PETE ROSE

Rose may have had tremendous success as a major league baseball player, but the all-time leader in hits didn’t fare as well in run-ins with Kane at three consecutive WrestleManias.

Rose made his initial WrestleMania appearance as the guest ring announcer for the match between The Undertaker and Kane at WrestleMania XIV (1998) in Boston. After Rose insulted the local sports teams, Kane came out and gave him a Tombstone Piledriver to the delight of the crowd.

The following year at WrestleMania XV, Rose – disguised as the San Diego Chicken – jumped Kane prior to his match against Triple H, but Rose ended up taking another Tombstone.

The good news for Rose at WrestleMania 2000 is that he didn’t get Tombstoned. The bad news is that he was choke-slammed by Kane and then given the stinkface by Rikishi after his attempt to exact his revenge on Kane with a baseball bat was thwarted.

I will count down the Top 10 WrestleMania celebrities every day through Sunday.

To view the entire list, click here.

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Axl Rotten and I look ahead to WrestleMania XXVII. There's also another Ring Posts Retro segment featuring three WWE "Hall of Famers."

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Categories: Ring Posts Xtra episodes
        

To view a photo gallery from Wednesday's WrestleMania XXVII news conference (as well as other WWE photos), click here.

Getty Images photo

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The Rock did a brief Q&A in the green room following his appearance on CNN's "Piers Morgan Tonight" show.

In the clip, he discusses WrestleMania XXVII, social media and Snooki.

The Rock's interview with Morgan airs tonight at 9 EDT.

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FLOYD MAYWEATHER

The man many regard as the best pound-for-pound fighter in boxing took a big step up – actually, make that a gigantic step up – in weight class when he took on The Big Show in a boxer versus wrestler match at WrestleMania XXIV (2008).

The match was set up with an angle at the No Way Out pay-per-view a month earlier. Mayweather, who was seated at ringside during the event, hopped the rail after being taunted by The Big Show.

The 7-foot, 485-pound wrestler got down on his knees to mock the 5-8, 135-pound Mayweather, who responded by connecting with three punches to Big Show’s face. Slow-motion replays showed that the punches were not pulled, and Big Show was bleeding from the nose and mouth.

An incensed Big Show went after Mayweather, who took off through the crowd with his entourage. The realistic-looking exchange became an instant SportsCenter moment and got WWE a lot of mainstream publicity.

While Big Show was supposed to be a heel and Mayweather a babyface, the boxing superstar was so obnoxious that he got a lot of heat from WWE fans, and by the time the match took place, their roles were reversed.

The bout far exceeded expectations, and Mayweather looked pretty good for someone who was in his first wrestling match. Mayweather softened up Big Show with five chair shots and a low blow, and then finished him off by knocking him out with a pair of brass knuckles.

I will count down the Top 10 WrestleMania celebrities every day through Sunday.

To view the entire list, click here.

Getty Images photo

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Categories: Top 10 WrestleMania celebrities
        

I conducted a phone interview last week with WWE star Randy Orton, who will face CM Punk at WrestleMania XXVII Sunday.

Orton, who weaved in and out of character during the conversation, talked about whether he is comfortable working as a babyface, his thoughts on Punk as a performer, his TV wives and more.

You’ve been working as a babyface – although you’re certainly not a traditional babyface – for about a year now. Are you feeling comfortable in that role?

Absolutely not. I’m definitely growing as a good guy, as a babyface. I’ve got to walk a fine line, Kevin, because as a bad guy, as a heel, I go so comfortable in that role, I think I eventually earned the respect of the fans. And it wasn’t some master plan to become a good guy one day. I was dead set on being a heel the rest of my career. I figured there’s no way I’ll ever be a good guy. But the fans, they’re powerful, and when they speak together like they did, I started getting positive reactions. I’d be in the ring with a babyface as a heel, but they’d be chanting for me. It’s just one of those things where I just had to make the switch. But I think where I succeeded this time, where I failed back in’04 after I became the youngest champ in history and became babyface, I didn’t change too much. I think that’s very important. That respect I earned from the fans as a bad guy, I don’t want to lose that. And if all of a sudden I’m coming out and I’m trying to be like John Cena, that typical white meat babyface, kissing babies, hugging grandmas, slapping high-five swith everybody in the front row, that’s not going to work. If I come out pumping my fist and smiling, it’s going to make people want to barf. So I really had to walk that fine line and change, but just change enough to where it works for me and my character.

You’re working with CM Punk in a match at WrestleMania that is a little lower on the card than some of the matches you’ve been involved in at past WrestleManias. Do you feel less pressure not being in a main event, or do you relish being in that pressure-cooker?

It’s a good question, but I believe in every Mania, every pay-per-view, Raw, Smackdown or live event I’m in, my goal – and I would hope that everyone else’s goal on the roster – would be to the steal the show, and the pressure is always there. Whether it’s a stage like WrestleMania or another pay-per-view or just TV or a live event, you’ve still got the same fans out there. The WWE Universe is watching and you’ve got to perform. You’ve got to live up to the expectations that you have laid out. Me and CM Punk, we’re not fighting for a title, but if you look back, we’ve got a three-year story line in the making. I cost him the WWE championship back in ’08 when I was returning from a collar bone injury just after the birth of my daughter. I remember it vividly. I punted him in the back of the head backstage on a day when he was champ and was going to defend the title at a pay-per-view. He wasn’t able to even perform in the match because I kicked him in the head, cost him the title. If I was him I would have done the same thing. He came back at the Rumble, cost me the title, but as far as I’m concerned, that made us even. Anything after that, I’m sorry, Phil Brooks, CM Punk. I’m going to destroy him April 3 at WrestleMania XXVII. That’s just how it’s going to go.

Punk was a guy who wasn’t given an immediate big push in WWE. He basically had to earn his stripes and gradually work his way up. What are your thoughts on him as a performer?

That’s true. He was already known – he had done a lot of the Ring of Honor and local independent-type stuff in the Midwest, and he had done some traveling. He was somewhat well-known on an independent level, and I think when he first got called up, he had a lot going against him. He had to prove his worth – we all have to. Some of us have it easier than others. My father got my foot in the door, but eventually it’s up to the performer to prove themselves, and he definitely proved himself. He’s a multiple world champion; he’s got the background; he’s got the dedication. He won the Money in the Bank years before, and he cashed it in, won the championship – he’s done well for himself. But when it comes to CM Punk, I think as far as talent goes, as far as determination on setting a goal and accomplishing that goal, he is nothing – nothing – compared to me when it comes to getting the job done and performing at that level. I have way more experience than he does performing in front of these kinds of crowds, and I’m going to have the crowd on my side, so he’s got the odds against him going into this thing no matter what way you look at it. And not only that, he’s not going to have the rest of his team – The New Nexus – which is pretty much not even in existence anymore. I have completely put that to an end. But it’s just him; no one has his back at WrestleMania XXVII. And that’s going to be good for me because it’s just man to man, toe to toe, me and CM Punk in the ring, nobody else, no interference, and it’s going to go my way.

There was an angle on Raw recently that involved the tour bus that you travel in. I’ve heard that a lot of the top guys have tour buses now and travel with their families, which, obviously, is a lot different than what life was like on the road when your father and grandfather wrestled. Are the tour buses saving marriages?

A lot of guys actually don’t travel by tour bus ; there’s five of us. I think to be able to be at a point in your career where you’ve earned it and you can afford it, I think anyone would be stupid not to do it. What the tour bus does for me – my family coming with me, that’s just the cherry on top – I don’t have to travel 200 and 300 miles a night driving till 3 or 4 a.m. looking for that Denny’s that’s open or that drive-thru at McDonald’s and getting a couple chicken sandwiches and taking the bun off and shoving it down my throat. I got a kitchen, king-size bed, a couple TVs, a washer and dryer, a shower, a bathroom, deep sinks – I’m set. I can travel anywhere around the country, and I can get flat after a match. I think the biggest thing when it comes to injuries and stuff, travel has a big part in that. Because after a match, guys hit the road and they’re in a sitting position. They’re not able to ice up or do whatever they have to do therapy-wise. Being in a car driving like that, it’s just not good on your back, and our backs take a lot of abuse with all the bumps we take in the ring. Our body in general takes a hell of a beating, and that bus allows me to recover – that’s the biggest thing right there. It’s worth every penny because I’m able to recover more than I would in a rental car. Waiting in lines, looking for hotels, reserving rental cars, just plugging in an address into your GPS and hoping that address eventually leads you to a gym and not some middle of the subdivision where the address was wrong. There are lots of things that go into that bus that make it worth its weight in gold, but the No. 1 thing for me is the recovery time that I get having the bus that I didn’t have in the rental cars.

I know that you have a movie coming out soon with WWE Films. What was that experience like?

Well, first of all, I was surrounded by great actors. Ed Harris, of course, was in the movie and so was Amy Madigan. Most of my scenes were with Amy Madigan, and she was great. She was like one of the boys – she cursed like a sailor, was just really cool. She made it really relaxing for me to be able to do the movie. It comes out next month. It was my first time doing anything like that, and I have to say that it was a great experience. It’s definitely different than what I’m doing in the ring. If anything, I’m overacting in the ring because of the facials and the body language. I want the guy in the cheap seats to be able to see what I’m thinking, the expression on my face. But when you’re filming a movie, it could be a two or three camera shot, and you’re doing it over and over and over again. It’s not live TV, it’s a lot different. But they pick up every little expression on your face. You have to actually hold back a little bit. That was my biggest learning experience with the process – learning the whole acting game. Taking the acting classes and learning the craft, getting some acting skills and applying them. I’m proud of what I did. The movie is doing well even before it’s come out. It was featured at the Santa Barbara Film Festival. It was a centerpiece feature, which was great. It was midweek, all the media was there, and it premiered in a 2,000-seat theater, and it was 90 percent packed and got a really good response, and the reviews were good. Even my role got good reviews, so I’m very proud of the project and would love to do more stuff like that in the future.

A lot of observant fans have noticed that your wife seems to look a little bit different every time she’s on TV. Is that sort of a running joke at this point?

That’s a tricky question. Obviously, that’s not my wife. Some guys feel differently about having their wife on camera. Obviously, Shawn Michaels’ wife used to be a WCW Nitro Girl, so she had the experience. Rey Mysterio’s family was involved in a story line that he was in with CM Punk. And, of course, Stephanie McMahon. I don’t mind my family being at the Hall of Fame and the media being there and a few snapshots here and there, but as far as bringing my wife and especially my 3-year-old daughter onto the screen, I’m not ready for that. I don’t think that’s their place, and I don’t want to expose them to that. I think it definitely impacts negatively what we’re trying to do, but it’s a tricky question and I really don’t know how to answer it. I don’t want to say, “Oh, well, that was my wife,” because obviously two years ago when Triple H did the whole home invasion angle, I had a different wife. I haven’t been married three times in the last two years, that’s for sure [laughs]. It’s tough, but if they want to do something where I have a wife there, then they’re going to have to hire me a wife, I guess. I think a lot of the fans know who my wife is. She’s got more hits on Google and Yahoo than some of our Divas [laughs]. But I don’t want to ask that of her. If she was comfortable doing it, it might be a different story, but that’s not really what I want my family to be involved with.

Photo courtesy of WWE

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Categories: Q&As
        

Wrestling fans know that Chris Jericho can cut a promo. Now they know that he can cut a rug, too.

Jericho displayed some fancy footwork doing the quickstep on Monday night’s episode of “Dancing with the Stars,” as he and partner Cheryl Burke tied two other couples for the highest score of the evening (23) out of 11 competitors. Jericho and Burke got two eights and a seven from the judges.

Through the first two weeks of the show, Jericho and Burke have a total of 42 points, which places them in a tie for fourth.

On Tuesday night’s results show, Mike Catherwood was the first celebrity eliminated. Yeah, I never heard of him either.

By surviving the first cut, Jericho has already lasted longer on this show than he did on “Celebrity Duets” several years ago.

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BOB UECKER

The self-deprecating “Mr. Baseball” was a catcher during his modest career in major league baseball, but he was a utility player for the WWF during his humorous appearances at WrestleManias III (1987) and IV (1988).

At WrestleMania III, Uecker was the guest ring announcer for the epic WWF title match between Hulk Hogan and Andre The Giant. He also sat in on commentary with Gorilla Monsoon and Jesse Ventura for the six-man tag team match that pitted Hillbilly Jim and two midget wrestlers against King Kong Bundy and two midget wrestlers. The wise-cracking Uecker was the perfect choice to provide additional commentary on the comedy match.

Uecker’s most famous WrestleMania moment occurred at WrestleMania IV, where he served as backstage interviewer. Andre The Giant concluded his interview with Uecker by wrapping his gargantuan hands around his neck. As Andre shook him like a rag doll, Uecker hilariously sold it by sticking out his tongue and rolling his eyes in the back of his head.

During that event, Uecker – a member of the 2010 WWE Hall of Fame class – also participated in entertaining skits with Vanna White and The Fabulous Moolah.

I will count down the Top 10 WrestleMania celebrities every day through Sunday.

To view the entire list, click here.

Photo courtesy of WWE

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Shawn Michaels won’t be stealing the show at WrestleMania this year, but he again proved on Raw Monday night that he doesn’t need to wrestle to create a special moment in the ring.

He didn’t do it alone, however. Triple H and The Undertaker also helped make their three-way talking segment the best part of the show – and that’s saying something, because Raw also featured a strong segment between The Rock and John Cena that concluded with Cena delivering an Attitude Adjustment to “The Great One.”

In the weeks following the initial compelling confrontation between Triple H and The Undertaker, their WrestleMania XXVII program felt like it was stuck in neutral thanks to lackluster promos from each man.

After watching Monday’s awesome segment, however, I’m way more interested in seeing Sunday’s Triple H-Undertaker match than I was before.

Triple H cut one of his all-time best promos. After being asked by Michaels, “What in the world makes you think you can do what I couldn’t?’ Triple H responded that Michaels had gotten soft. He said that Michaels didn’t always have to win to be “The Showstopper,” but he isn’t Michaels and he needs to win.

Triple H then told The Undertaker how much he respected him, but that there comes a time when legends can no longer perform at their usual high level, and if they don’t walk away, someone needs to make them walk away.

“It’s time,” Triple H said, as he stared into The Undertaker’s eyes.

The Undertaker’s subtle facial expressions conveyed that Triple H’s words had struck a nerve and perhaps made him question how much time he really does have left in the ring. He said that when it is time for him to be put down, Triple H is the guy that he would want to do it.

“But it’s not that time,” Undertaker said sternly.

Undertaker then brought up the fact that Michaels – who was standing next to Triple H – came close to ending The Streak the past two years at WrestleMania, but he fell short, and now he is no longer the same confident guy he used to be because of it. He also said that Michaels would enter the WWE Hall of Fame filled with regret.

Michaels then attempted to hit Sweet Chin Music on The Undertaker, but Undertaker blocked it and grabbed Michaels by the throat. Triple H separated them and went face to face with The Undertaker.

Then came the payoff to this money segment.

Triple H told Michaels to tell The Undertaker why Triple H could win Sunday.

Michaels, who has always had the ability to tell a story simply with his facial expressions, looked troubled. He then left the ring without saying a word.

As Michaels sorrowfully looked back at Triple H from the ramp, he mouthed, “I’m sorry. You can’t win.” It was reminiscent of Michaels’ classic line to Ric Flair – “I’m sorry; I love you” – at the end of their match at WrestleMania XXIV.

