World Wrestling Insanity: T.G.I.F. with Matt Dawgs: The Passing of Michael Jackson, Getting Donald Over Through Bribery, The Undertaker's Return, Samoa Joe Changes His Mind, ROH's Smoke, and More

T.G.I.F. with Matt Dawgs: The Passing of Michael Jackson, Getting Donald Over Through Bribery, The Undertaker's Return, Samoa Joe Changes His Mind, ROH's Smoke, and More

By Matt Dawgs
Jun 26, 2009 - 8:37 AM

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.

R.I.P. MICHAEL JACKSON
This gets no number or bullet points. No matter what you thought of him as a man, a person or what not; Michael Jackson is and always will be a cultural ICON. He was the Elvis Presley of our time and definitely the King of Pop music. He was by far the most recognizable person in the WORLD. You can go to a small village in India or Japan with pictures of several celebrities over the years and I bet you 90% of everyone you show would be able to recognize Michael Jackson over everyone else. His music reached millions; affected MILLIONS. Never forget that regardless of the "issues" in his personal life. He was music. Rest in peace Michael Jackson.

1) WWE News and Notes

•   Last week’s big news was that Donald Trump bought RAW from Vince McMahon. So this week’s big news is the exact OPPOSITE of that. In the hotshot of all hotshot angles, Vince McMahon bought RAW back for double what he paid for it from Trump effectively ending the angle in one week.
•   Apparently the angle was supposed to go on for a few more months but Vince McMahon at some point over the weekend decided to kill the angle dead after just one week.
•   In an unprecedented move to put Trump over as a babyface, he had Trump announce that he was refunding the entire gate to the live audience in attendance. Over $230,000.
•   Commercial free Raw was nothing more than a RAW without commercials. I know, I know, that is WHAT it was supposed to be. I just figured that we’d get something more.
•   How many people think Cena is going to beat Miz convincingly at the Bash thus effectively ending the Miz’s push and he gets shoved back to the midcard? Yeah, me too.
•   The Jericho/Mysterio angle is fantastic. The three Mysterio’s sitting ringside for his match with Jeff Hardy on Smackdown was top notch. I am dead serious, if Jericho wants a job in creative when he is done wrestling, he should definitely have one waiting for him because the stuff he comes up with to build his feuds is GOLD.
•   The slow CM Punk heel turn is fantastic and he continues to do subtle little heelish things as it goes along. Finally WWE does something good with the slow build.
•   Matt Hardy suffered a torn abdominal muscle, which basically sucks because he suffered it after being medically cleared to wrestle from his broken hand, and had his cast removed. Now mind you, he wrestled through the broken hand with the cast on but this is just basically a sucky situation to be in. Unfortunately he won’t work through this one. He needs surgery. No timetable has been set for his return.
•   Rey Mysterio did not give notice as I had tentatively reported two weeks ago. However Rey is a bit unhappy with his pay as of late and has made it clear that he is unhappy. He is happy with his program with Jericho and does not plan to quit however he has made it clear that he has an offer to wrestle full time in Mexico which will pay him a lot of money as well as free him up to endorsement deals that WWE restricts from him. According to Dave Meltzer, he is the second most famous person in Mexico right now after the President (of Mexico).
•   Sim Snuka was released from the company, which comes as surprise to no one. He was 38 years old, never was any good in the ring and basically sealed his fate at Wrestlemania. For those who do not know what I am talking about, Snuka was “the camera man” during the Undertaker/Shawn Michaels match who didn’t catch Taker when he did the dive to the outside. Now in his defense, it wasn’t an easy thing to do and it looked like Taker shorted the jump. But he took the heat for it anyway.
•   Speaking of Taker, he is expected back by Summerslam.
•   Candice Michelle was also future endeavored this week. That came as a minor surprise to me. She has been injury prone as of the last year however she has worked hard to improve, still had good looks and is only 29 years old. She also worked through an injured collarbone. Actually, she broke it, came back way to quickly and broke it again. But she tried. Most people wouldn’t have attempted to rush back into the ring.
•   Luchador from CMLL Dos Caras Jr. has signed a 3-year contract with WWE. No word on a start date.
•   HHH vs. Orton is still going. YAY!! (SARCASM)
•   WWE is considering an all Hell in a Cell Pay Per View. I pray to God, Allah, Buddha, Joe-Bu and whoever else that this isn’t true. This would be a complete and utter killing of the HITC concept.
•   Cena fought Big Show on RAW, yes again. They built up an entire angle for last months Extreme Rules PPV where Cena couldn’t lock Show in the STF because Show was TOO BIG. So what happens this past Monday on RAW? Cena locks Big Show in the STF as if it were no problem in the world. HUH?
•    As much of a shame it is to speak about this, it has been two years since the man I like to call "he who should not be named" Chris Benoit, Nancy Benoit and Daniel Benoit have died. By far the biggest wrestling story of all time.

