WWE News And Notes, WARNING: May Include Spoilers!

[Darryl The Hitman]

--On the WWE Universe website, Howard Finkel has posted his thoughts on this past Tuesday's episode of ECW.

--The next issue of Inside Wrestling features The Rock and John Cena on the cover of the magazine with a headline reading: "Hot WrestleMania Rumor - John Cena vs. The Rock." The sister publication of Pro Wrestling Illustrated claims that the "mega-bout is close to being signed." The article's synopsis reads: "The relationship between The Rock and John Cena is strange. Cena respects all The Rock has accomplished yet seems to resent it at the same time. That is why "The Champ" is pining for a match with The Rock at WWE's showcase event. Word is, this mega-bout is close to being signed." Right. To view the cover of the magazine, visit www.pwi-online.com. The issue hits newsstands December 8, 2009.

--Though WWE's three-hour RAW broadcast did a 3.23 rating (3.54 in the usual two hours) with Jesse Ventura as co-host and 4.95 million viewers, the program once again lost viewers during the final hour. Considering the show was built around Ventura and Vince McMahon calling the main event together and a Battle Royal match for a future title shot, to lose viewers during the the final hour has to be considered disappointing. In the past, RAW would lose viewers during the final hour maybe once every year or two, but it has now has happened three times in recent weeks. The show did 65% male, which means on a percentage basis, there were more women viewers than usual. The median viewer age was 37.

--Rob Van Dam noted on his RVD.TV blog that Psycho Sid Vicious returned home from a European tour with the American Wrestling Rampage promotion and is suffering from a bruised or possibly torn biceps. RVD also noted that the travel conditions were taking their toll on Sid.

--As mentioned before, WWE will be doing a "little people's court" gimmick on this week's RAW from Baltimore between DX and Hornswoggle. WWE has rented a local Baltimore courtroom for Monday afternoon to shoot the segments involving DX and Hornswoggle. The entire courtroom, including the jury, will be made up of the little people. The special guest host for this week's show is Verne Troyer of Austin Powers fame.

--It was speculated before that the match between The Undertaker and Batista for the World Heavyweight Title at WWE's TLC pay-per-view would be a Chairs Match but unless WWE announces the stipulation later, it looks like it will be a regular match for the World Heavyweight Title, as listed on WWE's website.

--Former police officer David. L. Scudder was convicted of theft and misconduct for taking $154 from a promoter who was selling autographs and photos for a man pretending to be WWE Hall of Famer Steve Austin. Scudder confiscated the cash and then kept it for himself.

--WWE's house show in Mankato, Minnesota on January 10th, 2010 has been canceled.

--My name is Tim James and I wanted to pass this along. I was tuned in to HSN to see what was on sale for football on Thanksgiving and what do I hear, a familiar deep voice that I couldn't place right away and then they showed him on screen and it was Maven from Tough Enough I.

--Dave Lettice sent along the following: It was noticed that Jesse Ventura's entrance was spelled incorrectly on the Titantron. This was edited on the Thursday version in the UK by zooming in to 'The Governor' so you couldn't read 'The Governer'.

--Robert Abdiel "Abbie" Morales Baez sent along the following: Puerto Rican independent company PRWA uses former WWE Champion Brock Lesnar's theme song as the company's theme for their show on Mega TV.

--Take it for what it's worth, which is generally nothing, but John Cena is being advertised as defending the WWE Championship in a match against The Big Show on January 24th in Champaign, IL. at the Assembly Hall. Being that the Royal Rumble is prior to this date, one could assume Cena is holding onto the strap for a bit. One could also assume the obvious, this is more advanced WWE promotion that probably means nothing.

[Darryl The Hitman]

--WWE will be filming the Hornswoggle vs. DX lawsuit in a court room in Baltimore with a jury of Little People. They are hiring every mini wrestler they can find for the show Monday.

--Maria Kanellis starts back this week.

--Eric Bischoff is doing a new reality show on CMT starting on 12/12 called "Posse: The Young Guns of the PBR." It follows eight bull riders in their quest to be this year's champion.

--A story on UCLA center Kai Maiava, whose grandfather was wrestling star Neff Maiava (who also wrestled as Prince Maiava in the U.S.) at http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/sports_blog/2009/11/ It noted his uncle is Dwayne Johnson. This is another of those not blood relatives deal, but Johnson's grandfather, Pita Fanene Anderson, was given the name Peter Maivia in Europe in the 60s because the U.K. promoters thought Anderson didn't sound Samoan enough and the only famous Samoan wrestler at the time was Neff, so Maivia came from Maiava (different spelling and pronunciation). Years later, Pita & Neff met in Hawaii when they were working for promoter Ed Francis, and bonded like brothers.

