RedJed

I thought it was as lock that Eddy was going to win the title back in Minneapolis the day he died? From Batista's viewpoint, it was not accurate as such. Never heard that Eddy called him late at night, left a message that he didn't "deserve" the belt and then later that night was when he passed away. Pretty depressing turn of events there if thats the case, making it sounds like Eddy was in a bad self loathing state right before he died. I dont buy the Melina shit for a second. Chances are that is what fueled the Booker/Batista incident, in that both Booker and Sharmell, as a married couple, took issue with Batista publicly known to have been having an affair with Melina while he was married. Like it was already said too, where is guys like Morrison in the midst of all of this? Wasn't she dating Morrison or Mercury around this same time? Whatttawhore.

Bret got Eric's approval to stay with WWE through to 12/8, which was the Raw after the December PPV, when Bret would have given his farewell speech. That was when the plan, as Bret knew it, was for Montreal to end in a DQ, leading the four-way at the December PPV where Shawn would get the belt. Hence, the "going to WCW with the belt" argument was such bullshit. Like I said, if he had the ok from WCW to stay longer, all the company needed to do was ask him to sign a legally binding contract extension through 12/8.

Keep in mind how Michaels was going back and forth as well about doing the job to Austin as well too at Mania XIV too though the day of the show, and how Taker stepped in, etc. It was an ongoing issue with him that didn't stop until he was forced out of the company via the back injury. Fortunately when he came back, that hasn't been an issue anymore. I'm torn on the Montreal "who should have done the job" thing still. Considering before Bret was even going to leave the company, Michaels already had put his foot down on doing the job. So Bret leaving or not leaving wasn't even an issue at that point to Michaels. With Bret then about to leave the company, Michaels just had more fuel to his fire that he shouldnt be losing to him. Ultimately, however you slice it, there should be some criticism given to Vince for awarding such ridiculous behaviour by Michaels with a title run after Bret left, anyway you slice it. Taker probably should have been the guy to get the belt again briefly upon Bret leaving, with Michaels surely getting the belt well before Mania (say they still did the casket match at Rumble and Michaels still could have gone over there then, winning the belt) but I just thought, given the situation, it was always completely tacky for Vince to give Shawn that belt right then and there. A transition should have been done to make a point to him that Michaels can't just fucking say and do as he pleased, compromising plans and the like. THAT fact, more than the concern of Bret not doing the "company right" and leaving to WCW without dropping the belt, should have been the prevalent issue that Vince should have dealt with first and foremost. Ultimately, I think somehow, someway, the company should have forced Bret to sign a short term agreement from when it was agreed upon that he would leave that in no way, shape, or form, would he leave WWE until said date, say, a month after Survivor Series. Then things could have ended pretty amicably for the most part. Survivor Series could have ended in some sort of schmoz with Bret winning by DQ or something. Then from there, you build to a triple threat (or the proposed fatal four way that was the running idea at the time) with the two and whoever else, and Bret could have dropped the belt to whomever, hell he wouldnt have even needed to do the job to Michaels in that context (he could have dropped it to Taker which could have led at Rumble to Taker dropping it to Shawn), NOR would have Bret even had to lay down for Shawn at all, as Michaels could have beaten someone else in the match (say, Undertaker again) to win it. It seemed like the company always used the excuse that they were afraid Bret was going to "run away" as champion and go to WCW if he didnt job at Survivor Series. By having him agree on paper to a short term extension to stick around, that would have alleviated that concern. With that said, I think that excuse was pure bullshit. In a perfect world where nobody would have issues with jobbing and there would be no paranoia of one person doing another thing to another or the company, I always thought Bret should have pinned Michaels at Survivor Series to swerve the wrestling community, which was a totally abuzz that it was going to be Bret's last match anyway, then the company, again if it took signing him officially to a short term agreement, by giving him that favor of sorts (which I truly believed he deserved, not just because he had creative control but also because he was always a very reliable employee and always did what he was told, and never missed dates) would have to force him to job the title out to Michaels a few weeks later or at the latest, at the next ppv in a loser leaves WWE match. While the ladder would be predictable, it would have put closure to the program. Again though, this is all fantasy booking, taking out the fact that both guys had legitimate heat and let that get the best of them.

I hope the Jericho return isnt strictly just for that reason, it CANT be - can it? That would be so ridiculous. For what its worth, I'm glad he's returning on Raw though, as I'm not very wanting to purchase the ppv just to see his return anyway. And the ratings need a boost. Would imagine there would be a strong suggestion, if not outright announcement that Jericho is back next week on tonights Raw.

