JoeDirt

I know, it's just that I haven't heard them call HHH/Bats the main event at all...and they've recently made a point of calling JBL/Cena that. Ahh well, we'll see Sunday.

They could also have all the RAW and SD guys come out together, representing their brand.

On Byte This and on Smackdown they've called JBL vs. Cena the "main event"...I'm really wondering if they decided to put it on last with Cena winning the belt and HHH/Batista earlier because Trips is retaining.

I love April Fools day.

Got this off another board: "Wade Keller: Why did you agree to work for TNA? Certainly with the millions you've made working for WCW and the WWF, along with your rep for being a good steward of your earnings, and all of the injuries you've been through, at first glance it seems like wrestling for TNA is something that wouldn't be worth your while. Kevin Nash: Jeff (Jarrett) is a good friend of mine. When I was finishing up my deal with Turner, he came to me and talked about working for them. I just told him, "I've got to go to New York. I‘ve got to do this." So I kind of left him high and dry. I think he was kind of hurt by the fact that I didn't go and try to help him get this thing off the ground. He's a friend, he's a good friend. When he called me they were doing it in Nashville and I just didn't want to fly. I don't need the money anymore. I mean, my ego is fine with wrestling. When I first got into the back of a car, the first trip I ever made was with Sid, Dutch Mantel, the Iron Sheik, and myself. That was my first trip. And I've got the rental car. I'm picking up Sid. I smell pot in the back seat. I look back there and there's the Iron Sheik smoking a joint. (Imitating Sheik): "Ah, baby, this is hot sh--. Who's the big jabroni?" I said, "I'm not a jabroni, Sheik." He said, "Of course you're not, I'm not talking about you." (laughs) That's my first road trip. That night we partied a little bit and we're driving and that's when you'd drive 250 every night to the next town. Dutch said to me, "Nash, what do you want out of your career?" I said, "I just want someone, somewhere down the line, some guy in the car say, ‘You know, Nash wasn't a bad worker.'" That's all I wanted. And I think anybody that's been out there (in the ring) with me can't say "he sucks." I'm not bad. I'm not great. I'm not bad. Am I limited? F--- yeah. Do I know my limitations? Yeah. Keller: So it‘s the twilight of your career and you've decided you can contribute to TNA. What can TNA contribute to the industry at this point? Nash: The biggest problem is wrestling's stock is in such a down mode right now. Wrestling's not cool. So hopefully it can stay alive until that next hump comes. Keller: Raw's doing 4.0s. At least in that category, it's not too far off from the peak. It's not 2.7, it's not 2.2. Nash: And the cable audience is much bigger now than years ago. And I look at it and say from a standpoint of the business in general, there's not that buzz. Wrestling goes through periods where it becomes pretty hot. I hope TNA can stay around until it becomes hot and somebody picks it up. Keller: Paul Heyman took ECW at a very low point in wrestling and because of what he did, he made it work because he had a new concept. I don't see that with TNA. I don't see that TNA has a grassroots inspiration to bring wrestling into a new age with a new concept. Instead, it seems to be recycling old ideas along with a mix of the pretty good X Division and that type of thing. Is that enough for it survive? Nash: No. I think that's the biggest problem it has right now. It's not an alternative because it's not more cutting edge than what's on the other program. I realized the other day that they can't show cleavage at 4 o'clock on Fox Sports Net, so you are really limited in what you can run storyline-wise and violence-wise. You're in a real sh-- timeslot. But, the first thing I would do if I were to be involved in any part of the creative is to see what are our parameters. I'd ask that all the time. Back in WCW when I was booker, I'd have the standards and practices guy come in and he'd say, "No, no, no." Then I'd try to figure out how to outsmart the guy and get the sh-- in. I'd say, "How about this?" He'd say, "That'll work." But that's the whole thing with TNA. I don't know what their parameters are. Just the last couple of weeks it's gotten to the point where I went, "This doesn't work for me and I really don't need the money." The 81 mile drive is getting really long and it ain't working. I told Jeff last week, "I don't know how much longer I'm going to do this." Billy (Gunn) grabbed my leg and turned my foot when he rammed me off the pole and my shin hit the f--in' pole and it's all infected now. I've got a bone infection. I'm on antibiotics and all this other sh--. I'm 45, and I'll be 46 in July. I got five f---in' grand for the last PPV. I could pretty much sit at home and say, "F--- this." It's not worth it. I had my match with Jeff. The fans, I think, went, "Wow, he's still got a little bit left in the gas tank." The thing was, they don't understand if they watch it back, I got you! It was smoke and mirrors. (Jeff) created all the movement and I sold my ass off and we ran every f---in' obstacle we could. We used run-ins and everything