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.

MATT NOTE: Rest in Peace to Georgiann Makropoulos who passed away at the age of 67. Not everyone who reads this column is going to know her but Georgiann has been involved in the wrestling business since the WWWF and was close friends to Buddy Rogers, Bruno Sammartino and Bill Watts. She was a mentor and mother-like figure to practically everyone in the entire business from both dirt sheet writers to wrestlers who are currently on the WWE roster. She had maintained one of the first newsletters in wrestling titled “The Wrestling Chatterbox”. While I did not know Georgiann well, she and I have exchanged e-mails in the past and she was such a pleasant lady. May she rest in peace.

1) WWE News and Notes

- Monday Night WAR part 2!! On Monday March 1^st, TNA and RAW will battle head to head again from 9 pm – 11 pm. Spike TV has ordered a 2 hour program as opposed to 3 hour..

- Bret Hart returns to RAW on Monday to confront Vince McMahon and effectively kick off their Wrestlemania program. I am on the fence about this. From a history standpoint, normally a wrestler would come out looking for physical revenge for what Vince did. On the flip side, you absolutely should not allow anymore physical contact between them until Mania. I am fine with the Vince kick from a few weeks back because it made sense. But Bret absolutely cannot get his hands on Vince until their match.

- Fantastic John Cena/Vince McMahon segment on RAW Monday. Serious Cena is an amazing promo without the poopie jokes and whatnot. By the way, was that their first face to face solo promo together? I’m not talking about when he was upper mid-card rapper Cena; I am talking about the top guy in the company Cena. I think it was.

- Anyone with Twitter notice that when RAW started, Joey Styles tweeted, “Anyone else sick of DX yet?” WOW. That was ballsy.

- Miz and MVP are on fire together. While I am not going to go out and say that these guys are going to take over the main event act anytime soon, their feud is reminding me of Rock/HHH when they were feuding for the IC title. Both men are GOLD right now on the mic.

- Yet once again, in 5 seconds flat, WWE buried all of MVP’s momentum by having the Big Show kill him DEAD. I understand Big Show is a monster and a main eventer. That is fine. But what is pissing me off is that they don’t have to prove it at MVP’s expense. It’s ridiculous.

- The tentative Mania card remains the same. The only thing changing is how they plan on getting there. Originally when Taker vs. Michaels was planned, they were going to have Shawn win the Rumble. They then moved to having an idea to having the Rumble end up in a tie with HHH and HBK. That has since been scrapped as well. The tentative plan is for HHH to win and challenge Sheamus for the WWE title thus leaving the opportunity for a Batista vs. Shawn Michaels match at No Way Out for a shot at the Undertaker’s title. I actually prefer this idea because it builds to another PPV quality main event prior to Mania.

- Jody Hamilton, better known as the Assassin from years ago, has won a lawsuit against WWE stemming from the Deep South Wrestling closure. Apparently WWE breached their contract with Jody and the judge ruled in his favor.

- In the biggest WTF move from WWE in a while, they have tapped comedians Cheech and Chong to host the March 1^st RAW. The same WWE who is making an issue about wrestlers smoking pot. The same WWE who has toned down their product to PG is going to allow two men who made their careers literally off of smoking pot. WTF?

- William Shatner to host RAW next week. Eh.

- WWE is sending out feelers to Conan O’Brien about hosting an episode of RAW. I doubt he will accept but if he does, that would be a major coup for them. He isn’t going to come though.

- Mayrese is working with new teeth in her mouth as she chipped 3 of them last week.

- CM Punk continues to bring the awesome and he is the exact definition of hard work paying off. He has “IT” and continued to climb, kick and scratch his way into a main event level push.

- Looking forward to the Edge/Jericho feud. Hopefully it kicks off at the Rumble. But with WWE’s thinking, it won’t since word has been leaked out about that being the plan for weeks now.

- Speaking of Jericho, he and Hurricane Helms were both arrested for public intoxication this week. Mug shot HERE . Not sure what exactly made Helms go nuts but apparently Helms was in a taxi with Jericho, Matt Hardy and 2 non wrestlers when Helms decided to start punching people including Jericho. He then fled the taxi on foot with Hardy but later returned to the scene. Weird story and I am sure there will be more to it.

- According to the police report, Jericho and Helms were bailed out by Phil Brooks and Jason Reso.

