The Bell To Bell News Report 08.16.09

Posted by Randy Harrison on 08.16.2009

Kurt Angle throws TNA's Hard Justice pay-per-view into chaos by getting arrested, Paul Roma tries desperately to stay relevant in the world of wrestling and I weigh in with my thoughts on Raw, Smackdown, ECW and Impact. All of that and so much more coming up in this week's Bell to Bell!




It's Sunday, so that means that it's time for your weekly fix on all things wrestling...well...if you haven't gotten it from Meehan...or Small....or Randle....or any of the eighteen other fine writers on staff here at 411. The week in news had been so slow, it was near-death as TNA limped towards Hard Justice and the WWE continued the hard sell to SummerSlam with DX ready for their "once every two years last time it'll ever happen we swear" reunion. Other than those types of developments and ROH preparing to try to leech off of the built-in wrestling audience for Monday nights, there was nothing. No drama, no backstage politics, no drug suspensions, no shoot promos. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. The biggest news of the week in my opinion was finding out when the tickets for UFC 104 go on sale so that I can make sure to snatch some good ones up for my birthday celebration. That is, until TNA World Heavyweight Champion Kurt Angle imploded and was arrested in Pittsburgh, just one night before the Hard Justice PPV.

I'm not someone that revels in someone else's misery, but the Angle situation has definitely provided some much needed material for this week's column, so stay tuned for the Main Event for all of the details with my thoughts. Along with that and my usual take on all things wrestling television related, I'll sift through the interview with a wrestling legend that everyone's talking about and give my two cents on the man that everyone seems to hate and respect all at once, I'll introduce you to a website that gives new life to old wrestling and stars from back in the day, and I'll probably throw in a video or two as well since those seem to go over pretty well.


You know what's coming next....





Ding Ding....








WWE Monday Night Raw Results:

Kelly Kelly vs. Alicia Fox vs. Gail Kim vs. Beth Phoenix - Winner: Gail Kim (pinfall, big boot on Alicia)
Jack Swagger vs. Evan Bourne - Winner: Jack Swagger (pinfall, gutwrench powerbomb)
Contract on a Pole Match: Eugene vs. Calgary Kid - Winner: The Calgary Kid (contract retrieval)
Randy Orton vs. The Big Show - Winner: The Big Show (count out)
MVP vs. Chris Masters - Winner: MVP (pinfall, Playmaker)
Mark Henry and Hornswoggle vs. Ted DiBiase and Cody Rhodes - Winners: Ted DiBiase and Cody Rhodes (pinfall, Dream Street on Hornswoggle)
Chris Jericho vs. John Cena - Winner: None (no contest, Orton-ference)


Raw came to us this week from Calgary, home of the Flames, the Stampeders and the legendary Hart wrestling family and after last week's Jeremy Piven trainwreck, the WWE tried to top it by tabbing Sgt. Slaughter as a guest host in "bizarro world". As a side rant, I am seriously getting sick of hearing every WWE announcer say that as it's not bizarro world when a fan is voicing their opinion on what they think sucks. Sure, there's a lot of homerism for Canadian wrestlers from Canadian fans, but outside of that they tend to be pretty spot-on when it comes to ripping on people that aren't very good. Granted, they may not be as clever as fans from Philadelphia or the East Coast that can chant "You fucked up" when their favorite spot monkey misses his triple quebrada half-gainer split-legged 950 splash, but the Canadian wrestling fans are always hot and always ready for a good show. Part of what made Raw from 1996/1997 so good was that when the Bret Hart feud with Steve Austin was in full swing the Canadian crowds pushed the American crowds to be a little more vocal and into the product. Once the Canada/US deal started, the Canadian fans went nuts and the fans in the States had to follow suit, leading to the crowds in the US staying hot for a good long while after the feud was finshed. Some of the best shows take place in Canada because of how insane the crowd is and how into the product they are no matter who they're cheering for, so to keep insulting them like that by suggesting that they're "bizarre" for not being sheep that follow the WWE's storylines chapter and verse is a little insulting. If they're not careful those same fans that are so hot for every live event and house show could start turning their crazy opinions on the WWE and their lazy, tired, cliched booking, and things wouldn't be quite so bizarre then.

