BoboBrazil

-The early reviews for Dutch Mantel's work in TNA have been overwhelmingly positive. "I like him," one wrestler says. "He knows what's he doing, that's obvious." Another wrestler echoed those comments: "I like Dutch. He knows what he's doing and he's trying to get them (TNA writers) to slow things down... Anyone who is familiar with his IWA booking knows there were a lot of layers to his booking and finishes, and he's trying to incorporate that in TNA." Wrestlers say Mantel was more involved at Wednesday's show backstage than he was last week. He met with wrestlers individually and let them know what he was looking for out of their matches." Although Mantell was backstage at the Sept. 24 TNA pay-per-view, the show was written by Jeff Jarrett, Vince Russo, and Glenn Gilberti. -There is some speculation that TNA agent Scott D'Amore's position is in jeopardy. The issue isn't D'Amore's work, which has received strong reviews, but rather that it is expensive to fly him in from Canada every week. -Vampiro has rubbed some TNA agents the wrong way by offering a few too many suggestions for his character. The focus of his storyline is on Raven and Sinister Minister, and the word in the locker room is that Vamp isn't content with being a supporting character. -There is some concern in the locker room over Shane Douglas's recent behavior. Wrestlers say he doesn't seem to be acting like himself, and has been spending a lot of time prior to the show sitting alone in his car in the parking lot.

Yeah, TNA needed shit booking like the heel World Heavyweight Champion playing second fiddle to his manager, didn't they? If TNA loses Russo and he goes back to WWE, then I guess we all would LOVE to see those awesome 3-minute main-events and Sable stripping like it's 1998 all over again, now don't we? Screw Benoit, screw Jericho, screw Guerrero, screw Angle, shock TV is where it's at! Apparently you haven't been watching WWE lately, but we are getting those things you mentioned now. Atleast Russo gave good entertaining storylines and had a purpose for everyone and he has always been the one to push the younger guys.

I think Russo will turn on AJ and help Jarrett win the belt. The beginning stages of it were set up last night.

I think Vince Russo has improved TNA's storylines too, but if he left he would probably go back to WWE and help them which would be the best for WWE and TNA. If Vince Russo stayed with WWE and they didn't remove him from power like the day after he came back when Steph and HHH didn't like his ideas they would probably be doing 5.0s now. TNA really doesn't need Russo now that they have Dutch Mantel.

Why will you be pissed if Russo is fired?

Dave reports in the new Observer that WWE creative has been told that HHH is to be considered "done until January". Dave says the plan is for him to only work sporadic, isolated shows, and that it appears that the plan for him to win the title back will be moved from Survivor Series to Royal Rumble. As Dave notes, though, any long-term planning is subject to change. -someone from a1wrestling's forum

Vince won't get rid of the biggest problem in his company, which is Steph as booker. She is going to be the downfall of that company.

So what will they try to bring up ratings? Incest? You know they are going to try something shocking.

-Jeff and Jerry Jarrett met with Hulk Hogan and Jimmy Hart in Tampa on 9/12. The meeting lasted 4 hours. Meltzer says he don't know if it came up, but Hogan would most likely force Russo out. He says one source very close to the negotiations said that Hogan doesn't have to demand anything regarding Russo, because it will end up that way whether he comes in or not. -Dutch Mantel is making twice what he did with IWA. This appears to be the final straw in Russo losing power, although as talent he was featured more prominently on the 9/17 show than he had been in several weeks. -The contract signing situation went very well. Almost everyone signed the deal, which gives them to TNA for basically two years(one year, and a 2nd year company option, although wrestlers say there 26 dates is also written in the contract elsewhere). Shane Douglas hasn't signed, but with a few changes the company expects him to immediately. Juventud Guerrera hasn't been offered a contract, but it is expected that he will. Chris Harris, Jerry Lynn, James Storm, and Raven were already under long term agreement, as was Styles and Styles has renewed for another year plus the option. Vampiro hasn't signed, but noone expects him to be around long term. Konnan hasn't signed a new deal, but his old one doesn't run out until February. He has had offers lately from WWE due to Rey Mysterio Jr. Those confirmed having signed are Mike Tenay, B.G. James, Ron Killings, D'lo Brown, Trinity, Erik Watts, Michael Shane, Chris Sabin, Frankie Kazarian, Chris Daniels, Simon Diamond, Johnny Swinger, Jim Mitchell, and Don Callis. -Teddy Hart is coming back due to the strong fan reaction. He wasn't brought in for the 9/17 show, because TNA is trying to work out a deal with him where Hart is stationed near Nashville for a few weeks at a time, so they don't have to pay transportation every week, plus they can book him to other promoters to help recoup some of the transfer costs they would have to pay to bring him in those times.

