News From Cook’s Corner 02.21.12

But first, some commenting!

Call me crazy, but I think if you take the blown Miz/Truth spot and now Sorensen’s injury maybe the time has come to tone down the insane spots. Don’t get me wrong, I love high flying…but wrestling is dangerous enough without tossing in moves that look like it’s a miracle nobody was seriously injured. – Guest#2616

We talked about this in Fact or Fiction because I think it’s an important discussion to have. Are these spots worth the risk considering the reaction they get from the crowd? Some will tell you that they don’t get a reaction, but the dives at the ROH show I went to on Friday night definitely helped the crowd get more into the matches. People like to watch wrestlers fly out of the ring and land on other people. Some of the more old school wrestling fans would like to think that a wrestler can get the same reaction out of a chinlock, but that‘s just not going to happen. If Undertaker does a dive at WrestleMania, it’ll get one of the biggest pops of the year. Maybe the biggest depending on how Rock vs. Cena goes.

The key is being safe about it. Guys who are relatively new to wrestling probably shouldn’t be doing them. The catcher has to know what they’re doing. Less of them would be good because it’ll make the people doing them stand out. You don’t need a dive in every single match. I don’t think you can get rid of them, but you can limit them & make them more special. Accidents will continue to happen because it‘s wrestling and things don‘t always go as planned, but at least there won’t be as high of a body count. Tone it down a bit, as the guest suggests.

Good riddance to Mickie if she does get fired from TNA. She’s been living off the cult following she got from tasting Trish’s cootch for years now. Never been interesting on her own. WWE won’t resign her, either. – Guest#1200

I just watched the Trish vs. Mickie WM 22 match as part of a 411 project that will be published sometime in March, and it was interesting to see a WWE crowd actually being into a match featuring the Divas. It was an interesting reaction as well, as the Chicago fans were supporting the crazy Trish stalker over Trish. I think it had to do with the fans finding it easier to relate with the crazy stalker than the hot chick, but whatever it was, people were loving them some Mickie James. The match itself was pretty good until they totally botched the ending.

Mickie’s popularity didn’t stay at the same level afterwards, and it’s definitely fallen off with the Net crowd. Would she have been better off continuing to be a crazy lesbian? Maybe TNA should have hooked her up with Winter instead of Angelina Love.

Is it me or is Bryan getting pretty much the same ‘title run without an actual push’ that Christian, Miz and ADR had? Surely by the fourth time it might have twigged that giving heel champs actual clean wins now and then (or, gasp letting them look strong against Orton) might leave them in better positions after they drop the belt. – @ScottOTD

I think Daniel’s “victories” have been even less legitimate than the wins by the other guys, and the gimmick works better for him because of his size. His top challengers for the title since he won it have been Big Show & Mark Henry, guys who are at least twice his size. Most fans aren’t going to buy somebody of Bryan’s stature beating those guys without using some chicanery. Take Rey Mysterio…people generally like Rey, but you’ll see a lot of people rolling their eyes when he beats the larger guys on the roster cleanly.

Bryan might not be getting clean wins, but he’s getting a lot of time in the ring and on the microphone to establish his new vegan role model gimmick. Before he was champion he was losing matches and never talking. This is a step up. I’m not sure what happens to Bryan after he loses the title, but he should be better off now that he’s had time to show the WWE Universe his personality and given them a reason to care about what he does. I think this reign will do more for him than the reigns of Christian, Miz & ADR did for them.

Hey Cook, I’ve said it a couple of times on other mentions of the guy, BUT is it me or does Zema Ion remind you of an updated version of Juan Epstein (by the way who just recently passed this past 01/26)? I mean he looks likea 2010 + (not sure what were calling this decade) version of the Sweathog. – Lord Keedik

I can see it a little. Working a Sweathog gimmick would be better than this thing where he’s carrying around hairspray. He could tell Sting that he can’t wrestle because he has a note, then Sting would read the note aloud and and we’d find out it was from “Zema’s Mother”.

