The Bell To Bell News Report 08.25.11

Hello wrestling fans and welcome to this week’s edition of the Bell to Bell News Report. There’s plenty to get to this week including more Hardy brothers drama for TNA, an announcer leaving the WWE, Dragon Gate USA announcing the card for their next iPPV show, results from PWG’s Battle of Los Angeles 2011 and more, so we’ll dive right in momentarily.

Before we do though, I’m going to talk about my beloved Blue Bombers, who sit atop the CFL with a 6-1 record as we close on the halfway point of the season. This week, the Bombers return home after their bye week to face off against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in front of an overflow crowd of over 30,000 proud Bomber fans. That’s right, the team is doing so well that they’ve expanded the stadium by an additional 500-1000 seats for the next few games as they are already sold out with fans clamoring for more chances to see the boys in blue and gold. After scoring a big win heading into the bye week by smoking the BC Lions (pot references FTL), it’s going to be crucial for the Bombers to come back sharp from their time off and make a statement that they are for real against a Hamilton team that may not be the most talent-laden but still poses a significant threat. They also need to not be looking ahead to September 4th when they meet Saskatchewan in the annual Labor Day Classic in Regina, because as important as that game is, it has no bearing on what happens on the field in Winnipeg on Friday night.

Alright, with the football talk out of the way except for my Patriots crushing it so far in the pre-season and little to speak of regarding Jets news as training camps are still roughly a month away, let’s dip our toes into the pool of news from the past seven days in the squared circle, shall we?

You know the drill…

Ding Ding….

— The biggest story of the week came from one of the infamous Hardy brothers as this time Matt Hardy was involved in a brush with the law and lost his job with TNA. The story began late last week when Hardy was involved in a single-car accident that saw him wrap his Corvette around a tree after running off of the road near his home. A North Carolina state trooper happened upon the scene of the incident and after issuing a field sobriety test, Hardy was arrested and charged with driving while intoxicated and exceeding a safe speed limit. Hardy was booked and released roughly three hours after the crash took place and he is scheduled to be in court on September 28th to face those charges. Hardy also has an October 11th court date for a separate incident where he was charged with reckless driving, so it should be an interesting couple of weeks for the North Carolina legal system considering how Jeff’s lawyer has been able to keep the court case against him jumping through hoops for the better part of two years now.

Of course, nearly as soon as Hardy was released from custody, he was back on the internet and on the offensive, posting the following paragraph on his blog before making the second posting on his Twitter account…

“When the side windows glass smashed into my face, arms, & neck, some of the blood that did felt almost angelic. I went from being afraid to? die to feeling like I was almost being reborn with some sort of an ABSOLUTE PURE LIFE-FORCE. It was the most amazing thing I’ve every experience, I felt like I’d just received the blood of an angel flowing inside me-I know this sounds crazy! Due to these, I only have urges to help people. And miraculously, all my vices are gone.

Amen Friends,

MATTHEW”

I took a? breathalyzer immediately on the spot and it read clean, zero, nothing. Think about peeps! There’s more to this story than meets the eye. MATTHEW

No shit, your breathalyzer test came back with a zero, you rocket scientist. The entire point of a breathalyzer is that it is to test if a person has been consuming alcohol. If you haven’t had anything to drink, but are pilled out of your goddamned mind, the breathalyzer will still show up as all zeros, but you will definitely 1000% be charged with driving under the influence or driving while intoxicated. There’s nothing more to the story other than that you’re an idiot that doesn’t understand how a breathalyzer works, no matter how you want to spin that fairy tale. As for his post about the accident being some kind of saving grace and having all of his vices healed magically when his car slammed into the tree, all I have to ask is if this looks like a guy that has had all of his vices cured?

Nope, I didn’t think so. An entity? A fucking entity? Really? Someone call Zak and the rest of the Ghost Adventures crew because they’re sure to have a blockbuster on their hands with this one. An entity that makes someone drive their car into a tree and throws chairs around their houses? I liked that better the first time I saw it when it was called Paranormal Activity. I can bet dollars to donuts that the “entity” in question was probably just Matt trashing his house after going on some huge bender and then waking up and thinking “Oh shit, there must be a ghostie in my house since I sure as hell don’t remember doing any of this.”. That’s not even getting into how horrible that house probably looked before the “entity” decided to start re-arranging the furniture. A lot of those piles of crap and mail and whatnot looked like they were there long before the “haunting” started.

