WrestleFun Time Blog

wrestling Observer News for 04/18/2012

2012-04-19T13:20:00.002-07:00

-- Just as a note, the new Observer probably won't be up until early or late evening tonight. We do have a back issue from 1995 up on the site right now.
-- UFC on FUEL this past weekend did 197,000 viewers, down several thousand from UFC on FUEL 1.
-- Randy Orton vs. Kane in a Falls Count Anywhere match has been added to Extreme Rules.
-- Everyone who fought at UFC 144 saw their drug tests come back clean. The show took place in Saitama, Japan, and since there is no athletic commission to oversee the testing, UFC did the testing themselves.
-- WWE is working on a new Undertaker DVD called "20-0", focusing, of course, on the streak.
-- Hulk Hogan will have a major announcement on Impact Thursday, or so they say.
-- Daniel Bryan talks his vegan diet, training, why he made the switch and more here.
-- Speaking of, Jonathan was at an Andrew WK gig the other night and said, "With no prompting whatsoever, the crowd kept chanting Yes! Yes! Yes! throughout the show. Seems like it's continuing to spread further than just WWE." He has a review with a wee mention here.
-- THQ Inc. today announced downloadable content availability and new content release plans for UFC® Undisputed 3. You can check it out at the following link. -- Steve Austin talks acting work and whether he'll ever do another match here. Long story short, he has a few left in him, he says. He's not half-dead.
-- Austin Aries hardly has promising things to say about Ring of Honor in this interview. He said it's nothing like it was in the hold days, back when he and CM Punk and Bryan Danielson worked there, and now he prefers to call it Smokey Mountain of Honor.
-- Chikara King of Trios this year will take place the weekend of September 14th though 16th.
-- Tickets for the next UFC on FX with Clay Guida vs. Gray Maynard go on sale this week. Show takes place June 22nd in Atlantic City.
-- From Siyar Bahadurzada's twitter: "Just for the record, next time any reporter asks me to challenge anyone, i'm hanging up the phone on you! The era of stupid fighters is over". Apparently not. Thanks to Dan.
-- East Coast Wrestling Association (ECWA) LIVE! Presents DIVIDE & CONQUER! Sat, May 5th, 2012 Greater Newark Boys’ & Girls’ Club 109 Glasgow Drive, Rt. 40 & #1 Positive Place Newark, DE 19702

TUESDAY UPDATE Wrestling Observer News and Notes 04/17/2012

2012-04-18T08:06:00.002-07:00

-- After last night's Raw, the line-up for Extreme Rules in just under two weeks is Brock Lesnar vs. John Cena in an extreme rules match, CM Punk vs. Chris Jericho for the WWE Title in a Chicago Street Fight, and Sheamus vs. Daniel Bryan for the World Title in a best of three falls match.
-- Rock's latest project is a TV program called "Hero" which is going to rely heavily on social media.
-- The Smackdown replay on Friday did just slightly better than the live airing: a 1.6 rating and 2.3 million viewers.
-- Bellator did 163,000 viewers Friday night, slightly above the season average.
-- Countdown to UFC 145 debuts tonight on FUEL TV at 9:30 Eastern, immediately preceding UFC Tonight.
-- Our audio schedule will be weird over the next couple of days. Bryan & Vinny is on as scheduled tonight, then Dave and I will be back Wednesday night from Las Vegas where we'll be attending the Cauliflower Alley Club banquet. The Dr. Lucha and Karl Stern shows will likely be delayed due to travel. Todd Martin will be back late Thursday, with the second Bryan & Vinny show of the week back on as scheduled Thursday night.
-- An angry Devon Nicholson challenges Kurt Angle to an amateur wrestling match due to Angle not taking his Olympic bid seriously, dropping out due to a claimed torn hamstring and then immediately wrestling a cage match at Lockdown.
-- Tim Sylvia will fight in his home state for the first time as a pro when he headlines New England Fights’ (NEF) Fight Night III on June 16th at The Androscoggin Bank Colisee in Lewiston, Maine. The announcement was made on April 14 in Biddeford, Maine where Sylvia was the guest of honor at Fight Night 2.
-- Here's a new trailer for a new Guest Booker DVD where Kevin Sullivan and Gabe Sapolsky attempt to book TNA.
-- This week's Creative Has Nothing For You is up.
-- There is a new "Best of El Generico" dvd, which I'd bet is pretty damn awesome.
-- Shane "Hurricane" Helms is teaming up with TruTV's Lizard Lick Towing as Ronnie, Amy & Bobby offer fans a chance to win a Monster Truck. All proceeds from this raffle go to the Kanaan Bunn Foundation, whose mission is to provide funding to promote research for Down Syndrome, and the many medical issues and life challenges that individuals with DS face including Leukemia, heart ailments, Alzheimer’s, vision and hearing loss. Tickets are still available, so click on the monster truck raffle located on the home page. The drawing will be held on May 2nd when the cast of Lizard Lick Towing appears on Helms' Internet Talk Show "Highway 2 Helms."

POLLS~!

Did you like the Roode vs. Storm finish?

It really doesn't matter at all at this point, the damage was done a long time ago 55.6%

No, it was time for Storm to win 19.4%

No, I didn't mind Roode winning but didn't like the way it was done 14.1%

Yes 10.9%

Predict this week's Raw rating!

Less than 2.8 8.7%

2.8 3.4%

2.9 11.2%

3.0 29.9%

3.1 28.3%

3.2 14.1%

3.3 3.3%

3.4 1.3%

3.5 0.4%

3.6 0.0%

3.7 or more 2.8%

What do you think when Dana White says UFC drug testing is the gold standard except for the Olympics?

He shouldn't say that because it only means more pub exposing that it's not 50.5%

He's a promoter and that's what they say 44.7%

I think it is 4.8%

-- Tickets just went on sale for EVOLVE on May 11th in Charlotte, NC and May 12th in Concord, NC in the www.DGUSA.tv Store or by calling 267-519-9744. Fit Finlay works that show. I heard his match with Sami Callihan this past weekend was awesome and on par with their first match.
-- Brand new episode of LUCHAWORLD is up.
-- CHIKARA: "Hot Off The Griddle" is set for Saturday, April 28th, 2012 Live at the Frontier Fieldhouse in Chicago Ridge, IL.
-- IWF One-Night-Only "Hit n' Run" Live Event Family-Friendly Fundraiser to Benefit: American Cancer Society's 2012 Relay For Life of Nutley Saturday, April 28, 2012, 7:45 pm Parks & Recreation Building, 44 Park Avenue in Nutley, NJ.
-- This weekend, California's SPW celebrates its 12 Year anniversary by running two shows. On Saturday "Wrestle for the Cure" at Inderkum High School (Sacramento). All proceeds go to the Race for the Cure Foundation. Sunday the 12 Year Anniversary show (Sacramento) at St. Peter's Hall (6200 McMahon Drive). Show will be taped by Slammedfan for their reality show and will feature an appearance from ECW's Mustafa.
-- East Coast Wrestling Association (ECWA) LIVE! Presents DIVIDE & CONQUER! Sat, May 5th, 2012 Greater Newark Boys’ & Girls’ Club 109 Glasgow Drive, Rt. 40 & #1 Positive Place Newark, DE 19702

MON. UPDATE: Wrestling Observer 04/16/2012

2012-04-18T08:03:00.002-07:00

--On the $67 million number for WrestleMania that WWE announced earlier today, that is the current estimate of all revenues derived from the live show itself (live gate, merchandise and worldwide PPV). That is not a number that includes events like Fan Axxess, the Hall of Fame and such. It is actually be a significant margin the largest grossing single event in pro wrestling history. That is not WWE's cut of the revenue because the vast majority of that income is PPV, which gets split with the cable companies.

--C.M. Punk vs. Chris Jericho for the WWE title is now official for the 4/29 Extreme Rules PPV, as if anyone didn't expect that coming in.

--The swanton off the cage was meant to be an injury angle for Kurt Angle to get some rest. No time frame for a return other than he usually comes back way too fast.

--As far as TNA went, nobody had any explanation as to why the crowd was how it was, but people were very down about it.

--If you attended TNA at a theater, let me know the experience, attendance, and if there were technical issues as there were in a lot of places which led to cancellations and refunds

--Ben Askren:

"The USOC random tests Olympic athletes in all sports. Dana saying testing his fighters would be impossible is a bold face lie. Just making a statement about a level playing field. I didn't say it wouldn't be expensive, just that it is not possible."

--Dana White's response is not to address what he said, but instead:

"When ambien can't sleep, it takes Ben Askren. The most boring fighter in MMA history. I would rather watch flies fuck. Ben makes Fitch look like Wanderlei Silva."

--And Victor Conte on the impossibility of UFC doing random drug testing:

"He means it's impossible to randomly drug test fighters without catching hundreds of them doping."

--Ed Graney of the Las Vegas Review-Journal today at http://www.lvrj.com/sports/ has a story about Ryan Braun and Alistair Overeem. He called UFC's drug testing policy a bad joke. Not a good day to be Dana White in his home town.

--New matches announced for the 5/12 TNA iPPV from Toronto, called Border Wars, are Fit Finlay vs. Roderick Strong, Eddie Edwards vs. Rhino and Mark & Jay Briscoe vs. Shelton Benjamin & Charlie Haas in a Fight Without Honor. While not announced, Lance Storm vs. Mike Bennett will eventually be added.

--Shane Douglas' Extreme Reunion promotion on 4/28 in Philadelphia at the Pennsylvania National Guard Armory at 7 p.m. has announced Shane Douglas vs. Sabu as the main event, billed cleverly as "The Night the Line was Erased.," plus Jerry Lynn vs. Justin Credible, Al Snow vs. C.W. Anderson, Little Guido & Tony Mamaluke & Tracy Smothers vs. Stevie Richards & Blue Meanie & ?, Raven vs. Gary Wolfe, Balls Mahoney vs. Axl Rotten, plus 2 Cold Scorpio, Sandman, New Jack, Mustafa, Danny Doring, Joel Gertner, Bob Artese, Stephen DeAnglis, John Finnegan, Mike Kehner and more. There will also be a Fan Fest from 9 a.m. to Noon with all the stars. They are also looking for hot women (isn't everyone) to be the new Queen of Extreme Reunion so you can apply at talent@extremereunion.net The promotion noted that due to the configuration of the building, this show will not be offered as an iPPV. They are also working on future shows as this is meant to be the start of a new ECW style promotion.

--Brock Lesnar's new ring gear at http://www.wwe.com/f/styles/superstar_profile/public/talent/profile/2012/04/brocklesnar_2-full.png Yes, Lesnar is getting to wear clothing that has sponsors, which was a hell of a deal he cut for himself and he's the first person in history to have the right under a WWE contract.

--Lance Storm talks WrestleMania weekend, his thoughts on his ROH match as well as his thoughts on the Hall of Fame at http://www.stormwrestling.com/041412.html A good read.

--For Fuel tomorrow night, the schedule is Best of Pride at 7 p.m., a replay of Friday's Ultimate Fighter at 8 p.m., a replay of the Prime Time show with Jones vs. Evans at 9 p.m., the Countdown show (debut) at 9:30 p.m., UFC Tonight at 10 p.m. and Ultimate Insider at 10:30 p.m.

What did you think of Saturday night's ROH TV show?

Excellent 55.6%

Good 25.9%

Average 7.4%

Fair 4.9%

Poor 6.2%

54.2% of those responding didn't see the show

What did you think of Jones vs. Evans Prime Time 2

Excellent 42.6%

Good 42.6%

Average 4.9%

Fair 4.9%

Poor 4.9%

65.5% of those responding didn't see the show. People are liking this, but not many are watching since the move to FX.

What do you think of the way UFC is handling the Overeem situation?

Bad, not wanting to expand testing at this point exposes an agenda 62.0%

Fine, they shouldn't do anything until the commission rules 23.4%

Fine, they should leave all testing and rulings to the commission 14.6%

Best TV show of the past week

Raw 30.5%
UFC from Sweden 22.1%

Impact 20.5%
ROH 10.1%
UFC Prime Time Evans vs. Jones 5.8%

UFC Insider Evans vs. Jones 3.2%

Bellator 2.6%

Ultimate Fighter 2.6%

Smackdown 1.6%

MMA Uncensored 0.6%

UFC Tonight 0.3%

--Bruno Santos is out Bellator's middleweight tournament semifinals this weekend with a shoulder injury. Andreas Spang will now be facing Brian Rogers on the show in Cleveland.

--Several WWE wrestlers are scheduled to appear at the 6/27 Brooklyn Cyclones game for Anti-Bullying Night at MCU Park. The wrestlers will be there for a pregame rally at 5:30 p.m. to address the audience against Bullying, and to encourage fans to sign up for Be a Star.

--Mick Foley has said that he has written a blog about Dean Ambrose but will not publish it until his new book deal. They are working an angle between the two to lead to Ambrose's having a television debut that means something right off the bat.

--Devon Nicholson has issued a grandstand challenge to Kurt Angle for an amateur wrestling match. He ran down Angle for making a mockery of amateur wrestling and said that he tore his MCL in early November but is still competing and training and won't get surgery until after the Olympics in the event has can represent Canada, since he's first alternate. Keep in mind Nicholson does want to work for TNA since he's unlikely to be in WWE since he's sued the promotion.

--Dave Musgrave talks about the great time he had at WrestleReunion in Toronto at http://www.talkshoe.com/tc/112658

--Andrew Garvey of Fighters Only magazine noted that the note on BAMMA being on Ch. 5 in the U.K. which sounds like a big deal on paper, being on one of the few terrestrial channels, probably doesn't mean as much as you'd think. UFC was on Ch. 5 until last year and it didn't seem to make a lot of difference. Garvey also noted he never saw any ads for BAMMA and only found out about it when Michael Schiavello wrote something on Facebook about it two minutes before the show went on the air. He said the only people who would have known about it were those who stumbled onto it switching channels around and much of the target audience would be out on a Saturday night.

--There were two fighters and one pro wrestler in yesterday's Ice Breaker Triathlon in Granite Bay, CA. It was a 1/2 mile swim, a 13 mile bicycle race and 4 mile run. Competing were Nick and Nate Diaz, as well as area independent wrestler Sir Samurai.

--Regarding Larry Zbyszko missing WrestleReunion, he had called promoter Sal Corrente five weeks or so ago and said his passport was expiring and was advanced $500 to renew and expedite the passport. He was told to expedite it so he'd have it in a week and there would be no issue. He called Corrente on 4/9 to tell him he still didn't have his passport and when asked why he didn't expedite it as he was told, said someone told him not to waste the money. The passport is expected to come in this week, but unfortunately, that meant he missed the entire event. Corrente was upset because they were looking at photo ops of Zbyszko with Bruno Sammartino as well as with Rick Martel (two former AWA champions together). The advance money was given back out of Zbyszko's pay for the Miami WrestleReunion but they did lose money on the plane flight purchased to get him to Toronto.

--An interview with Edge from this weekend's Wizard World Comic Con in Toronto is at http://biffampop.com/2012/04/15/wwe-interview-edge-at-toronto-comic-con

--TNA developmental wrestler Jessie Godderz & Rudy Switchblade won the OVW tag titles this past week. Godderz, a bodybuilder described as way not ready when he did a house show tour with TNA, is currently in Planet muscle Magazine (pages 116-120) and Exercise & Health Magazine (pages 66-72).

--WSU's King and Queen tournament from Saturday night in Dunellen, NJ: Jana & Johnny Knockout b Rich Michaels & Nikki Syx, Jennifer Cruz & Mike Dennis b Dixie McGuire & Austin Williams, Jenny Rose & Cannonball b Nicollette the Monkey & Nicky Oceans, Tina San Antonio & Jack Spade b Rick Cataldo & J.D. Smoothie, Jennifer Cruz & Mike Dennis b Jana & Johnny Knockout, Jessicka Havok b Marti Belle, Allisyn Kay & Sassy Stephanie b Alicia & Brittney Savage, Gene Snitksy b Vic Voorhees. Next show is 4/28 in Deer Park, NY at the NYWC Sportatorium as a DVD taping with Jessicka Havoc vs. Mercedes Martinez for the WSU title.

--CWE on 4/20 in Winnipeg at the Maples Community Center has Sid Vicious & Nate Hardy vs. Zack Mercury & The Axe as the main event.

--Tulalip Championship Wrestling from Saturday night in Marysville, WA: Calibur X b Dave Turner, Draven Vargas & Nate Andrews b Chase Helms & Brickhouse Bereta, Jonas Albert Robinson b C.J. Edwards, Mike Santiago over Demarcus James and Home Boy Quiz, Christopher Ryseck & Kellen Raeth b Aaron Bolo & Wildcard, Azul Angel NC Jorel Nelson. Next show is 5/12 in Marsyville, WA at the Pacific Rim. (thanks to Charles Short)

--IWA East Coast on 5/4 in Clendenin, WV at the Middle School headlined by Rhino vs B.J. Whitmer plus Mad Man Pondo, Drake Younger, Chance Prophet and more.

--Empire Championship Wrestling on Thursday night at The Masquerade in Atlanta and Friday at the Academy Theater in Avondale Estates, GA..

--A spinal injury has forced Shana Nelson to pull out of her match with Sarah D'Alelio at the debut of the all-women Invicta Fighting Championships in Kansas City at Memorial Hall on 4/28. Vanessa Marsical (2-0), a 38-year-old former Royce Gracie student from El Segundo, will now face D'Alelio. D'Alelio's last fight was against Ronda Rousey which she lost quickly via armbar. Marloes Coenen, the former Strikeforce champion who lost the title to Miesha Tate, will faced Romy Ruyssen in the main event.

--Laredo Wrestling Entertainment in Houston on Friday night at the Funplex and Saturday night at Las Cumbres Club. Both shows are headlined by Dr. Wagner Jr. & Hernandez & El Sicodelico Jr. vs. Damian 666 & Bestia 666 & X-Fly, plus Cinthia & Rossy Moreno vs. Alissa Flash & Jessica James.

--Trent Vandrisse does the first podcast interview ever with Dean Hill at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/psp/2012/04/15/ovw-overview

--Bobby Lashley talks to Mister Saint Laurent about training to be a boxer, alleged racism in WWE, WWE creative, Paul Heyman, Jim Cornette and more at http://www.MLW.com

--559 Fights on 4/21 in Hanford, CA at the kings Fairgrounds featuring area local fighters with Fresno's Kristen Gatz vs. Gilroy's Brianna Van Buren as the main event. Steven Juarez, a state high school champion in 2004 from Hanford High makes his debut against wrestler Gerardo Garcia.

--NWA Anarchy from Saturday night in Cornelia, GA before 120 fans: Bobby Moore & Andrew Pendleton III b Jacob Ashworth & Skirra Corvus, Najasism NC Jerry Rhymer, Anthony Henry b John Skyler, Steven Walters b C.B. Gibson, Seth Delay b Brandon Parker, Seven & Bryan Casanova & Shaun Tempers & Bo Newsome & Jacoby Boykins b Azrael & Dany Only & Stryknyn & Shadow Jackson & Nemesis. Azrael vs. Tempers headlines on 4/28. (thanks to Larry Goodman)

--A promotion running East Texas and Louisiana is looking for Robert Fuller and Jimmy Golden as they are booking TV this week and would like one or both on their new show. Contact Harry at 903-812-3347.

