RedJed

PPV opens "the most hardcore ppv of the year" (according to Don West) with Sting showing up and not answering any questions before coming into the arena. The rap trio start the show to an almost zero reaction from the crowd. Really bad shit. Ice-T must have no-showed since he wasn't out there. Instead, Mel-E-Mel was out there acting like he was a wrestler. Another Don West line - "Get ready for violence!" Creed v. Petey is up....

Yup it started in October of 89. And ended in August of 90. The ending of the TCS stuff will be hilarious since they worked all of the last few matches in the TCS (and in the companies' existance) in a small studio covered in pink from top to bottom. Walls and ceilings (and maybe even floors) alike!

It was November of 89....I'm thinking they will probably go back to do all of 89 once they do the end run of the AWA shows from 90, as I think thats about all they have left for shows, that and I think the first part of 88, we have yet to see also.

I would assume so....but it's far from a gone conclusion.

Manny has to learn how to control himself a bit, he went way too wild right away and left himself open to that quick KO. Not sure if he's showed up yet, but Jesse Ventura is sitting right next to BJ Penn.

Its weird that they just totally skipped over about 3 months all of a sudden, since Thursday's show, now its May 1990, the crowds keep dwindling down and hardly anyone in the crowd even reacts to much anything at all, that's how anemic these tapings in Rochester got after awhile. The TCS concept was as dull and mundane as ever, since the company ran out of gimmick matches all the time and now are just doing standard one on one or tag matches for points. And there was next to no feuds even happening for the most part. But there was still horribly unintentionally hilarious moments all over, probably more than ever. The Nikita Koloff beatdown by, I think it was Zbsyzko, was one of those moments that just nobody in the crowd even gave two shits about, most underwhelming angle I've seen in a good while.

I might be wrong, but I though WWE considered itself as an entertainment entity and not a sport, which would make them exempt from a state AC. Because then they would have to test the wrestlers for things that are not covered in the "wellness" policy, which almost every one of them would fail. Again, though, I have to stress the most important part of this issue. They ARE independent contractors, but they signed a contract of EXCLUSIVITY. Therefore, they made the decision to not perform elsewhere voluntarily. That bullshit though, because if they didnt sign the contract of exclusivity, they wouldn't even be hired.

Like I said, it just has to lead to him turning into Prince Justice, since wouldn't that be his gimmick anyway, a guy that saves people when they're down and out? The name sure suggests it. And it would fit into him joining a clan of Super Eric, Curry Man, etc. Probably will still have his mask intact and relatively the same gimmick, but just called Prince Justice. It has to be what the plan is since they, out of nowhere, called Super Eric's group "The Prince Justice Brotherhood" or whatever they're saying. Yeah......I'm not feeling it either.

I still dont see an Abyss-Kong feud......all Abyss keeps doing is running in when babyfaces are in peril. The way things are going, I am thinking he actually will be turned to his Prince Justice character, since that seems to be what the idea is when he comes out to save people. Time will tell though, I guess.

