Michrome

Daniels as champion is the best thing going for TNA. He really was held down in that tag team for a long time, but now that he's getting a chance to shine he is totally outclassing the NEW heavyweight champion. I am very worried that they will bury him because of this.

I really look forward to this. Unfortunately Joe, Dragon, and others are going to ROH on 4/2 so I imagine their big matches will be friday night. Should be awesome.

The Daniels/Styles feud is off to a very good start. If they use the Ultimate X to further it and have it lead to a logical rematch, I'll be happy. If they want me to buy this show, however, they need to do the following: 1) Set up the qualifying matches for the Ultimate X ON DESTINATION X. Daniels vs. Sabin, Skipper vs. Shane , Williams vs. Shark Boy. 2) Don't add anything else. 3 junior undercard matches, Raven v. Rhodes, X-Pac vs. Gunn, Jarrett vs. Page, Hardy-Abyss, Tag Titles, Ultimate X. That's 9 matches and some will be short. If they did this, I'd have a bunch of matches to look forward to, and a bunch of different styles to watch. Jarrett and Page will have the exact same *** level match they had at Spring Stampede in 2000. I can deal with that. The two other "major" matches look like total shit, and I blame Dusty for that entirely.

Styles has had much better matches with the likes of Paul London and Bryan Danielson than with the guys you mentioned above. And the match with Daniels on this PPV was leagues better than any of the matches he has had with those guys. What you say about Daniels applies to Styles just as much, he can work a bunch of different kinds of matches too, and when he wants to bust ass on the indies he can be amazing. The interesting thing about Daniels/Styles ironman is it's clearly unlike any major TNA match ever. Watching it, it felt like an ROH match taking place in Orlando, which may explain why the crowd wasn't as nuts for it as they've been for past things. Daniels was doing his thing, he was on fire, and he was trying his ASS off to get heel heat.

Not going to argue star ratings because everyone has different standards. However this match was easily better than anything else in TNA history. Both guys came in with the story of having something to prove, and Styles actually outwrestling Daniels early until the cheapshot was a good story. Daniels worked a better control segment than anyone in TNA history, it went nearly 11 minutes with only one substantial comeback. There are very few men in wrestling that can work an 11 minute heel heat segment, and do it this well. The finishing minutes were great too, as Daniels loses it because he got pinned after totally dominating. The finish to regulation keeps Daniels strong, and they built to a fever pitch without blowing through any finishers. The only flaw was that they should have paid off the BME in the overtime for a great nearfall. Still, this was so much better than anything on the first 2 TNA PPVs. Instead of chanting "best match ever" DURING the match, or something equally stupid, the crowd actually cared about who won based on the character work and story. That's as big a compliment as any crowd can actually give 2 workers. Besides a couple stupid bits from AJ, Daniels really reigned him in and he didn't do anything too idiotic. This could be the feud that really draws people to TNA, Daniels is a great character and Styles is an awesome athelete. It's sure as hell better than highwire dances or steel cage spotfests.

Over the last month, the Styles/Daniels program has been the only redeeming thing on Impact, thanks entirely to Daniels who has been bringing the promo goods, and then an amazing carry job on Sunday. The obvious booking for Destination X is to have Styles retain but only after Daniels comes super close to the title, only for Skipper to stop him. Then after the april PPV, where Styles defends against Sabin and Daniels beats Skipper, they need to go back to this program. Singles (no time limit), 2/3 falls, ladder match, etc. This thing is the best thing on TNA and it's really the only reason to keep watching.

For the most part, I really don't like TNA. Most of the pimped matches are little more than glorified spotfests, but I have to say, Styles vs. Daniels was easily the best match in company history. AJ had a slip-up early, but beyond that Daniels put on the performance of his career, and AJ kept up for the most part. It was really tight, they didn't blow through finishers, and they really put on a match better than anything on WWE PPV in a couple of years.

This season is easily the best. The Palmer stuff in season 1 doesn't even compare to the Araz family. Palmer and his son endlessly have the same fight, same with Palmer and his wife. So much wasted time. Everything matters this season and everything is intense. I can't wait for Michelle to come over from division and clean house next episode, and I can't wait for the Tony/Michelle confrontation. The dad is going down next episode, the only question is whether or not they will drag it out for the whole hour. I assume we'll be introduced to the real bad guys behind this whole thing next epsiode too. There's going to be something with that defense company, but another government conspiracy like season 2 doesn't really interest me.

