Joe's 411: B/R Pro-Wrestling News

Welcome to another Joe's 411: B/R Pro-Wrestling News. I have made this an every other day article. Therefore, there will be a ton of news because of that. As you know, I do not like to keep people waiting. So lets get started.

Hardy's contract

Jeff Hardy's contract story has been getting more and more suspicious by the day. People close to Hardy have said he is going to sign back with the WWE. However, word coming from the Hardy camp now is that he will be taking time off and not resigning.

He has been getting praise because he has asked to be gradually taken off TV and storylines. That way he can go out on an injury or something storyline wise. And since it is storylined, we would understand why we are not seeing him on TV.

His contract expires soon, in about another month or so. Meaning he will be gone from the WWE then if he doesn't resign. Since he has worked with the WWE so very well, and is doing things the right way; People are sure the WWE will take him back when he is ready to come back.

He has mentioned that if he leaves, he WILL resign with the WWE after taking time off. And people who have cooperated with the WWE when they left and have come back, received great pushed by the WWE.

Take Chris Jericho and The Big Show for example. Jericho has won about 3 titles since coming back, and two of those have been World Heavyweight Titles.

Show has been getting in main event matches, he even wrestled in the World Heavyweight Championship match at Wrestlemania. He lost of course, but he was in it. Also he will be starring in a new WWE Films project called Suckerpunch. Which will start filming in a few months or so.

But since Hardy has so many interests right now, he wants to take off for them. Also there is a possibility he could have his own reality show soon on MTV. Which would be good for him, because that would keep him in the spotlight. So his return would be hyped big time.

He does need time off big time. As he has wrestled every week since June of last year. And while that may not be so bad for most, think of the way Hardy wrestles compared to others.

It is different for a guy like Batista compared to Hardy. Because Batista does not hurt himself with moves he does usually. So although Batista did not get much time off until his injury, he was not nearly in as bad of shape as Hardy.

So I can understand why he wants to take some significant time off for himself.

But if he does indeed leave, do not worry Hardy fans. For he will be back. Since he is the top face on SmackDown, he had to be in the World Heavyweight Championship match at Judgement Day.

But, they are going to push more faces to help build SmackDown up. Vince does not like Rey Mysterio as a top face, so with that said, the WWE will be pushing CM Punk and John Morrison.

Rey will still have a big role on SmackDown, but he will not be winning World Titles there. They are already starting with Punk, as he went over on World Heavyweight Champion Edge last week on SmackDown.

I am sure Morrison will be getting a push in the coming months too. Plus as I mentioned in an earlier article, a lot more pushes will be coming to younger stars. Which explains Dolph Ziggler's big heel push recently.

TNA's new TV Show

As mentioned a few months back, TNA wants to have a new TV show. It is set to be hosted by none other than the insane man himself, Mick Foley and resident stupid question asker, Jeremy Borash. It will be called Epix, and should be starting up soon.

They are not going to start in America though, which is puzzling. It is going to be starting in the UK to begin with. One would think that they are starting it there to see the response to it.

If it is received well, then they will bring it to the US.

I can understand that personally. It makes business sense of course. And that is something TNA has been needing to do, do right things for business.

If brought to America, it will of course be on SpikeTV. Which again makes sense because of their connections.

But it will not be a regular wrestling program show like iMPACT. It will mainly be about matches from TNA's past.

Which, I am just not interested in personally.

They were ok in their earlier years, what with the X-Division and all. But other than that, there is nothing I want to really go back and see from them.

They are just now getting interesting to watch in my eyes. Why would we want to watch old stuff?

Melina in hot water with WWE

WWE Women’s Champion Melina has not yet to appeared on SmackDown after being drafted  nearly a month ago.

She was left off this week’s show too, leaving her and Ricky Ortiz as the only wrestlers having not yet debuted on SmackDown, although Ortiz filmed a few video segments for WWE’s mobile service as a member of the brand and was in a small segment with Teddy Long. Yet like Melina, he has not wrestled.

