News From Cook's Corner 11.29.11

Posted by Steve Cook on 11.29.2011

News and thoughts on Mark Henry potentially turning face, John Morrison leaving WWE and possibly going to TNA, Zack Ryder's heat with WWE management, R-Truth's face turn, Sin Cara's revealing T-Shirt, and more!

Hi, hello & welcome to News From Cook's Corner! I'm Steve Cook, and I hope you all have come out of your turkey comas by now. I ate more turkey over the weekend than should be allowed, but it was quite the glorious weekend. My Louisville Cardinals won a share of the Big East Championship and just might be in a BCS game if Cincinnati can lose to Connecticut next week. Stranger things have happened. Meanwhile, the Bengals won, Louisville basketball continues to win, and my fantasy teams went either 4-1 or 5-0 depending on if Marques Coltson got any more points after I finished writing this column.

That's right, Thanksgiving was all about #WINNING! Is that still a thing?

This column is absolutely loaded with stuff. I have no idea how that happened, but we're here. Let's get it started.



Beadle is nice, but what about Alex Wagner from MSNBC? - The Great Capt. Smooth

I'm not familiar with her work, and Googling wasn't particularly successful. It's probably not a good sign for MSNBC's popularity.

Cara needs to sue the WWE for making him stop injecting his knee juice...Now he's hurt and it's all their fault with their wellness policy - Otunga

I'd love to see that lawsuit make it to court. Do they really have "knee juice"? I admit to being ill-informed when it comes to steroids & performance enhancers, though I can tell you a lot about performance reducers.

WWE has no one to blame but themselves when it comes to Sin Cara, they knew that he knew very little English yet they put him in there with guys he couldn't properly communicate with. Hunico started in FCW and it has been great for him since he can mix Lucha-Libre with a more American style of Wrestling, WWE just put Sin Cara on T.V and hoped for the best. I think they shouldn't release him and that he should go to FCW for a year or 2 at the most to improve, he is very talented and WWE needs to give him a chance to show it - mark

Hunico's an ok example, but an even better one is Alberto Del Rio. ADR wasn't even considered a good wrestler when he was in CMLL, but he's adjusted to the WWE style very well and that time he spent in FCW did great things for him. WWE kind of had to rush Sin Cara onto television because he was the biggest star in Mexico. Now that he's had a few hiccups on the main stage, you'd think they'd have to have him work out the kinks in Florida once he heals up. Releasing him would be silly, and it's always pretty unseemly when somebody gets released while they're injured. I think they'll do something along the lines of what you suggest as long as he doesn't piss off too many people backstage.

Michelle Beadle is not a wrestling fan. She's a WWE fan. Big difference. She could give a rat's ass about ROH. Plus, I would like to see Beadle working for the WWE for at least 1 year. After that year is over, I think her opinion of the WWE will change. - Big Lou

She's a casual fan. I talk a lot about how I'd like to see Beadle go to WWE, but I know that it'll never happen. She's a rising star in the ESPN family and one has to assume that something more than an afternoon show with Colin Cowherd on ESPN2 is in her future. ESPN will do whatever it takes to keep her around, and she'd have to be insane to trade that life for the life of a WWE performer. Wrestling fans' only hope for more Beadle in their lives is that she falls madly in love with CM Punk, which is within the realm of possibility. Until then, I think the most we can hope for is ringside appearances at MSG, maybe a guest hosting spot on Raw.

Erin Andrews nude + Google search = Pointless final video - Come on Cook...

The peephole pictures? Come on, that stuff's so blurry you can't really get anything out of it.

Notice how HYPER defensive the TNA fanboys have become that you, Cook, have essentially called them out?

I got what you were saying, Cook. I got the joke. It was funny.

But these people who are all up in arms?

Either they really are on the payroll, or have completely proven your point. - Darth Mortis

*nods head*

I thought it was pretty obvious that I was joking, but apparently some people really took it the wrong way…even some of our columnists that should know better!

So based on Cook's assessment, TNA owes me some paychecks! - Greg DeMarco

Greg, we've talked about how you're a hundred times better at working with corporate muckity mucks than I am. Why do you think I go to you when I want to interview somebody in the business? You can operate in that world, while I am a mere rabble rouser that knows nothing of which he speaks. Rabble rabble rabble.

