In defending John Cena, I made the comment that it would be hard for any wrestling fan to list the top 10 Hogan matches in his career. Your list has to be based on workrate not crowd pops or how many people are in the venue to watch the match. So basically the top 10 singles matches of Hogans career that you consider to be 3 stars or better. Here's my list so far...

1. Hogan vs. HBK

2. Hogan vs. Angle

3. Hogan vs. Savage

4. Hogan vs. Flair

5. Hogan vs. Orton

That is all I can think of for now so have at it and maybe my theory can be debunked!

Former TNA, WWE and ROH star Shawn Daivari shares his views on the recent deaths in Professional Wrestling. This is one of the more heartfelt and honest opinions I've ever seen from a performer in the industry. To read this blog and others from Daivari go to http://shawndaivari.wordpress.com/

I haven’t written a blog in a while and I’m kinda thinking about just doing a fluff piece before this one, because I don’t want my first blog in a while to be a "Debbie Downer." As I’m sure you can tell by the title this is obviously going to be one about wrestlers who died, a few in particular, so it’ll be a sad write up. I was thinking about doing something funny or campy first and post this a just a day or two later, but who knows. At the rate August just went another wrestler might die, possibly tragically, and it really wouldn’t be the right time then either.

I think I have the personality of an addict without the drug addiction. For some reason all my closest friends, outside of the wrestling industry, as well as in it are either drunks or drug addicts. It happens way to often to be a coincidence. I think there’s something about a drug addicts personality that either I posses myself which draws me to them as friends, or on some level for me, an addict is a good friend. I have no idea. But almost all my friends have an addiction problem of some sort.

Because of that reason I also have a friends that are recovered or recovering drug addicts. Since I have a few friends that were able to kick the habit, and I was able to talk to them candidly about it, I have an opinion or a hypothesis. I’m not right, Vince McMahon is not right, Dixie Carter isn’t right, and everyone else isn’t wrong. There’s not enough evidence to prove one way or another about the issue, and human beings are to sporadic and random to apply a general formula to all of them. There is nothing that we can point the finger at with 100% certainty. But my personal belief is pro-wrestling DOES NOT cause the use and abuse of drugs. Pro-Wrestling IS NOT responsible for the death of several wrestlers who unfortunately passed away to soon. I believe addicts are addicts because of their mental and or genetic structure, and that if they worked at McDonalds, or Wal-Mart their story would be the same. Now obviously that’s not 100% true because I don’t know anyone who works at McDonalds that can afford to blow thousands of dollars a week on their drug habit, but that’s not to say if they were a lawyer, a dentist, or a lotto winner the tragic ending of their life would be any different.

I wanna share a game that me and a colleague play. Game is not a good name for it. A game is a competition where you have a winner and a loser. Usually done for fun or sport. This is not fun or sporting for anyone, and there definitely aren’t any winners. I guess this is more of an experiment, or an investigation. Starting with when Trent Acid passed away (June 2010) this colleague of mine got word before I did. And when he received the TXT message on his phone he let out a "HOLY SHIT!" and right away, I knew. My first question to him was "Who died?" followed immediately by "wait…don’t tell me. Let me see if I can guess." And we proceeded to play a game of 20 Questions. By I think question 7 or 8, much to my sadness, I guessed Trent Acid and was correct. We’ve since played this game 4 more times since and we’re only about 60 days from when we started. Even worse is we have a 100% success rate with either or having the news, and either or asking the questions. With the exception of Luna’s passing, all of which we guessed correctly prior to question #10.

The reason I made that private "game" public is because I want to explore another possible entity to maybe point the fingers at. Some say pro-wrestling is killing these people. Some say it’s themselves. I want to open the forum to look at the possibility that we may be some what responsible, maybe not for their deaths, but definitely for not interfering. The reason we’re able to guess who these people are who passed away with a 100% success rate is because we knew, to some degree, that they needed help. And we knew, to some degree, if they didn’t get help they were going to die to soon. Of all the wrestlers that died to soon and to young in 2010 I was told, had seen, or had heard SPECIFICALLY that these people had problems and needed help. When I last saw Trent he looked in rough shape. A few months later I asked a mutual friend how he was doing, and I was told not good. A few months later he passed away. When I last saw Lance Cade he didn’t look well. When I asked some colleagues from All-Japan how Lance was doing on the tours, they said they were concerned. I never had the opportunity of meeting Luna, but on a recent tour some people very close to her told me about her day to day life, and on that same tour I asked a different colleague about how JC Bailey has been and was told by this man he hopes for JC’s well being that he straightens his life out.

All these people are no longer with us. If I directly saw, or heard from someone close to them that they thought something foul was a foot, perhaps if I made the effort to intervene they’d still be with us. Not saying that I would have been successful, as an addict will only recover if they want to for themselves. Not for anyone else or at the mandate of anyone. Court order rehabilitation rarely works unless the defendant wants to clean their life up. But perhaps just the confrontation of a friend, or family member, a loved one, or in my case; a colleague, could be the proverbial "straw that breaks the camels back" to make this person WANT to seek help for him or herself.

