Randy Orton wasted no time in putting his stamp on Smackdown.

Having moved over from Raw during Monday night’s WWE draft, Orton came out to cut a promo in the opening segment of Friday’s episode of Smackdown. He didn’t get a chance to say a whole lot, however, before he was interrupted by Drew McIntyre, Alex Riley and Alberto Del Rio in succession.

McIntyre and Riley both got RKO’d, but Del Rio was smart enough not to come to the ring alone. He brought Brodus Clay and Ricardo Rodriguez with him, and the three of them cornered Orton. Before they could touch him, however, Christian came out to back up Orton.

Smackdown general manager Teddy Long then announced that Orton and Christian would face Del Rio and Clay in the main event. The babyfaces prevailed in the match, with Orton hitting the RKO on Clay for the victory.

All in all, it was a good first night on Smackdown for Orton, the new face of the brand.

Other thoughts on Friday’s show:

I haven’t seen Orton smile so much since his ill-fated babyface turn in 2004. He also was sporting a new GQ look, with a stubbly beard and slightly longer hair. I hope WWE isn’t planning on softening his character too much. Orton needs to be “The Viper,” regardless of whether he is a heel or a babyface. He knows that, as well. When talking about his current babyface run in an interview with me in March, he said: “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-fives with 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.” ...

Riley getting RKO’d before he even had a chance to say a word was pretty funny. At least McIntyre got to cut a promo first. ...

Having the talent wear the blue Smackdown and red Raw t-shirts was a good idea. Otherwise, who could possibly keep track of who is on what show at this point? ...

Clay got a nice rub by being involved in the tag team main event with three established stars. Clay being put in that spot once again shows how little it means to win – or lose – NXT. Johnny who? ...

Christian cut a good backstage promo to hype his ladder match against Del Rio for the vacant world heavyweight championship at Sunday’s Extreme Rules pay-per-view. I liked when he said that before last week he had never put his hands on the world title belt because he didn’t feel he earned the right to touch it. ...

I liked that the match between Michelle McCool and Layla – which ended in a double disqualification in about a minute – was a brawl rather than a wrestling contest. Two friends turned bitter enemies should be trying to beat the heck out of each other, not performing moves. ...

After the women’s match, it was announced that McCool and Layla will face each other at Extreme Rules in a no-DQ, loser leaves WWE match. According to online reports, McCool called it a “loser leaves Smackdown” match at the taping. It was very obvious that “WWE” was inserted in place of “Smackdown” in post production. The speculation is that McCool is taking some time off. ...

So much for Kofi Kingston’s winning streak. After defeating Sheamus and being the co-winner of a battle royal on Raw Monday night, Kingston was destroyed by Sheamus on Smackdown. Sheamus attacked Kingston from behind, and their scheduled match never took place. I suppose WWE is trying to re-establish Sheamus as a major player, but it’s a shame that Kingston is going to Raw with zero momentum. ...

The Rey Mysterio-Mark Henry match was good. Cody Rhodes’ interference – which caused Mysterio to win by DQ – was predictable but effective. Rhodes showed a lot of intensity as he beat up Mysterio outside the ring and over the barricade. It was a nice prelude to their falls count anywhere match Sunday. ..

Booker T. asked why Henry suddenly changed his attitude and double-crossed his tag team partners Cena and Christian on Raw. I was wondering the same thing. Hopefully, Henry will cut a promo on next week’s show to explain his motivation. ...

The Sin Cara-Jack Swagger match was entertaining. Cara looked smoother in the ring than he did in his previous appearances. Swagger lost because of an inadvertent distraction from Michael Cole, which led to more tension between the two. ...

Cole, showing the effects of the beating he took at the hands of Jim Ross on Raw, had a black eye and a fat lip. My guess is that the lip was legit and the shiner was a makeup job. ...

The Big Show and Kane’s successful WWE tag team title defense against Justin Gabriel and Heath Slater was a lot better than I expected. ...

FYI: The guy talking to The Great Khali and Ranjin Singh backstage was FCW developmental talent Jinder Mahal. ...

I was hoping that getting drafted to Smackdown would jump-start the careers of Daniel Bryan and Ted DiBiase Jr., but neither of them were on the show. Maybe next week.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 11:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)
        

Scott Steiner may only be a mid-card player at this point in his career, but he proved on Thursday night’s TNA Impact that he is still pretty darn entertaining. In fact, I thought his performances were the highlight of the show.

I don’t know that anyone in the business today blends intensity with humor better than “Big Poppa Pump.”

When informed that an enraged Matt Morgan was looking for him, Steiner cut a promo that can only be described as Steiner-esque. In a nutshell, Steiner said that he didn’t sweat Morgan and wasn’t hard to find.

Later, Steiner suckered Morgan into coming after him backstage, and then he attacked Morgan from behind. Steiner delivered a stiff beatdown, talking smack the entire time.

After Morgan finally gained the upper hand in the brawl, however, Steiner abruptly changed his tune. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” he said to Morgan. When Morgan ignored Steiner’s pleas and continued the assault, Steiner yelled: “I said I’m sorry!”

Morgan left Steiner lying in a heap. At the end of the show, however, Steiner was mouthing off again and talking tough.

“I’m Division I, you’re Division III,” he said in regard to their respective collegiate athletic achievements. “I’m a wrestler. You’re a basketball player. Who’s afraid of a basketball player other than another basketball player?

Hilarious. What makes it even funnier is that I got to know Steiner while working for WCW years ago, and his true personality isn’t that much different than his wrestling persona.

Other thoughts on Thursday’s show:

The opening segment in which Karen Jarrett tried to figure out who Kurt Angle’s “mistress” is by interrogating some of the Knockouts and a couple of women who work backstage (a seamstress, someone from catering) was brutally bad and seemed like it was never going to end. Even Karen’s cleavage couldn’t save it. …

As soon as Mr. Anderson pulled up in a cool white truck and said that it had sentimental value, I think we all knew the vehicle was going to get vandalized before the show was over. Sure enough, Sting busted out all the windows with a baseball bat. …

Sting swung the bat so many times when trashing Anderson’s truck that he got tired and needed to take a few sips of water. Geez, I hope John Morrison doesn’t find out. …

Sting playfully denying that he took batting practice on Anderson’s truck and then Anderson just blowing it off as no big deal was amusing, but I’m still trying to figure out why Anderson wasn’t angry about his truck. …

After Sting accepted Anderson’s challenge for a TNA world title match, Hulk Hogan came out and added Bully Ray to the match, making it a threeway. Why couldn’t Sting just say no? If you recall, he has the right to pick his challengers. And just who does have the final word on making matches, Hogan and Eric Bischoff or The Network? I’m confused. …

The Sting-Anderson-Ray match – which Sting won thanks to A.J. Styles attacking Ray – was somewhat entertaining. By the way, Bully Ray seemed to be channeling Stan Hansen in the ring. …

Talk about bad luck. On the same night that Alex Shelley made his return after being sidelined for three months with an injury, his Motor City Machine Guns partner, Chris Sabin, suffered a legitimate knee injury during his match against Anarquia. After Sabin’s injury occurred, they went right to the finish, as Anarquia got the win with a small package. Shelley came out after the match to save Sabin from an attack by Mexican America. …

Angelina Love – who squashed her former BFF Velvet Sky – has apparently turned into the female version of The Undertaker (the early-to-mid ’90s version). Not only is she constantly in a zombie-like trance, but apparently she’s also impervious to pain. That must be some powerful stuff Winter is spiking her drink with. …

The TV title match between champion Gunner and Daniels was decent. Gunner getting the clean win was a surprise. …

I liked the interview with Samoa Joe talking about Crimson’s undefeated streak and comparing it to the one he had in TNA several years ago. …

The Joe-Crimson match wasn’t bad, although there were a couple awkward spots. …

After Abyss attacked Crimson, Joe chose to walk away rather than save him. Please tell me TNA isn’t turning Joe heel again. …

I’m not sure what the point was of Mickie James’ short promo. She thanked the fans for their support and that was pretty much it. I was waiting for someone to interrupt her but it didn’t happen.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 11:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (12)
        

With rumors swirling that CM Punk is considering leaving WWE when his contract expires in a few months, it got me thinking about just how much I enjoy watching him on WWE programming.

It also hit me that over the past year three of my favorites – Shawn Michaels, Chris Jericho and Edge – have all either left the business or taken a break.

That in turn got me thinking about putting together a list of my top 10 favorite wrestlers who are currently active in either WWE or TNA.

The criterion for the list is simple: Who are the guys I most look forward to seeing on my TV screen week in and week out?

10. MR. ANDERSON – Yes, he is basically a poor man’s Stone Cold. And yes, he sometimes needs to tone it down a notch. But I find his tweener character to be compelling, and after all these years, I still dig his announcer shtick.

9. CHRISTIAN – Is there any doubt that he is the most underrated performer in the business? There are few active wrestlers who are better in the ring, and while he may not be the most electrifying man in sports entertainment, “Captain Charisma” certainly isn’t lacking when it comes to the “it” factor (regardless of what Vince McMahon thinks).

8. JACK SWAGGER – Another guy who is underrated. He’s developed into a terrific in-ring performer and has proved that he can cut a promo when given an opportunity. Swagger displays good intensity but also has shown a flair for comedy.

7. BEER MONEY – Robert Roode and James Storm are by far the best current tag team in the business. Both of them are good workers (Roode is bordering on great) and strong on the mic. Roode has the potential to be a top singles wrestler some day.

6. ALBERTO DEL RIO – He’s a better-than-average worker, but what makes him stand out is that he has all the heel mannerisms down pat. Because of his great delivery, he gets his message across on his promos even if you don’t speak Spanish.

5. MATT MORGAN – I’ve been saying for years that he is the guy TNA should be building around. He’s an agile 7-footer who can cut a promo and has some charisma. For a man his size, Morgan is a better worker than one would expect. What is TNA waiting for? Put the world title on him already.

4. BULLY RAY – We’ve known for years that the former member of Team 3D can cut a great promo regardless of whether he’s a babyface or a heel, but he has taken his game to another level since becoming a singles heel. He’s a heat magnet who just might be the most believable character in the business today.

3. RANDY ORTON – While he’s probably better as a heel, Orton is still a compelling character as a psychotic, remorseless babyface. I don’t think there is a more intense character in the business, either in the ring or on the mic.

2. THE MIZ – It wasn’t all that long ago that I would have put him on a very different type of list, but I cannot tell a lie: When The Miz’s music hits and he makes his entrance, I mark out – especially if he has a microphone in his hand. He has truly become the guy fans love to hate, and even if he’s not your cup of tea, you have to admire his work ethic and passion for the business.

1. CM PUNK – No surprise here. Punk has a hard-hitting style in the ring and is absolutely money on the mic. His portrayal of a Charles Manson-like cult leader during the Straight Edge Society story line was brilliant, and I think he was just starting to scratch the surface when WWE pulled the plug on it.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 1:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (54)
        

• After being one of the bottom three for the past two weeks on Tough Enough, Rima was finally eliminated from the competition on Monday night’s episode. She was such an obvious choice to be sent home that “Stone Cold” Steve Austin didn’t even bother selecting a bottom three; he just eliminated her outright. It was clearly the right call. In fact, Rima should have been given the boot sooner. Not only was she not picking up the basics in the ring – she couldn’t even properly do a flat-back bump – but she also showed up 20 minutes late for a workout and was caught using padding underneath her ring gear to cushion the impact of hitting the ropes. I think the only reason she lasted as long as she did is because she’s Miss USA and was bringing attention to the show.

• After eliminating Rima, Austin told her that he thinks she has a future in the business. I agree with him, but it’s not because I saw even the slightest bit of potential in her. I believe WWE wants Rima to make it and will give her every opportunity to succeed.

• Martin (formerly known as “Donny Osmond”) has been coming on strong and appears to be Luke’s toughest competition. However, while Martin may rival Luke in conditioning and in-ring ability, when it comes to having a superstar look and charisma, Luke is far superior.

• Jeremiah is green but he has a quirky charisma and is a physical specimen, so while he probably won’t win this competition, I could see him making it in WWE after he gains more experience.

• Only two women remain – Christina and Ivelisse. Christina (who is Alicia Fox’s sister) is athletic and shows promise, but Ivelisse has not been impressive.

• Bret Hart’s appearance was pretty underwhelming. The contestants seemed to be hanging on his every word, but he really didn’t say much except for a few clichés about never giving up on their dreams.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 2:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (13)
        

William Donald Schaefer, the former Maryland governor and Baltimore mayor, was many things to many people during his 50 years in public office.

To pro wrestling fans, he simply was one of us.

Schaefer, who died last week at 89 and was buried today, was never one to put on airs, so his love of pro wrestling certainly wasn’t something that he was embarrassed about.

During the first of Schaefer’s two terms as governor in July 1989, the now-defunct Baltimore Evening Sun ran a front-page story (see the clip below) about him sitting in the front row at a WWF show at the Baltimore Arena. The headline was: “Hulk Hogan is my hero: Governor loves his wrestling.”

The article noted that “the governor stayed in his seat most of the evening, but when things got crazy in the ring, Schaefer stood up to record the action with a small instamatic camera.”

Schaefer acknowledged in the story that Hogan – who was defending the WWF title against Randy “Macho Man” Savage that night – was his favorite wrestler.

A few months earlier, Schaefer had met Hogan when he attended WrestleMania V in Atlantic City, N.J., as a guest of Donald Trump.

“Oh my God – the greatest day of my life,” said Schaefer, who sat in the front row next to Trump at that show. “Hulk Hogan is my hero. He’s great.”

Schaefer’s admiration of Hogan didn’t wane when “The Hulkster” defected to WCW – WWE’s rival – several years later. That created a memorably awkward moment when Schaefer was interviewed on the WWF’s 1994 King of the Ring pay-per-view, which was held in Baltimore.

When asked who his favorite wrestler was, Schaefer – who was known for speaking his mind rather than giving canned, politically correct responses – replied: “I’ve always been a big Hulk Hogan fan.”

Interviewer Todd Pettingill immediately cut off Schaefer and moved on. Later on the show, Jerry Lawler – who was wrestling Roddy Piper in the main event – referred to Schaefer as “Governor Budweiser.”

Thanks to Baltimore sun researcher Paul McCardell

Posted by Kevin Eck at 12:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)
        

Chris Jericho’s dancing days are over.

After posting the lowest score of the seven remaining couples on “Dancing with the Stars” Monday night, Jericho was eliminated from the competition on Tuesday night’s results show.

Jericho and partner Cheryl Burke had received a score of 22 (two sevens and an eight) from the judges for their tango performance.

Jericho had a nice run on the show – he survived the first four cuts – and it was terrific exposure for him. Now the question on the minds of wrestling fans everywhere is: Will Jericho come back to WWE, and if so, when?

Jericho indicated recently that he would return to WWE when he was done with DWTS, so hopefully he’ll be back sooner than later. When he does return, my guess is that he will be a babyface and feud with The Miz.

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

CM Punk could be considering leaving WWE when his contract expires in a few months, according to pwinsider.com.

Citing WWE sources, the report said that Punk has been offered a long-term deal, but he has not signed it because he is burned out from all the traveling and also is unhappy with his position in the company.

If the report is accurate, Punk’s refusal to sign a new deal could just be a negotiating ploy. However, I wouldn’t be all that surprised if he truly wasn’t pleased with his current spot.

Despite being a three-time world champion and a guy who is usually in the mix, he has not been consistently booked as strong as some other guys at the top level.

It’s also no secret that Punk is a bit of a free spirit. Perhaps he has decided that the corporate environment of WWE just isn’t a good fit for him.

