PRO WRESTLING: BIG ASS THURSDAY UPDATE~! 4/26/07

By Art Shimko
shimko_7@hotmail.com

-- Tons of news and notes from the past week...

WWE
-- This weekend Steve Austin's upcoming action flick The Condemned will be in theaters, he appeared on Howard Stern and did a live text chat Monday night. Lots of reviews are in for The Condemned and it's a mixed bag of opinions although not many are in favor of the movie, here's a sample:
- Originality is loser in WWE’s death match
- Movie 'condemns' audience to torturous viewing
- Two middle fingers up for The Condemned
- WWE star has something new to prove in 'The Condemned'
- Stone Cold Heats Up
- Bottom Line: D-grade "Running Man" ripoff

-- Here's an Austin interview on Sports Illustrated's site.

-- Last week WWE dropped Deep South Wrestling as a developmental territory after reports that the operation was in complete disarray. Vince McMahon had a shit-fit about the situation and decided to drop all developmental territories including Ohio Valley Wrestling. Fortunately McMahon was talked out of dropping OVW and it looks like all DSW trainees will be shipped to Steve Keirn's school in Florida. Meanwhile, Jody Hamilton has decided to shut down the DSW promotion.

-- Randy Orton's acting like a rock star these days... or more like an asshole. Orton was sent home last week from the European tour after he trashed a hotel room, the estimated damages were said to be between $30,000-$50,000. Man, this guy must've been going through a (supposed) roid rage or something. Orton has not been suspended as of yet although he was fined and it looks like he'll certainly do the job this weekend at Backlash in a four-way for the WWE title which could be one of many jobs he'll be doing for some time. With Vince paranoid about firing talent and ending up on TNA it looks as if Orton is secure in WWE... for the time being. [source for info on last two items: Figure 4 Weekly newsletter www.f4wonline.com]

-- Speaking of Backlash, Casey, Euan and myself did a preview podcast for this mundance PPV. Casey and I also discuss current news in the MMA world.

-- An interview with Vince McMahon about pay-per-view business.

-- WWE will be releasing a 2-DVD "Ladder Match" set, you can see the match listing here.

-- Batista left quite the impression with fans at an autograph session in Wolverhampton, England. Batista was said to be jet-lagged and what would normally be a two-hour session was cut to an hour. One youngster had anticipated meeting the former world and tag champ but instead was disappointed afterwards, his father stated: “Kyle got a ticket and couldn’t sleep the night before, he was so excited at meeting Batista and he had the afternoon off school. All his mates were telling him how jealous they were. “But when he got there we were told Batista would only be signing WWE merchandise. We queued for nearly two hours and he signed a WWE book, didn’t even look at him or say a word and that was it. His mum was trying to take a picture of the two on the mobile phone but his bouncers kept standing in the way to stop it. “And he refused to sign a birthday card that Kyle had taken in because it is his birthday in three weeks. “I think it is absolutely disgraceful for a man who is loved by so many kids to behave like this. We go down to the Wolves training ground all the time and they can’t do enough for us. If they can make the effort I don’t see why a jumped-up bloke in tights can’t do the the same. Kyle couldn’t stop crying.”

-- On Tuesday Mickie James won the Women's title at a house show in Paris against Melina and Victoria when she pinned Victoria for the win. Apparently Victoria didn't kick out on the three-count as she was supposed to, and a few matches later Melina won the title back from Mickie. Surprisingly, WWE made note of the title switch.

-- Super Crazy was injured at a weekend show in Oberhausen, Germany during a tag match. "Super Crazy landed awkwardly and twisted his knee during a match," said Dr. Ferdinand Rios. "I agree with the trainer's original assessment that Super Crazy has a torn ligament in his left knee. We aren't sure if he tore his ACL or MCL so we have scheduled an MRI for later this week.

-- Cade and Murdoch shoot... or maybe work-shoot on internet fans... do these clowns even get internet access in their trailers?

-- Balls Mahoney will be appearing on Sci Fi Channel's Who Wants to Be a Superhero? this summer as he will help critique and inspire these costumed crusaders in their battles with the show’s villain, Dr. Dark.

-- Philadelphia police officer Shawn Goodstone has been suspended and will lose his job for stealing two WWE action figures from a Rite Aid in West Kensington last month.

