Professional Wrestling (WWE, TNA, ROH, etc)

I wasn't aware either of them were in their 40s just yet, I thought HBK was around 36 and HHH was also in his early 30s.

actually, HBK is close to, if not into, his 40s, while last i heard HHH was 38-39.

Source: Wrestlezone (from the Wrestling Observer)

Source: The Wrestling Observer Newsletter

Randy Orton is the latest wrestler in a long line of wrestlers to violate the WWE's Wellness Program. Sources within WWE have confirmed that Randy Orton recently failed to meet the requirements to pass the WWE Wellness Program drug test. Also, WWE officials found over eight bottles of non-prescription Painkillers in Randy Orton's dressing bag at a recent event. Vince McMahon recently had a talk with talent from all three brands in which he warned them about the use of Painkillers. And if that isn't enough, it should be noted that Orton has tested positive for steriod use within the last two months.

Seeing how he will be a vital part of SummerSlam when he does battle with Hulk Hogan, it remains to be seen if WWE will punish him, thus complicating this important storyline. If action isn't taken, it will be highly unfair to Rob Van Dam, not to mention that it will look very bad in the eyes of the public.

There will be more on this story as it develops.

LOL. RVD, SABU and Orton i wonder who else will mess up.

Drugs are bad.

I haven't watched wrestling in ages, when is the next big main event, Summerslam?

I just watched 30 minutes of Smackdown, it was absolutely terrible. What the fuck is with that representative of Quebec or whatever it is? That has to be the most boring, pointless thing I've ever seen on the WWE.

ueah, weird he went back to that gimmick.

also, why did a world title #1 contender match consist of people like scotty 2 hotty, regal, finlay, matt hardy, funaki, kendrick, london, noble, kash, and kennedy?

hey, scotty 2 hotty is championship material....he has the ability to knock out a guy for at least 30 seconds while he dances before delivering a devastating chop!

scotty 2 hotty, regal, finlay, matt hardy, funaki, kendrick, london, noble, kash, and kennedy?

Fear "the worm" damn it!
I wouldn't mind London as long as he's allowed to do most of his preferred moves.

I miss Matt Hardy's "Mattitude" gimmick. I love reading those crazy facts about him while he makes his entrance.

scotty 2 hotty, regal, finlay, matt hardy, funaki, kendrick, london, noble, kash, and kennedy?

Fear "the worm" damn it!

yes, nothing beats scotty 2 hotty's worm......except scotty 2 hotty.

but seriously, a world title 31 contendership match consisting entirely of jobbers? give me a break. i called the result before the match even started.

I have some thoughts/ideas based on what I've seen over the last couple of weeks. Keep in mind that I stopped watching wrestling a few years ago and am still bitter that the nWo were mis-used...

Merge the rosters. Smackdown is awful, RAW isn't much better but combined they'd trim alot of the rubbish.

DO NOT have random guys come out to give 3 minute long in-ring promos that don't generate any sort of crowd reaction whatsoever. If you're going to have these people talk, at least get them to do it BEFORE their match. The Quebec guy was pointless and terrible.

Charisma, mic ability > wrestling ability. Guys like The Rock and Stone Cold weren't exactly artists in the ring, but people loved/hated them because they gave them something to love/hate, which leads me onto my next point...

Get rid of the Captain Nobody's in their generic coloured trunks. Either give them a gimmick or piss them off. No one wants to see some random guy wrestling, because most of the in-ring stuff is boring without any sort of meaning.

Start to push guys based on their ability to deliver a good promo. It's almost painful watching some of these guys in the ring talking, while the crowd stays completely silent. Did anyone alive want to see Rocky Maivia as champion? No. The Rock? Absolutely.

Stables are great, IF THEY ARE DONE PROPERLY. A stable isn't a group of friends who sometimes go to the ring with one of their buddies. Booker T and his friends is a prime example. Look at the great stables over the years, DX, nWo, the Ministry Of Darkness, Nation of Domination, The Corporation etc... they all had an identity. They represented the stable, and had a presence. That is definitely lacking these days.

A bit of theatrics to help a gimmick never hurt. It seems that wrestlers are relying entirely on their in-ring antics to put the gimmick over, and it's not happening.

