TheBigSwigg

I thought they wanted people to BUY the DVD.

Urkel Dance>>>>>>Bith Blog

I Robot.. 3 1/2 out of 5. Good but not great.

I was wondering if you were going to be there. And I was under the impression that it was the second hour.

The worst part is that this will probably be the first video to ship out when they get national distribution

How about one that says "Black Plague Tour of Europe" and it gives the dates of a bunch of outbreaks, with a black and red outline of a flea underneath it. I almost bought that shirt of a person's back once, it was so cool. That reminds me of the Adolf Hitler World Tour shirt my friend has Another world tour shirt

I was actually thinking more like a greek god. Maybe Hermes.... Definitely not the Father of Christ, that's a capital G.

The Bank Shot: TNA News and Views Welcome back to another edition of the Bank Shot, back after a short absence. I usually try to write weekly, but with the addition of Impact, everyone in TNA has been working extremely hard. As we head into Wednesday’s loaded TNA Pay-Per-View broadcast, there’s so much to talk about…. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ANOTHER TNA INNOVATION Judging by the reaction on the internet, this Wednesday’s Pay-Per-View is one of the most anticipated in some time. In addition to the return of Jeff Hardy and an update on his future in wrestling, TNA will once again make wrestling history when we debut the first-ever Six Sided Cage Match with Tag Team Champions The Naturals vs. America’s Most Wanted. It was a little over a year ago that Chris Harris and James Storm made history in TNA’s first cage match, winning back the tag team gold from Triple X in a 2003 Match Of The Year candidate. Now, they’ll have the chance to try and top it this Wednesday night. I can guarantee you that since the match was announced, AWM and The Naturals have been thinking 24/7 about the bout. Something tells me they’re going to deliver big time. It’s interesting to note that Daniels and Skipper will also be on hand at the Asylum and will without a doubt be watching it. I wonder what will be going through their minds? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TNA DVD AND WEBSITE UPDATES Lots of news on the TNA DVD and website front. First off, if you pre-ordered the upcoming “Phenomenal: Best of AJ Styles” DVD, we’ll be shipping soon (first come first served) as the final DVD is currently being printed/duplicated as I type this. Up next on the DVD front is “The Best of America’s Most Wanted” which begins production this week with filming of the standups with Mike Tenay and Don West as well as an interview with Chris Harris and James Storm that will be included on the DVD. You should be able to pre-order the AMW DVD hopefully by next week here on the TNAwrestling.com website. Upcoming titles for 3Live Kru, Raven and others will be released by the end of 2004. In other great news, TNA is in the process of finalizing a deal for national distribution of our line of TNA DVDs in many top retail outlets. We hope to have something official to release on the site in the upcoming weeks. On the website front, I hope you’ve enjoyed the new AJ Styles and TNA Knockouts “Superstar Sites” that we’ve introduced to the website. TNA website designers Lee South and Scott Blair are already in the process of putting together the next Superstar Site dedicated to Raven. On other note…you’ll soon see the official music themes of the TNA Superstar popping up in their online bios in the Superstar Area. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ONE BIG ANNOUNCEMENT, ANOTHER COMING… TNA made one big announcement this week with the debut of our Pay-Per-Views on ESPN Classic Canada. This is a great opportunity for our fans in Canada to relive some of their favorite moments from TNA from the very beginning of the promotion. I understand from TNA management that another big announcement is set for early this week regarding our weekly Pay-Per-View that will allow new fans to experience TNA Wrestling. Check back to TNAwrestling.com on Monday and Tuesday for updates. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- OLYMPIC TEAM ON IMPACT TNA is happy to announce that prior to representing our country at the 2004 Olympic Games, the United States Wrestling Team will be in attendance at the Impact tapings this Thursday at Universal Orlando Resort, airing Friday on Fox Sports Net. Among those in attendance will be Gold Medal favorite Daniel Cormier, who is an amateur wrestling champion from Oklahoma State University, as well as Joe Williams, who was voted the 2002 Freestyle Wrestler of the Year and claimed many NCAA Division I wrestling titles at the University of Iowa. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TNA INJURY UPDATES After Wednesday’s TNA broadcast, there are some injuries to report from the locker room. In addition to his knee, AJ Styles suffered an injury to his wrist during his match with Michael Shane. In the same match, Shane also injured his back and was in pain during and after his match with Kazarian against AMW on Impact. In addition, Andy Douglas of The Naturals hurt his knee during the Double Ladder Match, but should be ok to go for the Six Sided Cage match. We hope to have updates on everyone come Monday. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- OTHER TNA NEWS AND NOTES: - Several members of TNA ran into none other than Shaquille O’Neal last week in Orlando prior to Impact. O’Neal recently sold his mansion out west and was returning to his home in Orlando to play for his new team, the Miami Heat (in case you’ve just recently awoken from a coma). Shaq – a longtime fan of wrestling - is looking forward to attending a future Impact with his family. - There’s a rivalry brewing between the live TNA fans in Nashville and Orlando, and as the weeks go by the feud is getting more vocal from both sides. The Nashville fans were the loudest this past week, booing when the Orlando fans were mentioned by ring announcer Jeremy Borash. In return on Thursday, the Orlando fans answered with chants of “We’re Not Rednecks” when JB told them about it. The ball is in the court of the Nashville fans on Wednesday, and this one could get ugly… - The twenty or so members of the TNA office and production staff who fly back to Nashville on Thursday night immediately after Impact had quite a bumpy ride due to bad weather. Yours truly – who has never liked flying – freaked when the plane hit some bad turbulence. I am happy to say that my terror was at least a form of entertainment for other TNA staff, who got a good laugh out of it. - TNA fans in attendance at Universal Orlando Resort theme park this Thursday may see a video shoot involving The Alpha Male Monty Brown during the day. Yours truly will be assisting with it throughout the Jurassic Park attraction. - After recently taking behind the scenes roles with TNA, both Shane Douglas and Jerry Lynn have done a tremendous job working backstage in their new positions. Along with Terry Taylor, Douglas and Lynn have been a goldmine of knowledge for many of the young wrestlers, assisting them in the ring and with interviews. I got a chance to talk to Jerry Lynn about it at Impact, and he said it’s been a great learning experience for him personally. In their new roles, Douglas and Lynn have also been introduced to one of the favorite longtime pastimes of the TNA production team – endless hours chasing down the TNA superstars throughout the day. That’s it for this week – enjoy Wednesday’s big Pay-Per-View! Bill Banks