SUN. UPDATE Wrestling Observer 04/15/2012

2012-04-17T07:37:00.002-07:00

--Dana White last night said no matter what, no Mark Hunt in the title match with Junior Dos Santos. That leaves Frank Mir and Fabricio Werdum as the most likely candidates should Alistair Overeem not get licensed.

--On TV on Tuesday, they advertised Brock Lesnar for Raw tomorrow. I would expect they'll also have footage of Chris Jericho breaking C.M. Punk's trophy for Most Metal Athlete in the Golden God Revolver Awards show. After doing the show, Jericho flew into Europe and Punk vs. Jericho will be headlining all the Raw brand house shows for the rest of the tour, with Dolph Ziggler & Jack Swagger vs. Zack Ryder & John Cena as the other main match.

--If the biggest tree falls in an empty forest, how much noise does it make? We'll find out with next week's UFC buyrate. Rashad Evans has done some of the best work at promoting a fight in a long time, but so much of it has been on Fuel which most UFC fans don't get and even fewer ever watch. They had one video after another during yesterday's Sweden coverage and if that fight had been on Spike in prime time, Saturday's show would be doing huge business.

The Evans vs. Jones Countdown show airs Tuesday night on Fuel at 9:30 p.m as a lead-in to UFC Tonight. It's only a 30 minute Countdown show. The first two Primetimes of Evans vs. Jones are replayed from 6-7 p.m. on Fuel tonight. The last two weeks of Ultimate Fighter will air 9-11 p.m. on Fuel, and yesterday's show from Stockholm replays at 11 p.m. tonight. It's a good show. No matches of the year, but almost every match good.

--Some WWE dates for the November European tour: 11/2 in Hamburg, Germany, 11/3 in Leipzig, Germany, 11/7 in Belfast and 11/8 in Zurich.

--Mike Mooneyham has a real good story on Scott Hall after his last arrest.

--There is a survey for the WWE 13 video game.

--Tiny Lister, who starred in No Holds Barred and worked a PPV main event with Hulk Hogan in a tag match, is in a new Coors Light TV commercial. (thanks to Andy MacConney)

--Larry Zbyszko was not in Toronto last night for the convention and the show because his visa expired and he never renewed it, thus was not allowed into Canada.

--Jeff Hardy, RVD and Beer Money will headline on Thursday's New Japan television show on BS Asahi. They are airing matches from the 2011 Tokyo Dome show, with Hardy vs. Tetsuya Naito, Beer Money vs. Giant Bernard & Karl Anderson vs. Manabu Nakanishi & Strongman for the tag titles, RVD vs. Toru Yano and Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Go Shiozaki.

--There will be a 24 hour wrestling show on Pulse 98.4 in the U.K. starting at 8 p.m. Greenwich time on 4/21. Among those who will be guests on the show are Jeff Jarrett, Eric Bischoff, Hulk Hogan, Drew McDonald (who wrestled in Stampede Wrestling and is a WWE scout) and Rory McAllister of the Highlanders tag team.

--Rey Mysterio and C.M. Punk appear at the Philadelphia Comic Con. Mysterio appears on 6/3 and Punk on 6/2.

--I don't know how this list is compiled, but John Cena is listed as the second most influential athlete on Twitter today behind Chad Ochocinco. C.M. Punk is listed as No. 8. Tim Tebow is listed as No. 10. Oh, and Zack Ryder is No. 13 and Tiger Woods is No. 17. And they are all more influential than A-Rod, Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, Derek Jeter, Manny Pacquiao, The Rock, Dale Earnhardt Jr., and Kobe Bryant.

--In today's Newday, there is a Jon Jones-Rashad Evans story but it's not available on the web. It's mostly stuff from Friday's conference call. Evans said that Greg Jackson was all about winning coach of the year awards.

--Mick Foley was on the Boston Celtics radio network last night. Radio host Sean Grande is a big fan and has Jim Ross on whenever they are in Oklahoma City. Grande was the associate editor of a wrestling newsletter in the 80s when he was a kid. Foley sat in for the third quarter and part of the fourth quarter of the Celtics game with the Nets last night. He came across very likeable.

Cedric Maxwell, Grande's partner, wasn't too keen on Foley being there before he got there, but lightened up upon meeting him. Foley said his son Huey was a big basketball fan and the Nets were his favorite team. They talked a lot about wrestling, referencing Vince, Joey Styles, and ECW as well as plugging Foley's new children's book. (thanks to Andrew Thurston)

--Boston Celtics center Greg Stiemsma tweeted a photo with Foley after the game.

--For yesterday's UFC show, I went 4-1, as did Mike Sawyer and Oliver Copp in predictions. Josh Nason was 3-2 and Todd Martin and Mike Sempervive were both 2-3.

What did you think of Bellator?

Excellent 17.9%

Good 39.3%

Average 10.7%

Fair 21.4%

Poor 10.7%
78.5% of those responding didn't see the show

What did you think of The Ultimate Fighter?

Excellent 12.9%

Good 37.1%

Average 24.2%

Fair 16.1%

Poor 9.7%
60.0% of those responding didn't see the show

Do you think James Storm wins the TNA title Sunday?

Yes 60.1%

No 39.9%

--2CW from Friday night in Watertown, NY before 650 fans: Loca Vida b Muscle Marcos, Sean Carr & Kage & I.B. Green b Kevin Graham & Punisher Van Slyuke & Zaquary Springate III in a tables mach, Jason Axe b Isys Ephex in a bloodbath, Mark & Jay Briscoe b Jimmy Olsen & Colin Delaney, Matt Milan b Pete D. Order & The Beast & Superbad in a handicap elimination match, Brodie Lee won four-way over Jay Freddie, Slyk Wagner Brown and Kevin Steen to take the 2CW title (Steen stole the belt after the match), Sgt. Slaughter & Jason Wayne b Insurgency-DQ (thanks to David Rude)

--William Towner (btexp999@yahoo.com) is looking for the results of a pro wrestling show held between July 4 and July 7, 1980 in Myrtle Beach, SC.

--The Tom Watson vs. Murilo Ninja Rua match from last year aired last night at 11:30 p.m. on Ch. 5 in the U.K., which is huge exposure for BAMMA, since there are only five main terrestrial network stations in the U.K. Plus it would appear they got the deal from UFC, which used to air shows on Five as recently as a few months ago (thanks to Matt Singh)

--Absolute Intense Wrestling has a Girls Night Out show at 4 p.m. today at Turner's Hall in Cleveland. It's an all-women's show with Mia Yim vs. Allysin Kay as the main event in a street fight.

--River City Wrestling from last night in Winnipeg: Buddy Wiser b Zamil, Vinnie Valiant b Dorado, Bobby Collins b Samuel, Bugsy Slugg b James Beaver, Billy Blaze & Cliff Corleone b Dick Walker & Damon Marx (thanks to Paul Ranville)

--USWO from last night in Nashville before 38 fans: Hot Rod Biggs b Cody Green, Steven Green b Charles Jackson III, Miss Rachel b Convict, Steven Green b Big Time Sexy, Justin Grandberry b L.T. Falk, Slade NC Shabba Shabbazz (thanks to Jimmie Daniel)

--UIPW from last night in Toronto before 100 fans: Ashley Sixx b Brent B, Rip Impact b Sebastian Suave, Jennifer Blake b Mawmi Tsunami, R.J. City b Scotty O'Shea, Josh Alexander b Mike Rollins, Shawn LaFleur won three-way over Colby Corino and Alex Vega, Ethan Page & Joey Kings b Lionel Knight & Christopher Bishop, Steve Corino b Michael Elgin, Josh Alexander b Steve Corino to win UIPW title

--Mid Missouri Wrestling Alliance from last night in St. Louis: Dave Osborne b Andrew Wilder, Jimmy D b LaMarcus Clinton, Max Archer b Ace Hawkins, Brandon Espinosa b Gary Jackson, Johnny Courageous b Ken Casa, Frankie D b Bill Murray, Abe & Gabe b Big Texan & Tony Raze, Dave Vaughn b Chase King (thanks to Patrick Brandmeyer)

--GOUGE's 6th anniversary show from last night in Roxboro, NC: Mike West b Crumb the Bum, Seymour Snott & Rob McBride b Frank Stalletto & Tank Lawson, Otto Schwanz b The Taker, Damien Wayne b Mickey Gambino, Sideshow Phil & Jageem the Dream b Gluteus Maximus & Baron von Fox, Jimmy Jack Funk Jr. b Lou Marconi. Next show is 4/26 at Rebus Works in Raleigh, NC.

--Future Stars of Wrestling from yesterday in Hollywood, FL: Chasyn Rance b Chico Adams & Maxx Stardom, Johnny Vandal b Blain Rage, J.T. Flash b Mikhail Ivanov, Aliens b Tech Squad and Beast Brody & Joey Saint, Tommy Vandal b Derek Drexl, Jesse Neal b Headbanger Mosh. Next show is 6/2 at VFW Post 2500 in Hollywood.

--Championship Wrestling Entertainment from last night in Stuart, FL: Beast Brody b David Thraxtin, Aaron Epic b Jeff Brooks, James Anthony b Chico Adams, Tech Squad b Legion of Wolves, Chasyn Rance b Blain Rage, Oliver Grimsley b JB Cool. Next show is 5/12 at Cruisers Billiards & Bar. (thanks to Al Haft)

--APW from last night in Hayward, CA: J.R. Kratons b Levi Shapiro, Matt Carlos & Shane West & Vennis DeMarco b Dos Perfectos & James Watkins, Dave Dutra b Daniel Torch, Carnival of Shadows b Dalton Frost & Sir Samurai and Chicano Flame & Technismo, Sheik Han Abadi b Wiseguy, Derek Sanders b Boyce LeGrande, Dylan Drake & Adam Thornstowe b Perry Von Vicious & Damien Grundy, Will Rood b Rik Luxury to win Internet title, Timothy Thatcher b A.J. Kirsch to retain Universal title.

--Heartland Wrestling Association's 2012 Heartland Cup is 4/20 and 4/21 in Hamilton, OH at the Great Miami Events Center. It's a two-night tournament with first round matches of Michael Elgin vs. B.J. Whitmer, Steve Corino vs. Ron Mathis, Jake Crist vs. Chad Collyer, Dave Crist vs. Alex Colon, Drake Younger vs. Jesse Emerson, D.J. Hyde vs. Chrisjen Hayme, Billy Roc vs. Remi Wilkins and Nick Cutler vs. Gerome Phillips.

SAT. UPDATE: Wrestling Observer News for Sat April 14th 2012

2012-04-16T09:00:00.001-07:00

Saturday's News, Notes & Links

--Michael Graziano, the younger brother of John Graziano (the Marine in the car wreck with Nick Bollea years back), passed away from injuries in a car accident that took place on 4/3. God, I would hate to be their mother. That poor woman, between that nutcase she married and what happened to two sons.

--Matt Morgan did an interview with PWtorch.com and noted that his contract is up in October. He said he was loyal to TNA but he's a businessman first and is not ruling out a return to WWE. "To say I wouldn't go back would be dumb on my part and it would be a lie. But at the same time, I really am, I know people don't like this answer who are pro-WWE and not so pro-TNA, but that's the truth, I am loyal to those who are loyal to me. The minute, the day TNA stops being loyal to me as I feel I am being to them, that's a different discussion all to itself and I definitely would weigh my options a lot differently if and when that day ever came." He said he's happy with TNA and how he's been treated.

--Cael Sanderson has decided against competing in the Olympic trials. "I didn't really plan on competing at all this year," he said. "I kind of hinted at it, but I didn't really want to say anything just because I didn't want to come out and (take focus away from the wrestling team). But no, it wasn't really a difficult choice." Sanderson, 32, said his responsibilities coaching national champion Pen State and being a father to two young boys made it an easy choice to make, because to win an Olympic medal it has to be your 100% focus. Sanderson, who hadn't competed since 2004, came out of a 7 year retirement to win the world team trials and place 5th in the world in 2011.

--Pro Wrestling Syndicate tonight in Toronto at the Doubletree Hilton:

Tommy Dreamer & Rhino vs. C.W. Anderson & Raven in an Extreme rules match

Vader vs. Necro Butcher

Fit Finlay vs. Harry Smith

Jushin Liger vs. Roderick Strong

Shane Douglas & Domenic DeNucci managed by Bruno Sammartino vs. Larry Zbyszko & Lord Zoltan managed by J.J. Dillon

Piper's Pit with Roddy Piper

Michael Elgin vs. El Generico

Shawn Spears (managed by Jimmy Hart) vs. Tito Santana (managed by Rick Martel)

We're looking for reports on this show.

--Edge threw out the first pitch at the Toronto Blue Jays baseball game last night in Toronto against the Baltimore Orioles. He went to the game with Tommy Dreamer.

--CZW has an iPPV tonight from Voorhees, NJ, featuring its annual Best of the Best tournament which includes Chuck Taylor, Drake Younger, Sami Callihan, AR Fox, Lince Dorado and Johnny Gargano. Fox, who was to face Gargano on last night's Evolve show, wrote on his Facebook page that he was not allowed into Canada. (thanks to Patrick Gronemann)

--Jersey All Pro Wrestling tonight in Rahway, NJ at the Rec Center has Low Ki vs. Dan Maff for the JAPW title, Homicide & Eddie Kingston vs. Philly's Most Wanted and more. There is also a CHIKARA show at 2 p.m. in the same building today.

Do you believe Kurt Angle was ever going to the Olympic trials this year?

Yes 16.8%

No 83.2%

Naivete here higher than I expected.

Did you like MMA Uncensored on Thursday?

Excellent 22.2%

Good 27.8%

Average 13.9%

Fair 8.3%

Poor 27.8%

76.6% of those responding didn't see the show

What did you think of Impact?

Excellent 26.9%

Good 40.4%

Average 13.5%

Fair 3.8%

Poor 15.4%

52.5% of those responding didn't see the show.

--Greame McGaw, a longtime subscriber who won the Mick Foley raffle to get a trip to Mania wrote about his experiences.

--On Twitter, The Bella Twins noted that they are flying to London for TV. They haven't been on the road shows thus far.

--For yesterday's 15th anniversary of Barely Legal, reader dbostondennis@aol.com has a ticket to the show signed by Terry Funk ten minutes after he won the title and is taking offers for it.

--UIPW tonight in Toronto at the Royal Canadian Legion Hall with Steve Corino vs. Michael Elgin

--Rey Mysterio is coming to Japan next month to promote the August Smackdown brand house show. (thanks to Jose Gonzalez)

--MEXPRO tonight at the Arena in Los Angeles features Supreme vs. Damian 666 in a fans bring the weapons Tijuana death match, plus Joey Kaos vs. Bestia 666 vs. Messiah in a ladder match.

--Michael Joy is starting a fantasy wrestling website with storylines on wrestlers vs. monsters and is looking for fantasy bookers at jayhorror@horrornews.net.

--CWE on 4/20 in Winnipeg at the Maples Community Center with Darren Dalton & Spyder vs. Rick Matthews & J.J. Sanchez.

--There is a meet and greet with Greg Valentine on 6/9 and 6/10 at the Friendship Flea Market in Friendship, IN. For more info, contact Jan Schnell at 859-341-9188.

--USWO from last night in Nashville before 96 fans: Redneck Danny Copass b Big Time Sexy, Shabba Shabbazz b Robyn Golphin, L.T. Falk b Damien Payne, Mike Jablonski b Josh Crow-DQ, Gary Valiant & L.T. Falk b Cedric Alexander & Joe Black, Kid Kash b Jocephus-DQ (thanks to Jimmie Daniel)

