TNA Home Video is proud to announce their partnership with Fighting Spirit Distribution in France. Fighting Spirit Distribution and TNA have entered into a license agreement to bring the fans what they have been craving and that is top rated wrestling DVDs from TNA Home Video. TNA Home Videos will now be available at major retailers throughout France.

The first DVD scheduled for release in France is TNA’s 2008 “Bound For Glory” epic event, going on sale on December 10. Watch for other TNA Home Video releases including “Kurt Angle: Champion”, “Ultimate Matches” and the 2008 “Turning Point” Pay-Per-View.

All of these DVDs and many more will be available in France from TNA and Fighting Spirit Distribution!

Earlier on Friday, after opening the day at $9.57, WWE’s stock price had tumbled as low as $8.76.

Overall though, its hasn’t been a good week for WWE, with stock falling from $12.40 on Monday morning. That’s a fall of over 22 per cent for the trading week.

Phil Lowe
phil@ifight365.com

The Main Event Mafia rolled a casket out to the ring to signify the burial of Christian Cage after last week’s beatdown. Whenever you see a casket in pro wrestling rings, it just brings to mind lots of negative connotations. Angle still claims that he’s facing Jeff Jarrett at Final Resolution, even though no such match has been agreed to by Jarrett. Rhino came out and referred to Cage in the past tense, like he had already signed with the WWE. It’s strange enough they donated the final segment of last week’s show to someone who isn’t even officially gone yet, but now they open up this week’s show with the same thing. As badly as Rhino has been castrated over the past two years, he did a good promo running down the mafia and had the crowd solidly behind him. He even got the best of Kevin Nash on the stick. Before things started to make too much sense, Rhino charged the ring. About six TNA Originals watched on while Rhino got destroyed five-on-one. They cut back to Jeff Jarrett and Mick Foley watching from a monitor backstage. Instead of running to the ring and making a save, they just stood there. Sure made them look lame. Rhino got put inside the coffin.

To the back, where Foley mentioned that the Main Event Mafia has done things not even the NWO or Degeneration X ever did. Foley asked Jarrett when did he agree to face Angle, and Jarrett denied making such a claim. Jarrett vowed to get the house in order tonight.

Backstage, the Motor City Machine Guns were acting obnoxious toward Samoa Joe and A.J. Styles. By acting like they hate management, Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin are about to become the coolest heels in the company. Foley walked in and ordered the guns to face Joe and Styles tonight.

1. Black Machismo and Consequences Creed defeated Tanahashi and Sonjay Dutt. At least the announcers didn’t forget about the Black Machismo-So Cal Val angle, even though the bookers sure have. They barely had enough time to do the hot tag sequences and go to the finish. Creed got the pin on Dutt with a TKO. *1/4

The Beautiful People were backstage with Cute Kip. Christy Hemme had recruited a new partner in Sojournor Bolt, who jobbed quickly to Kong months ago. I guess that was forgotten here. Angelina Love were hilarious making fun of Hemme’s lack of qualifications as a wrestler, thinking she belonged more in a strip club. Love and Velvet Sky are still great heels.

Suicide’s time is drawing near. Well, as soon as his bicep heels.

The Feast or Fired match will return at Final Resolution. Judging by all the contracts coming due in the spring, there’ll be an even better chance to make this a shoot this year than it was last year. The promo piece mentioned how a new champion was crowned, but showed Petey Williams. If you’ll recall, Williams was supposed to get the World Title shot, but wound up getting an X Division shot instead when Scott Steiner simply switched briefcases. They also mentioned the breakup of Kip James and B.G. James as a tag team and Christopher Daniels supposedly getting fired. Of course, Daniels is still with the company, and they could have really helped the credibility of the match by getting Senshi the fired briefcase since he had already given notice.

Jim Cornette, as the third authority figure to appear in the first half hour of the show, had Eric Young, Sheik Abdul Bashir and referee Shane Sewell in his office. Cornette acknowledged Sewell’s wrestling past in Canada and Puerto Rico, but said he couldn’t beat up wrestlers anymore. Cornette awarded the X Division title back to Bashir, placed Sewell on probation, and in order pacify Young he gave him a Legends title shot tonight against Booker T.

