RedJed

I'll be going - totally coincidentally, I was able to take off two weeks from work right now (I live in MN) and my family, who lives out in CA, surprised me with a plane ticket out there if I wanted it. Needless to say I'm going. Ended up paying $200 for a ticket to Mania off Ebay, but it should be worth it - lower level seat. Also got a ticket to Raw the next day AND seats to Smackdown in San Diego. Its nice having family in southern Cali This will be my second Mania, ended up going to Mania 19 which was a real fun time for sure. This should probably top it with Raw and SD the days after. Still thinking about doing the HOF thing but not sure. I wish WWE would still have the fanfest!!! BTW, does anyone need a ticket still? I have an extra one I ended up bidding on off Ebay and won. $100 ticket, in premier seating section 11, row 6.

They've had six, I have them all and I could do them all for you at $50 and that counts shipping. PM if interested.

Hellseeker was on Showtime a few weeks ago and it is surprisingly real good, tying into the first few Hellraisers with that same girl who was in those films as the main heroine. Most of the Hellraiser films arent that special though, I agree.

I could see them coming up with some gimmick match aptly titled a "Hard Justice" match or something.

I read a few things in, I believe, the Observer saying Rock had become a diehard fan of the 80s Crockett (and Dusty Rhodes booked) NWA stuff, which lead to Rock asking Vince for a match with Sting at Mania 21. With that said, maybe a Rock deal would be more possible than usual since Rhodes is booking TNA right now? I dunno, I still dont think this is even possible to happen but its just a thought.

The ppv on Sunday was alright, I thought, but had some obvious booking flaws and the undercard wasnt as good as Turning Point/Final Resolution, much like last month. Turning Monte Brown was a huge mistake too if the plans are for him to just be Jarrett's lackey. If it leads to an immediate storyline between them that Brown was just playing on Jarrett to get another title shot, then that would be ok. Opener was ok but nothing spectacular, probably should have gone a little longer with all of the guys in there that there was. ** Sabin v. one of the Naturals was a weird match for a ppv. Couldnt they have gotten a better guy to face Sabin? I marked out when Shocker appeared though, he should be a good talent that they can build around like they did with Garza. * 1/2 Raven and Rhodes had another letdown of a match. Better than last months but still not up to what you'd expect * 1/2 Tag battle between the chicks two teams was needless filler that didnt really interest me. * Brown v. Trytan was really bad and probably should have never happened. Bad match with a bad finish = DUD Abyss v. Hardy was way better than last months match and probably will be one of the Six Sides of Steel matches for next month. Probably Hardy's best worked match in his TNA run. That bump from the scaffolding was pretty cool. Finish fell flat though *** 3/4 Nash and Gunn, believe it or not, was decent, but still nothing special. Adding gimmicks like blood and some hardcore stuff made it a little more bearable. ** 1/4 I thought Ultimate X Challenge was as good if not a little better overall than the last Ultimate X. The spots they were doing were innovative and were spread out throughout the tag, 3 way, and finale match. The finish appeared botched with the belt not being able to come off the top, but it was the plan it appears as it led to the ref bump and Daniels winning. Great match and hope they do the cage match gimmick with them next month. **** 1/2 The main event was ok but I've seen these two have much better matches before and I didnt like all of the crap with the people outside and especially the Brown turn. I keep saying it every month but the longer Jarrett has the belt, the worse its going to get. ** 1/4 Like I said before, if Brown is going to be a long term heel, they are making a HUGE mistake. Chances are though that this might be (I Hope) a setup to another match with them sooner than later, perhaps the next ppv or the May one. How it should be booked is a King of the Mountain match soon (how long have I said they need to do this?) with Brown turning back in that match and winning the title, kind of giving the impression this was all planned out in advance to "play" Jarrett to get to the title.

I got the Observer this weekend earlier than usual - Meltzer did a look at the busy month of April ahead and Rhodes already knows what he's doing for the April ppv. Supposedly its not one, but two, six sided cage matches. I really like the Ultimate X and cage gimmicks, but they are getting extremely overbooked lately. What makes a gimmick main event match special when you hotshot another one just a few months later? I cant even think of who would be in these cage matches either - perhaps Styles v. Daniels and what else? Jarrett v. ???? Bad idea if you ask me....the only half interesting idea I wouldnt mind is if they did Wargames instead of two seperate cage matches.

As far as I know, he's the 2004 Apolo. I've seen some of his recent PR stuff, and its nothing special at all. Rhodes was hoping to get Shocker in to be his "latino star" - must have panned out.

