The Bell To Bell News Report 11.22.09

Posted by Randy Harrison on 11.22.2009

The WWE goes midget-crazy, Shane McMahon may soon be working for another combat sports organization with three letters in its name, the Rock may FINALLY be coming back to Raw as a guest host and so much more happened in the past seven days. Catch up on all of those stories as well as TNA's Turning Point PPV, the weekly shows and more inside...




Hello rasslin' fans and welcome to this week's edition of The Bell To Bell News Report! Things have been pretty slow on the old news front this week with very little to report from TNA, ROH, or the WWE, so for the second week in a row, we're just going to go ahead and scrap the segmented format for the news stories and just lump everything together since there would only be about one story per section based on the most important bits that are out there. That being said, there's still plenty on tap as we've got a look back at the TNA pay-per-view Turning Point, the weekly shows to discuss, Shane McMahon meeting with the UFC after his shocking resignation from the WWE, The Rock possibly signing on as a guest host for Raw, the frontrunner to host WrestleMania next year and more.

On top of all of that, hockey talk returns this week as since there is a bit of a news drought, I've got plenty of time to get this sucker in before my deadline and before I start in with live coverage of tonight's UFC 106 show from Las Vegas. Honestly, I can remember times where there was one MMA weekend a month. Now it seems like there's at least one event every weekend that needs coverage, sometimes two or three. I'm not complaining because I love the sport, it's just crazy to see how much it has blown up in the past couple of years to get to the level it is at today.

Anyhow, my Yahoo fantasy team is hurting with Sedin and Hossa still injured, though both should be back before the beginning of next month, which is a huge thing for me. The past couple of weeks have been rough with me losing pretty handily, but I'm still lucky enough to be holding down fourth in the league and if I can get back on track with a healthy team through the winter months, I should have a decent shot of cracking back into the top two. Moving over to ESPN, I made some moves to add some scoring depth after a couple of losses in the past few weeks and I am really seeing the difference this week as all of the guys that I've added (Kotalik, Afinogenov, Fisher) have all out-performed the guys they've replaced. My goaltending has taken a bit of a hit with Craig Anderson coming back down to earth a little bit this week after an insane start to the season, but I think that that is just a little fatigue due to having so many starts early on while Colorado's back-up, Peter Budaj, was having problems with the swine flu. All in all, both teams are looking strong for the future, provided there aren't any more major injuries (knock on wood).

Anyhow, let's get to why you're all here and start talking about the past seven days in this crazy sport we call professional wrestling. Wait, does anyone still call it a sport?



You know the drill...





Ding Ding....








TNA Turning Point Results:

TNA X-Division Championship: Homicide vs. Amazing Red (C) - Winner: Amazing Red (pinfall, Code Red)
TNA Knockouts and Knockouts Tag Team Championship: The Beautiful People vs. ODB (C) and Taylor Wilde and Sarita (C) - Winners: Taylor Wilde, Sarita and ODB (pinfall, ODB's TKO on Rayne)
TNA Tag Team Championship: Beer Money Inc. vs. The Motor City Machine Guns vs. The British Invasion (C) - Winners: The British Invasion (pinfall, modified Hart Attack on Roode)
Six Sides of Steel: Tara vs. Awesome Kong - Winner: Tara (pinfall, flying crossbody off the top of the cage)
Street Fight: Team 3D and Rhino vs. Matt Morgan, Hernandez and D'Angelo Dinero - Winners: Team 3D and Rhino (pinfall, Rhino's GOOOOOARRRRRR on Hernandez)
Falls Count Anywhere: Bobby Lashley vs. Scott Steiner - Winner: Scott Steiner (pinfall, lead pipe shot)
Kurt Angle vs. Desmond Wolfe - Winner: Kurt Angle (submission, triangle choke/armbar combo)
TNA World Heavyweight Championship: Daniels vs. Samoa Joe vs. AJ Styles (C) - Winner: AJ Styles (pinfall, 450 splash on Joe)


