WWE News (Page 17)

• This past Friday’s edition of SmackDown earned a 3.2 fast national rating with a 6.0 share. This is a very strong number for the show, with the network finishing in fourth place, beating FOX.

• Former WWE Champion The Rock makes a special appearance in the newly released Reno 911 Miami movie. He plays an officer named Rick Smith who is a sole member of a SWAT team. In the movie he leads to Reno team to police Miami, but blows himself up promptly with a grenade.

• Multichannel News has an article up speaking about WWE broadcasting in High Definition. In the article, USA Network executive Bonnie Hammer says:

“Much of our content is still shot in film, but we’re experimenting with [HD] more and more. We’re even trying to shoot [World Wrestling Entertainment] in HD. That’s kind of challenging. Does a punch hit or does it just go by? You see everything in HD. You’ve got to be very careful.” This is one of WWE’s major concerns; as they don’t want people to be able to see a missed mark or blow clearly.

• During yesterday’s New York Comic Con, WWE Legend Mick Foley drew a huge crowd signing free copies of his new “Hardcore Diaries” book.

• WWE.com has added a new article by Melina in which she rips Candice Michelle for making comments about her stealing her finisher. You can check it out at this link.

• In today’s New York Post Phil Muschnick took a stab at Donald Trump for appearing on WWE television. Muschnick noted that Trump made a huge deal out of the Miss USA pageant scandal, and now is he working in an industry where a number of performers have died young and have other issues.

NBC announced late last night that it has made the decision to drop the scheduled March 10th airing of WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event. Originally, the event was scheduled to be taped on March 5 in Phoenix, Arizona and then be aired on March 10 on NBC.

Apparently due to the low ratings of the last few shows, the initial decision was to move the timeslot of SNME from primetime to late night. NBC then later decided that moving to a late night slot could potentially hurt the network.

Another factor for the move is that NBC requested that WWE postpone the SNME special until June due to a potential Writer's Guild strike, which is building up in Hollywood. If the strike takes place, NBC could potentially have to shutdown production of many series’; thus keeping Saturday Night’s Main Event on deck as a backup plan.

WWE officials, including Vince McMahon, are said to not be happy with the decision, but did agree to postpone the special until June.

• WWE has announced that it will be re-releasing Mick Foley’s Hard Knocks and Cheap Pops DVD set. The set will include a new “extra” DVD titled “The Hardcore Edition.” It will feature the following matches with commentary by Foley and Joey Styles.

- Foley vs. Randy Orton (Backlash 2004)

- Foley vs. Edge (Wrestlemania 22)

- Foley & Edge vs. Terry Funk & Tommy Dreamer (ECW One Night Stand II)

- Foley vs. Ric Flair (Summerslam 2006)

• Jim Ross noted in his recent blog that RAW announcer Lillian Garcia was involved in an accident at this past Sunday’s No Way Out pay-per-view. Ross notes that she will return to work this Monday at RAW in Fresno, California.

• Add Forbes.com to the latest media outlet covering the Vince McMahon/Donald Trump hair angle that will take place at WrestleMania 23. Many other outlets have mentioned the story such as The Associated Press, Yahoo, and others.

Mike Alfonso, better known to the fans of professional wrestling as Mike Awesome, passed away over the weekend at the age of 42. Here is what WWE.com had to say on the passing of the former ECW World Champion:

WWE is saddened by news of the passing of Mike Alfonso, better known to wrestling fans as Mike Awesome. He was 42.

While in ECW, Awesome was a two-time World Champion and Tag Team Champion. His matches with Masato Tanaka, including a show-stealer at One Night Stand in 2005 were among the most memorable in ECW history.

According to The Wrestling Observer, Jim Ross and Jerry "The King" Lawler will be the next two inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2007 this year.

• Melina is still in the doghouse for her backstage attitude, which hasn’t changed since she went over to RAW from Smackdown. She had a bad reputation in the Smackdown locker room for her attitude, although the company views her as their third top WWE Diva on the roster when it comes to in-ring work.

• WWE is planning to release a DVD on Mr. Perfect Curt Hennig sometime in 2007.

• Jim Ross and Gerald Brisco have been complaining lately about the lack of recruiting by WWE and that the quality of athletes is nowhere near the level it was a few years ago. Vince McMahon told John Laurinaitis to hire a full-time recruiter of college and pro level athletes, the idea being to focus on football players and college wrestlers.

• This past Friday’s edition of SmackDown came in with a 3.0 cable rating and a 5.1 share. This is a real strong number for the show; it even earned its season high number amongst women 18 to 34 by scoring a 1.4.

• Steve Austin’s newest movie The Condemned is described as the following: "Jack Conrad (Stone Cold Steve Austin) is awaiting the death penalty in a corrupt Central American prison. He is "purchased" by a wealthy television producer and taken to a desolate island where he must fight to the death against nine other condemned killers from all corners of the world, with freedom going to the sole survivor. The producer films the illegal event, airing the killings live and uncensored onto the Internet."

Austin is scheduled to be involved in this year’s WrestleMania 23, as well as WWE RAW in the near future.

According to PWInsider.com, both Donald Trump and Roddy Piper are expected to be present at tonight's WWE RAW taping.

Trump, as confirmed all over WWE.com, will definitely be present on the telecast to present Vince McMahon with a "life-changing" proposal.

Despite no longer pursing Hulk Hogan as a competitor in the Trump vs. McMahon match at WrestleMania 23, WWE is still expected to feature that program on the PPV. At press time, the likely scenario will be Trump managing ECW Champion Bobby Lashley against a wrestler chosen by Vince McMahon.

Mick Foley had reportedly been looking to score the babyface role in that feud, but inside sources say it is not likely to happen.

The Wrestling-Observer Newsletter reports that WWE is attempting to sign Mexican/Mexican-American wrestlers Shocker, Mistico and Perro Aguayo, Jr. in an attempt to expand its support in the Hispanic community.

WWE is most optimistic about inking a deal with Shocker, an English speaker who has support from creative team member Dusty Rhodes.

Based on their statuses in Mexico, however, Mistico and Aguayo could prove more difficult to acquire, especially because there's a chance WWE won't provide them with major pushes upon debuting.

Interestingly, when the SmackDown! Juniors Division was first proposed, it was designed as a launching pad to turn Mistico into a star. However, by the time the Juniors proposal reached those at the top of the WWE food chain, it was turned into a midget comedy idea.