Matt Dawgs
T.G.I.F. with Matt Dawgs: Straight Edge Sendoff, Bye2J, The Latest ECW Rise Prepares To Fall, Pearce's Departure Leaves ROH Delirious, The King Returns, ABC Has a Situation, and More
By Matt Dawgs
Aug 27, 2010 - 8:11 AM

T.G.I.F. with Matt Dawgs

Good day to you all and welcome to the new look, sleeker, sexier version of World Wrestling Insanity. I am your host for today, Matt Dawgs and this is my column. Since we have a new site, I figured it was time to switch things up and make my column look slightly newer too. Let’s go.

MATT NOTE: Normally I plug CLUB WWI at the end of the column but this week, it goes here. Why? It goes here because this week’s guest is making his second appearance with James Guttman and is none other than WWE HALL OF FAMER, Jerry “The King” Lawler. It is 50 minutes of Jerry being Jerry. CHECK IT OUT!!!!

WWE News and Notes

- Vincent Kennedy McMahon has finally reached retirement age as he celebrated his 65^th birthday this week. Happy Birthday Vince!!!

- WWE really needs to hire a full time fact checker. I’m not just talking about for their television shows regarding angles and WWE history, I am also talking about for public relations purposes. For those who missed it, Chris Nowinski recently made some comments about Lance Cade’s passing and how Lance had confided in him that he regretted using steroids and pain killers in his career. Nowinski compared it to his WWE tenure and says it takes a toll on you because when Nowinski worked there, he went through four tables a week. WWE then responded with a verbal assault saying that Nowinski was not credible because it was a sheer fabrication that he went through four tables a week and that they highly doubt that Cade would have such an intimate conversation with a stranger. And that they probably never even had a conversation, much less about steroids. It is stuff like this that drives me insane because it makes WWE look like such douches for trying to defend themselves. For almost the last year of his WWE active in ring career, Chris Nowinski feuded with the Dudley’s and almost every single match ended with Chris going through a table. If you figure they work houseshows on Friday, Saturday and Sunday following by Raw Monday and Smackdown Tuesday (before the brand split), chances are he went through at LEAST four tables a week. As far as Cade speaking to a “stranger” in Nowinski, here is where WWE really needs to do research considering Cade and Nowinski were a regular tag team in 2002-2003 in TWO of WWE Developmental territories (HWA in Cincinnati and OVW in Louisville). So for someone who works for WWE to have the audacity to say they were strangers really needs to have their heads examined.

- In more sad news, Charlie Haas recently admitted a little known fact that in 2001, when his brother Russ had passed away due to heart problems, the two men who were with Charlie when they found the body were Umaga and Lance Cade. They were his two best friends. Wow.

- The tentative plan right now is for the Nexus angle to end in October with the members of the group going their separate ways. With the elimination of Darren Young from the group and most likely, (unless he drastically becomes the next Eddie Guerrero from a work rate and character perspective) from the company and Skip Sheffield being injured for the foreseeable future, the angle that has kept the company looking fresh and new for the past few months is going to die a quick death with little fanfare. A shame since it definitely had legs and was something good.

- Sheffield will be out of action for anywhere between 4-6 months.

- I HATE THE EMAILING GM ANGLE/GIMMICK!!!!!!

- Sheamus continues to deliver on the mic week in and week out with his promos and gimmick. I am going to take it one step further by saying that Sheamus is the second best promo in the company behind Miz and third over all in ALL OF WRESTLING behind Flair. He is THAT good.

- Alberto Del Rio had a VERY SUCCESSFUL debut last week on Smackdown. Not only did he get to main event the show against Rey Mysterio, he got a clean, tap out victory over Rey. That is BIG. The eventual goal, due to his size, is to make him a top heel and give him a serious run as evidenced by Smackdown (since he was given JBL’s entrance of driving into the arena in a Rolls Royce). Eventually they plan on turning him face and making him the top Latin American star in the company since it is common knowledge that Rey is on his last legs, literally.

