News to Start Your Weekend 01.06.06
Posted by Nick Marsico on 01.06.2006
More of the same, featuring live RAW thoughts and more... who sucks.
I dunno. Let's just get into this. I'm tired, and for no real reason.
YOU KNOW IT'S THE NEWS
Heyman to stay with WWE
Here is the latest on Paul Heyman's WWE status. His contract officially ended December 31, 2005. He is in Louisville tonight for the OVW TV Tapings and it is believed that the two sides have either worked out a new deal or that Paul is working with the company while they finalize a deal.
And...
More on Paul Heyman is that he is working out a "long-term" extension of his old contract. If they finish this up, and they should since there are no issues holding them up, Paul Heyman could be signed to the WWE for a very long time.
Well it's a shame TNA's gonna still have story problems, it's a shame WWE's still gonna have story problems, but at least OVW will be great.
Indy star kicked out
During the Smackdown taping in Wilkes Barre, PA last evening, an Independent worker was kicked out of the locker room for a breach of etiquette. The worker apparently moved Teddy Long's belongings so he could take his "spot" in the locker room and that didn't go over too well.
But who was it? I wanna know!
TNA's name makes it back to WWE's Byte This
Once again this week, TNA mentions invaded WWE Byte This. One caller got on and asked about Sting coming to TNA. Another called plugged TNAwrestling.com and another called asked Byte This host Todd Grisham why he dodges TNA questions. Todd also made mention of a fan in the WWE chat room saying "TNA sucks." These mentions will likely be removed from the archived version of Byte This on WWE.com.
Todd really has to learn how to be more professional in handling this. He really does.
TNA Monday Night Special?
TNA and SpikeTV continue to discuss the prospects of airing an Impact primetime special on Monday, February 14th. RAW will not air that night due to being preempted by USA Network for the annual dog show. The special is considered to be likely at this point, but not confirmed.
Do it. TNA Monday Night iMPACT! and Thursday RAW Thursday, plus Friday Night SmackDown!, No Way Out on Sunday, and Against All Odds the week before... that's a heck of a week of wrestling. Oh, and it's February 13, not 14. The 14th is a Tuesday.
Trinity at RAW
Former TNA star Trinity is sitting in the front row at RAW along with another blonde woman. Fans have been taking pictures with them. The two are dressed provocatively and appear to be a part of tonight's show.
I was there, and she's as hot as ever.
Charlie Haas to return?
It appears that Charlie Haas is set to return to WWE soon and could appear on RAW as early as tonight. While rumors of Haas' return have been going around for weeks, most signs indicated that they were not true. Haas may be brought in to be part of Shelton Benjamin's new angle, although that is just speculation.
Since being released by WWE in a few months back, Haas has slammed WWE in interviews and said many times that he would never return to the company unless it was on "his own terms." His wife, Jackie Gayda, was also released a few months ago from WWE but now works with TNA.
Just bring back the SPWGTT and I'll be happy for now. Have Charlie return to SmackDown! and get into a conflict with Burchill and Regal, but not have anybody on his side. He shows up on RAW one week backstage and gives Shelton a chance to rejoin him on SmackDown! and be a grown man instead of answering to his mother, and then the World's Greatest Tag Team returns, makes their way up the SmackDown! tag team ranks before finally winning back the titles.
Or, they could just have Shelton's Mama embarrass him every week pointlessly in an angle that belongs in wrestling as much as Judy Bagwell did. Whatever involves less wrestling, I guess.
Some old TNA news
There has been discussion of brining Andrew "Test" Martin into the promotion.
Spike TV is considering older TNA tapes as filler programming.
Former TNA star Shocker defeated Sangre Chicana on 12/10 for AAA in a "hair vs. hair" match. There is talk of TNA bringing him back to join the new Konnan, Homicide, and Apolo faction.
Test & Hoyt for tag champs! Yes, old TNA weekly PPVs on Spike = AWESOME. Please bring back Shocker. And give me one more Shocker vs. Shelley. Please?
Jake Roberts' family not happy
Jake "The Snake" Roberts and the WWE may have some problems up their sleeves soon. Members of Jake Robert's family especially his father are not to please with some of the comments made on the recently released DVD of Jake Roberts. Currently the family has not taken any legal action as of yet, but it will most likely happen soon.
Shit, I better hurry up and get this DVD before anything happens, then.
Vince and Triple H traveling in style
Although Vince McMahon's private jet used to be the transportation of choice for a number of upper-tier wrestlers, PWTorch reports that it was recently made exclusive to staff members. Triple H is the only roster member welcome on the plane.
But luxurious airfare is not the only travel perk associated with being Triple H.
He and wife Stephanie McMahon also recently acquired a $2 million luxury travel bus, which has further isolated the wrestler from his colleagues. The two fly to the first show of each individual tour leg and then use the bus to get to the rest of the shows in the region.
