The Thursday Wilcox-For-All News Report 11.13.08

As Small mentioned last week, it somehow doesn’t seem right for him to go more than a few weeks without taking an unearned, undeserved break from the Small-For-All, so you’ll have to put up with me, Dan Wilcox, instead. And while I can’t promise the same riveting humour and commentary Small provides, I can promise 100% less Great Khali love, and my very own Wilcox-For-All banner!

WHAMMY, or whatever the kids are saying these days!

NEWS FROM TITAN TOWERS

More Names Get Future Endeavour’d

Three more names were added to the list of those recently released by WWE this week, supposedly cost-cutting measures, those of Lena Yada, Kenny Dykstra and Elijah Burke. Super Crazy (by request), Chuck Palumbo and Paul London were all released last week. No word on if more releases are expected, but Scotty Goldman, Ryan Braddock, Ricky Ortiz, Hardcore Holly, Jimmy Yang and others may be feeling a little uneasy right now.

Dykstra’s release, like the others actually, comes as no surprise, as he’s done nothing of significance this year, unless you count taking a load of time off for injury significant. While I think the kid had some potential, he never showed anything particularly special in the ring and wasn’t overly charismatic. You could argue that he wasn’t given much of a chance, but by all accounts his bad attitude is as much to do with that as anything. And indeed a bad attitude on a rookie is bound to lead you to the exit door sooner or later. Dykstra may well go down as one of the blandest characters in history and was probably better off as Kenny, but I still wouldn’t be surprised to see him pop up in Orlando sometime in the future.

Elijah Burke’s release, while not a shocker, is a bit of a disappointment considering his obvious talent. The “Black Pope” posted the following on his website regarding the release;

My time is at hand. Do not weep, nor mourn, for I am gone but 4(up) a while. Hold on to that which I gave you, share it in laughter with those around you. For I have landed but for a brief refueling, for the course YOUR Pope takes is far, far away. Your Pope smiles as he writes this knowing that peace is filled within, to all within the Congregation, NOW the true test begin! And remember, MY COMEBACK SHALL BE GREATER THAN MY SETBACK!~ The Pope Has Spoken!

Seems like Elijah was living the gimmick he never got the chance to show off on TV. I don’t quite understand what went wrong with this kid; he’s highly athletic, has a great look, tons of charisma and is a good worker. Fortunately, some light was shed on the situation yesterday afternoon; Burke was a pet project of WWE creative member Court Bauer, and then was a project of Paul Heyman’s on ECW. Bauer left WWE, Heyman also left and then when David Lagana took the helm, Burke got put on hold. But Lagana also ended up out of the company, Burke was never brought back and appeared to be lost in the creative shuffle.

Lena Yada is no great loss to the company, but some interesting news regarding her release came out yesterday that seems to have pissed a lot of people off. It appears as though her time with the company was coming to an end from the moment Gail Kim was re-signed as both Vince and Stephanie felt there was no reason to have Yada on the roster since she and Kim “looked too much alike.” While everyone is only to happy to label Vince and Stephanie racists, let’s not be too quick to assume that this report is true – it’s not like everything a dirt sheet reports is true – they’re always out to create drama. That said, if there is truth to the claim, then yes, that is racist and another example of the infamous McMahon immoral side. And if Yada could proof such a thing was said then she’d have a very good reason to sue, but there’s no way she can prove it. Unfortunately, these kind of thing goes on and goes unpunished.

Survivor Series Shaping Up (Contains Spoilers)

Several new matches have been announced this week for the upcoming Survivor Series pay-per-view. At the SmackDown tapings in the UK this week, a pre-existing match was altered as well, so watch out for that spoiler.

Matches added this week include two tri-band Survivor Series Elimination matches featuring team HBK vs. team JBL and team Batista vs. team Orton. While I like these matches, I really don’t like the randomness of the teams. It does further expose the brand extension, doesn’t show continuity and reeks of them doing elimination matches just for the sake of it.

The other change to the card is the addition of Jeff Hardy into the WWE Championship Match, which I love. Tweener Hardy is all kinds of awesome and I hope he gets the title, though I doubt it’ll happen.

Hopefully the Casket match will produce, because Show and Taker have has some good matches so far and I bad gimmick match like a Casket match could slow their momentum. I think the two world title matches will be top notch, so the quality of the show almost hinges on the Casket match and both elimination matches delivering. I wonder what the odds are of Orton being the soul survivor for his team for the fourth time. And I wonder what the odds are of Edge making it two Survivor Series returns in a row, popping out of the casket and costing Taker or Show the match.

