Wrestler Steve Bradley dead at age 32

Photo courtesy of www.obsessedwithwrestling.com


This evening, I read on a message board that 411wrestling.com reported that professional wrestler Steve Bradley [pictured above], who worked a number of dark [non-televised] matches for World Wrestling Entertainment [WWE] in the late 1990's and early 2000's, was found dead in his car Thursday morning in a parking lot across the street from where he once operated a professional wrestling school in Manchester, N.H. Bradley was only 32-years of age.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Bradley and his career, he started wrestling in 1991, when he was just 15-16 years of age on the East Coast. In the late 1990's, Bradley signed a developmental contract with WWE and was assigned to their then developmental camp at Power Pro Wrestling [PPW] in Memphis, Tenn.

Ironically, Kurt Angle was signed at the time and the two feuded over the Power Pro Wrestling Championship, which Pro Wrestling Illustrated voted "Underrated Feud of the Year." A little trivia fact here...Bradley was actually the first wrestler to defeat Angle via pinfall. In 1999, Bradley won the third annual East Coast Wrestling Association [ECWA} Super-8 Tournament, defeating current Total Nonstop Action [TNA] wrestler Christopher "Curry Man" Daniels.

During his tenure in WWE, Bradley worked for PPW, Memphis Championship Wrestling [MCW] Heartland Wrestling Association [HWA], Ohio Valley Wrestling [OVW] and other promotions/territories that were affiliated with WWE at the time, even including Puerto Rico's International Wrestling Association [IWA] promotion. While in MCW, Bradley won the territories heavyweight championship, defeating current Smackdown superstar R'Truth.

Even though Bradley worked a number of dark matches prior to WWE television tapings and house shows, Bradley never received the call-up to the main roster, even though his ring work was said to be similar to that of Rob Van Dam and once Van Dam joined WWE in the summer of 2001, Bradley simply got lost in the shuffle and was ultimately released by WWE in the summer of 2002 during a talent purge.

Following his released from WWE, Bradley returned to the East Coast, specifically the New England area, and opened his own wrestling school, Top Rope Wrestling Academy, which unfortunately was shut down within the past six-months.

It is unfortunate that the professional wrestling community has lost another young live and hopefully, people in the media won't run Bradley's name through the mud like they did with other wrestler's who had passed away shortly before and after the Chris Benoit murder/suicide case in the summer of 2007.

However, my gut tells me that this wasn't a case of murder but rather suicide. Going on what has been reported and reading about Bradley's life, it reads that Bradley decided to end his life after having his wrestling school shut down and coming so close to realizing his dream of making it to WWE's main roster, especially when one considers that Bradley had been dealing with personal issues over the years and was one of the former talents that took WWE up on their offer of getting help to former talents within the past year.

WWE Royal Rumble 2009 Poster Revealed

Here is the promotional poster for the upcoming World Wrestling Entertainment [WWE] Royal Rumble pay-per-view event to be held on Jan. 25, 2009 at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, Mich.


Photo courtesy of wikipedia.com

Vote for the new basic Edge t-shirt at wwe.com

In accordance with their new "Basic T-Shirt" line, World Wrestling Entertainment [WWE] is currently conducting the following poll to see which shirt the WWE Universe, or fans, prefer, for the Rated-R Superstar Edge [I personally chose number one but like Hurricane Helms, I'm just sayin'].



Option 1 [All photos courtesy of wwe.com]



Option 2



Option 3

The categories for this year's WWE Slammys!

Photo courtesy of wwe.com


In 1986, World Wrestling Entertainment [WWE], then known as the World Wrestling Federation [WWF], held the first ever "Slammy Awards," which was the company's version of the "Oscars" where awards were given to the wrestlers for various categories, such as "Best Personality," "Best Commentator," "Best Finisher," and more.

Next week on a special live three-hour Raw, the Slammys will make their long awaited return to the WWE family for the first time since 1997 and only the fifth time in 22-years [1986, 1987, 1996, 1997].

This years categories include the following:

*Superstar of the Year

*Match of the Year

*OMG Moment of the Year

*Diva of the Year

*DAMN! Moment of the Year

*Tag team of the Year

*Best Musical Performance

*Best Finishing Move of the Year

*Most Extreme Moment of the Year

*Couple of the Year

*Breakout Star of the Year

*Announcer of the Year

*Best WWE.com Exclusive of the Year

*Best Impersonation of the Year


Now, there have been no nominations mentioned for any of the various categories so I am going to give you my picks for each category in the order as listed above. Here we go:

Randy Orton

Jericho/HBK Ladder Match No Mercy 2008

John Cena surprise return at Royal Rumble 2008

Beth Phoenix

Santino Marella kisses Beth Phoenix

Miz and Morrison

Lilian Garcia for "Quiero Vivir"

Evan Bourne's Shooting Star Press

Jeff Hardy's Swanton Bomb on Randy Orton from the Raw Stage Tower

Beth Phoenix and Santino Marella

Kofi Kingston

Matt Striker

"The Dirt Sheet"

Charlie Haas as Stone Cold Steve Austin.

