Jericho knocks a fan on his ass, Candice Michelle has been accused of being fat and apparently Bob Holly is a miserable bastard. Somehow I’m not surprised by that last one.
Opening Witty Banter
Where did the time go this week and today especially? It’s been a quiet, slow week in Titan Towers, and the news that is out there is quite on the dull side. So let’s crank this thing out before I fall asleep at my computer.
Enough of that, now let’s take some ‘E…
The News of the Week
It was an interesting week for Chris Jericho. On Saturday, February 7, after a WWE house show in Victoria, British Columbia, there was an altercation between Chris Jericho and several fans. I normally don’t post videos in this column but check this out.
Footage is a little rough.
This is a YouTube description of the event:
“After Jericho drove out of the parking lot, a fan ran up to his SUV, starting knocking on the window and fingering him while yelling. Jericho opened the door and had the fan kick it shut. This is when I started recording. The first little bit shows pretty much nothing, but it’s there. According to other bystanders, this fan had been verbally harassing Jericho prior to the show. It’s a shame that one fan had to ruin it for everyone, I hope he is found and charged.”
Celebrity website TMZ.com picked up the story and posted the video.
WWE then made the following official announcement in response to TMZ.com.
“After leaving a live event in Victoria, British Columbia on Saturday evening, Chris Jericho’s car was attacked by a mob when he was stopped at a stop sign. Unable to proceed, Chris Jericho exited his car to ask the crowd to clear a path so he could continue through the intersection. A man and a woman physically and verbally assaulted Mr. Jericho. Arena and WWE security arrived to establish enough order to allow Mr. Jericho to re-enter his vehicle and depart. The local police arrived minutes later. Mr. Jericho was unharmed in the incident. The WWE is working with local authorities who are investigating the incident to identify the man and woman who fled the scene.â€
Okay so it’s apparent that WWE will stand by Jericho in this instance and he won’t be penalized. Plus with wrestling being in such a grey area as it is, Jericho and the company can just claim that he was still playing his “bad guy†character that the fans just saw in the arena.
Normally from most accounts Jericho is one of the nicest guys out there to his fans so either he (a) was having a really bad day, (b) really was pushed by the obnoxious fans, (c) playing his character or (d) a combination of all three.
But hitting a female (or anyone) isn’t cool, especially with Jericho’s celebrity status. He’s a role model for a lot of people and this is going to put a black eye on him, WWE and the wrestling industry as a whole if it gets picked up farther. He and WWE have a strong possibility of a lawsuit coming at them stemming from the incident.
That being said, expect footage of the incident to show up tomorrow night during Jericho’s bad guy rant tomorrow night on RAW.
Speaking of Jericho, the original plan for WrestleMania XXV was to be Chris Jericho v. Mickey Rourke in some form of boxing match, with Ric Flair in Rourke’s corner. While that may still happen, if Rourke doesn’t work out, the company has planned for two other ways for the angle to go. The first is a Jericho versus Flair match, which seems to be already teased, and the second is a match between Jericho and Stone Cold Steve Austin. Apparently Austin has said Jericho is one of the few people he would trust to have a match with at this point.
Jericho’s recent washed-up legends rants on RAW fits perfectly for a match with either Flair or Austin. But I really, really hope Flair doesn’t step into the ring again. I’m one of those few who really want Flair to remain retired and respect the going away party that WWE gave him last year. If Austin steps in the ring with Jericho, then that is fine with me. I’m at this point I can take or leave Austin.
WWE management has told Candice Michelle to lose a little weight, or “tighten up.â€
On one hand I think this is a chauvinistic thing to say to someone who is clearly in better shape than most of the women in America, but on the other hand part of her job is to “stand there and look pretty†so being thin is part of her job description.
See what things I debate about when it’s a slow news week?
Kane is writing a political blog over at adventuresofcitizenx.com. He is a big follower of Ron Paul. Apparently he’s been doing this for the better part of three years, but it’s only been discovered by wrestling nerds like us recently.
So Kane is this Citizen X fellow? You know if Russo was still booking, Kane would be President of WWE by now.
Kelly Kelly was on Bubba The Love Sponge recently and explained that with the company moving to TV-PG ratings there will be no more bra and panty matches in the company for the foreseeable future.
Well I hope people will finally stop debating on which chick will be posing for the WrestleMania Playboy spread this year. As for Kelly, what she wrestles in now is barely above a bra and panties anyways so it isn’t much of a change. At least Jerry Lawler has less crap to drool about on commentary now.
AC/DC will NOT be performing at WrestleMania XXV, despite donating their music to the pay per view. AC/DC will actually be performing overseas in Europe during WrestleMania.
So did someone not look at a tour schedule last week before they announced AC/DC would actually be at WrestleMania? And why did none of the rest of us who also reported it bother not to double check anything?
John Cena’s old F-U move has now been officially renamed the “Attitude Adjustment.†Cena came up with it himself to help please the TV-PG demo.
There, I’m glad we got that cleared up.
Speaking of Cena, “The Marine†will debut on FX next week.
Well I can finally see it without spending any money, but then again I probably won’t watch it still because I hate watching movies on basic cable with the commercial breaks.
Speaking of TV-PG, WWE sent out this press release:
WWE® RALLIES YOUTH COMMUNITY
STAMFORD, CT —February 5, 2009—WWE is proud to announce WWE Community Champions, a program that celebrates youth who display outstanding community spirit. Selected youths will be featured in exclusive WWE videos to appear on WWE.com and WWEKids.com.
