BoboBrazil

$10 says Mordecai is Seven from OVW who recently died his hair extremely bleach blonde to the point it is almost white.

I wonder what their criteria is for choosing guys. This could be really great for TNA if they can last long enough to reap the benefits. Having a pool of homegrown talent ready to come up on call like WWE has would be really nice. Oh yeah and I can't wait to see this footage.

Ok, I've been watching the 12/27 show where they have the All Japan vs ROH matches and the production values for this seem much better than the shows I've seen in the past with footage from as recently as from October. Do all shows now have the same kind of camera work that the 12/27 show has or did they go back to the crap handicams?

According to the new torch the idea was Nick Dinsmore's since creative couldn't come up with anything. WWE is running with it and will let crowd reaction decide whether it will live or die.

World Wrestling Entertainment will be reviving an old WCW tradition this June as their Sunday 6/27 PPV will be titled "The Great American Bash." The Bash will take place in Norfolk, Virgina and will be based around patriotic themes. Norfolk is the home of the largest naval base in the world. Promotional photos of Torrie Wilson dressed as Uncle Sam will be used to market the event as well. WWE also plans to announce they will allow members of the military to view the PPV for free as well. The Great American Bash was a series of summer events promoted by Jim Crockett Promotions in the late 1980s. The Baltimore, Maryland stop of the July 1988 Great American Bash was aired live on PPV, headlined by NWA champion Ric Flair defeating Lex Luger when the match was "stopped" due to Luger's bleeding by the State Athletic Commission. That show was the first NWA event that was available nationally through all cable systems on PPV. The Baltimore Bash became an annual NWA/WCW PPV fixture and the name was used regularly by the NWA and later WCW until 2000. The 6/27 Bash show is one of two additional PPVs WWE is adding to their roster this year. The second is PPV scheduled for Tuesday 10/19, although no name has been announced for the show. pwinsider.com

There will be no game deal. There is way too little interest for any serious company to consider it. -=Mike Uhh the video game company was just backstage again a few weeks ago. They obviously have some interest or they wouldn't keep coming to the tapings.

The shows have been on an upward swing since Russo came back. Many of these shows that aren't worth $10 would be considered great on free tv in building to a ppv. The cable companies and TNA itself will be able to focus its energies on one big ppv a month and advertise it. Oh and TNA has the rights to AJ until August 2005 or somewhere around there. He signed a 1 year deal with an option for a 2nd if TNA chooses to keep him. There is nothing to renegotiate. TNA has him if they want him for the same deal as he currently has.

I saw some matches from October 2003 and the production values were still shit. Maybe they should just keep the ring lit up and the crowd dark like on the 12/27 show...

Yeah TNA needs DVD distribution and ROH has better merchandise. Those two things are true. Nashville is just a shit town for wrestling though so I don't blame attendance on TNA. Things should improve once they start having their ppvs in different cities every month. I don't know if Universal Studios will be an improvement over Nashville or not for their weekly show though, although they should be getting fresh people in to their shows every week thanks to tourism.

It all depends on how well TNA sells the advertising time for their shows on FSN. Ratings don't mean much. I'd expect FSN would be pretty much happy with a .5 I don't think anything on there goes above that, but that is just a guess. With TNA the future just looks brighter. ROH are happy making all their money off of tape sales and don't care to expand. TNA is making deals happen like the trading cards, videogame deal which will probably be announced at e3, and more. As long as they can keep the tv deal and make about get about 15,000-20,000 buys for their monthly ppv TNA should be able to succeed in the long haul. They just need to keep from making stupid decisions, which TNA have had their fair share of, although they seem to be getting smarter lately.

