Toyota Motor Corp. has agreed to pay as much as $1.4 billion to settle U.S. litigation claims that its vehicles suddenly and unintentionally accelerated, according to court filings made public Wednesday.
The company said the deal will resolve hundreds of lawsuits from Toyota owners who said the value of their cars and trucks plummeted after a series of recalls stemming from claims that Toyota vehicles accelerated unintentionally.
Steve Berman, a lawyer representing Toyota owners, said the settlement is the largest in U.S. history involving automobile defects.
"We kept fighting and fighting and we secured what we think was a good settlement given the risks of this litigation," Berman told The Associated Press.
The proposed deal was filed Wednesday and must receive the approval of U.S. District Judge James Selna, who was expected to review the settlement Friday.
Toyota said it will take a one-time, $1.1 billion pre-tax charge against earnings to cover the estimated costs of the settlement. Berman said the total value of the deal is between $1.2 billion and $1.4 billion.
Hundreds of lawsuits have been filed against Toyota since 2009, when the Japanese automaker started receiving numerous complaints that its cars accelerated on their own, causing crashes, injuries and even deaths.
The cases were consolidated in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana and divided into two categories: economic loss and wrongful death. Claims by people who seek compensation for injury and death due to sudden acceleration are not part of the settlement; the first trial involving those suits is scheduled for February.
The deal includes direct payments to customers as well as the installation of a brake override system in about 3.25 million vehicles, plaintiff attorneys said.?The terms also?include a $250 million fund for former Toyota owners who sold vehicles at reduced prices because of bad publicity, and a separate $250 million fund for owners not eligible for the brake override system.
The settlement would also establish additional driver education programs and fund new research into advanced safety technologies.
"In keeping with our core principles, we have structured this agreement in ways that work to put our customers first and demonstrate that they can count on Toyota to stand behind our vehicles," said Christopher? Reynolds, Toyota vice president and general counsel.
Current and former Toyota owners are expected to receive more information about the settlement in the coming months. Some information is also available at http://www.ToyotaELsettlement.com, a website created for Toyota owners affected by the settlement.
"We are extraordinarily proud of how we were able to represent the interests of Toyota owners, and believe this settlement is both comprehensive in its scope and fair in compensation," Berman said.
Toyota has recalled more than 14 million vehicles worldwide due to acceleration problems in several models and brake defects with the Prius hybrid. Toyota has blamed driver error, faulty floor mats and sticky accelerator pedals for the unintended acceleration.
Plaintiffs' attorneys have spent the past two years deposing Toyota employees, poring over thousands of documents and reviewing software code, but the company maintains those lawyers have been unable to prove that a design defect ? namely Toyota's electronic throttle control system ? was responsible for vehicles surging unexpectedly.
Both the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and NASA were unable to find any defects in Toyota's source code that could cause problems.
The company has been dogged by fines for not reporting problems in a timely manner.
Earlier this month, NHTSA doled out a record $17.4 million fine to Toyota for failing to quickly report floor mat problems with some of its Lexus models. Toyota paid a total of $48.8 million in fines for three violations in 2010.
Toyota President Akio Toyoda appeared before Congress last year and pledged to strengthen quality control. Recent sales figures show the company appears to have rebounded following its safety issues.
Information from the Associated Press and Reuters was included in this report.
NEWTOWN, Conn. (AP) ? The children at the Sandy Hook Elementary school won't be returning to classes for another week, but officials from the town, school district and local agencies are doing their best in the meantime to keep them occupied following a massacre at their school two weeks ago.
The students have not attended school since a gunman killed 20 of their schoolmates and six adults on Dec. 14. They are slated to return to a different school next Thursday.
In the meantime, they've been treated to field trips, toy giveaways and some organized play time.
"A couple of the teachers have done pizza parties," said Janet Robinson, Newtown's school superintendent. "Another met her kids at the library so they could have a little reading time together. The most important thing has been connecting the students back to their teacher and their classmates."
The Newtown Youth Academy, a nonprofit sports center, opened its doors to all kids in town at no cost shortly after the shooting. But from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. last week, the building's turf field, basketball and tennis courts, and giant inflatable obstacle course were reserved just for Sandy Hook Elementary students.
There have been arts and crafts for the smaller kids, as well as face-paintings. Some celebrities, including two members of the Harlem Globetrotters and former University of Connecticut basketball star Tina Charles, also have stopped by to play with the children. UConn's men's basketball team was making a trip Thursday.
"The idea was to get them away from the house, the television and all the coverage of this tragedy and get them to a place where kids can just be kids," said owner Peter D'Amico, a longtime youth coach in town.
On Thursday afternoon, school buses were loading up at the Youth Academy for a trip to Stamford and a larger complex, Chelsea Piers, which also has ice rinks and an indoor swimming pool, he said. Sports celebrities, such as Brooklyn Nets forward Kris Humphries, planned to meet them there. No media were allowed.
University of Connecticut psychologist Julian Ford, who spent time counseling in Newtown in the first days after the shooting, said it's important for the grieving process to include an outlet that lets children know that while things will never be the same, it's OK to enjoy life.
"They are all going to be thinking about what happened," he said. "That, unfortunately, is inescapable. But this gives them a chance to say, 'Life is carrying on.' Nothing will be the same, but it's also continuing in ways that it should be."
Some students and their parents on Thursday toured the Chalk Hill school in Monroe, a former middle school being reopened next week for the Sandy Hook students. An open house is planned for Wednesday.
"Getting back into the school is like getting back on the horse," Robinson said. "Some of the scariness is gone once they cross that threshold. They are just so happy to see their teachers."
State police said they plan to keep their contact with the children to a minimum as they continue investigating the shooting.
"We certainly don't want to traumatize them any more than they've already been traumatized," said Lt. J. Paul Vance, the department's spokesman. "If (an interview is) not necessary it won't be done. Our investigators will make all those determinations."
In the meantime, Ford has encouraged parents to keep the kids involved in a normal holiday routine and deal with the tragedy as it comes up, rather than making it a focal point of their lives.
David Connors, who has 8-year-old triplets who attend Sandy Hook, said he and his wife have made play dates with their friends, brought the kids to see family for the holidays and participated in the class get-togethers and recreation events.
"That's been, I think, helpful at least in the short term just to kind of keep them doing things, keep them seeing their friends and being nearby and talking to family," Connors said.
Todd Wood of Newtown has five children, the youngest age 4 and the oldest in college. His children's piano teacher lost a child in the shooting, and the family knows other victims as well.
He said he's found that each child has reacted differently to the tragedy. He said he is not making the shooting the center of his family's life but is not pretending it didn't happen, either.
"We did Christmas, we had our lights here, we've tried to make things as normal as possible," he said. "But we also went down to see the memorials. I don't want to shield them from it. I want to let them grieve in their own way."
Ford said that is healthy. He said children will remember their friends as they go about doing normal kid things.
Chris Wolcott, the sport's academy's operations manager, said the best part of having the kids at the center is that the tragedy is pushed aside, at least for a little while.
"A couple times someone would drop a weight (in the facility's health center) and you would hear a bang and there would be a kid who would freeze for a second," he said. "But that would last a split-second. Most of the time, everyone just had a great time."
___
Associated Press writer John Christoffersen in New Haven, Conn., contributed to this report.
Airlines are testing out a new ticket initiative to compete with websites that could go in effect by 2016.?
Under the plan, airlines will solicit info to create a personalized ticket that folds in traditionally a la carte items like bag-check and meals. This could bode well for members of frequent flier clubs, but other consumers might be upset that it heralds the demise of travel agents.?
