wrestling / Columns
News From Cook’s Corner 04.12.11
Hi, hello & welcome to News From Cook’s Corner! I’m Steve Cook, and I hope you all are having a great week. I have to be honest with you guys, it was a little tough for me to write most of this column on Monday night. That happens sometimes. We do have a lot of good stuff this week though. Some good wrestling discussion, talk of Divas having issues with a certain Diva legend & Snooki, some Raw Thoughts, an appearance by one of 411’s legends, and a few other things thrown in for good measure.
It’s kind of a down week for wrestling news, honestly. Lots of stories to report that I would rather not discuss. But we press on because it’s what we do…even in a world that’s no longer Dashing.
I think we need to debate which of the Melina vs Alicia Fox matches was the Tough Enough chick’s favorite. Was it the Summerslam one or the one when Alicia wanted to become the Undefined Champion? – SHADE
This is something that’s getting slept on in all of this. I think there are two obvious candidates, one being the SummerSlam match. Melina was especially proud of a match she & Alicia had on Superstars back in October, and since it’s the newest match they had on TV & Ariene hadn‘t watched a whole lot of wrestling, I’m going to guess it may have been this one:
It’s easy for people like me who have been watching this stuff for twenty years to laugh at this match being somebody’s favorite, but if I was a woman looking to get into the business and I hadn’t watched very much wrestling, I could see this match being something that would inspire me. It’s a pretty basic women’s match, but you do get some cool spots like Melina doing the splits & arm dragging Alicia, and using the Jack Evans backslide to get the victory. It might have been a Top 20 2010 Divas Match. No, I haven’t the foggiest idea what number one would have been.
But this talk of favorite matches and how this answer was bad makes me wonder…what are the favorite matches of my readers? I’ll talk about my favorite match next week. It’s very tough to narrow it down to one, but there’s one match that has provided me with more entertainment than any other, and I’ll talk about it in the next edition of the Corner. Until then, let me know what you think is the BEST MATCH EVER!
Don’t pick more than one match either. That’s cheating. I want one answer. This girl got put on the spot, and I’m putting you on the spot too.
I know another poster in another column answered the thing about Cody Rhodes love, but let me add my two cents:
It is really about seeing somebody develop. Some had that enthusiasm with Edge, watching him develop from jobber to tag team specialist to singles wrestlers. Some of us had disappointed hopes for Matt Hardy. Take it to sports or acting and you see the same thing. Fans who watch players from the minors, or NCAA competition, or guys in crappy shows reach the top. So with Cody, we saw a guy in the meaningless tag team ranks. We saw him in a stable as a generic and meaningless third member. We saw DiBiase being groomed to move up, even though many of us thought Rhodes had more talent. But Ted has size, though Cody is no Mysterio on the height chart.
Cody was punted to the B show and given what seemed like a dead end gimmick. But Cody has that Rhodes charisma of being able to get the strangest characters over. Total buy in to his role of Dashing Cody Rhodes. Seriously, how many wrestlers can you name that could have made that work? HBK in his prime would have done better with it, as would Flair, because they were that into themselves. Most would have flopped.
Then Cody got the most mileage out of the act – he used a comedy bit as a springboard to a darker, more dangerous character. Losing the comedy is the very reason he is dangerous, because nobody wants to fight somebody who is crazy. As a story mechanic it works great too. Losing what he loved the most makes Cody dark and demonic.
So yeah, it is the joy of finding quality and watching the rise of a young talent. It shows that WWE can sometimes do something the right way instead of just slapping somebody in the main event and seeing if it will stick (Special Ed Gorilla and Sheamus). – Guest#5922
Guest is pretty much right on the money here, and talks about one of my absolute favorite aspects of following this business and being a fan of it. Is there anything more fun than watching a young wrestler work their way up the card and make something of themselves? I can only imagine what it was like for Mid-Atlantic wrestling fans to watch a young guy named Ric Flair start out in their territory at the bottom of the ladder, work his way up, and become a man who many say is the greatest wrestler that ever lived. It must have been fun for the wrestling fans in Florida to see Dusty Rhodes become the American Dream in their national guard armories, and then become one of the top dogs in the NWA for over a decade. Stampede Wrestling fans must have enjoyed following the exploits of their native son Bret Hart as he went from being Stu’s kid to being the top competitor in the World Wrestling Federation.
That’s one of the greatest things about being a wrestling fan. It’s one thing to jump on the bandwagon on whoever the new champion is. Did you notice how everybody was jumping on Miz’s bandwagon after he won the title? I’ve never been much of a front-runner, to be honest. I got no problem with other people doing it, but it ain’t my thing. I like to find somebody flying under the radar.
Everyone knows TNA sucks. It is a proven fact, and you bash it good, rightfully so, on a consistant basis. Yet, you debut a new column with that Black Scorpion goon.
