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venerdì 27 febbraio 2015

Another Important TNA's Staff Member Leaves the Company !!




TNA producer Bryan Edwards announced on twitter that he is leaving after seven years with the company. He tweeted:


Bryan Edwards Started with the Company 7 Years ago as a Producer/Director for Impact Wrestling's TV Shows; he was also the Head of the Home Video Department, producing all the DVD's and V.O.D. content for TNA Wrestling.

SAMOA JOE-ROH PPV UPDATE !




Ring of Honor issued the following:

"We’re just received word that Samoa Joe will be in LIVE in Las Vegas at the Orleans Hotel & Casino this Sunday night.
He has something to say, and wants the world to hear it.
Ring of Honor's 13th ANNIVERSARY is without a doubt a must-see event! If you can't be there live, you can watch on Pay-per-View. For a list of provider click HERE.
To purchase your tickets for March 1st in Las Vegas, click HERE.

OFFICIAL WWE STATEMENT ON REY MYSTERIO !!




PWInsider.com contacted WWE regarding Rey Mysterio's status with the company as he was moved quietly to their Alumni section today.

WWE responded with the following statement:
"Rey Mysterio is no longer under contract with WWE."
So, Mysterio's long run with the company is officially over.

giovedì 26 febbraio 2015

Backstage Problems Within the TNA Roster !




One of the reasons the frustration level is even above usual levels here is that the talent was together for the U.K. tour a few weeks ago and were talking to each other and realized that there are no house shows planned, and no PPV shows planned (past the taped ones that just took place that nobody actually buys and are only done to fulfill existing international television contracts) and since almost everyone except the few top guys are paid by appearance, there was a realization that almost everyone was going to earn substantially less in 2015.
There’s also the recognition that all TNA is doing at this point is staving off dying as opposed to before, when, whether true or not, the idea was that they were at least trying to grow.

Samoa Joe news about ROH, AAA, NJPW and WWE !!




ROH announced on 2/24 that Samoa Joe would be returning, working four dates, including the WrestleMania weekend show on 3/27 in Redwood City, CA. It’s interesting that a company clearly on a tight budget would add the expense of Joe for a show that was already sold out. They had added Jushin Liger to that show as well, but that was planned a long time back as the original idea was Liger and Tetsuya Naito (and I’d heard talk of a third New Japan guy) for Redwood City but they canceled Naito. Joe was also announced for 3/7
in Baltimore (a TV taping that also includes A.J. Styles and The Young Bucks), 3/13 in Milwaukee and 3/14 in Chicago.

The deal wasn’t agreed to until the day before, and at press time, the creative direction as far as who he is going to face and direction hasn’t been announced. While not announced yet, Joe is also booked for 4/4 in San Antonio and 4/25 in Hopkins (near Minneapolis), MN. That’s as far as the current agreement goes. It was not a done deal at press time to introduce him at the 3/1 PPV in Las Vegas, but that would make sense to put that together.

At press time we were told it’s still up in the air and was likely not to happen. Joe, the longest reigning ROH champion in history, last appeared for the promotion in 2008 when TNA and ROH had a business split and TNA would no longer let their talent work ROH shows because ROH had become a PPV promotion. Joe has also had an offer, or at least confirmed opening interest and conversation, from Lucha Underground, from AAA, and an apparently solid offer from New Japan, which may be New Japan using him outright, although we’ve been told more likely sending him to bolster NOAH at first and eventually move over. There is also what was described as active talks from WWE, which is why right now his long-term plans are very much open.

ROH in talks with TV Networks !




The company has been in preliminary talks with both AXS and Spike. I don’t know how serious either are, past the point that they, in fact, both have taken place. ROH made a pitch to AXS and I don’t know that anything happened from there, as it’s nothing anyone is talking about.

My impression is AXS is happy with New Japan. AXS, when it was HD-Net, aired ROH from 2009 to 2011, when HD-Net opted not to renew the deal. With Spike, the sides are talking right now although it’s premature to say they are serious, since key people in both companies weren’t even aware of the talks, but we have since gotten confirmation that talks are taking place.

The idea would be a Friday night show that would air about once per month, with Spike having a regular rotation of Bellator, Glory, Al Haymon’s boxing and pro wrestling. That would be a big coup for exposure, since Spike is in 83 percent of the country and Sinclair Broadcasting syndicated stations make up 37.5% of the country (ROH has a few non-Sinclair stations so they are in close to 40%).

ALL The Story About WWE's Divas Division Backstage Problems !!





Another key to this story is April Mendez, A.J. Lee, Punk’s wife and still a WWE performer under contract, who is out of action with a neck injury. Mendez was supposed to return and had been booked in a return angle and was scheduled on shows, and was supposed to return at some point soon (of course that has been the case for weeks). She is still in the Raw open. Given the situation, it will be far more difficult for her to return, and actions on 2/24 made it worse.

The company had expected her back from her neck injury for about two months.
Mendez, 27, made her role more interesting on 2/24. After Stephanie McMahon tweeted “Thank You Patty Arquette for having the courage to fight for women’s rights on such a grand platform,” in response to Arquette’s Oscar acceptance speech for winning Best Supporting Actress in the movie “Boyhood.”
Arquette said, “To every woman who gave birth to every citizen and taxpayer of this nation, we have fought for everybody else’s equal rights. It’s our time to have wage equality once and for all and equal rights for women in the United States.”
Mendez, on Twitter, called McMahon a hypocrite for her backing what Arquette said.
“Your female wrestlers have record selling merchandise and have starred in the highest rated segments of the show times. And yet they receive a fraction of the wages and screen time of the majority of the male roster.”

Mendez was a strong merchandise seller when she was around, but the formula on a percentage basis for merchandise for most of the roster is the same, with a few top stars getting higher cuts. None of the women sell at anywhere close to the level of the top guys.
Women’s segments were rarely above average rated during the period I was getting segment-by-segment breakdowns, until about a year ago. That said, Mendez was working key segments with people like Daniel Bryan, Kane and C.M. Punk and some main event segments that did very well. Actually, in TNA, there was a period where the women were in the highest rated segment of the show most of the time, and far more than the high paid stars like Sting, Kurt Angle, Rob Van Dam, Jeff Hardy or even Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair. None of the women earned anything close to what the male stars earned, and only a few times were they put in the main event segment even though they consistently outdrew the main event segment.

As a general rule in WWE, and of course there are exceptions, the women are paid significantly less than the men at similar levels, and obviously when it comes to match time, that’s an indisputable point. In NXT, that isn’t the case. I was told that the women in NXT actually, as a general rule, make more than the men, because so many of the men came from indie backgrounds and are willing to come in at any price to be in WWE. The women, many
of who came from modeling, like the male athletes with backgrounds, are paid better for the most part, with the idea that the women need to earn at a certain level to maintain the kind of looks the WWE wants their women to have.

But the problem as much as time is also the portrayal. On the main roster, they are portrayed not as athletes, fighters, talented technical wrestlers or brawlers, or even women with serious issues with each other. Their storyline issues are generally more shallow and childish. While it’s not 100% sex objects as in the bra and panties days, the women are still there more as sex objects and less as wrestlers, athletes and true superstars than the men are.
Their role is to wrestle in provocative outfits and for the most part their worth is based on their looks far more than the men. No man could have gotten out of developmental with the skill set of Rosa Mendes, Cameron or Eva Marie. There is no argument about equality in portrayal or money that can defend the company on this one other than it is what the wrestling business has always been.
While it is about looks for men to a degree, you will never see an unattractive woman with a bad genetic body, no matter how talented they are technically, in a WWE ring. Sara Amato, who trains the women in NXT, I would not call unattractive at all, yet she was deemed not attractive enough to be anything but be a trainer, even though she was a more talented wrestler than almost all on the roster. Melissa Anderson is probably the furthest thing from unattractive, yet she never did nor is she likely to ever get a WWE look and it was said to be because she didn’t have the right look. One woman who was cut by WWE, and ended up having a successful long career in TNA, said she was told when released by John Laurinaitis, even though she was doing well as a wrestler, that, “We’re looking for tens and you’re not that.” Others at the recruiting level were told that while WWE no longer would allow their performers to pose in Playboy, what they are mainly looking for is women physically attractive enough to do so.
They had done angles in the past to portray Molly Holly as fat, Mickie James as fat, and Natalya and Gail Kim as unattractive.

