The 10th Day News Report for 1.16.08

Posted by Leonard Hayhurst on 01.16.2008

ECW recap, Big Show, Chris Harris and Ron Killings to sign with WWE, the Rock possibly at Wrestlemania, Royal Rumble card, WWE goes HD, Kurt Angle and Pacman Jones legal troubles


It is with a heavy heart that I announce that next week will be my last Wednesday news report. The Royal Rumble will also be my last pay per view preview. I might contribute a DVD review still from time to time. I'll also still be around the movies zone. I've taken a new job as a data desk specialist for two newspapers, which will also see me doing some reporting, movie reviews and an online blog. I might also be writing a bit about wrestling in said blog, as the editors read my work here on 411 and pro wrestling is very popular in our area. I thank you the readers for putting up with me over these many years and hope that I was able to inform and entertain you.

NEWS AND NOTES

-The Big Show has either signed with WWE or is very close to signing. Rumors have him possibly returning as a surprise entrant into the Royal Rumble. I say they put him against the Great Khali for Wrestlemania. Show is said to be in great shape, because he was training for a boxing career that never got going. He's reportedly around 440 pounds. Credit: Wrestling Observer Newsletter

-Ron Killings has reportedly told friends that he will accept the offer made to him by WWE. It's an $80,000 downside guarantee and he's waiting to see if AAA in Mexico will beat it. I tell you, they're going to make him be K-Kwik. Credit: PWInsider.com

-WWE has contacted the Rock about appearing at Wrestlemania. He would induct his father Rocky Johnson and his grandfather High Chief Peter Maivia into the WWE Hall of Fame. Hall of Fame inductees have yet to be announced, so their induction cold hinge on Rock's involvement. The Rock will appear at Universal Studios on January 17th to open the new Disaster ride. Part of the storyline of the ride is that passengers are extras for a new action movie starring the Rock. Interestingly, TNA tapes at Universal Studios. Credit: Wrestling Obeserver Newsletter

-Michael Hayes and Pat Patterson got together on January 2nd and booked the Royal Rumble by making the line up, the eliminations and some various high spots. They took this to Vince McMahon who ok'ed it with some minor changes. I've booked a Royal Rumble for the EWR fantasy fed when we were doing that and it's not as fun as it sounds. Credit: Wrestling Observer Newsletter

-Word has leaked that the Ric Flair vs. Triple H match from New Year's Eve ended in a disqualification, because Vince McMahon doesn't want Flair to go over money players. That kind of makes his angle hard to book doesn't it? The match was also seen to be more for the advancement of angles with Triple H and not so much Flair. Flair's wife and children were at ringside, but it was decided not to highlight them. Early predication, they bring Vader out of mothballs to face Flair at Wrestlemania. Credit: Wrestling Observer Newsletter

-Mick Foley swears up and down on the life of Terry Funk that this will be his final year of wrestling before retiring for good. Yeah, whatever. Credit: Wrestling Observer Newsletter

-Randy Orton mentioned on RAW that he wanted to be the third man to hold the WWE Title and Intercontinental Title at the same time. The two men who have done that are the Ultimate Warrior and Triple H. Two men also held the European and IC titles at the time in Kurt Angle and Jeff Jarrett. Credit: I figured it out

-The current card for the Royal Rumble includes:
*Jeff Hardy vs. Randy Orton for the WWE Title
*Edge vs. Rey Mysterio for the World Heavyweight Title
*JBL vs. Chris Jericho
*MVP vs. Ric Flair
*30 Man Royal Rumble currently featuring Undertaker, Batista, Kane, Shelton Benjamin, The Miz, John Morrison, Jimmy Wang Yang, Shannon Moore, Cody Rhodes, Hardcore Holly, Santino Marella, Carlito, Hornswoggle, Mick Foley, Jamie Noble, Snitsky, Umaga, Shawn Michaels and Finlay.
Credit: WWE.com

-Starting with the next RAW WWE will be broadcasting in HD. Both RAW and Smackdown will have new sets. The company also has two new production trucks to facilitate the new form of broadcasting and is renting a custom transmission truck to send out the HD signal. You think Vince would have enough money to buy one of those. Credit: WrestlingObserver.com

-The forthcoming new Steve Austin DVD will be packaged with the old Austin installment "Cos Stone Cold Said So" exclusively through FYE. Good way to get rid of the back stock. Credit: PWInsider.com

-Last week all WWE developmental talent were told to take pictures of themselves and do videos. This was not for Pat Patterson's personal collection. The videos were to contain who the wrestler was, when they signed with WWE and how long they've been in the developmental system. They're for internal WWE use in order to do up ‘report cards' on a regular basis for the developmental talent. Credit: PWInsider.com

-Cuts for the developmental system might be coming as well. Derek Nekirk was cut yesterday after a long stay in the developmental system that saw him in OVW, FCW and DSW where he tagged with Mike Knox. Nekirk was set to go to ECW as part of a tag team with Ryan O'Reilly, but he was released along with his girlfriend Krissy Vaine a few months back. Credit: PWInsider.com

