Ring Posts

Two WWE Hall of Famers signing autographs in Dundalk

2009-11-20T21:03:46Z

WWE Hall of Famers and former tag team champions The Iron Sheik and Nikolai Volkoff will be signing autographs at the Steel Cage Memorabilia stand in the Plaza Flea Market in Dundalk on Sunday between 12 and 2 p.m. For more information, go to steelcagememorabilia.com

Quick hits on WWE Superstars

2009-11-20T18:31:08Z

• The Mark Henry-Cody Rhodes match on Thursday night’s episode of WWE Superstars was better than I expected. I was surprised – but not disappointed – that there was no outside interference from MVP or Ted DiBiase Jr. It was an impressive win for Henry. He really seemed to be over with the crowd, but, unfortunately, I think the crowd noise was enhanced in post-production. • It was time for Zack Ryder to get a win over Shelton Benjamin, so the result wasn’t unexpected. The finish, however, was pretty creative. Rosa Mendes jumped up from her chair at ringside and frantically tried to hand her cell phone to Ryder while the match was going on. It appeared that she wasn’t giving the phone to him to use as a weapon – ala Paul E. Dangerously (Paul Heyman) back in the day – but because he had an urgent phone call. Perhaps it was Grandmaster Sexay calling to say that he wanted his gimmick back. Mendes stepped into the ring, and Benjamin nearly splashed her by accident. That momentary distraction allowed Ryder to hit the Zack Attack for the win. • Vickie Guerrero got her usual mega-heat when she introduced Eric Escobar for his match against Jimmy Wang Yang. I don’t think the crowd noise had to be sweetened that time. Despite having a heat magnet for a manager, however, Escobar just isn’t connecting with the audience yet. • As he almost always does, Jimmy Wang Yang looked good before ultimately doing the job.

Looking at an Australian paper’s coverage of Hogan-Flair brawl

2009-11-20T05:06:47Z

A reader from Australia sent me a link to a story that appeared in the The Daily Telegraph, an Australian newspaper, about the recent brawl between Ric Flair and Hulk Hogan that took place at a press conference to promote The Hulkamania Tour. The paper covered the incident with Hogan being bloodied up by Flair as if it was a legitimate scuffle. As a journalist, I don't know whether to laugh or cry. click here. In other Hulkamania Tour news, another reader from Australia sent the following Thursday in regard to ticket sales for Saturday’s show in Melbourne: As of [Thursday morning], one could still purchase ringside seats in the third row at the show in my home town of Melbourne. I don't know what such tickets would cost in America, but here they're charging $360 Australian (about $335 U.S.) for ringside, down to $50 ($46 U.S.) for the nosebleeds. Tickets have been on sale for a good couple of months so obviously ticket sales have been slow, which is not surprising given you can buy ringside seats for the TNA show for $75 less.]]>

Angelina Love video interview

2009-11-19T20:50:35Z

Here is an interview I conducted with former TNA Knockout Angelina Love last weekend at Steel Cage Memorabilia in Dundalk. Before anyone asks why certain questions weren't asked, she told me before the camera started rolling that she did not want to discuss anything regarding her release from TNA. And yes, that is SoCal Val talking in the background.

SoCal Val video interview

2009-11-19T04:18:01Z

Here is an interview I conducted with TNA's SoCal Val last weekend at Steel Cage Memorabilia in Dundalk. Angelina Love makes a cameo.

Mini-Me to host Raw in Baltimore

2009-11-19T01:07:57Z

It’s official: Diminutive actor Verne Troyer, best known as Mini-Me in the Austin Powers movies, will be the guest host for Raw a week from Monday in Baltimore at 1st Mariner Arena, WWE announced it on its Web site today. As someone who will be in attendance at that show, I have to admit that I’m a little disappointed. I was hoping for someone such as Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis or former WWE diva Stacy Keibler (who says that she contacted WWE about the gig but no one returned her calls). So Hershey, Pa., gets Jesse “The Body” Ventura this Monday, and we get Mini-Me. Baltimore really got the short end of the stick. Speaking of which, I’m sure there will be plenty of “comedy” with Troyer and Hornswoggle. WWE also announced that Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban will be the host for the Dec. 7 Raw, and comedian Dennis Miller will do the honors for the three-hour Slammy Awards version of the show on Dec. 14.

