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T.G.I.F. with Matt Dawgs: The Worst Night of Bret Hart's Life, Nine Decades of Mae, One of the Worst Raw Segments Ever, Heart Attacks Are Nasty, March 8th is The New January 4th, Tod's Got Plans, Tiger's Wood Takes Questions, and More
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 - I am completely lost now. So Bret Hart has a broken leg and ligament damage? Is this the storyline “out” for him having to wrestle at Mania? Or is this a way to keep him off of television for a few weeks? Maybe it was a plan concocted by Hart and Cena in order to convince Vince McMahon to agree to fighting him? What the hell is going on? - By the way, I don’t know if this line was fed to him or not but if it wasn’t, then I officially HAT E Michael Cole. When the limo crashed into Bret’s leg and they came back from commercial, Cole had the f*cking audacity to say that “This was the worst night of Bret Hart’s life”. Yes, Cole said this. According to Cole, suffering a stroke while bike riding and having to spend several months in a hospital followed by a wheelchair is NOT worse than what happened on RAW. According to Cole, having your youngest brother and closest sibling fall from a ceiling of an arena and DIE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE RING is NOT worse than what happened on RAW. - By the way, in regards to the above comment, Smackdown was taped on Tuesday from….Kansas City. - Jerry Springer’s segment during RAW has to rank in the top 5 of ALL TIME WORST SEGMENTS EVER!!! What the hell was that dreck? It wasn’t even “train wreck” good. It was just painful to sit through. It was even made a billion times worse by the fact that Kelly Kelly had a huge kool-aid smile plastered on her face the entire time. Unbelievably bad. Whoever wrote that segment needs to be “future endeavored”. - Ricky Steamboat’s son Richie officially debuted in FCW winning his debut match. - During RAW in Canada, the Score announced Edge vs. Batista at Elimination Chamber which is extremely odd considering it was penciled in to be Batista vs. Shawn Michaels for a shot at Taker at Mania. I am very curious as to where they are going with this. - The only thing I can think of is that John Morrison who is scheduled to compete in the Elimination Chamber on Sunday and had “injured” his ankle on Smackdown last week (spoiler alert) re-injures it again on Smackdown tonight, is pulled from the match and Shawn Michaels takes his place thus either winning the chamber or costing Taker his title. - WWE has thrown a curveball in regards to PPV for 2010. It apparently looks like there will be no Money In the Bank at Wrestlemania this year as they have a stand alone MITB PPV scheduled for the summer. They have also scheduled a PPV titled "Wild Card" which is more than likely a "RAW Roulette" type gimmick. They have a "Fatal 4-Way" PPV scheduled which speaks for itself. The MITB is interesting because I feel like it was becoming a Wrestlemania staple and should be held on the biggest show of the year. Also interesting becayse next week on RAW is when WWE was scheduled to start holding Money in the Bank qualifying matches. - WWE officially announced Antonio Inoki as a HOF inductee. I think it is really great that they are only announcing one per week and doing so on RAW as opposed to previous years where they would announce one inductee on RAW and then another on Smackdown thus rushing through the inductees. One per week is a good build. - So far confirmed officially are “The Million Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase and Antonio Inoki. Unofficial is Stu Hart. - You guys remember a few months ago when Kofi Kingston was WHITE hot and on the cusp of being a superstar main event talent who broke through the glass ceiling. LOL. Good times. Now he has been completely buried and no one buys him as a main event level talent. Amazing. - The bully/cocky heel Batista is certifiably GOLD as a main event heel. He needs to stay like this for years and years to come because he has been nothing short of spectacular in his role. His promo (or lack thereof) on Smackdown last week was fantastic and so was his Titantron promo on RAW Monday. He’s awesome at playing a prick. - Ezekiel Jackson defeated Christian on the final ECW show ever to become the LAST ECW Champion. The championship was then retired which means he will go down in the history books as the final ECW champ EVER. Jackson (along with Regal as his second) will be moving to the Smackdown brand. - I completely love how strong the Hart Dynasty are being booked on Smackdown due to Bret’s return to WWE. I especially love the interaction between them and Bret. It’s giving them a ton of popularity………..Oh wait………….. - Santino’s “Beware of the Cobra” is