On to the actual show, the Slaughter stuff wasn't bad and his heel turn on the Canuck crowd was pretty funny, even though the Bret Hart bit is starting to get a little overdone. I like that they're trying to freshen it up a bit by not having every guest host be a simpering babyface, but they could have done a lot better than Slaughter for this show if you ask me. The Contract on a Pole match was a highlight for me as the whole Calgary Kid thing was pretty funny to me and a good way to get Miz back onto Raw. The only thing I have a problem with is that because of the ADD attention span of people these days, the angle got crammed into two weeks instead of being played out for a couple of months. Have Miz go around to all of the different cities under the hood now that he has his contract (Memphis Kid, Norfolk Kid, Tampa Kid, etc.) and have him wrestle as a face, helping guys like Cena and Kingston when they're in trouble. Book a mid-show main event with a top-level face and Kid teaming up and have Kid turn on said face and THEN reveal that he's The Miz, drawing an insane amount of heat for his efforts. Hell, have him do it against Cena as revenge for having to even win his contract back in the first place and give the Cena/Miz feud a real chance instead of half-assing it like they did when it came to the matches. Sure, they feuded for a while and anything more than six weeks is "stale booking" to some people, but a turn like that would have put Miz over huge and given him something meaningful to do to pay off being banned from Raw.

The crowd was on fire for the main event match and with good reason as Cena and Jericho seem to have a chemistry between them that keeps them from ever having a bad match. Unfortunately, in this case, the chemistry was there but the time was not as Randy Orton interfered before they even had a chance to get their feet wet in the ring. The finish was not terribly rewarding, but with the tag match announced for next week and SummerSlam coming and all of them needing to be kept strong for the big bouts, it was pretty much expected. Again, the fans were a big part of this match as the people were giving Cena a ton of heat, both heel and face, and Jericho played off of it beautifully. As much as the WWE loves having the wacky mismatched partners as tag champs gimmick, I just don't see them pulling the trigger on that next week with Orton and Cena as it would add nothing to their match and would only serve to weaken the card for the event as Jericho and Show are actually in a position to do some good in elevating Cryme Tyme with the Unified Tag Title match. If I had to wager a guess, I'd put money on Orton costing Cena the match with Cena getting some comeuppance the following week and Orton retaining the belt. They really could use some stability with the major titles in my opinion, so maybe that's just my personal feelings taking over common sense, but I'd rather see Orton win and hold the belt all the way through the fall so that when he loses, it just might mean something.

The biggest portion of the night's show and the main storyline for the entire two hours was the impending return of Shawn Michaels at the behest of his best friend Triple H and the "hilarity" that ensued in the attempt. After a phone call last week, Triple H paid his friend a visit at his new job as a short order cook. There's been a lot of people that have been upset by these segments and how much of the show they dominated considering they weren't very good, but to me they were harmless fun at best, boring at worst, and it's a lot better to get it all over with at once, like a band-aid. If this was ten years ago, the segments would probably have been drawn out over a month or so, sucking the life out of multiple shows. By sticking them all in one two hour period, we get everything out of the way and we'll probably only be subjected to one week of juvenile antics next week before the SummerSlam match. As I touched on last week, I would love to see one last run from Michaels as a heel before he retires and his goofy schtick in the segments from this past Monday only underscores how great it would be to see Michaels turn on Triple H. Add to that the fact that it would be sweet revenge for Michaels, who has trusted Triple H numerous times only to be stabbed in the back, and I have my fingers crossed.





