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NUTS AND BOLTS: NWA WRESTLING SHOWCASE ON HIATUS, NOAH HEADING TO UK, BLACKJACK MULLIGAN AUTOBIOGRAPHY, NIGEL MCGUINNESS, BALLS MAHONEY, OVW & MORE

Welcome to the sophomore edition of Nuts & Bolts.  Let's get right into it:

The NWA Showcase series, which airs via The Dish Network on the Colours Network, is expected to announce it will be going on "hiatus" shortly.  The series, which has been the NWA's attempt to produce a throwback studio show, has featured Sid Vicious and Rob Conway among others.  Dave Marquez has been heading the project.

Wataru Inoue, who won the 2008 New Japan Best of Super Junior tournament a few days ago, announced he would be vacating the IWGP Junior Heavyweight championship in order to move on to the promotion's Heavyweight division.  New Japan will hold a tournament to crown a new Junior champion at their July "New Japan Thrill" tour.

In his first championship defense of Pro Wrestling NOAH's Global Honored Crown title, former ROH champion Takeshi Morishima defeated Takashi Sugiara on 6/14 in Yokohama, Japan.  Bison Smith, Buchanan (Bull Buchanan of WWF fame), Keith Walker and Davey Richards will be touring with NOAH starting 6/29.

NOAH will be holding a live event this Saturday 6/21 in Great Britain at the Coventry Skydome, which TNA ran last weekend, featuring Kenta Kobashi & Go Shiozaki vs. Mitsuharu Misawa & Naomichi Marufuji in the main event.  Also scheduled for the show is GHC Junior champ Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. Jay Briscoe, GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team champs KENTA & Taiji Ishimori vs. Bryan Danielson & Eddie Edwards, Jun Akiyama & Bison Smith vs. Takeshi Morishima & Mohammed Yone, Doug Williams & ROH champ Nigel McGuinness vs. Takashi Sugiura & Kotaro Suzuki, Junji Izumida & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi vs. Wade Fitzgerald & Martin Stone and Atsushi Aoki vs. Joel Redman.

Speaking of McGuinness, the ROH champion defended his title while on tour for Irish Whip Wrestling in Ireland, defeating local star Vic Viper.  Michael Campbell has a detailed live report of the IWW event in Dublin on www.pwinsiderxtra.com.  The IWW tour also featured Balls Mahoney, Raven, Shawn Daivari, and Chad Collyer, as well as local talents from the area.

Blackjack Mulligan will begin taking pre-orders for his autobiography "True Lies and Alibis" on 6/20 via his official website www.blackjackmulligan.net.  Mulligan and his co-author Steve Buchanan will be signing copies of the initial orders.  "I want to offer my book and memorabilia directly to my fans," Mulligan wrote on his website.  "I sign these items myself --- and you have my word on that. I poured my heart and soul into this book, and I hope you, my fans and friends find it to be a good read. I know I did, after I read it! Some of the boys aren't going to like having their road stories told. Folks told me, "Jack don't say that, or Jack, don't say this about so and so." But to hell with that! These stories will make you laugh, make you cry and most of all re-live the glory days of wrasslin'."

Former WWF Intercontinental champion Tito Santana will be signing his autobiography "Tales from the Ring" on 7/22 at Bookends in Ridgewood, NJ.  Santana, who still makes appearance on the independent circuit, lives in Garden State and owns and operates Santana's Hair Salon in Succasunna, NJ.

Upcoming WWE names scheduled for the Ohio Valley Wrestling Six Flags events this summer are 6/20 - CM Punk, 6/27 - Armando Estrada, 7/4 - Shelton Benjamin, 7/11 Kenny Dykstra, 7/18 - John Cena, 7/25 - Cryme Time and 8/8 - Mick Foley.  Since they are no longer associated with World Wrestling Entertainment, OVW have started to sell episodes of OVW TV and their sister company, Derby City Wrestling, via DVD for $12.95 an episode.

Where Are They Now: Former WCW star Alex Wright currently operates a wrestling school in Nürnberg, Germany.

Dory Funk Jr.'s !Bang! promotion in Ocala, Florida will tape several tapings in July.  The 7/6 taping will feature TNA's James Storm while All Japan Pro Wrestling's Osamu Nishimura will be training Funk's students and working the 7/13 taping.

A slew of New York City area independent wrestlers are scheduled for Saturday's FTW event on 6/21 in Moriches, Long Island with Grimm Reefer vs. Balls Mahoney, plus Lowlife Louie Ramos, Julius Smokes, Danny Demanto (who is probably one of the most improved wrestlers in the last 18 months anywhere), Dan Barry, Javi-Air and former ROH star Daemon Slugger, who worked as Special K's security during the early era of the company.

Julio Dinero, HC Loc, The Rockin' Rebel and even the ECW Hat Guy, John Bailey (as a manager) are advertised for an event promoted by Atomic Championship Wrestling in Pennsylvania on 6/21.  In hindsight, it's weird ECW never did an angle with Hat Guy, although Paul "Sign Guy" Meles did have his little deal with Sign Guy Dudley.  Perhaps it was fear of a recreation of a silly incident in 1995 where 911 chokeslammed ringside fan "Dreads", who then got up and returned to his seat like nothing happened.  There's a moment you won't see in any of the retrospective documentaries - talk about a moment where time truly stood still in the ECW Arena, for all the wrong reasons.

Steve Corino is the top advertised name for the 8/2 Warriors of Wrestling event in South River, NJ.  For more information, visit www.warrorsofwrestling.com.

For detailed press releases and information on many of the events mentioned in Nuts & Bolts, visit www.PWInsiderXTRA.com daily.  That's all the Nuts & Bolts for now. 

Come across something interesting?  Mike Johnson can be reached at Mike@PWInsider.com.

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