Fro

Here's what I think is an accurate list. The first thing is, pretty much everyone who came out of OVW is on roids. I see them when they first come on TV. I see them when they get called up and they always get HUGE in about 6-8 months. JUICED TO THE GILLS Bobby Lashley Chris Masters HHH Kurt Angle Batista Chris Benoit Matt Hardy Booker T Val Venis Snitsky Randy Orton The Boogeyman Hardcore Holly Rene Dupree Orlando Jordan Rob Conway Doug Basham Damaja Tyson Tomko Sylvan Grenier Paul Burchill Johnny Parisi M & M (Nitro is *HUGE* compared to a couple years ago) Heidenreich Edge Kane John Cena (although not taking nearly as much stuff as when he was freakish) Eugene (not tan != not roided) Ken Kennedy Rey Misterio Ric Flair (hence, why he doesn't look flabby anymore like in WCW) Heart Throbs The Dicks Daivari Chavo Guerrero Matt Striker Michael Cole Vince McMahon Psicosis Vito Mark Henry Jamie Noble Simon Dean (was downright chubby in ECW, ripped to the gills in OVW) COULD BE ON THE JUICE Lance Cade (probably, he was in OVW) Shelton Benjamin (was on something in OVW while teaming with Lesnar, may be clean now) Gregory Helms JBL (definitely seemed to be on them in the past when he was Justin "Hawk" Bradshaw) RVD Shawn Michaels (definitely was on them before 1998 and in the Rockers) Big Show Carlito (skinny when he first came into OVW) Juvy Tajiri Scotty 2 Hotty (maybe not anymore, definitely during "Too Cool" though) Undertaker (hard to say, looks like he's been on it at times in the past. Also hard to tell with all his tats) Nunzio Paul London (significantly bigger in WWE than he was in ROH/TNA) DEFINITELY NOT ON THE JUICE Trevor Murdoch Mick Foley Rosey Viscera William Regal Steven Richards Funaki Brian Kendrick Super Crazy Kid Kash

It's useless to speculate on the week by week ratings. The ratings are a lagging indicator. I suspect hardcore fans didn't watch the show due to no quality X-Division match and that's your 0.1 right there. And anyone bitching about "character development" hasn't watched the last show and the PPV, because there's been an obvious shift in focus from "let's throw all the wrestling out there we can" to "let's do more promos, angles, and backstage skits to get guys over". Hell, Alex Shelley got mic time at the last PPV!

Anglewise, the best show they've done on Spike by far. Now, they need a show like that, but with a real good match thrown in there. As far as angles with Christian, in the 3 hours of TV that he's been in the company: - Calls out Jarrett for the belt (and by proxy, Monty Brown) - He teased a feud with Scott D'Amore and Bobby Roode - Teased joining Team Canada - Turns on Team Canada/Jarrett - Puts Jarrett through a table with Team 3D - Gets into a mic battle with Monty Brown - Gets pounced by Monty Brown, setting up a match at the next PPV Seriously, how many more friggin angles could he be in? It'd be retarded to have Christian come in and win the belt at the first PPV he wrestles on.

That was probably the worst example of the "magic invisible camera" ever, especially since Lawler ran back.

*pictures I Am Sam* <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Yea, it's too bad Dinsmore LIVES IN INDIANA. Although they did get the rehab part right but that was pretty obvious I think.

It's protecting their ass, protecting their workers, and protecting their money. This took way too damn long, but I'm proud of WWE for finally doing this. If they give everyone a few weeks off a year they'll have done all they need to do to solve the problem. And it just means we'll have guys with more realistic bodies running around... wrestling still made a shitload of money back before steroids were invented. Dusty Rhodes was legit fat (not just "not roided" like Samoa Joe or Trevor Murdoch) and drew truckloads of money.

We'll see what happens... and keep in mind this steroid test isn't going to be for the good, undetectable stuff (and nobody has a test for HGH yet). So I assume HHH and Batista will still be huge since they have the $$$ to do designer roids. Kudos to Vince if he's serious about doing this though. I assume at least they'll take those cardio exams seriously which will help.

I agree on that 100%. Let Don West do the interviews and the hard sells for the cards, ala Mean Gene. Although I do mark for Don West at this point a lot. What really sold it for me is when he put the gore over more than Paul Heyman did. Absolutely nobody outshills Don West.

Considering he doubled as one of the trainers in Louisville for OVW until about a year ago (maybe still is?) I'm guess it's something pretty recent he got into.

They've been teasing Joe/Styles for about 6 months, so it's definitely not too early to do it.