ECW on SyFy Results:

Zach Ryder vs. Shelton Benjamin - Winner: Shelton Benjamin (pinfall, Paydirt)
Vladimir Kozlov vs. Kevin Brooks - Winner: Vladimir Kozlov (pinfall, Iron Curtain)
Paul Burchill vs. Yoshi Tatsu - Winner: Yoshi Tatsu (disqualification, Katie Lea-ference)
Tyler Reks vs. Tom James - Winner: Tyler Reks (pinfall, springboard missile dropkick)
William Regal vs. Tommy Dreamer - Winner: William Regal (pinfall, running knee to the head)


ECW on SyFy had a bit of a crowded week this week with FIVE matches and an Abraham Washington interview segment crammed into forty-four minutes of television time. I have a problem with ECW when they try to stick four matches into their show as it tends to take away from everything when things are happening quicker than you can even process them. This week, the problem was even bigger as we had three matches under three minutes, one over four and one over five. That's just too much stuff happening for any of it to mean anything. The Kozlov and Reks squashes were the same thing that we've seen over and over from both men and I still stand firm by my opinion that ECW needs to get rid of these squash matches if they're going to begin putting on the kind of quality television that they were when John Morrison and CM Punk were on the brand. If they had pulled those matches this past Tuesday, the Ryder/Benjamin match could have had another two or three minutes and the main event could have been an eight or ten minute match instead of nearly five, which just doesn't feel like enough time for a number one contender's match for the brand's only championship.

The matches that actually got time (or at least more time than two minutes) were not terrible as Ryder and Benjamin put on about the best three minute match that they could have while putting together a nice little appetizer platter for a future match between the two that would hopefully get a little bit more time. The main event with Dreamer and Regal was solid with Regal in control for the majority, laying a beating on Dreamer before becoming the new number one contender for the ECW Championship with a running knee. The after-match beating with Regal slapping the Regal Stretch on until Christian made the save was a nice touch as well, adding another layer to Christian/Regal while putting Regal over as a shooter and big threat to Christian's belt. The interview segment with Abraham Washington was at least bearable as Christian did a good job of saving the segment with his charisma and it helped set up the main event. I still think that Washington's days are numbered if he keeps on like this because he's got to be getting the show over on his own rather than relying on having strong guests to save it. Unless he changes something up or magically improves by leaps and bounds overnight, he might be heading back to developmental before too long.

The markout moment of the show for pretty much anyone with a pulse was the return of The Hurricane after months of injury and years of other gimmicks. During the post-match shenanigans featuring Paul and Katie Lea Burchill beating down Yoshi Tatsu, The Hurricane returned to save the day and got a nice pop in the process. ECW is definitely the place for The Hurricane as he will be able to get the odd match here and there without getting lost in the shuffle and could even see himself getting a run at a championship shot when Christian finally drops the belt. Raw and Smackdown would have no room for an act like The Hurricane, especially with Santino Marella and Hornswoggle and comedy acts like that eating into Helms' niche. I also like that they've finally paid off the backstage interviewer gimmick and I hope that they're going to continue it with Helms conducting interviews while his alter-ego The Hurricane does all of the heavy lifting in the ring.





WWE Superstars Results:

John Morrison vs. David Hart Smith - Winner: John Morrison (pinfall, Starship Pain)
Goldust vs. Sheamus - Winner: Goldust (pinfall, small package)
Kofi Kingston and Mickie James vs. Carlito and Rosa Mendes - Winners: Carlito and Rosa Mendes (pinfall, Carlito's Backstabber on Kingston)


Superstars was back to their usual winning format this week with a good mix of up and coming stars and veterans with little to no nonsense promo time eating into the quality wrestling. The show started out blazing with hometown hero David Hart Smith taking on one of the unsung stars of the WWE in the past six months, John Morrison. Neither man disappointed in this one as Morrison got the win to continue his hot streak, but Smith did more than enough to justify his place in the company and showed that there is potential there for him to have a nice little singles run once the Hart Dynasty teaming runs its course. These guys went move for move in a match that was over ten minutes and Morrison showed just how far he's come as a pro by not getting thrown by the face reactions for Smith from the Calgary crowd and the boos that he was receiving. He's absolutely worthy of all of the praise he's been getting and it's amazing to see how far he's come since he was Johnny Nitro, lackey to Eric Bischoff. He is someone that's got the mind for the business in terms of learning and growing as a wrestler and he's got the physical skills to be a star for a long time to come. The best thing is that he hasn't had to break his body in a ton of gimmick matches with ladders and tables to get there (yeah, he's had a few but not so many that he could be affected by them adversely), so he should hopefully be able to enjoy a longer career at the top because of it.

