The Custom Made News Report 08.12.07

Welcome, one and all, to the Custom Made News Report. I’m Ryan, and I’m once again I’m here to provide you with all of the latest in professional wrestling news, as well as the sort of analysis that you can only get from a smart mark with too much free time on his hands. Enjoy!

All the Stuff from Stamford

Former WWF Star “Gravely Ill”

The above quoted language comes from Dave Meltzer at the Wrestling Observer, who has reported that Dewey “The Missing Link” Robertson has been hospitalized in his hometown of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada with cancer. Robertson, who is now sixty-eight years old, had a wrestling career that spanned several decades. He began training in the 1960’s after doing some work as a professional bodybuilder and made his professional wrestling debut at the age of twenty-four in Pennsylvania when Bruno Sammartino contacted his trainer to find some talent for the Pittsburgh territory.

Robertson’s career really took off in the early 1970’s when, after an international tour, he returned to Canada as the masked Crusader, competing both as a singles wrestler and as part of a tag team with Billy Red Lyons. By 1980, he was one of the top stars of Toronto’s professional wrestling scene. He won Toronto’s version of the Canadian Title and was put in to high profile matches with AWA Champion Nick Bockwinkel and NWA Champion Harley Race when they were brought in to the territory. His time at the top was short-lived, though, as he departed by 1981 and headed to the United States. While there, he would create the gimmick that, for better or worse, would define his career. In Kansas City, Mid-South Wrestling, and World Class Championship Wrestling, the bizarre Missing Link began to run wild and destroy all comers. The Link, who was a classic “wild man” gimmick in the vein of Kamala, the Mongolian Stomper, and the Samoans. Many were surprised that the formerly straight-laced Robertson was able to play the character so well. Ultimately, the gimmick resulted in Robertson being picked up by the WWF in 1985. Though his time there was relatively brief, his stint is better-remembered than those of most short-term WWF employees because his unique look landed him a prominent position on the cover art for the first Wrestling Album, and, more importantly, a full-page shot in an edition of Sports Illustrated covering the WWF’s massive popularity.

After leaving the WWF and ceasing to be a regular in-ring competitor, Robertson became very vocal about the substance abuse problems that he developed while in professional wrestling, including overuse of steroids, alcohol, and marijuana. In 1993, one of his kidneys failed and had to be removed, which Robertson attributed to his marijuana use. He detailed both the highs and lows of his career in a 2004 ghostwritten autobiography entitled Bang Your Head and a corresponding shoot interview.

All of us here at 411mania wish Robertson the best.

The Heart Foundation

WWE.com announced on Friday night that, as a result of a regular cardiac testing conducted pursuant to the company’s Wellness Policy, performer Montel Porter was diagnosed with Wolff-Parkinson-White (WPW) Syndrome, a condition affecting the heart. I did a little bit of research in to the condition and figured that everything I’d find would be medical gobbledygook that would go over my head, but it turns out that the condition is fairly simple to understand. The beat of our hearts is typically triggered by electrical pulses, and there is a pathway through which these pulses that limits the rate at which they reach the heart. The limited rate prevents the heart from beating too quickly, which can lead to sudden heart attacks. Individuals with WPW Syndrome have the normal pathway that most of us have, but they also have an additional pathway through which the electrical pulses can travel. This second pathway, however, does not have the ability to limit the rate at which the pulses reach the heart, thereby creating a risk of a sudden, fatal heart attack.

Montel Porter

Though the risk of sudden death related to the syndrome is very slim (less than 0.6%) according to several sources, it was still determined that Porter should undergo treatment for the condition. The treatment, the goal of which is to destroy the additional pathway to the heart, took place this past Monday, and a follow up examination will be conducted within the next week to determine whether it was a success. It does not appear that Porter will be missing any time in the ring as a result of the condition. I’m sure that I can speak on behalf of everybody here at 411mania and on behalf of all of my readers in wishing Porter the of luck when those results come back.

