The Bell To Bell News Report 01.13.11

— In what was easily the biggest story of the week this past week, Mr. Anderson beat Matt Morgan to earn the number one contender’s slot for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship and then pinned Jeff Hardy in an impromptu match to become the new champion at the TNA Genesis pay-per-view on Sunday night in Orlando.

While some people have gotten on TNA for not advertising a title match prior to the pay-per-view and that they essentially gave Anderson’s big title win away for free with no real build, I think that this was probably done more out of necessity than out of trying to put together any kind of a logical booking plan. Hardy has already plead guilty to the drug charges that he has against him and he’ll likely be facing either a short jail sentence or a long probationary period with some community service and fines thrown in for good measure.

Given that TNA had already garnered some negative press for putting the title on Hardy to begin with while he had all of the charges swirling around him, there would likely be even more scrutiny if he was sentenced while holding the top title in the company, which means that they had to get the belt off of him sooner rather than later.

Anderson has gotten himself over very well with the Orlando crowd and is one of the more popular performers in TNA in the past couple of years. While he’s somewhat reaping the rewards of just being in the right place at the right time while someone else goes through unfortunate circumstances, he has still earned this chance with the gold. There’s no one else that is currently on his level as a face that isn’t already in a program or that could take the title and hold it credibly outside of RVD and he’s already found himself shuffled out of the title picture for the most part, which left TNA with only one real choice to take over the reigns.

TNA gave Christian Cage his first run with their belt back when it was still the NWA World Heavyweight Championship after having midcard success in the WWE and now Anderson will follow a similar path in the future. Cage had a fair amount of success, but was never really able to catch on fully with the TNA fanbase and his reign is ultimately considered to be a bit on the disappointing side. It will be up to Anderson to avoid falling into that same mold, but given the success he’s had up to this point and the ability that he’s had to get the people behind him, he’s at least got a fighting chance.

— Mr. Anderson’s title victory wasn’t the only big story to come out of the Genesis pay-per-view as the event also saw the TNA debut of Matt Hardy, complete with the most godawful hairdo that I’ve ever seen. After plenty of self-hype on his website, Hardy’s non-compete clause with the WWE finally lapsed and he emerged as Immortal’s “mystery opponent” and faced Rob Van Dam at the pay-per-view, picking up the win over RVD with a twist of fate and a somewhat controversial pin in just over ten minutes.

While there are some that were excited to see Hardy make his TNA debut, this felt a lot like more of the same and easily could have been a midcard PPV match from the WWE from a few years back rather than some sort of huge debut that was going to shake TNA to its core. Both guys looked like they were kind of going through the motions and for all of the talk from Hardy about a career rebirth, it looked like the same match I’ve seen from him about a hundred times previously. There may be more coming from Hardy in the next few weeks, but as a debut it fell pretty flat and he’s got a pretty big hole to dig himself out of after spending most of 2010 generally annoying the majority of wrestling fans with his online antics.

— In yet another accolade for his legendary career resume, Shawn Michaels has been announced as the first inductee into this year’s class of the WWE Hall of Fame. Michaels, who made a quick appearance on Raw this past Monday after the announcement, is set to be inducted on April 2nd and will likely be the centerpiece of this year’s class. Michaels is a first-ballot Hall of Famer in every sense of the word and there aren’t many that deserve the honor ahead of him, if any. Given that he’s a year removed from one of the most emotional retirement angles that the WWE has ever seen and has kept himself almost completely off of television during that span, it will be nice to see Michaels come back for one night to soak up some cheers and thrill the fans with a speech that will undoubtedly be the highlight of the show. I have no idea who the WWE will be announcing as the rest of the inductees, but they’ll have a tough act to follow with this first announcement, that’s for sure.

— It’s Sophie’s Choice time for Sting according to recent reports as he’s apparently got offers from both the WWE and TNA for new contracts after spending the past couple of months as a free agent. This is a difficult decision for Sting as he is nearing the end of his in-ring career and has been having some health problems as of late and both sides are offering different things. TNA is likely going to feature Sting as one of the major players in the Immortal angle going on in TNA at the moment, which would give him one last run at the top, while WWE is looking to induct Sting into the Hall of Fame and likely give him a limited run near the top of the card just to say that he had competed in a WWE ring. Before the announcement of Shawn Michaels being inducted, I think they probably would have pushed a lot harder to get a marquee name like Sting, but with HBK in their back pocket, their deal will probably be a little less sweet.

