The Bell To Bell News Report 02.10.11

— The WWE has officially announced the location for WrestleMania 28 and the honor will go to Miami, Fl and the Sun Life Stadium, home to the NFL’s Miami Dolphins with the show taking place on April 1st, 2012. The venue is expected to be able to hold up to 75,000 fans and beat out bids from cities like Toronto, who had been pushing for their third WrestleMania following WrestleMania VI and WrestleMania 18. The initial reaction to the announcement was less than positive as Florida held a WrestleMania in Orlando just three years ago, but with the Miami crowds usually being incredibly hot for the WWE whenever they come to town, I can’t fault the company for wanting to reward the market with the honor of hosting the festivities for the biggest event of the year. It is interesting to note that it will be two years in a row that the WWE will hold their biggest show in an area that was known as an NWA hotbed in the 80’s, but it will also open the door to begin the crazy speculation of The Rock making a return in his hometown to be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.

— Long time fans of the Bell to Bell will know that my taste in TV tends to run towards the funny side as evidenced by my recent lovefest for Archer before the second season debuted last month. During this week’s edition of Tosh.0, Daniel Tosh announced that during next week’s episode, he would offer up a web redemption to this unfortunate soul….

This won’t be the first time that Tosh has featured wrestling on his show as references to the likes of Arn and Ole Anderson and “Macho Man” Randy Savage have littered his shows and Southern California indy star Scorpio Sky appeared during a previous season while Tosh attempted to give a web redemption to a backyard wrestler that horribly botched a moonsault. If you’re a fan of wrestling, a fan of Tosh.0 or just a fan of having some laughs, be sure to check out the show next Tuesday to see a segment that should be a lot of fun.

— TNA may be looking to get into the movie business as Kurt Angle recently posted on his Twitter account that his production company was talking to TNA about starting up a TNA Films department. The TNA Films would apparently follow very much in the footsteps of WWE Films and help produce features with TNA wrestlers in starring roles. This seems like a good idea for TNA as they have guys like Angle and Anderson that could do really well in movies and have made decent movies in the past so it makes sense for them to want to capitalize on it. However, the list of stars that TNA could actually put into movies and have them be halfway decent is fairy thin. When you also factor in that TNA Films would likely have a budget that is far less than the WWE Films movies that tend to operate on shoestring budgets and the results would be even harder to watch. This seems like a strong idea for TNA as I said before, but it may just be happening at the wrong time for them for it to be fully successful.

— Last week, Booker T made news by not only returning at the Royal Rumble to a huge pop, but also debuting with an admirable job as the new Smackdown color commentator. This week, it was announced that Booker will be a trainer on the upcoming season of Tough Enough, adding more star power to a show that will also see Stone Cold Steve Austin hosting. This is a really smart move from the WWE heading into the season premiere on April 4th as it not only brings together the two superstars that brought us this classic moment…

but also allows the WWE and the new recruits to get the most out of someone with Booker T’s training experience. Since 2005, he’s been the head of Booker T’s Pro Wrestling Academy, which makes him a perfect fit for the Tough Enough gig. Tough Enough will air following Raw on April 4th before moving to its regular timeslot prior to Raw on the 11th.

— As the 02/21/11 videos continue to air on WWE programming with some fans still hoping that it could lead to the on-air arrival of former WCW and TNA star Sting for a final run in the business with the WWE, speculation is continuing to surround the situation with very little solidly known at this time. Earlier in the week, the New York Daily News reported that Sting had signed with the WWE for a one-year contract, but that report has yet to be verified by any other sources. There have been hints that something could be up with the situation like the removal of Sting’s roster page from the TNA website, but there have also been rumors that Sting and the WWE haven’t even spoken about a possible contract and that he will eventually return to TNA. As it stands right now, the consensus seems to be that The Undertaker will be the one making his return to pay off the videos, but again it appears that there are a lot of working parts at play here which could possibly lead to Sting joining WWE just as it could result in him returning to TNA. You may be asking what the image above has to do with the story and I have to admit that it doesn’t necessarily fit with the content, but you have to agree that it is a badass take on what a WM poster could look like if the two ever met as the rumors have indicated. Stick with the Bell to Bell for more updates in the weeks ahead as this story will surely have a few more twists and turns before it’s all said and done.