According to The Flight Deal, a blog that tracks fares, "consumers do not need travel agents for the traditional tonnage business of booking simple itineraries as airline websites and online travel agencies have filled that need."?
Yet with the advent of personalized tickets, travelers might not see a need for agents at all. They can choose to get what they need from the airlines directly, or may have no other choice but to do so if airlines refuse to make the new fares transparent. If agents don't know what they're up against, there's no way they can offer competitive fares.?
"Their business will suffer greatly," predicts Flight Deal, "unless they can move up the value chain. They need to be true value adds like the Virtuoso agent network, which provides booking for high-end, customized experiences where the agent's knowledge trumps the technology."
However, consumers shouldn't write off bricks-and-mortar agents just yet. As U.S. News' Daniel Bortz?points out, travel agents come equipped with a deep Rolodex of sales associates, first-hand experience, and knowledge of an area or service that's often tougher to dig up online for a niche destination.?
"You'll pay a fee to have a travel agent do something," says Brett Snyder, an expert who blogs at The Cranky Flier, but "they generally focus on tours, land packages and things where they can actually make a living" and charge a commission.?
Regardless of the fee, if agents fall by the wayside, consumers still risk losing out on one of the best ways to find cheap fares. In an informal comparison between online search sites and agents, The Times' Seth Kugel determined that agents are better on price and?service.?
Now check out how a personal finance editor books a cheap trip to Ireland >?
WASHINGTON (AP) ? The pre-Halloween hybrid weather monster that federal forecasters call "Frankenstorm" is looking more ominous by the hour for the East Coast, and utilities and local governments are getting ready.
Meteorologists expect a natural horror show of high wind, heavy rain, extreme tides and maybe snow to the west beginning early Sunday, peaking with the arrival of Hurricane Sandy on Tuesday and lingering past Halloween on Wednesday.
With a rare mix of three big merging weather systems over a densely populated region, experts predict at least $1 billion in damage.
The stage is set as Hurricane Sandy, having blown through Haiti and Cuba, continues to barrel north. A wintry storm is chugging across the country from the west. And frigid air is streaming south from Canada.
And if they meet Tuesday morning around New York or New Jersey, as forecasters predict, they could create a big, wet mess that settles over the nation's most heavily populated corridor and reaches as far west as Ohio.
Utilities are lining up out-of-state work crews and canceling employees' days off to deal with expected power outages. From county disaster chiefs to the federal government, emergency officials are warning the public to be prepared. And President Barack Obama was briefed aboard Air Force One.
"It's looking like a very serious storm that could be historic," said Jeff Masters, meteorology director of the forecasting service Weather Underground. "Mother Nature is not saying, 'Trick or treat.' It's just going to give tricks."
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecaster Jim Cisco, who coined the nickname Frankenstorm, said: "We don't have many modern precedents for what the models are suggesting."
Government forecasters said there is a 90 percent chance ? up from 60 percent two days earlier ? that the East will get pounded.
Coastal areas from Florida to Maine will feel some effects, but the storm is expected to vent the worst of its fury on New Jersey and the New York City area, which could see around 5 inches of rain and gale-force winds close to 40 mph. Eastern Ohio, southwestern Pennsylvania and western Virginia could get snow.
And the storm will take its time leaving. The weather may not start clearing in the mid-Atlantic until the day after Halloween and Nov. 2 in the upper Northeast, Cisco said.
"It's almost a weeklong, five-day, six-day event," he said from a NOAA forecast center in College Park, Md. "It's going to be a widespread, serious storm."
It is likely to hit during a full moon, when tides are near their highest, increasing the risk of coastal flooding. And because many trees still have their leaves, they are more likely to topple in the event of wind and snow, meaning there could be widespread power outages lasting to Election Day.
Eastern states that saw outages that lasted for days after last year's freak Halloween snowstorm and Hurricane Irene in late August 2011 are already pressuring power companies to be more ready this time.
Asked if he expected utilities to be more prepared, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick responded: "They'd better be."
Jersey Central Power & Light, which was criticized for its response to Irene, notified employees to be ready for extended shifts. In Pennsylvania, PPL Corp. spokesman Michael Wood said, "We're in a much better place this year."
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Thursday said the city was striking a tone of calm preparedness.
"What we are doing is we are taking the kind of precautions you should expect us to do, and I don't think anyone should panic," Bloomberg said. The city has opened an emergency situation room and activated its coastal storm plan.
Some have compared the tempest to the so-called Perfect Storm that struck off the coast of New England in 1991, but that one hit a less populated area. Nor is this one like last year's Halloween storm, which was merely an early snowfall.
"The Perfect Storm only did $200 million of damage and I'm thinking a billion" this time, Masters said. "Yeah, it will be worse."
As it made its way across the Caribbean, Sandy was blamed for more than 20 deaths. The 18th named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season hit the Bahamas after cutting across Cuba, where it tore roofs off homes and damaged fragile coffee and tomato crops.
Norje Pupo, a 66-year-old retiree in Holguin, was helping his son clean up early Thursday after an enormous tree toppled in his garden.
"The hurricane really hit us hard," he said. "As you can see, we were very affected. The houses are not poorly made here, but some may have been damaged."
___
Associated Press writers Tony Winton in Miami, Fernando Gonzalez in Cuba, Ken Thomas on Air Force One, Michael Rubinkam in Harrisburg, Pa., and Karen Matthews in New York contributed to this report.
___
Seth Borenstein can be followed at http://twitter.com/borenbears
We have Grammy award winning record producer Mr bangladesh for a special 2 hour special promoting his new artist and music career
Marx & Julie chat with British filmmaker Chris Stone, the writer & director of the Victorian vampire web series turned feature film called Blood and Bone China. As if that wasn't enough, we also speak to our featured indie music artist of the week, Birthrite.
Native American Movement founder Russell Means was laid to rest yesterday at his home on Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota. He is remembered with comments, stories, and prayers.
Lori Saitz is a nationally recognized expert in using gratitude to boost client retention and increase referral business. She is the founder of Zen Rabbit, which is a concierge type company specializing in helping business professionals ?multiply profits
Gus Speth, author of AMERICA THE POSSIBLE,shares his vision of comprehensive and deep change rooted in a political economy that sustains people, communities and nature. Long time Washington insider, he now is part of the protest movement.
One of Radio One?s top DJs, DJ Kayotik will be on with us to talk about career, current mixtape KAYOTIK KHRONIKLES VOL. 1, and youth organization.
Queen Afua, has been an expert in Wholisitc Health, a lecturer/author for 40 years. She'll discuss the 21 Detoxification Process & the work she's doing in Detroit for the next year. Kilindi Iyi, world renowned lecturer and Master of The African Martial Art
Mothyna James-Brightful-Global freedoms and empowerment campaign for domestic violence awareness-Heal a Woman to Heal a Nation. Dawn-Marie Hanrahan is a #1 Bestselling Author, TranSpirational Speaker and Spiritual Leader, who travels the world educating others
Health & Fitness is on tap when International Fitness Model Charles Flanagan and IFBB Pro Fitness competitor Donna Jones from Australia tackle everything from nutrition & exercise to the psychology of living well, Speaking to callers LIVE
Stacey Monroe welcomes Rico and J-Rod from the group Recognition to E! GEMZ! Radio to speak about their music career and life. How did they two become Recognition? What did they both give up in order to pursue there music career? Tune in to see what they have
Big Blend Radio talks with outdoorsman and naturalist Jay Erskine Leutze about his acclaimed book STAND UP THAT MOUNTAIN: The Battle to Save One Small Community in the Wilderness Along the Appalachian Trail.