we could possibly throw in. I had asked (Jeff) if I could have a couple of his matches on DVD that he had done lately against Monty and a couple of the other guys. He asked if he could get my Badd Blood and my match with Shawn (Michaels) in Omaha. He had those on DVD and I had his matches. We sat down and went, "What do you see?" I looked at him and said, "What the f---. I've got a legal pad right here. I've written down every f---in' prop we could use and I had them on one side of the page and on the other side were all of the human bodies we could use." He goes, "Well, what've you got?" And we just took all of those pieces and plugged them into a match and that's what we did. It was the same thing with Billy. I can get 45 minutes out of a screwdriver! (laughs) I don't think anyone's ever done that before. Keller: So are you announcing you've given your notice? Are you announcing you're thinking of it? What's the bottom line of this? Nash: I don't know if I'll be at the next TV right now. It's not fun. If it's not fun, then I don't need to do it. Keller: If you had booking influence or control, could you make it fun? Nash: I don't know. That's a huge commitment to make. Now you're basically saying, Lee Iacocca sucks and I'm going to put out a car that's going to be a World Car. I don't know since I haven't been around and haven't pushed those buttons, I don't know if the machine can do that. I've got stuff going on in Hollywood to consider. My agent earlier today told me I'm good in "The Longest Yard" and I'm going to get other work (in Hollywood). He said, "You stand out in it. You're going to get work off of it." Okay, fine, great. I just finished another movie about two months ago. That's three in all. I've been able to get steady work and do parts here and there. I've got one in April. I've got another probably in September. It's a scene here, a scene there, but I mean, I'm working acting-wise and that's really fulfilling. That's nice. It's not at the level that Duane (Johnson, The Rock) is doing, thank God, so I can still live my life and not worry about my kid being snatched. I look at the fame a lot of these guys have and I just think, "I don't know if I want that." I do like to be able to go to the rental car place and get a premium upgrade on a luxury model (because I'm recognized). That's good enough for me [laughs]. Anything more than that, I don't need. I also like getting a two bedroom for the one bedroom price at the Sheraton. That's fine with me. Keller: You are announced for the next PPV main event. Is that at least an almost-for-sure commitment? Nash: No. It's not. Because to me, it's… I mean, I'm 0-5. Four of those were with Dusty (Rhodes) booking. I think in that time his son is 5-0. It gets to the point where, you know, I'm not a mark, but I can't work for a company that books matches, but doesn't book finishes … If you saw the booking of Trytan vs. Monty Brown, his booking is still cutting edge [laughs]. Mother f---, I saw that sh-- that night and I went, "You know what, I don't care what (Christopher) Daniels and A.J. (Styles) do after it, it's not going to pull this pay-per-view out. That is a f--in' back and to the left Kennedy head-shot where it's the emergency room and we're just going to make you comfortable until you die - because it didn't matter what happened after that, let alone our f---ed up finish and everything else that happened. Keller: With Trytan, it was a gimmick with a lot of hype, but nothing beyond that. Nash: The thing with him is this. This is my whole thing. You can print this or not print this. If I was booking that whole show, you know that Monty is going to turn at the end of the night, which nobody was smarted up to. Keller: Including Monty? Nash: Monty knew. But nobody else was smartened up. It was one of those "let's work the boys" things that always gets so over with the boys. Yeah, work us, mother f---er. So, it's like, because if they would have told me this ahead of time, I could have f--in' helped the situation. So if Monty's gonna turn, then why doesn't Trytan beat Monty in 30 seconds? All right. So you're at home going, "Mother f---er! That big dude beat Monty!" So now he spears Dallas Page in the finish and you say to yourself, "Well, f--, did he do that because he got beat in 30 seconds? Why did he do that?" And Monty becomes Sting. Monty becomes an enigma. You don't come out the next Tuesday and go "Ha! Ha! Ha! Monty was in my corner" and then point to your head like you're smart. F---, what are we, back in Memphis? I'm waiting for Dundee to f---in' take me and give me a f---in' bulldog. I mean, what the f---? Where are we at? We're doing rural wrestling and we're on Fox Sports Net. We're in the 27 largest metropolitan areas and that's it. We should be doing urban wrestling. We're doing rural. Dusty sits in the back of a pick-up truck with hay bails. Hey, Dusty, quick clue. A little something from me to you. Become Fat Joe, have a couple of black bi---es, and be in an Escalade. then we'll do a number (a high rating). What the f--'s going on? I'm 46 years old and I'm the hippest guy in the room. What the f--- is that? Keller: The hipness of TNA is a major issue with them and always has been. They seem oblivious to it, though. Nash: I