News From Cook's Corner 12.06.11

Posted by Steve Cook on 12.06.2011

News and thoughts on Booker T's return to the ring, the Chris Benoit movie, details on the WWE Network launch, Chris Masters going to TNA's India project, Hulk Hogan angering people in TNA again and more!

Hi, hello & welcome to News From Cook's Corner! I'm Steve Cook and I hope you all are having a fantastic beginning of December. Lots of stuff to talk about in this week's column, and I think some of it even has to do with wrestling! Maybe.

I noticed Stephen Randle complaining in his column about how he missed out on a Mick Foley comedy show in his area. It's not often that Randle & I have something in common, but I too had a close call with meeting somebody this weekend and was unable to do so. I found out on Friday that my old friend Traci Brooks would be appearing at an event in Jeffersonville, Ohio, which is about an hour & a half from my humble abode. For those of you that weren't around then, or simply don't remember, I had the pleasure of conducting an interview with Miss Brooks back in late 2004, when I was a newbie writer that just did Impact recaps. Traci took a liking to me because I was a fan, and we've kept in touch ever since.

Before anybody asks, she's never given me anything resembling inside information on TNA Impact Wrestling. Believe me, I've tried, but she's very loyal to that company.

Anyway, it would have been nice to finally meet Traci after all these years, but unfortunately I had to work and by the time I found out about it, it was too late to try and switch hours with somebody else. I was very disappointed. I guess it's my destiny to never meet the people that love me via Internet.

It was kind of a tough sports weekend for your humble correspondent, but nothing to really get that upset about. Bengals get blown out by the Steelers? Big deal, the Steelers are a really good team and pretty tough to beat at home. Louisville doesn't get into the BCS? That'll happen when you're relying on another team to lose against crappy teams. If the Cards had beat Cincinnati they wouldn't have had to worry about it, but they didn't. So instead of the Orange Bowl they're going to the Belk Bowl, which is ok because it's going to be a really good game. NC State, like Louisville, has come on strong at the end of the season and beat their conference's BCS representative on the road. It'll be a good test for the Cards, and we won't have to listen to people whining & complaining about how they don't belong in the BCS game. Win-win.

Speaking of college football, I got some heat on Facebook when I posted something stating that Oklahoma State wouldn't have had to worry about getting jobbed out of the BCS title game if they'd beaten Iowa State. Apparently sometime after the Cowboys blew out Oklahoma everybody jumped on their bandwagon. Nobody was pimping Oklahoma State until they realized that LSU vs. Alabama was going to be the title game and they didn't want to see an all-SEC final. Or at least they say they don't. I guarantee the people whining on Facebook about LSU vs. Bama will watch the game anyway. And that's why the BCS keeps doing what it does. As long as people are tuning into the games, the higher-ups will see no reason to institute a playoff system. It's really that simple.

I'm not saying that Oklahoma State is a bad team, it just seems like everybody (including media guys who hadn't said anything about them before this weekend, I'm looking at you Kirk Herbstreit) is on their bandwagon not because of their merits as a football team, but because they don't like LSU vs. Alabama. The first game wasn't the greatest game ever played, but they're still the best two teams I've seen play this year. Should we hold it against them that they happen to be in the same division of the SEC? How many times have teams been unfairly looked over because even though they were probably the second best team in a league they just happened to be in the same division as the best team? Wouldn't Stanford vs. Oregon have been a better Pac-12 Championship Game than Oregon vs. UCLA? Sure it would have. There's no doubt that the system is broken, but it's broken in a way that keeps us talking about it. That's not a bad thing, that's a good thing.

Besides, we're all wrestling fans...and nothing puts the "fun" in "dysfunction" like wrestling!



Oh god you are a UofL fan...... - John Wall

Sometimes I forget that not everybody has been reading this column since it debuted in 2005 (God I feel old). I understand that Mr. Wall keeps a pretty busy schedule and probably doesn't have time to check out every edition of the Corner, so he might not know where my rooting interests lie in the sports world. Perhaps you're also in this boat, being a relatively new reader or somebody that only reads certain portions of the column. No matter, I'll take the opportunity here to explain why I root for certain teams. It's fairly simple.

