News From Cook’s Corner 01.11.11

We’ve also got some fun wrestling news, thoughts on Raw and the usual random pictures of random people. I’ll admit that I’ve been busy at the “real” job and watching football, so this probably isn’t an “A” column. Hopefully it’ll pass for a solid “B”, but I’ve got a “C” kind of feeling.

Speaking of “C”s, it’s time to take this column one step closer…to DASHING!

in the miz/mizgirl pic-is that melina and…maryse? all the dirt sheets say melina is hated by everyone in the back… – Guest#9153

It looked like them to me as well. I never really put much stock into reports that “everybody” hates a certain wrestler, and you always have to be careful with that stuff anyway because the people that feed the “dirt sheets” information always have their own agenda that they’re trying to push. Think about it…why else would a wrestler or somebody else in the company go to a guy like Dave Meltzer or Wade Keller and spill all the beans on the backstage stuff other than to push themselves and bury people they don’t like? What else is there to get out of sharing that information?

(I should point out that the few people I’ve talked to in wrestling did so to express appreciation for something I’d written, but I don’t have the notoriety or influence of the people mentioned in the previous paragraph. Plus, I’m kind of a goofball and everybody knows that. If a politician wants to push their agenda, are they going to talk to their friend at Fox News, or their friend at the Cartoon Network? I am equivalent to the latter.)

Melina’s had a lot of things reported about her over the years, and I wouldn’t be surprised if there were a good number of people backstage that don’t like her. On the other hand, there are probably some people backstage that do like her. Mick Foley was a huge fan of hers back in the day. John Morrison seems to like her, and it wouldn’t surprise me if Morrison & Melina hung out fairly often with Maryse and her boyfriend.

Honestly, Miz is doing a bang up job of representing for the WWE. I cant hate on him. Funny thing is, I finally figured out who he is channeling with the whole “Im the Miz…..and Im awesome!” bit. Steve FREAKING Corino. I got a chance to look at Living Dangerously 1999 a few minutes ago and I was shocked to hear something that sounded vaguely familiar to The Miz when Corino went into, “Im Steve Corino and Im HARDCORE!” I know that’s a weird HH, but I had to bring it up. – Joulz II

This seems a bit of a stretch, but Corino’s ideas for himself have popped up in WWE in the past. Mostly his nicknames, as he was calling himself the “King of Kings” & the “God of Pro Wrestling” before Triple H & JBL started using those phrases for themselves. In WWE’s defense, it’s not their fault that Corino attempted to corner the market on wrestling nicknames by giving himself a hundred of them. It’s too bad we didn’t learn about this before Al Norton interviewed him, I would have loved to see Miz’s reaction if somebody asked him if he patterned his catchphrase after Steve Corino.

It’s those kinds of questions that the people need to know.

The one Diva the WWE should try to sign is Daffney. Decent in the ring, hot in her own unique way and stands out massively from other divas. Sure just like other female wrestlers in this day and age she will almost certainly never be a big draw. But she is somebody who a certain section of the crowd would associate with, which is way more than all the other identical looking divas would ever get. – Axe

Daff (Yes, I call her Daff, we‘re tight like that) had a stint in WWE’s developmental program back from July to December of 2003 and left wrestling for a couple of years after she was cut. She definitely stands out from the pack, but I don’t really think she’d be on WWE’s radar these days. They seem to be more interested in recruiting younger women with a higher growth ceiling than women with lots of experience in the wrestling business that have already established themselves as characters & performers.

It’s funny to see how guys like Steve Cook are so jealous of someone like Bubba The Love Sponge. I guess simply because Bubba actually make money doing something he likes while Cook works for free. – The Truth

This confused the heck out of me because I didn’t mention Bubba a single time in last week’s column. I dunno, maybe Truth was looking through my archives and found something I said about Mr. Love Sponge and decided to air his grievance. It’s ok though, because I will be talking about Bubba and his time in TNA in the 2010 TNA Wrestling Year-End Awards Spectacular whenever it gets posted.