-- WWE is suing Dale Gagne who runs shows under the AWA banner for copyright infringement. WWE purchased AWA trademarks from Verne Gagne in 2003, WWE also cites that Dale Gagne (real name: Gagner) dropped the "R" from his last name in order to allegedly make like he was related to former AWA promoter Verne Gagne. You can read Dale's response to the suit here.

-- WWE will be reporting its first quarter earnings in a conference call on 5/3 at 11AM EST, participants can call 800-894-5910 (conference ID: WWE).

-- J.R.’s Back With Plenty to Say!

-- Flair is taking fight with money manager to court

-- Divas shine in Jared Gold’s designs

-- Michelle McCool measures up her competition

TNA/ROH/CZW/INDIES
-- Sean Christopher Haire, who got punched out during a scuffle in front of a Hilton Head Island bar last month, was charged on Monday with felony high and aggravated assault and battery. Juan Hamilton Brantley, the guy who punched Haire in the eye, was also arrested for the same charges, both men remain in the Beaufort County Detention Center. Capt. Toby McSwain of the Beaufort County Sheriff's Office stated, "It's a little surprising that the court has issued warrants to both of them, but I guess the judge listened to both sides of the story and couldn't determine who the primary aggressor was."

-- Alex Marvez's lastest column on "Dr. Death" Steve Williams.

-- A card for the Hogan/Wight Memphis show on Friday was finally released.

-- Two-time NASCAR champ Tony Stewart recently compared his sport to pro wrestling on his Sirius Satellite Radio Tuesday night when discussing how NASCAR officials use bogus caution flags to fix races: "It's like playing God," he said on his Sirius Satellite Radio program. "They can almost dictate the race instead of the drivers doing it. It's happened too many times this year." Stewart, who said he was fighting a fever and left the two-hour show early, went on to say fans are complaining about debris cautions and NASCAR isn't listening. "I guess NASCAR thinks, 'Hey, wrestling worked, and it was for the most part staged, so I guess it's going to work in racing, too,'" he said. "I can't understand how long the fans are going to let NASCAR treat them like they're stupid before the fans finally turn on NASCAR. "I don't know that they've run a fair race all year." NASCAR's response: "NASCAR has been running races since 1948, and we place the safety of the drivers at the top of the list," spokesman Jim Hunter said. "We have more people and more resources than ever officiating our races. The safety of the drivers is our first priority. It has always been that way and will continue to be that way.

-- Footage of Christian Cage against Abyss from last year's TNA Lockdown PPV was shown on this week's episode of FOX's House.

-- Austin Starr has been suspended from TNA for 90 days after he questioned the reason for filming a vignette on his day off. After arguing and pressing the issue, Starr eventually cooperated and agreed to filmed the vignettes but TNA was so annoyed with his attitude that they laid down the law making an example out of Starr by sending him home. [source: Figure 4 Weekly newsletter www.f4wonline.com]

-- TNA holds its Slammiversary PPV on 6/17 at the Municipal Auditorium in Nashville, TN. Tickets go on sale 5/19.

-- ROH's 5/12 show at the Manhattan Center is close to a sell-out and a card hasn't been announced yet.

-- ROH world champ Takeshi Morishima recieved the future legends award at the Cauliflower Alley Club 42nd Annual Banquet & Awards last weekend.

-- ROH this Friday at the St. Paul Armory [600 Cedar Street] in St. Paul, MN: Takeshi Morishima vs. Austin Aries for the ROH title; Roderick Strong defends vs. Christopher Daniels for the FIP title; World Tag Team Title Ultimate Endurance: Jay & Mark Briscoe vs. Pelle Primeau & Mitch Franklin vs. Mike Quackenbush & Jigsaw vs. Hallowicked & Gran Akuma; Jack Evans vs. Delirious vs. Rocky Romero vs. Erick Stevens; Colt Cabana & Homicide vs. Brent Albright & Adam Pearce with Shane Hagadorn; BJ Whitmer vs. Shingo; Rain & Lacey vs. Sara Del Rey & Allison Danger

-- Jay Briscoe got a deep gash in his head after taking a light tube/headbutt shot from Necro Butcher at FIP's show last Saturday.

-- CZW will holding its sixth annual Tournament Of Death in Delaware on 6/9, the first match announced is Nick Gage (winner of TOD V) vs CZW Jr. Heavyweight champ Scotty Vortekz.

