News From Cook’s Corner 12.27.11

Hi, hello and welcome to News From Cook’s Corner! I’m Steve Cook, and I hope everybody had a Merry Christmas! I had a pretty fantastic Christmas, as I got to watch lots of football, got lots of presents and drank a lot of adult beverages. It’s a pretty big sports week for me, as my Louisville Cardinals have all sorts of important games going on. The Belk Bowl happens on Tuesday, and I expect the Cards to take care of NC State in what should be a really good game. As for the basketball team, there are two huge games. Georgetown opens Big East play on Tuesday, and they will be quite the test. Then there’s Kentucky on Saturday, and it’ll be the first time both U of L & UK are ranked in the top 5 heading into The Game. It doesn’t get much bigger than that folks.

Oh, and the Bengals can make it into the playoffs if they beat Baltimore on Sunday. I hope all of this goes better than the final week of my fantasy football season went. Check out the Offtheteam.com Fantasy Football Podcast this week for Trent & my recap of the 2011 fantasy football season. It’s our biggest episode yet, and our last…for now. I think we’ll be doing something in the not too distant future, the show’s just too much fun to give up doing until next NFL season. And we’re over 30 followers on Twitter now, so we’re going places.

I’d just like to say I was pleasantly surprised by a tag team match being featured on Raw. I hope this continues as I think a few guys on the roster would benefit- you bring up Rey Mysterio-I think Rey Mysterio’s days as a singles wrestler should come to an end, he needs to segue to a tag team role to extend what little time he has left to compete. Before Air Boom formed, I was hoping for a Rey/ Kofi tag team- there’s still time, Vince. I can also see Del Rio teaming up with a heel DiBiase, because their characters are so similar and neither guy has a direction right now. See, WWE? Making tag teams ain’t hard. – Guest#4135

I’m not sure about ADR & Teddy as a team (as somebody else pointed out, Ted’s starting to find something with his DiBiase Posse thing), but I’m all about WWE kicking things up in the tag team division. It’s something I’ve been hoping for over the past several years, but I’ve never really gotten my hopes up because they just don’t like pushing tag teams. I figure they’ll have the Colons doing some stuff for a little while, but eventually they’ll get bored with it and it’ll go back to the way things usually are.

What are your thoughts on your Reds trading a Volquez and 3 prospects to my Padres for Mat Latos? I’m not sure if this is good for SD because a lot of times, these “great prospects” turn out to be busts. We got a “great prospect” for Agon and he has not been good with the Padres. Do you think the trade is good for your team? You get a great young pitcher. Hope he does well in Cincy unless he plays SD. – Still Guest#8287

I wasn’t a huge fan of it when I heard about it, simply because Yonder Alonso was already the second best hitter on the Reds last year and was set to become the first baseman when Joey Votto leaves in two years. Giving him and three other guys away for a pitcher I’d never heard of didn’t sound like the best of ideas, especially when I read about the dude having emotional issues. Never a good sign. I hope it works out and Latos wins a bunch of games for the Reds, but I’d be lying if I said I was overly optimistic about it.

A total aside but what are your thoughts on making the next ‘permanent’ Raw GM… wait for it… Michael Cole! While Lauranitis has improved in his role, the next change should be Cole and here’s why: A) He is massively over as a heel B) His heel-iness is better served to put the face over as a GM, not as a commentator constantly berating the people we cheer for C) He will not struggle on the mic like Johnny Ace D) It will get him off commentary (THANKFULLY!). Thoughts? – BJ316

I had thought that Cole was going to end up being the anoynomous Raw General Manager back when that was still going on, and I thought it wasn’t a bad idea for the reasons you mention. Cole can be a very useful asset to WWE, but not the way they’re using him right now where he sucks the life out of the entire show. Giving him one or two parts of the show to piss people off would be far more effective than having him do it the whole show. Why WWE still has him doing his act on both Raw & SmackDown commentary, I honestly don’t know. It’s pretty obvious that it hasn’t worked. There are two roles that I think he’d be really good at…one of them is “heel authority figure”, and the other we’ll get to here in a little bit.