Video: Ric Flair busts open Hulk Hogan at press conference

2009-11-18T19:41:47Z

At a press conference in Australia to hype their matches on the Hulkamania Tour, Ric Flair and Hulk Hogan engaged in a brawl that resulted in Hogan bleeding profusely from the forehead. ]]>

Quick hits on ECW

2009-11-18T19:14:37Z

• It was nice to see CM Punk back in the Land of Extreme on Tuesday night’s episode of ECW. Punk was all over the show and came off like a guy who was visiting his high school after having become a big success. • I liked the main event, which saw Punk and William Regal defeat Christian and R-Truth when Punk pinned Christian. With their stiff styles, Punk and Regal would make a terrific heel tag team. • The Hurricane and Paul Burchill had a good match. As per the stipulation, Burchill and his “sister” Katie Lea have to leave ECW because he lost. The question now is: Where will the Burchills end up – Raw or Smackdown? I think there may be a possibility that they stay put. Someone else may have already suggested this, but I could see Burchill and Katie Lea coming back under masks to continue their feud with Hurricane. Every superhero needs super villains to battle. • I think WWE is sending the wrong message by having babyfaces such as Christian and ECW general manager Tiffany refer to Punk as a “nerd” and a “prude” because he doesn’t drink. I thought the Attitude Era was over. • Shelton Benjamin told Zack Ryder that he should be called Black and Decker because he’s “a power tool.” That was such a lame line, I’ll bet that even Tony Atlas wouldn’t have laughed. • I think Vance Archer has potential, but it’s going to take some time to get the crowd to care about him.