mean, my whole thing has always been this. All right, I'll talk to guys. I was watching BET the other day. Who watches BET? Well, I do, because they got really raw underground rap guys who come on there. You can get some really incredible ideas. There's a magazine called Urb. It's an urban magazine. Nobody reads that magazine. I get script to it. I read it. There are so many things in so many magazines. When was the last time these guys watched Real Life, or (paid attention to pop culture). "I don't watch that sh--," they say. You know why? Once again it's because you're in the wrestling bubble. You don't understand. Right now, they're doing the thing with Batista. Batista's starting to pose like (famous bodybuilder) Frank Zane. I told Vince (McMahon) when I was there a long time ago, you've got to realize that in this culture that we're in, the two biggest babyfaces are a crooked cop on "The Shield" (an FX cop show) and Tony Soprano (on HBO's "The Sopranos"). Those are the babyfaces in our society. Anything that isn't near that, f--- it. That's it. Those are your babyfaces. And the heel is Glen Close. She comes in to control the f---in' corrupt cop and she's a f---in' heel. There's your society. That's what we've got to book with. That's the norms we've got to go with. I've got people telling me, "I wish they'd pull the plug on this f---in' broad and shut the f--- up, I'm tired of it." There's no humanity left in this world. To me, this is awfully surreal with this whole situation so close to Easter. It's pretty weird. She should be dead by now. If you didn't give me water for six days, I'd die. Why isn't this lady dead. Maybe you should put the deal back in. Okay, back to the point. If you knew you were turning Monty heel at the end of the night, why wouldn't you let the big kid kill him in 30 seconds? Let Monty hit Page and let him be an enigma. Why did he do it? Did he do it because he got beat? That way it elevates the kid, the kid can go on a tear, you can do the Goldberg thing with him and protect him, because there's nowhere for guys to work anymore. There was no thought put into it. He's a good kid and now he's f---ed. Now he's Oz. I felt that. I've been there. When you've been there as a big guy and Monty's telling you to throw chops and his chops are the sh--s because you don't throw chops, it's a mess. He came back and I asked him, "What was up with those chops?" He said, "Well, Monty called them." I said, "F---, when I worked with him, I would have called back ‘dropdown and blow me if you're going to do what the f-- I call.' You've got to protect yourself, dog." To me, the only way that guy can get over is if a guy like either (Kevin) Sullivan or somebody comes in and says [imitating Sullivan]: "Brotha! I need to get you over!" You need somebody who's demonic. I told him, "You're not me. You're a big gassed up f---er, but you ain't me." Keller: Has A.J. Styles impressed you? Nash: Yeah. Keller: He's not a Vanilla Midget (a term Nash used to demean Dean Malenko, Chris Benoit, and others in WCW years ago)? Nash: No. The Vanilla Midget comment, that was at a different point in my life. I've got a much greater appreciation for those guys today. The thing that killed me was watching (Christopher) Daniels and A.J. work before me and Jeff. I mean, you talk about your ass tightening up. I'm watching that going, "F--in' hell, this is good! This is really good!" I'm watching and I'm not even thinking about a spot I've got to do or anything. All I'm thinking is, "This is really good." Then when they went to the time limit, I asked how long they were going after the time limit. They said, "Three minutes." I said, "Well, I guess I should get up and stretch. I'm 45 years old. I gotta quit being a f---in' mark and watching their match." I didn't remember anything we were doing. I figured, though, it'll come to me. We got out there. I don't know if you can see it on tape or not because I haven't watched it back, but I looked at Jeff (in the ring) and said, "I'm blank. Call it!" [laughs] Keller: Do you think Jeff Jarrett should have been NWA Champion this long? Nash: It's almost like Paul (Triple H). I don't see anyone on the horizon that he should drop it to. Keller: How much of a fan of pro wrestling were you growing up? Nash: Huge. We had Big Time Wrestling in Detroit when I was growing up. It had Bobo Brazil, Dick the Bruiser, the Kangaroos. I was a huge fan of Moose Cholak. Igor, (Pampero) Firpo, we had a lot of people that came through there. Detroit was a hot territory. My friends and I used to have wrestling matches in sixth or seventh grade. We'd use foreign objects and end up down in the principal's office. My uncle was a huge wrestling fan. My mom wouldn't let us look at the magazines, so I'd have to take them over to his house. Back then, all the covers of all the mags were nothing but color, nothing but juice. It was juice, juice, juice, juice, juice. I remember the first match I saw, at the Olympia. Keller: Do you remember the first live event you attended? Nash: The first match was Sheik vs. Dick the Bruiser. This was '69, maybe '70. It was a cage and they got double-juice. We were sitting near where the heels came out. We screamed at the Sheik. Eddie (Ed Farhat, the Original Sheik) looked up