The Decemberists

As of this weekend they have four matches planned for Wrestlemania. Cena vs Edge vs Orton; Undertaker vs Batista; Hogan vs Shane McMahon with Khali in his corner; Shawn Michaels vs King Booker with Donald Trump managing Michaels and Vince managing Booker. That final match is still not a done deal, but the rest are seemingly in place. Dave Lagana pushed hard for Monty Brown to keep his name, but Vince wouldn't listen to his arguments and decided Marquis Cor Von was the way to go. Brian Gerwitz wanted Brown on Raw, but Lagana did manage to convince Vince to put him on ECW saying he could be a big challenger for Lashley and the top heel on ECW. Arn Anderson and Fit Finlay have been pushing for Bob Holly to be ECW's top heel and have convinced Vince that was the direction to go, but Holly may have suffered nerve damage in his elbow from previous surgery and will need another operation and there's a chance his career may questionable so Monty Brown is there to plug in that spot if needed. Vince McMahon went nuts at the 1/16 tapings. He was already mad about the New Years Revolution PPV. He hated the ECW TV show and was screaming that there was no one in ECW who knew how to work. He was especially angry about the main event as he felt Lashley sold far too much to be a credible champion on the same level as the Raw and SD champions. Arn Anderson got some heat as he was the agent for the match and argued that it was Test and RVD's fault as they felt they 'had to get their shit it'. Vince has said he never wants the ECW TV to go out live again so they can try and edit together a decent show. Dusty Rhodes has been moved to ECW to help Lagana with the creative on Lagana's request. Michael Hayes wasn't happy about the decision as Rhodes has been having a major influence on SD which has improved greatly in the eyes of the McMahons recently. Sabu and Sandman are endangered species. Sabu doesn't like working when he can't do stunts and they've decided to not put him on the road anymore, and Sandman, although he's popular and still getting pushed right now, can't really do anything without his weapons. The company is going all out to sign up RVD. Not because they want to keep him particuarly, but just to stop him going to TNA. RVD though gives the impression that he's as good as gone. Before the 1/16 show Vince and John Laurinaitis made a big speach about Sylvan being arrest for speeding as he was trying to get back from the gym to a show and as a result of that the boys are no longer allowed to go to the gym after checking in at the building. RVD then said, in front of Vince and in a very mocking tone "Johnny, can we go to the gym before we come to building?" He sounded like a little boy who's at his last day at a school so knows he can say what he wants to his teachers. CM Punk's push is now completely dead. Almost nobody backstage likes him as they feel he's got an attitude that only the top guys should have. If he was a "top guy" like Kevin Nash people would think his comments were funny and cool, but as he's not a main eventer he's got an attitude problem. He won't be cut however as there is concern that he could become a star in TNA. There are no plans for this years Hall of Fame to be on TV. It has been confirmed that it is Shantelle Taylor in the Sensay suit. There are plans to bring in mini's dressed as Vince and Donald Trump.

There's rumours we're getting someone on loan from Spurs and Danny Cullip will be off to QPR but I can't see anything happening considering it took thirty days to get two deals done the odds on us doing anything on the last day are slim.

We were even more useless against Chelsea than I'd expected. Anyway, no one cares about the FA Cup, what's important is that we've made two signing! David Prutton on loan till the end of the season (when his contract runs out and if we go out apparantly he's staying) and Luke Chambers from Northampton - 21 year old defender who Calderwood had as his captain there. Quietly confident these two will make a big difference.

