Dirt Sheet History: November 2006

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 October 2006, we get a glimpse into the top scoops from November of 2006.

Reminder that you can find all past editions of Dirt Sheet History looking at 2004 and 2005 right here at this very link. Now enjoy November 2006.

11/2/2006

* Stephanie McMahon will be making her long-awaited return to the road backstage at this Sunday’s Cyber Sunday pay-per-view. She was off the road for several months due to her recent pregnancy and giving birth. There is no word yet on her current physical shape considering that she gained an extraordinary amount of weight during her pregnancy, or if there are any plans for her to return to television.

11/3/2006

* ROH Tag Team champion Claudio Castagnoli has received a WWE developmental offer. Castagnoli had a tryout at the Deep South territory that allegedly went very well.

11/4/2006

* Jake Roberts is not done with TNA. There are talks of Abyss and Roberts continuing their oddball relationship. There was talk of “revealing” that estranged Roberts is the father of Abyss.

* TNA wants AJ Styles as the centerpiece of the X Division, which is why Chris Sabin‘s title victory at Bound for Glory was ignored on Impact last week. Russo is high on Styles and believes the move to prime time is a good time to reestablish Styles on top of that division.

11/5/2006

* As we all know by now, Big Show will be defending his ECW World Title against five other competitors at the upcoming December To Dismember pay-per-view in an Extreme Elimination Chamber Match. Thus far, Big Show, Rob Van Dam, Sabu and CM Punk (he defeats Knox next week) are scheduled to compete in the match. That leaves two spots open, which will likely go to Test and Hardcore Holly.

As reported earlier, The Big Show has been hurting to say the least. He’s had to be taken off several weekend house shows in the past few weeks because he’s in so much pain these days. When he does compete, its primarily in tag matches so that he doesn’t have to do much. Due to the Big Show’s lingering injuries, plans are being made for him to lose the title at December To Dismember.

One person you can count out on winning the title is Rob Van Dam. Vince McMahon is adamant about not giving the title to RVD after his recent drug arrest because he feels he can’t count on him anymore. Van Dam is said to be in a major funk because he knows he pretty much ended any chances he had of being the top guy with his drug arrest. So with RVD out of the picture, just who will be awarded the title?

Well, the current plan is for Andrew “Test” Martin to win the ECW Championship at the December To Dismember PPV. WWE is well aware that he isn’t their ideal option, but McMahon refuses to give it to RVD. With the exception of perhaps Sabu or Hardcore Holly, there’s nobody else that could be a viable option at this point. CM Punk isn’t ready for the time being, nor do they want to rush him into the role just yet. So well, the title will likely go to Test.

11/6/2006

* At least one backstage source is reporting that WWE is close to signing Canadian independent worker “Stampede Kid” TJ Wilson. Wilson has toured with New Japan and worked as Harry Smith’s tag team partner as the New Bulldogs in various independent promotions including Stampede Wrestling and the now defunct MLW. Wilson, who is very close to the Hart family, was recently evaluated by WWE scouts in Deep South Wrestling.

Nattie Neidhart made a favorable impression during her recent tryout at Deep South Wrestling, she is said to have a good shot at being offered a contract.

11/7/2006

* Some heat still lingers between Melina and Mickie James because James was rubbing things in to her because she got to go over in their match on RAW on 10/23. After she pinned Melina, Mickie taunted her by mocking the pose Melina would do in the center of the ring during her time with MNM. These two have a past of disliking each other that dates back to their time in Ohio Valley Wrestling.

11/8/2006

* SmackDown star Bobby Lashley has asked WWE officials to move him to another brand. Reportedly, he doesn’t get along at all with the new SmackDown head writer, Michael Hayes. The word going around is that Hayes doesn’t see much value in Lashley, and Lashley dislikes Hayes as well. Also, they have been involved in several backstage arguments in recent weeks. Lashley’s push has lessened greatly to say the least ever since his title match with No Mercy with King Booker was suddenly turned into a four-way match because WWE had little confidence in him headling a PPV by himself.

Should WWE grant his request, Lashley will probably be moving to ECW. Lashley enjoyed working with Paul Heyman in Ohio Valley Wrestling and that is why he has requested to be moved to ECW. Furthermore, ECW is lacking top-level talent, so this move seems likely.

11/9/2006

* In a bit of breaking news, CNN.com is reporting that Britney Spears has filed for divorce from husband Kevin Federline. Spears filed legal papers Tuesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court, citing “irreconcilable differences.” She also asked for legal and physical custody of their two children. Federline appeared on RAW last night in a taped segment issuing a challenge for a one on one match against WWE champion John Cena on the New Year’s edition of RAW.

Several Hollywood gossip websites are reporting that Spears left Federline several days ago, taking their children to a local Los Angeles hotel. Apparently, Federline allegedly went into a fit of rage and destroyed some property after Spears laughed at a tape of his recent WWE appearances. It looks like that may have been the breaking point for her.

11/10/2006

* Randy Orton apparently got in a confrontation with a fan yesterday at the RAW/ECW show in Newcastle, England. A fan began chanting “You’re on steroids” at Orton which caused him to break character, forget about the match, and grab security to have the fan ejected.

The security guard laughed and told the fan not to do it again in which infuriated Orton and another WWE official. The rowdy fan was finally ejected from the building.

11/11/2006

* The morale in the WWE locker room has been on shaky grounds as of late. One headliner told a backstage source that he regrets his recent decision to sign a new long term deal with WWE, saying that he’d rather work in TNA.

“The guys who used to be marks for being in WWE are starting to see TNA as a better place to be,” said one WWE wrestler. “TNA is seen as a viable alternative by more and more guys.” They continued.

