The Bell To Bell News Report 08.23.09

Posted by Randy Harrison on 08.23.2009

I have a tooth that's absolutely killing me so I'm just going to make this short and sweet. Click. Read. Enjoy.




Welcome back to another week of the Bell to Bell News Report folks. If things seem a little off this week, I've been busy with planning birthday adventures, attending a concert and a nasty toothache that's given me a lot of trouble and kept me from being my usually productive self. When you add that to a back problem that's been recurring with more and more frequency, I'm running on about three cylinders so I apologize in advance if this particular edition isn't up to par. On tap this week will be my thoughts on the weekly shows as well as new information in the Kurt Angle situation, whether Jeff Hardy is sticking with the WWE after tonight's show, Jushin "Thunder" Liger making his return to the United States, and yet another washed-up WCW star from the early 90's making outrageous statements!

As a quick aside, I got a lot of positive responses from last week's piece on the classic wrestling website 57Talk.com that featured a ton of shoot interviews with some of the all-time greats in the business and actually ended up being contacted by the host, Gary Cubeta. I had planned on covering that hour-long conversation and Gary's thoughts on the current product and his shoot interview series, but I'm having trouble hearing out of one of my ears with the toothache so transcription isn't going to be happening. Sorry for all of you folks who sent the feedback last week and sorry to Gary for the delay, but it just wasn't going to be possible. Be sure to check in next week when I have more to say about Gary and his interview series.

You know what's coming next....





Ding Ding....








WWE Monday Night Raw Results:

US Championship: Carlito vs. Kofi Kingston (C) - Winner: Kofi Kingston (pinfall, Trouble in Paradise)
The Miz vs. Evan Bourne - Winner: The Miz (pinfall, Skull Crushing Finale)
Divas Championship: Gail Kim vs. Mickie James (C) - Winner: Mickie James (pinfall, forearm)
MVP vs. Jack Swagger - Winner: MVP (disqualification, Swagger ignoring referee's count)
Falls Count Anywhere: Hornswoggle vs. Chavo Guerrero - Winner: Hornswoggle (pinfall, paint can shot)
Lumberjack Match: Chris Jericho and Big Show vs. John Cena and Randy Orton - Winners: John Cena and Randy Orton (pinfall, Attitude Adjustment on Jericho)


Raw's last chance to build for their matches at SummerSlam came and went on Monday and while I can't say I'm terribly excited for anything that Raw is offering this year, I was willing to give them one last chance to wow me with this show. To say that they didn't get the job done would be an understatement. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that it was a terrible show because it definitely had its moments, it was just that rather than watching a go-home show for the second-biggest pay-per-view event in the company, it felt more like the McMahon Family Smile Time Variety Hour. I say that not only because of the whole guest hosting thing (Freddie Prinze Jr. was pretty good by the way and he's a champ for volunteering to take Orton's backbreaker like that), but because it felt like skit after skit after promo, with wrestling sprinkled on top to remind us of why we started watching the show to begin with. I get a laugh out of Macaulay Culkin cameo shots as much as the next guy, and I like that they're bringing in celebrities that are familiar with the product from time to time, but when the kid from Home Alone is in the segment and the most heat comes from a Let's Go Blues chant from the St. Louis crowd, you might want to start trying to fix the problems you have on your show rather than just throwing celebrities at it and hoping it goes away.

Now that I've gotten that out of my system, let's move on to the rest of the show, where the biggest development for me was seeing Legacy actually get one over on DX, who made their return to the show after last week's Lost in Hairnets vignettes. While everyone and their dog knows that DX is going to come back to pick up the win, it was cool to at least see Legacy being given a small chance to look like a threat. Of course, it would have made more sense for something like that to happen a couple of weeks ago to give them time to build on that credibility before the actual match, but I'll take what I can get as I'm just surprised that they actually did it. I was fully expecting the same kind of burial treatment that DX gave the Spirit Squad and pretty much everyone else they've faced in the past few years, but Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase got their moment in the sun. Where it goes from here, who knows, but at least they got to get one over on two of the bigger stars on the brand, which won't be a bad thing and won't be forgotten if they're allowed to stay competitive with DX at the PPV.

