Lansdell's Sunday Brunch News Report 08.24.08
Posted by Chris Lansdell on 08.24.2008
Lots of comings and potential goings, thoughts on the Scrambles, the continued growth of RoH and one psychotic webmaster! Join me for the details!
Greetings, humanity! Welcome to Lansdell's Sunday Brunch, where we're mourning the end of the Olympics. We're also giving two thumbs up to Sony televisions. Until this weekend I'd been fooling myself that cheap LCD TVs were no worse than the brand name ones. I needed a new TV (boo! Lightning sucks!) and heard about a good deal on a 32" Bravia M...I will never go back. It's like watching MVP and Kennedy matches for months and then watching Danielson and McGuinness matches. However, my new favourite toy showed me and my son something in high definition this morning that made my blood boil.
I've made no secret that I love the Olympics. They're supposed to be about bringing the world together through sport, about camaraderie and sportsmanship. When I watched a clip this morning featuring a Cuban Tae Kwon Do athlete kicking a referee and attacking a couple of other judges, my jaw dropped. This isn't what the Olympics are for! Sure there have been arguments and protests in the past, but to attack an official, with a kick to the head? Hell, as a martial artist he should have had more respect and self-control than that! Having tried my utmost not to explode in a tirade of vulgarity, I turned to my son to explain why what we had just seen was so wrong. Before I got a chance, he said "Dad, why did he do that? He can't win a title if he gets disqualified!"
The parallels between Olympics and wrestling have been identified before, most recently by the excellent Slimmer. This is a link I never thought I'd see, however. What makes it worse is that this was broadcast everywhere throughout the day as a shocking event, but I have seen people saying they've been wanting something like this to happen for ages. Worse still, you just KNOW that Vince McMahon will be on the phone to this man and his coaches as soon as he hears about it. Which, knowing Vince, could be 2010. He's Cuban too, so he could be paired with Armando and made a heel.
This sort of behaviour should not be glorified or rewarded in any way. HE ATTACKED AN OFFICIAL. It's not a work like WWE, it's not professional sports in the US where physicality has been commonplace enough that we almost expect it. He didn't attack a fellow competitor, which would have been bad enough. A Canadian athlete in the same sport had an issue with the judging, and she lodged a protest. The US Athletics team had a problem with one of their guys getting disqualified, so they appealed. Nobody attacked a judge. This man has been banned for life from tae kwon do, and rightly so. I just hope he doesn't spend the next few years bathing in endorsement and appearance money.
Rant over. BANNER!
The Spread~!
Kennedy done with WWE?
Phoenix's webmaster goes off on one
The Week in Links!
Scrambles galore!
Random Video Interlude!
Gail Kim done with TNA!
Espresso Shots!
RoH expanding again!
The Tip Jar!
Future endeavours…endeavours? After a year of injuries, suspensions and lies, is Kennedy done with WWE?
Information surfaced this week that Ken Kennedy's WWE contract is up in the fall, and that there was a good chance he would not be offered another. While many instantly reacted with typical comments (OMG WWE SUX Y WUD THEY LET GO KENNEDY or Finally Kennedy sux he hurt Cena and cant even ressle (sic) good), this story could well have far more to it.
About a year ago, Kennedy was in line for the biggest push of his career. All signs pointed to him being named as Vince's illegitimate son and rising up the ladder. Then he opened his mouth on national TV about never taking steroids, right before getting implicated in the Signature Pharmacy scandal concerning his purchase of…steroids. Oops. He's had several injuries to his upper body through the last 18 months, and managed to injure both Bobby Lashley AND John Cena in matches. However, when he did manage to appear, he grew in popularity at an alarming rate and before this most recent injury was one of the most over faces on Smackdown. He looks like a star and speaks like a star, and that's normally enough for Vince, but for some reason he's been stuck in the midcard despite the crowd reactions.