Have you ever explained why? Is it just for the cheap clicks to troll that moron or is it the contrast of smart fan (WWE) vs. blind fan (TNA)? – Posey
Scorp is a talented writer. His opinions do seem to have me rolling my eyes fairly often these days, but the guy knows how to write and how to get a reaction. I thought a column with the two of us would present different perspectives similar to those political talk shows that people complain about all the time yet keep watching in large numbers. I do give TNA credit when they do good things, and I would love it if they deserved to have positive things written about them in this column every week. But I’ve never been one to heap praise on people that have done nothing to deserve it.
I used to favor TNA back when I started writing here over six years ago. A lot has changed since then. TNA’s changed. WWE’s changed. Heck, I’ve changed. Who knows what the future will hold.
I don’t get when I see people comment that CM Punk gets X-Pac heat and is as bad as X-Pac(I think somebody called him H-Pac). He is way better than X-Pac, and the heat he gets is heel heat, not “go away” heat.
That is a funny picture at the end of the column. I hope you are not one of those people who think that the BE is the greatest conference because UCONN won the title, when it’s just one team who won it from the BE. You should be happy to know that Dickie V picked Louisville to be the 6th best team next year(behind Duke, Ohio State, Texas, Kentucky, and UNC) – Still Guest #8287
Punk’s always had his haters, going all the way back to his days in IWA Mid-South. I haven’t always been high on the Punker, but eventually I learned to accept him as an awesome heel with great speaking skills. We have a lot of differences, but it seems that the more I hear from him on-screen or off-screen, the more I find myself nodding my head in agreement.
As far as conference superiority goes…
I’m not usually one to go on about how great a conference is, in fact one of the things I don’t like about college sports is how we’re allegedly supposed to support our rivals in the postseason because we’re in a conference together and it shows superiority or some crap like that. Once my team loses, I really don’t give a crap who wins. I just feel compelled in this instance to speak up because everybody wanted to yap about how the Big East was bad all year because a lot of their teams left the tournament early. They were bad on one weekend, so everybody started jumping to conclusions and talking smack. Charles Barkley picked against Connecticut every round after the second round because of his bias against the Big East. That worked out as well as his quest to win a ring.
All I know is that Louisville was 3-1 against the teams in the national championship game during the regular season. We should be good next year, but it’s way too early for me to be worrying about something like that. There’s still baseball & football season!
From my twitter account during Wrestlemania…
411s_Ben_Piper
Holy crap, that was over quick!
lansdellicious
@411s_Ben_Piper That’s what Cook’s last girlfriend said.
411s_Ben_Piper
@lansdellicious *Rimshot* – BenPiper
See, this is why I can’t get on Twitter. I’d be drunk one night and haters would be hating & I’d end up going all Kevin Nash on people. We can’t have that. Nice to hear from Chris though, and have him tell his mom I said hello.
oh and you didn’t like the handspring elbow but you liked that mini splash? Umm… Okayyyy – anon22
My beef with the handspring elbow was that the elbow didn’t hit anything. It was more like a handspring butt-butt. Which is fine, but…eh, I dunno.
Cook, I have to say, now that I’ve been within 3 feet of Reby Sky, she has one fantastic ass on her. And I don’t mind bragging that she posted a picture of me online (okay, maybe it was just a picture looking down on the DGUSA ring, but if you squint you can make me out to the right of it).
And do you think the Sheamus/Bryan match got bumped because those guys might have been able to steal the show? I’m confident they could have put on a better match than either world title match. – G-Walla
I think Sheamus vs. Bryan was already on thin ice because certain people backstage (Kevin Dunn) don’t seem to like Sheamus much these days, but reportedly there was a match they had on a house show that finished with Sheamus hitting Bryan in the head with a steel chair while Bryan was trying a tope. It was the same house show where Miz interrupted the National Anthem and got the National Guard mad, so there was just all sorts of craziness going on that night. Fit Finlay was in charge and he got fired. Some have connected the dots and speculated that Sheamus & Bryan getting bumped to the pre-show was a punishment for violating WWE’s policy against chair shots to the head. Triple H & Undertaker got fined for theirs on the show, so Sheamus & Bryan getting a significantly smaller payoff for WrestleMania sounds like a punishment that would go along with their policy. It makes sense to me.
Moral of the story: You can’t give people ranked above you that are already inclined to dislike you something to validate their opinion.
I like Reby Sky’s looks, but WWE certainly does not value promo skills in women. First they would have to take the Women’s division seriously.
Should Jeff Hardy return with a Charlie Sheen gimmick? Because TNA will bring him back and he will screw up again. This gives an easy out for TNA when he can’t work a match or happens to be high when on the mic. – Guest#1810
I think WWE does value promo skills for its woman performers, and that’s why you see Vickie Guerrero on TV all the time while girls like Natalya who are good workers but have no promo skills don’t do very much. Alicia Fox is a pretty good example too…she was getting a pretty good push until she talked about being the undefined champion, then she basically disappeared. The Divas division has so many layers of problems with how it’s handled that I’m not sure where to start. I think the writers have a really hard time writing for women, especially women that are supposed to be fan favorites. That’s especially weird when you consider that a woman is the head writer. You’d expect Vince Russo to have no idea how to write a likeable female character (TNA’s baby face Knockouts are either portrayed as sluts or running around calling everybody bitches all the time), but why can’t Stephanie McMahon seem to?
