Sunday, January 31, 2010

Strikeforce MMA/Ric Flair Sued

LASHLEY REMAINS UNDEFEATED WITH WIN OVER SIMS
- Bobby Lashley continued his undefeated MMA streak going 5-0 by easily
dominating former Season 10 contestant of The Ultimate Fighter Wes Sims in a
fight yesterday in Miami, FL. The referee stepped in to stop the match with
two minutes and fifty three seconds remaining in the first round. The TNA
Superstar and former ECW champion unleashed a fury of punches after tackling
down Sims immediately and held him down while punching him in the face till
the ref called it off. This was Lashley's Strikeforce debut.

FLAIR SUED BY ROH FOR BREACH OF CONTRACT
- Ric Flair, who is now working for TNA, has been sued by Ring of Honor for
breach of contract according to PWInsider.com. The lawsuit, filed in Bucks
County, PA., seeks $40,000 in damages from the former sixteen time world
heavyweight champion. ROH allegedly paid the Nature Boy in advance for
several appearance that he failed to show up for. Flair quit ROH quickly
last year after a very short stint on WWE television and never paid back the
money that he received. This is not the first time that Flair has been sued
for related issues. Highspots.com also had problems with Flair last year and
unsuccessfully tried to put the real NWA title belt he gave them as
collateral after another company came forward with more legal problems for
Flair.

Friday, January 29, 2010

Jericho/Hurricane Helms update

From the Wrestling Globe Newsletter:
Some separating fact from fiction regarding the arrests of Chris Jericho
and Gregory 'Hurricane' Helms early yesterday morning in Northern
Kentucky. Ashley Storer, the young women who was traveling in a cab with
Jericho and Helms, said that she was sat between the pair when they
began play fighting. She said she caught an accidental elbow to the
cheek by Helms, became very upset due to heavy intoxication, and the cab
driver then pulled over at a gas station and called the police. She told
TMZ that when the cops arrived everything was blown out of proportion:
"I was crying and drunk and tired from being out all night and I just
wanted to leave". The incident followed a night of drinking a few hours
removed from WWE's Smackdown television taping at US Bank Arena in
Cincinnati. Those close to Matt Hardy told us he was the only one in the
group who hadn't been drinking, although it doesn't explain why he fled
the scene and hightailed it home to North Carolina leaving his friends
to deal with the aftermath. One source familiar with what happened noted
that Hardy had chased after Helms after he ran away but Helms returned
alone. The police said they are not pursuing any sort of action against
Hardy. Another note of interest is that Christian and CM Punk were said
to have posted bond for Jericho and Helms around 90 minutes after they
were booked into Kenton County Detention Center. The pair are scheduled
to appear in Kenton District Court on February 16 to answer public
intoxication charges or they can pay a small fine to dispose of the
charges.

Jim Ross via his blog at www.jrsbarbq.com wrote regarding the arrests:
"TMZ making a semi big deal about a situation that Chris Jericho and
Gregory Helms found themselves in this week. Both these guys are great
people and are credits to the biz and I suggest that this well could be
much to do about not much. No one should rush to judgment about this
issue especially since neither individual has addressed there side of
this overblown story."

Helms has been pulled from Sunday's Rumble match likely as punishment
for the events of this past week. Jericho is still listed at press time.
Well, you didn't think they would punish a main event guy did you?

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Honky Tonk Man in the news

from the Wrestling Online Newsletter:

HONKY TONK MAN REFUSES WWE HALL OF FAME INVITATION
- The Honky Tonk Man - who was back in the news yesterday for announcing on
his website that he is close to signing a new deal with TNA Wrestling - made
another announcement today, declining WWE's invitation to be inducted into
the 2010 Hall of Fame. The news, carried over Honky's official website, said
that negotiations started on January 22 and continued till January 27 when
finally the former Intercontinental champion declined the WWE offer. Two of
the major reasons for his decline were that he was booked for the Wizard
World Comic Con in Toronto the same date that WWE wanted him. Besides,
Wizard had the Honky Tonk Man booked for seven events so far this year while
WWE only wanted his appearance at the ceremony and the next day at
WrestleMania. Signing a Hall of Fame deal would lock HTM with a no-compete
clause for several months following the ceremony and the money offered by
WWE was "less than HTM could make in one weekend at Wizard World." Honky
Tonk Man appeared last year at the Hall of Fame inducting Koko B. Ware.

