JoeDirt

Did RVD/Rey vs. Duds get a gimmick or anything, or is just a rematch?

I just woke up and missed the first 40 minutes of Smackdown. Did I miss anything important, exciting, or entertaining?

This thing is so going to get the worst buyrate in WWE history by a huge margain. I mean, this couldn't POSSIBLY do better than Armageddon 2003 or No Way Out 2004, right? It couldn't do better than "It's Time", right? There's no way 300,000 would buy this PPV...right?

I really hope TNA does well with this deal. I enjoy the ROH product, and what I've seen of TNA has been hit or miss with me. But I really want them to succeed, I really want them to grow, and I really want them to thrive. The more replays of the show, the better - that way I might have a chance to actually watch it now and then. Have any specifics of the show been mentioned? I mean, it WILL be more than a glorified Xplosion, right?

Sadly, I can see this happening, too... At the very least I see the match being a DQ finish or something like that to build to a blowoff at the GAB.

I don't know, man...if Jackie/Chavo Sr. doesn't hit **** I'll be pretty disappointed. (Do I even need to put the winking icon there?)

Velocity: 1) Mark Jindrak vs. Spike Dudley 2) Akio vs. Scotty 2 Hotty 3) Bashams vs. London and Kidman Smackdown: 1) RVD vs. D-Von Dudley 2) Jacqueline vs. Chavo Sr. 3) Nunzio and Stamboli vs. Booker T 4) Rico vs. Hardcore Holly 5) Cena vs. Sakoda 6) JBL vs. Rey Misterio

Maybe it'll be Mordecai squashing Paul London...since that's who he was squashing on the house shows recently. London on PPV in a 3 minute squash! Whoooooooooooooooooooooo! Yeah, this card looks horrible. But I'm still going to pool in to get the webcast. I'll just need to be drunk as I watch it.

"I answered alot of things at the Highland show about these issues. But people were too busy booing me and trying to talk over the top of me to listen. The deathmatches: Many of you people fail to realize the danger in doing these matches and really have became so use to them that you don't see the injuries. As for instant, all we heard last year was the tournament was great but the finals sucked. No one even cared that Pondo could barely walk to the ring or how chewed up J.C.'s body was by the time he got to the finals. As I said, it would be hard (if not impossible) for us to top last years tournament and to continue to do this tournament like I said when making the annoucement that this will be the last year for the KOTDM tournament. I'm afraid it will come to someone getting severely or permanantly hurt. If you were listening, I didn't say it was the end of deathmatches in IWA. It was just the last year for the KOTDM tournament. It is tough to get a venue and when I do get a venue, people want to bitch about the location. Along with the direction the company has taken, I feel that the deathmatch tournament has ran its course. Other companies are having some of the same problems I am having with this kind of tournament. Alot of fans do not realize how hard it is to put on a tournament of this kind. Continued in next post." "As far as the controversy over how I responded to the booing over the announcement of the end of the KOTDM, many people think I was wrong when I responded "Too Fucking Bad". It was probably not the best answer in the world, but alot of that had to do with things going on in my personal life and how my attitude has became towards what not only myself ,but a large part of the locker room feels is a very disrespectful crowd. I'm not saying everyone in the Highland crowd are disrespectful, but many people come there to try to be the show. And that has became very frustrating and I am not use to that at all. But like I said, my main concern is that someone is going to get hurt and I'm the one who has to live with that. (Continued)" "The deathmatches are what make us the most money(tapes, live gate, etc..) So I have made this decision for the safety of the guys that do this style because I know them well and I know what they think. And the thinking is you always have to top yourself. And as corny as this sounds I'm the one who has to know when to say when. So come out and enjoy the KOTDM this year. I hope that answers all your questions on that. The NWA deal: There will be a 20 count on the floor, a referee will have the right to dq a wrestler if he or she chooses too. Those are about the only changes that will come to the style of the IWA. No one from the NWA board of directors will have anything to say about IWA booking. It will still be myself, Dave or Chris. Just like what happened when we got involved with XPW. This is my company, always will be. Till the day they put me in the ground. And then it will belong to my children! We will get a secondary title out of this. As far as the NWA-TNA thing is concerned, I already have a good working relationship with the NWA president Bill Berhens. (continued)" "And I'm sure a fair arrangement will be worked out. I know the NWA is not what it use to be, but anybody that knows me knows I take great pride in being a fan of this business. And my hopes are we can make a better business for the boys and girls that bust their ass every weekend to become more than just every weekend. To just maybe build a old style territory where they can work 5 or 6 days a week. I hope this puts to rest all the rumors and to are true fans who know how to act when their at shows. I hope you know myself and the rest of the iwa family are always looking forward to helping out are fans, with any and all questions you may have. thanks for your support Ian" "One last thing, the "If you ain't hardcore, you ain't shit" : Folks, hardcore does not mean you wrestle in barbwire and glass, do deathmatches and stuff. It means you wrestle the same whether there are 30 people or 300 people in the crowd. You wrestle your ass off! The IWA crew never mails it in. They always bust their asses. You always deliver the show to the best of your ability. That is what hardcore wrestling is. It is for the fans that are tired of the bullshit in mainstream wrestling. It's not about the blood and guts. I hope that clears that up. Because in my book, Jimmy Jacobs is hardcore, hurt and beat-up he goes out and finishes his match a few months ago in Highland. That to me is hardcore wrestling. Ian" EDIT: Ian also announced they had to cancel the 5/15 and 5/21 shows due to the armorys they were booked in being used. The next show is 5/22 in Ooltic.

