News From Cook’s Corner 10.04.11

Big ol’ shoutout to Chris Fitzpatrick for being the first person to like my photo on Facebook at some ridiculous time in the morning where he lives. I’m not sure what it means that only dudes liked my photo. Can’t be anything good.

inb4 anal bleeding.. – Guest#2460

Unfortunately I miss some things while watching Raw because I’m working on the rest of this column during it, and one of the things I missed was “anal bleeding”. Some of you might not have thought it was all that funny, but apparently Vince McMahon got a huge kick out of it and was especially happy when it started trending on Twitter. Expect more wrestlers to be suffering from anal bleeding, irritable bowel syndrome & chronic diarrhea over the next few months.

A picture of only one Bella? Granted it is a nice backside, but I’m saddened at the same time.
It’s like seeing a Bengals fan without despair. Something undefinable is missing. – Guest#5324

WWE needs to do some more Bella shoots because I’m beginning to run out of material there. I’m sure me having pictures to use in my column is really high on their list of priorities, as it should be. Besides, it’s not like Nikki & Brie are doing all that much else of significance these days, and they need something to move up the Diva Totem Pole.

What is he trying to do? You and everyone else at 411 keep acting like Wes ‘working’ the fans with bad writing and idiotic flamebaiting is a good thing when its really not. The ENTIRE point of a heel is that he gets his comeuppance for being a bad guy. All you and everyone else do is praise the guy for getting a reaction despite it being uniformly negative. I literally can’t think of one bright spot that Wes making a jackass of himself every week. It’s not funny. It’s not interesting. And God help us all when he starts trying to talk financials and making us wish JP still wrote on the site. So is that it? Is Kirk supposed to make us miss the better writers 411 had? Does that mean we should be happy that WWE gives TV time to David Otunga and Kelly Kelly because it amkes us miss Jimmy Snuka and Lita? What possible logic are you guys following in persisting with this. I’m dead serious here Cook. Please explain it to me. – Guest#7119

Here’s the thing:

Why do I feel like I’m talking to my 6 year old son, when his 8 year old brother is teasing him? – Brian from Cincy

I think Brian covered most of what needs to be said on the Wes Kirk issue. At this point I just bring it up because I know it’s going to result in extra comments & page views from the people that whine & complain about him. It’s a shame I can’t appeal to these people with more positive stories and some of the other things I address in this column…but, it is what it is.

Okay I forgot all about the 10-10-220 and 10-10-321 stuff. Thanks for bringing that late ’90s fad back. Also am I the only one actually excited that David Otunga finally find a niche for him that might actually work? – Mark

Absolutely not. I haven’t been a fan of Otunga’s in-ring ability (or lack thereof at this point, he‘s still green), but the guy has a certain charisma about him that wasn’t tapped into when he was part of the New Nexus & teaming with Michael McGillicutty. He showed some personality on NXT, and he was fun in the Nexus as Starscream to Wade Barrett’s Megatron. I’m all for people being used in roles that emphasize their strengths & diminish their weaknesses…the role of “non-wrestling lawyer” fits Otunga well at this point.

As someone who trained with Eerie I can vouch that she can wrestle too so hopefully she gets to mix it up with Sarita or Rosita maybe bring in Buggy for a tag, also the best part of WRP will be Timothy Thatcher that man is wrestling’s best kept secret and yeah since he was my head trainer I might be a tad biased but still he mixes catch as catch can with some brutal strikes, and just flow sin the ring. So congrats to both and hopefully between the two of them the name of SPW and Norcal wrestling in general will get the credit we deserve. – the saint

Thanks for the information, Saint! I’m not familiar with Mr. Thatcher’s work, so I look forward to seeing what he brings to the table as part of the Wrestling Revolution. I think a Sarita/Rosita vs. CVE/Buggy match would make Greg DeMarco’s year. Lots of good wrestlers doing their thing out west, it seems.