The Beautiful People defeated Christy Hemme and Sojournor Bolt. They really missed an opportunity here to hammer home how much mainstream publicity the whole Sarah Palin angle received. It was only mentioned in passing. Say what you want about WWE, but if this had been Raw there would have been screen shots from MSN, Huffington Post, various other political blogs and everywhere else it turned up over the past week. Another example of why this company just will never seriously challenge WWE. Bolt looked a lot better getting squashed by Awesome Kong than she did working spots at ¼ speed with Love. Hemme got the hot tag, but Love got the pin with a Lights Out. ¾*

Rough Cut: LAX continued. Homicide was the focus, and mentioned he was an altar boy growing up. They showed Homicide’s youth growing up and actually interviewed Steve Mack, who was Monsta Mack from the early days of Ring of Honor. He told a story about wrestling the same night he got shot, and used a bunch of tampons to heal the wound. Think next week’s installment will include footage from Homicide’s latest appearance at an ROH show? Me neither.

The premiere of ODB’s Angle was actually very entertaining. ODB’s hair now sticks straight up and looks like Bull Nakano. Her guest was Sharmell, and the two actually had good chemistry together. ODB thought she was named after toilet paper. When Sharmell asked for some Don Perignon, ODB mentioned she had him last night and he wasn’t all that good. They started arguing about the Main Event Mafia, and it ended with ODB challenging Sharmell to a dance contest at the PPV. Well, that may not be as entertaining.

Kurt Angle did an interview announcing that the winner of the Motor City Machine Guns/Joe-Styles match could pick two wrestlers of their choosing, and they would face Sting/Steiner/Nash and Booker at the PPV in an eight-man match.

Tenay announced Petey Williams would be out of action for a month with a concussion after getting beat down last week by the Mafia.

Samoa Joe and A.J. Styles defeated the Motor City Machine Guns. Very good match. They did topes right away, with Chris Sabin colliding with Joe head-to-head, and Styles coming right back with a somersault tope onto Sabin and Alex Shelley. Guns work all sorts of great looking high spots, but now are being treated in the commentary as heels. After Sabin accidentally crotched Shelley on the top rope, it ended up with Styles pinning Shelley with a Styles Clash. **3/4

Postmatch, Angle, Booker and Nash ran in to beat down Nash and Styles. Sabin and Shelley were nowhere to be seen. Creed and Machismo ran in for the save. Machismo throwing punches to Nash looked completely ridiculous. It ended with the faces, well, Machismo and Creed being laid out and the Mafia standing over them.

After a commercial, Rhino (wasn’t he in the casket?), with his head bandaged, walked into the TNA Originals locker room and gave them the latest pep talk that didn’t get over.

4. Booker T defeated Eric Young to retain the Legends Championship. Can’t wait to see the Legends Championship with the Western States Heritage Championship in the patheon of defunct titles that didn’t get over. Young spent the first half of the match crossing up Booker’s traditional spots until Booker finally hit a savoc kick. Young made a rally and hit the death valley driver for a two count. Booker eventually got the pin clean with the ax kick. *3/4

Team 3-D was backstage with Jeremy Borash cutting a promo with Beer Money. Apparently, they’re about to become faces again without actually doing an official turn. Kind of like Sting turning heel without actually turning. Then again, he’s not really a heel either. Anyway, Brother Ray even denounced the Mafia.

Kurt Angle and Kevin Nash defeated Abyss and Matt Morgan. Abyss did his stationary offense against Angle early, and Morgan got a near fall with a bicycle kick. Of course, it would have been silly to have Morgan or Abyss taking the heat against Angle because of the size disparity, so the first few minutes of the match were pretty meaningless. Nash tagged in, and he and Morgan looked roughly the same size. Morgan started selling after Angle snuck in and gave him a chop block. Beer Money walked out midway through the match. Aren’t they feuding with Team 3-D? Abyss got the hot tag. Finish came when Abyss chased Angle to the floor, but then cleaned house on Beer Money. As Abyss was about to use a move off the second rope, James Storm hit Abyss from behind with a beer bottle, and Nash pinned Abyss with a big boot. In Mexico 15 years ago, Konnan used the beer over the head angle to set business records. Somehow, I don’t think this will have the same effect. *3/4

