During Thursday's quarterly conference call for WWE, Linda McMahon was asked to address whether she views TNA as competition to WWE or not. She acknowledged TNA, stated that while TNA might be in the same genre, WWE considers all forms of television entertainment as true competition.

WWE has been consistent in their claims that they consider other non-wrestling television shows and sports broadcasts as the more serious competition than TNA.

ORLANDO, Fla. – ECW on Sci Fi stood witness as two of its top Superstars fought to prove themselves worthy of a championship opportunity, while another crossed a dangerous line with an ECW Original. Watch all of the action now in the ECW Quick Cut and check out WWE.com's exclusive ringside PHOTOS.

ECW Champion Matt Hardy def. Bam Neely (Non-title Match)
ECW Champion Matt Hardy started the night off by setting the Land of the Extreme on fire with an electrifying victory over the rough and ready Bam Neely. Just when it looked as if the brutal Neely would upset the champion, Matt Hardy hit him with a Twist of Fate from out of nowhere to come out on top.

Finlay def. Mark Henry
At the conclusion of Matt Hardy's match, Finlay and Mark Henry both emerged to proclaim that they should to be the next Superstar to face the ECW Champion. As a result, ECW General Manager Theodore Long made an executive decision that the two Superstars would battle for a chance at the title in the night's main event. After avoiding a splash that threatened both him and his son Hornswoggle, Finlay triumphed over Henry by bashing the World's Strongest Man over the head with the shillelagh. The monumental victory earns the Belfast Brawler a chance at the Hardy's gold next week.

Jack Swagger insults Tommy Dreamer and his family
Following his huge victory over ECW Original Tommy Dreamer last week, "The All-American American" Jack Swagger proceeded to belittle the 19-year hardcore veteran, describing the many ways Dreamer is a "failure" before dropping the old ECW Championship into a trash can. However, when Swagger suggested Dreamer's twin daughters might become "failures" as well, the situation reached a boiling point. Dreamer charged into the ring in an enraged frenzy, smashing Swagger with the trash can before whacking him with the Singapore Cane, sending him from the ring in agony.

Ricky Ortiz def. local athlete
Ricky Ortiz remained undefeated, making short work of a local athlete with the devastating Big O. The ever-building winning streak of this young Superstar stands as a continued monument to the amazing success of Long's New Superstar Initiative

Taken from: wwe.com

Jim Cornette Vows To Break Vince McMahon
by Patrick Lennon

If you're taking on the big boys in wrestling, you need brains as well as brawn.

Jim Cornette is one of the most prolific creative minds in the wrestling industry, as well as being a right old wheeze on screen.

His pedigree in promotion, booking and experience on camera is matched by very few people in the industry at large.

Cornette is probably most famous with the public for his managerial roles on screen with the Midnight Express and Yokozuna and more recently for laying some flesh on a young Santino Marella when in charge of OVW, then WWE
Developmental.

For those who don't know, Marella had broken character on TV and laughed at Boogeyman. Cornette tells me he'd do it again in an instant.

A reputation as an abrasive fellow may well be justified, but his passion for the business is never in question. Cornette refuses to fly yet Fighting Talk caught up with him in Chicago straight after Bound For Glory, which is not a short
drive from his Kentucky home.

An elated Cornette greeted me backstage and lived up to his reputation for making Mick Foley look like Giorgio Armani, dressed as he was in T-shirt and tracksuit bottoms.

Cornette was taken aback when FT asked him about the deposition of Samoa Joe as Champion (he had just lost out to Sting) and tells me they didn't do anything wrong.

He said: "I don't think so. I simply don't think so. "I'm a fan of the young guys, the Samoa Joes, the AJ Styles, and the Beer Moneys.

"I think that they keep the veterans on their toes. When was the last time you saw Sting take an ass-whippin' like that?

"He was whipped across Texas, or he was going to the electric chair, and that's what Joe did. I love to watch people fight."

TNA are rightly celebrating their fourth annual showpiece as their best PPV offering to date. Cornette on the whole agreed with that assessment and argued that there is still room for improvement.

He tells me: "I think there was a lot of action tonight. I'm old-fashioned, I don't like to see so many weapons.

"I like people to beat each other up with their bare hands so I think the PPV that TNA did with the two guys in the MMA match was great but I think this was great too. Both were very different."

Cornette has a good idea of what it takes in promotion. Although his own Smokey Mountain Wrestling was a shortlived experiment in the Nineties, it provided invaluable assistance to a few big names on top of the pile today.

Ask Chris Jericho what he learned from Cornette. Building a viable alternative to WWE has been the TNA quest and although fans may be struggling to find the money to indulge their grapple habits, Cornette believes his current employers are moving in the right direction.

He says: "Everyone has their own particular taste and mine would be different to everybody else. TNA has the young talent, TNA has the alternative product, they are breaking a monopoly, a trust that's been together in wrestling a long time - that if it's not WWE, then it's not major league.

"Well TNA proved tonight, as they've proved every time they go on national television, every time they go on PPV, that there are two major leagues now."

FT believes the young TNA stalwarts should feature heavily at the head of the card if it is to look like an alternative.