The difference between TNA and WWE fans:

TNA fans like wrestling not sports entertainment and prefer a show written for adults that doesn't feature the muppets. TNA fans aren't silly marks who swallow whatever Vince McMahon feeds them.

WWE fans think wrestling and WWE are synonymous even though WWE is embarrassed to be a wrestling company. If your a WWE fan and over the age of 13, you clearly suffer from arrested development. You're like those old creepy guys buying the same WWE dolls that I buy for my 7 year old. I know you swear they're collectible action figures...but really their just barbie dolls for little boys. - Gonad the Destroyer

A couple of points here:

-The whole "wrestling vs. sports entertainment" argument is so 1990s, and if you really want to claim that WWE vs. TNA is a "wrestling vs. sports entertainment" thing, I would think that the promotion featuring matches like CM Punk vs. Dolph Ziggler & Daniel Bryan vs. Cody Rhodes vs. Wade Barrett vs. Randy Orton is the side representing "wrestling" while the promotion featuring matches like Garett Bischoff vs. Gunner & "Thanksgiving Thong Thunder" is the side representing "sports entertainment".

-Somebody that named themselves "Gonad the Destroyer" is accusing people of suffering from arrested development. Folks, you can't make this stuff up.

Steve Cook, What the HECK is WSU? Pleas explain because I am lost as to what the heck you were writing about in the WSU inducting Dixie Carter. - Tom Terma

WSU is a womens' wrestling promotion based in the New Jersey area that brings in fairly big ex-Diva names like Serena & Melina. They have a Hall of Fame that they induct retired woman wrestlers into, and they're going to induct Dixie Carter into it next year. You can find out more about them at this website. Yes, I realize it's really purple. Don't blame me, I didn't design it. Usually I wouldn't find the subject of Dixie Carter being inducted into an indy wrestling hall of fame all that interesting, but when it's somebody that used to call her a meth addict in his Internet wrestling columns doing it…well, it raised my eyebrow.

Hey TNA fans, I wouldn't let Steve Cook bother me. Cook is a guy who, for some odd reason, tries to get over Indy Wrestling and Lucha Libre wrestling as something special and how it should be supported when in reality nobody really cares about indy wrestling and lucha libre. He's too infatuated with the "aura" of indy wrestling when there is no such thing. - Erik Andrew

Hold on a second, I thought I was a WWE apologist! Now I'm infatuated with the aura of indy wrestling? If we've learned anything from Internet wrestling fandom it's that nobody can like WWE & indy wrestling. Make up your minds, people!

Since I'm clearly on TNA's payroll, explain this distinction:

Whenever somebody says WWE blew the Summer of Punk, WWE apologists say that we have to be patient because Vince McMahon is a genius and has some long term plan for Punk...but these same people attack TNA for Bound for Glory and Roode's heel turn/title win, saying the blew the build up of Bobby Roode.

Why don't the WWE apologists, who's motives you describe as the purity of being a fan, apply the same patience to TNA as they grant WWE? - WWE IS SHIT...BUT FRAME IS OK

I think the flaw in your argument here is that you don't think people were bitching and moaning when CM Punk came back too soon, or when he lost the title to Del Rio at SummerSlam, or when he lost to Triple H at Unforgiven. They were. Oh, they were. Surely you remember the time period after Punk's return when everybody was talking about how WWE was going to drop the ball on the angle. I was hoping they wouldn't, but it eventually petered out and Punk didn't really bring in any new fans. At least not enough to make a huge impact. The Summer of Punk became another of WWE's disappointing summer angles, but there was at least one positive thing to come of it…CM Punk as one of the top stars in the company. So, that happened. The Bobby Roode process is still ongoing, but if people were jumping ship on the Punk angle in midstream, why wouldn't they give up on Roode after the loss at BFG, or the random heel turn with no build that led to a title victory given away for free on Impact?

