The Brown is back, while Tampa’s finest puts another member of the roster behind bars.
Opening Witty Banter
Hope everyone is well out there in Internet-land. Things are going swinningly for me; nothing really to report on or complain about so let’s move on to the important stuff.
The Big Story
According to Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Vince McMahon and WWE is on the hunt for more solid African American in-ring talent. Apparently Vince and company wan an all-American style, clean-cut guy, basically what they envisioned Bobby Lashley to be.
In a side note regarding Lashley’s departure, the company has backed off on their recruitment of great natural athletes and top-flight amateur athletes that weren’t fans of pro wrestling growing up. After being “burned†by Brock Lesnar and Lashley’s sudden departures, the company feels that if wrestling “isn’t in your blood” that people won’t love the company and will be more apt to leave after they gain some success or get burned out.
As a follow-up to Vince’s new initiative regarding hiring clean-cut African American talents, the company has re-signed D-Lo Brown. D-Lo had been making the rounds in Japan and spent his time as a backstage road agent for TNA. D-Lo will be brought back as an on-air talent.
D-Lo is a solid mid-card talent that knows how to work the WWE style and will be a perfect guy to work with all the new talent on the three rosters. He’ll do wonders especially if he shows up on ECW or SmackDown! I don’t really expect D-Lo to come in and change the world, but I feel he’ll play a role like Finlay where he’s a solid mid-card talent who can fill whatever role they need at the time.
As for the idea of backing off on natural athletes it seems logical to not recruit talent that aren’t fans of the business. With the schedule and lifestyle that pro wrestlers keep it only makes sense that you should hire people who love what they do. If you hire people who are only in it for the money or want to use wrestling as a stepping-stone to other things, more things departures like Lesnar’s will happen. Of course you don’t really know how a talent will react until he’s in the trenches, but making sure a potential hire at least knows who the Ultimate Warrior is before they sign him might help.
Everything Else Fit For Print
Apparently this new on-screen romance between John Cena and Mickie James has been started at Vince McMahon’s request because the couple are dating in real life. Mickie broke of her engagement with Kenny Dykstra a while back.
Nothing like the old “Attitude†stand by of taking real-life scenarios into angles. It looks as if they are trying to make Cena and Mickie into the cute, all-American couple. I’m intrigued to see where this is headed in the future.
Michael Brendli (Mikey of the Spirit Squad) was arrested on DUI charges this past week in Tampa. He was listed as having a blood alcohol level of 0.094 (the limit is 0.08). Brendli was released the next afternoon after posting $500 bond. Mikey is currently working for Florida Championship Wrestling.
Apparentlyt the cops down in Tampa are doing their job well. Mikey joins others like Santino Marella and Ted DiBiase, Jr. who have recently got busted for DUI down in Tampa. Remember kids, don’t drink and drive.
Wrestling Observer is saying that Randy Orton won’t need surgery on his broken collarbone and he will probably return after three months.
That’s good news for Randy. We’ll see you this fall. I just hope he lets his collarbone heal completely. That’s one of those breaks that can be re-injured incredibly easy.
Stephanie McMahon-Levesque has not been on the road working on creative process due to her pregnancy. She will be taking a long maternity leave once the new kid is born. She will not be involved in the creative process at all while she’s out on leave.
With Steph gone for awhile and Michael Hayes on “leave†maybe the creative team will come up some crazy, interesting ideas instead of going on autopilot until the higher-ups return. I always think that summertime in WWE is where some of the most random angles always happen so I’m interested to see how this summer goes.
Wrestler of the Week
I’m trying to think of new ways to change up/improve this column so each week I will highlight who I think was WWE’s Wrestler of the Week, kind of like what JR does on wwe.com. As this the first week I don’t really have any criteria, but I’m sure my choice will come from a combination of kayfabe and real-life factors.
For the week of June 1 – June 8: John Cena
Cena just came of a First Blood victory over his old rival JBL last weekend at One Night Stand and then earned the number one contender-ship the next night on RAW by beating Jeff Hardy in a pretty good RAW main event. He’s all set up to challenge Triple H at the end of the month in their eagerly anticipated rematch. Plus apparently he gets to nail Mickie James in real life and on TV, not a bad week for Stamford’s superhero.
RAW’s On Tonight!
Chris Jericho is bringing out the Highlight Reel once again with Shawn Michaels as his invited guest. The epic three-way feud between Michaels, Jericho and Batista is continuing, and being Jericho is still Intercontinental Champion expect a Michaels-Jericho singles match for the Title to be set up for Night of Champions. Also Cena-Triple H 2 will finally happen at Night of Champions, and tonight should start the build for the feud that will carry RAW through the summer. Plus Mr. McMahon will give away the first of his million dollars. If I win it, you won’t hear from me next week.
On Last Week’s Episode…
Kirschner and Murray provide in-depth coverage of ECW.
Marshall likes it RAW.
How They Rated
A.M. RAW (6.1.08) –
RAW (6.2.08) – 3.1
ECW (6.3.08) – 1.1
SmackDown! (6.6.06) –
This is Boring, What Else is There to Read?
Wells talks Pro Wrestling Guerilla.
Glazer talks about the Ring of Honor shows that already happened this past weekend.
Kirschner also brings some love for PWG.
Wiswell examines the dynamics of ROH’s tag teams.
