Falls Count Anywhere

09/13/2010

no hasslin'

Interesting things have taken place, though nothing Earth-shattering, so let’s call this a News & Notes Edition!

Matt Hardy was sent home from the Smackdown European tour a day early. If you thought that Jeff Hardy was a mess in the 2005 timeframe, maybe Matt’s about to take over that role. There was concern over his ‘condition’ before a couple of shows earlier in the week where at least one person reported he looked ‘Scott Hall-level messed up’ and the last straw was the second-to-last show of the tour. There were a couple of incidents, but folks are being told to keep it quiet according to The Observer.

That’s a problem… or maybe not.

Thee are reports that the reports of Matt being sent home were false, and it’s possible that they are both correct: that Matt was pulled off the show, but was still on the tour and sent home. That’s happened before, notably with Hall and once with Jeff Hardy, but it’s still not a good thing. He had a video that shows that he’s not been sent home, but that still doesn’t mean that he’s working the tour. It’s cheaper to keep him on the flight he was initially booked on and not physically send him home.

The video worries a lot of folks because he looks a little weird and babbles a bit. He also makes a comment about a ‘punk’ starting the problems for him, but that might just be a weird choice of words. He’s dropped a lot of weight really fast, down from 245 to about 224, or so he says. He claims it was entirely from not eating red meat. Something is going on and folks are noticing.

Legendary, John Cena’s latest film, was pretty much a flop in general release, though folks seemed to like it, even critics. It’s also got Danny Glover in it. That’s always a good thing. On fewer than 200 screens, it only pulled in about $135,000. That’s not a good number, but the Cena movies tend to make their money on DVD.

Mike Shaw, the former Bastion Booger and Mahkan Singh and Norman the Lunatic and on and on, passed away. He was 53. He was a good worker despite is large size and was one of Owen Hart’s earliest opponents and was a part of the reason he got over early on.

There’s a lot of concern about that Florida-based promotion Worldwide Wrestling Promotions. The Observer reported that they’re holding off on starting, they were supposed to start paying folks this month, and they’re working on starting in 2011. That’s not a good sign, and Sean Davis’ rep is taking something of a beating over it. They’ve certainly signed a lot of guys to contracts that are going to have to be re-negotiated, both wrestlers and office staff.

The Ring of Honor Internet PPV had some problems, notably drop outs of the picture, including missing the end of the Chain Match (that ended up being less of a chain match) between Steve Corino & Kevin Steen vs. El Generico & Colt Cabana. It was a minor problem.

Everyone was talking about the match with The World’s Greatest Tag Team, Shelton Benjamin and Charlie Haas, facing The Kings of Wrestling. It was a really good match, and Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio was heavily praising Haas for his performance.

I’m hoping they keep teaming because this was a great showing from both of them. I’ve always liked Haas, and I don’t need to tell you how great I think Shelton is, so seeing these two teaming regularly again would be very nice.

I recently watched a DragonGate show from Japan where Jushin Liger teamed with Cima. They took on YAMATO and some other guy in a match that I really enjoyed. The bit thing is that Liger is 45 now and can still go a fair bit. He’s not done he’s Shooting Star Press for years, but he’s still great to watch. The DragonGate USA shows are well-worth watching.

Karen Angle and Jeff Jarrett got married a few weeks ago. It would be nice to see Karen back at some point as she was really good when she was in TNA.

Sarena Deeb, formerly of the Straight Edge Society, returned to Shimmer, where she first made her name. She answered an open challenge from Portia unannounced and beat the girl. It’ll be on Shimmer’s 35 DVD.

I love Sarena, she’s exceptionally hot and decent in the ring, and I’m hoping she gets regular work again. The WWE did the ‘Sarena caught drunk in a bar’ angle as a rib on the fact that she’s a bit of a party girl. She’s an absolute doll and it was really cool when I met her back in 2005 or 06. She also managed to get her degree while wrestling. And in 4 years!

Speaking of Women’s wrestling, take a look at Diva Dirt, a great site covering the best in woman’s graps.

OK, that’s enough of the news and notes!

Chris Garcia