The highly anticipated new touch screen phone from Palm, the Palm Pre, finally has an official release date. Sprint and Palm will released the Palm Pre on June 6…and it will be available at RADIOSHACK~! A phone built to compete, and thrash, the iPhone, the Pre is available through Sprint for $199 on a new contract with a service plan starting at $69.99 per month. The $70 per month gets you 400+ minutes, unlimited text messaging, and unlimited data use on your device.

I await being able to sell this phone, and await to see Apple’s response the following week. It appears a new iPhone may be announced soon after the Pre goes on sale, but will this cause people to hold off buying the Pre?

*LINKS*

- LA Times Blog on Pre
- Palm Pre Home

- Photo: Credit whatleydude via Flickr

The Denver Nuggets have advanced to the 2009 NBA Western Conference Finals. This week, they begin a series with the Los Angeles Lakers, the #1 seed in the conference, that will see games one and two in Los Angeles. After these two games, the series turns to Denver, with the Nuggets hosting the Laker at the Pepsi Center on Saturday and Monday… which is where a problem comes into play. The Nuggets are scheduled to host the Lakers on Monday, May 25, at the Pepsi Center. What’s wrong with this? Well, it seems WWE has the same arena in Denver booked for their weekly live television show Monday Night Raw on that very night. A booking WWE claims has been set in place since last August. Now, WWE is crying foul over the Nuggets canceling this booking due to lack of foresight on their part. It appears the WWE booking is canceled due to the NBA games, but WWE isn’t letting this go without a fight, or at least a publicity battle. Today, WWE released this statement…

World Wrestling Entertainment’s live, internationally televised broadcast, WWE Monday Night Raw (USA Network, 9:00 PM ET) to take place at the Pepsi Center in Denver next Monday, May 25 is in jeopardy of being cancelled by the Denver Nuggets. WWE and the Denver Nuggets are currently at an impasse in resolving a scheduling debacle by the team and the Pepsi Center. A sell-out crowd is expected to attend the WWE show at the same time the Denver Nuggets are slated to square off against the Los Angeles Lakers for Game 4 of the NBA Western Conference Finals. WWE has held the May 25 date with the Pepsi Center since Aug. 15, 2008.

“Even though the Denver Nuggets had a strong team this year and were projected to make the playoffs, obviously Nuggets and Pepsi Center owner Stan Kroenke did not have enough faith in his own team to hold the May 25 date for a potential playoff game,” said WWE Chairman Vince McMahon.

WWE had the date booked, and even though the ownership group of the Nuggets owns the Pepsi Center, WWE is battling for priority. They won’t get it, and may not actually be looking for it, but it is a nice way to get mainstream sports attention. They’re getting it, too. WWE Chairman Vince McMahon appeared on ESPN News Monday night.

Tonight, on ESPNews, Jonathon Coachman interviewed WWE’s Vince McMahon on the battle for the Pepsi Center next Monday night between WWE and the Denver Nuggets. Vince basically reiterated the statements made in today’s WWE press release on the confusion. Vince claims that Denver Nuggets owner E. Stanley Kroenke must not have any faith in his team, due to management of the Nuggets not securing the arena with the NBA and the Pepsi Center for this date. Vince also closed the segment by offering a Lakers jersey to Nuggets owner Mr. Kroenke, figuring that Mr. Kroenke isn’t much of a Nuggets fan if he didn’t think his own team would make the NBA Western Conference Finals.

ESPNews is keeping fans abreast of the situation through their 24/7 news feed, and TWITTER. The past three Twitter messages from ESPNews revolve around the Pepsi Center dispute.

We’ll see what happens. WWE has the contract. Should be interesting.
21 minutes ago from web

WWE Mon Night Raw scheduled @ Pepsi Ctr next Mon. But now nuggets 2 play there. Big problem-WWE has contract. McMahon not happy.
31 minutes ago from web

ESPNews late night w/ Jonathan Coachman & Kevin Connors. WWE’s Vince McMahon joins us live at 11:35p ET. You won’t want 2 miss it!
38 minutes ago from web

WWE and the NBA are currently at an impasse, with no resolution announced. We have to be sure that WWE has a plan, however, to move the Raw show, but for publicity sake they aren’t revealing it quite yet. WWE is making a media run, holding onto their contract for that date. We’ll see what happens, indeed.