But where we are now is a big improvement from ten years ago, but yeah, Stephanie McMahon was really asking for it not to have the perspective to the can of worms she was opening up. While they expect none of the talent to have the guts, or stupidity, or whatever you want to say, to criticize them, it’s not as if people aren’t starting to talk due to the jealousy by the main roster stars of the praise that the women in NXT have gotten because they are portrayed more athletically, put in consistent real semi-mains on big shows, and are allowed time for their matches.
It’s the whole WWE main roster vs. NXT women’s portrayal that has become a hot topic the past few weeks. Given those portrayals, Stephanie did completely open herself up by giving that response to Arquette. But who would have thought any of the women would dare do it? But one of them did.
And by doing so, I guess that tells where she is mentally about WWE right now.
The story, once USA Today picked it up, caused the twitter of Vince McMahon to respond, saying, “We hear you. Keep watching,” with the hashtag of “Give Divas a chance.”
Stephanie responded in very un-McMahon after a public attack like fashion, writing to Lee, “Thank you. I appreciate your opinion.”
Clearly, she had no other way to respond past ignoring everything, because any kind of a defense would open the story up more and bury her and the company, and the story had gotten too big to do that.

One person familiar with the situation as it was going down said Mendez wrote what she did on her own, it wasn’t an angle and the company was completely blind sided by it. Stephanie was absolutely furious at being shown up and made to look bad by one of their own employees, but that seeing the big picture, Vince McMahon ordered Stephanie to respond in the way she did. The only thing the company could do under the circumstances was to diffuse the situation as quickly as possible, because stories about unequal treatment of women starting to get out are can’t wins, similar to the company’s quick attempts of late to quell charges about being racist to Latinos.
It’s also notable that it makes twice that talent has complained publicly and not gotten the burial treatment in response. Darren Young, who hadn’t been used, who was brought back to TV although his push with the recreating of the Prime Time Players has every fingerprint of every three week and forget push. This came off his complaints about WWE running shows last week in Abu Dhabi due to how that country treats women and homosexuals. He was ordered to take the tweets down, however. Lee did not take her tweets down.
This was a contrast from the day when Steve Austin complained about bad creative, and then was booked to lose to Brock Lesnar on Raw with no build-up when Lesnar was still climbing the ladder. Well, that didn’t work out well for anyone.


Like I wrote a few weeks ago, they’ve got three ways to play this. They can make an overt break from the past, make it clear, tell people it’s coming, get rid of certain talent and bring up the NXT talent and make those who can go the focal point in longer matches. If they do that in one fell swoop and stick to their guns, it may or may not be a success. It’s a success in NXT, but NXT is a terrible lab for ideas because the audience make-up is so much smaller and more narrow than what WWE needs. But that doesn’t mean it will fail on the main roster. Athletic women’s wrestling in Japan in the late 70s and early 80s was far bigger on Japanese television then the Attitude Era Monday Night Wars were on U.S. television. But what works in a different culture isn’t guaranteed to work here either. And while that style of wrestling still exists in Japan, it is not very popular today, as, like everything, it’s heyday was largely based on being on network television in strong time slots, and when it could no longer do network caliber numbers, Japan doesn’t have hundreds of secondary channels that still do good numbers that an entertainment form can be built off.
They can do a slow change, something Paul Levesque talked about having to do, when talking about the world changing and Ronda Rousey’s appeal. The problem is, there was no slow change involving Rousey. Dana White went 100 miles an hour shoving her down people’s throats, and quite frankly, opened himself and herself up to the idea of a huge failure. And plenty of people were wishing for that to happen.
Or they can keep doing what their vision of wrestling is, maybe do some lip service, make some slight tweaks, humor the audience, but until you see a woman’s match in a similar spot on a WWE house show or PPV show that it is on an NXT show, then it’s really lip service.
And quite frankly, it could fail. Vince tried with Wendi Richter and Alundra Blayze to make women pro wrestling superstars and both were major failures. It wasn’t the push in either case, it was the public not accepting the push. At the same time, in the 40s and into the early 50s, at a time when promoters lived and died based on weekly box office, women headlined all the time everywhere because the top ones, if not overused, could outdraw the men. I’ve seen weekly dockets from strong wrestling cities where women headlined all the time, and Mildred Burke was treated in the promotional material with equal reverence to Lou Thesz.
Times change and the only way to know what will happen now is to legitimately test it out.
What we do know is the current method of portrayal of the women comes across as a time filler. The angles are usually bad. The matches are rushed.

Some of the women pushed are not very good, and a few are better than they are given the chance to show. When they get to the big show, based on the portrayal on TV, their angles aren’t over. People then see their matches as filler between the important stuff and they don’t get a lot of reaction. Unless there is a marked change in portrayal that is made a big deal of and is based around featuring a lot of talent that hasn’t been on the main roster in the key spots, the current system will continue.
Is it possible the current audience will never accept anything else? Yes. At the same time, everything so many said about what the UFC audience would buy or accept turned out to be false.
In the end, the UFC fan base has reacted much like the NXT audience. The sex of the competitors isn’t very important. If the match is exciting, the fans like it a lot. If it’s no good, the reaction is the same as a men’s match that isn’t any good. The title is over and it draws, but that’s more due to the superstar who holds it than the belt itself.

Carla Esparza has a belt and she’s not going to draw with it, and people aren’t going to care a lot about her fights. Miesha Tate just set a prelims viewership record with Sara McMann. Ronda Rousey would draw equal to any man in the company if she had the same caliber of opponents, and even without them, outdraws the heavyweight champion and most of the other champions.
Brooks, who has been quiet since the lawsuit, and I presume he will remain so on the subject until it is settled, did back his wife with a remark saying right after, when someone wrote “Your wife is pretty rad,” from the remarks, he responded back, “Yes I am aware. I should totally marry her.”

Complete Story Behind WWE's Dr.Amann Lawsuit Against CM Punk !!




Dr. Christopher Amann, a part of the WWE medical team, filed suit on 2/18 in Cook County (IL) Circuit court against Philip Jack Brooks (C.M. Punk) and Scott Colton (Colt Cabana) for their comments about him on Colton’s “Art of Wrestling” podcast in November.
Amann, who lives in Libertyville, IL, was hired by WWE in 2010. He claimed the statements on the podcast by Brooks and Colton were “false, defamatory and put him in a false light by improperly insinuating a lack of integrity and/or inability or lack of competence to perform his professional duties as a medical doctor.”

The lawsuit is largely based on Brooks claiming Amann misdiagnosed a growth on his back, refused to remove it when asked, and Brooks claimed the growth, which ended up the size of a baseball, was purple, and ended up being diagnosed by another doctor as a life-threatening MSRA staph infection.
Amann is seeking more than $2 million in compensatory damages, plus an undetermined amount of punitive damages.
Brooks, on the podcast released on 11/26, said Amann had misdiagnosed the growth as fatty tissue and given him antibiotics for it. The lawsuit contained a transcript of the entire long story told by Brooks about the diagnosis, antibiotics, having constant diarrhea before leaving the company, and having another doctor look at the growth and tell him it was MSRA staph that he could have died from.

Amann, who was given clearance by WWE to file the lawsuit against Brooks, claimed Brooks’ entire story was fabricated, that Brooks never told him about any growth, and never showed him the lump, and that he never made any diagnosis on it.
While Brooks’ charges against Amann were the most serious part of his podcast interview, most of the media coverage coming out of it centered around his claim, that Vince McMahon later admitted was true in an interview with Steve Austin, that WWE fired Punk via Fed Ex on his wedding day. McMahon stated, however, that it was just coincidental that legal sent out the letter the day before. Brooks said he didn’t believe that at all.
Brooks had said he had suffered a concussion in a late 2013 match with Luke Harper, and then went on the November European tour. He blamed that on himself, but said he was either throwing up or dry heaving after every match. He said he had no appetite and couldn’t train and that the doctor gave him a Z-pac (antibiotics) and he took so many that one night on Smackdown he shit his pants.
He said that he had a lump on his back, went to the doctor, who said it was a fatty deposit. Brooks said he asked the doctor to remove it, but the doctor didn’t, which Brooks said was because he was lazy, and instead prescribed him even stronger antibiotics. He said this made him feel even worse and had diarrhea for three weeks.