While posting on her Formspring account, Hardy’s girlfriend, Reby Sky, has posted numerous times about the incident, hinting and nudging to the fact that she’s almost done with all of the drama that surrounds her man, no matter how much she cares about him. When someone accused her of being the reason he was arrested, she replied “The only reason he’s still alive is because of me.”. After she was asked about how she felt about the situation, she responded “Hurt/exasperated/exhausted/furious/tired of being lied to/tired of enablers. Just tired”. Add in a throwaway response to a question about vampires that saw her say that “she’d like to be a drain on someone else for a change” and it’s looking like Hardy is beginning to push the people he cares about the most away with his self-destructive behavior.

As if all of that weren’t enough, Hardy was taken to the emergency room on Wednesday afternoon after apparentely falling in his home. According to a report from TMZ, Hardy had not been feeling well, but there is no way to determine the cause as to why he fell or how far he fell. He is expected to be released tomorrow so it doesn’t appear to be incredibly serious, but it’s still more than likely either tied to an injury suffered in the accident or tied to whatever it was that caused him to have the accident. I don’t wish ill on anyone and hope that Hardy gets whatever help he needs to sort out his personal problems and that he gets his life back on track before it’s too late, but I’m getting more and more tired of reporting on the antics of these two as the weeks go on. Expect to see more updates on the situation in next week’s Bell to Bell, but I hope that it will be the last for a while as I’m tired of hearing about whatever stupid thing that one of the Hardys has done in whatever week and I’m sure that most of you are as well.

— While brother Matt is on his way out the door, former WWE and TNA Champion Jeff Hardy is set to make his return to Impact Wrestling at the upcoming TV tapings in Huntsville, AL. Hardy tweeted about being ready to get back to work at the tapings earlier in the week and with a new DVD set from TNA on his career set for a Fall release, it was expected that Hardy would be returning soon. “The Charismatic Enigma” has not been seen in a TNA ring since March 13th at the Victory Road pay-per-view when he put on a disgraceful performance in a TNA World Heavyweight Championship bout against Sting. Hardy entered the ring clearly in no condition to wrestle for whatever reason and the match ended in less than ninety seconds with Sting essentially holding Hardy down for the pin before exiting the ring visibly angry. There’s no word on what he’ll be doing when he comes back, but if TNA has any brains it will be an upper-midcard slot that will allow Hardy to be easily replaced if there are any problems.

He’s proven himself to be unreliable on multiple occasions and putting him in a main event slot is a very dangerous proposition should Hardy get back into trouble in the future. If he can keep his act together over the long-term, THEN he can get bumped back into the title picture, but TNA needs to protect themselves against another slip-up and they can do that by putting him in a high-profile feud that doesn’t involve the title. He still gets to shill his DVD and sell merch, but it won’t require TNA to re-write massive portions of a title feud or scrap it altogether if he goes on another bender. It will certainly be interesting to see which Jeff Hardy shows up in Huntsville and how the fans respond to his return with the show taping outside of the comforts of the Impact Zone. Also, my personal over-under on this run in TNA is somewhere around four months or so before he does something stupid and ends up back off TV. I’d love for him to prove me wrong as it would mean that maybe he’s finally got his life together, but I’ve been burned by the Hardys and their bullshit too many times to believe it until Jeff actually backs it up.

— Tuesday night’s appearance on NXT will be the last WWE appearance for announcer Todd Grisham as he will be leaving the company and heading to a new job with ESPN. Grisham, who has done play-by-play and studio hosting duties for various other smaller sports channels while working for the WWE, follows in the footsteps of another former WWE announcer, Jonathan Coachman, who is now an anchor for ESPNews and ESPN’s flagship show, SportsCenter. Grisham joined the WWE in 2004 and was the voice of Heat for four years while hosting other WWE shows like Byte This and the WWE Experience before moving on to be the play-by-play man for ECW, Smackdown and NXT at various points during the past three years. While I would never call myself a total fan of Grisham’s work (he always seemed a little dry for my tastes), he was always professional and delivered solid performances behind the mic, no matter which show he was on. In fact, I would say that he was putting on some of his best work when he was working with Jim Ross on Smackdown so it looks like ESPN may be getting him just as he’s hitting his peak. As of this writing there was no word on where Grisham would fit in over at ESPN, but they usually tend to bring in their new talent on ESPNews, so don’t be surprised if you see him pop up there sometime soon. Congratulations to Grisham for the opportunity to join the biggest sports news entity in the world and good luck to him in the future.