--On last night's Smackdown in the U.K., the C.M. Punk promo where he introduced Festus was cut because it violated U.K. advertising laws because of the plugging of the Jeff Hardy DVD during the segment. To make up for the lost time, they aired the Undertaker vs. Chris Jericho match twice.

--The debut of the local TV show Original Big Time Wrestling will be tonight at 8 p.m. on Ch. 33 WHPR in the Detroit area. You can also watch the show live on the Internet at http://www.tv33whpr.com The first show will air both modern matches as well as matches from The Sheik's tape library, including The Sheik vs. Mark Lewin, Dick the Bruiser vs. Don Fargo, Sabu vs. The Crusher (I never knew they wrestled) and Haystacks Calhoun vs. Killer Tim Brooks.

--During the Toronto Maple Leafs vs. Florida Panthers last night, during the first intermission they showed Luc Schenn and Garnet Exelby of the Leafs training yoga with Trish Stratus. {DTH: GIven the Leafs are the second-worst team in the 30-tem League, they may as well ask Trish to try out as a player to see if she could help any.}

--WGN America last night reran the old episode of "Cheers" where they were watching Hulk Hogan vs. Jake Roberts and Frasier told Woody that Hogan beat Jake because wrestling was fixed and Woody thought it was a shame that Hulk couldn't have any kids.

--As seen last week on SmackDown!, Mickie James was introduced to Michelle McCool's personalized version of "Old McDonald," a video designed to degrade the curvaceous SmackDown! Diva with its starring character "Piggy James." For those wondering, the segment was indeed designed to send a message to the multi-time women's champion. WWE brass aren't happy with James venturing outside of the company for her country music aspirations as they believe she's heading down the same path as the likes of Dwayne "The Rock" and Stacy Keibler, who let their outside endeavors overtake their commitments to the company. Additionally, company officials have not been pleased with James' weight in recent months, which was another reason for the degrading segment. It should be noted that Mickie was told about the segment earlier in the day and they rehearsed it prior to the show.

--In today's wrestling birthdays, Rob Conway turns 35 while Brent Albright turns 31.

--Former WWE wrestler Sid Vicious has left the American Wrestling Rampage's tour overseas with a biceps injury. Rob Van Dam said on his website that Sid went home on Tuesday with a "bruised and possibly torn biceps." RVD also expressed his disappointment in Sid leaving the tour prematurely as he feels he would have given him his best match in a long time. "The travel conditions I've previously mentioned along with many I have not seemed to get the better of him. Too bad," Van Dam wrote. "I was looking forward to wrestling him and I know I would’ve given him his best match in a looooong time!"

--As seen last night on Friday Night SmackDown, CM Punk reintroduced a reformed Luke Gallows, formerly Festus. It was explained that Punk got Gallows off the abusive drugs and away from the neglect that his family had enabled him with for so long. The WWE website has since added a profile on Gallows with all references to his former character removed. This is actually his fourth gimmick in WWE as he previously played an imposter Kane and "The Freakin' Deacon."

--John Bradshaw Layfield has posted a blog on the WWE Universe website relaying a Thankgiving-related story from when he was living in Germany.

--The Bella Twins and Eve Torres revealed on the respective Twitter accounts that they will be going on WWE's annual trip to Iraq. The annual Tribute to the Troops show will be held two weeks from now. The crew is leaving after RAW on Monday night.

--Maria revealed on her Twitter account that she is back on the road as of today. Hence, it is likely that she will be making her return to television during next week's episode of SmackDown!. The former Playboy cover girl took a brief hiatus from WWE in order to take part in the upcoming season of Celebrity Apprentice.

--Eve Torres said on her Twitter account that she will be working her first RAW live event tonight in Johnson City, Tennessee. The winner of the 2007 Diva Search has not seen much ring time since being traded to RAW over a month ago.

--The following fan reports have been sent in to acknowledge that last night's Smackdown broadcast was heavily edited in The UK:

Oli Raabe sent this in: This Friday, Smackdown aired for only an hour and a half, as opposed to the usual two hours. In order to make the show so short, they cut most of CM Punk's promo, including the Jeff Hardy DVD bit and the explanation of who Luke Gallows was, leading to confusion when they were mentioned by the announcers and Matt Hardy.