wrestling observer news and notes for friday 13th of April 2012

2012-04-16T07:18:00.002-07:00

-- Info on the Rock's next movie project is up here.
-- Dave Meltzer and I will be back tomorrow night after the show to run down the card in detail and talk Lockdown. We'll be back Sunday after the TNA PPV and Monday after Raw as well. There may be a Bryan & Vinny Show tonight based on Vinny's schedule. He was unavailable for last night's show.
-- New York Times talks Kurt Angle shockingly pulling out of the Olympics citing a hamstring injury so severe that he's working Lockdown Sunday here. The NEW YORK TIMES wrote about this, and also claimed Kurt was a WWE wrestler. Whenever things like this happen I find it cause for concern regarding the rest of the content of the most popular news website and the third biggest print news source in the entire country. The Kurt story also took precedence over Cael Sanderson, the greatest wrestler our country has produced in the last 30 years and who placed 5th in the world last year, announcing he's pulling out. Whole thing is preposterous.
-- Gary adds: Just got back from holiday in Tenerife, Canary Islands. This morning on BBC World News they ran a crawler at the bottom of the screen about two sports stories. One was a pretty major football/soccer story. The other said "Ex-WWE wrestler and Olympic Gold Medallist Kurt Angle admits defeat in his efforts to compete at London, 2012." I guess he's even worked the BBC!
-- EVOLVE 11 runs tonight in Toronto with Fit Finlay vs. Sami Callihan, Low-Ki vs. Generico and Johnny Gargano vs. someone who is not AR Fox headlining. It's available on iPPV at WWNLive.com. Fox posted on his Facebook that he wasn't being allowed into Canada, so I guess we'll see what happens. We have a great interview with Gabe Sapolsky up on Tuesday talking all the news in Dragon Gate and EVOLVE, including a lot of thoughts on the WrestleMania weekend shows, here.
-- Tommy Dreamer and Joey Styles talk the 15th anniversary of ECW Barely Legal. FIFTEEN YEARS AGO. Wow.
-- If you very badly need to see the Smackdown legend's show from Tuesday, it replays tonight on Syfy.
-- Kensuke Sasaki was announced today to be the latest star to appear at the big Lucha Fan Fest in Mexico City in May. Thanks to Kris Zellner.
-- The Viggity has an article on how to lose 10 pounds for life up here.
-- New Japan and Capcom putting out t-shirts together here.
-- A big preview of UFC on FUEL here.
-- Our Lady Peace talks Chris Benoit here.
-- Big Grantland article on Daniel Bryan here.
-- This Saturday, April 14th, The Union of Independent Professional Wrestlers, in association with Morpheous Productions and the Silver Snail Comic Shops, presents its most important event of the year: WRESTLESTOCK. The show will be held at Royal Canadian Legion Hall No.10 (1083 Pape Avenue @ O'Connor) in Toronto. Doors open at 7:00pm. Bell time is 7:30pm. Tickets are just $20 and are available at the Silver Snail (367 Queen Street West) and $tretch Thrift Store (974 Pape Avenue) or online at www.WrestleStock.com. Tickets will also be available at the door on the night of the show. Steve Corino vs. Michael Elgin headlines.
-- From the former MEXPW: MEXPW Changes Name to MEXPRO to Avoid Lawsuit. Today we announce that we have officially changed the name of our company from MEXPW to MEXPRO. As many of you know, we received numerous emails from an attorney representing XEG/XTV/Rick Mahr & Associates (parent company of the long-deceased XPW) notifying us that unless we change our name, they would file suit against us for trademark violation. We had until March 30th, 2012 to comply. "If the new XPW was ever serious about trying to relaunch it's dead brand, then they would have already produced something on their own. They obviously don't have any passion for pro wrestling." says MEXPRO owner, Mike Hartsfield. "They purchased the company from Rob Black back in 2003 and they did nothing with it for years. Kevin Kleinrock, Kris Kloss and myself spearheaded the "Cold Day in Hell" and XPW 10 Year Anniversary shows; we did it for the fans, not the money. Those two shows were the only events XPW has had since they purchased the name." "Seeing that our new company is off and running with people in place and diehard dedicated fans, the natural thing to do is what's best for business. One would expect everyone to work together and take advantage of a very special opportunity. Instead we were strong-armed into changing our name, while those with more money than us, more "power" than us, come in out of nowhere and try to take something very special away from us. Our legal council and trademark specialists agreeded with us, saying "their claim is frivilous and they don't have a case; they can't trademark "Pro Wrestling" (PW)." "MEXPRO is a very simple company with a true D.I.Y. attitude", Hartsfield continued. "I'm not here to teach these guys what it's all about. I'm also not interested in changing anyone's diapers. In any event, we are pushing on and pushing forward, considering we don't have the monetary resources at this time to disprove their case and we aren't interested in their bully mentality. So we move on, we move forward!" MEXPRO presents “Cease and Resist” set for April 14th at the Arena in Los Angeles, CA
-- Shelly Martinez will appear tonight (April 13) on KSAT-12's newscast during sports. Greg Simmons will interview her as she prepares for her River City Wrestling debut tomorrow (information on the show below). KSAT-12 is the ABC-affiliate in San Antonio, Texas, and the newscast begins at 10 p.m. CST. River City Wrestling -- San Antonio's brand of professional wrestling -- will hold its 10 Year Anniversary Show on Saturday, April 14, 2012 at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church Activity Center, 1630 Goliad Road in San Antonio, TX. The event will begin at 8 p.m. and the doors open at 7:30 p.m.
-- Join Ed, Craig, and Cutrer this week for OTTR as they discuss all the news of the week in pro wrestling. Ed will say something dumb while purposely slurping on his bong right into his mic, Craig will say something factually incorrect and rewrite history, and Cutrer will say something knowledgeable and try and restore everyone's faith in the show. So everyone please join us for another uplifting edition of OTTR, if not go watch Fairly Legal and piss off. Link is here.
-- Who would draw the best as a new opponent of Junior Dos Santos?
Frank Mir 39.7%
Cain Velasquez 25.2%
Dan Henderson 17.9%
Mark Hunt 9.0%
Roy Nelson 4.8%
Bigfoot Silva 2.4%
Fabricio Werdum 1.0%
Will Lesnar vs. Cena beat the Chicago Cena vs. Punk or last year's Survivor Series on PPV?
It will beat neither 45.9%
Will beat both 32.6%
Will beat Cena vs Punk, behind Survivor Series 21.5%
Should UFC take action in regard to drug testing?
Should do Olympic drug testing 46.1%
Should do some random testing 25.3%
Should do a program like WWE 17.4%
No, leave it to the commissions 11.2%
Who should be champion after this match?
Bobby Roode 36.9%
James Storm 63.1%

Dragon Gate Untouchable

2012-04-14T15:00:00.000-07:00

To start, I like what Dragon Gate USA is doing with the packaging – making it different, making things stand out, moving from a brand to personalities, making certain matches meaningful.

Dragon Gate has the best approach in the business these days, with distinct styles, distinct faces/heels (albeit they are controlled back in Japan and that adds complexity all around), and a distinctive set of titles (the “Open the … Gate” is distinctly unique).

Of all promotions these days, DG USA has that feel of watching something different, of quickly realizing that there is a new dictionary of moves and holds and dynamics in play. For those watching the same old, same old, watching DG USA is going to be jarring, is going to be challenging going to be hard to follow.

But there are a lot of wrestling fans who like that.

I know there was a time where I watched Video in Japanese and Spanish, barely comprehending anything, but enjoying the action in the ring. These days, DG USA provides the awesome, interesting action but with English speaking announcers – while I don’t like the feel that Lenny Leonard is being relegated to ring announcer while younger, shoutier types are getting more air time, there is a definite enhancement by having announcers know their stuff and tell the backstories and such in the ring.

(yeah, I know, I know ... keep on point)

So while the edgiest thing about Untouchable 2011 is the gun in the Menu screen (yeah, it’s all about Chicago, gangster references and such, but Chicago does happen to hit the news too frequently for gun violence), the enjoyment factor is all about the wrestling in the ring and the growing reality that Dragon Gate’s American branch is evolving into something much better than the bulk of the indy promotions around.

Case in point?

The Main Event of CIMA versus YAMATO, a battle of one-name wonders and long time veterans of Dragon Gate, battling for YAMATO’s Open the Freedom Gate Championship.

Get your score cards out for this one.

Column one: YAMATO is a face now. CIMA, despite having that awesome fan-participation gesturing in Warriors 5, is now a heel in Blood Warriors, morphing (hey, the evolve thing can’t play out repeatedly) into an obscene gesture instead of a double arm extension.

(Watch for the WWE to give this to a mid-card heel faction in 2017, or sooner if some creative dweeb watches DG USA sooner. (Re: BxB Hulk’s grand entrance cribbed by that hulking giant these days.)

Column two: Jot down Galleria, CBV, Meteora, Schweinn, Perfect Driver, various unnamed and named submission holds, action too fast to fathom for most of my younger wrestling fan friends.

(Watch for those holds to appear in the distant future of the WWE as well, much like it took the Choke-Slam five years to move from Japan to mainstream America.)

Column three: watch in amazement as two veterans work a great match without ten tons of steel, without having sat out for a year, without having talked up a match for a year, and without the last minute ‘match enhancement’ of a heel matchmaker telling the guys to wrestle.

Logic, worked wrestling in the ring, fast action and a strong finish. I like the Dragon Gate sense of beating an opponent down, then pulling out the finisher, and making that logical leap in avoiding the ongoing near falls and moving to a more believable approach.

Nice also, how they play up the alliances and how CIMA Announces that BxB Hulk is coming. Not so keen on an immediate No Rope, No DQ stip, but I’m sure that plays into history and current happenings in the parent promotion.

Ok, so I rail against stips and now complain about two.

The Freestyle is a Dragon Gate staple, and now it’s mixed into the top of the card. I like that. The “Winner books a future match” aspect is a little shaky to me, as this promotion doesn’t need that kind of gimmickry.

What this match provided was an interesting array of stories.

Naruki Doi vs. Masato Yoshino vs. Chuck Taylor vs. Sami Callihan provides a lot of connections. Doi & Yoshino were once known as Speed Muscle, and it was cool to see how they moved in and out of fighting with each other to pulling out a few tag spots together.

On the other side, Taylor and Callihan are American, newly rising stars.

So there’s a sense of veteran versus interlopers, some semblance of connections between those two sides, but not enough to create any feel of a tag match. Which is important, because there’s a few too many Freestyles that have established teams and that never seems logical.

Fast paced action and Freestyle and Dragon Gate are three ways of saying the same thing, so let’s stop at the third one. One level to this had the Doi/Yoshino work and that was excellent. Another had spotlighting of Taylor and of Callihan as guys who can more than just hang with the veterans.

In the end, an Awful Waffle?

(Quick! check those score-cards).

Post match promos and interesting factional allegiances develop. Brodie Lee makes an appearance, and Taylor/Yoshino clear him out. Swann is part of the American “Ronin” branch, but allies with Yoshino in Japan. That makes a Tag Team Title challenge that Taylor demands for his partners a little more interesting than it would be.

Johnny Gargano is a guy that is going places.

That much can be seen with the Video packages, which is one aspect of DG USA DVDS that they do a lot better than most. The fast action and preview/review clips are great, but the build up of guys like Gargano are even more important.

That build leads to Johnny Gargano vs. Akira Tozawa, two of Dragon Gate USA’s other rising stars, and perhaps two that the promotion will build around. Gargano seems the safer choice than Chucky T for that spot, and while I see the “potential” of the Kentucky Gentleman at world class level, Gargano seems to be the more polished guy at this time (and, a guy more like Low Ki than Jon Moxley, if you get my drift).

Tozawa is a bit bigger, a bit more refined, and yet another workhorse type who definitely melds into the Dragon Gate Style, even though he’s more Shingo than Naruki Doi.

(Which, by the way, leads me to realize that Shingo’s not been around in a while…. Intended or not, that’s a good thing to move guys in and out, and El Generico coming in is another example).

Here we have a display of rising talents and a less speed oriented Dragon Gate match. Trading strikes, suplex and kicks, these two are vastly more All Japan than Junior Heavyweights. More scorecarding with the Hurts Donut and various unnamed but impressive maneuvering.

This is the sort of match that may be revisited six months from now, and no one will complain.

From the future to the past, and back again, we now get AR Fox & Sabu vs. Arik Cannon & Pinkie Sanchez. This was very nicely segued from the previous match (which, since I’m going in reverse order, vastly overcomplicates things).

Nice little ECW homage there, but what should we expect with Sabu, Gabe Sapolsky and the utterly ECW-iffic team of Cannon and Sanchez???

I really like the positioning of Fox. He’s not being pushed to the moon, and he’s getting those slots where he can shine, get a rub, and get valuable experience all at the same time. It’s awesome how – with booking and positioning and the basics – we see Dragon Gate USA making things happen with their talent, instead of over-relying on aging stars.

No disrespect to Sabu, who always shows how to work and knows how to pick his spots.

From the high-flying to the ECW-like action, this was a neat change-up, but most importantly, it set up the ongoing positioning of Mr. Fox, and the positioning of the heel faction D.U.F. And, of course, the way to mix in and use ‘older’ talent to elevate them all.

High-flying is the specialty of Dragon Gate USA, and two of the best in the business are featured in PAC vs Ricochet. I love the less than subtle, but ongoing effort to keep high-flying, high-risk matches believably shorter. There’s no reason for guys to work 20 minute matches and endanger themselves late in the match with ‘top this’ spot fests.

The creativity and fast action and education of the fans make this match. The talent on display is definitely beyond anything else seen in other promotions, and I look forward to how DG USA plays out their air power superiority.

A series of run-ins ensues after the match, and this was really fun. While it stoked the fires, it was a great way to bring in and highlight Sabu, and also to show one crazy dive after another – including Pinkie Sanchez getting suplexed by his D.U.F. partners because he took too many rope-runs.

Before that was a match with Jon Davis vs. Rich Swann, featuring two distinctive styles, and that’s another evolution of the promotion, and a welcome one -- Dragon Gate is the prime example of a current promotion where styles are distinct and wrestlers are working various styles – not just a bastardized house style that makes everyone and everything look the same.

Here, Davis is getting a gradual push as a Strong Man, and he is impressive.

Swann is playing out a split allegiance that should be good to watch. Ronin in DG USA, Junction Three in Japan, and as the DVD plays out, this plays out. It’s the attention to detail that makes whatever happens down the line work, instead of just ignoring things and surprising the fans.

Great interlude preceded this, where Brodie Lee plays big bully, we get a cameo by Gregory Iron, and then the impressive Uhaa Nation appears and sends the giant Brodie Lee scurrying… well, talk about mixed metaphors!

Opener was a Tag Match, which is always a pleasant surprise.

The Scene (Caleb Konley & Scott Reed) vs. Kentucky Buffet (Matt Cage & Alex Castle) was a throw-back kind of match. Larry Dallas is a manager who is growing into the role, and I’ve always been a fan of fashioning tag teams to get the best out of the talent. The Buffet is one of the oddest names I’ve heard, but funny and clever…. At least they know their roles!

No complaint here about this match, and I liked the backing off heels not taking on the charging giant that followed the match.

Untouchable 2011 was a great DVD in terms of building stories, introducing new faces, and the slow builds of a roster filled with exceptional talent. There was no hint of staleness, no sense of meaningless matches, and all the while, the talent in the ring was on display, and most importantly, there was no typical indy sense of overdoing things. The styles are well distinguished and the action fast and furious when it needed to be, in the great tradition of Dragon Gate.

If you’re unfamiliar with DG USA, this is a good one to watch, and if you’re familiar with the promotion, it’s a great one to get into as it sets up future storylines and matches and continues to establish the promotion as one to watch.

THURS. UPDATE: Olympic dream shattered, ex-UFC champ talks going to WWE, WWE does angle last night

2012-04-14T13:00:00.000-07:00

Wrestling Observwer News and Notes 04/12/2012

Thursday's News, Notes & Links

--Kurt Angle will not be competing in the Olympic trials. I know that shocks everyone. He claimed a hamstring injury and an injured MCL. But he'll be fine to do a cage match with Jeff Hardy on Sunday. You can read his statement on twitter if you want your entertainment out of all this.

--The 1,000th episode of Raw will air on 7/23 from the Savvis Center in St. Louis and will be a three-hour live show.

--Here is the Fuel schedule for the weekend.

Weigh-ins for Saturday's show in Stockholm are 10 a.m. Eastern tomorrow. That's 7 a.m. on the West Coast.

Coverage on Saturday starts at 2 p.m. Eastern with a pre-fight show. The regular show will be 3-6 p.m. and the post-fight show is from 6-7 p.m.

--Jay Glazer, Mark Munoz and Chael Sonnen will be doing the pre and post-fight shows. Mike Goldberg and Kenny Florian will be announcing the show. Karyn Bryant will be doing interviews on the show.

--Because there is no first-run Smackdown tomorrow (they are replaying Tuesday's show on Syfy), we won't be doing Observer radio on Friday. We will do a show Saturday covering the UFC show and Sunday covering TNA Lockdown.

--An angle was shot last night at the Revolver Golden God awards. Chris Jericho hosted the show. C.M. Punk won the award for Most Metal Athlete. Jericho then smashed the award. This will likely air on TV on Monday.

--A new organization called the IMMAF (International Mixed Martial Arts Federation) was announced earlier today which is looking to be a worldwide sanctioning body for amateur MMA events trying to have unified rules, regulations and safety measures. UFC announced its support of the IMMAF as well. It will be a Sweden-based nonprofit organization.

--Tito Ortiz in doing media in Sweden noted that he is retiring after the 7/7 fight with Forrest Griffin, and talked about hoping to get a UFC office job after he retires, or go to the WWE. At 37, with previous neck surgeries and back surgeries, I really don't see WWE being in his future. He does have a look and real charisma, but they rarely sign newcomers at that age, and I can't see them doing it with all of Ortiz's injuries, plus I can't see Ortiz's body being able to hold up to a full-time WWE schedule. I do believe ten years ago he could have done it and possibly been successful at it.

--A story on Sheamus returning to Ireland as a star is at http://www.independent.ie/lifestyle/ He noted that he used to work as security at wrestling events as well as an IT worker in Dublin and at 13 was a member of the Palestrina Choir. He studied computers at the National College of Ireland while working as a bodyguard at a bordello.

--Dixie Carter spoke with us earlier today saying there would be a lot of changes in the next few weeks as far as the presentation of the shows after her meetings yesterday with Spike TV. She wasn't specific, only saying it would play out soon and would include format changes and new elements to the show. She said the company is making a very conscious decision to focus now on young talent.

--Carter also noted that Bruce Prichard is back at work and has dropped 31 pounds. She noted it was a real scare but if he was lucky, it was that he was already in the hospital (for heart surgery) when he suffered the heart attack, as if he wasn't, things could have been a lot worse.

--GQ Magazine ran an interview with Daniel Bryan. He said the Monday after Mania was unreal. He said it was a real special moment for him. He said he thought it was the backlash because of how short his match at Mania was. He said he was also angry, saying he wanted to steal the show and he believes his wrestling is as good as anyone out there and was looking forward to having a great match, but wasn't allowed to. When asked about the conversation when he was told it was a one move match, he said "There wasn't much of a conversation. This is my job, you know? You have to do something, and even if you don't like it, that's what you do. but you go out there and do the best you can. I went out there and did the best entrance I could possibly do. You just do your best. that's all anybody can do."

--He said he'd like his wrestling character to be allowed to be more aggressive now. He mentioned C.M. Punk never talked with him before doing his "Best in the World" gimmick but said it didn't bother him at all, noting Chris Jericho had already done something similar.

--ROH Ringside Members on Saturday and Sunday will be able to see the entire two-day shows from WrestleMania weekend including the Davey Richards vs. Michael Elgin match. Members are also getting a special discount on all DVDs and merchandise for the next few days.

--The theme for the Jon Jones vs. Rashad Evans match is "Good Friends, Better Enemies."

--The stuff between the two on UFC Insiders that aired on Tuesday was taped two weeks ago.

--This is awesome department. On Smackdown every week, as Damien Sandow complains about twitter and social media as the ruination of society, WWE underneath showed his twitter handle. (thanks to Greg Marra)

--There is an attempt to get Bret Hart nominated for Canada's Walk of Fame at http://blogs.thescore.com/aftermath/2012/04/11/bret-hart-for-canadas-walk-of-fame/

--A story on the band "Our Lady Peace," a Canadian band, noted that they have retired the theme song they wrote and performed for Chris Benoit completely. They will never perform it, nor use it in any new release because of the bad memories it conjures up for people. Story is at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jon-chattman/asides-with-jon-chattman-_13_b_1418159.html

--The UFC has announced at their next Fan Expo another Grapplers Quest tournament on 7/6 and 7/7 at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center. The tournament is limited to 1,500 people with registration being $99. That includes two days of full access to the Fan Expo, a T-shirt by tapout, $20 off at the door pricing and free entry in a Judo Throwdown tournament. For more info go to http://on.ufc.com/lyVYg6 Admission to the Friday session for fans is $40, Saturday is $45 while you can get tickets for both days for $60.

Should Alistair Overeem be licensed in Nevada?

No, not only did he fail the test, but by terms of his temporary license, he should have his last win over rock Lesnar overturned 56.3%

No, he failed the test 35.6%

Yes, even though he tested positive, there is a legal technicality he can slide by in 6.3%

Yes, I belive his testosterone use was due to legitimate medical need 1.9%

What percentage of UFC fighters do you believe are using PEDs?

Under 20% 2.9%

21-40% 9.0%

41-60% 28.8%

61-80% 26.2%

80% or more 16.9%

No way of knowing 16.1%

What do you attribute Monday's Raw rating to?

