Monday, 4 August 2008
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| Cyber Wrestling Union Cwunet 00:20:45 |
| | If you are reading this post, chances are you come from the old-school of
e-wrestling. The Cyber Wrestling Union is very much a throwback to the old
days of e-wrestling. While we aren't RSPWF based, matches are decided on
roleplay and we don't overwhelm you with the clutter that many modern feds
do. Check us out at http://www.cyberwrestlingunion.com. Thanks!
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Monday, 14 July 2008
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| Hulk Hogan That Posting From The 1990's Guy 11:56:16 |
| | --Hulk Hogan did a radio interview on KATT-FM in Oklahoma City, totally out
of character. He said WWE is going to launch a new Hogan merchandise line in
red and yellow. He said they are going to bring back the entertainment in
wrestling, instead of the current form of wrestlers who wrestle like robots
who plan everything in advance in the back. When asked about steroids in
baseball, Hogan said they needed to leave wrestlers along because it's not a
sport and it's not competition. Luckily, because wrestling isn't sport or
competition, the deaths and health complications also don't exist. He also
gave a blow-by-blow of the legendary backstage fight with Dan Spivey and
Adrian Adonis in the 80s. His version is that Adonis roughed up Spivey in
the ring in Spivey's first match (he actually had been wrestling for many
years but it's a Hogan story). He said Adonis taunted Spivey backstage about
what he did to him, and Spivey hit Adonis with an uppercut, and kicked him
in the face until he was a bloody mess and he needed 200 (yes, that was the
number he gave) stitches. (thanks to Shawn Lane)
--
With a little love, and some tenderness
We'll walk upon the water
We'll rise above this mess
With a little peace, and some harmony
We'll take the world together
We'll take 'em by the hand
'Cause I've got a hand for you
'Cause I wanna run with you
Yesterday, I saw you standing there
Your head was down, your eyes were red
No comb had touched your hair
I said get up, and let me see you smile
We'll take a walk together
Walk the road awhile, 'cause
'Cause I've got a hand for you
I've got a hand for you
'Cause I wanna run with you
Won't you let me run with you? yeah
Hold my hand
Want you to hold my hand
Hold my hand
I'll take you to a place where you can be
Hold my hand
-Hootie And The Blowfish
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| |  10 answers | Add comment |
Friday, 4 July 2008
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| 2008 OSeW Mid-Year Top 104 Results! Neal 17:52:03 |
| | HONORABLE MENTIONS:
Totally Radd [DU], Samantha Daniels [UWF], Synammon [LVW] 7
TOP 104:
99. (tie) Brittany Lohan [VWA, SPW] 8
99. (tie) Brooke Star [JWF] 8
99. (tie) Billie Tom [WHOA] 8
99. (tie) "Red Diamond" AKANE Otsuka [KOKORO] 8
99. (tie) Kieran Rae [SPW] 8
99. (tie) Haylie Alexander [RoB] 8
93. (tie) Victoria Valentine [RoB] 9
93. (tie) Angst [NEWF] 9
93. (tie) Teresa Quaranta [NFW] 9
93. (tie) Guerilla Kawasaki [KOKORO] 9
93. (tie) Harley Quinn [WWH] 9
93. (tie) Makaze [DU] 9
88. (tie) Psycho Sandra [PWA] 10
88. (tie) "Sugar Blossom" Izumi Sato [KOKORO] 10
88. (tie) Harlow Michaels [WWH] 10
88. (tie) Tara "Sunburst" Marshall [UWF, MBC] 10
88. (tie) Felicity [DU] 10
84. (tie) Jessie Lockhart [DU] 11
84. (tie) Faith [NLCW] 11
84. (tie) Amanda Cortez [WWH] 11
84. (tie) Jayde Griffen [KOKORO, MWA] 11
77. (tie) Riona Langley [PWA] 12
77. (tie) Amy Roucka [WWH] 12
77. (tie) Taylor MacKenzie [MBC] 12
77. (tie) "The All-Around Athlete" Laura Davis [UWF] 12
77. (tie) Sally Screw [DU] 12
77. (tie) Synthy Eris [EWT] 12
77. (tie) "Superfly" Susan Davis [A&A] 12
76. "Kuro Neko" Achika Akatani [KOKORO, NEWF] 13
73. (tie) Kirsta Lewis [VWF] 14
73. (tie) Christina Brook [XWO] 14
73. (tie) BR Juri Sadamoto [???] 14
67. (tie) Bella Lapanzer [Sin City] 15
67. (tie) Kaycee Tanner [SPW] 15
67. (tie) Tomoko Matsumoto [RoB] 15
67. (tie) Chrysta [RoB] 15
67. (tie) Raven Alexander [IEO] 15
67. (tie) Stevie Swing [SIN] 15
64. (tie) Circa [PWA] 16
64. (tie) Alysia Canne [VWA] 16
64. (tie) Jade Chung [IEO] 16
60. (tie) Natasha Watkins [NJWF] 17
60. (tie) Yuku Shiro [HKW: America] 17
60. (tie) Sylhouette [A&A] 17
60. (tie) Rori McManus [IEO] 17
56. (tie) Chrystal Rose Williams [NLCW] 18
56. (tie) Tigress [DCWL] 18
56. (tie) September [VWA] 18
56. (tie) Brooklyn Glamourous [WWH] 18
55. Andy Rhodes Payne [WWH] 19
51. (tie) "Firefox" Natalie Olsen [PJG] 20
51. (tie) Laura [GWO] 20
51. (tie) Amber Burton [DU, RoB] 20
51. (tie) Tara Silver [SPW] 20
49. (tie) Jasy O'Neil [SPW] 22
49. (tie) Amanda Kauffman [IGA] 22
48. Hannah St. John [PDW] 24
47. Brianna Landis [UWF, A&A] 25
46. "Spitfire" Kyra Braddock [UWF, MWA, A&A] 26
44. (tie) Erykah Draper [SPW] 29
44. (tie) Dalbello Rage [UWF, KOKORO] 29
43. KibbyD [XWO, DU] 31
42. Moira Storm [DU] 32
41. "The Lioness" Kari Stevens [SPW] 34
39. (tie) Nikki Glass [IGA] 35
39. (tie) Bobbi Jackson [DU, RoB] 35
37. (tie) Lindsey Lewis [BWA] 36
37. (tie) Linda Ragnal [DU, RoB] 36
36. Tiger Lily [DU] 37
35. "Battle Princess" Misaki Ishikawa [PJG] 41
34. Lindsey Page [SPW] 43
32. (tie) Ashley Brooks [PJG] 44
32. (tie) "First Lady" Tawny Blake [DCWL] 44
31. "Beauty Star" Angel Saito [PJG] 46
30. Morgana [SIN] 47
28. (tie) "Missouri Minx" Tori Vale [IGA] 48
28. (tie) Tesla St. James [KOKORO, A&A] 48
27. Lara Leigh Love [IGA] 52
26. "The Show" Sierra Browne [UWF, PJG, A&A] 55
25. Meggie Alexander [DU, RoB, XWO] 59
24. Ashlyn Summers [PJG] 63
23. Donna Tetreault [UWF, A&A] 67
22. Holly Hotbody [IGA, MBC] 68
21. Suzie Machina [PJG, Hardkore World, A&A] 69
20. "Pretty, Pretty Princess" Iris Galiver [SPW] 72
19. Summer Blake [UWF, NEWF, A&A] 75
18. Mariko Shimada [SPW] 76
17. Andrea Kristian [PJG, MBC] 78
15. (tie) Erica Toughill [DCWL] 79
15. (tie) Apathy [IGA, BWA] 79
14. "The Goddess" Nina Larue [SPW] 82
13. Helga Von Butch [PJG, A&A] 89
11. (tie) Erika Sato [IGA] 90
11. (tie) Moira Faith [PJG, A&A, KOKORO] 90
10. "Firebird" Katie Smith [SPW, A&A] 104
9. "The Revolution" Josie Saito [PJG] 119
8. "Twilight Angel" Sonya Benedic [UWF, PJG, KOKORO, MWA] 128
7. Poet Wright [SPW] 138
6. Talia Wichzini [PJG] 163
5. "The Great Black Shark" Marissa Monet [SPW, A&A] 167
4. "Blonde Bombshell" Tiffany Lane [SPW] 177
3. "Mockingbird" Nina Grimsson [UWF, PJG, MBC, KOKORO, MWA] 186
2. Tamara "Tommy" Jackson [SPW] 202
1. "Poison Bliss" Myra Benedict [UWF, PJG, MWA, A&A] 209
SUMMARY:
Nina Grimsson and "Firebird" Katie Smith started things off battling for the
top spot. But then Katie slipped down, and Nina battled with Myra
Benedict - at one time holding as many as 25 point, and as few as 2 over
her. But Myra eventually overcame her, and never looked back. There was
some serious competition for the numbers 2 through 5 spots after that, with
Nina, Tommy Jackson, Marissa Monet, and Talia Wichzini all vying for
ranking. Talia started off slow in the talleying process, but gradually
leapfrogged her way up into the #3 spot, before getting ousted from the top
5. However, the biggest mover would be Tiffany Lane. She started off
pretty low in the ranks, but gradually worked her way up to finally settle
for a #4 spot.
