We’ve got over a dozen news bits covering the WWE, TNA, and beyond. Credit for some of these bits goes to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
– Cody Rhodes reportedly has some MCL damage in his right knee, possibly from the steel cage moonsault two weeks ago. Also, Ryback may have hurt his hand in the tag match on this past Monday’s RAW.
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– Former WCW United States Champion and Japanese wrestling legend Kensuke Sasaki announced his retirement in Japan earlier today. Sasaki had a 28 year career and has been suffering from some neck issues recently.
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– The WWE live event on March 16th at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas is facing a potential attendance problem. In the same building the night before, UFC 171 will take place. That event is almost sold out with 14,000 paid and a $2.2 million first weekend advance.
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– Jake Roberts noted on Twitter that he will announce his WWE Hall of Fame inductor soon. Jake said it “should be obvious” who the inductor is, leading fans to speculate that Diamond Dallas Page will be doing the honors. In regards to wrestling another match for WWE, Jake said “never say never” but nothing is planned as of now.
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– When the WWE Network officially launches on February 24th at 11:05pm EST, it will kick off with a live RAW post-show. As noted, fans can begin signing up and viewing Network content at 9am that morning.
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– As noted, WWE launched their first podcast earlier this week with Renee Young interviewing Shawn Michaels about WrestleMania. Officials are looking at doing more podcasts with the success of Steve Austin and Chris Jericho’s projects. The company is also looking at doing touring talk shows in comedy clubs after the success Mick Foley has had.
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– There is a lot of talk within WWE that Christian isn’t expected to stick around once his current contract expires. At age 40, there’s a feeling that WWE creative isn’t going to do anything significant with Christian and he’s just biding his time.
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– The WWE NXT Arrival pay-per-view on February 27th will begin at 8pm EST, head-to-head with TNA’s Impact Wrestling, and will only be available on the WWE Network.
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– Dixie Carter has released a video announcing that the Lockdown PPV will be an “All Steel Cage” show. Well nothing makes a gimmick match feel more important than 8 in one night.
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– Taz is currently recruiting independent talent for TNA, working directly with “Big” John Gaburick.
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– Tommy Dreamer will be working regularly as an agent for TNA at their upcoming TV tapings.
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– TNA’s One Night Only: Joker’s Wild PPV, which was taped in the UK, will air between May and July. The One Night Only PPV with the Wrestle-1 promotion will likely air in August.
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In recent weeks, there have been some suspicions that Vince Russo is once again involved in TNA’s creative process, possibly working as a consultant.
Russo was CC’d on some creative e-mails, but several people in TNA denied he was working for the company.
People close to Russo are saying that he’s been following the product again.
TNA is working with Japan’s Wrestle-1 promotion, but Wrestle-1 was adamant that they would not do business with TNA if Russo was involved in any capacity. When they asked TNA about the situation, they reportedly did not get a direct answer.
TNA wrestlers have been talking about the rumors of Russo working for TNA again. Bully Ray and Abyss, who have a lot of seniority in the company and frequently deal with company management, have told the wrestlers that they know nothing about Russo working for TNA.
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– As previously reported, Irish wrestler Prince Devitt attended a TNA live event from Dublin, Ireland last month. Devitt met with TNA officials about the possibility of joining the company, but he was basically just doing them a courtesy with no real intention of working for TNA.
If he was to leave New Japan Pro Wrestling, it would only be for WWE, who he’s been courted by.
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– TNA star Kurt Angle has been in bad physical condition lately. Despite his claims that his health is fine (and being able to put on good TV matches), he was barely able to move around behind the scenes. There was even a photo of him sitting in a wheelchair circulating online last week.
It was recently discovered that Angle has no ACL cartilage left in his knee. Chris Jericho worked with a similar condition several years ago and part of his ACL cartilage eventually grew back.
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The latest update on Bobby “The Brain” Heenan is that he is doing much better in recent months than the last time we saw him in the public light. This is great news.