I’ll agree about valets and how more wouldn’t hurt anybody, but knowing WWE they would go overboard and we would end up with every wrestler having a valet and half the camera time would be on them and then on Jerry Lawler rubbing it out under the announce table.

A few of the divas in recent years did do something before they graduated to wrestler status. K2 was a valet for Mike Knox and didn’t get involved for quite some time in ECW. Melina was a was a good mouth piece for MNM and a single Johnny Nitro, but she was a wrestler on the indys that came up and eventually got her time in the ring, people bash her but she was above average for divas in the ring. Maria was just a backstage interviewer before they brought her into the ring. Hell even Ashely Massario managed LonDrick, before she started rolling around on the mat. Didn’t it even take a few months for Nattie to get in the ring when she first showed up in the Hart Dynasty? I think now the women actually want to get involved in the ring, just as much as WWE wants them to be wrestlers. They hire these athletic girls and tell them just walk around the ring or do back stage interviews, them being athletic in nature are not going to just want to sit around on the sidelines. Vickie is the biggest exception in the WWE and she has a job for life due to unfortune circumstances. She doesn’t want to wrestle because its not been what she has been striving to do and she is well aware of her athletic shortcomings.

And lets face it if anything the WWE is giving the divas a chance to show what they can actually do in the ring and if they can strike gold again like they did with Trish. If you would have at the start of Trish’s career with her managing a team called TnA, said she would be the most successful and over womens wrestler in the history of the WWE would have been called mad. Speaking of Rosa, just think she started off as a divas competition contestant with her real name Melina Rouka, she didn’t make the cut but went to developemental and from what I read wasn’t that shabby in the ring. So yes they wanted her to wrestle, but lets face it, its nice to find out early on if she can wrestle, and be a valet rather than just find out she is a good valet. She finally got the call up, but can’t cut it in the ring right now, but she did previously show something in developemental, so they wanted to roll with it. It just took time to figure out what she is good at, and it looks like shaking her ass and shouting in spanish is what she is good at. – this was way too long

A bit long, yeah, but you make a lot of good points here. If the Divas do want to wrestle and are dedicated to making themselves good workers, they should at least get a shot. However, the fact that most Diva matches aren’t longer than a minute leads me to believe that many of them would be more useful to the show in the corner of male wrestlers than running through a match that isn’t long enough to mean anything. Natalya was in the corner of the Hart Dynasty for quite awhile before becoming a regular wrestler, but Ashley didn’t become Londrick’s manager until after she had wrestled for several months. I don’t think anybody expected Trish to become as good a wrestler as she became, but when she came in it was pretty obvious that she would have some staying power if for no other reason than her looks. The fact she became really good at her job was a bonus.

I do think in Rosa’s case that they could have moved her out of wrestling work a lot sooner, since it’s not like she’s done a whole lot of wrestling in 2011. I remember part of Rosa’s run in OVW, but when I saw her she was mostly doing valet work for the Bad Company faction of Mike Kruel, Eddie Craven and the late Shawn Osborne. She started wrestling later on, but I’m pretty sure OVW stopped airing in Cincinnati by that point. I remember being a little disappointed that Roucka wasn’t at Buffalo Wild Wings like Kenny Bolin promised when OVW was in town, but I forgot about that while eating free wings and chit-chatting with Colt Cabana and the guy that later became Evan Bourne. Good times.

Managers and valets really are a great idea. Ricardo Rodriguez and Vickie Guerreo have shown that both characters can get over and enhance the talent they work with. Would Del Rio be half as entertaining without Ricardo there as his obedient toady? Nope. Would Ziggler have gotten to where he is now without being attached to Vickie’s hip? Nope.