BTW, I'm still trying to figure out if Kurt's 450 knee drop was botched or if it was what he was trying to do. For an apparent botch, he sure made it look pretty smooth, rolling perfectly out of the move upon landing. But he was awfully wobbly when he was on the top rope about to do the move. Wouldnt surprise me though if he intended to do the knee drop, albeit with less impact than he did. Sting was out on his feet big time after getting smashed with the bat in the face too. I can just imagine the conversation those two had backstage after the match. Also, kudos to TNA for going to the max allotted ppv time, the show ended two minutes before the top of the hour.

Then have one of the normal TNA ppvs be a follow up to it with some NJPW guys invading TNA, etc.

Why not - its one of the more stronger ideas to draw interest as a singular "Clash" style event for the company. The difference between people who watch TNA on Spike and actually get ppvs is pretty large, so it would be more of a benefit to them to have it free to turn more people onto the product overall. They could still release it on DVD afterwards, perhaps do it kind of like ROH does with their ppvs. Have it condensed down to two hours on TV, and then release the DVD with the complete show from top to bottom.

Good to hear you had a good time, the crowd was just absolutely wild....just imagine if there would have been a packed house there. Still though, that was more than likely the biggest crowd in TNA history. It looked ok on TV - the production team did a good job of making sure certain areas that didnt have people were kept very dark, although when Rick Steiner and D-Von started fighting over on the far side ringside seats, i could make out the end opposite from the stage almost completely empty. Not sure why they picked such a large arena for BFG, but maybe that will be a lesson for them. No need to run any arenas larger than, say, 5,000 or so until they break that mark and then can move up to more larger scale arenas when warranted. MCM - they are definately over, there is no question, and it seems like they have some direction with them in a feud with the Dudleys. I'd love to see them go over the Duds and move onto a tag title feud with perhaps LAX in due time. I thought about it and pertaining to the run-ins and ref bumps in the main event, that may have been why I didnt mind them as much as the usual TNA main event run-ins - because the other matches were not full of them. Seemed a bit more unpredictable in its execution too. Does this now mean Nash is returning to wrestle and will be feuding with Angle then? That would seem to be a ready-made feud of sorts there.

Promos - you possibly could blame that on the bookers depending on if they script most of them themselves or not. And the booking entails WHEN workers do promos as well.

This would make for a nice TNA "Clash of the Champions" type special on Spike on an off day of the week, IMO. Would be interesting to see how it would fare running head to head with Raw on a Monday, even. Any updates on a lineup yet? Knowing NJPW, we probably wont have anything official until two weeks from the event.

Yeah the site is still down, crashed out last night after the ppv I think. On a side note, Meltzer originally had on the Observer site, right after the show, that there is going to be a Sting/Angle rematch at either tonight or tomorrows Impact tapings. For some reason, that was taken down soon after it was posted.

Wouldnt that be the job of the writers though in a way? Sure, they could work harder in the ring perhaps, but otherwise, they are tied down by the bookers.

Top to bottom, this was one of the best, if not THE best, TNA 3 hour ppv they have ever done. There was nothing really offensive in any of the matches, hell, even the reverse battle royal was quite acceptable overall. I liked alot of the finishes in the matches, and just about everyone on this show worked their asses off. The booking gave a feeling of closure in alot of these programs and the right guys went over. The crowd heat on this show was something else too, made each match even that much better, probably. Appeared to be the largest and most vocal TNA crowd EVER. Having these ppvs on the road does wonders to not just the overall feel of the product, but probably the morale of the roster too. Im looking forward to when each ppv next year is from a different location out of Orlando. Main event was all kinda good. Going into it, I didnt feel it was that much of a real buzz factor to the bout in the build, so it wasn't peaking my interest as much as I would have thought, but once it got going, it really impressed me how good it was. Made me remember how at one point or another, this was one of those true "dream matches" in wrestling and why it was. Way better than I expected, yet I imagined both guys to go out there and put on a hell of a performance, but nothing to the level we saw. The last ten minutes were really well laid out, even, as I cant believe I'm saying this, but the ref bump and the run-ins built the drama up even more positively (although I hate the spot when a manager/wrestler pulls the ref out of the ring right before the 3 count). Had legitimately been thinking the match could go either way which isnt typical with TNA run-ins and ref bumps in main events. The 450 spot as well as the bat botch made this match amazing to me and extremely memorable, which is hard to do these days in any wrestling match from WWE or TNA to me. **** Joe/Christian, another strong match for sure. Better than last month's affair, stiff match, Christian deserves a ton of credit for taking the spots that he did to make Joe look that much more strong overall. In theory, the two years of Christian never being pinned or submitted was saved for the right place and the right time here. Have alot more faith in the usage of Joe from this point. One of Joe's best TNA matches, sans with Christian. **** Monsters ball - this was the only match I really thought could have been a bit better, as it seemed like a very basic and chiche "hardcore match." The Raven bump on Rhino through the two tables was good though. But the ending was just flat considering how many times we have seen the glass and tacks gimmick. ** 1/2 Ultimate X - fantastic way to start the show. The crowd heat here was something else. Innovative spots, hard working, logical finish. Both teams looked really good here. *** 1/2 The women's gauntlet was perfect fodder to briefly showcase each of the ladies, which is best in small doses like this. Nothing really too bad here. The mixture of new chicks with the established ones made for a good bout. Awesome Kong's backbreaker on Christy was nuts. Right person went over here, all things considering. ** 1/2 The heat in Steiners/3D was something else, and I enjoyed the brawling spots in the crowd. Other than the botched table spot with Scott falling on it and it breaking right away, I enjoyed this match. ** 1/4 Lethal/Daniels was a fun match. Excellent finish with the lethal combo from the top. *** 1/4 Tag title match was better than it had any right to be considering we had a guy in there with no TNA experience at all. I say bring this guy in full time as a tag team w/ Truth. Pacman as manager is optional. *** Reverse battle royal - the goofy outside the ring fighting was too quickly done to lead into the normal battle royale. Rules were awfully confusing too. But once it turned into a normal battle royal leading into a brief match with Young and Roode, it was ok. Nothing horrible here, nor nothing that out of this world, but I liked how it did get alot of the people they want to push over a bit, like MCM, etc. All I thought was that the first reverse battle royal was way WAY worse than this. ** Overall, there is really nothing to bitch too much about this show at all, which is a rare things with ppv oversaturation. TNA should be proud for what they put out here. Right up there as ppv of the year with ROH Driven and probably WWE Backlash.