I'm sure there's others but I've forgotten by now. It's a really sad state of affairs though

Man... the WWE gives Rob Van Dam the WWE Title AND the ECW Title, and he just has to go out and mess it up... RVD is probably gonna be rarely used in the main event now

hey, scotty 2 hotty is championship material....he has the ability to knock out a guy for at least 30 seconds while he dances before delivering a devastating chop!

It's funny how when I was playing SDvR on my friend's PS2, and I was using the Undertaker, he was using Scotty 2 Hotty, and I gave him 2 Last Rides(an elevated powerbomb... and Undertaker is 6'10) throughout the match, and he wasn't knocked out (KO was turned on). And then he gets me into position and pulls off the worm(a simple chop across the chest!) and I get knocked out? Fear "the worm" indeed...

I have some thoughts/ideas based on what I've seen over the last couple of weeks. Keep in mind that I stopped watching wrestling a few years ago and am still bitter that the nWo were mis-used...

Merge the rosters. Smackdown is awful, RAW isn't much better but combined they'd trim alot of the rubbish.

only every other person watching wwe right now agrees with you...hopefully with this ecw thing, that will happen.

:arrow: DO NOT have random guys come out to give 3 minute long in-ring promos that don't generate any sort of crowd reaction whatsoever. If you're going to have these people talk, at least get them to do it BEFORE their match. The Quebec guy was pointless and terrible.

damn straight. didn't help that it was in french either. i can only hope that this is actually going somewhere (a run-in next week perhaps), but it is certainly better than ECW putting a stripper on the stage for a good seven minutes of a one hour show....at least parents aren't going to be concerned about a guy speaking french.

:arrow: Charisma, mic ability > wrestling ability. Guys like The Rock and Stone Cold weren't exactly artists in the ring, but people loved/hated them because they gave them something to love/hate, which leads me onto my next point...

people seem to completely miss this point (cena is a prime example), and thus vince mcmahon keeps pushing the big steroid-filled guys with no charisma, while releasing people like christian.

:arrow: Get rid of the Captain Nobody's in their generic coloured trunks. Either give them a gimmick or piss them off. No one wants to see some random guy wrestling, because most of the in-ring stuff is boring without any sort of meaning.

anyone in mind with this comment?

:arrow: Start to push guys based on their ability to deliver a good promo. It's almost painful watching some of these guys in the ring talking, while the crowd stays completely silent. Did anyone alive want to see Rocky Maivia as champion? No. The Rock? Absolutely.

They did that with cena, and the fans absolutely hated on him because he got pushed. this would explain their reluctance to do it again. most smarks completely disregard promo skills in place of technical ability. and then complain when no-one can cut a decent promo

:arrow: Stables are great, IF THEY ARE DONE PROPERLY. A stable isn't a group of friends who sometimes go to the ring with one of their buddies. Booker T and his friends is a prime example. Look at the great stables over the years, DX, nWo, the Ministry Of Darkness, Nation of Domination, The Corporation etc... they all had an identity. They represented the stable, and had a presence. That is definitely lacking these days.

well, this euro-royalty stable is the first in over a year, so at least the concept is back.

anyone in mind with this comment?

I don't know their names just yet, but there's been about 6 of them in the last 2 episodes of Smackdown I've seen. Admittedly it's not as bad on RAW, but Smackdown really reminds me of some bad WCW episodes.

rumours are that the brothers of destruction will reunite at summerslam......and randy orton has got off scot-free on the drugs.

i havent watched smackdown in weeks. it doesnt help that its on fridays and i go out on fridays. i watched TNA yesterday and well its more entertaining then smackdown. too bad its only 1HR. anyways i might watch smackdown cause of batista but i already read the spoilers so i dont think ill miss much if i dont watch it.

smackdown these days is nothing next to raw.....

i remember back when i started watching i thought SD was the better show, with the cruiserweights and whatnot. but theyve since declined, had their moves banned etc etc, and now with the DX reunion, raw is finally on top. i usually only watch the first hour and a half of SD, and read spoilers for the main event. an hour and a half is all i can stand of that crap.

A rumor going around certain websites suggesting Randy Orton was caught violating the WWE Wellness Policy is wholly without merit.

While Orton did participate in a number of incidents prior to his suspension, none were drug-related in the sense conveyed in the inaccurate rumor, and nothing bad has taken place since Orton returned to the road.

