AJ Styles's New Deal with TNA plus his Promo from Impact Wrestling!

-- AJ Styles signed a three-month contract extension. The promo on Impact was something he came up with and wrote to explain his character change over the past year, and not something that TNA had any input into. We got reports from the building that the crowd turning on him was worse live than it sounded on TV.

AJ STYLES-TNA UPDATE!

The word making the rounds over the past week was that AJ Styles and TNA had agreed to, at least, a short term contract extension. Styles' contract was set to expire very shortly and both sides were said to be working on a compromise that would keep him with the company.
No one would comment officially as to whether Styles had agreed to a short term or long term team deal but it's clear after the events that took place at Impact last night that he will be with the company for at least the short term.
I personally hope it's for the long-term.

Photo of Sami Callihan aka Solomon Crowe debut in NXT!

Note on Impact Wrestling's finish. Botched Promo by Hogan.

Hulk Hogan botched up two things in his promo.  He said Bully Ray was going to face Sting for the title this week.

Actually he was supposed to say Bully Ray was going to face Sting in a non-title match next week. 

The match, which was already filmed, was a non-title bout becuase of the Sting stipulation of never being allowed to challenge for the title. 

This actually happens more than you'd think with Hogan TNA promos, but usually they can re-edit them or the explain them later in the show.  On this one, there was no time to do either.

TNA Bound For Glory 2013 Poster!

UFC live coverage from Indianapolis - Condit vs. Kampmann, Cerrone vs. Dos Anjos

Welcome to our live coverage of the UFC show from Indianapolis.


ABEL TRUJILLO VS. ROGER BOWLING, LIGHTWEIGHTS
First round: Both swinging. Bowling picked him up on his shoulder and slammed him down. Trujillo to his feet and landed a knee. Trujillo landed a knee in an exchange. Jab by Trujillo. Trujillo with a takedown. Truijllo got behind him and took him down again. Trujillo in side control. Bowling back up but taken back down again. Trujllo with knees to the thigh. Bowling worked for a guillotine. Bowling going for a second guillotine. Trujillo out thowing punches as the round ended. Hot round, crowd liked it. Very close round. 10-9 Trujillo.

Second round: Bowling took him down. Trujllo back up. Trujillo with a left. Bowling starting to land. Trujillo in with a knee. Bowling started to land with a nice uppercut. Nice body shot by Bowling. Both trading but Bowling landing the better shots. Takedown by Bowling. Knee by Bowing as Trujillo got up. Trujillo now starting to land. Bowling with another takedown. Bowling working for a choke. Trujillo escaped and threw two knees and I think both were illegal. Trujillo turned heel here to the crowd not just in doing it but in acting like he did nothing wrong. That was vicious and should be a DQ right there. The first knee was to the chest and the second was to the nose and a follow-up punch laid out Bowling. The ref deducted a point from Trujillo. Bowling was down for a long time. Bowling’s round so he should be up 19-18 at this point.

Third round: The doctor told the ref that Bowling was knocked out and would not allow him to continue. Bowling is not happy. The ref called it a no contest. Trujillo is mad about not getting a win and I think it’s a joke he’s not getting a DQ because that knee was flagrant. They shook hands after.

ZAK CUMMINGS VS. BENNY ALLOWAY, WELTERWEIGHTS

First round: Alloway with a takedown but let him back up. Cummings trying to get a takedown now. Knee by Alloway. Cummings with a few punches and got the takedown. Cummings is in side control. Alloway back up. Cummings moved in going for a takedown but Alloway defending well. Cummings got another takdown. . He’s back in side control. Cummings got a D’arce choke for the submission. Cool set up, nice submission. 4:19

JASON HIGH VS. JAMES HEAD, WELTERWEIGHTS

First round: High got the takedown.  A couple of punches by High and he went for a guillotine. He used it to get to mount. He kept the guillotine on and Head had to tap.

HATSU HIOKI VS. DARREN ELKINS, FEATHERWEIGHTS

First round: Elkins more aggressive but Hioki caught him with a counter. Hioki bleeding. Hioki landing punches and kicks to the body. Hioki continuing to work the body. Hioki landed to the head. Elkins came in. Elkins is hurt and Hioki working he body. Hioki took him down and is working the body. Elkins tried a leglock but Hioki escaped. Elkins to his feet trying for a takedown. Elkins tried he takedown but Hioki working for back position. They are stalemated right now. Hioki landing a lot of lefts. Elkins bleeding. 10-9 Hioki.

Second round: Elkins aggressvie but Hioki got the takedown. Nice escape by Elkins and to his feet. Elkins landed a nice left land. Elkins landed a right. Elkins tried a kick but it was blocked. Hioki again trying to work the body. Elkins with a takedown. Hioki to his feet. Hioki got Elkins back and went for the choke but Hioki ended up on top. Elkins back on top as Hioki went for a triangle. Close round, goes to Elkins so 19-19.

Third round: Elkins landed a left. Elkins landed a right. Elkins moved in and landed. Elkins got the takedown. Elkins on top throwing punches, some of which are landing solidly. Elkins landing punches from the top. Hioki tried an armbar but Elkins pulled out and was never in danger. Elkins landing more punches. Elkins should win this round and win 29-28.’

Scores: All three have it 29-28 for Elkins.

BRANDON THATCH VS. JUSTIN EDWARDS, WELTERWEIGHTS

First round: Thatch put him down but he’s back up. Hard knee by Thatch. High kick by Thatch. Knee to the body by Thatch and then he threw him down. Another knee by Thatch and then another. Thatch is looking great. More knees and Edwards is down again and it was stopped. Very impressive debut for Thatch.

PAPY ABEDI VS. DYLAN ANDREWS, MIDDLEWEIGHTS

First round: Abedi with a body kick. Abedi wth a kick to the body. Abedi connected to the chin and moved in. Abedi picked him up overhead and slammed him down. He moved into side control. Andrews up and took Abedi down but Abedi back up. Abedi took him back down with an inside trip. Abedi with a judo throw for another takedown. Andrews up and went for takedown. Abedi tried a guillotinebut Andrews blocked it. Andrews got a takedown. Abedi 10-9

Second round: Abedi throwing body kicks. Hard body kick by Abedi. Andrews with a takedown but Abedi right back up. Abedi landed a right hook and took Andrews down. Knee to the body by Abedi and two hard lefts. Abedi again working for a guillotine but gave it up. Now Abedi with punches. Andrews back up. Andrews with an accidental groin strike as the round ended. Abedi’s round up 20-18.

Thrid round: Andrews with a punch but Abedi tied him up. Andrews hurt him with uppercuts, put Abedi down and landed punches on the ground and Herb Dean stopped it. Andrews with a right, a nice uppercut and Abedi went down. Abedi couldn’t move and Andrews finished him with punches on the ground.

Andrews said that when he took the judo throw in the first round that his left shoulder cracked and apologized for his performance. He said the uppercut is his money shot.

BUBBA MCDANIEL VS. BRAD TAVARES, MIDDLEWEIGHTS

First round: McDaniel landed a left. McDaniel trying to get a takedown but Tavares blocked it and got free from the clinch. Tavares with a nice right. Hard left by McDaniel. Tavares threw a punch and threw down McDaniel but let himback up. Both are throwing body kicks. Tavares with a series of punches. McDaniel working for a takedown but not getting it. McDaniel threw a knee to the groin. Tavares nailed his right leg which is all rasberried already. 10-9 Tavares.

Second round: Tavares landing punches. Body kick by Tavares. Tavares landed a punch and McDaniel stumbled down but Tavares didn’t go to the ground with him. Body kick. McDaniel got a takedown as Tavares threw a punch. Body kick by Tavares. McDaniel got a clinch and Tavares got the takedown but then got up. Tavares is avoiding going to the ground wth McDaniel. Tavares 20-18.

Third round: McDaniel landed a good left. High kick by McDaniel but blocked. Tavares with a kick to the groin and McDaniel went down hard. McDaniel had complained seconds earlier on a knee to the groin in a clinch. Trading body kicks. McDaniel got the takedown. McDaniel didn’t go for anything on the ground as Tavares didn’t open up. He remained on top of Tavares for the rest of the round but didn’t do major damage or attempt any submissions. McDaniel won the round but should lose the fight 29-28.

Scores: All three have it 29-28 for Tavares

ERIK PEREZ VS. TAKEYA MIZUGAKI, BANTAMWEIGHTS

First round: Both traded early. Mizugaki landed a hard left. Preez landed a hard left as well. Both continuing to land hard shots. Perez with a knee and Mizugaki back with a punch. Perez landed a nice right. Big right by Mizugaki. Perez with a takedown. Perez bleeding from the nose. Mizugaki back up. Perez looking for another takedown and got it. Perez with another takedown. Knee by Perez as Mizugaki got up. Mizugaki got the takedown and has his back. Perez back up and landed a knee to the body. Perez trying for another takedown and got it. Mizugaki back up. Good first round 10-9 Perez.

Second round: Both are trading punches. Mizugaki getting the better of it. Knee by Mizugaki. Perez moved in and working for a takedown but didn’t get it. Mizugaki landing good shots. Mizugaki went for a takedown but didn’t get it. Perez with a right. Mizugaki landing several good shots. Perez trying for a takedown. Mizugaki blocking the takedown this time. Good knee by Perez. Hard right by Mizugaki. Knee by Perez. Front kick by Perez. Perez tried for a takedown but couldn’t get it. Mizugaki’s round so 19-19 after two.

