Cageside Seats

The Connecticut media wakes up to WWE's hypocrisy on the concussion issue, but it's about more than just chair shots to the head

2010-03-18T01:50:23Z

What was the cause - unprotected chair shots or a lifetime of dangerous bumps?

Connecticut political blogger Daniela Altimari breaks the news story that Linda McMahon, despite her knowledge of the concussion issue, won't be attending a public hearing on a proposed bill to address the problem of student athletes suffering head injuries in scholastic sports.

She then follows up with a post wondering how chair shots to the head could be banned in WWE's Wellness policy, yet they recently ran a Tables, Ladders and Chairs PPV which featured and glorified them. WWE Spokesman Robert Zimmerman made the save for the company by claiming to Altimari that the ban on chair shots to the head was only implemented in January 2010. James Caldwell of the Pro Wrestling Torch then pointed out to her the obvious hypocrisy of banning chair shots to the head while still running Elimination Chamber matches where participant's heads were thrown into chain wiring and plexiglass.

Here's Irv Muchnick's reactions to Altimari's posts:

Drugs in D.C. Are Dead, But There Are Always Concussions in Connecticut

WWE Bans Chair Shots for Safety … Except When They’re Absolutely Essential to the Plot

With all due respect to James Caldwell and Irv Muchnick, I think the focus on chair shots and gimmick matches misses the point a bit. Yes, unprotected chair shots to the head are completely stupid and should be eliminated from wrestling completely. But how much brain trauma does a lifetime of dangerous bumps cause? Which is a question WWE and most wrestling fans would rather not ask for fear of the answer.

NXT concept now officially a ratings failure

2010-03-18T00:52:32Z

Four weeks later, already a ratings failure.

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According to Dave Meltzer, NXT last night continued its trend of declining numbers, drawing a poor 0.9 rating. To put that rating into context, NXT is now drawing a smaller viewership than what ECW drew when it bottomed out. This isn't a good sign for the future of the NXT concept in its current form after the first season, as the reason ECW was dropped was because WWE and Syfy were disappointed in its declining ratings. As I said a month ago, the original "reality" show ideas for the NXT concept had promise. Unfortunately most of these unique ideas were scrapped before the first show even took place and NXT became just another WWE show, except with green nobodies working matches and being the focus. So it shouldn't be a surprise that NXT is now drawing worse ratings than what ECW was doing. At least WWE can crow that even with declining ratings NXT still beat the rating TNA Impact drew on Monday.

WWE NXT results, March 16th 2010

2010-03-17T03:48:42Z

Did WWE NXT Rookie win his first match against the Great Khali, or did he fall to 0-4? Read on to find out!

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Full results for this week's edition of WWE NXT after the jump.

WWE Pro CM Punk and WWE Rookie Darren Young (w/ Luke Gallows and Serena) defeated WWE Pro Matt Hardy and WWE Rookie Justin Gabriel when Young pinned Hardy after Punk hit the GTS on Hardy.
The Great Khali (w/ Ranjin Singh) defeated WWE Rookie Daniel Bryan after the neck hanging tree slam.
WWE Rookie Heath Slater defeated WWE Rookie Michael Tarver after a schoolboy rollup.
WWE Rookie Wade Barrett (with WWE Pro and World Champion Chris Jericho) defeated WWE Rookie Skip Sheffield (with WWE Pro William Regal) with a fireman's carry into a slam.

Notes:

At the start of the broadcast, Matt Striker announced that in two weeks, they would do the first round of evaluations from the WWE Pros and at that time, there will be cuts. They didn't specify how many cuts, but I can't imagine it would be more than one or two.
In a nice touch, they started showing win-loss records as part of each rookie's entrance, which considering they're going to cut somebody in 1-2 weeks, is a nice touch as it shows who's succeeding and who isn't.
The opener went pretty long, about 15 minutes. It was a good match that told a good story, with Punk and Young getting along, only for Gallows to lay out Hardy, Gabriel, and then Young after the match. It felt like Punk had Young laid out afterwards for not joining the straight edge movement yet. Interesting that they chose to protect Gabriel on the pin and beat Hardy here, although considering how frequently they've beaten Hardy over the years, I guess it isn't that much of a surprise.
Bryan and Khali had a good little match, with Bryan working well with Khali's strengths. The announcing pushed that Bryan was in serious trouble of getting cut because of the 0-4 record. After the match, The Big Show laid out Bryan with a chokeslam, continuing the "Miz vs. Bryan" story that has been dominant on NXT, as Miz had set up the Khali/Bryan match to begin with. They are pushing that Miz wants Bryan to fail so he keeps putting him in situations where he can't succeed.
Slater and Tarver had kind of a blah match. It was amazing enough Tarver even had a match, considering he had been off of the show the past two weeks. His chances of sticking around after the first cut right now are almost nil. Slater, on the other hand, is starting to emerge as a favorite to win the contract, as he remained undefeated in three matches and is the one rookie who has yet to be on the losing side of a match.
Barrett and Sheffield did not have a good match in the main event slot. It felt disjointed in spots and the two didn't really click, and Sheffield was blown up before the finish, despite the match only going four minutes. Barrett seems like a favorite to stick around, while Sheffield is neck and neck with Tarver in a likely cut position. They continue to waste Regal, as he should be wrestling every week on this show with the rookies but so far, he's only had one match on NXT.