The line up for Against All Odds Christian Cage vs Kurt Angle, with Samoa Joe as ringside enforcer Sting vs Abyss AJ Styles vs Rhine Lance Hoyt w/ David Eckstein vs Dale Torborg w/ AJ Pierzynski LAX vs Team 3D James Storm & Miss Tennessee vs Petey Williams & Gail Kim Chris Sabin vs Jerry Lynn At taped two hour special will be shown on 2/12 when Raw in pre-empted. On 2/16 TNA will be getting a three hour block to go head to head with the first run airing of Raw between 8pm and 11pm. CNN Headline News put AJ Pierzynski's chair shot on Hoyt on its regular rotation. It also recieved heavy press in Chicago. Before the last PPV there was a disagreement with Nash and Backlund. Nash wanted to put one over on Backlund by talking about "gimmicks" (wrestler talk for getting high on somas or other forms of downers) and other drug references that he thought Backlund wouldn't get. Backlund though did get what he was talking about and threatened to leave unless Nash changed it. Konnan spent nine days in the hospital after getting his hip replaced. Doctors have told him not to wrestle for at least six months, so obviously he's booked himself to work for AAA in three months time. His problem is his kidneys though. His mother has volunteered to be a donor and so far all the testing on her is going well. AAA is planning on doing a benefit show in February to help pay for it, and WWE has agreed to let Rey Mysterio appear. Konnan was told the damage to his kidneys was not consistant with what would be expected after heavy steroid use, but rather was due to heavy use of pain killers, anti-inflammatory drugs and a high protien diet. Morale is down again. There is now a real divide between the star group (Nash, Sting, Angle, Christian, Jarrett) and the rest of the roster. The star group not only get more money but also have a seperate dressing room to the rest of the workers. Brother Ray has a lot of heat over the last PPV match with LAX over eating up Homicide. There is still talk of adding members to LAX. Konnan has been pushing hard for Senshi, but his attitude is such that TNA aren't sure about pushing him. The booking committee have suggested bringing Apolo and Machete back to the group. Dutch Mantel, Vince Russo and Jeff Jarrett have asked Mike Tenay to rejoin the booking committee. They have also asked Jim Cornette to join the committee and Cornette has agreed in principle but they haven't come to a deal over money yet. Even with Tenay and Cornette involved though Russo will still be in charge and will continue to have the greatest impact in the shows. The Lockdown PPV will take place at the 10,000 capacity Family Arena is St Louis. They want Lita to be the star of their woman's division. Steiner is planned to be Christian's consultant.

As everyone on here knows Hogan leaked the possible names for thte HoF. These are listed below with what Meltzer said; The Von Erichs - Part of the deal to sell the World Class tapes was their induction and DVD release. Ultimate Warrior - Will draw a curiosity rating, and his incoherent homophobic promo would be worth the price of admission alone. Very unlikely. The Sheik - WM is in Detroit and The Sheik was the local legend. Apparantly he's going in and being inducted by Sabu. But Vince never really like him, and Sabu could easilly get himself fired by March. Ric Flair - Flair says he doesn't want to go in until he retires, and after his recent divorce that won't be happening in the next two months. Mr Fuji - Record setting run of WON Worst Manager awards and legendary ribber. Why not? Nick Bockwinkel - It'll be strange seeing him thank Vince for making his career possible. But it at least means Bobby Heenan can induct him and save the show. Muhammad Ali - He lives in Detroit and they're desperate for the press attention he'd get. Mr. T - If it wasn't for Mr. T and Cyndi Lauper, we'd still be watching wrestling on out 19 inch black and white TV and going to matches in smoke filled halls. Mike Tyson - Mike may be tied up. Or locked up. Howard Finkel - Sure, why not? Then all the kids can talk about how stupid McMahon was taking the second best ring