Any word on what happened here? I dont know if it was coincidence or not, but the ppv tonight seemed very solidly booked. One would imagine shit was in place weeks before the show relating to things though.

I dont know if it was intended or not (Angle was wobbly on the top there so may have overshot it) but it turned out to be one of the sickest spots I've seen in a long time in any TNA match.

That match was incredible - Sting was supposed to block the Angle bat shot, ends up getting blasted with it in the face by accident by Angle (which I think opened him up hardway?), no sells it, and then fucking wins the match. Really fun match, even with the excessive running in by Nash, but the false finishes were good and just wow - fucking great match to end a really strong show, more thoughts later! I'm all for another nice 3-4 month run from Sting, leading to putting Joe over or something on the way out.

Nash does the old late 90s WWE main event false finish on the ref.... And Nash is back in the ring again....sheesh....

Holy fucking shit, Angle just did a 450 knee drop off the top rope - landed stiff on Sting's chest. Brutal! Great match..... Ref bump....fuck....

I hope We Own The Night holds up - it was really well done and much better than I expected it to be.

I'll be getting the show for sure, looking forward to it, as it seems like a pretty solid ppv from top to bottom.

Actually I believe he was asked first to do the job before Bret.

I think its as simple as this - Bret and Shawn had so much heat and tension towards each other that when Shawn outright refused to do the job in that match, Bret said "fuck it" and refused to play ball just as much, out of spite probably. If they would have thrown anyone in that spot other than Shawn, I am 99.9 percent sure Bret would have been much more reasonable in how he wanted to go out. Although its complete speculation if he would have actually done a clean job for anyone in Montreal, but part of me thinks he would at least drop the title there via some sort of screwjob.

The funny thing is that it kind of is already gone. I think the logo in the middle doesnt spin whatsoever anymore and looks fused in the belt. Chances are that might be the only change that is made to the WWE title right now.

Pretty hot ending........you know, with Michaels back and, say, he does the job to Orton at Cyber Sunday in HIAC thanks to save_222, which could either be Jericho OR the new Hart Foundation (since if you recall, the report is that the gimmick WAS to be given to them after initially it was going to be Jericho this summer) - keep in mind we havent even had it confirmed Jericho is coming back necessarily in the immediate future, its all been speculation based on the vignettes - could all be a swerve for the new Hart Foundation to interfere on Michaels to build to Survivor Series (10 years ago that family member was screwed by Shawn). Hell, if they really wanted to make it interesting, the NHF could even go after Vince and Shawn at the same time to play upon Montreal. If they are going to do one last angle based off the screwjob, this might as well be the one and it might as well be now. Nothing of the sort will probably happen, but hey, whatever. But if Michaels moved into that program for Survivor Series, we would then probably get HHH-Orton at Survivor Series as well. I dont buy nor want nor need to have them build an Orton/HHH rematch all the way til Mania.

I wasnt too overly impressed with the first show, seemed to be a paced maybe a tad better, but those Angle/Sting segments during the show were pretty weak. They were cutting in and out of the Sting/Angle vignettes so fast that, like seems to be the norm with TNA, it doesnt mean it as big of a deal as it should be presented. Same with the ending of the show, just kind of like "eh?" Angle beats up Sting's kid..... But the main event was pretty good. Christian took a nasty bump after he lost it going backwards off the top rope to the floor though, did anyone catch that? He's lucky he didnt break his neck.