Overall, a good show, one that featured more wrestling than past weeks. The only video clip they aired this week was a repeat of the David Otunga clip from Week 1, as he was the only rookie who was not in action this week. It would have been nice if they had aired a new clip rather than going for a repeat, especially since it aired after a long Raw Rebound clip, so the show had a long gap of recycled action, but that's a small complaint in a show that featured a good deal of the professional wrestling, even if much of it wasn't great.

With four weeks down into the show and more focus as to what's going to happen, especially with a round of cuts coming up, it feels like now is a good time to do the Cageside Seats WWE NXT Rankings after Week 4:

8) Michael Tarver (0-2): With only two matches, both losses, and his WWE Pro being Carlito, it seems like Tarver was pretty much a designated job guy from the start anyway. Has almost no chance of surviving the first cut.

7) Skip Sheffield (0-2): His only advantage over Tarver is his body, which is WWE-ready. Plus, while Regal isn't exactly high priority on the WWE scale, he's surely higher than Carlito. He also has more of a story with Regal than Tarver has with, well, anybody.

6) Darren Young (2-1): After getting squashed in 30 seconds in Week 1, Young seemed like a sure bet to be the first rookie gone, but since then, they've started an interesting story with him and CM Punk and he's come out on top in two matches, so he looks safe to survive the first cut whether they drop one wrestler or two.

5) Daniel Bryan (0-4): He clearly isn't going first, despite the won/loss record, although that would be a huge FU to fans of independent wrestling, so it's not completely out of the question. However, his storyline with The Miz remains the show's biggest, and despite the losses, he's clearly well-regarded or else he wouldn't be wrestling every week. But it's far from a lock that he wins, and other rookies featured seem higher priority than Bryan right now.

4) David Otunga (2-1): After the first week, I thought he was a lock to win the contract. Now, I'm not so sure, they seem to have cooled off on him just a little bit. He has the WWE look and he's clearly very charismatic, but they might want him to spend more time in FCW for seasoning, since if he were to be brought up today, he'd have to be in a non-wrestling role somewhere as his in-ring is not ready for even limited Raw matches.

3) Heath Slater (3-0): As the only undefeated rookie remaining on NXT, he's somebody who is definitely in the mix. He's the only rookie with a win over a pro in a singles match (even if it was against Carlito) so he has that going for him too. But he has yet to be featured in a prominent match, he's wrestled Tarver, Carlito, and Carlito and Tarver, and they are clearly the bottom rung tandem on the show, so he needs a win over a more regarded WWE Pro/Rookie tandem before I rate him any higher.

2) Wade Barrett (2-1): He's clearly somebody who is going to make it in WWE. Being the only rookie mentored by a World champion is a plus. He has the size they like and is also good on the stick. The only reason he isn't higher is he lost a singles match to the guy who's #1, so it feels like right now, he's lower than him on the pecking order. But it would not surprise me at all if he wound up winning the whole thing.

1) Justin Gabriel (2-1): I would call Gabriel a slight favorite right now. He hasn't been pinned yet, he beat a guy that the office clearly likes in Wade Barrett, and he was the first rookie to score a pin over a pro. His biggest detriment is his size, I don't know that WWE would put over a guy as small as Gabriel in the end, but he's clearly being groomed for a prominent babyface role somewhere at some point, probably on Smackdown.

There isn't a huge difference between 1-4, and I wouldn't even call Daniel Bryan out of the mix yet. Tarver and Sheffield are definitely not much longer for this show, though.

WWLSD - What Would Lance Storm Do?

2010-03-16T23:52:26Z

Lance Storm in the days before he was just another armchair booker.

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If anyone was wondering why Ken Anderson was wearing a wrist tape with the letters WWLSD on Impact last night, then Dave Meltzer hilariously revealed on his radio show the same night that it stood for "What Would Lance Storm Do?". Well, Dave should know, as this insider shout out was all his fault. The reason Ken Anderson (and probably a certain member of TNA management too) was irked at Lance is that Dave Meltzer a couple of weeks ago accidentally posted a private email from Lance as a column on his website. In this email Lance passionately buried Anderson and TNA to Dave, saying that Anderson was GOD AWFUL on promos, that Anderson was his least favourite character on a show that SUCKS and that he could book a better show with a WEEGEE board. Oops! Those clueless goofs in TNA may have got a cryptic dig in at Lance's expense on Impact, but I'm sure Lance will have the last laugh when he hears about TNA's latest rating. At this point, what could TNA possibly lose by seriously considering what Lance Storm would do?

The Monday Night Massacre worsens, TNA's rating falls to a 0.8

2010-03-16T22:42:03Z

Eric Bischoff may regret shaving his head for this dismal rating!

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According to the Observer website and the ratings they published last week, Raw's rating this week rose by three tenths of a ratings point to a 3.7, while TNA's dropped by two tenths to a 0.8. This means that Raw roughly quadrupled Impact's audience this week. To say this is another bad sign for TNA is probably an understatement. Dixie Carter can only cross her fingers, hope and pray that all the viewers lost from last week's two airings of Impact heeded her message on Twitter and didn't forget to set their DVRs this week. Unfortunately the odds of that are pretty slim.

