Remembering Eddie Guerrero

Eduardo Gory Guerrero Llanes October 9, 1967-November 13, 2005

On November 13, 2005, Guerrero was found unconscious in his hotel room in Minneapolis, Minnesota, by his nephew, Chavo Guerrero. Chavo attempted CPR, but Eddie was pronounced dead when paramedics arrived on the scene. An autopsy revealed that Guerrero died as a result of acute heart failure, caused by undiagnosed arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease. Although Guerrero had not taken alcohol or illicit drugs for nearly four years, his past excesses contributed to his heart failure.

Video: Kane Reveals His New Evolution

Redskins selling WWE-style belt for $450

The NFL licenses a lot of silly things (this creepy doll baby comes to mind), but this one might be the silliest.

The Redskins are offering this “Official Replica Outstanding Player Award Trophy Belt” for sale on the online team store. According to the listing, it’s a replica of a WWE-style belt that was first presented to an unnamed “outstanding player of the game” after the Oakland win in September.

Replicated from the original trophy belt, from Pro-Belts each plate is cast in zinc alloy, plated in 18K gold and silver and mounted with studs and screws to the synthetic leather. The belt is 52″ long, weighs 6.5 lbs. and has 16 solid brass snaps on the hand embossed synthetic leather.

Oh, and it’s $450.

Who would buy this? The answer is somebody. Somebody will buy this.

source: washingtonpost.com

Special Theme Announced For Next Week's RAW From Nashville

WWE announced on tonight's RAW that next Monday's show will have a country music theme to it. "RAW Country" will take place from the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee.

Backstage News On The Release Of One Of WWE’s Most Talented Developmental Prospects & Why It Wasn’t A Surprise

Kassius Ohno was quietly released from his WWE developmental contract last Friday. While some might consider his release a surprise, that really isn’t the case.

In July Ohno was very frustrated with his spot in WWE about not getting called up. He was on the short list to get called up to the main roster several times but every time he was tested with his “attitude and commitment,” he failed the test. Weight training has never been Ohno’s strong suit but his frustration was believed to be part of the reason why he wasn’t receptive to increasing his workouts.

It's unsure what eventually led to Ohno’s release but Triple H was at the WWE Performance Center a couple weeks ago. Hunter was never a supporter and it was Vince McMahon that wanted to call Ohno up in the first place.

"Hunter was never a supporter and it was Vince McMahon that wanted to call him up."

Now watch how the Triple H haters take this comment and say how he buried Hero while ignoring the fact that Hero's attitude & commitment weren't that great.

Raw Results 11/11/13

Mickie James Training Divas At WWE Performance Center

Former WWE Diva and 3x TNA Knockout Champion Mickie James is at the WWE Performance Center training future Divas. WWE Developmental Diva Devin Taylor tweeted that Mickie will be there for the rest of the week training the girls.

There has been no news on whether or not Mickie has re-signed with the WWE, but as far as negotiations with TNA, they have stopped. Just to note, former WWE Diva Eve Torres had a training seminar with the developmental Divas but did not return to the company full time.

Abdullah The Butcher Loses in Court

Thunder Bay Ontario's Net News Ledger is reporting that Abdullah The Butcher lost a court motion to have his statement of defense struck from the record on November 5th and was ordered to pay costs of the motion. The trial related damages will move forward, and you can read more details at this link.

E! Scores Strong Ratings With Return of 'Total Divas'

On November 10, E! continued to deliver in its Sunday night reality block with the return of “Total Divas” from 10-11pm scored for the network with 1.3 million total viewers and 746,000 Adults 18-49. The fall premiere of “Total Divas” also surged past its mid-season finale on September 15 across all key demos including Adults 18-49 (+10%), Women 18-49 (+16%), Adults 18-34 (+26%), Women 18-34 (+27%), Total Viewers (+21%) and Households (+20%).

Triple H Calls For Major Change In Philosophy With How WWE Handles Releases

There has been an interesting shift in philosophy ongoing in WWE thanks to the ascension of Triple H. Hunter feels it makes the company look bad when they have “mass releases” at a time, which is why WWE hasn’t had tremendous post-Wrestlemania roster cuts like we’ve seen in years past. Triple H’s rationale is that if WWE is a successful company, why would they fire talent in droves every year? Therefore the edict is essentially this – Don’t fire anybody!

Some may ask, well they just cut Kassius Ohno on Friday? The philosophy doesn’t extend to developmental talent as they are not yet “WWE Superstars.” However, once a worker makes it to the main roster, that worker must do something that is “so terrible that it’s unavoidable” to actually lose their job. Hunter would rather allow for contracts to run out and not re-sign them, as opposed to making a publicized cut.

Evan Bourne and Ezekiel Jackson are both ready to return but WWE has struggled to find plans for either one. They’re being kept on payroll until their deals run out rather than cut them loose early if it’s decided to not bring them back.

Total Divas Recap 11/10/13

Les Thatcher talks Dean Ambrose, no interest in TNA product

Legendary wrestling trainer Les Thatcher joined Inside The Ropes this past week to talk about his ilustrious career. Here are some highlights of his chat:

Importance of guys being a role player in wrestling:

"The thing a lot of the younger guys don’t learn now is to be a role player. Now when I say a role player, it’s to be versatile enough to do whatever a promotion needs of you. Probably the best example of that, at a high level right now, would be Chris Jericho. You know, he can work with a new guy, get him over without killing himself, because he’s just that talented and of course, he can be a top guy. He can be a babyface or he can be a heel, he can work tags. Theres nothing that he can’t do. He cuts good promos either heel or babyface, so there’s really nothing he can’t do which makes him that much more valuable to a promotion."

Memories of working with Dean Ambrose during his training:

"Jon is a good hand. I’m happy to see him get the break. I’ve been watching him from the beginning. He was in a tag team and the gimmick was he and his partner would come out in football gear, they were like two college football players, and that’s when I first saw him. I saw the potential in Jon, started working with him, more to refine him. I got him his first dark match (with WWE). I’m glad to see him doing well, he’s a natural talent and the other thing was, when I sold the HWA that’s when Jon was there and I got him his tryout. I’d go over to help out some of their guys and some of them would come once or twice but Jon was always there and always eager to learn."

Does he keep up to date with TNA:

"Not as much as I did, I sort of lost interest. There’s some good guys there, some guys I know but I just, truthfully, my honest feeling on TNA...and I wish them well and wish there were ten more like them, but I think TNA exactly where they are today is where they’ll be in ten years if they’re still around by then. They’ve cried wolf so many times, they are what they are. I don’t seem them getting any better or maybe even any worse. The trouble is they’re just WWE-Lite."

On angles in TNA being copied from WWE:

"Well the Dixie Carter thing, she doesn’t do a bad heel promo. But strike one is Stephanie McMahon is doing the exact same thing. Now I don’t care if Dixie came up with this three years ago, now would still have been a bad time to implement it, it just looks like a bad copy regardless. The AJ Styles angle, it’s the same thing. The network is obviously not that strong. There are people that don’t know TNA exists. I did some personal training at a gym here a few years ago and people would talk to me about WWE and I’d mention TNA and they’d say “What’s that?” I know Mick Foley makes a joke about when he was there people would ask him why he wasn’t wrestling anymore even though he was but they just didn’t know about TNA."