty cool as well. …

I thought it was odd that Jericho was wearing his wrestling boots with his fancy suit, but then it made sense when he was booked in the “impromptu” match against The Hart Dynasty. …

A tag team title defense for The Hart Dynasty still has not been announced for Night of Champions. What’s up with that? …

I didn’t really see the point to the body slam challenge matches pitting Edge against Evan Bourne and Edge against Mark Henry. …

The bit with William Regal and Goldust trading places was pretty funny. Regal can make just about any situation humorous with his mannerisms and facial expressions. …

The song and dance competition that pitted R-Truth and Eve against Ted DiBiase Jr. and Maryse was amusing. It’s too bad The Miz wasn’t involved – he would have won easily with his performance of “Jump Around.” By the way, DiBiase’s rendition of “My Way” was not the worst version of that song that I have ever heard. No, that dubious distinction goes to The Baltimore Sun’s Peter Schmuck, who sings about as well as he wrestles.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 9:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (32)
        

Here is a report on Sunday's WWE Raw house show from Peterborough, Ontario, courtesy of reader Michelle McKague:

Ted DiBiase (accompanied by Maryse) and Evan Bourne was the first match. Justin Roberts announced that by order of the GM there’d be a dance contest first, decided by the fans. DiBiase cut a quick promo about how he’s the best at everything and then did a terrible dance routine, which was mostly Maryse shaking her a** and slithering against him. Evan Bourne did a few moves and then dipped Maryse, much to her horror. Bourne won the contest. It was pretty bad. Followed by a really quick match, DiBiase got in some quick offense, but Bourne quickly turned the tables and hit the Shooting Star Press and then got the cover. The whole thing took less than five minutes. Bourne got ok pop and DiBiase got decent heat.

After the match Nexus (Wade Barrett, David Ortunga, Michael Tarver and Heath Slater) showed up after the match was over and beat down Bourne, while DiBiase managed to escape to the back with Maryse. Wade Barrett then did a quick promo insulting Canada.

Zack Ryder vs. Primo was next. Ryder started wailing on Primo, but Primo quickly turned it around and was able to get the win. Crowd was pretty indifferent. I thought Primo looked really good in the ring, better than he has in the past, he also looked like he was in better shape.

Randy Orton vs. Sheamus for the WWE Championship. Huge pop for Orton. It was actually ridiculous how into him the crowd was. Sheamus got pretty amazing heat as well, people were booing him like crazy. Match was about 20 minutes and there was lots of back and forth between Orton and Sheamus as to who had the momentum. Orton went on the offensive and dominated the last five minutes, then Sheamus hit the ref and got himself disqualified. Orton hit the RKO on Seamus and then left. Seamus held the belt and taunted the crowd for a minute or so, getting huge heat.

Bella twins came out and announced a special bell ringer for the mixed tag match. A kid from the audience got chosen. Mixed tag match was Goldust and Gail Kim vs. Tamina and one of the Usos (they were both there though). Gail Kim got a big pop, but then she’s a Toronto girl. Goldust and the Uso brother started the match, but the women quickly tagged in and wrestled for about five minutes, with lots of back and forth. Then the men were back in the ring, lots of interference from the other Uso. Golduust was fantastic in the ring, he really is a great worker. After a couple minutes of defence, he gained the upper hand and got the pin. There was some creepy celebrating in the ring.

The Bellas came back in and threw some t-shirts and then Justin Roberts announced intermission.

Melina vs. Alicia Fox with Santino as special referee. Neither woman got much of a reaction at all from the crowd, but Santino got a huge pop. Again, though, he’s a Toronto boy. Match was quick and Alicia Fox looked really sloppy. Melina got the pin. Santino stuck around for a moment to pose for the crowd. Huge pop for Santino.

The Miz vs. John Morrison was next. The Miz came out first and cut a long promo on how awesome he was. Got a lot of heat, but a few cheers mixed in there (including from me). Interacted with the audience a bit, as well. Morrison came out, bantered with The Miz for a while, called him a jackass. Decent pop for Morrison. Lots of offense in this match. The Miz took the cover off the turnbuckle and there were a lot of great spots with both The Miz and Morrison trying to avoid the exposed turnbuckle. After about fifteen minutes, The Miz won. Morrison hung around to mug for the crowd, though he was selling a leg injury.

Main Event was Nexus vs. The Hart Dynasty (accompanied by Natalya), Chris Jericho and Edge. Huge, huge pop for team Raw. They spent a few minutes cutting a promo about how awesome Canada was and how Nexus was about to get their a**es kicked by four Canadians. Jericho and Edge were totally playing the face role and the crowd loved them. Good pop for the Hart Dynasty to and the crowd took turns screaming “Edge”, “Y2J”, “Dynasty” and “Canada”. It was announced that it was an elimination tag and if any member of Nexus interferred once they were eliminated then Wade Barrett would lose his title shot at Night of Champions. Long match, about 25 minutes. Tyson Kidd started it off for team Raw against Heath Slater. Huge heat for Nexus and lots of “Wendy” chants for Slater, after Edge remarked that he looked like the girl from the logo. Nexus dominated the first fifteen minutes, working well as a team. Nexus eliminated both DH Smith and Tyson Kidd after delivering brutal beat downs, but Jericho was able to turn the tables on Nexus and eliminate David Ortunga and Heath Slater. Then Edge took over and eliminated Michael Tarver and Wade Barrett. Huge cheer from the crowd.