The Miz made his official comeback to Raw this past week with a brand new look and I have to say that while it seems a little odd, it could be a good boost for him and give him a bit of a chance to do something different. His short promo before the match with Evan Bourne was actually a decent bit of business and made me think that he could actually have a shot at getting into a US Championship program with Kingston and that there's a chance that he could win the damn thing. The match with Bourne was solid stuff and probably one of the better matches of the night, though that's not saying much with the MVP/Swagger micro-match and the James/Kim nightmare (which I'll talk about in a moment). Outside of that match, there wasn't a ton of good stuff on the show as the Kingston/Carlito match was a little dull for my tastes and the main event was just kind of there. Time for another mini-rant, but what does it say about the state of the tag team division when the champions are handled by two singles wrestlers that hate each other. Granted, Jericho and Show aren't exactly the Rock n' Roll Express when it comes to the length of time they've been teaming, but one of the good things about old-school booking was that it made sense in that sense. A solid team should almost always beat two singles guys because the two singles guys won't have the cohesiveness needed to pull out the victory. In this case especially as the win did next to nothing to build to Cena/Orton and sent Jericho and Show into their Summerslam title defense with a loss. A win and they go into Summerslam with championship momentum and Orton and Cena have even more reason not to get along. It's frustrating how the simplest things are usually the ones that never end up being booked.

As I said earlier, I wanted to make sure I touched on the Divas match because I think that it's getting a bit of a bad rap from everybody that I've seen talk about it. While it wasn't the best match in the world (and really how could it be in three minutes), it wasn't that terrible and seemed to be going along at least decently until the wheels came off at the end with Gail really seeming to not know a lot of what was going on. I've seen some people carrying on like it was the worst match in this history of wrestling and while I can see that it wasn't very good, there's been a whole lot worse including that Sharmell/Jenna disaster in TNA. I don't blame Mickie for looking a little pissed in there because if she didn't know that Kim was hurt, it would have seemed a lot like she was sandbagging the entire match, but I've watched it a couple of times and Kim definitely seemed out to lunch near the finish. I'm sure that it's been discussed backstage between everybody and I'm sure that they'll end up doing it over again in a week or two to do it right, but for now everyone needs to chill a little. It's not the end of the world for women's wrestling on Raw or anything like that, not by a long shot.





ECW on SyFy Results:

The Hurricane vs. Paul Burchill - Winner: The Hurricane (pinfall, Eye of the Hurricane)
Zack Ryder vs. Yoshi Tatsu - Winner: Zack Ryder (pinfall, roll-up)
William Regal and Vladimir Kozlov vs. Christian and Ezekiel Jackson - Winners: William Regal and Vladimir Kozlov (pinfall, Jackson turning on Christian)

ECW built to their one match at SummerSlam while showcasing a new faction and a returning favorite on Tuesday night as The Hurricane made his official return to the ring, William Regal got one over on Christian heading into their ECW Championship match on Sunday and Regal loaded up with some extra ammunition on his way to Los Angeles. Beginning at the end of the night, the tag match main event was nothing too terrible and to be quite honest I was just happy to see the Kozlov/Jackson feud move forward at least a little bit by having them on opposite sides in a match. The turn at the end with Jackson laying out Christian and joining up with Regal and Kozlov seemed a little nonsensical, but I'm willing to go with it because it hopefully means the days of watching both guys get nearly identical squashes on the same show are done. I'm actually interested to see how this goes and it could be kind of cool to have Regal be in charge of the group with Kozlov and Jackson jockeying for position as the dominant big man by trying to impress Regal and Regal trying desperately to control them. It may not be the best storyline but at least it's something and it adds a little extra twist to an ECW Championship match that, while sure to be a good in-ring match, could have been a little on the bland side.

The Zack Ryder/Yoshi Tatsu match was another glimpse at what could be just on the other side of the horizon for the WWE. They only had about four minutes but they put together something that was as entertaining and high-paced as it could be and they did a lot to show that they are two guys to keep an eye on in the future. I'd love to see these guys get about ten minutes on Superstars one week as that would probably be one of the better matches that ECW could put on the show without having to dip into their main event talent. The less said about the Abraham Washington segment the better for me as it essentially did nothing but give Sheamus and Goldust a chance to talk to each other, something that could have been accomplished by a two-minute deal backstage, giving Ryder and Tatsu another three or four minutes to continue to learn while showcasing their skills. I get that they're trying to let Washington learn too with his talk show gimmick, but it's just not working and the sooner that they can see that, the better everyone will be for it. Bless him, he's trying his damnedest, but it's just not that good and his segment is easily the weakest part of the ECW show week after week.

