The Bell To Bell News Report 11.01.09

Posted by Randy Harrison on 11.01.2009

After a two-week hiatus for a myriad of reasons, The Bell to Bell is back to discuss the latest happenings from the past seven days including J.R.'s health troubles, the weekly shows, next week's Raw guest hosts and the greatness that is It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia...



Hello again wrestling fans and welcome to the return edition of the Bell to Bell News Report! I've had to miss the past couple of weeks with some birthday fun being the culprit two weeks ago and a UFC 104 trip keeping me out of town and away from the computer last weekend, but I have returned to make sure that you have your week-ending dose of wrestling news and opinion with some other stuff thrown in as well.

Speaking of some of the "other stuff", I spoke a few weeks ago about my fantasy hockey teams when the NHL season opened and after a few weeks, I'm fairly comfortable with who I've got and how I'm doing so far. The Yahoo team has really come together despite not having Marian Hossa or one of the Sedin twins (whichever one is hurt, I always get them mixed up), and I'm currently third overall in the league. As of this writing, I was in the midst of giving Randle a mighty spanking in the current game, but I'm hoping that I don't somehow jinx it with this statement. I've been able to get away with making relatively few moves, only adding Mike Knuble when I put Hossa on the IR and even he comes back in the next couple of weeks, which should make my team even stronger. I was a little worried about drafting Ryan Miller prior to the season, but he's been the strong foundation in goal that has helped my team steal a point or two already and it looks as though he'll be paying dividends for me all season long.

The ESPN pool is a bit of another story where I've had to add a few guys and pick up some luck to get myself to a 3-1 record so far this season. As I stated in the beginning, I didn't get to draft this particular team, so it's been hard to put my fingerprint on it. Some of the guys are under-performing so far (Bobby Ryan, I'm looking in your direction), but it's been a pretty solid start for my team overall, anchored by Colorado goalie Craig Anderson, who has been one of my top point-getters in nearly every game he's played this season. I'm down this week, but it's to the guy that's leading the league and happened to pick up Anze Kopitar prior to the season, which appears to be a breakout for the Slovenian star, so I'm not too broken up about it. All I can do there is to keep plugging away and hope that I can make a shrewd move or two to strengthen my team throughout the season.

That's it for the hockey talk for now as I'm far too depressed with the lackluster start that my Red Wings have put up to want to say much about them so far, except to say that if they don't stop getting hurt soon, they will have to press one of the workers from the Little Caesar's in the concourse of the Joe Louis Arena into service and into a uniform. Franzen and Fillipula are big losses at the best of times, but after losing guys like Jiri Hudler in the off-season, we're definitely starting out behind the eight-ball.

As for wrestling, there's going to be PLENTY to get to this week as we've got a full slate of shows including the debut of the WWE's latest pay-per-view idea, Bragging Rights, as well as the huge story that broke earlier this week about Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff signing with TNA. When you add in the rest of the weekly shows, along with news on Jim Ross' condition after his latest bout of Bell's Palsy, just how committed the WWE is to its PG initiative and more, we've got a huge edition for our return, so without taking up any more time or space, let's get right into it!

You know the drill...





Ding Ding....





WWE Bragging Rights Results:

The Miz vs. John Morrison - Winner: The Miz (pinfall, Starship Pain counter)
Raw vs. Smackdown Divas Match: TEAM RAW - Melina, Kelly Kelly and Gail Kim vs. TEAM SMACKDOWN - Michelle McCool, Beth Phoenix and Natalya - Winners: TEAM SMACKDOWN (pinfall, Beth's Glam Slam on Melina)
World Heavyweight Championship Fatal Four-Way Match: CM Punk vs. Rey Mysterio vs. Batista vs. The Undertaker (C) - Winner: The Undertaker (pinfall, Tombstone piledriver on Batista)
Raw vs. Smackdown Fourteen-Man Tag Match: TEAM RAW - DX (Co-Captains), The Big Show, Cody Rhodes, Jack Swagger, Kofi Kingston and Mark Henry vs. TEAM SMACKDOWN Chris Jericho (Captain), Kane, Matt Hardy, Finlay, R-Truth, David Hart Smith and Tyson Kidd - Winners: TEAM SMACKDOWN (pinfall, Jericho pins Kofi after Big Show chokeslam)
WWE Championship Iron Man Match: John Cena vs. Randy Orton (C) - Winner: John Cena (6 falls to 5, submission (STF) with 5 seconds left in 60-minute time limit)


