WWE will air a live one-hour special tribute to Dusty Rhodes on the WWE Network after this coming Monday’s RAW in Chicago. The special will take place live from the arena and feature WWE Legends and Superstars. Below is the synopsis:
“Live from Chicago, WWE celebrates the life and career of Dusty Rhodes, as told by WWE Legends and Superstars.”
TNA announced on Facebook that Andy Barton has left the company. Barton worked with Dixie Carter at her Trifecta Entertainment company from 1996 until 2002 and then worked with TNA from 2002 until now. He was Executive Vice President up until this week.
TNA wrote the following:
“We wish TNA executive Andy Barton all the best as he pursues a new opportunity. Glad to have CSO Eric Sherman on board as we look to build on our powerful global brand, continue our rapid international growth and expand onto emerging platforms.”
Dave Meltzer of F4Wonline.com notes that the departure is a much bigger story than it appears. Barton was described as the one person, besides Dixie Carter, who would know more about the state of TNA than anyone else.
This morning, a Florida appeals judge ruled that the trial in Hulk Hogan’s civil suit against Gawker (for publishing footage of a video of him having sex that was shot without his knowledge or permission), originally scheduled to start this coming Monday (July 6, 2016), must be delayed indefinitely. TKTK, Gawker’s own media-oriented blog, has the details as well as a copy of the judge’s ruling.
What happened is actually pretty simple: Rule 1440 of Florida’s rules of civil court procedure require a minimum of 50 days between the last pleading (any kind of filing in the case) being served and the start pf a trial. Since the presiding judge, Pamela Campbell, set the trial date on June 19th, that meant that, in the words of the appeals court judge, she “plainly violated rule 1440.”
Gawker had been previously attempted to get the trial delayed via Judge Campbell. A federal court judge ruled in their favor in their lawsuit against the FBI (to get the records of their investigation into the origins of the video), but the FBI has been dragging its feet in providing the materials and just making things difficult in general. Campbell had refused to delay the trial, so this is a big win for them.
Gawker sent the following statement to WrestlingInc:
The delay of the trial provides us the important opportunity to find out more about the three Hulk Hogan video recordings obtained by the FBI that appear highly relevant to the facts of the case. We have the right to know the full story and are concerned because one of the tapes produced by the FBI today is incomplete while there is a serious irregularity in another tape.
Meanwhile, yesterday, the Tampa Bay Times reported that Judge Campbell ruled that at trial, the monitors playing back (Gawker’s 101 second edit of) the sex tape will be arranged so that only the jurors can see it. Not only did Gawker fight the motion, but numerous media organizations did as well, citing Florida rules about the media being a proxy for the general public.
An Associated Press article located here about WWE’s response to the various lawsuits filed against them relating to claims of long-term health issues stemming from head trauma. That article has since been updated with additional details that help frame the situation better and allowed us to look up the case in question to get a better idea of exactly what was going on.
What happened is that on Monday, WWE filed a lawsuit against Robert Windham (Blackjack Mulligan as well as Big Machine in the WWF), James Ware (Koko B. Ware), Tom Billington (Dynamite Kid), Oreal Perras (Ivan Koloff, who’s not mentioned in the AP article), and various John Doe defendants. The intention is to get the Connecticut Federal District Court to block any lawsuits from both the named defendants and any other wrestlers who have retained Konstantine Kyros (the lawyer behind most or all of the WWE concussion lawsuits we’ve heard about). Kyros had sent WWE “notice of representation” letters on behalf of the named defendants on June 2nd, in which he asked the company not to contact them directly as well as telling them to retain any relevant information.
McDevitt told the AP that “[b]efore this guy started trolling around looking for people to sue, we didn’t have one person, none, claiming they had any kind of traumatic brain injuries, or dementia or ALS or any of the kind of stuff you seek associated with the NFL.” The complaint alleges that the claims came about after Kyros placed ads on Google tying in to searches relating to WWE anc concussions, as well as Billy Jack Haynes’ name after he filed the initial lawsuit with Kyros.
For his part, Kyros denied the allegations, said he has been retained by dozens of former WWE stars, and that WWE’s claims of the statute of limitations expiring don’t apply in this case. The argument, which he’s explained in the past, is that when the symptoms of an injury present themselves later in life, as they would with complications from repeated head trauma, Connecticut’s three year statute of limitations doesn’t apply. He added that “[w]hat the WWE lawsuit is doing is trying to do is prevent some of the most storied performers in the history of the organization from having their day in court.”
