January 2021 – Page 9

– SmackDown rising star Alberto Del Rio has been discussed as World Heavyweight champion Edge’s likely opponent at WrestleMania 27 on 4/3. WWE is firmly behind Del Rio and company officials are very satisfied with how he’s handling his current push.

Former Intercontinental champion Dolph Ziggler, Edge’s Royal Rumble opponent, has also been discussed as a possible opponent for WrestleMania.

– The latest on Christian is that he probably will not be healthy in time to work a match at WrestleMania. He suffered a torn pectoral muscle back in late September, had surgery to repair the tear and has been rehabbing ever since. Initial reports stated he’d be out of action for approximately 6 months (until late March).

– WWE Hall of Famers Bobby Heenan and Harley Race have been invited to WrestleMania 27. Jim Ross recently mentioned that Race was confirmed to be attending the event.

– It’s interesting to note that WWE has not yet mentioned how many tickets have been sold for WrestleMania 27. In previous years, they have touted early strong ticket sales, which doesn’t seem like a great sign.

* MACHO MAN In New WWE Video Game (Video & Screenshots)

(Credit to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter for some of this info)

As reported earlier, Booker T has arrived to Boston, Massachusetts for tonight’s Royal Rumble pay-per-view. He is expected to participate in the 40-Man Royal Rumble Match. His return to WWE after three years will not be a one night affair.

According to some wrestlers, Booker T is permanently returning to WWE to both wrestle and announce. Additional details, however, have not been disclosed.

The six-time world champion has had his sights set on a commentating position for a number of years. He indicated in an interview last year during Royal Rumble season that if he were to return to WWE, it would likely be as an announcer.

He said, “Going back to the WWE, I know I would have to work a full schedule pretty much 180 days a year. I don’t think that’s something I want to do at this point. A lot of people speculate, but if I was to go back to the WWE, it would probably be from a wrestling announcer standpoint, that’s something I always wanted to do. So I look forward if I ever go back to WWE, it would probably be from a wrestling announcer standpoint. TNA is better for me as far as scheduling goes, but I don’t think I’ll working that hectic schedule anymore.”

*PHOTO* of Booker T taken Saturday night ->

source: PWInsider.com

— TNA Wrestling has posted a video of Karen Jarrett offering fans a tour of the Jarrett estate in Nashville, Tennessee.

— A woman in Winnsboro, South Carolina won $100,000 off a Ric Flair scratch-off ticket, reports www.wltx.com. The winner’s husband, a longtime fan of Flair, told lottery officials that he was walking around their house chanting “Woooo!” afterwards.

“Now, I have a new reason to scream ‘Woooo!’ he said. “She’s started saying it.”

— Sarita is working this week’s TNA Wrestling live event tour across the southern United States, her first since June. She generally doesn’t work house shows due to her obligations with Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) in Mexico and reportedly due to expenses because she is amongst the highest paid female performers in the company.

Shots of Sarita’s booty on Impact ->

source: Pro Wrestling Torch

The premiere episode of Dark Side of the Ring’s third season will be focused on the career and passing of Brian Pillman.

Steve Austin revealed the news on a Vice podcast Thursday, adding that he was interviewed for it. Austin and Pillman had an extensive history together, including a run as the Hollywood Blonds tag team in WCW and as rivals during the early portion of WWE’s Attitude Era.

Pillman was just 35 years old when he died of a heart attack in a hotel room in Minnesota while still with WWE. Austin later said Pillman had the same heart disease as his father, but it was undetected.

Our Dave Meltzer was also interviewed for the episode.

Vice announced last October that Dark Side would return for a third season. The 14-episode run will kick off at some point this year with focuses on the Dynamite Kid, Grizzly Smith, XPW, and the WCW/NJPW show in North Korea.

TJR: What The Rock Means To WrestleMania 27
By John Canton

This coming Monday night on Raw, it’s expected that Vince McMahon will announce Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as the guest host of WrestleMania. Granted, it could be somebody else, but let’s roll with the idea that it will in fact be The Rock. The question is what kind of impact does The Rock have on WrestleMania 27 in Atlanta? The short answer is a huge impact. Let’s delve into it a bit further.

