WWE Releases

Yesterday World Wrestling Entertainment released  Maria, Paul Burchill, The Hurricane, and Scott Armstrong.

Maria had been with the company since 2004 in various roles; serving as an interviewer, manager, and active wrestler. She recently appeared on the Celebrity Apprentice and has an album coming out. She commented via Twitter regarding her release: “Alright guys let’s talk. I did not ask for my release. I was released. I am still going to kick ass in other areas!! I am excited about the future! But I am sad about never getting the Championship. I am sad about not getting the chance to go to Wrestlemania again. Passion is my Motivation! Time to Sing! Time to work for Charity! Time to Dance! Time to be Alive again! Much love to my FANS, my FAMILY, the DIVAS, and my FRIENDS! There is a bright new future when one door closes another opens! Bring on the Doors! Spanks and Kisses”

Paul Burchill had been with the company since 2002. He wrestled on all three bands, but never really caught on. He had an off and on tag team with William Regal and David Taylor. In 2005 he began using a pirate gimmick that, although slightly ammusing, was quickly dropped. He was last seen on ECW in the Fall of 2009.

Gregory "The Hurricane" Helms had been with the company since his contract was rolled over from the WCW purchase in 2001. A reliable mid-card talent, he was used regularly until suffering a severe neck injury in 2007 that kept him out of action for over a year. Upon returning he was breifly pushed on Smackdown before being moved to ECW where he revised his Hurricane gimmick. Helms was recently in hot water over a drunk in public charge. This was not his first run in with the law and certainly didn't help his case for remaining with the company.

Scott Armstrong had been a referee with WWE since 2006. The son of "Bullet" Bob Armstrong and brother to Brad, Steve, and Brian "Road Dogg" Armstrong, Scott had taken on lead officiating duties and his release comes as a bit of a suprise. Armstrong was one of two individuals to receive text messages from Chris Benoit on the morning of June 24th 2007 that first alerted the company that something was amiss with Benoit.

Weekly Ratings for February 21st - 27th

WWE Raw Champion: Batista 1. John Cena 2. Mike Mizanin 3. Sheamus 4. Triple H 5. Kofi Kingston
6. Ted Dibiase Jr. 7. Randy Orton 8. Christian 9. Evan Bourne 10. Yoshi Tatsu


WWE Smackdown! Champion: Chris Jericho 1. The Undertaker 2. Drew McIntyre 3. Rey Mistirio
4. Kane 5. Edge 6. Shelton Benjamin 7. Dolph Ziggler 8. CM Punk 9. R-Truth 10. John Morrison


WWE Unified Tag Team Champions: The Big Show & Mike Mizanin
1. Montel Vontavious Porter & Mark Henry 2. David Hart Smith & Tyson Kidd

TNA Champion: AJ Styles 1. Abyss 2. Rob Terry 3. Desmond Wolfe 4. Mister Anderson 5. Kazarian
6. D’Angelo Dinero 7. Kurt Angle 8. Orlando Jordan 9. Doug Williams 10. Jesse Neale

TNA Tag Team Champions: Matt Morgan and Hernandez 1. Team 3-D 2. The Nasty Boys

"Stunning" Steve Austin and the Origin of Attitude

In 1989 Steve Williams was working with the USWA promotion that was run by Jerry Jarrett and Jerry Lawler, and spanned not only the Memphis territory, but the former World Class wrestling Dallas area. Williams, who had been trained by Dallas star Chris Adams, was beginning to make a name for himself as someone to watch within the independent wrestling scene.



One of Memphis’s bookers at the time was grizzled veteran Dutch Mantel. When Austin showed up to work, Mantel told him he could not continue to wrestle under his real name of Steve Williams because there was already a wrestler by that name. Of course Mantel was referring to “Dr. Death” Steve Williams of Mid-South wrestling and Japan fame. He christened him Steve Austin, which actually wasn’t a play on the “Six Million Dollar Man” character, but came about because his name was Steve and he was billed as being from Austin.


Later on a long car ride, Dr. Tom Pritchard added “Stunning” to the Steve Austin name. The name had a ring to it and it was not long before Steve got a call from Magnum TA asking him to come down to the WCW offices in Atlanta. From there he signed his first contract for $75,000 a year. The following year that contract would be doubled.


Steve began working with his real life wife, Jeannie, as his manager. She was known to fans as Lady Blossom. Within his first month of competing in WCW he had won the Television title from Bobby Eaton. On working with Eaton, Austin said “I had a ton of respect for Bobby. He had always been a super-nice guy to me; one of the nicest guys in the business. And here I was taking the damn belt off of him the first time we met. He could have treated me like garbage, but he didn’t. I’ve always respected him for that.” Austin soon left Jeannie at home and joined Paul E. Dangerously’s Dangerous Alliance. He would feud with Barry Windham, Dustin Rhodes, Ricky Steamboat, and a host of others over the Television title. He held the title for ten months before finally dropping it to Steamboat.

