LAW Dec. 29 Update - Ric Flair Discusses Raw Appearance

John Pollock / December 29, 2012 - 5:13pm

**Tonight the WWE is taping the New Year’s Eve edition of Raw from Washington, D.C. at the Verizon Center with Randy Orton expected back on the show following a separated shoulder he sustained at the Tribute to the Troops tapings earlier this month. Tomorrow they will be taping Smackdown in Richmond, Virginia to air next Friday.

**Tomorrow night on The LAW it’s our most popular show of the year with our Worst of 2012 edition as chat all the horrid garbage of the past year and cleanse our system for the new year. Wai Ting returns into the studio once again to share his picks along with Jason Agnew, Dan Lovranski and myself plus we will be taking your calls at 1-855-591-6876 along with Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter joining us. Below are the categories we will be running through, catch the show at Midnight EST Sunday night on TSN 1050 Toronto. The TEAM 1410 in Vancouver and online here on the site.

WORST WRESTLER (Male)
WORST WRESTLER (Female)
WORST TAG TEAM
WORST ON THE MIC
WORST ANNOUNCER
WORST NON-WRESTLING PERFORMER
WORST GIMMICK
WORST MATCH OF THE YEAR
WORST FEUD OF THE YEAR
THEY REALLY DROPPED THE BALL ON...
WORST ANGLE
WORST PAY-PER-VIEW (Wrestling)
WORST PAY-PER-VIEW (MMA)
WORST PROMOTION
WORST TV SHOW
WORST BOOK
WORST DVD
WORST MIXED MARTIAL ARTIST
WORST MMA FIGHT
WTF MOMENT OF THE YEAR

**Ric Flair was a guest on Mark Madden’s radio show on 105.9 The X in Pittsburgh this past week discussing his recent return to the WWE and said he is dying to wrestle again but the WWE is adamant of adhering to their retirement stipulation in 2008 following WrestleMania 24. Flair also noted in the interview that his son Reid is going on tour with All Japan Pro Wrestling beginning January 23^rd and the deal is for three-months.
http://www.1059thex.com/player/?station=WXDX-FM&program_name=podcast&program_id=MarkMadden.xml&mid=22737883

**Emilio Charles Jr, a top level heel at various points in his career while wrestling in Mexico died on Friday after suffering from kidney failure. Charles Jr spent the majority of his career with CMLL with his most well remembered gimmicks being a third of “Los Guapos” with Scorpio Jr and Bestia Salvaje and later the three transformed into Los Talibanes after 9/11 and largely played it as a comedic role. Charles Jr was 56-years old.

**There is another passing to report with that of Bill Dromo, who wrestled as Bill Zbyszko during his career. Dromo died on Friday at the age of 75 after a number of health issues and was also suffering from Parkinson’s disease. Dromo was born in Winnipeg and made his biggest impact with Georgia Championship Wrestling. Rich Tate has a story on the passing of Dromo on the Georgia Wrestling History website at http://www.gwhnews.com/2012/12/georgia-wrestling-hall-of-famer-passes.html.

**The Extreme Rising promotion runs a show in Philadelphia tonight at the National Guard Armory with the following card kicking off at 7pm EST:
*BLK Out Vs Mystery Team in a Steel Cage Match
*Homicide Vs Jerry Lynn
*Matt Hardy Vs Sabu
*Bestia 666 Vs Hijo de Rey Mysterio
*Rhino Vs Devon Storm
*Stevie Richards Vs Luke Hawk
*Winner of Rhino/Storm Vs Richards/Hawxto become the Extreme Rising champion
*Jay Bradley Vs Facade
*Papadon Vs Little Guido

**Pro Wrestling Syndicate has signed a match between Jushin Thunder Liger and John Hennigan (formerly John Morrison) for April 5^th in Metuchen, New Jersey over WrestleMania weekend. As we get closer we will start putting together a schedule for WrestleMania weekend because there are so many shows in that area that weekend to keep track of and lots of highlights outside of WWE to check out if you are travelling there in April.

**Ted DiBiase ended a bad year with yet another injury and this time to his finger at the Wednesday night house show in Chicago and was replaced by Jamie Noble on the Smackdown side, who is working as a producer for the company.