He then claimed in the Royal Rumble that Kofi Kingston hit him with a clothesline and he suffered a concussion and motioned to the doctor, and the doctor said, “What do you want me to do?” Brooks claimed he said, “You are the most useless fucking doctor in the whole world.” He said after the Royal Rumble, he wanted the growth cut out because it was green and he had a fever for weeks, but Amann wouldn’t do it.
He said that eventually another doctor, claimed to be a doctor his wife knew in Tampa, diagnosed his growth as an MSRA staph infection in around mid-February (I was told this was within days in either direction of 2/7), and he got the lump cut out of his back (this was about two weeks after he left WWE) and said it was the worst pain he had ever felt in his life.
Amann claimed in the lawsuit that the entire story was false.
The lawsuit stated, “Amann was not requested by Brooks to treat and/or excise a lump, let alone a purple, baseball-sized lump.”
The WWE followed up with a release the day after the suit was filed, saying that the company had performed an investigation of the situation.
“In light of C.M. Punk’s allegations regarding WWE’s medical staff and the subsequent defamation lawsuit filed by Dr. Amann against C.M. Punk, WWE continues to have the utmost confidence in the ability and expertise of our world-class team of physicians, including Dr. Amann.
“C.M. Punk claimed this past November that during the Royal Rumble pay-per-view event on January 26, 2014, he performed with a baseball-sized purple lump on his back located near the waistband of his tights.


WWE’s investigation has shown the following:
*C.M. Punk did not discuss this alleged condition with WWE’s team of physicians and trainers, nor did he discuss it with anyone in our Talent Relations department.
*Subsequently, WWE has no medical records documenting this alleged condition.
*The first time WWE was made aware of this alleged condition was when we received a letter from C.M. Punk’s attorney on August 22, 2014, after WWE terminated his contract.
*There is clear video evidence from the 2014 Royal Rumble, which allows all to decide whether there is any appearance of a baseball-sized growth on C.M. Punk’s back.”
WWE supplied certain clips and closeups of Punk’s back in several different periods of the match and there is nothing large enough to be noticed. If there was a lump and infection, it was not anywhere close to the size of a baseball, or even a golf ball. However, Punk has in public on a few occasions shown his back, and there is a spot just under what would be the waist band of the trunks where there is a small indentation of where it would appear something was cut out. In addition, there are photos from a prior match with Ryback in September 2013 that may indicate a lump in the same spot where the growth was removed.
Punk also at one point tweeted at the time that he had shit his pants on December 3, 2013, at a Smackdown taping, but WWE made him take down the tweet. So at least the story of that happening was not something he made up on the Cabana show but something there is evidence he talked about when it happened.


Two days before the Royal Rumble 2014, or three days before he walked out, at a Wizard World convention in Portland, OR, he said, “Right now, I feel a lot better than I have. There was the three months there, for a while, where I felt really, really horrible. And then we were trying to figure out what was wrong. And I think I was literally getting an MRI a week, and blood work, all this stuff, to just try to narrow down exactly what was wrong with me.”
The argument isn’t that there was or wasn’t a lump or infection that was removed. There was. The argument is whether Punk had any interaction with the WWE medical staff. That’s an open-and-shut yes-or-no question, but at this point it isn’t clear, nor is there any real evidence, which side is telling the truth and which side made a story up. It may end up complicated and there is almost certainly far more to this than meets the eye, but ultimately, that’s what the case is about.
Amann also said that he followed proper protocol during the Royal Rumble by telling Brooks to leave the ring after a preliminary diagnosis of a possible concussion and requested further evaluation and treatment afterwards in the training room. Brooks didn’t leave the ring and worked exactly how things were scripted for him even though WWE sent out Kane to eliminate him in an audible early and Kane had to stay at ringside for a long time because Punk had refused to go out early.
Amann alleged Colton helped Brooks falsely depict Amann as a lazy and bad doctor and that they “knowingly fabricated the false and disparaging statements,” about him, and that the show was streamed more than 1 million times on YouTube and reported on by several media outlets.
Amann said the statements made by Colton and Brooks “are highly offensive in that they accuse (Amann) of gross lack of integrity as a medical doctor, an inability to perform his professional duties as a medical doctor, and in placing the financial interest of his employer above life-threatening health conditions of his patients.”

Proving whether Amann examined or didn’t examine a lump could be in question based on how records are kept, although one would think, for legal reasons, WWE doctors would be expected to keep very thorough records
It also brings up the strange and awkward Michael Landsberg interview, where Landsberg brought up Punk had complained about his medical care in WWE, and Punk annoyingly blew off the question. While the tabloid media concentrated on the story of him being fired on his wedding day, which Vince McMahon admitted was true and a mistake, the real story out of the interview were the medical treatment claims and business interactions he described.
That said, going after Colton in the lawsuit is a low move, even though a lawyer would recommend it because if Brooks slandered him, Colton can be held accountable because he provided the outlet. Colton was just the guy hosting the podcast, but from a legal standpoint, he has control over its content, booked Brooks as a guest and may have known what Brooks was likely to say without ever trying to reign him in or give a different perspective.
You could do it legally, of course, and if this was a large broadcasting company that aired the interview, it would be an accepted part of the suit. But in the real world, Colton is a guy squeaking out making a living wearing different hats, and while he provided a forum for his friend, and you can make a legal argument against him, the act of going after him is so clearly a low-rent move. He obviously doesn’t have the money to fight this kind of a high-priced attorney suit (whether he’ll get covered or not is immaterial). He never went after Amann in any kind of a malicious form past reaction to what Brooks said. The key here is that they may have thought Brooks may blow it off, but his sense of being Colton’s best friend, that by naming Colton in the suit, he would be under more pressure to settle. It’s not unexpected to do so, but in my mind it changes this from a battle to see who is telling the truth to simply lawyers playing lawyer games and whatever the truth is far less important than pressure games. Then again, that is what a high-level lawsuit is about. If Amann is out with a balls-to-the-wall lawsuit trying to use every psychological tactic to make Brooks’ life miserable, of course that is one of them and it makes sense from a legal situation. But if Amann is out there simply to right his reputation, he could have handled it with more class, and that isn’t saying he wasn’t wronged and doesn’t deserve his name cleared.

At the end of the day, my thought is that this is not so much financial, because it will be next to impossible to prove that Brooks’ allegations against Amann cost him any money–since WWE never dropped him. The object is more to get Punk to settle and publicly apologize for what he said, or for WWE to get a public “win” over Punk because Punk bettered them badly in round one in the court of public opinion, and then waltzed over to the company they are most compared to and most paranoid about those comparisons with.
If he apologized for anything about the Amman story, the WWE could take it as a victory and throw into question everything he said about Paul Levesque, which is the real key to all this. Brooks painted Levesque as someone incompetent at his job, who couldn’t even remember basic dates of tours that anyone in wrestling would know without thinking. He also painted McMahon as an out-of-touch old man. Whether his stories were real or not, or exaggerated, since both of them are clearly public figures, them suing over those statements would both be difficult, time-consuming and in the end, viewed negatively.

In addition, there is the question of whether or not Amann is a public figure, particularly since on many occasions, including this week’s NXT broadcast, he was playing the role of a doctor giving diagnosis’ for injuries that never happened. By that standard, he is both a doctor and an entertainer playing the role of a doctor, which could change aspects of burden of proof and him being a public figure. As a public figure, he would had to prove that Punk not only lied but did so with malice or reckless disregard for the truth, a higher standard than if Amann was just an anonymous doctor. That’s what makes his performance on this week’s NXT show so strange in hindsight. Amann was doing a made-up television diagnosis as a performer, and one which made him seem like an questionable doctor since he stopped a match due to a concussion on Wednesday and then allowed Sami Zayn to fly to Abu Dhabi to wrestle the next day because Zayn wanted to do so, a television version of what Punk had ridiculed. Since WWE worked with Amann in the suit, and whether they are really the ones behind it or simply just signed off and allowed him to do it depends on who you talk to, them putting him in television the very week the suit got filed in a situation that changes the burden of proof in a case, particularly for an angle that was a bad idea to begin with, is so weird.
The key is that a basically true story with some exaggeration of it is not going to be enough to win the case. But either way, there should be some medical records, as far as dispensation or prescriptions for antibiotics that are either there or not.

