RedJed

Totally agreed, Angle came out last night and, like every match, you could tell he was in that mode he gets of sorts. Defiantely was pushing Jarrett as much as he could, that's for sure. On a side note, Angle has gotten considerably smaller from the last time I saw him live (which of course was in WWE days, near the end of his run there) but almost to the point where the referee (it was Rudy Charles, I believe) was larger than him. He's gotta be hovering only around the 200 pound mark from the looks of things. Lots of people commenting about that around ringside last night. I'll try to upload some shots from last night in a bit, by the way. Had 3rd row ringside, so that was a plus.

Well went to my first TNA house show last night.....an underwhelming show in terms of the workrate (alot of guys were just kind of phoning it in although guys like Styles and Angle seemed to work alright) but in terms of how the company gets the fans to feel more a part of the show, A ++ job there. They were giving out backstage passes all night for the loudest fans, and then at the end of the show, alot of the roster came out and took pictures and signed autographs with people around ringside. They were doing pictures with 3D in the ring for $20 a pop, which seemed to be a real hit too with the fans. Angle/Jarrett and Bashir/Styles were the matches of the night easily, but nothing ppv calibur in the same breath. Thinking this is just carny talk, but Borash claimed they are "90 percent sure" they are coming back to Minnesota later in the year for a pay per view. I would imagine if they do come back, it won't be in Rochester though, since this was a small arena that only probably got 1,000 people or maybe 1,500 in attendance.

TNA really has no say over what advertisements air during the commercials. I believe Spike does, but most of the time, if I'm not mistaken, companies pay providers to air their commercials. I could be very wrong, but I believe that's how it works. Yeah, I know that Spike sells the ads to whoever, but I just find it really ironic in how they were placed.

Tons of random notes from the Observer this week.... There is talk that when Frankie Kazarian can return, he will get the Suicide gimmick. (They could play a cool storyline into Daniels being unmasked and then feuding with Suicide, if that's the case.) A funny story regarding Kip James and Jackie Moore being dropped and how communication went down. The PPV was scripted with Moore to be grabbing the belts from the desk for the count out on the Destination X title match. Don West ended up giving Beer Money the belts because they needed to make a new plan when Dixie Carter ordered Kip and Moore done as TV characters. They were pulled from television as a budgetary cut. Moore, who worked on the road, was not brought to the PPV. Nothing was said about it because apparently the decision on whether to use them on TV going forward was still being debated, but most likely they were done at least as far as talent went. Kip was at TV and the PPV but was never used. The departure of Jackie Moore will be explained on future TV shows as a storyline that it shows Beer Money is now getting serious. (Didn't think they needed to let Ms. Jackie go, but Kip James wont be missed, so no loss there.) The whole Brutus Magnus beating Eric Young and Chris Sabin deal is because Magnus is a Dixie Carter project and the directive is he must be pushed. (Give me a f'n break....she's literally pulling a Vince there with her adoration for talentless uncoordinated big oafs.) The whole Samoa Joe costume deal is that the company made him a new costume as part of a makeover for him of sorts. The plan with the new outfit was not to bury Joe, not intentionally at least. In fact, the idea was that this new outfit would make him a bigger star than ever before. Joe also did put on weight when he was off, so that didn't help things either. They’ve toned down the Don West heel turn per orders from the top. That was quick. They felt they went too far with it and had to get it under control. The way it was at the PPV and TV is where they want it, with West playing subtle heel. I guess they recognized it was getting in the way of selling the product. West is more of a heel only when The Beautiful People are out there and also when the babyfaces do something outrageously stupid. Honestly, making Tenay stick up for the faces in those situations still buries Tenay’s credibility as the lead announcer having a connection with the viewing audience is almost a necessity to build a product. Traci Brooks suffered an injury to one of her implants this past week while visiting troops in the Middle East. She was firing a machine gun and the shell kicked back, fell down into her shirt and burned the implant pretty bad. Regarding the World X Cup, not much has been talked about regarding it. It’s a major headache because it requires working with international groups, and it’s not an if, but how often there will be communication issues, mistrust, double-crossing and screw-ups. Last year, there was an agreement that to make the thing become bigger, that CMLL would host the entire tournament which would then be aired on Impact as well, to give it a different look. Given that CMLL used no TNA wrestlers on its PPV over the weekend, who knows where the relations between the two companies stand? Plus, TNA’s style would be more conducive these days to AAA, but there is the Konnan factor that would hold up any working relationship there.