Teen Hosts McMillen, Janae, Jackie, Jessica, and Salwa discuss common sex myths. Our guests, Crystal Collette and Caitlin Mcardle from Planned Parenthood, are here to give us the facts.
This week on the BIG show, host Tim Gordon will talk with writer/director Matthew Cherry about his upcoming drama, The Last Fall. The semi-autobiographical tale tell the story of an NFL journeyman who struggles to deal with life's after the game.
Super Role Model, Valerie Jeannis, heralded as ?the Catalyst?, joins the Feminine Soul Radio show and talks about her new book I Am Beautiful: Changing the Way You See Yourself. Valerie will inspire you to say yes to your life and take action on your dreams.
In the dark, driving tasks like looking at other vehicles ahead and reading road signs are more difficult for some drivers. With the end of daylight savings only eight days away, tune into Healthy Vision? with Dr. Val Jones to learn how to take better care of your eyes ? and your car ? to improve your nighttime driving.
Legendary singer, Tony Bennett kicks off our new Storytellers series with a special live interview. Join hosts Eric Olsen (@amhaunted) of America?s Most Haunted and Chitra Agrawal, BlogTalkRadio?s own Director of Marketing, for the premiere.
The Phantom Zone Radio Show welcomes actor, screenwriter, and film editor, Camden Toy. He is best known as a character actor in the series, Buffy The Vampire Slayer and it's spinoff series, Angel.
Join Weigh In Sports as they talk to the CEO of BCS.net Magazine Robin Bayless as they go over the new BCS standings, the founding of the magazine in such a competitive market, the writers and much more.
ScienceDaily (Oct. 25, 2012) ? Assassin bugs, so named because these insects lie in ambush for prey that they attack with speed and precision, are found all over the world. Nearly 140 species of these bugs are blood-sucking; because they can bite humans around the mouth, they are also called kissing bugs. All kissing bugs can spread Chagas disease, a neglected tropical disease that imposes an economic burden on society.
Surprising, then, that scientists' understanding of the evolutionary history of assassin bugs is riddled with difficulty. The data are incomplete. Fossils, which exist for only a few groups of assassin bugs, are young, providing only patchy information on how these bugs evolved.
Now entomologists at the University of California, Riverside have produced a clearer snapshot of the entire evolutionary history of assassin bugs by integrating molecular, paleontological, behavioral and ecological data into their analyses. The result of their painstaking work is a new phylogeny -- the representation of the evolutionary relationships between species -- for assassin bugs. It includes the most number of assassin bugs to date and represents the most number of subfamilies.
"We can now zoom in on specific groups within the phylogeny to examine specific aspects of the evolution of that group," said Christiane Weirauch, an associate professor of entomology who reconstructed the assassin bug phylogeny with her Ph.D. graduate student Wei Song Hwang. "Our phylogeny significantly improves our knowledge about relationships within assassin bugs and will guide future research work in understanding how some of the interesting prey specialization behaviors and prey capture techniques have evolved."
Study results appeared last month in PLoS ONE.
"One significant improvement is the addition of several assassin bug species from the subfamily Reduviinae, the second largest subfamily of assassin bugs," said Hwang, the first author of the research paper. "Previous phylogenies have a very limited representation of Reduviinae, which means the overall interpretation of the phylogeny is of limited value."
Assassin bugs are estimated to have originated during the Middle Jurassic (~178 million years ago), making them a relatively old group of insects. They diversified significantly in the Late Cretaceous (~97 million years ago); indeed, nearly 90 percent of the existing species diversity we see today in assassin bugs started to diversify from this time onwards. The cause of this diversification remains unknown.
Blood-feeding kissing bugs
Weirauch and Hwang also determined that kissing bugs originated just 27-32 million years ago, the previous estimate being 107 million years ago. Mostly found in Central and South America, these bugs have evolved to feed on vertebrate blood -- lizards, birds, opossums, armadillos, bats, etc., and humans -- and can be found in diverse environments, from the Sonoran desert to the Amazon rainforest.
"The previous estimate of 107 million years ago linked the diversification of kissing bugs with the splitting of South America from Antarctica and provided a longer time-span for kissing bugs to speciate and spread across the continent and adapt," Hwang said. "Our research shows that this is not the case. By including more data and improving estimation methods, our younger estimate of 27-32 million years ago matches the time when the hosts, mainly mammals and birds, were diversifying at a rapid rate in South America."
The researchers caution that as natural environments get altered, more kissing bugs may be seen adapting to new environments and hosts rather than going extinct.
"The colonization of human settlements by wild kissing bugs we are witnessing now is thus likely to increase in intensity as more natural environments are replaced by human activities," Hwang said.
With their comprehensive sampling of assassin bugs and large molecular dataset, Weirauch and Hwang also show that the blood-feeding kissing bugs either have a single origin or two separate but close origins. Until now, the possibility of two separate but close origins of kissing bugs had not been hypothesized nor demonstrated.
"The possibility that there are two separate lineages implies that there will be shared traits among the lineages, but also slight differences we need to be aware of when developing different preventative strategies," Hwang explained. "A single origin, on the other hand, means we can expect common traits shared among all kissing bugs that can be targeted for control or monitoring."
Building the Tree of Life
The current research is part of the scientific endeavor to reconstruct the entire Tree of Life -- the biological concept that all living organisms are related and can be traced back to a single ancestor representing the origin of life on Earth.
"Reconstructing a phylogeny, a framework from which we can infer the evolutionary history of any group of organisms, is thus the first step towards understanding how life evolved, how different species relate to one another, how specific traits evolved over time, and why biodiversity occurs the way it does today," Weirauch said.
The study was financially supported by the Partnership for Enhancing Expertise in Taxonomy (PEET) program of the National Science Foundation, the UCR Department of Entomology, a UCR Graduate Division Dissertation Year Program Award and an American Museum of Natural History Collection Study Grant.
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Story Source:
The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of California - Riverside. The original article was written by Iqbal Pittalwala.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
Wei Song Hwang, Christiane Weirauch. Evolutionary History of Assassin Bugs (Insecta: Hemiptera: Reduviidae): Insights from Divergence Dating and Ancestral State Reconstruction. PLoS ONE, 2012; 7 (9): e45523 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0045523
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) ? Colleagues say a Somali journalist was shot to death in northern Somalia, bringing the number of journalists killed in Somalia this year to 16.
Ahmed Farah Sakin, a reporter for the Somali television station Universal was shot by gunmen around 9 p.m. Tuesday in the town of Lasanod in the breakaway region of Somaliland. The death was confirmed Wednesday by Abdullahi Ahmed Nor, a colleague. Nor said the death was part of an "anti-media" campaign in the country.
Somalia has been one of the most dangerous places to operate as a journalist this year. Mogadishu is far safer than it was in previous years, since al-Shabab rebels were forced out of the city. But a campaign targeting journalists has accelerated this year. No suspects have been arrested in the killings.
Real estate Loan ? What commercial real estate lending to match the rates associated with residential real estate mortgage loan rates? The typical Net Lease Financing is much larger than the typical residential property loan. The typical commercial real estate loan is about One dollar.5 million, as the typical home loan is only about $ 200,500. Therefore commercial real estate bank loan rates should be below residential real estate loan rates, right? In fact, the biggest in the field of corn flakes you buy the cheaper cost per cup.
Unfortunately, a commercial real estate mortgage is much less liquid than a home loan. Suppose you?re a bank with a lot of housing loans on their textbooks. Suddenly there is a run on the bank. No problem. You merely ship in a few files from home loans to Fannie Mae and offered at par (or perhaps better). Almost instantly you need to get your cash and your standard bank can meet the operate.