at us. Nobody got a crimson mask like he did. It was basically blood and eyes. He looked up at us and it was like the devil looked at us. Me and my brother were just horrified. I remembered that. It wasn't until I actually met him years and years later when I was in the business that I was able to put that demon to rest that he was actually not in fact the devil. That's back when there was real heat. It was a different feel. Keller: That story reminds me of Sheik Adnon Al Kaissey (a/k/a General Adnon) when he first arrived in the AWA as a heel wrestler around 1980. He applied the abdominal stretch, but he'd yank on the leg at the same time. Nash: Which Scott Hall stole. He stole that with his Three Legged Man. Scott got it from him. Keller: The look on Sheik Adnon's face scared me. The AWA had heels like Adrian Adonis, Jesse Ventura, Ray "The Crippler" Stevens, Nick Bockwinkel, and Jerry Blackwell, but this guy really scared me. I thought, "Okay, the AWA used to have these bad guys, but this guy came in from the Middle East and he's taking over. This is real!" Nash: That's the way I looked at it. The Kangaroos worked that night and they had a real choreographed kind of match. Even at my age I kind of felt (something wasn't right). But when (Sheik and Bruiser) had the cage match and he went to the foreign object, I thought these guys hated each other, this is real, they're bleeding, and he's the devil. Keller: In the AWA, Mean Gene was scared of Sheik Adnon. Promoter Wally Karbo was scared. There seemed to be a different look in their eyes because they felt they had someone on their hands they couldn't control. That's cool believability. I'm not sure if you can reproduce that today. In 1980 for me and 1970 for you, it worked. Nash: For a real short period of time, I think we had that with the NWO. I really think we did. When we swung baseball bats at guys, the fans didn't know they were gimmicked bats, I think that's why that angle lasted so long. Because the genesis was live. The genesis was real. It was two New York guys coming in and the fans bought it as a takeover. (Eric) Bischoff looked at me and said, "We're on fire." I remember saying, "Eric, you've got to realize you've got two guys from New York that have come in here and the entire country thinks two guys can take over your company. You guys are not strong! [laughs] What the nation is basically saying, ‘F---, two guys from the Yankees came down into the Mets and you're f---ed.' And that was the whole deal. They believed. We were straight off of their (the WWF's) TV. Never before had two top guys who weren't played out jumped over. I mean, people can say what they want about Bischoff, but it was Bischoff's creation and Bischoff's idea. He may never get any credit for this business, but Bischoff had a vision and always had a vision and always will have a vision that is very hip. Keller: I think he does get credit for that. He gets credit for both the good and the bad. Nash: This book came out called the "Death of WCW" and they said basically I was Oswald. I say f--- that. Number one, you've got to think outside of the wrestling bubble. You're talking about Time Warner, the biggest multimedia conglomerate in the world being basically eaten up by a dot-com crash. I know I lost high-six-figures in the dot-com crash. The crash of the dot-coms meant the crash of Time Warner which means anything that's not soluble has got to go. Anything in the red has got to be eaten. It has nothing to do with booking, ratings, anything else. Their stock went from seventy-three to seventeen dollars. People have got to realize that there's more out there to life than the wrestling world. There's a thing called economics. Was I Oswald? No. Was I sitting on the grassy knoll with a rifle? Probably. But you know what, if you create the Frankenstein monster, you have a right to drive a stake into its heart. That's the way I feel. If I caused it to die, if my booking was that rotten - well, I don't think it was, but then I didn't have creative control. Hulk (Hogan) had creative control, I wrote a show, and it's Monday at 6 o'clock and Hulk would show up and he'd say, "Brother, that doesn't work for me." Then we were pretty much screwed. Keller: We'll get into that in great detail later. I want to jump back a few steps first. Did you remain a fan until you became a wrestler or was there a spell in there when you moved on to other things as a teenager? Nash: I got away from it then. I grew big and tall and became a basketball fan. I got away from the sport. Then I came home after playing ball over in Europe. I blew my knee out over there. I came home to Detroit. Some of my buddies would go out every Friday and Saturday night to different places. They came and got me one time and they said, "Hey, we're going to Joe Lewis tonight." I said, "What are we doing?" They said the WWF was in town. I said, "Nah, I don't want to see that crap." I went there and we sat close. We sat probably ten rows back. That's when (Jim) Hellwig was the Dingo Warrior. He hadn't been on TV yet. He was just doing the house shows. He was probably 300 pounds. He was the biggest dude I had probably ever seen in my life. I remember (Ron) Garvin was on the show. Garvin did the stomp. We'd talk sh-- to