— The Wrestling Revolution Project, a new 13-episode seasonal wrestling program helmed by former WCW executive Jeff Katz, has announced the first two members of their roster for the show, which begins production in October. Given the ground-breaking storyline structure the show plans to use in which each season will feature full storyline arcs akin to comic books or graphic novels, it should be no surprise that their first member of the roster was announced as Colt “Boom Boom” Cabana. Cabana has been involved in numerous attempts to freshen up the wrestling business including his tremendous Art of Wrestling podcasts so he seems like a natural fit for the new show. The second talent announcement was a bit more interesting as former FMW and Canadian indpendent star Dr. Luther was introduced as the next man who will take part in the project. Luther may not be a well-known name to a lot of wrestling fans these days, but he has had a very successful career in Japan and across Canada with the psychotic Dr. Luther character and is widely regarded as one of the smarter performers in the business.

I actually grew up watching Luther as part of the WFWA and IWA shows back in Winnipeg and during that time period he was doing an off-shoot Silence of the Lambs style gimmick that saw him wheeled out to the ring on a dolley with a mask over his mouth a la Hannibal Lecter. The result was terrifying to a younger wrestling fan like myself and he was one of the few characters on the show that I actually hated because he seemed so damned evil. Chris Jericho congratulated Luther on his Twitter account and spoke of Luther being incredibly underrated in the wrestling world and I would agree with this assessment. Sure, he may not be doing triple-flip hurracanranas and putting on five-star classics, but he was a great brawler the last time I saw him and he has psychology like nobody’s business, which should be great for a show that appears to be as storyline-driven as this one looks like it will be. Production on the show is set to begin in October with the show airing on e-platforms like Netflix and Hulu before being released as a DVD set in North America.

— Continuing on with the wrestling/television theme that we appear to be having in the middle of the column, NBC has announced that they will be putting together a “put pilot” for a wrestling drama program executive produced by The Rock. The show, which has yet to be cast, will be written by Brent Fletcher, best known for Friday Night Lights and Angel, and Seamus Kevin Fahey, who has written shows like Spartacus and Battlestar Gallactica. The Bruckheimer TV led show will focus on the dying territory system of wrestling in the 1980’s and the inevitable collapse of that system under the crushing weight of one ruling wrestling company. If any of that sounds familiar, it’s because the show could virtually be called “How Hulk Hogan And The WWF Killed The Territories”. Given how much I enjoy the shoot interviews from old stars talking about the territory days and how much drama came from Bret Hart relaying the stories of his father Stu’s struggles during the waning days of Stampede Wrestling, this is an intriguing subject for a TV show and one that I hope is able to get off the ground.

There is plenty of material to be mined from that kind of situation where one big corporation comes through and destroys family businesses that have taken years or sometimes decades to build and if Fletcher and Fahey are able to hit the right notes with old-school wrestling fans while keeping it accessible to non-wrestling fans, the show could be very successful. The show will be tricky though as most shows that have featured wrestling in the past have had the in-ring action look incredibly phony and fake. If they hope to not have wrestling fans crap on the show, there will need to be a sense of realism when the show focuses on action in the ring, if it does. Much in the same way that Friday Night Lights gave a fairly realistic portrayal of football, this new show will need to do the same with wrestling in order to not end up turning into some type of unfunny parody of the business. The pilot is contractually obligated to be shown by NBC once it’s produced, so we’ll all at least get a chance to see what the show is like once it’s finished, though “put pilot” shows are usually locks for getting season orders once they’ve aired. Keep your eyes on the Bell to Bell for more updates on this story in the weeks ahead as there is sure to be plenty of news as the show moves through development and into shooting.

— Unfortunate news from the land of WWE developmental as Brett DiBiase, son of WWE Hall of Famer Ted DiBiase, has asked for and been granted his release by the company. DiBiase was thought of as a can’t miss prospect for the WWE and held the FCW Tag Team Championship with another legendary performer’s son, Joe Hennig. DiBiase and Hennig turned on each other after losing the titles in April and during a match between the two, DiBiase tore his anterior cruciate ligament and was forced to undergo surgery. Apparently, the injury and the toll that has been taken on DiBiase’s knees throughout his short three-year career has been so great that DiBiase was forced to retire from the ring, focusing instead on becoming a referee for the company. Sadly, even that was too much for his bad wheels as his father revealed in a recent interview that he was unable to continue working as a referee as the up and down involved in refereeing a match was actually worse for his son’s knees. The good news is that according to his father, Brett is in great spirits as he moves forward in his life and that’s good to hear as it can be hard on someone when their dream is dashed away through no fault of their own. Best of luck to Brett in whatever he decides to do in the future and congratulations on the accomplishments he was able to achieve in his career.