If he went on a television show as an entertainer, in the role of portraying a doctor, and publicly gave diagnoses for injuries that never happened, which he has also done for worked WWE television injuries in statements on television and on the web site, it becomes a confusing issue regarding exactly what his public reputation really is, in the sense if a guy who makes up a medical story on television or on the web site is suing a wrestler for claiming he made up a story, that’s where the TV portrayal of Amann muddies the waters. The key is that it’s not a defense for Brooks for lying or absolving him of some penalties if he did so, but as far as damage to reputation and financial loss, it confuses the issue.
That said, Ryback claimed that Punk made up their entire confrontation story during an interview on Chris Jericho’s podcast. Jericho himself also claimed Punk didn’t tell the truth about his attempts to contact Punk during the period after he left the company. On the flip side, there is clear proof that Ryback did drop Punk wrong on a slam that was supposed to be through a table on the floor that completely missed the table and he was injured. And to an extent, Punk used Jericho as a metaphor for a lot of wrestlers who tried to contact him after he disappeared that he never called back. Punk absolutely spoke to his closest friends, and I know of one wrestler who he had a lengthy conversation with about the wrestlers’ issues with the company, but there were also a number of very well known guys who tried to check on him and he ignored them. Perhaps he knew it was going to end up as a legal issue and cut his contacts down to those he was sure he could trust.
There were stories he told on that podcast about his verbal interaction with both Vince McMahon and Paul Levesque that I found difficult to believe in the way he told them, because of timing issues with the McMahon story and because I really don’t want to believe Levesque is as completely incompetent at his job and/or so arrogant about his position to insist being clearly wrong isn’t wrong as Punk described both. That said, he could just as easily have been telling the truth and this legal action isn’t about those conversations.



mercoledì 25 febbraio 2015

Tweets Exchange Between AJ Lee and Stephanie McMahon !




In case you missed it earlier, AJ wrote the following tonight:

RT @StephMcMahon: Thank You @PattyArquette for having the courage to fight for #WomensRights on such a grand platform. #UseYourVoice
— A.J. (@WWEAJLee) February 25, 2015



@StephMcMahon Your female wrestlers have record selling merchandise & have starred in the highest rated segment of the show several times,
— A.J. (@WWEAJLee) February 25, 2015



@StephMcMahon And yet they receive a fraction of the wages & screen time of the majority of the male roster. #UseYourVoice
— A.J. (@WWEAJLee) February 25, 2015

Stephanie McMahon tweeted the following tonight in response to AJ Lee:


Thank you @WWEAJLee, I appreciate your opinion. #UseYourVoice
— Stephanie McMahon (@StephMcMahon) February 25, 2015




Latest News on the Brock Lesnar-WWE Altercation !





We noted earlier that WWE World Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar was backstage at last night's RAW in Nashville but not used. Dave Meltzer of The Wrestling Observer Newsletter noted that there was more to the story than Lesnar just not being used.

PWInsider reports that Lesnar flew on his private plane to Nashville for RAW earlier in the day on Monday, so he was there.

According to people backstage at RAW, Lesnar was visibly angry about something and one source claimed he walked out of RAW before it ended.

Word is that something happened between Lesnar and WWE but it was not creative related, but something to do with their business relationship. Vince McMahon acknowledged the issue with Lesnar during a SmackDown production meeting this afternoon but did not elaborate on the issue.

Lesnar has already returned home and is not at SmackDown. 

Update:

As noted earlier, WWE World Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar was at last night's WWE RAW in Nashville, TN, but was not used. Lesnar had been advertised for the show for awhile, and WWE.com even issued a "Breaking News" alert on their website before the show went on the air stating that Lesnar would be on the show.

Dave Meltzer noted on the latest episode of Wrestling Observer Radio that there was "more to the story," although he doesn't know what the story is.

"The story is ongoing and still in progress," Meltzer said. "I don't think anyone wants it out until whatever it is is settled... But something happened, but what that is, I do not know."



Meltzer also noted that he doesn't think that the WrestleMania main event is in jeopardy at all, but that there "is an unanswered question, and I don't know what it is right now."

Interesting Tweets Exchange between Former WWE's CM Punk and Former TNA's Samoa Joe !!





- Former rivals and friends CM Punk & Samoa Joe had an exchange on Twitter last night, leading fans to speculate that we may see them wrestle one more match together down the line.

giovedì 19 febbraio 2015

WWE Interested in Samoa Joe !?



I can confirm that there is at least a good amount of interest from Triple H in giving Samoa Joe a look. I've been told that Triple H is interested in giving Joe a run in NXT. Vince McMahon is however not so interested, but there might be a push within the next few weeks at giving Joe at least a tryout run. I haven't received word if Joe is even interested in coming to WWE / NXT.

Spoiler: WWE NXT Taping - Full Sail,Florida, Owens vs. Balor, Zayn vs. Rhino !!







By Andres Santiago on 2015-02-19 02:21:59


Pre-Show Dark Match
- The Mechanics (Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder) vs The Vaudevillians
The Vaudevillians won after a European Uppercut / Neckbreaker combination on Dawson.


Episode airing March 18, 2015
Commentary Team: Rich Brennan, Jason Albert, Corey Graves 

Match 1:
- Finn Bàlor vs Tye Dillinger
Bàlor won with the Coup de Grâce. 
After the match, Breeze appeared on screen. He said that Bàlor was just the flavor of the month and that he will soon "meet someone who's been dominating NXT, Prince Pretty". 



Match 2:
- Bayley vs Becky Lynch vs Charlotte - Number One Contendership Match
Becky pinned Bayley while Bayley was trapped in a bridged back Figure Four by Charlotte.

Match 3:
- CJ Parker vs Hideo Itami
Itami won by pinfall following a sequence of the KENTA combo, multiple Roundhouse Kicks, the Hesitation Dropkick and a Running Single-Leg Dropkick. 

Match 4:
- Rhyno vs Jesus de Leon 
Rhyno quickly won with the Gore.



Match 5:

- Alex Riley vs Kevin Owens 
Owens won with a pop up powerbomb.
After the match, Owens attempted to powerbomb Riley onto the ring apron, but Sami Zayn ran out and stopped him. They had a brief brawl that was broken up by a plethora of refs and wrestlers. At one point, Zayn hit a dive from the top rope to the floor, onto Owens and all of the others who were trying to break them up. 


Episode airing March 25, 2015
Commentary Team: Rich Brennan and Corey Graves 

Match 1:
- Tye Dillinger vs Jason Jordan
Jordan won with a Half-Nelson Pump Handle Suplex. 

Match 2:
- Bayley vs Emma 
Bayley won by pinfall. Emma was doing her dance during a pin attempt, which allowed Bayley to get her legs up and reverse it for the victory. 

Match 3:
- NXT Tag Team Champions Blake & Murphy vs Lucha Dragons 
Blake & Murphy won after Sin Cara was hit with a suplex by Murphy and a Frog Splash by Blake. 

Sami Zayn came down to the ring to speak about his absence since Takeover: Rival. He said that it's good to be back and acknowledged that many knew he was overseas in Abu Dhabi. He said that the timing of the tour was interesting. He felt that he should have been thinking about how great it was to be there and to wrestle in front of his people. However, all he could think about was Kevin Owens. Owens is a different guy now, and not just because he is more experienced in the ring. He has changed from the guy Zayn faced over the past ten years. Zayn has had some time to think and formulate a plan. He will use his rematch to win back his championship, but his number one priority is to kick Kevin Owens' ass.

Match 4:
- Rhyno vs Unnamed Wrestler 
Rhyno won with two moves: A belly-to-belly suplex and The Gore. 
After the match, Rhyno cut a promo about how he came to NXT to make a statement and for the NXT Championship. He said that it doesn't matter if it is Sami Zayn, Finn Bàlor or Kevin Owens, anyone who gets in his way will be ripped in half with a Gore. 

Match 5:  
- Two out of Three Falls Match: Tyler Breeze vs Hideo Itami 

Fall One: Itami won with the Running Single-Leg Dropkick. 
Fall Two: After the first fall, Breeze was down in the corner. He played possum as the ref stopped Itami from attacking him a few times. As soon as he got up, he hit the Beauty Shot to capture the second fall. 
Fall Three: Breeze won the final fall with the Beauty Shot, following a sequence of both men reversing each others big moves. 


Episode airing April 01, 2015
Commentary Team: Rich Brennan, Jason Albert, Corey Graves 

Match 1:
- CJ Parker vs Solomon Crowe 
Crowe won by submission with the Stretch Muffler. 
After the match, Crowe took the microphone and said "Stay tuned because the real show is just beginning... and now I return you to your regularly scheduled programming." 

Match 2:
- Baron Corbin vs Steve Cutler
Corbin quickly won with the End of Days. 

Match 3:
- Enzo Amore and Colin Cassady w/ Carmella vs Shoot Nation ( Angelo Dawkins & Sawyer Fulton) 
Enzo pinned Dawkins after an East River Crossing by Cassady and a Rocket Launcher double team.
Before the match, Amore and Cassady cut a promo about how they will be the next NXT Tag Team Champions. 
During the match, Blake & Murphy came out to give flowers to Carmella. 
After the match, Amore and Cassady argued with Carmella about her taking the flowers.

Match 4:
- Blue Pants vs Dana Brooke 
Brooke won with a Michinoku Driver. 

