World Wrestling Insanity: T.G.I.F. with Matt Dawgs...Shane Today Gone Tomorrow, Jamaiican Me African, Cade Comes Home, Fallen Angel Almost Becomes a Real One, Sabin's Neck Causes Waves, What Happened To Lindsay, and More

T.G.I.F. with Matt Dawgs...Shane Today Gone Tomorrow, Jamaiican Me African, Cade Comes Home, Fallen Angel Almost Becomes a Real One, Sabin's Neck Causes Waves, What Happened To Lindsay, and More

By Matt Dawgs
Oct 23, 2009 - 8:12 AM

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

· Not much news going on in WWE this week-- Ha, Just kidding!! For those living under a rock, Shane McMahon has resigned from his position as Executive Vice President of Global Media in World Wrestling Entertainment© effective on January 2, 2010. He is leaving the family business to pursue other interests. This is a HUGE decision and will play a HUGE part in the future of the company. It is being downplayed right now but it does mean a lot considering it was apparent for a long time that he would be the successor to Linda McMahon while Stephanie McMahon-Levesque would succeed Vince McMahon. Now with Shane out, the CEO role will more than likely go to a “non-McMahon”.
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· There's been absolutely no leaked news as to why Shane left. Apparently, the only people who know the “whole” story are Vince, Linda and Shane. According to Bryan Alvarez, even Triple H didn’t know, which leads me to believe that Stephanie didn’t know thus causing further speculation that she and HHH are part of the reason for him leaving.
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· Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has verbally committed to host a RAW in January. The best bet would be on January 11, 2010. That's the same day that UFC plans on having a live event on Spike TV against RAW.
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· Next week’s RAW hosts are Kyle Busch and Joey Logano, who are NASCAR drivers.
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· Rowdy Roddy Piper is scheduled to host RAW in a few weeks.
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· Also negotiating to host RAW is former WCW WORLD CHAMPION… David Arquette.
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· Good luck to Jim Ross, who has suffered his 3 ^rd lifetime attack of Bells Palsy while on his way to Smackdown this week. He was told by WWE management to go back to his hometown and see a neurologist. Ross wanted to work the taping but since he was sent home, it was hosted by Michael Cole and Jerry Lawler ( Todd Grisham was out because it was his honeymoon.). Ross is also scheduled to miss the "Bragging Rights" Pay Per View on Sunday and more than likely next week’s Smackdown as well.
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· Maria Menounos was well-liked by WWE management and the talk is that they plan to have her back for an angle in the future.
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· Former ROH Champion/Star Nigel McGuinness is no longer signing with WWE. Apparently, WWE rescinded their offer to him after they saw something they didn’t like with his physical. Instead, McGuinness signed with TNA.

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· Bryan Danielson passed his physical and will be signing with the company shortly.

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· I'm posting this spoiler for tonight’s Smackdown show because it affects Sunday’s PPV. For some reason, WWE creative lost all confidence in their 7-on-7 co-brand main event. The original match was scheduled to be HHH/Shawn Michaels/Big Show/Mark Henry/Cody Rhodes/Jack Swagger/Kofi Kingston vs. Chris Jericho/Kane/Dolph Ziggler/JTG/Shad Gaspard/Drew McIntire/Eric Escobar. With less than 48 hours till that match, WWE pulled an audible and changed the Smackdown team by 5. They've removed everyone but Jericho and Kane and instead added Tyson Kidd, David Hart Smith, Matt Hardy, Fit Finlay and R-Truth. I don’t know what happened or why but they felt that the original team was weak. This is surprising because I know WWE has big plans for both Ziggler and McIntire and mixing them up in a main event would have been good for them but it is what it is.

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· Carlito is on thin ice. He's been told that “creative has nothing for him” which is usually what precedes “We wish him well on his future endeavors”. To be honest, I’m surprised it took this long. He hasn’t given a sh*t for a long time.

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· Last week I mentioned that Bill Goldberg is a contestant on the "Celebrity Apprentice" this season. Turns out that WWE’s own Maria is a contestant as well.

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· Stories have been bouncing around backstage that Jeff Hardy is going to be cleared of the charges against him. No confirmation as to why however some of these stories say that Hardy was set up. WWE is confident that this is the case since they have set the Jeff Hardy DVD release for December again.

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· Turn Batista heel. PLEASE.

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· Fantastic angle with Randy Orton and Ted DiBiase on RAW. FAN-F’N-TASTIC!!!! When DiBiase finally turns on Orton, it’s going to be ginormous!!!

