Wrestling News August 25, 2005

Here’s another case of promoter’s being unable to work out their differences. Jersey All-Pro Wrestling and Ring of Honor got into a dispute recently over the booking of a pair of ROH workers on a JAPW show. James Gibson, the current ROH champion, was scheduled to face another ROH worker in Homicide.

Says Jersey All Pro Wrestling's Frank Iadevia "Due to outside interference from ROH booker Gabe Sapolsky Jersey All Pro Wrestling management has canceled the September 10th match between Homicide & James Gibson in Rahway, NJ. I feel bad for "ALL" the fans that were looking forward to this classic encounter and have been robbed by the actions of another promoter."

The problem, in this instance, is that JAPW wanted Homicide to go over Gibson cleanly. To confound matters, Homicide is considered probably the top contender to champion Gibson in ROH booking.

Says Ring of Honor’s Gabe Sapolsky There are finishes that can be done with our champion. Even though I didn't have CM Punk bring the ROH World Title belt to FIP, he still did two jobs in FIP while ROH champ. One was after run-ins and one after outside interference backfired into a roll-up.

There are ways to do things other than pulling talent off shows and then making it a public issue when no one knew the finish in the first place. I am not looking to rip the fans off or damage any other indies. JAPW is a good place for the guys to work and they have helped us and the indy world by developing some great talent.

I do wish that the JAPW staff had talked things over with me more before sending out a vague email making me a heel. JAPW had always respected our champion in the past and I don't see why this would be any different. JAPW was upset with the way I worded things with them and I do understand that and should have worded things with them differently by asking them to respect our title.

However, the letter that came from seems to have been taken down as I can no longer find the link. Sapolsky has since added his statement: ” The bottom line is that there is no war with JAPW and there won't be one. If they want one on their side it'll be like masterbation (sic) because we won't be involved."

SD: It seems cooler heads have prevailed although Gibson still appears to be off the show. It’s a shame that JAPW was unable to creatively book around ROH’s concerns since a worker should never be the one to lose a pay check when he is not at fault.


The Blue Meanie talking about 3PW closing its doors. Its amazing the things you read when you sign online nowadays. I logged on today to get hit with an IM that said, Do you want to give a comment on 3PW shutting down? Well color me fucking shocked when I didnt know 3PW was closed until I got that IM. Its the story of my life really. I found out WWF was sending me to Memphis, on the net. I found an ex had a new boyfriend while I thought she was still with me, on the net. Hey, so why not found out that the promotion I help start and I named, is shutting down and find out on the Internet no less.

Not one call, not one email, nothing. Nothing to say heres the deal. My phone can receive calls and not once did it ring in the last 2 months from anyone else in 3PW. Am I surprised? Surprisingly, not really. A lot of things were done without me knowing in the 3 years 3PW was running. So if this is to be, I want to say thank you to the fans that came to the 3PW and spent their hard earned dollars over the years. I want to thank EVERY wrestler who sacrificed themselves for the sake of entertaining the fans and for the sake of making 3PW an entertaining product.

SD: He says a little more about his detractors, but really, that is beside the point. 3PW may not have been the biggest or most popular fed out there but it was still a family for quite a few wrestlers. For Meanie, the guy who built the company up to where it was, to find out the way he did is just wrong. The man’s had a rough couple of month’s. He certainly didn’t need to find out like that.

Where one wrestling federation with a 3 falls, another rises from the ashes. World Wide Wrestling Alliance, or 3WA, announces some potentially major news on their website. David Nelson, the CEO for the WWWA Wrestling Company gave a speech before the show on the 21st. He was talking in front of over 45 wrestlers and announced he was stepping down as the leader of the WWWA and introduced Hacksaw Jim Duggan as the new head of the Company.
Minutes later, Jim Duggan gave a 30 minute talk to the wrestlers, crew, and family members about the future of the company and his expectations for the wrestlers. This was followed by Jim Duggan, TC Reynolds, and Dave Nelson, calling the first 20 Wrestlers from the Independent Federations all over the U.S. to Sign the first contracts with 3WA and Jim Duggan.

Announcements were made for the upcoming TV show to premiere on ESPN in late October, as well as the AFE tour to entertain the troops in Iraq for the holidays. Also announced was the upcoming pay per view for October 29th to kick off the weekly TV Show.

SD: Yowza. If true the tv deal announcement could be a major step in either the right or wrong division for the industry. Remember, during wrestlings “dark” period in the early-to-mid 1990s, wrestling was all over the airwaves including ESPN. Does 3WA actually have that deal? And if they do can they create a new audience? I have my doubts.

Just for a laugh check out Chris Jericho’s website. Thanks to Eric864 for the link.

SD: He is without a contract right now but does anybody really expect that to happen?

