Batson's Blog

It's been widely speculated for months now that Jeff Jarrett's big announcement (coming in about 48 hours according to his Twitter account ) is that he is partnering with Toby Keith to start a new wrestling promotion. Anytime there's the mention of the slightest bit of competition for WWE I immediately get visions of a new era of the Monday Night Wars. I became a wrestling fan in the middle of that era -- in 1997, when Monday Night Raw was losing the ratings war to Monday Night Nitro . To Dixie Carter's credit, she hasn't killed off TNA . It's a company that's over 10 years old now. It's not a threat to WWE's global empire though. IF Jeff Jarrett is starting a new promotion and IF that's his big announcement, I'll have to remind myself that it's going to take a while before (or, more appropriately "if") it's going to be competition to WWE. Success won't come overnight. I'm optimistic, however, because ...

News broke this week that Kassius Ohno (formerly Chris Hero of Ring of Honor fame) was released from his WWE contract . I don't think anyone who's been following the newsboards would be too surprised by this announcement. WWE signed Hero and Claudio Castagnoli in September 2011. While Castagnoli debuted as Antonio Cesaro in April 2012, Hero never appeared on Raw or Smackdown. He was stuck in NXT. Rumors began circulating that WWE management wasn't happy with his efforts. Whether that's true or not, it was put out there. Given that Hero has now been released, there was evidently some truth to WWE management not being happy with his progress. Hero addressed his release on his Facebook page, saying: "I’m leaving WWE on good terms so, if it’s meant to be, I’m sure I will be back. If it’s not meant to be, I can guarantee you that I will still be trotting all over the globe doing what I love (and what I’m damn good at) at the highest level possible." ...

Disclaimer: all of the following celebrity comparisons are based on personal opinion. You may agree with some and think I’m bat-shit crazy on others. There are ordinary people who look like other ordinary people. There are ordinary people who look like celebrities. Lastly, there are celebrities who look like other celebrities. Here's round 2 of celebrity look-a-likes: CM Punk and Adam Levine Adam Levine is the lead singer of Maroon 5. CM Punk is the longest reigning WWE Champion in recent history. Levine prefers that his hair stands straight up. Punk likes to gel his hair back. If not for the hair differences, these two could pretty much be each other. Even with the different hair styles, they could easily be brothers. I'm sure the ink-covered arms and other body parts don't hurt in making them look similar. I think Punk has more meat on him, but these two pretty much have the same build.

Let me say, first off, that I want CM Punk to beat The Undertaker this year and end the streak. I think he's a great candidate to do so. He's young enough to still have several good years left in WWE, he's a big enough name to make the win shocking, yet not unrealistic. He'd also get even more heat as a heel than he previously has. That being said, with Wrestlemania 30 next year, I don't see it happening. I think CM Punk is destined to suffer a couple of tombstone piledrivers and taking a pinfall. I'm alright with that too. After all, next year is Wrestlemania 30. It would be a nice, round number to have a culmination. For that very reason, I think it would be epicly cool to have CM Punk pull out a win at MetLife Stadium. I'm not optimistic about it happening, but I'd mark out if it did. Assuming Taker does defeat Punk on Sunday and assuming he does wrestle another match, that means he'll have another opponent for next year. I know ...

Beth Phoenix vs. Kharma Not only did they miss out on this potential match during Wrestlemania 27, but they missed out on it at Wrestlemania 28 as well. Kharma was already under contract in April 2011, when Wrestlemania 27 occurred. Beth Phoenix had returned from an injury at the previous Survivor Series. WWE didn't debut Kharma until Backlash, though -- one month after Wrestlemania. Then, as we all know, Kharma got pregnant and unfortunately lost her baby. Despite her terrible loss, Kharma returned at the 2012 Royal Rumble. Rather than using her and building towards a match with an injury-free Beth Phoenix at Wrestlemania 28, WWE didn't use Kharma and ultimately released her later on in the spring of 2012. WWE missed the boat on revitalizing a women's division and providing some serious female wrestling. Odds of it happening: slim-to-none since WWE released Kharma last year and Beth retired. With recent reports of WWE wanting to hire back some former Divas...

Just like I normally do since I gave up cable earlier this year , each Monday night, after Raw is over, I’ll check out Lords of Pain to read the recap. Despite a lackluster product, it’s hard to kill the wrestling fan in me. To my surprise, WWE generated a lot of buzz around last night's Raw, but unfortunately it wasn't the kind of buzz they were probably hoping for. Lots of headlines about CM Punk and an incident with a fan. Mr. Tito published a column saying that punishment should be coming Punk’s way. ‘What the hell happened?!?,’ I wondered. Turns out, as Raw was going off the air, Punk rushed into the crowd, like many heels have done in the past. Vince McMahon, who evidently made a return, was telling Punk who his opponent would be for the upcoming pay-per-view, Hell In A Cell. That’s when the incident with the fan happened. Punk was evidently annoyed by a few of the fans, but the camera cut to Mr. McMahon, who was still in the ring. When it cut back to Pun...