Third round: Both trading punches Mizugaki landing the better shots. Front kick by Perez and Mizugaki back with punches. Front kick by Perez. Again both trading punches and Mizugaki got the takedown. Perez back up. Perez got the takedown but Mizugaki back up. Mizugaki got the takedown and is on top. Mizugaki got his back. Mizugaki got the choke Perez escaped and they’re trading punches. That was something. Perez getting out because that choke was in. Perez trying for a takedown. Perez got him down but Mizugaki back up. Both throwing late. Mizugaki’s round. Very good fight, 29-28 Mizugaki.

Scores: 29-28 Perez, 29-28 Mizugaki 29-28 Mizugaki

C.M. Punk noticeable in the front row right next to Dana White.

ROBERT WHITTAKER VS. COURT MCGEE, WELTERWEIGHTS

First round: McGee aggressively going for a takedown but can’t get it. McGee landed some punches. High kick by McGee. Whittaker snuck in a left. Low kick by McGee. Right by Whittaker. Whittaker dropped him with a left. Anther left by Whittaker connected. McGee got the takedown but Whittaker back up. McGee keeping a fast pace. McGee bleeding from the left side of the head. 10-9 Whittaker

Second round: Body kick by McGee. McGee hurt him with a punch. Whittaker went down. McGee just keeping the pressure on. He landed an elbow. Now body shots. McGee’s conditioning is making the difference. McGee got the takedown. Body kick by McGee. Elbow snuck in by Whittaker. Left by Whittaker. McGee shot for a takedown. Whittaker with an uppercut and a left. McGee went for a takedown but it was blocked. Whittaker landed left and a high kick. McGee’s round so 19-19 going into the third. Good fight.

Third round: Whittaker landed a few. McGee with a left. Spin kick by to the body by McGee. Hard left by Whittaker. Left by Whittaker. Whittaker landed a left hook. Elbow by Whittaker. McGee went for a takedown but Whittaker blocked it. Both men bleeding. McGee moving forward and is the aggressor. McGee taking over late. Whittaker landed a left. Very close fight, I think McGee won this late in the third.

Scores: 30-27, Whittaker 30-27 McGee 29-28 McGee. That was weird scoring. Either guy could have won here.

KELVIN GASTELUM VS. BRIAN MELANCON, WELTERWEIGHTS

First round: Gastelum took him right down. Melancon right up. Another takedown by Gastluem and pnches. Gastelum landed hard shots and grabbed a choke for the tap out. It was a left, a right, a left uppercut that put Melancon down and he immediately grabbed the choke.

COWBOY CERRONE VS. RAFAEL DOS ANJOS, LIGHTWEIGHTS

First round: Both trading body kicks right now. Knee by Cerrone to the body. Dos Anjos still landing more. Dos Anjos with another body kick. Body kick by Cerrone, Dos Anjos decked him with a right. Dos Anjos took him down. Cerone working for a triangle but Dos Anjos defending well. Dos Anjos with punches and an elbow . Dos Anjos working from the top. Dos Anjos with more elbows and punches from the top. Big elbow by Dos Anjos. Dos Anjos 10-9.

Second round: Body kick by Dos Anjos. Another body kick by Dos Anjos. Dos Anjos with punches and a body kick. Dos Anjos landed a good left and a knee and a body kick. Dos Anjos with a body shot and a left high kick. Body kick by Cerrone but Dos Anjos back. Takedown by Cerrone. Cerrone working for a guillotine but had to give it up. Dos Anjos back up. Dos Anjos working for a takedown. Cerrone blocke it. Trading body kicks. Left by Dos Anjos. Dos Anjos working for a takedown and this time got it. Dos Anjos won this round as well so should be up 20-18.

Third round: Dos Anjos missed a high kick. Hard low kick by Cerrone. Dos Anjos with a high kick. Body kick by Cerrone. Body kick by Cerrone. Dos Anjos working for a takedown. Cerrone blocking. Right by Dos Anjos an a left. Knee by Cerrone. Body kick by Dos Anjos. Body kick and a right by Cerrone. Dos Anjos trying for a takedown but Cerrone blocked it. Knee by Cerrone and front kick. Body shot by Cerrone. Good right by Dos Anjos. Dos Anjos stalling, dancing backwards at the end. Cerrone’s round but he should lose 29-28 Dos Anjos.

Scores: All three have it 29-28 for Dos Anjos

CARLOS CONDIT VS. MARTIN KAMPMANN, WELTERWEIGHTS

First round: Kampmann immediatley shot for a takedown. Condit defending well. But he got Condit down. Kampmann throwing some punches on the ground. Kampamnn now has his back and is working for a choke. Condit is in toruble now. Condit escaped and got on top. Kampmann up. Kampmann got another takedown. Condit up and landed elbows. Condit came in with punches. Kampamnn took him down again. 10-9 Kampmann.

Second round: Left by Kampmann. Kampmann landed a left and going for a takedown. Condit with puches. Kampmann trying for a takedown but didn’t get it. Condit got his back standing. Elbow by Condit. Condit landing punches. Trading rights. Kampmann in with punches. Condit landed two rights. Condit with a body kick. Both landing punches but Condit was getting the better of it. Kampmann with a solid right. Spinning backfist by Condit. Kampmann working for a takedown. Kampmann tried a takedown but slipped off and Condit tried to control him but Kampmann out. Left kick landed by Condit. Kampmann going for a a takedown but Condit with a kick and an elbow. Condit’s round 19-19

Third round: Spinning backfist by Condit. Kampmann in with punches and Condit with an elbow. Kampmann got the takedown. Condit landing punches. High kick by Condit. Condit with solid punches and Kampmann now bleeding. Kampmann tried for a takedown and didn’t get it. Kampmann with punches. Condit now landing punches. Kampmann with a left. Condit with a right. Condit landing several punches. Condit continuing to land and Kampmann dancing backwards. High kick and punches by Condit and Kampmann dancing away. Knee by Condit. Condit tried a choke, got him down and Condit working for choke. Kampmann is out. Condit got his back. Condit again working for a choke. Condit landing more punches. 10-9 Condit, would be 10-8.5 with halfs. 29-28 Condit after three.

Fourth round: Kampamnn got the takedown. Now both going for a takedown but Condit broke free. Trading punches and Condit has him in trouble.  Knees by Condit and Kampmann went down. Ref Herb Dean stopped it. :54

TNA REACTION TO HULK WANTING BISCHOFF IN CHARGE OF THE COMPANY!

As we noted on PWInsider.com, Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff took part in a Q&A in Toronto over the weekend as part of the Fan Expo event. A fan asked Hogan what could finally be done to make TNA successful.
Hogan said that Eric Bischoff "needed to be given the keys to the car" and that, "somebody somewhere" needed to "drop all the resources we need like we had in the WWE and the WWF, whether it be cameras or money or vehicles or advertising" in order for TNA to work "in a perfect world."
In asking around about what TNA's response to the comments were, I was told that a number of people within the company were upset about the statement for several reasons and that there's absolutely heat on the duo for even insinuating that the Carter family wasn't giving TNA proper resources.
As one source noted, no matter how you feel about her, the comments can't be seen as anything but a direct slap in the face to TNA President Dixie Carter, coming from her top paid talent, no less.
"Even if you agreed with Hulk, " said one TNA wrestler that spoke under condition of anomynity, "the way it was said and the way it comes across in that video just completely disrespected Dixie, even if that's not what he meant."
Two, the reality is that to many in the company, Bischoff has been given the keys to the car. From the day he and Hogan came into the company, TNA management has acquiesced to their creative direction and ideas - whether it be talent that was brought in, the removal of the six-sided ring, the failure that came with moving Impact Wrestling to Mondays opposite Raw, leaving the Impact Zone and taking TNA on the road, etc. These were all ideas that came from the Bischoff/Hogan era that TNA agreed to under the auspice of growing the company.
The problem with all that is, as one source noted, there has been no growth in any facet of TNA's business since The Bischoff/Hogan regime began - not in live events, not in ratings, not in licensing - not in any one department or aspect of the promotion.
Instead, the company went on the road and didn't see the estimated revenue that they believed would come with it, forcing them to restructure from the ground up and putting them into a position where they have to be the "evil company" letting Jesse Soresen go and have to be in a position where money is an issue re-signing their original poster boy, AJ Styles.
At the same time, TNA has paid Hogan a good salary and put Bischoff into a position where he became the conduit and liason between Spike and TNA, even before Dixie Carter, who created and cultivated the relationship between the two sides.
So, the pair continue to reap the rewards of being part of the company while others have lost their jobs, have had their deals restructured for less money and watch as the company continues to, at best, run on a treadmill and at worse, slide backwards.  To put it in layman's terms, TNA is putting out more money to be exactly where they were, or worse, in comparison to before Bischoff/Hogan's regime began.
So, for Hogan to say that TNA should just hand Bischoff a blank check and full power, well, you can imagine how much all that has endeared the duo inside the TNA offices this week, especially when everyone's work and deals have been scrutinized closely in recent months.
A number of people noted that they would be waiting to see what the interaction between the duo and Dixie Carter would be at tonight's taping in Cleveland, the first time Hogan has been at a TNA taping in a month.
"Hulk came across like he pretty much said that the company didn't have anyone strong in charge and Eric was the savior," said the TNA wrestler.  "Well, they've been here years and Eric hasn't saved anyone yet."