WWE has taken issue with Kyros filing the suits outside of Connecticut even though most of the wrestlers’ contracts has clauses restricting the venue to WWE’s home state. There are also allegations that, through sloppy editing of the complaints, living plaintiffs were listed as deceased,as well as inaccuracies in the listed time frames for when the wrestlers worked for WWE.
That said, WWE is not innocent of this, either: Oreal “Ivan Koloff” Perras is listed in the new complaint as having last wrestled for the Capital Wrestling Corporation (Vincent James McMahon’s company). In actuality, he last worked for the WWF in late ’83, when it was indeed owned by Titan Sports, the company that went through several name changes in the last 15-20 years before becoming World Wrestling Entertainment in 2002.
One point of contention is whether or not Kyros is involved with all of the lawsuits. The suit filed in California with Russ McCullough, Ryan Sakoda, and Matthew Wiese (Luther Reigns/Horshu) has other, unrelated lawyers’ names on all of the filings. WWE insists Kyros is behind them, but that he has not said one way or the other if he’s involved. At the time, Kyros claimed that he was not involved with the case spite of the nearly identical complaints. His explanation was that it was commonplace for lawyers copy the bulk of a complaint since they’re not protected by copyright. WWE also maintains that Kyros was ordered to stop listing unrelated wrestler deaths in complaints, only to continue doing so.
The AP was able to get quotes from one of the defendants, Robert “Blackjack Mulligan” Windham. Now wheelchair-bound with constant nausea and severe short term memory problems, he said that “[t]hey really don’t want to face it. They want to send everyone to rehab. But rehab doesn’t work for loss of memory. […] “And my son[, Barry], you look at him and the lights are on, but nobody is home anymore.” He cited Sgt. Slaughter “[going] nuts” and beating him unconscious with a turnbuckle as one particularly damaging incident, although they most likely would have only worked together in Jim Crockett Promotions.
We’ll keep you posted on this case and the related lawsuit if any new information comes out.
Source: Wrestling Observer Newsletter
Vince McMahon reportedly has decided on the top 6 matches for next year’s WrestleMania 32 pay-per-view already. We don’t know specifics yet but The Wrestling Observer Newsletter notes that Daniel Bryan is not figured into those plans because there’s still no word on if he will be able to wrestle.
Apparently Sting vs. The Undertaker is not happening next year after all. Vince is said to be negative on the idea of that match but WWE does have other plans for Sting coming up. Sting is also a possibility for the 2016 WWE Hall of Fame as he lives in the Dallas area now.
It was also said that John Cena’s match for WrestleMania 32 is a lock but we don’t know the opponent yet. Vince is reportedly looking at doing The Rock and Ronda Rousey vs. Triple H and Stephanie McMahon or two singles matches with the same competitors or just The Rock vs. Triple H as the main event. Obviously there are several factors in trying to make those matches happen and The Observer pointed out that The Rock and Rousey’s boss Dana White are in more control of the main event than Vince is.
Source: Wrestling Observer Newsletter
– At last word, Dolph Ziggler still had not signed his new WWE deal. This comes after Ziggler indicated to The Boston Herald last week that he had already re-signed but then told The Chad Dukes Wrestling Show that he was still thinking about it. The Wrestling Observer Newsletter notes that Ziggler was given an offer a few weeks back and when he didn’t sign it, it started a lot of speculation but the belief is that he will re-sign.
– As noted, 2015 WWE Hall of Famer Tatsumi Fujinami will be appearing at the July 3rd WWE live event in Tokyo, Japan. WWE will actually be holding a special Hall of Fame ceremony for Fujinami that night. WWE will also be holding tryouts for Japanese wrestlers before that night’s live event.
Source: Wrestling Observer Newsletter
Morale was said to be at an all-time low at the recent set of TNA Impact Wrestling tapings. Apparently the Jeff Jarrett return didn’t sit will with some and there was a feeling that the company “kayfabed” everyone on his return for no reason, especially since he returned on a taped show and the company was happy the news got out on Twitter. They still hid the return from production workers, the wrestlers and the rest of the crew.