Here’s the potential WrestleMania lineup as rumored with my quick thoughts on each match as far as drawing power:

The Miz vs. John Cena for the WWE Title – It does have freshness as a main event feud, but Cena in a WWE/World Title match at Mania has been done for 6 straight years. It’s nothing new.
Edge vs. Alberto Del Rio for the World Title – Del Rio’s a new star getting the push. Edge has been there before. It’s not huge in terms of anticipation.
Undertaker vs. Triple H – The rumor was Wade Barrett. That is off according to the Wrestling Observer. Sting? I’m not sure. I doubt it. I think it will be Triple H with Shawn Michaels as ref. That’s interesting, but it’s not going to be as good as Michaels-Taker the last two years.
CM Punk vs. Randy Orton – A strong match with a lot of freshness to it. For a fourth from the top match it’s pretty good.

After that you’ve got the midcard. There will likely be a Money in the Bank match again to get 8 guys on the card. Then there’s the divas match. Does any of that appeal to you that much? Probably not.

When you say “The WrestleMania guest host is The Rock” suddenly your interest is higher. Right? Granted, that doesn’t mean he is wrestling. I’m sure that a lot of people think he will be wrestling. I’m not one of them.

As I wrote in my June 2010 column where I suggested 20 ideas for WWE to consider, you don’t need The Rock to wrestle. His star power alone is enough. A face to face promo duel with CM Punk would be great. Maybe Stone Cold Steve Austin could be there too since Tough Enough needs to be promoted. They could hit their finishers on a comedic heel. The fans would love that. It would be a WrestleMania moment.

His last match was at WrestleMania 20 in 2004. That’s 7 years. People that still wrestle seven years after their last match usually do it for the money. Rock doesn’t need money. He’s loaded. If he’s featured throughout the show in four or five different segments that would work. An in-ring promo would be nice. Some funny backstage sketches would work too. There are a lot of things The Rock could do.

To me, the most important thing is getting him there. Sign his name on the dotted line. It’s been so long since he’s been in a WWE ring that just seeing him there will be a draw to people. Frankly, it feels like WWE needs him and it’s good to know that Vince is willing to shell out whatever money is necessary to get him. If The Rock’s presence causes WrestleMania to get 900,000 buys instead of 800,000 buys (those numbers are just random examples) then he’s worth the $5 million price tag I suggested back in June.

What does The Rock mean to WrestleMania? Buzz. Interest. The almighty dollar. He means more than any of the current stars too. Sign him up Vince. You need him especially this year. Congratulations on being smart enough to know it.

What do you think? I was going to put up a Rock poll, but I’ll wait to see if it’s official on Monday and I’ll put it in The Raw Deal instead.

John Canton – [email protected]
Add me on Facebook at Facebook.com/thejohnreportnet and Twitter at @johnreport

Since I am only writing about Raw on a weekly basis, I’ll be popping up at thejohnreport.net with shorter pieces of writing like this one. I don’t have a specific name for them, but I’ll do them as often as I can. There will be some epic pieces soon too. Keep visiting! Bookmark it now!

– At Sunday’s Elimination Chamber pay-per-view, Trish Stratus made a surprise return to WWE, where it was announced she’ll be joining Booker T as one of the trainers on the new season of Tough Enough. Later in the show, Trish came to the aid of Kelly Kelly, who was getting beat down by LayCool.

With Trish back in the mix and aligning herself with Kelly Kelly, there is talk that Trish and Kelly will team up to wrestle LayCool at WrestleMania 27.

– Speaking of Trish, she wrote the following on Twitter last night about her WWE return:

“OMG I’m trending! Everyone must want to find out what not to wear when u kick ass. I had so much fun delivering Stratusfaction-I missed all of u guys! Can’t tell u how much ur support means to me!!”

– Another name for the 2011 WWE Hall of Fame is expected to be announced on tonight’s RAW. Tammy “Sunny” Sytch, The Road Warriors, Abdullah The Butcher, Lex Luger and Arn Anderson are all names that have been discussed for this year’s class.