Last Sunday saw TNA present their Turning Point pay-per-view and to be honest, it actually did feel like a turning point for the company as the show gave a lot of TNA's young stars a chance to shine while still allowing some of the old guard to get theirs. For the first time in a long time, I can actually say that a TNA PPV had action-packed matches from top to bottom with the two bouts at the top of the card flirting with Match of the Year candidacy. Before I get into the show itself, I'd like to point something out to TNA. I harped last week on their inability to properly time out their weekly TV show and this week I'll harp on their overuse of gimmick matches. It honestly felt like every match on this card outside of the two main events had some sort of gimmick attached and that's just too much. I'm fine with a street fight, cage match, falls count anywhere match or a wacky "all titles on the line" style match, just don't put them all on the same card. Not only does it cheapen each and every gimmick that gets used by making each seem no more important than the next, it also feeds into what I was talking about last week in not giving fans time to breathe. If they're just watching gimmick after gimmick, it's easy to burn out and mentally tune out a little bit as a fan. Just keep it simple TNA and don't feel like every feud needs eight gimmick matches in progression to end it. It's no coincidence that the two best matches of the night were straight up wrestling matches.

Alright, rant over, moving on to the show! Despite my feeling that the gimmicks were overused, I was pleasantly surprised by the undercard as there was nothing that was outright objectionable and there were actually some flashes of excellence in there as well. The X-Division opener was a solid bout, the tag team triple threat was pretty well done despite being short and having all of the run-ins and the Lashley/Steiner match was actually better than it probably had any right to be, even though it wasn't a technical marvel. There were some misfires though in terms of booking with the six-man tag street fight being the most notable culprit. The match seemed to have little purpose other than to solidify the Team 3D/Rhino unit and the other side felt like they were thrown together the day of the show just to have a team to go against them. The match was alright, but it was just too random to really mean anything and as such was a bit of a disappointment. As for the Knockouts six-woman tag, I was a little baffled as to why they would bother with the special stips when all of the titles stayed with the ladies that owned them. This is a case of what I was talking about earlier as TNA just used up a gimmick for no reason, something that could have come in handy as a fresh idea in a different feud when it could have meant something.

Moving on to the two main event matches, I have to say that both of them definitely bumped this card up from average to great. Starting out with the Wolfe/Angle match, this one was fluid, stiff, believable work from two consumate professionals and a joy to watch. Wolfe got to work a very similar style to what has made him a star in Ring of Honor and Angle did well to adapt to that and keep up while adding in some of the TNA style that works so well when they actually decide to use it. As much as I would have liked to see a Wolfe win here to keep him going as an undefeated beast that just destroys, I'm actually fine with the Angle win here. Wolfe still looks just as strong after the loss and it means that the feud will likely continue with Wolfe out for revenge on Angle. If that means a few more weeks of Impact segments with these two leading to another four-star match, count me in! I don't know how this one will fare when it comes to MOTY voting, but it definitely deserves a look as they blended old-school and new-school styles very well into a cohesive, action-packed, rugged match based on wrestling rather than extraneous fluff.

The main event for the TNA Championship with AJ, Joe and Daniels served as a nod to their match in the past as well as doing its own thing and standing alone as its own match. All three guys were working their asses off in there and it showed in what came out in the ring. Yeah, this one was a little spotty at times, but there was still a real flow to the match and it never descended into a full-on spotfest. In the end, AJ looks great for beating two guys that pushed him to his absolute limits, while Joe and Daniels end up looking great in their chase for the belt. If this leads to some variation of singles matches with these three over the belt for the next few months I'll have no complaints. The one thing that I would take a little bit of issue with is seeing a ton of sites and writers going five stars for this one. To me, a five star match has to be a little less spotty, especially when it comes to a championship match. These guys had the psychology going when it came to referencing the past matches and some of what happened in the ring, but calling it five stars is overrating it just a bit. I had it at about four stars or so, in case anyone was asking.