Cincinnati Reds & Bengals: I grew up just across the river from Cincinnati, and Reds & Bengals coverage dominated television & the sports pages. It was really cool back in 1990 when the Reds won a World Series & the Bengals made a nice little playoff appearance two years after having been in the Super Bowl. As a six year old kid I took both of these events for granted, figuring that they happened all the time and I had lots to look forward to as a fan of both teams.

The last two decades have been rough. I am a loyal person, usually too much for my own good, so I've stuck with these two franchises through thick & thin. I had a brief daliance with the Dallas Cowboys in the early 90s because of Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith and the color scheme & star logo that looked awesome on my Starter jacket. I also really liked the Florida Marlins when they first came into MLB because they had cool colors. Other than that I have remained loyal to the pro sports franchises of Cincinnati.

Louisville Cardinals: I was a Kentucky fan growing up. It's hard not to be in the Commonwealth, as college basketball is considered more important than sex & the UK Wildcats are the equivalent of Angelina Jolie or whoever your favorite attractive female actress might be. I always kinda liked the Cards though, as Denny Crum had them rolling throughout the 80s & most of the 90s, and then they brought in Rick Pitino, who I respected for taking the Kentucky program out of the depths of probation and back to national prominence. I made the switch from Cats fan to Cards fan when I signed on the dotted line to attend the University of Louisville. I wasn't going to be one of those hideous people schlepping around the U of L campus wearing UK gear like I was jealous I couldn't be in Lexington. I don't necessarily hate UK, but some of their fans could learn to take things several hundred times less seriously.

Or maybe not, because it's fun to rile them up sometimes.

I don't really have a favorite NBA team. I liked the Chicago Bulls when Michael Jordan was there and everybody else liked them too, and I also liked the Orlando Magic when they had Shaq. Now there's not really a team that consistently gains my support. I tend to pick a team during the playoffs based on who's the most fun to watch. If a team moves to Louisville I'll hook up with them.


Sure Morrison will change the face of wrestling forever when he crosses the line to Impact Wrestling, but comparing him to Christian is unfair to Christian. Christian has always been much better on the mic, important in either promotion for main eventing. He knows ring psychology and is a ring general that has pulled good matches out of many different wrestlers. I think Morrison can do okay in Impact until they get their next shiny toy, but he really need to work on talking. He also need to learn to put those great moves into a good story. He can get there, but he has much further to go than Christian did. - Guest#8149

You've pretty much covered what John needs to become a superstar in this business. He has some flashy moves, but he needs to learn how to make those moves work to fit a story, and he needs to learn how to talk people into wanting to watch the story. The guy's got the athletic ability to be a star, he just needs to work on everything else. Can he work on all of that while working with Impact Wrestling? There are people there that have the ability to teach him…the question is if they care to teach, and if he cares to listen.

You're also correct in that Christian had more of the tools than Morrison does, he just needed a platform to showcase them, and he got it. Though somehow I think that people think that Morrison is closer now than Christian was in 2006, mostly because of his abs.

I think that Bryan can cut a promo under the right circumstances, like Benoit. Unpopular comparison these days, but think back before we knew about Benoit's dark side. Remember his speech about what winning the title meant to him? Good promo. I think Bryan is better on the mic than Benoit, but the right circumstances make him a lot better. He wouldn't do so well talking about ice cream bars, for instance. - Guest#3025

The Bryan/Benoit comparisons have gone on since early in Bryan's career, back when being compared to Benoit was considered a good thing. They both did most of their talking in the ring, specialize in submission moves & suplexes, and Bryan busts out a flying head butt every now and then (less than he used to, which is a good thing). Both men spent years traveling across the world before landing in WWE. It'd be silly to ignore the similarities. Bryan seems to have a better head on his shoulders and probably hasn't been using performance enhancing drugs like a madman over the past few years. You figure he would have gotten Wellnessed by now if he was. While Benoit was noted for being a sadist outside the ring even before things got really bad, Bryan seems more like a live & let live hippie type.

Bottom line: I think we can compare these guys without worrying about Bryan going off the deep end.

I hate the whole "Great White" thing too. Not only is it kind of stupid, but I can't be the only one that thinks it's, y'know, racist?