Molly is a virgin in real life.

EDIT: OOPS I meant the Torch. By Wade Keller and Jason Powell •The one-cent PPV is estimated within TNA to have drawn about 100,000 "buys" (if you want to classify $0.01 as a buy), which means the PPV gross revenue was about $1,000. Some cable companies never changed the pricing of the show, so there will be some $10 orders thrown in there. It's been such a short time since the PPV, though, that any estimate is at best a rough estimate from the handful of cable companies they contact themselves each week to get estimated numbers to track buyrates. They were encouraged before the one cent PPV that their in-house tracking indicating buyrates had been increasing for several weeks. There are no strong signs yet whether the last two weeks have indicated the one cent experiment paid off with another jump in buyrates. •The meeting between TNA officials and Hulk Hogan was on September 12 in Tampa, Fla. Hogan, Jimmy Hart, and Jeff and Jerry Jarrett were present. The hope is Hogan would get them a TV deal, which they still believe would be the best move for the long-term solvency of the company. Jerry Jarrett's optimism that wrestling fans and the TV industry were ready for a pay-per-view weekly series has soured, especially because the PPV distributor InDemand has been for the most part so unorganized and unsupportive despite early promises of the opposite. •The Panda Energy company really sees TNA as a long-term project worth investing in. The Panda reps who work with the Jarretts on a weekly basis have gotten really into the pro wrestling industry. They seem to enjoy learning about the industry and want to make the project work in the long-run. "They've really become big fans of wrestling," says one TNA wrestler. The signing of the core group of wrestlers to one-year guaranteed contracts further demonstrates Panda's desire to see this project through at least one more year. Most if not all the contracts have an option for a second year which allows management to either lock in anyone for another year or cut them loose without any obligation after the first year. That basically means if TNA stays in business, they can keep their top stars for two years before WWE will even have a chance at signing any of them, so no need to imagine what WWE might do with A.J. Styles, Raven, Michael Shane, Frankie Kazarian, Chris Sabin, Christopher Daniels, Simon Diamond, James Mitchell, or Chris Harris, among the other TNA regulars. Notebook: TNA remains such an attractive situation for wrestlers who signed the guaranteed deals because they still get to earn money on weekends, which are the biggest days for indy shows. Mid-week was always dead for indy shows, so those who are signed to TNA guarantees are still able to earn basically anything they would have otherwise. They are giving up WWE opportunity, but WWE could have signed any number of them in recent months if they really wanted them... Dutch Mantel was backstage at the Sept. 24 TNA PPV. He spent most of his time hanging out with Jerry and Jeff Jarrett, although he did make himself available to talk with the wrestlers... There has been some talk that one of the reasons Mantel was brought in is because Vince Russo doesn't want to sign a contract with Panda... Representatives from a trading card company were backstage taking photos of the wrestlers for a planned TNA series of cards. One of the representatives told the wrestlers the trading cards could be produced in as little as two weeks... Johnny Swinger had emergency appendectomy surgery, as TNA announcers reported during the pay-per-view. The word backstage was that the type of surgery Swinger opted for should only require a two week recovery period. However, if he has any complications and has to have another form of surgery, his recovery time could be substantial... TNA regulars Sonny Siaki & Elix Skipper teamed up against Mike Sanders & Alan Funk on Sept. 27 in Helsinki, Finland. Siaki landed on Funk's face and broke several bones including his jaw, eardrum, nose, and eye socket. He is hospitalized in Helsinki and won't be able to fly back to the U.S. for a while until his face heals. Also on the card, A.J. Styles beat Jonny Storm, Steve Corino beat Shane Douglas, and Kid Kash beat Shark Boy... Jerry Lynn hangs out with A.J. Styles backstage at TNA events... Although TNA officials haven't booked David Young in several weeks, he has been backstage almost every week in hopes of being booked. It paid off this time around, as TNA officials used him as a last minute replacement for Swinger... Sandman returns to TNA this week... Now that Raven and James Mitchell have made peace after the botched (yet visually marketable) hair shaving incident of two weeks ago, they are marketing the bloody shaving for all it's worth. On the Sept. 24 PPV, Mitchell asked Raven how it felt "to be the first man in the history of professional wrestling to be scalped on live TV"... On the Sept. 24 show, they set up the Oct. 1 show when A.J. Styles challenged Dusty Rhodes to a match for the NWA World Title. Vince Russo jumped in and told Styles that wasn't a good idea, and set up a tag match instead with Styles & Russo vs. Dusty & Jeff Jarrett... They announced on the Sept. 24 PPV that he chose Russo over Piper and banned Piper from the Asylum (Nashville Fairgrounds) for life. Earlier in the show they finally attempted to differentiate between the power Erik Watts has and the power Don Callis has. Callis said Watts is in charge of what happens in the ring and he is in charge of what happens outside the ring... 3 Live Krew opened the Sept. 24 PPV with a live performance of a rap song. Glenn Gilberti, Simon Diamond, and David Young interrupted the performance... In part one of the sitdown interview with Roddy Piper, he said TNA is a rocket ship ready to take off and his ego makes him want to be a big part of it. The segment was heavily spliced in an apparent attempt to make sense of what Piper said. He said he attended the meeting with NWA and TNA officials where the decision was made to fire him and "go with Russo"... Because Ted Hart, who was so impressive on the X Tournament PPV several weeks back, lives in Calgary, there are no definite plans to bring him back. Travel expenses are just too great for TNA's budget relative to what they think Hart would do to boost business. Management likes him and are trying to get him to fly in for three PPV shows at once, where he would stay in the Nashville area for 15 days and work some indy dates between (with the indy promoters sharing in the travel expenses). Jerry Jarrett's savvy thriftiness/efficiency with money is still present. It's not as if he treats Panda's money as "mark money" like many other promoters have done with financial backers over the years. Jerry wants this business to succeed for a number of reasons, the main one being he'd take pride in helping to set his son Jeff up as one of the major promoters in the country... Terry Funk and C.M. Punk were both considered as the mystery man who unmasked after the hair match between Raven and Shane Douglas, so Vampiro was not the long-term plan... Norman Smiley is no longer with TNA because his pay was being cut nearly in half... TNA is now offering cable companies a 30 minute pregame countdown show on Wednesday nights starting this week, although not all cable companies are carrying it at first. They are also going to be available on InDemand's high-definition PPV channel, so those with a high-def TVs can take advantage of the better picture... Comcast cable will be offering a video highlight show through its Video On-Demand channel each month in Baltimore, Md.; Richmond, Va.; Boston, Mass.; Harrisburg, Pa.; New Jersey; Philadelphia; Detroit; Indianapolis; Atlanta; Charleston, W.Va.; Huntsville, Ala.; Mobile, Ala.; and Savannah, Ga. with more markets to be added soon. It's nice for internet reading wrestling fans who know about TNA to be able to become familiar with the wrestlers before ordering, but most potential customers aren't going to just happen to flip past the show and see it nor are most people going to become aware of the show through any cross marketing during other shows unless TNA or InDemand buys the ad time... DirecTV's sports channel package will include a TNA Xplosion broadcast soon, so it will have the same type of national clearance and exposure as MLW... Rick Santel from the black shirted security team separated his shoulder during the Sept. 24 PPV match...