Monday Night Raw Results:

WWE United States Championship: MVP vs. The Miz (C) - Winner: The Miz (pinfall, Skull Crushing Finale)
Chavo Guerrero vs. Santino Marella - Winner: Santino Marella (pinfall, roll-up)
WWE Diva's Championship Lumberjill Match: Alicia Fox vs. Melina (C) - Winner: Melina (pinfall, Last Call)
Evan Bourne vs. Jack Swagger - Winner: Jack Swagger (pinfall, gutwrench powerbomb)
Chris Jericho and The Big Show vs. D-Generation X vs. John Cena and The Undertaker - Winners: John Cena and The Undertaker (pinfall, Cena's Attitude Adjustment on HHH)


Monday Night Raw returned to MSG with guest host and WWE Hall of Famer "Rowdy" Roddy Piper in tow. To say this show was a trainwreck would be polite to catastrophic rail accidents. When you consider that on a two-hour WRESTLING show, there was less than twenty minutes of actual in-ring action, that's not a good sign. When you further consider that the longest match of the night was the main event and even that was only seven minutes and change, it gets even worse.

Now, I'm not the type of wrestling snob that says that any match under twenty minutes is crap because it's possible to put together a solid piece of business in five or six minutes if you know how to do it. Unfortunately, these weren't solid pieces of business. Instead, we got comedy, matches that meant nothing, matches that should have meant something but didn't because they got less than three minutes and a main event that was decent but nothing special.

I don't even think I'm going to bother touching on any of the in-ring action other than the main event with any sort of depth because I'm sure that the time that it would take you to read about it would be about four times as long as the time it actually took it all to go down on TV. I actually had hopes for the MVP/Miz match that opened the show as both guys are more than capable and Miz has been on a bit of a roll since winning the US title, but those hopes were dashed pretty quickly.

As for what I taked about earlier in terms of the lack of ring action, I'd at least be ok with it if they had used the other portions of the show to further some angles or something, but they didn't even end up doing that. Every segment that didn't have a three-minute match seemed to be heavily featuring Piper, something that ended up dominating the show. I get that the guest host has to have some interaction, but this was just wrong as it spent the whole show trying to get Piper over when he's going to be gone next week.

The Piper segments were just brutal, especially the main in-ring segment with Vince McMahon. Rather than seeming like two guys that hated each other, they just came across as a couple of rambling, doddering old neighbors that were complaning at each other because Vince's rose bush was too high or Roddy's dog shit on Vince's lawn. There were glimmers in the segment, but the entirety was just a chore to sit through, as were most of Piper's segments in the show. It may just be me, but Piper was way more enjoyable in his guest starring role on It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia a few weeks back than he was here.

The main event actually had some promise as it featured six of the WWE's biggest stars in the ring at one time, but again they were hamstrung by the amount of time that they had, or rather the time they didn't have. A match like that would have probably gotten fifteen to twenty minutes had it taken place on Friday night, but because it was Monday, they got seven. As I said before, I'm no wrestling snob because for seven minutes, they put together the best match that they possibly could, making it exciting and full of action while not seeming frantic and rushed. My only complaint is that this could have been even better had they been able to slow it down a little bit and use a full twenty minutes or so.

The big finish with Cena getting the pin on HHH and then being Tombstoned by The Undertaker seems to be setting up a WrestleMania main event, but at this point who knows. Unless it's going to be a title unification bout, someone is going to have to lose before then, if not both guys, because having a title involved just muddies up the potential booking. With Taker as champ, he has to win to avoid losing "The Streak", but he really can't continue on as champion for any real length of time. With Cena as champion, he has to win or else we're back where we started with Taker holding a belt he can't possibly defend. Best case scenario for me is to have them possibly cost each other their titles, brawl as part of the Royal Rumble and then move into a full-on feud for WrestleMania with Taker getting the win to head into retirement.

Anyhow, I ended up talking about this show a LOT more than I probably should have with as little as went on, so I think I'm done for now. Bring on ECW!