I think Mis Chif would be a better match for Undertaker. A screaming banshee with the stoic zombie (haven’t we all see that couple?). He works two month of the year and she doesn’t want to be full time in a fed. That’s 8 Mondays plus a Sunday, minus video appearances. Perfect matching schedules. Go deeper and we now have the zombie plague caused by a virus/bacteria concept and she is a microbiologist. They both have a power style that can be dominating. Seriously, if they still did mixed tags this would be a perfect pairing. I could see her smacking a cruiserweight too. – Guest#9507

Undertaker still doesn’t need a valet, but I’m inclined to support anything that would involve MsChif appearing on my television.

I understand your immediate thoughts are always cynical, but good lord man. Nothing but smart ass comments and not having actually WATCHING THE SHOW! – Guest#4390

Considering Louisville had lost to Syracuse by one point right before Raw started, I thought the Raw Thoughts were on their best behavior. Could have been a lot, lot worse considering the mood I was in and the quality of the show. I think that section of the column would be a lot better if I could get the rest of it done before Raw. I did this week, so we’ll see how it goes.

And now, the fake news!

WrestleMania 29 will be held at Metlife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey on April 7, 2013. There were originally plans to hold a Summerslam at the venue, which would have made more sense from a weather standpoint, but the ante was upped and Vince McMahon decided that WrestleMania needed to come home. Yes, I know WrestleMania has never been in East Rutherford, but East Rutherford is part of New York City since the New York NFL teams play there.

WWE reported that Randy Orton suffered a concussion during last week’s Raw when Daniel Bryan hit him with the World heavyweight title belt, and he’ll be out at least until February 27 when he’s evaluated by doctors. People are questioning whether or not that was when the injury happened, and it seemed to me on a re-watch that Orton hit his head on the mat when he did the rope-assisted DDT on Big Show. He then looked out of it and was on wobbly legs after the RKO on Big Show was botched, and was holding his head after the second RKO. I might be stating the obvious for everybody reading this column, but that seems like what happened. I just need to be sure that people won’t blame Daniel Bryan for it.

No word yet on when Orton will be back, but some are already speculating that he’ll end up in the World title match at WrestleMania. I’m kind of torn on this, as a three-way would cheapen Sheamus’s earning a title shot at the Royal Rumble, but Orton would probably be a good addition to the match and it continues the story of the deck being stacked against Daniel Bryan during all of his matches. That could work. Honestly, as long as Bryan doesn’t get beat for the title before WrestleMania I’ll be ok with it. If he actually wins I may take the next month off to celebrate.

Shaquille O’Neal told a reporter for HollywoodLife.com that asked him if he would be wrestling at WrestleMania that he would be there. He wouldn’t tell them who he would be facing, but everybody assumes it will be Big Show and there aren’t many other options that make sense. Shaq was one of the biggest NBA stars of the past twenty years and still has a pretty high popularity level, so this is a pretty good get for WWE that will ensure some coverage from mainstream & sports media. I have no idea if he’s had any type of wrestling training, but he probably doesn’t need too much to do what WWE expects out of him.

CM Punk’s victory at Elimination Chamber wasn’t a sure thing, as WWE creative types went back & forth on it before deciding on Punk during the weekend. I would assume that Chris Jericho was the other main option, but it’d be kind of cool if they were debating making Kofi Kingston champion. I must say its nice to see somebody finally hold the WWE Title for a decent amount of time. The hot potatoing of the title during the second half of 2011 between Punk, John Cena & Alberto Del Rio was a bit much and it’s cool that they’ve settled down & are running with Punk as champion.

Your next three-hour Raw will be on April 23 in Detroit, Michigan, which I’m guessing will end up being the date of WWE’s next Draft Lottery. Everybody will then talk about how they’re holding it early, when they’re actually holding it at the same time they do every year. One has to wonder if the Draft is necessary now that all of the good SmackDown people appear on Raw every week because of the Raw SuperShow gimmick. Also of note is the fact that the Superstars will be returning from a tour of Europe. I wouldn’t expect a whole lot of long wrestling matches on the show, which would help the Draft concept.