In the wake of the Benoit tragedy and congressional inquiries in to alleged drug use in professional wrestling, some individuals are already attempting to use this story to argue that the WWE wellness policy “works.” Though I am glad to see that Porter was able to have a potentially fatal medical problem treated, those arguments miss the mark entirely. Nobody has ever been critical of the sections of WWE’s wellness policy that result in wrestlers receiving regular testing of the heart or liver functions. The problem that most critics have with the policy is that there are far too many loopholes that allow for the use of performance enhancing drugs. As Porter’s issue is completely unrelated to the parts of the policy that regulate to drug use, his story is irrelevant to the current debate that has engulfed the wrestling industry.

What if They Had a Special and Nobody Cared?

Did you know that WWE is running Saturday Night’s Main Event in six days? Neither did I! The special, which was once a major event for the company that drew great ratings and all sorts of mainstream attention, has apparently declined in value to the point that WWE now thinks that it’s barely worth mentioning. I saw one or two thirty second promos for it while watching Monday Night Raw this week, but, aside from that, there has been no appreciable hype for the event. It’s almost as though WWE has looked at the poor ratings for the last couple of SNME specials and decided that they’re not even going to bother investing the time or effort necessary to make the show in to “must see TV” for fans.

Saturday Night’s Main Event will be taped tomorrow night in conjunction with Monday Night Raw. The only thing announced for the show so far is a boxing match between Montel Porter and Matt Hardy to continue their “Who’s the best athlete?” angle.

What’s up with Orlando? (Not Jordan.)

Pac-Man Jones in Legal Dispute. I’m as Shocked as You Are.

The story of troubled football player Pac-Man Jones coming to TNA wrestling has created quite the stir on the internet over the last several weeks. On Monday, TNA made the “official” announcement that the controversial athlete would be joining their promotion, appearing first on Thursday night’s Impact program and later on tonight’s Hard Justice pay per view. Unfortunately for Jones, his current employers, the Tennessee Titans football team, weren’t pleased with this situation. According to ESPN.com, the team was granted a court order on Friday stating that Jones was not to appear on the pay per view or any other TNA event in any way, shape, or form. The express language of the order went as far as banning him from even appearing in Orlando as a spectator of the shows. All of this stems from a clause in Jones’ NFL contract (which I’m told is standard in all player contracts) stating that he will not engage in non-football activity that presents a risk of injury. TNA, who ran two video packages about Jones’ PPV appearance on Thursday’s Impact and had announcers Mike Tenay and Don West repeatedly hype his appearance throughout the course of show, wanted to make sure that they could deliver on their promise. Therefore, attorneys representing both TNA and Jones immediately began discussing the situation with representatives from the Titans. The parties ultimately reached an agreement on modifications each side would be willing to make to the initial order. In turn, at 10:00 AM EST on Saturday, the modifications were presented to and approved by the judge who made the initial order.

What is the agreement? The short version of it is that Pac-Man will be able to appear at the Hard Justice pay per view and on subsequent TNA events. However, he is barred from engaging in any activity that presents a risk of injury to him. This means that any matches featuring Pac-Man are scrapped and that even simple angles involving him taking a bump or hitting a wrestler with a chair could be out the window. What TNA has planned for Pac-Man now that he can have no physical involvement in the show is unknown. On one hand, there have been numerous celebrity appearances that have benefitted wrestling that didn’t require the celebrity doing anything remotely physical. On the other hand, this is TNA, and their booking over the course of the last eight months has demonstrated that they might not be bright enough to work around this latest obstacle.

Of course, no matter what legal hoops TNA has had to jump through, the question at the end of the day is what this will mean for their business. Though Pac-Man has certainly gotten more people talking about the company than ever before, one has to wonder whether that talk will actually result in increased television ratings or pay per view buyrates for the struggling promotion. The earliest indicator of the kind of business that Pac-Man will do is not promising, as the Impact featuring his first appearance scored a 0.99 rating, which, though not disastrous for TNA, is no higher than their recent average. Some have speculated that Pac-Man had no effect on the rating this week because football fans, the people most likely to tune in to watch him, were preoccupied with the first preseason NFL game of the year, which aired opposite of Impact. (On top of that, I’m told that fairly high profile teams were involved.) However, one would think that in this day of channel surfing and short attention spans, TNA would at least be able to entice some viewers to flip over to Impact during a commercial break in order to see what was happening with this big football star. Unfortunately, there is no indication of that happening either, as there is nothing extraordinary about the quarter hour ratings for the segments in which Pac-Man was shown.