ECW on SyFy Results:

Career vs. Mask: Paul Burchill vs. The Hurricane - Winner: The Hurricane (pinfall, top rope swinging neckbreaker)
Vance Archer vs. Johnny Andrews - Winner: Vance Archer (pinfall, reverse DDT)
CM Punk and William Regal vs. Christian and R-Truth - Winners: CM Punk and William Regal (pinfall, Punk's Go2Sleep on Christian)


ECW was kind of all over the place this week with a squash, a career vs. mask match and the ECW Champion being beaten by someone who isn't even on the roster. On the plus side, we were spared an Abraham Washington show this week, so I guess it wasn't all the way bad. The opening segment with CM Punk making his return to ECW was actually pretty good before we got into the whole Zack Ryder/Rosa Mendes/Shelton Benjamin deal, which fell pretty flat for me. I've said it a few times, but I really don't think this angle is going to do anything for anyone. At least it was kept fairly short and didn't end up taking too much time away from the other parts of the show.

The career vs. mask match was pretty good actually with Burchill and Hurricane showing some of the chemistry that they've been able to gain from working together for the past little while. I have to agree with what Bauer said in his ECW report though about Burchill's face before the match began. He really did look like his dog just died, kind of giving away where things were going to go. Where they're going to go for Burchill, I really don't know as ECW was pretty much the only place that he could move up the card. I don't see him going anywhere on Smackdown or Raw and honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if he ends up released by the post-WrestleMania talent purge.

Moving to the main event, we had Punk and Regal taking on R-Truth and the ECW Champion Christian in a match that was a pretty good action match, even with the commercial coming less than a minute in that essentially took a lot of the wind out of my sails watching it. From there, we saw Punk get the pin on Christian, something that kind of grinds my gears because not only does it show the brand's champion taking a pin that means next to nothing because there's no feud between Punk and Christian, but it also shows ECW to be a weaker brand in that someone from Smackdown can come in and do what the rest of the ECW roster seemingly couldn't. As I said in the open, it was an uneven ending to a very uneven show and it looks as though there isn't a lot of advance plans in place for ECW at this point.





WWE Superstars Results:

Shelton Benjamin vs. Zack Ryder - Winner: Zack Ryder (pinfall, Rosa-ference)
Eric Escobar vs. Jimmy Wang Yang - Winner: Eric Escobar (pinfall, running dropkick)
Cody Rhodes vs. Mark Henry - Winner: Mark Henry (pinfall, World's Strongest Slam)


The show started out with Shelton Benjamin and Zack Ryder continuing their ill-conceived feud by having a decent little match. Benjamin is still the athletic guy that the WWE has no idea what to do with while Ryder is still the guy that has decent in-ring skills, charisma and potential, but the WWE doesn't know how to capitalize on it. With that, we got about nine minutes of action before Rosa interjected herself and helped Zack get the win. Now interference on its own isn't ridiculous, but when it comes to a situation where Rosa is trying to get Zack to answer a cell phone in the middle of a match, that's where I draw the line. In the confusion, Rosa screams, Shelton jumps to the ropes and Ryder pulls him down and gets the three-count. That was absolutely ridiculous and possibly the worst booked match of the year.

Things didn't get much better when we got to a match between Eric Escobar and Jimmy Wang Yang, a glorified squash match that showcased Escobar and his manager, Vickie Guerrero. I'm still not totally sold on what Escobar's future is going to be with the company but he seems like he's got some potential. It's going to help him immensely that he's got Guerrero with him as she's always going to be a heat magnet. I'm not sure if they're hoping that she's going to have a similar impact for Escobar based on her interaction with Edge that someone like Sherri Martel had for Shawn Michaels after her time with "Macho Man" Randy Savage and other main event stars, but it's worth a shot. At the very least, he's someone new that isn't coming in and destroying jobbers with thirty seconds of power offense like Kozlov, Sheamus, Jackson, Archer and the rest.

The main event of this week's Superstars show saw Cody Rhodes and Mark Henry meeting in advance of their respective teams squaring off at Survivor Series. I can't say that I completely understand this one, especially considering that Henry is the weakest link as a singles wrestler when it comes to his team. Rhodes has been improving a lot in the last year, but there's no way that he's ready to carry someone like Henry to something watchable, no matter how much more entertaining Henry has seemed to be in the past year. That being said, Rhodes and Henry busted their asses and actually put on a match that was probably better than it ever should have been. Based on how the rest of the show went, I didn't have very high expectations, but this one exceeded them as they worked hard, especially when Rhodes used some good psychology with the knee work to soften up Henry. Frankly, that was the only thing that saved the show from being a total flop.