2) The Bash Line Up

•   Randy Orton © vs. HHH for the WWE championship in a Three Stages of Hell match (Singles Match/Falls Count Anywhere match/Stretcher Match)
•   CM Punk © vs. Jeff Hardy for the World Championship
•   Tommy Dreamer © vs. Jack Swagger vs. Christian vs. Mark Henry vs. Finley for the ECW Title in a Scramble Match
•   The Colons © vs. The Legacy (Rhodes & DiBiase) for the Undisputed Tag Team Titles
•   Melina © vs. Michelle McCool for the Woman’s title.
•   Chris Jericho © vs. Rey Mysterio for the IC Title
•   John Cena vs. The Miz
•   Dolph Ziggler vs. Great Khali in a no DQ match

3) TNA News and Notes

•   TNA held their Slammiversary pay per view which I watched absolutely zero seconds of but from what I’ve heard, it was a decent show from a “work” standpoint as all the wrestling was solid. From a booking standpoint however is another story.
•   Kurt Angle recaptured the TNA Championship by winning the King of the Mountain match due to help from his nemesis Samoa Joe in a “Russo Special." Joe, who has been feuding with Angle since Angle’s debut in the company, just woke up Sunday morning and decided to be Angle’s friend and join the Main Event Mafia. What makes this even better is that rather than spend the entire match apart; Joe and Angle actually came to blows several times during the match itself. Logic dictates that in a multi-person match, you could effectively keep Joe and Angle apart and no one would have noticed. But instead, they didn’t. WTF?
•   Tara (Victoria of WWE fame) is the new Knockout’s champion.
•   Beer Money are the new tag team champions.
•   Taz is definitely scheduled to debut once his WWE contract expires on July 1st. He should be at Victory Road on July 17th as Samoa Joe’s advisor/mentor.
•   Homicide has returned to action which means Hernandez should be returning soon.
•   Jeremy Borash is a funny dude. Funny HAHA. Not homosexual funny or funny like a clown, like he is here to amuse me.
•   Daffney is awesome and in my opinion, WWE really missed the ball on her. She is so different than any of the “fake” girls that they hire off the streets. Hopefully though, TNA doesn’t f*ck up her uniqueness like they did with ODB.
•   Not for nothing but the weekly show and the angles are still a mess that lack any sense of logic and if anyone would care to debate how 99% of their stuff makes sense to you, please do so. I would love to hear explanations for half of the stuff that goes on. For example, on the go home Impact before Slammiversary, they literally spent a hell of a lot of time pushing Daffney and her Monster’s Ball match at the PPV, then with no rhyme or reason, she did a clean job to Awesome Kong. WTF? Why? Why couldn’t you use any number of the other women on the roster to get Kong over? Why job Daffney? I don’t get it. Little things like this is what makes TNA so bush league.

4) Ring of Honor News and Notes

•   Ric Flair is still going to finish his commitments to ROH however will not be appearing on camera for HD Net tapings. Only for DVD’s.
•   What is super sad about the whole Flair/ROH situation is that Flair pulled off from doing any HD Net tapings because he didn’t want to make WWE unhappy however at this time, World Wrestling Entertainment isn’t interested in offering him a contract. So basically he is doing it to stay on Vince’s good side when in face, he doesn’t legally have to.
•   Apparently both Bryan Danielson and Davey Richards are allowed to work the Dragon Gate shows that are coming up because they are no longer under contract to Ring of Honor. They are working on a show to show basis. That essentially means that Bryan Danielson to WWE could happen if enough people in power (Jim Ross, William Regal, Shawn Michaels) can pull enough strings to make it happen.
•   Nigel McGuiness is back wrestling again. I hope he was medically cleared by a licensed doctor to return because he really F’D himself over in the past 18 months injury wise and coming back too soon is not a good thing. Physically he looks great though.
•   As Bryan Alvarez says, A LOT, where there is smoke there is fire. Well Ring of Honor has lightened their schedule for the next couple of months including canceling shows including a HD Net taping double shot.

5) MMA News and Notes

•   UFC 100 is just two weeks away on July 11, 2009. The line-up is as follows:
•   Brock Lesnar vs. Frank Mir (for unified heavyweight championship)
•   Georges St. Pierre vs. Thiago Alves (for welterweight championship)
•   Dan Henderson vs. Michael Bisping (MW)
•   Yoshihiro Akiyama vs. Alan Belcher (MW)
•   Vitor Belfort is expected to return to UFC in a few months.
•   Bobby Lashley vs. Bob Sapp is tomorrow. I say Lashley by tap out. YES, TAP OUT.
•   Lyoto Machida vs. Mauricio Shogun Rua has been signed by UFC for their October 24th show.

6) Random Thoughts, Links, Pics, ETC.

•   Random PIC of the week
•   Rest in Peace to Ed McMahon and Farrah Fawcett. What’s sadder is that celebrities normally die in three’s so…..
•   Nice camera phone
•   Shaquille O’Neal has been traded from the Phoenix Suns to the Cleveland Cavaliers. Shaq & LeBron next year. WOW.
•   This week’s RFI guest with James Guttman is Ken Patera. Ken was the original Worlds Strongest Man and had a hell of a career going for him until he went to jail for beating up some cops after an incident at a McDonald's after a show. Go to CLUBWWI.COM now!!!
•   Did you know that CW is bringing back Melrose Place. WTF?
•   I recently saw Vin Diesel’s Babylon AD. By god is that movie F*CKING HORRIBE.
•   Not horrible however is Pineapple Express. Judd Apatow is a funny dude as are Seth Rogan and Evan Goldberg are funny writers.
•   Another week gone by and Christina Aguilera still hates bras.

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.