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· If Chavo’s last name wasn't Guerrero, do you think he’s still be employed?? I mean, first Hornswoggle now Snoop Dogg? WTF?
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· The Kofi Kingston comment by HHH on RAW was part of an ongoing effort to move Kingston from being Jamaican to American. He is being billed as hailing from Ghana, West Africa at houseshows as they don’t want him doing that lame Jamaican accent anymore.
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· Linda McMahon has spent roughly $2,000,000.00 on her Senate Campaign in two weeks. She has set aside $30,000,000.00 of her fortune to run for Senate when in fact the primary doesn’t take place until August. I think it is safe to say that she is going to blow through $30,000,000.00 real quickly.

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· Val Venis will be working in Mexico in November for CMLL where he made his start in the wrestling business going under his old gimmick name of "Steel". Val will probably go down as one of the biggest misused names in WWE history. He had all the tools, a good look, great on the mic and could work. Unfortunately, he got type casted as a porn star and that was that.

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· In the funny Ric Flair story of the week, Ric actually called Vince McMahon right before signing his contract to work for Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff. He called with the idea that if he told Vince he was going to sign, Vince would counter-offer him not to sign. Instead, Vince gave his blessing to Flair. Suffice to say, two weeks went by and now Vince is pissed off that Flair signed!

· In the sad Ric Flair news of the week, turns out that Highspots.com, the website who produced his shoot interview and recently put the original NWA Title belt up for auction, are actually NOT the owners of the belt. A third party came into the picture stating that Flair signed the rights over to them several years back along with other items that Flair owns including several robes, a replica WCW title belt, trunks, boots, his WWE Hall of Fame ring and the Rolex that Shawn Michaels gave to him as a retirement present. They produced a signed document showing that all these items belonged to them should Flair decide to sell it. So Highspots has no right to sell the belt. In even sadder news, RIC FLAIR IS ENGAGED AGAIN. I mean come on now, why can’t Flair understand that he isn’t a guy who should be married??? I don’t get it.

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· Lance Cade (who's first ever shoot interview is up on ClubWWI.com) has been re-signed by WWE. He returned to FCW this week and I fully expect him to return to television shortly.
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· Randy Orton's 21-year-old younger brother Nathan, who has some MMA experience, is looking to break into wrestling. He recently managed his father Bob Orton Jr. on an independent show and apparently is a splitting image of a young Randy Orton (when he broke into wrestling)

2) WWE Bragging Right’s PPV Line-up for Sunday, October 25

· WWE TITLE: Randy Orton © vs. John Cena in a No-DQ 60 minute Iron Man Match. If Cena loses, he is off RAW.

· WORLD TITLE: Undertaker © vs. CM Punk vs. Batista vs. Rey Mysterio

· TEAM SMACKDOWN: Chris Jericho/Kane/Tyson Kidd/David Hart Smith/Matt Hardy/Fit Finley/R-Truth vs. TEAM RAW: HHH/Shawn Michaels/Big Show/Mark Henry/Cody Rhodes/Jack Swagger/Kofi Kingston

· John Morrison (US ©) vs. The Miz (IC ©)

· Melina (Divas ©)/Kelly Kelly/Gail Kim vs. Michelle McCool (Woman’s ©)/Beth Phoenix/Natayla

3) TNA News and Notes

· I'm now convinced that Vince Russo has full power in booking. Hopefully he doesn’t blow it. What is convincing me is the next PPV event. I have stated in the past that Russo has a “man-crush” on AJ Styles. Well, the Turning Point main event features Styles defending the TNA title in a three-way with Samoa Joe and Christopher Daniels. The PPV also features an X-Division title match between Homicide and the Amazing Red and a tag team title match with The British Invasion vs. the Motor City Machine Guns. Russo is back to pushing the younger talent, which, with all his faults as a booker, has always been something he wants to do, dating back to his WCW days and the entire New Breed angle. Say what you want about Russo, but he knows that the future of this business lies with younger talent and is always trying to get them over.
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· Nigel McGuinness has debuted for TNA using the name "Desmond Wolfe". He attacked Kurt Angle and will be wrestling him at Turning Point. Angle vs. McGuinness is a damn good match on paper.

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· Christopher Daniels almost died in the Ultimate X match. If you didn’t see the bump he took, do yourself a favor and find it. Jesus H. Christ I don’t understand why people would risk their lives and careers for TNA.
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· The same goes for Daffney who suffered a concussion AND broke her arm taking a bump by Abyss through a barbed wire board. WTF??

