Matt Dawgs Presents: Thank Goodness It’s Friday!!!!!

Hello all. Welcome back and Happy Friday. Lets 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

· WWE is in for a world of trouble if they keep this up. Boxer Ricky “the Hitman” Hatton hosted RAW this past Monday. Hatton, a lifetime wrestling fan, was a decent host. He knew the characters, played his role fine and even “fought” Chavo Guerrero. That’s not the problem. The problem is, RAW drew a 3.1 rating. That is ABYSMAL. If they continue down the path of having guests that people could care less about, the downward spiral could continue on and on. Hopefully, next week’s RAW in the World’s Most Famous Arena; Madison Square Garden can help change things for the better.

  · Speaking of MSG, this half ass brand split needs to end. Either have everyone on both shows or keep them off both shows completely. There is absolutely zero reason to give away next week’s RAW main event away on free television. With proper build, I’d pay to see DX vs. Jeri-Show vs. Cena/Taker on PPV. What a complete waste of a PPV caliber main event.

· BTW, RAW’s host on Monday is Rowdy Roddy Piper. WWE failed in their attempt to secure a NY Yankee as well as land Comedian Jimmy Fallon.

· Ric Flair is now officially married for the 4^th time in his life. Seriously. That is not a typo. After 3 previous marriages with no pre-nups and divorces that cost him alimony of almost all his fortune, he has decided to get married again.

· Mr. Kennedy aka Ken Anderson has publically stated that he would not return to WWE if he were asked. RIGHT. I believe him.

· With Hulk Hogan officially in TNA and the rumors of TNA trying a Monday night switch in January (possibly Hogan’s January 4^th debut), WWE is going to push for Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson to host RAW. The Rock is basically verbally committed to hosting a RAW in January. WWE was considering the January 11^th date to go head to head with UFC and while that is the better move for them to compete (cause UFC is going to smash them ratings wise), Vince McMahon would be more content with crushing TNA.

· Wrestlemania has sold an estimated 40,000 tickets in the first week of sales.

  · WWE has finally smartened up and moved the start time of the Hall of Fame in order to not cut speakers time. While this is great, it sucks big time for Steve Austin and Ric Flair fans since both of their speeches were drastically cut short. At least going forward, there will be definitely more time for speakers to talk.

  · Where did Eric Escobar go?

  · And because of no Eric Escobar, we get no Vicki Guerrero. That F’N sucks because she is GOLD.

  · Edge may not be back in time for Wrestlemania. His Achilles injury whole not more serious than expected, still takes time to heal and rehab so Mania may be pushing it.

  · If Edge does not make it back in time, they are leaning towards Jericho vs. Undertaker.

  · Speaking of Jericho vs. Taker, how the f*ck do you give away their first televised singles match away on free television? That is MIND BOGGLING!!!

  · Jamie Noble is officially retired. He was working as a part time agent while wrestling but will be going to full time agent. He is well liked for laying out matches and respected by veterans. Apparently Shawn Michaels is high on his work as an agent and trains with Noble before shows and Noble even taught him the leg lock submission he uses in matches from time to time.

  · Dave Meltzer is reporting that Shane McMahon at one point cashed in about $50 million worth of stock and still owns a remaining $30 million for those wondering how Shane is going to live without a job. LOL.

  · Nickelback has done the new RAW theme and they plan on debuting it on Monday with the RAW from MSG. WWE likes to make MSG RAW a big deal.

  · Dennis Miller is going to host a 3-hour RAW on December 14^th. It will also be a special SLAMMY AWARDS edition. While I’m excited for the Slammy’s, I cannot sand Dennis Miller. Completely unfunny to me.

· Anyone seen Carlito?

· Expect Dolph Ziggler to finally win the Intercontinental title soon.

  · WWE 24/7 is considering dumping the Legends Roundtable discussion. That is a HORRIBLE IDEA.

  · Mayrese has been medically cleared to return to wrestling. She should be back soon. Possibly at Survivor Series in the woman’s match.

  · Jim Ross is still out indefinitely. Like I said last week, my wife had Bells Palsy and it was in no way as bad as JR has it. My estimate is that he wouldn’t be able to return until 2010. Being that his contract is up soon, he may not be back at all.

  · Latest tentative Hall of Fame line-up: Ted DiBiase Sr, King Kong Bundy, Laurence Taylor and Jake the Snake Roberts.

  · Also talk of Ultimate Warrior but not serious talk. Again though, everything changes from day to day when it comes to the Hall of Fame. So don’t hold that in stone.

  · Mickey Rourke wants to still have a match. Hopefully it can happen. I think he can sell a match with someone like Jericho.

·Where's Festus?

  · I need help. I need someone to explain to me why in the world THIS PICTURE made it onto the WWE Universe Website? It was on Nikki Bella’s blog. WTF? How did this manage to sneak by editors?

