RAW update for tomorrow

Tomorrow's Raw in East Rutherford, NJ might be quite lowercard/Smackdown heavy, as the Raw roster was performing largely in the UK in this past week's European tour, whose airspace remains closed down due to ash and smoke from an erupting volcano in Iceland. Oddly enough, mainland Europe is having an easier time seeing flights in and out, and the Smackdown crew, who last performed in France etc., got back stateside this weekend. The Raw roster included on the tour remain grounded in the UK for the time being and will not, as of now, be back in the US in time for tomorrow's show.

PS Newsbytes

Last night's show got a bit long and there were a couple things I'd meant to discuss that we didn't get the chance to - as well as some news breaking over the last day or two I want to put out there as well, so consider this a PS to yesterday's show:

1. I meant to congratulate both Karen and Kurt Angle, who have bounced back and gotten engaged (not to one another lol) since their divorce last year. Kurt is set to marry a 24-year-old model and actress he's been seeing since the fall; this hot on the heels of Karen's announced engagement to TNA minority owner Jeff Jarrett.
2. On the flipside of the coin, Kristal Marshall, former WWE Diva and valet/wife of former wrestler/current Strikeforce MMA fighter Bobby Lashley, announced via her Twitter that she and Lashley have separated.
3. Meanwhile I mentioned some of the pros and cons of TNA's programming last night; the one thing I forgot to mention is that there is only one storyline that I actually out and out don't like (even the inconsistencies here and there, ie in the Knockouts division, while annoying, aren't make-or-break stuff when made up for with excellent wrestling). But the storyline with Orlando Jordan is WWE circa 2002 nonsense (think Katie Vick, Billy and Chuck, wrestlecrap stuff), and bordering on offensive, as some friends of the late Chris Kanyon who's passing we also discussed last night as well mentioned that as one of the last wrestling vignettes he watched before killing himself two weeks ago. TNA has a lot of creative minds and wrestling experience behind their ship and for the most part are doing well with it I must admit - but this angle needs to die a quicker than usual death.
4. And by the way - for anyone wondering why it took so long for us to warm up to TNA again after a 2-3 year hiatus ... it is because of comments like Eric Bischoff's on Facebook last night: Thanks for pointing out how minimal the [Internet Wrestling Community] really is...if it were up to them, every match would be vanilla midgets doing moonsaults and putting each other in submission holds for 45+ minutes, with zero characters or storylines. Don't ever let those morons get any influence over TNA or any other promotion. My concern lied in someone with that attitude - generalizing about the internet fanship and exaggerating what they would want to see - and someone who ran a successful wrestling company for years, who I respect and believe knows better - helping run the show. Now I was pleasantly surprised, and TNA is a strong product with something for everyone, as much as I'll offer criticisms of it too - but there is little incentive when these are the main comments giving insight into the minds running the show over there.
   

And that's it - that's your wrestling news for this week. I might be online over the weekend to post thoughts on tonight's Smackdown if we catch it, but otherwise see ya Monday! :D Take care all and stay classy.

New Trivia

Hey readers - an interesting statistic in this month's Pro Wrestling Illustrated is that last year, with his Intercontinental title win, Rey Mysterio became the WWE's 21st Triple Crown Champion (consisting of one of the world titles, the Intercontinental title specifically - other secondary titles such as the US or the defunct European or Hardcore titles don't count - and one of the tag team titles). Can you guys name the other 20? No prize this time, just for fun ... I got to 16 before having to consult Wikipedia. Answers a little ways down ...

***
















In no particular order:

1. Bret Hart
2. Shawn Michaels
3. Steve Austin
4. The Rock
5. Edge
6. Chris Jericho
7. Jeff Hardy
8. Rey Mysterio Jr.
9. CM Punk
10. Chris Benoit
11. Triple H
12. Pedro Morales
13. Kurt Angle
14. Kevin Nash
15. Randy Orton
16. Kane
17. Eddie Guerrero
18. Ric Flair
19. Rob Van Dam
20. Booker T
21. John Bradshaw Layfield

As an interesting bit of trivia, when CM Punk completed his triple crown accomplishment, he did so in 203 days, the shortest time of any of the above, beating Kevin Nash's previous record of 227 days.

ITVR podcast - click here

And here are the videos I promised you ...

1st ... Wrestlicious:



And then a couple Glow videos to compare:

Business Update

So we're going to save the Raw talk for tomorrow - I'm going to catch a recording of Monday's Impact tonight so we can discuss both - but I did want to bring up the story I mentioned Monday evening in regards to Smackdown leaving MyNetworkTV and heading for SyFy. Apparently NXT, it was revealed yesterday, will be leaving the network. Left vague, however, was whether or not NXT will simply be canceled, or moved to a different network. Currently it is being shopped around. We will keep you posted on this bit of business as we stay aprised of the situation.

Please be sure and tune in tomorrow for our podcast of In This Very Ring for all your WWE and TNA news - we look forward to seeing you then.

Smackdown to SyFy!

It has been announced today that Smackdown will be bailing from the sinking ship of MyNetworkTV in the United States come October, and shifting over to the cable provider of their NXT program, SyFy. With this, WWE again leaves network TV. No word on who wished whom well on their future endeavours in this move.

((thoughts on Raw from the UK, hosted by David Hasselhoff, up tomorrow - still in progress here in Canada. Have a good night all))

Apologies

Hi guys - sorry this week totally got away from us as I said the other day with viruses both of the human and computer kind, and I was then left with a major sleep deficit and a week's worth of marking and housekeeping to do. So while all is well now - my son's all fixed up and so is my computer - I have been and probably should be devoted to getting my other priorities back in order ... no fun for me this weekend. :( But I promise ITVR will be back this coming week and I will blog again Monday at the latest with RAW thoughts (and tomorrow if there's any newsworthiness). Thanks for bearing with me and I promise to be back to normal next week with everything - apologies for Easter, followed by the weeek from hell, being a throwoff. Hugs all!