Suddenly, the confident Triple H now had a look of doubt on his face. The Undertaker then laughed slightly and mockingly tipped his cap to Triple H before leaving the ring.

As Jim Ross would say, that was an awesome piece of business.

Other thoughts on Monday’s show:

Cena stepped up his game during his verbal exchange with The Rock. There was no joking around from either man, and Cena effectively stated his case as to why he has a problem with The Rock. ...

Just as Rock and Cena were about to fight, they were interrupted – predictably – by The Miz and Alex Riley. As Miz cut a promo on The Rock, Cena quietly left the ring and stood on the outside. Miz and Riley jumped The Rock, but Rock quickly got the better of the exchange and delivered The People’s Elbow to Miz before throwing both guys out of the ring. Miz was really treated like an afterthought, but I’ll wait to see how things play out on Sunday before criticizing WWE about how Miz was booked here. ...

After Rock took care of Miz and Riley, he turned around and walked right into an Attitude Adjustment from Cena. I was a little surprised that WWE gave away any physicality between Rock and Cena before WrestleMania, but I really don’t think it’s going to deter anyone from ordering the pay-per-view. It’s looking more and more as if there will be a Rock-Cena match somewhere down the line. ...

To borrow a phrase from Michael Cole, the atmosphere for the final Raw before WrestleMania was electric. The crowd in Chicago was tremendous. ...

The opening segment with CM Punk and Randy Orton got the show off to a hot start. Punk cut a good promo, and then he and Orton had a physical exchange that ended with Punk hitting the GTS after Orton’s knee gave out when he attempted to kick Punk in the head. The knee injury established that any advantage Orton may have had by eliminating the other members of The Nexus has been nullified. ...

Jerry Lawler and Cole had another heated segment. After Lawler was disqualified in his match against Jack Swagger for using a chair, he went after Cole, who retreated to safety of the Cole Mine. As Lawler tried to scale Cole’s fortress, Cole threw a cup of some type of beverage into his face. That’s always a heat-getter. ...

The match in which Edge and Christian defeated Alberto Del Rio and Brodus Clay was entertaining. It was kind of silly that after Smackdown general manager Teddy Long ruled last week on Smackdown that Edge and Del Rio couldn’t touch each other or else they would lose their spot at WrestleMania, the anonymous Raw general manger said that they could and booked the tag match. Oh well, a silly explanation is better than no explanation. ...

With Del Rio on the losing end of so many matches as of late, I was glad to see him get some heat back by attacking both Edge and Christian after the match. After Del Rio applied the Cross Armbreaker to Christian, Edge made the save and Del Rio scampered backstage. Then after Edge turned his back, Del Rio came running back down the ramp and put Edge in the Armbreaker. Well done. ...

It finally was announced that The Corre will be facing The Big Show, Kane, Santino Marella and Vladimir Kozlov at WrestleMania. It was first believed that Kofi Kingston and Christian would be in the match instead of Marella and Kozlov. Kingston now appears to be on the outside looking in at WrestleMania, which is a shame. I think the announcement is good news for Christian, however. When a graphic was shown promoting the Edge-Del Rio match at WrestleMania, Christian was pictured behind Edge, while Clay was pictured behind Del Rio. So while Christian will not be wrestling in that match, he will be involved. ...

Kane doing the trombone celebration along with Marella, Kozlov and Big Show was funny and it got a nice pop. It looks like Kane is back to being a lovable monster again. I wonder if The Undertaker will ever avenge the three consecutive losses he suffered to his “brother” on pay-per-views last year. ...

The tag team match that saw Sheamus and Dolph Ziggler defeat John Morrison and Daniel Bryan was decent. Vickie Guerrero imitating Morrison’s slow-motion entrance was funny. ...

The barroom brawl involving Trish Stratus, Snooki and LayCool was OK for what it was, but Snooki was more annoying this time than she was in her first appearance on Raw. ...

As expected, The Road Warriors (and their manager, Paul Ellering, as well) were announced as the final members of this year’s WWE Hall of Fame class. It goes without saying that their induction is well-deserved.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 6:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (55)
        

LIBERACE

As we all know, WrestleMania is unlike any other pro wrestling pay-per-view. It’s a glitzy spectacle, and nothing says glitzy spectacle more than Liberace and The Radio City Rockettes forming a high-kicking chorus line in the middle of the ring while “New York, New York” plays over the sound system.

That was the scene at the first WrestleMania in 1985 at Madison Square Garden prior to the main event match that pitted Hulk Hogan and Mr. T against Roddy Piper and Paul Orndorff. Liberace was the official timekeeper for the bout.

After the match was over, the flamboyant pianist stepped back into the ring, and he and boxing legend Muhammad Ali raised the sweaty hands of the victorious Hogan and Mr. T, creating another surreal scene.

The message that day was clear: The WWF is not your father’s wrestling promotion. And it certainly was not Vince McMahon’s father’s wrestling promotion.

I will count down the Top 10 WrestleMania celebrities every day through Sunday.

To view the entire list, click here.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 9:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Top 10 WrestleMania celebrities
        

It was a weekend of upsets.

Virginia Commonwealth stunned Kansas. Butler knocked off Florida. And Chris Jericho did something he has never done before: defeat John Cena.

Actually, he destroyed John Cena.

In the third round of Mat Madness, our bracket-style pro wrestling tournament determined by online voting, Jericho – the Cinderella story of the tournament – got more than 70 percent of the vote against pro wrestling’s top star.

Jericho now moves on to the Final Four, where he will meet Kurt Angle, who advanced by beating Triple H in the closest third-round matchup (55.4 percent to 44.6 percent).

The other Final Four showdown pits The Undertaker against Randy Orton. “The Deadman” and “The Viper” squashed their third-round opponents – The Big Show and Batista, respectively.

Thank you to all who participated. Voting for the Final Four begins tonight at midnight EDT. You can vote up to five times a day.

To view the bracket, click here.

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With WrestleMania XXVII just days away, one of the most compelling characters on Smackdown isn’t even scheduled to have a match at the big event on April 3.

Of course, I’m talking about Christian. On Smackdown Friday night, he wrestled in the show’s main event for the third consecutive week – and he’s been victorious each time.

After he and Edge defeated Alberto Del Rio and Brodus Clay two weeks ago, Christian has shockingly gone on to beat Del Rio – who is challenging Edge for the world heavyweight title at WrestleMania – two times in a row. Christian prevailed in a cage match last week and then scored a pinfall victory on Friday’s show.

On the surface, the booking here seems completely illogical, especially because it appears unlikely that Christian will be added to the Edge-Del Rio match at WrestleMania. However, I think there is a method to WWE’s madness.

I’m not sure exactly how this is going to unfold, but I think it’s safe to say that Christian is on the verge of breaking through the glass ceiling he has been bumping his head on for most of his WWE career.

If Del Rio wins the championship from Edge at WrestleMania, it sets up a logical title program between the new champion and the guy who holds two victories over him.

On the other hand, I won’t be surprised if Christian interferes in the Edge-Del Rio match and costs Edge the title, thus leading to a program between a heel Christian and his longtime friend and former tag team partner.

Part of Christian’s motivation for turning on Edge could be his frustration over not getting a match at WrestleMania despite his victories over Del Rio, as well as the fact that he has never been given the same opportunities throughout his career that Edge has.

No matter what, I expect Christian to make his presence felt at WrestleMania whether he is booked in a match or not.

Other thoughts on Friday’s show:

The Christian-Del Rio match was very good. I really liked the story line surrounding the match, as well. Earlier in the show, Smackdown general manager Teddy Long declared that if Edge and Del Rio so much as touched one another, they would lose their spot at WrestleMania. So when Edge was about to blast Del Rio with a chair after the match, Christian stopped him from doing so and then took the chair and hit Del Rio with it himself. If Christian does end up turning heel, I could see this incident playing into it. Christian could say that he was looking out for Edge, but Edge has never looked out for him. …

The match in which Wade Barrett defeated Kofi Kingston to win the Intercontinental title also was good. The finish was especially well done, as Kingston whiffed on an attempted Trouble in Paradise, and Barrett caught him in mid-air and delivered his Wasteland finisher in one fluid motion. It’s nice to see some gold around Barrett’s waist. As for Kingston, his win-loss record certainly has been less than impressive as of late. Hopefully, better days are ahead. …

It was a real treat to see old rivals CM Punk and Rey Mysterio wrestle each other again. These two talented performers work very well together. …

Cody Rhodes, whose interference during the Punk-Mysterio contest resulted in Mysterio winning by disqualification, generated a lot of heat with his post-match attack on Mysterio. Rhodes wearing a knee brace and slamming into Mysterio’s face with it was a nice touch. …

The Undertaker’s promo was OK, but it seems like he and Triple H just keep saying the same things over and over. Triple H: “I will end The Streak or die trying.” Undertaker: “You will die trying.” Got it. …

I certainly don’t expect Drew McIntytre to beat Edge, but it would have been nice if McIntyre had gotten in more offense and the match had lasted longer than three minutes – especially because Edge was wrestling with only one good arm. Not only did McIntyre tap out, but he also took a Spear after the match. And to top it off, Josh Matthews said during the match that “McIntyre is good, but he’s not as good as Alberto Del Rio.” ...

Kelly Kelly had an even worse night than McIntyre. Not only did she and Rosa Mendes lose to LayCool in about a minute (seriously), but she was taken out with a boot to the face by Michelle McCool just seconds after the match began. Thanks for coming, Kelly. Perhaps Kelly Kelly and McIntyre can go out on a date on April 3 and discuss their sagging careers while WrestleMania is going on without them. By the way, I think that may be the first time that the words “Kelly Kelly” and “sagging” have ever been used in the same sentence. …

Michael Cole is absolutely on fire as a heel, and Jack Swagger continues to get a rub from him. …

Swagger scored a convincing win over R-Truth. There was a scary moment during the match when R-Truth dove over the top rope onto Swagger and nearly came straight down on his head. …

A video recap was shown of The Corre decimating The Big Show and Kane on last week’s Smackdown. Fortunately, Big Show and Kane’s manhandling of The Corre on Monday’s Raw – which doused all the heat that Barrett and company had attained three days earlier – was not shown, although it was mentioned on commentary that the two behemoths had “gained a measure of revenge on Raw.” …

A match at WrestleMania pitting The Corre against Big Show and Kane (and perhaps two others) still has not been announced. It was first reported that Christian and Kingston would be on the babyface team with Big Show and Kane.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 2:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (13)
        

LAWRENCE TAYLOR

Taylor, considered of the greatest NFL players of all time, stepped into the squared circle to face Bam Bam Bigelow in the main event of WrestleMania XI in1995.

The match was set up by an angle at the Royal Rumble a couple months earlier. After Bigelow was pinned by The 1-2-3 Kid in a tag team match that pitted Bigelow and Tatanka against The Kid and Bob Holly, Taylor – who was seated at ringside – heckled “The Beast From The East.” Bigelow responded by delivering a hard shove to “LT.”

Taylor – who entered the ring at WrestleMania to Salt-n-Pepa performing “Whattaman” – had several NFL stars in his corner to combat any outside interference by Ted DiBiase’s Million Dollar Corporation, a heel group that Bigelow was a member of.

While the match wasn’t a five-star classic, it was entertaining and better than most expected. The athletic Taylor performed well for a novice and Bigelow did a good job of carrying him. Taylor scored the victory after hitting a flying forearm off the middle rope.

Taylor’s appearance at the event got WWE a lot of mainstream coverage, but the wrestling business was in a down cycle and the buy rate ended up being a disappointment.

I will count down the Top 10 WrestleMania celebrities every day through April 3.

To view the entire list, click here.

Associated press photo

Posted by Kevin Eck at 10:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Top 10 WrestleMania celebrities
        

Voting for the third round of our Mat Madness bracket-style tournament closes tonight at midnight EDT, so there’s still time to cast your votes on the four matchups between world champion wrestlers. You can vote up to five times.

To view the bracket, click here.

To view a photo gallery of the tournament competitors, click here.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 4:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

It was exactly 10 years ago yesterday that Vince McMahon sneered maniacally, got right in my face and yelled in his gravelly voice, “You’re fired!”

Actually, that didn’t really happen, at least not literally. Figuratively speaking, however, the WWE chairman did indeed put me out of work. In fact, he was responsible for costing me what was something of a dream job. I wasn’t alone, however, as nearly all of my co-workers at the time were let go as well.

Just one year earlier, I had been hired by World Championship Wrestling to be the editor of WCW Magazine. Unfortunately, not long after taking the position, speculation began running rampant that WCW was either going to fold or be sold.

We all know how that turned out. A deal was in place for a group led by Eric Bischoff to purchase the company, but it fell through when a Turner Broadcasting executive announced that WCW programming on TBS and TNT was being cancelled. That allowed McMahon and WWE to swoop in and buy WCW.

On March 26, 2001, the final episode of WCW Nitro took place in Panama City Beach, Fla., the site of WCW’s annual Spring Breakout episode. I attended the show that night at the Boardwalk Beach Resort and watched it with a sense of foreboding and sadness.

While rumors were circulating that WCW was going to continue as a separate entity under the WWE banner, I and a lot of other office workers with the company had a pretty good idea that we were not going to be a part of it. At the same time, I also realized that I was witnessing something truly historic, as the pro wrestling landscape was changing forever right in front of my eyes.

To say the whole thing was surreal would be an understatement. For the past five and a half years, WWE and WCW had competed in a heated and extremely personal head-to-head ratings battle on Monday nights, and now WWE personnel such as Shane McMahon and Bruce Pritchard not only were backstage at a WCW broadcast, they were running the show.

The episode – which aired on TNT and was billed as “Night of Champions,” as all of WCW’s titles were on the line – began with Vince McMahon appearing via satellite from Cleveland’s Gund Arena, the site of that night’s Raw, to announce that he had purchased WCW. Playing his Mr. McMahon heel character, he said that he held WCW’s fate in the palm of his hands. It was simultaneously both a work and a shoot.

The first match on the program saw U.S. champion Booker T. defeat Scott Steiner for the WCW world title. That result seemed to indicate that WWE had plans for Booker, but not necessarily for “Big Poppa Pump.”

Fittingly, the final match on Nitro was between the two biggest stars in WCW history – Ric Flair and Sting. After Sting won the match with the Scorpion Deathlock, the two longtime rivals broke character and embraced.

The climax of the show was simulcast on Raw on TNN (which has since become Spike TV). As Mr. McMahon gloated about buying his competition, Shane McMahon suddenly appeared before the live crowd in Panama City and made his way to the ring to a huge pop. Shane – who was involved in a story line feud with his father at the time – announced that he had actually purchased WCW because Vince had not yet signed the papers to seal the deal.

And with that, an era came to an end.

While hanging out with WCW talent and office workers after the show, it was clear that many of the wrestlers were concerned about their future. Some knew that they were going to be part of the “new WCW” in WWE, but others wondered if their careers were over. There were a lot of hugs going around that night.

For those of us who worked in the office, the other shoe dropped later that week. We were called into a meeting at the Power Plant – the gym that the company used to train its developmental talent – and informed that we were being let go.

As disappointed as I was to be losing a job that I loved, the truth was that I had only been with WCW for a year. There were plenty of people in the Power Plant that day who had been with the company far longer, including David Crockett – the former NWA announcer who went on to work behind the scenes in WCW – whose family had been in the wrestling business for decades. Those were the ones I truly felt bad for.

