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: Just wanted to take a second to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy Holiday. Make sure you enjoy your special day and count your blessings because even if you didn’t celebrate nor get any gifts (or stuff you wanted), there are a ton of people out there who are worse off than you are. Enjoy the column.

1) WWE News and Notes

- I just want to preface the following statement before I get into it. As you all know, I am probably one of the biggest Yankee fans around today. With that being said, Johnny Damon was by far the………WORST. HOST. EVER.

- Seriously, he was abysmal and completely helped make this week’s RAW one of the worst episodes I have seen in a long, long time. The entire DX Little People’s Court BOMBED. The Tiger Woods skit? BOMBED. Damon as a host? BOMBED. Nothing was noteworthy about this show and everything they did seemed to SUCK BADLY. It’s as if they know that the January 4^th RAW is important and since there is no PPV to plug until later in January, they are just going to do things to appease Vince McMahon. WTF?

- WWE has already begun planting the seeds for Bret Hart’s return as on Smackdown tonight, DX defends the Unified Tag Team Titles against the Hart Dynasty. Should be a good little match and a way to interject Bret Hart into the feud on January 4^th.

- Contrary to speculation, Bret is going to debut on January 4^th. While many fans think that Vince McMahon would use Bret as competition to the UFC Fight Night on January 11, Vince does not see UFC as direct competition to WWE. Instead, he would rather crush TNA in the ratings. (Which he absolutely will)

- In addition to the Hart Family DVD that is being made to coincide with Bret’s return, it is pretty much a lock that Stu Hart is getting inducted into the Hall of Fame this year as well.

- Mike Tyson is coming back to the WWE. He is scheduled to guest host the January 11^th edition of Monday Night Raw (against the UFC special on Spike TV).

- Jim Ross and WWE have come to agreement on a “short-term” contract extension that will allow JR to recover from his latest Bells Palsy bout. The expected return time for Ross is now March and he hopes to be able to broadcast Wrestlemania from Phoenix. Not for nothing, as much as he is disgruntled with the WWE product sometimes, JR strikes me as a loyal man. He is more than likely going to stick with WWE through thick and thin because of that loyalty and is probably not considering TNA at all unless WWE tells him they do not want him. So as long as they continue to have open negotiations and WWE doesn’t straight up tell him they don’t want him, he is going to stick with them in the end.

- In a move that will likely cause WWE management to go insane, several TNA and WWE superstars met at a hotel bar for drinks last weekend. Both the WWE Smackdown/ECW crew were in Orlando for tonight’s Smackdown taping as well as the TNA crew for Final Resolution. Apparently Dixie Carter was also in attendance as well.

- Just a friendly note, if you don’t have Twitter, get it. Follow Chris Jericho, Miz, JTG from Cryme Tyme, Hurricane Helms, and Kevin Nash and then let the hilarity ensue. They are real fun dudes to follow and laugh about.

- Tommy Dreamer has requested and been granted his release from the company. Sad to see since Tommy has always been helpful in the company, willing to do whatever is asked of him and is a likeable person. Do to his longtime friendship with Taz, The Dudley’s and the more-than-likely debuting Rob Van Dam; I can see Tommy in TNA re-igniting his feud with Raven. He will also have a solid mid card spot as opposed to opening card with WWE.

- Both Hulk Hogan and Mick Foley have been removed from the WWE opening video package that airs before all WWE programming. Hogan’s trademark “Whatcha gonna do” has been replaced by The Million Dollar Man Ted DiBiase’s “Everybody’s got a price” and Foley’s being thrown off the HITC has been replaced by Jeff Hardy diving off a ladder. I guess WWE is starting to react to TNA.

- Edge vs. Jericho at Mania. Edge told Bubba the Love Sponge on his show last week that he is targeting the first quarter of 2010 for a return. That quarter ends around Mania so that more than likely means he is going to be wrestling the show. Knowing WWE and how they like to keep things secret, Edge may even be ready for the Rumble. Maybe not for the match itself but for some sort of on camera role.

- Finally caught some older ECW from the past few months (I was unable to watch it due to Sons of Anarchy being at the same time). What the hell is the deal with this Abe Washington stuff? He is horrendous. I dig Tony Atlas with the fake laugh all the time but I don’t get how anyone can think that these weekly skits are entertaining at all. What blows my mind even further is that plenty of people have told me that Abe Washington was actually good on the mic in FCW. WTF?

- To reiterate, Dave Batista as a bully heel obsessed with being World Champion = AWESOMENESS!!!!!

- Music Producer Timbaland is next week’s RAW guest host. He HAS to be better than Damon.

- I do not plan on commenting further on the DX Little People’s Court skit and following angles. I have said my peace on the subject and would like to never revisit it again.

