Randy Orton Suspended by WWE for 60 days

Just over a month ago Rey Mysterio was suspended for his second violation of the WWE Wellness Policy, Randy Orton has now suffered the same fate.  Like Mysterio, Orton will now serve a 60 day suspension due to his second Wellness Policy violation which puts him in jeopardy of missing the 1,000th episode of RAW on July 23rd in his hometown of St. Louis.  We say jeopardy because WWE hasn't released the detailed date of when the suspension began, although Orton did appear on RAW this past Monday night.

After Orton's appearance on RAW, dispensing of the Miz in a fairly meaningless segment, I was preparing a post on my thoughts about Orton being lost in the mix lately and not doing much of anything.  Now Orton will have to sit out for 2 months, which could be a good thing if he comes back recharged and involved in a good story.  But now with 2 strikes against him, Orton is in the same spot as Mysterio as far as a 3rd strike meaning termination from the company.  WWE would no doubt hate to lose these main event talents to TNA, but according to their policy that is what would happen should a 3rd strike take place.

No word on what the suspension was actually for, but being WWE suspends for steroids, painkillers, and even marijuana, it could be any number of things.  It does make you wonder what is going on with these veteran main event guys when they know they could be tested at any given time.

Brock Lesnar Possibly Returning to UFC?

Last night before UFC 146's main event Heavyweight Title fight, Brock Lesnar was shown in the front row which garnered many boos from the UFC crowd.  What was interesting about this is that Brock never attended fight cards he wasn't on even when he was in UFC.  So of course the press had to ask Dana White about Brock at the post-fight press conference.  Dana's response is what has many in the MMA community up in arms, since White let it be known that a Brock Lesnar return to UFC is "possible."

This is all very out of the blue being Brock JUST returned to WWE last month and it's been well known that he has a contract with a set amount of dates up to next year's WrestleMania.  A UFC return wouldn't have been such a shock if it was a couple of years from now, but hearing this news so soon after his retirement is pretty surprising.  Brock retired from UFC after his loss to Alistair Overeem in December, and it seemed like the real deal since Lesnar had serious health issues throughout his UFC career.  When Brock returned to WWE it seemed like the solidifying moment that Lesnar was done in MMA and ready for another full WWE run.  Dana White's comments now have everyone questioning what exactly Brock is looking to do.

If you've followed Lesnar's current WWE storyline, he has "quit" due to not having his contractual demands met, which of course is just a cover so they can stretch out his limited dates.  So some believe last night's UFC appearance was simply to further the storyline that Lesnar is gone from WWE and possibly looking to return to UFC.  It makes sense on some levels, but to believe that Dana White would knowingly go along with this seems a bit far fetched.  If Lesnar really does decide to go back to UFC at some point, there are still many matches and re-matches that would be big money for UFC.  A third match with Frank Mir, rematches with Cain Velasquez and Overeem, and of course fights with guys like Junior Dos Santos or even Roy Nelson would all be major fights for Lesnar.

Dana White didn't go into much detail other than saying Brock wanted to meet face to face, so it remains to be seen if anything will come of this.  Lesnar could conceivably do UFC and WWE if he wanted given his limited WWE schedule, but finishing out his WWE contract and then considering UFC is also possibly.  Many MMA fans might be upset at the very thought of Brock returning, but he is money for UFC and had a very respectable record in the sport. Is Brock seriously considering another fight in UFC?  Time will tell.

Chris Jericho Suspended Indefinitely from WWE

WWE Superstar Chris Jericho has been indefinitely suspended due to an "irresponsible act" at a live event in Sao Paulo, Brazil on May 24th.  The irresponsible act referenced occurred when Jericho took a Brazilian flag that was held by CM Punk and proceeded to stomp on it.  The act of desecrating the flag is a punishable offense in Brazil and Jericho was nearly arrested by authorities.  The event was stopped and Jericho was given the option to apologize or be arrested.  Jericho immediately got on the mic and told the crowd he regretted his actions, and the show was allowed to continue.  Jericho was rushed to the airport after the event so he could go on to Ecuador, but WWE has now announced Jericho's suspension.