We noted last week via Brian Fritz of SportingNews.com that TNA production workers were told on June 25th that they wouldn’t be paid for the last set of tapings until July 15th or later. Production was under the impression that they would be paid when they came in for this set of tapings. The Wrestling Observer Newsletter notes that there was more heat in trying to find out which member of the staff leaked the story to Fritz than people being mad at the company for putting the production workers in this situation.
On top of the Jake Roberts interview previously posted, Ted Dibiase additionally gives us a great insight into the booking of Bill Watts’ Mid-South territory and his matches against fellow WWE Hall of Famer’s JYD and Hacksaw Jim Duggan. Ted also shared his memories on the loss of “The American Dream” Dusty Rhodes and the impact Dusty made on his career.
Full Episode Download Link:
http://tmptow.podoma…T21_00_00-07_00
Ted Dibiase on his “Loser Leaves Town” Match vs. Hacksaw Jim Duggan:
Favorite moments of working Mid-South and his fondest memories:
Mid-South is what started my whole career. The owner of Mid-South Wrestling, “Cowboy’ Bill Watts was and is extremely intelligent and unbelievable at understanding the psychology of our industry and I probably learned more from him then just about anybody. Naming all the guys that came from Mid-South (Jake Roberts, Jim Duggan, Junkyard Dog), they didn’t just come out wrestlers they came out as Superstars. I never actually got a chance to wrestle Jake in Mid-South but my biggest move is when I finally turned from “good” guy to “bad” guy on Junkyard Dog. JYD had a tremendous run down there. JYD really is what started me into becoming an accomplished heel.
His infamous Loser Leaves Town Match with Hacksaw Jim Duggan:
Me, Duggan and (Matt) Borne had the Rat Pack. Duggan became a baby face and I had a great run with Hacksaw. The Loser Leaves Town Match was like the Gimmick Matches of all Gimmick Matches. We were dressed in tuxedos (I have no idea where that came from), we were inside of a steel cage, there was a 12 ft. pole attached to the ring with a loaded coal miners glove that if you got it you could use and on top of all that it was a “Loser Leaves Town” Match.
Mid-South being the first promotion to run in a dome:
When you talk about running big venues, obviously the WWE has sold out arenas all over the world throughout the years and it seems like every WrestleMania sets a new record. But, I believe l and I’m not mistaken that the first guy to run a dome was Bill Watts when he ran The Superdome. Obviously he didn’t sell it out but that is probably the largest crowd that I remember wrestling in front of at that time.
Working Jake The Snake Roberts and WrestleMania VI:
I loved wrestling Jake all the time. He was easy. As wrestlers call it “doing the dance” and Jake and I dance well together. When you are on the same wavelength and share the same psychology of what a match should be, we had that. I was the heel and Jake was the baby face and it was actually one of the WrestleMania’s where I actually won. But the only reason I won was because post WrestleMania he and I were still going to be working all the time. WrestleMania VI I would say is my favorite WrestleMania match. My first one , WrestleMania IV was the tournament where the champion would be crowned, the last match I had with Randy Savage was a good match and I loved working Randy but Jake is one of those guys I worked so well with.
On the passing of The American Dream Dusty Rhodes:
Wrestling lost an unbelievable wrestler and incredible entertainer, but I lost a close friend. My relationship with Dusty goes all the way back to the beginning of my career. I am one of the guys like Dusty that was on the football team at West Texas State. I was there with Tito Santana, Tully Blanchard and a lot of wrestlers came out of West Texas State. I had actually met Dusty at Dick Murdoch’s house in Amarillo, Texas and when I started in the business, Dusty had already had the reputation of being great. A lot of people look at him and say well he had a sloppy body but what you have to understand was Dusty could have a technical match that I’m known for having . Dusty worked his gimmick and that is “the son of a plumber” and that he was the average man and say that I look like the common man. When he became NWA World Champion he said to me that “there were a lot of guys that don’ t think I can carry this belt, but I can do it”. When he came to the WWE, Vince (McMahon) made him the guy in polka dots and Dusty didn’t throw a big fit about the whole thing and he took that and did it extremely well. That’s actually the only time we were able to work a real program and I had the opportunity to wrestle Dusty often. I also helped break in his son Dustin and even to this day Cody and my son (Ted Dibiase Jr. ) who were tag team partners are very close friends. My heart goes out to Michelle his wife and those boys.