SAMI CALLIHAN GETS HIS OFFICIAL WWE NAME!

Former CZW and Dragon Gate USA star Sami Callihan's official WWE name is Solomon Crowe.

Whole Ted DiBiase Jr.-WWE Story!

Ted DiBiase Jr., 30, announced on 8/26 that he was leaving the company. He will be entering a religious-based private business in the Jackson, MS, area, where he and his family live. He cut a video praising the company for its charity work, saying that he had some amazing life experiences there, traveling the world and even starring in a movie (“The Marine 2"). He said he’s not saying he wouldn’t come back, but there were other dreams and passions he would like to pursue, one of which was being a Dad. We’d heard for quite some time he was considering leaving, and the timing is that his contract just expired. He hadn’t been used well and it didn’t appear there were any plans to do anything with him, so he wanted to move on to whatever was next in his life. DiBiase Jr. is a unique situation because the company hand-picked him to be a top star years ago. Cena at one point had openly in the press talked about DiBiase as a guy he would headline WrestleMania with and as one of the next superstars of the company. But it never happened. Some of it was timing and some of it was bad luck. He was tall, good looking, great physique and a solid worker, all things they like. He could have made it but he was missing something that stands out, and he was a guy totally given up on after injuries. DiBiase Jr. was originally trained by Chris Romero and Harley Race, and worked as a tag team with older brother Mike DiBiase, who is now out of the business. A third brother, Brett DiBiase, was in WWE developmental and at one time scheduled to be brought in with a push, but the idea fell apart and Brett DiBiase’s career ended early, in 2011, due to having undergone four knee operations already by the age of 22. 

He started with Pro Wrestling NOAH and got raves for being smooth in the ring while having so little experience, and then was signed by WWE in July 2007, and was brought in with a push on May 26, 2008, immediately winning the tag team titles with Cody Rhodes. For the next three years he was in the position of the young guy being groomed, with Orton, Rhodes and DiBiase as Legacy. He also, very quickly, was given the lead role in “Marine 2,” and things were looking bright for him. The original idea was for him to turn face at around the time the movie came out and get a big singles push. They started teasing dissension between Orton and DiBiase, and the crowd was behind DiBiase, but they went nowhere with it and I don’t think he ever recovered. When they split up the group, Orton was the one who went face and destroyed both of them in the feud, winning a WrestleMania match and then DiBiase was moved to Smackdown. He was given the Million Dollar Man gimmick of his father, and that flopped for a number of reasons. His father’s role was iconic and while DiBiase was a solid ring technician, he was not the personality of his father. The story was that his father left him huge money in a trust fund that he would get as soon as he appeared in a WrestleMania. They even brought in Virgil, his father’s bodyguard, to work with him as his servant. That didn’t work. Aside from the fact it wasn’t going to work anyway because he lacked the personality to play the role that his father had, and the natural comparison made him come across secondary, they never put the gimmick over. With his father, he bought everyone for months until he couldn’t buy the top babyfaces. 

With DiBiase, the money didn’t buy anything of note, and in his first PPV match with the gimmick, lost to R-Truth. Eventually they linked him with Maryse as his hot girlfriend, but the two had embarrassingly bad chemistry together. Even before they started the tension, their on-screen demeanor made it clear there was no romance or chemistry. Then they gave him the Million Dollar belt that his father used as a gimmick. He went nowhere with the gimmick, and once the gimmick was dropped, he and Maryse were broken up, and he went face, they really had nothing for him. On his own, he came up with the idea of the DiBiase Posse, where he’d tailgate with fans before the Smackdown tapings. Vince McMahon loved the idea, but they never got behind it. He did get an undercard push at the end of 2011, but was used to put newcomer Jinder Mahal over clean, and then was in an undercard feud with Hunico. Even before this we’d heard he was thinking about leaving wrestling if his career didn’t turn around. In early 2012, he suffered a broken ankle, and since he had to be out of action anyway, he opted to get long-needed shoulder surgery. He appeared only sparingly on TV and house shows after his return last July. He also suffered a broken wrist and a finger injury in December and didn’t return until this past May, but had been rarely used since. We’ve been told that for now, he’s just looking at taking time off. Even though he was rarely used, he was at TV all the time. Long-term, he’s been interested in pursuing acting for years and when we had first heard he was looking at leaving, that was what he was interested in. There is also thoughts of doing some pro wrestling, perhaps in Japan, where he started, but the Japanese scene, and in particular Pro Wrestling NOAH, is very different now than it was when he was there at the start of his career.

Bill Goldberg comments on possible WrestleMania Appearence and on Ryback!

Bill Goldberg has agreed to be one of the headline autograph signing participants and do a Q&A for WrestleCon this year in New Orleans over WrestleMania weekend. While that doesn’t rule him out appearing for WWE, since plenty of people, including Bruno Sammartino just this past year, have been scheduled ahead of time for something like that and ended up working with WWE, in some cases being pulled, it does indicate that Goldberg probably right now doesn’t think he’s doing it. There was talk of him, and I don’t know it’s with Ryback, although it would seem to make the most sense business-wise (in the ring is another issue, but any Goldberg match would have to be kept short). He denied that he agreed to it, although the way we heard it was not he agreed to it but that there was talk of dealing with him since it’s Mania and they’ve been accustomed to bringing in someone special from the outside. Goldberg got some pub over the weekend for throwing out the first pitch at a Miami Marlins baseball game (they brought in a lot of wrestlers including Bret Hart and had a show, a deal put together by Brian Knobs). When asked by the Miami Herald about coming back to wrestle with WWE, he said he had spoken with them, that there was no deal to do WrestleMania, but there were eight months to go and not to count him out of doing the show. 

He said he’s not a fan of Ryback and not impressed with him, but if he was to come back, he’d rather face Undertaker. Besides WWE coming out with a Goldberg DVD, he’s also in the new WWE video game. He said, “Have I spoken to them at times? Absolutely. Is my DVD coming out? Yes. Am I going to be at WrestleMania. No. But there is eight months until WrestleMania. So, at this moment I can tell you I’m not planning to be there by any stretch of the imagination, but you never know. Things could change. If the offer is to go to WrestleMania and to wrestle (Ryback) and put him over, at the end of the today, me in the ring with Ryback, wouldn’t be my ultimate opponent of my choosing. I’d like to wrestle Undertaker with the streak vs. streak. You know, I’ve never gotten in the ring with him. Let’s give the people something they’ve never seen before. I think after everybody sees what I did out there, I can still do everything I used to do, even at 46. I’d love to wrestle him. Obviously, Austin is a dream match, but the reality is I just want to give the people what they want to see.” Goldberg said on Ryback, “I got more talent in one finger than that punk has in his entire body. I have, at 46-years-old, more presence than he could have in his entire life. The only reason I’m adamantly antagonized is because he has opened his mouth of couple of times of late, I guess he was over in Europe and said he took a big Goldberg or something. Ask HHH. I don’t like people talking about me when I’m not in the business. Ryback, if I see you around, you better hold on tight. That’s all I got to say. This ain’t the WWE. This is called life.”

Whole TNA BFG Series Situation!

The Bound for Glory series turned into a mess this week. Here’s the situation. In a 12-man round robin tournament, where everyone wrestles each other (like G-1, for example), you need to have 11 matches. Well, since they announced the final four would be on the 9/12 show in St. Louis, they had 37 different matches still needed to do with one television taping on 8/29 in Cleveland, and four house shows, before 9/12. So they’re out of time. So they’ve announced that the series will end after the first of the two shows taped on 8/29, called Must Win Thursday, with Hernandez vs. Frankie Kazarian, Christopher Daniels vs. Austin Aries, A.J. Styles vs. Bobby Roode and Jeff Hardy vs. Magnus. When those matches are over, the top four point-getters will be announced for St. Louis. So in the end, Magnus will have done 5 matches, Roode will have done 6, Aries will have done 6, Samoa Joe will have done 6, Hardy will have done 6, Ken Anderson will have done 6, Daniels will have done 5, Styles will have done 6, Kazarian will have done 5, Joseph Park will have done 5, Hernandez will have done 5 and Jay Bradley will have done 4. It’s things like this that show just how little time is actually spent in planning because you could have done blocks like in Japan to and just laid it all out to get to the end result instead of all of a sudden you can’t see it’s done on the fly like the first year under Vince Russo and it’s a complete mess. 

The claim now is that it was never a round-robin tournament, and on TV they never used those terms, but it was used to me on more tan one occasion and it was last year, which was the only year the tournament made any sense. They had all those house shows all summer where they could have done the matches, but didn’t plan it out to any level, and they had time to do all those gimmick matches without doing the core matches. The “It’s all fake so who cares” misses the point, because in a sports movie, which is all fake, when they book fake tournaments, they have at least the respect for their own product to have it make sense as if it was real. And there’s a reason G-1 had the interest it had in its culture and guaranteed, nobody would give a rats ass about it if it was done in this manner.

ROH News and Notes!