I know that it's supposed to be like the Great White Shark. I do. But then why start calling him that when he's feuding with the "Big Scary Black Guy" Mark Henry? That's not even being subtle about implying that he's "The Great White Hope."

Then there's that new shirt, with "Great White" written inside the big Celtic cross. Did nobody in marketing realize that it looks an awful lot like the "White Power" cross that racist shitheads plaster over everything that they haven't already put a swastika on? - Matticus

I think you're reading a little too much into it. Even though Triple H likes putting Iron Crosses onto his t-shirts, I think it's got more to do with Triple H thinking it looks cool than Triple H being a racist. Basically, WWE sucks at giving people nicknames. They should have Matt Striker doing this for them…as ridiculous as the names he gives people are, at least nobody's accusing him of racism.

Yo Cook, do you know where Drew McIntyre is? Any idea why he's been pushed down a few slots? - Finn

Drew has been all over Superstars lately, which is a shame for those of us that don't get Superstars on TV and don't really feel like watching a forty minute show on YouTube. He got de-pushed right when his now ex-wife Tiffany started having issues with the company, and seems to still be in the doghouse for that. You would think that WWE would have gotten over it by now, but they sure seem to like punishing people that can't keep their woman in line. 2011 has been a lost year for the talented McIntyre, and hopefully he'll get a shot in 2012. I think he might need to go the Zack Ryder route of getting himself noticed on the Internet…Ted DiBiase's whole "DiBiase Posse" thing seems to have gotten somebody's attention and now he's getting some run on SmackDown. Drew doesn't seem to be complaining about his spot, which is a good thing, but it's getting to the point where if he doesn't do something soon he'll be stuck in that spot forever.

Thatd be great if it was Batista. It would be his "second" run. But who does he feud w/? - Mark of Excellence

The tough part here is that Batista left after losing a feud with John Cena, and Cena's going to be pretty busy for the next few months with that whole Rock feud. Perhaps Big Dave would like a second chance at beating Undertaker at WrestleMania?

Who is that lovely chick in the Raw Thoughts picture? From HLN? Spread the knowledge, please. - Guest#1561

Morning Express with Robin Meade is must-see TV in the Cook house, and you can probably figure out why without my explanation.

With Morrison leaving, what do you think his name will be in TNA? I've read some commenters suggestions. Johnny Mojo or Johnny Impact were decent.

Also, what if the "It Begins" videos were not for a returning wrestler but a beginning of a new attitude for Cena? Maybe the beginning of paybacks for all those that have slighted on him? Yeah, I know it's probably Jericho but it's always good to let one's imagination run wild. - The Big Fat F*g

Are you implying the Cena heel turn begins on January 2? Interesting. Here's some random John Morrison name suggestions off the top of my head:

-Johnny Thunder
-Johnny Carwash
-John Money
-John Morris
-John Finnegan
-Johnny Spike
-Mojo Johnson
-Johnny Vicious
-John Hendrix
-John Perez

I'm sure all of these have been suggested somewhere at one point or another.

Swaying away from the pro/anti WWE-TNA stuff as it gets done to death a question i wouldn't mind Cook answering if he reads this, TNA based as i'm a fan of them, not really WWE, but I'll see what view i get from someone not drastically fond of how TNA would do things.

Roode's title run, granted we can argue how it's happened and TNA building it right, f*Cking it up badly at BFG then redeeming themselves by finally giving him the belt but doing it a stupid way, even i wouldn't defend that myself, I think it was as stupid as when Christian won the belt and lost it a couple of days later...TNA just ditched the fans feel-good factor to push through a storyline.

It has abit like Christian/Orton been redeemed since, only partially at the moment, making Styles his first opponent was a good move it allows him to look good in the ring, but i'd like to ask once he's past Styles where you'd like to see that title run go.