I'm not one to blatanly C & P stuff from a newsletter I pay to read each week, but this was just too good not to. From the latest Observer. Another crazy dressing room incident happened on 3/20 in Ciudad Madero. Unlike the arrival of Marco Corleone and Dr. Wagner Jr. at Rey de Reyes, the return of Juventud Guerrera wasn’t well received, particularly by the younger wrestlers. Guerrera had always been complaining in his last stint here because he felt he should be in main events because he had made it in the U.S. There’s no denying he has main event talent, just none of the main eventers wanted to work with him, because he has the rep for being all about himself and not about the match. He mostly had heat with the younger wrestlers, since that was who he was programmed with in his last run with the promotion, and as the veteran, his rep was to veto all the young guys’ spots but want all of his spots in. That’s the same reason TNA won’t use him, because Jerry Lynn complained about working with him, and it also got him into trouble in WWE. Guerrera has every bit as much if not more talent as Rey Mysterio, but his attitude has kept his career from going nowhere near as far as it should have gone. There was also heat because he no-showed TripleMania to work a tour in Europe. Anyway, someone took a shit in his bag. Usually if this happens, the word in wrestling is to no sell it so as not to give the people who know about it the satisfaction that they got to you. Of course, he did the opposite. He was yelling and screaming about it first in one dressing room, and then went to management to complain. Some of the younger guys talked about beating him up right there when he made such a big deal of it. A few of the veterans talked them out of it, saying the best thing to do would be to ignore him. He then went into the American dressing room where Konnan, X-Pac, Teddy Hart and Jack Evans were. He started cutting a promo on everyone and accused Konnan of doing it and Konnan said he had no idea what he was talking about. According to one source there, he then picked up a chair and went after Konnan. Jack Evans grabbed the chair and Konnan punched him once. At that point Evans and Juventud started fighting, with Konnan trying to get in the middle to break it up. However, Evans destroyed Juventud with a series of knees from a Muay Thai clinch. Guerrera ended up needing eight stitches to close a deep cut, as well as suffered a broken nose and had bruising all over his face. Juventud then complained to Dorian Roldan saying that two guys beat him up and had complained to other wrestlers in Los Perros Del Mal about it (by the time his version of the story came to Los Perros Del Mal, it was up to four guys beating him up). He also did a newspaper interview saying it was Konnan and Evans. Guerrera claimed that Joaquin Roldan ignored the situation and that he’s quit the promotion. Lizzy Valentine, who has been in Mexico as Guerrera’s valet, wrote on her myspace account that she was quitting the company over the incident, but didn’t exactly say what the incident was. “Tonight was my second show for AAA in Mexico. To say I am disappointed with the company is an understatement. I am not normally the one that goes posting stuff like this on the Internet, but what I saw tonight in the locker room absolutely disgusted me, and I’m not just talking about the incident, but management as well. There is no way I can continue to work for a company like this. It would take a lot to convince me to change my mind. I had to quit.” The mainstream sports newspaper Record reported the incident, quoting Guerrera, who said, “I opened my bag and at the bottom of the bag was a whole load of shit, and that surprised me because that is a level to which I did not think that anyone would stoop, showing such a lack of respect to me. So I began protesting to Konnan, and then from behind, Jack Evans jumped on me, from behind, punching at me and trying to choke me, and both started to kick me.” “I am disappointed in the leaders (of AAA). I hope that they call to me and give me an explanation, because this was two against one. Surely they (the other wrestlers) will brainwash Dorian, but a lawyer like Marisela Pena (Antonio Pena’s sister, the mother of Dorian Roldan) must intervene in the affair, but I will insist upon consequences.” “He was just a total idiot, beyond loser and they shit in his bag as payback,” said another AAA wrestler who wasn’t involved in the incident. “He got in Jack’s face and Jack was not the bad guy. There was a scuffle and Juvi bit Jack. He (Evans) straight up prison gangland beat the goddamned living shit brutally out of Juvi. Juvi cried tears and Jack really made his face like hamburger.” Guerrera, on the other hand, blamed everything on Konnan. “This was my second show back with AAA, and the real boss of AAA, Konnan, was not happy about it. I tried to talk to him earlier in the show, and he ignored me. We have had problems for years. I have been negotiating with AAA for my comeback since October, but each time he was blocking me. Finally, I made y return at the Rey de Reyes show and everyone was cool with me backstage. Konnan was really late in arriving to the event, five minutes before his match. Now at my second show, the vibe was different. I guess some of those guys got in trouble with the boss for talking to me. I went out and had my match, which was really juicy, and when I returned to the locker room, I found my bag in a different area, and it was wet. I knew immediately Konnan was behind it. I opened the bag to find human feces inside. I immediately grabbed the bag and brought it to the owners of AAA. They were in shock. They knew of my problems with Konnan, and knew he was behind it, but didn’t do anything about it, because they are scared of him. They I went up to Konnan and asked him what his problem was, and he sat there like a coward and denied everything. When we were in WCW he broke my ribs on purpose in a match. And remember, when I got fired from WCW for that incident in Australia, well, Konnan is the one who laced the pot with LCD and `forgot’ to tell me. Even when I was in WWE he was trying to fuck with me. I am the one who got him his job in AAA. It took two years of convincing Antonio Pena to make that happen. All of a sudden, I felt someone attack me from behind and start choking me. It was Jack Evans, who had been stiffing me in our match earlier in the night, kicking me multiple times in the face. At this point, Konnan got out of his seat and starting holding me down for Jack to hit me, and then started punching me, too. None of the other wrestlers tried to break it up, because again, Konnan is the true boss of AAA and will screw with their careers. Finally Sr. Roldan, the owner of AAA, came in and broke it up. My nose has fractures and I have lots of bruises. My eye is completely red but I am still Juicy. It took two guys to hurt me, but I still have my integrity and pride.” On 3/21 in Manzanillo, at a house show, Guerrera, his face bruised, went into business for himself, cutting a promo on Evans and Konnan. He cut it like he was doing a face promo for a wrestling angle, talking about how you can’t trust people and he has to watch his back, and saying about Konnan and Evans, “These men went too far. Konnan is jealous because I returned to AAA.” Juventud was going to be joining DeGeneration Mex, and also he and Lizzy Valentine were going to feud with Teddy Hart and Nikki (Nicole Wilcox, Hart’s girlfriend), but DeGeneration Mex asked that he not join the group, so we don’t know what will happen. Nikki left the promotion this past week, saying she had to go back to Calgary and tend to her grandmother and nobody knows if she’s coming back, so nobody knows her status. ------Clearly, this guy is fucking absolutely nuttier than squirrel shit......the "still juicy" phrase stinks of some deuchebag wannabee gangster white boy shit you would see in high school. Hilarious that he claims to still have his integrity and pride as well after this.