- WWE has released Smackdown Diva and member of the Straight Edge Society Serena. Apparently, after numerous warnings, Serena’s behavior while on the road has been “un-PG-like” and enough was enough. Suffice to say, the rumor is that while her character was “Straight Edge”, she in fact was NOT . She was the exact opposite. She did a lot of things on the road that WWE did not like and asked her to tone it down. So much so that the angle a few weeks back where CM Punk caught her drinking in a bar and almost kicked her out of the SES was a “wake up” message from WWE. She didn’t get the message. While it hasn’t been officially announced by WWE yet since tonight’s episode of Smackdown was taped last week and she appears on it. I expect the announcement to be made sometime this weekend on WWE.com. If it was just something that happened, then I can understand fan backlash. But the fact is, she was warned and in the midst of what was going to be the biggest push of her life since she isn’t going to get an opportunity like this again, she should have listened. The tentative plan was to build the Smackdown debut on SyFy around CM Punk and Serena similar to the Edge/Lita relationship. That is now out the window.

- Via her Twitter, Serena wrote the following: “You are the best fans of ANY universe. Thanks.”

- CM Punk has been back to using the Anaconda Vise as his finisher lately.

- Apparently Nexus member Justin Gabriel and WWE Diva Kelly Kelly are an item according to sources.

- In a change from usual protocol, while touring Japan last week, Dean Malenko and John Laurinaitis held a tryout for Japanese workers including Dragon Gate USA Champ BxB Hulk.

- Both Sho Funaki and Taka Michinoku were backstage at the WWE events in Tokyo and John Laurinaitis and Dean Malenko had dinner with Antonio Inoki.

- Another big deal took place during the tour as WWE put on a show for the very first time in China. The show was a HUGE success and surprisingly most of the stars were known. WWE now plans on recruiting some athletes from China to train to become WWE superstars with the hope that they can break into the market with television. This will be especially big considering China’s population.

- Several former WWE DIVAS re-uniting for the first time.

- Edge’s co-star for his upcoming WWE film will be comedian and WWE fan Jamie Kennedy. The film, originally titled “Chasing the Hawk” has been renamed to “Bending the Rules”. Originally Edge was supposed to play a lawyer and the main character however Kennedy will now play that role and Edge will play a corrupt cop. The Kennedy role was originally offered to Paul Giammatti; who in my opinion, wisely passed.

- Speaking of Edge, he is more than likely going back to Smackdown full time prior to the October 1^st debut on SyFy.

- According to the fall SyFy schedule, WWE NXT’s last air date is on September 28^th at 11:00 pm.

- Chris Jericho’s contract expires in a few weeks and no new deal has been agreed upon yet. It is likely that Jericho is going to depart for a little bit to refresh and recharge his batteries similar to how he did a few years ago.

- WWE has launched an iTunes service where you can buy PPV’s and matches for your Apple devices. It’ll be $1.99 per match & $12.99 per PPV.

- Christian is now on Twitter @ Christian4peeps

- Several months ago I reported that when Bret Hart signed, Teddy Hart’s dad was telling people he “quit” AAA because he got signed by WWE. Surprisingly (that is sarcasm by the way) this is in fact NOT TRUE and while everyone knows he was released from AAA, he is now trying to get back into the company because there is no WWE deal on the table for him.

- Shawn Michaels has new reading GLASSES .

- Ryan Nemeth, younger brother of Nick Nemeth (Intercontinental Champion Dolph Ziggler) is currently training to become a professional wrestler in Ohio Valley Wrestling and hoping to get signed by WWE.

- Carlito debuts for the Lucha Libre USA “Masked Warriors” promotion tonight on MTV 2. His 90 day no-compete clause is done so he is free to appear on television and sign with TNA if necessary.

TNA News and Notes

- TNA recently held a round of drug testing at this weeks Impact tapings in Orlando. Not exactly sure why they are since from my understanding there are no consequences for those using various drugs including cocaine, marijuana, steroids and pain pills. I guess it is for “study purposes”.