As much as I would love to see Sting in a WWE ring (and if it’s going to happen now is the time), I just don’t see it happening. I think that he’ll sign a legends deal with the WWE to be inducted into the Hall of Fame at some point, but right now he still wants to compete, health be damned, and TNA is the only place that will let him do that regularly. When you add in that there’s not really a lot that Sting could add to WWE’s in-ring product and not a ton of guys for him to believably feud with, it looks more and more like TNA is the answer. Finally, there have been recent references in TNA to a “They”, who are coming to take out Immortal. If this doesn’t sound tailor-made for a Sting return, I don’t know what else would. Hopefully he’s able to sign with the WWE someday so that he can be rightfully recognized for his contributions to the business, but I just don’t think the time will be now.

— Bad news for AJ Styles as he not only missed the TNA Genesis pay-per-view, but is expected to be out for a while with a torn hip flexor and hip labrum. Styles has already discussed the injury and said that he would be “back soon”, but if he is forced to undergo surgery to repair the damage he could be out for anywhere from four to six months. While it’s disappointing to have such a great talent like Styles out of action for any length of time, you have to credit Styles for how he suffered the injury. The story told during the PPV about how Styles hurt himself rushing to the aid of his son after a four-wheel ATV accident was a true story, which is definitely a noble way to be hurt and an understandable one. Best wishes to Styles for a speedy recovery and a clean bill of health in the very near future.

— A bit of a shocker from the land of Ring of Honor as the promotion has announced that they will be splitting from their current television provider, HDNet, when the contract between the two sides expires in April of 2011. The final TV tapings for the HDNet programs will take place on January 21st and January 22nd in Philadelphia.

Both sides entered into the agreement in 2008 with high hopes that the promotion would be able to grow a solid fanbase with national exposure for their product, but they’ve been unable to gain a footing. Despite the end of the agreement, there is still a possibility that both sides will be able to work together in the future on special programs or future collaborations, though there are no details regarding those particular deals at this time.

Ring of Honor is already shopping around for a new television partner and it is believed that they are looking for a deal that will give them better penetration than HDNet’s limited reach. The loss of HDNet will cause problems with the promotion when it comes to the way that they move their money around as the loss of subsidies and coverage of the production costs that were associated with the HDNet tapings will likely lower the number of shows the company can run over the next few months.

There is concern from people within Ring of Honor that by signing people to long-term contracts and losing their TV deal, they’re toeing the same dangerous line that sunk the original ECW and WCW. Both of those promotions had talent under contract that needed to be paid and didn’t have a TV outlet to promote their product with both of them dying a relatively quick death and there are worries that if ROH takes a long time in finding a new TV partner, they may experience some of the same financial difficulties.

This is a tumultuous time for Ring of Honor and while it is a chance for a new beginning and possible growth if they are able to find a better TV partnership to move forward, there is also a very real possibility that we could be seeing the opening act in the final bow of ROH. I hope that the worst case scenario is not the case and that things are solved quickly as ROH provides a very real and necessary service to the wrestling industry and to fans everywhere and the loss of the company would be a major one to the wrestling business. Stick with the Bell to Bell for more updates on this situation in the weeks ahead as we near the end of ROH on HDNet.

— Fresh off of the biggest victory of his career in the highest profile feud that he has ever been involved in, El Generico took part in a tryout match with TNA at this week’s Impact tapings, facing The Amazing Red in a match that was reportedly well recieved by the fans in attendance despite being the last match of the night after a long taping schedule. Generico is on a hot streak following his big blowoff win over Kevin Steen at Final Battle 2010 and while he’s still under contract to Ring of Honor, he’s been given permission for the Impact tryout match, similarly to how all ROH talent are allowed to work dark matches for WWE or TNA. While this isn’t necessarily some sort of sign regarding the future of Ring of Honor, it’s definitely something to keep an eye on in the next couple of months if more big names start heading out to test the waters elsewhere.

