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

Welcome to Joe's 411: B/R Pro-Wrestling News, considered one of the best news sources on the net today. I think it is the best, but what are you gonna do? Anyway, there is a good edition of the 411 today, so let's get started.

R-Truth Push

If anyone has seen SmackDown the past few weeks, you know R-Truth has finally been able to do some mic work. Everyone knows he raps for his entrance, but he hardly ever talks other than that.

The WWE has been wanting to push deserving stars lately, and Truth looks now to be one of them.

If there is one person the WWE has forgotten about, it would be Truth, if you ask me. He probably is the most deserving of a push, so I am glad he is finally getting one.

According to sources within the WWE, he may start to get in the hunt for the Intercontinental Title soon.

The WWE knows Truth has ability in the ring, he is just missing an opportunity. They feel if he can start to rival Jericho after the Mysterio feud Jericho is doing, then he can start to get bigger in the company.

Truth already has a nice fanbase, and they have been clamouring to see Truth get a push, but it just has not happened yet.

Another person in line for a IC Title shot would be Truth's tag partner from last night, John Morrison. Another person who deserves his shot, and instead is stuck in a feud with Shelton Benjamin that will probably go nowhere.

You are talking about arguably the two best athletes in the WWE right there, but the storyline is just not working. So possibly we could see a Truth/Benjamin feud start up after Morrison/Benjamin is over with.

That would get Morrison a IC Title hunt, but that is just me. Also, it would still push Truth too.

Benjamin seems to be losing what fanbase he had because he is just not doing anything worthwhile. While he is good in the ring, on the mic he is just plain boring.

Also, the WWE barely had him defend his US Title when he had it because they couldn't find many people to have him feud with.

This could be why he held it so long before losing it to MVP.

I feel it would be better if we saw Truth/Benjamin, maybe it will help them both. I feel Truth will be the big winner in it, though.

Former TNA Knockout Wants to Work for the WWE

As many of us know, TNA stupidly released one of their most popular and better female wrestlers in Roxxi a little while back.

She is one of the best female wrestlers in the world today in my personal opinion and she will do something most of the WWE Divas will not, and that is bleed.

She will take shots in the head, bust herself open, or whatever she is asked. TNA didn't call her the Hardcore Knockout because it sounded good in an echo. They did it because of what they knew she could do.

In the Attitude Era, the women did what Roxxi did in the ring. We didn't see much bleeding from them, or shaved heads, but we did see hardcore action that TNA is showing but WWE does not.

She may not fit the "Diva" persona to a "T", but she can add a much needed boost to the women's division in the WWE. SmackDown and RAW could use her easily and I know she would be a champion if the WWE allowed her to be.

I don't know if she will be able to use her ring name in the WWE or anywhere else, but it is said that she owns it. If that is the case the WWE will probably not let her use her name and have her use a name they give her if she is added to the roster.

Right now all that is known is that she has sent in her resume to the WWE and the AAA promotion in Mexico. I would take the WWE in a heart beat, but if she can do well in Mexico to begin with, maybe TNA will take her back or the WWE will take notice.

I don't get why TNA released her to begin with, but it had to be a good reason. In any case, the WWE probably knows of her TNA past and will give her a try-out, but that does not mean she will be added to the roster.

If they give her a deal, it will probably be developmental to begin with. Then in about the next 6 months or so she could move up to a main roster.

Someone like Gail Kim who moved up faster probably did because she was so well known and was a part of the WWE in the past, she was a former Women's Champion after all. Not to mention a former Knockout Champion in TNA too.

Roxxi is not as well known, but she does have an "in" with Kim being there. So she possibly could get a deal.

If the WWE is pleased with the way she is doing in FCW, then obviously she will go up to a main roster faster.

But again, we will have to wait and see how the try-out goes before the WWE gives her any type of deal.

CM Punk Turning Heel?

As we all know by now CM Punk cashed in Money in the Bank on Jeff Hardy at Extreme Rules this past Sunday. Hardy just got done with a hard fought Ladder Match and beat Edge for the World Heavyweight Championship.

When Punk cashed the MITB in on him, there was a mixed reaction in the crowd. Some booed, some cheered.

The same happened on SmackDown last night, as Punk came out there were many boos and some cheering.

For the first time in Punk's WWE career, other than the time he went heel briefly on ECW, he got more boos than cheers from the WWE Universe.

It was strange to see because Punk had been a fan favorite for some time. JR said it best when he said Punk is a fan favorite and so is Jeff, the difference is that Hardy is an emotional favorite.

Emotional favorites like Hardy are tough to get over on if your a face, because you will get booed if your not already an extremely over one yourself.

When you have a guy like Cena go over on him, it is different. Cena is a huge fan favorite for kids, women, and others. So when he goes over on Hardy then it is not as bad, also he has been in the WWE Spotlight for so long and has been a World Champion a few times too.