Are you really trying to defend CZW’s product? I almost threw up a little reading that. – Max

CZW’s had some of the best talent in indy wrestling come through their promotion during its existence. That gets overshadowed by some of the highly questionable things they’ve featured on various shows…I’m not going to defend everything they’ve ever done, but there is some quality stuff there like the Best of the Best shows. I haven’t seen much of their recent product so I can’t really comment on what they’re doing now. I hear they have good announcing though.

And now, the fake news!

The Sun is reporting that both WWE & TNA are interested in signing Sting. Vince McMahon is said to want Sting for the purpose of inducting him into the WWE Hall of Fame and featuring him at WrestleMania, which of course is being held in the old WCW home base of Atlanta, Georgia. Sting is pretty much the only star wrestler of the post-territorial era that has never worked for WWE. TNA is said to be interested in bringing him back for another year, and Eric Bischoff has said he believes that Sting will re-sign with TNA if he signs anywhere. Sting hasn’t been in great physical shape lately, and one wonders how many more matches his body can handle. I would have to think that WWE’s plans for Sting don’t involve him working 200 nights a year or whatever the current WWE full-time schedule is.

At one time he was morally opposed to WWE’s product, but one would have to assume that wouldn’t be a problem now that they presents a family-friendly show. Besides, WCW presented stuff when Russo was booking that was just as offensive as the Attitude stuff, and TNA’s never really been thought of as a family-friendly wrestling promotion. I don’t really have a dog in this fight, but I have to admit as somebody that’s followed Sting since the early 90s WCW days that it’d be kind of cool to see the Stinger in a WWE ring after all these years. I wouldn’t mind him coming back to TNA to help fight off Immortal. It’s all good as far as we here at the Corner are concerned.

Last week’s Smackdown got the highest rating the show has gotten since the move to SyFy. Usually it seems like episodes of Raw or Smackdown that I really like get lower ratings than the episodes that I don’t like, so this surprised me a great deal. I’d venture to guess that advertising a World Title match and a two out of three falls match with Mysterio & Del Rio helped things out. I don’t know if hyping Wade Barrett vs. Big Show for this week’s Smackdown will have the same effect.

Alberto Del Rio has appeared on Raw the last two weeks as part of a trend where WWE will feature Smackdown talents on Raw, hoping that the fans will follow the characters to Smackdown. Big Show also made an appearance on Raw this week for the same reason. Not a horrible idea, since the gap between Raw & Smackdown viewership is pretty wide. I guess it’s somewhat surprising that WWE cares about Smackdown now since they haven’t for years.

The wrestler formerly known as MVP attended an FCW event last Thursday, and was spotted booing several of the wrestlers. It doesn’t specify who he was booing, so maybe he was booing the heels and trying to be a wrestling fan. Or maybe he doesn’t like the developmental people at all and is kind of a dick. It could go either way.

Gail Kim worked as a heel on WWE’s live event in Memphis over the weekend. Considering Gail has done absolutely nothing as a babyface since returning to WWE, I’d be all for her making a heel turn and maybe getting herself a Divas title feud if they get tired of giving Melina & LayCool title shots. It’s tough to remember that somebody has a lot of talent when you never see them wrestle.

Triple H’s movie The Chaperone will have a limited theatrical release on February 18, then be released on DVD on March 8. WWE was reportedly angry that a trailer for the movie popped up on YouTube…I didn’t get to see it, but I haven’t read anything positive about it yet. Not that I’m expecting a whole lot from a WWE Films release.

A Smackdown house show scheduled for Monday night in Huntsville, Alabama has been moved to June 3rd due to weather difficulties. There goes my idea for WWE to run all their shows in the South during the winter months. One has to wonder how many tickets they sold for this show anyway, considering that Auburn was in the BCS Championship Game on the same night. I’d figure that all the Auburn fans wouldn’t miss that game for anything (even their kid screaming that they want to see Rey Mysterio), and all the Alabama fans would be watching the game hoping that Auburn lost.

