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." ...