Punk – whom I consider to be one of the best all-around performers in the business today– would undoubtedly have no shortage of options if he does leave WWE. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 9:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (21)
        

Here are the results of WWE’s supplemental draft, which took place this afternoon on wwe.com:

TO RAW:

Beth Phoenix
Tyer Reks
Kofi Kingston
Chris Masters
Curt Hawkins
Drew McIntyre
JTG
Kelly Kelly
Jack Swagger

TO SMACKDOWN:

Sheamus
Alex Riley
Tamina
Tyson Kidd
Ted DiBiase Jr.
Natalya
Yoshi Tatsu
William Regal
Alicia Fox
The Usos
The Great Khali
Daniel Bryan

Quick thoughts: Sheamus’s move to Smackdown means that the Friday night show now has the U.S. champion (Sheamus) and the Intercontinental champion (Wade Barrett). Neither title is scheduled to be defended at Sunday’s Extreme Rules pay-per-view at this point, but I would think that has to change. Perhaps Kingston will face Barrett at the show and bring the I-C title to Raw. ... One of the big winners of the draft could be Bryan. With Smackdown being the more wrestling-based of the two shows, that plays to his strengths. I could certainly see him rising up a couple notches in the pecking order. ... The heel side on Smackdown has no proven top guy, so that could be good for Sheamus and DiBiase (as well as Mark Henry, who turned heel on Raw after being drafted to Smackdown). Conversely, Raw is loaded with talented heels. In addition to The Miz, Alberto Del Rio and CM Punk at the top, there’s Dolph Ziggler, R-Truth and now McIntyre and Swagger. I thought a change of scenery would be good for McIntyre, but on the surface, he appears to be worse off now. Swagger seemingly would have been better off staying on Smackdown, as well. ... Going from Smackdown to Raw seems to be a lateral move for Kingston. ... One of the biggest surprises to me is that no members of the potentially soon-to-be-defunct Corre were drafted to Raw, but in retrospect, it would have only added to Raw’s glut of heels. ... Riley’s move to Smackdown means that he is officially no longer part of The Miz’s act, which is a shame. It also hit me that Ricardo Rodriguez was not drafted to Raw along with Del Rio. I think it would be a big mistake to split up those two.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 6:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (27)
        

WWE put a new twist on its annual draft on Monday night’s Raw. For the first time, someone was drafted twice within the same episode.

And it just happened to be the company’s biggest star – John Cena.

In the first and most shocking draft move of the broadcast, Cena was sent from Raw to Smackdown. He happily put on his blue Smackdown t-shirt and fought for his new brand in a six-man tag match at the end of the show.

However, after Raw won the six-man – thus earning the final draft pick of the night – Cena was drafted back to Raw. I think his stint with Smackdown lasted about as long as his “firing” last year.

Since the same person being drafted twice in one night was unprecedented, the second’s second move was a surprise, but Cena ultimately going back to the red brand was predictable.

Earlier in the show, Randy Orton also had been drafted to Smackdown, and I knew there was absolutely no way that the company’s top two babyfaces were going to be on Smackdown. The only question was how WWE was going to get Cena back on Raw (I figured there would be a trade).

In a draft in which the selections are supposedly made at random, the Cena double-move truly exposed how phony the whole thing is. Sure, we all know it’s a work, but why make it so obvious to the point you can’t even begin to suspend disbelief?

Other thoughts on Monday’s show:

As for the rest of the draft, Raw picked up Alberto Del Rio, Rey Mysterio and The Big Show, while Smackdown got Mark Henry and Sin Cara in addition to Orton. (I’ll post the results of today’s supplemental draft later). ...

I never understood why the talent on a specific brand gets so excited when they pick up a draft pick and so upset when they lose one. I would think the reaction would be the opposite. If I’m a wrestler on Raw and Orton gets sent to Smackdown, I’m doing cartwheels because I no longer have to compete with him. Conversely, if I’m on Smackdown, I’m upset that I now have to contend with Orton. ...

With Del Rio being drafted to Raw and Christian staying on Smackdown, does that give away the result of their match for the vacant world heavyweight title at Sunday’s Extreme Rules pay-per-view? Not necessarily. If Del Rio wins the title – which means Raw would have both the WWE and world heavyweight champions – I’m sure there would be some type of plot twist (such as a trade) to ensure that each brand has a champion. ...

The “match” between Michael Cole and Jim Ross was the highlight of the show. Cole’s stalling at the beginning of the contest was pretty darn funny, but then things got serious, as Ross bloodied Cole’s lip and apparently injured his hand in the process. By the way, does Cole have a pillow underneath his singlet or is that really his gut? ...

Ross was limping slightly moments after being trapped for quite a while in Jack Swagger’s ankle lock. I thought he should have sold it a little more. ...

R-Truth cut a decent heel promo, although he did seem to be somewhat distracted by the stupid “What?” chants. He twice said that he was getting “pissed off,” which WWE tried to bleep out. ...

The crowd was hot for John Morrison attacking R-Truth at the end of his promo. ...

Henry turned on his fellow Smackdown partners (Cena and Christian) to cost his team the six-man tag match against The Miz, CM Punk and Del Rio, so it appears that he may be getting a push as a heel on his new show. ...

It was a big night for Kofi Kingston. Not only were he and The Big Show the sole survivors of an inter-brand battle royal, but he also scored a clean victory over Sheamus. Two wins in one night! I think that’s more victories than Kingston has had this calendar year. ...

Kingston and Evan Bourne put together some cool sequences during the latter stages of the battle royal. ...

The Eve Torres-Layla match was a cluster. They botched the first move, and then Cole interrupting them just before Torres rolled up Layla for the finish was distracting. The post-match angle was well done, however, as Layla finally snapped and viciously attacked Michelle McCool. I thought Layla’s emotional reaction (she was sobbing as she delivered the beatdown to her former best friend) was very realistic. ...

I wish Orton and Dolph Ziggler would have had more time for their match than three minutes or so. Orton won with the RKO, avenging his fluke loss to Ziggler in the gauntlet match a couple weeks ago. So much for the “new and improved” Ziggler. ...

Mysterio defeated Wade Barrett way too easily. ...

Cody Rhodes cut his best promo to date. ...

Awesome Kong’s face was revealed in her latest vignette. As expected, she will be known as Kharma. There’s an obvious catch phrase there, but I doubt it will be allowed in the PG era.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 5:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (39)
        

Looking at the Raw and Smackdown rosters heading into tonight’s WWE draft on Raw, it’s obvious that there is a major void on the Smackdown side.

The sudden retirement of Edge has left the Friday night show without a top babyface.

The Undertaker – because of injuries and age – has become a special attraction at this point, and while guys such as Rey Mysterio, The Big Show, Kane and Christian are in the top mix, I don’t see any of them as No. 1 babyface material over the long haul.

That means a big name from Raw is almost certain to get drafted to Smackdown, and I think it has to be either John Cena or Randy Orton.

Having two superstars of their magnitude on the same show is a luxury that WWE simply cannot afford at this point. Plus, Cena and Orton have wrestled each other countless times, so splitting them up wouldn’t be a bad idea even if Smackdown didn’t need one them to become the top babyface.

My guess is that WWE keeps Cena on the “A” show and Orton goes to Smackdown.

Another option could be to elevate John Morrison and send him to Smackdown, but I’m not sure WWE has that much confidence in him to be the top guy. I suppose Triple H could be moved over to Smackdown, but the question is whether or not he wants to resume working a fulltime schedule.

As far as who else may be switching shows, I think a change of scenery could definitely benefit guys such as Drew McIntyre, Kofi Kingston and Daniel Bryan, and I can’t imagine The Corre remaining intact after tonight’s draft.

I also wouldn’t be surprised if WWE champion The Miz and world heavyweight title contender Alberto Del Rio swapped places.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 3:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (16)
        

All those Edgeheads out there who were about to start experiencing Edge withdrawal got a pleasant surprise at the end of Smackdown Friday night.

Edge – who announced his retirement last week due to injury and had said that he was “going off the radar for a while” – came out to interrupt the mock retirement party that was thrown for him by Alberto Del Rio.

I knew that Edge had accompanied the WWE crew on the European tour, but I figured he would only appear before the live crowds in a non-televised role. I was expecting Christian to be the one to confront Del Rio.

As it turned out, Christian made the save when Del Rio ordered Brodus Clay to attack Edge after “The Rated-R Superstar” had cut a promo on Del Rio. Before Clay could get to the “defenseless” Edge, Christian hit him from behind with a ladder. Christian proceeded to take out Del Rio as well.

Then he put the ladder in the ring, climbed up it and grabbed the world heavyweight title belt, which had been suspended from the ceiling, just as it will when Christian and Del Rio wrestle each other for the vacant championship on the Extreme Rules pay-per-view May 1.

The scene of Christian clutching the gold belt on the ladder while Edge looked on approvingly from the stage and Del Rio grimaced in pain outside the ring made for a nice visual to end the show.

Other thoughts on Friday’s show:

The retirement party bit with Del Rio was pretty funny, mainly due to Del Rio’s delivery and mannerisms. The appearance of a super-sized “Lita” was the highlight of the segment. ...

The Rey Mysterio-Cody Rhodes match was good. Mysterio avenged his loss to Rhodes at WrestleMania, but Rhodes got his heat back by getting the better of a brawl on the floor after the match. It was announced that the two will face each other in a Falls Count Anywhere Match at Extreme Rules. ...

Rhodes cut a decent promo. I’m not sure the bit with the paper bags really worked, but I’m betting that we start seeing fans in the audience wearing them. ...

LayCool appears to have finally broken up, as Michelle McCool attacked Layla during their couples therapy session. I’m looking forward to seeing these two wrestle each other. I just hope Layla doesn’t get buried. ...

Speaking of breakups, I’m more than ready to see the members of The Corre go their separate ways. ...

I was happy to see The Big Show and Kane win the tag team title from The Corre’s Justin Gabriel and Heath Slater. The belts are instantly more prestigious now that they are off two guys who are pretty much booked to be glorified enhancement talents. ...

The match in which Wade Barrett successfully defended his Intercontinental title against Kofi Kingston was OK, but the finish was sloppy. Kingston has to win a match again at some point, right? ...

I like it when WWE books Jack Swagger to look like the beast that he is, which it did by having him quickly squash Trent Barreta. ...

It was nice to see Drew McIntyre back in the win column. If he had lost to Chris Masters, I would have rioted. Well, not really, but I would have been mighty upset. ...

I wonder if Michael Cole is wearing Booker T.’s old cape from the King Booker days.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 6:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (18)
        

OK, so Jeff and Karen Jarrett are dressed all in white for an in-ring ceremony. Meanwhile, Kurt Angle has discovered that there are a couple of horses outside the Impact Zone who have been eating beans.

Hmmm, I wonder what’s going to happen?

That was the scenario on Thursday night’s episode of TNA Impact, and while you could see the payoff coming from a mile away, I thought it was pretty funny nonetheless.

As a way to reward his wife for her interference helping him defeat Angle at this past Sunday’s Lockdown pay-per-view, Jeff – who’s known as “The King of the Mountain” – planned a coronation to name Karen “Queen of the Mountain.”

Moments after the crown was placed upon Karen’s head, a load of what was supposed to be horse feces (Karen and Jeff had arrived at the Impact Zone in a horse and carriage) dropped from the ceiling all over Karen.

Karen, who was covered with the slop, played it up great, but it was Jeff who made me laugh out loud. He didn’t want to get near Karen and mess up his fancy suit, so he just threw his handkerchief at her. He ended up getting an Angle Slam onto Karen’s “throne.”

I’m not sure an over-the-top comedy segment was the best way to follow-up such an intense match between Angle and Jeff, but I popped for it anyway.

It appears that the next chapter in the Angle-Jarretts feud is going to involve mixed tag matches, as Angle told Karen that he would never lay a hand on her, but he knows a “mistress” who will.

I wonder if it could be the giant Aloisia (aka Isis The Amazon). She had a tryout match with TNA a couple months ago.

Other thoughts on Thursday’s show:

The verbal/physical confrontation between A.J. Styles and Bully Ray inside a cage got the show off to a hot start. It was so nice to see something other than an Eric Bischoff promo in the opening segment. I was surprised that Styles got so many licks in on Ray, as I figured Styles wouldn’t get his hands on him until they meet in a pay-per-view match. At least TNA didn’t give away Styles leaping off the top of the cage onto Ray. That was a nice tease. …

The main event match in which TNA world champion Sting successfully defended the title against Matt Hardy was decent. After Sting got the clean win, Mr. Anderson took out both guys to again illustrate that he has no allies and still wants the championship. …

Hulk Hogan was involved in a couple of strong verbal exchanges, one with Rob Van Dam and the other with Mr. Anderson. RVD got in a couple good lines. He told Hogan that “everyone wishes you’d just get the hell out of the business” and that “a wrestler can’t make a living nowadays with just a legdrop anymore, Hulky.” …

It was announced that Sting will defend his title against RVD at next month’s Sacrifice pay-per-view. Sting said that he had a clause in his contract that allowed him to choose his opponent and he picked RVD. Um, OK. …

I give Abyss a lot of credit for continuing his match against RVD after taking a stiff kick in the mouth in the early going that reportedly knocked out his two front bottom teeth. …

I liked the verbal/physical exchange between Matt Morgan and Scott Steiner. Steiner kicked Morgan low when they were shaking hands, so I assume that means Steiner is a heel now. A program between these two should be fun. Assuming that Morgan gets the better of Steiner (and he should), he would have a lot of momentum heading into a world title program. …

Did Morgan actually say that Steiner was the first standout collegiate wrestler to make it in pro wrestling? …

I’m enjoying the Madison Rayne-Tara story line. Hopefully it leads to its logical conclusion (Tara finally getting fed up with Rayne and turning on her) rather than some illogical swerve. With TNA, you never know. …

The cage match in which Beer Money defeated Rob Terry and Murphy wasn’t bad. Robert Roode and James Storm are fun to watch no matter who they are facing. …

It was announced that Ric Flair suffered a shoulder injury at Lockdown and will need rotator cuff surgery as a result of being put in a Fujiwara Armbar by Roode. The truth – as many fans know – is that Flair has needed the surgery for some time. …

So Matt Hardy is now wearing his brother’s “Divas” belt. Great, another guy walking around with a belt that means nothing. Hey, perhaps Hardy can wrestle Eric Young with the winner being named the Undisputed Worthless Belt Champion. …

Is it just me, or does Hardy’s “Cold-Blooded” moniker and persona seem a bit forced? …

Miss Tessmacher is back and she wants the Knockouts title. Oh, good lord.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 1:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (18)
        

Kevin Nash wrote a somber entry in his blog about longtime friend Scott Hall today.

“Scott Hall is in bad shape and each time I talk to him I feel it may be the last,” he wrote.

Nash said that Hall suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and is neither a drug addict nor an alcoholic.

“Drugs and alcohol aren’t the problem, to Scott they are the solution,” Nash wrote. “He is a fragile and broken human being. ... The media will want to blame wrestling when Scott passes. Scott was broken way before he broke into the ring for the first time.”

To read the entire entry, click here.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 10:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (14)
        

Jay Lethal has been released by TNA, according to a report on pwinsider.com.

Lethal’s role had diminished considerably over the past few months to the point in which it was easy to forget that he was still with the company.

It was less than a year ago that the talented former TNA X Division and tag team champion appeared to be on the verge of becoming a major star in TNA. Lethal, who has been with TNA since 2006, was in an entertaining feud with Ric Flair and also defeated A.J. Styles in the show-stealing match at the Slammiversary pay-per-view in June.

It’s puzzling as to why Lethal’s push came to a halt. I realize that not everyone can be the world champion, but surely there was something that TNA could have done with him.
Hopefully, WWE will give Lethal – who turned 26 today – a look.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 7:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (16)
        

Chris Jericho was forced to sweat a bit, but he ultimately survived the latest cut on "Dancing with the Stars."

Despite he and partner Cheryl Burke getting their best score yet from the judges on Monday night, they were the last couple to be told they were safe from elimination on Tuesday's results show.

Jericho and Burke, who were in a three-way tie for the second-highest score of the night with a 26 (two nine's and an eight) for their Viennese Waltz performance, are one of seven remaining couples.

Model Petra Nemcova was sent home.

Here's an idea to make the show more interesting: Each week, have the two celebrities who are in jeopardy cut promos on each other like the competitors on Tough Enough did Monday night.