TNA will get peoples' patience when they build a good track record and prove that they can build interesting long-term stories on a regular basis. WWE gets by because they've done it in the past, and as much as TNA fans complain about their company getting so much ridicule from other wrestling fans, WWE gets more ridicule and scorn than any other wrestling company out there. The difference is that WWE doesn't care what people like us think. Sure, Eric Bischoff and the rest of the TNA people yap online about how the Internet fans don't matter, but their constant carping about it proves the opposite to be true. WWE has their more diehard fans living in a happy-go-lucky WWE Universe where no outside opinion is relevant, whereas TNA has their more diehard fans getting mad at people that dare not to love everything about the company.

It's not healthy.

The Big Fat F*g has several points to ponder…

I don't see where RVD fits into the WWE anymore. WWECW is gone. Unless they're going to put him and Booker back in a tag team but I'd prefer Booker and Goldie. I wonder if the Cody-Booker feud will be a reason to bring back Goldie and do the retirement match he wants. It would be a good way to get Goldie back into the mix if that's the plan.

The Booker/Goldust tag team was quite awesome, and if they want to do Cody vs. Goldust at WrestleMania that'd probably be the best way to do it. Goldust comes back trying to make peace between his brother and his friend, that doesn't work out, and there's your feud. I don't think an RVD return is in the cards, but never say never.

Back to RVD, if the WWE is in the entertainment industry and wrestlers are independent contractors, why do they get to enforce a wellness policy on them? I don't hear about Sony or Fox putting their actors/actresses through drug tests if they are signed on to do a movie or tv series. It seems to me that by enforcing a policy on their employees would prove that they were not actual independent contractors.

It could, but WWE gets away with it for a couple of reasons:

-With all the deaths going on over the past several years, they need to show that they're trying to do something to keep that from happening.

-The talent goes along with it because if they don't they'll be out of a job.

We all know the "independent contractor" thing is BS, but nobody will challenge it as long as they're under WWE contract. Occasionally you'll get some ex-employees trying something, but inevitably it'll get tossed out of court for some reason, whether it's that they didn't file suit in time, or they're suing for the wrong reasons, or whatever. I hate to be skeptical on this because I think we'd all like to see the wrestlers treated better, but I don't see it changing anytime soon, if ever.

Alberto Del Rio is a great talent but he needs a good feud. He and Punk just don't fit right together. I wouldn't be surprised to see Del Rio lose next week and Brodus Clay make his Raw debut by destroying Punk post-match per Johnny Ace's orders. I mean they have to be teasing his debut for some reason, right?

I remain of the school of thought that it's a running gag, like how CM Punk was always Colt Cabana‘s second guest on "Good Times, Great Memories" and they always ran out of time before getting to him. Ray of Offtheteam.com suggested a couple of weeks ago that the Clay business was part of highlighting Johnny Ace's ineffectiveness as Raw GM, he can't even debut a talent on television. Given Clay's association with ADR in the past, he could re-emerge as Del Rio's henchman and attack the Punker for that reason.

I'm surprised you didn't give your Twilight Breaking Dawn review. I know you camped out so you could see it Opening Night. Come out Cookie, you can admit it, you big sparkly bedazzled mastadon! It's safe. You're among friends. - The Big Fat F*g

I can honestly say that I've never seen or read anything related to Twilight, unless you count a Kristen Stewart Google search. What can I say, she's a cutie.

Holy crap there's a lot of people throwing hissyfits about that throwaway TNA comment! I didn't read that as a insult against all TNA fans (which I am), rather the morons who doesn't seem to have anything else to do but post stupidity on wrestling sites defending whatever TNA is doing, regardless of whether they are good or bad decisions (i.e. Wes Kirk). There are a lot of other stupid people who does the same for WWE, making real WWE fans (which I am as well) look bad and I think both groups of morons should be mocked as often as possible.

To change the subject to something actually interesting: has anybody else noticed how Cody Rhodes, since he lost his mask, consistently changes his expression back and forth from his Dashing s**t-eating grin to his super villain-esque scowl he had as Cody of the Opera? Just another reason why Cody Rhodes rules. - Christopher

Cody Rhodes is absolutely amazing. I was a bit skeptical when they randomly took the mask off him after the Randy Orton feud, and other people were all like "OH SEE HE CAN'T BEAT ORTON, HE'S A FOO NOW". But he's working it magnificently…he's bringing back some aspects of the Dashing persona, but he's kept the edge that he had with the mask. Honestly, I think he can make whatever the WWE creative team gives him work, which is as high a compliment as you can give anybody in WWE.

