Tommy Dreamer walks away quietly, another second-generation daughter signs with the company and Dixie Carter drinks with the competition.
Opening Witty Banter
Another year gone already? Let the year-end and decade-end lists and debate begin. That being said because WWE was on holiday leave the company news was pretty light this week, so things will be kind of thin this week.
Let’s take some ‘E…
The News of the Week
In a slow, quiet week the biggest WWE news not related to more Bret Hart rumors has to be the quiet departure of Tommy Dreamer from WWE. He asked for his release just recently after signing a contract extension this past summer. No official announcement has been made on wwe.com, but Jim Ross confirmed it on his blog and word spread internally throughout the company. His presumed final match with the company was putting over Zack Ryder this past week on ECW. Reaction among “the boys†is said to be a mix of sadness and disappointment as not surprisingly he one of the most liked performers in the locker room. He also Tommy Dreamer posted the following statement on his WWE Universe blog:
“I just wanted to wish everyone a happy and safe Holiday. Thanks so much for your continued support. May everything be better for all in 2010.
Thanks for reading
Tommy Dreamer”
It does not surprise me that Dreamer would go out quietly and on his back in the middle of the ECW ring like this. Once Dreamer survived all of the various roster cuts over the years, found himself in an office position only to come out of retirement to restart ECW he would be with WWE for life. To me this seems like Dreamer has something up his sleeve and is heading to TNA once the ol’ proverbial 90 days are up to join the rest of the ECW roster (Taz, Stevie, The Dudleyz, Rhino and of course Raven.) He naturally had to be frustrated with ECW as Rob Van Dam was once they got it up and going again, so perhaps he just felt it was his time to walk away. And now with rumors of the ECW show being completely rehauled, even going so far to lose the brand name itself, he may have also seen some writing on the wall. It is now completely fitting to get rid of ECW now that “The Original†has walked away, removing the last vestige of the old South Philly promotion.
Mike “freaking†Tyson will be guest hosting RAW in two weeks live from my stomping grounds in Minneapolis. Despite no guest host announced for the January 4 show it is apparent that WWE has something big planned for that night or else Tyson would be more than suitable for the 1/4/10 show.
Yeah I’m pretty exciting about this news. It will be a treat to see Tyson live and in person, especially in the build to my favorite show of the year, the Royal Rumble. But it also clearly says something that WWE is holding off on Tyson’s involvement until the 11th, when he is definitely a big enough star to compete with TNA on the 4th. It’s clear Vince knows what he’s doing. Spike TV and TNA pulls out their biggest wrestling star in Hulk Hogan so WWE looks to pull out their biggest wrestling star in Bret Hart. Spike TV pulls out a live UFC Fight Night so WWE pulls out their own fight sport star to combat.
WXW announced via their Twitter that Sarona Snuka (daughter of Superfly Jimmy Snuka) has signed a deal with WWE.
Once again let the second and third generation kids run wild on the promotion. Here’s hoping she isn’t tasked with catching Undertaker at some point in her career.
Incognito, also known by his ring name Mystico from Juarez, has signed a developmental deal with WWE as well. He had a tryout when WWE toured Texas last week.
While I’m exciting that Incognito is getting signed, I’m not optimistic about his chances. (see Dos Caras and Sicodelical, Jr.)
With both WWE and TNA running shows in Orlando on Sunday night, “Cookie-gate†was on everyone’s minds. Dixie Carter threw a party for her TNA people at a hotel that also featured some WWE talent drinking at the hotel’s bar. Eventually some TNA guys went over to the bar to mingle, and Carter was even there and met several WWE workers.
Naturally the WWE guys didn’t want their names to get out for fear of the company’s paranoid retributions. At least Carter had the balls to also go over and meet some of the competition as well. It’s not they were all trading company secrets. But on the other hand if a prominent roster of WWE’s comes out next week dresses as a chicken, we’ll know why.
WWE, THQ and Jakks finally settled their long-standing lawsuit. Here’s the PR piece:
THQ, WWE® and JAKKS Pacific Announce Settlement of Long-Standing Litigation
THQ Inc. (NASDAQ: THQI), World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE:WWE) and JAKKS Pacific, Inc. (NASDAQ: JAKK) today announced that they have reached settlement agreements with respect to the WWE® video game and toy licenses and the THQ/JAKKS Pacific LLC joint venture.
Under the three-party settlement, all claims are withdrawn and all litigation ended among the parties without any party admitting any wrongdoing.
As part of the resolution of these matters, THQ will pay WWE $13.2 million. In addition, THQ has entered into a new eight-year video game license directly with WWE commencing January 1, 2010, which is three years longer than the renewal term under the previous arrangement between WWE and the THQ/JAKKS Pacific LLC joint venture.
