NEWZ from DAVE~
With added bits from my good self.
-- Undertaker v Wade Barrett is, as of now, OFF. They have a new Wrestlemania main event planned for The Undertaker, something big, involving Shawn Michaels. Sting had not been contacted by WWE as of last week, but there has been interest from both sides since. WWE are at least curious as to bringing him in, and Sting is seemingly open to offers. Sting was removed from the TNA roster page this week, but he has been in contact with Dixie Carter. Taker's rehab is going as planned, so he's being booked in for a singles match.
-- Kevin Nash was, as the story goes, under contract with TNA until the Friday before the Rumble, when Dixie granted him a release in order to sign with WWE. Nash told people that he threatened Dixie with doing interviews that would expose things that he knows about TNA, this getting his release. Dixie herself said the reasons were between the two of them and no one else.
-- WWE got great publicity from the Super Bowl when Aaron Rodgers (Super Bowl MVP) was shown with his replica WWE world title, likely given to him by Ric Flair through Kevin Greene. Rodgers then went on Dave Letterman and was given, on air, a replica WWE spinner belt too. Dana White, learning the lesson that Vince McMahon is #1 in wrestling for a reason, sent a replica UFC belt to Rodgers, but Rodgers hasn't bothered to be seen with it in public.
-- "If nothing else, it makes walking around with one of those belts perhaps not look so geeky because, if you don’t know this, now you know, there is nothing, even at a wrestling convention let alone at a live event, that has most people rolling their eyes more than someone walking around with one of those belts on their shoulder. It’s cool if you buy it for home and all that, and do whatever you want with it, and do pretend matches for it, but if you walk around the concourse like a wrestler with the belt on your shoulder it is the equivalent of being caught picking your nose. This is not my opinion because I honestly don’t care, I’m just saying I hear what people say and see it at every live show I go to, and it’s like, don’t be that guy. And God knows, if you are going up to wrestlers at the hotel for autographs, do not walk around with it on your shoulder. Unless you are the quarterback whose team just won the Super Bowl, then you can do anything you want."
Of course, time was I owned a replica belt, used to wear it round the house. I gave it to the black kid next door when I was 14 for a Christmas present.
-- HHH is still scheduled to return, but is being held off because there's no plan for him to win the big matches (Rumble, Elimination Chamber), thus it makes more sense to keep him away until it's a clear field for him to get the Sheamus feud kicked off. He's currently trying to learn as much about the business backstage as possible, in preparation for taking over from Vince.
My theory is this, I believe (and Bryan hinted at this) that R Truth is the odd guy out in the Chamber Match (no, not because he's black silly) so the beating he got on Monday could lead to him being pulled from the match, or have him being beat up at the PPV by Nexus. Then in the actual match Sheamus is out 5th (which means he starts the match) and the 6th entrant is Triple H, Triple H then after a while eliminates Sheamus, but Sheamus comes back even later and costs him the match, and voila, match booked. I might actually post that on The Board~
-- Ric Flair is claiming that TNA owe him a significant amount of money, which is why he asked for a 'draw' on the Europe tour. Most people in TNA tend to believe him, as TNA are notorious with who they pay on time and who gets paid late. Flair is on a contract specifying the amount of dates he works within it. If they go over that quota, they must pay him extra per date. He went over that quota, so it's likely that TNA do owe him cash, but they refused to pay him because Janice Carter is still being strict with the budget, and TNA told Flair that they had done it before with Dustin Rhodes and gotten into trouble (likely, he went off and bought cocaine with it), which angered Flair as he believed the company were comparing him to Dustin.
-- The increase in the Impact rating is being accredited to both the end of the football season and, more specifically, the Angle/Jarrett feud which is doing the highest show segments and seemingly attracting more viewers per household, i.e., women. A similar thing happened in 2000 with the Kurt/HHH/Stephenie McMahon love triangle storyline too.
-- Kurt Angle is in talks with TNA about setting up a TNA film division. Worked so well for WWE, didn't it?
The last thing TNA need is another money loser, WWE can afford to absorb the losses their film division makes, TNA couldn't.
-- Matt Hardy is starting to win people over backstage, coming over as friendly and easy to work with, and trying hard to lose weight and get into shape.
-- Chelsea was fired. No one cares.
Oh and another funny story from a few weeks back. Basically this member of The Board~ sent an email to Dave containing research on WCW and WWE PPV buyrate numbers which he requested. Anyway this member is a female but has a man's name on the forum (reason being she called her CAW on the Smackown vs Raw video games this name), so even though she used her real name with username in brackets in the email to Dave, he still called her him several times when he was talking about this on the show a few weeks back. Oh how we did laugh. Dave later apologised on The Board~