UPDATE: According to Dave Meltzer and Bryan Alvarez on their breaking news radio update, Impact peaked with a 0.96 rating for the quarter starting at 9:45pm (coinciding with the start of the Hogan/Sting confrontation) and continued to drop until the overrun, which showed a very small increase. In particular, the AJ Styles vs. Jeff Hardy DREAM~!!! main event got destroyed, only drawing a 0.73 rating compared to Raw's 4.3 rating for the contract signing angle with Bret Hart, Vince McMahon and Steve Austin.

WWE Raw Results and Reactions, 3/5/2010

2010-03-16T03:18:50Z

WWE Raw took place in San Diego, California this week.

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Full results for this week's episode of WWE Raw after the jump:

The Big Show defeated John Cena with the knockout punch after Batista distracted Cena. This was a Wrestlemania Rewind match from Wrestlemania XX.
Sheamus and Evan Bourne wrestled to a no-contest after Sheamus attacked Bourne before the bell.
WWE Divas champion Maryse defeated Kelly Kelly in a non-title match.
Shawn Michaels defeated World champion Chris Jericho by countout. This was a Wrestlemania Rewind match from Wrestlemania XIX.
Triple H defeated Randy Orton by disqualification after Legacy hit the ring and attacked Triple H right after he hit the Pedigree on Orton. This was a Wrestlemania Rewind match from Wrestlemania XXV.
WWE Champion Batista defeated Kofi Kingston with the Batista Bomb in a non-title match.

My reactions:

Stone Cold Steve Austin opened the show with a good interview that had the crowd going. It did slow down when Austin had to hit the scripted talking points for the Hart/McMahon main event, but Austin's charisma carried the day.
I liked the Big Show/Cena match but it wasn't anything you haven't seen before. I'm not sure I get Cena going on a losing streak before challenging for the WWE title, WWE always does this and I'm not sure what it accomplishes other than taking some luster off of an anticipated match, and making Cena look bad when a main event guy should come into Wrestlemania as strong as possible.
Sheamus made Bourne look horrible in attacking him before the match and easily laying him out. He did cut a good promo afterwards promising to beat HHH at Wrestlemania and becoming the new King of Kings. They also did a backstage interview with Austin and Michaels that I thought was well done, with Jericho interjecting to help hype the Raw main event.
Maryse attacked Kelly after the match but was saved by Gail Kim and Eve. Michelle McCool and Layla from Smackdown came out to attack the faces and it looks like they're setting up some sort of Heel Divas vs. Face Divas match for Wrestlemania, either a six-man or some other match.
They aired another great Undertaker/Shawn Michaels video package set to Johnny Cash's "Ain't No Grave" with various WWE stars doing interviews somewhat out of character hyping the Wrestlemania match, featuring Cena, HHH, Jericho, Big Show, Rey Mysterio, and CM Punk. WWE production has been on fire with this feud.
The Michaels/Jericho finish sucked. I know you don't want to beat Michaels before Wrestlemania, and you don't want to beat a World champion before Wrestlemania either, but why book a match that you can't finish? Edge attacked Jericho after the match and laid him out with another spear.
They announced a triple threat match with Randy Orton vs. Cody Rhodes vs. Ted DiBiase. I'm not sure why this is the natural progression for the feud would be for Orton to find a partner to face Rhodes and DiBiase, since he's already proven he can't beat both of them. Maybe I'm overthinking this.
HHH/Orton was the typical HHH/Orton match. It seems like we've seen this match a million times, and of course we only saw it a year ago at Wrestlemania. Another crap finish here, too, with the run-in, which is three bad finishes in five matches. After the match, Legacy and Sheamus laid out Orton and HHH, which set up a handicap tag match for next Monday night with HHH and Orton facing Legacy and Sheamus.
Gorgeous George was the latest inductee announced for the WWE Hall of Fame, as Bix mentioned earlier. He's kind of one of those names who you're surprised isn't in the Hall already. Later, during the Vince McMahon/Bret Hart contract signing, they officially announced Stu Hart as being inducted to the Hall of Fame, because Stone Cold said so or something.
Poor Kofi Kingston. At one point, he looked like he was a star on the rise, especially after Survivor Series. Even as recently as a month or two ago, he looked like a good bet to win Money in the Bank this year. Now, he isn't even on the Wrestlemania card, and he was used as a tuneup match for Batista heading into the event. I guess if Mr. Kennedy has proven anything, it's that it's not a good idea to be out of position while wrestling Randy Orton.
Pete Rose is the guest host for next week's Wrestlemania. I know I, for one, can't believe that Pete Rose was available, but there he is hosting next week.
While Kofi/Batista might have been the last match of the evening, the Vince McMahon/Bret Hart contract signing for Wrestlemania was the real main event of the program. They announced that Vince vs. Bret will be a no holds barred match, probably to get around the fact that the match consists of a 64 year old man and a recovering stroke victim. They finally did the big reveal that Bret was faking the leg injury all along to get Vince to agree to wrestle Bret at Wrestlemania. That's still no excuse for Bret wearing those ridiculous pants. Vince was laid out by Bret with the cast afterwards and that got a big pop.

Overall, this was a much better show than last week, even if some of the finishes of the matches left something to be desired. The show closing angle with Vince and Bret was very well done. Austin did feel a little under-utilized, I get not wanting Cheech and Chong to be used to build a serious angle heading to Wrestlemania but Austin feels like a guy who could have helped other matches along too. This show also featured more wrestling than many Raws of late, even with the non-match with Sheamus and Bourne, but as stated, the finishes definitely could use some work.