But there is no prepared secondary market for real estate loan. In sharpened contrast to a household real estate Commercial Home mortgages, all commercial real estate loan is different. The property differs from the others. A property can be a reel center, and the various other could be a self-storage facility. Each property has a different quality of the tenant. The actual strip center could have a AAA rating inside chain of booksellers as a tenant, whereas the ministorage could have a assortment of moms and continual organic pollutants as tenants.
But possibly that Amazon.internet is promoting the sequence bookstores out of business. Debatably, a collection of small mum and persistent natural pollutants is a secure tenant mix. However, Standard and Poor?s merely one type of business obligations like a AAA-quality investment if the company is very b financially. Normal and Poor?s, however, continues to be wrong from time to time during the past, so you really know? Consequently, it is the subjective dynamics of the commercial real estate loan that makes commercial real estate financial products in a manner a smaller amount liquid.
You can not lessen a Net Lease Financing to a single globally acceptable score.
Ask 411 Wrestling 10.24.12: Hogan in Japan, the 1991 Royal Rumble, the NWA, More! Posted by Craig Wilson?on 10.24.2012
Why did Hulk Hogan use different moves in Japan than in the US? Was Harley Race's King gimmick a mockery or homage? What happened to Christopher Daniels in ECW? All that and more covered this week in Ask 411 Wrestling!
So it's an absolute honor to fill in for Mathew Sforcina on this week's Ask 411 column. As someone that's read this column from a fairly young age and someone that has only recently joined the 411 team, this is pretty cool.
One thing I've learnt from doing this is that it takes a great deal longer to do than writing a column does and maybe I should have kicked this off at the weekend rather than on the Monday night into Tuesday morning. If it looks rushed then I apologize and blame my poor time keeping in this instance.
If by the end of this you've taken to me and want to read more of my scribblings then why not check out my ?Moments that Changed Wrestling History' column every Sunday which this week looked at Wrestlemania. You can find my various other links at the bottom of that column.
Anyway, things will return to normal next week but in the meantime do email in your questions to
Email here
Just Another God Damned Rasslin' Show 411mania's one! Wrestling PodClash!
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Me On Twitter~! http://www.twitter.com/411mania http://www.twitter.com/411wrestling http://www.twitter.com/411moviestv http://www.twitter.com/411music http://www.twitter.com/411games http://www.twitter.com/411mma
Your Turn, Smart Guy?
Who am I? I was born in a city that is unusual, if you're interested in the minutiae of American local government. Although I am announced as hailing from my home town, like most wrestlers I now live in Florida. I was the first person in my state to do something while under the age of 18. My independent wrestling ring name developed over time, as I began with one half by itself, before I added the other half later on. I was part of one of TNA's firsts, and when I debuted in ROH, I came in with a manager. In Dragon Gate I was part of a stable with a 4 word name. My younger brother is also a wrestler, and I'm currently on the WWE payroll, I am who?
Ausjimmy got it.
I was born in a city that is unusual, if you're interested in the minutiae of American local government. (St. Louis has the Gateway Arch, so is the middle of East and West America)
Although I am announced as hailing from my home town, like most wrestlers I now live in Florida. (Lives in Tampa, FL)
I was the first person in my state to do something while under the age of 18. (He was the first person under the age of 18 to receive a wrestler's license in Missouri.)
My independent wrestling ring name developed over time, as I began with one half by itself, before I added the other half later on. (Matt, Lance Sydal)
I was part of one of TNA's first Victory Road (TNA's first monthly PPV event)
and when I debuted in ROH, I came in with a manager.(Daizee Haze)
In Dragon Gate I was part of a stable with a 4 word name. (New Blood Generation International)
My younger brother is also a wrestler. (Mike Sydal)
and I'm currently on the WWE payroll, I am who? Matt Sydal, the man now known as Evan Bourne!
Who am I? I debuted in Continental Wrestling Association in 1988. I am an alumni of WWE, ECW, SMW and TNA. I have been in a stable with a former WWF tag team Champion. I have also held a tag team title with Chris Candido. I was also the first wrestler to be managed by his future manager Sunny. I have headlined a Summerslam event wrestling a member of my family. I appeared on the big screen playing a wrestler I previously feuded with and in 2004 I retired from wrestling.
Questions, Questions, Who's Got The Questions?
TGF174 starts by asking about who was supposed to win the 1991 Royal Rumble
Allllllrighty then here goes
I was online the other night trawling through some wrestling blogs, one referred to the original plans for Royal Rumble 1991.
It went on to say that the original booked winner was supposed to be Andre the Giant. Kind of a swan song for the king of battle royals. Andre went onto injure himself on an AJPW tour thus unable to compete in the Rumble.
If this scenario took place it is said that Andre's next target was wrestling Undertaker at WrestleMania 7. There are said to be footage of various Andre promos from WWE TV where Andre in fact calls out in Deadman issuing some sort of challenge.
Do you know if there is any truth to this at all? What are your thoughts?
Personally I don't find it completely inconceivable that this was Vince's original plans. His admiration for the Giant was always high, everyone knew he was on his last legs, wins the Rumble & then passes the torch to Taker at WrestleMania.
Cheers mate
TGF174
Without doubt the admiration Vince had for Andre is very well documented and rightly so. Andre was an enormous draw for Vince and Vincent McMahon Sr. before him and it's difficult to think of any other superstar that could have headlined WM3 with Hogan.
As iconic as that main event was, Andre was on a downward trajectory at that point: he was in constant pain, had recently had back surgery and wore a brace under his singlet. The best days of his wrestling career were behind him at this stage and this match was his swansong in the ring and that was in 1987.
A Rumble win nearly four years later? I wouldn't rule out that as a consideration but not sure how seriously it would have been taken. The nature of the Royal Rumble best has led to many rumors about who was meant to win the many Rumble match-ups and 1991 is no different. A popular rumor being that Mr. Perfect was all but set to win the match until Hogan put pay to that idea backstage and it was the ultra-patriotic Hogan that eventually went over in that match in the run up to his encounter with Sgt. Slaughter in the main event of that year's Wrestlemania.
As for Andre, his tag team title reign in the run up to WM6 was widely seen as a thank you to him for all his efforts and even at that stage his appearances for the organization were sporadic at best. As for a torch passing at WM7 wasn't really on the cards owing to the state of Andre by that stage and he had already passed his torch ? to Hogan four years earlier.
Matthew asks questions about Hulk Hogan's repertoire of in-ring moves, a question you wouldn't think would take all that long to answer?
1. Why was Hogan's finisher in Japan "The Axe Bomber"? Was it to feed into the feud with Stan Hansen? I saw a video where Stan Hansen called it a cheap imitation of The Lariat. It just seems confusing to me. Did someone in Japan already have the Atomic Leg Drop as a finisher?
It was used due to how impressive it looked in Japan. The Japanese fans were in awe of Hogan due to his gargantuan size and this move looked devastating against the smaller competitors in Japan.
His repertoire of wrestling moves in Japan was radically different, relying on more technical, traditional wrestling holds and maneuvers as opposed to the power-based, brawling style American fans grown accustomed to seeing from him.
2. Is there any Gaijin who has ever gotten as much respect as Stan Hansen in Japan? Besides maybe Vader? I don't even see Dr. Death or Terry Gordy being as big of a deal in Japan as Hansen was.