The fact is, not every personality in wrestling is meant to step in the ring. WWE has a lot of talented personalities, but few genuine in-ring talents. A guy like Santino is never going to rise above midcard comedy act as a wrestler, but he’s a heat magnet as both a face and a heel when he’s on the mic. Why keep forcing him into a role that’s only going to keep him treading water? Let him manage a stable of European/foreign wrestlers in a similar manner to Heenan’s First Family. Or, pull Michael Cole from out of the commentary booth and let him manage someone. He’s a male Vickie Guerreo at this point with nuclear heat from every crowd. Use it to get people over instead of killing TV time. – Guest#5928

Ricardo’s been one of the best performers in WWE in 2011…he probably doesn’t get enough credit for it and some of you will probably disagree, but he’s as good at what he does as anybody. The current knock on Alberto is that he’s boring, and though I tend to disagree with that assessment, he’s tons more interesting when Ricardo’s around to do his ring announcing and run interference. When RR’s off to sell an injury or something, Alberto doesn’t have the same buzz. He becomes just another heel guy. Dolph obviously has benefited from Vickie. He’s fantastic in the ring, but he definitely wouldn’t have the same heat behind him without her around.

Michael Cole should have become a heel manager several months ago and I’m not sure why they didn’t pull the trigger on that. They even had him hanging around with Jack Swagger, a guy that works well with a manager and is now part of Vickie’s stable. I guess Vince just can’t train anybody else to repeat whatever he says in the headset.

Finally calling women sluts really doesn’t get you any action, not from what I’ve seen. I’ve seen the guys huddled up in the corner of a bar or party who are like that and they only get each other’s company. I’m also sure that TNA doesn’t pay enough to make it worthwhile to sleep around to get ahead. – Guest#7915

I think you have to sleep around in WWE to get a push in TNA. Pretty sure that’s how it works.

The only way to make that RAW opening more IWC friendly would have been to have Heyman do it and have Cornette bitch about Cole and all the booking leading up to the wins. My only quibble is that I would have liked to have Bryan go over Mark Henry. Big Show would still be going after Bryan and still be looking at a heel turn. As is the build of having Henry as a strong heel champ is kind of wasted. I would have had Bryan nail Henry on his bad knee, then put him in a hold that worked that leg. That would have been taking advantage of the damage Big Show did and reinforced that idea that “Everybody Taps”. – Guest#8794

Not a bad idea, but I’m ok with Bryan going over Big Show in the manner he did, as it gives Show a justifiable reason to make a turn. The best heels are the ones with logical reasons behind what they’re doing, and you can understand why Big Show would be upset with Daniel Bryan and what he did. Bryan’s in the right because he played by the rules of the Money in the Bank briefcase and he was only doing what Big Show advised him to do several weeks before. Show was foisted by his own canard, and he should be able to deal with it. If he can’t, that’s a Big Show problem, not a WWE Universe problem.

Small Rules! Cook drools! Fear Great Khali Chop! It’s Magical. Look Within. – Small

I’m going to make you do Fact or Fiction if you don’t settle down over there. Wouldn’t you guys like to see Small’s wonderful words appear in a 411 column once again? I know you would. Let Jeff know you would, and then he will come back for the love of the people.

And now, the fake news!

It was just last week that CM Punk was talking about how the change he wanted to come to WWE had arrived. The championship picture in WWE doesn’t feature much we want to complain about, Daniel Bryan & Zack Ryder are in main events, Punk’s pretty much the top guy…life was good.

So of course that couldn’t last long. Word around the Interweb is that WWE is unhappy with the ratings going down during CM Punk’s segments. Word is that they’re plotting to get the title back around John Cena’s waist very long. Word is that WWE is low on CM Punk. The only problem with all of this is that this week’s Raw was largely built around CM Punk’s next WWE title match…though they did make sure to have Cena in the main event segment because he is a draw.

Basically, I think this story was a bunch of people drawing some conclusions. CM Punk’s going to get a chance to do his thing. We’re in the holiday season and we’re nearing the end of the NFL season, nobody is going to go too crazy about ratings at this point. As long as CM Punk gets good reactions with the crowds and draws people to arenas, we don’t have to worry about him being shunted to the opening match. And hell, shouldn’t he be a challenger heading into WrestleMania instead of a champion? I dunno, I think people are getting way too excited about stuff here.

Daniel Bryan was always set to win the World Title, but the original plans were to have him win it at WrestleMania or at Elimination Chamber. That would have given them more time to build him up, but it’s more likely that they would have jobbed him out more to make him seem like less of a threat. Hey, I’m just being realistic here.

