Powell's Blog Vince McMahon noncommittal regarding the brand split, catching up with Jerry Lynn, F1rst Wrestling By Jason Powell May 10, 2008 - 04:45 PM CLICK FOR BIO Email This Article | Printer Friendly Page Send Us News & Results | Back to Main Listing Saturday, MAY 10 - 4:45 P.M. -Vince McMahon turned on the charm during the annual shareholders meeting. He addressed a number of topics (the highlights were posted on the site earlier today) and seemed to have a good time speaking to the shareholders. The Chairman of the Board answered the majority of their questions in a straight forward manner, but he didn't directly answer a shareholder who asked if the company was going to reenforce the rules of the brand split. Rather, he explained why they started running pay-per-views with all three brands, and that they like to make it special by breaking the barriers at WrestleMania. However, he never really said whether they intend to tighten the rules. Interesting. In case you missed it, you can watch the shareholders meeting by clicking here. -I caught part of the F1rst Wrestling show at First Ave. in Minneapolis last night. It's a fun atmosphere and one of the rare locations that hosts indy wrestling and serves beer in Minnesota. The price is affordable at $8 and I was pleasantly surprised to learn that beer prices were $3.75. Yes, that's still pricey, but it beats the estimated $7.00 they were charging at the recent Wild and Twins games I attended. You can learn more about F1rst Wrestling by visiting their Myspace page. -There's been a pretty big turnover in Midwest talent over the last five years. It wasn't all that long ago that I was attending indy shows that featured Mr. Kennedy, C.M. Punk, Shawn Daivari, Austin Aries, Lacey, Rain (a/k/a Payton Banks), and ODB. The current crop of local wrestlers has some big shoes to fill, but everyone worked hard and did their best to put on a good show. Unfortunately, I couldn't hang around for the entire show because I had to get to a friend's birthday party, but I will make it out to another show in the future. -Jerry Lynn made a surprise appearance on the show. I'm not sure if he was a last minute addition or if promoter Arik Cannon wanted him to be a surprise. I really hope it was the former. The classic indy mistake is to surprise the fans with the name wrestler rather than advertising him in advance. -I had a chance to spend a few minutes catching up with Jerry. He seemed happier than I've seen him in the past and was all smiles as he mingled with fans and signed autographs. His match with Pete Huge was the highlight of the portion of the show that I was able to see. No surprise there. Lynn is one of those guys who will go all out regarding of whether there are 100 people or 10,000 people in the building. He's a real class act and it's just a shame that he's not being featured as a big part of TNA's X Division. -I bumped into PWTorch.com indy reporter Chris Vetter for the first time in a few years last night. He told me that the Cody Michaels vs. Joey Envy match was one to watch, and he nailed it as usual. If you're a fan of indy wrestling, Chris's weekend preview articles are a must-read. You can check out his latest at PWTorch.com Friday, MAY 9 - 4:12 P.M. -I'm fine with the eight-month sentence Nick Hogan received today, assuming it's in line with what other minors with no criminal record and a history of traffic violations would receive if they committed a similar offense. I know there will be some people who complain that the judge should have used Nick's celebrity to send a message. Others will claim that Nick got off easy because he is a celebrity (or at least his father is). I thought the judge handled the situation well. He didn't seem to be playing to the television cameras, and he explained his decision well so that both sides would understand what it was based on. -The TMZ feed was choppy outside the courthouse. One of the Graziano family members (I believe it was John Graziano's brother) had some choice words for reporters regarding the Hogan family. The feed kept cutting out, but he said something about how the Hogans use their power, money, and influence to manipulate people. He said he didn't believe they were sincere during their testimony. To his credit, he also added that his primary focus is on John walking out of the hospital someday. He also asked everyone to say a prayer for the Marine. -One thing I forgot to mention in my report is that Brooke Hogan, who embarrassed herself by taking a short at either the Graziano family or John's fiance during her testimony, walked to the van with Hulk Hogan. Hogan's estranged wife Linda Bollea walked out separately, but they all left the courthouse in the same van. There was no sign of Hulk's new lady friend. -I don't know what to make of Nick's lack of emotion during the courtroom. Some will say he faced his punishment like a man. Others will interpret his lack of emotion is a sign that he didn't care enough about his actions. The judge seemed to believe that Nick felt remorse. As the judge pointed out, he sees plenty of people come through that courtroom on a daily basis, so he should be a good judge of character. I guess I'll just have to take his word for it in this case. Remember to check out my latest fantasy football article at FFChamps.com. Friday, MAY 9 - 11:10 A.M. -Is Nick Hogan really planning to plead guilty without any clue as to the type of sentence he'll receive? I'm not buying it. Hulk Hogan's comments through Bubba The Love Sponge sound a little too noble to me. According to Bubba, Hulk said Nick is "manning up" and taking responsibility for his actions. If so, that's great, but my guess is that Hogan's lawyers have a pretty good idea about the type of sentence Nick will receive and Hulk his just using this opportunity to make his son look good. Hulk told Bubba that Nick won't beg for mercy, yet a MyFoxTampaBay.com report states that the Hogan family will appear in court to ask for leniency. Stay tuned. -No TNA pay-per-view preview this month. I'll discuss the show in the latest Dot Net Podcast later today, but with only four matches announced there's really not much to preview. TNA is banking heavily on the three-way main event, the tag title tournament, the TerrorDome, the promise of a woman getting her head shaved, and the mystery surrounding the wild card teams to sell this pay-per-view. I'll be covering the show live on