The Bell To Bell News Report 09.06.09

Posted by Randy Harrison on 09.06.2009

Another big signing by the WWE takes away another ROH superstar, TNA Impact and WWE Raw put on shows that are much better than their recent episodes have given us and I give my thoughts on the Rise and Fall of WCW DVD plus a ton more in this week's Bell to Bell...




Hello out there in radio land, it's Sunday (and I've finally hit on a week where there wasn't an MMA event that needed covering after months of them it seems) so it's time for the most comprehensive news report in the world of professional wrestling, the Bell to Bell! We're jam-packed this week as we've got to over the usual weeklies as well as another big signing by the WWE doing damage to ROH's roster, more fallout from Rey Mysterio's positive drug test and some bad news for Angelina Love and TNA. This thing is going to be stuffed to the gills this week as there are even more stories on top of those three biggies and I've even finally been able to sit down and do some transcription meaning that I'll be covering my talk with classic wrestling aficionado Gary Cubeta as well!

Before we get fully started though, it's September which means two things are coming up soon, the Labor Day Classics and the start of training camps for all thirty NHL teams. Two of my favorite things in the whole world. The training camps are pretty self-explanatory as seeing teams heading to camp means that we're only about a month from the official drop of the puck for the 2009-2010 season! While I have to admit that I'm a little disappointed with my Red Wings coming so close to victory before dropping the Finals to Pittsburgh, things are looking good for another run as we're bringing back a lot of the key players (minus Marian Hossa) and throughout the playoffs we were able to see what budding stars like Darren Helm and Justin Abdelkader are capable of. Things are looking good for another deep playoff run in Hockeytown this year, and if we're lucky and can avoid the injuries that plagued us late in the playoffs this past season, Lord Stanley could be making another trip to Michigan, his third this decade and fifth in the past thirteen years. Dynasty anyone?

As for Labor Day, in Canada it usually means one last trip to the cottage and classic CFL rivalries. While Toronto vs. Hamilton in the Battle of Ontario and Calgary vs. Edmonton in the Battle of Alberta are nice, in my opinion there's nothing that tops the animosity and hatred that stems from the Winnipeg vs. Saskatchewan game that is the battle for Prairie dominance. While the season started out slowly for my beloved Bombers, they put together a fantastic game two weeks ago against BC and with the bye week helping them get some key players back from injury, it's hopefully time for a second-half turnaround that leads to a strong playoff run. We haven't taken home the Grey Cup since 1990, so suffering Bomber fans are long overdue. The game today, as well as next week's return game in Winnipeg (Banjo Bowl, baby!) serve as the markers for most Winnipeggers as the second half of the CFL season as well as the beginning of the Fall season. Fall has always been my favorite time of year and both of these events always remind me that the chilly days and falling leaves are coming soon.

Enough of the other talk though, it's time for some RASSLIN'!! You know what's comin' next!!





Ding Ding....








Monday Night Raw Results:

Six Diva Number One Contender Battle Royal: - Winner: Beth Phoenix (eliminates Gail Kim last)
Chris Jericho vs. MVP - Winner: Chris Jericho (pinfall, Codebreaker)
Texas Bullrope Match: Hornswoggle vs. Chavo Guerrero - Winner: Hornswoggle (hog tie on Chavo)
The Big Show vs. Mark Henry - Winner: Mark Henry (disqualification, Show rams Henry into exposed turnbuckle)
WWE United States Championship Fatal Four Way Match: Jack Swagger vs. Carlito vs. The Miz vs. Kofi Kingston (C) - Winner: Kofi Kingston (pinfall, Trouble in Paradise on Carlito)
WWE Diva's Championship: Beth Phoenix vs. Mickie James - Winner: Mickie James (pinfall, DDT)
WWE Championship: Cody Rhodes vs. Randy Orton (C) - Winner: None (No Contest, Rhodes and Orton attack special referee John Cena)


After various Hollywood celebs and athletes have taken their turns at hosting Raw, it was fun to get to see a real legend of the sport, "The American Dream " Dusty Rhodes get his shot at hosting this past week, especially with his son, Cody, playing such an important role in some of the bigger storylines in the company right now. Things started off strong with Dusty cutting a promo in the opening segment, giving his son a shot at Randy Orton's WWE Championship. Orton was understandbly put out, but the whole opening segment was really well done in my opinion. After last week's half-hour clunker, this segment got a lot more things done in a lot less time, setting the tone for the entire show. Adding in Dusty's interaction with DX throughout the night in various segments hyping Dusty's DVD, the WCW DVD and DX's latest DVD, which were actually quite funny despite being a little too inside for my liking, Rhodes was probably the best guest host so far out of this whole experiment. Shame that he'll only hold that title for one week until Bob Barker hosts the SHIT out of the show next week.

