What's Going down . . . 2 (part two)
DEAN AMBROSE HAS left WWE temporarily to film a WWE Studios/Lionsgate movie, Lockdown, in which he plays a police officer who is pursued by rogue cops. Interrupting Ambrose’s momentum so he can appear in a movie almost no one will be interested in watching seems like bad business to me. Though WWE is cutting costs left and right, the movie division has been spared. Indeed, WWE Studios announced this week that it will co-produce a comedy starring Hulk Hogan, David Hasselhoff and Ken Jeong of The Hangover trilogy fame. What a combination . . . Jack Swagger crushed Bo Dallas on SmackDown last Friday. It was a total destruction job: Swagger won by ankle lock submission in a mere 49 seconds. Can it be true: does WWE no longer believe in Bo? Swagger was working the match with a story line ribs injury as well . . .
Brothers Of Destruction: Greatest Matches will be available on Blu-ray and DVD from wwe.dvd.co.uk from September 1. The Best Of Sting will be available on Blu-ray and DVD from September 29. I’ll upload a review of the Sting Blu-ray on PSmag.co.uk next month. A match listing has been released for The Best Of Sting and, as expected, Sting’s career timeline cuts off on March 26, 2001, the date of the final episode of WCW Monday Nitro. There are no TNA matches on the release. However, WWE has included a tag team match pitting Sting and The Great Muta vs. Rick Steiner and Scott Steiner — a dream collision at the time — from New Japan’s Tokyo Dome show on January 4, 1992. There are other matches most fans will not have seen too . . .
Davey Richards suffered a broken leg in a TNA house show match last weekend. A broken leg is typically a very challenging injury for a wrestler to come back from. Richards has stated that he will be sidelined for between four and six weeks. That he will be ready to return in mid-to-late September sounds ambitious to me. A decision will be made at TNA’s next four-day block of Impact tapings — from September 16-19 in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania — as to whether or not The Wolves will be stripped of the TNA World tag team title . . .
NXT continues to be my favourite WWE television programme. It’s all about new or forgotten talent (such as Tyson Kidd and Justin Gabriel), who are hungry and want it, and are willing and, more importantly, able to vary their matches. The tournament to determine the new number one contenders to the NXT tag team title has been very enjoyable thus far. Kidd and Gabriel vs. Adam Rose and Sami Zayn on the August 7 NXT was a cracker, and Sin Cara and Kalisto vs. Buddy Murphy and Wesley Blake was quality. I thought the match between Sasha Banks and Bayley on the August 14 NXT was original: Bayley’s counter of the crossface was marble-smooth and believable. What’s more, the Adrian Neville vs. Tyler Breeze NXT title match sparkled: if you haven’t seen it, you need to watch Neville’s bump off the tornado DDT. Meanwhile, the Mojo Rawley push is definitely over. In a tag match with partner Bull Dempsey against Vaudevillains Aiden English and Simon Gotch, Rawley was the loser of the fall, and was smashed by Dempsey afterwards. Fans chanted, “Thank you, Bull!” as Dempsey laid a beating on Mojo. Rawley is in trouble . . .
Ratings news. The August 11 Raw, headlined by the Hulk Hogan birthday celebration, drew a 3.07 rating (4.31 million viewers). The August 18 Raw, main-evented by Dean Ambrose vs. Seth Rollins, attracted fewer viewers, despite falling the day after SummerSlam. The August 18 Raw did a 3.04 rating and 4.194 million viewers. Over in TNA, the August 7 Impact pulled a 1.09 (1.41 million viewers) for the episode which featured Dixie Carter’s table bump. The August 14 Impact pulled a 0.96 and 1.126 million viewers, a significant drop. This week’s Impact, the Hardcore Justice-themed broadcast, drew fewer viewers still: an audience of 852,000. However, it was the first Wednesday night broadcast of Impact. Many viewers will need a week or two to adjust to the new day . . .
I spoke to Adrian McCallum, alias Lionheart, yesterday. More than five-and-a-half months on from the horrific neck injury he suffered after his match with A.J. Styles in Preston City Wrestling, Lionheart has made a remarkable recovery and is leading a normal life. He has returned to the gym and is “lifting light and taking it slow”. Presently the General Manager on PCW events, Lionheart is not yet ready to wrestle, but believes he will be fit to do so in the “first three-to-six months of 2015”. If that happens, it will be quite a comeback . . . On the August 8 SmackDown, JBL said: “Can’t we all just get along?” Where would wrestling be if everyone lived in harmony? JBL knows this. That was the joke . . . Harking back to the Hogan’s birthday celebration: someone pointed out that Hogan seemed a trifle miffed that he was forced to share the spotlight with other veterans. When I saw the segment, I was inclined to concur. Hulk wasn’t exactly beaming when Paul Orndorff, Roddy Piper and Ric Flair strolled out to join him. He didn’t seem overly enthused when Scott Hall and Kevin Nash arrived, either . . .
What WWE needs do to encourage even more fans to vote Republican at the next election is a loser buffoon character who extols the virtues of Obama and his party’s policies. Perhaps this could be Zack Ryder’s new persona . . . Kurt Angle has received the cold shoulder from WWE, by all accounts. Over the years, Angle has unfortunately given WWE too many reasons to pass . . . TNA recorded the second season of British Boot Camp last week. Auditions were held in Glasgow, Manchester and London from Wednesday to Friday, and the finalists were chosen from 16 performers who wrestled on a thrilling card at York Hall in Bethnal Green on Saturday. The finalists will travel to the States next month where the winner will be chosen. The series will be broadcast on Challenge in October. Al Snow, Samoa Joe and Gail Kim were the judges. Executive producer Jeremy Borash was in charge again.
By Fin Martin
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