The “Cena Sucks” t-shirt seems to be doing pretty good business, as it’s currently sold out on WWEShop.com. Perhaps John can put the money he’s making off of people hating him towards paying those roofers that put a lien out against his home. Apparently Cena failed to pay the people who fixed his roof the $15,294.15 that he owed them for the work. I have a feeling he can probably afford it, he’s just wondering how it could possibly cost that much. Remind me not to have a leaky roof.

Alberto Del Rio has been removed from upcoming shows due to a groin injury he suffered during last week’s Raw main event. The injury isn’t considered to be too serious and he shouldn’t miss more than 4-6 weeks. It’s been a tough few weeks for groins in WWE. Word is that Vince McMahon has been pushing Del Rio to be more aggressive and to shy away from working the softer Lucha Libre style. I’m not sure if a lack of aggressiveness is Del Rio’s issue, at least not in the ring anyway. His character needs more motivation than “destiny”, especially now that he has been champion. What’s his destiny now? Hopefully they’ll figure that out while he’s resting up.

There is concern within WWE that the WWE Network will not be ready for its launch date on April 1. This wouldn’t be terribly surprising, as most networks aren’t really good to go when they launch, and it typically takes a few months for them to figure out what they’re doing. Those afraid that the Network will bomb in a year are probably being a bit overdramatic, though I’m not sure it’s the slam dunk proposition that many wrestling fans think it is.

Jim Ross tweeted that 2012 would be a big year for his television character. Since JR isn’t contending for any singles titles anytime soon (hopefully), I can only assume this means he’ll be featured more on commentary or have a major role on the WWE Network. There’s one thing about the Network I’m pretty sure nobody’s brought up…what if it leads to even more shows with Michael Cole? I’m not sure that’s something people would be looking forward to.

Ross also commented that 2012 would be a big year for Cody Rhodes, Dolph Ziggler, Wade Barrett & CM Punk, and even said that Rhodes & Ziggler should quit if they don’t win a world championship next year. A little strong, but I don’t disagree with it.

Eden Stiles has left the company to pursue other endeavors. She had been ring announcing for Superstars and was doing some wrestling in FCW before deciding to move on. It turns out that she’s dating Cody Rhodes, making her the object of much jealousy within Cook Nation.

Tara, the woman formerly known as Victoria in WWE, was set to visit the Raw crew during their show in Chicago last night. There’s probably a joke in there somewhere about her wanting to work there again, but that’s not how I roll. I’ll let somebody else go there.

Chris Jericho told his Twitter followers to quit asking him wrestling questions, as he is done with WWE. Of course he is.

-I’m not sure if Taeler Hendrix’s thoughts are Raw in the above picture, but I do know she’ll be appearing on the 411 on Wrestling in ten days and it’ll be good times!

-I’m going to be a bit distracted during this game, as Monday Night Football will determine the end of my fantasy football season. I need Drew Brees to score forty points, Roddy White to score twenty, and Darren Sproles to score a hell of a lot.

-So of course the first touchdown is a run by Pierre Thomas. It’s been one of those weeks.

-Hey, that’s not CM Punk!

-Johnny Ace is a Punk Believer. The fans don’t seem to buy it, and I doubt Punk does either.

-These Chicago fans better bring the reaction for Punk tonight.

-The Unpredictable Johnny Ace.

-Punk goes from having no matches to having a gauntlet match. Not a smooth move on his part.

-The fans have been watching All Japan tapes.

-They’re also masochists. No wonder they love the Cubs.

-I thought tonight’s spooky video was supposed to make it obvious who it was. I assume since the globe showed Africa that Kamala is making a comeback.

-Or it’s Jim Morrison. It did say The End was coming.

-Booker T vs. Cody Rhodes. Some chick right next to the crowd mike is really happy to see Cody.

-Somebody tell Booker that chops are banned.

-Cody puts the kneepad down to knee Booker in the gut! You know, the last time he fiddled with somebody’s kneepad he ended up getting his face broken. Might not be a good move.

-Cody’s learning a lot working Booker, and Booker helps a lot with the fan reaction. That’s why I like this pairing.