Goldust and Sheamus continued their mini-feud with another match between the two superstars and this week, and this one was just as good as the opening bout for me, something that came as a complete surprise to me as I was watching it. This one could be pointed to in the future as a bit of a coming out party for Sheamus as he showed that he has the chops to go in the ring with an exciting match that the crowd was actually into. If he can just add some depth to his character to give people that reason to care about him, he could turn out to be one of the better additions to the WWE's main roster in quite some time. I had dismissed him as being a little generic in his early weeks, but now I'm beginning to think that I was wrong and he is ready for the shot that he's been given. The only thing that I felt was a little off was the result as Sheamus could easily have gone over instead of Goldust, but if it means that we get to see another match between them next week with Sheamus out for revenge and beating up Goldust convincingly, I won't complain. Props to Sheamus for hanging with a consumate pro in Goldust, who had one of the best matches since his latest return to the WWE.

Unfortunately, the show kind of hit the wall there as the main event match with Mickie and Kofi taking on Rosa and Carlito fell flat and didn't do anything at all for me. It was perfectly serviceable, but would have been much better served by being the opening match of the show rather than the last. A show with the mixed tag at the beginning and Hart/Morrison as the main event would have been a whole lot better, especially when you consider how hot the crowd was for Hart. It's sad that it comes down to it, but I wouldn't be surprised if Raw was given the main event slot for the show because of how much better Smackdown has been received as of late. The WWE will stop at nothing to remind us that Raw is the A show and the one by which all others should be judged, even if it means putting a lower-quality match ahead of a better one to perpetuate the myth. As I said, this one wasn't actively bad or anything, it just didn't do anything for me and was just another match. Shame as this segment could have made this the best episode of Superstars in quite some time.





TNA Impact Results:

Christy Hemme vs. SoJo Bolt - Winner: Christy Hemme (pinfall, FFG)
Doug Williams vs. Hernandez - Winner: Hernandez (pinfall, sitout powerbomb)
Rhino and Jesse Neal vs. Eric Young and Sheik Abdul Bashir - Winners: Eric Young and Sheik Abdul Bashir (pinfall, Young rolls up Neal)
ODB vs Tara vs Angelina Love vs Awesome Kong - Winner: Tara (pinfall, roll-up on Kong)
Booker T and Scott Steiner vs. Team 3D - Winners: Booker T and Scott Steiner (pinfall, double chokeslam)
Matt Morgan vs. AJ Styles - Winner: Matt Morgan (pinfall, Carbon Footprint)


TNA Impact featured the go-home show for Hard Justice with a possible new star being born and a returning Knockout making a big impression. After spending a long time on the shelf with a neck injury, Impact started with a bang as Christy Hemme made her return to the company against Sojournor Bolt. Unfortunately, she had a bit of ring rust on her as she nearly crippled Sojo with a back bodydrop that ended up putting Bolt on her head. They seemed to rush the finish a little bit after that spot, but there wasn't a lot going on so that's not the end of the world. I'm beginning to wonder if Hemme wouldn't be better served in one of her other roles as backstage interviewer or manager. Her in-ring work has always been spotty at best and I think that she would do a lot better job and be a lot more productive for the company outside of the ring. With the rumor going that TNA may be getting more TV time, it's unlikely that Hemme will be pulled out of the ring however as the Knockouts division needs all the depth that it can get, no matter how much of a liability a performer is.

