Killer Kowalski Removed From Life Support, A Sad Update From Francine Fournier

– At his family’s discretion, wrestling legend Killer Kowalski was removed from life support on Monday in Whidden Memorial Hospital in Everett, Massachusetts, reports SLAM! Wrestling. However, the family is still holding out hope that Kowalski gets better. Kowalski’s brother Stan Spulnik said Tuesday tonight: “He’s off life support. There’s not much you can say. It’s more or less waiting.” Also, Spulnik is “a little annoyed” that his youngest son, Mark, who lives in Australia, posted a blog (walterkowalski.blogspot.com) about his uncle’s death, who has not passed away. For the latest on Kowalski’s health, click here.

– Reader High Voltage sent in the following, which is a MySpace blog posted by former ECW valet Francine Fournier:

A sad update

Just wanted to let you all know that both my Father and my sister have cancer and they both have 6 months or less to live (at least that’s what the doctors told us). I am beyond upset right now. I appriciate all of your prayers and ask you to please continue to pray for them because miracles do happen. I just don’t want them to suffer. I am going to spend as much time as I possibly can with both of them, so I won’t be on here that much anymore, at least not while this is going on. I just wanted to say that I appriciate each and every one of you and love you all very much. Again, please keep my Daddy and Chrissy and my family in your prayers. Thank you all so very much.
Francine xo

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Cena Signing Draws Huge Crowd, WWE Hires New Firm, FCW

WWE – Did you know?

WCW paid Ric Flair $75,000 to give back the WCW title after he had departed to the WWE in 1991.

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WWE News: The Great Khali’s Long-Term Future In Doubt, Pressure On Shelton Benjamin, Hawkins & Ryder Make History

source: www.prowrestling.NET

– WWE is looking to get as much out of The Great Khali while they still can. The belief is that he won’t be with the company for the long haul due to his ailing knees, as they continue to give him problems. Khali was said to not be too aggressive in rehab during his last round of knee surgeries. Nowadays, Khali struggles to get around and people are questioning his long term future in the business.

– SmackDown star Shelton Benjamin is getting pressure to step up his game during his latest push. A number of people believe Benjamin is a great athlete, but that he could be a better in-ring performer if he applied himself more and got motivated.

– WWE.com has a story on Curt Hawkins and Zack Ryder capturing the WWE Tag Team Championship at The Great American Bash. In case you don’t know, they made history by becoming the youngest champions to hold tag titles in the history of WWE. Hawkins said, “What we’ve accomplished is pretty spectacular. I want people out there who are over the age of 23 to stop and reflect on what they were doing at our age, because what have you accomplished? I know Zack Ryder and I are 23 years old and we’re already WWE Tag Team Champions.” {Hawkins and Ryder: WWE’s youngest Tag Team Champions}

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WWE News: Raw Star Suffers Injury At House Show, The Brand Prinze, Jr. Is Writing For, Jillian Hall, DVD Notes

source: Wrestling Observer Newsletter

– Lance Cade may be out of action. He broke his nose during a match at last Saturday’s Raw brand house show in Evansville, Indiana. He wasn’t on Raw this week, likely as a result of the injury.

– Michael Hayes will be taking Freddie Prinze, Jr. under his wing. Prinze, Jr. is slated to work under him on SmackDown. Prinze, Jr.’s hiring was not really a major topic of discussion backstage compared to other mainstream stories involving the company in the past.

– Here are the top units shipped figures for the company’s DVD releases so far this year: Wrestlemania 24 (305,000), Triple H (233,000), “Stone Cold” Steve Austin (221,000), The Rock (160,000) and The Hardys (140,000).

– WWE.com has posted a brand new photo shoot of Jillian Hall in a small white top dubbed “Wind Swept.” You can see the photos at this link. Hall was actually used this past Monday at the Raw taping in Knoxville, Tennessee. Jillian (badly) sang “Georgia On My Mind” before the crowd during a commercial break.

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WWE News: Update On Mick Foley’s Contract Expiring: Unhappy, Possibly Leaving

Source: prowrestling.net

As we reported here earlier this week, Mick Foley has been unhappy with his role as color commentator on SmackDown! and is considering leaving WWE when his contract expires in the coming weeks. There has been talk of holding him off television this week to sell the angle he did with Edge at the end of last week’s Smackdown, but it should be noted that the Edge angle was not specifically written as a way to get Foley off television.