After the match, Jericho and the Hart Dynasty headed back and Edge stayed and talked to the crowd for a few minutes. Talked about how awesome Canada is, how he’s only an hour from home and threw in a cheer for the Peterborough OHL team, then did a lap around the ring, shaking hands. Definitely acting like a face and crowd was so into him, it was sick. Edge definitely got the biggest reaction of the night, the crowd loved him.

Really good show all around. The crowd was really into it and it seemed to move very quickly (lasted a little over two hours). We were fifth row back and got a great view of the action, so that was an added bonus. Sound system sucked, but that wasn’t the WWE”s fault.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 1:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)
        

Forget for a moment that we’ve seen The Undertaker and Kane feud on and off since 1997. Also forget that the current program between the two “brothers” has one of them returning from a three-month vegetative state to battle the other for possession of magical powers.

If you can overlook the rehashed and ridiculous aspects of the feud, there’s actually a pretty interesting development here. For one of the very few times in his storied 20-year WWE career, The Undertaker truly appears vulnerable.

That point was driven home on Smackdown Friday night, when The Undertaker wrestled his first match on television since May. Although he ultimately prevailed against CM Punk, The Undertaker was on the defensive for most of the match.

He moved much slower than usual, had a glazed look in his eyes and even slipped (purposely) when attempting Old School. When he cut a promo at the beginning of the show, he sounded tired and coughed several times.

The Undertaker wasn’t even able to savor his victory, as the lights went out after the match and Kane – who was never shown on camera – began laughing maniacally.

While I’d rather have some of the younger guys in the world heavyweight title picture, and at the end of the day this is still a feud that we’ve seen a number of times, I have to admit that I am starting to find the role reversal of Kane being the unstoppable monster and The Undertaker showing some weakness to be somewhat compelling.

Other thoughts on Friday’s show:

The broadcast ended with The Undertaker in the ring and Kane’s evil laugh echoing throughout the arena, but that wasn’t the end of the live performance for those of us in attendance at 1st Mariner Arena in Baltimore. Kane came out to defend his world title against The Undertaker, as that match had been advertised as the main event on local commercials in the weeks leading up to the show. It made for an odd scenario to have a fresh Kane taking on The Undertaker, who had just wrestled a hard-fought, 14-minute match against Punk. The Kane-Undertaker bout only lasted about three minutes and ended in a double countout. Some fans hated the quick match and non-finish, but I can’t fault WWE too much on this one. With The Undertaker’s legitimately banged-up body, he should be doing little to nothing on non-televised events. On the other hand, WWE could have booked a main event that didn’t involve The Undertaker. …
The verbal exchange between The Undertaker and Punk to open the show was good. The “you suck” chant directed at Punk was loud enough that it was difficult to hear what Punk was saying at one point. …

Alberto Del Rio had another impressive outing, as he defeated Matt Hardy in a good back-and-forth match. Del Rio’s hard kicks were pretty vicious. As for Hardy, the crowd was really behind him. It’s amazing how over he remains despite his mid-card status and less-than-stellar won-loss record. …

Speaking of vicious kicks, Kaval made a good accounting of himself in his Smackdown debut. Even though he came out on the losing end against Drew McIntyre, Kaval – who got a good but not great reaction from the crowd when he was introduced – got in a lot of offense. He and LayCool had an entertaining backstage segment together as well, as the seed was planted for Kaval’s eventual split from his NXT pros. …

Layla and Michelle McCool said that Vickie Guerrero had inserted a clause in their contracts that allows either of them to defend the WWE women’s title. I’m glad WWE addressed the issue and came up with some kind of explanation, but it’s still silly that there are co-champions. …

The Jack Swagger-MVP match (which Swagger won via tapout to the anklelock) was decent. …

There wasn’t much to the tag team match in which Kofi Kingston and Chris Masters defeated Dolph Ziggler and Chavo Guerrero, although it was interesting that the referee not seeing the legal tag between Ziggler and Guerrero is what led to their loss. That spot has been a staple of pro wrestling forever, but it’s almost always the babyfaces who are the ones to get screwed in that situation. …

During Kaval’s match, Matt Striker said: “Don’t let Kaval’s low-key demeanor fool you.” That was a nice play off Low Ki, the name Kaval wrestled under for years before signing with WWE. Striker also said about Kaval that “it doesn’t matter what you’ve done anywhere else but the WWE.” Ain’t that the truth. …

The Big Show had a funny line when he was talking about dismantling the Straight Edge Society. He said that he took out Luke Gallows, Joey Mercury and “that other bald-headed guy in their organization.”

Posted by Baltimore Sun sports at 10:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)
        

Before I get into my thoughts on Thursday night’s episode of WWE Superstars, I have a confession to make: I have gotten into a routine the past couple months of taping the show and then never getting around to watching it (which explains why I haven’t written about Superstars since July). The combination of TNA adding a third hour of programming on Thursday nights and the less-than-marquee matchups on Superstars have made the show can-miss TV for me.