I must say 3,200 a month isn't bad plus he can still work all other indys except ROH. Plus the wrestlers recently got around a 1,000 bonus for doing the trading card set. As I said before I don't see why any wrestler would choose ROH over TNA except if they are someone like a bit player like CM Punk. TNA is about to have the chance to explode nationally and have the chance to make so much money. No way would I leave now to go work for ROH. The only problem with this whole TNA/ROH deal is when ROH discovers someone else and TNA wants to use them, what will happen? I guess with the TNA wrestling school opening this week they will just get all their guys from there in the future. They can't bring in someone for a tryout match if they are working for ROH under these new rules I guess.

How much does ROH pay him? I think he makes like 1,000 or 1,500 per week for TNA.

I doubt TNA pays AJ less than ROH. AJ can easily find another booking for the 1 or 2 dates a month ROH runs. The same can't be said for 3(about to be 4 again) week day bookings that TNA offers, which will soon be 5 if they do a monthly ppv and 4 fsn shows. The chance to make money is soo much greater in TNA. I think almost any wrestler would have to be an idiot to choose ROH over TNA, unless it is someone in a bit role like CM Punk that TNA never uses.

-People close to the negotiations say TNA was going to try and hammer out the deal this past week, which would also include them hiring a New York agency to sell ad time. Terms of the deal are unknown, and being close to a deal when it means television means nothing until it is signed. They are talking about doing a 1 hour show that would be taped in Florida most likely. Those in TNA are hopeful for it to start in June. After meetings all day on 4/1, they flew to Las Vegas to meet with Dana White of UFC. According to Dana White they told him they had a tv deal and made a proposal for the two companies to cross promote. The Jarretts praised White for what he has done for UFC in 3 years. He said he had no problem with them using Ken Shamrock while he is under UFC contract, but he thinks they shouldn't cross promote with pro-wrestling for fear it would hurt their credibility. Dave is under the impression that the tv deal will be TNA buying the air time and getting to sell the ad time or something along those lines. Jimmy Hart helped hook TNA up with FOX in a knows somebody who knows somebody kinda way. He can't reappear on TNA until mid April, because he signed a contract to be on the Wrestlemania dvd.

Here is what they wanted the guy to sign: STATEMENT REGARDING RING OF HONOR OWNERSHIP I, ___________, a resident of ____________ do hereby swear and affirm the following: I am currently involved with Ring of Honor as a silent investor and am familiar with all aspects of Ring of Honor operations Rob Feinstein is no longer associated with Ring of Honor in any capacity and has sold all of his ownership interest in the company. I have assurances from current Ring of Honor ownership that Rob Feinstein is not involved now and will not be involved in the future in any capacity with the company. I am aware TNA has been approached by cable industry officials who are concerned that TNA talent is appearing on shows associated with Rob Feinstein, and that TNA could be damaged if the information provided to those cable industry officials is not accurate. I agree that should the information in this statement not be true that I will be personally liable for any damages TNA Entertainment may suffer related to TNA contracted talent appearing on Ring of Honor events should Feinstein still be involved with Ring of Honor in any capacity. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TNA had several conversations with the investor urging him to sign the agreement but he refused. On Thursday night, TNA offered to soften the wording of the third bullet point to read "I have assurances from current Ring of Honor ownership that there are no plans at this time for Rob Feinstein to be involved in the future in any capacity with the company". The investor still refused to sign. TNA made every effort to resolve the issue and did not make unreasonable demands. TNA remains hopeful that the situation can be resolved so TNA contracted talent can appear on upcoming Ring of Honor events. The only thing preventing them from appearing on Ring of Honor shows at this time is the refusal of Ring of Honor's silent investor to sign the agreement that guarantees Rob Feinstein is not involved with the company. Bob Ryder is Director of Administration & Talent Relations for TNA Entertainment, and co-owner of 1Wrestling.com

ECW was too stupid financially. TNA runs a much tighter operation. They occasionally splurge on something, but not usually.

Daniels got sort of a main event push last year, but the crowd didn't respond that well to it in the asylum. If I was any wrestler I'd take TNA any day over ROH. TNA is about to get on national tv and has the chance to explode in a big way. ROH is successful on a small scale, but seems content in just making money off tape sales and not expanding. The chance to make money is much greater in TNA.