Another thing making me wonder if a draft is necessary is the angle that started on Sunday night with Big Johnny deciding he wants to be general manager of both Raw & SmackDown. He may be getting a bit ahead of himself since he’s only the interim general manager of Raw, but we’re reaching a point where having two brands almost seems excessive. We just had a show with an Elimination Chamber match featuring Great Khali & Santino Marella. I know everybody loves Santino right now because it’s the hip thing to do, but if WWE’s roster had any depth at all he wouldn’t be anywhere near a World title. Besides, if he did win it most of the fans would turn against him just like they turn against anybody else that gets some run. That’s what people do. Props to Santino for getting over, but the fact that he got a louder reaction from the crowd than anybody else in that match just goes to show how poorly WWE has pushed the guys that are actually supposed to be stars one of these days.

The news that WWE realizes that their roster has no star power isn’t really news, and they don’t have anybody to blame but themselves. WrestleMania is built nearly every year around guys that don’t wrestle full time, sending the message that the current guys don‘t matter. People like the Funkasaurus that get over with crowds doing squash matches find themselves off of TV for weeks at a time because either creative has nothing for him to do or somebody thinks his in-ring work isn’t good enough. When somebody does get on TV every week, it’s probably to lose because creative thinks that losing streaks get people over. Drew McIntyre will get a new gimmick at the end of his losing streak. He’s a talented wrestler, but nobody will care about his new gimmick because he’s a loser. Zack Ryder got himself over on the Internet, and they’re seemingly doing their damndest to make sure that people stop caring about him. They train everybody to work & talk the same way in FCW, and then they wonder why so few of them stand out when they’re called up.

None of this is anything new. Most people on this website have been talking about things like this for years, and most of us haven’t been in the ring or even been employed in the wrestling business. If we can figure it out, it’s not a good sign that it took WWE this long to realize it. Just because they realize they have a problem doesn’t mean they’re going to fix it.

CM Punk was tweeting about how he didn’t have an opponent for WrestleMania, and mentioned that he’d like to see Chris Brown fight somebody that could defend themselves. Punk suggested that him curb stomping Brown would be a WrestleMania moment. Brown responded by accusing him of steroid use & telling him to contact his assistant so he could receive an autographed picture of him. Obviously he’s a huge wrestling fan. I don’t follow that style of music so I have no idea if Chris Brown is talented or not, but nothing I’ve seen explains to me why the music industry falls all over itself to glorify him. They can’t find a dude to sing good that doesn’t beat up his girlfriend during his free time?

The Miz & Alberto Del Rio are finding themselves in the news for not very flattering reasons. Miz is said to be incredibly disliked backstage because of his “obnoxious behavior” and need to be the center of attention, while Del Rio carries himself like he’s better than everybody else & people feel that his push is unwarranted. I wonder who Miz & ADR pissed off that talks to the newsletter writers.

The Miz & Alberto Del Rio are finding themselves in the news for not very flattering reasons. Miz is said to be incredibly disliked backstage because of his “obnoxious behavior” and need to be the center of attention, while Del Rio carries himself like he’s better than everybody else & people feel that his push is unwarranted. I wonder who Miz & ADR pissed off that talks to the newsletter writers. For all I know, Miz could in fact be obnoxious & ADR could be arrogant. I don’t know either guy, though I hear that ADR is a gem. It just seems interesting that these reports are coming out so close together. Somebody’s got an axe to grind.

The WWE Hall of Fame ceremony will be airing the night after WrestleMania at 8 PM on USA, right before Raw. You can probably count on seeing the inductions for Edge, the Four Horsemen & Mike Tyson. Ron Simmons was announced as an inductee on last night’s Raw, and I think there’s only word you can say about that…

Good.

What? Were you expecting something else?

Taylor Rotunda, the son of Mike Rotunda & brother of Husky Harris, was arrested early Sunday morning for driving while intoxicated. Rotunda blew a .166 & a .178, which are twice the legal limit in Florida. It wasn’t one of those Kurt Angle DUIs where you blow over the limit once and under the second time. Taylor, who works as Bo Rotunda in FCW, is currently one half of their tag team champions along with his brother and was rumored for a call-up to WWE before suffering a lacerated kidney in September 2011. He returned to action on the January 29 TV tapings, and he & Husky won the tag team titles on February 2. This isn’t exactly good timing for one to get themselves arrested, though I guess there isn’t really a good time.

The WWE Sign Police was out in full force at the Elimination Chamber show to remove any signs in camera view that were negative towards John Cena. They also removed signs with The Rock’s “Boots to Asses” tagline. Good luck with that at WrestleMania, guys. You’re going to need it.