Jericho would win the DWTS title for sure. Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Hines Ward may think he's a good trash talker, but he's just another gelatinous parasite compared to the oratory skills of Jericho.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 6:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)
        

The drug case against TNA star Jeff Hardy in Moore County, N.C., was continued yet again, but this time there was a new twist to the same old story.

Hardy’s lawyer asked a judge for time to have a drug treatment assessment done on his client, North Carolina’s thepilot.com reported.

According to the story, an administrator for the sentencing services program has become involved in Hardy’s case just recently and will need time to assess whether he needs drug dependency therapy, get another opinion from an expert and recommend a treatment plan.

A hearing has been set for June 27.

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 2:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)
        

• For the second week in a row, Ryan and Rima were in the bottom three on Tough Enough. On Monday’s episode, they were joined by Mickael. Just like last week, I thought Ryan was getting the boot, but “Stone Cold” Steve Austin had other ideas. Realizing that Mickael and Ryan don’t like each other, Austin told Rima she was safe and then had the guys cut promos on each other. Ryan won the verbal battle in a rout, and Austin cut Mickael. I’m amazed that Ryan survived again, but I can’t say I’m unhappy that Mickael is gone. I didn’t see much in him to begin with, and he came off like a jerk much of the time.

• There were actually two eliminations this week, as Michelle quit because she couldn’t handle being away from her family. I don’t think she would have been around much longer anyway.

• Luke has emerged as the clear favorite to win the competition. At this point, I don’t see anyone posing much of a threat to him, although it’s still early. He’s in the best shape of all the competitors (as he proved by easily finishing first in the running challenge), has a good look and – judging by his simulated match with Austin – seems to know what he’s doing in the ring.

• The Big Show said that when he walked into the room, his eyes immediately gravitated to Eric. I totally agree with him. At first glance, Eric looks more like a WWE star than any of his peers simply because of his height. It’s become obvious, though, that he has a ways to go as far as his conditioning.

• It was nice to see Baltimore’s own Stacy Keibler make a cameo appearance.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 11:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)
        

When R-Truth earned a spot in the main event of the Extreme Rules pay-per-view on Raw last week, I wrote that I had a feeling his sudden elevation was a means to turning him heel.

I didn’t necessarily expect it to happen on the very next episode, but R-Truth did indeed embrace his bad side on Raw Monday night.

The angle that turned him got off to an inauspicious start, but it ended on a high note.

He opened the show with a promo in which he was being so over-the-top giddy about getting the WWE title shot at Extreme Rules that it was obvious that a heel turn was imminent.

John Morrison then came out and challenged R-Truth to put his spot in the title bout on the line against him. He basically tricked R-Truth into agreeing to it.

The verbal exchange between Morrison and R-Truth was clunky to say the least, and the segment was dying a slow death in front of the live crowd in London. I was begging for John Cena, or The Miz or anybody to come out and save it.

Things picked up considerably, however, after Morrison defeated R-Truth to take his spot in the pay-per-view match (so now it will be Miz versus Cena versus Morrison).

Morrison celebrated at first, but then tempered his enthusiasm after realizing that his good fortune came at the expense of his friend. R-Truth stewed about it for a few moments and then snapped.

He delivered a stern beatdown to Morrison that included two running knees to the head. Appearing to be conflicted over his actions, R-Truth helped Morrison up but then threw him back down and continued the assault.

At one point, R-Truth lit up a cigarette and blew smoke over the fallen Morrison’s body. That was a nice touch. Earlier in the segment, Morrison had kidded him about being an athlete who smokes.

I’m looking forward to see where things go from here with R-Truth, who has shown in the past in other promotions that he can be an effective heel.

Other thoughts on Monday’s show:

It was announced that the draft will take place on next week’s show. ...

The Randy Orton-CM Punk main event was good and the crowd was really hot for it. There were some great near falls, including one sequence in which Orton went for the draping DDT, Punk countered with a GTS attempt, Orton went for an RKO attempt and Punk landed a roundhouse kick. I did think the finish was a bit anti-climactic, though, as Orton ducked one of Punk’s kicks and simply rolled him up for the pin. ...

I’m not sure what to make of the Orton-Punk post-match angle. After The Nexus attacked Orton, Mason Ryan wanted to punt Orton in the head, but Punk stopped him. Then when Punk went to deliver the kick, Orton sprang up and hit the RKO on him. ...

The bit with a Queen Elizabeth lookalike knighting Michael Cole and then Jim Ross being forced to kiss Cole’s foot probably sounded good on paper, but I thought it fell a little flat. ...

I was surprised to see Cole and Jack Swagger back on good terms already. I figured WWE would stretch that story line out for a couple more weeks. ...

Sin Cara got a nice rub by being in a tag team match with the likes of Cena and The Miz. Cara looked a little tentative at times but still had a decent showing overall, as he and Cena defeated Miz and Alex Riley. I liked that Cara scored the winning pin instead of Cena. ...

I’m not sure changing Dolph Ziggler’s look is a great idea. With his new generic haircut, he looks like he should be back in the Spirit Squad. Perhaps I’m just partial to bleached-blond hair. ...

It appears that Ziggler’s new ’do is part of a reboot for him, as he was introduced by Vickie Guerrero as “new and improved.” Ziggler Version 2.0 got off to a good start, as he defeated Evan Bourne in about two minutes. ...

Nearly all of Awesome Kong’s face was visible in this week’s vignette. The speculation is that she will go by the name Kharma. ...

Brie Bella told Eve that she may never get her rematch for the WWE Divas title if she gets drafted to Smackdown. Huh? I thought the Divas champ defended the title on both shows.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 9:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (26)
        

It was obvious from watching TNA’s Lockdown pay-per-view Sunday night that Kurt Angle – despite his history of serious neck and spinal injuries – still has a burning desire to steal the show.

Angle accomplished his goal, as he and Jeff Jarrett had the best match of the night by far. But more importantly – and somewhat miraculously – Angle made it through the match without suffering a catastrophic injury.

There was one incredibly scary spot during the match in which I thought Angle may have been paralyzed – or worse.

With Jarrett positioned on the top rope, Angle climbed up and seemed to be setting up for a Huracanrana. I’m not sure if what they were trying to pull off actually was a Huracanrana or if it was supposed to be Jarrett executing a Power Bomb. Regardless, Angle came crashing down on the mat right on his head.

When he didn’t move for a few seconds, I thought for sure we were witnessing a tragedy unfolding on live TV. It reminded me of Brock Lesnar’s botched Shooting Star Press in his match against Angle at WrestleMania XIX in 2003.

As Jarrett began to climb the cage again, the motionless Angle suddenly sprang up off the mat, jumped onto the ropes and hit an Angle Slam. Minutes later, Angle did a Moonsault off the top of the cage. He’s either a freak of nature or the luckiest man alive – or both.

The rest of the all-cage match show wasn’t bad, but except for the Lethal Lockdown match between Fortune and Immortal, nothing really stood out.

There were no turns or swerves (unless you consider the fact that there were no swerves a swerve), but I certainly don’t view that as a negative.

My biggest fear was that A.J. Styles was going to return and turn on Fortune. He did indeed show up and get involved in the Lethal Lockdown match, but logic prevailed and he sided with Fortune.

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

Fortune (Beer Money, Kazarian and Daniels) defeated Immortal (Ric Flair, Abyss, Bully Ray and Matt Hardy) in a Lethal Lockdown match (22:50): Kazarian and Abyss started the match and went at it for three minutes. From there, competitors entered the match every two minutes, with Immortal having the numbers advantage. The order of entry was: Hardy, Daniels, Flair, Storm, Ray and Roode. Once all eight participants were in the match, the roof filled with weapons was lowered and the match officially began. Want to guess who was covered in blood within minutes after entering the match? Yep, it was Flair, who did another obvious blade job (you would think he’d be better at it considering how often he gigs himself) after Storm smashed him in the head with a beer bottle. The sight of a bloody Flair with his paints ripped and his butt half-exposed was definitely not one of the highlights of the night.

At one point, Hardy and Daniels left the cage and fought on the roof. Hardy back-dropped Daniels, nearly sending Daniels over the edge. Hardy then hit the Twist of Hate and climbed down. After Daniels recovered, he hit a flying bodypress off the top of the cage onto Hardy and Abyss, who were both on the floor. That was impressive. Back in the cage, Ray and Flair had gotten kendo sticks and were nailing all of the Fortune members with them. As Ray taunted Daniels (who had been busted open hard-way by the kendo stick) by saying, “This is for your good friend, A.J.,” Styles’ music hit and he made his way into the cage. He went right after Ray, the man who had “injured” him. Meanwhile, Roode applied a Fujiwara Armbar to Flair, who tapped out to end the match.

TNA world champion Sting defeated Mr. Anderson and Rob Van Dam in a three-way match (7:52): This was far too short for a world title match on pay-per-view, but it was like an Iron Man Match compared to the 88-second Jeff Hardy debacle at Victory Road last month. This match was good while it lasted. At one point, Sting applied the Scorpion Leglock to Anderson and RVD simultaneously, and later, Anderson hit the Mic Check on Sting and RVD at the same time. With all three men down at about the 6-minute mark, Hulk Hogan came down to the ring carrying a pipe (the kind you hit people over the head with, not the kind RVD smokes). He handed the pipe to RVD and encouraged him to use it. RVD teased that he would before finally throwing it against the cage in Hogan’s direction. Anderson retrieved the pipe and hit RVD with it. To make it clear that he was not joining Immortal, Anderson yelled, “I’m doing it for me, not for you!” at Hogan. As Anderson was about to cover RVD, Sting grabbed him from behind and hit the Scorpion Death Drop to retain the title. After Hogan made his way back up the ramp, he glared back at Sting, who motioned for Hogan to get in the ring. Hogan said he would do it on his time and walked away. I sure hope this doesn’t mean TNA is building to a Sting-Hogan match for the title.

Jeff Jarrett defeated Kurt Angle in an Ultra Male Rules two-out-of-three falls match (22:40): In this match, the first fall was to be decided by submission; the second by pinfall; and the third by escaping the cage. The referee refused to allow Karen Jarrett to stand outside the ring, but, as I expected, it wouldn’t be the last we saw of her. Angle won the first fall at approximately the 5-minute mark when he turned Jarrett’s Cross Armbreaker into the Ankle Lock. Jarrett evened things up at a fall apiece when Angle went for an Angle Slam, but Jarrett turned it into a Sunset Flip and held Angle’s tights for a three count. Then things got wild during the third fall. After delivering a series of German suplexes, Angle started to leave through the cage door but then stopped while standing on the ring steps. He decided to go back in and deliver more punishment. That told me right there that Jarrett was probably going to end up winning the match.

After the insane Huracanrana/Power Bomb spot, Angle tried to escape the cage, but Gunner ran down to ringside with a chair and would not allow Angle to drop down. Scott Steiner then came out to run off Gunner, and Angle went for a Moonsault off the top. I’m not sure if he was supposed to land on Jarrett or not, but it appeared that he barely grazed him. At about the 20-minute mark, Angle tried to leave through the door again, but Karen came down and sprayed something in his eyes. The blinded Angle then inadvertently clotheslined the referee. Jarrett – who was bleeding from the forehead – tried to crawl out the door, but Angle hooked on the Ankle Lock. Karen then found a guitar under the ring and handed it to Jarrett, who bashed Angle over the head with it. From there, there was a tug of war with Jarrett, who was halfway through the door, as Angle had his legs and Karen had his arms. Finally, Karen slammed the cage door on Angle’s head, and Jarrett fell to the floor for the victory.

Matt Morgan defeated Hernandez (8:10): After gaining the advantage thanks to Anarquia grabbing Morgan’s leg through the hole in the cage that’s there for the camera, Hernandez began strutting around the ring. His hesitation allowed Morgan to recover, and Morgan landed a big clothesline. After some more back-and-forth action, Hernandez came off the top rope, but Morgan caught him in mid-air with a perfectly timed Carbon Footprint for the win. While celebrating, Morgan motioned to his waist to signify that he was going after the world title. After the match, Sarita and Rosita – who had been at ringside with Anarquia during the match – got in the ring and cut an anti-American promo. Velvet Sky then came down and cleaned house.

Samoa Joe defeated “The Pope” D’Angelo Dinero (10:21): This was a good back-and-forth match. The story was that Dinero was afraid of Joe and kept trying to escape. Joe got the win after hitting the Muscle Buster and then forcing Dinero to tap out to a rear naked choke. This was a decisive victory for Joe and appeared to be the blow-off to the feud. It will be interesting to see where Dinero goes from here.

Mickie James defeated TNA Knockouts champion Madison Rayne to win the title (0:36): The stipulation was that James would get her head shaved if she lost. We all knew that wasn’t happening, so the outcome was never in doubt. After the bell rang, James threw Rayne into the cage a few times and then hit a swinging DDT for the win. James was working the match with a legitimately injured shoulder, which explains the quick finish. With the victory, James became the first woman to hold the WWE women’s title, WWE Divas title and TNA Knockouts championship.

Ink Inc. defeated The British Invasion, Scott Steiner and Crimson, and Eric Young and Orlando Jordan in a four-way tag team match (8:52): Steiner was way more over with the crowd that anyone else in the match. There were some “comedy” spots with Young that weren’t funny and added nothing to the match. Near the end, Young climbed out of the cage and thought he won, but the match could only end by pinfall or submission. Moore hit the Mooregasm on Douglas Williams of the British Invasion for the win.

Max Buck defeated Brian Kendrick, Amazing Red, Jeremy Buck, Jay Lethal, Robbie E., Chris Sabin and Suicide in an Ultimate X-scape Match (13:36): This match was to determine the No. 1 contender for Kazarian’s X Division title. There was nothing wrong with the action and there were some cool spots, but it wasn’t quite the spectacular spot-fest that I had anticipated. The setup was that competitors were eliminated by pinfall or submission until the final two remained, and then the winner was determined by who was the first to escape the cage. It came down to Max Buck and Kendrick. Kendrick was climbing the ropes when Buck pushed the referee into the cage and the impact caused Kendrick to lose his balance and fall. Buck then climbed out for the win. Here is the order of elimination: Robbie E. pinned Suicide; Red pinned Lethal; Sabian pinned Red; Max Buck pinned Sabian; Max Buck pinned Jeremy Buck; Kendrick pinned Robbie E; Max Buck escaped the cage.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 5:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (12)
        

Matt Hardy posted a video blog in which he says that his brother, Jeff, is considering retiring from wrestling.

He said: “There’s another man that I have to bring up right now, that is hurting severely, who’s actually thinking about actually having back surgery, who’s actually thinking about ending his career in wrestling, especially on the heels of Edge doing it as well, and that’s my brother, Jeff Hardy.”

Matt Hardy loves to work the Internet Wrestling Community, so while Jeff may very well be thinking about having career-ending back surgery, I take everything Matt says with a grain of salt.

In the video, which was shot late Saturday night, Matt also talks about the Lethal Lockdown match that he will be in on TNA’s Lockdown pay-per-view tonight.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 6:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (20)
        

Just in case anyone hasn't seen it yet, here is the wwe.com video of what happened in the ring with Edge after Tuesday's Smackdown taping concluded.

To watch it, click here.

Photo courtesy of WWE

Posted by Kevin Eck at 1:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)
        

Axl Rotten and I discuss Edge's retirement and WWE eliminating the word "wrestling" from the name of the company. Rotten also comments on the disturbing Scott Hall video from the perspective of someone who has had his own well-documented battles with substance abuse. In addition, an uninvited guest returns to the show after a long absence.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 12:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)
Categories: Ring Posts Xtra episodes
        

Edge made his retirement speech and walked off into the sunset on Smackdown Friday night, and as a result, his longtime best friend Christian now has a long-awaited and well-deserved opportunity to shine.

Edge, who had announced on Raw Monday that he was retiring because of spinal injuries, relinquished the world heavyweight title on Smackdown. General manager Teddy Long ruled that the winner of a 20-man battle royal later in the show would face No. 1 contender Alberto Del Rio in a ladder match for the vacant championship at the Extreme Rules pay-per-view on May 1.

Christian winning the battle royal was predictable, but I like that he had to earn the spot at Extreme Rules rather than simply being handed it (which is what I originally thought was going to happen).

