Every Tuesday and Friday we give you the scoop on what's happening in and out of the wrestling ring. Somedays it's even funny!

"Did I even watch Smackdown?"

Chairshots
11/02/01

Smackdown Thoughts
As I write this Friday morning, I remember that I enjoyed Smackdown, but can't really remember anything that happened on the show other than Austin vs. 'Taker. Sure, I could look at my notes, but do you look at your notes before watching Raw? Do you even make notes? I know tensions built between Rock and Jericho during a backstage confrontation and they booked a WCW title defense match between the two for this Monday on Raw. I know RVD pinned Edge due to interferance from Test and I recall Kurt Angle interfered in Undertaker's title match against Steve Austin to cost 'Taker the belt. Other than that, the show was enjoyable, but forgettable. Another bad sign for the WWF booking team. Or maybe it's all that diet soda I drink…

See ya. Wouldn't want to be ya.

Rhyno Put Down
Rhyno (real name Terry Gerin) will be having neck surgery on Friday morning that will keep him out of action from anywhere from six months to a year. The injury is similar in nature to that of Chris Benoit, who isn't expected back with the WWF until 2002. Steve Austin also had such an injury and missed nearly a year of action. If Rhyno wore a protective "Rhino" suit like the Marvel character, this wouldn't be necessary.

Survivor Series
The main event for the Survivor Series on November 18 will be a ten main elimination matchup as follows: Steve Austin, Kurt Angle, Rob Van Dam, Booker T and Shane McMahon versus The Rock, Chris Jericho, The Undertaker, Kane and Vince McMahon. Couldn't the McMahon's just stand at ring side while the wrestlers wrestle? Must they be in the match too? ProWrestlingTorch.com had an interesting guest column this week that suggested the main event for Survivor Series be a War Games match. I cursed out loud for not thinking of that first. Since the WWF owns WCW, why shouldn't they use the WCW gimmick matches too?

Tough Enough
The WWF has issued paperwork to the 250 "Tough Enough 2" semi-finalists. The paperwork indicates that casting is scheduled for Nov. 7-12 in Las Vegas, Nev. It also warns semi-finalists to "be ready to start filming the following week." Returning Tough Enough instructor are Al Snow, Jackie and Tazz (what else does Tazz have to do, really?" Contestants chosen for the show will receive $300 per week during filming. Contest winners will receive one-year developmental contracts that pay $1,000 per week. The WWF has the right to renew those contracts for a second year at $1,500 per week. God, I could use that kind of money right now.

Kanyon Update
As reported Tuesday, Kanyon injured his knee during in a dark match against Randy Orton, during the taping of Smackdown. After meeting with Dr. James Andrews in Birmingham, it appears Kanyon's knee injury is worse than first anticipated. It now appears that Kanyon will miss up to six months following surgery. Not to sound bitter here, but is anyone really going to miss him? If you are one of the few that cares, Kanyon had this to say about his injury, "For those of you who have not heard, I have injured my knee. Now, before I say anything else about that, I just want it to be very clear that my opponent at the time of the injury, Randy Orton, had nothing to do with me getting hurt. He wasn't careless and it was not a result of any lack of experience on his part. It was a fluke. Randy, in my opinion, is a DEFINITE future superstar, a great athlete, a very good wrestler with unlimited potential and just a real nice guy. There are many things that bother me about this injury, but nothing would bother me more than if this freak accident did anything to hurt the career of Randy Orton."

What? What did I say?

Mick Foley: Big Mouth
Mick Foley was on WWOR-TV Channel 9, the UPN affiliate for New York/New Jersey following Smackdown on Thursday. He talked about his new book, "Halloween Hijinx", and how it is number four on the children's bestseller list. One interesting comment he made was about the state of the WWF. "It could use a little overhaul, in my opinion." said Foley. "In my opinion, a lot of really good, talented guys have been pushed down the card without really getting a fair shot at proving themselves." This is the second time in two weeks that Mick has publicly stated what we've all been thinking. How long before someone in the WWF listens to him or tells Mick to shut up?

Oops, I Did It Again
Silly me, I thought we go the rest of the year with out one of these reports. The accidental death of a 9 year old is being associated with the reenactment of wrestling moves. I now turn you over to the Associated Press.