The rumors were attributed to the Wrestling-Observer Newsletter, which never printed such a story.

Merge the rosters. Smackdown is awful, RAW isn't much better but combined they'd trim alot of the rubbish.

Spot on.

DO NOT have random guys come out to give 3 minute long in-ring promos that don't generate any sort of crowd reaction whatsoever. If you're going to have these people talk, at least get them to do it BEFORE their match. The Quebec guy was pointless and terrible.

Agreed. Having characters that the fans give a damn about would help too.

Charisma, mic ability > wrestling ability. Guys like The Rock and Stone Cold weren't exactly artists in the ring, but people loved/hated them because they gave them something to love/hate, which leads me onto my next point...

I agree to a point, but those guys were still very solid in-ring performers. Even though their matches may not have been as technically sound as a Bret Hart/Curt Hennig match from back in the day, they were still entertaining. But their charisma and promo skills did carry them and made you care about the story.

Get rid of the Captain Nobody's in their generic coloured trunks. Either give them a gimmick or piss them off. No one wants to see some random guy wrestling, because most of the in-ring stuff is boring without any sort of meaning.

They definitely need to make everyone stand out a bit more, but the way they're coming up with characters these days they should avoid gimmicks that are in any way wacky. Pirate Paul kind of worked because it was made clear that Burchill didn't actually believe he was a pirate, he was doing it for fun and to honour his supposed heritage.

Start to push guys based on their ability to deliver a good promo. It's almost painful watching some of these guys in the ring talking, while the crowd stays completely silent. Did anyone alive want to see Rocky Maivia as champion? No. The Rock? Absolutely.

I think they still need to be solid in the ring though, even though promo skills can carry a wrestler a long way.

Stables are great, IF THEY ARE DONE PROPERLY. A stable isn't a group of friends who sometimes go to the ring with one of their buddies. Booker T and his friends is a prime example. Look at the great stables over the years, DX, nWo, the Ministry Of Darkness, Nation of Domination, The Corporation etc... they all had an identity. They represented the stable, and had a presence. That is definitely lacking these days.

Evolution worked much better than the pseud-stable of Booker T, Finlay and Regal but that's probably been the lone exception since the Attitude era.

A bit of theatrics to help a gimmick never hurt. It seems that wrestlers are relying entirely on their in-ring antics to put the gimmick over, and it's not happening.

A lot of wrestlers these days can't really play to the crowd, whether its during a match or a promo. The best most heels can muster is to resort to cheap heat by insulting the city or the fans or telling them to shut up. Those are classic heel traits of course but it seems that's all they can do these days to draw heat. The older and more experienced wrestlers are better at it but on the whole the crowd isn't worked as well as they used to be.

They did that with cena, and the fans absolutely hated on him because he got pushed. this would explain their reluctance to do it again. most smarks completely disregard promo skills in place of technical ability. and then complain when no-one can cut a decent promo

I agree, a lot of the criticisms of smarks these days contradict each other or place the product in a no-win situation. If Cena hadn't been pushed as near-invincible though, constantly overcoming the odds as strongly as he had been up until One Night Stand, I think the reactions might have been a bit better. His promos aren't as good as they were in early 2005 either. They've gotten a bit corny and the fact they keep pushing him against the crowd reaction doesn't work in his favour either. He should've turned heel at some point and then won the fans over before turning face again.

Chesapeake Man Claims Injury By WWE Wrestler

A Chesapeake man says he had a run-in with a WWE wrestler and came away with an injured arm.

The incident took place last Sunday night after a WWE Raw house show at Norfolk Scope.

27-year-old Jason Wilson spotted two WWE Superstars in a car, waiting at a red light.

Wilson says Women's Champion Mickie James gave him an autograph, but "Kenny" ripped his sign, and gave him a shoulder strain.

"I always got autographs by male and female wrestlers. And they've always been polite. He was the only one who acted that way," said Wilson in an interview at his Chesapeake home.

Kenny is 20-year-old Ken Doane, a tag-team champion who plays the role of an evil male cheerleader. Wilson says Kenny held onto his sign after the traffic light turned green.

"That's when it ripped in the end and fell on the ground," said Wilson. "And it's not my fault he did what he did. I'm innocent and I'm going to take a warrant out. And nobody's going to stop me over my dead body!"

