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T.G.I.F. with Matt Dawgs...Best Raw Host Ever, TNA Mentions WWE Five Times in Five Minutes, The Mysterious Masked Man, Generation Me, The Big Seanbowski, Upcoming Events, Shane Goes To UFC, and More
By Matt Dawgs
Matt Dawgs Presents: Thank Goodness It’s Friday!!! Hello all. Welcome back and Happy Friday. Let’s 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. 1) WWE News and Notes - So much to talk about this week between the two shows. I’m going to start with WWE and RAW. - Well that was DEFINITELY interesting. Bret Hart = BEST. HOST. EVER. HOLY SH*T was that electrifying. - The Shawn/Bret confrontation was some good stuff. Surprisingly the “pause” from Shawn at the end when he was leaving didn’t get the heat I expected it to. My friend actually thought he was going to super kick him. - Vince is in greatness mode right now. His confrontation with Bret at the end was also GOLD. While many saw the finish coming, I still popped for it. By the way, anyone notice Vince’s subliminal shot at Hogan when his did his promo with Bret? Called Andre the Giant the greatest WWE attraction ever. Good job Vince. He managed to take a shot at the competition without using the words TNA/Hulk Hogan/Eric Bischoff. See the difference Cliffside? Subtle shot. Not BLATANT. - DX /Jeri-Show had their working shoes on. That was definitely a PPV quality match up/effort by all four men and was the match of the night on RAW. Totally didn’t expect the finish however. I am confused as to how they are going to keep Jericho on RAW now. They can’t book him anymore. Not that they need him since Bret is expected back from now until Mania. - Everything Randy Orton did Monday was fantastic and fit a storyline. From him offering to help Vince with his “Bret” problem in exchange to the number 30 spot in the Royal Rumble to having Vince turn him down to having Legacy basically punk him like he did to them the previous week was GOLD. - His match with Kofi definitely delivered and I enjoyed it more than their match from the last pay per view. That folks was the reason why I voted him “ Wrestler of the Year ” in our year end awards. - Completely enjoyed the Sheamus/Bourne match. Especially since the crowd ate it up once Bourne nailed the Shooting Star Press and believed that he was going to win and get a title shot at the Rumble. Kudos to the WWE agent/producer for booking that spot and the ensuing kick out. - Vince McMahon confirmed that Stu Hart will be inducted into the 2010 WWE Hall of Fame. - Melina’s knee surgery is going to keep her out until July at the earliest. - “American Dragon” Brian Danielson worked a dark match against Chavo Guerrero prior to the show. I fully expect him to be called to the main roster any day now. Especially since all reports say that put on a damn good match for the time that they were allotted. - After RAW went off the air, the entire RAW roster (minus DX) came to ringside and paid tribute to Bret. Bret then spent a few minutes’ high fiving fans around ringside before going to the back. - It probably got lost to many due to all the channel surfing back and forth between TNA and RAW but Michael Cole and Jerry Lawler did acknowledge the passing of “Dr. Death” Steve Williams for a few and then followed with a graphic before going to commercial. Classy move. - Tommy Dreamer has officially been released and wished well on his future endeavors. - In an interview with a London newspaper, Sylvester Stallone claims that he suffered a broken bone in his neck at the hands of Steve Austin during filming of the Expendables. He says he has a metal rod inserted in his neck due to this injury. - The next 4 raw hosts are:
- Apparently the Royal Rumble is going to feature a three way for the World title with Undertaker defending against both Rey Mysterio and Batista. - If you noticed, Michelle McCool hasn’t been doing much lately other than “Piggy James” skits. The reason is that she has been having knee problems as of late and is trying to avoid missing time. - Ricky Steamboat Jr. beings in FCW in Tampa this week. - Rumor has it that Booker T has verbally agreed to a deal although so did Jeff Hardy so that actually doesn’t mean much. Those within the company expect him to be in the Royal Rumble. - The reason Jeri-Show didn’t win the titles back on Monday as I predicted last week is because the company is completely confident that Edge will be back in time for Wrestlemania so they want to feature Jericho in a singles role to build for their match. 2) TENTATIVE WRESTLEMANIA 26 LINE-UP ACCORDING TO ME
