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Archive for April, 2011

While ratings for RAW and Tough Enough took a dip as the WrestleMania mania dies down, RAW still drew over a 3.0 in the Nielsens, which is better than their worst streaks over the years, and not bad considering many WWE fans may have flipped over to ABC’s Dancing With the Stars to see how Chris Jericho was faring. (He’s still there, folks, but it’s not yet time to break out the cigars, as Ralph Macchio remains the favorite to win.)

In the meantime, after a double elimination on Tough Enough, a “shocking announcement” from Austin was teased for next week’s episode. And no, it’s not Bret Hart’s guest appearance.

With the annual WWE Draft set for next Monday’s RAW, speculation is circulating that none other than John Cena will be moving to the SmackDown roster in the wake of Edge’s retirement. As Cena is one of WWE’s top franchises, that would be a huge move, but also one that might hurt RAW a bit too much.

First of all, WWE will want Cena on Raw with the big WrestleMania 28 hype begins following Survivor Series next November. And while they could always move Cena back to Raw by then, it could cost WWE some heat by shuffling Cena off to SmackDown in the intervening period.

The question also remains, who would be ready to fill Cena’s spot as the top star on RAW should me move to Smackdown. While current champ The Miz is doing quite well, he works best as a heel and while Cena draws plenty of negative heat despite his positioning as a face, Cena’s the most credible threat to Miz’s reign.

Certainly, Randy Orton’s a credible threat, but he works best as a heel and won’t be able to break out of that working against Miz. The same goes for CM Punk, who’s too involved as a heel now to pull off a quick face-turn. Triple H is too old, and John Morrison’s on the verge, but isn’t over enough yet; plus he’s been overused against Miz already.

Personally, I think WWE would be better off shipping Orton to SmackDown via the Draft. He’s positioned well to play a ‘tweener/heel as Edge did for so many years on SmackDown, and he’s the only other person who’s over enough on the Raw roster to move over to Smackdown and bring some excitement with him. (Other than Cena.)

Former WWE and TNA veteran Scott Hall has been beset by a ring full of health issues lately. TMZ.com and many other sources are reporting Hall was hospitalized following a recent in-ring appearance at an independent wrestling show. The issues are reportedly related to Hall’s cardiac health, as he was reportedly hospitalized under conditions of having “very low blood pressure.”

So here’s an opportunity to offer thoughts and prayers for a fellow who has entertained wrestling fans for three decades now. Hall originally rose to prominence in the WWE as Razor Ramon and later achieved his greatest prominence in WCW as Kevin Hall’s frequent tag partner, under his own name. Hall, 52, began his pro ring career in 1984, with stops in CWF, NWA, AWA, WCW and WWC, to name a few. Despite working for nearly every promotion at one point or another, Hall never landed the lucrative endorsement deals others did, be it for beef jerky or maternity clothes.

By 1993, he landed in WWE and became the company’s Intercontinental Champion and his star was launched from that point on. Let’s hope the ring legend recovers and returns to full health ASAP.

It’s been rumored for years, but WWE officially announced a rebranding of the company late last week. According to online reports and official press releases, the company formerly known as World Wrestling Entertainment will now officially be known as simply “WWE.”

Yet the changes go more that name-deep. Under the new business model, while WWE is committed to its core business inside the squared circle, the company will now begin a new focus of re-committing themselves to expanding their entertainment offerings outside the ring, including scripted, unscripted and animated content.

In fact, CEO Vince McMahon hinted that WWE Tough Enough, a revival of the company’s reality-show franchise that lets aspiring wrestlers and divas take their shot at earning a WWE contract, is the first offering in this new emphasis, with many more on the way.

It’s all a build-up for the launch of a WWE TV network as a cable-satellite offering, scheduled for launch sometime in 2012. NBC Universal, which owns USA Network and SyFy, have long been rumored partners with WWE in the launch of this channel.

Finally, Paul Levesque, known in-ring as Triple H, was announced as the head of a new Talent Development department. Levesque is married to Stephanie McMahon, Vince’s daughter. The first signing WWE made under Levesque’s leadership was Sin Cara, the talented Mexican wrestler who debuted on Raw last week. The new division will apparently put a greater emphasis on talent acquisition from around the globe, rather than primarily from North America.

About the only new business arm WWE won’t be expanding into – yet – is offering the cheapest car insurance.

Is Eric Watts going to develop into the next Booker T, or the next JYD (Junkyard Dog)? Before he can find out, he’ll have to prove to Stone Cold Steve Austin that he is TOUGH ENOUGH!

Finally, WWE is bringing its original reality series back to TV. In its initial incarnation, TOUGH ENOUGH ran on MTV, then the home of reality television programming. The show lasted three seasons on the music-centric channel, and had a brief revival on WWE SmackDown as an in-ring segment, but by and large was been absent from the airwaves in its original form for quite a while.

The original Tough Enough inspired careers for Christopher Nowinski, Maven Huffman, Josh (Lomberger) Matthews, Nidia Guenard, Jackie Gayda, Matt Morgan, Kenny Layne, John Morrison and Mike “The Miz” Mizanin. By far, season one led to the most careers, while season three resulted in only Morrison, and the SmackDown in-show segment spawned The Miz, who despite being part of the weakest Tough Enough incarnation, has has the most successful career of any WWE Tough Enough alumni to date. (Miz is the current WWE champion going in to WrestleMania 27, where he’s sharing the main event match with John Cena and The Rock.)