Hernandez continued his roll to the top of the card as well as he took on Doug Williams with the rest of the Brits at ringside as backup. Hernandez looked great again, especially in the finishing sequence where he caught Williams off the cross bodyblock and threw him into the air for a massive power bomb. The Brits attacked Hernandez after the bell, including a nasty briefcase shot by Rob Terry that left SuperMex boiling. It looks as though Hernandez is going to start at the bottom of the World Elite/Main Event Mafia collaboration and hopefully work his way all the way through to the top. There's a pretty good chance that we'll see some combination of these folks next week and in all honesty, it'd probably be a good week to see a handicap match with Hernandez challenging Williams and Magnus to step up to the plate since they can't handle him one-on-one. Good stuff from Hernandez for a second straight week and I'm excited at the prospect of some fresh blood near the top of the card.

Speaking of fresh blood, the main event scene has gotten a little bit of a facelift as Matt Morgan won his way into the TNA World Heavyweight Championship match at Hard Justice by defeating AJ Styles in the deciding match of their best of three series in the main event. Not only did Morgan have a pretty good match with Styles in the rubber match, but he showed a lot more personality than he has in a while and he added a lot of shades of gray to his character in the after-match promo with Kurt Angle. Angle was great as the manipulator trying to make Morgan seem like a welcomed asset to the MEM/World Elite conglomerate rather than a threat, but Morgan shut it down and told Angle that he was going to go all out for the belt on Sunday night. I would never have expected this from Morgan back when he was stuck in a going nowhere feud with Abyss, but he's actually managed to pay off his angle where he basically forced himself into the Main Event Mafia's consciousness. Good job from Morgan and if he can bring a similar performance on Sunday that he did against Styles, he'll be a welcome addition to the main event. So long as they avoid the lame swerve that has him being part of the Mafia all along. That would just kill everything.

The Knockouts did their part to bring the show's quality up as well as they had a nice little four-way match with Awesome Kong, ODB, Tara and Angelina Love. The match was probably one of the longest on the show and also probably one of the best. Tara picked up the win after some misdirection by Cody Deaner distracted Kong and they put together a nice little bout that was one of the more entertaining Knockout matches that I can recall. The rest of the show was pretty much a mess though with the Team 3D segment being a little boring and the Rhino/Jesse Neal stuff bordering on ridiculous. It was a pretty uneven show this week and unfortunately there was more bad than good, which is a pretty big problem going into a pay-per-view weekend.





Friday Night Smackdown Results:

Finlay vs. Dolph Ziggler - Winner: Dolph Ziggler (pinfall, jumping Russian legsweep)
John Morrison vs. CM Punk - Winner: CM Punk (pinfall, Go 2 Sleep)
Melina vs. Layla - Winner: Melina (pinfall, split legdrop)
The Big Show vs. JTG - Winner: The Big Show (submission, Colossal Clutch)
Jeff Hardy vs. The Hart Dynasty - Winners: The Hart Dynasty (pinfall, springboard Hart Attack)


John Morrison vs. CM Punk? Finlay vs. a surprising Dolph Ziggler? Jeff Hardy vs. The Hart Dynasty? Hell yes!! If I'm talking about quality wrestling, I must be talking about my thoughts on Smackdown, far and away the best wrestling show on TV. Finlay and Dolph Ziggler kicked off the in-ring portion of the show after another strong heel promo from CM Punk and they had a great little match considering that Finlay was a comedy act a few months ago and Ziggler was a nobody. Ziggler continued his strong string of matches, going over strong while probably learning a ton from a savvy veteran like Finlay. Ziggler has done all of the right things since he began his rise from backstage prop to capable in-ring performer and I'm sure that he picked up a few things just in the ten minutes that he and Finlay were working in the ring. I'm actually looking forward to seeing Ziggler/Mysterio, and I'm probably more surprised about saying that than anyone at this point as I hated the guy pretty much from the moment he showed up on TV.

