News From Cook’s Corner 06.23.10

Hi, hello and welcome to News From Cook’s Corner! I’m Steve Cook, and it’s been another crazy week in the world of professional wrestling! Lots of stuff going on this week, and I apologize to myself in advance because I know I’ll forget to talk about something and it’ll irritate me later.

Before we get to all of that, I need to address a little something something. You all know Jeff Small, our beloved Tuesday news reporter. He’s usually a good kid, I’ve helped him out over the years and helped make him what he is. But anybody who has a protege knows that sometimes they get a little uppity and want to mess with the big kahuna. It’s only natural, so I don’t really blame him for it. Once upon a time I had to cast my mentors to the side to establish myself. However, as the big kahuna I need to sort this all out and make sure everybody understands their role in the Cook Regime.

So yesterday Jeff got all hot and bothered that longtime foe of the Corner Stephen Randle used a sight gag that he posted in the staff forum. Stephen claims that he saw it at another Internet forum, and I have no reason not to believe him. Let’s face it, here at 411 we often rely on borrowing things from other people. Pictures are a given, as are subject matter and column concepts. Heck, this very zone features a weekend news column concept that was completely ripped off from a column in the movie zone. Everybody seems cool with it, but I point this out to show that creativity and concepts are often shared among the 411 writers.

Whether Stephen actually ripped him off or not, Jeff needs to realize that some of his colleagues are not above resorting to thievery. Me, I wouldn’t do such a thing, but if I get a really good idea that I can’t immediately use or want to save for the right time, I’ll either keep it a secret from everybody except a select few that I use as sounding boards or I’ll announce it in advance in this column so people will be expecting it. Of course, I’m a bit fortunate because my brain pattern is different from pretty much anyone in the universe, so most of my ideas won’t get stolen.

Well, unless Jeff steals them. He knows my game pretty well. He should know that Maryse is mine. I let Teddy borrow her on Mondays because his father is good people. The rest of the week though…mine. I’ll let it slide once. It won’t happen again.

If it does…well, we’ll address that then. I have a feeling it won’t. Jeff knows better than to provoke me again.

Today’s edition of News From Cook’s Corner is brought to you by the Nexus!

I know some of you get annoyed when I enjoy things that I watch on television, but I’m still digging the heck out of this angle. I was really worried for a minute there on Monday when Vince started taking credit for their actions and thought that they might be ruining the whole thing, but then they started beating the crap out of Vince and I loved it. You have to give Vince McMahon credit…he is going to be 65 years old in August and he will still go out there and take an unbelievable butt kicking in order to put somebody over that he thinks deserves it. You know he told the guys to make it good, or else they’d be in trouble. And they made it good.

You think Justin Gabriel had any stress on Monday night? If he misses that 450 Splash by an inch he risks injuring his boss pretty badly. No pressure, right?

There have been a lot of title changes recently. New Japan had two title changes last week, with the most notable one from our perspective being Giant Bernard & Karl “Machine Gun” Anderson winning the IWGP Tag Team Titles. We’ve been a fan of Anderson’s since he was main eventing the Richwood Flea Market here in the NKY as Chad “2 Badd” Allegra…the kid showed more potential back then than anybody else on the card, and it’s great to see him living up to it over in the Land of the Rising Sun while teaming with good ol’ Prince Albert.

WWE featured three title changes on the Fatal 4-Way Pay-Per-View, none of which I predicted in the Roundtable. I feel like those guys on ESPN that I always make fun of because they don’t know what they’re talking about. I maintain that pro wrestling is harder to predict than actual sports because who wins or loses isn’t always based on who’s better, or even who performs better on a given day. Who am I to know what WWE Creative is thinking? Sometimes I haven’t the slightest idea…

For example, Rey Mysterio won the World Title on Sunday. I give Rey credit because he has good matches and people are still convinced that he’s an underdog even though he wins a heck of a lot more often than he doesn’t. So why has he become an unstoppable juggernaut instead of taking some time off to heal his pesky knees? Well, some people seem to think that Jack Swagger’s reign as champion didn’t go well. I can’t imagine why, since he got jobbed out on almost every match he had during his title reign. Who knows why people didn’t take him seriously since he rarely won a match!

