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

Welcome to another edition of Joe's 411: B/R Pro-Wrestling News. There is a lot of news to get to, so why keep you waiting any longer?

Jeff Hardy's contract situation

It seems as if rumors out there have been both on and off point with Jeff Hardy. Some say he will re-sign and others say he won't. Hardy addressed that in an interview today; here is a snippet from it:

"There's nothing concrete. There's rumors out there about me not re-signing, but we haven't decided that yet. They're real cool with giving me time. There's a very good chance (I'll still be on TV in six months), but we'll see."

He also spoke on 2008 being a tough year for him when he lost his house and dog while serving a wellness policy violation suspension.

"I was tested like crazy," Jeff said. "Really hard time for me to get through those 60 days. Had to pee in a cup to prove myself to them (WWE) again." He also denied reports that he was doing an MTV series.

Hardy closed out the interview by saying he’s going to try to be creative to come up with new moves with Edge in the ladder match at the Extreme Rules PPV on Sunday.

First off, this kind of proves to some doubters out there that the WWE does take the Wellness Policy seriously, even with some of their most popular talent.

Second, Hardy knows that the money is good in the WWE and he may not ever be as big as he is now. He could take off a big amount of time, like a few years or so. But think of this, he will be a few years older then.

If he stays in the WWE within that time, he can build himself up until he is a World Champion frequently instead of just the one time he had it.

And by the way, the one time he had it, his merchandise was through the roof and he was never as big with fans.

People internally with the WWE said that it would be best if they forget the Hardy vs. Hardy storyline because Hardy was doing so well as WWE Champion. But as we all know, the WWE went with it anyway.

If Hardy were to take off and then come back, he would have to build himself up again and basically start over. In this time, we will see more and more stars come in and be in the main events and win the titles.

Hardy would have to compete with the other stars to get his "spot" back and that would not be the best thing for him. Right now he is in the main event, in the World Title picture.

Why would he leave now and ruin that? I say we let him take his much-needed time off, but under contract. Taking off years is a bit much, why not take off about six or seven months? Then have a lighter schedule similar to the Undertaker's.

It would be good for his style of wrestling and would keep him around longer than the full-time schedule he currently has. It may not happen, but I think it is the best thing for him in my opinion.

However, the WWE creative is ready for his departure. So if he isn't going to sign, they are prepared. This is a good idea for business if you ask me.

Talent cuts in the WWE

It looks like the WWE has started cutting people again, this time in developmental: FCW's Dakota "Maverick" Darsow (son of former WWE wrestler Barry "Demolition Smash" Darsow) and Lupe Santiago.

Darsow who is 21, actually scored a contract back in December. It was said that he had limited wrestling experience, but they signed him because of who his father was, I'm sure.

Santiago was said to have the perfect WWE look, however he was in FCW for two years and had yet to work a match in front of a WWE audience, which obviously means they have no plans for him. So why waste the money, I am assuming.

It is said that much like Maryse, he has a language barrier to overcome. Maryse has come along in her English very well, but she had been practicing it years before she came to the WWE as she was a model before and learned some because of the traveling she was sure to do to America.

However Santiago, had just started to learn English when he arrived in Ohio Valley Wrestling, he may have done some before, but he said to be serious when he arrived in OVW. He actually scored the contract with the FCW program in good timing too, because about a month or so later the WWE quite affiliation with OVW where many of their top wrestlers came from such as CM Punk, Randy Orton, and John Cena.

However, the WWE probably thought he could cut it because of the language problem, as it would effect his promo work. Now more than ever, mic skills seem to be one of the most important parts of a talent's repertoire that the WWE wants to see.

There is said to be more releases to come in developmental, so look for those probably in the next 411.

Evan Bourne interview

ECW Superstar Evan Bourne recently did an interview with the UK Sun, a paper I have no respect for, but still Bourne was in it and had some interesting things to say about the current and former ECW.

The new ECW vs. The original ECW: "You can't make a direct comparison between the rosters, as we're so different. But if you compare ECW now to the old ECW on TNN, we blow that show out of the water.