Match 5:

- Sami Zayn vs Rhyno 

Zayn won with the Helluva Kick.  


Episode airing April 08, 2015
Commentary Team: Rich Brennan, Jason Albert, Corey Graves 

Match 1:
- NXT Women's Championship Match: NXT Women's Champion  Sasha Banks vs Alexa Bliss
Banks won by submission with the Bank Statement. 

Match 2:


-   NXT Championship Match: NXT Champion Kevin Owens vs Finn Bàlor 

Owens won with a pop up powerbomb. 


News / Notes
- The next taping will be on Thursday, April 23rd. 
- The shows may have been filmed out of order, as I suspect that the final episode taped may get moved up into the March 25th slot. If so, that would explain why it only had the two championship matches, since all of the non-Raw shows tend to be shorter during WrestleMania week. 
- Considering that they only taped enough episodes to go up to April 8th, I wouldn't be surprised if a few episodes are filmed at their Ohio shows in March or during WrestleMania weekend. 
- Make sure to not miss Zayn-Rhyno and Owens-Bàlor. Both were fantastic matches. 
- Owens-Bàlor was given a ton of time to develop and tell it's story. The only thing separating it from a Takeover main event was that Bàlor didn't don the bodypaint.
- The crowd was confused as to why Alexa Bliss was facing Sasha Banks instead of Becky Lynch. 
- Other than Sami Zayn, the wrestlers that Rhyno and Baron Corbin faced were not given ring introductions. 
- Tye Dillinger had new music. 

- Before the taping started, William Regal came out and thanked the fans for all the support and helping the NXT brand grow. He mentioned how big it will be to bring NXT on the road to the shows in Ohio and ran down some of the main events of the night. 

Lucha Underground TV Report 2-18-15



By Jeremy Peeples/@Jeremy_Peeples 


 Setting the Stage
 Last week, Big Ryck cut a promo in a confessional swearing vengeance on the Crew and debuting a new eye patch. He's coming to kick a bunch of ass and it should be a lot of fun. Alberto El Patron debuted as well, and got the biggest reaction in the history of his show. He came off like a megastar here and they went with a completely different lighting setup that really helped his promo stand out that was further helped by this being his best promo yet. Texano Jr debuted during this by attacking him and they're taking the AAA Mega World title feud to America.
The show begins recapping Ryck's promo and his history with the Crew and then a rundown of the Fenix-Mil Muertes feud over Catrina. Black Lotus's issue with Matunza is touched on, and the video closes with Texano's attack on Alberto. After about a month of being in 4:3, the show returns to being in letterboxed widescreen. Mariachi El Bronx plays us in while Striker says that the temple is buzzing, complete with a bee buzzing effect and we'll get bookend main events with Muetes facing Chavo to start the show. Muertes comes down without Catrina, resulting in a "Where's Catrina?" chant. Chavo comes down and gets booed.

Match 1 - Mil Muertes vs. Chavo Guerrero Jr.
Striker calls this a battle of size versus Chavo's Guerrero-ness, so whatever that is, this is a battle of it. Chavo sends Muertes to the floor and baseball slides him, but Muertes chucks him into the steps and then presses him into the ring. Chavo cheapshots him with an eye poke and then dives onto him. Muertes no-sells a punch on the apron and Chavo knows he's in trouble, so he goes for the knee with a dropkick and kicks on the mat. Chavo hops over the rope to attack the knee and Vamp says it's very much like Hector, his uncle, who is older, wiser, but just as ugly. Chavo crotches him on the post and Vamp says it's like his father. Muertes grabs him and punches his - he's got the best punches on TV right now. Chavo tosses Muertes to the floor and Catrina appears on the top of the steps and gets a chant. Chavo goes for the mask on top of Muertes's shoulders, but he gets electric chaired and they talk about how the loss of Catrina has hurt Muertes. Chavo misses a corner charge and eats another punch. Big lariat hits and Chavo gets tossed tot he floor after avoiding a Flatliner.  
Catrina has Mil's stone, distracting him, while Chavo gets a chair. Chair to the back gets no reaction, and he punches the chair into Chavo's face, then hits the flatliner onto the chair. He wants her to give Chavo the lick of death, and Striker calls her the leather-laden licker. Striker says it's alluring him to see Catrina avoid the kiss, and then Mil pushes her head into the position, she refuses and he grabs her throat and sets up a flatiner, leading to Fenix coming down for the save and a French kiss with Catrina. I'm not sure what the exact deal is in this since Mil kind of turned face, but he also tried to attack Catrina, which would seem like a heel move. Black Lotus is in her black catsuit unlocking the door to the area that Dario's monster has been held in.
We return to the Temple with Cueto talking to the Crew. Thank God they finally have jerseys with their names on them. He praises them for blinding Ryck with the bright light of their talents and will reward them with a main event spot tonight in a trios match and he wants them to take out their opponents tonight - Pimpi, Sexy Star, and Mascarita Sagrada. Their job is simply to hurt them so much that they don't come back. We go to the ring with Son of Havoc and Ivelisse mid-ring with a mic and new gold chainmail over her biker shorts. Ivelisse says that since Havoc's losing week after week, she'll handle Havoc's battle for him. Oh snap. Angelico comes down while Striker and Vamp talk about how she's basically neutering him.

Match 2 - Ivelisse vs. Angelico
Ivie goes for some kicks to the legs and then she eats a drop toehold. She tries to sweep the leg and he avoids it. He avoids all contact that doesn't involve him catching her and being silly, so she kicks his chest. He puts a hand behind his back, and she responds by slapping his face off the top and then hitting a flying rana. Now he's ready to fight, but she knows he's vulnerable, so she lures him into a false sense of security and kicks him. Angelico hits a flapjack which Striker calls a $12,000 fall and Havoc snaps the neck to result in him falling over in a schoolboy position and her winning. Angelico says he wants to go one on one with her again, without Havoc around and he quickly grabs her and takes her to the back. This was different and set up a future serious match between Angelico and Ivelisse. They recap the Alberto-Texano issue setting up Texano's debut match here next.

Match 3 - Super Fly vs. Texano Jr
We return to the Temple with Super Fly mid-ring and then Texano comes out from the back with his full cowboy getup. Striker cuts to an interview Vamp did with Texano with Vamp saying Texano's the former champ, and we see clips of him dominating AAA over the course of his two year title reign, and then Alberto beating him and him beating up Alberto with his bullrope. Texano says he's going to take his title back and make Alberto prove himself here. This was the first all-Spanish interview we've had on the U.S. version, and it was interesting to see. Texano takes Fly down and gets  quick 1, but traps him in the corner for chops. Fly gets a chop mid-ring and then misses a crossbody before eating a big legdrop for 2. Death valley driver into a neckbreaker gets the win. Texano stands over Fly while the crowd chants for Alberto. Alberto comes down and Texano runs away strategically to attack him on the floor. Alberto chcuks him into the barricade and his some kneeling punches before getting his bullrope and whipping him here just like Texano did to him. I love this - we're seeing the story play out here between two shows, and it's pretty cool. Texano escapes and Alberto uses the rope to avoid the security team while Striker talks about the AAA Title being defended here in Lucha Underground and the main event being up next. 
 We return to the Temple with Cueto in his office and Cage coming in his with the destroyed belt around his neck demanding to be called champion. Cueto says that he wants Cage as champion, but he lost - next week, he'll face Puma in a non-title match and a win there gets him a title match. Cage tosses the belt onto his desk. Chavo comes in and says he's quitting to go home to his family, resulting in Cueto wishing him the best in his future endeavors and Chavo leaving angrily. Chavo's acting here was terrible. Black Lotus meets with Matunza and says she wants to kill him with her bare hands. After a break, The Crew is mid-ring before the faces come down. Sexy Star has new bright pink boxing shorts and Striker says that if you're into any of the wacky babyfaces, there's an app for that.