- Sheamus defends the WWE title against John Cena on RAW next week. Considering the “undefeated” storyline they are running with Cena and the lack of thought or preparation they have been putting into Sheamus since he won the title, I really don’t think Sheamus is walking out of RAW as champion. What a complete waste of a chance to elevate someone if this is indeed the case.

- How do I know Sheamus isn’t a long term champion? Cause some of you may have noticed but most don’t, that is has been two weeks with him as champion and he YET has to have a nameplate installed on his title.

- Where’s Bryan Danielson?

- Carlito is busting his ass to look good. Hopefully he gets the push he deserves. I know I sound like a broken record but seriously, he has always had “IT” just lacks the proper motivation.

- The Celebrity Apprentice with Maria and Bill Goldberg begins on NBC in March.

- Well, I think it is safe to say that MVP will never main event Wrestlemania. He cannot be rebuilt like Kofi. I just think that WWE wants to keep him in the mid-card. That showing against Sheamus was horrible. It amazes me since MVP definitely had “IT” at one point in his career. WWE beat “it” out of him.

2) TNA News and Notes

- The final show before the Hogan Era is in the books and basically it was a “holding pattern” PPV that was filler until January 4, 2010. Nothing really note worthy coming out of the show other than the fact that Sheik Abdul Bashir picked out the “you’re fired” briefcase and is probably gone from the company. Apparently earlier in the day, Bashir was saying his goodbyes to those in the promotion. Then again, Vince Russo wrote the PPV and he loves to swerve the locker room for no other reason than to say he did so it could be an angle in the end. Either way, like I said nothing newsworthy to come out of it.

- It is 99.9% confirmed that TNA will be countering the Bret Hart in WWE debut but reuniting Hogan, Hall, Nash, Waltman and Bischoff on TNA iMPACT. While the nWo name is copyrighted by WWE, it has been rumored that Nash owns the “Wolfpac” name and that is more than likely what they are going to use. If I were them, I’d stick Scott Steiner (who has been awesome as of late) in the group as well.

- A sign of the above actually happening is that Nash won the “Tag Team Title Shot” in the Feast or Fired battle royal thus leading me to believe that Hall and Nash will win the straps.

- Congrats to April Hunter who will be on the New Years Eve Knockouts special.

- ROH’s The Young Bucks have a TNA tryout. I have yet to see them in action but from my understanding, they are real good. Anyone have any recommendations of their work that is “must see”?

- Kudos to Scott Steiner for still trying. Apparently he busted out a top rope Franken-Steiner against Bobby Lashley. That is two big dudes working on the top rope. Awesome.

- Hearing rumors that the Angelina Love visa issue is cleared up or close to being cleared up and she is more than likely going to return on the January 4^th iMPACT.

- TNA sent out a press release announcing that Bobby Lashley will be on their tour of England from January 26-30^th. More TNA ineptness. Why you ask? Well Bobby Lashley has a Strikeforce fight on January 30^th. So either TNA is just plain stupid or Lashley is. Regardless, I am 100% positive that Lashley’s MMA management and training team isn’t that dumb to let him wrestle the week of a MMA fight. If they are, then Lashley is absolutely never going to success in MMA.

- Sucks for Roxxi (Nikki Roxx) who just returned to TNA. In a match taped for the New Years Knockout special, Roxxi broke her angle in two places. She will be out of action for a considerable amount of time. Shame.

- In the “TOTALLY NOT A SURPRISE MOMENT” of the month, TNA has completely soured on Lacey Von Erich and with the looming possibility of Angelina Love returning soon, it is expected that TNA is going to let her go soon. I think it is safe to say that she is going to be done with the business. WWE has no need for her and neither does TNA now. Looks like some apples don’t fall far from the tree. Her reputation certainly wasn’t helped by the fact that she posted THIS PIC up on her MySpace page from the Hogan tour of Australia.

- Spike TV officials have finally stated their plans for TNA. The goal is that if the January 4^th special meets their internal expectations (no clarification on what that is), that they will run one Monday night TNA special per quarter and if those do well, move TNA to Monday’s permanently. Of course this could all go out the window if TNA does an incredible rating on January 4^th.

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

- Final Battle has come and gone and due to a winter snow storm in New York, it didn’t exactly go according to plan. The attendance was low and some of the matches had to be re-worked but ROH definitely turned some things into a different direction than expected.

- Firstly, Larry Sweeney returned to ROH as a commentator. No word on whether or not he will be used in angles going forward but hopefully he got himself in order and they will continue to use him in an on camera role. While he has some personal issues, he definitely has “IT” as well. He is a very valuable commodity in the wrestling business and characters like him are few and far between.

