News From Cook’s Corner 07.24.12

It’s also one of those weeks where I don’t have a good intro. I could think of one, but the bosses are already yelling at me to post the damn thing already, so I better keep them happy. It’d be a shame for them to can me so close to my 411 anniversary, which I just realized was coming up soon today. Too late to build it up like Raw 1000, so I guess I’ll wait until next year.

The Reds have survived pretty well without Joey Votto so far. I think the key to this was making sure Joey Votto didn’t have to miss time until they started playing crappy teams. They split a series with the D-Backs, but swept the Brewers and are now playing the Astros, who I believe are going from the National League to the Pacific Coast League next season. Then they get the Rockies & the Padres before finally facing a decent team in the Pirates. I doubt Joey can make it back before then, but the Reds should manage to stay in 1st place or close to it thanks to this stretch of the schedule.

Of course now I’m jinxing them. Hopefully by pointing it out I’ll keep the jinx from actually happening.

Okay, here’s the problem with giving the divas more time. They end up quitting anyway! Kelly was the poster girl for WWE up until a couple of months ago, and she’s on her way out at the ripe old age of 25. McCool dominated the whole division for a few years, then she “retires” out of nowhere. Going back a bit, the two biggest divas of the past decade, Lita and Trish, both left the company at about the same time, never to return. You want to argue they weren’t given time? I could even toss Kharma’s name out there, but her situation is a lot more touchy, so nevermind.

I guess the point is the WWE can’t be blamed for treating the division like filler if EVERY girl they push strong ends up walking out on them. And this is true whether you’re talking about model types (Trish, Kelly), or trained wrestlers (Lita, McCool). – Guest#7170

I think the guest is onto the reason why WWE doesn’t get behind any particular Diva for too awful long, but I also think the logic is flawed. Sure, three of the people mentioned left WWE (Kelly was supposed to be back on Raw this week and though she wasn‘t she still hasn‘t officially left), but they all put in a good amount of time before doing so:

Trish: 7 years
Lita: 7 years
Kelly: 7 years
Michelle: 6 years

Six to seven years is a pretty long time to stay with one promotion. Most wrestlers that come into WWE don’t stick around that long. Sure, there are some guys that are with WWE forever, but on average wrestlers go in and out within a few years. Eventually they run out of stuff to do, and Trish, Lita & Michelle accomplished pretty much everything they could with WWE. I don’t have a problem with any of them moving on and finding other things to do.

The woman shown above with the skull and crossbones gloves could easily pass for Victoria’s younger, prettier sister. Paige is quite a beauty too.

Regarding Divas quitting, when are there more than four of them on the radar at any given time? Someone thought Natalya having flatulence was a good idea. Molly Holly was called a fatass by the #1 female face as well as JR. AJ was interesting but then they decided to just make her one more insane woman. Eve is a manipulative backstabber. I work in an environment where the ONLY reason to stay is a steady paycheck, but most people want more. Divas aren’t leaving because they’re inherently flaky, they’re leaving because everything about their work environment sucks. – Jason Douglas

Rain was the lady in the Other Wrestling News picture. She was in TNA as Peyton Banks and has been all over the independent scene for quite some time. Very good wrestler & quite the attractive lady. AJ & Eve are at least doing something right now, and it isn’t a one-note joke like Natalya farting backstage. I still can’t believe people actually thought that would lead to her doing something of value.

This could go around in circles forever. It’s the chicken or egg argument. Do all the divas quit because the environment sucks and they don’t get pushed, or do they not get pushed and treated poorly because every big diva ends up quitting? – Guest#7378

Exactly. It’s one of those questions that most people have an opinion on, but don’t really have an answer for. All that fans of the Divas can do is hope for somebody to come along and get the opportunities that Trish & Lita got, and when that person moves on that there will be somebody else in the pipeline.

Ratings are down thanks to Prichard and Lagana. Russo was gaining ratings for TNA 5 years straight Prichard takes over and ratings are at a 5 year low. Ironically the IWC is starting to turn on the king of wrestling WWE which is going to have show of the year next week with raw 1000 – Guest#1240

You’d think somebody that used to write for a living would have better grammatical skills.