-Antoni Pulaski who was known as Roadkill in ECW suffered a neck stinger in a match last week against Matt Sydal in OVW. Pulaski is said to be fine and shouldn't miss much time. Credit: PWInsider.com

-Florida Championship Wrestling hoped to have television in place, but have yet to broker a deal with any local outlets. They say they don't want to rush things, but that could just be double talk. Credit: PWInsider.com

-Over 55,000 tickets have been sold for Wrestlemania with an estimated 10,000 still available. Credit: PWInsider.com

-Smackdown last week scored a 2.9 rating RAW did a 3.6. I really don't understand the ratings system, but I don't think either one of those numbers are great. In contrast American Gladiators on Monday did a 5.8. That's down a bit from its debut week. However, NBC has already approved the show for a 2nd season of nine episodes. They might also do a live tour and a cartoon. I hope they get Brad Garrett to voice Hulk Hogan like back in the "Rock ‘n Wrestling" days. Credit: PWInsider.com

-On January 5th Batista was pulled over in the Canton, Ohio area. He was immediately suspicious that the man wasn't a cop because he didn't have a badge or other police equipment. Apparently he was just a jerkwad with a red light on his car. Batista contacted the real police after the altercation and provided them with a description, but the man wasn't caught. Somehow this is all an elaborate plan for Ric Flair to get Sting. Credit: The Akron Beacon Journal

-Chris Harris has reportedly left TNA. He has been unhappy for some time and didn't like the new contract they offered him. Harris had a farewell dinner with some close friends in the company after the Impact tapings last week. Naturally, rumors have him going to WWE. Hey, Murdoch needs a new partner. Credit: PWInsider.com

-Last week it was reported that a six man match was filmed at the Impact tapings for use in the TNA video game. This match will represent bonus footage that can be unlocked in the game. I think that's a pretty novel and cool unlockable. It's not Jimmy Hart as a playable character, but it's still neat. Just to mention it, on WCW Thunder I used to whip up on Kimberly Page in cage matches with Bobby Heenan. Credit: PWInsider.com

-Shelley Martinez debuted for TNA at the last pay per view officially as the newest member of LAX. Her name is Salinas. Isn't that like a Star Trek alien? Credit: PWInsider.com

-TNA's house show in Dallas was said to be very good and came off as well as the company hoped. They wanted it to be good since the city is home to parent company Panda Energy. The company's upcoming house show in Troy, Ohio sold a strong 1200 tickets. I might try to go to the one in Youngstown. Credit: PWInsider.com

-Kurt Angle attended a pretrial hearing yesterday and he it was decided that he will stand trial for the DUI and careless driving charges that were leveled against him last September in Pittsburgh. Credit: PWInsider.com

-In other legal news, there is a warrant out for the arrest of Pacman Jones stemming from his supposedly slapping Atlanta defense attorney Wanda Jackson in a strip club. He's scheduled to be in court on February 8th. What was a female lawyer doing in a strip club? Pro boner work? Credit: PWInsider.com

-Nigel McGuiness will defend the Ring of Honor title against Go Shiozaki on January 20th at the NOAH show in Tokyo's Korakuen Hall. Credit: PWInsider.com

-Austin Aries vs. Jack Evans has been added to the Ring of Honor show on February 22nd in Long Island. Announced to be at the show include Nigel McGuiness, Jimmy Jacobs and Tyler Black, Erick Stevens, Bryan Danielson, Kevin Steen and El Generico, the No Remorse Corpse, the Vulture Squad, the Necro Butcher and Brent Albright. Credit: ROHWrestling.com

-Ring of Honor's new pay per view Undeniable will debut this Friday on In Demand, TVN and The DISH network. Credit: ROHWrestling.com

-HUSTLE in Japan is toying with the idea of putting Akebono and Bob Sapp together as a monster tag team. Emphasis on monster there. Recently, it was rumored that Sapp was in talks with TNA. Credit: Wrestling Observer Newsletter

-The future of Memphis wrestling is up in the air. They are currently running classic shows in their time slot on local television. Management is covering by saying this is to celebrate 75 years of wrestling in Memphis. The company is having some financial problems. Credit: Wrestling Observer Newsletter

-Sir Oliver Humperdink, the former manager of Bam Bam Bigelow and the Freebirds, was released from the hospital on January 5th. He is suffering from heart failure and pneumonia. Humperdink will have to watch his fluid intake and be on a low sodium diet. Credit: Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