A strange episode of Raw

2009-11-18T00:43:04Z

Before I get into discussing the specifics of Monday night’s episode of Raw, I want to make a comment about ratings. If the numbers for this show end up being below average, WWE definitely will not be able to blame it on strong competition from “Monday Night Football.” Take it from someone who actually sat through the Ravens’ 16-0 win over the Browns, it was about as exciting as a 60-minute Iron Man Match between The Great Khali and Vladimir Kozlov. The Ravens looked about as inspired as Kevin Nash at a house show, and the Browns’ offense was more pathetic-looking than a Lacey Von Erich chokeslam. While the Ravens and Browns struggled to find the end zone (it was a scoreless tie at halftime), Raw at times felt like it had entered the Twilight Zone. The show was hosted by the legendary Roddy Piper – who was more rambling than rowdy – and featured cameo appearances by “celebrities” such as the Latino character actor from “Boogie Nights,” the woman from “The View” that MVP took to the prom and some guy from “30 Rock” who looked like he could have been a regular in the front row at the ECW Arena in the ’90s. Oh, and The Iron Sheik also showed up because someone confused him with The Iron Chef (whoever that is). The build – or should I say, lack there of – for Sunday’s Survivor Series pay-per-view was perplexing. The key figure in the triple threat main event for the WWE title between John Cena, Triple H and Shawn Michaels continues to be Hornswoggle of all people. This time a swerve was worked. Triple H and Shawn Michaels invited the little guy to join DX, but then Triple H gave him a Pedigree, and he and Michaels carried him out on a stretcher. I wonder if Hornswoggle will interfere in the match Sunday. I’m not joking, either. Speaking of joking, Cena cut one of his over-the-top ha-ha promos that was totally inappropriate to do six days for a pay-per-view. WWE actually did a better job of building anticipation for WrestleMania – which is over four months away – than it did for Survivor Series. During the triple threat tag match that pitted Cena and The Undertaker against DX against Chris Jericho and The Big Show, Undertaker gave Cena a Tombstone piledriver out of nowhere after the match. That certainly seems like a tease for an Undertaker-Cena match at WrestleMania XXVI. I wrote this past April after WrestleMania XXV that I thought Undertaker-Cena made perfect sense for the next WrestleMania. It another example of potential foreshadowing, Cena scored the winning pin on Triple H in the triple threat. Judging by WWE’s booking tendencies, you know what that means. Other thoughts on Monday’s show: The highlight of the show was a heated brawl between Kofi Kingston and Randy Orton, even though the confrontation got off to an inauspicious start. Kingston stood to-to-toe with Orton and ended up getting the better of him when he put Orton through a table with a soaring double legdrop off the railing outside the ring in the production area. The crowd was super-hot for Kingston, who really came off like a major star. It was a nice touch to have Kingston tease the spot – several referees prevented him from doing it at first – before following through. The angle started off with Orton attacking Piper. As Orton was about to deliver a punt to Piper’s head, Kingston’s music was supposed to hit to distract him. Unfortunately, the sound guy was a second late, and Orton had to hold up on the kick, which made him look bad. Still, this was a great segment. ... Orton was busted open hard-way after Kingston smashed him over the head with a metal lid. The trickle of blood on Orton’s forehead was not acknowledged by the announcers. ... The crowd didn’t like it when Triple H gave Hornswoggle the Pedigree, but I did. I’m not really sure what the point is of Hornswoggle being involved with DX. Hornswoggle as comic relief with mid-carders is fine, but he doesn’t belong anywhere near main event-level stars. ... The interaction between Piper and Vince McMahon was entertaining because it seemed like a lot of it was improvised. In trading barbs, I have to say that I think McMahon got the better of the exchange. It’s probably for the best that the proposed street fight between the two did not take place. ... Piper was all over the place with his promo before McMahon came out, but he made sure to get in a few shots at Hulk Hogan (as did The Iron Sheik in the opening segment). I know Piper didn’t mean any harm, but I didn’t care for his line that anyone who has gone up against him – he named Hogan, Bruno Sammartino, Lou Albano and Andre The Giant – ends up either bald or dead. Too soon after Capt. Lou’s death for that one. ... The Madison Square Garden wrestling video retrospective was well done. Surprisingly there was a lot of Hogan in it. Kurt Angle, Mick Foley and former WWWF/WWF champions Superstar Billy Graham and Bob Backlund also were shown, but Sammartino – the biggest wrestling draw in the history of MSG – was not (unless I blinked and missed it). ... WWE is doing everything right in trying to get Sheamus over as a star, but I’m still not feeling it. ... I liked how Michael Cole showed concern for Jerry Lawler after he was attacked by Sheamus. That’s a huge contrast to the way TNA just goes about business as usual – including doing comedy – right after people are attacked and rushed to the hospital on Impact. ... It made the babyfaces who are opposing Sheamus’ team at Survivor Series look bad when none of them came out after Sheamus issued a challenge to the locker room. I thought for sure that Evan Bourne was coming out to get squashed. Instead, Bourne got squashed by Jack Swagger, who got his win back from last week. I really don’t know why WWE bothered to do the winning streak gimmick with Swagger in the first place if this is all that came of it. ... The Miz-MVP match was good. Miz winning was the right call. A few months ago I would have never said that. ... Miz got a lot of heat before even saying a word when he had the mic prior to the match. I popped when he said that the Yankees don’t deserve to be champions because they bought the title. ... Santino Marella’s bit with the New York jerseys was pretty good. ... Was it me or did it look as if that woman from “The View” raided Michael Jackson’s wardrobe? ... How does Chris Masters keep a straight face when doing his dancing pecs routine?