The IWGP jr. tag title will be defended for the first time in the U.S. in more than a year on the 9/20 show in Philadelphia, where The Forever Hooligans, Rocky Romero & Alex Koslov, will face The American Wolves, Eddie Edwards & Davey Richards. Richards & Edwards beat the Hooligans on 8/3 in Toronto to win the ROH tag team titles that the Hooligans had won from current ROH tag champs Bobby Fish & Kyle O’Reilly. Richards & Romero had held the titles before Richards had a falling out with New Japan over missing a scheduled tour and a PPV title defense. The show, called Death Before Dishonor, features the final four, Adam Cole, Kevin Steen, Michael Elgin and Tommaso Ciampa, in semifinals and finals of the ROH title tournament. It’ll be the first test of the company’s new version of iPPV, a video-on-demand of the show that will be available the day after the event, instead of live, thus lessening the possibility of technical issues.

There is at least talk of going back to live iPPVs relatively soon, which the company has had numerous problems with. Some of the decision making may be based on how well the numbers do for the next show, the first one the company has done that won’t be live.

Traditionally the company’s premier event of the year, Final Battle, takes place on 12/14 at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York.

ANother Former MMA Fighter Wants To Get Into Pro Wrestling!

Another name we’ve heard considering pro wrestling is Stephan Bonnar, 36, who just retired as an MMA fighter. Bonnar is a very good talker and excellent in vignettes (some of the stuff he and Forrest Griffin did together was hysterical, particularly in the Anderson Silva vs. Bonnar buildup). He wants to get into WWE and Bonnar is close with Dave Bautista, and in fact was Bautista’s main training partner when Bautista did his lone MMA fight. The only negative is that starting at 36 is pretty tough. The only guys I can recall who started that late and really made it in pro wrestling to a big level were DDP and Badnews Allen.

Pro Wrestling NOAH News and Notes!

Naomichi Marufuji’s 15th anniversary show was on 8/24 at Korakuen Hall before a sellout of 2,100 fans featuring the appearances of Shinsuke Nakamura, Jushin Liger and Tiger Mask from New Japan. Nakamura & Marufuji in the main event lost to KENTA & Takashi Sugiura in 20:39 when Sugiura pinned Marufuji with the Yonemitsu slam. The Yonemitsu slam was one of the big moves of Tatsuhiro Yonemitsu, who won the gold medal at 145 pounds in the 2012 Olympics in freestyle wrestling. Sugiura, who was a high-ranking amateur years back before joining NOAH, has trained with him. KENTA did shove the GHC title in Nakamura’s face and they worked spots together so going in that direction was at least teased. TMDK of Mikey Nicholls & Shane Haste retained the GHC tag titles beating Yoshihito Sasaki & Shinya Ishikawa in 16:39 when Nicholls pinned Sasaki. Liger & Tiger Mask retained the GHC jr. title beating Genba Hirayanagi & Maybach Suwa Jr. in 16:07 when Liger pinned Suwa Jr. with a brainbuster. Liger & Tiger Mask attacked the mask of Maybach Suwa Jr., until he got tired of it and tore his own mask off, revealing himself as Hajime Ohara, which is pretty much what most knew. After the match, Daisuke Harada came out with rookie Hitoshi Kumano and challenged Liger & Tiger Mask for the belts. 

Takeshi Morishima returns on 10/5 in Yokohama. He has asked for it to be in a singles match with Kensuke Sasaki. 

To help build up the upcoming KENTA vs. Nicholls GHC heavyweight title match, there was a trios match on 8/17 in Hamamatsu where Nicholls & Shane Haste (from Australia) & Kaiser (from South America) beat KENTA & Takashi Sugiura & Genba Hirayanagi when Nicholls pinned KENTA with a power bomb in 23:21.

The way things stand right now, KENTA defends first against Haste on 9/7 at Differ Ariake and then against Nicholls on 9/16 in Fukuoka.

All Japan News and Notes!

The big show of the month and really the biggest show since the split with Keiji Muto’s crew, was on 8/25 at Ota Ward Gym in Tokyo. It drew an announced 1,304 fans, but the real number was 1,059. Either way it was a major negative for the first major show of the new era, held in a 3,800-seat arena. This was a major negative and fans are saying how Nobuo Shiraishi is killing the company. It was just a negative vote of confidence regarding Shiraishi that on 8/27 he announced that he would soon be relinquishing his post as president. He said that the new president would be either Suwama, Masa Fuchi or Masao Inoue. Suwama immediately said that he knows nothing about management and shouldn’t be president. Fuchi then said it should be Suwama as president and Jun Akiyama as Vice President, based on the old Japanese tradition in wrestling where the top guy in the company is made president. While that did work historically with Rikidozan, Giant Baba and even Mitsuharu Misawa and you can argue Antonio Inoki (even though Hisashi Shinma really handled the booking and business in the growth of New Japan), the idea that the guy who fits best as the top star of the promotion is the same guy who should make the business decisions is an antiquated notion and it’s not like this company is in such great shape popularity and business-wise right now that they should choose their president based on symbolism. 

The crowd was considered a real bad sign when Keiji Muto’s group, without having even announced a match, sold out its debut show the first day tickets went on sale, so the feeling is that it’s showed that the fans are taking Muto’s group as the real future of All Japan rather than All Japan.

For 8/25, in the main event, Suwama retained the Triple Crown pinning Go Shiozaki in 35:02 after a Last Ride power bomb. People were raving about the match. Suwama announced that the new Triple Crown belt, which will be one modern belt instead of the three old ones dating back to the 60s and 70s, would be unveiled on the 10/27 show at Sumo Hall. I don’t know if they’re billing it as the 41st anniversary show. The company has traditionally promoted a big late October anniversary show.

The first-ever All Japan Pro Wrestling show was October 21, 1972, in Tokyo, headlined by Bruno Sammartino & Terry Funk beating Giant Baba & Thunder Sugiyama (Japan’s Greco-Roman heavyweight in the 1964 Olympics) via count out. 

The three original Triple Crown belts have been given to Motoko Baba, Giant Baba’s widow. Yoshinobu Kanemaru retained the jr. title pinning Hikaru Sato in 22:28 after a brainbuster. The two shook hands and may be becoming a tag team. Kotaro Suzuki & Atsushi Aoki retained the All-Asia tag titles beating Drago & Argenis from AAA, with Aoki pinning Argenis in 11:54. On the undercard, president Nobuo Shiraishi made his debut, in what was billed as an exhibition match. Masahiro Chono & Joe Doering beat Kenso & Shiraishi in 8:52 when Chono used the STF on Shiraishi. Shiraishi wrestled in a robot suit but took his mask off. After the match, Doering laid out Shiraishi, who then said it was both his first and his last match.

Takeshi Morishima returns from being out with injuries on 9/15 at the Yokohama Bunka Gym, facing Kensuke Sasaki. 

They had a world tag title match on the 8/17 show at Hakata Star Lanes in Fukuoka, but only drew 452 fans as Jun Akiyama & Go Shiozaki retained the titles beating Suwama & Takao Omori in 33:26 when Shiozaki pinned Omori after a lariat.

At the 9/7 show at Differ Ariake, headlined by KENTA vs. Shane Haste for the GHC title, there are three New Japan wrestlers scheduled. Liger faces Daisuke Harada and Tiger Mask & Yuji Nagata face Mohammed Yone & Hitoshi Kumano. Fenix from AAA is also on the next tour.

Dragon Gate News and Notes!

After Cima’s 19-month reign as Open the Dream Gate champion and 15 title defenses, new champ Shingo Takagi failed on his first title defense on 8/23 at Korakuen Hall, as Yamato pinned him in 27:27 with a Frankensteiner before 1,850 fans. After the match, Ryo Saito issued a challenge to new champion Yamato for a match on 9/12 at Korakuen Hall. Eita & Tomahawk T.T., who have been based in Mexico and also wrestling in the U.S. for Dragon Gate USA, return on that show. The show also had an elimination match that went 29:28 with BxB Hulk & Kzy & Mondai Ryu & Uhaa Nation beating Naruki Doi & Masato Yoshino & Ricochet & Shachihoko Boy. It came down to Hulk vs. Yoshino with Hulk getting the win.

I guess the iPPV outside of Japan of the Kobe big show must have died because there is nothing on the schedule for a new iPPV and the 8/23 show would have been it. 

They went to Nara in Okinawa on 8/25 for what was pushed as the Doi Homecoming, and had Jushin Liger from New Japan on the show, which drew 1,350 fans. Liger & Dragon Kid & K-Ness lost in the main event to Doi & Yoshino & Ricochet when Doi pinned K-Ness. 

They had two big shows over the previous weekend in Fukuoka on 8/18 and Nobeoka on 8/19. The first night at Hakata Star Lanes drew 1,700 fans, with Hulk pinning Tozawa, and the main event was The Jimmys beating Team Veteran in an elimination match where Horiguchi & Saito & Jimmy Susumu & Jimmy Kanda beat Masaaki Mochizuki & K-Ness & Dragon Kid & Gamma. It came down to Saito pinning K-Ness when they were the last two. Cima is injured but appeared and gave speeches at both shows. In Nobeoka, the main event saw Mochizuki & K-Ness & Dragon Kid beat Horiguchi & Saito & Kanda in 18:26 to win the Open the Triangle Gate title.

