Mania 24 venue, Roids in the news, RVD, J.R advice, Austin/fight scenes, Pride sale and lawsuit, more

By Art Shimko
shimko_7@hotmail.com

-- As reported here earlier today, Wrestlemania 24 takes place at Orlando's Citrus Bowl next March. Meanwhile, the Sports Illustrated steroids article involving 11 WWE wrestlers named has made the rounds in the press the last two days including Ken Doane/Dykstra defending the Fed while on a press tour in Canada for Mania. "If people want to look for substances, why don't they just look at bodybuilders? Look at those guys." Well this probe into the questionable acquisition of HGH and steroids by WWE wrestlers will lead to other major athletes in MLB, the NFL, etc. being investigated. It's really not a huge story in wrestling but rather the ramifications of this story in the mainstream will lead to other sports and its organizations finding how many of their athletes are on the gas.

-- On ECW TV this past Tuesday night Ed Farhat AKA The Sheik was named as the latest inductee into this year's Hall Of Fame.

-- An interview with RVD about life on the road, spending time with his wife, training and how there's too much music in the world (?)...

-- WrestleMag.com has an interview with Chris Benoit.

-- Steve Austin on fight scenes in The Condemned: "People always say, 'Well, Steve, doing the fight scenes, wasn't that easy for you because that's what you did for a living?' And I stress to people, 'No, that's not what I did for a living. I was a professional wrestler.' And contrary to what many people think, you don't just rehearse and choreograph a wrestling match. ... In a ring, in an arena, say, a normal ring is, like, 20,000 people, [and] you're playing to the absolutely last row there. ... So everything is big. Of course, when you're talking [filming], you go in tight. Everything is very precise and very controlled. So there's a lot of differences." more at www.scifi.com.

-- J.R.'s latest blog which features this interesting bit: Please do not believe every word written on every wrestling website. Whoever wrote that The Undertaker was retiring in the summer of 2008 is either making it up or is really, really gullible. I communicate with Taker frequently and that subject has never been discussed. Unless injuries take their toll, Taker will be around in at least a part time role for years to come. Frankly this is the first I've heard of this, there's talk on and off regarding when Taker will hang up his boots and this could've been something written on a message board and most entries posted on those forums are to be taken with a grain of salt to begin with.

-- Good Guy at School, Bad Guy in Ring

-- Well the future on WSX on MTV is pretty much falls between in-limbo and dead in the water yet is seems that MTV2 and MTV Tr3s are airing the episodes. You'll have to check your TV listings for times on MTV2 as those airings seem to be kept under wraps for some reason, MTV Tr3s airs the show on Wednesdays at 5:30PM so the final episode may air but who knows at this point.

-- Is PRIDE sold? Will UFC buy the company? Or K-1? Sherdog.com reported on Monday that PRIDE was possibly being bought by Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta, the owners of Zuffa for an estimated $65 million. MMAWeekly.com also posted a report although their sources stated an agreement had been made yet not finalized while Sherdog's sources say an announcement could be made next week of the sale being a done deal. The only person who has responded to these reports/rumors was PRIDE USA Vice President Jerry Millen making a statement to GracieFighter.com: "It's bullshit. You can't beleive [sic] what you read on the internet and as a matter of fact I just got off the phone with Japan and Pride has not been sold and is not being sold to anyone, especially to Zuffa. We are in the process of making some ground breaking deals that will be bringing in large sums of revenue to the company and making it stronger than ever." We'll see how this one turns out as the fate of PRIDE get more mysterious every week.

-- In more PRIDE DRAMA®, Ed Fishman (PRIDE'S US President) filed a breach-of-contract suit with Dream Stage Entertainment (parent company of PRIDE) on Monday claiming the company had not paid him the agreed 10% of ticket sales from both the 11/21/06 and 2/24/07 Las Vegas shows. This was part of a three-year contract in which Fishman would recieve $200,000 a year for three years with the option to extend it to five years, then 10% of US tickets sales would go to Fishman. In the end Fishman's seeking $10 million from DSE: $1 million for based on the $200,000 consulting fee for 5 years; and $9 million based on DSE CEO Nobuyuki Sakakibara's US live event projections for 6 PRIDE US events with $3-4 million for live gates, thus factoring approximately $1.8 million a year for five years (based on the 10% from live gates that would be owed to Fishman). More info can be read at www.fightopinion.com and www.sherdog.com.

-- Rising MMA star Henderson ready for more

-- Is Ratner Boxing Clever?

-- Randy "The Natural" Couture Live at Solis on Market, San Francisco on March 29th 2007

-- The 'arts' are a hit in New Jersey

-- K-1 HERO'S American Debut Taking Shape
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