3) TNA News and Notes: - Going into Monday afternoon, TNA had a golden opportunity to “fire a shot” at WWE and draw attention to themselves. They obviously have a new vision with new ideas and my guess is that over time, they will work out the kinks and either sink or swim with their vision. That being said, I absolutely DID NOT enjoy the majority of the show. They definitely had their moments, most of which were based around damn good in ring matches as per usual. Problem is; the negatives definitely outweighed the positives. - Mind boggling to me (and even worse that some of you TNA followers will defend this) that TNA would feature a first segment where they mention WWE and Vince McMahon 5 times in 5 minutes. I don’t care if the fans were speaking negatively about WWE. THERE IS NO POINT TO IT!!! How many times during RAW on Monday did WWE use the words TNA, Dixie Carter, Hulk Hogan or Eric Bischoff? Exactly, NONE. Even if the fans are passionate and supportive of TNA, mentioning WWE seems to minor league. - PS – Some fan actually had a legit tattoo of the TNA logo on his arm. Really. - The pacing of the show was HORRENDOUS. Everything seemed rushed to me. It’s as if they were doing things for the sake of doing things. Shock value DOES NOT SELL ANYMORE. Since they had Hogan debuting and basically everyone knew Hall and Waltman would show, then they should have kept the surprises to a minimum. Jeff Hardy showing up should have been done. You get that card and you play it immediately. Good move by TNA. - Jeff Hardy did indeed sign a contract. Not sure of the length but it was not a one shot deal. WWE is irate over this as according to Bryan Alvarez ; Jeff had verbally agreed to return to World Wrestling Entertainment. - In what definitely puts a damper on Jeff signing with TNA, he was indicted this week on his drug charges from September. So he WILL go to trial for them. For those out of the loop, according to the police report, a search of his residence yielded 262 Vicodin prescription pills, 180 Soma prescription pills, 555 milliliters of anabolic steroids, a residual amount of powder cocaine and items of drug paraphernalia. He was charged with felony trafficking in opium, two counts of felony possession with intent to sell or deliver a Schedule III controlled substance, felony maintaining a dwelling to keep controlled substance, felony possession of cocaine and misdemeanor possession of drug paraphernalia. - ABSOLUTELY TOO MANY COMMERCIALS SPIKE TV!!! - Ric Flair, that was fine. But….they should have saved it for the end. No reason to show him at the beginning of the show especially since, as I said, you had so many other surprises on the show. - Hardy opening, Hogan (with Hall, Waltman and Bischoff) starting the head to head with RAW at 9:00 pm, Flair closing. That should have been it. - There was absolutely zero need for the Nasty Boys, Orlando Jordan, Shannon Moore, Val Venis, Jeff Jarrett, Sting etc on this show. Especially with a television taping the following day. You could have saved most of these names for the coming weeks to try and lure people in slowly. It was basically hot shotting for the sake of hot shotting. - More bad was the DQ ending to the opening match. HORRIBLE stuff. I understand the point of it was to debut Hardy and that is fine. But they should have given a finish. - Totally loved the Pope/Desmond Wolfe match. Solid match from two very talented competitors. - I can’t say enough about Kurt Angle vs. AJ Styles. Fantastic match and I guess since we just started 2010, it is a Match of the Year candidate. - BUT…….Can someone please explain to me why in the world would you give away your upcoming pay per view main event away FOR FREE on TV and on top of that, GIVE A CLEAN FINISH!!!!! That makes absolutely zero sense unless the goal is to change the main event for Genesis. And please note that if the main event of the next PPV ends with AJ eating Hogan’s leg drop and losing the title to him, TNA is done for me. I will absolutely stop watching. - Christy Hemme is HOT. - Hopefully Bubba the Love Sponge was a one time deal. I have listened to his Sirius show a few times and while I find him funny, wrestling isn’t for him. They need Jeremy Borash in the role. He delivers. - I’m definitely in the minority here but I liked the ending angle. I see where they are going with it and understand what they are trying to do. It dragged a little bit. Can someone explain why Foley, who in storyline is a majority shareholder, wasn’t allowed in the building? - Samoa Joe vs. Abyss randomly thrown on television with no build = FAIL. - It’s amazing to me because the WWE Diva’s are A LOT hotter to me than the TNA Knockouts (except Velvet Sky) yet the