The main factor contributing to Foley’s unhappiness is Vince McMahon yelling into his headset during SmackDown! broadcasts. McMahon regularly feeds lines to and communicates with WWE announcers while they are working and Foley is said to be at the end of his rope.

There was an incident that took place several months back while Mick Foley was calling SmackDown! with Michael Cole. Foley felt that Vince got so out of line with his yelling that he called Vince later that night to discuss the situation. Although sources indicate that Vince has toned i down while producing Foley since then, Mick is still bothered by the way he and other announcers have been produced.

Foley is expected to appear at SummerSlam in some capacity, but that show is being seen as a possible end-date for Foley if he chooses not to sign a new deal the company.

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WWE Releases Second Quarter Results, Declares Stock Dividend & More Financial News

– The Associated Press reports that World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. declared on Monday a regular quarterly dividend of 36 cents per share on its Class A shares of common stock. The company expects to pay the dividend Sept. 25 to stockholders on Sept. 15. WWE owner Vince McMahon’s family has waived 12 cents per share of the dividends. Class A and Class B shares owned by the family will instead receive dividends of 24 cents per share.

– WWE released its second quarter financial numbers this morning and reported a net income of $7 million or 10 cents per share. This figure is below the 12 cents per share that Wall Street analysts predicted yesterday, which sent WWE stock down over 7% on Tuesday morning.

In a press release that accompanied the information, Linda McMahon stated, “The Company made important progress in terms of its fundamental operating objectives. We achieved a significant increase in revenue from our international operations, continued the strong growth of our live event, licensing and home video sales, and maintained improved trends in our pay-per-view business.”

The second quarter financial report can be viewed online at WWE’s corporate website at this link.

– WWE will hold its Q2 2008 Earnings Conference Call today at 11am ET.

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WWE News: PPV Buyrates Released For Backlash, Judgement Day, ONS & Night of Champions

Source: corporate.wwe.com

As reported earlier today, World Wrestling Entertainment released their second quarter financial results. The entire report can be viewed at WWE’s Corporate website – click here for that.

Part of today’s financial news was the PPV buyrates for Backlash, Judgment Day, One Night Stand, and Night of Champions. Some good news for WWE – all four events sold more in 2008 than 2007. Here’s the breakdown:

- WWE Backlash: 200,000 buys (194,000 buys in 2007).

- WWE Judgment Day: 252,000 buys (242,000 buys in 2007).

- WWE One Night Stand: 194,000 buys (186,000 buys in 2007).

- WWE Night of Champions: 273,000 buys (243,000 buys in 2007).

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WWE House Show Results from Evansville, Indiana 8/2/08

Matt Prater’s August 2nd RAW House Show from Evansville, IN Review

Howard Finkle was the ring announcer and Jillian Hall was the hostess (she
was in the crowd and gave a couple of people in the nosebleeds some
ringside seats and allowed a kid to be Mickie James’ manager).

* Kofi Kingston vs. Paul Burchall (w/ Katie Lea)*
-This was a good, fast paced match. Kofi won with his finisher.

* Snitsky vs. DLo Brown*
-At the end of the match, Dlo went for the Low Down and Snitsky rolled out
of the way. When they returned to their feet, Snitsky hit the running big
boot and got the win. That was surprising, considering that Snitsky never
wins anymore and DLo just made his return.
*
Lance Cade vs. Paul London*
-This match was pretty fast paced. At one point during the match, Cade got
his nose busted open and was bleeding pretty bad. Cade won the match with
his finisher. After the match, refs came into the ring to disinfect the
ring.
*
Mickie James & Kelly Kelly vs. Burchall & Beth Phoenix*
-This was a good match. They allowed a fan to be Mickie James’ manager for
the evening. In the end, Mickie James got the win with her jumping DDT.

Santino came to the ring and got the microphone and Beth was still in the
ring. He told her she has lost her focus because she has been distracted
since they kissed a week ago. He then said that he was going to retire his
opponent after the match.

* Hacksaw Jim Duggan vs. Santino Marella*
-This match lasted about 10 seconds as Hacksaw hit the 3 point stance and
got the win. After the match, Beth Phoenix put Santino on her shoulder and
carried him out.

* Intermission* – During the intermission, my friend went to the concession
stand. There was a long line, so he didn’t get back in time for the next
match, but he met Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat walking around and that made
his day. My friend said that when Kane’s music hit all the little kids
came running back into the arena and then when Batista’s music hit, every
little kid that was left ran back in as soon as they could.

