T.G.I.F with Matt Dawgs: #72

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.

CLUB WWI NEWS: Welcome Wendy "Fifi The Maid" Barlow to CLUB WWI as a host of her own CLUB WWI show. Also back with his audio updates, ZAH!!!

WWE News and Notes

- R.I.P. to former WWE Diva Luna Vachon who passed away last Friday after my column was posted. She was 48 years old. WWE acknowledged her passing on WWE.COM . This was not surprising since Luna was well liked by almost everyone who met her.

- Also not surprising however is that almost IMMEDIATELY after the above acknowledgment on WWE.com on Luna was the below statement on the WWE Corporate site: "Not withstanding our extensive Talent Wellness Program for current Superstars, WWE goes to great lengths to help our former talent who may have substance abuse problems, offering complete drug rehabilitation at no cost to them. Ultimately, however, stars in any form of entertainment should be held personally responsible for their own actions. Prescription drug overdose is a problem not only with former WWE talent, but society as a whole according to the Center for Disease Control, as it is the second leading cause of unintentional death (particularly among younger people) in the U.S." WWE insensitivity never ceases to amaze me.

- RAW aired their 900^th episode on Monday in case you didn't know and it was….lackluster. Not special in any way, shape or form. Sure it had some decent matches including one which made the collective Internet Wrestling Community explode as Daniel Bryan teamed with Kaval. Yet in 2002, years ago, there were plenty of people who said they would never be more successful than they were then. HA!

- CM Punk was AMAZING on the mic on Monday. He completely killed it.

- I am sick and tired of advertising Bret Hart in matches that we know damn well he isn't going to compete in. As the old saying goes, "Sh*t or get off the toilet". Stop saying Bret vs. "insert name here" when you know damn well you are going to book your way out of it. It's annoying.

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

- Booking Cena & Orton like Supermen against Nexus is definitely counter productive for the purpose of Nexus getting over like a legitimate threat. Thankfully a clean pin in the 5-on-5 elimination match main event by Justin Gabriel on Cena and then one by Wade Barrett on Orton was different and shocking. Too bad Cena had to eliminate Heath Slater and David Otunga while Orton eliminated Gabriel and Tarver in seconds to make them look like complete jabronies.

- Chris Jericho's announcement that he will leave WWE if he does not win the WWE title at "Night of Champions" is in fact TRUE. As mentioned previously, Jericho's contract is up soon and he plans on taking time off before returning/signing a new deal. It is expected that he is not going to win and leave the WWE for several months before returning.

- WWE is planning on unifying the Women's and Divas titles at "Night of Champions" as Melina © takes on either Layla El or Michelle McCool ©. This is the first step in WWE finally following my advice as the tentative plan is to have all the titles united and have the champions be allowed to bounce between the separate RAW & Smackdown brands. The goal is to have the WWE and World titles to be unified at Wrestlemania 27 in Atlanta.

- CM Punk hasn't been lucky as of late. First Serena was released and now Straight Edge Society member Joey Mercury underwent surgery over the weekend to repair a torn pectoral muscle. While he did appear on RAW with his arm in a sling, he will be unable to wrestle for up to six months. With that being said, make sure you tune into Smackdown tonight to see where the SES goes from here.

- WWE was basically upset at ALL the divas stemming from their latest west coast trip which saw Serena get released because of her partying and Tiffany get suspended due to her altercation with Drew McIntyre at a hotel. They weren't on their best behavior during the trip.

- Randy Orton was booked to take it easy due to some neck problems as of late. He was protected in tag matches all week at house shows and television.

- I really cannot stand that they call Joe Henning by the name Michael McGillicuty yet each and every week he references his father. Why change the name then?

- Congrats to Kaval aka Low-Ki aka Senshi for winning season 2 of NXT. He is a man who literally had a list of goals in his life (and even printed them out on his website) and he has knocked off the majority of those goals. Most of them were lofty but through hard work and dedication, he has persevered. If anyone deserves to be a superstar, it is him.

