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: It’s as if I am writing an additional “Matt Note” every week now. R.I.P. to WWE Hall of Famer Jack Brisco who passed away at age 68 this week. Most current fans know his brother, former Vince McMahon stooge Jerry Brisco (with Pat Patterson) more than Jack which is unfortunate because Jack was BY FAR the bigger star during their careers and was at one point one of the best wrestlers in the World during his era. Brisco is best known for being NWA World Champion in the 70’s after defeating Harley Race for the title and probably having the best rivalry of the 1970’s against Dory Funk Jr. Upon retiring from wrestling, Jack and Jerry opened up their infamous “Brisco Brothers Body Shop” in Florida.

1) WWE News and Notes

- Completely out of left field, EDGE has not only returned (as I reported he would) but he WON the 2010 Royal Rumble. While I think the line-up I have listed below will still happen; I am completely looking forward to how they are getting there and what the next 6 weeks of WWE programming will look like.

- CM Punk is AWESOME. His Royal Rumble showing was fantastic and WWE has proven that regardless of him holding the World title or not, he is definitely considered a main event level talent.

- I love how WWE put Beth Phoenix into the Rumble so they can now add a female to the yearly Rumble video package. They no longer have to mention that “other” female who was in the Rumble once.

- Phoenix, following the Rumble PPV, blasted Chyna (aka the “other” female I mentioned above for those who are slower than normal) in WWE.com interview, Big time.

- Shawn Michaels, with this past Sunday’s Royal Rumble, has surpassed “Stone Cold” Steve Austin on the most overall eliminations in the Rumble with a total of 41.

- Antonio Inoki is officially the 1^st member of the 2010 WWE HOF class. He is expected to be inducted by Stan “the Lariat” Hansen. This is a pleasant surprise as Vince McMahon never recognized Japanese wrestling nor would he recognize a rival promoter. If this means that he has acquired New Japan’s tape library then WOW. That would be HUGE news.

- I’m really glad that the Hart Dynasty is getting a push to coincide with Bret Hart’s return to WWE…….Oh wait a second…..?

- Solid RAW with another great verbal joust between Bret Hart and Vince McMahon. That being said, there was absolutely NO REASON why Bret should have put his hands on Vince before Mania. NONE. That was horrible booking from anyone who has half a brain. They should have teased it and then had Batista stop it.

- That being said, I originally bashed the angle but after further review, I’ve come to notice something. I think the point of it was to make it look realistic. Normally, that would be dumb considering all wrestling is supposed to be real. So by that argument, by Bret throwing “real” punches as opposed to worked punches, it looked like he was really shooting on Vince. The negative is what I mentioned above. By throwing real punches, you are telling your audience that everything else they saw in the show was fake. The flip side is that they used real emotion in that angle and thus Bret was legit mad that Vince backed out on inducting Stu into the Hall of Fame and pulled his jacket over his head “hockey-style” and laid the shots in. So it looked good if you watch it with that frame of mind..

- After RAW went off the air, John Cena came out and saved Bret Hart from a further beating at the hands of Batista and Vince McMahon. This segment was taped and will air tonight on Smackdown.

- I’m starting to think that they have since called an audible and are switching it to either Bret Hart/John Cena vs. Vince McMahon/Batista or John Cena w/Bret Hart vs. Batista w/Vince McMahon.

- Bret Hart ended up going to hang out at a bar with some TNA front office staffers including Jeremy Borash.

- Randy Orton is the best wrestler in the world today. There, I said it. Everything he does in the ring from his facial expressions to his moves to his attitude is just PERFECT. He is really firing on all cylinders right now and had he been around with this character during the “Attitude Era” he would have made all sorts of box office records against Austin and Rock.

- ECW is DEAD….AGAIN. Vince McMahon announced that ECW is dying yet again on March 2^nd. The new show on SyFy will be titled WWE NXT. You know? Like Next only without the E in it. Clever huh? The show will focus primarily on young, up and coming talents from developmental.

- The bright side is that this should open the doors for both Bryan “American Dragon” Danielson and Kaval (Low-Ki) to be called up to the main roster.

- Next year’s Wrestlemania will be taking place in Atlanta Georgia’s Georgia Dome. It holds approximately 70,000 for football which means around 65,000 once the elaborate set/ramp is set up for Mania.

- Comedian George Lopez was on ESPN radio last week and stated that he was approached by WWE in regards to guest hosting RAW. He stated that he wasn’t that huge of a fan but was considering hosting it since Cheech and Chong are scheduled to host and he is friends with them.

- PWInsider.com is reporting that former MNM team member Joey (Matthews) Mercury is set to return to WWE after a lengthy absence due to being released for a Wellness issue. He will return to the Smackdown brand which should be interesting considering his former partner John Morrison is on the Smackdown roster. They never had an official “breakup” so they definitely have a built in feud upon his debut.

