The Bell To Bell News Report 04.17.10

Monday Night Raw Results:

WWE Divas Championship: Eve Torres vs. Maryse (C) – Winner: Eve Torres (pinfall, roll-up)
The Miz vs. David Hart Smith – Winner: The Miz (pinfall, Skull Crushing Finale)
Evan Bourne vs. Carlito – Winner: Evan Bourne (pinfall, Air Bourne)
John Cena vs. David Otunga – Winner: John Cena (submission, STF)
Sheamus vs. Kofi Kingston – Winner: Kofi Kingston (disqualification, monitor shot)
Gail Kim and Kelly Kelly vs. The Bella Twins vs. Rosa Mendes and Jillian Hall – Winners: The Bella Twins (pinfall, roll-up on Rosa)
Randy Orton vs. Batista – Winner: Randy Orton (disqualification, Swagger-ference)

— Hasselhoff? Really? I thought Raw was in England, not Germany. Shame he couldn’t have shown up blind drunk as that would have probably made him much more entertaining. I’ll give it to him for driving in KITT, but that’s much more because of the car than it is because of him.

— After all that work they put in on Maryse, that’s how it ends up? Losing the belt as an afterthought on a roll-up isn’t the best way to reward one of the only interesting women going in the WWE right now, but I guess there’s still a WrestleMania hangover or something.

— The Showmiz/Bret Hart segment was actually pretty enjoyable and it was fun to see “The Hitman” get to do something that wasn’t related to Vince McMahon for a change. It’s a shame that the Hart kids won’t be getting a title shot as per the pre-match stip set out by Bret, but I think that there will be something happening next week with Hart having to call ShowMiz the best tag team ever that leads into that title shot. Kept Smith strong despite the loss as it took a kidney punch from Show to turn the tide.

— LOL @ Carlito getting the “during the break” entrance against Evan Bourne, but props to both of them for putting on about as good a match as they possibly could in four minutes. It’s a shame that both guys are such afterthoughts at this point as they seemed to have some chemistry in there. Ah well, maybe we’ll see them again on Superstars sometime soon.

— The Cena/Otunga match was interesting, not for the match itself but for the reaction to Cena on his entrance and for the Batista involvement afterwards with Dave throwing a bitch fit because of Cena’s win. Unfortunately, that was the best thing Batista did tonight and I haven’t gotten to the main event yet.

— Sheamus and Kingston was just kind of there for me. It was like the guy that’s at the lowest end of the main event that no one cares about taking on the guy that’s at the lowest end of the midcard that no one cares about and it just kind of felt like a match to me. They wrestled well enough, but it was just a stage for Sheamus to show how “mean” he is after the match.

— For as bad as the actual match was in the triple threat Diva tag match, the post-match crap with Santino nearly swallowing the whistle was straight out of Looney Tunes, only nowhere near as funny. I get that they’re trying to do comedy here, I really do, but it’s just not working for me at all and the sooner that Hornswoggle is gone, the better off everyone will be.

— Remember that main event I was talking about before? Yeah, Batista kind of gave away the result of his LMS match at Backla…er…Extreme Rules, because he was totally unmotivated here, which is usually how he wrestles when a big loss is on the horizon. That being said the post-match shenaningans with Swagger attacking Orton and Cena making Batista pass out in the STF before counting to ten leave some very interesting things on the go for next week’s show. That especially goes for the Batista/Cena bit, though I have to say that Cena beating up Swagger just made him look like a goof and while they’re trying to build him up they can’t afford that at all.

— Awful, awful show and if I didn’t know any better or if it was physically possible, I’d think that all of the sucking that took place here was somehow responsible for that volcanic eruption in Iceland.