I’m a pretty big Swagger fan and thought he did a pretty good job as a champion…given what he was to work with. So if he was a failure, I’d say that has more to do with WWE Creative than with him. Just my opinion.

Sheamus is your new WWE Champion and I approve because I think he’s a pretty good dude. Alicia Fox is your Divas Champ, and if Maryse isn’t going to be the champ I’ll roll with that. I figured she’d be the next top contender anyway, so if they want to skip a step it’s ok with me.

And now, the fake news!

Martha Hart, the widow of Owen, has sued World Wrestling Entertainment, Vince & Linda McMahon on behalf of the Owen James Hart Estate for continuing to use his name and likeness after his death in spite of their agreement not to. WWE does not currently sell merchandise solely featuring Owen, but he was featured on the recent Hart & Soul DVD chronicling the Hart family and matches with him in them are scheduled to be included in an upcoming DVD featuring Raw matches from 1993 & 1994. Bret Hart mentioned him on a promo on Raw and during his WWE Hall of Fame induction speeches for himself and their father, but it wasn’t done in a way to profit off of Owen’s memory.

Having watched the DVD, I can tell you that absolutely nothing negative was said about Owen by anybody in the feature. But that’s not what Ms. Hart & company care about. They feel that Owen’s name should not be associated with the company that helped him along to his demise (accidentally, but I doubt Martha thinks that), and believe that his name and reputation have been harmed by it. Like I said earlier, I haven’t heard anybody in the wrestling business say a negative thing about Owen since his death. Now, Martha might be a different story.

Does anyone else kind of think that Linda was only included because of her Senate campaign? I can’t imagine why Martha would care about that because as far as I know she doesn‘t live in Connecticut, but maybe there’s somebody who does that’s influencing the thought process here. I don’t know, maybe I’m letting my paranoia get to me, but I think there’s something more to this than meets the eye. You know that Linda’s Senate campaign people can’t be pleased with this news…as much as they’ve tried to disassociate her with certain aspects of WWE, now the news that the widow of an employee that died while doing his job is suing her is one of the last things they want to hear.

The bottom line here is that as much as Martha & her children seem adamant that they are anti-wrestling and don’t want their father’s memory connected to it…I can’t see how money isn’t the main factor motivating them here. It’s a shame, but that’s usually what it comes down to. They found out that Owen’s name was on something, and they want their cut. Now, if WWE was dumb enough to make the agreement that Martha claims that they made and break it, they’ll probably lose the suit. This isn’t out of the question because its exactly how they lost the rights to the name “WWF”. Sometimes they get a little cocky. In the lawsuit it claims that the Estate has received no royalties from WWE since 1999…yeah, that’s not a good thing. You might want to run out and get the Hart & Soul DVD before the price goes way up on Ebay.

Of course, I could be wrong…be sure to read JP Prag’s Hamilton Ave. News Journal tomorrow because I’m sure he’ll be talking about this and he’ll know more about what he’s talking about than a guy who didn’t go to law school because it would have gotten in the way of his drinking.

In other Hart-related news, Bret Hart is done with WWE for now. The reason being reported for this is that Lloyd’s of London, Bret’s insurance provider, was concerned with the angle at the end of Raw two weeks ago where Bret got physical with the NXT Rookies. First Daniel Bryan and now Bret Hart…is Vince McMahon going to leave WWE next? Bret is getting married in July, so one presumes he’ll take some time off with the new wife, enjoy life, and hopefully he’ll be back when things are less turbulent.

Meanwhile on Raw…a computer took his job, daddy.

(Bonus Corner Points to people understanding that reference. It’s a pretty easy one.)

Speaking of that computer, 411 told me that he opened a Twitter account, but when I clicked on it, it was suspended. So Twitter will let everybody else in the free world tweet and twat whatever the heck they want but not the Raw GM? Child please.

