The Bell to Bell News Report 05.10.09

Posted by Randy Harrison on 05.10.2009

The Undertaker and Hernandez go under the knife, Bret Hart books a special appearance North of the Border and the WWE experiences a bit of an economic downturn. All of that plus show recaps and your weekly Red Wings fix are just around the corner...




Sunday means the beginning of a new week, but before we move on to the current week, it's always fun to take a look back at the previous seven days and what better way to do that in the world of professional wrestling by joining me for yet another edition of the Bell to Bell News Report! A really slow news week this week as only a couple of days had more than one or two worthwhile stories, but there were plenty of things to talk about with all of the past week's TV shows, so there's still plenty to talk about despite the lack of news.

On the hockey front, I was deeply concerned at about 8:05pm PST on Thursday night that I was going to have to write about how my beloved Red Wings were down 3-1 in their series against Anaheim and that it might have to be a "wait til next year" type of deal for them. Instead, after getting totally jobbed out of a tying goal with a minute left to lose the third game of the series and giving up a very early goal in the fourth game, the Red Wings seemingly found themselves in the midst of the adversity and put together their best game of the playoffs, destroying the Ducks and their rookie goalie Jonas Hiller to even the series at two apiece heading into a crucial Game 5 tonight in Detroit. If they can bring the same intensity to the game at the Joe as they did to their last game at the Pond, it could be a big night for Detroit. Rest assured that I will be glued to the television to see what happens. To quickly touch on the Alex Ovechkin/Sergei Gonchar controversy, I have to say that the penalty he was given wasn't stiff enough and probably should have been a double-minor, but the fact that he wasn't suspended is the right call because it was something that looked like it was more of an accident than some sort of concerted effort to injure someone.

You know what it means now that I have the intro and the hockey talk out of the way, it's time to get to the rasslin' so let's ring the bell!!



Sunday


The Stories

Wow..uhhh....this isn't good. So yeah, outside of talking about Roddy Piper's son going into MMA under his given surname and not the Piper surname to not ride his father's coattails or mentioning that Batista was in Manny Pacquiao's corner the previous night when he destroyed Ricky Hatton, there's not much to go with from Sunday. I do have to mention that I found it hilarious when the pictures featuring Batista in Pacquiao's corner hit WWE.com. The pictures themselves were fine, it's the captions that were hilarious, especially the last picture. A triumphant Pacquiao is standing on the ropes in the corner, belt over his shoulder, thanking the adoring fans, while the caption reads.."Thanks in part to Batista's support, Pacquiao is triumphant.". Really? Wow, I guess Batista has some hidden boxing talent that we've never seen under his shredded (literally and figuratively) physique. I can get that the WWE wants to kind of leech off of the popularity of Pacquiao and I'm sure that he and Batista are probably friends, but it feels like the WWE was trying to make it a bit more important than it seemed, especially when all of the pictures from that night show Batista acting more like hired muscle than part of an entourage. Ah well, sorry to get off on a bit of a rant there to start things out, it just looked pretty funny was all. Hey, look at that!! I thought I was going to have to get out my favorite (unfavorite?) little empty-pockets fellow, but instead I managed to find something to talk about for a paragraph!. Whoooooooooo!!

*takes a victory lap around the 411 home office*

Let's move on, shall we?



Monday


The Show



Monday Night Raw Results:

Matt Hardy vs. Kofi Kingston - Winner: Kofi Kingston (pinfall, Trouble in Paradise)
Cody Rhodes vs. MVP - Winner: Cody Rhodes (countout)
Mickie James vs. Maryse - Winner: Mickie James (pinfall, DDT)
Ted DiBiase vs. Batista - Winner: Ted DiBiase (disqualification)
THE Brian Kendrick vs. Carlito - Winner: Carlito (pinfall, Backstabber)
Cody Rhodes, Ted DiBiase and Randy Orton vs. Shane McMahon - Winner: None (No Contest)

Monday Night Raw continued to be the Randy Orton/Shane McMahon show with all of the tertiary players like Batista, MVP and Legacy still involved from last week. The show started with what was supposed to be the "final showdown" type of match between McMahon and Orton, but it was over before it began with a wild brawl going through the crowd and interference from all of the aforementioned parties. That ended up leading to Vickie Guerrero making matches for the night between Batista and Ted DiBiase and MVP and Cody Rhodes with the winners being allowed to join McMahon or Orton in the ACTUAL main event at the end of the show. This segment just bugged me to no end because like everyone else has been calling it, it was a bait and switch in the highest order. It took away the match that Raw was essentially promoted on and made us wait through two hours of show to get to a variation of it. Yeah, we got a brawl through the crowd between them. Cause we haven't seen McMahon do any kind of brawling with Orton or the rest of Legacy or anything like that. It just bothered me that that instead of focusing on Orton vs. Batista, which is, you know, going to HEADLINE A PAY-PER-VIEW...they continue to put the focus on Orton vs. McMahon which should have played out and ran its course with the six-man at Backlash. Batista is beginning to look less like a championship challenger and more like a prop in the McMahon/Legacy storyline and that's bad news for someone who just made his return.