I guess the point I’m trying to make is as a friend, as a co-worker, I’ve seen people that need help. I can tell when someone is not in control of their habit. And I’ve said nothing. Maybe my words would have fallen on deaf ears. But it doesn’t hurt to ask. It wouldn’t hinder our working relationship, or our relationship as friends. And best case scenario these words might hit close to home and have this person seek the help they need. I’m a co-worker. If I see these things, perhaps there’s personal friends, or family who see more of it, more directly, and more often. The same thing should apply. You can point fingers all you want as to who caused these problems, or what promoter or line of work did this to your loved one. But if your correct in your accusation, or convince the world to incorrectly agree with your finger-pointing, it still doesn’t help your loved one. Without finger-pointing, your loved one is a victim. With finger-pointing, correct or incorrect, your loved one is still a victim. If we’re not going to make the effort to ask our loved ones, our friends, our co-workers, if they need help, we can point fingers at ourselves just as much as anyone else. And we’d be correct. And our loved one would still be the victim. But if we do make the effort, the best-case scenario is much, much, much better then the worse-case scenario. And the only thing we can with 100% certainty point the finger at is the worse-case scenario will happen again if we DON’T make the effort.

SD

Vincent K. McMahon is arguably the most profitable wrestling promoter in the history of the business but now at 65 years old, with his wife Linda focused on a political career, one has to wonder if we are seeing the last few years of Vince McMahon running the day to day operations and the creative direction of the WWE.

The main problem with Vince retiring is that there is no clear successor to the WWE seat of power. Stephanie McMahon is well liked but in recent years Stephanie has become a more dedicated parent than the heir apparent and future CEO of WWE. Stephanie recently had her third child and while she does bring her two daughters on the road with her, bringing a third on the road is not ideal. Young children need to have the stable home life in their formative years and Stephanie probably does not want to repeat the same life that she and Shane had as children. Stephanie has been head of creative for almost a decade and yet Vince still hasn't given her full control over the creative direction of WWE. It could be that Vince either doesn't trust her or he feels she is lacking in ability.

Triple H is another candidate to run WWE. Hunter booked the Ric Flair retirement storyline but he also buried every upper mid carder with main event talent. A huge negative on Hunter's Hall Of Fame resume is the lack of stars he made. Unlike Ric Flair, who put over even undeserving talents, Hunter was the heel version of Cena for much of the early 2000's. The fact that the Rock and Austin put over the likes of Kurt Angle, Jericho, Lesnar, Booker T, Goldberg and others when Hunter beat them clean reveals a smarmy level of insecurity in Hunter. Hunter running WWE would alienate many former stars like the Rock, Goldberg or Kurt Angle from ever appearing in WWE again.

Kevin Dunn is probably a candidate but the worst possible candidate in my opinion. Dunn is notorious for pleading for talent with height and muscles and blond diva's with large boobs and bones. He cares nothing for actual in ring wrestling but he loves the over the top stories that drive wrestling fans insane. Dunn is absolutely amazing at shooting wrestling and he creates really good video packages but his input in creative and talent has been a detriment overall.

Other possibles are Shane McMahon and Paul Heyman. Both have their strong points, Shane is great at listening to his employees and generating new business opportunities overseas. WWE's tour of China was spearheaded by Shane and Carl Demarco many years ago. Paul Heyman is no doubt the most creative man in wrestling and would probably put a new life into the product almost immediately. Both would need to mend fences and have a dramatic turn around in their relationship with Vince to have any chance.

So who takes over for Vince? What becomes of wrestling in general? Could TNA replace WWE as the #1 promotion in the world and realistically speaking how likely is that to happen? Lets hear your thoughts!

Creative plans as of Monday night was for WWE to unify all of its championships within the next year. There would be one World Championship, one Tag Team Championship, the Intercontinental Championship, and one Women's title. It is said that a WWE/World Title Unification Match will take place at next year's WrestleMania.


Source:http://rajah.com/base/node/20108

It will be interesting to see if they do go through with this if wrestlers start working both Raw and Smackdown again. Also what happens to the up and comers? I know people are already mad that some guys aren't getting pushed like John Morrison if they start woking both shows again he might not be main eventing for a while.

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Shine Still Under Fire From Failed "Worlds Collide" Event

May 15, 2010 held the promise of being one of the bigger nights for mixed martial arts in North Carolina. Shine Fight Promotions, LLC planned to put on "Worlds Collide" in Fayetteville, N.C. with a headlining bout that finally pitted a true boxer against a veteran MMA fighter. This made the event a true draw not only at the gate, but on pay-per-view as well. Ricardo Mayorga, a former World Boxing Association welterweight champion, was set to face UFC veteran and MMA ambassador, Din Thomas.

 

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I was just watching the "I Quit" match from the 1999 Royal Rumble and it got me wondering what you guys thought was up there? I'm not saying the "I Quit" match between The Rock and Mankind is but the fall on the eletrical equipment and the fourteen or fifteen chair shots to the head(and remembering what Foley's looked like on Beyond the Mat) was what made me wonder. Here is the match if you want to watch it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNCuzmiyafE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JreActO4TSU&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_0yQLvBFaY&feature=related

I'll be the first to admit: I woke up this morning feeling like P Diddy.