It's very difficult to look beyond Hansen here. He was the only man to pin both Antonio Inoki and Giant Baba in championship matches and held around 30 titles in total in Japan. Honorable mention, in addition to the three you mention, to the Dynamite Kid. He enjoyed his greatest success in Japan. It was also his success in Japan that led other Gaijin's such as Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero and Chris Jericho to make it overseas. While in Japan he mainly wrestled in the junior division, putting on many classic matches with stars such as Tiger Mask and Kobayashi.
3. Who in the past 10 years has been the most respected American Pro Wrestler to compete in Japan?
As woeful as his WWE runs have been, it's got to be Matt ?Albert/A-Train/Lord Tensai' Bloom for this one. Over in Japan he was a three-time tag team champion holding the New Japan Pro Wrestling's IWGP Tag Team Championship twice (complete with the records for both the longest reign and the most title defenses) and the GHC Tag Team Championship in Pro Wrestling Noah once.
Currently David Hart Smith is enjoying a good run in Japan, where he's known as "Davey Boy Smith, Jr." He's currently one half of the IWGP Tag Team Champions. You've got to wonder why the WWE didn't think to brand him Davey Boy Smith Jr. That said, you've also got to wonder why the WWE broke up the Hart Dynasty when it had plenty gas left in the tank.
4. Who is your top five or ten if you feel up to it stiffest workers of all time, let's just say, American Pro Wrestlers. Consistently stiff/snug in the way they worked.
Probably going to have to go for Hansen and Vader as my top two here. In my many years watching wrestling I've never seen any superstars wrestling as stiffly as these two. Honorable mentions for the Road Warriors as well. In terms of current WWE talent I think Daniel Bryan and Drew McIntyre always look stiff and in TNA I'd plump for Bubba Ray or maybe even Angle.
My top five, however:
Hansen
Vader
Bruiser Brody
JBL
Hardcore Holly
Apple Blossom Rat Falcon asks about wrestlers with dancer gimmicks and gives me an excuse to post a great great video?
I was curious, what are the two best dancers to ever step foot in the squared circle, Alex Wright and Disco Inferno up to these days. Also, was it true in the late 90's that Disco almost signed with WWE? I remember an angle with him and Jacqueline in WCW where she implied he was leaving WCW. There was also an odd shadow figure in the shape of
Disco Inferno in either the WWF/RAW magazine indicating that a newcomer was on the way. The shadow figure was a man doing a standard disco pose.
I sorta think Daniel Bryan may be one of the best dancers ever to set foot in the ring?
After the WWE bought the WCW, Alex Wright fell out of the spotlight and hasn't appeared on American Television in a wrestling capacity since. He very rarely stepped back into the squared circle, appearing only a few time for German promotions. He started up a wrestling school called "The Wright Stuff" and more recently started his own wrestling promotion called New European Championship Wrestling .
As for Glenn Gilbertti, most recently he's been involved with Future Stars of Wrestling in Las Vegas but it's very difficult to find too much information on him. He's very much drifted out of the limelight. He's also made sporadic appearances with TNA and was at one point linked, although probably only by himself, with a job in the WWE creative department. But based on the fact that his ideas when part of the WCW Creative Department were as bad as they were, that was hugely unlikely. As for Disco joining the WWE, not that I am aware of and have no access to the magazines you referenced. However, any mention of the WWE and Disco only mention the fact that they were disinterested in him.
Looking at his career post WCW highlights just how correct the WWE were not to sign him up. He could have probably done with a friend putting a word in for him ahead of the Invasion angle. I doubt he'd have made that whole thing any worse.
Adam asks the first of a series of questions about the NWA.
Short & sweet, with all the recent departures of promotions from the NWA, who the hell is left?? If they're almost down to nothing already, what are the odds that they finally go under or get the name rights bought by WWE?
It's fair to say that recent years haven't been all that kind to the NWA.
After WCW and ECW both seceded from the NWA in the early and mid-nineties respectively, the NWA were left looking like nothing more than a bit player during the Monday Night Wars that gripped professional wrestling at the time.
In 2002 Jeff Jarrett formed NWATNA but two years later that organization also left the NWA in an attempt to become a major promotion.
Today, there is still a group of promoters which hold membership in the NWA and continue to use the NWA name, although no members are holdovers from the membership of the promotion's "glory days" of the 1940s?1980s. A full list of the current members can be found on the NWA website and you'll see from that list how far the mighty have indeed fallen.
The only recent TV exposure that the organization has received has been NWA Showcase and NWA Championship Wrestling from Holywood but very recently Championship Wrestling from Holywood announced it had left the NWA and in August 2012, NWA was sold to International Wrestling Corp, LLC.
As for the question about whether the WWE would buy the NWA, there would seem very little point in the WWE shelling out money to purchase it but if the WWE Network goes ahead then it would certainly give the station some more content. It would bring to an end a staggering amount of history and give Vince even more wrestling for his library. Would also be something that would bring him much enjoyment personally considering their reaction to his 80s expansion programme. If he could get it at a knock down drag out price then I imagine that Vince would buy it. It would be mostly out of one-upmanship rather than necessarily to get what's contained in the tapes, however.
Jamille and Gumball Stickemup Half Burrito Honcho ask about the NWA's relationship with the WWF in 1998.
what was the purpose of the NWA Invasion in WWE? Cause I found it quite weird that WWE would promote the NWA specially since they broke away from them to get as big as there are today.
How was Vince able to get the NWA Tag Titles on RAW for several weeks while Bart Gunn and Bob Holly held them. Was there some sort of cross promotion with the WWE/NWA?
It was more than just a few weeks. It all kicked off towards the tail end of 1997 before finally fizzling out around August 1998 although it was, in reality, done as an angle a few months before then.
With the WCW still comfortably winning the ratings battle, this was an attempt by Vince to recapture some ground on the belief that some of the old school WCW fans who grew up with the NWA would switch over to Raw from Nitro.
Alas, only the most hardcore of wrestling fan was really aware of the NWA at this point whilst virtually everyone was really left in the dark. It showed quite a level of desperation from Vince at this point to bring Dennis Coralluzzo, the head of the NWA along with Jim Cornette, an NWA mainstay. The real problem was the titles the NWA brought with them: Nobody really cared about the NWA North American title and cared even less with Jeff Jarrett defeated Blackjack Windham to win it. The other titles that made their way over were the NWA Tag Team Championship which were awarded to the Rock ?n' Roll Express, a team long past their prime.
The run began to drag even when Cornette formed the New Midnight Express ? Bombastic Bob Holly and Bodacious Bart Gunn. The duo who were then joined by the ?defecting' Barry Windham and the NWA Champion Dan Severen before Windham rejoined the WCW.
It was a desperate attempt to steal WCW fans that failed for much the same reason as the New Midnight Express and the New Blackjacks failed ? working once doesn't necessarily mean it will work again. And it didn't.
Mr. Perfect and his manager, the Coach, is the subject of the next question, this time from Mike
I'm watching the Mr. Perfect DVD, and saw Coach again...I had almost forgotten. WTF? The guy was worthless, and for that matter, IIRC, he was only brought in very briefly before Perfect went on extended hiatus with his back injury.
For that matter, if any heel didn't need a manager at all (especially once his initial push as a "rookie" was over), it was Perfect - he was both a great talker and a great wrestler. Why did the WWF seemingly insist on giving managers to all their heels? I guess it's for the sake of outside interference, but it just seemed silly to pair a great talker like Heenan with another one who didn't need one like Rude or Perfect (or BOTH Perfect and Heenan for Flair, for that matter).
Ah, John ?Coach' Tolos. I was just watching UWF Beach Brawl 1991 in which Tolos was managing the team of Cactus Jack and Bob Orton Jr. as they lost to Steve Ray and Sunny Beach in one of the series of poor matches on that card.