He probably just didn't agree to it, seemed like he wanted out and out quick. But keep in mind they did have Morgan basically squash him after he beat a jobber last week. Glad to see the Machine Guns didnt even hint at turning on each other as suggested in the spoilers. Someone must have mistaken Creed for Chris Sabin, as if thats possible?! That Machine Guns-Creed/Lethal match was good stuff for TV, though. Lethal looked better than I've seen him in a while in there with Shelley and Sabin. Teaming him and Creed up more often might work. The only thing SO FAR (and I'm only into "Karen's Angle" segment) that has really came across as shit was the Val/Dutt deal after his match. Just plain bad and retarded. The spoilers were way off on details with all of this, by the end of it Dutt ended up still getting "over" on Val, whereas the spoilers said she just slapped him and left. Frank Trigg legit KOd that guy who showed up in the segment, by the way. Busted his nose up bad apparently. The eight man no DQ deal was not bad, the glass table angle happened again with Homicide taking the bump, whatever they use for the fake glass, it sure breaks good to at least look brutal. So I'm guessing with Cide hurt a bit from that angle, Beer Money gets the belts on Sunday. Damn, Salinas looked el fuego tonight, swear those tight little shorts on her were see thru.......typical Kong squash match there with her. Velvet Sky's "OMG WTF" shirt made me laugh a bit. Angelina Love annoys the hell out of me on the mic, but I suppose thats the point? Decent angle after the match. Whats the deal with the korean girl in the crowd they've shown the last few weeks? New feud for Gail Kim? They need to start going somewhere with Abyss, these random run-ins are getting old. Easily the funniest part of the show --- they hype up the gauntlet match as being a ten man gauntlet the ENTIRE SHOW, and then Borash announces it as a eight man match instead, because, I suppose, of the Nash deal. Why couldn't they just put another guy in there in Nash's spot, even SuperEric would have been fine. The start of the match, and subsequent "dual entrance" idea was hokey too......the next ppvs theme song is playing while Angle and Styles both come out at the same time essentially on seperate stages, and then meet in the ring. They also had two entrants come out instead of one after two minute intervals. The match itself was actually pretty good, if they were just trying to sell the ppv on the idea that there would be matches like this on it (since, much like Impact has been, its a gimmick-wild ppv), I guess that makes sense to a degree. Christ, was that Angle hardway shot insane or what, that was just nuts. I havent seen a guy even blade like that in either TNA or WWE in a long time. Angle looked like a psychopath after the match as he was walking up the ramp. Decent ending angle, but it happened too quickly and then shifted to the horrible Hard Justice theme song rap video to end the show, ugh.

To follow up on this, someone jumped the gun and I guess her and Flair actually aren't getting a divorce. Not yet at least. Was something about it in today's news update on the WO site.

Regarding Chris Harris, I figured he was in line for some weird "disgruntled worker who is sandbagging it and looking uninspired in order to get a push" deal from ECW this week (almost a small extension of his weird character he was playing right before he left TNA), as Harris just looked completely not interested in even being there. I thought that couldn't be unintentional as if it was legit, he would be fired probably the next day. Well, I guess thats what ended up happening. I doubt TNA would even take him back, he was doing the same half-ass shit with them after the feud with him and Storm was finished, from a workrate standpoint. If there is any example of a guy not really giving his all when he got to the big time, this is it.

Another quick post......upcoming on these shows, they should be building this craptastic card, the last final "supercard" the AWA ever did before they closed up shop with their last TV taping on August 11, 1990 in Rochester, MN, which after reading up on some info on that particular show, realized I actually attended the last AWA show ever basically, which was that 8/11/90 event. Crazy. Anyway this explains a bit about the AWA's downfall......between this, the TCS, and other booking blunders, its no wonder they shut down. Anyway, I bring you the anemic SuperClash IV, held at the St. Paul Civic Center on April 8, 1990. * Jake Milliman pinned Todd Becker * The Texas Hangmen defeated Brad Rheingans and D.J. Peterson * Baron Von Raschke defeated Col. DeBeers by count out * Tully Blanchard pinned Tommy Jammer * John Nord defeated Kokina Maximus * Larry Zbyszko pinned Mr. Saito to win the AWA World Heavyweight Championship (Nick Bockwinkel was the special referee) * The Trooper and Paul Diamond defeated The Destruction Crew (Mike Enos and Wayne Bloom) in a steel cage match --They were just building the cage match on one of the last shows with Diamond laying the challenge out after they won by DQ but didnt get the belts.