I’m really looking forward to the Del Rio-Christian match. The next world champion is either going to be a fresh face or a vastly underrated veteran, and I don’t think you could go wrong with either scenario.

Other thoughts on Friday’s show:

Edge delivered a terrific farewell speech that was emotional but never sappy. In a touching moment, Edge paid tribute to his mother, who was in attendance and shown on camera, and the crowd began a “Thank you, mom” chant, which brought a huge smile to Edge’s face. It also was cool when Edge, a few minutes into his speech, went back up the ramp and came out to his theme song one last time before resuming his farewell address. ...

The video retrospective of Edge’s career was well done. ...

Del Rio delivered a strong performance on this show, beginning with his promo in the opening segment. Del Rio spoke well of Edge, but when he was informed by Long that he wasn’t going to be presented with the world title, Del Rio immediately changed his tune and said he was glad that Edge is being forced to retire. Del Rio’s facial expressions during the battle royal – he was seated at the announce table – also were very good. It was a nice touch as well when Del Rio winked at Edge after Edge refused to shake his hand backstage. ...

Michael Cole sacrificing himself by covering up Jack Swagger and taking the brunt of Rey Mysterio’s 619 in latter stages of the battle royal was a nice spot. ...

The battle royal – which came down to Christian and Swagger – was entertaining, although, like I said previously, it was pretty much a foregone conclusion that Christian was winning. ...

Mysterio and Drew McIntyre had a really good match. The aggressive McIntyre has become the guy who puts up a great fight, and sometimes even has the advantage for most of the match, but ultimately loses. I hope McIntyre starts winning some of these soon. ...

The couples therapy session with LayCool was mildly amusing, as was the banter between Cole, Michelle McCool and Booker T. during the match in which Kelly Kelly defeated Layla. I could watch Kelly Kelly and Layla wrestle each other every week. Actually, I could watch Kelly Kelly and Layla do anything every week. ...

Cody Rhodes cut a decent promo in which he vowed to disfigure Mysterio. ...

Kofi Kingston lost again – this time to Ezekiel Jackson. Big Zeke needs some victories over credible opponents if he is going to get a singles push, but it does get tiresome seeing Kingston lose week after week. ...

Speaking of losing, I’m rapidly losing interest in The Corre.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 9:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (16)
        

It was clear from watching Thursday night’s TNA Impact that the company considers Sunday’s Lockdown pay-per-view a much higher priority than last month’s Victory Road show.

The build-up for the latter was basically non-existent (which, in retrospect, may have been a good thing considering the Jeff Hardy debacle that took place at the show), but TNA did a nice job of promoting Lockdown on the go-home show.

While it’s true that TNA relies too heavily on the “will he or won’t he turn heel?” angle heading into its pay-per-views, I am intrigued by the triple threat main event on the all-cage match show between TNA world champion Sting, Mr. Anderson and Rob Van Dam.

Thursday’s show ended with RVD seemingly contemplating an offer from Hulk Hogan to join Immortal. With Jeff Hardy out of the picture for the time being, I don’t think it would be a bad idea to turn RVD and have him replace Hardy as Immortal’s main-event guy.

Other thoughts on Thursday’s show:

Anderson was booked to look strong in the gauntlet match main event. He wasted no time in pinning Murphy, Rob Terry and Gunner in succession. Bully Ray was the fourth and final member of Immortal to enter the match, but he was more interested in injuring Anderson than defeating him, so he slugged the referee and then set up Anderson to be power-bombed off the stage and through a table by Hogan. Sting, however, made the save before Hogan could pull it off. …

I liked the post-match angle with Sting attacking Ray and Abyss with his baseball bat and running off Hogan, and then standing menacingly over the fallen Anderson to convey that it was more about getting at Hogan than it was about saving Anderson. …

I also like how TNA has been ending its shows with backstage promos from the main players in the angles (basically what TNA was doing with its now-defunct Reaction program). ...

I’m enjoying the Anderson tweener character, but he still needs to tone it down sometimes. Screaming, “the title, the title, the title,” in his promo made him sound more like a petulant child than a bad-ass loner. …

The verbal exchange between Sting, Hogan and Eric Bischoff was well done. I laughed when Sting backed Hogan into the corner and Hogan – who was wearing a back brace – said, “Don’t hit an invalid.” ...

I guess Anderson getting in the ring while the members of Immortal were in there in the opening segment was supposed to make him look brave, but I thought it made him look stupid. Sure enough, the group attacked him, and since Anderson has no friends, no one came out to make the save. ...

By the way, are we ever going to have an opening segment on Impact that doesn’t have Bischoff and Hogan talking? ...

I really liked the segment with Madison Rayne, Tara and Mickie James. Rayne was great on the mic; Tara came off as a sympathetic figure, as her babyface turns appears imminent (my guess is that she costs Rayne the TNA Knockouts title in Rayne’s match against James at Lockdown); and James showed a lot of fire in the verbal exchange. By the way, for those who don’t know, James – who had her arm in a sling – legitimately suffered a separated shoulder in a recent match. The motorcycle hit and run is the story line explanation for the injury. ...

Jeff Jarrett taking off in his car to get away from Kurt Angle and leaving Karen behind to face Angle was pretty funny. ...

The Matt Hardy-Kazarian match was good. It was part of a best-two-out-of-three series pitting Immortal members against Fortune members with the winner getting the man-advantage in the Lethal Lockdown match. Hardy beat Kazarian, and Abyss defeated James Storm in another good match, so Immortal won, 2-0. I liked that the series was decided after two matches rather than having it be 1-1 and needing a third match, which would have been predictable. ...

The six-man tag in which Jarrett, “The Pope” D’Angelo Dinero and Hernandez defeated Angle, Matt Morgan and Samoa Joe was entertaining. ...

Abyss attacked Crimson and laid him out. I’m glad TNA didn’t forget that Crimson basically tried to murder Abyss a while back. ...

I’ll probably take a lot of heat for this, but I’m actually starting to enjoy the Winter-Angelina Love-Velvet Sky story line. “Zombie Angelina” is campy fun. Although I suppose one man’s campy fun is another man’s WrestleCrap. ...

Just wondering: Is Sky capable of cutting a promo without using the word “b**ch” a minimum of two times? ...

Douglas Williams jobbing to Orlando Jordan in the fourway match (or any match) is a travesty.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 7:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (14)
        

Former WWE star Shelton Benjamin takes on Sabian in the main event of Saturday night’s Adrenaline Championship Wrestling show at the Annapolis (Md.) Boys and Girls Club.

Also on the card: ACW champion Ryan McBride defends his title in an open challenge; Christian York faces Chris Wylde; and ACW women’s champion Kacee Carlisle defends against Mia Yim.

Bell time is 7:30.

For more information, click here.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 1:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
        

For those of us old enough to remember the early days of the Hulkamania era of the WWF in the 1980s, a number of things immediately come to mind when reflecting on them: The Rock and Wrestling Connection, Saturday Night’s Main Event and Piper’s Pit just to name a few.

It also was the time when one of the most unique shows in televised wrestling history debuted: Tuesday Night Titans.

TNT, which aired weekly on the USA Network in the years before Mondays became “wrestling night” on TV, was pro wrestling’s version of “The Tonight Show.” Vince McMahon played the Johnny Carson role, and Lord Alfred Hayes was cast as the Ed McMahon-like second banana.

Thanks to WWE Classics on Demand, TNT lives on. I watched an episode from June 1984 Wednesday night.

Here are a few observations:

“Superfly” Jimmy Snuka was one of the guests. Let’s just say that a talk show format did not play to the strengths of the star from the Fiji islands. Snuka was known for two things: his Superfly leap off the top rope and his nonsensical promos that were delivered in a voice barely above a whisper.

McMahon remarked that the Superfly splash appears as though it hurts Snuka as much as his opponent.

Snuka repied: “Well, only one thing that I’d just like to just say to you, sir, and to the wonderful people there, here in the United States, which I love so much. And I know that you’re all willing to know individually and one of us, because individual’s feelings is different. And if you’ve got that feeling, then the answers, ladies and gentleman, only you know.

Well, OK, then.

Perhaps even more bizarre that Snuka’s gibberish was the fact that the legendary Lou Thesz was a guest on the program.

Yes, there was the no-nonsense, six-time former NWA world champion sitting between McMahon – the man who had turned wrestlers into cartoon characters (literally) – and Hayes (who was clad in a garish powder-blue tuxedo).

McMahon was very respectful of the classy Thesz, and a brief black and white clip was shown of Thesz wrestling in Japan in the 1950s.

Ivan Putski also was on the show. To celebrate Putski’s Polish heritage, there was a Polka band, Polka dancers and a sampling of Polish cuisine (courtesy of Polock Johnny’s, a storied Baltimore establishment).

Putski sang “My Melody of Love” and did the Polka – as did an animated McMahon.

In addition to these and other guests, there was a vignette with “Mr. Wonderful” going to a beauty shop to get his hair styled and a manicure. He also was getting his shoes shined, despite the fact that he was wearing sneakers.

Orndorff wasn’t happy with the service and began berating the women who were attending to him. It was laugh-out-loud funny.

One other thing I noticed about this show: McMahon used the words “professional wrestling” on numerous occasions. My, how times have changed.

***

I haven’t been watching the current season of WWE NXT, but I’ve been reading the recaps. On this week’s episode, Maryse dumped Ted DiBiase Jr. and later planted a kiss on Yoshi Tatsu.

I wonder if the French-speaking Maryse used her native tongue with Tatsu.

***

Being kicked to the curb by Maryse is just the latest in a seemingly endless string of humiliations for DiBiase.

Last week on WWE Superstars, Santino Marella used The Cobra to score a clean win over DiBiase.

Seriously, who did this kid tick off?

***

I watched the documentary portion of “The True Story of WrestleMania” DVD and thought it was insightful and well done. There also is some great behind-the-scenes footage.

A lot of the more famous WrestleMania matches are included on the three-disc set, but there are no matches from the past four WrestleManias (2007-2010), which means neither of the two classic Shawn Michaels-Undertaker matches are on there (Michaels-Undertaker from WrestleMania XXV is exclusive to the Blu-ray release).

Posted by Kevin Eck at 9:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (12)
        

We’re down to the elite eight on “Dancing with the Stars,” and Chris Jericho is among them.

It was revealed on Tuesday night’s results show that Jericho and partner Cheryl Burke are safe for at least another week.

Former boxing great – and one-time Maryland resident – Sugar Ray Leonard was KO’d from the competition.

On Monday night’s episode, Jericho and Burke received a score of 23 (two eights and a seven) from the judges for their paso doble performance. That put them in a four-way tie for fourth place (out of nine couples) for the night.

It was kind of funny to hear Burke encouraging Jericho during their rehearsal sessions to show more arrogance. Since when has that ever been a problem for the man who proclaims himself to be the best in the world at what he does?

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

Edge retired Monday night on Raw as the most decorated wrestler in WWE history, having won 30 championships during his 13 years with the company.

Here’s a look at his title resume:

WWE TITLE (four reigns)

• 1/8/06 (def. John Cena) to 1/29/06 (lost to Cena)

• 7/3/06 (def. Rob Van Dam and Cena) to 9/17/06 (lost to Cena)

• 11/23/08 (def. Triple H and Vladimir Kozlov) to 12/14/08 (lost to Jeff Hardy)

• 1/25/09 (def. Jeff Hardy) to 2/15/09 (lost to Triple H in Elimination Chamber Match)

WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE (seven)

• 5/8/07 (def. The Undertaker) to 7/17/07 (vacated title due to injury)

• 12/16/07 (def. Batista and The Undertaker) to 3/30/08 (lost to The Undertaker)

• 6/1/08 (def. The Undertaker to win vacant title) to 6/30/08 (lost to CM Punk)

• 2/15/09 (def. John Cena in Elimination Chamber Match) to 4/5/09 (lost to Cena in triple threat with The Big Show)

• 4/26/09 (def. Cena) to 6/7/09 (lost to Jeff Hardy)

• 12/19/10 (def. Kane, Rey Mysterio and Alberto Del Rio) to 2/18/11 (title awarded to Dolph Ziggler)

• 2/18/11 (def. Ziggler) to 4/12/11 (vacated title due to retirement)

INTERCONTINENTAL TITLE (five)

• 7/24/99 (def. Jeff Jarrett) to 7/25/99 (lost to Jarrett)

• 8/19/01 (def. Lance Storm) to 9/23/01 (lost to Christian)

• 10/21/01 (def. Christian) to 11/5/01 (lost to Test)

• 11/18/01 (def. Test) to 1/20/02 (lost to William Regal)

• 7/11/04 (def. Randy Orton) to 9/6/04 (stripped of title due to injury)

U.S. TITLE (one)

• 11/12/01 (def. Kurt Angle) to 11/18/01 (title merged with Intercontinental title)

WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE (11)

• 4/2/00 (w/Christian def. The Dudley Boyz and The Hardy Boyz) to 5/29/00 (lost to Too Cool)

• 6/25/00 (w/Christian def. Too Cool, The Hardy Boyz and Test & Albert) to 9/24/00 (lost to The Hardy Boyz)

• 10/22/00 (w/Christian def. The Hardy Boyz) to 10/23/00 (lost to The Hardy Boyz)

• 12/10/00 (w/Christian def. Bull Buchanan & The Goodfather, The Dudley Boyz and Road Dogg & K-Kwik) to 12/18/00 (lost to The Rock & The Undertaker)

• 12/19/00 (w/Christian def. The Rock & The Undertaker) to 1/21/01 (lost to The Dudley Boyz)

• 3/19/01 (w/Christian def. The Hardy Boyz) to 3/19/01 (lost to The Dudley Boyz)

• 4/1/01 (w/Christian def. The Dudley Boyz and The Hardy Boyz) to 4/17/01 (lost to The Undertaker & Kane)

• 7/2/02 (w/Hulk Hogan def. Billy & Chuck) to 7/21/02 (lost to Christian & Lance Storm)

• 4/19/04 (w/Chris Benoit def. Ric Flair & Batista) to 5/31/04 (lost to La Resistance)

• 10/19/04 (w/Benoit def. La Resistance) to 11/1/04 (lost to La Resistance)

• 11/13/06 (w/Randy Orton def. Flair & Roddy Piper) to 1/29/07 (lost to John Cena and Shawn Michaels)

WWE TAG TEAM TITLE (two)

• 11/7/2002 (w/Rey Mysterio def. Kurt Angle & Chris Benoit) to 11/17/02 (lost to Eddie & Chavo Guerrero)

• 6/28/09 (w/Chris Jericho def. Primo & Carlito Colon) to 7/26/09 (relinquished his share of title due to injury)

Posted by Kevin Eck at 10:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (16)
        

• When the bottom three were revealed as Matt, Rima and Ryan on Monday night’s Tough Enough, I thought for sure Ryan was going to be the one sent home, but “Stone Cold” Steve Austin swerved us. Matt – a high-flyer who has wrestled for years on the independent circuit as “M-Dogg 20” Matt Cross (see highlights of him in the videos below) – was one of the favorites to win it all, but he ended up being the second person eliminated. Austin’s reasoning was that he didn’t shine when he was given the opportunity. It was clear from Matt’s reaction that he did not expect to be eliminated. I suppose WWE wanted to put the other competitors on notice that no one is safe, and also to send a message to viewers that the eliminations are not always going to be easy to predict.

• There’s no doubt in my mind that Ryan should have been eliminated instead of Matt, but I think WWE is keeping him on the show a while longer because it gives Bill DeMott someone to pick on. When Ryan started crying because he missed his girlfriend, Tiffany, I was convinced that his fate was sealed.

• I see a lot of similarities between Ryan and Ric Flair. By that I mean that they both have long blond hair, are quick to cry and have had significant others named Tiffany.

• If Rima wasn’t Miss USA and someone whose presence brings attention to the show, I think it’s a good possibility that she would have been eliminated for showing up 20 minutes late to a workout.

