News From Cook’s Corner 09.06.11

We’ve got the NFL starting up this week, and I’m really excited about that because it means that Trent Howell & myself will presenting the Offtheteam.com Fantasy Football Podcast every Thursday! As much as I love writing and talking about wrestling, I’m looking forward to the opportunity to talk about another of my biggest passions in a public arena. I’m not going to promise you that we’re going to be right on all of our picks & prognostications. I’ve gotten more right than wrong over the years, but I’d never call myself an expert. It’s going to be two regular guys shooting the bull & talking fantasy football, and our number one goal is to have fun and present ourselves in a matter entertaining enough for people to want to listen to us.

So make sure you head to OTT on Thursday and check it out if you‘re into the fantasy football scene. It’s growing by leaps & bounds every year, and if you’re not into it now there’s always a chance you’ll get into it eventually. I didn’t get the appeal until I started doing it, and now it’s one of my favorite things in the universe. I don’t understand the players who get mad at fans that root for them for fantasy league purposes…I know there’s the downside of having random lunatics mad at you because you got 99 yards instead of 100, but fantasy football has done a great deal to increase the popularity of the individual players. Would anybody outside the Houston area know a whole lot about Arian Foster if not for fantasy football? How about Chris Johnson, an awesome running back that’s been stuck on bad Tennessee Titan teams for most of his career? It’s a new way for fans to get into the game & have players to root for, and for me it’s a great way to remain interested in football after my Bengals fall out of contention in Week 6.

Yeah, I’m going to talk about some wrestling this week.

So, no one feels like doing a news recap for Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday? Awesome. – Steve307

Had I known that was going to happen I might have whipped up another column for you guys on one of those days. As it turned out, I was busy on Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday night last week so I couldn’t have done one anyway. 411 is in the middle of reloading and hopefully we’ll be presenting some new stuff very soon.

End the Brand Split and I’ll start watching regularly again. Maybe. Still, I don’t think they’ll ever get the fanbase that walked away in 2002 back again unless they cut the PG crap and up the physicality in the ring. – MBD

I don’t think WWE can worry about the audience that walked away in 2002. Those people aren’t coming back. Impact Wrestling has focused on trying to get that audience to watch their show for most of their existence, and for the most part that hasn’t worked out for them. They’ve probably got some of those people, but have missed out on other opportunities to expand their viewership by obsessing over the lapsed wrestling fans that loved the Attitude Era and all those old WCW guys. I think wrestling promoters would be better served to try & figure out what’s next instead of trying to get whatever they can out of what used to be.

Speaking of “what used to be”, I’m not convinced that going back to the Jerry Springer style storylines that WWE used to have before they went PG would be a great idea. It was in 2002 when WWE was presenting humiliating crap like HLA. In 2002 Kane was presented as a necrophiliac. These are not PG-friendly storylines, and they probably had a lot to do with driving away that fan base you mentioned. WWE appealing to a younger audience isn’t a bad idea. The key will be keeping young John Cena fans interested in their programming once they get older and their tastes change. Once you hit 12-13 or so, you start to rebel against things you liked as a kid, and you find something a bit more mature. Or less mature…WWF was for mature audiences in the late 90s, but you can’t refer to most of what they presented then as mature.

quit talking shit bout Flair idiot. hes the man and always will be – flair fan

Remember when I was talking about people enabling the Hardy brothers in this section of last week’s column? Of course that goes tenfold for Ric Flair, who has tons & tons of people that will kiss his butt no matter what he does because he was the best wrestler in the world for a long period of time. It’s all good, I appreciate the work that Flair did over the years in becoming one of the greatest wrestlers of all time. That doesn’t mean I’m going to give him a free pass if he does something stupid. Flair may be “The Man”, but he’s also a man, just like most of his colleagues in pro wrestling. He gets the same treatment from me that anybody else in his position would get. I’m just being fair & balanced.