For the fuck of it, here is the Wiki about the Team Challenge Series, since it's so prominent on these shows right now. The AWA held a "Team Challenge Series" from October 1, 1989 through August 11, 1990. All of the available wrestlers were divided into three teams, "Larry's Legends", headed by Larry Zbyszko, "Slaughter's Snipers", headed by Sgt. Slaughter, and "Baron's Blitzers", headed by Baron Von Raschke. (Sgt. Slaughter left the AWA before the TCS ended, and Colonel DeBeers was named the new team captain.) Babyfaces and heels alike were assigned to teams, forcing bitter rivals to work together. The winners of Team Challenge matches would earn points for their team; at some unspecified point the highest-scoring team would share one million dollars. Some of the earlier (as well as some of the last) TCS matches took place in a TV studio without an audience; the announcers claimed it was part of an effort to stop wrestlers from interfering, but it was actually due to poor ticket sales for arena shows. The remainder of the matches took place at the Mayo Civic Center in Rochester, MN, where the AWA taped live matches for its television program from 1989-1990. The Team Challenge Series was promoted by the AWA as revolutionary, but once underway, it appeared to be little more than a long series of gimmick matches and traditional matches with gimmicky names. Rather than showcasing technical wrestling, as the AWA had done for decades, wrestlers wore football helmets and pads in matches, or fought in a "Behind the 8-Ball Battle Royal." Perennial jobber Jake "The Milkman" Milliman defeated Colonel DeBeers in the "Great American Turkey Hunt," where the one who got a stuffed, uncooked turkey off of the top of a pole first would win. The final match in the TCS was a royal rumble style battle royal featuring Brad Rheingans, The Destruction Crew, Colonel DeBeers, the Texas Hangmen, the Trooper Del Wilkes, and several others. Jake Milliman again came away with the win by eliminating DeBeers at the end, winning the series and the supposed 1 million dollar check for Larry's Legends. The final point tally for the TCS: Larry's Legends - 56 Baron's Blitzers - 51 DeBeers' Diamondcutters (formerly Slaughter's Snipers) - 48 The TCS concept was ill-conceived and poorly presented; many wrestling fans feel that it hastened the AWA's demise. Yet elements of the series (e.g., having separate "teams" within one company, a "draft," etc.) have parallels to the brand extension (RAW, SmackDown!, and ECW) employed by World Wrestling Entertainment, and the WCW pay-per-view BattleBowl. For years, Eric Bischoff was credited (or blamed) with having developed the TCS -- even cited as such in several books. However, in both his autobiography and The Spectacular Legacy of the AWA, Bischoff denied having anything to do with it. Instead, Greg Gagne takes responsibility for coming up with the idea, and developing it with his father.

I just got done watching that DJ Peterson match, and wow, that was some funny shit. First, Peterson comes out to no response, is facing Frankie "The Thumper" DeFalco, one of those perennial jobbers (if there is such a thing) and for some reason, just spazzes out when he enters the ring, getting in the jobber's face like crazy. They then end up having a hell of a sloppy match because the ring apparently broke (when it happened, Lee Marshall totally no sold it and both wrestlers totally stopped and had to figure out what to do next). Right before this, a commercial was cut into the match, although maybe that was just on the dish feed. Then that promo Peterson did after the match was pretty strange to say the least. They must have been going to do a DJ Peterson/Saito match here soon, as I do remember that happening during one of these Rochester shows in time here. Earlier on the show, Curtis "Mr" Hughes debuted, and IIRC he started here, or possibly Memphis. I remember they give him the nickname "Cat" at some point or another, looked pretty green but it was funny to see him try his best Iceman King Parsons mixed with a little JYD. I actually don't think I was at the show they aired tonight, none of these matches ring a bell to me being there for them. I stopped going to the shows after awhile when, even as a 12 year old, the shit got old. They just did them so often since they had to tape the ESPN show constantly plus a seperate hour of All-Star Wrestling each week. But I think I still went to them until sometime before the summer, so there's more weird stuff on its way here, rest assured. Koloff-Zbyszko's two out of three falls match was ok stuff for AWA main events at this point. I never got Gagne's deal with using that local celebrity Benchwarmer Bob as special ref here and there, the guy was the worst ref in history from the standpoint of actually acting legit and counting properly, etc.

Courtesy of the Observer site.... Paul London beat Charlie Haas in a dark match. 1. JBL & Cody Rhodes & Kane & Ted DiBiase Jr. beat John Cena & Batista & Cryme Tyme. JBL pinned JTG after a closeline from hell. CM Punk did commentary. 2. Great Khali beat Jimmy Wang Yang in a squash. They did the segment with Jenny McCarthy and the autism stuff. 3. Edge beat Jeff Hardy with a spear after interference from MVP, likely leading to Jeff vs. MVP at SummerSlam. ------- I would imagine more backstage segments added or not announced from the initial spoilers. Show sounds horribly dull with the exception of Edge/Hardy.

