Joe's 411: B/R Pro-Wrestling News (July 15, 2009)

Welcome to an all new edition of Joe's 411: B/R Pro-Wrestling News. What WWE Legend is upset with Vince McMahon this week? And who is TNA's new Knockout? The answer to these questions and more are right here on the 411. So, let's get started!

Superstar Billy Graham News

In a very weird note, "Superstar" Billy Graham has put his WWE Hall of Fame ring up on eBay.

The 2004 Hall of Fame inductee was personally presented the ring by Vince McMahon last year.

The winner of the auction will also get the original letter enclosed with the ring, which was signed by McMahon. To view the auction, go to ebay.com and search for 'WWE HOF Ring'.

The current eBay bid on the ring is $8,100.

Many people are wondering why Graham decided to sell the ring. The reason is that he is simply upset with the WWE and Vince McMahon.

For those of you who don't know, Graham was released from his WWE contract. He was just a consultant for them. However, he didn't do much with them at all. He barely worked, and just sat in on conferences most of the time. That was pretty much it.

The WWE released him because he was basically taking up cap space the WWE didn't have to spend. So because of this, there should be no issue with it within the WWE. No one was really upset or caught off guard by the release.

Graham was said to even know it was coming, so for him to be upset is just weird to me. Vince is not the bad guy here, he is just trying to save money.

It is a good business decision if you ask me. It is not as if Vince owes Graham anything; he gave Graham an opportunity in the WWE, not the other way around.

Graham told the UK Sun that years of misinformation about the significance of the Hall of Fame contributed to his frustration.

He mentioned that despite Shane McMahon's years of talk regarding building a physical WWE Hall of Fame, Vince McMahon recently threw that out the window.

"Vince McMahon made a remark at a recent Board meeting that there will never be an actual Hall of Fame building and that the Hall of Fame is something that only exists in his head," said Graham. "Therefore, if the Hall of Fame is only a figment of Vince's imagination, I will depart with my ring."

The Sun labeled Graham "furious" with WWE Chairman Vince McMahon; Graham said he is not sentimental about the wrestling business or the ring.

Vince kept him on staff for as long as possible. So I can safely say it is not the problems with the HOF like he has been babbling about, more so he is upset about the WWE supposedly not treating its veterans right, when in fact they are treating them as well as they can.

When it comes to business, you just can't be keeping people on staff that you don't need. He was a consultant, not a wrestler or ref. Graham had to go, it's a simple as that.

TNA's New Knockout

If you are familiar with TNA Wrestling, the promotion likes to get International talent in. They realize that there are great wrestlers outside of America, especially in Japan. This is why they have developed a partnership with NJPW (New Japan Pro-Wrestling).

Now, it is confirmed that they have signed a brand new Japanese Knockout in Ayako Hamada.

Jeremy Borash confirmed the signing on his Twitter account, here is what his said in his "tweet": "After months of rumors, I can finally confirm Japanese female star Ayako Hamada has signed with TNA. Hearing she arrives in the US this wk."

I am glad we will be seeing her, because I personally have heard a lot about her. Is she good? Can't say for sure because I have not seen her in action. But from hearing reports about her, I am personally excited to see what she can do in TNA.

TNA needs more Knockouts, they seriously do. Awesome Kong, The Beautiful People, Taylor Wilde, Daffney, and Victoria can only be in so many matches before it gets old.

So it is nice to see new women from time to time. Let's also keep in mind that they signed a Mexican born female wrestler too, who will debut this week. So, we have two new Knockouts now; this will be a big boost to TNA.

Dolph Ziggler and Maria Update

If you saw Friday Night SmackDown, there was a segment with Dolph Ziggler coming out of the closet, which of course was too easy to pass up for John Morrison to joke about.

Once the joke was said, and Morrison left the room, Maria came out of the closet Ziggler was in. You can fill in the blanks about what was going on in there, but it pretty much gave you the impression they are together. The WWE of course made everything PG.

The reason why Maria is with Ziggler is for the simple fact that she will go heel, somewhat. She wants to drift away from her clueless character and be edgier, similar to what Michelle McCool did.

McCool was a babyface for a while who was not working well as a babyface, and she basically went edgy by taking out Maria and Eve. McCool is now a great heel on SmackDown and probably the best female wrestler in the WWE right now.

Maria is set to be Ziggler's valet of course, and possibly revive her career. She won't work in any of the storylines for the WWE. She is not great in the ring, so the WWE does not want to put her in storylines where she would wrestle a lot.

However, she is good on the mic and in storylines involving speaking roles. If wrestling is not involved, she is great when it comes to the acting side. SmackDown writers know this, and that is why they are attaching her to Ziggler.

Right now, Ziggler is the hottest heel in the WWE. He is very impressive and as the 411 reported, he is set to go after the Intercontinental Title very soon.

The WWE wants to reward his great work by giving him the IC Title, and they feel that he can get over even more with Maria.

If you remember, Edge and Lita started a similar role a few years ago. Edge was a heel who really just went into big-time singles wrestling. He was getting in main events and won the Money in the Bank match.

Lita was out with an injury and when she came back, just about right away she got with Edge. Edge needed a valet to get even over as a heel even more, and it helped her on top of helping Edge.

The WWE wants to do this with Ziggler and Maria. Maria, like Lita, was a well-known babyface character. Sure, Lita's wrestling ability was miles better than Maria's now. But we need to realize how well Maria can do as a heel.

She has always been a face, and it is going to be awkward seeing her as a heel. That uncomfortableness will help her out. How?

Because seeing her as a heel is uncomfortable, she will surprise us by what we will see her do. Whether it is leg tripping to help Ziggler in the ring, slapping others, or what have you. It is something we have not seen from her before, and it can help her career turn around.

Ziggler is already so good, but with Maria he can get over more. The WWE wants to make Ziggler a guy no one can stand, and this can help that happen.

I have been a fan of Ziggler since day one, so I know what he can do. However, he does have doubters. Hopefully, he can change a few minds once he wins a few titles.

411 Article to Read

I personally am not a selfish person, despite many people thinking I am. I just like to have confidence in myself. But, I see others who lose confidence because they just can't seem to get reads and comments.

They have articles which are worthy of reads, but they just don't get them. So, I want to help them out. The 411 article to read today, is from Adrian Staehle

It might be his fifth or sixth article today, but he did write about a guy that I am a fan of in Joe Hennig. I did an article on the guy a while back, but I feel that he needs more exposure. Adrian gave him more, and I liked the article, so here it is:

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/218401-future-championship-wrestler-joe-hennig

Make sure to give a comment or two when you get there.

Small 411:

According to The Wrestling Observer, WWE has re-signed Eugene. No word on if he’s going to be an on-air character or just a trainer for young talent at FCW. But it is a surprising thing to find out.

The WWE has once again changed the name of their 10/25 PPV event from Pittsburgh, Pa., to “Bragging Rights”, after initially changing it from Cyber Sunday to Annihilation then back to Cyber Sunday again.

Former WWE Superstar Mr. Kennedy is now going by the ring name Mr. Anderson. Prior to WWE he worked as Ken Anderson (real name) and sometimes Mr, Anderson. I know, was just as shocked as you are now. But it will pass, and we will soon catch our breath from this shocking turn of events.

That is all for the 411 today, make sure to come back next time once you see the new issue up!

credit: UK Sun, pwrestlingnews.com, pwmania.com, pwtorch.com, prowrestling.com, prowrestling.net, wrestlingtruth.com, wrestlenewz.com, lordsofpain.com, ewrestlingnews.com