Jesse Ventura to host Raw next week

2009-11-16T20:47:11Z

Jesse Ventura will return to his pro wrestling roots next Monday when he serves as guest host for a three-hour Thanksgiving-themed episode of Raw, WWE announced in a press release today. Ventura and WWE chairman Vince McMahon have had a strained relationship over the years, but this announcement doesn’t surprise me at all. In fact, Ventura was one of 20 names I came up with last July when looking at potential guest hosts for Raw. No matter how they feel about each other personally or what they say about each other publicly, Ventura and McMahon have shown in the past that they won’t hesitate to do business together if it’s mutually advantageous. McMahon obviously believes that Ventura will be a ratings draw, while Ventura certainly sees the value in having a vehicle to promote his upcoming series on truTV, “Conspiracy Theory with Jesse Ventura.” I’ve always found “The Body” to be entertaining whether he was wrestling, commentating, appearing on a talk show or governing the state of Minnesota. Selfishly, I wish Ventura’s appearance as guest host would have been pushed back to the following Monday, when Raw takes place in Baltimore at 1st Mariner Arena.

Comment of the Week

2009-11-16T09:05:52Z

The featured Ring Posts comment of the past week goes to Elevation, who responded Friday to the entry "A big ‘legend’ takes up space on TNA Impact.”]]> What does a washed up wrestler have to do in TNA to not earn a “You Still Got It” chant? I remember when Scott Hall got one for cutting a promo with Kevin Nash. He then promptly no showed the PPV a week or two later. I will select the Ring Posts Comment of the Week every Monday.

Bring TNA to your town

2009-11-15T04:05:44Z

TNA president Dixie Carter posted the following on her Twitter account: Tell TNA to bring a live show to YOUR hometown in 2010. Starting Monday, vote for your city at TNAwrestling.com/demandit. Your voice counts!

Chris Jericho’s momentum comes to a dead stop on Smackdown

2009-11-14T23:49:39Z

The first-ever singles match between Chris Jericho and The Undertaker did not end the way I thought it would on Friday night’s episode of Smackdown. With Jericho on a roll as of late and the triple threat match for the world heavyweight title between Jericho, The Big Show and champion The Undertaker set for Nov. 22 at the Survivor Series pay-per-view, I expected there to be some type of non-finish due to interference from Big Show. Instead, Undertaker made Jericho tap out to Hell’s Gate. So much for that roll that Jericho was on. It doesn’t make sense to me to have Jericho lose clean to the champion nine days before the pay-per-view – especially when WWE had been doing a nice job of re-building Jericho’s credibility in recent weeks. Perhaps WWE booked Jericho to lose on Smackdown because he is going to win the title in an upset at Survivor Series, but I really don’t think that’s the case. As for the match itself, I thought it was good, and Jericho did come across as a legitimate threat to The Undertaker before the tap-out. Other thoughts on Friday’s show: I don’t know if Kane – who made the save when The Undertaker was being double-teamed by Jericho and Big Show after the match – is officially a babyface now, but I think it makes The Brothers of Destruction more interesting if one is a babyface and the other is a heel. ... Matt Striker made a rare mistake when discussing wrestling history. He said that when Jericho defeated The Rock and Steve Austin in the same night, it was a triple threat match. Actually, he defeated each of them in one-on-one matches that night to become the first undisputed champion. ... We’ve seen hundreds of in-ring contract signings over the years, but I thought this one with Batista and Rey Mysterio was pretty good. I love Batista’s intensity as a heel. His insistence that Mysterio sign a “Hold Harmless Agreement” was a nice touch. ... The John Morrison-Dolph Ziggler Intercontinental title match was decent despite the double-countout finish. Perhaps Ziggler will finally win the title in the two-out-of-three falls match on next week’s show. Of course, I’ve been saying “next time” for Ziggler for quite a while now. I have to be right one of these times. ... Morrison’s pre-match promo was one of his better ones, although he’s still got some work to do in regard to his mic skills. ... Once again, Drew McIntyre demonstrated that a vicious beat-down sometimes gets you over more than a pinfall victory would. After wrestling to a double-disqualification with Finlay, McIntyre laid out the veteran for a second time. Sticking with the scene in the ring (Finlay was being attended to by trainers and officials) instead of cutting to a commercial at a point where you would expect a break added to the impact of the attack. ... The match between CM Punk and R-Truth – which was won by Punk when he used the ropes for leverage – wasn’t as good as I thought it would be. It was slow-moving and lacked crowd heat. ... The Mickie James-Natalya match was good, although I wish it would have gone longer than four minutes. I’d really like to see a program between these two. Instead, Natalya was used as a pawn in a Michelle McCool angle. That’s just plain wrong.