D.H. Smith's bold statement about being the best

Photo courtesy of wwe.com


In a recent interview with the Miami Herald, current World Wrestling Entertainment [WWE] superstar DH Smith [pictured above], the son of the late "British Bulldog," made a bold statement by saying he is better than the other second-generation superstars in WWE.

In the interview, Smith, who was suspended 30-days for his first violation of the company's Wellness Policy a little over a year ago, stated the following, "Well, this may sound kind of brash, but I think that I'm better than all of them. Joe Hennig is good. Ted DiBiase Jr. has certainly worked hard enough to get to his position, but they aren't from the dungeon...It's only going to be a matter of time before I go up to Smackdown and then, I'm going to show the wrestling world exactly why I am the past, present and future."

Smackdown lead-announcer Jim Ross touched on this subject on his official blog by stating, "Bold statement in a recent newspaper interview by D.H. Smith that he is the best second generation wrestler in WWE today. I like the young man's confidence and after seeing him this week, he looks physically ready to go...I suspect that Smith will debut on Smackdown in the next few weeks but that is speculation only."

I usually don't like people who talk before showing it but in this case, I agree with Smith. This man has been wrestling professional for six-to-seven years and it hasn't been in the independents. Rather, Smith, who is a graduate of the legendary "Hart Family Dungeon," has honed his craft and skills by wrestling all over the world in Japan, Europe, Mexico and anywhere else there is wrestling, something William Regal was very impressed with.

How can anyone argue against what Smith said especially when one watches his matches from Japan and researches the fact that WWE wanted to sign him back in 2002 when he was 15 or 16-years old, an offer Smith politely refused, stating he wanted to gain more experience before coming aboard, something WWE was very impressed with.

I just hope these comments don't upset the higher ups in WWE and ruin what could be a new generation Hart Foundation as just this past week at the Smackdown tapings, Smith and TJ Wilson, known as "The Canadian Bulldogs," wrestled a dark match against the WWE Tag Team Champions, Carlito and Primo Colon, and had Smackdown Diva Natalya as their manager.

It's like Kid Rock says in his song "Cocky,"........"They say I'm cocky and I say what? It ain't bragging if you do it and back it up!"

Benoit murder influences "Shield" series finale

Photo courtesy of wikipedia.com


This past Tuesday night, the FX channel aired the series finale of "The Shield," which was an American-police drama series known for its controversial portrayal of corrupt police officers and was originally advertised as "Rampart," which was a reference to the true life Rampart Division police scandal, which the shows Strike Team was loosely based upon.

Anyway, during the finale, there was a scene that struck a cord with professional wrestling fans and that was because the scene was based on the real-life murder/suicide case of Chris Benoit and his family.

In the scene that aired, one of the main characters, Shane Vendrell, killed himself and his family in to order to prevent any of them from suffering because of the hole Vendrell dug himself into throughout the series.

Ultimately, Vendrell overdoses his pregnant wife and son with painkillers that were placed in their drinks and places them on a bed with flowers and toys in their hands. The bodies lay peacefully on the bed with their hands on their chest, which is eerily reminiscent of the real life Benoit murder-suicide incident and then, Vendrell kills himself with a gun.

The creator of the show, Shawn Ryan, said the original script called for Vendrell to get caught by police but told the writers to make the scene similar to what Benoit did last summer.

I'm sorry but I think Ryan should have just stuck with the original script mainly because a lot of viewers were waiting for the corrupt officers to get what was coming to them. I know television shows do something like this all the time where the creator gets inspiration from real-life events but this one was in bad taste, mainly because two innocent people lost their lives for no reason.

I am surprised no one has stepped up and mentioned anything about this, considering how every major news outlet had their teeth sunk into the case last summer when it was revealed Benoit killed his family and then himself.

I know Ryan is going to claim creative license and all that stuff but he should have exercised better judgment. But, what can anyone do who has a complaint? The show is over and not coming back so I guess Ryan was smart and saved a controversial topic for the end.

Here is the scene courtesy of YouTube user "wivvangelist."

Wrestling Recipes Week 13 - Rated R Holiday Egg-Nog

Photo courtesy of WWE Magazine


Now that the holiday season is officially here, its time for last minute Christmas shopping, tons of food and both business and family gatherings. This weeks recipe is a perfect way to entertain guests at any gathering and is sure to get people in the Christmas Spirit and if you really want to make it a night they won't forget, record their actions after they drink this remedy and post it on YouTube.


RATED-R HOLIDAY EGG NOG


Ingredients:
*6 eggs
*1/2 cup rum
*2 cups heavy cream
*1/2 cup brandy
*1 cup milk
*1/2 cup whiskey
*1 cup sugar
*1 tbsp nutmeg

Directions:
1) Whip eggs.
2) Mix cream, milk, sugar.
3) Add rum, brandy, whiskey.
4) Top with Nutmeg and serve warm.