As I said, the show was basically booked around the main event as the only matches that seemed to really matter and get more than cursory amounts of time were the matches involving Legacy, Batista and MVP. The MVP/Rhodes match was actually pretty good and I wasn't complaining too much as they had some moments but ultimately not enough time to make me completely care. The thing that really put it over the top was William Regal on color commentary, seemingly looking at starting up a program with MVP, possibly over the US Championship. Regal did a great job in putting over both guys and sowing the beginning seeds for a program with MVP. I for one am looking forward to a possible feud between those two as both guys can work well on the microphone to help sell the match and the match itself would be good on its own because of the caliber of MVP and Regal, as well as being good for MVP to help give him a bit more veteran seasoning as he makes his ascension up the card. It's criminal that these guys only got four minutes when there was crap like the Jillian/Festus sing-off that stole time from matches that clearly could have used it. They did the best they could though and it was a solid effort from MVP, Rhodes and Regal so I won't fault them for not having enough time when they made what little time they had work so well.

The bout between Batista and Ted DiBiase was pretty much the same story as the first match, just without William Regal on commentary to save it. Another screwy finish and we finally had a 3-on-1 main event with all three Legacy members taking on Shane-O-Mac all by his lonesome. Once we got to that point, McMahon held off Orton, DiBiase and Rhodes for nearly ten minutes before they finally stopped him by "breaking his ankle". Wow, and to think I used to complain about SuperCena. This was pretty ridiculous, even by wrestling standards and if they're trying to use Orton missing Shane's ankle by a mile with the ring steps while apparently doing serious damage to said ankle to get me interested in Judgment Day, well they are failing pretty hard at it. This was a terrible way to end the show and really just outlined the entire problem with the show as a whole as it was focused far too much on a part-time wrestler and far too little on the returning monster babyface that's supposed to be getting a title shot.

It wasn't all bad though as this week The Miz got to continue his Jericho-esque one-man crusade to goad John Cena into a match as he came out and called Cena out for being too much of a pussy to not come out and face him last week. Miz laid into Cena much like he did last week, and I'll be damned if he's not incredibly entertaining while he's doing it. He's doing a great job with what he's been given as his introduction to Raw and Cena's appearance led beautifully into another attack from The Big Show as they head towards their match at Judgment Day. My only fear is that once the match with Show and Cena is done with, this groundwork that's being laid for Miz/Cena might be forgotten and Miz could find himself floundering in the mid-card despite him really entertaining and getting over since his break-up with John Morrison. Things are certainly looking bright for both members of Mizorrison and this could be one of those rare occasions where both members of a broken-up tag team manage to reach an acceptable level of success rather than the usual case where one hits the heights while the other hits the skids.


The Stories


Some unfortunate time off for the Deadman...

-- From the dearth of news on Sunday, a news explosion was born on Monday with a ton of big things to talk about. Unfortunately, the two biggest stories are on the injury front as both The Undertaker and Hernandez are looking at long lay-offs from their respective companies. In The Undertaker's case, he's been dealing with problems to his knee and hip for some time and things have finally caught up with him enough to force him into surgery. It's also expected that if they go in for surgery on his knee, there will likely be more damage found that will force him out for an even longer period of time. That's unfortunate for fans of The Undertaker, as well as for fans of Smackdown, as we will likely have Taker on the sidelines all the way through the summer and possibly into the fall. His absence will definitely affect the booking of the show and already has as both CM Punk and John Morrison are getting pushed as babyfaces due to the injury and Jeff Hardy's current contract situation. It could definitely lead to more changes to the brand as well as the loss of someone like The Undertaker leaves a HUGE gap at the top of the card. Time for some new guys to step up and possibly make the jump, possibly Shelton Benjamin if they decide to run a deal where he's the guy to injure Taker and put him on the shelf kayfabe.


And for SuperMex.....

-- Moving on to Hernandez, he was beaten down by the newcomers to TNA, the British Invasion, a couple of weeks ago on Impact which gave the kayfabe reason for his time off. In reality, Hernandez was dealing with neck problems for quite some time before finally relenting and going under the knife for surgery. With a recovery time of six to nine months (Sixty-nine months? No, six TO nine months) it seems like LAX is going to be put to the back-burner which will allow Homicide a chance to shine on his own as a singles star, something he hasn't had the chance to do since joining TNA. I'd expect to see him involved in the X-Division mix soon after the whole deal with the attempted unmasking of Suicide is finished up and it could be very beneficial for Homicide as he is one of the only "smaller" wrestlers who has gotten way over without spending significant time in the X-Division. It will be fun to see him get the chance to cut loose as a singles wrestler as I really enjoyed his work in Ring of Honor and I'm hoping that this could be the beginning of a push that could see him as a singles star in and out of the X-Division. As much as the people love him as a babyface, a heel Homicide running with the belt after the Main Event Mafia stuff is settled could be total money for the company. As for Hernandez, when he makes his comeback, expect to see him and Homicide take revenge on the Brits before he gets a singles push of his own. A Homicide heel turn could lead to a program between them that could push them both to the moon, so long as TNA finally gets serious about pushing their younger talent with each other instead of with the older Mafia.


