RedJed

That's very true, so this could be completely possible as happening, especially more recently, as in the last 6-10 months or so. Keep in mind Ashley was forced to sit at home during the entire time that Survivor show she was on was being broadcast. Then didn't she get injured or something? I can't even remember. And then earlier this year, she was "sent home" for reasons assumed to be some sort of behaviour issue or perhaps that she was on drugs, etc. Case in point is she has had alot of "downtime" in the last year or so. Plus she was also just recently demoted in a sense that she was supposed to be the one to finally beat Phoenix for the belt and they moved it to Mickie James instead. Not sure what the reason was for that. I'm sure WWE is just waiting for an excuse to get rid of her anyway from her standing in the company right now anyway, so this would give them ample reason to release her. Does WWE have any grounds for any legal action on her as well for doing this sort of stuff while she is employed by them without their permission? I would think every worker on the roster needs to clear any additional income made outside of the company to them to approve on it? I could be wrong there, though.

How can Eric Young wrestle himself? Since in the storyline, they are apparently "not one of the same" it would fit the storyline for Cornette to try to book "both" guys in the same match. I'm sure even though it didn't play out this way in this weird tournament, they will book that match at some point or another. Thought this last week's Impact was pretty strong, BTW. I'm really intruiged how or if they will play into Melissa being Saeed or if they will never really go there and take the mask off Saeed at all. My guess is they are debuting Melissa for that reason, to slowly build into the unmasking. Daisee Haze in TNA is also good too. The LAX segment with Guererro was really quality stuff, too. Lets hope for no bullshit there and Hector doesn't do a turn at all or anything, although I fear Hector will turn on LAX and bring in another latino tag team of some sort to feud with them.

They announced the "Terrordome" match upcoming on Impact, although I didn't understand if it was for this next ppv or whenever. They also mentioned women only being involved in this, I think (I may be wrong there but I thought in the promo they mentioned "women competing") so if that's the case, this match will have to be saved for Slamiversary, since all of them are tied up in the Makeover Ladder Match, and Kong is in Deuces Wild. But at the TNA website they state the Terrordome match will "debut" at Sacrifice so who knows. The concept itself is basically a 30 foot circular cage surrounding the ring and possibly ringside as well, and to win, well I really don't know all of the rules yet as they really didn't say much about it. I know this is basically the same concept that AAA uses as their signature gimmick match though, but typically it's done in a style where the idea is that it's a multi-man match and the object is to climb the cage and get through a hole on the top of the cage to "escape" and whoever is last inside the cage gets their head shaved, mask taken off, etc. So not sure what they will do with this, my assumption is that the winner is just the first person to escape the dome structure. Oh they also mentioned there is going to be something added to it all relating to Ultimate X so I really don't know what the deal is. Ideally, I think this should be saved for the vacant X division title situation, but it should be held back til Slammiversary, since they already need to create new tag champs at Sacrifice in the Deuces Wild tourney and just throwing yet another gimmick into that show as a whole is overkill. Throwing the ladies in a match like this (if that really is the idea) also seems kind of odd, given the dangerous nature of climbing the structure and whatnot. X division guys or even your hardcore style workers would probably be better fit here.

So many wrestlers getting injured outside of WWE this year. Scary. Wow, that was a long X division title reign he had there (note sarcasm). Will be interesting to see what they book on the fly for the ppv. Ultimate X elimination scramble match or something perhaps?

Reminds me of Frogg_Neal's quote in the Joe thread: Hey, you're the one who's suggesting the notion that I just want them teamed up because they're both black. That has nothing to do with it. I'm seeing this more as a solid team that may be semi-long term here, based on similar character nuances. I'm guessing Booker goes heel at the ppv and I'm hopefully, to a degree, Booker and Kong are booked similar in a sense that they are both very no nonsense non-chicken shit heels (Kong already is of course) which I think would work great for a heel Booker character.