WWE's first attempt at a brand vs. brand pay-per-view did two things last Sunday night. First, it reinforced the fact that ECW isn't even a real brand and is just there for window dressing and to develop new guys for the Big Two. I'm not going to say that's a bad thing or that there is a problem there because honestly, it's more like the old ECW now than it was when it came back because the old ECW was about guys getting a break and making it big enough that someone from WWF or WCW came sniffing around them. Now, it's guys trying to make their mark to impress and get onto Raw or Smackdown, so it's really not that different, but I digress. The second thing that Bragging Rights did, was entertain the hell out of me for three hours, something that hasn't been able to be said about a lot of WWE pay-per-views this year.

I was a little leery going in as the bulk of the show was invested in the Raw vs. Smackdown tag match and the Orton/Cena Iron Man match and both of those had the potential to be less than inspiring, but both matches were very well put together and extremely entertaining to watch. Starting with the fourteen-man tag, they did well to make sure that everyone got at least a little bit of work in, something that can be a nightmare with that many people in the ring at once. The finish was a great piece of work as Big Show turned on his Raw counterparts to help his Unified Tag Team Championship partner Chris Jericho to give him the win. While it ended up needing a little explaining the next night for it to completely come into focus, everyone could pretty much get the gist of why it happened and it gave Jericho yet another feather in his cap to crow about. Great stuff from everyone here, including the Hart Dynasty kids, who didn't look a step out of place amongst all of the main event-level talent.

On a show with only five matches, I'll get a chance to talk about everything, so let's move on to the other Raw vs. Smackdown tag match featuring the Divas of both brands. It was decent for a Diva match (which can tend to be a trainwreck, especially when you start getting into having six or eight ladies in the ring at once), and we got to see Beth, Melina, Michelle McCool and Gail Kim carry the bulk of the match while getting some pay-per-view exposure, which is never a bad thing. They didn't re-invent the wheel when it came to female wrestling, but they didn't have to so it ended up being a pretty decent little match. Props to Melina for her sweet small package counter out of a slingshot suplex from Beth, a move that was made even better by some good old NWA-style cheating when Michelle tried to reverse the small package behind the ref's back. Solid work all around from the ladies, which was a nice change of pace.

Next up is the World Heavyweight Championship four-way match with CM Punk, Batista and Rey Mysterio challenging The Undertaker. While everyone knows Taker's health problems were going to keep this one short, they managed to pack a LOT into ten minutes including a long overdue heel turn for Batista as he decimated Rey Mysterio, his former tag partner. They didn't have a ton of time to work with here, but it was all action and everyone played their roles to perfection. From Punk trying to steal back his belt with cheap pins to Mysterio and Batista working together before falling apart and Taker just being an ass-kicker, it was all firing and all good. Hopefully they go all out with the Batista turn and really give him something to work with as a heel as this is finally the chance to make him interesting again after such a long stretch of boring, flavorless work as a face.

I'd be remiss if I didn't bring up another one of the stronger matches on the show, the opener between former tag partners The Miz and John Morrison. While they feuded over which one would end up being the "Marty Janetty" of the team, I'm pretty sure neither of them have to worry about that after this match. Both guys showed that they've learned a lot since their time as a team and that they're both getting better with every match. Having Miz pick up the win was important here as he needs a little more establishing than a guy with multiple ECW Championship and secondary title reigns needs. I'm just as surprised as anyone else, but Miz is really starting to grow on me as a singles competitor and could be one of the breakout stars of 2010 if he keeps going at this pace.

The main event saw John Cena and Randy Orton meeting for seemingly the 4,386,091st time in an Iron Man match and while I was a less than excited going in, both guys deserve full credit for going the hour and making it interesting. The mind games played by both men throughout the match, as well as the psychology employed, was outstanding and if it weren't for the nonsense of Orton trying to go all Boris Badenov on Cena with the pyro board, this would have been one of the best Iron Man matches ever. As it is, it stands as a very good sixty-minute match, something I didn't think these two could produce with each other and something that I was surprised to see. All of that being said, I'm kind of sad to see the belt continue hot-shotting around the company with another Cena victory. The sadder thing is that we're probably due for at least one more title change before the Road to WrestleMania begins, meaning the belt will lose a little more of its luster before then.