TNA Impact Results:

Team 3D and Jesse Neal vs. The Band – Winners: The Band (pinfall, Syxx-Pac’s facebuster through a table on Brother Ray)
Shannon Moore vs. Kaz – Winner: None (time limit draw)
Angelina Love vs. Velvet Sky – Winner: None (no contest)
TNA Tag Team Championship: The Motor City Machine Guns vs. Matt Morgan and Amazing Red (C) – Winners: Matt Morgan and Amazing Red (pinfall, Red’s Code Red on Sabin)
Jeff Hardy vs. Robert Roode – Winner: Jeff Hardy (pinfall, Swanton)
D’Angelo Dinero and Jay Lethal vs. AJ Styles and Desmond Wolfe – Winners: D’Angelo Dinero and Jay Lethal (disqualification, Nature Boy-ference)

— I liked the opening segment with Jeff Jarrett and Sting as well as the aftermath with Team Flair because it really helped to put over the importance of the Lethal Lockdown match as well as the whole Team Flair cohesion thing that has them looking like the favorites going in. It also built well off of the end of last week’s show with that confrontation between Sting and Jarrett, so it was a fun bit of linear booking that connected the two shows.

— The first match was a bit of a letdown for me as not only was it The Band winning again with some help from Bubba The Love Douche, but it was also a match that was joined in progress. I get that you want to try to put over that your show is unpredictable and all of that, but joining a match in progress is just a sloppy way of doing it and rubs me the wrong way. Nice to see EY make the save in the post-match beatdown with a bit of old-school with his hockey stick bringing back memories of Team Canada from back in the day.

— The Shannon Moore/Kaz match was one of the first Shannon Moore matches that I’ve enjoyed in a long time and while a lot of that owes to Kaz, I have to give Moore his props for the effort. Fun X-Division match with Doug Williams doing well on guest commentary and the finish of a draw did more to put over the unpredictability of Impact than joining a match in progress ever could as it seems like there are never draws anymore.

— The talky portion of the show that followed with four or five backstage interview segments in a row brought back painful memories of my days covering Impact on Thursdays as it was not so much confusing as it was tedious to have to sit through all of the talking segments back to back to back like that. Don’t they have TNA Reaction to take care of some of that talking on?

— The less I say about the Knockout “match” with Velvet Sky and Angelina Love the better. I get that it was trying to build towards the Lockdown match, but that was the best that they could do? Yay for thinly veiled attempts at pandering to the pre-teen wrestling fan that wants to see nekkid ladies.

— Abyss got hit by a car? I wonder if he’s friends with John Cena too.

— Matt Morgan is taking the ball and running with it with this singles reign as TNA Tag Team Champions. I thought the promo before the bout with the Guns was funny and his pick of Red as a partner was just as funny. The match was solid and all four guys looked good and Morgan beating up Red after he “stole” the pinfall was the perfect ending to the whole thing. I really enjoyed this whole thing and this could be the beginning of Morgan finally getting bumped to a main event level.

— So it’s Desmond Wolfe that ran over Abyss or someone that looks like him. All we need is a promo with Wolfe saying he did it for The Rock and it’ll be a full-on repeat of the late 90’s on Impact.

— Hardy and Roode was a really solid bout and I have to say that seeing more and more of Roode as a single leads me to believe that he could have a run as a single. Maybe not a title run as the top dog, but at least as Global Champion or something down the line. A big Boooooo-urns to TNA for editing out the fireball after the match. If you’re going to go edgy, go all the way. Don’t pussy-foot around it like that. The only way this makes sense is if Spike were the ones that put the kibosh on it.

— The main event match/brawl/barely a match was a nice way to kind of put a bow on things heading into Lethal Lockdown, but I really wish that we could have actually gotten some in-ring action before they went to the brawl and craziness. All three of those guys can work their asses off and it would have been interesting to see how Pope’s cockiness would have served him against the two heels after Lethal’s whuppin’.

— Fairly decent go home show for the PPV, but I still think that TNA has a problem with trying to stuff too much into a show every week. Lose the lady match and replace it with some kind of promo beatdown that took half the time and cut out some of the promos themselves and it would have been a much better show.

WWE NXT Results:

Wade Barrett vs. Christian – Winner: Christian (pinfall, Killswitch)
Daniel Bryan vs. William Regal – Winner: William Regal (pinfall, knee trembler)

— Dear lord, that opening segment was just horrific. I understand what Jericho was saying on his Twitter about it being an exercise for them to cut promos on the fly, but it was a disaster any way you slice it. I don’t think there was really a decent promo in the bunch and a way to have it make more sense and possibly foster some interaction and tension between the rookies would have been to have them cut promos on each other. Maybe they’re saving that for another week.

