[WWW] Dave Meltzer 11.20.03 column

http://www.wrestlingobserver.com/

11/20/2003 3:01:00 PM

Thursday news update: Smackdown preview, best selling books, MLW
returns, WWE signs four, UFC preview, birth of the masked wrestler in
U.S., Goldberg, Valiant and even Joe Garagiola notes

by Dave Meltzer

[EMAIL PROTECTED]

We're looking for your thoughts on last night's NWA TNA PPV, so you
can leave a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with
a best and worst match to [EMAIL PROTECTED]

Tonight's Smackdown line-up: 

*Rey Mysterio vs. Akio (Jimmy Yang)
*Shannon Moore vs. Matt Morgan
*Bradshaw vs. A-Train
*Chris Benoit vs. Nathan Jones
*Tajiri vs. Jamie Noble
*Chavo & Eddy Guerrero vs. Shelton Benjamin & Charlie Haas
*John Cena vs. Big Show

There was more wrestling content at the taping this week. The thing
the show largely builds to is Kane making a guest appearance
delivering a eulogy to Undertaker (who will be out for a while), to
start the build for Wrestlemania. Mysterio-Akio is said to be the best
match.

--Today is the UFC weigh-in for tomorrow night's PPV show from
Uncasville, CT. There wasn't a great deal of stuff going on as of
yesterday. The reports we got is that Matt Hughes trained much harder
for this fight with Frank Trigg than for his previous fights.
Apparently there were some great interviews building the match up
(they are on the UFC.tv web site). Internally there has been talk
about not having a TV show really hurting this build because almost
nobody will see them until the show on Friday, which means only the
people who already bought the show. No word on Tank Abbott's
condition. Besides the fights, there will be the induction ceremony
for the Hall of Fame for Ken Shamrock and Royce Gracie, as well as an
introduction of most of the ten most popular fighters in history. The
five matches planned for the live show are Hughes vs. Trigg for the
welterweight title, Abbott vs. Cabbage Correira, Matt Lindland vs.
Niko Vitale, Robbie Lawler vs. Chris Lytle and Phil Baroni vs. Evan
Tanner. It's interesting that as of yesterday, the most expensive
fight on the show to put together, which is Ricco Rodriguez vs. Pedro
Rizzo, was being planned to be taped before the show due to fear it
may not be an exciting fight.

--WWE has just signed Mark Magnus, Chris Cage and Tank Toland, all of
whom were in OVW on their own training, to developmental deals, as
well as Maurice (the guy in the Ernest Miller videos).

--TOP 15 BEST SELLING PRO WRESTLING BOOKS (based on amazon.com
rankings as of this morning)
1. The Stone Cold Truth by Steve Austin (155)
2. WWE Unscripted (815)
3. Lita by Amy Dumas (2,015)
4. Wrestlecrap by R.D.Reynolds (3,238)
5. Chokehold by Jim Wilson (7,304)
6. The Hardy Boyz by Matt & Jeff Hardy (10,698)
7. Classy Freddie Blassie by Fred Blassie (13,269)
8. Have More Money Now by John "Bradshaw" Layfield (19,675)
9. Bobby the Brain by Bobby Heenan (27,322)
10. Arn Anderson 4Ever by Arn Anderson (28,691)
11. Foley is Good by Mick Foley (31,634)
12. In the Pit with Piper by Roddy Piper (33,093)
13. I'm Next by Bill Goldberg (36,069)
14. Have a Nice Day by Mick Foley (37,534)
15. It's Good to be a King sometimes by Jerry Lawler (39,333)
Notes: The Austin book continues to do well and the Unscripted mainly
photo book, due to the heavy TV publicity over the past week, has
opened decently. All the books listed are now available as there are
no released upcoming that are getting a significant buzz.

--Major League Wrestling will be returning with TV tapings booked on
1/9 in Philadelphia at the National Guard Armory, 1/10 in Elizabeth,
NJ at the RexPlex, 2/13 in Philadelphia, 2/14 in Elizabeth and 3/12 in
Elizabeth. Wrestlers booked include Terry Funk, Steve Corino, Low Ki,
Homicide, Vampiro, Michael Modest, Teddy Hart, Christopher Daniels,
American Dragon, Bobby Quance, Justin Credible, C.M. Punk, Harry
Smith, T.J. Wilson and Sonjay Dutt on the first weekend. The group
starts on TV in Philadelphia on Ch. 48 in late December with a Monday
night at midnight time slot. The show will not return to the Sunshine
Network.

--There was an interesting article in yesterday's New York Daily News
at www.nydailynews.com/city_life/big_town/story/138004p-122672c.html
about the birth of the first masked wrestler ever to make an impact in
the United States and the famed 1915 wrestling tournament in New York.
The article appears to be pretty accurate because they used the old
newspaper coverage of it as the base. (thanks to Jeff Sheridan)

--Bill Goldberg appears tomorrow on the Maury show. Not anything to do
with wrestling but one of the children he's met in the past who is
suffering from a terrible disease as reunited with him.