The 2008 OSeW Mid-Year Top 100 garnered almost double the turnout from last
year (23 compared to 12). Although only 104 women made the main list, the
awards collected votes for 133 women in total, compared to last year's 86.
The Other Side of E-Wrestling thanks everybody for making this the success
it was, and encourages everyone to make the Year-Ends an even bigger
success.
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Tuesday, 1 July 2008
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| [MEDIA] [TABLOID] UK Sun 6.26.08 Jericho on the art of wrestling Evad Seltzer 16:20:49 |
| | http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/wrestling/article1345875.ece
Jericho on the art of wrestling
By ROB McNICHOL
26 Jun 2008
WHEN Chris Jericho talks about the wrestling business you need to
listen.
He was the WWE’s first ever undisputed champion, has held the
intercontinental title more times than any other man and recently
became a best selling author to boot.
In an exclusive interview Chris talks about all aspects of the
industry from why few stars make convincing bad guys to being in the
ring when Ric Flair said goodbye.
Your programme of late with Shawn Michaels and Dave Batista has been
the most entertaining thing on WWE TV as of late, how have you enjoyed
your role in that?
It’s great. It was one of those things we just kind of stumbled upon.
It was never planned to be such an intricate storyline, with all the
ups and downs and ins and outs, but sometimes when you start working
on something you realise that it’s really working out and it’s going
good, you run with it. That’s what we did.
I just love having a great storyline that you can sink your teeth
into. This is definitely one of those.
You say you don’t mind who you work with, Chris, but a couple of
months ago you had a fantastic match with Shawn at Judgment Day. You
two always seem to have a great match when you meet up.
Yeah, we have great chemistry, there’s no doubt about that. It’s a lot
of fun to be in there with him and I enjoy it.
The two PPV matches we have had have both stole the show and both been
classics. Not just the one at WrestleMania XIX but the one at Judgment
Day was amazing as well.
He’s a good guy to work with, we’re having a good time with the angle
we’ve got going. You have a great babyface, two great entertainers and
two great wrestlers, you can’t help but have some classics.
It’s been an interesting development of late with your character
becoming a bad guy, how do you like exploring that side?
Well I always enjoy being a heel. It’s a lot of fun. It is a rare art
form these days because there’s a lot of people who don’t really know
how to be a heel. They have a tendency to want to be a ‘cool heel’.
My attitude of being a heel is that you are a coward and you’re a
liar. You need qualities that people don’t like about other people.
There’s nothing valiant about being a heel. Nothing honourable about
it.
You’re a piece of garbage and you act like it.
You’re fake and you’re false, you take advantage of someone when they
are down, you don’t face them face-to-face when they’re up.
I enjoy that and I’m trying to do it in a different way than I have in
the past. So far it’s gone really well and I’m enjoying it.
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Does it please you when you get the chance to showcase your talents as
both a wrestler and a talker?
For me, most importantly, wrestling is showbusiness.
That might be a controversial statement but it’s about entertaining
people and you have to be good at both.
I love the out-of-the-ring segments. Sometimes I’d rather do those
than the actual matches themselves because I’m playing a character.
The character of Chris Jericho.
I’m not that guy in real life so it’s like playing a bad guy in a
movie. I would never string someone up for real and cut off their toes
but if I was in a movie and I’m told to do it I’d love it and make it
look as real as possible.
It’s the same playing Chris Jericho the bad guy in WWE – or Chris
Jericho the good guy for that matter – there’s a certain way to play
both parts. It’s a role that I play and I enjoy it. It’s a lot of fun.
There have been a couple of people added to the storyline, one being
the legendary Ric Flair. What was it like working with the Nature Boy
again?
It’s always great working with Ric, he’s such a great guy and such a
well-loved performer. Even though it was a quick cameo, it was still a
lot of fun and raises the profile of our angle by having a guy like
him involved. It was a nice surprise.
What did it mean being asked to participate in his emotional farewell?
That meant a lot. There was only a select few that were invited into
the ring, so it was a real honour for me. I’m not going to say it
surprised me because Ric and I have become real good friends over the
years, but I didn’t realise that the powers-that-be felt that way as
well.
It was a truly great honour to be standing in the ring with Ric Flair,
the Four Horsemen and Ricky Steamboat – one of my all-time heroes. It
was a night I’ll never forget.
The other person who has become involved in your business on Raw is
Lance Cade. Tell us about him?
You’re just going to have to stay tuned and find out what happens with
that.
Like I said, the beauty of the storyline is that it started with Shawn
and Batista, then I got involved, then it’s about me and Shawn and
Flair gets involved, then Triple H is involved and Lance Cade comes
out. It’s a multi-tiered storyline and I like stuff like that.
You of course brought out a book last year, we read and reviewed here
at The Sun Online and enjoyed it immensely.
Thank you.
What’s the feedback been like?
It’s been great. I put a lot of time into doing that, writing a book
took a lot of effort and took a lot longer than I thought it would.
It took me almost 18 months to write and six months to prepare, so
just to write it was hard enough, and when you do, you just want to
write the best story possible and not really worry about how it will
be reviewed.
At the same time, you want people to like it and from the very first
review we got, from this snotty literary magazine called Kirkus which
really loved it, I didn’t really get any bad reviews. People really
raved about it.
I was really happy with the response, really happy with the sales,
really happy that it made the New York Times bestseller list and now
I’m happy to be working on the sequel to be it, due to be released in
the autumn of 2009.
So you’ve started work on a sequel already?
Yeah, I started working on it in April, I’m in the middle of doing
interviews for it right now, to get it all down on tape, then I’ll
start putting the pen to paper, so to speak, probably around October.
I spoke to Bret Hart a couple of months and he said that there were
only two wrestling books he’d enjoyed, and they were Mick Foley first
book and yours. That must be nice to hear.
That’s great man. Bret was one of the guys I sent it to when it was
still in manuscript form just to get a quote from him. He read it
really quickly and really enjoyed it. It’s the same for me. I enjoyed
Bret’s the same as I enjoyed Mick’s.
I think the reason for that is because you have three guys who were
writing books that actually have a very intricate story to tell about
the wrestling business and I know from my standpoint.
I didn’t write my book for wrestling fans I wrote it for people who
might not know about wrestling. I knew wrestling fans would enjoy it
but I wanted to take it to a different demographic as well.
Mine was more of a ‘follow your dreams, stranger in a strange land,
coming of age’ type of tale. I think that’s one of the reasons people
enjoyed it because it was more than just “I gave him a hip toss then
an arm drag and won the title.”