• The final segment of the show when Austin cuts intense promos on the bottom three is must-see TV every week. Austin had me laughing out loud when he was lecturing Matt on making the most of his opportunities and talked about Vince McMahon calling him up and offering him a spot as The Ringmaster. “I knew The Ringmaster sucked, but it was a foot in the door,” he said.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 8:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (15)
        

Talking with Mick Foley about WrestleMania, TNA and his new fundraising campaign. I also look ahead to WrestleMania XXVIII.

Posted by Baltimore Sun sports at 12:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Ring Posts Xtra episodes
        

Here is a sampling of what people in the wrestling industry are saying on Twitter about Edge, who announced his retirement on Raw Monday night:

Christian: “I've shed my tears..And from here on out I choose 2 celebrate 1 of the greatest careers in WWE history..Cant wait2 induct u in the HOF.”

Shawn Michaels: “Have had contact w/Edge & he is looking 4ward 2what the future holds. It will b great, good things happen 2 good people & he is just that.”

Bret Hart: “I remember training w/both Edge & Christian in a ring @ my house back in '97 & he'll always be one of my guys. Such an abrupt end to a great career saddens the entire wrestling world. Cheers to the rated-R Superstar."

Chris Jericho: “Edge is a great performer and 1 of my favorite opponents. He's also got an incredible MIND for the business. Congrats on an amazing career.”

Mick Foley: “A sad day for wrestling, but what an amazing career for Edge. I was so fortunate to have been his opponent, his partner, his friend.”

Kurt Angle: “It's sad to see my friend Edge Retire from WWE. Edge was one of the Best. Your Fans will miss You dearly. I know I will. Luv u Edge!!!!”

Matt Hardy: “Heard Adam is retiring because of physical issues that won't allow him to safely continue wrestling. He'll be missed, we've certainly had our fair share of issues both good and bad. But I tip my hat to Edge who is one of the greatest I've ever been in the ring with. Adam resides in NC now-sure I'll run into him down the road. Glad that him & I are in a good place. We came in as friends, & went out that way.”

Jim Ross: “Edge will always be one of my favorites. I'm so grateful I was in a role to help him launch his wwe dream. Dreams do come true. Edge=HOF! … Gonna miss Edge. Have 2 think WWE will utilize Edge's mind & teaching abilities. Great integrity.

Vickie Guerrero: “I'm so sad to see Edge leave...I'm honored I got to learn so much from him. He will be missed.”

Eric Bischoff: “Best of luck to Edge. Class guy and a great talent. He will find success in anything he pursues.”

Kevin Nash: “The loss of Edge is a sad day 4 the WWE great in ring, but such a special guy out, he still has years left to give.”

Wade Barrett: “I have a tremendous amount of respect for Edge. A great career and a great human being.”

Samoa Joe: “A Little late but I just heard about Edge's Retirement. Good People, GREAT wrestler, and will sorely be missed in the ring.”

Natalya: “My thoughts are with Edge, and thank you so much for the wonderful memories. You're a real, true friend and ill never forget it.”

Beth Phoenix: “Seeing edge say goodbye was surreal. He is irreplaceable.”

Shad Gaspard: “I’m extremely sad to hear about edge being forced to retiring. One of the few upstanding guys left in the business and a great locker room leaders. Glad he can leave a champion & on top after a great match at WM. Adam you will be missed.”

Howard Finkel: “Thank you Edge for everything that you gave and meant to this industry, and personally speaking, thank you for your friendship!”

Getty Images photo

Posted by Kevin Eck at 12:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (36)
        

There were plenty of noteworthy developments on Raw Monday night.

R-Truth was made to look like a star as he earned a spot in a triple threat match for the WWE title at the next pay-per-view; the heated rivalry between Michael Cole and Jerry Lawler took another turn; Sin Cara was impressive in his first match on WWE television; a cool vignette for Awesome Kong was shown; and a new – and unlikely – Divas champion was crowned.

But all of that paled in comparison to the shocking revelation that Edge’s career has come to an abrupt conclusion.

The 11-time world champion announced that doctors told him he had to retire after they saw the results of his recent MRI. Edge, who underwent a spinal fusion in 2003, said that he has been suffering from numbness and uncontrollable trembling in his arms and hands.

According to a story on wwe.com, years of taking bumps after surgery has resulted in a narrowing of Edge’s spinal column above and below his fused discs. If Edge continued wrestling, doctors said he would be risking paralysis or even death.

As Edge was making his retirement speech – which was classy and heartfelt – I kept waiting for someone such as Alberto Del Rio or Christian to come out and interrupt him, thereby indicating that this was all just an angle.

But deep down, I knew it was just wishful thinking on my part. While I never expected to tune into Raw Monday night and hear Edge say that his career was over, I wasn’t totally surprised by the news.

Edge had said in some newspaper interviews over the past year that he could see himself retiring in two years when his contract is up because of all of the injuries he has suffered.

Edge, 37, has had a spectacular 13-year career in WWE and has won more championships than anyone in company history. It’s sad that he won’t be wrestling anymore, but it would be even sadder if he ended up in a wheelchair – or worse – by continuing to get in the ring.

So if saying goodbye to Edge means that Adam Copeland can have better health-related quality of life, then I’m all for it.

Other thoughts on Monday’s show:

It was announced that Edge will surrender the world heavyweight title at tonight’s Smackdown taping. My guess is that Christian takes Edge’s place in the ladder match at the Extreme Rules pay-per-view on May 1 with the vacant championship going to the winner. …

Since I have been following wrestling (close to 38 years – I started young), I can only recall one other wrestler retiring as world champion – AWA legend Verne Gagne in 1980. Unlike Edge, however, Gagne retired due to age (55), not injury. …

It was cool that WWE showed Edge’s final walk backstage, where he was applauded by his peers. Babyfaces and heel stood side by side to pay tribute to the Rated-R Superstar. Dolph Ziggler – one of Edge’s recent on-screen rivals – was the first to embrace him. …

I would love to see Edge remain with WWE in some capacity. I would think that he could have a job as a backstage producer if he was interested. Another thought would be to use him as a color commentator. He has the gift of gab, and he showed last week with Cole on Smackdown that he can hold his own as far as the verbal sparring that goes on with the announcers. …

Had it not been for Edge’s retirement announcement, this show would be remembered as R-Truth’s coming out party. He was the star of a five-man No. 1 contender’s gauntlet match that also involved John Cena, Randy Orton, John Morrison and Ziggler. I was surprised that R-Truth was even a participant in the match much less ending up as a co-winner along with Cena. After Ziggler got a quick rollup on Orton thanks to a distraction from The Nexus (without CM Punk), R-Truth pinned Ziggler and Morrison in succession. The fresh Cena then dominated R-Truth, but R-Truth kept kicking out no matter what Cena threw at him. The match ended in a double disqualification when WWE champion The Miz – who sat in on commentary during the match – and Alex Riley attacked both men. The anonymous Raw general manager then announced that Cena and R-Truth were co-No. 1 contenders and would face Miz in a triple threat at Extreme Rules. …

I have a hunch that R-Truth’s sudden elevation is leading to him turning heel. I had thought for quite a while that R-Truth was worthy of a big push, but I had pretty much given up on that ever happening. …

Jim Ross – who was in Lawler’s corner to counter Cole, who was in Swagger’s corner – showed a lot of intensity when he was trying to get at Cole while Cole was in the Cole Mine. …

Swagger lost the match to Lawler, but it was a fluke rollup after he was distracted, so he isn’t really hurt by losing to the sexagenarian. As per the stipulation, Lawler gets to face Cole at Extreme Rules. Cole berated Swagger for losing and slapped him across the face. Lawler then announced that it will be him and Ross facing Cole and Swagger in a tag match at the show. Could this be leading to a face turn by Swagger? …

Cole was so obnoxious – and I mean that as a compliment – constantly jawing outside the ring during the Lawler-Swagger match. …

I laughed when Ross got too close to the action and the referee said, “Back it up J.R,” and Ross shot back by saying “Aw, shut up.” …

Sin Cara looked good in his victory over Primo and already is over with the crowd. The finish was spectacular, as Cara hit a C4 off the top rope. The move was botched at first, as Primo slipped while on the ropes, which accidentally knocked Cara off the top rope and onto the floor. Cara kept his poise and went right back to the move. …

Awesome Kong’s face wasn’t shown, but the braided hair gave it away that it was her in the video in which a mysterious figure knocked the head off a blonde-haired Barbie-type doll. Business is about to pick up in the Divas division. …

Speaking of the Divas, Brie Bella is the new champion after her victory over Eve. Both Bellas have improved, but it’s still a bit of a crime that a Bella has the belt while the talented Gail Kim is just lucky to get a cameo on TV. ..

What was with Eve copping an attitude with Kim and Natalya backstage? And by the way, whatever happened to the budding romance between Kim and Daniel Bryan? …

I really liked the video package on The Undertaker-Triple H match from WrestleMania XXVII. It sure seems as if WWE is planting the seeds for a rematch. …

The match between The Corre and Team Apple (Santino Marella, Mark Henry, Evan Bourne and Bryan) was entertaining. For those who missed Raw, Apple stands for Allied People Powered by Loathing Everything you stand for. Cute.

To read what some top names in the wrestling industry are saying about Edge, click here.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 10:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (56)
        

Steve Ricard, the owner of Top Rope Promotions, issued the following statement regarding Scott Hall’s disturbing appearance at his show this past Friday in Fall River, Mass.:

Top Rope Promotions has been holding family oriented wrestling shows for 30 years now, and on our 30th Anniversary event, we brought in one of the biggest names in pro wrestling, Scott Hall (aka Razor Ramon).

We drew a packed house and a good majority of them were there to see Hall. Hall and his people down in FL had all claimed he was clean and good to go. His flight and hotel were pre paid, and his appearance fee was demanded upon arrival at the airport (which he asked for within 3 min of being picked up).

Hall had arrived in a wheel chair with 3 bottles of prescription pills in his posession. Hall had performed an interview with our local newspaper The Herald News around 6 PM on Thursday night, saying how much he was looking forward to coming to the show, and how he was clean. Less then 24 hrs later, he showed up in the state he was in, demanding his appearance fee. Right off the bat, we were in a bad situation.

Neither Hall, nor anyone who helped line up the date, or any of his close friends or agents have called to apologize or offer a refund for his "less then stellar" appearance. He showed his true colors and who he was this past Friday night. If he's upset that we're airing a stream of this atrocious appearance, maybe he should issue an apology to the fans, the promotion, and the workers of the company. One would only assume that no one that night got what they paid for, myself included.

Here's my take: Ricard makes some fine points, but I can’t feel too sorry for him. Hall’s reputation is well-documented, but Ricard chose to do business with him anyway. For any promoter who books Hall, I’ve got two words for them: Buyer beware.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 12:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (24)
        

The Edge-Alberto Del Rio-Christian program took another turn on Smackdown Friday night, as Del Rio defeated Christian in a No. 1 contender’s match and more seeds were planted for a feud between Edge and Christian.

Del Rio got the win after Christian was momentarily distracted by Brodus Clay. Edge immediately speared Clay, and the announcers played up the fact that it was Edge who had inadvertently distracted Christian.

After consecutive losses to Christian and then getting beaten by Edge at WrestleMania XXVII, Del Rio needed this victory to get some heat back. He’ll face Edge in a ladder match for Edge’s world heavyweight title at the Extreme Rules pay-per-view on May 1.

Earlier in the show, Edge and Christian were sitting together in the locker room good-naturedly talking about a potential match between the two. When Edge walked away, he left the championship belt behind, and Christian got up to take a closer look at it. Then Edge came back to retrieve it, and a surprised Christian said with a smile, “You better keep an eye on that thing.”

That was good stuff.

Other thoughts on Friday’s show:

I liked Del Rio’s show-opening promo in which he said that his loss to Edge at WrestleMania simply meant that his destiny was being delayed. …

Just wondering: Since Christian has beaten Del Rio twice and Del Rio just lost to Edge, why was there even a need for a No. 1 contender’s match? Shouldn’t Christian have been awarded the title shot automatically? Perhaps that will play into Christian’s motivation if he turns heel. …

It was nice that WWE gave the eight-man tag match between The Corre and the team of The Big Show, Kane, Kofi Kingston and Santino Marella nearly 20 minutes for their rematch from WrestleMania, where they were given just 92 seconds. The result of this two-out-of-three falls contest was the same, however, as The Corre was defeated (the heel group lost the third and deciding fall by disqualification). Wade Barrett, Justin Gabriel and Heath Slater may all have gold around their waists, but they sure haven’t looked like champions as of late. …

Marella setting up for The Cobra and then helping Big Show and Kane chokeslam Ezekiel Jackson was pretty funny. …

We moved one step closer to the LayCool split (how many times have I written that sentence now?) It seems clear that when it does happen, Layla will turn babyface – which is how I always thought it would go. …

Layla wants her and Michelle McCool to attend couples therapy, so I’m guessing that there will be some vignettes coming. That could be really good, really bad or so bad that it’s good. …

Michael Cole doing a victory lap with Jack Swagger was so corny that I couldn’t help but laugh. …

Cole continues to own Booker T. in their verbal sparring match. Speaking of Cole, I loved it when Josh Matthews asked him why he wasn’t wearing his singlet, and Cole replied, “Because I’m not wr -- … I’m not entertaining tonight.” That was funny on a couple levels. …

Sin Cara looked good again when he came out and hit a couple of his acrobatic moves on Swagger.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 4:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (13)
        

Scott Hall was hospitalized after his bizarre appearance at an independent wrestling show in Massachusetts Friday night, according to a report on TMZ.com.

Hall, whose history of substance abuse problems is well-documented, was clearly out of it at the show (the disturbing video below speaks for itself).

Geena Jinev Anac, a representative for Hall, told TMZ that Hall was being treated for cardiac issues and will be hospitalized for at least three more days. She added that doctors believe Hall’s condition at the show was a result of his medications interacting poorly with one another.

On Saturday, Hall’s longtime friend Kevin Nash tweeted: “Scott is in the hospital up north. I'll be at the airport when he lands and taking him to my home when he lands.”

In a news release a day before the incident, Anac said that Hall was being treated in an Orlando, Fla., hospital for “extremely low blood pressure.”

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

Here is an interview I conducted with Paul Bearer at WWE WrestleMania Axxess last weekend in Atlanta.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 6:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

Much like the anonymous general manager on WWE Raw, TNA has its own unseen entity – The Network – pulling the strings on Impact.

On Thursday night’s show, Hulk Hogan surmised that the person “smartening up” The Network has to be a wrestler.

So, I suppose the question is: Who’s the wrestler?

My guess is that it’s Mick Foley. He hasn’t been on TV lately, but he is still under contract with TNA. It would make sense for him to be the guy sticking it to Hogan, Eric Bischoff and Ric Flair.

Other thoughts on Thursday’s show:

I like that TNA continues to book Mr. Anderson as a rebel with no allies, although it was obvious that he wasn’t really joining Immortal at the end of the show. I never thought he was going full-fledged heel from the start, but when Rob Terry and Murphy (but not Bully Ray, Matt Hardy and Abyss) came out to celebrate with him, it clinched it. Of course, Anderson turned on Terry and Murphy and attacked them with the pipe he was holding. …

I’m digging the more aggressive Rob Van Dam. He showed a lot of intensity during his beat-down of Anderson. …

It’s nice to see Daniels – who made his dramatic return on last week’s show – back in TNA (I mean as himself, not as Suicide). However, I wish Ric Flair would stop saying that he doesn’t know who Daniels is. I get that Flair is a heel and he’s trying to be a smart aleck, but it’s not doing Daniels any favors. …

In his promo, Flair said: “This is pro wrestling. There ain’t no crying.” Now that’s ironic. …

The Bully Ray-Daniels match wasn’t bad. I know I write this just about every week, but Ray was strong on the mic again. Ray has become my favorite character in TNA. …

The angle from last week’s show in which the Jarretts had Kurt Angle arrested was replayed, and Jeff Jarrett talked about not letting the kids visit Angle in prison. Considering what has gone on with Angle in real life, this just too weird. …

One chair shot to the back is all it took to beat Devon in the tag match in which Hernandez and Anarchia defeated Devon and Tommy Dreamer? Really? …

I wonder if Mickie James will press charges against Tara and Madison Rayne for running over her with a motorcycle and then fleeing the scene. …

I still can’t believe TNA is breaking up Generation Me already. …

I wonder if the drink that Winter keeps giving to Angelina Love is the same one that Jeff Hardy had prior to his match at Victory Road.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 2:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (21)
        

Here is an interview I conducted with Natalya at WWE WrestleMania Axxess last weekend in Atlanta.