Yeah, they're one step closer to a Booker/Kong team........sweet.....

Paul Heyman wrote an editorial on the Joe/Angle match at the ppv (from the UK tabloid website, The Sun), and his reasoning why it hasnt increased any additional viewership to the product yet. Just like I've been saying time and time again, it all comes down to marketing the product/matches/characters/etc better, which is and will always be TNA's extremely weak point of running the business as a whole. By PAUL HEYMAN Published: Today ON April 13, Samoa Joe captured the TNA World Title from Kurt Angle in an MMA-style cage match. Their "Lockdown" main event, heralded by some as the "style of the future," was a stiffly-worked textbook example of the sacrifice top-tier personalities are willing to make to present a contemporary, compelling match as the feature presentation of a pay per view event. Just a week and a half later, with all the hype, praise, and stellar reviews backing it up, the rematch was presented on free TV. TNA's weekly two-hour cablecast on America's Spike TV featured the rematch between defending champion Samoa Joe and the former title holder, Olympic gold medalist Kurt Angle. And when the ratings came in, the stiff, cold, hard slap of reality cracked TNA right upside the head. The show drew TNA's predictable 1.0, with the Samoa Joe v Angle match peaking at a 1.1 household rating. In a nutshell, that sucks. It sucks because Samoa Joe and Kurt Angle deserve better. They've worked their tails off, and the style they're presenting does indeed take its toll on them. In an attempt to differentiate themselves from WWE main eventers, Samoa Joe and Angle have made the conscious decision to wrestle a more taxing style because few in the industry can work that type of match. And yet, the much-ballyhooed rematch didn't pick up any new viewers for Samoa Joe, any new viewers for Kurt Angle, any new viewers for TNA Wrestling. That sucks, too. It sucks because bluntly, TNA Wrestling deserves better. And yet, when TNA looks around, trying to figure out why the ratings didn't increase...why the company is stuck in the same stagnant ratings pattern every week...why even giving away on free television the rematch of their most heavily hyped and most praised main event in the company's history didn't even record a blip in the ratings radar...TNA has no one to blame but themselves. This is not a criticism of Samoa Joe or Kurt Angle. Nor does it have anything to do with the lack of week-to-week storytelling the TNA audience suffers through every episode of the television show. TNA's biggest problem can be found in the fact the company continues to fail to brand itself, and that's a function of the key word in World Wrestling Entertainment's global dominance and 90-something percent market share...MARKETING! For all there is to say about Vince McMahon - and I've said a lot, and will say a lot more in the future, I'm sure - you can't knock his unparalleled ability to market the WWE product. Why is Ric Flair, universally regarded as "the greatest wrestler of all time," living in an upper middle class suburb of Charlotte, North Carolina, while Hulk Hogan is arguing over tens of millions of dollars in his divorce case? Is it because Hogan was a better wrestler? A better performer? Or is it because Hogan was marketed by the McMahon Promotional Juggernaut, and therefore drew far more money, and sold way more merchandise, than "the greatest wrestler of all time?" Isn't it a tell-tale sign that Flair didn't make nearly as much in his career as Steve Austin, or The Undertaker? There's a reason for that. Flair was in some great programs that drew solid money, but Austin and Undertaker had the marketing machine behind them, while Flair was the beneficiary of the urban myth of the stylin' and profilin' Nature Boy. Which do you think was the more powerful promotional tool? TNA Wrestling took a huge gamble with the MMA-style title match in which they crowned Samoa Joe the new champion. And it's a gamble that most of the paying audience seem to agree with. The live crowd, for the most part, loved the match. Customer satisfaction with the TNA product probably reached an all time high with this match. And yet, NOTHING CHANGED! Why? Because TNA had no marketing campaign behind their new champion. "Crossing the Line" was done by ECW in 1994. David Sahadi is a genius whose videos deserve massive praise, but the theme is the same as what he did for WWE a half decade ago. What public relations firm was hired to make Samoa Joe "the IT guy" in today's pop culture? What marketing firm was retained to get the TNA name out there? Who was hired for the specific purpose of getting Samoa Joe on Jay Leno, or David Letterman, or Jimmy Kimmel, or Regis and Kelly? Why is TNA so content with Bubba The Love Sponge, Mancow, and shows that already feature the TNA performers? Where's the expansion? Where's the reach-out for the new audience? Where's the strategy to blast past the 1.0 ratings and target a 1.5, dare I say a "2.0" rating? Until TNA addresses this issue, the company is going to be stuck in the same holding pattern for the foreseeable future. Instead of waiting for WWE to make wrestling more acceptable to the mainstream, it's time for TNA to take the necessary step to design, develop, and implement a marketing strategy and campaign that makes the general public understand "THAT'S TNA!!!"