The Smackdown house show scheduled for Super Bowl Sunday in Philadelphia has been changed to a SuperShow featuring both Raw & Smackdown talent. It’s kind of interesting that this news came out after the Eagles were eliminated from the playoffs. Maybe they think they can draw a good crowd now.

The Lexington Smackdown house show on Saturday had some interesting developments concerning people currently not on Smackdown. Percy Watson defeated Chavo Guerrero, so now he’s having matches on shows with both brands. I’d expect Showtime to be coming soon. Speaking of which, Ezekiel Jackson, who is “coming soon” to Smackdown, defeated Tyler Reks in a squash match. That probably doesn’t bode well for Tyler’s future, but at least it was on a house show and not on TV. If he starts getting squashed on TV, then he’s got some problems.

Maybe Tyler will catch a break now that he’s a huge star on Twitter. He was trending big time during TNA’s PPV because they brought in a wrestler that decided to try and lift Reks’ hairstyle. I’m not sure what this says about TNA and that wrestler, but it probably isn’t good.

Finally, a funny comment from a WWE backstage person on Awesome Kong coming to WWE:

“Since Kong got arrested in Tampa I’d say that’s proof she got a WWE gig, because you have to get arrested in Tampa to work for WWE.”

That sure does seem like a pre-requisite these days. How much is a plane ticket to Tampa going for?

-I must admit that my attention will be diverted from Raw for most of the evening, as I’m putting the finishing touches on the rest of the column and am also keeping an eye on the BCS Championship Game. Lots of stuff going on tonight, though obviously the return of John Cena will take center stage.

-Another reason I love ESPN3: I can watch the game online on a pretty good feed while watching Raw and working on the column. How did I survive when I had the world’s worst computer and couldn‘t even watch YouTube videos? I have no idea.

-I also love ESPN3 because it’s usually the only way I can watch Louisville sporting events, except when they get blacked out for no reason.

-Santinov starting the show? They’re begging people to change the channel, aren’t they?

-The Nexus sees a problem with this and decides to attack the tag champs. Good men.

-CM Punk talks about initiating himself and initiating everybody else in the Nexus. I have a feeling his initiations aren’t quite like most fraternity initiations, where mass quantities of alcohol were usually involved. Or so I was told.

-I’ll bet McGillicutty was hoping that anybody would hit him except Otunga.

-Nothing like heels beating up heels to galvanize the fan base.

-ALBERTO DEL RIO!

-A well-earned victory for Alberto.

-The man makes a good point, the people of Nashville know nothing about culture & music.

-Ricardo needs to stick to the ring announcing and interference, singing is not his forte.

-The Raw GM has to be Michael Cole, right?

-The King tells it like it is as usual.

-Punk tells Husky to take his shirt off and get strapped by each member of Nexus. I’ve heard about movies like this. Haven’t watched them, so maybe they’re a little different.

-Lawler: “This is the stupidest thing I’ve ever seen!” You’re not far off, King.

-I heard this match was good on Superstars. I haven’t seen it, so it’s new to me!

-Can we get a camera on Maryse during the whole match, please?

-Is Tyson Kidd’s bodyguard still alive?

-Mark Henry should be used to hanging out with guys who have lots of chicks with him. Weren’t he & Godfather pretty tight in the Nation?

-Jacob Novak, we hardly knew ye. Well, most people didn’t know ye. I knew ye a little bit, but hardly.

-Big Show rocking a letterman’s jacket that’s missing a letter. What’s the point if there’s no letter?

-CM Punk wants to welcome his old friend Big Show to Raw. Makes sense.

-Otunga gets to go down to the ring and get beat up by Big Show. I’m not sure if that’s better or worse than what McGillicutty & Harris got. At least it’s not as odd.

-Better entrance attire: Morrison or Sheamus? It’s a tough selection. Morrison’s coats generally rule, but you gotta like a king dressed in a green cape.

-Somebody needs to teach Sheamus how to properly apply the crossface chicken wing. That version isn’t going to beat anybody.

-Sheamus will not do well in the Royal Rumble if it’s that easy to send him over the top rope.