http://nwatna.com/2003/09/30/xplosion.shtml NASHVILLE, TN – NWA-TNA: Total Nonstop Action Wrestling is pleased to announce five new television outlets in support of its weekly 2-hour pay-per-view on iN DEMAND, DirecTV, TVN, Viewers Choice and Bell ExpressVu. Xplosion, TNA’s weekly one-hour syndicated series, will reach approximately 40 million households by the end of the year providing viewers a recap of each Wednesday’s live PPV telecast, first run matches never seen before and a look at the action scheduled for the upcoming TNA PPV. “In addition to the 70 markets Xplosion is currently seen in, we are very pleased to announce the addition of these 5 new outlets to showcase our brand and wrestling talent, said Frank Romano, Chief Operating Officer, TNA Entertainment. “TNA’s momentum continues to grow each week. Expect more exciting announcements in the near future.” Xplosion will debut on Rainbow Media’s Metro TV on Saturday, October 4th. Metro TV is seen in more than 4.4 million homes in the New York Metropolitan area (including Long Island, Northern New Jersey and Southern Connecticut) on Time Warner Cable (Ch. 70) and Cablevision (Ch. 60). Xplosion will air weekly on Saturdays at 5pm ET on Metro TV. TNA Xplosion will also debut on Empire Sports Network beginning October 5th. In its 12th year of providing the best national and regional coverage, Empire Sports Network is available to a total universe of more than five million households via cable systems throughout Upstate New York and Northern Pennsylvania and through DirecTV (Ch. 626) and Dish Network (Ch. 432) home satellite systems. Xplosion will premiere weekly on Empire Sports Network on Sundays at 10pm ET and be re-broadcast Tuesday at 12am and 2pm ET on Tuesday afternoon. IN HD, the new 24/7 high-definition linear television network from iN DEMAND, has added TNA Xplosion to its lineup as well. TNA is the first professional wrestling program to be offered in high-definition on IN HD. Check your local cable listings for the multiple show times each week. Additionally, TNA Wrestling will debut a free 30-minute pre-show prior to each of its live Wednesday night Pay-Per-View telecasts on iN DEMAND event Channel 1, beginning October 1. In participating markets, wrestling fans will be able to tune in to their Pay-Per-View channel and see highlights of the previous week’s show, as well as learn more about the upcoming episode of TNA Wrestling that they are about to view. The show is expected to debut in 12 million households on October 1, and be in 25 million homes by the end of 2003. TNA has also partnered with Comcast, the nation’s largest cable television provider, becoming the only wrestling programming to supply Video-On-Demand content to more than 2 million households. Starting in October, TNA Wrestling will have a program made available free to all of Comcast’s VOD customers. Every month, a new program will debut, allowing wrestling fans the opportunity to sample TNA’s exciting wrestling product with the convenience of Comcast On Demand. NWA-TNA: Total Nonstop Action Wrestling is the first-ever weekly wrestling pay-per-view series. Xplosion is a one-hour syndicated show that recaps the intense action of each Wednesday’s live pay-per-view broadcast, features first-run matches, and provides sneak previews to the following Wednesday’s PPV. With less talk and more in-ring action, TNA Wrestling has quickly gained recognition as the clear alternative for today’s wrestling enthusiast.

