World Wrestling Entertainment

By pstrum@poughkeepsiejournal.com (Phil Strum) Chris Jericho and The Undertaker met for, amazingly, the first time in a one-on-one match in their careers in WWE and it was a strong, back-and-forth match with Jericho getting a lot. Jericho was able to dodge the last ride and the chokeslam. Taker was able to kick out of the Codebreaker and ma...

By pstrum@poughkeepsiejournal.com (Phil Strum) • In-ring interview with WWE Hall-of-Famer Bret "The Hitman" Hart • NEW Championship: Jason Blade (c) vs. Paul London • Christy Hemme vs. Alexxis • Matt Taven vs. Mike Bennett A meet-and-greeat with Bret Hart and the other wrestlers begins at 6 p.m. for VIP members and 6:30 for everyone else.

By pstrum@poughkeepsiejournal.com (Phil Strum) If you are looking for my interviews with Ken Anderson and Dusty Rhodes, as linked from the great guys at Figure Four Online/Wrestling Observer, they are here and here. So infrequently in today's professional wrestling scene do you have the opportunity to capture a special moment. It seem...

By pstrum@poughkeepsiejournal.com (Phil Strum) Maybe it was the hot crowd. Or maybe it was just because they put on a good wrestling show. Raw was alright on Monday and seemed to successfully build to Survivor Series and also to next week's Raw at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

By pstrum@poughkeepsiejournal.com (Phil Strum) Watching SmackDown on DVR on Sunday morning with a buddy, I remarked that Chris Jericho vs. The Undertaker was a seldom-used match and that it was actually fresh for a change. Despite the pair's long tenure in WWE, I can't really remember them ever having a singles match, much less a feud.

By pstrum@poughkeepsiejournal.com (Phil Strum) Ken Anderson was a world champion waiting to happen. It certainly seemed that way. Then, somewhere along the line, things changed and he ended up on the outside looking in at World Wrestling Entertainment. PS: To wrap up, what does the future hold for you. Do you see yourself getting back in the...

By pstrum@poughkeepsiejournal.com (Phil Strum) I had the opportunity to sit down and chat with one of the all-time great legends in professional wrestling, "The American Dream" Dusty Rhodes at Collector's Realm in Poughkeepsie on Saturday. PS: You made it to WrestleMania at the SkyDome.

By Phil Strum(pstrum@poughkeepsiejournal.com) WWE Hall-of-Famer "The American Dream" Dusty Rhodes and the former Mr. Kennedy, Ken Anderson are part of a big weekend of wrestling in the Hudson Valley. NEW also has shows coming up the following weekend in Waterbury, Conn. and Washingtonville. For information on these shows, as well as tic...

By Phil Strum(pstrum@poughkeepsiejournal.com) • Paul Burchill challenged Hurricane to a match next week where Hurricane's mask is up, as is the Burchills' tenure in ECW. I like the work Burchill has been doing lately, so hopefully for his sake, someone noticed and he ends up on Raw or SmackDown.

By pstrum@poughkeepsiejournal.com (Phil Strum) Vintage WWE. • The main event being won by Chris Jericho was pretty nuts when you consider that Ozzy pretended not to know who he was and DX treated him like a non-entity. Jericho should probably get a world title run again soon. Tonight's ECW

By Phil Strum(pstrum@poughkeepsiejournal.com) I did watch SmackDown though. THE BATISTA TURN The rest of SmackDown... Jericho should make the match, which includes Big Show and The Undertaker, better. Jericho should be higher up the card than he is since he is probably one of the best acts WWE has.

By pstrum@poughkeepsiejournal.com (Phil Strum) Hulk Hogan — the biggest ICON in professional wrestling history — is now in TNA. So, the question to ask is, "Does Hulk Hogan signing with TNA immediately capture the attention of all of those fans?" Probably not... but Hogan is only one (albeit very large) piece of the puzzle.

By Phil Strum(pstrum@poughkeepsiejournal.com) Shawn Michaels will be in it too. Worse was the promo John Cena cut on Raw, where he intimated that wrestling Cody Rhodes or Ted DiBiase would be too much like wrestling Randy Orton and that the fans would think Raw was in reruns. Funny because I've felt the show has been in reruns for months now.

By Phil Strum(pstrum@poughkeepsiejournal.com) But this is Hulk Hogan, the biggest name in recent wrestling history. I have a bad feeling he will not check his ego at the door and instead, will make TNA his own personal playground. Goodbye, AJ Styles and Samoa Joe; Hello, Brutus Beefcake and Brian Knobs!

By pstrum@poughkeepsiejournal.com (Phil Strum) WWE just sent this over... “USA Network is a true partner and not just a network that distributes WWE’s premiere television show, WWE MONDAY NIGHT RAW,” stated Chairman and CEO Vince McMahon. “I am thrilled to have a long term deal with USA Network.”

By Phil Strum(pstrum@poughkeepsiejournal.com) Let's devote about a third of a pay-per-view to Randy Orton defending the WWE Championship against John Cena in an iron man match at Bragging Rights. • We didn't even get the promised Shawn Michaels vs. Chris Jericho match and instead, got a bunch of stalling and talking and then a big brawl.

By Phil Strum(pstrum@poughkeepsiejournal.com) Apparently, Undertaker is not holding up well physically, as he had hip surgery earlier this year. Many reports, Dave Meltzer being the most prominent, have revealed that Punk got himself in a little bit of hot water backstage over something. So why put Mysterio and Batista in the match? Wh...