I'm not really interested in the upcoming PPV since I've seen Daniels-Styles a zillion times on the indies, but the one night X tourney sounds like a neat way to have some good matches and create some feuds. Guys certainly in it: AJ Styles Chris Daniels Chris Sabin Petey Williams Elix Skipper Potential additions: Sonjay Dutt Amazing Red Frankie Kazarian Michael Shane Alex Shelley (HA!) New mexican replacement for Garza Some sort of Japanese junior star Frankly, if they could lock up Shocker, Ultimo Guerrero, or Bucanero for a night it would be enough for me to buy it. Throw in Dutt and one of the heels and you could have a very good tournament worth buying.

Anyone have any luck with the feed yet?

The blast area they have listed up here doesn't show WWE PPVs anymore because everyone stopped coming. I am in the Davis area, near sacramento. Does anyone know of any in this area that show PPVs? Thanks.

I think Aisha the insider is a misdirect. No way she's working with the terrorists, I'm just curious who she is working for. We probably won't find out until after the nuclear power plant mini story ends.

I don't expect anything special at all. When was the last good Jericho singles? Benoit working 20 minute matches where he's only allowed to use the "german suplex" combo is intolerable.

God forbid the show reflect some sort of reality. The country's biggest threat comes from fundamentalist Islam, so what's wrong with having them behind a plot? I'm sure everyone will be real happy if it's a right wing militia group in the end reciting the second amendment before doing something insane.

Well, personally I'm shocked

I realized that I see a ton of indy shit, and people are always looking for recommendations. I wrote a fucking assload on HWL this year and now most of it is gone! (fuck you Spunk!!!!). Anyway, I decided 2 minutes ago that I'm starting a livejournal with thoughts on indy matches so people can follow what's good and what isn't in 2005. Started with a post naming some shows you should all check out. www.livejournal.com/users/michrome

Just a quick bump, I have a full review of RoH All Star Extravaganza II (Punk-Joe III) up over there.

So we're moving Daniels from meaningless tag worker to main event title challenger just because he was in the cage spectacle main event? Who is Daniels even working at Final Resolution?

Yeah, it should get them at least 25 extra!

Dave's response was a lot of nothing, I'm not sure how Tim could even respond to that. I don't buy into the Tenay argument because I have WCW TV blocks, and recently watched a 6 minute lucha 6 man he called one of the best matches he's ever seen. Tenay is clearly biased here, he works for the company. I don't think the crowd chanting "best match ever" means anything either, this is the same crowd that was doing dueling chants for AJ Styles and Scott Hall 2 weeks earlier. My friend Lauren who was there said there was a smaller "best match ever" chant in her section during Petey-Sabin but it wasn't loud enough to make air--if it had, would it make that match ****3/4? I'd probably give the match *** for the effort, the nice finish, and the drama they built, but as a grudge blowoff cage match this was no MoTYC.

If Foley does work, and it would be a longshot, it would be the perfect program to give a post-title Joe. This is not WWE where you can run a carbon copy of the rumble brawl with a green guy and get him over with the fans. They're not gonna buy John Walters vs. Mick Foley. If Foley works it's gotta be against one of their top 2, Punk or Joe. Could also be with Homicide, but they're not showing any signs of building toward that.

I don't get the comparison at all. One guy has a long reign cause the booker wants to make the belt something special. It has been a success. The other guy has it because he bangs the booker's daughter.

Yeah, I mean, I'm looking at it this way. I don't know if you were at 12/4, but Joe pretty damn clearly calls him out at the end of the show. The "blowoff" to the Steamboat/Foley feud is scheduled for Sunday, but Mick is still on yet another show in Boston, and supposedly is going to be on Elizabeth 2/19 too. It really would not shock me if Joe comes to the ring Sunday and lays him out.

Paul, in terms of Foley, if he works a match it will be for almost nothing. He didn't charge them for 11/6 and gave them extremely reduced prices for 9/11, 10/16, and now 12/26. His son is now a huge mark for the promotion, and it really wouldn't surprise me if he wanted to just work one match with Joe who he thinks is just awesome. He wouldn't be asking for the kind of money he got from Hustle, it would be for himself and for fans.

I'm sure it's leading somewhere. They tend to take their time on angles--the special k breakup was built for like 9 months. Jay's just rackin' up some wins.