him. He kind of came over and put us over and kind of got in our faces. Hulk then came down. He was in the main event. It was funny because there I was ten rows back and his charisma and everything else was so gigantic, I thought he was much larger than I was. Hulk was that larger than life. He really was that guy. I was 45 feet from him and he looked way bigger than I was. They used to say he was 6-10 and 345 pounds. When I finally met him in WWE in '93, he was like 6-6, 275. I said to myself, all right, he got me! [laughs] Good marketing ploy. I bought it. I'd say the world bought it. That's my history of pro wrestling as a fan. I always was a fan and always will be a fan. I don't watch as much as I used to because I've got a lot of things going on in my life, but I will always be a wrestling fan. Keller: So you saw this WWF show. You were impressed with Hogan. You saw Warrior. Was it at that point that you thought maybe this was something you wanted to do. Nash: As I said, I tore my knee up playing ball over in Europe. I was just rehabbing it and basically looking for something to do. Not to be a dick or anything, but I thought to myself, I'm a much better athlete than 90 percent of the guys in that ring even with a bad leg. That's the one thing people don't understand. Nobody knows the extent of the knee injuries I had before I broke in in '89. I was told by three or four doctors, including the (Detroit) Lion's orthopedic Dr. Tigie - he did Billy Simms's rehab on his knee and tried to get him back. He told me, "You're done. You'll never be able to run again, let alone walk without a limp. You've destroyed your knee." And I look at that and 16 years later, I'm still in the ring. I wonder what kind of career I'd have had if I wouldn't have blown my knee out. I had a 39 inch vertical jump when I was in high school. I was an athlete. Basically I came into wrestling and people would always say, "He's lazy!" Dude, (Roddy) Piper's not called lazy and he's crippled, so why am I lazy? [laughs] Because I'm younger? If you're lame, you're lame. I'm doing the best I can. If I flew from Detroit to Denver and my knee swelled up and I went to Nitro that afternoon, guess what, you didn't get a good match because guess what? The Vicodin didn't kick in and I was in a lot of pain and I did the best I could that night. But, if you've ever seen my knees up close, if anybody's ever sat down with me, my friends know, they look at me and they know how bad my knees are. They see me get up in the morning and walk around. Keller: With this bad of a knee injury in basketball, what made you think you'd be able to even try wrestling? Nash: As I said, I had my leg wrapped against the ringpost the other night and (Billy Gunn) didn't turn my foot and throw my calf against the pole, he threw my shin against the pole. He busted my leg wide open at the shin. I got a staph infection. So the thing knotted up about the size of a softball. I put ice on it for three or four days. It wasn't getting any better, so I put a heat pack on it. I put the heat pack in the microwave for three minutes and put it on my leg. I thought, "F---, this is kind of hot." But I just sat there and said, "This thing is really hot. It hurts!" I was going to do 20 minutes hot, 20 minutes cold. I pulled it off and my entire leg was blistered where the thing was. I basically gave myself second degree burns, but my pain tolerance was so high that I just sat and rode it out. I can get my teeth drilled without Novocaine. I've just got a really high pain tolerance. I don't know if it's God's gift or God's curse, but I was able to wrestle with these bad knees. Keller: Who approached you about becoming a wrestler? Nash: It was kind of my idea. I went down to Atlanta. I was working the strip joint up in Detroit. I was working at BT's on Michigan Avenue. It was the hottest strip joint in Detroit. Some guys came in who were running a scam out of Atlanta. I ended up going to Atlanta and running the scam. I ended up getting arrested by the FBI, incarcerated, the whole deal. When everybody talked who needed to talk, I ended up getting let go. The prosecutor got me out of it. And the guy that served my papers told me, "Hey, they're hiring down at the Cheetah if you need a job." So I got out of jail and went down to the Cheetah when it was the hottest strip club in Atlanta at the time. I started bouncing there. Centre Stage was probably a half mile from there. (Barry) Windham, (Rick) Steiner, and a lot of the guys came down. I became friends with some of the boys. F---, I was on the gas back then. I was probably 370. I was huge. That was back when I could incline 405 to 12. I was a musclehead dude. I made six figures bouncing. When Ole (Anderson) offered me my first contract, he said he'd give me 75 grand. I said, "Who do you think you're talking to?" I have a year-and-a-half old Cadillac. My wife has a brand new convertible Mustang. I'm living in a gated community in Buckhead. I'm making 130, 140 a year. You've got to be kidding me." He said, "That's all I can offer you." I asked my wife. She looked at me and said, "If he offered you 30 and it got you out of the strip joint, I'd say yes." She just wanted me out of the strip joint. Keller: Little did she know. Nash: [laughs] "

