RedJed

Even though I didn't mind the ending of Raw as much as most, I was thinking today how it could have been much better if they would have just done Cena getting run over by JBL limo or something outside of the arena instead of the attempt to outright murder Cena. Sure, the angle they did was just a more insane version of the idea proposed, but it would have seemed a little more realistic if Cena (or if they were even scared to risk injury, have a stunt double do it) would have just bumped off the limo, selling more of an injury then at the ppv too. It worked well when Eddie Gilbert ran over Lawler in Memphis so long ago, would have been a nice homage to it, in a way. But I suppose they thought they already did it once with Austin getting run over, so they probably felt they had to "top" that. Also, I'm thinking, judging by the nature of how Steph and Shane are acting on camera, that Regal will be re-instated as GM next week and immediately start feuding with Punk, who will likely retain against Batista when Kane runs-in, setting up Batista/Kane as another main program after the ppv. Keep in mind Regal beat Punk in the KOTR final back a few months ago, so they can play upon that Regal has already handed Punk a major loss and is a threat with the power he'll regain again as GM. Right before Regal got suspended, that proverbial iron was hot for Regal to really get over as a upper level heel, so they might as well not waste any time when he returns to try to catch that again.

Was bummed to not have any talent initiative segment tonight at all......granted, it could get a little repetitive with Estrada as the fall guy every week, but I liked the idea of a new guy coming in each week and building up the ECW roster a bit. I wouldnt mind seeing D-Lo end up showing back up on TV this way. Other than the surprise (which wasn't really sold well by Adamle AT ALL) of Chavo jobbing out to Bourne quickly, nothing much on this show to comment on much. Atlas has potential as Henry's manager, though. I like his old school carny role he's doing in a way. He played off that situation with the random non-plant fan starting to bend the frying pan well. Not sure if its even been thought about, but I wouldn't be shocked to see Hardys v. Morrison/Miz added to the ppv last minute for the tag belts.

I saw a bunch of what I think was live feeds or really unedited large clumps of the show on Showtime Two channel late night last night and (and this is going into watching this not even seeing a single Big Brother show in a good 3-4 years so bare in mind I probably shouldnt even say much) I can't even explain how lame this was. But then again I'm seeing the really pointless stuff that they throw on a block for many hours in the middle of the night, called "after dark" or something. It made for a great cure for a little insomnia lately though. But these people on the show, I just couldnt connect with what was going on in any way, it all seemed so forced in how they were portraying themselves in front of the cameras a bit. Lots of swearing too for some reason. The only thing I remembered was some girl bitching about another girl who apparently was talking shit about her to someone else outside, and it turned into them both talking it out, realizing it was a misunderstanding or something and then crying about it all. Wow....never again am I watching this late night BS ever again. Does the Showtime feed ever end up showing a little titty or anything from these chicks? My guess is probably not given the fact they seem to still have this footage they air on here semi-edited, as it cuts to different cameras in another room if "dead air time" starts to happen or whatever.

Jackson more than likely will be serving jail time in this situation, and more than likely I could see UFC letting him go due to all of the bad (in fact, horrible) pub this is going to get on the sport. There's really no positive way to spin this nonsense that happened today with Rampage. I'm sure other companies will pick him up at some point, but still, there will probably be alot of resentment towards him in the MMA world in general long term here and the UFC is going to get such an unfair rap from this.

You're about a month late on this news. The "Moose" moniker debuted around the anniversary ppv in June. And yes, I think we all know what moose knuckles are and I'm sure it's meant to be tongue in cheek intentionally, meaning whoever in TNA came up with that new name (probably Russo), they knew what it meant.

How the fuck can Angle and Styles have no direction when they are in a long term program against each other? As for Abyss, read the results, it appears he's going to be starting a program with Awesome Kong, of all workers. I don't get the criticism for this past ppv much at all really, other than a few matches (tag title match would be an example of that a bit) nothing here was really bland or basic at all, nor offensively bad. In fact both X Cup matches were really damn good, the Full Metal Mayhem delivered more than expected, and say what you will about the result of that main event, but the match itself was good stuff from both guys. The differentiating viewpoints of Booker/Joe and the angle after seems to be in part of those who saw it versus those who just heard about it. And I think to take that a step further, those who hated it didn't realize what it was trying to accomplish as well. They're more than likely just simply upset because there was a non decisive finish in the main event, period.