– The fourth coach for WWE’s new Tough Enough season is expected to be Bill DeMott, best known as Hugh Morris in WCW. DeMott was a trainer on Season 3 of Tough Enough and has been in touch with WWE officials in recent weeks.

It’s also been reported that each episode of Tough Enough will feature an appearance from a current WWE Superstar or Diva.

* TONS Of WWE News You Won’t Find Anywhere Else – SEScoops.com

(Partial source f4wonline.com)

As we’ve reported here on the site, Triple H was recently named the head of WWE’s new talent development program.

The first superstar signed by Triple H is Sin Cara. While WWE has high hopes for Sin Cara and see him as having the potential to be this generation’s Rey Mysterio, there were some botched moves in his first few WWE television appearances.

As a result, the decision was made by Triple H to draft Sin Cara to SmackDown, which is a taped show – where any botched spots can be edited off television.

WWE sources indicate that Triple H is taking his new role very seriously, but is nervous about his first real “project.”

* KEEP READING: More Details On Triple H’s Booking Philosophy & Backstage Power

(Source: Wrestling Observer Newsletter)

— Former WWE World Heavyweight Champion Chris Jericho has been announced to appear on an upcoming episode of VH1 Classic’s That Metal Show. His appearance takes place Saturday, April 9.

— Former WWE star Bill DeMott is conducting the majority of the wrestling training to the Tough Enough contestants. As expected, he’s been very hard on them. Some people within WWE are surprised that he was hired for the role because he has a reputation for being tough on wrestling trainees.

Steve Austin has been a regular on the Tough Enough set thus far. Booker T and Trish Stratus, however, have not. One source says they’ve been on the set roughly once per week.

— WWE Tag Team Champion Justin Gabriel celebrates his 30th birthday today.

Photos of Justin Gabriel with Kelly Kelly ->

source: Pro Wrestling Torch

As reported earlier, TNA Wrestling officials made the decision to send Jeff Hardy home from this week’s iMPACT! television tapings. Reports from last night’s show were that Hardy was in no condition to perform and management decided to cut his match with Sting short.

Unlike the last time there was a question about Hardy’s condition (prior to the Final Resolution pay-per-view in December, company officials were going to strip Hardy of the World Heavyweight Championship due to his condition backstage at the event, but then changed their minds) no one within the company has attempted to defend him. Many company employees are very upset about the situation, especially with the decision to allow Hardy to go out in front of the audience considering he stumbled on the ramp and nearly tripped over the ring steps. Others were surprised that an audible wasn’t called to “make it up” to the audience.

While Hardy has been sent home from this week’s iMPACT! tapings, no further decision has been made regarding his future in the organization.

Hardy tweeted last night that “things are op.” His next court date in Moore County, North Carolina is scheduled for Wednesday.

*VIDEO* of Jeff Hardy vs. Sting at Victory Road ->

source: PWInsider.com

— Jim Ross wrote a kayfabe response to Michael Cole’s remarks concerning Jerry Lawler’s family on Raw.

“Feel so bad 4 King,” he wrote on Twitter. “Both his Mom & Dad have passed. Jerrys Mom a few wks ago. Jerrys Dad was buried on King’s 19th B-Day. This is too much.”

— WWE is holding a Supershow on June 17 at the Tsongas Center in Lowell, Massachusetts. Tickets go on sale April 8.

— WWE has plans to publish a paperback novel of the WWE Studios’ Blood Brothers. The film stars John Cena and is set for release later this year.

— Following Chris Jericho’s debut performance on ABC’s Dancing with the Stars on Monday, WWE Divas Alicia Fox, Brie Bella and Nikki Bella were shown clapping amongst the audience.

Photo of Trish Stratus with *NO MAKEUP* ->

source: PWInsider.com

WrestleMania 27 News: Edge's Rumored Opponent, Christian, Ticket Sales

Backstage News On Former Champion Returning To WWE (Contains Spoilers)