-Booker’s going to pay window, if you will! Cody dominated here, but he takes Booker’s finish right in the middle of the ring. There’s a reference to a Booker promo nobody remembers.

-SPINAROONI

-Zack covering his hairline up with his headband is a smart move.

-Jack Swagger, Dolph Ziggler & Mark Henry are Punk’s opponents tonight. If he beats them he gets Johnny Ace…but I’m really not liking the odds of that.

-I almost forgot that Big Show & Kelly Kelly were BFFs.

-Otunga getting knocked out in slow motion is pretty funny.

-You better move out of the way if Mark Henry says “EXCUSE ME”.

-Eve has new music. I think it’s new, anyway. I don’t remember the last time she had an entrance.

-Will Zack Ryder finally get the girl? Well, if I can’t have Eve I’m more than fine with Ryder getting her.

-Hey, it’s Tyson Kidd & Natalya together again! Now my Wrestling Sandwich prediction doesn’t seem so insane.

-They’re already hyping the 1,000th episode of Raw in July. I wonder how many commenters will say that they won’t make it to 1,000.

-Lawler knows that chicks dig champions. Why do you think he made himself champion of Memphis so many times?

-Chicago loves them some John Cena. Kane may get the biggest face pop of the night when he answers Cena’s challenge.

-Cena sounds like Bluejaygrad in the 411 on Wrestling chatroom talking about Chicago.

-Miz comes out. It’s like they’re begging me to flip over to ESPN.

-Cena does have a point about Miz’s tan.

-Why is Miz still talking?

-Looks like he’s gonna get got!

-I’m not sure how crazy R-Truth’s going to work as a face. But hey, somebody has to beat Miz up.

-Big Show vs. Otunga. Can they tie Show’s hand behind his back without him breaking through the knots?

-Yeah, that wrap’s not doing much to stop Big Show against Otunga. But it’ll stop him against Mark Henry.

-I have no idea what the Chicago fans are chanting here.

-Bryan distracts Henry, so Show ends up chokeslamming Otunga. Obviously Bryan’s trying to stay on Big Show’s good side, which is a very smart move on his part.

-ADR in a wheelchair, RR in a neck brace. It’s been a tough week for these guys.

-Well, it’s getting better now that the Bellas are here!

-I want to be the person that plays the WWE ‘12 game for the purposes of airing on Raw.

-I hope Swagger gets to have a good showing here, he’s obviously not going over but he needs to look good.

-Punk via knockout!

-Ah, Swagger & Ziggler might not see eye to eye, but he still knows to work for the betterment of the team.

-Some will complain about giving away Punk vs. Ziggler on TV. I won’t because I enjoy watching it.

-John ejecting Swagger & Vickie while distracting the referee from Punk’s cover on Ziggler is hilarious.

-ZIGGLER WINS!

-That was some pretty good booking right there, leading to a match with Punk & Ziggler next week that I fully expect to be a TV MOTYC.

-It’s a little surprising we haven’t seen Barrett & Orton tonight, but it looks like they’re having a big match on SD this week. Falls Count Anywhere. That should be Russ See TV.

-Kane comes out to answer Cena’s challenge!

-I thought Cena would wait for Kane to answer. That’s not very nice.

-Kane’s shooting fire again! That’s either awesome or really not.

-I miss his dramatic promo music and red lighting.

-Cena needs to embrace the hate!

-I like Kane rubbing in the Cena Sucks chant.

-I dig where they’re going with the Cena/Kane feud. Kane is going to make Cena embrace the hate so he’ll be ready for WrestleMania. Good times. That, plus Punk vs. Ziggler next week with plenty of time makes this episode worthwhile.

For the past several years Larry Csonka & I presented the TNA Wrestling Year-End Awards Spectacular, our celebration of all things TNA. Believe it or not, there was a time when Larry & I were the only people on this website that watched TNA. We came up with the Awards as a way to celebrate the good things TNA did while mocking the bad things and having a fun little column for our readers to enjoy at the end of the year. This year we decided that it wasn’t feasible for us to continue doing the column. It took a lot of work every year and we’re both busy people with tons of stuff on our plate. However, it seems that Larry has been getting some feedback from readers wondering whether or not we’d do the column again this year. Since it’s been tough to find Impact news worth talking about lately, I thought it’d be fun to present the awards in a condensed fashion that didn’t involve quite as much writing.

