Congrats, Davina!

Congratulations to Davina Rose (one of my favorites from Shimmer Wrestling), who recently signed a development deal with the big boys, World Wrestling Entertainment.  Davina was always very hard-working and enthusiastic in Shimmer and I wish her continued success in WWE.  And maybe one day she'll be the one pushing John Cena off a ladder!

Happy Holidays from the Impact Wrestling Knockouts

A sincere Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from Hollywood Nation!  Enjoy this festive holiday themed video from the Knockouts of Impact Wrestling (and Joey Ryan-- ewwww!):

Christmas with Old Navy

Holy crap, they found the Griswold kids!

Christmas with Mariah, The Roots and Jimmy Fallon

Another holiday post, this time from Jimmy Fallon, Mimi and the same guys that brought you "Silent Treatment".  Enjoy!




And here is a gratuitous picture of Mariah busting out of her outfit during her Rockefeller Center performance last week.  Nick Cannon, come get yo girl.  Ho, ho, ho indeed.

Happy Holidays from WWE

A Christmas greeting from the WWE roster.  Kind of reminds me of the "Land of a 1000 Dances" video from the 80's:

Gripe of the Week

Dear Weekend Today Show, why on earth did you take Jenna Wolfe off the anchor desk and replace her with.... Not Jenna Wolfe?  Are you intentionally trying to tank your ratings?  I'm going to carry a picket sign. Not outside the Today Show, but inside the Hollywood Nation offices.  Probably not as effective, but it's the thought that counts.  I need an aspirin.

You Can't Touch This

Hope you enjoy this great post-election clip from Key & Peele:

Hell in the Cell

It's WWE's Hell in the Cell Weekend.  Will they end C.M. Punk's year-long title reign or Ryback's winning streak?  We'll find out Sunday night.  The official song of Hell in the Cell is "Sandpaper" by Fozzy (Chris Jericho's band).  Check out the song below, as well as a few photos of Fozzy and me from the summer.

The Best Wrestling Promo of the Week

Where was the best wrestling interview of the week?  Was it on WWE Monday Night Raw?  Smackdown? Impact Wrestling?  Nope, on the The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell.  Forget Punk vs. Ryback, this is the match I want to see (9:24 mark):

Hulk Hogan's Tape

Ahhh, the Hulk Hogan sex tape.  What I wouldn't give to NOT know about this.  On the list of sex tapes I have no desire to see, Hogan is at the top of the list right next to Grandma.  Internet, you can keep this one.  The story won't go away though so I guess I have to deal with it.  It's come down to a he said/she said battle between Hogan and former friend, shock jock Bubba The Love Spunge.  I don't know who or what to believe about this whole deal because both sides are so shady.  But I do know one thing: this is bad karma coming back on Hogan for not losing to Ric Flair back in 1991.

New WWE Show

Hot off the heels of the lowest rated Monday Night Raw in ages, WWE's new show WWE Main Event debuts tonight at 7PM CST on the Ion Television (just checked-- we do get Ion Television here at the Hollywood Nation offices).  The main event of the, uh, the Main Event will be world champ vs. world champ, C.M. Punk vs. Sheamus (just giving it away on TV with no build up-- but that's another story).  A top flight main event-- but don't get used to it.  You just know we're three weeks away from Epico vs. David Otunga.

Bye Bye Kelly Kelly

WWE announced late last week that Kelly Kelly had officially departed the company, after a six year run.  She joins Maryse, The Bella Twins, Maxine, Kharma, and Melina as Divas who have recently left the company.  Sounds like they've got a problem.  Oh well, we'll always have the memories of all of those great, okay, she wasn't the greatest wrestler ever, but she always but in a great effort and was really nice.  Plus, we'll always have this:

New Judges

Randy "In It To Win It" Jackson.  The most annoying "rapper" ever.  Some country dude.  Mariah-- in a speaking role.  This is going to be my whiniest season of American Idol ever!

Photos From Wizard World 2012

Last weekend, I attended Wizard World 2012 in Chicago.  A fun time was had by all:

WWE Champion, C.M. Punk, the 2nd most powerful person in the world.

 FIVE TIME World Champ Booker T

 Fresh off of her appearance at Raw 1000, WWE Legend Lita

 Former WWE Diva Maryse.  Check out www.houseofmaryse.com

The Bella Twins and Webster

New C.M. Punk DVD

The trailer for the new C.M. Punk DVD compilation from WWE Home Video has finally been released.  It looks they went all out. This will make up for them unleashing No Holds Barred on the public again.

Memo To WWE: Take This Idea!