With that being said, the stars have aligned and “Quick hits On WWE Superstars” has returned to Ring Posts – at least for this week. I attended the Smackdown tapings at 1st Mariner Arena in Baltimore on Tuesday, and two of the matches on Superstars – The Big Show vs. Luke Gallows and The Dudebusters vs. Vance Archer and Curt Hawkins – were taped that night, so I feel obligated to comment on them. Plus, with the NFL season having kicked off on Thursday, TNA decided to give Impact and Reaction a bye week, and that gave me back three hours of my life. …

• The mixed tag team match that saw Goldust and Gail Kim defeat Primo and Jillian Hall was fun. It was nice to see Goldust and Kim get an opportunity to shine. Goldust’s primary role in WWE is to put younger guys over, but he does such a nice job in that role and has gotten himself into such good shape that he deserves to pick up a victory once in a while. As for Kim, obviously she is vastly underused.

• Jerry Lawler said that “Goldust is as good now as he has ever been in WWE.” While I agree that Goldust’s work in the ring is very good, he rarely ever wins a match, so that statement made Lawler sound silly.

• The R-Truth vs. William Regal match (which was won by R-Truth) was OK, although there were a few spots that weren’t real smooth. Regal’s rap before the match was pretty funny.

• When The Big Show delivered a thunderous chop to Gallows’ chest outside the ring, I was literally about a foot away from the action. All I can say is that television just doesn’t do justice to The Big Show’s size or the impact of those blows. Big Show, by the way, got a huge pop from the crowd in Baltimore.

• I thought the victory by The Dudebusters – who apparently are babyfaces now – over Archer and Hawkins was an upset when I saw it live, but when I watched the show on TV it was brought up in commentary that it was The Dudebusters’ second win over Archer and Hawkins in three weeks. Who knew?

• When Trent Barreta knocked Hawkins off the apron, Hawkins went crashing into the barrier with such force that he spilled the beer of a woman in the front row who was several seats down from me. She wasn’t happy about losing her over-priced beverage, but Hawkins actually might have done her a favor, as I witnessed a huge cockroach crawling on a tub of ice at one of the beer stands at the arena that night. See, this is the kind of first-hand reporting you just can’t get anywhere else but Ring Posts.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 8:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (14)
        

Unlike John Cena’s first two movies, you won’t see him dodging bullets or leaping off buildings in his latest WWE-produced film, “Legendary,” which opens today for a limited engagement.

With “Legendary,” the only leap that Cena takes is a figurative one, as he makes the jump from action movies to a family drama.

As far as challenging himself as an actor, Cena takes baby steps with this project. For the first time in his brief movie career, he is not playing a larger-than-life action hero and engaging in a battle of good versus evil against a stereotypical movie villain. Instead, Cena’s character in “Legendary” battles his own inner turmoil (although he does get to bust some heads in a couple of bar fights, too).

At the core of the film is the fractured relationship between the Chetley brothers – the brooding Mike (Cena) and nerdy teenager Cal (the talented Devon Graye) – who reconnect and gradually bond through amateur wrestling.

Cena gives a subdued performance as a troubled former high school wrestling star who has been estranged from his younger brother and mother (Patricia Clarkson) for years since his father was killed in a car accident. While Cena still does not display a significant degree of acting range, he does do an adequate job of portraying Mike as a good guy who has been emotionally damaged.

I was just glad to see Cena in something other than a mindless action flick, as “Legendary” is part sports movie, part coming-of-age story. It helps the movie that Cena is not counted on to carry it as he was with “The Marine” and “12 Rounds.” Graye is the true star of the film and acclaimed veteran actors Clarkson and Danny Glover also have key roles.

While “Legendary” doesn’t break any new ground and it’s not going to win any major awards, the characters are likeable enough that it will keep your interest and have you rooting for a happy ending.

For more information on “Legendary,” including a list of theaters that are showing the movie, click here .

Posted by Kevin Eck at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (11)
        

Here is the second and final part of an interview I conducted with WWE star John Cena before Raw Monday night at the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C.

Cena talked about the youth movement in WWE, the Superman aspect of his character, a potential match with The Undertaker at WrestleMania and more.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 6:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)
Categories: Video interviews
        

Here’s my take on the season premiere of NXT Season 3, which I attended live at 1st Mariner Arena in Baltimore Tuesday night:

• Naomi made a very good first impression and I’d say she is the early favorite to win the competition. She won both challenges – a dance-off and a Capture the Flags contest – and also scored a victory with her pro Kelly Kelly over Alicia Fox and Maxine in a tag team match. Naomi displayed impressive athleticism and she was very likable. I don’t know if it came across on television, but the crowd got behind her, while the reaction to the other five rookies was either negative or indifferent.

• None of the other rookies really stood out to any great degree, although I thought Maxine cut a good heel promo and Kaitlyn – the replacement for the ousted Aloisia – did well in her role as the well-meaning rookie of overbearing pro Vickie Guerrero.