Cook & Csonka TNA Year-End Award Archives:
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010

So without further adieu, here are the 2011 TNA Year-End Awards!

The “What Were They Thinking” Award
Winner: Letting Jeff Hardy “perform” at Victory Road
Lots of candidates here, but they all pale in comparison to allowing an intoxicated wrestler to step in the ring with one of their top stars and screw their fanbase out of a PPV main event matchup. TNA’s PPV buyrates have never been anything to write home about, but this little act sure as hell didn’t do anything to encourage fans to buy future shows. Manu Bumb had to beg TNA for months before finally getting the free six months of online content they promised people that purchased that show, then once he got it he told me that it ended up not being much. Way to do business, guys!

The “Where Did He Come From” Award
Winner: Bully Ray
Obviously Ray isn’t a new face to pro wrestling, but I don’t think anybody expected him to be as effective in his role as he was in 2011. While the other people in Immortal were going out of their way to embarass themselves and the wrestling business, Bully Ray stepped up to the plate and became the best heel in TNA by a mile. He got himself into shape, did all he could to make himself totally unlikeable, and was frequently one of the highlights of any given Impact broadcast.

The “What Are They Doing On My TV” Award
Winner: Garett Bischoff
We know the answer to the question, but it doesn’t make it any more tolerable. I try not to bash Garett too much because most of the hatred directed towards him is a result of who his father is, but he shouldn’t be in a featured role on television right now. Send him to OVW, let him develop into a competent wrestler and then maybe you’ll have something with him someday, but throwing him onto TV in main event segments and Hulk Hogan burying everybody on the roster at his expense on Twitter were bad moves that didn’t help anybody, least of all Garett Bischoff. Your first impression is often your most important one, and Garett’s first impression was bad.

TNA Finisher of the Year Award
Winner: None
Honestly, I can’t name most of the wrestlers’ finishing moves. I can name Kurt Angle’s, but it usually takes two or three of them to win a match. Does Bobby Roode still use the fisherman’s suplex? What does Bully Ray finish people with? Most of TNA’s featured matches end after interference or usage of a foreign object. I’m sure some X Division guy has a flippy-dippy move that I could reward here, but none of those guys matter all that much, certainly not enough to get regular TV time.

TNA’s Shocking Moment of the Year Award
Winner: Sting chooses TNA over WWE
Remember those 2.21.11 videos WWE did? For some reason a lot of people thought that they were leading to Sting finally showing up in Vince McMahon’s company. There was tons of speculation that Sting would sign with WWE, and there had been talks going on with the two parties. At the end of the day, Sting remained loyal to TNA, and he was rewarded with the longest TNA World title reign of the year. He also changed his persona into something resembling The Joker, which was certainly divisive among Internet wrestling experts. In any event, Sting did have an eventful 2011, and it started off with him winning the TNA title when everybody thought he would be leaving.

TNA’s Tag Team of the Year Award
Winner: Beer Money Inc.
It might be tough to remember now, but Bobby Roode & James Storm held the TNA tag team titles for 212 days in 2011, setting a company record. Unfortunately, the division wasn’t exactly deep with teams, and once Roode & Storm split up there just wasn’t a whole lot going on there. The Motor City Machineguns have been out of action, Mexican America didn’t set the world on fire, Ink Inc. was just kinda there, and the British Invasion was confined to Xplosion duty for most of the year. Not a good year for tag teams in TNA.

TNA’s Most Undertuilized Performer of the Year Award
Winner: Alex Shelley
Shelley’s tag team partner Chris Sabin went out of action with knee surgery at the end of April. Since then, Shelley had a couple of weeks as James Storm’s tag team partner, was a top contender for the X Division title for a couple of months, and has done absolutely nothing of note since July’s Hardcore Justice PPV. Shelley is one of TNA’s best in-ring talents, and the fact that they’ve basically done nothing with him for most of 2011…well, I wish I could say it’s surprising, but it’s not.