I love how people are saying the Summerslam buyrate would have been higher if Punk hadn’t come back so soon. How would NOT having your champion and hottest thing going increase a buyrate? I agree they bought him back too soon, but to act like people would have been clamoring for Punk-less ppvs is crazy. – Guest#5210

When people say that Punk shouldn’t have been back so soon, they’re not thinking about the SummerSlam buyrate. They’re thinking from a long-term perspective. Theoretically, WWE could have held Punk out longer & built more interest in his storyline so when he came back eventually it would have meant more. WWE does not excel in long-term thinking these days, so the likelihood of this happening wasn’t all that good anyway. It may have put a dent in short-term business, but sacrificing future benefits for the short-term ratings/buyrates pop isn’t always a great idea. Especially when you don’t get the pop you were hoping for anyway.

I’d argue that Cena vs. Mysterio with a month of build would have been a perfectly fine SummerSlam main event and done good enough business to make it worthwhile. Rey‘s generally been the second or third most popular regular wrestler in the company for the past few years and is a far bigger draw with the younger audience than CM Punk is. It would have been tough for the kiddies to pick a favorite, but they would have tried to convince their parents to buy the show. Plus, Punk has long-time issues with Mysterio and their conflict at a later date would have been interesting.

(Yes, Mysterio had an injury at this point and was on his way out, but it’s not like he didn’t wrestle at SummerSlam and Raw the night after anyway. He probably could have worked a safe match with Cena that would have pleased the audience…it’s not like he hasn’t done it before. Plus, Rey gets a nice big PPV main event paycheck to take home.)

A lot of effort is being wasted trying to work out who is a “draw” and who isn’t when it comes to PPV buy rates.

Times have changed and the WWE needs to change again. – Dave

Dave makes some good points here that we’ve talked about before in various columns & podcasts. It’s really tough for WWE to talk people into shelling out $45 twelve times a year & $55 for WrestleMania when everybody’s doing well & making money…when they’re not it’s downright impossible. Add in the twelve times that TNA would like you to pay $35 twelve times a year…that is a crapton of money for people to be spending on wrestling PPV. I sure as hell don’t have that kind of money. I guess I could re-direct some funds that go towards food & beverages, but the odds of that happening aren’t very good. The same goes for live events, which is why attendance figures for lesser WWE shows are what they are. People need money, and then they need a reason to spend it.

Does anyone else find it ironic that the Million Dollar Son is going around and mooching free food at wrestling events? If he really wanted to get over with the fans, shouldn’t he be inviting them to his tail-gating party that he’s hosting with his millions? I’ve tail-gated before (get your mind out of the gutter Eubanks!) and I know I wouldn’t give that mother fucker any of my beers. Hell, he might even get his ass kicked. – The Big Fat F*g

That’s a good point, but I think he’s trying to come across more like a regular guy than the son of a millionaire. Every wealthy family has that one kid that doesn’t care about the money or being rich and wants to do regular people things like hanging out at tailgating parties. Of course, he might want to change his theme music where they talk about how he comes from money.

And, man, are you ever right about ROH’s lack of good talkers. I watched the “What is ROH” video featuring Edwards and Bennett, and commented on how terribly amateurish they came across. But when I started to think of who else they could have gotten, I was left with a dearth of substitutes. Steen is “not with the company”, the KoW are out the door, Jacobs and Corino are good, but I don’t think they represent ROH that well, and I don’t think Lethal’s been (back) with the company long enough.

Personally, I love the Bravado’s schtick. I love heel’s that act like over-the-top faces. Kinda like Kurt Angle’s 3 I’s period. Or maybe it’s just the fun of seeing them progress from being the guys running around the ring picking up streamers to the opening match on ROH’s new tv show. – G-Walla

Bennett came off well on the Greg DeMarco Show a few weeks ago, but yes, he was a bit dull on that ROH video with Edwards. I will say the Bravados have gotten competent in the ring, and have had better promos on the ROH Video Wires than the one on last week’s show. I thought they had more potential than most of the ROH students that they featured on those Pro Wrestling Respect shows awhile back. It’s fun to watch wrestlers work their way up the ranks, and I like the fact that ROH highlighted some up & coming talent in their first TV match on the SBG stations.