A lot of people have gotten on TNA’s case for bringing in Pac-Man, mainly because they take issue with doing business with a man who has allegedly been involved in so much criminal activity. I don’t necessarily have a problem with that aspect of the TNA/Pac-Man relationship, because plenty of individuals who have been accused of crimes have been involved in wrestling without incident. Mike Tyson appeared in the WWF after rape allegations were leveled against him. Jerry Lawler was accused of intentionally breaking a man’s jaw recently. Hell, MVP is an ex-convict who did eight and a half years in prison. I only have a problem with this angle if it fails to make money for TNA, because, above all else, cash flow is what this company needs right now. Currently, they’re out the amount that they have had to pay Pac-Man to appear and train, and they’ve also had to spend money on legal fees to sort out the issues with the aforementioned injunction. Unless Pac-Man’s pay per view appearances earn them enough money to recoup these losses and make a good sized profit, the company will once again have egg on its face.

Killings Back to TNA

Per Dave Meltzer over at the Wrestling Observer, Ron “The Truth” Killings is scheduled to return to TNA at the Hard Justice PPV tonight after reportedly quitting the company several weeks ago. There have been rumblings from other sources that the goal of bringing Killings back to the ring was to partner him up with Pac-Man Jones for a tag team match. Now that Pac-Man is not allowed to wrestle, it should be interesting to see whether the Truth will still be involved in that angle or whether he will be brought back at the PPV at all.

Foreign Fanatics

G1 Builds to Climax, DG’s Boys of Summer Have an Adventure

Just a quick update on a couple of tournaments that I first previewed three weeks ago:

New Japan Pro Wrestling’s G1 Climax tournament has been taking place all week long, and now they’ve come down to the semi-finals, which will be held today. The tournament consists of two “blocks” of men, with each block having its own round robin series of matches. The two men at the top of each block then move on to the semi-finals, with the winners of those matches being the finalists. Yuji Nagata and Togi Makabe tied with six points apiece to rank first in Block A, while Shinsuke Nakamura edged out Hiroshi Tanahashi by one point to win Block B. Tanahashi and Makabe will lock it up on tonight’s show, as will Nagata and Nakamura. The winners will go on to face each other in the main event of the same card.

Dragon Gate’s Summer Adventure Tag League is also moving right along. This tournament won’t be wrapped up until the end of the month, but there is currently a three way tie on top of the leader board. The teams of Taku Iwasa & Keni’chiro Arai, Ryo Saito & Susumu Yokosuka, and Naruki Doi & Masato Yoshino all have six points apiece. That could change tonight, though, as all three teams will be in action at DG’s show in Toyama. Saito & Yokosuka probably have the best shot at moving up to eight points at the end of tonight’s card, as they will be facing Lupin Matsutani & m.c. KZ, who are among the youngest competitors in the tournament and one of two teams who have yet to pick up any points.

AAA Invades NOAH

Normally this section of the column discusses stories about interaction between American and Japanese wrestling or between American and Mexican wrestling. However, here’s a little twist on the old formula, as now Mexican and Japanese wrestlers will be mixing it up. Today marks the beginning of Pro Wrestling NOAH’s “Shiny Navigation 2007” tour. The Japanese organization has used a ton of Ring of Honor talent over the past several months, but this time around they’re mixing it up by bringing in names from AAA, the top promotion south of the border. (That’s our border, not Japan’s.)