The giants don't have much of a home field advantage. the new stadium isn't constructed to be very loud and PSL's have ruined a fanbase that had a pretty high average fan base to begin with. This is coming form a season ticket holder too but I'll be the first to admit that while we do show up to games we are pretty docile - Hercules Strongs

Why in the world would you construct a stadium that isn't meant to be very loud? You have to have that 12th man advantage in today's NFL, and the fact that they spent a billion dollars to make a stadium that's not very loud…well, somebody didn't do enough research. The best stadiums are the ones that are ridiculously loud for the road team & silent for the road team. I remember attending a Bengals vs. Colts game at the old Hoosier Dome…it amazed me how loud it got when the Bengals were on offense and trying to do things, and how silent it was when Peyton Manning was running the Colts offense. I was in awe. No wonder the Colts won so many games for so long, not only were they uber-talented, the Bengals had no chance against the Colts in that type of environment. And I'm not sure who would have.

Didn't anybody realize Matt Hardy was locked up during the McRib's limited run? Off course he turned to alcohol to deal with the pain of separation. Matt was set up to fail! It's all a conspiracy! - Guest#8510

I don't know about that. We've at least established that people could visit him, and he even got to go home for a minute (which incidentally was right before he relapsed). I'm sure people were bringing him McRibs if he wanted them, and he probably made a trip to McDonalds before or after posing nude with his girlfriend, who, by the way, could use a McRib or two.

What?

Cook, you've just become my Favorite writer on here just because of Robin Meade and yuengling! - M Dub Cee

I said on last week's Offtheteam.com Fantasy Football Podcast that if you didn't like Taylor Swift or Terra Calaway we can't be friends. We can add Robin Meade & Yuengling to that list.

Isaiah 26:20-21

"Come, my people, enter your chambers,
and shut your doors behind you;
hide yourselves for a little while
until the fury has passed by.
For behold, the LORD is coming out from his place
to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity,
and the earth will disclose the blood shed on it,
and will no more cover its slain."

Hmm...

HOLY CRAP! IT IS BATISTA!

I was reading Isaiah 26. I continued reading to Isaiah 27...

Isaiah 27:1

"In that day the LORD with his hard and great and strong sword will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting serpent, and he will slay the dragon that is in the sea."

And we all know who used to go by that name... - WHAT?

I love this. People on the "big name" wrestling websites are getting into pissing contests over whether it's the Undertaker or it's Chris Jericho. I'll be honest: I have no freaking idea. I'll know at the same time that everybody else does. But if it's Batista…well, it's something that those lameasses didn't call. So now I'm hoping that it's Batista! And I'm hoping it's the douchebag Big Dave that we grew to love during the last part of his career. That would be absolutely tremendous, and less predictable than anything those fools are calling.

And now, the fake news!



Apparently there has been some consideration towards turning Mark Henry babyface. They kind of teased it on last week's SmackDown, with Big Show knocking the injured champion out, Daniel Bryan trying to take advantage of that opportunity, and Teddy Long booking Mark in a match next week in spite of his injury. I think this is a pretty bad idea. It's not that Mark Henry can't be an effective babyface, he's proven in the past that he can get the people behind him by raising his hand.

But when you look at the SmackDown landscape, it's tilted towards the faces. They've got Randy Orton on top, Big Show & Sheamus right at or just below his level, and Daniel Bryan's making some waves below them. On the heel side there's Mark Henry, Wade Barrett, Cody Rhodes & Christian who I can see being top heels. If you take Henry off the heel side and put him on the face side, the best he can hope for is 3rd or 4th babyface. He's not going to overtake Orton (and I don't see an Orton heel turn doing much of anything for Orton at this point), he'll probably be on a level with or below Show & Sheamus. Not to mention there's a Kane return coming, and one would have to assume that Mizark will be on his radar.