Wrestling is cold and the way it's portrayed, no individual can help turn it around 39.6%

While wrestling fans will watch UFC shows to see Lesnar, UFC fans won't watch WWE to see Lesnar 18.2%

The environment with Marella and the Three Stooges makes it impossible for a Lesnar type to make a difference 14.3%

When Lesnar was put with Laurinaitis, it made him just another part of the show 14.0%

He was never going to help ratings, but will help PPVs 4.3%

Not enough people knew Lesnar was with WWE, he will help ratings down the line 3.1%

Lesnar never would have been a difference maker at any time in pro wrestling 2.3%

The right individual can make a difference, but Lesnar at this time is not that individual 2.2%

The very existence of UFC in prominence kills pro wrestling being anything but outlandish entertainment, thus it has to be a variety show where individuals don't make that much of a difference 1.9%

Poll on Smackdown

Excellent 3.1%

Good 22.3%

Average 13.4%

Fair 17.8%

Poor 43.5%

23.0% of those responding didn't see the show

--Ben Askren wrote on twitter to Ariel Helwani: "I invite you to do in a cage with me. When you do that, I will do your show. Otherwise, kiss my ass." Okay, you can put the audience in a sleeper for five rounds, you can say Canadian fans aren't good fans, you can tell people if they don't want to see ground work they can watch boxing (actually I quite enjoyed that line), but you don't tell Ariel Helwani to kiss your ass just because he said you were a boring fighter.

--Sean Oliver of Kayfabe Commentaries said that his company has not been claiming Jim Cornette would be involved in the 6/1 interview with Vince Russo. He said that any fan, worker, announcer or manager can submit questions to Russo, they did not advertise Cornette. Cornette yesterday claimed they were representing that he would be asking questions, and he said people should boycott it.

--Paul Lazenby talks Brock Lesnar and Alistair Overeem at http://paullazenby.com/PL/?p=576 He also talked with Nick Lembo about what the situation would be if Overeem was not licensed in Nevada as it pertains to fighting in New Jersey at http://paullazenby.com/PL/?p=553

--Vendetta Pro Wrestling and Traditional Championship Wrestling in conjunction with the Cauliflower Alley Club have a show on 4/16 at the Gold Coast Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. Tickets are only $5, or free if you are a member of the Cauliflower Alley Club. Among those wrestling on the show are Zach Gowen, Disco Inferno, Matt Cross, Sean Casey, A.J. Kirsch, Sinn Bodhi, Jesse Neal, Shannon Ballard plus appearances by Nigel McGuinness, Cheerleader Melissa, Michelle Star, Stacy Carter, Martin Casaus (Tough Enough), Paul Vachon, Nick Bockwinkel and Harley Race.

--Scott Hall was back last night at the Team Vision Dojo in Orlando with Larry Zbyszko and Chasyn Race leading the training class that includes Tim Zbyszko and Cody Hall.

--Raphael Davis, 35, of Lomita, CA, an MMA fighter, was arrested on Tuesday with falsifying a workers compensation claim and charged with four counts of insurance fraud. Prosecutors claim Davis filed claims that injuries prevented him from working at his job from 2008-2001, but during that period he was regularly competing in MMA fights. He was held on $35,000 bond. Davis had fought for Bellator and the IFL and was an All-American collegiate wrestler.

--Not sure this is news but Yokozuna won't be in the WWE 13 video game at http://captainstarball.com/news/no-plans-for-yokozuna-wwe-13 I never heard any talk at all that he would be. WWE 13 is going to have a nostalgia deal but the era involved isn't a period Yokozuna was part of the company. (thanks to Brian Cooper)

--A puzzle on last night's Wheel of Fortune was "DWAYNE THE ROCK JOHNSON" (thanks to Brian Henke)

--CZW on 4/14 on iPPV at HybridEnt.TV from Voorhees, NJ at 7:30 p.m. at Flyers Skate Zone with the annual Best of the Best tournament. The first round matches are MK McKinnan vs. Trent 7 vs. Sami Callihan vs. Drake Younger, Chuck Taylor vs. Johnny Gargano vs. Samuray del Sol, AR Fox vs. Lince Dorado vs. ACH and Alex Colon vs. Willie Mack vs. ?

--The New England Pro Wrestling Academy is doing a one-day fantasy camp on 5/19 for $79. The four-hour camp will teach the basics of pro wrestling, interviews and more. One person who impresses the trainers the most will get a $300 training program and others who do well will also have a shot at training at a discounted price. You have to be at least 15, but if under 18, need parents permission. For more info you can write to info@neprowrestling.com or call 978-852-8534

--Steeltown Pro Wrestling on 4/26 in Arborg, Manitoba at the Rec Center, 4/27 in Winnipeg at L.A. Roadhouse (only 18 and above admitted), 8/28 in Selkirk, Manitoba at the Friendship Center and 8/29 in Winnipeg at the Royal Canadian Legion.

--Colt Cabana talks about his documentary and not working for a major company at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0mF8k92HNM Really sad that today, legitimately, NOAH probably really isn't a major company.

--Tito Santana talks about Tom Zenk, and how Scott Coker stole his Strikeforce name at http://www.youtube.com/watcdh?v=gxnnFe_tp34

--Dennis Rodman talks the state of modern pro wrestling with Greg Valentine and Ed Leslie at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3YTJDxH2wM

--In Your Face Wrestling on 5/18 in Amsterdam, NY at America's Best Value Inn with Fit Finlay & Bobby Fish vs. Bobby Ocean & Drake Evans, Val Venis vs. Fronz Roddy and Lanny Poffo also appearing.

--Perry Saturn appears for 3XW Wrestling on 4/27 in Des Moines at Baratta's Forte Center and 4/28 in Grinnell, IA at the Eagles Club. Both shows are being taped for the 3XW local TV show that airs on KWKB on Saturday's at 6 p.m. and KCWI at 1:30 a.m. on Mondays.

--Contactmusic.com ran a story today on Lars Ulrich of Metallica not remembering Hulk Hogan being asked to join the band. It would be more of a story if they could round up John Belushi and ask him about all the coke he snorted with Hulk Hogan after WrestleMania II in Los Angeles, years after his death.

--Fidel Edwards, a fast bowler from the West Indies, did the "You can't see me" hand gesture in a cricket match on Sky Sports today. This led to a long discussion between the announcers about the popularity of pro wrestling in the Caribbean.

--Pro Wrestling Blitz on 4/28 in Joliet, IL with Matt Hardy vs. Barry Ryte on top. For info go to ProWrestlingBlitz.com

OVW TV report 4-11 tapings in Louisville

2012-04-14T10:00:00.000-07:00

Here's the Ohio Valley Wrestling Television taping report for April 11th, 2012. I want to give a special thanks to Larry Goodman for covering for me by doing these reports for the last three weeks while I was off in Miami for Wrestlemania, as well as other vacation, and non-vacation, related things. Thanks a lot Larry, and great job with the reports!

This was the taping following the April 7th Saturday Night Special that saw the heelish "Talent Arbitrator" Josette Bynum gain full storyline control of OVW when one of her "Family" members, Rob Terry, beat Trailer Park Trash, who was the babyface "Director of wrestling operations" going into that match. Terry beat TPT by hitting him with a roll of quarters. The DVD of that show is already available.

Dean Hill, Gilbert Corsey, and Kenny Bolin were the TV announcers tonight. Ron Hed and Brittany DeVore were the ring announcers. The crowd was very large for a TV taping, in the 200 range, but they weren't always the most lively bunch, but then again, they weren't treated to a great deal of action tonight. If you like talking segments, then buddy this was the show for you. If you like wrestling, then this wasn't the show for you.

The April 7th Louisville Courier-Journal featured a front page article on one legged Iraq war hero Michael Hayes. Here's the link.
http://www.courier-journal.com/article/2012304070011

The next OVW Overview podcast, co-hosted by Larry Goodman, Mohamad Ali Vaez, and myself, will be taped live this Sunday, April 15th at 2 PM Eastern time. Our special guest this month will be Dean Hill, doing his first podcast interview ever. Should be a lot of fun, check it out live, or anytime after that on the archive, at this link.
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/psp/2012/04/15/ovw-overview

1. Mohamad Ali Vaez beat Daniel Pruce

Dark match. Vaez took the mic before the match and complained about the "cowardly" Jamin Olivencia getting Vaez disqualified at the April 7th Saturday Night Special by purposely going over the top rope. I sure didn't see it that way myself. Vaez then beat young Daniel Pruce, who is from Austria, in short order with his running neckbreaker finisher.

2. Taeler Hendrix w/Dylan Bostic beat Heather Owens by submission

Also a dark match. Owens is a blonde chick with a lot of tattoos from Cincinnati. She had "H2O" emblazoned on her rear end. Hendrix, the current OVW Womens champion, has turned heelish, and is certainly wearing the pants, and calling the shots, in her relationship with Dylan Bostic. This went a little while, and wasn't especially good or bad. The flexible Hendrix got the win by submission by bridging over backwards and pulling back on Owens' neck.

3. Rob Terry beat Tony Gunn

Yet another dark match. Tony Gunn is now wrestling in slacks, a bow tie, but no shirt, and extolling the virtues of his ever present "Happy pills". In fact, Gunn said Rob Terry needed a happy pill, and offered him a few, but Terry was not amused, knocked the pills away, and beat Gunn quickly with a chokeslam. Who's happy now?

The TV taping opened with a several minutes long video recapping the April 7th Saturday Night Special. A very well done piece. OVW has done a remarkable job in general of stepping it up in the last several months as far as video packages goes.

Out to the ring came Josette Bynum, along with "The Family", consisting of Rob Terry, Jessie Godderz, Rudy Switchblade, and Mohamad Ali Vaez. Bynum was mocking Trailer Park Trash here by wearing suspenders with her outfit, and a TPT like hat. Next came a VERY, and I do mean VERY long talking segment, as Bynum established herself as now being fully in control of OVW, or Jo-VW as she called it, and she wanted to find out who was with her, and who was against her, and it took a Hell of a long time to do it. The crowd was fairly quiet for a lot of this, which made it seem worse than it was. I didn't think it was that bad myself, just really long. Here's a recap of what went down..

Bynum first called out Martin Richardson, who runs the production end of OVW, and was the man who put the show opening video together. Bynum then fired Richardson for not receiving permission from her ahead of time to use that footage for the video.

Bynum then called out Trailer Park Trash, AKA Frank Miller, and said she would keep him around to do menial jobs, like "Taking out the Trash". TPT came out briefly, said he was only keeping the job because he had a daughter to raise, then he dropped the mic and left.

Bynum then addressed OVW owner Danny Davis saying Davis wasn't here, but instead was at home on the couch adjusting the string in his sweatpants. Bynum said Davis still owns OVW, but she now runs the TV show, and the OVW Board of Directors has voted "No confidence" in Davis. Ok, this made no sense. Davis really should have been there front and center during this segments.

Bynum then ordered the entire OVW roster to come out, to see who was with her, and who was against her. Jobber Chase King was the first to join up and be with her, besides "The Family" of course.

Bynum said she knew OVW Heavyweight champion Johnny Spade was a lost cause, but offered his once again friend, Shiloh Jonze, another title shot at Spade if Jonze joined up with her. Jonze rebuked Bynum.

Bynum then told Raul Lamotta he'd be defending his newly won OVW Southern tag team titles tonight. Lamotta said no because his partner Anarquia is not here tonight. Bynum said she knows that, because she sent Anarquia to Ashland, Ky for an autograph signing, so Lamotta would have to go it alone tonight. Gee, shouldn't these OVW babyfaces get a lot smarter and figure out what's going on when Bynum sends them way out of town the night they tape TV? Duh.

Mohamad Ali Vaez took the mic and said Bynum should address the actions by the "cowardly" Jamin Olivencia this past Saturday. A bit of dissension was again teased with Vaez and "The Family" as Bynum sort of blew Vaez off, and said she'd address that issue later, which she never did on this show.

Taeler Hendrix, with Dylan Bostic in tow, got in the ring and joined up with Bynum. Bynum and Hendrix were rivals for the OVW Womens title, and Bynum basically told Hendrix to show her something, and these two still don't like each other at all. Hendrix was showing a very heelish attitude.

Brandon Espinosa came out, with his "friend" Chris, and complained to Bynum about Paredyse showing an incriminating video about him tonight. Paredyse, who did not join up with Bynum, said there was a contract, and that video would air tonight. Bynum didn't like that at all.

Bynum then asked Bolin Services 2.0 where they stood. They joined with Bynum, but Prince Bolin said there had to be several conditions to it. Bolin then asked James "Moose" Thomas to rejoin their group. Moose went babyface this past Saturday, and was on the floor with Michael Hayes, and Mickey, the simple former BS 2.0 personal assistant, and Bolin abusing Mickey is what led to the Moose face turn. Moose told Bolin to stick it, which got a big pop.

Bynum asked where OVW TV champion Chris Silvio was, but he wasn't out at ringside with the rest of the troops.

Johnny Spade finally told everyone who wasn't with Bynum to go to the back with him. Whew...

By the way, the whole time this was going on Ted McNaler was arguing with his girlfriend, ring announcer Brittany DeVore, on the floor. While that was going on, Adam Revolver was on the floor, peeking around the ringpost to eavesdrop on the argument between DeVore and McNaler, and Revolver had a big devious grin on his face. At the very end of the segment, Revolver slid into the ring and joined up with Bynum, behind DeVore's back. That was funny.

Alex Silva was walking down the hall backstage. He was stopped by Bynum to find out where he stood, but Silva didn't seem to give her a definite answer either way. Silva then went to the ring leading to..

4. Alex Silva beat ???

This was the first match of the TV taping, finally. Didn't catch the name of Silva's opponent here, but it was a very tall Black guy, who was in pretty decent shape. Silva slipped, and fell off the top rope during his introduction, which seemed to anger and embarrass Silva greatly legit, and this isn't a guy I'd want to be around if he was angry. Silva slapped his opponent across the face hard, and then won very quickly with his "Silva Surfer" running knee finisher.

Soon as Silva went backstage, he was met by Johnny Spade and Shiloh Jonze, who asked if he was with them, or Josette Bynum. Silva again didn't give a straight answer.

Randy Royal came to the ring and grabbed a mic, great, just what we need here, more talking. Royal called out Dylan Bostic, and "his little prostatot" Taeler Hendrix. Prostatot...LOL! Ok, that was funny.

Hendrix again did the talking for Bostic here, calling herself the "Leading lady", and argued with Royal. Not sure when Royal turned babyface here, or even if he did, but he was suddenly in the face role in this segment here, since Hendrix has become such a royal b###h. Black lady wrestler Epiphany came out and joined the fray, and some bad brawling went on, until Josette Bynum came out and made this an official mixed tag match, leading to...

5. Dylan Bostic & Taeler Hendrix beat Randy Royal & Epiphany

The OVW track meet was on as Epiphany chased Hendrix around on the floor, but Hendrix got the better of her. Hendrix then got in Randy Royal's face in the ring, allowing Dylan Bostic to roll up Royal for the win very quickly. Sheesh, what a waste of time and breath this was.

The post taping dark match, that I couldn't stick around for, was X2C(Sean Casey & Raphael Constantine), along with a partner of their choosing, against Michael Hayes, Jamin Olivencia, and James "Moose" Thomas.

WED. UPDATE Wrestling Observer News and Notes for 04/11/2012

2012-04-14T06:22:00.002-07:00

--Smackdown's rating last night was a 1.5, the lowest first-run rating of the show in years.

--USA won the prime time ratings race again this past week with a 2.1 average to 1.6 for Disney and 1.4 for Fox News. FX was No. 10 at 1.0. Syfy was No. 16 at 0.7. Spike didn't crack the top 25. Raw was No. 1 and No. 2 on cable last week for the day after Mania show. It was No 3 and No. 4 in 18-34 and No. 1 and No. 2 in 18-49.

--The front page story in yesterday's Los Angeles Times about R.J. Brewer of Lucha Libre USA (thanks to Ed Tabash and many others)

--Mick Foley praises WWE Divas like Kelly Kelly and the Bella Twins.

--The Super Fight League's third show will be 5/6 from New Delhi, India, featuring Bobby Lashley vs. James Thompson, Trevor Prangley vs. Baga Agaev, Doug "Rhino" Marshall vs. Zelg Galesic and Joanne Calderwood vs. Len Ovchynnikova.

--WWE announced its return to Washington, DC at the Verizon Center will be a house show on 12/29. Tickets are on sale right now at Ticketmaster using WWEDC as the password.

--Rima Fakih, the former Miss USA on Tough Enough, pleaded no contest earlier today to drunken driving charges. As part of the plea bargain, charges of having open intoxicants in her vehicle and careless driving were dropped. She will be sentenced on 5/9 and is unlikely to get any time in prison. Her lawyer expects her to get minimal probation in Los Angeles, where she now lives. Fakih was arrested on 12/3 in Highland Park, MI. She was pulled over for speeding and erratic driving. Officers found a half empty bottle of champagne in her Jaguar behind the seat. She took a breathalyzer test and blew a 0.19 and 0.20, both more than double the legally allowed 0.08 limit. (thanks to Paul Nucci)

--Chris Jericho will be on Adam Carolla's podcast on Friday. (thanks to Sean Reyerse)

--Based on Twitter messages, the Bella Twins, Alicia Fox, Kaitlyn and Tamina Snuka did not go on the European tour. There may be some people who didn't go immediately that will be flying out for TV on Monday and Tuesday in London, but went home first.

--In a worked Twitter angle, they are pretending that Dean Ambrose was sent home from television because he was told Mick Foley was uncomfortable around him.

--NFL.com has a column comparing John Cena to Tim Tebow. The same writer also posted a column comparing The Rock's Twitter usage to that of projected top draft pick Robert Griffith III.

--Tickets for the 6/1 UFC Ultimate Fighter Live finale show on FX, plus the Jake Ellenberger vs. Martin Kampmann main event, are on sale today to Fight Club members. The show will be in Las Vegas at the Palms Hotel. You can get tickets tomorrow at Ticketmaster by using the password "LIVE."

--ESPN had a story on Mark Cuban where he brought up the angle he did with Sheamus on Raw a few years back.

--Tickets for the three-hour Raw on 6/11 in Hartford at the XL Center go on sale on Friday at 10 a.m. The main event being advertised is Jon Cena & C.M. Punk & Sheamus vs. Daniel Bryan & Mark Henry & Kane.

--River City Wrestling has its 10 year anniversary show on Saturday night in San Antonio at the Good Shepherd Lutheran Church. A.J. Summers vs. Alissa Flash in a man vs. woman match headlines. Shelly Martinez is also on the show, as are the famous early 90s tag team The Head Hunters and Randy Savage's former girlfriend who used the name Gorgeous George in WCW.

--The 5/25 Bellator shows headlined by Cole Konrad defending the heavyweight title against Eric Prindle will be in New Orleans at the Ernest N. Moral Convention Center.

--Today is the 15th anniversary of Jacques Rougeau beating Hulk Hogan clean at the Molson Centre (now Bell Centre) in Montreal. The show drew the biggest non-WWE pro wrestling crowd in the city since 1986. Despite urban legends, the match did not turn into a shoot. Hogan willingly did the job since Jacques was the promoter and it was a house show, even though Hogan rarely agreed to do jobs at that time.

