Thursday, June 25, 2009

Weekend Live Event in NJ

Wrestling stars will be in NJ this weekend as Jersey All-Pro Wrestling presents Caged Destiny in Jersey City this Saturday night.

Kevin Thorn, Jay Lethal, ODB and VooDoo Kin Mafia (Kip and BG James) are all scheduled to appear.

The card features a Steel Cage Match for the JAPW Heavyweight Championship between Dan Maff and Champion Jay Lethal. ODB will compete for the first Women's Division Championship against Sara Del Rey.

For more information and tickets ($15-20), visit www.JAPW.net.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Millions and Millions of Raw Viewers

Trump is out, but the ratings are in-- last night's commercial-free, but still Trump and KFC endorsed, Raw was the most-watched Raw in seven years. According to Nielsen research, Raw had 6.8 million viewers last night.

However, Jon & Kate Plus 8, featuring their separation/divorce announcement, broke their own series record with 10.6 million viewers last night.

Perhaps McMahon should steal Trump's idea for celebrity-hosted Raws, and allow Jon & Kate to run the show one night. They could settle their issues in a steel cage. That could be the most-watched show in TV history...

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Trumped

I had many interesting ideas for the new GM/owner of Raw-- Triple H and Stephanie, Ric Flair, JBL, Stone Cold -- however, Vince decided to call his old friend, Donald Trump, to be the star of his new storyline.

Yes, USA Today and other news organizations who pulled this segment as fact, I said storyline. Didn't you people learn about checking facts in j-school? Do you even watch WWE programming? Stockholders were not notified. I mean, even Trump's website mentions nothing about Raw or the WWE.

Anyway, the man with the Oompaa-Loompa tan in his first act as "owner" of Raw decided to go commercial-free next week. All I have to say is Triple H better get his hands on the microphone. Oh, and I hope Axe makes a new ad, because the chocolate guy ones are disturbing, but not as disturbing as the Quiznos ads with the toaster which seem to have disappeared.

In his second act, Trump made a Last Man Standing Match for Triple H and Randy Orton next week. Their The Bash (formerly the Great American Bash) match is still on for the following weekend. I predict after a half-hour of brutal fighting, there somehow will be no decision...

Other Notes:
- Happy to see the Harts on Raw, unhappy to see how weak the match was. It needed the Priceless boys to interrupt.
- Loved the Viper sign-- can't believe it got on air and for as long as it did!
- Vickie Guerrero wasn't fired-- she left to spend more time with her kids.

Friday, June 12, 2009

Punk has Umaga off his back

You may remember Umaga was getting in the way of CM Punk cashing in his Money In the Bank up until Extreme Rules. (Earlier in the event, CM Punk beat Umaga in a Samoan Strap match...) Well, guess what? Umaga is no longer employed by the WWE.

Umaga, whose name is Eddie Fatu, violated the Wellness Policy for the second time and refused to go into rehab. Because of his refusal, he was released from his contract.

Fatu exploded into WWE fame as Jamal in Eric Bischoff's 3 Minute Warning in 2002. After a stint with TNA as Ekmo, Fatu returned to the WWE in 2003 as Umaga. He has held the Intercontinental Championship twice.

Wrestling fame is also in Fatu's blood-- his uncles were the Wild Samoans, his older brother is Rikishi and his cousin is The Rock. Hopefully, his family will knock some sense into him so he can safely get back into the ring.

First Time Ever?

On Smackdown, Chris Jericho claimed he unmasked Rey Mysterio for the first time ever. However, Chris, you can't take that honor...

See, Rey used to be in this little wrestling promotion called WCW. In 1999, at Superbrawl that year, Rey was in a Hair v. Mask match and lost. Therefore, he lost his mask too. (It was Miss Elizabeth's hair at stake by the way, not Kevin Nash's, who was the one who pinned Mysterio for the win.)

When Mysterio signed with WWE in 2002, Vince McMahon wanted him to wear the mask again.

Mysterio also unmasked himself once in the ring-- it was after Eddie Guerrero's death as a sign of respect, although he put his head down so his face could not be seen.

For luchadores, the mask is so important that wagering it signifies the final battle in a rivalry, and many times the one who loses is heading toward retirement. Mysterio said losing his mask at Superbrawl was disappointing and embarrassing because of the insignificance of the match.

Saturday, June 6, 2009

Going Extreme

WWE's newest pay-per-view is this weekend's Extreme Rules, in which every match is an extreme rules match.

Is this the WWE's response to viewers upset with the PG rating of the weekly shows? Perhaps, but it looks like a repackage of the matches from Judgement Day to me.

Over on TNA, Mick Foley is going to extremes in a different way. The TNA World Champion believes he should only have to defend the title once a year and that there should only be four pay-per-views per year. Hmmm, well, on the first one, you could always just go old school and defend the belt every week against local guys who have no real shot at the title and only legitimately defend the title once a year. On the second one, I can see the point (see opinion above about Extreme Rules), but you gotta make money...

Torrie v. "Celebrities"

Torrie Wilson may no longer be in the WWE, but she on TV this summer in "I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here." From the 30 seconds I could stand of the show, it appears to be a Survivor for alleged celebrities. (Former Diva Ashley was on Survivor)

Because she has to survive alongside the likes of Spencer and Heidi ("Speidi") and Janice Dickinson, I say this may be tougher than wrestling...

Monday, June 1, 2009

Waiting for Mr. Kennedy...

Mr. Kennedy, who just returned to action on Raw last week, was released from his contract with the WWE on May 29. That was Friday, four days after his return.

Kennedy was a participant on the "Lakers" team in the 10-man tag match, in which he was worked by I think all the heels (or the "Nuggets"), and looked 100%.

In his blog, JR wrote that he doesn't think Kennedy will have any trouble finding work and that a change could be positive for the star. Mr. Kennedy's website also states he is "optimistic" about the future.

I was excited to see Kennedy's return, and hope he does make another return vey soon. We'll wait for it...