Magus

It'll be Jeff. It's already known that TNA recognizes that Christian's run has been pretty bland. Add that to even more rumors of Jeff being insane, and it means we're getting JJ as champ again. The only good that could come of it is Sting winning the title when he finally beats Jarrett one-on-one somewhere down the line.

I like that idea. Then Sabin can get his revenge on Nash at the next PPV, then start really fueding with Shelley (with Nash in his corner) over the title.

Honestly, this is the sort of stuff that's turned me off pro wrestling. Can there not just be one pro wrestling organization without the bullshit politics fucking up its potential?

Turn Christian heel. Maybe not at the KOTM match, but definitely at the next PPV. Hell, have him turn heel on Impact. That'd spice things up. Sting could finish his fued with JJ/Steiner and then move on to chase Christian, culminating with Sting winning the strap at BFG. While that's going on, Joe can lose the X Division belt to someone and really start fueding with Jarrett, where he would basically dismantle Jarrett's entire stable (because it NEEDS to be done). Joe beats Jarrett at BFG, then goes on to face Christian for the title shot. He wins, and then goes on to beat Sting for the title (since Sting's one yeat contract would be up by then). Easy.

I didn't know about the thyroid problem, but was he also using again too??? Damn. Raven's never been the most stable guy, though. My whole problem is that maybe he'd straighten himself out more if he were treated with a bit more respect. That seemed to be the case when he first came to TNA. Guy can't catch a break, though, and its at least partially his own doing.

We've seen what happens to credible and worthy champions in TNA. They're buried by or take a backseat to the guy who's booking.

He'd probably be in better shape if he wasn't being shit on all the time by the booking team, which includes Jarrett himself. When Raven first came in, and he was given a shot to run with the ball, he was in probably the best shape of his career. Then he got buried, and its all been downhill from there. You can't say that his spot in TNA is because of he's out of shape. More like the other way around.

Well, with 5 people in a match involving a ladder, it'd be kind of unrealistic to think that anyone would have a shot at making it to the top without being knocked off or pulled down by the other 4 people. That's where the penalty box comes into play. You actually have to wrestle a match, pin the guy, and use that to your advantage by shortening the number of competitors. But what if Abyss gets pinned and has to go to the penalty box? I think it's kind of stupid to expect that the ref or whoever is going to be able to escort a guy like him to the box. Fuck shortening the number of competitors. People aren't paying to watch their favorite wrestler sit in a box in the main event. And its just not believable that a wrestler who really wants his shot would cow down to a stupid rule like that and sit out for two minutes. Heels especially would just cheat. The match is better served if a wrestler can disable a few others momentarily while two more are distracted by each other. Then he can climb the ladder and, if no one stops him, win the match. Side note, I like the idea of the title belt being an active part of the match like this. There's lots of cool spots that could be worked from that idea.

I think the KOTM is a good gimmick, but they should get rid of the penalty box stipulation. It's stupid to try to "control" wrestlers in a big match like that. It's like the Straightjacket Match in WCW where one guy got the straightjacket off the pole, the match was stopped, and the other guy ALLOWED the officials to put a straightjacket on him to continue the match. It's asinine and unrealistic. More thoughts on the show: The X Cup should've gotten more of a celebration. Hell, it needed to be built up more this entire time. I agree that Rhino got buried, but its all so he and Scotty can keep playing together in their neverending fued. Rhino's not being used right. Neither is Monty, but his cred is pretty much gone anyway. Hanging out with JJ's crowd is not the way to book him.

Raven's already been challenged by Larry Z at the PPV, so he has to lose somehow. Besides, Jarrett v.s. Raven on PPV is where you close all the storyline arcs anyway that they've forgotten about (what's the deal with the controversy in Canada and Larry Z? What's Jackie's dirt on Jarrett? Who's the new DOA? Who's Raven's girlfriend? What was Dave Hebner taking notes on?) Trying to make sense of TNA's booking is just going to make your head explode. Besides, most of that stuff was done for JJ's ego or for no reason at all. But if you're right, and Raven has to lose to JJ AGAIN on Impact, then what the fuck is wrong with this company? Do they just hate the man?