- A fantastic WWE Promotional VIDEO used and created by WWE in order to entice celebrities to come and host RAW.

- Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson was interviewed again this week and reiterated that he will most definitely be hosting RAW in the future. He couldn’t give a date because it is still being worked out but he would. He also left the door open a crack on whether he would be wrestling again. He said it is a possibility cause he misses it but everything would have to be perfect. Right place, right time, right opponent. He did say that he is not interested in fighting John Cena at a Wrestlemania. WOW. He made sure he emphasized that in the past, guys he has worked with from Austin to Hogan to Goldberg were all guys who he really wanted to wrestle. WOW again. It’s like he doesn’t like John Cena. That’s hilarious.

- WWE really dodged a bullet with the Rumble. Originally it was scheduled for this past Sunday but was moved when WWE realized it was going up against the NFC title game in football. So they moved it. Thankfully so because the NFC Title game between the Vikings and Saints drew 57.9 MILLION VIEWERS. The Rumble would have done horrible.

- There is a rumor circulating that Santino Marella, Beth Phoenix and Vladimir Koslov are going to star in a WWE produced sitcom that is going to be shopped around. LOL. Seriously.

- Contrary to what they say, WWE is certainly interested in what TNA is doing. How do I know this? Well in a recent blog, Rob Van Dam stated that he was denied access to his WWE Universe page by WWE.com administrators all because they heard rumors he had signed with TNA. HAHA.

- Rey Mysterio has scheduled his knee surgery for April. He will probably be out for 6-9 months following it.

- Undertaker is really struggling physically. He had his knee scoped on after Smackdown on January 19^th and his hip is really bad. Many are wondering if he may come back at all following any surgeries he might be getting. Almost everyone says that the pain he is in backstage is excruciating and he walks around gingerly. It’s amazing that he hides that when he is in the ring but he can’t have much more left in the tank.

- Maria is being pulled from TV soon due to the Celebrity Apprentice starting. I fully expect WWE to hype the show in order to make Maria a bigger star.

- As I stated last week, the Randy Orton assaulting a fan thing is more than likely going to go away.

-Speaking of Orton, he apparently just signed an extension to stay with WWE. He also received a $600,000 bonus for Mania this year.

- Serena Deeb, who debuted last week as the latest member to CM Punk’s Straight Edge society was wrestling as Mia Mancini in FCW. She has officially had her name changed in FCW to Serena Mancini and will be using the “Serena” name on Smackdown. Not for nothing, I am really digging the Straight Edge Society. Only thing is, I take it that WWE management doesn’t know of the infamous reputation that Punk has with woman. The short list that I know of includes: Mickie James, Daffney, Traci Brooks, Maria, & Lita. That is a pretty impressive track record.

- The Honky Tonk man is claiming on his website that he has turned down an offer to be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame this year. He cites that he is currently booked for another event (a Wizard World Convention) on the date and he would not want to back out of it considering he has worked 7 dates for Wizard World dating back to 2009 and only 1 for WWE. They are a major source of his current income and he does not want to mess that up. He also states that WWE could have invited him to be inducted for a while now but procrastinated on it.

- Big shout out to Kim Sozzi who is one of the top dance music DJ’s in the country. She just completed the theme song to the Bella Twins!!

2) WWE ROYAL RUMBLE is on January 31, 2010 from Atlanta GA and the lineup is as follows:

• WORLD TITLE: Undertaker © vs. Rey Mysterio
• WWE TITLE: Sheamus © vs. Randy Orton
• ECW TITLE: Christian © vs. Ezekial Jackson
• WWE WOMAN’S TITLE: Michelle McCool © vs. Mickie James
• ROYAL RUMBLE MATCH: John Cena, HHH, Shawn Michaels, Big Show, Ted DiBiase, Cody Rhodes, Kofi Kingston, Miz, MVP, Jack Swagger, Santino Marella, Carlito, Mark Henry, Evan Bourne, Shelton Benjamin, William Regal, Yoshi Tatsu, Zack Ryder, The Hurricane, Chris Masters, Batista, Chris Jericho, CM Punk, Great Khali, Kane, Matt Hardy.
• That’s 26 names confirmed. That leaves 4 opens spots for surprises if necessary. Obviously both Booker T and Rob Van Dam would be big surprises. Many fully expect Edge to be one of the surprises. A Jeff Hardy appearance would even be better. Chances are however that we will get Edge and then 3 guys currently on the roster like Hornswoggle, Chavo Guerrero and maybe Finley.

