Archive for June, 2009

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Joe’s 411: Toywiz.com Pro-Wrestling News

Tuesday, June 30th, 2009

Welcome to Joe’s 411: ToyWiz.com Pro-Wrestling News. Today, there is a lot of news, so why not get started, eh?

Latest Draft News

WWE has everyone who was drafted up on their site. Here they are:

RAW

1. Evan Bourne
2. Jack Swagger
3. Mark Henry
4. Alicia Fox
5. Gail Kim

ECW

1. Shelton Benjamin
2. William Regal
3. Goldust
4. The Bellas

SmackDown

1. Matt Hardy
2. Finlay
3. Hart Dynasty: Tyson Kidd, DH Smith, Natalya

I feel the WWE did a good job for the most part here.

The Hart Dynasty needed a better place than ECW, and SmackDown is that place. They can be a tag team there, on top of being singles champions too. So I am glad they finally got off ECW.

Matt Hardy is going to SmackDown mainly because they need an extra heel there. Now that Edge and Jericho are in the tag team division, they will be out of singles wrestling for the most part.

Meaning they need someone to take over Edge’s role in the heel spot for singles. Ziggler could take over Jericho’s role to me, so it works to have Edge and Jericho on other shows such as RAW competing.

Sure, they will be on SmackDown too. But, because the tag titles are able to be defended on all shows, they will be on RAW a lot. Because of that, they won’t wrestle on SmackDown every week, nor will they be in a lot of singles storylines.

Therefore, the SmackDown roster needs two main event heels; Hardy and Punk can be the singles heels they need. And when you throw Ziggler into the fold, you have a lot of possibilities storyline wise.

Regal and Goldust going to ECW works to me, they need to have vets there to help out the younger talent that is sure to come to ECW soon.

Shelton Benjamin is dying on SmackDown, the only way I see his career being saved is by going to ECW. They can have him and Christian rival each other, along with having him in the ECW Title hunt.

He did well on ECW before going to SmackDown a few years back. The only problem to me is that he is just plain boring, like the adults on the Charlie Brown shows.

The Bellas are not going to be in any women’s title hunt. Therefore, having them take two roster spots up instead of having two women on the RAW show who can compete for the Diva’s Title in Fox and Kim would be better.

I am not sold on Fox yet, as I really don’t think she is that great. But Kim is very good, so having her on RAW is a great idea.

Bourne, Swagger, and Henry are good for RAW. Swagger is needed because of the lack of heels on show, also he is dying on ECW. How many times can you have him in matches with Christian and/or Dreamer?

He needs RAW as much as it needs him.

Bourne deserves to move to a place where he can win titles such as the US Title. He has done everything he can on ECW and he would be great for RAW. Imagine some of the matches he can have there.

Henry is a wildcard here. It looks as if he is turning face from what we saw on RAW last night. Will he? We will have to wait until next week to see. Obviously, if he faces a heel, then he is now a face. If he faces, well, a face, then he will still be heel.

However, he was working the crowd very well last night, which is always good to see. Henry has not been a face for years, so turning him back to a face would be a nice change of pace for the big man.

Matt Hardy update

For those who doubted Matt Hardy was hurt, it has been proven that he is. He did tear his abdominal and went to Duke Medical Center to get it checked out. He posted a tweet indicating he is out for a little while:

“When the time is right, I’ll be better than ever.. And I’ve been traded to Smackdown! I’m pleased about that…”

He most likely will come back and feud with his brother again. I don’t know why they took him off RAW unless they are planning something big with him. As I said before, he is mainly going to take over a heel spot left open.

But because he is injured, he won’t be back to take that spot for a little while. I feel we will see someone step up to take over the heel spot, like Ziggler, until Hardy is back.

Punk seems to be the guy who will take over as the marquee heel on SmackDown. But you have two others in Edge and Jericho. The issue is that they are doing the tag team title thing and unable to be in a lot of singles storylines, if any.

Hardy will be back and will make an impact. When and where is unknown, but a lot of people within the company are saying we could see him around October.

Larry Sweeney update

If you are not familiar with Larry Sweeney, he is mainly a manager for ROH (Ring of Honor). He actually left the company, due to “health” problems a few weeks back. He seemed to be ok when we saw him on HDNet, but questions were raised when he left.

The issues with Sweeney now look even worse than originally thought.

Sweeney showed up at the recent ROH show in Chicago, and had lost a lot of weight and looked “disheveled,” according to reports.

