Taylor Wilde Making Appearance At Pro-Wrestling: EVE

Add another former TNA Knockout to Pro-Wrestling: EVE’s big event on November 10th.
Following in the footsteps of Angelina Love, who will make her EVE debut at EVE 10: WrestleFever, former Knockouts Champion Taylor Wilde will be coaxed out of retirement for a special appearance at the same event.

Wilde, aka Shantelle Taylor, originally from Canada, relocated to the UK earlier this year after getting married in February.

As well as appearing on the show, fans in Sudbury, Suffolk will have the unique opportunity to meet and greet with Wilde in her first appearance on the British wrestling scene since relocating.

The former Knockouts Champ and Knockouts Tag Team Champ isn’t expected to compete in a match, which begs the question, what will her role be? And what will happen when she and one-time TNA rival, Angelina, reunite?

Wilde retired from the ring in February 2011 after a match with Alissa Flash in San Francisco.

For tickets to EVE 10, click here.

TNA Releases Gail Kim T-Shirt

Despite her long tenure in professional wrestling, former Knockouts Champion Gail Kim has only just received her first official t-shirt via TNA.

TNA has released a t-shirt dedicated to the veteran Knockout, paying homage to her Korean roots with a dragon emblem.

Gail has expressed her desire to finally be immortalized in action figure form (she has yet to receive one), so one must consider this a step in the right direction.

You can pick up your Gail Kim dragon tee here.

Cameron Suspended

Reports from two different sources suggest that WWE has suspended Diva, Cameron, real name Ariane Andrew following her arrest for a DUI and an alleged police bribery attempt.

Andrew, who was overseas with WWE on an Australian tour, was pulled from shows in Sydney and Melbourne on Friday and Saturday, respectively, leading to speculation that some disciplinary action may have been taken by the company.

As reported last week, Andrew was arrested for a DUI in Hillsbourough Country, Florida. The issue was further exacerbated when TMZ obtained police reports alleging that Andrew had attempted to bribe arresting officers. TMZ also reported that Andrew had not informed WWE about her arrest, with a spokesperson for the company commenting: “Ariane [Cameron] did not alert us to this matter, we are investigating and will take appropriate action.”

F4WOnline.com is currently reporting that Andrew has been suspended for 15 days, while PWInsider reports that it doesn’t have a confirmation on the length of Andrew’s suspension.

One source tells PWInsider, however: “They suspended Tiffany too, and we never saw her return, so who knows if Cameron will, either?”

Blossom Twins In New TNA UK Show

It was announced at TNA‘s Fan Party in London, England yesterday that the promotion would be launching a UK-based TV show, with the winners earning themselves a contract – much like a TNA version of WWE‘s Tough Enough. There would be three acts vying for the deal – the charismatic Rockstar Spud, top-end grappler Marty Scurll and Hannah and Holly Blossom, taking part as one competitor.

Filming of the show starts today, and the show will premiere on Challenge TV in the UK in December – the same channel which airs Impact Wrestling. You can see them being announced by Jeremy Borash by clicking here.

When approached for further information on what the show – called British Boot Camp – will entail, a TNA spokesperson said it’s confidential right now, apart from the news which was announced at the party, though there will be more detail released in due course.

You would have to imagine that the 24-year old twins stand a good chance of being selected. They have extensive experience of wrestling in the US, having made numerous tours to Ohio Valley Wrestling and each one individually winning the OVW Women’s Championship. OVW is also the training facility for TNA, and they will have worked alongside a number of acts who have been or became TNA talent such as Josette “Sojo Bolt” Bynum, and a number of current TNA wrestlers like Magnus, Doug Williams and Mark Haskins are very aware of what they can do and offer.

As well as their skills in the ring and their experience Stateside, there is also the extra sweetener of them being identical twins who offer something a little different to the Bella Twins – instead of the Diva look, their demeanour seems more inclusive and welcoming, and as been evident with acts like AJ Lee making it big in WWE, fans seem to be veering away from cheering the wrestlers who have the supermodel looks and want someone who could be seen as “approachably attractive”. That’s not a knock on the Blossoms’ looks either – it’s just that they aim for the “cute” rather than “sexy” side of attractive with their outfits incorporating pink and swearing on the brilliance of cupcakes.

We will all find out if Hannah and Holly will become Knockouts in due course – of course, I will relay any information as and when I receive it, and I wish them luck in their quest to win that contract.

Cameron Lynn Update

WWE Diva Cameron, real name Ariane Andrew, was conspicuous by her absence at Friday and Saturday’s WWE live events in Australia following news breaking of her DUI arrest.

Cameron’s absence from the show is notable as she was one of the talents on the Australian tour and had performed at Thursday’s event in Brisbane. At Friday’s show in Sydney and Saturday’s show in Melbourne, however, Naomi was the sole Funkadactyl supporting Brodus Clay.