In addition to its preferred return payment to JAKKS for the period ending December 31, 2009, THQ will pay JAKKS Pacific $20 million over the next four years, with payments of $6 million due June 2010 and June 2011, and payments of $4 million due June 2012 and June 2013, and the THQ/JAKKS Pacific LLC joint venture will terminate effective December 31, 2009.
I’m glad that is taken care of. I don’t know how much sleep I lost over that one.
Former WWE, TNA and ECW star Kid Kash has been arrested on numerous charges according to The Kingsport Times-News Online.
Police in Johnson City, Tennessee arrested Kash (real name David Cash) on Tuesday and charged him with four counts of identity theft, two counts of forgery under $500 and four counts of theft of property under $500. The identity and forgery charges are felonies while the other charges are misdemeanors. The arrest stems from Cash using a female acquaintance’s credit card without permission on numerous occasions. He is being held on a $10,000 bond at the Washington County Detention Center and will appear in court on January 4, 2010.
Kash first made his name in Extreme Championship Wrestling in the late ‘90s where he was one of the promotion’s final Television Champions. He also had a couple lengthy runs in the early days of TNA Wrestling, winning both the TNA X-Division Championship and the NWA World Tag Team Championship. He joined World Wrestling Entertainment in 2005 and won the WWE Cruiserweight Championship and formed a semi-successful tag team with Jaime Noble, known as the Pitbulls. He was released from WWE in September 2007, and has since been wrestling on the independent circuit.
He’s in court on January 4 huh? Looks like we can cross him off the list of surprise talent appearances for the big Monday night battle.
Wrestler of the Week
Week of December 21 – 27: Jack Swagger
Not surprisingly the week of actual bell-to-bell wrestling on WWE TV was relatively light and fairly inoffensive. I do have to give some love to the man who was a part of possibly the best two matches of the WWE week, even though he lost both. On Monday night “The All-American American†lost in a far more competitive match than expected to John Cena. Then in the main event of ECW Swagger went toe-to-toe with fellow young lion Yoshi Tatsu in a great little ECW main event. Swagger once again came out on the losing end, as his push has obviously stalled big-time since Survivor Series. This de-push has become standard operating procedure for many new stars so expect him to bounce back soon enough and finally climb up the card like so many expect him to.
Wrestler of the Year
Year of 2009: Edge
I have been keeping track of my own personal WOTW throughout 2009 and surprisingly Edge came out as Wrestler of the Year, with six individual wins and a shared win with Chris Jericho for the week of June 22 – 28 for the Undisputed WWE Tag Title victory. In fact for the four weeks of June 2009 Edge was pegged as WOTW, showing the run he was on before his untimely injury. Plus factor in his victory at Judgment Day in May that got him another victory and his wild run of February stemming from his shenanigans at No Way Out, “The Rated R Superstar†was truly on fire. It’s amazing what kind of numbers he could have put up if he had remained healthy throughout the year. He was naturally followed closely behind Randy Orton and CM Punk, proving 2009 was the year of the heel in WWE.
RAW’s On Tonight!
Timbaland, Grammy award-winning record producer, singer and rapper, will best guest host of WWE Monday Night RAW on December 28, 2009, live from Hartford, Connecticut. He will be one hand to host the last RAW of 2009 in order to gain more exposure for his new album, Shock Value II, which drops in December. He has partnered with WWE in the past as in April 2007 he filmed the music video for his single “Throw It On Me†using many of the WWE Divas in primary roles. In the video Ashley Massaro, Torrie Wilson and Maryse Oulette battled “Extreme Expose†– Kelly Kelly, Layla El and Brooke Adams in tag team match with Timbaland declaring a winner at the end of the video. Plus Vince McMahon will make an appearance on his flagship to further the Bret Hart saga. With still six (SIX!?!) weeks left before Royal Rumble, action and angles will probably still be pretty light, as angles will really kick in for the big January 4 and January 11 shows.
On Last Week’s Episode…
Eison covered SmackDown that featured Shawn Michaels’s first “blue†appearance in a long time.
Eison and Tess took a look at Superstars. A two-minute double countout between two mid-card heels, a clean win from a low card heel over a low card babyface, a face-to-face encounter between the two guys fighting over the Intercontinental Title and a mid-card babyface beating a mid-card heel in the main event…is this Superstars from 1989 or 2009? Seriously plug Haku and Bad News Brown into the first match, Brooklyn Brawler beating Paul Roma in the second match, Ultimate Warrior and Rick Rude arguing in the interview segment and Hacksaw Duggan going over Dino Bravo in the main event and it still works.
Marshall, Innarelli and Wheeler reviewed easily one of the worst 2 or 3 RAWs of the guest host era.
How They Rated
SmackDown! (12.11.09) –
Superstars (12.17.09) – .9
A.M. RAW (12.20.09) – .5
RAW (12.21.09) – 3.18
ECW (12.22.09) –
This is Boring, What Else is There to Read?
Check out my own personal wish list for 2010.
Ziegler reviews ROH Violent Tendencies.
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