Guess that the house show run this weekend is going to have Angle/Jarrett on top as the main events. Heading to the show in Rochester tomorrow so looking forward to it. The rest of the lineup sounds eh though, ODB (MN worker of course) v. Sojo, Beer Money vs. either 3D or LAX (tables match), Styles vs. Bashir and Suicide vs. Chris Sabin are also announced. Probably a few more matches underneath. No Limit v. LAX perhaps, and who knows what else.

Just watching the show now, did anyone else notice this in the first segment - I swear Angle had talking points (for his promo at the start of the show) written on the inside of his left hand, or maybe I was just hoping it was, because it would be typical TNA unintentional comedy stuff. Suicide v Kioshi was alright. Was kind of strange seeing them starting a Kong vs. Beautiful People feud, but that's better than Kong doing recycled stuff with Taylor Wild or some shit. Wow, and the first commercial during a break is 12 Rounds. Genius. I think they aired about 4-5 more commercials for the film during the rest of the show. Foley/Sting promo was really good I thought, you can tell they both are taking the program seriously. It's good to see one of likely TNA's strongest builds to a match this year will probably be this one, much like Angle/Joe at Lockdown was last year. Oh boy, the cage is getting a makeover at the ppv , a bit scared to see what they are going to come up with. Interesting idea to stretch out that cage gauntlet match for basically an entire hour on TV. My first thought was, umm how the fuck do they actually eliminate someone from the match? I'm sure giving this match so much time has alot to do to try to "strike the iron while it's hot" thought process of them trying to hook more viewers from the heels of the main event last week, which was apparently TNA's best quarter hour ever. So they want to hook them earlier than usual, and then keep them to the end. For what it's worth, it was probably the best gauntlet match ever that TNA has done in terms of match quality as well. So it would be a well deserved ratings bump, in that case.

