The Wrestling News Experience 08.24.09

Posted by Stephen Randle on 08.24.2009

In this week's Experience, we have exclusive SummerSlam thoughts and a preview of "Money" Night Raw from Las Vegas. Plus, Sting and Jeff Hardy may be on the way out, a ROH mainstay and new TNA title may be on the way in, and Chris Jericho continues to say what we're all thinking!

Monday, August 24th, 2009

From 411Mania's Canadian offices in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, this is The Wrestling News Experience, with Stephen Randle!


Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Experience, I am Stephen Randle. Finally managed to make it out to the theatre for the first time this summer (and doesn't that speak to the low quality of attractions this year), and saw Funny People, which was excellent. But it's not a movie for everyone, and it definitely could have used some better transitions between scenes. I did like that it's actually a more "real" movie, where things resolve like they would in real life, as opposed to the movie clichés.

Meanwhile, my fiancée is off visiting her parents until Thursday, so the party's at my house this week!

I'm just kidding. Like I'd let you people in my house.

Moving on.



Lansdell has the live coverage.

Rey Mysterio defeated Dolph Ziggler to retain the Intercontinental Championship (pinfall, top-rope hurricanrana)

I really hope they're planning to go somewhere with Ziggler, before he becomes the guy who just challenges for belts and never wins.

MVP defeated Jack Swagger (pinfall, Playmaker)

Do you think these guys ever look at John Morrison and Dolph Ziggler and think "damn, I wish I had ended up on Smackdown after the draft, that could have been me"?

Chris Jericho and Big Show defeated Cryme Tyme to retain the Unified Tag Team Championships (Jericho pinned JTG, KO Punch)

Kane defeated The Great Khali (pinfall, running DDT)

D-Generation X defeated Legacy (HBK pinned Rhodes, Sweet Chin Music)

You know, here's what I disagree with. Everyone's going to come out and say "well, DX and Legacy had a really good match, so DX essentially did give them the rub, even if they didn't win the match". But...why couldn't Legacy win the match? It wasn't for anything other than pride, and will Triple H or Shawn Michaels be hurt at all by losing a match? Meanwhile, if Legacy beats DX, they can brag about that every Raw for months, looking like world-beaters in the process. Is it just me here?

Christian defeated William Regal to retain the ECW Championship (pinfall, Killswitch)

So, yeah, that match took seven seconds. Why even pretend that ECW matters?

Randy Orton defeated John Cena to retain the WWE Championship (pinfall, RKO)

But that's not the whole story, as apparently a match between Cena and Orton isn't good enough, we had to cue the overbooking! Orton lost the match by deliberate DQ and then count-out, before the edict of Vince McMahon re-started the match (and since when does Vince choose to issue his demands without appearing on-screen even once?), then Orton won, but was in the ropes. Finally, to put a cap on this insanity, a "fan" attacked Cena while he had Orton in the STF, leading to the actual finish.

CM Punk defeated Jeff Hardy in a TLC match to win the World Heavyweight Championship

But will this reign be just as short-lived, as Punk's new challenger revealed himself to be...The Undertaker!

Ooh...I sounded ominous there.

Buddy?



Buddy Thought He Was Promised An ECW Title Match



Tonight's Host:

He Must Be Doing Well, Because All His Stuff Is White

Last night, Randy Orton retained his WWE Championship against John Cena. Despite doing everything he could to leave the match with the belt by underhanded means, it was a mysterious fan from the crowd that seemed to wrest victory from the jaws of almost certain defeat for the Legend Killer, freeing him from the submission hold applied by a dominant Cena. Was this fan acting on his own, or was there a more sinister plan at work from the devious Orton?

Meanwhile, D-Generation X escaped from SummerSlam with a decisive victory over Legacy. Will Rhodes and DiBiase have any response to their defeat last night, and will this latest setback aggravate any potential cracks in their alliance?