Don “The Lawman” Slatton Biography!

Don “The Lawman” Slatton, a colorful local promoter and home town wrestling star during the 60s and 70s for matches every week at the Taylor County Coliseum in Abilene, TX, passed away on 8/23, at the age of 77.

He had been in bad shape from a recent stroke and had also been suffering from Alzheimer’s, which one close friend said was likely due to all the hard way shots with chairs, as his reputation was to take brutal shots to the head with weapons in his role as the tough street fighter who was regularly featured in some of the bloodiest gimmick matches in West Texas history. At least six times between 1967 and 1978 he held the area’s Brass Knux title, which would be taped fist matches, and later in his career he was known as the King of the Russian chain matches as well as a specialist in Texas death matches.

In wrestling folklore, Slatton is best known for a May 10, 1978, match, on a show he promoted in Abilene, where he faced Harley Race for the NWA title in a chain match.

Slatton, better known as The Lawman, was billed locally as never having lost a chain match, and because he was facing Race under his rules, there was a big push that the hometown star was going to win the world title, and the crowd was way up from usual.

Race’s version of the story is that he got a phone call earlier in the day from Bob Geigel, the promoter in Kansas City, Race’s home territory and Race’s business partner at the time, asking if he was working with Slatton that night. When Race told him he was, Geigel told Race not to show up, saying he had been tipped off that Slatton was going to use the chain match rules of touching all four corners to try and steal the title. Race told Geigel not to worry because he was Harley Race. Some wrestlers might get double-crossed, but Race was one of the most feared real street fighters in the game, as opposed to Slatton, who was a tough guy in his youth, but was in his mid-40s by that time and nobody messed in those days with Race.

Race joked to Geigel that surely Slatton wouldn’t be that stupid to try something like that on him.

Race’s version of the story is that the finish he got in the dressing room from the runners (usually the officials, who would go between the face and heel dressing room as in those days everyone was kept separate) was that Slatton would drag him to three corners, and be on the verge of winning, struggling to hit the fourth corner, when a heel would come out and distract Slatton, who would cost Slatton the match and the title, and lead to his next program. Terry Funk would then come out for the save, but in the commotion Race would knock Slatton out with the chain and touch all four corners to win.

Everything was going as planned. The heel came out. Nobody involved seem to be able to remember who it was. Given who was on the card, it would have been Roger Kirby, Mr. Pogo, Lord Jonathan Boyd, who for some reason that name rings a bell with this story, or Rip Hawk, who had been one of Slatton’s biggest career rivals a few years earlier. Anyway, whoever it was came out, and Funk came out as well, but Slatton made sure there was slack in the chain and Race was unaware, and Slatton, instead of being distracted, touched the fourth corner. The place exploded. Slatton had just won the world heavyweight championship.

He quickly took the chain off and rushed off to the dressing room, not even taking the belt with him, figuring being in the ring with Race in that situation in his home town, where he was the local hero and had a reputation to uphold as a tough guy, was not the best idea. The fans were still celebrating and shocked, because Slatton was hardly a guy anyone expected to win the world heavyweight championship, even if this was his specialty match and it was noted he had beaten Race under chain match rules several times when both were younger in the late 60s.

The referee, a young Tongan former sumo wrestler just getting started and being trained for All Japan, using the name Tonga Fifita (who later became a star as Haku and Meng) was smart enough to know that the title wasn’t changing hands that night and even though Slatton was the guy paying him that night, never signaled for the bell. Slatton was gone and Race, first making sure the inexperienced ref wasn’t going to call the match, took off after him.

Race’s version of the story as told to people over the years is that he ran through the crowd, not even stopping to take the chain off, went to the babyface dressing room and found Slatton hiding in the shower. Race said he slapped him twice, dragged him to the ring and punched him a few times, and then dragged him around the ring, even though he no longer had the chain on, touching all four corners. Fifita then ordered for the bell, and told the ring announcer to announce that Race, and not Slatton was the winner, and still world champion. Some of the fans had left. The ones who hadn’t couldn’t figure out what they were just seeing. There had been no actual announcement made about Slatton winning since he and Race were both in the dressing room before the announcement could be made and Fifita never made the call.

In Race’s book, “King of the Ring,” the story differed slightly, with Race saying that he got to Slatton before Slatton left the ring, that he started throwing real slaps and punches, and then dragged him around the ring and Fifita called for the bell.

Race in his book claimed he then went to the babyface dressing room, where he heard Slatton and Funk laughing, opened the door and started swinging the chain, smashed lockers and chairs while Slatton curled into a ball saying, “Please, Harley, don’t hit me! Don’t hit me! I’m sorry! I’m sorry!”

He claimed Funk then yelled at Slatton for trying to double-cross Race, but Race suggested that Funk may have been behind it from the beginning.

In other versions, Race said that he went back to his own dressing room, but ended up so mad, that he went back to the other side of the building. This time Slatton had locked the door, so Race kicked in the door. But Slatton was already gone, and he threw a few chairs against the wall, went back to his side of the building, then took his shower and went to the next town.

Funk said he remembered the story, but what he remembered is that after Slatton double-crossed Race, that Race went to the dressing room, knocked down the door, and Slatton was pleading with Race not to punch him, saying he lost count and thought he was touching the third turnbuckle and it was all a mistake. Race’s version was also similar, saying, “Slatton lied through his teeth, claiming it was an accident. After screaming a steam of profanities at Slatton and kicking him a couple of times, I let the poor bastard go.”

Funk said that Slatton always stuck to the story to him it was an accident, although what happened next would suggest otherwise.

Slatton had to know that he wasn’t going to be declared world champion, no matter how well the double-cross went.

The next day, the local Abilene Reporter story, likely coming from Slatton, reported that The Lawman had beaten the world champion, Race, but it had been changed to a non-title chain match.

Slatton then purchased himself a belt and billed himself locally as the world chain match champion, and started defending it on his cards. On his biggest show of the year a few months later, with a triple main event of Andre the Giant vs. The Sheik, Dory Funk Jr. & Terry Funk vs. David & Kevin Von Erich for the Texas tag team titles, Lawman defended his chain match championship against Abdullah the Butcher.

In 1979, Race was back in the territory on a card with Slatton and saw a belt on the bench in the dressing room which read, “World champion chain wrestler.” He said Slatton walked in and Race took the belt and told Slatton, “You won’t be needing this,” and left with it.

He said Slatton begged him not to take it because he spent a lot of money on it. By NWA bylaws, which could be ignored when convenient, no NWA promoter could bill someone as world champion who wasn’t the recognized NWA champion.

“There’s no earthly reason for you to have this, and I’m not leaving here without it,” Race claimed that he said to Slatton while taking the belt.

“To this day, I don’t remember what I did with the stupid belt. I just know Slatton never got it back.”

At about the same time, Abilene dried up as a wrestling city and stopped being run weekly, and instead became an every-so-often stop on the Dallas territory, with the Von Erichs replacing The Lawman and The Funks as the big stars.

By that point, The Funk Brothers, ahead of the curve of what wrestling was turning into, had sold the territory to Bob Windham (Blackjack Mulligan), Dick Murdoch and Mario Savoldi, and it died in 1981, after the new owners had suffered heavy financial losses.

Known as The Lawman, because he was a local law enforcement officer during the early part of his wrestling career, Slatton was a longtime regular in the Funk family’s Amarillo territory.

During the heyday of the promotion, they would run Abilene and El Paso, which was run by Gori Guerrero (the father of Chavo Sr., Mando, Hector and Eddy Guerrero) on Mondays. El Paso was one of the best drawing cities on the circuit, but it was a 440-mile drive each away. But it had the advantage of being a border town so the wrestlers could raise hell in Mexico after the matches. Abilene was a 287-mile drive each way, but didn’t pay nearly as well. So Slatton was usually left with a secondary crew, although talent traded where they worked to keep things fresh and every major territorial star appeared frequently in Abilene.

Slatton wasn’t always the headliner or the top babyface, but he headlined frequently and at one time or another worked on top with every top heel in the territory. At times he worked the entire circuit, doing angles on Amarillo television, and at other times he just worked Abilene and cities in the area. While he was protected on TV, in Amarillo and many of the other cities, he often worked in prelims, although he had his secondary title matches at times. For all the time he was there, and all the headline matches he had, what is notable is that the famous Race match is the only one I could find a record of, in the West Texas territory, he ever had for the NWA title.

Terry Funk once categorized The Lawman as one of the original of what would later be called hardcore wrestlers. He was 6-foot-5, and both tall and lean for a wrestler of that era.

His reputation was that he could have heated brawls, had great hands from having a Golden Gloves boxing background (whether that was legitimate or not, who knows) but wasn’t particularly skilled as a wrestler. He was considered an excellent promo. Outside of Abilene, he wasn’t pushed as much of a star in the territory after the mid-70s, because he was older, and his role as the local cowboy street fighter was being used by Dick Murdoch, who was younger and a far superior performer.

He had a reputation from his youth in town of being a tough street fighter. He started wrestling in 1961 as a part-timer while working in law enforcement.

