Not long ago, Kimberly Whitehead forsook Florida Atlantic University for Jimmy Snuka's Body Slam University, where office managers, security guards and an occupational therapist get an education in the art of professional wrestling, including how not to kick your partner in the jaw when she's not expecting it.
Each month, students shell out $100 apiece to learn the figure-four leglock, how to smash someone's face into a turnbuckle without gouging their eyes, and how to whack an opponent over the head with a folding chair without sending him or her to the hospital.
Against near impossible odds, they dream of securing a toehold in the lucrative world of professional wrestling -- much like the once-chiseled ''Superfly'' Snuka, a World Wrestling Entertainment Hall of Famer from Fiji who has family in Davie and co-owns the enterprise...More?
source: miamiherald.com
July 6, 2009
Jimmy Snuka's Body Slam University
July 5, 2009
This Day in Wrestling History
Buddy Rogers & Handsome John Barend defeated Johnny Valentine & Cowboy Bob Ellis for the WWWF(WWE) Tag Team title.
July 5, 1962
Bret Hart makes first public appearance in wrestling on WCW Monday Nitro since his brother Owen's death. Hart says he is unsure if he will ever wrestle again.
July 5, 1999
July 4, 2009
Overflowing Crowd Attends Mitsuharu Misawa’s Memorial Ceremony in Tokyo
Today at Differ Ariake in Tokyo, a public memorial was held in tribute to Mitsuharu Misawa who died in Hiroshima on June 13th. The memorial ceremony was styled in a similar fashion to Giant Baba’s memorial ceremony in February of 1999 at Nippon Budokan. A super-large portrait picture of Mitsuharu Misawa wearing the GHC Heavyweight title belt was placed alongside row after row of flower bouquets. The NOAH green ring was set-up in the middle of the arena, surrounded by tables with flowers surrounding the ring. The event was a two-part ceremony (first part for the wrestlers, second part for the fans). Asahi Shimbun reported that fans started lining up for the event yesterday (Friday) at 4 PM. Conservative estimates were that 10,000 fans showed up, but the number being floated around as the day-long memorial service took place was more along the lines of 25,000 fans.
Video of the memorial service can be seen here and here.
There was a ten-count gong, then Misawa’s “Spartan X” theme song played, then a ring call was done for a final time introducing him coming to the red corner at 250 pounds, then his name announced.
source: fightopinion.com
Update on Edge's Injury
PWInsider is reporting that the official diagnosis for Edge's ankle injury is indeed a torn Achilles tendon and could potentially keep him out of the ring until January 2010 depending on the severity.
It was reported earlier today that Edge suffered the injury at last night's WWE Smackdown/ECW event in San Diego, CA around five minutes into a match with Jeff Hardy. WWE officials and EMTs rushed to his aid at ringside and Edge later apologized on the mic to the fans in attendance. Live reports from the show indicate that Edge may have planted his foot wrong as he came down causing the injury. This injury obviously puts a dent in the Edge as a Unified Tag Team Champion with Chris Jericho storyline and plans are already said to be in play to get the belts off them...More?
Review: WWE Raw at Vector Arena
And when they stood in the ring together, the Vector Arena roof almost couldn't handle the roaring of the thousands-strong audience.
WWE veteran Triple H and relative new-kid-on-the-block John Cena, arguably this generation's answer to Hulk Hogan, faced WWE Champion Randy Orton and the Big Show in the main event.
Cena, eight years into his WWE career and one of the company's biggest merchandise-movers ever, has a white-gangsta persona and a never-say-die attitude which was the perfect hook for the innumerable amount of children who turned up with his t-shirts, gimmick chains, wristbands, baseball caps, styled championship belts and all sorts of other 'Cenation' branded miscellanea.
Triple H, for his part, doesn't do too badly in the merchandise stakes either, but is more popular for his old-school influenced brand of wrestling. No flashy moves cribbed from the Mexican and Japanese wrestlers, no flying leaps of faith from the top rope - as he always does, he kept last night's efforts clean and simple with a tried-and-trusted array of grapples, slams and melee attacks...More?
source: nzherald.co.nz
Click here for more photos.
WWE Tweaks PPV Play
World Wrestling Entertainment is taking advantage of new media and adjusting the branding of its pay-per-view events in an effort to bolster PPV buys in a tough economic climate.