The best part of the show for me this week was the return of The Hurricane after weeks of build and teases as he took on Paul Burchill. Hurricane looked great in the ring, showing no ill effects after such a long layoff and the match was actually pretty good with Burchill doing more than enough to carry his side of things as well. I wasn't the biggest fan of the commercial break, especally so early in the match, but that didn't take away from it too badly as they really got into the groove after the commercials. I'm not sure where they're going to go with Hurricane in terms of where he'll fit on the card in ECW, but I can honestly say that I wouldn't mind seeing him get some wins and slowly build himself up as a title challenger at some point down the road. I've always been a big fan of Hurricane's work in the ring and if he's got his injury problems behind him he should be more than ready for a bit of a push. I also loved how much Striker and the entire WWE team are selling the secret identity gimmick as it will give them lots of places to go with Hurricane's character and also allows Helms to continue gaining more experience working behind the microphone, somewhere where he would be a natural fit once his career ends.





WWE Superstars Results:

Kelly Kelly vs. Beth Phoenix - Winner: Beth Phoenix (pinfall, Glam Slam)
Shelton Benjamin vs. Tyler Reks - Winner: Shelton Benjamin (pinfall, Paydirt)
Charlie Haas vs. R-Truth - Winner: R-Truth (pinfall, Lie Detector)
Mark Henry vs. Chris Masters - Winner: Mark Henry (count out)


Well, I can safely say that this was the worst episode of Superstars since the show made its return to TV. That's not to say that it was extra bad or that the matches were terrible or anything, it just all felt stale and there was nothing that really stood out for me. Part of the problem was that they tried to jam four matches into an hour show, giving no one match any chance to shine as they all had to be cut short to try to squeeze them in. I'm no rocket scientist, but it seems like every time that Superstars tries to stray away from the format that they followed from the first show, the show seems to tank. Perhaps they should not screw with it so much and just let it be what it is, a harmless show that loosely follows the current storylines while serving as a bit of a stand-alone show when it comes to the in-ring work. My only hope is that this isn't one of those signs that the WWE is already getting bored with the show and that the decline into online Heat territory isn't already beginning.

The best match of the show for me was the opener with the ladies. I've seen a lot of people get on the Kelly Kelly bandwagon and talk about how much she's improved as a wrestler and while I've seen glimpses of it, I just still don't see her turning into much more than pretty window dressing for the division that occasionally has a decent match. What makes someone good isn't being able to have good matches when you're in there with someone like Beth Phoenix, but rather, being able to have a good match when you're in there with someone like Rosa or Eve or Maria or someone that's not a real ring general. When Kelly can start having matches like that, then I'll buy into her improvement. That being said, the match was actually pretty good and both gals got the chance to showcase some offense before Beth rightfully picked up the win. Since the end of the Glamarella thing, Beth's fallen off of the radar a little in my eyes and that's a shame, so hopefully this win can help shove her back in the right direction and towards another title reign in the near future. She deserves to have a straight run with the belt after her last run was turned into a bit of a sideshow with the Santino stuff.

As for the rest of the show, I was just bored with it. There's not much of an other way to put it really. The main event was uneventful and went nowhere with Masters getting protected for some reason by running away to lose by countout. I'm not sure why they decided to do that after he had already taken the World's Strongest Slam and barely escaped the pinfall, but I guess that's why they're the ones booking. Gotta keep Masters strong for....that thing that he might do...with that guy...you know the thing I'm talking about...should be awesome. They've done nothing with him since he's come back and having him bitch out and run away from Mark Henry isn't going to help that so just let him eat the pin and keep up with the current Henry mini-push. The other two matches on the show were pretty much interchangeable and had nothing noteworthy going on other than some standard D show wrestling. Nothing wrong with it, just that on a show where nothing stood out, they could have used a little more.