They seemed to be clearly turning Kennedy face there, I thought. At least for now. And I am thinking that feud with Regal may run a few ppvs, at least. Probably each of them getting a ppv win. Long term, I could see Kennedy go back heel though after getting a decent push for awhile. Hows Matt Youngin' it goin, man?

That was a really different first hour of Raw, enjoyed most of it.

Shit, Regal popped him good in the face. Great brawl here. I'm already amped for that match big time. Kennedy is bleeding hardway in a few spots, damn!

Damn, Kennedy's over as a face here strong. Little time off makes his return really fresh here, which is an easy way to turn him. Ugh, shut the fuck up with the WHATS, crowd.

Fuck, I really wish WWE could shock every person who does the fuckin WHAT shit during heel promos to stop them from fucking doing it all the time. Shit, I didnt expect Kennedy to show up here, in the least. This could be cool.

Yeah, that was really weak to say the least. And then beyond that, half of the ass-kicking of Crazy was done effectively by the chick, so that was weird. Talk about killing any small bit of credibility left for Crazy. I'm guessing Piper plays a part in the Regal coronation?

Interesting, Katie Lea is working a handicap match against Super Crazy. Two segments in a row that are/were very off the wall booking. But I like it.

I don't know - my guess was to end them teaming up, but I got lost when he started singing "Friends in Low Places" or whatever that is called.

I'm really confused what that last segment really WAS all about in the first place. I guess maybe they didn't disband the tag team, but is this meaning Murdoch is bringing in a new tag partner? Or WTF. How weird. But it's different, I'll say that much.

WTF.....what a weird way to break up a tag team. Are the fans supposed to be responding positively to this? I'm just wondering what the intention is here, to turn Murdoch, I guess?

Maybe its too predictable, but I can see Cade turn on Murdoch here finally.

Very well possible, texas bullrope (4 corners) match or something.

Bradshaw puts a challenge to John Cena and to the winner of Orton/HHH. Well, which one is it? So I'm guessing maybe JBL v. HHH at JD now. But the promo made it seem like we could see Cena v. JBL at that ppv, though.

Hahah Robbie McCalister is finally getting his receipt from the boys for going to the TNA show in Orlando. Bradshaw is stiffing the shit out of him... I wouldn't be shocked to hear he's released tomorrow.

King William Regal. BOOK IT!! Yeah, I'm thinking Regal will be granted a title shot at Judgment Day, probably by new returning GM, Coach?

HHH: Why don't you get the hell out of MY ring?! Oh, snap. I guess match with them at the next ppv is just hinted at for now and the rematch is tonight.

Good Orton/HHH exchanges here.......does this program still have legs? Guess so, Orton/HHH at JD. Eh.

Well it's curious to wonder if Orton really was slated to lose the belt at the ppv before this happened, or if Orton was acting pissy once again because he already knew he was going to job on Sunday (or should I say, if that was taken into consideration why his weird behaviour is acting up again all of a sudden). Anyway you slice it, it's just example number blah blah blah on why Orton still has alot of growing up to do professionally, even if his last title run there was better than expected in and out of the ring.