I don’t think Jeff Hardy can pull off a Charlie Sheen gimmick. Charlie Sheen doesn’t seem to be doing a good job of pulling off his own gimmick at his shows, and he’s a far superior talker.
I also liked seeing that HBK-Flair pic. I’m glad HBK seems to be more forgiving than the IWC about Flair returning. If the man wants to wrestle, let him. What else does he have in his life? I don’t think he was ever a family man. Wrestling is his life, his love. Let him do it til he dies.
I don’t see why people don’t believe that Kurt Angle’s twitter account was hacked by a family member. Hasn’t Eric Angle pulled these shenanigans before? I can see him hiding behind the couch until Angle’s had one too many “aspirins and sody pops” and passes out, then jump out and start tweeting. Damn that Eric Angle! – The Big Fat F*g
Eric Angle…there’s a name I haven’t heard in ages. I looked him up just to see what he’s been up to, and it turns out he went into indy wrestling for a little bit after getting released from his WWE developmental contract. He got injured at an IWC (not the Internet Wrestling Commiunity) show in Pittsburgh, and decided to retire while he was rehabbing the injury. I’m going to go out on a limb and say that Eric’s the smart one in the family.
And I’m not surprised HBK would have a kinder outlook towards Naitch than most of us. Dude was his role model and one of his best friends. We all have people in our lives that we look up to or have strong feelings towards, and when they make mistakes we usually end up forgiving them. I think Michaels knew in the back of his mind that Flair would probably come back and wrestle again. He knows how wrestling works, and he’s trying to be the guy that doesn’t need to come back because he has a good life. I wish him luck.
Cook vs. Acero started at the Rumble. Wrestlemania XVIII match? We can start building it tonight… – Tony Acero
If we have a match, it’ll get booked so Michael Ornelas makes out with Maryse, the Bellas, Reby Sky, Velvet Sky, Sara Del Rey & Madison Rayne. I’m not falling for that one again.
As a follow member in the Bella Army, Steve I have to ask:
Which Bella do you prefer.. Is it the sweet and wholesome Brie or the much bigger ass’d and proudly promiscuous Nikki? – Guest#8860
It’s like asking a mother to pick a favorite child. I have to preface this by saying that I love both Brie & Nikki and think they do an outstanding job on WWE television whenever they’re given an opportunity. You describe Brie as the sweet and wholesome one, but I remember reading a story in Rumble Road: Untold Stories from Outside the Ring that involved Brie getting drunk and swimming in a hotel pool while wearing a white dress. That’s when I decided that Brie was probably the one I’d be drawn to more. Also, Nikki modeled in a Kentucky jersey and that’s why I ranked Brie ahead of Nikki in the Hot 100 last year. I can’t believe I ranked them 17 & 18, that seems really low. They’ll make the top 10 easily this time, maybe top 5.
And now, the fake news!
double glamour.net
The WWE Divas don’t seem to be happy campers these days. There has been a lot of ire from the Diva camp towards the likes of Trish Stratus & Snooki, who some people believe took spots from the girls that work for WWE all year and deserved a nice WrestleMania paycheck. The Divas are getting killed over this, but I can kind of see where the dissenters are coming from…as long as I ignore the fact that Trish Stratus is still better than today’s Diva crop in most ways, and Snooki seems to have a fan base that exceeds that of the Divas. (I still find this hard to believe, but enough people keep telling me that, so I guess it’s true.) Having Trish Stratus & Snooki on a card will get more attention than having Kelly Kelly & Eve Torres. Or Melina, who is one of the main people involved in this.
The problem the Trish & Snooki haters have here is that Trish Stratus is pretty much the most beloved woman ever to work for WWE. She’s never caused any problems or drama behind the scenes, she’s never made a fool of herself in public, basically she’s always been the perfect Diva to present to the public as an example of what WWE is all about. If you have a problem with Trish, you have a problem with a lot of people within WWE…especially if you’re somebody who’s already caused a lot of problems backstage and has made a fool of yourself in public at least once recently.
You know who comes out the worst in all of this? John Morrison. Trish admitted to our friends at Busted Open that John gave her the cold shoulder and wasn’t open to working with her. She said that while he’s a very talented wrestler, he must not be very smart. Morrison, of course, is romantically linked to Melina, and has been even when Batista talked about having a physical relationship with her in his book. People have called Morrison’s manhood & toughness into question over these sorts of things before, and something tells me that being mean to Trish Stratus because his girlfriend is mad at her isn’t really going to win those people over.
