LAW
LAW Feb. 11 Update - The Undertaker Spotted in Nashville
John Pollock / February 11, 2013 - 4:33pm
**Tonight Raw is in Nashville, Tennessee from the Bridgestone Arena with the return of The Rock to Raw and the “go home” show for Elimination Chamber this Sunday. The Undertaker was spotted prominently at the Nashville Predators game last night and took photos at the arena so at the very least he is going to be backstage tonight and could possibly appear on camera to start his angle for WrestleMania. Brock Lesnar will not be on the show tonight and is not scheduled for another appearance until the February 25th show.
**The LAW from last night is up on the website with Dan “The Mouth” Lovranski, Jason Agnew and myself chatting all of the news from the past week including Bruno Sammartino going into the Hall of Fame, the WWE Network plans, the Elimination Chamber show next weekend, Jeff Hardy signs new deal with TNA and more. On the show we also chat with UFC welterweight Matt Riddle on his return to England next weekend and plans to go into pro wrestling when he is done with MMA and Dave Meltzer from the Wrestling Observer Newsletter stops by and the return of the Title Bout Trivia Spelling Bee at http://fightnetwork.com/news/36334:feb.-11-edition-of-the-law-w-matthew-riddle/ or subscribe to Live Audio Wrestling on iTunes.
**For those that download The LAW you will also get a bonus segment of LAW Xtra with Dan Lovranski and I reviewing the New Japan Pro Wrestling “New Beginning” iPPV from yesterday in Hiroshima, Japan headlined by Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Karl Anderson for the IWGP Title, which was an excellent match.
**Review-A-Raw will be back late tonight as Wai Ting and I chat Raw in Nashville tonight and thoughts leading into Elimination Chamber this weekend and taking your feedback from The LAW message board.
**NBC Universal has announced a partnership with Hearst Magazines to rebrand the G4 Network into the Esquire Network and aim the network at males. In an article on Deadline.com it notes that both the UFC and WWE made plays to take a controlling interest in the network and rebrand it.
**There was a scary incident at the Raw house show on Saturday night in Springfield, Missouri in a match between CM Punk and The Miz where Punk was accidentally dropped on his head but did continue the match. Punk is said to be okay and did work a tag match on Sunday at the Raw live event and will be at the tapings tonight.
**Yesterday marked the 10-year anniversary of the passing of Curt Hennig, who died of cocaine poisoning (it was not an overdose). The last year of his life featured such highs and lows as he left the upstart XWF promotion (Hulk Hogan and Jimmy Hart’s wrestling project) and was inserted into the Royal Rumble and was left until the final four and was one of the major highlights of the show that year and ended up sticking around after the Rumble. Unfortunately the momentum didn’t last and he was largely working Sunday Night Heat and was placed in a dark match that year at WrestleMania X8 in Toronto and was released shortly thereafter following a brawl with Brock Lesnar (the two were actually very good friends before and after the incident) on a plane during a WWE international tour. Hennig shortly worked for TNA after the WWE run and he brought up the Lesnar incident on a promo stating he took down Lesnar at 30,000 feet while Lesnar was WWE champion at the time. Hennig was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2007 and of course his son is with the company now wrestling as Michael McGillicutty.
**TNA has sent out a press release following the announcements that Dixie Carter made at Bellator last Thursday night. The company will be taping Impact in Jonesboro, Arkansas on March 28th and then in Corpus Christi, Texas on April 11th and also announce television tapings for Duluth, Georgia (which is where Bellator was being held that night) on June 6th.
**TNA also confirmed today the return of “ReACTION” as a YouTube property as they are teaming up with Machinima Sports with weekly episodes to be posted on their YouTube channel at YouTube.com/MachinimaSports.
**This weekend Ring of Honor will be in Cincinnati, Ohio at the Masonic Center with a live event headlined by Kevin Steen & Jimmy Jacobs & Steve Corino vs. Davey Richards & Adam Cole & Michael Elgin.
LAW MMA UPDATE
**World Series of Fighting president Ray Sefo will be a guest on The MMA Report later this week with me.
**Tito Ortiz appeared on “Inside MMA” last week and has instructed his client Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos to ask for a release from her Zuffa contract. Santos had fights remaining on her Strikeforce deal and were absorbed when Strikeforce went out of business by the UFC. Santos has stated she can cut down to 140-pounds but cannot make 135-pounds for the fight with Ronda Rousey and the two sides remain at an impasse.
**Due to Manny Gamburyan having to pull out of the February 23rd UFC 157 card in Anaheim it has left featherweight Chad Mendes without an opponent and will not be competing on the card any longer. As a result the heavyweight bout between Lavar Johnson and Brendan Schaub has been promoted to the main card. Mendes suggested on Twitter that Ricardo Lamas take the fight but Lamas responded stating he just accepted a fight for May but has not been announced yet.
**The UFC has added a middleweight bout between Tom Lawlor and Michael Kuiper to the UFC on FUEL 9 card set for April 6th in Stockholm, Sweden. That card is headlined by Alexander Gustafsson vs. Gegard Mousasi.
**The TUF 17 Finale has been announced for Saturday April 13th in Las Vegas, Nevada at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino headlined by heavyweights Travis Browne and Gabriel Gonzaga. The UFC has also announced that the second women’s fight in UFC history will take place on this card with Miesha Tate taking on Cat Zingano.
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THE LAW – February 12th 2013
(Dan Lovranski and Jason Agnew welcome Matt Riddle, Dave Meltzer, take your calls and LAW Xtra with a review of NJPW iPPV)
http://datav3.fightnetwork.com/blog/36334.mp3
*****
THE MMA REPORT W/ JOHN POLLOCK
(John Pollock chats with UFC welterweight Matthew Riddle and Damon Martin from Bleacher Report)
http://iphone.tsn.ca/tsnpodcasts/THE-MMA-REPORT-FEB-7-2013.mp3
*****
REVIEW-AN-IMPACT – February 8th 2013
(John Pollock and Wai Ting chat with Nate Milton about Impact in Manchester, Tables Match and more)
http://datav3.fightnetwork.com/blog/36310.mp3
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JAPANESE AUDIO WRESTLING – February 8th 2013
(Chris Charlton and WH Park preview NJPW iPPV, Flair and AJPW drama, KENTA wins GHC Title and more)
http://datav3.fightnetwork.com/blog/36308.mp3
*****
REVIEW-A-WAI – ECW Wrestlepalooza 1997
(John Pollock and Wai Ting welcome Toronto comic Dylan Gott to review ECW Wrestlepalooza ’97)
http://datav3.fightnetwork.com/blog/36254.mp3
*****
REVIEW-A-RAW – February 5th 2013
(John Pollock and Wai Ting chat Raw from Atlanta featuring Brock Lesnar killing The Miz and more)
http://datav3.fightnetwork.com/blog/36228.mp3
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Contact John Pollock - john@fightnetwork.com / @LAWradio / @iamjohnpollock
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