Saturday, May 31, 2008:Email:1) WWE got a 4.10 television rating for Smackdown.
2) TNA got a 0.89 television rating for TNA Friday.
3) CMLL got a 0.95 television rating for CMLL Friday.
4) IWA-PR have risen to National level..
5) IWA-PR got a 1.18 television rating for High Impact.
6) TNA have signed Tony Braddock, Rico Constantino, Roddy Piper and Shocker to written contracts.
7) IWA-PR have signed Flash Funk and Buff Bagwell to a written contract.
8) Eric Bischoff, Dustin Rhodes and Josh Barnett have agreed to open contracts with IWA-PR.
9) IWC have signed independent worker La Parka II to a written contract.
10) IWA-PR have signed staff members Bobby Boil, Tigre Hispano, Jim Monsees, Walt Mozart, Alex Greenfield, and Dean Malenko.
Results for
Throwdown, May 31, 2008:
“It’s the last Ring Of Honor event for the month of May, as ROH looks forward to Survival Of The Fittest! Good evening, everyone, I’m Jimmy Bauer, alongside my partner, Mike Johnson, and tonight is one loaded show!”
“That’s right, Jimmy: two huge tag matches. Justice Pain, one half of the #1 contenders to the ROH Tag Titles, takes on one half of the new champions, Austin Aries. Chris Hero defends his ROH World Title against Bryan Danielson, and Steve Corino will wear the stripes for that.”
“And we will hear from Corino very shortly, regarding his secret, closed-door meeting with ROH officials. Word has it what he has to say will impact Survival Of The Fittest and the ROH World Title. Stay tuned for that. Right now, let’s throw it to ringside!”
1st segment—Sonny Siaki vs. BJ Whitmer:“It’s simple for Sonny Siaki tonight,” says Bauer; “His mission is to cut Whitmer’s legs out from under him, and cripple him if possible. A man like Whitmer is the last man Chris Hero wants on his tail, or inside the WarGames cage.”
Unfortunately, Whitmer comes to the ring looking to make a statement, and he does, overwhelming Siaki in astonishingly quick fashion. Siaki’s offensive output is token at best, and within five minutes, Whitmer hits the Wrist Clutch Exploder. Unsatisfied, Whitmer hits it three times more, each time calling out to Hero. The pinfall is academic. ***3/4
Segment rating: 84%
2nd segment—After Whitmer is out of the ring and far, far away, Chris Hero leads The Exception To The Rule to the ring.
“Sonny, it occurs to me I sent you out here with a mission,” says Hero. “A simple mission. I didn’t ask you to win the match. I asked you to destroy BJ Whitmer. I didn’t care if you got DQ’ed, or counted out, or goddamn arrested; I wanted you to injure him. I wanted you to send him to a hospital. I wanted him on the shelf. You decided to go into business for yourself, and try to beat BJ Whitmer, and you failed miserably. You couldn’t even beat Roderick Strong, and you had a health advantage.” Hero signals Murderdeathkill. “Boys, pick him up.” MDK brings Siaki to his feet; Hero gets in Siaki’s face. “Sonny, the fact of the matter is … well … boys …”
With that, Justice Pain nails the Pain Thriller on Siaki. The Messiah picks him up immediately and hits the Godsmack. Hero laughs, then bends down and says; “Your services are no longer required next Monday, Sonny. Your days with the Exception are over.” Hero leads his troops out of the ring, but Corino looks back, regret on his face.
Segment rating: 70%
Notes: Hero lost overness. Siaki turned face, and gained overness from turning.
3rd segment—Dan Maff vs. Arik Cannon:Both men bring their A-game, but the deciding factor is Eddie Kingston, who assaults Maff with a steel chair wrapped in barbed wire. With a forehead gushing blood, Maff is easy prey for the Glimmering Warlock. Tyler Black comes out and clears the ring, but Cannon and Kingston get right back in and toss their enemies to the floor. *3/4
Segment rating: 65%
Notes: Cannon gained overness.
4th segment—Matt Sydal & Jack Evans vs. The Burning River Brigade:In a top-notch, breathtaking display of high-risk aerial offense, the more seasoned duo of Sydal and Evans are caught off-guard by the desire to win at the risk of personal safety by the Brigade. Unfortunately, the BRB’s enemies, Studio 54, put their nose into the affairs, pushing Prohibition off the top rope before he could hit Sydal. Unaware, Sydal covers Prohibition for the victory. Studio 54 make the mistake of sticking around, though, and get the brunt of both teams’ anger. ****
Segment rating: 82%
5th segment—Nigel McGuinness vs. Adam Pearce:“For all his talk about purity and honor and being among the very best,” says Mike Johnson, “now is put-up-or-shut-up for Adam Pearce. Now, he faces one of ROH’s very best: Nigel McGuinness.”