It seems that Edge’s retirement on Raw was legit. You’ll notice in the Raw Thoughts that I wasn’t really sure how to take that segment. WWE.com reports that Edge had been suffering numbness and uncontrollable trembling in his arms and hands. The doctors say that Edge continuing to compete could result in paralysis or even death, which sadly has happened to wrestlers with serious neck problems that continued to wrestle. I’m still hoping that this is an angle and Edge will be back in the ring soon, but if it isn’t, it’s good that he’s taking the proper precautions and can walk away still in one piece.
WWE is heading to Europe for two weeks! Expect lots of fun backstage stories not long afterwards, the European trips seem to provoke a lot of crazy behavior.
Gail Kim has denied rumors that she is leaving WWE later this year. The obvious joke here is to wonder who would notice, but I like Gail too much to make such jokes unless I’m doing Raw Thoughts. Then it’s fair game. Hopefully Gail sticks around, and hopefully she gets to do something since she was actually on Raw this week.
Jerry Lawler won the Traditional Championship Wrestling Tag Team Titles over the weekend, teaming with Matt Riviera. Riviera was on the VH1 show “Megan Wants A Millionaire” and according to the Wikipedia page on the show had a net worth of $5.5 million dollars. You know, if I was worth that much I think that getting into wrestling would be the furthest thing from my mind. That was the show that got cancelled after one of the finalists was accused of murdering his wife, who he met after the show was filmed. Then he killed himself. Yeah, those quickie marriages always work out for the best. In any event, the King has another championship to add to his collection and I doubt there’s anybody in the history of wrestling that’s won more titles than he has.
Superstar Billy Graham is irate over the fact that Abdullah the Butcher has been inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame, and demanded in an interview with Slam Wrestling that he be removed from the HOF. It’s nice to see that he’s recovering well from that life-threatening illness, but it seems that he’s lost his mind somewhere along the way. He’s also mad at Chris Jericho over something that Jericho wrote in his book, and threatened to beat the living hell out of him the next time he saw him. Jericho wished Graham the best in his future plans. I think Graham’s still cutting promos twenty years after anybody cared about what he had to say. Kinda sad, really.
Shane McMahon appeared on coverage of The Masters golf tournament on Sunday. Turns out he’s part of a company that represents Rory McIlroy, who had led the tournament through the first three rounds. After Shane shook his hand, McIlroy went into the tank and shot an 80, going from having a four shot lead at the beginning of the day to being completely out of contention. If only Rory had seen what happened to WCW once Shane got control of it, perhaps he could have saved his career by going with a different agency.
I want to dedicate the last portion of the WWE news to one more reader question. Guest #6087 had the following to say last week, with a special request at the end…
“Business-wise, it make some sense for WWE to distance itself from wrestling. Not remove itself, but to have the general public see WWE as something more, or something else. See, WWE basically has cornered the market on wrestling fans. Or at least they have the most viewers of wrestling in the state wrestling is in right now. You could argue that WWE should do more to draw in more that would otherwise watch wrestling, but let’s look beyond that. Having gotten the lion’s share of wrestling viewers, how else can WWE increase its revenues? Sure they can go into other markets, but that’s happening anyways. So another option is non-wrestling fans.
The problem is that they are non-wrestling fans, or at least those people think of themselves that way. But people in general still want to be entertained. People still watch TV, listen to music, and scour the internet for entertainment. So I see this WWE decree as nothing more than a long series of efforts to draw in people who don’t think of themselves as wrestling fans. Because, let’s face it, wrestling doesn’t have the greatest image. Sure WWE booking has a lot to do with it, but the image will die hard.
Look at where sports have found their growth – by targeting women. The ultimate goldmine in non-traditional sports fans. The Olympics started that in the late ’90s. Football has done a great job of it, think of all the pink jerseys you see. Football has only been the #1 sport since they took this approach.
When you have maximized your share of the market, it is time to redefine your market to something larger. Sell coffee, then sell pastries. Have a chain and sell CD’s and books – Starbucks, the billion dollar “coffee” company. WWE is taking a similar tack.
Cook, ask Prag if you can and see what he thinks.”
Ladies and Gentlemen, JP Prag!
————————————–
Well, dragged out of retirement for Steve Cook. While I’ve been enjoying my role as backstage agent, I guess an occasional live appearance can’t hurt my legacy too much, right?
Let’s compare WWE to KFC. KFC used to stand for “Kentucky Fried Chicken”, but about seven years ago they formally changed the name of the company to KFC, which stands for nothing. Plenty of other organizations have done this, such as TLC, to reflect a change in direction. While KFC is still a place to get chicken, they also sell other products that are not chicken, and plenty of things that are not fried. As such, the name change made sense. KFC has a value and is still recognizable as a brand. And even though they sell other things, they still do chicken.
