News From Cook's Corner 10.18.07
Posted by Steve Cook on 10.18.2007
For one time only, the man who made Thursdays famous is back in the saddle again!
I'm back
And better than ever
Got a knack
For making things better
Face facts
'Cause your opinion don't matter
This maniac
Is gonna step on whoever
It's time
Get in line
'Cause I'm gonna make some changes
Kickin' ass
Takin' names
Screamin', "I'm so famous!"
I'm burnin' out the dead wood
Burnin' down time
'Cause it's only my way
So get your ass in line…
Daddy's home. In case you don't remember me, my name is Steve Cook and I am an alcoholic. OK, not really. But I am addicted to reporting news about wrestling, at least every once in awhile. The weekly grind is a little much for me to bear, but I don't mind checking in every so often with my news and views. Jeff Small will be back next week, until then you're stuck with me. And unless you're a woman in the Greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky area, you just might like it.
Are you ready?
Time for some News From Cook's Corner…
Smackdown & ECW to share talent?
That's what Da Meltz is telling us…due to worries WWE has over ECW's lack of viewership, word is that we will be seeing more intermingling of talent on Smackdown & ECW. This serves two purposes, as WWE believes that having Smackdown talent appear on ECW will boost ratings for the Sci-Fi Tuesday night attraction, and having ECW talent appear on Smackdown will boost their name value and allow more people to see them. I can't say this is the worst of ideas. When CM Punk can't get a big pop in Chicago because nobody there has the Sci-Fi Channel, that's not a good sign. You've got all the Smackdown & ECW people under one roof already because they tape the shows on the same night, and they do their house shows together. Mixing the brands together is merely the next step in this process.
If I still operated under the assumption that this ECW was going to be anything like the real ECW, I would be pissed off. I gave up on that a long time ago, so I applaud this move. Doesn't mean I'll watch ECW or Smackdown more frequently than I already do, but it's a good move.
In other ECW news, WWE announced yesterday that they will be streaming all future episodes of ECW online. This has fueled speculation that ECW might not be renewed on Sci Fi once their contract expires in a few months. I think it's too early to speculate on this, as everybody and their kid sister speculated that Smackdown was going to be cancelled a couple of years ago when it got moved to Friday night, and nothing of the sort happened. But…it sure would help their cause if their ratings go up. ECW is one of the highest rated Sci-Fi shows, but it's totally out of place compared with everything else on the channel and wrestling doesn't draw advertising dollars these days. I'd keep an eye on the situation, but it doesn't warrant mass panic just yet.
Why was Teddy Hart fired?
The answer probably won't surprise you…word has it that Teddy was fired after "a bad run-in with WWE officials". I have no idea what that's supposed to mean, so I'll just assume it means that Teddy pissed in Vince McMahon's Corn Flakes.
It was said that Teddy would always make sure that he got all of his stuff in during his matches, even when he was told not to do it. He would be told one thing and go out and do something completely different. This angered many people and showed to WWE officials that Hart did not have the ability to listen to instruction. This is a problem a lot of indy guys have…they always want to get all of "their stuff" in no matter what. You can save some stuff sometimes. Really!
There is no word on what this means for a new Hart Foundation…Harry Smith & Nattie Neidhart were still sent to England to do dark matches and whatnot, so WWE still seems to plan on using them at some point. T.J. Wilson & Ted Dibase Jr. had become part of this new Hart Foundation faction down in Florida Championship Wrestling…what will happen to them remains to be seen. I don't see how Teddy fit into the Hart scheme…Bret did have respect for Ted Sr. and put him over on his DVD, so maybe that's the connection. The Brian Pillman connection to the previous Hart Foundation was more obvious because he was trained in the Dungeon and made his first appearances in Stampede Wrestling. It may all be moot at this point.
A Harry Smith debut was considered for this week's Raw…he would have come out of the crowd and accepted an open challenge like Santino Marella did in Italy. That plan was not to be, but he did get over pretty big in his dark match. Harry fans, your day will come. Be patient.
