Nothing says "cutting edge" and "innovative" like immediately signing aging relics that were last relevant in U.S. pro wrestling over a decade ago! (Wikimedia Commons)

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Dave Meltzer in his July 19th Wrestling Observer Newsletter reported that a new wrestling promotion is being formed in Florida with aspirations of being competition for TNA.  Why anyone would think that competing with a company that is currently losing money hand over fist is a smart business venture is beyond me, but obviously some smooth talkers have convinced a mark with lots of money that that's the case. 

The money mark in question is Milton Wilpon, a member of a rich family that owns many successful businesses including the New York Mets baseball team and the investment firm Sterling Equities (who ironically were one of the bigger investors in Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme).  He currently is the President and CEO of Medix Pharmaceutical International.  So how did he get sweet talked into investing in a fledgling wrestling promotion?

According to Mike Johnson of PWInsider.com, former Florida independent wrestling promoter Peter Karoftis hit the money mark jackpot by having the good fortune of being a longstanding employee of Sterling Equities.  Along for the ride are long-time Florida independent stalwarts Shaun Davis, Cody Michaels and Mister Saint Laurent, and failed national wrestling promoter Kevin "Remember Wrestling Society X on MTV" Kleinrock.  Unfortunately for them there are already plenty of ominous signs that this will be a complete failure like most other upstart promotions with lofty ideas above their station of the last 20 years.

The biggest one is that no television deal seems to be in place.  Even Eric Bischoff and Hulk Hogan last year couldn't land such a deal for their short lived Hulkamania promotion, so what hope has this motley crew of landing one with a major cable station that pays good money?  Paying for TV on a weak network is a sure fire way of losing your ass.

Despite this overt flaw in their business plan, they've already signed a staggering 30 to 40 wrestlers to contracts for the autumn with strong benefits packages unavailable to WWE and TNA talent.  They're also heavily courting many WWE, TNA and ROH wrestlers whose contracts are expiring soon.

However, Dave Meltzer looked on the bright side in his July 15th Wrestling Observer Radio show and praised this new group for their concept of wrestling being different from WWE and TNA.  As well he should, because their concept seems to be directly inspired by Figure Four Weekly and Wrestling Observer Talking Points 101.  Yes, as Meltzer reported in his newsletter:

If there is a key difference, it is this group is adamant about limiting the power of writers, never scripting interviews, and trying to give it more of a legitimate feel using promotional concepts from modern MMA and HBO boxing as well as old pro wrestling.

LOL, even Hulk Hogan can regurgitate such talking points!  And it's worked so well for Gabe Sapolsky's Evolve promotion after all too!  So what young, up and coming talent do we know that this group has signed to fulfill their "cutting edge" and "innovative" vision of what professional wrestling in 2010 should be?  Why the likes of Vader, Too Cold Scorpio and Sean Waltman!  Oh, and Florida indy worker Chasyn Rance, who has just been arrested for allegedly having sex with an underage girl.  And who are they trying to sign?  Why Shane Douglas, Justin Credible and Sabu!  More like stuck in the past than cutting edge.  I rest my case.

It's a worrying sign that Gabe Sapolsky booked Bryan Danielson so quickly and is promoting the whole show around his inevitably shortlived return.

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On Wednesday, just five days after his strange firing, Bryan Danielson announced via Twitter that he was available for independent bookings.  Already his calendar is looking pretty full.  Struggling niche promoter Gabe Sapolsky was the first to bag his services, booking him immediately for his July 23rd Evolve show in Union City, New Jersey and his July 24th Dragon Gate USA PPV tapings in Philadelphia.  Mike Quackenbush looks like he'll be the lucky promoter to have Danielson's first appearance back on the indy scene, as he's booked Danielson for his Chikara Pro show next Saturday in Detroit.  He's also has bookings in Germany for the first weekend of July and in Los Angeles for PWG on July 30th.

For a guy who was supposedly screwed over by WWE, he's doing really well for himself.  He can portray the pissed off, Best Wrestler In The World, who was too real and violent for corporate, kid friendly WWE to handle, milking the indy circuit dry, while this storm in a teacup blows over and he's inevitably rehired by WWE.  In the long run, he may thank his lucky stars that he wasn't involved in the NXT invasion angle to the bitter end.  Even though it got off to such a great start, so did the Spirit Squad and the NXT guys are a lot greener than they were.  The odds are strong that either the WWE script writers will quickly botch the angle because they don't know how to and are unwilling to book an effective long term outsiders angle, or Triple H returns, moans that none of these guys knows how to work and sends them all packing back to Florida.

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Southern California's amazing PWG promotion begins at 8:00 PM tonight and I will be there livetweeting results and points of interest!  Follow us at http://www.twitter.com/cagesideseats

Full PWG press release and complete match list for the event follows the jump.

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Thanks to everyone who followed along at www.twitter.com/cagesideseats last night as I livetweeted the event. 

On May 9, Southern California's Pro Wrestling Guerrilla held their annual Dynamite Duumvirate Tag Team Title Tournament, or DDT4, in Reseda, CA.

Full review after the jump!

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In any post with the Wrestlemania 26 logo, click on the logo to see all of our other related coverage of Wrestlemania 26 and the Wrestlemania Weekend festivities, including the WWE Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony and the Wrestlemania Weekend shows held by Ring of Honor and Dragon Gate USA.

Full results for the first night of ROH & DGUSA's biggest weekend of the year are after the jump.

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Pro Wrestling Respect wrestler and head trainer of the ROH Wrestling Academy Delirious.

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Here are results from today's Pro Wrestling Respect show that took place at the Burlington National Guard Armory in Burlington, New Jersey.  For those who are not familiar with the company, Pro Wrestling Respect is a promotion run by the ROH Wrestling Academy that runs shows as a way to get their trainees some regular work; in some ways, I guess you could say it is ROH's answer to Florida Championship Wrestling.

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Over at the Observer site, there's a report up from renowned Georgia indy writer Larry Goodman about Ron Simmons' (one of the few black men to be a world heavyweight champion in wrestling history) retirement show this past weekend promoted by Purks International Championship Wrestling.  It was the 4th consecutive monthly show at the Purks Building in Cedartown, GA to draw an impressive and lively crowd in the range of 1,000 people.  In the main event, Simmons teamed with David Young and Air Paris (accompanied by Christy Hemme) to face Bobby Hayes, Terry Lawler & Alexander the Great (with Jackie Rosedale).  Simmons' team lost when Young turned on Paris.  After the show, Simmons said that he would continue to do appearances and even some minor physical interaction, but no more matches.

The Insane Clown Posse has announced that their Juggalo Championship Wrestling promotion will now run monthly shows and open a wrestling school in the same building in Novi, Michigan.  It should be interesting to see how well it does given how rabid ICP fans (the "Juggalos" and "Juggalettes") are.  Several years ago, ICP was somewhat notorious for showing up and indy shows and offering to wrestle for free.  The promoters usually agreed.  I'm sure you're wondering why, and the reason is that they were always accompanied by a busload of ICP fans who would then pay to get in to the wrestling show.  With a fanbase that's ready and willing to spend money on ICP, the new version of JCW and its wrestling school could be one of the most successful ventures of its kind in the business.