*UPDATE 2*
(12:23 AM)

From ESPNews Twitter feed…

Apparently, Pepsi Ctr mgmt didn’t think Nuggets would make it this far. Confirmed in March that they wanted the WWE. Contract signed Apr 15.
13 minutes ago from web

It appears the ownership group not only would rather see WWE inhabit the arena than the Nuggets, but team ownership doesn’t have any faith in their basketball team! Contract for WWE’s booking signed just over a month ago, when the Nuggets had already clinched their playoff spot. Interesting.

*UPDATE 3*
(1:02 am)

Quoted from Wrestling Observer…
http://www.f4wonline.com

While not being said publicly, right now no travel plans within the company have been changed even though they are readily aware they are not going to be able run at the Pepsi Center.
Two different ideas include the less likely one of taping Raw on Saturday night in Salt Lake City at the house show, or the more likely one of taping Raw in Colorado Springs, where they are taping Smackdown the next day.

The former guarantees a large crowd, because for the latter, they couldn’t put tickets on sale until probably tomorrow. It’ll be a problem switching tickets but one would think a good percentage of those who had purchased tickets would be willing to go to Colorado Springs, which is about 70 miles away.

*LINKS*

- Associated Press Story

- WWE.com

- Wrestling Observer

Sunday Night House Shows

On Sunday night, I ventured off to the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum in Fort Wayne to attend a WWE Live event featuring the roster of Smackdown & ECW. It was a lazy Sunday, and I wasn’t the only one feeling it, as WWE put on the exact same show Sunday that they put on Saturday in Grand Rapids, Michigan.



Tonight, we begin with FCW’s Angela as our ring announcer, thanking us for coming. Your referees tonight are Chadwick Patton and Scott Armstrong. We’re underway with a match presented by Tuesday’s ECW.

1) Tyson Kidd vs Evan Bourne
– Quickly paced match to start, but slowed down as the majority of the match saw Tyson working Sydal’s arm (?). Yeah, work the high flier’s arm, man. Tyson, furthering his brilliant game plan, took Bourne to the top rope for a big move but got reversed, knocked off, and Bourne hit the Shooting Bourne Press for the victory.



2) Finlay vs Vladimir Kozlov
– Finlay was not accompanied to the ring by the little fellow, which made the many kids disappointed. Finlay got beat down for a majority, but the final few minutes saw many a near fall by both men. Hot crowd for this one. Scott Armstrong, the lone American, garnered USA chants throughout. Finish saw Kozlov attempt to remove a turnbuckle pad, ref caught him, and as the ref tried to put it back on Finlay hit Vlad with the STICK THINGY behind his back for the win. Kids go yay~!

3) John Morrison (cheers!) vs Shelton Benjamin (boos)
– Smackdown gives us this match between former tag champions. Benjamin got more of a negative reaction than Morrison did a positive one. If only Morrison had Billy Mays to promote his face turn, it may get more buys. Morrison won this match with a tilt-a-whirl head scissors. Yeah. Pinfall for the new Smackdown roster member.

4) Natalya & Layla vs Eve & Gail Kim
– The women’s tag got a big reaction for entrances, but the match itself drew relative silence until the hot tag. Kim came in a cleaned house, then all four women all over the place until two left and Kim rolled up Natalya for the fall via pin. Natalya is awesome, both in entrance and body expressions.

5) CM Punk vs Umaga
– Punk got the biggest reaction of the night so far. Umaga was pretty subdued tonight, not really playing up the extreme monster mannerisms. It was more like Jamal in face paint than Umaga. Anyway, Punk won via DQ when Umaga had Punk down, went for the MITB briefcase, and whacked Punk in the back. DQ~! Punk avoided the Thumb of Death after, then hit Umaga with the briefcase a couple of times before his music played and he left.

Intermission, at which time Maria came out with some kids and threw shirts in the crowd.



6) Christian vs Swagger
– Started off as an ECW Title match, but during the bout Mark Henry attacked Christian OUT OF NOWHERE and that was followed by Tommy Dreamer becoming involved. Since Christian and Jack Swagger were joined by Tommy Dreamer and Mark Henry, I say, let’s have a tag team match, and let’s have it right now.