— Punk trying to goad his rookie into joining the Straight Edge Society is good stuff and actually gives people a reason to care about Young heading into the match against Gallows. That being said, Punk might be the de facto face in this whole thing because Young’s haircut is just rancid and he probably deserves the shaving.

— Did it really take us this long to get to the first match of the night? This is the first week that it really felt like they were pushing the whole “reality show” aspect of the concept over the wrestling. On to the match though, Barrett is really growing on me with his semi-decent mic work in the opening trainwreck added to his performance in this match. Solid stuff all the way around from Barrett and if he doesn’t manage to work his way onto one of the main rosters after this, I’ll be a little disappointed.

— Anytime Regal gets a win it’s a good day and when you add in that it was a fun segment with The Miz’s promo before the match and beating after the match, it was good stuff. I like that they’re sticking to their guns with this Bryan/Miz thing and it really feels like he’s going to be the guy that comes out ahead from all of the NXT crew. Now the question is whether Bryan costs Miz the US Title down the road or if he becomes a broken man and just sides with Miz for a while as a lackey before finally snapping and making a huge face turn.

— The Young/Gallows match was disappointing for me because I wanted to see a shaving, but Young wasn’t terrible, the match was short and without any botchy spots and in the end he actually earns a little approval from Punk. Much like the Bryan/Miz deal, it makes you wonder if maybe Punk is just going to be nice to Young to try to get him to join with his SES after the threat failed. You know, the whole drawing more flies with honey thing.

WWE Superstars Results:

Matt Hardy vs. Carlito – Winner: Matt Hardy (pinfall, Twist of Fate)
Chavo Guerrero vs. Christian – Winner: Christian (pinfall, Killswitch)
MVP vs. Ted DiBiase – Winner: Ted DiBiase (pinfall, Dream Street)

— First off, I liked that they tried to involve the NXT rookies as much as they did during the show. From the way things are going it looks like this is the only batch of NXT rookies there’s going to be, so they are going to have to try to integrate them somehow or send them back to FCW.

— That being said, the matches were just kind of meh all the way through. The Hardy/Carlito match was one of those cases where it just felt like two guys going out there to have a match that was loosely held together by both guys being NXT pros. That part of it made sense, but the mtach was kind of a bore to me.

— For as much as I was bored with the first match, I enjoyed the second match, even as it felt like it meant nothing. Chavo can still go in the ring even with all of the crap that he’s been burdened with in the past couple of years and while I didn’t think for a second that he was going to win, he put in a good effort and made it a spirited match.

— The main event with Ted DiBiase and MVP was another one of those “midcard hell” matches but I have to say that it was one of the best as I think that DiBiase has a really good chance to make it as a star on his own outside of the shadow of Orton and Legacy. I also love that Million Dollar Belt as that thing is a heat magnet. If DiBiase does half as well with it as his father did, he’s in for a very good career.

Friday Night Smackdown Results:

Drew McIntyre vs. Kane – Winner: Drew McIntyre (disqualification, Matt Hardy-ference)
Dolph Ziggler vs. R-Truth – Winner: Dolph Ziggler (submission, sleeperhold)
Mickie James vs. Michelle McCool – Winner: Michelle McCool (pinfall, big boot)
CM Punk, Luke Gallows and Darren Young vs. Rey Mysterio and The Hart Dynasty – Winners: Rey Mysterio and The Hart Dynasty (pinfall, Smith’s running powerslam on Punk)
Caylen Croft vs. JTG – Winner: JTG (pinfall, modified swinging neckbreaker)
World Heavyweight Championship: Edge vs. Chris Jericho vs. Jack Swagger (C) – Winner: Jack Swagger (pinfall, Edge’s Spear on Jericho)

— The opening segment with Jericho, Edge and Teddy Long was awesome stuff, especially since it got us the pay-per-view quality main event with all three fighting over the World Heavyweight Championship. The only thing that I didn’t like was that Swagger was an absentee champion in that segment. I would rather have had him be out there and mixing it up with Edge and Jericho prior to Teddy Long coming out to make the match.

