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STRAIGHT FROM THE MAT - W365 NEWSWIRE


Bret Hart was officially announced for the WWE Hall of Fame last night
during Raw. I bet Vince screws him and gives Shawn Michaels his plaque.
Joking. His stance was "never" 12 months ago changing to "unlikely" 6
months ago changing again to "who knows" this past week. It's believed
that Jim Ross and Shane McMahon were the major forces behind the deal
coming together. The other inductees still remain a mystery at this
point. Vince of course always has final say but he largely uses WWE.com
feedback as his unofficial poll. I'm sure there will be one or two
surprises but the best bets remain those with current strong company
ties such as Ricky Steamboat, Ted Dibiase, Jake Roberts (although they
have recently soured on him), The Road Warriors (especially since
Wrestlemania is in their gimmick hometown of Chicago), and Jim Duggan.
Dusty Rhodes turned down induction last year due working for TNA at the
time, and of course, didn't want to play second-fiddle to Hogan. I would
put him as 60/40 leaning towards going in this year. Eddie Guerrero is
still thought to be a lock...

Thank you to everyone that sent in notes following Raw in Greensboro
last night, especially those watching live across Canada and the United
Kingdom. The pre-show dark had Val Venis over Danny "please don't fire
me" Basham, with Kane vs. Johnny Parisi, Tomko & Snitski vs. Chris
Hamrick & Bill Brown, Goldust vs. Trevor Murdoch, and Viscera vs. Rob
Conway, for Heat. Thursdays show on USA has Triple H vs. Big Show, RVD
vs. Chris Masters, Eugene vs. Shelton Benjamin (Momma is back), Torrie
Wilson vs. Ashley (this was said to be horrible beyond words), and John
Cena vs. Edge for the WWE title with Mick Foley as special referee.

If anyone is desperate to watch Raw before Thursday on USA you can watch
it in Spanish on mun2 on Wednesday.

Cowboy Bob Orton was also released this past week. This was coming.
There was a ton of heat on him in the locker room as it emerged
following the 12/18 Armageddon PPV, during which he juiced heavily, that
he suffers from hepatitis.

We have details on the Hulk Hogan Ultimate Anthology DVD. The 4-disc set
is scheduled to go on sale in April. Everything you would expect
match-wise is on there including all the big PPV deals. You can't please
everyone but I really don't understand this inane fascination some
Internet fans have with wanting obscure matches from house shows. There
are about 5/6 matches on each disc complete with promos, vignettes and
interviews to explain the storyline at the time, much like the Ric Flair
DVD. No documentary. The complete listing is: vs. Andre the Giant (an
arm wrestling match from 1979), vs. Harry Valdez (technically his first
ever WWF match in 79), vs. Ted DiBiase (his Madison Square Garden debut
in 79), vs. Andre (Showdown At Shea in 1980 which drew 36,295 to watch
Bruno Sammartino defeat Larry Zbyszko in a steel cage match), two
matches vs. Nick Bockwinkel (AWA from 82 and 83), vs. Antonio Inoki
(IWGP Championship tournament finals in 83), vs. The Iron Shiek (winning
the WWF title for the first time at Madison Square Garden in 84), with
Mr. T vs. Rowdy Roddy Piper & Paul Orndorff (WrestleMania), vs. King
Kong Bundy (steel cage match from WrestleMania II), vs. Paul Orndorff
(steel cage match from Saturday Night's Main Event in 87), vs. Andre the
Giant (WrestleMania III), with Randy Savage vs. Andre the Giant & Ted
Dibiase (from SummerSlam 8 cool , vs. Randy Savage (WWF title match from
WrestleMania V), vs. Ultimate Warrior (title vs. title from WrestleMania
VI), vs. Earthquake (from SummerSlam 90), vs. Sgt. Slaughter (WWF title
match from WrestleMania VII), vs. Undertaker (WWF title match from 91),
vs. Ric Flair (WCW title match from Bash At the Beach 94), vs. Ric Flair
(steel cage retirement match from Halloween Havoc 94), with Scott Hall,
Kevin Nash, & nWo Sting vs. Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, Lex Luger, & Sting
(War Games from Fall Brawl 96), vs. Sting (WCW title match from
Starrcade 97), with Scott Hall and Kevin Nash vs. The Rock and Steve
Austin (from an edition of Raw in 2002), vs. The Rock (amazing heat from
WrestleMania X cool , vs. Triple H (WWE title match from Backlash 2002),
with Edge vs. Billy & Chuck (tag title match from an edition of
Smackdown in 2002), vs. Vince McMahon (their streetfight with Roddy
Piper stumbling around from WrestleMania XIX), and vs. Shawn Michaels
(last year at SummerSlam).

Jackie Pallo, one of the biggest stars of British wrestling during the
60s and 70s, passed away on Monday at age 80 following a lengthy battle
with cancer.

Shane McMahon sold 4911 shares (worth about $73,000) of his WWE stock on
1/19. Also the same day WWE producer Kevin Dunn did a trade selling
25799 shares (worth about $387,000) but then bought 19375 at about 1/3
of the selling price for a tidy profit of about $200,000. Dunn also
dumped a further 7000 shares (worth about $100,000) on 1/26. He still
owns 67048 shares which has a market value of over $1 million.

www.wrestlingepicenter.com has an interview up with the former Ivory.
Some interesting conversation for sure. She talked about turning down a
lesbian storyline with Nicole Bass a few years ago (thank god): "I have
no problem playing a lesbo, but I would probably pick someone cuter."
She joked that the day she was fired was the most exciting day of her
life. She said she misses the travel rather than the people, which might
be a first: "Sometimes you feel like you're getting dumber because,
quite frankly, you're hanging out with a bunch of wrestlers!"

TNA has announced on it's website live streaming PPV for fans outside of
the U.S., Canada and New Zealand, starting with Destination X on 3/12.
Outside of North America the biggest market is the U.K., but PPV's air
FREE on a 1-week delay on The Wrestling Channel anyway. (Thanks to Mark
Perry)

Ricky Morton is hoping to get out of jail tomorrow as he has a hearing
scheduled over his non-payment of child support case. He has been locked
up in a Tennessee jail since October.

Trish Stratus is W365's Diva of the Day: http://tinyurl.com/7h7bd