LAW
LAW Jan. 10 Update - TNA Drops to Four Live PPV Events
John Pollock / January 10, 2013 - 5:52pm
**TNA made a major announcement today on their pay-per-view strategy moving forward with the announcement they are dropping an additional eight live pay-per-view events this year and going to four annual shows every year. In addition to this Sunday’s Genesis card they will hold Lockdown on March 10th, Slammiversary on June 9th and Bound for Glory on October 13th this year. The company will not be completely abandoning pay-per-view on a monthly basis with the announcement of a series entitled “One Night Only”, which will be taped monthly shows with themes attached to them with no connection to ongoing storylines on television. The first two air in February and April will be a Joker’s Wild Tag Team Tournament and then a X-travaganza special focusing on the X division and debut on the first Friday of each month. Both taped specials will be taped this weekend at the Impact Zone in Orlando and also feature some talent from outside the organization including some names from the past being brought in.
**Impact Wrestling is live tonight from Orlando at the Impact Zone headlined by Jeff Hardy & James Storm Vs Bobby Roode & Austin Aries on the final show before Genesis this Sunday night. They will be changing up the format to Gut Check by using two unsigned performers, who will have a match with each other and then be evaluated. Bully Ray is also scheduled to appear and protest his suspension to Hulk Hogan.
**Review-An-Impact will be back late tonight as Wai Ting and I chat with Nate Milton about tonight’s show heading into Genesis on the weekend and a SURPRISE GUEST will join us tonight on the program.
**A reminder that The LAW returns to 11pm EST on Sunday night on TSN 1050 Toronto and The Team 1410 in Vancouver.
**The numbers coming out of WWE Raw on Monday cannot be considered anything but a success given the huge competition from the BCS Championship game between Alabama and Notre Dame. Raw did a 3.1 rating and averaged 4,420,000 viewers. In a rare trend each hour increased with the third hour doing 4,650,000 viewers highlighted by the CM Punk Vs Ryback TLC match and the final segment with Punk and The Rock. This coming Monday’s 20th anniversary show doesn’t have any football competition.
**The WWE is holding a set of NXT tapings tonight at Full Sail University with Shawn Michaels, Triple H and Kevin Nash all expected to be at Full Sail University tonight. It is also very likely that Big E. Langston will be dropping the NXT Title since his recent call up to the main roster.
**The big news of the past few days includes the signing of El Genercio (Rami Sebei) by the WWE. Generico came up through the Montreal scene working with Pro Wrestling Syndicate and has been linked with Kevin Steen his entire career. He got his big breaks making the jump to groups such as Pro Wrestling Guerilla and later Ring of Honor where he teamed with Steen and eventually did a big split in 2009 and the feud only recently culminated at Final Battle this past December. Generico is easily one of the top performers worldwide with independent dates all over the world and spending a lot of time in Japan with DDT where he recently dropped the KO-D championship to Kenny Omega. Generico still needs to pass all his medical tests with the WWE before the deal is final.
**Review-A-Wai from this past Wednesday is up at http://fightnetwork.com/news/35693:review-a-wai-bigger-faster-stronger-w-chris-bell/ with Wai Ting and I reviewing the 2008 documentary “Bigger, Stronger, Faster” and featuring a chat with producer Chris Bell from a 2008 edition of The LAW.
**El Generico is still scheduled to working against Chuck Taylor this Sunday in Montreal at the Battle Wars show and could be his last independent show.
**Antonio Cesaro Vs Randy Orton in a non-title match headlines WWE Main Event next Wednesday on Ion Television.
**In addition to The Pope’s contract with TNA expiring on January 1st so have the contracts have Sarita and Rosita, who are done with the company after not being used for the last number of months.
**Dragon Gate USA has announced that Johnny Gargano will defend the Open the Freedom Gate Title against Jon Davis on January 26th in Huntington Beach, California in a No Rope Match.
**Tammy Sytch has announced on Facebook that she is back home and is now engaged to Damien Darling.
**Today’s edition of The MMA Report is up on the site featuring Strikeforce heavyweight Daniel Cormier chatting his fight with Dion Staring this Saturday as well as cornering Cain Velasquez at UFC 155 and more. Plus an in-depth feature on the history of the Strikeforce as they prepare for their final show this Saturday night including comments from Paul Heyman on the promotion. You can download the show at http://fightnetwork.com/news/35717:the-mma-report-w-john-pollock-feat.-daniel-cormier/ or subscribe to The MMA Report w/ John Pollock on iTunes.
**The offers made by both the UFC and Bellator to Eddie Alvarez have been made public through the two lawsuits filed by Bellator and a countersuit by Alvarez. Loretta Hunt of SI.com obtained both lawsuits and examined both offers. The UFC’s initial offer to Alvarez was for a base pay of $70,000 a fight with a $70,000 win bonus and increments of $5,000 on each side for each fight he won and would top out at $105,000 and $105,000 for the eighth and final fight on the deal offered to him. The UFC offer also included their “intention” to give Alvarez a Lightweight Title shot in his debut fight and a portion of the pay-per-view revenue with $1.00 for every buy over 200,000, a jump to $2.00 for every buy after 400,000 and $2.50 for each buy after 600,000 buys. It would also include a chance to do commentary and fight on a FOX broadcast. Bellator responded matching the guaranteed dollars in the contract such as the base and win bonus, a title shot against Michael Chandler and the opportunity to make $100,000 if he won the title to coach on the second season of their reality show as well as commentary work. Alvarez’s side feels this is not a match and Bellator cannot match because they are not running pay-per-views and cannot get revenue from that source nor the ability to fight on FOX because they are on a cable network in Spike TV.
**The Strikeforce card has no broadcast outlet in Canada this weekend for those curious as Super Channel is not carrying the event this Saturday.
*****
THE MMA REPORT – January 10th 2013
(John Pollock chats with Daniel Cormier and The History of Strikeforce)
http://themmareport.podbean.com/mf/web/ssiyhm/THE-MMA-REPORT-JAN10-2013.mp3
*****
REVIEW-A-WAI – Bigger, Stronger, Faster
(John Pollock and Wai Ting review the 2008 documentary and an interview with producer Chris Bell)
http://datav3.fightnetwork.com/blog/35693.mp3
*****
REVIEW-A-RAW – January 8th 2013
(John Pollock and Wai Ting review the first Raw of 2013 featuring the return of The Rock and a TLC Match)
http://datav3.fightnetwork.com/blog/35686.mp3
*****
THE LAW – January 7th 2013
(Dan Lovranski and Jason Agnew welcome “Filthy” Tom Lawlor, Dave Meltzer, WrestleMania 29 plans, Spelling Bee and LAW Xtra – reviewing the NJPW Tokyo Dome show)
http://datav3.fightnetwork.com/blog/35662.mp3
*****
JAPANESE AUDIO WRESTLING – Jan. 5th 2013
(Chris Charlton and WH Park recap the Tokyo Dome card with guest Damian Abraham)
http://datav3.fightnetwork.com/blog/35656.mp3
*****
Contact John Pollock - john@fightnetwork.com / @LAWradio / @iamjohnpollock
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