RedJed

Wonder what the deal was with The Texas Hangmen being booked as singles guys in this particular point in time?! Granted, it might just be for a week or two, but still, WTF. I can't think of a tag team other than them that I'd rather NOT see in singles matches whatsoever. Even their horrible tag squashes are getting really boring, singles is even worse. Did they tell Scott Norton to wear his pants up that high as a rib to go along with the "Flapjack" gimmick?

I would bet that is next once the AWA wraps up. I really enjoyed the initial first 3-4 months of Global, especially. The LW tournament was great, I remember Jerry Lynn and Waltman working against each other, IIRC. I also recall seeing Waltman doing some crazy somersault dive from the ringpost to the stage where they would interview wrestlers and thinking that was pretty good stuff for it's time. Plus the GWF ran out of the Dallas Sportatorium, great location and crowd too. I always wanted to see a show there just because of the unique atmosphere it gave off when watching GWF, USWA, and of course World Class.

lol yeah, that was horrible but in the best way possible. Oh and I noticed one of the regular jobbers on these shows, Todd Becker or something, now, for some reason, also started reffing on this show. Damn, they must have really been reaching if they're asking jobbers to pull double duty and ref! On some of the shows from circa '86 they had a couple guys pulling ref duty...notably Earthquake Ferris and that LaDeaux (sp?) boxer guy. I think the idea was that it was a way for the newer guys to learn the sport without doing matches immediately. Yeah, but at least they werent working matches on the same tapings back in 86, Becker was also doing jobs at the same time he was being used as a ref.

I don't think they were one of the same, but it may be possible.

A few gems already early on in tonights show.... I've noticed this during other matches as well the last few weeks, but every so often, they will cut in rabid crowd reaction footage from old Showboat shows, years before 1990 when that place was pretty hot in terms of crowd reactions. Its easily noticable when they do this, since you can actually see the entire crowd in the background of showing ringsiders, and at the actual tapings in Rochester, they were lucky to even fill up 5 rows of ringside plus a few sections right in front of the hard cam. Also so far, Del Wilkes did the typical cookie cutter babyface promo after his squash and then addressed about 10 kids at ringside and made sure they would be safe and not get into any trouble during the summer and made them promise they would be good (WTF?) , it was funny seeing how these kids ate it up though, and shook his hand after he told them that. And it looks like these shows went a bit off order since we're now getting about half of the Mike George-Nikita Koloff TCS classic they referenced the night before. Even though Mike George did some heavier standing matches in the midwest, he was the equivalent to George South of the Carolinas around these parts, and thus still screamed out jobber, big time. Plus having him casted as Larry's Legends "timekeeper" didn't help him much either!

The pacing is bad NOW? Shit, since they have gone two hours, the "million things at once" stuff isn't nearly as evident than it was than any other time in Impact history, IMO.

While I still think its really screwed up for the company to book Angle back again this soon, and especially against Styles, I don't get why everyone is thinking this is a true "rematch" they are booking here, much less something they could make money off of a ppv match with. I mean cmon, three two minute rounds of "olympic style" wrestling?! It's moreless an angle. It's worth throwing on Impact..........however, I do still have issues that this occured this quickly after them doing a stretcher deal for Kurt on the ppv. I just hope they still push hard that Angle is still "injured" and shouldn't even be wrestling, at least. Or if Angle actually had a neck brace on or something, too.

I'd actually even be all for, not just a NOES sequel of some sorts (more specifically, kill two birds with one stone and just have Freddy v. Jason 2, and also get rid of the ridiculous Friday the 13th remake as well), but if they are just dead-set on a remake, by tying in Krueger's past, which leads to him being burned, etc, I just wish they would do a straight prequal instead of a "remake." The backstory of Freddy is pretty good stuff in the right hands, and with the right person in the role, and honestly that still could and should be Englund, if they just went an almost straight prequal deal, as even an older looking Robert Englund (without the heavy burned face makeup job, of course) would still fit the role just fine, almost maybe much better than, say, 20 years ago. In fact, I would mark out like a motherfucker, seeing a really well done film based on Krueger's past and then at or near the end of the film, we get Englund in the full out scary Freddy Krueger look of the character from the original, perhaps killing his first victim on Elm Street after it's revealed how he invades dreams in the first place, etc. But without a proper consultant to an idea such as this (Wes Craven doesnt necessarily have to write or direct it, but he should be someone they have on board) and most definately, Englund still playing Krueger, I just can't see this anything but a letdown. The TV series Freddy's Nightmares did an hour long prequel of sorts themselves, which was pretty good but could be done so much better, especially nowadays. And Billy Bob as Freddy......he may be able to bring the creepiness a bit in explaining how Freddy became, well, Freddy, but I just can't see him putting on any sort of good role in the whole full scale dreammaster Freddy regalia.