“James Storm got depressed after losing a match to Bobby Roode. He went home for awhile to think things over. I know that Steve Austin went home for real in 2002 (and he was being phased out as the top guy by that point anyway), but do you think fans getting into Stone Cold’s act back in 1997-98 would have continued supporting him in the manner that they did if he went home after losing a match? As Austin himself would say, Hell No!”

And this is why CM Punk leaving for an extended period of time last year would not of worked. If he left for 3-6 months like some people said he should of he wouldn’t be nearly as over as he is now, but then again when he returned he could of stayed heel which he is better at as long as the “smart” fans didn’t turn him face like they did last Summer. – Guest#4940

Indeed. The idea of Punk actually leaving for a few months and doing stuff off of WWE’s radar was pretty cool to people like us that follow the wrestling business closer than the typical Monday Night Raw viewer, but it wouldn’t have made sense for WWE to actually do it. When somebody’s hot you have to keep them on TV doing something no matter what. Punk was hotter than he‘d ever been in his career, and if he wasn’t on the shows long enough people would have gotten tired of waiting for him to come back. Fans are fickle.

I’m a TNA fanboy. I’m the first to hype their successes…but I won’t bullshit you and say something isn’t that bad when it’s horrible. I think constructive criticism is just as important as praise.

I love Aries and TNA was brilliant to hire him and make him X champ…but as the top guy, he’s out of his league. – Walter Zubeck

I want to give Walter some respect for going further into his disbelief in Austin Aries as a top guy than just saying that he’s shorter than Hornswoggle, and for also admitting up front that he’s a fan of one of the promotions. Most of the arguments against Aries the week before were just short jokes without any further explanation, so I appreciate the effort put forward here.

Justin Bieber is listed at 5’7″. Austin Aries is listed at 5’9″. Aires may be a couple inches shorter than he’s listed, but apparently so is Bieber. Jay Leno is 5’11” and main evented a WCW pay-per-view that drew a bigger buyrate than anything Aries has been on.

Remember when the E’ let people upload photos from live events to their website? Remember how a nude picture of Tiffney(?) made it on the website?

Tout may be a good idea but are WWE web people actively monitoring their Tout? One drunk fan may ruin a cool concept for everyone. Hell a couple of smart ass kids will ruin Tout feature for everyone. Not that I plan on using it. This sounds like a dumb idea and I wish the extra hour would go beyond social media plugs. The only upside I see to a three hour Raw, is now fans do not have to worry about missing something while either going to the bathroom, or getting food, both at the live event, and at home. – Guest#0359

You’ve gotta believe that somebody with WWE can watch a 15 second video before they decide to put it on television. The marketing campaign is working though, as even your humble correspondent downloaded the Tout app. Hey, if it’s free it’s for me. Once I stop being lazy I might even make some videos! We’ll see.

Can I just say that maybe I was actually happy to see Cena out of the title hunt for a while, made him see human for once. But now with the MITB contract, I have a sick feeling he’s gonna be crammed down our throats, and up our asses even more than before. I get that he’s the choice of the brass, but what happens to the voice of the crowd? You obviously have people have don’t care to see this guy in power. I for one never thought I’d be happy to have Miz back, hell, I’d pop for Swagger at this point over Santino having a title. Makes me wonder who’s giving the brass the naughty touch these days to get their spotlight nowadays. – LitasRevenge

John Cena’s pushed as the top guy in WWE whether or not he has a title belt. He’s been in the main event of almost every PPV event this year, and the lack of WWE & World title match main events has been well-documented & discussed on this & other websites. At this point, Cena is bigger than the title belts, so having him target one makes it a bit more important. You mention Santino having a title, and that’s one of the reasons why most people don’t care about the titles. They’re on guys like Santino that lose all the time to actual stars in non-title matches and never defend against anybody useful. Punk’s had a good reign, but having Cena go after him makes him & the title more important.

Daniel Bryan’s on a career high right now. So of course women like Brie Bella are interested. Money, fame, a ticket back into WWE. Will she still be when the party’s over, the curtain closes, and the meal ticket’s only good for a McDonald’s? I seriously doubt it. Not for long, anyway. No matter what the status of the relationship is at that time. – Guest

So you’re saying that women be shoppin’. I don’t know D-Bry or Brie well enough to judge their relationship, but I certainly wish them the best as Bryan is one of my favorite wrestlers & Brie was essential to this column for a couple of years.

And now, the fake news!

Most of the news this week was about who would be appearing on Raw 1000 or who wanted to be the Raw General Manager. I figure that will all be covered in the Raw Thoughts section.

John Cena’s divorce has been settled. Remember when people were worrying about the effect that this would have on WWE? Nah, all the lady wanted was some money, and I’m sure she got her share of it. It’s for the best, as Cena is now free to flirt with AJ on Twitter. About time he started living up to that backstage reputation of his in public. I want Cena drunk on Twitter flirting with all the Divas in the middle of the night. Because there’s no better time to work your game than via social media in the middle of the night when you’ve had eleventeen beers.

Extreme Rules will be taking place in St. Louis, Missouri in May 2013. This will be the third PPV that St. Louis has hosted in the last four years, not to mention the whole 1000th episode of Raw thing they’ve been building up more than their PPVs. That would be enough for most fanbases, but since St. Louis likes to bitch & moan about everything you can count on them whining that it isn’t WrestleMania.

Mark Henry is using his time recovering from injury to lose some weight. He’s down to 404 pounds right now, and his goal is to get down to 375. I suspect that Mizark has been motivated by the trials & tribulations of his number one fan…if Andy Critchell can lose over a hundred pounds, surely Mark can trim a few pounds!

OK, so that’s probably not why Henry’s losing the weight. WWE is all about their performers being lean & mean. Ask Bray Wyatt! WWE officials love his new gimmick, but they’re still going to take him off NXT while he recovers from pec surgery so he can come back in six months with a fresh start. Oh, and they want him to lose some weight. I blame Bray’s parents for all of this. Have you seen his brother Bo Dallas? Obviously the IRS doesn’t pay as well as you’d expect & Irwin only made enough money to feed one of his kids on a regular basis.

I’ve got nothing against people being fat, mostly because it would be one of the more hypocritical stances I’ve taken over the past eight years. And believe me, I’ve taken some hypocritical stances!

Since Kelly Kelly isn’t around so much and the rest of the Divas are either leaving or have been buried to the point of uselessness, the status of Divas in FCW is of great importance. The ones that are receiving high praise, to the surprise of few familiar with FCW, are Paige, Sofia Cortez & Raquel Diaz. Raquel is the daughter of Eddie & Vickie Guerrero and has been praised for her high charisma, but it’s felt that she still needs some time to hone her in-ring skills. In fairness, you could have said that about many of the Divas on their way out.

Paige & Sofia are already considered better in the ring than most of the Divas on the main roster, and people feel that Paige can be the future star of the division based on her age, look & in-ring ability. Last week Channel 4 in Britian aired a documentary about Paige’s family & her journey to WWE, and it was a really interesting look into her background. She definitely has the potential to be a pretty big deal in women’s wrestling.

In other developmental Diva news,Tenille Taylor showed up in Florida last week. One of the stars of the World of Hurt television series based in Lance Storm’s training school,Tenille was signed by WWE last year but an arm injury kept her from starting with the company earlier. Oh, and there’s some news that should make Greg DeMarco happy…officials are reportedly high on the work of Natalie, known as Buggy Nova during her time in indpendent wrestling. Of course there’s the chance that Greg is the one feeding this information to the dirt sheets. Dude thinks he’s the next Meltzer.

I dunno, maybe they should just swap the current Divas out for the developmental ones. If you kept AJ & Eve around, maybe Beth too, and switched the rest of them around, would that many people notice? Maybe 50% of WWE’s fanbase at best.

Triple H reportedly has a high opinion of Michael McGillicutty’s work and thinks that he’s a future star. Somewhere Tyson Kidd is reading this and thinking “You’re welcome, Michael.” It’s not like there are a long list of standout McGillicutty matches in WWE that don’t involve the Kidd.

Plans to unify the Intercontinental & United States titles have been nixed. Sources tell me that Vince McMahon was very excited about having a title unification match at SummerSlam, but he gave up on the idea when he couldn’t remember who either champion was.

