ProWrestlingViews.com

Archive for June, 2010

I enjoy Royal Pains more than just about any other series on USA, expect when Psych is on. Then it’s Pysch. Of course.

And, as a WWE-watcher, I was pleased to see Big Show Paul Wight on last week’s episode of Royal Pains. The good news is that his acting was a couple steps up from wooden – though only a couple. And he made for an interesting foil for Hank Lawson, Ph.D., in terms of his medical case.

Hopefully, Big Show won’t let this exposure go to his head; he could easily be a wrestler of Andre the Giant’s stature; but he doesn’t work as hard as Andre did. Big Show’s been a hidden comedy gem ever since a memorable co-guest-hosting job on Saturday Night Live a few Wrestlemanias ago.

Nice to see Show scratching that itch again. Let’s just hope he stays primarily in the ring before he ends up hocking iPhone accessories on eBay or something…

I’ve been monitoring TNA owner Dixie Carter’s Twitter page to see if the “change TNA forever” surprise has been announced yet. If it has, it’s lame: TNA wrestling games are coming to Nintendo DS and Sony PSP.

That will change TNA forever? I kind of think that’s not the deal, but nothing else posted so far makes sense or even fits the description. Maybe she’s giving out Branson tickets to Hulk Hogan and friends?

Whatever. Looks like we’re stuck waiting for Dixie to give up her secrets… BOOO-RING!

TNA President Dixie Carter got some Internet heat going with her tweet that TNA would soon “change forever.” The speculation is rife, even though it does not likely involve her sending out wedding invitations between her and Samoa Joe.

Since her first Tweet, Carter has clarified that this big change is not the same thing as the “nice surprise” she has in store tonight at the Slammiversary PPV event. Tonight’s nice surprise is likely the arrival of some new talent… perhaps announcer Jim Ross? It’s hard to say.

Carter did recently Tweet, however, that the change is something that involved her having a meeting with Spike TV president Kevin Kay (who’s apparently “on board”), so it’s likely something more than just the acquisition of new on-air or behind-the-scenes talent.

What will it be? Carter says all will be revealed in “the coming weeks.” We’ll see.

WWE NXT wrestler Bryan Danielson, known on-air as Daniel Bryan, was released Friday from WWE. While some speculate this could be a work by WWE to sell the NXT Invasion angle, there is also evidence to argue against that.

For one, Danielson had been warned before about his on-air conduct not conforming to WWE policy, and his actions last Monday included two more violations; first, he was seen choking out a WWE ref; ever since the Chris Benoit family tragedy, WWE has strictly banned all its personnel from performing any maneuver that simulates strangulation. Also, he used the name of Jesus as a profanity during the angle, another violation since WWE made the decision to stick to a strictly TV PG style of presentation.

Danielson is arguably the stand-out of the weak first season of WWE NXT with the best ab workout, and was the main star of the NXT Invasion angle, which included him spitting in the face of John Cena. If his release is legit and they decide not to bring him back in 90 days, Danielson is sure to be a hot, young free agent that would draw a competitive offer from TNA, or he could choose to bring some of his new exposure back to his old home of ROH.

Either way, it will be interesting to see where Danielson ends up NXT.

In a match with Rey Mysterio last week, Undertaker reportedly suffered a concussion and facial lacerations; when it was determined he wouldn’t recover in time for the PPV event, WWE wrote Taker out of the match on this week’s episode, citing Taker being found in a “vegetative state” after an attack by an unnnamed assailant.

Mysterio will take ‘Taker’s place in the Smackdown World Heavyweight Championship match, which will also involve C.M. Punk, Jack Swagger, and the Big Show. Losing Taker from the four-way is an example of quick weight loss, considering Mysterio’s diminutive stature.

Still, it should be an entertaining match.

WWE wrestler Edge (Adam Copeland) was showing his cocoa butter stretch mark when he was interviewed by the Asheville, NC Citizen-Times recently, and revealed that he and his current girlfriend have a place in Asheville and plan to “settle down” there sooner than later.

Copeland has been in wrestling, according to the interview, for nearly 20 years. He must be counting from the time he began training and appearing on the indy scene, because Edge wrestled his first WWE match in 1996, signed his first WWE developmental contract in 1997 and began competing for the company in 1998. That means that as of 2010, Edge’s WWE career has spanned a mere 14 years at best.

Still, Edge has suffered some career-shortening injuries and at age 36, he isn’t getting any younger. His indy debut was in 1992, according to Wikipedia, so if he retired in 2012, he will indeed have completed two decades in the business. Here’s a quote from the interview:

“I’m coming up on my 20th year, and I’ve definitely had some injuries that have shortened my career,” Edge said. “That’s part of the reason I bought up here – we want to retire and listen to the wind in the trees, and we want to do it fairly soon. I may have two more years. With each injury, it’s harder and harder to come back.”

Edge is still considered young by industry vets like Undertaker and Kane, so this interview makes it all the more apparent that WWE needs to continue to emphasize the development of the next generation of stars; much like Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock and Mick Foley nearly a decade ago, WWE will face a crisis if the next generation isn’t ready to step forward when folks like Edge start calling it quits.

Of course, pro wrestling retirements rarely last forever; but once a superstar begins to wind down, so does his ability to draw. Time for Ted DiBiase Jr., Sheamus, Cody Rhodes and the like to step up and prove the WWE will be in good hands two to five years from now, just as Edge and Christian and even John Cena did when Austin, Rock and Foley were winding down.

WWE wrestler Chris Jericho has been announced as the host of the ABC reality-game show Downfall, for a six-episode summer run on the Disney-owned network. It’s been decades since Jericho needed acne treatment, but the show is expected to have some appeal to the acne-afflicted crowd.

Downfall is described as a trivia show in which contestants are perched atop the roof of a Los Angeles high rise and as the answer questions, the “largest conveyor belt ever seen on TV’ will send cash, prizes, personal possessions, friends and family over the side of the building.

Sounds suspenseful and tacky. A perfect fit for the alphabet net.