That’s all fine and dandy, but I wanted to write about the stories
that got me to that point. Bret had that and Mick had that too.
Also, all the international travelling that we did, and all the
territories and companies that we worked for, there was definitely a
lot to talk about in all three of those books.
One thing that springs to my mind is that all three – Bret, Mick and
you – wrote the books yourselves, no ghost writers. How important was
that to you?
I knew that I wanted to write a book from the moment that Mick wrote a
book. I knew I wanted to write about it, I just wasn’t sure how to go
about it.
I worked with a collaborator, someone I was able to bounce ideas off
of, but I wrote every word that you read in the book. It was important
to do that because that means it’s your voice. You are writing
something the way that you would say it and explain it and I think
that comes across and give people a sense of who you are.
You’ve recently come back having had a break from wrestling and come
back feeling invigorated but how long is Chris Jericho the wrestler
going to be around for?
There’s no real timeframe, I’ll be around as long as I’m enjoying what
I do, as long as I’m having a great time doing it.
I needed to take some time out from the business, clear my mind, work
on some other things, spend some time with my family and then
organically some back when the time was right.
I did that and enjoyed it and continue to enjoy it, so we’ll see what
happens.
We ought to talk about Night of Champions. You’re not on the card
right now, are you going to have an intercontinental title defence?
I believe so, that’s the gimmick of the PPV, that every title is
defended. I’m not sure who I’ll be facing at this point. But I’ll be
there.
And you can watch it all live on Sky Box Office!
Are there any other matches which you are looking forward to watching?
Obviously I think Triple H and John Cena will be a great match. They
had a great match a couple of years ago at WrestleMania, they have a
great chemistry and are two really popular entities. I think that’s
the one I’ll be watching most.
I’m also really interested to see who Ted DiBiase Jnr’s partner is
going to be in the tag team title match and I’m interested in seeing
who my opponent is going to be.
I know I’ll be defending the title but not who it’ll be against. Will
it be Shawn Michaels? Will it be Lance Cade? Will it be you? We’ll
wait and see.
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| [WWW] Lance Storm 6.16.08 The Draft Evad Seltzer 16:20:42 |
| | http://www.stormwrestling.com/061608.html
The Draft
June 16, 2008
With the 2008 WWE Draft on the horizon I thought I would talk about
the Brand split this week and discuss whom I would move from Brand to
Brand if I were in charge. Before I get to my Draft picks I want to
first state that I’m to the point now where I would be just as happy
to see SmackDown and RAW reunited into one brand, and apart from ECW
ditch the Brand spilt altogether. I feel WWE has way too many titles
now and not nearly the talent depth required to support them. Not to
mention the fact (I guess I am mentioning it but oh well) that talent
jumps back and forth, competing on different Brands quite regularly,
making the whole brand split a bit confusing and for the most part
pointless. For the Brand spilt to be effective and the Draft to mean
anything talent needs to stay exclusive to their own Brand, which has
not been the case of late in WWE.
That all being said, the Draft is happening and the Brand split still
exists, so lets take a look at what I might do. The first move I would
make is to move HHH to SmackDown. This would require a title change
because I wouldn’t switch Edge because Edge and Vicky as a combo have
white-hot heat and breaking them up would be a huge mistake. We are
pretty much stuck switching the Title to Cena unless Jeff Hardy gets
added to the Night of Champions match, but that is beside the point
for now.
I think getting HHH off of RAW is the key to freshening up that show.
This is not a shot on Hunter; it’s just a matter of exposure. HHH has
been a featured WWE Superstar since 1996 and as such has been a
constant fixture on WWE RAW for 12 years. Prior to the Brand split he
would have been a regularly featured Superstar on RAW as well as
SmackDown and he has remained a RAW Superstar since the initial Draft
back in 2002. There was that brief swerve where he was Drafted to
SmackDown and then traded back to RAW but that all happened in 1 week
and I don’t think he even missed 1 episode of RAW during that time.
With the exception of time off for injury HHH has been a fixture on
RAW for 12 years and in the Main Event Title picture for more than 8
of those. That is a long time for anyone to be featured on a show and
I think moving him to SmackDown would be a great move.
It has been about 5 years since HHH was a regular feature on
SmackDown, and thus would likely seem fresh and new on that show.
SmackDown is jumping to a new Network in the fall and star power like
HHH would certainly bolster SmackDown’s impact on the Network. Jumping
to SmackDown also creates a brand new rivalry for both HHH and Edge. I
don’t think these two have ever done a prolong program (If I had to
guess they’ve only had 1 singles match) so in addition to SmackDown
breathing new life into HHH, HHH could breath new life into the World
Title picture. With Taker gone and Batista wrapping up his program
with Edge, Edge will need new challengers.
My next Draft pick would be to move Batista to RAW. Dave is a
comparable trade for HHH to help balance out the talent rosters.
Batista has been on SmackDown since getting Drafted in 2005 so after a
3-year absence he would be a fresh face again on the RAW Brand. This
opens up the possibility for more match ups with both Shawn Michaels
and the newly turned Chris Jericho, who both have standing issues with
Dave. There is also the possibility of a feud with Randy Orton based
off of their Evolution days. This also leaves open the door if they
were to unite the Brands in a year or 2 of setting up the Title
Unification match between HHH and Batista, which would have a ton of
history to build off of.
I think I would also move MVP to RAW, since they seem to want to step
the guy up but aren’t ready to pull the trigger on a full blow World
Title push. Moving MVP to RAW could seem like a slight promotion and
would help hide the fact that he has been stuck in that upper middle /
lower top tear spot for so long. You could balance this move by moving
Carlito to SmackDown giving them the Carlito Cabana to replace the VIP
Lounge and perhaps actually follow through with the Carlito push we
keep hearing he’s been promised. You could give Carlito that upper mid-
card spot MVP had which would actually be a step up from what he’s
been doing on RAW. Carlito and Santino have run their course in my
mind so this would be an easy way to give Carlito a clean break and
fresh start.
The next move I would do with the Draft is a subtler one. This would
feature multiple switches that I would not feature on the main show
but trades I would just get done and post after the fact. I would move
all the exciting Cruiserweight style workers to ECW. RAW and SmackDown
have 4 titles each (SmackDown is adding a Women’s Title I believe) and
no room to feature Cruiserweights and I think the Cruiserweight
division is sorely missed in the WWE Universe. The World X-Cup matches
on TNA Impact last week reminded me how exciting those style of
matches can been and how seldom we get to enjoy them.
ECW only has the one Title and to be honest feels more like a C-
Branded WWE show, than a unique ECW product. I don’t even watch the
show anymore and might catch 1 in 10 episodes. If ECW added a
Cruiserweight title and truly featured the Cruiserweight style on
their show it would give ECW a more unique feel and offer a style of
wrestling that is not featured on RAW or SmackDown. Matt Sydal has
recently been added to ECW and his unique style and ability could be
highlighted so well with the reintroduction of the Cruiserweight
title. Others I’d move into this division would include: Jamie Noble,
Jimmy Wang Yang, Paul London, Brain Kendrick, Super Crazy, and Shannon
Moore. ECW already has Nunzio and Kofi Kingston, who could both work
the faster more exciting style.
This faster more unique style would give ECW a more distinct feel not
to mention provide endless fun watching Mike Adamle try to keep up
with this more cutting edge style. This would also provide a means by
which for WWE to integrate smaller workers into the other brands as
well. If the vast majority of workers on ECW were smaller you could
debut smaller talent without exposing their lack of size. If they
manage to get over with the crowd in ECW for their exciting work they
could then be moved to RAW or SmackDown and would at least already be
established and somewhat over, rather than having to debut being both
small and unknown. Rey Mysterio has completely over come the fact that
he is small, and others could as well, provided the first time we see
them they are getting beat up by guys like Mark Henry and the Great
Kahli.
