The General Wrestling Thread

[EmpireWF]

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

Great picture from the Mexican version of Family Feud

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

Vince McMahon, shoe thief.

Frank Deford, generally regarded as one of the best sportswriters who ever lived, and who was a personal mentor of mine some 22 years back when I worked at The National, released a new autobiography this month called “Over Time: My Life as a Sportswriter.” In the book, he spoke about Rodney Dangerfield, who he did a series of TV commercials with, and talked about what a jerk he was. Then he said that of all the people he had come across in his life, Dangerfield was only No. 2 on the list, saying No. 1 was Vince McMahon.

This one relates directly to me and I am mentioned in the story briefly. It actually had to do with a story at a birthday party for John Fillipelli in 1991, a close personal friend of Deford who at the time was one of the top executives in WWF. Deford and his wife were at the party, as was Vince and a lot of WWF execs. At the time, Vince was mad at Deford because Deford made the call to hire me, ironically based on the recommendation of one of McMahon’s best friends, Dick Ebersol, as well as the sports editor at the time of the Los Angles Times, John Cherwa. At the party, everyone decided to go bowling. At the bowling alley, apparently there was someone bowling that night named Dick, and Patterson and Vince kept making jokes about penises whenever he’d bowl, which apparently had the Fillipelli family rolling their eyes because these were all upper class types there. Then McMahon and Pat Patterson stole one shoe from Deford as well as his wife while they had their bowling shoes on. Keep in mind these aren’t 20 year olds. Vince at this point is 45 or 46, Patterson is 50, Deford was 52. So when they’re done bowling, the Defords can’t find their shoes and McMahon and Patterson are laughing. So they figure okay, joke, where’s the shoe. But McMahon and Patterson never gave up the shoes and they actually had to leave the party with one shoe each. It’s one thing to do it to a guy, but then doing it to his wife?

But what Deford actually was madder about is that after the death of Chris Benoit, Deford wrote a piece, based on an article I wrote at the time, about deaths in pro wrestling. Since it came from Deford, when McMahon testified before Henry Waxman’s committee, and they brought up the article, McMahon claimed that Deford held a grudge against him because he and his wife had their shoes stolen at a party. The idea that he wrote an article about dozens of dead wrestlers, and Vince’s explanation of the article is that he stole the guys shoes 16 years earlier and he was holding a grudge.

 

[IamMedellin]

- WWE's Extreme Rules pay-per-view with the return of Brock Lesnar vs. John Cena in the main event did just over 250,000 pay-per-view buys, based on early numbers.

They drew about 147,000 buys in North America and 104,000 outside of North America.

The 2011 Extreme Rules show did around 108,000 buys.

Source: F4Wonline.com

 

[EmpireWF]

Oops. Nosawa and lo Shirai arrested at a Japanese airport for attempting to smuggle in weed from Mexico. The drug were hiding in a painting.

 

[FedEx227]

New wrestling podcast (Warner2Bruce and I) coming tonight.

We want your questions! We're going to devote at least 15-20 minutes for these so please send them in.

Email: vsdwrestling@gmail.com
Preferred because of multiple login ability and in case we don't get to your question this week it will remain in the inbox.
Twitter: @richkraetsch

 

[Kuzzy Powers]

I want you to answer this question.

Why should we still give any fucks about North American wrestling?

Good luck.

 

[FedEx227]

Definitely fair. Can you email it please?

 

[Kuzzy Powers]

I tweeted you, it feels cooler.

 

[FedEx227]

Look at Mr. 2012!

 

[Kuzzy Powers]

Look at Mr. 2012!

You're my second @ tweet ever. Clearly ive missed the boat. :shifty:

 

[EmpireWF]

Why should we still give any fucks about North American wrestling?

The same reason some of us did in 1995.

 

[Kuzzy Powers]

The same reason some of us did in 1995.

We're still 8 years old and naive?

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

Oops. Nosawa and lo Shirai arrested at a Japanese airport for attempting to smuggle in weed from Mexico. The drug were hiding in a painting.

NOSAWA Rongai was the latest incarnation of Black Tiger, so Black Tiger is out of the Best of the Super Juniors.

 

[SHOGUN]

They don't muck around with weed in Japan. A shame for Shirai. She's a very good wrestler.

Triple Tails >>>>>>>>

 

[JayDizzle]

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 (TNA sources at the time stated he was let go; Wittenstein told PWInsider several months later he had given notice), provided WWE with inside information on TNA contracts and other matters from his time working in TNA's live events department.

Wittenstein was hired by WWE earlier this year and worked briefly under Michael Hayes as his 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. Several days later after being contacted by WWE about the Wittenstein issue, Ric Flair (who, as we've reported here, TNA has been having issues with) approached TNA trying to get out of his contract. TNA is alleging that Flair was trying to get out of his contract in order to go to WWE and that since telling TNA he wanted out of his deal, has not appeared at live events, including the Sacrifice PPV.

In the last week, there have also been rumors that Alex Shelley had turned down a new TNA contract and was looking to go to WWE as well. While those stories have been making the rounds, PWInsider.com has not been able to independently confirm them. Shelley was not specifically mentioned in the lawsuit filing.

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.

According to PWInsider, a hearing regarding the case is already slated for next month.

It's going down.

 

[JayDizzle]

But wait, there's more:

PWInsider reports that as of now, neither WWE nor Brian Wittenstein have been officially served with the lawsuit filed by TNA. TNA has filed a request for expedited discovery and TNA CFO/COO Dean Broadhead signed an affidavit about what he knew of the situation that was filed earlier today.

It is being reported that WWE approached TNA to tell them that Wittenstein was openly discussing his knowledge of contract expiration dates, and it was a reason why WWE fired him. TNA is requesting a temporary restraining order against Wittenstein and WWE, which is believed to be in order to prevent them from sharing information or from approaching talent. TNA has put up a $30,000 surety bond in order for the court to consider the injunction.

A hearing is scheduled for June 11th, which is the current end date of the temporary restraining order.

Additionally, The Nashville City Paper quotes WWE attorney Jerry McDevitt about the lawsuit. McDevitt stated, "Our reaction is that no good deed ever goes unpunished. What the WWE did here is what you would hope any company would do in these circumstances it found itself in."

 

[FedEx227]

On tonight's Virtual Sports Daily Pro Wrestling podcast Joe Lanza and Rich Kraetsch discuss a number of topics including WWE Monday Night Raw moving to three hours, TNA's Impact going live, Ring of Honor's internet pay-per-view woes and general business woes, Dragon Gate USA's upcoming shows, a drug smuggling controversy in Japan and most importantly your questions! Listen in to another exciting edition of the VSD Wrestling Podcast!

http://www.virtualsportsdaily.com
http://www.twitter.com/JoeMLanza
http://www.twitter.com/richkraetsch

Listen: http://vsnarcadepodcast.podomatic.com/entry/2012-05-24T15_11_52-07_00

 

[EmpireWF]

McDevitt is a beast of a lawyer. I'd imagine he can handle TNA's attorneys (unless they are personal reps of Bob Carter)...despite his evil smugness.

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

thecubsfan wrote up a really awesome scouting report for Angel de Oro, who embarks on the biggest tour of his career this week as the designated job guy in the A block of the Best of the Super Juniors. This is flat out tremendous higher level wrestling writing right here. Just great, great stuff:

http://www.thecubsfan.com/cmll/?p=15517