The profiles of the Nexus have been added to the Raw section of WWE’s website, so one can assume that’s where they’ll be making their home. The one thing that’s kind of bugged me about the Nexus angle is that they haven’t taken the opportunity to wreak havoc on Smackdown or even NXT yet. One would think that it’d be natural for them to wreck the show they started on, and there’s probably plenty of people on Smackdown that they don’t like. If I was a WWE Superstar on Raw, I’d be e-mailing the mysterious General Manager and asking if he could trade me to Smackdown so I wouldn’t have to deal with these crazy new guys.

Of course, if the Nexus ends up wrangling the Tag Team titles from the Hart Dynasty, they’ll have access to Smackdown that way. So maybe there’s just no escaping them. Though it should be noted that many feel that Triple H will be involved in saving WWE from the Nexus. If he beats them down 1 on 7 I will officially throw in the towel on the storyline.

There were a lot of interesting characters at Raw this week. Besides the woman that gave Maryse a run for her money in the competition of “Hottest Chick in the Building”, Ox Baker & John Cena Sr. were also in attendance.

In case you missed it, the mystery General Manager sent an e-mail to WWE.com after Raw stating “These actions will be met with appropriate consequences”. Considering he was the one who gave the Nexus contracts, it’ll be interesting to see if this individual is in cahoots with them, or if they only gave the contracts because Mr. McMahon told them it’d be a good idea. Personally, I’d love to see a computer be the General Manager of Raw for a few months and not have the identity of the person behind it revealed. We’ve seen enough heel authority figures to last a lifetime…maybe a random guy using a computer would put a new spin to it and make it interesting.

There’s been a lot of talk about Chris Jericho’s contract status because he’s hosting a game show now. Since he’s making the media rounds, we can report on what he’s saying about it…AOL Fanhouse asked him about his contract status and here’s what he had to say:

“Yeah, it’s coming up fairly soon, it’s coming up very soon. It’s one of those things we’ve been talking about for a while to get it rolling again. Like I said, to me, I’ll leave the business when I’m ready to and I’m not ready yet. I still want to continue to work. I still have some things that I can offer. I still think I’m among the best in what I do, if not the best just because of the fact I have 20 years of experience which is a rare thing nowadays. You can’t teach experience. You can teach someone to do a promo kind of, you can teach someone to do a move but you can’t teach someone experience.”

I think this is part of why it is awesome that they have him working with Evan Bourne. Jericho needs to be teaching the young guys how to be awesome, and with the tools that Bourne already possesses, working with Jericho can only make him that much better…and when he’s better, look the hell out. As great as Jericho is, I think WWE needs to have him working with the young guys so they can rub off on his greatness.

The Director of PETA sent a letter to Vince McMahon asking that he re-hire Bryan Danielson. You know, I haven’t been a fan of some of PETA’s past activities, but this is something I can get behind one hundred percent. It’s about time these folks attacked the important issues! I mean, I’m still going to eat more meat than they can ever imagine, but they can know that they have my support on this one. Fight the good fight, fellas!

Dusty Rhodes will be appearing at various FCW events in the month of July. Here is a listing of when & where he’ll be appearing:

July 2nd–Melbourne Auditorium in Melbourne, FL @8pm
July 9th–Osceola Heritage Park Exhibition Hall in Kissimmee, FL @8pm with Cody Rhodes and Goldust
July 10th–Volusia County Fairgrounds in Deland, FL @8pm with Goldust
July 16th—Highlands County Fairgrounds Convention Center, Sebring, Fl @8pm
July 30th–Charlotte Harbor Event and Conference Center in Punta Gorda, FL @8pm

The most notable of these appearances is July 9th in Kissimmee, as Dusty will be in a 6-man tag team match with Goldust & Cody Rhodes. Yeah, Dusty’s old, but there’s no way that can’t be entertaining, and it really doesn’t matter who the Rhodes family faces. I’m sure it’ll be one of Dusty’s favorite nights ever…and that’s saying something. If you happen to live in the area I strongly suggest you check that out. The other appearances on the tour are autograph sessions, July 9th is the only in-ring appearance of the Dream that has been made public.