-Morrison gets a big win despite being beat up most of the match. I don’t think he’s challenging for the title at WrestleMania like the Fact or Fiction commenters seem to think, but he needed that victory.

-It’s pretty funny watching Heath Slater try to act tough. Not that Justin Gabriel looks much tougher, even with the beard. I guess they were the smart ones in Nexus after all.

-I haven’t really dug the Nexus stuff tonight, but at least it’s different than the usual thing where they all have to win matches to stay in the group. Those get old when you do them five times a year.

-We get a shot of Tootsie’s, one of the most famous wrestler hangouts ever. I wonder if they advertise that.

-The King announces the upcoming induction of Shawn Michaels into the WWE Hall of Fame. Well, I guess they couldn’t really put that one off.

-And he’s at Raw! How come I read reports about Matt Hardy being backstage at a PPV and nobody mentioned Shawn Michaels being backstage at Raw?

-ALBERTO DEL RIO!

-Well, Shawn can still throw a super kick.

-I gotta admit, I got my hopes up for a second there. But I should have known better than to think that HBK would return to take on ADR at WrestleMania. I am such a mark most of the time.

-Miz demands respect. Isn’t the WWE title enough respect for a person?

-CM Punk is on top of the Titantron to give the ultimate sacrifice! I guess he gave up on getting Austin to wrestle him.

-These fans are sadistic!

-If Punk really had any faith in that harness, he would have flown around a little bit. Coward!

-Awww, Cena’s via satellite? I used that picture of him for nothing? Boourns!

-Cena vs. Punk next week! I eagerly await everybody complaining next week that Cena buried Punk. Should be fun.

-Nothing like the bell ringing for the main event at 10:59PM.

-So when are Orton & Lawler going to challenge for the tag team titles?

-Nothing like a commercial break at 11:03PM. I’m not really sure why this show has run so long. Maybe they thought they had three hours?

-The strap is down, the fist is dropped, and it’s good night Alex Riley!

-Yeah, Miz totally doesn’t fear Randy Orton.

-The show ends in time for the 4th quarter of the championship game. Nice!

-Eh, I wasn’t a huge fan of most of this show. The Nexus/Punk stuff was just weird and the matches weren’t anything too special. I did enjoy the HBK/ADR confrontation and thought Alberto did pretty well with it, even if it goes nowhere. I have nothing further to say about this that is either relevant or true.

-Dang it, Byers hated the show more than I did and now he’s going to take all the negative comments! Time to provoke some TNA fans.

If you were worrying that Robbie E’s loss of the X Division title meant that TNA was giving up on the whole Jersey Shore thing, fear not! TNA is currently in talks with Angelina Pivarnick (pictured above, if you‘re like me and had never seen her before in your life), another star of the MTV hit show, to have a wrestling match on a PPV telecast. TNA is getting more coverage from the TMZ-type gossip websites for this, which will probably distract them from the fact that nobody will pay to see this.

To me it’s a pretty simple question that TNA has in front of them. What’s more important: Getting media coverage from the gossip sites, or having people actually watching their show? The J-Woww deal got plenty of media coverage too, but it didn’t do a single thing for their ratings. In fact, the segment featuring J-Woww got the lowest rating of that whole episode of Impact. If she got anybody to watch the show, they were cancelled out by people changing the channel because they had no interest in her or the angle. I see no reason why this would be any different.

Speaking of new people coming in, Matt Hardy appeared at Genesis to be the MYSTERY OPPONENT for Rob Van Dam. Everybody else has done the Tyler Reks jokes, right? The last white male to braid their hair and be successful was the British Bulldog. But if we’re being honest, he looked like a sod with the braids. It wasn’t until he gave up on that and cut his hair short that people started taking him seriously.

Anyway, this was no real surprise and everybody was pretty much counting the days until Matt would show up in TNA. I guess the main question that most people will ask is if it makes sense for TNA to have him debut on a PPV telecast without advertising it, and if it makes sense for TNA to have a world title change without advertising a world title match in advance. I would usually say “no”, but I’m not convinced that hyping either of these events would have had a huge effect on the buyrate. I don’t think Matt’s going to bring in any fans that weren’t already watching because of Jeff, and they needed to get the belt off of Jeff before whatever happens in his court case happens. They can hope that the surprise factor will lead to more buys of the replays, and maybe more buys in the future from people thinking that more surprises will come and they can’t miss whatever’s next.

