Ryu Nakata, spokesperson for Pro Wrestling NOAH, said that Takeshi Morishima would work 30 USA dates this year. He also said Mitsuharu Misawa would wrestle for NOAH towards the end of the year on a show in New York.
Shane Douglas has not returned to TNA since he fell asleep in the dressing room before a taping several weeks ago.
Konnan is improving and was out of his wheelchair and briefly walking on crutches last week. He is also now handling much of the main event booking for AAA.
Shawn Stasiak, in town for Mike Awesome’s funeral, was talking with people at TNA about returning to wrestling. He is still in good shape and Vince Russo was a big fan of his back in WCW.
Russo was also a big fan of Bob Backlund while watching wrestling as a kid and is scripting all of his segments. Jeff Jarrett is also a fan of Backlund’s from their time together in the WWF in the mid ’90s. Nonetheless, the majority of people in TNA are strongly against using Backlund so often as it makes the product dated and they don’t appreciate the comedy.
Goldberg said that he is still open to wrestling again and would go to TNA if they made the right offer, but that they have never come close to it.
The latest figures indicate that only 2% of the average Impact viewers order TNA PPVs.
During the Samoa Joe/Tyson Tomko match, Scott Steiner hit a legitimate punch to Joe’s temple that knocked Joe silly. There was talk of taking him to a hospital as he was showing the signs of having a concussion but as he was involved in so many more elements of the tapings they kept him around. Losing to Tomko and getting beaten up so many times on TV recently is punishment as the booking team are very unhappy with Joe’s remarks in ROH about ‘hurting his knee tripping over some bad booking’ in TNA. Some are so angry that they don’t want him to get the title at all.
Jake Roberts had his false teeth come out of his mouth during a match with Casey Thompson at an indie show in Davie, Florida on the 3rd March. Roberts was in bad shape, having difficulty getting up after being knocked down, was out of condition and looked very disoriented at times. Thompson hit him with a forearm while Roberts was tangled in the ropes and the teeth flew out. The referee kicked the teeth to the corner and a security guard gave them back to Roberts. After the show Roberts told people to always brush their teeth so they don’t lose them when they get older.
Former WCW wrestler Alex Wright has opened the Wright Stuff Pro Wrestling School in Nuremberg, Germany.
Credit: Wrestling Observer newsletter (click here for subscription information)
