RedJed

That ladder match last night was clearly booked to show that Eddy got screwed over in it - he had the match won numerous times but things out of his control prevented him from winning it, like his wife doing the run-in, Dominic, etc. So that has got to be, most definately, the end to the feud. The only exception MIGHT be a match on Smackdown for a title shot at No Mercy, which Eddy could win. In any respect though, Eddy can still challenge Batista for a title shot if they build him up strong now after last night on the shows. They clearly were protecting him during the ladder match. Overall, I thought the ppv was pretty strong, but the ending of the show just left SO MUCH to be desired. The match itself wasnt nearly as bad as one would expect, as Michaels carried Hogan to probably one of his best matches ever. But I was begging for a run-in by HHH here. The handshake at the end was lame, as Michaels should continue to be a heel as it just plain WORKED. Maybe they can still turn him back heel on Raw tonight, we'll see. The opener was PERFECT if you ask me. I didnt want to see this match anyway, it gave time to the others, and Benoit is WAY above actually working another competitive match with Jordan. This put him over strong in theory and showed that SD plans to do something with him and the title. I would imagine this is payback for Benoit doing some jobs the past few months. Jordan is so worthless, he should be sent down to developmental again now after this bury job. The Hardy/Edge thing was a joke - they did almost exactly what I expected as Hardy got CLEARLY buried and the story was that in this "fight" Hardy got punked out and lost. What else is there to say? The fans were casually booing Hardy as he got carried out. The intention of this is obvious - I cant believe Hardy agreed to it. This must have been WWE signing back up Hardy because they knew he might do something in TNA. So he gets here and they basically bury him to put over Edge further into main event status. And now I bet they will let him sit out the rest of his contract. And, unless there was an out clause in the contract, there is really nothing Hardy can do about it. His career is basically fucked. I thought the ladder match was slow and tedious at times, but not too bad at all. I would have loved to see what kind of ladder match these two could have done 10 years ago though. Some good spots, some sloppy, but overall good enough to be at least a *** 1/2 match. Eugene/Angle - not as bad as I thought it would be and they did a good job of putting over Angle strong for Cena. Orton and Taker had as good of a match as their Mania one for sure. Not sure why it is, but these two generally just work good together. About as steller of a job that you can expect from Taker there. Cena/Jericho was a great match for sure, legitimate near falls looked like Jericho had a chance to win. Crowd reaction for this match was certainly interesting. Batista/JBL was lame, but what do you expect? They went hardcore-lite with no blood and no real huge spots other than the finish. I guess it accomplished it's task though as JBL is most definately going to be taking a step down now, probably to feud with Benoit which is probably exactly where he should be. Already commented on Hogan/Michaels.

Round Robin format does make it possible for a decisive winner if and only if one person wins or loses both of his matches in the format, but if each worker of the three just wins and loses one of their matches each, then it's a complete tie from that standpoint. Point is, though, is that it can still work out a deal, though in a format like this to decide a winner it would have to be booked very particularly though and ultimately one of the guys loses twice and it will put them down a step likely. I guess if it came to it, Daniels would be the fall guy. Bottom line is Styles needs to be in a significant role on the show, and it would make the most sense to keep him in the X division stuff. Just having a match against a guy like Shelley on their big ppv is just devaluing his role a ton, or even being in a showcase X division match, if you ask me.

While I agree that Hogan/Vince was what they seemed to subtly use as the true main event (although its hard to fully say that since they seemed to use all 5 main matches as main events) and even the DVD had Hogan/Vince on the cover, there was in no way "thousands" of fans leaving the arena after that match. It wasnt that much of a draw overall. I was there live and everyone stayed til the very end of the show. IIRC Rock/Austin was after Hogan/Vince and I would be inclined to say if it came to push and shove more people were interested in that match than Vince/Hogan. ----- Also, pertaining to this Sunday's Hogan/HBK match, I really think they should have HBK go over, with Hogan beating him then in a rematch at Survivor Series. I would make a ridiculously huge push to Bret to ref that match as well in November. Although I dont expect it, I most certainly wouldnt mind a HHH run-in on Sunday during this match, helping Michaels beat Hogan. Michaels then re-aligns with HHH, to lead to HHH/Hogan, which is supposedly (according to Meltzer) the plan for Unforgiven anyway, or at least was at some point. Flair, in all of this, could and probably SHOULD turn face to fight Michaels at Unforgiven (I've also heard that is the plan for the next ppv too) and then at Survivor Series you build to Flair/HHH and Hogan/Michaels 2. Somewhere in between there, you could have a nifty tag match of Flair/Hogan v. HBK/HHH too - perhaps on the Saturday Nights Main Event special in the fall. Hogan most certainly could handle a screwjob loss at SummerSlam if it was booked in this manner and he went over then at Survivor Series in a rematch.