Roman Leakee is making the rounds on Raw house shows. That name likely means nothing to you, so I’ll point out that Roman is the son of Wild Samoan Sika and the brother of former WWE Superstar Rosey. If those names mean nothing to you, I really have nothing further to say here other than Roman Leakee is one of the worst wrestling names I’ve heard this month. Can it really be that hard to come up with a name for a Samoan guy? Call him Samoa Jake to mess with TNA!

-The 1000th episode of Raw, in case you didn’t know! It should be a pretty exciting night if half the spoilers are true.

-New opening WWE video! Nobody’s talking on this one, so we won’t be able to tell who’s on the outs with the company anymore.

-We get a recap video of pretty much everything to ever happen on Raw. Good, bad, meh, it’s all there. Pretty tight.

-No Nickelback tonight? I can dig it.

-Mr. McMahon comes out to welcome us to Monday Night Raw and introduce D-Generation X!

-Shawn Michaels & Triple H come out. Will they be joined by others? We know Rick Rude won’t be there, but I’d expect him to come out before Chyna does.

-Shawn is winded and is feeling it, but he feels like he’s missing something. Triple H asks if there used to be more of them.

-Here come X-Pac & the New Age Outlaws on a tank! The band is back together! Well, technically these guys were never all in the same group at the same time since HBK left the WWF when the other guys joined…but what the hell?

-I missed Road Dogg’s introduction of the New Age Outlaws.

-Triple H jokes about everybody else’s hairline and informs us it’s time to suck it.

-HBK & Billy Gunn bicker over who gets to say the ending line. They nearly settle it before they are interrupted by Damien Sandow!

-Sandow becomes a martyr for sophistication. I can already hear the complaining…but dude got to be on TV! With DX! If he ends up washing out he at least has that, just like the Spirit Squad guys that aren’t Dolph Ziggler.

-No way it’s already that dark in St. Louis.

-Jim Ross & his goatee come out!

-Rey teams with Sin Cara & Sheamus to take on Jericho, Ziggler & ADR. That heel team has absolutely no chance of getting along.

-Sheamus was going to hit that Irish Curse whether Jericho wanted it or not.

-Ziggler cheap shots Jericho and Jericho ends up getting his head kicked off by Sheamus. I think Stevie Wonder saw that one coming.

-As Nick from DC would say, Tout, Tout, let it all out.

-Odds that Charlie Sheen is actually watching Raw? At least he can name some people.

-The hand actually grew up. Is Mark Henry forced to pay child support and that’s why he’s so angry all the time?

-King ordered some Sonic at ringside. I like their tater tots.

-Jack Swagger takes on the Funkasaurus. Yup, there’s a minute to work on something else.

-The Funkadactyls are looking good tonight!

-DUDE LOVE!

-Triple H & Trish do some yoga. This time it’s HHH bent over. DX walks in and hilarity ensues.

-D-Bry is wearing a white tux! The men he’s talking with are wearing all white, but not tuxedos. Hmmm.

-Should I find the right girl one of these days I’m totally rocking the white tux. This is non-negotiable.

-King introduces the Reverend Slick! Well, I guess Reverend D-Von is busy, as is Brother Love.

-Twitter says that AJ should say no. Twitter is often wrong about these things.

-I always love how the wrestler grooms come out to their theme songs for these things.

-You’ve heard that before, Slick! You didn’t exactly manage popular men most of your run.

-Oh, I hope to find a lady as beautiful and insane as AJ.

-AJ was saying yes to someone else? Is this sort of thing allowed? I haven’t been to many weddings.

-And here comes Vince! Well, we’re on a one way trip to Crazy Town!

-He names AJ the General Manager of Monday Night Raw! Well, she’s about as sane as most of the previous holders of the office.

-D-Bry might want to remember that he’s a SmackDown talent.

-To be fair, I think this is how most of us would react if we were left at the altar.

-CM Punk comes out to not make Daniel Bryan feel better. Some friend he is!

-D-Bry declares himself the Greatest WWE Superstar of All Time!

-The Rock begs to differ!

-We’ve got CM Punk, Daniel Bryan & The Rock in the same ring. I’ll take “Things I Never Thought I’d See” for $200, Alex.

-Rock will be taking on whoever is WWE Champion at the Royal Rumble! Well, the man did beat John Cena, so I guess he’s earned it.

-Rock declares Bryan to be the product of a homeless lumberjack & an Oompa-Loompa.