After a nightmare six-Diva battle royal for the number one contendership for the Diva's Championship, we got to see a continuation of the feud between Chris Jericho and The Big Show and MVP and Mark Henry. First up was Jericho/MVP, a nearly-ten minute bout that showed just how great Jericho is and how much promise MVP has if he can regain some of the momentum that he had prior to the brand switch. Both guys gave a great effort in the ring and Jericho continued to show that he is one of the WWE's unsung MVP's (no pun intended) as he continues on his roll of being able to pull a fantastic match out of anyone. Jericho picked up the win with the Codbreaker after a nice little finishing sequence and if this is any indication of what we'll see from these two at Breaking Point, they could be on track to a very good match for the Unified Tag Titles.

The United States Championship was up for grabs on Raw as well as current champion Kofi Kingston put his belt on the line against The Miz, Carlito and Jack Swagger in a four-way match. As sad as it is to say, when I saw the four competitors in the match I knew that Carlito was going to be the one taking the pin. From having great matches with Primo as Unified Tag Champs to jobbing out left, right and center after an ill-advised and somewhat pointless heel turn that left both guys floundering. Poor Carlito. As for the match, there was a ton of action in eight minutes and all four guys got a chance to look good, almost making the match an infomercial for the brand's midcard. Miz and Swagger especially got the chance to shine, giving both guys enough credibility to be solid contenders for Kingston's title in their own right.

Another title was on the line next with Mickie James defending her Diva's belt against Beth Phoenix, who won the earlier battle royal to earn the shot. While the ladies only got about four minutes or so, they made the most of it with James doing a tremendous job of selling a shoulder injury throughout the match after taking a trip to the post early in the bout. With such little time, they needed the help to get the heat up for this one and with the post spot and Mickie's spot-on selling, they were able to get the crowd into it, something that rarely happens with Diva matches on Raw. The finish came a little out of nowhere and I would have liked to see James' comeback get a little more time, but there's also the consideration that Phoenix was caught off-guard by Mickie's offense. That's a minor quibble though as these two put on a very good match, hopefully the first in a long run of them featuring Phoenix and James.

The final match of the night came with Orton and Rhodes going for the gold with John Cena as special guest referee as appointed by Dusty Rhodes. Dusty got on the mic before the match could begin, saying that there's nothing a father wouldn't do for his son. Apparently, that also covers swerves as Orton and Rhodes attacked Cena and beat him down hardcore in a twist that I'm pretty sure no one could have seen coming from the lovable Dusty. Of course, Dusty ended up getting his face status back pretty quickly when Orton RKO'd him and Cody standing up and trying to get in Orton's face about it. Orton backed him down and it seemed to be a strange ending to the show, but they're still seemingly looking at having Legacy turn face against Orton down the road so I guess ultimately it will make sense. Overall, I have to say that this is one of the better episodes of Raw that I've seen in a while and especially a lot better than last week's trainwreck.





ECW on SyFy Results:

Shelton Benjamin vs. Zack Ryder - Winner: Shelton Benjamin (pinfall, Paydirt)
Vladimir Kozlov and Ezekiel Jackson vs. Jim Parks and Mike Tolar - Winner: Vladimir Kozlov and Ezekiel Jackson (pinfall, huge guy destruction)
No DQ, No Countouts: Goldust vs. Sheamus - Winner: Sheamus (pinfall, uranage backbreaker)


While a lot of fans may have been unhappy at the somewhat false advertising that proclaimed that a replay of the Shawn Michaels/Undertaker match from WrestleMania would be shown (instead of the full match, there was a five minute highlight reel shown), the ECW show itself wasn't too bad and I actually can't fault them for not wanting to spend twenty minutes or half an hour showing a match that features two guys who will probably never be seen anywhere near the ECW brand again. The show started out with Shelton Benjamin picking up the win in about five minutes over Zack Ryder, who seems primed for a face run. Benjamin controlled the majority of this one which was a good thing as it played off of his experience against Ryder's relative inexperience at this level. Pretty solid opener and could end up giving Ryder a real shot in the arm if he's able to continue working with Benjamin for the next few weeks.

