The Steel Cage

DISCLAIMER: THE VIDEO BELOW FEATURES REY MYSTERIO WITHOUT HIS MASK. CLICK WITH CAUTION!

I neglected to mention another fairly significant piece of news coming out of last night's Raw. GM Mike Adamle announced that if Rey Mysterio loses his match against Kane at this Sunday's No Mercy, he’ll be forced to take his mask off. I dislike this stipulation on a number of levels. For one, there's no way WWE will take the mask off of Rey. Go to any Smackdown live event, and it seems like every other kid is wearing a Rey mask. It's a huge merchandise seller, and WWE would be crazy to jeopardize it. So, in announcing the stipulation, WWE is essentially giving away the finish to the match - Rey will beat Kane.

But what if he doesn't? Then you're left with two scenarios - neither of which is good. One is, of course, Rey unmasks. Besides the merchandise repercussions, this would be a bad idea on so many levels. The mask is much a part of Rey's identity, that it would do untold damage to take it off of him. He's a superhero. And every superhero needs his mask. Ask Eric Young.

The other scenario, of course, is that WWE fails to deliver on its stipulation. Maybe Rey takes off the mask to reveal another mask, or his face being painted with the image of the mask. Either which way, it's a bait and switch and will earn some ill will with fans.

I'm sure there are plenty of fans who are curious to see Rey without his mask on. You can quench your curiosity by clicking the video below. Indeed, about ten years ago, WCW had Rey unmask in an angle that was entirely forgettable and did nothing to help get Mysterio, or WCW, over. WWE has done a good job in rebuilding the equity in Rey's mask over the last five years after WCW squandered it. I hope and I trust that they'll learn from history.

I see some of you are starting to complain about the recent infrequency of posts here, and I’m hearing you loud and clear. I really do feel terrible and will double my efforts to get back to a regular schedule here. Just to give you some perspective, I’m just weeks into starting a new beat covering transportation here at Newsday, and it comes at a time when a number of major stories are breaking on the beat. So that’s been pretty hectic. I also just went back to teaching journalism at Queens College. And some of you may know about my other wrestling-related activities, which can be Pretty Wearisome and Intense. On top of all that, I’m expecting my first kid in three months, so there’s a lot of preparation going on in the homefront.

Suffice to say, something’s got to give. And, inevitably, that something will be the job that doesn’t pay me a dime and that I am discouraged from doing during my normal work hours.

Nevertheless, I’m sure none of you are interested in hearing my whining and are just interested in seeing something new up here whenever you stop by. As best as I can, I’ll try to get back to near-daily posts.

To kick things off, I’m expecting to conduct a pretty major interview in the next couple days that I’m sure will be a big hit, man.

As for last night’s Raw:

. If I never see another DX reunion, I’ll be just fine. That said, having Triple H partner up with Shawn Michaels against Chris Jericho and Lance Cade was, from a booking standpoint, the right move. Raw’s top priority last night was to Smackdown’s move to MyNetwork this Friday. And with Triple H and Jericho set to square off in a triple threat match on the show, putting them together on last night’s Raw provided an organic way to build a backstory for the match.

. A smile comes to my face as soon as Santino Marella appears on the TV screen. Fans can’t get enough of him, and WWE seems to be catching on. He’s been getting a ton of TV time as of late.

. How the mighty have fallen. It was rather apropos that C.M. Punk and Rey Mysterio would be teaming up in a mid-card six-man tag match last night on Raw. The design of Punk’s world title reign is very reminiscent of Mysterio’s – put the belt on him to shut the Internet marks up, have him survive as the champion for a few months by the skin of his teeth while only earning a few meaningful wins, take the belt off of him ASAP, and moving him back into the midcard where he belongs.

. I’d be lying if I said I haven’t been fairly entertained by Charlie Haas’ antics over the last couple weeks. His Mr. Perfect bit last week had some legitimately funny moments, and his Great Charli impersonation last night was dead on. The problem, of course, is that once he takes off the wig and disguise, he’s still plain old, bland Charlie Haas. I just can’t see this gimmick having any sort of legs, but I guess as long as they can come up with good characters for Haas’ to mimic, it could be amusing mid-card fair.

. Why even bother with Deuce? They drafted him to Raw from Smackdown to have him use the same corny gimmick, only without the help of Domino and Cherry. If WWE feels he’s got something to offer, why not acknowledge that he’s the son of Jimmy Snuka and hook him up with the second-generation superstars stable.