The company will rename at least one of its monthly PPV events and provide prize incentives for consumers who buy consecutive monthly events in an effort to boost its transactional business, according to WWE senior vice president of distribution and affiliate marketing Peter Clifford...More?
source: multichannel.com
Raw House Show Results - Sydney, Australia
The Big Show and Randy Orton Vs Triple H and John Cena
A very entertaining match. John Cena spent most of the match in the ring, only tagging in Triple H twice. Triple H hit his patented high knee, facebuster and spinebuster while John Cena hit the Five-Knuckle Shuffle and even an STFU on the Big Show! The match ended with Triple H and Cena reversing Big Shows double chokeslam into a double suplex. Then cena hit Big Show with the FU (Attitude Adjustment) which was followed by a Pedigree for the win.
Randy took off up the ramp pretty quick while Big Show slowly made it back to his feet. Big Show stood dazed while Triple H waved his hand in front of his face and claimed 'You Can't See Me'. Cena then did the same. Cena and Triple H then looked at each other, then looked at big show and did a double 'You Can't See Me!'
Big Show (still dazed) was swaying around and looked to be out on his feet. Triple H gave Big Show a Finger Poke Of Death and Big Show hit the ground.
Cena and Triple H then got the crowd going with a Hulk Hogan style Cheer-Off. Cena then left the arena while Triple H spent another 10 minutes walking around the ring shaking fans hands.
Final Verdict - The show was not the best Live WWE event I have seen. The whole show was saved by the main event...More?
Biggest Pops -
1. Triple H
2. John Cena
3. Randy Orton
4. Santino Marella
5. Kelly Kelly
Biggest Heat -
1. The Miz
2. Chavo
3. William Regal
4. Sheamus
5. Legacy
source: wrestlingnewsworld.com
Rumor Mill - Edge Suffers Injury at WWE House Show
A fan sent in the following report to wrestlezone.com:
I am attending a WWE house show here in San Diego, CA. and I just witnessed Edge get injured during his match with Jeff Hardy.
He was running towards Jeff and appeared to have either twisted or even broken his ankle. His foot was in a very awkward position. The match was immediatley stopped.
EMTs came running to attend him and he was helped out of the ring. He even took the time to take the mic and say "sorry" to the fans.
Raw House Show Results - Auckland, New Zealand
Orton & Big Show vs HHH & Cena – Main Event
Crowd was into every wrestler. HHH intro was epic and it was deafening. A
lengthy, spectacular match, ending with Cena hitting the attitude adjuster
and HHH hitting the pedigree on Big Show. I have a lot more respect for
HHH after tonight as he posed and shook hands with heaps of people
afterwards which was awesome to see and sent the crowd home happy.
Overall an awesome show in a packed out Vector Area. Thanks for coming way
down under WWE...More?
Biggest Heat
The Miz
Biggest Pop
Triple H
source: impactwrestling.com
Charm City Roller Girls in Action July 18th
Junkyard Dolls
--------------------------------
Speed Regime VS.
Mobtown Mods
Du Burns Arena, 1301 Ellwood Ave.
Baltimore, MD
July 18, 2009
7:00PM - 9:30PM
Doors open at 6:00 PM
Bout starts at 7:00 PM
www.charmcityrollergirls.com
This Day in Wrestling History
Happy Birthday to Barry Windham and Sid Vicious
July 4, 1960
Paul Orndorff defeated Jake Roberts for the Mid-South North American Heavyweight title.
July 4, 1981
WWF(E) World Champion, Bob Backlund faces NWA World Champion Ric Flair in Atlanta, GA. The match ends after 20 minutes, a double disqualification.
July 4, 1982
Adrian Adonis, Pat Kelly and The Canadian Wildman Dave McKigney were killed in an automobile accident.
July 4, 1988
Referee Joey Marella was killed in an automobile accident.
July 4, 1994
July 3, 2009
SmackDown Results: An Eye for an Eye
Later in the evening, the two reluctant Superstars joined forces to take on the new Unified Tag Team Champions Edge & Chris Jericho. Twice in the course of the match, Hardy tried to tag Punk in. But, both times the champion appeared to be in pain, clutching his eye rather than accepting Hardy’s invitation into the squared-circle. Perhaps as a result of this, when Punk was stretching out to tag Hardy into the match later on, his Night of Champions Charismatic No. 1 Contender suddenly and deliberately clutched his eye in “pain,” falling from the ring apron, leaving his partner to face the music alone. Punk came back to hit the GTS on Jericho, not realizing that Edge had tagged into the match to blast him with the spear. Hardy soon revealed his Extreme, wide eyes to the WWE Universe, showing that he had in fact dished out some eye-popping retribution onto the World Champion’s plate. Full results.
source: wwe.com
Chris Bell Working on MMA/Painkiller-Based Script
The main character is based on Mark “The Smashing Machine” Kerr, who began his Mixed Martial Arts career back in 1997. “It actually takes place in the old days of ultimate fighting, which to me makes it so much more interesting,” Bell said. “I started watching it a long time ago when it was a blood sport and it was pretty amazing back then.”