There will be one more video from WrestleMania Axxess to come

Posted by Kevin Eck at 1:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
        

Last Sunday, The Undertaker improved to 19-0 at WrestleMania. And now he is 1-0 in Mat Madness tournaments.

“The Dead Man” defeated Chris Jericho in the finals of Mat Madness, our bracket-style tournament that was determined by online voting. The Undertaker gained 55 percent of the vote.

Despite the loss, it was a good run for Jericho, who handily defeated Sheamus, Edge, John Cena and Kurt Angle to advance to the finals.

Thanks to all who voted throughout the tournament. I had fun doing it and we’ll probably put together something similar next March.

To view the bracket, click here.

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

Posted by Kevin Eck at 10:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)
        

Kurt Angle pleaded guilty to a charge of reckless driving Friday, according to a report on pwinsider.com.

Under the terms of a plea deal, Angle would have to pay a $475 fine, serve a year of unsupervised probation and undergo a chemical dependency evaluation. He would also receive a suspended sentence of 10 days in jail. The deal is pending approval from the judge.

Angle was arrested 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) on March 25 in North Dakota.

Police found Angle sitting in his car in the median separating lanes. He told police that he had skidded off the road after hitting a path of ice – he also claimed that he was distracted by receiving a text message – but he failed a field sobriety test.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 9:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Here is an interview I conducted with Teddy Long at WWE WrestleMania Axxess last weekend in Atlanta.

There will be more videos from WrestleMania Axxess to come

Posted by Kevin Eck at 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

In case you haven’t heard, WWE has made it official that it will no longer be known as World Wrestling Entertainment. Going forward, the company will simply be WWE.

Removing the word “wrestling” from the name of the company has some in the Internet Wrestling Community up in arms, but it’s a non-issue as far as I’m concerned.

As long as there are guys and girls in spandex performing in scripted athletic exhibitions inside a ring, those of us who follow the product know that it’s wrestling regardless of what words WWE chairman and CEO Vince McMahon chooses to use or not use in regard to his company.

The fact is that pro wrestling does carry a stigma in some circles, so McMahon’s goal of re-branding WWE as an entertainment company in an effort to expand its business beyond the ring makes a lot of sense.

The move certainly shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. For many years now, McMahon has tried to distance the company from “traditional” pro wrestling.

He has said in past interviews that when Ted Turner called him back in the late ’80s after purchasing WCW and said, “Hey Vince, I’m now in the wrestling business,” McMahon replied: “That’s great, Ted. I’m in the entertainment business.”

In recent years, not only have terms such as “pro wrestling” and “pro wrestlers” been replaced in WWE by “sports entertainment” and “WWE Superstars,” respectively, but even an innocuous word such as “belt” has been banned in favor of “championship.”

Do I think it sounds silly for WWE to refer to someone such as Bruno Sammartino as “one of the greatest sports entertainers of all time?” Sure I do, but as the old saying goes, a rose by any other name ...

To read a story in the Los Angeles Times on the name change, click here.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 11:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (29)
        

Voting for the championship round in 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 matchup between Chris Jericho and The Undertaker.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 7:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

Here is an interview I conducted with Kaitlyn at WWE WrestleMania Axxess last weekend in Atlanta.

There will be more videos from WrestleMania Axxess to come.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 6:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
        

Here is an interview I conducted with Gail Kim at WWE WrestleMania Axxess last weekend in Atlanta.

There will be more videos from WrestleMania Axxess to come.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 1:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)
        

Here is video of Dolph Ziggler speaking to the media at the pre-WrestleMania XXVII press conference that I attended Sunday afternoon at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.

There will be more videos from the press conference and WrestleMania Axxess to come.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Here is video of John Morrison speaking to the media at the pre-WrestleMania XXVII press conference that I attended Sunday afternoon at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.

There will be more videos from the press conference and WrestleMania Axxess to come.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 11:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Here is video of John Cena speaking to the media at the pre-WrestleMania XXVII press conference that I attended Sunday afternoon at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.

There will be more videos from the press conference and WrestleMania Axxess to come.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 7:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Here is video of Trish Stratus speaking to the media at the pre-WrestleMania XXVII press conference that I attended Sunday afternoon at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.

There will be more videos from the press conference and WrestleMania Axxess to come.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 5:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

I’m starting to get back on track after the whirlwind of four-plus days in Atlanta for WrestleMania-related events, and finally watched the season premiere of Tough Enough, which aired Monday night after Raw.

Overall, I was impressed with the show, from the style in which it was shot and edited to the content.

What I was most impressed with was the performance of “Stone Cold” Steve Austin. I don’t think WWE could have found a more perfect host for Tough Enough.

Watching the show, I was reminded of just how much of a talent and a larger than life figure he truly is. This was not the “Stone Cold light” character we’ve seen from his occasional appearances in WWE since he ended his active wrestling career. You know, the guy who jokes around, gets the crowd to chant “What?” and then delivers a few Stunners and has a beer bash in the ring.

No, this was the foul-mouthed, tough as nails, dangerous, “Rattlesnake,” the man who turned the wrestling world on its ear in the late ’90s.

While there were some elements of reality TV – a genre that I am definitely not a fan of – on the show that I could have done without, I’ll be tuning in to Tough Enough every week if for no other reason than to watch Austin do his thing.

A few other observations from Monday’s show:

I think Austin definitely made the right in call in making Ariane the first member of the cast to be eliminated. If having a bit of an attitude and constantly pulling up her pants while learning to run the ropes weren’t bad enough, she sealed her fate when Austin asked her what her favorite match of all time was and she answered, “Melina versus Alicia Fox.” A flabbergasted Austin replied, “Who?” When he asked her to name another match that she liked, Ariane was stuck for answer. …

Eighteen minutes into the program we had some of the competitors yelling and throwing things at each other. This is the kind of contrived, annoying reality garbage that just makes me want to turn the channel. …

I have a feeling that Rima Fakih will be on this show until the very end because of the novelty of “Miss USA” pursuing a career as a pro wrestler. Her ghetto chick persona was annoying and seemed forced.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 1:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (36)
        

Here is video of The Miz speaking to the media at the pre-WrestleMania XXVII press conference that I attended Sunday afternoon at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.

There will be more videos from the press conference and WrestleMania Axxess to come.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 5:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)
        

Here is video of "Stone Cold" Steve Austin speaking to the media at the pre-WrestleMania XXVII press conference that I attended Sunday afternoon at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.

There will be more videos from the press conference and WrestleMania Axxess to come.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 3:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Chris Jericho’s stint on “Dancing with the Stars’ appeared to be in serious jeopardy this week, but the former WWE star survived Tuesday night’s elimination show and will keep on dancing.

Jericho and partner Cheryl Burke were one of the two remaining couples who had yet to be told that they were safe and would continue on the show. In the end, it was Wendy Williams (apparently she has a talk show) and her partner Tony Dovolani (who was Stacy Keibler’s partner several years ago on DWTS) who were cut.

After the show, Jericho tweeted: "Big false finish on DWTS tonight, but I kicked out at two and a half! Ready for the big babyface comeback next week."

Jericho and Burke got a score of 21 (three sevens) from the judges for their rumba performance to the Beatles’ Let it Be” on Monday’s show. That put them in a three-way tie for fifth (out of 10 couples) for the night.

The theme of this episode was for the celebrities to create a dance that tells a personal story. Jericho – who performed under his real name, Chris Irvine, on Monday’s show – dedicated his dance to his late mother. I’m not going to lie: I actually started to tear up a bit listening to Jericho talk about his mother and watching his performance.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 12:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)
        

Both Triple H and The Undertaker were fined by WWE for the chair shot to the head that occurred during their match Sunday at WrestleMania XXVII.

WWE banned chair shots to the head a year ago as part of its concussion program.

It appeared that The Undertaker got his hand up just before contact was made when Triple H swung the chair. WWE’s policy states that “the intentional use of a folding metal chair to strike an opponent in the head” is prohibited.

WWE did not disclose the amount of the fine.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 11:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (23)
        

I’ve often said that it’s never too early to start talking about the next WrestleMania. But even I never could have imagined that the main event for WrestleMania XXVIII would be announced the day after WrestleMania XXVII.

It had become pretty apparent in recent weeks that a match between The Rock and John Cena was going to happen – it was just a question of when.

On Raw Monday night, we got the answer: April 1, 2012, in the main event at WrestleMania XXVIII in Miami.

The dream match was made official during the final segment of Raw (which I attended at Philips Arena in Atlanta). After Cena challenged The Rock to a match, Rock accepted, but said that it should take place at next year’s WresteMania, and Cena agreed.

Announcing the WrestleMania main event a year in advance is unprecedented and not without risk. The challenge for WWE is to prevent fans from losing interest in whatever non-Rock programs Cena is involved with in the interim.

It also will be interesting to see how much The Rock is around between now and WrestleMania XXVIII.

Other thoughts on Monday’s show:

I think we all knew that something big was going to happen on this episode, and revealing that Rock versus Cena will headline WrestleMania certainly is big, but I was really hoping for a Cena heel turn. Of course, I have been hoping for that for about three years now. …

The sell-out crowd of 15,654 at Philips Arena was hot for most of the night. Even before the dark match (which saw Mark Henry squash Zack Ryder) and WWE Superstars matches began, there were dueling chants of “Let’s go Cena!” and “Cena sucks!” Those chants were even louder during the commercial break before the final segment with Rock and Cena. It really is amazing to see just how passionate the fans are about Cena, whether they love him or hate him. …

Cena had a great comeback when Rock said that he shops at Baby Gap: “Great, more fashion advice from The Tooth Fairy.” Before anyone gets excited, I don’t think Cena meant that as a gay slur. …

After Rock and Cena shook hands to seal the deal on their match, The Corre hit the ring and attacked both men. Not surprisingly, Wade Barrett and company were quickly disposed of by Rock and Cena despite the numbers advantage. That setback occurred one night after the group had lost an eight-man tag match in 92 seconds at WrestleMania. It’s hard to believe that Barrett was headlining pay-per-views not all that long ago. …

Triple H got a huge pop when he came out for his show-opening promo, which was very good. He said that when The Undertaker returns, he’ll be waiting for him, which appears to indicate that there will be a rematch between the two. The question is: Will it take place before WrestleMania XXVIII or at WrestleMania XXVIII? …

Triple H mentioned in his promo that he and The Undertaker have wrestled each other before at WrestleMania. It’s kind of funny how WWE waited until after WrestleMania XXVII to finally acknowledge that fact. …

I’m very happy to have been in Atlanta these past four days for Axxess, the WWE Hall of Fame ceremony, WrestleMania XXVII and Raw, but one drawback to attending the latter two events is that I missed Jim Ross doing commentary. He was only around for a couple segments on Raw, however. Ross departed after Michael Cole – who was sporting a shiner – squirted some of J.R.’s barbecue sauce in his face and all over his suit. Cole continuing to squirt the sauce at Ross as he back-pedaled up the ramp was hilarious. Knowing how much Vince McMahon likes to mess with Ross, my guess is that Ross had no idea when he went over there that he was going to get doused with barbecue sauce. I hope that’s not the case, because someone of Ross’ stature certainly deserves more respect. …

The crime scene tape around the Cole Mine was funny. …

The crowd was thrilled to see “Stone Cold” Steve Austin. The cast of “Tough Enough,” not so much. A chant of “stun then all” broke out during the segment in which Austin introduced them. …

The Miz picking a fight with Austin and then running away to let Alex Riley take a beating was a great heel move. I also thought it was funny when Miz entered the ring and said, “Move, Buckwheat,” to the tall African-American “Tough Enough” competitor with the afro. By the way, not only is Miz starting to get some cheers, but I noticed quite a few people wearing Miz t-shirts during my stay in Atlanta. …

Another heel hearing some cheers is Alberto Del Rio, who scored a quick, convincing win over Evan Bourne to get some heat back after losing to Edge at WrestleMania. As Bourne was setting up for the Shooting Star Press, Del Rio caught him with an impressive Enziguri and finished him off with the Cross Armbreaker. …

I really liked the tag match that saw Randy Orton and Rey Mysterio defeat CM Punk and Cody Rhodes. The match went about 15 minutes and had a nice finishing sequence, as Mysterio hit the 619 on Rhodes, who then walked right into Orton’s RKO. Earlier in the match, Punk was preparing to jump off the top rope onto Orton, but when Orton spotted him, Punk stopped dead in his tracks, remembering what happened to him the night before at WrestleMania when he tried the same thing against Orton (Punk took an RKO in mid-air). That was a nice touch. …

Jack Swagger defeating Jerry Lawler by submission only to have the decision reversed because he refused to release the hold obviously was playing off the match between Lawler and Cole at WrestleMania in which Lawler’s victory was overturned. …

Sin Cara debuted and got a nice pop when he came out to make the save for Daniel Bryan, who was being attacked by Sheamus after Sheamus’ successful U.S. title defense against him. Cara’s cross-body off the top rope onto the floor on Sheamus was impressive. …

Not so impressive was the Sheamus-Bryan match, although it wasn’t their fault. They were only given about three minutes, which just isn’t enough time to build a match and tell a story. The crowd was into the match while it lasted, and there were even dueling chants. Imagine how loud those dueling chants would have been at WrestleMania before 70,000-plus people. …

The mixed tag match in which John Morrison and Trish Stratus defeated Dolph Ziggler and Vickie Guerrero wasn’t much to speak of, but it was great to see the lovely Vickie in person again. Oh, and Trish was there, too.

Photo of John Cena and The Rock by Chris Dolan for The Baltimore Sun

Posted by Kevin Eck at 7:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (63)
        

I said in an earlier post today that The Miz had “it,” and that was never more apparent than it was in the WrestleMania press conference that I attended Sunday at the Georgia Dome prior to the pay-per-view event.

Some huge stars such as “Stone Cold” Steve Austin and John Cena were present, but it was Miz who stole the show. He was in character – which means, of course, that he was cocky and obnoxious – but he did his shtick in such a manner that made you love to hate him rather than wanting him to just go away.

He was charismatic and confident and clearly loved being in the spotlight. In fact, when he first came out in front of the media, one of the first things he said was, I enjoy all these cameras flicking while I’m talking. It’s fantastic.”

***

In addition to Miz, Austin and Cena, others who participated in the press conference were Trish Stratus, John Morrison, Booker T., Dolph Ziggler and “surprise” guest Pee Wee Herman.
It was a little disappointing that The Rock wasn’t there. After all, WrestleMania XXVII was pretty much built around him being the guest host and getting involved in the main event match between Cena and The Miz.

***

Carey came off as a very likable guy. The comedian/game show host said that he totally understood the fans’ negative reaction to him at Saturday night’s WWE Hall of Fame ceremony and that he expected it and wasn’t offended by it. Carey said that he knows he doesn’t really belong in the Hall of Fame and that he views the celebrity wing of it as “just a collection of celebrities that WWE thinks are cool.”

***

Austin was asked if he ever thought about returning to the ring. He said that he has no plans to wrestle again, but added that he could still get in the ring and perform if he wanted to and that you “never say never.” Austin also put over Michael Cole’s work as a heel.

***

When asked which of the current Divas she would like to work with, Stratus said that she “would love to get in the ring with Nattie [Natalya] either as an opponent or as a tag team.” In response to whether she had any desire to become Divas champion, Stratus said that “if it was dangled in front of my face, I’d go for it.”

Posted by Kevin Eck at 6:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)
        

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

Posted by Kevin Eck at 6:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (14)
        

If you saw the video posted earlier today of Brian Fritz and me, you know that both of us thought that WrestleMania XXVII was a good show.