Hardcore Homecoming is proud to announce that the Extreme Reunion Tour 2005 will kick off in Cleveland on Friday, September 16 at the Agora Theater, Pittsburgh's Golden Dome on Saturday, September 17, and Buffalos Burt Flickinger Center on September 18. Tickets for all three events will be going on sale this Friday morning August 26th at all Ticketmaster locations nationwide.

SD: The Cleveland show’s tickets are $40. The seems especially pricey to me considering you won’t get ECW vets currently on the WWE roster and now the TNA roster.

WWE News & Notes:
- It’s the comeback you’ve all been waiting for: The Ross Report returns tomorrow, Friday August 26, to WWE.com.
- The new character debuting on Smackdown tonight in Brian Black. He is currently assigned to Deep South Wrestling.

WWE SummerSlam 2005 Results

Whoops. They're a bit late, but here are the results form this year's Summerslam.

Chris Benoit def. Orlando Jordan to capture the United States Championship in 25 seconds.

Edge def. Matt Hardy via ref stoppage stemming from blood loss.

Rey Mysterio def. Eddie Guererro in a ladder match to retain custody of Dominic. Interference by Dominic and Eddie's wife helped Rey win.

Kurt Angle def. Eugene to regain his Olympic gold medal.

Randy Orten def. the Undertaker after interference by Bob Orton.

John Cena def. Chris Jericho to retain the WWE Championship.

Batista def. JBL in a No Holds Barred match to retain the World Heavyweight Championship.

Hulk Hogan def. Shawn Michaels.

WWE SummerSlam 2005 Predictions

Welcome to the next WWE pay per view predictions articles: SummerSlam 2005 edition. I'm feeling lazy and not really feeling the card this time around which is a shame since it is usually my favorite WWE event of the year. I will be doing this mostly shorthand. I'm not getting into the backstory really. I'm just going for SummerSlam and post-SummerSlam this time. Also, to entertain mostly myself, I will be doing these in the order I expect the card to play out.

Chris Benoit vs Orlando Jordan (c) - United States Championship
Prediction: Benoit busts his ass much to the crowd's approval. Orlando tries to cheat to win but fails this time around. Benoit going over to become the new United States champion.

Eugene vs. Kurt Angle for the Olympic Gold Medal
Prediction: Eugene frustrates the hell out of Kurt. Kurt capitalizes on Eugene by pretending to target Christie Hemme. This leads to Angle winning back his gold medal.

Randy Orton vs. The Undertaker
Prediction: Not as fast paced as their WMXXI match-up. Orton running initially but gets caught. Slower, more methodical as the UT dictates the pace. Orton plays the bouncing rubber ball for a while, then catches UT with his groundgame. UT mounts a comeback only to catch an RKO out of nowhere. Orton wins.

Edge vs. Matt Hardy
Prediction: Matt wins but it doesn't matter. The WWE is high on Edge so he'll be moving up the ranks. If Edge doesn't stif Matt then Mat's future looks a little brighter but otherwise I don't see Matt retaining his popularity after this feud. The WWE doesn't have faith in him as more than a midcarder and he's on a very top-card heavy show in Raw. If Edge realizes that the internet writings actually served to put him over more as a heel than he previously was then he should do what he can to make Matt look like a star to help his career in turn. If he does so, Matt could be in line for an IC title feud with Carlito. We'll see.

Rey Mysterio vs. Eddie Guerrero - Ladder Match for Custody of Dominic
Prediction: Which Eddie do we get tonight? The Eddie with workrate better than 99% of the workers out there or the Eddie trying to retain his heel heat so he'll use every heel psychology trick in his book to prevent him getting cheered? There hasn't been much in-between the past few years. I expect this to be MOTN (match of the night). I expect Eddie to win and tell Rey he can have Dominic in a post-match promo.

John Cena [c] vs. Chris Jericho - WWE Championship
Prediction: Cena botches 3 of the 4 moves he attempts. Also, plenty of rules changing mid-match by Eric Bischoff and interference from Carlito. So it's a rehash of Austin vs Dude Love from Over the Edge 1998 (thanks, Eric864, one of my usually uncredited sources) which makes sense since Cena/Bischoff is a copy of Austin/McMahon. So, anyway, Cena overcomes the odds, gives Jericho the FU and sends him packing to focus on Fozzy for a few months when Bischoff fires him post-match for not getting the job done.

Batista [c] vs. JBL - World Heavyweight Championship
Prediction: I'm holding off from a dissection of JBL's in-ring character and psychology because it won't really fit in here but it will hold this match back from being as good as it could be. Short-form: bad-ass chickenshit rarely works and it doesn't work the way JBL does it. Lots of blood. JBL with a gusher. Batista with litle more than a trickle. Orlando interferes. Batista retains.

Hulk Hogan vs. Shawn Michaels
Prediction: A very loud audience. HBK showing Orton how to bounce around the ring effectively. 10-15 minutes. Me being disappointed because Brian Knobbs doesn't interfere wearing the red and yellow tights. HBK eeks out a victory.

There you have it. We'll see how well I did.