RedJed

That in itself might be interesting since I think there might be quite the revolt if they go back to Nashville. They kind of fucked their fanbase over there by saying they were returning down the road and never did. They'd be much better off probably either going to a different area in Florida or trying out a different territory like the west coast or hell, even up here in MN or Chicago might be interesting.

Big question is if they will be around by then or moreless WHERE will be they be if they stay alive. Universal contract expires in June and this might mean even their Anniversary show might be in a different location that Orlando.

You must not be a Chicago Cubs fan. Nah I'm a Cubbies fan but the channel is still worthless in terms of penetration into the cable market. While I think alot of companies have WGN more than some others, I still dont think this is a great backup plan v. Spike TV. A station like FX as an upgrade from FSN would be much more better.

Unfortunately I think Siaki might always have that stigma of being a Rock wannabee perhaps, although I agree with you that he has talent. Not sure if he's main event material though, but he's horribly underused. I actually think he should be brought back to the X division more, as he could have a decent role there. He's gotten tons better in the ring than he was a few years ago.

All I got to say about this ppv is that I think its either going to be real good or real bad, there probably isnt going to be any in between. If they eliminate the cage gimmick until this time next year (that is if TNA is around til then) I dont think this is such a bad idea in retrospect. When they first announced the all cage format, I was totally baffled, but I am willing to give it a chance to see what happens. This is a really good excuse for everyone involved in the company to really turn up the creative juices up a notch to make each match different and unique. Question is if they recognize this situation they put themselves in. Plus Rhodes as booker is really on thin ice right now so he is either going to actually produce something good from his booking or else really go downhill on this show, I would imagine.

Thats interesting news about TNA maybe allowing TNA guys to work the ECW show produced by WWE. That might very well open up the doors for some of these disgrunled ex-ECW guys in TNA to hit the road. While he makes some very valid points, the one thing that bothers me about Kash is that it seems like he is never happy no matter what. The guy has been pushed at times, and it seemed to never have been good enough for him. I can see both sides to this - TNA doesnt give a shit about him anymore since he's dogged on the company almost since day one. And you know the story with Kash. I question the comment that TNA isnt pushing him since he's a product of ECW. For someone in management to outright say that to a talent, I find that hard to believe. Throwing out unabashed hate for a team like AMW (and he's done this with Styles before too) is childish and doesnt serve to accomplish anything, more just shows he's jealous of their position in the company. IMO, they are a solid tag team and I dont see where he's coming from at all.

I'm getting more open to the idea of this all cage ppv, as this would (you would think) force the bookers, wrestlers, and agents who lay out the match to come up with creative finishes and contexts to these matches. We'll see what happens, but all I know is that having Hoyt v. Apolo in a cage sounds like the shits though. They should have that match be on the preshow instead of the actual ppv and NOT in a cage. Matches like that hurt the card as every other match at least has a purpose, whether its a gimmick on top of the cage gimmick, or else a title or a title shot on the line. The bad thing about if they fire Rhodes (which I kind of hope doesnt happen and now Rhodes just allows more suggestions and maybe having a team work with him, like Jerry Jarrett) is that if they do, their other choices are Mantel (which has already proven he can't really book this company well) or, believe it or not, Nash. Jeff doesnt want to get back into the booking as he claims he likes it better this way. Rhodes and Jerry Jarrett working more as a team and also having guys like Shane Douglas, Jerry Lynn, etc would be best. Rhodes has done some good in this booking run, such as created better structure to the product as well as pushed some of the "right guys" like Daniels, etc. I hope TNA gets on Spike too, but I'm not convinced they are ready to go head to head with Raw on Monday nights. This might be a stretch, but I think Spike should consider the UFC going head to head with Raw if anything on Mondays (1 hour TUF, and another hour of Best of UFC or something) or otherwise dont even bother as its going to be tough to compete with Raw back on USA when they are going to do an 8 million ad campaign for them. TNA would be best fit to return to their 2 hour slot on Wedsnesdays that they had when they did those weekly ppvs. Weds is usually a dead time of the week on TV and this would allow them the chance to get some decent numbers if they can manage it, and then once they get on solid ground, move them to Mondays to compete with WWE down the road. WGN is worthless and about the same as FSN. Will be interesting to see what this new VP does, if anything. Dutt returning is good - he never should have left in the first place, as he was one of the few X division guys who added a great deal of psychology in his last few big matches with TNA.