. Jericho was golden, as always, in cutting his promo hyping the ladder match on Sunday. That said, I think it’s fair to say that after six tremendous months, the Jericho-Michaels feud is starting to grow a little stale. I think it’s been a big mistake to have the two square off in relatively meaningless tag team matches on Raw two weeks in a row. Hopefully, their match this Sunday will reignite some energy into their feud. But if they decide after Sunday to go in a different direction with each wrestler, that could be OK too, as long as they give the rivalry a real sense of closure.

. Otherwise, last night’s Raw was just OK. With a new timeslot for ECW tonight, the WrestleMania special on MyNetwork on Thursday, the premiere of Smackdown on MyNetwork on Friday, and No Mercy on Sunday, there was a lot to accomplish last night, so I’ll give WWE a pass for being a little undisciplined last night.

Aah, to write about wrestling. What a pleasure, especially after an especially crazy week on the transportation beat.

Just a few notes:

. Ring of Honor returns to pay per view this weekend with "New Horizons," which premieres tonight at 10 pm on iN DEMAND and the DISH Network. It's headlined by a match between two of ROH's most exciting performers - "American Dragon" Bryan Danielson and Tyler Black. Everything I've heard about this show has been positive, and I'll certainly be watching it tonight.

. "The Million Dollar Man" Ted Dibiase (senior, that is) is making a number of appearances in our area this weekend. Tonight, he will be at the Praise Tabernacle on Hicksville Road in Massapequa, signing copies of his book. Then Sunday morning at 9:15 and 11, Dibiase will be at the Medford Assembly of God on Route 112. And on Sunday afternoon, Dibiase joins The Mountie and Jimmy Hart at Franklin Square Video at 984 Hempstead Turnpike.

. Having covered courts for a while, I wasn't surprised to hear about Nick Hogan expected to be released just five months into his eight month jail sentence. It seems jail sentences are rarely actually as they appear. After having witnessed the callous and immature manner in which Hogan behaved after seriously injuring his friend John Graziano in a car wreck, I'm sure many fans are frustrated with the Nickster getting time off for good behavior. Having toured a couple jails, I can attest to the fact that five months is no cake walk, especially for an entitled rich kid like Hogan. Hopefully, Nick learns his lesson, and has dropped the insane idea of somehow spinning this whole tragedy into a reality show.

. Speaking of Hogans and reality shows, I saw a preview to Hulk Hogan's new celebrity wrestling project on CMT. And guess what - it looks like a lot of fun. I'm always amused by what passes for a celebrity these days, but that aside, this show looks to have a lot of the elements that made the earlier Tough Enough contests so much fun to watch. Like UFC's "The Ultimate Fighter" the contestants are divided into two teams lead by two coaches - lifelong Hulkster cronies Bryan Knobs and Brutus Beefcake. Todd Bridges, Danny Bonaduce and other Z-list celebs learn how to take flat back bumps, come off the ropes, and believably throw punches. All the while, an American Idol-esque panel of judges including two other Hogan lackeys Eric Bischoff and Jimmy Hart, as well as the Hulkster himself, evaluate their progress and kick somebody off each week. It's actually a hell of a concept, with or without the celebs.

. So it appears we'll be getting Kurt Angle vs. Jeff Jarrett at Bound for Glory after all. While the match may not have that much main stream appeal, it can legitimately be considered one of the most historically significant matches in TNA history. Since its inception in 2002, there really have been two TNA's - the Jarrett era TNA and the Angle era TNA. There is some truth in the storyline that Jarrett essentially anointed Angle his successor at the helm of the company after Jarrett had to step back to address personal issues. In some ways the product has been better since then, in other ways it has been worse. But this match really does represent the clash of TNA's two most important figures. And with Angle involved, it should be pretty good.

It's been a particularly busy week for me here at Newsday and otherwise, so all apologies for the sporadic posts. It's also been a fairly busy week in the wrestling world. Here are a few musings:

. It seems easy to dismiss the all the buzz surrounding Jeff Hardy's Nashville airport saga as much ado about nothing, but I'm still taking a wait-and-see approach. If it is as simple as Southwest airline officials just taking a standard precaution in asking Hardy not to board the flight because he appeared intoxicated, then, at its surface, that wouldn't seem like too big a deal. God knows wrestling and drinking have been the sport's longest running tag team. But it seems odd that WWE would handle what would seem like such a minor situation with the sense of urgency it did yesterday on WWE.com. Having worked as a reporter for ten years, I also know that corporate PR people can sometimes downplay the seriousness of an event that could somehow reflect poorly on them. Obviously, the context that this whole situation comes in is Hardy's reputation for substance abuse and partying. If nothing else, maybe the incident prompts WWE officials to target Hardy for a drug test. Of course, Hardy has two strikes against him. And we all know what supposedly happens when a wrestler gets that third strike. Conveniently, WWE has never come to that. Hopefully, Hardy won't be the first case.