Incidents like these used to be used to stir up controversy and could really get a heel over.  It reminds of the incident in 1997 when Vader was in the Middle East on a talk show and roughed up the host of the show.  Vader was held in the country for 10 days and WWE used the story to push Vader as an uncontrollable monster.  Sadly these days, WWE has to be politically correct and worry about stockholders and such, so suspensions have to be handed out to keep everyone happy.  It's too bad because Jericho really could have used the incident to push how he has the real "pipe bombs" and no one can control him.

This will probably another Daniel Bryan situation, where Jericho will be suspended for a little while so things cool off and blow over before he makes his comeback.  Jericho has already apologized via his Twitter, which also makes me long for the days when guys could milk something like this and really make the fans believe.

Brooke Hogan Set to Join TNA Impact Wrestling

Well the last 24 hours has been full of news for both WWE and TNA.  Things seemed to be on a positive path for TNA as they announced Impact would be live all Summer beginning May 31st, but this could turn out to be a "1 step forward 2 steps back" situation as TNA has now announced that Brooke Hogan will be joining Impact Wrestling on May 31st.

There hasn't been very much positive buzz about this at all on the net, as most don't see what Brooke brings to the table being she has never been involved in wrestling before.  The official statement from TNA is that Brooke will be the "Executive in Charge" of the Knockouts.  This role is iffy at best as the Knockout division has always been about respect and quality female wrestling, but now it will be "run" by someone who has never been in a ring and doesn't have much history of her own in wrestling.

I don't think this is going to go over well on live shows either.  The site of Brooke Hogan in the ring directing the Knockouts will be an open invite for the fans to boo her out of the building.  If she came in as a bitchy, drunk with power authority figure it might work with time, but with Hulk Hogan as the big face GM of the company it doesn't look probable any time soon.

TNA is treating this like they've signed a big media star that will also be helping the girls in a variety of ways backstage as well, hmm.  I really don't think anyone is going to buy it, and most everyone will see this as Hogan getting his daughter on TV in the same way Eric Bischoff has his son in a TV role now.  If Brooke had announced her music career had flopped and wanted to train to wrestle and the fans got to see her get her ass kicked and pay her dues, that would be one thing; bringing her in as some sort of media star who is going to be an authority figure....quite the risk.  The big question is now, is TNA fixing their problems or just creating a whole lot more?

TNA Impact Set to Go Live Weekly This Summer

In a very odd case of timing being WWE just announced RAW is going to 3 hours, TNA has announced that Impact Wrestling will be broadcasting live every Thursday this summer beginning on May 31st.  Both announcements came within minutes of the other, but in this case it has to be considered a definite positive move by TNA.  The live broadcasts will continue throughout the summer, but no word on what will happen beyond that.  TNA issued the following release on ImpactWrestling.com:

NASHVILLE, TN - (May 17, 2012) -- TNA IMPACT WRESTLING President Dixie Carter and SPIKE TV President Kevin Kay announce today that the highly-rated “IMPACT WRESTLING” will be going Live! from Universal Studios beginning May 31st and continue through the summer. This announcement coincides with the recently announced new, one-hour earlier time slot change of 8:00-10:00pm/ET every Thursday night beginning May 31st.

“We are excited to take IMPACT WRESTLING Live! all summer long, and have our first Live! summer show launch our new 8:00pm/ET time slot,” says TNA President Dixie Carter. “Summer of 2012 is going to be remembered as the most momentous time in our company's history-to-date. Stay tuned."                                       

TNA is no doubt losing some interest by taping weeks worth of TV at a time, and the results being readily available online before the shows air.  Now that TNA is going live, it is up to them to create some buzz that will make it "must see" TV.  Back in 2010 TNA tried moving to Monday Nights, but that idea was way too soon and bold as they weren't ready to compete on Monday nights.  Now 2 years later, TNA is trying a lot of new concepts like the "Gut Check" and "Open Fight Night" ideas that are at least attempts to be fresh.

Going live is something Eric Bischoff was very successful with in WCW, and hopefully he realizes that the other half of the equation is creating buzz and interest.  The one other piece to the puzzle will be getting Impact on the road regularly so the atmosphere can be much more upbeat than the Impact Zone in Orlando which sees TNA on a very regular basis.  Hopefully TNA is realizing and attempting to fix their current problems, but there will be a long road ahead that will hopefully lead them to success.

