Matt Dawgs
Random Thoughts from Matt Dawgs: Triple H - MVP, WWE Not In Bad Shape, Dumb Talent - Released, "LIFE", A-Rod - The 30 Million Dollar Man, Shelly Martinez - My Favorite and More
By Matt Dawgs
Oct 13, 2007 - 10:26 AM

Random Thoughts, Opinions, Questions and Observations.

Greetings from under the New Blue Black Yankee cap I received for my birthday.

Welcome back to another titillating edition of Random Thoughts, Opinions, Questions and Observations. (he he, I said titillating.)

Some week in the wrestling world we just had huh? Three new WWE champions crowned in one night, a big return and an unsurprising release. Let’s start with the first topic of interest, Triple H.

By all accounts, Triple H put in an MVP-like performance at No Mercy by having three main event caliber matches in one night. In the opening contest, he had a solid match with Randy Orton (who was handed the WWE title by Vince McMahon) and defeated him to capture the WWE title. He then successfully defended his title against Umaga in the middle of the show and closed the show by losing his newly won WWE title to Randy Orton in what some are saying is a match of the year candidate and definitely the best match within WWE for the year. Say what you want about HHH but the fact is, when he is on, he is ON!!!! He can deliver a main event match better than anyone else in the business today and that is a fact. He is the last of the “Attitude Era” who is still a perennial main eventer and deserves his spot. I know some people are going to argue the Undertaker is still around but in my eyes, he is a part timer and a special attraction. Don’t get me wrong, he delivers in the ring as well but HHH is on every week and busts his ass all the time, on house shows as well, to give his matches a “big match” feel to them. He has that special aura about him and carries himself like the biggest star on the brand. When push comes to shove, you can either love him or hate him, but you HAVE TO respect him.

On RAW Monday, Shawn Michaels made his triumphant return to the roster and attacked new champion Randy Orton. It was a definite surprise since he was expected back until November at the earliest and many people were reporting that he was considering not coming back at all. Sources said that Shawn was quietly telling his friends that he was burnt out on wrestling, happy that he changed his image to his peers and fans from being a spoiled, cocky brat to someone who respected the business and that he had salvaged his legacy by performing at the level he has for the past 4 years. He was also tired of the travel and was enjoying spending time with his family. Turns out that either money talks or that he saw an opportunity to have one last main event run (possibly accompanied by a title run) in John Cena’s absence. I think Shawn is going to go out in a blaze of glory and perform at a high level for at least another year.

Speaking of returns, WWE is almost back together again. With the return of HHH, Undertaker, Rey Mysterio and now Shawn Michaels, the main event picture is finally healthy and filling up. Add those names to the impending returns of Edge at Survivor Series and Bobby Lashley in time for the Royal Rumble in January and things are finally looking up, especially with the “golden boy” out until next year.

John Cena. I spoke about him last week and how it was a big blow to WWE. I know some “fans” are happy he is injured even though no one should wish an injury on anyone in this business. Bottom line is, I feel real bad for John. He has worked so damn hard to get where he is and is basically a machine outside the ring with his schedule. Those close to him said he has a passion for wrestling that hasn’t been seen in forever and the fact that he isn’t married nor doesn’t have kids is a huge plus for him to be WWE champion since he basically doesn’t have to go home. Now, he is stuck at home for a year (although I fully expect him to rush back, even before he is ready) without anything to do. He can’t even start training yet for at least a month. Godspeed John Cena. Contrary to what others fans may think, I think you will be missed.

Three developmental names were released from the company this week, two were by request and the last one wasn’t a surprise at all. At the end of the day, all three however are wasted opportunities. Let’s start with the pair who requested their releases, Ryan O’Reilly and Krissy Vaine. Krissy Vaine was the female who I wished the best of luck to a few weeks ago being that I met her once on the Indies. She was a nice girl who seemed to have a passion for the wrestling business. Apparently that was incorrect as she and O’Reilly are dating in real life and both requested their release due to being separated on the road. O’Reilly was going to be called up to the Raw brand while Krissy was already called up to the Smackdown roster and was set to feud with Torrie Wilson as either her younger sister or a crazy admirer. Either way, that angle, which had already started with Krissy attacking Torrie, has now been scrapped. Both of them are gone from the company and my hunch is that they will regret this decision down the road. Bottom line is, most if not all relationships started within the wrestling business end up on the broken up side of a relationship. They have now burned a bridge by leaving the company (Especially Krissy since they have enough blond, big breasted women on the roster). Hopefully they both quit wrestling and end up happy since I don’t want to see that they wasted their opportunity for nothing.

