The Bell To Bell News Report 06.02.11

Welcome in wrestling fans, to this, my return edition of the Bell to Bell News Report. Before we get things started, I wanted to take a second to thank Michael Ornelas and Nick Bazar for stepping in last week with their first-ever BFF News deal to replace me as I spent most of last Wednesday in Los Angeles to pick my parents up at the airport. There was no way for me to be able to get a column in on time and I want to make sure they know how much I appreciate them jumping into the slot before moving into their usual slot on the day before the Bell to Bell. Thanks for the assist guys and good luck with the new column!

With that being said, my folks are still visiting, so this week’s Bell to Bell will likely be a little bit shorter than most weeks as after not having seen them for the past four years, I’m squeezing every second I can out of them being here with me. I love wrestling and I love all of you and the support you’ve given me in my time here, but sometimes “real life” has to trump my work here and this is definitely one of those times where I have to give precedence to spending a little less time banging away at the keyboard.

There’s plenty of news to get to this week including my late thoughts on the death of Randy Savage, Chris Jericho’s new book, Chyna’s new porno (shudder), a new signing in the WWE and a huge Ring of Honor main event announcement, but before I start in on all of that, I need to address a huge event that happened this past week.

Fifteen years ago, I was sixteen years old and standing in the upper deck of the old Winnipeg Arena as the seconds ticked down on game six of the first-round series between my beloved Jets and my equally beloved Detroit Red Wings. When the game ended, so did the Jets time in Winnipeg as they moved to Phoenix the following season, taking a little piece of my youth with them when they left. In the time after, I followed my Red Wings (my team since the late-80’s) religiously, while only giving passing attention to the team that replaced the Jets, the AHL’s Manitoba Moose. I won’t go so far as to say that I cried when the Jets left town, but it definitely affected me and changed my perception of what sports were and how much they could hurt you if you let them.

This past week though, all of those feelings were finally put to bed for good when True North Sports and Entertainment announced that they have purchased the Atlanta Thrashers and will move them to Winnipeg to play out of the spectacular MTS Centre for next season. It was a day that many thought would never come, but I have to admit that I always hoped, deep deep down, that the NHL would come back to the city I was born and raised in again someday. With TNSE Chairman Mark Chipman and his business partner David Thomson (the richest man in Canada at $23 billion) at the helm and plans for an entire downtown revitilization on the horizion, I am incredibly excited for the future of my former hometown and for years and years of cheering on a team in Winnipeg, no matter what they end up being called. So far, the team has sold 1,870 of the 13,000 season tickets that they have set as a goal for the first season with tickets only being available to a select number of Moose season ticket holders before being opened to the general public on Saturday, which is a very good sign.

If there’s anyone that’s reading this and is in the city, please do what you can to help support the new team and get out there and buy up all those season tickets as quickly as possible at DriveTo13.com so that we can prove that the NHL belongs in Winnipeg and never should have left in the first place. I can’t wait until the NHL Draft at the end of the month for the first official function featuring the new Winnipeg team and for the release of the new NHL schedule on July 1st, two of what will surely be many milestone dates in the first season of NHL hockey since 1996. Congratulations to TNSE and to the city of Winnipeg and the let the countdown to the first puck drop begin!

Alright, editorializing time is over, so let’s ring the bell and get to some rasslin’!

You know the drill…

Ding Ding….

— Coming hot on the heels of the signing of Mistico, who has jumped onto the Raw roster as Sin Cara, the WWE has announced that they have signed another top lucha star in Averno. Averno has been one of the top heels in Mexico for the past few years and even took part in an extended feud with Mistico for the CMLL promotion, a fact that likely helped lead to his signing. Since making his debut, Sin Cara has had some problems adapting to the WWE’s style in the ring including his botch-tastic match with Chavo Guerrero Jr. at Over The Limit that showed him to almost be out of his league. Averno had been linked to the WWE and there had been rumors of him signing with the company since Sin Cara put his name on the dotted line, but the WWE did not act until they actually asked Sin Cara who he would like to work with to try to help smooth his adjustment into the company.

Perhaps even more interesting than the signing is the fact that Averno is currently under a mask in Mexico, but the WWE is planning on bringing him in as an unmasked heel. This has led to some interesting political jockeying in CMLL as Averno has not told CMLL that he is leaving and is instead pressuring them to allow him to lose his mask, saying that if they do not do so, he would lose it on an independent show. Not only would this be a slap in the face to the CMLL promotion, but it would also depriving CMLL of a potential blow-off and the ability to use the mask to give a rising superstar a rub on his way up the card. As of now, the plan is for Averno to lose his mask against La Mascara on June 17th, but with how messed up things seem to be for CMLL at the moment in terms of their backstage structure and political landscape, it’s looking like anything could be possible.

