Email This Article- Contact Us - VIP Sign-Up - Back to Home Page

|

By James Caldwell, Torch columnist

James Caldwell reports on various news from around wrestling during the weekend.

Updated Sunday, December 9 (last update: 7:25 p.m.)

- Ron Killings made an official announcement on his myspace page that he has left TNA. Killings is looking "to broaden his scope of wrestling and bring his 'A' game to other organizations." Killings is taking bookings through myspace.

- Over the past month, NBC has been advertising the return of American Gladiators, which is now set for January 2008. In the ads I have seen, including a new one during tonight's NBC's football pre-game show, Hulk Hogan's name has not been mentioned. Neither has co-host Laila Ali. The focus has been on the random new Gladiators, including a mention that they will be on "Deal or No Deal" this week.

Putting Hogan in the ads would seem to be a no-brainer considering his history of carrying the Saturday Night's Main Event program on NBC two decades ago, and recent exposure to a completely different audience on VH-1 Hogan Knows Best. It will be interesting to see how the ads progress as they draw closer to the January debut.

And just as soon as I typed that sentence, an ad for American Gladiators came on during the Colts vs. Ravens game with mention of Laila Ali and Hogan as the co-hosts. Hogan took second billing, and he posed in a black outfit from the NWO Hollywood days.

***

12:55 a.m. ROH's online store has a smart holiday gift for any fan of pro wrestling action with a double feature from NOAH's July 15 and Sept. 9 Budokan shows. They put the top matches from each show on one DVD, including a tag dream match of Mitsuharu Misawa & Go Shiozaki against Tatsumi Fujinami & Osamu Nishimura that was billed as Fujinami's first match in NOAH.

This was a great professional wrestling match the way it should be done. Just three well-accomplished veterans and a rising star (Go Shiozaki) having a pro wrestling match. The story was Shiozaki being a punk trying to steal Fujinami's moves, including a dragon screw leg whip early on, which was followed by Fujinami taking a tag and instantly showing Mr. Shiozaki how it's done.

Shiozaki took the fight to Fujinami and Nishimura throughout the match, but he missed with a majestic top rope moonsault allowing Nishimura to slap on a figure four for a tap out while Fujinami held off Misawa with a trademark Dragon Sleeper. Awesome action throughout this one with a great story.

As Misawa, Fujinami, and Nishimura played up their veteran status like they were the baddest men in the ring, I kept thinking of how great it would be to see Triple H in the ring with these guys. Before you roll your eyes, think about the marketing of Hunter by WWE. He's marketed as the baddest man on the roster - capable of running through an entire tag division without breaking a sweat. He carries himself like he's going to beat you up, and then he goes into the ring and does it.

Hunter in a NOAH ring or top Japanese wrestlers coming to WWE and being treated like major stars to set up an inter-promotional battle sounds about as likely as Brian Kendrick winning the WWE Title. But, there's one match I'd love to see in Japan - Misawa vs. Hunter on a NOAH Budokan card. Pro wrestling is about creating and delivering compelling match-ups that people are willing to pay money to see. I think a match-up of two of the biggest stars from their respective countries would be rather compelling with proper build-up.

Back to the DVD. The other match I watched was Jun Akiyama vs. Takeshi Morishima. This was another badass battle, with the crowd really into the big moments of the match. Morishima does one of the best no-sells in wrestling, as he took one exploder suplex, then took a second and popped right up to deliver a back drop suplex followed by a huge lariat for the win. It was a great finishing sequence typical of his ROH battles this year.

Those are only two of the nine matches on the DVD, with many of the other matches featuring wrestlers from ROH battling wrestlers from NOAH. Definitely worth picking up for less than the price of a WWE or TNA PPV.

Updated Saturday, December 8

10:55 p.m. If I would have put "sex" in the headline on who's the hottest diva in Raw history, the page views would have doubled instantly for this entry. (It's based on the research, folks.) But, in any event, WWE.com has a poll asking visitors to vote for the hottest diva in the 15-year history of Raw. I'm actually going to turn this into a scientific conclusion based on the poll voting. Stick with me.

I'm shocked at the results, but I shouldn't be. The woman who set the standard for hotness on Raw, Tammy Sytch (Sunny), has only received 3.5 percent of the voting. There was just no one else who set that standard like she did about 12 years ago. Before there was the cast of thousands from the women's division and a search to find divas, Sunny was the hottest woman on television and the most downloaded woman on the Internet.

The other standard-setter a decade ago was Rena Mero (Sable), and she has only received 3.2 percent of the vote. Again, I'm shocked, but I shouldn't be. It's obvious there is considerable turnover in the WWE audience over the past decade. Now, the majority of the fanbase is made up of recent Cena fans and late-comers in the post-Monday Night Wars era who don't realize the impact Sunny and Sable had on the product before there was T&A across the board.

The leading vote-getters in this WWE.com poll are Lita with 20 percent, Trish Stratus with 17 percent, and Mickie James with 16 percent. Mickie hasn't even been around long enough for a cup of coffee compared to Sunny, Sable, Lita, and Trish. So, I'm questioning the integrity of the voting public, as they're supposed to be considering the entire body of work (sorry, been watching the Heisman coverage) over the last 15 years of Raw.

This rather unscientific poll on a random subject should give WWE a little insight into today's wrestling audience. WWE can see that the majority of today's casual fans aren't keen on the nostalgia since they didn't live through previous eras. The Monday Night Wars fans will show up for a nostalgia show, but they won't probably stick around for today's product. WWE can offer the big nostalgia show once-in-a-while, like on Monday, but they need to focus on developing today's stars for today's audience.

Let me turn the question to you, the Torch readers. Based on 15 years of TV, who is the hottest diva in Raw history? Or, what's your take on the make-up of the Raw audience? Send me an email with your thoughts.

***

2:45 p.m. TNA announced new live events for January on their Mobile service. They will be in Belton, Tex. on January 9 and Dallas on January 11. Tickets go on sale for both dates on December 14. They'll be in Ohio on Jan. 25 in Troy and Jan. 26 in Youngstown. Tickets are currently on sale for the Feb. 10 Against All Odds PPV in Greenville, S.C.

***

1:55 p.m. WWE Smackdown from last night averaged a 2.7 rating to finish fourth on the night, ahead of FOX's 2.2 rating. The average came from a 2.6 first hour and 2.8 second hour. The rating is in line with the previous week's ratings of 2.7 and two weeks ago with a 2.8.

- The guest list for Raw on Monday includes Hulk Hogan, Steve Austin, Undertaker, Mick Foley, Sunny, Trish Stratus, Lita, Eric Bischoff, Evolution Reunion (Flair, Hunter, Orton, Batista), and 15-person gimmick battle royale featuring stars from the last 15 years.

- The Miami Herald has an article on the Raw Tribute to the Troops show to air on Christmas Eve. The fifth-straight trip overseas took place at Camp Speicher in Iraq. WWE.com has full coverage of the trip with blogs, photos, and videos.

For more BREAKING NEWS on WWE, TNA, ROH
visit our co-affiliate: JASON POWELL'S PROWRESTLING.NET

REACT TO THIS STORY IN OUR FREE PWTORCH FORUM

PWTORCH VIP SIGN-UP INFO - NO ADS, EXCLUSIVE CONTENT

|