I wouldn't get all bent out of shape... the trend month to month is important, not the individual shows.

Actually, Eddie pretty much had no accent at all... he just used one in WWE for his "gimmick". He was worried about not getting over in Mexico because his Spanish didn't have a Mexican accent.

I'm sure the guys don't want to go to doctors, since 1) it could end their career, and 2) They could tell these guys are abusing substances to build muscle mass.

Not an exact transcript (Christian used a lot more detail in points), but you get the jist: (I'll add the stuff with D'Amore later) Christian Cage: So I can guess you can imagine the question I got asked the most this week: Are the rumors that we've been hearing true? Is it true you're going to TNA? And if so, why? Well I'll tell you this much ["CHRISTIAN CAGE" chant] I can tell you this much I didn't come out here to see the same guy come out and say the same damn thing week after week after week I didn't come here to see a grown man dressed up like a doctor pulling things out of someone's ass and you can be damn sure I didn't come here because I got fired Which brings me to another rumor that I want to put to bed right now. It's not true that I got lowballed I got a huge sum to stay where I was. The reason that I came to TNA s the same reason everyone is in this arena right now. The same reason that everyonhe's watching genesis live on PPV. That reason is that I love WRESTLING! I've been known to crack a joke or two, say something sarcastic, pull a rib but I don't want anyone to forget that I am without a doubt The GREATEST all-around performer in this sport today It's like this...I'm tired of egos and politics. I wanna see guys in this ring busting their asses I wanna see WRESTLING reinvented! Last night I turn on Spike TV, I'm watching Impact (there's your plug right there by the way). It reminded me about when I broke on the scene 8 years ago... there were two companies one was old and stale, one was young hungry and cutting edge. This very moment, there are still two companies One is old, boringh, and lacking direction... and the other one iS T-N-A!! [MASSIVETNA chants] This is something I wanna be a part of... I want to be the biggest piece of this puzzle. Which brings me to Jeff Jarrett I've got 2 things to say to you One, you should never wear white pants after labor day. Two, I've come to tna to take the one thing that's alluded me my entire career. The most important title in this sport, the NWA World Heavyweight championship Stand up and take notice, that Christian Cage is here! And christian cage will fulfill his destiny... Because THAT'S HOW I ROLL!

That's partially steroids, or whatever he was taking. I'll wait to hear more than what WWE.com posts. They're not going to mention steroid use, ever.

(EDIT) It was an instrumental/ripoff of the riff from Evanescence - My Last Breath... which still sounds like his WWE theme. Imagine the riff at the beginning looped. Actually, I think his WWE theme was a rip off that in the first place, so TNA is just one-upping them... it really sounded great.

I've got a transcript of the whole Christian promo... I'll post it after the PPV.

This really sucks, I just heard about this about 10 minutes ago. It's really frustrating because it seemed like Eddie was finally clean. He was truly one of my favorites to watch and he brought joy to a lot of people through his performances. Prayers for him and his family.

I hate to even discuss this, but they're really screwed if Benoit leaves (and this tragedy is going to push him hard one way or the other I think).