Open thread for Monday Night Massacre Week 2

2010-03-15T23:21:21Z

Vince McMahon yells at Steve Austin in the corner.

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TNA has officially announced for tonight:

- Find out what happens next with RVD and Sting.

- A DREAM MATCH~!!! main event between AJ Styles and Jeff Hardy (thankfully next to nobody watched the weekly PPVs so they can still bill this match as a never before seen dream match people have been waiting years to see).

- Kurt Angle & The Pope vs. Mr. Anderson & Desmond Wolfe.

- Angelina Love issues an open challenge to any member of The Beautiful People.

- Plus appearances by Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, Abyss, Jeff Jarrett, Kevin Nash and others (good ol' TNA they even forget to tease the heavy duty angle between Eric Bischoff and Mick Foley).

- And last, and definitely least, TNA might squeeze in a little time to hype Sunday's Destination X PPV if we're lucky.

While WWE has announced:

- Guest GM "Stone Cold" Steve Austin will surely wreak havoc.

- Three WrestleMania rematches with Triple H vs. Randy Orton, World Heavyweight Champion Chris Jericho vs. HBK, and John Cena vs. Big Show.

- And a contract signing for the WrestleMania main event between Bret Hart and Vince McMahon, which will be presided over by Austin.

Please leave any thoughts on either of the two shows in the comments section of this thread.

WWE Hall of Fame 2010 Lineup Fully Fleshed-Out: Gorgeous George, Bob Uecker, and Stu Hart to join names already announced

2010-03-15T20:17:09Z

Gorgeous George w/ then-wife Betty Wagner

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- Stu Hart's induction has has not been announced officially, presumably due to how it will be explained with regards to the Bret Hart-Vince McMahon program, but it's a forgone conclusion that he will be inducted by his grandchildren D.H. Smith and Natalya Neidhart, with Bret accepting the posthumous award.

- According to the Milwaukee Journel-Setinel, Bob Uecker is being inducted into the "Celebrity Wing." F4WOnline.com reported that Dick Ebersol of NBC Sports, who produced Saturday NIght's Main Event during its heyday. Uecker had some of the most memorable celebrity appearances at any Wrestlemania, doing commentary and interviews at Wrestlemania III, where he was throttled by Andre The Giant in one of the most replayed clips in company history.

- As announced by a WWE press release, the original Gorgeous George, George Wagner, will be inducted into this year's HOF class and WWE Studios has optioned the rights to a film of his life story, with production beginning in the first quarter of next year. Wagner's ex-wife (he was married to a different woman at the time of his death) Betty, who he was married to at his peak, will accept the award. From the release:

World Wrestling Entertainment(R) today announced that Gorgeous George, the man often credited with creating American pop culture and who set the standard for future WWE Superstars and influenced such greats as Muhammad Ali, James Brown and Bob Dylan, will be inducted into the WWE(R) Hall of Fame on March 27, 2010. His 96 year-old former wife, Betty Wagner will accept the honor on his behalf. The Hall of Fame ceremony will be broadcast that night on USA Network at 11 PM ET from the Dodge Theater in Phoenix, Arizona.

"Gorgeous George's was a pop-culture innovator who took risks pushing the social envelope and did things that no other performer had ever dared to do," said CEO and Chairman Vince McMahon. "He was a cultural tour-de-force who set the standard that many in the world of sports and entertainment still emulate today."

The significance of Gorgeous George's legacy led WWE Studios to option the rights to his story for a major motion picture slated to begin production in 1Q 2011.

Muhammad Ali, whose notorious boastful and arrogant style derived from George, stated, "I made up my mind after meeting Gorgeous George to make people angry at me...I saw 15,000 people comin' to see this man get beat. And his talking did it. I said this is a good idea."

Bob Dylan, the music poet, said, "A mighty spirit. Crossing paths with Gorgeous George, was all the recognition and encouragement I would need for years to come."

Gorgeous George, born George Wagner, single-handedly changed the dynamics of not only wrestling, but entertainment and sports in the 1940s-1950s. His character was an arrogant aristocrat dressed in silk, lace and chiffon robes who spoke in a braggadocio style, often referring to himself as "The Toast of the Coast" and "The Sensation of the Nation." Audiences around the country came to see Gorgeous George perform live, and tuned their TV sets in to see what he would say or do next, making Gorgeous George one of the biggest celebrities of his day, and an influence on pop culture for generations to come. As popular as Lucille Ball and Bob Hope, media observers believe more Americans purchased televisions to watch Gorgeous George perform than to see Milton Berle.

According to F4WOnline.com, Wagner will be inducted by Dick "The Destroyer" Beyer, who won the the "toast of the coast's" hair in one of George's last high profile matches.

Pro Wrestling Respect results 3/14/10

2010-03-15T01:01:06Z

Pro Wrestling Respect wrestler and head trainer of the ROH Wrestling Academy Delirious.

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Here are results from today's Pro Wrestling Respect show that took place at the Burlington National Guard Armory in Burlington, New Jersey. For those who are not familiar with the company, Pro Wrestling Respect is a promotion run by the ROH Wrestling Academy that runs shows as a way to get their trainees some regular work; in some ways, I guess you could say it is ROH's answer to Florida Championship Wrestling.