Left to Right: El Oriental, Laredo Kid, Histeria, and Antifaz

The veteran of the group is Histeria, a man with a twenty-two year career that began when he trained with lucha legend Blue Panther. Traveling with Histeria will be El Oriental, a man who once defeated Histeria in a hair versus hair match. Oriental, whose name would seemingly suggest that he’ll be right at home in Japan, is a second generation star and part of a storied wrestling family that produced not only him but also four sisters who are luchadoras. In some ways, Antifaz is the most successful member of the group, as he has won the most “luchas de apuestas” matches. These bouts, in which participants must either put their hair or their masks on the line, are generally seen as more important than even title bouts in Mexico. Antifaz has won seven such contests, most notably winning the hair of lucha legends Pirata Morgan and El Dandy, as well as unmasking former WCW star Ciclope. Rounding out the quartet is Laredo Kid. He is the youngest of the group, clocking in at nineteen years of age and having made his lucha libre debut in 2004. (Yes, that means he was sixteen. No, that isn’t unusual.)

I think that the addition of these four men to the NOAH tour is a great idea. It allows the NOAH roster – particularly the younger junior heavyweights – to gain some experience in a style of wrestling to which they wouldn’t otherwise be exposed. Plus, in the case of Laredo Kid, a little bit of experience in the puroresu scene will help the youngster evolve in to a well-rounded performer. Naturally, the fans win as well, as they’ll be getting some unique matchups that they wouldn’t otherwise get an opportunity to view.

Junior Muta to be Born

This comes straight from the “I Can’t Believe I’m Reporting It” file. Last week I talked a little bit about HUSTLE, a Japanese promotion which takes sports entertainment to a whole new level by doing in angles in which Toshiaki Kawada becomes a lounge singer and wrestlers are hatched from eggs. They may have topped themselves with a recent angle involving the Great Muta, though. On a HUSTLE show earlier this summer, Muta’s trademark green mist didn’t find its way in to his opponent’s face. Instead, it found its way in to his opponent’s crotch. That’s right. Female wrestling personality Yingling got on Muta’s bad side, and it resulted in her taking one of the world’s most famous gimmicks straight to her girly parts. Long-time wrestling fans are well aware that Muta’s mist has the ability to blind opponents. However, this is apparently not the only thing that it’s capable of doing. Somehow, according to the storyline, the mist has IMPREGNATED Yingling. She is now carrying the child of the Great Muta. Apparently Muta’s mist also has the power to speed up the normal human process of gestation, because Yingling has proclaimed that she will be giving birth on HUSTLE’s August 18 show, despite the fact that the misting incident only took place in June. All I know is that I must find pictures and possibly video of this event after it takes place.

Indy-Sent Headlines

Opinion Piece: Is ROH No Longer the Best?

This isn’t news. This is just something that I’ve had brewing in the back of my head for a while and wanted to present to you the internet for consideration. I know that it may not a popular opinion in some circles, but I’m going to come out and say it:

Ring of Honor is no longer producing the best professional wrestling product in the United States.

I believe that with all of my heart. I also believe that, for the majority of its existence, ROH has in fact been the best. It definitely was in 2006. However, thusfar in 2007, the Bristol based promotion has been beaten out by the one company that its fans seem to despise the most: World Wrestling Entertainment. Before you send me any profanity-laced e-mails, give me an opportunity to explain.

When Ring of Honor first started up in 2002, there is no denying that WWE was having a fairly bad year. An invasion by the New World Order failed to capture the fans’ attention, and the subsequent title reign by Hulk Hogan produced what were easily the worst main events that the company had seen in years. Things picked up slightly towards the end of the year with the rise of Brock Lesnar and the series of matches produced by the “Smackdown Six.” However, things seemingly fell apart once more when 2003 hit. Notoriously poor performers Scott Steiner, Bill Goldberg, and Kevin Nash were pushed as threats to the World Title throughout the year, while another main focus was a mind numbing feud between Kane and Shane McMahon.

