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

- The biggest news coming out of the week isn’t the fact that Sheamus defeated John Cena to become the new WWE champion. In fact, the news is that Dave Meltzer is reporting that the Bret Hart mention on RAW was not coincidence. Bret Hart has SIGNED A CONTRACT to return to World Wrestling Entertainment. The contract spans from January 1, 2010 to April 10, 2010. The likely scenario is that Bret Hart will host the January 4, 2010 RAW which is competing head to head with TNA’s Monday Night debut and Hulk Hogan’s first live appearance with the company. The contract also has a match involved which is probably going to take place at Wrestlemania involving Bret vs. Vince McMahon in some sort of gimmick match. That is probably the reason why Shawn Michaels issued a challenge to the Undertaker at Mania because originally the WWE was building to a Taker vs. Vince McMahon match for Mania. That is now out the window.

- Part of Bret’s return, and this was confirmed by Jim Neidhart who was speaking about it last weekend at an independent wrestling show in New Jersey, is that WWE is working on a DVD based on the Hart Foundation. Jim said he was scheduled to visit Stamford later in the week to do interviews for the DVD. It is probably going to be the extended Hart Foundation and not limited to Bret and Neidhart.

- WWE is taping both ECW and Smackdown this coming Sunday in Orlando Florida due to the holiday week being an off week for WWE. Also this Sunday in Orlando is TNA’s Final Resolution PPV from Universal Studios. My guess? WWE draws a bigger crowd.

- WWE is really moving full steam ahead with changes in the upper-mid/main event card. Sheamus defeated John Cena in a Tables match at TLC to capture the WWE Title.

- Drew McIntyre defeated John Morrison to capture the Intercontinental Title.

- Kofi Kingston did not beat Randy Orton but you know what? I am fine with that booking. Orton is THE main event heel of the company and Kofi more than held his own in the entire feud. He was definitely elevated in the feud with Orton and is better for it.

- DX are the new Unified Tag Team champions and I am completely shocked. I did not think they would win the titles but….I completely forgot that they were in San Antonio and Shawn almost NEVER loses a PPV match in San Antonio. DX won’t hold onto the titles for too long because Shawn can’t work on Tuesday’s. In the past, he has shown that he is willing to work on a Tuesday here and there but for the most part, he does not want to work consistently on Tuesday while Jericho is completely find in doing so.

- Chris Jericho continues to be awesome. His Slammy Award speech thanking the “long forgotten” Edge for being cowardly enough to walk away with his “minor” injury and vacate the tag team titles was HEEL GOLD.

- Speaking of Edge, he has been telling friends that he is ahead of schedule for his recovery and he expects to be ready in time for Mania to face Jericho. If this is indeed the case, with Edge/Jericho, Shawn/Taker II and Bret/Vince; Mania is shaping up nicely.

- Carlito actually thanked “Team Jacob”. Carlito has been awesome since returning and hopefully WWE will give him the push that he has always deserved. Flip side though, he needs to continue with the hard work as it has been paying off for him.

- WWE Management still doesn’t “get it”. Jim Ross’ contract is up NEXT WEEK. JR has mentioned on his blog that he is negotiating and while he doesn’t like down to the wire negotiations, he is confident that something would be hammered out. So what does WWE do? They make it a point to try and bury him on commentary on RAW. For those who missed it, Michael Cole won the Slammy for “OH MY” moment when he threw up on Jericho on Smackdown. During his acceptance speech, Cole said that “Slobber knocker” was a passé term and that the new catchphrase of the decade was “Vintage”. He also bashed Oklahoma (which is a face move since they were in Texas which are main rivals to the Sooners) and when he was done, Matt Striker said that “This is going to be blogged about, huh King”? There was absolutely ZERO POINT in the cheap shots on JR. Especially when they WANT to re-sign him. WTF?

- In more mean spirited news, WWE continues to knock on Mickie James and her weight. I really don’t understand it. Mind boggling to say the least. What’s even worse is when the commentators reference it. It makes sense in Vickie Guerrero’s case because she is a heel. But why commentators knock Mickie when she is a face is beyond me.