Before the injury, the idea was for Kennedy, Jeff Hardy, MVP and Shelton Benjamin to have a nice little 4-way feud, with one or possibly two of them being elevated as a result. Obviously the injury changed those plans, but you have to wonder how many times Vince is going to let Kennedy disrupt his booking plans by getting injured or suspended. From Kennedy's point of view, he has already watched CM Punk, both Hardys, MVP and arguably Kofi Kingston by-pass him on the ladder despite being as over or more over than pretty much all of them. Unlike the majority of the recent WWE cuts, TNA would be all over Kennedy like Gary Glitter on a Chinese gymnast, and he has to know that. Vince has to know that too, and given that he desperately held on to Car-freakin-lito of all people, you would presume that he'd be as keen, if not more so, to hold on to Kennedy given that Kennedy has more talent and is more over. And Kennedy never attacked Triple H in the press.
Vince is not stupid. We've mentioned this before. With compelling arguments on both sides to let Kennedy walk, and compelling reasons for Vince to try and keep him, neither result would surprise me. My gut feeling though, is that we will soon be hearing Misterrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr Anderson…
Anderson.
I hope Beth doesn't have a pet rabbit… The erstwhile webmaster of Beth Phoenix's Official Website gets slighted and goes nuts
In a way I'm surprised this hasn't been getting more play, but I guess people are too busy laughing at the FAIL. A wrestling fan in Ireland contacted Beth Phoenix and asked to have her endorsement on his website, making it the Official Beth Phoenix Website. For a while, everything was going fine, but then other sites started getting "Exclusive Beth news" before this guy did, and he got pissed. When it kept happening, he got even more pissed. From what I've read, the final straw was that Beth didn't come to see him or even call him when she was in Ireland on tour, despite saying she would. He then noticed a logo he had (allegedly) created for the Glamazon being used on WWE TV once they switched to HD. Since he had not given permission for the use of the logo, he tried to contact Beth several times to find out who had. When he couldn't get an answer, he plastered a TNA logo on the site and sulked in his basement for a while, finally posting a diatribe explaining the whole situation over 2 months later when someone noticed the TNA logo. He is now considering legal action against WWE for the use of the logo.
This guy is something else. I can understand being upset that he was not getting the treatment he thought he should get as the "official" Beth site, especially since he was putting his time and money into the site. However, we are not privy to her side of things, and given that some of his actions sound decidedly psycho hose beast, we could be forgiven for wondering if he was a bit more than a devoted fan. The fact that nobody noticed the TNA logo for two whole months says volumes about his site.
Legally, I don't believe he has a leg to stand on. Firstly, unless he trademarked the logo he's screwed. Given that he never got a straight answer from Beth or her husband about granting permission for the use of the logo, we don't know if they did or not and it would be very easy for WWE to say they did and get Beth to back it up. He's also going up against a multi-billion dollar company whose legal retainers add up to more than he makes in several years. Finally, I haven't seen the logo, but if it contains the name Beth Phoenix, a registered trademark of WWE, then a counter suit could well follow, and he does NOT want to fight that.
I'll tell you this much: If I'm Santino, I'm investing in some good strong deadbolts, a shotgun and some holy water. Just to be safe. "THE POWER OF CRIPES COMPELS YOU, WEB STUPID MASTER!"
The Week In Links After all, what's a Sunday brunch without the paper?
Ari is always awesome, as you can see for yourself.
Got to give some love to Slimmer, my fellow Instant Analyser and one-third of the funniest Gmail chats you will never see. Dude was wasted on Heat. Much like Val Venis. Wilcox writes an open letter to TNA. Wait, it wasn't? Well it should have been. Julian Williams says goodbye.
Unforgiven, brought to you by Denny's Smackdown and Raw announced Championship Scrambles for the next PPV
Oh this is perfect. A name made JUST for this column. The concept is not a new one: 5 men, one title, the person with the last pinfall or submission will be the champion at the end of 20 minutes. As has been mentioned by practically everyone this week, WWE used this concept in the Hardcore Battle Royal at WrestleMania 2000 and it worked fairly well, despite the botched count on the finish.