All in all, this was one of the most entertaining WWE shows that I've seen in quite some time on pay-per-view and it was a pleasant surprise for me watching it at home. For once, I was happy with the money spent on the show instead of feeling like half of it was a waste of my hard-earned dollars.




Monday Night Raw Results:

Kofi Kingston vs. Chris Jericho - Winner: Kofi Kingston (pinfall, Trouble in Paradise)
Santino Marella and Melina vs. Chavo Guerrero and Jillian - Winners: Santino Marella and Melina (pinfall, Melina's Primal Scream on Jillian)
Legacy vs. Mark Henry and MVP - Winners: Mark Henry and MVP (pinfall, MVP's sunset flip on DiBiase)
Evan Bourne vs. The Miz - Winner: Evan Bourne (countout, Swagger-ference)
Jamie Noble vs. Sheamus - Winner: Sheamus (pinfall, big boot)
The Big Show vs. Triple H - Winner: Triple H (pinfall, Trouble in Paradise, Attitude Adjustment, Sweet Chin Music and Pedigree)

NASCAR hit Raw this week as Kyle Busch and Joey Logano hosted Raw and while they tried their best to get involved in the show and bring something a little different, there's just no way to get race car drivers with no acting experience to not look terrible on camera. The opening segment with the two of them interacting with Chris Jericho and The Big Show was pretty bad once the NASCAR guys got involved. Jericho and Show were doing much better on their own, but at least the segment served some kind of purpose in that it helped make a couple of matches for the show.

The first match between Chris Jericho and Kofi Kingston was great as it started to play off of the tag match the previous night at Bragging Rights and also helped to further the storyline between Kingston and Randy Orton that started a couple of weeks back. The Jericho/Kingston match was exactly what you'd expect as Jericho worked with Kingston to give him the most out of his win and did a great job in making the win a huge deal. Just as quickly as Kingston was solidified as upper-midcard with the win, Orton came out to throw Kingston off of the stage in retaliation for Kingston's interference in the title match the night before. Yeah, this felt a little bit like a less edgy version of the Attitude era, but at least it was something different and will give the two of them someone new to work with moving forward.

The thing that really made this a coming-out party for Kingston in terms of his movement up the card was his reaction to being thrown off the stage by Orton. Instead of having that be the end of things or having Kingston spend the rest of the show "in the hospital", they had Kofi come back strong by destroying Orton's car with a tire iron and a bucket of paint. The act wasn't so much the cool part, rather it was the promo work by Kingston that was a real treat and something that I don't think a lot of people expected from him when he was brought up to the main roster. I'm sure they're wishing that they hadn't saddled him with the whole Jamaican gimmick now as it takes some of the believability away from his mic work, but he still managed an entertaining, thoughtful and, most importantly, serious promo that has definitely solidified him as one of the guys to watch on Raw through the end of this year and into 2010.

While Orton is tied up with Kingston, Legacy are starting to do their own thing, trying to carry on Orton's "legacy" by working towards John Cena and the WWE Championship on their own. This week, they got a little sidetracked as they were put into a match with MVP and Mark Henry. The match itself was not much as it was short and had Henry and MVP go over, which is a little confusing when they're trying to build up DiBiase and Rhodes as singles contenders. Not to mention that the whole deal that they teased with DiBiase possibly turning face has seemingly been forgotten about by the writing team. I'm still hopeful that both guys will be able to make a splash in the future, but for now it looks like they might be back in the same limbo they were in a while ago when they were flunkies that couldn't get the job done.

The main event saw Big Show taking on Triple H as the NASCAR guys decided that after Show's chokeslam and KO punch that cost Team Raw the match at Bragging Rights, he needed a little punishing. The match itself was nothing to write home about as most Big Show matches tend to be, but the finish pushed this one over the top. Having Kofi Kingston, John Cena, Shawn Michaels and Triple H all hit their finishers to put over the fact that they were still pissed at Show screwing them over the previous night in the main event. That, along with the making of the Cena/Michaels/Triple H title match for Survivor Series just after the finish of the match made for a molten crowd that was eating it all up with a spoon.

As for the Survivor Series match, having Michaels and Triple H in the same match could lead to one of them turning, something which is long overdue in both cases. My only hope is that they don't feud forever like they did the last time, but at this point Triple H/Michaels would be a breath of fresh air no matter how many matches they've had before.