Hmmm, that might be the test market perhaps that they are using that for? I wish it was just a regular channel to be honest. That opens up ALOT more avaliability around the nation for them and hell, even if they charged $15-20 a month for the programming for one month, I'd pay it myself. VOD services are hard to find unless you are in bigger markets and ultimately they are jumping into that too quick before the technolgy is mainstream enough in my opinion. Hell, even just purchasing a ppv channel that would show nothing but WWE shows would be better than VOD at this point (but costly to the consumer). Someone mentioned only digital cable can get VOD services. Not true. The satellite companies can get it, but the subscriber NEEDS a DVR reciever from what I've been told by CSRs for Dish Network. They claim to have WWE 24/7 on the horizon with a projected Spring date although this is the same company (I dont know if it was Dish Network or WWE but I saw info here at this forum and even in the Observer) who leaked info that it was supposedly starting up last month too so who knows when it will be up and running.

More info on this from this week's Observer..... As thing stand right now, they have a two-hour prime time special on FSN with a Best Damn Sports Show Period tie-in (UGH), similar to the prior deals, scheduled for April. Jeff Jarrett is going to finally take the risk with this one and move out of the "sure thing" studios in Orlando, with the current plan to tape from The Orleans Arena in Las Vegas (7,000 seats, although they will obviously have to paper the building like crazy). -TNA is so concerned of catering to the FSN heiarchy that they do another deal to co-promote with BDSSP which is a bad idea, IMO. Unless FSN wont allow for something like this unless there is the tie-in, I think its a bad move to use that show with TNA as a backdrop again.

