Friday, April 23, 2010

Inside The Squared Circle: W.W.E. Fires Seven, Chris Jericho News, Jim Ross & Paul Heyman to T.N.A.?, Draft

The W.W.E. did their annual spring cleaning yesterday by firing seven wrestlers. Mickie James and Shelton Benjamin are the most notable, however, not all that surprising. The others wished well in their future endeavors are Mike Knox, Katie Lea Burchill, Jimmy Wang Yang, Slam Master J and Kung Fu Naki.

I always like Benjamin but he never really seemed to live up to his potential. Benjamin was a standout wrestler at the University of Minnesota and after college he chose pro wrestling instead of trying out for the Olympics. I have no doubt we will see him in T.N.A. where he will most likely reunite with Kurt Angle.

Mickie James is a big loss. She was one of the few women that had any athletic ability and she was enormously popular. But the way James' character has been scripted on t.v. the last few months, the end seemed inevitable.

At this point, the W.W.E. really should consider scrapping their women's division. They have only a couple of wrestlers capable of putting on a good match and for whatever reason they never give them a decent amount of time on t.v. James has a country CD coming out soon, so maybe she'll focus on making music for a while.

Chris Jericho is co-hosting the Revolver Music Awards Show which will air on May 22. Click here to see a pretty cool promotional poster. He also will be performing in New York City at B.B. Kings with his band Fozzy on Wednesday.

Reportedly, Jim Ross will be free of the W.W.E. on May 1. So will we see him join T.N.A.? The W.W.E. has told Ross he won't be broadcasting for them, but he could do some backstage stuff if he signs a new deal with the company. Ross is one of the best broadcasters ever in wrestling and is also very good at football, having done the Atlanta Falcons, some Oklahoma games and yes he did work for the X.F.L. Ross absolutely should be behind a mic somewhere. If T.N.A. signed Ross, I'd pay attention.

The one man that can make T.N.A. look eyeball to eyeball with W.W.E. is Paul Heyman. He created E.C.W., which operated out of a bingo hall in Philly, and made it into one of the best and most influential promotions in the history of wrestling. Unfortunately, it never had the shekels to really survive. But with the Carters financial backing, Heyman could do wonders for T.N.A. and then we would really have a Monday Night Wars II.

The W.W.E. Draft takes place this Monday night. I'm expecting some big names to switch brands such as Punk to Raw, Randy Orton to Smackdown and maybe The Undertaker to Raw.

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