Jillian came out to the ring and said she was going to give the crowd a
gift. She then started singing, but was cut off by Kane’s music.

* Kane vs. Batista*
-This match got off to a REALLY slow start. They literally walked around in
circles with no action for a few minutes. When my friend got back to his
seat, he asked if he missed anything and I was like, “what you’re seeing
right now is all that has happened.” When the match finally got going, it
was actually decent. They made their way outside and used the steel steps
a couple of times. At the end of the match, Kane hit the chokeslam, but
Batista kicked out after a 2 count. Kane went to get his bag and the ref
tried to take it away and Batista speared Kane to pick up the victory.

* John Cena vs. Ted Dibiase Jr. & Cody Rhodes in a Handicap Match*
-Finkle said that RAW GM Mike Adamle ruled this to be a Handicap match. In
the end, Cena won with the STFU. I personally thought it was a bad idea to
have Cena squash the tag champs, but oh well. After the match, Cryme Tyme
entered the ring to help Cena and Cena FUed Dibiase Jr.

* CM Punk vs. Chris Jericho in a No DQ Match for the Title*
-They had been urging the fans to send in a text message to vote on the
match stipulations throughout the night. The choices were something I
can’t remember, 2 out of 3 Falls, and a No DQ match. I have been to enough
House Shows to know that the “fans” always choose the third option, so it
was a No DQ match.

Even though it was supposed to be a No DQ Match, the ref prevented Cade from
getting involved. When it spilled to the outside, the ref urged them to get
back into the ring. It was a good match, but the No DQ stupidity killed it
for me. Personally, I would have prefered a 2 out of 3 Falls match.
Anyway, during the match, Punk went for the GTS, but Y2J raked his eyes
and put him in the Walls of Jericho. Punk reached the ropes. In the end,
Jericho grabbed a chair (and the ref tried to stop him) and Punk kicked the
chair in his face and hit the GTS for the win. Punk celebrated by holding
the title up in the corner and bowing to the fans.

* Biggest Pops:*
John Cena (even though it was mixed, he still got the loudest reaction,
mostly positive)
Batista
CM Punk
Kane

*Biggest Heat:*
Jericho (for ranting on HBK)
Santino

---

Report sent in by Derek

I attended tonights RAW house show at the beautiful but slightly ran down Roberts Stadium in Evansville, Indiana. It was my son’s first WWE live event and he had a great time watching the action from our second row seats. Anyway. here are the results to best of my memory.

Opening match was Intercontinental Champion Kofi Kingston against Paul Burchill. It was back and forth but Kofi hit his finisher for the win. We all won since Katie Lee Burchill was at ringside.

The next match was D-Lo Brown against Snitsky. It warmed my heart to see D-Lo, minus his protective vest, facing ol’ yellow teeth. Too bad for D-Lo that Snits had his a-game on tonight and beat the crap out of D-Lo after mising a frogsplash. Snitsky was nice enough to pose post victory with a grin to show us his yellow teeth.

Lance Cade came out and reminded us that we were all crap and the only person he could trust besides himself was Chris Jericho. Good luck with that Lance. Anyway, Paul London made his way down to the ring and put up a decent fight for a guy who has been moved to jobber role. He was even kind enough to break open Cade’s nose bridge and give us a fair amount of blood flow. Cade hit his finisher and promptly left the ring while the refs scrubbed his blood out of the mat.

Next up was a Divas tag team match, Mickie James and Kelly Kelly (along with some random kid as guest manager) against Katie Burchill and Beth Phoenix. How it ended exactly I can’t remember, but I think James pinned Burchill. Lots of hooting and hollaring during this match.

Then of course we have Santino come out and face off with Beth Phoenix, telling her she was distracted and that he would retire an old man that night with his new hold the Santino clutch. Anyway, the old man was Hacksaw Jim Duggan who came out with US flag and chanting USA. To make a short story shorter, he pinned Santino in about twelve seconds. Hacksaw left and Beth Phoenix carried out Santino like a sack of potatoes.

Intermission

Kane vs. Batsista. A back and forth macth with Kane getting most of the offense. Until Kane goes for his bag that he is keeping his mask in (come on, you know it is his mask) and Batista hits the spear for the pin.