Hopefully this works out for Sin Cara and can help ease his problems because so far he hasn’t been able to show a lot of the talents that he had shown in Mexico that had fans drooling. I had really high hopes for Sin Cara based on some of those great matches and highlights and I’m hoping that by bringing in someone that he has a great history with and a great deal of trust in, he’ll be able to get over his bugaboos and finally live up to the potential that WWE saw in him when they signed him to the huge contract and gave him the huge push right out of the gate. With the WWE’s plans to air Raw and Smackdown shows from Mexico City in October, it’s probably safe to assume that Averno will debut prior to those tapings to kick off his feud with Sin Cara so that they can feature that match heavily during the Raw side of the tour.

— Since I didn’t get the chance to be able to do it last week, I just wanted to quickly touch on my thoughts on the recent passing of one of my all-time favorite wrestlers “Macho Man” Randy Savage. I didn’t get the chance to see much of his stuff from the Memphis area until about 1996 or so, but he was a trailblazer in that area with both his promos and his in-ring work. Savage was one of the first true high-flying wrestlers that was able to make that style work in the US and he translated that into an opportunity with the ever-expanding WWF. Savage was already an iconic figure in wrestling circles when he jumped to New York and I immediately fell in love with his blend of athleticism and charisma when he made his debut in the WWF. When he added Elizabeth, it brought him to a brand new level and you could see that a superstar was being born. I can honestly say that watching him winning the WWF Championship at WrestleMania IV is one of my favorite moments as a young wrestling fan and still one of my favorite wrestling moments ever. I still can’t believe that Savage is no longer with us, especially when he was still being left out of the discussions for the WWE Hall of Fame for some unknown reason. Savage was a pioneer, an innovator and a true legend of the sport and while it will be unfortunate that he will not be able to be there to accept the honor, I hope that the next time I am discussing Savage in this column is when he is announced as the next inductee in the WWE Hall of Fame sometime next January or February. I hope he dropped the big elbow on the jabroni St. Peter if he gave him any shit at the pearly gates and that he is forever remembered as one of the best in the history of the sport. RIP Macho, you will be missed always.

— Following in the footsteps of his first two critically acclaimed and incredibly entertaining books, former WWE superstar Chris Jericho has announced via his Twitter account that he will be releasing his third book in 2013. According to Jericho, the contract has been signed and the book, which will pick up Jericho’s career where the second book left off, will be released via Penguin Publishing. Jericho’s second book just came out earlier this year and was a fantastic read, probably better than his first book, which is really saying something. While the first book covered a longer length of time and focused more heavily on wrestling, the second went a bit more in-depth on Jericho’s life outside of the ring and even into some personal and heartfelt stories from his past regarding both his mother and his father. Given that the timeframe fell during his sabbatical from the WWE and a third book will pick up just after his return, the third book will likely be fairly heavy on wrestling again, but I hope that Jericho doesn’t leave behind the personal touch either as that was one of the best things about his most recent book in my eyes. There’s a ton of tremendous stuff to cover including the HBK feud and what could easily be considered the best run of his career, so it should be full of thoughts and insights that could make it even better. Congratulations to Jericho on the third book and I can’t wait to see this one come out.

— The Wolves are set to collide with gold on the line in as current Ring of Honor Champion Eddie Edwards will be defending the belt against fellow teammate Davey Richards in the main event of the June 26th Best in the World i-PPV. Taking place at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City, the show will be the culmination of a great build to the Wolves facing off for the belt and given how Ring of Honor seems to bring it every time they appear in the Big Apple, it looks as though all the ingredients are there for a mat classic. The biggest challenge facing Edwards and Richards is going to be being able to live up to what are likely to be some pretty lofty expectations and I hope that they don’t forsake telling a good story for the trappings of a million false finishes at the end of the match. That has long been one of my pet peeves with ROH and I could easily see it happening here with how well Richards and Edwards will know each other in kayfabe terms, but I hope that they avoid it because this match will feel epic enough without all of the extra bells and whistles. Anyone looking to check out the show can head over to Go Fight Live’s website to place their order.

— Last week, there were reports that TNA officials were unhappy with the amount of spoilers that were being released from their TV tapings at Universal Studios in Orlando and this past week, it looks as though they’re sticking to their guns. At the tapings that took place earlier this week, a reporter from a website that was posting spoilers for the show as it happened was shown the site he had posted the spoilers on with a mobile phone and escorted off of the Universal lot by an Orlando police officer. Of course, that didn’t stop the spoilers for the show from being readily available the next day, but it looks as though TNA is trying to stem the tide. There is still some dialogue between the website in question and TNA’s Director of Public Relations Steven Godfrey, but I have to say that while I get what TNA’s trying to do, they may have gone a little overboard. If it wasn’t this guy posting them, it would have been someone else (and was someone else in this instance) and if TNA really thinks that spoilers are the only thing that is holding back their ratings, they’re more delusional than previously thought. Spoilers are unfortunately an inevitable thing in any form of entertainment these days and while it’s in TNA’s best interests to try to manage them, strong-arm tactics like this don’t seem like the best way to do it.

