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The Examiner reports:

Quinton “Rampage” Jackson is quitting MMA and the UFC. The news sent shockwaves through the sport. Still considered by many to be in his prime, Rampage sited feelings of disrespect in the blog post where he gave his fans the news. Since then, UFC President, Dana White, has refuted a few of the claims Rampage made in the first blog. Never one to miss a trash talking opportunity, Rashad Evans also got in on the action. Rampage responded to things that have been said since he wrote the first post and reiterated some of his original points.

The following is the entire text of his blog post, which was made available to members of Rampage-Jackson.com.

“Make no mistake the UFC treated me a lot better than Pride. If you get hurt in training in a UFC fight then will send you to the best doctors. If you get hurt in a Pride fight most of the time they will tell me “oh you better take care of that!” The UFC will always let you know in a timely matter who you will be fighting & give you enough time to train but with Pride if I knew 4 weeks ahead I would be happy cause most times they just give you a 2 weeks notice. Pride will rip you off on your merchandising but the UFC would find someway to hook you up on merchandising deals. Pride will make fights easier for certain fighters inside the ring (like standing up fights early). With the UFC whatever happens happens. The only thing I see the UFC needs to fix in this area is to get better judges. Ones who know about MMA & not from the boxing world.

The reason why I’m talking about all this is that I feel like this whole situation could have been avoided if UFC would have respected me more & rescheduled the fight about a month or more in my hometown, which I know fights can be rescheduled because of the Matt Hughes & Matt Serra was postponed due to injuries. Instead, Dana went on the internet & started talking bad about my decision. All we had to do was come to a certain type of argreement or understanding, which later came after a lot of trash talk from Dana. My manager flew to Vegas & talked to them & tried to work things out like a MAN. & still I keep quite & I didn’t talk trash back on the internet. The only reason why I’m even talking now is because I feel like I owe my fans an explanation because I am a MAN, a real MAN. Yeah I made good money with the UFC more than Pride, but I made both shows more money than they made me. I didn’t care too much about Pride treating me like crap cause I was an American in a Japanese company. Now in my own country, I feel like I’m being disrepected. Everything is not about how much money you make. You could be the richest man in the world but if nobody repsects you then it don’t mean sh*t. You can’t buy respect. It should be earned. & thats what I’m all about.

Now Rashad wanna put his two cents in. Rashad remains to be a boy under me. He wins a few fights, and some of them I thought the judges fell asleep during the fight & woke up & saw him playing with his nipples & guessed he won. He knocked Chuck Liddel out when Chuck wasn’t even the same man anymore. & now he thinks he’s on my level. Yeah he talks about how he beat Forrest & I lost. But when I fought Forrest that was the worst Rampage I had ever seen. & I still know in my heart I won that fight. So now he’s Mr. All Cocky & says I got a big mouth & talk a lot of smack. If my memory serves me correctly, he’s the one that got into my face after the Jardine fight & started talking trash when he was the one that was originally supposed to fight me that night, but he told Dana on the phone he didn’t want to fight. He wanted to keep his belt longer. Now, I’m not saying wether or not I would have beaten Machida, but I wouldn’t have went out like a bitch like the way he did. So I’m the one that was looking forward to the Rashad fight the most. I have always been a fighter my whole life. As a kid my family treated me like sh*t which made me the person who I am today. This is why when I meet people I treat people the way I want to be treated (unless they approach me wrong or pi*s me off). I grew up thinking that I wasn’t even important to my family which made me not even care about myself. That’s why I can get knee-ed in the face 15 times & come back for more. That’s why I can get my legs seriously hurt in a fight & still try to win. Thats why I can get my ribs broken in a fight & not tap out because my whole life I never thought I mattered to anybody or anybody cared about me. But now I have kids that love me & care about me & I’m not used to people caring about me but it feels good! I’m a very loyal person. Wolves are the most loyal animals on the planet. I was very loyal to the UFC, but now I owe all my loyalty to my kids… the ones who really care for me. The majority of my fights on the street I fought for free & they all were with emotion. I am a fighter, I will always be a fighter but my professional fights that were fought with emotion, I ended them all in devestating fashion. I am the wrong fighter that should fight pi**ed off professionally. I don’t even consider it fair. So Rashad says he will fight me for free. I will gladly meet him at any gym & fight him just to shut his mouth up. & I mean that for real!

When I told Dana I did not want my belt back & that I just wanted to make money, it was around the time when they gave me Wanderlei & actually it was around the same time when my mind wasn’t right (my mind was at TRUCK status) & that’s the way I felt because I felt I had been robbed out of my belt. After the Jardine fight I did want my belt back because my family was so proud of me when I was champion & I want to make my family proud cause now I finally feel like my family cares about me & they accept me & this is what I’ve been wanting my whole childhood… for my family to like me. If I got to beat some ass for my family to like me, so be it. But now, I’m a grown man & I’ll be damned if anybody disrespects me. I’m not having it, it’s not happening!”

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FIGHT-ON
EPISODE 05: An Unfortunate Twist of Fate
DATE: September 24th, 2009

In this two-hour plus edition of FIGHT-ON we’ll examine Jeff Hardy’s unfortunate Twist of Fate (or dare I say poor choices…). Other topics include TNA’s backstage changes and Ric Flair coming out of retirement. PWDragon and Elias also take a look back at UFC 103 and TNA: No Surrender. Then we’ll peer ahead into the year 2,000 and give our predictions for WWE: Hell in a Cell. Finally, we’ll induct one of the greatest Pro Wrestlers ever into the Hall of Fame–can you smell what he’s cookin’? All this and much more on FIGHT-ON!