- Team 3D may be done with TNA. They have been in negotiations with the company for sometime now as their contracts just expired this week. No new deals have been made yet but they are officially free of their TNA deals. WWE has shown minimal interest and that is only because they are considering putting out a Dudley’s DVD which I personally believe would make some money. But for the most part, they are very likely to resign with TNA as WWE has little to no interest in them as performers. Only to release the DVD.

- Not very surprising but Sandman was scheduled to work this week's Impact tapings. Sandman no-showed. Sandman most likely will not be brought back.

- The Sandman incident has helped reinforce the idea backstage that EV2 needs to be scrapped. There are several talents (including those who you WOULDN’T EXPECT it from) who are completely bashing the idea of EV2 and wondering why they are even being booked. While most in TNA didn’t agree with the Hardcore Justice PPV, they understood that it could help PPV buy rates. Now, they don’t really get why it is continuing.

- I love how EVERYONE on camera talks about the heinous act that Abyss committed against Rob Van Dam yet he wasn’t punished for it in any way, shape or form.

- Ric Flair has surpassed the maximum number of dates allowed in his contract for the year (with 4 months remaining in the year) but TNA plans on paying him the additional money for going over the dates since he is involved in the main angle for the company (Fortune vs. EV2.) Why TNA continues to sign people to these stupid contracts with X amount of dates and then burn through them immediately is beyond me.

- I know I wrote this a few weeks ago but it needs reiterating. Ric Flair, when allowed to do so and be unscripted, is the BEST PROMO IN WRESTLING TODAY. I just heard his promo bashing EV2 from last week and it is solid GOLD. FLAIR TO EV 2.0: “The marquee says pro-wrestling, not garbage cans, not kendo sticks, not tables. Everyone can do that. In fact, I can crash in an airplane and walk around to talk about it. Until you do that, you shouldn’t even be allowed to talk to me let alone be in the same ring with me. You should just kiss my ass” LOL, PURE. GOLD.

- Rumor has it that Rob Van Dam is signed for 75 dates. Well guess what? He has already used 60. Only in TNA, people. He has 15 dates remaining for 2010. The magic number for anything over 75 dates is rumored to be $10,000 PER SHOW.

- Kurt Angle was pushing for a program with Amazing Red but was turned down by management feeling Red wasn’t “on par” for a long term program with Angle. A throwaway match on Impact is fine but a several match series is not.

- Katie Lee Burchill had a dark match tryout with TNA this week and many sources state that she looked incredible in the ring and are surprised she wasn’t offered a job on the spot.

- Remember a few weeks ago when I mentioned that there was once a time when Tomko was on the cusp of being a main eventer and a pretty big deal in wrestling since a lot of people were behind him and he was getting over with fans? Remember? Well he was released. Bye Tomko.

- Remember when Jay Lethal was a prominent fixture in TNA a few weeks ago in his angle with Flair? Yeah, feels like years ago doesn’t it?

- Also gone, Rosie Lottalove, the Team 3D student who almost killed DAFFNEY in the ring. She was hired to replace Awesome Kong once Kong was let go but she was absolutely abysmal in the ring and TNA realized it and decided to release her.

Independent / International News and Notes:

- R.I.P. to former wrestling legend/manager General Skandor Akbar who passed away last week.

- Jake “The Snake” Roberts announced that he has competed in his last ever match over the weekend at an independent show in New York. He said he physically wasn’t able to compete anymore.

- Mark and Jay Briscoe will not be leaving Ring of Honor as they have signed new contracts with ROH. They were given tryouts last year by both WWE and TNA however no offers were made from either company.

- Skull Krusher Rasche Brown has left ROH according to his Twitter. He states that he actually quit the promotion because he was going to be punished for missing the HD Net tapings this past weekend. He was willing to work this coming weekend’s houseshow loop for FREE in exchange for missing the tapings but ROH turned him down.

- There were several people unhappy backstage with the change in booking from Adam Pearce to Delirious. Some of the direction that Pearce was taking the company was actually re-written for the television tapings by Delirious and Jim Cornette.