****, Heyman's obvious no-sell of question 4 brings it down a LOT. ****? Sorry guys, this just wasn't a low-end TOFOTY candidate. I gotta go **1/4 here.

Even better! Brilliant~! In all honesty, though, I really can't see Lita turning heel here. I know it's the typical thing to do in this type of booking situation. Guy saves girl from heel, she turns on him and joins the heel, he gets revenge. Although in a Lita/Kane combo, who's the ugly one? Ha!

Brilliant! Hire this man, Vince will love it!

I've heard of all these guys, and in some cases (like Messiah) seen them work one match before. But I was wondering if you guys could do a rundown on the following workers - maybe say what style they wrestle, their strengths and weaknesses, etc. Messiah Matt Sydal Austin Aries Emil Sitoci Chris Cash Ryan Boz Nick Gage Adam Pearce Thanks.

He's two faced then, because he almost always praised the WWE during the Attitude Era. Did he? I can't imagine him loving Beaver Cleavage. I seem to think Meltzer does a pretty fair job covering TNA. He certainly doesn't bash it moreso than the WWE. And I just have a hard time buying the "make Bob Ryder look stupid so people subscribe to my newsletter instead of his because he has a big part of TNA and is my competitor" thing. And just for the record, I thought Juvy/Sabin was a fantastic match, too. EDIT: TNA will do great if they put out a really great product - but I don't think they'll be competing with Smackdown anytime soon, no matter how bad the SD product is. That's just not a realistic goal at this point, when the average person has no idea TNA exists, not to mention their timeslot. But don't get me wrong...I'll be rooting for them to succeed.

You think Jarrett's going to go in-character and heel it up, or try and come off as a nice guy promoting his new shows? Kayfabe or no kayfabe?

PWI reports that they'll waste time with a Sable/Dawn Marie tiny teddy contest at the PPV. Sorry if that's already been reported. I'm surprised they didn't put Jindrak on the JD card, since they're giving him such a big push right now.

Praising 1wrestling and praising TNA are two different things, at least in my mind. Here's Meltzer's preview for tonight's show: "Tonight's line-up: *A.J. Styles vs. Chris Harris for NWA title *Kid Kash vs. James Storm *Sonjay Dutt vs. Amazing Red in match #2 of their best of three series *Hector Garza & Mr. Aguila vs. Petey Williams & Bobby Rude *Shane Douglas vs. Michael Shane with straps and paddles legal *Monty Brown vs. B.G. James The main event will probably be really good, and if Williams & Rude wrestle only half as good as they did last week, the tag match will be real good. Dutt vs. Red are scheduled to do more high flying with the idea they are building to doing better matches each week. On paper, this is one of the better shows, and live it'll be even better as they are taping half of the 5/26 X Division World Cup. Ryuji Hijikata, Nobukazu Hirai and Taichi Ishikari from All Japan are in along with Nosawa as the Japanese team. Garza, Aguila, Abismo Negro and Heavy Metal are in as the Mexican team. Williams, Rude, Johnny Devine and Eric Young are in as Team Canada, and Elix Skipper & Jerry Lynn & Chris Sabin & Christopher Daniels are in as Team TNA. We will have all the X division match results posted later tonight." Seems like he's being pretty fair here to me. I just think you're seeing conspiracy where it's not. If Meltzer doesn't like something TNA, to you it's because of 1wrestling, where I'd say it's just because he didn't like it.

By ripping TNA, Meltz makes Ryder look like a moron due to his connection with the promotion. And who wants to buy dirt sheets from a moron. Why not buy it from someone who seemingly has all the answers. As a result WO possibly could get more subscribers. Meltz is a business man not a journalist, who is proving fair and balanced content. Oh please...Meltzer rips everything he hates. He's said a lot of TNA shows have been good, and others haven't. He does the same with the WWE. I don't see some big conspiracy to take down 1wrestling here.

I'm excited about the TV deal, too. More wrestling on TV = happy JoeDirt.

I doubt Meltzer has an anti-TNA agenda. He may have a difference of opinion than you, but that doesn't mean that he has undeniable bias.

TNA and ROH have both had good storylines, IMO. TNA is clearly more storyline oriented, though a lot of the stuff is still "argument backstage, brawl, interfere in a match later" usual stuff. But bashing each product is just stupid. Each obviously has diehard fans. ROH has enough so they don't need to cater to the non smarks. We'll see if TNA has/can create enough to become something big on FSN.

Yeah, why the hell hasn't Albert done anything in RAW yet? Seems kind of stupid. I suppose Lita could turn on Matt, but I don't see that happening. And if Kane is getting a ME push, then I'm clueless as to how they're going to wrap this up.

They HAVE to be playing it out for the return of Jeff Hardy. That's the only thing that makes sense to me.

I don't think so. Didn't those shows have Mabel/Diesel and Sid/Deisel headlining? At least Eddy is proven to be a guy people want to watch, but back then the fans didn't give two shits about either guy. IYH 4 was Diesel vs. Bulldog (.40 buyrate) IYH 5 was Bret vs. Bulldog (.30 buyrate) The other worst buyrates of all time for the WWE are: International Incident 96 (.36) It's Time - December 96 (.35) Armageddon 2003 (.40) And I think NWO 2004 is near that .40 range too. Judgment Day? I'm guessing .30 sounds about right...TOPS.

Yeah, just find some sarcastic friends to watch the show with and insult EVERYTHING. Drink while you're doing it. It'll be fun.