Soon after he joined the then WWF as manager of both Mr Perfect and the Beverley Brothers. His run didn't lost all too long and after Perfect took a break with an injury, Tolos quietly left the WWF and returned to UWF.
As for the rationale behind Perfect having a manager, a really good manager can take a great wrestler to that next level and that's exactly what happened with Bobby Heenan who helped elevate Perfect and many of the others in his stable. Alas, Tolos wasn't able to do this.
It really just harks back to the glory days of the territories where heel managers would bring in various outsiders to join their stable in attempt to dethrone the local hero face. It also served as a way of getting cheap heat and I can't think of any manager in the history of wrestling that is better at drawing cheap heat than Heenan was. Perfect had everything to get him over in the ring and with the addition of Heenan getting the crowd going, it was a sure fire hit.
That's essentially the reason why CM Punk currently has Heyman with him. It just increases the heat from the crowd.
Alasdair asks about The Legacy
With the recent interactions between Cody Rhodes, Ted Dibiase and Randy Orton on Smackdown I was wondering what was the original intention for the Legacy angle? Was the plan always for Orton to turn face against Rhodes and Dibiase?
Ah, the Legacy. A thoroughly entertaining stable that would be of a great benefit to a whole host of superstars currently on the WWE's roster who are second, and in some cases third, generation superstars but find themselves with at best a very limited role in the promotion.
The problem for Rhodes and Dibiase was that Orton rapidly outgrew the group and it was only natural for him to go on to bigger and better things, which is exactly what Randy Orton did. It's inconceivable to have Orton with that group all that long. The Legacy was there to elevate him further and that's exactly what it did do. I'm no' fan of Orton, I find him the modern equivalent of a DDP, but he's benefited a great deal from the time spent in the stables he was in in the WWE.
A casual watch of NXT shows a vast array of talent bubbling under the surface that would benefit from a spell in a stable such as the Legacy and the rub that they would get from being in such a group, as Randy Orton did.
Shady Wright sticks with stables and asks about one of my favorites, and the closest thing to the Four Horsemen, Evolution.
I have a few questions. First, I heard that Mark Jindrak was originally slated to be in Evolution, instead of Batista. They had filmed the vignettes & were all ready to roll, then made the switch at the last minute. Is there any truth to this? If so, what's the deal?
Want to see Jindrak do a great Cornette impression?
Jindrak has said in a shoot interview that he was originally slated to appear in Evolution and it's interesting to think how that would have turned out for him.
Ultimately, Jindrak was great and had an unreal level of potential and also had the stereotypical look that Vince likes.
What would things have looked like had Jindrak had a run with the group? Well, Jindrak would have gotten a huge rub being a member of the stable and working closely with Flair and HHH. I think Orton's future would have been very different too and I suspect he wouldn't be the star he is today.
Ultimately, though, the role was always for Batista. Jindrak was never supposed to be an original member, but rather the replacement for Batista when he got injured. After all, not only was that when the rumors heavily started to circulate that Jindrak was coming in but also explains why the vignettes were filmed in a helicopter since that was all filmed while Batista was out with his injury.
You have to wonder what Jindrak did to go from filming vignettes to not only not being a member of the group but also then getting released. Someone's nose must have been put out of joint.
Why was Essa Rios fired? They seemed to be pretty high on him. He was on 'Mania at age 19; they paired him with Lita; they even gave him a program with Angle. I heard it was because he never learned English. If this is true, then why do they continue to hire workers who don't speak the language (eg Mistico)?
It wasn't that he didn't speak the language as such, but more to do with the fact that he refused to take English lessons. I thought he was pretty awesome in the WWE and made his debut at the age of 18 on Raw as Aguila before winning the Lightweight title on his "debut" as Essa Rios from Gilberg on Heat.
After leaving the WWE he returned to Mexico but did make a comeback on American soil as part of Team Mexico in TNA. Rumors circulated that John Laurinaitis had shown some interest in bringing him back to the WWE, possibly as part of a rejuvenated Cruiserweight division, but that rumors of a Cruiserweight division returning to the WWE have been swirling for an age and show no signs of going anywhere.
Ed from Holland asks about Dusty Rhodes and Harley Race's runs in the WWF.
Could you maybe explain the story about Dusty Rhodes in WWF, in the early ninetees? I've read different things about it, and don't know what to make of it.
The polka-dot thing. I read that it was a terrible gimmick, but Dusty made something of it and got over anyway. Did Vince hold a grudge against him, by giving him a bad gimmick? (Why sign him anyway, one would think in that case). Also, I read Virgil (Ted DiBiases bodyguard), was named after Dusty in real life. This than should be very funny to insiders. Which I don't get. (Is it because they are opposites? (slim - very fat, black - white?). (or I have no sense of humor) So I guess I would like to know: was there some dissention between them? And if so, why sign him?
Bad gimmick and outfit certainly and the belief is that it was to humiliate him but as Dusty has said, both were his idea. By God did Dusty make this gimmick work and evidence that any gimmick can work if given to the correct person. Nobody at all expected Dusty at this stage to be a main eventer but it wasn't a bad move for him considering his best days were in the past by that stage.
Mike Jones did get the name Virgil as a dig at Dusty Rhodes. It was Bobby Heenan that thought up that stage name. Of course, when Jones joined the WCW his name was Vincent which was a pop at Vince McMahon.
When Dusty debuted as ?the American Dream' I doubt even his most supportive fan would have expected him to go anywhere with that gimmick but boy did he get it over. I personally enjoyed his feud with Randy Savage and then with DiBiase. It was clear Dusty had something left in the tank and Savage and DiBiase were able to have good matches with anyone, add Dusty to the equation and you have yourself a series of very impressive bouts.
On a related note, I wondered about Harley Race. NWA legend, then crowned King in WWF. It was one of the first shows I saw as kid. Was this 'king-gimmick' a kind of appreciation? Or was it the opposite? Even back then, it seemed a bit silly to me, but then again, its WWF/wrestling/sports entertainment....
It was in appreciation of his in-ring efforts. At the time the WWE went to great length to avoid acknowledging other wrestling promotions any success that the wrestler had at other promotions. As a result, WWE officials had to come up with another way to recognize his pedigree in the ring and this was what they came up with after he joined in May 1986
His run with the WWE was fairly short lived and he left the promotion in early 1989 and wrestled up until 1991 when he turned his hand to management. Although his spell with the WWE was shortlived, and he never won a Championship there, his career was notable enough for him to be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2004.
Sticking with accomplishments in other promotions, Matt asks why the WWE don't acknowledge title wins in other wrestling companies.
Why doesn't WWE ever recognize title wins in other companies? even though mentioning the other company might give them publicity, it would also legitimize wrestlers, Christian and Daniel Bryan come to mind...they could come in/back as multi-time world champs.
Does Pepsi mention Coca Cola in its advertising or history? No and why would WWE mention another promotion, such as TNA, in any capacity? It would not help them out in any way in the current climate, all variables and that's really why the WWE don't acknowledge other promotions Champions, unless they own the rights, and even then it's not always the case.
Right now Vince owns the rights to every title that ever mattered as a "World Title", the WWF, NWA/WCW and the AWA. Therefore he acknowledges, in most cases, those champions when referring to "world champions". There are a few anomalies however. Despite it stating he is a former AWA World Champion on his WWE profile, Mr. Perfect isn't referred to as a former World Champion.
Essentially, the selectively mention world champion reigns. It took years for Booker T to do the "five time" stuff in the WWE and Ron Simmons WCW title reign was never mentioned during his APA time.