Wrestling Observer's review of the show - with some surprising thoughts on some of those matches and news from the backstage....thought it was worth posting..... While TNA continues to produce well received PPV shows, and the 2/13 Against All Odds show made four in a row, the clock is clearly still ticking. Early estimates are this show did at least as well as the first three on PPV, and perhaps even slightly better. When Dusty Rhodes booked this show, the whole idea behind the Jeff Jarrett vs. Kevin Nash main event is that was the biggest "star power" match the company could put on, and he felt it was necessary, despite it on paper not being a good match, to increase buys. It may have worked, or it may have been word of mouth of the past two great shows. This show wasn't at the level of the previous two, but still had one blow-away match and several other good ones. However, live, a lot of the turnaway crowd of 775 at Universal Studios in Orlando, left before the main event. Rhodes is now a couple of months into his six-month timetable to turn things around. He's going back to Ultimate X on 3/13, the next show, which would be the third time since November the company has put on its signature match. Styles will be there defending, and I don't see how they can keep Daniels away from him after his performance. Ron Killings is going to be tested in the X division, leaving one slot open, likely for either Petey Williams, Elix Skipper or Chris Sabin. This is reminiscent of Rhodes booking cage match after cage match in the late 80s was business was falling, because there was a time when a cage match was the one gimmick match that would greatly increase the house. He even managed to up the ante, with War Games, which for the first few years was a tremendous drawing concept on the road. But history shows running the same gimmick too often destroys the gimmick, and both Rhodes, and later WCW as it was falling apart, burned out cage match gimmicks. But they also have no money matches. One would expect DDP to beat Jeff Jarrett for the title on the next show, if only because like with Nash, Rhodes sees DDP as a name wrestler, as opposed to an X Division wrestler who are seen as having great matches, but not ticket sellers. It's clearly obvious Jarrett has to lose. Live, fans were furious when Nash didn't beat him, but in reality, that would have only made a bad situation worse. DDP isn't the answer, and the problem is there is no real answer, but Jarrett has to lose, and somebody has to hold the title. Ultimately, Rhodes has always liked to book heel champions with faces chasing. Other matches official are two rematches, Abyss vs. Jeff Hardy in a falls count anywhere at Universal Studios match, and Dustin Rhodes vs. Raven in a bullrope match. Against All Odds was carried by what I considered the best non-gimmicked wrestling match in company history, the Christopher Daniels vs. A.J. Styles Iron Man match, where Styles retained his title by winning in overtime at 31:37. But history has also shown Iron Man matches, which are memorable because of their length, usually aren't strong at the box office, and are difficult matches to work because the crowd knows there is no finish coming until a set time. Still, this was the main event to the live crowd. As noted, there was a lot of talk leading into the show that this should be put on last in the main event slot. In the end, Rhodes wouldn't consider the idea that an X Division title match should be put ahead of an NWA title match. It almost worked, as even though you could see the splotches of empty seats for the Jarrett-Nash match if you were looking for them (they weren't obvious), they worked a great match when you consider Nash's limitations. Still, the reason the crowd was so hot was because they hate Jarrett so much, but in the wrong way, that they badly wanted Nash to win. When he didn't, the mood of people leaving was horrible. Time will tell what that means, but the reality is, they needed to get the title off Jarrett, Jarrett vs. Nash wasn't a draw to begin with, but it's not like DDP vs. anyone on the roster is going to draw either. The funny thing is, based on the match with Nash and how he carries himself and promos, that from a mental standpoint, Jarrett has more of what it takes to be champion than anyone on the roster. The problem is no matter what pluses he brings to the table, he doesn't have the charisma, and he's been champ so long that fans resent it because they know it's his show. He simply can't be champion right now. Several hundred fans were turned away, and it's become big enough that some who didn't get in that were in tears at the entrance. Many more hung around the front (Nash and Jarrett brawled out of the building to give those people something to see) for the duration of the show, perhaps waiting for people to leave so they could maybe get let in, as happens sometimes at the TV shoots. It may be time to start charging admission for the PPVs, although I don't think that would work for TVs. The show also had the debut of Monty Sopp, the former Billy Gunn, who now has no name, and Sean Waltman, who both ran in during the main event. Waltman had injured his back two nights earlier in Tijuana, taking a bump in that hard ring, in his first match in months. He was hurting bad, to the point the day of the show they didn't know if he'd even be able to perform. He was actually in a wheelchair in the hotel the morning of the show. Jarrett himself was really happy Waltman got the big crowd pop (which may have been more because he helped Nash as opposed to Jarrett) because Rhodes was not nearly as sold as Jarrett was on Waltman being brought in. As things broke down, Sopp, called "the man formerly known as Billy Gunn," interfered as a heel to help Jarrett. At TV, they were calling Sopp "The New Age Outlaw," which is a name I don't see holding up to a legal challenge. They were disappointed in Gunn's crowd reaction. Waltman helped Nash after that. Waltman was dressed up like a raver or a street corner drug dealer, and not in a babyface way but more in a heel way. B.G. James also stopped his long-time tag team partner from using an object. Perhaps they go with Jarrett & Gunn & someone against Waltman & Nash & James as the main feud, although I don't know if anything is definitive, as we've still heard talk of putting the old New Age Outlaws back together and that has already been teased at the tapings. The negative of this show was that, good or bad, when it was over, they created no obvious matches you want to see for the next show. At this point, it's imperative the booking leaves you with something to look forward to. There was one major incident backstage stemming from the planned Jeff Hammond & B.G. James vs. Michael Shane & Frankie Kazarian match. Shane & Kazarian were really upset about having to get pinned by Hammond. They complained a lot. Management blamed a lot of it on Shane Douglas, who is considered Shane's mentor, as they believe he made a bad situation worse by telling them it was b.s. for either of them to get pinned by a 48-year-old race car announcer. It got mad enough that Jeff Jarrett was considering firing Douglas and maybe even Shane & Kazarian. The feeling is that Hammond is a major player at Fox Sports Net, knows the president of the network and this is something to win brownie points with the network in the quest to get that Monday night TV show which is their big dream. Other wrestlers told them that in wrestling, this wasn't a big deal and it's just part of the business. For what it's worth, because of Hammond, they got a USA Today mention of the show and the company, a mention