TNA Impact Results:

Scott Steiner vs. Amasing Red - Winner: Amazing Red (disqualification, Steiner pipe shot)
The Motor City Machine Guns and Beer Money Inc. vs. Kiyoshi, Sheik Abdul Bashir and The British Invasion - Winners: The Motor City Machine Guns and Beer Money Inc. (pinfall, Machine Guns double-team)
Hamada vs. Taylor Wilde - Winner: Hamada (pinfall, Hamada Driver)
Raven and Dr. Stevie vs. Abyss - Winner: Abyss (disqualification, Raven attempts a fireball)
Alisa Flash vs. Sarita - Winner: Sarita (pinfall, reverse enziguri)
Street Fight: Team 3D and Rhino vs. Matt Morgan, Hernandez and D'Angelo Dinero - Winners: Team 3D and Rhino (pinfall, Jesse Neal chairshot on Hernandez)
Daniels and Desmond Wolfe vs. AJ Styles and Kurt Angle - Winners: Daniels and Desmond Wolfe (pinfall, Daniels' BME on Styles)


I actually ended up missing Impact as the local MMA event I covered this past weekend held their weigh-ins on Thursday and after a three-hour delay, I realized that I had not set my DVR timer for Impact. "Bah, those weigh-ins start at 4pm" I told myself..."I'll have plenty of time to be back" I said. Lesson learned. Impact will be back next week.








Friday Night Smackdown Results:

Matt Hardy vs. Batista - Winner: Batista (pinfall, Batista Bomb)
Finlay vs. Drew McIntyre - Winner: Drew McIntyre (pinfall, double-arm DDT)
WWE Intercontinental Championship (2 out of 3 falls): Dolph Ziggler vs. John Morrison (C) - Winner: John Morrison (pinfall, Starship Pain in the third fall)
Mickie James vs. Layla El - Winner: Mickie James (pinfall, bridging roll-up)
Rey Mysterio vs. Tyson Kidd - Winner: Tyson Kidd (disqualification, Batista-ference)
The Undertaker and Kane vs. The Big Show and Chris Jericho - Winners: None (no contest, schmozz finish)


I did, however, remember to set the DVR for Smackdown seeing as how I knew I was going to be out. To be honest, I'm kind of glad that I did as after a pretty lackluster week of shows from the WWE, Smackdown brought it home in style with some quality wrestling and decent angle work that, much like the great last hole in a round of horrible golf, gave me hope that maybe next week will be better.

I really enjoyed the two out of three falls bout with John Morrison and Dolph Ziggler, a match that hopefully has ended the feud that has kind of run its course, without ending Ziggler's title aspirations as I feel like he's still capable of a good run with the IC belt. The match was very good, with both guys getting a chance to shine in the first two falls before Morrison came out on top in the third and deciding fall. My only worry is where they go from here with Ziggler if this is the end of the feud as there aren't a lot of mid-card options outside of feuding with the IC titleholder, so hopefully he doesn't become lost in the shuffle. He deserves far better than that after all of the hard work he's put in over the summer to turn from internet punchline to solid performer with a gimmick that's over.

The Rey-Batista feud continues to simmer as Batista beat up Matt Hardy to open the show and in the post-match interview, he threatened and made angry faces at Mysterio to help build their Survivor Series bout. After that was all said and done, Batista tried to attack Mysterio during his bout with Tyson Kidd. Unfortunately for Big Dave, Mysterio got the better of the exchange, likely embarassing Batista heading into the pay-per-view, which could have some serious reprecussions for the masked man from Mexico. If they really want Batista to be an awesome full-on heel, they just need to have him be the guy that destroys Mysterio prior to Rey heading off for another surgery on his knee and he'll have a ton of heat. Look for something like that to take place at Survivor Series with Batista nearly crippling Rey-Rey.