The wrestlers and staff in attendance were very worried for Sweeney, and fear that if he doesn’t get assistance soon, something bad may happen.

One ROH worker that has worked with Sweeney a lot in the past was apparently saddened when discussing Sweeney’s current situation according to ewrestlingnews.

I feel Sweeney has a lot to live for, and if he continues to not do well, then he needs to seek help. Maybe ROH can find a way to get him some help considering he has been with the company in the past. We will have to see.

Vickie Guerrero update

Wrestlers are very upset over the rumor going around that Vickie Guerrero was only being paid $500 per appearance.

For those of you who are not financial wizards, 500 in a week is around an “average” salary at least for people who are starting out in a company.

That is 2,000 a month if she is featured on every RAW or Smackdown show, as she was SmackDown GM for some time before she was GM on RAW. While she was GM, she was on just about every week. Then you add PPVs too.

So, of course, she was paid fairly. Also, she was not a wrestler. She only wrestled one match, if you can call it that, at Extreme Rules. She barely did anything in the match as she had Chavo do most of the work.

So while all of the wrestlers, especially vets such as Michaels, Triple H, John Cena, MVP, and others are making hundreds of thousands or dollars, they deserved to get it because they are wrestlers in a wrestling world, Vickie was not.

Also, it should be remembered that the WWE paid for all of Eddie Guerrero’s funeral. So they helped out Vickie and her children a good bit.

She has not been complaining about anything with the WWE about money, so we cannot blast her for this. However, the locker room needs to get the clue. They are the ones complaining here.

They need to realize how much the WWE has done for her, before jumping up and complaining if you ask me.

Rey Mysterio update

It seems issues with the WWE and Mysterio have calmed down. As I said in past 411s, there was a lot of issues with Mysterio and his WWE contract. He is not making as much as he would normally make. He signed a $1.5 million deal; however, that is over four years and down from his previous deal.

He was injured when he signed the deal with the WWE after his previous deal expired. The WWE didn’t want to take a chance on Mysterio too much because they didn’t know how healthy he would be.

Because of that, they offered him less. He felt originally that his merchandise sales would do well, so he didn’t complain about getting a better deal at the time.

Because of the economy doing so poorly, sales have gone down and the money is not there like it was when he signed the deal.

The contract was okay, because he knew he would get money from merchandise sales and because they are down, he wants more money. It seems fair, but the WWE does not want to pay him any more.

Mysterio told the WWE he could make more money down in Mexico, so the possibility of him leaving was there. The AAA promotion in Mexico reportedly offered him a $1 million dollar signing bonus and $1 million per year.

So he would make more in AAA, so if the WWE wants to keep him, then they will pay him a bit more or give him more of a percentage on his merchandise sales instead of around 15 percent to 25 percent or so.

That would work for him, I’m sure, at least until his current deal expires. However, I think he may retire after his current deal is over, as he does have three years or so left on it.

He would be in his late 30s when this current deal expires, so will he come back? Not sure.

As of now, Mysterio is happy with where he is at with the WWE. He is now Intercontinental Champion, for the second time in a few months. So, I would think he would be happy with his role personally.

He is not unhappy with his role obviously, just the money he is getting. All we know as of now is that the issues have calmed down between the WWE and Mysterio. There have been no talks of renegotiating his contract, however.

Lilian Garcia leaving the WWE

As of right now, Lilian Garcia has told her fans that she is leaving the WWE after her current WWE contract is up.

She wants to get married and focus on her singing career. She has been in the WWE for over a decade. She doesn’t look like it, as we all know.

The WWE has been putting announcements out everywhere for new ring announcers, so it was obvious they knew Lilian was going to be leaving for a while now.

We may have just found out about it, but it seemed obvious someone was leaving. So we could have put two and two together.

Lilian won’t be leaving really soon, it will be toward the end of the year.

There have been no official replacements announced for her as of now. But they have had people in mind. There are talks of Angela Fong replacing her.

We have to remember though, the WWE probably won’t be making a big deal out of the replacement right now as Lilian’s contract does not expire for a little while.

I feel we will hear more about the replacement at toward the end of the year.

Complaints on WWE official

It seems Talent Relations VP John Laurinaitis is on the receiving end of some criticism from wrestlers.

Complaints include allegations that Laurinaitis does not live up to discussed terms when negotiating contracts with talent.

PWTorch.com notes that one wrestler “swears that he and Laurinaitis agreed to a specific merchandise percentage,” yet when the official WWE contract came, the percentage was lower.

