This Week in ‘E – More Fallen Comrades

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The wrestling world loses two more, WWE lowers ticket prices but raises WrestleMania pay per view prices. Somehow that doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.

Opening Witty Banter
Holy sh!t! I have a column to write and almost forgot about it. I gotta crank this out quick before I crash. But it shouldn’t take too long as the week was pretty dry with rasslin’ news.

Let’s take some ‘E…

The News of the Week
Hate to start the week off with sad news but it was reported late on Sunday night that two former WWE talents had passed away, in very different ways.

According to WrestlingObserver.com, Mexican pro wrestler Abismo Negro (Andres Palomeque) was found dead in a river in Mexico. He was only 37 years old. There are no other details available at this time.

Abismo Negro made his career working down in Mexico, but had a few notable US wrestling appearances, including a brief stint in the WWF in early 1997 during their talent exchange with AAA.

It has also been reported that Steve Doll passed away at the age of 44. In 2007 Doll was hospitalized after having a seizure related to an intestinal blockage. He underwent surgery, and had been placed on life support. His family decided to remove him from his ventilator and let him pass on.

Doll was a regional star through the 1990s and found his most success with tag team partner Rex King. Doll and King had a run in the WWF in from 1993 – 1995 as Steven Dunn and Timothy Well a.k.a. “Well Dunn.”

My condolences go out to both men’s friends and families.

It was announced this past week that WWE will be lowering some of their ticket prices for live events to the $20 – $25 price range.

It’s just another sign of our troubling economy. But I do think it is a great move for WWE because from a business standpoint would you rather have that seat filled by a $20 ticket or not filled at all? Plus the snark in me also thinks that a lot of times a WWE house show isn’t really worth the $20 anyways.

WWE is pulling the planned Iron Sheik biography after they didn’t like the first treatment they received.

I just saw Sheiky baby this past weekend at an independent show (support your local independents!) and he was over like crazy, easily getting people to buy his $10 pics and autographs. For some reason he also had publicity shots of Stone Cold, Stacy Keibler and Finlay/Hornswoggle among others. WTF? He also cut a great Sheik-style promo about the Minnesota and being trained by Gagne and then pretty much Hulk Hogan could F off. At least that’s what I think he said; it is pretty hard to understand Sheiky these days. That being said, I’m sure someone will be more than happy to pick up a Sheik autobiography and without WWE handcuffs it could be even more fantastic.

In news that isn’t really news but will be put here to fill inches, Sci Fi network is now rebranding itself “Sy Fy,” so that they can open up their programming options.

Nah…nothing’s gonna change. It’s just going to look dumber now. Perhaps they are just making way for the eventual arrival of SmackDown to the network when MyNetworkTV folds.

WWE has raised the price of the WrestleMania pay per view once again, as this year it will cost $54.95. Their thought process is that die-hard fans will buy the pay per view regardless and can cash in on a little extra money that they will surely miss out from casual fans that probably won’t be buying this year.

Yeah, they got me I guess. I still plunk the obscene amount to buy it, but I only buy WrestleMania and the Rumble anyways. Remember during the ’96 – ’01 period when every PPV was only $30? Yeah, me neither.

Wendi Richter said she would NOT be attending WrestleMania XXV to participate in the Divas battle royal.

That’s too bad. I was really hoping she would make a welcome return after her unceremonious exit from WWE all those years ago.

Sometime during the week the company released Tyson Tomko. He only had one match in his return, a dark match against Paul Burchill, but was said he was still had an arm injury and was out of shape, instantly putting him out of favor with management.

I kind of already forgotten about his forgotten his return to WWE. It’s too bad as he was coming in with such momentum from a surprising TNA run that people had high hopes for his return to WWE.

The Road to…WrestleMania XXV
WWE Championship
Triple H (c) v. Randy Orton

World Heavyweight Championship
John Cena v. The Big Show v. Edge (c)

Undertaker v. Shawn Michaels

Extreme Rules
Jeff Hardy v. Matt Hardy

Handicap Match
“Superfly” Jimmy Snuka, Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat & “Rowdy Roddy Piper (accompanied by Ric Flair & Mickey Rourke) v. Chris Jericho

Money in the Bank V
CM Punk v. Kane v. Mark Henry v. MVP v. Shelton Benjamin v. Kofi Kingston v. Christian v. Finlay

Intercontinental Championship
Rey Mysterio v. JBL (c)

Unified WWE Tag Team Championships
Carlito & Primo Colon (WWE Tag Team Champions) v. The Miz & John Morrison (World Tag Team Champions)

25 Diva Battle Royal
Maryse, Melina, Michelle McCool, Nikki & Brie Bella, Maria, Eve Torres, Kelly Kelly, Mickie James, Beth Phoenix, Rosa Mendes, Layla, Alicia Fox, Natalya Neidhart, Katie Lea Burchill, Gail Kim, Candice Michelle, Tiffany
(rumored participants: Sunny, Jackie Gayda-Haas, Torrie Wilson, Wendi Richter, Mae Young, Trish Stratus)

rumored matches:
ECW Championship
Evan Bourne v. Jack Swagger (c)

The Great Khali v. Vladimir Kozlov

Class of 2009 Hall of Fame
Stone Cold Steve Austin
Terry Funk & Dory Funk, Jr. (inducted by Dusty Rhodes)
Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat (inducted by Ric Flair)
“Cowboy” Bill Watts (inducted by Jim Ross)
”The Birdman” Koko B. Ware (inducted by Honky Tonk Man)
The Von Erich family (inducted by Michael “P.S.” Hayes)

Wrestler of the Week
Week of March 16 – 22: MVP
I wanted to give this “award” to Evan Bourne just out of pure markdom for the guy but I can’t deny the week that MVP had. He wrestled on all three shows this past week, picking up two out of three victories. And as a cherry on top he picked up his second United States Championship this past Friday on the 500th SmackDown, beating Shelton Benjamin. MVP is on a hot streak and it seems as if he passed his losing streak gimmick with flying colors and came out smelling like roses. And in my opinion MVP is the front-runner to to pick up the victory in Money in the Bank coming up at WrestleMania.

RAW’s On Tonight!
I have no real idea what is going to be on the big show tonight. Nothing has been announced specifically for the show but I’m guessing virtually every segment will have something to do with promoting a match at WrestleMania (which it should). Plus rumors are swirling another inductee will be announced for the Hall of Fame, and frankly he’s quite deserving. Can you say, “and the NEEEWWW! Hall of Fame inductee, Howard Finkel!” It seriously will sound better if you say it aloud in your best Fink announcing voice.

On Last Week’s Episode…
Norine and Dale Clarke cover the historic 500th episode of SmackDown.

Innarelli covers the return of Evan Bourne~!…and the rest of ECW.

Marshall covers RAW from San Antonio as the road to WrestleMania continued to heat up.

How They Rated
SmackDown! (3.13.09) – 1.9

A.M. RAW (3.15.09) –

RAW (3.16.09) – 3.6

ECW (3.17.09) – 1.35

This is Boring, What Else is There to Read?
Wiswell covers some Ring of Honor action that already happened.

Marshall continues to cover TNA just as they are finally getting on their own hot streak.

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.