— Not sure what happened with the McIntyre/Kane match, but that was a pretty weak DQ even in the PG era of the WWE. The match was ok, but it was just kind of there and didn’t really do anything for me.

— Ziggler’s “apology” was tremendous. I have been a big fan of his after being kind of sour on him early in his run and he showed some great skills here, not only with the super-douchey promo but with the win over Truth, strangling him to sleep. It wasn’t awesome, but they’re giving Ziggler every chance to get that sleeper over. I don’t know if it will work, but it’s the days of MMA being more and more mainstream so if they play it like that, it might work.

— Mickie and Michelle with the best women’s match of the week by a mile. It wasn’t tremendous or anything, but it was very capably wrestled and actually had a bit of story and psychology involved, which is a rarity for Diva matches these days. Good work from the both of them and I hope they can get eight or ten minutes for a title match on Smackdown sometime soon.

— Fun six-man tag match, especially with Miz on commentary at ringside. I liked that the Hart kids got to pick up the fall, especially Smith after losing to Miz on Monday night. I love the way he throws that running powerslam and it’s really a trip down memory lane to the days when his father was running roughshod over the WWF’s tag division in the 80’s and afterwards.

— JTG seems like he’s trying his damndest to get over, but I can’t say that I care so far. That flying facebuster on Shad was pretty cool after the match, but as far as the match itself, it wasn’t much of anything. JTG has a lot of work to do if he wants to avoid being lost in the mire of the lower midcard.

— Really fun main event and while I don’t think it does him a lot of favors in terms of solidifying his reign, Swagger getting the win with a heelish slip in after the spear by Edge was right in line with his character and was a great way to finish it. Swagger actually held his own in there with the two bonafide main eventers and didn’t look out of place at all, leaving me with some hope that he might get to retain at Extreme Rules to see where his reign can go.

— I like that they’re probably going to try to put together an Edge/Jericho match for the PPV based off of Jericho’s attack to end the show that destroyed Edge’s leg and left him laying. I’m really hoping that they get a fun stip to close out the feud once and for all and solidify Edge as a challeger for Swagger or Orton or whoever comes out on top in that match.

— Best show of the week by far as it started strong and ended strong, had a fun match in the middle and the crap was really kept to a minimum. Awesome stuff almost all the way through and I was thoroughly entertained.

— The latest “scandal” to hit the world of wrestling broke this week with Jim Cornette’s displeasure for TNA and Vince Russo hit a shocking and hilarious new high or low depending on how you look at it. On his personal website, Cornette shared an e-mail that he sent to Terry Taylor in the middle of March that was laced with his usual anti-Russo sentiments including how he would consider it the best accomplishment in his life if he could figure out a way to murder Russo and not go to jail for it. In a less bombastic claim, Cornette swears to himself that he will go to jail the next time he sees Russo in person and that it’s his life’s mission to screw Russo and anything he ever has to do with the wrestling business. Now sure, some of this seems over the line a little bit, but it’s no different than someone talking to their friend and saying “that guy makes me so mad, I could kill him”. When it comes right down to it, it’s bad, but it’s not shocking.

The shocking part comes in that Cornette sent it to Taylor through his TNA e-mail account and it was apparently intercepted by TNA and forwarded to their legal team. From there, the legal team sent Cornette a response that he had engaged in making “terroristic threats” and that Russo and his family were fearing for their safety. They also added that they have forwarded the e-mail to Federal and State law enforcement officials and that they have also forwarded all of Cornette’s personal information to the same authorities to aid in any potential investigations in the future regarding any violent acts perpetrated against TNA employees, staff, wrestlers, family members or anyone associated with the promotion. They added a little cherry on top of the sundae at the end about the e-mail containing confidential information from his time at TNA and that he is to refrain from breaching the confidentiality agreement he signed as part of his release from TNA or face further reprecussions.