Steve had been promised Harley Race as a manager following Dangerously’s departure. This was a good sign as the last two men Race had managed, Lex Luger and Vader, had both gone on to win the World championship. So Steve was shocked when upon arrival at an arena one day, he was approached by Brian Pillman who wanted to know if he had any ideas for their tag team together. WCW was known for switching gears without rhyme or reason and this was another prime example. However, they were not counting on just how big this team would become. They had simply thrown two guys together because they had nothing else for them. The name of the team, the Hollywood Blondes, was thought up by Raven, who was wrestling in WCW as Scotty Flamingo. The team had matching outfits and worked very cohesively. They engaged in memorable feuds with Ric Flair and Arn Anderson, as well as the team of Ricky Steamboat and Shane Douglas. They also had a short run as Tag Team champions. The problem was they started to get over with the fans. Attitudes were already changing and fans found these cocky, cool bad guys to be entertaining and cheered for them. So, WCW broke the team up and gave Steve Colonel Robert Parker as a manager. He had two runs with the United States title that were largely unmemorable. He never recaptured the magic that he had with Pillman.


During his time in WCW Steve made many close friends. Some he has tragically lost and others that he has kept to this day. Brian Pillman was chief among them. Austin has said of Pillman and the gold chain that was given to him as a gift: “That’s why it is so important to me to wear the gold chain that Brian gave me. If I’m wearing it, then Brian is right there with me. I sure miss that raspy-voiced hell-raiser. He was a great friend.” Austin was also close to Rick Rude. “Ravishing Rick Rude was a guy that- well, we just hit it off. I don’t know why we did, but it was after we got put together in the Dangerous Alliance. He was into fishing, being he was from Minnesota, but Paul Orndorff and I got him into shooting and hunting. I liked being with him because he always told you straight up what he was thinking, 24/7.” Austin was also close with Mick Foley and Kevin Nash, who would later help open the door to WWE. Austin also enjoyed the company of Raven, who he felt WWE “missed the boat on”.


Austin suffered a knee injury in late 1994 and was sidelined for a few months. After he got back he was sent on a tour of Japan. On the third night of the three week tour, he tore his right triceps. He worked through the injury and saw a doctor when he returned to the states. While convalescing from the injury, he was fired over the phone by WCW executive president Eric Bischoff.


Steve went on to cut scathing promos on WCW, Bischoff, and Hulk Hogan while in ECW. These promos, and good words from Nash and Jim Ross, helped open the door to WWE. Austin was signed in late 1995 and debuted as the Ringmaster. Of course, we all know Austin eventually took his black boots and black tights and made a name for himself as Stone Cold Steve Austin. But, if it were not for the up and down times in WCW and the humiliation given from Eric Bischoff, the Austin attitude era may never have happened. “Stunning” Steve Austin was a good worker who had great matches with a lot of solid stars, but more than anything else, the “Stunning One” served as a catalyst for wrestling’s third great boom period.






(Quotes courtesy of “The Stone Cold Truth” By Steve Austin and Jim Ross as told to Dennis Brent, available from Pocket Books)

Top 4 Controversial Matches

The Top 4 Most Controversial Matches in Wrestling History



#1 WWE World Title Match; Bret “The Hitman Hart vs. Shawn Michaels; Survivor Series; Montreal, Quebec Canada; November 09, 1997


In the nine years following this match, it seems as if we have hardly had a major WWE title match without mention of the “Montreal Screw Job”. In many ways it, more than any other event in wrestling history, has changed the landscape of the game. The history leading up to the match is almost as controversial as the finish itself.


Reigning WWE champion Bret Hart was informed by WWE chairman Vince McMahon in the fall of 1997 that he could no longer afford to pay Hart’s incredible twenty year contract. He allowed Hart to negotiate with WCW for a better deal. Once that deal was reached, the problem became how to get the title off of Hart before he arrived in the rival company. McMahon still had a bitter taste in his mouth from a 1995 incident in which WWE women’s champion Alundra Blayze (Madusa Miceli) arrived on WCW Nitro and threw her title in the trash on live television. McMahon definitely did not want to see a repeat with the most prized title in his company.


Hart’s contract guaranteed him complete creative control for his final thirty days with the company. So when Vince told him that he wanted him to drop the title to Michaels at Survivor Series, Hart refused. He had been having a war of words that at times resorted to violence with Michaels for most of the year. The last thing he wanted to do was lose the title in his final WWE match to the man he hated most in the company in front of thousands of his fellow Canadians.