AJ Styles missed the PPV because of a torn hip flexor and hip labrum. He expects to be back in the ring “real soon”. If he needs surgery he’ll be out around four to six months, so maybe he doesn’t plan on getting surgery. The story that was told on the PPV about Styles suffering the injury while rushing to help his son after an accident on a four wheeler is legitimate.

Chris Harris was backstage at the PPV on Sunday. He’s been hoping to get back in TNA for the past several months now, so maybe he went to the show because he thought they wouldn’t have a MYSTERY OPPONENT already determined.

TNA announced that Karen Jarrett (formerly Angle) will be appearing on this week’s episode of Impact, and she’ll be involved in a segment with Jeff Jarrett & Kurt Angle. I think we all knew it would come to this eventually when the drama broke out back in mid-2009. People got all butt hurt because they thought that Jeff was stealing Kurt’s wife or whatever. Me, I didn’t really care because it was none of my business. I’ve always believed that personal lives should be exactly that: personal. You don’t see me dragging my affairs into public, and I don’t involve myself in other peoples’ business.

(Then again, it’s not like I have affairs or a personal life. But that’s beside the point.)

The fact of the matter is that after Karen divorced with Kurt, she decided she’d like to be with Jeff. That happens sometimes in life, have you seen the divorce rate lately? As long as all the parties involved are comfortable in doing business with each other, and as far as I can tell, they are, this isn’t really an issue. But if people want to believe it is, and want to tune in because they think Kurt Angle’s going to kill some biatches, then TNA’s smart for advertising it. I don’t know why they advertise Karen Jarrett and not a World title match or Matt Hardy’s debut, but I don’t know why they do a lot of the things that they do.

I’m used to scratching my head at people…

Those of you who have read my work for any amount of time have probably noticed that my NFL team of choice is the Cincinnati Bengals. Sure, I have secondary favorites like the New York Giants, and my status as a member of multiple fantasy football leagues means that I’m rooting for different players on different teams all the time, but I grew up a Bengals fan. I lived in Northern Kentucky, it was the convenient choice. I get a lot of questions from people wondering why the Bengals are never consistently successful despite having some pretty good talent on the team. My answer to them can be summed up in two words:

Mike Brown.

Ever since he took control of the Bengals after his father’s death, the team has largely been unsuccessful. Sure, there have been brief glimpses of hope over the years, but those glimpses have been overtaken by doom & despair more times than I care to remember. People talk all the time about how clueless & behind the times he is, and you almost start to think that people are being too harsh…until he gives a press conference.

“The scouting thing is another criticism that rises up when we don’t do well. If you look at our record on scouting over the last 10 years, we rank 10th for the number of games played by players we drafted. I think we sank to 11th on the number of players who are in the league that we drafted, and we would be higher than that except for injuries that were serious that players like (David) Pollack suffered, or Chris Perry, or what happened with (Odell) Thurman, or what happened to Chris Henry. We had a number of those. It was disproportionate. I don’t apologize for our scouting. It’s an easy target, but if you look at the real facts, I think you’ll see it differently.”

“We’re going to make some changes with what we do. Either the people will do things differently, or there will be other people doing them. That’s all we’re prepared to say here today, no matter how many times it’s asked or in what way it’s asked.”

I enjoyed how he used stats that have no meaning at all to justify the way he does things. Yes, the players he drafted played the tenth most games in the league over the last decade. Their record was twenty-five games under .500 in the last ten years. I would think that statistic would be slightly more important than how many games their draft picks played, but maybe I’m just silly. Those changes he mentioned? Eh, not so much. He’s bringing back everybody on the coaching staff except the linebackers coach. I bet that guy feels like a real doofus. Or maybe he’s just happy to get out.

