The Dames

I don't mind, the only thing is, im using my phone which is quite slow so its gonna take me a bit to create several topics, especially since since some bleed into each other (TNA stars at WWE fan access, etc)

Allow me to fill in some of the details. Takers music hit and he came to the ring in full gear. He entered the ring, took off his jacket and hat and then hugged Ric. He said something to him for about 10 secs before bowing to him with his signature pose. He then hugged him again and then joined the rest of the guys on the floor. Then Vince came to the ring, hugged Flair bigtime and then raised his arms to all 4 sides of the ring. Then his family went into the ring, cried together and walked back as the wrestlers and the entire arena bowed as he went up the ramp. Ric got on the mic for one last "thank you" to the crowd and at the top of the ramp, one last Woo. It was one of the most emotional moments I've ever seen in wrestling. Period. Dames

Im just leaving the Amway right now. Where did the show go off the air? Dames

It seems any Benoit thread is the "Bix signal". Im just curious Bix, were you a fan of the wrestler before this all happened in June? And tell Loss I said what's up. I haven't spoken to him in years. I haven't come up for air in a while.... Dames

A funny moment occured right when Ric came to the podium. After HHH talked for 10 mins, Flair came to the stage with a beer in his hand and a production runner came by and snatched it from him before the hard cam could get a shot of it. People laughed. He told a great story about how the night after summerslam 92, he went to a bar and dropped 30600 on a bar tab. His card was denied and he needed to call the office for help. HHH then said "that's called in the biz "Natichin"

That reminds me, one of the coolest moments about Flairs speech was when he made the camera man do a close up shot of his cufflinks. Earlier in the day, HHH gave him cufflinks that are an exact replica of the domed NWA title belt. It was quite badass. Dames

I've had a great weekend so far. I'll post more when I get back but I went to ROH last night, TNA and fan axxess and HOF today, Mania tomorrow and Raw monday. Then ROH in Boston april 11th, TNA fan axxess on the 12th and lockdown the 13th. I love it! Dames

It was very telling that there were zero reaction shots from the wrestlers, the crowd, no one after benoits name was mentioned. Normally, WWE cuts every few seconds. Right after that, he put up the 4 fingers and said that malenko and benoit were the reasons he came back to wcw and then he quickly changed the subject. I wish I could have seen the looks on the wrestlers faces. I honestly don't know if this will make it to DVD. Dames

HHH's dig at Rocky did seem playful, but Flairs seemed dead serious. I heard that Rocky had to do his speech first so he could leave ASAP so who knows if he even knows at this point what was said. Oh, that reminds me, Flair put over Austin huge and called him the biggest star in the history of the business and the people who say its Hogan are wrong. It seemed like Flair could do no wrong in the fans eyes tonight. I was almost waiting for a Bret dig but it didn't happen. And keep in mind these are just a one or two liners in a 90 minute speech that was great so it didn't really bring down the emotion at all. Dames

Ayo. I don't run shit anymore. Gave it up in 04 and then a dumbass took over. Im just glad the place still exists. Welcome back. Dames

Traffic was ridiculous so I got to the HOF about 10 minutes late and boy, was I PISSED to find out Rocky was 1st cuz I missed a bit of his speech, but he went on for about 90 minutes. I just watched the USA version and they cut out SO MUCH its not even funny. The Rock was playing to every single chant the crowd came up with and at first, it was the "one more match" chant. He then talked about he wants one more match with Austin. He talked about his wm 19 match with austin and what they talked about after it was done. Then he hit a ton of catchphrases and the crowd marked out. He made fun of Cena with the Marine dig and the crowd booed Cena big time. He then said that he wishes he could have a match with Cena (Cena reacted by saying "ANYTIME!") and wants to work with Rey. Then the crowd chanted for HBK/Rock and Rock played nice and said it would be great if it ever happened. Then the crowd chanted "three more matches".... Rock then introduced his father, who spoke for about 15 minutes. His speech was clearly written out for him and Rocky Johnson at one point didn't seem pleased with what was written cuz he turned to Rock and said "Who wrote this!?". Then, Rock spoke for another 5 mins or so and talked about his grandfather. He started to get choked up and said "man, I get paid 15 million to cry in the movies now" in a playful tone basically saying he was embarrassed he was getting emotional. Then, he introduced his mom who spoke for 20 mins herself and she was getting visibly annoyed with the jackasses in the crowd shouting shit to the point The Rock had to make a motion to the crowd to quit it. It was a nice speech though. The highlight was when she talked about being so proud of the Rock from the moment he was a pebble. The crowd started chanting "pebble, pebble" and Rocky got on the mic and deadpanned "don't do that chant....EVER!" LOL. Rocks mom also made it a point to say hello to "UMANGA" to a pop. She said she knows what his name really means and it has "nothing to do with a monkey!" She also said that she knew that The Rock would eventually layeth the smacketh down on candy asses and Rocky genuinely laughed at that. She then got emotional talking about her dad. Flairs speech on USA was criminally edited as they only showed the last 5 mins after he was told to wrap up. He told a ton of stories and put over Edge as a true friend who taught him some new tricks when it came time to do his first ladder match. He put over Big Show (who Rock also said he was really proud of) and that after breaking into the biz with Andre in the 70's, he can honestly say Show is the best big man ever. Show fuckin lost it after that, crying like a baby. He put over his time in Evolution, especially Batista as he said he taught Dave how to dress and taught Cena how to drink. He called Cena the future of the biz. There's tons more im forgetting right now, it IS 330am Dames