The Raw match has been set up very well, with 3 people who could conceivably come away with the title, and the smarks wondering how Punk will win this without looking strong. I can see Punk either getting a win right at the bell (probably pinning Kane thanks to Rey), or the whole 20 minutes going by with no fall. With the Cena-Batista feud needing to continue, and that feud not needing the title, and Kane about to feud with Mysterio, we're not likely to see any of them winning the match. If they are planning to keep the belt on Punk, then the best-case scenario would be for him to let the other 4 fight it out, breaking up the pins and submissions as they happen. On the other hand, they could have him getting beaten down constantly and spending the majority of the match on his back. The quality of the action could well be lacking, however.
The Smackdown match, however, almost made it to the Rant this week. Although on paper the talent in this match should be capable of a better match in terms of viewing, but the result of the match is basically obvious and the match itself seems to be nothing more than a way to advance the Benjamin-Hardy-MVP feud, with Kendrick there to take the fall. Really the only feasible person to win is Triple H, with a minor possibility of Hardy shocking the world. Call me old-fashioned, but a championship match at a PPV should not be used to advance a feud involving 3 people who are not the champion. What, you couldn't run a triple threat for the US Title and have Big Show, Kozlov and Khali in the Scramble? People would have bought that. I know Khali's knees are shot, but you could have brought him in last so he only had 5 minutes to wrestle. I understand not including Edge (selling his beatdown) and Taker (not wanting to put him and HHH together yet), but damn. I have a huge problem with this match and if it goes on last it will piss me off like crazy.
So is there an ECW Scramble in the cards as well? Given the way that ECW title matches have been treated on PPV this year, I doubt it. Still, it could be good: Henry, Hardy, Morrison, Finlay and either Bourne or the Miz. I'd pay for that! The problem is that it would upstage the Raw match, and Vince couldn't possibly allow that!
Random Video Interlude!
A break from the comedy for some impressive moves.
"You expect me to pack my bags and leave because of a street fight with Kong?" Why yes, yes we do. Gail Kim is going back to the WWE, and Divas everywhere are looking for chin guards
And so it begins. Back in the day, Vince raided all the small regional companies for their top talent. Now that he sees the Knockouts as the biggest threat in TNA, he takes their central piece from them. Kim has been in WWE before, and here time there is most known for three things: winning the title on début, an awesome entrance, and injuring people.
Although Kim brings some much-needed experience and talent to the WWE women's roster, it's a bigger loss to TNA than it is a gain to WWE. She will fit nicely on either show, though SmackDown needs her more, and can help bring along the likes of Eve, Maria and (ugh) Maryse. TNA, though, have built Gail as the face of the Knockouts division, which has consistently been the best-booked part of their programming. To lose someone that they put so much marketing behind, and that was very over, is going to hurt. Taylor Wilde is not ready to be the face of anything, ODB is just as over but doesn't have the look, and it will take a while to get people to accept Roxxi in that role. Traci Brooks could do it, but she's about to turn heel and doesn't really have enough in-ring talent. How Mantell and Savio rescue this situation is going to be very important in the coming weeks.
Take a look at this video of Gail's début How awesome would either woman's division be now if they added these ladies? Beth vs Jazz would be great.
One-line looks at minor news
Goldberg training for one more match, but not in WWE or TNA - Ian Rotten has Mike Levy's next opponent! Austin to show at Cyber Sunday? - Awesome! What a revolutionary idea! We haven't seen that before! TNA considering name change to TNX - That has Russo written all over it. Pelle Primeau might be done wrestling - He started?
Very, very little to include here this week. So let us move on.
Controlled GRoHwth Ring of Honor heading for St Louis and Nashville
In a year that has seen them début in Toronto, Manassas, Florida, Japan, San Francisco and Las Vegas, as well as announcing a début in Montreal and returning to Cleveland, RoH has announced that they will be doing a show in Collinsville, IL, which is just over the river from St Louis. There is also a lot of talk that they are looking for an arena in Nashville for a show.
A few things come to mind. First, after years of running their core markets RoH has come out strongly this year and aggressively expanded their fan base with PPVs and shows further afield. The product doesn't seem to be suffering and if attendance reports are to be believed, people are coming out to the shows. Second, with the exception of Manassas and Las Vegas, they have done a tremendous job choosing their locations. St Louis is often considered the birthplace of the NWA and the home of North American Professional wrestling. They like their stuff old school and RoH should do well there. Toronto and Montreal are ravenous wrestling markets and the natural choice for RoH to go to Canada, being close enough to the border that American fans could make up any slack that might have occurred with Canadian ticket sales. The Cow Palace is another legendary venue for wrestling. The Orlando area was home to WrestleMania, is TNA's current home and was the wrestling capital of the world at the time RoH went there. And, of course, Japan is Japan. Third, going to Nashville if it happens will be something of a challenge to TNA, given the rumours that they are heading back there and that many of TNA's early fans were in the Nashville area. I would not be surprised if RoH think they can catch TNA, given TNA's seeming inability to increase ratings and RoH's ever-growing popularity. A successful Nashville show, with strong showings in Coral Springs and St Louis, will go a long way to establishing RoH as a credible threat to Dixie and Jarrett.
The Tip Jar Your thoughts from last week
"Why you would keep a useless talentless twit like Lena Yada or Eve Torres over Cherry is beyond my comprehension."
Lena has never wrestled, she just does interviews. Eve has recently started wrestling on house shows, and everything I've read has been positive.
Posted By: Guest#3577 (Guest) on August 17, 2008 at 01:36 AM
Reports on Eve may have been positive, but I've seen Cherry, and she was good. Not "going to be good", but good now. It's only a matter of time before Lena wrestles, especially if she does Playboy.
I love when matches are broken down by how the outcomes most likely fit into the game of professional wrestling, like how win-losses should effect their immediate futures. That was nicely done. I only have one disbelief, and that is with "I can also see this feud ending in an MVP face turn", I cannot see that; he took it extremely personal with one of the babyiest faces in all of WWE. Hardy has never been hated, he's never been evil or cheap, and every crowd absolutely loves him. MVP turning face off a win sounds unbelievable. How can he see the error of his ways when he proved himself right? I think there is a better chance of him turning with a loss, but even that sounds highly unlikely.
Posted By: HardyRulez (Guest) on August 17, 2008 at 02:01 AM
I see your point, but you're forgetting that Shelton is in this feud. I think Jeff will eventually get phased out of the feud to move higher up, and we'll be left with tweener MVP vs heel Shelton, with MVP moving more and more towards face.
Neither the HITC not Cena/Batista NEED titles to make them exciting, so why not use the titles in different matches to make them more exciting? It's a good strategy to employ once in a while, and it makes the entire card more solid. I don't have a clue why you're complaining.
Posted By: MDK (Guest) on August 17, 2008 at 09:35 AM
Re-reading that column, I can see how it might have looked like I was complaining about non-title matches leading the card. It didn't really bother me, it was just worth pointing out. The rest of the stuff bothered me.
OK people, that's closing time. Randle may or may not be in tomorrow, depending on the installation status of his internets. I'll be back Wednesday for your regular dose of trivia, Ask 411. Until then...
Honestly, did you just suggest replacing benjamin, hardy and MVP in the main event with Kozlov, Great Khali, and big show? That's classic Mcmahon booking at it's best: showcase the monsters. We should be excited that these athletes all get the chance to possibly (although unlikely) be elevated by being in a ppv main event title match with Triple H. I mean, Brian Kendrick? a couple months ago, he was essentially a jobber on Raw, and now he's competing in the main event. While questionable, we should be rejoicing that this great wrestler is getting the chance to shine.
Posted By: joe (Guest) on August 24, 2008 at 12:50 AM
first time that i've read your collum, and it's very good. your making me startving for denny's it's open 24 hours right? it's midnight.
Posted By: johnny (Guest) on August 24, 2008 at 01:07 AM
"Reports on Eve may have been positive, but I've seen Cherry, and she was good. Not "going to be good", but good now. It's only a matter of time before Lena wrestles, especially if she does Playboy."