TNA Impact Results:

Street Fight: The British Invasion vs. Beer Money Inc. - Winners: Beer Money Inc. (pinfall, DWI on a trashcan on Magnus)
Madison Rayne vs. Angelina Love - Winner: Angelina Love (pinfall, vicious beating)
X-Division Championship: Homicide vs. Samoa Joe (C) - Winner: Samoa Joe (pinfall, Muscle Buster)
Awesome Kong vs. Traci Brooks vs. Sarita vs. Christy Hemme - Winner: Traci Brooks (pinfall, sneak pin on Sarita)
D'Angelo Dinero vs. Consequences Creed - Winner: D'Angelo Dinero (pinfall, Popemobile)
Tables Match: Team 3D vs. Kurt Angle and Matt Morgan - Winners: Team 3D (putting Morgan through a table)


After a few sketchy weeks both on and off of television, TNA has seemingly found a way to turn all of the turmoil and chaos into a positive as the show had one of its best weeks that I can remember in quite some time. Sure, there were probably more gimmick matches than we needed to see with the street fight and the tables match on the same show, but for once the gimmick matches actually fit and did more to enhance the show than to detract from it. Sure, there was plenty of talking and sometimes it felt like it was taking the place of actual wrestling, but the talking meant something, especially when it came to the AJ Styles/Sting segments, which were some of the best that TNA has done in a long time. Whether they're able to capitalize on it or not is one thing, but I'm hoping that this will lead to a face vs. face match between AJ and Sting at Bound For Glory where AJ finally gets his moment in the sun by beating Sting to get a major rub and earn his place as one of TNA's biggest stars.

This week also saw the Impact debut of D'Angelo Dinero, the artist formerly known as Elijah Burke. He took on Conseqeunces Creed in a nice little match that was a good showcase for the kinds of skills that Dinero can bring to the table. When you add it to the TNA Today that I saw earlier in the week which had him cut a pretty damn convincing interview with Jeremy Borash, Dinero could prove to be a case where TNA makes a star where WWE seemingly failed to, something that I don't think has happened yet. If Dinero is able to build off of this momentum and actually go somewhere, rather than just spin his wheels or become a forgotten man in a few weeks when the sizzle of his debut wears off, he could actually end up being someone that TNA could look to for their future. That's exciting for me as I've always been a big fan of Burke/Dinero, but it should be more exciting for TNA as it shows that they're beginning to think about a life for the promotion without the Main Event Mafia.

The in-ring action for the show was solid throughout as the Street Fight was a great match that let Beer Money get a win to keep the feud going without having to worry about the IWGP belts, and the X-Division Championship match was another great match between Samoa Joe and Homicide that brought back memories of the divsion's hey-day when the X-Division was nearly more important than the rest of the company. Like I said, there was some silly stuff like the ODB/Cody Deaner crap and the MCMG's ad, but even that wasn't completely offensive because they didn't try to build the entire show around things like that. The show was built on good promo work and even better wrestling which allows TNA to do some of the other things that they like to do to try to be different from what WWE is putting out there. It feels like I've said it a hundred times, but if they could just keep this balance in mind every week, they'd have something. All of that isn't even touching on how much better the announce team got with Don West gone and Taz in the seat next to Mike Tenay. West was really growing into his heel announcer role, but the problem with the two of them was that they talked just too damn much. With Taz in the booth, things felt a lot less rushed and there was a lot less of a feeling like they were talking over things. Much improved and a great move by TNA to put Taz where he belongs.

TNA also seems to be showing an interest in putting one of their younger stars into a main event slot as well as Matt Morgan continued his angle with TNA World Heavyweight Champion Kurt Angle by teaming with Angle against Team 3D in a table match main event. While the match itself was nothing to sneeze about and felt pretty much like every other Team 3D table match in TNA for the past few years, the finish was actually pretty cool with Angle costing his team the win and Morgan going through the table. As I said, the match was pretty pedestrian and actually bordered on being a disaster when Angle was late on moving a table and Morgan almost ended up being suplexed through it inadvertantly. The only thing saving them was that Morgan didn't break the table and while I know that TNA could have edited out the mistake in post-production, it was still a mistake that didn't need to happen. Understandable based on how Angle's mind must be distracted, but still not excusable. The finish though was great, especially after the match with Angle high-tailing it to avoid a rightly pissed off Morgan. Morgan seems to be getting a pretty big tweener push and if they keep this up he could be a breakout star for the company along with guys like Hernandez, Dinero and the established young guys like Styles, Daniels and Samoa Joe. No complaints from me at all for this Impact, which seems like a rare feat these days.