Now, WWE is going on a similar mission, except they are also breaking up their company in to business units that do several different things. According to their latest press release, WWE will be selling some of their core competencies as items. Therefore, WWE is the parent company that will have divisions as so:
So yes, WWE is trying to take their core competencies that they developed as a wrestling organization and sell them to other companies in a bid to increase revenue and expand what the company is about. The problem many have in the IWC have is that the parent company is called “WWE” and they immediately associate that with what is described as WWE Live above. If the parent company were called “Titan”, and “Titan” owned several companies called “WWE Live”, “Titan Productions”, “Titan Programming”, “Titan Home Entertainment”, “Titan Studios”, “Titan Licensing”, “Titan Marketing”, etc…, some people would immediately have less of an issue with this. But 15 years ago WWE dropped the Titan name (except from their executive office in Stamford, CT), so WWE is the logical parent company of all of these other companies. Also, should WWE find a division to be less profitable, they can spin or sell it off.
Think of it this way: Limited Brands used to own The Limited, but they expanded and bought out many other companies including Victoria’s Secret. As time went on, they realized that their companies like Victoria’s Secret were much more profitable than The Limited, so they sold The Limited. As such, Limited Brands does not own The Limited. Now, no one is suggesting that WWE is going to sell off WWE Live, but they may do something like that with WWE Studios or WWE Marketing. Perhaps the WWE will realize they are not the best at running a certain function and will sell it off to someone else.
Conversely, let us say WWE Productions is so wildly successful that it starts to bring in more dollars than WWE Live. WWE may chose to spin the company off as its own public company and allow people to buy in to it. As a separate company, WWE Productions may be able to move faster and take on more clients than under the WWE parent company’s umbrella. Not saying this is the plan, but it is a possibility.
More so, this takes divisions that have traditionally been cost centers for the company and turns them in to profit centers. Your company may have an IT department, and the IT department costs the company a lot of money through the year. But what if your IT department were so good that they could sell their services to other companies? Suddenly a department that was costing millions of dollars a year could be bringing in revenue beyond the costs, actually turning a profit. WWE is doing the same thing: taking cost centers and turning them in to profit centers (or at least attempting to).
Now then, let us return to the KFC example. Although KFC has expanded their business model to many different products, they do not deny the existence of chicken. WWE has a valid point that parent company “WWE” does more than wrestling. As noted above, there are many different existing and potential profit centers. That part of the mission is fine. However, WWE Live creates wrestling events. While it is plausible to say WWE Live could produce any type of live event, to deny that they produce wrestling is ludicrous. If “WWE Live” is a live events touring company, what is wrong with saying they produce things such as concerts, Q&A’s, meet and greets, variety shows, and wrestling events? Most all other live event companies list out the products they produce, such as boxing, MMA, concerts, and demonstrations. WWE should do this as well. Heck, the old Titan Sports used to do this when they produced many types of events.
The problem WWE has is that they are presenting their mission wrong. If they went about the path as seen above, they could say WWE the parent company has these X-Y-Z profit companies that sell these products. A simple flow chart showing WWE Parent, all the divisions, and what each division does would go a long way. Then, they could show WWE goes to WWE Live which in turn flows to WWE Wrestling Live. The edict to remove the word “wrestling” from WWE Live is counter productive. The WWE needs to bring on a serious re-branding manager to help them out with this as it is painfully obvious that they are trying to do this with little to no experience.
Listen, Nintendo used to be a company that made playing cards. Kia and New Balance used to be the cheap brands of their respective industries. Companies can change their image and what they do to make money, but that does not mean they have to completely decimate what makes them the majority of their money. Kia did not say one day that they no longer make cars, but “premium transportation devices”; they took a long time to re-brand what the words “Kia car” meant. WWE wanting to prove “WWE” does not necessarily mean “low class wrestling” but “international multimedia company with these capabilities to sell” is a fine mission. But saying WWE does not sell wrestling as one of their many products is just going to make this effort take longer as that is what people will be focusing on.
Read the business trade magazines; none of them talk about what was listed above. Instead, all talk about how the WWE has banned the word “wrestling” from their program and how they put on “entertainments” instead of wrestling shows. The message WWE has been trying to make has been lost in the noise of their own creation.
——————————————–
Thanks a lot, JP! One of the best writers that‘s ever graced this or any other wrestling website, ain’t no doubt about it.
Marysephotos.com
-I think a couple of people in the background of that shot are having some Raw Thoughts. Sick freaks!
-Matt, Matt, Matt. Waiting for your moment? Bad answer. Talented guy, but Austin’s absolutely right. I don’t blame him for kicking Matt off at all. Good thing I covered him in last week’s Sandwich. Bad thing that I thought he’d last a long time.
-By the way, Austin is so awesome on Tough Enough that it’s ridiculous.
-Cena says his match with the Rock at WM will be for the WWE title. Does he know that he doesn’t have it yet?
-Ah, so he’s going to win it this week and then be champ for the whole year. Good luck with that.
-Randy Orton comes out. Then John Morrison comes out. I’m fighting the urge to laugh.
-Wow, Morrison’s fans are higher-pitched than Cena’s.
