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This week, The Return of ECW, Hardcore Holly Seriously Ill, The Return Of Low Ki, ...
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This week, The Return of ECW, Hardcore Holly Seriously Ill, The Return Of Low Ki, TNA to Debut in the ECW Arena and much more.
WWE
ECW To Return!
Dave Scherer is reporting that WWE has made the decision to bring back Extreme Championship Wrestling as a full time entity. While all of the details remain sketchy, WWE has already sent contracts out to several former ECW talents in order to bring them in for the return of the promotion. Early reports indicate that WWE is targeting September as the date to bring ECW back full time.
There is a possibility that it will take over current OVW territory and would get matches on RAW and/or SmackDown in some manner. Former ECW owner Paul Heyman and hardcore legend Tommy Dreamer will be booking ECW.
As mentioned, the contracts that WWE have sent out are three year deals consisting of a series of one year contracts, with rollover clauses. Names that we can confirm that have been offered deals include The Sandman, Francine, and Balls Mahoney. All three of them should receive their contracts this week.
WWE is not looking to add a third day to their television schedule. It is believed this will be a mix of both former ECW wrestlers and new WWE developmental wrestlers who have been working house shows under Paul Heyman.
Speaking of Heyman, he will be in charge of the ECW brand. The plan is to run house shows and some form of weekly television as well.
Dave Meltzer reports that it would likely be handled similar to the Superstars deal in the late 90s, with weekly matches taped before either the Raw or Smackdown tapings.
Mikk’s Opinion:This should be great if they handle it properly by letting Heyman & Dreamer take complete control and not have people like Vince hanging over them telling them what to do and what needs to be changed.
Its good to see they will be giving the developmental talent a place to wrestle instead of kicking them out altogether.
Hopefully they will be able to get a few of the old faces back to help the new talent gain experience.
Also hopefully they will remove Styles from Raw to truly bring ECW back.
This does sound very cool because its what most fans will like to see.
Hardcore Holly Seriously Ill.
Hardcore Holly is one of the toughest competitors to ever step inside the squared circle. He has come out on top of countless battles over the years, but he’s currently facing the toughest battle of his life. Holly has been out of action since November and is currently at home suffering a serious staph infection. Doctors have told Holly that he’s lucky to not only still have his arm, but also to be alive. While Holly is currently taking extremely strong antibiotics to treat the infection, he’s not out of the woods from this life-threatening scare just yet.
Mikk’s Opinion: This is quite concerning for a man like him. Hopefully he will recover from this and we may see him back sometime in the future.
Styles To Do Heat For 1 Week.
With The Coach still in Europe with the other RAW Superstars, Joey Styles will be doing play-by-play on WWE.com HEAT this week while Todd Grisham slides over to do colour commentary. Styles made the following comments when asked about his participation on WWE.com HEAT.
"I am very excited about my first online broadcast. From the moment I discovered the world wide web, I felt that the Internet would be the most influential medium of our time, more so than the telephone or even television. In the not so distant future, we will all have the ability to watch full-screen, television quality streaming video online and I am chomping at the bit to participate in any and all projects with WWE.com.
"I will be much less restrained on WWE.com's HEAT than I am on television's Monday Night RAW. WWE.com fans will hear more of the old Joey Styles, the Extreme Announcer. With my luck, my sarcasm will get me banned from WWE.com," joked Styles. "Grish (Todd Grisham) is one of the funniest people I have ever met, and doing colour commentary rather than play-by-play should give Todd more opportunity to showcase his strange sense of humour. The fact that I am a perfect straight man in that I pitch softballs to my colour men and enjoy self-deprecating humour should have The Grishman salivating like The King during a WWE Divas Bra and Panties Match."
Mikk’s Opinion: Lets hope they see how well Styles can do without someone feeding him lines in his ear. This will have to be something to see if he does well.
Kurt Angle Possibly Injured.
Reports indicate that Kurt Angle was said to have been in a lot of pain following last night's SmackDown! TV taping in London England. He was seen leaving Wembley Arena holding his arm and his shoulder. There is the possibility that Angle and WWE were just trying to work the fans, however WWE officials threw up the "X" sign (usually a sign that a wrestler has suffered a legitimate injury) after the cameras stopped rolling at last night's show. The possible injury came as a result of the running splash through the table at the hands of Mark Henry.