Beyond the fact that I was suddenly unemployed, I also was saddened as a wrestling fan to see WCW close its doors.

To this day it still amazes me that WCW Nitro – the show that ignited the wrestling boom in the late ’90s and re-defined what a prime time wrestling program looked like – ended up being a casualty of the Monday Night War.

Photo: A flyer I saved from the final Nitro.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 6:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (46)
        

MUHAMMAD ALI

“The Greatest” was brought in to be the special enforcer referee for the historic main event at the first WrestleMania in 1985, which pitted Hulk Hogan and actor Mr. T against Roddy Piper and Paul Orndorff.

Ali stayed outside the ring for the most part while former wrestler Pat Patterson handled the in-ring refereeing duties.

However, Ali did get physically involved on a couple occasions, including early in the match when he jumped into the ring and threw a few punches at Piper as all four competitors were mixing it up.

Ali was more of a supporting player than an integral part of the match, but his mere presence on the show helped establish WrestleMania as a wrestling event that was like no other.

I will count down the Top 10 WrestleMania celebrities every day through April 3.

To view the entire list, click here.

Photo courtesy of WWE

Posted by Kevin Eck at 10:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Top 10 WrestleMania celebrities
        

WWE announcer/heel personality Michael Cole directed a gay slur at fellow announcer Josh Matthews on Twitter earlier today, and then issued an apology a short while later.

After tweeting a single word – “faggot” – to Matthews, Cole – who plays up his heel character on Twitter – subsequently deleted it and apologized.

“I apologize to any and all who were offended by my tweet toward young Josh Mathews,” Cole wrote. “It was obviously not meant the way it was taken.”

Regardless of Cole’s intent, it was clearly poor judgment on his part – and his timing couldn’t have been worse.

It was just a little over a week ago that WWE, responding to The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) taking issue with what it deemed “homophobic taunts” by John Cena on WWE television, announced that it was teaming with the organization in an anti-bullying campaign.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 3:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (40)
        

For those who may have missed it, TNA star Kurt Angle was arrested early Friday morning in North Dakota and charged with being in control of a motor vehicle while being intoxicated (which means he was allegedly intoxicated while in a car but wasn’t actually driving), according to a report on TMZ.com.

Local law enforcement sources told TMZ that police discovered Angle sitting in his car in the median separating lanes. He reportedly told police that he had hit an icy patch on the road, but he subsequently failed a field sobriety test and was arrested.

Angle addressed the situation early this morning on Twitter:

“Thank U to my supporters. I was not drunk. I was in ice storm and my car slid into 3 ft of snow median. I called police 4 help. They had other plans. I was stuck and wanted to go to my hotel. I was not passed out drunk. I was co-herent. I'm sorry if I let you down. Don't believe everything you read. My life is good and this is a speed bump in the road. The truth will come out. GOD bless. I take responsibility for this. My job is to stay clean and never put myself in jeopardy. TMZ blew it out of proportion. After my hearings, I will give you proper story. GOD bless. Kurt Angle. I love you all.”

Here’s my take: I believe in innocent until proven guilty, but this is not the first time Angle has been involved in such an incident. He was charged with driving under the influence in 2007, although he eventually was acquitted.

Still, two drinking-related arrests in less than four years in bound to raise eyebrows.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 2:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
        

For all of TNA’s booking flaws, I have to say after watching Thursday night’s Impact that it’s doing a decent job with the program in which Mr. Anderson and Rob Van Dam are battling over a title shot against TNA world champion Sting.

Both guys have legitimate reasons to believe that they are the one who deserves the shot, and by having them focus all of their energy on attaining it, TNA is putting over how important the title is.

The program also is getting Anderson over as a tweener and has succeeded in reinvigorating RVD, who had lost a lot of steam after he dropped the TNA title last fall.

After inconclusive finishes in two previous No. 1 contender matches – the second of which was a four-way that also involved A.J. Styles and Bully Ray – Anderson and RVD faced each again Thursday with a title shot at stake.

This time, Sting was the special enforcer referee, but even with The Stinger involved, there was not a decisive finish.

It appeared that RVD had won by disqualification after Anderson punched Sting for not immediately beginning the 10-count while RVD was down outside the ring. As Anderson and Sting exchanged punches, the bell rang and the announcers assumed that Anderson had been DQ’d.

Not so fast. It turned out that Sting had not called for the bell (it wasn’t explained why the bell rang) and he hadn’t disqualified Anderson, so we still don’t have a No. 1 contender.

I’m guessing this ultimately leads to a three-way match between Sting, Anderson and RVD at the Lockdown pay-per-view on April 17.

Other thoughts on Thursday’s show:

I was surprised that TNA didn’t open the show by following up on the Ray-Styles angle from last week that saw Styles taken out in an ambulance. ...

Anderson and Sting both effectively showed realistic intensity in their post-match brawl. …

After RVD received a Mic Check from Anderson into the ring post during their match, he acted disoriented when being interviewed by Jason Hervey. RVD did a realistic job of showing the effects of the head trauma, but Hervey basically making light of it took away from the scene. That’s two weeks in a row now that Hervey’s comments have lessened the impact of an injury angle. I’m thankful that Hervey is always off camera and we don’t have to look at the former “Wonder Years” actor, but it’s getting to the point where just listening to him is annoying. …

Referee Brian Hebner took an awesome spinning bump when he was inadvertently clotheslined by Anderson. …

I liked how the video recap of the Anderson-RVD saga at the top of the show was edited to make it look different (and more interesting) than typical recaps. …

The skit with Anderson and his old “college professor” didn’t do a whole lot for me. It was obvious that Anderson was going to lay him out, but it seemingly took forever to get there. …

RVD did a good job on the mic when he came out to confront Anderson, Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff. ...

The Mickie James-Tara match was entertaining – I just wish it would have lasted longer than three minutes. Matches between these two look totally different and are a lot more physical than other women’s bouts in TNA and WWE. Tara’s Styles-Clash-like move off the ropes into a Boston Crab was a unique spot, and James’ DDT on Tara to win the match looked wicked. …

It’s nice to see that Abyss isn’t dead. He made his return by joining Ray, Matt Hardy and Ric Flair in an attack on Fortune (which was minus Styles, obviously). The last time we saw Abyss he had a nail-filled board sticking out of his back. …

Hardy cut another promo in which he made cryptic comments about being held back in WWE, blah, blah, blah. He looked as if he was half asleep during it. …

I’m enjoying the new ultra-aggressive version of “The Pope” D’Angelo Dinero, as he once again destroyed Okato. Speaking of Okato, can we just kill off this lame character already? It’s not like he adds anything to Samoa Joe’s act anyway. In fact, he takes away from it. It seems out of character for the no-nonsense Joe to being hanging out with a guy dressed up like The Green Hornet’s sidekick. …

It made me a little uncomfortable to see Kurt Angle talking bad about his ex-wife, Karen, while he had their young son sitting in his lap. …

The street fight that pitted Matt Morgan and Devon against Hernandez and his new ally (whose name was revealed to be Anarchia) was a cluster. Right in the middle of the match, Velvet Sky came out to attack Sarita, who was standing outside the ring. Then Rosita went after Sky, which brought out Angelina Love, who appeared to be in a trance. Winter appeared on the stage at that point and summoned the zombie-like Love to walk back up the ramp instead of helping Sky. So it appears that Winter has some type of hypnotic control over Love. Well, either that or Love’s blood sugar level dropped from a lack of food. While all of that was going on, Anarchia knocked out Devon with brass knuckles to get the win. …

The Love-Winter story line has the potential to be so silly that it’s actually entertaining. …

I like Scott Steiner and Crimson – who defeated Ink Inc. – as a tag team. Speaking of Crimson, it would have made more sense if Abyss had attacked him upon returning since Crimson was the one who tried to kill him with the board, but I can’t fault TNA for deciding to immediately insert Abyss into the Immortal-Fortune feud. Anyway, back when Crimson attacked Abyss, “They” was supposed to the Main Event Mafia, not Fortune, so plans had to be completely changed. …

The dissension between Ink Inc.’s Shannon Moore and Jesse Neal continued. Has there ever been a tag team in TNA that just got along? It looks as if Moore is going to turn on Neal, but my guess is that they both go heel.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 1:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)
        

One of the reasons WrestleMania has become a fixture in pop culture is the involvement of mainstream celebrities. Over the years, numerous actors, athletes, musicians and other personalities have appeared in some capacity at WWE’s annual big event.

Beginning with this post and continuing daily through April 3, I will count down the Top 10 WrestleMania celebrities.

MICKEY ROURKE

Looking to capitalize on the buzz surrounding the movie “The Wrestler,” WWE came up with a story line that was intended to lead to Rourke – who was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar for his performance as Randy The Ram in the critically acclaimed film – wrestling Chris Jericho at WrestleMania XXV (2009) in Houston.

However, shortly after the Rourke-Jericho angle began, Rourke backed out of the match after his agents convinced him that participating in the match could be detrimental to his acting career.

So instead of wrestling on the show, Rourke sat in the audience at Reliant Stadium and looked on as Jericho battled WWE legends Roddy Piper, Ricky Steamboat and Jimmy Snuka in a handicap match.

After Jericho got the win and then laid out Ric Flair – who had been in the legends’ corner – after the match, he challenged Rourke to get in the ring. Rourke stepped through the ropes, assumed a boxing stance and knocked out Jericho with a left to the jaw.

Obviously, it would have been a much bigger deal if Rourke had wrestled on the show rather than just doing a post-match cameo, but the fact that an A-list actor who had just been nominated for an Academy Award appeared in any capacity was a feather in WWE’s cap.

Photo of Ric Flair and Mickey Rourke by Getty Images

Posted by Kevin Eck at 9:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)
Categories: Top 10 WrestleMania celebrities
        

I conducted a phone interview last week with Joe “Road Warrior Animal” Laurinaitis to discuss his recently released book, “The Road Warriors: Danger, Death and the Rush of Wrestling,” and other topics. (Note: It has been reported that an announcement about The Road Warriors being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame will be made on Raw Monday night, but when asked about the HOF, Laurinaitis coyly said that he hadn't heard anything about it.)

What can fans expect from your book?

I tried to hit the masses. Of course, the main audience is sports fans and wrestling fans. But I think even if you’re not a wrestling fan, at some time or another, whether you were walking by a magazine rack or it was on television somewhere – whether it was USA Network or TBS or Spike or whatever – you’ve seen Hawk and I somewhere. My thought process was: This is a book about two guys just like in any sport or any kind of entertainment business that seemingly went it there at the bottom and made it to the top – and stayed at the top for a long time. That’s what I was trying to portray. It’s a chronological time line of our career. Some of the stories in there are definitely appropriate for all ages. I don’t get really graphic in any of my stories. I think it’s some of the stuff that a true wrestling fan or someone who isn’t even a wrestling fan would want to read about the ins and outs of the wrestling business [such as]: Who decides who wins and loses; what kayfabe means in our business; or what it’s like going over to Japan where there’s definitely a language barrier.

Speaking of Japan and the language barrier, I often wondered how Americans such as you and Hawk were able to call spots in the ring when facing Japanese wrestlers.

I’ll let you in on a little secret. Almost every Japanese referee can speak English. And they were the biggest help – from Tiger Hatori to Joe Higuchi, who were two of the main guys that refereed forever there in Japan – they were absolutely phenomenal. I would be looking at my opponent [and] I would say something to the referee like I’m yelling at him, and he would go translate it to the Japanese wrestler. And there was still stuff lost in the translation.

You go into detail about the ups and downs you had with Hawk over the years and his battles with substance abuse. Is being in a tag team a lot like a marriage in that you’re together for better or worse?

Well, that’s why the wrestling business probably doesn’t have too many tag teams today, and when they do have them they don’t last long. I don’t think they want to put that kind of stock in the teams anymore because there’s always one member of the team that – for whatever reason – just falls apart. With The British Bulldogs, it was Dynamite Kid. With us, it was Hawk. With almost every team, there’s somebody or something where there’s drinking or somebody goes crazy – especially with the top teams. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s because you work a little bit more and you’re a little bit more in demand and you definitely take a pounding different when you’re a top guy to make the match what you need to make it. It’s probably why tag teams are not in the main event like they used to be.

Unlike a number of your peers, you’ve been able to avoid the pitfalls of the business. Your family is intact and you haven’t had personal demons to overcome. What do you attribute that to?

Let me tell you something: This is a very evil business, and I by no means was an angel. I had the best friend in the world in my wife, who was an unbelievable trooper through it all – ups and downs. She was both mom and dad while I was gone on the road and she kept our marriage together. Sometimes you get crazy on the road with “Nature Boy” [Ric Flair] you know what I mean? [laughs] But my family was always first and foremost. And when I came home, Animal went on the shelf and Dad was there. And the kids knew that. Dad was the coach; Dad was at the parent-teacher meetings; Dad was helping out coaching football and baseball and hockey. I didn’t even know how to skate; I taught myself how to skate so I could coach hockey. Later on in my career my faith changed from a Catholic faith to a Christian faith – it’s non-denominational. I don’t Bible-bang anybody to death, but I will listen to people and I will help them out if they need any advice in any area. I’m no expert, but it’s pretty much common sense. Things happen for a reason, and good people will prosper and bad people will have pitfalls. It’s not rocket science.

In reading the book, it seems like the real tragedy regarding Hawk is that he finally started to turn his self-destructive life around – he met a good woman and he became born-again – and then he passed away.

I hate to say it, but it was almost too little, too late. I think that his liver had the damage from the interferon treatments that he was taking and I think his heart was just worn out – his ventricles were just stressed out to the max. He tried to do it – he had the right frame out mind. I kind of wonder how much he was totally 100 percent clean anyway at the time, but I think he pretty much was. He faced the grips of the Grim Reaper probably 15 times and he lived through it. He definitely left behind a legacy.

A lot of top tag teams – even brother combinations – seem to end up facing each other in a singles program. Why was there never an Animal-Hawk feud?

I really think that the promoters really respected what we did for the business – and we were not really for it either – and they didn’t force it upon us. That was important to us. We so protected the gimmick and what we were building over the years that I just think it would have been an insult to us if we would have been just like everybody else and fought each other, no matter how much money it would have made or it would have been cool to see or whatever.

You were with Jim Crockett during the glory days of the promotion when it was very competitive with the WWF. In any wrestling war, however, there has to be a winner and a loser, and as we all know, Crockett ultimately lost. In retrospect, could Crockett have done anything differently?

I don’t know, man. Probably could have been a little more cost-effective. We probably didn’t need to have the private planes, which cost a lot of money. One of them was $10,000 to take off, $10,000 to land. That’s $20,000 a day; you do a double shot, that’s 40 grand just in flights.

Baltimore, despite being a traditional WWF city, was a big town for Crockett back in the day. Any memories from your many trips to Baltimore?

Baltimore was one of my favorite cities – it still is. I used to love going to Baltimore – not only good gyms and the people were great, but the food. I spent more time down in Little Italy at Sabatino’s. I must have eaten six orders of clams casino every time I went in there besides my dinner. I’d get in there at about 315 pounds and leave there at about 325. We went into Baltimore at first with Georgia Championship Wrestling – a guy named Gary Juster was the promoter. Then Verne Gagne and the AWA guys got mixed in and then Crockett took it over. We had such a jump on that area and it was very successful.