ECW on SyFy Results:

Sheamus vs. Shelton Benjamin - Winner: Sheamus (pinfall, big boot)
ECW Championship: Yoshi Tatsu vs. Christian - Winner: Christian (pinfall, Killswitch)


ECW saw a rare two-match show that featured both matches running a good twelve to fifteen minutes or so with both being decent enough, but fairly unspectacular. The show started out with another episode of the Abraham Washington talk show segment, with ECW's General Manager Tiffany. The segment was basically there for Tiffany to tell Sheamus that he had one last match in ECW against Shelton Benjamin, as well as to tell William Regal that he's not getting a shot at Christian's ECW Championship. Regal's reaction was fantastic and pretty much saved the segment for me as everyone else involved was a little boring to me.

Sheamus' match with Benjamin started the show in the ring and while these two are both talented guys and got a lot of time, there wasn't a lot that was redeeming about the match and instead it just felt like two guys going through a set list of moves rather than something where both guys were working together. In his ECW report, Bauer talked about how the blandness of the match helped to support Sheamus' argument that Shelton isn't anything special, but at the same time it also illustrated how one-dimensional Sheamus is as a character and how he hasn't had enough time to develop into someone that can take a match that's a little on the boring side and bring it past that with his personality and his psychology. That will come in time thoughk, so I suppose they should be happy that his in-ring work is as good as it is.

The other match on the show featured ECW Champion Christian defending his belt against Yoshi Tatsu in another match that suffered from the doldrums. Everything was done as it should, but because there hasn't been much build between Christian and Tatsu other than them being on the same brand, the fans weren't really into it for the majority of the bout. As things picked up and they got to the finish, the fans started to get involved, but that only helped drag this one barely above average to me. In fact, this actually just felt like a match that was there for Christian to get worn out in so that he could be attacked by Regal's Roundtable afterwards. Having Jackson and Kozlov lay waste to Christian before swooping in to pose with the belt has put Regal right back into the mix as a title contender. Given how thin ECW is at the top of the card, that's a good thing as Regal and Christian are capable of a great match if they're actually given the chance to put one on.




WWE Superstars Results:

Jack Swagger vs. Primo Colon - Winner: Jack Swagger (pinfall, gutwrench powerbomb)
Kelly Kelly vs. Alicia Fox - Winner: Alicia Fox (pinfall, scissor kick)
Zack Ryder vs. Tyler Reks - Winner: Zack Ryder (pinfall, Zack Attack)
The Hart Dynasty and Mike Knox vs. Cryme Tyme and R-Truth - Winners: Cryme Tyme and R-Truth (pinfall, Truth's Lie Detector on Kidd)


Superstars featured the usual action that we should expect from the D show with three matches with a mix of jobbers and midcard talent and an upper-midcard main event. This week's episode started out with Jack Swagger and Primo Colon putting on a decent little match that showed just what the company thinks of Primo after the break-up of his team with Carlito a while back. Primo got in just enough offense to make Swagger look even better in the win and Swagger played his role to perfection. It was a shorter match, but it was alright given the time it had. It almost makes you sad to see someone who is a decent hand like Primo get treated like a jobber after short time ago.

Next up was a Diva match featuring Kelly Kelly and Alicia Fox and well....for two women who are as beautiful as Kelly and Alicia, it wasn't very pretty. Mercifully, this was kept to about four minutes or so, but that still didn't stop them from botching one or two spots in that period of time. For as much as everyone was on Kelly's bandwagon after a few decent matches a while ago, she seems to have regressed back into her original style of botched moves and sloppy-looking offense. Alicia was no better here as she had her part in how messy this match looked, so it's not something where I'm just picking on Kelly. Also surprising was how they left the botched roll-up spot in the match, even though they had more than enough time to get rid of it in the editing room.

The main event for this week's edition of Superstars saw the continuation of the on-again/off-again feud between Cryme Tyme and The Hart Dynasty as Cryme Tyme teamed with R-Truth to take on the Harts and Mike Knox. The face team picked up the win when Truth dropped Kidd with the Lie Detector for the pinfall, and while the match was a good main event and provided an entertaining finish to the show, it is starting to get a little tedious watching Cryme Tyme and the Harts face off week after week with no real progression or no real point. They have decent enough chemistry and can put on good matches seemingly in their sleep, but that's not saying a lot when they've had about a million chances to get it right. Hopefully they can find something for both teams soon so they can stop spinning their wheels.




