Dreadful Impact

That was a wretched edition of TNA Impact last night. The "heel stable takes over the show" gimmick was done ten years ago when the NWO took over Monday Nitro and as I recall, the show was so awful that was the week that Monday Night Raw finally beat them in the ratings for the first time in a year. Nobody learns anything. The "Front Line" group looked inept. Who would pay to see these clowns get revenge? The Booker T/Kevin Nash announce team grew old after the first minute. Was Booker trying to sound like Don West or Junkyard Dog? No Beautiful People? Kurt Angle really beat both members of LAX clean? Really? After they taped this fiasco, the "creative team" should have been fired, and someone should have pulled the plug on the episode and just aired a "Best-of" show. This group is hopeless, until they get rid of the current booking regime. When you factor in the "Shane McMahon beats up the entire roster of Raw" travesty from Monday (I was embarassed for everyone involved), this has been a brutal week of wrestling.

However, hope is on the horizon. According to a report at perezhilton.com, Brooke Hogan has signed to wrestle one of Ric Flair's sons (it didn't say which one) at the Florida State Fair. Now that has potential to be damn funny.

New Releases

Out in stores this week:

Voices: WWE The Music Vol. 9-- If you've ever wanted to march around the house to the Great Khali's theme song, then this is the CD for you. Features theme entrance songs of some of your favorite WWE Superstars including Randy Orton, R-Truth, Kelly Kelly, and Umaga. Best Buy has an exclusive bonus disc with classic themes from The Rock, Stone Cold, HHH and others.

Working On A Dream by Bruce Springsteen-- The latest offering from Bruce Springsteen features the incredible title track from the movie The Wrestler, which won a Golden Globe Award for Best Song (below). This might be the first Springsteen album that I've checked out in years.

(Both CDs available at cduniverse.com, amazon.com, Itunes and the usual outlets)

WWE Royal Rumble Results

Results from last night's Royal Rumble in Detroit:

- Jack Swagger beat Matt Hardy to retain the ECW Title

- Melina beat Beth Phoenix to win the WWE Women's Title

- John Cena beat JBL to retain the Raw World Title

- Edge beat Jeff Hardy to win the Smackdown World Title. Matt Hardy turned heel on his brother to lead to the finish.

- Randy Orton won the Royal Rumble.

My Review of The Wrestler

After reading so much about it, I finally got a chance to see the movie The Wrestler on Saturday. I must say that it did live up to the hype. The movie was a real quality project. Mickey Rourke, Marisa Tomei and Evan Rachel Wood all really played their roles fantastically. Rourke was totally believable as a washed-up wrestler from the 80's. He deserves all of the accolades that he is receiving. The real treat of the movie was Marisa Tomei. Prior to this role, I had never really even given the broad a second thought. However, her portrayal of the aging stripper in this movie was outstanding. She had a couple of nude scenes. In fact, Marisa Tomei's Ass should be given top billing over Rourke on the movie poster. Anyway, I highly recommend this film. You will enjoy this movie if you are a fan of wrestling, if you are a fan of good movies, or if you are a fan of round behinds.

This just in: Now I'm hearing that Mickey Rourke has announced that he will show up at WrestleMania 25 and has challenged Chris Jericho. There goes that Oscar!

They're Back!

The Beautiful People doing what they do best-- just straight kicking broad's asses!

Review of Notorious

I caught the movie Notorious at a nearby cineaplex last weekend. The movie is a biopic on slain rapper Biggy Smalls (a.k.a. the Notorious B.I.G.). We get to see his transformation from little kid to drug dealer to upstart rapper to perhaps the greatest of all-time. The actor who played Biggy did a really good job; a poor performance could have turned the movie into a joke, but he did very well. The actress who played Lil' Kim was hot and she did well also. I read that the real Lil' Kim was upset about how she was portrayed in the movie. Basically, she was portrayed as a doormat-- it could have been worse. Of course the movie has a tragic ending, but still this is a movie that I highly recommend (just stay away from the after parties).

Our 44th President

My favorite moments from yesterday's festivities:

Happy Martin Luther King Day

Martin Luther King's "I Have A Dream" speech:

The Arizona Cardinals Are Going To The Super Bowl

Holy Shit.