With the news that Velvet Sky may be taking her pigeons away from Impact Wrestling, I have a great idea for WWE.  Since they are pretty much building around A.J. (above), what better move than to have two female wrestlers right out of the movie Mean Girls to pick on poor little A.J.?  A.J. can play the plucky and valiant babyface fighting back against her bullies (Be A Star!).  That's right: The Beautiful People vs. A.J.!  Can you imagine the riot when they put a paper bag over this broad's head?  It will be a license to print money!  And it would make Hollywood Nation very happy!  Everyone wins!  I'm going to sleep.  My work is done.

(Photo from wwe.com)

Sherman Helmsley, 1938-2012

Sorry to hear about the passing of Sherman Helmsley, who was famous for playing the role of George Jefferson on the classic TV shows the The Jeffersons and All In The Family, as well as Deacon Frye on the show Amen.  Here's a clip from a classic edition of The Jeffersons:

Knight Dynasty Documentary

Be sure to check out the documentary below on the Knight family from England, which focuses on daughter Britani (above on the left, now known as "Paige" in the WWE development system) and her mum, Shimmer champion Saraya Knight (above in the middle).  Oh yeah, you're gonna cry, ya big baby.

SummerSlam Video

Funny video from WWE promoting SummerSlam.  Of course, Daniel Bryan steals the show:

Life Is Good

I'm calling my shot-- Life Is Good by Nas is Album of the Year!

What Up!

Here's a couple of comments on news stories from the past couple of weeks:

American Idol Shuffle: Last week Steven Tyler announced that he wouldn't be back for the next season of American Idol.  Then suspiciously, Jennifer Lopez did the same the next day.  I'm currently refreshing ew.com every few seconds hoping to hear the same announcement from Randy Jackson.

A.J.: WWE is currently in the A.J. Lee business.  I haven't seen anyone dominate more WWE airtime since Steve Austin in 1997.  With the way they have been pushing this broad, I fully expect her to end the Undertaker's streak at next year's WrestleMania.

Angelina Love: Hollywood Nation's favorite wrestler, Angelina Love, was released by Impact Wrestling a few weeks back.  Probably the reason for our hiatus.  We're better now.  I guess Impact had to make room for such "talents" as Claire Lynch.  Maybe WWE will get the great idea of signing her.  After all, somebody has to do jobs for A.J.

Impact Wrestling: Despite the Angelina misstep, this show has been on fire.  Good storylines, good pacing, great matches, and the crowing of Austin Aries as champ.  Of course as soon as it gets good, Direct TV yanks the channel. Direct TV and Viacom are fighting like two hoes and now I've gotta miss the Bound for Glory tournament.  It ain't right.

Frank Ocean: Where the hell did this brother come from?  Great album, by the way.

My New Favorite Ad

I have to give credit where it's due-- I love this ad for the new C.M. Punk shirt from wweshop.com.  I don't know which is better: the shirt slogan or A.J.'s crazy ass lurking in the background.

You can pick up this lovely apparel at wweshop.com

Angelina vs. Velvet

There was a monumental battle this week on Impact Wrestling's secondary show, Xplosion, as Hollywood Nation's two favorite wrestlers, Velvet Sky and Angelina Love, squared off in a battle under the Sin Cara-esque blue lighting.  It's almost like watching your two children fight it out.

Photo from Impact Wrestling

Brooke Hogan (along with ODB and Hollywood Nation favorite Velvet Sky) made the media rounds today to tout the unfortunate decision of naming Brooke as the on-air leader of the Impact Wrestling Knockout division. Oh no, this clip isn't embarrassing in the least!

Velvet Sky Gets New Gig

It was reported online that Hollywood Nation's #2 favorite wrestler, Velvet Sky, will star in the new music video by Montgomery Gentry.  This should provide good exposure for the Impact Wrestling star.  Next mission: to find out what in the hell Montgomery Gentry is.

Photo from ImpactWrestling.com

Donna Summer

Sorry to hear about the passing of disco icon Donna Summer  yesterday at the age of 63.  Not only did she rule the airwaves in the late 70's/early 80's with such hits as "She Works Hard For The Money", "Love To Love You Baby", and "I Feel Love", but her song "Hot Stuff" was the ring entrance theme song for one of my favorite wrestling acts of all-time, Eddie Gilbert and his group Hyatt & Hot Stuff International.  RIP.

Daniel Bryan Takeover

After last night's wretched WWE Raw featuring that awful Big Show segment and John Cena at his most annoying, is it too late to make a plea to just have Daniel Bryan take over the whole show?  How great was he in that segment from Smackdown on Friday?  I'd rather sit through two hours of him humiliating A.J. than seeing Big Show fake crying.

Tamron Goes Off

I love me some Tamron Hall of MSNBC.  Watch this clip where she totally owns some clown.

