Joe's 411: B/R Pro-Wrestling News (July 21, 2009)

Welcome to Joe's 411: B/R Pro-Wrestling News. Today, there is a lot of big news regarding injuries and returns. And there is still more! This is your 411 B/R!

Evan Bourne Update

Apparently Evan Bourne injured himself, but most people feel he is in trouble with management. He has not been suspended nor has he done anything wrong. Triple H is high on him, so that would keep him in the RAW limelight if he was able to be there.

Bourne was pulled from the six pack US Title match at Night of Champions, and he was still supposed to face the returning Brian Kendrick on RAW (who was suspended). Instead, we saw Jerry Lawler take his spot and beat Kendrick.

Bourne indicated on his WWE Universe blog that he was pulled from the match because he was still nursing his neck that he hurt last week against the Big Show. If you saw the match last week, Bourne landed hard on the back of his neck after receiving a spear by Show.

The WWE felt that they would take him out of the NOC match because they figured his neck would still not be great by Sunday. He may be on RAW next week in a small five or so minute match possibly.

If not, he could be back the following week. The neck is not broken or sprained, just sore. However, this injury for Bourne is significant because of his wrestling style. This is why the neck is such an issue for him.

Jeff Jarrett vs Kurt Angle

As the 411 reported on B/R, a supposed caller into the Bubba the Love Sponge radio show told the listeners that Jeff Jarrett and Kurt Angles's ex-wife Karen are now living with each other.

Now more news has come out about the whole situation. And it is very surprising.

TNA management is playing the radio show's spot with the caller over and over again to try and see if it is possible to recognize the voice of the caller.

However, this is leading to a path to no where as Bubba disguised the voice upon being asked by the caller before he ever spoke on the air. So TNA management can try all they want, but they will get no where.

There is now said to be a pic online of Jarrett and Karen kissing, but I have yet to see the pic myself. I will be tracking it down today, so if it is there, the 411 will have it next time.

Now we to come the part with Kurt Angle.

His contract expires in September, and he is the No. 1 guy in the company right now. Heck, he is TNA World Champion for crying out loud! TNA does not want to lose him, but with this being revealed, Angle could be gone.

As the 411 has reported in the past, Angle has gotten an offer from the WWE which pays just about twice what TNA is paying him. It is a lighter schedule which he wanted from them while with the company, and he is guaranteed to main event.

On top of that, because he wants to act, the WWE has offered him a few WWE film roles if he signed. So, Angle could easily be gone.

TNA has now somewhat answered the WWE's offer, as rumor has it, TNA may offer him a huge part of the company, bookings.

At Saturday night's TNA house show in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Kurt Angle was telling people that he is going to end up with the booking control of the company that Jarrett had.

He went on to further say that he won't sign a new contract with TNA if Jarrett remains in power.

This would be a huge blow to Jarrett as he is the founder of the company and part owner with Dixie Carter. However, it is being said that Carter owns the majority of the company and Jarrett has little control over anything much. He does booking work, but that is just about the extent of his actual power from what reports are saying.

In any case, Jarrett will probably not go for Angle controlling the company in any way. Which I would think that would probably force Angle to go back to the WWE.

Bobby Lashley News

According to reports, Bobby Lashley was at the TNA Victory Road PPV. He of course was not used on camera like many thought he would. He is now an official member of the TNA roster, so it was a bit surprising.

Many believe that because Lashley signed so late, the creative team didn't have anything ready for him Sunday. However, they knew they would have something by this week's iMPACT tapings.

He was only there because Jeff Jarrett and others felt it would be good for rumor boards and possibly bring in more viewers.

The idea for his role is to bring him in as a top face and have him rival the Main Event Mafia. But nothing more has been said. I would think that because he is coming in as a top face, he would probably go after Kurt Angle's TNA World Title.

That is just my opinion on the subject, but it makes sense if you ask me. Lashley is a good wrestler and great in MMA right now, as he is undefeated. He still wants to continue his MMA career of course, so I don't know how many title reigns he is going to have.

I would assume if he does win any, that it won't be held long. He wants to fight every three or four months. And he is said to be wanting around three weeks off from TNA before the fight. And depending on how badly he is hurt, he would like time off after the fight as well.

I feel he won't hold the World Title long if he indeed does win it, because it has to be defended every PPV. If he is unable to be at the PPV because of a fight or something, that won't work for TNA.

The tapings would be okay because the iMPACT shows are done the Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday after the PPVs. Which means he could be there for those, and not do many house shows.

It again all depends on how his fights work out.

Teddy Long Update

As we have seen in previous weeks, especially before the Bash PPV, Vince McMahon has put a lot of pressure on Teddy Long storyline wise. The idea was to possibly have Long get tired of the pressure and quit the SmackDown GM role.

He would go back to ECW to take over the GM role there, because WWE management feels Tiffany is not doing a great job as GM.

However, the WWE creative team thinks Long has done a great job and insists he is the best man for the job on SmackDown.

Tiffany would work until Tommy Dreamer or someone else took over, but Long going back there would not be a great idea in many people's eyes internally with the WWE.

McMahon had the idea, which was why it went down in the first place. But Michael Hayes told McMahon that taking Long off SmackDown would be the worst thing he could ever do for the brand.

Keep in mind, the only reason Long was on ECW before was because Stephanie McMahon was RAW GM while Vickie Guerrero was SmackDown's. So Long was definitely the best for the job.

When Stephanie left, Vickie took over her role on RAW. Then, Long went to SmackDown and has been there ever since.

While ECW may not have a great GM, she is good for eye candy purposes and this is the C Brand for the WWE. So sending Long there wouldn't really accomplish much. Plus, who would replace Long on SmackDown?