• Speaking of Guerrero, she was highly entertaining. It was an embarrassment of riches for a Vickie mark such as myself, as she did the “excuse me” routine in two segments on NXT and also later in the evening on Smackdown. Guerrero ordering Kaitlyn to do her promo over in the opening segment and then again at the end of the show was great. The relationship between these two is going to be fun.

• Naomi, a former Orlando Magic cheerleader, clearly deserved to win the dance competition. I thought Kaitlyn’s routine was funny, but the majority of the crowd didn’t care for it. They didn’t like her promo either, even though she was trying to do the “hot girl who also is the class clown” babyface bit. Michael Cole, by the way, was hilarious doing his over-the-top dance moves.

• Not only was A.J.’s promo not any good, but she said “damn” in the middle of it. Is that PG? Jamie’s promo came off robotic and overly scripted, while Aksana delivered this classic line: “Let me entertainment you.”

• The Naomi and Kelly Kelly versus Maxine and Fox match was going well until the finish. Naomi got Maxine in a small package and the referee counted three. Fox had attempted to make the save before the three count, but Kelly Kelly cut her off. While the two pros brawled, Naomi and Maxine continued wrestling, with Naomi going for another pin attempt before the referee informed her that the match was over. Someone obviously screwed up. Naomi looked decent in the ring, but Maxine was not impressive.

• The other match on the show saw A.J. and Primo defeat Aksana and Goldust. There was a botched move involving the women that was supposed to lead to the finish, so they just went for it again and they pulled it off the second time.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 10:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (21)
        

Here is the first of a two-part interview I conducted with WWE star John Cena before Raw Monday night at the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C.

Cena talked about his acting career and his latest movie from WWE Films, "Legendary," which opens Friday.

Check back tomorrow for the second part of the interview.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 6:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Video interviews
        

Aloisia, the 6-foot-9 rookie diva who was pulled from NXT Season 3 before the first episode even aired, posted an open letter to fans on her website Tuesday addressing the pwinsider.com report that said that WWE had removed her from the show because company officials discovered ‘erotic photos’ of her online.

Aloisia (real name Lindsay Hayward), 23, said she has no idea whether the photos – which were shot five years ago – had anything to do with her dismissal from NXT.

"That’s something you’d have to ask them," she wrote. "Perhaps it was a factor in their decision, but I honestly don’t know their entire thought process, as they’ve communicated very little to me about this. From what I’ve been reading on various blogs, it seems that they may have had a political motivation to get me off the show, but again, you’d have to ask them."

Aloisia noted that she is not nude in any of the photos and she even provided a link to them.

"The pictures are already out there, so there’s no point in trying to hide them," she wrote. "I find them embarrassing, not because they’re particularly ‘erotic,’ but because I was overweight and out of shape when they were taken five years ago and because they’re amateurishly shot."

She went on to say that when she first received an offer from WWE, she was asked to fill out a talent information form, and one of the questions was, "Have you ever posed nude?"

"I answered 'no' to this question, because that’s the truth," she wrote. "If they had asked me if I ever posed suggestively, I would of course have answered 'yes,' but there’s a big difference between suggestive and nude."

Posted by Kevin Eck at 4:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (10)
        

The latest on the removal of 6-foot-9 diva Aloisia from NXT Season 3 is that WWE made the call to do so after discovering “erotic photos” of her online.

According to a report on pwinsider.com, WWE dropped Aloisia (real name Lindsay Hayward) from the show because the photos -- which were posted on a website devoted to tall women -- were not consistent with the company’s PG rating.

It had been reported on wrestlingobserver.com Monday that she was pulled from NXT because she had been deemed not ready and needed more wrestling training.

Aloisia is still under contract with WWE.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 4:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (20)
        

As an admitted Jerichoholic, I usually hate to see Chris Jericho ever lose a match. But I couldn’t have been happier when he did the job to John Morrison on Raw Monday night.

Try to follow my logic on this one.

The stipulation of the match was that if Jericho lost, he would be out of the six-pack challenge for the WWE title at the Night of Champions pay-per-view on Sept. 19. Last week, Jericho had vowed that he would leave WWE if he didn’t win the title at Night of Champions.

It’s no secret that Jericho’s WWE contract is expiring this month, and the stipulation at the pay-pay-per-view sure made it seem as if Jericho was going to be leaving. However, by having Jericho fall to Morrison, thus losing his spot in the NOC match, WWE no longer has to deliver on Jericho’s win-the-title-or-quit scenario.

Of course, it’s possible that I’m completely wrong. Jericho could still be leaving and WWE may have taken him out of the NOC main event for other reasons.

Either way, something good can come out of this, and that’s a renewed push for Morrison. He appeared to be on the verge of becoming world champion about a year ago, but he never got over the hump and has slipped down the card over the past several months.

No announcement was made on Raw as to whom if anyone will take Jericho’s place in the six-pack challenge, but it would make perfect sense for Morrison to get the spot.

On a side note, the Morrison-Jericho match was very good, and I also really liked the backstage segment with the two of them later in the show. Morrison’s deadpan mocking of Jericho and the despondent Jericho’s facial expressions were spot-on.