“You don’t see Steve Beshear or David Williams recommending that marijuana be legalized…”-that’s because they actually want to win an election. – Guest#5854

It’s true, Kentuckians aren’t all that big on having interesting ideas. I’m not really a pot guy, but I think legalizing it isn’t that bad an idea…if for no other reason than it’d be quite the cash crop for Kentucky and we really need money. Williams might want to win the election, but he’s down 31 points in the polls and it’d take something drastic for him at this point. Maybe if Beshear joins Al-Qaeda, orders that the University of Kentucky disband their basketball team & takes a wrecking ball to Churchill Downs, Williams will be your next governor.

I wanted to know who you think is going to get to and win the WS now since the season is all but over. AL is TEX, NYY, DET, and TB(or BOS but they are choking bad) and NL is PHI, ARI, MIL, and ATL or STL. I hope it’s the Rangers over the Dbacks or Brewers in the WS. I’m expecting the Phillies and the Rangers in the WS with PHI winning in 7(rooting for the Rangers). Just wanted your opinion.

Also, I don’t feel bad for your sports teams, because my teams are from SD and they are cursed. My NFL team can’t get over the hump and my baseball team choked last year and are bad this year. So I can’t feel too bad for what your teams are going through(at least you won the Central last year). – Still Guest#8287

I think we’ve talked about this before but am not 100% sure…it’s tough for me to feel sorry for San Diego teams when they live in a fantastic place with great weather. I wouldn’t describe Cincinnati as fantastic, and the weather’s way too back & forth for my liking.

As for baseball, this is total guesswork because I haven’t been watching a whole lot of it lately, but if I had to make a guess it’d probably be the Phillies & Rangers with the Phillies winning it all. And the Philly fans will insist they didn’t buy a championship even though everybody accused the Yankees of doing it a couple of years ago. As for my rooting interests, I like the D-Backs ok because I have family in Arizona, I don’t want Milwaukee or St. Louis to win it because I don’t believe in rooting for divisional rivals under any circumstance. I’d like to be able to root for Tampa because they’re a great story, but can’t because their stadium is so hideous and makes their home games unwatchable. The Yankees are good for business and it’s tough to hate on their historical accomplishments.

my respect level for steve cook is going down every passing day... – Guest#8574

You must be relatively new to 411 if you had some respect for me. Welcome aboard!

And now, the fake news!

Da Meltz reports that WWE Creative changed the finish to the WWE title match on Sunday afternoon. I wonder if they changed who was going to win, who was going to run-in, or the number of people that Triple H would beat up at the end of the show. The Mark Henry vs. Randy Orton match was not changed, and it’s interesting that the backstage dealings behind the matches match up with how they come across on TV…the Raw title scene being complete chaos while SmackDown has been locked down by Mark Henry.

There’s been a lot of online hand-wringing about how much the WWE & World Title change hands these days, and I’ve done more than my fair share. However, there is a positive to the WWE title chaos where Cena, Punk & Del Rio trade the title back & forth and nobody can be a dominant champion…it makes people that are dominant champions stand out. Mark Henry is your World Champion, and he’s only been World Champion for a couple of weeks, but he already has the makings of being one of the most unbeatable champions we’ve seen in a very long time.

Mick Foley was teasing an appearance at the Hell in a Cell PPV on Sunday, but obviously that didn’t come to pass. In any event, Foley has been saying recently that he will end up back in WWE at some point, but it’s a matter of what he does, when & how much.

Jimmy Uso was arrested last week in Tampa for driving under the influence. He was spotted early Thursday morning at 3:14AM (Kids, nothing good ever happens at 3:14AM) driving his car in the wrong direction on a one way street. A WWE spokesperson said they were looking into the incident. I’m not sure if the Usos can be de-pushed from the nothing they’re currently doing, but I’d certainly expect them to be doing a lot more of that now.