— The battle between the Briscoes and the All Night Express that has consumed Ring of Honor’s tag team ranks in the past few months has finally reached a boiling point and the promotion has announced that the two teams will meet at Death By Dishonor IX on September 17th in New York City with the winners becoming the new number one contenders to the ROH World Tag Team Championship. With the recent history of these two teams and the severity of the feud between them, the company has hinted that the bout will be a Ladder War, though in a press release they state that they are hesitant to book such a match due to the risks to the wrestlers and the potential reaction from the new ownership group. Given that Rhett Titus tried to use a ladder on the Briscoes in the parking lot recently and how the Briscoes seem synonymous with the Ladder War following the first bout featuring them against Kevin Steen and El Generico, it seems inevitable that the Ladder War will be coming, either at this show or at Final Battle 2011 in December. The promotion is expected to make an official announcement on the stipulation for the September 17th bout in the next few days.

— Pro Wrestling Guerrilla’s Battle of Los Angeles 2011 event is in the books and after pulling a couple of stunning upsets, El Generico was crowned the winner of the eight-man tournament after defeating current PWG Heavyweight Champion Kevin Steen in the finals. I was worried that the tournament might suffer a little bit from being knocked down to a one-night affair, but in actuality, it just made the matches all the more intense. Willie Mack impressed greatly, defeating Chris Hero in the first round before falling to Generico in the semifinals and The Young Bucks scored a huge win over The Kings of Wrestling to retain the PWG Tag Team Championships, but this night was all about Generico. By defeating Steen in the main event to win the tournament in a tremendous match, Generico has not only re-ignited the feud that nearly destroyed Ring of Honor, but he’s also solidified himself as the number one contender for Steen’s title. Generico/Steen is a money main event on the independent circuit with anyone that knows the history between these two and it’s huge that PWG will be able to put that match on with the title on the line. Great success for PWG this past weekend and it should be an exciting return show for the company on September 10th in Reseda, CA.

— A fun treat for WWE Smackdown fans as the show will air live on SyFy on Tuesday, August 30th instead of airing in its usual time slot on Friday, September 2nd, which is the first day of Labor Day weekend. The move was brought about primarily by the holiday and the lower ratings that shows receive during those holidays according to WWE officials, but there are also rumblings that the WWE may be toying with the notion of moving the show to air live on Tuesday nights. While the WWE surely won’t admit it the UFC is set to begin airing shows on Friday nights on Fox in October and it would make sense for the WWE to begin looking at alternate days for the show as the UFC kills the WWE in every major rating factor out there. Add in that a live show on Tuesdays would eliminate spoilers as well as the canned feeling that Smackdown has every week and there’s all the more reason to consider such a move. Top it off with the increased ratings that the Smackdown brand got the last time they moved Smackdown to USA Network on a different night due to a scheduling conflict with SyFy over Christmas and it seems like it’s a no-brainer. Unfortunately, the company has been very much against moving Smackdown to a live show in the past so it still seems like a bit of a longshot, but if the ratings hold up well or rise substantially, it could be good news for fans of the blue brand who want to see their show live as it happens.

— After gutting it out for the past couple of weeks, it looks like Rey Mysterio will finally have to undergo surgery to repair damage to his knee, reportedly a torn ACL, that he suffered during a house show earlier this month. Mysterio made the announcement on his Twitter account earlier in the week and is expected to be out for anywhere up to six months, which would put his return somewhere around WrestleMania or the build-up to it. Given the nature of his injuries in the past few years, I would almost prefer if they hold Mysterio out of WrestleMania and bring him back sometime around the end of April or so after the hype of the PPV has died down. Any Mysterio return would be overshadowed by Rock/Cena and if an extra month of rest and rehab means that the high-flyer comes back healthier and less prone to a reoccurence of the injury, then I’m all for it. As I’ve said previously, he has to be getting near the end of his career with how much he has been injured in the past few years and how much of a beating his body has taken in the past twenty-two years (Has it really been that long?)and if taking more time off lets him have one last great run, it’s definitely worth it. Best wishes to Mysterio from all of us here at 411 Wrestling for a successful procedure and a speedy and full recovery.