I think Henry will turn face again before his time with WWE ends, but right now is way too soon to do it. If they're talking about it somewhere down the road that's fine, but I wouldn't turn him now. Another rumor going around is that Daniel Bryan would be turning heel, and if those two things are connected I think it'd be a bad idea. Bryan as the plucky underdog going against the unstoppable monster is a great wrestling story. The big monster going against the little mean guy that nobody likes...well, it's a wrestling story, but it's not nearly as compelling as the first option.

Odds are that the fans will end up turning Henry face anyway because people love rooting for a badass that smashes everybody into oblivion. The day will come when people will want guys inducted into the Hall of Pain. I'd let them decide when the right time is. For now, Henry as the monster heel is working. Don't fix what ain't broke. I think either Cody or Wade will be a more than acceptable successor as top heel once Henry's run ends, but it's too soon to make the transition.

Zack Ryder has some heat with management for dying his hair blond. Yes, I know that regulating peoples' hair sounds ridiculous on the surface, but so is Ryder for dying his hair blond during winter. Everybody knows that the bleach blond look is only acceptable during the summer months, and you go more serious with the dark hair during winter. Ryder should have waited a few more months until it was time to update the Broski t-shirt, then dye the hair. I'm pretty sure they have a Zack Ryder wig on sale, so that item's outdated. There's also the fact that he's feuding with a guy that bleaches his hair. I'm totally with WWE on this one...I love the Woo Woo Woo Kid but this was a bad move on his part.

Of course, if you had told me a few months ago that I'd be talking about Zack Ryder's hair in this column, I would have thought you were smoking too many of the funny cigarettes.

John Morrison's last night with WWE was Monday. He was written out of the Z True Long Island Story last week by having his limo explode, and then on Monday he was destroyed by the Miz. It appears to be a mutual parting of the ways, as Morrison has no interest in sticking around WWE & WWE didn't really care if he left. The story of John Morrison in WWE has been an interesting one. He'll probably go down in history as the most successful winner of Tough Enough, yet it seems like he could have done so much more. Of course, leaving WWE doesn't mean that John's career is over, and we'll be touching on that a bit later in the column.

R-Truth has been turned face partially because Vince McMahon sees great potential in "Little Jimmy" merchandise. We talked earlier about how SmackDown is strong on the babyface side, and it seems that Raw has the opposite problem...once you get past John Cena & CM Punk there aren't many guys to carry things on the face side. Why do you think Randy Orton & Sheamus are on Raw most weeks? That being said, I'm not sold on R-Truth being the answer. Sure, he's had an awesome resurgence this year, but that character wouldn't have been the same as a face, and the reason it was so fresh was because R-Truth was so stale as a face. Going back to what made him stale in the first place doesn't seem like a great answer to me.

Undertaker has had another operation on his shoulder & hip since his last match at WrestleMania 27, but people within WWE believe that he will be ready to go for WrestleMania 28.

One of Sin Cara's new merchandising items was pulled from the market last week. Why? Well, here's the shirt in question:



I honestly didn't notice this the first time I saw the t-shirt when I was browsing the WWE site last week, but towards the bottom middle of the shirt Sin Cara's lower body surrounded by gold gives it the impression of looking like male genitalia. This can only hope to be the second most ridiculous penis-related merchandising snafu in history behind the University of Kentucky's athletic logo for most of the 1990s:



They kept that as their logo for years, mostly because very few people in the Commonwealth actually noticed that the tongue of the wildcat resembled a penis. I think everybody else was afraid to say anything because they would have received a ten-hour speech about how Kentucky Basketball is Life & you're not worth anything if you don't believe that every single edition of the Wildcats is tied for the honor of being the greatest team to ever lace up basketball shoes. That would have taken place after they asked if you were "one of them queers", or something more offensive. Probably something more offensive.

Danielle Moinet has signed a WWE developmental contract. Those of you reading 411 on a daily basis know who she is by now, as she's quickly become known for two things:

-Previously participating in the Lingerie Football League
-Looking like Kelly Kelly


See what I mean?

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that WWE has their Kelly Kelly replacement on deck. The girl's appearing in Maxim now, so she's probably on the verge of being too big of a star for wrestling. It happened to Trish, Stacy, Maria, Sable & countless others, and it'll happen to Kelly. Not that I have any idea what Kelly will do after wrestling, but I'm already looking forward to the shoot interviews and the videos of her teaching indy girls how to work. It'll be a hoot.

