The first story for this PPV Sunday is one that I'm sure die-hard TNA fans (or wrestling fans in general) won't be too thrilled about. Former Jersey Shore castmembr Angelina is in talks to join TNA and wrestle in the Knockouts Division. You can bet that fans will jump all over this one, especially if she's paid anywhere near as much as J-Woww made ($15,000 for one appearance, when a solid number of workers there make less than $1000 per show). If she's a good worker and can get mainstream press for TNA I'd consider it, BUT I know that it probably won't go over well for the locker room. Tread carefully, TNA.
I'm not exactly thrilled with that news, so I might be more harsh in looking at the rest of today's news. Should be interesting...
The Great Khali is expected back in WWE soon, but there's no news on how soon.
Gene Snitsky's apparently done with wrestling. In one part of the interview, he calls the creative team "comic book geeks" who wrote goofy scenarios that he didn't like. He painted his teeth and shaved all of his hair off in his run there, which he also didn't like. I seem to remember that he wasn't all that over during his time in WWE. He certainly wasn't main event material. Did the teeth and baldness get him over more than he would have otherwise? I don't know. I guess between a not-so-great big guy being pushed seriously and trying to play him off as comedic character, I might have to go with the latter because at least then he wasn't as one-dimensional. I didn't dislike Snitsky, but I wouldn't put him too high on the ladder either.
And here we go with today's PWInsider questions. The first one that I'll address is about Kaval leaving WWE, and if will lead to others leaving. It's certainly possible, but given how hard it is to make it to WWE and how hard it would be to make that much money elsewhere, I think some people are taking the option with more money. This is another problem with WWE and (to an extent) TNA being the only major places for someone to wrestle in the States. When there are more big-level promotions, there are more places for talented wrestlers to draw money if one company doesn't utilize them as well.
Someone asks why Ted DiBiase is being booked so poorly. Again, they can only push so many people, and there are people that they think can do better with than him. I'd definitely like to see DiBiase get a reboot in 2011, though. At one point it was thought that he'd be a sure-fire future WWE Champion. Now, that's kind of in doubt.
Will WWE swerve us with Tamina and have her turn on Santino to help the Usos win the titles? I don't really think so. She just hit the Cobra on one of them, so don't bet on it.
More news. Apparently Ronnie Basham didn't want to sue WWE until it was made clear that they refused to pay his medical bills, including the ambulance ride from the arena that night. So that answers one of my questions. Partially at least. I think we need to hear more about why WWE refused this and any back-and-forth between the two sides.
Here's another interesting story. Former WWE and TNA superstar Zack Gowen credits WWE's Wellness Policy (presumably WWE-sponsored rehab) for helping him. He also says that he had a LOT of heat in the WWE locker room. There was a standing ovation when he was knocked out in a match. Wow. He certainly got a big push, getting to work with Hogan and Piper. I've heard that he was arrogant, but didn't know how much heat he had with "the boys". Last I heard, he was done wrestling and had become an accountant.
An update on the Jersey Shore story: The pitch is to lead to a PPV match between (Jersey Shore's) Angelina and Cookie. Hopefully that would be better than Jenna Morasca vs. Sharmell, which some claim is the worst match of the year it took place in. It's all a matter of dollars and cents here. If TNA can get lasting publicity and business from it, it MIGHT be worth looking into.
Matt Hardy was obviously backstage at Genesis. One problem with doing news posts after PPVs is that you don't get to these stories until after the show. But, you get what happens after the show, which I'll get to later. Tommy Dreamer surprisingly WASN'T backstage. He worked this weekend's house shows in the Northeast, and is frequently at production meetings working as an agent. If there's any more to this story, I'll cover it here.
AJ Styles has a knee injury and is expected to miss at least a few weeks. On air at Genesis, they said about 6 to 8 weeks, but it could be too early to tell. He should definitely be a babyface returning to take on Immortal. Update: He tore his hip flexor and hip labrum. He'll miss TNA's tour of the UK, but says that he'll be back wrestling "real soon".
Former TNA wrestler Chris Harris, also known as Braden Walker on WWE's ECW brand was also backstage at Genesis. He didn't exactly leave TNA on good terms, so I'd be kind of surprised to see him return.
That's all for another late news posting. I guess I didn't expect the coverage of Genesis to take so long. I'll be sure to start earlier in the future. More news tomorrow.
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