As far as where Melina is right now, company officials decided to punish her by having her stay at home following the European tour because of her vocal complaints about being moved to SmackDown in the Draft a few weeks ago. Company officials were very upset with her comments, hence her punishment.

While Melina has worked hard to repair her image in the locker room in recent years, this was a big step back and just like what it was years back. During her previous stint on SmackDown, she frequently clashed with management and her fellow peers as a result of misbehavior, to the point that she landed in “Wrestler’s Court” on one occasion.

Melina will be brought back any week, but the feeling is she needed to “cool off” for a while.

We all know about her behavior, which is why she made such a great heel. She was really like that. Which is kind of funny.

One story about her was that she complained she was not getting enough TV time. Which is funny coming from a person who is not big in the company at the time. And was only known as MNM’s manager for most of her career at that point.

She got her wish by kind of getting a little slutty with wrestlers to help MNM out. Which got her on TV more, but of course that was not where she wanted to go with her career. Which made more complaints come. Until finally her and Johnny Nitro now John Morrison moved to RAW.

She was not received well there right off, but it is where she improved her image.

The former Tough Enough member has been on the bad side of many. While on RAW she did well with everyone. So the move to SmackDown, back where she had her troubles. May be why she feels the way she does.

I am not Melina, so I can’t tell you how she thinks. But I would think that since she had so many bad experiences there before, she doesn’t want to go back. But unlike last time she was on SmackDown, she is now Women’s Champion. Which is good for her, because it puts her as the top diva on that show right off.

I feel though, if she does continue to complain. The WWE will take her title away as a punishment, and not give her a chance to get it back for a while. Until she proves she show some respect to the WWE.

Keeping with the Divas, WWE is disappointed with Gail Kim

WWE has been in talks backstage, and they feel Gail Kim’s return to the WWE is one big flop. The WWE feels she has not connected to the audience, and her matches have hardly any reaction to them. What is even more surprising, is that they are not impressed with her in ring work either.

Because of this, they have slowed her role down. And while she will not be losing at every turn to other divas, they are not going to be putting her in title matches any time soon. And right now, they have no plans for her any longer.

Ok, this is incredibly surprising to me. Because I am loving Kim right now. She has been doing very well, and where does the WWE get off about saying she is not impressive in the ring? She is better than half on the show right now.

Michelle McCool is the only other diva on SmackDown that can even compete wrestling wise with her. She has not made one mistake in the ring either, unlike other divas; MARIA!

Maybe if the WWE let her talk more, she would be getting in touch with the audience the way they want her too.

In TNA she was used right, so maybe they should go back and watch tape on what she did well there and use that in the WWE. I know Vince, this is baffling for you to understand. So read slowly.

You CAN watch TNA. You CAN see how well she did there.

Why else did you hire her back? You knew what she did in TNA, and how much she was liked there. Use her the same way, instead of your stupid McMahonifing way.

Give her a few interviews backstage to help her get the crowd into her matches. Give her a FREAKIN STORYLINE!

It isn’t hard WWE. Why are other divas liked in the WWE?

Because while it is true they connect to the audience, they have to find a way to do that. Whether they are hot, and do bikini contests. Or they are good on the mic, wrestling, etc.

Fans cannot just connect automatically to a person. That is why some are not around for long time.

You have to give them a reason. Meaning, if you just put Kim in matches she cannot connect to the crowd and no one will watch her matches.

She will have to have some sort of storyline to get her more popular with fans. If you do that, she will not be a “flop”.

TNA Star injured

Raisha Saeed who was working at Cheerleader Melissa for the SHIMMER promotion, and suffered a facial injury during a match this past weekend. She posted a picture on her Twitter account.

This should not effect her work in iMPACT as Awesome Kong’s manager. As we all know, Saeed wears a vail, meaning she will not have to show her face. So she should still be on the card with TNA.

Plus she doesn’t even have to wrestle. She rarely does anyway.