The second match I want to talk about from Smackdown is the one that was easily the best of the night featuring Morrison and Punk. I'll say it every time I see them wrestle, but they have a chemistry between the two of them that is better than about 98% of the current roster. I wouldn't go so far as to say that they have the type of chemistry that say a Ricky Steamboat and Ric Flair had, but they seem to be incapable of having a bad match with this one being no exception. Punk looked like he was out to hurt Morrison this time with vicious knees and elbows that seemed to have Morrison down and out. Instead, Morrison fought back and had the crowd believing that he could pick up the win before Punk snuck out of dodge with a win by crotching Morrison across the top rope before hitting the GTS. It may have been in the middle of the show and given what was coming later, it's understandable why it wasn't the main event, but this one could easily have been the headliner of the show and I wouldn't have had a word of complaint.

Speaking of the main event, that's the next thing I really wanted to make sure I talked about as Jeff Hardy had to take on the Hart Dynasty in a handicap match. Unlike Raw, handicap matches are still fairly fresh on Smackdown and they used it to great effect here. Hardy was hurt and did what he could, but the odds ended up overwhelming him as the Harts finally took over and got a clean win over Hardy with their springboard Hart Attack. After the match was over, CM Punk came down to try to finish the job he started last week, but John Morrison came down for another taste, trying to save Hardy from a three-on-one beatdown. The numbers were still too much at three-on-two, but the sides got evened up when Matt Hardy came down to make the save. Yeah, that Matt Hardy...the one that turned on Jeff to cost him the title to begin with. While the save was shocking to say the least, I'm not fully buying it yet as Jeff is still booked to be gone after SummerSlam and there's going to have to be a way to get the belt off of him before then. I smell a Matt swerve next week or at SummerSlam.

I say next week because the main event for next week's Smackdown was made before this episode was even off the air. GM Teddy Long made a six-man tag match featuring the reunited Hardys and John Morrison taking on the Hart Dynasty and CM Punk. All I can say is that Smackdown is just heaping awesome on top of awesome lately and they're not even at full strength as a roster. The funny thing is that there is a real parallel between the 96/97 WWF vs. WCW as there is now between Raw and Smackdown nowadays. Back then, WCW was pushing the old guys and living on reputations while the WWF was making new stars and trying new things and exciting the audience. Now, we have Raw with a stale main event picture full of established stars while Smackdown is taking the few established talents they have and trying to use those to make new stars and new main eventers. Next week's match is a perfect example as we get to see the Harts and John Morrison step up together with guys like the Hardys and CM Punk, though it can be argued that Punk's star is still rising as well. If you're looking for a reason why Smackdown is a better program, look no further than what was booked for next week's main event.






MAIN EVENT



I was just about all the way done writing the column and had no real idea what I was going to be writing about as the top story since things had been a little slow when I went ahead and checked out the main news page at 411 for some inspiration. Before I knew it, I was knee-deep in possibly one of the bigger wrestling stories of the year as Kurt Angle was arrested yesterday in Pittsburgh, just twenty-four hours before taking part in the main event of TNA's Hard Justice PPV. Angle was arrested after an incident with his girlfriend, fellow TNA star Rhaka Kahn, at Angle's home. As the police report goes, Angle was removed from the home after an altercation early yesterday morning and at 8am was questioned by police and taken into custody after Kahn called and said that Angle was stalking her, had possession of her phone, and was deleting "pictures of abuse" from the phone while circling the Starbucks that she had gone to.

When Angle was questioned by police under suspicion of a DUI, the cops found used syringes and HGH in his car, which Angle claimed to have a prescription for. All together, Angle was charged with driving with a suspended license, prohibited acts, possession and harassment. Angle posted bail and was released from jail following his arraignment yesterday afternoon and it appears as though he will be in Orlando for tonght's PPV, though that is still up in the air as it is unknown whether TNA will allow him to be part of the show after all of this. I would think that they would let Angle at least appear on the show because of his major role in the main event, but I wouldn't be surprised to see them change the plans for the show and take the belt off of Angle. The spotlight has been shining extra bright on transgressions by wrestlers since the Benoit deal and I doubt that any of this will present TNA in a very favorable light.