By Jeremy Borash FROM THE INSIDE with Jeremy Borash Greetings once again and hello from Nashville... I've been under the weather for a while now, and can't seem to shake this endless end-of-summer cold. I'm going to try and get some rest this weekend but that hasn't seemed to work either. Maybe I should try immersing myself in Nyquil instead of just simply consuming it. Some big news on the business side of TNA, as you can expect the announcement of a video game deal soon from TNA, as well as our launching of TNA in high-def TV and our PPV pre-show this week. As far as the PPV pre-show that starts this Wednesday, it should be noted that not every market will be carrying it from the onset. With time, we expect full marketplace clearance, but it will be a gradual process to get everyone on board. The premiere broadcast will be seen in at least half of the iN Demand households nationwide. This is the equivalent of TNA getting a free national TV time slot for to promote our PPV broadcasts. Please take the time to check it out. The show begins at 7:30 pm EST on the same channel our PPV airs on. Check your local listings for the exact channel in your market. On this week’s PPV countdown show, you will see AMW and Abyss in action, as well as the history building up this week’s matches and exclusive PPV footage. It is a packed show to get you ready to go live on PPV. October will be the biggest month for television clearance in TNA history, as Xplosion has gained some very large markets that launch in the month of October. Let’s run them down… Starting October 1st you can see a new TNA feature each month for free on all Comcast Video On Demand cable systems across the country. This is an exclusive video feature with tons of X-Division footage, a bikini shoot with Trinity, an unbelievable highlight reel of AJ Styles, a feature on Jeff Jarrett, and much more. You can see this show if you have Comcast Digital Cable with VOD. This free TNA Video On-Demand programming will be available on Comcast systems in these markets… Baltimore, MD Richmond, VA Boston, MA Harrisburg, PA All of New Jersey Philadelphia Detroit Indianapolis Atlanta Charleston, WV Huntsville, AL Mobile, AL Savannah, GA And coming soon to Hartford/New Haven, CT Albuquerque, NM Denver, CO Portland, OR Seattle, WA Jacksonville, FL Knoxville, TN Nashville, TN Los Angeles, CA Sacramento, CA In even bigger news, TNA Xplosion has now gained clearance in October on the popular DirecTV Sports Package. So the many of you who have been e-mailing us on that will finally have your wishes come true. Expect a formal announcement this next week. Expect an announcement about 100% total cable TV clearance in New York City and Long Island of TNA Xplosion, as well as Upstate NY and Northern PA starting October 4th. These things are happening so fast, keep checking back to NWATNA.com for the latest info on where you can see TNA in your area. We’ve received some early feedback from those of you with iN Demand’s new HD channel, raving about how cool it is to see wrestling in HD. TNA is the first and only wrestling company to offer our show in high-def. The picture and clarity are unreal. It is like looking through a window. If you have the capability, you have to check it out. You can see TNA Xplosion every Tuesday night in high-def only on iN HD. This Wednesday night will see the team of AJ Styles and Vince Russo against the American Dream Dusty Rhodes and Jeff Jarrett. This one should be fun. Also announced on the PPV will be Kid Kash & Abyss vs. AMW (look for that one to steal the show), as well as the PPV debut of Ekmo Fatu, as he teams with Sonny Siaki to take on Shark Boy and Mad Mikey. Jerry Lynn will attempt to make it three times as the X-Division champion as he challenges Michael Shane. Rick Santel from the black shirt security team separated his shoulder during their match, and is expected to be out for a while. The Sandman will be returning this Wednesday night to TNA. TNA officials sat next to Donna Summer on a flight back from NY on Friday. Apparently the soul diva has gone from "hot stuff" to "hot fudge," as she has not aged gracefully in the waistline. While editing TNA Xplosion for this weekend, a guy walked into the studio during the Trinity spanking segment and made the comment that one "could bounce a quarter off that ass." While I agree in terms of paying a well-deserved compliment to Trinity, I question the actual statement itself. While I realize the derivative of "bouncing a quarter" comes from a popular drinking game, truth be told, if you threw it hard enough you can bounce a quarter off anyone's ass. Just an observation. TNA’s success draws a lot on word of mouth advertising. Fans all over the country have been doing their civil duty to spread the word on our program. Grassroots marketing, baby. You too can do your part to spread the word. Show us your TNA! If you do… let me know about it and we’ll try and get it up in our column… this week’s winner is Sean Broski from Cleveland, Ohio who sent us a picture of his NWA TNA he entered in a big smash up derby contest. Sure, it is not NASCAR… but we got a kick out of it in the office… On a final note....congratulations to Christopher Daniels on the birth of his daughter this morning! Jeremy Borash

