The Dames

It definitely wasn't overblown. It was quite possibly the weirdest pop I've ever heard because it was....delayed. He dropped the name...the crowd kinda gasped for a sec, collectively...and then there was a slow, building pop that rivaled everyone else who was there that night, including the Rock & Flair. Very, very surreal. Dames

The blown spot at the end isn't the spot that bothers me in the context of that match. Especially at the time, with kayfabe strong, this stands out to me. There's a moment where Race is on offense and Flair is in the corner and Kiniski tries to get Race off by holding his arms back, essentially giving Flair a free hit and looking extremely partisan. I'm surprised people didn't have a fit for that back then. Dames

PWNED!!! As if there was going to be any doubt. I didn't send him the video...it was on his page and I emailed him to let him know that's not a legit video, that's raw footage from the movie Never Back Down. Where did you guys see that I contributed this video?? Dames

Keep in mind that pretty much all of the stuff with Laurie being his sister and SAMHAIN and junk was in part 2, which John Carpenter himself described as a movie he wrote while he drank a six pack and tried to fight through the writers block. If you take part one and examine it as a film by itself, Myers has no motivation or logic for most of his killings. If anything, the only "logical" move he made was go back to his original home, which is how Dr. Loomis followed him. Halloween on Blu-ray looks fucking GREAT btw. I double dipped on it and it was worth it. Dames

That's a great fucking idea, never heard of it until now. I have heard of the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin, Texas but not actual theaters that have plush seating and personal food service to your seat. Minnesota needs some of these, stat! They actually have a pretty good food selection, not just popcorn, but Nathans hot dogs, fries, chicken fingers, pizza, etc. The waiter told us how they're gonna build a Lux theater where they charge 20 a ticket, but it includes valet parking and someone to clean your car if its raining or snowing out and instead of leather seats, its reclining sofas. Even though I'm not a fan (Yankees fan, of course), one of the cooler things they do at one of the theaters here is they show Red Sox games at the theater as well. Dames

The "directors hall" is a gimmick some theaters use to charge a bit more. Basically, the film is shown in DLP, but you get leather seats and a "waiter" who will bring you food to your seat. It's actually pretty cool. Dames

I love the fact that the ECW Champion is no longer in ECW is treated as an afterthought in the first paragraph. Dames

Considering how long your gimmick in WWE lasted, do you still get recognized often by fans and/or are you surprised by their reactions or lack their of? Have any other organizations asked for your services in recent years? Dames

To be fair, you probably watched YAMMA before TNA and therefore TNA seemed like ice cream sundae in a waffle bowl in comparison. You mean an ice cream sundae in a waffle bowl with an outer lip to prevent BORING CLINCHING...which led to even more boring Lay & Pray! I lost my point somewhere in there, but yeah, if you thought Lockdown sucked, check out Yamma. I dare you. I fucking DARE you. Dames

What they should do is at the very least, give Raesha Saeed just a mask covering her face if they want her to wrestle in this gimmick. She's a great worker, but it was clear that her outfit was causing her some trouble, including botching a submission hold because it got caught in her loose clothing. The fact that she's even under a mask is mind boggling by itself, but this IS TNA. Dames

As someone who watched a SHITLOAD of MMA today, ranging from WEC, UFC, Yamma & some of the original UFC's, I actually really enjoyed the main event today. Even though the crowd probably didn't get a lot of the MMA stuff that they were doing, it was actually worked closer to an MMA fight from the late 90's than one of today with the shitty transitions and such. I don't think it would have been believable if these two guys pulled off the MMA moves crisply and smoothly since that's not how MMA is. To me, it seems that almost every move was worked for and came across as believable as they can in a worked match, so I have no complaints. Frank Trigg needs a permanent spot at the announce table now. Dames

I'm definitely going to add my two cents into this but for now, as an added shill, my reviews for pretty much every week of the TNA weekly PPV's are still up in the TSM Archives at the bottom of the forums. Not that I'm looking for hits or anything like that, but it can at least give you a sense of what was going on during that time if you don't really remember. Many people have told me that it was my reviews that got people to visit TSM so...take a look. Dames

Not to stray off topic, but in response to the above post...which set of Tag titles are actually more valued at this point? The Raw WWE Tag Titles with Cody Rhodes & Hardcore Holly or the Smackdown/ECW tag straps with Miz and Morrison? I've felt that the latter have been given more air time and a push and therefore, mean more, but since its SD/ECW, does anyone care? Dames

Man, I was pissed there was no Stone Cold Shark Austin at the last TNA taping. No, seriously. I was on the fuckin line for merch when Curry Man came out, so I missed the two things I wanted to see the most. Hell, there was no Machismo and you wouldn't have known there was an Xscape the cage match at Lockdown at all based on the build. Yes, out of all the things in TNA, I wanted to see Curry Man and Sharky. Dames

At the Impact Zone, they still bribe the fans to cheer. They give away free shit and tell the audience that the loudest fans get to go to the back and meet the wrestlers. So you can't tell who's really over in Orlando. Most of the fans don't know most of the wrestlers anyway. Dames

I've been giving as many details as I can about my trip but I figured id make it a centralized topic for those curious. I attended ROH friday, TNA saturday afternoon, Hall of Fame, Mania and Raw. Ask away. If the topic needs to be moved, I understand. Dames