— After debuting in the WWE in much the same way that she did in TNA, Kharma, the artist formerly known as Awesome Kong, took a bit of a crazy turn on last week’s Raw when she broke down in tears in the middle of the ring after a beatdown, setting off wild speculation and questions about what the WWE was trying to accomplish with the character. This week though, the news came out that she is actually pregnant and will be leaving the WWE for the next year or so. Part of the deal was having Kharma come out on Raw and “humanize” a bit by giving her back story before making the announcement with the Bella Twins becoming the new LayCool by coming out and making fun of her for the pregnancy and her upcoming layoff. Essentially, they’ve done the best with what surely had to be a curveball and when Kharma returns, she’ll likely be returning as a babyface to take out the Bellas. While it’s a shame that they had to do such a hasty turn after spending a lot of time building Kharma with the great videos and attacks, congratulations are definitely in order for her on her pregnancy and here’s to hoping to a healthy bundle of joy for her and a successful return around this time next year.

— In my last column, I spoke about how happy I was that the WWE was beginning to look at bringing managers back into the fold and used the pairing of Tyson Kidd and Michael Hayes as one of the examples as they had been together on Superstars the week prior. It now looks as though Kidd will be working with the man formerly known as Armando Alejandro Estrada, who made his return to the WWE recently after being MIA since the end of his stint as ECW General Manager in late-2008. Estrada worked a little bit during his time away and was great in his role as ECW GM, but is most likely remembered for being Umaga’s manager during his most prolific run in the promotion including during the WrestleMania 23 bout against Bobby Lashley that saw Vince McMahon and Donald Trump involved in their Battle of the Billionaires. I was a big fan of Estrada during his time in the WWE and ECW and was excited to see him back so I hope that he’s able to stick with Kidd a little bit longer than Hayes was. Many brought up a valid point in that Hayes was so much bigger than Kidd, it almost became distracting, while Estrada and Kidd are built similarly, so maybe we could see more out of this pair in the future. Kidd definitely needs a mouthpiece at this point and Estrada was great at it with Umaga, so it will be interesting to see if he can do it without the accent and character that made him famous, while still getting himself and Kidd over.

— TNA’s Destination X pay-per-view on July 10th in Orlando will feature a one-night only return of the six-sided ring, which was one of the staples of TNA from 2004 until it was done away with by Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff when they joined the company in January of last year. One of the big selling points of the six-sided ring was that it gave TNA’s smaller X-Division stars more corners and more space to pull off their high-flying moves, so it makes a lot of sense that they would bring the gimmick back for a pay-per-view that is supposed to feature the X-Division. There’s no word on what kind of matches will take place at the show, but if there’s any type of deity in this world, we’ll get at least one Six Sides of Steel match, as that was the most bad-ass cage this side of the original Hell in a Cell. I wasn’t always a fan of the six-sided ring, but I have to admit that it will be fun for at least one night. My one concern is that it could be too big of a deal for guys who have worked in a four-sided ring for such a long time to feel comfortable in the six-sided ring again. Let’s hope that that isn’t the case as that could be a recipe for disaster for the show.

–Finally this week, Vivid Entertainment has released still photos and a video trailer for a new adult film called “Backdoor to Chyna” featuring former WWE and TNA star Chyna in her return to the porn industry after her two best-selling DVD’s with former boyfriend Sean “X-Pac” Waltman. While that was more of a home movie, this is apparently an actual filmed release with Chyna appearing in multiple scenes with multiple performers including a scene that supposedly gives the title its name with Chyna accepting visitors in the…..uh…….service entrance…so to speak. I have to say that I’ve never seen either of the DVD’s that she was in previously and never really had any desire to do so and that feeling pretty much carries over here. She’s just a bit too mannish for my tastes and I don’t think that even the best editing team in the world would be able to make that feeling go away, so this one will be a pass for me. I have no idea when it’s supposed to be released or if it’s already released, but surely there will be copies of it floating around on the internet before we know it, which is just further proof that there is no God.

Well, that’s it for me for this week folks. Check back in next week for an update on the new NHL team in Winnipeg and their Drive to 13,000, all of the news in the world of wrestling and lots more. Check out DeMarco’s 5 & 1 this weekend and in the mean time and in between time, I’ll see you all back here next time for another brand-new edition of the Bell to Bell!

If you’re a fan of MMA, be sure to check out Nokaut.com for more of my work.