It's a Pink and Black Attack for ROH...

-- Ring of Honor made a big announcement regarding their upcoming show on July 24th at the Ted Reeve Arena in Toronto, where Bret "Hitman" Hart will make his first apperance for the company, signing autographs before the show and also making an in-ring appearance during the course of the show. This is a good fit for two reasons. First, the show is in Canada and anything featuring Bret Hart in his home country is going to create a buzz. Second, Hart's in-ring style very much mirrored the hard-hitting style that Ring of Honor has prided itself on since its inception. I'm sure that Hart's interaction with the company will likely be more verbal than physical, but either way, I'd expect a raucous reception for Hart when he steps foot into the Ring of Honor ring in Toronto. In an interesting side note, Ric Flair will be appearing for the company the following night at the same arena. Given their history, I wouldn't be shocked to hear about a senior throwdown at baggage claim over at Pearson International on the prior Thursday afternoon.

-- As a quick update on a couple of stories that I've touched on in previous editions, the buzz going around TNA is that Roxxi asked for her release while she was serving her suspension for the backstage altercation with Kurt Angle's sweet brown sugar Rakha Kahn. This runs contrary to popular belief that Roxxi was suspended and then released for the incident because of who she is in the company and who Kahn is banging in the company. I can't say that I'm inclined to believe this one completely because Roxxi had to know that she'd be behind the eight ball with the company after running afoul of one of TNA's biggest stars by proxy. She may have 'asked' for her release, but I would suspect that she was coerced into it by the situation at hand. In other update news, after the WWE released Superstar Billy Graham from his consulting contract, it was thought that Graham had lost ownership of the name that made him famous and that he could no longer use the gimmick. Whether there was a backlash within the company or it was simpy an error from a pencil-pusher who sent out the wrong letter with the release, the company contacted Graham earlier this week and let him know that he indeed owns all three names he competed under. Wayne Coleman (his given name), Billy Graham and Superstar Billy Graham. Say what you will about the WWE, but they tend to try their best to take care of their own once they're retired if they stay on good terms with the company. This situation works out best for everyone as the WWE doesn't have the negative publicity of taking from a retiree and Graham gets to continue using the name on the autograph and appearance circuit. That's a win-win in my book.



Tuesday


The Show



ECW on Sci-Fi Results:

Evan Bourne vs. Tyson Kidd - Winner: Evan Bourne (pinfall, Shooting Star Press)
Vladimir Kozlov vs. Jesse Guilmette - Winner: Vladimir Kozlov (pinfall, spinebuster)
Tommy Dreamer and Christian vs. Mark Henry and Jack Swagger - Winners: Mark Henry and Jack Swagger (pinfall, Swagger's gutwrench powerbomb on Dreamer)

ECW this week continued with their three main storylines, the rise of newcomers like Evan Bourne and Tyson Kidd through the ranks, Vladimir Kozlov laying beatdowns on jobbers Russian-style and the three-way battle for the ECW Championship between Christian, former champion Jack Swagger and Tommy Dreamer. In this show, all three of them were furthered, but only two of them were furthered in such a way to actually have a point. The pointless one I refer to is the squash match featuring Vladimir Kozlov. Now I'm not one to deny the fact that a well-placed squash can help solidify a heel into a monster, but this is starting to seem like they have nothing better to do with him so they continue sticking him into the squashes week after week. If they're not careful people will forget about everything that he's done previously on Smackdown and just think of him as the guy that crushes jobbers all over the place. He gained a ton of credibility on Smackdown including a clean win over The Undertaker and it would be very counter-productive for them to forget all of that based on trying to get him over as a different character in ECW.

The two storylines that moved further that actually meant something and were entertaining got a lot of time at both the open and the close of the show. The beginning of the show went right into a great little bout between Evan Bourne and Tyson Kidd that got almost fifteen minutes in the ring, minus the commercial break. I said from the beginning when Kidd debuted that he should be built into a long feud with Bourne and this match looked like the first step in that feud. As the case has been with most of Bourne's matches since his comeback, this one blended mat wrestling and highspots rather seamlessly and Kidd was able to remain fairly close to Bourne despite not having nearly the experience on the main roster that Bourne has. This one wasn't quite as good as the match between Bourne and John Morrison, mainly because of the screwy finish in this one and thef fact that Kidd has a long way to go to get to the level that someone like Morrison is at. While I'm never a fan of a screwy finish in a quality match, it didn't hurt this one very much because it fit into the storyline running between Finlay and Kidd and also avoided giving away a clean finish until the match between these two means more.