Victoria Gone From WWE

It looks like one of my favorite wrestlers is done with WWE. Victoria (Lisa Marie Varon) apparently wrestled her last match on last Friday's Smackdown (she lost to Michelle McCool) then announced her retirement to the crowd. She was an excellent wrestler and always seemed to put an extra effort into her matches or whatever she did including interviews, ring entrances, and outfits. I hope that TNA picks her up because they could really use her and she would have some great matches with the likes of Awesome Kong and The Beautiful People. In the meantime, you can click on the link here to see her goodbye speech that didn't air on Smackdown (or click on the clip below before Vince yanks it down). If not, hey, you can just stare at the picture at the bottom:

(Top photo available for purchase at allposters.com and the second photo is from wwe.com)

Party Pix

Pictures from last week's KSDK Goodbye Party in Brentwood:

Randy Jackson and Georgia Key

Tape Czar Hall of Famers: Chuck Maulden, Mr. Too Damn Good and Tony Villasana

The Emmy Award Winning Frank Cusumano and A Random Party Guest

John Fuller and Cindy Preszler

Rich Witzofsky and Brian Spencer

Ring of Honor on PPV

If you are a wrestling fan, I highly recommend the Ring of Honor "Rising Above" pay-per-view. I watched it on Friday and it was outstanding. All of the matches on the two hour show were exciting but the standouts were Ms. Chif vs. Sara Del Rey (TNA or WWE needs to sign both of these ladies immediately), Jimmy Jacobs vs. Austin Aries, and Nigel McGuinness vs. Bryan Danielson. Just tremendous wrestling action. And it's only fifteen bucks. If you've never tried ROH, this is a great show to start with. Other replay times for In Demand are:

January 18th: 7PM (CST)

January 19th: 12PM, 5PM (CST)

January 20th: 2PM (CST)

(Photo from rohwrestling.com)

Tonight on Impact

Tonight on Impact, it's scheduled to be A.J. Styles vs. Kurt Angle, plus the long-awaited end of the "Sarah Palin" skits with the beloved Beautiful People. Only on Spike TV, 9PM EST/8PM CST.

(Photo from tnawrestling.com)

First Celeb For WrestleMania 25?

According to a report at mediatakeout.com, Tiffany Pollard, better known as "New York" from VH-1's "I Love New York" and "Flavor of Love", might become a pro wrestler and play a role as a celebrity guest at WrestleMania 25. New York vs. Kelly Kelly has potential to rival Steamboat vs. Savage from WrestleMania III. Knowing WWE's fascination with celebs, how long will it be before she pins John Cena for the title?

American Idol Season Premiere

I know at some point I vowed to never watch this show again, but I'm back on board for another season of American Idol. The season premiere was last night and they had tryouts from Arizona. They've added a new judge this year; some broad who might be even more annoying than Paula Abdul. She thinks she's great because she wrote some songs. Hey baby, I wrote a song when I was four years old. Was it a hit? No, but I had bad distribution and bad marketing. Anyway, it was a decent show. The show was built around some girl auditioning in a bikini. It was enough to get her to Hollywood. I expect there will be a lot of copycat swimsuit auditions next year. Which might not be all bad. They ended the show with a blind guy who sang pretty well. It's gonna be tough to beat that guy. More auditions tonight!

New Spin Cycle

Time for another edition of my favorite online show, the TNA Spin Cycle. This time it's an all referees show (with a very special guest appearance!). Enjoy:

The Wrestler Wins!

Last night at the Golden Globe Awards ceremony, the movie The Wrestler took home two major awards: Mickey Rourke won for Best Actor/Drama and Bruce Springsteen won for Best Song, which was on the soundtrack for the movie. Congratulations-- you're already ahead of Hulk Hogan in No Holds Barred. I'm hoping to catch the movie this weekend, when it finally comes to my town.

Genesis Results

Results from last night's TNA Wrestling Genesis PPV show in Charlotte, N.C.:

- Homicide won a six-man elimination match with LAX and Eric Young vs. Sonjay Dutt, Jimmy Rave and Kiyoshi

- Alex Shelley beat Chris Sabin to win the X Division title in an excellent match

- Shane Sewell beat Sheik Abdul Bashir

- Beer Money regained the tag team titles over Consequences Creed & Jay Lethal and Abyss & Matt Morgan

- Taylor Wilde, Roxxi and ODB beat Sojournor Bolt, Raisha Saaed and Rhaka Khan

- Kurt Angle beat Jeff Jarrett in a really good match

- Sting beat Rhino. The crowd was firmly behind Sting

- A.J. Styles, Brother Devon, and Mick Foley beat Booker T, Scott Steiner, and Kip James (who was subbing for Kevin Nash)

(Photo from tnawrestling.com)

Celebrity Apprentice Lineup Announced

According to a report at perezhilton.com, the new season of The CelebrityApprentice will include Andrew "Dice" Clay, Brian McKnight, Khloe Kardashian, Joan Rivers and her daughter, T-Boz of TLC, Hershel Walker, Celebrity Championship Wrestling winner Dennis Rodman, Brande Roderick of Baywatch, Tom Green, and the hot young lady that holds case #1 on Deal on No Deal. I'm on board!

(Photo from nbc.com)

Cena's New Movie

Here's the movie poster for the new John Cena movie coming this Spring to a nearly empty theatre near you.