great stuff. Did anyone else notice the “MMA” logo on it? It stands for Marella Martial Arts. HA!!! - Per WWE Magazine, WWE plans on having Wrestlemania in Phoenix held outdoors as the roof will be retracted for the event. So it will be a similar set up to when they held it last year in Orlando with the canopy over the ring. - WWE NXT now has a premise. The show will be based around 8 current FCW Wrestlers who are paired up with current WWE Superstars. They will then be broken into the business and “guided” by the WWE Superstar they are mentored by. The goal is to become successful enough to make it to the main roster. The show will also be broken up into seasons since it will be running for the full year. So after 16 weeks, either someone will move to the main roster and a new season will begin. - The WWE NXT Roster is:
- The Miz has already begun "creating controversy" over him mentoring Bryan on the WWE Universe blog. He basically bashed WWE fans as well as Daniels by stating that if Bryan was such a spectacular wrestler, it wouldn't have taken him 10 years to make it to the WWE. Meanwhile Miz is United States Champion as well as one half of the Unified Tag Team Champions. - MAE YOUNG FUN FACT: Mae Young’s appearance on RAW Monday made her the first ever person to have performed in wrestling in 9 DIFFERENT DECADES. She currently holds the title of wrestling in the most decades with 8. Gypsy Joe and Abdullah the Butcher are tied for 2nd with 7. - Congrats for former WWE Diva Ashley Massaro who announced her engagement this week. - Mickie James album is currently available for pre-order. You can purchase your copy HERE. 2) WWE ELIMINATION CHAMBER is THIS SUNDAY from St. Louis Missouri and the line-up is as follows:
3) TENTATIVE WRESTLEMANIA 26 LINE-UP:
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4) TNA News and Notes - It is official. While it has been pushed back a week from March 1st to March 8th, TNA will be moving permanently to Monday Nights head-to-head with RAW. They will use to original RAW format from the 90’s by having one week live and the following week taped. This officially means it is do or die time for TNA because if they don’t tighten up their booking/storylines then they are going to crash and burn, fast. - And an example of this would be Samoa Joe, 24 hours after having a fantastic match with AJ Styles in the main event of the Against All Odds PPV, losing clean to Orlando Jordan at the Impact tapings. - Speaking of Jordan, TNA appears to be moving ahead with him being a bi-sexual character. Not sure what purpose this can serve other than being controversial but whatever, if they want to do it then by all means try. - With all the hoopla of Impact moving to Mondays and what not, they are already falling into the trap of WCW in its dying days. I understand wanting to give fans something to talk about in their first official Monday but (spoiler alert) they have decided to give away both Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair’s first TNA matches on March 8th rather than on Pay Per View. Hogan will team with Abyss to take on AJ Styles and Ric Flair. FOR FREE???!!!??? - Still waiting for the Jeff Hardy and Shannon Moore follow up from January 4th. . - Ric Flair is truly as inspired as I have seen him in years. His promo’s and manager shenanigans have been nothing short of AMAZING. He is on his game right now as AJ Style’s manager. - Kurt Angle is in REAL bad shape physically. Now I know you have been hearing that for a long time but he is currently working through back, calf and neck injuries. He has requested a lighter schedule (he works TNA house shows) and he is more than likely going to get it. - Not sure on the status of Bubba the Love Sponge however he did not make the PPV or appear on camera at the TV tapings this week (although he was backstage at the tapings). - Jeremy Borash was “fired” by Eric Bischoff when Bischoff debuted. So why was he backstage at the PPV interviewing people without any explanation being given and as if he never left? Anyone? - Jimmy Hart is now managing the Nasty Boys. If the Nasty’s continue to work full time for TNA, I think we may have our very first in ring death in TNA history as both men looked like they were on death’s door following their match with Team 3-D at the PPV. They are both a heart attack waiting to happen. - Hulk Hogan said he does not want Brooke Hogan joining the wrestling business nor becoming a character on television. This to me means that she will eventually debut in TNA. - TNA is apparently scaling back the use of the Knockouts in matches on television. Yes, I know they are normally the highest rated segment of each show but Hogan and Co. do not like the fact that they are not good workers and are thus going to use less