James “Nunzio” Maritato was released by WWE last week. Maritato had been working as a referee for the past several months, but was let go when WWE found out that he was fixing matches for the benefit of his friends in the crime world. OK, I made that up.

The Dolph Ziggler/Zack Ryder issue made its way to FCW on Friday night, as Ryder teamed with Johnny Curtis to defeat Ziggler & Brad Maddox. Ziggler lost the match when his brother Briley Pierce accidentally hit him with one of his crutches. I’m not sure how I feel about Dolph Ziggler’s brother having a different last name. It’s not a new thing since back in the day you had Randy Savage & Lanny Poffo, but I think wrestling might be more fun with more Zigglers involved.

A three-hour Raw is scheduled for December 12 at the Norfolk Scope. If memory serves me correctly, they’ve been doing the Slammy Awards in December the last couple of years. I’d expect that to be the theme. Here are some of the early favorites in the main categories…yes folks, it’s one of those weeks…

Superstar of the Year
-John Cena
-Randy Orton
-CM Punk
-Alberto Del Rio
-Mark Henry

Diva of the Year
-Kelly Kelly
-Beth Phoenix
-Brie Bella
-Kharma

Yup, the pickings get pretty slim real quick.

Moment of the Year
-CM Punk wins at Money in the Bank
-The Rock comes back to WWE
-Edge retires
-Undertaker vs. Triple H
-Hugh Jackman slugs Dolph Ziggler

Shocker of the Year
-CM Punk “shoots” on WWE
-Kevin Nash returns at SummerSlam
-Triple H becomes COO, Mr. McMahon relieved of duties
-R-Truth turns against the Little Jimmies
-Cody Rhodes’ face is destroyed

I know there will be plenty of nominees, but those were the first that came to my mind. As for who will be hosting…well, I will be available that night and it can’t cost that much to fly me from Northern Kentucky to Norfolk. I’m just saying.

-Still no Lawler! What a shock, PWInsida was wrong about something.

-Hey, Drew McIntyre has a match! With Randy Orton! I’m not expecting this to go well for him.

-JR emphasizes that Randy Orton is possessed. That’d be an interesting plot twist.

-Well, Drew lasted longer than I expected. And he gets another RKO after the match. Yay Drew!

-Mark Henry has an awesome new “Hall of Pain” graphic as part of his entrance. I dig it.

-I guess we’re not going to bother with finding Mizark another challenger.

-Big Show is coming back!

-Morrison vs. Henry? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

-Henry kicks out of Starship Pain WITH AUTHORITY!

-Welcome to the Hall of Pain, John.

-The good thing about the WWE title changing hands like hotcakes lately is that it makes the domination of Mark Henry stand out.

-I think Mizark wins this round of “Anything you can do, I can do better.”

-Oh, awesome! My cable company broke in with a weekly test of the emergency alert system during Johnny Ace’s conference with the heels! By “awesome” I mean “kiss my ass, cable company”.

-I don’t want an alert system breaking into my wrestling unless the apocalypse is upon us. Certainly not for a freaking test.

-EVIL PEOPLE OF THE WORLD UNITE!

-Boy, the heat picks up when Vickie grabs the microphone.

-We had a Divas tag team match for about ten seconds before Kelly Kelly went insane and beat the crap out of Beth Phoenix. Are we sure they didn’t just put these girls’ names in the wrong place on the format sheet over the past couple of months? Because this whole angle might actually make sense if Kelly & Beth switched places with each other.

-Jinder Mahal on Raw? Really?

-Santino returns! To face Jinder Mahal? Yay random booking monkey!

-And Jinder loses in like a minute. This was the best possible outcome.