TNA Impact Results:

Alyssa Flash vs. Tara - Winner: Tara (pinfall, Spider's Web)
Motor City Machine Guns vs. Team 3D - Winners: Motor City Machine Guns (submission, Shelley's single-leg crab on Devon)
TNA Legends Championship: Bobby Lashley vs. Eric Young (C) - Winner: Bobby Lashley (disqualification, Steiner-ference)
The Beautiful People vs. ODB, Hamada and Christy Hemme - Winners: The Beautiful People (pinfall, Lacey's chokeslam on Hemme)
Dr. Stevie vs. Abyss - Winner: Abyss (pinfall, Shock Treatment)
Rhino vs. Matt Morgan - Winner: Matt Morgan (pinfall, Carbon Footprint)
Street Fight: Desmond Wolfe vs. Kurt Angle - Winner: Desmond Wolfe (referee's stoppage, Angle unable to continue after Wolfe lariat)


TNA Impact this week saw a company still rocked by the news that Hulk Hogan was joining the promotion (to be fair, the taping had already taken place so that part wasn't noticeable until the end of the show with the Hogan promo piece) and the shocking appearance of Desmond Wolfe last week as he took out Kurt Angle and immediately announced himself as a major player in TNA. This week, the Wolfe/Angle conflict continued as Wolfe re-introduced himself in the opening segment and Angle interrupted to challenge him to a street fight. The fact that Wolfe is the coolest Mr. Wolfe since Pulp Fiction notwithstanding, there's nearly no one better at the top of the card for TNA to bring the former Nigel McGuinness into the company to work with than Kurt Angle. Wolfe has risen higher in two weeks than a lot of former ROH stars have in years in TNA.

Along those lines, the finish of the main event street fight was also huge in establishing Wolfe as a major player and force to be reckoned with in TNA as he laid out Angle with his lariat, forcing the referee to stop the match when Angle couldn't continue. This one match did more to get over the ferocity and deadliness of Wolfe's lariat than a million X-Division matches and video packages could have ever done for a move like the Canadian Destroyer. With that one deadly serious finish, they took a move that fans have been trained to think of for years as a transition move and turned it into something that they will fear if any of their favorite wrestlers get hit with it. Great stuff from TNA that I only hope doesn't get derailed when Hogan and his cronies get into town.

Also worth noting during the show was the continuation of the World Elite angle with newly-crowned TNA Legends Champion Eric Young announcing that the title was being rechristened as the TNA Global Championship and that he refuses to defend it on American soil or against American wrestlers. While the logic behind such a stipulation could be a little flawed as it will essentially turn the belt into a prop instead of an actual title, this could be a real heatseeker for Young and if he plays it right and is able to stay healthy (check below in The Stories for more on that), he could really go places with this. I'll say this for the guy, he does the most with whatever he's given and manages to make it work, no matter what it is. You've got to take your hat off to him for that.

Elsewhere, the only other real development was a pseudo-turn for Mick Foley in the whole Foley/Dr. Stevie/Abyss feud that started out hot but has slowly fizzled into the usual TNA overbooking. Stevie and Abyss had a singles match this week with Abyss coming out on top, and after a post-match beatdown by Stevie and a Singapore cane, Foley came down to mimic helping Stevie before laying into him. I don't know where exactly this is going unless they're planning on going all the way with a Foley apprenticeship of Abyss, who was long considered a Foley/Mankind rip-off back in the day. All I know is that Foley was able to make people in the WWE or have matches of importance and for whatever reason, TNA seems to be incapable of getting the same thing from him with their younger guys.

The rest of the show was mainly a vehicle to hype the Hogan press conference deal at the end and the push for Hogan making his first appearance in the Impact Zone soon. We'll talk about all of that below, so that pretty much wraps up the important stuff from Impact for this week.




Friday Night Smackdown Results:

Dolph Ziggler vs. John Morrison - Winner: Dolph Ziggler (countout)
Jenny Brooks vs. Beth Phoenix - Winner: Beth Phoenix (pinfall, Glam Slam)
Matt Hardy vs. Eric Escobar - Winner: Matt Hardy (pinfall, Twist of Fate)
Finlay vs. Drew McIntyre - Winner: None (no contest)
CM Punk vs. Scott Armstrong - Winner: CM Punk (pinfall, Go 2 Sleep)
Kane vs. Chris Jericho - Winner: Chris Jericho (pinfall, Codebreaker)


As always seems to be the case, there's one show or another during the week that causes me some problems and this week it was Smackdown as I missed the majority of the show due to a pressing social engagement that kept me otherwise occupied. Alright, I'll admit it, I ended up missing it as my timer glitched while I was at the local pumpkin patch picking out pumpkins for Halloween and runnign through the corn maze.