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· Booker T was stretchered out of his tag team title match at the PPV and by all accounts, he was stretchered right out of TNA. He’s done with the company.

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· Tara (formerly Victoria of WWE fame) apparently ran her own “angle” at Bound for Glory with Kim Couture (ex-wife of UFC Legend Randy Couture) in order to set up her first MMA match. No one cared.

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· There was a fairly big incident at this week’s iMPACT tapings. Chris Sabin and Alex Shelly were wrestling Team 3D (for next week’s show) when Sabin was injured taking a move administered by Brother Ray, he injured his neck. The match continued when it was obvious that Sabin was hurt and it was his neck that was hurt. After the match, Kevin Nash went on a diatribe blasting TNA management for letting the match continue rather than stopping to attend to Sabin. Nash felt that since it was a taped show, they could postpone the match and get Sabin taken care of. Later on, Nash had a scheduled promo in the ring to talk about the Main Event Mafia, etc. Rather than just talk about that, he cut a promo on TNA management bashing them for not taking care of the roster in that situation. No word on whether Nash was punished or will be punished. My guess is that the promo gets cut from the show.

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· BTW, with absolutely NO build, Kurt Angle is now a baby face. He beat Matt Morgan at the PPV, shook his hand and the next day on iMPACT, he cut a promo talking about how the Main Event Mafia was no more and it was all about the Hernandez’s, Morgan’s and Styles’ of the company.

4) Ring of Honor News and Notes

· There isn’t much news with ROH as they are currently on hiatus till the next set of TV tapings in November. KENTA is coming from Japan for the November tour. He will be working three shows including an HD Net taping. The big match to look out for is on November 5 with KENTA facing Tyler Black. Black is the new face of the company with both Danielson and McGuinness gone. He is on a mission to prove that he's now the best worker in ROH.

5) MMA News and Notes

· Dan Henderson is done with UFC. He had been negotiating a new contract but they couldn’t come to an agreement so Dana White ended negotiations and wished him well.
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· UFC is playing chess with WWE. They are considering running a TV event on Monday, January 11, 2010. This would go head-to-head with Monday Night RAW.
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· Kim Couture vs. Lisa-Marie Varon (Tara of TNA, ex-Victoria of WWE) is expected to be finalized soon. It would be Varon’s first MMA fight ever.

· UFC 104 is on October 24 ^th from Los Angeles California and the line up is as follows:

· UFC Light Heavyweight Title: Lyoto Machida © vs. Mauricio “Shogun” Rua

· Cain Velasquez vs. Ben Rothwell

· Gleison Tubau vs. Josh Neer

· Joe Stevenson vs. Spencer Fisher

· Anthony Johnson vs. Yoshiyuki Yoshida

· 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:

· UFC HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE: Brock Lesnar © vs. Shane Carwin

· Tito Ortiz vs. Forrest Griffith

· Karo Parisvan vs. Dustin Hazelett

· John Fitch was originally scheduled to fight on the card but his opponent (Ricardo Almeida) pulled out with a knee injury. Fitch recently hinted that he has a new opponent that fans have wanted to see him fight for a long time. The rumored scenario is Thiago Alves and will now take place on 12/12 in Memphis (which was the scheduled Jackson/Evans fight)

6) Random Thoughts, Links, Pics, ETC.

· Random VIDEO of the week. Probably my favorite video ever.
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· Let's GO YANKEES!!!!
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· 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.

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· 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 and go to their shows if you are in the NY/NJ/PA area- just show some support. They return to NJ on November 7 ^th with a solid line-up so far. Main event is for the ACE Heavyweight title with Dan Maff © vs. Steve Corino.

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· The WOLFMAN.

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· My Lindsay Lohan isn’t aging gracefully. She used to be so F’N HOT. What HAPPENED??

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· Normally, I plug James Guttman’s weekly Radio Free Insanity. There's a new one on the way in the next day or so, but he's still keeping mum on who it is. But what I do know is that next week, right here at CLUBWWI.COM, Paul Roma will be back with an edition of “Glorious” and he will be responding to Ted DiBiase’s comments about working for WWE again. As I’ve said before, if you’re NOT a member of Club WWI then you are seriously missing out. You need to join CLUBWWI.COM right now!!!
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· Hey, Christina Aguilera -- where’s your BRA?
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· “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

· Finally, we close out with my wife. She has started her own business creating diaper cakes, which are a very original and cost efficient baby shower gift. Please take a second to visit her website: NY Diaper Cakes

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.