Wilson's doctor and diagnosed him with a left shoulder strain. He's now on medication.

Wilson called World Wrestling Entertainment. Gary Davis, Vice President for corporate communicaitons, says the company offered Wilson autographed photos but Wilson refused and asked for money. That's when WWE asked for a written report.

The company is also standing behind 'Kenny', saying the only contact he made was when Mickie James signed the poster. They don't know how Wilson got hurt.

Wilson says he knows the difference between real and fake and believes Kenny did more than just play his character.

"I just do. I feel the way I do because he was real. And not just he ripped my poster, which is a misdemeanor, but then he hurt my arm and shoulder," said Wilson.

Wilson has been in touch with Scope management. He also plans to go to the Norfolk magistrate's office tomorrow to try to get a misdemeanor charge.

first RVD and Sabu, then randy orton rumors, now this...

WWE has just announced that Hulk Hogan and his daughter Brooke will make an appearance at Saturday Night's Main Event. The show will see Edge defend the WWE championship against John Cena, a Bikini Bull Riding Contest and a 6 man tag match from SmackDown.

and for australian viewers:

The special will air on Monday July 17th at 3.30pm (EST) on Fox8

Kenny is 20-year-old Ken Doane, a tag-team champion who plays the role of an evil male cheerleader.

In one sentence they've unintentionally summed up the shortcomings of the WWE's creative team.

Thanks for the heads up on SNME, koberulz.

The guy's probably not injured whatsoever, but anyone who is happy to play the role of a male cheerleader on TV deserves to be sued for these things.

--As previously reported, Jeff Hardy showed up at the Roanoke, VA Smackdown taping on 6/27, even though it was 4 hours away from his home in Cameron, North Carolina. What's funny is that he didn't bother to show up at the 6/26 RAW the day before in Fayettville, NC, which is 15 minutes away from his home. Jeff is doing better and there is strong talk of a Hardy Boyz reunion in the WWE within the next few months. This is not confirmed just yet though and Jeff is still under contract with TNA.

imagine that. he showed up at the smackdown taping, where his brother was wrestling, and not at the RAW taping, where his brother wasn't wrestling. How strange.

--There remains no plans to bring Jeff Hardy back to TNA TV. Although Hardy has been praised for making all of his scheduled bookings for recent TNA/UWF House Show events, many have pointed out how the shows are only a short distance from Hardy's home in North Carolina, so it didn't take much for him to show up. The feeling is that while TNA would like to invest time in Hardy, they don't feel he is reliable enough given his track record of no showing past TNA events that hurt the company storyline wise.

--Chris Jericho has been telling various media outlets in interviews that he is heavily interested in pursuing a career in acting.


--Eric Bischoff's WWE contract is rumored to be expiring this week.


--The Pro Wrestling Torch is reporting that Gunner Scott has been sent back to Ohio Valley Wrestling for what has been described as further development. WWE shot an angle two weeks ago on SmackDown where The Great Khali and Daivari put Scott in a body bag. So if it didn't make sense then, it does now.

Jeff hardy just wants to go back to WWE

I think it's better if he goes back. TNA doesn't really want him. Plus it'll boost both Hardy's careers to make them tag again. Their singles run seems to be going nowhere. For Jeff, it was mostly his fault because of his drugs and tardiness.

It'll definitely give Matt Hardy a chance to be shown more respect by the creative team since no one seems to have confidence in him as a singles competitor. Jeff will have to improve his attitude if he wants another decent run in the WWE but I guess they'll just cut him loose again if he screws up since TNA doesn't seem to have any longterm plans for him.

thing is, with jeff's no-showing and drug problems, he'd last a week.

--
WWE is working on anthology box sets for Summerslam and the Royal Rumble following the successful sales of the WrestleMania Anthology set last year.

--According to people associated with the MTV project, Sean Waltman will not be returning to World Wrestling Entertainment anytime soon.

--Since WWE announced his indefinite suspension, speculation on the Internet has focused on the notion that Chris Masters violated the Wellness Policy by testing positive for steroids. According to the Wrestling-Observer Newsletter, however, he did not fail a steroid test. While he was taken off the road due to a presently unknown drug issue, it apparently was not due to the steroid portion of the new policy.