The CookThinks Friday FreeThinks 11.07.08

The format’s out the window, of course. Assume that anything in italics except song lyrics has been stolen from the 411 News Wire. Let’s rock~!

WWE news

The word going around in WWE is that Mike Adamle’s TV role is done for now and that the company could be done with him for good soon. Both sides seem to be in agreement right now that he just isn’t cut out for this job.

Isn’t cut out for the job?

Isn’t cut out for the job?

ISN’T CUT OUT FOR THE JOB?

So here I am with my thoughts of you
And this world I’ve left for me
Stoic faces when I think of you
And how I once believed
So now you call me, but you know I won’t let you through
I’ve myself to decieve

You’ll never change
You’ll never change
You’ll never change
You will never change

With a tear in my eye, I move on to the rest of the news…

So, WWE had a conference call yesterday. I’m sure JP Prag will have a lot more about it in his news report tomorrow, and honestly I don’t have the patience to wade through Linda McMahon’s nonsense so I’ll let him do it. But two things kind of stuck out to me as being hilarious…

Barrios then went over financial numbers. He blamed part of the drop in PPV buyrates on competition from the Olympics.

OK…the Olympics lasted from August 8 to August 24. During that time period, WWE held one PPV. It was Summerslam, which is traditionally their second highest selling PPV of the year…but seriously? PPV buyrates are down due to competition from the Olympics? Is that the best they can come up with?

Someone asked Linda if they view TNA as competition. Linda said they view all entertainment as competition and don’t differentiate TNA from other entertainment competitors.

So are strip clubs considered competition to WWE as well? I’m just curious. If given the choice between WWE and a strip club, I would take the strip club every time. Sure, the WWE Divas may be more attractive than strippers, but I think it’d cost a lot more than $20 for Maria to sit in my lap and grind against my lower mid-section.

Oh, and they plan on cutting $20 million in costs, so expect some people to get fired.

Here is the full match listing for WWE’s “Viva La Raza – The Legacy of Eddie Guerrero” 3-disc DVD which comes out next Tuesday. [Credit: highspots.com]

Eddie’s Final Match
Eddie Guerrero vs. Mr. Kennedy
WWE SmackDown! November 11, 2005

As somebody who has been an Eddie Guerrero fan since his early days in WCW, I’m looking forward to viewing this DVD. To address somebody in the comment section…it is kind of strange not to see any Chris Benoit matches on there, but can you honestly be surprised by that decision?

– From WWE.com: World Wrestling Entertainment has come to terms on the release of SmackDown Superstar Super Crazy as of Nov. 5, 2008. WWE wishes Super Crazy the best in all future endeavors.

– According to the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Super Crazy asked for his release on November 1st as he was unhappy with his place in the company.

Oh, Super Crazy. You wowed me with your ability in ECW. Since then…well, I can’t really say much for you. I wish you happiness and a good push in Mexico, but I don’t see this as a big loss for WWE. Does anyone, really?

TNA news

There wasn’t a lot of TNA news on the news wire this week. I guess the one thing that caught my attention was Jim Cornette going off on Vince McMahon in the Daily Star…

“Have you seen the stock market? Vince is not a billionaire any more! He may not even be a millionaire by the time this thing’s over! I will sacrifice every penny I’ve got and cut my neighbour’s lawn to see Vince McMahon a broken man laying in the gutter!”

Ah, nothing like a great Cornette rant. The man’s so full of rage, but unlike when Bret Hart pisses and moans about something, when Cornette does it it’s funny. God bless him.

Other wrestling news

Randy Savage will be doing a voice in the upcoming animated film, Bolt. The movie opens on November 21st.

