News to Start Your Weekend 8.03.07

Man, A-Rod is really pushing for that 500, ain’t he? I sat in the bleachers behind the Yankees’ bullpen on Tuesday night and got to see the 8 home runs the Bombers hit that night, including one by Abreu followed by a fly out from A-Rod followed by a homer by Matsui. That must have hurt. Tuesday was a fun game to watch, though. Thursday’s game, which I was also at, had a fun second inning (with stupid old Clemens giving up 8 runs only for the Yanks to come back and answer with 8 of their own), but the rest was awful. RAWGAH CLEMENS IS IN GAWGE STEINBRENNAHS BAWKS~!

– RAW’s rating was horrific at a 2.5, and it’s confusing as to why. Being me, I just like using the Randy Orton excuse. Orton’s number one contender? Fuck this! People are saying it could be a glitch of some sort, which is feasible. The best one I saw was somebody mentioned that it’s possible that people stopped watching or didn’t let their kids watch after the Benoit thing, but to compensate for some of that viewer loss, people who were curious about the Benoit thing tuned in. After a few weeks, those people don’t have the interest of the Benoit thing anymore, and the TV isn’t very compelling, so they tune out, and that’s that. I like that theory.

– Something that’s more than, well, absolutely due to this rating, Vince McMahon is coming back to RAW this Monday. Wow. I’m so excited. Can’t wait. He’s what we’ve been missing.

– WWE PPV buyrates are underperforming, which makes me happy. WrestleMania got about 230,000 more people than last year, which is hilarious, because less people ordered Backlash this year overall than that. It is a shame, though, since Backlash was a great show. 19,000 less people ordered Backlash this year than last year, 4,000 more people ordered Judgment Day, 108,000 less people ordered One Night Stand and 96,000 less people got Vengeance. Wow, that idea to put the stars of every brand on every PPV really panned out well, eh? Numbers are WAY down. Good. Other than Backlash, those shows were shit.

– Bobby Lashley needs surgery on his shoulder. He’ll either be out for 2 months or 8 months. If they would have made him get treated for the injury a few months ago, he’d more than likely be back now. ENOUGH working injured. It’s basically impossible to not work hurt, but once you have a real injury like Lashley’s shoulder problem, take the time off to get surgery or rehab. I hope everything that is happening right now with the government requesting WWE’s wellness policy records will make this change happen. And don’t complain that it screws up storylines or whatnot. If the writers didn’t completely suck they would be able to write themselves out of ANY AND EVERY situation that gets thrown at them. It’s their job.

– Jerry Lawler was found not guilty for that fucking ridiculous lawsuit that some idiot filed against him.

– WWE may end up showing RAW on tape delay the night after SummerSlam. That’s the night the US Open begins on USA. Last year they were able to run RAW live on Sci-Fi. It’s not confirmed if that can happen again this year, but it’s probable, I’d say.

– Jeff Hardy didn’t have some sort of drug relapse or no show or whatnot. That fall he had on RAW last week against Kennedy messed him up a bit, so he’s been given a bit of time off. He’ll probably return at the beginning of the fall.

– TNA signed Pacman Jones. What a fucking stupid move.

– Hey, Samoa Joe got married. Congrats Joe.

– Triple H said in WWE magazine that you have to make yourself a star, you won’t just be given your spot. He’s been saying that for years, including stuff about if the fans cheer the fuck out of you, you’ll get a push. Sorry, that’s bullshit. If that were true, Matt Hardy wouldn’t STILL be toiling around the mid card and guys like London & Kendrick and other tag teams and a lot of other guys wouldn’t be relegated to Heat or just ignored. Yeah, you have to be talented and make some sort of connection with the fans (in general), but that alone isn’t going to get you through the fabled “glass ceiling”. Be it politics or shitty writing or whatever you want to say, there are a LOT of really talented guys who haven’t been given a chance due to any number of reasons.

– USA Network’s executive vice president Bonnie Hammer is a dummy and a nudge. I was doing my radio show RocketBusta Radio last week and mentioned the story about USA wanting more Attitude Era type stuff and named Vince McMahon and Steve Austin from the story. I was questioned as to if they meant actually bringing old Attitude Era people back or if they just wanted more Attitude Era type television, but the new report I read noted that Hammer wanted Vince to re-sign Sable and Chyna as well as any old Attitude Era star they can get. I ranted about this last week in my column. It’s fucking ridiculous.

– Test debuted in TNA this week. That’s exactly who is going to get them ratings.

– Angle v. Jarrett might main event Bound for Glory. Yeah, that’s WAY better than giving Joe/Angle IV great build in a long term angle and doing that at their biggest show.

– Bryan Danielson ran away with the 10,000 dollars from the tag team challenge last Saturday. I say he keeps it for himself and uses it to pay off Brent Albright to put the hurt on Morishima on August 11 to hurt him for Dragon’s title shot on the 25th. I fully believe that Brent would take 10,000 dollars instead of trying to win the World Title.

– Claudio Castagnoli won the Race to the Top Tournament last weekend in Edison, New Jersey by defeating El Generico in a reportedly great match in the finals. He has a Ring of Honor World Title shot on August 10th in Boston and is very confident that he will be the next World Champion. He talks about this and introduces clips of his weekend in the new edition of the ROH Video Wire.

– Ring of Honor will debut in San Francisco, California on October 21 at the famous Cow Palace during Wrestle Fan Fest weekend.

– Next week I’ll preview both nights of Death Before Dishonor V weekend, which will take place next weekend, August 10th and 11th in Boston and Philly.

– For more on ROH, you gotta check out Ari Berenstein and his Column of Honor.

– I used to be THE SmackDown supporter. Sadly enough, it sucks right now.

– RAW is average at best and I have a feeling it’s about to get worse.

– ECW is better than both shows right now, if only because they’re having very good matches weekly. This week’s triple threat was great.

– TNA is once again completely blowing Angle versus Joe and while the Abyss thing is good, it could be done much better if they let it be simple. But that word isn’t in their vocabulary.

– That’s it. I’m done. Seeya next week.

SEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEYA