LuckyLopez

Creed, Lethal, and Young all ran out to aid Petey last week. ODB is a fair question although for the life of me I have no idea why she's in the Frontline. She's clearly separate from the entire Frontline/Mafia story so why TNA included her to create that potential hole I have no idea. I do agree that Creed and Lethal using the ForF shot the way they did was a heelish move. But then again its kind of a double edged sword. Punk did the same thing, even taking it further by facing and pinning an opponent who was already down. I thought he too made a very heel move that sat poorly with his character but the fans at large took it fine. Meanwhile many people called Hernandez stupid for NOT using his shot to take advantage of his opponent in an opportunistic and heel way. So it seems kind of tough. Over the in WWE column a number of people flat out said that anyone who didn't use the MitB shot like Edge and Punk did is an idiot. So a face is basically stuck with these shots either looking like a heel in the eyes of some fans or looking like an idiot in the eyes of some fans. But I do agree that Lethal/Creed using it as they did was pretty underhanded and I wasn't a fan of it at all. Even less so than I was with Punk. But at the same time, its not the same situation. Beer Money aren't Lethal and Creed's allies. I don't get why this is a hard thing to grasp. Lethal, Creed, and the Guns ARE allies. They ARE Frontline. They are supposed to aid each other and work together, because that's what they agreed to do. So the Guns betrayed that agreement and alliance when they abandoned or took advantage of Creed and Lethal. Heelish though it may be, Lethal and Creed's actions against Beer Money weren't actions against the Frontline. So it may have been a "bad" or "heel" act, but it was completely different story lacking the basic element of this one. An agreed upon alliance which one side failed to live up to. Creed and Lethal never shook Beer Money's hands and said "We're with you." EDIT: But again, I don't want to gloss over your fair points. Because I agree that faces using the MitB/ForF shots in an opportunistic fashion is dirty pool and it made Lethal and Creed look bad in the context of this Frontline story (which may well be why it sat worse with me than Punk since in his case while his action was cheap and heelish at least the context was him doing it to the man who had done it twice and who was there taunting people that the brand would have no title). And the lack of ODB support is equally stupid. Of course personally I just like to ignore ODB and I'm probably willing to look over it on the premise that the Frontline want as little to do with her as I do. But still doesn't make her usage in this story make any more sense.

No, Beer Money has never allied with the Mafia. But why does that make Tenay sound dumber? The Guns and Lethal/Creed are allies. The Guns stood there and watched their allies be beat down and injured. Does it matter who did it? Aren't allies supposed to protect each other? That's the point. The Guns are opportunistic creeps who are SUPPOSED to be Frontline members because they VOLUNTEERED to be. EDIT: Or Tenay also suggested that the Guns should offer to postpone the match rather than wrestle a handicap match with Lethal due to the Beer Money attack. Which again, seems pretty reasonable if the Guns are supposed to be allies to Creed/Lethal. Taking advantage of an injury to beat one of their allies down in a handicap match seems kind of... heelish?

Right. The problem isn't that the Guns don't side with the Frontline. The Frontline aren't calling out LAX for not backing them. LAX aren't part of the Frontline, the Guns are. If you go back to the start of the stable Joe and AJ challenged the roster to step forward and the Guns mocked them. The Guns then joined seemingly to avoid getting repercussions for their mocking. But for the entire run the Guns have mocked their allies and failed to aid them. Meanwhile they've remained part of the group, seemingly to maintain the protection both from the Mafia and from the Frontline themselves, as the Guns have continued to antagonize Foley, Creed, and Lethal amongst others. So Lethal and Creed are just calling them out. The Guns didn't get drafted into the Frontline. They volunteered. They've just failed to live up to the roles they volunteered for.

TNA does this stupid stuff and they always have. Before Palin it was Bobby Knight. Pacman, the Tennessee Titans, Brian Urlacher, that American Idol guy, Jonny Fairplay getting a contract, Toby Keith wrestling Jarrett, the Baseball Brawl gimmick... TNA are star fuckers craving media attention (which actually seems par for the course for wrestling promotions). I just tend to ignore this stuff and hope it doesn't lead to much more than a couple of stupid minutes on TV.

I doubt there's much they can really take from those besides an idea everyone knows already. Shock/"Crash" TV draws eyes. If you do something crazy and unexpected people will stop and watch to see where its going next. And when Impact switched back into normal gear then the need to keep watching in case you miss something disappeared. I mean, I'd like them to see those breakdowns as evidence for why Nash needs to be added to the commentary team too. But I'm not sure they really mean anything.

Yeah, I figured it was 1 of those 2. Either he intended to use Desmond to get to Ben, Farraday's mom, and the island... or he just genuinely loves his daughter enough that he helped Desmond either to keep him from doing anything too dangerous or in hopes that it would win back some trust. Widmore's always been ruthless to Desmond but its always been about keeping Desmond away from Penny. Penny's been with Desmond for 3 years and completely out of Widmore's life. He gets nothing out of continuing to be hostile to Desmond. The goal was always to push Desmond out of his and Penny's lives. Now pushing Desmond out only pushes Penny further away. I'm more or less expecting both. He's a father who misses his daughter and he knows Desmond might be able to help him with the island.

Are we? Certainly some of them got picked off with arrows or mines and the herd got culled quite a bit but aren't there still folks unaccounted for? The woman (Elle?) mentioned there being 20 on the beach and asking Faraday, Miles, and Charlotte what happened to them. Juliet and Sawyer were the only others we saw accounted for. While some of them could well have been killed off the bulk of them could be running around flashing in time like the relevant characters. And conspicuous by their absence in the last episode were Rose and Bernard, who I assume would at least merit on an onscreen death. My guess is that sooner or later the group of characters we care about will run into Rose and Bernard leading a group of extras and we'll continue having a bunch of them for the near future.

There's a difference between defending it, though, and making the argument that it was all but predetermined because that's what TNA does. I think that was a horrible booking decision, even with the way that bps noted they seemed to try to protect Hernandez. It was just an all together bad move on TNA's part. That however has nothing to do with you arguing with people that there was no point in waiting to see how it plays out before condemning it. All because you believe TNA screws it up so much that its a safe and easy bet to just rip on them base on ambiguous spoilers. And like I said, I think the two weeks of LAX based spoiler arguments are a good example. I though the Hernandez/Sting match played out much better than it did in spoilers, but the LAX/Angle match played out as bad as it did in spoilers. Together they create a solid case for "wait until you see it before you can tear it apart." And there's plenty of time now for us to say we hated that match and it was a terribly booking decision. Now that we've seen it and KNOW what happened. Pulling up your comment from the spoiler thread and giving everyone a "See?" only serves to do 1 of 2 things. (1) Present a silly notion that this sets some sort of precedent or proved anything about TNA beyond one match; or (2) poke people who disagree with you to try and get a reaction. If the next set of spoilers has an ambiguous result that looks like it COULD work out for better or worse... and you assume the worst because of your opinion of TNA. You can probably safely assume that others will STILL not assume with you and will be content waiting the 3-10 days to see it before judging it fully. And there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with that to me. Its a standard I tend to apply to ECW and SD most of the time as well.

