This Week in ‘E – “The Wrestler” To Wrestle at WrestleMania?

Columns

Mickey Rourke is going to WrestleMania…or maybe not…who knows right now. Plus Vince McMahon may induct his biggest star into the Hall of Fame, and the company finally says no to One Night Stands.

Opening Witty Banter
The SuperBowl ended up being a much better game than I expected, but for me the highlight was “The Boss” and his awesome half-time show. He had to be hammered during that performance.

Enough of that, now let’s take some ‘E…

The News of the Week
Over the past week the story of whether Mickey Rourke will wrestle or even appear at WrestleMania XXV has changed as the wind has blown. On Tuesday night Rourke and Chris Jericho (in character) appeared on Larry King Live to promote the angle that was started the previous weekend. It went as expected, with Rourke giving love to the business while Jericho did a typical heel rant about Rourke not knowing what wrestling is really like.

Then on Thursday, Rourke’s publicist sent out a release to AP that he would be participating at WrestleMania, and that “he was fully committed to his acting career.” Later in the day Vince McMahon told E! Online he was “looking forward to seeing Rourke attend WrestleMania to support the WWE Superstars that supported him and his film.”

Then this past weekend, wwe.com reported that Rourke will make an appearance at WrestleMania, but not as a wrestler in the ring.

Things have been going back and forth all week so going into tonight’s RAW telecast I don’t know what to believe or expect. I personally think it is all a work and Rourke will end up wrestling Jericho at the show. I just think that all this confusion and contradicting information is a way to smooth things over until after the Oscars are handed at the end of this month. If Rourke wins the Best Actor Award it will only help in the publicity for the WWE angle, and if he doesn’t then they can play that up as well. Besides WrestleMania isn’t until April, so Rourke would have all the time in the world through March to his part to build up the story.

Apparently the company is back in talks to do a new reality show project, although no idea has come out as a clear favorite. Talk has been primarily between the creative staff. The leading project talked about has been a new twist on the Tough Enough concept.

I read on another site offering up a solution that if the company wants to do “reality” then they should just film the kids training down in Florida Championship Wrestling. I think that would be a great idea and fans could invested in these rookies before they even graduate to the big leagues and have a built in story.

THQ’s “Legends of WrestleMania” video game is the official sponsor of the 2009 WWE Hall of Fame special, and there is talk of doing a “nostalgia” bout at WrestleMania XXV as a tie in to the video game.

I would be all for a legends bout. It could be kept short and used as a nice relief in between the bigger, high-energy bouts of a marathon show like WrestleMania. Guys like Greg Valentine and Roddy Piper can still “go” enough to string together an entertaining bout. Plus the live crowd would pop like crazy just for the old-school entrances and spots. Just make sure you bring The Fink back to do the ring announcing.

The latest rumor is that Vince McMahon could induct Steve Austin into the WWE Hall of Fame this year. It was originally thought that Austin wanted Flair to induct him, but it now seems as if Flair will induct Ricky Steamboat instead.

I think McMahon coming out from behind the curtain to induct Austin would be awesome. McMahon and Austin built each other up and it would be a nice homage to the company’s most profitable period. Plus it seems as if it would be a “F-U” to Hulk Hogan if the company’s owner inducted who he perceives to be his biggest moneymaker.

Flair inducting Steamboat would great as well and would work well as part of the TV portion of the Hall of Fame ceremony, and of course play off one of wrestling history’s greatest in-ring rivalries.

With WWE’s move to a TV-PG rating, the One Night Stand PPV is probably going to be renamed to something else, probably “Extreme Rules.”

I’m fine with a name change to the ONS show, as it really hasn’t been relevant since the original show in 2005, but “Extreme Rules” is a quite uninspired name. Hopefully something else catchy comes along instead.

The “Legends of Wrestling” DVDs are selling well, as all of the DVDs are on backorder on the Best Buy website.

Is it sad that sometimes I get more excited watching people talk about wrestling than actually watching wrestling?

The WWE Encyclopedia, which is being published through DK Publishing, will be released on March 30th.

So I’m guessing this will be a gigantic fact book with Title histories, pay per view results, bios of major stars and a lot more information that a nerd like me already knows. The million dollar question, however, is what are they going to do about Chris Benoit? He was a huge part of WWE lore for seven and a half years and was in a lot of notable stuff. I’m curious to see what this thing will be all about when it hits shelves.

SmackDown will be live on April 3rd, from the WrestleMania AXXESS event in Houston, Texas. This has been in the works for a long time, as a way to not only add to the WrestleMania week, but to give the company one more final live go home show for the company’s biggest event.

I think the live SD is a really cool idea, especially if it airs in a unique venue like an AXXESS event. Being live on last time 48 hours before WrestleMania is a great way to get one more last bit of hype out there for all the key matches and stories. I really love how WrestleMania has evolved into a week long event rather than just a one night show.