The main event was scheduled to be a non-title bout between ECW Champion Christian and Mark Henry, but after some interference from Jack Swagger and a save from Tommy Dreamer, the bout was turned into a tag team main event. This one was almost like an audition for Tommy Dreamer to try to prove that he still belongs with the guys in the upper part of the card like Christian and Swagger. He did it all, from putting together a nice heat sequence to hitting a surprising cannonball off the apron to the floor onto Mark Henry, to finally taking the pinfall after a little heelishness from Swagger. Dreamer did a great job in making himself seem like he's on their level and a serious title threat and Swagger did a fantastic job at the end of the match by cheating to win after slamming Dreamer into the exposed turnbuckle and hitting the gutwrench powerbomb. The only man that came out of the match in about the same shape as he was going into it was Mark Henry. Since the introduction of Christian to the roster and the ECW Championship win by Jack Swagger, Henry has been in a state of limbo. He's not really viewed as a legitimate title challenger anymore, at least by me, and there's no one else that he can believably feud with outside of the current champion or someone like Finlay, who's already tied in with Tyson Kidd. Once the Swagger/Dreamer/Christian title triangle is over, I'd expect to see Henry moving back into the title scene if there's a babyface champion.


The Stories


Going....going.........gone?

-- Tuesday went back to the kind of quiet day that Sunday was as the only thing that really grabbed my attention was the continuing tease from Batista that he is considering retirement. Earlier in the week he conducted an interview and spoke briefly about retiring and on Tuesday, an interview with the UK's Sun newspaper surfaced where Batista said the following;

"I realize that I am closer to the end of my career than I am to the beginning. It's something I'm really going to have to take a look at. I don't want to hang around past my welcome. I also don't want to hang around to the point where I'm so beat up that it's hard for me to get out of bed. I don't want to be that guy."

While I'll admit, I'm harder on Batista than most because of his somewhat stale character and his reputation for being a bit of a brat behind the scenes, it's refreshing to see him taking the stance that he wants to end things before he's crippled. If that's the case, I would expect to see him finished within the next year or so as he seems like he's always one match away from the next crippling muscle tear or injury that has marked his career up to this point. If that's the case then this run with Randy Orton could be Batista's last sniff at the title and from there he could find himself working to help put over some new stars on his way out. As much as I'll give Batista credit for an incredibly quick rise and a career that has seen him accomplish a great deal despite a late start in the business, it wouldn't be a huge loss for me personally to see him go. I'm not a big fan of his work in the past couple of years and I'm all for someone getting out of the business before they end up seriously injured to where they can't enjoy their retired life. I'm sure there are a million different things that someone with Batista's look and training could do after he's done with wrestling and I'll certainly wish him the best when that time comes.



Wednesday


The Stories

-- Well, it's happened again. Wednesday seems to be the worst day for wrestling news. I'm not sure if it's because there are no shows from any of the major companies and that most of the tapings for other shows that air later in the week have already taken place, but every Wednesday seems to be worse than the one before when it comes to the news. There were some minor bits like the battle between cities in Florida for WrestleMania 29, Sherri Shepherd being so enamored with wrestling after her appearance on Smackdown that she wants to train to be a professional wrestler, and Chuck Palumbo planning a ride from San Diego, CA to Rockingham, NC to raise money and awareness for soldiers wounded in Afghanistan and Iraq and their families. However, the major news seems to take a break on Hump Day and this week was no exception. Hopefully next week will see some big news happening on every day of the week, but until then...




Thursday


The Shows



WWE Superstars Results:

Santina Marella and Kelly Kelly vs. Beth Phoenix and Rosa Mendes - Winners: Santina Marella and Kelly Kelly (pinfall, Kelly's legdrop on Mendes)
Zack Ryder vs. Finlay - Winner: Finlay (pinfall, Celtic Cross)
John Morrison vs. Chris Jericho - Winner: Chris Jericho (pinfall, Codebreaker)

The best little wrestling show in the WWE keeps chugging along as Superstars has consistently put on quality matches since its debut. This week was no different as outside of the Diva nonsense with Santino and Beth Phoenix, the show was very solid in terms of in-ring action. Finlay was part of the wrestling action as he destroyed Zack Ryder in his new-woo-woo-woo gimmick. The match was basically there to give Finlay something to do while essentially making a job guy like Ryder into a job guy with a funny gimmick. I know they're trying to do something with him over on the ECW show and I wish them the best of luck with that, but I just don't see it happening for him based on this character. He seems to be a big hit in the comments section of every TV report he's mentioned in, but I don't think it's going to have legs to go anywhere.

Before finishing up with the in-ring action by talking about the fun main event between Chris Jericho and John Morrison, I'd like to touch on the Cutting Edge segment featuring Edge and Jeff Hardy that ran to open the show. This was the first full-on interview segment that's opened the show since the show began and it was a very solid piece of business heading into Hardy's championship challenge at Judgment Day. Edge nearly veered into shoot territory, talking about how he's made the most of every opportunity presented to him while Jeff has squandered chance after chance due to various reasons. He continued on the same vein as Matt Hardy had, calling Jeff a screw-up and a failure and a bunch of other slanderous names before Jeff finally attacked and hit a Twist of Fate and a Swanton Bomb to close out the segment. To me, this was a great segment as it not only built up the current match with the attack at the end of the show but helped use their history together through their WWE tenures to give this one a feel similar to the Edge/Cena match-up at Backlash. Solid mic work from both men and something that makes me feel a lot more interested in the match than I was last week when it was made with Hardy's victory.