Kofi Kingston did an interview with The Ottawa Sun where he talked about how Chris Jericho was his inspiration to get into wrestling. At least he’s honest about it, unlike the rest of the WWE roster who credit Triple H & Johnny Ace. Kofi had some staples put in his head to close a cut after the Elimination Chamber match and posted the picture online. Ten people liked this on Facebook. I’m not sure why one would like a picture of staples in a dude’s head. but hey, whatever floats your boat.

Trish Stratus did an interview with Sports Vibe where she talked about how she would like to have a match with Beth Phoenix and how the people would like it too. I’m sure Trish would like it, and I never mind her appearing on my TV, but I think this should be a backup plan if Kharma isn’t ready to have a full on match at WrestleMania. Otherwise, I don’t see the point of having Trish come in for one night to challenge for the title and lose. In a perfect world Trish putting Beth over would mean something, but judging from the reaction to her last few appearances I’m not sure Trish has enough of a connection with the current audience to make it matter. I mean, it’s better than having Beth defend against Kelly Kelly for the billionth time, but I think we’d rather see Kharma get to kill Beth.

Goldust tweeted about how he’d like WWE to give him his own DVD release. It seems like Goldust is always tweeting about how he wants something. First it was a WrestleMania match with Cody Rhodes. Now it’s a DVD release. Some people are never happy, you know? If I was Goldust I’d be happy I had a job and was getting a check from WWE. Not everybody gets that.

The man known as Chris Hero in Ring of Honor & every other indy wrestling promotion under the sun is now wrestling in FCW under the name “Kassius Ohno”. It sounded absolutely horrendous when I first heard it, but it makes sense for a couple of reasons. Hero was That Young Knockout Kid, so the initials work with his wrestling style. There was a famous boxer once named Cassius that was kind of a big deal, so that probably had something to do with the first name. Also, there aren’t many people in the world named Kassius Ohno. I often wish I’d come up with a unique name for this writing stuff instead of using my given name…there are way too many people out there named Steve Cook and it limits my branding potential. I’ll change it when I get picked up by a bigger site.

Reminder: SmackDown will be airing tonight at 8 PM on SyFy, but you can also catch the replay in its regular timeslot. A lot of Raw stars are expected to appear, which probably has something to do with the Big Johnny/Teddy Long storyline. Also, Daniel Bryan will take on CM Punk in a Champion vs. Champion match! You know that’s gonna rule.

-Greg DeMarco was wondering who the chick from Fairly Legal was last week. Obviously he wasn’t reading the column last year when I was obsessing over Sarah Shahi. Not all of my crushes are in pro wrestling.

-Eve totally throws Zack Ryder under the bus. I would be more offended, but the Bellas are with her in these red outfits, and I’m totally not paying attention to whatever Eve’s saying.

-John Cena was, though. Whoops!

-Indeed, he lost a broski for a hoeski. I think Eve has a new nickname!

-Cena says he’s disease free and would like to keep it that way. Eve the Hoeski has a nervous breakdown as she realizes that she gave up her spot as #2 face Diva for a few weeks in a horrendous storyline. On the bright side, people do have an opinion about her now!

-Also, they can clean up the makeup and spray tan stains on the mat during the commercial.

-Sheamus For President? If I was a Birther I’d have an Obama joke here.

-Mark Henry returns to action! Hope he’s all healed up.

-The crowd chants along with Sheamus’s forearms even though Internet fans insist he isn’t over.

-Sheamus wins, Henry looked somewhat mobile.

-Teddy Long compares Big Johnny to a stack of manure, and David Otunga to Pee Wee Herman’s fairy god momma. This should truly be one of the greatest feuds in the history of sports entertainment.

-THE MEMORY REMAINS!

-R-Truth & Kofi could be a pretty good team if they weren’t both injured from the Chamber. Oh who cares, it’s Rosa Mendes and she’s dancing!

-Hopefully Kofi will find a tag team partner that isn’t a walking Wellness violation one of these days.

-R-Truth & Kofi win so they can get a title shot one of these days. WrestleMania? Why not?