TNA’s PPV of the Year Award
Winner: TNA Lockdown
This is the easy choice since it was the one I was able to attend. The show started out kind of slow, but heated up with the Angle vs. Jarrett match where Angle went insane and moonsaulted off of the cage and also took a header off the top rope. The main event Lethal Lockdown match was good times too, with people bleeding all over the place. It ended with Fortune standing tall, which was fun while it lasted. None of the other shows are sticking out to me.

TNA’s Feud of the Year Award
Winner: Kurt Angle vs. Jeff Jarrett
Back when all the backstage drama over Jeff hooking up with Kurt’s ex-wife Karen was going on, I remember saying that all the parties involved would eventually get over it and probably try to make some money off of the situation by having a feud. That’s exactly what they did in the closing months of 2010 and the first five months of 2011. Some of the stuff building the feud up was a bit iffy, but Kurt & Jeff always delivered in the ring, having good matches each time out. The feud probably went on a bit longer than it should have because Kurt wanted to have good matches and he preferred working with Jarrett over the other options available to him at the time.

Biggest Disappointment Award
Winner: Matt Hardy
I didn’t expect a whole lot out of Matthew when he signed with Impact Wrestling, but he didn’t even live up to my low expectations. He didn’t have any good performances in the ring, his promos were even worse than they had been in WWE, he looked like a bum with his ring attire and ill-advised Tyler Reks hairstyle, and he pissed everybody off backstage by generally being a egotistical tool and not showing up for work on time. He was such a train wreck that he got himself suspended and then fired from the company, which truly takes talent considering the fact that he used to work for WWE.

TNA’s Knockout of the Year Award
Winner: Velvet Sky
Up until this year, Velvet had mostly been known for being pretty good at being an annoying heel and grinding on the ring ropes. Her wrestling ability was not her calling card, but she stepped her game up throughout the year and finally became the Knockout Champion at Bound For Glory. Unfortunately she lost it a month later and now people backstage don’t seem to like her much because she either rubbed them the wrong way or refused to rub them. Hopefully Velvet can overcome whatever those problems are and continue to be a viable performer in 2012.

TNA’s Wrestler of the Year/MVP Award
Winner: Bobby Roode
Roode was one-half of the dominant tag team of the year, and when that went south he became TNA’s world champion. He won the Bound For Glory Series and was expected to win the World title from Kurt Angle at Bound For Glory, but those plans went a bit awry and he ended up winning the title nine days later from James Storm on Impact. Regardless of the booking surrounding him, Roode has had a solid year and established himself as one of TNA’s top stars.

Who to Look Out For Next Year Award
Winner: Austin Aries
The Greatest Man That Ever Lived has been on fire since entering TNA and has become dominant over the X Division. I expect this to continue next year as long as Aries can keep having fantastic matches and keep being a dickhead. He’s never had a problem with either, and that’s why we love him.

And there you have it! If you have opinions on these awards, want to give awards of your own, or would like to complain about TNA getting awards, feel free to chime in down in the comment section. Here’s a little bit of Impact-related news for you…

Karen Jarrett was “fired” from Impact Wrestling because she needs to get surgery on her foot and will be out several months while recovering. Jeff is busy with the India wrestling project and trying to get All Wheels Wrestling picked up by the Speed Channel.

Chavo Guerrero is rumored to be heading to TNA soon. He was part of the aformentioned India wrestling project, which was said to be a major success in its first taping with thousands of fans turned away and the heels getting really good heat from the crowd. I hope that works out for them, as it’s always nice to have another viable place for wrestlers to get work. The promotion is going by the name of “Ring Ka King”, which translates to “King of the Ring”. Sounds familiar.

James Storm is getting strong backstage reviews, as he’s been working overtime with Vince Russo to improve his microphone work. Yeah, I know it’s Vince Russo, but Storm’s definitely stepped his game up on interviews lately and it’s another piece of the puzzle that could help him become the big homegrown star that Impact Wrestling really needs. Maybe someday Chris Jericho will know who he is.

