Thursday Sports Entertainment News Report 11.22.12: Hall of Fame Edition

Sean, I would challenge you to try tweeting ladybug girl in her full on gear to some of the divas to see if you can get any of them to get on the lady bug train. Or tweet/send pictures of her to her fave wrestlers on twitter to see if they;d ‘consider’ her as their honorary valet or RT her. She’d probably be over the moon with excitement, she’d probably forget about wanting a car when she hits 16. LOL
LitasRevenge

I dunno about that. Most of the Divas can’t even get themselves decent TV time, never mind a 6 year old fan they’ve never heard of. While the thought is nice, the reality is that it would never happen. It would take a massive groundswell of grassroots support to work, and barring some Zack Ryder-esque miracle of fan support, that ain’t happening. Nice to imagine, though. The best we could aim for is a re-tweet.

And for those asking, Awesome Ladybug Girl, by far the best part of this column, will be back soon. I need to get her caught up for TLC, and then I’ll post her thoughts of her first live WWE experience after the event.

God, is this column bad. A string of criminally unfunny remarks tied together by… nothing.
RaceCarAndyMan

Ah well. To each their own. I have to say I have a new appreciation for all the writers here on 411Mania. When you think about it, this is a tough gig. You have to take the news that everyone’s already read and put a unique spin on it. You need to find that perspective that’s either funny, thought-provoking or unexpected for each news item, and do that every week. It ain’t as easy as it seems, especially during a slow news week.

I bet if I challenged you, RaceCarAndyMan (if that is your real name) to write one supremely entertaining column – you could do it. I bet that if I challenged you to write a supremely entertaining column 50 weeks in a row, with each being better than the last, you’d have a much tougher time. It’s your right to not like what I put out. That’s fine. I can only hope that one day you’ll find something in your life that meets whatever lofty standards you’ve set for yourself.

If your wife won’t go, I can’t imagine anyone I’d rather take than my daughter (putting myself in your shoes, of course).
GWalla

I’ll see how she does at TLC. Victoria hates hates HATES the cold, so I have to consider that as well. Maybe I’ll wind up taking SuperCorky or APinOZ.

Greetings, folks, and welcome to another edition of Thursday Sports Entertainment! For those of you in the United States, try not to indulge too much on the turkey, okay? Excessive quantities of tryptophan plus a full stomach can knock a man right on his ass. For me, I like to keep it simple. A healthy portion of turkey, mashed potatoes and stuffing (IT HAS TO BE STOVE TOP STUFFING) are all I need.

Oh, and cranberry sauce is gross. Onto the news!

WORLD (WRESTLING ENTERTAINMENT) NEWS TONIGHT

Top names being discussed for the WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2013 include The Rock, Mick Foley, Owen Hart, Bruno Sammartino and Ultimate Warrior. Both Sammartino and Warrior have turned down several offers in the past, but there is still hope that a deal can be made with one of them.

Randy Savage is still a long shot because his family claims he wanted the entire Poffo family to be inducted similar to what the WWE did with the Von Erich family. This includes his brother Lanny “The Genius” Poffo and their father Angelo Poffo.

Celebrity inductees include Cindy Lauper and Mr. T, who were both involved with the first Wrestlemania at Madison Square Garden, the site of next year’s ceremony

I think, aside from the celebrities, that the only person who has a legit shot at getting inducted this year is Mick Foley. Let’s take a look:

The Rock – The man will be headlining WrestleMania, possibly as WWE champion. Why induct him when he’s in the main event? Save his HoF appearance for when he’s not competing. That way, you’ll get a future Rock appearance guaranteed!

Owen Hart – With his widow filing Owen-related lawsuits every chance she gets, there’s no way to get Owen in the Hall unless something drastic happens. The prospects of this happening are rougher than Dolph Ziggler in the bedroom.

Bruno Sammartino – This stubborn Italian won’t be inducted until he dies and WWE gets the family’s blessing, or Vince dies and Triple H can talk Bruno into it. Which do you think happens first?

Ultimate Warrior – Much like Bruno, our founding father of in-ring intensity has repeatedly rejected WWE’s offers to put Warrior-man in the Hall. That Self Destruction DVD has a lot to do with it. I don’t see this ever happening unless there’s a pile of money and a public apology involved.