The other release this week was none other than…………TEDDY HART!!!!! I can’t say I am surprised. Actually, scratch that, I am totally surprised. I’M SURPRISED THAT HE LASTED AS LONG AS HE DID. For those who don’t know, Teddy Hart, while a funny and entertaining individual, and definitely talented in the ring, is a basket case in real life. The man beats to his own drum and does what he wants, when he wants to do it. He always tends to go off script for his angles in promotions and sometimes goes off the grid in matches (check out ROH’s Main Event Spectacles for an example of this). It is such a shame as Teddy Hart, when motivated, is one of the best young wrestlers in the business today. If he only had his head on straight, he could actually make something of himself. I think this is the end of the road for him. Sure he will get some independent bookings here and there but for the most part, his chances of being a big star are over. He burned his bridges with ROH, TNA and WWE which are the main three companies in the United States. Sucks for him but at least Harry Smith and Nattie Neidhart don’t have to walk on eggshells in the WWE anymore for fear they are going to get fired or buried because of something Teddy said or did. I just hope WWE still has plans to call them up to the main roster in November as originally scheduled.

Britney Spears news of the week. I am getting tired of writing about her but she is constantly in the news. This week’s news is that she had her lawyer request that she get some over night visits with the kids that she obviously doesn’t want. The judge set a hearing date and guess what? She didn’t show up even though her lawyer said she has a better shot at winning sleepovers. Her lawyer tells the judge that she didn’t want to come because TMZ.com leaked her appearance in court the night before and she was worried about paparazzi causing a big circus. Anyway, at the end of the day, she eventually showed up in court (5 hours after the hearing was supposed to take place). Then she proceeded to act condescending to the judge during questioning and was very sarcastic to some of his questions. She did manage to win one night per week with her sons although her mother will not be the court appointed watcher as she requested.

Lindsey Lohan post of the week is that she is moving to Utah full time to live with some douche snowboarder who she met in rehab. She is also firing her mother as her manager which I say is a good mood. Sucks that she is moving in with that dude though. He is some out of shape, not so good looking dude. I know for a fact that I have a shot with her. I am 100% positive that I can bang that if given a week to hang with her and get to know her. Probably less. F*ck that, give me 48 hours. She looks good now that she is out of rehab; healthy even. Here is a pick taken this past week. Lindsey Lohan is Hot.

Cyber Sunday is fast approaching and the card is beginning to take shape. Randy Orton is defending the WWE title against Shawn Michaels, Jeff Hardy or Mr. Kennedy. While I am positive WWE is going to try and sway the vote towards Shawn, I wouldn’t be surprised if Hardy got voted in. He is super popular with the fans and possibly the most popular person on the RAW roster after John Cena.

The ECW title match is CM Punk defending against Big Daddy V, John Morrison or the Miz. This is tough one between V and Morrison. Miz has no chance at winning this poll.

The World Title match will be Batista vs. Khali vs. Mysterio vs. Finley with the fans voting on the referee with the choices being “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, Mick Foley or JBL. If anyone votes for someone other than Austin, they are crazy. I’d order this pay per view just to see interaction between Austin and Khali. That would be hilarious.

Obviously they are going to go with HHH vs. Umaga. My bet is that they are going to use the stipulations that they were going to have for Cena vs. Orton. It will probably be Hell in a Cell, Falls Count Anywhere or I Quit. Hell in the Cell is your obvious winner but I am just speculating as this may not be the stips.

I figure a Matt Hardy vs. MVP match or Hardy and MVP vs. Taker and Kane.

Someone on the message board suggested that the losers in the Orton match face Hardy/MVP. I think a Kennedy & Jeff Hardy vs. MVP & Matt Hardy would be awesome considering MVP and Kennedy were allies when he was on Smackdown and obviously the Hardy’s were a tag team.

I want to give a second to promote the show “ LIFE ” on NBC. It is a pretty damn good show and they have only shown three episodes of it. It is about a police detective named Charlie Crews who went to jail for 12 years (from 1995-2007) for the murder of his business partner, his partners wife and young son (I think like 6 years old).

Problem is, he didn't do it and gets exonerated by DNA evidence which wasn’t available at the time.

So he sues the police department and the city and they settle (they never disclose the amount but insinuate that it is over 50 million). Part of the settlement however was that he had to be reinstated to the PD. Problem is, no one wants to work with him or even likes him because they all think he is guilty.

He now has a new take on "Life" (hence the title) because he appreciates everything more. He does things unorthodox now because he sees that others need to appreciate things. For example, a young boy was murdered. He and his partner went to investigate the father (who was separated from the mother) and they caught him with weed. He told the man, in front of his partner, that he should probably flush the entire weed down the toilet before back up comes to search the house. The reason he did that was because he felt the father didn’t have anything to do with the murder (which he didn’t), and he should go to jail since he just lost his son.

There are other subplots as well but the main one is that he asked for his job back as part of the settlement because rather than just be rich and retire, he wants to solve the case that locked him up for 12 years (he was sentenced to Life, hence the title).

During cut a way scenes, they show clips of interviews documentary style with all those involved with the case at the beginning. They interview the Detective who arrested Crews who has since retired. He still thinks Crews is guilty (as do most people on the police force), they interview his ex partner who is now a beat cop (he got demoted), his ex wife who divorced him while in jail, got remarried and has kids yet still has feelings for him and wants to come back to him (especially now that he is filthy rich).