Dion Lewtas sent this in: In the latest edition of SmackDown very bad edits were done, such as in the CM Punk promo it went to a commercial break and came back to the end of the promo completely missing out the Festus-Luke Gallos saying about Festus thimg was a past drug addict thing. And one more thing we didn't see the match between John Morrison and Eric Escobar for the Intercontinental Championship.

Mark Turner sent this in: Don't know how this panned out for other viewers across the world, but CM Punk's promo on SD seemed extremely heavily edited here in the UK. All we got was a shot of Punk in the backstage area heading to the ring, then an ad, then Punk in the ring introducing his new protege as 'Luke Gallows', then another ad, then Matt Hardy coming to the ring. It was doubly confusing as Hardy (and the commentators during the following match) mentioned Punk dissing Jeff and his DVD, when we didn't even see this part of the promo, and I was also unaware until hearing Grisham mention it (then Googling it) that 'Luke Gallows' was in fact Festus, and the story Punk gave behind his sudden gimmick change.

[Darryl The Hitman]

--Mike Mooneyham has a story on Sandy Scott battling cancer at http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2009/no...heart-champion/

--A link to Trish Stratus doing yoga with Toronto Maple Leaf players is at http://watch.tsn.ca/nhl/clip234292#clip234292

--There are Wal-Marts who have the Jeff Hardy DVD already in stock, which is to be released nationally on Tuesday.

--Today's Twitter news from The Miz, who unlike Jim Ross, who did get a ticket last weekend when speeding, talked his way out of one, even though he's legit suffering from laryngitis. "Just got pulled over. This always happens to me. Let's see if I can get just a warning. Prob not though never that lucky."

"And the verdict is...not guilty. Well actually I was guilty but was let go with a warning. See there r nice cops out there."

--Maria Kanellis will be back in action for WWE this week, but there's no word if she'll be on the Tribute to the Troops show.

--In this week's edition of SmackDown After the Bell on WWE.com, Dolph Ziggler says what he's thankful for.

--WWE Raw Superstar Mike “The Miz” Mizanin was pulled over by a police officer while driving on Saturday night and wrote about the situation on Twitter as it unfolded.

“Just got pulled over. This always happens to me. Let’s see if I can get just a warning. Prob not though never that lucky,” said Miz regarding the encounter, presumably related to a minor traffic offense (such as speeding).

He later added, “And the verdict is in….not guilty. Well actually I was guilty but was let go with a warning. See there r nice cops out there.”

While getting pulled over for a minor traffic is not a huge deal (especially when he didn’t even receive a ticket), Miz’s Twitter postings seem to represent the kind of publicity WWE wanted to avoid when they supposedly told their superstars to limit their Twitter use and not post anything controversial.

--Maria made her WWE return at last night's SmackDown/ECW live event in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, accompanying Cryme Tyme for their match against The Hart Dynasty. She took a brief hiatus from WWE in order to take part in the upcoming season of Celebrity Apprentice, which wrapped up filming two weeks ago.

--Today is Jerry "The King" Lawler's birthday as he turns 60 years old. In other wrestling birthdays, John "Bradshaw" Layfield turns 43 while WWE Hall of Famer "Mean" Gene Okerlund turns 67.

--The World Wrestling Council has released a poster advertising Carlito for their upcoming "Euphoria 2010" event taking place on Saturday, January 16, 2010 in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He will be squaring off against "El Mesías" Ricky Banderas in the main event.

--In the latest edition of List This! Greatest Highway Robberies in WWE History, former WWE Superstar Perry Saturn's romantic relationship with a janitor's mop is profiled. Moppy Q. McMopperson, or "Moppy," eventually met its demise at the hands of kidnappers, hence the profile.

--WWE.com has posted the latest edition of Ask the Divas as they reveal their favorite cities to visit as well as their "escape plan" for a bad date.

--Regarding Sheamus and Drew McIntyre, they're respective pushes come as a result of Triple H and Shawn Michaels' endorsement of the two. In the case of The Celtic Warrior, he is Triple H's workout partner and feels he has tons of potential. Likewise, McIntyre is well liked by Triple H as well as Shawn Michaels, with both getting behind him because he is tall with a good physique.