Grizzly Redwood defeated Mr. Ernesto Osiris
Marker Dillinger and Rob Wolf defeated two wrestlers whose names I did not catch. The two wrestlers whose names I did not catch teased a breakup after their match.
Bobby Dempsey and Harlem & Lance Bravado defeated Rhett Titus & The Ninjas after Dempsey pinned Titus after a big splash.
Shane Hagadorn and Orange Cassidy defeated Alex Payne and Mike Sydal.
Celso Rivera (with Sly Stetson) defeated Professor Milo Schizo.
Rayna Von Tosh and Jamila Craft defeated Daizee Haze and MsChif by disqualification after MsChif blew green mist at Von Tosh.
Ricky Reyes defeated Pelle Primeau.
Delirious defeated "Right Leg" Andy Ridge

All of the matches were at least decent. I wouldn't want to harshly judge a promotion that uses primarily wrestling school students anyway, but most of the wrestlers up and down the show were well-trained. Delirious did stand out above everybody else, mostly because his charisma blew away anybody else on the show, but the matches were all solid and fun. It helped that the crowd was very hot and into everybody on the show, with a lot of kids in attendance.

The only ROH-style match was the main event, and I felt this was a positive. Because there wasn't an abundance of matches with 2.9 counts up and down the show and crazy high spots, it made the main event seem more important when Delirious and Ridge were doing that style of match. It was better paced than many ROH shows I've been to as well. It was a 2 hour and 15 minute show and it didn't feel like there was any wasted time at all. If there was any negatives, it was that there seemed to be a lot of enzugiris on this show, but that is but a mere minor complaint. I would recommend checking out Pro Wrestling Respect if you are anywhere near the South Jersey area as they put on an entertaining, family-friendly show.

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Please note, I want to start a new feature for Cageside Seats, and we can call this the first in that series. Whenever I go to a live wrestling show, and I expect that to be semi-frequently, I will do similar show reports to the one I wrote above. But obviously, I don't go to every wrestling show out there. That's where you, dear reader, comes in.

I want to start compiling wrestling show results in a weekly feature that I would post here on Mondays on Cageside Seats. If you attend a wrestling show, please send me results at CagesideResults@gmail.com. Also, if you are an independent wrestling promoter and would like to plug your upcoming shows, I will post a weekly feature every Thursday night running down indy wrestling show cards for the coming week as well. You can send your show lineups and venue information to the E-Mail above. Thanks!

Linda McMahon gets bashed for her husband Vince's "Sexy Bitch"

2010-03-15T00:58:52Z

Vince & Linda McMahon

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No, the Connecticut media hasn't discovered that Vince is cheating on his wife with one of the WWE Divas. "The Sexy Bitch" in question is the name of Vince McMahon's ostentatious 47-foot long sports yacht docked in Boca Raton, Florida, which was revealed in an article by the Hearst newspapers after Linda McMahon refused to answer a questionnaire about how she spends her wealth.

Unsurprisingly, the Rob Simmons campaign was quick to bash her lack of transparency.

Dixie Carter resorts to pleading with fans to DVR Impact if they can't watch it live on Twitter

2010-03-14T14:26:10Z

via img.thesun.co.uk

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Perhaps the only good news TNA got this week was that the replay of Impact in their old Thursday night time slot drew an impressive 1.0 rating. Unfortunately this strong rating apparently didn't make Spike TV change their minds about the replay only being for one week only, as Dixie Carter wrote the following on Twitter 14 hours ago: "TNA iMPACT! will NOT re-air on Thursdays. If you can't watch LIVE Mondays 9-11pm ET on SPIKE, please DVR it. PLEASE RT".

Knowing TNA, I'm sure they forgot to tell the one million or so people watching their replay this salient fact and Dixie Carter had to make a desperation tweet to get the news out to her 34,000 followers on Twitter. Well, that's sure to make a huge difference to their Monday night rating! Forward planning is obviously not TNA's strong point.

Bret Hart's big Mania payday leads to interview amnesia and shameless hypocrisy

2010-03-13T14:55:18Z

Bret Hart

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Over the last few days Bret Hart has been touring the Canadian media to promote his upcoming WrestleMania match with Vince McMahon and unfortunately his interviews have been filled with some jawdropping amnesia and hypocrisy.

Firstly, he had this to say about his brother Owen's tragic death while working for the WWF to CTV: "Clearly, my brother Owen's death was just a bad accident. You can't hold Vince McMahon directly accountable for that. It was someone underneath who didn't know what they were doing."

Wow, I can't believe that Bret has forgotten the part of the story where Vince hired incompetent stunt coordinators because the professionals were too expensive and refused to do the stunt exactly as he wanted due to its inherent danger. So sorry Bret, but yes you can hold Vince McMahon directly accountable for that. Maybe Martha Hart was right after all when she called Owen "a white sheep in a black family".

Secondly, Bret was on Off The Record and had the gall to bash Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair for their recent returns to the ring: "Ric Flair, I feel sorry for him. You were talking about wrestlers saying, 'When is enough, enough? When do they ever give up and go home to their families and their real lives?' Ric is one of those guys who's a little ahead of me, but I remember a time knowing that I had to get out of wrestling and go home to my kids before they were grown up and gone or that I had no family life. I think wrestlers make this decision - and I'm sure Hogan is the same and different guys - where they decide they have to go home to their families or stay in the wrestling business and that becomes their family. Flair stayed in the wrestling business, forgot about his family, his family moved on and left him; the only thing Ric Flair knows is the dressing room, the airports, the bar after and drinking."