Speaking of Divas, the release of Maryse (how come I didn't notice that rhymes until just now?) reportedly had a lot to do with WWE executives concerned with her "history of non-PG activity". I don't know why it took them years to notice that she'd done some Playboy shoots, but apparently she had been kept around for a long time due to her connection with the Miz. As it was, Maryse had been growing uninterested with the whole wrestling thing over the past year, which makes sense because she spent most of the past year doing a whole lot of nothing. She plans on having a fashion & accessory line and wants to return to glamour modeling and doing Playboy shoots. I fully support that motion.

Apparently a street fight pitting Jerry Lawler against Michael Cole is being advertised for the Raw taping in Memphis, Tennessee on January 2nd. At least this time they're doing it where somebody might give a damn, unlike when they booked Cole & Jim Ross in the main event of a show in Mexico.

One of the banes of Internet wrestling fans' existence for many years has been the existence of the spinner belt. How many times have you read columns or comments on columns whining and moaning about the WWE title looking like a piece of crap? Well folks, turns out that John Cena is on your side! He replied to a tweet asking him about it on Monday by saying he's thought they should change it for the past three years, either to the classic design (probably the "Winged Eagle" one if I had to guess) or to something new. This news is actually kind of depressing because if there's one guy with the power to change the belt outside of the office it has to be John Cena. Obviously the powers that be are quite happy with the spinner belt.

Our only hope is that parents stop buying the things for their kids. I don't get people that put down $389 for a replica belt anyway. The Sheik probably paid less than that for his NWA title reign!



-Louisville finishes off Long Beach State just in time for me to give Raw my full attention. Good job, fellas!

-Hot Rod! These appearances are always interesting…you either get Roddy at his best or Roddy at his worst.

-Damn, these fans are gonna be burnt out by the end of this segment.

-I think Piper's trying to provoke Cena into embracing his dark side! He always was a sinister man.

-The power of the ring? I saw this in TNA, and it wasn't good then either.

-Cena resists Piper's request to feel the energy!

-Well, if Lawler thinks Cena is ok, I guess he's ok!

-John Morrison was scheduled to take on Miz in a falls-count-anywhere match, but Miz attacked him with the old lead pipe to the ankle! I liked Morrison's exit from ZTLIS better.

-Morrison: But I'm not dead yet!

-Miz: Yes you are!

-Morrison sure is getting a lot in for a guy that won't be here next week.

-Damn, Morrison nearly got brained by that WWE sign.

-JoMo gets the neck brace & stretcher treatment. Good night, sweet prince. I liked the Brodus Clay idea better, but I guess they gotta put Miz over as a badass.

-Never thought I'd be typing the words "Miz" & "badass" in the same sentence.

-Michelle Beadle tweeted that she's wearing a kilt to work tomorrow. I really need to get that ESPN job.

-BELLAS! Damn, when's the last time they had a match on Raw?

-Uh oh, WWE's Twitter graphic went all wonky again. Here's the new video:



-I think this has more of a Jericho vibe than the first one did, but I'm still hoping for Batista.

-Beth & Natalya jog around the ring and leave. I guess they're doing Rosa Mendes' exercise gimmick. I assume Rosa would still be doing that if she ever appeared on TV.

-Alcia with a funky flipping leg drop for the three count! That was a match. I think.

-Johnny Ace's plan is to get Brodus angry? That would not be my strategy if I valued my life. Then again, if I was GM of Raw I probably wouldn't value my life too much.

-CM Punk knows how to use Google!

-One of the competitors in our next match is called the Apex Predator. The other is called the Show Off. Gee, I wonder who I'll pick in this one.

-"Ladies & Gentlemen, please acknowledge the presence of Wade Barrett!"

-I love it.

-They're actually running with this Show Off nickname for Ziggler? I can't decide if I hate that or "Great White" more.

-Hey, I tweeted #BarrettBarrage, I did my part!

-The Zig Zag Man wins a darn good wrestling match!

-Headstand!

-Bryan vs. Cole Part…oh, I've lost count.

-Nice fired-up face promo by Bryan here.