Skipping over Abraham Washington's pointless contribution to the program (all that ended up happening was another match made between Hurricane and Burchill with Gregory Helms appearing on the show and alter-ego Hurricane appearing on the Tron screen), William Regal's hired goons got the chance to beat up a pair of jobbers with some impressive power moves. Jackson and Kozlov seem to really be fitting well into their role with Regal and the post-match stuff with Regal punishing one of the jobbers and Christian and Tommy Dreamer coming down for the save was also pretty well done. For once, it feels as though an ECW Championship feud is being booked long-term, rather than just by the seat of the pants, as it's helping further multiple angles with multiple people and helping set up follow-up angles as well. For as meaningless as the Washington crap was, this was important to help forward things in the grand scheme.

After a few weeks of matches that have seen neither man able to pull very far ahead, Sheamus and Goldust put it to it in a no DQ, no countout match in the night's main event. For all that people have said about Goldust since the end of his prolific Attitude-era run, he's still able to put together solid matches and he showed it in this one. While a good bit of that probably lands on Sheamus' shoulders, Goldust did well to stay in step with the rising star before succumbing to Sheamus' nasty uranage/backbreaker combo finisher move that's just begging for a name. Sheamus has really benefitted from this feud with Goldust as instead of debuting on a jobber-bashing binge, he's been made into someone that the people had to invest in as he was immediately plopped into a feud. I think that there's big things coming in the future for Sheamus and if he gets there, he'll have the Golden One to thank for it.





WWE Superstars Results:

Evan Bourne vs. Chris Masters - Winner: Evan Bourne (pinfall, Air Bourne)
William Regal vs. Tyler Reks - Winner: William Regal (pinfall, Knee Trembler)
Cryme Tyme and Eve Torres vs. The Hart Dynasty and Natalya - Winners: The Hart Dynasty and Natalya (pinfall, Natalya's tornado clothesline on Eve)


After a great Raw and a so-so ECW show, Superstars didn't have to do a whole heck of a lot to be a good show this week after a couple of lackluster efforts in the past couple of episodes. Unfortunately, they seemingly took that to heart as this one was a bit of a snoozefest for the first forty minutes or so. Evan Bourne kicked the show off by taking on Chris Masters and this is one instance where getting a lot of time wasn't necessarily a good thing. Masters has been pretty inconsequential since his big return to the Raw brand and this match was no different as he looked terrible here. The middle of the match with Masters in control was tough to watch and the only spots that seemed worthwhile were in the finish when Bourne got back in control. With how the WWE's been about signing new guys and releasing people that have returned and not been up to par, I wouldn't be shocked to see Masters on his way out sooner rather than later.

That sub-par opener was followed by a William Regal bout that was little more than an extended squash saw Regal hammer away at Tyler Reks for a couple of minutes before slapping him down with the knee trembler for the three-count. After the match, Kozlov and Jackson played a game of "can you top this?" by destroying Reks with their respective finishers and while that was entertaining, the whole thing had an underlying feeling of pointlessness. I'm not going to be so hard on it as it's obviously looking to make Regal's stable seem unbeatable heading into the match at Breaking Point, but I honestly would have enjoyed this more if the tag match made for next week's ECW show was put into this spot instead.

For as bland as the majority of the show was, the six-person main event tag match was almost enough to bring it back for me. Cryme Tyme have been so much better in this current WWE stint and their pairing with Eve Torres has been great as well. Matching them up with the Hart kids was good stuff and all six delivered a main event-worthy match in the end. Eve and Natalya actually added some good things to the match and did well with their spots and proved to be a welcome addition to the bout rather than just window dressing to a regular tag match. The Harts went over again to help give them even more credibility on the Smackdown brand and continue their momentum as they grow into their spot in the company. Unlike in Cryme Tyme where Shad looks to be the breakout star of the team, Smith and Kidd both seem like they could have a lot to offer as singles stars once they've been seasoned as part of the trio with Natalya. A lot of promise on display in this one and it resulted in a fun main event bout.