With Hope Solo going to Dancing with the Stars, will Cook even see RAW this fall? – Guest#2349

As much as I love me some Hope Solo, and I’ll be sure to check out her appearances on DWTS whenever possible, that cast might rank as one of the least appealing in the history of the show. Here’s my breakdown of the cast depending on my personal opinion of them heading into the show.

People I have no interest in watching on TV: Chaz Bono, Nancy Grace, Riki Lake, Rob Kardashian

I don’t need to see Sonny & Cher’s son/daughter freakshow. Grace is one of the most annoying people in the history of cable news and that’s really saying something with the seemingly-infinite number of assclowns that populate those channels. I haven’t missed Riki’s talk show, and unless Kim’s wearing something skimpy and I can’t hear her talk I have no use for any Kardashians.

People I don’t really know: Kristin Cavallari, J.R. Martinez, Elisabetta Canalis, Chynna Phillips, Carson Kressley

Kristin & Elisabetta look very pretty on Google, but I’m not familiar with any of their work. J.R. & Carson are on shows that I’ve never watched, and do we really need more people from Wilson Phillips? It was bad enough when Carnie Wilson tried to host The Newlywed Game a couple of years ago, I’m not exactly anticipating having another one of those chicks on my TV.

People I can take or leave: David Arquette

I go back & forth on David. There was the whole WCW champion thing, which was a disgrace to professional wrestling, but he didn’t want to win the belt & donated the money he made from his WCW appearances to the families of Owen Hart, Brian Pillman & Darren Drozdov. He performed on Raw in December 2010 slightly less messed up than Jeff Hardy was at Victory Road and ended up going to rehab, so it’ll be interesting to see how he handles himself. That all being said, he’s not somebody that compels me to watch a TV show.

People I like: Ron Artest, Hope Solo

I think RonRon’s going to be fun on the show, as he always has interesting things to say and there’s always the chance he could flip his lid & split some wigs. You gotta like the unpredictability factor with Metta World Peace. We’ve discussed my feelings about Miss Solo before and she’s who I’m rooting for to win the Mirror Ball. It’s kind of sad that I know the name of the DWTS trophy.

So out of twelve people there’s three people that I’m interested in seeing, five people I don’t know & four that I have no interest in. That’s not a good percentage. But I am obviously not your typical TV viewer and I’m sure this cast has appeal with the Joe Six-Packs out there that are big into reality TV & shows that I wouldn’t watch unless my remote was broken and I didn’t want to get off the couch.

The thing that always confused me was why a Raw recap is shown on SmackDown instead of the inverse. SD viewers already watch Raw, but the opposite is not always true, so wouldn’t it stand to reason that a blatant “Check out this awesome shit on Friday nights! You gotta fucking watch this!” promo would do far more good than recapping Monday night for those that have already seen it? – neverAcquiesce

I never understood this either. I mean, it’s not like they were going to draw the Raw fans over to SmackDown by promising them a Raw Rebound. Honestly, the only reason for this was that they couldn’t come up with enough stuff for the SmackDown show and had to fill time somehow. WWE will tell you that the shows have different audiences, and I’ve heard from people that only watch Raw or only watch SmackDown, but I don’t see how the audiences wouldn’t have a great deal of overlap.

when is Layla coming back? I miss her so much, and was ready for her babyface run a lot, at least if they did it right I was looking forward to it. – Mr. Magnanimous

The reports I found indicated that Layla would be out until WrestleMania 28 after tearing her ACL & MCL. The injury was really bad timing for Layla, as she’d just turned face and it seemed like the fans were ready to accept her in that role after she broke up with Michelle McCool. Here’s hoping she comes back at 100% and her career continues with same momentum it had before the injury, as it looked like she could have challenged Kelly Kelly for the title of most popular Diva.

Since you brought up the Ocho photo I was wondering what you thought of him going to NE? You probably already talked about it but just was wondering if you liked or hated him leaving.