Jericho, Helms arrested for public intoxication

CANOE -- SLAM! Sports - Wrestling - Jericho, Helms arrested for public intoxication

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Ringside With Vader is a solid shoot

CANOE -- SLAM! Sports - Wrestling - Reviews: iRingside With Vader is a solid shoot

Road Warrior Animal

Today is the 50th birthday of Road Warrior Animal(Joseph Aaron "Joe" Laurinaitis).
He was one half of one of the greatest Tag Teams of all time, The Legion of Doom-The Road Warriors. Here he is with late partner Road Warrior Hawk defending the AWA tag team titles against another all time great team, The Freedbirds (Michael Hayes/Terry Gordy/Buddy Roberts).
This is from the 1985 Super Clash at Cominskey Park in Chicago.

Monday, January 25, 2010

Entrance Theme Time

here is the video for the entrance song of "The Midnight Rockers" Shawn Michaels and Marty Jannety

The Tooth Fairy


The Tooth Fairy movie with Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson starring in the
leading role opened in the fourth place this weekend behind Avatar, Legion and Book Of Eli.
Showing in 3,344 theaters the movie did $14,500,000according to BoxOfficeMojo. com. An additional $6,361,691 were made from foreign box office receipts sending the total to $20,861,691 in worldwide revenue. So far it's the second worst opening for a Rock movie only beating Gridiron Gang in 2006.
The movie, which also has Julie Andrews and Ashley Judd, had a production budget of $48 million plus marketing.

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Royal Rumble 2010 lineup

From the Wrestling Globe newsletter:
The current line up for next Sunday's Royal Rumble: The Undertaker vs.
Rey Mysterio for the World title; Sheamus vs. Randy Orton for the WWE
title; Christian vs. Ezekiel Jackson for the ECW title; Michelle McCool
vs. Mickie James for the Women's title; and the 30-man Rumble match has
24 names announced thus far. There is one surprise planned or at least
was as of last week. That leaves five spots for over 20 guys including
Matt Hardy, John Morrison, Dolph Ziggler, R-Truth, Drew McIntyre, Chavo,
Finlay, Kozlov, The Hart Dynasty, and Cryme Tyme.

John Cena was switched to the Rumble match due to his back issues. The
feeling was he couldn't perform at the level he wants in a singles title
match at a major pay-per-view. After some shows of late he has been
undergoing heat and ice therapy, and some other treatments, according to
those who would know.

Saturday, January 23, 2010

Royal Rumble 1999

Today in 1999 the WWF held its annual January PPV The Royal Rumble. That year it was held at the Arrowhead Pond in Anaheim California and was headlined by a "I Quit Match" for the WWF Heavyweight Championship held by Mankind and his challenger was The Rock.
You can see backstage footage of before and after of this match in the documentary "Beyond The Mat"



Randy Orton responds

Recent allegations against Randy Orton involve him spitting gum at a handicapped child and then telling the mother "So sue me".
Well now Randy has taken to his website to give us his unoffical statement on the matter.

Check it out at the Wrestling Daily website.

Friday, January 22, 2010

Jimmy Hart

here is a clip of the 60s group The Gentrys singing their biggest hit "Keep on Dancing". They reached #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. The group was from Memphis Tennessee and a young Jimmy Hart is the dark headed singer that didnt play an instrument


Jimmy Hart was an accomplished song writer and wrote several themes/entrance songs for various wrestlers over the years with Shawn Michaels "Sexy Boy" probably the most well known.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

The Rock on Letterman's show

THE ROCK TALKS WRESTLING ON THE "LATE SHOW" WITH DAVID LETTERMAN
- The former WWE champion Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson was a guest on the "Late
Show" with David Letterman yesterday to promote his new movie "Tooth Fairy."
Johnson, who usually stays away from any wrestling discussions, dedicated
most of the first segment to football and pro wrestling. The Rock talked
about his family's involvement in wrestling and talked about his Rock
gimmick. "I'll always be The Rock," he said, adding that he thinks it's the
coolest nickname on the planet. Letterman admitted that it's pretty good and
Rock mentioned that once Colin Powell, the former U.S. Secretary of State,
came up to him and said, "How ya doing, Rock?"