- Nothing new on the Jim Ross front. He is under a short term contract that expires in March. He wants to be back commentating by Wrestlemania and his health is improving but not at the rate where that may be realistic. WWE would love to sign him to a long term extension. TNA is definitely wooing him as Eric Bischoff wants him to be the lead commentator for Impact and with all going on in his life, perhaps a lighter schedule of TNA might be considered. Had you asked me that a year ago, I would have said no.

- Teddy Hart (who has been suspended from AAA for two months and is probably not going to be allowed back) has been telling anyone who will listen that his Uncle Bret is going to get him back in the WWE and reunited with the Hart Dynasty. Considering the Hart’s aren’t getting a push now, even with Bret all over television, the last thing they should want is Teddy on their team.

The guest host schedule for RAW is as follows:

• February 8^th – Nascar driver Carl Edwards
• February 15^th – Talk Show Host Jerry Springer
• February 22^nd – Singer Jewel and husband bull rider Ty Murray
• March 1^st – Actors/Comedian’s Cheech and Chong
• March 8^th – Magician Criss Angel
• March 15^th – WWE Hall of Famer “Stone Cold” Steve Austin

2) WWE ELIMINATION CHAMBER is on February 21, 2010 from St. Louis Missouri and the lineup is as follows:

• ELIMINATION CHAMBER WWE TITLE Sheamus © vs. John Cena vs. Ted DiBiase vs. Randy Orton vs. Kofi Kingston vs. Triple H
• ELIMINATION CHAMBER WORLD TITLE: The Undertaker © vs. Chris Jericho vs. Rey Mysterio vs. John Morrison vs. R-Truth vs. CM Punk

3) TENTATIVE WRESTLEMANIA 26 LINEUP ACCORDING TO ME

• TENTATIVE WORLD TITLE: Undertaker © vs. Shawn Michaels (99.9% probable) 
• TENTATIVE WORLD TITLE: Chris Jericho vs. Edge (99.9% probable may not be for the title)
• TENTATIVE WWE TITLE Sheamus © vs. HHH (99.9% probable, may not be for the title
• Randy Orton vs. Ted DiBiase vs. Cody Rhodes (99.9% probable)
• MASK VS. HAIR: Rey Mysterio vs. CM Punk
• STREET FIGHT: Bret "Hitman" Hart vs. Vince McMahon

OR

• STREET FIGHT: Bret “Hitman” Hart & John Cena vs. Vince McMahon & Batista

OR

• STREET FIGHT: John Cena w/Bret “Hitman” Hart in his corner vs. Batista w/Vince McMahon in his corner.
• 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

- Scott Hall and Sean Waltman are skating on thin ice with TNA management. Both have been removed from the opening of Impact and it isn’t expected that they will be around much longer. With Waltman, he always has Mexico to go back to and if push comes to shove, as long as he has no wellness issues, I can see WWE giving him one last shot considering he is friends with Shawn Michaels and HHH. That being said, Hall is done. Once that TNA door closes, I don’t expect to see or hear from him in the wrestling world ever again.

- Ken Anderson has officially been added to the TNA roster page and will now be officially known as Mr. Anderson going forward.

- There are rumblings of Hogan unhappiness already. Apparently Dixie Carter is forcing Hogan to keep certain wrestlers in the spotlight. Wrestlers who Hogan has ZERO interest in pushing and he feels have no business being around. Hogan is from the old mindset that you have to have a wrestler “look”. He used Tomko as an example which means that he is probably not high on the lower card guys like Homicide, etc.

- Everyone’s favorite friend, Ed “Brutus the Barber Beefcake” Leslie was backstage at the January 20^th Impact tapings. LOL.

- Vince Russo’s book titled “Rope Opera: How WCW Killed Vince Russo” is due out in bookstores on March 1, 2010.

- Gabe Sapolsky and Dragon Gate USA are threatening to sue TNA Wrestling for pulling Generation Me from the Phoenix Arizona Wrestlemania weekend shows. They may also sue (or try to sue) Ring of Honor as well since Davey Richards was scheduled to work the DGUSA shows that weekend as opposed to the ROH shows.

- In an interview on Bubba the Love Sponge, Hulk Hogan said, and I quote, “Abyss is his favorite wrestler today and…THE NEXT JOHN CENA.” Yes, Hulk Hogan said that Abyss is going to be as popular and important as Cena.

- Kevin Nash and April Hunter filmed a sex scene together for a film called Ultimate Death Match III. This should be interesting. BTW, April Hunter is by far one of the nicest people I have met in the wrestling business and was a pleasure to work a program with. It’s a real shame that she has never gotten a major break for a national promotion.