And despite Pearce’s shady tactics, McGuinness shuts Pearce’s yap, pinning him clean as a sheet after sticking Pearce with the Tower Of London. Paul Burchill comes down to ringside, shakes the hand of his countryman, and flips off Pearce. **3/4
Segment rating: 80%
6th segment—Steve Corino is in the ring, microphone in hand, head down, pacing back and forth.
“There’s an old saying in this business,” he begins. “It’s really simple: if you aren’t in this business to win the World Title, you don’t belong in the ring. Every guy in the locker room back there would agree with me on that, whether we like each other or not, because it’s the damned truth. I’ve won belts in a bunch of promotions, but I’ve won true world championships in only two companies in my career: the NWA and ECW. I haven’t worn gold of that caliber in years, and whether you wanna say that’s because I didn’t wanna jump into bed with the clowns in Orlando, or the bloodsuckers in Stamford, that’s your call. For me, the fact of the matter was this: I proved I was World Champion material, and so I figured I would do the time-honored tradition that few guys in this business ever remember and that is to use my status to help elevate others. Much as I don’t like the son of a bitch, I turned Homicide into an icon on the indy circuit. I helped make Zero-One a household name in Japan. And last year, I decided I’d done enough, and was ready to retire; I was gonna do a few more dates in ROH, put some guys on the map, and that’s when Chris Hero called me up and said ‘I need you. ROH needs you. Don’t retire. Sign up with ROH, full-time.’ You see, Chris Hero sold me on the idea that I had more to give, and that was to help lead ROH into new territory, and that he needed me to help mold and craft all these young guys he’d found and taken under his wing. So I did that. I signed on, I joined up with his little band, and I decided to help guys like Sonny Siaki and Dan Maff and Kaos and Adam Pearce get to that next level.
“But as I wrestled, something happened. You see, all those championships I’ve won, all those big feuds I’ve had, the runs with the Extreme Horsemen, they made Steve Corino just as valuable an asset to someone as I was a notch on someone’s belt. Colt Cabana, BJ Whitmer, Nigel McGuinness; they all came after me, and as I wrestled them, the fire grew inside me. I suddenly felt that, if I was so important enough that these guys wanted to use me as a stepping stone, maybe I was still good enough to climb the mountain one more time and become World’s Heavyweight Champion. As much as guys like Sonny and Mafia and Kaos needed guidance, nobody’s watching my back. So I decided to refocus, and make the Ring Of Honor World Title, the most prestigious wrestling championship—not that garbage they peddle in Florida and Connecticut, but real, old-school wrestling—in existence my new focus, my new reason for being. I don’t care who the champ is when I face ‘em, as long as I get my shot. And when I beat Nigel McGuinness back in March, I won that right to challenge the champ.”
Corino takes a deep breath. “A lot of you are sitting there thinking, ‘Get to the point, Steve’, and I’m sorry for taking so long. But I had to tell you all this so you understand the why behind my point. The fact of life around Ring Of Honor since last July is that Chris Hero is a wanted man. He’s pissed off everyone in this company, just about; Colt Cabana hates him, Nigel hates him, Bryan Danielson hates him, the Briscoe boys, Sydal, Evans, Ruckus, Roddy Strong, Aries, Claudio—Hero isn’t just hated because he’s the champ, he’s hated because of who he is and how he operates. Most of them all had their shots, save for Bryan who gets his at the end of the night … but for one guy, it’s different. See, for BJ Whitmer, not only did Chris beat him, not only did Hero screw with him and play mind games and cheat him out of his chance for the belt … but Chris was so scared of him, he threw him off the roof of the cell. Best case scenario, he was just trying to injure the guy. Worst case … you fill in the blanks.
