The Wrestling News Experience: 10.30.06
Posted by Stephen Randle on 10.30.2006
It's Halloween. Gimme all your candy.
Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Experience. I'm Stephen Randle, and I don't understand Expressionism. Well, I do, but it's really hard to do character progression studies on. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, welcome to the world of English majors, where we have to pretend to love books and plays we would never in a million years have watched on our own.
Speaking of not watching, shame on you, America, for not watching Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. I guess it's okay to pretend that we're all cultured and stuff, but there's a reason why there have been seven million editions of Survivor and The Bachelor combined while Studio 60 is looking down the barrel of cancellation after four episodes. At least you haven't turned on Heroes yet.
And in news more relevant to wrestling and this site, I've sent in all my answers to the final part of The Great Positivity Debate 3: Super Ultra High Challenge Edition. If I'm reading this right, the debate will be posted in its entirely for your viewing and voting pleasure this Wednesday, November 1. Now, not only is November my third year anniversary at 411, it's also the month of my 26th birthday, so I think you all owe it to me to get me a spectacular anniversary/birthday present. Since I don't see anyone willing to fork out for a PS3 for me, how about you all pile on your votes for me this Wednesday? I'd be ever so grateful if you and me, together, buried JP and JT so that they finally recognize who the real star power in the site is.
After Larry.
And Final Fantasy XII comes out tomorrow. If I can find it for purchase (anyone work in any stores selling video games in Waterloo wanna give me a heads up), I plan to meld with my PS2 for at least a couple days, rising only for class, work, and occasionally Black Cherry Vanilla Diet Coke.
Moving on.
Around The Horn
The main event for ECW December to Dismember (good thing wrestling doesn't market to children, or we'd have problems with that name) has been announced, and it's RVD vs The Big Show for the ECW Championship. This will probably mark the culmination of a storyline that has been running for nearly the entire length of the new ECW, which, as we may all recall, started when RVD didn't pay attention to the talking pirate and ended up dropping the ECW title as a result.
Does America get the talking pirate commercial? I forget if it's just Canadian.
And in more ECW news, WWE will not be running any more ECW-only house shows in the near future. Well, they were popular, drew extra money, and helped expose the new ECW brand that has its first real PPV coming up shortly, so I can see how running house shows would be an undesirable plan.
Monty Brown's contract is up with TNA, and there are no plans to use him again. In fact, TNA has removed all mention of Brown from their website, which means WWE has probably already signed him. Expect Brown to debut on Smackdown, and eventually feud with Bobby Lashley. You all know why.
Smackdown and ECW taped last night, because Halloween is Tuesday night. I was unaware that Halloween was a national holiday, but sources say that Boogeyman required the night off for religious reasons, and we can't have an episode of Smackdown without his presence.
I am totally serious.
Anyway, I'm sure 411 will have spoilers up soon, they just don't as of this posting, and I wouldn't tell you what they were anyway. So there.
WWE is apparently in talks to bring back Joy Giovanni, who was a Diva Search loser one of those years, and accomplished very little of note before being fired at some point. So you can see why they'd want her back.
Kurt Angle's wife successfully delivered a baby boy this past week. Finally, Kurt won't be the only bald one in his immediate family. I assume. Hey, I was born bald, I figure most baby boys are. Why, no, I'm not a doctor, but I do watch Grey's Anatomy.
The Marine finished lucky number 13 at the box office, and is continuing to garner money at the predicted rate. Due to the lackluster opening numbers, however, the movie is still not expected to break even at the box office, and will rely on DVD sales to make any sort of profit. Hey, don't discount DVD sales. They're why Jean Claude Van Damme still has a movie career.
WWE released their list of planned DVD's for the rest of the year and 2007. Aside from the usual PPV DVD's, there is a Four Horseman compilation, a Steve Austin compilation, a John Cena compilation, and...a "Best of ECW" match featuring the best matches of the rebirth of ECW. Okay, then. Now, I know we're trying to suck every single dollar out of every wrestling fan, and nothing's better for that than ECW merchandise, but the new ECW is currently, what...four months old, with a grand total of zero PPV matches to draw from (discounting Show-Sabu at Summerslam). So what does that leave, a bunch of CM Punk squashes, Big Show title matches, and that pretty good RVD-Angle match....whups, can't use that one. No offense to the workers of ECW, but I'd say it's fairly safe to announce that this DVD is going to be pretty close to worthless.
And speaking of other worthless DVDs, there's the "New DX" DVD, an era which has spanned about as long a time as the new ECW, with even less good matches.
But wait, at least my prayers have been answered. Buried among the list of releases is the Royal Rumble Anthology, featuring every single Rumble event on DVD, many for the first time ever. You may all pre-order me a copy now. Surely you concede I deserve it.
And before I leave this segment, in an interview this weekend, the Ugandan Giant, Kamala (who Samoa Joe is totally ripping off), talked about his burgeoning and successful singing career. Some things put you at a loss for words. This is one of them.
...
...
Kamala speaks English?
The Injury Bug Bites
Inactive List as of 10.23.06
WWE
- Beth Phoenix, RAW, out two months as of June 6 (jaw)
- Chris Jericho, out indefinitely (kayfabe, fired)
- Hardcore Holly, ECW, day-to-day as of September 26th (back injury)
- Joey Mercury, SD!, out indefinitely as of May 22 (Wellness)
- Mark Henry, SD!, out 6-8 months as of July 15th (patella)
- Paul Burchill, SD!, out indefinitely as of May 29 (shoulder)
- Rey Mysterio, SD!, out indefinitely as of October 22 (knee surgery)
- The Great Khali, SD!, out indefinitely (double knee surgery)
TNA
- Gail Kim, TNA, day-to-day as of October 22
Transactions
- Squire David Taylor, SD!, out indefinitely as of October 27th (leg injury)
I think we're all overlooking another important development from the same match that could overshadow the seriousness of the Taylor injury: Tatanka turned heel to feud with Lashley. That ain't gonna go well.
