RedJed

I'd highly suggest everyone check out that E:60 piece on the WWE, it's pretty fascinating stuff in terms of how honest Vince at least appeared to be about things, and the segment where they go backstage at a recent TV taping is really good. They actually tape part of a creative/production meeting, which didn't last long, but long enough to get an idea of how they do them.

Yeah that Steve Smith comeback in the third round was incredible, that was easily the fight of the night. They should put Smith in there with the winner of Sheilds/Lawler if you ask me. Who do they put in there with Shamrock now?

Finally got time to post about the show, almost a week later, eek.... Anyway there is no doubt that anyway you slice it, this show was a major letdown considering the idea, at least in theory, should be that the 25th Mania should mean more from top to bottom and deliver more than this. The expectations should be high considering the significance of it. I thought the average sounding card on paper was going to be irrelevant since everyone would work hard and overcome the standardness of the lineup. With that said, the spectacle of it all, like most Manias are, and the fact that there was a few strong matches and an even stronger match that rightfully should have been put on last, did make it at least a really good ppv, but probably the worst Mania all around in at least ten years. I gotta say though, that I am glad my plans for traveling to Mania fell through (ZZ Top was supposed to perform months ago, I was supposed to work as one of their stagehands for the show and something fell through, thus Kid Rock got the nod I guess) as I would have been kind of let down to have been there and had to have sat through the two VERY average (and that's being generous) world title matches. Just as much, why did WWE feel the need to water down the Hall of Fame event down to not even 2 and a half hours LIVE? That would have been just as dissapointing as a fan to experience as much as going to the Mania card itself. Then again, just being able to see that Taker/Michaels match live would have probably completely made the show for me. MITB - I specifically watched the past four MITB matches right before Mania started, thinking this would open the card and sure enough, it did. Made for watching the match a little different than usual since I was comparing it severely to the past ones. While I don't think it was the best MITB so far (I still think the original MITB match at Mania 21 is the best) it was pretty much second to the best given the creativity in this one. Hardys - I guess this was one of the matches that was actually cut in time due to them trimming up things as the show started (with other cuts being taking the lunberjack tag title match off the pay per view, turning the JBL match into a quick squash, etc) and it's too bad because I thought it was really getting going good and probably with about 10 more minutes, and with a few more big spots, it would have been great. But I'm guessing they are building to a series of gimmick matches with these two for the next few pay per views, so it's understandable. Still was second to the best match of the night anyway. Hell of a finish there and the Matt Hardy table sandwich spot was cool. Women's battle royal - What the fuck was this mess? I expected AT LEAST some quality nostalgic stuff, much like the Gimmick battle royal from Mania 17, but what happened here was the definition of a clusterfuck from every angle. The announcers were clearly totally unprepared here, or instructed to call it a certain way, but whatever the case, it all came off like a really bad idea. The women they brought back for a one time shot werent even basically acknowledged hardly at all, if at all. And the whole Santina thing came off just stupid at the same time. Could go on and on about this one. JBL retires - I actually thought it was a very fitting end to his career, if this really is it (which it appears to be). Either the crowd didn't buy it, or they just didn't care. You take your pick. Not going to miss JBL really since I couldn't imagine what they would do with him after Mania anyway. Austin "retires" - I thought this was probably the most significant moment of the whole card, when he came out and appeared to do "one last" toast. Between his speech at the HOF and this, this really seemed to be the final swansong of Stone Cold in the company. Ultimately, if there ever was a chance for him to do another match, it would have been on this show, so I think it's safe to say he's done. Jericho/Legends - This was a complete mixed bag of a match, and a complete "that was it?" of a post-match predictable angle. Piper and Snuka looked totally awful to the greatest degree in there, Snuka particularly acted like he didn't even want to be there. Steamboat, however, impressed the hell out of me, and I was marking out like crazy just because he was easily one of my favorites growing up and watching wrestling (his match on Raw the next night was even more of a markout moment for me). That said, the match was really bad until Steamboat and Jericho started working against each other. Would have much rather seen a 15 minute Steamboat/Jericho match instead of what was presented, and maybe at some point we will see that if the response for Steamboat to have one more match happens since I can't imagine the Jericho/Legends angle will just end here. The Mickey Rourke shit was just stupid though, had alot more hopes for all of that for some reason. Taker/Michaels - what else can be said other than that this match was incredible, and is right up there easily as one of my top three favorite Mania matches ever. The big spots themselves weren't so memorable as the sequence of getting to some of those moves were, if that makes any sense. Those last ten minutes were just top notch in that regard. I thought Taker broke his neck for sure in that tope outside onto the camera man, thankfully he tucked his head in at the last second. This match almost felt like they were both working their last big match ever and were going all out like never before. May be the case if Michaels is really retiring after next year, and it begs the question if we might get so lucky as to see a rematch next year, Michaels putting up his career for one more shot to end the streak. Anyway, I think this match had high expectations and somehow, they were exceeded by their performance. The first tombstone spot where Michaels kicked out last minute was one of the more realistic near falls I've seen in WWE in years. Cena/Show/Edge - I give them all an A for effort in that they really tried to get something going with this match by some of the typical WWE main event ringside shenanigans (such as the spear through the barricade, etc) and Cena carrying both on his shoulders at the end, but ultimately, it felt real flat, half considering I had no interest in seeing this match in the first place, and then they really didn't do too much to make it stand out than the normal pay per view title match. At least they didn't end the show like this, at least I thought that until the ended the show with the horrible HHH/Orton main event, which I won't comment on other than that it was a complete letdown from what it should have been.