- Although as soon as he won, he was beaten down along with the Pros of season 2 by the losers of NXT season 2. Could we have a Nexus 2.0 brewing? God I hope not because Joey Styles wrote on Twitter: "Watching the end of show attack by the 5 previously eliminated NXT Rookies reinforced why most of them were eliminated to begin with. Ugh." That was absolutely BRUTAL to watch. From the sloppy finishing moves on Kaval which looked like they could have killed him to the absolute NO SELLING of a Mafia Kick from MVP on Titus O'Neil (which MVP looked pissed after he completely no sold) to the random disappearance of the pros. That had to be one of the sloppiest segments EVER.

- Season 3 of NXT will be ALL DIVAS. Due to Smackdown starting on SyFy on October 1^st, the seasom may just be 4 weeks long. Otherwise, the season will continue on WWE.com or on Smackdown itself. The rookies and pros are below:

• Naomi (WWE Pro: Kelly Kelly)
• Maxine (WWE Pro: Alicia Fox)
• Aksana (WWE Pro: Goldust)
• Jamie (WWE Pros: The Bella Twins)
• AJ Lee (WWE Pro: Primo)
• Aloisia (WWE Pro: Vickie Guerrero)

- An all women's season of NXT is a direct result of the above mentioned HEAT that management has for the women on the roster stemming from all the behavioral issues on their west coast trip. Originally they were scheduled to have 4 men and 4 women for NXT but now WWE is emphatically looking to replace some of the active talents on the roster.

- Aliosha is independent women's wrestler Isis Reo aka Isis the Amazon. She just signed a developmental deal with WWE this past week. Isis is a LEGIT 6'9 and not manly looking either. She has done some modeling and not for nothing but if a 6'9 woman wants to be a wrestler, you sign her. Here are some pictures of her. Keep in mind that she is only 3 inches shorter than Big Show. WOW. HERE , HERE , HERE and HERE .

- A brawl broke out at the Prudential Center in New Jersey last week between fans at a WWE RAW live event. It happened before the main event between John Cena and Sheamus. Cena tossed his t-shirt into the crowd as he usually does and fans began fighting over it. Approximately 10 people were ejected from the building for the incident and reports say that a few children were injured.

- WWE is rumored to have signed Alberto Del Rio's opponent from last week's episode of Smackdown. His Smackdown name was Carlos Sanchez however he was Mexican wrestler from AAA, Alex Koslov. Sources are saying that he indeed signed a developmental deal.

- Del Rio's personal ring announcer is Jesus "Ricardo" Rodriguez who is an independent wrestler and runs his own wrestling school.

- WWE FUN FACT: On August 29^th, John Cena lost to Sheamus at a WWE live event in a steel cage. This was in fact the first live-event loss for Cena since….July 3^rd, 2008. That is 787 consecutive days without a houseshow loss. The loss was to HHH in Peru.

- Natalya in HAWAII .

- Lance Cade's dad pretty much slammed Linda McMahon hard in the press saying she disrespected his son because Linda claimed after his death that she "may have met him once" when in fact Harley Cade states that he was with Lance at two separate WWE functions over the past few years where Linda McMahon went up to Lance and knew him by name.

- Congrats to Stephanie McMahon-Levesque and her husband Paul (HHH) on the birth of their 3^rd child last week. They had a healthy baby girl. The couple now has 3 children, all daughters.

- Former WWE announcer Jonathan Coachman announced on ESPN radio that he and his wife had their first child last month. A boy named Jonathan Joseph Coachman.

- Trish Stratus and Lita announced last weekend that they are working on a film together about Mexican Wrestling. Both will have roles as female wrestlers in the film. Here they are together at a Lucha Libre show in TORONTO .

- Lita also stated this week in an interview that she plans on opening up a Lucha Libre themed restaurant in Atlanta.

- Chris Jericho tweeted on Monday that he was asked to participate on "Dancing with the Stars" however had to turn it down due to scheduling conflicts (Dancing with the Stars is on Monday's against RAW). He did say that it is definitely something he wants to participate in and hopes he can in the future.