He was at the top in TNA, World Champion in fact for a short time. He wouldn't really be able to do much better in the ECW, since he would likely have one storyline and then would curtain-jerk for the rest of his time there. That's almost EXACTLY what's happened to Rhino in TNA. He came in, worked his way up to the main event, and then Jarrett buried him. Since then he's been working the upper midcard against Team Canada or teaming with Ron Killings, another guy who's been buried consistently. In ECW, he'd be close behind RVD on the food chain.

Rhino would probably be treated better in ECW. As it is, he's a midcarder, where in ECW he'd be much closer to the top. Bentley would probably get a better spot in ECW as well. He doesn't fit into the X Division and doesn't have a tag partner. In TNA, he's kinda floatin' around.

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait... Abyss and Truth advance to the KOTM match, and Steiner has already called out Sting for a match. So that means the fourth match will be RAVEN VS. JARRETT????? They can't allow JJ to go over Raven AGAIN. Raven's damaged enough as it is, let him have a strong comeback. Other than that possibility, this all sounds pretty decent.

I agree with the sentiments about Team Canada. Also, its a shame about Raven's current condition, but its even sadder that even if he was in perfect shape, he'd still be misused as hell. On the other hand, we have the actual NWA champion wrestling in the MAIN EVENT of a PPV, and he put a dig in at Jarrett's expense, too. Add that to JJ actually putting over Joe (for now, at least), this sounds like a better booked PPV than normal.

Not a bad idea, actually. Cornette's a talented talker, so maybe if JJ shut up and Corny did the talking, he'd actually be... entertaining.

Still, most of Sting's time is being spent fueding with Jarrett. If anyone gets any real rub from Sting being in TNA, it'll be JJ. Anyone else that Sting works with will be an afterthought since everyone will remember his big TNA fued to be Sting/Jarrett.

There's a lot of good and bad that go with this, but overall... I'd say this is good. TNA will never get Heyman, but Cornette is close in terms of a savior, and TNA needs help desperately. Some thoughts: 1) Cornette being a hardheaded sonuvabitch could be a good thing. TNA needs someone who will cry bullshit when management or creative does something stupid. 2) I hope to God that they put him in creative someday. I don't have a problem with an old-school approach to booking. Hell, at this point, keep JJ in the main event. Just don't center everything on him; push new guys. Give the X Division a dimension to it besides guys doing spots. They need characters and angles. Cornette is creative, and the current bookers are not. He's also talented, which the current bookers are definitely not. I think Cornette can look at TNA's problems and start trying to solve them. Telling better stories is their main problem (along with wrestling that doesn't lend itself to much psychology). Cornette could help with that. Overall, I'm hoping this will wind up benefitting both parties, but time will tell. At the very least, we now have a DOA who isn't fucking pathetic.

Nash's idea sucks. As someone else mentioned, Truth could pull that off way better than Nash. No one's interested in Nash, a guy that most people mark out for, trashing the X Division. If Nash does that, most people are likely to BELIEVE him, and the whole division gets buried. Besides, its not like Nash has ever been good at putting others over. People would buy a Truth heel turn better, and more heat would be put on the fued. The people would HATE Truth and would want to see AJ or Daniels put him in his place. It'd be a good match too, imagine that. You don't need all these names to get people over. But hey, they have no idea how to use ANYONE properly unless they're a big star or their name's Jarrett. As for the morale, I'm surprised that it's taken this long for people to start considering WWE. If I were any of the "Homegrown" talent, I'd be pissed that all the "names" are taking up the precious little time and money that TNA has. Homicide has a right to be pissed. Hell, everyone does. As someone else said, these guys and Jarrett are taking up the main event and even the World Champion has to take a backseat to them. It's bullshit. Oh, and I don't buy for one minute that Steiner is going to put over Joe in a significant way. The match will suck balls, and we're only assuming Joe will win. If he does, he'll barely eke it out and Jarrett will get involved somehow. There's no way that having a program with Steiner will do anything but damage Joe's image. They'll fuck it up, I promise.