Anyone catch the Strikeforce show on Showtime? Quite a solid show........Nate Diaz totally squashed Shamrock, was kind of surprised by that.

FYI, I didn't think the show as a whole was that bad, just a bit weird. I will openly admit that the Joe stuff is bothering me to no end right now, though. And I did think that Styles came off like a bit of a loser on this show, admitting he let down the company, and then when he took on Steiner, was made to look the same once again.

As usual Hogan is distorting the truth heavily. He was asked to wrestle at the show. This is a fact. However in a midcard attraction vs Jericho. He asked for too much money and was told no. So he decided to have back surgery. Surgery that he knew 6 months ago he was going to have right after WM. It was in no way out of nowhere. He got pissed off because he couldn't get a big enough pay day so he took the surgey early. Where did you hear this? I actually think Cena/Hogan was what they wanted. There actually was alot of talk a few months ago about Hogan/Cena, in fact I think in this thread there was a even a post that someone credited a report of a lineup being leaked that was completely accurate now looking back, sans Cena/Hogan, so there is a chance this was actually true. Ultimately, that explains why Cena was just kind of thrown into that Show/Edge stuff, too. And reports earlier were that Jericho might be working against Austin, not Hogan. Ultimately, if Hogan/Cena and Jericho/Austin would be on this card, we would have a very stacked lineup and undoubtably there would be no question that this would be a sizable buyrate from it.

Holy shit, just when I thought this Joe stuff couldn't get more WTF, they did it. I'm totally lost what they are trying for with this supposed push, it seems like a complete contradiction of such.

Oh god, double shot of some really horribly awful segments.....that shower attack on Taylor (chuck full of Taylor whining so much I just wanted to hit the TV) and that Survivor chick Jenna (who needs to get acting tips from pornstars if you know what I mean) swooning over old man Nash.

Wow, the wrestling, at least so far in this show, has been a total backdrop to the angles and promos more than ever. Then again I'm only to the really green knockouts match right now with Taylor and Madison Rain. These Dr. Stevie segments are some strange stuff, why are they still acting like it needs to be a mystery that's Stevie Richards, especially after the deal with Abyss? And then to see them have bring back the Daffney gimmick in this context, freakin weird I tell ya. Both segments just made me laugh since during all of this shit, really cheesy elevator music is going on in the background.