As much as I've taken shots at Ric Flair for his drunken carousing, even I can see that Bret Hart is the last person to be lecturing Flair about family and prioritising the wrestling business above all else. You just have to read Bret's autobiography to know that he's just as guilty as Flair of failing to put his family, particularly his wife, first, during his wrestling career. Bret may think he's the better man, but his decision to "go home" was made for him when he suffered a career ending injury. It probably also should be noted that there's a good chance that Bret hasn't seen much more of his children over the last decade than Flair has, given the amount of time he's spent living in Italy and Hawaii. It doesn't say much good about Bret's ability to adapt to real life that he got so bored with it he had to return to the ring. Simply put, Bret's a lot more like Flair than he'll ever realise or admit to.

Is UFC finally feeling the effects of overexposure through running too many major shows?

2010-03-11T23:54:44Z

via www.yorkblog.com

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That's the obvious question to ponder, after Dave Meltzer reported in the March 15, 2010 Wrestling Observer Newsletter that early trending data for UFC 110 suggests that only 215,000-240,000 homes bought the show. This isn't a particularly low number for an overseas show, but the show wasn't tape-delayed and on paper had a stronger line up than most previous overseas PPV shows. Overexposure may be the answer, as UFC 110 came just two weeks after their last PPV event. It doesn't help that UFC may have conditioned their more casual PPV buying audience to believe that all overseas PPV events are skippable after a series of lackluster line-ups. Ironically, UFC 100 might not have helped either, raising the expectations of casual fans for PPV line-ups after seeing Brock Lesnar and George St Pierre defend their titles on the same show as the blow off to a big Ultimate Fighter captains grudge match.

Zach Arnold of www.fightopinion.com ponders the related question: "Why did UFC 110 reportedly not draw big on PPV?" with similar answers. In particular, he wonders whether this is a sign that UFC's core PPV buying audience has shrunk significantly.

Dana White in the past has always scoffed about the potential perils of overexposure, thinking MMA, unlike other combat sports, would be immune to its effects, citing the unrelated examples of team based sports like football and basketball, which maintain their popularity despite so many matches being televised for free. He may learn to regret the day that he didn't learn the lessons of boxing's and WWE's pasts, and conned himself into believing that MMA could be the biggest sport in the whole wide world.

TNA Impact spoilers - reeks of the same failed desperation hotshot booking seen in the dying days of WCW

2010-03-11T00:40:38Z

via www.pwtorch.com

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The Observer website has already posted spoilers for Monday's taped TNA Impact show. Unsurprisingly the spoilers reek of the same overbooked nonsense that contributed to the demise of WCW. The angles that most exemplify this failed desperation hotshot booking:

- Eric Bischoff vows to shave Mick Foley's head and beard, but when he attempts to do so, Foley manages to turn the tables and shaves Bischoff's head instead.

- Scott Hall gets $25,000 of Kevin Nash's money after he survives a five minute challenge, thanks to Sean Waltman handcuffing Nash to the ring ropes.

- RVD gets revenge on Sting by sucker attacking him when Sting answers Hulk Hogan's challenge to come out and face him. This leads to Eric "Do as I say, not as I do" Bischoff (him again) coming out and yelling at Hogan for getting physically involved again when he's supposed to be leading the company behind the scenes.

- Finally, TNA gives away Jeff Hardy's debut match for free in the main event. Moreover, Hardy defeats TNA World champion AJ Styles with his Swanton after a ref bump and special enforcer Abyss counts the pinfall. But wait, don't turn the channel to Raw, there's more! Yes, to close the show Abyss choke slams Ric "Whose the glorified stuntman now" Flair through a gimmicked stage, before threatening Styles.

If you are wondering why TNA are already so desperate, Dave Meltzer, gave the following key quote on the Observer message boards in response to a thread entitled "Why is everyone here so anti TNA?":

I get no glee out of TNA failing. I have friends who work there and if you know about their financial situation now, this is not looking good at all. They spent millions expecting a whole lot more return than they got.

Simply put, TNA are now losing tons of money again, after they managed to stem the bleeding through keeping their costs under control, moving to monthly PPVs, landing the Spike TV deal and expanding to two hours in prime time on Thursdays. The stakes have been raised. Dixie Carter may live to rue the day when she decided to go all in on the Monday night gamble.

Lloyd's of London causes WWE headaches over Bret Hart coming out of retirement

2010-03-10T23:09:07Z

Bret Hart & Test in Europe in 2008

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In the latest edition of Figure Four Weekly, Bryan Alvarez confirms a story originally broken by Eric Bischoff that Lloyd's of London, a British insurance company, had caused WWE plenty of headaches over Bret Hart coming out of retirement for a one off match at WrestleMania.

The context to this story is that Bret Hart, like several other wrestlers in the late 1980s, took out an injury insurance policy with Lloyd's of London. Lloyd's probably naively assumed that the odds of a wrestler claiming a permanent disability benefit were quite small. After all, that wrestling is completely fake, isn't it? However, Lloyd's eventually smartened up after wrestlers like Road Warrior Animal and Curt Hennig played the system and milked their injuries for as long as possible before returning to the ring. So when Bret claimed permanent disability after his career ending concussion issues, naturally Lloyd's was sceptical, having been burnt before. They refused to pay up, so Bret was forced to sue them in March 2004 for unpaid benefits and breach of contract, a case he eventually won in November 2005 when he was awarded $800,000 in damages.