Judging by comments on this blog and other wrestling websites, however, apparently we are in the minority.

The major complaint that I’ve seen about Sunday night's show is that the main event between WWE champion The Miz and John Cena didn’t deliver and had a flat finish. Fans also seem to have been disappointed with what The Rock brought to the show and with most of the matches in general – The Undertaker-Triple H and Randy Orton-CM Punk matches being the exceptions.

A number of people said that show felt more like an episode of Raw than the biggest pay-per-view of the year. It also has been noted that since WWE began having two world titles defended at WrestleMania in 2003, at least one of the belts changed hands every year until Sunday night's show.

Who knows, perhaps I would have had a different opinion of the show if I had watched it in my living room on pay-per-view, but being there live in the Georgia Dome in a big-show atmosphere with more than 70,000 fans, I thought WrestleMania XXVII was pretty entertaining.

On the other hand, the expectation for the Super Bowl of wrestling (oops, sports entertainment) is high, so in that regard, I suppose a case can be made that “pretty entertaining” isn’t acceptable and that the show didn’t live up to the hype.

It certainly wasn’t “the most memorable WrestleMania of all time” as The Rock promised it would be in his promo that opened the show.

With that being said, however, I think saying WrestleMania XXVII was “terrible” or that it was the worst WrestleMania ever is off base, but everyone is entitled to their opinion.

The Miz-Cena match wasn’t a classic by any means, but I didn’t think it was an epic failure. I do, however, agree with those who said that most people just seemed to be waiting for The Rock to show up. Was the finish a little flat? Perhaps, but I didn’t walk out of the arena feeling as if it was a big letdown either.

On a side note, I saw at least one person who wasn’t at all pleased with the finish. A young boy in a purple Cena t-shirt and cap who had been holding up pro-Cena and anti-Rock signs, ripped up his signs and was nearly in tears after Cena lost. I felt bad for him. I reacted the same way when I was 10 and heard that Superstar Billy Graham had lost the WWWF title to some young, red-haired punk named Bob Backlund.

As for The Rock’s performance, I thought what he did was fine and he certainly electrified the crowd at the start of the show, but I wouldn’t say that “The Great One” created any great WrestleMania moments Sunday night.

***

My biggest complaint about the show is that the two world title matches only went a combined 26 minutes. And why even bother having the eight-man tag team match between The Corre and The Big Show, Kane, Kofi Kingston and Santino Marella if you’re only going to give it 90 seconds? But in all fairness, even with four hours to work with, WWE had a lot of stuff it had to get in, including some backstage skits with The Rock, which were necessary since he was the host and fans were expecting it. I could have done without was the Snoop Dogg segment, however, and I’ve never been a fan of Pee Wee Herman.

***

It will be very interesting to see what happens tonight on Raw (I will be in attendance at Atlanta’s Philips Arena) with The Rock and Cena. I’ve been saying this for a few years now, but it might finally be time for WWE to listen to the crowd and turn Cena heel. As a bad guy, he would have more heat than Vickie Guerrero and Michael Cole combined and it would really freshen up his character.

***

Speaking of guys switching sides, I see a babyface turn in The Miz’s future, perhaps before the end of the year. He has mostly turned the corner as far as gaining the fans’ respect and he is beginning to get some cheers (he certainly had his share of fans Sunday night). If the angle is done well, I think The Miz will become one of the top babyfaces in WWE. I didn’t see it in him for a long time, but I have no doubts now that The Miz has “it.”

***

I figured The Undertaker and Triple H would have an entertaining match, but what they put together exceeded my expectations. It told a great story and seemed to have the crowd truly believing that The Streak was going to end. The Undertaker, who for years had subpar matches at WrestleMania against lumbering big guys such as Giant Gonzalez, King Kong Bundy and Mark Henry, has now had the best match or second-best match at WrestleMania for five consecutive years. As for Triple H, this was his best WrestleMania match since WrestleMania XX in 2004 when he faced Chris Benoit and Shawn Michaels in a triple threat match.

***

I was a little disappointed that the Cole-Jerry Lawler match didn’t have more heat after the great buildup on TV. When Cole was on offense, rather than getting all worked up, the crowd began a “boring” chant. In the end, however, Austin delivered three Stunners and did the beer bash celebration with Lawler, which the fans enjoyed.

***

The most spectacular move of the night goes to -- surprise, surprise -- John Morrison for doing Starship Pain off the top onto the floor on Dolph Ziggler.

***

I loved Metallica's "For Whom the Bell Tolls" being played before Triple H's regular entrance music. Conversely, I don't think Cena coming out to a gospel choir really worked.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 4:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (54)
        

Brian Fritz of betweentheropes.com and I discuss WrestleMania XXVII after the show Sunday night from the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 12:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)
        

WWE issued the following news release Sunday night:

WWE® made history again as WrestleMania®, for the second consecutive year, became the highest grossing and most attended entertainment event in the host venue. WrestleMania XXVII grossed $6.6 million, with 71,617 in attendance. Fans from all 50 states and 30 countries were at the sold out event at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta tonight. The annual pop-culture extravaganza was broadcast around the world on pay-per-view in more than 100 countries and 20 languages.

The previous attendance record at the Georgia Dome for an entertainment event was set by The Backstreet Boys which attracted 65,658 fans on February 19, 2000. The U2 concert on October 6, 2009, which grossed $5.7 million, was the Georgia Dome’s highest grossing entertainment event until tonight.

“WrestleMania XXVII was an overwhelming success and one for the Atlanta history books. WWE would like to thank our public and private sector partners for helping to make WWE’s annual pop-culture extravaganza a memorable one,” said John P. Saboor, Senior Vice President of Special Events, WWE. “We now look forward to building on that success as we head to next year’s WrestleMania in Miami.”

WrestleMania XXVIII will take place place on Sunday, April 1, 2012 at Sun Life Stadium in Miami, FL. Ticket information will be announced later this year.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 11:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)
        

Live report from the Georgia Dome in Atlanta:

The Miz came out to a mixed reaction, while Cena was booed louder than anyone on the card. I’m talking Vickie Guerrero heat times 10.

After about eight minutes of back and forth action, Cena hit a flurry offense, but Miz halted his momentum with a DDT.

Cena locked on the STF at the 7-minute mark, but Miz made it to the ropes for a break.

After Cena was briefly distracted by Alex Riley, Miz connected with the Skull-Crushing Finale for a near fall.

Miz went for the move again, but Cena blocked it and there was a ref bump at 9 minutes. Cena landed the Attitude Adjustment, but there was no referee.

With the ref down, Riley entered the ring and nailed Cena with the briefcase. The referee recovered and made the count, but Cena kicked out at the last second.

Miz went to hit Cena with the briefcase, but he ducked and Miz nailed Riley. Cena then hit the Attitude Adjustment, but Miz kicked out and the crowd erupted.

The action spilled outside the ring at 12 minutes, and Cena speared Miz over the top of the barricade. Both men were counted out and the match was declared a draw at 14:44.

The Rock then hit the ring. The anonymous Raw GM chimed in, and Rock stepped to the podium. He began to read the GM’s e-mail:

“And I quote. As the Raw GM, I think … It doesn’t matter what you think!” Rock then trashed the computer and ordered the match to be re-started.

Cena and Miz got back in the ring and began exchanging punches near the ropes. When Cena turned around, he walked right into a Rock Bottom from The Rock.

The Miz covered Cena and the referee made the three count. Your winner and still WWE champion, The Miz.

After the match, Rock slapped Miz around and hit the People’s Elbow on him to end the show.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 11:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (49)
        

Live report from the Georgia Dome in Atlanta:

Snooki was booed out of the building when she made her entrance.

This one didn't last long.Snooki hit a back handspring elbow on Michelle McCool and then followed up with a handspring into a splash for the victory in 3:17. I kid you not.

The crowd was impressed (and probably surprised) by the "Jersey Shore" star's athleticism and they popped for her.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 10:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (12)
        

Live report from the Georgia Dome in Atlanta:

The match spilled to the floor in the first minute. Triple H charged at Undertaker and they both went through the Cole Mine.

Undertaker went for Old School a minute later, but Triple H pulled him off the ropes and then clotheslined him out of the ring.

Triple H tried a Pedigree on the announce table, but Undertaker backdropped him off the table onto the floor.

At the 6-minute mark, Undertaker did a headfirst dive over the top rope reminiscent of the move he did against Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania XXV. It was scary-looking, but he appeared to be OK.

At the 8-minute mark, Triple H hits a spinebuster through a table.

Back in the ring, Undertaker hit a chokeslam for a two count. There were dueling chants at this point.

After Undertaker hit Snake Eyes, Triple H landed another Spinebuster for a near fall.Triple H brought a chair into the ring, but Undertaker took it from him and nailed him in the back with it. Triple fired back with a Pedigree for a near fall at the 13-minute mark.

A minute later, Triple H kicked out of The Last Ride. Undertaker did the throat slash and hit a Tombstone at 16 minutes, but Triple H kicked out.

Triple H then hit a DDT on a chair, and both men were down. After they got to their feet, Triple H hit the Pedigree, but Undertaker kicked out at the last second. Triple H followed with yet another Pedigree, and Undertaker kicked out again.

Triple H nailed The Undertaker in the back with about nine chair shots and then collapsed to the mat in exhaustion.

Triple H hit him over the head with a chair (Undertaker appeared to get his hand up at the last second) at the 23-minute mark.

A weakened Undertaker tried to grab Triple H by the throat, but Triple H swatted it away. Triple H then did the throat slash and landed a Tombstone at 25 minutes. Undertaker kicked out and the crowd erupted.

Triple H slid backwards and stared at The Undertaker as if he were looking at someone who isn’t human.

Triple H grabbed his sledgehammer from under the ring. As he prepared to use it, Undertaker caught him in Hell’s Gate. Triple H struggled and eventually grabbed his sledgehammer, but Undertaker wouldn’t release the hold.

After being in the hold for a long time, Triple H went limp and the referee called for the bell at 29:25. With that, The Undertaker extended The Streak to 19-0.

Undertaker stayed down a long time after the match and was taken to the back on a cart.

This was by far the best match on the show to this point. While it wasn’t in the same class as the Undertaker-Shawn Michaels matches at the past two WrestleManias, it was still very good and had tremendous crowd heat.

Note: I've been told by several people who watched the show on TV that Triple H did lightly tap out.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 10:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (27)
        

Live report from the Georgia Dome in Atlanta:

Jim Ross and Booker T. came out to announce the match.

Cole, wearing headgear and a red hoodie that said “Team Cole” over a red singlet, came out to a lot of heat and cut a promo on Ross and Lawler.

Special referee “Stone Cold” Steve Austin came out on an ATV and chased Cole into the Cole Mine.
Cole refused to get out of the glass box, so Lawler attacked Cole’s trainer, Jack Swagger, and then climbed into the Cole Mine and began assaulting Cole.

Lawler dragged Cole out of the Cole Mine and slammed him into the anonymous Raw general manager’s podium. Swagger hit Lawler from behind and then applied the Ankle Lock briefly behind Austin’s back.

As Cole went to work on Lawler’s ankle, the crowd chanted, “You can’t wrestle!” Thank you, masters of the obvious.

There also was a “boring” chant, which is certainly not what I expected with this match.
Cole applied the Ankle Lock at the 9-minute mark, but Lawler escaped.

After Lawler began stomping on Cole at the 10-minute mark, Swagger threw in the towel. Austin picked the towel up, wiped his head with it and threw it back at Swagger.

An incensed Swagger got in the ring and was quickly hit with a Stunner.

Cole got in Austin’s face and pushed him. Austin shoved back and Lawler punched Cole in the face.

Lawler hit the Fist Drop but picked Cole up at the count of two. Lawler then applied the Ankle Lock. As Cole tapped like crazy, Austin waited, and waited, and waited, and then finally rang the bell at 13:46.

Swagger carried Cole to the back as Lawler and Austin did the beer bash celebration. For some reason, Booker got in the ring and did a Spinaroonie. Austin offered him a beer and then nailed him with a Stunner.

The anonymous Raw GM then chimed in and Josh Matthews made the announcement that because Austin got physically involved, the decision was overturned and Cole was the winner by disqualification.

Austin then stunned Matthews, too.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 8:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
        

Live report from the Georgia Dome in Atlanta:

Before the start of this match, there was a backstage skit between The Rock, Eve and Mae Young. After a comedy bit with the women, Rock turned around and "Stone Cold" Steve Austin was there.

When they were face to face, the crowd reaction was off the charts. There was tension between them, but they shook hands.

Punk gained the early advantage and worked over Orton’s “injured” knee.

Punk got a near fall at the 4:30 mark after hanging Orton upside down in the corner and coming off the top rope foot first into Orton’s midsection.

Punk went for the GTS, but Orton maneuvered out of it and attempted an RKO. Punk countered with a roundhouse kick to the chest for a two count.

Orton hit a superplex at 6:50 for a near fall. Punk then went back to work on the knee, including a figure-four leglock around the post.

Punk locked on a triangle choke at the 11-minute mark, but Orton got to the ropes.

After hitting a DDT while Punk was hanging on the middle rope, Orton set up for the punt to the head. However, Orton’s knee gave out as he tried to run across the ring.

Orton then attempted an RKO, but Punk slipped away and the crowd gasped. Punk went for a dive off the top rope, but Orton caught him with a mid-air RKO for the win at 14:45.

Best match on the show thus far.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 8:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)
        

Live report from the Georgia Dome in Atlanta:

There wasn't much to this one.

After Marella hit Heath Slater with The Cobra, Big Show nailed Slater with the Knockout Punch for the win in 1:32.

Thanks for coming, Corre.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 8:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
        

Live report from the Georgia Dome in Atlanta:

Rhodes, wearing a dark hooded jacket that covered most of his face, entered the ring to new entrance music and a video that suits his dark character.

Mysterio came out in a Captain America outfit.

Rhodes controlled the action early. At the 5-minute mark, he held Mysterio up in a suplex position from the middle rope seemingly forever before finally completing the maneuver. That got a pop from the crowd.

Rhodes blocked a 619 attempt at the 8-minute mark. He then took off Mysterio’s knee brace.

Mysterio connected on a second 619, but Rhodes got his knees up for a dive off the top. Mysterio then connected with two feet to the chest for a near fall.

Mysterio took off Rhodes’ face mask, put it over his mask and used it as a weapon.

With Rhodes on the outside, Mysterio went for a dive between the ropes, but Rhodes blasted him in the face with Mysterio’s knee brace.

Rhodes then hit Cross Rhodes for the victory at 11:55.

This was a good match and Rhodes made a nice accounting of himself on the grand stage.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 7:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
        

Special host The Rock came out to a thunderous ovation and "Rocky" chants to open the show.

He did his usual catch phrases and also led the crowd in chanting "Yabba Dabba" in reference to John Cena, whom Rock has referred to as "Fruitty Pebbles" for his colorful assortment of t-shirts.

In a surprise, the world heavyweight title match opened the show. Christian and Brodus Clay are in the respective corners of Edge and Del Rio.

At the 7:45 mark, Del Rio locked on the Cross Armbreaker, but Edge made it to the ropes.
A minute later, Christian and Clay began brawling outside the ring.

Edge missed a spear at 9:30 and Clay pulled Edge shoulder first into the ring post. Del Rio applied the Armbreaker again, but Edge reversed it and hooked on his Cloverleaf move. Clay tried to interfere, but Christian took him out with a swinging DDT off the apron.

Del Rio maneuvered out of the submission move, but Edge nailed him with The Spear for the victory at 11:10.

Del Rio not winning the title is a surprise, and there was no turn by Christian.

After the match, Edge destroyed Del Rio’s fancy car with a crowbar while a helpless Del Rio looked on almost in tears.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 7:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
        

Live report from the Georgia Domie in Atlanta:

This match was moved from the pay-per-view to a dark match. The lumberjacks were all of the guys not already on the card.

After several minutes of action, both wrestlers ended up on the outside of the ring, and they and all of the lumberjacks began brawling.

The bell rang at the 4:18 mark, and then Smackdown general manager Teddy Long came out and made the match a battle royal.

