The Sunday Papers

Between the ‘sheets

– Aces & Eights leader revealed! At last Sunday’s Lockdown event, Bully Ray won the TNA championship from Jeff Hardy with assistance from the invading faction and declared himself president. This puts him in a position of seniority over VP D’Lo Brown, “Sergeant at Arms” Devon and “Director of Chaos” Doc. Ray yelled at Hulk Hogan that he used him, and that he screwed Brooke. At least their marriage was consummated then, I guess. Not long before Lockdown, Devon had announced that there would be no Dudley Boyz / Team 3D reunion as both men had moved on. This now appears to be a bit of a lie. Soon after Impact on Thursday, the Aces “hacked” the impactwrestling.com website and Twitter account, replacing all the pictures with pictures of the Aces, and all the news stories with Aces highlights from the past year. Needless to say, there were very, very few highlights.

– CM Punk injured his arm on Monday night during his match against Kane. It doesn’t sound too serious. While he didn’t work a house show in Bridgeport on Friday, it was only a preventative measure to keep him as healthy as possible leading into WrestleMania since he’s going to need both arms at peak condition to carry Undertaker.

– Rumours doing the rounds right now are that Rob Van Dam’s TNA contract has expired. This would explain his sudden X division title loss to Kenny King only a few days before Lockdown, and his absence from the PPV and subsequent TV. Van Dam has released a statement but has to remain vague.

– WWE had an empty pay per view spot in June this year having scrapped No Way Out again and moved Over The Limit to October. This hole will be filled with a new event, Payback. This is big news because…you know…well, I hope you know, because I sure as hell don’t.

– Kurt Angle did an interview with chicagonow.com in which he said he’ll be winding down his wrestling career within three years, that the IOC are crazy for scrapping wrestling and that TNA will be competitive with WWE within five years. In other words, nothing you haven’t heard from him a hundred times before.

– Jeff Hardy did an interview with The Sun in which he stated he’s done all he wants to do in wrestling. He did throw out one dream opponent though, Jushin Liger, who in his 2003 autobiography Exist 2 Inspire he credited with the inspiration behind his version of the senton bomb.

– WWE’s effort to breathe life back into the weak diva’s division continued on Monday with the return of the Bella Twins. I would make a joke about Brie getting new boobs to match Nikki’s, but that’s someone else’s column. But if I did, I’d headline it with something like “Twins’ twin twins.” Anyway. They were linked to the Rhodes Scholars on Raw, and clarified their heel status on SmackDown with an attack on Naomi and Cameron. With the heel Bellas back and WWE reaching out to ex-divas, coupled with the recent news that WWE has trademarked the Kharma name, could we finally see the beat down we were promised so long ago? Perhaps.

– Dixie Carter announced that the X division will have new rules starting on Thursday’s Impact. Right now the only rule is that the participants have to weigh less than 225lbs.

Speculation corner: WrestleMania edition

– We now have another match set, The Shield will be taking on Randy Orton, Sheamus and Ryback as announced on SmackDown. However after this announcement Mark Henry attacked Ryback with three consecutive world’s strongest slams, which makes me think Ryback will be stepping out to work a singles match with Henry, leaving a spot open for Big Show, who was hoping to be chosen earlier in the night.

– Triple H v Brock Lesnar is all but a lock, with Heyman demanding that he be allowed to set the stipulation after Triple H signs. All we know of the stip so far is that it won’t be anything related to MMA. Sorry to anyone hoping for the return of the lion’s den.

– The latest on the ever-changing undercard is that Dolph Ziggler will be teaming up with bodyguard Big E Langston to challenge Team Hell No for the tag team titles. Ziggler had previously been linked with both Jericho and Del Rio, but for the last few weeks had been completely directionless. This week he scored pinfalls over both Daniel Bryan on Raw and Kane on SmackDown.

– Wade Barrett v Miz looks likely too, in a feud focused more on their films than the IC title. Miz had recently fallen short of winning Antonio Cesaro’s US title, so why not switch him to the other belt?

– Cesaro has been on a losing streak lately, including one on Main Event to Sin Cara. With the status of Mysterio’s knee still uncertain, Sin Cara could be free to challenge for the belt.

– The New Age Outlaws are becoming a regular tag team on Raw, and the Rhodes Scholars brief split has been swept under the rug. My guess is that this isn’t over, but with Kofi Kingston recently reuniting with R-Truth and none of the six men having anything better to do, this could be a big boost for the tag division.

– Kaitlyn v Layla? Probably.

– Which brings us to Chris Jericho. Dave Meltzer has reported that there’s been talk of Jericho working Fandango at WrestleMania, and this brings me much joy. I don’t care what you say, I really like Fandango. I’m hoping Jericho shows up on Raw with Cheryl Burke, his partner on Dancing With The Stars, who would then turn heel on him and side with Fandango, saying Fandango is a much better dancer than Jericho ever was and that if he was on Dancing With The Stars he’d get past the sixth week. That’s heat.

#Hashtag

– I have a special ‘From The Vault’ edition of #BabyfaceDickery for you this week, with video! We’re going back more than two years to the time John Cena started it all. I both love and hate this video because it shows all that’s wrong with WWE’s top faces. Why the hell does he do this, and why is it ok?!

– #CallMeNostradamus: Dolph Ziggler doesn’t cash in MITB at WrestleMania. Every month people predict that he’s going to do it and every week I say no. This time I’m calling it early.