Yeah, but there's also a basic bigger picture issue. Beer Money slinking off has a likely result. Morgan and Abyss forget about them and get into their own thing. A tag team that has been a thorn in Beer Money's side for months no longer cares about them. But attacking one or both could well piss them off enough to continue the fight. In a worse case scenario you might even piss them off enough to have both them of them find tag partners and you've created 2 threats where you had none. Sometimes its just easier to walk away and stay out of people's business. Let two threats get distracted with each other and forget you even exist. Getting some shots in may satisfy your ego or hostility but in the long term it may well extend your grudge feud when you had the opportunity to end it. Because lets face it, in situations like that Beer Money probably would have been happy to walk away from that feud before the match. They have the belts. They're the heels. Odds are they would be ok getting away with as little damage as possible when the opportunity presented itself. It was Abyss and Morgan pushing the feud both for revenge for heel actions against them and to get the gold. I really think there's a lot of unexplored stories to tell with MitB. WWE has basically told the exact same story 3 out of 4 times and TNA's Feast or Fired version has repeated that story a couple of times. But there are plenty of other ways to go. Similar to RVD's usage a wrestler could well choose to do it in his hometown or a place special to him. WM is a clear option as is a repeat of using ONS to get a Hardcore match (or in TNA to use Lockdown for a cage). A face could well retain an advantage while being "noble" by challenging an opponent randomly but in a fair fight, retaining the element of surprise and advantage of preparation but not resorting to the heel usage Punk risked. There's been two ideas I've sort of imagined over the last year. With Punk I originally thought they were going to have him taunt the champions with the case. He did it a few times early on going to teh various champs and teasing that he could use it... but he didn't keep it up. I think extending that idea would be interesting with the MitB winner increasing his profile while getting in the head of the champion(s) looking for the right opportunity very publicly. Punk kind of just lurked in the background and then sprung on Edge. Edge's first win seemed to be more high profile and he used it to elevate himself even while feuding with Kane, Matt Hardy, and Flair. Another thing I sort of imagined with Punk or Hernandez in TNA was for the challenger to sort of go into training. Announce publicly that this was his big shot and he wanted to make sure he was in peak form. So he takes on challengers of all sizes and styles, eventers into a variety of match gimmicks, all under the notion that he wants to be ready for anything. You could play that out into a ton of high profile matches and gimmicks that win or lose, could elevate the guy. Some could turn into real feuds and some just mutual respect bouts. But all building up the guy as he doesn't look for the opportunity to take advantage of the champ at his weakest, but rather looks to use the shot at his (the challenger's) strongest. Its just fantasy booking but the point is I think there are plenty of unique stories left to tell with this notion. WWE's been pretty lazy with it and I'd really like to see them branch out. Its 1 story a year so the match could have amazing shelf life before you NEED to repeat stories. And 2 or 3 years without giving it to an opportunistic heel and doing the Edge move could seem fresh and exciting again. And as was said, it serves as a cheap booking tactic to give a bunch of midcarders something to do in a crowd pleasing match every WM. And while that's a bit of a booking crutch, its one that WWE can use since they tend not to put much focus on their midcard.

Which is exactly how the Angle/LAX match turned out. I have no idea what you expect from this shit eating posts. Something being as bad as you thought it would be doesn't prove ANYTHING. It doesn't prove that things will always or often go as bad as you suspect. It doesn't prove that TNA always does it that bad. It doesn't make you right or wrong. There's no logical way for someone to take that out of it. Its like us having this conversation. "A-Rod will strike out here. He always strikes out with the bases loaded." "I don't think that's true. Even if it happens a lot he's certainly succeeded a great deal as well and can easily get a hit here." "Its true. Trust me." A-Rod strikes out. "See? He always strikes out. You should believe me when I say things like that." Him striking out in that instance does make the claim true. It just means it happened. Maybe because the statement WAS true and he does strike out a ton with the bases loaded. Or maybe it was just dumb luck. But nothing was proved by that experiment if you actually look at it honestly and intelligently. You come into TNA threads, read the potentially bad spoiler, and argue against any remotely positive alternative on the grounds that its TNA and you think TNA always screws up. Fine. That's a subjective opinion you're entitled to. But it sure seems like you want everyone to adopt your subjective opinion as standard. And that's just ridiculous. I mean, this was a waste. That booking was a disaster. I hated it. I can't do anything but criticize TNA. But going back one week I completely disagree with you and I thought Hernandez came off MUCH better than he did in the spoilers and in your subjective opinion. And these are simply our differing subjective opinions. So I have no idea what you hope to prove by posts like this except to get under the skin of people who happen to think differently than you.

The MEM Impact was kind of amazing. A trainwreck, obviously, but a hugely entertaining one. It was actually so entertaining that when Foley and Cornette got the show back it just felt like a huge buzzkill and the rest of the show just happened. Everything once Tenay and West returned to the booth was just the same thing we've seen for months. Before that there was something different, good or bad. It was something that didn't just blend in and become forgettable like so much of TNA the last X months. The clean win for Angle was horrible. I hate it whenever WWE does it and I hated it there. Even without the spoilers it seemed obviously Angle had to win against the odds going into a title match in 10 days but I thought for sure we'd see some kind of interference or clusterfuck so that really threw me. Booking that really made no sense except to elevate Angle when he doesn't need it and to do it at the expense of guys you actually have involved in title pictures. That was a really entertaining first hour+ and the bottom just fell out to a pointless and demoralizing main event. Ah well.

