TAKE PWTORCH
WITH YOU! Get our iPhone App (FREE!): Click Here Or enter "PWTorch.com" on your Blackberry or other Smart Phone browser for mobile-version of PWTorch.
MCNEILL'S TAKE
McNEILL's "Who's Hot, Who's Not" for Week of 4/29: Foley, Hogan, Samoa Joe, Hayes Apr 29, 2008 - 5:41:21 PM
Time for our weekly look at the sturm and drang of the pro wrestling business as we wonder why we didn't deserve to see the end of last night's Raw main event.
WHO'S HOT?
Ken Kennedy: WWE does have a plan to freshen up its Raw program. Amazingly, that plan is for a feud between Mr. Kennedy and newly crowned King of the Ring William Regal. Regal is a good opponent for a young wrestler looking to move up the ladder, and the snarky Kennedy will be given every opportunity to succeed.
Mick Foley: Mick Foley had huge shoes to fill as WWE color commentator for Smackdown. No, I mean it. Coachman has big feet. Foley was a natural on his first night at the broadcast table. Michael Cole seemed happy to have him, and I'm pretty sure Jonathan Coachman can move on to doing something he enjoys more than announcing wrestling.
Samoa Joe & Kurt Angle: You remember TNA's little creative problem, where the Knockouts always had the highest rated match on Impact and it made the bookers look silly? TNA solved that problem this week by not booking a knockouts match. Brilliant! Having said that, Joe and Angle put on the best match to air on Spike TV in many, many months, right up until that stupid finish. Then, WWE did their own version of that stupid finish last night. But that's another story.
MsChif: Green haired lady, lovely lady. In the space of one weekend, MsChif won the Shimmer title from Sara Del Rey in Illinois, then turned around and captured the NWA Women's Title for a second time from Amazing Kong in Missouri. How long before WWE or TNA takes notice of one of the most talented female wrestlers in North America?
WHO'S NOT?
Michael Hayes: Suspended by World Wrestling Entertainment for his latest round of "joking" racist remarks directed at Mark Henry. One of our local radio shows used to parody Ted Turner by putting the Confederate song "Dixie" behind all of Turner's sound bites. Well, if the former Freebird loses his job and gets hired by TNA, imagine the great fun Vince Russo could have with P.S. as a racist heel authority figure. Then they could hire Konnan back to feud with Hayes. This one writes itself.
Hulk Hogan: What's creepier than Hulk Hogan dating a young woman who's a dead ringer for his 19-year-old daughter? Now we know. It's the sight of Hulk Hogan rubbing sunscreen all over his 19-year-old daughter's groin and buttocks while at poolside. Good grief, Hulk. Where were the "Hogan Knows Best" cameras while this was going down?
Karen Angle: Do we really need to hear about Kurt Angle's sex life on satellite radio? Gosh, I hope not. I can tell you that if Kurt Angle is legitimately too banged up to have a physical relationship with his wife, it's time to get a new team of doctors.
Travis Tomko: Tomko was forced to give up his spot as part of the TNA Tag Team titles for skipping the Lockdown fanfest to wrestle in Japan. No, seriously. They expected Tomko to skip an actual Japan show in order sign autographs. Tomko is also in the doghouse for thinking that working at the Tokyo Dome trumps working at the Impact Zone. Maybe it does, but you shouldn't say that sort of thing out loud.
Responsible replies are welcomed.
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.
INCREDIBLE BENEFITS! Over 50 full-length audio updates per month (iPod compatible)... New weekly award-winning Pro Wrestling Torch Newsletter (text and printable pdf versions) with latest exclusive insider news, new Torch Talks, great columns, Keller's cover story, much more... Hundreds of full-length back issues of PWTorch Newsletter from late-'80s to today... Ad-free access to PWTorch.com's Main Listing... VIP Forum with interaction with other subscribers and Torch staff... Torch Talk Library with text and audio of hundreds of interview installments from last 20 years... Great layout... Deepest archives on pro wrestling history anywhere... Keller's PWTorch Today PDF Bulletins with email alerts... VIP Email reports on major PPVs and TV shows... Staff Roundtable Reviews (text and audio) followiing major events... The best staff of writers and world class reporting since 1987... We'd love for you to join us and experience the most entertaining, authoritative, experienced staff of professional reporters and commentators in the business...
Compare the value of four or five months of PWTorch VIP content to the price of just one PPV. Can you cut 25 cents a day from your budget to make room for PWTorch VIP?
AND NEW FOR 2009! Monthly "Vintage Audio Torch Talks." We are releasing for the first time ever audio versions of our text Torch Talk updates, the historical first series of insider interviews ever. Wade Keller's newsmaking in-depth interviews with wrestling's biggest names are now being made available exclusively to VIP members. But you must be a member each month, as these are not archived, so they are replaced with a new one each month! This debuted in January 2009 with a 68 minute interview with the late "British Bulldog" Davey Boy Smith. Who's next? Hulk Hogan? Eric Bischoff? The Rock? Goldberg? Jeff Hardy?