There are likely a ton of other moves I would make if I sat down and
debated it long enough but I think this is more than enough food for
though to start. It will be interesting to see what WWE does, and if
it makes us all more excited about seeing their product.
Lance Storm
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|
| [WWW] Lance Storm 6.22.08 Travel Hell Evad Seltzer 16:20:41 |
| | http://www.stormwrestling.com/062208.html
Travel Hell
June 22, 2008
I wrote the following for my “Storm Front” article for “Fighting
Spirit” Magazine, back in March, and it is being reproduced with
permission from Uncooked Media Ltd.
This months I’ve been inspired by a student of mine. I’ve been
fortunate with Storm Wrestling Academytm in that I’ve been able to
attract students from all over the globe. It’s great to meet people
from around the world and I’ve thus far had students from England,
Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Portugal, France, Canada, Denmark, Puerto
Rico, The USA, and Australia enroll in Storm Wrestling Academytm. With
this in mind, I’m often asked which student traveled the furthest to
train with me. Geographically I guess it would be one of my students
from Australia (I’ve had several) but if you look at each student’s
individual journey to Calgary, the Aussie kid in my current session
wins by a land slide and will likely never be dethroned.
Dean, said current student, had the milk run of all milk runs for his
journey from Sydney Australia to Calgary, Canada. Past students from
Australia often complained of their approximate 24-hour trek across
the Pacific, but that pales in comparison to Deans 62-hr journey. I
don’t know whether Dean’s travel agent was drunk, diabolical, or
simply insane, but he or she booked him on the worst and longest
travel route I’ve ever heard of.
Dean’s epic adventure was a six-connection flight with an overnight
stop. He flew from Sydney to Melbourne in Australia (1hr 30min),
Melbourne to Hong Kong (9hrs), Hong Kong to London (13hrs 30min),
London to New York (11hrs), he over nighted in New York City at a
YMCA, New York to Dallas (4hrs 15min), and Dallas to Calgary (4hrs).
That is 43 and a half hours in the air with 18 and a half ours in
layovers. You could not pay me enough money to even consider taking a
trip like that, and just thinking about it makes me so glad I’m off
the road. That being said I thought it would be fun this month to take
a look back at some of the worst trips I’ve had to endure during my
career.
In 1992 I did a two-week tour of Lebanon, and my flight from Calgary
to Beirut was the biggest milk run I’ve ever been booked on. There
were only 4 legs to my milk run, but each leg was plagued with a huge
layover. My trip started with a Calgary to Dallas flight, which took 4
hours. All of the talent was flown to Dallas so that the rest of the
trip could be booked as a group fare. In order to allow for everyone’s
connecting flights to arrive, our departing flight was booked quite
late, which provided the Calgary guys a near 4-hour lay over. Our
group flight from Dallas connected in Boston, allotting us another 3
and a half hours in the air and a 2-hour layover on the ground. From
Boston we had a 6 and a half hour flight to London’s Heathrow airport,
where we were booked with our longest layover of 6 hours. The reason
behind this ridiculous layover was that travel to Lebanon was banned
by the US and no connecting tickets from the US could be booked into
Lebanon. In order for us to fly to Beirut the promoter had to book us
a completely separate ticket, which we had to pick up upon arrival in
London. Since the tickets were booked separately it was our
responsibility to make the connection so the long layover was booked
to cover us if our arriving flight was delayed for any reason, and to
provide us ample time to find the Middle East airlines ticket counter
and check in. From London it was just the one last flight into Beirut,
which lasted 4 hours and 45 minutes. The strange thing about that
flight was that our boarding passes actually had Cairo listed as the
destination despite our destination being Beirut, Lebanon. We asked
several people about this but only ever got a hushed whisper like
response to not worry about it, as if we were spies traveling covertly
and things were better left unsaid. To this day I have no idea what
the hell was going on, but we did land in Beirut as originally
promised. All totaled that adds up to approximately 31 hours of travel
merely one half of poor Deans trip.
The sad thing with my adventure was that the travel was likely the
best part of the trip. During the 2 week tour of Lebanon I saw a man
get assaulted by police, had my passport taken from me, was held
hostage at gun point on the floor of my hotel, saw a man not 50 feet
away from me get shot in the neck, broke a rib, and got horribly
stiffed on my pay. Oh yah and we missed our separately booked ticketed
connection in London on our return flight. It was a fabulous trip.
My one other travel hell was during my time working for WAR in Japan.
The trip to Japan was always a long one with a 4-hour flight to LA,
which required me clearing US customs, a 2 to 3 hour layover in LA,
and the 9-hour connecting flight to Japan. Before this particular trip
I got a phone call from Uno, the referee who always met me at the
airport, asking me if it was all right if he was a little late picking
me up. I was flying into Kansai airport in Osaka rather than the usual
flight to Narita in Tokyo and the company bus had to drive down to
meet me and may be a little late. I said that was no problem, I could
easily kill an hour or so at the airport getting something to eat.
Uno and the bus arrived maybe 30 minutes after I’d cleared customs and
I thought everything was working out quite well. What Uno didn’t tell
me on the phone, or even when he picked me up, was that we still had a
lot of driving to do and time to kill before going to our hotel. We
drove on the bus for nearly another 6 hours before arriving at yet
another airport. I was completely confused as I sat on the bus in the
airport parking lot for another 2 hours before Uno returned with
Abdullah the Butcher, who was the other foreigner on the trip. Turns
out Abby was not willing to ride on the bus for the 7 hours required
to get from Kansai to our first town and insisted on being flown
directly to our final destination. Abby was a big enough star to make
such demands, where I was not a big enough star to even be explained
the situation and had to not only do the drive but sit in the airport
parking lot waiting for Abby without any explanation what so ever.
Once Abby was aboard it was only another hour or so to the hotel where
I finally got to lay my head down after a near 27 hours of journey.
If these trips sound unbearable, the wrestling business is likely not
for you. If you are foolish enough to give it a go anyway, I highly
recommend Storm Wrestling Academytm. I also recommend you pack a good
book; you’re going to need it.
Lance Storm
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| [WWW] Lance Storm 5.19.08 The Ultimate Warrior Evad Seltzer 16:20:40 |
| | http://www.stormwrestling.com/051908.html
The Ultimate Warrior
May 19, 2008
I was listening to Bryan Alvarez on Wrestling Observer Live last night
and they were talking about the Ultimate Warrior’s return to wrestling
in Spain on June 25th of this year. This wasn’t news to me and had
their conversation ended there I would not be writing this article.
What grabbed my attention was that they then mentioned that TNA might
be interested in using The Ultimate Warrior and they briefly debated
what this would mean to TNA should it happen. This got me thinking and
I thought I would take my own look at what a possible return of the
Warrior might mean to TNA, in both the short and long term.
The biggest question in my mind is how many current fans even know who
this guy is anymore, and thus care enough about him to significantly
affect current business. The Ultimate Warrior started wrestling in
1985, hit his peak when he captured the WWF World Title from Hulk
Hogan at WrestleMania VI in 1990, and had his last major run (in WCW)
in 1998. He’s been out of Wrestling completely for almost 10 year,
with his prime being almost twice that long ago. Current wrestling
fans seem to be a lot younger than the 30 to 45 year old demographic
that would likely remember fondly the original rise of the Ultimate
Warrior. Will older former fans return and tune in based solely on his
return; especially if they have stopped following wrestling all
together and may not even hear of his return?
There is the possibility that he was a big enough star that young fans
would have heard of him, and want to see him for the first time for
themselves. The big controversy surrounding WWE releasing The Self
Destruction of the Ultimate Warrior DVD, three years ago, could also
help the curiosity factor for a potential return. That being said,
would his return be more of a onetime nostalgia pop or could he
actually play a valuable longer-term role in TNA.