I also have a fear of it being Hardy next who takes title off him which is just going backwards, but what other direction would you rather see it go? - BigDaveJ

We talked about this a little bit on the 411 on Wrestling...in an ideal world, I'd have Roode vs. Storm main event Lockdown, and that would be the next title change. Storm being concussed obviously isn't a good thing, but it helps keep TNA from rushing things along and having Roode vs. Storm at every PPV from now until then and changing the belt each time. Once Storm comes back he'll be dealing with Kurt Angle and maybe somebody else Roode puts in his way (Chris Harris would have been perfect for this role if he was in shape), but Storm would kick ass, take names and earn a title match. Perhaps Storm gets his next match with Roode at Victory Road in March. That could end with Storm getting screwed over and making there be a reason to have them in a cage the next month at Lockdown. Screwjob finishes are ok if they lead to something.

At this point, Roode will have been champion for several months and hopefully established himself as a guy that can be trusted to have good main events that keep TNA's fans interested in the product, and maybe even bring in some new ones. I hate the fact that they're going to be giving Jeff Hardy a title shot, and I fear that they'll go ahead and put the belt on the guy because that's what they usually do. I wouldn't. Give him the title shot at Genesis or whatever, and have him put Roode over clean. That's how you should be using these guys with name value anyway, putting over the guys you want at the top of the company for the next few years. Jeff Hardy can't be your champion if you'd like to have a champion that won't end up on the police blotter, but Jeff Hardy putting over your champion still means something to some people. As for other contenders for Roode to keep himself busy with...honestly, Rob Van Dam would be a decent choice because of his name value if they didn't have him losing to guys like Robbie E. Mr. Anderson still has a little name value, but has done nothing of note lately. They seem to be building up Abyss again, so having Roode overcome a monster by hook or by crook could be nice filler. So...

Final Resolution: Roode vs. Styles
Genesis: Roode vs. Hardy
Against All Odds: Roode vs. Abyss
Victory Road: Roode vs. Storm
Lockdown: Roode vs. Storm

This seems like something they might actually do, and we'd probably complain about the crappy finishes they'd come up with, but I think keeping Roode champ for awhile and eventually losing it to Storm is the best way to go. I mean, I could throw Samoa Joe somewhere in here because if he's at his best he should be in the title scene, but I'm trying to come up with something they might do that would have Roode & Storm in featured roles.

And now, the fake news!



WWE Network is scheduled to launch on April 1, 2012, the same day as WrestleMania 28. WWE is telling potential partners that they expect to be in 40 million homes when they launch. You can expect Comcast to have WWE Network, and they are working to help WWE clear cable & satellite systems. They are still looking for somebody to head up the network, and they plan to air PPV events on it, but have not specified whether they will be live or taped.

One interesting thing is that WWE is considering acquiring some sports programming to provide some non-wrestling content. I'm going to have to talk to the Penguin about it, but I think he'd be ok with moving the Offtheteam.com Fantasy Football Podcast to WWE Network. If that doesn't work out, they are staffing 200 positions and surely there's something there I could do. Janitor? Eh, it'd be a step up from what I do now.

SRG Films will be producing a movie based on the book Ring of Hell by Matthew Randazzo, which chronicled the life & times of Chris Benoit and had a number of shocking stories with varying amounts of truth about many of the people in WWE, WCW, Japan & Canada during Benoit's time in each area. It's the most divisive book ever written about pro wrestling as everybody who's read it either loves it or hates it with no middle ground. It should be interesting to see what kind of a movie is produced from this book & the life of a man who went from one of wrestling's most beloved performers to the biggest villain in the history of the profession in one weekend.

Booker T received positive reviews backstage for his matches with Cody Rhodes on this weekend's WWE SmackDown house shows. His feud with Cody will continue and there's speculation that he may have another feud afterwards. Booker is in pretty damn good shape for a man that's 46 years old, and I'm interested to see what he's got left in the tank. However, I'm not one of those people who want Booker to leave the announce booth. Where would WWE commentary be without him?



The men known as Dean Ambrose & Seth Rollins in FCW will be hitting the road with WWE next month so they can be evaluated by the road agents/producers/whatever they're being called these days. They've looked damn good in matches against each other, Ambrose in particular has been looking fantastic in his FCW matches & promos. He has an energy about him that translates well to television. Rollins is more than acceptable in the ring, but I still think his personality & speaking ability need a ton of work.