It was decided between Hart and McMahon that the finish for the match would be a disqualification with members of the Hart Foundation and D-Generation X interfering. From there Hart would either immediately drop the title to someone back in the states or he would simply relinquish it. Unbeknownst to Hart however was a scheme being cooked up between McMahon, WWE official Gerald Brisco, Michaels, and head referee Earl Hebner. McMahon told Michaels that he wanted him to lock Hart in the sharpshooter. As soon as he did this McMahon would tell Hebner to ring the bell and Michaels would be champion. Shawn would later say that he felt like a mafia hit man, but that he knew he was doing the right thing.


The match went off just as the four architects of it had planned. Afterwards a befuddled Hart lashed out at McMahon, spitting in his face and later punching him. The aftermath saw Davey Boy Smith, Jim Neidhart, Rick Rude, and Brian “Crush” Adams leave for WCW out of respect for Hart. Meanwhile McMahon played off of the hatred many fans now had for him to create one of the most hated and lucrative characters in the history of the business. No matter how many years pass or champions are crowned this match is never far from fan’s memories in big match environments.

#2 NWA World Title Match; “Nature Boy” Buddy Rogers vs. Lou Thesz; Toronto, Ontario Canada; January 24, 1963


Another controversial match in Canada actually launched the creation of the WWWF (now WWE). Buddy Rogers was the crowned NWA world champion and one of the most charismatic performers of his time. His opponent on this night was the strait laced, no nonsense former champion and NWA kingpin; Lou Thesz. Thesz defeated Rogers in what many expected to be the first fall of the contest. However, the bell soon rang and Thesz was crowned the champion leaving Rogers and his promoters, Vince McMahon Sr. and Toots Mondt, fuming. This setup was created to get the title off of Rogers and onto what was deemed the more respectable Thesz. Soon after the contest many promoters in the Northeast broke away from the NWA and formed the World Wide Wrestling Federation. Wouldn’t you know it, their first champion was “Nature Boy” Buddy Rogers.

 

#3 World Title Match; George Hackenschmidt vs. Frank Gotch; Chicago, Il; September 04, 1911


We have to go way back in time for this one. This was a time before script writers, pyrotechnics, and scantily clad valets. This match was the original “granddaddy of them all” as it pitted World champion Frank Gotch against the man he defeated, European powerhouse George Hackenschmidt. Nations were stunned when Gotch one the initial meeting as Hackenschmidt was the heavy favorite. Fans were turned away from Chicago’s Kaminski Park for the second clash of these two turn of the century titans.


This was, of course, a three falls contests. A typical championship match in those days makes today’s Iron Man match look like a walk in the park. The participants were given a short break in between falls.


Three days before the match Hackenschmidt injured his knee in a training session with a shooter by the name of Benjamin Roller. Many have claimed that it was Ad Santel, but later research has disproved that notion. Hackenschmidt was indeed injured heading into the contest, but doctors ruled that it wouldn’t prevent him from competing. Rumors began to swirl that Gotch had paid to have the shooter injure Hackenschmidt. These rumors were never substantiated but did leave a stigma for the match.


Gotch won the first fall with a crotch hold (yes, that is correct) in sixteen minutes. The second fall did not last much longer as a pained Hackenschmidt simply surrendered the match. Gotch had defeated the mighty European for a second time and spectators were again stunned with the outcome. Not only had Gotch scored two consecutive falls, but he had done it with relative ease and in near record time.


After the match Hackenschmidt was open about his injury and claimed that Gotch had oiled his body up to make it difficult to be caught in holds. Gotch and his camp denied the rumors. However, the fact that nearly a hundred years later this match is still being debated shows that it ranks as one of the most controversial of all time.

#4 WCW World Title Match; Sid Vicious vs. Chris Benoit; Cincinnati, Oh; January 16, 2000


In the year 2000 WCW was sinking ship with a rotating crew of men at the helm. At the beginning of the year Vince Russo was in his third month as the creative head of the company and had yet to make headway against the mounting opposition WWE was posing. Fearing that changes had to be made to get the company out of the red, Russo was ousted mere days before the Souled Out pay-per-view. A booking committee featuring former writer and wrestler Kevin Sullivan was put in place to run the show. To say that this did not sit well with many of WCW’s younger stars would be a vast understatement. During his previous tenure in control, Sullivan had problems, both personally and professionally, with Chris Benoit. Benoit was slated for the main event of Souled Out in a match against Sid Vicious for the recently vacated World title. Upon news that the booking committee would include Sullivan, Benoit, along with wrestlers such as Eddy Guerrero, Perry Saturn, Dean Malenko, and Shane Douglas asked for releases from their contractual obligations. To try and placate the group, the decision was made for Benoit to win the title at Souled Out.
The match nearly went off without a hitch. It wasn’t a classic, but was better than most of the under card. The only problem was that while Vicious was locked in the crippler cross face, his foot was under the rope, out of the view of special referee Arn Anderson. Benoit was crowned the champion. Once backstage he handed the title to WCW official Nick Patrick and asked for his release, which was reluctantly granted to him. The next night it was proclaimed, conveniently enough that because Vicious’ foot was under the rope the decision was null and void, and the title was once again vacant. It certainly was coincidental that his foot was in the right place at the right time, wasn’t it?