While all of this was going on, Ring of Honor was captivating a relatively small yet loyal audience with a simple concept that had never been tried before. There were numerous independent promotions across the country, all of whom had a handful of talented performers. However, ROH was the first indy company who decided that, instead of being content with the two best guys in their region, they were going to fly in the top names from every indy in the United States for regular shows. This concept, combined with an excellent system for distributing tapes, introduced many fans to names like Bryan Danielson, Paul London, Spanky, and the Briscoe Brothers in addition to giving a regular platform to “established” independent names like Christopher Daniels, AJ Styles, and Low Ki. These men, with help from guest stars like Eddie Guerrero, Masato Tanaka, and Dick Togo, put on great performances that turned Ring of Honor in to the “cool” promotion to follow on the internet. The promotion wasn’t just about great matches, though. As much as some hardcore fans may want to deny it, angles were just as big a part of ROH’s early appeal as the in-ring battles were. Audiences were captivated by Daniels’ Prophecy trying to tear down Ring of Honor before it got off the ground, the Steve Corino versus Homicide blood feud is considered by many to be a classic, and CM Punk probably wouldn’t have a job in WWE today if it wasn’t for his going toe-to-toe with Raven.

2004 saw the rise of Samoa Joe in Ring of Honor. Though he had won the promotion’s championship the previous year, it was in ’04 that he truly became cemented as the face independent professional wrestling with epic defense after epic defense against a diverse body of opponents. At the same time, though, WWE slowly began to redeem itself for the previous two years. The promotion put its World Heavyweight Title on Chris Benoit in a rare wrestling storyline that elicited genuine emotion from the audience and guaranteed some quality main events. Elsewhere, Mick Foley and Randy Orton engaged in a critically acclaimed feud that cemented Orton as the star that he still is today. Ultimately, though, WWE shot themselves in the foot and destroyed much of the good will that they had gained previously by placing the WWE Title on the newly repackaged John Bradshaw Leyfield. Though many fans started to come around on JBL towards the end of his title run, the first several months were abysmal, as audiences were clearly not ready to accept him as main event caliber talent. On the Raw side of the coin, the show’s quality took a massive dip after Summerslam, with the split of Evolution and Triple H feuding with Randy Orton being done in one month as opposed to the six that it should have taken. The ball was still clearly in ROH’s court.

Though they went in a slightly different direction, Ring of Honor maintained its dominance of WWE in 2005. (Again, I remind you that I’m talking about the quality of product here, not the level of business.) Samoa Joe lost the title to Austin Aries early in the year, and this cemented Aries as a credible main event performer in the eyes of fans. CM Punk also finished up with the company, winning the ROH Title in a “shocking” turn of events and putting on a hell of a series of matches in his final weeks with the company. To top it all off, the promotion had its best selling DVD release in history, which was headlined by what many still call the best match in the promotion’s history: Samoa Joe versus Japanese legend Kenta Kobashi. WWE, on the other hand, did almost exactly what it did in 2004, putting on quality wrestling leading up to and extending slightly past Wrestlemania but quickly falling off of a cliff thereafter. In this case, the feud between Dave Batista and Triple H presented a classic example of how to break up a stable, with the story of Big Dave’s growing distrust of The H’s being both well-written and performed. Though the matches were certainly not setting the world on fire, they were better than anybody would have expected from Batista at the time. Yet, once the feud with Triple H ended, Batista seemed to flounder, and, though he showed flashes of greatness, WWE Champion John Cena had yet to fully become comfortable in his role as “the man.”

2006 was a very hit or miss year for WWE. On one hand, it saw Edge finally ascending to the role of main event heel and WWE Champion, with results both on the microphone and in the ring that were excellent and a refreshing change from the heel style of Triple H, which many felt had been dominating the company for far too long. Edge also proved to be the perfect opponent for Cena, as the two had a series of matches that many thought Cena would be incapable of pulling off. Smackdown severely hurt WWE’s claim to being the top promotion in wrestling, though. Most of the year was focused on Rey Misterio, Jr. Though this was not a horrible idea on paper, WWE managed to do it in just about the worst way possible, by making sure that everything Rey did was somehow overshadowed by the legacy of his recently deceased friend Eddy Guerrero, a legacy that WWE may as well have gone out of their way to sully. Once Rey left, SD was dominated by a feud between Booker T. and Batista, and, though the “King Booker” gimmick provided fans with some chuckles, the two men proved to have next to no chemistry in the ring, churning out numerous PPV title matches that were no good at all.