I listened to this nonsense last Tuesday afternoon and had myself a good chuckle or five. Then I got home and read some of the comments on my column and found this gem:

“I wish Steve Cook would talk about TNA’s great ratings for the past 3 weeks. Impact has been on a consistent roll averaging a 1.1. with 1.3 million viewers. But since that’s good TNA news, it gets ignored.”

Yes, it’s good news that TNA has been getting a 1.1 rating lately. Because they’ve never done that before, right? This is equivalent to Mike Brown’s stat about how many games his draft picks played over the last ten years…it’s a stat that means nothing and impresses nobody that’s remotely in touch with society.

That’s when it finally occurred to me after all these years…TNA & the Cincinnati Bengals are one and the same.

TNA is owned by the daughter of an energy tycoon that’s very successful in his field. The Bengals are owned by the son of a football genius that was very successful in his field.

The Bengals insist on keeping offensive coordinator Bob Bratkowski employed after ten years with little results, vast unpopularity with the fan base and the same predictable offense year after year. TNA insists on keeping head writer Vince Russo employed after five years with little results, vast unpopularity with the fan base and the same predictable storylines year after year. Some Bengal fans wear “Fire Bratkowski” shirts to games while some TNA fans chant “Fire Russo” at shows.

TNA has a great roster of talent, with stars like Kurt Angle, AJ Styles & Samoa Joe. The Bengals have a pretty good roster themselves, with stars like Carson Palmer, Chad Ochocinco & Terrell Owens. TNA is often accused of misusing their great talent. The Bengals’ great talent often accuses the Bengals of misusing them.

The Bengals are known for taking chances on guys with interesting pasts like Chris Henry, Odell Thurman & Adam “Pacman” Jones. TNA is known for taking chances on guys with interesting pasts like Jeff Hardy, Kurt Angle & Adam “Pacman” Jones.

TNA has been the subject of more jokes from wrestling columnists than almost any other wrestling promotion. The Bengals have been the subject of more jokes from sports analysts & late-night talk show hosts than any other football team.

The Bengals are one of the cheapest organizations in the NFL. TNA is pretty cheap except when it comes to WWE/WCW/reality show stars.

TNA is a distant second place to WWE. The Bengals are a distant third place to the Steelers & the Ravens. (Technically they were fourth place this year, but the Browns aren’t exactly a great organization either.)

The Bengals have a hard time selling out their home football games even with one of the smaller stadiums in the league. TNA has a hard time selling out house shows & the occasional PPV show even though they run in small arenas.

TNA has good shows sometimes. The Bengals win games sometimes. TNA viewers start to get their hopes up after a month or two of good shows. Bengal fans start to get their hopes up after a season of good play. TNA viewers & Bengal fans both have their hopes dashed soon afterwards.

The Bengals have been described as behind the times with the way they conduct business, and out of touch with what their fans want to see from them. TNA has been described as behind the times with the way it conducts business, and out of touch with what their fans want to see from them.

People within TNA are convinced that everything they do is right and get really defensive when you question their methods. People within the Bengals organization are convinced that everything they do is right and get really defensive when you question their methods.

People are convinced that the Bengals organization doesn’t care what the fans want to see. TNA, like pretty much every other wrestling promotion that has ever existed, doesn’t really care what the fans want to see.

Wrestlers come to TNA thinking they can be the one to take the company to the next level and make them competitive with WWE. Football players come to the Bengals thinking they can be the one to turn things around and make them a winning team on a consistent basis. Eventually these football players & wrestlers give up and collect their paychecks until their contracts expire, then hope they can find a better situation.

There is one main difference between the Cincinnati Bengals organization & TNA, other than what their owners look like in swimwear. TNA fans get ridiculously defensive when you criticize anything about the promotion. Bengal fans used to get defensive when you criticized their football team, but twenty years of losing has weakened their resolve and now they make fun of the team more than anybody else. It’s kind of weird, but it’s how we deal with it. It’s too soon to say whether TNA fans will develop this coping mechanism or will continue in their happy world where everything is wonderful.