- I said it last week and the week before that, Dennis Miller……UGH. Almost as horrible as Jeremy Piven. True story.

- “Former” New York Yankee Johnny Damon is next week’s host. I know WWE was trying to get him for the MSG RAW a few weeks back which would have been a huge coup since the Yankees were days removed from winning the World Series but they couldn’t finalize something that fast. Not sure exactly what kind of impact this is going to have now since they aren’t in New York. Oh well.

- The “Wrong Side of the Tracks” featuring Rob Van Dam, Batista and Ja-Rule.

- In what can’t possibly make WWE happy at all, UFC has switched their March 13, 2010 PPV date to March 27, 2010. That event will feature the return of George St. Pierre and it the DAY BEFORE Wrestlemania. Normally it isn’t a big deal when they hold an event in the same month but for fans who watch both, they may not be willing to spend money on PPV’s on consecutive nights. Chances are UFC is going to eat some WWE buys. The reason they moved the date is in the MMA section below.

- Ricky Steamboat Jr. was finally signed to a WWE developmental deal. He has been training with Harley Race for several years now and he is basically a “bigger” version of his father. While he isn’t as talented as his dad, from everyone who has seen him work, he has the art of selling down to a tee. He is capable of gaining fans sympathy like no one else.

- Booker T has been telling friends that he is coming back to WWE shortly. If he does, I expect him to return at the Royal Rumble.

- WWE has made a MAJOR Amendment to the Wellness Policy stating that if you have 2 strikes, leave the company and then return later, you STILL have 2 strikes against you. That means that currently, Chris Masters is on his last strike and when Jeff Hardy inevitably returns, he does as well. Once you get your third strike, you are terminated and unable to return to WWE for a period of one year.

- In good news, Matt Borne (the Original Doink who was a wrestling machine) has completed WWE paid for rehab and is possibly coming into the company as an agent. When Borne debuted as Doink, no one thought a clown gimmick would get over but Borne was a wrestling machine and since Doink was originally a heel, it worked. Unfortunately Borne left shortly after debuting due to drug issues and the gimmick was moved to people who weren’t able to carry the gimmick due to lack of being able to work.

- Former ECW valet Chastity will be featured in the upcoming porn DVD titled “Tiger’s Wood”

- For the record, Batista as a cocky, bully heel is AWESOME. This should have been done a while ago. His promo on last week’s Smackdown was GOLD.

- President Barack Obama has taped a message for the Tribute to the Troops show tomorrow.

- WWE has finally called up Angela Fong. She is working as Savannah and is the new ECW ring announcer. If you remember, I actually said MONTHS ago that she should/would be the one to replace Lillian Garcia as the ring announcer once Lillian left. I guess WWE didn’t want to but with the Lauren Mayhew mishap, they had no choice. If you’re wondering what she looks like, look no further than HERE .

- Bryan “American Dragon” Danielson is still under contract. He is just twiddling his thumbs and training in MMA at Extreme Couture in Las Vegas waiting for his phone to ring. I think it will be at or around the Rumble.

- Lance Cade will more than likely be debuting on Smackdown soon. Hopefully they re-stick him with Chris Jericho. I enjoyed their tandem.

- Jim Cornette recently conducted an interview and in it, he spoke about former Spirit Squad member Johnny Jeter. He spoke about the fact that Jeter was probably the most talented member of the group and when he was working with Jeter in OVW, Jeter was full of enthusiasm and was ready to take on the world. He had such a passion for wrestling and was a student of the game. Always watching tapes, always wanting to improve. Then, he got called to the main roster, placed in the Spirit Squad, abused, embarrassed, released and now HATES the wrestling business and doesn’t want any part of it. That’s the WWE machine for you, folks.

- Speaking of the Spirit Squad, Ken Doane (Kenny Dykstra) is going to be featured on the new reality series, “Seducing Cindy” which stars 42 year old hottie Cindy Margolis as she searches for a younger man to date. Ken is one of the contestants.

- If anyone is wondering why I have yet to comment on the upcoming DX “Little People’s Court” is because I don’t care. When it airs, I don’t plan on watching it.