The Voice Finale

I caught the season finale of The Voice on NBC.  Some guy won, he cried, confetti rained down, the audience threw babies in the air, blah, blah, blah, but the big story was Xtina's decision to wear the above booty shorts on national television.  Probably not the most flattering choice-- not that I'm morally opposed to it however.  With Britney Spears allegedly signing a lucrative deal to judge the X Factor, Xtina has created a template of how NOT to behave as a judge on one of these shows.  Hopefully Britney won't display such behavior (although she should wear the shorts too).

Shimmer Wrestling

Here are some pics from the latest Shimmer Wrestling tapings in Berwyn, Illinois a few weeks ago:

 Saraya Knight berates the ring announcer.

 Ms Chif

 Hamada

 Outside of the Eagles Club

 $1.25 Beer

 Ray and Leon

 Mia Yim

Cheerleader Melissa

The Client List

Last night I watched the series premiere of The Client List, the latest collaboration between Jennifer Love Hewitt and Jennifer Love Hewitt's Rack. Until last night, I was unaware that my cable provider even carried Lifetime. If you missed it, the show stars JLH as a single mother who starts doing "extras" at a massage parlor so that she doesn't lose her house. And we only made it about 30 minutes before her character had the word "WHORE" hilariously written across her car. It was a good first outing, but I'm not sure where the storylines can go from here. I may give it another chance next week. Regardless, hopefully we're one step closer to JLH just cashing in and doing late night Cinemax movies.

WrestleMania XXVIII

I thought WrestleMania 28 was a pretty solid event. Especially if you can overlook the Daniel Bryan squash and the borderline racist Brodus Clay skit. The highlights:

- Taker vs. Triple H: Great match and excellent storytelling. All three of the principals played their roles well. And despite the "End of An Era" tag, I don't think we've seen the last of any of these guys.

- The Rock vs. Cena: Good match. The right ending for that crowd. Told a nice story and everyone went home happy. The Rock did well to take eight years off and still be able to wrestle 30 minutes

- C.M. Punk vs. Chris Jericho: Another good match. I was surprised by the ending but the feud will continue.

- The food: I ate my weight in chocolate chip cookies, pizza and chips. Always a plus.

WrestleMania Predictions

Predictions for today's WrestleMania 28 event:

The Rock vs. John Cena-- the trash talking has ended and it's finally time to get this thing in the ring. I predict a Rock victory to avoid a riot in Miami. And if you are to believe online reports, maybe Batista or Brock Lesnar will get involved.

Undertaker vs. Triple H-- Taker's going 20-0. He better

C.M. Punk vs. Chris Jericho-- I'm looking at a Jericho victory and Punk regains it at Extreme Rules

Sheamus vs. Daniel Bryan-- Sheamus comes out on top and gets a push to the top of the Smackdown card

Randy Orton vs. Kane-- Orton wins clean with the RKO

Team Teddy vs. Team Laurinatus-- Team Teddy wins and Johnny Ace goes back to screwing up his real life job

Big Show vs. Cody Rhodes-- Big Show wins to get his (kinda) WrestleMania moment

Maria and Kelly Kelly vs. Beth Phoenix and Eve-- Maria gets the pin to set up a highlight clip on Extra. Hopefully we don't have to hear her laugh.

Lemonheads

Sorry to hear about the passing of Nello Ferrara, who died on Feb. 3rd. Who is Nello Ferrara, you ask? He was the guy who invented the most delicious snack treat on Earth, the candy known as Lemonheads. All the networks and CNN should be devoting around the clock coverage to this guy and doing history pieces. R.I.P.

Key and Peele

Check out the new comedy sketch show Key and Peele on Comedy Central, Tuesdays at 10:30 EST/9:30 CST. I've seen two episodes and they were both pretty good, including this sketch, which might be the funniest thing I've seen all year.

The Super Bowl

I enjoyed the Super Bowl this year; exciting ending, Madonna killed it at halftime, and the commercials were okay. Best of all, we don't have to put up with this Patriots dynasty/"Belicheck is a genius" talk all off-season. But we do have to put up with the "Is Eli in The Elite QBs?" discussions. The lesser of two annoying evils won, I suppose.

Undertaker's Hair

At first I thought it was just me, but several sites are reporting that The Undertaker was indeed wearing a wig on Monday's edition of the WWE Raw Supershow. Apparently he cut most of his hair off during his hiatus, but it hasn't grown back yet. Maybe he will rock the crew cut like in his American Bad Ass phase. They better hurry up and figure out something before the big match in April. Last year The Rock saved WrestleMania, this year it might be the Hair Club For Men.

Royal Rumble

WWE graced Hollywood Nation's hometown with this year's Royal Rumble... and gave us Sheamus as the winner of the big match. Damn them. Anyway, here are some highlights of the evening:

Daniel Bryan and The Big Show battle on top of the cage

Kane and America's favorite sap, John Cena, get ready to mix it up


Brodus Clay and the ladies

Dolph Ziggler and Vicki right before he was buried by C.M. Punk

This guy won?