- Tyler Black DID NOT win the ROH title from Austin Aries which in my opinion was a HUGE MISTAKE. You need to strike while the iron is hot and in ROH’s case, I doubt it’s going to get any hotter. I’ve said it many times before, Austin Aries is a talented wrestler but being the first choice to be the only person to win the ROH title on more than one occasion was a horrible decision and I think it is about time they took the belt off of him. Come on now; look at the list of former ROH Champions. Samoa Joe, CM Punk, Brian Danielson, Morishima, James Gibson, Low-Ki, Austin Aries, Xavier, Nigel McGuiness. Now you are telling me that if you were booking ROH, you’d have made Aries the only 2-time winner? Really?

- Anyway, the match went to a 60 minute draw which by the time it was over, fell flat both due to Black not winning as well as the show feeling long. They didn’t help matters by having it be a slow/methodical match that took time to build. Ideally, that is how you work a 60 minute match but they should have gauged the crowd who was already light due to weather, already tired due to a long show and already restless due to the worsening weather and wanting to get home. Someone should have called an audible or they should have laid the match out differently.

- What made the decision NOT to put the title on Black was that the night before, in Virginia, Black lost CLEANLY to Roderick Strong. Logic dictates that when losing before a title shot at a huge show, it is to set up the first challenger to the title. Mind boggling booking by Adam Pierce. Where is Cornette???

- The Briscoes captured the ROH Tag Team Titles which while I thought was best for the company (getting the belts off of Davey Richards is a SMART move), it was surprising nonetheless considering that The Briscoes just spent the past week in Florida with a weeklong WWE evaluation at FCW. That is a huge step in them possibly signing with the company considering WWE doesn’t normally book talents for evaluations that take an entire week. Chances are, expect the Briscoes to be in WWE in 2010.

- As expected, Teddy Hart and Jack Evans made the show…. LATE. They missed their scheduled match so instead had an impromptu match with each other that was basically a boatload of spots with zero ring psychology. It wasn’t even an official match as Julius Smokes was the “referee”.

- Necro Butcher missed the show which was a shame because he was involved in an angle with surprise mystery guest, Gypsy Joe. If you do not know who Gypsy Joe is, SHAME ON YOU. Just shoot a message to Taz on Twitter asking who Gypsy Joe is. If he replies, it will be a good one. If you can’t ask Taz, as New Jack. He has a great Gypsy Joe story.

- In another shocker and change of directions, Kevin Steen (who has a SERIOUS knee injury and should be getting rest if not surgery) cut a promo that teased his retirement. After that however, he ended up attacking his longtime friend and partner El Generico. So that is the end of that team and when Steen returns, they should have a nice little feud. It was a fantastically done angle that no one saw coming. Definitely a good part of the show.

- And finally, in HUGE news, the Kings of Wrestling have reunited. Claudio Castagnoli and Chris Hero are back together and are gunning for the Briscoes!!! That should be a fantastic feud.

- Congrats to B-Boy for finally getting back to ROH. He makes his return in January and I’ve said for a LONG time now that he could have had a successful career there but for some reason, TPTB (The powers that be) felt that he wasn’t useful to their company but he has always been a real solid worker.

- Brian Kendrick (aka Spanky) returns to ROH for the 8th Anniversary show in February at the Manhattan Center.

- Rumors swirling that Jimmy Jacobs is expected to become the newest member of Gabe Sapolsky’s EVOLVE promotion.

ACE Pro Wrestling: returns on January 9, 2010 in Union City New Jersey the lineup 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 Quackenbush/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 are 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.

4) MMA News and Notes

- Strikeforce has their CBS main event as Fedor Emelianenko will face off against former Pride and UFC fighter Fabricio Werdum (13-4-1 MMA, 2-0 SF) on April 17th.

- Also on the show, the debut of former UFC star, Dan Henderson as he battles Jake Shields for the Strikeforce Middleweight Championship.

- Scott Smith surprisingly defeated Cung Le by TKO in round 3 of what was an exciting and pretty dominating performance by Le. No, that was not a typo. Le was dominating the fight until Smith staggered him with a left hand, dropped him with a right and pounced on him until it was stopped. Great fight overall.

- Nothing new on the Brock Lesnar front. There are pictures of him at some sort of autograph signing taken AFTER his surgery floating around. He has a full grown beard (which looks good on him) but you can’t really tell about the weight loss due to him wearing a big jacket and sitting down behind a table. He is nowhere near ready for any training and it won’t be until well into 2010 until he is able to begin training.