Perhaps the main reason season one of Tough Enough inspired the most careers is that the show did the best job of portraying the hard training involved in making it into a WWE ring. Maven was certainly the most promising winner, but injuries made his career all too brief. Nowinski joined WWE as Chris Harvard and did a decent job as a heel, but again injuries shortened his career. Nidia had a brief run as a WWE Diva, and Josh Matthews is the only Season 1 grad still with WWE, though as an announcer rather than an in-ring performer.

Layne enjoys a TNA career, Morgan had a WWE run, and Gayda has worked in both WWE and TNA. Morrison, one of the co-winners of season three, had the most successful career of any winner from the MTV incarnation of the show; he has appeared in several WrestleMania events, has held the WWE Tag Titles and the ECW Championship, but has not yet held either the WWE Title or the World Title to date.

Mizanin gained the attention of WWE for his clownish wrestling antics on MTV’s Real World – Return to New York, where he already had his in-ring character of The Miz in its infancy stages. Miz, who was shy around women normally, became boastful and self-confident around them when adopting his The Miz personality.

Not taken seriously during his SmackDown Tough Enough season, due in large part to his MTV Real World ties as well as the lack of any “behind the scenes” training schedule, Miz lost his Tough Enough season based largely on in-arena applause, yet went on to secure a WWE contract, and is the current WWE champion.

Tough Enough has a storied history, and for many years WWE has let the franchise rest; now, in relaunching it on USA, the company seems to be pulling out all the stops to put the show over as a legit bad-ass competition that can hang with any other competitive-style reality show out there.

The biggest and smartest move was naming Stone Cold Steve Austin the sole judge of who stays each week, and who is sent packing. His career history as the dominant personality of the WWE Attitude Era helps the show’s credibility. Austin’s no-nonsense, no excuses approach to evaluating competitors comes across as genuine and unquestionable.

In the pre-debut screener ProWrestlingViews.com received, the first episode (which debuts Monday on USA following the post-Wrestlemania episode of RAW) did not reveal the final segment containing who was the first cast member voted off, but we wouldn’t want to spoil that anyway. Let’s just say this much: the bottom three Stone Cold revealed are unquestionably the worst competitors in the challenges given during the show; no one will find themselves saying, “Well what about so-and-so, he/she was worse!?”

While the original Tough Enough featured a soft-hearted Al Snow as host, it’s safe to suggest that this incarnation won’t end with Austin getting all weepy and huggy with the winners.

The show’s three trainers, who give feedback to Austin before he makes his decisions, and who work closest with them during their training, are Booker T, Bill DeMott and former WWE Diva Trish Stratus. Stratus is to the Women’s Division what Austin is to the men’s: a legend. Booker T’s storied career gives him loads of legitimacy, and while Bill DeMott may not be a household name, he takes on the role of narrator for the show, at least in episode one, and is by far the most intense of the three trainers. Those familiar with WWE behind the scenes, which includes the best of these contestants, know DeMott and his trainer’s rep, and that’s what counts.

In fact, don’t be surprised if this incarnation of WWE Tough Enough becomes a bit of a star vehicle for DeMott.

What the first episode excels at is bringing the franchise back to what worked best about its first MTV season; showing all the unappealing behind-the-scenes gritty work that goes into creating WWE events, the sacrifices necessary, and the toll it takes on people as well as their family and friends. It also exposes who among the competitors are on a star trip and who are serious in their commitment level.

I won’t include any spoilers here; WWE Tough Enough is fun television (though USA will need a censor working overtime to clean up the family-unfriendly language on it, necessary to tone it down to a TV-PG rating like RAW enjoys), so I don’t want to spoil anything for you. But if you love WWE and like reality competitions, Tough Enough is back with all the stops pulled out, and in all its gritty glory.

Whoever survives this new Tough Enough ought to be ready for the career that awaits them in WWE. Cuz Stone Cold sez so!

Reports out of Atlanta are that Kofi Kingston will replace Kozlov in today’s eight-man tag event scheduled for WrestleMania 27. That means the new line-up for that even will be Big Show, Kane, Santino Morella and Kofi Kingston going up against the members of the Korre group that includes Wade Barrett, Ezekiel Jackson, Heath Slater and Justin Gabriel.

Kingston brings more speed and athleticism to the table, but the loss of Kozlov represents a loss of strength and size. Still, Kingston’s showmanship should make the event more entertaining, to be sure. Let’s just hope WWE has enough Howard point of care carts to cover all the potential injuries today in such a major event.

Michael Zaki looks like a younger verison of The Rock, but could his career more closely mirror that of fellow Tough Enough winner, Maven? More importantly, is Zaki TOUGH ENOUGH?

Michelle Deighton’s a cutie, but could she be the next Lita, or the next Miss Kat? Of course, the real question is, is she TOUGH ENOUGH to find out?

Could A.J. Kirsch be the next Chris Jericho, or the next Al Snow? More importantly, is he TOUGH ENOUGH?