announcer of all time off TV as he wasn't good looking enough. Plus it's a reward for him taking a blood test instead of Hogan for the Oregon state athletic commssion. Jim Ross - Anyone think Mike Goldberg looks at those who told him to stick with UFC rather than take the Raw job and feels they gave him bad career advice? Ken Patera - Former roommate of Flair so it gives Flair an excuse to induct someone. No matter how much bad stuff he says about Vince these days, he hasn't forgot that when he was in prison for beating up cops in Waukesha, WI Vince kept sending him regular pay checks. King Curtis Iaukea - Held the tag team titles for three months in 1973. Clearly his career is nothing compared to Rob Conway and Slyvan Grenier. Ted DiBiase - The owe him this after sacking him from his agent job as the company as losing so much money. Not because he was only agent who wrote honest reports, obviously. Honky Tonk Man - Strange how his spoof IC title run was so successful some people really do think he was the Greatest InterContinental Champion of All-Time. Dusty Rhodes - They've no choice but to put him in really. Plus he can tell the story of how, on his death bed, Vince Sr. rang him to say he was only man powerful enough to stop what his son was about to do. Randy Savage - Although Dusty weighs enough for two, they need another Main Eventer and it is 20 years since his Steamboat match. And there's a good chance he'll walkout when he sees Hogan's there. Dick Ebersol - To make up for the XFL. The Wild Samoans - Just for Afa mouthing the words "Not Guilty" to the jury in the 1994 trial. Big Bossman Bob Backlund - He's turned it down before as he thinks it's a joke. Rick Rude - There's never too many people for Heenan to induct. The being dead thing though is an issue this year with all the Von Erich's going in. The Bushwhackers - Probably not this year. And they can show Finkel doing the Bushwhacker walk anyway. Rocky Johnson - They really want The Rock to be there. The Brooklyn Brawler - Won them the case over Nichole Bass claiming sexual harassment as she said he was one of the offenders and no one on the jury could believe it. Of all of those Hogan picked the following - Bossman, Curtis, Dusty, Savage, Samoans, Von Erichs, Rude, Bushwhackers and Finkel. There actually is a company vote for the WWE Hall of Fame. The vote thought is weighed by what Vince feels is that persons wrestling knowledge, which means that Vince's one vote is worth 51% of the over all total. Raw on 1/8 drew a 3.65. ECW on 1/9 drew 1.45 rating and 1.71 million viewers. Smackdown on 1/12 drew a 2.6 rating. Big Dave vs Undertaker at WM is almost definate. There has been talk of Cena vs HBK but they don't want two face vs face matches on the show. Edge and Orton are the two leading candiates for the Cena match. They'd prefer Orton as they feel Edge/Cena has been done to death. There has also been talk of a three way with Edge, Orton and Cena. Hogan has been asked about three possible matches. Hogan vs Khali; Hogan vs Umaga; Hogan managed by Trump vs Shane McMahon managed by Vince with Khali as the McMahon bodyguard to get the Hogan body slam on the giant pop. As things stand right now Trump won't be able to be on Raw till after 3/12. Show is yet to say yes or no to any involvment in Mania. THe idea was raised of putting someone with Michaels a new DX member to get them over. HHH put a stop to it. CM Punk now has heat for 'excessivly making out with Maria' when they were in Iraq, as well as what he usually has heat for. Vince read the riot act to the Raw crew the Monday after New Years Revoltion. He was not happy with the PPV at all. The 'Japanese' wrestler Sensai who's been working dark matches is believed to be Shantelle Taylor, a pretty woman wrestler from Ontario. "See No Evil" is at $14.78 million on video gross. Big Dave isn't popular with the boys backstage. They feel he's got no passion for the busniess and is just a body who can't work and who's still coasting on his HHH angle. They're already going after WSX. Teddy Hart is being offered a deal, and there's interest in Matt Sydal and Ruckus.