I loved the CM Punk interview segment as he is continuing to show why his heel character is one of the best in wrestling with his mic work. The only shame of it to me is that a promo this good ends up wasted on a feud with R-Truth. I'm not saying that R-Truth is chopped liver, but when Punk goes from feuding with The Undertaker to feuding with R-Truth, there's something wrong there. Hopefully, Punk can get out of this doghouse business and get back to the top of the card because this is a serious misuse of his abilities, both as a storyteller outside of the ring and a worker inside of it.

The main event with The Undertaker and Kane taking on the Unified Tag Champs, Chris Jericho and The Big Show, was actually pretty good considering that it was Jericho in there with three guys that can't really do much of anything for various reasons. The finish with the big brawl over the World Heavyweight Championship was good stuff and I'm interested to see what's going to happen now that Jericho has essentially ambushed Show with that Codebreaker at the end of the show. Now, not only has Jericho pissed off The Undertaker by stealing his belt, but he's pissed off The Big Show too by giving him the old Pearl Harbor job. I don't know why, but I have this sneaky suspicion that Jericho is going to walk out of Survivor Series with the belt and that there will likely be a situation where they lose their Tag Titles to Kane and Taker. Not written in stone or anything, just a hunch.

All in all a good show to close out the week, probably the best show of the week and as I said before, something that gives me at least a little bit of hope heading into next week's batch.







-- The biggest story for me this week was something that kind of flew under the radar when it came to the wrestling world as Shane McMahon and Carl DeMarco, two of the cornerstones of the building of the WWE to the levels that it reached during the late-90's and into the early 21st century, reportedly met with officials with the UFC, the leading MMA organization in the world. This is a big story for a multitude of reasons as it could have far-reaching implications beyond MMA and wrestling and into mainstream entertainment.

Shane has been one of the driving forces behind the WWE's digital updates in the past few years, as well as one of the biggest behind-the-scenes players when it comes to international distribution and deals with foreign countries. McMahon was a key figure in getting the WWE's footprint into Mexico, somewhere that the UFC has long been looking to expand into to take advantage of their large stable of Hispanic fighters and the rabid fight fans that live in the country. With McMahon in the UFC's stable of officials and executives, a move like that could be a lot smoother.

Another thing that is a big deal if McMahon ends up on the payroll of the UFC is that he's got an extensive network of connections with various media, cable and network television stations based on his time with the WWE. To think that those would not be a huge benefit to the UFC in their time of expansion would be silly. Having McMahon on board as someone who has proven that they know business and has the reputation of years of work with the WWE on his resume, it gives the UFC a new level of gravitas when it comes to their wheeling and dealing in the board rooms of America.

Also worth noting is that Shane is an extremely competitive person and has been rumored to have been pushing Vince to look into moving into the MMA market, seeing the possibilities for money that can be made in the rapidly growing sport. Vince was less than enthused by the idea, and I wouldn't be surprised if that was one of the key factors in Shane deciding to tender his resignation. Shane is smart enough to see what's coming in the future in terms of the UFC's growth and expansion and he wanted a piece of it.

His desire to want to get involved in the sport could also have grown out of him feeling that he was being slowly phased down the ladder in the WWE, with his sister Stephanie and Triple H seemingly being groomed as the future of the company when it comes to who is going to be in charge. Shane likely saw the writing on the wall and when you couple that with him wanting to get into MMA, his taking a meeting with the UFC becomes far less curious and seems more like someone who has a plan for the future.

When Shane left the company, people like myself were wondering what kind of effect it could have on the WWE and if all of this ends up with Shane taking a position with the UFC, it could be a very bad thing for the people in Stamford. The UFC is already a juggernaut that has an action figure deal with Jakks Pacific, Topps trading cards, a THQ video game, plans for a magazine and a whole lot more. Sounds a little bit like the company Shane just left doesn't it?

That's not even getting into the pay-per-view situation, where the UFC outdraws the WWE on a regular basis with some shows put on by the company getting more buys than the WrestleMania show that serves as the WWE's Super Bowl. If things are already this lopsided now, imagine what could happen with someone with Shane's business acumen on board. For now, the WWE has the lead rather comfortably in TV ratings, but as I said earlier, Shane has connections all througout television and if he can get some good deals put together, the WWE could lose that edge as well.