-- CZW on 5/12 at the New Alhambra Arena, announced so far: CZW World Jr. Heavyweight Championship: Vortekz defends against Cloudy; Ruckus vs. "The Anomaly" Niles Young; Derek Frazier vs. "The BLK Jesus" Sabian; The Iron Saints (Sal & Vito Thomaselli) vs. Team AnDrew (Andy Sumner & Drew Gulak); "The New Jersey All-Star" JC Ryder vs. "Irish Lionheart" CJ O'Doyle; "The Son of a 1,000 Maniacs" Jon Dahmer vs. "Hotshot" Ryan McBride

-- IWA Mid-South/ACW results from 4-22 in San Antonio, TX: "One Man" Mike Dell def. xOMGx; Showtime Scott Summers def. Joey Ryan to retain the ACW heavyweight title; Mickie Knuckles defeated Daffney to retain IWA Women's title; Roderick Strong def. "Biohazard" Jakus Plisken; "Extreme Bulldog" Rexx Reed def. Massive; Low Ki def. Hotstuff Hernandez; Necro Butcher defeated Masada; 4 Team Elimination Hardcore battle for the ACW Tag Team Titles - Children Of Pain retain the titles by defeating Old & Younger, Naptown Dragons & Chuie Martinez/Hugh Rogue

-- IWA Mid-South presents "April Bloodshowers: The Final Chapter" on 4/28 at the Don Preston Recreational Center [14500 Kostner Avenue] in Midlothian, IL: Drake Younger vs CJ Otis; Brandon Thomaselli vs Josh Abercrombie for the IWA World Light-Heavyweight Title; North Star Express vs Iron Saints in a double-dog collar match; Chuck Taylor vs Joey "Magnum" Ryan for the IWA world championship; Ian Rotten vs "The Strong Style Psycho" Tank; Arrogance vs "Unreal" Michael Elgin and Ash

-- Metal and Wraslin’ Mayhewm on Friday 4/27 at The Mission in Augusta, GA featuring wrestlers from Flatline Championship Wrestling and music provided by Anger Management, Dear Enemy and Deleveled.

-- King of Europe Cup this weekend (4/28-4/29) at the Liverpool Olympia: First round: Rhino Vs Nigel McGuinness; Chris Hero Vs Claudio Castagnoli; Matt Sydal Vs El Generico; Davey Richards Vs The Zebra Kid; Ryo Saito Vs Jody Fleisch; Go Shiozaki Vs Martin Stone; Trent Acid Vs PAC; Doug Williams Vs Ares. Bell time is 6:30PM, tickets can be ordered at 0151-263-6633.

-- Pure Wrestling Association at Port Hope High School in Port Hope, Ontario on 5/4. For more information, contact Mike Kelso at 905-835-1186

-- UWF on 5/11 at Lake Norman High School in Mooresville (Charlotte), NC: James Storm and Jackie Moore vs Chris Harris and Gail Kim; Jerry Lynn vs Raven; Rikishi and D-Lo Brown vs Elix Skipper and David Young; Team Macktion vs Steve Corino and CW Anderson

-- National Wrestling Superstars on 5/11 at the South River VFW [31 Reid Street] in South River, NJ. Appearing on the card: Kip James, Kevin Sullivan, Danny Doring, and Slyck Wagner Brown. Call (732) 888-1704 for more info.

-- School's no-holds-barred good guy

-- Pile-driving, gut-busting, back-breaking theater

-- Local church uses wrestling as witnessing tool

-- Wrestling match, puppets, booths bring event's message home

-- Fan fests bring Demolition back together
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note to webmasters/reporters: When recapping news or referencing commentary from this site please include a link to meanfilipine.blogspot.com as opposed to "Strong Style Shimko", "From The Mean Filipine Blog" or derivatives. Thank you~!

You can now receive up-to-the-minute updates from Strong Style Shimko in your email account through feedblitz.com by clicking this link.

You can also subscribe by going to meanfilipine.blogspot.com, scroll down the page and on the right side of the page you will see this bar:

Enter your email address in the white bar, press the "Subscribe me!" button and you should begin receiving Strong Style Shimko articles and updates in you inbox.

Note: you may have to check your spam inbox for these updates and mark them and "not spam" in order to receive the emails in your regular email inbox.

Again, we here at Strong Style Shimko: TheMeanFilipineBlog thank you for your continued support~!