--The USA Network sent out a press release last week regarding the 11/16 WWE Monday Night RAW claiming it was the highest rated "entertainment" show of the night in all adult male demographics. Of course this was a very misleading statement since using the term "entertainment" they could eliminate football which is where the real highest percentage of adult male viewers were on Monday for Monday Night Football on ESPN.

--The Miz is suffering from a legit case of laryngitis. The angle at the weekend live events was done because Miz simply has no voice. {DTH: No, I don't know what angle, either.}

--WWE Diva Maryse returned to the ring at last night's RAW live event in Johnson City, Tennessee.

--Carlito made his return to action at the RAW live event last night in Tennessee, defeating WWE developmental talent Alex Riley.

--WWE Diva Maria made her return to WWE action this weekend at the live event in Upper Marlboro, Maryland. Maria accompanied Cryme Tyme to the ring for their match. Another live report from the RAW event in Johnson City, TN says that Maria teamed with Melina to take on Maryse and Alicia Fox but that's likely an error as it's confirmed that she was in Maryland for the SmackDown show. Maria recently finished filming for NBC's Celebrity Apprentice.

--In a rare move, Kofi Kingston teamed with Triple H at the RAW live event last night in Tennessee, defeating Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase. Despite the storylines, Randy Orton got another shot at John Cena at the same show, losing in the main event.

--WWE has added a profile page for Luke Gallos on the SmackDown roster with no mention of his former gimmick.

--Rey Mysterio returned to action at the SmackDown live event in Maryland yesterday, defeating Chris Jericho in the main event. A fan report from the show says Rey wasn't selling the injury from Batista at all.

--Raw wrestler Eddie Colon (a.k.a. Primo) is said to be very frustrated with his position in World Wrestling Entertainment.

The second generation star has accomplished little of note since being broken up from his brother Carlito over the summer as more often than not, he's working dark matches and being left off Monday Night Raw. Primo loves wrestling more than his brother does (Carlito himself has admitted this to be true), so this is a trying time for him.

The Colons captured the WWE Tag Team Championships shortly after Primo's debut last year, holding on to them through June.

--Thanks to David Dunne for sending in this update: Hey, just reading through one of the wrestlezone articles and noticed there was one mistake and one thing which I thought should be elaborated on with regards to the heavy editing of SD on Sky Sports last night.

The Punk segment was cut short since it involved product placement, which isn't allowed on TV over here. Thus, when Punk was discussing the Hardy DVD, they had to edit it out.

Also, the show didn't air for an hour and a half like Oli Raabe mentioned. It was two hours, but for some reason, the IC title match was shown after the Taker/Jericho match. So after Batista beat down Taker, it wrapped up but then after the commercials, we came back to the IC title match. To make matters worse, after that match, we were treated to a hype for the real main event as well as a clip of Batista making his way down to the ring to do comenty on the match we had already seen.

Really poor editing on Sky's part last night. Not impressive.

--Last night, at WWE's Smackdown house show event in Upper Marlboro, MD, Rey Mysterio defeated Chris Jericho in the show's main event. It has been widely reported that Rey Mysterio was supposed to be taking time off from WWE to have another surgery, but it appears as if he is either not going to take time off, or he just hasn't begun his leave of absence yet. Although Rey did have his ribs taped last night, he didn't seem to be selling the Batista attack from Survivor Series very much.

--Info@Muchnick.net sent along the following:

Chris Benoit Story Takes Dave Meltzer & Company Out of Their Comfort Zone
Published November 28, 2009

“Dave’s reaction to your book seems odd and he does a hell of a job covering wrestling, so I’d like to see a concrete response from him about all of this at some point before making a judgment.”

I agree with all parts of these observations about Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter by Sean Radican of Pro Wrestling Torch. The next question is, “Why?”

It is now commonly accepted by many people of various political persuasions that the American media failed to expose the flaws in President Bush’s claim that Iraq was well along in its development of weapons of mass destruction – the major immediate justification for launching the war there.

Most of the sports media now agree, in retrospect, that it was wrong to hoot down Steve Wilstein, the Associated Press reporter who noticed that Mark McGwire had a jar of androstenedione, a steroid precursor then banned by many other sports, while he was setting his baseball home run record in 1998.

Yet in wrestling, Meltzer, with a spasm of macho posturing, so far refuses to confront levels of the Benoit story that he both helped me research and himself ignored or downplayed at the time.