of them in ring and instead focus them more in backstage segments and angles. - Scott Steiner was not renewed by TNA due to his past negative encounters with Ric Flair. It basically boiled down to all of the negative things Scott has said about Flair in the past. TNA felt that if they had to choose between the two, Flair was more important so they let Scott go. - Bobby Lashley, in a recent interview online stated that he is officially gone from TNA. It is not an angle and that he is focusing 100% on MMA. The door is open for him to return but he doesn’t think he is going to. - TNA has hired Dave Taylor as a backstage agent. Many should remember Taylor from his WCW days as “Squire” Dave Taylor who used to team with William Regal as the Blue Bloods. He also had a very brief WWE run under the same name. - Rob Van Dam during an interview with Sirius Radio stated that he is more than likely going to sign a deal with TNA. He stated that they have been very proactive in trying to acquire him and while he knows WWE is interested, they haven’t really been pushing the issue to get him to come back. He also does not seem interested in returning to the WWE grueling travel schedule. TNA isn’t exactly a cakewalk for him travel wise but it is light years better than WWE. - Looks like TNA has hired Frankie Kazarian back as he worked the Impact tapings using his old gimmick name of Kaz. Good for him. He has been out of action for a while. - Anyone seen Suicide? - Bill Goldberg stated via his Twitter that he IS NOT coming to TNA. - Rumors are circulating that Booker T and wife Sharmell are expecting a child. Congrats to them. 5) ROH/DGUSA/EVOLVE/Independent News and Notes: - Tyler Black has FINALLY won the ROH title defeating Austin Aries at the 8th Anniversary show in New York City. Not for nothing but it was definitely too little too late in my eyes. The title switch did get a response from the crowd but I think that was partly due to how the finish played out which included Cornette eating a super kick from Black. This change was LONG overdue. - Rhett Titus and “Skullcrusher” Rashke Brown have officially signed contracts with ROH. Titus is one of the first graduates of the ROH Academy. As for Brown, I have no idea who he is and have never seen him before. Anyone have thoughts on him? Is he any good? Where is he from? Any notable matches of his out there worth tracking down? - The Motor City Machine Guns make their ROH return on May 8th in NY. TNA is allowing them to work the show as long as they don’t appear on either the HD Net show or on DVD releases. - Former ECW Owner Todd Gordon has been telling anyone who will listen that he is collaborating with Paul Heyman on a project that will kick off in 17 months or so. Heyman has not stated anything similar. No one knows for sure. Only time will tell. - Jack Evans is officially a part of Dragon Gate USA and will make his promotion debut Wrestlemania weekend in Phoenix. - Add Sonjay Dutt and Jimmy Jacobs to the list of American talent working DGUSA in Phoenix. I just don’t get it with Sonjay. He is a nice guy backstage, a good worker in the ring, has a unique look and gimmick yet never gets any good opportunities in ROH or TNA. Weird. - Also working that weekend will be Tommy Dreamer who will be flying into Phoenix directly from Japan as he is working on March 26 in Japan against Tajiri. - Chris Hero vs. Ikuto Hidaka has been signed as the main event for the second EVOLE event titled EVOLVE 2 on 3/13 in Rahway, NJ. - Claudio Castagnoli has officially become a member of EVOLE. He debuts on the 3/13 Rahway NJ show as well. - Sadly, “The New Age Punisher” B-Boy has lost the CZW World Heavyweight title after holding the title for less than a month. He was defeated last weekend by Jon Moxley. This is a shame. - Tommy Dreamer’s first independent match since being released by WWE took place last week at ACE Pro Wrestling in Union City and apparently the gamble on Dreamer PAID OFF. ACE had their highest attendance to date with 250 people in the ACE arena (if you ever been there, the building doesn’t look like it could hold 200). ACE Champion Mo Sexton defeated Dreamer in the main event which was then followed by a hot angle involving Sexton, Dreamer, ACE Owner Matt Morgan and former champion Dan Maff. ACE is really hitting their stride when it comes to booking angles and delivering a very good all around product. If you like in the tri-state area, you definitely need to check out an ACE show. - WSU (Woman’s Superstars Unleashed) has their 3rd Anniversary show on March 6th and it looks to be pretty awesome. For all of you out there who enjoy Women’s wrestling, you should give it a try. 6) MMA News and Notes - Vitor Belfort has pulled out of his Middleweight title fight against Anderson Silva for