I don’t know how much you see of TNA these days, but what are your thoughts on what Ric Flair is doing there?

I have to admit that I don’t watch any TNA. That’s probably because of the fact that I was supposed to get called back and they don’t ever call back or e-mail back, so I couldn’t care less what they do [laughs]. But, you know, “Nature Boy” is “Nature Boy.” He’s going to be known in the wrestling business as the greatest world champion of all time and one of the greatest performers ever. You will never find another “Nature Boy.” You’re never going to find another Hulk Hogan; you’re never going to find another Road Warriors. I think you could take anybody and make them an Ultimate Warrior – you just go out and bust up your guy, shake the ropes and run around. I’m not saying that to be disrespectful. I’m just saying that there are a couple entities in our business like a Shawn Michaels, like a Stone Cold, like a Rock, like The Road Warriors, like Hulk Hogan, like Flair, like Undertaker – there’s a handful – that you’re never going to be able to make again.

Your younger brother, John, is the executive vice president of talent relations in WWE. You mention in the book that you helped break him into the business, and years later he ended up being the one to tell you that WWE was letting you go. What are your thoughts on him becoming one of the most powerful figures in the business?

You know, more power to him. I guess I’m a little bit envious in a way because I know this business like the back of my hand and I think with the right opportunity – it doesn’t have to be in what John does; it could be in a different area of the wrestling business – I could be equally as successful, because it’s a business that I’ve grown up in and I love. Other than that, I don’t feel anything negative, no ill feelings. Hey, he’s my brother and I love him. More power to him. I know the guys like to stir up a lot of crap sometimes: “Oh, geez, how come you’re not there? Your brother’s up there, [he’s a] main guy.” What can I say, man? It is what it is. It’s one of those doors I’ve quit knocking on. I didn’t feel bad. My brother had to do a job at that time. If I had to do it at the same time, I’d have let my brother go. You’re hired to do a job, and it was probably a test from Vince [McMahon] to see if John fires Joe.

What are your thoughts on the business today?

I think it’s evolving like the way the wrestling business will always evolve. I know people say good and bad about it. I think that we got to get back to a little bit more of the basics. I think they’re doing the right thing – they’re bringing some of the guys who are legends back as guest hosts, which they should be doing, because the legends still draw a lot of money for the company. People still want to see guys like myself, and [Paul] Ellering and other guys that have been successful in the wrestling business, like an Arn Anderson or a Shawn Michaels – you have to bring back the legend guys in some kind of role, some kind of aspect. I think the product’s great. They have a lot of young, great talent, and I just think as soon as they learn the ins and outs of the business they’re going to be just fine. They’re developing some growing pains right now, no different than any sports franchise.

With the NFL labor situation being what it is, some players are trying different things. For instance, Tom Zbikowski of the Ravens is boxing. If your son, James, of the St. Louis Rams, wanted to get into wrestling, what would you think about it?

Well, I don’t think it’s going to come to that because the NFL knows they stand to lose billions of dollars if they don’t fix this thing, and they’d be stupid not to. But, hey, if James wanted to do it and football was done, I’d say more power to him, because he is very natural at it. He can talk on the mic great. Charisma on the microphone is something you’d don’t have to worry about teaching him, and that’s one thing that separates the top guys from the great guys in our business – the ability to talk and do a promo. I think he’s got that down, and he can wrestle. He’s strong enough, he looks good enough. I tell you what, he’d be the biggest second- or third-generation guy there now. He definitely has the biggest size for sure – he’s just muscular as heck.

What keeps you busy these days?

I’ve gone from being Road Warrior Animal to being known as James’ dad [laughs]. I’m at all the practices. What’s cool about it is that most of the guys see I’m still in shape and they go, “Man, James, suit up your dad.” And I got my book tour going on. The book is doing very well – it’s made it to the top of the Amazon list. I’m hoping with the support of the fans it’ll be a New York Times best-seller very soon. I’m excited about it.

If there’s one thing you’d like for people to take from the book after reading it, what would it be?

These guys did a lot for the wrestling business, and these guys were entertaining and they were undoubtedly the best. That’s what I want the people to take away from it. The book brings back memories for them to enjoy of the times we had, and being the only tag team that won almost every tag team title available is something that separates us from everybody. For the fans, it’s good for them to have something like that. Without the fans, the Road Warriors would have never been the Road Warriors – and we appreciate that.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 5:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (14)
Categories: Q&As
        

The second round of Mat Madness, our bracket-style pro wrestling tournament determined by online voting, is over.

Thank you to all who participated. Voting for the next round (the Elite Eight) begins tonight at midnight EDT. You can vote up to five times a day.

The biggest surprise of Round 2 was the lopsided result of what I expected to be a close matchup between Chris Jericho and Edge. Jericho soundly defeated his former friend/foe, 66 percent to 34 percent. Next up for Jericho is John Cena.

There were four inter-promotional matchups between WWE and TNA stars in the second round, with WWE winning three of them. Kurt Angle – who beat CM Punk – is the lone TNA wrestler remaining in the tournament.

To view the bracket, click here.

To view a photo gallery of the tournament competitors, click here.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (16)
        

After watching former WWE star Chris Jericho’s debut on the season premiere of ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars” Monday night, I can definitely say that he’s no Stacy Keibler, but he isn’t Master P either.

In other words, Jericho wasn’t spectacular, but he didn’t stink up the joint.

The judges gave Jericho and partner Cheryl Burke a score of 19 (a seven and two sixes), which tied for the fifth-best mark out of 11 couples.

Of course, what the judges think really doesn’t matter. It’s a popularity contest determined by viewer voting, and for that very reason, I expect Jericho to be on the show for a while.

I’d love to see Jericho win the competition, but as long as he outlasts obnoxious Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Hines Ward, I’ll be happy.

On a side note, I had to laugh when judge Len Goodman said to Jericho, “You’re a great big boy,” like he was The Big Show or something.

To read more about the “Dancing with the Stars” season premiere, visit The Baltimore Sun’s Reality Check blog.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 6:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (14)
        

Monday night’s Raw wasn’t bad, but WWE set the bar so high with the past few episodes that this one didn’t measure up in comparison.

It’s not all that surprising that WWE would pull back a bit on the second-to-last Raw before WrestleMania XXVII. Next week’s go-home show – which will include The Rock appearing live – figures to be more of a must-see edition.

The most noteworthy development was that John Cena finally got some of his heat back after being laid out by The Miz the past four weeks. Earlier in the show, Cena did an interview “via satellite” from his living room (which, curiously, looked more like a set than it did a room in Cena’s house), but then he showed up during the final segment – surprise! – to attack The Miz and Alex Riley.

After the heels’ attempt to double-team Cena was unsuccessful, The Miz fled to safety, leaving Riley to be destroyed. So Cena was able to stand tall at the end of the show without truly getting the better of The Miz, further building anticipation for their match at WrestleMania.

Other thoughts on Monday’s show:

The Jerry Lawler family album stuff missed the mark, but Michael Cole and Jack Swagger’s beatdown of Lawler was good. I especially liked Swagger pressing Lawler’s face against the “Cole Mine” while Cole bad-mouthed him. …

When the show opened with Jim Ross being announced, I immediately knew it was going to be Cole in a fat suit and a cowboy hat. Cole throwing his hat at Lawler and then running into the Cole Mine was funny. …

The Miz’s promo was fine, but it wasn’t at the level of his recent mic work. Turning the “W” upside down into an “M” on the WWE title belt was a nice touch. …

The video package that featured past and present wrestling stars talking about The Undertaker-Triple H match at WrestleMania was well done, but this match just doesn’t feel as special as WWE is trying to make it. It’s certainly not at the level of the Undertaker-Shawn Michaels matches at the past two WrestleManias. …

Not acknowledging the Undertaker-Triple H match that took place at WrestleMania X-7 10 years ago still bothers me. WWE doesn’t need to harp on the match; just one mention would be fine, and that way viewers wouldn’t feel like their intelligence is being insulted. Triple H could just say something like, “I was just starting to hit my stride back then, while The Undertaker was at the top of his game. But I’m well-rested and in the best shape of my life now, while The Undertaker is not the same man after all that he’s gone through over the past year. He’s vulnerable, and I’m the man that’s going to take advantage of it.” There, that wasn’t so hard, was it? It might actually build more interest in the match, because no matter how many times the announcers say that The Undertaker’s streak has never been in more jeopardy than it will be against Triple H, I get the sense that people just aren’t buying it. I’m certainly not. …

I know that Triple H was trying to sell the match as an epic encounter, but I didn’t like when he said The Streak was bigger than any championship. So when Triple H is in the title mix, the championship is the Holy Grail, but when he’s not, The Streak supersedes everything. Got it. …

As soon as Ted DiBiase Jr.’s music hit during Triple H’s promo, I think we all knew what was happening next. Carlito had a hilarious comment on Twitter about it. He wrote: “Poor ted dibiase! Looks like they gave him my spot. Complain. Walk down ramp. Get a$$ kicked in 2 seconds. No mania.” …

CM Punk was great when he attacked Randy Orton outside his tour bus in the parking lot and terrorized Orton’s “wife.” …

I’m glad that Riley is again part of The Miz’s act, but it’s just another example of a stipulation meaning absolutely nothing. …

The mixed tag handicap match pitting John Morrison and Trish Stratus against Dolph Ziggler, LayCool and Vickie Guerrero was entertaining, although they seemed to be making the rules up as they went along. Even Cole and Josh Matthews were confused. Initially, it was announced that it had to be man against man and woman against woman, but then it seemed as if someone suddenly remembered that the finish was Guerrero getting the pin on Morrison. So moments before the ending, Matthews said that the men can wrestle the women. …

I was left scratching my head after The Big Show and Kane destroyed The Corre just days after the heel group finally gained some legitimacy by laying out the two behemoths on Smackdown. Well, I guess there’s no need to see The Corre gets its comeuppance at WrestleMania now. I sure hope Wade Barrett and company do something spectacular on this week’s Smackdown to get their heat back. …

After being defeated by Justin Gabriel and Heath Slater of The Corre, Santino Marella and Vladimir Kozlov were standing in the ring alongside The Big Show and Kane, adding fuel to the speculation that Christian will be added to the world heavyweight title match between Edge and Alberto Del Rio at WrestleMania. It was originally reported that the plan was for The Corre to face Big Show, Kane, Christian and Kofi Kingston in an eight-man tag match at WrestleMania, but judging by how Christian has been booked as of late, combined with Marella and Kozlov’s placement on Raw, it looks as if the eight-man match may have changed to The Corre versus Big Show, Kane, Marella and Kozlov. That would be great news for Christian, Marella and Kozlov. For Kingston, not so much. …

The rehabilitation of Sheamus continued with his squash victory over Evan Bourne. So much for Bourne making a triumphant return. …

Cole again interrupted and belittled a Divas match. This time it was Eve Torres against Maryse, and Eve and Cole got into a shouting match after the bout. I wonder if this is going somewhere? Perhaps the Divas will cheer on Lawler during his match against Cole at WrestleMania. That would get the women on the card, and I’m sure Lawler wouldn’t complain about being joined by the Divas. …

It was not mentioned during the show, but wwe.com announced that Abdullah The Butcher is part of this year’s WWE Hall of Fame class.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 2:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (48)
        

The voting for the second round of our Mat Madness bracket-style tournament closes tonight at midnight EDT, so there’s still time to cast your votes on the eight matchups between world champion wrestlers. You can vote up to five times.

To view the bracket, click here.

To view a photo gallery of the tournament competitors, click here.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 12:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
        

There’s been plenty of news the past few days regarding The Rock and his ongoing association with WWE.

WWE announced that he’ll appear live on Raw next Monday, which will be the final Raw before WrestleMania XXVII. That was expected.

It also was reported by Entertainment Weekly that The Rock will appear on an episode of Tough Enough, which debuts on USA Network April 4 after Raw. That’s cool, and it again shows how serious WWE is about making the show—which will be hosted by Steve Austin and have Booker T. and Trish Stratus as trainers – a success.

In addition, The Rock, in an interview with WWE Magazine, made it sound like a return to the ring was a distinct possibility.

Say what?

“Making movies is something that I love to do, and I know that it brings a lot of people joy, which in turn brings me and my soul great gratification,” he said. “Being in the ring and entertaining the audience and kicking ass physically brings me and my soul great gratification as well. I can guarantee that I can always do both."

That’s a lot different than what he has said previously when asked about wrestling again. In numerous interviews – including one that I conducted with him when he was promoting “Gridiron Gang” in 2006 – he made it clear that wrestling was something that he loved doing, but that he had moved on from that part of his life and had no plans to ever don the tights again.

Rock did seem to soften his stance a bit when he made a memorable appearance at the 2008 WWE Hall of Fame ceremony. In response to the crowd’s chants of “please come back” and “one more match,” he suggested that he would consider another match with Austin (who hasn’t wrestled since 2003). He also said that there were three guys he wanted to wrestle but never got the opportunity – Rey Mysterio, Shawn Michaels and John Cena.

Obviously, given the high level of interest in the Rock-Cena war of words during the buildup to WrestleMania XXVII, there would be big money in a match between the two.

There was a time when I though the odds of Rock ever wrestling again were extremely low, but now it wouldn’t surprise me. I think one of the main reasons that Rock had somewhat distanced himself from wrestling was because he felt he wouldn’t be taken seriously in Hollywood otherwise.

However, he has since established himself as a bona fide movie star, and at this point, I don’t think being associated with wrestling again will have an adverse effect on his career. In fact, by re-connecting with wrestling fans, it just might give him a boost at the box office.

Photo courtesty of WWE

Posted by Kevin Eck at 11:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (13)
        

Sir Oliver Humperdink, a well-known pro wrestling manager from the ’70s to the early ’90s, died early Sunday morning. He was 62.

Humperdink (real name John Sutton) had been suffering from bladder cancer and was in hospice care.

The red-haired, bug-eyed Humperdink first made a name for himself as a heel manager in Florida Championship Wrestling. He formed a heel stable there and in other NWA territories – including Jim Crockett Promotions, based in the Carolinas – that was known as The House of Humperdink.

Among the notable wrestlers he managed during those days were Greg Valentine, Don Muraco, Bruiser Brody, Ivan Koloff and Superstar Billy Graham.

Humperdink joined the WWF in 1987 and had a brief run as the babyface manager of Bam Bam Bigelow and Paul Orndorff. He later worked for WCW, where he managed The Freebirds as Big Daddy Dink.

My condolences to his family and friends.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 1:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)
        

Could it be that WWE is actually starting to view Christian as a main-eventer?

Not only has Christian been in the past two Smackdown main events, but he has been on the winning end of both.

A week after he and Edge reunited to defeat Alberto Del Rio and Brodus Clay, “Captain Charisma” beat Del Rio in a steel cage match on Friday night’s episode.

The latter result was definitely a surprise, as I thought for sure Christian was going to be fodder for Del Rio, who will face Edge for the world heavyweight title in one of the top matches at WrestleMania XXVII in two weeks.

I can’t imagine WWE would book Christian to defeat Del Rio unless it had plans to put him in a high profile program (perhaps with Edge) after WrestleMania. I hope that’s the case, because Christian is certainly deserving of it.

As for Del Rio, he really wasn’t hurt by the loss. He didn’t lose by pinfall, as Christian won the match by dropping to the floor first while he and Del Rio were hanging off the top of the cage. And Del Rio immediately got his heat back after the match by attacking Christian and then brutalizing Edge (thanks to an assist from Clay) to end the show.