-He gives Bryan a Rock Bottom for a wedding present!

-I dig how WWE re-releases a collection of Undertaker’s WrestleMania matches every single year. There will never be another one like it…until next year.

-Bret Hart comes out to be a special guest ring announcer! He name drops Mr. Perfect, which is appreciated.

-Christian defends the Intercontinental Title against The Miz. Bret was super excited about introducing Miz.

-Cole says this is the match we wanted. I don’t recall getting to vote on who challenged Christian.

-Miz wins the Intercontinental Title! At least it’s not one of the major titles.

-Charlie makes sure to mention the name of his show. He might actually be watching this show since he talked about the Rock for a few seconds before going on about Daniel Bryan needing to man up.

-Regis Philbin! His voice sounds a bit rougher than usual. Considering he’s 109 I guess it had to happen eventually.

-I’m a bit surprised Triple H didn’t come out in his COO suit to talk to Brock.

-Paul Heyman comes out to inform us that Brock is turning down HHH’s challenge and to bring up HHH’s children. This enrages Stephanie enough to come down to the ring.

-These two have always loved each other.

-Heyman has children?

-Brock comes out to get smacked down by Triple H! Hopefully Brock will kill him at SummerSlam…otherwise this will be an even bigger waste of 5 million dollars than it already has been.

-These Tout videos feel a lot longer than 15 seconds.

-Cena beats Austin in the video game. Well, Austin has been out of action for quite some time.

-I await the day that 411wrestling.com appears in one of those clips where WWE shows off media coverage. I’ll be waiting a long time.

-Santino & Hornswoggle come out to give kids Brawlin’ Buddies. Do they have Brawlin’ Buddies of Santino & Hornswoggle? I guess there would be stranger choices.

-The Fink! Somewhere Mat Sforcina needs a new keyboard.

-Lita answers Heath Slater’s challenge? Not wrestling every week is treating her well.

-She hired some protection…the APA! Yeah, Heath wants nothing to do with JBL & Farrooq.

-So of course all the other Legends that faced Heath come out to send him back to the ring. Twist of Fate…CLOTHESLINE FROM HELL! Good God, man!

-Lita moonsaults for the win.

-DAMN.

-SEAN MOONEY interviews D-Bry! Please tell me this is leading to Bryan vs. Sheen at WrestleMania.

-Hell, I don’t even know what a couple of those social media logos are supposed to be.

-Fozzie Bear introduces a catchphrase video. WOKKA WOKKA WOKKA

-Zack Ryder claims that Mean Gene was behind GTV. That’s as good an explanation as I’ve heard this week.

-What’s up with Mean Gene slinking into the background when Rock shows up? Shouldn’t he be trying to get the scoop?

-Jinder Mahal leads Tyler Reks, Curt Hawkins, Drew McIntyre, Hunico & Camacho to attack Kane…

-UNDERTAKER’S DONG! Oh, you knew we had to bring that one back.

-Didn’t Kane try to kill Undertaker the last time they were together? Oh well, it’s not like that’s stopped them from getting along before.

-Sure enough, all the jobbers get killed by the Brothers of Destruction.

-See, you don’t have to kill yourself to get a “This is Awesome” chant. Just be awesome for a couple of decades.

-Charlie Sheen is challenging Daniel Bryan to a match! This is surreal.

-Cena vs. Punk starts at 10:59. I guess we can hope for a super-long over-run tonight, but I’m skeptical.

-Punk & Cena do have great chemistry in the ring.

-The referee gets knocked down. Let the tomfoolery begin!

-Sure enough, here’s Big Show with a spear for Cena!

-Punk sits in the corner while Show knocks Cena out. Smart, if not all that popular with the fans.

-He goes all Roddy Piper at WrestleMania VIII by being conflicted and stuff.

-Cena kicks out! He puts Punk in the STF, but Show runs in again and attacks Cena to cause the DQ!

-Punk wonders whether or not he should help Cena.

-The Rock will do something! He fires away on Show! Spine on the Pine! People’s Elbow time?

-Punk clotheslines Rock! He puts the Rock to Sleep!

-Has Punk turned against the WWE Universe? Well, I guess we’ll have to wait until next week to find out!