Speaking of FCW people, Triple H is said to be high on Damien Sandow, who was previously known as Aaron "The Idol" Stevens. There's a slight chance you may remember him from his cup of coffee with SmackDown in 2007 as one of Michelle McCool's Teacher's Pets. Well, if you're like me you remember McCool dressed up as a teacher and don't really remember the guys that were with her. He did have a good run with OVW where he was managed by Beth Phoenix & Shelly Martinez before being called up to WWE, and spent some time in Puerto Rico after he was let go in 2007. Sandow is from Massachusetts and was trained by Killer Kowalski, so Triple H being a fan of his doesn't surprise me.

Entertainment news show personality Maria Menounos will have her second WWE match in a couple of weeks at WWE's Tribute to the Troops. It will probably be similar to her last in-ring appearance in that most of the Divas will be involved, she'll just need to do a hip toss or make the pinfall, and that will be that. My favorite memories of Menounos come from her days on Channel One News, where she was known by us high school students as "the hot one". We'd turn the show off if she wasn't on it.

Skip Sheffield has finally returned to WWE after being out since August 2010 with a broken ankle that required multiple surgeries to repair. He defeated Alex Riley on a Raw house show Friday night, and will probably be appearing on television sometime in the not too distant future. Perhaps they can pair him with Brodus Clay and they can wreak destruction on whoever's in their path...that sounds like it'd be pretty awesome.

Lilian Garcia is returning to WWE and will be ring announcing for the SmackDown brand. During her time away from WWE she got married and pursued her music career, but she says she never lost the wrestling bug and she's happy to be back full-time. She did make a one-off appearance on Raw in April 2010 when most of the roster was stranded in Europe due to volcanic ash. WWE has seemingly been looking for a new female ring announcer ever since Lilian left the company, and I guess they never found one they liked quite as much as Lilian.

Vince McMahon, Kofi Kingston & the Bella Twins went to Kyrgyzstan to visit troops. That sounds like the beginning of a joke, doesn't it? "A millionaire, an African and two hot twins walk into a bar..."

Speaking of bars, Tough Enough contestant and former Miss USA Rima Fakih was arrested over the weekend after being suspected of driving while drunk. Rima originally denied the story on Twitter, but her lawyer confirmed it and the tweet was deleted. Driving drunk and then lying about it? Rima is such a wrestler…the only part missing is a complaint about the dirt sheets.



-We start with John Cena talking, which gives me a chance to work on other stuff.

-You can tell Alberto's serious, he didn't come out in his car. He didn't come out wearing pants either.

-I never thought the day would come that Alberto isn't the classiest person in the ring, but here's Dolph Ziggler!

-I'm not sure if Cena continually namedropping Zack Ryder helps Zack's cause.

-A contract signing? I guess it's been a couple weeks since we had one of those.

-I don't like Miz's chances…unless Wade Barrett cares about Miz getting a title shot.

-Oh, and there he is!

-Orton runs off and gets himself counted out. Well, that was a finish.

-I'm not sure the WWE Network commercial announced anything we didn't already know, but it looked spiffy.

-OK, it did announce that there will be a "Legends' House" show. #SheikyOrRiot

-Cena vs. Ryder? The Megapowers Collide!

-David Otunga & his coffee cup talk to Kevin Nash. I hear that Otunga and our boy Nick from DC are BFFs now. That's cool, it's tough for lawyers to make friends sometimes.

-Nash vs. HHH in a ladder match? That is not something I ever thought I would see, certainly not in 2011. It seemed like a stretch in 2003.

-ADR takes on Daniel Bryan, who's sporting his Diamond Dallas Page Memorial Rib Tape.

-Bryan taps to the cross-arm breaker. OH NOES HE'S BEING BURIED.

-Diva time!

-Huh, the Beth/Natalya video got interrupted by the new "it begins" video. This week's tells us to look within. I've tried looking within before…there's not much there.

-@DumbKellyKelly wins!

-Considering Ryder's getting a match with Cena now, I think the office is ok with the whole blonde hair thing.

-The Ryder fans in the crowd are dismayed as Cena gets the duke. Will Ryder ever get his US title shot?

-Johnny Ace forces Cena to give up his title shot so Zack can get another chance to get a US title shot! That dirty individual.