**WWE Hall of Fame tickets have gone on sale for the April 6^th ceremony at Madison Square Garden and are selling very well. This year the company opted not to announce the first inductee ahead of tickets going on sale and looks like the event will sell out regardless of who is advertised or going in this year. There are a ton of names being thrown around with Bruno Sammartino the elusive fish they would love to catch for this year. It is not a coincidence that the name Owen Hart was thrown out on television recently on the Slammy Awards but that is a really tricky situation to try and pull off and if Martha Hart is unwilling to support the induction than it casts a negative cloud over the weekend and would likely lead to some unfavorable press coming the WWE’s way and reminding people of that tragic event in 1999.

LAW MMA UPDATE

**Tonight the UFC closes of 2012 with UFC 155 from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada and kicking off at 6:35pm EST with the preliminary card. Here is the full lineup for tonight with my picks in bold:

MAIN CARD (10pm EST, pay-per-view)
*Junior dos Santos Vs Cain Velasquez for the UFC heavyweight title
*Joe Lauzon Vs Jim Miller
*Tim Boetsch Vs Costa Philippou
*Yushin Okami Vs Alan Belcher
*Chris Leben Vs Derek Brunson

PRELIMINARY CARD (8pm EST, FX and Rogers Sportsnet)
*Eddie Wineland Vs Brad Pickett
*Erik Perez Vs Byron Bloodworth
*Melvin Guillard Vs Jamie Varner
*Michael Johnson Vs Myles Jury

PRELIMINARY CARD (6:35pm EST on Facebook.com/UFC)
*Todd Duffee Vs Phil De Fries
*Leonard Garcia Vs Max Holloway
*John Moraga Vs Chris Cariaso

**Jason Agnew and I will be live on TSN 1050 Toronto right after the main card concludes with a one-hour post show running down all of the fights and taking your phone calls at 1-855-591-6876. We will be joined as always by Todd Martin from Wrestling Observer, Sherdog and the L.A. Times blog and discussing all of the fallout from the UFC’s year-end show.

**As we noted yesterday in the update Mike Goldberg will not be calling the show tonight with the listed reason as an illness. UFC President Dana White spoke to MMA Junkie and wouldn’t elaborate but only said Goldberg is taking some time off but will be returning. Jon Anik will call the show tonight alongside Joe Rogan.

**Melvin Guillard and Jamie Varner had the most heated stare down at the weigh-ins on Friday night with officials having to keep Guillard back. Guillard is upset at Varner’s accusation that he was greasing and to be checked prior to their cancelled bout two-weeks ago and Guillard having to stay in shape and make weight a second time for this show. The two were set to fight on December 15^th but the fight was cancelled hours beforehand when officials in Nevada would not allow Varner to compete as he was vomiting profusely backstage before the fight.

**UFC bantamweight Erik Perez will be wearing a luchadore mask to the octagon tonight just as he did at the UFC 155 weigh-ins last night. The UFC is fully on board in marketing Perez to the Mexican audience and are even handing out commemorative masks to the audience to wear Saturday night and make the big push for Perez.

**Invicta FC fighter Claudia Gadelha is out of the promotion’s January 4^th iPPV main event where she was to fight Carla Esparza to determine the first 115-pound champion for the promotion. The injury has led to Invicta announcing that Bec Hyatt will take the spot of Gadelha and fight Esparza in the main event next weekend in Kansas City, Missouri.

*****
REVIEW-AN-IMPACT – December 28^th 2012
(John Pollock and Wai Ting chat final Impact of 2012 and Nate Milton shares his Best of 2012 picks)
http://datav3.fightnetwork.com/blog/35533.mp3
*****
THE MMA REPORT - December 27th 2012
(John Pollock chats with UFC heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos, MMA Junkie's John Morgan and UFC 155 picks)
http://iphone.tsn.ca/tsnpodcasts/THEMMAREPORT-DEC-27-2012.mp3
*****
REVIEW-A-WAI – WWF In Your House “Season’s Beatings”
(John Pollock and Wai Ting review the December 1995 In Your House featuring Bret Hart Vs British Bulldog for the WWF Title, Hog Pen Match and debut of Xanta Klaus)
http://datav3.fightnetwork.com/blog/35506.mp3
*****
THE LAW – December 24^th 2012
(Lovranski, Agnew, Pollock and Wai make their “Best of 2012” picks plus Dave Meltzer, your phone calls and a special Christmas present give to Mouth on the air)
http://datav3.fightnetwork.com/blog/35498.mp3
*****