The reaction on the internet was pretty swift and pretty divided as some people suggested that Cornette was silly for sending an e-mail of that nature to someone affiliated with TNA to begin with, let alone to someone’s TNA e-mail address, while others thought that it was blown out of proportion a little bit by TNA to get their lawyers involved. I fall somewhere in between on the whole thing as TNA may have gone a little overboard in assuming that Cornette’s bite may be as bad as his bark, but he had to know that he was taking a risk sending something that inflammatory to someone working for the company through their company e-mail account. Cornette has been going on the same kind of rants since the late-90’s so when it’s taken into context it doesn’t seem anywhere near as threatening as it does when it’s viewed as a standalone incident, but it’s still a little troubling that Cornette seems to have such a blinding hatred for Russo that he loses his sense.

There’s no denying that Cornette got a bit of a raw deal in his last days in TNA and that the vision he had for the company was on its way towards imploding almost from the day that he and Russo butted heads, but he really needs to learn to let the past be the past and to just focus on making the company that he currently works for as successful as possible. Ring of Honor has some great young stars and an incredibly bright future and part of what Cornette should be doing is teaching these young stars the right way to do business in the ring and the right way to get over even bigger with the fans around the world. Cornette has spoken repeatedly about hatred of TNA being a big motivator for him working in ROH, but that’s going about it completely the wrong way. If he focuses himself on making ROH grow and succeed, he can gain the ultimate revenge by hurting TNA where it really counts with ratings, buyrates and money. I’ve said it a hundred times that TNA needs to stop trying to get into a war with WWE and focus on their own house and now I will say the same to Cornette. Get Ring of Honor’s house in order and work to make that company the best that you can and let the negativity go before it negatively affects your professional life, your personal life or even your health.

As for the TNA side of things, I highly doubt that the e-mail was “intercepted” and feel far more certain that it was simply handed over to TNA’s lawyers by Taylor himself or someone who had knowledge of the e-mail to Taylor. Given that TNA is in the midst of getting hammered by the WWE weekly and are trying to establish themselves in their second new timeslot in as many months, they should have a lot better things to be doing with their time than having their legal department try to bring down the big, bad Cornette. Sure, there were some things that were over the line in the e-mail, but again, it’s no different than talking to your friends and exaggerating a little bit. It certainly didn’t need to be made into the deal that it has been made into and while Cornette may have been off the rails in sending it, TNA should defnitely have taken the high road and just written it off as a guy that used to work for them that still holds a grudge, rather than some sort of plot to eliminate anyone who’s ever worked with or been associated with TNA.

To further my point that TNA needs to focus on their own house as much as Cornette does, Eric Bischoff waded into the mess as well, posting the following on his Facebook page regarding the incident;

“Cornette doesn’t know any business. He is a low rent con man that is only good at gaining the attention of the internet wrestling community. He’s all yours! Trust me, he never has nor ever will become a part of a meaningful national promotion. But if you are looking for a bootleg dvd or a fake autograph….hes your guy!

…threatening to kill someone, posting confidential corporate information, and posting terroristic threats doesn’t make you a “genius” any more than criticizing the efforts/success of others when they realize that you have nothing to offer. Jim is a washed up, has been IWC icon to the 5% of the people that makes up a television audience.”

After he jumped on Vince McMahon a couple of weeks back, I suggested that Bischoff has bigger fish to fry than to try to win verbal pissing contests with the guys that he’s supposed to be in competition with and I echo that statement again now. TNA’s rating is stuck under a 1 and they appear to be either stagnating or regressing on a weekly basis depending on how good the WWE’s show ends up being. I realize that Bischoff’s theory on controversy being good for business is probably in full effect here, but he really needs to check his ego, take a step back and realize that it’s about putting TNA first, not himself. Bischoff has always walked that fine line from confidence to cockiness and this seems like him being fairly cocky because he knows that TNA is ahead of Cornette and ROH at this point and he feels like they pose no real threat so he can weigh in and get some easy shots at the same time. Given Christopher Daniels’ recent jump to Ring of Honor from TNA and the rumors that many are growing disgruntled with the Hogan/Bischoff regime, that may not be the case for long. Bischoff and TNA as a whole would be far better served by becoming almost insular and doing what they think is best and right for the company while steering clear of all of this conflict and drama. Too much drama takes one’s eye off of the ball and that’s something that TNA can ill afford at this point.

SUPER SPECIAL LAST SECOND UPDATE: Cornette has responded to Bischoff’s Facebook attack with an attack of his own!