Sunday night so feel free to watch along with me or just check in and scope the results. -Bobby Lashley is a free agent. He's already announced his first match will take place in Booker T's promotion, but he continues to state that he has interest in MMA fighting. I've been saying for a while now that he's not going to get the Brock Lesnar treatment or payoff from UFC or other MMA promotions. In fact, UFC has made it clear that they're not interested in using Lashley at this time. My hunch is that he will end up in TNA at some point and I guess it wouldn't shock me if he made an appearance this weekend. That's purely speculation, though. -I wasn't surprised to see WWE release Torrie Wilson on Thursday. She announced recently that surgeons had advised her against returning to the ring, and WWE doesn't seem to have much interest in featuring women in non-wrestling roles. There's Vickie Guerrero, Lillian Garcia, and that's about it. That being said, Torrie never established herself as a good talker so I'm not sure how much she could do beyond a T&A role. -I made my triumphant return to the world of fantasy football reporting via FFChamps. I'm writing a weekly article for the site, which features most of the former Fanball/Fantasy Football Weekly content team. My first assignment was Matt Leinart, and you should know me well enough by now to know that I went the hard-hitting route by discussing his hot tub exploits with Nick Lachey and a group of attractive young women. You can read the "Matt Leinart Impact Report" by visiting FFChamps.com. Wednesday, MAY 7 - 11:48 A.M. -Ashley Massaro went from issuing an emphatic denial of allegations that she worked as a high-paid escort for Bella Models to thanking fans and acting as if all is right in the world on her Myspace page. If you were accused of something you didn't do, wouldn't you continue to deny the allegations? Then again, I suppose it's possible that Ashley's lawyer or WWE asked her not to comment on the matter. -It never would have made it to the accusation stage if a woman had paid me $25,000 for a night of passion. Hell, I'd post a huge banner at the top of Dot Net announcing it to the world. Well, unless the woman was Ashley, because she's accused of accepting $25,000 for working as an escort and everybody knows it's disgusting and wrong when a woman accepts money for sex. Insert a wink symbol here. -By the way, I have every intention of handing my girlfriend a bill for $25,000 the next time we're intimate. I'm sure that will go over well, but I can't resist. -THQ announced that they are producing the new Legends of WrestleMania for WWE. This is another example of how retired wrestlers who are in the legends program are able to earn royalty checks from WWE. I'm not suggesting that this excuses WWE for not having pension plans and doing more for some of their longtime workers, but it's good to know that some of the retired wrestlers will cash in via this project. -TNA sent a text message to their mobile subscribers on Tuesday to hype the upcoming X Cup tournament. They touted the fact that wrestlers from CMLL (Mexico), New Japan, and Dragon Gate will be competing. I like the concept and I'm always excited to see foreign wrestlers I don't get to see on a regular basis, but I hope TNA will prepare for the tournament by pushing their X Division wrestlers in a more serious manner. It's going to look silly for TNA minis such as Black Machismo and Little Petey Pump to face off against some of the world's finest in a serious tournament. -Very cool to see a passage from this blog quoted in the UK Sun's article on the Ashley story. You can check out their coverage by clicking here. Tuesday, MAY 6 - 12:47 P.M. -WWE is celebrating the 100th episode of ECW tonight on Sci-Fi. To commemorate this monumental achievement, I'm going to dedicate this entire blog to reliving some of my favorite memories from WWE's version of Extreme Championship Wrestling. My favorite moment has to be... OK, I'm sure there are just too many to choose from. I mean, who could forget that time when... Wow, I'm having a brain fart here. Oh, I know, remember that one episode where... It's all coming back to me now. I enjoyed portions of Big Show's reign as ECW Champion. Rob Van Dam and Hardcore Holly surprised me with a good match once. Test shocked the world by joining ECW and... Wait, no he didn't. Oh, that's right, ECW is all about the younger wrestlers. This is their chance to step into the spotlight and make names for themselves. It's a launching pad for the stars of tomorrow. Just look at what it's done for the careers of young up and comers like Kane and Chavo Guerrero. Wait... I almost forgot. C.M. Punk held the ECW Title once. Just think about where Punk would be if it wasn't for his big ECW victories over guys like Chavo and Elijah Burke. If it wasn't for ECW, he'd probably still be bouncing between brands, winning mid-card matches, and losing to the top guys. Just remember that the next time someone tells you that the first 99 episodes of ECW were meaningless. -I guess those ECW memories didn't take up as much space as I thought they would. I haven't been to any Twins games since last week (by the way, it's no coincidence that they are undefeated since I went to the game). I haven't bought any magazines since Saturday. So now what the hell am I going to do to fill space? When in doubt, turn to a sex scandal. Everyone loves a good sex scandal. -Does anyone else find it odd that a publicly traded company that is marketing to children via on-air programming and the films division currently employs an accused racist, an alleged high-paid escort, and a guy who may or may not have left a shoebox filled with syringes and drugs behind in a house? I'm sure this stuff happens at Disney all the time, though. It may surprise you to learn that the overwhelming majority of industry sources I've spoken with do not believe that Ashley Massaro should be fired if the Rolling Stone allegations are truthful. I'll talk more about that in the Prowrestling.net Podcast later today. -Rich Twilling and I will be serving up a double dose of "Live Coverage" of tonight's 100th episode of ECW on Sci-Fi. I'm curious to see if they even acknowledge the fact that Mike Adamle and Tazz walked off the set last week. I assume they will, but you never know since it wasn't even brought up last night on Raw. 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