Other thoughts on Monday’s show:

Randy Orton continues to gain more and more steam as a babyface. The crowd was going nuts after he defeated Wade Barrett and then delivered RKO’s to Darren Young, Edge and Sheamus. …

The show ended with Orton and John Cena – who will square off on next week’s Raw – staring each other down. We’ve seen these two wrestle many, many times but it’s a little different dynamic now that Orton also is a babyface. Babyface Cena vs. babyface Orton is the modern-day version of Hulk Hogan vs. Ultimate Warrior, Shawn Michaels vs. Bret Hart and Steve Austin vs. The Rock. …

The crowd also was super-hot for Cena whether they were cheering him or booing him. …

The Cena-Justin Gabriel match was decent. Gabriel got in a good amount of offense before losing and Cena had to use an Attitude Adjustment off the second rope to finish him off. Gabriel probably gained more credibility here in defeat than he would have if he had picked up a fluke victory. …

I liked The Miz’s promo and the verbal/physical interaction that involved him, Daniel Bryan and Alex Riley. All I can say is, Miz, I was wrong. …

When Young came out during the final segment, I swear I heard crickets chirping. By the way, Young said that he wasn’t the weakest link, he was the missing link. Well, the hair is pretty similar. …

Edge mocking The Great Khali by doing the Frankenstein’s monster walk was laugh-out-loud funny. Edge also had the line of the night. When Zack Ryder suggested that he be Edge’s opponent with Edge’s spot at NOC on the line, Edge said: “I used to think you were the biggest tool in the world, but that’s a brilliant idea. Because you’re an easy win because you suck.” …

Alicia Fox had the most unintentionally funny line of the night when she said that she would be the “undefined champion.” You know that slogan WWE has about the divas? Well, two out of three ain’t bad.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 3:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (34)
        

Aloisia, the 6-foot-9 diva who was announced as a participant on NXT Season 3 before being “fired” days later by her pro, Vickie Guerrero, is still under contract with WWE, according to wrestlingobserver.com.

The report said that she was pulled from the show because she was deemed not ready, which is pretty much what I thought happened when I first saw the wwe.com story Friday that said Guerrero had replaced her.

Because of her size, Aloisia has a decent shot of becoming a special attraction in WWE, so I think it’s a wise decision to keep her off TV until she is more polished.

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

Here are the results from TNA’s No Surrender pay-per-view Sunday night and my thoughts on some of the booking:

• Kurt Angle and Jeff Hardy wrestled to a no-contest in a TNA world title tournament semifinal

• Mr. Anderson defeated “The Pope” D’Angelo Dinero in a TNA world title tournament semifinal

• A.J. Styles defeated Tommy Dreamer in an I Quit Match

• Jeff Jarrett and Samoa Joe defeated Sting and Kevin Nash

• Abyss defeated Rhino in a Falls Count Anywhere Match

• TNA world tag team champions The Motor City Machine Guns defeated Generation Me

• TNA X Division champion Douglas Williams defeated Sabu

• Velvet Sky defeated Madison Rayne

Thoughts:

People are calling the Angle-Hardy contest a Match of the Year candidate, but the bout was absurdly overbooked. It ended initially when the 20-minute time limit expired while Angle had Hardy trapped in the ankle lock. Of course, the time limit wasn’t announced before the match, and who ever heard of a 20-minute time limit on a pay-per-view main event anyway? Eric Bischoff ruled that there had to be a winner, so a five-minute sudden-death overtime took place. Again the time limit expired without a winner, so there was yet another five-minute overtime period, which also ended without a fall. Angle had been busted open during the second OT, and Bischoff directed the medics to look at the cut. It was determined that Angle’s cut was too severe for him to continue, so therefore the match was ruled no contest. Huh? Shouldn’t Hardy have been awarded the match in that scenario? What made it even more ridiculous was that Angle’s cut apparently wasn’t bad at all, and in TNA we’ve seen one bloodfest after another with no stoppages. It’s unclear who Anderson will face in the finals to crown a new champion at Bound for Glory next month, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we get an Angle-Hardy rematch on TNA Impact, which would really be a slap in the face to the people who bought the pay-per-view. …

EV 2.0 going 0-for-3 is an interesting development, but I agree with the results of all three matches. The finish to the Styles-Dreamer match was reminiscent of the classic Magnum T.A.-Tully Blanchard I Quit Match at Starrcade ’85. Styles pressed a fork against Dreamer’s eyelid and Dreamer quit. …

London Brawling (Desmond Wolfe and Magnus) were replaced by Generation Me in the tag team title match against the Machine Guns due to “a personal issue.” Not sure what that’s about but wrestlingobserver.com reported that it was a disciplinary action. Generation Me turned heel and attacked Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin after the match, so it looks as if Wolfe and Magnus may be out of the title picture for the time being. ...

Jarrett and Joe got the win over Sting and Nash after Jarrett used the bat on Sting. It’s looking more and more as if Jarrett, Bischoff and Hulk Hogan are going heel at Bound for Glory.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 7:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (25)
        

For the second consecutive week, the “main event” on Smackdown was a talking segment with Kane and The Undertaker. On Friday night’s episode, the focus was on Kane demonstrating that he now possesses The Undertaker’s ability to make the lights go on and off and to seemingly vanish into thin air.