2) TNA News and Notes:

- Hulk Hogan is claiming that a lot of current WWE wrestlers are “burning up his phone” because they want to join TNA. Yes, he said this. REALLY.

- TNA iMPACT drew a 1.0 rating last week. READ THAT AGAIN. 1.0!!!!!!!

- Ric Flair is all but signed and will debut with TNA in 2010. The only hold up is that Flair wants his contract with Panda Energy and not TNA meaning that if TNA goes out of business, Flair’s contract would still be paid by Panda. Other than that, it is practically a done deal. Such a shame that he is going to ruin his legacy even further by going to TNA.

- In what is one of the most unintentionally funny things I have ever seen (brought to my attention by WWI’s own Aaron Wood), TNA touted on television that they had exclusive video of an attack on Abyss by Raven and Dr. Stevie. The footage was so graphic and “extreme” that they couldn’t air it on Spike TV because Raven and Stevie SET ABYSS ON FIRE!!!! Instead, they had to place the footage online. So on TNA’s YouTube account, the footage is there. Only thing is, it was the rehearsal footage. There is a director barking directions, people just standing around the background watching. WTF? Watch for YOURSELF .

- Jeff Jarrett was backstage at the iMPACT tapings and met with Kurt Angle in a private locker room and they apparently patched things up. Neither man would say what was said other than that they are cool. This is more than likely lead to a feud between the two men.

- Rob Van Dam in a recent radio interview says he has not spoken to Hulk Hogan in several months but he has in fact spoken to Dixie Carter as recently as last week. He did not confirm whether or not he was coming into the company but one would expect that he is definitely considering it.

- Scott Steiner is AWESOME. In his promo last week about Bobby Lashley, Steiner said that if Miles got in the way, he’d kick his ass too. Miles is Lashley’s 18 month old son. LOL.

- Christy Hemme has announced her retirement from professional wrestling. She plans on sticking with TNA in some capacity but her neck is still not 100% healed and she does not want to risk further injury or future quality of life by wrestling further. I always felt she had potential to be real good and I am not fully aware of her departure from WWE other than it was rumored that she was flirting with HHH and Batista during a European tour which got back to Stephanie McMahon who then released her. Wish she would have stuck around in WWE though.

- TNA is having a “New Years Knockout Eve” special which will be an all woman’s tournament. They figure no one is going to be watching since it’s New Years Eve but if they do get viewers, the Knockouts tend to be the highest rated segments of iMPACT each week so they are going to roll the dice with it.

- There is a rumor circulating that Kevin Nash has been trying to bring Mark Madden into TNA in order to commentate with Mike Tenay as he does not like Taz. Nash responded via Twitter that this is absolutely false. That means it is probably true since he acknowledged it.

3) TNA Final Resolution PPV on December 20, 2009

• TNA TITLE: A.J. Styles © vs. Christopher Daniels
• TNA KNOCKOUT TITLE: ODB © vs. Tara
• FEAST OR FIRED BATTLE ROYAL: ( MATT NOTE: For some unknown reason, SAMOA JOE is in this match. LAME.)
• Kurt Angle vs. Desmond Wolfe (2 out of 3 falls)
• TNA TAG TEAM TITLES: British Invasion © vs. The Motor City Machine Guns
• Rhino/Jesse Neal/Team 3D vs. Hernandez/D'Angelo Dinero/Matt Morgan/Suicide
• Raven/Dr. Stevie vs. Mick Foley/Abyss

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

- ROH has officially launched a Video on Demand service through gofightlive.tv. Beginning with the historic, out of stock “Glory by Honor IV” event, every day this week will feature the addition of another out of print Ring of Honor event, culminating in the iPPV premiere of “Final Battle 2009” on Saturday night, 12/19/09!

- A lot of fans fear that because Teddy Hart and Jack Evans were pulled from the December 18^th by AAA that they are going to miss the Final Battle event on December 19^th. ROH has assured fans that they have made special (i.e. EXPENSIVE) travel arrangements to ensure that they make the show.