Damn, I totally forgot he actually did work a WCW match a long time ago, you're right. Spring Stampede 94 against Christopher Knight, which I think was in Chicago. Here is an extremely strange bit of info about Bonaduce, according to his wiki.... "Ashley Massaro, former WWE diva and winner of the '05 diva search, was Bonaduce's personal trainer." Huh? This match has the possibility to be one hell of a trainwreck

Wow, are you being sarcastic here with liking the film or are you serious? That was one horrible executed film in terms of the writing and, ultimately because of the writing, the acting. Another unintentionally hilarious scene is when Cage ran out to tell the creepy guy to stay away from his house, and acted all tough hitting a pipe against the tree. I started LOLing after that one.

Old experimentation with LSD by doctors back decades ago, when it first started appearing everywhere, however, suggest that it was. Henceforth why I guess they were treating it like that. I totally took it that they were giving him LSD to "open up."

HHH will go over, and stand in the ring with all of the McMahons to end the show (as they will all individually run out at one point or another to help HHH win). Bank on that. Cue a rematch at Backlash in which Orton then goes over and gets the belt in some sort of all or nothing stip. Might see a double turn there as well.

Yeah, count me in with wanting to see that car crash of a "movie" with Angle there. I think even calling it a B-movie would be generous. At least we know the real reason why that Survivor chick got in TNA now.

I gave Heroes anotehr chance tonight, in hearing of the return of the old writer, and I gotta say this was way better of an episode so far this year than anything else. Two deaths that needed to happen, and things got a bit more logical and coherant than before.

That's pretty sad that Watchmen may not even make it's production budget back from the domestic box office totals by the time it's all said and done, which I think was 120 million. I saw it in the IMAX last week and was blown away by it, personally. Awesome flick, particularly for the IMAX.

Considering it was directed by Renny Harlin (who hasn't done an even bearable movie to me since Die Hard 2) I would expect a bunch of unintentional hilarity, like most of his films are.

Smues was totally right about Knowing, it was just laughingly bad though, like so bad I still found it perversely entertaining in a total unintentional humor kind of way. Alot of the crowd seemed to, as well, including audible groans followed by laughter when it started to get really REALLY bad into 2/3 of the movie. The acting here was just jaw dropping awful though too (but then again, given the script, do you blame them?), with pretty much nobody in the cast as an exception. The character Cage played was cowboying a bottle of whiskey during most of the movie, and I wonder if he really DID have whiskey the entire time of filming, as he really phoned this in, big time. The female lead was extremely annoying to the point where once something significantly bad happened to her, like Smues stated, you literally wanted to cheer. But the story ultimately made no sense and that ending, oh that ending. I have no fucking idea what a The only really positive from the film was that the effects seemed to be pretty good in terms of the major disasters that occured in the movie. But at the same time, after the disasters happened, how they filmed the aftermath of those disasters, in terms of how they had Nicolas Cage's role in it, was just so beyond absurdly bad you just had to laugh about it all. I'd actually recommend seeing this, at least when it's out on DVD, just for the sheer "so bad it's good" factor.