Courtesy of prowrestling.net.... "Batista squashed C.M. Punk in a non-title dark match main event held after Raw on Monday in Raleigh, N.C. A Dot Net reader who was at the show reports that Batista finished off Punk with a spinebuster in roughly one minute. "I think the C.M. Punk experiment has officially ended," said our correspondent. " -Odd they would throw that out there, and book it as a squash like that.

It's meant to slowly build, keep the focus probably more on the ppv that he's not a part of, really. But I wouldn't be at all shocked to find out what is in that bag at the Bash, Kane doing a run-in during Batista/Punk isn't out of the question after tonight.

That show was fun to watch and I'll even give the benefit of the doubt with the ending angle......it will easily get the kids to DEMAND to get their parents to order the Bash to see if Cena lived or something silly like that. I'm sure wwe.com will "break" the news that Cena narrowly escaped the attempt at killing him in no time here too. So that means Cena/JBL is going to be, in theory, more violent in a finish at the ppv so I wouldn't at all be shocked to have Bradshaw do some crazy stunt and be taken off TV for awhile, since I keep hearing his back is bad again. Oh and I have to admit I thought the Cena promo from the back was not bad for what it was, and the main event got a little time to build and showcase Dibiase/Rhodes too. As the entire end angle went.....well, I kind of felt like I was watching some initial camera tests for a scene in a movie or something, just without music playing in the background. Must have been the watching it in HD effect or something, it just came across really goofy, borderline B movie cheesy in execution. Ha, well sure enough in the Raw results on the website, this: "Luckily, John Cena managed to escape at the last minute and was only grazed, meaning that Cena vs. JBL will still take place on Sunday night." Punk/Kane was good, I'm at a loss what's up with Kane at this point with where they are going with the character, still thinking its all about Vince, though. Also thought the Michaels/Jericho stuff was all pretty solid.

For what its worth, I went and saw it over the weekend and even though I had the worst theater going experience ever during it (a two year old was literally crawling up my seat from the row above me and even was using my arm/shoulder to climb up it, and the parents didnt do shit until I literally had to turn around and tell them off) the 3-D in it was really good. My prediction for Batman is 128 million. It amazes me about these Dark Knight 3am and 6am screenings though, I can get going to a midnight showing, but fucking 3am or 6am to just watch a flick? Meth users unite! Some people work evening shifts, and want something to do after work. Hence, seeing a movie at that time doesn't seem like too bad of an idea. And I think Dark Knight will rake it in. Already the Midnight showings and at LEAST up to the 4:15 PM Friday showings at the Tropicana in Atlantic City IMAX are sold out (I having bought one of the last 4:15 PM Friday showing tickets during my work break at Trop). Yeah, the IMAX showings are going to be busy for awhile. I'm not even going to attempt seeing it at the IMAX in the Twin Cities for at least a few weeks after it's out.....I'll settle for checking it out in the DLP theater in town here for now, at midnight on Thursday nite, and catch it in the IMAX on second viewing down the road. Even if you get some people that work evening shifts or whatever, I still don't see that as enough to really warrant first showings of any film in a theatre at those really unusual times in the morning. Just f'n run multi-screen midnight showings, or even do some early early screenings at 7pm up to midnight on the night before the release (Hancock just took advantage of this) instead of a really unproven idea of bothering with 3am/6am shows. OK, I'll give you an example: Say someone works 4 to midnight. They use the morning to sleep, and the early morning (Midnight to 8 or so) is used for their evening life. They wanna see The Dark Knight when it first opens, but they don't have the time off to just go to a midnight showing. Hence, with this showing, they can get their wish. I'm not questioning the idea behind it, I get that ---- I'm questioning the point of it I guess you could say. I might have to eat some crow, but I can't imagine the 3am to 6am showings, and any other early morning runs, actually rake up a substantial amount of the initial first weekend numbers.

Total side note item here, but ESPN Classic in the states here is bringing back the UWF Power Hour for an hour every Sunday at, I think, 8am. Have no idea if it's just rebroadcasts of the shows they already aired back earlier this year (which nine out of ten of those were fucking hard to sit through), or if they're different. I'll check it out next weekend and let everyone know.

First RAW in HD for me tonight, so thats what I'm looking forward to more than anything, but have to say last week's show in turn made me more amped for this week because of the unpredictable booking that occured.

And the pink studio, and lets not forget Jake Milliman being the star, or at least the last visual, out of the whole Team Challenge Series shit. Did he at least have good stories of the booze, drugs, and women? But yeah you could just tell he was heavily buzzed up on something, or coming off something, during most of this time period in the late 80s. I would love to give the Nelson book a read, didn't even know he had written one.