3) TENTATIVE WRESTLEMANIA 26 LINE-UP ACCORDING TO ME

• WORLD TITLE: Undertaker © vs. Shawn Michaels (99.9% probable)
• STREET FIGHT: Bret “Hitman” Hart vs. Vince McMahon (99.9% probable)
• Randy Orton vs. Ted DiBiase (99.9% probable)
• Edge vs. Chris Jericho (99.9% probable)
• MASK VS. HAIR: Rey Mysterio vs. CM Punk
• TENTATIVE WWE TITLE: Sheamus © vs. HHH (99.9% probable, may not be for the title)
• TENTATIVE WWE TITLE: John Cena ©??? Vs. Batista (99.9% probable, may not be for the title)
• Now there are still some main players without a match. Assumption is that Kofi Kingston and probably the usual ladder match suspects of Christian, Matt Hardy, Kane and Shelton Benjamin will be in MITB.
• Where Big Show is left is beyond me?

4) TNA News and Notes

- Apparently the move to Monday nights was always confirmed. According to Dave Meltzer , it was actually part of Hogan’s deal. He has it in his contract that they were going to move to Monday’s permanently once he signed. So all of his interviews with him saying that they were considering it were a work. They were always going.

- No word on the status of Awesome Kong yet other than that she is not currently on TNA’s tour of Europe and no one is really commenting on her. She did in fact request her release but no one from TNA management has made a decision on her request.

- Alex Shelly and Bobby Lashley skipped the tour as well. Shelly, due to recovering from his back and neck injuries and Lashley because he has a Strikeforce fight tomorrow night. This goes back to my comment from a few weeks ago as to why TNA would continue to advertise him when in fact they knew he wasn’t going.

- There is a tentative plan to have A.J. Styles bleach his hair blond to look more like Ric Flair. For the record, AJ is the LAST person I would book to be Flair. D’Angelo Dinero would have been a better choice. AJ is a babyface who they have established several times over is married. I don’t get it. He is being set up to fail.

- The Honky Tonk Man is also claiming on his official website that he will be joining TNA soon. Really?

- Linda Hogan is writing a tell all book on her relationship with the Hulkster. That is going to be a very interesting read.

- TNA Fun Fact: Sean Morley, who defeated perennial TNA main event star Christopher Daniels at the last TNA PPV, had last won a PPV match in……the year 2000. So he has been winless on PPV for the last 10 years. That isn’t that fair of a statement to make though considering the last time he appeared on PPV was in 2002; so more like 8 years.

- All sources state that Ric Flair is being completely honored by EVERYONE in the company including Hogan and Bischoff. Everyone on the booking team is excited to be working with him and all of the younger guys on the roster who have never had the chance to meet him are ecstatic to be able to hang out and pick his brain for knowledge. Flair himself is happy that he is aligned with A.J. Styles and in the main event angle.

5) Ring of Honor/DGUSA/EVOLVE/Independent News and Notes

- ROH has planned their 2^nd Internet Only PPV for the April show from the Carolinas.

- First round matches for the ROH TV Title Tournament taking place in February are:

• Kevin Steen vs. Rhett Titus
• Colt Cabana vs. Eddie Edwards
• Davey Richards vs. Delirious
• El Generico vs. Kenny King

- Davey Richards vs. El Generico has been added to the 8^th Anniversary event.

- Jersey All Pro Wrestling had their largest attendance EVER for a show last weekend with their 8^th Anniversary Show. The show had an attendance of over 1,500 people and was said to be fantastic from a work rate standpoint. The main event featured JAPW Homegrown star and current TNA wrestler Homicide defeating ECW Legend Masato Tanaka. Congrats to Homicide!!!

- TNA may have pulled Generation Me (a.k.a. The Young Bucks) off of the Dragon Gate USA Wrestlemania weekend show.

- Not sure how many of you are fans of Bryan Alvarez and Figure Four Weekend Online but I am reading this week’s issue and there is a review of the “Last Call with Raven and Sandman” shoot interview. HOLY SH*T to the stories they tell. There are some completely insane things that happened in ECW. I’m about to buy the DVD to hear for myself.