This newsbite is solely for the 15,000 people who e-mailed me during my Ask 411 Wrestling stint asking why Randy Savage wasn’t in the WWE Hall of Fame. On a related note, I had always wondered why fans cared so much about this, but it didn’t really occur to me how important it was to some people until I heard Larry Hennig talk about how much of an honor it was for his son to be posthumously inducted on the Mr. Perfect DVD. Larry seems to be a pretty big believer in kayfabe, but that did kind of help me realize that some people do take this HOF stuff seriously. I still prefer Bruno Sammartino’s opinion on it: that its merely Vince’s vanity project to push people he wants to sell DVDs of. But hey, if Larry’s happy I’m happy for him. I wonder what Savage’s opinion on this HOF stuff is…

“Wildcat” Chris Harris is returning to action tomorrow night in Ft. Wright, Kentucky. He’ll be appearing on an NWF show at Shimmers Ballroom, taking on Ryan Stone. I won’t be able to make it because my beloved Louisville Cardinal basketball team is playing at Northern Kentucky University on the same night, but in celebration of this event I would like to present to you….The Definitive Braden Walker 3 Disc DVD Trailer

Good times.

Time for some lucha news!

– Perro Aguayo Jr, Damian 666 and Mr. Aguila have left CMLL to work Independently. Aguayo Jr. will be booking himself on Indy shows, but will still work Arena Mexico and big shows for the company. As of now Aguayo Jr plans to take some time off until some new guys get over, and then he plans to return with fresh opponents. He also doesn’t want to work against any CMLL talent for the time being. Aguayo Jr has also said that he would like to have the promoted hair vs. mask match with Mistico, but not for some time. The plan is for him to book shows and use foreign stars, with the idea that he could work against the best talent in the world. Aguayo Jr will be promoting his first independent show in December under the Los Perros Del Mal promotional banner and is promising lower tickets prices and better match quality than any other promotion in Mexico.

Something tells me that the son of Perro Aguayo won’t have a problem getting booked.

With the above talent leaving CMLL, Mistico is now scheduled to return on November 7th. This is nearly two months earlier than expected.

Mistico = Mexican John Cena

– Marco Corleone (the former Mark Jindrak) is currently taking lessons in stripper dancing. The men in the audience hate him because he is doing a pseudo stripper gimmick that the women love.

I wonder if he’s watching Carmen Electra’s aerobic stripping tapes? Good stuff right there.

Plugs

Byers reviews a book by a former 411mania writer. For the record, I liked “In This Very Ring…”, but I haven’t had much use for anything else the guy’s written in book form. And using the Benoit tragedy to sell books is pretty much as low as it gets, but it’s not like he’s the only one that’s done that. Look no further than our beloved Meehan’s arch-nemesis Irv Muschnick for another example of that. Douchebags, the lot of them.

Speaking of douchebags, Domingo talks about how people that don’t talk are more over than people that do. That’s like backwards logic from the Attitude Era, isn’t it?

Weyer craps all over Halloween Havoc. How can one hate on Spin the Wheel, Make the Deal? It’s still one of my favorite concepts of all time…if only WCW hadn’t put something ridiculous like a coal miner’s glove match on it.

Fact or Fiction features the Battle of the Michaels and a reader who I don’t recognize. How can there be a reader I don’t recognize? I thought I knew all of you knuckleheads…

Eubanks bitched me out for not being awake at 2:30 AM EST on Election Night. Well buttercup, the election was decided at 11, so why would I stay up past Obama’s acceptance speech? Some of us have to wake up early in the morning…this also bit me in the ass the next day when I saw an old friend at Dickmann’s but had to hit the hay. And this old friend was a girl, and was very attractive. I am an idiot.

Csonka would fire me if I didn’t plug him.

Don’t forget to check out 411 Politics! I’ll probably have a piece up there later today, or tomorrow at the latest. It’s taken me some time to collect my thoughts on the election of Barack Obama. If there’s one thing I know for sure, it’s that Microsoft Word will need to recognize “Barack” & “Obama” as words now.

Final Thought

In this very special edition of the Final Thought, I decided to get a few words with the man who took Ask 411 Wrestling off my hands, Chris Lansdell!

Samoa Steve says:
What is your favorite Mike Adamle memory?

