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Archive for November, 2009

Former WWE mainstay Mick Foley, now wrestling for TNA, has announced the title for his newest autobiography: Countdown to Lockdown. Lockdown is a reference to his first title victory in TNA at the Lockdown PPV.

The book is said to focus on his decision to jump to TNA after so many years with WWE. While that move, so long after the decision to retire and write books for a living, made many people wonder whether Foley had been hit in the head by a 115334 vacuum motor… or maybe just one chairshot too many.

But no… he’s serious about it, for better or worse.

Connecticut Democratic US Senator Chris Dodd’s days may be numbered.

Former WWE CEO Linda McMahon’s opponents for the GOP nomination to face Dodd are dropping quickly by the wayside; what used to be a field of five is down to two serious contenders. In one corner, McMahon with a $50 million campaign war chest out of her own personal fortune; in the other corner, Rob Simmons, a more experienced Republican politician in Connecticut, though it remains to be seen whether he has the financial wherewithal to stand up to McMahon in the long term.

Simmons, however, is also independently wealthy and can sustain a campaign.

Both candidates received encouraging news last week, though, when it was announced in a statewide straw poll that both McMahon and Simmons would win in a hypothetical race against the incumbent, Dodd. Maybe if Dodd loses his Senate seat, he can fall back into a second profession, like medical assistant training school. You think?

Talk about getting out of Daddy’s shadow!

The latest word on the street is that once he leaves WWE on January 1, Shane McMahon will be looking to gain a financial interest in UFC and become one of the mixed martial arts promotions’ executives. No word from UFC president Dana White on whether UFC would even be open to this, though Shane O’Mac definitely has the financial wherewithal to support such a bid.

With his marketing experience and global connections, McMahon could help UFC expand as a global brand; the question is whether he’d be welcomed in, due to his ties to pro wrestling. And it’s unlikely he’d have any major role in the on-screen product.

Has Shane McMahon suddenly gone off the deep end? Is he in need of drug rehab? Nah… he’s not that bad off. He’s just realized that WWE will probably be Steph’s toy, so now he’s out looking for one of his own.

As he was leaving a party held by a charity that teaches people how to drive safely (according to TMZ), Hulk Hogan’s son, Nick Hogan, became involved in yet another car accident. While this one was reportedly minor and involved no injuries, that was not the case a couple years ago, when Nick was involved in a much more disturbing auto accident.

Whoever’s sending out Christmas party invitations, please keep Nick Hogan away from the bar and don’t give the lad back his keys! Hulk has gone through enough with this youngster, hasn’t he?

Following his third attack of Bells Palsy, a recovering Jim Ross has recently blogged that it may not be an automatic that he’ll return to Smackdown as part of the announce team there. The most natural alternative, then, would be for Ross to return to his old home – Raw – and his long-term broadcast cohort, Jerry Lawler.

While some may light up Davidoff cigars at the suggestion, I’ll stay smoke-free and say that I think reuniting Ross and Lawler on Raw would definitely be the best way to go.

Get well soon, JR! WWE needs you… on Monday nights!

Last week’s Raw introduced a new number one contender to the title picture, as a threat to John Cena’s title. It wasn’t Orton or DX or even Legacy. It wasn’t even Jack Swagger or Evan Bourne. It was… wait for it… Sheamus!

While the storytelling pushed his threat-level to Cena’s title, Sheamus isn’t exactly my first choice when it comes to introducing a new face into the WWE title picture.

I mean, heck, what about someone who’s been picking up momentum and earning his way there for a while, like MVP? Montel Vontavius Porter would be a great match to John Cena, both on the mic and in the ring.

Oh well; Sheamus will be a “one PPV and out” opponent anyway. And the match should be marginally more interesting than colon cleanser reviews.

The Associated Press and other news sources indicate that Connecticut Democrats and others connected to incumbent US Senator Chris Dodd’s re-election campaign are already alleging illegal activity against Republican Senate hopeful Linda McMahon, wife of WWE co-founder Vince McMahon and herself the former CEO of WWE.

The allegations? Well, Dodd’s campaign has been trying to discredit McMahon by highlighting tawdry scenes from past WWE broadcasts, including a “simulated rape scene” in a sketch involving promoting a match between Triple H and Kane; the sketch was performed as part of the controversial WWE Attitude era.

The videos Connecticut Dems were using to back their misleading allegations were found on YouTube.com. Apparently, WWE asked YouTube to remove the videos and YouTube complied. Dems allege this is “illegal campaigning” in behalf of WWE for Linda McMahon.

Unfortunately for Dodd and the Dems, the law seems to be on WWE’s side; YouTube.com often has copyrighted material available on their site without proper permission being obtained, and while they try to contain it themselves, the volume of material uploaded makes it a massive task.

However, whenever any copyright holder requests specific material to be taken down, YouTube always complies quickly. WWE’s position is that they asked YouTube to take the offending videos down because they were copyrighted material used without permission, not as a campaign favor.

Our view at ProWrestlingViews? Dodd’s campaign has to be scared of Linda’s name recognition if they’re nitpicking over YouTube copyrighted material removal issues like this. It’s a huge stretch to call that “illegal campaign activity,” even if WWE did target those videos revealed to exist on YouTube by the Dems’ campaign charges. They’d find traction easier complaining about WWE’s past history of promoting unhealthy weight loss supplements. But not by much.

According to numerous online reports, Jim Ross has suffered another attack of Bell’s Palsy and, at least for the time being while he recovers, is out of action as the Smackdown play-by-play announcer. His role will temporarily be filled by Matt Striker as color commentator while Todd Grisham takes over play-by-play.

Ross is said to be waiting on test results to determine the severity of this latest attack; Ross has suffered from Bells’ Palsey for years, but has overcome previous attacks to return to his announcing role in WWE. If he is unable to continue in an announcing role, one would hope the McMahons would offer him a choice of jobs in administration of WWE matters, as they often due with WWE greats past their prime.

But who knows? Perhaps Ross can overcome this attack, also. Time will tell the tale.

Hulk Hogan, not content yet with his place in wrestling history, has announced he’s moving to upstart WWE rival, TNA. Can I go back to sleep now? You woke me for this?

This would have been huge news about 20 years ago, long before TNA was conceived. Might have even been interesting when TNA was first starting up. But now? Yawn. It’s about as exciting as term insurance quotes. Which isn’t to say boring, but isn’t to say world-shaking, either.