They could always bring back Lo-Ki to team with Daniels or Skipper for XXX. I think at this point Daniels is best fit to the X division first and foremost though, he is undervalued in a tag setting. I think Brown v. Styles could draw possibly down the road, that might be a good world title match to aim for if/when TNA ever tries their first real WrestleMania like supercard, which I think is being rumored for Sept or so. I dont think Matt Hardy can be brought in and immediately be penciled for a title run, much less a shot. It didnt work with Jeff really, why should it with Matt? Other than us smart fans, is the general public really going to rally against the "other" Hardy being the savior to beating Jarrett for that belt? Hardy (both of them in fact) would be better fit for X division, IMO and also as a regular tag team. I think in due time both Jeff and Matt can prosper as singles with them tagging on the side, but if they bring in Matt right away in July, they got to team him and Jeff back up for a while before anything happens. Having a tag division with them against, like Zach said, the NAO, AMW (as heels), or the Outsiders would add some greatness to the tag division, especially if teams like the Naturals, Team Canada, Konnan/Truth and others are also in the mix. I still think the best bet would be to have Brown beat Jarrett ASAP and then immediately after such (well maybe after a rematch with Jarrett that Brown beats him once again), have Rhino run in and lay Brown out. Then from there, you can build up Styles, Raven, and others more for runs against Brown. I think long term the best idea would be to build to Raven/Brown as a big match late year in which Raven would finally get the belt. Another thing to consider is that TNA almost NEEDS to do this with Brown, or else its a virtual lock he is going to go to WWE come June, when his contract expires.

I'm VERY surprised anyone here actually enjoyed this pile of dung. I was pretty pumped to seeing it since (correct me if I am wrong) this was the same team that remade the Texas Chainsaw Massacre into a most definately worthy remake back last year. But this was nowhere near the quality of that comparison, much less the quality of the original Amityville Horror - which is an ok film but nothing to call home about - probably was good for it's time but it doesnt hold up today. I'd easily say this was head and shoulders worse than the rest of the shit in horror that's been released this year, like Ring Two, Boogeyman, etc. I can imagine there will be a large fallout next week in the box office for this one as it's not going to likely get very good reviews (they didnt allow critics to see it before opening day, hmmmm) and even worse, bad word of mouth. I had been kind of researching the whole "true story" situation weeks before this came out, and to say that MGM calls this film "a true story" is misleading to say the least also. The original film exponded on some "facts" from the book, which was done in cooperation with the Lutz family - but this remake was nothing but a totally different direction, only keeping a few similarities and otherwise dumping the rest and then not following up with something BETTER in its replacement. Instead we go back to the oh-so cliche "troubled little girl" who has to play some role in the mediocre terror, as well as random other nonsense. If anyone is interested in what supposedly really happened in the house almost 20 years ago v. what was portrayed on film, check this link out... www.amityvillehorror.com What bothered me more than anything was that things went too fast, too much backstory information was being passed through without any reasoning and development, and generally the film jumped from one thing to another way too fast where it was hard to really get into the movie, much less the characters. I also had a hard time buying the story was set in the 70s when it just never gave me that feeling. Also I thought the acting was actually not very good, or at least I wasnt buying that this was an actual family living in this house and not just actors acting their parts. If they would have added another 1/2 hour to the film it might have been better but from what they had here, it was a fucking mess that seemed like they just threw this remake together really fast and without much thought.