With its newest program, WWE Community Champions, WWE is looking to hear from parents of extraordinary youths and teens, grades 1-12, who are giving back to their community, whether it’s by helping to rebuild a dilapidated park, starting a reading program at school, or creating a recycling drive to clean up their city. WWE will review the youths’ stories on how they have made positive changes in their community to share with the WWE Universeâ„¢.
WWE Community Champions is the latest addition to WWE’s stable of youth outreach programs. These include Get R.E.A.L. (Respect, Education, Achievement and Leadership) READ, a nation-wide program in which Superstars promote literacy, and Circle of Champions, a joint effort with the Make-A-Wish® Foundation and other wish-granting agencies. Since 1982, Circle of Champions has brought together WWE Superstars and more than 5,000 youths with life-threatening illnesses across the world.
Parents of youths interested in becoming a WWE Community Champion should submit their stories or videos by mail to WWE Kids, Attn: WWE Kids Community Champions, 1241 East Main St., Stamford, CT 06902, or by email to CommunityChampions@wwe.com. If WWE chooses to feature a youth’s story, he or she may be interviewed by WWE in a video to run on WWE.com and/or WWEKids.com.
Yahoo for kids. Kids are the future of WWE. God knows I wouldn’t be here writing this column if I didn’t get to watch WWF back when I was a five year old.
Speaking of more boring, space-filling news, Linda McMahon’s nomination to the Connecticut State Board of Education is going along swimmingly. The nomination will now go to the full House and Senate for approval, which is considered a formality.
So when does Linda make her annual reappearance on WWE TV? Sometime before WrestleMania I’m sure.
HispanicBusiness.com has an article up on the WWE’s success with the Hispanic market and also with WrestleMania. The article mentions “top WWE Hispanic names” as Rey Mysterio, Melina and Lilian Garcia.
But what about Chavo Guerrero and The Colons and all the other Hispanics not mentioned?
In a funny little tidbit, several independent wrestling promoters were trying to call Bob Holly after he got fired by WWE, but they had difficulty because nobody in WWE knew his phone number.
Hahahaha…Holly can’t really be that miserable of a sonofabitch can he?
More bad news went down on Monday as the WWE had to close another international office. Last week the Australian office was shut down, and this week the Canadian office was put out of its misery. WWE has offered WWE Canada President Carl DeMarco a new position in the company, as he is a long-standing member of the company.
Yeah…more depressing news about people losing their jobs.
Weekly Paul London Update
Oh yeah, this feature is making its return now that it has been confirmed that Paul London will be returning to pro wrestling action in the very near future. London will be working with Pro Wrestling Guerrilla on February 21, teaming with the Young Bucks taking on Karl Anderson, Scott Lost & Joey Ryan. Welcome back Paul! Now go to TNA and team with Joe, AJ, Daniels and Kaz to beat up the Main Event Mafia! Too soon for the fanboy fantasy booking?
The Road to…No Way Out
Elimination Chamber for the WWE Championship
Edge (c) v. Triple H v. The Big Show v. Undertaker v. Jeff Hardy v. Vladimir Kozlov
Elimination Chamber for the World Heavyweight Championship
John Cena (c) v. Rey Mysterio v. Chris Jericho v. Kofi Kingston v. Mike Knox v. Kane
No Holds Barred
Shane McMahon v. Randy Orton
Shawn Michaels v. JBL
ECW Championship
Finlay v. Jack Swagger (c)
Wrestler of the Week
Week of February 2 – 8: Triple H & Undertaker
In a week where nothing absolutely earth-shattering happened on WWE TV, I wanted to give some love to the winners of what I thought was the best match on WWE TV this week. Cena and Jericho was decent and Finlay-Swagger was entertaining, but for once I actually really paid attention to SmackDown and enjoyed the hell out of it. The battle royal was decent and the six-man tag was more entertaining than I expected, but the main event tag more than delivered thanks to the work of four top veterans. I give HHH and Undertaker the love here just because they came out on top.
RAW’s On Tonight!
It’s going to be a huge RAW tonight as Ric Flair will be live in Oakland to confront Chris Jericho and put heat on the burgeoning Jericho-Mickey Rourke rivalry. Plus Stephanie McMahon “made a deal with the devil†(gotta love cheesy clichés) in order to bring Undertaker to RAW for one night only to take on Randy Orton. Plus I’m hoping for more stellar promo work between JBL and Shawn Michaels. And if that isn’t enough William Regal cashes in his rematch clause to challenge CM Punk for the Intercontinental Championship.
On Last Week’s Episode…
Norine and Maiar provide the blue coverage.
Innarelli walks alone with extreme coverage.
Marshall provides love for the red brand.
How They Rated
SmackDown! (1.30.09) –
A.M. RAW (2.1.09) – .8
RAW (2.2.09) – 3.6
ECW (2.3.09) – 1.4
This is Boring, What Else is There to Read?
Marshall examines Gov. Blagojevich coming to TNA and the immense ratings spike it was cause.
Ditch dips into Meltzer’s old bag of tricks.
Wiswell looks at Gabe Sapolsky’s new shoot DVD where he talks about stuff that didn’t actually happen.
For more relevant, interesting and exciting wrestling information from your truly, check out my gig as the Pro Wrestling Examiner over at Examiner.com.