Moving back into the ring for the main event, Chris Jericho and John Morrison met in a match that will help whet the appetites of fans everywhere for a full-on feud between them sometime down the road. As it is, this one is more of a standalone match that was there more as a continuation of the program between Morrison and Shelton Benjamin on Smackdown than the beginning of a program between Morrison and Jericho. As usual, Jericho was sharp in the ring and looked great, though I'm starting to worry a little bit about his direction on Smackdown as he seems to be a bit of a rudderless ship with only his desire to be World Heavyweight Champion guiding him. I know he's not been on Smackdown for long, but he's seeming like he's not going to be involved in a one-on-one feud anytime soon and that's when Jericho is at his best. Working a bit more free-form ends up leaving Jericho forgotten more often than not and considering the stellar year he had last year, that would be a real crime. Like I said previously, a feud between an elevated Morrison and Jericho on Smackdown would be fantastic and I would really like it if Morrison and Benjamin's program is over with before the end of summer so that something with him and Jericho can possibly get underway.




TNA Impact Results:

Consequences Creed vs. Suicide - Winner: Suicide (pinfall, double-knee jawbreaker)
Main Event Mafia Security vs. Matt Morgan - Winner: Matt Morgan (pinfall, Carbon Footprint on Sal)
Beer Money Inc. vs. Eric Young and Jethro Holiday - Winners: Beer Money Inc. (pinfall, DWI on Young)
Stretcher Match: Velvet Sky vs. Awesome Kong - Winner: Awesome Kong
Ten-Man Tag Team Match: Booker T, Scott Steiner, Kurt Angle, Kevin Nash and Sting w/Sharmell and Jenna Morasca vs. Jeff Jarrett, AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, Mick Foley and Daniels - Winners: Booker T, Scott Steiner, Kurt Angle, Kevin Nash and Sting (pinfall, Sting on Foley)

TNA continued their build to Sacrifice and the four-way match for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship on Thursday as not only did Kurt Angle end up reiterating the sacrifice he plans on making to get into the match, but Sting earned his way into the bout with a pinfall over Mick Foley in the night's ten-man tag match main event. Of course, as with most things in TNA, how they got there was a lot less simple, but it was actually an entertaining program this week which was a bonus. The show opened with yet another Main Event Mafia interview segment with Kurt Angle decrying the ten-man tag main event as a waste of a match that could headline a pay-per-view anywhere in the world. Mick Foley came out to address that and they talked a little more about the main event for Impact and for Sacrifice, with Foley saying that he's going to not only retain his championship, but gain the Godfather role in the Mafia as well. Later in the show, Sting made a deal with Jeff Jarrett that stated that if he was able to get a pinfall victory over Mick Foley in the night's main event that he would be allowed to take one of the two remaining spots in the four-way title match at Sacrifice.

The main event came and things ended up being a bit of a clusterfuck as all ten guys tried to get in some work and it led to a match that was disrupted by constant tags rather than having any kind of flow. It's not that the match was terrible, it was just too disjointed to be terribly enjoyable. The end came with Mick Foley trying to attack Jeff Jarrett with a barbed wire baseball bat and Jarrett hitting a Stroke on Foley that drove his face into the bat. Sting snuck in under the ropes and picked up the cover and the win, earning his way into the title match. In keeping with the stipulations, he chose his career as his sacrifice, saying that if he's pinned during the match, he'll hang it up and never wrestle again. Not only did the main event set that storyline in motion, it continued the storyline of dissension between Jeff Jarrett and the rest of the TNA locker room as none of them saw Foley try to attack Jarrett, leaving them to wonder why Jarrett dropped Foley and dropped the ball in costing their team the match. Samoa Joe especially, and to a lesser extent Daniels and Styles all looked like they were rather unhappy with the loss and with Jarrett's actions that led to the loss. Coupled with the tension between everyone before Lockdown, it seems like the Jarrett storyline is on a slow burn and headed for a (hopefully) dramatic conclusion.

Another continuing storyline was the "Who is Suicide?" angle that the Motor City Machine Guns started last week in a great segment with Daniels. This week, Consequences Creed took on Suicide and lost in a solid X-Division match and later in the show, Creed came out to call out Daniels and try to force him into admitting that he is indeed pulling double-duty under the mask. As with last week's accusation, Daniels came out to talk to Creed and Jay Lethal face to face, telling Creed that if he was more concerned with how to beat Suicide rather than who Suicide is, he might have actually won the match. Daniels also got into Jay Lethal's face calling him a joke for his "Black Machismo" deal before Lethal paintbrushed him. The Motor City Machine Guns came out again, promising that next week they're going to unmask Suicide and prove that he is Daniels before giving everyone tickets to the Guns' Show. Much like last week, I loved this segment as it was something compelling that featured all of the new crop of TNA's stars without having any involvement from the old guard of guys like Jarrett, Angle, Sting or Foley. While Creed was a little wooden during some spots of his promo, all five guys that were involved in the segment were fantastic and it was one of the better in-ring talky segments in recent weeks, at least for me.