Other thoughts on Friday’s show:

Chris Jericho’s “triumphant return to the WWE” (his words on Twitter Thursday) turned out to be a video package of him promoting his appearance on “Dancing with the Stars.” Jericho must really be in WWE’s good graces for the company to allow a guy who isn’t even on its roster to promote a show whose second hour goes head to head with Raw Monday. By the way, reports of Jericho being on the show to discuss the Undertaker-Triple H match at WrestleMania obviously turned out to be wrong. …

Jericho said that he was the first WWE Superstar to be on DWTS. Well, I suppose he’s technically right. Only male wrestlers are referred to as WWE Superstars. Stacy Keibler was a WWE Diva. ...

It was announced on Raw this past Monday that Edge and Christian would face WWE tag team champions Justin Gabriel and Heath Slater for the title on Smackdown, but obviously the plan changed. It ended up being The Big Show and Kane against Gabriel and Slater, which freed up Christian to take on Del Rio. As cool as it would have been to see Edge and Christian teaming up for the second week in a row, I can’t argue with how things turned out. …

The Christian-Del Rio contest was the best of the eight matches on the show. The bout included a nice nearfall in which Christian turned Del Rio’s attempt at the Cross Armbreaker into the Killswitch. …

The post-match angle after the main event was well done. Just as Edge was about to make good on his threat to vandalize Del Rio’s car, Clay showed up out of nowhere and attacked Edge from behind. Del Rio hitting a con-chair-to on Edge’s arm was a nice touch. …

The Corre’s beatdown of The Big Show and Kane – which took place after the two behemoths beat Gabriel and Slater by disqualification – was impressive and put some much-needed heat on the heel group. …

The match between U.S. champion Sheamus and Intercontinental champion Kofi Kingston – which Sheamus won – was good. Kingston sure does lose a lot for a being a champion. …

The Rey Mysterio-Ted DiBiase Jr. match also was good, and – judging by how DiBiase has been booked – it was a lot more competitive than I expected. After the match, Maryse walked out on DiBiase – again. Why does she keep walking out on him and then coming back? Oh yeah, because he’s rich. But why does DiBiase keep taking her back? I know. Silly question. …

The crowd was very into the Edge-Clay match. Clay got in a lot of offense before losing, but he moved slowly and some of the action wasn’t smooth. …

Kane’s “you complete me” line to Big Show sounded like something Vince Russo would have scripted. …

I liked the more serious music that Cody Rhodes came out to before he squashed Trent Barreta. It suited the dark character he is now playing. I’m still not sure what it accomplishes by having him wrestle in his dress clothes, though. …

How great is it that Michael Cole calls his anke lock the An-Cole-lock? His heat is definitely transferring to Jack Swagger, who quickly disposed of Chris Masters. Hopefully Swagger gets another push after WrestleMania. …

Cole once again did the show from inside The Cole Mine. I thought he only did that on Raw because he was afraid of Jerry Lawler. Whatever – it was still funny. …

The Layla-Kelly Kelly match was pretty good while it lasted. Kelly Kelly’s downward spiral continued, as she took the loss. It was just three weeks ago that she teamed with Edge in the Smackdown main event. Since then, Snooki took what was reported to have been Kelly Kelly’s spot in a six-person tag match at WrestleMania, and her story line with Drew McIntyre has come to a screeching halt. Hopefully, it will be rebooted after WrestleMania. …

Michelle McCool said that “Snooki is famous for absolutely nothing.” And I thought heels weren’t supposed to tell the truth. …

Am I the only one who has trouble understanding what Booker T.is saying at times?

Posted by Kevin Eck at 2:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (34)
        

If you DVR’d Thursday night’s episode of TNA Impact and haven’t viewed it yet, here’s my advice: Watch the opening segment, which featured some good mic work and established the players in the world title picture, and then skip everything else until you get to the main event – a four-way match between Bully Ray, Mr. Anderson, Rob Van Dam and A.J. Styles.

What TNA presented between the opening and closing segments was pretty bad and almost totally devoid of any wrestling.

The first match—which saw TNA Knockouts champion Madison Rayne defeat the returning Alissa Flash in a matter of seconds – went on right after the 20-plus minute opening segment.

The next bout – a three-way for the vacant TV title between Gunner, Murphy and Rob Terry – did not take place until we were about 75 minutes into the show. It lasted less than two minutes, as did the street fight that saw Matt Morgan, Angelina Love and Winter defeat Hernandez, Sarita and Rosita.

The main event didn’t last long, either – approximately six minutes – but it was good while it lasted, and the post-match angle was very well done.

After the match ended without a clear winner (there was a double pin involving Anderson and RVD, and before referee Earl Hebner could announce his ruling, Ray knocked him out), Ray and Styles brawled up the ramp. As Styles was about to nail Ray with a chair, Ric Flair delivered a low blow to Styles from behind. Ray then hit a sit-out powerbomb off the stage and through a table.

It was a tremendous-looking bump. Styles sold that he was seriously injured, as he was loaded onto a stretcher and taken out in an ambulance.

Styles’ fellow Fortune members – Robert Roode, James Storm and Kazarian – did a very realistic job of selling concern. Kazarian calling Styles’ wife to let her know what happened was an especially nice touch. The only negative was Jason Hervey (or whoever it was that was filming the scene) repeatedly asking Kazarian questions while Kazarian was phoning Styles’ wife. That took away from the scene.

Ray, meanwhile, displayed no remorse, yelling, “I hope you never wrestle again,” as Styles was being tended to by medical staff. Between this angle and his strong performance on the mic in the opening segment, Ray was the star of the show, and it appears that he is going to be getting a major push.

Other thoughts on Thursday’s show:

It appears that TNA is trying to make Jeff Hardy a sympathetic figure and turn him babyface. In the opening segment, TNA world champion Sting told Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff that Hardy was basically a decent guy who was corrupted by them. Hogan responded by burying Hardy, saying that he let down Immortal. Hardy’s personal issues were never addressed, as this came across as your basic good guy-gone-bad story line. The jury is still out on whether the Hardy-Sting debacle at last Sunday’s Victory Road pay-per-view was a work, but assuming that it wasn’t, hopefully Hardy won’t return to TNA until after he has gotten the help that he needs. If and when he does come back, it’s for the best if he is a babyface again, because he’s a fantastic good guy, while he’s only a so-so heel. …

Ray, Styles, Anderson and RVD also were part of the first segment, as they all wanted a title shot against Sting. Sting, Hogan and Styles – in addition to Ray – were all good on the mic Anderson once again was annoying. …

Ray said that he wants to join Immortal. If he does, that’s a good move because it would elevate him and strengthen Immortal, which really needs a boost at this point to be a believable top heel group. However, if I was Hogan, I would have told Ray that no one who loses to Tommy Dreamer is allowed in Immortal. Seriously, what was TNA thinking by having Ray put over Dreamer at Victory Road? …

I was glad to see that Sting trashed the silly-looking TNA world title belt that was custom made for Hardy. I also was glad that Sting had a brand new, sharp-looking title belt rather having to reclaim the old belt that Eric Young pulled out of the trash. One question, though: Where did Sting get that belt? Hogan and Bischoff are in charge, so they obviously didn’t have it made for him. Whatever. At least the Hardy belt is gone. …

“The Pope” D’Angelo Dinero is a talented performer, but the segment in which he played a phony evangelist was excruciatingly bad. And did we really need to have Dinero putting a knife to Okato’s throat? It’s nice that it was revealed that the knife was fake, but even so, I still don’t think that kind of imagery has a place in wrestling. …

How could Dinero possibly have been able to take Okato backstage, find an isolated area and spend several minutes torturing him before Samoa Joe made the save? I know Joe might not be the fastest guy around, but come on. …

I couldn’t tell if Jeff Jarrett was legitimately busted open on the top of his head by the guitar shot from Kurt Angle or not. The blood had kind of a fake-looking quality to it. …

After Bischoff announced that the “injured” Abyss was being stripped of the TV title, he said that three Immortal members – Gunner, Murphy and Terry – would compete in a match to crown a new champion. It was curious that Matt Hardy – who certainly is a bigger star than any of those three – was not in the match and, in fact, did not appear on the show at all. With his brother, Jeff, being buried by Hogan, it will be interesting to see how Matt’s character is booked going forward. …

I was a little surprised that Gunner won the match and the TV title (I figured Terry would go over ), but he definitely has more going for him than his tag team partner, Murphy, including a much better look. …

Styles coming to RVD backstage and suggesting that they watch each other’s backs in the four-way match was weird. That type of match is every man for himself – especially with a world title shot at stake – so why would Styles even think for a second that RVD would go for that? I liked that RVD told him thanks, but no thanks – especially since it wasn’t all that long ago that Styles was part of the heel group that RVD has been feuding with. …

Rayne squashing Flash was absurd. How can the talented Flash not have a job with either TNA or WWE? …

To get another title shot against Rayne, Mickie James agreed to put her hair on the line when the two face each other at next month’s Lockdown pay-per-view. OK, so we’re actually supposed to believe that there is any chance at all that James will get her head shaved? I can’t imagine a bald head would be too good for James’ aspirations to be a successful country music singer. …

Hernandez (along with Sarita, Rosita and some guy who has yet to be given a name) is now basically doing the same militant Mexican gimmick that LAX and Konnan used to do. …

So apparently Angelina Love now trusts Winter over Velvet Sky. That doesn’t seem very believable. Perhaps the mysterious Winter has cast some type of spell over her. Either that or Love has just grown tired of Sky’s potty mouth

Posted by Kevin Eck at 4:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (25)
        

The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) took issue with some of verbiage used by John Cena in his rap promo on Raw three weeks ago, which has prompted WWE to issue an apology and form a partnership with GLAAD on an anti-bullying campaign.

GLAAD said in a news release that it contacted WWE in response to outrage from some viewers over Cena’s “homophobic taunts” directed at The Rock. Among the lines GLAAD cited as offensive was Cena saying, “Just don’t go racing to Witch Mountain, Rock, cause your mountain is Brokeback.”

WWE subsequently released the following statement:

“WWE takes this issue very seriously, and has already spoken with our talent about these incidents. We are taking steps and working with GLAAD to ensure that our fans know that WWE is against bullying or discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. We strongly value our fans in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, and apologize to them for these incidents.”

It was also noted in GLAAD’s news release that WWE has invited the organization to conduct training sessions for WWE’s staff of writers and editors.

Here’s my take: Bullying someone because of his or her sexual orientation obviously is a serious matter, and even though The Rock character is not portrayed as gay, suggesting that he is a homosexual as a means of insulting him does show a lack of tolerance.

My question, however, is this: Why is it not equally offensive for WWE female characters to be taunted for being overweight? Doesn't that also send a bad message to kids?

Posted by Kevin Eck at 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (51)
        

WWE Superstars will air its final episode on WGN America on April 7.

I can’t say the move is all that surprising, as it seemed that WWE stopped caring about the show some time ago.

Superstars debuted in April 2009. The Undertaker and Shane McMahon both wrestled on the first episode, and other top-tier WWE stars subsequently made occasional appearances on the program.

It wasn’t a must-see show, as there was virtually no story line development, but it was a nice change of pace because the focus was on in-ring action.

After a while, however, the big stars stopped appearing on the show and it became the home of lower-level guys such as Chris Masters, Zack Ryder, Primo and Chavo Guerrero as well as the Divas. As one would expect, ratings – which were never that great to begin with – plummeted.

The cancellation of the show could negatively affect some of the talent that regularly appeared on it, as there has been speculation that WWE is going to make significant roster cuts after WrestleMania XXVII.

WGN America is part of The Tribune Company, which also owns The Baltimore Sun.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 5:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (18)
        

Maryland Championship Wrestling presents its Xtreme Measures show Saturday night at the Green Room in Dundalk.

The card is headlined by an MCW heavyweight title match between champion Tyler Hilton and former champion Ryan McBride.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 4:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

The opening round of Mat Madness, a bracket-style pro wrestling tournament determined by online voting, is in the books.

Thank you to all who voted. Voting for Round 2 (the Sweet 16) begins tonight at midnight EDT. You can vote up to five times per day.

There weren’t a whole lot of surprises in the first round, as most of the matchups ended up being squashes. Four wrestlers got 90 percent or more of the vote – The Undertaker (against Rhino), Chris Jericho (against Sheamus), Edge (against Jack Swagger) and A.J. Styles (against Abyss).

The biggest upset saw Booker T. – who spends most of his time these days behind the announce table on Smackdown rather than in the ring – score a convincing victory over Jeff Hardy (62 percent to 38 percent). One has to wonder if that result would have been much different had the Hardy-Sting debacle at TNA’s Victory Road pay-per-view not occurred last Sunday.

The closest vote was in the battle of current world champions, as TNA champ Sting rallied from an early disadvantage to eliminate WWE champ The Miz, 54 percent to 46 percent.

There are some interesting inter-promotional matchups in the second round, including Triple H vs. Styles, Kurt Angle vs. CM Punk and Randy Orton vs. Sting.

To view the bracket, click here.

To view a photo gallery of the tournament competitors, click here.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 1:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
        

Discussing the possibility that the Jeff Hardy-Sting match at TNA's Victory Road pay-per-view was a work and how it was reminiscent of a WCW pay-per-view from a decade ago. Also, "John Cena" cuts a freestyle rap promo on Charlie Sheen and there's a cameo by WWE Hall of Fame inductee Tammy "Sunny" Sytch.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)
Categories: Ring Posts Xtra episodes
        

The voting for the first round of our Mat Madness bracket-style tournament closes tonight at midnight EDT, so there’s still a few hours left to cast your votes on the 16 matchups between world champion wrestlers.

Round 2 voting begins Saturday at midnight.

To view the bracket, click here.

To view a photo gallery of the tournament competitors, click here.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 8:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

Chris Jericho posted the following on Twitter earlier today:

“Happy to say that I'll be making my triumphant return to the WWE tomorrow night.”

I wouldn’t get too excited, though.

According to pwinsider.com, Jericho did an interview about The Undertaker versus Triple H match at WrestleMania XXVII, and the taped segment will air on Friday night’s episode of Smackdown.

Thirty-two world champion pro wrestlers compete in a tournament to crown the champion of champions. Vote in the Mat Madness tournament by clicking here.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 4:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)
        

There was yet another false finish in the drug case against TNA star Jeff Hardy.

Yes, the case that began when Hardy was arrested a year and a half ago was continued again today in a Moore County (N.C.) courtroom.

According to pwinsider.com, the assistant district attorney asked for the continuance while awaiting the results of lab tests on some of the evidence that had been seized from Hardy’s home.

A plea deal reportedly is still being discussed. It had been reported a couple months ago that an agreement was in place, but at a hearing in January, both sides said they needed more time to negotiate the deal.

Hardy was arrested in September 2009 after Moore County deputies raided his home. He was charged with trafficking in opium, two counts of possession with intent to sell or deliver a controlled substance, maintaining a dwelling to keep a controlled substance, possession of cocaine and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 9:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (12)
        

After putting on a controversial 88-second main event between Sting and Jeff Hardy at TNA’s Victory Road pay-per-view last Sunday, the company is attempting to make it up to people who purchased the event.

TNA announced on its website that it is offering six months of free access to the TNAondemand.com library for anyone who bought Victory Road.