Love & Wrestling still don't mix
I'm sure you all read last week about how Ryan O'Reilly & Krissy Vaine quit WWE because the evil WWE wanted to split them apart by putting them on different rosters. That would have been too much for them to handle, as they are madly in love and can't live without each other.
Their beef was that O'Reilly was going to be on Raw while Vaine was going to be on Smackdown…here's something funny: O'Reilly was booked on Raw house shows completely at random and there were no plans to put him on Raw for good anytime soon. He was put on the house shows just to get his name out there and to let him work with some established talent. Vince was pretty high on the kid because he was Irish…McMahons like to use Irish guys, or name guys that aren't Irish things like "Hogan".
WWE also had some pretty big plans for Vaine. Michael Hayes was really high on Vaine because she had much more experience in the indies than any other woman in the company and could work. She would have been the top women's heel on Smackdown and was set up to work a program with Torrie Wilson. She had acquired the reputation of constantly dating other guys in the developmental system…before O'Reilly she had been seeing Kevin Matthews, and split up with Matthews when he was released. Now, I can't really bash her for that…it's pretty common for people in the same line of work to date each other. I've tried to do that myself, but every woman I see while at work that I would consider dating has rejected me. This is a common theme throughout my life, actually. But I'm not bitter. Really!
At the end of the day, this is just another thing that proves that love and wrestling just don't mix. If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times. Hopefully young wrestlers will take heed of this story and avoid making the same mistakes that these two youngsters have made. I really hope that their relationship lasts and they live happily ever after…if it doesn't work out, they'll regret this for the rest of their lives. Or until Vince gives them a second chance. He gives everybody a second chance. Some even get third and fourth chances!
WWE Releases of the Week
Lots of people are leaving the E this week…let's take a look at who's leaving and how much they'll be missed:
Booker T. & Sharmell – Not King Booka! There's a lot of controversy behind how this all went down. Booker claims that the Wellness suspension forced upon him was undeserved and some of the changes to the policy were not to his liking. Larry tells me this means that he's a pothead. Judging from some of his promos and his long-ago tag team with Rob Van Dam, I wouldn't be surprised. TNA is very interested in bringing in Booker, and they're already working with his PWA promotion. Booker was also displeased when WWE declined to use the PWA as a developmental territory and opted to create their own in Florida. Once this happened, Booker started having guys like AJ Styles make appearances in the PWA…I'm guessing WWE didn't care for that too much.
Booker will be making his first post-WWE appearance at the 3D Power Blends smoothie shop in Melborne, Florida, which is owned by Brother Devon of Team 3D. I've never even had a smoothie, so I can't say whether they're good or not.
I don't know if Sharmell failed her Wellness test or not. I also don't know if TNA would bring her in too, but I imagine she'd be as important to his act there as she was in WWE.
Daivari – Wow, I'm kinda surprised he lasted this long. He could be a good fit in TNA or ROH, quite honestly. I don't think WWE had much use for him, so there's a good chance that he could go somewhere else and be much more valuable.
Robert Gibson – NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! On the bright side, maybe this will lead to a Rock ‘N Roll Express reunion. Is Ricky Morton still in jail? Apparently Gibson was released because he let the CM Punk/Tony Atlas confrontation in OVW get out of control. Al Snow also got some heat, but he has a lot more tenure with WWE than Gibson. Nobody's explained to me why Tony Atlas was giving the youngsters advice…seems to me that all he could teach them would be how to blow all of your money and end up homeless, as well as how not to be a man and testify in court against a man that killed one of your co-workers and friends.
If any of you are wondering what I'm talking about there…read Ask 411 from a couple of weeks ago. It takes a lot for me to take CM Punk's side on anything, trust me.
ROH headed to Vegas!