-A Brodus Clay hype video. I like Brodus, he should have won NXT but somebody thought it was a better idea to have Johnny Curtis win. I can only assume that person was fired and that’s why nobody’s won Season 5 of NXT yet.

-We get a replay of the ending of last night’s show. I don’t get people that are all outraged that the COO would beat up ex-employees while they’re handcuffed. Happens here at 411 Towers all the time. I think R-Truth punching out the cameraman was the highpoint of it all.

-12-man tag team match!

-They’re really pushing that “Great White” thing for Sheamus. I think it’s a rib on JR so he has to say it over & over again.

-Nice long tag match there…and Sheamus wins! Good stuff. Weird to see him & Cena embracing, but what the hell.

-Hey, Daniel Bryan’s still around!

-What, no music for the referees? Play “Three Blind Mice” for them, or something.

-Guess King recovered from his anal leakage!

-Those poor fans had to listen to Nickelback for the whole commercial break?

-When did Triple H become such a kissass? They sure trained him well in Corporate Headquarters.

-Triple H makes a good point, Wade Barrett probably isn’t the most appropriate spokesperson for these wrestlers.

-Mike Chioda cuts his first promo in twenty-three years!

-About time Lawler realized CM Punk was right.

-The wrestlers, Divas & referees vote “No Confidence”, and Lawler leads a walk-out!

-Is JR going to be the last one to leave? Oh I hope this ends well for him.

-Can’t blame the guy, Triple H did break his arm and blacken his eye once.

-And now Triple H is all alone. Poor fella.

It’s a slow week for Impact news. In fact, it’s so slow that the main thing people have been talking about over the last week is Kurt Angle & his whole wanting to be in UFC thing. As the MMA Fact or Fiction Tournament of Great Significance Champion, I can assure you that this story doesn’t matter at all. And if we’re being honest here, Kurt Angle & UFC President Dana White are two of the biggest BS artists in any form of sports or entertainment. Here’s what each party is claiming is the truth:

Kurt: I called UFC, they were interested. I passed the physical, but they wanted me to fight Kimbo Slice on a PPV in four and a half weeks. That wasn’t enough time.

Dana: Kurt wanted to be in UFC after Brock Lesnar came in. We offered him a spot on The Ultimate Fighter 10 (the heavyweight season featuring guys like Kimbo Slice & Roy Nelson). He didn’t pass the physical so he wasn’t on the show. He was never offered a PPV fight.

I don’t often say this, but I think Dana’s telling the truth here. For one thing, he’s not a sloppy drunk douche, and for another thing, UFC typically doesn’t put on freak show bouts with people not in the company. There was the thing where they had boxer James Toney fight Randy Couture, but that was the exception & not the rule. The bottom line is that Kurt’s not going to MMA anytime soon, but I guess it’ll keep coming up because people want to ask him about things other than Impact Wrestling.

It’s like how I saw Hulk Hogan on Good Morning America last week. That’s some fairly decent exposure for him, a morning show on a major network. The funny thing about this was that the subject of Impact didn’t come up once. He was plugging his midget wrestling show, talking about his divorce & all the bad stuff that happened to him, and came off like a retired guy that certainly isn’t having a match on PPV in a couple of weeks. You would think that he might want to mention that, or somebody would want to ask him about it.

Apparently not. And people think us dirt sheet writing wrestling “journalists” are bad.

The poster for TNA’s Turning Point show in November features Jeff Hardy.

Hernandez’s contract is said to be expiring soon, and there is some debate over whether or not he’ll be re-signed. Company officials are said to no longer be high on him, which explains why he’s one-half of the Tag Team Champions. I imagine he’ll be kept around because somebody thinks he‘s a draw to the Hispanic fanbase, but he hasn’t shown a whole lot of improvement over the past year and people are still afraid that he’ll drop them on their heads. Understandable.

Since I talked about the first episode of ROH on SBG last week, I figured I’d talk about the return of Lucha Libre USA this week! I may end up talking about one of these shows every week depending on what the people demand.