TNA Impact Results:

Rhino vs. Sting - Winner: Sting (pinfall, Scorpion Death Drop)
AJ Styles vs. Chris Sabin - Winner: AJ Styles (pinfall, Styles Clash)
Doug Williams vs. Suicide - Winner: Doug Williams (pinfall, Chaos Theory)
Tara and Christy Hemme vs. Hamada and Sojo Bolt - Winners: Tara and Christy Hemme (pinfall, Tara's Widow's Peak on Sojo)
Hernandez vs. Homicide - Winner: Hernandez (pinfall, Dominator)
Doug Williams vs. AJ Styles - Winner: AJ Styles (pinfall, moonsault reverse DDT)
Hernandez vs. Sting - Winner: Sting (disqualification, World Elite-ference)


I unfortunately had to miss Impact last week and was worried that perhaps the show would head back into its usual terrible territory after a couple of good shows. Thankfully, that wasn't the case as this was one of the stronger Impacts in memory and possibly one of the most entertaining shows of the year from TNA. They packed the show full of wrestling as they held a qualifying tournament for the main event at No Surrender featuring the likes of Sting, Rhino, AJ Styles and Homicide among others. All of the tournament matches were kind of short, which is my only real complaint with the show, but other than that they were all good to great matches, especially the matches that featured AJ Styles, who came back from the brink of quitting to put together a fantastic effort.

With all of the wrestling, the usual TNA crap that tends to bog down every show got kept to a real minimum with only the Matt Morgan/Kurt Angle stuff getting a bunch of time and segments. Even then, those segments were quite good and I had no problems with any of them. The Morgan/Angle stuff has been built pretty well from the beginning of the program and if it leads to Morgan getting a permanent bump into the main event than that makes it all the better. Morgan has really done a lot to grow on me in the past couple of months and I'm happy to say that if he gets into the main event it could be just the beginning of an influx of new stars at the top of TNA's cards.

I somewhat lied when I said that the length of the matches was my biggest problem with the one-night tournament they had set up throughout the show as I also had an issue with the Homicide vs. Hernandez bout, which was billed as the first-ever showdown between the two. The match was just ok, which is bad when you're trying to build Hernandez up as a main event threat. Given how long these two have teamed, it also made little sense to throw this match away as part of a tournament on a TV show rather than as a heavily promoted PPV match. I'm not saying they had to give them half an hour or anything, but they deserved a little better than three minutes in a bout where the outcome was not in any doubt. Hopefully TNA's booking amnesia will return when it comes time for a Hernandez/Homicide feud and they'll be able to just pretend that this match never happened.

Sticking with Hernandez and his main event match with Sting, it looked for just a very brief moment that Homicide had turned on his LAX compatriot when Hernandez was attacked just moments into the tournament bout. However, it was just Eric Young, who has really blossomed as the leader of the World Elite, laying a beatdown on Hernandez before he made a big comeback. Rob Terry turned the tables on Hernandez, AJ Styles, Beer Money and Team 3D tried to make the save, but the Main Event Mafia got involved and it all broke down with the heels standing tall. Remember that great brawl segment from a little while back that was one of the best things we've seen on Impact in a while? Well they did it again here as this was just great stuff to close out the show. Rather than uncontrolled and confusing chaos as has been the case most times TNA ends a show with a brawl, this was tightly booked and everything had a purpose. I almost hate to say it, but TNA is slowly becoming a better-booked show than Raw. I don't know if it'll stay that way, but for now it's the way things are and I'm rather surprised.





