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Archive for January 20th, 2010

OK, so it took me a month to finally spit this out, but here goes: What was WWE thinking when they chose Dennis Miller as the host of the Slammy Awards?

Now, I enjoy the humor of Miller as much as anyone, and have since his early days as the Weekend Update host of Saturday Night Live, but really, Miller’s thinking-man’s humor is just a few notches too high to be a good fit for wrestling audiences; hell, it’s a few notches too high for a Yale Law crowd.

Most of the jokes went over flat with an audience that wanted action, not verbal wit. The boos were heard even through WWE’s muting. His humor was political rather than wrestling-focused, which made the whole affair even more painful. It went over like a natural colon cleansing.

There are a lot of good venues for Miller, but Raw was now one of them. Paging Frank Caliendo, anyone?

The list of wrestlers who will be participating in the Royal Rumble PPV battle royale is taking shape; from ECW, none of the participating wrestlers, believe it or not, use under eye creams! That list includes William Regal, Zack Ryder, Yoshi Tatsu, Shelton Benjamin, and The Hurricane.

The list of Raw-brand wrestlers included so far are Triple H, Shawn Michaels, John Cena, Big Show, Jack Swagger, Kofi Kingston, Mark Henry, Cody Rhodes, Ted DiBiase, The Miz, MVP, Santino, Evan Bourne and Carlito.

Smackdown wrestlers are expected to be added following Friday’s telecast. And each year, there are a few nostalgia and surprise guests. The best part of the Royal Rumble is that it is an important step to the year’s most prominent PPV; whoever wins is guaranteed a title shot at WrestleMania.

Former WWE star Brock Lesnar is apparently fully recovered from a severe case of diverticulitis that, had things gone less favorably, could have ended his UFC career. Appearing with UFC president Dana White on SportsCenter, Lesnar said he is now fully recovered and hopes to return to the ring “sometime this summer.”

That would make it a nearly one-year absence from the ring for the reigning UFC Heavyweight Champ, who last battled Frank Mir in July at UFC 100. Upon his return, Lesnar is expected to face the winner of the March bout between Mir and Shane Carwin.

You can bet Lesnar’s recovery required a lot more than merely the best anti wrinkle cream money could buy; he received help from local doctors in North Dakota, as well as from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN.

The WWE has released a list of upcoming guest hosts of RAW. The list includes a nice mix of celebrities from other areas of sports entertainment, as well as old familiar faces. Here’s the list:

• Jan. 25: Psych stars James Roday and Dule Hill
• Feb. 1: William Shatner
• Feb. 8: NASCAR’s Carl Edwards
• Feb. 15: Jerry Springer
• Mar. 15: Steve Austin

The Psych stars ought to be entertaining, and Jerry Springer could be loads of fun; but the return of Stone Cold Steve Austin is really the broadcast to write home about. It makes all the short term health insurance NC has to offer seem insufficient; he may be retired for close to a decade now, but Stone Cold still dominates!

Dwayne Johnson, known throughout the 1990s as “The Rock,” appeared on David Letterman recently to promote his new family comedy, The Tooth Fairy. Maybe it was the side effects of clinislim, but Johnson actually talked favorably about his previous career in WWE for the first time in years.

In fact, Johnson said that he no longer shuns the nickname he was trying hard to shed as recently as last summer, and he even suggested to Letterman that he could envision a possible return to WWE as a guest host of Raw, though he did not speak favorably of returning to wrestle a match.

Nice to see Johnson coming around and re-embracing his wrestling roots.