If Miz and Morrison were still tag champs, they probably would, and for the titles. I still can totally see them doing that match next week, though. Plus Finlay/Knox on top of Delaney/Dreamer Extreme Rules.

lol, i'm still learning! And I am still betting Brett to Vikes by the beginning of the season. FYI, got the ticket to Cali - August 19-29, I'll let you know more when I'll actually be up in LA, flying into SD.

You're still coming across as biased as Matt, though. Ultimately, both of you are right and wrong......both Farve and the team ownership/management are really at fault here, neither would balk at what they felt was best for Green Bay. I don't think its very wrong or illogical for Farve to want to start again since he did, after all, bring the Pack to the NFC Championship last year. And yes, because he's one of the greatest players, most certainly in Green Bay team history. But it really isn't his call, so he has to be blamed a bit for his attitude since then (especially bringing some more personal issues to the mainstream), but I don't see it anything but a slap in the face of a true icon to suggest that the team he helped build into a competitor and champion once again, he would now have to be a backup QB for. If anyone can't understand that, it's really showing your ignorance towards the situation. On the flip side, Brett has made it difficult for this to be resolved just as much as Green Bay, and I think letting his revenge inside him demand to be traded more prominently to NFC North teams is kind of tacky. I can understand his frustrations, which leads to his attitude towards this and that, but I was hoping Brett would be a more stand up kind of guy and keep to point.

I'm still not convinced Brett still won't be traded to another NFC North team still, particularly the Vikings........we'll see, I guess. EDIT - Reports already circulated on ESPN that Brett is actually not really happy Green Bay jumped the gun and did the trade with New York without his complete agreement.....he was more leaning towards Tampa Bay as of tonight, this is all according to his agent. So doubtful this story is over. If he's not really satisfied with the Jets, this relationship might not last long and New York just might try to pick up another heap of draft picks from Minnesota or Tampa on top of what they are getting from Green Bay.

Yeah, I was thinking maybe his grandma, but the conversation seemed a little more "personal" almost like it was his significant other or something. And he called whoever it was a "pimp" before too, so thats why I wondered if they were trying to portray Franco's character was gay.