Friday Night Smackdown Results:

The Great Khali and Finlay vs. Kane and Mike Knox - Winners: The Great Khali and Finlay (pinfall, Finlay's shillelagh shot on Knox)
WWE Intercontinental Championship: John Morrison vs. Rey Mysterio - Winner: John Morrison (pinfall, Starship Pain)
Maria and Eve Torres vs. Natalya and Layla - Winners: Maria and Eve Torres (pinfall, Eve's handspring moonsault on Layla)
Matt Hardy vs. CM Punk - Winner: None (No Contest, Taker-ference)

Bad, bad, bad news as my Smackdown fix was pre-empted this week, making it difficult for me to check out the show. I've seen bits and pieces, but not enough for me to speak on the show with any real certainty. How's this though, CM Punk continues to be awesome as a heel, John Morrison wins the Intercontinental Title in a four-star match with Rey Mysterio despite Mysterio being prepped for a suspension, and The Undertaker returned to a huge pop to put Punk in his place heading into their Breaking Point match-up. That all sounds about right to me, so if I missed anything feel free to let me know.






MAIN EVENT



-- Hot on the heels of last week's signing of Bryan Danielson, the WWE made another big signing this past week, locking up the ultra-talented Nigel McGuinness to a deal that will see the former ROH Champion following in the footsteps of Danielson, Evan Bourne and CM Punk in attempting to make his mark in the biggest wrestling organization in the world. According to various reports, TNA had some interest in McGuinness to have him filling the role that Doug Williams is in now as part of the World Elite, but that McGuinness' ROH contract was a stumbling block, leading TNA to pass and letting the WWE pick up the pieces.

McGuinness has had some injury problems in the past year or two, going down at various times to multiple arm injuries, but there's no denying that he is immensely talented in the ring as well as on the microphone. His ROH tenure was the stuff of legends as McGuinness was the longest-reigning ROH Pure Champion, holding that title for 350 days before topping himself with a whopping 545-day run with the ROH Championship. Not only does McGuinness have the chops in the ring, but his character has been well-refined and he honestly doesn't need to change a thing to get himself on television. I'm really hoping that WWE just lets him be himself rather saddling him with some silly gimmick or trying to force him into being someone he isn't.

McGuinness is also buoyed by the fact that he's done some work with OVW when that promotion was the WWE's developmental territory, as well as by the fact that he is over 220 pounds. In a company that loves to favor bigger talent, McGuinness is going to be right on the bottom end of the spectrum, but still in the range where all of his offense can be considered believable, no matter who the opponent is. This is in contrast to Bryan Danielson who, at under 200 pounds, could have to bulk up to be considered seriously as someone higher up on the card. The signing of McGuinness, along with the signing of Danielson last week, shows that the WWE may finally be listening to the fans who want to see someone different. I'm not suggesting that McGuinness and Danielson will be pushed right into main events upon their debuts, but they've got a definite chance to get there, which could be good news for the stagnant top of the card on Monday nights in a year or two.

What the loss of McGuinness and Danielson means for ROH is twofold. It could give some of their talents that are under contract like Austin Aries and Tyler Black the chance to shine and grow into stars that can help carry the company. Every time a major star leaves a promotion, there is inevitably opportunity for the people who remain behind. Danielson began to move up the ranks when wrestlers like Christopher Daniels and AJ Styles moved to TNA full-time and the same thing will happen when Danielson leaves. As I said before, Aries and Black are the two guys who could benefit the most from this shake-up at the top of the card, especially Black, who was essentially groomed by Danielson on his way out of the company with their long-running feud. Other stars that could soon be looking at larger roles in the promotion are guys like the Briscoes, Claudio Castagnoli and Chris Hero, though there are already rumblings that Hero could be the next one to get snapped up by the WWE.

With all of that being said, it could also serve as a bit of a death knell for the company, much in the manner that the loss of stars like Taz and The Dudley Boys from ECW helped expedite that company's demise when they hit national television. While there is surely some truth to the rumors that the WWE didn't start looking seriously at ROH talent until their decision was made to move to Monday nights prior to Raw, you would have to imagine that Danielson and McGuinness were already on the company's radar due to the fact that both men are incredibly talented and have been putting on greatt matches all over the world. Some ROH fans have taken to calling this a talent raid and have railed against WWE for trying to ruin their favorite promotion and while there is some room for feelings like that, the WWE is looking at keeping their own business strong, even if it comes at the expense of others. ROH had to know that with a national TV deal and a move to Monday nights, more eyes would be seeing their work and more people would be looking to pick off top talent.

The next few months will be crucial to the promotion as we'll either see them regroup and rebuild as strong or stronger than they were before the releases, or we could see the company unravel under the weight of the losses and see the beginning of the end of another Philadelphia-based "Little Promotion That Could".