-Henry's still got the boot, but has lost the crutches!

-Bryan cheap shots him on the leg! I thought that was some good buildup for the Bryan vs. Henry match tomorrow night. Bryan cuts better promos than anybody will ever give him credit for.

-Jack Swagger's serving as Dolph Ziggler's policeman tonight. There's an absurdly old wrestling reference most of you won't get.

-#WWWYKI

-The Kane mask will be resurrected!

-Nice new entrance music for Foley!

-That might have been Foley's best promo since his promo against Edge on SmackDown before SummerSlam 2008.

-I don't think ADR's the kind of guy who should be wearing his Official WWE T-Shirt to the ring.

-Punk can get away with it, he's a known cheapskate and will wear anything that's free.

-Awww, I thought the Eddie tribute would end it.

-Variation of the Go 2 Sleep on the exposed turnbuckle! Good times.

-I don't think Ricardo makes the best of character witnesses.

Pretty eventful show this week. We saw the last of John Morrison, Roddy Piper wanted people to feel the energy, they did a very good job building SmackDown, and Dolph Ziggler had another good match. I approve.



Not much in the way of TNA news this week, but we have a little bit of an update on the India project involving Jeff Jarrett, Dutch Mantel & Dave Lagana. The first tapings are scheduled for mid-December and will take place in India. Some talent has been signed, but no names are confirmed yet. OK, this isn't much of an update.

TNA is discussing bringing in John Morrison & Melina as a couple, which should come as a surprise to nobody since I've been speculating on that for months and I'm just a goof with a news column. They see him as somebody the X Division can be built around, and a feud with Austin Aries may be in the wings. Aries is a damn good performer, and Morrison can still be good when he's motivated, so maybe that'd be just the thing to get him back on the map. Listen, I'm not saying that John's going to draw new viewers to Impact, or that he's going to become a breakout mainstream star with the company. I will say that a change of scenery might be just what the guy needs to reach that next level. Remember Christian's TNA run? Dude finally got the chance to be a main event level talent, and he did pretty darn well with it. Perhaps John can have similar success at his next stop, whether it be in Orlando or somewhere else. I'm thinking it'll be Orlando.

As for Melina, she'll be in line for the next ex-WWE Diva push in the Knockouts Division.

James Storm has not been cleared to wrestle yet by his doctors after suffering a concussion at the Impact tapings in Macon, Georgia. Storm is hopeful that he will be cleared in two weeks when he has another checkup, but it's very likely that he will be unable to compete on TNA's next PPV event, Final Resolution. It's better to be safe than sorry with concussions.

Jackie Moore posted on Twitter that her contract with TNA has expired, and she doesn't expect to be brought back. Moore was part of an angle with ODB back in June where they came in to rid TNA of the sluts & skanks making up the Knockout Division. Eventually they were awarded contracts on TV, but Moore hasn't appeared on the show since August. I can't really make an argument for featuring Moore over the other Knockouts, as she doesn't have a whole lot of upside, but that's still an attractive woman for being in her late 40s and living the wrestling life. Tough, too...apparently a little too tough if her tweets on the situation are any indication.

Multiple sources are reporting that Jeff Hardy is working through a back injury. The injury limits what Jeff is able to do in the ring, and it's why he hasn't been doing a whole lot of in-ring stuff lately. Hopefully Jeff will be able to get through this without the methods he used to kill the pain in the past. His brother Matt remains in jail after getting kicked out of rehab, it'd be a shame if Jeff fell victim to a similar fate.

Breaking News: Matt Hardy is out of jail, but will probably be back in soon enough.



Pictured above is the OVW Womens' Champion, Taeler Hendrix. Facebook told me I should friend her awhile back, and maybe I should have listened since now she's regularly wrestling in Louisville and has gained attention from some of Terra Calaway's readers…

Could u do something on the new OVW champ. Taeler Hendrix???????? - wondering when

I would love to see Terra do something on Taeler. I'd also love for her to write about Taeler in her column. It'd be good times.