- I didn’t report this last week because I thought it would change but Rob Terry won the Global Impact Title from Eric Young in Wales last week. The reason I didn’t report it was because I thought they would switch it back before coming to the states. They did not. So Terry is your new Global champion.

- Rob Van Dam has reiterated that he is not going to TNA yet. He does not want to close the door on WWE and by going to TNA will effectively do that. He also said that while everyone says TNA has an easier schedule, it wouldn’t be for him since he lives in Los Angeles and he would have to fly out the day before a show and fly out the day after thus meaning he is on the road 4 days a week compared to those who live in Florida and are travelling for just one day. He definitely does not want to work a full WWE schedule though.

- Longtime TNA agent/talent Scott D’Amore has left TNA once again. This time it was by his own free will as he has decided to merge his independent promotion Border City Wrestling with Jason Brown’s longtime Canadian independent promotion, Toronto’s BSE Pro wrestling to form Maximum Pro Wrestling. Not for nothing but it is a bit of a shame as D’Amore has a great mind for wrestling and has helped the careers of a lot of Canadian wrestlers including Edge, Christian, Joe E. Legend, Petey Williams and more. He has been very much underutilized by TNA in his career.

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

- In what is HUGE news on the independent wrestling scene, Davey Richards has pulled out of all Dragon Gate USA and Evolve bookings as he has signed an exclusive contract with Ring of Honor. He is going to only work ROH for the foreseeable future. The problem with this story is that private e-mails between Richards and ROH are circulating the net stating that Richards was always under ROH contract and his comment stating otherwise were indeed false.

- My theory is that you can expect Richards to now be the face of ROH thus surpassing Tyler Black as the new “it” guy for the promotion. Both EVOLVE and DGUSA were going to focus around Richards since many are claiming that he has the potential to be the next “Bryan Danielson” and will be the hottest guy and best worker in the Indies in 2010.

- Richards however is definitely a “bad guy” in all of this. He misrepresented himself and definitely used Gabe Sapolsky in order to get himself a better spot with ROH. Sad but true.

- ROH is suing Ric Flair for $40,000 owed to them for breach of contract. Flair was scheduled to be the “authority figure” for ROH on HD Net (the role the Jim Cornette now holds) but he left the company for fear that he would hurt his chances of returning to WWE. In the end, he didn’t go to WWE after all but nonetheless, he definitely kept the $10,000 he was already paid for a show that he DID NOT appear on.

- At the PWG show over Wrestle Reunion weekend in LA, the line-up I posted last week was shuffled a bit and a surprise tag team match was booked based off of Generation Me attacking Brian Kendrick at the show. As they were beating him down, Paul London made the save and London and Kendrick defeated Generation Me in a fantastic match. London was not advertised for the show.

- The ROH Television Champion will be crowned this weekend in Philadelphia. The brackets are as follows:

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

- Big congrats to World Wrestling Insanity guest columnist “The New Age Punisher” B-Boy who won the Combat Zone Wrestling World Heavyweight Championship last weekend defeating Drake Younger in what was a fantastic match. B-Boy defends his title at the next CZW show on 2/13 against Jon Moxley.

- Also big shout out to Mike Sydal a.k.a. brother of WWE Star Evan Bourne. Mike was named Pro Wrestling Illustrated Rookie of the Year.

- Kenta Kobashi had his knee and elbow surgery in Japan. It was scheduled to be a 2 hour surgery. It instead lasted over 7 hours. NOT A GOOD SIGN.

- 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.

RING OF HONOR celebrates their 8^th Anniversary on Saturday, February 13, 2010 in New York City and the line-up is as follows:

• ROHWORLD TITLE: Austin Aries ©vs. Tyler Black (There will be three judges at ringside (Roderick Strong, Kenny King, & Jim Cornette) who will determine the winner if the match ends in a draw.)
• ROHTAG TEAM TITLES: Jay & Mark Briscoe ©vs. The Dark City Fight Club
• Roderick Strong vs. Brian Kendrick (Kendrick's return to ROH)
• El Generico vs. Davey Richards
• Human Tornado vs. Steve Corino
• Necro Butcher & Eddie Kingston vs. Erick Stevens & Joey Ryan: No Rules.
• Colt Cabana confronts Kevin Steen
• Also appearing: “Skullkrusher” Rasche Brown in his NYC debut, Delirious and Chris Hero.

6) MMA News and Notes

- Bobby Lashley completely OWNED Wes Sims. It’s as if Sims just showed up for a paycheck and didn’t bother to train. All he did was try to grab and hold Lashley which was a shame cause Lashley just pummeled him. Lashley says he thinks he is ready for a title shot which means Fedor. Personally, that is a HORRIBLE IDEA. He would get smashed by Fedor, rather quickly I might add. A Lashley/Bret Rogers match (the guy who Fedor fought in his Strikeforce debut) would definitely be a good test of Lashley’s skill. Fedor, not so much.