"Every week we blow it out of the water. I have tons of respect for Rob Van Dam, Sabu, Super Crazy and Tajiri - as they were the guys I idolised growing up. I loved ECW. So that's why I'm so proud to part of the current ECW, to make sure the name has the same feel and fans feel the same way I did at that age."

On differences between now and then: "The main difference is that the original ECW's events weren't as large as ours. They were wrestling in front of 4,000-5,000, whereas WWE's arena shows attract 10,000. That makes a huge difference as you have to adapt to your crowd and give them the best show.

Also ECW had no rules, you could use any language you want. I loved the promo Tazz cut on Steve Corino, where he cursed for 10 minute straight, but we can't do that. We're a PG product and I'm proud to be a part of that.

"I love doing it for the kids, but I never want to forget about that 18-24 male demographic that needs ECW to be like EXTREME Championship Wrestling was back in the day. Me and Tyson Kidd can easily be the Super Crazy/Tajiri or RVD/Jerry Lynn of the new ECW. "

On the poor ratings: "You have to look at ratings as a long-term picture, but I did notice that the week I made my second debut was one of ECW's highest-rated shows. And I think we're going to see a slow increase coming up.

"I measure more by live crowd reaction and how it looks on TV. I don't make any money off ad sales, so ratings are nowhere near as important to me as having a good product."

I have to agree that Bourne could be the next RVD/Jerry Lynn, as could Tyson Kidd. They both have the ability to be great and are one of the best young wrestlers in the world today, not just the WWE.

However, I would have to disagree that this ECW is better. If you are 10 years and younger, this is the kind of ECW you have always known. However if you are 12 years and older, you probably remember the old ECW.

I did not like the cursing they did, however the wrestling was one of a kind. It may have shortened some of their careers even. It was brutal, and they did it all for the fans. So I have a lot of respect for them of course.

The rating for the old ECW was TV-MA, so obviously they could get away with anything. The wrestling alone was the reason it had to be rated that, they just added the language because they could.

I do like the current ECW now, however when he first appeared it was sort of the old ECW then turned into crap. Today's ECW is interesting, because you get to see some of the best young talent in the world today. Such as Bourne, Kidd, Smith, Swagger, and others.

Before, we didn't see that. So it was something good to see. I do feel we need to see more extreme matches from them. We barely see extreme rules matches at all, the last I remember was on SmackDown.

So they do need to make sure they bring that back more often. Sure, the Extreme Rules PPV is coming up this Sunday. But one night a year to be "extreme" is not enough.

Back in the 90s and early 2000s, we didn't see ECW-like matches. However, we did see more hardcore stuff, so I think we need to go back to that.

WWE has a PG format to go by, but they can do hardcore matches like before. Not every week, but at least more often.

I think Bourne was saying all the right things here, as was the right thing to do. They do receive the questions before hand, so they can obviously clear the question with the WWE and what to say.

Bourne may have done that, or may not have. I wasn't there to know, but I would assume he was just being the character we see on TV with a lot of his answers.

Ric Flair's WWE Status

It seems as if the WWE will sign Ric Flair back for a long-term deal. He would serve a similar role with the company as he did in Evolution in a way. He would be sort of a managing type, and not wrestle.

He would still get into confrontations and what not, but there will be no official matches with him in the WWE. Vince McMahon wants the retirement thing in the WWE to stick instead of having the same thing happen as it did before with people like Mick Foley.

Flair was originally brought in to add star power to RAW because of Shawn Michaels and Triple H's storyline injuries. Triple H is said to be back soon, however HBK's return is up in the air.

So for now they wanted to use him to help ratings. If you saw RAW Monday in my hometown of Birmingham, Alabama,  you saw Flair get punted in the head by Randy Orton.

So it would appear he will be off TV for a little while, which makes you think. Since Flair was brought in to add ratings, why would they have him punted out? If you think hard about it, it probably means someone will be returning next week.

It appears Triple H will be, considering his storyline injury would be believable if he came back then. Because Orton is said to be winning this Sunday, I would think there would be a match with the two at The Bash PPV coming up.

Back to Flair, he had to pull out from tapings for ROH this past week too. Even though I reported it early in the day, it seems ROH didn't find out about Flair not being there until 5 p.m. the day of the tapings. 