By Phil Strum(pstrum@poughkeepsiejournal.com) It was the era of the SmackDown Six in 2002: Kurt Angle, Chris Benoit, Edge, Rey Mysterio, Eddie Guerrero and Chavo Guerrero, as booked by Paul Heyman I thought of this mostly during the Eddie Guerrero video because I realized how little they can acknowledge the best period in SmackDown hi...

By Phil Strum(pstrum@poughkeepsiejournal.com) All in all, a run-of-the-mill show. I guess they are pouring a lot of their resources into the SmackDown 10th anniversary show. The main event of that is Randy Orton, Ted DiBiase, Cody Rhodes and CM Punk against The Undertaker, John Cena and D-Generation X in Boston.

By pstrum@poughkeepsiejournal.com (Phil Strum) Later on... Lawler: "No. I'm correct now. DX together have never been in a Hell in a Cell match. Sure, they've been in as Shawn Michaels and Triple H." Main events on TV for this week: ECW — Christian defending the ECW title against Zack Ryder. SmackDown — Batista vs. Big Show.

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By pstrum@poughkeepsiejournal.com (Phil Strum) • The tease of Batista's retirement, leading to his punking out of Randy Orton and subsequent match on the same show, plus his move to SmackDown, was handled well. For one, it got people to stay tuned to Raw if they wanted to see the Batista-Orton street fight. Second, it got people to tune in to...

By pstrum@poughkeepsiejournal.com (Phil Strum) The Undertaker had CM Punk tap out to the "Hell's Gate" gogoplata, before SmackDown general manager Theodore Long informed 'Taker that Vickie Guerrero had banned the hold and that the match must continue. Punk locked in the Anaconda Vice after the match restarted and referee Scott Armst...

By pstrum@poughkeepsiejournal.com (Phil Strum) For one, no more Jeff Hardy, as he has departed from the company and managed to get himself in some serious trouble. Rey Mysterio is suspended. The Undertaker is back. So is Matt Hardy. John Morrison is a solo champion. The one constant on the show is on the heel side. CM Punk as World Heavyweight Cha...

By pstrum@poughkeepsiejournal.com (Phil Strum) There's no question that TNA Wrestling is a company in a lot of flux right now. From the Kurt Angle legal woes to the questionable status within the organization of Jeff Jarrett to power-players and originals like Dutch Mantel and Don West getting reassigned on a regular basis, TNA seems to...

By Phil Strum(pstrum@poughkeepsiejournal.com) Obviously, the biggest news is that Christian is back in WWE, as part of the ECW roster, and challenged the winner of the Jack Swagger-Finlay ECW Championship match at No Way Out. While this was not exactly an ideal scenario for Christian's fans, or I guess his peeps, as he likes to call them,...

By noreply@blogger.com (Phil Strum) SMACKDOWN Since he has been back positioned as the top guy on the brand, Big Show and Undertaker have taken on the responsbility of that feud, while Hunter has been paired mostly with Jeff Hardy and occasionally, MVP. Many have questioned Hunter's pin of Hardy back at No Mercy. But some have a...

By noreply@blogger.com (Phil Strum) RAW • The ladder match between Jericho and Shawn Michaels was right for the next step in their feud, a high-stakes title match. I'm not really sure where Mike Adamle went before Shawn came out (no one is probably), but this should be a really good match. As if there was a doubt. ECW

By Phil Strum(noreply@blogger.com) The new World Heavyweight Champion did an effectively smarmy opening segment, reinforcing himself as the top jerk on RAW. Jericho vs. CM Punk was announced as the main event of next week's RAW in Memphis in a steel cage. Not having Punk or Shawn Michaels at the show made for an interesting dyna...

By noreply@blogger.com (Phil Strum) It had been six-plus years since Chris Jericho reigned as the world champion and there couldn't be a more deserving guy in WWE than Jericho. In a surprising twist, Chris Jericho filled in for CM Punk and won the World Heavyweight Championship scramble match on the same night that he and Shaw...

By noreply@blogger.com (Phil Strum) • While I am disappointed the self-proclaimed Shaman of Sexy, John Morrison is not participating in the scramble after his loss to Marr Hardy, the pair had a terrific, well-worked match with lots of near falls, lots of counters and lots of cool looking moves. Both these guys are good enough...

By Phil Strum(noreply@blogger.com) • Santino Marella is fantastic. I am pretty sure I heard Jerry "Stupid" Lawler (as Santino says) laugh out loud more than once at a few of the things Santino said while at the broadcast table. One was when he referred to Michael Cole as Michael Hole. The other was when he referenced Brangelina an...

By Phil Strum(noreply@blogger.com) The top secondary guys right now are Chris Jericho (face), Shawn Michaels (face) and Mr. Kennedy (face). That doesn't even cover ECW, where their title feud is Kane (face) vs. Big Show (face) or SmackDown!, where I can't even think of who other than Batista (who is taking time off soon) would c...

By noreply@blogger.com (Phil Strum) She was formerly married to former WWE superstar and current FCW trainer Billy Kidman and had been dating former Spirit Squad member and Tough Enough contestant Nick Mitchell in recent months. Wilson and Mitchell have their own clothing line and recently opened a store in Texas. Wilson di...