But, again, this maybe the classic case of mountain being made of a molehill. I sure hope so. Hardy may be one of the most important people in WWE when looking toward the company's future success. And, in what is arguably the peak of his singles career, it’d be a shame to see him squander this opportunity.

. I mostly enjoyed Jeff Jarrett's return to TNA on last night's iMPACT! I imagine I wasn't alone in rolling my eyes at a lot of what Jarrett said, especially the notion that he created TNA to give young guys a break. But the exchange between Jarrett and Sting and later between Jarrett and Angle made for a fairly compelling wrestling angle that drew from some real life issues, without going too far inside and alienating a lot of viewers. I especially liked the back and forth between Angle and Jarrett. In fact, my biggest criticism of the angle was how it ended - with the debut of Mick Foley. TNA had just spent about 15 minutes of establishing a decent storyline involving Jarrett, Angle and Sting, only to punctuate it by apparently teasing a match between Angle and Foley. This may sound strange, but after seeing their exchange, I was actually left feeling excited about a match between Jarrett and Angle at Bound For Glory. The storyline that Jarrett essentially passed the torch to Angle when he stepped aside to address his family issues has some real potential. What's more, I have more confidence in Jarrett being able to deliver a quality match with Angle than I do Foley. Nonetheless, Angle is enough of a pro that I expect him to get something good out of either of them.

. I'm usually not one for fantasy booking, but I couldn't help but think of an intriguing next episode in the continuing soap opera that is the Chris Jericho - Shawn Michaels feud. With Michaels challenging Jericho to take him on in the match he put on the map - the ladder match - what better preview to their epic encounter than to have Jericho test the waters against the other guy who helped make those early WWF ladder matches such classics - Scott "Razor Ramon" Hall?

Now, let me add a caveat that should be the precursor to ever doing any kind of business with Hall – Buyer beware. TNA got burned in December when matchmakers spent a month hyping the return of the Outsiders only to have Hall flake out on the day of the show. I thought at the time it served TNA right for putting that much faith in the embattled "Bad Guy" who has struggled with substance issues for several years.

But, if Hall has made some progress in WWE-sponsored rehab, as has been reported, I don't see the harm in bringing him in for a one-off Raw main event ladder match against Jericho. The key would be not to announce the match ahead of time so, if for some reason Hall failed to appear again, fans wouldn't be left disappointed. But if Hall is in passable shape, I think WWE could have a lot of fun in playing off the history of the HBK-Razor ladder matches from WrestleMania X and SummerSlam 1995 by having he and Jericho go at it.

Of course, Jericho would have to go over. And if Jericho gave Hall a particularly vicious beating, it may serve as an added motivator for Michaels, Hall's real-life friend for 15 years.

Not only could it advance a feud that inevitably will lose some of the momentum in its seventh month, but it could be a fun treat for longtime wrestling viewers, and might give Hall the vote of confidence he needs to stay on the straight and narrow.

Just a thought.

In the few minutes of downtime I have, let me chime in on some of what I saw on Raw last night:

. Opening the show with the cage man again smelled of WWE higher-ups not having the confidence in C.M. Punk to entrust him with a true main event. Nonetheless, it was a hot way to kick off the show, and I quite enjoyed the match. Punk looked valiant and tough, and Jericho looked like the cowardly heel, holding on to the world title by the skin of his teeth. If Unforgiven didn't prove it, the Punk world title experiment is now most definitely over for the foreseeable future. I'm OK with that. Jericho's a hell of a world champion, and Punk has a good feud waiting for him with Randy Orton.

. When administered properly, the Clothesline from Hell is everything a wrestling finisher should be – sudden, simple, believable and the most devastating-looking move in a particular wrestler’s arsenal. It is the anti-People’s Elbow.

. I didn't much care for babyface Batista questioning Randy Orton's manhood because he's taking time to heel his injury. I know he was likely working off a script, but that's the real-life mentality that leads to steroid and pain killer abuse, and wrestlers rushing back to the ring before they're ready.

. Santino Marella is so much funnier than anything else on all of wrestling. When the day comes that he hangs up the tights, I hope WWE puts him in charge of all comedy writing.

. I'm all for giving Charlie Haas something to do, but his weekly-impersonation gimmick is pretty weak, and at the very least, requires a bit of a back story. What's more, after all the hell that WCW got for Ed Ferrara's ill-conceived "Oklahoma" gimmick, I was surprised they'd send Haas out there to do almost the same act.

. Kudos to WWE for plugging the Red Cross' efforts in helping the victims of Hurricane Ike.