-They opened the show with RJ Brewer cutting a promo while walking along the US/Mexico border. He was talking about how he would keep people from crossing the border…of course, a bunch of luchadors were climbing over the fence behind him while he spoke. I’m not sure what they could have done to top this, honestly.

-Kevin Kelly on another show? He sure is making up for that lack of TV time over the past several years. He & Todd Romero were a bit of a step up from the old announcers, one of whom is now the ring announcer. I’d say that’s a step down for the guy, but odds are he’ll be in a love triangle with a midget & an exotico soon enough. So I guess it’s a wash.

-El Oriental & Tineblas Jr. take on Rellik & Sydistico in a Rudo vs. Rudo battle. An interesting way to start things. I believe Sydistico is Paul London now, so he’s found someplace that will have him. I think Kevin Kelly spoiled the result of the main event during this match when he asked something along the lines of “How could Lizmark’s victory…I mean, if he in fact is victorious later tonight”. Smooth. I know this show’s been in the can for almost a year, and that makes it even less excusable that this made air. I still can’t believe that the Rellik gimmick has made it to two companies. OK match here, complete with a run-in from the Scream killer. Haven’t seen that guy in awhile. This is probably not the promotion for you if you’re hoping for clean finishes.

-I enjoy how their arena is called “Casa de Lucha”.

-There’s a new interviewer chick! Her name’s Leticia Castro, and I approve. Oh yes, I approve. I also enjoy how Mini Park & Rosetta Park are settling their marital problems in the wrestling ring. This happens a lot on this show, actually. How does Kevin Kelly know about Rosetta’s sexual past? She’s also a psycho, so I’m growing more attracted to her for some reason. Weird how that works. Nothing like a midget & a woman dressed like skeletons wrestling each other. Where else would you see such action?

-The man beats up the woman and gets cheered? There must be a lot of savages in Albuquerque.

-In our other marital drama on this show, Pequeno Halloween gets mad at Rebecca Reyes for playing poker with her friends, the other midgets on this show. I used to think Pequeno was a horrible choice for Ms. Reyes to involve herself with.

-The main event was a 4-way for the LLUSA Championship. How come Nickelback is one of the few bands that appears on multiple wrestling shows? RJ Brewer doesn’t endear himself to me with his choice of entrance music. The match is your typical 4-way, with the guys pairing off for awhile, eventually all coming together, and Rellik helping Lizmark win with powder! And people thought that only happened in Southern wrestling. Well, I guess lucha is further south…but still.

So, that was the season premiere of Lucha Libre USA! I also watched ROH, but I think I’m all done on recapping shows this week. Lethal vs. Generico was good, though I think I would have enjoyed it more if I wasn’t already mad that Generico lost the TV title. Next week should be good with Strong vs. Richards, and I thought Strong was actually kinda fun in his promo. I wasn’t expecting that.

MVP has a music video!

Some interesting wrestling-related cameos there, like Carlito randomly being in the hot tub, Shelton Benjamin playing cards & Hernandez power bombing some chick into the pool. (He couldn’t even throw the girl that far, she barely cleared the side of it.) He also name-drops the chicks on The View. It certainly wasn’t the worst single dropped by a wrestler I’ve ever heard.

The Sandman is apparently still living his gimmick. He was scheduled to wrestle in a tag team match at WXW’s (Afa’s promotion, not the German one) Yokozuna Memorial Show in Chester, Pennsylvania on Saturday night, and seemed to be in no condition to perform. He cut a lewd promo where he was slurring his words, stumbled around the ring and basically made a fool of himself. Samu had to go down to the ring to get him out of there, and apparently Sandman managed to injure his shoulder during his time in the ring. I guess we can’t be too surprised when a wrestler whose gimmick is that of an alcoholic shows up toasted for a show, but it’s still depressing.