However, no matter what WWE produced, Ring of Honor was almost certain to have a better 2006. When it comes to quality wrestling matches and quality storylines, 2006 ROH will go down as among the greatest years that a promotion has ever had. The ROH vs. CZW feud brought a passion to professional wrestling that is hard to capture in our incredibly jaded world. It also produced numerous excellent promos by Ring of Honor representative Jim Cornette and gave us show stealing match after epic show stealing match. Meanwhile, Bryan Danielon’s ROH Title reign provided an excellent contrast to the wild, bloody, and brutal brawls that made up the promotion versus promotion war. Danielson, attempting to make himself an old school wrestling champion of the highest order, wrestled numerous long matches with a variety of opponents, which lead many of his fans to believe that he truly was “the best in the world.” His entire reign culminated in a feud with Homicide, the man who ROH fans had seen screwed out of a major championship time and time again during his five years with the company. When Homicide finally captured the strap from Danielson, it triggered a celebration that rivaled any other in wrestling due to the investment that fans had made in both characters over their respective careers.

Yet, something seemed to happen to Ring of Honor once January 1, 2007 came around. It used to be the best promotion in the country. I loved it. However, when I watch the product now, all I see is a company with no compelling personalities, no compelling storylines, and matches that, by and large, are good but overrated. The two main focuses of the company recently have been a three way feud between Bryan Danielson, Nigel McGuinness, and Takeshi Morishima as well as the continued tag success of the Briscoe brothers. Is the Mori/Dragon/Nigel triangle capable of putting on good matches? Sure. However, the whole thing feels devoid of any passion. Nigel vs. AmDrag has been done to death. Meanwhile, Morishima’s reign as champion feels more like a tool to get him prepared for a run as the top dog in NOAH than it does something that will actually benefit ROH in the long haul. I have a hard time watching the reign, as I’m staring at the TV and wondering if the men behind this promotion are such marks for anything Japanese that they somehow believe Morishima is on the same level as their past champions. Then there are the Briscoes. There are folks these days who like to come on the internet and proclaim that legendary wrestlers like Ric Flair, Bret Hart, or Shawn Michaels are actually terrible performers because they have “one match that they wrestle over and over again no matter what.” You know who really only has one match that gets wrestled over and over again? The Briscoes. They go out there, hit men as hard as they can and do as many highspots as they can with no regard for their own bodies or the bodies of their opponents. Maybe I’m biased because I grew up watching wrestling in which the competitors believed that protecting your opponent’s safety was a top priority, but when I read ROH show reports and see things like “Jay Briscoe was hitting Kevin Steen has hard as he could with a ladder! It was awesome!!!!” or “Mark Briscoe did a shooting star press off a truck!!!!” I don’t start salivating and hoping that the DVD arrives as soon as possible. Actually, my stomach turns a little and I wonder why these men are taking such needless risks. I don’t feel much better months later when I watch the match.

WWE, on the other hand, has had a simply phenomenal year. John Cena has finally grown in to the role of a man who is capable of carrying a promotion on his back. Though I still think his antics on the microphone are a little juvenile at times, there’s no denying that he is capable of cutting a serious promo when called upon to do so. His matches have also been awesome all year long. He started out with two great, wild brawls against Umaga and then moved on to Shawn Michaels. I can’t say enough good things about the Michaels/Cena feud. From the slow build in to Wrestlemania based on when HBK would turn on the champ to the epic hour long match in the United Kingdom, it has been among the best booked and wrestled programs of the twenty-first century. And, for perhaps the first time in history, both of WWE’s major brands are strong at the same time. The Undertaker and Dave Batista kicked off the year with a feud very similar to the HBK/Cena rivalry in that it was based on a very old school philosophy and delivered matches hundreds of times better than anybody else would have expected. Combine these two stellar feuds with continued great work from Edge and the slow but steady progression of Bobby Lashley, and it’s been a banner year for the E. Some people will complain about the push of the Great Khali, first on Raw and now on Smackdown, but I don’t know why those people are so opposed to him. Is he a horrible wrestler compared to ninety percent of the roster? Sure. But he is playing a role that will be present in professional wrestling until it dies, whether you like the role or not. Andy ya know what? He’s playing the role well. On top of that, Khali is capable of being carried to a good match, as the Undertaker, Shawn Michaels, and, yes, even John Cena have demonstrated in the past. The scary thing is that it seems WWE’s year can only get better from here, as the returns of Rey Misterio, Triple H, and the Undertaker will add name value to the roster and provide fresh faces who can immediately enter the main event mix and produce top notch bouts.

