Top News

Mike Bell Found Dead in Rehab Home

Mike Bell was found passed away last week at the age of 37.  He was found in a Costa Mesa rehab home and was reportedly clean for 60 days.  At this time, there is no official cause of death.

Mike had appeared as a jobber on WWF programming.  His most famous in-ring moment occurred during a 2001 episode of Jakked when he fought Perry Saturn.  After messing up a few moves that Saturn claimed in interviews left him dazed, Saturn went a little crazy and dished out some punishment to Bell.  Saturn’s actions led to him being punished with the “Moppy” gimmick.

Mike’s use of steroids was featured in the recent documentary Bigger, Stronger, Faster.  The movie, directed by Mike’s brother, Chris Bell, follows the three Bell brothers falling into the trap of steroid usage.  Chris comments on this tragic situation in an article in the OC Register.

Contract Updates

WWE Offering Different Style Contracts

WWE has been offering talents long term multi-year contracts that are structured more like NFL contracts than the typical WWE standard contracts.  What this means is that WWE would have all of the options available to them to cut talents and not be obligated to pay the total money owed on the contract.  The talents would have little options when it comes to getting out of the deal and the 90 day no compete clause would still be present for talents that finish up their contracts & inform WWE that they are out.  Right now, they have an offer on the table for Randy Orton that is structured over ten years, if WWE picks up the series of options over those ten years, and one on the table for Mysterio that is five years.  Mysterio is balking at the deal because he wants the ability to get out of the deal in three years if he chooses to return to Mexico then.  Right now, Mysterio has not signed the deal and the feeling is that he will not unless he has an option to leave after three years.  Orton, on the other hand, likely will sign the contract because he is considered a team player and does not figure to be one of those people that look to finish his career outside of WWE.

Kevin Thorne

Thorne is expected to be back on one of the main rosters full time, but it is not known if he is going to be given a new name.  I could see him fitting into the Kane & Kelly Kelly storyline if they want a big man to go against Kane.

WWE

Injury Report

Batista Out with Major Injury

On Raw this week, Batista had to miss his match against Randy Orton due to a concussion he suffered when Randy punted him in the head last week.  However, it appears that this storyline injury was a ruse to cover up a far greater injury.

Batista has a hamstring injury that will keep him out of action for at least 4 months and may need surgery that keeps him out additional time.  Right now, the feeling is that the scheduled “Batista v. Cena” match at WM is out the window and they are going to have to go in a new direction for the Raw main event at WM.  I would not be surprised if they wound up with a multiple person match for the belt at WM.  The current direction is to put the heat on the punt kick as the reason why Batista is not around and progress Randy Orton’s character.  I would also assume that Orton would be put into a program against John Cena, but do not think that they are going to do a 1-on-1 match at WM between the two.  I would expect Jericho, HBK, and JBL to be involved in anything that happens at WM along with Orton, although, with Royal Rumble around the corner, they could always hold off on the plans to marry Cena with anyone on the Raw roster, throw a curveball by having someone win the Rumble, and choose him to take on Cena at WM.

Sadly, for Batista, he is not a stranger to suffering torn muscles.  While in Evolution, he missed a good portion of 2003 due to a torn biceps muscle that he tore again while doing his recovery training.  At the end of 2005, Batista tore a muscle in his lats and continued to wrestle.  However, a few weeks later he had to relinquish the SmackDown Championship when he suffered a tear to his triceps muscle.  I hope that Batista can return just as successfully from this injury as he has from his prior muscle tears.

Tomko

Tomko had a MRI.  He apparently suffered a mild injury to his deltoid and did not suffer a torn pec.  Right now, it looks as if he will be out of action for 4-6 weeks and then will be able to make his return to the company.  It appears that he did not go into the dark match with the injury after all and everyone in WWE may or may not buy that to be the case.  As far as things stand right now, he is not banished from the company and will be given a chance to make it when he is healthy.

Raw Report

Santino Marella started the show with the threat of “giving away Santa’s secret” until John Cena made the save.  Cena now adds the title of “Savior of Christmas” to his impressive WWE accomplishments.  Santino challenged Cena to find any partner that he wanted to take on him & Beth Phoenix.  Cena turned around and picked Goldust.  Santino then said that the person had to have ovaries, Cena turned around, looked at Goldust, Goldust said “Damn!” and walked off.  Santino promised that after he won he would give away Santa’s secret.

Kane went to the ring with Kelly Kelly following.  Kane got the mic, told us that Stephanie McMahon told him to apologize to Kelly Kelly for what he did last week, so he did.  He then cornered her again in the ring and said that she should apologize to him as well for lying to him about being with Miz.  HBK’s music came on as he was scheduled versus Kane.

Race to the Rumble:  HBK beat Kane (pin)

HBK wins in a decent match to advance to the fatal fourway.

Kofi Kingston beat Manu (pin)

Okay match.

John Cena asked Kelly Kelly to be his partner.  She accepted.

Sim Snuka was telling Randy Orton why he should be the next member of Legacy when Manu & Rhodes came in.  Orton looked down on Manu for losing, told Snuka they would talk later, and said that maybe they do need a new member.  Orton left and Rhodes & Manu eyeballed Snuka.