- Steve Austin on CM Punk via Twitter: "Got a lot of reports of CM Punk using my ring music and calling me out…I enjoy his work and wish him the best. Go get em kid."

- When you retire, you do retiree THINGS .

- Shelton Benjamin is now on Twitter @sheltyb803 .

- Johnny Knoxville will be hosting the October 4^th Raw from Wichita Kansas.

- Teddy Hart is in the same WWE sponsored rehab as Scott Hall. Hart claims he is in rehab due to his uncle Bret's urging" and is doing so in order to get a WWE Deal.

- Apparently a war of words between Lay-Cool and TNA's The Beautiful People has escalated onto Twitter causing WWE officials to "politely recommend" that Layla El take a Twitter time out. The feud escalated this week when on TNA ReAction, Angelina Love and Velvet Sky said, "For all you wannabe Beautiful People girls out there, you know exactly who I am talking about, GET A LIFE. You will never be us." Layla then took to Twitter with the following message: "One thing I know when you're attacked you have to decide if it's worth the time and effort to retaliate. Not worth the press. Plus, don't deserve the press we get even tho they want and need it." All of this stems from Lay-Cool absolutely being a rip-off of the Beautiful People (which, even though I find Lay-Cool better at the gimmick than the original BP, they ARE a rip-off), Layla seems to be the only person on the planet who doesn't realize that WWE booked them to be their version of the Beautiful People. Anyway, can't we all just GET ALONG ?

TNA News and Notes

- TNA continues to live like it is groundhog day and management doesn't seem to learn from past failures and mistakes. Simple amazing.

- Yesterday afternoon, Dixie Carter tweeted: "TNA iMPACT! is going LIVE on 10/7. Remember my tweet about how TNA is going to change forever? Stay Tuned."

- See what I did there? J

- In an interview conducted last week, Kurt Angle stated that he plans on finishing his TNA contract (which expires in 2011) and then he will reevaluate his future but it is looking more likely that he is going to retire. He says that he will more than likely have a retirement match and then wrestle a handful of dates after that (you know, how TNA usually does with "retirements"). He says that he is incapable of toning down his style in order to prolong his career because that is how he goes. It's either full speed or not at all. He is definitely well off financially and with his food business and his straight-to-DVD movie career, he is fine to retire today if he wanted to. He also concedes that TNA helped stretch his career out with the lighter schedule due to less dates. While he will never be 100%, he also feels better than he has in the past decade.

- Please note that when not standing next to Ric Flair, AJ Styles has been delivering DAMN GOOD promos. Flair successfully rubbed off on him because Styles used to be crap on the mic.

- Just my opinion but why book Abyss as the guy to practically murder Rob Van Dam then have him do a clean job to Stevie Richards last night on Impact? Wouldn't booking him like a psychopathic monster who can't be beat do better business so when someone eventually does beat him, it means something?

- Karen Angle, former TNA Knockout and ex-wife to Kurt, changed her twitter name from @KarenAngle to @KarenJarrett.

- Per Dixie Carter's Twitter: "Just signed a new talent contract on someone you guys have been asking about. Stay tuned". While many speculated that it is Mickie James, Pope D'Angelo Dinero tweeted shortly thereafter "Just heard the news, Now THAT, That's Cool."

- The SHORE is coming to TNA (Robbie T and Cookie aka Rob Eckos and Becky Bayless) and it is going to be AWESOME.

- Brian Kendrick's membership in EV2 was always planned and he is NOT in fact the replacement for Sandman. He is actually filling in for Mick Foley who is resting up to partake in a match at "Bound For Glory" which is TNA's version of Wrestlemania.

- FYI…The original Beautiful People reunion (Angelina Love & Velvet Sky) received the highest rated quarter hour on last week's Impact. When the BP started, any segment they were in was always the highest rated segment of Impact each week until they were broken up.

- As those of you who actually care know, this Sunday is the TNA No Surrender PPV. Amazingly enough, TNA scheduled it even though Spike TV has pre-empted Impact next week for other programming. So TNA has a PPV with the "aftermath" not airing on TV until September 16^th. Welcome to TNA.