NEWSFLASH: They were booking god damn retarded shit way before Russo came in. If anyone needs to go it's Jeff Jarrett. The struggle for the company to start generating significant numbers isn't just as simple as bad booking, Jarrett, Russo, or whatever else. I've said it before but until gets on the ball with their marketing and promotion of the brand and their top workers, they are just going to be stuck, doin respectable TV ratings for Spike, and an occasional strong ppv here and there from a numbers standpoint, but nothing that will be consistent. Basically, this company could have the most polished booking in history, and I don't think it would mean that they would reach WWE numbers in terms of competing. They still have the issue of that they don't know how to promote and market the company correctly. For what its worth, TNA is actually profitable finally, which is a plus.

Haha, great......give it time, she may pop up in porn in due time at this rate. So she's called the "Dirty Diva" now? Ooooook....

I definately wouldn't want to see Foley in another GM role, they could do much better with him than that, even on a non-wrestling capacity. A third man on the announce team would be alright. I could see him coming in since he was supposed to in 05, but Vince made him an offer he couldn't refuse. Now though, I would think he could care less about the money and more about actually doing something substantial to help the company gain some momentum as a true competitor to WWE. Time will tell but I could see Foley actually wrestling on a semi-regular basis, like Sting. And if he doesn't have any non-compete clause in his contract, he could show up anytime after Sept 1. Its not out of the question for TNA to make Bound for Glory significant by either booking him in his first match or appearence at that show.

With the new management at Lions Gate (which is why Meat Train got duped so much as it did), I doubt they will be doing as much of the horror stuff as they once did, unfortunately.

Some proverbial food for thought here......this was cut from the latest Observer.... "For what this is worth, the California Supreme Court this past week has ruled that non-compete clauses are illegal in a unanimous decision. Basically, when a contract expires, an employee can work for a competitor of the company he had worked for on the very next day. “An employer cannot by contract restrain a former employee from engaging in his or her profession, trade or business,” wrote Justice Ming Chin in the ruling. The only limitation is an employee can’t use confidential information or steal trade secrets if moving to a competitor." Also, I'd like to chime in my thoughts on the 15% percent deal that some people are not buying........as a small business owner myself (I own and operate an arts and entertaiment magazine), those numbers are pretty much true. If nobody believe me or Noah on that fact, I suggest getting a book on starting up your own business. That, in itself, is why I have never hired anyone on as an actual employee.....its costly for the business itself. And since all of the people that work for me are sales reps and they work on a strictly commission basis, it makes sense to have them as independant contractors. The way the WWE does things, its not legal to me, just simply because of the non-compete clauses implimented in the agreement with the workers. I tried doing such a thing (have my reps sign a non-compete clause) when there was another arts and entertainment magazine in town and I was concerned of reps either leaving my company and going to theirs, bringing their "leads" with them, but I was told by a local attorney that, essentially, I have no case to do so and could be potentially in violation of treating a person as an employee. So either I had to give them employee status (ie having their taxes taken off each check, etc) or else pull back on the heavy handed nature of the agreement I tried to get them to sign. What ended up happening was that I was still able to have them sign an agreement, but the only thing in the contract I was legally able to do was have it so that if one of my reps would leave, they just couldn't go to another publication and tell them, for instance, how much our ad rates were, what the commission rate was that i was giving them, etc. But I couldn't prevent them from really contacting the same businesses they established a business relationship with. Sorry if I'm rambling, but the bottom line is that the reality of having independant contractors who work for you really gives the company no legitimate "control" over them for the most part. Its a give and take deal......if you have no employees, its less hassle for the business in that you don't have to "pay" for them to be an employee, but you risk those contractors pretty much doing as they wish with little to no control.

It's possible that AJ does only agree if he puts his medals up......these spoilers are always so short on info. But yeah, having another AJ/Angle match this quickly is ridiculous considering the idea I thought was to put Angle on the shelf for a bit. However, the whole argument about "giving away" AJ/Angle in this kind of match (which sounds moreless like an angle more than a match) when it was just on ppv is a bit overstated just because they did a seriously strong match at the ppv and this sounds nothing of the sort.

From what I understand, it's not coming out. Warner Brothers isn't releasing it. They don't even have it. Here is the article from Bloody-Disgusting.com with that information. Also, the BBT rumor is just that, nothing more. Chances are someone else will just pick it up, like Anchor Bay or something, and release it on DVD. I've been wanting to see this for awhile now though, wouldn't mind a release to theaters around Halloween......just makes sense.