http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/09/24/131428.php This is a scary review of a show he did in September.

I like the match with Shawn Michaels at WM9 a lot. That and the Summerslam 1993 stuff is the only good stuff I've seen with him in it.

Then I guess it was just the fact that he hated Shawn.

Was there ever a match Bret jobbed other than Summerslam 1992 that he really busted his ass in?

I don't think they care whatsoever about the CW title. Probably hasn't even crossed their minds.

I like how everybody completely forgets that Vince Russo booked the WWE for the two best years they ever had, storyline-wise. He'd probably just leave WM alone, build up a heel while Batista finished off HHH again at Backlash in a stip match, and then set up hot feuds for Batista throughout the summer. Umm, his storylines for those years were shitty. They were just better than the crap the 3 retarded monkeys who booked WCW created. WWF storylines in 2000 showed how bad they were in 1998-9. -=Mike I liked Austin vs. McMahon...

I heard on a recent radio interview that Show quit (not sure if he started up again) about two months ago.

Yeah, there will be a webcast. Same price, but with the bonus matches, and you can rewatch for a week.

It's like they just couldn't come up with anything more for Angle to do... DX, anybody? They should have done SOMETHING with that.

Velocity (won't air in US because of Hall of Fame stuff): 1) Akio vs. Nunzio 2) Billy Kidman vs. Mark Jindrak 3) Luther Reigns vs. Biohazard 4) Haas/Holly vs. Jared Steele and Russel Simpson Smackdown: 1) Battle royal for cruiserweight title 2) Eddie Guerrero vs. Doug Basham 3) Booker T vs. Luther Reigns 4) Rey Misterio vs. Danny Basham 5) Akebono vs. Eddie Vegas 6) John Cena vs. Carlito Carribbean Cool

