This week in Wrestling News

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The following is from WWE.com:

"WWE has come to terms on the release of Danny Doring. We wish him all
the best in his future endeavors."

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TNA Impact scored a 1.2 rating, its best ever. Word is that both TNA and SpikeTV are extremely happy with the number, especially considering that the live UFC Ultimate Fight Night special did just a 1.3 rating.

Credit: PWInsider.com

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- Samoa Joe was diagnosed with with a severe second degree sprain of the MCL yesterday. The injury likely took place in a match taped for next week's Impact. No word on if he will work the UWF shows this weekend but one would assume he won't. He will definitely work the Impact taping on Monday.

- Goldberg will be an announcer for Showtime's new MMA promotion which debuts on 2/10 at the DeSoto, MS Civic Center with Frank Shamrock vs. Cesar Gracie as the main event.

- Jackie Gayda Haas gave birth to her first baby, a girl named Kayla, today. Congratulations to her and Charlie Haas.

Credit: WrestlingObserver.com

[TheRover]

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- Samoa Joe was diagnosed with with a severe second degree sprain of the MCL yesterday. The injury likely took place in a match taped for next week's Impact. No word on if he will work the UWF shows this weekend but one would assume he won't. He will definitely work the Impact taping on Monday.


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[img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

great thread idea btw

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Vince McMahon was recently going back and forth on whether MNM would be brought together as a team. The feeling by the creative team and agents is that Johnny Nitro has singles potential and has come a long way in terms of in-ring skills and personality. Furthermore, a singles star always take precedence over a tag team. Considering that Joey Mercury wrestled in a singles match at Tuesday's SmackDown taping, it looks like a MNM reunion is off the cards.

Despite the potential for big things with the Hardys, WWE management also feels the same way with Jeff Hardy as they do with Johnny Nitro, which is why he is working single matches again. Matt Hardy worked a singles match at Tuesday's SmackDown taping, and thus a Hardys reunion is temporarily off the cards. Nonetheless, the Hardys will likely be reunited again, if not soon, then at WrestleMania.

source: Pro Wrestling Torch

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Lance Storm has an extremely critical review of Eric Bichoff's Controversy Creates Cash up on his website.

[Mr. Orange]

Allright what are everyone's thoughts on this:

According to a new report by The Pro Wrestling Torch, the following is an early idea of what the card for WrestleMania 23 on April 1, 2007 will look like next year: John Cena vs. Triple H for the WWE Title, Batista vs. The Undertaker for the World Heavyweight Title, Bobby Lashley vs. Rob Van Dam or CM Punk for the ECW Title and Hulk Hogan vs. The Big Show. Of course, plans can change at any time, but these are believed to be the early ideas for the top four matches (possibly more down the line) for WrestleMania 23.According to a new report by The Pro Wrestling Torch, the following is an early idea of what the card for WrestleMania 23 on April 1, 2007 will look like next year: John Cena vs. Triple H for the WWE Title, Batista vs. The Undertaker for the World Heavyweight Title, Bobby Lashley vs. Rob Van Dam or CM Punk for the ECW Title and Hulk Hogan vs. The Big Show. Of course, plans can change at any time, but these are believed to be the early ideas for the top four matches (possibly more down the line) for WrestleMania 23.

John Cena vs. Triple H is said to be a tentative plan at the moment as there is no plan to turn either heel. It is possible that someone like Randy Orton could be put into a mix since the WWE isn't very hot on a babyface vs. babyface main event at WrestleMania. But as of now, there is no plan to have John Cena lose the WWE Title heading into WrestleMania (although that was the same plan last year and that changed quickly when the WWE did a quick feud between Edge and Cena for the title).

As for Batista and The Undertaker, the idea is to have Batista put his title on the line against Undertaker's winning streak at WrestleMania. Another co-main event if everything goes to plan is Hulk Hogan vs. The Big Show. Big Show recently turned down a five-year, seven-figure-per-year deal to stay with WWE, but has stated he is open to returning for one more match.

In regards to the ECW Title match, the original pitch by Paul Heyman was to have a heel Bobby Lashley defend the title against a babyface Rob Van Dam. McMahon wanted the direct opposite to take place as he preferred to have Lashley as the babyface and RVD as the heel, something Heyman was strongly against and one of the main reasons for his departure from the company recently, among other things. Given the ECW roster, it is possible they could throw other names into a big ECW Title match involving CM Punk, Hardcore Holly, Test and others.

Looking at this early lineup, it still leaves off many names from both the Raw and Smackdown sides including Shawn Michaels, Edge, Randy Orton, King Booker, Chris Benoit, Kane, Finlay and many others. Getting Mr. Kennedy into a big WrestleMania program is also a top priority for the company as he looks to be pushed heavily throughout 2007, with one idea being pitched already of having JBL come out of retirement to face him. Either way, we will continue to follow this situation as it develops.

Cena/HHH- I have no interest in watching this. Not sure how HHH is gonna be put in the title scene suddenly after basically being a tag team wrestler for the last 6 months.
Better idea would have been to keep Edge with the belt since July, end DX after about a month then build up to Edge/HHH.

Batista/UT- Good I guess. This really the only marquee match SD has.

Hogan/Big Show- Yawn. Seen it a million times. Wish Hogan would just go away.

Lashley/RVD- WWE doesn't know what to do with Lashley. It's funny because when I saw Lashley in ECW my first thought was "Heyman's gonna make this guy a monster heel" ECW needs heels and he'd be perfect to take the Big Show's place as top heel with RVD as top face. WWE isn't too high on RVD so I guess CM Punk is the logical replacement but turning him heel will incredibly stupid on WWE's part.

[TheRover]

If Cena turned heel, I'd enjoy that somewhat. Cena/HHH would be fairly interesting if that happened.

Batista/Taker: Does not interest me at all unless Batista stops getting winded 10 min. into a match.

Hogan/TBS: I actually like this as a nice nostalgic tribute and a nice retirement match for Show. He deserves to go out in a big match.

Lashley/RVD: Face Lashley, don't care. Heel Lashley could be interesting.

If this is what it is, no chance I actually buy it.

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The biggest problem right now in WWE is that you cannot name any two people on any of the rosters that I would want to pay $50 to see main event WrestleMania. I would love to see Michaels v Benoit tear it up for an hour, but that's not a WM main event. They just really don't have one to offer.

Maybe a rematch of Hell in the Cell with Foley and Undertaker. Maybe if Stone Cold and The Rock both came back for one more match.

[Russ M.]

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Face Lashley, don't care.

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This is my biggest peeve with Lashley. Why am I supposed to cheer this guy? I think I've heard him say about 2 words in his career so I'm guessing he's a trainwreck on the mic (considering how much mic time Randy Orton gets). He has few facial expressions other than "blank stare". He has a little charisma but not much. A guy like Goldberg got over without mic skills due to his intensity and expressions while basically only saying two words over and over. There just doesn't seem to be any reason logically to cheer him, and I think over time what happens to him happens to The Rock, where fans are just tired of it and boourns him out of spite.