It came down to Sheamus, Bryan and The Great Khali. After Sheamus took out Bryan, Khali tossed Sheamus out of the ring for the victory at the 8:46 mark.

The Great Khali? Really?

Posted by Kevin Eck at 6:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)
        

MR. T

It’s often been said that if the first WrestleMania had not been a success back in 1985, not only would there not have been any more WrestleManias, but WWE would have been in serious jeopardy because of the financial risk of putting on the event.

Thanks in large part to actor Mr. T – who at the time was one of the top stars on TV – WrestleMania was a resounding success, WWE flourished and here we are 26 years later hours away from WrestleMania XXVII being presented at a sold-out Georgia Dome and before millions of fans around the world via pay-per-view.

Another big celebrity back in 1985 – pop star Cyndi Lauper – was part of a story line that led to Mr. T getting involved with WWE.

During a match between Hulk Hogan and Roddy Piper that was dubbed “The War to Settle the Score and was broadcast live on MTV, Mr. T made the save when Piper and Paul Orndorff were threatening Lauper while Hogan was down. That led to a match being signed for the main event at WrestleMania the following month that pitted Hogan and Mr. T against Piper andOrndorff.

The hype for the closed-circuit event (this was in the days before pay-per-view) was unprecedented, as Hogan and Mr. T were seemingly everywhere, including on “Saturday Night Live,” which they hosted the night before WrestleMania.

Mr. T did not embarrass himself in the ring, and he and Hogan emerged victorious.

The first WrestleMania solidified WWE’s place in pop culture, and much like Mike Tyson did for Steve Austin more than a decade later, Mr. T gave a rub to Hogan and helped him become a household name.

Mr. T returned for WrestleMania II to face Piper in a boxing match, but it is his involvement in the inaugural event that has earned him the spot at the top of the list.

To view the entire list, click here.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 2:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Top 10 WrestleMania celebrities
        

Shawn Michaels gave a classy, heartfelt induction speech at the WWE Hall of Fame ceremony Saturday night at Philips Arena in Atlanta, but in the end, he showed that he will always be a “degenerate” at heart.

After Michaels and Triple H – who inducted his best friend with a funny and at times emotional speech – embraced on stage at the conclusion of Michaels’ speech, they pointed to the back and out came Kevin Nash and Sean Waltman as the DX theme music blared.

In a scene reminiscent of the infamous Curtain Call at Madison Square Garden in 1996, the four members of The Kliq hugged and took a bow to the delight of the crowd. Scott Hall, the other member of The Kliq, was not in attendance.

Michaels’ speech did not come off as polished or rehearsed, which was by design, as he spoke from the heart and not from a sheet of paper. His main message to the fans was that “the most important thing for me was always that was all of you believed in me and thought I was good.”

Getting choked up, he said: “Tonight, I feel it, and I thank you and love each and every one of you.”

The “one more match chants” started as soon as Michaels began his speech, but he quickly shot that notion down. “Don’t start that whole ‘one more match’ stuff. I’m a little nervous up here and you’re seriously breaking my train of thought,” he said with a smile on his face.

Michaels referenced a line from The Undertaker’s promo last week on Raw about him entering the Hall of Fame “full of regret.”

“In 1998, that might have been true,” said Michaels, who retired that year and was out of action for more than four years. “Now, I have absolutely no regret.”

Michaels thanked his family for “letting Daddy go out and finish what I started.”

He also thanked his peers “for your time and patience with me and being part of my life for so long. … We can stab each other on the back but can’t nobody else do it.”

Michaels put over “a man whose name I am not allowed to mention,” in reference to Ric Flair, who was in the audience. After his speech was over, Michaels walked over to the side of the stage where Flair was sitting and mouthed the words, “Thanks for coming.”

At one point in the 19-minute speech, Michaels said that he didn’t want to “be that guy” who talks too long. The crowd immediately started chanting “Wooo!” in reference to Flair’s long, rambling speech during his induction in 2008 in which he literally had to be dragged off the stage.

“You guys are implying that,” Michaels said in response to the audience’s reaction. “I’m not saying that.”

Michaels concluded with the familiar DX “if you’re not down with that” catch phrase, which then led to the Clique reunion.

Other observations from Saturday’s event:

Michaels joked that Triple H’s induction speech was more like a roast than a tribute. Triple H took plenty of good-natured jabs at his buddy, including imitating what he called Michaels “google eye” and saying that Michaels “refused to acknowledge his place in the Hulk Hogan hair club.” …

Even though the crowd was instructed to be respectful and not to engage in catcalling when the inductees were speaking, there still were a number of fans in attendance who just couldn’t help themselves. It’s been that way at the two previous Hall of Fame ceremonies I attended the past few years. There was one obnoxious guy sitting a couple rows in front of me who kept screaming, “Thank Jannetty!” when Michaels was speaking. The worst example of the boorish behavior occurred during Paul Ellering’s speech. As Ellering spoke of the death of Road Warrior Hawk, he said “that was the day the laughter died.” As the entire arena went silent to soak in that moment, some idiot yelled, “LOD!” …

Dusty Rhodes, who inducted The Road Warriors and Ellering, referred to Aimal and Hawk as “the greatest tag team in the business.” He ended by saying, “Tell ’em Hawk,” and then Hawk’s voice was heard over the sound system delivering his trademark “Oh, what a rush” line. …

Animal said that when he and Hawk entered the business, they “just wanted to pay bills, child support and make a little dough on the side.” He thanked Rhodes for seeing something in them and helping them become superstars. …

Ellering, who was wearing sunglasses and carrying a rolled-up newspaper (which he always did back in the day), put a Hawk action figure on the podium near the end of their speech. …

Hacksaw Jim Duggan, who was inducted by longtime friend and in-ring adversary Ted DiBiase, gave a very nice speech in which he recapped his career, spoke about beating cancer and put over his family. Although he went into “Hacksaw” mode a few times, Duggan mostly spoke out of character, which is a big contrast to his cartoonish, larger-than-life persona. He credited his mentor, the late Bruiser Brody, with giving him some advice that led to him always bringing a 2X4 to the ring. “He said to carry something to the ring that I could use, Duggan said. “So I got a board and not sequined robes and feathered boas.” Duggan had a funny line when he said that he beat “Stunning” Steve Austin so bad in WCW that Austin had to shave his head and change his name. Appropriately, he ended with a “Hoooo!” and by starting a “USA” chant. On a side note, Duggan was at the hotel bar – which was filled with fans and past and present WWE talent – after the show, and several times he had the whole bar chanting “Hoooo!” and “USA!” …

Drew Carey was inducted by Kane, who had attempted to chokeslam the comedian/game show host at the Royal rumble pay-per-per-view in 2001. Carey was booed lustily when he came out to deliver his speech, but he had a great comeback: “Go ahead and boo me. I’m skinny, I’m good-looking and I’m rich. Boo all you want.” He put over how much a fan he is of the business and how much respect he has for it and the men and women who do it. That seemed to win over the audience to some degree, as he received more cheers than boos when he finished up. I think Carey going into the “celebrity wing” of the WWE Hall of Fame is a joke, but this was not a night to jeer anyone, and those who booed Carey are classless knuckle-draggers, in my humble opinion. …

Sunny, who was inducted by LayCool as a number of other Divas joined them on stage, was credited as being “groundbreaking.” Sunny said that “there has been some debate as to who is the first, original WWE Diva, but tonight we can put that debate to rest.” She began her speech by pointing to the Divas standing behind her and saying, “Take a look at what I started.” She acknowledged that her “life has been a rollercoaster, but I think most of you know that.” She concluded by saying that she’s “still not too old for one more run, and whatever Sunny wants, Sunny gets.” ...

Abdullah The Butcher, who was walking with a cane, delivered a very brief speech in which he mostly thanked his family. At one point, he pulled out his trademark fork, which he always used to carve up his opponents. Terry Funk inducted Abdullah, saying that he was “a genius who made brutality beautiful.” …

Brian “Road Dogg” James was joined by brothers Scott and Brad Armstrong to induct their father, “Bullet” Bob Armstrong. James delivered his old New Age Outlaw catch phrases, which got big pops from the crowd. Bob Armstrong said that for seven years he was “fighting fires during the day and wrestling at night. I knew I had to make a decision. Tonight, I know I made the right one.”
Note: A one-hour version of the WWE Hall of Fame event will air Monday night at 8 p.m. EDT on USA Network.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 2:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
        

Is Chris Jericho really the best in the world at what he does?

Judging by his performance in Mat Madness, our bracket-style pro wrestling tournament determined by online voting, he very well may be.

Jericho’s Cinderella run in the tournament continued, as he easily defeated Kurt Angle in the Final Four to advance to the championship match. He has now beaten Edge, John Cena and Angle in succession -- all by wide margins.

Jericho will face The Undertaker, who also won easily in his semifinal match against Randy Orton.

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

To view the bracket, click here.

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

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

WWE champion The Miz vs. John Cena: With WrestleMania host The Rock practically guaranteed to get involved, there are any numbers of ways this one could go. When the angle with The Rock and Cena began, I thought for sure that WrestleMania was going to end with the feel-good moment of Cena regaining the WWE title and then he and The Rock burying the hatchet and celebrating together. Now, I don’t see that happening. It sure looks as if WWE is building to a Rock-Cena match somewhere down the line. So does that mean The Miz ends up walking out of WrestleMania with the belt (that’s right, I said belt) still around his waist? It’s certainly possible. Here’s a thought: How great would it be to see Miz and Cena do a double turn in this match? At the WrestleMania press conference in New York last week and at Saturday night’s Hall of Fame ceremony in Atlanta, Cena was booed out of the buildings, while The Miz was cheered. Honestly, I don’t have a strong feeling as to how this is going to turn out (which means WWE has done a great job in the buildup), but since I have to make a prediction, here’s my best guess: After a ref bump, Rock comes in to take over as referee and ends up counting the pin for Cena. After the match, Miz attacks Cena, and Rock makes the save. Then as Rock and Cena shake hands and celebrate, Rock hits a Rock Bottom on him out of nowhere to end the show.

World heavyweight champion Edge vs. Alberto Del Rio: This contest has been overshadowed by the Cena-Rock-Miz program and the Triple H-Undertaker and Michael Cole-Jerry Lawler matches, but I expect it to be a really good match. It has been announced that Christian and Brodus Clay will be in Edge and Del Rio’s corners, respectively. Since Christian has been as much a part of the buildup for this match as the two participants, I think it’s reasonable to assume that he will be involved in the finish in a major way. My guess is that Christian does a heel turn and costs Edge the title, which leads to a post-WrestleMania program between the two former tag team partners.

The Undertaker vs. Triple H in a no holds barred match: I think it’s become obvious that The Undertaker is never losing at WrestleMania, but from what I gather, a number of fans believe Triple H is going to win this match, so WWE has accomplished its main goal – casting doubt on a finish that, to me, can only go one way. It will be impossible for this match to come close to the classics between The Undertaker and Shawn Michaels at the past two WrestleMania, but I expect these two veterans – despite whatever age, injury or ring rust issues they may have – to put on a good show. The no holds barred stipulation will help them (it’s just too bad that blood is not allowed, as some color would certainly add to the drama). In the end, The Streak will remain intact and The Undertaker will go to 19-0. Of course, the big question is: What role, if any, will Michaels have in the match?

Michael Cole vs. Jerry Lawler (special referee “Stone Cold” Steve Austin): A year ago, who would have ever believed that Cole would be one of the hottest heels in the business and a participant in a top match at WrestleMania? Even though Cole is not a wrestler, I think this will be an entertaining match, thanks in large part to Austin being the special referee and Jack Swagger being in Cole’s corner. Look for Lawler to win and finally get his WrestleMania moment, and for Cole and Swagger to get stunned by Austin. I also wouldn’t be surprised if the Divas came out to slap Cole around for his disrespectful remarks about them as of late.

Randy Orton vs. CM Punk: This is a match that could headline most pay-per-views, so the fact that it is at best the fifth-highest match on the card shows just how strong the lineup is. This is another match that I could see going either way. It wouldn’t shock me if Punk won due to outside interference from a brand new member of The Nexus (Ted DiBiase Jr. perhaps?), but I’m going with Orton.

Rey Mysterio vs. Cody Rhodes: I don’t expect these two to be given a tremendous amount of time, but I’m betting that they will make the most of however long they have. It seems to make sense for Rhodes to get the win, since he is still making his way up the ladder and a loss will not hurt Mysterio at all.

John Morrison, Trish Stratus and Snooki vs. Dolph Ziggler and LayCool: It will be interesting to see how the crowd reacts to Snooki, but she was booed at the WrestleMania press conference last week and when she was shown in a video package at Saturday night’s Hall of Fame ceremony. Look, I don’t like Snooki being in a WrestleMania match either, but it is what it is, and I’d be surprised if this isn’t an entertaining match. Look for the babyfaces to win and perhaps LayCool to (finally) split.

The Corre vs. The Big Show, Kane, Santino Marella and Kofi Kingston: For those who thought it was a crime that Kingston was left off the WrestleMania card while someone such as Kozlov was on it, your prayers have been answered. WWE shot an angle at WrestleMania Axxess in which The Corre attacked Kozlov, and it was then announced that Kingston would take his place in the match. It almost makes me wonder if Kingston – who has been on a losing streak as of late – turns on the babyfaces and joins The Corre, but whether he does or not, look for the heel group to prevail.

U.S. champion Sheamus vs. Daniel Bryan: These two work well together, so this figures to be a solid match. It seems as if Sheamus is back on the upswing, so my guess is that he retains the title.

Note: I plan to blog throughout WrestleMania XXVII tonight from the Georgia Dome. The show begins at the arena at 6:30 p.m., with the pay-per-view starting at 7.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 12:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (15)
        

Brian Fritz of betweentheropes.com and I discuss the WWE Hall of Fame ceremony and look ahead to WrestleMana XXVII last night at Philips Arena moments after the Hall of Fame event concluded.

I'll take a more in-depth look at the Hall of Fame and post my WrestleMania predictions later today. I also plan to live blog from WrestleMania XXVII at the Georgia Dome.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 10:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

MIKE TYSON

In the late '90s, the WWE was on the losing end of a ratings war with rival WCW for about a year and a half. While WWE had been gradually narrowing the gap, the company still needed something to get over the hump and past WCW.

Enter Mike Tyson.

The controversial former heavyweight boxing champion was brought in to be the special enforcer referee for the WWE title match between champion Shawn Michaels and "Stone Cold" Steve Austin at WrestleMania XIV in 1998.

Tyson reportedly was paid $3.5 million to appear at the event. Some wrestling pundits criticized the move, saying Tyson wasn't worth it, but they couldn't have been more wrong.

With Tyson as the centerpiece, WrestleMania XIV more than tripled the buy rates from the previous year's show. More importantly, Tyson -- who KO'd Michaels after the match and celebrated in the ring with the victorious Austin -- gave "Stone Cold" a rub, and with Austin as the new face of WWE, the company quickly shot past WCW, and the rest is history.

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

To view the entire list, click here.

Associated Press photo

Posted by Kevin Eck at 5:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Top 10 WrestleMania celebrities
        

DONALD TRUMP

The man responsible for the largest WrestleMania buy rate in history isn't The Hulkster, The Rock or The Rattlesnake.

It's The Donald.

WrestleMania 23 in 2007 had 1.2 million buys, thanks in large part to "The Battle of the Billionaires" challenge, in which business magnate Donald Trump and WWE chairman Vince McMahon each put their hair on the line for the match between Bobby Lashley (representing Trump) and Umaga (representing McMahon).

At one point during the match, the two billionaires actually got physical with one another outside the ring, as Trump jumped on McMahon and began pounding him in the face with his fist. In the end, Lashey prevailed, and McMahon's famous pompadour was no more.

As special referee "Stone Cold" Steve Austin looked on approvingly, Trump and Lashley shaved McMahon's head bald.

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

To view the entire list, click here.

Associated Press photo

Posted by Kevin Eck at 5:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)
Categories: Top 10 WrestleMania celebrities