Matt Hardy had emergency surgery to have his appendix removed. Whilst I wouldn’t wish an injury on anyone (much less someone like Matt Hardy who I really appreciate as a wrestler), I was open about my distaste for how the MPV/Hardy storyline had been handled in the last week. I figured that the whole thing had exploded way too soon and that we might see it finished up at Armageddon, rather than at WrestleMania where it deserved to be slowly build up to and then ended properly. Now, as unfortunate for Hardy as it may be, we could yet see this happen. He may be out for any time between one and three months. This should see him back either at the Royal Rumble or around No Way Out. Perfect. It may not have been how he wanted to do it, but both he and MVP could great benefit from this unfortunate incident – if the writers don’t just decide to drop the feud altogether in the mean time.
ECW has recruited Shelton Benjamin to their roster. This move could be great for Benjamin with his athletic talent and he will undoubtedly be given more screen time on ECW than he would have got on Raw. This will hopefully allow him to develop in the charisma and talking department. If he is paired up with Elijah Burke too, he will only be able to improve. Hell, we may even see some sort of new Nation of Domination reforming on the extreme brand. This also adds a great new talent that will help out the ECW brand in general and hopefully adds a new challenger for CM Punk who will be able to wrestle quality matches. I don’t see Vince holding this feud off for too long so I doubt it will make it to WrestleMania, but it should make for a good series of matches.
Unfortunately, this could spell doom for Charlie Haas who isn’t going to make it on his own on Raw, never seems to get anywhere on Smackdown, and if they were going to move him to ECW, they would have probably done it with Shelton already.
Tomko has had some sort of emergency surgery. Details on this are very sketchy as it seems to have actually happened in Japan. I don’t know how serious the injury is in regards to missing ring time, but if it is anything substantial (i.e., more than a week or two) then this is bad news for both Tomko and TNA. He is supposed to be main eventing Turning Point (which I am sure neither wants to sacrifice) and he is also on fire, in-ring wise, in both the Japanese promotion and in TNA at the minute. This is just the wong time, for him personally, to be needing to take an absence from wrestling.
Kevin Thorne is back with a different look. Is it just me or did this guy look even scarier out of the vampire gear!? I like the new look (though I think he needs new music now we know who he is again). He looks serious, he looks intimidating, and he looks like he could physically destroy an opponent. Obviously he is the same guy though he has modified his offence slightly. I liked what I saw though and I would be happy to see him given a decent push again in the near future.
The 1PW promotion has announced that Ulf Herman and Sandman will go one on one to decide who the real hardcore icon is. This match will be pretty brutal and I look forward to seeing them together. Sandman always gets the crowd involved in these matches and Ulf is just willing to do anything to make a match look good. The only downside to this is that it looks weak, storyline wise, as Ulf is just abandoning his heavyweight title without even looking at his rematch.
They also announced that Doug Williams is returning to the promotion after international tours and that SJK will be challenged by either Abyss or Scorpio. Whilst the Scorpio prospect would probably result in the better looking match, we are well over due our Abyss vs. SJK feud now!
So that Nasty Boys are back in the WWE.
The Nasty Boys are out of the WWE.
I did mean to put this in as two news items, as this whole thing just made me laugh. The two made a really big deal out of them getting a tryout in the WWE and how they were teaming up together for the first time in years. There were even reports that they performed really well and were likely to be picked up to a contract. Then it all fell apart. The Nasty Boys have nothing left to give to the WWE audience and they proved by how they acted that they are no longer worth bothering about. They treated their opponents like crap and how no idea how to act around the WWE ring. I hope they are not given another chance if I am completely honest.
TNA has come up with ANOTHER type of match; the Feast or Fired match. 15 men will face off with each other for four briefcases. Three of them will contain title shots (are we going to get one man going after the tag titles again?) and one will contain a pink slip. This all seems a little strange to me and it reeks of Russo not being able to come up with any decent storylines for the champions that TNA currently has. I am all for title tournaments and contendership matches, but we just had the Fight for the Right and the title match was over and done with the next night. Now we are having another title shot match and the same will happen. Hire some writers that can actually think of reasons for these matches for God’s sake!
