wrestling / Columns

The Wrestling News Experience 07.26.10

July 26, 2010 | Posted by Stephen Randle

Monday, July 26th, 2010

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

Oh, You’ve Read Worse

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Experience. I am Stephen Randle, and I’m really under the weather. And given that the weather up here is alternating between suffocating heat and pouring rain, that’s a lot of crazy weather to be under. Nevertheless, I press on and bring you all the news that’s fit to print. Plus enough filler to keep you entertained in between coffee breaks.

Moving on.

Last week, John Cena finally realized that he cannot hope to combat the overwhelming power of the Nexus. On his own, that is. Thus, he has assembled a seven-man team of Raw Superstars, and has prepared for a massive 7-on-7 tag match for SummerSlam that will hopefully bring an end to the Nexus’ rampage. But with such mercurial personalities as Edge and Chris Jericho making up a big part of the team, will everyone on Cena’s squad be a team player, or are some members just looking for a place to stick the knife? And with weeks to go until the PPV, will everyone on either side make it to the big show?

Plus, Randy Orton became the #1 Contender to Sheamus’ WWE title early in the show last week, and quickly made a statement to the champion that he would be coming hard for the belt. But will the Celtic Warrior be able to focus fully on his upcoming title defense, when The Miz has promised to be forever lurking in the shadows, looking for his chance to cash in Money in the Bank, and steal Sheamus’ title? The title picture is very much in flux as we start down the road to SummerSlam!

And the newly formed tag team of Santino Marella and Vladimir Kozlov likely looks to dominate yet another iteration of William Regal and some other partner, while Alicia Fox searches for a new challenger to the Divas Championship. All this and more, tonight on Raw!

Well, readers, Dixie Carter has fully explained her cryptic comments about the invitations extended to the former members of ECW (original version), and as a result, we return once again to our latest feature,

So, with TNA’s next PPV on the horizon, they’ve decided to do something completely different (yet remarkably similar to something WWE did five years ago) and have a one-shot ECW revival PPV, now officially entitled TNA Hardcore Justice: One Last Stand. Details are currently sketchy, but apparently the show will feature both TNA-contracted talent that is still somehow associated with ECW, as well as some ECW wrestlers that still work on the independent circuit. The tentative main event, at this time, is said to be RVD defending the TNA World title against the ageless Jerry Lynn, and the entire card is apparently being booked by Tommy Dreamer.

All right, so on the positive side, it’s not like Hard Justice had any particular theme attached to it anyway, and with the news that the last TNA PPV had an incredibly low buyrate (and even incredibly low online streaming numbers, too, so people weren’t even bothering to pirate it…which is shocking), there are worse ideas than to try and boost sales with an ECW revival show.

So, here’s the other side. You’d think it’d be pretty obvious by now, but TNA isn’t WWE. What that means is, they have a limited budget, and limited fanbase compared to WWE, and I’m not entirely sure it’s the best idea to take those limitations and try a wacky experimental PPV that has virtually nothing to do with TNA, or expanding TNA’s brand awareness. When WWE ran One Night Stand, they were running 15 (or so, I can’t remember specifically) PPVs a year, and were pretty much guaranteed 150,000 buys at a minimum no matter what they threw out there. TNA’s PPV buys, meanwhile, aspire to the 5 digit range. Can they really afford to throw away a PPV, plus the weeks of Impact leading up to it (by the way, what are the TNA wrestlers who aren’t part of ECW supposed to be spending their time on Impact doing, since most of them won’t have a PPV match until four weeks after Hardcore Justice?), for a show that will likely have no future impact beyond that night, and may not even really provide a huge a huge bump in buys?

And on the third side, ECW, the ECW that is being “revived” for this show, has been dead, R.I.P., for nearly a decade at this point. Not only that, it has been brought back several times in the last nine years, both by independent bookers and by the big dog of WWE, who put substantial money behind not only two ECW One Night Stand PPVs, but also a third televised brand under the ECW name. At this point, all that’s left of the original ECW are the videos shown on 24/7 and a whole lot of old wrestlers, most of whom weren’t exactly spectacular wrestlers when they originally ran with ECW all those years ago. More importantly, those ECW wrestling fans from way back when? Most of them don’t watch wrestling any more. There’s a fraction of a fraction of them left, sure, but wrestling fans have almost entirely changed over to a new younger generation, thanks in part to the deaths of WCW and ECW, the end of Attitude, and the rise of John Cena and WWE PG. Quite frankly, TNA shouldn’t be trying to make their product appeal to ECW fans from ten years ago, most of whom are long gone, but they either don’t or can’t seem to realize that.

But what do I know, I’m just one of those wrestling fans from ten years ago who’s somehow still around.

Some happy news out of the wrestling world this week, as both Bret Hart and Nora “Molly Holly” Greenwald are getting married. Not to each other. Just to clarify.

Anyway, Hart will be entering into his third marriage, and has four kids from his first. Hopefully it goes better this time. I just finished re-reading the Hitman’s autobiography again, and the stories about his marriage are some of the most depressing in the entire book, which is a shame. Hopefully at his age he’s finally ready to settle down and has found someone truly special.

Meanwhile, the former Molly Holly has issued a public statement about her impending nuptials, including a line about being a 32-year-old virgin who doesn’t want to be a 33-year-old virgin. Who knew she had jokes? Also, a WWE Diva who didn’t have sex with at least three different Superstars during her tenure? Truly, she is a legend amongst women wrestlers.

And Brian Danielson made his debut for WWC Puerto Rico this past weekend, and subsequently became the IWA Puerto Rico champion. Maybe he can bring the belt back to WWE and claim to have the “real World title”. But then, I guess AJ Styles and Jay Lethal already have the market cornered on pretending to be Ric Flair.

