AS I SEE IT 2/15

AS I SEE IT
Bob Magee
Pro Wrestling: Between the Sheets
PWBTS.com

From last week's column:

I hope one thing that happens with this rebranding is a way in which wrestlers like Bryan Danielson ...be used the right way. When Vince McMahon finally took a chance on presenting a unque character ... and let CM Punk be CM Punk, it worked pretty well.... I hope McMahon lets someone like Danielson, a character who actually uses submissions and brags about being "best in the world" actually use the gimmick people know Danielson for using.

Looks like McMahon's not starting very well. Neal Jones at InYourHeadonline.com reported last Friday that there's already been a minor name change of Bryan Danielson this past week on Florida Championship Wrestling to "Daniel Bryan".

Before I get the usual message board whining and e-mails, I understand that even Nigel McGuinness didn't care as much as most fans about TNA doing the same thing to him by changing his gimmick to "Desmond Wolfe". Hell, Danielson probably would let himself be called "Meat Loaf" if he gets a push and a paycheck (having Edge come down to a FCW show and make the save for you doesn't hurt, I suppose). But I swear that Vince McMahon does the gimmick changes just to show that he can. He pulls recognizable entrance music as he did with Sandman, just to show that he can.

How about just leaving certain unique characters ALONE...and letting them be what it is that got them over tin the first place? If WWE/TNA has a better character (D'Angelo Dinero is one example of when major promotions recently have), fine. But most of the time the people who will first off care about a character remember him/her for a character, so how about letting react to what it that they liked?

Saturday night saw Danielson team with Low-Ki (aka "Kaval") and FCW Champion Justin Angel vs.Curt Hawkins, Trent Barreta, and Caylen Croft.

In other news, as part of a weekend that saw CZW celebrate the promotions 11th anniversary (God; it can't be that long since I first went to that warehouse in Mantua, NJ), the promotion estalished TV on Philadelphia area informercial station WMCN. The station has wide clearance in the Philadelphia market as seen here:

New Jersey

Comcast Cablevision of Avalon - Cape May County - Channel 19
Comcast Cablevision of Burlington County - Burlington County - Channel 32
Comcast Cablevision of Garden State/Gloucester County - Burlington, Camden, Gloucester Counties - Channel 21
Comcast Cablevision of Ocean County - Ocean County - Channel 27
Comcast Cablevision of South Jersey/Wildwood - Atlantic, Cape May, Cumberland, Gloucester, Salem Counties - Channel 19
Comcast Cablevision of Trenton - Mercer County - Channel 27

Pennsylvania
Comcast Cablevision of Delaware County - Delaware County - Channel 14
Comcast Cablevision of Northeast/Northwest Philadelphia - Northeast Philadelphia - Channel 18
Comcast Cablevision of Center City Philadelphia - Center City / South Philadelphia - Channel 44
Urban Cableworks of West Philadelphia - West/Northwest Philadelphia - Channel 44
Comcast Cablevision of Levittown/Bensalem/Central Bucks (Philadelphia and Bucks Counties) - Channel 21
Comcast Cablevision of Lower Merion - Montgomery County - Channel 19
Comcast Cablevision of Willow Grove - Montgomery and Bucks Counties -Channel 20
Comcast Cablevision of Radnor - Delaware County - Channel 14
Comcast Cablevision of Norristown- Montgomery County/King of Prussia/Norristown/ Pottstown/Trappe- Channel 21
Comcast Cablevision of Plymouth Meeting - Montgomery County - Channel 20
Comcast Cablevision of Reading/Hamburg - Berks County - Channel 25
Comcast Cablevision of Sellersville - Bucks and Lehigh Counties - Channel 21
Comcast Cablevision of Chester County/West Chester - Channel 21

Delaware /b>
Comcast Cablevision of Wilmington - New Castle County - Channel 21
Comcast Cablevision of Dover/Kent) - Kent County - Channel 19

Verizon FiOS/Philadelphia region - Channel 19
DirecTV - Channel 44
Dish Network - Channel 8165

Oddly enough with this pickup, CZW will have better TV coverage in the Philadelphia market than Ring of Honor which taped its TV in Philadelphia for HDNet, a station which has no cable clearance in Philadelphia (it is carried on Dish Network and DirecTV).

More on Haiti:

The CZW-affiliated Maven Bentley Association will hold a show on March 21 (3:00 pm belltime) at the Park Avenue Banquet Hall, located at 4249 Parkside Avenue in Philadelphia. For information on the venue, go to the Park Avenue Banquet Hall website Directions are linked through Mapquest

Wrestling website Diva Dirt is continuing the effort to put together a friendly competition among wrestlers on Twitter to raise money for the people of Haiti which was struck by a tragic earthquake earlier this week. As part of the competition, they ask all wrestlers to tweet to their followers to send a donation via PayPal to Wrestlers4Haiti@gmail.com.

How to pledge via PayPal:

1. Log in to your Paypal account or sign up for one.
2. Click on the "Send Money" tab.
3. Type Wrestlers4Haiti@gmail.com in the "To" field and enter your pledge amount into the "Amount" field.
4. Choose how you wish to send the payment [it's advised to send it as 'personal' and 'gift].
5. On the confirmation screen, you will see "Email to recipient"" which shows something similar to the image below. In the "Message" field type in the name of the wrestler who you are pledging in support of. As you can see in the example below, the pledge is in support of Awesome Kong.
6. Click "Send Money" to send your payment!

All pledges will be sent to the American Red Cross Haiti emergency appeal fund. Please spread the word to your favourite wrestler on Twitter and ask them to get involved!

WWE is asking its fans to support relief efforts through AmericCares at this link

You can also donate to these well-known charitable organizations:

  • UNICEF's website
  • The Clinton-Bush Haiti fund
  • American Red Cross International Response Fund
  • Doctors Without Borders
    The following organizations are accepting SMS donations in the US only:
  • SMS text "HAITI" to 90999 to donate $10 to Red Cross relief efforts
  • SMS text "YELE" to 501501 to Donate $5 to Yele Haiti's Earthquake Relief efforts
  • SMS text "GIVE10" to 20222 to donate $10 to Direct Relief


    Until next time...

    If you have comments/questions/event announcements/results, if you'd like to add the AS I SEE IT column to your website, or if you'd like to add advertising on PWBTS.com (the flagship website of this column), e-mail me at the address above. Advertising consists of banner ads, available for $400 for one year. These ads would appear on each newspage appearing on the newsboard. Cube ads are also available for $200 for one year, which would be placed on the main newsboard page.

    _________________________________________________________

    If you have comments/questions, or if you'd like to add the AS I SEE IT column to your website, I can be reached by e-mail at bobmagee1@hotmail.com)