If you live in the Charlotte area, you can catch Mick Foley, Edge & other wrestling types at the Comedy Zone on Wednesday night. They’re doing a stand-up comedy show to raise money for Shane Helms’ medical costs stemming from the motorcycle accident he had awhile back. Apparently Ric Flair will be there if his schedule permits. You know, that’s the line I use whenever people ask me to do something that I have no interest in doing. Apparently Flair’s having surgery that day and that could keep him from attending. Other people attending include Reby Sky, Gunner & Lodi, which is one of the stranger groupings of talent I’ve heard in a long time.

Wait a minute. Edge & Reby Sky are going to be in the same place? Oh, Matt…you’ve picked a bad time to go to rehab, my friend. I’ve seen this movie before and I know how it ends.

Flair ain’t cheap, you know. There was a story on the newswire last week about how Kentucky Sports Television, a local TV show in my neck of the woods featuring one of the biggest hack journalists in sports, wanted to have him on for an interview, but balked at the cost…$750 for five minutes on Skype. Yeah, don’t expect ol’ Naitch to be appearing on the 411 on Wrestling anytime soon.

Bobby Lashley is returning to pro wrestling on October 28th at a Stampede Wrestling event in Calgary, Alberta. He announced he was taking indy wrestling bookings last week, but will still continue his MMA career with the illustrious Shark Fights promotion. He will be fighting Darrill Schoonover on a Shark Fights card on November 11th, and is issuing grandstand challenges to Dave Batista.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and our friend Terra Calaway will be raising money for the Susan G. Komen Foundation with a special photoshoot! Half the proceeds of her merchandise sold this month will be going to the Foundation as well. Keep checking her Tumblr,
Twitter and/or Facebook for more information. Help a good cause while showing some love for one of my muses!

Don’t forget to check out the Greg DeMarco Show tonight! Greg & Phil O’Dowd will be welcoming Australian lady wrestling hottie Jessie McKay to the show this week, so that should be a lot of fun and should lead to a lot of lasciviousness in the chat room. Most of it probably coming from your humble correspondent.

In other podcast news, the Offtheteam.com Fantasy Football Podcast airs every Thursday, and the Friday Follow-Up is posted every…well, Friday. Trent Howell puts a lot of work into these things, and I provide witty banter & ridiculousness. You can follow us (well, me for the most part) at OTT_FF or e-mail us at [email protected]. Good times!

The 411 on Wrestling will probably be on Thursday this week unless Larry decides he doesn’t want to do it or nobody else wants to recap Impact. I am hoping we will have a show because my week feels incomplete if I don’t get over two hours to talk about wrestling & have fun.

Aaron Frame looks back at the Undertaker vs. Mankind Hell in a Cell match. No, it wasn’t a workrate classic. Yes, Mick Foley took some ridiculous risks in that match. However, it probably ranks as one of the five most memorable matches of all time. Out of all the matches that took place during that period of WWE history, it’s probably the one that’s been watched the most times and generated the most discussion. Also, it solidified Foley’s spot as one of the top stars of that time period. That counts for something, right?

Kirk presents the Sandwich. What a shameless attempt to kiss up to Lita’s Revenge that column was. I see Wes has learned well from his 411 Pro.

Fact or Fiction pitted Ryan Byers against Offtheteam.com’s Bobby California!

Here’s something fun…you can win an autographed copy of Beavis & Butt-Head: Mike Judge’s Most Wanted! I’m not sure what it says about me that I was wondering how 411 got Beavis & Butt-Head to sign the DVD.

RC Sutton has been holding it down with the Impact Analysis the last couple of weeks. I love Impact recappers because when we have them that means Larry won’t bug me about doing it.

Sarnecky wonders whether it’s time to have one WWE World Champion. I wouldn’t be surprised to see it happen sooner rather than later, now that all the SmackDown people are appearing on Raw every week. If you had told me a year ago that Mark Henry could be the guy to do it, I’d be asking you what you were smoking. Now…it’s a different story.

The devious Ultramantis Black sits down with 411’s TJ Hawke.

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