Cornette gave me his pick of the bunch, and Champion elect AJ Styles is among them.

He added: "Beer Money - Robert Roode and James Storm - are the next ones to watch, plus Matt Morgan. He's incredible.
"Beer Money remind me of Tully Blanchard and Arn Anderson. I'd love for the Midnight Express to be in their prime so we could have a match with them."

TNA are blessed with the man's talent, that much is certain.

Before he darted back to the hotel, he issued his battle cry: "Have you seen the stock market? Vince is not a billionaire any more! He may not even be a millionaire by the time this thing's over! I will sacrifice every penny I've got and cut my neighbour's lawn to see Vince McMahon a broken man laying in the gutter!"

Taken from: http://www.dailystar.co.uk/inthering/view/57203/TNA-exclusive-Jim-Cornette-vows-to-break-Vince-McMahon/

Former WWE creative team member Seth Mates has a blog entry up talking about why Undertaker and Triple H went six years without wrestling each other, why Paul Heyman called Mick Foley a prostitute, why Joel Gertner being thrown off WWE TV, and more. Here is what he wrote on his blog entry at NewsDay.com:

So it was six years ago -- on the Halloween episode of SmackDown in 2002 -- that this happened. (Yes, that's me dressed as Dudley Do-Right sitting next to Cena as Stephanie's talking).

I've blogged before about my role in John Cena's first appearance as the white-boy rapper that ultimately led to his rise to superstardom. But given the day's festivities, I thought I'd retell the story -- along with some other fun backstage tidbits and thoughts inspired by recent events. Enjoy ...

... WWE and My Network TV went out of their way to promote last Friday's Triple H vs. Undertaker match-up, which they touted as WrestleMania-caliber. When I think of that match-up, I think back to the day after SummerSlam 2002, when HHH and Taker met in the main event on Raw -- which I believe is the last time they tangled on television. All I remember is how deflated the crowd was, how much the match stunk it up, how disappointed everyone backstage was afterwards (and for people backstage to openly malign something involving both HHH and Taker, that should tell you something). The feeling backstage was that we'd done something fresh and new at SummerSlam by putting the title on Brock, and now here we were doing something that was same old, same old, same old. Hopefully the six years since then have freshened the match a bit (I didn't watch last week), but this is the reason why you haven't seen it in so long.

... Thinking of the HHH-Taker match back in 2002 also reminds me of the backstage segment that followed that match, where Brock and Paul Heyman walk out of MSG with the WWE Title -- the moment that set up the split titles. I remember while we were shooting that vignette, a thinner-than-ever Joel Gertner -- who was backstage visiting that night -- was sitting directly in camera view! Not sure whether it was a strategic move on his part, but I alerted that fact to whoever was producing the segment, and he kindly asked Joel to move out of frame. Imagine if Brock was still with the company and that moment had become the "MOMENT" they always wanted it to be -- with Joel Gertner randomly in the background every time it was shown!

... I know I'm late on this, but congrats to Jonathan Coachman on escaping the WWE tornado and landing a great gig at ESPN. Good luck to you.

... This month's WWE 24-7 offerings are just awesome. I've been enjoying Survivor Series '87 the past few days, and I'm excited to see Survivor Series '91 later this month for the first time since I saw it live on PPV some 17 years ago. The music video offerings have two of my favorites ever (both for all the wrong reasons) -- Jive Soul Bro with Slick, and the AWA's WrestleRock Rumble -- arguably the worst thing ever. December's month's offerings look just as good, with Tuesday in Texas on the slate (Macho Man vs. Jake the Snake is THE best rivalry in wrestling ever to me, and in my opinion, Macho's promo after the match is the greatest promo in wrestling history, ever). And the fact that they're featuring Goldberg in the "Shorties" section as their Hannukah tribute is actually pretty funny.

... Surely I can't be the only one who got a little nauseous tonight during the SmackDown open when Eddie Guerrero's widow and nephew cut a wrestling promo next to a casket.

... Anyway, back to the Cena story from the Halloween 2002 SmackDown. I was on creative, and one of my duties was to go to the talent and find out what they wanted to dress as for the Halloween party. I believe we were on a European tour at the time, and when I went up to Cena (who was still finding his way through lower-card muck at the time, trying to establish a character), his face lit up and he instantly said Vanilla Ice. Having heard of his vocal prowess, I smiled back and said I'd do my best.

It was either that very day or shortly thereafter that John did his famous freestyle on a busride to a U.K. show. The entire SmackDown creative team was on that bus, and though there had been some hesitation from top creative people that making John a white rapper would "bury him", I and othersfought the good fight to give John an opportunity (and that rap on the bus definitely helped).

John was given a few speaking roles in the backstage Halloween party that night, and as best I can recall, he wrote all his own stuff. I remember him running one of his raps by me before the show, and I just knew the guy was gonna be a star. And there's been no looking back for John since then. There was some talk of renaming him "Johnny Ice" after that show, but luckily nothing ever came of that.

And for the record, John still owes me 50 bucks from that U.K. swing -- but that's a story for another time ...