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Archive for April, 2010

Seven former WWE personalities are probably phoning up TNA as we speak; McMahon’s company announced the release of seven superstars last week.

The biggest names were former University of Minnesota college wrestler and one-time Brock Lesnar buddy, Shelton Benjamin, as well as former top WWE diva Mickie James. Other releases were less notable, but include Mike Knox, diva Katie Lea Burchill, Slam Master J, Fu Naki and Jimmy Wang Yang.

James is a bit of a shock; as a frequent Womens/Diva champion, James helped carry the load of the women’s division for quite some time following the back-to-back retirements of Lita (Amy Dumas) and Trish Stratus (Patricia Anne Stratigias). Guess she won’t be sending Stephanie McMahon any baby shower invitations after this.

Benjamin is the biggest shock from the men’s side, if only because he started out so strong several years ago; but his career fizzled slowly after Lesnar, his fellow Gopher, quit WWE.

The rumor mill needs a fat burner lately, but word is that TNA is hoping to bring in both Paul Heyman and Jim Ross soon. Heyman’s name has been mentioned because of his ECW credibility, now that TNA is home to a number of Heyman’s ECW talents, including Rob Van Dam.

However, Jim Ross could be the biggest impact move TNA could make, as he would improve the quality of announcing in TNA overnight, like, 1,000 percent. Ross’ WWE contract expires at the end of this month and if WWE wants to re-sign him, the clock is ticking. Meanwhile, TNA is drooling at the chance to pick up the most legit play-by-play talent in pro wrestling.

It has been about six years since Chris Kanyon was on the WWE payroll, but the former wrestler’s apparent suicide recently hit the industry hard, bringing to mind the Benoit family tragedy.

Kanyon was a young WCW star for many years and was part of the company in 2001 when WWE bought out WCW. He remained on WWE payroll for about three years after the merger before being released.

No one needed cell phone boosters to hear the buzz over his death, though. One wishes that a troubled soul like Kanyon had made better use of WWE’s services for former performers. Perhaps the tragedy could have been avoided.

You need a mighty fast laptop to keep up with all the changes in the WWE world these days. The biggest and most significant change will take place next fall, when WWE Smackdown moves from MyNetworkTV to SyFy.

While MyNetworkTV is a bit of a joke as a broadcast network, the headline here is that it means WWE is actually exiting broadcast network TV for the first time since Smackdown first took to the airwaves on UPN in 1999. The move from MyNetworkTV to SyFy will take place on October 1, 2010.

As part of that change, WWE is reportedly shopping its current SyFy offering, WWE NXT, to other cable outlets, in anticipation that SyFy will dump the show once it brings Smackdown into the fold. Currently, SyFy programs its best night of original and import TV shows on Friday night, so no word yet on whether SmackDown will air on a new night when it makes the move next fall. Friday Night SmackDown originally aired as Thursday Night Smackdown for the majority of its broadcast TV run.

Finally, WWE is reportedly in talks with NBC Universal about a partnership that would extend beyond the current arrangement of airing RAW on the NBCU-owned USA Network, as well as occasional NBC Saturday Night Main Event specials; the extension of the partnership would involve NBC helping WWE to launch its own WWE Network cable channel in the foreseeable future… likely not until 2011 or so.