There are conflicting reports about whether Kahn and Angle are together or not, but one would have to think that whatever relationship they have has been strained by everything going on recently with Jeff Jarrett and Karen Angle as well. It seems like TNA is taking it from all sides and that there is little else that they can do than just weather the storm and hope that it doesn't end up taking the company down with it. Angle has had his ups and downs since coming to TNA, but this is probably the biggest down that could have happened to him outside of another unfortunate tragedy. TNA has been put in a terrible spot by all of this as Jarrett has been forced out of his own company and now Angle will likely end up suspended or at the very least pushed down the card while all of this gets sorted out. It's still far too early to know exactly what implications this will have for Angle, Jarrett or the company, but when more people are following your wrestling company for the gossip backstage over the in-ring product, that's not a good sign.

TNA's talent has to be feeling like they're in an incredibly difficult spot as well as they are watching the two men who the company was expecting to build around backstage crumble before their eyes. When your company is trying to grow and facing adversity from all sides, that is not the time that you want to see your leaders falling apart at the seams. I can't say anything for certain, but this has to have a negative impact on morale when things like this happen. TNA isn't a company like the WWE that can take a blitz of negative publicity and manage to come through it relatively unscathed. If there's a silver lining in all of this backstage nonsense so far, it's that the mainstream media hasn't really picked up on either situation yet. Unfortunately for TNA, their survival might depend on continuing to fly under that radar as if they are forced to run the same gauntlet that the WWE did post-Benoit, we might be seeing the beginning of the end of wrestling in Orlando.



Featured Bout



I'm going to do something a little different for the featured bout this week and share something with you readers that I think you'll all enjoy. I've been a fan of wrestling for nearly twenty-five years now and I've seen a lot go down in terms of the sport/business, but unfortunately for me I was a little too young to be able to really enjoy the good old days of territorial wrestling since they were just beginning to die out when I was a young fan. I've loved watching old footage on some of these territories like Detroit and the old Mid-South areas, but have never been able to get as in-depth a history on some of these territories and stars as I would have liked. As luck would have it, I happened to stumble upon this website called 57Talk.com a few months ago that is devoted to shoot interviews from wrestlers from that bygone era and there are a ton of interesting stories from these guys. I'm not usually one to give out pimps to websites, but this one is definitely a little different and definitely deserving for all of you who read my stuff to check out.

There's a ton of content on here from some of the bigger names in booking and wrestling from the seventies and eighties including multiple-part interviews with guys like Cowboy Bill Watts, Ted DiBiase, interviews with Mickey Grant and Marc Lowrance talking about the heyday of World Class and a new series of interviews that features the host, Gary Cubeta, talking to guys like Rick Martel and Ross Hart while asking questions and running down shows from booking sheets, leading to tons of interesting stories and funny stuff from the history of the business. The site is fascinating to me as I've always been a huge fan of finding out the stories from behind the curtain in pro wrestling and this is easily one of the best collection of interviews that I've found anywhere. Be sure to check it out and send some feedback as I'm sure that with more fans will come more quality interviews with bigger name stars and legends of the sport.



The Midcard


I'm sure they wished that he could bring Gail Kim back with him...

In a piece of good news for at a time when they sorely need it, Scott D'Amore is back with the promotion in a backstage agent capacity, mainly to work with the Knockouts divsion. Many of you will remember that D'amore was in charge of the division during the period of time where Awesome Kong and Gail Kim were tearing the division up, putting on fantastic matches that had rumors of TNA adding a Knockouts hour of programming to their line-up. Following D'amore's departure from the company, the Knockouts have fallen flat and lost all of their momentum with nothing seeming to inspire the ladies or the fans' interest in them. With TNA negotating with Spike TV for a new contract, including the possible addition of new hours of programming, the timing is perfect for D'amore's return and I think that this is one of those no-brainer decisions where TNA definitely did the right thing. Hopefully D'amore can provide a much-needed boost to the division and possibly even throw in a few ideas for the booking for the rest of TNA while there's a bit of a power vacuum within the company.