However, wrestling is a strange business where even a badly concussed, stroke sufferer who was screwed over by the biggest wrestling promoter in the world can't be guaranteed to stay retired. Unsurprisingly Lloyd's mustn't have taken the news of Bret's imminent wrestling return too well and got their lawyers on to WWE. According to Alvarez, the whole creative team were "really sweating" and that this may have been the reason why they teased a tag match between Bret Hart & John Cena vs. Vince McMahon & Batista for a couple of weeks, instead of the originally planned singles match between the two. Apparently this is no longer a problem, as Lloyd's and WWE have come to some sort of agreement, possibly involving WWE paying Lloyd's some sort of restitution or Lloyd's having the final say on the physical structure of their singles match together.

WWE NXT Results and Reactions, 3/9/10

2010-03-10T04:10:55Z

WWE NXT Rookie Daniel Bryan was in action this week on WWE NXT.

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Full results for WWE NXT and my thoughts after the jump:

WWE Pro R-Truth and WWE Rookie David Otunga defeated WWE Pro and WWE US and Unified Tag Team Champion The Miz and WWE Rookie Daniel Bryan when Otunga pinned Miz after a chokeslam/spinebuster combination.
WWE Rookie Heath Slater (with WWE Pro Christian) defeated WWE Pro Carlito (with WWE Rookie Michael Tarver) after a rolling reverse cradle.
WWE Rookie Justin Gabriel (with WWE Pro Matt Hardy) defeated WWE Rookie Wade Barrett (with WWE Pro and World Champion Chris Jericho) after hitting the 450 splash.

The opening match was good. It told a good story, with Miz and Bryan having problems getting along. The key spot was Miz tagging himself in when Bryan had his heel hook on Otunga, they had words, and R-Truth hit the ax kick on Miz, setting up the Otunga pin. This was somewhat significant as Miz is a pretty well regarded Pro, so they clearly continue to have plans for Otunga. Before the match, Miz promised if Bryan lost, he would be kicked off of NXT, so that seems to be the next part of the Miz/Bryan story. Truth and Otunga did not have problems getting along after what happened last week.
They did a nice job setting up the Slater/Carlito match with a video showing Carlito spitting the apple in Slater's face from last week. The match itself was decent and the announcers made a point to say that Slater has accomplished something pinning a WWE Pro in a singles match, even if it was an upset.
They continued the videos with Justin Gabriel and Darren Young. After the Darren Young video, they did a backstage segment with Young and Punk, where Punk mentioned that when he helped Young, he won, but when he didn't help Young, he lost, and Punk saying it was an example of how Young could benefit from the straight edge lifestyle, with Young pondering his choice. Nice way to promote Punk's gimmick and work it into his NXT rookie.
Justin Gabriel looked good and appears to be another guy who WWE has in their plans. Jericho attacked Gabriel post-match after he had scored a clean pin, which gives the kid a rub from the World champion. Also, I think Michael Cole created the term "second-generation entertainer" when referring to Gabriel's father wrestling in South Africa as the Pink Panther.
There continues to be the allusion to the Pros determining who wins, but they haven't said anything concrete as to when that might be or how that would be determined, which leaves me to think they haven't figured that out yet.

I'd call this week a decent effort, better than last week's show. The matches ranged from "good" to "not wasting your time" and they at least have some focus on storylines and wrestlers. Right now, it looks like Otunga, Bryan, Slater, and Gabriel are the guys they are behind. It should be interesting to see how the show progresses.

Detailed Monday Night Wars Vol. 2, Week 1 Ratings

2010-03-09T23:59:36Z

More photos » John Bazemore - AP

Hulk Hogan

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First, the quick and dirty:

WWE Monday Night Raw did a 3.25 rating with a 5.45 share.
TNA Impact did a 0.9 rating with a 1.5 share.

F4WOnline is reporting that it was 3.4 for Raw and 1.0 for Impact. I don't know why there's a fluctuation from the numbers we got but it's not a big one (and if you round Raw up to the next tenth of point then both shows vary by the same amount) so it's nothing to worry about.

Now, the detailed parts (and beware that Nielsen Media Research's math can be strange and that's why they don't come out exactly the same as averages reported for the shows) from the networks' prime time half hour grids:

- WWE's long-standing tradition is to report each hour of Raw as a separate show ("WWE Entertainment") while TNA reports all of Impact (including the overrun) as one show, so Raw's number as to be averaged from the official information. Hour 1 did a 3.1 with a 4.6 share and hour 2 (including the overrun) did a 3.4 with a 6.0 share.

- Raw's half hours covering 9 PM to 11 PM EST (missing the overrun) were 3.0, 3.0, 3.2, and 3.2.

- Impacts half hours were 0.8, 0.9, 1.0, and 0.8. So they grew little by little and then dropped back to where they started. That's not a good sign.

WWE Raw Results and Thoughts, 3/8/10

2010-03-09T04:37:05Z

WWE Raw

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Full results from this week's episode of Monday Night Raw after the jump.