Laurinaitis reportedly would not make changes to the stipulated percentage, even after assuring the wrestler that if he signed, the merchandise figure would be corrected.

However, because they were not corrected, that is where the issues are coming from. As I mentioned, if Laurinaitis made an error, it would have been corrected.

Yet, he did not correct this error despite agreeing to the stipulations in the contract. Its as if he is only giving them a certain amount, and not giving what they discussed on purpose.

If he is not giving them the contract discussed, then he is screwing over the talent, nuff said.

This is not a good thing by any means. Also, this is not focused on just one talent’s issue with him. Many others have claimed they have had the same problem with Laurinaitis. If this continues, then I think there should be an investigation if you ask me.

Laurinaitis has not said anything about this, so hopefully we will hear his side of the story soon.

WWE Returns

As of right now, the WWE is really hoping to see Undertaker back at Summerslam. Which will of course be in a few months.

The WWE is also firmly believing that that Shawn Michaels will be back later this summer. The belief is that he will be back after Undertaker or around the exact same time.

Because of both being on different shows, having them come back at the same time would work out.

Michaels has reportedly said he is in no hurry to come back to the WWE yet. He is believed to be back later in the summer, but if he decides otherwise then the WWE obviously cannot force him to come back.

They won’t fire him, mainly because he has been such a huge star for them. Also, Michaels knows he will not lose his “spot.”

Michaels obviously knows he won’t be a World Champion again in the WWE. Therefore he is just there to be in main event storylines or to help put others over.

He is still great in the ring, which makes his return worth something. He is set to have a lighter schedule when he comes back.

For those who are concerned about not seeing Michaels back, do no fret. Michaels has claimed he will be back. If he does not return later in the summer, he will be back before Survivor Series.

So, barring unforeseen circumstances, Michaels is set to be back before November.

Taker is actually sporting a shorter haircut, similar to his Badass days. This probably means nothing, but maybe it does. Will he go back to that gimmick? We will have to see.

I wouldn’t think he would, considering he himself likes the Deadman gimmick the most. The hair probably won’t be cut, therefore having it grow out enough to be long for his return.

But nevertheless you have to wonder if he will go back to the old Badass gimmick, which would still be loved by fans.

That is all for the 411 today, make sure you come back next time.

- Joe Burgett

credit: ewrestlingnews.com, pwrestlingnews.com, pwtorch.com, pwmania.com, prowrestling.com, prowrestling.net, lordsofpain.com, wrestlingtruth.com, wrestlenewz.com

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Who is really controlling the WWE: Randy Orton or Vince McMahon?

Monday, June 29th, 2009

Look who is Mr. Paranoid, its Randy Orton! Ladies and gentlemen, please everyone stand and clap.

I am so freakin’ tired of this guy, and I am not alone.

See, Randy Orton is a very “over” individual, and for good reason.
I mean the dude has a good gimmick, is a wonderful athlete, a good performer, and has insane marketability. So why not put him over on big stars in the company, to make him a big star, too?

I understand this WWE, but why do you submit to his every whim? If he says jump, you jump. And here I thought Vince McMahon was the owner of the World Wrestling Entertainment. I know, I know, crazy me, right?

I understand your frustrations, Orton, but seriously, you have got to stop being paranoid someone is out to get you. Dude, you’re not going anywhere, you’re too well-liked by fans.

There is a rumor going around that Orton was the man who got Mr. Kennedy fired from the WWE. It looks to be about right if you ask me. Although, Kennedy was released Friday of that week and not Monday.

You would think Vince thought about this before over reacting and firing Kennedy.

See, Kennedy botched a suplex on Orton. Orton was furious because he landed on his collar bone, a place he has been injured in the past.

He was so outraged by it, that he hit Kennedy extra hard with the RKO. Kennedy was said to have a wrist injury afterwards because of it.

Many think it was a cover up for what really happened and it was, as Kennedy came on a blog of his showing his wrists were fine.

What is being said from various people is that Orton approached McMahon after talking with Kennedy (telling him to be more careful) and told Vince that Kennedy was unsafe to work with.
He did not tell him to fire him, but Vince was said to be furious that Kennedy may have tried to hurt one of his top stars and fired him.

Many were shocked by the news that Kennedy was fired, and many think Orton is behind it the whole way.

Orton has been a backstage nuisance for some time, according to others within the company. He was feuding a bit with John Cena backstage, too, another guy who we all know is going over very well in the WWE.