Plus, Floyd Mayweather is indeed the guest host, and I'd imagine he's still got some pent-up aggression left after his WrestleMania 24 showdown with current Unified Tag champion The Big Show. Will Mayweather once again test his skills against the World's Largest Athlete, and will Show's ever-present tag partner Chris Jericho figure into the equation this time?

All this, plus could Raw Roulette return in Sin City? Find out, tonight on Raw!



The Eye Of Vince Is Upon ROH!

Yes, in news that must have ROH fans shaking their tiny ineffectual fists at the gargantuan WWE monolith, it has come to light that Brian Danielson, considered by many to be the greatest technical wrestler in the world (yes, better than Angle, Benoit, even Paul Roma), has agreed in principle to a WWE contract. While Danielson may have lost a step over the years due to injury, he is still seen as one of the backbones of ROH, and could potentially have a big impact in WWE. Also, one can hardly blame the man for looking for a little bit of financial security that could come with a WWE contract.

Oh wait, there isn't actually any immediate plans for Danielson? WWE mostly signed him because ROH moved their television show to Mondays before Raw and they want to deny them one of their biggest stars? Yeah, that sounds about right.

Dangerous Honesty

Recently, the only honest man left in WWE, Chris Jericho, told it like it is, with frightening specificity, to The Baltimore Sun.

"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?"

See, comments like this are going to have him jobbing to Triple H again. But then again, I'd imagine Jericho feels pretty secure right now, he's one of wrestling's hottest properties and frankly, doesn't even need to keep wrestling, so he can say whatever he wants.

And you can't say he's wrong, because on Smackdown, you have John Morrison on the cusp of the main event, and Dolph Ziggler winning more fans every time he wrestles a match to the point that WWE is going to be really upset one day that they gave him the stupid name "Dolph Ziggler" instead of something that can be used to make clever t-shirts. Meanwhile, while everyone's talking about the return of the Smackdown Six, over on Raw, I could potentially name at least six guys capable of exciting matches of about the same calibre: Kofi Kingston, Evan Bourne, Jack Swagger, MVP, The Miz, and either of the Colons. Except these guys just trade wins against each other and never interact with the main eventers outside of as enhancement talent. Gee, I can't imagine why Smackdown is perceived as a better show.

Finally, A Belt Less Credible Than The Divas Championship

As announced this past week on Impact, TNA is planning to introduce...wait for it...the TNA Knockouts Tag Team titles, and will be running a tournament to crown the new champions. Let me give you a moment for that to sink in.

I'm mostly curious if this was the returning Scott D'Amore's first idea under his new reign. Are there even eight actual Knockout tag teams in TNA? Screw that, are there two? I mean, there's the Beautiful People and...I guess Awesome Kong and Saeed, even though she's apparently only allowed to portray a competent wrestler as Alissa Flash. It's like the Deuces Wild tournament all over again, random tag teams running around and nobody gives a damn.

Well, at least they'll probably last longer than the WCW Cruiserweight Tag Team titles. If you can name all the teams from that tournament, I'll give you...well, nothing. Why should you get more than WCW ended up with?

Retirement? Nobody Retires In Wrestling

Apparently TNA is going full-force with the promotion for Bound for Glory, specifically the possibility that Sting may retire. Yes, that's right, for the very first time, a pro wrestler is going to retire and then leave TNA.

Anyway, the TNA promotional staff has been working hard, including promotional posters for Bound For Glory featuring Sting with the tagline "The Final Curtain?" In fact, the TNA road team went so far as to hand out Sting masks outside the Staples Center before SummerSlam. And for more examples of how the wrestling world has changed, this time the renegades were outside with Sting masks, while D-X was inside the arena on a tank. And they thought Canada was Bizarro World.

Cue the people predicting that Sting will sign with WWE so they'll release a career DVD for him in five, four...ah, just go for it now.

How Can We Miss Him If He Hasn't Left?