Randy Savage – This one puzzles me. Prior to his death, there were rumors that Vince hated the man and an induction seemed unlikely. After his death, those rumors kid of fizzled away as Savage nostalgia kicked into high gear. Now, you have the Poffo family saying that Randy always wanted the family to be inducted together, which seems fishy to me. Randy is no longer here to confirm or deny such claims, and Randy’s induction is better served as an individual. However, WWE would look tasteless if they inducted Randy against his family’s (and perhaps Randy’s own) wishes. I’d say that the Poffo family is the most likely induction to happen over the Rock, Owen, Bruno and Warrior.

And speaking of the WWE Hall of Fame…

Kurt Angle had an interview with The Daily Star, Kurt Angle talked about not being in the WWE Hall of Fame, his health and more.

On if he thinks he’ll be invited to join the WWE Hall of Fame: “Sometimes it does feel a little bit like Kurt Angle never existed, and maybe that is because I am here. The best times I had were with WWE. Will it come back full circle? I don’t know. I do know that I’m not going to stand by the door and wait for an invite. I deserve it. I am very happy right now with TNA. Will it happen? I never answer that one way or the other because in pro wrestling you just don’t know.”

It’ll happen once Angle finishes with TNA. He’ll sign a legends’ contract and we’ll be off and running. Guaranteed. And the Hall of Fame news continues!

Triple H is reportedly hoping that Sting turns down a new contract with TNA and lets his current one expire at the end of the year. WWE officials are planning to offer Sting a licensing deal that would cover multiple facets and would include video releases and their Mattel toys deal. It would likely include a Hall of Fame induction as well.

Triple H is said to have very high regard for Sting, though getting the former WCW star is not a high priority for Vince McMahon.

I could see Sting turning down another WWE offer. He’s financially secure, and I’ve always gotten the impression that he takes a small measure of pride of being one of the only “big names” to never have worked for WWE.

However, Sting will have to choose between his pride and his legacy. The Sting name will live forever if he signs a deal and gets a (nearly) complete career retrospective DVD out of it. It’s funny, because Sting’s initial reason for not signing with WWE was because it was too raunchy, but these days TNA puts out more “edgy” content than WWE. Yo Sting! Why stay in TNA when you can jump to WWE and job to Taker, HHH and Cena?

CM Punk posted the following rant on Twitter; noting how upset he is over the fact that WWE didn’t promote some of his upcoming appearances, like when he appears on The Talking Dead. Here is what Punk posted…

“Yes, I will be on @AMCTalkingDead on Sunday. Shocking how WWE didn’t promote it or get AMC the proper materials in time to announce it. This is what happens when you go over everyone’s head to hustle and acquire your own outside appearances. #DIY. will also be the Grand Marshall in the Chicago turkey day parade. Also not announced or promoted by “my” company. Shocking. This is what happens when you go over everyone’s head to hustle and acquire your own outside appearances. #DIY. Was promoted on Monday. Wasn’t Sunday night when it was supposed to be. Ball dropped. S’okay. I’ll pick it up and score like I always do.”

My feelings about Punk are no secret, but I agree with him on this one. Your champion is making some mainstream, crossover appearances and you don’t bother to promote it? That’s either poor planning or some bad decision making.

And Punk is the Grand Marshall of the Turkey Day Parade? Hmmm, the slang definition of Turkey is “a poor and unsuccessful theatrical production; flop.” Sooo, Punk is the leading man of a production that is becoming more and more unsuccessful. Seems right to me. ZING!

I keed, I keed. I think Punk takes too much flack for RAW’s declining ratings. In the old days, a wrestling promotion was considered successful based on how many tickets were sold to the event. AKA how many people he “drew” to the show. Later, it became both a matter of ticket sales and television ratings. It’s a different world now. WWE is NOT a wrestling company. They are a global media company that’s publicly traded. Whether or not WWE is successful is only partially dependant upon ratings. Merchandise, video games, DVDs, growth opportunities play just as much of a role in the company’s success. In a shitty economy when many people are cutting expenses, the fact that an entertainment company like WWE is doing as well is surprising. So let’s cut Punk some slack, okie dokie?

YOU’RE IN FOR A REAL TWEET

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SIGNING OFF

Thank you for making Thursday Sports Entertainment your go-to destination for Wrestling News, Opinions, Etc. I’m keeping it short this week as tomorrow’s Thanksgiving and I’m tied up with starting my new gig. Tune in next week for the return of Awesome Ladybug Girl! (Probably.)

Hasta Jueves,

This is Sean.