Yeah, in watching Impact tonight, it appears they have kind of dropped the Frontline monikor/faction completely in a sense and now will be going back to just TNA Originals in terms of the guys for Lethal Lockdown and probably Eric Young also may be included in that group, if I was basing things off that AJ Styles promo, which kind of gave me the impression he was saying the Frontline was a "letdown" and failed the company or something. Then again who knows, but it seemed to be suggested by that weird opening Styles promo on Impact that it was the case. To answer your question though, nope, they never officially ended it, and the group may not even be broken up either, but at least at this point it seems like the group as a whole just kind of fizzled out and they are more focused on the core "top 5" group of babyfaces now seperately.

Just starting to watch Impact now.....the opening promo segment.......quite a whirlwind of stuff there. I didnt quite get how Styles has "let down" TNA or Jarrett though, kind of makes him a bit of a tool to even suggest that out on a promo like that. Retarded scripted stuff there by probably Russo. It was just such a stupid reason why he wouldn't captain the team. Steiner and Jarrett's exchange on the mic was a little bizzare too, particularly Steiner talking about Jarrett's wife in such a way that it kind of made me uncomfortable, like she was Steiner's mistress or something. Really not sure how effective this segment was in terms of drawing the suspicion that Jarrett is turning heel. Plus Steiner just can't cut a serious promo properly (and rightfully so, he plays the crazy nonsense promos best) and Styles came off like a real loser on his own admission if you asked me. But maybe I'm nitpicking too much, just was some strange shit there. Foley's promo stuff on this show is extremely off the wall, more a good thing than bad, but still awfully strange.

Wow, that sounds like an extremely strong show, and is that the show that will lead-in to Lockdown? Or is there one more week before the ppv? It's like a really complete night and day booking on this show compared to alot of mostly shit I saw in the previous spoilers for the two weeks prior. Did someone lose power in the writing and they changed it up here or it is just coincidence? Cuz LAX both got pushed in seperate matches, they do a great sounding angle with old ECW guys, Foley/Sting's segment sounds great, and the whole Daniels return is awesome. Totally caught me off guard since I figured he would run just as Suicide for awhile. Lethal Lockdown sounds really strong now. I really don't think they will turn Jarrett full heel at all, but I like the twist they are adding into things with him being questionable in his decisions, etc.

Yeah, so far 2 for 2, and in a big way. The sub-storylines are becoming more logical and easier to follow and WANT to follow than they were, that's for sure. Stronger character development all around too.

What's the swerve in that? Swerves are finishes of matches, not match placement.

So why exactly don't Joe and Styles want to be captain anyway? That just reeks of heel coward type bullshit. I mean the Joe thing, I guess to a degree makes sense (but it begs the question why in the hell was he in the cage gauntlet then in the first place if he wasn't interested in being a captain) but then Styles turns down being the captain? Actually, the more pertinent question is this, why are they making such a big deal about who's captain of that team when ultimately, it doesn't even matter one bit anyway?

Oh yeah thats right, I guess I kind of tuned out of the last segment since the match was well over and I knew nothing good could come from another Killer Psycho Joe promo, after the one at the last ppv.

Yeah I just got back from it and I actually thought it was bearable enough to keep me interested (the action scenes were over the top, hard to believe, but yet well done) but that main villian was one of the weakest bad guy roles I've seen in mainstream cinema in quite a long time. All I kept thinking the whole time was that the dude looked like Johnny Fairplay's twin brother and that just ruined it completely for me. Also, the two main feds were just ridiculous, and there was alot of really bad acting and, in general, poorly directed scenes of dialogue, but it still wasn't worst movie of the year bad or anything. Just over the top popcorn fare.

So did I miss something or did Samoa Joe turn down the offer to be the captain of Lethal Lockdown v. Angle's team?