-Are people really wondering if the Kane commercials are for Kane or not?

-Poor Ryder's gonna get killed, the only question is who will do the killing…

-Oh shit, somebody's gonna get their ass kicked & wig split!

-Too bad Ryder doesn't have any submission moves targeting the ankle, as that's his only chance here.

-John Cena does a run-in and costs Henry the match! No disqualification.

-Cena vs. Henry in the near future? That could be interesting. Or, SuperCena could rear his ugly head. Too soon to say…

-BIG SEXY IN DA HOUUUUSSSEEEEEEE

-Ah, so Santino gets to die. I feel pretty comfortable he won't pull a Ryder here.

-He didn't. But he did escape death by sledgehammer, so good for him.

-Evan Bourne returns to talk with CM Punk backstage. Well, Punk probably has the kind of advice he needs.

-I still miss Dolph's old theme. I will miss Dolph's old theme for the remainder of time.

-The Great White vs. The Show Off in the battle of my favorite nicknames. Or something like that.

-Sheamus hits people really hard and Dolph does headstands. Very different strategies here.

-Is Zack Ryder allowed to run in? I'm pretty sure this isn't no-DQ!

-Doesn't matter, Dolph just done got his head kicked off. Poor kid.

-I am a little disappointed TLC won't have two Dolph matches.

-Haw, I think Lawler thought there was somebody else in the WWE title match.

-Nice of Miz & Del Rio to dress up for the occasion. Do they know how these things usually go?

-Punk does because he shows up in his wrestling tights.

-I always worry about people that always wear their wrestling gear. At least Cena has an excuse because he dresses like a 12 year old.

-Who says Johnny Ace isn't Mr. Excitement?

-Punk swears to Jeebus he'll start drinking if ADR mentions his destiny one more time.

-Time to take a picture!

-Brouhaha is a word that doesn't get nearly enough love.

-Punk is the last man standing after the brouhaha. Good times.



TNA will be holding five sets of Impact tapings in Orlando during the month of January, on the 9th, 10th, 11th, 16th and 17th. They have three dates scheduled in Orlando next week after the Final Resolution PPV, so they won't be holding TV tapings outside of the Impact Zone anytime soon. I thought the shows outside of Orlando had a slghtly different feel to them, but not enough to make any kind of a significant difference on how the show came off on TV. I wouldn't rule out the idea of them trying it again, but it looks like for now they're going to try and save some money by doing a bunch of tapings one after the other in Orlando.

Chris Masters will be appearing on TNA's India wrestling show that's taping on December 15. More names will be announced in the coming days. This is kind of a weird thing for Masters fans...I'm sure some of them would prefer that he be on something that they could actually watch on television, but others of them are probably happy he'll be on this India thing and not Impact. They've already got the Internet's favorite writer (Dave Lagana) on this thing, now they've got one of its favorite wrestlers. I would speculate on who will be next, but I can never tell if people are popular with the Internet. I know when they're not.

Hulk Hogan ruffled some feathers backstage when he posted the following on Twitter:

Taping again in Orlando,Garrett seems to have found the magic,I only hope it rubs off on some of the other numbskulls.

As usual, Hulk endears himself to everybody working for his company. You know, stuff like this actually makes me feel sorry for young Garett. He's being hyped to the moon by his dad & Hulk Hogan, and Hogan's going so far as to bury the rest of the roster at his expense. This will not end well, even if the kid becomes a competent pro wrestler one of these days. By that time he'll probably be a five-time Impact Wrestling Champion main eventing PPV shows with buyrates in the five thousands.

Maybe that's what Hulk & Eric are trying to do. They're trying to push Eric's kid down peoples' throats so hard that eventually people will feel sorry for him. There are worse strategies...like everything else they've done since joining up with TNA.



Holy crap, I am totally digging Taeler Hendrix. Need more Taeler Hendrix - APrince66

If the people want Taeler Hendrix in this column they will get some Taeler Hendrix in this column. I'm not going to pull a DeMarco and beg people to get me in contact with her, but there's nothing wrong with showing the OVW Ladies Champ some love. OVW's a promotion that knows how to do business the right way, unlike many of the promoters out there in the indy wrestling world.