-Also, I heard reports of a TNA chant, but I didn’t hear it myself. I’d hate to question the folks on Twitter’s hearing, so let me know if you heard it and in what context.

-Having watched nearly every episode of Raw, I’ve seen all of the ups and all of the downs of this show. There’s been some really great stuff, there’s been some really horrible stuff, and there was a lot of stuff in the middle. I think this Raw did a really good job of representing the spirit of the show over 1000 episodes. Steve Austin was the only guy I really missed being there, and he’s working on a movie right now. We did get The Rock, and we know what his next feud is going to be. AJ is our new General Manager. Also, inexplicably, Daniel Bryan is now feuding with Charlie Sheen. I have no idea what to make of that. The HHH/Brock stuff…eh. DX was cool though.

There’s some interesting stuff to build on here. Add in the markout moments, and I find it hard to complain about Raw 1000. Here’s hoping they have another 1000 in them.

The Aces & Eights group was all over Impact last Thursday night, and you may have recognized some of the people wearing the hoods. Mike Knox, Luke Gallows, D-Lo Brown & Wes Brisco were among the masked attackers last week, but since TNA is rotating wrestlers in the role that won’t be part of the revelation of who’s part of the group, we don’t know if they’ll actually be part of the group in the end. I would think that they would keep the people around that have already been recognized so people don’t ask questions. Besides, wouldn’t D-Lo be upset if he wasn’t recognized? Gallows has been part of every attack so far while the others either debuted last week or haven’t been part of all of them. The group is still widely expected to be backed by Jeff Jarrett by most Internet prognosticators.

TNA Rewind will not be continuing on Spike TV, but will air online at ImpactWrestling.com. TNA had planned on having a three-hour block of programming on Thursday nights, but the first episode of Rewind drew a 0.2 cable rating, about one-third of what Spike TV usually does in that slot with whatever they usually run there. I think Spike TV & TNA learned two main things here: 7:00 PM EST/6:00 PM CST is way too early to start with the pro wrestling, and nobody wants to watch a show that recaps what happened last week. TNA Rewind may work in a weekend time slot, but I don’t think most people have the time or patience to sit through what they already watched or fast-forwarded through last week before watching the new Impact show.

The idea of the wrestling recap show is pretty much outdated now that most people have DVR and as long as they set it they won’t miss Impact. If you don’t have DVR you probably have a computer and can watch it on YouTube. If you have neither of those, you’re part of the 0.2 rating that TNA Rewind got.

Chavo Guerrero will be making his debut with Impact Wrestling on this week’s show. We talked about this a bit on the 411 on Wrestling, and I compared Chavo to a good utility player in baseball. You can put him in the outfield, or one of the infield positions, basically anywhere you need somebody to give the regular starter a rest. He can work X Division, tag teams or regular heavyweight matches. In wrestling terms, he’s a mid-carder. Don’t tell him that, but that’s basically what he is, and TNA can use guys like that to help some of their younger wrestlers get over. He should certainly be motivated, as he was obviously unhappy with the latter days of his stint in WWE and wanted to go somewhere that he could really show his stuff. Hopefully he’ll get the chance to in Orlando.

Nick Dinsmore was involved in a dark match against Kazarian at last week’s Impact taping. Dinsmore currently wrestles & serves as a trainer at Ohio Valley Wrestling and was part of the Ring Ka King project in India, so TNA officials are pretty familiar with his work. Of course most people will remember him from his stint in WWE as Eugene, and Dinsmore aided Linda McMahon’s Senate campaign last week when a video with him defending the Eugene character was posted online. There was an editorial in a Connecticut newspaper bashing WWE for making fun of mentally handicapped people with Eugene, and WWE replied to it with a letter defending the character & a video with Dinsmore talking about how the character was used to promote the mentally handicapped and was very popular with the fans. Dinsmore is a solid wrestler and he’s doing a good job training people in OVW…I don’t think I’d mind seeing him back on TV, but I wouldn’t expect him to have a major role.

Samoa Joe & Magnus’s trip to Pro Wrestling NOAH was a successful one, as they defeated Akitoshi Saito and Jun Akiyama for the GHC Tag Team titles. Magnus has a knack for winning Japanese tag team titles, as he’s also a former IWGP Tag Team Champion. I think they recognized him eventually. I wouldn’t expect this to be acknowledged on Impact, but maybe it’ll come up whenever Joe & Magnus face off in the Bound For Glory series.

