VoV
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NHL
– The Avalanche have officially retired F Joe Sakic’s No. 19 jersey to the rafters. Next stop: the Hall of Fame. Congrats, Burnaby Joe.
– The Stars have signed F Loui Eriksson to a six-year/$25.5M extension through the 2015-16 season. The 24-year-old Eriksson has 113 points (56 goals, 57 assists) in 210 career games. He is expected to play for his native Sweden in the Olympics in February.
– The Stars have signed D Stephane Robidas to a four-year/$13.2M extension.
– The Panthers have named Randy Sexton their GM.
MLB
– The Padres have fired GM Kevin Towers. Towers was in his 14th season with the Padres – most by any GM in the majors – and was set to make $2M next season.
– Tigers RHP Jeremy Bonderman was suspended for three games for his actions during Thursday’s game. Bonderman was retaliating for Twins P Jose Mijares (who received a fine, no suspension) throwing a ball behind Adam Everett’s back. Bonderman hit Delmon Young, who had to be restrained from getting at Mijares for perpetuating the situation. Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said that the Tigers had “done the right thing” in retaliating. Bonderman is appealing, which will push his suspension to the start of 2010. Twins hitting coach Lloyd McClendon was also suspended a game as he was acting manager because Gardenhire was ejected during the Mijares/Everett scuffle.
– Rays RHP Chad Bradford (rest) has been shut down for the remainder of the season. According to the St. Petersburg Times, Bradford is considering retirement this offseason.
TNA
– Contrary to what’s been reported online for months now, Sting is not expected to retire following this month’s Bound for Glory PPV. As things currently stand, TNA has no plans on adding a “retire or win the title” stipulation to his match with AJ Styles at Bound for Glory — which was initially planned. On television, Sting’s match has not been pushed as his final anything as he is expected to remain with the company at least a little while longer.
In is believed Sting has signed a new deal, but the word going around is that it was for six months rather than another year, once again indicating he’s thinking about retiring in the near future. Although, it’s been “one more year” since 2006 as every year since then they have convinced to stay. However, he has suggested doing a farewell tour in 2010.
According to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, TNA officials really want to bring in Ric Flair to be involved in Sting’s eventual farewell, but out of loyalty to Vince McMahon, Flair told people that he’s not even listening to TNA.
– According to the PWTorch, there is something of a youth movement going on in TNA. Company president Dixie Carter is very high on pushing the younger talent and has made it clear that anyone who objects won’t last long. Carter has identified AJ Styles, Matt Morgan and Hernandez as the three men in line for big pushes in the organization. Bobby Lashley had been on that list, but company officials have cooled on investing heavily in him as a result of his other career in MMA. While he’ll be featured prominently when his schedule allows him to work, Carter has determined that she can’t build her company around a wrestler who won’t be there on a full-time basis.
– Former TNA performer Angelina Love was reportedly backstage at one of the Impact tapings in Orlando last week, which is quite startling given her ongoing visa issues. It’s been indicated that she’s living in the area despite the fact that she was let go by the company because her work visa had expired.
The buzz in the locker room at last week’s television tapings was that Love would not be returning to the company because officials had determined it would cost them too much money to work out the problem. On another note, the backstage opinion of Love is not high among those in the TNA locker room. The ex-Knockout was not popular among most in the locker room and the term “karma” has been brought up by more than one person regarding her ongoing problems.
– Velvet Sky recently did an interview with the Miami Herald. The highlights:
Her initial reaction to Angelina Love’s departure from TNA: “It came out of the blue. We did three TV tapings. She was supposed to go to [TNA's] Germany tour. The travel was booked, and the pay-per-view match was booked. It was supposed to be her and I against Sarita and Taylor Wilde. A week and a half after we finished the TV tapings is when I got the phone call, saying this is what happened. ‘Oh my God.’ TNA reassured me that Madison and I were going to keep the group going. They weren’t going to let the group die. They said we all worked so hard, and we were so good in that group. So we were excited about that…Angelina told both of us to keep it going strong.`Don’t let anyone or anything ruin what we built.’ We won’t let anyone or anything ruin what we’ve work so hard to build. It’s not going to happen. Not on my time. That’s real. I mean that.”
How Angelina is doing nowadays: “I keep in contact with [Angelina]. She is doing OK, and she is going to be just fine. There was a lot of negative stuff that was said about her on the Internet like why she got fired, what’s going to happen. You can’t always believe what you read on the Internet.”
Whether “The Beautiful People” will have a new leader as a result of Angelina’s departure from the group: “I don’t think there is a need for a leadership role in The Beautiful People. Who’s to say I’m better than her, or she’s better than me. I don’t think The Beautiful People ever needed a leadership role. I view us as equals, 50/50. I think we should have the same amount of promo time, ring time, whatever the case may be. It’s a team.”
UFC
– According to InsideFights, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira will get a UFC Heavyweight Championship fight against the victor of the Brock Lesnar/Shane Carwin fight at UFC 106 in November.
WWE
– WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross has updated his blog, which you can read at JRsBarBQ.com. The highlights:
JBL Missing Decade of SmackDown: JBL was unavailable to attend the 10 year SD show but he’s doing great in business and life in general. John is playing golf this weekend at Pebble Beach…not bad for a country boy from West Texas.
Vickie Guerrero’s WWE Return: It looks as if Vickie Guerrero may be returning to Smackdown as a manager. More on that Friday night on Smackdown.
Bobby Heenan: Lots of talk at the Roundtable about the amazing Bobby Heenan who was virtually a lock for best manager ever by our panel. He got my vote.
Hell in a Cell: Hell in a Cell this Sunday will be an adventure with three main events inside the Cell. I’m intrigued as to how they will all have their own identity and look forward to the PPV
NBA
– The Rockets have picked up the 2010-11 option on G Aaron Brooks.
– Celtics F Bill Walker (arthroscopic knee surgery) has undergone successful surgery. He is out indefinitely.