on some of the Fox auto racing shows and will have a segment covering this on The Speed Channel down the road. I don't think it sold one buy, but nobody expected it would. I think the feeling is part of building a brand is getting the brand name out there. The other thing that is in danger of happening is more prevalent locker room cliques. Basically, you have two groups of "stars," the ones who were names from the Monday Night Wars era, who have the name recognition, and the guys who can go, like A.J. Styles and AMW, but who most people have never heard of. The company is trying to use both to their advantage, as they have to, but there have been grumblings from those "who have been there" that the company needs to play the money players who know how to get over, and can't see why those with bigger names are working underneath guys with no names. A. Phi Delta Slam, as Team Trinity in the battle to find out which woman can sleep with The Dream, beat Lex Lovett & Buck Quartermain. Phi Delta Slam are two fat wrestlers who are well known on the local indie scene, also as Bruno Sassi & Big Tilly. A lot of fans knew them and cheered them heavily, even though they were supposed to be heels. Sassi gave Quartermain a spinebuster and Tilly, who looks to be 350 pounds, got the pin with a splash off the top. B. Team Traci, Ron & Don Harris, who were referred to as The Disciples of Destruction, Big R and Big D, destroyed Mikey Batts & Jerrelle Clark in 3:12. This was also a total squash to set up Traci's Team vs. Trinity's team, originally scheduled for the dark match, to meet at some point in the future. The twins looked very good here, as they were aggressive and their offense looked great. That was even more amazing, considering how bad they were looking when they were taken out of the ring by TNA, and that both should have some ring rust. 1. Elix Skipper pinned Petey Williams in 7:58. This match started good but fell apart toward the finish. Williams came over the top rope doing a huracanrana on Skipper on the floor, which Skipper flying into the barricades. The first botched spot was Williams was supposed to do the high crossbody off the top, and Skipper would duck out doing the Trish Stratus matrix deal. Skipper did his part fine, but Williams dove so far to Skipper's left that it looked ridiculous. Skipper used a double arm superplex. Skipper did his rope walk huracanrana, then fell to the mat by himself. The idea was Scott D'Amore held onto Williams to keep him from falling, but the camera missed that. Skipper put Williams on the top rope and was supposed to hit a springboard dropkick, which missed by a mile. Williams at least didn't sell it. Skipper then got the pin with Nova's Novocain, or Michael Modest's reality check. There was a lot of talk after the show that this exposed what a lot of people knew, and that is Skipper is best served as part of a tag team, and how much being with Daniels had protected him. *1/2 2. Jeff Hammond & B.G. James beat Michael Shane & Frankie Kazarian in 5:33. Hammond wasn't over in the least, but I've seen a lot worse celebrities in the ring. At one point fans were chanting "We hate NASCAR" at him. NASCAR driver Brendan Vaughn came out with Hammond. The highlight was Kazarian doing a running dive over the top on James. Fans booed when Hammond did a hot tag in, and that's for a guy aligned with 3 Live Kru, the promotion's most popular act. Finish saw Shane superkick Kazarian as Hammond moved, and Hammond did this goofy "I'm a race car" run around he ring and dropped an elbow for the pin. *1/4 With no Jonnny Fairplay, the goofy show long segment was a lawyer called Mr. Daggett (played by office employee Tim Welch, but what's so goofy about this is he's frequently done ring announcing so to the fans live and even on TV, they would know who he is) who was trying to threaten legal action against Dusty Rhodes on behalf of Jeff Jarrett for saying that if he uses the guitar, he loses the title. Rhodes refused to back down. I think it was a scene from a John Wayne movie, seriously. 3. Raven pinned Dustin Rhodes in 8:20. Raven worked the left leg to set up the ankle lock. Since he's never finished anyone with it, it didn't get the Kurt Angle response. Rhodes' agility is gone. He's not that old, so he must be hurting bad, because he used to be a good worker, and now he can't do a thing. Raven got the pin using the ropes in a bad match. It was so bad that when Raven came to the back, Jerry Jarrett jumped him and started screaming at him for ruining the show. Hey, it wasn't nearly that bad. Raven attacked Rhodes after the match, and ended up putting him in a straitjacket. He used a garbage can shot to the head when Cassidy Reilly tried to make the save. Raven DDT'd him immediately. Raven started whipping Rhodes when security hit the ring. He started whipping security, but finally left. *1/4 They showed the latest Ryan Wilson video. His new name is Trytan. He's dressed up like a 7-foot Green Lantern. Live, the crowd laughed when they saw his name. 4. Chris Harris & James Storm retained the NWA tag titles over Kid Kash & Lance Hoyt in 12:25. Fast moving match with great heat. Harris flipped Storm over the top, where he landed on Kash & Hoyt. Kash leaped to the top and came off with a perfect moonsault. He tried a frog splash on Harris, who got his knees up. Kash did another spot where he climbed up the ropes and came off with a huracanrana. Hoyt used a side slam off the top rope on Storm. Storm did a top rope huracanrana on Hoyt, and Harris followed with an elbow off the top for a near fall. Kash went on got both tag belts for weapons. Harris got the belt from him and went to use it, but ref Rudy Charles saw it and stopped him. With the ref arguing with Harris, Kash hit Storm with a belt shot for a near fall. Harris ended up handcuffing Kash to the ropes, and Harris & Storm did a double-team death sentence on Hoyt leading to Storm getting the pin. This was real well done, as Storm had his back worked on during the match, and at first was unable to lift the big guy up. Harris screamed at him to gut it out, he got Hoyt up and Harris came off with the guillotine legdrop. A lot better match than I anticipated. Even though Hoyt is not in the league with the other three, they worked some intense G&P type stuff with him, and Kash was on his "A" game. Kash ended up breaking some toes during the match. I really don't see this as the time to go heel with Harris & Storm, but it's still in the plans. ***½ Shane Douglas was in the back when a limo pulled in. He wanted to find out who was in. The least menacing looking security people in history, all half Douglas' size, made him back off often they he said he was going to interview who was in there. I guess it's no biggie since Douglas isn't an active wrestler. 