– Carlito Carribean Cool and Paul London attended the Pro Wrestling Guerrilla show in Hollywood this weekend, and London confirmed that he would be part of the Battle Royale. Still no word if the match will be televised, on PPV, or DVD-only. [Credit: PWInsider.com]
– Matt Hardy’s site is back online here, after having some bandwidth problems.
– James “Jamie Noble” Gibson was a guest on the Pain Clinic Saturday, talking about Jimmy Hart, Nidia, WCW, WWE, and Ring of Honor. The full interview can be found here.
– According to PWInsider.com’s Mike Johnson, Vince McMahon was at the Hall of Fame ceremony, but stayed backstage, where he worked last year. As opposed to last year’s event, he didn’t come out to salute the workers. WWE stars all entered the show in a processional, with Triple H, Stephanie, Shane, Marissa and Linda McMahon all sitting front row. Others in attendance included Pat Patterson, Freddie Blassie’s widow, Eric Bischoff’s business partner Jason Hervey, and Gail Kim, who is engaged to one of the Bashams.
– More off-air Hall of Fame ceremony notes, according to PWInsider.com and Mike Regan:
I just got back from the WWE Hall of Fame event. And, I honestly have to say that it was a great event and very worthwhile for a long time wrestling fan like myself. The inductees, were all favorites of mine at one point or another. Piper, Hogan, Orndorff, Hart, Volkoff, Iron Sheik and Cowboy Bob Orton.
The first person who was inducted in the ceremony was Cowboy Bob Orton. Randy Orton inducted him and it was a nice touch for him to do so. Bob Orton Sr., Randy Orton’s grandfather, was in attendance as well. Interestingly enough, The Undertaker was not in attendance at the event.
It seemed like that pretty much everyone was there from the WWE. Also attending were Hall Of Famers. Greg Valentine, Superstar Billy Graham and Fabulous Moolah were there sitting alongside the WWE Superstars up front.
Next up was Nikolai Volkoff. Good Old Jim Ross inducted him. It was interesting for them to talk about how Volkoff actually hated communism and that it was Freddie Blassie who told him that the best way to fight Communism was for him to show how evil it was. They went on to say that with the Berlin Wall finally coming down, Volkoff had a chance to end his career as a baby face by teaming with Hacksaw Duggan.
Next up was the Iron Sheik, inducted by Sgt. Slaughter. Sgt Slaughter asked a question during his speech on how should he induct someone who was his arch enemy and give that arch enemy an award that he (Slaughter) had bled and nearly died for, and he responded “with honor and dignity”. Once the Iron Sheik got to the mic, he was pure gold, talking about his amateur wrestling career and other amateur wrestlers careers. His speech will definitely be a highlight on the eventual DVD that WWE will release. However, I do recommend that they do subtitles because at times it was difficult to understand him.
Next up was Bobby the Brain Heenan, inducting Paul “Mr. Wonderful” Orndorff. Like last year, Bobby Heenan was pure gold. Mr. Wonderful is a long time childhood favorite of mine and it was great to hear him say that he forgave the fans for throwing golf balls at him and darts, and that he was sorry for hitting a 70 year-old man.
I won’t go into the details on Piper and Hogan induction since you have already seen that, but after the show went off the air, Hogan’s wife and family came to the stage and along with the WWE, presented Hogan with a huge portrait enshrined with his Hulkamania gear. It was a great experience to see and hear the crowd get behind Hogan. He still has it. After tonight, Hulkamania will live forever.