Sean Radican has said “everyone should read CHRIS & NANCY.” Whether or not you ultimately share his generous conclusion that it’s “a very compelling read,” I don’t think his core recommendation can be responsibly denied by fans who profess concern for the performers they spend hundreds of hours a year cheering and booing.

At the conclusion of my interview Monday on Hardcore Sports Radio’s UnderScore, host Sarah Meehan said: “I know what you’re saying. With respect to the fans and the way that fans react to things, this isn’t OK what continues to happen in and around the world of professional wrestling…. And regardless of the filters through which we view the sport or the entertainment that it is, it still is a very real phenomenon what happens to these people.”

Irv Muchnick

--William Corbett sent along the following: Yesterday during the Dallas Cowboys vs. Oakland Raiders game, after Miles Austin scored a Touchdown, RAW's new theme, Burn It To The Ground by Nickelback, started playing. Just thought I would pass that along.

--Derrick Rosser sent along the following:

I was reading some superstar tweets today and started to see a pattern of insults towards The Miz. Apparently, he isn't the most liked superstar during travel. It all started when Miz tweeted that he lost his voice, and the insults begin!! Below are the tweets..

Eve Torres: Thank God! Right b4 the flight to Iraq. RT @mikethemiz: "Only problem is my throat is killing me n I lost my voice"

Hornswoggle: Back on the road, great news that I found out tho is that @mikethemiz has lost his voice. Thank you god!

Those are only a few though, I thought it was interesting. I guess The Miz has trouble getting out of character!!!

--Former WWE CEO Linda McMahon is down to one legitimate opponent for the Republican nomination to run for Connecticut Senator in 2010.

The five-way competition has been whittled down to a one-on-one race between McMahon and Rob Simmons, with the winner facing current Democratic Senator Chris Dodd in 2010.

According to a report by the Norwich Bulletin, one candidate dropped out last week, another candidate will most-likely announce he is dropping out next week, and another isn't a serious contender due to a lack of campaigning.

In a poll earlier this month, Simmons and McMahon were both favored over Senator Dodd in a hypothetical race and both have enough wealth to make a serious run at the Senate position.

McMahon has said she will spend $50 million on her campaign, while Simmons has gone after McMahon for not having experience running for political office. Now, it appears the semi-finals of the Republican race is down to a one-on-one competition for votes between money and experience.

--There is something delightfully old school about Sheamus's push that has led him to face John Cena for the WWE Title at the TLC PPV. Not just the fact that Jesse Ventura, who was excellent as guest host this week, was involved in the contract signing.

The Irishman has been running through opponents for weeks now without the "stop-start" booking that plagues the midcard. WWE has been doing all the right things with Sheamus in an effort to turn him into a credible title challenger. He destroyed Jamie Noble, who duly retired, and sneak attacked Jerry Lawler. Undefeated, Sheamus won a battle royal to claim a chance to face Cena for the title.

His rise up the card resembles the way in which challenges were prepared for Hulk Hogan in the 1980s. After destroying everyone he's faced, he's now going up against the babyface champion. Sheamus has not been around for long, triggering doubts over whether he is ready for the main event. There may be others who are better wrestlers, more over, or generally more deserving, but Sheamus is one of the few undercard wrestlers who has not been affected by the WWE's stop-start booking.

The truth is that WWE don't really have much of a choice but to look to younger stars without a track record. As Jesse Ventura alluded to in his opening promo on Monday night, they have exhausted every combination of John Cena, Randy Orton, Shawn Michaels, and Triple H in the main event. Recent PPV buy figures have proven that constantly recycling the same names in the top matches is no longer a sure fire way of driving PPV business.

WWE is taking measures to shake up the main event picture. Kofi Kingston has already been elevated by his feud with Randy Orton. On the house show circuit, WWE have been running a gimmick where the first match is a battle royal which decides who will face Cena later in the show. Younger stars such as Sheamus and Swagger have been given the opportunity to wrestle in house show main events, which can only be beneficial to their future development.

Sheamus's push may seem somewhat abrupt, but should be lauded for attempting to get fresh faces into the main event. WWE has nothing to lose by pushing him, as even the established stars have been struggling to draw decent PPV numbers of late. Whether Sheamus is a long-term main event wrestler is up for debate but he is being given every opportunity to succeed.

[Dark Lord]

Indeed. In fact I was having a similar conversation with a friend about the Shaemus push not 20 mins ago.

[Darryl The Hitman]

[hint]Maybe your friend would like to join us here?[/hint] :D