Kane, who announced that he would defend his world heavyweight title against The Undertaker at the Night of Champions pay-per-view on Sept. 19, delivered yet another strong performance on the microphone, but as I have said before, all this supernatural stuff just isn’t for me. Suspending disbelief in pro wrestling is hard enough as it is without having a story line in which two “monsters” are battling over control of magical powers.

On the bright side, at least with the Kane-Undertaker story line at the forefront, the science fiction geeks won’t be able to say that Smackdown doesn’t belong on the SyFy Channel after the show moves to the network next month.

Other thoughts on Friday’s show:

This was definitely not one of the better episodes of Smackdown. The highlight of the night was the verbal exchange between Alberto Del Rio and Christian. Both guys handled themselves well on the mic, and Del Rio’s facial expressions were great. I’m assuming that Christian is going to be used as a steppingstone for Del Rio, which I sort of understand, but it’s a shame that a guy as talented as Christian doesn’t have a more prominent role. …

It’s not a good sign for Drew McIntyre that he jobbed to Christian even though Christian wrestled the match at a disadvantage after having been attacked by McIntyre before the bell. …

Jack Swagger using his wheel-chair bound “father” as a shield to fend off MVP was pretty funny. By the way, Swagger really should know by now that bringing his trophies to work isn’t a good idea. …

Once again, The Big Show defeated The Straight Edge Society in a three-on-one match. As soon as the match was over, I was thinking that the best thing for Punk’s career might be the disbandment of the SES. Moments later, Punk hit the GTS on Luke Gallows, and with Serena already gone, it appears the group may indeed be all but done. …

Speaking of Serena, it was odd that there was no mention of her whatsoever. I thought for sure that Punk was going to cut a promo explaining why she had been dismissed from the group. …

The Cody Rhodes-Matt Hardy match was a clear case of two guys whose careers are going in completely opposite directions. First Rhodes verbally humiliated Hardy by insulting his physical appearance, and then he beat him clean. …

The backstage skit with a kooky old doctor using electroshock therapy to attempt to get Hornswoggle to speak English was right out of Tuesday Night Titans. The only thing missing was a cheap set and Lord Alfred Hayes in a cheesy tuxedo.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 2:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (12)
        

Ric Flair said last week on TNA Impact that Fourtune was Abyss’ “they,” but Abyss refuted Flair’s claim on Thursday night’s show.

So we still don’t know who “they” are, but we now at least know the date that “they” will reveal themselves: Oct. 10, at the Bound for Glory pay-per-view.

Abyss said “they” will remove TNA president Dixie Carter and proceed to “exterminate” Hulk Hogan, Eric Bischoff and TNA’s top babyfaces.

My guess is that Abyss’ threats directed at Hogan and Bischoff are a swerve and that Hogan, Bischoff and Jeff Jarrett are “they.” Abyss taking orders from Hogan would make sense since he was a loyal Hulkamaniac before his sudden heel turn.

If that scenario proves true, then Sting and Kevin Nash will say that the two of them tried to warn everyone about Hogan, Bischoff and Jarrett, but no one would listen. I hope it goes down that way if only for the fact that we would finally know what the heck Sting has been talking about since March.

Other thoughts on Thursday’s show:

The main event, a tag team match in which “The Pope” D’Angelo Dinero and Mr. Anderson defeated Kurt Angle and Jeff Hardy, was disappointingly short, as it only went about five minutes. Predictably, both sets of partners ended up fighting each other. …

Angle’s retirement stipulation takes away a lot of the interest in his match against Hardy in the semifinals of the TNA world title tournament at the No Surrender pay-per-view Sunday. I’d be shocked if the final match of the tournament isn’t Angle versus Anderson. …

The booking of Tommy Dreamer as a super babyface in the eight-man elimination tag team match between Fourtune and EV 2.0 was beyond absurd. After Dreamer was left by himself to face A.J. Styles and Beer Money, he managed to pin Robert Roode and then James Storm before nearly beating Styles, too. Thanks to Matt Morgan’s interference, Styles was able to pull out the victory. If that would have been someone such as Angle, Hardy or Anderson in the Superman role, I would have bought it, but not Dreamer. That was almost as bad as the time Shane McMahon nearly beat Randy Orton, Ted DiBiase Jr. and Cody Rhodes singlehandedly. …

It was interesting that Styles handled the mic work for Fourtune instead of Flair during the verbal exchange with Dreamer. It’s taken some time but Styles has found his voice as a heel and no longer comes off like “Little Naitch.” Now if only he would stop wearing that feathered robe to the ring. …

I have thought for years that Stevie Richards was underrated, but with that being said, I don’t understand the decision to have him pin Abyss, who is supposed to be an unstoppable monster. …

The worst-kept secret in pro wrestling was finally revealed, as Madison Rayne’s bodyguard was unmasked as Tara. …

I like the pairing of Desmond Wolfe and Magnus, but London Brawling is a horrible name for their tag team. …

Magnus’ new persona seems to be a work in progress, but he has the potential to be a major star. By the way, I still don’t understand why Chelsea remains with Wolfe when she clearly can’t stand him. …

I don’t believe that every wrestler needs to be all bulked up, but Brian Kendrick looks like he weighs about 120 pounds. …

One thought on TNA Reaction: The segment with Jesse Neal talking about the bombing of the USS Cole in 2002 that took the lives of his shipmates (including his best friend) was pretty compelling. I’m looking forward to Part 2 of the piece.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 9:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (15)
        

After the all-diva NXT Season 3 cast was announced during the NXT Season 2 finale Tuesday night, the one rookie diva that people were buzzing about was the 6-foot-9 Aloisia.