Its far from confirmed actually......alot of places are jumping on this story way ahead of themselves. Here is what went down...got this from Gorezone.. ** A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET remake: The JoBlo.com web site is reporting that Robert Englund was on Loveline promoting his upcoming film, JACK BROOKS: MONSTER SLAYER, and during his appearance he claimed that he had heard that Oscar-winning actor Billy Bob Thornton was a name being thrown around to play Freddy Krueger in the remake of A NIGHTMARE ONE ELMS STREET. Englund has been known to "invent" stories that he thinks would be cool. With New Line Cinema hiring Wesley Strick to write the screenplay just a few weeks ago, it seems highly unlikely that any casting talk is underway. (thanks to Bloody-Disgusting.com)

Jesus, Rheingans and Zbysko just completely wasted 20 good minutes that didn't even need to be half that. What a shitty shitty deal that was for a main event. Unless you like headlocks and armbars. Ralph and Lee having a freakout about Larry cheating for the finish, during replay, like they didn't notice it before, was quality though. Do not let Brad Rheingans talk!! Bad idea!

lol yeah, that was horrible but in the best way possible. Oh and I noticed one of the regular jobbers on these shows, Todd Becker or something, now, for some reason, also started reffing on this show. Damn, they must have really been reaching if they're asking jobbers to pull double duty and ref!

Hell no, the AWA would hardly even start long term programs in the first place around this time (that was, in particular, what the Team Challenge Series was for, I think), so it was actually kind of a mute point. Way back in the mid 80s, programs definately finished up properly in most cases, though.

Holy shit, the boring show last night made up for it with the one I'm watching right now. I'm at this match with DJ Peterson and this goof called Rick McCord (Ricky Morton rednecked and geeked out to the max) against "The Tokyo Bullets", extra duty for a couple of jobbers they already had there. Everything about this match from start to finish was hilarious, DJ Peterson, at this time, sounds like a drunk redneck himself, and then during the match they show another masked guy in the crowd. Wow.... The out of nowhere "revival" of the AWA Lightweight Title to just put over Johnnie Stewart (and if I recall, they make up a story where he won it in some tournament in another country) is pretty funny shit too. Oh, and the Lumberjacks doing, damn near verbatim, the same exact off the wall promo about the Flapjack name for Norton, only this time it was at ringside instead of behind the high quality northwoods bluescreen shot, and Norton once again no sells the new gimmick, great stuff. 298 eh? But yeah, Lee Marshall was really on a roll on some of these shows.....and people think Schiavonie was a shill on Nitro?!! Shit, Lee Marshall oversold damn near everything on these shows like he was having a gun stuck in his back the whole time, especially the "excitement" of the Team Challenge Series updates, which the recap on this show was great.....Koloff v. random jobber in a TCS match, apparently this guy (Mike George) was Baron Von Raschke's team "timekeeper." You know its getting bad when the actual jobbers are put over on TV as special!! I thought Marshall was going to have a stroke when he thought Del Wilkes beat Zbsysko, whom, speaking of which, definately throws off a few incoherant ramblings on these shows, behind the shittiest hokey looking "LarryLand" art in the background. Oh and fuckin Brad Rheingans is seriously one of the most uncharasmatic and uninteresting workers I recall thinking back when I was younger watching and going to this shit. My thoughts havent changed much, 18 years later! One of my least favorite Minnesota bred wrestlers, that's for sure.

Heres a shot from Mickey Rourke as "The Wrestler" - this must have been taken at one of those ROH shows they filmed at, notice the sign in the background lol http://www.badtaste.it/images/immagini/ven.../wrestler05.jpg

Friday. It's a stupid horror movie being released in the middle of August. Not an overhyped bomb at all. Ive seen the dumb preview about 5000000000 times. Kiefer's acting career is over, he'll never be able to do any roles without Jack Bauer being on the screen unless he undergoes a major makeover. I cant even watch Young Guns anymore either because of it and hes much younger with long hair in that. He hasn't had much of an acting career except for 24 and that one film with Michael Douglas from a few years back. So how can his acting career be over when he hasn't even been involved in any recent bombs, much less in ANYTHING?

Friday. It's a stupid horror movie being released in the middle of August. Not an overhyped bomb at all. Yeah, I've actually heard some semi-decent buzz about it that makes me think it will do ok business, probably 3rd or 4th this weekend. The previews look damn good, granted I'm a horror fan, but still....

They're just trying to promote and push the new video game in a different way early, before the game commercials, etc, get plastered all over the place. I don't think it's so stupid, it's hammering the point of the game coming out soon, I've seen alot worse things done before to help promote a potential big money maker for the company.

Upside just in terms of his marketability factor, how he is a ticketseller, crowd reactions, and the like. How "over" he is. But not by far.....its one of those issues w/ Batista and Cena that you could honestly say, in one situation, Cena may be over, but in another Batista may be. And the other is probably always going to be number two to the number one by a slight margin in terms of how over they really are on Raw. Comparing Cena's crowd reactions to those of Rock, and/or Austin even (if we are going to compare Cena to Rock, might as well throw Austin in there as well since Rock and Austin were one and two to each other back and forth in terms of "overness" much like I feel Batista and Cena are) I think is overstating things, not to a large degree, but enough for it to be a bit unrealistic to how Cena really is getting over, although I would say both him AND Batista are right up there in the top five overall for crowd babyface reactions on a consistent basis (I'd obviously throw Hogan in there for the other guy in the top five).