(Photo from impawards.com)

Mr. Kennedy Movie Now Available

Behind Enemy Lines: Columbia, the new straight-to-DVD movie starring WWE's Mr. Kennedy, is now available at the usual outlets. According to a review at wrestlingobserver.com, Kennedy isn't even the star of the movie and most fans will be disappointed at his lack of screen time. The best quote however was this:

"His acting here doesn’t hold a candle to his performance on Greta Von Susteren when he claimed he’d never taken steroids, but all-in-all, he’s perfectly acceptable in the role of a B-movie action clunkhead.”

How's that for an endorsement?

(Behind Enemy Lines: Columbia is available at amazon.com)

Sharon Osbourne vs. Megan

Here is the clip of Sharon Osbourne pouring a drink on Megan from the Rock of Love reunion show that I talked about a couple of days ago. Poor Megan. You just know at some point in her life she is going to be the type of girl who corrects someone by saying "No, I'm not a stripper-- I'm a feature dancer":

Mimi Updates "Hero"

Here's Mariah Carey's remake of her own song "Hero" (available January 20th on the upcoming Ballads CD). It's just slightly different. It kind of just makes you want to hear the original version:

Rock of Love Bus Season Premiere

Where does VH-1 find these women? Some of the women on Rock of Love Bus were so skanky that they made the women from Flavor of Love look like Princess Diana. Ladies, when you perform an act so vile that even VH-1 won't show it, maybe it's time to re-evaluate your life. Thankfully at the end of the show, Bret eliminated some of the worst offenders and hopefully we will never see them again. You know a show is great when the most sympathetic cast members are a porn star and a Penthouse Pet.

It was quite a night on VH-1 as they also had the Rock of Love: Charm School Reunion, which saw Megan Hauserman show up drunk and in a bikini. She was eventually escorted out after Sharon Osborne poured a drink over her head. What a loser. Plus, no airtime for Brandi C.!

The debut of Confessions of a Teen Idol was outstanding. They took former teen idols, such as two guys from Baywatch, the guy who threw Donna down the stairs on 90210 and Adrian Zmed, put them in a house together and will attempt to revive their careers. At first you want to laugh at them, but by the end, you were routing for them to have a comeback. Plus it was great to see that Eric Nies from The Grind is now a spiritual freak. This one is a keeper.

(Photo from vh1.com)

Coming Soon To VH-1

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

TNA Web Exclusive: Sabin vs. Dutt

This week's TNAwrestling.com exclusive match is Chris Sabin vs. Sonjay Dutt (below):




Also, don't forget that Tuesday, TNA's showcase event of 2008, Bound for Glory IV, is available on DVD. I wonder if the DVD extras will show me at the TNA Fanfest the day before? There goes another couple of thousand sales.

Wrestling Predictions for 2009

Here are my predictions for the wrestling world in the upcoming year:

- Kurt Angle will return to WWE, but on a reduced schedule. He will put over Triple H within a month of his arrival.

- Christian Cage will also return to WWE and will surprise some people by having a solid main event run and even winning the Smackdown world title.

- TNA will finally come to its senses, change its name to "Impact Championship Wrestling", ending years of humiliation for its fanbase from having to say "TNA" in public

- Impact Championship Wrestling will finally come to its senses, gut the "creative" team and hire Gabe Sapolsky

- Gail Kim will re-emege on Raw, get pushed to the moon and become it's greatest rating draw, before eventually putting over Triple H at Backlash.

- There will be at least one edition of Impact with eight confusing or forgettable angles, six minutes total of wrestling, and the phrase "to the back" will be repeated 23 times. The show will pull a 1.0 rating.

- Ric Flair's reality show will debut on VH-1 and set ratings records for the network. The spin-off show, "Flair of Love" with Flair wearing a viking helmet and a large clock around his neck, will debut in September.

- St. Louis' own Randy Orton will hold the Raw World title for the majority of the year

- The Beautiful People will continue to reign supreme and will even beat Beer Money for the Impact Championship Wrestling tag team titles

- Maryse will come back from her knee injury to retain the WWE Divas title all year until eventually losing it to Triple H in a Hell in the Cell match in December.

Best of 2008

I can't believe that we've reached the end of 2008 already. Here's a look back at some of my favorite things from the year:

Album of the Year: The Renaissance by Q-Tip

Best Video: "Single Ladies" by Beyonce

Best Movie: The Dark Knight

Best Reality Show: I Love Money on VH-1

Best DVD: The Ric Flair shoot interview

Most Entertaining Wrestlers: The Beautiful People (above)

Best Match: Gail Kim vs. Awesome Kong (8/21), Edge vs. Undertaker (WrestleMania), Kurt Angle vs. Samoa Joe (Lockdown)

Best Moment For Hollywood Nation: Scoring out first celebrity interview (Erin Murphy/Tabitha from Celebrity Championship Wrestling/Bewitched)

Best Wrestling Moment: Ric Flair retirement ceremony on Raw

Best Real-Life Moment: Barack Obama is elected President

I hope you have a great 2009 and I sincerely thank you for reading Hollywood Nation!