[WWE] Tons of WWE News, Including: Will The Rock Wrestle Again?

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Is The Rock done with wrestling? According to reports at WrestlingObserver and PWInsider from Dwayne Johnson’s appearance on ESPN2’s “Cold Pizza” this morning, the answer is yes. On the show, he said that he had no plans to return to wrestling even though he misses performing in front of the live crowds, since he has accomplished all he could in the sport that he loved and grew up in. The Rock went on to say that he wanted new challenges, and realized four years ago it was time to move on.

The Rock has been doing a ton of promotion for Gridiron Gang, his latest film which comes out this Friday. In fact, he’s been in New York all week but did not show up at Madison Square Garden during the RAW/ECW tapings on Monday, and he has told some press that he will be dropping “The Rock” from his name for Southland Tales to start differentiating himself from his wrestling persona. UPDATE: On Thursday morning, September 14, The Rock was on Orlando radio and said that the above report was out of context and that he has no plans of completely losing “The Rock” nickname.

Johnson will be on The Late Show with David Letterman tonight, LIVE with Regis & Kelly tomorrow morning, MTV’s Total Request Live at 3:30 tomorrow, Late Night with Conan O’Brien tomorrow night, CBS’ The Early Show on Friday morning and Ellen DeGeneres on Friday.

Vote in our poll on The Rock now!

In other news:

– As previously reported, Dave Batista will have a role in an upcoming episode of The CW’s Smallville. WrestlingObserver.com has added that Batista will play a villain from the Phantom Zone in the ninth episode of the season, scheduled to air most likely during November sweeps. There is more on this at WWE.com here.

– The move to The CW can’t come soon enough, as — preempted in about half the country, according to PWTorch.com — Smackdown last Friday did a 1.0 broadcast rating. Yep. Ashley was interviewed by Entertainment Tonight for a one-hour special to air on The CW Monday, September 18 and re-run on the 19th. You can read more on this here.

– Jim Ross has a new blog entry up on his BBQ site here, talking about his trip to NY, Kurt Angle and more. In a subtle jab similar to those we got used to back in the “Ross Report” days, JR gives TNA some advice: “What, wrestlers taking lie detector tests on TV? Stop it now, please, I am begging you! Wrestling shows that try and “out WWE” the WWE is like flatulence in the wind, it just blows away. A wrestling show that focuses primarily on the in ring product might be a novel concept for a budding WWE wannabe. No one is going to out “WWE” the WWE. I went through the exact same issue while I was at WCW in the late 80’s-early 90’s.” He also clears up the erroneous report that Bobby Eaton had a heart attack. He did not, according to Ross.

– ECW’s wrestlers talk about their Madison Square Garden experience here. Speaking of ECW.com, Tommy Dreamer talks about MSG and more in his latest Diary, and Rene Dupree and Shannon Moore have finally been added to the Extremists page. The only on-screen regulars not on the page are Paul Heyman’s security force (Doug and Danny Basham).

– Trevor Murdoch likes girls’ asses. Seriously. He says so here.

– According to WrestlingObserver.com, WWE Hall of Famer Nikolai Volkoff got six percent of the vote in yesterday’s Republican primary for the Maryland House of Delegates, finishing fifth out of five candidates.

– PWInsider has reported that ECW last night – the first taped airing of the usually-live show – did a 1.9 cable rating (3 share), with a 2.2 overrun being the high point of the show. This is down from last week’s 2.1.

– WWE.com has posted the following:

WWE.com would like to congratulate Sue Aitchison, WWE’s Senior Manager of Community Relations, for receiving the Chris Grecius Award, the highest distinction granted by the Make-A-Wish Foundation. For 20 years, Aitchison has started and maintained a strong relationship between WWE and the Foundation. Without her, WWE’s Circle of Champions charity program would not have had the tremendous success it has enjoyed.

“It’s one of the nicest things that has happened to me in a long time,” Aitchison said. “I was very, very touched”¦I was really excited and at the same time I was humbled.”

Aitchison is excited to join the list of past award winners, which includes The Rock and WWE itself. She has said that the children’s smiles are rewarding enough, but this honor is the icing on the cake.

– Local advertisements, according to PWInsider, are saying next week’s Rey/Chavo (highlight text for semi-spoiler) match on Smackdown’s CW network premiere will take place in a steel cage.

– Also from PWInsider, Ohio Valley Wrestling’s Greg Gagne has been let go by WWE. He was hired as a WWE agent after Wrestlemania, and then made booker of OVW after Heyman left for ECW. OVW owner Danny Davis and Al Snow will run the day to day operations of the territory until a replacement is named.

– There’s an update on Nick Hogan’s car accident here.

– James Laurinaitis – whose father is Road Warrior Animal and uncle is WWE Talent Relations head Johnny Ace – got a good write-up for his recent college football performance here.

– An article on Toronto’s own Edge is here.

– And finally, Marty Jannetty’s latest blog on MySpace talks about the best athlete on RAW. You can read it here.

Matthew Michaels is editor emeritus of Pulse Wrestling, and has been since the site launched.