Orton is jealous of Cena’s success in and out of the ring, which is something he wants badly.

Because Orton is having so much success himself, he realizes that he is too important to let go. So he basically says he will leave whenever something doesn’t go his way.

Basically, Orton is WWE’s top heel, and he is also the WWE Champion currently. You can’t just let a talent like him walk. And when a guy knows that, he can get away with murder even.

And before you respond, Randy Orton fans—because I know you’ll be reading—think about this:

Who has the WWE had him involved in feuds with?

John Cena, Undertaker, Triple H, Batista, Ric Flair, Jeff Hardy, HBK, Chris Jericho.

Who do you think the most put over men in the company are today?

I believe you could easily say these men are the biggest names in the WWE right now.

Many of them are so big that Orton feels if any of those men jobs for him, he will be “the man” in the WWE. If he feels he is getting too far out of the spotlight, he will demand to have a rivalry with a top name.

This isn’t my personal feeling, but from people internally within the WWE. So don’t think I am making this up off the top of my head.

He basically started to get known when he began the Legend Killer gimmick. Sure, he was known for Evolution earlier. But, he was not nearly as popular then and did not build as much of a fan base until he got away from Evolution and started on his own.

He got popular from taking out WWE legends, and that basically got him his second World Title and brought him into the main event picture just about permanently. From there, he drifted away from the Legend Killer gimmick, and became just Randy Orton.

Of course, it was the heel version of Orton, but it was the closest to the actual Orton. Heck, you might as well say it is the true Orton. He has to play a heel, because he is really like that.

Playing a face would not be true to his real-life character.

The dude knows how to use himself, and the WWE is handcuffed into listening to whatever he says to do. Like I mentioned before, when he says jump, they jump.

He has a lot of pull for his own storylines, which is ok in my book. I believe all wrestlers should be able to have a say in the storylines they do. Not so much in saying they won’t do them, but give their opinion on where they would like to go with it.

People believe he got Manu released from the WWE. I personally have no problem seeing Manu out of the WWE, as I have expressed in the past many times.

However, Orton did ask him to be taken out of Legacy because he was not a good fit for what the group needed to be. And I agree.

Manu headed down to FCW to work on his skills and he was told to lose weight. He refused to do so, and he did not improve at all. So the WWE had no choice but to release him.

Orton may have had a hand in getting him off TV, but he lost his job because of his own poor work habits.

When I heard the reports of Kennedy being released because of Orton, I kind of wondered why the WWE would do that.

Vince is not the kind of person to overreact and release someone. He takes time, and then if he feels the same way, he will release them. He would not just release Kennedy because Orton felt he was dangerous in the ring. Or would he?
He made one mistake, and Orton did get mad and hit him extra hard with the RKO. So Orton was being just as dangerous, if you ask me.

So this is what I think on the Kennedy situation: it was not because of injury, the wrist injury was false, as it was sent out to be the story people believed rather than the truth, as Kennedy himself seems to indicate that his wrist is just fine.

Orton may have been behind some of it, but did Vince release Kennedy just because Orton told him to?

Maybe he did. If Orton did the same ranting he always does, where he says, “I am leaving if he isn’t released” kind of thing, then I could see this as being Orton’s fault.

Orton has a history of doing things like this, so it would not be a stretch. I feel Orton really has too much pull, and the WWE really needs to treat him like everyone else.

Am I saying take the title off him or anything? No, just treat him just as well as you would everyone else.

If you have him basically hold you hostage, then no one wins except for Orton. If talent in the WWE feel they can control everything, anarchy will happen. I seem to remember something like this happening before in a place called WCW.

Anarchy ruled because the wrestlers seemed to have all the power and the owner didn’t really care what happened as long as he was making money.

Sure, there were a lot of other things that they did wrong, too. But the bottom line is: the promotion of WCW is no longer around. The power struggle among the wrestlers certainly contributed.

I know the WWE does not want this to happen, and it isn’t fair that one or more people are so jealous of someone else’s success that they use their main event status to hold the WWE hostage into doing what they want.

Orton shouldn’t have the power, the WWE should, more so Vince McMahon.

And the sooner they figure it out, the better.

- Joe Burgett

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Chris Jericho and Edge, The NEW WWE Unified Tag Team Champions

Monday, June 29th, 2009

Well, it seems Canada finally got a boost last night at The Bash as two of Canada’s favorite sons made them proud.