As hokey (yet perversely entertaining) as Vince as a brawler was, that last segment was really awesome, and Orton did a great promo before really putting in perspective the history between the two for the final build to what will probably be the Mania main event as it seems to look now. I have thought they have done a solid job with the HHH/Orton build, for what its worth. In fact I thought most everything on that show was a pretty good last push week build to Mania, much better than I expected. Didn't quite get the idea of doing Rey/JBL in a tune-up match was (unless they are planning on making that match a texas bullrope match or something like that) though. Hell, I didn't even think Cena/Show was THAT bad (still not feeling the triple threat match though), and there was some really great promos tonight by Jericho and Michaels also.

Or they got burned out from the over the top shoving down the throat the WWE did every Monday. Beside the movie looking meh at best, the constant shoving just made it unlikable in every way. I totally agree that the overpushing job WWE did on the TV shows has made me less inclined to even see this in the theater. And as far as the general public goes, there was nothing in the previews that gave the indication that this was worth going out to see either. I still have to beg the question that, even after a second mainstream motion picture, is John Cena that much of a household name to warrant the starpower? It seems like a similar premise of the Marine (bad guy terrorizes Cena and the people he cares for either dies or gets kidnapped, etc) on top of it. And it's pretty much a cookie cutter formula of an action movie. These days, movie storylines need to stand out more for people to take notice, if you ask me. The cliche shit has gotten far too cliche in WWE films land. I wish they would at least come up with some fun scripts that are greenlit.

You're kidding right? Look at the totals of Witch Mountain......it's done a WHOLE lot better than 12 Rounds. Didn't The Marine make like 8 million or so the first weekend it was out? And I recalled it being in the top three the first week. Compare that to a number seven here, and most certainly, 12 Rounds bombed. There is no way to slice it otherwise really. I would imagine Taken will finally leave the top ten next week. Quite a run there.

I totally agree.......it's nothing but a good thing that he is the way he is right now, and it certainly doesn't appear that he's in any sort of health risk at all anymore. I don't know if you could say that. Certainly, he's not anywhere near as bad as he was towards the end of his WWE run, but even just looking at him now, he's not exactly a picture of health. I think Kurt has done himself so much damage over the years, he's never going to be entirely in the clear, not while he's wrestling anyway. It doesn't help that he still seems intent on taking the same risks now, that he was earlier in his career. There are always stories going around various newssites and publications that he's still struggling physically, and he's not in great shape at all. I think, to an extent, Kurt's always going to be a health risk, it's just not as bad as it used to be. I'm missing where he looks unhealthy, since to me he just looks small, not anemic or anything. Just because he's not juiced up and huge means he's struggling physically?

First impressions of what they mentioned about the script (particularly the new ideas floated around) sounds horrible to be honest. I wish they would have just hired the same writers as Freddy v. Jason and the new Friday the 13th instead, since they seem to get the idea of blending the nostalgia of the franchise and reboot it properly at the same time.

I totally agree.......it's nothing but a good thing that he is the way he is right now, and it certainly doesn't appear that he's in any sort of health risk at all anymore.