-That Ron Simmons vs. Vader match in his HOF video was on the first WCW television show I remember watching. Sting was supposed to get Vader, but Jake “The Snake” Roberts took him out and they picked Vader’s opponent out of a hat. It was Ron, and the rest is history. See, WCW had some good stuff too. It wasn’t all bad like some people would tell you it was.

-Jericho tells us that tonight is the end of the world as we know it. It really doesn’t have the same impact the fifteenth time you hear it.

-Teddy’s pick to wrestle David Otunga is Zeke Jackson. This would have been a better idea when Zeke was killing people a year or so ago.

-See, Otunga won! You’re not doing well when you’re losing to Otunga.

-It’s Taker Time!

-Amazing how over Steve Austin got “WHAT?”. People still use it, even when they probably shouldn’t.

-Nice of Undertaker to cut HHH off before he started his long speech.

-H did a better job of not totally burying the next generation this week.

-Taker plays the HBK > HHH card! Well done sir.

-The fans tell HHH to prove he can beat Undertaker. They’re making up for the What business.

-And we have a match! A Hell in a Cell match, no less! Talk about upping the ante and making that gimmick matter again. Reaction to this angle has been mixed, but adding HIAC to it definitely kicks it up a notch. I like it.

-Did you know Daniel Bryan is still the World Heavyweight Champion? He’ll tell you all about it!

-Bryan will suffer none of Santino’s tomfoolery! LeBell Lock! TAP OUT! YES YES YES YES YES!

-It’s a clean win for my boy D-Bry! I like it. I’m sure some will complain about Santino getting squashed, but the beauty of Santino is that getting squashed doesn’t affect him. Hell, if he did he never would have gotten this far.

-Aksana draws the role of Kelly Kelly’s tag team partner. Well, that’s an interesting choice.

-I approve of the Bellas’ new red outfits. They’re representing for the Cincinnati Reds & the Louisville Cardinals.

-TNA’s commercial tells me that the Bank of Kentucky Center is in Covington, Kentucky. I can tell you that it isn’t.

-John Cena cuts a promo on Rock calling him a movie star and whatnot. He showed some fire, but let’s be real. If Cena got offered the kind of money that Rock gets to do movies, he’d be out of WWE faster than you can say Boots to Asses.

-Hey, it’s CM Punk! With his announcing jacket!

-Do people still yell at Ryan Byers for calling Miz “Mike the Miz”? It’s the dude’s Twitter handle!

-Mercifully, Khali is out first.

-Miz is out next! Nice of them to get rid of the scariest options early…oh hell, we all know who’s winning this, right?

-Show throws Ziggler hard into the broadcast table. I bet that didn’t feel good for him, and worse for Wade Barrett. That arm don’t look good.

-A stretcher is brought out and Punk makes a Buck Zumhofe reference. That’s a 1%er.

-And of course Santino lands on Barrett‘s arm. Smooth.

-Jericho eliminates Show with a little help from Cody Rhodes! Apparently Cody keeps costing Show things, which is probably a bad career move on his part.

-It’s Punk vs. Jericho at WrestleMania! Figured we’d get here eventually.

-Punk takes off the announcing jacket to stare down Jericho! Good way to end tonight’s show. I quite liked most of it, they did a good job building some WM stuff. And there’s the Rock next week!

Jesse Sorensen has been released from the hospital and is back home to recover from his neck injury suffered at Against all Odds. He’s expected to make a full recovery and Kurt Angle thinks he can come back in four months even though the doctors are saying one year. Even though Kurt is insane, that is good news.

Hulk Hogan did an interview with a New Zealand website where he talked about wanting to bring TNA to their country. TNA’s Australian fans are still waiting for the Australian tour that was postponed a couple of years ago, so if I was a New Zealander I wouldn’t be holding my breath waiting for Hulkamania to hit the islands. In other Hogan news, he’s tweeting about doing Hogan Knows Best with his new wife. Since it worked so well with the last one, right? Some people never learn.

Mickie James’s second country music album is scheduled to be released in the fall. Her quest to get the project funded online was a successful one, as her $5,000 goal was exceeded by $11,500. Which just goes to show that Mickie has many dedicated fans who have too much money.