The 2007 Survival of the Fittest is taking place Friday night in Las Vegas! Here are the current odds on each competitor…
You know, these are some pretty crappy odds set up by the book maker. Your two "favorites" are facing each other in the first round…WTF? You'd have to be a maniac to bet on Delirious at just 3-1 odds. Really, the only one I'd consider betting on is Hero at 8-1. The rest of those odds aren't just enough to interest me. I liked Ari's odds making a lot better than Gabe's.
More important question: Who's dumb enough to bet on a wrestling match?
TNA vs. Japan?
Rhino, Christopher Daniels, Senshi & Ron Killings will work for New Japan Pro Wrestling on November 11th. Apparently they'll be taking part in a "TNA vs. New Japan" angle. These aren't bad guys to send over for this…Daniels and Senshi have experience over there, Rhino is the kind of gaijin that Japanese fans love to see, and Killings is different from most guys over there. Should be interesting.
In other TNA news, the name of the girl Gail Kim beat in a dark match at the Impact tapings was Jessica James. Jessica works for Booker T's PWA promotion as Poison. TNA has been working pretty tightly with the PWA recently…does it mean anything? Time will tell.
The name Jessica James rings a bell…I think I saw her get beat up by other women on YouTube a long time ago. She's cute if she's who I think she is.
Cena vs. Batista?
Word is that before John Cena was injured, the plan for WrestleMania 24 was to have him go against Dave Batista. Whether this would have been for a title or both titles is unknown. We haven't seen a true Batista vs. Cena matchup since the end of the 2005 Royal Rumble, so that could have been interesting.
Where was Funaki during his suspension?
In Japan. I actually read that somewhere as a news item. I was amazed somebody cared enough about Funaki to ask where he'd gone.
Shawn Michaels DVD match listing
If you're as big a mark for DVDs as I am, you've probably been wondering what WWE's going to put on the upcoming Shawn Michaels DVD. Here's a match listing!
Shawn Michaels vs. Billy Jack Haynes (World Class) 1/11/85
AWA Tag Team Championship Match: The Midnight Rockers vs. Buddy Rose & Doug Somers
AWA 2/10/87
AWA Tag Team Championship Match: The Midnight Rockers vs. Super Ninja & Ninja Go
AWA 6/12/87
The Rockers vs. The Brainbusters
MSG 1/23/89
WWE Tag Team Championship (2 out of 3 falls)
The Rockers vs. The Hart Foundation
October 1990
The Rockers vs. Orient Express
Royal Rumble 1/19/91
WWF Intercontinental Champion Davey Boy Smith vs. Shawn Michaels
Saturday Night's Main Event 11/8/92
Royal Rumble 1995 (Michaels enters at #1)
WWF Intercontinental champion Jeff Jarrett vs. Shawn Michaels
In Your House 7/23/95
WWF champion Shawn Michaels vs. Davey Boy Smith
King of the Ring 6/23/96
Shawn Michaels vs. Triple H
Raw 12/29/03
The Rockers vs. La Resistance
Raw 3/14/05
Shawn Michaels vs. Kurt Angle
Vengeance 6/26/05
Shawn Michaels vs. John Cena
Raw 4/23/07
Promos
RAW 4/4/94 – Heartbreak Hotel (Debut)
Tell Me A Lie Music Video
RAW 8/1/05 - Larry King Spoof on Hulk Hogan
Deleted Scenes
Wrestling Academy
Bible Teacher
Colorado Expedition
Who's the Greatest "Wrestler"?
High School Prankster
High School Talent Show
Letter Jacket
Mom's Approval
The Bruise
The Rockers "Fight"
This Is a Little Higher Than I Thought
Brown Pants
This looks pretty good to me. You've got some classic TV matches of recent memory with Cena & Triple H, a forgotten classic with Jeff Jarrett, the Orient freaking Express, the Brain Busters, and a Hart Foundation match. Not to mention some fun AWA stuff and a World Class match! I'll be buying this one for sure.
