Dirt Sheet History: March 2008

Take a trip back to a memorable timeline in sports entertainment with the most important stories reported as fact in the journalistic world of pro wrestling dirt sheets.

Following the timeline of the last Dirt Sheet History looking back at February 2008, we get a glimpse into the top scoops from March of 2008 as we read Dirt Sheet History.

Reminder that you can find all past editions of Dirt Sheet History looking at 2004 through 2007 right here. Now enjoy March 2008.

3/1/2008

* Recently Jonathan Coachman disobeyed one of Vince McMahon‘s rules and was punished for it in public for it. During an Undertaker match, Taker and his opponent brawled outside the ring near the announcers’ table. WWE announcers are instructed to run away when the Undertaker is brawling on the outside and Coachman just sat there. As punishment, Coachman to come back into the ring at the end of the and took the finishing moves of multiple SmackDown! stars including Taker, Batista, and Finlay.

3/2/2008

* Controversial college basketball coach Bobby Knight has rejected TNA’s offer to become their first-ever “head coach”. A spokesman for Texas Tech University contacted TNA to inform them that Knight would not take them up on their offer, nor would he tape a brief segment for TNA Impact. Jeff Jarrett commented on the situation at TNA’s official website. “We knew luring Coach Knight to TNA wrestling was a long-shot, sort of like a half-court shot at the buzzer, but we had to give it a shot.” Jarrett added, “The door is always open to Coach Knight.”

3/3/2008

* A number of people in both Ring of Honor and TNA Wrestling are as baffled as anyone else about the official WWE website including news on their promotions. No one is complaining but everyone that I have spoken with has said it is a very weird move by WWE.

3/5/2008

* A week after the Associated Press broke the story that World Wrestling Entertainment is paying Floyd Mayweather $20 million for his involvement at WrestleMania XXIV, many people are doubting whether that figure is legit. One source within WWE told the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that Mayweather is actually receiving $1-2 million plus a percentage of the PPV revenue.

3/6/2008

* Ring of Honor officials are trying to get Rob Van Dam to appear at their event on May 10th from the Hammerstein Ballroom, New York. While people close to Van Dam have stated he’s not interested, ROH booker Gabe Sapolsky thinks it’s worth pursuing.

3/8/2008

* Chyna has signed on for the new reality show “Celebrity Circus.”

3/9/2008

* At a Raw brand houseshow in Louisville on March 1, Carlito came out to do an interview wearing a CM Punk shirt with his face cut out of the shirt. Carlito basically said that he cut the face out because he was out of toilet paper. It was done in Louisville because Punk is either based there or was based there. Also, Punk never came out to confront him as they’re on different touring brands, so they’re not building any angle.

It’s said to be a receipt over some bad blood the two have regarding something to with WWE Diva Maria Kanellis. Punk at one time dated Maria and Carlito supposedly hit on her. Carlito was able to get away with the house show incident because he is currently in good standing with officials after he agreed to not leave the company back in December. Carlito was promised that he’d be used better if he decided against leaving. His standing also explains Carlito landing a spot in the Money in the Bank match.

Punk has some detractors backstage, so Carlito was able to get away with doing this even though it was quite unprofessional of him to air out some dirty laundry when they’re not building an angle off of it.

3/10/2008

* Last night’s WrestleMania “weigh-in” segment on Raw between Floyd Mayweather and Big Show almost turned into a full-blow shoot on live television, reports Mike Johnson of the Professional Wrestling Insider. Apparently there were some members of Mayweather’s posse that wanted to prove how tough they were and began to stiff some wrestlers. Some wrestlers went right back at them for a minute before order was finally restored. Shane McMahon was legitimately knocked down on the ramp. After the segment ended there was said to be a lot of tension between Mayweather’s posse and WWE superstars backstage.

3/11/2008

* WWE is reportedly paying Mike Adamle $300,000 per year for his weekly work on Raw.

3/12/2008

* CM Punk is reportedly back in the dog house. The road agents aren’t particularly fond of his wrestling style, they believe that he’s a mark for himself, and he’s gotten some bad house show reports in recent weeks stating that he’s inconsistent and sloppy.