He got his photo in newspapers around the country shortly after his pro wrestling debut, as the tall, thin Slatton, arresting Billie Sol Estes, who became a national figure in a series of embezzling scandals who also had close business ties to future president Lyndon Johnson. There was belief that President John F. Kennedy was considering dropping Johnson from the Democratic ticket in 1964 because of his ties with Estes, before Kennedy was murdered on November 22, 1963. Years later, after Johnson died, Estes claimed that he had inside knowledge that Johnson had ties to the assassination of Kennedy, as well as seven other murders, but would not reveal the information unless he was given immunity from prosecution. The government refused, and few took seriously his allegation.

How much, if anything, Slatton may have had to do with the investigation that brought Estes down is unknown. A lot of the investigative work came from Oscar Griffin Jr., a reporter in Pecos, TX, who won the Pulitzer Prize. Slatton brought him in and Estes was convicted on charges related to fraudulent ammonia tank mortgages and sentenced to 24 years in prison. Some of his charges were overturned by the Supreme Court in 1965, on a 5-4 vote, by which time Johnson was president. As far as the other charges went, he was released from prison in 1971 on parole.

As Slatton became a full-time wrestler, he was known mostly as The Lawman.

He was a notorious ribber.

One of the most famous involved talking local star Jerry Kozak into driving from Amarillo into Abilene all night (a four-and-a-half hour trip although in those days wrestlers, who drove about 100 MPH could make it in three hours) for a 6 a.m. (some versions have it 5:30 a.m.) deer hunt. Kozak had all kinds of state of the art hunting equipment, but was never much of a hunter, almost never being able to shoot anything. He was also nicknamed Mr. Neat by the wrestlers, because he was always nice and clean in public to the point of almost ridicule.

Slatton had called him in the middle of the night, telling him to hurry to Abilene as he found a place crawling with deer. Slatton as part of the rib, had taken a stuffed dead deer and placed it on the top of a hill and tied it upright to a tree. Kozak was crawling on his belly in the mud and brush around the deer. Slatton figured Kozak would find the deer on his own, but he never did, even though he walked Kozak into the area time after time. Finally Slatton had to discover it for him but let Kozak take the shot.

“He (Kozak) had never killed a deer before in his life,” said Dory Funk Jr. “Kozak brought his gun up to eye level and fired the first shot.”

The deer never went down, nor moved, nor appeared was hurt. He shot the deer again, and again, the deer didn’t even move. Kozak freaked out.

Slatton told him that he must have missed him, and needed to get closer. Kozak, trying to make as little noise as possible so as not to scare the deer, crawled on his belly in the bed and brush, ruining his Mr. Neat look. He ended firing two more shots. With each shot, Kozak was getting more freaked out that the deer never went moved or went down. After three more shots, Kozak was out of ammunition. Kozak asked Slatton to go back to the truck and get more ammunition. Slatton returned with a new box of shells and Kozak put them in his rifle.

He was back crawling, now within 50 feet, thinking he was close enough that it was a can’t miss shot. He fired three more shots. Again nothing happened. He freaked out, lost his cool, ran at the deer and fired a perfect shot. Nothing happened.

Slatton was rolling on the ground laughing by this point and Kozak realized he was set up. He then looked at Slatton and said, “Don, please don’t tell the wrestlers about this.”

Slatton wasn’t about to let one of his finest moments be kept a secret. Within hours, wrestlers as far away as Tokyo were laughing about the story.

But his all-time classic was in 1973, involving then world champion Jack Brisco. At that point, Abilene had moved from Mondays to Fridays so it would have its own night and not have to share talent with El Paso. Dory Funk Jr. had been NWA world champion from 1969 to 1973. From 1971 on, Jack Brisco was the perennial top contender and was supposed to win the title on March 2, 1973, in Houston. However, Dory Funk Jr. suffered a separated shoulder in a ranch accident when a jeep overturned a few days before the title was to change hands. To this day. people debate whether or not Funk Jr.’s injury was legit. The Funks have always maintained it was legit, and Sam Muchnick, the NWA President, did get full documentation of the accident and the injury.

Still, Muchnick was skeptical. Houston promoter Paul Boesch was livid and never believed the story, nor did Eddie Graham, the Florida promoter and Brisco’s sponsor, or Brisco himself.

Funk Jr. returned from his injury and in his second week back, on May 24, 1973, he was ordered to drop the title to Race, in Kansas City, with Race picked partially due to his reputation as a street fighter. Race was to be a short-term champion, and Boesch got his promised title change when Brisco beat Race on July 20, 1973, at the Sam Houston Coliseum.

Whether this was planned by the Funks or just a silver lining from the dark cloud of the serious injury, Jack Brisco never beat Dory Funk Jr. in a world championship match. This made them natural opponents all over the country, but in West Texas, where the Funk family owned the promotion and were the top babyfaces, it was the strongest match possible. Dory Funk Jr. had been groomed from the start of his career to be a headliner, working on top against the biggest names in the business from early in his career.

A former college football star at West Texas State in Amarillo, who starred in the Sun Bowl, he was positioned in the area as the most skilled pro wrestler in the world. From the start of Funk Jr.’s career, his father would bring in wrestlers with legitimate backgrounds and Dory Jr. would hang with them in long technical matches. As the years went by, fans in Amarillo saw Funk Jr. outwrestle the biggest stars in the game. Dory Funk Sr. was positioned as the toughest old guy alive, the King of the Texas death matches.

With more than four straight years as world champion, Dory Jr. was the Texas native who made it good, only losing based on a disputed referee decision in Race’s home town. Everyone knew Brisco had faced Funk Jr. countless times, both in that territory and all over the country, since it was the most famous wrestling program of its era. And Brisco had never beaten Funk Jr. in a title match, meaning that for Texas fans, they believed, as good as Brisco was, Funk Jr. had proved for years he was superior.

Brisco wasn’t scheduled to come to West Texas until late September for a week stay. But Terry Funk and Slatton had an idea to convince Brisco and Sam Muchnick to get him in early, because of the feeling Brisco vs. Dory in their territory would do the biggest business possible with the dynamic at the time.

Brisco had moved from Tampa to Atlanta when he won the title. It was a more convenient airport to fly out of and he would be constantly traveling. Plus, Atlanta was in the middle of a nasty wrestling war. Brisco was given a percentage of ownership (which later played a part in 1984 when the Briscos got other owners to sell their stock to Vince McMahon) of Georgia Championship Wrestling to ensure he’d want to work the territory as much as possible, because he’d get a cut of the profits as well as a world champion payoff.

That week, Brisco was scheduled to work Georgia all week, with Atlanta, the state’s major city, on Friday, as well as a show with jacked up prices that Saturday night at the Bayfront Center in St. Petersburg against Funk Jr.

The idea Slatton had concocted was that the Texas Governor at the time, Dolph Briscoe Jr., wanted to meet Jack Brisco, his namesake, and there was some conjecture that the two were actually related. The idea is Slatton, with all his connections, would be able to set up a public meeting that would garner Brisco and the NWA all kinds of mainstream publicity.

So Muchnick, who booked Brisco, agreed for publicity that Brisco would be pulled from his home town and go from Georgia to Abilene, TX, early Friday morning, on August 31, 1973, for his afternoon meeting with the Governor, wrestle Funk Jr. in Abilene, and then the next morning, the two would fly to St. Petersburg.

The deal was made six weeks in advance, and with Slatton having that much time to promote the Brisco vs. Funk Jr. title match, billed as Funk Jr.’s first shot at Brisco (it actually was Funk Jr.’s first shot we can find a record of since Brisco had won the belt six weeks earlier), they sold out the 5,000 seat arena, impressive considering the population in the area was only 127,000 at the time and Abilene really wasn’t that strong of a city for wrestling for the most part. The big blow-off stip matches or world title matches only on rare occasions would hit 2,000 to 3,000 fans. Often, the Coliseum, was fairly empty.

The idea was they would do a 60-minute draw, which would build up a return match three weeks later, when Brisco was scheduled for his first full week in the territory, where they would do a 90-minute draw in the rematch, and keep the program going as long as they could in the city.

As the story goes, as told by Dory Funk Jr., Slatton thought Terry would contact the Governor’s office. Terry figured Slatton would. A few days before the show, Muchnick’s office called and they wanted publicity photos of Brisco with the governor. Muchnick also confirmed to the Amarillo office that Brisco asked if he could make a speech, and present the Governor with an honorary Brisco Brothers Body Shop T-shirt.

Slatton contacted Martin Pryor, a Ford car salesman in Abilene, for a favor. Pryor would masquerade as Governor Briscoe, provide a Red Lincoln Continental limousine as the Governor’s car, and one of Slatton’s ring attendants would dress up as the Governor’s Chauffeur.

All the wrestlers in the territory were told to keep quiet. They were also told to make sure Brisco was kept away from any fans or people in the city, for fear he’d find out the Governor wasn’t in Abilene for a big ceremony with Brisco. The fly in the ointment was that Ivan Putski was flying in for the show from Dallas, on the same connecting flight Brisco was on, and it was possible the two may talk on the flight and if Brisco brought up Gov. Briscoe, Putski may describe what he looked like, which was nothing close to what Pryor looked like.

Luckily, that didn’t happen, and when Putski got off the plane, Slatton grabbed him and told him the rib they were playing on Brisco to draw the full house.

Brisco came off the plane in a suit and tie. While Funk Jr. always dressed like that as champion on the road, learning from mentor Gene Kiniski, who learned how a champion should look from Lou Thesz, that wasn’t Brisco’s style.