Match 4 - The Crew vs. Sexy Star, Pimpinella Escarlata, and Mascarita Sagrada
Bael tosses Sexy to the floor while Pimpi goes for a kiss with Cisco. Pimpi gets caned by Castro and choked with it. Pimpi is taken out with the choke. Sagrada eats a big boot from Cisco, but he gets the flying rana. He kicks the leg and gets an iffy tilt a whirl armdrag sending them tot he floor. Cisco hits an apron powerbomb to Sagrada. Sexy's ready to fight and chops Cisco before eating a big kick. Bael hits a death valley driver onto Sagrada before they do a chair-assisted curb stomp onto him. It's down to Sexy against three men, two try to trap her on the floor and she runs in and slaps Cisco. Castro gets armdraggd and Cisco gets low-blowed. Tornado DDT to the floor from Sexy leads to Cisco coming in and grabbing her, but she fights back. She gets a sloppy swinging fisherman's neckbreaker. Sexy hits some slaps to Cisco up top, going for a rana and teasing a superbomb before getting the rana for 2. The group gets her mid-ring and stomps her down. Big Ryck comes down clean-shaven in nice jeans distracting Cisco, who eats a running rolling cradle and loses! Ryck and Sexy celebrate mid-ring, and Sexy looks like a total badass emerging victorious here with a busted-up lip. This wasn't the best show bell-to-bell, but it each match was either fun to watch or furthered the story, and they've reshuffled the deck a bit losing Chavo at least temporarily while gaining Texano and Alberto.

Wife of deceased wrestler files suit against WWE !!





Cassandra Frazier, the wife of Nelson Frazier Jr. (Viscera, Mabel, Big Daddy V) filed a wrongful death lawsuit on 2/18 in Circuit Court in Memphis against the WWE.
In the lawsuit, Frazier claims that her husband's death at 43 was the result of long-term consquences of multiple concussions and serious injuries during her husband's 15 year WWE career.
Frazier did some wrestling over the course of 22 years, and had at least one WWE match in 12 of those years.
She claimed Frazier suffered repetitive serious head injuries, brain trauma, concussions and other serious injuires and evetually a heart attack that cost him his life.
The lawsuit is similar to that of Vito LoGrasso and William (Billy Jack) Haynes III, including using Konstantine Kyros of Hingam, MA as a lawyer.  In this one, it lists 406 Frazier matches in WWE and claims in every one, "Upon information and belief he sustained head and other long-term injuries by participating in this event."
Cassandra Frazier claimed her husband suffered symptoms of consussions, sub-concussions, CTE, disfiguring scar tissue, head trauma, confusion, disorientation, short-term memory loss, difficulty performing basic tasks, severe migraines and sever depression, along with other serious complications.

Possible Direction For Undertaker and Sting Leading to WWE WrestleMania 32 !!



The current plan for the Raw after WrestleMania 31 right now is to have Undertaker and Sting face to face to set a future match at WrestleMania 32 in Dallas Texas, which would be both mens final match and both are already being talked about for the Hall Of Fame Class of 2016.
So the plan as of this day is for Undertaker to go over Bray Wyatt at WrestleMania 31, and for Sting to beat HHH, then Sting and The Undertaker will wrestle eachother at WrestleMania 32 in a farewell/retirement match.

lunedì 16 febbraio 2015

WWE News: Ric Flair scheduled on Raw tonight !!



Ric Flair is currently scheduled to be on Raw tonight as part of the Sting vs. HHH angle.  Tonight is the go-home Raw for the Fast Lane card, where Sting and HHH will have an in-ring confrontation to set up their WrestleMania match. 
So both Flair and Dusty Rhodes will be on the same show.

Photo: The Very Controversial Tweets of WWE's Cesaro!!, Account Hacked??










domenica 15 febbraio 2015

Jeff Jarrett On His Relationship with CM Punk, WWE, and next "exciting announcements" for GFW Wrestling !!




Jeff Jarrett was recently interviewed by the v2 Wrestling Podcast in the UK. The full interview can be heard at http://v2wrestling.podomatic.com/entry/2015-02-12T09_17_37-08_00
Here are some highlights:


On whether GFW will be a standalone promotion:
"The short answer is yes. I have been working with the team on what wrestling fans are calling a standalone promotion. Multiple conversations with talent, distributors, sponsorships, venues, legal, finance, everything that goes with launching the brand. I don’t want to get too overinflated and say major announcements, but I’ll call them very exciting announcements around WrestleMania and then the weeks to come after that. So in the next 4-6 weeks, the first announcement will be coming."

On his relationship with CM Punk in TNA:
"He did work with us for a little while, yes. It was in the Asylum days when I was wearing 5, 6, 7 hats every Wednesday night. We had a very business-like, cordial relationship. To say that I missed the boat would be an understatement of the year, but things like that happen. My father started two guys from California that drove cross country and the first time I laid eyes on them was Thanksgiving 1985. Very young and very green, they were called the Blade Runners and within 18 months after they left my father’s promotion they became Sting in WCW and the Ultimate Warrior in the WWF. So promoters miss the boat and there is a long track record of that, but Punk seized his opportunity when he got to WWE. Quite frankly, he goozled that entire promotion and left on his own terms. To this day he’s still one of the hottest box office attractions in professional wrestling, and he’s not even doing it any more."

On whether there will be a place for Vince Russo in GFW:
"We enjoyed our years together but no, not at this time."

On his controversial departure from the WWF in 1999:
"At the end of the day, I showed up to work that night in Cleveland, and (Vince McMahon) had two options, I had two options, and we both took Option A. We agreed on a price, and the rest is history. I have spoken with Vince McMahon several times since that day".

On whether he will remain an active wrestler:
"No, my full-time days in the ring are over. Not to say I’m not going to put on the tights again, and quite frankly, in the last two weeks I don't know what it is but I've gotten several offers from promoters in Canada, the Carolinas and California, so like I did last year, I’ll probably have a few shows here and there. But my main focus is Global Force Wrestling and launching that brand as a standalone promotion."

On his role in GFW:
"I like to refer to (my role) as somewhat of a matchmaker. In the old days they called it a booker, but a booker is really a matchmaker and let the fans decide. The talent, it's not like you want to slap on and say this week you’re the Gobbledy Gooker and next week you’re Skinner. It’s who is Talent A and why are they Talent A, what’s to like or not like about Talent A. You put them against Talent B, who they are and why they are, and they go out there and get it done in the ring. I think that’s a recipe for success in professional wrestling."

On GFW's style compared to other promotions:
"It’ll have its own style, but I don’t believe in recreating the wheel. I think Wrestle Kingdom 9 proved it, and Jim Ross said it in some of the videos that we produced on him, wrestling fans don’t over-think it. Give the fans what they want. Great wrestlers, hard-hitting style, championships, winners, losers and larger than life personalities – that’s what we plan on doing. I’ve always had that philosophy, dating back to my early days in the territories and my father’s and grandmother’s promotion. You have good wrestlers, and whether it’s black hats and white hats or however you want to define it, the people have to know and understand that Wrestler A is fighting Wrestler B and why they’re fighting, what are the results on who wins and who loses, and what’s going to happen next. I don’t think you need to overthink that in any stretch of the imagination. I think there are instances, from NXT to Wrestle Kingdom 9 to Triplemania, the successful wrestling shows going on in the world today are, at its core, basic and simplistic."

WWE NXT house show report 2-13-15: Kevin Owens vs. Adrian Neville !




Submitted by Crimson Mask
Chad Gable vs. Mike Rollins

This was pretty good. Chad Gable showed some skills for good reason and went over. Rollins was bigger and more muscular and had a good look and wasn't bad. Had to look up his name. Been around, looks different now, long hair. The sound system was horrible. Wasn't Jojo's fault, you couldn't understand anybody. Gable is  Chad Betts, US Olympian and international competitor and I understand will be the main guy in a new shooter faction, or something.

Dash Wilder & Scott Dawson vs. The Vaudevillians

REALLY good match. Couldn't ask for much better ringwork. At first I was like 'who are these other two guys' and again had to look up the names but as the match developed they went from playing stooge for English and Gotch's antics to revealing themselves as a strong offensive team. Dawson reminded me of Buzz Sawyer, had that explosiveness. English and Gotch were very over and are outstanding at everything IMO. Gotch never stops working during the match, keeping up a constant stream of coaching when he's on the apron, zero playing to the crowd, which I thought was great. Was surprised at the finish which was this off the chart kind of Dudley Death Drop/Codebreaker hybrid by W&D on English, who carried most of the match. Best match of the night IMO.

Sasha Banks did an in ring heel promo. Got cheered anyway. She's a LOT prettier in person.

CJ Parker vs. Solomon Crowe
Meh. Never clicked. And wasn't visibly Parker's fault. Not getting all the hoopla about Crowe. He needs minoxydil. There was then a long break as they removed the top of two canvases from the ring for reasons I do not understand, or why there were two in the first place.

Baron Corbin vs. Elias SampsonThis was a very good match too, not a squash. Sampson played chicken at first but ended up working the perfect small guy hit and run type match and got in plenty of offense before Corbin finally flattened him with a lariat and the EoD. Very impressed with Sampson and Corbin is much more impressive live than on TV.