I don't want to see that at all. Joe needs to lose at least a few matches, and cleanly before becoming NWA Champion. If they hotshot the World Title onto him before he loses it'll just be a Goldberg situation with JJJ playing the role of Kevin Nash. Let Joe take some lumps and earn the belt instead of having him steamroll the entire promotion because I'm already bored of "JOE ANGRY! JOE SMASH! JOE CHOKE! JOE WIN!!!" Agreed, but what's important about that is WHO Joe loses to. He dominated the X Division, and then there was that clusterfuck of a title change. If he moves into the Heavyweight division and starts losing matches, it will look like he can't hang with those guys. They should've kept him in the X Division, let him lose once or twice to put over other X wrestlers, and then move him into the Heavyweights, where he could dominate most of the time and lose now and then to worthy opponents. As it is, he'll be taking shit from Jarrett and Co., and that's going to hurt his cred.

While that's all well and good, I feel I have to be the voice of cynicism here. NO ONE in the history of this company has ever gotten the rub from working with Jarrett in any way. Not that that's entirely his fault, as the booking is usually utter crap (JJ always has some small say in the booking, but I digress). Big names are treated equal to Jarrett, but creating new stars? He's done nothing but knock each hopeful back down to where he came from. Joe working with the main eventers is the start of TNA's fumble with what could've been their big star. Everyone who's worked the ME with Jarrett only served as a notch on his belt. Guys like Styles, Daniels, Killings, Rhino, and Raven have all been made to look like shit when they stand next to Jeff, and I can't believe that Samoa Joe will be any different. I'm not saying Jarrett's going to blatantly squash Joe at this PPV, but by no means is Joe getting over on him, and that's gonna make Joe look like he's not in the ME league. I know we'd all love to see Joe's meteoric rise to the top, but it's not gonna happen, kids. Wake up.

Fucking terrible. Most awful booking I've seen in a long while.

Quite true, but I'd still consider Page a bigger name/draw/star than Jarrett. Maybe that's opinion. Page was considerably more over during his run in WCW than Jarrett's EVER been, and that's why I made that comparison. He has a ton more charisma than Jarrett, and even though he can no longer work at the level he once did (and his horrible run in WWF), the fans still respect him. I don't think they do the same with JJ. I didn't know that DDP/Bischoff had that sort of relationship. I think that counts, and it goes to show you that that's the only way anyone could've gotten through the glass ceiling in WCW, but I still think Page will always be a bigger star than JJ. Maybe that's opinion, but I could never consider those two in the same league. Also, I agree with everything Corey's said. As far as the Raven/JJ comparison goes, Raven is a superior talent, plain and simple. He's a better worker than Jeff, he has a creative mind for angles, he's more over with the fans, and he's EASILY one of the top ten talkers EVER.

You could say that Jarrett is a main eventer, but only because he's been booked that way for years. HOWEVER, the point is that he's not a star and he's not a big name in the business. Whatever main event success JJ had in WWF and WCW can be attributed to him being pals with the head booker, Russo. In WWF, McMahon recognized that Jarrett wasn't going to be anything more than an IC level star, and wouldn't let him get any further up the card. Now, Vince McMahon holds back A LOT of guys, but in Jarrett's case, its justifiable. Everything Jeff's done since then proves it. They tried to get him over in WCW and it didn't work, mostly because of Russo shoving him down the fans' throats in shitty Russo-quality matches and stories. Jeff's success in the indies (WWA, etc.) was built merely on the fact that he was a main eventer of a shitty wrestling show (WCW Nitro) and the fact that McMahon owned EVERYONE else due to buying WCW. And ever since, Jeff's been trying to put himself over to prove that he, or any pro wrestler, doesn't need McMahon's stamp of approval to be a star. I can commend that, as VKM holds far too much sway on the business. However, Jeff's quest to prove his worth hasn't helped anyone but himself, and even with an entire company built around him (and face it, TNA is just that), Jeff still isn't as big a star as a Foley, an Austin, or even a DDP. McMahon was actually right about holding this one back. If there are guys who CAN be stars but can't seem to get there, I'm sure they'd be told "go start your own company if you wanna be the star". Well, Jeff did that, and he's still not a big name no matter how many titles he's held or main events he's worked. Roddy Piper and Scott Hall never held world titles and weren't permanent ME'ers, and yet they're bigger stars than Jeff Jarrett. Point made, rant over.

Not true? Whew...

They did. What happened in the match?