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THREE HOUR RAW SPECIAL NEXT MONTH, HULK HOGAN MEETS WITH VINCE MCMAHON, RVD TALKS ECW & MORE
by Mike Johnson 

The 10/9 edition of Monday Night Raw will be a three hour special titled "Family Reunion" to celebrate the one year anniversary of Raw returning to the USA Network.

Hulk Hogan met with Vince McMahon last week in Stamford, CT regarding future involvement with the company. As we noted last week in the PWInsider.com Elite section, Hogan has pitched working with Big Show at Wrestlemania 23 to recreate the Hogan-Andre the Giant legend of Wrestlemania III. Apparently one of the other things discussed was WWE promoting Brooke Hogan's CD, as the official WWE site has an interview with Brooke pushing her CD being available digitally. Interestingly enough, Brooke noted that she thought her CD had 14 songs. Wouldn't she, of all people, know for sure?

Rob Van Dam was interviewed by the Fort Smith Times in Arkansas today, promoting tonight's ECW house show in that market, with a long discussion of his career at this link.

Speaking of ECW, The Pine Bluff Commercial featured an article on ECW returning to the city of their final live event at this link. The article features comments from Tommy Dreamer and that extreme icon, Kelly Kelly.

WWE announced today that they had partnered with Sports Marketing of Japan to create a Japanese language version of WWE.com. The same company handles similar sites for the NFL and the NBA, among others.

WWE's edition of Heat this week is a tribute show to Trish Stratus.

SOOToday.com has a tongue in cheek article looking at a recent indy show in Canada featuring former WWE star Dustin Runnells.

WWE RELEASES SEVERAL DEVELOPMENTAL TALENTS
by Mike Johnson 

World Wrestling Entertainment released several developmental talents that were assigned to Deep South Wrestling over the past 24 hours. Kevin Matthews, who originally broke in around the Northeastern independent scene, was signed last January and had been working regularly for DSW from that point.

Also released was New Jersey native Danny Gimondo, who had been working in the WWE developmental system since 2005. Gimondo had been working for OVW for about a year with no deal before he earned one with WWE. He was moved to Deep South at the onset of 2006. Gimondo was a regular for New Jersey independents for years under the name Inferno Kid, and had done regular dark match and enhancement work for the company dating back to the 1990s.

As noted last week on the PWInsider.com Elite section, there is a lot of talk internally about changing and revamping the WWE developmental division, including possible new developmental areas. It's something being viewed as a long term project that won't take place overnight, but over a long period of time.

ANOTHER TV PROJECT ENDS FOR CHRIS JERICHO 
by Mike Johnson 

The USA Network made the decision last week to pass on the pilot "Ebaum's World", which Chris Jericho hosted and filmed last March in Los Angeles. The pilot was based on the EBaumsWorld.com website, which features extreme video clips, prank calls, and other silliness. Jericho was paired with several comedians to comically comment on the videos while working on camera as the pilot's host. 

The original plan for the show, which was produced by the FOX Television Studios, was to pair it with Monday Night Raw to keep the WWE audience on the network after wrestling went off the air. There was a lot of surprise among the production team that the pilot, thought to be a sure thing, was passed on. The project had been in development since last January 

Since departing World Wrestling Entertainment in August 2005, Jericho has been focusing on his acting and musical career. He made his theatrical debut in a Toronto production of the play "Opening Night" over the summer and has been appearing on a semi-regular basis with Los Angeles improvisational troupe the Groundlings. Jericho appeared on the FOX "Celebrity Duets" competition, but was eliminated during the first episode. He's been regularly featured on VH-1's Best Week Ever and filmed a role for the New Line Cinema feature film "Shoot 'Em Up" in Canada several months back. Jericho signed a book deal last December with Warner Books to pen, "A Lion's Tale", which will focus on the early parts of his wrestling career, which is expected to be released next year.

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