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THE DAILY WORD 11/17: Caldwell looks at Raw tonight, Triple H up for major movie role, NWA tapings in Hollywood, Where's Orlando Jordan? Nov 17, 2008 - 6:06:37 PM
- WWE's final Raw effort prior to Survivor Series should focus heavily on the Chris Jericho vs. John Cena World Title match. Cena makes his physical return on Sunday, but his presence on WWE TV has been unmistakable through the series of video packages building to his return.
I'm sure we'll get all kinds of juicy nuggets from Triple H in the latest video package to air tonight regarding Cena, but more importantly, WWE needs a strong, open-up-the-wallet promo from Chris Jericho tonight. No other man in wrestling has delivered better promos the last six months, and with so many economic issues facing potential WWE customers, they really need Jericho to talk people into parting with $40 on Sunday night.
Raw's other selling points are the Shawn Michaels vs. JBL and Batista vs. Randy Orton traditional Survivor Series matches. The built-in feuds will most likely carry the rest of the show tonight, but the important point to hammer home tonight will be Jericho vs. Cena.
- Triple H is on the short-list for an upcoming movie role to play the role of "Thor" in the July 2010 movie release of the film based on the comic book series. Hunter is up against current James Bond lead, Daniel Craig, for the role. If you want to see a preview of Hunter in action against the cartoon version of Hulk Hogan, check this out.
- NWA taped three episodes of TV over the weekend in Hollywood, Calif. for their latest attempt at U.S. cable distribution and international syndication. One of the main surprises was Bryan Danielson appearing at the tapings.
My California wrestling correspondent Matt M. was at the scene on Friday night where he described the TV taping as an old school regional wrestling show. And that's what NWA is going for with the look and feel of the new product.
They were essentially at a CBS soundstage having 5-10 minute matches with the announcer desk off to one side and a "promo area" off on another side. There were about 75 people at the taping with 10-15 fans trying to get the crowd involved during the whole taping.
Friday night's taping went from 8:00 to 11:00 p.m. with NWA champion Blue Demon, Jr. heavily involved due to only being available for Friday. Danielson made his surprise appearance and took out an unnamed jobber in five minutes prior to Brent Albright challenging him for "next week."
Basic, old-school wrestling angles in an old-school TV studio setting. NWA announced the cable distribution would be Colours on the DISH Network again. We'll continue to monitor international distribution.
- Where is he now? Former WWE U.S. champion Orlando Jordan will be appearing in Europe this weekend wrestling for Pro Wrestling Holland in Lelystad, The Netherlands on Saturday night. Jordan has been wrestling in Europe and Japan since his WWE release in May 2006.
For kicks and giggles, here's the build-up to Orlando Jordan vs. Ultimate Warrior from back in June. Actually, one of the best-produced video packages hyping a match that I've seen this year.
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