The Elimination Chamber is coming back in February at the No Way Out event next year. The idea is for the match to be a number one contender match for the brand that did not produce a Royal Rumble winner. I really like this idea. In recent years, the elimination match has ruined the events they were held on as they saturated the card and took away too many high profile wrestlers. This probably wouldn’t be too much of a problem this year with the brands both being represented on both shows, but, by removing the title from the match, we are guaranteed two title matches and a high profile match, that is actually worth something to the six involved, as well.
Sting has been offered a new contract for the next year. Apparently he is spending time with his family through until January and then he will be back for his final year in professional wrestling. Whilst this explains where he is now, it doesn’t explain the horrible booking decision behind him winning the world title for four days this year. Anyway, I am glad for TNA that Sting is likely to be around for another year as he certainly still has something to give back to the promotion. I am still waiting on a proper feud between him and Christian Cage and then with Christopher Daniels. If one of these can end in the retirement of Sting this time next year, then I am certain that someone can be truly solidified as a main event for life.
Lashley is rumoured to be returning in less than a month. Oh no. I had completely forgotten about this guy. I am really not looking forward to his return and I wish that he would be going back to the ECW brand. Not because I want to see him there but just because I really don’t want him on Raw and I don’t want him in the main event scene on Smackdown. He will probably be in the main event scene soon after his return whereas he would be much better used in the mid-card, but due to his size, you know that Vince wants him pushed. Off the top of my head, I believe that it was Kennedy that was made responsible for his injury, so that probably means we will see the two of them feuding together pretty soon – which is a shame if that results in the HBK/Kennedy feud being cut short before it even gets going – even more so when you compare the likely quality of the two possible matches (Kennedy vs. HBK and Kennedy vs. Lashley).
I guess it is big news in wrestling but I don’t really want to go into it. Hulk Hogan is getting a divorce from his wife Linda. A lot has gone in The Bollea family recently and we have no idea why this is happening at the minute. I hope the whole thing can be kept quite quiet for the sake of the family.
A short feud between MVP and Jeff Hardy is being discussed. I have been saying this all week but this needs to happen now. This feud can produce some classic matches, or even one great match at Armageddon/Royal Rumble, but it needs to be done quickly. I am intrigued by the possibilities of putting JBL and MVP together and going up against Rey Mysterio, but that can be done at any time. Jeff and MVP could feud in the future but if they want to capitalise on the intensity caused by the whole MVP/Matt Hardy storyline, then it needs to happen now.
Contrary to what was being reported last week, it now seems to be that TNA did want Sabu to join the roster. It was being reported that he wasn’t required at present, but now it seems that TNA did want him last week and that he was supposed to be getting involved in the Abyss/Reign/Rellik storyline. There were supposedly long term plans for him but he missed his flight and his spot went to Rhino – who TNA is happy to use instead. As well as Sabu would fit here, there seems to be no point in bringing him in just for the sake of it when Rhino, who was doing nothing at all, could be inserted in his place. Rhino has been in TNA for a good while now and deserves to be used ahead of newer talent (I am aware than Sabu was in TNA before Rhino) so I am actually quite glad about this, for now.
It has finally been confirmed that Carlito has given notice to the WWE. He is said to be on his way out and that he will be allowed to work anywhere he wants except for TNA until his contract expires. This is a shame for Carlito, and for WWE as well, as we all saw how talented the guy could be if he put his mind to it. His early days in the company showed that he had great potential, but a series of badly handled scenarios by both parties have lead to an untenable relationship between the two. I hope that Carlito will be able to get his passion back by working in Puerto Rico for a while and that maybe we will see him back in WWE some time in the future. That would certainly be cool.
Ric Flair is back and he has signed a new 3 year deal with the company. Despite this, it still seems that the current plan is for him to have his final run culminate at WrestleMania 24, but that he will remain with the company as an agent afterwards. I am really relieved that Flair is back and I am more than happy with how his last run is looking to pan out. The “lose and you’re gone” storyline will be great for him and we could see some classic matches with real meaning behind them before he finally bows out next year. I am also happy to see that he will be staying with the company for the long run as well, as Flair is certainly someone who can bring something to the table for the next generation of wrestlers. He has an unlimited knowledge of the business and that should certainly be taken advantage of. He would also make a great manager or General Manager for the future – but only if he is kept out of the ring. I don’t want his retirement to be spoilt by multiple comebacks, even if that is what retirement actually means these days.