For what its worth, I went and saw it over the weekend and even though I had the worst theater going experience ever during it (a two year old was literally crawling up my seat from the row above me and even was using my arm/shoulder to climb up it, and the parents didnt do shit until I literally had to turn around and tell them off) the 3-D in it was really good. My prediction for Batman is 128 million. It amazes me about these Dark Knight 3am and 6am screenings though, I can get going to a midnight showing, but fucking 3am or 6am to just watch a flick? Meth users unite! Some people work evening shifts, and want something to do after work. Hence, seeing a movie at that time doesn't seem like too bad of an idea. And I think Dark Knight will rake it in. Already the Midnight showings and at LEAST up to the 4:15 PM Friday showings at the Tropicana in Atlantic City IMAX are sold out (I having bought one of the last 4:15 PM Friday showing tickets during my work break at Trop). Yeah, the IMAX showings are going to be busy for awhile. I'm not even going to attempt seeing it at the IMAX in the Twin Cities for at least a few weeks after it's out.....I'll settle for checking it out in the DLP theater in town here for now, at midnight on Thursday nite, and catch it in the IMAX on second viewing down the road. Even if you get some people that work evening shifts or whatever, I still don't see that as enough to really warrant first showings of any film in a theatre at those really unusual times in the morning. Just f'n run multi-screen midnight showings, or even do some early early screenings at 7pm up to midnight on the night before the release (Hancock just took advantage of this) instead of a really unproven idea of bothering with 3am/6am shows.

Meltzer reported in a post in the member stuff of his website that Booker/Joe is scheduled at the next ppv with a stipulation (probably a gimmick match) to be announced at the tapings on Tuesday. Sting will likely be ref or something, but he won't be working the match. I'll post more thoughts later on the show but I thought it was actually all around pretty good. I got into the ending like crazy for some reason, as it reminded me of that unpredictability in wrestling that you don't know what and why things are happening the way they are, but it throws out alot of intruige for the next step. And you got the ever so present in TNA "shades of grey" in that you don't know how Joe or Sting, or hell, even Booker for that matter, would be portrayed as from here. I also didn't understand no ringing of the bell, but I think the idea here was that since Cornette was not there (and it was made very clear he wasn't earlier on the show) that with the ref crew and "security" taken out, that there was nobody to actually ring the bell or make an official ruling, basically. Other than the confusion on no ring bell though, I think the Joe/Booker match was fun stuff and then when chaos ensued, it made me really not care that I was getting a non-finish because it made me want to see another match with these guys more than before after the angle was over. And now adding Sting into the mix gives this more layers as the main event scene goes, and then you have Nash and his role in all of this too. All in all, the way they have booked the characters now, you don't really know how they are going to be one week from the next. Joe's missing intensity, attitude, and general toughness that wasn't played upon well enough since he won the belt, was regained back here in this match tenfold, I thought.