— In the latest update to the Sin Cara saga, the original Sin Cara returned to action last weekend, appearing at a Smackdown house show in Tacoma, WA and reportedly doing well in his bout with Tyson Kidd. There had been rumors of a Cara vs. Cara feud with Hunico, who portrayed the character on an episode of Smackdown while the original served his Wellness suspension, but now it looks like WWE officials were impressed enough with Hunico to want to bring him in with his own gimmick and as his own worker. That’s great news for Hunico, who looked really good in his Smackdown appearance, and it’s also great news for Cara as Hunico is probably one of the few guys left on the roster that is suited to working the Lucha style that can feud with Cara. Props to Hunico for doing well with the opportunity he was provided in a difficult situation and here’s to hoping that Cara can show the flashes of brilliance that he had in CMLL that made him one of the best-loved Lucha stars of all time. Judging from the spoilers from this week’s Smackdown taping, he’s not off to a rousing start as they had to re-do the finish of his match before just re-taping the entire match over again. Maybe instead of re-taping the match with the original, they should have just had Hunico come back out for the re-shoot since he seems to be able to handle the WWE workload and the pressure of the gimmick. Say what you will about why it’s happening, but the original Cara has to be close to running out of chances soon and if he doesn’t make it happen rather quickly, he’s probably on his way back to Mexico.

— Dragon Gate USA has officially announced their next iPPV show, Untouchable 2011, which takes place on September 10th in Chicago, IL. The show has an 8pm bell time and here’s the line-up so far…

Open The Freedom Gate Title Match
YAMATO (C) vs. CIMA

One-On-One
PAC vs. Ricochet

Four Way Freestyle – Winners Gets To Book Future Match For His Stable
Masato Yoshino vs. Naruki Doi? vs. Sami Callihan? vs. Chuck Taylor

No DQ Match
Sabu & AR Fox vs. Arik Cannon & Pinkie Sanchez

Ronin vs. Blood Warriors
Johnny Gargano vs. Akira Tozawa

Special Challenge Match
Rich Swann vs. Jon Davis

Tag Team Discovery Match #2 (winner of 9/9 Indianapolis match vs. a new team)

Bonus Match (6:30pm belltime for Golden Circle ticket holders)
To Be Announced Soon

Quite a few things jump out at me from that card including the Swann/Davis match, which should be an interesting blend of styles and the Gargano/Tozawa match, which in my eyes could end up being a show-stealer. Seeing Sabu in DGUSA will be intriguing, if not a little strange, and the title match that tops the show should be outstanding as CIMA and YAMATO are two of the best and should get a chance to let it all hang out with the title on the line. I will hopefully be able to check this one out, schedule permitting, and if I do, I will give a full rundown of the card during the following week’s column.

— The Young Bucks are back in the news this week, though it may not be for the right reasons unfortunately. After Rob Van Dam came out with a story that cast the Bucks as disrespectful during their run in TNA, Booker T and Goldust both took to Twitter this to offer up similar criticisms of Max and Jeremy following their tryout match with the WWE during the company’s run through Southern California. According to Booker, the Bucks didn’t shake his hand and one of them leaned on his coat, while Goldust essentially chimed in and echoed the sentiment that the young guys need to be giving more respect to the older guard. Believe me, I know all about the code of respect that goes on in professional wrestling and I’ve been one that has followed that code in any of my dealings in the business. While I get how important it is and how bad it looks for the Bucks to be at the center of two different stories like this, I’m willing to reserve judgment until I see it coming from someone who isn’t in the RVD/Booker/Goldust friendship circle. Though those three have their issues with the Bucks, there are plenty of other folks in the business who have nothing but raves for them and their level of respect. This whole situation feels like two guys that are being given a reputation by certain veterans, rightly or wrongly, and it’s going to be up to them to do what they can to change it. Stuff like this tends to go viral quickly in the gossipy world of wrestling locker rooms and it won’t take much before they’re ostracized because of it whether they deserve it or not.

— Finally this week, a fun story from TNA as they have announced a deal with the costume company Disguise to license TNA Halloween costumes that are expected to hit store shelves in the next few weeks. The company will produce costumes for Sting, Hulk Hogan, Kurt Angle and Jeff Hardy. Personally, I think that they missed the boat by not having a Scott Steiner costume, complete with chainmail headdress, a book of insane ramblings and a couple of “freaks”, but that’s beside the point. Deals like this are crucial for TNA as they try to continue to make every dollar that they can from all of their various licenses and merchandise and it should be fun for kids that are fans of the show to get to dress up as their favorite stars. Incidentally, I believe I’m having an un-Halloween costume party at the end of September just for fun so if anyone feels like sending me one of those Sting costumes, feel free to e-mail me the details.

All right, that’s it, that’s all, that’s all there is for this week as we’ve run out of news and I’ve run out of opinions. Be sure to stick around throughout the rest of the week and the weekend for the Frame and DeMarco goodness and look for a weekend wrap-up and Raw preview coming from Randle and his Wrestling News Experience on Monday morning. I’ll be back next week with more thoughts and updates on Matt Hardy’s legal troubles as well as all the hottest news from WWE, TNA, ROH and anywhere else around the wrestling world. 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.