TNA had the money match way back when with Raven v. Jarrett. All that it would have taken to really have drawn a substantial buyrate for a rematch with them was two more months of good buildup after their initial match and dual turns for Jarrett-Raven. I felt like they had another one much like this with Brown v. Jarrett too, and this still might be salvagable if they have a long term plan of Brown turning back face on Jarrett and getting a title return shot either May ppv or maybe better would be June ppv to celebrate the Anniversary and start on a better leaf going into another TNA calendar year. The past two matches between them has been the best thing the world title picture had since Raven-Jarrett, period. But its all in TNA's court - the seeds have subtly been planted for Brown to turn back face, almost that he just turned heel to get another shot in the first place. But the ball could be easily dropped here, as past has indicated. When/if Brown gets the belt, then they HAVE to move Jarrett away from any further title reigns, at least for a few years (that is if TNA can stay alive til then) - he's hurting anyone and anything in the product from being "money" material. Styles v. Jarrett should have been a money match, but its been done to death back and forth for two plus years now, and I could care less about another match between the two. I actually hope Abyss goes over at the ppv, and we see Abyss get a solid rub from Jarrett even if he doesnt win the title. Anything else that could be "money" would be Sting coming in for a title run, but against Jarrett to get that title is NOT a money match. Its been done to death before not just in the WCW days, but in TNA and their bouts never got that much peaked interest. I dont think guys like Styles, Raven, Abyss, Hardy, etc have been used properly enough to be considered "draws" at this point. I'm pretty sure that Styles should stick strictly in the X division only and really continue to build that division as his flagship where he can be a draw for the division itself in due time. Down the road, I think a good idea would be to bring in Matt Hardy and have him and Jeff team up again to establish the tag division as stronger, and have an AMW heel turn. That would help add some drawing power to the tag division as well.

Impact is now being aired late night Thurs night into Friday now, got it off my dish last night at about 1am. From what I watched, it wasnt very earthshattering. TNA needs a major shakeup to get some discussion going, thats all I know.

I think its clear, much like the TNA booking has been the entire time, that Rhodes needs a filter, or at best there needs to be a booking TEAM right now to bounce things off back and forth and filter through stuff. There's too many guys sitting around doing nothing in the backstage creatively when everyone should be able to add their two cents, well maybe except Jeff Jarrett and other active wrestlers in terms of being on the booking team. I see some good from Rhodes in trying to develop the undercard and create interest in feuds, but it seems to be going in circles generally. My best suggestion would be to have Jerry Jarrett have his hand back more into the booking of the TV much like way back when. I still think when him and Russo were booking shows together, that brought the best result. Maybe a mix of Rhodes, Jerry Jarrett (NOT Jeff) and dare I say a dark horse like Shane Douglas (who could bring some sort of ideas for the current scene into the fold from his experiences in ECW) might be a good idea to get some real substance to this product. Guys like Mantel, Dixie Carter, and other road agents like Terry Taylor and Jerry Lynn could then be given roles to fill in areas that need help, like establishing more character development with certain wrestlers and Lynn could certainly maybe run with the X division stuff much like Finley has/had done with the WWE women's division. Just some ideas there that might not be a bad idea. I dont really feel Styles-Abyss as the main event, more than anything because this feud came out of nowhere. Styles flip flops from X division to world title contention with no reasoning. How does losing the X title mean he now then is in line for a world title shot? Shouldnt he still be trying to face Daniels again? Abyss already has a title shot that he won, so whats the point here? If Styles wins, that a mistake IMO since they've already run the mill with Styles/Jarrett. Abyss needs to win and then beat Jarrett unless they still want to give Brown the belt from Jarrett - maybe at the Anniversary show.

This really makes me wonder if Rhodes or the TNA management know more about their future than they are putting on, like if this company is literally going to be finished in 2-3 months with a move like this with all cage matches on a card. The mindset must be that its something different and never done, but obviously there is a reason for that. Furthermore, even if they think this might bring in more ppv buys now, its at the expense of undoubtably killing off the six sides of steel cage match gimmick for good, or at best a year or two. I cant see this being a good thing at all no matter how you slice it. Adding extra gimmicks on top of the cage stip to every match is overkill and will only serve to confuse the fans, booking, and the workers involved. Even half of these gimmicks should only be done when its a blowoff to a feud, and hardly any of these matches are long term feuds that have been built up to lead to matches like these. Also, why does Abyss have to beat Styles to get his title shot?