. I'm excited to see WWE elevating Evan Bourne into a high-profile program involving Rey Mysterio and Kane on Raw. Fans can sometimes be very critical of WWE for having its big wrestlers squash its little ones. But the reality is, there really does have to be explanation for how a wrestler half Kane's size could even the odds against him. The visual of Bourne and Mysterio teaming up to dismantle Kane with their lightning fast offense was pretty neat and effective.

. I'm intrigued to see what WWE will do with newcomer Dolph Zigler - the former Nick Nemeth, who has actually been kicking around WWE for four years now. I like the steady stream of new talent WWE has been calling up from developmentals, and Zigler seems to have the confidence and look that WWE writers could get behind. I saw him headline an FCW show in Florida back in April, and he got great heel heat from the small crowd.

. WWE keeps finding ways to make even their off-brand pay per views must-see TV. I am beyond psyched at the prospect of a Chris Jericho-Shawn Michaels ladder match for the world heavyweight title. That said, it shouldn't have taken a world title to earn these two a main event spot on a pay per view - as their feud is the best thing WWE has seen in ages. Just a few months ago, many fans - including myself - were complaining about WWE stretching the same old feuds over too many pay per views (Triple H - Orton, Undertaker - Edge) but even in its seventh month, I don't hear anyone asking for Jericho and Michaels to rap it up.

Overall, a pretty strong Raw last night.

Sorry for the sporadic updates this week from me. I can't promise it will get much better in the coming days as I am swamped with work.

But I did want to make sure to help spread the word on a very worthy benefit taking place in our area tomorrow night. Some of you may have heard of former WWE Diva Dawn Marie's recent efforts to establish a safety net of sorts for retired pro wrestlers.

To that end Dawn and about 35 other wrestling stars and celebrities will be taking part in two separate events at the Radisson Hotel in Piscataway, New Jersey tomorrow to benefit "Wrestlers Rescue." There's an autograph signing from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and a semi formal dinner in the evening.

I spoke with local independent wrestler, and all around good guy, Brimstone about the event, and he explained that the organization is dedicated to helping the quality of life of aging pro wrestlers who are out of the business now and may find themselves falling on hard times. I'll have more from him later this weekend, and hopefully an interview with Dawn Marie as well.

For more information, go to the group's official web site.

Here's its mission statement:
Wrestlers Rescue Mission Statement

Wrestlers Rescue’s mission is to create awareness and to help raise monies to support the health care needs of Retired Professional Wrestlers due to a career choice in wrestling.

Wrestlers rescue will be focusing on three stages of growth.

* 1st stage is to create awareness of the need and to raise funds.
* 2nd stage is to put in place a financial advisory for the active wrestling community to call on for advice on how to plan for their future. Including retirement, pension, college funds, family needs etc.
* 3rd stage is to set in place a Health care program that can be bought into at a group rate so that the community can afford care for themselves and their families.

RICHFIELD, Utah -- I'm here in a hotel room in Utah right now drinking a beer called Polygamy Porter. Their motto is, "WHy Have Just One!"

I am not kidding. Google it if you don't believe me.

Anyway, I'm enjoying having some time on my road trip to post again for the first time in a while. And in reading the comments from my RAW Roulette post, I see some interesting insights and questions that I thought I'd respond to ...

Continue reading "The first Newsday.com blog post every written in Utah" »

LAS VEGAS, Nev. -- Every time I come to Vegas, I think back to the first time I ever came here -- as a member of the WWE creative team in Oct. 2002, helping to produce the first-ever RAW Roulette.

I still remember flying in on Air McMahon the night before, seeing the lights of the strip from the plane and being absolutely mesmerized. I remember my face and the faces of several others plastered against the windows as we took in the beauty of the scene as we landed.

Anyhoo, here's some thoughts and memories from that first RAW Roulette show.

Continue reading "Memories of the first RAW Roulette" »

Since the idea for the championship “Scramble” match was announced, I said I’d wait until after last night’s Unforgiven to render my verdict on whether was a good one or not.

It’s not.

In fact, I probably could have told you that much a lot earlier, if I had completely understood the rules of the match beforehand. As some of you noticed, I incorrectly was under the impression that for a wrestler to win the interim championship in the match, he’d have to pin the last person to hold it. That would have made a little bit of sense. Silly me.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed a lot of the action in last night’s scramble matches, but just because the wrestlers and bookers were able to deliver entertaining matches doesn’t mean that the concept worked. On the contrary, I mostly enjoyed the matches in spite of the convoluted, distracting, stipulation, not because of it.

Continue reading ""Unforgiven" Thoughts" »