“So, the problem for me was this; here was Ring Of Honor, looking to plug in a challenger for Survival Of The Fittest. I beat BJ at Gut Check, and like me or hate me, I did the right thing and I shook the son of a bitch’s hand. I don’t have to like him, and I don’t, but I respect the living hell out of him; the guy’s got more pinfalls on me then anybody else in my career, so I owed him that. And last week, he pinned me and took the ROH Tag Titles. Here’s a guy that came back from a month’s layoff, with one thing in mind: to get to Chris Hero and make him pay. He was willing to risk life, limb and career to do it. And here I was, standing in his way, guaranteed title shot in hand. I beat him … and then he beat me. I said that any man who doesn’t live to win a world title in this business doesn’t belong in this business, and that’s still the damned truth. I want that ROH World Title more then anything in the world. I want it so bad, it’s what I dream about, I breathe it, I eat it, I do nothing but think about it night and day. But it doesn’t matter to me who the champ is, long as I get my shot. For BJ … it matters. It’s the only thing that does matter to him; to beat Chris Hero, not Cabana, not Nigel, not Aries or Danielson or friggin’ Jimmy Rave, but Chris Hero for the ROH World Title.
“You all want to know what I talked about with the ROH upper management? I told them all that. And I said to them that if they had as much honor in their hearts as they expected out of us, they’d let BJ take the next at-bat. I told them I’d step aside this one time, for the sake of honor, to let a man who probably won’t get another shot otherwise have this one last chance … long as I get the next shot. So right now, I’d like BJ to come out here.”
Whitmer comes out, eyeing Corino carefully. “BJ … far as I’m concerned, you’ve bled enough, you’ve fought enough, you’ve gone through enough hell. I just want the champ. You want Hero. If you’ll agree that, as long as I get the next shot, whoever wins, you can have the shot at Survival Of The Fittest.”
Corino offers a hand. Whitmer looks to the crowd before taking action; the audience cheers him on. Whitmer watched Corino untrustingly, and looks to be leaving until he turns around and sees Hero on the stage, watching nervously. Whitmer’s face flushes with rage; he turns back to Corino and holds up one finger. “One shot? You get the winner? No strings?”
“No strings. One shot.”
Whitmer grabs Corino’s hand and shakes it. Hero throws a tantrum on stage, until Whitmer breaks off the handshake and runs after Hero.
Segment rating: 72%
Notes: Corino & Whitmer lost overness.
7th segment—Ruckus vs. “Malibu” Tyler Black w/Studio 54:Ruckus, already embroiled in a feud with a guy in a stable, spends the entire match looking over his shoulder for “Malibu” Tyler Black’s disco-loving stablemates to interfere as well. Kaos slips in and hooks Ruckus’ leg as he’s whipped into the ropes, allowing Black to hit his finisher for the pin. Black shakes hands with Kaos afterwards. **3/4
Segment rating: 73%
Notes: Ruckus lost overness. Black gained overness.
8th segment—Motor City Machine Guns vs. The Briscoes:“Another chapter in the rivalry between these two teams will be written tonight,” says Bauer. “The Briscoes have had the Guns’ number. Will that continue tonight?”
To the shock of the crowd, the Briscoes can’t synch up, and the MCMG’s are able to capitalize on costly Briscoe errors. Sabin gets a clean pin on Mark after a Cradle Shock, which comes about from a mistimed dive by Mark onto Jay. Jay and Mark argue in the ring as the MCMG’s celebrate their victory. ****3/4
Segment rating: 93%
9th segment—Roderick Strong comes out to the ring, his head bandaged, and his limp still pronounced. “This past week,” he says, “I fought two of the hardest matches I can think of in Chris Hero and Sonny Siaki. I wrestled, I fought, I bled, and in one of them, I won. And in one of them, I lost. And I lost because of Jimmy Jacobs. I don’t know why—“
As Roderick speaks, Jimmy Jacobs pops up from under the ring and climbs in, killing Roderick’s sentence dead in the air by spinning him around and jabbing him in the forehead with a screwdriver. Jacobs tears the bandages off and starts ripping and biting at Strong’s wound, making the blood pour out of Strong’s forehead. Jacobs changes focus and uses the screwdriver on Strong’s knee before security finally grabs Jacobs and hauls him away. Jacobs gets free once, lunges and scores one more blow on Strong’s forehead before security gets him again and removes him from the arena, laughing maniacally and wiping Strong’s blood on his own face. Medics take Strong away as the blood pours out of Strong’s head.