Is Ken Doane “Kenny” from the Spirit Squad? I thought he could have a great run and at least be IC or US champ after that group went away, great wrestler. I didn’t see much of his mic work but he didn’t seem bad on the mic. – Still Guest#8287

I wish Chad the best of luck. He had his annoying moments in Cincinnati and he isn’t the wide receiver that he was a few years ago, but I always found his outlandishness amusing. I like Chad, I think he gets a lot more flack from people that he deserves, but I thought it was a good idea to get him out of Cincinnati & somewhere that he could help a team contend for a championship. The Bengals are a very young team now, and I don’t think Chad is the type of veteran leader that they need to be learning from. When the going gets tough, Chad gets very moody & negative…that’s not what the young guys need to see from the veterans this year when they struggle, and they will struggle through most of this season.

Ken Doane = Spirit Squad Kenny. He’s only twenty-five years old as I write this…I think some people really overhyped him coming out of OVW based on the fact that he was twenty when he debuted on the WWE main roster. He wasn’t quite ready for primetime then, but he certainly has potential. I think he’s one of the more interesting performers on the WRP roster, and how he does with this chance will go a long way in determining whether the project succeeds or not. He didn’t really fare well in performances in places like EVOLVE because he only knew how to work the WWE style that a lot of indy wrestling fans don’t care for, so it’ll be interesting to see if he’s developed any new wrinkles in his game.

Randy Orton is a very great wrestler. – Guest#0954

Orton had a pair of great performances last week. His Raw match with Dolph Ziggler was a showcase of how to get somebody like Ziggler over even if they end up losing in the end, and the cage match with Christian on SmackDown was a good piece of business even if it was a bit hampered by commercial breaks. Not their fault. I think Randy has to be one of the top contenders for Wrestler of the Year based on the series with Christian, his matches with CM Punk earlier in the year and some of the efforts he’s had on TV.

Not to mention the fact that everybody likes him even though he’s obviously a sociopath.

lets give jeff hardy one more shot – bartender

I laughed out loud.

So does Jeffrey Harris like TNA? – Guest 3:16

I laughed out loud.

http://www.theterracalaway.com/012.jpg

OMG Steve Cook WTF? Thought he was dead LOL! – Guest#7143

I lau-wait, what?

I haven’t had pictures of myself online since the TWTF days for a couple of reasons. The main reason was technology, as I had a crappy computer up until last year and was unable to do much of anything on it. Windows ME, yo. You computer people know what I’m talking about. I wasn’t on social networking sites because of this. Back when TWTF was around I was able to post a couple of pictures on there, but when it got taken over by crazy cyber terrorists all of that stuff disappeared. Probably for the best, as a lot of embarrassing stuff went on at that site. Also, it seems that once readers of these columns find out what we look like we get taken a lot less seriously. I’m also a little insecure about my physical appearance, especially lately as I’ve put on a few extra pounds due to lack of exercise & general laziness. In my defense I’ve been using most of my time at my “real life job” and writing columns for 411, but I really do need to whip myself into better shape.

But the thing about insecurities is that you have to overcome them eventually. Terra Calaway wanted a picture of me wearing my Terra t-shirt for her website, and even though I didn’t own a digital camera I couldn’t bring myself to let her down. So I got a cheap one at the store, and after several hours of figuring out how the new-fangled device worked I managed to send her something she could use. Yeah, I kinda look like a goof, and maybe I violated some fashion laws by rocking my red U of L basketball shorts with the red Terra t-shirt, but it’s too late to change it now. You can view it at Terra’s website, and I also posted a picture over at offtheteam.com. I’ll let you guys dig around there so you can commence with the mocking. I’ll post another picture once I lose a few pounds & get the face implant I‘ve been saving up for.