“TNA Wrestling strives to give fans who purchase our pay-per-views as close to a full three-hour event as possible,” the statement reads. “This past Sunday’s ‘TNA Victory Road’ fell short of that standard. Your support of TNA is never taken for granted.”

The cost for Victory Road, which lasted approximately 2 hours, 44 minutes, was $35. Access to TNAondemand.com is $3.95 per month.

I think it’s wise on TNA’s part to make this gesture, although I have to wonder how many of the people who bought Victory Road wouldn’t just rather have their $35 back instead.

To read TNA’s statement, click here.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 5:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)
        

Monday night’s episode of Raw was so good that not even an appearance by Snooki could bring it down.

Everything just seemed to click, as WWE continued to build momentum on the road to WrestleMania XXVII.

The Rock opened the show – via satellite, of course – with an entertaining promo, and The Miz (disguised as Rock ) closed it by delivering yet another serious beatdown to John Cena.

In between, Jim Ross and Brian Christopher (aka Grandmaster Sexay, aka Brian Lawler – Jerry’s son) returned and took part in a heated angle that also involved “The King,” Michael Cole and Jack Swagger.

In addition, Randy Orton and CM Punk had an intense face-to-face confrontation, Sheamus won the U.S. title from Daniel Bryan in a very good match, Cena and Alberto Del Rio squared off in the main event, and The Miz once again showed his vicious side by destroying The Great Khali’s back with repeated chair shots.

And then there was the angle that resulted in “Jersey Shore” star Snooki being booked for a match at WrestleMania.

As much as I want to rip it, I really can’t. While I’m certainly no fan or Snooki or “Jersey Shore,” I have to admit that the angle was well done, and the bottom line is that she is going to get WWE a significant amount of mainstream publicity.

Other thoughts on Monday’s show:

I liked the opening segment with The Rock having a heart-to-heart talk with “John Cena” (it was a young boy doing a Cena impersonation), but there were a couple things about it that I could have done without. First and foremost, the dramatic mood music playing in the background while Rock was cutting a serious promo on The Miz was both corny and distracting. Memo to WWE: That Rock guy is pretty good on the mic; he really doesn’t need mood music to get his point across. I also thought the Kermit the Frog and Barney the Dinosaur sound effects were silly (and not in a good way). ...

It was another awesome night for The Miz. Once again, he delivered a strong promo, and he also came across as a sadistic heel for his attacks on Cena and Khali. I never thought I’d ever say this, but The Miz is the most compelling performer in the business right now, in my opinion. ...

Miz’s chair shots to Khali’s back looked painful for the big guy. The blood trickling out of Khali’s back made the brutal attack even more intense. ...

Part of what made Miz’s show-closing attack on Cena so great was that it seemed as if it was never going to end. Raw didn’t go off the air until 20 minutes after the hour. ...

Cole sitting ringside in a glass-enclosed case – which he referred to as “The Cole Mine” – to protect him from Jerry Lawler was genius. ...

It was great to see Ross back on TV. The verbal exchange between him and Cole was tremendous, and the attack by Swagger and Cole on J.R. and Lawler got a lot of heat. ...

It seemed like the majority of the crowd didn’t know Christopher, who worked for WWE from 1997 to 2001 and also had a brief stint in 2004. He did a nice job on the mic, even if he was blown up from doing his hilarious Too Cool entrance. The dialogue between Christopher and Lawler was basically a shoot, as Christopher said that Lawler was never around much when he was a kid, and Lawler called Christopher “a bigger screw-up than Charlie Sheen.” ...

When Cole first said that someone from Lawler’s past was going to be his special guest, my first thought was Jimmy Hart, who has a long history with Lawler in the old Memphis territory and is reportedly going to make appearances for WWE during WrestleMania weekend in Atlanta. Then when Cole said it was a family member, I figured it was Lawler’s outspoken cousin, The Honky Tonk Man. I had completely forgotten about Christopher. ...

During the Cena-Del Rio match, Cole said that he had personal knowledge that The Rock was there at the arena. The fact that it came from Cole was a dead giveaway that Rock wasn’t really in the building. Sure enough, when The Rock’s music hit while Del Rio and Brodus Clay were double-teaming Cena, The Miz came out disguised as “The Great One.” It was funny that a good portion of the crowd seemed to believe it was really The Rock standing on the stage even when it was obvious that it wasn’t him. ...

I liked the way the match between Orton and Mason Ryan was booked. The massive Ryan got in a lot of offense before Orton hit the RKO out of nowhere for the win. So that means that Punk will not have any Nexus members in his corner when he faces Orton at WrestleMania. The post-match angle saw Orton punt Ryan in the head before Punk could get in the ring to make the save. The subsequent stare-down between Punk and a crazed-looking Orton was fantastic. ...

The Sheamus-Bryan match was hard-hitting and built nicely to the finish of Sheamus hitting a perfectly timed Brogue Kick while Bryan was coming off the top rope. ...

The “match” between Vickie Guerrero and Trish Stratus was entertaining for what it was. As I expected, Guerrero won the match – and a spot on the Raw roster – due to interference by LayCool. That led to a brawl pitting LayCool against Stratus and Snooki (who was seated at ringside during the match), and Dolph Ziggler against John Morrison. It was then made official that Ziggler and LayCool would face Morrison, Stratus and Snooki at WrestleMania. ...

I’ve seen it all now: Snooki hit a Thesz press on Layla. ...

Did Snooki really call Guerrero fat? Next to Snooki, Guerrero looks like Maryse. ...

The pained expression on Ziggler’s face when Guerrero was freaking out after Snooki slapped her was classic. ...

When Alex Riley lost a cage match to Cena two weeks ago, the stipulation was that he could no longer be Miz’s apprentice. Yet there was Riley interfering in The Miz’s match against Khali. Well, I suppose if Cena can ignore similar stipulations, it’s only fair that Riley can, too.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 11:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (59)
        

“Jersey Shore” continues to have a hold on pro wrestling.

First it was Jenni “Jwoww” Farley and Angelina Pivarnick appearing on TNA Impact, and now Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi is set to mix it up inside the ring on wrestling’s grandest stage – WWE’s WrestleMania.

An angle was shot on Monday night’s episode of Raw that saw Snooki get physically in a post-match brawl with LayCool. It was then announced that “The Snookster” will team with John Morrison and Trish Stratus to take on Dolph Ziggler and LayCool at WrestleMania XXVII on April 3 in Atlanta’s Georgia Dome.

The Wrestling Observer reported last week that a six person tag match was scheduled to take place at WrestleMania, but Kelly Kelly was listed on the babyface team instead of Snooki.

In my eyes, trading Kelly Kelly for Snooki in any situation – no pun intended – is a bad idea, but it’s not hard to figure out why WWE is doing business with the MTV reality star.

Whether anyone likes it or not, there’s no denying that Snooki is a mainstream celebrity (and she’s more famous than fellow “Jersey Shore” stars Jwoww and Pivarnick). She’s even on the cover of Rolling Stone for God’s sake. Her participation at WrestleMania is going to get WWE a lot of publicity. In fact, it already has.

Personally, I’ve never watched an episode of “Jersey Shore” and find everyone on the show to be annoying, but I have to admit that the angle with Snooki on Raw was well done for what it was. The live crowd in St. Louis even marked out for Snooki.

As a wrestling fan, however, I think it’s a travesty that Snooki is going to WrestleMania while every other Diva on the roster except for LayCool is likely going to be left off the card.

Oh well, I guess that’s show biz.

Note: My thoughts on Raw will be posted later.

Snooki photo courtesy of WWE

Thirty-two world champion pro wrestlers compete in a tournament to crown the champion of champions. Vote in the Mat Madness tournament by clicking here.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 2:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (26)
        

Here's Chris Jericho's first rehearsal with partner Cheryl Burke for "Dancing with the Stars," which premieres next Monday.

Just one question: Where's the scarf?

Posted by Kevin Eck at 8:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)
        

The host of “The Price is Right” is the newest member of WWE’s 2011 Hall of Fame class, but it’s not Bob Barker.

WWE announced today that comedian Drew Carey – the current host of the long-running game show – will be inducted into the celebrity wing of the HOF during the ceremony on April 2.

I know a lot of fans hate the whole celebrity wing deal, but at least the celebrities who have been inducted previously – Pete Rose, William “Refrigerator” Perry and Bob Uecker – made memorable appearances at WrestleMania. Carey, on the other hand, made an appearance at the 2001 Royal Rumble that was both forgettable and regrettable (he was a surprise entrant in the Rumble match).

I’d rather see WWE induct Barker, the iconic former “Price is Right” host who did a great job as Raw guest host in 2009. It has been reported that Barker will be appearing at WrestleMania XXVII on April 3, so perhaps he will induct Carey the night before.

Of course, that would be like Johnny Rodz going into the Hall of Fame before Bruno Sammartino and then having Sammartino induct him.

Thirty-two world champion pro wrestlers compete in a tournament to crown the champion of champions. Vote in the Mat Madness tournament by clicking here.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 7:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (28)
        

In case anyone missed the news from earlier today, TNA has sent Jeff Hardy home from tonight and tomorrow night’s Impact tapings, according to pwinsider.com.

The report also stated that no decision regarding Hardy’s future with the company has been made.

The court date for Hardy’s drug trafficking case is scheduled for Wednesday.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 5:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (12)
        

I’ve watched a clip of the controversial Jeff Hardy versus Sting match from Sunday night’s TNA Victory Road pay-per view, and it’s eyebrow-raising to say the least.

Something seemed off about Hardy as he made his entrance. Right before the match got underway, Eric Bischoff came to the ring and announced that the match would be no disqualification, which ended up making no sense since the stipulation played no part in the finish. While in the ring, Bischoff spoke off mic to both Hardy and Sting, which was odd.

Once the bell rang, Hardy spent the first 50 seconds teasing that he was going to throw his t-shirt to the crowd. After the finally locked up, Sting kicked Hardy, threw a few punches and hit the Scorpion Death Drop.

Sting appeared to put all of his weight on Hardy when he made the cover. Hardy clearly tries to kick out at two, but he is unsuccessful.

Hardy seemed stunned that he was pinned , and he did not sell the effects of the move at all. He said something to the referee and then walked over to the corner and smacked the turnbuckle in frustration.

As the crowd voiced its displeasure at the 88-second main event while Sting walked back up the ramp, Sting – who had a sour look on his face during most of this – said, “I agree, I agree.”

It certainly will be interesting to see what – if anything – happens next regarding this situation.

With Vince Russo and TNA, my “worked shoot” antenna is always up, so I wouldn’t put it past them to stage something like this to get people talking, although I would hope even Russo wouldn’t book an 88-second pay-per-view main event just to create water cooler talk among wrestling fans.

To watch footage of the match (before it’s taken down), click here.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 11:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (67)
        

It’s no secret that buy rates for TNA pay-per-views are embarrassingly low, and I have a feeling they are about to go even lower.

The loyal TNA fans who spent $35 to watch Victory Road Sunday night were treated to a main event between Sting and Jeff Hardy that lasted all of 88 seconds.

The finish saw Sting hit the Scorpion Death Drop to win clean and retain his TNA world title.

And now for the rest of the story.

Citing TNA sources, pwinsider.com reported that the match was so short because of concern backstage that Hardy was in no condition to perform. Sound familiar?

A similar situation involving Hardy occurred in December at the Final Resolution pay-per-view when he was champion. According to online reports, there was concern over Hardy’s condition that night as well, so much so that TNA officials were considering stripping him of the title and sending him home.

Ultimately, Hardy’s scheduled match against Matt Morgan took place, with Hardy retaining the title as planned. Hardy reportedly convinced TNA officials that his condition was due to exhaustion as a result of his hectic travel schedule.

If the reports about Hardy’s condition at Victory Road are accurate, then TNA needs to take some kind of action immediately. A pay-per-view main event that lasts 88 seconds is inexcusable (couldn't TNA have come up with a Plan B and given fans a legitimate match?), but the truth is that there are worse things that can happen if problems are ignored.

Hardy, who still has pending drug trafficking charges from 2009, was suspended twice for no-showing events during his first stint with TNA in 2005. He also had two Wellness Policy violations while in WWE.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 4:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (31)
        

Here’s pro wrestling’s version of March Madness. Instead of slam dunks and free throws, it’s about body slams and biel throws.

Thirty-two wrestlers will compete in an online single-elimination tournament, with the winners determined by your votes.

All of the competitors have won at least one world title in WWE, TNA or WCW and are either currently active or have been active in the past year (Shawn Michaels is officially retired and thus is not eligible).

Voting for the first round begins tonight at midnight and will be open until Thursday at 11:59 p.m. EST. You can vote up to five times per day (although there is a waiting period after you vote before you can vote again).

Let's have some fun with this.

To view the bracket, click here.

To view a photo gallery of the tournament competitors, click here.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 9:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (24)
        

Here’s a look at the projected lineup for WrestleMania XXVII, which takes place April 3 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.

Matches already announced:

• WWE champion The Miz vs. John Cena (WrestleMania host The Rock is expected to be involved in some fashion)

• World heavyweight champion Edge vs. Alberto Del Rio

• No Holds Barred: The Undertaker vs. Triple H

• Randy Orton vs. CM Punk

• Jerry Lawler vs. Michael Cole w/Jack Swagger (Special guest referee: Steve Austin)

• Rey Mysterio vs. Cody Rhodes

Matches not yet announced but expected to take place:

• The Big Show, Kane, Kofi Kingston and Christian vs. The Corre

• John Morrison, Trish Stratus and Kelly Kelly vs. Dolph Ziggler and LayCool

• U.S. champion Daniel Bryan vs. Sheamus

Note: Among the wrestlers who appear to be on the outside looking in are : Drew McIntyre, R-Truth, Mark Henry, Evan Bourne, Santino Marella, Vladimir Kozlov and Ted DiBiase Jr.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 2:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (16)
        

Long before The Miz made the word “awesome” a major part of the WWE lexicon, Edge and Christian were reeking of awesomeness.

That’s why it was so cool to see one of WWE’s all-time great tag teams reunited on Friday’s Smackdown. It’s hard to believe it’s actually been 10 years since they teamed together (at least that’s what the announcers said).

Based on the story line of the past few weeks, it was apparent that Edge and Christian were going to be paired up again. I thought they would be matched against Alberto Del Rio and Drew McIntyre, but it turned out to be Del Rio and Brodus Clay.

Edge and Christian’s reunion proved to be a successful one, as Clay ended up doing the job.

It was great to see Christian working a main event, although it looks as if he will not be involved in the world heavyweight title match at WrestleMania XXVII between champion Edge and Del Rio – or will he?

It’s been reported that Christian will be part of an eight-man tag match at WrestleMania – teaming with The Big Show, Kane and Kofi Kingston against The Corre. That’s disappointing, but I’m holding out hope that Christian interferes in the Edge-Del Rio match and we get an Edge-Christian post-WrestleMania feud.

Other thoughts on Friday’s show:

So Clay – who appears to be part of Del Rio’s entourage going forward – has gone from NXT runner-up last week to wrestling in the main event on Smackdown this week. Good for him. Meanwhile, McIntyre lost to Rey Mysterio on this show, and it appears that he may not be on the WrestleMania XXVII card. Not so good for him. ...

Despite taking the loss, McIntyre was impressive gainst Mysterio. By the way, whatever happened to the story line with McIntyre and Kelly Kelly? ...

The segment with John Cena being interviewed by Michael Cole was good. Cena eliminated the silly humor and cut a serious promo about his WrestleMania match against WWE champion The Miz. ...