--Evolve on Friday night in Toronto at the Doubletree by Hilton at the Toronto Airport as part of the WrestleReunion convention has:

Fit Finlay vs. Sami Callihan

Low Ki vs. El Generico

Johnny Gargano vs. AR Fox

Chuck Taylor vs. Samuray del Sol

The Scene vs. Super Smash Brothers

Bobby Fish vs. Alex Reynolds

John Silver vs. Cheech

Josh Alexander vs. ?

There will also be prelims at 7 p.m. presented by Alpha-1 with Michael Elgin appearing.

--Randy Couture and UFC lightweight champion Benson Henderson have been added to the MMA Show on 5/12 and 5/13 at the NEC in Birmingham, England.

--Frank Mir and Miguel Angel Torres are scheduled for MMA Uncensored tomorrow night on Spike.

--A story on the Judy Martin & Joyce Grable vs. Steve O & Jerry Roberts (Jacques Rougeau Jr.) match at the Omni on Thanksgiving night of 1980. It was unique at that time having women vs. men, but this match was not nearly the big deal at the time this article made it out to be. It was just a prelim match on a long show, and was promoted about as much as a normal prelim match would be promoted. Jeff Leen, who wrote the great bio of Mildred Burke, wrote this article.

--Scott Hall's lawyer Loredana Nesci told TMZ today that Hall never got violent with his girlfriend and also claimed that his girlfriend Lisa Howell corroborated that story. However, that contradicts what Howell said in Hall's arrest report, although she now does not want to press charges..

Who should Brock Lesnar's second major feud be with?

C.M. Punk 34.5%

Randy Orton 24.6%

Sheamus 11.0%

Undertaker 10.1%

HHH 9.7%

Rock 7.5%

Steve Austin 2.6%

If you used to watch TNA regularly and no longer do, why?

Didn't enjoy it for a long time so stopped watching 34.4%

Realized TNA will never be serious competition or go anywhere 27.3%

Nothing exciting on the show 13.2%

Don't like the storylines 11.0%

WWE is enough wrestling to keep up with 7.3%

Nobody seems like stars 5.1%

Quality of matches isn't good 1.8%

If you used to watch Ultimate Fighter and no longer do, why?

Interest in UFC is waning 34.3%

Same show every time 33.3%

It's on Friday 15.5%

The show doesn't develop new stars like it used to 12.2%

Coaches this season don't do it for me 4.6%

Did you like RAW?

Excellent 8.3%

Good 46.0%

Average 23.3%

Fair 10.6%

Poor 11.9%
7.8% of those responding didn't see the show

--There will be a Smackdown taping on 8/7 in Houston at the Toyota Center.

--A story on Graeme McGaw of Kingston, Ontario, who won the Mick Foley WrestleMania raffle.

--A.J. Kirsch of Tough Enough did some videos on Youtube about being on the show, ripping on Bill DeMott, Trish Stratus and Booker T. When he mentioned that he may see DeMott and Steve Austin at Cauliflower Alley, Austin wrote, "Damn right you will. I may turn your little lights out at the event."

--Shane Helms is back doing his Internet show tonight at 7 p.m.

--CZW has its first iPPV show live on Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. on HybridENT.tv and USTREAM.

--ECWA on 5/5 in Newark, De at the Greater Newark Boys and Girls Club features Papadon vs. Kekoa the Flyin Hawaiian. Speaking of ECWA, partial ownership of the promotion is for sale for $5000 on craigslist. That is the price for 20% of the company as one of the owners is looking to sell because he said he no longer has the time to devote to the business. (thanks to Phillip Lynn)

--Empire Wrestling on Friday night in Avondale Estates, GA at the Academy Theater

--NWA Lone Star Texas Stampede Wrestling on Saturday night in Butch Springs (near Dallas) with Kevin Douglas vs. Kahagus in a battle of the NWA jr. champion vs. NWA national champion.

--Former UFC heavyweight fighter Sean McCorkle makes his pro wrestling debut for Freedom Pro Wrestling on 4/20 in Onalaska, WI on a show that includes Tommy Dreamer, Sabu and Shane Douglas.

--The School of Roc latest episode is up.

--Here's an interview with J.J. Dillon talking about being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.

--The University of MMA has a show on 5/20 in Los Angeles at Club Nokia.

--Todos X Todos on Saturday night in Houston at the Arena Theater has El Hijo del Santo & Huracan Ramirez & Rayo de Jalisco Jr. vs. Angel Blanco Jr. & Dandy & El Hijo del Solitario

--Tom Cassa (ThmCa5@aol.com) is selling his collection of wrestling magazines from 1961-2003. He'd like to sell it as a complete collection.

--FEW on 5/12 in Fort Wayne, IN at The Fight House.

--Stacy Keibler is featured in the new issue of Hello! Magazine in the U.K. (thanks to Brian Henke)

--Ring Wars Carolinas on 4/21 in Lumberton, NC at the Indoor Flea Market.

--UWC Championship Wrestling TV for the week.

--A show on Saturday at Centerfold's in Pompano, FL, promoted by Future of Wrestling has been moved to the VFW Post 2500 in Hollywood, FL, and will start at 4 p.m. instead of 3 p.m. Headbanger Mosh vs. Jesse Neal headlines the show.

--Ed, Craig and Cutrer talk WrestleMania weekend.

TUES UPDATE: Wrestling Observer News and Notes 04/11/2012

2012-04-11T06:29:00.002-07:00

-- The Scott Hall domestic abuse story is up here. Quite the 180 from a week or two ago when we heard Hall was doing much better.
-- ROH has added KFDM in Beaumont, TX as an affiliate starting with the April 22nd show. It'll air around midnight.
-- The Daniel Bryan "YES!" shirts are already on back-order, so it's a good week for his pocketbook.
-- David Letterman last night, when talking about how Donald Trump told Rick Santorum to drop out of the presidential race "with dignity", said, "If anyone knows about dignity, it's Donald Trump." He then showed footage of Trump beating the crap out of Vince McMahon from several years back.
-- Just an awesome article on Bruno Sammartino and Toronto by Greg Oliver up here.
-- Eric Prindle suffered a hand injury in training, so his Bellator heavyweight title match with Cole Kondrad, which was scheduled for this Friday, has been moved to the end of May. This Prindle fella, one thing after another. First, his championship match with Thiago Santos last season went to a no contest when Santos gave him a blatant low blow. They tried to do the rematch several weeks back but it didn't happen, either because Prindle was sick or Santos couldn't make weight or both (we heard all stories). Then the next week Santos for sure didn't make weight, missing by 13 pounds, so the fight was scrapped and Prindle was given the tournament win via forfeit. He was scheduled to get his title shot this Friday but now that's off the table.
-- Although the ratings for TUF and the Jones vs. Evans Primetime debut (see front page for the full video) were dire, and Smackdown coming off WrestleMania and the return of Brock Lesnar also did nothing special (below the recent average, in fact), for whatever reason Bellator did the highest rating all season, 175,000 viewers, only slightly below the average for last season and way above average for this season.
-- Will Sasso, who played Hulk Hogan and Curly last night, is a huge pro-wrestling fan and did an angle with Bret Hart way back in the WCW days, which you can check out here. He also did a Smackdown angle years back as well. WWE really likes him and the feeling is mutual.
-- Fit Finlay interview here.
-- ROH's new Nigel McGuinness career retrospective DVD is available here.
-- Jim writes: Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich was on Stern this morning and Howard asked him the story about Hogan being asked by Lars to join Metallica in the early 80’s. Lars started laughing, said he heard the story about 2-3 months ago and said he had ‘no recollection’ of it happening, but ‘anything is possible between 5am – 7am when your noses are bleeding.’ He said he wasn’t much of a wrestling fan, and perhaps Hogan auditioned under his ‘Christian name.’Thanks to everyone else who sent that in as well.
-- For UFC Tonight on FUEL there will be a 149 fight announcement, and also the crew will discuss Alistair Overeem and PED's in MMA. Hopefully they do a better job than then MMA Uncensored Live crew did.
-- Deadline New York talks the Three Stooges here.
-- Tickets for EVOLVE in Toronto this weekend can be purchased here. Gabe Sapolsky is on Figure Four Daily today to talk the show plus Mania weekend and answer your questions, which you can post here.
-- AAA matchmaker Konnan and MLW President/former WWE Creative Executive Court Bauer once again joined Mister Saint Laurent on MLW Radio presented by BarberShopWindow.com. Both spoke about Shawn Michaels' disdain for losing: "I remember that was a big thing with Shawn Michaels and Hulk Hogan. It was supposed to be three matches and it became one match, which was a cartoon match because of the sensitivity of who was going over," said Bauer. Konnan added, "Shawn told this to Rey Mysterio once and I couldn't believe it and I told Rey Mysterio, please don't follow that advice. He said that Shawn once told him, 'Do you like doing jobs?' and Rey said, 'I don't mind.' Shawn said, 'I don't. I don't like doing jobs and you shouldn't either.' I was thinking to myself, that's the worst advice you can give to a young guy. You just never know when a wrestler is going to go to Vince when nobody is listening and say I'd rather not do this. I don't want to put these guys over." You can listen to part 2 of the Konnan & Court Bauer episode of MLW Radio presented by BarberShopWindow.com for FREE at www.MLW.com and on iTunes (search: MLW Radio) and StitcherRadio.com
-- NWA Lone Star/Texas Stampede Wrestling present "Knuckle Up" this Saturday (April 14th) in Balch Springs (just outside of Dallas) Texas. On the card, NWA Junior Heavyweight Champion "The Modern Day Hero" Kevin Douglas defends against newly crowned NWA National Champion "The Tokyo Monster" Kahagas. This match was booked prior to Kahagas's title win, and has now turned into a rare match featuring 2 of the top NWA Champions facing off. Also on the card, GWT Indy World Champion Tim Storm defends against "Main Event" Mike Foxx (w/Lance Romance) with Texas legend Action Jackson as the special referee. All this and much more this Saturday at the Balch Springs Rec. Center in Balch Springs, Texas. More information can be found at TxStampedeWrestling.com
-- PWF Northeast returns to action Saturday May 5 at the Davey Lopes Recreation Center(aka PWF Northeast Arena) at 227 Dudley Street in Providence, Rhode Island with a 7 PM local bell time.
-- "Chikarasaurus Rex: How to Hatch a Dinosaur" Saturday, June 2nd, 2012 Live at the Trocadero Theatre in Philadelphia, PA! Streaming live, worldwide via GFL.tv! Doors = 6:00 pm :: Belltime = 7:00 pm Click to visit the official event page
-- Crossfire Entertainment, LLC Presents Crossfire LIVE! Fundraiser Benefiting the Make-A-Wish Foundation® of Middle Tennessee LIVE Saturday, May 19, 2012 Nashville Fairgrounds Sports Arena 625 Smith Ave, Nashville, TN 37203 Belltime: 7:30 PM – Doors: 6:30 PM VIP Event Pre-Show: 5:30 – 6:30 PM www.crossfirellc.vze.com (Log on for all the latest news and live events that have been signed!) VIP Seating: $15 (Reserved Seating: Includes Special VIP Event w/ Commemorative Ticket) General Admission: $10 (Bleacher Seating w/ Commemorative Ticket) $2 of each ticket goes to the Make-A-Wish Foundation! Sponsored by: Red Rooster Bar & Music, Hollywood Tans, Free at Last Bail Bonding, Jonathan Augusta Attorney at Law, Advanced Financial, Doak Patton Attorney at Law, Lotus Energy, Exodus Health Center, Rent-A-Center
-- Will it be a black eye for MMA if Overeem is licensed to face Dos Santos?
Yes 53.4%
Depends on the evidence presented, but probably 33.1%
No, it's all a game with steroids anyway 8,0%
No, MMA is at the pro wrestling level where it's beneath media scrutiny and gets a free pass real sports won't 5.5%
Who was the biggest U.S. drawing card coming out of Lucha Libre?
Rey Misterio Jr. 50.3%
Eddy Guerrero 28.5%
Mil Mascaras 15.1%
Konnan 2.6%
El Santo 2.6%
El Hijo del Santo 0.7%
Perro Aguayo Sr. 0.2%
Who do you expect to win this fight?
Alexander Gustafsson 62.9%
Thiago Silva 37.1%
-- Ed, Craig and the crew talk WrestleMania weekend live here.
-- New wacky Daniel Bryan interview here.

Scott Hall arrested for allegedly beating girlfriend

2012-04-11T06:27:00.002-07:00

Scott Hall was arrested on Friday on domestic battery charges after girlfriend Lisa Howell told police that the former wrestling star had attacked her.
However, Howell is refusing to press charges so the case may not move forward.
Police were called at about 5 p.m. on Friday regarding a domestic disturbance, and Howell told them Hall had been drinking for days and the two argued. She got into her car to leave and claimed Hall grabbed her by the throat and tried to pull her out of the car.
When police arrived, they described Hall as appearing to be heavily intoxicated with white secretion coming out of both sides of his mouth. Hall denied doing anything physical to Howell, however Howell had red marks around her neck consistent with being grabbed around the throat.
When he arrived at the police station, they believed him to be so drunk that they first brought him to the hospital.
Hall was released on Saturday on $500 bond.

MON. UPDATE: Wrestling Observer News 04/09/2012

2012-04-10T10:00:00.000-07:00

Monday's News, Notes & Links

--The UFC has filed a license request for Alistair Overeem to be licensed to face Junior Dos Santos on 5/26 in Las Vegas. The hearing will be on 4/24. There is a lot at stake for everyone involved right now in this situation.

--The California State Athletic Commission today upheld the full year suspension for Cris Cyborg for testing positive for Stanazolol. She, through her lawyer, claimed the substance she took was given to her by her coach as a weight loss aid. One member of the commission, John Frierson, introduced a motion to cut her suspension to six months for her willingness to appear and take responsibility, but nobody would second the motion. That would have been one scary bad decision.

--There is something to watch. Brianna & Nicole Garcia, the Bella Twins in WWE, are doing an autograph show on 5/19 at Frank & Sons in the City of Industry, CA. They are being advertised as "Brianna and Nichole, formerly The Bella Twins in WWE." We also got word of a convention in New Jersey that has them booked although is not advertising it yet and WWE talent is not allowed at their events. If they are not on television tonight, I'd read something into this.

Given Nikki Bella just beat Beth Phoenix in a non-title match at Smackdown, it wouldn't seem that they would be quitting or being let go today. There were rumors over the weekend that WWE had made some cuts but they wouldn't be announced until everything was finalized and everyone was contacted. WWE did not confirm anything regarding the Twins.

Regarding the 5/19 autograph signing, besides the Twins, also advertised are Shawn Michaels, Kevin Nash, Vader, Bob Backlund, Superstar Billy Graham, Road Warrior Animal and Koko Ware. They have another one scheduled on 6/23 with Lex Luger, George Steele, Tito Santana and Rick Steiner. (thanks to Robb Block)

--C.M. Punk was on a TV morning show in Washington, DC, promoting tonight's show. When Steve Austin was brought up and him challenging Austin was talked about, he said he was above challenging Austin and that he's the champion and Austin is retired, so Austin should be challenging him. He was clearly working while saying that.

He did say that Rock had proved him wrong about his return and that he has a wait-and-see attitude on Brock Lesnar, saying that he already walked out once because he couldn't handle the pressure of being world champion. That's isn't why he walked out, but Punk could be angling for a potential match there as well, and quite frankly, Lesnar should be viewed as a wait-and-see given his track record.

--Smackdown did 2.72 million viewers on Friday, well below the pre-Mania numbers so no boost at all from Monday's Lesnar intrigue. Ultimate Fighter did 947,000 viewers, the lowest number for a first-run episode in the history of the show.

--Randy Orton retweeted something a fan sent in saying "Everyone knows about Randy Orton past, so you offer him the movie part and then decide to drop him?" Unlike others, Orton is pretty much immune for the usual backlash when you say something on twitter that the company isn't happy with.

--Rashad Evans and Jon Jones were taped together for tomorrow night's Ultimate Insider TV show that airs at 10:30 p.m. tomorrow on Fuel. Apparently they went back and forth as you can imagine.

--The 5/12 Border Wars show in Toronto will be headlined by the Davey Richards vs. Kevin Steen ROH title match with the piledriver legal that they've been building up since December. Notable the match is in Toronto, as they clearly want Steen to be the babyface on that night. The match will be on iPPV. Kevin Kelly wrote yesterday it would be on iPPV but not Go Fight Live. We're told that some are unhappy Kelly put that out -- not that it isn't true, but that they haven't finalized a deal for a new carrier.

--Here's an update on legalization of MMA in New York. The story notes how State Sen. Joe Griffin of Rome, NY, has sponsored a bill that he hopes will pass in the senate by the end of the month. The senate has passed it before but it always gets hung up in the Assembly.

What rating to you expect Raw to get tonight?

2.8 or less 1.9%

2.9 1.1%

3.0 5.6%

3.1 16.2%

3.2 22.9%

3.3 16.9%

3.4 12.8%

3.5 11.3%

3.6 3.8%

3.7 3.0%

3.8 0.8%

3.9 or more 3.8%

What describes most accurately your feelings right now toward Overeem vs. Dos Santos?

Overeem should be fired right now 40.8%

I hope Overeem's second sample comes up clean so we can have the fight 25.7%

He really should be fired, but I don't want him fired because of his marketability 14.8%

He needs to be out for at least one year 8.5%

He needs to be out for longer than one year because of how everything went down 7.4%

He needs to be suspended, but am hoping the suspension is short 2.8%

What was the best of these shows?

WrestleMania 63.0%

ROH night two 11.6%

UFC in Japan 8.6%

Strikeforce Tate vs. Rousey 5.1%

Dragon Gate night two 3.4%

Dragon Gate night one 1.7%

TNA Victory Road 1.7%

ROH Anniversary show 1.7%

WWE Elimination Chamber 1.0%

UFC Ellenberger vs. Sanchez 1.0%

ROH night one 0.7%

TNA Against All Odds 0.3%

What was the best TV show of last week?

Raw 69.6%

ROH 7.3%

Smackdown 6.2%

Impact 5.8%

Prime Time Evans vs. Jones 5.4%

Ultimate Fighter 3.5%

Inside MMA 1.2%

UFC Tonight 1.2%

Did you like the latest ROH TV show?

Excellent 25.3%

Good 41.3%

Average 21.3%

Fair 1.3%

Poor 10.7%

52.2% of those responding didn't see the show

--More notes on a seminar and tryout for All Japan Pro Wrestling on 6/2 in Deer Park, NY at the Sportatorium. This is a onetime event from noon to 4 p.m. that day with cardio conditioning, in-ring drills, matches, promos and ring psychology being talked about. You will be taught Japanese style wrestling from Keiji Muto and Kai of All Japan. Bring your attire because some people from the seminar may be asked to do a match later that night on the PWS show. Only 50 people will be allowed. Registration fee is $199. For more info go to ProWrestlingSyndicateStaff@yahoo.com.