The WWE knows what it wants to promote and that is the WWE. Wrestling fans will recognize AWA and all WCW/NWA title runs, as well as those in some other promotions, but Vince is all about the WWE's position not, per say, about continuity in terms of wrestling history.
Andre the Giant crops up again in this next question about the 1989 Survivor Series from Adam.
Love your column. I've been a wrestling fan since the early 80s and it's great that you have knowledge of the sport that goes back more than the last decade or so. I truly believe that wrestling has gone downhill since Vince bought WCW and eliminated his main source of competition (taking away his edge, if you will). I think I enjoyed seeing which wrestlers would jump from one fed to the next more than I enjoyed watching the actual matches, so that aspect of pro wrestling is virtually lost to the ages unless TNA or someone steps up and can actually give the WWE a good challenge.
Anyway, the reason I write is because I had a question on Survivor Series 1989. I read that Tully Blanchard had failed a drug test the day of the event, explaining why Bobby Heenan was in his place for the match against the Warrior's team (side note: it's pretty cool watching Shawn Michaels and the Warrior on the same team...wonder what they think of each other?). There were also a couple other substitutions: Bad News Brown for Akeem and someone else for the WIdow Maker. Not sure why these guys couldn't make it, so any info would be cool.
My main question is about Andre the Giant. Before the bell even rung he looks extremely agitated, possibly drunk? From what I've heard about him, this would probably be pretty common around this point in his life/career. He even shoves Hebner out of the corner of the ring just for the hell of it. So with the team already short one viable wrestler (Blanchard), the match doesn't even officially begin and Warrior storms the ring and ends up clothes-lining Andre to the outside, where he is quickly counted out. My initial thought watching this now (as opposed to when I was 16) was that Andre was probably in no condition to fight due to injury or drunkenness, so they probably thought it best to just get him out of the way. He actually spilled over the top rope and to the ground pretty good, like a cat landing on his feet.
So do you know if he was hammered and considered a liability or maybe just too beat up to last the whole match, seeing how they were already going to have Heenan warming the ring post most of the match? I'd like to just think an irate Vince McMahon was out back before the match pulling his hair out wondering what to do with the drunk giant and just said f#&k it, have Warrior get over by eliminating him quick.
Would love to hear your take on this, if you haven't answered it in a previous column that slipped by me.
Also, I counted 10 dead wrestlers on the show (Sherri included)...sad.
-AdamL
Without doubt one of the sadder aspects of watching old school WWE events, and I spend a lot of time doing that, is seeing the number of wrestlers that have since passed. I believe that Wrestlemania 5 has some sort of record for the number of wrestlers on the card that have since passed.
Anyway, I digress. Blanchard did indeed fail a drugs test and Arn Anderson would leave the WWE the day after this event heading back to the NWA. Although this time Blanchard didn't join him after the NWA heard of this infraction. A few months later he was eventually offered a deal but at a fraction of what he had been offered previously and declined.
As for the substitutions, Bad News Brown did indeed replace Akeem for some indiscernible while the Earthquake replaced Windham who asked for his release from the WWE owing to the fact his brother and father were facing jail time for counterfeiting charges. The WWE had big plans for Windham at this stage as he had been on a four month winning streak but by the following May was back in the WCW as part of the Four Horsemen. He'd later rejoin the WWF with the fairly awful Stalker gimmick but that's probably for another time if anyone cares enough to ask about it.
The reason for Andre's early exit was down to backstage heat he was receiving for his refusal to work with the Ultimate Warrior which would certainly explain his agitation although his drinking habits are well enough documented. Warrior was deeply insulted by the Giant's refusal to work with him both here and in their subsequent feud. Andre being counted out in 30 seconds meant that he didn't respect the Warrior enough to give him a match. It did kind of backfire by making the Ultimate Warrior look all but invincible at the time.
Mark asks about Christopher Daniels blink-and-you'll-miss-it run with ECW
I saw Lance Storm's Straight Shoot recently and in it he talks about Christopher Daniels. He mentions that he first met him when they were in ECW, until Daniels got heat and they wouldn't use him anymore. Any idea what Daniels did and who he pissed off?
Not only was Daniels' stint in ECW short but so was his hair:
Back in 1999, Heyman was likely pretty much everyone else in wrestling at the time and was hot on Daniels. Why else would have him beat, and unmask, Mosco de la Merced and get a win over Super Crazy. That said, the run didn't last two long and there are two possible explanations for this.
One is that the cliquey nature of the ECW locker room didn't take to him in the same way that they didn't take to Mike ?Erin O'Grady/Crash Holly' Lockwood and Thomas ?Reckless Youth' Carter.
The second is that he was constantly on the verge of a deal with WWE/WCW at this stage and may have been reluctant to commit to ECW in case it hurt any big pay day with the big two.
I'm minded to believe either so a combination of both isn't too far-fetched at all.
My Damn Opinion
Jimmy asks this week's solitary opinion question on how the WWE will deal with the Undertaker's eventual entry to the Hall of Fame.
Love the column and look forward to it every week. My question might be too simple/boring to be answered but I'm very curious. How do you think the WWE will handle the eventual induction of the Undertaker into the HOF? What I mean is the WWE has gone to extreme measures to never have the undertaker "out of character". He's never spoken at the HOF inductions, not the guy the send to do charity stuff (not that they would do that now). Does he come out in a suit and speak as "Mark Calaway", does he somehow give a "real" speech but "in-character" or do they avoid him ever speaking at all in some way?
The most inevitable entry to the WWE Hall of Fame. I could spend a few paragraphs here waxing lyrical about the Undertaker's in-ring achievements but none of it would be new to anyone considering how well documented his successes have been within the WWE.
Although his appearances for the WWE have been sporadic at best recently it's safe to assume that it will be after he eventually retires from active wrestling that he will be inducted into the WWE's Hall of Fame. Perhaps by Paul Bearer or Kane?
In terms of how the WWE will go about his induction, I imagine he will keep some of the characteristics of the Undertaker character but he will not be in full on Undertaker mode. It's clear he won't appear in full character mode as he will likely be the headline attraction of whatever year it is that he is finally inducted into the Hall of Fame and for that reason I can't envisage him remaining in character to do this. I think it will be a suited and booted Mark Calaway that appears to take the honor and regale the crowd with his many tales from inside the squared circle.
It will be a huge deal when it happens though, that's for sure.
Just for the heck of it, here's the quota of Matthew Perry pictures which I didn't get round to using this week!
Scientists have long believed that glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), the most aggressive type of primary brain tumor, begins in glial cells that make up supportive tissue in the brain or in neural stem cells. In a paperpublished October 18 in Science Express, however, researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have found that the tumors can originate from other types of differentiated cells in the nervous system, including cortical neurons.
GBM is one of the most devastating brain tumors that can affect humans. Despite progress in genetic analysis and classification, the prognosis of these tumors remains poor, with most patients dying within one to two years of diagnosis. The Salk researcher's findings offer an explanation for the recurrence of GBM following treatment and suggest potential new targets to treat these deadly brain tumors.
"One of the reasons for the lack of clinical advances in GBMs has been the insufficient understanding of the underlying mechanisms by which these tumors originate and progress," says Inder Verma, a professor in Salk's Laboratory of Genetics and the Irwin and Joan Jacobs Chair in Exemplary Life Science.
To better understand this process, Verma's team harnessed the power of modified viruses, called lentiviruses, to disable powerful tumor suppressor genes that regulate the growth of cells and inhibit the development of tumors. With these tumor suppressors deactivated, cancerous cells are given free rein to grow out of control.