Sounds good, in fact I'd take that a step further and say that the three way match at the next ppv needs to be a no-decision of some sort because of that. If they do just a Joe-Daniels singles match at BFG, that leaves Styles in a very pointless position on that card. So this would be a way to keep one of their top stars in a major part of that ppv.

Well I gave it a listen, and I wasnt impressed at all. Recommended to skip this one, there is nothing groundbreaking on this album AT ALL.

I agree, they need to move them out of competiting for the tag belts all of a time and into more of a cohesive faction that actually means something. They are in desperate need of some sort of restructuring.

Some of the booking here is baffling, but it seems like every month the results sound bad on paper but turn out just fine on TV. The booking of the Candido tourmanent leaves much to be desired to me, though. Those teams are just plain weak, anyway you slice it. Making the X match a three way makes sense as it doesnt end the "story" of Joe winning the title until the big show in October. But it makes no sense to give Styles another shot since he lost to Joe last ppv. The result of the three way seems obvious with AJ losing, but that kind of damages him since he's been really out of the loop and without purpose lately and that certainly wont help him. So not sure what the best idea is to do here in this - maybe AJ actually beating Joe? And then Daniels beats Styles on the first Impact on Spike, and Joe beats Daniels at Bound for Glory? I know it would hurt to have Joe lose before he wins the title, but there are some variables to consider here. The undercard for the next ppv seems most definately weaker than the last ppv. Sabin v. Shocker might be solid though.

No chance of it happening in a dark segment. That would be just as stupid as putting him on PPV without advertising it. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Not if it was in Montreal last night, or even better, at a show in Calgary. Or should I say at least it would make sense as that would cater to the fans of Bret more, being in his home country, etc. The point I was trying to make too in by doing that, WWE would not be making any money off a Bret appearance and Bret would not be catering to the WWE's storylines or anything.

If, by chance, Bret shows up at some point, it will probably be in one of two ways. 1) In a dark segment after a Raw or Smackdown where he just comes out and thanks the fans, etc, no real "angle" to build off of. 2) A long term built appearance on, most likely, a ppv in some non-wrestling non-angle capacity. Something like appearing at Survivor Series to do a speech, putting some closure to Montreal 97.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}> That's actually a really great idea in theory that I am surprised WWE or other companies never tried before. The pre-show is almost always a waste of complete time anyways so they should start just doing this as a regular occurance every month. Have a point to always do a really hot opening match that would be free for the fans, follow up with a brief but hot angle to lead further into the top of the hour, and you would theoretically have alot more last minute buys than the fluff both TNA and WWE throw out during their pre-shows.

You've got to be fucking kidding me. Raw hasnt been THAT bad that the Diva Search segments were highlights of each week. Are you sure you are even a wrestling fan? Makes me wonder when you start disliking a show just because one wrestler is not on it anymore....

Didnt Mania have that? Anyway it baffles me that they are doing Jordan v. Benoit again. Benoit now as US champ is pointless to me, as is Jordan obviously retaining again. As said before, Booker and Christian should be in this match as well, and probably the best idea at this point with the US title is Christian winning it. Overall, other than the US title match, I think the lineup is strong.

The thing that gets on my nerves is that Shawn keeps holding back on going full heel against Hogan - if he would just forget about whatever hesitation he has, he'd realize he could be one of the better WWE heels in quite some time. Last night most certainly proved it. I just hope after SummerSlam (assuming Hogan/Michaels is done then) that HBK decides to stay heel because him going back to a full face after this stuff would just be wrong.

I have to admit, I was marking - and then followed that with numerous "no fucking way" mentions

I was into their early stuff in the mid to late 90s (Music, Grassroots, blue album were all tits) but once they started experimenting with their style a lil much they went downhill. From Chaos was ok but they need a strong follow up to that to get me back into their stuff. With that said, I'll give it a listen.....