That being said, I have some points to touch on from the portions of the show I've been able to see from various sources online.

-- After watching him with it on both shows he appeared on this past week, I firmly believe that Chris Jericho and his Bragging Rights trophy are following the same entertaining path that the late, great, Owen Hart took with his Two-Time Slammy Award Winner gimmick. Jericho's love for the trophy has been great so far and I'm looking forward to seeing it continue in the weeks ahead.

-- Batista's heel turn doesn't seem to be taking because there doesn't seem to be a reason for the fans to boo him yet. Yes, Mysterio is one of the more popular WWE superstars, but there still seems to be a little grey area for Batista at the moment. Having him attack Matt Hardy will help, but he really needs to do something despicable before the fans will finally begin to boo him. I'm not saying that they need to tell the fans what they want to see, but a heel Batista is desperately needed to freshen up his stale routine. In the future, I'd also be happy to see them leave Eddie Guerrero out of the discussion as that came off as a little on the tacky side.

-- The CM Punk/Scott Armstrong deal was great. Normally, I'm not a big fan of matches where a wrestler takes on a non-wrestler, but this made sense in the current storyline and Armstrong used to be a former wrestler, meaning that he isn't completely useless in the ring. War Dixie Dynomite!!

-- The Matt Striker/Todd Grisham commentary team was a lot better than I thought it was going to be and could actually be one of those teams where they improve with time and could be the Smackdown announce team of the future if J.R. is gone for a long period of time or unfortunately gone for good. Grisham has started to grow on me in the past little bit and he's actually getting better as an announcer. At least there's a little bit of hope for the future when it comes to the announce desk in WWE-land.

-- The Jericho/Taker/Big Show match at Survivor Series seems as though it's tailor-made to break up the tag team, much like the triple threat match on Raw is primed for a DX break-up, but I don't know whether it will be Show's jealousy over a Jericho title win or one costing the other the match that triggers the slide. It's unfortunate because it seems like the WWE is hell-bent on breaking any team that is together for more than a few months, but I guess it is what it is.





MAIN EVENT


-- The biggest story of the week and probably of the year broke in the middle of the week as TNA announced that they had reached an agreement to bring both Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff into the promotion, though there were no exact details as to what role either man would play within the company. Almost immediately, the internet exploded with cries calling for TNA management to reconsider and the death watch for TNA seemingly moved forward at an exponential rate just from the announcement as naysayers are apparently thinking that with Hogan appearing in the company for the first time, the death of the promotion can't be far behind.

While it's true that Bischoff and Hogan were largely responsible for the death of one of the longest-running and most popular wrestling organizations in the world in WCW, they weren't the only causes for that company's downfall and in fact, were two of the big reasons why the company even survived as long as it did because without either man and the nWo angle that transformed WCW, there might not have even been a Monday Night War as WCW was near death's door before Bischoff's arrival in the company.

That's not to say that Hogan and Bischoff don't have their fair share of baggage and that there aren't likely going to be a few ruffled feathers in Orlando when they make their way into the company. Hogan is known for his ego and Bischoff isn't exactly the most personable guy in the world and when those two personalities mix with a bunch of the younger talent in TNA, there is definitely the potential for fireworks. With guys like Samoa Joe, Daniels, AJ Styles, Eric Young, Hernandez, Matt Morgan and the newly-arrived Desmond Wolfe poised as the future of the company, it will be crucial for Bischoff and Hogan especially to keep their egos in check.
There have been rumors that Bischoff will be working largely from the television production side of things and that he'll be working towards expanding TNA's television footprint with different programming, possibly on different networks. If that's what he's there for, then they've probably got one of the best guys for that particular job in Bischoff. He's got schmoozing down to a science and he's made a bunch of connections through his production company that's been churning out VH-1 style reality programming and the like. If they're able to get one or two extra hours a week to help build their brand with some of the other nonsense like guaranteed contracts and stale ideas left by the wayside, then the signing of Bischoff will have paid off in my eyes.