5. Abyss beat Jeff Hardy in a comedy of errors called Full Metal Mayhem in 15:21. There were two envelopes held high above the ring that you needed a ladder to get. One envelope was empty, while the other had a contract for a title shot at the Jarrett-Nash winner, to be held on Impact over the next few weeks. These guys put it on the line in a TLC style match. Hardy did a Air Juvi like springboard off the chair into a bodyblock on the floor. Hardy followed with a chair shot. Abyss came back with a weak chair shot. Abyss stacked up two sets of tables on top of two sets of tables on the floor, which they didn't use until the finish. At one point, Hardy drove a ladder into Abyss' body at a 45-degree angle. Hardy ran up the ladder carrying a chair, and dropkicked the chair into Abyss' face. At one point, Abyss used an overhead belly-to-belly on Hardy over the top rope and he was supposed to land and break another stack of tables. As it turned out, he landed short of the tables. His feet went through the table but the brunt of the punishment, his back in particular, landed on the floor. He'll be feeling that one. They went to the entrance ramp and Hardy set up a table, gave Abyss a twist of fate, and then a stunner next to the table. He climbed to the top of the entrance, which Don West said was 40 feet high (and if Hardy suddenly grew to 27 feet tall, he'd be right). It was probably about nine feet up and he did a swanton off the top through the table. Hardy got a 12 foot ladder and well, he got the contract. The problem is, that was not supposed to happen. He was supposed to get the envelope without the contract. Abyss knew it and was going crazy, but couldn't stop him because he had to sell the blow. The ref was screaming at Hardy to go for the other envelope. When he got it, they sold like it was empty, and just kept the match going. But in the panic, the match fell apart at that point. The big spot in the match was they were supposed to both climb the ladder, both grab the envelope, fight over it, tip over the ladder, and both go flying through the four set up tables. Unfortunately, because they had to pretend the new envelope had the contract, it was too far away to take that bump. Instead, Abyss threw Hardy over the top rope and he was supposed to go through all four tables. The tables didn't break, and Hardy, rather than sell what should have been a debilitating injury, got right up and went into a temper tantrum. He started kicking and stomping the tables that didn't break. Worse, as he was attacking the tables when he was supposed to be selling, the cameras were on him. While this was going on, Abyss had nothing to do but climb up and grab the empty envelope that was supposed to be the envelope with the contract, and he was ruled the winner. Both Hardy and Abyss were really furious backstage after the match. Hardy was mad about the bump earlier in the match where he landed short and got banged up. Abyss was mad about the problems due to Hardy forgetting which envelope to go for first, and made a scene throwing and kicking things everywhere. **½ 6. Diamond Dallas Page & Monty Brown beat Eric Young & Bobby Roode in 9:43. They announced that D'Amore had bought Scott Hall's contract so he could have a cohesive unit together. That was the only mention of Hall's name. A fast paced good match with a lot of heat. Team Canada were bumping machines out there, especially when Brown made a hot tag in. Roode hit Brown with a hockey stiff and Young came off the top with an elbow for a near fall. Finish saw Brown pounce period Roode, knocking him out of the ring DDP used a diamond cutter on Young, who was sitting on the top rope, for the pin. *** 7. A.J. Styles retained the X title beating Christopher Daniels in 31:37 of a 30:00 Iron Man match that went into overtime. Both men were fantastic out there. Daniels was clearly the ring general, and was aggressive from start-to-finish and never tired. Styles tried to do more of a world title match than an X division style match, and was great at it. This match really shut up critics of Styles who think what he doesn't do in some matches because of the style of those matches revolving themselves around high flying and flashy spots means that he can't do a long-term, selling-based match. What was really strange here is that even though the crowd was hot for the entire match, they piped in fake crowd noise in the early minutes. I have no idea why they would do it, let alone in this match, because it was clear the live crowd saw this as the real main event. From the start they did the "Let's Go A.J., Let's Go Daniels" stuff. Styles did a springboard plancha and a quebrada reverse DDT. Finish of the first fall was at 14:07 when Styles went for a 450. Daniels got his knees up, and then hit Angel's wings for the pin. Daniels worked on Styles' stomach, using an abdominal stretch and later a gut buster. They traded near falls with Styles using a superplex. Daniels used Styles' trademark quebrada into a reverse DDT for a near fall, and got a second near fall with a Blue Thunder driver. Styles won the second fall in 23:58 after a cradle. In the third fall, Styles juiced after being posted. Daniels kept head-butting him t open it up more. Daniels did an STO for a near fall and more head-butts. Daniels locked Styles in a Koji clutch, which was awesome because Styles was trapped in a triangle like submission with his bloodied face and theoretically unable to breath. He went out just as the time limit expired. Daniels started screaming that it wasn't fair, since he had the match won. Rhodes came out and ordered a sudden death. Daniels smeared his hand in Styles' blood and painted his forehead with it. After a series of reversals, Styles hit the Styles clash and got the pin early in overtime. This timing was almost identical to the Hart-Michaels Wrestlemania match. There was a huge standing ovation that lasted several minutes, and this was not a somewhat contrived one like the ones for Chris Benoit in the Angle and Lesnar matches, and lasted far longer. Ultimate X last month was more spectacular, but I saw this as the best match I've seen so far this year. ****3/4 8. Jeff Jarrett retained the NWA title pinning Kevin Nash in 19:45. The good part of this match, is they made the best of what appeared to be a bad match with lots of run-ins, ref bumps and near falls. The bad part is every Jarrett title match has them, so instead of camouflaging a bad match, they just seemed so redundant. You could tell, with the people walking out and those staying having the bad reaction to Jarrett that people were sitting there ready to crap on the match. By the end, they had super heat, with people on their feet rooting Nash on. They brawled to the back where Nash threw Jarrett into a catering table, knocking food over. They brawled outside where the fans who were turned away were hanging out. Nash can't move because of his knees, but what he can do, which are facials and punching, he did better than in any match he's had in a long time. Jarrett juiced heavy. Jarrett finally stopped Nash's onslaught with a low blow. In the stupid but funny part of the match, Jarrett came out and what looked to be a giant guitar case. If Jarrett used the guitar, he loses the title. Instead, he opened the case, and it was a cello. That would have been funny if it had been someone other than Jarrett, and been in the second match. Even worse, as he picked up the cello, the handle broke off. I guess God woke up a couple of weeks ago and decided it was time to humiliate owners of wrestling companies. Jarrett used what was left of the cello to Nash's knee to set up a figure four spot. Crowd was going nuts cheering for Nash. Nash got to the ropes, and used some side slams. After a power bomb by Nash, the formerly known as Billy Gunn ran in with his No Introductions Necessary and "You Know who I am" on a t-shirt. He used a chair shot, but Nash kicked out. Sean Waltman came out and went after Jarrett, giving him the X factor. Jarrett kicked out. Gunn went for a title belt shot, but B.G. James ran in and got the belt from him. So, we were having a"formerly known as Degeneration X reunion." Jarrett went for a cello shot but Nash got it from him. Nash went for another power bomb, and Jarrett's feet knocked out ref Rudy Charles. Nash power bombed Jarrett on the cello, but no ref. Jarrett used a belt shot for a near fall. Jarrett used a stroke for a near fall. Jarrett then used a low blow and another stroke and got the pin. **3/4