--For those in the U.K., Dean Ayass wrote a long column on the recent
TV special on Backyard Wrestling at
http://www33.brinkster.com/lopuk/wwenews.asp?Newsitem=42


--Charles Warburton at www.wrestlingatthechase.com is selling a couple
of "Best of Wrestling at the Chase" videos. There are two VHS or DVD's
out and more are on the way. I've seen one of the tapes already and
it's a TV studio format show with most of the stuff from the late 70s
and early 80s. One of the tapes does have a Johnny Valentine match
from the early 60s with Joe Garagiola as a TV announcer. Garagiola
later became a legendary baseball announcer and long-time host of "The
Today Show," which is where Barbara Walters gained her first national
attention. Suffice to say they didn't watch his wrestling announcing
tapes before he got hired for bigger and better things.

--The latest edition of Country Weekly has a photo of DDP meeting
Trick Pony, calling DDP a WCW wrestling superstar. Not former, even
though he no longer wrestles nor is there a WCW. (thanks to Tim Noel)

--In the cable TV ratings for 11/10 to 11/16, the ESPN football game
of course finished first, as well as ESPN NFL Prime Time second and
SpongeBob third. The two hours of Raw were No. 4 and No. 6. (thanks to
Wes Jones)

--Border City Wrestling drew 200-300 last night in Kitchener, ONT:
Tyson Dux b Alex Shelley, Hayden Avery b Geza Kalman Jr. (he did two
early UFC shows), Conrad Kennedy III & Ruffy Silverstein b Tornado &
Kris Chambers, Eric Young b Bobby Rude, Gutter & Hacker b Sinn (TNA) &
El Fuego, Jamie D b Angel, Jerry Lynn won three-way over Petey
Williams and Johnny Devine, Jim Duggan & Honky Tonk Man b Jim Neidhart
& A-1 (local bodybuilder). Neidhart used Bret Hart's theme music for
his entrance (thanks to Devin Cutting)

--Johnny Valiant's one-man show that we've written about a lot will
have a special deal at the Theater for the New City in New York on
Saturday night to celebrate Valiant's 57th birthday. All customers
will receive a free piece of wrestling memorabilia. On 11/29, Nikolai
Volkoff will make a special appearance at the show. For more details
you can go to www.theaterforthenewcity.net.

--NWA Florida on Saturday at the St. Petersburg, FL at the Arena
headlined by Scoot Andrews vs. Steve Madison also has free beer for
all paying adults.

--Rick Steiner will be headlining for Harley Race's WLW on 12/5 in
Eldon, MO at the Community Center.

--Randy Couture was with Joe Rogan on Best Damn Sports Show Period
last night. They mentioned both tomorrow's UFC and Couture's 1/31
match with Vitor Belfort. It was only four-and-a-half minutes and it
wasn't like some previous shows before PPVs (before the last two Tito
Ortiz fights) where the appearance made you want to see the next show.

--Steel Rage Pro Wrestling on 11/2 in Tulsa at Mickey's Bowling Center

--Wrestlingbustrips.com has a few New York trips (starting points at
the Modells behind the Queens Center Mall and at the Manhattan Center)
for next month, with 12/6 to the Fanslam Convention in Totowa, NJ
which includes people like Ted DiBiase, David Shults, Ivan Putski,
Missing Link, Koko Ware, Jim Duggan, Bam Bam Bigelow, Kamala, authors
Greg Oliver and R.D. Reynolds, Bill Apter, Gary Cappetta and more;
12/13 for the CZW Cage of Death 5 in Philadelphia and 12/27 for ROH at
the Pennsylvania National Guard Armory in Philadelphia which includes
Keiji Muto & Arashi vs. Christopher Daniels & Danny Maff for the All
Japan double tag titles, Satoshi Kojima vs. Homicide, A.J. Styles vs.
Kaz Hayashi and Colt Cabana & C.M. Punk vs. Tomoaki Honma & Kazushi
Miyamoto.

--Tennessee Mountain Wrestling in Knoxville on Saturday night at the
National Guard Armory headlined by Dirty White Boy vs. Lance Erickson

--Norwegian Wrestling Federation from Sunday in some city in Norway
before 350 fans with the two biggest national TV stations covering the
event: Storm & Falk b Garm Stoylen & Giest, Talentfulle Thomas b Tommy
Gun, Daniel Sebastian b Big John, Gromguten b Steve Fowler, Erik
Isaksen b Byron Lawless, Grizzy Olsen b Bjorn Sem. Every time I run
the result from this group, it reminds me of an immortal line uttered
by Bill Mercer, a legendarily bad wrestling announcer on the World
Class tapes in the heyday of the Von Erich brothers. Nord the
Barbarian was working there, probably because his friend Bruiser Brody
was booking. Mercer said that Nord was Norwegian, coming from the
country of "Norwegia."

--Carolina Wrestling Federation on Saturday features a Triathalon
Survivor match. This is a reverse on the New Japan gimmick as they do
the singles match first, then a tag, and if needed, a trios match.