Bell and his production company are trying to obtain the rights of a 2003 HBO documentary entitled, “The Smashing Machine: The Life and Times of Extreme Fighter Mark Kerr,” which chronicled the career and addiction of Kerr and the ‘no-holds-barred’ style that Bell spoke about...More?
source: musclesportmag.com
Abraham Washington - Better on FCW
Hopefully WWE Creative will let Abraham Washington's character be more like it was in FCW (video on the left). I think if he had guests with more charisma than The Bella Twins, the segment would have come off better.
Raw on Fire?
Before we talk about the main event, the rest of the show deserves some props. I know, Triple H "squashed" MVP. But come on IWC… lighten up! Do you really believe MVP is at a level where he deserves to be defeating Triple H and headlining pay-per-view title matches? He's not over enough. Maybe he'll reach that level in time, but he's not yet ready. I know, some members of the IWC will object that the match shouldn't have ended so quickly. But to that I ask… what are you kidding me?
Triple H was involved in some pretty violent brawls on June 22nd and June 28th. He worked a draining Last Man Standing match with Randy Orton during the commercial-free Raw. Six days later, he fought Orton in Three Stages of Hell. By the end of that match, both competitors were visibly spent. Wrestlers are human beings… and their bodies can only take so much.
So the next night, yeah, Triple H won a quick match over MVP. What did the IWC expect, a twenty minute classic? Triple H still had to go out later that night and face John Cena. Triple H had to win a quick match to have something left in the tank for Cena. As far as Cena's victory over the Miz… what was the problem with that? Who honestly believes the Miz is worthy of pinning WWE's biggest star? The outcome of the match was academic… the way it was supposed to be. But that's okay. The Miz got a somewhat lengthy match with Cena, and in the process got in-ring time with WWE's top dog. And John Cena got the win to set up this coming week's Raw main event.
And because of the outcome of that match, Raw will feature John Cena vs. Triple H in a #1 Contender's match. That was a good decision on WWE's part. It's a "dream" match of sorts for the WWE Universe, and it gives curious fans a reason to tune in this Monday after the Fourth of July weekend. Raw has delivered a string of abnormally high ratings. It makes perfect sense that they would hype such a dynamic main event on a taped edition that many fans otherwise wouldn't watch...More?
source: 411mania.com
Blast from the Past - Booker T vs. Buff Bagwell
The long awaited "debut" of the new WCW on Raw from Tacoma, Washington was a flop. Given the final half hour of the 7/2 Raw, Buff Bagwell and Booker T had what many fans felt was the worst main event in the history of the program. Bagwell, who had his first match in months the day before on a house show, blew up quickly, and was using long restholds in a match that should have been non-stop action to put over the quality of the WCW performers. Booker T tried, but was still shaking off the ringrust himself, and was not in a position to carry Bagwell. The match was embarrassing, and chants of "Boring" and "This Match Sucks" were clearly heard throughout. A WWF(E) source said Vince McMahon "absolutely hated" the whole WCW segment. That same night, Billy Kidman defeated Shane Helms for the WCW Cruiserweight Title. This was the first time a "WCW title" would change hands on a WWF(E) show.
July 2, 2001
Upcoming Raw Schedule
* House Show in Auckland, New Zealand today, July 3.
* House Show in Sydney, Australia on Saturday, July 4.
* House Show in Brisbane, Australia on Sunday, July 5.
* House Show in Adelaide, Australia on Monday, July 6.
* House Show in Melbourne, Australia on Tuesday, July 7.
* House Show in Perth, Australia on Wednesday, July 8.
This Day in Wrestling History
Velvet McIntyre defeated Fabulous Moolah for the WWF(E) Women's title.
July 3, 1986
July 2, 2009
Cena-Triple H: Their Journey Before the Tourney
source: wwe.com
WWE Superstars Results: Eye Give Up
source: wwe.com