I personally think he would be good for a onetime only nostalgia
curiosity pop but very little else. This is of course just my opinion,
I could end up being very wrong about this; it wouldn’t be the first
time. There are a lot of factors working against a business altering
Ultimate Warrior return. Warrior will no doubt come with a very high
price tag. That’s one thing I’ve always admired about The Ultimate
Warrior, he never became a slave to the business. Warrior made big
money and got out on his terms. He’s always come back on his terms and
always managed to hold out for the big money. Say what you want about
the guy, he does smart business for himself. To justify a huge
paycheck Warrior’s return is going to have to produce significant
increases to ratings and buy rates, over the long term.
To date no one person has produced a long term effect on ratings or
buy rates in TNA. Stings initial return produced only a brief spike in
ratings, and Kurt Angles big jump from WWE only produced a very short
term effect on PPV buy rates. More often than not it is the overall
perception of the company that determines TV ratings and PPV buy
rates. I seriously doubt Warrior would drastically affect the overall
image of the company and suspect like the Angles, Christians and
Stings before him would simply produce a short term jump before
melding into the established fabric of TNA.
One last aspect I want to touch on before wrapping this up is the
steroid issue. I’m always looking for an avenue to go on an anti-
steroid rant and I think Warrior’s return presents exactly that. A
large part of why The Ultimate Warrior got over, back in the day, was
his body. Warrior was very much a below average worker with an above
average body. He was one of the most jacked up guys in the Industry,
at a time when almost everyone was on Steroids. Warrior has admitted
many times that he used steroids when he was in WWE and when you
compare him to others, also taking steroids, chances are he was on
QUITE a lot.
It will be IMPOSSIBLE for a 49-year-old Ultimate Warrior to be in even
half the shape he was in his prime without HUGE quantities of drugs.
I’m having a hard enough time at 39 staying in comparable shape to
what I was at 30, and I was clean that whole time. Bodies don’t get
better with age, and the body you can have in your 20’s and 30’s with
the use of a lot of drugs is completely out of reach as you approach
50 (without huge pharmaceutical assistance). With that in mind let me
ask you this. Will the wrestling fan base, support and get behind a
much smaller and older Ultimate Warrior? Can he live up to the
Ultimate Warrior image without the bulging muscles and physique? Or
more importantly, if he returns with an Ultimate Warrioresque build,
what does that say about TNA’s drug testing policy, and our acceptance
of athletes using illegal performing enhancing drugs? If you take away
the body, and put 10 years of ring rust on the work rate, are you left
with a guy that is going to change your business in the long term?
All things considered, even in the best-case scenario, I’d rather
watch Curry Man!
Lance Storm
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| [WWW] Lance Storm 6.3.08 Elite XC on CBS Evad Seltzer 16:20:40 |
| | http://www.stormwrestling.com/060308.html
Elite XC on CBS
June 3, 2008
I don’t often talk about MMA. My usually focus is on pro-wrestling,
but with the monumental debut of MMA on CBS this past Saturday there
is never going to be a better time to talk MMA than now. I was really
looking forward to watching this show live but unfortunately was
unable to. Saturday night I had a surprise 40th Birthday party for a
friend of mine to go to so I had to record the show in order to watch
it back later. I have 2 DVRs and set them both to tape this show. The
one I set to record the CBS broadcast and the other to record the
Fight Networks broadcast. With my kids home for the night with a
babysitter, I figured there was a small chance they might use one of
the DVRs to watch movies and somehow screw up a recording, so I hedged
my bets and set two machines. That’s how much I wanted to watch this
show.
This leads me to a HUGE bone I have to pick with CBS or TV Guide or
who ever the hell is responsible for this show being listed as 2-
hours, when it in fact ended up running closer to 3. Despite my kids
not messing with either of my programmed recordings, I returned home
late Saturday night to find out that neither machine captured the main
event fight between Kimbo Slice and James Thompson. I was to say the
least FURIOUS, and I can’t help but wonder how many other people, who
planned on watching the show back at a later time, are now in the same
boat. How many people recorded this show for the sole purpose of
seeing Kimbo Slice and in the end didn’t get to.
I just can’t believe the magnitude of this screw up. This show was
arguably the biggest and most important MMA show in the sports history
and the entire show was built around Kimbo Slice. How CBS (or who ever
was responsible for this) could fail to get Kimbo on the show in the
advertised time slot is beyond me. There were only 5 matches on the
show and not a single one went the distance. The opening 2 fights were
1-minute knockouts, and Carano vs. Young was the only fight to go more
than half the distance, yet the show runs long and goes way over time.
WTF? If I can borrow a term from my friend Bryan Alvarez… EPIC FAIL.
All that being said, I did manage to catch the entire show thanks to
The Fight Network replaying the show Sunday afternoon. I still had to
record the show while I was out, but this time I set my machine for a
4-hour window and managed to catch the entire show. On the whole I
really liked the show and I’m turning into a huge Elite XC fan. This
was the third Elite XC show I’ve caught, the first two being the Kimbo
Slice vs. Tank Abbott event and the Frank Shamrock – Cung Lee show,
and I’m looking forward to hopefully many more.
The CBS show started very slow with two very short fights and a ton of
introduction type video packages. The video packages were a very good
and likely needed, due to the strong likely hood of this show drawing
some less knowledgeable MMA fans, but with the first two fights going
so short the beginning of this show ended up a bit flat. I’ll be very
curious to see how ratings held after the first 45-minute to 1-hour,
because I wouldn’t be surprised if fans getting their first taste of
MMA might have lost interest after those first 2 fights.
Thankfully the show picked up a great deal from here with a great
fight between Gina Carano and Kaitlin Young. I was really pulling for
Young in this fight because I saw the one night tournament she won in
Hook and Shoot and think this girl is incredible. I was disappointed
Kaitlin lost but felt these girls really brought the show back and
likely stopped a lot of viewers tuning out.
The Lawler – Smith fight had both good and bad, or more accurately,
GREAT and Horrible. The fight was fantastic and the stoppage complete
crap. I absolutely loved this fight and had they been able to
continue, this fight alone would have made this event a must see,
thumbs up show.
The Main Event will likely stir great debate in the MMA world as I
suspect a lot of people will have different opinions about it. Did
this fight make or break Kimbo Slice? Is Kimbo Slice the real deal or
is he over rated? I’m willing to leave the jury out on Kimbo Slice for
now and just take the fight at face value, and I enjoyed this fight. I
enjoyed watching Kimbo have to fight on the ground, and thought for a
guy in his 3rd MMA fight, he held his own well enough and showed he is
not completely one-dimensional. I’m sure Elite XC would have been
happier with a more decisive win, but I would rather watch a fight
like this, than a first round knockout.
I didn’t feel this was a bad stoppage, but will grant you Kimbo got
by, by the skin (or rather gold) of his teeth. Thompson’s eyes were
completely glassed over, in my opinion, when the ref stepped in and
fully believe he would have been hit and dropped seconds later had the
ref not stopped this fight.
On the whole, I thought this was a very strong show that was
definitely worth the repeated attempts I had to make to see the whole
event. Critics might point out that it was not up to the match quality
standards of a UFC PPV, but I think they need to keep in mind this
show was FREE not $49.95. I grade the show this way; I have definite
interest in seeing the rematch between Robbie Lawler and Scott Smith,
am glad I have an avenue to follow women’s MMA (That was one of the
reasons I followed bodog), I still want to follow the development and
growth of Kimbo Slice, and more importantly just plain enjoyed myself
watching the show. If that isn’t a thumbs up, I don’t know what it.
Way to go Elite XC and CBS and congratulations to Mauro Ranallo for
being a HUGE asset to that program.