Not sure where thoughts on this would go, but since I can't find an official lucha libre thread anywhere, I guess I'll post here.... Galavision aired the first three hour show from TripleMania 16 this weekend and a bunch of great stuff here....production on this show was really good for AAA, probably the best I've ever seen. They recreated a somewhat copy of the WrestleMania 23 set it seemed like, as the entrance way. The only bad thing was that with all of the amped up capacity, the stadium/arena they had this in was only at about half capacity. They opened the show with a band that looked like a cross between Motley Crue and Val Halen from '85 singing the spanish version of Eye of the Tiger live on the entrance stage. Fuckin weird shit, I tell ya. Among the highlights so far.... Super Porky at his most ridiculous best, having the most incredibly over the top entrance, wearing an Elvis jumpsuit, and I believe to the music of Chubby Checker's Twist, and including a guitar prop that had pyro go off the top of it before the trios match with him began. Later in the show his brother (El Brazo) ends up joining Los Guapos and poor Porky gets beat down and blades. Poor guy. A clip of what looked to be a AAA cartoon set for fall 09 (?) airs, moreless a trailer. I don't know if this is going to be aired in the states anywhere, but it was announced at a press conference in New York of all places. Juvi no-shows this event, which ends him getting fired from AAA, but they have Ricky Marvin come in and essentially take over Juvy's role in the match him and the rest of Mexican Powers against Hart Foundation 2 (Jack Evans and Teddy Hart, who are lighting it up down in AAA right now) and The Tijuana Familia. Also important to note in this match is that Bryan Danielson is brought in to debut with AAA in this match as well as the third man in Hart Foundation. Everyone generally looked great in this match, and Danielson stood out doing his usual ringwork, a little more lucha based with more flying moves, but with more of a chip on his shoulder than usual in his role. He also busted himself up good in the eye at some point as well. Dragon and Ricky Marvin really were the stars of this match though, more particularly when they worked against each other. Teddy Hart cuts a promo in english before the match actually crediting Chris Benoit for training him to make him into a star, also credits Pillman, and Bret and Owen. I guess Mexico is more open to even mentioning his name, much less as a compliment to the guy. If that was just supposed to be a way for Teddy Hart to get heat with the fans by doing that, that would be weird. The Apache sisters (Mari v. Fabi) have a hell of a heated hair vs hair match that slowly built this long and drawn out "family feud" well, ending the feud. Both sisters bladed like crazy and Billy Boy and Gran Apache played their roles well too. Just really quality stuff all around here, reminding you of the days when you actually felt satisfied by the story told and the final match between the two, given the time they spent building it for tons of months. Final match of the show was Cibernetico v. Zorro, pretty much a underwhelming main event, but neither of these guys really do it for me. One spot was wild though. The owner of AAA got knocked the fuck down by Konnan a little too hard into the turnbuckle, landed into the corner by the buckle and the steel connector near it and hit hard and looked like he ended up with a severe broken nose, if not worse. The dude could barely even stand up after the stiff turnbuckle miscalculation spot, and after seeing a slo mo replay of it, you could tell he got hurt bad by the way he reacted, pretty crazy shit actually. The post -match was pretty funny and wild. All of Konnan's international heel faction comes out, including Xpac, Danielson, and also Bobby Lashley, and Zorro cuts some obviously fired up promo on the crowd, and the fans just start pelting everyone with food and drink, especially Zorro, who ends up just basking in it all in true rudo glory (and ends up literally doused with random stuff being thrown by fans, seemingly almost encouraged by the rudos. Intentional humor moment of the night had to be Lashley's reaction to all of this, literally like he had never seen or experienced such heat in his life, and just started laughing right there, followed by Lashley doing a Ric Flair strut of sorts in the aisleway as he was being pelted with anything the fans could get their hands on to throw. Next week guys like Silver King, Vampiro (against Mesias), and Bobby Lashley (yup, as a heel) all working matches on the show in their debuts or re-debuts.

I never noticed the absurdity of what is in essense a trio of a similar idea that explains in part the demise of the AWA. They would do tournaments or "series" like the TV title deal, and around this same time they did something called the Battle Royal champion series or something which had roughly the same rules as the TV tournament, that points accumulate via battle royals "across the country". Both the TV title and Battle Royal series were jokes and then they cap it off by the final nail in the coffin....the Team Challenge Series, which is basically the same fucking dumb idea of a point system, random points awarded here and there, etc, only booked in the most nonsensical and confusing form ever. I think I already said it but if they show the last 6 months before the contract with ESPN expired (basically closing the company in the process) it will be something.

For what its worth, I went and saw it over the weekend and even though I had the worst theater going experience ever during it (a two year old was literally crawling up my seat from the row above me and even was using my arm/shoulder to climb up it, and the parents didnt do shit until I literally had to turn around and tell them off) the 3-D in it was really good. My prediction for Batman is 128 million. It amazes me about these Dark Knight 3am and 6am screenings though, I can get going to a midnight showing, but fucking 3am or 6am to just watch a flick? Meth users unite!

I always get the impression when they show him announcing the matches from the Vegas Showboat that he puts on a pretty good buzz through those tapings. So I'm sure that was fun to deal with. His ring announcing gets a little more loose than usual. I know that much.

So they have a main event of the Original Midnight Express versus two guys that don't look familair to me at all.....DJ Peterson and JT Southern? So this was Gagne's yet ANOTHER attempt at recreating their version of the Rockers, Rock N Roll Express, etc? The Top Guns were bad enough, these guys are ten times worse, especially the JT Southern guy. DJ Peterson is an almost move for move copy of Marty Jannetty. Hahaha the ending of this show made me chuckle, that shit match tonight was the MAIN EVENT of the whole mass ESPN taping of that time period. What a horrible match to "wait for." For some reason they then air Nelson telling everyone that its the end of the taping, have a good night, etc.....well for awhile at least until Rod Trongard overpowers the house PA and mentions "we'll be right back"...huh?!!