Monday Night RAW Set to Expand to 3 Hours in July

In a move that was out of the blue to us, WWE announced today that Monday Night RAW will expand to a 3 hour broadcast permanently beginning on July 23rd with RAW's 1000th episode.  John Cena tweeted the news at a USA event in New York, and WWE.com had the story up shortly after.

MANY thoughts are already spreading about this news, with many people bringing up the era when WCW Nitro moved to 3 hours after seeing how red hot their product was.  Is WWE red hot enough to keep people watching for 3 hours?  I don't really feel like WWE is in a red hot era at the moment, but they're not in a terribly down period either.  The Rock's return for WrestleMania and then Brock Lesnar's return which has been limited due to the dates in his contract have sparked interest, but still this is a bold move.

In the Nitro years WCW had a huge roster of talents and even International talents to fill up the show, but many times there were tons of squash matches and interview segments especially in the first hour.  There had been word WWE was considering some sort of pre-show concept for RAW, so they may end up doing a lot of non-wrestling segments to fill up the time.  They will no doubt continue to use Smackdown talents on the show as well, which pretty much makes the whole separate "brand" idea useless anymore.

WWE may need something fresh, and this will allow for more time for underutilized talent to get some TV time, but it remains to be seen if WWE can really pull this off and keep it interesting.

New Stipulations Add Intrigue to John Cena vs. John Laurinaitis at Over the Limit

Last night on RAW, John Cena read a statement from the WWE Board of Directors that added stipulations to the John Cena vs. John Laurinaitis match at Over the Limit.  The intrigue level rises in this match with these stipulations and rules out some of the predictable directions the match could have gone.

First off, any Superstar that interferes in the match will be terminated.  This rules out any obvious run-ins such as Lord Tensai who has aided Laurinaitis in recent weeks.  The second stipulation states that if Laurinaitis loses to Cena, he will be terminated.  This second stipulation pretty much rules out Cena just destroying "Big Johnny" and defeating him with ease, which would be the crowd pleaser but would likely end the "People Power Era" too early.

With those stipulations in place, there are a few scenarios that have been opened up to finish the match:

Scenario A:  John Laurinaitis has a non-WWE wrestler ala Kevin Nash interfere on his behalf.  This would eliminate the problem of someone being fired, since the guy who interferes doesn't work for WWE.  The most obvious choice of "guys who don't work for WWE" would be Brock Lesnar.  Lesnar has been tied to Laurinaitis recently but I don't see this happening since Lesnar is now immersed in a feud with Triple H.  Batista is another slight possibility since his return has been rumored recently.

Scenario B:  The Big Show returns and turns on Cena, revealing his firing was all a plot and he is really aligned with Laurinaitis.  This scenario would explain the whole Big Show crying after being fired debacle.  The more I think about it, this scenario would really explain Show's overdone crying and wining on RAW and would save Big Show's characters on many levels.  This could go 2 ways, either Show was aligned with Laurinaitis all along, or Show is forced to turn on Cena to get his job back (which would make him look like more of a wuss.) 

Scenario C:  John Cena defeats John Laurinaitis.  This scenario would be the "feel good moment" for fans, but ultimately would lead to Lauriniatis finding a loophole back in, possibly tied in with the Triple H lawsuit storyline.

With the stipulations added to this match, we are more likely to see a match instead of a bunch of run ins and interruptions.  Laurinaitis had a legit run in Japan against some of the top wrestlers in history as Johnny Ace, and is more than capable of having a match depending on his current physical shape.  For the most part this will likely be a beat down, but the finish will probably be a creative one that will continue the story in some fashion.

The Big Show "Fired" from WWE

As many of you saw on RAW last night, one of the major angles of the night involved The Big Show being "fired" by GM John Laurinaitis.  Now the idea is all well and good; The Big Show made fun of Laurinaitis's voice last week on RAW, Laurinaitis is mad and fires Big Show over it, makes sense.  The problem lies with the way WWE portrayed Big Show during all this....a giant crying wimp.

