In the latest instance of "when playing the heel goes too far," World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) has suspended Chris Jericho for denigrating a flag during a house show just last night (Thurs., May 24, 2012) in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

From WWE.com:

Chris Jericho has been suspended indefinitely due to an irresponsible act of denigrating the Brazilian flag at a WWE live event in São Paulo on May 24. WWE has apologized to the citizens and the government of Brazil for this incident.

The promotion didn't provide any details into exactly what it is that took place, which seems odd, but the bloodhounds at TMZ were on the case and they revealed exactly what it is that Jericho did to get everyone all up in a fuss.

It all went down during a match between Jericho and C.M. Punk -- who was proudly waving the flag in the ring. Jericho took the flag away, crumpled it up and kicked the flag out of the ring ... and that's when police stepped in and put a stop to the event.

We're told Jericho was informed that desecrating the national flag is a crime in Brazil ... punishable by incarceration.

Cops gave Jericho an option -- apologize to the arena ... or go to jail. Chris chose the former ... grabbing the mic and telling the crowd he immediately regretted his actions. Cops allowed the event to continue.

TMZ also stated that WWE told them they did not plan nor approve Jericho doing such a thing, which explains why they felt the need to quickly suspend him and release it on the website.

For his part, Jericho tweeted: "Just for the record I love Brazil and wish we could've spent more time here. Beautiful country!"

Our friend Arda Ocal quickly noted that the last time something similar to this happened was when Dave Finlay authorized The Miz to interrupt the national anthem at a house show, something that upset the United States Army National Guard, a WWE sponsor, enough to lead to Finlay's release from the company.

It was believed by many that Finlay would return once the heat from the incident died down but that hasn't happened. This isn't to say Jericho will face a similar fate but with his plans already in place to leave WWE by SummerSlam in order to tour with Fozzy, it's not out of line to think they'll give him a quicker than expected push out the door.

Mike Johnson of PWInsider.com is reporting that TNA has dropped a legal bombshell on WWE regarding their former office worker Brian Wittenstein. TNA allege that Wittenstein passed on confidential information to WWE about their contracts while working for WWE's talent relations department earlier this year and that despite firing him that they have used that illegally obtained knowledge to their advantage since then:

TNA filed a lawsuit yesterday in court in Nashville against WWE and former TNA and WWE office worker Brian Wittenstein for interference with existing contracts, conversion, breach of contract, civil conspiracy, unfair competition, and violation of the Tennessee Uniform Trade Secrets Act. They are also suing Wittenstein for breach of duty of loyalty.

TNA's lawsuit alleges that that Wittenstein, who worked for the company for three years before departing in 2011, provided WWE with inside information on TNA contracts and other matters from his time working in TNA's talent relations and live events departments....

Wittenstein was hired by WWE earlier this year and worked briefly under Michael Hayes as an assistant before being let go. According to the suit, WWE fired Wittenstein after he presented them with insider TNA information. However, TNA claims that WWE did not approach them with that information until 5/7, several weeks after they let Wittenstein go.

TNA's lawsuit claimed that WWE is now trying to poach contracted talent from TNA, using inside information from TNA contracts to their advantage....

An injunction was issued earlier today demanding that WWE and Wittenstein each return whatever confidential material Wittenstein retained from his time working for TNA. They were specifically instructed not to "destroy" any of the material.

I am told a hearing regarding the case is already slated for next month.

TNA's main complaint regards Ric Flair, who missed several scheduled TNA dates earlier this month. There was speculation that TNA had sent Flair home over finally getting fed up of his inappropriate drunken behavior in public and asking them to pick up his bar tabs, but this is clearly not the case, even though there was probably some truth to those stories. Instead, Flair just decided to stop showing up for work after informing TNA that he wanted out of his contract in order to return to WWE.

Where it gets messy is that TNA did not file a lawsuit against WWE when WWE announced that The Four Horsemen would be inducted into their 2012 Hall Of Fame with advertising that would suggest that Ric Flair would appear at the event. Instead, TNA came to an agreement with WWE for Flair to attend the event and even allowed his induction speech to be shown on television. It's hard for TNA to complain about contract tampering when they rolled out the red carpet for Flair to speak with WWE management at WrestleMania weekend. It may just be a coincidence that Wittenstein gave WWE inside information around the same time, as it was well known that Flair was not happy working for TNA and was likely looking for a way to escape his contract.

The same may be true of Alex Shelley whose TNA contract is expiring and has given his notice to the company to possibly jump to WWE. Despite being one of the most talented workers in the X-Division, he was strangely put on the back burner when his Motor City Machine Guns partner Chris Sabin was injured last May and hasn't been used very prominently since then. According to Dave Meltzer, he was already thinking about quitting the company before WWE came calling to work in Japan and for Dragon Gate USA.

TNA's best case for contract tampering seems to be Matt Morgan, who was well pushed and seemed to be content in TNA until recently, but even there that might be difficult to prove, as in an interview with PWTorch.com editor Wade Keller this April he made it public that his contract was coming due soon and that he wouldn't rule out a return to WWE.

We'll keep you informed at how this lawsuit turns out for TNA, but on the surface it seems like it will be a tough battle for them to win.