3/13/2008

* The Sun out of the United Kingdom recently interviewed TNA Champion Kurt Angle in their WrestleCast feature. The publication has published some quotes from the interview in an article now online. Below are some of the highlights:

On Triple H burying him backstage because people cheered him more than John Cena – “Triple H obviously wanted to bash me because I was a better wrestler than him and I deserved to be in the spot that he was in but he was never going to give up, he’s Vince McMahon’s son-in-law.

“I had to deal with that stuff all the time. I’d wrestle Shawn Michaels and I’d get a little rough with him, then I’d get heat from Vince McMahon because I beat up on Shawn too much.

“So I’m like – ‘Well you know what, I’m tired of the two long-haired sissies. If they can’t go up against me then don’t put them up against me.”

On Vince McMahon – “TNA is where I want to be and I’m happy where I am. Vince McMahon can kiss my ass.”

3/15/2008

* According to Life and Style Weekly, actress Angelina Jolie & her family are staying at a Texas area home owned by WWE star Undertaker while she’s filming her latest project, “Tree of Life.” Citing an insider, the report claims that “During their stay in Texas, the family is renting a Cedar Creek ranch, owned by the pro wrestler.” Jolie is traveling with her four children and Brad Pitt as well. It’s interesting to note that People Magazine once noted in a fun facts section of the magazine that as a child, Jolie wanted to be an undertaker and studied embalming.

3/16/2008

* WWE developmental wrestler Matt Sydal is training Floyd Mayweather for his upcoming WrestleMania match with Big Show because the two are similar in size. Sydal is billed as 5 five foot nine, but he’s really five foot seven.

3/18/2008

* One TNA wrestler is saying that Jeff Jarrett doesn’t want any TNA wrestlers attending WWE’s Hall of Fame ceremony in Orlando. Jarrett told the wrestler it would make TNA look bad if cameras caught him sitting in the crowd. A few TNA wrestlers purchased tickets for the event because they want to see Ric Flair‘s induction into the Hall of Fame.

3/19/2008

* TNA officials held a meeting at last week’s Impact tapings to address some backstage tension that exists among a few of female performers.

The bulk of the heat in the locker room is directed towards three TNA mainstays; Gail Kim, Christy Hemme and Traci Brooks. A few of the new women in the company believe that the trio act like they’re above most of the newer female performers.

Reportedly, Brooks lashed out at Jamie Szantyr a.k.a. “Velvet Sky” for not holding up her end of the match with Kim, which aired on Impact last week and was taped a few weeks ago.

Another issue brought up involves Trenesha Biggers a.k.a. “Rhaka Khan“. Reportedly, she offended the lady who handles makeup for TNA by complaining that she wasn’t happy with her work on her.

3/20/2008

* Steve Austin On Hulk Hogan slamming him: “He’s just a bitter, insecure guy. I give him all the credit in the world, because I’ve watched a lot of his career unfold and the Hulkamania thing was one of the biggest things ever. But believe me I’ve been around the entertainment business since the back end of 1989, and if there’s one thing you’re going to find out it’s that if you’ve got thin skin you’re probably in the wrong business. So there’s not a damn thing Hogan can say to rile me up or charge me up. I’m secure in the career that I’ve had and everything I did. It makes me laugh when he’s got to do that, because I really think it makes him look like a chump.”

3/21/2008

* Some top WWE people were upset with John Cena‘s father, John Cena, Sr., because they believed he was going to TNA. They were really upset with him and some of them gave the cold shoulder to people who are friends with him. A few weeks ago, it was reported online that Cena, Sr.’s alter ego, Johnny Fabulous, is the storyline president for the Millennium Pro Wrestling indy promotion out of Boston, and in the storyline, he signed a few TNA wrestlers such as Jay Lethal to appear at their next show (which takes place this Saturday night).

The Millennium Pro Wrestling website put out an announcement on this angle, and that’s where it came from. Somehow, the story turned into TNA looking to sign Cena, Sr. TNA officials, who weren’t aware of the storyline, found out about WWE’s reaction to it all and laughed at how silly it was. Last summer, TNA booked Cena, Sr. to make a cameo appearance at a house show in Hampton Beach. He was really excited to go, but WWE officials found out about the booking and scolded him for even considering the show. Of course, he was later pulled.