As for Hogan, there have been rumors that he'll be running the company, rumors that he'll be a figurehead in the vein of Jeff Jarrett or Mick Foley and rumors that he's returning to the ring as an active wrestler. While the last one would likely be disastrous for the company, if there is some way that they can have Hulk taking part as some kind of mixture of all the last two, there's a chance that this could work. Hogan brings notoriety and press with him, that's just the way it is, and if TNA can capitalize on that while keeping the damage to the other aspects of their company to a minimum, there's a real upside to having Hogan on board. If they can get people to come for Hogan and stay for the great wrestling, there's a chance that this thing could grow and they could see a bit of an up-turn in their business.

Of course, there is the issue of Vince Russo, who has a very public and very contentious past with Hulk Hogan stemming from Russo's days in WCW when they had a nasty worked shoot falling out that led to Hogan leaving the promotion and suing the company. Russo has long been a whipping boy of the IWC for recycling his same stale, outrageous ideas from the late-90's and that's not without its merit. However, he is also in charge of the booking committee that seems to be focusing on younger talent right now and if he ends up being forced out due to a Hogan/Bischoff power play, this could end up being a bad situation for the guys I mentioned before like Daniels, Styles, Wolfe, et al. Imagine that, Russo being the lesser of two evils. Who would have thought? If Russo is able to continue on in his current vein and Hogan decides to work with him for the good of TNA rather than against him for the good of Hulk Hogan, this could end up being very good for TNA.

All of this is not without peril though as there's always a chance that Hogan and Bischoff could just end up reuniting with their partner in crime from the old days in WCW, Kevin Nash, and things could turn into a rehash of that promotion's dying days. If that ends up being the case, then TNA will likely be doomed as they don't have anywhere near the brand recognition or the ability to lose money and continue operating like WCW had. TNA has been expanding and growing slowly, but still losing money on the whole. If Hogan and Bischoff begin to treat the company as their own personal candy store, there is no way that a promotion with the foundation that TNA has will be able to survive it. What took three or four years to kill in WCW could take less than a year to shut the doors in Orlando, so the TNA folks had better be keeping one eye on Hogan and his crew at all times.

For now, there's just no way of knowing how this is going to turn out, but there is one thing for certain. More people are talking about TNA than there probably has ever been since the company began. If they make the right moves and can capitalize on all of this press momentum, there's a chance that they could finally make that real leap to become a legitimate number two promotion that fans have been craving since the death of WCW. If they can't this could very well be the albatross that drags them into the murky abyss and gives Vince McMahon an even stronger stranglehold on the wrestling industry.


Featured Bouts


-- During the Randy Orton/John Cena Iron Man match for the WWE Championship at Bragging Rights, many fans noticed a somewhat confusing portion of the match where Cena was cut open by a microphone shot from Orton and the doctors and referee tried to stop the match to clean Cena up. It's now come out after the show that it was Vince McMahon's call to have the blood cleaned up and the cut glued shut, both as a precaution against having Cena and Orton brawling through the crowd covered in blood (a big no-no in the eyes of the Pennsylvania State Athletic Commission), as well as to avoid causing problems for Linda McMahon's Senate campaign by giving her detractors more fodder for attacks and accusations.

While I can understand where Vince is coming from here, this was a really confusing sequence, especially for Cena himself, who had no idea what was going on and tried to continue wrestling until finally being told of the situation after another fall had taken place. It's not that this whole thing kept the match from being great, but it's one of those things where something happened naturally during a match and sometimes those are the things that get the most heat and keep the fans involved. Sure, it was inadvertant, but it also showed Cena as being human, something that could have played huge later in the match if both guys had been allowed to run with it.

Think of how much different a match like the Bret Hart/Steve Austin match at WrestleMania 13 would have been without the blood. We still would have had Austin making the comeback and valiantly losing the match, but it would have felt completely different without Austin passing out in a pool of his own blood. I'm not suggesting that this match was capable of putting together such an iconic moment as that one, but they didn't even get the chance to as the PG police were out in full effect, seemingly before Cena had even managed to squeeze out a drop of blood. This could have really added an extra layer to a match that, while decent enough, could have used a little bit of extra subtext that blood could have added.

Instead, we got a sanitized version of what an Iron Man match should be and could have been and it's really quite sad as for all of the blood that there was, there was still a ton of time left in the match and the cut would likely have closed itself up before the end of the match. Sure, you can argue that the doctor coming and checking the cut lent a little bit of reality to the match by being like a UFC-type situation with their ringside doctors, but it really took the match out of sync for a few minutes and was more of a distraction than it was worth.