So insomnia hit me again last night, so figured it was time to catch up on this last week of AWA shows from the last week. I think I was at all of these shows that they are airing right now, damn near everything seems somewhat familiar to me, especially the strange gimmick matches they had for the Team Challenge Series. Quite a deal relieving all of these shows after going to them when I was just twelve years old. I even caught myself on camera a few times when they would show the guys leaving or coming to the ring (in typical kid form, I was always right by the walkway trying to slap hands with the wrestlers) and I was shown in the corner of ringside during a Zbysko interview yelling something at him, I think "Larry Sucks" or something. So very weird to see myself on these shows almost two decades later! Just some random bits of thoughts...... I definately remember the angle/match they did with Mr. Saito as "the unknown soldier" against Zbysko, it was so goofy since they had the actual Unknown Soldier in various squash matches beforehand, as well as Saito also doing a few squash matches during this taping. Everyone easily figured this out right away, and for the announcers to play stupid was, well, stupid. I still cant get over the bad production on these shows. The bad backgrounds they would add to the bluescreen such as a picture of a tore down house for the Destruction Crew, etc. The promos they then actually did at the tapings that werent behind a bluescreen were just as bad production wise, I don't know what kind of lights and camera they would use for those, but Ive never seen such a tripped out visual coming when a guy would move his hands and "trails" would come off the hands, way weird. Bischoff was way way WAY green during this time, not so bad when he was doing pre-tapes, but when he was out there live interviewing the guys after the matches, he was pretty much all over the place, not really knowing what to do. The guy needed a serious haircut and dye job too. The one show where they did the greco-roman, football, and six man battle royal was certainly something. Anything involving Baron Von Rasche at this point was atrocious, he was so old and uncoordinated, but he sure tried to make the most of his limitations. The football match had the most confusing and convoluted rules I think ever in wrestling history, even Lee Marshall or the special ref (this dolthead ex-football guy who was a crowd favorite in Minnesota due to his commercials for some product around here that got him famous) didn't follow thru or explain why what was happening in the match was contradicting what the actual rules were. On top of it, this Benchwarmer Bob guy was stiffing the hell out of Mike Enos. So bad it was hilarious stuff there. The six man battle royal was pretty bad, other than Illustrious Johnny Stewart, who reminded me of a young Chris Candido. This guy actually ended up running for politics or something, if I recall. Funny that Dale Gagner (aka Dale "Gagne") is the announcer for most of these shows. This is the same guy that WWE has gone after for still running the AWA and their respective trademarks, etc. He actually runs the AWA (I think he's now calling it "Wrestling Superstars Live" for legal reasons) out of the same city that these shows were from (Rochester, MN). That mixed tag team match w/ Mimi and Candy Devine showcased the most blatant crotch shots of the ladies I've seen ever, I think. Mimi was still looking hot but, damn, Candy Devine sported one of the fugliest faces ever seen to man. It's too bad that time treated her badly facially as she always worked hard and had a nice body on her (still did here, even). Unfortunately, these two ladies just didn't click at all and were carrying 80 percent of this match with their horrible botches and bumps. The highlight was Mimi just straight up kicking Candy in the twat while she was laying on the mat, which caught the announcers off guard a bit. But like the football match, it was such horrible shit it was actually entertaining to see what shit they would TRY (not necessarily execute properly) next. Memories of the Russian Brute......Ox Baker was completely in character before, during, and after the shows. Everytime I'd try to get his autograph (and this was numerous times) he would grunt at me and never sign shit. I love how the company actually keeps stating on these shows that if you call the 900 line, you can be "matchmaker." I fell into this mistake a few times and called it, only to get Lee Marshall, Zbysko, and others just cutting promos. It was the biggest waste of money you could find in terms of old 900 wrestling lines. The taped fist match was the biggest joke of a gimmick match I've seen in a long time. Since when was taping your fists some sort of illegal thing? And one of the worst major matches seen on these 1990 shows so far. Just horrible shit. Lee Marshall was just having a fucking fit during this entire match like it was a five star classic. The post-match here showed signs of a Baron v. Slaughter feud they may or may have had plans for down the road. Unfortunately, they never made it far enough to even try that. Plus, of course, Slaughter ended up going to WWE later in this same year, and turning heel, main evening Mania, etc. Pretty amazing how far Slaughter got in just one year......from half ass pushed in the soon defunct AWA to becoming the number one heel, world champion, and main eventing Mania in 91. Last nights show had a "double main event" of first, John Nord (Berzerker) v. Col. Debeers in a one hand taped behind your back match, yet another gimmick that really wasn't ever needed, but they were just pulling out any ridiculous stips they could to these TCM matches. The other main event was pretty good though, Destruction Crew v. the guy who would end up being The Patriot and Paul Diamond (who had no choice but to come back to the AWA after he got fired from WWE when they put in a new guy with Tanaka). Builds well to a final match with the teams, that I think Patriot and Diamond end up winning IIRC. That should be on within the week as I recall the third match with them being taped and being actually pretty decent. These shows may be shit for the most part, but I'm enjoying them alot because of the old connection I had to them.

That's because it's raunchy... ... ... ... ...with a heart of gold. Hahah, indeed it is. And I have to just say it, was James Franco supposed to just be really stoned and "happy" or was he playing a homo? I couldn't figure that out, plus who he was talking to on the pay phone nearing the end of the film. He told whoever it was "I love you" but I didn't know who that was exactly.