2) WWE Survivor Series PPV Line up for November 22, 2009

  · WWE TITLE: John Cena © vs. Triple H vs. Shawn Michaels

  · Batista vs., Rey Mysterio

  · TRADITIONAL SS MATCH: Kofi Kingston/MVP/Mark Henry/R-Truth/Christian vs. Randy Orton/Cody Rhodes/Ted DiBiase/ CM Punk/William Regal

· TRADITIONAL SS MATCH: John Morrison/Matt Hardy/Evan Bourne/Shelton Benjamin/Finlay vs. Miz/Drew McIntyre/Sheamus/Dolph Ziggler/Jack Swagger

· TRADITIONAL SS MATCH: Mickie James/Melina/Eve Torres/Kelly Kelly/Gail Kim vs. Michelle McCool/Jillian Hall/Beth Phoenix/Layla/Alicia Fox

3) TNA News and Notes

  · Hogan won’t be on TNA TV until the New Year. At least not live. Only in video packages and taped interviews.

  · Rob Van Dam is leaning towards signing with TNA. This annoys me on so many levels. Why he would want to go there is beyond me. He would get pushed right out of the gate before getting thrown into a meaningless feud and getting frustrated with the booking team. At least in WWE, while he would be frustrated with certain people in power, he would always be in the lower main event slot and have main event level feuds.

  · I definitely don’t mention Velvet Sky enough.

  · A judge has dropped all charges against Kurt Angle. He is a free man.

  · TNA has pulled the Mick Foley and Abyss vs. Dr. Stevie and Raven (advertised as a mystery partner) off of the Turning Point PPV. They felt that with Raven debuting yesterday, they should have more build than 3 days for a PPV match. So it will be held at Final Resolution instead.

  · Hulk Hogan said in a radio interview that he wants to bring 57-year-old Randy Savage to TNA. Yes, he said this.

· Same with Steve Austin. You know, the Steve Austin who takes a pot shot at Hogan any chance he gets and takes pride in knowing that Hulk Hogan will never have the chance to wrestle him. That Steve Austin. The same one under contract to WWE still.

· Hulk Hogan’s book cracked the NY Times Best Seller list. I wonder why it didn’t make the fiction section though.

· Really wish TNA would stop treating Homicide like sh*t. He can work and play a great heel.

4) TNA Turning Point PPV Line up for November 15, 2009

  · TNA World Title: AJ Styles © vs. Samoa Joe vs. Daniels

· X-Division Title: Amazing Red © vs. Homicide

  · TNA Tag Team Titles: British Invasion © vs. The Motor City Machine Guns vs. Beer Money

  · Kurt Angle vs. Desmond Wolfe

  · Scott Steiner vs. Bobby Lashley

  · Tara vs. Awesome Kong

  · Matt Morgan/Hernandez/Pope D’Angelo Dinero vs. Team 3D & Rhino

  · Mick Foley & Abyss (yes. The same Mick Foley who just turned heel on Abyss a month ago and fought him on the last PPV is now a face teaming with the man he bloodied and left for dead.) vs. Dr. Stevie and Raven This tag match was pulled from the show and will be held at Final Resolution.

5) Ring of Honor News and Notes

  · ROH has a business relationship with AAA in Mexico now and due to this, both Teddy Hart and Jack Evans will be returning to the promotion in December and will work the biggest show of the year, Final Battle.

  · Former ROH Booker Gabe Sapolsky and former FIP Promoter Sal Hamaoui have created a new wrestling promotion called “EVOLVE”. EVOLVE will actually be different than any other wrestling promotion that I know of because it will feature a different set of rules (similar to how ROH had their own set when they originally debuted but that has since been thrown out the window).

· In EVOLVE; there will be two sets of groups/divisions. The Singles division and the Tag Team division. Prior to competing in EVOLVE, you have to register as either a singles or a tag team competitor. That means that if you are one, then you are not the other. Tag Teams will only compete in tag team matches and singles only in singles. Wins and losses count in EVOLVE. Your wins and losses will be recorded and when you compete with an individual in your division, it goes on your record.

  · In a Tag Team, if you register as a tag team, you must be a regular tag team. No makeshift teams here. A trio however can register as a tag team and you can substitute partners. For example, you have wrestlers A, B & C. A & B team up on Friday’s show but on Saturday, A & C can team. This is also helpful due to the fact that if A gets injured, B & C can continue as the “tag team” without A having to rush back from injury early.

· Eddie Edwards is back soon from his broken elbow and The American Wolves vs. The Briscoe’s have been signed for Final Battle in NYC.

· Jim Cornette and Dave Lagana (formerly of WWE’s writing team) are slowly taking over booking from Adam Pearce. Let me be the first to say that if Jim Cornette takes over booking full time in ROH, I fully expect ROH to stay alive (since they have been on death’s door for some time now).

  · Along with Teddy Hart and Jack Evans, Alex Koslov and Rocky Romero are also on loan to ROH by AAA.

· Former NWA/WCW house show promoter Gary Juster was an invited guest of Jim Cornette to an ROH show. He’s probably going to assist in helping promote house shows.

· In order to become a part of EVOLVE; you must be invited by the board of directors or win a qualifying match. A qualifying match can be any type of match. Singles, trios, multi-man, tag match, gimmick match, etc. Winner will get a contract with EVOLVE, wins or losses will not count on your record in these matches.