Many guys in the WWE locker room feel that TNA only has so many “big money” spots and by signing long term deals with WWE, it leaves them with little to no leverage. Apparently WWE realizes the lack of morale in the locker room and are encouraging guys with expiring deals to re-sign several months in advance to keep them from headling a WWE event one week to showing up on TNA programming the next.

11/13/2006

* Apparently Vince McMahon’s backstage behavior has become an issue once again. Those close to the situation say that Vince is more erratic then ever lately and he has been increasingly moody and unpredictable. The people that said that he could not get any worse last year say that he has gotten worse.

One source said, “He has everyone on edge because you never know what Vince is going to show up…”

11/14/2006

* Popular Compton bred rapper The Game was recently asked in an interview with RapReviews.com about WWE pursuing him legally over the rights to “The Game” nickname. The Game said, “Yeah, Triple H is tryin to sue me for “The Game.” I think that we should just take it to Pay Per View and have a wrestling match, man, so I can f*** him up because I’m not into that whole play wrestling thing.” Game admitted to being a wrestling fan in the Hogan/Ultimate Warrior/Sting era but says that he doesn’t follow the industry today.

11/15/2006

* Big Show‘s back problems have worsened and he plans on at least temporarily leaving the company in a few weeks. Show was taken off the European house show tour and replaced by Paul Heyman. Its pretty much a guarantee that he’ll be losing his title during the elimination chamber match, and it just may very well be the last match of his career. Then again, he’s committed to WWE until at least “early December”, so maybe he’ll wrestle another match or two right after the pay-per-view. Also, he legitimately weighs 530 pounds these days.

11/16/2006

* Apparently, Ashley Massaro suffered some sort of breast implant injury during the European tour. The injury occurred either yesterday or today. At the moment, there aren’t any details in regards to this matter and if she will be out of action for a period of time.

* Monty Brown, formerly of the Buffalo Bills, has signed with World Wrestling Entertainment.

11/17/2006

* Early estimates for the Bound For Glory PPV are between 45,000 and 50,000 domestic buys, thus meaning that TNA is very happy. That’s about the low end of what ECW was doing when it was on PPV. When the final number comes in, it should be the highest figure in TNA history.

11/18/2006

* Kurt Angle was interviewed earlier this week on the “Ron & Fez” radio show and had some interesting things to say. Below are some of the highlights of the interview:

Angle claimed during the interview that Stone Cold Steve Austin asked him why neither he nor him were picked for the Miller Lite “Man Law” commercials instead of Triple H, considering that Triple H does not even drink beer. Angle told the interviewers that he told Austin that it was another example of favoritism that Vince had towards his son-in-law.

He was, however, very complementary of Vince McMahon, saying, “I’ve always loved Vince. I’ve loved Vince since the day I met him. There are things I will never forget that happened.” Kurt said that he saw Vince as more of a father figure and everything negative that happened between them was just business.

11/19/2006

* Rey Mysterio‘s contract will be expiring around the time he is ready to return, which will be in the spring. You should expect Kurt Angle to go on a recruiting mission in hopes of Rey coming to TNA.

11/20/2006

* You should expect a heavy influx of brand new “WWE Divas” to join the promotion in 2007. World Wrestling Entertainment is currently on what is being called a “bikini model signing spree.”

The WWE overlords have told Vice President of Talent Relations John Laurinaitis to sign between ten to fifteen bikini models.

11/22/2006

* Sabu is in even more hot water with WWE management. After Tuesday’s SmackDown/ECW taping, some promotional material was going to be taped to promote the upcoming Elimination Chamber match to put over how dangerous and hardcore the match is, however, Sabu blew off the whole thing. When he found out that he wasn’t going to be used for Tuesday’s show, he left the arena and was gone before the RVD/Holly match took place. Recently, Sabu has been late to several house shows and even fell asleep backstage at a recent taping, thus explaining as to why he was.

11/26/2006

* Christopher Daniels and Matt Sydal defeated Chris Hero and Claudio Castangoli to capture the ROH Tag Team Titles last night in Edison, NJ. Castangoli will be heading to WWE in January, and thus ROH needed to do the title switch. Castangoli will be reporting to OVW. (Rajah misspelled Castagnoli.)

11/27/2006

* Mick Foley was backstage at Friday’s Ring of Honor event in Long Island, New York. Foley looked to be in better shape than the last time he was seen on WWE television as he’s lost a bit of weight, perhaps in preparation for his eventual WWE return. He is expected to have a storyline with Vince McMahon for a match at WrestleMania.

11/28/2006

* Lance Hoyt has talked about getting his hair braided like Ron Killings.

11/29/2006

* On the front page of the official TNA website, there is a banner graphic of Kip James & BG James stating that they accept The Hardys‘ challenge for the December to Dismember pay-per-view. At the December to Dismember press conference, The Hardys issued an open challenge to “any team in the world” for the PPV, which was taken by the re-united MNM.

11/30/2006

* Kurt Angle recently told Chris Sabin that he was a great wrestler, but he didn’t like his look. Angle said that he looked “dirty” and that he didn’t stand out. Kurt Angle then made the suggestion for Sabin to do a gimmick where he would be like the cartoon character Pig-Pen from the old “Peanuts” comic strip and have food & dirt all over him. Angle was actually serious with his suggestion. After people heard about his suggestion, those that were initially excited about his creative input were shaking their heads.

There is said to be more undercard unhappiness than at any other point in TNA’s brief history. Apparently, even people who are normally in a good mood have been mad as of late with how they are being booked on television.

– Tune back in next time for the December edition of Dirt Sheet History as we wrap up 2006.

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

Past editions of Dirt Sheet History are found here.