It’s probable that her absence from the Sydney show has something to do with reports emerging last week that Andrew had been arrested for a DUI, and allegedly attempted to bribe police officers. TMZ reported the news last week, revealing portions of a police report stating that Andrew had offered the arresting officers $10,000 to “let her go because she would lose her job”.

 A fan in attendance at the Sydney show had this report:

"1) Brodus Clay w/ Naomi def. Jack Swagger – Yeah, there was no Cameron Lynn in sight at all, which I thought maybe she didn’t come to the tour, but then I saw the pictures on WWE.Com for the event the night before in Brisbane, she was there with Brodus and Naomi, so maybe she has got pulled of the tour or maybe even released. Either way boring match, with a few fans chanting to Brodus “You can’t wrestle” the match only mainly consisted of them dancing. The same fans who were chanting to Brodus were also chanting to Naomi “DUI & Bribe The Police” before I quickly informed them that they were yelling out to the wrong girl, as it was Cameron who got arrested and Naomi was actually out ringside, to which that quickly shut up for the rest of the match."

I hope to have more details on Cameron’s absence as they emerge.

Dark Angel Done In CMLL?

An interesting riddle is arising surrounding the future of CMLL‘s Dark Angel, Sarah Stock (also known as Sarita in TNA) as a result of her current tour of Japan for the STARDOM promotion. Apparently CMLL executives are intensely unhappy at Dark Angel for booking herself for an extended tour of Japan off her own back when CMLL’s chosen business partners at REINAxWORLD have been unable to secure dates on the Canadian. Not only that, but by securing her own deal with Stardom, CMLL are missing out financially on the booking fee they would otherwise command from REINA (or any other international promotion looking to book her).

Dark Angel last worked for STARDOM back in March for a couple of dates, to help celebrate Io Shirai‘s 5th anniversary in wrestling, and to be presented with flowers and a plaque to commemorate her own ten year anniversary. However, since agreeing to go back over there for the an extended STARDOM tour (including the currently running 5*Star GP), CMLL have continued to advertise Dark Angel for shows in Mexico while apparently *in full knowledge* that she will be unable to make the bookings. So far, during her Japanese tour, CMLL have knowingly domestically misadvertised her at Arena Puebla on August 20th (where she was replaced by Luna Magica), at Arena Mexico on August 24th (where she was replaced by Dalis) and at Arena Coliseo Guadalajara on August 28th (where she was replaced by Goya Kong). More distressingly for Dark Angel, noted lucha libre expert Steve Sims (who writes for Superluchas magazine) suggests that “…she might not have a job for much longer in Mexico, it’s sad to say”. Sims, who was speaking on Figure Four Daily on the Wrestling Observer website, explained the reasoning behind the false advertising.

“As soon as they know they’re not available for bookings they start listing them on their posters and assigning them bookings that they know they’ll miss. That way, they get rid of them – which appears to be their intention (they’ve done it with Tony Rivera, Dr X and others,) and they can say ‘Look. Here’s the poster. Here’s the actual poster that we sent to the promoters. We said Dark Angel’s going to be there on such-and-such-a-time and she didn’t show up for work.’”

Dark Angel, for her part, has done her best to keep fans informed and ensure that people know where she is in the world. On August 5th on her official fanpage on Facebook, she wrote “I’m very excited to announce that in less than 2 weeks I’ll be leaving for a 2 month tour of Japan with STARDOM, and to compete in the 5 STAR GP2012 tournament. I’ll miss you, Mexico!”. More recently, when it became clear that CMLL were continuing to advertise her, she clarified

“Just letting you all know that I’m still in Japan and will not be wrestling in Guadalajara in the upcoming weeks. Sorry for the confusion.”

So far, so confusing. However, the real question is what happens when Dark Angel’s tour of Japan is over? According to Sims, it’s quite possible that CMLL will simply not book her – and since they control her work permit for Mexico, they can essentially freeze her out of working anywhere in the country without their say-so, meaning that she couldn’t just jump to AAA – or do anything – without CMLL’s blessing. According to Sims…

“…it appears that CMLL is doing it deliberately to issue a punishment to her, and I think because of the work permit situation, what we will find out is that they simply don’t book her, at least until such times as her work permit comes up, and hope that teaches her a lesson that she can work in Japan but only if the CMLL office gets a cut of her bookings.”

Let’s be clear here – there would be nothing stopping Dark Angel going to make money in TNA as Sarita, or get herself booked in Japan (or indeed anywhere else) and still be able to make money – just simply that she may be frozen out of Mexico until her annual work permit is due for renewal. Seems petty, but Sims confirms that “They are very stubborn in CMLL and they’re going to make their point with Sarah Stock whether she likes it or not.”

The story continues…

Divas Title Match At Night Of Champions

Tonight on SmackDown, a Divas Title match between champion Layla and #1 contender Kaitlyn was officially announced for the Night of Champions Pay-Per-View.

Kaitlyn earned her title shot by winning a #1 contendership battle royal on last week’s Raw.

Night of Champions will air on Sunday, September 16th.