A big “legend” takes up space on TNA Impact

2009-11-14T00:37:12Z

As usual, there was a lot going on during Thursday night’s episode of TNA Impact. Raven made his surprise return. Mick Foley’s face was burned as the result of a fireball thrown at him by Raven. Desmond Wolfe laid out Kurt Angle – again. TNA world champion A.J. Styles was pinned by Samoa Joe in a non-title match. TNA world tag team champions The British Invasion were pinned by Beer Money in a non-title match. Team 3D turned heel. D’Angelo Dinero turned babyface. Traci Brooks’ disability was acknowledged for the first time on TV and became the basis for an angle. Scott Steiner attacked Bobby Lashley in his hotel room while a horrified Crystal Lashley looked on. And TNA ripped off Raw’s guest host concept by having Super Dave Osborne involved in the show. But what really stuck out was the appearance of Jim “The Anvil” Neidhart. Actually, what stuck out the most was “The Anvil’s” bulbous belly. I know Neidhart was never svelte, but good Lord. How fat was he? Neidhart was so fat that it looked as if Natalya was about to gain a sibling on national television. He was so fat that his profile made Alfred Hitchcock looked like Michelle McCool – if she hadn’t eaten for a week. People talk about Matt Hardy and Mickie James gaining weight, well Neidhart was so fat that he looked like he had swallowed Hardy and James. Neidhart was so fat that he moved slower in the ring than The Great Khali on a slow-motion replay. I’m here all week. It was an embarrassment to put someone who looked like that on TV and it was absurd to have him beat one of the company’s talented young stars – “Black Machismo” Jay Lethal – clean. So much for Lethal’s challenge to the “legends.” By the way, referring to Neidhart as a legend is a real stretch. And speaking of a real stretch, Neidhart’s tights must have a heck of a sturdy waistband. I’m not sure what TNA is thinking here, but I have a few ideas. The most obvious answer is that Hulk Hogan is up to his old tricks and he’s bringing in a cast of WWF has-beens who will bury the young talent. I don’t buy it. If I know Vince Russo, he’s trying to work the smart marks into believing that’s the case. You know, another one of his infamous worked shoots? Perhaps the ultimate goal of this angle is for Lethal top shed the Randy Savage impersonator gimmick. If so, then I suppose the ends justify the means. While I do find Lethal’s act entertaining, he has no chance of moving up the card unless he takes on a more serious persona. A heel turn might do wonders for him, as well. Other thoughts on Thursday’s show: More on Neidhart: I was amazed that the fans at The Impact Zone were cheering Neidhart and booing Lethal. They also were chanting “You still got it” at Neidhart. As the WWE announcers would say, it was Bizzaro World. ... TNA is doing a great job of making Wolfe look like a major star, but I’m not sure they needed to do yet another beat-down of Angle. Sometimes less is more. I think Angle cutting a promo and Wolfe appearing on the video screen would have sufficed. ... I found it a bit ironic that Wolfe said he was healthier than Angle. The whole reason that Wolfe is in TNA and not WWE is because he failed WWE’s medical exam. I wonder if that was another one of Russo’s lines aimed at the smarks. ... I’m not a big Super Dave Osborne fan (he’s no Ozzy, that’s for sure), but I didn’t have a problem with him being on the show – other than the fact that his voice started to annoy me after a while. I did think that it was stupid to have Osborne and Jeremy Borash doing comedy when talking about Foley being rushed to the hospital after having his face burned. That’s one of the big differences between WWE and TNA. If a major babyface had been injured like that on a WWE broadcast, the announcers would have been somber and it would have been referenced throughout the show. In TNA, it’s made light of and treated as just another angle on an episode that had so many of them. ... When talking about Hogan, Angle said “The Hulkster” knows what works when it comes to