...and also, the way it worked was in order to get to the Citrus Bowl, unless you took a cab, most people took free shuttle buses from the Amway Arena to Citrus. On my bus...with no one saying anything to him, was Teddy Hart. And a camera man following him around and doing some sort of a documentary but NO ONE CARED. Dames

The highlight of the year by far was Starrcade 1995. That was the first WCW PPV where I realized how strong WCW's workers were compared to WWF's at the time. Dames

Seeing Jericho use the Codebreaker with the ladder at Mania was cool, but theoretically, shouldn't that shatter his knee caps? Dames

Also, before I forget, at HOF, Flair made it a point to name and thank all of the agents/producers and included Jamie Noble. All of a sudden, everyone started looking at each other and going "Holy shit, Jamie Noble's an agent!?" Dames

It's funny, before Mania 20, no main events had ever ended via submission. Now, in the last 5 Mania's, the only one that didn't was 21. Dames

As for how close I was to the ring for Mania, there was a big screw up on WWE's part for many who arrived, myself included, who bought seats that ended up being completely obstructed by the metal pillars holding up the stage. To say that people were complaining was an understatement. Luckily, I was one of the first people to complain about the TOTALLY OBSTRUCTED view and made enough of a stink to get upgraded to front row on the floor before the battle royale started, but it was a section behind the take home seats that was created specifically to appease those who were pissed. Still, an awesome view and as the night went on, that section kept getting filled with people who said something. I felt REALLY bad for this woman who waited up until Batista/Umaga to finally speak up and she was in tears with her whole family demanding her money back and talked about how she flew so far and it was a disappointing experience so far and they put her in our section. Personally, I think she should have spoken up the moment she got there, but I think many people were just under the assumption that the place was sold out and there was nothing they could do. I was close enough to see the ring clearly, but whenever people stood up (which is what happens when most people anticipate a high spot), I'd have to look at the screens to make sure I caught it all. So, yeah, I got the same view as you for HBK's moonsaults. I didn't really meet any WWE guys, but I did get to see AJ Styles, Kaz, So Cal Val, Salinas, Lance Hoyt & Earl Hebner walking around at Universal Studios. AJ & Kaz were just trying to get back to the sound stage and it seemed like they were getting stopped every 6 inches until 45 mins later they stopped taking pics. Still, I'd say that they were more than nice enough to accomodate everyone they could. So Cal Val and Salinas were hangin out and had food in their hands and after taking one or two pics with some young fans (including some in wheelchairs), they cut it short. I feel bad asking for pics and stuff when I know that they just want to eat their food before it gets cold. Lance Hoyt didn't want to stop for pics but would be willing to take one if you walked with him. Earl was more than glad to take pics until he started getting You Screwed Bret chants and then he left. There were tons of cool moments at Mania, too many to list right now, but Flair/Michaels was definitely the highlight for me and Orton winning was a close section because I got to yell at everyone in my section who was heated that I was wearing a Legend Killer shirt and telling me there's no way he wins. My girl and I went as Rated RKO, she wore her Edge shirt. To give you a better indication of how absolutely stupid TNA can be sometimes, you've got about 75000 people coming into town for Mania and the whole point of running shows this weekend was to get more exposure for your product to new fans, right? Well, after standing in line for HOURS to get into the taping, they first let in about 700 people who were considered VIP's (family and friends) and probably only about 200 real fans who stood there for hours, turning away about 1000 to 2000 people. Then, I found out later that these "VIP's" were just people who signed up to be a VIP on Myspace. Which basically means, they're all familiar with the product already. Completely mind boggling and turned off a lot of people on the line who waited in the hot blazing sun for nothing. One of the things that bothered me the most this weekend was during the Hall of Fame, the LCD's at the top of the arena actually read "Applause" and "Standing Ovation", which thankfully, they only used once, during Rocky Johnson's speech. However, I felt it was almost disrespectful to have to tell us who and when people deserve a standing O. As for Cryme Tyme, they telegraphed their return by having their new logo on the LCD's a half hour before Heat started, but not too many people were in the building or realized that meant they were coming back. Even though I saw it, I figured they were just testing it using other people's stuff to not give away too much about the show, but when they did re-debut, they got a genuine pop. The people immediately started a "Money, Money, YEAH YEAH" chant in my section. Dames

TNA, absolutely. They're so ass backwards with some of the things that they do that it boggles my mind that there are fans down there who legitimately think they're way better than WWE. I'll explain in a bit. Dames

I will answer all these questions and more as soon as I get some sleep. Today has been a hectic travel day... Dames

Well, Nigel IS awesome. But I've been out of the ROH loop for about 60 days or so at this point, when did he turn heel? He came across as a heel in his opening promo on Friday night, which of course got him a face reaction. Then he pretty much squashed Delirious. I missed JBL's entire speech at the HOF trying to get food so I'll need to check that on DVD. Amazingly enough, I had the exact same seats for Raw and HOF except 4 rows closer for Raw. Same section, aisle seats. They telegraphed Cryme Tymes return on Raw cuz when the fans entered the building, they had their new tron on the LCD that they never had when they were around. But not everyone was is on time, so a lot of people didn't see it. I got to meet Kaz, AJ styles, so cal val and Salinas at universal. I saw lance hoyt and earl hebner walkin around but fuck them. I saw tracy brooks too. And literally about 500 feet in the opposite direction was the WWE fan access stuff with some people signing but no one important (Deuce, domino, cherry, teddy long, hacksaw) etc. Dames