WILKESBORO, N.C. (AP) - A teen-ager was charged with involuntary manslaughter in the case of a 9-year-old who died after the two imitated wrestling moves they had seen on television. Jason Ray Crabb, 16, was indicted Tuesday by a Wilkes County grand jury in the death of Derek Alexander Garland. If convicted, Crabb faces between 10 months and four years and one month in prison.

Garland died July 17, hours after he was injured while grappling with Crabb in the house where they lived. Garland's mother had been engaged to Crabb's father. The two boys had been left alone at the mother's home for 30 to 45 minutes. Julie Garland has said the boys were imitating wrestling moves they had seen on television. Crabb told deputies Garland jumped off a bed and onto his back (when was the last time you saw that move on TV?). Then Crabb, who weighs about 225 pounds, flipped Garland, who weighed about 65 pounds, onto his head (again, what wrestling move is that?) An autopsy showed that the death was caused by a blunt-force injury to the head and neck.

Long live white trash.

Book It
This week we begin a new section of Chairshots called "Book It." Since the WWF writers have admitted that they don't have enough ideas for all the wrestlers, I'm going to give them a few. This week I'll focus on Billy Kidman. Kidman became nationally known as a high flying cruiser weight in WCW during the Bischoff years. At first he was a member of The Flock, a group of odd looking wrestlers that all banded together under the almost hypnotic leadership of Raven. After the Flock split up, Kidman drifted in the light heaveyweight division aimlessly for months with no real push. The next time the spotlight hit him was when Vince Russo took over WCW and Russo promised that the mid-card wrestlers would get big pushes. Kidman was given a valet/girlfriend (Torrie Wilson) and booked in a program against Hulk Hogan. Ultimately Hogan squashed Kidman, but not before Kidman was able to score at least one win over Hogan. Kidman dropped off the radar again until the WWF purchased WCW but Kidman has yet to be involved in any real feud. His first few months in WWF were spent having good matches for the light and cruiser weight belts. Then Kidman was on the shelf for a few months due to a leg injury. Just last month Kidman returned to the WWF, won the light heavyweight belt and then lost it a few weeks later to Tajiri. He hasn't really been seen since.

If this guy took my belt and my woman, I'd want to bust some heads open.

So, how do you get Kidman over with the fans? He needs a hot feud and there is one just staring the writers in the face. Kidman's valet/girlfriend in WCW was Torrie Wilson who is now the valet/girlfriend of Tajiri. Tajiri just beat Kidman for his light heavyweight belt. Kidman should be really pissed off that Tajiri has stolen both his girlfriend and his championship. Christian's heel personality is the kind that Kidman needs to emulate in order to establish himself as a heel. Cocky, arrogant and self centered. Kidman need to cut a promo against Tajiri which. results in a match. During the match, Kidman fights well, but when it looks like Tajiri is going to win again, Kidman cheats. He beats Tajiri with a chair, ring bell, whatever to cause a DQ. Tajiri stays off television for a week to sell the injury while Kidman continues to make advances on Torrie. When Tajiri returns, he challenges Kidman to a match at Survivor Series> Winner of the match gets both the light heavyweight belt and Torrie Wilson. During the match Torrie turns on Tajiri (why not, the WWF writers don't seem to know what to do with a couple once the get together anyway) and Kidman wins.

A month of title defenses follow with Kidman beating most of the light heavyweights. Next, Kidman needs to move out of the light heavyweight division and set his sights higher. During a promo on Raw Kidman declares that he has beaten all the light heavyweights in the WWF and is ready for a serious challenge. He issues an open challenge to any WWF or WCW champion willing to put their belt on the line in a title defense. Edge would be good for Kidman to feud with since Edge is entertaining on the mic and has a complimentary wrestling style to Kidman's. Torrie and Kidman can cheat to cost Edge the belt, which ignites a feud between the two that carries us to the next PPV. So, in three short months, Kidman would have had two entertaining feuds and moved from "off camera, lower card" wrestler to feuding for the Intercontinental Championship. Frankly the Kidman/Tajiri feud is so obvious, I'm surprised that no one has thought of it already. It's time to for the WWF writers to stop writing in their sleep and book it!

That's all for this week. Catch y'all Tuesday.