For their sake, I hope for the latter. I miss the days where I wasn’t a cynical S.O.B. that couldn’t enjoy anything in life. But enough about my problems…

Wrestling promoter Ernest Mack Shell was arrested on Saturday night after a show he promoted in Brush Fork, West Virginia when he was unable to pay the wrestlers that he booked on his show. A few things came to my mind when I read about this story.

-Never trust somebody who’s referred to with three names. Lee Harvey Oswald, John Wilkes Booth, James Earl Ray…it’s a bad trend.

-Brush Fork is an unincorporated community in southern West Virginia. I looked this up because I didn’t believe that it existed. I figured some redneck wrestler would have used this as their gimmick hometown by now.

-Times sure have changed, and in a good way. Back in the old days, it was pretty common for wrestling promoters to book a whole bunch of people and when it was time to pay them, there had been a robbery at the box office! Amazing how many times that happened.

-If I was Diamond Dallas Page, who apparently was on this show, I’d be wondering how somebody booking cards in Brush Fork, West Virginia would be able to pay me. Doesn’t that kind of throw up a red flag for somebody that’s been in the wrestling business longer than a lot of wrestling fans have been alive?

ROH has shifted the start time of their show on March 19 in New York City to 4PM to avoid running head to head against a WWE show in Madison Square Garden & a UFC show in Newark, New Jersey. You know, where I live we’re lucky if we get three events worth going to in a year. These suckers get three in a day. I shall now light myself on fire.

NWA Anarchy is up for sale. The promotion took the place of NWA Wildside when Bill Behrens closed that territory in 2005, and has been the starting place for such wrestlers as Consequences Creed & Phil Shatter. Apparently they do have several people interested in buying the promotion and will not be shutting down. They do have a TV show that airs in various markets, including Cincinnati. I watched it once and that was enough for me, hopefully the new owner will kick things up in production value and quality of talent.

Former WWF announcer Todd Pettengill is a finalist in a contest to co-host Live with Regis & Kelly for a day. What, was Sean Mooney busy?

Taylor Wilde is selling autographed 8X10s proclaiming that she quit TNA:

$30 is a bit steep in my book, but if she sells all 50 of them she’ll probably make more than she made in TNA the past few months. Taylor told The Sun that she is leaving wrestling entirely and will go back to school, which is probably a smart move for her. It’s a sad day for fans who love Canadian blondes with big boobs (and who doesn‘t?), but I’m sure another will emerge one of these days. Good luck Taylor!

We’d also like to wish good luck to Paul Orndorff, who revealed on the Busted Open radio show last week that he had been diagnosed with cancer. Cancer is a real bastard, hopefully whatever form he has is something that isn’t terminal.

For the record, my contribution to Fact or Fiction was a last-second kind of thing. I had spent the evening watching Louisville beat Seton Hall while drinking some adult beverages, and logged on to find out that JT II needed somebody to fill in for the column. Being the team player I am, I did so. Probably not my best effort ever (I‘m a better writer on bourbon than I am on beer), but at least I came up with “Krissy Kongton”, so that was a fine contribution to things.

The Rs feature my look at what was a really fun episode of Smackdown.

Buy or Sell features Ryan Byers talking about people that work for TNA. That doesn’t happen every day, folks.

The Triple Threat talks about all the contenders and pretenders.

JD Dunn is writing stuff again! No word on when he’ll return to the Wrestling Zone, but I would guess it will coincide with whenever WWE starts sending him free DVDs again. And is it just me or are all of our reviewers constantly reviewing the same shows? Do we need two reviews of the Bobby Heenan DVD or of every DVD that ROH puts out? I guess it’s fair because us wrestling news columnists are always talking about the same stuff too.

Hubbard ranks the top ten WWE wrestlers of 2010. I’m not sure what surprises me more…Daniel Bryan only making it to #9 or CM Punk not making the list at all. That’s like me doing a Hot 100 without Maryse in it.

Well, that’s all we have time for this week! Join Martinez tomorrow for the Countdown, and I’ll be back next week with more News From Cook’s Corner! Until then…