I'm not suggesting that there isn't room for both companies to exist and that there's a need for people to choose between one or the other. I've been a fan of both for the past fifteen years and enjoy them both for different reasons. What I'm saying is that the years of the WWE being the "worldwide leader in sports entertainment" may be numbered as adding Shane-O-Mac to the UFC team could be a driving factor in pushing the popularity and presence of the sport to an even bigger level than they've attained up to this point.

Time will tell whether or not Shane ends up taking on a role with the UFC, but rest assured that if he does, eyebrows will be raised and the reprecussions will be felt far outside the world of pro wrestling.



-- We touched on WrestleMania earlier in the Shane McMahon/UFC deal and this week, the news came out that Toronto's Skydome is considered to be the favorite to host WrestleMania 27 in March of 2011. The Skydome has been a favorite venue for WrestleMania with two of the most iconic moments in WrestleMania history taking place there (WrestleMania VI's Ultimate Challenge, WrestleMania 18's Rock/Hogan showdown), meaning that a return to the dome, now officially called Rogers Centre, could bring a new crop of history with it. In fact, just by hosting the event for a third time, there would be history made with the arena being only the second arena to host three full WrestleMania cards.

Madison Square Garden, the WWE's home arena for the company's existence and the heart of the promotion, played host to WrestleMania I, WrestleMania X and WrestleMania XX. And yes, before I get a ton of shit for it, I know that the Rosemont Horizon has technically hosted three WrestleManias as well, but I don't count WrestleMania 2 since it was only a partial event. Miami, Indianapolis and Atlanta are all also in the running, but I don't see them going anywhere but Toronto. There's plenty of history for the company there as it's basically their Canadian version of New York City and the crowds have always been insanely hot for any WWE show as evidenced by the other pay-per-views held there. An announcement is expected soon, but I'd be shocked if it's anywhere other than Toronto.



-- In TNA news, Dixie Carter tweeted about D'Angelo Dinero just prior to the Turning Point pay-per-view, stating that he had signed a new long-term deal prior to the beginning of the show. Dinero has shown plenty of potential in his previous WWE stint and so far in his TNA stint and I'm guessing that Dixie is hoping that he's going to realize that potential and become a new breakout star for the company otherwise they wouldn't have locked him up long-term. No terms of the contract were released, but congratulations are definitely in order for Dinero for making the most of the opportunity he was given in Orlando. I think that he's got an incredibly bright future so long as he doesn't end up the victim of shoddy booking like so many of TNA's other young stars or some Hogan short-sightedness in not seeing the tools that Dinero has to work with.



-- More big news from the WWE as during the promotional push for his latest movie, Planet 51, The Rock stated that he has a great relationship with Vince McMahon and that he's looking to guest host an episode of Raw sometime in the future. According to various reports, Rocky was apparently being penciled in for a January slot as guest host even before announcing his interest. The few times that The Rock has come back to WWE TV in the past few years, he's been the same electrifying and entertaining performer he was when he left wrestling, meaning that it should be exciting if/when he finally returns. If there's a God, there will be some way for Rocky to host a three-hour Raw so that we can get an extra hour of awesome out of the deal.


I'd love to see him get the sack to give one of these to Vince when the rest of the midgets show up...

-- Finally, in "This is why I never tell anyone I watch wrestling" news, some booking plans have been made public for the guest hosting stint of Verne "Mini Me" Troyer that is set for two weeks from now. Allegedly, the WWE has booked themselves a bunch of "little people" to appear at the show in lord only knows what capacity. Honestly, for every fun pop culture moment like the whole Macaulay Culkin cameo on Raw a while back, we get crap like this that is beyond embarrassing. The only way this works is if they found three more little people that look like Arn Anderson, Tully Blanchard and Ric Flair, dress Troyer up like Ole and bring back The Four Half-Horsemen! Anything less is an abject failure.


That does it for me for this week folks. Randle's in tomorrow with all of the fallout from Survivor Series, a Raw preview and a whole lot more. In the meantime and in between time, I'll see you back here next time for an all-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.