Today, the Internet is buzzing about Aloisia for a different reason. She has been removed from the show before it has even started.

A few hours ago, wwe.com reported that Aloisia has been fired by her pro, Vickie Guerrero, and that Guerrero would reveal her new rookie on Tuesday’s season premiere of NXT Season 3.

Guerrero firing her is obviously a story line, but it’s unclear whether Aloisia is still under contract or if she has legitimately been future-endeavored by WWE.

It has only been two weeks since WWE signed Aloisia, who wrestled on the independents as Isis The Amazon. Perhaps WWE came to the realization that she’s just too green to be on TV at this time.

I have a hard time believing that WWE would release a woman with Aloisia’s unique look. Even if she is the worst wrestler of all time, she’d be perfect in the role of a bodyguard for an under-sized male heel.

Around the same time that the wwe.com story went up, Aloisia tweeted the following:

"There's nothing you can do to me, that's EVER gonna bury me ... I'm fearless, YOU better believe I'm fearless, fearless." I AM FEARLESS.”

Posted by Kevin Eck at 4:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (16)
        

Here's a link to a story I wrote about Kane for Friday's Live! section of The Baltimore Sun.

To read the story, click here.

To read my Q&A with Kane, click here.

Photo courtesy of World Wrestling Entertainment

Posted by Kevin Eck at 11:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

I conducted a phone interview earlier this week with WWE world heavyweight champion Kane, who will be appearing at the Smackdown taping at 1st Mariner Arena in Baltimore Tuesday.

To read my story on Kane in Friday's Live! section of The Baltimore Sun, click here.

It’s been about six years since your last program with The Undertaker. What are your thoughts on working with him again?

Both of us have evolved quite a bit from where we were six or seven years ago character-wise, so I think it’s going to be different. It’s new and it’s fresh, and of course it’s always awesome for me to be able to compete against him because I think he’s one of the all-time greats. So it’s special, and as a professional it should be very fun to do.

You played a couple other characters in WWE prior to becoming Kane that didn’t really catch on. When you were first presented with the opportunity to be Kane, did you know right away that it was going to be a career-maker?

Well, I certainly hoped so. Again, Kane has evolved through the years – tremendously I’d say at this point. Getting to work with The Undertaker right off the bat was a tremendous opportunity. It was an opportunity to be a career-maker, and fortunately I was able to take advantage of that.

I’m guessing you probably weren’t thinking Dr. Isaac Yankem was going to be a big hit.

[Laughs] Not, really. I try to forget about those days.

You mentioned how the character has evolved. For years you wore the mask and didn’t speak, and then you spoke a little here and there, but now you’re cutting these long promos. It seems like a lot of lines to memorize, but you’ve been doing a great job. Have you had any formal acting training?

No, I never have other than taking the prerequisite drama classes in college and high school.

You’re presented these scripts on the day of the show, correct?

Yeah, and sometimes we’re presented the script a half an hour before we go out there [laughs]. Honestly, I think we in the WWE are very underrated as performers. What we do would be very difficult for even an experienced actor. To go out and sometimes have 15 minutes of verbiage, sometimes have to ad-lib and then, of course, have other variables such as the interaction with the audience, it can be challenging.

Were you worried at all when the time came to take off the mask that the character would not be as well-received?

Well on the one hand, yeah, because it had been very successful and you have the philosophy of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” But on the other hand, I felt – and Vince [McMahon] felt as well – that the character had progressed as far as it was going to be able to. Interestingly, probably the only people who were really 100 percent behind that decision were myself and the guy that really counts, which is Vince. There were some trepidations, of course, but again, it was a great opportunity and what it did was that it almost became separate characters. I think the opportunities that it presented as far as breathing an entirely new life and direction into Kane mitigated whatever fears that we had – and, of course, we could always put the mask back on.

Were you able to enjoy some degree of anonymity outside the arena during the years when Kane wore a mask?

[Laughs] Not really. I was a really big guy with really long hair, so it’s not like I probably worked at Charles Schwab or something like that. People never accused me of being a nuclear physicist. People may not have known exactly who I was but I would draw stares anyway, and then a lot of times people would put two and two together.

A lot of wrestlers that I’ve talked to over the years say that the best characters are the ones in which it’s their real personalities with the volume turned up. Are there any similarities between Glenn Jacobs and Kane?