If they did it for the PSAC's sake moreso than for the Senate campaign, I'm totally with them as the safety of the fans in attendance, as well as the wrestlers, is paramount. If it was merely for the sake of saving Linda McMahon from some Democratic attacks in the next few weeks and furthering their PG initiative (which seems like another campaign ploy to be honest), it speaks sadly to the state of mind at the top of the WWE's business and also to how even though they've made millions and millions of dollars with it, the McMahons still seem almost ashamed to be in the wrestling business sometimes.


-- Last week, I missed out on reporting on Jim Ross' health issues that saw him struck with another case of Bell's Palsy, forcing him out of his role as Smackdown's play-by-play announcer. Apparently the prognosis is still unknown at this time as Ross is undergoing a battery of tests to determine what is bringing on the attacks and if there is another disease that is causing his problems. According to the latest from Ross' blog, there are still numerous tests to go through, but that he does not have multiple sclerosis or MS, so there's a piece of good news. All of the best goes out to Ross and his family from all of us here at 411mania and we hope to see the best broadcaster in the business back in the saddle again someday soon. Barring that, I at least wish J.R. a long and happy life with his family and a healthy prognosis in the future.


The Midcard


-- Eric Young went under the knife again this week, undergoing surgery to remove polyps from his throat. Unfortuately, this isn't the first time that Young has had this surgery, but hopefully it will be the last. Young has really come into his own as of late as the head of the World Elite group and I've been a big fan of his for a long time now. I'm not sure of what the timetable is for a return on that kind of surgery, but with most of TNA's programming for the next couple of weeks in the can, it's possible that Young will not have to miss any significant TV time, which would be perfect considering that he's the holder of the newly-christened TNA Global Championship (which is a far better name than the Legends Championship) and has been playing a major role in the Impact shows as of late. Best wishes to Young for a speedy recovery from all of us here at 411mania.


-- Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne are all lined up to be guest hosts of Raw next week and all I can say is that for those of you who thought Jeremy Piven or the NASCAR guys were a trainwreck for mixing up some names or lines, next week is going to be a disaster. Granted, Ozzy is a big wrestling fan going back to his previous connection to Smackdown when they debuted some single of his as well as his involvement as the cornerman for The British Bulldogs for their WWF Tag Team Championship victory at WrestleMania 2. Having a wrestling fan hosting the show makes sense. However, when that wrestling fan is barely intelligible at the best of times and seemingly speaking his own language at the worst of times, it's not a good idea to put him in charge of a live two-hour broadcast that's somewhat out of his comfort zone. Of course, Sharon will be there too, but her voice is a lot like nails on a chalkboard to me, so I may just have to DVR the show Monday and skip through all of the Osbourne nonsense for my sanity's sake.


Jerking The Curtain


-- This past week saw two of my favorite things collide as the latest episode from the current season of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, entitled, "The Gang Wrestles For The Troops", saw Charlie, Mac, Dennis and Frank organize a wrestling show for a platoon of troops returning to the United States from Iraq. This season of Sunny has been particularly hilarious (road trip episode was my favorite before this one), but this episode was one of the best that I've seen of the show. The show was laugh-out-loud funny for about 90% of the show including Dee's crippled Army boyfriend who isn't really crippled . Roddy Piper was a tremendous addition to the show for this episode and his character of "The Maniac" was awesome.

From Dennis' take on Hulk Hogan's look ("That is Hulk Hogan's signature look...blond, Chinese hair and the skin of a hot dog"), Piper nailing Charlie in the balls with a bale of razor wire, Rickety Cricket making a comeback (as a wrestling terrorist no less), the guys' painted-on abs, to the whole glorious Birds of War entrance, the show was all I could have hoped for an more from the meeting of the funniest show on TV and one of the things I've loved watching since I was a kid. Honestly, one of the best episodes that I've seen of the show, and I've seen them all. I had been hoping for it to be up on Hulu to be able to embed the entire episode for you all, but as of deadline time, it still wasn't available. Do yourself a favor and check it out when it replays on TV or when it hits Hulu or one of the other streaming TV sites out there because you won't be disappointed.


The Final Bell


That does it for me for this week. It was good to be back after such a long break and I'm looking forward to next week where there will surely be more good stuff to talk about in the weekly shows and more fallout from Hulk Hogan's arrival in Orlando to try to bring TNA to the next level. Randle (the spankee) is in tomorrow with his News Experience that is the second-best Experience next to Jimi Hendrix's. In the mean time and in between time, I'll see you back here next time for a brand-new 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.