I’m sure that some of the opinions I’ve rattled off over the course of the last four pages aren’t popular. I’m sure that there people out there who will vehemently disagree with me, and that’s fine. However, when I, a fan of over fifteen years compare the products that ROH and WWE have been putting out this year, my favorite of the two is clear. It’s the choice that I never thought I would pick as long as Ring of Honor was in business. It’s WWE.

CHIKARA Invaded by Invading International Invaders of the Invaditational Variety

Thanks to the massive tirade above, I don’t have the time to do a full run down of the cards this week, but I did want to note that Pennsylvania’s favorite quasi-lucha promotion will be having one of its biggest weekends of the year starting in just five days. Every year CHIKARA hosts its “International Invaders” weekend, which features two shows with stars from all over the globe. This year, the first show will be in Reading, PA at 7:30 PM on August 17, while the second will be in Hellertown, PA at 7:30 PM on August 18.

Both shows will feature stars from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Japan, Switzerland, and Mexico. Representing the States will be everybody’s favorite CHIKARA regulars, including Mike Quackenbush, Chris Hero, Larry Sweeney, Eddie Kingston, and Team FIST. Of course, what everybody is really interested in is the international talent that will be making rare American appearances. Representing Great Britain is revolutionary high flyer Pac, who will be taking on IWA-MS standout Ricochet on 8/17 and the big Swiss man Claudio Castagnoli on 8/18. Pac vs. Ricochet is particularly interesting, as it’s two virtually identical men from opposite sides of the pond locking it up. Also on the cards is Canadian youngster Shayne Hawke, who will be making his return to CHIKARA. He’s got Jigsaw on 8/17 and Lince Dorado on 8/18.

The Land of the Rising Son will be represented by two individuals from All Japan, Brute Issei and Akira Raijin. Issei, a former amateur wrestler, is one of the largest Japanese wrestlers to ever visit the United States, standing 6’4″ and weighing almost 290 pounds. He’ll need every last bit of that size, because he’ll be going up against two of CHIKARA’s heavyweights, namely Eddie Kingston on August 17 and Chris Hero on August 18. Raijin, who has been wrestling since 1998 and has an impressive karate background, will go up against Claudio Castagnoli on Friday and then CHIKARA head honcho and NWA World Junior Heavyweight Champion Mike Quackenbush on Saturday. The best represented foreign nation is actually Mexico. Los Ice Creams, Equinox, and Lince Dorado, all CHIKARA regulars from south of the border, will be in action. However, the big surprise for Invaders weekend is the CHIKARA debut of LAS CHIVAS~! For those of you not familiar with Las Chivas, let me just say that I’ve had an opportunity to see a couple of their matches, and they are hilarious. The gimmick is that they’re soccer playing goats. Read that one again. SOCCER. PLAYING. GOATS. How can you not fall in love with that immediately? Anyway, Chiva I and Chiva II will be in eight man tag action on 8/17, teaming with their countrymen Lince and Equinox against the Kings of Wrestling, who will be represented by Mitch Ryder, Larry Sweeney, Chris Hero, and Chuck Taylor. On Saturday night, the goats take on CHIKARA Tag Team Champions Gran Akuma and Icarus, albeit in non-title action.

You can rest assured that if I were actually in Pennsylvania or anywhere near it, I would be at these shows in a second. If you’re in the area, you should definitely be there. CHIKARA always puts on an entertaining show, and this is your opportunity to see some unique pairings of wrestlers that nobody in America has seen before. Ticket information and venue locations can be found on CHIKARApro.com.