Flair got a standing O for the first 5 mins and he was choked up, which got people in the audience choked up right away. During the course of his speech, he put certain guys over huge and they cried, Big Show, Edge and Steamboat especially. It was about a 90 minute speech and HHH had to come over and whisper to him 3 times to wrap it up but Flair had so much to say that every time he was getting the wrap up signals, the fans would boo it ferociously. I really didn't want the speech to end. Oh and HHH and Flair took some pot shots at the Rock during their speeches which came off kinda petty. HHH said something along the lines of "The Rocks fans, or should we say DWAYNE fans now" and the place almost booed HHH out of the building to the point he had to backpedal and say "it was a joke, geez...". And Flair made it a point to put over Cena (who also cried) and said that he truly loves the business and won't be leaving for Hollywood. But the fans weren't about to shit on Flair tonigjht. Dames

I just got back from the HOF. And while the Rock was awesome, what will probably linger in my mind about tonight was during Flairs speech, he mentioned all of the Horsemen that he enjoyed being with and dropped Benoits name. After a second of uncomfortable silence in the room, only about one or two people booed and then the whole crowd pretty much marked out huge and Id say it was probably the number 3 pop of the night. I was in shock. Extremely surreal. Dames

More Dames, plz.

You know, for all that I've heard about Matt Morgan's mic skills (especially from his days in the Cornette run OVW), all his time in TNA on the mic has been making matches that make the viewers change the channel...and then gets blamed for his shitty booking the following week. It's not exactly the kind of mic work that makes you sit down and take notice. Dames

I agree that turning Tomko was a ridiculous idea considering he was probably the best booked character that they had since Joe first arrived. But considering the fact that the Impact Zone isn't a true indicator of whats working (which is reason number ONE in my opinion why they need to leave Orlando) and the fact that ratings aren't exactly spiking when Tomko is on the screen...maybe they just didn't realize what they had. Thats what I think is their major problem. They can't really tell who the audience is connecting with because they're not paying for the show, its the same people every week and they tape so far in advance, most smarks who would spread the word have already condemned the show before it's began. Well that and TNA sucks in general. Dames

Morgan just got signed to be on the 2nd season, which should start airing in April, I heard. Dames

I'll be there live, hopefully dodging raindrops and lightning strikes. This will be my 5th Mania and 3rd straight. Dames

NO way, brother. Now that Hogan is going to be faced with a lawsuit for millions of dollars (which he stands a very good chance of losing) plus his divorce, he knows the only way to go is where the MONEH~! is. Which will be jobbing to Vince at WM 25. Hell, I bet Hogan might actually be down with jobbing to Austin finally, but Austin seems to be LOVING the fact that he could be costing Hogan millions by refusing to work with him. Dames

Even though there isn't anyone who would make any kind of an impact (no pun intended), I'd like to see TNA pull out some crazy debut or signing that no one saw coming. Something to show that they are LIVE~! and ready to shock the world, something akin to Lex Luger showing up on the 1st Nitro. Almost every current active wrestler is going to be in Orlando this weekend but on the contrary, anyone jumping from WWE to TNA days before Mania is commiting career suicide and anyone jumping from ROH to TNA wouldn't be worth getting excited over unless it was Bryan Danielson. And either way, they'd botch it. Man, I missed the days when I cared about TNA...and when TNA actually cared about me. Dames

Nah, original concept of show is: Lincoln in prison for supposedly killing vice president's brother. Michael gets tattoed up with the plans of the prison so he can break out his brother and clear his name. All of which is resolved at the end of Season 2 until they tacked on the end with Michael ending up going to Sona because the Company wants him there. They clearly didn't expect the show to get as popular as it did because the story easily could have been wrapped up at the end of 2 with Lincoln exonerated and him and Michael getting away to Panama.

It had better be the last season. I've stated since Season 2 ended that it shouldn't have continued past that. Season 3 reeked of Fox trying to milk the show. At this point, we're so far from the original concept of the show that I've lost a considerable amount of interest. Dames

Yeah...I'd love to get an Orton WM Plaque this year instead of my 4th Cena or 4th HHH plaque. Dames

OH and by the way...this is just my personal feelings on it. Considering the fact that I had her banned for YEARS and yet for some reason, you guys let her back in...and some even clamored for her to come back, ya'll deserve the bitch. Dames

A Lethal Injection...of POISON~!!!!!! NO, its not me silly. And I still hate Leena. And she didn't mean it in a funny way. It was in a PM. I honestly can't even tell you what prompted her to flip out on me either.