The funny thing is, I think they ARE racist. I'd love to see them leaving a Klan meeting while bumping to Jay-Z and Snoop.

Like your shit don't stink.

I'm interested in knowing this as well.....

You mean ten hours right? That's why they call it a decade. Ten years. 1990-1999=9 years. Which equals 9 hours.

But that comes as a result of the 60's TV show. TV show leads to Shumacher's movie, which places it in the same category. You have to explain why the 4th movie was bad, which leads to discussions of why the TV show was bad..... Does that make sense?

Wow, you pretty much burned yourself with that one.

Thank God, and whoever banned slacklet.

BitH makes Deranged Hermit look like a god.

Actually, if it's a bad as we're expecting it will be worse. I'm a huge Batman mark, and telling people Batman is a serious character can be quite the chore sometimes, thanks to Adam West and Burt Ward.

This is obviously true. The only thing Time Warner/AOL cares about is the $$$$. Which is why Nelly's point of not seeing the movie is valid. The problem with the movie being made, though, is that the character portrayed in the movie will overtake that of the character in the comic books. Think about it. There are people who still think that Tim Burton's vision of Batman is horrible, because Adam West is Batman in their eyes. Proof of this is "Batman & Robin" which was basically a 90's version of the TV show. People who don't read comics will forever remember Green Lantern as Jack Black, and not as the comic book character. So whenever someone says, "Dude, Green Lantern is awesome" the person they'll talk to will say "You mean that movie Jack Black was in? Yeah it was...." That's why "fanboys" are outraged. I'd rather not have the movie than have to deal with that.

Honestly, Hollywood filmmaking is generally about making money, and nothing more. If we were talking independent films or foreign films, then I wouldn't be thinking about the money. The problem is, WB and corporate America as a whole only thinks of one thing: MONEY. The logic behind casting Jack Black is this: If we take the existing fanbase of the Green Lantern comic book (which includes Green Lantern and JLA marks), and we mix it with Jack Black's existing fanbase, we'll make MILLIONS!!! It worked mixing Batman and Michael Keaton, but only because the producers were taking what they were doing seriously. They respected the mythos of the character. Though GL's producers may respect the mythos of GL, they aren't doing it or the fans any justice by making it a comedic movie. Not to mention they are doing it against the wishes of DC. I can imagine what this will be like, and I don't like it. I'm hoping you know that Halle Berry's movie is LOOSELY (And I mean LOOOOOOOOOOOSELY) based on the comic book character. In the comics, Catwoman does not have powers, including the ability to always land on her feet. Any huge comic book fan would know this.