It should be noted that Kurt Angle is currently working through a serious neck injury that should be keeping him out of action for several months and is said to be in pain and severe discomfort on most days as it is.
Mikk’s Opinion: This is potentially very bad for Smackdown considering how weak there current main event pool is. If they were to lose someone like Angle for any amount of time it would be very damaging to the Smackdown brand.
Lets hope Vince can see this is happening and shuffle the roster a bit by bringing some of the Raw talent over to help out.
Lesnar & WWE Settle Lawsuit.
Brock Lesnar and WWE have reached a settlement agreement on the non-compete lawsuit.
Lesnar was looking to get out of his non-compete for anything related to sports entertainment as well as ultimate fighting through the year 2010, world wide.
Terms were not announced. Lesnar will be able to participate in wrestling and ultimate fighting with certain agreed upon restrictions, as it was not a full victory to Lesnar. While not stated, it is believed he would not be allowed to work for TNA. Lesnar is said to be considering doing MMA, now that he is legally able.
Mikk’s Opinion: Well lets hope he is able to work some smaller Indy’s around the world like ROH or even 1PW in the UK. Places like that would certainly benefit from the likes of Lesnar appearing on there shows.
Sabu Signs With WWE.
Terry Brunk better known as Sabu has officially signed a WWE contract last night.
Sabu was currently working for TNA Wrestling and is better known for his appearances with ECW in the 1990’s.
The contract which Sabu signed with WWE will last for one year with an option to renew the contract at the end of the year’s deal.
Mikk’s Opinion: Hopefully this will only be a contract for the ECW brand and not for a Smackdown or Raw brand because he won’t really fit on either of those shows.
Smackdown Hits Lowest Rating.
Last week's edition of Smackdown did its worst number of the year, achieving a 2.1 broadcast rating, with a 3.8 share. It should be noted that Smackdown has been constantly pre-empted since the start of the MLB season.
This was the worst rating since the 12/23/05 edition of Smackdown that did a 2.1 rating. However, that episode was the 2005 recap show. The worst rating of 2005 took place on 9/9/05, when Smackdown pulled a 1.7 rating. However, the first hour of that episode was pulled due to a special fundraising concert to help people affected by Hurricane Katrina.
Mikk’s Opinion: This should be a warning to WWE Management that they need to bring Smackdown up to Raw standards.
And also maybe its time to have Smackdown live instead of recorded.
TNA
TNA to Debut In ECW Arena.
(Wednesday, April 26th, 2006) TNA Wrestling will invade Philadelphia for the first time ever Saturday, June 9th! The TNA signature six-sided-ring will invade the New Alhambra Arena for a one night engagement featuring the top stars of Spike TV’s TNA iMPACT!
The first match announced for this huge event will be a rematch of what many consider to be the greatest match in the history of TNA, “The Samoan Submission Machine†Samoa Joe vs. “The Phenomenal†AJ Styles vs. “The Fallen Angel†Christopher Daniels for the X-Division title!
"There have been some incredible three-way matches in that building... But nothing like the fans will see this night," says two-time X-Division champion “The Fallen Angel†Christopher Daniels. "This will be a very special night, and we have every intention on not only topping ourselves, but topping the previous two-way matches that have been held in this historic building as well."
Also appearing June 9th will be the New Alhambra debut of "The King of the Mountain" Jeff Jarrett.
"I've been waiting for the day that I could step foot in that dump of a building and tell those idiot fans in Philadelphia what I really think of them ... face to face." Jarrett said from his Nashville home. "Those Philadelphia fans are used to nothing but backyard wrestlers. It’s about time they will finally get to see what a real third generation wrestling superstar looks like."
Other TNA stars scheduled to appear are Abyss, America's Most Wanted and Rhino, with several more major names to be announced before tickets go on sale this Saturday.
