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By James Caldwell, Torch assistant editor

Friday was one of the busiest news days on a Friday in a while, so you might have missed some of the big news and happenings from the last 48 hours. If you're also bored at halftime watching the first Saturday in the college football season, here's some reading material to get you caught up on the latest news.

John Morrison vs. Rey Mysterio

Rey Mysterio went out in style on Friday night's Smackdown showing why he is a true professional in the industry. In his last match before starting a 30-day suspension that he feels was handled unjustly, he made sure he enhanced John Morrison on the way out. He also knew that by putting over Morrison clean in an epic 25-minute TV match, they would have a money re-match when he returns from suspension.

I don't see how any match will top Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels from WrestleMania 25 on Match of the Year ballots at the end of the year, but Morrison vs. Rey had that same big match feeling with the same elements of athleticism, believable nearfalls, and a red-hot crowd knowing they were seeing something special.

WWE didn't put any pre-match hype into the match and they loosely put together a storyline that Rey "takes on all comers" despite having a storyline title match at the PPV in eight days. However, once the match started, all of that was forgotten when Rey did business right on the way out while Morrison continued to show why he's been the best wrestler on Smackdown for the past three months.

Dragon Gate PPV debuts

After very strong hype, Dragon Gate USA finally debuted on PPV last night with five matches featuring unknown stars on a national level with tremendous athleticism. Dragon Gate's biggest challenge will be finding its place behind WWE and TNA in the PPV business that Ring of Honor could not establish.

The challenge for Dragon Gate will be depending on word-of-mouth and continued strong reviews beyond the initial intrigue of seeing the first DGUSA PPV and wrestling fans who are willing to shell out $20 on a Friday night.

It's similar to the bookstore business. WWE and TNA are like Borders and Barnes & Noble where people know to go for books and magazines, but you might not know anything about the little boutique bookstore with more specialized, higher-quality books in the strip center that you've driven by every day on the way to work for two years until something draws you in.

What will be Dragon Gate's draw? Can they just draw with unknown stars and great wrestling? ROH tried to incorporate storylines with their high-class wrestling, but the storylines were too difficult to follow along with the live events, TV, and DVD releases.

Perhaps having the absolute best, highest-level of pro wrestling action will be enough for them to have a successful business in the U.S. PPV market running events on a bi-monthly basis. It's been tried before and without a weekly TV vehicle to promote the product, they face an uphill battle.

If you watched the DGUSA PPV, be sure to send in your Reax and 0-10 score to pwtorch@gmail.com. If you thought about ordering, but didn't, or simply have no interest because you don't know enough about the promotion, drop your thoughts as well. We want to hear your thoughts on where the DGUSA promotion stands in the U.S. market.

Torch Exclusive Audio - LAX

Torch specialist Chris Reed conducted a Torch exclusive interview with LAX members Homicide and Hernandez last night in Texas. Homicide talks about working with Samoa Joe on TNA TV compared to their noteworthy feud in Ring of Honor several years ago. Hernandez also talks about his new push on TNA TV and where it's headed.

The interview is exclusive to the Torch VIP members area in the VIP audio section. We'll post a recap of their interview next week for all readers.

WWE targeting ROH wrestlers

Ring of Honor woke up a grumpy giant when they started running one hour of TV on Monday nights and marketing their show as the "only hour of wrestling on Monday nights." The obvious shot at WWE Raw's lack of wrestling comparative to ROH and even Smackdown on Friday nights made WWE executives stand up and take notice.

They signed Bryan Danielson over Summerslam weekend and reportedly put together a quick proposal to Nigel McGuinness to sign him with the announcement coming on Friday. Nigel's signing came over a year after William Regal said he had been trying to get WWE execs to pay attention to Nigel's work to bring him into the promotion.

WWE is reportedly also targeting five more wrestlers in addition to Nigel and Danielson. I saw the Young Bucks tag team in California four years ago and instantly thought new Rockers and new Hardys. They would be the next-generation tag team marketed toward the kids and women. They already had some work in WWE playing the role of fake Shawn Michaels and Triple H when DX was feuding against The Miz and John Morrison last year.

Aside from who WWE might be targeting next, the reality is that WWE is more interested in taking away top stars from ROH than developing new stars on WWE TV. ROH is already struggling to stay profitable with DVD business struggling in every industry, not just wrestling, and live event attendance flat.

WWE has a long history of eliminating jobs in the pro wrestling industry to have as much control over the industry as possible. It's concerning they appear to be targeting ROH just because it's been a good eight years since they had some competition on Monday nights.

Wrestlers need a place to hone their craft and WWE trying to squash ROH like a bug would mean fewer jobs in a contracted industry. It affects wrestlers, production people, venues, merchandise distributors, etc.

WWE is taking ROH's marketing on a personal level by going after a non-competitor trying to grow its own business that has no chance of ever impacting WWE's business. WWE's ratings haven't suddenly fallen off a cliff with ROH TV on Monday nights. Ratings are still strong and ROH isn't pulling a WCW by giving away WWE's storylines, even though a small child could figure them out without much effort.

Just typical, not surprising WWE predatory practices. It's not honorable or "good business" to go after a non-competitor trying to create jobs in the same industry. Hopefully it won't be a double whammy where Bryan Danielson is brought in to be Hornswoggle's new sidekick along with Evan Bourne instead of working a program with Christian opposite Nigel McGuinness and William Regal on ECW TV.

Other News & Notes

-- Results from PWG on Friday night ... Bryan Danielson's final PWG match where he won the PWG Title and relinquished the title for it to be decided in the annual Battle of Los Angeles tournament in November. ARTICLE LINK

-- Top TNA Knockout Angelina Love was released from TNA and her profile was removed from the TNA Roster page. She reportedly had visa problems that were discovered when TNA started contract talk with Angelina. ARTICLE LINK

Also, Jenna Morasca's profile has been removed from TNA's Roster page signaling the end of a working relationship that included one of the Worst Matches of the Year two months ago on live PPV.

-- Report from Ric Flair autograph signing in Las Vegas. ARTICLE LINK

-- Be sure to vote in the August month-end award polls. We'll close the polls tonight before announcing the 10-category winners on Sunday. The award links are in the Spotlight box on the main page.

Send feedback on this article to pwtorch@gmail.com and we'll regularly publish reader feedback in the "Torch Feedback" category on the Main Listing.

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