And if they start charging admission......? I dont get what you are trying to say there. I'm not sure if this is the right place/time to do a 3 hour primetime show. The day before Mania? In Vegas, the same city/night I'm assuming that UFC show is? There is too much stuff going on that weekend and it would just get lost in the shuffle. They would be better off doing the show even the week after Mania when things are cooled down off that - Vegas I dont mind but I think it would be best to plan this more in advance. I'd actually rather them come back to Nashville instead than all of a sudden trying their hand at a market like Vegas. This date is only 5 weeks away if they do it the day before Mania and if done in May or even June, they would have plenty of time to build this up more and maybe even get paid attendance from it regardless of the location.

It was more of a rhetorical question I has asked, but yeah I agree.

lol GOD, what the fuck is Rhodes' problem? If anything the in ring from those previous two ppvs were kick ass - he should have been applauding the roster's efforts in busting their ass in the ring. Instead he demeans them? No wonder the workrate wasnt as top notch on this last show than the others - they now got the workers to not give a fuck less.

I dont get why TNA doesnt come up with another inventive gimmick for X division guys to shine in - is it that much to ask? Hell, I think even doing a double elimination 4 way match (like the first match they did in 2002 to crown the first X title champ) would be better than bringing back Ultimate X again. If they wanted to make it a little more unique, do what that junior league that Bischoff was helping run in Canada, Mat-rats or whatever it was called, did - have springboards at each cornerpost/top turnbuckle for them to do some ridiculous high spots off of. Call it the "X Factor" match or something.....

TNA dropped the ball here - if they would have at least had him on contract they could have worked a feud with him and Shane before he left. He was on one of the few teams in the company that didnt reach anywhere near their peak yet although they were slowly building them. Unless Rhodes made it clear to them that he wasnt going to do anything with him, I'm really surprised he left to be honest. They had a great thing going, regardless of having to put over Hammond last ppv.

Nothing looks even worth watching here to me for the most part. They really need to work on being more creative with some of these matches for the show, and in general pointless run ins and promos with no real purpose. Basically either the matches need to be worth watching or else the building up for the ppv needs to be there, and neither is accomplished here on paper. Why is Nash all of a sudden aligned with Page? Why is Gunn with Jarrett? Where is Xpac in all of this mess? Why is Brown being depushed? Nothing makes sense here. Tapings like this makes Mantel's shit look like gold.

ACK, this is the second month in a row I'm let down by the initial lineup for the ppv upcoming. I saw DDP v. Jarrett on a wall and I think this will lead to a title change since even Jarrett and Rhodes know he is not getting the right kind of heat right now and needs the title off NOW. While I'm ok with it (just because its off JJ), it should fucking be Monty Brown, but Rhodes doesnt think he's ready yet (Jarrett actually wanted to give the belt to Brown before the booking plans changed when Rhodes came in). He sure as shit better be the next champ after Page though, or in the least the next babyface champ after Page. The thing that irks me about this is that this, once again, is not going to draw the casual fans they seemingly want to grab at. They dont get it - these main events with Jarrett-Nash and DDP were main events in the shitstage of WCW! I'm just waiting for them to sign up Scott Steiner or Sting here to face Jarrett next in more WCW rehashness. I think they are going way too fast again with Ultimate X. Big mistake and I'm sure it will turn out solid (they work hard to try to one up each match against the previous one) but I just dont see the point to rush this. They'd be better off doing a new innovative X division match concept or something here. I can partly see why they are doing Abyss-Hardy and Raven-Rhodes in gimmick matches, to hopefully make up for the crap last ppv, but this just isnt the place and time to do it. This should be nothing but X division except a tag title match and world title match. PERIOD It sounds like this will just be another TNA ppv with a little bit of everything with no emphasis on the X division. BIG MISTAKE.