“Eric continues to wound my sensitive feelings–so I feel I must rebut his facebook comments point by point.

Don’t knock the IWC, E, keep producing programs like Impact and that “5%” will look like the ratings for the moon landing.”

Hilarious stuff from Cornette as always as it seems like this flame war is FAR from over. All I can say is that if the death grudge against Vince Russo won’t kill Cornette, those Wendy’s Triple Cheeses probably will. I have had one in my lifetime and even before I was done eating it I pretty much felt like I wanted to die. It sounds like they’re a semi-regular occurence for Cornette, which causes me great concern as I enjoy Cornette’s contributions to wrestling these days. I love ya Jim, please stay away from the Wendys….please!

— In a bit of news that was somewhat expected but still a bit of a shock, WWE Friday Night Smackdown will move from MyNetwork TV to SyFy beginning this fall, with NXT likely being cancelled when the change is made in October. This is big for a variety of reasons, the most important being that the WWE’s presence on network TV is no more after this summer. Granted, MyNetwork doesn’t exactly have a ton of exposure and are barely considered a real network, but they were still network TV. Now, all of the WWE’s shows will air only on cable and for a company that liked to think of itself as being a multimedia giant that has to be a bit of a blow. There is some good news in the move though as the WWE will be getting $30 million a year from SyFy to carry the show, up from the $20 million that they had been getting for MyNetwork TV. Another positive is that while MyNetwork was in the same boat as UPN previously in being subject to pre-emptions of the show due to sporting events, there is no such conflict with SyFy meaning the WWE will be the only game in town.

WWE and NBC/Universal seem to have a good deal going between them and it looks like the bond is going to strengthen with the two brands both airing on NBC/Universal channels. This will likely open up some new avenues of cross-promotion between the two shows as the company will want the ratings for both shows to be as high as possible to gain maximum effect from the new deal. There has been some concern that the WWE could lose some of their potential viewer base with the move, but there are many areas of the United States that aren’t served by MyNetwork and SyFy is considered to be a more national option despite being on cable or satellite only. There are rumors that the relationship could go even further with WWE trying to shop NXT to another property like Bravo, but those talks are only in the preliminary stages meaning that the experiment could likely be dead after this first crop of NXT rookies. It’s a shame as there has been some promise with the concept and maybe the WWE can continue it as a smaller-scale online show through WWE.com or possibly have their Florida Championship Wrestling developmental show on the site instead if NXT is truly gone.

— After another week of WWE vs. TNA ratings skirmishs, WWE emerged ahead again this week, drawing a rating of 3.2 for Raw on hours of 3.03 and 3.44, while TNA Impact drew a 0.78 and TNA Reaction before it scored a 0.3. TNA’s hour ratings sat at 0.82 and 0.78. The highest rated quarter hour for TNA was a 0.85 for Hulk Hogan, Eric Bischoff and the Knockouts, showing that for the second week in a row the ladies draw big for TNA. The highest rated segment of the night was the overrun that drew a 0.97. WWE killed it in terms of viewers as well, drawing 4.7 million to their show against TNA’s 1.1 for theirs, though the total viewers may have been closer when you factor in TNA’s Thursday replay show.

TNA appears to be stuck in limbo at the moment as they are recovering slightly from the disasters of a few weeks ago, but they are still under where they were on Thursdays and miles away from where they thought they would be based on January’s special. The key thing for TNA to do here is to not turn the show into a quarter-hour orgy and just try to stick everything that works for certain quarter-hours on TV as much as possible to try to pop the rating. That kind of booking is not only confusing to the people watching and the longtime fans, but it seems to turn off more viewers than it brings in these days. What TNA needs to do is start setting attainable goals for the next 4-6 months where they can start to see growth and improvement in their product and in the ratings.

The first goal doesn’t have to be a huge one and it can be as simple as putting together three or four straight weeks over a 1 rating. With some sound booking and giving pushes to the right people, I think that it would be a real possibility. From there, they could slowly begin to bump up the increments that their goal sits at, keeping what works based on their current ratings draw and what they’ve done in the previous weeks and either scrapping or de-emphasizing what doesn’t. That way there would be more of the episodic arcs in TNA programming that help bring in viewers, the new stars that are popular get featured prominently, along with some of the name allure of the stars from the past. TNA bit off a bit more than they could chew by just jumping to Mondays and expecting big numbers and the sooner they realize that they have to look towards the long haul to make their gains, the better off they’ll be, especially if they’re currently obsessing over what works from week to week.