Lou Thesz/Ric Flair Award 1) Mistico (2,245) 2) Edge (1,985) 3) Tito Ortiz (1,620) Most Outstanding Wrestler 1) Bryan Danielson (2,646) 2) KENTA (1,938) 3) Samoa Joe (1,335) Best Box Office Draw 1) Mistico (3,112) 2) Tito Ortiz (2,902) 3) Matt Hughes (1,258) Feud of the Year 1) Tito Ortiz vs Ken Shamrock (2,877) 2) ROH vs CZW (2,267) 3) John Cena vs Edge (2,030) Tag Team of the Year 1) LAX (1,794) 2) Austin Aries & Roderick Strong (1,573) 3) AJ Styles & Christopher Daniels (1,077) Most Improved 1) Takeshi Morishimia (1,464) 2) Johnny Nitro (1,316) 3) Nigel McGuiness (851) Best on Interviews 1) Mick Foley (1,484) 2) Edge (1,317) 3) Konnan (1,285) Most Charismatic 1) John Cena (2,889) 2) Tito Ortiz (969) 3) Perrp Aguayo Jr. (848) Best Technical Wrestler 1) Bryan Danielson (3,266) 2) Chris Benoit (928) 3) KENTA (794) Bruiser Brody Memorial Award for Best Brawler 1) Samoa Joe (2,064) 2) Fit Finlay (1,640) 3) Homicide (1,172) Best Flying Wrestler 1) Mistico (2,957) 2) AJ Styles (1,513) 3) Jack Evans (1,217) Most Overrated 1) Batista (1,422) 2) Jeff Jarrett (1,294) 3) HHH (770) Most Underrated 1) Shelton Benjamin (1,510) 2) William Regal (1,139) 3) Matt Hardy (717) Promotion of the Year 1) UFC (4,164) 2) ROH (1,856) 3) CMLL (1,578) Best Weekly TV Show 1) Ultimate Fighter (3,345) 2) CMLL (1,496) 3) WWE Smackdown (1,337) Shootfighter of the Year 1) Mirko Cro Cop (3,039) 2) Georges St Pierre (1,676) 3) Chuck Liddel (1,306) Worked Match of the Year 1) Dragon Kid & Ryo Saito & Genki Horiguchi vs Cima & Naruki Doi & Masato Yoshino - 3/15, Chicago (1,994) 2) KENTA vs Naomichi Marufuji - 10/29, Tokyo Budokan (1,968) 3) Bryan Danielson vs KENTA - 9/16, New York (1,805) Shoot Match of the Year 1) Diego Sanchez vs Karo Parisyan - 8/17, Las Vegas (1,677) 2) Matt Hughes vs BJ Penn - 9/23, Anaheim (1,492) 3) Josh Barnett vs Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira - 9/10, Saitama (1,367) Rookie of the Year 1) Atsushi Aoki (2,655) 2) Cody Runnels (1,159) 3) Shuhei Taniguchi (1,062) Best Non-Wrestler 1) Jim Cornette (2,101) 2) Konnan (1,414) 3) Jim Mitchell (688) Best TV Announcer 1) Jim Ross (1,998) 2) JBL (1,580) 3) Mauro Ranallo (1,347) Worst TV Announcer 1) Todd Grisham (1,877) 2) Michael Cole (1,504) 3) Jonathan Coachman (1,465) Best Major Wrestling Show 1) ROH 9/16 Glory By Honor V (1,504) 2) Pride Final Conflict 9/10 (1,468) 3) ROH 3/31 Supercard of Honor (958) Worst Major Wrestling Show 1) UFC 61 7/8 (155) 2) WWE Cyber Sunday 11/5 (107) 3) WWE Royal Rumble 1/29 (92) Best Wrestling Maneuver 1) Go 2 Sleep (KENTA) (213) 2) Candian Destroyer (Petey Williams) (116) 3) Gringo Killa (Homicide) (89) Most Disgusting Promotional Tactic 1) Eddie Guerrero Exploitation (682) 2) IWA having Savio Vega stab Invader in the chest (37) 3) Vince McMahon vs God (24) Worst TV Show 1) WWE Raw (245) 2) WWE ECW (173) 3) TNA Impact (143) Worst Match of the Year 1) TNA Reverse Battle Royal 10/24 (103) 2) Kane vs Fake Kane 6/25 (82) 3) Undertaker vs Big Show 7/23 (79) Worst Feud of the Year 1) DX vs McMahons (221) 2) DX vs Spirit Squad (90) 3) Kane vs Fake Kane (82) Worst Promotion of the Year 1) WWE (244) 2) NJPW (225) 3) TNA (205) Best Booker 1) Gabe Sapolsky (588) 2) Juan Manuel Mar (119) 3) Joe Silva (98) Promoter of the Year 1) Dana White (834) 2) Paco Alonso (77) 3) Cary Silkin (23) Best Gimmick 1) LAX (184) 2) King Booker (127) 3) Delirious (68) Worst Gimmick 1) Vito (131) 2) VKM (86) 3) Fake Kane (79) Best Pro Wrestling Book 1) Tangled Ropes by Superstar Billy Graham/Keith Greenburg (154) 2) The Cowboy and the Cross by Bill Watts/Scott Williams (109) 3) Cheating Death, Stealing Life, by Eddie Guerrero/Michael Krugman (85) Best Pro Wrestling DVD 1) The Bret Hart Story (299) 2) Hero's of World Class (297) 3) Loose Cannon: The Brian Pillman Story (139)