Chris Hero returned to Ring of Honor at the Final Battle event to answer Roderick Strong’s open challenge. There are rumors going around that Hero will not be signed by World Wrestling Entertainment after all due to “medical testing issues” that indicated Hero had high testosterone levels. Apparently he’s still on their radar, and if the results of medical tests in January go well, Hero will get signed. If it doesn’t work out, ROH would love to have Hero back in their fold. Obviously something weird was going on here since Hero’s former tag team partner that’s currently known as Antonio Cesaro showed up in FCW a couple of months ago and they were said to be coming in together. I hope things work out and Hero gets a chance with WWE, as they’re obviously not shying away from pushing people that were big in the indies.

Maria Kanellis was reportedly very happy with her experience at ROH’s Final Battle event. She got to be an actual heel for the first time…probably ever, as even when she was hooked up with heels in WWE they booked her as somebody you were supposed to like anyway. She must have done a really good job for ROH, as Dave Meltzer thought it was necessary to report that she was just playing her role. Maybe he was surprised that he had that in her. I think it’d be a good thing for Maria to be more involved in ROH going forward, as the promotion’s been lacking in sex appeal for most of its existence. Some attractive women have gone through there, but nobody quite on the level of Maria. She would bring something to the product that’s definitely been missing since Sinclair Broadcasting Group took it over.

ROH will be running a show at the Taft Masonic Center in Cincinnati on February 17. It’s in downtown right next to the Taft Theatre…at first I thought they meant they were running the Theatre and I was wondering how that would work. No word yet on if your humble correspondent will be in attendance or not. They’ll be in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida on March 30 & March 31 to piggyback off of WrestleMania weekend. Of course, Dragon Gate USA will also be in on the fun, as they have shows scheduled in Miami on those two days. Oh, and WrestleMania with John Cena vs. The Rock will be on April 1, in case you were wondering.

More bad news in Kamala’s battle with diabetes, as now he has to have the upper part of his leg where he already lost his foot amputated. Unfortunately the statistics for survival of diabetes amputees are not good…50% die within three years & 65% die within five. These numbers should improve with time, as medicine has improved life expectancy for people with all types of illnesses, but the odds are against the Ugandan Giant here.

Let’s end things on a positive note and give some love to Wildcat Championship Wrestling, a promotion based in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky. A seven-year old boy, Lucas Smith, nearly had his Christmas ruined when somebody broke into his parents’ storage unit and stole all of the presents he was getting for Christmas. The folks at Wildcat heard about this, and had their wrestlers and fans purchase presents for Lucas that he received at their Christmas show. It’s always great when indy wrestling promoters take the opportunity to do something good for the community, and it’s something we don’t see or hear about nearly often enough. Sure, there are a lot of scumbags in the business, but there are many more great people that’ll do whatever they can if their fans are having a rough go of it. It’s a beautiful thing.

The 411 on Wrestling celebrated the holidays in style with Christmas music, airing of grievances in the spirit of Festivus, and 411 staffers calling in to wish us all a Happy Holidays. Larry and I will be back with a year-end extravaganza this Friday where we’ll give out our version of 411’s Year-End Awards!

Fact or Fiction featured Larry & Sean Garmer going at it in written warfare.

Your humble correspondent will be returning to the Wrestling Sandwich next week to participate in some year-end festivities. Team Kirk shouldn’t worry, as it’s a one-shot deal.

The Goose sat down with Chyna. Penguin’s trying to get Goose to sit him down with BiBi Jones. Hey, we all have our fantasies.

David McGregor is doing the Instant Analysis for Smackdown! I see he’s not high on Big Show.

Reid presents the Hot or Not.

Ross Rutherford authors The 8-Ball, which is a top eight list that has a pretty tight name. He also made sure to include Benoit so he’d get plenty of reader feedback…smart move.

Frame’s column makes me realize how much I liked Batgirl.

Wright ranks the heels. These poor guys get no respect, it’s a good thing we have somebody around to show them a little love.

The Triple Threat talks about Triple H!

Well, that’s all we have time for this week! Nick Marsico will be in Wednesday & Friday with some year-end festivities, and I’ll be back next year with more News From Cook’s Corner! Until then…

Not only can Jerome Simpson flop, he can also flip.