- Rhett Titus went down to WWE’s developmental FCW to have a tryout with the company.

- ROH is also officially on the HD Net On Demand service for Verizon FiOS so if you miss an episode of ROH, you can probably catch it On Demand (like I can).

ROH FINAL BATTLE : is on December 19, 2009 from New York City and the line up is as follows:

• ROH WORLD TITLE: Austin Aries © vs. Tyler Black
• ROH TAG TEAM TITLES: The American Wolves (Davey Richards & Eddie Edwards) © vs. The Briscoe Brothers
• Teddy Hart & Alex Koslov vs. Jack Evans & Rocky Romero
• Eddie Kingston vs. Chris Hero (Fight without Honor)
• Kevin Steen & El Generico vs. The Young Bucks
• Roderick Strong vs. Kenny King
• Necro Butcher & Delirious vs. Bison Smith & Erick Stevens
• 4-Way Dance: Kenny Omega vs. Rhett Titus vs. Colt Cabana vs. Claudio Castagnoli

ACE Pro Wrestling : is on January 9, 2010 from Union City NJ and the line up is as follows:

• ACE DIAMOND DIVISION TITLE: Bruno Marciano vs. “The New Age Punisher” B-Boy
• Azriael vs. “Crowbar” Devon Storm

EVOLVE: debut show is on January 16, 2010 from Rahway New Jersey and the line up is as follows:

• Davey Richards vs. Kota Ibushi
• Mike Quakenbush/Hallowicked/Jigsaw vs Gran Akuma/Icarus/Brodie Lee
• T.J. Perkins vs. Munenori Sawa
• Chuck Taylor vs. Cheech
• Also in action: Brad Allen, Arik Cannon, Bobby Fish, Kyle O’Reilly, Ricochet and the Dark City Fight Club.

DRAGON GATE USA: returns on January 23, 2010 in Chicago IL and the line up is as follows:

• FREEDOM GATE TITLE: BxB Hulk © vs. Dragon Kid
• Three Way Elimination Match: Shingo & YAMATO vs. The Young Bucks (Nick & Matt Jackson) vs. Masato Yoshino & Naruki Doi
• CIMA & Super Crazy vs. Mike Quackenbush & Jigsaw
• Also in action: CIMA, Jimmy Jacobs, Jigsaw, Brian Kendrick, Masaaki Mochizuki, Jon Moxley, Davey Richards, Super Crazy, Gran Akuma; Silas Young; Arik Cannon; Kyle O'Reilly and more.

5) MMA News and Notes

- UFC has moved their March 13^th date as it is the same date as Floyd Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquiao on PPV. Dana White, while wanting to compete with boxing and prove that MMA is better, ISN’T STUPID. LOL. He knows that the Mayweather/Pacquiao fight is going to be the biggest PPV of all time and doesn’t want it to take away buys from them. So he is going with the Saturday evening before Wrestlemania which he has a better shot at beating.

- The latest on Brock Lesnar is that his surgery was relatively minor on his intestines and that he needs to wait about one more month before they can re-evaluate and see if the surgery was successful. If it was not and he needs further surgery, he will need to have more extensive surgery which would put his career in jeopardy and if he were able to come back, it would be a year minimum. If he is cleared, he could resume training in about 4 months.

- B.J. Penn completely ate Diego Sanchez alive at UFC 107.

- Frank Mir and Shane Carwin will fight for the Interim UFC Heavyweight title on March 27, 2010 in Newark NJ. The winner will have that title and fight Brock Lesnar (if he is able to fight again) immediately upon Brock’s return. Not for nothing but if Mir wins, Lesnar/Mir III would do MONSTER business from a PPV buy rate standpoint. What sucks is that I was planning on trying to attend this show and e-mailed my friend about it to see if he was interested in going. He is indeed interested in going. Problem is, IT’S ON HIS WEDDING DAY!! So neither of us can go. Well….I can go if I wanted to but I don’t think that would make me a good friend. Decisions, decisions.