That's assuming P Diddy wakes up every morning with a slight hangover. What a horrible life he must lead!

Welcome to About Last Night..., the only thing in this wackadoo world that I can full control. The title itself is meant to be a devilishly clever (I'm such a mark for myself) double entendre which compares MMA to sloppy, dirty, drunken sex.

And MMA is kinda like that when you think about. You either wake up the next morning and immediately regret what you've done (UFC 112, I'm looking at you, you filthy skank) or it's something you talk about during every game of "Never Have I Ever" (WEC: Aldo/Faber, CALL ME!).

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This FanPost was promoted to the front page.

This isn't going to be a hatchet piece going after Bloody Elbow Editor-in-Chief Luke Thomas. I'm not a zealous Pro Wrestling fan on some sort of crusade. Like Thomas I've not considered myself a Pro Wrestling fan for several years though probably for different reasons. For me the history and machinations of the industry is far more interesting then any current product out there.

And while I've singled out Luke Thomas it's only because of his recent conversation with Jordan Breen on Sherdog Radio's Jordan Breen Show and the fallout from the part of the conversation that ended up centring on Pro Wrestling, which was instigated by Breen.

This isn't going to change Luke Thomas' mind on Pro Wrestling, that's not the point. The point is to debate on some of the remarks Thomas made and to possibly clarify some issues I feel he missed the mark on. What I will say is, right off the bat, Luke Thomas makes some very astute observations that are hard to argue with in and of themselves but sometimes were not actually relevant to the main issue he's arguing against. In fact it wasn't until the end of the conversation between Thomas and Breen that Thomas made his most relevant and accurate point and one that I am in agreement with.

Now, on with the show ...

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The Milton Wilpon group finally has a name; Worldwide Wrestling Promotions. The website that must not be named posted an email from the VP of WWP to the talent regarding the change in the company's start date. The company is believed to have 50+ wrestlers signed to deals already. I would have done a fanshot for this but linking to that site could harm your computer. So I've re-posted the email below to save you from spending your hard earned dollars on the geek squad. Mike Johnson gets credit for the story and the original link is below click at your own risk.

http://www.pwinsider.com/article/50309/complete-email-sent-to-those-signed-to-the-new-wwp-upstart-promotion-in-florida-and-more.html?p=1

Hello Team:

I apologize for the lack of updates lately but guys there has been ALOT going on and I really wanted to give you all as much information as I could as to where things stand in this update.

First of all I think you all know that this is a huge project that we have taken on. With WWP we are not just launching a new independent promotion or something that is going to be on the long list of fly by night wrestling companies that have come and gone. We are planning on being here for the long run and in becoming over the next decade the premiere wrestling company in the world. That obviously does not happen over night nor does it happen without hitting some bumps in the road.

Well we have hit more than our fair share of bumps recently. To be honest there are many forces in the wrestling business doing whatever they can to sabotage everything we are trying to do and doing everything in their power to make sure that this company will never launch. I can promise you though that no matter how many hurdles we have to jump over that there are people here dedicated to doing everything they can to make sure this company WILL launch and we will be a long time player in this industry.

That said guys this is a tough process and those working with us on the financing side realize now that there were mistakes made in setting things up and in order to guarantee that this company will not be one of the countless entities that have come out with a bang and have fizzled and burnt out before ever really leaving the ground we have had to make some painful decisions that we are not at all happy about.

The most serious decision is that we have been told our original time table is not at all feasible. While we were all committed to launching in October we know now that has become an impossible goal.

Our new goal is to start operations in the first part of the new year however we do not as of today have a firm date. That unfortunately means that contracts will have to be changed to a new starting date.

Now I know that none of you will be happy with this decision and I HATE to be the one that has to write this but it is something that the corporate side of this company feels has to be done. Trust me when I say that Pete and I have fought this decision KICKING AND SCREAMING (literally) but unfortunately it comes down to either this move is made or this company does not move forward.

I have been told that there will be addendums to your contracts drawn up by our attorney.

If you decide you do not wish to sign the contract addendums we fully understand. You will still be welcome to come back to work for us in the future once we are up and running in the early part of the new year. For those of you that sign the contract addendums you will be receiving extra shares of company stock and the addendums will also spell out our full health and benefits plan that will be made available to you.

I want to thank Mister St. Laurent and Kevin Kleinrock for doing a great job of signing everyone they were asked to and want everyone to know that they had nothing to do with this decision made and feel just as terrible about this as Pete and I.

I want you all to know that we are 100% committed to you being the first roster of WWP and if you stick by us through these growing pains we will make sure you have the ride of your lives as part of our company.

On the positive side of things we did sign a major deal this week that I am going to be able to give you the details on very soon along with hopefully the news of an even bigger deal that will put us in a very advantageous position to launch our product. I should be able to give you all details in the next couple of weeks.

Thanks,
R. Sean Pascoe
Vice President
Worldwide Wrestling Promotions, INC.
[phone number deleted]