Bayley vs. Becky LynchDecent if unsurprising match. Bayley is also a lot more attractive in person than on TV. She goes over with the Bayley Belly suplex thing.

Tyler Breeze vs. Bull Dempsey
Very good match also. Basic small guy vs. big guy. This actually was a recurring theme for the night along with the opener and the Corbin match. This also had the 'heel playing chicken' start but once Breeze 'found an opening' his offense was high gear and he does the Gorgeous George/Adrian Street thing very well. He worked on Bull's legs before ending it with the jumping spin kick.

NXT Tag Champions Blake & Murphy vs. Enzo & Cass w/CarmellaEnzo, Cass & Carmella by far the most over with the audience. Totally came off as the babyfaces. And worked babyface in the match. Good match except for a major blunder. Enzo was playing Ricky Morton and I thought got his bell rung for real maybe twice and failed to kick out of a pin and Cass didn't get in quick enough and the ref actually made the three count but the match continued. James Beard would have had a cow. Cass eventually got the hot tag and came and started cleaning house but Enzo almost immediately tagged himself back in and got beat so we see where that's going. Gotta believe Vince has plans for Cass. Huge guy with charisma who can move. Enzo's schtick is more entertaining live. Blake and Murphy are very solid, more so than they seem on TV, but maybe a little too dangerously stiff on the high impact moves.

NXT Champion Kevin Owens vs. Adrian NevilleSort of a letdown. KO played Larry Zbyszko until he 'found an opening', and then had like 80% of the match, not unlike the Zayn match. Neville had very little offense, but what little there was was spectacular. Finish was Owens getting his knees up to block the Red Arrow and finishing with a powerbomb. Owens is a lot smaller than he looks on TV.

Overall less strong than the average week's TV card.

venerdì 13 febbraio 2015

Update on Drew Galloway's Gimmick in TNA !




Drew Galloway’s gimmick is going to be someone who is the voice of the wrestling fan, kind of a Shane Douglas/C.M. Punk character in their eras, with the idea he says things on television about the current state of wrestling that others won’t say.

Vince Russo Possibly Joining Lucha Underground !



While this is probably just coincidental, Russo and Lucha Underground are in talks and he’s expected in Los Angeles for a meeting this coming week. The public story is that he’s going there to interview talent for his podcast, notably Maria Santos, the super attractive ring announcer. But Eric Van Wagenen has been pushing to get Russo in, and even those who think he’s not going to get in have said they figure when he’s there he’s going to make a push for it. Others have questioned it saying besides his track record and he’s got no background or knowledge of Mexican wrestling.

Full NJPW New Begginning in Osaka 2/11 Report and Analysis !



While you can’t call it anything but a good card, there is a feeling of sameness in New Japan Pro Wrestling right now in the aftermath of the company’s most successful event in more than a dozen years at the Tokyo Dome.
They need an infusion of new talent to spark the main event scene and also the fans, as noted by the first major PPV show since the Dome, the 2/11 New Beginning in Osaka.

The story of the show was that The Bullet Club was taking over, winning all four championship matches, with three belts changing hands, including the big one as A.J. Styles beat Hiroshi Tanahashi for the IWGP heavyweight title. In addition, Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows regained the IWGP heavyweight tag team titles from Hirooki Goto & Katsuyori Shibata, who had won them on the 1/4 Tokyo Dome show. The Young Bucks won the IWGP jr. tag titles in a three-way over champions Bobby Fish & Kyle O’Reilly, as well as Alex Shelley & Kushida, winning the match when Kushida was pinned, so Fish & O’Reilly never lost them clean. Both teams are expected to feud over both the IWGP jr. and ROH tag titles in a big program through the year.
Most matches were good, but nothing was off the charts, and the crowd, in what is traditionally New Japan’s hottest arena, felt cold. Perhaps it’s because this was almost a transition card, coming off the Dome, with Osaka fans know that the big one coming up is the return to Osaka Jo Hall in May. Still, from a numbers standpoint, while not sold out as far in advance as some shows, they still sold out and turned people away once again, with a crowd reported at 7,500 fans (which is a slightly inflated number but the place was packed and it was close to 7,000) and it was believed to have set the company’s record gate for the building.

In the main event, Styles won clean and solidly in 26:08 with the Styles Clash, destroying Tanahashi, who had to be helped out of the ring. It was a deliberate strong world title match,
but of their three singles matches, this one didn’t have the spark the first two had. It started slow and the crowd wasn’t that hot, although they were definitely with it as the match got rolling. The key part of the match was an unplanned spot where Tanahashi did his high fly flow outside the ring onto all of the members of The Bullet Club. In what on paper, with nine guys there to catch him, was about as safe a high fly as he’s done (certainly compared to the psycho version at the Dome show), it ended up being a bad one. He cracked heads with Matt Jackson, and both were busted open and knocked silly. It’s hard to tell what was selling and what wasn’t. Tanahashi seemed to remember all his spots and his execution was fine. Nobody seemed concerned about his possibly being knocked silly, but he was bleeding from a deep gash near the left eye. But he also never showed his usual fire in late comebacks, indicating something may have been wrong.

Styles, holding the title for a second time, is one of only three Americans to have held the title twice with Big Van Vader (three times) and Scott Norton (twice). Tanahashi’s loss ended his record setting seventh reign. He’s had more tenure with the title than anyone in history and his 28 successful defenses is well over Shinya Hashimoto’s previous mark of 20.
There were no major challenges issued after the title matches, with the exception of CMLL welterweight champion Mascara Dorada challenging Kenny Omega after Omega had retained the IWGP jr. title against Ryusuke Taguchi.

The show ended with a big Bullet Club celebration, with Karl Anderson handling most of the talking, putting the Bucks over as the greatest tag team in the world, and putting Styles over as the best wrestler in the world.
In Japan, the Tanahashi vs. Styles title match was billed to determine who was the best wrestler in the world. Styles is expected to make his first title defense at the Invasion Attack PPV on 4/15 from Sumo Hall in Tokyo, against the winner of the New Japan Cup single elimination tournament that takes place in March.

They may be saving the challenges for the second New Beginning PPV, on 2/14, at the Sun Plaza Hall in Sendai, which sold out in advance. The show, which airs live at 4 a.m. Eastern and 1 a.m. Pacific late Friday night/Saturday morning, has Yohei Komatsu & Tomoaki Honma & Satoshi Kojima vs. Manabu Nakanishi & Captain New Japan & Sho Tanaka, Bobby Fish & Kyle O’Reilly vs. Tiger Mask & Mascara Dorada, Taguchi & Shelley & Kushida vs. Young Bucks & Omega, Jushin Liger vs. Chase Owens for the NWA jr. title, Rob Conway vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan for the NWA heavyweight title, Kota Ibushi & Tetsuya Naito vs. Kazushi Sakuraba & Toru Yano, Kazuchika Okada & Yoshi-Hashi vs. Bad Luck Fale & Yujiro Takahashi, Tanahashi & Goto & Shibata vs. Anderson & Gallows & Tama Tonga, Tomohiro Ishii vs. Togi Makabe for the Never title and Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Yuji Nagata for the IC title.

Makabe was injured this week, although we don’t know details. So the Osaka card was changed with Kojima taking his place in the six-man tag later in the show. Kojima was pulled from teaming in the third match with Liger & Tenzan vs. Owens & Conway & Jay White, who was scheduled for his PPV debut. But with Kojima pulled, it turned into a tag and White was only in the corner.