- Cris Cyborg (Cristiane Santos) aka the best female MMA fighter in the world has been offered a pictorial in Playboy magazine. Gina Carano was initially wanted for the pictorial but she or her people didn’t even bother to return Playboy’s calls. Cyborg has not committed to the project yet as she claims that her husband is the only person who has seen her naked in the past 20 years. So she is a little gun shy about showing her goods.

- An update on Diego Sanchez. He says he is 90% recovered from the nasty beating he took at the hands of B.J. Penn at the last UFC event. He was placed on a 60 day suspension by the Nevada State Athletic Commission meaning he was not allowed any physical contact for 60 days (INCLUDING TRAINING). He needed plastic surgery to close both the cut on his lip as well as on his head but he will not have any visible scars and he says he feels fine. That was a hell of a beating Penn gave him. WOW. If you didn’t see it, try and see it. Simply brutal.

- It’s looking like August will be the date for UFC’s debut in Boston. I think I may make my first trip up there!!

- BOXING NEWS: Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao has hit a bump in the road as apparently Floyd wants Olympic style drug testing for the fight (meaning they draw blood instead of just urine) and Pacquiao is refusing. He is giving some lame excuses as to why he is refusing which leads me to believe that he may in fact be hiding something. Not a good thing for Pacman.

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

• Rashad Evans vs. Thiago Silva
• Paul Daley vs. Dustin Hazelett
• Joe Lauzon vs. Sam Stout
• Duane Ludwig vs. Jim miller
• Junior Dos Santos vs. Gilbert Yvel

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

5) Random Thoughts, Links, Pics, ETC.

- Random PIC of the week: I miss college.

- R.I.P. to actress Britney Murphy who passed away this past weekend at age 32. Hopefully she is at peace now that she doesn’t have to battle those dreaded “demons” that she dealt with. Her probable last film is actually going to be the blockbuster action movie the Expendables with a who’s who cast of action stars including “Stone Cold” Steve Austin.

- Ice-T’s wife Coco glamming it up for a red carpet. Nice DRESS .

- James Cameron’s AVATAR is KILLING the box office right now. From all accounts, it is a fantastic movie both storyline wise but especially visually. It made $73 million at the box office opening weekend making it the second highest December opening EVER narrowly missing out Will Smith’s “I AM LEGEND” and not for nothing, but had there not been a blizzard on the east coast, it would have easily surpassed it to be the number one December opening ever. They have already grossed $300 million worldwide and the movie cost $500 million to make. So just like Cameron’s last movie, Titanic, this movie is going to continue to march on and make Cameron tons of money.

- Sex in the City 2 .

- After 23 years of being in a relationship, Academy Award Winning Actor Tim Robbins and Academy Award Winning Actress Susan Sarandon have ended their relationship. Sad but true.

- Listen NBA fans, LeBron James will NOT be a Knick next year. He will NOT join the Heat or the Clippers. Stop fooling yourselves. He is staying in Cleveland. He can make the most money in Cleveland. He has a foundation/relationship with the franchise and he is from Ohio. Don’t let the hoopla fool you. He isn’t going anywhere.

- A few weeks ago, I posted some HOT Lindsey Lohan pics from a photo shoot. Video too actually. Anyway, click the following links for some outtakes from said shoot. HERE , HERE , HERE and HERE .

- Rapper T.I. was released from Federal prison this week and will serve the remaining time of his one-year sentence at a halfway house followed by 23 days of home confinement and 500 hours of community service. For those who do not know, T.I. is a gifted rapper who was arrested for having an arsenal of guns found in his home. When I mean arsenal, I don’t mean a few hand guns. The man had enough guns to supply a small army. That being said, hopefully he stays out of further trouble.

- Speaking of troubled rappers, Lil Wayne checks into his prison in February for a one-year sentence. Good timing too considering he also has an album out a few days before he goes to jail. Weird coincidence huh?

- Why does Hollywood hate me? Karate Kid remake TRAILER . UGH. Even worse is that Jackie Chan knows KUNG-FU!!! Call it Kung-Fu Kid!!!! F-YOU HOLLYWOOD!!!!

- Folks, please welcome B-Boy to World Wrestling Insanity.com. He recently wrote an article on the site and hopefully will be back in the near future to continue writing stuff for us.

- An awesome “year in review” audio with James Guttman and Mike Rickard is now posted over at CLUBWWI.COM discussing everything wrestling related in 2009. Paul Roma is back with an all new holiday edition of “GLORIOUS” where he discusses Hulk Hogan, The “new” Monday Night Wars, MMA and more. Add that to the NEW MO from MEN ON A MISSION INTERVIEW and CLUBWWI.com rocks. If you haven’t done so by now, do yourself a favor and Join CLUBWWI.COM right NOW!!!! It makes a perfect Christmas gift for someone as well.

6) 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.