We always denined any interest in him, which was a shame. He's the kind of player we need as well as we keep getting out faught in midfield. Betsy should be a good signing. Always did a job a for me on FM2005

We've still not signed anyone, which is a bit of a concern. We've let three or four leave on frees though so it's not as if we've got no money to pay wages. CC is now claming we're better off with a smaller squad, which sounds like he's given up on managing to get anyone to come.

Hey, they sent a message around to everyone on their myspace and... y'know, the internet's the future and... err... It annoys me so much when TNA fuck things up like this as it's just common fucking sense to make a big play on last weeks Impact about next week being on a Wednesday. Even not being live they should be able to add post-production stuff, surely?

Final Resolution Star Ratings 1) Rhino vs AJ = *** 2) Sabin vs Lynn vs Daniels = ***1/4 3) Shelley vs Starr = ** 4) Storm vs Petey = **1/4 5) LAX vs 3D = 3/4* 6) Joe vs Angle = ***1/2 7) Sting vs Xtian vs Abyss = ***1/4 News Usual TNA PPV. Mostly good matches but nothing great. Big problem is they come across as a minor league promotion desperatly trying to get attention and get one more shot at the big time. What seem to sum up TNA is that in the VKM segment at the PPV they mocked WWE for having people chanting "TNA" during the Rosie/Donald skit, but later in the same segment they had their own fans chanting "We Want Wrestling". Angle suffered a concussion at the 8:00 mark in the Iron Man Match. Angle always calls his own matches, but from that moment on the match was called by Joe and Earl Hebner. Incase anyone's been wondering and doesn't know, TNA's 'Big Fat Oily Guy' is Tiny the Timekeeper from the Nashville days. The angle where Gail Kim has to stick with James Storm or she'll lose her job as TNA doesn't have a woman's divsion is carny for we're adding a woman's division. More evidence that Russo and company are determined to pretend it's still 1998 and are happy to ignore the way ratings drop drasticly in WWE for woman's segments. Konnan had his hip operation on 1/11. Just the fact he had it is very good news as they felt he was healthy enough to survive the surgery thanks to the dialysis he's been on. The doctors have told him that in four to six months he'll be moving better than he has in years. He'll be back home in San Diego on 1/17 and there has even been talk of him being back on the 1/29 tapings. As things stand TNA is to have a special airing on 2/12 when Raw is pre-empted for the Westminster Dog Show. It's not 100% yet and no one's sure if it'll be a one or two-hour show. With a PPV on 2/11 the show is almost going to have to be either live or on a two-hour tape delay as TNA won't want to pre-record the show in order not to give away the PPV results. The special would then be repeated on the Thursday in the regular time slot. The booking team is trying to come up a shoot concept to be different to WWE. The vague idea is to have all X Division matches have time limits but have real judges deciding the outcome based on who gave the best performance in the match. Again, this would be a shoot decision. This is not a completely new idea, but no one in the past has ever worked out a way to get it to work. Bischoff talked to Meltzer about it after WCW went down and even Nick Bockwinkel has talked about this idea in the past. The problem with it is that you'd get wrestlers working selfishly and possibly even going out of their way to make their opponents look bad. More office cut backs - staff have been told to either double up at the Doubletree hotel or stay at a cheaper hotel as long as TNA continues to pay. Angle was on the George Michael Sports Show. He was described as the TNA heavyweight champion. He said no one in TNA tells him what to do, he calls his matches, wrestles them how he wants and tries to make them as real as possible. He also claimed again he wants to do an MMA fight. Which he doesn't really based on how much money he's turned down for doing one. The UWF group on 2/3 has a Team 3D vs Steiner Brothers match booked. This is something that TNA have been wanting to do for a long time, but due to Scott's contract issues the timing's never worked out. Kevin Nash is claiming he's the reason Jeremy Borash is back doing the interviews. Nash was fed with interviews having to be done over and over again as Leticia Crana didn't know what she was doing. Nash made a remark along the lines of asking if her boobs were good enough to justify hanging round till 1am doing the same interview over and over. HTQ can C&P with credit elsewhere.

I like Borash. He stands there, asks questions and reacts. I really don't see him stealing the scene or anything like that. He knows what his job is, which is more than any of the woman do and is probably the closest there is to Mene Gene was back when he didn't have a hotline to plug. (although I can see how some people may not see that as being a good thing).

Yes, but you've got to admit there's more a cross over between MMA and pro wrestling styles between boxing and pro wrestling. Boxing is different though in the way it's organsised though, plus you're not going to have a UFC + IFL +Pride Champion in the same way you can have a WBO + WBC + IBF Champion in boxing. And the WBO isn't really a 'promotion' the way WWE or UFC is. Don King would be the promotor rather than the organisation. I think. Boxing isn't really my strong point and I think I'm just rambling now so I'll stop before I start making even less sense.

Title match snowflakes added and Joe/Angle typo fixed. I've not had much sleep recently is my excuse.

Why not? They have a massive cross over of fans and both do the same basic job - promote fights. The fact that one promotes fake fights and the other real fights really isn't an issue.

Well maybe not Angle...