The next match is a handicap match between Cena and the tag champs Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase Jr. I have never wanted to jump the rail more than now at a wrestling match. I hate Cody Rhodes. Rhodes and DiBiase dominate Cena for awhile and then Cena fights back, puts Rhodes in the STF and wins. Then Crime Time hits the ring to even things up. Cena and the Crime Time pose and leave. What no witty John Cena promo????

Finally the main event. CM Punk defends his title against Chris Jericho in a No DQ match. Supposedly we fans texted in our votes and chose this match. Jericho started out with grabbing the mic and telling us we were all garbage and he would do to all the men , women and children (and maybe your pet dog) what he did to HBK . He then called down Lance Cade and the match was on. It was back and forth with everything from Jerich baring a turnbuckle to Punk throwing Jericho into the crowd but the end came as already before. Jericho grabs a chhair, Punk dropkciks it into Jericho’s head and then hits the GTS for the win. Punk is my kids’ new favorite wrestler. And Katie Le Burchill is mine.

Fun show, lots of stuff going on with Jillian Hall running around in a short black dress. She even sang for us, and I like her singing. Maybe not but I do like her. Anyway that was the Raw house show for Evansville, Indiana on 8/02/08

---

Report sent in by Tony Clutter

I went to the Evansville, Indiana WWE RAW house show and here’s what happened:

Jillian Hall was acting like a hostess throughout the evening.

Kofi Kingston beat Paul Burchill
(Katie Lea was at Paul Burchill’s side)

Snitsky beat DLO Brown

Lance Cade beat Paul London

Mickie James and Kelly Kelly beat Katie Lea and Beth Phoenix

Hacksaw Jim Duggan beat Santino in like a 5 second match
then Beth Phoenix picked up Santino and carried him out.

Batista beat Kane.

By order of new GM Mike Adamle it is a Handicap match
as John Cena beat Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase Jr

In a world title match CM Punk beat Y2J

Howard Finkle and Arn Anderson was seen also.
It was a lot of fun it was my 2nd WWE event ever!

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WWE House Show Results from Springfield, Illinois 8/1/08

Report sent in by Shane Pastrovich

WWE Raw house show results
Springfield, IL Prairie Capital Convention Center
August 1, 2008

I thought this show was much better than the Smackdown show I saw last September. Here are the results.

Intercontinental Champion Kofi Kingston beat Paul Burchill with the Trouble in Paradise spin kick to retain the title. A good, albeit, somewhat short match.

Snitsky beat Hacksaw Jim Duggan with a big boot. This was basically a squash. Duggan got very little offense in but the crowd loved him like always.

Lance Cade beat Paul London with his Rock Bottom/powerbomb finisher. Cade did some mic work before the match.

Women’s Champion Mickie James beat Beth Phoenix with her DDT to retain the title in a typical match between the two. A kid was selected earlier in the night to be the guest manager for Mickie James. Afterwards, Santino Marella did some mic work which lead to the next match.

D-Lo Brown beat Santino Marella with the frog splash

Intermission

Batista beat Kane with a spear after Kane was preoccupied with that bag he’s been carrying around. A slow match in the beginning that got better late with both hitting their signature moves along with several near falls. Another kid was picked to be the bell ringer for this match.

John Cena beat World Tag Team Champions Cody Rhodes & Ted Dibiase in a handicapped match when he made Dibiase tap out to the STFU. Cena hit all his signature moves and hit an FU after the match and celebrated with Cryme Tyme. No mic work by any of them.

World Champion CM Punk beat Chris Jericho in a no disqualification match with the GTS after hitting Jericho with a chair that Jericho had intended to use on Punk. Fans got to vote on the stipulation for the match. Either Falls Count Anywhere, Best 2 out of 3 Falls, or no DQ. I think they knew which one it was going to be without the so-called voting. Text messaging sucks and is overrated. Both Lance Cade and Jericho did some mic work before Punk came out. Jericho kept stalling and Punk got on the mic and said he’d let the fans in Springfield beat up Jericho after he’s done beating him up. After the match, Punk told the crowd he’s a 200 plus pounder from Chicago but the Springfield crowd made him feel right at home and he thanked the crowd.

Show started right at 7:30 and with the intermission it ended at around 10:15 or so. Howard Finkel was the announcer. He came out to Guns N Roses “Welcome to the Jungle” to signal the start of the show. Jillian Hall was there and she picked out the kids who got to participate and she started to “sing” before Kane’s entrance music cut her off. All in all a good show.

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