Here’s the card to date;

Elimination Match: Shawn Michaels, Rey Mysterio, Cryme Tyme and The Great Khali vs. JBL, Kane, MVP, Miz and Morrison
Elimination Match: Batista, CM Punk, Kofi Kingston, R Truth and Matt Hardy vs. Randy Orton, Cody Rhodes, Shelton Benjamin, William Regal and Mark Henry
Casket Match: Undertaker vs. Big Show
Triple Threat for the WWE Championship: Triple H vs. Vladimir Kozlov vs. Jeff Hardy
World Heavyweight Championship: Chris Jericho vs. John Cena

That main event should be all kinds of awesome. Cena and Jericho has an insane match a couple of years ago in front of a rabid crowd, and with Survivor Series being in Boston this year, expect them to be very into this match as well, although perhaps not in favor of Cena. Giving Cena the title straight away might be a mistake though, but don’t be surprised if the title changes hands.

Gail Kim To Return To WWE TV Soon?

While it was reported months back that Gail Kim had left TNA in favor of signing a deal with WWE, nothing concrete was revealed and indeed with the months that passed with no word, it seemed that people forgot all about Kim’s signing. However, this week it was confirmed that Kim has signed with the E and that she was backstage at a Raw show a couple of weeks back, seemingly indicating that she would be heading to the Raw brand.

There’s no word yet as to when we are likely to see Kim on TV, but by all accounts it could be any week now. And that’s a good thing, because WWE’s women’s division is in need of a boost. Mickie James and Beth Phoenix are great and all, but they’re nowhere near good enough to carry the division on their backs. Beth Phoenix as champion really bores me, so hopefully Kim will get a run with the strap soon after shereturns.

Just When You Thought Jericho Couldn’t Get Any Cooler…

So let’s check out the poster for the upcoming Armageddon PPV…

That’s just too cool. WWE PPV posters are nearly always pretty cool, but I’ve noticed the best ones are their “manic heel” ones;

Bitin’ Newsbites

In this week’s “wrestler-turned-MMA’er” news, it has been announced that Bobby Lashley will face Joshua Franklin at the 12/13 Mixed Fighting Alliance MMA event in Miami, Florida. It will be the first MMA fight for either competitor. In addition, former WWE Champ Brock Lesnar is set to face off against Randy Couture at UFC 91 this weekend.

I hate Lashley, and hope he gets his ass kicked. I’m not a big Lesnar fan either but I want him to do well, and I think he’ll pull out the win.

Mike Knox’s profile moved to Raw page, though it’s still on the ECW page too.

I don’t mind Knox, but I don’t particularly want to see him on Monday nights. Does this mean Snitsky could be looking for a new job soon? I say team ‘em up. Keep the crap in one segment. Fuck, they good even make for a decent monster team.

Raw did a 3.1 rating.

And if they’d advertised that Last Man Standing match beforehand, they could have done a more respectable rating. God forbid they go with logic.

SmackDown finished with a 2.1 last week, with the show attracted the most viewers since its move to MyNetworkTV.

You would hope it’d be pulling in viewers, what with them giving away PPV-quality main events like Show/Trips, Taker/Trips and Taker/Hardy every week.

Chris Benoit was edited out of the Guerrero DVD

No shit. Stop bitching about this people. Besides, Mania XX wasn’t Eddie’s moment, it was Benoit’s. Eddie’s moment was No Way Out.

Comments from Stephanie McMahon and Chyna also removed from Eddie’s DVD.

I can only assume it’s because they’re both hideous. Except Stephanie (or her rack at least) isn’t, so that can’t be it.

NEWS FROM O-TOWN

Contract Chaos Come Spring?

TNA almost came through the last round of new contract negotiations unscathed; Abyss, Team 3D and others are all reported to have signed new contracts in recent months, despite rumors several TNA stars could be headed to WWE. Come Spring next year, several more big names in TNA will see their contracts expire, and there’s a possibility that more people will be looking to jump ship to WWE should WWE be interested.

It’s become apparent in recent months that WWE is just as willing to poach TNA talent as TNA is to pick up WWE’s cast-offs. Gail Kim’s status has already been covered in this news report, but to reiterate, despite TNA holding her in high regard and building the Knockout’s division around her, she opted out and went to Conneticut. And now Christian Cage seems likely to follow. That’s two big names gone from TNA.

One of the names mentioned as a possible jumper to WWE is Rhino. Although he may not seem like a big loss, he is a veteran and a hard worker who consistently works hard and has earned his spot in the company. And who knows who else could be looking for a way out of TNA. It’s not hard to imagine people being upset with the company, despite their new direction. Losing a guy like Rhino is one thing, but losing someone like Joe or AJ would be a massive blow that they may not be able to afford.

Indeed Kurt Angle’s contract expires next fall and you bet your ass WWE would welcome him back provided he’s clean. And now that Kurt’s divorced, he doesn’t have to worry about Karen forbidding he go back to the E.

TNA really needs to ensure as many of their workers as possible are happy. They can’t risk losing two or three guys every six months when another set of contracts are up for renewal. If all else fails, maybe throwing more money at the talent is the only solution.

COMING ATTRACTIONS

Meehan’s in tomorrow, as is Larry with the R’s, and I’ll be around later today with the Fink’s Payload. And then next week will see the return of Small and the…

Until then.