By the way, Terra is doing this lovely new video feature called Terra Time where she answers questions from fans and keeps people up to date with what she’s up to. She even addresses something that happened at this very website and even mentions that your humble correspondent is the number one Terrabyte ever. Which I am, but I’m going to have a lot of competition for that honor in the coming years as she improves at her craft and has more opportunities to showcase herself to wrestling audiences across the world. I shall do my best to retain my status.

And now, the fake news!

Well, actually there isn’t a whole lot of WWE news this week. The SmackDown stars were touring France & Switzerland while the Raw crew spent the weekend in Puerto Rico, New Jersey & West Virginia. It’s not often that Raw gets the short end of the stick, but there you have it.

Alberto Del Rio was unable to appear on Raw or SmackDown last week because he had to go back to Mexico to renew his work visa. The process took a bit longer than expected, but the Essence of Excellence will be back on WWE television this week. Whoever’s responsibility this is doesn’t seem to be doing their job very well because it seems like one of WWE’s foreign competitors has work visa-related problems once every couple of months.

Sin Cara worked as a babyface during SmackDown’s tour of Europe, defeating Tyson Kidd, and shaking hands & kissing babies after his matches. I’m not sure what to read into this, as I’m not even sure which Sin Cara worked these events. It’s tough to tell these days.

Back when I did Ask 411 Wrestling there was one question I was asked more than any other: Why isn’t Randy Savage in the WWE Hall of Fame? Lanny Poffo answered this in a recent interview with SLAM Wrestling:

“Yes, we talked about it,” Poffo said. “As a matter of fact, what he was, remember when the Von Erichs got into the Hall of Fame? That was the first time he’d mentioned it, and my father was still alive. We celebrated his birthday, and at this point my father was coherent. He says, ‘The Von Erichs are in the Hall of Fame? I’m not going in, ever, into the Hall of Fame unless it’s the Poffos, Lanny, Randy and Angelo.’ That’s what he said. We didn’t cremate him against his wishes and we’re not going to go into the Hall of Fame against his wishes either.”

That’s not nearly as entertaining as the rumors that have circulated about the Internet for years, but it sounds more feasible.

We’d like to send our best wishes to Santino Marella, who suffered a separated shoulder in an automobile accident on Thursday. Santino was out to get a haircut but on his way back his Land Rover was hit by a Lennox truck, flipping and striking a light pole. The pictures are up on WWE.com, and it looks like Santino was pretty lucky to escape with a shoulder injury and not something worse. It was his left shoulder, so this shouldn’t affect his ability to apply the Cobra to unsuspecting victims once he returns to action.

CM Punk & Ricardo Rodriguez reported via Twitter that gunshots were fired in the parking lot after a Raw event in Trenton, New Jersey on Saturday night. For those of you wondering, I can confirm that neither Matt Hardy or Kurt Angle were in New Jersey on Saturday night.

The current season of NXT will be ending soon. I don’t think anybody is happier to hear about this than NXT recapper Tony Acero. Maybe now he’ll have the time to go to a Lucha Pro show.

Maryse should be back in action very soon after having surgery to repair a hernia. Fortunately the scar in her belly button is very small and won’t take away from future Maryse pictures that will appear in this column. We still love Maryse regardless of any scarring.

Mae Young says in an interview with WWE Magazine that Vince McMahon has promised her that she can have a match on her 100th birthday. She’s got twelve years to make it there, and I think she has a pretty good chance. She can take that time off from the ring and still continue her streak of wrestling in every decade since the 1930s, so that will help.

FCW Champion Bo Rotundo was forced to vacate the title after suffering a lacerated kidney. I don’t know how Bo suffered this injury, but if you take enough shots to the abdominal region there’s a pretty good chance it could happen. Rotundo is expected to miss multiple months of action.

Zack Ryder Broski headbands were on sale at Raw in Columbus this week. If I’d found out about this earlier I might have made the trip.