11.12 show thoughts from me: Chet the Jet/Seth Skyfire v.s. Mike Mondo/Da Beast OVW Tag Team Titles Standard, bad Cornette-era OVW Tag team fare. The champs (Jet/Skyfire) retain with a nifty spot. Chet and Skyfire both get on the 2nd rope and Chet tosses Skyfire off the 2nd rope into a legdrop. Skyfire and Mondo were good but they didn't wrestle much in this one. Backstage, Maria is about to interview Ken Doane in the locker room when Albright appears. Doane says this is Albright's last shot. Albright says get out or tap out. Albright locks in the crowbar on Doane for a good 30 seconds and Doane doesn't tap. A ton of wrestlers come in to break it up. A guy posing as a new backstage interviewer gets the crap slapped out of him by Albright when *he* tries to get a word with Albright. This is the kind of segment TNA needs a lot of on Impact. Ken Doane v.s. Brent Albright Doane comes out and jaws, says that he is not the next Rock, Austin, or even Randy Orton, but the first Ken Doane. He says what a chore it is being Ken Doane, etc etc, and how nobody else has their daily decisions effect the future of this business. Anyway, Albright finally comes out after this good promo and CM PUNK decks him with a chair and takes him out with it. Doane is all happy that he gets the skip the title match and tries to shake Punk's hand. Punk throws him into the ringpost. Punk demands a TV title shot, now. Ken Doane v.s. CM Punk Punk slaps on the crowbar immediately and it looks like Doane may tap at the beginning of the match. Doane finally reverses after a couple attempts. They wrestle for a couple minutes. Punk hits a shining enziguri on Doane. Punk goes for the Pepsi Plunge but Doane backdrops him off. Ref bump shortly afterwards. Albright runs in with a chair to try and deck Punk, but he ducks and Albright drills Doane with the chair! Punk gives Albright a flying knee to deck him out of the ring, disposes of the chair, and gets the pin to become the new OVW TV champ! Backstage, Maria asks Punk for comments on the TV title situation. Punk teases leaving and then decides to talk. CM Punk cuts a great promo. He says he's going to be filling big shoes taking over for Ken Doane as TV champion. He thinks Doane got screwed... he got PUNKED and he's looking forward to wrestling him in a fair match. He says if Albright were here, he'd shake his hand since if it wasn't for Albright, he wouldn't be TV champion. Awesome angle and booking. Matt Cappotelli v.s. Johnny Jeter for the OVW Heavyweight Title - 2 out of 3 falls Jeter is looking even more like Chris Jericho. He just needs the heel facial hair. It's bizarre how much his mannerisms are like WCW era Jericho's right now too, down to the prancing around and posing. Must be watching a lot of tapes. This is kinda of there... disappointing compared to their first match. Cappotelli pretty much forgets to sell until the last 6 minutes of this 31 minute match. No hatred and not the story of their first match. They trade basic moves like it's a normal OVW TV match at the beginning and like they haven't been feuding. 1st fall: Jeter in 10 minutes with a rollup holding the tights. Jeter tries to be a dick and win via countout a couple times in this segment. Mainly more of the same from above, nothing too memorable. 2nd Fall: Matt Cappotelli on a pin after Jeter misses a top rope spin kick 18 minutes in. Big "O-V-DUB" chant here apparently. Jeter finally starts working on the legt after 20 minutes, and soon Cappotelli can barely stand. Things finally pick up a bit in the last 6 minutes with some near falls, and both guys remember to sell that they've been wrestling for 25 minutes. Cappotelli comes back with superkick that gets 2.9. Jeter hits his spinwheel kick for 2.9. 3rd Fall: Cappotelli nails Jeter with a superkick as Jeter comes off the top rope after 31 minutes to get the pin and win the title! This wasn't nailed as dead-on as Michaels/Benjamin but it was good enough to get a few replays (and more OVDUB chants from the crowd). Probably *** 1/4 or so for the whole shebang, it was just kind of there. Huge pop for Cappotelli's win though. The Babyface locker room comes out and hoists him on their shoulders as Dean Hill announces that Cappotelli is the new champion. Punk was the real highlight of the show this week.

Benoit... his promo ability is way underrated. Plus he's got the better aura about him since he's been booked fairly strong in WWE and Jericho has jobbed to everyone left and right. It may just be WWE scripting too much out, but Jericho's only rarely hit the heights on the mic in WWE that he did in WCW.

Daniels' TNA music is a ripoff of Disposable Teens already. And they changed Joe's music to add a ripoff of the Godzilla intro. The guy they have doing the music does some pretty good work... it's just that a lot of it sounds too much alike, especially for guys who are "TNA Homegrown stars" which adds to the problem.

They'll shorten it to "Christian" all the time, just he'll be announced as Christian Cage and that's what the chryon will say.

As cool as this sounds, not gonna happen. Vince and Co., according to Meltz, are in full panic mode right now since the Batista injury and you know what Vince does when he goes into panic mode. Hossmania. He turns to his big guys. So yeah, Taker will be winning the title here very shortly. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I'd normally agree, but Taker is fresh out of feuds. I guess they could turn Eddy back heel, maybe give Booker a huge push (even that feud already happened). Kennedy isn't ready. Lasheley definitely isn't ready to carry the ball in a main event program. Turning Hardy or Misterio to feud with Taker would be stupid. JBL is fresh out of feuds, which is why he was on his way down the card. If Benoit leaves he's got nothing fresh except for feuding with Hardy. They're up the proverbial creek. I think Rey is the best option since Eddy can't handle it, but I doubt that happens. With Christian gone and possibly Benoit, the lack of roster depth is showing.

They switched them because it lined up a lot more potential feuds. There was nobody left for Batista to feud with on Raw and Cena had destroyed everyone on Smackdown. The big problem is they haven't booked a great feud for either guy yet. I think someone's trying to bury Cena for sure by making him wrestle so much instead of talking.