At first the layout doesn't look much different, but things are layed out much better. I can look at the top of news and updates and see if anything is new now. The site now is too cluttered. Plus, it looks like they are adding a forum or chat, so that will be nice. Maybe the wrestlers will chat on it.

Jimmy Yang has signed to terms with WWE. I am pretty sure it was a developmental deal. Yang worked the WWE taping on September 1 against Tommy Dreamer in a bout that aired on the 9/7 edition of Heat. Apparently, he made a good impression on the company. 1wrestling.com

I watched an OVW show yesterday and he can actually cut a pretty good promo.

I like the bounty angle. Someone must have been watching MLW this week and saw them doing the bounty angle and decided to copy it.

Jericho uses roids too. I'd say about 95% of the roster does. The only people who don't are probably Tommy Dreamer, Spike Dudley, and Lance Storm.

Hogan has no problem with Jeff Jarrett. The whole thing where he laid down for Hogan was planned out. The only thing that wasn't supposed to happen(and why Hogan got mad) was Russo's shoot comments afterwards.

Hogan would help them as long as he doesn't have creative control or force them to take his buddies.

Raw is better to me. I watch it every week and don't watch Smackdown usually. Smackdown puts on better matches, but something attracts me to Raw. Maybe because it is live.

This rating is misleading, because that was the show where they had the Billy and Chuck wedding with all the mainstream publicity that bumped up it's rating alot.

Shane and Marissa are expecting a baby early next year.

--Dutch Mantel was introduced to everyone, and not in a major way, at last night's TNA show. He will be a booker, but not the booker. He was mostly familiarizing himself with the product and the various wrestlers. Although there were a few things, such as the show ending brawl, very reminiscent of IWA TV, I was told he had very little if anything to do with last night's product. -Ray Traylor was at NWA:TNA last night backstage. wrestlingobserver.com As I said in the other thread Dutch didn't have anything to do with last night's show. Next week should see his influence. As for Bossman noooooooooooooooooooooo.

They got his name wrong. It is Dave Lagana and it doesn't list that he worked on friends.