This event will also have a very special event prior to the show called "The Ultimate Experience" in which fans will get to enter the building early and participate in a meet and greet autograph/photo session with all appearing talent prior to the shows. During the Ultimate Experience, fans will also get to climb in and have their picture taken inside TNA's innovative six-sided-ring!
In order to maximize the interaction with TNA talent for those who attend “The Ultimate Experience†event, tickets will be limited to the first 100 fans when they go on sale this Saturday morning, April 29th.
Mikk’s Opinion: This will be great for TNA. Hopefully the event will get them more fans across America.
Low Ki Re-Signs with TNA.
Low Ki has signed a deal with TNA as well. Low Ki didn't want to sign over the rights of his name to TNA, which is why he will be going under the name of Senshi. After Jushin "Thunder" Liger pulled out of the Lockdown pay-per-view, TNA approached Low Ki. Had TNA not been able to come to terms with Low Ki, Lance Storm would have been the backup plan in the match with Christopher Daniels. It is not known if Storm would have received a one shot deal or a full-term contract.
Mikk’s Opinion: This will be good for TNA if they use him correctly. He is a very good wrestler and its good to see him back.
Christy Hemme Signs With TNA.
Christy Hemme will be a permanent fixture on TNA broadcasts because she signed a contract with the company.
Mikk’s Opinion: Hopefully this will launch the Women’s Division in TNA with a recognized face fronting it.
ROH
Claudio Castagnoli Revealed As CZW Mole.
ROH lost much more than a match in last night's main event. The CZW team of Chris Hero, Necro Butcher & Super Dragon defeated the ROH team of Samoa Joe, Adam Pearce & BJ Whitmer when Claudio Castagnoli turned on ROH and sided with Chris Hero, who he teams with in every other promotion. ROH's 100th show ended with team CZW celebrating in the CZW bleachers and the ROH fans shocked. We did not work for 100 shows to have things end like this. CZW already ruined our ECW Arena debut and now they've taken our 100th show celebration away from us. There will be hell to pay and it will start next week in Ohio.
Mikk’s Opinion: This was a fairly big swerve in ROH as nobody actually knew who it would be. This feud is one of the best angles in wrestling history and has been going since January with no ending in sight.
The bookers have done a fantastic job with this and it has captured both sets of fans.
And now Castagnoli will face Samoa Joe at the weekend which will more than likely be very one sided.
1PW
British Cruiserweights to Shine At Know Your Enemy.
Recently, we broke the news that 1PW had signed one of the most skilled risk-takers in all the United Kingdom, the man very appropriately dubbed “The Man That Gravity Forgot†PAC! Shortly thereafter, it was clear Pac would have a golden opportunity to shine in the environment he knows best, as he was named the first official participant in a multi-man Cruiserweight Invitational to be held Saturday night, May 27 as part of night two of the historic “Know Your Enemy†supercard taking place at the Doncaster Dome. Since the time of that announcement, 1PW front offices have been inundated with requests from athletes across the country looking to be part of what is sure to be a very unique and energetic encounter. After a thorough search, 1PW has chosen what they feel to be the 4 most deserving individuals. Therefore, joining Pac in the Cruiserweight Open May 27 will be 1PW’s most unlikely success story SPUD, in addition to two young lions who have more than proved their dedication and work ethic, I’m referring to STEVIE LYNN and DRAGON AISU. In addition, 1PW has confirmed the debut of yet another UK sensation, as EL LIGERO makes his first appearance inside a 1 Pro Wrestling ring on May 27. All 5 men have glory on their mind, and whoever emerges victorious may just be glory bound in a match that may need air traffic controllers to restore order when it’s all said and done.
Mikk’s Opinion: This is really good news as it shows 1PW is really trying to push the British talent. And people say 1PW isn’t British.
Top 10
This Week: Top 10 Entrance Themes.
10. William Regal - Real Man
9. Sterling James Keenan - Mainling Murder
8. AJ Styles - I Am
7. Christopher Daniels - Disposable Teens
6. Triple H - My Time
5. Brian Kendrick - Hey You
4. Team Canada - Canadian National Anthem
3. DX Original
2. James Gibson - A Country Boy Can Survive
1. FBI - Stayin’ Alive
Linear Mode