3/22/2008

* Despite the fact that he is very over with live crowds, C.M. Punk continues to rub people the wrong way backstage. His dry, sarcastic attitude has annoyed several WWE agents. This is not the first time Punk has had heat on him in WWE. Coming off a hot run in Ring of Honor, he was said to have a cocky attitude when he first entered the company last summer. His relationship with WWE Diva Maria also got him some negative attention.

3/24/2008

* Chris Jericho was interviewed by The Sun this week to preview WrestleMania XXIV. Jericho gives his WrestleMania picks and is very open about a number of sensitive topics.

Here are some highlights:

Does Jericho Believe Floyd Mayweather is getting $20 Million? “No. Maybe there are incentives and bonuses, but I find it very hard to believe they are just giving him a cheque for $20million. But there’s no doubt in my mind he’s making millions.”

Jericho on Jeff Hardy‘s Suspension: “I don’t really talk to Jeff outside of the business, but on his last day I think he was ashamed and embarrassed about it. Hopefully he can come back in 60 days and learn from that. He is going to have to, because he’s only got one more chance.”

Is Shawn Michaels-Flair The Real Main Event?: “I think so. How can it not be? There will probably never be another guy with the impact, and high level quality maintained over such a long period, as Ric Flair. He is the last of a breed and there are just so many things about his career that make it special. Ric Flair’s had the greatest career of all time. And the fact that, in my opinion, it is going to end at WrestleMania makes everyone want him to go out and steal the show for one last time.”

3/26/2008

* Despite the fact that many within WWE want Shawn Michaels vs. Ric Flair to be the final match at WrestleMania XXIV this weekend, WrestlingHerald.com reports that the WWE title triple threat match between Triple H, John Cena and Randy Orton will close the show.

3/27/2008

* During the Shark Boy & Curry Man vs. Team 3D Fish Market Brawl match at Destination X, a lady about ten rows back was hit right in the face by a flying fish thrown by Brother Ray. Security immediately attended to her, took her backstage and gave her ice.

As if that isn’t enough, there was another flying fish incident courtesy of Brother Ray. A production assistant was trying to clean off Mike Tenay and Don West‘s broadcast table when another flying fish — again thrown by Ray — hit her right in the back of the head and she smashed face-first into the table.

3/28/2008

* TNA wrestlers and management invited approximately 700 “VIPs” and so only 200 fans were let into the venue. Anywhere from 700 to 3,000 fans were turned away at the show — which is free by the way. A number of fans had waited 4 to 6 hours for the event. Outside, there was a rather hostile scene as a loud “F— TNA” chant broke out.

3/29/2008

* A source close to Leonard Ellerbe, Floyd Mayweather‘s manager, says that WWE has a major surprise for everyone at WrestleMania.

While Ellerbe legally prohibited from revealing the surprise, he did give enough information to make things interesting. Ellerbe told the source, “The match will shock the world and will have a swerve nobody will see coming.”

3/30/2008

* Actor Macaulay Culkin was at the Wrestlemania after-party tonight. He’s been a fan for years and was shown ringside at WrestleMania 7.

3/31/2008

* Many wrestling fans were hopeful that Ric Flair‘s match against Shawn Michaels would be the final match to close out last night’s WrestleMania XXIV. It turns out that Flair was offered the main event spot but turned it down.

There was a pitch made by a creative team member to have the final shot of WrestleMania be a spotlight on Flair’s boots and robe. However, Flair strongly disagreed with those sentiments when the idea was brought up to him during a press conference held prior to the WWE Hall of Fame convention.

Flair told reporters that nothing is more important than the title belts and insisted that his match with Michaels did not belong in the main event position.

– Tune back in next time for more Dirt Sheet History as we continue 2008.

Stories are credited from Rajah, PWTorch, PWInsider and The Wrestling Observer. Month name photo art is by Phillip Martin.

All past editions of Dirt Sheet History are found here.