— The WWE DVD department looks like they’ve got a new home run on their hands as the lead-in to this year’s WrestleMania will see the release of The True Story of WrestleMania on DVD and Blu-Ray on March 15th. There are still very few details that have been released on what the set will include, but given how well the WWE has done features on the show in the past including The Mania of WrestleMania and the WrestleMania All-Day-Long features from the early 2000’s, it’s safe to say that this one has the potential to be an incredible look back at the biggest event in the history of professional wrestling. You don’t have to take my word for it though, enjoy this trailer featuring a powerful and emotional look back at WrestleMania III.

That my friends, is what you call a must-buy DVD. It is unbelievable to see the stoic and guarded Vince McMahon reduced to tears by the enormity of the memories and goes to show just how deeply wrestling runs in his blood despite what critics may say about his promoting style in the past ten years. If the rest of the DVD and documentary are half as good as this little taste, I can see myself watching it over and over again for years to come.

— Christopher Daniels has recently returned to TNA to reprise his role as Suicide, despite the fact that he is still the Ring of Honor World Television Champion. This development likely came about in part due to Ring of Honor’s contract with HDNet coming to an end which will likely force the promotion to begin allowing their talent to take more bookings outside of the promotion. Given that they’ve already allowed the likes of El Generico and TJ Perkins to work tryout matches that could lead to deals with TNA down the road, it looks like there may be a rekindling of the working relationship between TNA and ROH that fizzled out for the most part in 2007 and beyond. While Daniels has been underused in virtually every sense of the word in TNA, he’s nearing the end of his career and if he can get some money squared away from TNA by working a double-dip with both promotions to settle his family before he retires, that’s a good deal for him. The TNA/ROH dynamic will definitely be one to keep an eye on in the future, especially if there is a long gap between the end of ROH’s deal with HDNet and the beginning of a new deal with another television outlet.

— In his continuing efforts to slowly take over the world, it appears that those rumors of Justin Bieber appearing at WrestleMania XXVII on April 3rd may be coming closer to a reality. Bieber’s management team have been in negotiations with the WWE for the past few months and it is looking more and more likely that both sides will be able to come to a deal that would see the mop-topped pop phenomenon become one of the biggest stars ever to appear at the WWE’s showcase event. Yes, I realize that covers a lot of ground and a lot of celebrities, but the biggest thing that most of the WrestleMania celebrities have had in common dating all the way back to the first WrestleMania is that the majority of them were either beginning to pass their prime or were already past their prime. Bieber seems as though he’s on the tip of a marketing juggernaut that could keep him as one of the hottest celebrities in the world for the next decade or more and with the WWE able to get in somewhere near the ground floor this could be a huge coup for them. No word on what role Bieber would take in the show, but let’s hope that it’s not a mid-show concert like the Kid Rock debacle of a few years back that killed the crowd and led to much wailing and gnashing of teeth from nearly everyone who watched the show.

— In one of those weird pieces of news that only seems to happen in the WWE, Shaul Guerrero, daughter of Vickie and WWE Hall of Famer Eddie Guerrero, will be reporting soon to FCW to begin her developmental deal. The weird part comes in that they’re planning on changing her name away from the legendary Guerrero moniker to the rather generic sounding Raquel Diaz. I can understand that they might want to do it to avoid having her associated with such a strong heel figure like Vickie has become, but it’s just another situation where the WWE seems to be trying to avoid the heritage of these new second and third generation stars that they’re bringing into the company rather than embracing it. They’ve done it to the sons of numerous legends like Mike Rotundo and Curt Hennig, so it shouldn’t come as any surprise that they would do it to Eddie’s daughter, but it still doesn’t make any sense to me.

That’s it for this week’s somewhat abbreviated report. Join me next week for more of my thoughts on the news of the world of professional wrestling and if you’re in the Southern California area you owe it to yourself to check out a double-shot this weekend with Mach-1 Wrestling putting on their weekly Friday Night Fight show at the American Sports Center at 1500 S. Anaheim Blvd., Anaheim, CA on Friday and the latest NWA Championship Wrestling From Hollywood TV taping on Saturday at the Regent Showcase Theatre at 614 N. La Brea Ave, Hollywood, CA. Tickets for the Mach-1 show will be available at the door, $6 for adults and just $3 for kids with a 9pm bell time, while tickets for the NWA Hollywood/KDOC TV taping are available for just $15 at the door, by visiting SaveFans.com or by calling 1-888-326-7697. It should be a fun weekend of wrestling so if you’re in the area, you should definitely check it out. In the meantime and in between time, I’ll see you all back here next time for another all-new edition of the Bell to Bell!

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