[email protected] We'll have a more detailed report up later tonight. Dark Brent Albright & ? b Eddie Craven & Mike Fox Velocity for overseas only Akio b Nunzio Mark Jindrak b Billy Kidman Luther Reigns b Biohazard under his real name Bob Holly & Charlie Haas b Russell "Psycho" Simpson & Jared Steele Smackdown Paul London is the new cruiserweight champ. They had a Battle Royal instead of a match since Chavo can't work because of his eye injury. Chavo was in the match and thrown right out. London skinned the cat on Kidman to win. Others involved were Nunzio, Funaki, Akio, Spike and one other guy. Doug Basham b Eddie Guerrero - Mysterio tried to help when Danny was intefering. He screwed up and Eddie was mad Booker T b Luther Reigns. This was a backdrop to get Sharmell over more than Booker Bob Orton Jr. came out and got on his hands and knees and begged the Undertaker not to destroy his son. Undertaker had no such mercy. Of course, Randy came from behind and RKO'd him. Bob laughed. Danny Basham b Mysterio - I'll bet you can figure out the drill by now Kurt Angle did the Angle slam and ankle lock on poor Josh Matthews since Josh apparently was a fan of Shawn Michaels growing up. No Shawn on this show. Akebono and Big Show had a weigh-in. The worked weights were 493 and 504 respectively. Akebono b Eddie Vegas. This was his first pro match,and it wasn't even in Japan where it would mean big ratings. 58 seconds and short enough that it wasn't bad. John Cena NC Carlito. JBL came out with police officers in the middle of the match to arrest Cena for vandalism. He was taken out. Well, hopefully he can raise the bail money by Sunday. Of course, in Houston, he made bail in seconds, and Teddy Long gave the people Wrestlemania early in a dark match. They went 15:00, non-title, FU and it's over. People were super into Cena, more than anyone else on the show, and were on their feet the entire match. However, I was also told without a hot crowd, this match is terrible.

JBL vs. Undertaker, WWE title match, Summerslam 2004: The match actually starts outside the ring as JBL bails, then tries to cheap shot Taker but gets busted. They go into the ring and JBL cuts off an "Old School" and they work a slow opening. Unfortunately the crowd isn't really buying it tonight, but let's ignore the crowd and look at the match. I actually like some things early. JBL hits a sideslam, then goes to the top rope (!) and hits a flying shoulder block! Awesome. Taker cuts off a charge in the corner but instead of doing it with the usual boot to he face, he steps into JBL and hooks a Fujiwara arm bar. Pretty cool. He then hits the usual Old School move which I've never been a fan of but at least he gets it out of the way early. Taker then hits a Novacaine/Flatliner type move which is cool for a two count. He then goes back to the arm of JBL, stretching him out with a nice submission. This stuff is great to see, but of course since the crowd isn't conditioned that this is a dangerous move, they just see it as a rest hold and are silent. Orlando Jordan puts JBL's leg on the bottom rope. Taker boots Jordan off the apron, but JBL takes advantage and chop blocks Taker's leg, and proceeds to start the leg work he does for a lot of the match. JBL does some nice leg work to start things out, as he first posts the knee. Jordan then distracts the knee and JBL grabs a chair and drills Taker in the leg/knee with it. Very cool. Taker even sells it, and proceeds to hobble a little bit as he tries to fight back. Taker then goes to walk up the steel steps and JBL punches his knee, causing him to drop knee first onto the steps. The announcers put over how impressive JBL has been so far in the match. In the ring, JBL starts to work over the knee as the crowd starts doing the wave. Oh well. They fight over a leglock and Taker does a really nice reversal into a single leg crab. Then Taker works over JBL's knee, rolling through into a nice leglock after each guy blocks a hip toss. Taker ends up hitting his apron leg drop on JBL, but sells the knee quite well after he hits it. JBL fights back and heads up top again, but gets cut off and Taker hits a superplex for 2. Another good solid move set up by the fact that JBL hit a flying shoulderblock off the top earlier, so him heading up there this time made sense. Taker then goes for a powerbomb but JBL punches the knee and works it over and works a spinning toe hold. Taker then catches him and tries a chokeslam but JBL stomps the knee to again put Taker down. JBL ends up getting caught in a spinebuster for 2, though. Good sequence that establishes JBL knowing he has to go to the knee to save himself when Taker goes for his big moves (chokeslam, Last Ride powerbomb). Taker comes off the ropes with his usual flying clothesline, but can't cover because of his knee. He hits a series of clotheslines, a Snake Eyes, and another clothesline for 2. Nothing wrong with that, as Taker is using all upper body to do these moves because of his knee. He sets up a chokeslam and hits it this time...for 2. He goes for the Tombstone and Jordan distracts, allowing JBL to hit the Clothesline from Hell, which of course only gets 2. It's really too bad that hasn't been built up enough as a Murder Death Kill finisher for JBL. The ref gets bumped and both guys knock each other down. Jordan tosses the belt into the ring and JBL drills Taker with it. We get a dumb spot as Jordan uses Nick Patrick's arm to count the pinfall, but for some reason stops when Taker kicks out. If you're going to cheat, HOW DOES THAT MAKE ANY SENSE? JBL obviously didn't do much scouting for the match (heh) as JBL does punches in the corner, which is a setup for Taker to hit the Last Ride like he has done on PPV to HHH, Cena, Booker T, and others. Slow count by the ref for 2. Jordan comes into the ring, Taker steals the belt from him, and then hits JBL for the DQ at about 17:30. We get a post match brawl to keep the fans at least somewhat happy, as a bloody JBL gets slammed on the limo, and then chokeslammed through the top of it, setting up a rematch. Final thoughts: People say that JBL "needs to bleed a gusher" to make for a good title match, but he only bleeds at the end of this match in the post match brawl. I actually liked this match more than I thought I would, as it had good psychology and was solidly worked and well laid out. The problem comes from the fact that JBL wasn't established as a legitimate champion, so any nearfall on the Taker wasn't going to be believed. The ending was also unsatisfying, and I don't understand why they booked it for JBL to win by DQ instead of just having him lose by DQ to have the title saved. And of course the crowd didn't help things at all either. Anyways, JBL working the knee of the Undertaker was nice, and there were some nice little things in this match that actually made me want to see a rematch between the two. Unfortunately, a match where you have to put a guy into a hearse doesn't really come to mind. Anyways, this match was better than a lot of people give it credit for, but could have been better. It doesn't come close to touching JBL vs. Eddie from Judgment Day, but that's not really a surprise either. **3/4