The fact that you think I just want people to "blindly praise TNA" doesnt even warrant me to continue to reply back and forth to you on this since you aren't getting what I'm saying at all. You completly missed the point - I'm not saying to completely praise TNA - lord knows I have given them a lot of shit in the past, present, and about the future. But the difference between me and you is I do give them credit when a decent match comes through the fences or I am just generally entertained by something. Now if you honestly dont ever see anything good thats your perogative but I'm just saying to rip of them for EVERY FUCKING THING is ridiculous and no matter how bad something is, there is 99 percent of time something decent to comment on. Again I go to the fact that when the last two ppvs have gotten high praise, you were nowhere to be found with your comments ironically enough. I've seen some posts on yours that offer some validity but it always comes back to blinded statements such as the "everyone who follows TNA rates matches higher than they really are" like you are the benchmark for match quality. Its ridiculous and hurts your overall acceptance to alot of people to even follow what you are saying, much less see where you are coming from at all. Harris v. Jarrett was described as a MOTYC contender? Huh? Thats the first I've heard of that nonsense and agree that it was nothing near such.

Dude, get over it - TNA has some decent matches. While their booking may admittedly be piss poor at times, the workers actually, ya know, WORK in more cases than not possibly because of the lacking direction of the company, booking, etc. Just because you hate how TNA is booked doesnt mean the in-ring always blows. You even said it in your post - even if a show is solid in the ring, there is still the fact of the same ole champs. Those are two completely different beasts at this point. Saying everyone who watches TNA rates the matches higher than they should be is ridiculous when everyone has a different way of rating matches. It's all just opinion and there is never a "standard" to these things. I swear sometimes you say ignorant statements like that just to get a rise out of people. It's statements like that which make alot of what you say come off as biased bashing (ironically the same thing you whine about - that anyone who even remotely likes TNA is unbiasely rating everything better than it is) compared to how, for example, a guy like Corey actually uses alot of sense in explaining himself and why he isnt into TNA currently.

I dont know what to pick since I felt it was more like "I ordered it and I thought it could have been much better but I still enjoyed it." With that said though, I think I was spoiled with two ppvs before that were f'n great and it was hard to match those. But it didnt really meet my expectations (since they were kind of high from the past two ppvs) but then again they didnt fall well below either. It was a mixture of below average to decent matches along with a few that surprised me either positively (Nash/Jarett) or negatively (Raven/Rhodes)

Any release dates yet?