-Dolph Ziggler comes out. Then R-Truth comes out. OK, this is just getting ridiculous. I might as well come down and demand a title shot. I’ve got as good a chance as R-Truth does.
-Meh, Bridgeport’s a long drive from Kentucky.
-Cole makes a match. I don’t really pay attention.
-Looks like Kong is coming!
-BELLAS!
Editor’s Note: There was a report going around that Kong would be starting with FCW soon, which I had the following to say about:
Awesome Kong will be debuting for FCW very soon. The question begs to be asked…what the heck has she been doing since she got signed? I mean, I feel like I should have been reporting this months ago. She got signed right around the beginning of 2010, so that’s more than three months that she’s been under contract. Jenny Craig? I honestly have no idea.
Pretty good line, right? Anyway.
-The ref puts an x on the hand of Brie Bella. I don’t understand why.
-Josh claims they switch places sometimes. Is he drunk?
-I like Eve a lot too, for the record.
-Brie wins the title fairly and squarely! A well-deserved honor. I just hope Kong doesn’t kill her. Send that woman to Smackdown!
-Oh, and it deserves mention that the Bellas ARE LOOKING GOOD TONIGHT!
-Gail Kim, Natalya & Tamina are still around? Who knew?
-Sin Cara & Primo getting a lot of time here. I like it!
-Primo’s pretty much the prefect opponent to showcase Sin Cara’s skills. Too bad AJ’s not still appearing in his corner.
-Hope that fall was planned, because the knives will be out backstage if it wasn’t, even if it was Primo’s fault.
-Uh oh, Wade’s given up on the idea as the Corre as equals. That sure didn’t last long.
-Apple? Oh, Daniel, you’ve been reduced to this? Evan, you too? I expect it from Mark Henry, he’s been dressed like a big red apple for months now. I guess people will do anything to get on Raw, even if it means joining forces with the master of the Cobra.
-That is a pretty nice abbreviation though.
-Cole better watch himself talking about fruits like that.
-JR rocking the Cole Mine back and forth! I didn’t know he had it in him!
-I haven’t seen him that crazed since they cancelled Hee-Haw!
-Josh is doing the smart thing laying out and letting Cole & JR call Lawler vs. Swagger from the corners.
-“Your guy had him in an ankle lock and now has him in a wrist lock. Shows how stupid he is!” – JR. Too true.
-Man, what a pop that finish got!
-Let’s hope the next Lawler vs. Cole match goes the way it should.
-Uh oh, I think Cole picked a bad time to get on Jack Swagger’s bad side. He’s got three weeks to get Jack to be his friend again. Not sure how I feel about JR being in a match, but I guess we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.
-They’re teasing an Edge retirement. So he’d rather retire than wrestle ADR again? Makes sense.
-I hope he doesn’t lose his smile. That’s been done before.
-The fans applaud that he won’t end up in a wheelchair. I love that reaction. I remember when Nigel McGuinness was giving a speech about his various injuries in ROH and the fans shit all over him and forced a heel turn. Nice to see the fans have come around on this.
-Why do I get the feeling that he won’t be retiring as World Heavyweight Champion?
-Wow, he gave his speech and left without anybody attacking him. I’ve heard the rumors that Edge wouldn’t be long for wrestling, but I’m still not sure if I should buy into it or not. They’re putting it over like it’s legit, so I guess we’ll wait and see.
-Of course Edge makes sure to hug all the Divas backstage. Smart man.
-This match is getting some time.
-It’s amazing anybody can get a word in edgewise with Miz out there. Oh, wait, they can’t.
-Orton gets eliminated first! The New Nexus is back! I’m not sure what’s more surprising here.
-Batista power bombs Orton! No, wait, that’s Mason Ryan. My bad.
-R-Truth eliminates Ziggler, then gets to face Morrison. Well, I guess there is a slight chance that Cena can lose. That slight chance involves everybody backstage losing their minds. Which is possible, this is wrestling entertainment.
-This reminds me…I was going to cut Miz some slack on that bad WM main event when I heard he suffered a concussion…until I found out it was at the end of the match. Whoops. If he’d been loopy through the match it would have made sense.
-How about Morrison & R-Truth wearing matching pants even though I don’t think they’ve teamed for months? How odd.
-And Morrison loses! How’s that shoulder feeling now, buddy?
-I think they’re trying to make me regret not going to this show and requesting a spot in the gauntlet.
-You mean to tell me that R-Truth will actually be part of a triple threat title match? Allow me to pick my jaw off the ground.
-OK, so we’ve got R-Truth as a co-#1 contender, a retired World Champion, a new Divas Champion, and a new Apple. What a strange show this was. And why do I have the feeling that a certain somebody could have been in the WWE title match at Extreme Rules if they weren’t a dipshit?