Triple H also cut a good promo about his match with The Undertaker. ...

The opening segment – which began with a promo by Edge and ended with him and Christian brawling with Del Rio and Clay – got the show off to a hot start and did a nice job of setting up the main event. ...

Cody Rhodes – who, for some reason, wrestled in his street clothes in a squash victory over JTG – continues to play his part very well. ...

Kaitlyn was back on TV, but it wasn’t exactly a glorious return. She lost to Layla in about a minute and then was beaten up some more by LayCool after the match. By the way, Kaitlyn is from Houston, where the show took place, so WWE once again saw fit to humiliate someone in their hometown. ...

It was pretty lame that the match between Wade Barrett and Kane ended in a disqualification because of outside interference by The Corre, and then the ensuing tag match pitting Kane and Big Show against Barrett and Heath Slater ended the exact same way. I did like that Big Show nailed Kane with a chair after the match as a receipt for Kane doing the same to him last week rather than the two of them suddenly co-existing peacefully. ...

So why exactly did The Nexus – then led by Barrett– help Kane defeat The Undertaker in the Buried Alive match back last October? Wasn’t it supposed to be part of some larger plan? Are we ever going to find out what it was?

Posted by Kevin Eck at 11:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (14)
        

I think it’s official: TNA considers its pay-per-views a lost cause. At least that’s the way it seemed watching Thursday night’s episode of Impact.

Despite it being the go-home show for Sunday’s Victory Road pay-per-view, TNA didn’t bother to reveal the lineup for the card until the final half hour of Impact.

So instead of seeming like a show that’s such a big deal that you have to pay to see it, Victory Road feels like it’s just a bunch of matches thrown together at the last minute. Even if this isn’t one of TNA’s “A” pay-per-views, it still doesn’t make any sense to treat it as such an afterthought.

It’s a shame TNA didn’t do a better job of building it up, because the lineup – headlined by a match between TNA world champion Sting and Jeff Hardy – looks pretty good on paper. If you missed Thursday’s show, however, you may not even know that there is a TNA pay-per-view on Sunday.

Other thoughts on Thursday’s show:

The program opened with new world champion Sting cutting a promo in the ring. He was interrupted by Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff, who came out to their nWo remix entrance music. Welcome to WCW Nitro 1997! ...

The opening segment was effective as far as establishing that Hardy, Mr. Anderson and Rob Van Dam are all after Sting’s title. ...

With his promo style, Anderson sometimes walks a fine line between entertaining and annoying. In first segment, he was the latter. ...

I’ve always believed that having clearly established babyfaces and heels is best for business, but there’s nothing wrong with occasionally having a tweener. In TNA, that guy is Anderson, and he is perfectly suited for the role. He made it clear that he doesn’t like anyone by attacking Sting during a backstage interview. ...

The main event – which saw Sting and RVD defeat the odd couple team of Hardy and Anderson – had a lot of star power, but the match wasn’t anything special, as it only went about five minutes. ...

The three-way street fight (which was really a handicap match) that saw Ric Flair defeat A.J. Styles and Matt Hardy, was fine for what it was, but I really could have done without Flair bleeding all over everybody – again. I wonder if the once-great “Nature Boy” has any idea how much of a sad joke he has become. ...

The parking lot brawl that saw Devon brutalize Bully Ray had a realistic feel to it. I liked how Ray got his heat back after Devon left the scene by beating up the security guard who had come to his aid. ...

I chuckled when Tommy Dreamer talked Devon out of attacking Ray with a sledgehammer by saying, “You’ll go to jail.” Really? How come Crimson didn’t go to jail for stabbing Abyss in the back with the board of nails? And how come Abyss didn’t go to jail when he carved up RVD with the same weapon? ...

The D’Angelo Dinero-Samoa Joe match (won by Dinero) was OK, but there just seems to be something missing with this feud. ...

Roxxi returned to answer TNA Knockouts champion Madison Rayne’s open challenge, but she was pinned rather quickly. Didn’t Roxxi lose a match to Rayne last year that caused her to have to leave TNA? Why was she allowed back? ...

I fast-forwarded through the six-woman tag match – well, most of it, anyway – that involved some chick (not Snooki or Jwoww) from “Jersey Shore.” As I was fast-forwarding, I noticed Velvet Sky showing off her assets while making the winning pin. Needless to say, I immediately hit re-wind. Sky’s post-match celebration (she slapped her own backside) also was a sight to behold. ...

The tag team match that saw Ink Inc. defeat Generation Me was fun. Ink Inc. apparently are still babyfaces. ...

It’s way too early for there to be dissension among the Bucks, who weren’t on the same page against Ink Inc. Hopefully, it won’t last beyond Sunday’s Ultimate X match, which has TNA X Division champion Kazarian defending the title against both Bucks and Robbie E.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 11:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (29)
        

• WWE promised that NXT Season 5 – which debuted Tuesday night – would “be like nothing you’ve seen before.” Well, yes and no. The concept was new, but we’ve seen all the competitors before. The theme of this season is “redemption,” as six WWE rookies from past seasons of NXT are being given another chance. The rookie/pro pairings are as follows: Darren Young and Chavo Guerrero; Conor O’Brian and Vladimir Kozlov; Lucky Cannon and Tyson Kidd; Byron Saxton and Yoshi Tatsu; Jacob Novak and JTG; and Titus O’Neil and Hornswoggle. Yes, Hornswoggle. With the little guy on the show and the fact that we have six rookie retreads paired with enhancement-talent pros, it almost seems as if WWE is intentionally trying to drive viewers away from this show.

• If you thought the reward for winning the previous season of NXT was weak (a tag team title shot), get a load of this: This season’s winner gets ... a guaranteed spot on NXT Season 6!

• NXT Season 5 does have some redeeming qualities, however. The lovely Maryse has joined the show as Matt Striker’s co-host, and William Regal is doing color commentary alongside Todd Grisham. Regal admitted that he was a little nervous, but he actually did OK for it being his first night at the announce table. He was easy to listen to and insightful. And he was way better than Booker T. has been on Smackdown, although that really isn’t saying much.

• As far as picking a winner for this season, I liked Saxton in Season 5, so I’m going with him. To me, he and Young are the clear favorites.

• O’Brian has dropped his rat gimmick, which is a wise move. He came across well during his video package.

• Cannon was a bland babyface on Season 2, so I’m all for him being a heel, but I don’t think he has the personality to pull off wearing the feathery robe he had on Tuesday night. He wasn’t very believable when he was hitting on Maryse, either.

• Speaking of hitting on Maryse, that’s exactly what Tatsu was doing backstage. It was shades of Torrie Wilson and Tajiri.

• Young looked good in his win over Novak.

• The O’Neil-Cannon match was serviceable. After Hornswoggle’s interference cost Cannon the match, Regal said: “That lousy little swine. Why did he need to get involved?” Couldn’t have said it better myself.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 10:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)
        

I though the ending to Monday night’s Raw was, in a word, awesome.

It had been announced earlier in the episode that WWE champion The Miz was boycotting the show because he feels he has not been getting the respect he deserves, as all of the focus as of late has been on John Cena’s war of words with The Rock rather than Cena’s match against The Miz at WrestleMania XXVII.

After Cena cut a “hip-hop” promo on the once-again absent Rock, The Miz appeared out of nowhere and laid out Cena for the second week in a row. Miz then cut a strong promo on both Cena and The Rock, and as an exclamation point, he delivered The People’s Elbow to Cena.

Perhaps more than ever, The Miz looked like a legitimate WrestleMania main-eventer.

I love how WWE has taken the idea that The Miz is an afterthought compared to The Rock and Cena – which is what a lot of fans have been thinking – and incorporated it into the storyline. Thanks to solid booking and The Miz really stepping up his game, WWE has succeeded in preventing The Miz from being totally overshadowed by the two mega-stars.

Other thoughts on Monday’s show:

“Stone Cold” Steve Austin’s appearance during the reveal of Michael Cole’s special referee for his WrestleMania match against Jerry Lawler made for a very entertaining segment. It had been reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer that Austin was going to be the referee (and Austin has appeared on some WrestleMania posters that have surfaced), but the question was how it was going to go down since Cole obviously wouldn’t voluntarily choose him. With Raw taking place in Dallas and Austin’s presence on the show having been advertised, Cole teased that the referee would be a Texan, a former WWE champion and an iconic figure. He then led the crowd in an “Austin” chant, only to pull the rug out from under them and announce that he was choosing JBL. It was nice to see JBL back, and that was a swerve I definitely didn’t see coming. JBL cut a fun promo and called Lawler bully, saying that he hates bullies, which was a great line coming from him. Of course, before JBL could sign the “official contract,” Austin came out, delivered two stunners to JBL, signed the contract and poured beer all over a hysterical Cole. Really good stuff. …

Cena promised on Twitter before the show that he was going to deliver a knockout blow in his verbal battle with The Rock. I wouldn’t go that far, and in fact, this rhyming promo wasn’t as good as Cena’s first one, but I still found it to be entertaining. The best part was Cena holding up one of Rock’s new “I Bring It” t-shirts that said, “I Bring It Via Satellite.” …

What a pleasant surprise to see Vickie Guerrero on the show, and she brought Dolph Ziggler with her. It was announced that Ziggler had been hired by the anonymous Raw general manager, but that Guerrero needed to win a match next week – against Trish Stratus – to get a spot on the Raw roster. I have no doubt that Guerrero will win that match thanks to an assist from Lay-Cool. That will set up a six-person match at WrestleMania pitting John Morrison, Stratus and Kelly Kelly against Ziggler and Lay-Cool (that also was reported in the Observer, as was the fact that there will be no Money in the Bank match at the show this year). …

It made sense for Ziggler to defeat Morrison on Ziggler’s first night as a member of Raw, but it’s disappointing to see Morrison’s momentum come to a screeching halt. The fans were really getting behind him, but this stop-and-start push certainly isn’t doing him any favors. …

The Undertaker’s promo was fine, but I thought Shawn Michaels’ second video piece did a better job of making the Undertaker-Triple H WrestleMania match feel special than any of the promos so far by the two combatants. …

It disappoints me that WWE has not acknowledged (and seemingly has no plans to do so) that The Undertaker and Triple H have already faced each other at WrestleMania. WWE did something similar when Hulk Hogan and Andre The Giant met in their epic showdown at WrestleMania III in 1987. It was promoted as the first meeting between the two superstars even though they had wrestled numerous times in the past, including on WWE shows six or seven years prior. At that time, however, it was typical for WWE to ignore history. When Hogan and Andre wrestled in the early ’80s in WWE, the promotion was still regional and there were no pay-per-views, so years later, WWE could get away with acting as if those matches never happened. It’s silly to do that today. Even though the match between The Undertaker and Triple H took place 10 years ago, it occurred on the grand stage of WrestleMania. Millions of people saw it, and scores of fans who didn’t see it certainly know about it. WWE doesn’t need to dwell on the fact that this isn’t the first meeting at WrestleMania between the two, but a simple acknowledgement would be nice so that viewers don’t feel that their intelligence is being insulted. …

It was announced that the Undertaker-Triple H match will be no holds barred, which should add to the drama and entertainment value of the contest. …

I liked the angle with The Nexus attacking Randy Orton backstage just prior to his match against David Otunga. It made it seem reasonable that Otunga could win, even though we all knew he wasn’t going to. Otunga was punted in the head after the match, just as Michael McGillicutty was last week. I have a feeling that Mason Ryan will somehow find a way to get past Orton next week, which means that he would be the only Nexus member in CM Punk’s corner for the Punk-Orton match at WrestleMania. …

Punk disposed of R-Truth rather easily. At one time, I thought R-Truth had the potential to be a major player, but clearly that ship has sailed. …

I knew it was just a matter of time before WWE NXT Season 4 runner-up Brodus Clay appeared on either Raw or Smackdown, but I didn’t think it would be this soon. Clay, accompanied by Alberto Del Rio, had a decent showing in a losing effort against Christian. …

After Daniel Bryan defeated Sheamus by countout, a match between the two for Bryan’s U.S. title was made for next week, with Sheamus vowing that he will quit if he doesn’t win the belt. So either Sheamus will win the title and his career will continue, or he will lose and the stipulation will be ignored. …

When Cole stood up in the middle of the match between Eve Torres and Nikki Bella and said, “Enough of this match. Get it over with already,” a lot of fans in the crowd cheered, so their disdain for the Divas action actually superseded their disdain for Cole. Ouch. …

The video package for Sin Cara was effective in making him look like a star. …

It wasn’t exactly a well-kept secret, but Sunny was officially announced as the latest inductee into the WWE Hall of Fame. Tammy Sytch went through a rough stretch several years ago, so it’s great to see her doing well and receiving this honor.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 1:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (55)
        

File this one under: “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

Snooki from “Jersey Shore” will be the guest host of Raw next Monday, according to pwinsider.com. TMZ.com first reported that she would be appearing on Raw in some capacity.

Why WWE would want to copy TNA’s horrible angle is beyond me. Oh well, looks like the old fast-forward button will be getting some work next Monday.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 3:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (33)
        

Finally, Axl Rotten has come back to Ring Posts Xtra to discuss the war of words between The Rock and John Cena and the WWE Hall of Fame. There's also a cameo appearance by "The Iron Sheik" (and Chris Jericho -- really).

Posted by Kevin Eck at 1:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Ring Posts Xtra episodes
        

New York Jets linebacker Bart Scott shot back at those in the sports media who have questioned whether he may have violated his NFL contract by doing an angle with TNA.

“It would be like going on ‘Dancing with the Stars,’ ” Scott told ESPNNewYork.com recently.

I totally agree with him. Look, I understand that NFL teams have millions of dollars invested in their players, and that’s why it’s standard to have a clause in player contracts that prevents them from participating in physical activity outside of football that could jeopardize their health.

But it’s not like Scott took any bumps during his appearance on last week’s episode of TNA Impact. His brief backstage scuffle with Kazarian was basically just Scott lying on his back, holding onto Kazarian and throwing some really weak-looking worked punches. And when Kurt Angle put him in an ankle lock, I’m pretty certain that Angle didn’t apply any real pressure.

There’s probably a greater chance of Scott getting hurt engaging in horse play with his small kids than in anything he did with TNA.

In fact, I'm not even sure that Scott's “Dancing with the Stars” analogy holds up. When former WWE Diva Stacy Keibler competed on the show, she suffered an ankle injury and a pulled groin.

***

I appreciate all the positive feedback on the Chris Jericho interview. Any interview is only going to be as good as the subject, and Jericho obviously is a fantastic subject. One of the reasons for that is his candor, which leads me to my next point.

Several people who watched the five-part Jericho interview have made the comment that he seems full of himself. I understand where they’re coming from, but I have a different point of view.

While I have no doubt that Jericho enjoys being Jericho, I just think that he’s secure enough with himself that he will give you his honest opinion. If he thinks he bombed at something, he’ll say so, but on the other hand, if he thinks he put on a great performance, he won’t do the false-modesty routine; he’ll tell you that he put on a great performance.

I find that ability to recognize and acknowledge his own strengths and weaknesses to be refreshing.

***

TNA’s Cookie said in a recent interview with The Miami Herald that her and Robbie E.’s characters were created because “[TNA head writer] Vince Russo’s daughters love ‘Jersey Shore.’ They actually have him watching.”