The return of the DX EXPRESS!
No more mole?
PWInsider.com is reporting that The Boogeyman is expected to bite the growth off of Jillian Hall's face soon putting her out of action for a while. In the mean time the WWE may call up Angel Williams from Deep South Wrestling to manage JBL.
That's actually a hell of an idea, but why bring up somebody new for JBL? He DOES NOT NEED A MANAGER! She doesn't do anything for him right now anyway? Having a stable works fine, having a manager does not, especially if it's a female manager, because she's not going to be hitting people with chairs or giving them her finisher while the ref isn't looking.
THAT'S ALL THE FUCKING NEWS I CARE FOR
Uh, it's RAW
So I went to RAW this week, and some of it was fun, some of it sucked, and some of it was just there. I'll be honest, it's usually the opposite, but the show came off a lot better on TV than it was live on Monday. Maybe it had a bit to do with the fact that 2 out of 3 times, nobody knew whether they were live on TV or if it was Unlimited, and how the microphones, for some reason, were a bit low. It was hard to hear everything Vince was saying all night. I had no idea that the Bra and Panties match was going to be a gauntlet match until I came home and watched the tape, because he was talking so low on the mic that all I heard was "Bra and Panties [inaudible] match". I could have sworn he said something involving a dog both times I heard it while I was at the arena. Hmmm, what else? Ah, Chris Masters still gets as little a reaction now as he did last time I was at RAW (July 11, 2005), and that's NO REACTION. In fact, I made the joke that when he comes out, you can hear a pin drop. Twice. Hell, Coach said it best. Something to the effect of "Masters is here, and there are 17, 530 people in silence". It wasn't exactly that, but close, and god damn if I didn't laugh my ass off when I heard that. As Scott Keith might say "I love shoot comments that aren't supposed to be shoot comments". The match, however, came off a lot better live than it looked on TV. Masters looked bad live, but 30 times worse on television. His miscue at the end looked absolutely awful on TV, too, where he was supposed to catch Shelton in the full nelson when he took a wild swing, but instead awkwardly sold it and then had to redo the spot. It was just abysmal, and I want to cry in shame and embarrassment that a piece of garbage is going to be in the MAIN EVENT of a pay-per-view match. I am ashamed.
Let me just go through chronologically with my thoughts live and on TV. The HBK/Kane match was very long and very boring live, but on TV it actually came off pretty decent and was fun to watch. The King/Helms segment didn't come off too great live because I couldn't understand a damn thing Helms was trying to say. That Carolina accent is insanely hard to understand on a live mic. It was okay on TV, although King's delivery of "you're just a guy... that sucks" could have been timed better.
The Kiss Cam/Victoria vs. Maria match was the biggest culprit of the not knowing when it was Unlimited and live. I guess it didn't have too much of an effect since it was a short segment anyway, though. Nobody was really all that into it, and I didn't see the dog's ass in the face live. It was decent enough on tape, and King's change of heart was funny. He didn't like the 3-on-1 assault of Maria, but a half second later there was a Maria crotch shot and he changed his tune. Heh, pretty funny, actually.
Edge's promo was boring-ish until Ric came down to attack. I actually thought Flair was shirtless until they got into the ring, because that pink shirt looked like skin to me. I thought it was CRAZY FLAIR~! running around with his clothes off and kicking ass like a madman. The spoof video was funny and the live crowd seemed to really enjoy it. The platform that Edge was standing on sucked live, though, since they were facing away from the majority of the crowd, but on TV it looked fantastic.
I already talked about the Shelton vs. Masters match... Masters is a piece of garbage, and the match was trash. See, the difference is that trash is just shit you'd throw out, like a newspaper or the wrapping of a DVD, and garbage is the dirty, wet pile of awful, often that collects at the bottom of a garbage bag. You know, garbage juice. Trash doesn't have that, but Masters does. I mean garbage.
Interchangeable, yeah.
The Triple H segment was a lot of fun, and Big Show is just a beast, man. Missed Triple H slightly leaning on the announce table and it collapsing live, though. The crowd was all for H, by the way. If things keep up the way they're going right now, if the WM main event is Triple H vs. John Cena, you'll look back at the tape of the show years from now and think that Cena was a mega heel and Triple H was the company's biggest babyface. Mark my words, if nothing changes with Cena, that is the future.
Shelton's mama... UGH. It could lead to some fairly funny moments, but really, I don't see how it could possibly do ANYTHING good for Shelton's career. He's already pretty over, and if he gets more over, it will be DESPITE of this, not because of it.