Here is the complete match listing and set of features for the WWE Greatest Stars of the 1990s DVD set that comes out later this spring:

DISC ONE

Tazz – Introduction

Shawn Michaels

From the Smallest Champion to the Largest

Yokozuna

Samoan Culture

The Rock

Drawing the Casual Fan

Women of the 90s

Tough and Sexy

Kevin Nash

Battle for Superstardom

Owen Hart

Fun Filled Memories

Ric Flair

Infamous Figure

Mick Foley

The Quest for Success

Not So Great Stars of the 90s

The Reinvention

Hulk Hogan

Attitude and Controversy

Triple H

Technical Savvy

Bret Hart

Pop Culture Phenomenon

Vince McMahon / Eric Bischoff / Paul Heyman

The Total Package

Lex Luger

The IT Factor

Sting

The Bad Guy

Razor Ramon

Respect

The Undertaker

A Rebel

Stone Cold Steve Austin

Tazz – Close

Extras
Razor Ramon – Restaurant Vignette – July 11, 1992

The Undertaker Builds a Coffin for Yokozuna – December 1993

Bret Hart – New Generation Vignette – July 1994

Owen Hart Inside a Steel Cage – August 20, 1994

Shawn Michaels Press Conference Before WrestleMania XI – February 28, 1995

Hunter Hearst Helmsley – “Riff Raff” – April 15, 1995

Mankind – “And God Created Mankind” – January 6, 1996

Scott Hall & Kevin Nash nWo Vignette – August 19, 1996

The Hart Foundation Reunites – March 31, 1997

D-Generation X Reenacts the Montreal Incident – November 24, 1997

The Rock Reads Steve Austin’s Eulogy – April 19, 1999

Steve Austin remembers the Shockmaster

DISC TWO
Ric Flair vs. Hulk Hogan – Madison Square Garden – November 30, 1991

WWE Championship Match: Bret Hart vs. Shawn Michaels – Survivor Series – November 25, 1992

WWE Championship Match: Hulk Hogan vs. Yokozuna – King of the Ring – June 13, 1993

Bret Hart vs. Owen Hart – WrestleMania X – March 20, 1994

Intercontinental Championship Match: Diesel vs. Razor Ramon – Superstars – April 13, 1994

International World Heavyweight Championship Match: Sting vs. Vader – Slamboree – May 22, 1994

WWE Championship Match: Bret Hart vs. Diesel – Royal Rumble – January 22, 1995

WWE Women’s Championship Match: Alundra Blayze vs. Bull Nakano – Monday Night Raw – April 3, 1995

DISC THREE
Triple Header Match: Shawn Michaels & Diesel vs. Yokozuna & British Bulldog – In Your House – September 24, 1995

#1 Contender Match: Owen Hart vs. Shawn Michaels – In Your House – February 18, 1996

WWE Championship Match: Shawn Michaels vs. Vader – SummerSlam – August 18, 1996

Steel Cage Match: Mankind vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley – SummerSlam – August 3, 1997

WCW Championship Match: Lex Luger vs. Hulk Hogan – Monday Nitro – August 4, 1997

WWE Championship Match: Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. The Undertaker – SummerSlam – August 30, 1998

United States Championship Match: Sting vs. Bret Hart – Halloween Havoc – October 25, 1998

Strap Match: Triple H vs. The Rock – Fully Loaded – July 25, 1999

Yep, there’s another one that will end up in my DVD shelve when it comes out.

The Road to…No Way Out
Elimination Chamber for the WWE Championship
Edge (c) v. Triple H v. The Big Show v. Undertaker v. TBA v. TBA

Elimination Chamber for the World Heavyweight Championship
John Cena (c) v. Rey Mysterio v. Chris Jericho v. Kofi Kingston v. Mike Knox v. TBA

Wrestler of the Week
Week of January 26 – February 1: Randy Orton
For the second week in a row, I’ve got to give some love to Randy Orton, even though he didn’t even a wrestle a match this past week. He once again looked like THE star of RAW this week. And now that he is working an angle with The McMahons it shows how much faith the company has in him. In 2007 it was the year of Edge, and 2008 was Chris Jericho’s year. It’s quite early to say, but at this rate 2009 could easily be the year of Orton.

RAW’s On Tonight!
There’s one spot left for the World Championship Elimination Chamber so expect that be cleared up tonight. And tonight’s show may tell where the company is or isn’t going with a potential Jericho-Mickey Rourke angle. Oh yeah and some guy named Randy Orton has made himself the biggest star on the flagship brand and I’m sure him and his shirtless boy-whore cohorts will be all over tonight’s show.

On Last Week’s Episode…
Marshall and Maiar cover the blue brand.

Innarelli stands alone with ECW coverage.

Marshall and Kirschner give some love to RAW.

How They Rated
SmackDown! (1.23.09) – 2.2

A.M. RAW (1.25.09) – .7

RAW (1.26.09) – 3.6

ECW (1.27.09) – 1.4

This is Boring, What Else is There to Read?
Marshall continues to chant T-N-A from the rooftops.

Wiswell has stepped in nicely as the site’s ROH guy. Speaking of which, has anyone seen Glazer?

And welcome back some old friends as Widro, Kace, and Wheeler all make their column returns to the Pulse.

For more relevant, interesting and exciting wrestling information from your truly, check out my gig as the Pro Wrestling Examiner over at Examiner.com.

Mark was a columnist for Pulse Wrestling for over four years, evolving from his original “Historically Speaking” commentary-style column into the Monday morning powerhouse known as “This Week in ‘E.” He also contributes to other ventures, outside of IP, most notably as the National Pro Wrestling Examiner for Examiner.com and a contributor for The Wrestling Press. Follow me on Twitter here.