Lance Storm
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| [MEDIA] Miami Herald 6.29.08 Cena, WWE grant wish for young fan Evad Seltzer 16:20:39 |
| | http://www.miamiherald.com/675/story/587183.html
Cena, WWE grant wish for young fan
Sun, Jun. 29, 2008
Seven-year-old Jeremy of Lakemont, Ga. is a serious wrestling fan.
This special little guy's passion for the entertaining sport keeps him
glued to the television set on Monday nights so he can cheer his all-
time favorite wrestler John Cena.
Recently, Jeremy enjoyed meeting his hero thanks to his friends at
Kids Wish Network, an organization that grants wishes to children with
life-threatening illnesses. Jeremy has cerebral palsy.
When Kids Wish Network learned about Jeremy after his grandmother
referred him to the charity, the staff was eager to do something
special for him. This courageous boy has been through a great deal in
his young life and struggles daily with his condition.
In addition to cerebral palsy, Jeremy has experienced severe seizure
episodes since he was a baby. He suffers from a half dozen different
types of seizures and is on many different medications. He also wears
leg braces. Jeremy has been in and out of the hospital much of his
young life and must visit doctors frequently.
When Kids Wish Network Wish Coordinator Vanessa Covolo learned that
Jeremy's No. 1 wish was to meet his No. 1 favorite wrestler John Cena,
she worked hard to make sure his dream came true.
It turned out to be an experience that Jeremy will never forget.
Vanessa arranged for Jeremy and his family to fly to San Antonio where
there was a WWE show. She also secured accommodations at the beautiful
Hotel Valencia. Most importantly, of course, Vanessa arranged for
tickets to the WWE event and a very special meet-and-greet with his
idol.
Soon after arriving at the AT&T Center, Jeremy and his family were
greeted warmly backstage by a parade of WWE stars including Batista,
the Hardy Boyz, Ric Flair and Edge. Donna said her son, Jeremy, was
thrilled.
Each wrestler signed Jeremy's shirt and posed for photos with him.
Then came the moment Jeremy had been waiting for, meeting Cena.
''He was shy at first,'' Donna said.
However, it didn't take long for him to warm up to his hero. Jeremy,
who wore a shirt that read, 'John Cena is My Idol,' presented Cena
with a shirt that read, 'You Are My Idol, John Cena.' He also
presented his favorite WWE star with an official Kids Wish Network
Guardian Angel coin. Donna said the wrestler was clearly moved. Jeremy
told him now he had a guardian angel with him.
The pair spent time together, chatting and laughing and posing for
photos.
''He was so excited,'' Donna recalled laughing. After the meet-and-
greet was done, the group headed to their seats for the show. Jeremy
had a sneaking suspicion that John was going to win that night since
he now had his lucky angel coin. Donna said the lucky coin did the
trick. ''He won,'' she laughed.
Donna said Jeremy's entire wish experience was something neither she,
nor her brave son, will ever forget. She was also tremendously
grateful to Vanessa and Kids Wish Network.
''Jeremy just loved Vanessa,'' she said. ``It was so exciting. We had
a really good time.''
Kids Wish Network thanks Concert Limousine, Hotel Valencia, Luxury
Limousine, Rainforest Caf , Rio San Antonio Cruises, San Antonio's
Children's Museum, San Antonio Zoo, WWE Inc., and of course, John Cena
for helping make Jeremy's wish come true.
Kids Wish Network is a nationally recognized non-profit organization
dedicated to infusing hope, creating happy memories and improving the
quality of life for children.
If you know a child between 3 and 18 who is in need of wish granting
services, call 727-937-3600 or toll free 888-918-9004. For information
on Kids Wish Network, visit kidswishnetwork.org.
• The WWE Night of Champions pay-per-view is 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT
Sunday, June 29 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas. Every title
is on the line.
WWE title: Triple H (champ) vs. John Cena. World Heavyweight
Championship: Edge (champ) vs. Batista.
Triple Threat match for ECW title: Kane (champ) vs. Big Show vs. Mark
Henry. WWE United States Championship: Matt Hardy (champ) vs. Chavo
Guerrero.
WWE Intercontinental title: Chris Jericho (champ) vs. mystery
opponent. World tag team titles: Hardcore Holly and Cody Rhodes
(champs) vs. Ted DiBiase and mystery partner.
WWE tag team titles: John Morrison and The Miz (champs) vs. Finlay and
Hornswoggle. WWE women's title: Mickie James (champ) vs. Katie Lea
Burchill.
• WWE SmackDown! house show (no television) is 7 p.m. Sunday, July 6
at the Pensacola Civic Center in Pensacola, Fla. Tickets ($20-55) are
on sale. Visit TicketMaster outlets, TicketMaster online or call.
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| [MEDIA] Baltimore Sun 6.27.08 Ring Posts is a Baltimore Sun blog
about wrestling Evad Seltzer 16:20:37 |
| | http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/sports/wrestling/blog/2008/06/qa_with_jake_the_snake_roberts.html
Ring Posts is a Baltimore Sun blog about wrestling
Q&A with Jake “The Snake” Roberts
Here is the transcribed version of the brief interview I conducted
with former WWE star Jake “The Snake” Roberts last week at the Eastern
Wrestling Alliance show in Parkville.
There are so many wrestling autobiographies out there now, but I would
think your story would be as interesting as any of them. Are you
working on a book?
I just couldn’t come up with a book deal, because these book people
are [odd]. Instead of having people who don’t know me take what I say
and write it the way they want to, I think what I’m going to do is put
it on video and sell it on the Internet in installments. The people
that buy the installments and survive the first 10 or 12 chapters,
they may get a couple chapters free. I got a lot to tell. It’s going
to be very unusual, because it’s going to be about me. [Publishing
companies] always say, “We may have to enhance this and enhance that.”
What do they mean by enhance? They’re changing the facts. I’m not
about bull. It’ll be the truth.
How many independent shows are you doing these days?
One or two a week. Going out in front of people always feels good.
It’s sad that in reality, you cannot go out there and do the same
things you could do 25 years ago – and neither do I wish to. … I’ll
never retire. It’s my passion. I hope to die in that ring.
I know that you were involved on the creative side of the business at
one time in WWE. Is that something you would like to do again either
in WWE or TNA?
I would love to. I just don’t know if that’s possible. I have a
tremendous amount to give yet. How I’m going to give it, I don’t know.
Because I’m not sure at this stage of my sobriety if I would be strong
enough to accept the changes and the enhancements that they would put
on what I write. I have a real hard time not calling a spade a spade.
If I think you’re changing something I’ve done into [garbage], I take
it personally. Why? Because it’s my baby. Power in the hand of an
idiot is not a good thing, and there are a lot of idiots out there
writing television.
This is kind of a philosophical question. Many of your peers have died
within the past decade. As self-destructive as your lifestyle has
been, why do you think you’re still here?
I think that a lot of guys died because they gave up on life. They
gave up because their dream had been taken away – their notoriety,
their ability to provide for their families, their love. I’m not a
quitter. I used to get horribly angry at God. I was like, “What’s
wrong, I’m not good enough for you to take?” I mean there’s Curt
[Hennig], Bossman, Hawk. The list goes on and on. They’re all men I
love. It’s not fair when you feel like you’ve been left behind. It
ripped my guts out when Sherri Martel went. Sherri and I were lovers –
33 years ago. I remember being at her funeral and I said something
that upset some people. I said, ‘Sherri, I thought we were good
friends, but you weren’t. Good friends don’t leave friends behind.”
I’m still here because God wants me to be here. I’m still here because
Vince McMahon helped me to still be here.
When you wrestled Steve Austin at the King of the Ring pay-per-view in
1996 and he cut the famous “Austin 3:16 promo” after the match, did
you have any idea that he was going to become as big as he did?