But even with Cena going over on him, he will still get booed a little. The "Rockstar" ovation Hardy gets is not dropped in by the WWE, he really gets that kind of reaction at shows because fans love him so much.

If your the WWE, and you want to turn someone heel, have them do Hardy wrong. Because he is liked so much, any person who goes against him is the bad guy.

So one would think Punk would go heel with all that said right? As Lee Corso says, Not so fast my friend.

Check out what JR said in his latest blog:

"With C.M. Punk cashing in the Money in the Bank Contract Sunday night, does that now make Punk a wrestling villain? I think not. I think many fans were more upset that Jeff Hardy lost than they were with Punk winning . It seems to me that any one with a brain would pick the most opportune time possible to cash in the MIB Contract and moments after an insane, ladder match seems like perfect timing. Now, the fans themselves may turn against Punk and if so, fine, but Punk’s actions at Extreme Rules don’t seem as if they should automatically make him public enemy #1. Punk has some “attitude” so I think he will be able to handle whatever comes his way"

With this being said by JR, you can't quite get a feeling if Punk may turn heel or not. JR's blog is pretty much kayfabe, so he naturally gives us what fans who believe wrestling is totally real would say.

JR dismissed the idea to begin with in an earlier blog, but did give us something this time.

Fact is, Punk will not go heel because the WWE does not want him to. With the PG format, Punk's image is something they want to get out there.

If her were a heel then he could do the same gimmick, but it would be an annoying one. It is a good thing to be "straightedge", Don't Drink, Don't Smoke, Don't do Drugs. The issue, is if you see the way it was used in ROH it won't work in the WWE.

In ROH he made fun of the beer drinkers, telling them they were going to die from liver failure and thinks like that. So when the face went over in him, they cheered. So because the heel Punk told them not to drink, they drank.

It sets a bad example if we have the same Punk in the WWE in the PG format, because people will want to go against his straightedge image and do drugs, smoke, or drink if he tells them not to. It would turn out to be ok to do them. 

Which is why his heel image that would be good to see from ROH and other promotions won't be seen in the WWE. The WWE would kill Punk as a heel because they know they can't use the same Punk heel image that he did before.

They have to push the face Punk, not make him heel. Also, with the lack of faces right now on SmackDown, they need to keep him face right now.

He will probably go against Edge for the most part, or possibly do a little with both Edge and Hardy. This could be why the WWE is making a Triple Threat for the WH Title on Monday, to help start that up.

The WWE knows it would make Punk heelish if he went against Hardy one on one. In a triple threat, not so much.

Legendary Wrestler dies in the ring

On a sad note, Japanese legend Mitsuharu Misawa has died in Hiroshima, Japan after being dropped on his head during a GHC tag team title match.

Apparently he took a high-angled back suplex at around 8:45pm. The ref asked Misawa whether he could move, and he responded by saying no, then a few seconds later he lost consciousness.

The match was stopped at 27:03 and all the NOAH wrestlers and officials came into the ring. A doctor was brought in from the crowd who tried heart massage because by then Misawa has stopped breathing. The heart massage brought back his pulse, and he was rushed to a nearby hospital. However sadly he was officially pronounced dead at 10:10pm.

It shows how dangerous it can be in there, and seeing a Legendary wrestler who knows what he is doing in the ring die, it brings light to how dangerous it really is.

Surprisingly, Misawa was still wrestling a full-time schedule, mostly in tag matches. He was a veteran in that area, as he was a former tag team champion. Even the tag match he was was for the tag team titles.

Seeing a guy wrestle that long and still at a high level according to many fans, is very cool to see.  

The former World Champion was just 45 years old.

WWE RAW Commercial FREE?

In a huge move from USA Network, they are actually going to let WWE RAW go commercial FREE starting June 22nd. This means 40 minutes of extra content, so writers be ready.

Seeing the FULL 2 hours instead of the commercials you have to wait through is good for programming. The WWE actually makes no money of the ads on the show as USA pays them one bug lump sum for their perceived value.

The reason for this was because USA knows RAW brings in a lot for their overall figures, and they feel without commercials fans will stick around longer instead of flipping to another channel during commercials and staying there rather than coming back to USA Network.

It is a good idea if you ask me, and it could help RAW ratings on top of helping USA out. This is not something that is new to channels out there. Other networks have had success with this before.

Basically what they do is drop a lot of ads in programs before and after that program to help make it up to advertisers.

However, advertisers for some reason think of wrestling as low-brow entertainment despite the high numbers it gathers in. So they would rather go to what they see as a "classier" program with smaller numbers, kind of stupid if you ask me.

This means Advertisers won't be upset with the commercial FREE WWE RAW, so USA has nothing to lose here.

With the bonus time, RAW could be even more fun to watch in coming months.

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