Kurt Angle pled guilty to the charge of reckless driving in North Dakota that took place back on March 25. Under the deal, Angle will pay a fine of $475, serve unsupervised probation for a year and have a chemical dependency evaluation. There will also be a suspended sentence of 10 days in jail. This is all pending the judge’s approval. It’s kind of refreshing to talk about a court case ending quickly, but I wouldn’t be shocked if the judge threw it out and insisted on having a trial. Why waste an opportunity to spend more of the taxpayers’ money, right?
Good God, I sound like a tea party person. Can you be a liberal and still make comments like that? Must be the beer talking.
Traci Brooks answered Madison Rayne’s open challenge on the TNA house shows in Ohio & Pennsylvania over the weekend. She lost to Madison in Erie, PA & Cleveland, Ohio, but ended up pinning her in Rosstraver, PA. I guess Madison figured she’d already clinched the series and didn’t care about the third match. That’s a mistake when you’re going against the original TNA Knockout.
There isn’t a whole lot of TNA news worth talking about this week, but there will be next week. Your humble correspondent will have an exclusive report on TNA Lockdown, taking place in Cincinnati, Ohio! That’s right, business is about to pick up. Will I get slugged by an enraged TNA wrestler? Which TNA wrestler would be most likely to slug me? I’d think it’d be Matt Hardy by a country mile, but I could be wrong. No, I’m probably not wrong. Tune in next week to find out how my experience at a TNA pay-per-view event goes!
We’ve got some very sad news to report today, as the man known to fans of independent wrestling as “Sweet n’ Sour” Larry Sweeney ended his own life at the age of twenty-nine. Alex Whybrow started training to be a wrestler in 2003 at the CHIKARA Wrestling Academy, learning under Mike Quackenbush, Chris Hero & Jorge “Skayde” Rivera. He also trained under Buddy Rose & Ed Wiskowski in Oregon, and became a pro wrestler in 2004. He wrestled all over the indy circuit, making his biggest impact in places like CHIKARA & IWA Mid-South with the gimmick of being an old-school, flamboyant wrestler. He had a mythical championship called the ICWICWA Tex-Arkana Television Title that he defended it all over the indy circuit, winning and losing it countless times. He made one appearance with World Wrestling Entertainment in 2006, playing the role of Nick Hogan in a “Hogan Knows Best” parody used to build up Hulk Hogan’s feud with Randy Orton heading into SummerSlam that aired on an episode of Raw.
Whybrow made his way to Ring of Honor in 2007, where he used his exceptional verbal talents in the role of an agent. Sweet & Sour Inc. was one of the top heel factions in ROH from 2007-09 and featured Hero, Sara Del Rey, Davey Richards, Eddie Edwards, Adam Pearce, Matt Sydal, Tank Toland, Brent Albright, Bobby Dempsey, Shane Hagadorn & others at various times. Larry Sweeney thrived in the role of “superagent”, with many observers comparing him to a young Bobby “The Brain” Heenan. That’s some tall cotton to stand next to, but Sweeney was a fantastic talker and like Heenan in his younger days, could take some bumps when necessary. The antics of Sweeney and the wackiness of his stable of talent helped them stand out from the seriousness that the ROH product was at the time.
Unfortunately, issues with drugs led to Whybrow’s departure from ROH in 2009. He claimed that he had left the promotion due to monetary issues, but word soon got out that he was suffering from depression and had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. He came back to ROH one last time and provided color commentary on Final Battle 2009, but never returned to the promotion afterwards. He drifted in and out of the business after that, appearing on some CHIKARA cards under a mask and calling himself Vokoder. I’ve read some people say that he was on the verge of making a full-on comeback to wrestling, but obviously that won’t be happening now.
I was a big fan of Larry Sweeney going back to 2006…I think it was Csonka that turned me on to some of his work, and I liked what I saw. The guy had an unbelievable amount of charisma and brought something to the table that was different from what everybody else in the indies was doing at the time. He was part of my Top Ten Wrestlers You Can’t See on Television in August 2006, and I was excited when ROH brought him in a few months later. I got to see him at ROH events in Dayton several times, and he never failed to get the crowd involved in matches that his charges competed in. If there was one flaw in his act, I thought it was that sometimes he’d get excited when the fans would chant “SWEET N’ SOUR” and strut around instead of trying to get the fans to boo him. Knowing what I know now, I can’t blame him for soaking in the adulation of the fans whenever he could.
This is the flip side of what we were talking about earlier in the MaleBag. It’s awesome to watch somebody rise up the ranks and become a big star, but when something like this happens to somebody you saw loads of potential in…it’s a bitter pill to swallow. I raise my glass to Sweet n’ Sour, and wish the best to his friends and family during this difficult time.
I wish I could say we’re moving on to happier news, but this next story is also quite disturbing. Scott Hall showed up to a show put on by Top Rope Promotions on Friday night in no condition to perform. He was hospitalized after the show and was treated for cardiac issues & complications stemming from the ten different medications he was taking at the time. It goes without saying that if you’re taking ten different medications, something has gone horribly wrong somewhere in life. Video of the incident came online the next day, and Hall’s friends were absolutely furious that the promotion would use the incident to generate interest for the Internet PPV of the show that would be online Sunday night.