Friday Night Smackdown Results:

Rey Mysterio and Cryme Tyme vs. Dolph Ziggler, Chris Jericho and Big Show - Winners: Dolph Ziggler, Chris Jericho and Big Show (pinfall, Ziggler pins Mysterio after Show's KO punch)
Mike Knox vs. Finlay - Winner: Finlay (disqualification, Knox....I honestly don't know what he did)
Maria and Melina vs Natalya and Layla - Winners: Maria and Melina (pinfall, Melina's flip powerbomb on Natalya)
CM Punk and The Hart Dynasty vs. The Hardys and John Morrison - Winners: The Hardys and John Morrison (pinfall, Matt's Twist of Fate on Punk)


Friday Night Smackdown didn't have the same type of expectations from me to save the week this week after a stellar Impact on Thursday, but it was still a tremendous show. The difference between a show like Raw and a show like Smackdown is that on Raw, we had Jericho and Show taking on Orton and Cena and as I said earlier, it didn't do a lot of anything to build anyone for the pay-per-view. On Smackdown, the show began with a six-man match between Rey Mysterio and Cryme Tyme and Chris Jericho, Big Show and Dolph Ziggler. The match itself was very good and the thing that made it even better is that the match built towards two separate matches on the SummerSlam card and did it well. Show knocking out Mysterio and Ziggler getting the pin was great as it helped solidify Ziggler as a real threat to Mysterio's title, while giving Show and Jericho a win to build off of for Sunday. While I'm pretty sure that Ziggler will come up short on Sunday, they really needed to have him go over here because otherwise, the match would suffer due to no one believing that Ziggler can beat Mysterio. Fantastic stuff all the way around, and to think that this wasn't even the best six-man tag match on the show.

That honor was saved for the main event, which saw Jeff and Matt Hardy reunite to team with John Morrison against CM Punk and The Hart Dynasty. Six of the younger stars in the WWE with a mixture of established talent and rising talent led to a spectacular main event for me, possibly one of the best six-man matches I've seen since the days of the NWA in the 80's, where six-man matches were truly a spectacle. For as much trepidation as I had about the Harts move over to Friday nights, they're definitely making a believer out of me with this match being no exception. I'm not entirely sure where they're going with this whole thing with Matt Hardy, but it could be a lot of fun to see Punk go over Jeff at SummerSlam before moving on to a ready-made program with Matt defending his brother's honor. The real story here wasn't Punk or the Hardys, who we all know are true pros, but rather the work of Morrison and the Hart Dynasty, three guys who are still on the rise. They looked right at home in the main event slot against talented wrestlers and showed that if they can actually get the chance to shine, the future of the WWE could be in very good hands.

The main event match between Punk and Hardy at SummerSlam also got some build with a nice little promo segment between the two in the middle of the show. With all of the TLC goodies in the ring, Punk continued to push his self-righteous heel character and Hardy kept up beat for beat. The segment ran a little long for my tastes and it seemed like Hardy was starting to run out of things to say a little bit, but I enjoyed it and enjoyed Hardy getting the one-up by taking out Punk with a Twist of Fate. While I'm talking about the Twist of Fate, has there ever been another time in wrestling where two top talents have shared a finisher that was called the same name? Anyhoo, other than the promo, there was only two other matches on the show that were both perfectly acceptable but nothing to write home about so they won't get covered here. I guess I could say something about Mike Knox's seemingly new direction, but I won't get too excited about it yet as this guy has had more false starts and missteps than a United States relay team.






MAIN EVENT


The main event story of the week may not be the biggest story in the history of wrestling, but this is a story that a lot of people have been talking about for a while now. Chris Jericho conducted an interview recently to help hype SummerSlam and while doing so, he may have inadvertantly given voice to wrestling fans all over the world who are feeling as if the product is becoming more and more stale every week.

Here's Jericho's thoughts on the current talent situation in the WWE;

"We're in a crisis period in WWE and we need to build new guys. When Shawn Michaels came back to Raw, he said, "Whose been built since I left?" On Smackdown we've built [John] Morrison and [Dolph] Ziggler and Cryme Tyme. The Intercontinental title has been rebuilt now with Rey Mysterio. But I can't tell you on Raw who has been built over the last six months. They better do it soon, because when this generation of performers is gone, who will replace them?"