This past Monday Night on Raw Lilian Garcia bid WWE fans farewell with an emotional goodbye. There is no doubt she will be missed.

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Jim Cornette has released his latest commentary over at Who’s Slamming Who. In it he discusses his release from TNA. It’s quite a different version of things compared to what’s been reported online and is indeed VERY MUCH worth a listen.

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Mike Johnson of PWInsider.com reports that Ed Ferrara, who worked closely with Vince Russo in WWE during the Attitude Era, is once again working for TNA. Ferrara was once employed by the company during its Nashville run as both an announcer and member of TNA Creative. Johnson later posted that Jeremy Borash has also been asked to return to the writing team.

Pat “Simon Diamond” Kenney and D’Lo Brown, both of whom were recently rehired by TNA as agents, were also backstage at the No Surrender PPV.

• Vitor Belfort defeated Rich Franklin by Knock Out at 3:02 in the 1st.
• Junior Dos Santos defeated Mirko Cro Cop by Verbal Submission at 2:00 in the 2nd.
• Paul Daley defeated Martin Kampmann by TKO at 2:31 in the 1st.
• Josk Koscheck defeated Frank Trigg by TKO at 1:25 in the 1st.
• Tyson Griffin defeated Hermes Franca by Knock Out at 3:25 in the 2nd.

Undercard
Efrain Escudero defeated Cole Miller by TKO at 3:36 in the 1st.
Tomasz Drwal defeated Drew McFedries by Rear Naked Choke at 1:03 in the 2nd.
Jim Miller defeated Steve Lopez by TKO at 48 seconds in the 2nd.
Nik Lentz defeated Rafaello Oliveira by Unanimous Decision.
Rick Story defeated Brian Foster by Arm Triangle at 1:09 in the 2nd.
Eliot Marshall defeated Jason Britz by Split Decision.
Vladimir Matyushenko defeated Igor Pokrajac by Unanimous Decision.
Rafael Dos Anjos defeated Rob Emerson by Unanimous Decision.

1. Taylor Wilde and Sarita def. The Beautiful People in 4:50 to become the first TNA Knockouts Tag Titles.

2. Hernandez def. Eric Young in 0:50.

3. Samoa Joe def. Daniels via submission in 13:45 to retain the X Division Title.

4. D’Angelo Dinero def. Suicide in a falls count anywhere match in 12:20.

5. ODB def. Cody Deaner to win the TNA Knockouts Title in 7:10.

6. Kevin Nash def. Abyss to retain TNA Legends Championship in 8:30.

7. Beer Money and Team 3D def. Booker T and Scott Steiner and The British Invasion in a Lethal Lockdown match in 22:25.

8. Bobby Lashley pinned Rhino in 6:05.

9. A.J. Styles defeated Kurt Angle, Sting, Matt Morgan, and Hernandez in a five-way to win the TNA Title in 15:15 via clean pinfall.

WWE CEO Linda McMahon has resigned from her position as chief executive officer to officially run for U.S. Senate in Connecticut next year. Vince McMahon will take over her duties as company CEO.

Linda McMahon officially announced her decision to run for government office on Wednesday. She will be contending against three other Republican candidates to run against current Democratic senator Christopher Dodd in 2010.

McMahon attacked Dobbs and the Washington political scene during her official announcement, which the AP covered. She said Washington is “out of control” and Dodd has “lost his way and our trust.”

WWE Hall of Famer Ric Flair will be coming out of retirement to wrestle on Hulk Hogan’s international tour of Australia in November.

Eric Bischoff, who is producing and promoting the tour, confirmed to Jason Powell of ProWrestling.net on Tuesday night that Flair is officially signed.

Hogan is scheduled to wrestle against Flair on the tour, but Hogan’s health will be a concern leading to the tour in a little over two months.

Other wrestlers scheduled include former WWE wrestlers Mr. Kennedy, Umaga, Val Venis, and Rikishi.

According to a report on The Sun website, Jim Cornette’s contract with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling was terminated after throwing one temper tantrum too many. Reportedly, he caused a major scene at the most recent Impact television taping during an argument with head writer Vince Russo.

Cornette directed his anger toward the former WCW World Heavyweight Champion during a production meeting calling for more focus on Eric Young on television.

“Everyone was in a production meeting with Russo running down the show, but Cornette went nuts screaming ‘why are we pushing Eric Young?’,” according to The Sun’s source. “Russo reacted calmly and said it wasn’t a big deal, but Cornette wouldn’t let it go and kept screaming about it, really causing a scene. He just wouldn’t stop. Even after the meeting broke, Cornette was walking around complaining to everyone who would listen.”

A few concerned co-workers went to management to voice their displeasure over their belief that Cornette had been acting unprofessionally. Apparently, this was “his latest refusal to be a pro,” so the organization decided to release him from his contract.

Similarly, Cornette was released by World Wrestling Entertainment in July 2005 after slapping current WWE star Santino Marella for breaking character and laughing at The Boogeyman during a live Ohio Valley Wrestling show.

“This wasn’t politics or anything to do with Jeff. It was purely a decision prompted by the same behaviour that got Jim fired in WWE,” the source said.