WWE Unified Tag Team Champions The Big Show and The Miz battled John Morrison and R-Truth to a no-contest after both teams were brawling all over the ringside area.
Legacy defeated Randy Orton in a handicap match when Ted DiBiase pinned Orton after Dream Street, set up by a distraction from Cody Rhodes.
Evan Bourne qualified for Money in the Bank by defeating William Regal with the Shooting Star Press.
Mr. McMahon won some cluster of a main event over John Cena in what was billed as a handicap gauntlet match after Cena had been pummeled by Vladimir Kozlov, Drew McIntyre, Jack Swagger, Mark Henry (no turn, they pushed that Henry had been forced into this by Vince for some strange reason), and Batista.

My thoughts:

The show opened with some mic work between Undertaker and Shawn Michaels that I thought was kind of boring. Some might call it simple, but they didn't really say anything that made me want to see this match any more or any less than I already did. They did somewhat anti-climatically make this a no-DQ, no countout match.
They did some backstage shenanigans with Criss Angel doing magic, such as making a piece of string go in his mouth through his eye (that was kind of gross), a number trick involving William Regal and Skip Sheffield, and finally some crazy "knife in a cup" gimmick where Santino hid a knife under a paper cup and Angel crushed the other cups, leaving the cup with a knife standing upright (without a knife piercing his hand). The problem is, even if the illusions (not tricks, as those are things a prostitute does for money, or candy) were on the up and up, they were clearly pre-taped and nobody would buy them on a wrestling show anyway, so they were pretty much a waste of time.
I liked the Show/Miz and Morrison/Truth match, even if it didn't have a finish, as it made the challengers look strong going into Wrestlemania, and considering they weren't even a team two weeks ago, they need all the help they can get. They did a nice job spotlighting Truth and Morrison working as a team together to prove "Hey, these guys are a legit team! We didn't just throw them together to make sure they get a Wrestlemania payoff, honest!"
The Orton/Legacy match was kind of boring, and if the goal was to get the audience excited about seeing that as a Wrestlemania match, it failed. They did try to push that both Rhodes and DiBiase together are too much for Orton, so he'd need to get a tag team partner, but I'm not sure whose left that needs a Wrestlemania match. Kofi seems to be the only star without a match on the show, but I don't know if anybody really wants to see Orton and Kofi team, and if they did team, everybody would be expecting Orton to turn on Sting, er Kofi, the entire match.
HHH and Sheamus had another boring in-ring confrontation to build their match. HHH did open with a nice point about how when he first came to WWE, he came in undefeated, as the new flavor of the month, and asked for the biggest dog he could find on the show (without saying the words "Ultimate Warrior) and was pinned in seconds. Then he stated that the guys who defeated him went on to become bigger stars (who, Undertaker? Benoit?) but the guys who he defeated saw their careers end (I guess Goldust's career went into a tailspin after Wrestlemania 13, but other than that, who?). Then they had a boring brawl where HHH came out on top. Overall, I remained amazingly ambivalent about this match.
Bourne and Regal had a nice 2 minute match. Would love to see this rematch on Superstars with some actual time.
They announced Steve Austin as the host for next week, as well as a Vince/Bret contract signing, where hopefully Bret will announce this whole cast thing was a ruse, because otherwise it's just been a giant waste of time.
The main event...wow. I like Cena, and I like Vince, but this was a mess. First, Vince changes it into a gauntlet match. But by "gauntlet," it meant "guy comes out, beats up Cena, tags in Vince, Cena kicks out, new guy comes out." I don't know why they couldn't have Cena beat, say, Kozlov here, or even McIntyre or Swagger. I guess I should applaud them for not burying the mid-card for once in this type of situation, but it made no sense for the guys to leave since they were not defeated, nor did they (or Vince) score a fall. After Vince failed to score pins on Cena after Kozlov, McIntyre, Swagger, and Henry all hit their finishes on Cena, he made the match no-DQ. Henry tried to stop Vince from using the ring bell, but Batista (who earlier had said he would not interfere in the main event) laid him out with the spinebuster. Kofi tried to make the save for Cena, but he too was laid out. Finally, Batista laid out Cena and Vince scored the pin to end this giant cluster-f.

Overall, it was quite the boring show. I guess they really aren't concerned with TNA as competition if tonight's show was any indication, because they really didn't do much of anything.

Open thread for WWE Raw and TNA Impact on March 8th

2010-03-08T23:52:45Z

via wcwrules4lyf.files.wordpress.com

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The key stuff from TNA's official online preview:

Hulk Hogan & Abyss vs. Ric Flair & AJ Styles;

Sting returns to TNA;

and that's all.

There's also supposed to be a major angle in the first five minutes of the show and "surprise" appearances by Jeff Hardy and Rob Van Dam. The only other match that has been teased online is Scott Hall & 6-Pac vs. Kevin Nash & Eric Young.

The key stuff from WWE's official online preview:

Raw opens up with The Undertaker (a clear counter programming move);

John Cena vs. Vince McMahon;

Randy Orton vs. Cody Rhodes & Ted Dibiase;

and illusionist Criss Angel hosts Raw.

Feel free to leave your comments on the shows in this open thread.

It looks like UPS had trouble delivering Rob Simmons' letter to Linda McMahon's campaign...

2010-03-08T23:29:16Z

It looks like UPS had trouble delivering Rob Simmons' letter to Linda McMahon's campaign headquarters. The address on the UPS form matches the address on McMahon's website, So it was either a garden variety UPS screw up along the lines of "Hey why don't I throw the package in the back yard" or her campaign office is actually a glorified P.O. box, which I'm told is not uncommon. I would presume that the package hasn't been claimed because they already saw the contents on the internet.