The huge announcement concerning the future of Dragon Gate USA & EVOLVE was that they would basically be merging. There will still be separate DGUSA & EVOLVE shows, but the storylines will be the same in each company. This reminds me of when ROH & FIP started having the same storylines because Gabe Sapolsky didn't have enough ideas for both promotions, and it doesn't surprise me that it's happened again. Running two promotions can be problematic, especially when the guy that was supposed to be the main driving force for one of them (Davey Richards for EVOLVE) leaves before the concept gets off the ground. I don't see this announcement doing a whole lot for business, other than EVOLVE shows maybe doing a little bit better if the Dragon Gate guys show up on them. Neither promotion has exactly caught the world on fire despite getting good reviews from the insiders.

Bison Smith passed away last Tuesday in Puerto Rico due to heart complications at the age of 38. Bison was most known for his work in Pro Wrestling NOAH and had a stint in Ring of Honor in 2009 where he feuded with Bryan Danielson & Necro Butcher as part of the Embassy. I thought Bison had the look and the ability to make it in one of the big two North American promotions as a big hoss dude, but it was never to be.

Rasche Brown has left the Urban Wrestling Federation due to creative differences. He was crowned their champion on the last show, but his unease with certain aspects of the company led to this decision. One of the main breaking points in negotiations was Brown's desire to wear actual wrestling attire instead of the street clothes that the UWF wanted their performers wearing. I must say it's nice when a wrestler actually wants to dress like a wrestler Too many indy shows have most of their guys wrestling in something I would wear to a show as a fan and it makes them look...well, indy. Brown had the following to say on the topic on a Facebook post:

"There are basic fundamentals in pro wrestling that should not change and I'm not a storm trooper trying to look like the rest of the roster and I don't need some white man who never spent a day in the ghetto trying to tell me how "WE" act and what "WE" wear... "

Telling the Skullkrusher how to act & what to wear certainly wouldn't be on my list of things to do. Dude once got hit by a semi truck, and you should have seen what happened to the truck.

Former wrestler Angelo "King Kong" Mosca popped up in the news over the weekend. Before his wrestling career, which was during the 1970s & 80s and had stints in the WWF, AWA, Jim Crockett Promotions, Stampede, Florida & other territories, Mosca was a famous CFL player that was known for being one of the meanest players in the game. His most notorious incident on the football field took place in the 1963 Grey Cup, when a late hit out of bounds by Mosca on B.C. Lions running back Willie Fleming took Fleming out of the game and helped Mosca's Hamilton Tiger-Cats to victory.

Mosca was never forgiven by his opponents, including quarterback Joe Kapp. The CFL tried to take advantage of this during a legends event on Friday, showing a clip of the hit and then having the two men come up on stage. Kapp offered Mosca a flower, Mosca told him to stick it somewhere, and then things got real, son...



Mosca tried to fend Kapp off by jabbing his cane at his face, but Kapp got through with a right punch to the jaw that knocked Mosca off his feet. I'm not sure if it makes up for losing the Grey Cup, but at least Kapp can say that he was tougher than Mosca when they were in their seventies. You just don't see this sort of thing enough at legends' events…CFL people hold a grudge!



This week's 411 on Wrestling will be taking place at 8 PM on Friday this week. There's no SmackDown on Friday this week, and we thought about moving the show to another night, but our schedules wouldn't allow it. So we'll get it done in time so I can watch the second half of Louisville vs. Vanderbilt in peace.

Calaway brings The Hot Stuff. You lucky fools out in SoCal can see Terra kicking ass live & in living color at the NWA Hollywood TV tapings on December 4 in Glendale, California. She says we'll have to go to the show to see what she's doing, which isn't really fair to her Kentucky fans.

Mr. Berenstein brings the Honor. As much as he may deny it, I know he's praying for the day that Kevin Steen will unleash hell upon Ring of Honor.

Weyer gives thanks for the good things in wrestling, which never get enough recognition in my book.

Sarnecky gives us a not quite live report from Survivor Series. Attending a WWE PPV sounds like good times.

Kirk implies this column is better while stoned or drunk. That's also good advice for watching wrestling.

Well, that's all we have time for this week! Nick Marsico will be in tomorrow with the WedWi, and I'll be back next week with more News From Cook's Corner! Until next time…


If that wide receiving thing doesn't work out for Jerome Simpson, might I suggest a career in wrestling?