Newsbites from today's Observer..... Regarding the Mike Adamle decision, it was ultimately a Vince call. Vince said he sees traits in Adamle similar to those of Eric Bischoff. Well, they were both lousy wrestling announcers but I think the similarity may end there. Vince thinks they both project smarmy. Nobody ever projected smarmy better than Bischoff, but I’ve never seen that in Adamle. I see him more as an older guy brought into Alice in Wonderland and being completely out of his element. Vince also believes that Adamle has “incredible verbal abilities” but hasn’t shown it because he never learned to talk in the pro wrestling language, and that’s why he’s been frustrated. Vince enjoyed directing him as a performer, which is a far cry from going nuts on him as an announcer. Time will tell. The reaction by most in the company was apparently not positive on the decision, with some thinking Vince is trying to justify a series of bad decisions related to Adamle, although others backing Vince parrot that Adamle is untapped talent. The decision was one of those secrets that nobody, including those in the ring, were aware of until Shane McMahon announced it. Like a lot of the people at home, as the show progressed, more and more people were thinking Jim Ross and most were shocked. The new writers initiative is a part of the company’s attempt to position themselves as part of Hollywood as another method of upgrading the company image. It dates back to Kristen Prouty’s hiring to head Celebrity Relations, with her big move getting Kevin Federline to do the angle with Cena on Raw in 2006. Her role is to make sure everything any celebrity needs is taken care of when they are working with the company, to pamper them and treat them like royalty, and something she’s been successful at. She was responsible for putting together all the wwe.com celebrity videos which is where Freddie Prinze Jr. got hooked up with them. Her success in that role has put her as part of the recruiting team for new writers. Vince wants the writing team to be “well balanced” (his term) as he wants the perception in the TV industry that WWE hires top level TV writers. But, the head writers, Brian Gewirtz, Ed Koskey and Michael Hayes, don’t fit into that mold. Gewirtz was an assistant writer at MTV before coming to WWE nearly a decade ago and got the right recommendations shortly after Vince Russo and Ed Ferrara left. The company is now spending real money, like a major TV show, to get Hollywood writers, not people who may have written a TV show, but someone like Michael Pavone who is something of a minor name, and Prize Jr. Prinze Jr. is slated to be working under Michael Hayes on Smackdown. His hiring was really not a major topic of discussion among people at the tapings as compared to the mainstream press it got. Holly, who has been with the company for the better part of 14 years, is on the endangered species list. He’s no longer being used, and at 45, he may not be brought back. The feeling is that someone like Undertaker would have to go to bat for him one more time. Holly has had a rep for being like a Japanese veteran, in that he works very stiff with newcomers (like the Matt Cappotelli incident on “Tough Enough”) with the old-school mentality that they have to prove they can survive in a tough profession. He did that with Brock Lesnar, sandbagging him on a power move causing Lesnar to have to overpower him and it ended up with Holly breaking his neck, although they did work a short program out of it when Holly returned. His role would have been to be in a tag team feuding with DiBiase & Rhodes, but the feeling was he wouldn’t get them over in the right way (he’d lose but make them look bad) and his only role would be to make the newer pushed guys look better than they are. Reportedly Holly’s promo work to further the Rhodes turn program was done, but they decided against airing it because the interviews weren’t good enough. Vince is said to be generally indifferent on Holly, in that he’s kept him around like Funaki forever, but they don’t have any plans to ever do anything with him. Dos Caras Jr. and El Sicodelico Jr., the nephews of Mil Mascaras, are back in play. Ovaciones in Mexico reported both had signed three-year contracts, although at this writing, that was not the case. At press time, Sicodelico Jr. said he was looking over the contract. WWE officials believe he is close to signing and were considering it a formality. Caras Jr. had first claimed he wasn’t going to come because he didn’t want to spend several months in developmental. In Mexico, several newspapers and wrestling magazines reported Caras Jr. hasn’t signed but is 95% sure he will sign and start in October, after the CMLL tour of Spain. Caras Jr. was on TV on 8/4 saying he hasn’t signed and the offer wasn’t to his liking. Neither is charismatic nor good talkers and that can work against them, nor are either top level workers or great high fliers which a lot of fans would expect about the Mexican wrestlers, although WWE itself doesn’t favor a high flying style. As noted before, Caras Jr. was a multi-time national Greco-Roman wrestling champion who was a mid-level MMA fighter (best known for doing a match in Japan wearing a mask and getting his head kicked off by Mirko Cro Cop) and from a famous wrestling family. To me, Caras Jr., even though he’s a main eventer in Mexico, has always been cold to me as far as charisma goes. His stardom is more based on that he’s a shooter, tall and the family name and technically is fine. The shooting ability, height (because he won’t be in a company where almost everyone is a lot shorter than he is) and Mascaras family will mean nothing in the U.S., but I can see if John Laurinaitis is looking at still photos instead of tapes, he’s the guy you pick when trying to recruit a new star. Super Luchas reported that both would start in Florida Championship Wrestling. There is a feeling they need to be de-programmed of the Lucha mentality and learn American style (Caras Jr. has worked Japan, which isn’t the same thing, but closer and understands how to work with Americans and Sicodelico Jr. has worked Texas for years) and both are earmarked for Smackdown to be the new Hispanic stars. They have better physiques than all but a few of the Mexican wrestlers and the mentality is you find people who look like TV stars and teach them to wrestle, as opposed to finding people who can wrestle but don’t look like TV stars. Sicodelico Jr. also claims a Texas home address and frequently worked indies in San Antonio, so wouldn’t have the Visa issues and expenses that Caras Jr. will have that could delay a start date. Will be interesting to see, with the success of Mysterio, what the WWE’s attitude will be regarding them wearing masks. There also seems to be a new booking philosophy to almost a TNA Russo style, where everything is built around constant swerves. We had our third Edge and Vickie split in a month on Smackdown, so all the praise about how they weren’t turning this into a Kurt & Karen deal is for naught. Instead of building programs to peak interest in matches, it feels like they lead the audience into thinking something will happen and do the opposite at the end of the show. Time will tell. So far it has been entertaining, but surprises are always good until the product becomes overrun with them. When things always change without a base of consistency, you lose the emotional caring about the product, which isn’t good in the long run.