Featured Bouts



-- Last week, we talked about the big news of Rey Mysterio's failed drug test and I was only able to briefly touch on his interview giving his reasons behind the violation and subsequent suspension. As the week played out, more came to light about Rey's punishment, both in terms of his suspension and in terms of any possible heat he may have with the company for pleading his case via the media. After news of the interview hit the higher-ups at WWE, many in the company are feeling like he could face an even stiffer penalty outside of his suspension, including a possible fine, to set an example for future failures. There's also an opinion that part of this could be damage control for Mysterio in Mexico in that he could be looking to quit the company and continue his career where he began south of the border. This situation is getting really messy in a hurry and it looks as though neither side is willing to budge on their take on what happened.

If Mysterio sticks to his guns, I honestly wouldn't be surprised to see him asking for his release before too long and if he does so, I don't think that the WWE would be too disappointed to see him leave. While he's incredibly popular and does move a lot of merchandise for the company, the WWE has shown that they don't take too kindly to people going outside of the party line and with Mysterio getting up in age and his history of injury problems as of late, he may end up being cut outright. The WWE has run a very tight ship in the wake of the Benoit and Guerrero tragedies and this could end up being one of those situations where Mysterio would have been better served to just keep his mouth shut and serve his punishment. While I like Rey and have been very happy with what he's done to restore some credibility to the Intercontinental Title, I find it hard to believe in this day and age that he would have been unable to provide the company with the prescription they required.

This is the technological age where any information is no more than a few keystrokes away and e-mail takes about four seconds to send from box-to-box, so Rey's argument that it was impossible seems a lot more like an excuse and a lot less like a legitimate reason. It's not like he had to send the thing through the Pony Express or anything, he had time to do it and either didn't choose to do so or didn't feel that he needed to. If you ask me, Rey just needs to suck it up, admit his mistake and move on.


-- ****************SPOILER ALERT*******************

Horrible news for TNA's Knockout Division this week as Angelina Love has been let go by the company due to a work visa issue, effectively breaking up the top heel act in the division, The Beautiful People. While I may not have been the biggest fan of their schtick, there's no denying that they were the two most hated women in the division with Love leading the way. All indications seem to point to Love not getting things done on her end in time, allowing her work visa to expire and leaving no choice but for TNA to give her her walking papers. This is a real shame, especially with Love and Sky looking like favorites for the TNA Knockouts Tag Team Title tournament, but hopefully it's only a temporary problem and Love will be able to get herself settled so that she can get back to work in TNA in the near future. Obviously, this will have a huge effect on the Knockouts tournament and will deal a serious blow to the belts as The Beautiful People were one of the only established women's teams on the roster, so time will tell just how much impact Love's release will have on the promotion, but it seems like this could be a problem for TNA moving forward.


*****************END OF SPOILER******************



-- There was more bad news for TNA this week as Christopher Daniels was arrested during a traffic stop last Friday, though news of the arrest was not made public until Monday. Daniels was charged with driving while impaired and registered a 0.14 on a breathalyzer test and was released on $2,000 bond. I know it seems like there's no real pattern here, but ever since the whole Jeff Jarrett/Kurt Angle issue became public knowledge, there's been a real downward spiral in regards to TNA talent getting on the wrong side of the law or doing stupid things to jeopardize their careers. While a lot of that falls on Angle for his arrest prior to the Hard Justice PPV, it's really beginning to look like there is a serious vaccuum of power at the top of TNA and that the employees are starting to lose more and more direction. Sure, this could just be an isolated incident of someone having a bit too much to drink with friends and deciding to chance it and drive home, but I feel like it's more indicative of a larger problem going on within TNA at the moment.

Even with the TV product turning around in the past few weeks, there needs to be someone who steps up in the locker room to become a leader for all of the young talent in the company. I'm not saying that he's perfect or that he's solved every problem the WWE has ever had, but someone like The Undertaker is almost the de facto captain of the locker room and everyone looks up to him. Sure, there are some problems, but for the most part they want to follow the example set by the legend and earn his respect. If there was someone in TNA that had that level of credibility in the business and respect from his peers, I don't think there would be half as many problems as there are in TNA these days. As for Daniels, I have to say that it's a disappointment to see him make a mistake of that nature as it could have caused injury or death to innocent victims or himself, but the silver lining is that no one got hurt. If TNA is serious about their version of a Wellness Policy type program, they'd go ahead and pull him from TV for a couple of weeks to let him recognize that he's made a mistake and hopefully correct it and learn from it.