New Years Revolution Match Star Ratings 1) Hardy vs Nitro = ***1/4 2) Tag Team Gauntlet = *1/4 3) Dykstra vs Flair = **1/2 4) Mickie vs Victoria = ** 5) DX vs Rated RKO = ***3/4 6) Masters vs Carlito = *1/2 7) Cena vs Umaga = *** TV Ratings Raw on 1/1 drew a 3.83 rating, even with K-Fed, with hour ratings of 3.83 and 3.83, and 5.06 million viewers. The K-Fed vs Cena match did a 4.1 rating, which is very good for an opening segment which viwers have been trained to expect will normally be a 20 minute promo. The ending with Cena giving K-Fed an FU did a 4.3. ECW on 1/2 drew a 1.5 rating and 1.77 million viewers. This is much worse than it sounds as this was a live show which normally leads to a 15% increase in the rating and it also had a two week build for RVD's title shot. The show did a 1.19 with Males 18-34 and 0.97 with Males 35-49. ECW has lost 41% of males 35-49 viewers since week 15. The average age of a ECW viwers is roughly the same as all the other WWE shows at 35. Smackdown on 1/5 drew a 3.01 rating and 4.67 million viwers, which is a season high. News HHH's torn tendon in his right quadriceps has changed all future plans. John Cena vs HHH was slated as the front runner for the WrestleMania main event but now that's out the window they are going to be brainstorming to try and come up with a whole new show. The tentative plan of Bobby Lashley vs The Great Khali for ECW title was changed and Khali was moved to Raw incase they need to build up a monster for Hogan to face should Big Show not make it. No matches are official for WM, but 'Taker vs Big Dave is still penciled in. The Donald Trump angle will now end at Mania which is the best plan for WWE as it hopefully will get mainstream publicity for their biggest - and highest-priced - show of the year. HHH had surgury on 1/9 in Birmingham under Dr James Andrews and Andrews diagnosed the injury as a tendon rupture, with it tearing off the bone and thte kneecap. He should be able to walk again in about six weeks and will be out of action for between four and six months. Steph totally freaked out backstage after the match. Nobody was allowed to approach her and one office employ who did got chewed out for doing so. Her reaction was described as being as if HHH had been killed in the ring rather than just torn a muscle. The three title matches at the Royal Rumble are currently set to be Umaga vs Cena, Kennedy vs Big Dave and Test vs Lashley (possibly with RVD added for a three way). The deal is that the Rumble match itself is seen as the big draw and the show is a chance for the champ(s) to get a convincing win on the way to Wrestlemania which is why you get the likes of Mark Henry and Bob Holly getting title shots. Untill HHH got injured the 30 guys slated to be involved were; HHH, HBK, Flair, Jeff Hardy, Carlito, Super Crazy, Khali, Edge, Orton, Masters, Eugene, Big Vis, Taker, Benoit, Kane, Matt Hardy, Booker, Finlay, Chavo, MVP, Tatanka, Helms, Van Dam, Sabu, Punk, Sandman, Dreamer, Holly, Thorn and Striker. Although it's not the first time it's happened, Dave describes the TNA chants on Raw as being 'surreal'. WWE had hyped on its website all day that there would be an O'Donnell vs Trump match. Vince thought it was a comedic idea that would get the company some mainstream publicity and WWE even sent a media alert that morning to TV stations saying that they could get footage for their 11pm newscasts. Nobody bothered to request any. In normal circumstances it probably would have got some press, but as they've only just finished the Federline deal it was far too soon to try again. O'Donnell was played by Kelly Adkins, a woman wrestler who held the NWA Woman's Title in 2005 and has recently retired due to knee problems. Trump was played by Ace Steel, best know for his ROH work. The 'match' went 5:28 with fans booing at first and then chanting loudly "We Want Wrestling!" and "TNA". Vince, who loved the idea when it was proposed, was at ringside for the whole segment which ended up being a big mistake as the segment clearly bombed and they kept showing Vince at ringside no selling the reaction which made him look completely out of touch with what the fans want. However, even despite this, Vince still loved the segment afterwards. Cyber Sunday back on 11/5 did a preliminary estimate of 233,000 buys (about 150,000 domestic). The 2005 Taboo Tuesday did 248,000. Piper is said to have an 85% chance of survival. 1/1 was the end of the K-Fed angle. However if he ever wanted to return they'd be happy to have him back. Vladimir Kozlov is going to introduced in the same manner as MVP was - being on TV for a couple of months watching matches and getting more and more involved with the show. Lost more models are to be signed, with the thinking that they need nice looking people to get the ratings up. It's as if they've looking at what segments get low viewing figures and decided that's the way to go. Diavari was not brought to Raw with Khali as they felt he was a 'distraction' when Khali was in the ring. 'The Marine' finished $18,748,516 domestic and $1,152,966. So that's less than half what was needed for the movie to be profitable. Punk is currently in the doghouse, probably as he disagreed with the layout of the Elimination Chamber match with Arn Anderson and Michael Heyes who were the producers for it. For this weeks ECW TV Dave Lagana had written that Punk should get Holly in the vice and Holly should turn over, grab a rope and pin Punk. In the production meeting when the TV was being put together the whole room turned on Punk when Lagana told them his idea. Arn Anderson especially was against him, saying the Holly should make Punk pay his dues as he's just "Heyman' guy" and not any good so Holly shouldn't need to cheat to pin him. Anderson also said Punk was only over because Heyman fluked it and shouldn't be happening. Punk was personally told by Anderson that "after 14 years on being on WWE televison, Holly is the bigger star" as an explanation why the heel should pin the babyface clean. The actual finish was came up by Finlay. Vince has also suggest Punk should turn heel, saying "This straight edge stuff shows me he thinks he's better than everyone else." The funny thing is Vince has no idea that Punk's catchphrase when he first came into ROH as a heel was "Straight edge means I'm better than you!". Larry Zbyszko has contacted WWE trying to get himself signed onto a Legends deal and a commentry gig. No word as of yet if Vince is interested. Monty Brown is pegged to be a heel when he debuts, which will be as soon as his knee heals up. The company is working of a Wrestlings Famour Famillies DVD focusing on the Funks, Guerreros and the Harts. Christopher DeJoseph (Big Dick Johnson) got some heat for getting himself booked on the Christmas house show run as those shows traditionally draw some of the biggest domestic houses of the year. Also several women involved in his skits aren't happy as they feel he comes across as a bigger star than they do. They are looking at doing a new Hart Fountation with Harry Smith, Nattie Neidhart, Teddy Hart and possibly TJ Wilson. This depends on Hart signing and he's got an MTV deal till February and is often his own worst enemy when it comes to promotions who book him. Mike DiBiase - Ted's son - is currently dating Bret Hart's daughter Jade. Nobuyuki Sakakibara claimed that Pride meeting with WWE was about using the likes of Umage, Undertaker and Batista in Pride's proposed Super Heavyweight tournament in 2007. Dave estimates there's a slightly less than 0% change of that happening. Kenny Bolin is back at OVW after his heart problems.