Some news from the latest Observer that just came out today.... As part of the office expansion, they have a nearly completed 20,000-square foot TV studio in Nashville, which will include in-house DVD production, stand-up sets, place a place to house the tape library and merchandise. The new set-up should be ready in September and October and they’ll do a lot of pre-tapes during the week in the studio. They’ve added new office space in the building they lease as well. The company is doing very well financially to the point they are now paying Panda Energy back on the tens of millions they put into the company the first few years before it started breaking even. (NOTE: In today's Observer update, there was also mention that part of this facility will be for HD production, so TNA is going HD soon here.) Mike Weber was hired as Vice President of Marketing. Weber worked for WWF and WCW in the 90s in marketing and communications and has a lot of experience working with the cable companies. He was WCW’s PPV guy at one point. After WCW folded, he went to work on the Monster Trucks tour. There was more grumbling across the board about creative this past week than any time in a long time. Some of it came out publicly, some was behind the scenes and some was just an unspoken lack of confidence. Besides the stuff with Tomko and Kevin Nash that blew up, there were the complaints about too many stipulation matches and weapons matches for no reason, and too many super hero segments with the Prince Justice league. However, the belief is no change is going to be made, both because the company isn’t in dire straits financially and because there is nobody on the outside that Dixie Carter would know to make the change to. One of the biggest complaints is that Samoa Joe as world champion is supposed to be the company’s top babyface but he’s being booked as a whining complainer. The joke is that if it was another company like WCW, you’d think they were booking him to fail to prove a point, but here, nobody thinks that because they just believe Russo doesn’t know how to book a main event babyface. But there is concern that Joe isn’t as over as a face the past month or so the way they want him to be, but then again, after watching A.J. Styles cut the promo on Sting on TV, neither was he. Tomko quit the promotion at the 7/29 tapings. Things started to go bad for him when he had all that momentum for a babyface turn, and then to swerve the audience, they turned him back heel and he’s been pretty much dead ever since. He hurt himself in the eyes of the company a few months back when he missed a fan fest the day before a PPV to take a date with the Inoki Genome Federation in Japan, even though he was told by management not to go. He was suspended for 30 days and his push was cut way back from there. Because he lives at a high standard, money is of major concern he was always visibly disappointed if he wasn’t booked on a TV. He felt he could be used better and came in and quit. He’s booked for the 8/15 IGF show at Sumo Hall. WWE has been interested in him ever since he started getting over in TNA. He left WWE on good terms, telling them he would rather go to Japan and up his game and come back in a few years than stay in WWE and flounder and not get as much ring time to improve. Not sure of non-compete terms but it wouldn’t surprise me for him to end up in WWE. Nash walked out on the tapings as well. He has a creative control deal where he has to approve of whatever they book for him in his contract. He was booked on the 7/29 show (airing 8/7) for a weapons gauntlet (Royal Rumble) match as well as an interview. He was already mad at TNA because at the 7/13 Victory Road show, he had scheduled a vacation until 7/15 figuring he wasn’t booked on the PPV in Houston. Then he got called that he had to be on the PPV, so he had to cut his vacation short two days, and when he got there, his only segment was that deal where he told Joe he had his back and Joe told him that not under any circumstances. Anyway, he saw the script of the show, first got mad that it was a weapons match because he doesn’t like being in weapons matches. A constant complaint within the company is there are too many weapons matches, and even more so now because what is the point of doing a weapons gauntlet match on free TV when you are selling a PPV that includes a weapons cage match, a weapons street fight, a last man standing match and a chain match. Then he saw