Here's a story that highlights that. Our friend Terra Calaway has the biggest match of her young career this Saturday in Lawndale, California, as she takes on a TNA Knockout that happens to be one of her favorite wrestlers, Winter. It's a pretty big deal for her and I know that she was really excited about it...up until a couple of days ago. That was when the promoter of the show decided it'd be a good idea to go on his internet radio show and talk smack about women's wrestling & Terra in particular. Apparently this guy has a history of working these angles where he tries to drum up interest in his show by running down the people that agreed to work for him. I'm not sure how well it usually works, I'm going to guess not very well because the guy doesn't run shows very often. He probably has to wait until people forget what a clown he is before he can convince them to work for him again.

I'm not going to repeat the disparaging remarks this promoter had about Terra, and I'm not referring to him by name because the main reason he did this was to get himself over and have people listen to his radio show & attend his wrestling show. Why would you hype up the people that are actually working on your show when it's easier to tear them down and build yourself up, even if you've never taken a bump in your life and nobody's going to buy a ticket to your show to see you? It's not like you're Vince McMahon or Hulk Hogan and have actually done something to make people care about you, you're just a dumbass that has enough money to run an indy show. Nobody knows who you are, and nobody cares.

Terra's going to have some haters in the indies, no doubt about it. People will be jealous of her because they've worked more matches than she has, but they don't receive the type of attention that she does from outlets like this one, or don't have as many Twitter followers & Facebook friends as she has. They'll fall back on the "she's only popular because of her look" argument, and I admit that her looks played into me taking notice of her in the first place. I quickly found out that wasn't all that she brings to the table. Her in-ring work has gotten better with each passing match. She does more promotional work than any wrestler I see on the Internet outside of Zack Ryder, and a lot of it isn't for herself. The girl spent most of this year driving back and forth from Las Vegas to Los Angeles far more times than her bank account should have allowed. Her car was getting fixed at least every other week. And believe me, she wouldn't have a column with this website if we didn't think she had enough insight to write an interesting weekly wrestling column.

Good looks are not a requirement to get hired here, if they were I never would have gotten hired.

Sure, there are countless other indy wrestlers that make the same sacrifices that Terra does. You'd like to think that because they're all in the same boat they wouldn't hate on the ones that achieve just a little success. Or if nothing else they'd spend their time improving their craft and putting themselves out there instead of complaining about the people that actually do those things. But I guess that's why some people are doomed to spend their whole career not even making it into "Other Wrestling News".

ROH put on a match in Greensboro this weekend that lasted over eighty minutes. I saw a match on their TV show a couple of weeks ago with Mike Mondo that felt like it was over eighty minutes.

CZW's Cage of Death only resulted in one major injury this year, which is a pretty good result for them.



The 411 on Wrestling took place early Friday evening, and a good time was had by all on the Friday Fun Show. Larry & I talked about SmackDown, Impact, Sara Del Rey, and probably some other stuff I'm forgetting.

Tonight's Greg DeMarco Show will feature an interview with The Sheik. Sheik's the guy that had a quickie NWA title reign over the summer so they couldn't make any money off of CM Punk mentioning Colt Cabana on Raw every week. It should be interesting to hear his side of the story since I'm pretty sure we haven't heard it yet.

Calaway had Diva & Knockout stuff to talk about! I kinda liked the whole Knockouts car wash thing, but I thought the Hooters advertisements during it were a little much.

Fact or Fiction had some good ol' fashioned three-way action!

Reid's Hot or Not will be moving to Fridays starting this week, so make sure you're around for that.

Hawke takes some shots at a guy I've never heard of. Good times! I get that it's fun to throw people under the bus, but sometimes they don't deserve the satisfaction, like the nameless indy promoter I mentioned earlier.

Wright gives the heels some love.

Wes presents a tasty Sandwich for the loyal members of Team Kirk. I still wish he'd cut it out with the endless political ranting, but he's providing the voice for TNA that I knew he would.

Frame returns with the Framework.

Dunn reviews early ECW. We can only hope he has access to every ECW episode ever, we'd get years of recaps out of him!

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 then…


Get in the Christmas spirit, people!