I'm definitely expecting that with the revelation that Widmore was financing Faraday's research and the theory that Faraday's mom (Elie) and Widmore were on the island together. I'll even go one step further and speculate that next week's episode ends with Desmond and Penny meeting Faraday's mom only for Penny to end the episode saying "Mother?!" EDIT: That is to say that if we think Elie is the old woman and Faraday's mom... and we think Widmore might be Faraday's dad... they were on the island together and both ended up off the island but seeking it in some way. If Widmore is Daniel's father that makes him and Penny siblings and since I don't remember ever hearing anything about Penny's mom/Widmore's wife I could see them finishing off the family for the high strings shocker.

I have an unreasonable love for Muppets for an adult but I was pretty iffy on the Sesame Street theme. I probably would have gone with Cox as the safer bet. At least until I heard Elmo say "What, she your woman?"

Yeah, those lines definitely seemed to just be tossed in to cover up for the character changes. The episode read like an intro to the interns when it kind of ignored the development they had already had (Kellie "not being a jerk" anymore while being a jerk; Denise putting on the show for JD at the start and then him being surprised by her true self). They mocked JD's beard a couple of times like it was new when its been there for 4 episodes. JD explains why Kelso was hanging around even though we've established that already even in its own sub plot. And the "ABCs" title certainly seems like it fits. My guess is not only did they add those Elliot lines to make this episode fit but they pulled that scene where JD points to the ABC watermark out and moved it to the new premiere. Going back and watching it its a stand alone scene that can easily be plugged in anywhere but fits only as the first scene of the season. The whole thing seems to flow better in E5, E1, E2, E3, E4, E6 order. They cut down the time between Courtney Cox's firing and Dr. Cox's hiring, JD and Elliot getting together is followed by them getting back into the relationship groove, and the interns all develop much more naturally. The only things that end up looking out of place are the two off camera Elliot lines and the watermark joke, both which seem added in. Probably just a case of them deciding the Courtney Cox episodes were a stronger start and adjusting.

Well I think for the most part the Mafia really aren't against the "Originals" or even "TNA" itself. They're just using Sting's whole "respect" philosophy as an excuse to protect their spots and beat down the next generation. Really its just about the money and power. So if Morgan isn't threatening to take their spot then no big deal. At least for the time being him keeping Abyss busy and doing a number on him probably saves the Mafia from having to worry about him. I've thought all along that guys like the MCMG and Morgan could easily be presented as allies for the Mafia as long as they "showed the proper respect" and were ok with a pecking order. As long as they didn't look to take the spots the Mafia wanted then its a mutually beneficial relationship. This latest "destroy TNA" thing Angle has seems to be rooted in his anger over Jarrett. Jarrett pissed Angle off so now Angle's trying to destroy his company, or something. But that was never the goal of the Mafia like it was with the nWo (or the WCW/ECW Alliance, or SEX in TNA/Russo's past). Although Angle's insanity may have made it that.

Yeah. Its basically just Cornette and Foley pushing Sting on the clear fact that the Mafia are full of shit and have been going well beyond "wanting respect" for awhile. And Sting seems like he's been breaking a little and has objected to Angle's decisions of late, sometimes in passing ways to other people and most recently straight to Angle's face. And that's come at the same time that the rest of the Mafia are starting to address Angle directly as their leader whereas when the group started they all kind of presented Sting as the defacto leader given he was the champ. So its just 2 philosophies from 2 leaders slowly reaching a breaking point. And its Sting, so you know. It has to happen.

You know, the roster standing around didn't really bother me. I took it as a "Let Them Fight!" sort of thing. If Legacy had ever actually gotten the advantage as they should have, THEN they should have stepped in. But all we saw was Shane dominating Legacy. And why get involved in that? Orton "deserves it." Shane "deserves it." Let Shane give Randy a beating. Everything else though? Yeah, that sucked.