he was being eliminated third, was going to be eliminated during a commercial break, and figured that since he at least at this point is supposed to main event the September PPV against Joe, that none of that made any sense. There were stories that he was also made at how he was going to be eliminated, but the impression I had is that the script he saw only mentioned B.G. James, Lance Rock and Nash as the first three guys out, all during the first commercial break of the match. He said he wasn’t doing it and went home. While that would have been it for 90% of the people on the roster, obviously he knew he’d get away with it. And even people who aren’t enamored with Nash were not criticizing him for this one. It appears this idea stemmed from that story from a few weeks back about Vince McMahon being mad at how Michael Cole went to a break would make people think a match can’t end during a break since they never do. Russo saw that as one of those things that never happens in wrestling, so he wanted to do it. But instead of having one guy eliminated, if one is good, then three must be better. Some in management were of the belief part of the reason the talent was so mad at creative is because they did a three-day house show run before the two days of TV, so this was five straight nights on the road so people were grumpier than usual, although Nash was not on the road for that tour (Tomko was). Regarding what happens with Sting, the decision hasn’t been made. Usually TNA plans things well in advance, but in this case, Russo wants to turn Sting heel because it’s the double swerve. He has everyone like the announcers and Styles and Joe going so strong that Sting is going heel that he thinks the fans will then believe, for sure, he’s not turning, so he can swerve them by turning him. Russo discussed this with Sting in Houston at the PPV, and Sting wasn’t on board when it was over. If Russo can convince him to go heel, he will. If not, he won’t. The fact Russo turned him heel once before in WCW, and it was such a flop that nobody booed him and three weeks later he was back as a face without even a turn back doesn’t matter. Worse, the TNA TV crowd consists of 70% people who are tourists from out of town who don’t regularly watch the TV show, so getting them to boo Sting won’t be easy, and among the other 30% who are the regulars, there is also the chance they’ll just reject the turn because Sting not being a regular, his being there is seen as special. Particularly since with the booking of Joe as a face being so bad, the idea of the Sting turn is to build to a Joe vs. Sting match with Sting as the heel going for the title. Using Styles on TV as the person also mad at Sting may be a way to first do Sting vs. Styles, because Styles is popular and his character isn’t being so whiny, thinking then they can get Sting over as a heel leading to the Joe match. Team 3-D’s contract expires next month. We haven’t heard anything internally regarding their status. Matt Morgan, as “The Beast,” appears to be a ratings draw on “American Gladiators,” even if he hasn’t really broken out of the pack here with TNA. His appearances drew the highest quarter hour on both 7/21 and 7/28. The latter show did a 3.2 on the fast nationals, up from what the show has been doing. The 8/4 show was the season finale. Another note on the Angle family TV pilot we mentioned last week was Kurt talking about having an affair with a woman for two-and-a-half-years while he was in WWE, and that woman threatening to kill Karen. Funny he should mention that. It was a well known story in the company about this crazy woman who was said to be stalking Kurt and finding out the hotel he was staying at in all those cities, not knowing Kurt actually knew her, let alone they had a lengthy affair. For whatever it’s worth, on the TV show, Kurt is portrayed an a driven but excessive person who thinks about his work/sport 24/7 and can’t focus on anything else. Karen is portrayed as akin to a saint for putting up with all his crap and trying to turn him into a semi-normal father and husband. From what I’ve heard from another wrestler who is in negotiations regarding a reality show about his life, there is considerable money in this. For Kurt, it is to his benefit to come across as whacked out as possible in trying to sell the pilot to a major station since he’s the name it’s being sold on and her role is to be pretty wife who is a saint for putting up with him.