Matt Dawgs Presents: Thank Goodness It’s Friday!!!!!

Hello all. Welcome back and Happy Friday. Lets just get right to it. In my previous column on this site titled “Matt Dawgs’ Random Thoughts, Opinions, Questions and Observations”, I wrote exactly what the title says I wrote. While this column will definitely hit you with that from time to time, I am also going just basically switch up the formula a bit with my random thoughts from each wrestling PROMOTION this week. Of course I will also throw in some thoughts on real world news, sports, entertainment and gossip. Please feel free to provide any thoughts or feedback on the new format. Enjoy.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!!!!

1) WWE News and Notes

·     By far, Bob Barker has been the most entertaining guest host since this gimmick started. Complete fun from beginning to end. Maybe it’s just because I’m a Barker mark. Who knows? But I thought it was great television.

·     Trish Stratus is this week’s host. Hopefully she gives us a match as well.

·     CM Punk = Best Heel in wrestling today. Total GOLD.

·     Speaking of, Punk is dating Amy “Lita” Dumas. He had apparently told both Matt Hardy and Edge about it a while ago and the pair has kept it under wraps for a while. This is why she was backstage at all the recent Carolina shows as well as Summerslam.

·     Who would have thought that one day CM Punk, Bryan Danielson, Nigel McGuinness, Matt Sydal and Low-Ki would all be under WWE contract at the same time?

·     Hulk Hogan has apparently given up trying to get back into the company as he has announced that he is partnering with Eric Bischoff to start a touring wrestling promotion. The promotion is going to be called Hulkamania and will be doing a few shows in November in Australia. No other talent has been advertised but Vince McMahon can absolutely not be happy about this. Especially if the tour is successful and then can turn it into some sort of television deal.

·     What ever happened to that Ric Flair guy? He quit ROH, came back to WWE for two weeks and then disappeared.

·     Dave Batista will be on RAW next week to make a major announcement. My guess? He is fully healed and will be returning to action sooner than expected. How is that possible? I told you, he has Wolverine’s mutant healing factor. BTW, was he “injured” for 60 days or was it longer. Yeah, you know what I am hinting at.

·     WWE has dropped the Armageddon PPV in December ( which in my eyes still has the most underrated Hell in the Cell match n wrestling history, the 6 Man one) and instead is replacing it with a Table, Ladders and Chairs theme. While I see the business point in making each monthly PPV gimmicky, I also think it is overkill. A Hell in the Cell PPV, a TLC PPV, an Elimination Chamber PPV, a Submission PPV. It is killing each individual gimmick for future use. Just my opinion.

·     The Breaking Point PPV may just get my money (and I haven’t ordered a PPV in quite some time) simply because the booking has me intrigued. I can’t see Taker beating Punk in a submission match because that will effectively kill Punk’s push and just condition fans to think that he is in no where near Taker’s league. On the flip side, no way does Punk beat Taker by submission in his return with little build. How can you have run in’s forcing the submission? They have painted themselves into a corner and I don’t see the way out.

·     Big Show and Great Khali apparently got into a fight backstage at a house show in Puerto Rico. Most accounts say that Khali got the better of it but it was quickly broken up. Show basically instigated the incident by yelling at Khali over some blown spots in a six-man tag. Undertaker broke the fight up and it was quick.

·     To show you how much Jeff Hardy means, Dave Meltzer is reporting that WWE was so desperate for him to stay, they offered him a HUGE money contract that also stipulated that all he had to work was television and PPV. Not even Undertaker and Shawn Michaels have a deal like that as they are obligated to a few house shows a month (less than everyone else, but they still work house shows.) Who would have thought that?

·     Lillian Garcia’s final appearance will be on the September 21^st RAW. No word on her replacement but Angela Fong (Savannah on ECW) seems to be the front-runner.

·     In what is a first for the company (and a huge lack of commen sense), the 2010 Royal Rumble is scheduled on the same day as either the NFC or AFC championship game. Normally WWE books the Rumble on the Sunday in between the championship games and the Super Bowl as there is an off week for NFL football. This year they have decided to go head to head with the NFL which is a HUGE mistake.

2) WWE Breaking Point PPV Line-up

·     WWE TITLE: Randy Orton © vs. John Cena in an I QUIT match

·     WORLD TITLE: CM Punk © vs. The Undertaker in a Submission Match

·     Degeneration X vs. Legacy in a Submissions Count Anywhere match

·     ECW TITLE: Christian © vs. William Regal

·     UNDISPUTED TAG TITLES: Jericho & Big Show vs. MVP & Mark Henry

·     Kane vs. Great Khali in a Singapore Cane Match

3) TNA News and Notes

·     TNA main event level female, Angelina Love (aka Angel Williams) was let go by TNA due to visa issues. Why release her rather than just send her home to work out her visa issues is beyond me. She was once in WWE developmental and has proven her worth in TNA. By releasing her, she is free to sign with WWE if she decided to. Plus, WWE handles all visa issues for their talent. We will know soon enough as she has been invited by friends within WWE to attend RAW next week from Toronto.

·     Ken Anderson aka Mr. Kennedy of WWE fame is free to sign with TNA should they show interest (which I expect them to).

·     Umaga is also a free agent. His no compete has ended as well. I do expect TNA to make a run for him but my guess is that he goes back to Japan where he went the first time he was released as Jamal with 3-Minute Warning.

·     Homicide wants out of TNA. I don’t blame him.