WMXVI was a pretty damned good show. -=Mike It really doesn't hold up. At least that's what I thought when I watched it last week.

I missed the show who got eliminated?

That is the dumbest thing I have ever heard.

Well with HOF and Piper's Pit and lots of backstage stuff and video packages, plus matches getting a lot of time, I think they'll fill up the time pretty easily. And really, Christy/Trish and Big Show/Akebono is shit and hopefully are kept short, so it's really more like 6 matches in four hours.

Going into Mania we've heard so much about Batista and debates on whether he will be able to carry the WWE as the lead babyface. Back in late 1997/early 1998 when the Austin push was full on, were there the same kinds of questions about him, or was he so crazy over at that point it was clear he would be nothing but a success? Also, was there ever a plan to do anything other than Hogan vs. Warrior at Wrestlemania 6? And was there ever a plan to do a rematch at WM7? You'd think Hogan would have pushed to get his win back.

"Jeff Jarrett is in New York City right now and sources close to the situation have told us that he is meeting with Viacom executives. One source has told us that Jarrett is meeting with Viacom about getting TNA a clearance on Spike TV, possibly on Monday night to replace WWE programming when it leaves the network in September. Jarrett's being in New York has been anything but a secret, and at least some people close to the situation feel that Viacom wants WWE to know that they are meeting with Jarrett since there are hard feelings between the companies given the way their negotiations recently broke off. It will be interesting to see what happens here because if TNA is able to secure a slot on Spike, especially on Monday nights, it could completely change the landscape of the business. On a related note, there is still no new cable deal for WWE to announce at this time." That is the full story from PWInsider.com. It would be really interesting if Spike kept TNA on Monday nights to actually COMPETE with WWE instead of moving them to Tuesday or Wednesday or something like that. But still, this is a long way from going down so we'll have to wait and see.

For some reason I want to say Terri. I could have sworn she said that on commentary during the Terri Invitational Tournament. Mike tenay during his heal run during 2000. to Stacy Keibler. One of my favorite quotes from that year. Yep, you got them both right.

I really liked the Undertaker countdown video tonight on RAW. That was pretty cool. I'm excited for the show. It hasn't been built to perfectly and won't be the best Mania ever, but it should still be a lot of fun. And really, the build to a lot of the stuff has been pretty damn good. Besides, with Angle vs. HBK and Rey vs. Eddie, their are at least two guarnateed really good matches.