World Wrestling Entertainment announced this afternoon that Orlando Jordan had been released by the company.
There had been some within the company expecting the release as Jordan was scheduled to wrestle Tatanka at this past Tuesday’s Smackdown taping in Bakersfield, California but was pulled out of a pre-show meeting and sent from the building by WWE officials.
The word going around at the taping was that Jordan had extremely upset WWE officials, including Vince McMahon, for having an unauthorized person on the road with him and backstage at events.
World Wrestling Entertainment issued a press release, finally confirming the return of Extreme Championship Wrestling as a third brand for the company that will be airing on the SciFi Channel.
The first episode of the WWE’s Extreme Championship Wrestling TV series will be taped on 6/13 in Trenton, New Jersey and will air the same evening. The date was confirmed this morning in a Hollywood Reporter article about WWE reviving ECW and bringing it to the network.
Sci Fi Network President Bonnie Hammer was quoted as saying the series would have a test run as a summer series, but could get a longer pickup if it proved to be successful for the network.
WWE.com has reported the results of Shawn Michaels’ MRI that was conducted today. It seems that HBK will need surgery although it has not been determined when.
WWEShop.com is advertising a new DX DVD for June 2nd. The item listing states that eight complete matches will be included on the DVD including:
Shawn Michaels vs. Mankind from RAW 8/11/97
Triple H vs. Bret “Hit Man” Hart from RAW 10/6/97
Triple H & Shawn Michaels vs. Mankind & Undertaker from RAW 8/18/97
In addition to the new DX DVD, WWEShop has begun selling the old DX “S*CK IT” t-shirt. There is also a package deal which includes both of them.
WWE did an injury angle with Shawn Michaels last night on Raw because he really is working with a sore knee. He is scheduled to undergo an MRI and may need to have arthroscopic surgery on the knee. If he does need the scope, he will probably be our of action for a few weeks and would be back in time for the June 25 Vengeance PPV. Of course, that is all subject to change pending the MRI.
It looks like ECW is set to invade the SciFi Channel. Rumors have been going around that if USA couldn’t find a good spot for an ECW television show, then ECW would move to the SciFi channel. Nothing has been confirmed, but SciFi has added an Extreme Championship Wrestling section to its newsboard on SciFi.com.
Speculation is that ECW will get a 10 pm timeslot on Tuesday nights. This may or may not be the case because the WWE was planning on taping ECW before the SmackDown tapings. we can hope that WWE and SciFi will have an official announcement soon to confirm when and where ECW will hit the airwaves.
UPDATE: SciFi has removed the ECW section of their newsboard. So now we wait for the official announcement.
Former WWF and ECW star Brian Lee (aka Chainz) was backstage visiting at last night’s Impact taping.
Rhino banged up several ribs last night towards the end of his match with Abyss but was OK afterwards.
Although she will no longer be appearing at ringside due to her pregnancy, expect Jackie Gayda to remain working with TNA in some capacity as long as she can.
Shane Douglas will soon be managing the reunited Naturals, a new on-camera role for Douglas, who will continue to work behind the scenes as an agent.
TNA X-Division champion Samoa Joe, who had been wrestling with a nagging knee for the last several weeks, appeared to have injured it again tonight at the TNA Impact taping while wrestling David Young during an Xplosion bout when it locked up while delivering a kick.
Continue reading TNA Notes 05.16.06
With the relaunch of ECW rapidly approaching, WWE is trying to secure a timeslot on USA. Rumors are floating around that they will get a timeslot on Saturday at 2am. Hopefully WWE is pushing for a better spot than that.
As far as the roster goes, Paul Heyman and Tommy Dreamer will be handling the booking. Joey Styles will be the ECW lead announcer. There is no word on if Styles is working alone or with another commentator. Steven DeAngelis will be brought in to handle the ring announcing duties.
Rob Van Dam is expected to headline as the companies top star and probably first World Champion. Other current WWE employees expected to move over to ECW are Tommy Dreamer, Little Guido (FBI), Kid Kash, Stevie Richards, Super Crazy, CM Punk, Al Snow and Roadkill. Paul Hey man is a big fan of CM Punk, so look for Punk to be the first non-ECW wrestler pushed hard.
Continue reading ECW Filling Roster And Looking Toward TV
On his official web site, www.theextremeicon.com, The Sandman confirmed that he has indeed sign with WWE/ECW to be a part of the new ECW roster.
On the Canadian Viewer’s Choice website, in a promo for the June Vengeance pay per view states the following:
“DX, the degenerates that started the Attitude Era, will reunite at Vengeance Are You Ready? Don’t miss a minute of the live action as RAW presents WWE’s Vengeance, Sunday, June 25th at 8pm ET/5pm PT, live and only on Pay-Per-View. A World Wrestling Entertainment Production. Go to wwe.com for more details. See It All On Viewers Choice!”
With all the recent crotch chopping going on, it looks as if HHH and HBK are going to reunite DX. I hope creative follows through on this plan because together they are damn entertaining. However, I won’t count my crotch chops until I see it happen. I would gather that at the very least HHH amd HBK will be teaming up in a tag team match at Vengence.
Ohio Valley Wrestling sent out an email to its monthly TV tape buying customers informing them that the program was being discontinued because the WWE has aquired the rights to the complete OVW film library.