4) Ring of Honor News and Notes

·     Since I didn’t post a column last week I missed more big ROH news. Nigel McGuinness has also agreed to join World Wrestling Entertainment. He and Bryan Danielson will both be finishing up on September 26, 2009. Danielson’s match against Austin Aries that day has been scrapped and now both men will be facing each other instead.

·     Danielson’s and McGuinness’ final matches are as follows:

·     September 10^th: Danielson & Roderick Strong vs. The American Wolves

·     September 10^th:   McGuinness vs. Colt Cabana

·     September 11^th: Danielson vs. Roderick Strong

·     September 11^th: McGuinness vs. TBA

·     September 18^th: Danielson vs. Chris Hero

·     September 19^th: Danielson vs. Tyler Black

·     September 25^th: Danielson vs. Davey Richards

·     September 25^th: McGuinness vs. Roderick Strong

·     September 26^th: Danielson vs. Nigel McGuinness

·     Tyler Black underwent minor neck surgery. He is going to miss a few shows in the beginning of September but should be back by the end of the month for the NY shows.

5) MMA News and Notes

·     Dana White wants to kill a lot of people. Especially Quentin “Rampage” Jackson. Jackson, who is a current trainer on The Ultimate Fighter (against Rashad Evans team) has pulled out of the December 12^th UFC main event (against Evans) because he has landed the role of BA Barakus in the new A-Team movie. Normally this would be a good thing since it gives UFC some publicity but the fact is, the 12/12 show was being built around Jackson vs. Evans as the season of TUF ends before the PPV. So now he is without a main event for that show. Even worse is that it is UFC’s debut in Memphis, which is Jackson’s hometown. He is the ENTIRE reason they booked Memphis to hold this show!!

·     I'm 99.9% positive that Kimbo Slice gets beaten WAY EARLY in this season of the Ultimate Fighter.

·     Congrats to Gina Carano who has landed the lead role in a Steven Soderbergh film. For those who aren’t familiar, Soderbergh is the guy who directed Oceans 11 with George Clooney, Brad Pitt, etc.

·     UFC 103 is on September 19 from Dallas Texas and the line up is as follows:

·     Rich Franklin vs. Vitor Belfot

·     Mirko Fillipovic vs. Junior dos Santos

·     Mike Swick vs. Martin Kampmann

·     Josh Koscheck vs. Frnak Trigg

·     Tyson Griffn vs. Hermes Franca

·     UFC 104 is on Ocrobter 24^th from Los Angeles California and the line up is as follows:

·     UFC Light Heavyweight Title: Lyoto Machida © vs. Mauricio “Shogun” Rua

·     Cain Velasquez vs. Ben Rothwell

·     Gleison Tubau vs. Josh Neer

·     Joe Stevenson vs. Spencer Fisher

·     Anthony Johnson vs. Yoshiyuki Yoshida

6) Random Thoughts, Links, Pics, ETC.

·     Random PIC of the week

·     For those of you who are fans of Japanese wrestling, Kenta Kobashi and The Great Muta will be facing off for the FIRST TIME EVER in a tag match on September 27^th. Sure both men are past their primes and this match is coming several years too late but it is still significant and both men will try their best to make it memorable. The show is a Misawa tribute show.

·     Summer is over so here is a nice pic to end the summer. ENJOY.

·     Sometime this weekend, Derek Jeter will become the all time NY Yankee hit leader. Think about that for a second. Derek Jeter will have more hits as a Yankee than Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio, Lou Gehrig, Whitey Ford, Yogi Berra, Phil Rizzutto, Don Mattingly, Roger Maris, Thurmon Munson, etc. For everyone out there who is a Derek Jeter hater, he is a first ballot hall of famer when he retires and all the hate/negativity can’t do anything to prevent that fact.

·     Hillbilly Jim is this week's guest with James Guttman on the Radio Free Insanity. WWE Hall of Famer people. Add that to Erik Watts being on top of his game with delivering  his Mega Watts update on CLUBWWI.COM and you have an awesome week with audios. Check it out!!!

·     Christina Aguilera shocked the world by not wearing a bra.

·     Holy sh*t, Sons of Anarchy has returned for their second season and the premiere EXCEEDED EXPECTATIONS. WOW, what a debut.

·     Jay-Z’s 9/11 Benefit concert from Madison Square Garden airing tonight on FUSE.

·     Ellen DeGeneres is replacing Paula Abdul as a judge on American Idol. WTF?

·     Big shout out to my friend and a very good DJ, DJ UCH. Check out his site and show some support by visiting him at DJUCH.com

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Finally, we close out with my wife. She has started her own business creating diaper cakes, which are a very original and cost efficient baby shower gift. Please take a second to visit her website: NY Diaper Cakes

• I just want everyone to remember what today is. No not just my birthday. It is the Anniversary of the worst attack against the United States in history. Sure right now our economy sucks and our previous president dug us into a hole both internationally and domestically. But we are still, BY FAR, the greatest nation on the planet and that is a fact that we as Americans sometimes take for granted. Please remember all those who lost their lives both in the attacks and in the years following them who died defending our country from terrorism. God Bless America.

Ok kiddies, classes are over for now. See you soon!!!!!!!!!

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 used to moonlight 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 Matt@worldwrestlinginsanity.com. If the feedback is negative, you can e-mail Matt at insanity@worldwrestlinginsanity.com.

P.S. – In case you didn’t know, James Guttman has a new WRESTLING BOOK out titled “Shoot First, Ask Questions Later”. 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 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.