wrestling. Yeah, he knows what works for Hogan. ... It was good to see Raven back. I’ve always been a fan of the character, and I like him, Dr. Stevie and Daffney as a group. ... Either wrestlingobserver.com’s report last month that Daffney had suffered a broken arm at the Bound for Glory pay-per-view was incorrect or she is a fast healer. She did suffer a concussion at BFG. ... Team 3D are awesome heels, but like I’ve said before, the motivation for them and Rhino turning – their belief that the younger guys are trying to take out the veterans – is the exact same angle TNA did with the formation of The Main Event Mafia (and Team 3D and Rhino were on the opposite side in that one). Russo has gone to the young vs. old well way too often throughout his career. When I worked at WCW, I remember asking him one time about him copying WWF angles. His response was that those WWF angles were his idea and you can’t copy yourself. ... Brother Ray referred to Hernandez as “an uneducated Mexican with no green card.” I don’t think you can say that. ... I said several weeks ago that TNA was probably going to have to turn Dinero babyface since the crowd was cheering him. He’s definitely a lot more entertaining as “The Pope” than he was as Elijah Burke in ECW. ... For those who were confused about the angle with Brooks, she suffers from Erb’s Palsy, which affects the nerves in her arms. I’m not surprised that it has been incorporated into a story line, but I didn’t understand why Mike Tenay and Taz were saying that Alissa Flash had “crossed the line” by targeting Brooks’ arm in their match. Isn’t going after an opponent’s weakness an acceptable thing to do? It looks like the idea here was to turns Brooks babyface, but the crowd booed her when she attacked Flash after the match. ... I’m not really feeling the Styles-Joe-Daniels main event program. Perhaps it’s because the on-again, off-again friendship between Styles and Daniels is so played out. ... When Foley told Osborne that he could book a match involving the Knockouts “as long as they’re dressed appropriately,” I figured it was just a shot at WWE toning down the divas’ attire in the company’s new family-friendly era, but then I saw The Beautiful People showing a lot less skin this week. Look, I don’t ask for much, but I’m begging TNA not to keep Velvet Sky in long pants. ... I thought I had seen it all when Lacey Von Erich botched a chokeslam a couple weeks ago, but she looked awkward just locking up on this show. Any match involving LVE makes an Alicia Fox-Kelly Kelly contest look like Jack Brisco vs. Dory Funk. On a positive note, I thought it was funny how Sky and Madison Rayne stopped LVE from hugging Awesome Kong after the heels defeated ODB, Tara, Taylor Wilde and Sarita in an eight-woman tag match. ... Steiner’s pipe shots on Lashley looked incredibly weak, but he made up for them when he smashed him in the head with a lamp. ... I liked the six-man X Division match in which The Motor City Machine Guns and Amazing Red defeated Homicide, Sheik Abdul Bashir and Kiyoshi. ... Eric Young had a nice line about Hogan: “I was a huge fan of his – when I was 3.”

Quick hits on WWE Superstars

2009-11-13T21:33:48Z

• Thursday night’s episode of WWE Superstars was one of those shows that wasn’t a waste of time if you watched it, but it was no big deal if you missed it. The best match was the main event between MVP and Ted DiBiase, which MVP won. I think MVP needs all the victories he can get at this point. • The Matt Hardy-David Hart Smith match wasn’t bad, either. Hardy won, as expected. I was just happy to see a member of The Hart Dynasty in a match that didn’t involve Cryme Tyme. • Rosa Mendes isn’t exactly bringing good luck to Zack Ryder. Then again, if Ryder hooks up with Mendes, he’s a winner in anybody’s book. • With his count-out victory over Ryder, Shelton Benjamin has actually won a couple matches in a row. They were both flukes, but it’s always good to see Benjamin win no matter what the circumstances. I’d love to see Benjamin really get on a roll and get an ECW title program with Christian.