Truth be known, Vince McMahon said that Steve Austin would never be
anything more than second or third match. I said, “No, that’s your
next megastar.” He said, “No way.” I said, “Watch.” God, I hate being
right. You know, they had Austin 3:16, but they missed the boat. What
happened to Austin’s 10 commandments? Thou shalt not kill unless thou
are [ticked off]. Thou shalt honor thy mother and father unless
they’re [jerks]. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife unless she’s
really hot. Thou shalt not steal unless you want it. I enjoyed helping
guys like Steve Austin get there. Helping Ted DiBiase get there.
Helping The Road Warriors get there. Helping Undertaker get there.
Helping Rick Martel get there. Helping Shawn Michaels get there – OK,
I was wrong on one.
Uh-oh, guess I wore the wrong shirt (I had on a Shawn Michaels shirt).
(Laughs) They have those in men’s sizes? I thought you were wearing it
for heat.
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| [MEDIA] Cochrane Times 6.26.08 Nicholson bringing wrestling back to
Cochrane Evad Seltzer 16:20:34 |
| | http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Wrestling/2008/06/26/5988286.html
Nicholson bringing wrestling back to Cochrane
Samoa Joe, Tatanka and the Honky Tonk Man headline event that will
include big revenge match
By REAGEN SULEWSKI - Cochrane Times
Wrestler Hannibal shows off The Claw, the finishing move that may
await his opponent at Cochrane Chaos on July 4 at the Spray Lake Rec
Centre. Hannibal is out for revenge after last year's event ended with
an ambush outside the ring.
There’s a score to be settled at the Spray Lakes Arena.
At the end of last year’s match during the Bad News Allen Tribute Show
between Hannibal (aka former Cochranite Devon Nicholson) and Abdullah
the Butcher , Hannibal ran into some trouble from legendary wrestler
The Great Gama and his son Gama Singh, Jr.
With the match over and Hannibal victorious, the Singhs attacked him
outside the ring, surprising him with a blast of fire.
He dodged it and escaped under the ring, where there just happened to
be a set of lights tubes that he then broke on the younger Singh’s
back.
“We aren’t on the best of terms,” said Nicholson of the Singhs,
perhaps understating the point a bit.
“There’s a lot of scores to be settled between me and them.”
The contest between Nicholson and Singh Jr. is just one of seven
scheduled contests on Friday, July 4 at Cochrane Chaos, presented by
the Prairie Wrestling Alliance.
Also on the bill are TNA Champion Samoa Joe, and former WWE stars The
Honky Tonk Man and Tatanka.
The Honky Tonk Man still holds the record as the longest running
champion in history of the WWF, holding the Intercontinental Belt for
over a year during the 1980s, and still performs about 70 shows a
year.
Although he spent much of his career playing the villain, The Honky
Tonk Man has found that his stock with the fans has risen in recent
years.
"I spent most of my career being the bad guy, but once I started
coming to the independent circuit, the fans were just so glad to see
me again, someone who had touched their lives as they were growing up,
that I turned into the good guy," he said.
"Being the good-guy I can just be myself."
And, he promises a show with his patented Elvis impersonation routine.
"I'm going to come in with the jump suit and the singing, and
hopefully someone's going to get to wear a guitar for a necktie," he
said, talking about his signature finishing move the Shake, Rattle and
Roll.
For Nicholson, the hometown show will be a chance to catch up on old
times as well as to get some payback for the events at last year’s
show.
“I’m really looking forward to going back and being in the area, and
I’m also looking forward to getting some revenge for those guys
sticking their nose in my business last year.”
Another big reason that he’s looking forward to getting back to the
area is the reception he gets.
“The fans always give me a great reception, which is different than
everywhere else,” he said.
“The fans hate me, even in Calgary, which is not that far away.”
“I’m just a violent, vicious wrestler. I got my name because my
matches usually involve blood.”
And if things go right for Hannibal, fans might get to see his
signature finishing move, The Claw, which involves him placing his
massive hands on his opponent’s temple and crushing them into
unconsciousness.
“If I had my choice, I’d use that,” Nicholson says.
The card will also feature cruiserweight matches, ones that Nicholson
says are faster-paced with more high-flying moves, compared to the
bruising heavyweight matches, along with a ladder match, and a ladies’
division match.
“Fans are going to get a good variety,” said Nicholson. “We always try
to put in a little bit of everything.”
Tickets to the show range from $10 to $30, and are available at Spray
Lakes Arena or through www.ticketweb.ca.
Doors open at 6:30 p.m., with the show starting at 7:30 p.m.
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| [MEDIA] The Oklahoman 6.27.08 Ross accepting position change Evad Seltzer 16:20:28 |
| | http://newsok.com/ross-accepting-position-change/article/3262775/?tm=1214539960
Fri June 27, 2008
Ross accepting position change
By Robert Przybylo
Staff Writer
NORMAN — Professional wrestling is all about acting and telling
stories.
But World Wrestling Entertainment Hall of Fame announcer Jim Ross has
said many times he is no actor. The emotions he displays on television
are his real feelings.
That was never more apparent than on Monday night. The WWE held its
annual draft and for the first time included announcers. Ross, who has
been the signature voice of WWE's "Monday Night Raw” television show
since 1997, was moved to its Friday night sister show, "SmackDown.”
The move was a huge surprise to Ross. Though there are many rumors
claiming Ross knew about the transition, Ross said that was not the
case.
"I had no idea,” Ross, a Norman resident, said. "That was my real
emotional response.”
While Raw is live every Monday, SmackDown is taped Tuesday and airs on
the CW network (KOCB-34 in Oklahoma City) on Friday nights.
Ross only brought one suit with him to Monday's Raw in San Antonio, so
he had to purchase a new suit at Men's Wearhouse a few hours before
the Tuesday night show in Houston. "I didn't know I was going to be
there and didn't bring any other clothes,” he said.
A few hours after the Monday event, Ross wrote an emotion-filled blog
stating his displeasure about the move. Ross was told the logic behind
the move Tuesday night and now said he is excited about the new
challenge ahead of him.
"I was just in my comfort zone, and it's tough to leave that,” Ross
said. "But now this is another opportunity to elevate ‘SmackDown' and
to help the company.”
Tonight's broadcast is Ross' first time with his new broadcast
partner, former wrestler Mick Foley. He had worked the last 11 years
with Jerry Lawler.
"SmackDown” is moving to MyNetwork TV in the fall, and the company
wants Ross to be one of the major faces to help bring in an audience.
Ross has been the focal point in helping promote the WWE this week
since "Raw” is coming to the Ford Center on Monday and "SmackDown” is
in Tulsa on Tuesday.
Ross is getting ready to launch his second JR's Family Bar-B-Q
restaurant in Moore on July 14. He opened up his first one in Norman
last July.
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| [WWW] Lance Storm 5.26.08 ROH: Canadian Debut Evad Seltzer 16:20:28 |
| | http://www.stormwrestling.com/052608.html
ROH: Canadian Debut
May 26, 2008
If you haven’t heard by now Ring of Honor will be making its Canadian
debut at the Ted Reeve Arena in Toronto on Friday July 25th. This
should be an amazing show and I cannot recommend attending this show
highly enough. If you don’t have tickets yet, you need to get them
now, because if you don’t you will be missing out. ROH puts on an
incredible show and is exactly the kind of product I think Canadian
fans and more specifically Toronto fans will love. I follow ROH on The
Fight Network and on DVD and believe me, there isn’t a company that
leaves it all in the ring like ROH.
The reason I think Canadian fans will love ROH is because, in my eyes
Canadian wrestling fans have always been more about the product and
the work rate, than about the soap opera and the story. Don’t get me
wrong, angles and story lines are important and ROH has them, but at
the end of the day, to please a Canadian crowd you’ve got to deliver
in the ring, and believe me ROH does and will. If you’ve caught ROH
before either on DVD or on The Fight Network, you know what I mean,
and if you haven’t seen a ROH show yet, now is your chance.