Mick Foley came out to announce the main event for Final Resolution. It was the strangest speech Foley’s ever delivered, where he admitted that the Main Event Mafia had run roughshod over TNA. Meanwhile, the crowd seemed to be reacting to something, but whatever it was had nothing to do with what Foley was saying. Foley, who usually has quite the poker face, was clearly getting flustered. Foley said perhaps the Mafia wasn’t only the past and present of wrestling, but the future as well. It’s gotten to the point where I’m not sure if the company can’t stop burying its own now. Then he announced that the eight-man match at Final Resolution would have a special stipulation that only Russo could have dreamed up, where if any member of the Mafia gets pinned by any member of Styles’ team, then A.J. Styles would get the world championship. I was waiting for Foley to make sense out of that, but no dice. Then he announced Angle’s opponent at the PPV would be Rhino, which got no pop at all. A furious Angle came out upset that he wouldn’t face Jarrett, which sure buried Rhino bad. As if that hasn’t happened countless times since 2006. Angle said he had never pinned Jarrett. That would seem to be right since Angle made his debut just as Jarrett was leaving the WWF in 2000 when he held Vince McMahon up for hundreds of thousands of dollars to drop the Intercontinental title to Chyna before jumping to WCW. Talk about something that will never happen again. Anyway, Angle teased a match with Foley and then slapped him. This brought out Jarrett. They tried to play this up like it was a huge confrontation, but Jarrett got a disappointing pop. Foley had enough going against him in this angle, then he had to be Jarrett’s set up man. Definitely one night I’m glad I wasn’t him. Then again, after he went home, he climbed into bed with his wife who was once a model. Maybe I do want to be him. Jarrett said he can’t fire angle because “of that stipulation in his contract.” I have no idea what he was talking about. Anyway, Jarrett announced that Angle’s match with Rhino would have an added stipulation. If Angle wins, he will get his wish and face Jarrett. If Rhino wins, Angle’s contract is null and void and he’s gone from the company. Jarrett stuck his hand out to shake, but Angle slapped him. Jarrett teased slugging him, but instead Rhino ran out and gored Angle.

Jeff Hamlin
jhamlin@vilcom.com

The UFC were looking into staging an event there in the future after a billed was passed regulating MMA from July 1, 2009.

Earlier this year, White was quoted as saying on the prospect of running in Hawaii: “When we do, do an outdoor, big stadium, it will definitely be Hawaii.”

But those plans have been thrown out of the window, with White saying that such a show would be too expensive.

The UFC President was in Hawaii to promote January 31’s fight between champions BJ Penn and George St-Pierre.

He told Honolulu’s Star Bulletin: “We finally get some regulations and they slap this huge tax on us that’s out of control, so probably never.

“I guess it’s their way of saying ‘OK, we’ll sanction this, but we’ll make sure nobody ever shows up and comes and does an event here.’”

The bill regulating MMA in Hawaii has already hurt local MMA promotions, including Icon Sport, which held what could be its last show back August after an 11-year run.

“Greed got involved and it’s a travesty,” added Penn. “The real travesty of the whole situation is the children who love fighting and train in people’s gyms and love fighting now have people coming in who know nothing about the sport step in and ruin it for the kids.

“They really should step back and think about what they are doing, forget about the greed factor, and step up and let the sport grow and flourish instead of being greedy.”

Phil Lowe
phil@ifight365.com

Its the final WWE show before this Sunday’s Survivor Series PPV. As always, we’ll have live coverage on Sunday night from around 7.30pm EST/12.30am GMT along with our usual PPV preview up on the site at some point on Sunday afternoon.

The announced card for Sunday’s show is as follows:

- Chris Jericho (C) vs. John Cena for the World Heavyweight Title

- Triple H (C) vs. Vladimir Kozlov for the WWE title. If Jeff Hardy defeats Triple H tonight on Smackdown, he will be added to the match, which will be made a a Triple Threat

- The Undertaker vs. Big Show in a Casket Match

- Team HBK (Shawn Michaels, Rey Mysterio, The Great Khali and Cryme Tyme) vs. Team JBL (JBL, Kane, MVP, The Miz and John Morrison) in a Survivor Series elimination match.