Haven't the Mafia proven that they'd do everything in their power to ensure Sting walk out champion in ANY situation? It strikes me as silly to reference the Mafia being ringside as an issue when the primary story in TNA is how they constantly beat down people as a group and play numbers games. Why would a run down the aisle change that? If anything the last 2 weeks were a small window in which the Mafia were a bit undermanned with Nash out. My problem with that segment was (a) that Hernandez was stupid not to have Homicide with him when the match started. That's just silly writing and THAT was something that he should have done to offset the numbers. It would have been just as stupid if the Mafia wasn't there to start but that just highlighted it. And (b) TNA failed to follow up on it including the next week. But unfortunately that's been a common problem in TNA since the move to Spike. So many midcard stories take full weeks off to make room for the primary stories. We saw the same with the Guns not appearing on TV the Impact after having the match of the night on PPV. Its a problem, but not one terribly unexpected or particular. I'm also not sure it a major problem to the regular viewer as much as any prospective casual viewers (besides just wanting to see more of LAX and MCMG and less of the MEM). And it does seem like LAX gets the story followed up on this week. Far from ideal, but pretty common MO for TNA that I guess I've gotten used to. Of course its purely subjective whether that segment was crap or brilliance. Your stand seems clear. I'm not a fan of the looks of that main event but I'm assuming there's extra curricular. And I have no real problem with Angle beating LAX in a handicapped match if its booked to be a clusterfuck rather than the old WWE "main eventer dominates tag team because he's a main eventer." If its that I'll hate it, no doubt. And see it as an absurd move if only because you're burying a future X title contender, even if the tag team, undercard, and Hernandez are meaningless to you. But it seems like its a decent chance that LAX mixing it up with the Mafia and getting the main event is all an effort to get them involved in the top story and follow up on the Hernandez/Sting match. So if that's the case it seems likely to assume that they are protected in some way. Whether that "protection" works? I have no idea. It might not even exist. But if I went into every Impact or set of spoilers assuming 99% of what they did was shit I would have stopped watching or caring at about the same time I developed that opinion. EDIT: The rest of the show looks like it could be a lot of fun. But it also looks like it could drive many critics of TNA insane. Anyone understandably frustrated by the MEM domination in TNA, the Frontline/TNA ineffectiveness, and the lack of wrestling may well just see this episode as an increase of what they hate. I've had that argument with some friends already. But the way I see it, at 9 PM all those criticisms about TNA will be valid and they will remain valid at 11 PM. But for 2 hours TNA might put on a pretty entertaining version of that product. Sure, it would be better if it was bookmarked by a few weeks of great wrestling and a more balanced story, but it is what it is. So I can see how those spoilers would send someone going in either direction. Its either a potentially fun sports entertainment episode or a strong example of what you hate about TNA.

So now this is a forum that speaks in kayfabe? I thought the only poster here who speaks in kayfabe is JN News. How is that kayfabe? Don't people in the TV and Movie forums constantly reference the character's motivations and discuss their actions? Don't we constantly criticize the actions of the character? Are all those people who call Samoa Joe a whiner calling Samoa Joe the performer a whiner? Or his character on TNA programming? Teddy Long, the performer, is doing what the writer asked him to do. Teddy Long, the GM of SD, did something that seems stupid for a GM to do. Because the writers wrote it that way. Just like Swagger looks like a coward because he ran away from Boogey and someone looks like a loser because he loses a match. Actually reacting to the programming is "keeping kayfabe"? I just assumed it was the point of watching actors and performers act. To actually watch their characters and the make believe worlds they live in. EDIT: And yeah, there could be an added part to a "trade" that isn't mentioned, of course. But on the surface Long simply letting a valuable superstar go seems like a bad GM move.

He's blaming the character. Because the character was written to release Hardy from his contract and free him up to go to SD. Thus he criticizes the character's decision. Its like someone criticizing the actions of Locke from Lost. And coming back with "Locke didn't really decide to push that button. The Lost writers simply wrote him to do that because they wanted it to happen. Don't use that action to help shape your opinion of the character. It was the writers' fault."

I think Matt's turn can easily be explained with basic frustration as long as you don't tie him to the accidents. And his frustration could have built for a long time. Him helping Jeff only adds to that if Matt makes it a deal where Jeff was never there to help him. And losing to Swagger with Jeff nowhere to be found is what really hammered it home for him. Of course if Matt threw Jeff down a flight of stairs months ago and kept helping him? Then its a bit ridiculous.