5 tag team matches?...I'm not sure if I like that but It's a good card as it really should just build for Unbreakble so it's sensible to stick some programs together to set up builds to BFG which is the Mania/Starrcade/Final Battle of TNA. I would just finally do Kip Vs BJ James at Unbreakable and not extend that storyline any further. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> The whole idea though is to have the NAOs reunite around October, so why do you stop a storyline that you've invested so much time in BEFORE they even go back to being national? I think what might happen is now that Road Dogg is back with them, we will see Konnan turn heel within the next few months. From that the NAOs will reform and Truth will go solo and feud with Konnan. With that said, you could still do Gunn v. Road Dogg at the next ppv AND still keep the storyline going from there. This would be my best guess at a prelim card for next ppv Raven-Rhino - NWA title match Jarrett-Hardy - Number one contender, some sort of gimmick match Sabu-Abyss Joe-Daniels Team Canada v. Naturals v. AMW Waltman v. Lynn 2 James v. James Styles or Hoyt v. Brown(??) X division filler, Styles could be included in this spot too

I'm pretty much in agreement with most here on alot of the opinions on the matches. Overall I thought, from top to bottom, this was one of the most solid TNA ppvs yet - it flowed just nice and didnt leave for much, if any, dull spots. I'll post more thoughts later when I have time.

TNA might be able to get him back, when you consider Kazarian is now gone from WWE and a re-pairing of the Bentley/Kazarian team might really help the tag division, as they had high hopes for them way back when but Rhodes booked them half-ass and by the time Dusty was outed, Kazarian left the company. Plus what other alternatives do both have other than ROH and indy spots? Bentley would be a fool to not even take a small paycut if need-be, when you consider the upcoming national TV deal and the perfect timing of Kazarian out of WWE and looking to most likely return to TNA.

According to the website, they still have TV taping scheduled for Sept 13 so they wont be dark from then til the Spike TV debut. This press release is just in terms of taping for the Spike TV stuff exclusively.

There is talk of him actually being Waltman's sidekick/manager. Might not be too bad as they are kind of both one of the same. Regarding the tournament idea, I think it sounds great. Good enough formula for the next Dark Impact tapings anyway until they get on Spike TV. I would assume the winner gets a world tag title shot at either the Sept or Oct ppv then? For what its worth, I like the Diamond/Young team, but please do NOT let them win the tournament. They can certainly be in the tourmanent and even go to the finals, but I would like someone else win. Not sure who though. It will be interesting to see what pairing they do.

Yeah they let people in free for both the Impact tapings AND ppvs. Lucky for those fans at least, but I am shocked they wouldnt at least attempt to charge for tickets, much like they did in Nashville. Perhaps though that is some sort of deal they have to do it with Universal as alot of other TV shows wont allow charging for tickets either, such as hollywood shows that need a studio audience to film. Fuck, if they announce a cheap deal for a whole weekend, including a hotel package, I might make the trip myself. $59 is incredibly cheap for a fan fest weekend type deal. I REALLY wish they would try another arena/location SOON though for these ppvs. Bound for Glory would have been a perfect time and opportunity to make TNA look ALOT more attractive to buyers of that ppv show (presumably first timers that will see them initially on Spike TV) when it happens. Trying either an outdoor location in FL or even the old War Memorial in Ft. Lauderdale wouldnt have been a bad idea.

Did anyone tape this show, by chance? It didnt save on my DVR over the weekend while I was gone. I'd be willing to trade any 2 hour tape from my site for it.... I'm putting together a Velocity/Heat 6 hour comp tape, believe it or not , with some of the best matches (Regal-Benoit), character debuts (Kazarian, etc) since both shows are actually semi-watchable lately compared to just months ago. Plus I figure I can finish off a tape by the time both shows might get the ax next month. I hope Bauer continues to book Velocity as at least there are some angles and newworthy stuff happening though, for the time being.

That's only half-right. The roof WAS on Safeco, but that's not a lid that seals the top of the stadium, like the SkyDome. Safeco's roof is like a canopy. It's like standing under a giant pavilion. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Yeah I was going to say it certainly wasnt in a "closed" environment in the least - I was there live and it was basically an outdoor show for the most part.

Wonder what the story is there - he was getting a slow push on Velocity but strong, especially since he just beat London over the weekend. Probably best idea is for him to go back to TNA and team back up with Michael Shane

Umm Mania XIX was outdoors in Seattle, man