1. Sho Tanaka beat Yohei Komatsu in 5:38. Solid match. Everything they did looked good and the crowd was into it. They just weren’t given enough time and did the best they could
given the situation. Both are so technically good. Komatsu wound up with a busted mouth. Tanaka used a high slam into a half crab, which he turned into the Boston crab for the submission. **3/4

2. Tiger Mask & Mascara Dorada beat Manabu Nakanishi & Captain New Japan in 5:03. Nakanishi worked early with Dorada and talk about working at different speeds. Nakanishi did a Northern Lights suplex on both at the same time. Dorada pinned Captain with a reverse cradle. Fans were surprised to see Dorada win, but it made sense later in the show. Not much to his. *1/4

3. Rob Conway & Chase Owens beat Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Jushin Liger in 7:53. Bruce Tharpe came out with his Bruce Tharpe trading card. Conway looks like a star. Well, if that star is Randy Savage as from a look and mannerism standpoint, it’s a total copy. Crowd booed Conway when he used Tenzan’s Mongolian chops on him. That’s easy heat. Conway even tried to sell like Savage. It seemed like he was being careful since he was back far too fast from an appendectomy. Tharpe tripped Liger at one point. Liger set Owens up for a brainbuster, but Tharpe distracted Liger. Conway used the Ego trip on Liger and then on Tenzan. Owens then pinned Liger with a package piledriver, to set up their title match in three days. After the match, Tharpe buried Liger under the NWA flag. **

4. Kota Ibushi beat Tomoaki Honma in 12:15. Really good stuff here. A lot of cool stuff including a slow vertical suplex by Honma. Ibushi did a Pele kick while Honma was on the top rope. Honma did the Mascaras flying cross head-butt and then another one to the back of the head. Ibushi did a Frankensteiner out of nowhere and got to his feet and practically in the same move, hit a double foot stomp. Honma used a backward superplex off the top for a near fall as well as a tombstone piledriver. Ibushi won after a big clothesline, a high kick, a last rider power bomb and the Phoenix splash. Ibushi wanted a handshake after the match, but Honma refused and they ended up slapping each other in the face before Ibushi left. ***3/4

5. The Young Bucks regained the IWGP jr. tag titles over champs Bobby Fish & Kyle O’Reilly and Alex Shelley & Kushida in 13:31. It started more slow and deliberate than these three usually go. In a sense this came off like they were told or listened to criticism that they go too fast, so they didn’t. But the problem is, that’s not what the crowd wants from them. Then they did the moves and dives. Another problem may be it’s these same guys against each other on every title match. Kushida did a rolling reverse cradle on Nick and then as Matt tried to break it up, Kushida German suplexed him at the same time. Fish dove on Nick and Shelley. Matt did a moonsault off the top onto all three. Kushida did a flip dive over the post onto everyone. Kushida did a moonsault into a triangle by O’Reilly. Fish then used a diving head-butt on Kushida and O’Reilly turned the triangle into an armbar. Nick did a 450 on Fish, and a moonsault off the apron on Shelley. Nick did a swanton off the top on Shelley and kept moving into a tope on Kushida. Kushida broke up a Meltzer driver attempt. The Bucks did the Indy-taker on Kushida but Fish saved. Matt superkicked O’Reilly and then they gave More Bang for Your Buck, which was Nick’s 450 and Matt following with a moonsault, on Kushida for the pin. ***½

6. Kenny Omega retained the IWGP jr. title over Ryusuke Taguchi in 13:58. The match was missing something. Taguchi just lacks charisma on his own. They did an angle because Taguchi does the butt bump and Omega was trying to injure his ass and Taguchi would say his ass was strong. Early in the match, Omega stuck a Bullet Club flag theoretically in Taguchi’s ass. Then he waved the flag around. Taguchi got the flag and stuck it up Omega’s ass. This didn’t get over so big. Matt Jackson pulled down the ropes and Taguchi took a bump over the top an Omega hit a plancha. Taguchi came back with a running flip dive. Crowd was dead. They did big moves. The most creative was Omega having Taguchi in the electric chair position, but Taguchi used a reverse Frankensteiner from there. Omega won clean with the One winged angel, kind of suddenly, which is a fireman’s carry into something close to a Death Valley bomb. Crowd took this down a notch. After the match, the Bucks and Omega put the boots to Taguchi, and then both Bucks came off the ropes with a triple-team stuff piledriver onto a chair. Dorada and Shelley made the save, with Dorada getting in Omega’s face and challenging for the title. That seemed to get over. **3/4

7. Kazuchika Okada & Kazushi Sakuraba & Toru Yano beat Bad Luck Fale & Tama Tonga & Yujiro Takahashi in 11:45. Most of the match was the Bullet Club working over Okada. Yano did some comedy spots and Sakuraba was a non-entity here. Okada did a comeback after back dropping out of a double arm suplex, hitting a high dropkick on Tonga, a dropkick and lariat to Fale, a Savage elbow on Tonga and he pinned Tonga after the rainmaker. They still seemed to be building an Okada vs. Fale singles match. **3/4

8. Yuji Nagata & Satoshi Kojima & Tetsuya Naito beat Shinsuke Nakamura & Tomohiro Ishii & Yoshi-Hashi in 16:30. They mostly paired up with Nagata vs. Nakamura, Ishii vs. Kojima and Naito vs. Yoshi-Hashi. The crowd booed Naito most of the way when he was in on offense. Kojima vs. Ishii was good stuff. Good Nagata vs. Nakamura stuff to build their title match. Fans booed Naito once when he tagged in because they still wanted to see more Nagata vs. Nakamura. Very good match. Naito bled from the mouth and nose. After a series of reversals, Naito used a tornado DDT, a flying forearm and the Stardust press to pin Yoshi-Hashi. There was a Nagata/Nakamura staredown when it was over. ***½

9. Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows beat Katsuyori Shibata & Hirooki Goto to regain the IWGP tag team titles in 16:26. Very good match as they had more time than they had at the Tokyo Dome. Gallows suplexed both at the same time. Anderson power bombed Goto on the apron and they teased a count out win. Shibata hot tagged in. Shibata was choking Anderson out on the apron when Goto went to clothesline Anderson, who moved, and clotheslined Shibata off the apron. But that was the only tease, as later in the match they did double-team spots where you figured it would happen again, and it didn’t. Anderson & Gallows did double-team moves on Goto including a gunstun back suplex combination. Goto also kicked out of Gallows’ tree slam. Shibata broke up the Magic killer and hot tagged in. He was unloading on both. They went for a double-team GTS on Gallows but Anderson kicked Goto. All sorts of big moves were blocked and reversed. Shibata got a choke on Gallows from a piggy back position, but Anderson then gave Shibata the gunstun. That was a cool setup. Goto & Shibata did a good final comeback, until Gallows superkicked Shibata and Anderson used the gunstun. They hit the Magic killer on this attempt and Gallows got the pin. ***3/4

10. A.J. Styles won the IWGP heavyweight title for a second time, beating Hiroshi Tanahashi in 26:08. The entire Bullet Club that worked on this show, as well as Cody Hall, were in Styles’ corner, while Tanahashi only had Captain New Japan. So it didn’t look good. It started slow with Styles working a headlock, some tests of strength, and Tanahashi working Styles’ left arm. Styles dropkicked Tanahashi off the apron but missed a moonsault off the apron and landed on his feet. Tanahashi dropkicked Styles off the apron, but missed a flip cannonball off the apron and crashed on the floor. Styles distracted the ref and the entire Bullet Club put the boots to Tanahashi. They also beat down Captain when he tried to save. Styles kept control until Tanahashi started firing back. He used a senton off the middle rope
for a near fall, which nobody bought. Tanahashi went for the skin the cat spot, but the Bucks grabbed his legs. He kicked both Bucks off and head-scissored Styles and flipped him out of the ring. That set up the high fly flow to the floor spot where Tanahashi was injured. He was bleeding like crazy at first, but the blood dried as the match went on. Styles didn’t work the cut to make it worse. There are two schools of thought on that. With that kind of blood rare these days in New Japan since they, like most companies, have banned the blade, one argument is to accentuate “lucky juice” by working on it and maknig it heavy. The other is that between infectious diseases and what modern wrestling is, that blood is from the past and don’t focus on it. Tanahashi came back with a cross-arm German and a regular German suplex. Styles distracted the ref and gave Tanahashi a low blow. Yujiro Takahashi distracted the ref again, but this time Tanahashi laid out Styles with a low blow. Later, Styles used the KENTA series. When Styles went for a piledriver, Tanahashi backdropped his way out. Styles went for a second enzuigiri, but Tanahashi instead used a dragon screw on Styles’ other leg for a near fall. He hit the sling blade and went for the high fly flow, but Styles got his knees up. Styles went for a springboard 450 but Tanahashi got his knees up. Tanahashi went to the top for another high fly flow, but Styles got up, ran to the ropes and Tanahashi lost his balance standing on the top rope and got crotched. Styles threw elbows into the cut. He went for a top rope Frankensteiner, but Tanahashi blocked it. Tanahashi teased doing the Styles clash off the middle rope but Styles kept kicking him as a block. Styles landed the Pele kick while Tanahashi was still sitting on the top rope. Tanahashi kept blocking Styles clash attempts. Finally Styles hooked it, but instead dropped Tanahashi on the top of his head like a tombstone piledriver. Then he gave Tanahashi a Bloody Sunday DDT, and followed with the Styles clash clean in the middle. Tanahashi had to be helped out of the ring and it was portrayed like he was thoroughly defeated, no slip on a banana peel, and while there was Bullet Club interference in the mach, none of it had anything to do with the finish. The show ended with a big Bullet Club celebration as Anderson put over the entire group. ****