News on The Rock, DX, Joey Mercury, Bob Sapp & More

News

– The Rock and his wife, Dany Garcia Johnson, donated $2 million to the University of Miami while attending the Miami premiere of Gridiron Gang. They met while both were studying there in the early ’90s. As part of the donation, the living room in the new alumni centre will be named “The Dany And Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson Living Room”. Dany is a member of the university’s Board of Trustees and founder of the wealth management firm, JDM Partners.

– A local promoter in Hidalgo, Texas has expressed interest in running a TNA show there at the Dodge Arena, perhaps in October. The area has proven to be fruitful for WWE.

– Carlos Colon is pushing for WWE to hire Eddie Colon and to use WWC as a developmental territory. While the former may come to pass, the latter is unlikely following the IWA years and the general perception by management of the Puerto Rico scene as being more trouble than it’s worth.

– WWE has sent a pitch to Bob Sapp.

– WWE ran a practise HDTV taping at the 9/10 Smackdown house show in the Mohegan Sun Casino. There is some concern about the switch backstage because the picture clarity makes it easier to spot move calling and worked punches, among other things. CW, USA and Spike will all switch before WWE itself, which will be around 2009.

– DX were at one point scheduled to be on No Mercy, facing Booker T, William Regal and Finlay. The idea was dropped because Shawn Michaels said that working the Tuesday tapings would affect his already scheduled Wednesday morning religious activities. Still, there are no plans whatsoever to drop the DX program or to add new people to the group. The only additions discussed were the New Age Outlaws but that was nixed when Triple H was shown the unflattering remarks Billy Gunn had to say about him in various interviews (though they are both under TNA contract anyway).

– Too Cold Scorpio might be the next ’90s star brought back, though there is a question mark over his wellness. Henry Godwinn was brought back at Triple H’s request. The two are friends and Godwinn needed the job, misses wrestling and his son died just last year. The reasoning behind all the recent rehirings is that they need more experienced talents on all three shows to make the numerous newcomers look good. This is very similar to the reasoning behind thee Finlay/Batista program.

– Joey Mercury is still in a rehab centre in Atlanta but is said to be doing well and should be out soon.

– WWE wishes all its agents to now be referred to as ‘producers’.

– Rob Van Dam’s Five Star Comics store closed down earlier this summer and the building is now for lease.

Credit: Wrestling Observer newsletter (click here for subscription information)