While part of that could sound like Jericho just trying to push the brand that he's on at the expense of Raw, it goes a lot deeper than that as Jericho sounds like someone who cares about the business and its future. Jericho is one of those guys who has always been more than willing to do the job for other wrestlers to help try to elevate them and he's smart enough to know that new talent is necessary for the business to continue. The top of the card in the WWE has been staler than stale for some time and the company seems oblivious to it. WCW failed to grow past their boom period of 96-98 because they didn't develop new stars and everyone in the WWE knows it because they said so in the Monday Night Wars DVD. That's what makes their lack of foresight to push and build new talent even more baffling.

It's not that the WWE hasn't had opportunities to make new guys stars, but that they don't seem to remember how to do it anymore. When you look at guys like Shelton Benjamin, MVP and even Matt Hardy, there have been numerous chances to take those people and move them up the card, but every time they've tried, they've never gotten fully behind it. The WWE seems to be the kingdom of half-pushes as people like Shelton and MVP have been pushed hard for a few weeks at a time before being shunted right back down the card. Where Raw has failed, Smackdown has flourished, making stars out of the guys Jericho mentioned and superstars out of guys like Edge and CM Punk, who both made their breakouts as part of the blue brand. It's hard to tell if it's that the Monday brand doesn't feel the need to build stars because the ratings are still halfway decent or if they feel like Smackdown is the place to experiment because of the lower ratings on that show, but there's got to be a change in philosophy soon or there will be a vaccuum at the top of the card that will cause a depression in the business that will make the early 90's seem like the Attitude Era and the nWo days on Nitro all rolled into one.



Featured Bouts


-- Spike TV and TNA announced an extension on their television contract this week, adding three years to the existing deal and ensuring that TNA Wrestling will continue to air on the channel until 2012. The contract also calls for the addition of ten, one-hour specials that will air through the course of the three years. The press release issued by Spike TV and TNA seems to suggest that the specials will feature older matches or pay-per-view matches that haven't been seen before on basic cable. It also seems as though the specials may be based on singular wrestlers or divisions, as almost a smaller version of TNA's home video releases. This is a great deal for TNA and ensures that they should likely be able to survive all of the turmoil and chaos that the company has been enduring. While it has to be a bit of a disappointment that the company isn't going to be getting another weekly show that can help to build the brand, they have to be happy that Spike is willing to give them the extension. They've got three years to try to build on what they've done and what they could possibly continue to do and these three years will be vital to the future of the company. If they're not able to make any gains on what they've already done in terms of ratings for Spike, they might not get another extension like this one. There have been people who always talk about the impending doom of TNA and I'm not one of those that is convinced that the company won't survive, but this period of time on Spike will be crucial for them.



-- There's not been a lot of confirmation one way or the other, but it looks as if Jeff Hardy will be back with the WWE though there's no indication for how long it will be for. Matt Hardy made a Twitter posting that he and Jeff may not be teaming again for quite some time, but that Jeff will be staying with the company after SummerSlam. It's hard to say what this could mean for the World Heavyweight Championship match at the show, but it definitely increases the odds of Hardy defending in the TLC match. Matt has been known to work the internet in the past, so I'm still taking this with a big grain of salt at this point. When you add in that Jeff's wife and close friend are both coming to the show, there's still a feel to it that this could be Jeff's last appearance for quite some time. There's no way to know for sure, but this throws a bit more intrigue into a match that was already looking to be one of the best on the card.

EDIT: It looks as though Hardy is only booked through the Tuesday Smackdown tapings and then he's done with the WWE, meaning that if he comes through with the belt at SummerSlam, there will likely be a challenge on Smackdown that will see Hardy drop the belt on his way out of the company.



-- Last week's top story was the Kurt Angle arrest and this week saw an update on the situation with a tearful Angle giving a video interview to a local Pittsburgh television station. Angle spoke about a variety of topics including his side of the story leading up to the arrest, as well as his feelings on being forced from his own home. While I still think that there could be a little more to this than meets the eye, Angle seemed truly crushed by the turn of events and I don't know if he'll ever be able to completely recover. Angle also spoke about the vials of HGH found in his car, suggesting that it was a prescription medication to help with his overall health while trying to regain the strength in his neck. Any way you slice it, this is an unfortunate situation and I will add my voice to the masses that are suggesting that it's probably best for Angle to take some time away from TNA to get his personal affairs in order. I don't think that it's a situation that could see us writing an Angle obituary anytime soon, but there are definitely better places for Angle to be right now than a wrestling ring, especially when you consider that there are children involved.