The last thing I want to touch on out of Impact is the Awesome Kong/Velvet Sky "stretcher match". I used the air quotes there because that was less a stretcher match and more a legalized attempted murder. What they're doing with Kong's path of revenge as she works her way through the Beautiful People to get her hands on Angelina Love for screwing her out of the Knockouts title is great stuff. She's getting her revenge in a way that is within the rules of TNA and also a way that is going to allow the fans to feel like she's coming back from the loss to Love in a way that makes her back into the monster she was before the defeat. In my opinion, what they're doing with Kong is EXACTLY the same thing that they should have done with Samoa Joe when he made his comeback. They made the match with Scott Steiner and it seemed like Joe was going to cut through the Mafia one man at a time to get his way to the leader of the group, but it's since devolved into silliness with knives, face tattoos, multiple disqualifications and a Nation of Violence that is seeming less cool by the week. If they had had Joe come back with his new look, but with Kong's attitude and her killer instinct, he would be over like Rover by now instead of getting the lukewarm tweener reactions he's been getting in recent weeks. Yet another way that TNA can still manage to frustrate me while putting on an otherwise very entertaining program.


The Stories


Vince might not die, but he could run out of money one day if this keeps up....

-- The WWE released their first quarter numbers for the fiscal year of 2009 and things look like they're starting to take a downturn in Titanland. Across the board, numbers were down including television rights fees, home video revenues, licensing revenues, WWE.com and WWEShop.com revenues and live and televised entertainment revenues. While the WWE tried to pass off most of the decline on the fact that WrestleMania fell in the second quarter this year and the first quarter last year, a lot of the gaps that they are showing are larger than the loss of the yearly WrestleMania revenue. In this economy, they're still making money, but it appears that the effects of the recession are definitely being felt in Stamford. It looks as if the company is feeling the pinch the most in their "disposable income" departments like pay-per-view buyrates, home video releases, video game and toy releases, which saw some of the biggest losses with no way to attribute them to the loss of the WrestleMania revenue. People just aren't spending the money like they used to on things like DVD's and video games and until such time where money is a little more expendable for Joe Wrestling Fan, the WWE had better get used to these new numbers because they're likely going to stay that way for a while. Given that we're getting close to the every fifteen or twenty years or so that sees a boom in the wrestling business, things won't always be this bad for the WWE, provided that they can find some new stars to get the public's attention, but for now money seems to be drying up out of the WWE pool.


Why not just get the "Billionaire Ted" guy instead?

-- After a Twitter update from Eric Bischoff earlier in the week that saw him state that both Ted Turner and former WCW executive Bill Shaw were contacted for interviews by the WWE with both men refusing, it appeared that the much-discussed WCW DVD set was in production. Well, that information has been confirmed as the WWE's "Rise and Fall of WCW" three-disc DVD set will be released on August 25th. The shock to me isn't that Ted Turner declined the interview or that Eric Bischoff will likely be involved in the project, but that it's only going to be three discs. They could spend a whole disc alone talking about the depths of WCW in the early 90's, the rise of the company through the lucrative nWo years and then the absolute collapse that saw a company that had once been a multi-million dollar company sold for less than $2 million. That story could cover two discs now that I think about it. My hope is that when it comes to the documentary portion they don't pull any punches and that when they choose the matches for the disc, they try as hard as possible to avoid having repeats from previous sets while still hitting all of the major moments. I didn't see much of WCW when they were getting near the end, so I would love it if they threw some of that stuff on there as well since it's very important to the history of the company, albeit in a negative way. All I know is that if this thing is anywhere near as well done as the Rise and Fall of ECW set, I will be watching this one numerous times over.


The only line I hope this guy ever crosses is a firing line...

-- Speaking of companies that fast-tracked their own demise, Thursday saw a rumor making the rounds that TNA is in negotiations with Spencer Pratt from the vapid TV show The Hills to possibly make an appearance at TNA's Slammiversary event. I'm not sure if this is a case of TNA people being fans of the show and wanting a cross-over or Spencer being a publicity whore and looking to get his face on camera any way he knows how, but the only way that this is worth anything to me is if they bring him in and Abyss gets to give him an even bigger Black Hole Slam than the one he gave Cody Deaner a couple of weeks back on Impact. If that happens, it's worth every penny they give him to bring him into the company. Don't take my apathy to this as a statement that I hate all celebrity involvement in professional wrestling because I don't and when it's done right I actually enjoy that kind of thing. However, this is a company struggling to make a name for itself that makes itself look even worse by clutching at any and all celebrity involvement, no matter how unimportant that celebrity is. From what I've seen of the guy from the clips of the show I've seen on The Soup, Spencer seems like a bit of a douche and would be completely the wrong fit for TNA at this time or at any time. I'm praying that this one ends up falling by the wayside and stays a rumor because Spencer and his weird, wispy, patchy, ugly-looking, pale, flesh-colored beard would be more of a detriment to TNA than a help.