Some general thoughts from the first show...... Like I said before, production was top notch for the most part. Just real slick and polished look all around for obvious reasons (HDNet). Crowd was a bit quiet for Philly standards, and I forgot half the time that they were working in the old ECW Arena due to the top production of the show. The new lead announcer was pretty annoying, came off like a hyper and totally green version of Jim Ross, but I guess could have been worse, but he's definately really bad. He doesn't know his moves at all, not even the most basic of things, I can say that much. He was starting to get the finishers, though. But they cover it up with Prazak helping alot. I remember hearing he was really the shits in post-production, so should be interesting to see how bad or good he gets. They also have a new backstage interviewer, Kyle Durden (is he an ROH regular at all? He didn't seem familiar to me) who isn't too bad, but time will tell there too. The new music, for the most part, wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be (I assumed we were going to hear some awful stock music that HDNet uses sometimes for the MMA shows and instead it sounded like legitimate songs), but it's going to take some getting used to. Each person's entrance music seemed to fit the gimmick they were doing at least. The initial "introduction" type promos they are having each guy cut before the matches make sense and worked for the most part too They did a really damn good video package talking about the inception/history of Ring of Honor, with tons of big moments and names from the past that have done shots, Flair, Punk, Foley, Joe, etc. As far as the work went, the Lynn/Delirious opener was solid, reminded me of the first Nitro match ever with Pillman/Liger in that it was clear it wasn't going to be an extremely long match at all, but competitive enough with some good spots in there. The next two matches after the opener were moreless glorified squash matches for the most part, with Kenny King and Albright going over. There was a definate purpose that the announcers were trying to get each guys' finishers over big time too. Pretty basic stuff though as far as the work went. They did a good job all during the hour in setting up and establishing the Black/Jacobs main event too, interviewing each guy seperately, and doing an extensive video package on the feud. Even the new old sports announcer guy seemed to be aware of the heat between Jacobs/Black, so the match felt like it was a big deal for sure by the time it happened to close the show, ppv calibur stuff and by this point, the new announcer actually even started to get better too. Went well into fifteen minutes total as well, very solid stuff. To end the show, they did a nice plug for the next ppv, which I was wondering when or if that was going to happen. This definately felt like a pro wrestling show with no frills, surprises, or bullshit......it was just what you would expect from ROH, I guess, just alot of focus on the in ring work and not much else. Was following a strict TV formula here, which is definately what seems to be staying until at least week six. Once the company establishes all the workers on the roster, then I will be looking to see how different the show will be booked from there, or if they will just stick to this style of presentation.

Did anyone watch this tonight? I'll post more thoughts later but the production was amazing, and overall a pretty damn solid first effort here.

Around what years are they doing now? I stopped watching when it seemed like I was seeing repeat airings constantly.

Regarding Swagger still not having a match and reports that an ECW title match might not even be on Mania at all, I really am thinking they will just re-do what they did last year and have a dark match battle royale before the ppv starts, and that winner will take on Swagger. I don't expect whoever that is to beat Swagger, but I still expect an ECW title match on the card. Considering how little they care about the title, I wouldn't even be surprised to see them not decide or announce this until the last ECW show before Mania (so the week after next). As far as the opponent, I'm hoping it's R-Truth, Bourne, or in some perverse way, Khali, but we'll see.

I can understand a ton of criticism towards the company for what they do, don't know, etc, but cmon, Foley/Sting a piece of shit match? It's one of the few gem ideas of a money making match they have left. Whether the match will be good or not is up to debate, but it's certainly a much better main event match than we have seen in TNA for many many months.

So it looks like the lineup is pretty much complete now after last night, and with the exception of maybe a question mark on a possible ECW title match of Swagger v. either Dreamer or Bourne that appears yet to take shape, I have to say this is an extremely underwhelming lineup on paper for a card, perhaps one of the bigger overall Mania card letdowns of all time. I only really have an interest in Michaels/Taker and thats it. I expected to be totally stacked, considering its the 25th Mania and everything.

The match was very average for what you would expect from those two, finish could have been alot more contrived or fucked up than it ended up being, but it was far from anything that was groundbreaking or even really good stuff to end the show. Very par for the course main event match and ending. Other than Ultimate X and a few very mediocre spots of solid work in Booker/Styles and Sting/Angle, this was pretty much a complete waste of time.

What was so strange (but yet not really the more I think about it) about it all was how so little the people responded to Cena in the skit. Like SNL was just expecting the audience to go apeshit once they zoomed in that it was Cena or something. Instead I think I heard one person react.

Why does there have to at least one match during every TNA ppv where they just HAVE to throw a guy into the apparent balsa wood staging wall at ringside with the posters covering it everytime? It's like ok already.