As he got off the plane, Slatton grabbed him and told him, “Jack, I’m sorry to have to tell you that Gov. Briscoe isn’t going to be able to meet you today. He had to go to Mexico, you know, where they had that earthquake.”

But as they were leaving, there was a twin engine plane with propellers turning, and Slatton told Brisco, “Jack, I believe that’s the governer’s plane over there warming up.”

Brisco was in a bad mood. He hardly wanted to fly from Georgia to Abilene for one shot, since he’d make more money staying home, and then do a grueling 60-minute match and have to fly back to Florida the next morning. Brisco, Putski, Slatton and Slatton’s son, who drove the car, took them in Slatton’s Ford station wagon from the airport into town.

As they got into town, Pryor and the ring attendant as his chauffeur were in the Red Lincoln, and Slatton said, “That’s the governor’s car.” He waved down the limo, which slammed on the breaks.

Slatton got out of the car and said, “My gosh, Governor,” acting like he knew him personally, “We thought for sure we were going to miss you.” Slatton told Brisco to get out of the car and introduced him to Gov. Dolph Briscoe Jr.

Pryor got out of the car. Brisco, all nervous, tried to give his memorized speech and gave him a Brisco Brothers T-Shirt while on the side of a dusty road, just outside Abilene. In his excitement, Brisco at first left the shirt in Slatton’s car, and then was so nervous, he was fumbling with the car door that jammed trying to open it and get the shirt.

Brisco talked about how their respective families were from Oklahoma, had split, and one side spelled it Brisco and the other spelled it Briscoe, believing they were related. Then he got so nervous he forgot what he was going to say. While Jack lost his train of thought, Pryor, impromptu, said he knew who Jack was and was proud of him for just winning the world championship, and that in fact, they were family. Then he warned Jack that being from Texas, those Funk Brothers were two of the baddest hombres around and wished him luck with those two chasing his title.

While some of this sounds like a tall tale, apparently Slatton’s son recorded everything on 8 mm movie film, and for years, wrestlers in West Texas watched Brisco and Pryor speaking, Brisco giving him the T-shirt, while in the background, Putski was shooting photos with a Polaroid camera.

Pryor apologized for having to rush out of there, noting that his plane was warming up at the airport.

“You know, Jack, I have just got to get down to Mexico to help those people,” and he got in the limo and drove in the direction of the airport.

Brisco, Putski, Slatton and his son got into the car. As they were driving, Brisco was so happy that the Governor told him that they were family and that the Governor of Texas was so proud of him winning the world title.

Then he said, “Lawman, I just gotta tell you, that rib that you pulled on Jerry Kozak, where he shot that old dead deer over and over, was one of the funniest ribs I’ve heard. I’ve really got to hand it to you.”

At that point Brisco, Putski and the Slattons were laughing hysterically in the car, but for different reasons.

For the next few months, Muchnick’s office kept calling for the photos of Brisco meeting Gov. Briscoe, and had to be staved off. Brisco had talked about how he was tight, and family, with the Governor of Texas, for months. The story had gone around wrestling to a degree, particularly to just about anyone who had worked West Texas or worked with someone who had left West Texas about it being a rib, but nobody wanted to be the person to tell either Muchnick or Brisco.

Eventually, in early 1974, Race told Muchnick and Brisco the truth.

“Jack, I don’t want to have to tell you this (I did, of course, I couldn’t wait to see the reaction on his face),” Race wrote in his autobiography, “But Funk and Slatton were jerking you around. That wasn’t the Governor.”

Brisco was furious, and after that, it became known as the subject that you never bring up to him.

A few years later, when The Lawman was in the middle of his feud with Rip Hawk & Swede Hanson, he was supposed to have surgery on his nose and elbow at Hendrick Memorial Hospital. He snuck out of the hospital, headed to the Coliseum for his show, had a bloodbath brawl with Hanson, and snuck back into his room. After nurses noticed he was gone from the room, and then a few hours later, saw his face covered with blood, the nurses asked what happened, and he said that the medication made him disoriented and he got lost roaming the halls and fell down the stairs. He did eventually tell them the truth.

In 1965, Slatton, having a hard time making it as a wrestler, took out a loan for $1,500 from the Amarillo National Bank, co-signed by Dory Funk Sr., to buy rights to promote in the city from Benny Wilson. He was able to get a local clearance for the Amarillo television show, on a strong station that broadcast into San Angelo, Sweetwater, Brownswood and Fort Stockton.

In the 60s, his specialties were the boxing match, taped fist match and Texas death match, with his biggest local rival being Mike DiBiase, who he also debuted the chain match with in 1966. His shows were heavy on blood and stipulation matches.

Slatton himself was an expert deer hunter, Dory Funk Jr. remembered often going to the Coliseum in Abilene where Slatton brought fresh deer meat for the wrestlers for dinner.

Once, when he went in for knee surgery years after their feud was over, while being sedated, he started hallucinating he was in a brawl with DiBiase and it took several nurses and orderlies to calm him down.

In 1967, he had two quick runs as North American heavyweight champion. He beat Dick Steinborn for the title on February 20 of that year in Abilene, and lost it back two weeks later on March 6. The next week, he won it back in a title vs. title match where he put up his Brass Knux title, before Steinborn took it back a second time.

Over the years he headlined his home city against every major heel that came through the territory, with the programs usually culminating in Texas death, taped fist or Russian chain matches. His most frequent tag team partner in the gimmick matches was Terry Funk. He headlined against Wahoo McDaniel, Don Jardine (and years later The Masked Spoiler), Dory Funk Sr., Magnificent Maurice, Killer Karl Kox (who feuded with him year after year, particularly hot in 1971), Brute Bernard, Thunderbolt Patterson (which is the feud that put the Brass Knux title on the map), Kinji Shibuya, The Von Brauners, Gorgeous George Jr., The Infernos and J.C. Dykes, Gypsy Joe Rosario, Buddy Colt, Race (a frequent rival before he was world champion), Rufus Jones (who was a heel at the time battling in a series of African death matches), The LeDuc Brothers, Dick Murdoch, Dusty Rhodes, Apache Bull Ramos, The Beast, Pak Song, Kintaro Oki, Bobby Duncum, Lorenzo Parente & Bobby Hart, Buck Robley (whose first successful run as a booker was picking the city up for his feud with Lawman), Masio Koma & Motoshi Okuma, Ciclon Negro, Hank James, Karl Von Steiger, The Fabulous Fargos (Don & John, John later became Greg Valentine), The Patriots, J.J. Dillon, Mike DuBois (Alexis Smirnoff), Black Gordman & Great Goliath, The Masked Interns, Ray Stevens and Frank Goodish (Bruiser Brody).

Dillon recalled a program he worked with Lawman in Abilene. At the time, the city wasn’t doing well and then-booker Art Nelson was furious with Slatton. The Amarillo office would send promotional posters to hang up in shops around town, and they found all the posters laying in the back of Slatton’s pick-up truck, with Nelson blaming Slatton’s “laxy” promoting for why the city wasn’t drawing well.

For his and Nelson’s entertainment, Dillon cut a promo for Abilene talking about the Lawman’s wife, an avid doll collector, who liked to dress them up. He recounted it in his book, “Wrestlers Are Like Seagulls,” saying, “Do you people think the Lawman’s tough? I went by his house the other night to call him out. I yelled and yelled, but nobody would come out, so I went up to the house to see if anybody was home. When I looked in the window, there was a room full of dolls. There were dolls everywhere. Every size. Every shape. And there’s The Lawman, Don Slatton wearing a frilly apron. His wife was standing there saying, `Now, Donald, I want you to take the dress off this one and put it on this one,’” and it went on from there. Dillon admitted he was doing the promo more to entertain himself than to draw at that week’s show.

Slatton was furious when the promo aired on television. His wife was even madder, afraid that if people found out about their valuable doll collection that someone would try to break into their home.

During the match, a woman in the front row dumped a big bucket of water all over Dillon, getting him so mad he nearly punched her. He didn’t, and later found out it was Slatton’s wife.

Slatton wrestled less frequently after the Funks sold the territory, and Abilene dried up. Years later, when the Von Erichs were on fire, even then Abilene was one of the weakest cities on the circuit. Slatton worked part-time on shows in his area until the territory folded in 1981, as well as for Southwest Championship Wrestling, which was at the time the most successful regular promotion running in the state before Dallas took off with the rise of the Von Erich Brothers.

He worked very little outside Texas. Before he became the promoter in Abilene in 1965, he spent much of 1964 working elsewhere. He worked in Detroit for The Sheik and Indianapolis for Dick the Bruiser and Wilbur Snyder in the early part of the year, as well as did a few dates in St. Louis, all in prelims.

He worked a lot of main events later in the year for Gust Karras’ Central States promotion, including getting a shot at Lou Thesz for the NWA world title on October 1, 1964 at Memorial Hall, which he lost. He beat Bob Orton Sr. on October 31, 1964, in Waterloo, IA to become the area’s United States heavyweight champion, but he lost it November 21, 1964, in Waterloo, to Rocky Hamilton, who later became the Missouri Mauler. He also held the North American tag team title that year, teaming with Moose Evans.

Slatton worked some for Florida Championship Wrestling in 1981, and for Southwest Championship Wrestling, all underneath without any kind of a push, with his final matches coming in 1982 or 1983.