Plus, his new partner has him as a punishment because she apparently did something wrong and the captain has reason to fire her but is now blackmailing her to report on Crews so he can get fired. Good stuff. This is easily my pick for best new show of the fall season.

Sigh. It’s that time again folks. Time in my column to talk about the dreck that is known as TNA or Total Nonstop Angle. I don’t know where exactly I can go with this but since this is a wrestling website and a wrestling column (some of the time) I figure I should mention them. Another week gone by and the second week of the 2 hour iMPACT show. This week is more of last week. Same 2 hours of fact paced, blink and you miss a whole storyline show. What makes this show so f*cking abysmal is the rushed feel of it. You don’t even get two seconds to comprehend what you just saw because they will either cut away to a commercial, the announcers will dismiss it and discuss something else or they will have another angle pasted on top of it. Here is a great example from this week’s show:

The Steiner’s cut a promo calling out The Dudley’s Team 3D. They don’t show. As soon as they are done, they cut to a backstage promo (which was HORRIBLE by the way) from Team 3D. As soon as they wrap up, the Steiner’s come backstage and want a piece of The Team 3D. They are broken up by security. Mike Tenay meanwhile NO SELLS THE ENTIRE CONFRONTAION and instead yells at the top of his voice that the Women’s match is up next after commercial. Cut to commercial. As soon as they are back, Tenay and West make no mention of what we just saw and it’s like it never happened. That is the sh*t I am talking about. Why are we as fans supposed to give a f*ck about anything that happens on this show when they don’t seem to care themselves? Ridiculous.

Anyway, speaking of the women’s match, it was pretty decent. Hopefully TNA doesn’t get more WWE-like and ruin the division by sticking to talent less models to wrestle for them. If they stick with the division, they can have a solid division for the company. First time I got to check out ODB from OVW and I like the gimmick/look of her. Sure she isn’t very pretty but that is how she is supposed to look. If she can wrestle, I think WWE made a big mistake not giving her a developmental deal. Talia Madison, one of the nicest women I know also debuted. Good for her. Finally on Sunday; my second favorite diva of all time debuts, Ms. Shelly Martinez. Shelly has a ton going on for her right now with her adult fetish video that is being filmed in Los Angeles, her “Search for the new Elvira” show and now TNA. WWE really dropped the ball big time on her as I think she could have gotten over on RAW in her unique gimmick. That Batista is a real prick. Go SHELLY GO!!!!

F*cking Yankees. I love the Yanks; the Bronx Bombers have been my team since I was born. That being said, as much as I hate to say it, Joe Torre should step down. No, not get fired as there is a difference. But he should realize that the Yankees need a new voice. There is only so much he can do for them as a manager. What sucks is that they aren’t tuning him out like the Mets did to Willie Randolph. But still, they just need a change of pace. A new offensive game plan and a fresh perspective. Anyone but Tony LaRussa though. I can’t stand that guy.

Speaking of Yankees, Alex Rodriquez is going to ask for (AND GET) a 12 year contract worth $30,000,000.00 per year for a total of $360,000,000.00 making him the highest paid athlete in the history of EVERYTHING!!!! Stop hating.

I finally saw Transformers. Yeah yeah, I know, welcome to May Matt. But I saw it and I must say, I was impressed. The special effects are spectacular. The plot wasn’t anything to write home about and definitely wasn’t identical to the cartoon but it was decent enough. I look forward to the sequel.

Jersey All Pro Wrestling is celebrating their 10^th Anniversary on October 27^th with a stacked show featuring Low-Ki (Senshi) defending the JAPW title against his trainer and friend, “Da Notorious 187” Homicide. You can find details by logging onto the Jersey All Pro Wrestling Website .

Ok kiddies, classes are over for now. See you all next week.

Feel free to discuss whatever you’d like in the “ Anger Management” section of the message board or whichever section you see fit.

~Matt Dawgs  

World Wrestling Insanity writer Matt Dawgs is the bread and butter of the World Wrestling Insanity family. His future is bright and once James Guttman comes into a large sum of money, you can expect Matt will be getting tons of it thrown at him, at least half of it. Matt also moonlights as a professional wrestler/manager in the NY/NJ Indy scene. He is legit afraid of getting on Homicide’s bad side but thinks he is a cool dude in general. He also is a funny guy. If you have any questions, corrections, feedback, comments and ideas, he can be reached at Dawgs@worldwrestlinginsanity.com . If the feedback is negative, you can e-mail Matt at insanity @ worldwrestlinginsanity .com .

P.S. – In case you didn’t know, there is a WRESTLING BOOK that is out titled “World Wrestling Insanity”. It is a damn fun read so I suggest you run out and get it today. If you already have your copy, read it. If you already read your copy, read it again. It is funny; Like me.

Also, don’t forget to check out our new section, CLUB WWI . It can be found by clicking the banner at the top of this page. Check out all the new audio updates and features found there. Some good stuff including all of James Guttman’s past Radio Free Insanity broadcasts as well as all new, uncut interviews with some of wrestling past and present names. Good stuff people.