The Midcard



-- For the past couple of weeks I've had problems with a massive toothache that's made it somewhat difficult to hear out of one of my ears, forcing me to continually push back my talk with 57Talk.com's Gary Cubeta about his series of wrestling interviews with some of the greats of the sport. Luckily, things have subsided and now I can fully get into what Gary had to say about his series, as well as what he's hoping for in the future with the series. I asked Gary first about what got him into wrestling and how long he had been a fan for....

Gary Cubeta: "I've been a fan for like thirty-eight years. I started watching it in 1972, I lived back East and watched the World Wide Wrestling Federation. I would read the different wrestling magazines and read about all of the different territories and wish that I could see some of that, but of course there was no way to see it back then. That's probably how I got the most interested in the territories was just by reading about them in the magazines"

We moved on to his series of interviews and what got him started in on them and what the motivation was for starting them...

Gary Cubeta: "I've been a fan for a long time and I've been buying shoot interviews for a long time and I liked them. I'll watch them and I thought that the wrestlers, if you could hear what they were saying and the quality was decent enough, I thought their part was great, but I also thought that the whole way that the interview was conducted was terrible. I had it in my head and thought about it for a long time, I just didn't know how easy it was going to be for me to get the guys to do the interviews, I thought it was going to be very difficult. I got lucky to get some really good guests and the show's really taken off. I mean we've only been doing it for a few months, but the response has been great.

I can do six or seven of them a week, it's just the matter of fitting in the time and then getting on and doing the research. I've got guys now doing the research like James Zordani, who's sending me booking sheets and results as part of the Booking Sheets series. In a way it seems kind of dull, but it helps to jog the wrestler's memories sometimes and it can help draw out better stories from the guys. I can actually start to help make stuff that happened forty years ago kind of come to life, which is pretty interesting stuff and I like it a lot."

After a lot of great back-and-forth about the territories and the 70's and early-80's wrestling scene that wouldn''t really make for good soundbytes and a few moments of off-the-record hilarity, we got back into talking about the series and what he's hoping for ultimately with his interviews....

Gary Cubeta: "I do it just for the love of it, I love the stuff, but I also think that someone else should have done it. I look at it and I think that I could have been doing this stuff a long time ago. I always thought someone else would do it and cover these things with guys like Johnny Powers, guys who are lost in time and were famous in the 70's, but don't really get talked about by anyone. Buck Robley is another guy. One of the best minds in the business and yet no one really talks about him a lot when it comes to bookers. Bill Watts told me that he was one of the greatest bookers of all time off the air, Larry Matysik said that there was no equal when it came to booking and Buck. He came on the show and did eight hours with me and now they're after him to write a book and they're asking him to write one. This is a guy that no one had heard about for twenty years.

I like a lot of these interviews because I'm learning too, so I just hope that I can keep coming up with guys that have an interesting story to tell. I've got the Assasin coming on, I've got Rick Martel coming on the show again and I've got Larry Matysik coming on to do the show and we've got results from St. Louis from 1960 on and we're going to take it year-by-year or two years at a time and just go and do the shows and talk about what it was like in St. Louis through that time period. The idea of the Booking Sheets series is that there's no way for anyone to see it, but it's hoped that people can feel like they've seen it through hearing us talk about it. That's good stuff.

I thought if I could get the names, I knew I could do it and I think the biggest surprise for me is that I've been able to get the names that I have for the interviews. I'm not just looking for dirt. I mean I love it when you get some dirt, but that's not my number one priority. I know some of the territories are under-represented now, but it's just the matter of finding a guy that knows someone else that can get me into that territory. By the time I'm done, we'll hopefully have every territory covered so much that you won't want to hear about it anymore. I'd like to get more WWWF from the 70's. You'd think that it would be easy, but so far it hasn't been. I'd love for us to have almost a history of wrestling that would stand the test of time and be there for new fans to look at for years and years into the future."