--The 6/2 show will feature Keiji Muto, Mil Mascaras and Vader all appearing.

--AAA booker Konnan and former WWE writer and MLW promoter Court Bauer are back on Radio MLW for free and Stitcher radio. In the latest show, they tell a story about Shawn Michaels not liking to lose.

--The funeral for pro wrestling announcer Miguel Alonso, made famous in the 70s on SIN which was syndicated around the country, and later in the 80s with WWF and 90s with WCW, will have the viewing on 4/13 from 5-7 p.m., the rosary from 7-9 p.m. and a service at 9 a.m. on 4/14 at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park and Mortuary at 4472 Lincoln Ave., in Cypress, CA. For more info you can call 800-204-3131. The public is invited. (thanks to Mike Lano)

--NWA Metro Pro Wrestling from Saturday night in Kansas City: Dey Osyleyz b Ice Man, ACH b Sir Bradley Charles, Kahagus b Jeremy Wyatt, Dingo b Dan Walsh, Mark Sterling b Tyler Cook, Dey Oysleyz b Mad Dog McDowell, Jeremy Wyatt b Michael Strider, Santana Garrett b Christina Von Eerie, Adam Pearce b Matt Murphy to retain NWA title. (Pearce lost the title to Colt Cabana last night). (thanks to Al Haft)

--Lion Fight Muay Thai VI on 5/12 at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas headlined by WBC light heavyweight champion Joe Schilling vs. Simon Marcus.

--Latest All Pro Wrestling Gym Wars TV.

--SoCal Pro Wrestling on 4/21 in Oceanside, CA at the Boys & Girls Club with a TLC match with Kid Caramba vs. Tommy Wilson as the main event.

--WSU has a DVD taping on 4/28 in Deer Park, NY at the NYWC Sportatorium with Jessicka Havoc vs. Mercedes Martinez as the main event. There is also a mixed tag team tournament for the King & Queen of the Ring on 4/14 in Dunnellen, FL at the Knights of Columbus Hall with the NWS promotion. Snitsky will be on that show.

--NWA Rampage Pro Wrestling on 4/15 at 3 p.m. at Johnny G's in Warner-Robins, GA for a TV taping.

--Traditional Championship Wrestling from Saturday night in Fort Smith, AR at the Convention Center before 600 fans: Greg Anthony b X-Cal, Boink the Clown (Matt Osborne) b Les Mayne, Dexter Hardaway b Dustin Heritage, Genetic Perfection b Richie Adams & Les Mayne, Jon Michael Worthington b Sigmon, Mickie James b Cheerleader Melissa, Matt Riviera b Jeff Jett, Shane Williams b Richie Adams, Tim Storm b Killer Nikels. Chris Cruise and Ken Resnick worked as announcers. Bobby Eaton works as an agent for this group. Next show is 5/5 in Pine Bluff, AR featuring Tammy Sytch, Ricky Morton, Boink and Eaton.

--GOUGE on 4/14 in Roxboro, NC at the National Guard Armory for a 7 p.m. show.

--NWS on 4/20 in Kearny, NJ at the Presbyterian Boys and Girls Club with Kevin Nash appearing as a referee. 4/27 in Manville, NJ at the VFW Hall has Fit Finlay, Danny Inferno and Mini Boogeyman.

--IWA East Coast on 5/4 in Clendenin, WV headilned by Rhino vs. B.J. Whitmer plus Mad Man Pondo and Chance Prophet.

--Tulalip Championship Wrestling on Saturday night in Marysville, WA: Calibur X b Ray Brooks, Kellen Raeth & Christopher Ryseck b Brickhouse Bereta & Dave Turner, Ethan HD b Exile-COR, Aaron Bolo & Damon James b Sid Sylum & Mike Santiago. Next show is 4/14 in Marysville, WA at the Pacific Rim Restaurant (thanks to Charles Short)

Honky Tonk Man talks not doing the job for Savage and why

2012-04-10T09:00:00.000-07:00

The Honky Tonk Man Talks Winning The IC Title, Refusing To Lose The
Belt To Randy Savage

Former WWE Intercontinental Champion The Honky Tonk Man recently spoke
with Raj Giri of WrestlingINC.com about working with WWF in the 1980s,
how he won the Intercontinental title, his feuds with Randy Savage and
The Ultimate Warrior, problems with the business today, scripted
promos, his problems with Eric Bischoff and much more. Here are some
highlights from the interview:

How he won the Intercontinental title: "I just
happened to walk by while they were standing in the hallway and Hogan
looked and said, 'What about him?' That's how it happened because
Butch was going AWOL or M.I.A. -- which happens some times. Of course,
it was like Jake (Roberts). Jake was missing in action about half the
time he was there.

"I just happened to walk by and they said, 'What about him,' and I
said, 'OK.' Vince pulled me aside and told me what he wanted to do.
(Ricky) Steamboat was leaving and, you know -- after all these years,
Steamboat gets a job as an agent, making all this money. I'm sitting
home doing nothing and he was the one that got the belt from Savage
and up and quit the company. Saying, 'I want to go home and spend time
with my wife and children.'

"Of course, if you have a championship belt, you don't go home and
spend time with your wife and children. You have to be on the road and
[Vince] said, 'This guy wants to go and do this and I got to have the
belt in a town.' I said, 'Listen, if you give me that belt, I don't
want a day off.' And I ran with that belt for 64 weeks."

Refusing to drop the title to Randy Savage: "It
wasn't really about dropping the title. I was talking to my friend,
"Rock N' Roll" Buck Zumhofe from the old AWA days, who I was on tour
with all this past week up in Northern Minnesota and Wisconsin. It
wasn't the fact of losing the belt or anything of that nature.

"I had a deal with WWE and Vince, a handshake deal. There were no
contracts back then. 'I'll do anything you want if you give me an
opportunity. If I do good, pay me. If I don't do good, I'll pack my
bags and move down the highway.' All I said was, 'Treat me good on TV.
Take care of me on television.' Back in the old days, us old guys
always believed that if they destroy you on television, you're pretty
much destroyed.

"So, when they mentioned the destruction of the Honky Tonk Man on
television and going with 'Macho Man' -- you know, in reality, if
'Macho Man' was still around today and with us at a roundtable. It did
his career better than mine because he became world champion as
opposed to being the Intercontinental champion again. For that reason,
Ted DiBiase -- who still has a little animosity towards me though not
a lot -- Ted never got to be world champion because Ted was going to
be world champion.

"This particular television show had 35 million people watching. That
particular Main Event had 35 million people. You got to remember;
Turner had a lot of money and Turner was trying to make a run at
Vince. I said, 'No. I'm not going to do this on television. You want
to do it, I'll do it anywhere else. I'm not doing it in front of 35
million people.'

"I had to protect my business, too. My business, of course, was the
Honky Tonk Man because I could have taken it to Turner. I did make a
call to Turner and they said, 'Absolutely not. Do not do that on
television if you want to come down here with us.' We had a meeting
set and down and then I ended up staying with WWE which was probably
not the best move of my life because, after that, they never trusted
me again.

Dropping the title to The Ultimate Warrior: "They had
him in the plans after the Savage thing. Because Hogan wanted to go to
Hollywood and he wanted to make movies and he was leaving the company,
they needed someone. Vince was always into these big bodybuilders. He
loved that no matter where they could work or not. It didn't matter.
He just cared that they had these great bodies and that's what he
wanted.

"Warrior fit the mold and at that point, Vince decided he wanted to go
that direction. The Intercontinental belt was such a hot item that it
was a stepping stone to the big belt. For him to get the
Intercontinental championship for me and keep it for six months or
eight months, then move up to the next level made him bigger and
better than he would have ever been... It was a catapult to the next
level and I didn't have a problem with it when it was done that way.
It was done and everybody was professional about it. We knew about it
six months ahead of time what was going to happen. We planned for it
and it was laid out the proper way. I didn't have any problem with
that.

"I was kind of ambushed on the Randy thing. I was at a point in my
life where things were going so good and we were doing so well, Randy
and I, selling out every arena -- I just couldn't understand why you
would just want to destroy this whole thing. Then, make him the
Intercontinental champion (again) which probably would not have helped
him very much at all. Him chasing me was what was selling tickets. If
there were no return matches for me even in the mix -- it was like
that old TV show, The Six Million Dollar Man 'We can rebuild him.' No.
You can't rebuild something you've destroyed.

"That was my old timer's thinking. Now, they bring these kids in and
one day they got one name and the next day, they've got another. One
day they've got blond hair, the next day, they've got brown hair."

WWE Raw Report

2012-04-10T08:24:00.000-07:00

John Laurinaitis came to the ring and introduced the new face of WWE. He put over Brock Lesnar as someone who is not about catchphrases or entertaining but rather a ruthless real athlete bent on domination. Laurinaitis announced out of the blue Lesnar will face John Cena at Extreme Rules and bring legitimacy back to WWE. Lesnar came out to a much more tepid reaction than last week. Michael Cole acknowledged him as the former UFC heavyweight champion.
Lesnar thanked Laurinaitis and put him over for bringing legitimacy back to WWE. John Cena then quickly interrupted to loud boos. He’s back to grinning and smirking. Cena slapped Lesnar and Lesnar immediately took Cena down. Lesnar threw a punch on the ground that busted up Cena’s lips and Cena was badly bleeding from the mouth. That made for a great visual, particularly since WWE is so squeamish about blood these days. The whole roster came out to pull apart Cena and Lesnar.
John Laurinaitis yelled at Teddy Long backstage. Laurinaitis said Long was supposed to contain John Cena and did not. Laurinaitis demanded Long go get an explanation from Cena as to his actions. Eve Torres came in and told Laurinaitis to call her.
Brodus Clay and Santino Marella beat Jack Swagger and Dolph Ziggler. The heels worked over Santino. Clay tagged in and quickly pinned Ziggler with a head butt, overhead throw and splash. I like the pairing of Clay and Marella. I sure do wish they were treating Ziggler better, however.
Backstage, Laurinaitis told Miz they will talk last week. Long then brought in Cena. Cena still had blood on his face. Cena said he likes to hit and be hit. He accused Laurinaitis of getting a monster to take him out. Cena said he is just getting warmed up and will handle business at Extreme Rules. Cena wanted to compete on Raw and said he would take on anyone. Laurinaitis told Long to inform David Otunga that Otunga would be facing Cena with Laurinaitis in Otunga’s corner.
R. Truth beat Cody Rhodes. They did the exact same shitty finish as last week. Rhodes hit an Alabama slam 15 seconds in. Big Show immediately came out and distracted Rhodes with video, this time video of him distracting Rhodes with video last week. Rhodes was again distracted and Truth hit the leaping downward spiral for the pin. Apart from the terrible, played out finish, it’s sad to see a talent like Rhodes losing to a bottom of the barrel gimmick like the one Truth has right now. Santino did comedy with the actors playing the 3 Stooges backstage.
Lord Tensai beat Yoshi Tatsu with head butts, a corner avalanche and the baldo bomb. The referee again stopped the bout. Tensai applied the claw again afterwards. The crowd heckled Tensai throughout with derisive chants of Albert. The early returns on Tensai are not good at all.
CM Punk came to the ring and said that not everyone gets straight edge. They think that having just one drink isn’t a big deal. Punk said he didn’t choose to be straight edge because it was cool but because it was a way of life. He said he’s proud of straight edge and never wanted anyone to feel sorry for him. He claimed Jericho tried to destroy his privacy and made up lies about his sister, but those things didn’t work and Punk submitted him at Mania.
Unable to get to Punk, Jericho went a step further with the whiskey last week. Punk said that as he was left lying last week, he thought that he smelled like his father. Jericho appeared on the screen to mock Punk. He accused Punk of being hung over or tipsy and said Punk is a loser and CM Drunk. Punk responded that Jericho can’t break him. Punk said Jericho made the biggest mistake of his life because Punk will use this bad place against Jericho. He concluded that this was no longer about being the best in the world but rather about kicking Jericho’s ass. This was a really strong segment, with Punk doing a phenomenal job.
Mark Henry beat CM Punk via DQ. Punk quickly hit Henry with a monitor for the DQ. He was going to hit Henry again when Jericho came out with a lot of beer. Henry used the opportunity to take over and hit the world’s strongest slam on Punk twice. Jericho was going to pour beer on Punk, but Punk got up and attacked Jericho. Jericho quickly hit the code breaker and poured tons and tons of beer on Punk.
Alberto Del Rio beat Zack Ryder. Ryder hit his kick to the head but Del Rio countered the Rough Ryder and slapped on the armbar for the submission.
2 of the stooges came out to the ring to boos. Then the other came out dressed like Hulk Hogan to more boos. They did some stupid comedy. The third stooge did a Hogan impression. Kane came out. The Hogan impersonator hulked up but got choke slammed. Mark Henry backstage said he has a no DQ, no count out match with Punk next week and he’s taking the title.
Backstage, Lesnar said he left WWE 8 years ago and became UFC heavyweight champion. He said he built UFC’s success with his blood, sweat and tears. He added that he’s happy Laurinaitis had the wisdom to bring him back. Cena thinks he’s on top but couldn’t hold his jockstrap. Lesnar said he isn’t in WWE to make friends. He’s proud to be a war machine and ass kicker, but not as proud as the suits and fans are to have him back. This promo was pitch perfect.
John Cena beat David Otunga. Otunga had the advantage for a little while and posed. Cena came back with the five knuckle shuffle, FU and STF for the submission. Afterwards, Lesnar ran in and kicked Cena low. He gave Cena the F5 again. The crowd chanted “one more time,” but Lesnar left.
Final Thoughts:
I thought this show was a mixed bag, both in terms of the show overall and in terms of the Lesnar stuff that was most important.
On the positive side, Cena bleeding made the opening segment. It sent the signal that Lesnar is something different than everyone else, which is precisely what they should be doing. Cena showing signs of damage is also a very good thing for his character. He refuses to sell psychologically so at least he can sell physically. Additionally, Lesnar’s promo backstage was exactly what it should have been. It struck all the right chords. It wasn’t cute or wordy and sounded a lot like how Lesnar actually speaks.
On the negative side, Laurinaitis announcing out of the blue Cena vs. Lesnar on the next PPV was all wrong. There were no challenges issued back and forth and no dramatic pronouncement. It just came across like they were making another match and there was no time to even think about it before it was there. Wrestling isn’t about the payoff; it’s about the build. Lesnar’s return is now in less than three weeks and that feels way, way, way too fast to properly build it. Running it on a B show rather than SummerSlam is already a gamble if you want to get bang for your buck, but doing it so quickly limits to a great degree how big it will be.
Also, linking Lesnar with Laurinaitis would work a lot better had Laurinaitis not spent the past couple months in a lame primary colors feud with Teddy Long. Laurinaitis at this point only subtracts from the Cena/Lesnar issue. Then there’s the more fundamental issue that it’s hard to build a serious feud when you’ve got actors running around the show playing the 3 stooges. It’s just dumb.
I had a few final random thoughts watching this show. First, they have noticeably toned down Michael Cole for a while now and it’s now at the point where I don’t find him irritating any more. That’s a very positive development given how abrasive he was for a while and hopefully they continue along those lines. Second, they’ve also noticeably toned down the Twitter stuff. It was out of control for a period but now it thankfully doesn’t distract from anything. Hopefully that will also continue.
Finally, if they’re going to continue with Lesnar and Cena as the focal points of the show going forward, they really need to do something about the title situation. They’ve got two world titles and I can never recall a point where they have been such an afterthought. There hasn’t even been any pretense of them being particularly important for months now. So what’s even the point? Merging the titles is long overdue. Having Lesnar do it would be perfect to build him up. And then maybe the title could become something that adds drawing power to the top program rather than being props for glorified upper midcard characters.

SUN. UPDATE Wrestling Observer 04/08/2012

2012-04-10T07:51:00.002-07:00

Sunday's News, Notes & Links

--Bryan and I will be back with Observer radio tonight talking weekend news, WWE TV this coming week, the latest TNA news and more. It will be a heavy Q&A program since we just did a show on Friday, so if you've got questions, this is a good day to send them in to mailbag@wrestlingobserver.com

--Wrestling Observer Live will be up on the site from 6-8 p.m. Eastern today covering WrestleMania.

--Hirooki Goto beat Hiroshi Tanahashi in the finals of the Japan Cup tournament earlier today at Korakuen Hall, so he'll get a title shot at IWGP champion Kazuchika Okada on 5/3 in Fukuoka.

--USA Today yesterday had a story on Rulon Gardner trying to make the Olympic team. As noted a few times, unlike Kurt Angle, who got a little mainstream press, but absolutely nobody within the sport of wrestling wrote a thing about him coming back or trying to make the team (for good reason as it turns out), Gardner, who is 40, is being taken seriously, although he is not favored to beat Dremiel Byers for the Greco-Roman 264 pound weight class spot. The trials are in two weeks in Iowa City. Gardner has gone from 474 pounds down to 290, but needs to make 264. The trials will be airing on NBC Sports (formerly Versus). Story is at http://www.usatoday.com/sports/olympics/story/2012-04-07/rulon-gardner-focused-on-losing-weight-for-trials/54095060/1

--Joe Henson, a wrestling Hall of Famer who won a bronze medal at the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki (where he was a teammate of Danny Hodge and Henry Wittenburg among others), passed away on Wednesday at the age of 90. He had suffered a stroke shortly after attending the NCAA finals in St. Louis a few weeks ago. In some form, either as a coach, referee or judge, Henson was part of every Olympic games from 1960 to 2000. The former Navy Captain was living in Tulsa and had been married for 68 years.

--Today is the final day to donate for Nigel McGuinness kickstarter fund for his documentary on the end of his career. The goal is to get the number of donators to 1,000 (he's at 989). There are different categories for different donations and you can check at http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/307482471/the-last-of-mcguinness

--Hacran Dias, who is 20-1 and the training partner of Jose Aldo Jr. at Nova Uniao, has signed a UFC contract. He's enough of a star in Brazil that he signed the contract live on television.

What did you think of Friday Night's Bellator?

Excellent 7.1%

Good 14.3%

Average 17.9%

Fair 28.6%

Poor 32.1%

70.7% of those responding didn't see the show. Pretty bad numbers here.

What did you think of UFC Prime Time Evans vs. Jones episode one?

Excellent 46.7%

Good 26.7%

Average 6.7%

Fair 8.9%

Poor 11.1%

68.8% of those responding didn't see the show. A good show but most people didn't watch it. It was worth seeing.

What did you think of Ultimate Fighter on Friday?

Excellent 6.7%

Good 30.0%

Average 30.0%

Fair 20.0%

Poor 13.3%

59.7% of those responding didn't see the show.

What did you think of Smackdown?

Excellent 6.7%

Good 51.1%

Average 28.1%

Fair 7.4%

Poor 7.4%

30.8% of those responding didn't see the show

Does Evans vs. Jones beat WrestleMania in North American buys?