SmackDown GM Teddy Long’s job was on the line, if he didn’t do something good, and I mean really good, then he would be fired.

So, he added the former Intercontinental Champion Chris Jericho and the former World Heavyweight Champion Edge to the Unified Tag Team Title match.

They would be facing Legacy’s Ted DiBiase and Cody Rhodes and of course the current Unified Tag Champs themselves, The Colons.

We all thought going into the match, that the WWE would finally give Legacy a boost by having DiBiase and Rhodes win the tag titles. However, that was not the case as Edge and Jericho won the belts in a hard fought contest.

I think this is a stupid move by the WWE. Sure, Jericho and Edge have been tag champs before respectively. But they are both the two best heels in the WWE behind the current WWE Champion Randy Orton.

They are singles Superstars, why make them go back to the tag title race when they don’t need to?  A team such as Legacy needed those titles if you ask me.

I personally think it makes no sense at all, and whoever thinks otherwise must have forgotten how to think.

I am by no means trying to say the WWE is trash here. However, the move they made to have Jericho and Edge win the titles was complete trash.

Edge is now a 13 time Tag Team Champion. He doesn’t need to go back to the tag team division. He has been there, and done that. He bought the T-Shirt, and even bought property to the land there.

If you ask me, there will be a storyline with the two going against each other.

Both of their egos are bigger than The Big Show’s buttocks, so obviously they will melt down and lose the titles because they just cannot get along.

I don’t see a face turn for either Jericho or Edge, as they are both great heels. But I do expect them to see a few beefs with one another leading to the titles changing hands and a storyline with the both of them.

Having Edge win a title right now is dumb anyway, he is set to take time off in a month or so as he has been in some hard fought matches, along with the normal house shows and TV show matches he is in every week.

I know you have to be tough to be a wrestler, but come on. This man has been in two Elimination Chamber matches, a Steel Cage match, and a Ladder Match all within a few months. So he is in need of a break obviously.

Because of this, I see the two losing the tag titles most likely at Night of Champions next month. It will be storylined as they just cannot get along. But we all know it is because Edge is in need of a rest. Who they will lose them to is up in the air, but for now Canada can celebrate.

Jericho and Edge both will be coming home to their home country with the titles to a celebrating audience. However, as I mentioned, it will be short lived.

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NES Review #8: Punch-Out!!

Monday, June 29th, 2009

Few NES games are shrouded in mystery as much as Punch-Out!! is. So many rumors as to the reason that Mike Tyson was originally tapped, then replaced and so on and so forth.
Originally an arcade game that eventually came out for the home console, it was at one point a vehicle for Mike Tyson and his budding (at the time) career.
Originally titled “Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!!” the game later did not include Tyson, as he ran into legal troubles.
It featured plenty of in-jokes, such as Donkey Kong as one of the spectators, and the producers of the game made no qualms about the fact that they were simply re-using characters, just rendering them different colors.
When Tyson’s contract was not renewed, he was replaced with “Mr. Dream.” The game didn’t drop off in quality because of the change, but the game lost it’s cache and became harder and harder to find.
It was an entertaining game, one that has recently been remade for the Wii. If only they could find a way to get Iron Mike back in the game, it would really take it to another level.

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RIP MJ

Friday, June 26th, 2009

You would have to be living under an extremely large rock to not have heard about the passing of Michael Jackson yesterday, due to a heart attack.
It’s interesting that depending on your view, Michael Jackson was either a world renowned pop star or the sickest person alive. In my opinion, there is merit to both of those ideas.
If Michael Jackson stepped out of the limelight once the Jackson 5 folded, odds are we would be mourning a music legend today, rather than joking about his various public missteps, some more serious and law breaking than others.
But all in all, he was talented.

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Grub for Gamers

Thursday, June 25th, 2009

A new product is about to hit Toywiz.com called Gamer Grub .
The idea behind Gamer Grub is pretty self explanatory. It’s food for gamers, in place of the old mainstays, like Hot Pockets and whatnot.
Gamer Grub, comes in a re-sealable package that is designed to sit on your desk, much like a drink. That would eliminate the need to get your keyboard dirty and allow you to eat food that has a great deal of protein and a cognitive blend of vitamins.
The creators really began to roll out their product at the E3 Expo earlier this month.
Right now there are two flavors, PB&J, as well as Pizza. There are plans to add two more flavors, Wasabi and Chocolate.
Look for them to hit our website in August!

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