Some other notes from the Rochester, MN house show from last night, figured I'd might as well since it was entertaining enough. The arena the show was at actually has held an vast and interesting history of pro wrestling here in the last 20 plus years. Way back when it opened in the mid 80s, AWA came here often, which led to WWE doing a few shows here in the late 80s, including one of those 4 plus hour Wrestling Challenge TV tapings for an entire month of TV, I think this was in 88. At that time, I think that was only the third wrestling show I ever had been to, and at ten years of age, it was quite the fun night if I recall. WWE didn't return to this arena until 2006 (for a Raw house show a few weeks before Mania 22) and then has done a few other house shows here more recently since as well. All of the WWE house shows have been good enough, particularly the show in 06 had a really good Cena/Edge street fight for the WWE title. The AWA started coming back and in full force in 1990 and 91, as they taped here every other weekend for the ESPN show they had. They were here for well over an entire year every other week. Went to most of those shows as well and even as a young kid, those were fucking hard to sit through, since the company was on it's way downhill very quickly as they were in the midst of all the Team Challenge Series shit, etc. Crowds got extremely anemic near the end. And it was a given that within a few hours into the tapings, you could get a free upgrade to ringside. But looking back (and being able to watch them often these days on ESPN Classic) they certainly were interesting in a total car crash way for the time. Back in 91 as well the LPWA actually had a live ppv, which I remember hearing about, but never going to, and from what I recall, it totally bombed with only 300 people or something. WCW also had a select few house shows in Rochester in the 90s, including one in late 92, around October I think, that featured Sting and Foley in the main event, ironically enough (I just recollected this during a conversation with someone else who went to that show who was at the TNA event here) and Steamboat, Rude, etc. This was one of the more memorable shows up to this point in my life since I met pretty much everyone who worked that show after the matches when they walked out to their rental cars in the back of the arena and there was no security at all (since it was well an hour after the show was done and everyone had filed out for the most part and it was a Sunday afternoon early show that ended at 3pm that day). Ron Simmons even let us hold the WCW title (this was the belt that only lasted not more than a few years before it merged with the big gold belt) while he signed our magazines and whatnot. We all thought that was the coolest shit ever, of course. Also, Curt Hennig was backstage at the show since he was friends with Rude, and walked out of the arena with him, which is significant only because of the fact that he was working for WWE at that time. So we all thought we were in on some scoop that Hennig was jumping ship only to find out he was just down there so he could see his friend Rude when he was touring close to his stomping grounds. Anyway enough goofy memories of the different shows in this arena the last twenty years, it just brought back all those memories when I went to this TNA show last night. I literally lucked into getting an awesome seat, third row ringside, as I got to the box office about 15 minutes before the show, and just was going to see what cheap seats they had to just kick back and watch it from a distance because didn't really want to pay $50 for ringside, and since I knew there was going to be tons of open seats in the arena (and that certainly ended up being the case) but someone who had an extra seat just came up to me in line and offered it for the same price I would have paid for an upper deck ticket. So I figured why not. Ended up being a hell of a good seat. The opener was amazingly slow for the most part between Daniels/Suicide v. Sabin. Not horribly bad by any means, but it was pretty short too. Suicide ended up coming to the ring from the middle of the arena, so that was kind of cool. ODB got a big pop since she is from Minnesota, but a really bad match with Sojourner Bolt. They tried some really bad comedy spots, keyword tried. 3D against No Limit was pretty one sided for sure, nothing much of a match, didn't even feel like it went 8 minutes. 3D was extremely over, and my god, DVon has just gotten out of shape since he's apparently laid off the juice. Also has got that HGH gut, or whatever its called, really bad. Styles/Bashir was best match of the night up to this point, part of our section of ringside got a cameltoe chant started out of nowhere right as they were locking up to start the match and both Bashir and Styles were having a hard time from laughing during this, Styles even ackowledged the chant after the match was over when he got on the mic to thank the fans, etc. Pretty solid stuff here, actually. Beer Money and LAX was entertaining, that's for sure. Good mix of comedy, realistic near falls, and a few good highspots from LAX. Homicide appeared to really not want to be there, but he still worked hard. Beer Money played really strong to the crowd, too The Jarrett/Angle main event, wasn't nearly as good as their ppv matches were, but it had good heat and I've seen a whole hell of a lot of worse house show main events before. Was hoping for some brawling around the arena a bit, but it still had good spots. Bashir, of all guys, ended up running out to save Angle by giving him Jarrett's guitar. Didn't make a lick of sense at all really. But hey, it's TNA. Jarrett then reverses the deal and Angle takes the guitar shot. 3D then run out and do the obligatory table spot with Bashir to end the show. I took some really short and grainy video clips from Jarrett/Angle, I'll leave a link for my album to check it out. Some pictures there too from the show, but not a lot of them turned out that good since this was all from my cell. But there's a few decent ones there. TNA House Show Pics/Videos