Yeah, I met that ring announcer years after AWA folded, he was announcing for some indy MN fed. I think his name was Mick Karch or something. Nice guy but kind of a goofy dude. Fuck, tonight's show was just great. Larry Nelson going through "AWA ratings and rankings" was hilarious (half of the people Nelson mentioned I had never even seen on the shows so far, especially the women), as was one of most incoherant ramblings I've heard on these old AWA shows so far from Kevin Kelly aka Nailz. Somehow he was trying to prove he was being called by all of the top NFL teams of the time by showing envelopes from them with each team's letterhead. Like that makes him special that he didn't join the NFL or something. At the same time Madusa is standing next to him almost at the verge of cracking up during most of the promo because it was so ridiculous. Moreless your cliche steroid jacked up rambling, like we've seen from guys like Savage, Sid, Warrior, etc in the past. If anyone can find Youtube links to either of these gems tonight, post them as they are worth it.

There was some really strange video packages they did promoting AWA on these shows lately as "where the real wrestlers are" and "the original wrestling league" that were some great intentional hilarity. One cheesy as hell video package was finished by Steve Olsonouski doing the most ridiculous finisher I have maybe ever seen, basically an arm drag. Another was Donna Gagne having troubles reading from cue cards while trying to sell the product as superior to the rest. Sadly, the goofy Larry Nelson segments and shit like that were the only good things lately. Oh, and Heyman was on last night's show interrupting Larry Nelson and throwing him off the set. Cuts a hell of a promo on Tommy Rich, of all people, after.

The fight seemed to be one of those deals where someone was just trying to instigate stuff with the RW people more than anything. That happened a few times in San Diego RW, IIRC. But yeah, otherwise, it was just a normal sendoff episode....I did think it was hilarious that Kim totally buried herself with the celebrity interview thing, but at least she knows now what is a pipe dream versus an attainable one. Seriously, I think her best bet might be to just go in porn, she has the ultimate valley girl personality, yet she isn't from California. Her brain capacity seems to be next to nothing. On the flip side, Brianna appeared to have some odd comedian strong points during the last improv show, so it seems like, at the end here, she might be the one out of them all that has actually made the most of her connections and has excelled in both acting AND singing, surprisingly. Joey seemed to be putting himself out there for potential pro wrestling involvement with them all sitting around watching his backyard fed, too. Although he needs to work on those mic skills - "Tonight in this ring, a battle royal.....tonight" Looking forward to the reunion followup show, which is actually going to be aired live this Saturday afternoon on MTV. I dont know how long its been since the show has ended, but considering pretty much everyone on the show got some connections to build a career of some capacity, it will be interesting to see how each of them have followed up on those. Plus I'm sure Greg will make an idiot out of himself one last time. Did anyone catch that RR Challenge preview after the show? Basically its going to be Survivor meets RR Challenge next time around.

Wow, this show was just.............weird. I never would have called, of all people, Tony Atlas shows up on here and starts an angle and looks to be becoming a manager for Henry. I will say that much. I figured it was just going to actually lead to Atlas v. Henry at the Bash ppv, but looks like that won't be occuring. The pairing makes sense, though, and it makes Henry stand out way more than he would as just the normal Mark Henry, even with a belt. I gotta say I'm at least a little interested in seeing where they go with Atlas with Henry. The rest of the show was pretty strange. Chris Harris' debut match may very well have been the most underwhelming deal I've seen in a long time, well actually Ortiz's debut last week would be competing for that, too. But could a gimmick be so basic and bland as this? Quite a ridiculous singlet on top of it. I don't get how Harris even got a job in the first place, he is way more out of shape than he used to be, and works sloppier than before as well. Finlay and Miz was ok, Bourne squash was kind of just there.

Agreed. Fuck, TNA has to be low on agents, producers, or whatever the company would call them, these days, with D-Lo Brown and D'amore leaving, as well as Jerry Lynn within the last year. Raven could be a GREAT asset to the backstage in teaching psychology to some of the guys, helping them lay out matches, etc, and Mitchell would be as equally strong in helping with promos with the guys as a sort of "promo agent" too. TNA should think about scooping both of them up, to start, on an off camera basis, with, like you said, maybe down the road either one of them, or both, managing. They are going to have to address the loss of helpful hands in certain parts of the company with this stuff, sooner or later.