ECW RECAP

-Edge comes out to host the Cutting Edge. It's hard to believe that he's a four time world champion. I say they do CM Punk vs. Edge at Wrestlemania to unify the titles. Edge hypes his match against Rey Mysterio for the Royal Rumble by telling people that the match won't be competitive and they shouldn't watch it. Ah, reverse psychology. He replays Mysterio vs. Chavo from the last Smackdown. Edge then says that Punk is backstage probably nervous about coming out. Punk enters. Edge says that Punk reminds him of a punk version of himself. Edge congratulates him on being ECW champion, but says he's not really beaten anyone. He's beaten more people than Orton. Punk highlights the difference between them being that Punk respects his opponents. He's beaten Chavo two weeks in a row, but would accept a third match. He can beat him anytime. That doesn't sound respectful to me. Punk then declares that he can beat Edge too. Edge will let that one slide, but Punk won't let it slide. He tells Edge to look around. They're not on Smackdown. Nope, not until they change the set. Chavo comes out in street clothes. His Warrior poncho is currently warming an entire village in the third world. Chavo challenges Punk to a match for tonight. He's backed into a corner, so Punk has to accept. Chavo shoves Punk into Edge and Edge nails him from behind. They work the beat down. Punk has his shoulder driven into the ring post. You would expect Rey to make the save, but no dice. So what did Edge's involvement do exactly? It doesn't really give either guy more heat or advance any angles in a way that couldn't be done differently.

-After the break we watch Edge walk out of the building. Thrilling television that.

-John Morrison and the Miz vs. The Highlanders. Aren't the Highlanders heels too? It would make more sense to put them against Moore and Yang to get them over. Rory and Morrison start. Morrison takes him down, but Rory slugs back and lands a flapjack. Miz tries to break up the pin, but Rory catches him. Rory goes up the second rope and Miz knocks him to the floor. Morrison goes to get him. Tag to Miz. Miz gets a charging clothesline into the corner for two. Miz works a type of crossface. Rory breaks with a jawbreaker. Miz tries to hold him from the tag, but Rory fights him off and tags in Robbie. Robbie knocks John off the apron and hits a dropkick on Miz. He gets a scoop slam for two. Morrison and Rory go to the floor. Miz throws Robbie face first into the second turnbuckle and finishes with the Reality Check.

-A new Kofi Kingston video plays that recaps the past clips. He'll debut next week.

-After the break a replay of the Diva dance off from last week is played. Lena hosted and put herself into the competition. She declared herself the winner.

-Kelly Kelly comes out in a black robe. She says she'll look even better next week in high definition. Wouldn't you think that would show more of the flaws? Kelly disrobes and struts. Next week will be a best body contest between Kelly, Layla and Lena.

-Tazz then gets into the ring with Colin Delaney. He has both of his arms bandaged and his ribs heavily taped. Tazz throws it to the tape and it actually works this week. We get a replay of Delaney's short and painful career. Colin isn't doing too well, but he's there. Give him a gold star for attendance. Tazz asks him how he thinks his career will turn out. He isn't sure, he's just there to fight week to week. I think he could be the first inductee into the jobber hall of fame.

-Kane vs. Colin Delaney. I would have thought he would draw Khali or Snitsky. Kane boots him off the bat. He drives Delaney into the corner and takes his head off with a clothesline. Kane lays him out with a side slam. He picks him straight up off the mat for the choke slam. That's all.

-CM Punk has ice applied to his shoulder. Armando Estrada asks if Punk will be able to compete tonight. He says he can. More thrilling television.

-After the break the RAW rebound is Jeff Hardy upping the ante of batshit bonkers the previous night. Styles reveals that Edge spent the night in a "mobile medial facility," while Hardy miraculously stumbled out of it. Is that like a bloodmobile? They rundown the Rumble card.

-Shelton Benjamin vs. Nunzio. Sadly Nunzio isn't dressed for Martin Luther King, Jr. day. Benjamin gets a "drop step into a high crotch," per Tazz. Nunzio can't get a sunset flip and Benjamin yanks him up by the scruff of the neck. He hits the Exploder. Benjamin works him over. Nunzio kicks at the leg. Benjamin cuts him off with a big boot. Benjamin works Nunzio over in the corner. Nunzio fights back with a dropkick off of the second rope. He tries it again, but Shelton catches him for a throwing powerbomb. He gets a sloppy Gold Rush for the win. Benjamin hits his catch phrase after the match and hits the Gold Rush again much better.

-CM Punk vs. Chavo Guerrero. Punk comes out holding his shoulder. Edge comes out before the match starts. Obviously he doubled back, but Styles acts like he's a ghost or something. He sits in on commentary. Punk kicks Chavo repeatedly. Chavo comes back to work an arm bar and attack the shoulder. Punk arm drags out. Chavo charges and is tossed to the floor. You think he would learn after three weeks on that one. They go to break. Afterwards, Guerrero is back on the shoulder. Punk slugs back with his other arm, but Chavo wraps the bad arm around the ropes. Styles' word of the night is "umbrage." Punk nails an enzugiri, but walks into a dropkick for two. This is basically the same match as last week, just with all of the leg work being replaced with the arm work. Chavo does a really cool modified hammerlock with a bridge. He gets an even cooler standing somersault senton to the shoulder for two. He gets a cross armbreaker. A side slam gets two. Punk fires some kicks to comeback. A back slide gets two. A back fist leads to a drop kick. Punk gets the running knee into the corner. Chavo reverses a whip, but eats boot. Punk goes up top. Chavo shakes him off so he nails his arm on the top rope. Edge plasters Punk with the World Title belt and Punk is counted out. That just makes Chavo look even weaker. Styles theorizes that Chavo will cash in his now won title shot next week.