Welcome to the High Spot, Place to Be Nation’s weekly pro wrestling update. Steve Wille (@SteveWille34) will take you through the biggest story of the week in the world of wrestling, adding in a unique view to help put the story in perspective. Glenn Butler (@Glenniebun) then takes a quick look at other important stories of the week. If you have any tips or story ideas, please contact us at info@placetobenation.com!
Could a women’s Hell in the Cell match be feasible in today’s mainstream wrestling product? That was the excellent question posed to Divas’ champion A.J. Lee in a recent interview with IGN. Lee was clearly open to the prospect, and believes that her current feud with Paige would be the perfect opportunity to break new ground in women’s wrestling. But what would this look like? There’s already been a drop in the brutality associated with Hell in the Cell; gone are the stunt show tactics of Foley/Undertaker from Hell in the Cell 1998, or the bloodbaths like HHH/HBK from Bad Blood 2004. And would fans want to see such brutality from the current cache of female competitors in the WWE? Outside of A.J. and Paige, likely not. Even looking back, the prospects for an appropriate “blood feud” that could have ended in the cell were small. Glenn suggested the Mickie James and Trish Stratus rivalry as a possibility, while Steve favored the Bull Nakano and Alundra Blayze series of matches. Obviously, the level of mainstream American women’s wrestling has never reached the brutality levels of the All Japan Women or GAEA Japan promotions, but giving athletes who clearly want to advance the state of their craft a chance seems to be a no-lose scenario.
- It’s been a while since we traversed the world of Ring of Honor. Our most recent look at the organization occurred after Michael Elgin lost the Heavyweight Title in shocking fashion to Jay Briscoe, then remained stuck in Canada due to visa problems. Since then, the story has continued to boggle the minds of fans, as Elgin missed a recent event in Kalamazoo, Michigan after being advertised as returning to action by Ring of Honor. We’re purposely looking past some of the more gossipy notes during these past few weeks, as it doesn’s paint a flattering picture of anyone. Elgin is again advertised for this weekend’s television taping in Florida, though, at press time, it is uncertain based on his actions if he will attend. We at the High Spot hope that communication and compassion will prevail; if not, we are willing to lend our mediation skills for a moderate fee.
It’s also unknown whether Elgin will join his colleagues this December 7th, when the stars of Ring of Honor return for their second traditional live PPV from their New York City home at the Hammerstein Ballroom. Though no matches have been announced, we expect that to be changed at the aforementioned television tapings. One thing that sets ROH apart from its competitors is its focus on tag-team wrestling, and that is readily apparent by viewing the teaser poster. Stalwarts like the Briscoes, the Addiction (Daniels and Kazarian) and perhaps the hottest tag team on the planet, the Young Bucks, are featured.
- Stay Tuned for Further Announcements: Global Force Wrestling, the worldwide leader in announcements of announcements of upcoming announcements, is searching for potential TV partners and a taping location in Las Vegas, in a deal that sounds more than a little like Impact Zone West. By implication, if they’re looking for a TV deal, they expect to put on the TV show, and if they’re looking for a taping location, they expect to have a show to put on, and if they’re looking to put on a show, they’re expecting to have a roster to populate it. Check back next week when I get some new tea leaves.
- Speaking of Upcoming PPV ANNOUNCEMENTS~, the Wrestling Observer reported that Jeff Jarrett met with Ring of Honor officials, including COO Joe Koff, regarding the unannounced January PPV show from the Tokyo Dome. Discussions reportedly centered around allowing ROH talent also involved with New Japan Pro Wrestling (such as the Kingdom, reDDragon and the Young Bucks) to appear on the show. If the High Spot may be so bold, we suggest that they consider our Place to Be Nation friends Kevin Kelly and Steve Corino to announce the show.
- TNAaaaaaaaaaw: While Impact Zone West gets up and running, it looks like Impact Zone East has shut down, as even though TNA is still definitely on Spike through the end of this year, they have enough footage banked to last through the November 19th episode of Impact with no more tapings scheduled. This leaves six weeks for recap episodes or some other type of filler. While there have been optimistic-sounding rumors milling around from the TNA camp, this is definitely the sort of thing a company does when it’s on its last legs.
- He Goes Forward, He Goes Back: The Rey Mysterio situation has done a full circuit around the mythical Wheel of Fortune, as Hugo Savinovich (now working for AAA) apparently said that Mysterio is done with WWE and will be back in AAA very soon, but later reports say that he’s still locked into his WWE deal until at least April, and possibly longer than that. Barring further dreadfully boring legal action, of course. Again, it’s sad to see Rey Mysterio’s great WWE career peter out with a string of injuries and grievances; not this way, as they say.