Just sent these off to the Observer so I thought I would post them here - it was an ok show, but not as good live as Raw overall. The crowd appeared to be sold out completely about a half hour before it started as the box office stopped selling them and the sign in front of the arena said "sold out." With that said, the crowd was pretty hot tonight and was into most of the show. Dark match - Jindrak def. Frankie Kazarian, Kazarian got a decent response and looked good in there putting off some quality spots. Velocity: Booker T squashed Spike Dudley Akio def. Funaki Heidenreich def. same jobber as last night on Heat tapings v. Masters, Chris Evans I think? Post match he gave a poem while laying Evans in the corner to read to him. Holly/Haas def. Basham Bros by DQ when one of the Bashams brought in a chair and used it on Haas. Smackdown: Opens with JBL doing close to same speech as HHH on Raw whining about losing the title, how the belt will be his again soon, etc. Out comes Eddie to a huge pop, back and forth banter about who deserves the first shot at Cena, which also brings out Booker, Show, Rey (another huge pop) and Angle to all throw their name in the hat as well. Long comes out and announces a number one contender series of matches between the six guys in the weeks to come (I would assume everyone will end up taking on each other by the time all is said and done?) and starts tonight with JBL v. Rey. London def. Kidman to retain CW title in a good 10:00+ TV match. Not sure if it was intentional or not, but London bumped hard to the floor and ended up a bloody mess, so bad Kidman was covered with alot of blood himself by the end of the match. London wins with a small package after he missed the 450 but followed up quick. Chavo was on commentary and Kidman attacked London post match when Chavo distracted him, with Kidman and Chavo both ending up laying him out. Blood on the mat was so heavy they took time to replace the canvas after the segment. Backstage angle with Rheins mocking Show losing at Mania by giving himself a wedgie and doing the "sumo strut" Show predicatably is behind him and match is set. Show squashes Rheins in about 2 minutes. Cena comes out to a monster pop and delivers a strong promo in general talking about the title win, etc, normal post-title win speech fluff but Cena did a great job with it. Makes mention that much like how the US title was "re-made" that he will do so with the WWE title. Ends up going into the crowd on the mic to finish up segment. Angle challenge to some local latino from SD, finishes him in about 30 seconds and then makes him scream in pain in the mic while in the anklelock post match. Strong heat for this since Angle was putting the taunting pretty strong on the kid and the crowd was probably 80 percent latinos. Somewhere here, Angle announces that he will be facing Eddie next week in the next contenders series match. Eddie offers to stand in Rey'd corner v. JBL but Rey insists on staying in back. Tease of heat between the two from Mania, etc. Carlito interviewed by a new announcer who announces that next week will be the first "Carlito's Cabana" akin to Piper's Pit. They have a divas bikini challenge w/ originally just Dawn, Jackie, and Torrie but then Joy, Lauren and Michelle come out to demand equal time. Torrie ends up winning. JBL def Rey Misterio by DQ when Eddie interfered. Decent match with strong comeback by Rey at the end. Probably went 12-15 minutes or so. Eddie comes out when Jordan grabs Rey's leg before he tries the 619 to help. Helps fight off Jordan and then right as Rey has JBL beat, he jumps in and pushes Rey off and goes to beat on JBL himself which calls the DQ and Rey-Eddie have some argument. Out come the Bashams post-match which brings out Cena to clean house on Cabinet to likely end the show. When cameras went off, Cena does a short speech wanting JBL and Jordan back in the ring, out comes Long to make an impromptu tag match w/ Cena/Big Show v. Jordan/JBL. Very fast match with Show chokeslamming Jordan for the win. Afterwards, Cena does a long winded speech to everyone thanking them, etc, etc. Lasted about 5-10 minutes. LOTS of Cena on the mic tonight, which isnt really a bad thing, but it got a little old. One thing I didnt get was why we got Big Show in two matches, yet no Eddie wrestling tonight. He was just about as over as Rey was, and I think alot of people were let down that he didnt work a match tonight, also the crowd did not seem to want to see any sort of subtle heel turning from Eddie, WWE take note!

They should've went for a Leben/Swick rematch on Saturday... Agreed. They had a hell of a fight last year for WEC (they had a Best of show on HDNet a few weeks ago that showed it). Actually Leben, with all the drama shit that happened on TUF, has lined himself up for potential drawing matches with at least half of the guys on the show - Josh, Southworth, Swick, etc. Now that this season of the regular shows is over, definately felt it delivered well above anything I expected. I was always a casual UFC viewer (bought the UFC ppv with Shamrock-Ortiz and always watched the older shows on videotape) but the show definately has peaked my interest again and now gets me wanting to check out some of the stuff I've missed the last few years. Any thoughts on what shows to start with? UFC seems to have a real strong future with this concept as well as this live show Sat and the ppv then right after in the month. If they end the ppv with a strong lead-in to the next ppv (maybe have Ortiz start some more shit with Shamrock? Perhaps surprise everyone and have a major PRIDE fighter show up?) they are on a roll for sure. I just wonder what, if anything, they could work to improve on for a 2nd season. I think they should have gotten some better fighters overall, but thats easier said than done. Sam, for example, just seemed to me like he should have never been in this competition in the first place. Same with that first guy who got eliminated.