Friday


The Show



Friday Night Smackdown Results:

R-Truth vs. Mike Knox - Winner: Mike Knox (pinfall, swinging reverse STO)
Michelle McCool vs. Gail Kim - Winner: Michelle McCool (pinfall, Faith Breaker)
John Morrison vs. Charlie Haas - Winner: John Morrison (pinfall, split-legged corkscrew moonsault)
CM Punk vs. Edge - Winner: CM Punk (countout)
Dolph Ziggler vs. The Great Khali - Winner: The Great Khali (disqualification, repeated Ziggler chairshots)
Jeff Hardy vs. Chris Jericho - Winner: Jeff Hardy (pinfall, Swanton Bomb)

Le sigh. It always seems like something. For reasons beyond my control, the site that e-mails me the links to my Smackdown show went down and I wasn't able to find a stable version of the full show to use to write up a report on. Sticking to my "honesty is the best" policy of not writing about a show I haven't had the chance to see, I'll refrain from talking about the show and instead talk about how excited I am with the new direction that Smackdown seems to be taking, focusing on guys that are a little bit smaller and a little bit more talented in the ring. I'm not sure if it will ever reach the levels of the oft-mentioned Smackdown Six days, but guys like CM Punk, Edge, Chris Jericho, John Morrison and Shelton Benjamin may very well be the future of the business in terms of making Smackdown the better show over Raw. It won't mean anything in how either brand is presented, but it would be fun to see the red-headed stepchild of the WWE get their moment in the sun again while providing WWE fans with a fun wrestling alternative to the sing-offs, bikini contests and other nonsense that seems to bloat Raw and prevent wrestlers from shining.

As a small aside, it says a lot about R-Truth's place in the company when he's getting taken out by a guy like Mike Knox, who hasn't beaten anyone worth anything since he was threatening Kelly Kelly with a backhander for bringing him the wrong kind of soda. I'm sure he's happy with the money he's making and the exposure and all, especially after TNA seemed to have no idea what to do with him, but how much would he be enjoying life in Orlando right now instead of being pinned by a bearded behemoth like Knox. And what does it say about the Styles Clash when it's stolen by a Diva instead of one of the main roster wrestlers. One of the most underrated finishing moves in wrestling and it's a shame that McCool is going to end up ruining it for Styles on the very minute chance that he ends up in WWE someday. Maybe if Styles is lucky, he'll show up after The Undertaker has retired and McCool will end up back on the scrap heap where she was before they started dating.


The Stories


Right here.....in London, England.....

-- Two Twitter references in one column? I wonder if I should finally get on board and actually use mine on a regular basis. TNA's Jeremy Borash updated fans on the status of TNA's new hour-long highlight show called TNA Epics using his Twitter account. Apparently, the show will be UK-only and hosted by current TNA World Heavyweight Champion Mick Foley. As mentioned when first reported on in the Bell to Bell a few weeks back, the show will feature a bevy of highlights and match clips from the history of TNA, going all the way back to the debut show, through the Nashville Fairgrounds "Asylum" era, all the way up to the Impact Zone in Orlando and worldwide PPV. I have to admit that I'm a little disappointed in the fact that I don't get to see this show because there are a few gaps that I have to fill in my TNA history before they started Impact on FSN. I bought the odd weekly PPV, but didn't keep up with them fairly regularly and there's lots of footage that I haven't seen. Leave it to the UK and Canada to have the best stuff regarding old TNA shows as the UK has this Epics program while ESPN Classic Canada used to show (I'm not sure, they still might show them for all I know) the full two-hour weekly PPV shows from the beginning of the company. I'm not suggesting that I would ever move to the UK or Canada strictly for TNA programming, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little jealous.



Saturday

The Show



ROH on HDNet Results:

MsChif and Jimmy Jacobs vs. Daizee Haze and Delirious - Winners: Daizee Haze and Delirious (pinfall, Haze's Mind Trip on MsChif)
The American Wolves vs. Orange Cassidey and Leslie Butterscotch- Winners: The American Wolves (pinfall, superkick/German suplex combination on Butterscotch)
Tyler Black vs. Bryan Danielson - Winner: None (Double Countout)

This is mainly an action based show that hasn't had a lot going by way of storylines, so I'll just hit this with some bullet points to touch on things that jump out at me as I watch the show before deadline.

-- LOVING the suits on Hogewood and Prazak. It makes them look a lot more legitimate than the polo shirts and slacks deal did in the first six weeks.

-- Solid, SOLID heel promo work from Nigel there and the best part about it is that it's the truth. There wasn't really anything he said that could be disputed and I loved his "Jeritol Lynn" dig on the current champ. Even though he's a heel, he still put over Lynn and the belt, which is huge for the company and will be huge for McGuinness when he comes back. Two straight weeks of opening segments with in-ring interviews and both of them were tremendously done.