Oh, and then there was this. WWE.com posted an article by an individual named Katie Raymond pondering whether or not Beth Phoenix & Natalya were going to destroy the Diva division, or save it. It was a rather innocuous article talking about how Beth & Natalya were wrestlers & not swimsuit models, and Raymond even put over Kelly Kelly & the Bella Twins towards the end of the article, but I don’t think Nikki or Brie or Kelly or any other Divas bothered to read the whole article. They read this opening paragraph & jumped to conclusions:

Stinkfaces. Booty poppin’. If you’re a purist about a woman’s place inside the WWE ring, you might be wondering what Fabulous Moolah is thinking looking down on the Divas division. Would the iconic figure chalk up the current flux of the division on changing times, or would she say, “Someone needs to save this”?

I think that the Divas just read that part of the article and got all mad. Had they continued reading past the opening paragraph they may have noticed the Bellas being complimented for their athleticism & determination, while Kelly’s improvement was noted by the writer. I don’t think this was meant so much to be a “Diss the Divas” article, but it was taken that way for some reason.

Ah, I gave up trying to understand women a long time ago. Don’t ask me what they’re thinking.

Some fairly big news broke during Monday night’s Raw, as it seems that the WWE Network is ready for launch in 2012. WWE’s had this in the works for a long time now and many thought that they’d never actually get around to it, but now that it’s a commercial it seems a whole lot closer to reality now. Stay tuned to 411 for news on this topic that will surely break in the coming days.

All I know is that once I get the WWE Network I’ll probably never leave the house. So nothing much will change on that front.

-The Raw SuperShow name seems to be permanent.

-CM Punk is different. Who knew?

-I think more people fondly remember Super Shredder than Oz.

-Nash sent the text to himself? Well that’s a bit disappointing.

-H still throws a mean punch. I hope Nash was medically cleared to take that bump.

-And Johnny Ace leaves with Kevin Nash. Hmmm.

-Nice of our tag team champions to enter together this week.

-Jinder & Khali? Oh dear God.

-Well, that could have been a lot worse, especially if somebody had thought it’d be a good idea to give Jinder & Khali the win.

-Kelly comes out to do commentary. This could be…something.

-Kelly should hope that her friend Eve doesn’t win this #1 contenders match. The last time one of her friends won one of these things it came back to bite her.

-Oh, we get Natalya on commentary too! The fun never stops! Actually, Kelly & Natalya can’t be any worse than the people usually sitting at the announce table.

-Beth beats Eve. Was it two minutes? I wasn’t looking at my stopwatch.

-Woah, is that….Drew McIntyre? Well, it was him before ADR told him to go away so he could talk to Christian.

-Somebody tell Dave Meltzer several local commercials for the StrikeForce show in Cincinnati aired during Raw. He would think that qualifies as news.

-So the Truth has set R-Truth free. Earlier it was “The Truth Shall Set Me Free”, but I guess he’s free now.

-Is that a suit that Miz is wearing, or an old couch?

-Miz sure knows a thing or two about stupid names.

-Wait a minute, he’s talking fantasy football too? OK, this is getting a bit too freaky for my liking.

-Shouldn’t Punk be on the same page with Miz & R-Truth because there’s a conspiracy against them?

-Will Punk be able to do the GTS with that bad knee? Apparently not yet.

-Miz should have been kicked out of ringside at the beginning of the match. Where’s his managerial license?

-Punk puts R-Truth to sleep!

-HHH makes their match at Night of Champions a no-disqualification match. Punk makes HHH promise to resign as COO if he loses. Well, I guess we know who’s winning that one.

-Wait a minute…is that Curt Hawkins & Tyler Reks? Well, it was before ADR made them go away so he could talk to Wade.

-Tyler looks less demented with his dreads in a ponytail.

-A WWE Network commercial says it’s coming in 2012. I hope it gets better clearance than the Longhorn Network has so far.

-Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh. Just saw footage of former Louisville guard Edgar Sosa breaking his leg in a game pitting the Dominican Republic against Panama. Sickening. Hope that doesn’t derail his hopes of making it in the pros, but it sure didn’t look good.

-Lawler intros a Zack Ryder promo video. Good, I need to see something cool to get my mind off Edgar.

-Ryder & Lawler gotta have pretty much nothing in common, right?

-But they do make a successful tag team. Give them a title shot!

-So does ADR get both of the Bellas to himself, or does Ricardo get one?

-ADR’s sure done a fine job of stirring up Christian, Wade & Dolph tonight. I wonder if it’s leading anywhere.

-Randy Orton vs. Heath Slater. This should be interesting.

-Not very competitive, but it shouldn’t have been competitive.

-I enjoy having Zack Ryder in multiple segments on a show.

-I don’t know who I missed more last week: ADR or Ricardo.

-I think Cole was right on the “Audi” pronunciation, but Lawler’s is right south of the Mason-Dixon line.

-I don’t remember ADR talking to Jack Swagger!

-Looks like we’ve got an 8-man tag. Teddy Long has been given permission to intervene when necessary on Raw since Triple H doesn’t want to spend all night walking down to the ring & making matches. Well, that’s not how they explained it, but I assume that’s true.

-Cool, elimination rules! Now we’ll know the face & heel pecking order on this merged show dealy.

-Morrison’s the first to go. No surprise there. I’d rate him above Riley, but he’s been spotty at best for a very long time now and they probably feel A-Ry has more upside.

-That and he’s probably not whipped by Melina.

– Riley’s out next, and Jack Swagger eliminated both of them. It’d be nice to see Jack get his groove back.

-Sheamus needs to hang in here so we don’t see Cena beat all four of these guys by himself.

-Wade’s gone, so at least we’ll be spared that.

-Sheamus has had about enough of Christian and they both get counted out. So now Cena only has to squash Swagger & Ziggler. I guess that beats the alternatives.

-Swagger’s sure getting a chance to shine in this match.

-Ziggler gets the AA, Swagger gets the STF, ADR gets the AA. That sounds about right.

-How’s that change in WWE working?

Kurt Angle has had an interesting week. We’ll start with the lighter news and work our way down to the serious stuff. Earlier in the week during an interview with MMA Weekly, Angle claimed that he had recently been in talks to leave pro wrestling behind for a chance to fight in the UFC. These talks took place after Angle participated in the MMA-based movie Warrior and took a liking to the various MMA drills he took part in. Apparently Kurt took a physical and passed, but couldn’t come to terms with UFC because they wanted him to fight too soon. When Dana White was asked about this on Twitter, he replied that he loves Kurt, but it wasn’t true. I know a lot of MMA fans who find it hard to believe that Dana would tell the truth about something, but he’s gotta be several times more believable than Kurt at this point.

Kurt has shifted his goal to the Olympics, as he is currently in training to compete in the 2012 Olympics & win another gold medal. I remember getting yelled at the last time I dismissed this with laughter, but I can think of a couple of reasons this won’t happen:

-He’ll be 43 when the Olympics take place
-He hasn’t wrestled amateur-style since 1996
-There’s no chance of him passing the Olympic drug test

It’s bad timing for Kurt. Wrestling’s done too much to his body & mind to make this a possibility…unless there’s just no talent out there in the amateur ranks. I’m not exactly up to speed on that sport, but I figure there has to be a lot of people out there in better physical condition than Angle. Seems like a safe assumption to me.

Kurt also spent part of his week whining about his placement on the WWE Top 50 Superstars of All Time list. Really. That list came out back in November 2010 and Kurt just found out about it last week.

I was #34 of Wwe All time Greatest? Tell You what, take Me off the list. I’d rather not be on it, if I wasn’t top 5. Who Ranks Wrestlers?