Now that Muhammed Lawal has signed a contract to fight under the Bellator Fighting Championships banner and wrestle under the Total Nonstop Action (TNA) Wrestling umbrella at the same time, it was only a matter of time before more and more mixed martial artists started talking about doing the same.

Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) heavyweight Roy Nelson has been talking about doing both for some time now, though the conversation naturally came up once again now that he's got a fight coming up this Sat., May 26, 2012, at UFC 146 against Dave Herman.

Here's what he told MMAWeekly.com when asked about "King Mo" doing both:

"I'm actually ecstatic. It couldn't have happened to a better man. I think it opens a lot of doors for a lot of different fighters, and it actually opens up a lot of fighter's eyes that there's other ways to make a living, that you can actually do both sports. It's like it's okay to be a Deion Sanders playing football and baseball, or like a Bo Jackson playing football and baseball. It's good that athletes can do that."

He would go on to say that if he beats Herman this weekend, he might ditch UFC altogether in favor of coming over to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) to call out Brock Lesnar, who also recently made the jump back to his old stomping grounds.

He's got a built in "Big Country" gimmick, so it could work. Maybe. I'm not sure there's a place for an Earthquake/Typhoon type of character in today's WWE but if Brodus Clay can become successful as a dancing dinosaur, why not Roy Nelson?

Even Evan Bourne is feeding into the idea, as he tweeted Nelson that he's "welcome in our squared circle anytime. 'Big Country' could be quite a force in WWE."

Does anyone want to see Nelson in WWE? Anyone at all? Cagesiders?

Here's the latest episode of World Wrestling Entertainment's (WWE) weekly Thursday show, Superstars, from May 24, 2012, featuring a main event of Zack Ryder going over on Heath Slater in a decent match for an Internet only show.

Really, Ryder should want to be on Superstars, as he's a big fish in a little pond when it comes to the smaller WWE shows. Once he gets on Monday Night Raw or Friday Night Smackdown, he quickly becomes nothing more than a jobber with no real creative direction.

At least here he's a star ... so to speak.

The same could be said, although to a much lesser extent, for R-Truth and Kofi Kingston, the WWE tag team champions who have struggled to find footing on the main shows. But again, they're style is perfectly suited for a show like Superstars that is heavy on in-ring action and light on angles. They were solid in going over clean on JTG and Michael McGillicutty here.

And if you want a glimpse at the future of the business, take a look at Antonio Cesaro doing his thing in the opening bout against Tyson Kidd. Cesaro is, to put it simply, a pleasure to watch and with his combination of charisma and in-ring abilities, he should be working with the big dogs sooner rather than later.

Hopefully.

Enjoy the show, Cagesiders!

Well, this is fascinating ... if it's true.

That's the big problem in the pro wrestling business; you just never know when you're being worked or if something is legitimate. Such is the case with this little bit of news that is floating around.

Over at Scott's Blog of Doom, Scott Keith was contacted by someone who was apparently cruising the threads on a World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) board at GameFaqs.com. A poster there is claiming to have worked as an assistant for the WWE writing team late last year and because of that, he's got a ton of valuable insights into behind-the-scenes goings on.

Allegedly.

Again, there's no way to verify if this information is correct, so take it with the usual grain of salt. The person who contacted Keith did say that the board this was posted on is generally inaccessible to most in an effort to avoid trolls. So this could be legit.

After the jump, read a bullet point breakdown of what was revealed.

Continue reading this post »

WrestleMania 29 has just been announced but buzz surrounding the 30th anniversary has already begun. Has WWE decided where the Granddaddy of Them All will be come 2014?

In the June, 2012 edition of WWE Magazine, a writer who calls himself "The informer" says that the 30th show could be held in "a city of Olympic proportions"

As for where that is?

London is hosting the Olympics this summer, but the time delay might nix that idea. Though a SummerSlam match between Wade Barrett and Sheamus at Wembley Stadium? Yes, please.

My guess is Olympic Stadium in Montreal. For a WrestleMania they could get 70,000+ on hand, and they haven't been to Canada since WrestleMania 18.

John Cena and John Laurinaitis had their *cough* highly anticipated *cough* match at the WWE Over the Limit pay-per-view (PPV) event last night (Sun., May 20, 2012) at the PNC Arena in Raleigh, North Carolina.

And it was mostly a disaster.

Cena embarrassed Laurinaitis for the majority of the match, slapping him around, knocking him into announce tables, hosing him with a fire extinguisher, and ringing a bell in his ear, among other things. Ultimately, Big Show would appear to side with the General Manager of Raw and Smackdown, delivering a WMD to Cena to make sure Laurinaitis won and, in turn, kept his job with the company. In storyline, of course.

However, there was one point in the match when Cena and Laurinaitis ended up at the announce table doing commentary for their own match. It led to the picture you see above, which was cute in a sort of dumb, childish way.

I thought it was perfect for our first caption contest.

Here's the deal, Cagesiders: You come up with a caption for the above photo -- be it witty or funny or silly, whatever -- and we'll pick the one we like best and give out a prize. Sound good?

Let's get your best captions in the comments section below. No need to hurry, either. We'll give this a few days before deciding a winner, at which time we'll let you know the prize you've won. Intrigue!