Chris says:
Well I could go all smark and say “When he quit”, but it’s actually the ever-popular “Hi Dave!”

Samoa Steve says:
yessssssssssssss
Samoa Steve says:
his GM stint was all downhill from there, really

Chris says:
And downhill from the bottom leaves you with a very short distance to a very big mess

Samoa Steve says:
Indeed

Chris says:
You’re Funaki now?

Samoa Steve says:
Yes. What is your favorite thing about TNA? It could be a wrestler, it could be an angle, it could be a pair of breasts (it is in my case)

Chris says:
As much as I enjoy watching Velvet Sky do…pretty much anything, really…it has to be the ability of the X-Division guys to consistently put on the best macth on most Impacts despite rarely going over 5 minutes

Samoa Steve says:
How are you feeling about the new ROH booking regime so far?

Chris says:
I’m willing to give it a “Wait-and-see”. I never really though about the staleness of Gabe’s book until he left, and smoe fresh direction might actually do wonders for the product. The IWC has started to fall out of love with RoH, looking to CHIKARA and PWG instead, and this might be able to reverse that. Ask me before Final Battle, my answer might well change.
Chris says:
Especially if Grizzly Redwood wins a title

Samoa Steve says:
I dunno man, the fact that Irish Airborne is coming back has shaken my confidence in the new regime
Samoa Steve says:
especially since they’re coming back on the show I’m going to….yikes

Chris says:
I have no idea why everyone hates them…it could be worse. They could bring Dunn and Marcos back.

Samoa Steve says:
what what what
Samoa Steve says:
have you seen Irish Airborne live?

Chris says:
No. I have seen exactly one RoH event.

Samoa Steve says:
I have had the displeasure of seeing them live in Dayton on multiple occasions
Samoa Steve says:
they are terrible

Chris says:
I have seen clips of one of them doing the top rope destroyer tough

Samoa Steve says:
at least the Ring Crew Express has a fun gimmick
Samoa Steve says:
and hilariously bad promo skills

Chris says:
Meh, they’ll get killed anyway.

Samoa Steve says:
they better
Samoa Steve says:
Who is your current favorite wrestler?

Chris says:
Aside from the obvious answer of CM Punk, I have to go with Petey Williams. He has put on a great performance every time he has stepped in the ring recently and has been entertaining doing it.

Samoa Steve says:
Petey was one of my favorites back in the FSN Impact era
Samoa Steve says:
I don’t care what people say, I still mark for the Canadian Destroyer

Chris says:
It’s not even the Destroyer that does it…he’s just concentrated awesome.

Samoa Steve says:
Is it the influence of Scott Steiner that made the difference?

Chris says:
I think that helped with the mainstream fans, but I think he always had the ability to shine the way he has been
Chris says:
the steiner stuff is the perfect example of what TNA SHOULD be doing with their older talent

Samoa Steve says:
I like Scott, he might be broken down physically but he’s still a great heel and his promos are tremendous.

Chris says:
The problem is, that description fits 3 or 4 guys on the TNA roster

Samoa Steve says:
yeah…..
Samoa Steve says:
Is there anything you’d like to plug for the good people?

Chris says:
Well you can check out A Brace for Impact with me and Mike Bauer later today, the ever-cheesy Lansdell’s Sunday Brunch on, well, Sunday, and Ask 411 on Wednesday. I think that’s it…

Samoa Steve says:
Thank you for joining us. Here is your punch and pie.

Chris says:
Is it Velvet Pie?

Samoa Steve says:
Well, I don’t really know what she was doing with it earlier.

Chris says:
Yeah, don’t really care. I’ll take Helms’ sloppy seconds

Samoa Steve says:
He’s just sayin’…..

Thanks to Chris for participating. He’s good people, you can’t hate on him just because he had a tough act to follow in the Ask 411 business. I have big footprints, what can I say? Mostly because I have big feet…and you know what they say about people with big feet. That’s right.