Yes 17.3%

No 82.7%

--Results from the annual ECWA Super 8 tournament in Newark, DE from last night

Bandido Jr. b Azrieal

Gregory Iron b Kyle Mathews

Bobby Fish b Kekoa the Flyin Hawaiian

Papadon b Anthony Nese

Midnight Sensations over Rusion-DS and Flatliners

Bandido Jr. b Gregory Iron in a semifinal

Papadon b Bobby Fish in a semifinal

Mr. Ooh La La won Battle Royal

Papadon b Bandido Jr. 17:42 to win the tournament

--The Todos X Todos promotion (El Hijo del Santo's group) has a show this coming Saturday night at the Arena Theater in Houston featuring El Hijo del Santo & Huracan Ramirez & Rayo de Jalisco Jr. vs. Angel Blanco Jr. & Dandy & El Hijo del Solitario plus Mascarita Dorada & Mascarita Sagrada vs. Demus 3:16 & Pierrothito. (thanks to Kris Zellner)

--The Heartland Cup will be on 4/20 and 4/21 with HWA vs. Indy All-Stars. HWA will have Jake Crist, B.J. Whitmer, Gerome Phillips, Remi Wilkins, Dave Crist, Ron Mathis, Nick Cutler and Jesse Emerson. The Indy All-Stars will be Steve Corino, Drake Younger, D.J. Hyde, Billy Roc, Chad Collyer Michael Elgin, Super Dunkerton an Alex Colon.

--The Florida Gators had their spring football game yesterday and running back Mack Brown, after getting nailed, said, "He picked me good. He Goldberged me."

--NAWA from last night in Waxahachie, TX: Randy Wayne b Viktor Draconus, Doberman b Billy Club, Billy Club b Doberman, Cowboy Adam & Mad Dog b Li Fang & Russian Destroyer, Mad Dog & Randy Wayne b Li Fang & Russian Destroyer to win tag titles, Mike Foxx b Nobe Bryant to win Texas title (thanks to Rob Moore)

--Pro Wrestling Federation Night of Legends on this coming Saturday night in Rogersville, TN at the National Guard Armory featuring an appearance by Lex Luger. Ricky Morton is wrestling on the show.

--I Believe in Wrestling from last night in Orlando: Chasyn Rance b Tony Torres, Mister Saint Laurent b Uncanny Scherer, Tommy Vandal b Mike Reed, Lince Dorado b Aiden Altair, Jeff Brooks b Dominator, Tim Zbyszko (pro debut) b Gorilla Hanley, Ray Beez b Bobby Adams. Next show is 5/5 with the same crew.

--Millennium Pro Wrestling from last night in Simi Valley, CA: Bo Cooper b Austin Draven, Hector Canales b Dr. Alchemy, Spectre & J.J. Steel b Jimmy Mayhem & Ray Tanaka, Hellkid b Frankie Dee, Mario Banks over Logan X and Crippler Christian, Fern Owens & Hed b Those Guys, Hobo b Crayz, Super Nino b Red Spider, Nikki the New York Knockout b Lucky Pierre, Bar Room Saints b Whiskey Fists MacIntosh & Omar Slam Duncan. Next show is 5/12 with Gangrel (thanks to Dan Farren)

--World Pro Wrestling from last night in Santa Ana, CA before 90 fans: Private Frankie Segura b Microbio, Infernal & Red Rum b Amazona & Yumi, Terremoto Jr. over Ramtha and Pantera Azteca, Mariachi Loco & Little Cholo b Sancho Nation & Private Frankie Segura (thanks to Roy Lucier)

SAT. UPDATE: Wrestling Observer 04/07/2012

2012-04-08T07:38:00.001-07:00

Saturday's News, Notes & Links

--The Jon Jones vs. Rashad Evans Prime Time show debuted last night on FX and we got almost no feedback to it. Nothing is listed regarding a replay. It also airs the next two Fridays right after Ultimate Fighter.

--Dana White said on twitter that the Frank Mir vs. Cain Velasquez fight would go on as scheduled on 5/26. This morning he told us that they have to wait until the commission meeting before they make any move other than there will be a heavyweight title fight on the show.

--The headline story and most read story this morning on CNN was about the first Jerry Lawler vs. Andy Kaufman match in Memphis on April 5, 1982. Author Wayne Drash was at the Mid South Coliseum and interviewed both Lance Russell and Dave Brown for the story. They went a little overboard in crediting that feud with transforming the pro wrestling industry with the idea it paved the way for celebrity involvement in wrestling, but celebrity involvement in wrestling went back to the beginning of time. Story is at http://www.cnn.com/2012/04/07/us/kaufman-lawler-wrestling-match/index.html?hpt=hp_c1 The story said the attendance was a sellout 11,200 but actual attendance was 8,100. The Lawler vs. Kaufman feud never sold out in Memphis. Early on, it dew above average crowds but was never a through the roof success. The most successful show was actually 13 months later with Lawler vs. Kaufman & The Colossus of Death (Duke Myers) that drew 9,194 and Kaufman's last appearances drew 3,000 to 4,000. (thanks to many people, most notably Scott Bowden, who himself writes about the first match at

http://kentuckyfriedwrestling.com/theword2/tag/andy-kaufman/page/2/

--Cobo Arena in Detroit is about to be torn down. A banquet hall and convention center show room will take the spot in around 2014. There is an article in the Detroit News at http://www.detroitnews.com that talks about it and does mention it as the original home of the Detroit Pistons, and mentions pro wrestling and Roller Derby, but focuses on it as a concert hall. The arena was the home of Big Time Wrestling during The Sheik's big run and was particularly strong from about 1965 to 1975 as one of the hottest arenas in the country. WCW also ran the building, and it was also the home of the second and most particularly awful Ken Shamrock vs. Dan Severn UFC show. In fact, the first time UFC ever sold out a 10,000 plus seat arena was for that show at Cobo. (thanks to Jake Koch)

--Matches on the newly released Edge DVD Adam Impact (Edge) vs. Christian Cage 1995 indie match Edge & Christian vs. Hardys vs. Test & Albert vs. Too Cool 6/25/00 Edge vs. Eddie Guerrero 9/26/02 Edge vs. Randy Orton 7/19/04 Edge vs. Matt Hardy ladder match 10/3/05 Edge vs. John Cena TLC match 9/17/06 Edge vs. Shawn Michaels street fight 1/22/07 Edge vs. Undertaker 3/30/08 WrestleMania Edge vs. Christian 5/17/10 Edge vs. Kane vs. Rey Mysterio vs. Alberto Del Rio TLC mach 12/19/10 Edge vs. Rey Mysterio vs. Big Show vs. Kane vs. Drew McIntyre vs. Wade Barrett Elimination Chamber 2/20/11 Edge vs. Alberto Del Rio 4/3/01 Edge's last singles match at WrestleMania

--HBO Sports will be doing a Floyd Mayweather: Speaking Out show on 4/21 at 10:30 p.m., or head-to-head with the UFC PPV. It will be replayed a number of times on HBO prior to his 5/5 fight with Miguel Cotto.

--Corey Ledesma, the creative director of WWE Games, announced for the WWE 13 video game that the Road to WrestleMania mode has been scrapped and will be replaced by a Story Mode. There will be a group of changes announced and it's no secret Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler have been doing stuff for the games of late regarding older talent involvement. (thanks to Cohen Morrison).

--For info if a movie theater in your area is airing Lockdown you can go to TNAonscreen.com

--ROH starts on TV tonight at CW-15 in Albany, NY at 9 p.m. (thanks to Jim Caldwell)

Do you think Lockdown will beat 20,000 buys? Yes 13.0% No 87.0%

If Brock Lesnar wrestlers at Extreme rules, will it beat 175,000 domestic buys? Yes 75.8% No 24.2%

Who will win the New Japan Cup? Hiroshi Tanahashi 37.6% Karl Anderson 32.5% Hirooki Goto 19.1% Togi Makabe 10.8%

Should Alistair Overeem's win over Brock Lesnar be overturned? Yes, the stalling of the tests last year and missing test result combined with the failed test is more then enough evidence for a reasonable doubt 36.9% No, he tested clean on the week and day of the fight 34.7% Yes, he was given a conditional licence and violated the terms of the license 28.4%

Poll on Impact Excellent 19.0% Good 41.9% Average 19.0% Fair 9.5% Poor 10.5% 58.8% of those responding didn't see the show

--Pro Wrestling Syndicate announced on 6/1 in Rahway, NJ at the Rec Center there will be a show that features the Great Muta and Kai from All Japan Pro Wrestling. On 6/2, Muta and Kai will be doing a seminar at the Sportatorium in Deer Park, NY. Only 50 people will be allowed to attend and you can reserve a spot at www.ProWrestliongSyndicate.com PWS also on 6/2 has its 5th year anniversary show in Deer Park.

--The next PWS live show is 5/4 in Rahway, NJ at the Rec Center headlined by Sami Callihan vs. Jay Lethal, Matt Hardy vs. Colt Cabana, Jerry Lynn vs. Marty Jannetty, Adam Cole vs. Brian XL vs. Samuray del Sol vs Zema Ion, Maria Kanellis & Brittney Savage vs. Jillian Hall & Reby Sky, Amazing Red vs. Dan Maff, Young Bucks vs. Kevin Matthews & Devon Moore, plus appearances by Bret Hart and Rocky Johnson.

--Mick Foley's Hardcore Comedy Tour featuring Rev. Bob Levy and Brad Thacker announced shows on 5/3 in Columbus, OH at the Woodlands Tavern 5/4 in Cleveland at the Grog Shop 5/5 in Dayton at the RockStar Pro Wrestling Arena 5/6 in Covington, KY at the Entertainment Complex. For more information you can contact Brad Thacker at bradthacker31@yahoo.com

--Charles Oliveira vs. former TUF winner Jonathan Brookins has been added to the 6/1 show in Las Vegas as this season's finale./

--I Believe in Wrestling tonight at the Team Vision Dojo in Orlando features the debut of Tim Whistler as Tim Zbyszko, managed by father Larry, who faces Gorilla Hanley. Lince Dorado, Chasyn Rance and Mister Saint Laurent are all in action as well.

--ESPN Outside the Lines at 9 a.m. tomorrow has a story on a Tough Man fight in Tulsa that ended up taking the life of former University of Tulsa linebacker George Clinkscale.

--Results of today's Super Fight League show in Chandigarh, India which aired live on youtube Ryan Healy b Paul Kelly decision 29-28, 30-27, 30-27 Pierre Daguzan b Chaitanya Gavali unanimous decision Bharat Khandare b Soro Ismael tap from punches 2:16 Alexander Shlemenko b Minowa-man ref stoppage after knee 2:20 Anup Kumar b Dilanga Rathneveeera choke 1:45 2nd round Ricky Ranjeet Sahni b Salika Senanayake ref stop from punches 4:36 Colleen Schneider b Cherie Buck ref stop from punches 2:29 2nd round Todd Duffee b Neil Grove ref stop from punches :34 They were giving away tickets at the local colleges and to "upper class" people in the area. They were afraid of very rowdy fans buying tickets and disrupting the show. Tons of security there. This was Duffee's first pro win since 2009. --Lucha Libre on 4/15 in Minneapolis at the New York Plaza run by Rudos Promociones.

--Big Time Wrestling on 6/1 in Victorville, CA at the San Bernardino County Fairgrounds with Jim Duggan, Shane Douglas and Chris Masters.

--On the Southern Illinois Championship Wrestling show on 5/19 in East Carondelet, IL, Gerald Brisco and Larry Matysik will be at the show for the 53rd anniversary of the debut of Wrestling at the Chase. Brisco will also be doing a meet and greet and Wes Brisco, Gerald's son, will be on the car.

--A Wrestling for Charity fund raiser on 4/21 in Sunnyvale, CA at the Peterson Middle School features Rikishi and Matt Cross (of the last season of Tough Enough).

--New Japan Chairman Takaaki Kidani on twitter noted that he attended an AWA show in Chicago 24 years ago noting that Jerry Lawler vs. Kerry Von Erich was the main event and said that he met Tatsumi Fujinami at this show. (thanks to Jose Gonzalez).

--All World Wrestling League on 4/14 at Avenue Billiards at the AWWL Event Hall at 2410 E. Michigan Ave. in Jackson, MI has an iPPV show called Burning Desire. It'll air on GFL on tape on 5/5 from 8-10 p.m. They are doing a tournament for The Sheik's old U.S. title belt with the Sheik's tons promoting the show. The iPPV will include interviews with stars of The Cobo Arena era of Big Time Wrestling, including Flying Fred Curry and Killer Tim Brooks.

--CZW Best of the Best takes place on iPPV on 4/14 from Voorhees, NJ at Flyers Skate Zone.

--Dutch Pro Wrestling on 5/19 at the DPW Arena in Poeldjik (next to the Hague) in The Netherlands. Appearing will be Chris Masters, Chavo Guerrero Jr., Joe E. Legend, Billy Gunn and Mark Haskins. There will also be an afternoon Q&A with Guerrero and Gunn. Tickets are at http://dutchprowrestling.com/DPW/Grandslam.html

--MCW from last night in Dundalk, MD at the New Green Room in a Bodyslam Autism II special show: Josh Daniels & Napalm Bomb b Team Gemini, Foreign Exchange b Ghetto Mafia, Buck Chyld b Hoss Hagood, Jimmy Cicero b Adam Flash, Alexander James b Chris Clow, Nui Tofiga b Tyler Hilton, Mike Bennett (managed by Maria Kanellis) won over Pinnacle and Shawn Patrick,Fed Up b Black Wallstreet, Christian York over Ryan McBride, Ricky Reyes and Ronnie Zukko. Next show is 7/7 with Nui Tofiga defending the MCW title against Christian York and Adam Flash & ? vs. Tyler Hilton & Matt Hardy (thanks to Jessika Heiser)

--USWO from last night in Nashville before 85 fans: Josh Crow won three-way over Big Time Sexy and Lightning Bolt Kid, Mike Jablonski b Sigmon, Steven Green b Shawn Hoodrich, Miss Rachel b Damien Payne, Gary Valiant & L.T. Falk b Tim Renesto & Saint, Jocephus b Drew Haskins. Kid Kash vs. Jocephus headlines this coming Friday night. (thanks to Jimmie Daniel)

--NWA Dynamo Pro Wrestling from last night in Glen Carbon, IL: Jake Dirgen b El Sanchez, Alexandre Rudolph b Jackal, Billy McNeil & Jamie Lytle b Dan Walsh & Chris Hargas, Shorty Biggs & Outtkast b MsChif & Makaze, Santana Garrett b Christina Von Eerie, Ricky Cruz b Kevin X, K.C. Karrington b Cancun Kid, Bumrush Brothers b Electric Unicorns to won tag title tournament, Kagahas b Adam Pearce-DQ in an NWA title match (thanks to Patrick Brandmeyer)

OVW Saturday Night Special report 4-7

2012-04-08T07:34:00.001-07:00

Ohio Valley Wrestling presented its April 2012 Saturday Night Special tonight at the Davis Arena in Louisville, Kentucky, in front of a healthy crowd of 280 or so. This was the best build up for an overall card for a Saturday Night Special since last fall, and the show was decent. They aired very well done video packages of the storylines leading up to all the key matches tonight before each match started, which was a nice touch.

Gilbert Corsey and Kenny Bolin were the announcers for the upcoming DVD release of this show. They were joined by Dean Hill for the second half. Hill was attending the 16th birthday party of his Granddaughter during the first half. Brittany DeVore was the ring announcer.

All the OVW referees tonight were debuting new ref shirts, which were grayish polo shirts, with an OVW emblem on the left part of the chest.

Todays Louisville Courier-Journal featured a good front page article on one legged Iraq war hero Michael Hayes. Hayes continues to get amazing amounts of mainstream local pub for OVW in Louisville. Here's the link. http://www.courier-journal.com/article/2012304070011

1. Randy Royal beat Ted McNaler

McNaler was pleading his case to his real life girlfriend, ring announcer Brittany DeVore, before the match even began. McNaler's storyline "brother", Adam Revolver", has been working overtime lately to falsely make McNaler look bad, and even unfaithful, to DeVore, and his evil plan is working. DeVore gave McNaler the major cold shoulder tonight. Royal scored a pretty huge upset win over McNaler when Royal knocked the referee into the ropes, causing McNaler, who was looking at DeVore yet again, to be crotched on the top turnbuckle. Royal then hit a version of the Pedigree for the win.

2. Alex Silva, Dylan Bostic, Elvis Pridemore, & The Baronis Brothers beat The American Assassin, Nick Dumeyer, Tony Gunn & X2C(Sean Casey & Raphael Constantine) w/Ricky Chevy & Miss. Cinnamon Twist in a 10 man tag

OVW tends to do these 10 man tags on Saturday Night Specials, it's their way of getting a bunch of guys on the card it seems. The Baronis Brothers are 20 year old twins out of Knoxville, TN with large matching afros. They're very small, but in good shape. The obnoxious Ricky Chevy proved to be the downfall of the heel team he was with here as he was yelling at his own guys to the point it caused Tony Gunn to be distracted and Alex Silva rolled him up for the pin.

The post match saw Chevy pour out Gunn's bottle of "happy pills". Gunn, along with the rest of the heels, then took turns punching Chevy. It's pretty bad when heels can't stand a heel manager. The crowd enjoyed this the short time it lasted.

3. Anarquia & Raul Lamotta beat Jesse Godderz & Rudy Switchblade to win the OVW Southern Tag Team titles

OVW's "Talent arbitrator", and the head of "The Family", Josette Bynum, was banned from the building for this show, so Godderz & Switchblade had nobody at ringside. Actually, Rob Terry & Godderz were the official OVW tag champs going into this match, but it's "Family rules" here, so anyone from "The Family" can defend them, plus Rob Terry was booked in the main event of this show. Anarquia & Lamotta attached Godderz & Switchblade on the floor before the match started, with Anarquia looking quite blown up about a minute in. Once they got in the ring, Anarquia took the heat. Anarquia later wrecked havoc on the outside for Switchblade and Godderz, leading to Switchblade alone in the ring with Anarquia and Lamotta, where he took a double DDT, giving Anarquia and Lamotta the victory, and once again making Anarquia & Lamotta the OVW Southern Tag Team Champions. They held belts as Los Locos here back in 2007. Some people around me flat out said this match was terrible, and it did fall apart a few times, and wasn't that good, that's for sure. Anarquia was blown up the whole time it seemed.

4. Jamin Olivencia beat Mohamad Ali Vaez by DQ

This match, and the tag title match, were both added to this show at the most recent TV taping on April 4th, though this had a lot more of a back story to it. Pretty even early, though Olivencia scored with a lot of arm drags. Olivencia slowly began to dominate the match more and more. Vaez, out of frustration I guess, finally just threw Olivencia over the top rope in full view of referee Chris Sharpe for the DQ. Vaez pounded on Olivencia after the match until the geek squad ran out to pull him off, and it took several attempts to do that.