Ric Flair missed an advertised appearance in Glenville, West Virginia on Sunday. He was scheduled to stand in Gunner’s corner during a match with Garett Bischoff…I guess Ric just couldn’t take another night of watching Garett wrestle. He needs the money, but does he need it that badly?

Hey, let’s talk some Ring of Honor! They were in Cincinnati on Friday night, and I decided to head downtown and check the show out. I was on the fence about going because it wasn’t exactly the most impressive card ROH has ever advertised, but the venue was on the way home from work and I had nothing better to do that evening. I could either spend about 20 bucks at the bar or about 20 bucks going to a wrestling show, so I opted for the wrestling show. Here are some thoughts on ROH’s debut in Cincinnati!

-Remember how I mentioned last week in this column that the 10th Anniversary Show main event wasn’t exactly awe-inspiring? The show didn’t do a whole lot to build it up, as Eddie Edwards & Adam Cole both lost in singles matches while Davey Richards & Kyle O’Reilly lost their tag team match to the Briscoe Brothers. Their matches were ok though. Cole & Michael Elgin had a pretty decent opener that got the crowd going pretty good. Edwards & Roderick Strong had a fun No Holds Barred match that had some hilarity with Truth Martini being handcuffed to a turnbuckle. Edwards got clocked pretty good with the Book of Truth. Those books hurt when you get whacked in the head with them.

-The Rise & Prove Tournament sounded really sketchy on paper, but ended up working out ok largely in part due to the efforts of Shane Haste & Mikey Nicholls. TMDK (The Mighty Don’t Kneel) started out heeling on the crowd, but it didn’t take long for us to figure out that these guys were really good in the ring and we wanted to see more of them. I think I saw Nicholls on an NWF show a couple years ago, but my memories of those shows are kind of foggy due to alcohol. Real solid tag team wrestling from Haste & Nicholls, and the fans really enjoyed it when they repeatedly body slammed people. Yup, the body slam was the most over move of the night. Haste & Nicholls seem to be in high demand internationally, but hopefully they’ll get a chance to do some stuff in ROH. They’ll at least be back to get a Proving Ground match with the tag team champions. Watch out for these guys, they’ll be doing big stuff somewhere in 2012 & beyond.

-As for the other teams: Alabama Attitude didn’t do a whole heck of a lot against TMDK so I can‘t really judge them. Sean Casey & Chris Silvio were fun heels in the match they had with Shiloh Jonze & Rudy Switchblade. Silvio in particular was a hoot with his hair dye & Superstar Billy Graham tights. The match with the OVW people was a fun southern style tag match…it might not play well with your typical ROH fan, but it was good with me and the fans seemed to dig it. They turned on Jonze & Switchblade pretty fierce during their match with TMDK, though. I thought Jonze & Switchblade did ok, but they weren’t quite in the Aussies’ league. I thought the OVW people did all right, but I’d still have to pick Taeler Hendrix as my favorite OVW wrestler.

-Todd Sinclair is still not a popular man, but he actually did something on this show when he reversed the decision of the Mike Mondo vs. Samson Walker match. I’ve seen Samson before on some local shows and he was in that dark match with Kyle O’Reilly I mentioned in last week’s column. I wonder if they plan on doing something with him in the future, or if they just don’t want Mike Mondo to win ROH matches.

-I hadn’t seen BJ Whitmer wrestle since he left ROH four years ago. He looks and wrestles pretty much the same, which is either good or bad depending on your opinion of him. Some really don’t like him, and others appreciate him as a solid hand that can do good stuff in a mid-card. He had a pretty solid match with Jay Lethal on this show, and I wouldn’t mind seeing him get another shot with the company. I wouldn’t push him into main events, but lord knows that ROH’s mid-card could use some help.

-The main event was pretty darn good. I haven’t been high on Davey Richards’ recent work and I’m not a huge Kyle O’Reilly fan, but I love me some Briscoe Brothers and they got a good match out of Team MMA. One of the reasons I ended up deciding to go was this promo from the Briscoes:

People either love or hate Briscoe Brother promos because they’re crazy & incoherent. I get flack in the 411 on Wrestling chatroom whenever this topic comes up…most of our chatters seem to be anti-Southerner for some reason. As a Kentuckian, I can understand what they’re saying, and it’s a promo style that you’re definitely not going to see in WWE or TNA. Their characters are relatable to me and make me laugh. What’s not to like?