- Batista, CM Punk, Kofi Kingston, Matt Hardy and R-Truth vs. Randy Orton, Mark Henry, Cody Rhodes, Shelton Benjamin and William Regal in a Survivor Series elimination match

- Beth Phoenix, Mickie James, Jillian Hall, Candice Michelle and Kelly Kelly vs. Michelle McCool, Victoria, Maria, Natalya and Maryse in a Raw vs. Smackdown Survivor Series elimination match.

Phil Lowe
phil@ifight365.com

But in the minutes that followed after trading commenced in New York, WWE’s price had dropped to $9.07 before making a slight recovery.

We’ll have an end of week update when trading ends this evening.

Phil Lowe
phil@ifight365.com

As we’ve been reported over the past couple of weeks, WWE have recently released a number of wrestlers with more likely to follow as the company look to cut costs.

Ross wrote: “A fan wrote me and asked if I thought that there would be more talent cuts within the WWE soon and my honest and direct answer is that I don’t know. However, if forced to make a prediction I would think yes and that unfortunately, but honestly, it isn’t a bad thing to change the bottom and then the middle of the lineup at least annually. Roster “upgrades” was always my goal when I worked in talent relations as it is today. However, the more cooks in the kitchen regarding who goes and who stays makes it more difficult in my opinion.

“The hardest part of the talent relations job for me was giving an individual the bad news that they were being released. I disliked that aspect of the job immensely. Years ago when former or active wrestlers had the responsibility of saying adiós to talents some of those individuals seemed to actually enjoy their power trips and providing bad news. Looking at it in hindsight, most of these men who were in positions of power were bullies at heart with low self esteem.”

As part of WWE’s cost cutting exercises, the Smackdown announcer added: “It is my understanding that we are taping two episodes of Friday Night Smackdown in Albany, New York on Tuesday night which might become something that occurs on a more regular basis as a means of being a cost cutting measure. That sure works for me as it means one less week on the road.”

As noted yesterday, WWE’s stock price closed on Thursday at $9.31 - down nearly 10 per cent for the day and WWE’s lowest price in years.

You can read Ross’ blog in full by clicking here.

Phil Lowe
phil@ifight365.com

Fox has released the above trailer for “The Wrestler,” which will begin a limited theatrical run in the US on December 31, 2008 followed by a wider release on January 16, 2009.

A HD version of the trailer is available via Apple.com by clicking here.

Dan Short
dan@ifight365.com

Christian Wellisch, also released as part of a falling out between White and Zinkin Entertainment, has also been reinstated, while Cain Velasquez and Josh Koscheck are to remain with the UFC after their jobs were at risk earlier in the week.

The news means that Fitch’s fight with Akihiro Gono will likely be back on for UFC 94: St-Pierre vs. Penn on January 31.

According to a report on Sherdog.com late on Thursday, Zinkin Entertainment reached out to UFC co-owner Lorenzo Fertitta and successfully renegotiated to bring Fitch back to the UFC.

Fitch had his contract terminated on Wednesday after refusing to sign an agreement that would give the UFC lifetime rights to his likeness for videogames.

As part of his deal to return, Fitch has signed the same contract for the UFC to use his likeness for the THQ-developed “UFC 2009 Undisputed” video game slated for release Spring 2009.

UFC president Dana White will also back down on his pledge to not do business with American Kickboxing Academy fighters.

Phil Lowe
phil@ifight365.com

After opening at $10.16 following Wednesday’s three-year low closing price of $10.33, WWE’s stock price closed on Thursday at $9.31 - down nearly 10 per cent for the day.

Perhaps more worrying is that the stock has dropped below the $10 mark.

WWE’s price dropped as low as $9.25 at one point after falling throughout the day after what was already a poor start to the day.

Since Monday, WWE’s market value has fallen 24 per cent, falling from $888.5million at the start of the week to $677.45m at the end of trading on Thursday.

Phil Lowe
phil@ifight365.com