You know, I wouldn't even bother with this, except it's actually a horribly slow news week and at least six different news bites in the wrestling section are about Jeff Hardy's potential future. So far, I've learned that he's gone after SummerSlam, or working the Smackdown tapings this week. He may be starting a reality TV show, or just trying to get publicity for his band. Of course, for all things Hardy-related, we make sure to check with his faithful brother Matt, who did not disappoint, leaving cryptic Twitter messages about the fact that he and Jeff probably won't tag again, but Jeff will be with WWE after SummerSlam. Whether that means Jeff will re-sign, or take a vacation from wrestling and return sometime before the sun goes nova, is anyone's guess. I guess the simple fact of the matter is, we have no idea what's going on and you're all fortunate that we even manage to string enough coherent sentences together to form news reports every week. Which, admittedly, is why it sometimes takes Small a couple weeks between submissions.



Inactive List as of 08.17.09

WWE Raw

- Batista, out 4 months as of June 9th (biceps)
- Maryse, out indefinitely as of July 28th (knee surgery)

WWE SmackDown

- Edge, out indefinitely as of July 4th (torn Achilles tendon)
- Michelle McCool, day-to-day as of August 1st (knee injury)
- The Undertaker, out indefinitely as of May 2009 (hip/knee)

ECW

- No reported injuries

TNA

- Jeff Jarrett, TNA, out indefinitely as of July 21st (self-imposed suspension)

Transactions

- Brian Danielson, agreed in principle to a WWE contract

- Courtney Taylor, ECW, made ECW debut on August 18th ECW on SyFy

- Don West, TNA, promoted to office job, removed from broadcast position as of August 20th Impact

- The Undertaker, SD!, returned to action at SummerSlam PPV



WWE

WWE Champion: Randy Orton
- 70 day reign, defeated John Cena, Triple H, and The Big Show in a Fatal Four-Way for the vacant title on June 15th (Raw)

**NEW** World Heavyweight Champion: CM Punk
- 1 day reign, defeated Jeff Hardy in a TLC Match on August 23rd (SummerSlam PPV)

ECW Champion: Christian
- 29 day reign, defeated Tommy Dreamer on July 26th (Night of Champions PPV)
WWE Intercontinental Champion: Rey Mysterio
- 57 day reign, defeated Chris Jericho in a Mask vs Title Match on June 28th (The Bash PPV)

WWE United States Champion: Kofi Kingston
- 85 day reign, defeated MVP on June 1st Raw

WWE Undisputed Tag Team Champions: Chris Jericho and The Big Show
- 29 day reign (as team of Chris Jericho and Big Show), The Big Show named as replacement for former champion Edge on July 26th (Night of Champions PPV)
- 28 day reign (as team of Chris Jericho and Edge), defeated former champions The Colons and Legacy in a Triple Threat Match on June 28th (The Bash PPV)

WWE Women's Champion: Michelle McCool
- 57 day reign, defeated Melina on June 28th (The Bash PPV)

WWE Diva's Champion: Mickie James
- 29 day reign, defeated Maryse on July 26th (Night of Champions PPV)

TNA

TNA Heavyweight Champion: Kurt Angle
- 63 day reign, defeated former champion Mick Foley, Samoa Joe, AJ Styles, and Jeff Jarrett in a King of the Mountain Match on June 21st (Slammiversary PPV)

TNA Tag Team Champions: Scott Steiner and Booker T
- 36 day reign, defeated Beer Money, Inc. on July 19th (Victory Road PPV)

TNA X-Division Champion: Samoa Joe
- 8 day reign, defeated Homicide on August 16th (Hard Justice PPV)

TNA Knockouts Champion: ODB (or possibly Cody Deaner)
- 8 day reign, defeated former champion Angelina Love and Velvet Sky in a tag match on August 16th (Hard Justice PPV)

TNA Legends Champion: Kevin Nash
- 8 day reign, defeated Mick Foley on August 16th (Hard Justice PPV)



Harrison and James have the weekend news reports.

Rodriguez has For The Record.

The Triple Threat talks SummerSlam.

Ford has Contemplating CHIKARA.

Remington has Takin A Mulligan.



411 will have live coverage of Raw tonight starting at 9 pm EDT.

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