- In what was noticeable from the TV taping, Tyler Black came out for his match against Davey Richards without the ROH title meaning that he will drop the title to someone prior to this match airing on HD Net. The title change most likely will happen to Roderick Strong on the 9/11 iPPV show from New York which will also feature Terry Funk, The Kings of Wrestling vs. The Worlds Greatest Tag Team (Shelton Benjamin & Charlie Haas) and while not officially confirmed by anyone, I fully expect Homicide to return to the promotion. Black has already reported to WWE developmental.

- Homicide is working the 9/11 EVOLVE show from Rahway NJ. For the record, he can still in work the ROH event at the Manhattan Center as the EVOLVE show has a 4pm start time.

- Balls Mahoney was arrested at an independent show last weekend for “fighting” outside a ring. Long story short, he and his opponent at a local restaurant before the event and got into a verbal confrontation (to draw up interest in the match later in the day). One of them pulled a knife and police were called. Both men left the building but were stopped later (after a description of the car was given) and both men were arrested. ARTICLE HERE .

- Balls also stated in a recent internet interview that he was basically screwed by Axl Rotten after the Hardcore Justice PPV because Axl was surprisingly under no condition to perform and it cost them a future run in TNA (which ended up going to the FBI instead). He says he is never going to work with Axl again.

- Mikey Whipwreck confirmed that after a second opinion on his neck injury, he will indeed need neck fusion surgery and will undergo the procedure in October. Good luck to him.

- The latest on the new Florida upstart promotion run by the Wilpons and now has a name (Worldwide Wrestling Promotions aka WWP - First mentioned during Shane Douglas's ClubWWI interview) is that their new tentative start date is January 2011. This is a far cry from the September 2010 start originally planned. People are starting to have doubts about the promotion but apparently they are dead serious and have just been getting road blocked in certain aspects of business by….”various people currently within wrestling”, whatever that means. We will see how this plays out.

- Florida independent wrestler Chasyn Rance (who was scheduled to be a part of WWP) is schedule to go on trial for having sex with a minor on November 22^nd.

- Kenji Muto (aka the Great Muta) is expected back from knee surgery and will be working a show in Japan on Sunday. Yes, the same Kenji Muto who is supposed to be out of action due to knee surgery until March of next year. Unbelievable.

- Good luck to Scott Lost who announced his retirement from wrestling. While most of you probably have never heard of him, Lost was one of the founders of Pro Wrestling Guerrilla in California in 2003. PWG is one of the most underrated promotions in independent wrestling today.

MMA News and Notes

- Dana White announced on ESPN’s Sportscenter on Tuesday that Anderson Silva vs. Chael Sonner part 2 will be the next middleweight title fight.

- The Mauricio “Shogun” Rua vs. Rashad Evans light-heavyweight title fight has been officially postponed until the middle of 2011 due to a knee injury for Rua.

- Lashley isn’t Brock Lesnar that is for sure. Bobby Lashley suffered his FIRST MMA DEFEAT last weekend at the Strikeforce show when he was defeated by ref stoppage (TKO) due to a severe cut on his face. I have yet to see the event but I have heard from both sides. One side says it was a legit stoppage while I also heard that the match was filled with piss poor officiating. Afterwards Lashley spent the night in a Houston hospital being pumped with fluids due to severe dehydration and was released the following morning.

- Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal also suffered his FIRST MMA DEFEAT at the same show as Lashley in losing the Strikeforce light heavyweight title to Rafael "Feijao" Cavalcante. Cavalcante won via ref stoppage after getting caught in the 3^rd round by a knee to the face followed by a stiff punch.

- King Mo is now going to be out of action for the next 9 months or more as he underwent knee surgery this week. Mo suffered the injury on his loss last weekend.

