Joe's 411: B/R Pro Wrestling News for June 26

Welcome to an all new Joe's 411: B/R Pro-Wrestling News, June 26, 2009 edition. There is a lot of good news that you need to know in the 411 today, so here we go.

FCW News

It seems as if the WWE's developmental territory is getting a lot of new stars in. The WWE has complained before that they just can't seem to get good people in, except for former wrestler's sons or daughters (who are good people, but not good enough by their standards).

Former TNA ref/wrestler Shane Sewell refereed a match in the most recent FCW tapings. Will he do the same type of gimmick he did in TNA? I don't know, but if he stays as a ref, then he may be OK.

The WWE is always looking for good refs, and if Sewell shows he can do well, then there is no reason not to keep him on. If they decide to do the TNA thing with him, then we probably won't see him around for very long.

He is by no means a wonderful in-ring competitor. He can wrestle, there is no doubt about that, but he is just not good enough, and not healthy enough, to be a wrestler week in and week out.

As I mentioned in a previous 411, former ECW Superstar DJ Gabriel is going through a gimmick change. Actually, he may not be doing a gimmick at all. In the most recent match he had in FCW, he dropped the "DJ" part from his name.

"Mr. Perfect" Curt Hennig's son Joe Hennig has finally healed from his injury he sustained months back. There was a rumor that he would be brought up to a main roster a week or two after he came back.

We will have to see if the WWE thinks he is good enough after he comes back to bring him up. He is a wonderful wrestler, like his father, however, unlike his father, he is not great on the mic.

He is a former FCW Heavyweight Champion, but he didn't do much while champion. He hurt himself around the time he got it, and had to give up the title without losing it because of the injury.

Will he be the same wrestler he was before he injured himself? We will have to see. If he is still good, then I don't see why he won't be brought up like originally planned.

The WWE also signed another bodybuilder by the name of Aaron Reed to a developmental deal. He is from Las Vegas, and is a very big man at 6' 8", 295-lbs.

He has no prior wrestling experience, and just like Batista and Ezekiel Jackson before him, he will have to learn the ropes before he goes to the main roster as a singles wrestler.

Back in the 90's, this man may have spent a few weeks in developmental and learned a few power moves, but in today's wrestling (especially WWE) this is a thing of the past.

This man will be a force, but he will spend a lot of time training down in FCW before going to a main roster. I'm going to get a video of him for an upcoming 411, so come back to see that later on.

Dos Caras Jr. Update

For about a year, we have been hearing former CMLL wrestler Dos Caras Jr. will be coming to the WWE. It seemed just about concrete around December. There were even reports that said he would make his debut at the Royal Rumble in the Rumble match.

These rumors were stopped when Caras said he would not be coming to the WWE, despite telling many Mexican media reporters that he was coming.

He said that he didn't want to go to the WWE because he felt he had to start over. He felt he could stay down in Mexico and go to any promotion there and be World Champion right away.

If he went to the WWE, he would have to work his way up, and he didn't want to do that.

The WWE was also saying that they wanted him to go down to FCW to get training in American style wrestling before he was bumped up to a main roster.

This infuriated Caras, but the WWE did not want him to change all of his wrestling style. Like luchadors before him, he was focused on doing certain things in the ring that would simply not work out in the WWE.

The WWE was only trying to get him situated with the WWE style before he just came up and tried to be the great Dos Caras Jr. They have no issues with his wrestling, as they reached out to him, not the other way around.

This still didn't make Caras happy, yet he still ended up being involved in rumors about going to the WWE.

Now, the most recent reports are saying that Caras will again be coming to the WWE. This time, it is actually true, and set in stone.

In fact, huge Mexican star and close friend of Caras, Ultimo Guerrero, has been telling people Caras did sign a deal, and will be going to the WWE.

Reports from Mexican newspapers and Superluchas.com are saying that he will bypass FCW and head straight to WWE RAW.

Now, Superluchas.com got their information from the Mexican media, and if you are familiar with the media there, you know that they try to overdo the news for excitement value.

This whole story was overdone by the media there. While Caras will sign, he will not go straight to RAW. He probably will go to SmackDown to get more of the Hispanic audience to watch the show.

Also, Rey Mysterio is there. This may be the edge the WWE needs to help out contract disputes with him, by the way.

Mysterio is the main draw for the Hispanic audience, but with a huge Mexican star like Caras coming in, Mysterio would not be needed as much. Now the WWE has a chance to tell Mysterio that you can either sign this deal or walk.

Caras would be better for SmackDown, even if Mysterio stays. I mean, think of the matches they would have.

The WWE could use a boost in the Hispanic viewership on RAW, too.

Also, the FCW bypass doesn't look likely. He may not be down there long, but he should be going there for a little while before jumping to a main roster, especially one such as RAW.

Matt Hardy News

It seems people are very confused when it comes to Matt Hardy. It was rumored that Hardy hurt himself in the Superstars taping, but then said in a tweet later on that he was feeling OK.

Then he said he had a big appointment for later in the evening. Then he said he was working out, so really we shouldn't follow everything he says on Twitter because half the time he is just trying to confuse us.