A former member of the creative team defended Theodore Long after watching Vince McMahon put the SmackDown General Manager on probation in the storylines according to wrestlingtruth.com

The former writer felt that it would be a bad move for WWE to pull Long from television. "He makes his money on house shows," the former writer said. "He goes and mingles and gets the crowd worked up. He's a team player. I think they would be so poorly advised to make a switch in the management role."

Long was hardly involved in previous weeks on SmackDown. The only memorable segments we have seen him in was with John Morrison. The segments have only lasted a few minutes each, which is sad to see.

Long has not done a bad job on SmackDown, so why move him or give him small roles on SmackDown?

If they are going to show Tiffany on TV more than Long for ECW, than they can definitely put Long in more segments for SmackDown. It isn't hard, and Hayes has wanted to do it.

However, McMahon has the final say. This is where all the problems happen.

RAW Guest Host Update

As we found out last night, newly signed Cleveland Cavaliers Center Shaquille O'Neal will host RAW next week. There are no plans being said on what he will do exactly, but most think he could be in some sort of match.

Shaq can work as a wrestler, much more than the likes of Seth Green. Shaq is over 300 lbs and seven feet tall. The guy is bigger than just about every superstar in the WWE, other than the Big Show that is.

There has been a rumor that he and the Big Show could square off a bit on RAW, but nothing is confirmed. In any case, many think this will be a good thing for the WWE. The media will be all over it, and that could bring in ratings.

Many sports media groups have already talked about it, such as ESPN for one. Also, Shaq is someone people keep an eye out for online, so he could be sending a lot of tweets this week regarding his appearance.

He has a few million followers, so that could easily bring some of them to change the channel to RAW next Monday just to see him.

Although Shaq is not considered one of the most premier thespians in the world, he does have acting experience. He is in my opinion one of the most entertaining athletes of all time, so the WWE won't have another boring ZZ Top like host.

Staying with hosts...

One person who has been brought up to be a possible host is none other than Hulk Hogan. Many in creative think he would be a great guest host for RAW, which is why the idea has been brought up more than once.

However, every time it is brought up Vince McMahon shoots it down. Vince and Hogan have been said to be friends, but after Hogan did the Celebrity Championship Wrestling show, Vince really lost respect for Hogan and he has yet to use him in anything.

There was an idea to bring him in at Wrestlemania 25, but that was shot down only because Hogan had back surgery a few weeks before the event. He would have been there in attendance and probably made an appearance.

However, the only reason Vince would allow this is because Hogan did contribute to some big memories to the event, as he was in the first one and in one of the most memorable matches of all time with The Rock.

But anything past that would probably not be something McMahon would use him in. The guest host idea for Hogan is not a bad one to anyone else other than Vince. According to many internally with the WWE, they feel it is once again another McMahon issue that is contributing to the nixed Hogan idea.

TNA Returns

As the 411 has reported, LAX's Hernandez has been cleared by doctors and can come back anytime. He is set to be back at one of the tapings this week, so we can probably plan on seeing him on this week's iMPACT.

It should also be said that two Knockouts will be back this week in Tracy Brooks and Christy Hemme.

Hemme has been out since January because of a neck injury. TNA thought she would be out for over a year according to reports. Apparently because she elected to not go with a certain surgery similar to what Kurt Angle has had in the past, she can come back earlier than anticipated.

Tracy Brooks was off TV for a long period of time, not so much for injury, but personal issues. Before leaving, Brooks was doing some ref spots and was called "Knockout Law" meaning she controlled the women's side of things in TNA and she was not wrestling often.

She probably won't wrestle as much in the future, but she could this week just for her return. Many think she will go back to her old "Knockout Law" role instead of wrestling full time.

Possible DX Return

There is a rumor going around that when Shawn Michaels returns, the WWE will do a DX storyline. They feel it will help get ratings back to RAW as DX has proven to get them.

The guest host idea has brought up interest, but people within the WWE believe WWE  fans would rather see DX rather than guest hosts every week.

We could see the best of both worlds, as DX could be back and the WWE could still do the guest hosts every week.

The reason for the idea is that many feel Triple H vs Randy Orton has gone on too much. They feel they can get John Cena involved in the World Title hunt more, and also add the likes of MVP to the hunt too.

HBK could be back around Summerslam, so they would be able to get storylines ready for it. Also, the WWE is wanting to promote the new tag team DVD more, and because DX is featured on the front cover, it seems likely Triple H and HBK will be talking about it a lot.

Keep in mind that the new DX in Triple H and HBK only has never held a tag team title. As a matter of fact, I don't think they have ever held the tag gold together. They have held them before, just never together. So that could be something they do if the stable is brought back.

Because the Undisputed Tag Title holders are able to be on all the shows, we would see Triple H and HBK more, which would work for them because it would feature them both more and they wouldn't be restricted to one show.

HHH and HBK are known to write a lot of their own material when it comes to DX, so the idea to have the stable back would be good for the creative team because it would take pressure off of them.

It's obvious, but it needs to be said, the creative team is all for a DX return. They have mentioned it several times, and it will most likely happen as Vince McMahon himself has brought it up.

Small 411:

The Batista DVD set, titled Batista Unleashed will be released on October 13th, which is the same name as his autobiography.

The cover of the WWE Best of Smackdown three-DVD set, which gets released on September 15th will feature The Undertaker, Eddie Guerrero, The Rock, Rey Mysterio, Batista, Edge and Jeff Hardy.

WWE filed a motion today to dismiss the lawsuit brought against them by Deep South Wrestling and Jody Hamilton. WWE states that Hamilton and DSW "failed to state a claim upon which relief may be granted" and that the 25 page lawsuit filed by Hamilton and DSW was "a misguided attempt to use litigation to lash out against WWE over disappointment with WWE's decision to terminate the parties' business relationship." More of this story will be in the next 411.

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