So they had to rewrite about three hours of TV within a few hours before the HDNet tapings. HDNet was furious to find out about Flair not being at the tapings as they promoted it heavily. Of course it was promoted on the HDNet channel and website along with the place the tapings were too.

But still it is not like promoted it world wide such as what the WWE would do.

They actually had intended on using ROH is foreign markets with Flair's name attached to open doors, but with Flair basically pulling out of the ROH picture all together it looks unlikely.

So ROH took a big blow here obviously; hopefully they can pull through.

Flair was said to be signing a deal soon, but no date has been released yet. When he does officially, I will let you know.

Tony Atlas to wrestle?

Ok, you probably figured it out from the title. But it looks like WWE Hall of Famer Tony Atlas is set to wrestle Evan Bourne on ECW next week. He has not been in a singles match in over 10 years for the WWE.

It is happening because of Mark Henry's loss to Bourne this past week on ECW due to Atlas' outside interference. It is probably storylined where Henry asks if he can do better or something.

I for one am 50/50 on this. I have not seen Atlas wrestle in some time one-on-one, and he looked like he needed to retire then, because he was not too good.

I love Atlas, I mean he made history in the WWE by being one half of the first black tag team champions along with Rocky Johnson. How could you not like the guy in some way?

But, while he is in relatively good shape, he is in no shape to wrestle one-on-one if you ask me. He is to out of shape wrestling wise, and that would just make me not want to watch.

The managing role is okay for him, but I don't even like him in that role personally.

Chris Masters resigns with the WWE

As reported yesterday all over the net, including B/R itself, Chris Masters has resigned with the WWE after being gone for two years.

Masters was said to have had a long personal meeting with Vince McMahon, which a lot of wrestlers do not get, even some current ones.

He was released for drug issues, and was pushed hard by the WWE for some time until the release. He is said to be totally clean now from what is being said.

He has been working Indy shows for a while now, and the WWE has always liked him. So the release was not something they wanted to do, but had to do.

If he can stay clean, then he could go far in the WWE, I am not sure what roster he will be on, but he is said to be coming up pretty fast.

He will probably have a match or two down in FCW, then come up to a main roster. I would assume they would put him on RAW because he was on that roster when he was released.

I don't think he would go to ECW, but it could happen if they want to see him win the ECW Championship to see if he can do well as a World Champion on SmackDown or RAW.

This seems to be the pattern they are doing for all former ECW Champions now. Only giving them the title to see if they are cut out to be the main man on the show is a good idea rather than having someone bomb on a big time show like RAW or SmackDown.

He could be on main roster in soon as a few weeks according to reports.

TNA's "new" talent

While they are not new to the wrestling business and some are not new to TNA period, they are new additions to the TNA roster. Of course I am talking about Raven, Shane Douglas, and Victoria.

Reports are saying that this was not an out of nowhere move because of the drop in ratings. It said that TNA has discussed bringing in Raven and Douglas for some time now.

They felt that bringing all three in on the same show would help to build up the Slammiversary PPV coming up.

The feeling to begin with for Douglas was that he could work well with Daniels, and the set up for the PPV between the two would be good, however it was discussed for former WCW wrestler Buff Bagwell first.

Then when they saw how out-of-shape Douglas was, they kind of thought the Bagwell idea wasn't so bad, because he is still in very good shape. Then they realized that the storyline for Douglas worked well with his body as he is trying to make his way back still being out of shape.

The idea for Raven to join up with Stevie Richards was a close to no-brainer for TNA as they have worked well in the past with each other. Making them the sort of group they had in ECW and a bit in WWE would be great in TNA's eyes.

Victoria was really a no-brainer for them, because she is probably in the best shape she has been in for a long time. She still wants to wrestle, just not at the high paced schedule of the WWE.

So TNA's lighter schedule works well for her, and she could be their No. 1 Knockout.

With the departure of Gail Kim and Roxxi, she was needed anyway. And the fact she has great in ring skills, good mic skills, and is still young enough to be around for a while, she was the easiest signing TNA has ever done.

She was a huge signing for TNA, and will help them tremendously.

That is all for the 411 today.

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