Toward the end of his career, and long after his career was over, he remained well known in Abilene for running a bail bonds business that advertised heavily on television with him in the ads. The business was apparently very successful for him and he had continued it until Alzheimer’s got the better of him in recent years. Still, in a 2002 news story in the Abilene Reporter-News that called him a genuine West Texas celebrity due to his fame from wrestling, he said there was nothing he enjoyed more than talking with fans about the old days of wrestling.

***************************************************************
THE LAWMAN CAREER TITLE HISTORY

NWA NORTH AMERICAN HEAVYWEIGHT: def. Dick Steinborn February 20, 1967 Abilene; lost to Dick Steinborn March 6, 1967 Abilene; def. Dick Steinborn March 13, 1967 Abilene; lost to Dick Steinborn April 1967

NWA UNITED STATES HEAVYWEIGHT (Central States version) def. Bob Orton Sr. October 31, 1964 Waterloo; lost to Rocky Hamilton (Missouri Mauler) November 21, 1964 Waterloo

NWA NORTH AMERICAN TAG TEAM: w/Moose Evans def. Pat O’Connor & Sonny Myers June 1964; Title vacated when Lawman left the territory

NWA TEXAS BRASS KNUX: First billed as champion March 13, 1967; Title held up September 14, 1967 Amarillo; def. Thunderbolt Patterson September 28, 1967 Amarillo; lost to Thunderbolt Patterson October 5, 1967 Amarillo; Announced as champion late 1969; lost to Dick Murdoch January 1, 1970 Amarillo; def. Dick Murdoch January 30, 1970 Abilene; lost to Apache Bull Ramos June 1970; def. Ray Stevens August 28, 1975 Amarillo; lost to Ray Stevens September 18, 1975 Amarillo; Held title August 1978; lost to Killer Karl Krupp August 23, 1978 Abilene

****************************************************************

The Whole DDP-Wade Keller Story!

He claimed that he used to go to the Power Plant and train with Terry Taylor, and DDP was there and he’d be so upset because “the dirt sheets” were ripping him apart at the time.

First, anyone who uses that as a collective term to start out with is going to end up saying something silly. I read stuff all the time that I think shows the people writing have no clue. Other times read stuff that shows great insight, whether it’s wrestling or MMA. A collectively blanketed statement is inherently going to be misguided almost all the time, whether it’s called the “MMA Media” (a term used frequently in some hilariously bad analysis pieces this year) does so-and-so or wrestling media does so-and-so. In both, you have guys who want to go along and get along, people who get the business, don’t get the business, people who are always saying things are bad when business shows they are good, or saying everything is good when the needles are pointing in the other direction. 

He claimed Wade Keller was brutal on Page, saying “Page is a waste of skin. I don’t even know why he has a job there.” He said it bothered Page and he said to him that Bischoff puts a lot of stock into this. So one day he came with a story where Keller ripped him, called up Keller and left a scathing message. He said Keller called back, they hit it off and from that point on Keller flipped his opinion on Page.

“Completely,” HHH said when asked if he flipped. “I was like, `You just worked the dirt sheet guy.’ It blew my mind that these guys don’t even really have an honest opinion. There’s a lot of guys over the years I’ve seen put over and I just didn’t get it. But then I realized, those guys give them insider dirt. In the Attitude Era, we’d be on a plane and there’d be four of us traveling in first class or something, and a week later, I’d read the conversation verbatim in the dirt sheets. I’d be like, `F***, how does this happen?’ Because it had to be one of the four of us. I always thought, just do your job. If the crowd reacts to you, positively, negatively if you’re getting a reaction, they’re going to push you. That’s what nobody gets. We don’t tell the fans who’s going to be over. We put somebody on the table, fans react, and then we decide where to go with them. What people forget is we have a focus group every single night, 10,000 people somewhere. We didn’t get Austin over. Austin got over with the fans.” 

While fans do have a say-so in the sense if you die with the audience today, it’s going to be tough, the idea that if fans react, the company follows that lead is such complete shit and everyone in the business knows it. There are guys who sell merchandise and get over who are buried for both good and bad reasons. There are guys the fans love that the office thinks are Internet darlings and get buried because fans love them and the company doesn’t think they should be over. Sometimes guys with limited talent get big reactions and the job of the people in charge is to determine if they’re really worth pushing or not. Sometimes they have issues and it’s not worth the headache when maybe a less-over guy is lower maintenance or lower risk. I’ve seen 15 years of promoters burying guys specifically because they got over with the crowd. I’ve talked to people in the creative room who said those exact words are the ones being used when the decisions are made to do so. And at times, the decision may be the right one. When it comes to who to push, at the end of the day, it’s all about the instinct of the guy in charge. He’s already going to be right sometimes and miss the boat other times. But the idea that a promoter doesn’t dictate who is pushed is almost laughable. Ultimately, you should listen, but if you book based on decibel levels with no instinct for what it means and where you’re going, you’re not going to be the slightest bit successful. 

There’s a huge problem with the Keller story. It’s that it’s completely false, past the point that Page did call Wade Keller probably that day from the Power Plant, and I’d guess, plenty of other days from other locations as well. Page has called everyone of any note probably at some time in his life. That’s hardly a story or a revelation. He’s a self-marketer, and that’s what self-marketers do.

First, I’ve been reading the Torch likely from its inception and during the 90s read every single word because there was very little quality stuff out there on wrestling in those days and that was my profession. Even now I read a lot of it. If Keller would have flipped in 1995 on Page, it would have been painfully obvious to me. Painful would have been the word. But it never happened. The guy who was the most negative on Page push was Bruce Mitchell, and he called him “DDMe,” as a nickname until the closing of WCW. If anything, Page took more criticism afterwards in that publication if that phone call took place when Levesque was still in WCW. 

There are probably viable things HHH could say, but he either couldn’t come up with one, or felt he could make one up out of thin air, or his memory is really bad. Granted, nobody remembers all the details of 18 years ago, but the idea that a guy who never said anything close to what he claimed he said, and claimed he flipped instantly over being worked in a phone call would be a story if there was even a smidgen of truth to it. Every detail of this story was wrong.

Grantland.com then wrote, “Wade Keller contacted Grantland after the publication of this interview and insisted, plausibly, that the writer HHH was referring to is not Keller, but rather Bruce Mitchell, then a writer for Keller’s newsletter,” and noted Keller wrote a response. 

That’s even worse than HHH. First, that would indicate that Page called Mitchell, which he never did, and then Mitchell flipped, which never happened, and that Mitchell is a former writer for the newsletter when he’s a current writer. Aside from that, I guess it was accurate.

Again, I’m not defending any group of people in general here. If he had made a valid criticism of Wade Keller, I’d have probably ignored it, unless it turned into a story and then I’d give my perspective of it based on whose story was accurate, or if both stories are accurate. Politically, kissing up to HHH is probably better, which is why you didn’t exactly see writers jumping to Keller’s defense, even though most probably knew full well by the second day after publication that the story couldn’t have been true. Anyone who read that publication in the 90s would know how ridiculous that claim was.

TNA's July Ratings Comparisons!

Impact has a lot of comparison issues, but last year the show averaged a 1.06 rating and 1.36 million viewers. However, two of the four shows were during the period Spike was off DirecTV. If you adjust the viewership numbers to increase based on if the DirecTV viewership was identical in average to the non DirecTV viewership, the adjusted viewership would have been about 1.51 million viewers. 

This year’s July shows averaged a 1.00 rating and 1.26 million viewers. However, there was an episode of Impact on July 4th, which didn’t do nearly as badly as it probably should have been expected to do, but still pulled down the average. Throwing that show out and you have a 1.07 ratings average and 1.33 million viewers. So the ratings were actually up 1.0% in a fair month-to-month comparisons, but viewership would be down 11.9%, but the show in 2013 was also in a better time slot than 2012.

WWE's July Ratings Comparisons!

When it comes to the monthly ratings comparisons, July this year showed declines across the board.

Raw in July of last year averaged a 3.35 rating and 4.91 million viewers. It should be noted that includes the Raw 1,000th show and the entire month of the show had tremendous momentum because of it. If you take that show out of the mix, you still get a 3.22 average and 4.63 million viewers. 

For 2013 in July, Raw averaged a 2.97 rating and 4.00 million viewers. So the overall rating was down 11.6% and overall viewership declined 18.5%. Throwing out the Raw 1000th show and you get a 7.8% decline in ratings and a 13.6% decline in viewership. The viewership declines at a greater level than the ratings declines comes from two factors. The first is fewer homes get cable as compared to a year ago, and since ratings are a percentage of the homes that get the channel, that decline better measures the loss of popularity as compared to the viewership number. The other, which is actually more significant since homes lost is only about 2% and the audience numbers for every show were down far more than that, is the viewers per home watching wrestling has declined greatly over the past year. This has been a consistent trend all year. 

Smackdown last July averaged a 1.87 rating and 2.72 million viewers. But that’s misleading because one of the episodes aired on a Tuesday. If you throw that week out, the Friday night in the same time slot average was a 1.92 rating and 2.78 million viewers. This year the number was a 1.79 rating and 2.41 million viewers, or a normalized 6.8% decline in ratings and a 13.3% decline in viewership.