So let me get this straight: Because Russo’s daughters are fans of the MTV reality show, wrestling fans are subjected to an act with go-away heat and lame angles with annoying “Jersey Shore” cast members.

Well, all I can say is that if I ever get the book in TNA, be prepared for the debut of Sesame, a tag team comprised of sweater-clad best friends Kurt and Bernie.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 10:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (26)
        

... is coming.

Stay tuned.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 11:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (15)
        

Just as he did at the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view two weeks ago, Christian saved his old buddy Edge from an attack by Alberto Del Rio at the end of Friday night’s Smackdown.

It’s looking more and more as if Christian is going to play a role in the Edge-Del Rio match for Edge’s world heavyweight title at WrestleMania on April 3.

The most obvious scenario would be to add Christian to the match and make it a triple threat, but another possibility would be to have Christian in Edge’s corner to counter interference from Ricardo Rodriguez.

Then again, Christian may not be involved in the match at all. I could see WWE briefly reuniting Edge and Christian as a tag team to face Del Rio and Drew McIntyre on TV, which could then possibly lead to a Christian-McIntyre program.

Personally, I’d love to see the under-appreciated Christian participate in the world title match with Edge and Del Rio on the grand stage. I’m not holding my breath, though, as the word has always been that Vince McMahon doesn’t see Christian as a main-eventer.

Other thoughts on Friday’s show:

We’ve all seen plenty of contract signings take place in the ring, and as Smackdown general manager Teddy Long pointed out, they always result in chaos. So while the Edge-Del Rio signing wasn’t ground-breaking, it still was very well done. Both guys were strong on the mic and their brawl was intense. Edge’s bloody nose and his blood getting all over Del Rio’s white shirt certainly added to the drama. Long anticipating the bedlam and running out of the ring just before it erupted was a nice touch. ...

Cody Rhodes did a nice job with his promo, and I like how his story line is progressing. Working a WrestleMania program with an established superstar such as Rey Mysterio is a significant achievement for Rhodes at this stage of his career. ...

The Undertaker cut a decent enough promo. Unlike Triple H, he actually managed to put their WrestleMania match over without burying the entire roster and the rest of the WrestleMania card. ...

Is WWE really not going to acknowledge that The Undertaker and Triple H faced each other at WrestleMania 10 years ago? ...

The Edge-McIntyre match was good. McIntyre continues to show an aggressive streak, and even though he lost, wrestling a competitive match against the world champion gives him a rub. ...

I liked how Edge chose not to pin McIntyre after hitting The Spear and instead locked on a submission maneuver to win via tapout. It shows that Edge is taking his game to another level with WrestleMania approaching, and it also gives him a submission move of his own to offset Del Rio’s Cross Armbreaker. ...

Being paired up with Michael Cole might turn out to be a very good thing for Jack Swagger, who scored a quick squash victory over JTG. Swagger got a lot of heat from the crowd because of his association with Cole. ...

Cole said that he will reveal who the special referee is for his match against Jerry Lawler at WrestleMania on Raw Monday night. He said that the person was “awesome,” but there’s no way it’s going to be The Miz. Alex Riley seems like a logical choice, but judging by the way Cole built it up, I think it’ll be a bigger name than Riley. ...

After Kane whacked The Big Show with a chair that was handed to him by The Corre, he then smashed Justin Gabriel with the chair. I’m not sure if Kane is turning babyface for the millionth time or if he’s going to be a tweener (a role the disturbed Kane is perfectly suited for), but my guess is that he and Big Show will form a tenuous alliance and face The Corre in a handicap match at WrestleMania. ...

Gabriel and Heath Slater’s successful WWE tag team title defense against Santino Marella and Vladimir Kozlov was somewhat entertaining , mostly thanks to Marella. ...

I wish Lay-Cool – who defeated Beth Phoenix and Rosa Mendes – would just go ahead and break up already. ...

Rodriguez singing the Mexican National Anthem brought back memories of Nikolai Volkoff.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 11:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (40)
        

Here is the final installment of a five-part interview I conducted with Chris Jericho recently during a stop on his book signing tour at the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 4:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)
Categories: Video interviews
        

For those of you who somehow managed to miss the big spoiler from last week, the other shoe dropped on Thursday night’s episode of Impact regarding Sting’s return to TNA.

A week after TNA hyped “the most surprising shock of the year, guaranteed” – which turned out to just be a tease of Sting’s return via a parody of WWE’s 2-21-11 videos – the company booked the veteran star to win the TNA world title from Jeff Hardy on Thursday’s show.

As I said last week, Sting does have value, but I really don’t see the benefit in putting the world title on the 51-year-old. Sting should really be used as a special attraction at this point in his career.

Instead of yet another Sting reign, why not put the title on someone fresh such as Matt Morgan? There’s also former champion A.J. Styles, who is the hottest babyface in the company. I’d much rather see him chasing Hardy for the belt than Sting holding it for the umpteenth time.

My guess is that Sting’s run as champ will be short, but that only makes the decision to give him the belt even more ill-advised. This is the second time in seven weeks that Hardy has lost the title, and if/when he gets the championship back again, the next time he loses the belt it will not mean as much as it would have if he had a longer reign.

As far as the Sting-Hardy match itself, it would have been nice if it lasted longer than six minutes, but the action was fine and the crowd popped for Sting being revealed as the mystery opponent and also for the title switch.

Other thoughts on Thursday’s show:

With all that was going on during this episode – the world title change, the Jarretts renewing their wedding vows, New York Jets linebacker Bart Scott and some chick from “Jersey Shore” appearing, and a verdict being rendered in the Hulk Hogan-Dixie Carter legal battle – it still was only a so-so show. The fact that there wasn’t a whole lot of wrestling on it didn’t help. ...

Doing the show in an arena instead of the Impact Zone definitely made the company look more major league. If TNA can do so without losing a significant amount of money due to production costs, it would be great if it could take the show on the road more frequently. ...

Hogan was declared the winner in his legal fight with Carter, so he now has control of the company, although it seems that “the network” is able to dictate to Hogan. ...

When Hogan and Eric Bischoff told Carter that they used her to get back into prominent roles in wrestling, do you think Carter realized that they weren’t doing a worked shoot but a real shoot? I’m guessing not. ...

I usually like wrestling wedding angles, but the Jarretts’ renewal of their vows was disappointing. The best part was Karen Jarrett having dried-up icing on her face and in her hair for the ceremony after having had her face shoved in the wedding cake by Kurt Angle earlier in the show. I thought the payoff – Angle destroying the wedding set with an axe after the ceremony – was kind of weak. When I first saw him grab the axe, I thought for a second her was going to go all Jack Torrance on Wendy, I mean, Karen. ...

It amazes me how TNA can screw up things that should be so simple. The reason Scott has gained a higher profile is because of his mouth, so wouldn’t it be a good idea to have him cut a promo? Instead, he just mumbled a bit off the microphone, stood around and got in a couple scuffles. A mute NFL player could have done all that. Amazing. ...

Scott’s backstage “fight” with Kazarian didn’t look very realistic. Perhaps Scott isn’t a natural for pro wrestling after all. Or perhaps he was just being extra careful so that he didn’t get hurt and violate his NFL contract. ...

The Jarretts strolling in with big smiles on their faces and announcing “We’re here!” while the brawl involving Scott, Kazarian, Styles and Matt Hardy was going on around them was hilarious. ...

When Fortune came out to interrupt Hogan’s promo on a teary-eyed Carter, an angry Styles said that they all care about the TNA president. Um, wasn’t Fortune part of the original plot to steal the company away from her? ...

As Immortal was standing in the ring, it struck me that I was looking at one of the least-impressive main event factions ever. The group consisted of Gunner, Murphy, Rob Terry, Matt Hardy and two guys way past their primes in Hogan and Ric Flair. ...

The Morgan-Hernandez match – which Morgan won by disqualification – served its purpose, which was to get heat on Hernandez and keep the program going. ...

Velvet Sky finally beat Sarita, so thankfully we don’t have another retirement stipulation that won’t be adhered to. ...

To show how serious she was about her career being on the line, Sky did not do her typical entrance. That was a nice touch, but Sky’s entrance is the best part of her matches. ...

Scott Steiner scored a convincing win over Terry in a match that was better than I thought it would be. ...

TNA world tag team champions Beer Money won decisively – as they should have – over Gunner and Murphy in a title match. Robert Roode and James Storm were way over with the crowd. ...

Are Ink Inc. – who issued a challenge to Beer Money for the belts – heels now? By the way, was it really necessary for Shannon Moore to direct the crowd to yell the f-word? ...

I have no idea who that guy was who sat in on commentary during the Morgan-Hernandez match, nor do I care. ...

As I vowed to do, I fast-forwarded through the “Jersey Shore” segment. In retrospect, I wish I would have fast-forwarded through any scene that involved Eric Young and/or Orlando Jordan.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 11:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (23)
        

Here is the fourth of a five-part interview I conducted with Chris Jericho recently during a stop on his book signing tour at the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 6:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Video interviews
        

Here is the third of a five-part interview I conducted with Chris Jericho recently during a stop on his book signing tour at the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Video interviews
        

Here is the second of a five-part interview I conducted with Chris Jericho recently during a stop on his book signing tour at the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore.

Posted by Baltimore Sun sports at 1:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Video interviews
        

Here is the first of a five-part interview I conducted with Chris Jericho recently during a stop on his book signing tour at the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 12:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (14)
Categories: Video interviews
        

Based on what I saw of NXT Season 4 – which, admittedly, was only a little more than half the episodes – I’d have to call the result of Tuesday night’s season finale an upset.

The final two were rivals Johnny Curtis and Brodus Clay, with Curtis being named the winner.

Perhaps an even bigger upset is the fact that there will be an NXT Season 5. I figured there no longer was any need for NXT with the return of Tough Enough next month, but according to the announcers, Season 5 – which debuts next Tuesday on wwe.com – “will be like nothing you’ve seen before.”

My early pick to win Season 4 was the charismatic Byron Saxton, but I also was impressed by Clay, who has a unique look to go along with his size, intensity and mic skills. After Saxton was eliminated three weeks ago and the competition was down to Curtis, Clay and Derrick Bateman, I figured Clay was a lock.

I was actually surprised that Bateman was eliminated last week instead of Curtis. Bateman stood out because of his comedic ability, whereas Curtis struck me as a guy who’s a solid worker but is missing the “it” factor. But, like I said, I missed several episodes, so perhaps I would have been more impressed with Curtis if I had seen them all.

After Curtis was announced as the winner, he became teary-eyed, which I initially thought was on overreaction, because it’s not like winning NXT really means all that much as far as who will get a push in WWE (just ask Kaval and Kaitlyn). Then I recalled Curtis talking earlier in the season about his best friend being killed in a car accident and how he is pursuing his dream of being a wrestler for both of them.

For winning Season 4, Curtis – along with his pro, R-Truth – earned a future shot at the WWE tag team championship.

Clay cut a good heel promo on his way out, and I have a feeling we’ll be seeing him on Raw or Smackdown in the near future. I also think it’s very likely that Bateman will get a spot as a mid-card comedy act.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 12:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (22)
        

“Finally, The Rock has come back home,” were the words uttered by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson when he made his dramatic return to WWE two weeks ago.

For his appearance on Raw Monday night, however, The Rock really was home – as in his residence in California – rather than at the arena in Buffalo, where the show was taking place.

He cut an impassioned promo in response to John Cena questioning his love for WWE and the fans, but the fact that he delivered his message “via satellite” only seemed to prove Cena’s point about Rock being a hypocrite.

“I give you my word that I am never, ever going away,” Rock said two weeks ago, to which Cena replied last week: “You tell these people you love them; I’m here every week to show it.”

It’s unrealistic to expect The Rock to be live on Raw every week leading up to WrestleMania XXVII on April 3 – and it would take away from his appearance at the big event if he’s overexposed – but this story line has created a tricky situation.

If The Rock continues to go the “via satellite” route while Cena is at the arenas every week, it’s going to be difficult for The Rock not to receive some backlash from fans.

Other thoughts on Monday’s show:

It looks as if Cena doing his “Doctor of Thuganomics” character really was just for one night only. A week after cutting a double entendre-laced rap promo on The Rock, Cena was back to playing his kid-friendly character and telling groan-inducing jokes. …

The Miz was the star of the show. Not only did he come off as the cooler of the two when he and Cena had a verbal exchange, but he also showed his ruthless side during the program. He attacked Daniel Bryan “because I can,” and then laid out Cena after Cena defeated Alex Riley in a steel cage match. Miz was entertaining while doing commentary for that match, as he used his phone to snap a picture of Cena while Riley pressed his face up against the cage. Miz was tweeting during the match, too. It reminded me of when The Rock used to do things during his matches such as grabbing the headset and doing commentary and taking the camera from the camera man and shooting his opponent. …

The stipulation in the Cena-Riley match was that Riley would no longer be Miz’s apprentice if he lost. Riley definitely adds something to Miz’s act, so I’m surprised WWE is splitting them up. Miz didn’t seem too upset about it, though. …

Wow, could Triple H have buried the entire roster in his promo any more than he did? If he would have just said that he’s done everything in WWE there is to do except one thing – end The Undertaker’s undefeated streak at WrestleMania – it would have been perfect. He didn’t need to say that when he and The Undertaker look around the locker room they both realize they have no other challenges left. And he definitely shouldn’t have said that his match with The Undertaker at WrestleMania “will be the only thing that matters that night.” It would be one thing for a heel to say all that, because they're supposed to be liars. When a top babyface says it, however, it rings true. ...

I never saw Sheamus as a top-level guy, but I do think he deserved better than to be treated like a jobber by Triple H. After all, Sheamus is the one who put Triple H out of action for nearly a year. When Sheamus came out to confront Triple H, instead of Triple H nonchalantly kicking him low and then destroying him, I would have had Sheamus cut a promo, leading to a match between the two later in the show. Then I’d have had Triple H score a clean victory in a competitive match. That would make Triple H look strong heading into his match against Undertaker without totally burying Sheamus. …

To add insult to injury, Sheamus was then quickly pinned in a match against the returning Evan Bourne. It’s nice to have Bourne back, but I don’t think beating a half-unconscious Sheamus is a “great victory,” as Josh Matthews called it. …

Michael Cole did a nice job playing a smarmy heel as he accepted Jerry Lawler’s challenge to face him at WrestleMania. Cole’s two conditions for doing the match were that he be allowed to have his trainer in his corner and choose a special referee. I thought for sure the trainer was going to be Riley, but it turned out to be Jack Swagger. I’d rather see Swagger in a match at WrestleMania, but at least this gets him on the card in some fashion. I’m interested to see who the referee will be. …

The video with Shawn Michaels giving his perspective on the Undertaker-Triple H match was effective in making the match seem special. …

Somebody in the crowd held up a sign that said “18-1” during Triple H’s promo. It always amazes me when I see a “something-and-one” sign around WrestleMania time. Haven’t people figured out yet that The Undertaker is never losing at WrestleMania? ...

I was surprised that Michael McGillicutty got in so much offense before losing to Randy Orton. In this instance, I think a squash was actually warranted. …

Orton’s facials before punting McGillicutty in the head were awesome as usual. …

By showing clips of the press conference in Mexico that announced the signing of Sin Cara (formerly known as Mistico), it’s obvious that WWE has big plans for him. …

The eliminations in the Divas battle royal were ridiculously quick. It was obvious from the start that “Twin Magic” was going to prevail.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 2:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (59)