-- The Age of the Fall....never has there been a more apt name for a faction as after a build that had nearly the whole wrestling world buzzing, they've been reduced to an unimportant heel faction that means even less than a Sweeney-less Sweet and Sour Inc.

-- Yeah....and that's why they're not relevant in ROH. Daizee Haze and Delirious are great and all, but AOF are beginning to look like all show and no go. Unless they can get some traction soon, it'd probably be the best thing to just split them up and be done with it.

-- Is there a difference between European and American douchebags? I mean other than the whole metric system thing.

-- I think the American Wolves would have had more of a challenge if they had taken on Orange Julius and Werther's Original.

-- If Edwards has a bit more muscle to him, the Wolves would be like a 21st Century version of the British Bulldogs. Gotta love Hogewood saying that Orange Cassidey is "not long for this world".

-- BWAAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAAAAA!! That Butterscotch guy looked like a fly running into Richards. He's like 110 pounds and the fact that they even had to sell Butterscotch's forearms was laughable.

-- Flair continues to do a great job in putting over ROH and the stereo whoooo's were pretty funny too, considering that Durden looked like he was jizzing in his pants over it.

-- COLT!!!! And the EM BAH SEE!!! It's like the good old days all over again, which can be good and bad considering that ECW tried to do something similar when they finally got on TV by recycling some of their older angles and stars. Hopefully they know when to say when and don't sacrifice the current stars for re-hashes.

-- I laughed out loud at the guy in the front row wearing a Santino shirt while doing Danielson's chant at the beginning of the match. Tremendous.

-- I'm just waiting for one of these days when Danielson just cranks someone's head off with that headlock. I'm convinced he'd be able to get three and a half stars out of the headless corpse for the rest of the match.

-- I know I say it all the time, but I find myself posting less during the main events due to the quality of the action and this week is no execption. I've always loved Danielson's intensity and Black has a lot of work to do if he's going to catch up to that to pick up the win.

-- Oh wait, I'm supposed to be posting stuff. Let me get off of the edge of my seat so that I can reach the keys. Gotta love the sunset flip/victory roll spot around the ring. It's like an update on the old-fashioned airplane spin.

-- Are the rules that if your favorite wrestler flies into the crowd you can keep him? If you don't like him, do you have to throw him back like Wrigley Field?

-- Sigh. Double countout. I hope this is leading to some sort of iron-man match or something on a future ROH broadcast that has both guys going all out for forty-five minutes. Maybe even a full hour if we get a live ROH on HDNet special someday. I know I'd be there with a front row seat in front of my big-ass TV.


The Stories


-- Another gap in terms of solid stories to report on Saturday, but a couple of things piqued my interest so I figured I'd mention them. The DVD extras for WrestleMania XXV were announced and what we'll be getting with the DVD copy of the event will be the entire 2009 Hall of Fame Ceremony, the Tag Title Unification Lumberjack match we got fucked out of on the PPV and then highlight packages from all twenty-four previous WrestleManias. While I love the fact that we're getting the Hall of Fame Ceremony, the rest of it feels like a pretty big rip-off as the match that is now a DVD "extra" should have been featured during the actual PPV broadcast and the highlight packages are made up of clips that have been on tons of other WWE releases. It's WrestleMania XXV so I'm sure it would sell a shit-ton of copies regardless of the extras offered, but it feels like a bit of a slap in the face when the only thing that is worthy of being called an extra is the HOF deal.


I neeeeeeeeeed CONDITIONING........................Conditioning....

-- Another quick note as oft-injured WWE Superstar Ken Kennedy made his return to the ring in a six-man tag team match as part of a Florida Championship Wrestling television taping. A lot of people are down on Kennedy since he's been unable to sustain the momentum that drove him to Raw with a Money in the Bank title shot in tow back in 2007. Since then, a movie, a scandal with steroids and various injury woes have forced Kennedy into a role as an afterthought within the company. It's good to see that he's back in the ring and I hope that he's able to have a long run without any injuries. That being said, he's got a LOT of work to do if he's going to get himself back over with the people and become a fixture in the main event scene again. Nearly all of the things that he did to get himself to that point where he earned the Money in the Bank win has been undone and he's going to have to find a way to get it all back and stay injury-free for the long haul before he's able to even be considered as someone who can help carry a brand like Raw or Smackdown. I know that he's supposed to be a huge star and he's going to be part of the Raw roster after being drafted over in the Supplemental Draft, but it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world for him if he was to find himself in ECW. It'd be a great spot for him to regain his form and for him to get back into the groove of things after such a long period of stops and starts. If he comes back on Raw and stinks up the joint in the ring, the fans will turn on him in a second, so he'd better hope that these FCW matches are going to be enough to shake off the ring rust.


Well folks, that does it for me this week. Randle's got you covered from the heart of Canada tomorrow and I'll be back next week with a look at Judgment Day as well all of the action and happenings in the world of wrestling. In the meantime and in between time, I'll see you all back here next time for another brand-new edition of the Bell to Bell. Take care everybody!


If you're a fan of MMA, be sure to check out Nokaut.com for more of my work.