Here's something I haven't done in a while…
No matter what TNA does to me and its fans, I still love her. What about it?
Your Rock update of the week…
Way back in the day I used to give an update on whatever the Rock was up to. I did this mostly to piss off my old website's owner, who utterly despised the Rock. I'm still not sure why, because Rocky's always been an entertaining cat in my book. The man has an insane amount of charisma that nobody currently in the wrestling business can claim to have. And yes Cena fans…that includes your boy.
Anyway, Dwayne Johnson's latest movie, The Game Plan, has already made $59.5 million, and it hasn't even been released internationally yet. It was #1 at the box office for two weeks before dropping to #2 last week. Critics really didn't care for this movie…they said it would bomb and wondered why Rock didn't get himself into better movies. I haven't seen the movie myself, but its performance so far has to make them feel pretty dumb. And you have to figure that the success of this movie's really going to boost Rock's value as an actor and allow him to make even more money than he's already making.
So…don't expect to see Rocky wrestling anytime ever. I really miss seeing the guy every week in the ring and cutting promos, but it's for the best that he's doing so well outside of wrestling. I always like to see wrestlers excel outside the business to the point where they don't need to rely on it anymore.
Cryme Tyme to appear in JAPW
The former WWE superstars will be on the Jersey All Pro Wrestling show being held on October 27th. Also appearing will be fellows like AJ Styles, Homicide, Senshi, Rhino & the other usual suspects.
Good news for you Brits…
WWE 24/7 might be on its way to the UK, possibly starting as soon as 2009. They're testing the waters right now with a "3 PPVs for the price of 2" offer, and possibly looking at a pay channel in the future once their deal with Sky Sports expires. I know British wrestling fans are among the most loyal and dedicated of wrestling fans, so they'll probably love the opportunity to get some 24/7 action. I'm glad I don't have it myself, because I'd probably never leave the house if I did.
IWA Mid-South in dire straits
The following is cut and pasted from a post 411's John Gregory made in the super-secret writer's forum…
"Ian Rotten has said in recent months that the company is in heavy debt, and this is NOT the debt to TNA that prevented certain guys from competing at TPI. Back in 2004, IWA held their King of the Deathmatches tournament in Oolitic, IN, in a local park district gym. Afterwards, there was some damage done to the gym floor. The city of Oolitic brought legal action against IWA for the damage, but nothing ever came of it until this past summer, when IWA was ordered to pay to replace the ENTIRE gym floor (only a small section had been damaged, so it seems a tad unjust, as if Oolitic wanted a new floor at someone else's expense).
With Ian retiring from in-ring wrestling in December, he is losing income he gets from outside bookings, and with a family to support, including a 2-year-old son with a heart condition, he wouldn't be able to keep IWA running while paying off the debt.
So they've done what they've done before and asked for the fans to help. They are doing a sale this week on DVDs. Ian has stated they need to sell about $4000 worth of merchandise in order to stay afloat.
Here are the details:
If you spend $100 (5 DVDs), you get $25 off so it would be $75 (plus $8.40 shipping).
For those that can't afford to spend $83.40, we will also be doing the following sale:
If you buy the 2007 TPI DVD, you get a free $20 DVD...so that would be $40 plus $5 shipping.
You can go to www.paypal.com and make a payment to iwafannin73@yahoo.com to participate in this sale.
To see the full catalog of IWA, go to Smart Mark Video. But purchase the DVDs DIRECTLY FROM THE PAYPAL ADDRESS ABOVE, NOT SMART MARK. The DVDs will be the exact same and IWA needs the money fast. Go to the IWA message board as well, as they are selling a number of shows (many with 2 on 1 DVD) from the 1997-2000 era of the company."