TRP made a statement on the situation on Monday, part of which I include below:
Hall and his people down in FL had all claimed he was clean and good to go. His flight and hotel were pre paid, and his appearance fee was demanded upon arrival at the airport (which he asked for within 3 min of being picked up).
Hall had arrived in a wheel chair with 3 bottles of prescription pills in his posession. Hall had performed an interview with our local newspaper The Herald News around 6 PM on Thursday night, saying how much he was looking forward to coming to the show, and how he was clean. Less then 24 hrs later, he showed up in the state he was in, demanding his appearance fee. Right off the bat, we were in a bad situation.
Having Hall at the building, already pre paid with his appearance fee, hotel, flight, etc. He even harassed my driver in the process. Hall was persistent to appear on the show. His heart was in the right place, unfortunately I can’t say the same about his mind or his body.
Throughout the night he made threats to numerous members of my staff, as well as myself demanding more money, demanding to go to the ring when he wanted to etc. He was also threatening to kill me if I “screwed” him over. I’m 31 years old and I should be in no circumstances, babysitting someone in there 50’s.
Hall made at best, an embarrassing performance in the ring and for the fans who came to see him, trashing matches that were on the show before him and addressing the crowd as if we were in England.
Neither Hall, nor anyone who helped line up the date, or any of his close friends or agents have called to apologize or offer a refund for his “less then stellar” appearance. He showed his true colors and who he was this past Friday night. If he’s upset that we’re airing a stream of this atrocious appearance, maybe he should issue an apology to the fans, the promotion, and the workers of the company. One would only assume that no one that night got what they paid for, myself included.”
I have elected not to include the video in this column because I think it’s absolutely disgusting. I don’t know how Scott Hall got in the state he was in at that show, I wasn’t there. But what I really want to know is how somebody would have thought it was a good idea to let him go out to the ring in that condition and make a complete fool of himself. This is very similar to how TNA let Jeff Hardy go out to the ring for Victory Road, but even worse because at least TNA nipped it in the bud once they figured out what was going on. These guys just let Hall go out there and embarrass himself, and are now using the incident for publicity. So as far as I’m concerned, whether Scott Hall has fallen off the wagon, or if he’s taking medications that shouldn’t be taken together (I’ve done that before, it ain’t fun), or whatever, he’s been taken advantage of by this promotion.
And I hate to bring up this question because I know some people won’t like it…but why on Earth would an indy wrestling promotion book Scott Hall anyway? He doesn’t work for cheap, his track record is spotty at best…honestly, you really shouldn’t be surprised if something like this happens. Is he going to bring in enough extra fans to be worth the potential problems? I can see it if it’s down in Florida close to where he lives so you don’t have to pay for an airplane ticket and a hotel room, but other than that…jeez, I just don’t get it.
Best of luck to Scott in getting over this latest obstacle. It’s a tough road.
Perro Aguyao Jr. was hospitalized over the weekend to have a tumor the size of a golf ball removed from his stomach. The leader of the Perros del Mal complained of stomach pains after a match last week, and went to the hospital on Friday. Unfortunately, when they removed the tumor he ended up suffering a burst ulcer. He’s currently recovering from the surgery, and apparently they won’t know more about the tumor or Wednesday. Perro is one of the biggest stars in Mexico and is only 31 years old, so hopefully he’ll be able to recover from this.
There are no plans for MTV2 to bring back Lucha Libre USA any time soon. With the Bellator MMA promotion taking up space on MTV2 & TNA Impact now airing on MTV Tres, there seems to be no need to air more wrestling/MMA/sports-type programming. A LLUSA taping is still scheduled for April 30, but who knows when or where it will air.
The Sandwich had some good WM match suggestions from the commenters. I have to say that I forgot about Kofi Kingston & Dolph Ziggler when thinking up matches. I have to figure at least one of those guys will be doing something.
Bazar lists the Top Ten In Your House matches.
The Triple Threat talks about Cody Rhodes.
Downey reviews Kaiju Big Battel. It features a can of soup taking on a sandwich. Amazing.
Sat & Chad give us the high road & low road on WrestleMania 27.
Well, that’s all we have time for this week! Will Larry Csonka be back in the Wednesday slot tomorrow? I sure hope so. Come back tomorrow and see if he‘s here. I’ll be back on Saturday as part of a very special Wrestling Sandwich, on Monday with the SmackDown Rs, and right back here next week with more News From Cook’s Corner. Until then…
More Trending Stories
- Fumi Saito Calls Kenny Omega’s Rossy Ogawa Comments ‘Baseless,’ Denies Ogawa Sought $30K Per STARDOM Star For AEW
- Piesonas Co-Owner Says It Was Clear As To Why Ric Flair Being Was Asked To Leave Restaurant
- Kevin Owens Only Has Nine Months Left on WWE Contract
- Matt Hardy Explains Why AEW PPV Events Always Deliver