- The biggest issue of the Strikeforce show was the piss poor officiating up and down the card but mainly in the fight between KJ Noons and Jorge Gurgel. Gurgel was knocked silly by an AFTER THE BELL punch by Noons yet the fight was not stopped. It wasn’t a glancing blow, it was a shot that legit had Gurgel wobbly to end the first round and it was clearly late (although in Noons defense, it was definitely not deliberate as he threw the punch before the round ended, it landed after the bell). In the next round, Gurgel was knocked silly again and fell to the floor. Noons, realizing that Gurgel was basically out on his feet, hesitated thinking that referee Kerry Hatley would stop it. Hatley told him to continue so Noons did. He reigned down on Gurgel with punches until Hatley stepped in. As Hatley stepped in, Noons followed with a soccer kick to the downed Gurgel. ILLEGAL!!!! He connected with a head kick to a downed opponent and yet wasn’t disqualified. He won by TKO. Horrible decision making.

- Serious negotiations between Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker and Paul Heyman are ongoing and the sides are close to Heyman joining the company in an executive capacity.

- Strikeforce is tentatively discussing Fedor Emelianenko vs. Bigfoot Silva for December which would be the last fight on Fedor’s contract unless a new one is signed. Due to this, Strikeforce Heavyweight Champion Alistair Overeem states that he does not plan on defending his title until 2011 when Fabricio Werdum returns from injury. He is going to be fighting for K-1 in Japan until then. Lo and behold, as soon as this was announced, Fedor and his promoters M-1 Global said that they want to fight Overeem. LOL. See what they did there?

- The November issue of Playboy Magazine will have UFC ring girl ARIANNY CELESTE . She follows in the footsteps of UFC Ring Girl RACHELLE LEAH .

UFC 118 is TOMORROW NIGHT from Boston Massachusetts and the line-up is as follows:

• UFC LIGHTWEIGHT TITLE: Frankie Edgar © vs. B.J. Penn
• Randy Couture vs. James Toney
• Kenny Florian vs. Gray Maynard
• Nick Osipczak vs. Greg Soto

UFC 119 is on September 25, 2010 from Indianapolis Indiana and the line-up is as follows:

• Frank Mir vs. Mirko “Cro Cop” Filopovic
• Ryan Bader vs. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira
• Matt Serra vs. Chris Lytle
• Sean Sherk vs. Evan Dunham

Random Thoughts, Links, Pics, ETC.

- Random VIDEO of the week: Batman DEAD END.

- Random PIC of the week: False Advertising?

- Fun on FACEBOOK : Ah, college. Good times.

- It seriously pays to fake your way into celebrity stardom as Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino is expected to be announced as a member of ABC’s Dancing with the Stars cast on Monday. Not only that, but by this time next year, his net worth is expected to be at $5,000,000.00. WOW.

- Britney Spears is vacationing in HAWAII . She is trying, I give her that. Not the Spears of 2001 but definitely not the Spears of 2008 either.

- The cast of the Expendables rang the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange last Friday and let’s just say that Terry Crews is MORE OF A MAN THAN YOU .

- By the way, a friend summed up The Expendables pretty well so if you haven’t seen it, here is a summary. “It’s like snorting Cocaine while drinking a Red Bull after taking a Viagra”. GO SEE IT!!!

- Khuram Sher, a 28-year-old Canadian doctor, was arrested on Thursday as part of a terrorism investigation by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. This may not be news to you but for some, it is MAJOR news mainly because it proves that ANYONE can be a terrorist.

- My Future Wife, Kim Kardashian-Aponte at the LA Confidential Magazine FALL FASHION premiere party.

- Check it out at CLUBWWI.COM if you haven’t had a chance yet. There are literally HUNDREDS of interviews with your favorite wrestling stars of yesteryear and today!!! If you’re not a member then please do yourself a favor and JOIN CLUB WWI right NOW!!!! What are you waiting for? DO IT. DO IT NOW. Good stuff folks; don’t miss out. You’ll thank me for it.

Feel free to discuss whatever you’d like in the “Anger Management” section of the message board or whichever section you see fit. Also drop a comment in the comment box below as I try my best to answer in a timely fashion.

~ Matt Dawgs

Questions, Corrections, Comments, Feedback or Ideas: Matt@worldwrestlinginsanity.com .

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)