I've been lucky enough to attend one IWA Mid-South show…it was in New Albany, Indiana back in September 2004. It was a pretty fun show, featuring AJ Styles vs. Bryan Danielson, Nigel McGuinness & Chris Hero vs. Alex Shelley & Roderick Strong, and matches with guys like CM Punk & Petey Williams. My girl Traci Brooks was there too, though with the Punker around it was tough for me to get an audience. Not to mention that this took place about 50 pounds ago, so I wasn't in prime lady-killing mode. Anywho, I consider myself a fan of IWA Mid-South, and if you have the funds to help them out, I hope you do so.
Plugs
Ask 411 is written by one of the sexiest mofos on the planet. If I was a woman, I'd try to marry him.
Holy crap, Melchor wrote something! You never know when he'll pop up, so you gotta read him when he does.
Mrs. Csonka takes a look at Bound For Glory. Good thing she wrote this before hearing about what happened at the Impact tapings! I don't want to spoil anything…but I'll be watching The Office.
Mr. Csonka also takes a look at Bound For Glory. I bet he spent much more time looking at Amazing Kong's boobs than Mrs. Csonka did. Christi, if you're wondering why the slow-motion button on the DVD remote is broken…that's why.
Larry: I only used the slo-mo because you emailed me 45 times asking for screen caps. FREAK!
Tim Haught's logo looks like the Fox News Channel logo. He's slightly more fair and balanced than they are.
Mike Minotti takes a shot at the Cena haters. I wonder if the debate over this guy will continue until he returns. Probably.
Jarrod Westerfield is feeling the pain of jury duty. Considering that jury duty was part of ran me off of this gig, I know all too well where he's coming from. But he probably doesn't have it as bad as I did. Just saying.
Chris Landsell writes in to Ask 411 occasionally…that makes him good people in my book.
Michael Weyer pays homage to the memory of one of my favorite wrestlers, Brian Pillman.
Don't forget to check out the rest of the Thursday lineup here at 411, featuring my arch-nemesis Bayani Domingo! You may be wondering "Steve, what should I read once I'm done here at 411?" Well, I've got a couple places for you to go…
MySpace! Don't you want to be my friend? We could all use more friends, after all.
History of WWE is where I get a crapload of information for the Ask 411 column. If you visit it and look around for a while, you'll have no need to ask me anything!
Check out this awesome Blue Blazer video! I don't know who made this, but they rule the school.
Final Thought
I hope you enjoyed this week's edition of the Thursday news. Small will be back next week, and I think he's done a damn good job since taking over for me. Sure, some weeks are better than others, but I had some weeks that were pretty lean too. He's good people.
You can find me answering all the important questions every Wednesday with Ask 411 Wrestling. There are some other places I may be popping up soon…I think I agreed to do a sports column during a fantasy basketball draft tonight. That was a strange draft…when there are 22 rounds and 12 teams it gets interesting late. Especially when you're drinking bourbon. But yeah…I might do a sports column one of these days. Which would make sense because I watch sports and MMA more than I watch wrestling these days. We'll see how it goes.
It's been a blast. Y'all have a good one, and I'll see ya when I see ya…
Just a small town girl, livin in a lonely world
She took the midnight train goin anywhere
Just a city boy, born and raised in south detroit
He took the midnight train goin anywhere
A singer in a smokey room
A smell of wine and cheap perfume
For a smile they can share the night
It goes on and on and on and on
Strangers waiting, up and down the boulevard
Their shadows searching in the night
Streetlight people, living just to find emotion
Hiding, somewhere in the night
Working hard to get my fill,
Everybody wants a thrill
Payin anything to roll the dice,
Just one more time
Some will win, some will lose
Some were born to sing the blues
Oh, the movie never ends
It goes on and on and on and on
Strangers waiting, up and down the boulevard
Their shadows searching in the night
Streetlight people, living just to find emotion
Hiding, somewhere in the night
Don't stop believin
Hold on to the feelin
Streetlight people
Don't stop believin
Hold on to the feelin
Streetlight people
Don't stop believin
Hold on to the feelin
Streetlight people