No need to apologize man, I was just giving ya shit, I laughed my ass off when i saw this thread big time. That Simon Dean segment was great stuff - Austin coming out and all of us giving Dean and Maven all kinds of shit was gold. Some guy the row behind us yelled to Maven " You were my teacher" and Maven totally fell for it.

Didnt tear up but I sure was marking out like crazy! The crowd was so nuts I got goosebumps then - and (dont ask why) also when they did the Austin trailer and he went off on the "here to raise hell" line. I thought that was a pretty sweet lead-in to the show.

Damn, and I was going to probably go to this show since I live in MN. Maybe not now unless they do some serious overhaul to the undercard. Their Mania match bored me so much. Cena-JBL would be much better as a street fight or with some sort of gimmick match along those lines. Unless they pull out alot of hardcore stuff like Rock/Foley did at RR 99, I cant see this match being anything but a bore. I cant imagine a month and a half buildup being much of a help either. WWE should move on to bigger and better feuds with the two main titles other than having the heels who lost them at Mania challenging them again in the next two ppvs. Its a no win situation - the face wins again which proves nothing and will somewhat bury the old champion, or else the heels win which serves no point to giving the title to Cena and Batista in the first place.

Yikes, a thread about me on Raw, Matt?!! Thanks - I guess? Great seat that I lucked out on last minute, wish I would have brought some signs though. Show was pretty good but nowhere near the level of Mania last night. Nothing much to report before/between commerical breaks/after the show but it was still fun to be at, especially with a seat like that. Austin coming out got as large of a response live as Hogan got the night before though.

Jeez, talk about a jaded "fan" - this is the kind of post that irks me when someone cant even explain why they hated the show, and much less admits that even before the show happened he knew he was going to hate it. This was easily in the top 3 on the best Manias ever with plenty of stuff to keep the show interesting. Two at least **** (dare I say a ***** with Angle and Michaels)and three others at *** 1/2, only real down parts was the womens match, sumo match, and the WWE title match. And at least they kept all of those short. For all the people who say the crowd was dead - I was there live and it wasnt dead except the matches noted about above that didnt go anywhere that were admittedly slow and tedious. And until HHH did the blade job and that match started picking up, we were kind of quiet for the main event. Why should any crowd get fired up for a match when it flat out is going nowhere though? The response would likely have been the same at any arena. For what is worth, I've been to probably 80-some wrestling shows since 87 and this was unquestionably the best ever that I've been to, live. This includes Mania XIX, random WWE/ECW ppvs, and house shows/TV tapings. The atmosphere was electric and everyone worked hard (well maybe except Cena and JBL) to make it a great show.

Oh yeah to the guy who started this thread - you got tickets from Ticketmaster today still? Decent seats? Just curious what they still had left, I cant believe they had any!!!

I went to Mania 19 in Seattle and it was a great weekend overall. They had that fanfest the same weekend too, and that made things more notable for me, since they had a play by play booth, etc. The tickets we had for Safeco Field were ok but nothing to brag about - lower level of Safeco but quite a ways away from the ring. Got them free though (my buddy works in the entertainment business and had connections in WWE) so I cant complain too much, plus we were sitting around alot of the families of the wrestlers and etc, even some of the people from that years Tough Enough and stuff. Going to this year's Mania and Raw/Sd shows so that should be fun. I think tomorrow's show could be one of the better Manias ever if all of the matches perform to expectations. Less is more this year with the lineup I think. The atmosphere was unreal in Seattle in a large stadium - I cant imagine what it will be like tomorrow! Matt, PM me by the way about the meetign schedule.......

Dont suppose you have a pair of tickets to Raw by chance?

I'm assuming they will open the doors between 2-3pm or so, so that would be a good time to show up. Anyone go to the thing in Hollywood today? Sounded like an ok lineup for a free show..... Also, anyone need a single ticket to Raw the next night? I got one for $40, Premier level seat.

Matt, I just PMed you. Does anyone from the LA area know of any side stuff WWE is doing in LA or CA in general the week of the show?I heard somewhere of maybe a Road to WrestleMania deal at some malls there next weekend and maybe a public deal middle of next week where they set up a ring somewhere?