The Wrestling News Experience 01.05.09

Monday, January 5th, 2009

From 411Mania’s Canadian offices in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, this is The Wrestling News Experience, with Stephen Randle!

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Experience. I am Stephen Randle, discovering that I’m not the drumming prodigy that I would like to be, at least as far as Rock Band is concerned. It is nice to hear that I’m not the only one who has problems with the foot pedal, though.

Well, tonight Canada goes for another gold medal at the World Juniors, and John Tavares continues to remind me why it’s actually a good thing that the Leafs keep losing all their games. Except the ones against Ottawa, of course. We have to have some pride.

Once again from our promotional department, a reminder that starting today and running all week, 411 Wrestling presents their annual Year End Awards, featuring award coverage and blurbage by me, your very favourite 411 writer.

Moving on.

What’s On Tap – WWE Raw for January 5th

This week, on the first Raw of 2009, we have a big Intercontinental title defense scheduled, as CM Punk cashes in his shot at William Regal, hoping to become the first man in quite a while to win the tag, IC, and World titles within one year. After Regal cost Punk his match against Cody Rhodes, you can be sure that the Straight Edge Superstar will be looking for serious payback.

Plus, we now know who John Cena will be facing at the Royal Rumble, and in a surprise (well, I wasn’t surprised, but someone might have been), it’s JBL, who grabbed a title shot with a victory in last week’s Fatal Four-Way Elimination match. Cena and JBL have had years of bad blood between them, and it looks to boil over yet again as we build to the Rumble.

And how has the face of The Legacy potentially changed following “Phase One” last week? Both Cody Rhodes and Sim Snuka won their matches, while Manu was once again dealt a crushing defeat. Will that be the end of the Samoan Superstar’s presence in the group? And how will Randy Orton’s failure to win his match affect his standing with his compatriots?

All this, plus maybe this week some Raw Superstars will be announced for the Rumble match itself, joining the ones named on Smackdown last week.

Around The Horn

In case anyone’s interested in reading the script for either the best courtroom-based sitcom since Night Court, the summary of government reports from the investigation of WWE following the Benoit incident can be found here. It turns out, and I know this is a big shock, that a bunch of WWE wrestlers tested positive for steroids during the initial phases of the Wellness tests, and that loopholes in the policy abound. And how dare WWE set a bad example when the other professional sports leagues have been so disciplined about rooting out rampant steroid use. Why, I hear the NFL even almost managed to suspend some players last month. Seriously, they were this close.

WWE released a public statement this past week in which they basically stated that Vince McMahon hated The Wrestler, the movie starring Mickey Rourke which has been heralded by virtually every critic and viewer alike, has won several awards already, has been nominated for several Golden Globes, and is likely looking at a few Oscar nomination too. I dunno, I’m not sure whose opinion might have more effect on the movie-going public in general. Apparently Vince has a problem with a movie that portrays independent wrestling as hard, dangerous, and unprofitable, because apparently that might somehow reflect badly on his multi-million dollar organization. I can’t help but get the feeling that if Mick Foley was trying to sell his autobiography now instead of ten years ago, it might have never seen daylight.

I know this question gets asked a lot lately, but is Vince truly insane? Here we have a critically acclaimed movie that’s going to be in the public eye for at least the next few months during the build to the Oscars, and rather than cozy up to it and feed off all that publicity that we all know Vince loves more than writing material where hot young females fawn over him on broadcast television, apparently he’s decided to have nothing to do with it at all, decry it at every turn, and even allegedly attempt to force the networks not to air commercials for the movie while WWE programming is on the air.

Fortunately, I don’t work for WWE, and I’m almost as big a shameless publicity whore as Vince.

Of course, TNA was quick to offer their own press release where they heaped praise on the movie, which served two ends: it probably annoyed Vince, and also they have the benefit of being on the side of the majority for once, which has to feel good. So, if you enjoy annoying Vince McMahon, or just want to be cool, I suggest you see The Wrestler. If you don’t fit into either of these categories, well, you’re already beyond any help I can give you.

WWE.com announced on Sunday that the nude photos of Vicki Guerrero that were available on eBay (and which can be seen here, probably NSFW, but I don’t dare click the link myself, so you’re on your own), were won by The Great Khali. Who knew a throwaway joke could end up causing so much havoc?

Apparently Bobby Lashley still wants to wrestle while he’s training for MMA, although he doesn’t sound inclined to return to WWE. Hey, technically he’s a former champion, could he be the next member of the Main Event Mafia? Tune into Nitro to find out!

And before I leave this segment, Christian Cage’s TNA contract has officially expired, so he’s eligible to appear anywhere he wants…perhaps even this week…

*cue ominous music*

The Injury Bug Bites

Inactive List as of 12.29.08

WWE Raw

– Batista, out 6-8 months as of December 22nd (hamstring)
– Hardcore Holly, out indefinitely (rehab)
– Ted Dibiase, out indefinitely as of November 10th (kayfabe, concussion)

WWE SmackDown

– Umaga, out indefinitely as of August 20th (PCL)

ECW

– Evan Bourne, out 4-6 weeks (torn deltoid)

TNA

– Moose, out 6 months as of July 7th (broken femur)
– Suicide (Kaz), out indefinitely as of December 15th (torn bicep)

Transactions

– Barry Windham, WWE, released from his agent contract

I guess once the Ric Flair tribute show was over, there really was nothing for Windham to do, and WWE seems to have a surplus of backstage agents anyway. Seriously, Ricky Steamboat, Arn Anderson, Dean Malenko, plus Jamie Noble and Fit Finlay seem to have similar positions to varying degrees.