That’s a Wrap

Let’s take a look at some reader feedback before we head out this week. Not surprisingly, the majority of what I got this time around focused on last week’s “TNA Scouting Report” in which yours truly ran down some of the talent that TNA is reportedly seeking to acquire and who should be brought in instead of that talent.

The first note comes from Scotty Flamingo of 411 Movies:

Good column. I agree with most of your replacements except for Alison Danger over Lita. Lita is still a heat machine and is rivaled only by Trish Stratus in notoriaty for a female wrestler.

And I’ve just never liked Alison Danger. She just has this bush league feel to her. Granted I’ve only seen her early ROH stints with the Prophecy.

The big thing to consider here is that signing “names” has not been a successful strategy for TNA so far. Christian, Kurt Angle, and Sting have all done very little to benefit business but have come with heftier price tags than talent with less exposure would.

So, even though Lita one of the biggest names in women’s wrestling, would that actually affect TNA’s bottom line when it comes to dollars and cents? Probably not, since you’re not even going to be able to build PPV main events around her as you can with the aforementioned men. If Allison Danger and Lita are going to get virtually the same number of people to spend money on your product, I’d go with Danger, since she a.) will most likely work cheaper and b.) is the more talented performer in 2007.

Letter number two comes from Del, who has done some guest work in the past for my fellow 411 columnist Rob Halden.

Great part in the report around, who TNA is looking to sign and who they should. It’s great to see someone else who sees Matt Morgan as a guy who was underutilized by the E then went around the world to make himself a more rounded wrestler. Great size, great looks and great agility.

However i did want to disagree with you on one of the comparisions.

Shelly vs Cheerleader Melissa

As the reporter with girl parts in Rob Holden’s Your an idiot and here’s why I have been ranting on women’s wrestling, but to me the Shelly vs CM, should be a TNA should sign both.

Why? CM is obvious great in ring performer, vetern of working with other girls and all around awesome.

Shelly is the type of character that is missing from women’s wrestling today, the only person I have seen go into as much character as Shelly (as Ariel) was Jackie Moore when during the Rhino beatdown with the keg, she shooed all the refs away , made storm hold the camera and struck a pose in front of rhino.

Shelly brings a character commitment that a lot of wrestlers in general are missing, it helps you buy into the character, it helps you cheer or boo the character and it makes you give a damn or not. I definately wish that the E had not put her with Thorne but I would love to see TNA give her another chance.

And above all Roxxi vs Shelly in a Voodoo vs Goth/Vampire fued would be fabulous, heck even bring Shelly in as a sidekick to a Raven/Abyss/Mitchell/Christopher “Fallen Angel” Daniels character it would work in so many ways heck if she could bring back the CD vs “Christian” Sting fued that would rock.

For me, TNA should get both, not just one. Cheerleader Melissa for her great wrestling skills, and Shelly for her storyline building skills.

Great read, thanks.

I fully admit that I haven’t seen a heck of a lot of Martinez’s work outside of her ECW stint, and I even blocked out the majority of that since Kevin Thorne is so bland that I can barely stand to watch him for more than five minutes at a time. So, I have to admit that you could be perfectly correct. I will say one thing for Shelly, though. Even if she was the least talented female performer on the planet, she does seem to have a small group of very loyal fans who will support her no matter what, and that certainly counts for something. It may even be indicative of an ability to attract fans with the same level of commitment on an even larger scale, which would make her a great addition to any roster.

And that does it for another week of Custom Made news. I’ll be back in seven with more of the same. If you’re looking for something to read until then, feel free to check out . . .

1.) The Impact Crater: My weekly review of TNA Impact, which turned one year old this week. To celebrate, I counted down my five favorite and five least favorite moments in the history of the column.

2.) The Fink’s Payload: I’m in the middle of a three week run as a sub for Matt Adamson in this column, which critiques readers’ fantasy booking. The topic this past week was “How to Save Smackdown.” I’ll be looking at more SD ideas in the next edition of the column as well as presenting my own scenario for how to improve the brand.

3.) My MySpace: Add me as a friend in order to get an update whenever I post a new column or browse through my friends to find the profiles of some of your favorite indy wrestlers.

That’s it.