The injury looks to be something that covers up the real story. Hardy may be doing a gimmick change, and the "injury" may be something to take him out for a while, and when he returns he will use the gimmick.

He needs the rest, and his hand is really not doing well. They feel that having him take time off will help his hand, and also would be good timing to do the gimmick change too.

There is no word on what the gimmick is yet, but he may be dropping hints in tweets and myspace blogs.

Michael Jackson Dies

I know, I know. Michael Jackson is not a wrestler, and could never be one. However, he was the King of Pop, and a personal favorite of mine.

After I saw the Thriller video, I knew that I wanted to do videos/films for my career. I believe he had 13 No. 1 hits, and sold over 700 million albums in his career.

Now, what is the connection with wrestling?

Jackson's personal WWF Royal Rumble arcade game machine recently sold for $3,000.

I had to find something of course.

Jackson died either from a massive heart attack or cardiac arrest. The media is saying both, so I put both in.

The autopsy will be done to see if it was caused by anything, and we will know in a few weeks or so.

He actually did a rehearsal for his 50 sold out London shows in Staples Center on Tuesday. People who were here claimed it was going to be one of the best shows of all time, and it would have been a huge comeback for Jackson.

He was saying that he was not feeling well over the last few days, but no one thought anything about it. I guess they are now, obviously.

Jackson was actually keeping everything in his show top secret. Why? Because he was actually going to make history.

He was going to do the first-ever live 3-D concert. It is such a shame that Jackson didn't live long enough to do the show.

It is strange how death comes in clusters. Ed McMahon died a few days ago, Farra Fawcett died yesterday morning, and MJ died yesterday afternoon.

The King of Pop was 50 years old.

More WWE News

The WWE has been watching other promotions, mainly to see their wrestlers. They have a lot of interest in ROH and TNA's talent.

But what they are really focused on is getting talent from other countries in. They went to Japan a little while back and, according to reports, they found a few people they liked, but they won't release the names.

Most likely because the wrestlers they tried out while there are still apart of another promotion.

They have interest in a lot of Mexican talent as well. They finally got Caras in as I mentioned before, and Mistico is a person they like. However, Mistico has claimed in the past he won't go to the WWE.

So it is obvious Mistico won't be in the WWE any time soon.

The WWE is trying to expand its international talent, so they will be trying out people from Japan, Mexico, and other places outside of America.

Are Michelle McCool and John Morrison Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?

From the title, you may have a clue. John Morrison and Michelle McCool are in Los Angeles this week to do an Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader taping for the fall season.

McCool went to Florida State University and was a school teacher before coming to the WWE, so we know she has to be smart.

Morrison is a wildcard. He went to the University of California for a Film degree. He was going to go into acting, then he went to Tough Enough and the rest is history. We will have to see how well they both do when the show premiers later this year.

Ric Flair's WWE Status

Apparently Flair and the WWE are not actually together from what reports are saying. Flair was supposedly offered a contract, but that has sense been proven false.

Flair is working without a contract, and being paid in cash for events he is doing with the WWE. This means he is not exclusive to the WWE. If you ask me, it seems weird that he would leave ROH if he was not really offered a deal.

I feel that Flair will return to the WWE within the next few months, however, there is nothing I could see him doing other than being a GM.

Vince McMahon does not want Flair back in the ring wrestling, but he is fine having him on the RAW show, or even SmackDown.

We won't see him wrestle, so of course that would mean there is only one other TV job left, and that would be the GM.

There are reports saying that this was just a rumor, and that Flair being named GM would not happen at all. However, we will have to see in the coming weeks if this is true or not.

Candice Michelle News

As we know, Candice Michelle has been released from the WWE as of last week. She claimed that she didn't want to wrestle much longer, and that she would probably not resign when her contract expires in October.

They were not really happy with her weight gain either. Last year she had been out with an injury for some time, then came back and was not the Candice we saw before.

She had gained a little bit of weight, but because she was in the gym some, it was not much, just still noticeable.

Her wrestling skill was down, and she was taken off TV for a while afterward.

She got drafted to SmackDown, and the original plan was for her to turn heel and have other younger divas go over on her, similar to what Victoria did.

This changed when she hurt her ankle, and she was just now able to come back to the ring. However, she gained even more weight, and the WWE did not want to put her out on TV because of it.

The idea was that she was not naturally skinny, she had to work for the body that she had. If she was not going to work for it anymore, then she was not going to work for the WWE's Diva image.

Her weight gain, lack of work ethic, and decision to not want to wrestle much anymore made the WWE want to let her go.

B/R Update

I want to put in a new part to this series every week. I see a lot of new writers here, and they are not getting the publicity they deserve, so every 411 article will have an article from another writer in it.

Here is the one for today from Nefatiri H:

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/206984-john-cena-and-the-era-of-pg-going-beyond-in-search-of-truth

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Credit: ewrestlingnews.com, wrestlenewz.com, pwtorch.com, pwmania.com, pwrestlingnews.com, wrestleblog.com, lordsofpain.com, wrestlingtruth.com, prowrestling.com, prowrestling.net