For as much as Gary talked about how hard it's been to set some of these up and how he's had problems with some guys and how it's a lot of work that is essentially for free since the site doesn't charge to listen to their interviews, I have to say that he's done a hell of a job thus far and I am excited to see what comes from them in the future. If you ever find yourself with an hour or so of free time and a thirst for knowledge when it comes to classic wrestling from the 60's to the 80's, head on over to 57Talk.com and give them a listen, you won't be disappointed. Thanks again to Gary for taking the time to talk with me and I hope that he's successful in getting as much of wrestling history as possible covered. I'm a huge fan and I hope some of you all will be too...




Jerking The Curtain



-- The ECW reunion show that had been planned by Shane Douglas to run in November is in serious trouble as it appears that Douglas announced the event and the date prior to actually entering into an agreement with the fabled ECW Arena and now the venue is unavailable. A comedy show was scheduled for the same night and while it's likely that they may have tried to change things up to accomodate "The Franchise", Douglas rubbed the people in charge the wrong way by making his announcement before talking to them. Douglas then got in touch with Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City, which also hosted many memorable ECW events, but the price they quoted him was too high, which has seemingly left Douglas without a venue. When you add in that many of the talent who have given Douglas their verbal commitment for the show haven't been officially booked yet, the wheels are coming off of this one in a hurry. While many people would love to have another show of this nature, I really think that the ECW reunion shows should go away and not come back. It's not that I don't love the old ECW, it's that the shows are just getting sadder and sadder to watch as most of the people associated with the company fall further from grace and further out of shape. Maybe this will be a wake-up call to Douglas that some things are better left in the past.



-- Speaking of dead promotions, I promised you all my thoughts on the new WWE-produced Rise and Fall of WCW DVD and I won't disappoint. I finally had a chance to sit down and take a look through this one over the past week and I have to say that while there were some disappointments, I was pleasantly surprised with how this DVD turned out. There was a lot of room for improvement on the documentary side of things (hardly any talk of Mid-Atlantic, large gaps of information missing, many relevant events glossed over), but that's to be expected when the WWE has to cram all of those years into ninety minutes. To me, the real shame is that there will likely not be a companion piece to compare this one against or have in conjunction with the WWE version. WCCW's DVD set had an independently made documentary called , ECW's set had Forever Hardcore, but it appears that the WCW set will simply exist as revisionist history, which is kind of sad.

The matches on the set range from quite good to excellent with only a couple of head-scratchers in the list (nWo Souled Out ladder match anyone?) so there's little to argue with here. They covered most of the big stars and some of the best examples of WCW's in-ring action, though I have to say that I'm a little sad that they didn't do a little more of the stuff from Mid-Atlantic again. I mean they have the rights to all the footage, they talked extensively about the promotion during the opening portions of the documentary. I would have really liked to have seen something from the '82 or '83 time period from Mid-Atlantic to kick off the match portion of the set rather than the late-80's NWA stuff that did so instead. I loved the back-to-back matches featuring the Midnight Express and am happy to have those on DVD and I really enjoyed getting to see the Sting/Luger vs. The Steiners match again as that one was one of my favorite WCW matches of that timeframe. It had the big match feel, the crowd was hot for every move and all four guys could still go in the ring. Sure, there wasn't much psychology but it was still a great match.

Overall, I'd have to say that I'm pretty happy with the Rise and Fall of WCW set. I don't think it compares to the ECW set that was put out, but then again that's a completely different circumstance where those people put their heart and soul into the company and still remember it fondly. The working environment in WCW was a little bit different to say the least, so a lot of the nostalgia factor is lost as guys talk about their times and stories and treat it almost like a regular job rather than something they loved. As I said before, I'd love to have a companion piece DVD for this set come out eventually and hopefully there will be, but for being a WWE-produced DVD set about their biggest rival that nearly put them out of business, it was much better than I expected it to be.



The Final Bell

Well, that does it for me for another week. I'll be back next Sunday, hopefully with high spirits after another Bomber victory, and Randle's got you covered tomorrow from the heart of Ontario with his Wrestling News Experience. In the mean time and in between time, I'll see you back here next time for another all-new edition of the Bell to Bell. Take care, folks!

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