- Hardcore Holly, ECW, returned to in-ring action on October 24th
Who knew that one day fans would be clamoring for a Holly-Test matchup? Well, not so much clamoring as wanting Holly to kick Test's ass. But then, Holly's always been something of a fan favourite for reasons that escape me. That still doesn't mean he should have gotten that title shot at the Rumble, though.
- The Boogeyman, SD!, returned to Smackdown on October 27th
He's baaaaaa-ack...and just in time for Halloween.
I'm almost certain that was a tagline for some horror movie that I never saw anyway. Probably Child's Play.
The important thing is, he's back, JT's annoyed, and the Smackdown vs Raw 2007 roster is a little more accurate again.
One Year Ago This Experience
Originally posted 11.01.05, a day later due to scholarly commitments, plus a burning wish to both review Raw and be able to preview Taboo Tuesday, which had become a huge booking mess in the space of about two days when Steve Austin walked out...again.
Hey, that was the last-ever Taboo Tuesday, and I never got a satisfactory answer as to why it was Taboo. At least Cyber Sunday makes sense. Sort of.
And Christian's contract with WWE expired two days before Taboo Tuesday, when he was one of the choices fans could vote on to face Edge and Chris Masters (which ended up being Snitsky and Chris Masters due to an injury...smell the buyrate). He didn't win, but short months later, he would win the NWA title and become TNA's world champion. Sure beats getting beat up by the Mexicools in your hometown for no reason, I'd say.
The Wrestling Fan's Experience
This week's Experience comes to you from Rich C
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Can't say I am as avid a wrestling fan as I once was, but my intro to wrestling always brings a smile to my face. You see coming from a single parent household was tough. My mom worked 2 jobs most of the time, so the job of raising me fell to my 68 year old retired grandfather and like most 7 year olds, I was in awe of the man. I remember walking into his house one day and instead of making me do my homework, my grandfather got up and flipped the TV to ESPN, which at that very moment was showing AWA wrestling. At that point I didn't understand who was good/bad or if wrestler A really hated wrestler B, but what I will always remember is sitting there across from my grandfather that day and having him give me his honest insight. You see the current match involved a 300lbs monster vs some unlucky 150lbs jobber who looked like he just stepped out of the crowd. Needless to say his 68 years of experience served him well that day and soon our daily wrestling watching became a highlight of my youth. About 3 years ago my now 91 year old grandfather passed away and despite all the sadness I was feeling inside all I kept hearing was my grandfathers insight from that day 20+ years earlier.
"That little guy is about to get his ass handed to him."
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Remember, if you've got a similar story to tell, there's a simple way to get your work published in the best damned Monday news report on the entire Internet. Just e-mail me your best answer to one or both of the following questions:
1. Why am I a wrestling fan.
2. How I got into pro wrestling
It's a journey of self-discovery and lots of fun besides, and the next Experience I post could be yours, so keep those submissions coming.
From the glowing box, Small has Heat, Larry has Hogan Knows Best, Cook has OVW/HWA, Larry and Carapola have Smackdown, and Byers and Larry have Impact.
Hamflett looks at Roddy Piper's book in Story Lines.
The Triple Threat is once again a man short, but that hasn't stopped them yet.
JP and JT have the last Hidden Highlights before their almost certain crushing defeat at my hands.
And Feltham continues his look at Ricky Steamboat in the Quick Talkdown.
The Gab Bag
First of, I made a mistake last week, and tekguru8 corrected me, the first two entrants in the X Division match at Bound For Glory were Austin Starr and Sonjay Dutt, but the last two were Starr and Jay Lethal. In my defense, they all look alike to me.
No, not really, I screwed up. It happens once in a while. Whups.
Manu Bumb picks Cena vs Edge and Booker vs Batista for the WrestleMania 23 title matches, with the actual main event being Trip vs Shawn in a Hell in the Cell match. Those are pretty safe picks, but I think Cena faces Orton, even though nobody really wants to see that. Or at least I don't. We're still waiting for more input from other readers, so tell me what you think, and a few months down the road, we'll see who can book like WWE Creative. Only a few months faster, so, better than WWE Creative.
And Frank Baldwin thanks me for mentioning that Daylights Savings Time was ending, because apparently I'm where people go for public service announcements and more. That's right, one day I'm going to be more popular than CNN. Well, I'm already more popular than both Fox News and MSNBC, how hard could it be?
By the way, I hate DST ending, because sunset at 4:30 sucks when you work in a restaurant with big pictures windows. At least at my old windowless job I didn't know how damned dark it was so early.
And One To Go On
Remember, a vote for me is a vote not for them.
411 will have live coverage of Raw starting tonight at 9 pm EST, and live coverage of ECW on Sci Fi starting tomorrow at 10 pm EST. Larry's back in tomorrow, I'm in the Positivity Debate on Wednesday, then I'll be putting together the Cyber Sunday roundtable for Saturday, which means the PPV must be this Sunday. Hey, more things to vote for that don't entirely matter because the voting's rigged. Then I plan to be back in full force next Monday, as we enter my own personal Anniversary month. What surprises await? You'll just have to come back and see.