"NWA:TNA's decision to pull all of their contracted talent from upcoming dates with Ring of Honor was made after ROH's investor Cary Silkes was advised by his attorney not to sign a document that would hold him personally financially responsible for any possible damages incurred to NWA:TNA if Rob Feinstein was found to remain owner of ROH. ROH President Doug Gentry signed the exact same document a few days back. The two sides remain amicable and continue discussions. A source in TNA considered the situation "defused" after Gentry signed the document. " TNA only wanted ROH financially responsible for any damages caused if it was found that Rob Feinstein was still with the company. This guy wouldn't sign it. This isn't TNA's fault.

·Although no announcement has been made and the story has not been verified, several TNA wrestlers are under the impression that the deal with Fox Sports Network is complete. The most common belief is that the show will air on Sunday nights, and that the company will drop the Wednesday pay-per-views in favor of monthly Sunday night PPV events. There is a lot of talk that the deal TNA is negotiating with Fox Sports is essentially a 13-week trial period that the network could choose to opt out of if the ratings aren't decent. The first show could air sometime in June. One source says some TNA office officials are outright saying, "Once we get on Fox Sports Net..." when discussing future plans, which makes the wrestler believe that it's a matter of when, not if. Some TNA office workers and wrestlers are hoping that the FSN deal will lead to some major changes in how the show is booked. The feeling is that because the show will be tracked by the Neilsen ratings system, management will finally see which wrestlers are the most over and which wrestlers are not. ·The good feelings the wrestlers had coming out of the March 17 show disappeared by the time the March 24 show concluded. The wrestlers left the March 17 show feeling as if some major philosophical changes had been made to the creative direction. After all, Vince Russo is back (some say he's returned to writing the shows under Jeff Jarrett's supervision), and the show put Chris Harris, Ron Killings, Raven, A.J. Styles, and Abyss in the NWA Title picture. This made the wrestlers feel like management was finally going to start elevating the right people and begin paying more attention to the undercard storylines so that other stars could be created. However, by the end of the March 24 show, several wrestlers were of the opinion that the only reason several wrestlers were moved into the NWA Title picture was because it was beneficial to Jarrett's on-air role. Wrestlers say they are pleased that Jarrett isn't dominating so much of the show, but they still believe his main concern as booker is what his character is doing. ·Glenn Gilberti and Scott D'Amore have been removed from the booking team in recent weeks. The main creative team members these days are Jeff Jarrett, Dutch Mantel, and Vince Russo. Bob Ryder and Jeremy Borash also sit in on the meetings from time to time. Although some TNA sources believe Russo is writing the shows again, they do not believe he has much power. Jarrett still has the final say on all booking matters, and seems to be deferring to Mantel more than Russo these days. ·Jonny Fairplay (real name Jon Dalton of Survivor fame) hasn't been booked in TNA since telling management he was not happy with his push the night they sat him and his real life girlfriend from Star magazine in the crowd. It doesn't sound like there's much tension between the two sides, as management is conceding the fact that they did not book Fairplay well from the very beginning. The latest plan is to sit Fairplay at home for a bit and then bring him back with a big push. Fairplay has told wrestlers that his TNA contract gives him creative control over his character, which he felt gave him the right to voice his frustrations to management. However, it's unknown whether Fairplay's contract is guaranteed in terms of him being paid even when he does not appear on shows. If he isn't on a guaranteed deal, the creative control clause in the contract would only get him so far, as TNA officials could simply sit him at home if he protests the way he is booked. ·NWA-TNA Notebook: Jimmy Hart was backstage at the TNA show last week and is said to be helping TNA broker the deal with Fox Sports Network... AAA promoter Antonio Pena was also in attendance at the show along with the Team AAA wrestlers who will appear on next week's pre-taped X Cup show... The