— In even more TNA news, Stevie Richards has apparently quit the company according to a post on his Twitter account that stated that he had talked with Terry Taylor and Vince Russo and decided to quit the company. Richards joined the TNA roster in February of 2009 as Dr. Stevie and entered into an angle and feud with Abyss, but had very little to do after that and spent most of 2010 as part of the roster but not getting any TV time. That changed with the whole EV 2.0 angle as he was a big part of that storyline, but as they’ve moved away from the Extreme Originals in TNA, Richards was left by the wayside again, meaning that it was time for him to move on. Given that Richards is nearing 40, it’s likely that this will be his last major run in a company like TNA, but he can still make himself a very worthwhile living on the independent circuit and will likely do so for the next few years. Good luck to Richards in the future in whatever he decides to do.

— Pro Wrestling Guerrilla has announced the card for their upcoming Kurt Russellreunion II show on January 29th at the LAX Hilton and it looks like an absolute doozy. Here’s the full rundown with my thoughts on the show afterwards;

PWG Championship: El Generico vs. Claudio Castagnoli (C)
Low Ki vs. Davey Richards
Mr. Aguila vs. Rey Bucanero
The Cutler Brothers vs. The Fightin’ Taylor Boys vs. The RockNES Monsters vs. The Young Bucks
Retirement Match: Jake “The Snake” Roberts vs. Sinn Bodhi
Chris Hero vs. Kevin Steen
Shane Helms vs. Joey Ryan
Legends Battle Royal: The Barbarian vs. “Dangerous” Danny Davis vs. Shane Douglas vs. Terry Funk vs. Mike Graham vs. Sean Morley vs. Jim “The Anvil” Neidhart vs. Barry Orton vs. “Cowboy” Bob Orton vs. Ken Patera vs. “Rowdy” Roddy Piper vs. Rock Riddle vs. Tatanka vs. Tito Santana vs. Vampiro vs. Savio Vega vs. Warlord
Cedric Alexander, Brandon Gatson, Candice LeRae and Willie Mack vs. Peter Avalon, Caleb Konley, Jake Manning and Christina Von Eerie

Outside of the Jake Roberts retirement match, there’s nothing on this card that feels out of place and nothing on this card that I don’t want to see. Generico/Castagnoli should be a great match with the chemistry that those two have, Ki and Richards should be able to tear the house down and the Helms/Ryan match has a chance to steal the show if Helms shows up ready to work. All in all, this is one of the strongest PWG cards in recent memory and I am very excited to see how it all plays out with my fingers still crossed that I can get down there to see it.

— Fans of the WWE’s current youth movement should like this next piece of news as there are rumors going around in the promotion that there is an unofficial policy regarding hiring new talent that states that the company is only looking to bring in wrestlers under the age of 30, specifically new guys that they are planning on bringing into the developmental system. Given that the WWE has been seeing some positive results from the influx of younger stars in the past couple of years, it will be interesting to see how this new line of thinking regarding the hiring of talent will start to bear fruit in the future.

— Finally, former CZW star Nick Gage has broken his silence regarding the bank robbery case that led to his arrest and current jail stint. Speaking to the Philadelphia Daily News from his Camden, NJ prison cell, Gage said that he doesn’t blame the wrestling fans that helped turn him in by knowing his picture on television and that he had planned to go to Atlantic City to play roulette with the stolen money. He also added that he is a good guy that has an issue with a painkiller addiction that led to his crazy behavior. While it’s nice to see him take the heat for what’s happened and not try to pass the buck or divert the blame, it’s likely a case of too little, too late for Gage as the damage has already been done. Gage is scheduled for a preliminary hearing next week and is working on getting into an addiction program while serving time in jail, hoping to get himself clean before he is released.

That’s it for this week’s column folks. As has been the case a lot in the past couple of months, I’m not entirely sure who will be in tomorrow, but I’m sure that it will be awesome. Either that or I put up such epic reports that they can’t find anyone to follow me and you’ll get your next news fix on Saturday. Either way, enjoy your weekend everyone, enjoy the football, enjoy the wrestling and we’ll see you in seven! In the mean time and in between time, I’ll see you all right back here next time for another brand spanking new edition of the Bell to Bell!

If you’re a fan of MMA, be sure to check out Nokaut.com for more of my work.