TNA NO SURRENDER PPV is THIS SUNDAY from Orlando Florida and the line-up is as follows:

• WORLD TITLE SEMI-FINAL: Kurt Angle vs. Jeff Hardy
• WORLD TITLE SEMI-FINAL: Mr. Anderson vs. D'Angelo Dinero
• TNA TAG TEAM TITLES: The Motor City Machine Gunns © vs. London Brawling (Desmond Wolfe & Brutus Magnus)
• "I QUIT" MATCH: AJ Styles vs. Tommy Dreamer
• X-DIVISION TITLE: Douglas Williams © vs. Sabu
• FALLS COUNT ANYWHERE: Abyss vs. Rhino

Independent / International News and Notes:

- It's like they're getting younger and younger. Combat Zone Wrestling's JC Bailey passed away on Monday at age 26. Bailey was a high flier but also participated in all sorts of Death Matches for both CZW and Ian Rotten's IWA Mid-South. While many speculated that his death was caused due to excessive drug use (which he was definitely fond of in the past), apparently he was cleaned up and was recently out of rehab. The initial autopsy report states that his death was due to multiple concussions and brain trauma. THAT IS F*CKING SAD. This man sacrificed his life for wrestling, literally. Bailey was talented in the ring and could definitely had made an independent career based on that but chose to go down the path of blood and guts to succeed. Thus, that led him to drug use and abuse and while not directly responsible for his death, definitely played a part. Condolences to his family and friends.

- CZW had a worse week after that as Cody Corson, the 18 year old son of former CZW owner John Zandig passed away as well due to a suicide. Jesus.

- Longtime Declaration of Independents website owner Sean "The Mic" McCaffery announced that he is selling the DOI website as well as giving ownership of his Woman's Superstars Unleashed wrestling promotion as he is taking a full time job in his native Ireland. No word on who is purchasing the DOI website but the WSU promotion will be run by longtime friend of mine and independent wrestler, Vincent "Bison Bravado" Carlo. Good luck Bison.

- Jake "The Snake' Roberts' retirement SPEECH .

- ROH announced that Terry Funk will be the "special ringside enforcer" for the ROH title match on the iPPV from New York on 9/11 between Tyler Black © and Roderick Strong.

- HERE'S the angle where Black announces he is taking the ROH title with him when he leaves.

- The ROH Tag Team Champions, The Kings of Wrestling (Claudio Castagnoli and Chris Hero) have signed new long term contracts with ROH. Hero was already under contract so this was just an extension. Castagnoli was not under contract to the promotion.

- "Skullcrusher" Rasche Brown cleared up his departure from ROH in an internet interview. He basically stated that he missed his flight for the HD Net tapings. He told ROH and was willing to fly out for the second day of the taping but ROH cancelled his return flights.

- Sean Davis' Worldwide Wrestling Promotions (WWP financially backed by the Wilpon family) is still undergoing some growing pains and a lot of people who are signed to the promotion are beginning the think that this WILL NOT get off the ground. Sad to say mainly because I would like to see a promotion with some money behind it actually be successful rather than a WCW reboot like TNA. In the end though, even if they do launch in January as they now plan, without television on a national level, they are doomed to fail.

- Former ROH Booker and current NWA Champion Adam Pearce has an injured rotator cuff and may require surgery. He is planning on rehabbing it with the hope that surgery can be avoided but it may not work and he may need to undergo the knife.

- Northeast Wrestling announced that on top of the first ever Amazing Kong vs. Mickie James match they had previously announced on October 1^st in Waterbury CT, they have now signed the first ever Shelton Benjamin vs. Brian Danielson (aka Daniel Bryan) match. Also booked is Rob Eckos (Robbie T in TNA) vs. Carlito. More info can be found HERE .

MMA News and Notes

- As expected, Randy Couture made short work of James Toney tapping him out in the first round of their "boxer vs. MMA" contest at UFC 118 in Boston. Toney was claiming that he planned on knocking out Couture within the first few minutes of round one. Obviously, that was never going to be the case because Couture was smart enough to know that he wasn't going to stand and trade punches with a professional boxer. He immediately took him down with a single leg, grounded and pounded him before locking in a choke for the tap out. After the fight, Dana White announced that Toney was being released from the company and that there will be NO MORE boxing vs. MMA match ups. Dana says it doesn't matter who it is, he will not sign a boxer to a UFC deal.