Cherry was okay, but really, it's not a big loss. Plus, Trish Stratus, when she started in 2000, was worse than any woman on the current roster. Seriously, worse than Maria, Maryse, anyone. So nobody should be considered a lost cause just because he/she isn't great from the start.
Gail Kim coming back to WWE is awesome, no matter which show gets her.
Posted By: Guest#3357 (Guest) on August 24, 2008 at 01:08 AM
I have to say, people are over-rating Kim's importance to the Knockouts. After her little feud with Kong, I have heard more about Kong, Wylde, The Beautiful People and ODB than I have about Gail as far as the Knockouts are concerned. Also, given the talent that they do have left there, it isn't that big a loss. Now if Vince were to go after a couple more, then start to worry, but as is losing one wont really damage things as much as say, WWE losing one of their top Divas
Posted By: Lynx Raven Raide (Guest) on August 24, 2008 at 02:00 AM
We don't have basements in Ireland... Well most people I know don't
Posted By: Richie (Guest) on August 24, 2008 at 02:14 AM
You couldn't be more wrong about ROH's decision to go to Manassas. They play to full houses there, and can extend into the Carolinas from there in time. The only problem so far is that they need an even larger venue already.
Posted By: nomark (Guest) on August 24, 2008 at 06:08 AM
the beautiful people have slowly become the faces of the knockout division.
again this is further proof that some fans are never satisfied. fans complain that the same people are for for the world titles. now we have FOUR brand new competitors in the main event and still with the bitching.
i think mvp will win. they will save jeff's title win for maybe survivor series.
Posted By: jd (Guest) on August 24, 2008 at 06:40 AM
at least half the knockout roster is more over than gail was. she was 1 of the most talented, but not as important as most of the others
Posted By: fred (Guest) on August 24, 2008 at 09:18 AM
I think the greatest thing about the knockout division is that they have ALL been booked very well and although Kim was the original face of the division they have successfully, and long since, moved beyond that. It's a true ensemble and they won't be damaged by the loss of any one girl.
Posted By: -E- (Guest) on August 24, 2008 at 03:09 PM
Your comment on Cena's injury being Kennedy's fault is off the mark. Cena injured his pectoral muscle due to a messy hiptoss; it had nothing to do with Kennedy botching anything.
Posted By: Chay (Guest) on August 24, 2008 at 08:41 PM
"Your comment on Cena's injury being Kennedy's fault is off the mark. Cena injured his pectoral muscle due to a messy hiptoss; it had nothing to do with Kennedy botching anything.
Posted By: Chay (Guest) on August 24, 2008 at 08:41 PM"
And who, may I ask, was giving the hip-toss? None other than Kennedy...
Posted By: Guest#7188 (Guest) on August 24, 2008 at 09:06 PM
One thing. Kennedy injured Lashley...only in kayfabe. They worked that match to cover for Lashley's existing injury. And the Cena injury was just a freak muscle tear. I don't understand the intrawebz need to blame somebody for everything. Some things just happen.
Posted By: Ray (Guest) on August 24, 2008 at 09:59 PM
Kennedy's sloppy in the ring and boring to watch. They really should fire him. The same goes for Carlito, Cena, Batista, and Khali.
Posted By: MBD (Guest) on August 24, 2008 at 10:51 PM
my 47 in lg tv looks better than my dads 46 in sony i'm holdin my daughter dont have time to type correctly
Posted By: fony (Guest) on August 24, 2008 at 11:52 PM
Kennedy may be the unluckiest man in wrestling. He has everything needed to be top dog, yet, injuries, freak accidents, scandals, and internet backlash seem to be working against him every step of the way.
Posted By: Weston (Guest) on August 25, 2008 at 06:16 PM
"TNA would be all over Kennedy like Gary Glitter on a Chinese gymnast"
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
And it was good.
Posted By: Tammy (Guest) on August 25, 2008 at 06:39 PM
Future endeavours…endeavours?
I hope Beth doesn't have a pet rabbit…