Segment rating: 73%
10th segment—Austin Aries vs. Justice Pain:The meeting of one half of the Tag Champions and one half of the leapfrogged #1 contenders ends with the referee throwing the whole thing out, thanks to the actions of Bryan Danielson, who levels Pain and Aries with chair shots. **1/2
Segment rating: 79%
11th segment—Chris Hero (c) vs. Bryan Danielson, ROH World Title match, Steve Corino special referee:Corino calls it right down the middle, much to the consternation of both men; both Hero and Danielson, at several points in the match, berate Corino for not officiating things “fairly” (i.e., in their favor). Corino gets into shoving matches with both and reminds them who the ref is. Hero manages to reverse a backdrop driver attempt by Danielson into the Hero’s Welcome for the three-count, and as soon as the bell rings, Hero is back up on his feet and in Corino’s face. Even without microphones, Hero’s words—questioning Corino’s loyalty over the officiating and his forfeiture of the Survival Of The Fittest title shot to BJ Whitmer—can be heard. But before Corino can respond, Austin Aries runs down and attacks Danielson, hitting rolling brainbusters on Danielson, then the 450 for an exclamation point. Neither Corino nor Hero do anything to interfere.
Segment rating: 77%
Overall rating: 77%
Sunday, June 1, 2008:Email:1) We won the head-to-head with Main Event TV in the ratings!
2) We got a 2.60 rating for Throwdown. We drew 2004 people for $60120.
3) HWA got a 0.70 television rating for Main Event TV.
4) Fox Networks - Thanks for the promo tapes - we're not currently looking for new programming, but feel free to try again in a few months time.
5) Naomi Woods has agreed to an open contract with IWA-PR.
6) Staff members Pepe Tropicasas, Dave Hebner and Lowell Weicker Jr. have retired.
7) Akira Taue, Eric Bischoff, Robert Fuller and Jake Roberts have announced they will retire in one month
8) Percy Pringle has retired and has become a road agent.
9) El Hijo Del Tirantes has left the staff of NWA-S.
10) Mark Karr has left the staff of FIP.
11) Ron Simmons has left the staff of CWF-MA.
12) Finance dept. - We made $2040000 off merchandise this month.
13) Cary Silken - Superb work, our public image is improving every month.
14) Finance dept. - Great work boss, we've been making money for three months running.
15) Pro-Wrestling WORLD-1 have issued a bankruptcy warning.
16) A new promotion, 21st Century Wrestling, has opened. (size: small)
17) Our sponsorship deal with Sega has now ended.
18) Delirious and Dan Maff have 3 months left on their contracts
19) The following birthdays occured this month: Steve Corino (34), Bryan Danielson (26), Colt Cabana (27), Daizee Haze (24), Alex Shelley (24), Kevin Steen (22), Erick Stevens (25), Tyler Black (21).
1% of PI was gained (total: 69%).
ROH news:A sponsorship deal has been signed with Columbia Pictures for $700,000.
ROH had come to terms on the release of Beth Phoenix.
Eddie Kingston, Joey Ryan, and Matt Cross have signed contract extensions.
Monday, June 2, 2008:Email:1) El Ligero, Anthony W. Mori, Masahiro Indohara, Jun Kasai, Mr. Gannosuke, TJ Dalton, Kintaro Kanemura, SUWA, Air Paris, Chris Michaels and Tony Mamaluke have agreed to an open contract with 21CW.
2) NWA-S have signed staff member Shane Rogers.
3) FIP have signed staff member Andy Mitchell.
4) CWF-MA have signed staff member Greg Bagarozy.
5) 21CW have signed staff members Joe Wheeler and Tony Bryant.
6) Sophie - Here is my weekly report on our battle with WWE. We have superior star power on our roster, which is hurting their image. We are seen as having better workers, and this is causing fans to choose us over them. The fans see us as being the more professional promotion, thanks to our higher production values.
1% of PI was gained (total: 70%).
Tuesday, June 3, 2008:Email:1) WWE got a 3.83 television rating for RAW.
2) TNA got a 0.93 television rating for TNA Monday.
3) Ricky Marvin, Silver Tyger, Averno and Julio Dinero have agreed to an open contract with 21CW.
4) TNA have signed staff member Percy Pringle.
________________________________________
Preliminary PPV card for
Survival Of The Fittest
Live, on pay-per-view
June 29th, 2008
Grudge match for the ROH World Title!
Chris Hero (c) vs. BJ Whitmer
Interntational showcase: NOAH vs. Zero-One!
Takeshi Morishima vs. Masato Tanaka
The semi-finals and finals of the Survival Of The Fittest tournament!
Plus more to be added!
Jed Shaffer
~WWE is now down to the high
FIFTIES from the weekly battle, and are at war with both me and the International Wrestling Cartel ... who are also winning against them. Oy.