February Monthly Ratings

The Top 25 Wrestlers of February

1. AJ Styles (TNA)
2. The Undertaker (Smackdown!)
3. Sheamus (Raw)
4. John Cena (Raw)
5. Mike Mizanin (Raw)
6. Drew McIntyre (Smackdown!)
7. Randy Orton (Raw)
8. Edge (Smackdown!)
9. Mister Anderson (TNA)
10. Batista (Raw)
11. Chris Jericho (Smackdown!)
12. Rey Mistirio (Smackdown!)
13. D’Angelo Dinero (TNA)
14. CM Punk (Smackdown!)
15. Kane (Smackdown!)
16. Samoa Joe (TNA)
17. Kurt Angle (TNA)
18. Ted Dibiase Jr. (Raw)
19. Kofi Kingston (Raw)
20. Triple H (Raw)
21. Christian (Raw)
22. Desmond Wolfe (TNA)
23. Rob Terry (TNA)
24. Eric Young (TNA)
25. Abyss (TNA)

The Top 10 Tag Teams of February

1. The Big Show & Mike Mizanin (Raw)
2. Matt Morgan & Hernandez (TNA)
3. D-Generation X (Raw)
4. Montel Vontavious Porter & Mark Henry (Raw)
5. CM Punk & Luke Gallows (Smackdown!)
6. David Hart Smith & Tyson Kidd (Smackdown!)
7. The Nasty Boys (TNA)
8. Team 3-D (TNA)
9. Generation Me (TNA)
10. Beer Money Incorporated (TNA)

WWE Hall of Fame News

Three names have been anounced thus far for the WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2010. The induction ceremony will be held on the night of March 27th. It will be broadcast live over WWE's website with the final hour airing on the USA netowork. "The Million Dollar Man" Ted Dibiase will be inducted by his sons Ted Jr. and Brett. Antonio Inoki will be inducted by Stan "The Lariat" Hansen. Wendi Richter will be inducted by "Rowdy" Roddy Piper.

Rumors have swirled that after previously agreeing, The Ultimate Warrior has turned down being inducted. Warrior lives in Arizona and despite a rocky relationship with the company, was going to be inducted to help add legitimacy to a Hall of Fame missing many of the company's major stars. The Honkytonk Man also announced via Facebook that he too turned down induction.

"Iron" Mike Tyson, Mister T, and Bob Uecker are all names that have been rumored for celebrity induction.

WWE Hall of Famer Stone Cold Steve Austin is slated to be the final RAW guest host. Management feels that the guest host gimmick has run its course and will be looking to replace the host with a permanent authority figure.

Bodyslam Autism!

One of the most well known names on the independent wrestling scene is that of "Wiseguy" Jimmy Cicero. Cicero was trained by the "Russian Bear" Ivan Koloff and has worked with some of the biggest names in the history of the business. In 2009 he began a crusade to take on his biggest foe yet: Autism. Jimmy has two young sons who both suffer from Autism, with them serving as his inspiration he has taken his campaign to the ring, raising funds and awareness of Autism. Jimmy is a class act and one of the most genuine people in the wrestling business I have had the pleasure of meeting. I encourage all of you to check out Jimmy's website: jimmycicerowrestling.com. You can find out more information on the "Wiseguy" and how you too can help Bodyslam Autism!

Matches for Wrestlemania

The card for Wrestlemania XXVI is starting to shape up. Officially signed matches for the March 28th spectacular so far are:

World Title Match
Batista vs. John Cena

World Heavyweight Title Match
Chris Jericho vs. Edge

Streak vs. Career Match
The Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels

Money in the Bank/Ladder Match
Kane vs. Christian vs. Shelton Benjamin vs. Dolph Zigger vs. TBD vs. TBD vs. TBD vs. TBD

Rumored matches so far include:

Streetfight
Bret "The Hitman" Hart vs. Vince McMahon

Mask vs. Hair Match
Rey Mistirio vs. CM Punk

Randy Orton vs. Ted Dibiase Jr. vs. Cody Rhodes

Triple H vs. Sheamus