They covered for the DX merchandise shill by saying that it was taped before HBK became broke.  They then cut to HBK in the locker room, where HHH showed up and told HBK that he could have come to him for help if he needed it.  HBK told HHH that if he did, then their friendship would never be the same and he wanted to do things his way.  HHH did not get it and neither did the rest of the WWE Universe watching.  HHH told HBK that it made no sense that he would work for JBL rather than seek help from HHH.  HBK said he knew what he was doing.  HHH said for HBK’s sake, he hoped he did, and then left.  HBK said he hoped he did as well, indicating that he did not.  Nice that they tried to fill in one of the major holes this angle has, but there are still tons of them like that left that make it doomed to fail.

Melina & Mickie James (x) beat Layla & Jillian Hall (Melina pins Jillian)

King Regal did color.  He put over the worth & value of the IC Title to him.  He said that he cares more about it than Layla because she is just another diva and there are many more like her where she came from.  Biggest story coming out of this one was that Mickie James suffered some type of knee injury during the match, which was bad enough to cause Melina to be crying during the match and after, she was comforting Mickie.  Mickie told Melina it was okay, but maybe not.

Race to the Rumble: JBL beat Rey Mysterio (DQ)

Good match.  Story of this one was that JBL could not put Rey away.  Rey was battling back for a win when HBK came out as Rey was going for the 619 and pulled JBL out of the ring, looked straight in his eyes, made sure the ref was watching, slapped JBL, and left.  The ref had no choice but to disqualify Rey for HBK’s interference and Rey pleaded that he had nothing to do with it.  Good, solid angle that uses the twisted logic of the WWE disqualification rule to further a storyline.  I like it.

Race to the Rumble:  Randy Orton beat Dave Batista (i) (forfeit)

Randy Orton cuts a promo saying that what he did to Batista was something he dreamed about for four years and Christmas came early for him.  Orton won his match via forfeit, since Dave never showed up.

Dolph Ziggler introduced himself to Kelly Kelly and then Miz & Morrison came in.  Miz confronted her about what she did last week and told her that he knew they had problems with each other in ECW, but he did not know that she was that vindictive.  They told her that the rumor was that one of the performer’s hotel rooms was trashed, luggage was trashed, and that it was hers.  They wondered who would do that sort of thing.

Race to the Rumble:  Chris Jericho beat CM Punk (pin)

Strong match.

Kelly Kelly left the building, telling Todd Grisham that she told Cena, apologized to him, and that he was cool about it.

Santino was going to tell the secret before the match, but Cena stopped him again.  Now he is a two time Savior of Christmas.  Santino introduced the new diva in the audience and said that she was his biggest fan.  She corrected him by screaming that she was Beth’s biggest fan (stalker).

Cena introduced his partner:  Trish Stratus.

Intergender:  John Cena & Trish Stratus beat Santino Marella Beth Phoenix (John pins Santino)

Stratus looked good in her return.  Too bad it is probably a one-time thing.

Bullet Blitz

• For some reason, Ron Killings wasn’t allowed to enter Canada and was sent home.  He won’t be on TV this week due to this issue and, right now, I have no official reason given for why he was turned away.  I can only assume that he has a prior conviction against him, but I’m sure others that made the show do as well, so it’s a mystery right now.
• Last Sat., the RCA dome in Indiana was destroyed.  The venue, formerly known as the Hoosier Dome, was the home of WM-XVIII.  That show featured Randy Savage win the WWF Title from Ric Flair as well as the Ultimate Warrior’s surprising return to WWE to save Hulk Hogan from a post match beat down in what was thought of at the time as possibly his final match.  Footage of the implosion can be found here.
• The M.O.P. dropped its lawsuit against WWE, John Cena, Sony Music, Stephanie Music, & everyone else they added to the lawsuit and it was dismissed without prejudice, which means that it can be filed again down the road.  There’s no known reason why the suit was dropped, but if WWE starts promoting them or using them on current/future projects, then we will know why.
• WWE named Robert Zimmerman as the new head of Public Relations.
• WWE has announced that, starting in April 2009, a new program called WWE Superstars will be debuting on WGN.  All that has been announced about the program is that it’s an 1-hour primetime program.  Longtime fans will remember that Superstars was the name the then-WWF used for its top syndicated program that ran during the 1980s & 1990s.
• TNA has also announced that they’ll be broadcasting a new program entitled TNA:  Epix.  All that’s known about this program is that it’ll feature classic footage from the company dating back to its formation in 2002.  The company hasn’t announced when the program will start or on what network it’ll appear.  For some reason, the story about it has been taken off TNAWrestling.com, so maybe it isn’t happening at all or they’re having trouble finding/coming to terms with a station to air it on TV.
• Hulk Hogan’s Celebrity Championship Wrestling has ended, with Dennis Rodman being crowned as the winner.  Considering that Rodman had previously main evented several PPV events as the tag team partner of the Hulkster, something doesn’t seem right about Rodman winning a show featuring celebrities training to become wrestlers.  Shouldn’t he have learned to wrestle prior to actually getting in the ring?
• In other CCW-related news, it appears that the legal mess I mentioned last month involving the name of “Brutus Beefcake” has ended.  According to an interview Brutus Beefcake had on The Pain Clinic, the issue has been settled out of court and Brutus is free to use the name.
• Chris Jericho’s show, Redemption Song, has also ended.  Mixi won the contest and a recoding contract with Geffen Records.  You can check out her new music video here.

(i) = Injured before match

(x) = Injured during match