Kevin Nash Interview

Kevin Nash recently was interviewed by Sports Radio 1130 am out of Detroit to do an early morning promotion for TNA’s Slammiversary PPV on June 21.

The sports talk show asked Nash if it would be good to move to Monday Nights to obviously compete with TNA. Here is what he had to say:

“Vince acknowledging TNA is good, but calling it reprehensible is hypocritical since Vince is the same person who produced a show featuring Mae Young giving birth to a rubber hand, among other things.

When we pick up another million viewers and start doing a 2.5 or a 2.7 rating, only then would it be time to switch to Monday nights. We are a young company that has a lot of growth left to do.”

You have to agree  with Nash on this as TNA is soooo not ready to move to Mondays. People are really going way to far into thinking TNA is the next WCW right now. When Nitro finally got big and was beating WWF back in the 90s, they had guys like Hogan, Flair, Sting, Macho Man, and others.

Some of the most popular names in wrestling history. So it was not a wonder that they were beating them. However, unlike TNA, they had big name wrestlers that were not out of shape and to old to carry the company for another 5 to 10 years.

They had people who could do that. And they used them right too. When TNA begins to look like WCW by getting big names that can carry the company for 5 to 10 years, better matches, and bringing an edge WWE does not. Then we can start talking about a Monday Night move.

AJ Styles and Samoa Joe are the only two as of now that they are really pushing in World Title competition. However, they have taken them away from that and are putting Sting, Foley, and Angle in those matches. Meaning, they are not building for the future.

Instead they are giving the World Title to guys who have held it about 4 to 10 times already. Give one to Styles, as many fans have been asking for it for years now. He has won a few in the past for TNA. But that was in the early days. You give him the title now, that will put him over big. Which would make him equivalent to that of Angle.

Speaking of Angle….

Kurt Angle will possibly signing with the WWE

This is a rumor that people have been talking about for some time now. Heck, B/R itself has been talking about it for about 6 months now.

Currently there is more who are seeing him go than stay with TNA. Those close say he wants to go to WWE, but is skeptical. He knows Vince would take him back, and knows he could win a few World Titles while there too.

But he is worried about how long his role would be as a top guy there. He knows he would be THE guy if he stayed in TNA. So, if he were to go to WWE, that may not be such a good idea.

When his contract expires, he will be in his 40s. With that said he does not have as much time as say, Christan. Who left TNA back in October. And made his WWE return a few months ago in his mid-30s.

Christian has a good 7 to 8 years left in him, however Angle has probably 3 to 4.

So he knows WWE will offer a better contract than TNA, and they would give him a lighter schedule than what he had before in WWE. Similar to the Undertaker’s, he would only wrestle about 6 to 7 months out of the year.

Taker wrestles a bit less, but of course Angle is in better shape.

He would be guaranteed to not go a year or so without a break, which would have him staying healthy. Still, wrestling about half the year is a good deal for anyone of his age.

The WWE has already been in talks of how to use Angle when he comes back, which means they think he will leave too.

Now, that means nothing as of now. Because Angle could easily sign a new deal.

However, his contract expires soon. And he has been offered a few deals for an extension and has turned them down. Which one would think means he does not wish to stay on much longer with TNA.

Christian and Gail Kim did the same thing with TNA. And look where they are right now.

So with that said, you have to think Angle is thinking of jumping ship to the WWE. And to me, it would be the best thing for him. As he would make more money, have a lighter schedule, and still be a top guy because of the fact that he is Kurt Angle.

This is all for the 411 today, make sure to look for the next edition Tuesday. As this is an every other day article now. If you want to know something specific, let me know. I will find out as much as I can about it.

credit: wrestling observer, wrestlenewz.com, prowrestling.com, prowrestling.net, pwrestlingnews.com, 24wrestling.com, ewrestlingnews.com, wrestlingtruth.com, gerweck.com, wrestlingnewsword.com, lordsofpain.com, wrestlinginc.com, wrestlezone.com