Wow, surprise surprise, alot of posters return to the TNA folder to bash on the show that they havent even seen - even though it admittedly wasnt nearly as good as the last two other ppvs they put on. It pisses me off though that you guys only comment when TNA does bad shit but when they put on good stuff, we hear a small amount of talk from both of you (ie stuff from the last ppv, etc). Whats up with that? I tend to agree with alot of stuff both of you are saying right now, but I just think its fucked up that you guys only post about TNA negatively all the time and when they do something good, you dont even really comment, or moreless its just that it just couldnt be true that *gasp* TNA did something right. It's the exact same thing as these people you say that praise TNA all the time as far as the bias goes. You wont allow to even accept ANYTHING positive that the company did in the past, current does or the potential for some in the future. The pre-show had the return of the Harris Boys, which is never a good thing. They have to be one of my least favorite tag teams EVER. They totally buried and squashed Batts and Clark, ironically my favorite team in TNA. The other team was Phi Delta Slam, which I havent seen any work from, but might end up a good team in the division - time will tell. Candido is now aligned with the Naturals as well which might make for an interesting pair. Opener was certainly decent, as both guys worked hard and I thought this would lead to another deal where all the guys on the show would work hard. Incidentally, it didnt happen that way. *** Skipper winning might open up the chance for a Skipper-Daniels match for a shot at the X title next month, or maybe both of them in Ultimate X (since they are planning on bringing that back for the next ppv in a 4 way). Tag with Hammond was weak - agreed with many that Kaz/Shane needs to be used MUCH better than this. Fans werent into this either which says alot since that crowd there can handle just about anything. DUD Raven-Rhodes was a totally weak match. Rhodes didnt even attempt to have a decent match and Raven didnt seem to really be trying. Everything seemed in slow motion, even the after match angle which had ZERO intensity. -* The tag title match was also a letdown. These two teams just dont blend well at all, as evidented from their series of matches they had last year on the weekly ppvs. Maybe if Kash had a better tag partner? Just basic stuff here - they tried with some decent nearfalls at the end but it just didnt flow at all. ** Abyss-Hardy was yet ANOTHER letdown. At this point the ppv was really losing me. Hardy worked like shit (which doesnt surprise me since he would be losing the match?) and missed all of his big table bumps, ultimately just hurting himself more. The big spot on the stage even was made to look bad due to Hardy's weak "jump" off the stage. Tenay selling the hell out of it as the best thing ever reminded me of Tony S. in WCW days. The finish was the goofiest ever and I can't believe they actually booked it that way. Hardy was about to get the contract above the ladder and Abyss looked like he was going to do a big spot with him on the ladder but then instead just pulled him ever so slightly off the ladder. Then he slowly irish whips Hardy into the ropes (not throws him over it) and Hardy out of nowhere does this goofy jump over the ropes into 1 table out of 4 that were stacked. It just looked ridiculously bad. He then no sells the bump and starts to kick all the rest of the tables in half. This was one of Hardy's worst matches I've ever seen in terms of a higher profile one. 1/2* Tag match with DDP and Brown was standard fare with nobody really stepping up to make this even a *** match. I felt like this was an Impact main event or something, and thats even streching it. I dont understand it but nobody had their working shoes on here. ** 1/4 Styles-Daniels wasnt anything "wow" to me until 10-15 minutes left, then it started to really pick up. The overtime period would have been nice to have extended a little bit other than having it end after a minute into it. But generally, this was the glaring high note of the show and should have been main event. Both guys busted their ass and the visual of the end of the 30 minute period with Styles bleeding like crazy in the submission was very cool. With that said, something was still missing here, and it wasnt up to par with what I think alot of people expected out of this, including myself. Perhaps part of it was that at this point the show was really dragging and it was harder to get into. *** 3/4 Main event shockingly was better than I expected (I thought it didnt have a chance to go over **) with Jarrett really carrying Nash big time to a semi-decent 15-20 minute entertaining match - in most cases comedy fare because it was so corny. Most of the match was spent with crowd brawling and some in the backstage too. The cello spot, as weird as it sounds, was actually kind of funny/creative (I cant believe I just said that) as it was hilarious when the cello's handle broke right when Jarrett pulled it out of the case. And then Jarrett attacks Nash's knee with the case, that appeared to be nothing but pure mesh/soft cloth. The near falls at the end were actually very believable but much like last month with Brown, the match's finish fell flat after all of the good near falls. I have to give both guys credit though as they tried to make this work and at least half succeeded as I thought this was going to be one of the worst ppv main events of all time and it definately wasnt. Xpac and Gunn coming in I could care less about, especially with Gunn, as he seems like the ultimate WWE hasbeen reject. ** 3/4 Basically, Rhodes booked himself in a corner with the main event, as Nash winning doesnt exactly sound appealing although the crowd wanted it, but I think they would respond to just about anyone in this way as they just want the belt off Jarrett. And of course Jarrett continuing to hold the belt is also a bad move. What they HAVE to do now is build up the next challenger as the guy who needs to beat Jarrett as its been drawn out so long with people wanting to see the belt off JJ that it's borderline ridiculous. I'm sure some in TNA see the crowds dying to see the belt off him as some sort of sign that he's drawing, but he's not. Best idea would be to do a King of the Mountain match next month and give the belt to Brown, as was the original plan (ironically enough, what Jarrett and Mantel wanted to do) before Rhodes came in. So basically any finish to this main event would have produced the same result. A babyface needs a run at the belt and NOW. Or at very worst, give the title to Abyss and have him do a run as a monster heel. Something has got to give. I hope the next ppv is mostly all X division as they need that to get back on track after this lackluster effort from most on this show. With all of this said, this was still better than the average WWE ppv, so take that as you will. The Rumble was probably better than this slightly, but other than that, this still stood up better than any WWE ppv since SummerSlam.

I selected because of the past ppvs. With the last two being better than any ppvs I've spent money on in years, it's a no brainer for me. The undercard is questionable but I said this same thing last month and they churned out something really solid. As long as the workrate is kept up and each get match adequate time like before, I dont see why this wont be another solid show - maybe not as good as the other two, but still solid nontheless. Nash-Jarrett scares me in that it could potentially be either a crappy ending to a good show or a match that generally ruins the flow of the show if they dont do it last. Anyway you slice it, if that match is even **, I'd be surprised. They got a few matches in the Ironman and TLC match that might and hopefully should be the standout shows of the night.

Agreed about not making it for the title. Although I'd keep Styles in there with the twist being if he wins it, he gets to pick who to be his next challenger for his belt (if he retains against Daniels this Sunday that is) as it would be hard and maybe not smart to fit an X title match on the ppv seperately. Anyway the winner would face the champ at the next ppv, and to take it a step further I would bring back the 3 stages of hell concept they did a few times with Styles-DLo and Styles-Lynn for the next ppv for the X title.