As Laurinaitis was going back and forth with Show, he continued to ask for an apology and even demanded Big Show get down on his knees and beg for his job.  Now in most cases when Laurinaitis confronts a guy like John Cena or CM Punk, they pretty much tell him where he can stick it.  Somehow the veteran, multiple time world champion, 7 foot giant breaks down and cries when faced with losing his job.  That's right, Big Show in the ring crying, and then on his knees begging and crying.  The angle just made Big Show look like the biggest wimp in WWE, and it's been moments like this that have kept Big Show from being regarded as one of the serious monsters of the industry.

WWE seems to forget the realism in a story like this.  If Big Show was really being fired, how easy would it be for him to jump over to TNA with his buddy Hulk Hogan and be the top star and champion there?  Dixie Carter would be all over it and would shell out the cash to get Big Show for even a few dates a month.  And even if Big Show was done in the ring, the guy has made millions of dollars and would be just fine, nothing to cry over.  So in the story, why wouldn't the veteran Big Show walk out on Laurinaitis and tell him how easily he can find work elsewhere or that he doesn't even need to work?  I get that they are making Laurinitis the new age super heel GM, but this angle would have worked better and made more sense with a younger guy that was begging for his job.

Of course this is all leading to a Big Show return at some point, but the sight of Big Show crying his eyes out like a baby will make it hard for many to ever take him seriously as a monster again.  Then again, this isn't the first time WWE has had Big Show in this type of crying role, maybe they just love his acting skills when it comes to crying?

Beyond everything else, WWE is pushing this angle full force as Big Show has been moved to the "alumni" section of WWE.com and will be "replaced" at Smackdown with CM Punk.  Believability is good, giants crying about their job to a snarky GM is bad.  In the grand scheme, some time off for The Big Show isn't a bad thing, he's played out at the moment and we've seen him in just about every role you can imagine.  Time for some new blood to get the spotlight, hopefully.

John Cena Getting Divorced

Well this news won't do much to John Cena's do-gooder image.  Today TMZ has been all over reporting the fact that John Cena has filed for divorce from his high school sweetheart Elizabeth Huberdeau.  The marriage only lasted 3 years and seemed like something Cena never brought up (except a couple of months ago when The Rock brought it up in a promo, ouch.) 

The bigger story here is that it looks like it will be one of those complicated divorces that will be covered by the media for a good while.  Apparently Cena had his soon to be ex sign a pre-nup in 2009, but she's hired the same big time lawyer Linda Hogan used to battle Hulk in court to fight things and make sure she gets her just due.  It remains to be seen if this gets nasty with allegations and such like the Hogan trial did.

It's hard to imagine that Cena even had a marriage all this time, as his notoriously insane schedule doesn't sound like it allows for much of a personal life at all.  It's always come across that Cena was more married to WWE itself.  With WWE getting back to a little bit more realism in their stories, it's probably only a matter of time before someone cuts Cena on the mic over this issue.

MMA's "King Mo" Lawal Signs with TNA Wrestling

Interesting news from the world of TNA Wrestling today, as they have signed MMA Star Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal to their roster.  The announcement came as part of a deal that will see Lawal wrestle for TNA and also fight for Bellator Fighting Championships when it comes to Spike TV next year.  This is grabbing some publicity for TNA since Lawal is a name in the MMA world, so it could bring some much needed crossover appeal to TNA.

The negative side of the publicity TNA is getting is that Lawal is currently serving a suspension from MMA due to a positive drug test from a few months back.  Strikeforce let Lawal go following the suspension, but with his impressive 8-1 MMA record, there was definitely a chance Dana White would bring him back to UFC or Strikeforce one day.

On the flip side, King Mo has a background in amateur wrestling so is no doubt a perfect fit to be in a pro wrestling ring.  But the real question is, can TNA present him in a way that will make him a star?  With a lot of their booking being all over the place lately, it is highly questionable if they can do something positive with "King Mo."

Overall I see the signing as a positive since TNA needs to freshen things up and bring in some fans that are craving some realism in wrestling again.  Those fans are getting their fix when Brock Lesnar is on TV, but TNA isn't really delivering with guys like James Storm main eventing.  Nothing against Storm, but a self professed "redneck" type is only going to appeal to a certain demographic in certain areas.   King Mo Lawal can bring in a much more broad audience if he is used correctly.  Lawal debuts with TNA this summer, but will no doubt be on TNA Impact before then and will also be appearing on MMA Live tonight on Spike TV with Dixie Carter.