- Wes Simms said after the match that he 100% believes that Lashley uses performance enhancing drugs. Not for nothing, but if Wes Simms could actually fight, he would be a HUGE money maker for MMA because he can definitely talk and hype matches.

- Also on the Lashley front, he has been officially added to the new EA Sports MMA Video game. Check out a SCREENSHOT.

- Lashley received a $50,000 payday. Simms, $25,000. That is a great payday for taking a fight on two weeks’ notice.

- Hershel Walker looks absolutely incredible for a 47 year old man in his first ever MMA fight. Obviously he isn’t going to be challenging Fedor anytime soon (if ever) but if he wants to continue in MMA, learn and try to improve, he definitely can. He is a physical freak of nature for his age and would have definitely been a World Champion if he had begun training in his early 20’s. This guy is a complete class act too. When the fight was stopped, the crowd booed and during his post fight interview, he asked the fans to never boo anyone in an MMA fight because this was by far the hardest thing he has ever accomplished and everyone deserves fans respect for doing this. By the way, he donated his entire six-figure check to charity. It’s as if he is a walking apostle.

- Melvin Manhoef….you got KNOCKED THE F*CK OUT!!!!!!! Robbie Lawler nailed you man. OUCH!!! For those who didn’t hear or see it, Manhoef has 24 MMA wins, 23 by KO. This was expected to be a quick fight and not at all in Lawler’s favor. Lawler was completely pummeled before connecting with a right hand square to the jaw of Manhoef which ended his night. Manhoef was ROCKED hard and had trouble getting up after the fight was stopped. Simple way to put this in perspective, this was probably the greatest comeback in MMA history.

- New York Jets head coach Rex Ryan at the Strikeforce show last weekend. HERE.

- Brock Lesnar is INSANE. He is pushing hard for Dana White to book him on the May 29^th show rather than the July 3^rd show that Dana is targeting for his return. Completely crazy for him to get into fighting shape that quickly.

- Mostapha Al Turk has pulled out of his fight tomorrow with Rolles Gracie due to visa issues thus not being allowed to fight in the US. He will be replaced by Joey Beltran. I have the fight listed below as being on the main card but it is actually a prelim.

- Former Pride Star Takanori Gomi makes his UFC debut on March 31^st for a UFC Fight Night on Spike TV. His opponent will be season 1 TUF winner Kenny Florian. This should be a damn good fight.

- Floyd Mayweather vs. “Sugar” Shane Mosley has been signed for May 1, 2010. That is going to be a pretty big boxing match up from a PPV revenue standpoint and is a more meaningful fight to boxing fans than the Pacquiao fight.

- UFC FUN FACT: Tomorrow is UFC 109 headlined by Randy Couture fighting Mark Coleman. This will be the first time these two men have fought. This fight was originally signed for UFC 17. NO THAT IS NOT A TYPO. This fight was booked for UFC 17.

UFC 109 is TOMORROW, 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
• Demian Maia vs. Dan Miller
• Rolles Gracie vs. Joey Beltran

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 VIDEO of the week: HAHAHAHAHAHA!

- My next wife, KIM KARDASHIAN.

- 13 Days until Pitchers and Catchers report to Spring training. The NY Yankees officially start defending their title!!!

- Remember Charles in Charge and Baywatch? Well here is NICOLE EGGERT celebrating her 38^th birthday in Las Vegas last weekend.

- For all you LOST fans out there, they are back for the final season and the premiere had me asking myself A LOT of questions. That sometimes is a good thing. You know what is an even better thing? Lost is probably the only show on television that WILL NOT go on hiatus for the winter Olympics. WOW.

- The next WONDER WOMAN?

- Jersey Shore 2!!! Coming to MTV near you; THEY are officially back for more at a rate of $10,000 per episode. WOW.

- Madonna and her 23 year old boyfriend Jesus Luz broke up. Jesus is the one who initiated the split saying that their age difference was too much to overcome (she is 51). Never mind the fact that she is 28 years older than Jesus, she is actually 14 YEARS OLDER THAN HIS MOTHER!!!!!

- Hasbro is going crazy. They have completely revamped Monopoly and decided on making a new round board and have gotten rid of money?? WTF? Check it out HERE.

- Ice-T’s wife COCO is doing her MAKEUP.

- For all you Lady Gaga doubters, I am pretty sure she is a she. Check for YOURSELF.

- Katy Perry is still UNDERRATED.

- James Guttmanand the rest of the crew have been loading up with audio all week on the Club.  Aside from more than 200 interviews, you'll get tons of audio commentary from all the writers here on staff. 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.