To do that, Verma and his colleagues attached small RNA molecules, known as short hairpin RNAs, to the modified viruses and injected them directly into very few cells in the brains of genetically engineered mice that express an enzyme known as CRE specifically in neurons, astrocytes or neural stem cells. The modified viruses target two genes----neurofibromatosis 1 (NF1) and p53----that, when mutated, are implicated in severe gliomas like GBM. Using sophisticated analytical techniques, they discovered that neurons genetically converted by the lentiviruses that also produce green fluorescent protein (GFP) as a marker to track the progression of tumors are capable of forming malignant gliomas.
Because the origin of glioblastomas from neurons has not been previously reported, the Salk scientists provided further evidence that mature neurons can be transformed by these oncogenes by isolating cortical neurons from genetically engineered mice and transducing them with one of the lentiviruses. The neurons that were transplanted back into the mice developed the same tumors as the ones in the laboratory.
"Our findings," says lead author Dinorah Friedmann-Morvinski, a postdoctoral researcher in the Laboratory of Genetics, "suggest that, when two critical genes----NF-1 and p53----are disabled, mature, differentiated cells acquire the capacity to reprogram [dedifferentiate] to a neuroprogenitor cell-like state, which can not only maintain their plasticity, but also give rise to the variety of cells observed in malignant gliomas."
If scientists can block the process of dedifferentiation or proliferation of dedifferentiated neuroprogenitor cells, they may be able to stop tumor progression. That's important in an aggressive disease like GBM because of its high rate of recurrence.
"Our results offer an explanation of recurrence of gliomas following treatment," says Verma, "because any tumor cell that is not eradicated can continue to proliferate and induce tumor formation, thereby perpetuating the cycle of continuous cell replication to form malignant gliomas."
The scientists say the tumors in their mouse model are similar to GBMs that affect humans. Because they have the same pathology and characteristic genetic signature, scientists can study potential therapies in mice that should, theoretically, work in humans. While they may not eradicate GBM, these therapies may slow the progression of the disease and improve patients' quality of life.
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Salk Institute: http://www.salk.edu
Thanks to Salk Institute for this article.
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San Francisco 49ers head coach Jim Harbaugh wants the NFL?to take a closer look at the physical play of the Seattle Seahawks defensive secondary in Thursday?s 13-6 win by the Niners.
The San Francisco Chronicle reports Harbaugh plans to contact the league office before the teams meet again Dec. 23 in Seattle.
Harbaugh reportedly claimed Seahawks cornerbacks Brandon Browner and Richard Sherman used their hands too much while covering his wide receivers. Niners wideouts were thrown to 14 times, but had six catches for 63 yards.
Seahawks wide receiver Doug Baldwin, who played for Harbaugh at Stanford, apparently finds the whole thing amusing. He tweeted ?Jim said Sherm and BB were playing too rough. Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha"
In this Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2012 photo, citizen journalism image provided by Edlib News Network, ENN, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, Syrians rescue people from under the rubble of a destroyed building that was attacked by a Syrian force airstrike, at Kfar Nebel town, in Idlib province, northern Syria. (AP Photo/Idlib News Network ENN)
In this Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2012 photo, citizen journalism image provided by Edlib News Network, ENN, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, Syrians rescue people from under the rubble of a destroyed building that was attacked by a Syrian force airstrike, at Kfar Nebel town, in Idlib province, northern Syria. (AP Photo/Idlib News Network ENN)
In this Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2012 photo, citizen journalism image provided by Edlib News Network, ENN, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, Syrian citizens remove copies of the Quran, the Muslims holy book from under the rubble of a destroyed mosque that was destroyed due to government forces shelling, at Kfar Nebel town, in Idlib province, northern Syria. (AP Photo/Idlib News Network ENN)
In this Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2012 photo, Free Syrian Army fighter, Bashar al Hajji, points towards the besieged Shiite village of Zahraa in Aleppo, Syria. Anyone who dares try to slip out of the Shiite villages of Zahraa and Nubl risks their lives. Snipers outside town are ready to gun them down. Roads out are blocked with barricades and checkpoints. Rebels have imposed a smothering siege over the communities, which they call a den of pro-regime gunmen who have shelled, killed and kidnapped neighboring Sunnis. (AP Photo/Rob Celliers)
In this Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2012 photo, Free Syrian Army fighter, Bashar al Hajji, points towards the besieged Shiite village of Zahraa in Aleppo, Syria. Anyone who dares try to slip out of the Shiite villages of Zahraa and Nubl risks their lives. Snipers outside town are ready to gun them down. Roads out are blocked with barricades and checkpoints. Rebels have imposed a smothering siege over the communities, which they call a den of pro-regime gunmen who have shelled, killed and kidnapped neighboring Sunnis. (AP Photo/Rob Celliers)
In this citizen journalism image provided by Lens Young Homsi, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, a destroyed house from Syrian government forces shelling, at Jouret al-Shiyah, in Homs province, Syria, Thursday Oct. 18, 2012. Syrian activists say a string of government airstrikes on rebel areas in the country's north has killed at least 20 people, leveled buildings and forced residents to dig through mounds of rubble in search of survivors. (AP Photo/Lens Yong Homsi)
BEIRUT (AP) ? Turkey and Germany on Friday threw their weight behind calls for a Syrian cease-fire during a Muslim holiday next week as the international envoy for the conflict arrived in Damascus to push for the plan.
The effort has taken on urgency after activists in recent days reported some of the heaviest air bombardments by President Bashar Assad's military against rebel-held areas.
Lakhdar Brahimi, the joint U.N.-Arab League envoy, was expected to meet Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem on Saturday.
Brahimi has called for a truce by both sides in the civil war during the four-day Eid al-Adha holiday that begins next Friday. He told reporters upon his arrival in the Syrian capital that he would discuss the proposed cease-fire with Syrian officials.
The secretaries-general of the U.N. and the Arab League called on both the Syrian government and the rebels to heed Brahimi's appeal, while Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu also said both sides should end hostilities "at least" through Eid al-Adha.
"It is especially important for the Syrian regime, which has launched bombs on its people with planes and helicopters, to halt these attacks immediately and without preconditions," Davutoglu said.
He said the opposition must abide by the cease-fire as well.
German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle also called for a cease-fire, saying it would be "an important humanitarian glimmer of hope for people in Syria."
Others who have joined the calls for peace include Assad's allies in Iran. But both sides of the conflict have flouted previous cease-fires.
Despite the push for a cease-fire, activists reported more regime airstrikes Friday in the northern Idlib province. There were no immediate details on casualties.
Dozens were reported killed Wednesday and Thursday in airstrikes on opposition targets across Syria's north.
On Thursday, Syrian warplanes hammered a strategic city captured by rebels, leaving behind scenes of carnage captured on amateur videos that showed a man holding up two child-sized legs not connected to a body and another carrying a dismembered arm.
The city of Maaret al-Numan, located strategically on a major north-south highway connecting Aleppo and Damascus, was captured by rebels last week and there has been heavy fighting around it ever since. Rebel brigades from the surrounding area have poured in to defend the town. Online videos have shown them firing mortars at regime troops, and they claimed to have shot down a government helicopter on Wednesday.
Since it was captured a week ago, the Idlib province city and surrounding areas have been the focus of one of the heaviest air bombardments since Assad's military first unleashed its air force against rebels over the summer.
Activists say more than 33,000 people have been killed since the anti-Assad uprising started in March 2011.
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Associated Press writer Suzan Fraser contributed to this report from Ankara, Turkey.