The Midcard



-- Jushin "Thunder" Liger will make his return to the United States on January 29th and 30th in Los Angeles as part of the WrestleReunion 4 event that will mark Ring of Honor's first show in the state of California in roughly two years and the first-ever event for the company in Los Angeles. Liger will also take part in Pro Wrestling Guerrilla's event as well, making it a double-shot for fans of the innovative Japanese light heavyweight wrestler. If I could make it to these shows, I can guarantee you that I would make it to them as I was a huge fan of Liger from when he made his American debut as part of WCW. There's no word on who he'll be matched up with for either show, but I can't wait to see the match-ups. Liger may have lost a small step, but he's still a tremendous worker in the ring and there should be two great performances at the end of January in 2010.



-- Hot on the heels of last week's interview with Paul Roma that had Roma dissing the Four Horsemen, Erik Watts, son of former WCW and Mid-South head "Cowboy" Bill Watts raised some eyebrows this week when he talked about the situation in TNA involving Jeff Jarrett and Kurt Angle. Watts talked about how he didn't understand why Jarrett would want to get serious with Angle's wife, whom he characterized as "someone else's throwaways". He also suggested that TNA has been looking for a way to get rid of Jarrett as he's...

"not one of your smarter individuals. I think he's a good worker and I've said this. Good worker. Horrible on the mic and just not one of your smartest people.".

If you thought that Watts' bridge-burning had gone far enough, you're wrong because he went further, burying the TNA product when he talked about the company and had this to say;

"TNA is a mini-WWE with a six sided ring and mostly midgets wrestling. So, I think that will change as they're bringing in big guys, which I've always said that's been the problem. I've always said the problem with TNA mostly is that when Jeff had so much power there, he wasn't going to have real big guys there. He didn't want the competition. He wanted to be King of The Midgets."

For a guy that never managed to amount to anything in the wrestling business other than a punch line, Watts has got quite a bit of nerve laying into Jarrett in that way. When you consider Watts' time in TNA was largely uneventful and that Watts has never been a very talented worker in the ring, you have to imagine that a lot of this is just sour grapes. The way I see it, Watts' only way back into wrestling will be if his mom can negotiate a deal for him as part of a settlement for allowing Vince to control the Mid-South video library. Watts seems like he's just bitter for being bitter's sake and honestly this is about ten times sadder than Roma's interview. Any promotion that his dad hasn't been in control in hasn't pushed him worth a damn so for him to cry foul with Jarrett booking himself on top is highly hypocritical. Jarrett at least has a resume in other promotions like WCW and the WWF to hang his hat on. Plus from all accounts Kurt and Karen are still on good terms so to call her a throwaway is to possibly incur the wrath of Angle, and Angle would probably leave Watts with his ball bag in a sling when he was done.



Jerking The Curtain



-- Ohio Valley Wrestling has announced that they are beginning to stream their weekly television shows on their website at OVWrestling.com, a move that will surely please fans of the company that has seen tough times since the WWE broke promotional ties back in February of 2008. With the WWE still maintaining a loose affiliation with the company and now the company's shows being able to be seen by the masses, get ready to see the next wave of future wrestling stars on your computer screens on a weekly basis. I am really looking forward to this as I have been a big fan of independent wrestling and am always looking for more to see. The show may not have the glitz and glamor of the WWE or TNA produced shows, but I know I'll be watching.



The Final Bell


That's it for me this week. I'm off to lay in bed and be miserable while finishing off the last disc of the Ken Burns miniseries, The War. Randle's got you covered tomorrow with everything you need to know heading into Monday Night Raw and the rest of the week in wrestling. I'll be back next Sunday with my thoughts on SummerSlam and everything else that's taken place in the past seven days including my talk with Gary Cubeta about the classic days of wrestling. In the mean time and in between time, I'll see you all back here next time for an all-new edition of the Bell to Bell News Report.


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