I’m so excited about ROH coming to Canada that I’ve even agreed to
appear at the show. I’ve mentioned many times how much I hate
traveling, and I’ve turned down more offers to make appearances at
events than I can count, but when ROH asked me about this show I
jumped at the chance to be a part of it.
I’ve always had a good relationship with ROH, and my ROH Title match,
with Bryan Danielson in Chicago back in April of 2006, is one of the
best matches of my career. I think what I like most about ROH is their
attitude and passion. Everyone I’ve dealt with in ROH has the
confidence and skill needed to succeed, yet still holds on to the
modesty and willingness to learn, required to still improve and hone
their craft. This is such an important balance and seeing it in the
guys in ROH keeps my passion for this business alive.
My exact role at the show has yet to be defined. I’ve actually been
talking with Gabe Sapolsky (ROH Booker) for a while now about coming
to some ROH events to offer whatever kind of veteran advice and
assistance I can on ring psychology to the boys, so when the Toronto
show was announced we decided this would be a great place to start,
and we could offer a little extra to the fans as well. As I said the
full extent of my involvement at the show has not been finalized but I
will at the very least be appearing at the show and available for
autographs. If you are a Storm Trooper or just a fan of great
wrestling mark July 25th on your calendar, I hope to see you there.
I will also be appearing at and available for autographs at the ROH
show in Detroit the following night (Saturday July 26th). For more
information on these shows or ROH in general be sure to check out
www.ROHWrestling.com.
Lance Storm
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| [MEDIA] Ottawa Sun 6.28.08 HHH, J.R. get caught in draft Evad Seltzer 16:20:28 |
| | http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Wrestling/2008/06/28/6014636.html
HHH, J.R. get caught in draft
By TIM BAINES - Ottawa Sun
WWE really shook up its core during its draft ceremony on RAW, then
later in the week with the supplementary draft online.
Triple H to Smackdown!
Rey Mysterio and CM Punk to RAW!
And, well, Hornswoggle to ECW (the brand really got shafted).
Triple H's move was quite likely a result of his pregnant wife
Stephanie's behind-the-scenes involvement with Smackdown! Mr. Levesque
(that would be Triple H) can now enjoy some more quality family time.
Mysterio and Punk should get plenty of face time on RAW. And Punk has
proven he can play the role of heel very well if WWE decides to go in
that direction.
And how about Jim Ross? The golden-tongued wrestling play-by-play
legend is off to Smackdown! with Michael Cole sliding into the seat
beside Jerry Lawler on RAW!
Ross was clearly surprised and not happy.
WHAT YOU THINK
Of the men listed below from the supplemental draft, who will benefit
the most?
Carlito to SD - 18% Kofi Kingston to Raw - 17%
DH Smith to SD - 15%
Shelton Benjamin to SD - 12%
Mark Henry to ECW - 10%
Finlay to ECW - 6%
Trevor Murdoch to SD - 5%
Deuce to Raw - 4%
Super Crazy to ECW - 4%
Chuck Palumbo to Raw - 3%
Matt Striker to Raw - 3%
Jamie Noble to Raw - 1%
Hornswoggle to ECW - 1%
Brian Kendrick to SD - 0%
Big Daddy V to SD - 0%
He couldn't have been the only unhappy one. Jeff Hardy was briefly
reunited with his brother on Smackdown! before Matt was sent packing
to ECW (did I mention they got jobbed?).
Here are the other moves:
- To RAW: Batista, Kane (the ECW champ), Jamie Noble, Deuce, Chuck
Palumbo, Matt Striker, Layla and Kofi Kingston.
- To Smackdown!: Umaga, Mr. Kennedy, Trevor Murdoch, Big Daddy V, DH
Smith, Brian Kendrick, Maria, Shelton Benjamin and Carlito.
- To ECW: Mark Henry, Super Crazy and Finlay.
By the way, TNA's Kurt Angle is battling knee and neck problems.
AROUND THE RING
The Ultimate Warrior returned to ring action for NWE in Spain, beating
Orlando Jordan to win the title, but then vacated the belt. The
Warrior was said to look very good, albeit with much shorter hair ...
Is Vince McMahon dead again? WWE recently scripted some equipment
tumbling onto the boss and he was taken away on a stretcher. At least
he didn't blow up this time.
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| [MEDIA] Miami Herald 6.24.08 Raw heats up during summer giveaway Evad Seltzer 16:20:15 |
| | http://www.miamiherald.com/675/story/581857.html
Raw heats up during summer giveaway
Tue, Jun. 24, 2008
WWE Chairman Vince McMahon's weekly million dollar giveaway swelled
the wallets of some lucky Monday Night RAW viewers and the ratings for
cable's No. 1 regularly scheduled weekly telecast.
In the three weeks since McMahon's Million Dollar Mania started, total
viewership for Monday Night RAW increased 25 percent in its regular
timeslot (9-11:08 p.m. ET) on the USA Network.
For the past two weeks, Monday Night RAW, in its regular time slot,
has been the No. 1 program on television among the coveted 18-49 male
demographic, beating all programming on cable and broadcast networks.
The impact on WWE's website has been equally impressive. More than two
million unique visitors came to WWE.com logging more than six million
entries during the first three weeks of the promotion.
Since June 2, web traffic to WWE.com has dramatically increased, 28
percent among unique visitors and 25 percent for page views, which now
stand at more than 15 million per day.
Additional information on World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE:
WWE) can be found at wwe.com and corporate.wwe.com. For information on
its global activities, go to wwe.com/worldwide/.
• Order WWE 24/7 On Demand in June and see new episodes of Legends of
Wrestling, WWE 24/7's original roundtable talk show series which
features insights and commentary from some of the most legendary and
noteworthy personalities, spanning decades.
WWE 24/7 On Demand also offers access to the world's largest wrestling
library including: 40 hours each month of the best classic and current
wrestling; The epic Monday Night Wars; Unforgettable matches featuring
superstars from WWE, NWA, WCW, ECW, AWA and others.
To order WWE 24/7 On Demand call 1-888-MY-WWE-247.
• WWE SmackDown! house show (no television) is 7 p.m. Sunday, July 6
at the Pensacola Civic Center in Pensacola, Fla. Tickets ($20-55) are
on sale. Visit TicketMaster outlets, TicketMaster online or call.
• WWE will tape RAW, SmackDown! and WWE's ECW on Sunday, Aug. 31 at
the Scottrade Center in St. Louis. Tickets go on sale Saturday, July
19.
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Monday, 30 June 2008
|
| 2008 OSeW Mid-Year Women's Top X Ballot Neal 00:21:32 |
| | I always loved both the year-end and mid-year awards in various communities.
It's been such a shame that the Mid-Years were absndoned until recently.
But based on the success of the Top 86 in last year's OseW Year-End Awards,
I decided to do a top list for this mid-year. Save the rest of the awards
for the Year-Ends. I strongly encourage all of you to spread the word about
this list. If you know anyone who's actively handling a female character,
or a big fan of them, please tell them. The more voters, the better. Last
year, we got only 12 ballots, which isn't very much at all.
The deadline will be in just over four weeks, SUNDAY, JUNE 8TH. Send all
ballots to synthetic67 @ sbcglobal . net (without the spaces).
With that said, here's the ballot.
2008 OSeW MID-YEAR TOP X
I would love to at the very least get a top 100 list (or more) here. We got
86 in total for the 2007 year-end awards, and I'd love to get even higher
this time. So based on the turnout for this section, the total number will
change accordingly. I asked for only 15 last year, but due to the
surprising turnout, I really think we can pull off 20 this time around -
with a required minimum of 10 from at least four separate feds. Any ballot
that doesn't submit the required minimum will not be accepted. Points will
be awarded from highest to lowest. So someone who gets voted #1 will get 20
points, and someone voted #20 will get 1.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
Again, send all ballots to synthetic67 @ sbcglobal . net (without the spaces
inbetween).
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