TNA’s first Hall of Fame ceremony will be held on the night before Bound For Glory in Phoenix, Arizona. There will also be a dinner, which would be interesting to see what fast food restaurant they use to cater the event. Miss Tessmacher works at Hooters, right? They got good wings there, I’d be down with that.

The first SHINE iPPV held on Friday night featured Jazz defeating Sara Del Rey, Rain cheating to win over Nikki Roxx, Reby Sky earning some props for her match from people that thought she just got booked because she’s that Matt guy’s girlfriend/a Playboy model, and perhaps most important to women’s wrestling/superhero fans: Leva Bates dressing up as Spiderman. Kind of bad timing since the new Batman movie came out last weekend and made Spidey yesterday’s news, but the kids still seemed to dig it.

It’s been a few months since we’ve talked about drama in the National Wrestling Alliance, so here we go…Executive Director Bob Trobich & the NWA Board of Directors have agreed to relinquish the NWA brand to a coalition of NWA members led by R. Bruce Tharpe of the NWA World Class promotion based in Brownsville, Texas. Tharpe & the other members had filed a lawsuit against Trobich & the board alleging that they were guilty of insurance fraud & financial mismanagement. Instead of fighting what would have been a costly lawsuit, Trobich & the board decided “hell with it” & let the coalition get what they wanted. This has already led to a couple of promoters dropping out of the NWA and people speculating on its future. I wouldn’t worry about it. Somebody is always going to want to use the NWA name because it meant something once upon a time. The NWA will likely never be a major player in wrestling again, but you’ll see indy promoters using it.

You’ll also see Adam Pearce with the NWA title belt no matter who‘s running things. He won it from Colt Cabana on Saturday night in Kansas City as part of their Seven Levels of Hate series. Cabana leads the series 3-1. This confused me greatly as I figured that the title wouldn’t change hands unless Pearce won the series, but maybe they want to get Pearce’s total of title reigns up to the levels of guys like Harley Race, Lou Thesz & Ric Flair. Pearce & Cabana’s next match in their series will take place on August 18 for NECW in Bridgewater, Massachusetts.

And I’m 99.9% certain that Pearce wins the next two & there’s a seventh match. The only uncertainty here is if one of the major companies finally smartens up and signs Cabana.

The group of ROH World Champion Kevin Steen, “Zombie Princess” Jimmy Jacobs and Steve Corino are now calling themselves “S.C.U.M.”, which stands for Suffering, Chaos, Ugliness & Mayhem. No word on if ROH plans on bringing in “Diamond” Dallas Page to feud with them or not.

See, DDP used to call everybody “scum” in his promos back in 1997-98. I’m referencing stuff that happened 15 years ago. How the hell did I get so old?

The 411 on Wrestling returned Friday night! Tony Sly came on to talk about the George Tragos/Lou Thesz Hall of Fame Weekend that did not feature Kurt Angle but did feature all sorts of other wrestling legends. We also talked about the latest wrestling news and did our best to get Larry Csonka out of his funk.

The Ocho did its usual Thursday night thing and featured more sports talk than you can shake a stick at. We also talked to an old AZN & did our best to get Trent Howell out of his funk.

Sarnecky covers the history of Monday Night Raw.

Rutherford presents a sandwich similar to last week’s. Not like it’s news to me that the wrestling news beat gets repetitive.

Byers ranks the top 8 suplexes.

Weyer talks about Bill Watts’ time running WCW. I’m in the camp of people that think Bill gets a bad rap for that era. Other than pushing his son way too much considering his experience level (remember when Eric Bischoff used to mock Watts for that?) most of his ideas were pretty good on paper, and there’s nothing wrong with trying to be more efficient with money. People complain about the top rope rule, but Watts has explained before that he did that so top rope moves would get more heat since they’d be used less than they usually were and probably as a finish. It was bad timing since people had gotten to see Brian Pillman & Jushin Thunder Liger doing crazy top rope moves just before Watts came in.

Csonka presented the 700th edition of the Rs. That’s a ton of Rs, yo.

Well, that’s all we have time for this week! Nick 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…