– Maryse, SD!, day-to-day (dislocated kneecap)

Bad news for the fastest-rising Diva in WWE. Of course, the fact that she improved so quickly shouldn’t really be a surprise, should it? Think about it: Trish Stratus, Gail Kim, Natalya Neidhart, Maryse…what have they got in common? A certain nationality, perhaps?

Who’s Holding Gold

WWE

WWE Champion: Jeff Hardy
– 22 day reign, defeated former champion Edge and Triple H in a Triple Threat Match on December 14th (Armageddon PPV)

World Heavyweight Champion: John Cena
– 43 day reign, defeated Chris Jericho on November 23rd (Survivor Series PPV)
– Next title defense: vs JBL, Royal Rumble PPV

ECW Champion: Matt Hardy
– 120 day reign, defeated former champion Mark Henry, The Miz, Finlay, and Chavo Guerrero in a Scramble Match on September 7th (Unforgiven PPV)

WWE Intercontinental Champion: William Regal
– 56 day reign, defeated Santino Marella on November 10th (Raw)
– Next title defense: vs CM Punk, January 5th Raw

WWE United States Champion: Shelton Benjamin
– 169 day reign, defeated Matt Hardy on July 20th (Great American Bash PPV)

World Tag Team Champions: John Morrison and The Miz
– 23 day reign, defeated CM Punk and Kofi Kingston on December 13th (Hamilton, ON house show)

WWE Tag Team Champions: Carlito and Primo Colon
– 101 day reign, defeated Curt Hawkins and Zach Ryder on September 26th (Smackdown)

WWE Women’s Champion: Beth Phoenix
– 141 day reign, with Santino Marella, defeated Mickie James and Kofi Kingston in a Winner Take All match on August 17th (Summerslam PPV)
– Next title defense: vs Melina, Royal Rumble PPV

WWE Diva’s Champion: Maryse
– 10 day reign, defeated Michelle McCool on December 26th (Smackdown)

TNA

TNA Heavyweight Champion: Sting
– 85 day reign, defeated Samoa Joe on October 12th (Bound For Glory PPV)
– Next title defense: vs Rhino, Genesis PPV

TNA Tag Team Champions: Beer Money Inc
– 148 day reign, defeated LAX on August 10th (Hard Justice PPV)

TNA X-Division Champion: VACANT
– Title held up in an X-Division title tournament due to disputed finish of Eric Young-Sheik Abdul Bashir match at Final Resolution PPV

TNA Knockouts Champion: Awesome Kong
– 74 day reign, defeated Taylor Wilde on October 23rd (Impact)

TNA Legends Champion: Booker T
– 74 day reign, introduced new title on October 23rd (Impact)

Links For Fun And Nonprofit

Harrison and Cook have the weekend news reports.

The Triple Threat talk JBL-HBK and The Legacy.

Rodriguez has For The Record.

Short has The Navigation Log.

Bond has Against The Grain

And Sforcina joins the Followers of John Morrison and also has the final Not An Evolution Schematic…for a while, anyway.

The Gab Bag

A lot of discussion over my comparing Hade Vansen to Mick Foley’s debut of Mankind ensued, so I’ll keep elaborating. A couple other options I could have used, some of which were presented by readers, others which I thought of, were:

– Mick being put up against Sting in WCW
– Kane debuting as a major threat to the Undertaker
– Kurt Angle’s amazing first year where he won every singles title available and was almost immediately placed in a main event storyline
– Triple H assuming the leadership of DX after WrestleMania 14 despite being seen as just a sidekick beforehand
– putting both Batista and Randy Orton into a main event stable even though they’d accomplished absolutely nothing prior to Evolution

And I’m sure I could think of more. The first point I was trying to make wasn’t about Vince debuting a green rookie against his big guys, because obviously everyone listed above, including Mick in my example last week had wrestled for at least a few years prior, in other organizations, developmental territories, or under other gimmicks. It was more that Vince was willing to take big chances on putting new guys into main event feuds right away (or near enough), instead of making them work their way up, and in all the above cases, it worked. It seems that now, however, Vince is less likely to take that sort of chance with anyone, not just Vansen. Again, I’m not saying Hade Vansen, Black Pain, and Kevin Thorn are going to create the next big wrestling boom (it’s not likely), but if you don’t give them a chance, you’ll never find out if they could do it. Hell, nobody believed Mick Foley would ever win a World title, look what he ended up accomplishing.

The second point I wanted to make is that, if you pulled all your guys out of other developmental territories, then created FCW from the ground up for the purpose of training the next generation of WWE talent, making sure they can all wrestle that so-called “main event style”, why won’t you trust the guys you hand-picked to develop those new wrestlers to run a program so that when their students get the call up to the big leagues, they’re ready to perform at an appropriate level, even against the big stars like Undertaker?

And just for a throwaway point, if the gimmick/wrestler/storyline hasn’t been given full approval, maybe you shouldn’t start airing vignettes on TV.

And One To Go On

411 will have live coverage of Raw tonight starting at 9 pm EST.

Remember, if you love poker, and are in the Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo area, check out Player’s Poker League.

And for the drunken ramblings of Sean Carless and his merry band of reprobates, check out The Wrestling Fan.

That’s our show, before we go…

Do I really have to?

*sigh*

Before we go, we check in with our good friend, Jeff Small, for a preview of tomorrow’s Small-For-All News Report. Small?

Wait for it…

What? Wait for what?

Wait for it…

Oh, I get it. You’re doing that thing like you do before your news reports.

Wait…

I don’t think you know how irritating that is.

Keep waiting…

Actually, I’m sure that you do know, otherwise you’d have given it up months ago.

That’s it…keep waiting…

All right, that’s it, I’m cutting you off. I knew this was a bad idea, but does anybody listen to me? Noooo…

Well, we’ll try again next week.

Have a good one and always be a fan.

WHAMMY!

Hello?