I have never been More Insulted By Wwe top 50.#34 to Me Is a kick to the balls!Take Me out of ratings.please.U think fans will buy that crap

I think they did, though Kurt should be happy to know that 411 readers ranked him at fourteen. Not quite top five, but hey, it’s twenty spots higher! I think somebody had a conversation with Kurt telling him how silly he was being, and he posted the following later:

Shawn Michaels Deserves #1. He has Been Putting On Awesome Matches for Well Over 20something Years. I Will Not Complain. It is What It Is!!!

I Want to Apologize to Everyone that I disrespected with My Comments about Wwe’s Rankings. I truly Am Proud to Be in Top 50. Thank U 2 Wwe

That’s sweet, but I guess somebody else had a conversation with Kurt because he followed up with this a day later:

Hulk Hogan should Be #1 on Wwe top 50. Hello?

Kurt ended his eventful week by getting arrested early Sunday morning in Warren County, Virginia for driving under the influence. Yes, I know this sounds like a rerun, as Kurt just had one of these incidents back in late March. Obviously Kurt is another one of these people that are very good at learning from their previous mistakes. But don’t worry guys…Kurt says he’s innocent and will fight these charges! Apparently some police officers are trying to make an example of him (which they typically do with drunk drivers), and he passed his breathalyzer test! Which is why he was charged with DUI instead of DWI, but don’t let the facts get in the way of a good story. I’d love to give Kurt the benefit of the doubt here, but it’s like President Bush used to say: Fool me once, shame on – shame on you. Fool me – you can’t get fooled again.

I’m sure some of you are wondering whether or not Kurt will be fired for this offense. After all, Matt Hardy was recently fired after having a similar incident (as he should have been, don‘t get me wrong, you know I‘m not defending that goof), and this isn’t even the first time Kurt’s had a DUI since he signed with TNA. It’s the second one he’s had this year! If Impact Wrestling was any kind of company at all they would send Kurt away, or at least send him to some type of counseling so he can address his problems and maybe not be a sloppy drunk douche for the rest of his life. I’m not even saying he necessarily needs to go to rehab, just send him to weekly therapy like Tony Soprano used to go to. Worked for him!

I fully expect TNA to do nothing about this. I wish I could believe that the way they handled the Matt Hardy situation is emblematic of how they will handle future situations…but they brought back Jeff Hardy right after they did that. Don’t worry, drug addicts. Impact Wrestling is still a safe haven for you…as long as you’re over.

And before the TNA supporters out there get all pissy, I’m not saying everybody in Impact Wrestling is a drug addict. Not at all. Many of them are fine people, it just seems like it’s the colossal fuck-ups that come to the company after WWE doesn’t want them anymore that make the news every week by doing ridiculous stuff they shouldn’t be doing. I would love to write more about the good ones, and I try to do that whenever possible, but sadly it seems that they’re outnumbered by the ne’er-do-wells.

Rosita appeared on NBC last night as part of the “Children of 9/11” show. She lost her father in the World Trade Center attack. I didn’t get to see it because of Raw, but apparently they were going to show highlights of her tryout match with TNA. Her father was an amateur wrestler and being around him made her want to be a wrestler too, so he’s been the main inspiration for her career. I think he’d be pretty proud of young Rosita & how she’s done thus far in the wrestling business. Say what you will about Impact Wrestling (and Lord knows I‘ll say plenty), but it’s quite the feat for a girl that’s been in wrestling less than two years to make it there and win their women’s tag team championship. Good stuff.

See, not all of your Impact Wrestling news stories have to be about idiots.

Sting & Ric Flair’s big match will be taking place on the September 15 episode of Impact. It’s not really surprising, as TNA decided a long time ago that their TV ratings matter more than their PPV buyrates. I can’t work up any outrage here. Giving stuff away on TV is the cool thing to do these days, and I can hear Larry railing against this as I type this out, but it is what it is.

Yeah, there’s a chance that they could have gotten a decent buyrate by promoting a Sting vs. Flair match. But they didn’t want to. Their call. I’m not here to tell people how to make money or run their business. My bank account is proof of that.

Madison Rayne went to Twitter to tell her fans that she’s still employed by Impact Wrestling. It’s always a good sign when you have to go to Twitter to tell people that you’re still employed. Hey, I love Madison‘s work. I’m just saying they might want to use her more than once every couple of months.

Been a little too long since we had some Annie Social in the column.

The Wrestling Revolution Project continues to make additions to their roster. They announced the additions of Sami Callihan, Shawn Daivari, Emil Sitoci, Luke Gallows & Prince Devitt since the last time we were here. Devitt has been very successful in New Japan Pro Wrestling recently and has a very strong fan following, so he’s the most interesting name on this list from where I sit. He’s considered by many to be one of the best in-ring performers in the world, and this will be his first real exposure in North America. Nice signing for these guys. Gallows was a solid worker in WWE and I think he’ll do well here. Callihan was a glorified ROH jobber but his work in places like CZW & EVOLVE has been critically acclaimed. I have no idea who Sitoci is, and I’ve heard the whole “Daivari won’t be playing a terrorist here” story before so that makes me a little skeptical. All in all though this group looks like it could produce some interesting stuff.

Chris Jericho was on stage in Tampa with Avenged Sevenfold. I usually don’t report on wrestlers appearing on stage with bands, but I love A7X & Jericho so this merits mention in this column. It also gives me an excuse to put an A7X song up in here.

The dark haired girl in red…so hot. She looks demented in a couple of shots, but I like my harlots with a bit of an edge. There’s also a lady in white towards the end that’s quite the looker. Ah, to be in a rock band. Once I master the trombone there will be no stopping me.

Justin Credible is promising a resurrection of his career. Credible has been competing in the indies off and on over the past few years and made an appearance at TNA’s Hardcore Justice PPV in 2010. He now has accounts on all your favorite social media sites and has announced that he is taking bookings. If you’re going to contact him, I wouldn’t recommend asking him to portray the Aldo Montoya character. He didn’t do it for WWE last year so I doubt he’s doing it for anybody else. Which is a shame because I kinda miss Aldo.

The 411 on Wrestling made a rare Wednesday appearance and fun was had by all. Josh Damian & Terra Calaway were the first guests in the history of the Csonka/Cook edition of the show, and they won’t be the last. Great stuff from two good kids working hard to make it in the wrestling business. Oh, and there was an appearance from Ron Freaking Gamble. Those of you who’ve been reading this site for a long time will surely remember Ron, and it was great to catch up with him. Good times on the show last week.

Don’t forget to listen to the Greg DeMarco Show tonight!

The 411 On Wrestling took Monday off, but if you need some wrestling talk before Tuesday night you can check out Two Dudes Talk Wrestling! Andy Critchell’s on there along with Offtheteam.com’s Nick Daly talking about Mark Henry, Kurt Angle, Ric Flair, the Hardys and much more. I checked it out before Raw while working on the column, and it was pretty good for a first show. See what you think.

Reid presents the Hot or Not.

The Triple Threat talks about Dolph Ziggler.

Ari brings the Honor.

Wright presents the Heel Report.

Fact or Fiction featured Jeffrey Harris & Francisco Ramirez bringing the opinion last week. Jeff loves TNA.

Bazar lists his top ten live event memories.

Oh, and in case you were wondering where Wes Kirk was last week, he was suspended by 411wrestling.com management for multiple violations of the 411 Decency Code. Larry has informed me that Wes will be back this week, so be sure to check out the Wrestling Sandwich this Saturday. Larry had a really nice watch he was wearing while he gave me this information, I don’t think I’d noticed him wearing it before.

Well, that’s all we have time for this week! Join me on Friday night for the next edition of the 411 On Wrestling, and I’ll be back here next week with more News From Cook’s Corner! Until then…