Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Raw gets another GM, sort of...

On Raw last night, Bret Hart (who was not present, just as he wasn't present for the PPV) was fired as GM of Raw. Vince McMahon announced there was a new GM, and that person wanted to remain anonymous and would be making decisions heard via e-mail.

Well, I'm pretty sure I know why.

There is no new GM... yet. Bret Hart's departure was sudden, and the WWE is using this computer GM to cover that up.

See, Martha Hart, the widow of Owen Hart, is suing the WWE, again. After Owen's death, the WWE was not allowed to use Owen's name and likeness without Martha's permission. She recently found out that the WWE violated this contract and is especially upset about the Hart and Soul: The Hart Family Anthology DVD (released April 6).

The Federal lawsuit was filed today in Connecticut against Vince and Linda McMahon and the WWE. WWE attorney Jerry McDevitt said the WWE has the right to use its own copyrighted material which features Owen Hart.

The problem is, I believe the DVD was part of Bret Hart's return to the WWE. And, both the DVD and Bret's return were a major factor in boosting the Hart Dynasty team of Natalya (who tweeted earlier today that she was making a trip to Calgary to visit family), DH Smith and Tyson Kidd. And, shirts and photos featuring Owen are being sold by Bret Hart (www.brethart.com). And, I don't think I've heard anyone but a Hart mention Owen's name. (If I'm wrong, feel free to comment and correct me...)

It, by the way, would be hard to put together a DVD of Bret Hart's career without any Owen Hart footage.

So, it sounds to me that she needs to talk to her own family before suing the WWE. And, perhaps that is why Bret really suddenly disappeared from programming is no longer GM. (There were reports his Lloyd's of London insurer was unhappy with the beat down he received last week... perhaps that was a cover for the lawsuit he knew was on its way...)

From what I've seen, the WWE isn't selling Owen to make money. I know this must be hard for Martha, but I hope Natalya, Bret and the rest of the family can help her understand that Owen is an important part of their family's legacy, and you cannot simply erase him without hurting the family.

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Monday, June 14, 2010

TNA has a job for you...

Don't freshen up your resumes... it's not that type of work. TNA is looking for fans to create street teams to promote events in their area, and in return, the company will pay you with tickets to a show.

TNA President Dixie Carter has been tweeting all weekend that TNA is "about to change forever" and that we'd learn all about it in the coming weeks. Today, on the Facebook page, fans were asked to join the TNA Nation.

"When a show is coming up in the near future and needs promoting, we will let you with a status update on this page. If you live in the surrounding area, shoot us an e-mail at tdc@tnawrestling.com," the page explains. "Once we have your information, we will supply you with fliers, posters, and other distribution materials to help you and your street team promote the upcoming show. If you and your team successfully promote the show and distribute all of the materials, you will be rewarded with free tickets to the TNA live event in your area!"

You can also throw TNA viewing parties at sports bars for the "extra credit" prize of autographed merchandise.

I don't know how they verify you have done the work, and I also don't know how they judge the next level:

"At the end of every six months the TNA officials will review all of the work done by members of the TNA Nation. The team that has done the most work for TNA will receive the ultimate grand prize. A package full of TNA DVD's, t-shirts, posters, and a personal phone call from one of your favorite TNA Knockouts!"

If you don't want to do all that work, you can still always send them an email with your ideas...

I don't know if this is the change Dixie was talking about or even just part of it, but I do know the last time they had a major announcement it was simply that they had given up on the Monday night waring and were retreating back to Thursday nights...

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Monday, June 7, 2010

Viewer's Choice?

Well, it appears we won't be able to make our choices heard until the show actually begins in about 45 minutes. But, will our votes actually be heard?

Two things make me concerned about this:

1. With millions of fans voting at once, the website could crash. Yes, they did just unveil a new website, but I still have my concerns. The previous times the WWE has done fan-voting for matches - 2 Taboo Tuesdays and 3 Cyber Sundays - voting started well ahead of the event and voting stopped during the event.

2. With the preparation needed, fans are commenting online that they are suspicious that the "outcome" of the voting has already been decided. Sure, it's possible, but how much of a choice did you really think you were going to get? Usually, the match is pretty much set and we just get to vote on one aspect of it.

With that said, good luck getting your votes through...

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

The Next Generation

Does anybody else find it strange that a week after Rikishi's twins and Jimmy Snuka's daughter appear on Raw, Mr. Perfect's kid and IRS's kid are announced as Rookies for Season 2 of NXT?

The Uso Brothers (Jimmy and Jules) along with Tamina attacked The Hart Dynasty last week on Raw. The three newcomers are 2nd generation wrestlers (okay, the Wild Samoans are the boys' great uncles, so perhaps you can call it 3rd generation), while the Harts we all know are 3rd generation and the last graduates of the Hart dungeon. The Harts were a little upset with Uncle Bret over the situation they were put in, but this looks to be finally a great match up for all of them.

Fast forward to last night... Before finding out Wade Barrett was the NXT winner (he's been first in the voting all along, so I'm pretty disappointed we weren't thrown a curve ball at the end, but that's the only thing I'm disappointed about.), we found out the would in fact be a second season of NXT. So, when CBS, NBC, ABC and Fox are all showing programs based on Japanese game shows, circuses with stars, man versus anything crazy, we will be getting something very similar on Syfy with NXT, if the first season is any indicator. (I really wish they would just put the actual FCW shows in its place.)

Anyway, out of the eight new Rookies, two are 3rd generation wrestlers. Husky Harris (aka Duke Rotundo in FCW) is the grandson of Blackjack Mulligan and son of IRS. Michael McGillicutty (aka Joe Hennig) is the grandson of Larry "The Axe" Hennig and the son of "Mr. Perfect" Curt Hennig. Cody Rhodes (yeah, son of Dusty Rhodes) is Harris' Pro and Kofi Kingston (sorry, he is not the son or grandson of a wrestler to my knowledge) is Hennig's Pro. I don't know why the two changed their names for NXT- perhaps they had a bet going on who could create the most absurd name for himself. By the looks of WWE personalities' twitter/blogs, I'd say McGillicutty won...

Does having the Rotundo and Hennig (sorry, I tried typing the new names, but, yeah McGillicutty wins as most ridiculous) boys on NXT mean they aren't at the level of the Uso's? Or, were they put on NXT to get us to watch? I really hope it's latter...

The other rookies will be:

Eli Cottonwood (Pro John Morrison) is the tallest at 7'1"
Percy Watson (Pro MVP) is a flamboyant South Beach partier
Titus O'Neil (Pro Zack Ryder) is former pro football player and Florida Gator Thad Bullard
Kaval (Pro Layla and Michelle McCool, yes, I'm serious) is by far the shortest at 5'8"
Lucky Cannon (Pro Mark Henry) is a former Sheriff's deputy
Alex Riley (Pro The Miz) is the FCW Heavyweight Champion who has a university jock (complete with letterman jacket) gimmick.