WWE will be partnering with YouTube and making Smackdown, NXT, Superstars & ECW available to the viewing public. Not sure why ECW was mentioned, but I’m just the news reporter. This is a pretty good idea that should have happened a long time ago, but I hope it doesn’t lead to me not being able to watch Smackdown on YouTube before it airs in the US. That would put a crimp in my recapping schedule. Putting all of that aside, it’s better to work with YouTube than against it, so WWE did the right thing here.

There is a Chris Jericho DVD coming out, but the list of matches that’s been making the rounds on the Internet is wrong. I’m still ridiculously excited for the prospect of a Jericho DVD, and it’s been reported that a Bobby Heenan DVD will be coming out right around Christmas. If I don’t get a Bobby Heenan DVD for Christmas it will be the worst Christmas ever. Maybe I’ll just steal Dunn’s copy, I’m sure he won’t mind.

Are you ready for four hours of TNA Wrestling every Thursday night on Spike TV? TNA hopes you are, because very soon your Thursday Night Spike TV schedule will consist of the following:

8:00 – TNA Xplosion
9:00 – TNA Impact
11:00 – TNA Reaction

Four hours of TNA every Thursday night! You know, I used to watch hours upon hours of wrestling every Saturday morning, but that’s back when there were different promotions and different things going on. Four hours of the same promotion and the same people…I dunno. It speaks well for TNA & Spike’s relationship, but don’t they know that there are more days in the week?

I’m just saying maybe they’d be better off putting a show on Saturday.

TNA sent agent D-Lo Brown to AAA’s recent TripleMania event in Mexico to look for high-flyers who could speak English. Brown saw the crowd and their reactions, then talked with AAA about coming in to wrestle. Abyss, who worked the show, also said he’d like to work more dates there. Doesn’t that tell you something about how things are going in TNA these days?

Remember Batista? Sure you do. The latest news coming from the man who walks for miles in this pit of danger is that he’s training in MMA and really wants to get into it. There were early reports that Strike Force, the TNA of mixed martial-arts, was interested, but they claim they are not at this time…though they have had talks and may be interested later. Batista does have an offer on the table from a “non-big name MMA group”, and says that he also wants to get into acting.

I joked about this when I first heard about it, but I think that Strike Force could actually get a pretty good rating on CBS if they booked Batista against Herschel Walker and marketed it right. An ex-pro wrestler against an ex-football player, both in their 40s, there wouldn’t be a huge discrepancy in fighting experience since Herschel only has one fight to his credit…now, Dave would have a size advantage on Herschel, but nothing insurmountable. I think this is a great idea.

I’d also like to see Batista booked against Ken Shamrock, Bobby Lashley, Giant Silva, Akebono, Sylvester Terkay, Sean O’Haire, and any other former pro wrestlers that have taken part in MMA. I didn’t mention Brock Lesnar because he’s the UFC heavyweight champ and there ain’t no way that Dana White’s bumping Batista to the top of the list of contenders.

Do I think Batista should be doing MMA? Probably not, but I’m not his father. Dude can do whatever he pleases, and if there’s money to be made, go for it. Booker T seems to disagree…he says that Batista wouldn’t last five minutes against Bobby Lashley. I can’t say I disagree, but Dave would have to work his way up the ranks before facing Lashley. Booker did beat Batista up backstage, so he knows more about the man than I would.

Brock Lesnar had the following to say when asked about Batista:

“Get in line, everybody and their dog wants to get into fighting. Next question. We’re talking about a heavyweight championship fight, not some wannabe.”

That’s part of why Brock is one of my favorite people ever.