- WSU (Woman’s Superstars Unleashed) has their 3^rd Anniversary show on March 6^th and it looks to be pretty awesome. For all of you out there who enjoy Women’s wrestling, you should give it a try.

ROH WRESTLING : TONIGHT, January 29, 2010 from Los Angeles CA and the lineup is as follows:

• ROH TITLE MATCH: Austin Aries © vs. Jushin “Thunder” Liger
• 8 MAN TAG WAR: The Briscoes & The Young Bucks vs. The American Wolves & The Kings of Wrestling
• Larry Zbyszko vs. Scotty 2 Hotty w/Johnny Fairplay as referee. NO THAT IS NOT A TYPO NOR IS IT IN THE WRONG SECTION. THIS MATCH TAKES PLACE ON AN ROH SHOW.
• GRUDGE MATCH: Jerry Lynn vs. Kenny King
• SPECIAL CHALLENGE MATCH: Human Tornado vs. “Mr. Wrestling” Kevin Steen (WHO SHOULD BE GETTING SURGERY ON HIS KNEE ALREADY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
• Roderick Strong vs. Delirious
• Tyler Black vs. Joey Ryan
• Necro Butcher vs. Erick Stevens
• Colt Cabana & El Generico vs. Scorpio Sky & Scott Lost

PWG “KURT RUSSELLMANIA” : returns on January 30, 2010 in Los Angeles California and the lineup is as follows:

• OVERBOARD TAG TEAM MATCH: The Great Muta & KAI vs. “The Professor” Scott Lost & Joey Ryan
• TEQUILA SUNRISE SINGLES MATCH: Davey Richards vs. Super Crazy
• CAPTIAN RON SINGLES MATCH: Brian Kendrick vs. "Mr. Wrestling” Kevin Steen (WHO SHOULD BE GETTING SURGERY ON HIS KNEE ALREADY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
• TOMBSTONE 8 PERSON TAG MATCH: The Cutler Brothers (Brandon & Dustin Cutler), Ryan Taylor, & Christina Von Eerie vs. Johnny Goodtime, Malachi “CK” Jackson, Candice LeRae, & Jerome “LTP” Robinson
• SKY-HIGH THREE WAY: Chris Hero vs. Roderick Strong vs. “The Whole F’N Show” Rob Van Dam
• ESCAPE FROM LA PWG WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH:
  The Young Bucks © vs. Human Tornado & Chuck Taylor
• BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA SINGLES MATCH: El Generico vs. Jushin “Thunder” Liger
• STARGATE SINGLES MATCH: Brandon Bonham vs. Brandon Gatson

WRESTLE REUNION WEEKEND : January 29^th – 31^st features the following guests:

• Austin Idol
• Bruno Sammartino
• Demolition (Ax and Smash)
• Diamond Dallas Page
• Jushin “Thunder” Liger
• Koko B. Ware
• Larry Zbyszko
• The Great Muta
• Nick Bockwinkel
• Road Warrior Animal
• Rob Dan Dam
• Scotty 2 Hotty
• Stan “The Lariat” Hansen
• Tammy “Sunny” Sytch
• Super Crazy
• Terry Runnels
• Bret “Hitman” Hart
• Chavo Guerrero (Chavo Classic)
• Dan “The Beast Severn
• Jimmy Hart
• JJ Dillon
• Bill Apter

6) MMA News and Notes

- Brock Lesnar is continuing the talking tour discussing his situation and how he has handled it. Basically, either the man is a medical freak of nature or….he is lying and is risking further injury. I understand his point however when he stated that had he had surgery, he would have more than likely ended his career. He might as well get a few million more before that comes to pass.

- In The Wrestling Observer year end awards, Lesnar was voted as MMA’s MVP and the Best Box Office Draw. The MMA MVP award is something because he is only the 2^nd two time winner of the award (the other being Kazushi Sakuraba) and he won it two years in a row DURING HIS FIRST TWO YEARS IN THE SPORT. The Box Office Draw award is practically based off of one fight. UFC 100 drew 1.6 million PPV buys making it the 4^th highest PPV…EVER.

- Even more amazing will be the fact that if Frank Mir becomes the interim champion, Lesnar vs. Mir will easily be the highest grossing MMA fight of all time and would thus lock Brock in for the award again next year.

- Bobby Lashley’s first Strikeforce opponent has been named and confirmed. It will be for UFC reject and TUF competitor Wes Simms. A Simms win would be a HUGE surprise.

