The Sunday Brunch News Report 7.27.08

Posted by Daniel Wilcox on 07.27.2008

Eric Bischoff, Ric Flair or William Regal for Raw GM? Plus, news on Sandman's arrest, WWE's new family-friendly direction and the Saturday Night's Main Event taping inside the latest Sunday Brunch!

Hello all and welcome to the Sunday Brunch! Unfortunately (I think), Lansdell had other things to do this weekend and thus decided to neglect you all. But don't worry, he doesn't hate you that much, as he left the news report in my slightly capable hands.

And while I won't be going with Lansdell's usual pretty little format, I shall still provides the essential news, despite the fact that the past seven days has been a ridiculously slow news week for the wrestling world. But that means less work for me, so I am in no way complaining.

Onto the news and other such ramblings.

Week in Review

Seeing as this is an end-of-week news report, it only makes sense for me to bring you up to speed;

I have the Great American Bash Report while JD Dunn has the Breakdown

Quick Great American Bash Results:
-Ryder and Hawkins def. Miz and Morrison, Jesse and Festus and Finlay and Hornswoggle to win the WWE Tag Team Championship
-Shelton Benjamin def. Matt Hardy to win the US Championship
-Mark Henry def. Tommy Dreamer to retain the ECW Championship
-Chris Jericho def. Shawn Michaels via ref stoppage
-Michelle McCool def. Natalya to become the first Diva's Champion
-CM Punk and Batista went to a Double DQ for the Heavyweight Championship when Kane attacked both men
-JBL def. John Cena in a Parking Lot Brawl
-Triple H def. Edge to retain the WWE Championship

I also bring you the Raw Report and Dunn has the RAWtopsy

Quick Raw Results:
-Lance Cade def. Paul London
-Chris Jericho declared he had saved himself
-Beth Phoenix def. Kelly Kelly
-Jerry Lawler persuaded Jim Duggan not to retire, then slapped Cody Rhodes
-John Cena and Cryme Tyme def. JBL and Simply Priceless
-The Burchills def. Mickie James and Kofi Kingston
-D'Lo Brown def. Santino Marella
-Marella and Beth Phoenix shared a kiss
-CM Punk and Batista went to a No Contest when JBL interfered.
-Batista and John Cena got into a brawl to close the show

Raw Rating: 3.3

Mike Bauer brings you the ECW Report while I have the Palace Perspective

Quick ECW Results:
-Mark Henry was presented with a brand new ECW title belt
-Tommy Dreamer def. Colin Delaney
-Evan Bourne def. James Curtis, then avoided a beatdown from Chavo Guerrero and Bam Neely
-Matt Hardy def. John Morrison, Finlay and The Miz to become number one contender to Henry's title

ECW Rating: 1.5

Larry Csonka has the Impact Report while Wendell Mitchell brings you the analysis with Cross the Line

Quick Impact Results:
-Consequences Creed def. Eric Young, Jimmy Rave and Johnny Devine
-Abyss attacked Devine and the Rock ‘n' Rave Infection after the match
-In the debut of Karen's Angle, Karen interviewed Kaz
-Matt Morgan def. Trevor Chavis
-Beer Money def. Motor City Machine Guns in a Strap Match
-LAX prevented Beer Money from doing further damage to the Guns
-Taylor Wilde def. Velvet Sky (3 times) to retain the Knockout's Championship
-ODB and Gail Kim prevented a beatdown on Wilde by the Beautiful People
-Team 3D and Kurt Angle def. Christian Cage, Rhino and AJ Styles in a Table Elimination match
-A contract signing ended in Samoa Joe being laid out, presumably by Sting

Impact Rating: 1.1

Csonka also brings you the SmackDown Report while Michael O has The Dope

Quick SmackDown Results:
-Jeff Hardy was the guest during a heated VIP Lounge with MVP
-Shelton Benjamin def. Jimmy Wang Yang
-Festus def. Curt Hawkins, but was beat down by the tag champs after the match
-Vladamir Kozlov def. Stevie Richards
-Great Khali def. Umaga, Jeff Hardy, Big Show, MVP and Mr. Kennedy in a Battle Royal to earn a WWE title shot.
-Triple H and Khali stared down after the match
-R-Truth (aka Ron "The Truth" Killings aka K-Kwik) is coming to SmackDown
-Michelle McCool def. Maryse
-Brian Kendrick def. Shannon Moore
-Vickie Guerrero told Edge she had reinstated Undertaker, and that Edge will meet him at Hell in a Cell at Summerslam

SmackDown Rating: Unknown as of this time

That rounds up all the TV shows. It is a rare week where there's no pay-per-view this evening but this week has seen a number of developments for a couple of upcoming pay-per-views.