TNA Knockouts work so much harder in the ring. The Knockout Tag match and title match were so much better than WWE’s females. - Absolutely NOT excited for the Nasty Boys vs. Team 3D. - One of the funniest things on the show was the Bobby Lashley announcement that he is leaving TNA to compete in MMA because there is a 99.9% chance that this angle will have no pay off at the end since……he is probably leaving TNA for MMA for good. - With all these surprises, the “masked man” attacking AJ stuff should just be forgotten. It is only going to be a letdown now. No one is going to “pop” for Tomko especially since he has already been on television. - Can anyone explain why we were waiting the entire hour for Hogan to “show up” at the Impact zone and then when he cuts his promo, he mentioned that he was in the back all day hanging out?? WTF?? - The best news about all this is that TNA drew a 1.5 rating on Monday night with a total of 2.2 million viewers which is their new record. TNA and Spike TV are completely ecstatic about this. If it wasn’t 20 degrees in Orlando, they’d be dancing naked in the street over this. - Congrats to Traci Brooks and Frankie Kazarian who getting married. They should hire Kazarian back. He can work. - Why does Suicide have a job still? The video game flopped. They could use his salary to pay someone like Kazarian. - The Young Bucks will be using the name “Generation Me” when they debut next week against the Motor City Machine Guns. - Angelina Love is also returning on next week’s Impact as she will be sitting front row and eventually will be feuding with the remaining Beautiful People. Sadly I am not happy with this. She should re-take over the group. - Sean “Val Venis” Morley will be known as “Your Feature Presentation” Sean Morley. Not for nothing, I am completely fine with this as Sean has always been very talented and very skilled in ring. He was saddled and painted into a corner with the “porn star” gimmick in WWE but I always felt he could have been so much more than he was. - One HUGE, MAJOR, SUPER gaffe by TNA is that under no circumstances during the entire 3-hour broadcast did anyone, not even an ad during the numerous commercial breaks, did they EVER mention that they normally air Thursday’s nor at what time. ZERO PLUGS for future impact airings. - Scott Hall is apparently on a short term deal. He has told friends that he is under the impression that he will not be around past the Genesis PPV. That may change however. - Ric Flair signed a guaranteed one-year contract (65 dates) with TNA which also allows him to pursue other opportunities outside the promotion. Basically he got the deal that WWE refused to give him. I do think that it is safe to say that he is probably done with WWE though as they are more than likely never going to use him again. Especially after a full year in TNA which he is more than likely going to wrestle again. - Bring back Shelly Martinez . She is AWESOME . Really AWESOME . 3) TNA Genesis PPV : is on January 17, 2010 from Orlando FL and the lineup is as follows:
4) Ring of Honor/DGUSA/EVOLVE/Independent News and Notes - In possibly one of their last matches in the promotion, the Young Bucks will face off with the American Wolves this weekend at the ROH HD Net tapings. - Kenta Kobashi may be forced into retirement. The same man who beat cancer to come back to wrestling has a severe elbow injury. So severe in fact that he currently has no feeling in several of the fingers in his right hand. If he does not repair his elbow through surgery, he may lose all use of his right hand and there are no guarantees that he will be able to return at all. ACE Pro Wrestling : returns on January 9, 2010 in Union City New Jersey the lineup is as follows:
EVOLVE : debut show is on January 16, 2010 from Rahway New Jersey and the line up is as follows:
JERSEY ALL PRO WRESTLING returns on January 23, 2010 for their 12th Anniversary show in Rahway NJ and the lineup are as follows :
DRAGON GATE USA: returns on January 23, 2010 in Chicago IL and the line up are as follows:
ROH WRESTLING : returns on January 29, 2010 from Los Angeles CA and the lineup is as follows:
PWG “KURT RUSSELLMANIA” : returns on January 30, 2010 in Los Angeles California and the lineup is as follows:
WRESTLE REUNION WEEKEND : January 29th – 31st features the following guests:
6) MMA News and Notes - The biggest news possibly EVER in boxing is that the Floyd Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquiao fight for March 13th is apparently OFF for now. Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum said they could not reach an agreement and Manny is now moving on to fight middleweight titlist Yuri Foreman on that date instead. I still think this will be worked out as there is just way too much money on the table for this not to happen. Had they grossed $200,000,000.00, each fighter would have walked away with $40 million apiece. - Takanori Gomi has signed a deal with UFC. He is one of the last Pride fighters worth any value to sign with the company. He is also a bad ass. - Speaking of Pride, Spike TV will be airing a “Best of Pride” special on January 15th. They acquired the Pride video library when they bought what was left of the company last year. - Rashad Evans vs. Quinton “Rampage” Jackson is being eyed for the May UFC 113 event. - 41 year old former boxer James Toney has been speaking to Dana White. Hmmmm. - UFC Welterweight Champion George St. Pierre is still contemplating vacating his UFC title and trying to compete in the Olympics in wrestling. UFC President Dana White has given GSP his stamp of approval should that be what St. Pierre decides to do. - Shane McMahon was in attendance at UFC 108 in Las Vegas last weekend. Nothing new on that front other than the fact that Shane is no longer under contract to WWE. He is a free agent and can join any company he chooses. - The fate of Brock Lesnar has still not changed. He is expected (or already has) to see a doctor at the Mayo clinic this week. He will then be told whether or not he needs a major surgery to remove part of his intestines. If this is indeed the case, he would not be able to fight again for at least 2 YEARS if ever. If he does not require surgery, he can begin training in a few months for a possible fight in the summer (more than likely UFC’s Boston debut). The problem is, his condition never fully heals and he may have a recurrence. - Ken Shamrock vs. Seth Petruzelli will be fighting in Cancun Mexico for international Unlimited Fighting in a battle between the “men who killed Elite XC”. UFC 109 is on February 6, 2010 from Las Vegas Nevada and the line-up is as follows:
UFC 110 is on February 21, 2010 from Sydney Australia and the line-up is as follows:
UFC 111 is on March 27, 2010 from Newark NJ and the line-up is as follows:
7) Random Thoughts, Links, Pics, ETC. - Random PIC of the week: Still drinking. That’s a champ. - Deal finalized. Disney officially owns Marvel Comics. Can’t wait until the Mickey vs. Wolverine movie. - Lindsey Lohan’s younger sister Ali Lohan . - Best wishes for a speedy recovery to Howard Stern sidekick Artie Lange who attempted suicide this week. He is currently recovering in a hospital in NY as he stabbed himself 9 times. - R.I.P. Casey Johnson , daughter of NY Jets owner Woody Johnson and heiress to the Johnson and Johnson fortune. Johnson is probably best known for being the lesbian lover to Tila Tequila. Shame. I wonder what a 30 year old woman who has abused drugs for years randomly dies of. Odd. - This isn’t Burger King, you can’t have it YOUR WAY . - I saw Avatar for a second time last weekend. Completely phenomenal film. It is also the 2th highest grossing film of all time and has only been out for three weeks. Amazing. Experts say that it has the possibility to overpass Titanic for the number 1 spot. - Um, unusual but Interesting feat? - In the NBA, Washington Wizards teammate guards Gilbert Arenas and Javaris Crittenton pulled guns on each other in the locker room over a gambling dispute. Seriously. WTF? - James Guttman did an unprecedented Raw vs. Impact vs. Jersey Shore Insanity over on the main page. On top of that, we've had nonstop audio over at CLUBWWI.COM with nearly 4 hours of new content this week alone from Aaron Wood, Canadian Bulldog, Mike Rickard, Mike Johns, Jay Winterz, and even JG himself! Plus, a major interview set for next week! If you haven’t done so by now, do yourself a favor and Join CLUBWWI.COM right NOW!!!! It makes a perfect late-Christmas gift for someone as well. 8) PLUGS - NY Diaper Cakes (Best possible baby shower gift…EVER.) - DJUCH.com (Best Dance Music DJ… EVER.) - Geek Week (RD Lee rocks!!) - ACE Pro Wrestling (The future of independent wrestling. A Virtual “Who’s Who” of East Coast talent have wrestled here at one point in time or another) - Jersey All Pro Wrestling (home of the best independent wrestling not named ROH or DGUSA) - EVOLVE (the Evolution of Wrestling) 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 the powers that be 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.
Alphabetical Listing of Guests You Can Hear on...
Lance
Cade D-Ray
3000 Bobby
Eaton Manny
Fernandez Greg Gagne Chalie
Haas B.G.
James
Rodney
Mack One
Man Gang Harley
Race Dave Taylor
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