If I remember correctly Bubba was about to answer Tenay's question as to which of the two would win the title if they have a choice. And Bubba and Devon seemed like they had a real answer instead of the two of them fighting over it. So my guess is that it was supposed to be us not hearing that and somehow the question of the Dudleyz' motivation will continue up to the PPV. Which is silly and pretty pointless but I dunno... I don't see the point in getting annoyed by it. I think it was clear that it wasn't a production fuck up they failed to fix, what with the show being taped two weeks ago and being done a week after the Dudleyz actually won those titles in Japan. The day after the Dudleyz were in the house so were almost certainly still there or at least could have been. It was an angle. Probably a stupid and pointless one, but hopefully a harmless one. I'm just assuming that the is all leading to the PPV. AJ gets taken out this week leaving the Frontline to basically be the Dudleyz and the B Team. Angle and Sting are conflicted and they're raising the issue of Sting's moral feelings about the Mafia more and more. So leading into the PPV Angle rallies Booker and Steiner and convinces the Dudleyz that they're on the wrong side and they're fighting a war by themselves. With no AJ, Joe, and Rhino there to counter it this probably works. Then you have Angle betraying Sting at the PPV, the Dudleyz turning, and Angle as the champ. Joe, AJ, (Jarrett?), and Rhino return either there or on Impact as the Frontline make that push to Lockdown (in which they may actually start winning decisively) probably with Sting in tow. I honestly think its a solid enough story (especially if you have AJ and Joe bring Daniels to strengthen the Frontline) but it means another couple of weeks of treading water and another PPV with a weak card. As it is Against All Odds has the 4 way main event, what looks like Booker/Shane Sewell, Morgan/Abyss, Kong/ODB, and Joe, AJ, Jarrett, and Rhino all possibly off the show. So unless they do a 30 minute rematch of Shelley/Sabin followed by a 20 minute Shelley/Homicide match its going to be tough to really make a card that isn't a really weak PPV. And TNA seems to have been doing a lot of weak looking cards both on PPV and Impact all in the name of telling this story of the Main Event Mafia's dominance. Which again, I assume HAS to lead to the Frontline's recovery in time for Lockdown, but which makes for some really boring treading of water.

Being at home means home cooked meals. Eating healthier and controlling your diet. It also means a workout routine optimized for you and plenty of rest and good living. Being on the road means long hours, getting work outs in when you can. Harder to control your diet or schedule meals or eat healthy. Harder to get rest and proper treatment. Maybe even pills or just loads of coffee to keep you going. Whatever Big Show's routine is its a lot harder to make sure you do X hours on the treadmill and Y well balanced meals if you're riding around and working shows.

I'm not much to understand the science of this but in order for Charlie to swim out of the window wouldn't he be fighting against the pressure of the ocean as the water pounded in? Wouldn't that have been a pretty difficult task, especially for a guy who was shown to be a pretty iffy swimmer when weighted to the bottom? I mean, I guess I don't know that he couldn't have done it but it seems like a long shot to me. My bigger problem was always why the hell did he lock the door? Wouldn't it have made more sense to just use the extra time the entire place afforded him to try and get and Desmond out of there? Unless there's some kind of "cabin pressure" issue involved (which again, I'm not good with the science) where the station would have started flooding from the docking pool if he did that. But even if that's the case I always thought he had the time to get out of the room and THEN close the door to keep the rest of the station from flooding/getting de-pressured. But I also do agree that Charlie thinking "I need to die to fulfill his vision and get Claire and Aaron off the island" makes sense. It was his motivation for going down instead of Desmond when he fully expected to die. Charlie never meant to make it out of that alive. Mikhail simply provided the means for Desmond's vision to come true. Charlie might have been able to escape it, but that would have just kept the whole "Final Destination" thing going and possibly prevented the payoff of Claire and Aaron escaping. Of course Claire never got on a helicopter so...

Assuming that "CC will replace what Mussina gave and Burnett will replace what Pettitte gave" is true, which is a bit debatable, it ignores Wang. He missed the majority of the season last year and should in theory be healthy and giving them production on top of this. So even if Burnett fails to improve on Pettitte and CC fails to improve on Mussina Wang has to then fail to improve on Ponson or Rasner in order for the Yanks to not see some sort of significant upgrade to the rotation.