If there were, I’d probably be in jail [laughs]. In fact, that’s why I think I’m so successful as Kane, because I can be something completely different. It's like Anthony Hopkins and Hannibal Lecter. It's just so far removed, and you're able to do things that you would never ever dream of doing.

How many more years do you see yourself wrestling? Some people have speculated that this could be a final run for you.

Yeah, that’s sort of a constant at this point [laughs]. I’m still having fun. I’m really at the height of my career, and I don't have any plans of packing it in, at least not in the near future.

Have you thought at all about what life after wrestling will be like and what you want to do?

Yeah, you have to. I am at an age where I’m beginning to realize the way my body feels sometimes that I can’t do this forever. Also, as far as my home life and my family, certainly I’d like to spend more time at home. People are like, “What do you do for a vacation?” I go home [laughs]. And I enjoy being there. That’s actually the most challenging thing of what we do – the travel and being away from home all the time. Luckily, my people at home are very supportive, but by the same token, I do what I do now so that at some point I can spend that time with them.

I know you’re an active member of the Libertarian party and you author a political blog, The Adventures of Citizen X. Have you ever thought about one day following in the footsteps of Jesse Ventura and running for public office?

Oh yeah, sure. But I think maybe with me it might be more educational stuff — talking with young people and that sort of thing as opposed to pursuing political office.

Do you think there will ever be a Libertarian or independent president or will it always be someone from one of the two major parties?

[Pauses] I don’t know. Certainly I think the way things are going with the economy, and this is not a rip on any particular party because they’re both at fault, but with the centralization of the economy, central planning, that doesn’t work. We saw that everywhere it’s been tried. As things unfold I think people will be looking for answers, and I think the Libertarians, certainly the people that understand real economics – Austrian economics – they have those answers. So we’ll see what happens. I think we do live in very interesting times.

Photo courtesy of World Wrestling Entertainment

Posted by Kevin Eck at 11:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (14)
Categories: Q&As
        

It turns out the speculation that Chris Jericho was a candidate to be on ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars” this fall – which I wrote about a couple months ago – was true.

Jericho confirmed on Twitter Tuesday that he was asked to be on the show but that “it didn’t work out scheduling wise.”

Jericho -- whose WWE contract is expiring shortly -- and his band Fozzy are scheduled to tour the United Kingdom Oct. 9-21. "Dancing with the Stars" debuts on Sept. 20 and runs through the end of November.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 9:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
        

Kaval entered NXT Season 2 as the clear favorite, and any remaining doubt as to whether he would win it was erased during Tuesday night’s season finale when Alex Riley was the first of the final three competitors to be eliminated.

Riley, while not at Kaval’s level as an in-ring performer, was by far the most polished of all of this season’s rookies on the microphone and he has the size and look of a WWE star. His winning would not have been a total shock.

There was no way that Michael McGillicutty was going to beat Kaval, though, so the announcement of Kaval winning was a bit anti-climactic after Riley had been cut. Frankly, I’m amazed that McGillicutty outlasted Riley.

The big news was what happened after Kaval was crowned. The seven other rookies all attacked him and delivered a severe beat-down.

It will be interesting to see where this is headed, but if all eight guys end up on the main roster just as the Season 1 guys have, it really makes the whole NXT concept a joke and being named the winner rather insignificant.

Other thoughts on Tuesday’s show:

Percy Watson seemed to be confused as to who he was supposed to be fighting in the show-closing brawl. When the pros came out to try to make the save for Kaval, Watson began punching MVP, who was Watson’s pro and – seemingly – his friend. Then Watson and Riley started fighting with each other, but at the end, Watson was standing alongside Riley and the other rookies. Perhaps Watson really needs to put some lenses in those glasses. …

The attack on Kaval at the end of the show was foreshadowed when all five of the previously eliminated rookies were asked who they thought should win out of the final three and none of them said Kaval. …

The triple threat match between the final three rookies wasn’t bad. In retrospect, I’m guessing WWE booked Riley to win the match since he was going to be the first one eliminated. …

Not only is Kaval a better worker than McGillicutty, but he cut a better promo on this show as well. McGillicutty again was trying too hard to cut a “wrestling promo” and it came off forced. I actually laughed out loud during McGillicutty’s speech after he had been eliminated when he got a stern look on his face and talked about “the genesis of McGillicutty” in an ultra-serious tone. Michael Cole said: “Great, now can we hear from the winner please.” …

Lucky Cannon tried to display a little attitude when he got a chance to speak, but Cole wasn’t having it. As soon as Cannon started talking, Cole said over him, “Not this guy again.” Then after Cannon finished up his attempt at a heel promo, Cole said, “Oh, all of a sudden he’s a bad guy.” …

It was announced that Season 3 – which begins next week – will feature all divas. There had been speculation that the cast would consist of four men and four women. Here are the rookies and their pros: Naomi and Kelly Kelly; Maxine and Alicia Fox; Aksana and Goldust; Jamie and the Bellas; A.J. and Primo; and Aloisia and Vickie Guerrero. …

One of the women has already made a huge impression – the 6-foot-9 Aloisia, who clearly has a couple of things going for her. That top she was almost wearing was definitely not PG.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 7:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (28)