6b) Christian & Tommy Dreamer vs Mark Henry & Jack Swagger
– Match was pretty basic, went about eight minutes from here. Each team had momentum at times, but it matters who gets it last, and that was the team of Chrimmy Dreamage. Tommy hit the DDT on Henry, Cage followed with a diving headbutt and covered for the win.



7) Rey Mysterio vs Chris Jericho
– Jericho cut a promo beforehand saying he was going for the mask. He was truthful, as during the match he went for the mask. He got it, too, and Mysterio dived out of the ring, went under, and came out with mask back on. Chris then tried to remove the mask again, he did, but this time Rey had another mask underneath. Finish saw Jericho bring a chair in, Chad Patton told him he couldn’t do that, politely took it away from him, and went outside to put it away. Jericho watched as he did this, arguing, and while arguing Rey snuck up and hit a 619 as Jericho was yelling through the second rope at Patton. Rey pins him, 1 2 3 and that’s your ballgame.

8) Edge vs Jeff Hardy
– Before the match, Jeff took the mic and wished all the mothers in the crowd a Happy Mother’s Day. Edge went insane during this. Edge then took the mic from Angela afterward, and said “I don’t care about you, I don’t care about Jeff Hardy, and I don’t care about mothers! Yeah, MOTHERS! They’re overrated!” True story. Anyway, this match was for the Friday Night title of earth, and Edge retained his title with a spear. Hardy sent the crowd home happy after however with a comeback and post match one-uppance of Edge.

NERD ALERT~!

First edition of a regular segment to be hosted on this site – Triple R Classics Theater~! Russ, Ringlord and I watch classic wrestling episodes and review the awesomeness, and often wackiness, of past wrestling TV.

Before our first episode, there was much debate as to what classic wrestling show to start with. The episode chosen was a last minute decision, and Week 2 will feature our original first choice. So tease~! This week, RnRw/R watch WWF Raw from July 16, 2001. So quick, go get your DVD of this show, watch it on dailymotion or youtube if you can find it, or go to WWE.com for 24/7 and follow along with this classic show.

It’s the first show, and we know there are things to improve on for future shows. Please leave comments and suggestions for future episodes, ways to improve, etc in the comment box or email RoJo@russnrojo.com. Today, we jump right into the Alliance invasion, Steve Austin’s career decisions, and the McMahon family in turmoil for this episode of Raw and the first episode of Triple R Classics Theater!


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Updates on some minor league BALLERS…

Angel Mercado continues to be put up some pretty good numbers as the minor league outfielder plays for Double-A Lake Elsinore in California. After a good week start in Fort Wayne, Mercado has actually improved his batting average in AA to .300, with two RBIs. He doesn’t play everyday, however, and when he does, he hits fifth or sixth in the lineup while playing Left Field or DH. So Mercado hasn’t been in Fort Wayne recently, but someone else just made a three game swing here last weekend…

BYRON WILEY – Wiley only played one game in the recent Dayton Dragons swing through Fort Wayne. Only playing Sunday, Wiley had an average day at the plate in a losing effort. The Tin Caps have dominated the Dayton Dragons, winning all seven games in the season series. Tin Caps are in first place in the Midwest League!

More updates on our beloved Tin Caps as the season progresses. ESPN 1380 Fort Wayne has coverage of all games.

Twice tonight…TWICE… I have watched the 2007 Dylan inspired biopic “I’m Not There”, with a third viewing taking place as I type this. The Ballad of a Thin Man scene is for some reason captivating. After the second viewing, I’ve been reading all about this song and it’s possible meanings and subtexts and such. Lots of varying ideas… Oh, and Heath Ledger is in this, as is Cate Blanchett. Score all around, really. Fun movie, guaranteed to be better than X-Men Origins: Wolverine~! Yeah, I said it. Sorry JZ, I bash what I will not see anyway.

Tin Caps are still doing well, first place, and shut down the Dayton Dragons pretty easily again.

Been following people on Twitter, learning and so forth…

- @BreeOlson9, @johnnyz4282, @KevinI, @FWBaseball

I update so irregularly, it’s ridiculous and unnecessary…

THE BALLAD OF A THIN MAN SCENE IS ALMOST UP AGAIN~!

Plans are on for more Tin Caps baseball live on Friday vs Peoria, taping of the first Russ n’ RoJo WCW Classics Theater Monday night, and possibly not-seeing Wolverine on Wednesday (and every day for that matter).

Star Trek will be a yes, however.