Sad news in the world of indy wrestling this week, as Trent Acid died on Friday at the age of twenty-nine. Acid was one of the top American junior heavyweight stars in the early 2000s, turning heads with his impressive performances all across the Northeast indepentent scene and Japan. He was also part of a very popular and well-regarded tag team called the Backseat Boys alongside Johnny Kashmere. Many say that the indies were at their peak in that timeframe, and guys like Acid & Kashmere had a lot to do with that. He was considered one of the top young prospects in the early 2000s and could very well have made it in a national wrestling promotion had he continued to improve his game, but life got in the way and Acid’s career never quite lived up to the potential he showed early on due to various factors that keep many other young wrestlers from flourishing like they should.

I’ve been told that Acid was in the process of cleaning himself up and was on the verge of re-launching his career as a singles wrestler. Sadly, in too many of these wrestling tales that’s when the story comes to a finish.

Our friends at Lucha Libre USA had another taping for their MTV 2 show in Massachusetts last weekend. I’m not sure if that was the wisest of ideas because WWE was in the Northeast doing an MSG show, a PPV & a Raw, but hopefully it turned out all right for them. I can tell you that AWESOME KONG was competing there, so that should be pretty glorious. And I’m sure there will be other reasons you should tune in, but I’m not sure I can tell you at this date.

In other lucha news, Dr. Wagner Jr. will be on the cover of AAA’s new video game. He defeated a fake Silver King, La Parka Jr. & El Elgido at the E3 convention to earn the honor. I hear that he cut a promo the day before that was completely tremendous, and I believe it because Wagner has an awesome voice that makes you listen to him even if you have no idea what he’s saying. That is part of why I love Dr. Wagner Jr..

Here is where you can see Bryan Danielson on his return to the independent wrestling scene before he comes back to WWE and chokes everybody with a tie!

6/26- Chikara: Taylor, MI (vs. Eddie Kingston)
6/27- Chikara: Cleveland, OH (vs. Tim Donst)
6/27- AIW: Cleveland, OH (vs. Facade or Tommy Mercer or Sterling James Keenan or Johnny Gargano depending on the result of a 4-way earlier in the evening)
7/3- WXW: Oberhausen, Germany (vs. Wade Fitzgerald, vs. TJP)
7/4- Ambition: Oberhausen, Germany
7/23- EVOLVE: Union City, NJ
7/24- DGUSA: Philadelphia, PA (vs. Shingo)
7/30- PWG: Reseda, CA
8/7- NWA: Charlotte, NC (vs. Adam Pearce)
8/8- NWA: Charlotte, NC

You’ll notice one notable exception to Danielson’s indy return so far…Ring of Honor. Does his non-compete clause keep him from going back there for a period of time? Not sure, but it’s raised a few eyebrows among some people I talk with. He did tweet that he was going to watch ROH’s Internet PPV, so he obviously hasn’t forgotten about them. Stay tuned…

The AIW show on June 27 will also feature Tyler Black vs. Chuck Taylor in a first time meeting of two of my favorite guys on the independent circuit. So it should definitely be worth your time if you’re in the Cleveland area.

I recapped Raw and thought it was a really good show. Byers didn’t like it as much as I did. I think it’s a good thing when 411 can present varying takes like we have for this show, because just hearing what one person has to say is sooooooooo 1984.

Speaking of Byers, he reviewed some DDT for his Into the Indies column. I’ve dug the very limited DDT I’ve seen on the Internet…they have a sense of humor and I like that sort of thing out of a wrestling promotion.

Eubanks used to bug me because I went through a phase where I didn’t watch Smackdown much, and now he has no idea that Undertaker is in a vegetative state. VINTAGE EUBANKS~!

Hubbard rates the top ten Wrestling Fathers. I’ll be honest…I agree with the folks that think he rated Fritz Von Erich too high. I mean, we saw what happened to his kids.

Ford mentions the lovely vuvuzela in his title, so he gets a plug.

Well, that’s all we have time for this week! The humble JP Prag is in tomorrow, and I’ll be back next week with more News From Cook’s Corner. Until then…