And finally, the main event. I have to say that it was a hell of a lot of fun to be there live for it. Coach wasn't lying when he talked about the electricity in the crowd, but I'm not trying to skirt the fact that Cena was getting booed like a motherfucker. The entire show was like a Cena hate fest, and it was wonderful. There were "Cena sucks" chants before the show started, during some commercials, and of course during the match. The iPod Nano joke about Masters' dick got a bit of a reaction, but everything else was just us booing him to the point where I barely heard anything he said after saying that Carlito bites pillows. A couple personal notes... Cena HAS to fucking stop it with the dick and gay jokes. They used to be cute, but if he's trying to be old edgy Cena that the crowd originally fell in love with, he can't use them as a crutch. They were in there when he used to do the raps, but they weren't the ONLY thing in there like they were on Monday.
The match itself was great live, and hearing Angle just getting cheered like the world's biggest face and Cena getting booed like the heel of heels was great. Remember WrestleMania 18 and Rock vs. Hogan? Well it had that kind of vibe, just on a much smaller scale. Every time Cena would do ANYTHING, he would get booed, and every time Angle did something, he got cheered. Hell, when Daivari interfered, people were CHEERING for it. It was fan-fucking-tastic. Hearing the little kids and young girls around me trying desperately to cheer for Cena was also hilarious as well. Hey, at least Cena's got them. I mean, WWE is miserably failing at getting to their target demographic with the guy who is supposed to be the company's biggest face and the guy that demographic likes, but hey, the third or fourth biggest demo for WWE likes him! Hell, they just put out a new "Chain Gang Click" package up at WWEShop.com, and as of 9:30 PM Thursday night, the women's version is #4 in the Top 10 Sellers, but the men's version is nowhere to be found.
Anyway, the show closed very well, and it looked good on TV, but should have ended with all 7 guys lying on the mat (well, except for stupid Masters who ruined the visual by being on the floor), instead of with a replay and then Cena's music playing. After the show, there was a Triple Threat for Cena's title between him, Angle and Triple H, and Big Show did a run-in, and the man was running faster than I've ever seen him move in my entire life. He was on his horse, I'll tell ya what. It was insane. He was actually running faster than Triple H was as he chased him up the ramp. It was a decent show overall, a good final show before the PPV, but it came off a lot better on TV than the bore fest that the majority of it turned out to be live. It was a pretty good time, though.
WWE Friday Night SmackDown! Preview
Falls Count Anywhere
John "Bradshaw" Layfield vs. Matt Hardy
Handicap Elimination Match
Mark Henry vs. 2 Guys I'm certain he eliminates
Kid Kash vs. Juventud
United States Championship Best of 7 Series, Match #6
Chris Benoit vs. Randy Orton
WWE Tag Team Championship Cage Match
Champions MNM vs. Rey Mysterio & Batista
TNA iMPACT! Preview
A Tribute to Sting from TNA Wrestling
Ron Killings vs. Bobby Roode
Team 3D in tag team action
The Naturals vs. Apolo & Homicide
WWE RAW presents New Year's Revolution
WWE Championship Elimination Chamber
Champion John Cena vs. Carlito vs. Chris Masters vs. Shawn Michaels vs. Kane vs. Kurt Angle
Grudge Match
Big Show vs. Triple H
Intercontinental Championship
Champion Ric Flair vs. Edge
Women's Championship
Champion Trish Stratus vs. Mickie James
Grudge Match
Gregory Helms vs. Jerry Lawler
Bra and Panties Gauntlet Match
Ashley vs. Candice vs. Torrie vs. Maria vs. Victoria
I read your thoguhts on the Hart DVD set, and I am one who thinks he sounds bitter in it. I also think he seems to have too much arrogance and thnks WAY too much of himself and his overal place in the wreslting industry\'s history. I think he was one of the best in the ring, but outside of the ring, he came off as a prick that thought just because is last name was Hart, he was relevant and a \"standard\" in the wresting industry (this also happens to sum up his nephew Teddy now). I really thought his piece on Shawn Michaels was a real sour grapes thing. He actually said that he thought his run as champ was too short and that Michaels only got the belt because he made money for the WWE....well isn\'t the the IDEA of a champ was to put it on the guy who made the most money??? I Agree that it was a good DVD, but not as good as the Jake Roberts one (I never got the Benoit DVD, but in the future I plan to). I think also the fact that Vince HAD to remind us that Bret co-produced it really knocked the DVD down a couple notches for me, and also put Hart in a badder light in my eyes. That just made Bret a even bigger egotistical prick. One other bad part of the DVD: some of the matches he chose really weren\'t good. The only one I really looked forward to was the \"I Quit\" Match he had agaisnt Austin. But the Mr. Perfect matches were ones that saved that part of the DVD for me Keep up the good work, and O&A PARTY ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOCK!!! Pete
Yeah, Bret really does come off as very arrogant, and he has always had a warped sense of reality, or at least it seems that way. Thanks for reading, sir.
Well that's about all I got this week. Check me out again next week for more of the same.