wrestlers were given their first looks at the new TNA trading cards at the pay-per-view. A representative from the company that produced the cards was backstage showing the wrestlers the first series of cards on Wednesday... Johnny Swinger's absence from the March 24 show led to a large part of the tag team tournament being re-written. Swinger gave the company as much notice as he could by calling them the night before the show to inform them that his wife was giving birth about two weeks sooner than her doctor had projected... Jonny Fairplay and Raven were guests at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles for Hugh Hefner's birthday party on Apr. 3. Torrie Wilson and Stacy Keibler from WWE were also on hand... Sources say UFC fighter Tito Ortiz isn't interested in working a full-time WWE schedule, but may be intrigued by the thought of working a TNA schedule if the price is right. Ortiz is a big wrestling fan who has attended several WWE shows over the years... Some wrestlers were chuckling at C.M. Punk showing up at the March 24 show wearing a Zero-One t-shirt. Punk was presumably at the show to apologize for his part of the fight with Teddy Hart. Punk isn't the first wrestler to wear another promotion's t-shirt at a TNA event, but sources felt it probably wasn't the best move given his heat for putting over Ring of Honor as the best promotion in the country on his website. Punk not only rubbed some of the wrestlers the wrong way while backstage at the March 31 show, but now even some in TNA management are complaining about his antics. Punk was at the show with Gabe Sapolsky of Ring of Honor, but was not invited to take part in the meeting among Sapolsky and TNA officials. Several sources report that he was moping backstage and did not go out of his way to apologize for his past behavior at TNA events... Yes, that was Goldylocks wearing a black wig and speaking with a British accent while in Abyss's hideout on last week's PPV. It looks like TNA officials are giving her a new gimmick... Wrestlers say that while the UK wrestlers may not have looked like much from a cosmetic standpoint, they were polished in the ring and produced some solid matches with the AAA crew. The matches will air on the Apr. 7 TNA show... Bob Ryder worked the gorilla position for the Mar. 31 event. Jerry Jarrett usually handles those duties. Jarrett was at the show, but may have been playing host to Antonio Pena, Jimmy Hart, and Gabe Sapolsky... Sabu has been telling friends that he is not happy with the way he's being used in TNA. Sabu requested that the company add James Mitchell to his act as a manager, but Mitchell isn't expected to return to television this month... TNA's Abyss is scheduled to work a show for Carlos Colon's World Wrestling Council in Puerto Rico as part of the talent exchange between the two promotions. Abyss has worked for the IWA, the promotion that Dutch Mantel once booked in direct competition with WWC... Kid Kash has plenty of heat with the office these days. Even wrestlers who like Kash are saying his complaining is getting out of hand. "I like him," said one wrestler, "but he bitches about everything and acts like a smart ass all the time. Where is he going to go if he gets fired by TNA?" WWE sources have said several times over the last few years that Kash's locker room reputation is the only thing keeping him out of the company. In other words, the odds of WWE offering Kash a deal if he's fired by TNA for being a locker room problem are very slim. Kash has major league talent and a smooth run with TNA might have opened some WWE doors for him...

TNA management is putting a lot of work into the upcoming two-year anniversary in June. In addition to an anniversary show, TNA is apparently going all-out to make the entire month of June extra special for the fans, including title matches and special guest appearances. We hope to have more news on the website in the upcoming weeks. -bill banks

--There is a segment on tonight's Smackdown show that starts like a commercial for a Reality TV show with motocross stunts and the like. Then, at the end, it reads, "I Am Still Alive." It's a video for a new character they are bringing in, or at least appeared to be. wrestlingobserver.com

Ok now it is to almost 300 less than a minute later. Now I am just scared

Damn like 70 views in 2 minutes The people love Jeff Hardy

I need to get started this. I know hu is about to die out in a few months so I don't need any warnings about that.

They paid Luger 5,000 for his first appearance and 2,500 for this last one.