· Davey Richards is already signed to EVOLVE. He is also signed to Dragon Gate USA as well as Ring of Honor. I do not know who all this is possible and how ROH continues to use him as a tag team champion if he is involved in all these promotions. Especially since two of them are direct competition to ROH. Mind-boggling.

  · Both Ring of Honor and Dragon Gate USA have changed their Saturday start times to earlier in order to not go head to head with the WWE Hall of Fame.

6) MMA News and Notes

· Fedor Emelianenko is the truth. Don’t believe me? WATCH. This was his November 7^th Strikeforce debut on CBS against Brett Rogers. This is after his nose being broken literally 10 seconds into the first round. The knock out by Fedor is in the second round.

  · To show you how much of a draw Fedor is, with zero hype, his quarter hour drew 1, 493,000 more people than the previous quarter hour. WOW.

· George St. Pierre has signed a contract to promote Under Armour, which is a major, sports clothing line provider.

· UFC is negotiating to sign Renzo Gracie (cousin of UFC Legend Royce) to a contract as a possible opponent for Matt Hughes.

· The EA sports MMA game is basically built around the Strikeforce promotion. For that, they should have just called it Strikeforce. No?

· Rapper DMX was supposed to make his MMA debut in December. He has since breached his contract when his people tried to talk the promoters into pushing the fight as a shoot but in fact having it a work so that he would win in the end. He is going to be sued for this now. Great to be DMX huh?

· UFC 105 is on November 14th from Manchester England and the line up is as follows:

  · Randy Couture vs. Brandon Vera

  · Michael Bisping vs. Denis Kang

· Dan Hardy vs. Dong Hyun Kim

· UFC 106 is on November 21, 2009 from Las Vegas Nevada and the line-up is as follows:

  · Tito Ortiz vs. Forrest Griffith

· Josh Koscheck vs. Anthony Johnson

  · Karo Parisvan vs. Dustin Hazelett

· UFC 107 is on December 12, 2009 from Memphis Tennessee and the line-up is as follows:

· B.J. Penn vs. Diego Sanchez

· Frank Mir vs. Cheick Kongo

· Jon Fitch vs. Mike Fitch (Thiago Alves torn his PCL and Fitch didn’t want a new date again since he was moved from the November show)

  · Kenny Florian vs. Clay Guida

7) Random Thoughts, Links, Pics, Plugs, ETC.

· Not sure how many people know about this story but last year, a woman was mauled by her friend’s pet chimp in Connecticut. Her entire face was basically ripped off. The chimp was about 200 pounds. Why this woman had a pet chimp is beyond me. But that isn’t the point of this. My point is that the victim wasn’t expected to survive. She did. Here she is in her first ever interview on the Oprah Winfrey Show. Please note, VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED. VIDEO HERE.

· I heard there is some sort of new video game out. Anyone heard anything about it?

· Just kidding, I am talking about Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. While I do not have the game (I’m still on PS2), this game grossed $310 million in one day. To compare, the Dark Knight holds the box office record for fastest film to gross $300 million. That took 10 days to do. WOW.

· One of my former independent wrestling promoters, Frank Goodman is coming back to promoting in Florida. His first show is December 5^th in Orlando Florida featuring Balls Mahoney, Jerry Lynn, Too Cold Scorpio, Axl Rotten, The Boogeyman, Shane Douglas, Big Vito and more. Check out details on how to get tickets and to see more names scheduled to appear, check out the Pro Wrestling Uncensored website.

· No more Eliza Dushku on television. Someone needs to give her a job ASAP. She needs to be on TV as much as humanly possible. If you’re wondering what I am talking about, Dollhouse has been cancelled. Not that it was any good to begin with, but she is hot so I accepted it being piss poor.

· V on the other hand is DAMN GOOD. So was the 80’s version of the show.

· 2012 opens today. This movie is going to be nothing more than 120 minutes of CGI. I cannot fathom a plot or any worthwhile acting in this movie at all.

· Please support ACE Pro Wrestling. ACE Pro Wrestling is formerly the AWA-NJ promotion, which I last worked for back in 2005. ACE is a solid place for young, up and comers to get their feet wet in the business and mix with a good group of hard working individuals and veterans. They can use your support. Buy their tapes; go to their shows if you are in the NY/NJ/PA area. Just show some support. Steve Corino is the newly crowning World Heavyweight Champion. He defeated Dan Maff at the last show.

  · Son’s of Anarchy = AMAZING TELEVISION.

· Join CLUBWWI.COM right now!!!!

· One guess as to what Christina Aguilera is not WEARING in this link? Go ahead and guess.

undefined undefined · It’s all good though Christina cause Britney Spears is also BRALESS.

· “Big shout out to my friend and a very good DJ, DJ UCH. Check out his site and show some support by visiting him at DJUCH.com. He also just produced his first dance single that is getting radio play on Dance Stations across the country. The title of the song is “Stranger from the Sky”, check it out HERE.

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.