That's what stood out for me as well, beyond all the storyline nonsense. Face AJ vs heel Angle with a good build and 25m could have been awesome and done at least the 60,000-odd buys that Joe vs Angle I did. But my God this match might get a 1.3 rating so lets get it on TV! Idiots.

Back top the league again. Yay. Still shit though. No midfeild at all with Southall and Clingan suspended. If we can get a couple of midfielders who can pass and hold onto the ball we should run away with this league. Back to Chelsea nostalga - 20/09/86 Chelsea 2 Forest 6 (Webb, 3; Birtles, 3) 20/04/91 Forest 7 Chelsea 0 (Pearce, 2; Keane, 2; Parker; Clough; Woan)

There has been a lot of very negative talk internally about how the TV shows are presenting the company and the workers. The feeling is TNA can put on much better wrestling than WWE and have that as it's calling card, but because of the way Impact is booked someone watching the show for the first time would have no idea how good likes of AJ Styles, Samoa Joe or Christopher Daniels are because you when you only see 2:00 matches how can you tell? They are still trying to bring in Chris Jericho, who is yet to either say whether he is or isn't interested. Konnan's hip replacement surgery was due on 1/8 if he was healthy enough. He's lost 35lbs from the dialysis and dieting since the last TNA TV taping. TNA contacted Sun Sports, which was the major outlet for the Xplosion show and told them in early December they would no longer be supplying tapes after the end of the year. The show will keep being produced to sell to foreign markets as it's very cheap to make. The Imapact due for 1/25 will now air on 1/24 at 10pm. Borash had tickets for Liddell-Ortiz but couldn't go as he had to be at the taping of the VKM skit at the Alamo that day.