UFC’s debut in Abu Dhabi at UFC 112 with a shoulder injury that will require surgery. Demien Maia has agreed to replace him and take the fight. Vitor is expected to be out of action until the end of 2010. - Dana White threw a HUGE curveball at the UFC 110 press conference in Australia when he announced that the winner of Velazquez/Nogueria may get the first crack at Brock Lesnar for the UFC Heavyweight title with the winner of that facing the winner of Mir/Carwin. That is completely unexpected. I would have thought that they wanted Brock to fight the winner of Mir/Carwin first, unify the titles and then have the other fight. But Dana is leaning towards that way first. - The Ortiz/Liddell TUF finals will air on June 19th on Spike TV. Ortiz vs. Liddell takes place on Pay Per View on June 12th in Vancouver. - UFC won their legal battle against Ken Shamrock. Ken was suing UFC for breach of contract since he had 1 fight left on his deal when he lost to Tito Ortiz in 2006. UFC countered stating that they had the right to terminate his (or any deal) with one of their fighters should they have lost their last fight (Shamrock actually lost his last 2). The judge ruled in UFC's favor. UFC will now counter sue for damages as in their contracts with their fighters, it states that should UFC win a court case against them, they must pay legal fees. - The state of Wisconsin has regulated MMA. Wisconsin could effectively host a UFC PPV and New York still can’t. Anyone else see something wrong with this? - Rolles Gracie apparently had a broken foot in his debut for UFC last week. At least that is what Renzo Gracie is claiming. - Former MLB star and best selling author Jose Canseco has begun training with Cesar Gracie. Canseco’s goal is to sign with Strikeforce for a fight with Hershel Walker. Walker would absolutely wipe the floor with Canseco and has stated that he does not want to fight him since Canseco is only doing it for money and attention while Walker is doing it because it is something he is interested in. - Bobby Lashley is expected to be on the April Strikeforce show on CBS. That is also one of the main reasons he was written out of TNA. For CBS, he is going to have to fight someone with a significantly higher skill level than Wes Simms so he has been training really hard for this fight and will be in camp up until the fight. UFC 110 is on SATURDAY/SUNDAY 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:
UFC 112 is on April 10, 2010 from Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates and the line-up is as follows:
7) Random Thoughts, Links, Pics, ETC. - Random PIC of the week: This is from a real newspaper. EPIC!!!! - Be careful what you write on FACEBOOK . It could be taken the wrong way. - LOST executive producer Carlton Cuse confirmed this week to Entertainment Weekly that original cast member Maggie Grace, contrary to what was originally reported, WILL reprise her role as Boone’s sister Shannon on the show at some point this season. - My future sister in law, Khloe Kardashian TOPLESS . If you need an explanation on this, it is from an upcoming episode of “Keeping up with the Kardashians” in which sister Kourtney pulls down Khloe’s top in an elevator. Now even though this is a “reality” show, apparently Khloe wears pasties to cover her nipples at all times. You know, in the event that someone randomly pulls down your top in an elevator. So no nip is able to be seen in this picture. - Congrats to the NBA, at their annual All-Star game, they drew a record setting attendance of 108,713 to Cowboy’s stadium. WOW. - Lindsey . - “We Are the World” for Haiti. WOW , Completely Abysmal. - Tiger Woods has a press conference later today to discuss his return to professional golf as well as the past 10 weeks of his life. I will update you all next week if anything noteworthy comes out of it. - Lady Gaga is officially a…. WOMAN . Taken from the British Music Awards. Either that or her “tuck” skills are excellent. - Sadly, this past Monday’s 24 was the lowest rated episode….EVER. Not a good sign. - Happy birthday to ICE-T who just turned 52. - If you watched that piece of crap NBA Slam Dunk contest, HERE is what a REAL contest looks like courtesy of the NBA Developmental League. - James Guttman just scored the gig of a lifetime. On March 13th, James will be hosting a question and answer session at the “ Legends Mania ” convention in Atlanta Georgia. The talent involved with the Q&A is:
- Also, JG closed out the week last week with a good interview with Greg Gagne. 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 has 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. blog comments powered by Disqus
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| All content contained here Copyright 2012 by James Guttman |