- 100% confirmed that UFC 112 will be held in an outdoor arena in Abu Dhabi which is the United Arab Emirates. The show will be headlined by a middleweight title bout between Anderson Silva vs. Vitor Belfort and a Lightweight title bout featuring BJ Penn vs. Frankie Edgar.

- Everyone wonders how Chuck Liddell is back and will be fighting for UFC again. Well you can now see how much stroke he has with Dana White. One of his assistant coaches for TUF this season is Jake Shields. Shields is the current Strikeforce Middleweight champion. WOW.

- Speaking of Shields, he has tentatively agreed to defend his Strikeforce Middleweight title against former UFC standout Dan Henderson in April, likely on CBS.

UFC 109 is on February 6, 2010 from Las Vegas Nevada and the line-up is as follows:

• Randy Couture vs. Mark Coleman
• Nate Marquardt vs. Chael Sonnen
• Matt Serra vs. Frank Trigg
• Mike Swick vs. Paul Thiago
• Rolles Gracie vs. Mostapha Al Turk
• Demian Maia vs. Dan Miller

UFC 110 is on February 21, 2010 from Sydney Australia and the line-up is as follows:

• Antonio Rodrigo Nogueria vs. Cain Velasquez
• Wanderlei Silva vs. Michael Bisping
• Mirko (Cro Cop) Filipovic vs. Ben Rothwell
• Keith Jardine vs. Ryan Bader
• Joe Stevenson vs. George Sotiropoulos

UFC 111 is on March 27, 2010 from Newark NJ and the line-up is as follows:

• INTERIM HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE: Frank Mir vs. Shane Carwin
• WELTERWEIGHT TITLE: George St. Pierre © vs. Dan Hardy
• Thiago Alves vs. Jon Fitch
• Phil Baroni vs. Marcus Davis

7) Random Thoughts, Links, Pics, ETC.

- Random PIC of the week: FAIL!

- Guess the new Dodge is what she always dreamed of. Check what I am talking about HERE .

- Leonardo DiCaprio used to bang Gisele Bündchen . He left her so he could go and nail Bar Refaeli . I am still waiting for his penis to have a national holiday named after it. If not, at least have it bronzed and put on display at the Smithsonian.

- Dayton Webber. I am not even going to link to a picture or story. Just Google him. He has an AMAZING story.

- LOST  returns on Tuesday, February 2^nd.

- Apple continues their quest for World dominance. Introducing the IPAD . What’s the next thing that’s on the agenda for Apple? Some top secret project called Skynet.

- As you know, I am part of Team Coco (meaning I root for Conan O’Brien). But now, I am part of TEAM OPRAH TOO!! Jesus H. Christ Jay Leno on Oprah was completely brutal. She ate him alive and spit him out. Not for nothing but the entire interview was set up for Jay to look somewhat sympathetic in all of this NBC nonsense and instead he looked like a complete tool!!! Oprah is AMAZING!!!

- Remember when Lindsey Lohan pictures in a see through fishnet outfit surfaced a few months back? Well here they are again, in Loaded magazine. HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE .

- Orlando Bloom has confirmed to the media that he WILL NOT be returning for Pirates of the Caribbean 4. I don’t understand how someone could not like money but to each his own I guess.

- Hollywood officially HATES ME . Yep, they are making a sequel. IN 3D!!!

- Gilbert Arenas of the NBA’s Washington Wizards was suspended for the remainder of the NBA season for brandishing a gun in the locker room after practice. My thoughts? He should be suspended longer than that.

- James Guttman is AWESOME. If you are living under a rock, James has scored an interview which is currently up at CLUBWWI.COM with former WCW and WWE senior official Nick Patrick!!! Nick obviously has a lot to discuss and doesn’t hold anything back in this un-cut shoot interview. For the first time ever, Nick gives the LEGIT answer to the “fast count” during to the infamous Sting/Hogan Starcade match which was Bret Hart’s WCW debut. Not only that, Paul Roma is back with another edition of "GLORIOUS". You already know how Roma rolls and you know that he never holds back on the wrestlign industry so if you haven’t done so yet, do yourself a favor and Join CLUBWWI.COM right NOW!!!! It’s about the price of a cup of coffee at Starbucks. DO IT. DO IT NOW.

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)

- Woman’s Superstars Unleashed  (WSU 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 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.