— There has been a lot of speculation surrounding Ezekiel Jackson as he has been nearly non-existent on WWE TV since his victory over Christian to become the final ECW Champion, a move that was expected to propel Jackson to success on his new brand. While the story of Jackson’s WrestleMania absence has been told, Big Zeke has been dealt another blow as he tore his right quadricep muscle during an event in Glasgow, Scotland and is expected to be out for up to six months after successful surgery at the James Andrews Sports Medicine and Orthopedic Center in Birmingham, AL. It’s been a tough road for Jackson as of late and here’s to hoping that he is able to have a full recovery and that he comes back stronger than ever when he makes his return. On the plus side, this will give creative some time to come up with something to do with him when he gets back. There didn’t seem to be much for him after ECW was shut down, so hopefully in the few months he’s away creative will find a plan for him and he’ll have something solid to come back to.

— In a life imitating art imitating life moment, Scott Siegel, who portrayed a drug dealer in the Mickey Rourke film The Wrestler, has been sentenced to 63 months in prison for possessing and distributing steroids and assaulting law enforcement officers in a February 2009 incident. Seigel was arrested after a car chase saw him ram police vehicles and try to escape on foot before being apprehended. After his arrest, police found over $100,000 in cash and 1500 bottles of steroids at Seigel’s homes, leading to the charges he was ultimately convicted and sentenced for. If you ask me, Siegel should get an extra six weeks for that awful Ed Hardy shirt and an extra six months for stupidity as it doesn’t take much sense to know that playing a drug dealer in a movie while being a real-life drug dealer is a pretty dumb move. Considering that there was talk surrounding the movie’s release about Seigel’s “career”, it’s not shocking that things took the turn that they did and I have to say that I would be lying if I said I had expected it to turn out any other way.

— Unfortunately, we end the Bell to Bell on sad note again this week as former AWA and NWA World Heavyweight Champion Gene Kiniski passed away this week at the age of 81 after a long battle with cancer. Kiniski was best known as “Canada’s Greatest Athlete” a nickname that was given to him during a TV interview in Hamilton, ON during the height of his appeal. Kiniski wrestled throughout Canada in the 50’s and feuded with “Whipper” Bill Watson during that span in one of the biggest feuds in Canadian history to that time. Kiniski’s peak came in 1966 when he defeated Lou Thesz to become NWA World Heavyweight Champion at the Kiel Auditorium in St. Louis, MO, a title that Kiniski held for over three years before losing to Dory Funk Jr. in 1969. Kiniski was also an integral part of the NWA’s first foray into the supercard in 1983 as he served as the special referee in the main event cage match between Ric Flair and Harley Race for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship.

Kiniski left the limelight of wrestling, but couldn’t deny the pull of the sport, beginning to promote in Vancouver, BC with his All-Star Wrestling promotion in the 70’s and 80’s, though many felt that Kiniski’s reluctance to let anyone else become a top star held the promotion back. Kiniski’s sons Nick and Kelly both also wrestled, though neither was able to find the success of their famous father. “Big Thunder” retired in 1992 with his final matches taking place in Winnipeg, teaming with Chris Jericho and Lance Storm in a six-man match and competing in a pair of singles bouts. He was honored by the Cauliflower Alley Club that same year and in 2004 he was inducted into the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame in Iowa and in 2008 he was inducted into the Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame in New York state. Thoughts and prayers to the Kiniski family during this sad time and good luck to all of those potential shooters in the afterlife because “Canada’s Greatest Athlete” is on his way to do some stretching.

That’s it for this week’s Bell to Bell, folks. I’ll be back next week and I’m sure I’ll probably still be talking about Cornette and TNA bickering. Randle will be in on Monday with the News Experience to get you ready for Raw and Impact, so in the meantime and in between time, I’ll see you all back here next time for a brand-new edition of the Bell to Bell!

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