Yes it has good wrestling, but when you see practically the same matches every week, it gets tiresome. Plus, we're talking about the live crowd, not the broadcast of the show. If you go every week to watch, and you see Abyss or Monty Brown squash a jobber every week, you get tired of watching the squashes. If you see Jarrett talk every week, but don't get to see him wrestle, you get tired of it. They've at least varied the format some since starting, but they need to vary up the talent that they put on. Which is exactly true. Even if the PPV's aren't the quality of WWE PPV's, you could at least consider Impact the Smackdown to TNA's RAW. Or the Thunder to their Nitro. Not their Heat or Worldwide.

As I said, TNA isn't ignoring the WWE fan, but hoping the WCW fan will watch their show and enjoy it because it is an alternative. And as we've said before here, much to the chagrin of some, TNA is A LOT like WCW in almost every possible way. Mostly because it's run by the same people who were running WCW a few years ago. (Russo, etc.) I don't think they'll be immune from WWE, I just don't think they're going to try to chop down McMahon's throne and replace it with the Jarrett's. There are ways to be similar products and NOT compete. Pepsi and Coke are similar, and they do have competition, but Pepsi drinkers are Pepsi drinkers and Coke drinkers are Coke drinkers. Two distinct flavors, but a similar product. This is what TNA wants to do right now. Be civil with Vince until he goes from being the Faygo to being the Pepsi to Vince's Coke. First off, that fanbase still exists. They just don't watch WWE. Does the Buffy the Vampire Slayer fanbase become non-existent because the show is cancelled? No, there are still Buffy fans. Same idea. Those WCW fans who don't watch WWE don't watch WWE because they don't like WWE. It's the Pepsi and Coke argument. Therefore, the fanbase is still there, but just not watching what they're offered because they don't like it. Yes, ECW is dead NOW. But that's not wholely because of the fans. They kept ECW alive as much as they could, and finally the money caught up to Heyman. This COULD happen to TNA, but TNA could also catch on to the other fans and grow from there. It's a crapshoot, but the odds are possibly in TNA's favor if they start making money instead of using Panda as a credit card. Thanks, Mike. If you read back through the folder some, you'll find that there are several posters who have been to the park and watched the show. They went through a seperate entrance, and didn't have to buy into the park. If you don't believe it because WON or PWInsider didn't say it, then I'm sorry.

The show features the same thing every week, has no character development other than Jarrett, and does not mean anything when regarding the PPV. And that's just for the live crowd. Don't get me started on the commentary and endless PPV commercials.

It's been said before, but not everyone watching Impact is on vacation with the family. You don't have to pay to get into the park to watch the show. It has a different entrance, and there aren't a lot of families in the crowd. As Mike will quickly point out, and rightfully so, IMPACT isn't free to TNA. TNA pays to air the show, and could quickly run out of the money necessary to pay FSN for their airtime. TNA of course wants WWE fans to watch their show, but that's not the audience they're necessarily banking on. If you remember, when WWE was making 6.0's, WCW was scoring between 3.0-5.0 in the ratings as well. TNA wants that audience too. They're two different crowds, as you can tell by talking to people about wrestling. They're either WCW or WWF, and rarely both. If these shows were on the same night, it would be competition. But considering that RAW is on Mondays, Smackdown is on Thursdays, Heat is on Sundays, and Velocity is on Saturdays while IMPACT and the PPV are on Friday and Wednesday, they aren't necessarily competition. If being on TV means you are competing with WWE, then OVW, HWA, NWA Wildside, NACW, USA Pro, and several dozen other feds are competing with WWE as well. These fans held ECW afloat, and they could do the same for TNA long enough for them to establish themselves. Of course, TNA could also fall to pieces like ECW did, but that is up to TNA.

To add my two cents: The whole point of making a movie based on a comic book is that you have an established fanbase to work with. If you take an X-files movie, and turn it into a comedy, you alienate the entire established fanbase. Same principles apply here. You take the character, use the base, but destroy the story and the true fans are left out. It doesn't make any sense. It was a horrible idea to completely rewrite Catwoman and leave out the Batman element, because you have an established fanbase of Batman AND Catwoman fans who will watch the movie. Now, if they go, they get a movie that is in no way shape or form what they thought it was, they'll ask for their money back and shit on it to all their friends. Not only have you lost guaranteed money, but you also lose the money connected to them. This is why the complaining is valid. If you want comedy movies, get comedy characters. You don't take the Sandman and turn it into Shallow Hal. There are people in Hell for lesser offenses.