Intermission

5. Paredyse beat Brandon Espinosa

These two have had quite a feud, and it's over sexual orientation acceptance and freedom, and expression of such freedom, I guess. Espinosa's "my gender is a mystery" friend "Chris" was absent tonight. The stip here was if Paredyse wins, he claims he had some incriminating video he was going to show of Espinosa. Paredyse came out wearing a large plastic salad bowl on his head, wearing it like an astronauts helmet, along with a silver and black top, which was not a dress exactly, and silver Christmas tinsel around his waist. After some back and forth action, Espinosa took control, slapping Paredyse hard on the mat, and even spitting on him. Paredyse came back with his unique offense. Espinosa grabbed his bag he keeps a dress and lipstick in to humiliate his beaten opponents with, grabbed a stick out of it and jabbed Paredyse in the eye. Espinosa then went for his Cobra Clutch into a face plant finisher, but Paredyse countered it, and rolled up Espinosa for the win.

In a bit of bait and switch, Paredyse was supposed to then show the video he had on Espinosa doing whatever, but Paredyse was holding his right eye, saying he couldn't see, and said he'd show the video at the TV taping this Wednesday. The crowd didn't love this, but Dean Hill said instead of 300 people seeing it now, the whole country could see it on next weeks TV.

6. Michael Hayes beat Rocco Bellagio w/Bolin Services 2.0 by DQ

Bellagio somewhat dominated Hayes in the early going, but was also taking too much time between moves, and was openly mocking Hayes, jumping around one one leg a lot, even slamming him on one leg in a show of strength. Hayes came back, showing impressive strength of his own, by grabbing the large Bellagio off the top rope, and giving him the Attitude Adjustment. Bellagio came back with big driving chokeslam on Hayes off the second rope. Bellagio jumped off the top turnbuckle, and then sprung off the top rope for emphasis, in an impressive agile move for a big man, but Hayes met him with a Code breaker and went for the pin, but Prince Bolin pulled the ref out of the ring. Other BS 2.0 members then attacked Hayes for the DQ. While this went on, BS 2.0 member James "Moose" Thomas protected Mickey, Prince Bolin's simple minded assistant, in the corner. Moose has been protecting Mickey from the abusive Bolin more and more lately. Mickey, who much to the chagrin of Prince Bolin has also developed a friendship with Michael Hayes due to them both having handicaps, finally covered Hayes with his own body to stop Hayes from being attacked. An irate Bolin then had Mickey held against the ropes, had his shirts ripped off, and was going to whip him with his belt, but James "Moose" Thomas could finally take no more, and prevented the whipping, and then went full babyface by attacking his now former BS 2.0 stablemates. The pop for Moose' babyface turn was very loud, by far the loudest the crowd would get all night, and they really milked it too. Moose gave BS 2.0 member Jack Black a wicked "Moose kick" off the apron, and was going squash Prince Bolin in the corner, but Rocco Bellagio pulled Bolin out of the way, and took the corner splash himself. Moose later spit water in Kenny Bolin's face at the announce desk.

FRI UPDATE: Wrestling Observer 04/06/2012

2012-04-07T14:37:00.000-07:00

-- Larry Zbyszko is not dead.
-- Here you go: The new Daniel Bryan YES! YES! YES! t-shirt.
-- Smackdown tonight has Sheamus vs. Alberto Del Rio in a non-title match where if Alberto wins he gets a shot at the belt, Randy Orton vs. Kane in a no-DQ Even Steven Mania Rematch (which, unsurprisingly, is said to be much better than the Mania match), Damien Sandow debuts (former Aaron "The Idol" Stevens and we are told he is one of the most complete wrestlers down in developmental right now), Mark Henry & David Otunga vs. Truth in a handicap match, the return of Ryback, Beth Phoenix vs. Nikki Bella, and Big Show vs. Heath Slater.
-- Brock Lesnar's bio acknowledges that he won the UFC title but manages to tell the story without using the letters "UFC". As noted on the front page yesterday, Brock is scheduled for Raw in Washington DC this Monday, Raw in Detroit on the 23rd and the Extreme Rules PPV in Chicago on April 29th.
-- Warrior announced that he'd torn his biceps training and may have to have it reattached.
-- CM Punk will be at Chicago Comic Con this August. WWE is claiming that Punk was injured by the glass bottle attack by Chris Jericho on Raw Monday. They said he had a contusion on the back of his head but avoided serious injury.
-- Scott Steiner went nuts on Twitter about TNA. Hulk Hogan's response: Wow do I feel like a fool!I knew Steiner came to TNA the last tapings then was asked to leave,I heard the news and I was lobbying hard to Bring him back the right way because I see money and talent in him,I had no idea he felt that way about me because he is always really nice To me and my family,guess I was really wrong,at least I know who he really is now. HH
-- Since we've gotten a lot of emails about it, MMA Uncensored Live on Spike has not been canceled. They took a week off and will do so every now and then. Show returns next week after Impact on Spike.
-- The Nevada commission put Alistair Overeem on the docket for a hearing on April 24th regarding his surprise drug test failure. So far, Overeem hasn't said anything and I wouldn't expect to hear anything until then.
-- Joe writes: Today on The Spice Channel on SiriusXM Radio, co-host Christy Canyon made a connotation between porn and pro wrestling in that both had their boom periods in the 1980s. She then added that Hulk Hogan was just like herself and co-host Ginger Lynn in that he just won’t go away. Who says that pornstars aren’t intelligent?
-- Sisterhood of the Traveling Tights looks at Antonio The Promise Thomas here. There is fish-licking involved.
-- Billy Gunn talks how far he'd have gone to get the Billy and Chuck gimmick over here.
-- Jonathan Snowden looks at the rise of Ronda Rousey here.
-- Lucha Libre Rudos Promociones Sunday April 15th @ 3pm New York Plaza 13th and East Lake Street
-- From FCW: Two-time WWE Champion Alberto Del Rio will be appearing at the Charlotte Harbor Event Center tonight Friday April 6th! Fresh off the heels of this year’s Wrestlemania, Del Rio will be taking part in an intimate Meet-and-Greet with fans as part of Florida Championship Wrestling’s return to Punta Gorda. FCW officials could not be happier to have a star of this caliber join them for the event. Bell time is at 7:30 with a special Meet-and-Greet with Del Rio starting at 6:30. The Charlotte Harbor Event Center is located at 75 Taylor Road, Punta Gorda, FL 33948 – (941) 639-5833. Tickets start at just $10 for kids and $20 for adults and can be purchased at Buddy’s Home Furnishings in Port Charlotte 1825 Tamiami Trail Unit 6E - (941) 766-6133, in Ft. Myers 4175 Palm Beach Blvd, (239) 656-1392, and of course at www.fcwwrestling.com. For group tickets, call 813-344-8904.
-- MPW's regular benefit for the Boys and Girls Club in Simi Valley, CA takes place on April 7th. Brawlin' Bo Cooper vs. Austin Draven is the main. Also on the card is a triple threat match and Amanda vs. Nikki the New York Knockout. mpwwrestling.com for details.
-- CHIKARA: "I'll Be a Mummy's Uncle" Saturday, April 14th, 2012 Live at the Rahway Rec Center in Rahway, NJ! Doors = 1:30 pm :: Belltime = 2:00 pm
-- The Gracies have a video where they explain how Stephen Arceneaux III was killed by his cousin at a WrestleMania party via rear naked choke and how to prevent accidents like this from happening in the future.

Lesnar update

2012-04-07T13:15:00.002-07:00

Brock Lesnar is scheduled for three more shows this month:
Raw on Monday in Washington, DC
Raw on 4/23 in Detroit
The Extreme Rules PPV on 4/29 in Chicago

THURS. UPDATE: Anniversary of legendary bout, Lesnar's first WWE PPV, Canseco to wrestling, White

2012-04-07T12:48:00.002-07:00

Thursday's News, Notes & Links

--Brock Lesnar is now being advertised to appear on the Extreme Rules PPV show in Chicago on 4/29.

--The new TNA TV contract with Spike TV goes through the fall of 2014, so it is a new two-year deal. There are a lot of people in TNA breathing easier, not because of any fear Spike would get rid of wrestling, but there was genuine fear they could switch their affiliation.

--Alistiar Overeem's steroid test came back with a 14-1 testosterone to epitestosterone ratio. He has yet to respond to the complaint. A 1-1 ratio is normal. A 4-1 ratio is the cutoff in many sports but Nevada uses a 6-1 to be on the safe side. What kills Overeem in the idea that maybe his test is much higher than usual is that he was tested several times before the Lesnar fight and always feel within average ranges.

--Daniel Bryan on Twitter said that the new "Yes, Yes, Yes" t-shirt is being released and could be as early as this coming week.

--A tweet from Dixie Carter indicates Jose Canseco will be on Impact tonight after Canseco teased it on Twitter saying he'd like to work with Hulk Hogan. TNA has a history of spending money on celebrities and it meaning nothing for ratings and with Canseco, it's pretty much a lock this won't either. There are celebrities and then there are people the public thinks are pathetic rundown losers, for better or worse. Pathetic rundown losers only drag down your company by association, not build it up. Real celebrities if they are genuine stars can make a difference. If they are stars from 30 years ago, they usually don't hurt if they aren't considered losers.

--The quarterfinals of the Japan Cup tournament took place earlier today at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo with Hirooki Goto pinning La Sombra with the shoten kai; Karl Anderson pinned Shinsuke Nakamura with the stun gun showing that they are really upping his push now that he's a singles wrestler, and Anderson is possibly the most underrated American in the business right now; Togi Makabe pinned Minoru Suzuki with a kneedrop off the top rope and Hiroshi Tanahashi pinned Tetsuya Naito with a small package. The semifinals and finals take place on Sunday at Korakuen Hall, with Tanahashi vs. Anderson and Makabe vs. Goto. The tournament winner faces Kazuchika Okada in May for the IWGP heavyweight title.

--Dana White needs to have a meeting with his talent pronto. Stuff like this, even if it's really just a bad attempt to do humor, given the track record of the guy and others of his guys could blow up in their face. Seriously, if there is anything that should be off limits to MMA fighters, it's rape jokes given the fact most don't find them funny and that a few fighters have had arrests on sexual assault charges.

--UFC signed a four-year-deal with Multi Screen Media to broadcast UFC events on SIX, MSM's new sports channel in India. There are also plans to do a specialized Ultimate Fighter show for that market.

--UFC is also allowing fans to vote for a match on a live TV show. On the 6/8 show, just announced earlier today as being from Fort Lauderdale at the BankAtlantic Center for FX, you can vote for either Scott Jorgensen vs. Eddie Wineland, Mike Pierce vs. Carlos Eduardo Rocha or Lance Benoist vs. Seth Baczynski as the final televised bout on FX for the main card. Tickets for the show go on sale on 4/13 to the public at ticketmaster or the BankAtlantic Center. Fight Club members can get tickets on 4/11 from the Fight Club web site and newsletter readers can get tickets on 4/12.

--Nigel McGuinness' fundraising efforts for the documentary he is producing on his career and why his career is over will end in a few days. He surpassed his original minimum fund raising goal quickly but there are still three days left to help the project. If you haven't already, check out our interview with McGuinness on Observer radio as it is one of the best of the past year.

--Today is the 30 year anniversary of the very first Jerry Lawler vs. Andy Kaufman match on April 5, 1982, at the Mid South Coliseum in Memphis. While nobody outside of the Memphis metro area knew about the match beforehand, by the end of the week, it was easily the most famous pro wrestling match of its era. Scott Bowden looks back.

While it was an angle and they built storylines that lasted more than a year off it (including Kaufman costing Lawler the AWA title in a match with Nick Bockwinkel that was one of the most brilliant angles of that time), I remember that there was at least one major promoter afterwards who sent Lawler a thank you to him for the way he protected the business by injuring Kaufman.

--Evolve is doing a Cinco de Mayo show at the World Yacht Marina from Noon to 5 p.m. at West 41st and West Wide Highway in New York, with drinking, dancing and mariachis as well as pro wrestling and Lucha Libre.

--New Japan debuted its new television show on BS Asahi today at 11 p.m. (which is a few hours ago) airing two matches from the 2011 Tokyo Dome show with Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Satoshi Kojima (where Tanahashi started his long title run that won him Wrestler of the Year honors for 2011) and Prince Devitt vs. Kota Ibushi for the IWGP jr. title. Next week's show will have more from that cared with Yuji Nagata vs. Minoru Suzuki, La Sombra & Mascara Dorada vs. Jushin Liger & Hector Garza, Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Takashi Iizuka, Takashi Sugiura & Yoshihiro Takayama of NOAH vs. Hirooki Goto & Kazuchika Okada and Togi Makabe vs. Masato Tanaka. Interesting that their new TV show next week shows Okada, the current champion, in basically a young boy job guy role. (thanks to Jose Gonzalez)

Who should face Junior Dos Santos for the title if Alistair Overeem is out?

Frank Mir 43.7%

Cain Velasquez 36.6%

Mark Hunt 19.7%

Does this drug test failure affect your interest in MMA?

Yes, it's getting tiresome 47.1%

No, I care but just expect that it's an inevitable byproduct of high level sports 40.0%

No, don't care at all 12.8%

--Here's a crazy story about Dan Kroffat (the Calgary star of the 70s, not Doug Furnas' old tag team partner) when he was taken hostage in a prison.

--A story in today's South Florida Sun Sentinel about WrestleMania.

--Joslyn Jarrett, the daughter of Jeff, was named the Middle School County Girls Basketball Player of the Year in the Nashville area. Jarrett, who attends Ellis Middle School in Hendersonville, TN, averaged 11.6 points per game and was the star, leading her team to a 21-0 season. A lot of people don't know this, but Jeff was a good high school basketball player before he got into pro wrestling as a teenager.

--I Believe in Wrestling on Saturday night in Orlando at the Team Vision Dojo features the pro debut of Tim Zbyszko, managed by father Larry, plus Mister Saint Laurent and Chasyn Rance defend the AWA tag team titles.

--Crossfire Entertainment on 5/19 in Nashville at the Fairgrounds features Matt Hardy vs. MVP, plus Maria Kanellis, Kevin Sullivan, Cassidy Riley, Chase Stevens, Kid Kash, Jerry Lynn, Brian Christopher, Wolfie D, Shark Boy, Shane Douglas and more.

--CZW Best of the Best 11 takes place on 4/14 in Voorhees, NJ and will be an iPPV show. Announced in the tournament first round so far are Sami Callihan vs. Drake Younger vs. Trent 7 vs. MC MCKinnan, Chuck Taylor vs. Johnny Gargano vs Samuray del Sol, A.R. Fox vs. Lince Dorado vs. ACH and Alex Colon vs. Willie Mack vs. ?.

--New Era Wrestling on 4/21 in Shelbyville, IN at the Boys Club.

--EWF on 4/21 in Converse, IN at the Borderman Gym headlined by Carlito vs. Troy Miller

--In a correction from yesterday, the Future Stars of Wrestling show tomorrow night in Las Vegas will be at their gym on 6658 Boulder Highway in Las Vegas, not at Sam's Town Casino. The Sam's Town Casino show is 4/22.

--ECWA's Super 8 tournament takes place on Saturday night in Newark, DE at the Greater Newark Boys and Girls Club. The eight competitors are Papadon, Kekoa the Flyin Hawaiian, Bobby Fish Tony Nese, Azrieal, Gregory Iron, Kyle Matthews and Bandido Jr.

--The autobiography of Jim Duggan is now out, ghost written by Scott Williams of the Observer staff. Duggan looks at his high school and college sports days, a state champion in wrestling and a starter at SMU in football, playing in the NFL and CFL, breaking into wrestling in Dallas through Fritz Von Erich, becoming a star in Mid South and his WWF run, plus his incident with the Iron Sheik that nearly ended his WWF career.

--Paul "Butcher" Vachon, the brother of Mad Dog and Vivian, and stepfather of Luna, has his autobiography called "Wrestling with the Past: Life In And Out Of The Ring" that was released today. Vachon looks at his career from the 50s, working all over the world, booking and being part owner of Grand Prix Wrestling, talks about the death of Luna, his role in the stardom of Andre the Giant, the McMahons and more. Vachon will be bringing his book to the Cauliflower Alley Club for copies on 4/16 to 4/18 as well as the Wrestling Hall of Fame in Amsterdam, NY on 5/18 and 5/19.

--The WWE's new ECW DVD called ECW Unreleased Volume 1 has:

Shane Douglas vs. Too Cold Scorpio 8/27/94

Tommy Dreamer vs. Raven 4/15/95

Dean Malenko & Too Cold Scorpio vs. Taz & Eddy Guerrero 7/15/95

Shane Douglas vs. Cactus Jack 2/17/96

RVD & Sabu vs. Eliminators in a tables and ladders match for the tag titles 2/22/97

Sabu vs. Taz 4/13/97 in the main event of the company's first PPV show, Barely Legal

Shane Douglas vs. Bam Bam Bigelow 11/30/97

Sabu & RVD vs. Hayabusa & Jinsei Shinzaki 8/2/98

RVD vs. Jerry Lynn 8/15/98

Shane Douglas vs. Taz 1/10/99

Lance Storm & Justin Credible vs. RVD & Jerry Lynn 7/18/99

Mike Awesome vs. Masato Tanaka 11/7/99

Tommy Dreamer vs. Taz 4/22/00

Tommy Dreamer vs. Justin Credible 4/22/00

Rhino vs. Sandman 7/16/00

Rhino vs. Spike Dudley 12/3/00

Yoshihiro Tajiri & Mikey Whipwreck vs. Kid Kash & Super Crazy vs. FBI 1/7/01

plus one of the Rey Misterio Jr. vs. Psicosis matches

Blu Ray Extras are the Shane Douglas vs. Terry Funk vs. Sabu Night the Line Was Crossed match and a 1994 Tommy Dreamer vs. Jimmy Snuka match

--There is a new Bloodstained Memories 2 DVD coming that includes D-Lo Brown, Rollerball Mark Rocco (original Black Tiger in Japan), Abyss, Tammy Sytch, Nora Greenwald, Al Snow, Dawn Marie, Tito Santana and Terry Funk that is expected to be released in June.

--High Velocity Wrestling on 5/5 in Hendersonville, NC, headlined by Matt Hardy vs. Kirby Mack.

--Tim Sylvia will be an honored guest at the 4/14 Fight Night show in Biddeford, ME, and will make a special announcement at the show.

--Now that Ty Bailey is gone from WWE, former developmental wrestler Jay Bradley decided to go public with a three-part interview discussing what he felt was unnecessary verbal abuse from his former boss.

Mike Awsome Heel Turn Mid south Coliseum

2012-04-07T12:31:00.000-07:00

John Tatum Squash Match USWA Dallas

2012-04-07T12:15:00.000-07:00

John Tatum Bill Dundee Clips

2012-04-07T12:06:00.000-07:00

Kyle O_Reilly vs Adam Cole - Showdown in the Sun Day #2.

2012-04-06T14:15:00.002-07:00