You have no idea how hard it is to find a picture of Paul Roma...seriously...

-- After everyone and their dog has weighed in with their opinions on the Kevin Nash interview that was floating around the internet earlier this week, it would be a little redundant for me to give my take on it as there's nothing that I could really add to what the fine writers here have already said. Nash wasn't the only huge former star to give an interview this week with some inflammatory comments though and I'm going to dive into the deluded ramblings of the man, the myth, the LEGEND........Paul Roma!!

Paul's comments will be italicized and my take on his preception of reality will be below in the bold print;

On why Roma wasn't part of the Horseman Reunion in Charlotte...

"Listen. I have no issues with Ole (Anderson). I think Ole's a super nice guy. But when you have all the other old timers there, they don't want some good-looking guy like me walking in - still etched-out, you know? Hot body and all that good stuff. Lets face it. Why would they send me an invitation? So I could show them up? Show them how old and beat up they are?"

Tremendous. He said something close to the same thing in the Ric Flair and the Four Horsemen DVD set except he added that his stint as a Horseman was essentially sabotaged by Flair because Flair couldn't handle someone who was better looking and a better wrestler in the group. I'm not sure what Roma's been doing since retiring from the business, but I'd have to say that something involving paint fumes and closed spaces is pretty high on the list of possibilities.

On why people are still offended by Roma's presence in the Horsemen...

"Yeah. I don't get it. I don't understand it. When you have your weekend warriors, you know, that want to talk football after the fact and never played the game, I can see how they speak up and have their jealousy. I just attribute it to that. A lot of these fans just wish they can be in my shoes for whatever reason. A lot of them were NWA fans for the longest time and there was such a big rivalry between NWA and WWF at the time. That's the only thing I can really point out."

Yep. Jealous of a mid-card/jobber that didn't do anything outside of forming a second or third tier team with Jim Powers or Hercules before roughing up Alex Wright in his biggest claim to fame. That's exactly why people are baffled as to why Roma was ever under consideration as a member of the Horsemen to begin with. Nothing to do with the fact that the talent drop from guys like Windham, Blanchard, Anderson and Luger to someone like Roma is like a freefall into the Grand Canyon. Hell even Sid was a better Horseman than Roma was and Sid STABBED Anderson. But it's not Roma's fault or anything. It's all the jealousy.



Jerking The Curtain


Continuing my trip down wrestling memory lane from the past few weeks, we come across All-Star Wrestling from Vancouver, which I was exposed to long after the territory was anywhere near relevance. Unfortunately for me, by the time I was able to see the product, it was a lot of has-beens and never-weres with the odd impersonator thrown in as well for good measure. That's not to say that it wasn't entertaining as I was six at the time and any wrestling was good wrestling to me, but looking back at it all now I can see just how terrible this product was. If you've followed my reviews of the UWF and the AWA in the past, you'll know that I have an affinity for bad wrestling, much like Mike, Tom Servo and Crooooooooooooooow have an affinity for bad movies, so I just had to share some of this. You MMA fans out there, keep an ear out for a young Mauro Ranallo as he handles color commentary duties for this promotion at the ripe age of 16.


King Kong "JR" Bundy and Joe Cagle vs Bobby Jones and Mike Edwards



John Tenta ('Earthquake') and Rick Davis vs. Terry Rivera and Dave Scott



The Atomic Kid vs. Sonny Myers




The Final Bell


That does it for me, Randle's going to be in tomorrow, I'd have a lot more to say here, but I'm up against the deadline so come back next week for my thoughts on the final push to SummerSlam, a wrap-up of Hard Justice and likely a whole lot more on the Kurt Angle situation. In the mean time and in between time, I'll see you all back here next time for the next edition of the Bell to Bell!


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