#1. Randy Orton

Ended up with a dominating victory in a three-way to determine #1 Contender. No quick roll-ups here, just RKO’s for everyone. Toss in his nifty new “hide in shadows” feat, and Orton is riding a streak of awesome.

#2. Tommy Dreamer

Got the main event interview of Impact, which I guess counts for a lot. I do question how much he’s actually pissed at WWE for, you know, employing him for years when they really didn’t need to.

#3. The Miz

Please God (or Vince, whoever’s actually listening right now), don’t turn the Miz into a face. I don’t have the faith that you won’t neuter him completely yet.

#4. Bret Hart

Well, given the reactions of the Nexus, Hart is apparently the secret and most deadly weapon on Cena’s team. The fact that he can’t take any bumps might suggest otherwise, though.

#5. The Big Show

More unmasking for Show, so I guess Dos Caras should be happy that they didn’t let him start out under a hood, what with Show’s penchant for ripping them off these days. Could Rey Mysterio be next?

#6. Rey Mysterio

Not a bad 2/3 Falls match for Mysterio, even if they kind of blew the ending. He’d be higher if I thought this was more than a token rematch which Kane will win pretty handily.

#7. Beer Money Inc.

If it ain’t broke, don’t change the finish, apparently, as Beer Money goes up 2-0 in the Best of Five Series.

#8. Dolph Ziggler

His allegiance to the Cougar seems to finally be paying benefits, but I have to wonder how long that can last. With Teddy Long in firm control of Smackdown, how long will he let Vicki exert her imagined authority?

#9. Dashing Cody
Rhodes

Two victories this week, and I’ve sensed a groundswell of support for Rhodes’ rookie Husky Harris, despite his low ranking up until now. Plus, grooming tips!

#10. John Morrison

Er…well, I needed a tenth and he was really working the jeans and no shirt look on Monday. I’m just saying.

DISCLAIMER: TWNE Power Rankings are compiled using the latest statistical data available from all sources as they relate to wins, losses, draws, storylines, perceived power within the industry, but much like the points in Four Player Co-op, the numbers are entirely made up and don’t matter.

Inactive List as of 07.19.10

WWE Raw

– Ezekiel Jackson, out 6 months as of April 10th (torn quad)
– Melina, out indefinitely as of January 4th (torn ACL)

WWE SmackDown

– Beth Phoenix, out indefinitely as of May 14th (torn ACL)
– The Undertaker, out 2-3 months as of June 1st (broken orbital)

TNA

– No reported injuries

Transactions

– Bret Hart, RAW, returned to television on July 19th Raw

– Austin “Consequences” Creed, signed to a WWE contract

– Joey Mercury, SD!, revealed as the masked SES member, several months after everyone already knew, on July 23rd Smackdown

And yet, if not for the commentary team, I doubt anyone would have any idea who it was. Which is kind of a problem when you’ve been teasing him for so long. You could actually hear the crowd go “Uh…who the hell is that?” when he was unmasked.

WWE

WWE Champion: Sheamus
– 36 day reign, defeated former champion John Cena, Edge, andRandy Orton in a Fatal Four-Way match on June 20th (Fatal 4-Way PPV)
– Next title defense: vs Randy Orton, SummerSlam PPV

World Heavyweight Champion: Kane
– 8 day reign, defeated Rey Mysterio by cashing in Money in the Bank on July 18th (Money in the Bank PPV)
– Next title defense: vs Rey Mysterio, SummerSlam PPV

WWE Intercontinental Champion: Kofi Kingston
– 64 day reign, defeated Drew McIntyre on May 23rd (Over the Limit PPV)

WWE United States Champion: The Miz
– 42 day reign, defeated former champion R-Truth, John Morrison, and Zack Ryder in a Fatal Four-Way match on June 14th (Raw)

WWE Unified Tag Team Champions: The Hart Dynasty
– 91 day reign, defeated ShoMiz on April 26th (Raw)

WWE Women’s Co-Champions*: Layla and Michelle McCool
– 73 day reign, defeated Beth Phoenix in a Handicap Match on May 14th (Smackdown)
* – WWE only recognizes Layla as the Women’s Champion
– Next title defense: vs Tiffany, July 30th Smackdown

WWE Divas Champion: Alicia Fox
– 36 day reign, defeated former champion Eve Torres, Maryse, and Gail Kim in a Fatal Four-Way Match on June 20th (Fatal 4-Way PPV)

TNA

TNA Heavyweight Champion: Rob Van Dam
– 98 day reign, defeated former champion AJ Styles on April 19th (Impact)
– Next title defense: vs Jerry Lynn, TNA Hardcore Justice PPV

TNA Tag Team Champions: Motor City Machine Guns
– 15 day reign, defeated Beer Money Inc on July 11th (Victory Road PPV) to win the vacant titles

TNA X-Division Champion: Douglas Williams
– 71 day reign, defeated Kaz on May 16th (Sacrifice PPV)

**NEW** TNA Knockouts Champion: Madison Rayne
– 4 day reign, title reverted to former champion after appeal of match ruling at Victory Road on July 22nd (Impact)

TNA Knockouts Tag Team Champions: The Beautiful People
– 140 day reign, defeated Taylor Wilde & Sarita and Tara & Angelina Love on March 8th (Impact) to win the vacant titles

**NEW** TNA Global Champion: AJ Styles
– 4 day reign, defeated Rob Terry on July 22nd (Impact)

Larry has The Wrestling 5 & 1.

Harrison has The Bell to Bell News Report.

Hubbard has The Contentious Ten.

Thomas has Wrestling’s 4 R’s.

Martell has The Triple Threat.

Ari has Column of Honor.

Ford has The CHIKARA Special.

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Here it is, your Moment of Buddy’s New Little Sister Bella.