TNA Hard Justice, to take place August 10:

Six Sides of Steel Weapons Match for the TNA Heavyweight Championship: Samoa Joe vs. Booker T

WWE Summerslam, to take place August 17:

Hell In A Cell: Undertaker vs. Edge
WWE Championship: Triple H vs. The Great Khali
ECW Championship: Mark Henry vs. Matt Hardy

The News:

One of the biggest news pieces of the week is the arrest of former ECW, TNA and WWE talent The Sandman following an incident at a bar where a group of wrestlers were celebrating the birthday of Capt. Lou Albano. As the week has progressed, more and more news has come to light regarding the incident and the more information that has been revealed, the more it seems as though Sandman's behaviour was somewhat provoked although by no means justified.

Witnesses at the bar in question seem to blame the establishment's management for continuing to serve Sandman and others who had already drunk too much. Also, the bar's owner allegedly threatened Sandman with a broken glass bottle, but the owner was not arrested. Once NYPD arrived, Sandman began throwing glasses at them and refused to leave quietly, earning him some jail time. He was later released on bail.

Of course, this has very little relevance to pro wrestling other than it involving a former pro wrestler. Then again, we do like to call pictures of Kim Kardashian's ass "news" around here, so you'll excuse me for featuring this Sandman issue.

There is a lesson to be learned here kids, but for the life of me I can't think what it is. Video footage of the arrest can be seen here.

Another important news story that emerged this week is that all WWE programming is soon to be rated TV-PG; a much more family-friendly direction is therefore likely on the way. Alternatively, it may just be SmackDown receiving this rating, depending on which reports you read/believe. What this essentially means is, we'll be subjected to less ridiculously over-the-top murder attempts, burning cars, death angles and bikini contests. It will also likely see an increase in the number of silly, unfunny gimmicks and jokes about poop.

If this also results in more actual wrestling time per TV show, than I shall be pleased.

In other news, WWE will tape an edition of Saturday Night's Main Event at tomorrow's Raw taping. Mae Young is scheduled to appear at the taping, while Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler will reunite as the announce team. The show will air next Saturday, August 2nd.

Tomorrow's Raw will see the return of a McMahon to TV, as Shane McMahon will address Vince's injury and the chaotic happenings of the last month. Most believe that Shane will be appointing a new General Manager, a position tha thasn't been filled since William Regal was fired (kayfabe) due to a second violation of the wellness policy (non-kayfabe). Let's take a look at some contender's for the General Manager's position.

William Regal
Regal's 60-day suspension ended a little over a week ago, which means he could return to television at any time. It is likely that Shane will appoint Regal in order to restore order as Regal's reign as GM was that of a harsh ruler. Remember, Regal is still the King of the WWE and he is probably the favourite.

Shane McMahon
There is a pretty good chance that Shane will name himself as the new General Manager. However, this may not happen because Shane apparently doesn't want to have any sort of long-term on-air role.

Stephanie McMahon
Consider this very unlikely, as Stephanie is just a matter of weeks away from giving birth to her second child.

Eric Bischoff
Bischoff hinted that he may well be interested in a return to the business as said that one should "never say never." Perhaps he said this knowing that he had an agreement to return to WWE and if that is the case, don't be shocked if Bischoff shows up on Monday night. However, realistically, this is a long shot.

JBL
Maybe Shane liked JBL's Martial Law? One thing is for sure, JBL is working through a lot of pain and there's been talk of him retiring and going back to the announce booth for a number of months now. There is a fairly decent chance of JBL being named the new General Manager.

Ric Flair
Flair is still working with the company and has made 2 on-air appearances since his Farewell on Raw the night after WrestleMania. Whether Flair is interested in a on-air role again is unknown, but if it does occur I can only see him being an authority figure considering that anyone he manages would be overshadowed by him and he's perhaps too big a name to do any commentary. This is another long shot, though.

Of that group, I'd loved to see JBL or Bischoff as the new General Manager but I think it will be Regal. I wasn't a fan of Regal's big push right before his suspension and I think he's tremendously overrated, but I'd take him over seeing Vince McMahon back on TV.

And that concludes the news for today. There's no pay-per-view this evening, and Randle won't be in tomorrow due to the whole getting blown up thing. This means that you guys have absolutely nothing to look forward to. And no, Lansdell's return next week does not count.

With that in mind, I'll leave you with a link to Chris' Ask 411 debut. That column has got to be ridiculously hard to do without getting frustrated, and I give Chris major props for stepping up to fill the shows of the very capable and very popular Steve Cook.

Ask 411 Wrestling with Chris Lansdell

You've been great, I've been me and this has been the Sunday Brunch. Thanks for reading!