Brock Lesnar update

From the Wrestling Online Network:
LESNAR BACK IN THE OCTAGON THIS SUMMER
- The current UFC Heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar made his first TV
interview since falling ill towards the end of last year, appearing on ESPN
SportsCenter. Lesnar said that he was diagnosed with diverticulous - a hole
in the stomach - after he was originally diagnosed with mononucleosis.
Lesnar was put on medication as he didn't want to have surgery which would
have resulted in the end of his fighting career. However a second opinion
from the world-famous Mayo Clinic suggested that he should have his colon
removed, a surgery that he avoided the first time around. This month - after
losing a total of 40 pounds - Lesnar gained back 30 of those through hard
training in the gym and went back to see his doctors who couldn't find any
problems with his stomach anymore. The UFC champ, along with his doctors,
couldn't believe it so they scheduled another CT scan to confirm the
original findings with the results being negative again. Dana White, who was
also on the show, said that Lesnar will be back in the Octagon this Summer
to unify the Heavyweight belt again after Frank Mir and Shane Carwin will
battle out to see who will be crowned the interim champion.
You can see the full interview here

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Happy Birthday


Happy Birthday to Ted Dibiase Sr. The Million Dollar Man turns 56 today.


Monday, January 18, 2010

Tag Team Spotlight


The spotlight is on the team of Dick Murdoch and Adrian Adonis. They have been called the forgotten tag team champions of the WWF.
They held the belts from April 1984 until Jan 21st 1985.
They won the belts from Rocky Johnson and Tony Atlas on April 17th and dropped them to the team of Barry Windham and Mike Rotunda on Jan 21st.
They have really been forgotten but in my opinion they were the end of the no frills old school tag teams that Vince McMahon Sr seemed to prefer, where Vince Jr prefered to dress things up and use new talent he had brought in from the AWA and NWA and make a big family show.
Adonis/Murdoch did not lend themselves to flamoyance....yet.
Adonis would go on to a somewhat infamous run within the next couple of years with his "Flower Shop" and new effiminate gimmick.
Murdoch is still more well known as "Captain Redneck" and for teaming with Dusty Rhodes as The Outlaws in the 60s and 70s.
The team of Murdoch and Adonis was called "The North South Connection" which was a variation of the name give to the team of Jesse Ventura and Adoins earlier in the decacde "The East West Connection" and "The Wrecking Crew" which was a knockoff on the Minnesota Wrecking Crew name for the Andersons in the NWA. Before being the champs in the WWF the team had a long successful run in Japan and went up against teams like Hulk Hogan/The Masked Superstar, Antonio Inoki/Tatsumi Fujinami, Andre the Giant/Sgt Slaughter.
They were an odd pairing to say the least but their success cannot be argued with and they brought that old heel presence with them to every match.
Adrian Adonis (born Keith Franke) died tragically July 5th 1988 in NewFoundland Canada when a minivan he was riding in swerved to miss a moose and the driver blinded by the setting sun drove into a lake. Adonis was 33.
Captain Redneck Dick Murdoch born Hoyt Richard Murdoch died June 15th 1996 of a heart attack while traveling to wrestle with an independent promotion. He was 49.



TNA Genesis report and results

CANOE -- SLAM! Sports - Wrestling - PPVReports: Angle-Styles good, but not enough to save Genesis

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Royal Rumble 1989

The Summit in Houston Texas was the host on January 15th for the 1989 edition of the Royal Rumble.
YouTube has several parts to cover the whole Rumble but here are the first 2 parts and the finish.




Tuesday, January 12, 2010

RAW Guest Host


Courtesy of the Wrestling Online Network:


WWE Hall of Famer Stone Cold Steve Austin will be making his WWE return on
March 15 as the guest host for Monday Night RAW in San Diego, CA. This will
be two weeks before WrestleMania XXVI, almost exactly a year after he last
appeared on WWE television at WrestleMania XXV in Houston, TX. The night
before WrestleMania, Austin was inducted into the Hall of Fame by WWE
Chairman Vince McMahon. His upcoming movie, titled Damage, will be released
in U.S. theaters on January 28.

Monday, January 11, 2010

Former WWF star Ludvig Borga dead at 47

CANOE -- SLAM! Sports - Wrestling - Former WWF star Ludvig Borga dead at 47

TNA PPV Poster


This is for the Feb 14th TNA PPV "Against All Odds".
Kind of fitting to have the spectre of Hulk Hogan looming in the background.

Saturday, January 9, 2010

Royal Rumble 2010

Elimination Chamber

Here is the poster for the upcoming February 21st Elimination Chamber PPV.

Friday, January 8, 2010

Another Indianapolis Classic match

The video is kind of shaky but you can see it enough to enjoy this classic tag team of Andre the Giant and Dick the Bruiser. The best is Karl Von Krupp jumping Andre and Ox standing back watching him saying "you fool!"

Today in History

1957 - Ivan and Karol Kalmikoff defeat Fritz Von Erich and Karl Von Schober in a tournament final to become the first Minneapolis NWA World Tag Team Champions in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The title would go on to become the AWA World Tag Team Title in 1960, when Verne Gagne left the NWA and founded the promotion.