- Antonio Rogerio Nogueira has pulled out of his UFC 109 match against Brandon Vera citing an ankle injury. No replacement has been named yet and Vera may be moved off of UFC 109 to another show altogether.

- Bobby Lashley’s Strikeforce debut will be on the January 30^th Showtime show that features Herschel Walker’s debut as well as Chris Cyborg in her first match back since beating Gina Carano. Why this show is not being aired on CBS is beyond me. It’s as if Strikeforce wants to play the role of TNA to UFC’s WWE in the war. I don’t get it.

- Another thing I do not get is how in the world TNA is going to promote Bobby Lashley’s upcoming MMA fights on their show considering Spike TV is the home of UFC.

- Strikeforce is expected to have another CBS special in April headlined by Fedor Emelianenko and Dan Henderson (not against each other). Henderson is more than likely going to face Jake Shields.

Strikeforce is on December 19, 2009 from San Jose California and the line-up is as follows:

• Cung Le vs. Scott Smith
• Lightweight title: Josh Thompson vs. Gilbert Melendez
• Matt Lindland vs. Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza
• King Mo vs. Mike Whitehead

UFC 108 is on January 2, 2010 from Las Vegas Nevada and the line-up is as follows:

• Rashad Evans vs. Thiago Silva
• Tyson Griffin vs. Jim Miller
• Carlos Condit vs. Paul Daley

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
• Josh Koscheck 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
• Stephan Bonnar vs. Krzystzof Soszynski

6) Random Thoughts, Links, Pics, ETC.

- Random PIC of the week: Drunk girl.

- IRONMAN 2 !!!!!!!!!

- Model Victoria Silvstedt at a London fundraiser hosted by Elton John.

- The “ Bitch Slap ” movie. I’m going to see it.

- Chris Brown’s new CD is flopping. These are his direct words via Twitter, “im tired of this shit. major stores r blackballing my cd. not stockin the shelves and lying to costumers. what the fuck do i gotta do…WTF… yeah i said it and i aint retracting shit im not biting my tongue about shit else… the industry can kiss my ass”. So let me get this straight, Chris Brown beat down his highly likeable and gorgeous girlfriend and when the world doesn’t accept him back with open arms even though it took like a year to apologize for it, he is upset? Really? Even worse is that the day after he posted this, he DELETED his Twitter account. What a douche!!!

- Speaking of Chris Brown’s victim, Rihanna is on the cover of GQ magazine . She is also INSIDE the magazine too.

- FAIL !!!!!!!

- Russell Crowe and Ridley Scott teamed up to make “GLADIATOR” so by that logic, I have to give ROBIN HOOD a chance. I always liked Kevin Costner in Robin Hood so this HAS to be better than that NO?

- When it rains, it pours. Not only is Tiger Woods up to number fourteen when it comes to mistresses but the doctor who assisted in his rehab from knee surgery (he was recommended to him due to not recovering quickly enough) was just arrested for……drum roll please…..DISTRIBUTING PERFORMANCE ENHANCING DRUGS TO ATHLETES!!!!!!! Jesus, this guy can’t catch a break right now. Add that to the fact that his wife has begun seeking attorney's for their inevitable divorce and the fact that she can walk away with as much as HALF A BILLION DOLLARS, Tiger might as well hang himself.

- ALICE IN WONDERLAND .

- I’M AN UNCLE!!! Kourtney Karsdashian gave birth this week to her first child!!! Feel free to send Kim and I congratulation notes.

- Ice’T’s wife Coco knows how to SQUAT in the gym.

- Don’t forget to vote in the World Wrestling Insanity year end awards. Check out the details HERE .

- Last week, after I went to press, ECW’s Extreme Judge Jeff Jones joined James Guttman as the Radio Free Insanity guest. Jeff is probably one of the most well liked guys in wrestling and was awesome in his role on the original ECW. Jeff had a ton to talk about so if you didn't listen, run and do yourself a favor.  Join CLUBWWI.COM right NOW!!!!

7) PLUGS

- NY Diaper Cakes (Best possible baby shower gift…EVER.)

- DJUCH.com (Best Dance Music DJ… EVER.)

- 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)

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.