TERRY FUNK AIN’T WEAR NO DAMN MOUTHPIECE!

Anyway, they were the most over act on the show. Davey & Kyle got some love, but the crowd definitely wanted to see the Briscoes retain the titles and keep doing their thing. Richards didn’t do anything terribly annoying, and O’Reilly was kind of along for the ride. It was a decent enough main event for the evening. I’m not sure if it replicated “the true ROH experience” that Ari Berenstein talked about in the Column of Honor this week…there were a lot of people on the heel side that weren’t there, but honestly there weren’t that many people I missed seeing other than Kevin Steen & El Generico. I would have liked to see Mike Bennett if Maria was there with him, but other than that there were enough people there to keep me happy. It felt like your typical ROH television show these days, which I guess is pretty close to the ROH experience.

Good times! I have now been to wrestling shows in January & February. It’d be pretty cool if I could make it to one show per month in 2012. I’m not sure if there are twelve different wrestling companies that I could go to shows of, but it might be something worth looking into. We’ll see.

Lance Storm will be returning to ROH on WrestleMania weekend in St. Petersburg, Florida. He will be wrestling Mike Bennett on Day One of the Showdown in the Sun. No word yet on whether or not he’ll be involved in Day Two. I got a kick out of Bennett’s promo on this week’s ROH TV show where he was going on about how old Lance is.

Dragon Gate USA & CZW will be co-promoting a show on March 29 in Hollywood, Florida. DGUSA will run a six to seven match show, then CZW will have two deathmatches after they’re done. I don’t know how much the DGUSA & CZW audiences overlap, so it’ll be interesting to see the response to this show.

The Big O, who many of you know from the Z True Long Island Story Internet show, won his first wrestling match on Saturday night, as he defeated Manny Martinez at NYWC’s Psycho Circus show. Also listed as performing on the show was Victor Cruz, though I doubt it was the guy that salsa dances after catching touchdown passes.

Lucha Libre USA will be running shows on March 23 in Reno, Nevada, March 25 in Stockton, California, and March 30 in San Jose, California. There are some wrestlers appearing on the show that weren’t a part of the company during their MTV2 run such as Latin Lover, Blue Demon Jr., LA Par-K, Chavo Guerrero Jr., Jillian Hall & Melina. No, I have no idea when they will be back on TV, and I’m sure if they knew the answer to that we would know as well.

Chyna will be starring in a Royal Rumble style porno where she’ll be performing with people dressed up as various wrestlers from the past. I know that many people in the wrestling business still wish it was 1998, but this is one of the more creative ways I’ve seen people try to re-live that era.

Podcast Update: The 411 on Wrestling will be back Friday night at 9 PM EST! With SmackDown on Tuesday this week, we figured we might as well get the show done earlier than usual. Trent Howell & I will get back to doing sports-related shows on Offtheteam.com sometime around the beginning of March Madness. Greg DeMarco’s show will be back tonight (Tuesday) at 10:30 PM EST.

I haven’t plugged my social media outlets here lately. Follow me (& Penguin) @OTT_FF and friend me on Facebook! My tweeting is more prevalent these days, so that’s the best way to keep up with what’s going on with my various projects. But I keep my FB peeps updated too.

I was part of the Buy or Sell Classic Wrestling column hosted by Joel Thomas. It was fun to write about things not exactly current, and hopefully you guys dig it, as it’s a bit different from the other fare on this website.

Ari talks about the ROH house show I went to.

Weyer talks about ROH’s tenth anniversary.

Kirk is fantasy booking. This won’t end well.

Fact or Fiction featured Nick Marsico & Greg DeMarco in what I thought was one of the more interesting editions of the column during the Cook Era. Nick & Greg do good work and you should read their news reports if you aren’t already.

The Truthers break it down.

Kelly talks about why sports entertainment is better than wrestling. I can hear Jim Cornette screaming from about a hundred miles south I-71.

Bazar lists the ten most quotable wrestlers.

Well, that’s all we have time for this week! Marsico will be in tomorrow with the Wed Wi, and I’ll be back next week with more News From Cook’s Corner! Until then…