The 12/28 Impact drew a 0.94 rating with 1.1 million viewers. The show did a 0.85 in males 18-34 and a 0.65 is 35-49. Although this is lower than recently the good news is that the show did grow throughout, it opened at 0.86. The 3D angle gained 35,000 viwers, Roode vs Hoyt and the Sting/Abyss angle gained 59,000 and the main event angle with Angle attacking Joe's girlfriend gained 103,000 viwers and peaked the rating at 1.06. Several days before the last taping Simon Diamond, Jerry Lynn and Shane Douglas were told they were being suspended as agents for the taping. They story they were given is that they weren't working hard enough with the talent and turned in their agent reports a few days late after the prior taping. The company has been in regular contact with Konnan, particularly the Carters who have called him pretty much every day. Konnan posted on his MySpace that his kidneys were damaged from an infected his immune system didn't recognise. He requested a kidney donation and noted his blood is type O. Meltzer says that having seen Superstar Billy Graham and his liver transplant he'd be very surprised if the doctors agreed to living transplant from someone who isn't a friend or family member. He'll probably return after his hip surgury but he won't be able to do anything physical and will lose a good bit of weight. Fortunatly he's turned out to be such a good manager that shouldn't have too much impact on his role. He's been told he's allowed no alcohol, no drugs, no dairy products, no salt in any good and to keep his protein intake low which is a massive change for a man who for two decades has been eating to be a body builder and wrestler. The proposed Kurt Angle vs Bob Sapp deal is off as TNA have recived the same letter from K-1 as the WWE did, basicaly telling them that they have Sapp under contract till September and if Sapp is used they will have to pay both Sapp and K-1. The new UK TV deal is with Bravo 2, beginning on 1/6. Impact will be airing on Saturday nights, two days after the US airing. PPV's will be shown on the Wednesday after the US airing. That's similar to the UFC in the UK where Bravo show the PPV the night after the event. Bravo certianly did their homework on their new programming, describing it in the TV listings as "TNA Wrestling: All the latest TNA Impact Wrestling action from the USA - the new spin-off from WCW and WWF wrestling, where weapons are permitted and the action is extreme'. The Angle segment on the George Michael Sports Show will air 1/14.

The fact UFC is the hot new thing and is currently very fashionable helps, but you don't get 900,000 just because 'it's the UFC' otherwise they'd get that every month. Like I've said, TNA and UFC get pretty much the same TV ratings for their regular weekly show, but UFC convert over ten times more of those viewers into PPV buyers and that's where TNA has to learn from them.

Just offering Gabe the job wouldn't be such a terrible idea. And he'd be cheaper than Heyman.

It's not really the right forum for it, and I at no point would claim to be an MMA expert, but no one in Amercia knows who the fuck Cro Cop is so he ain't drawing a hundred thousand buys for the UFC next month. My comparisons were based on the last UFC PPV as it's the biggest selling one they've done and that was solely for the main event. There will be people buying UFC 67 for Ramage and Cro Cop, but they're going to drop from 900,000 to 450,000 buys despite having a more solid undercard this month.

I'm in two minds over going to Chelsea or not. It's a Sunday which isn't ideal and we're going to get hammered and it's on TV so it's looking I'll be staying home. Plus, I watch a team that's won two European Cups every other week so why should I make the effort to go see a team that's won fuck all Anyone know what the odds are of us repeating our 7-0 win over Chelsea from 1991?

Yeah, I am a little tired of having the same crowd every show, but that shouldn't stop me from wanting to watch a match if they promote it right. I'm not suggesting that they should stay there forever, I'm saying that they have much deeper proplems than just having the same 800 people at every show. And they are doing the occasional house show which is there chance to see just how over the guys are infront of different crowds. I seem to remember it all being one show. They did the race to the ring then a proper battle royale and the two that were left in the ring had a three way with Christian next week. Or something. The fact I watch every show and can't remember this suggests either way they did it they didn't do it well. Wrestlers not being able to climb the damn thing can be easily fixed by just having the item about 6 foot above the top rope. Pole matches can have their place though if say a heel always uses a certain object (say James Storm keeps hitting Eric Young with his beer bottle so keeps beating him) then you should be able to get a decent amount of interest in a match where the face may well get his chance to use that same item against the hell legaly. Unfortunatly this isn't how Russo uses the concept. I'm not saying that they're not great interviews. As I said, I'm a fan of all three. But you're not going to have any of them manage Sting, Angle, Joe or Christian who are the people that need to be over in order for TNA to survive. And Douglas did not get the Naturals over, and Raven so far has done nothing with the three losers he's with and Nash is burying the X Divison. He's being hilarious, but he's burying it.