- Frankie Edgar is NOT a one hit wonder. Edgar successfully defended his lightweight title by defeating the man he upset to win it, BJ Penn by unanimous decision. After the first fight, Penn claimed he had a sinus infection but fought anyway. This time, no real excuse can be given because Edgar once again won a decision by outclassing Penn and winning all 5 rounds on the judge's scorecard.

- The lightweight division just got SUPER interesting with Edgar's win because prior to the PPV, Dana White announced that the winner of Gray Maynard vs. Kenny Florian would get the next title shot. Maynard won and it is now interesting because Maynard is the ONLY person to defeat Frankie Edgar in UFC.

- Quinton "Rampage" Jackson vs. Lyoto Machida will take place on November 20^th at UFC 123 in Detroit Michigan.

- With Dana White announcing a rematch between Anderson Silva © vs. Chael Sonnen, Vitor Belfort has become the odd man out. Vitor was originally going to get a shot at Silva but was injured. With the Sonnen rematch now, he will face the winner. Instead, at UFC 122 in Germany (on Spike TV), he will face Yushiin Okami.

- Cult phenomenon Kimbo Slice announced that he is leaving MMA and is going to throw his hat inside a boxing ring full time. My thoughts, he has a better shot at this due to his punching power and could win a few fights and make a few paydays.

- OUCH .

- Not that long ago I wrote about Ken Shamrock being completely embarrassed by Pedro Rizzo at an MMA show. I mentioned that Shamrock hasn't exactly been setting the world on fire and has not won a fight in years. I mentioned that he should hang it up and call it a career. Well lo and behold, on October 16^th; Ken Shamrock will be taking on Jonathan Ivey in an MMA fight. My bet is he loses.

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

UFC 120 is on October 16, 2010 from London England and the line-up is as follows:

• Michael Bisping vs. Yoshiro Akiyama
• Dan Hardy vs. Carlos Condit
• John Hathaway vs. Mike Pyle
• Cheik Kongo vs. Travis Browne

UFC 121 is on October 23, 2010 from Anaheim California and the line-up is as follows:

• HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE: Brock Lesnar © vs. Cain Velasquez
• Jake Shields vs. Martin Kampmann
• Tito Ortiz vs. Matt Hamill
• Diego Sanchez vs. Paulo Thiago
• Brendan Schaub vs. Gabriel Gonzaga

Random Thoughts, Links, Pics, ETC.

- Random VIDEO of the week: People do dumb things when drinking.

- BONUS VIDEO : Please do yourself a favor and obey traffic laws. Do not eat red lights. The following video shows exactly why, IT IS GRAPHIC, Viewer discretion is advised.

- Random PIC of the week: Redbox? Really?

- Fun on FACEBOOK : I cannot STRESS ENOUGH, the importance of punctuation. LOL.

- BONUS FUN ON FACEBOOK : I laughed.

- Movie fans, Avatar has been re-released in theaters via IMAX for a limited time only. It contains an additional 9 minutes of footage cut from the original release. If it was a movie you liked or HAVE YET TO SEE, go see it, fantastic stuff.

- Oh that Lindsay. Here she is making her first court appearance since being released from prison/rehab. As you can tell by her shirt, she showed up PROPERLY dressed.

- By the way, LINDSAY was pulled over for running a stop sign last weekend while on her way….TO A BAR. Thankfully she was in Los Angeles so even though she has a well documented history of reckless driving, driving under the influence and recently got out of a stint in prison and rehab; she was let off with a warning. YOU GOTTA LOVE THE L.A. JUSTICE SYSTEM!!!!

- Ice-T's wife COCO at the GYM .

- My Future Wife, Kim Kardashian-Aponte at the JAY LENO SHOW .

- 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 . Or leave feedback below!!!

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)