Hunter's Torn Quad

I wonder if people who make that statement ever stop to think what they're actually saying.

The order of entry is pre-determined, obviously. Key spots, major eliminations and important angles are laid out ahead of time, but the general flow of a Rumble is ad-libbed, but allowing for the key moments to take place when they're meant to.

Shame you can't say the same thing about PPV buys, which is where the money is made.

When?

Asking them to go to OVW was a nice way of telling them to quit.

And this is because...?

I reviewed that match, and others that sucked, here: Reviews of shitty matches It sucked like few matches have ever sucked.

Three more new faces, making four in total.

Because of the UFC's Fight Night next Thursday, next week's Impact is being moved to Wednesday.

Why did he deserve it?

And again, I'm almost positive I've seen Perfect take the same bump. I'd hate to turn this into one of those stupid "if wrestler X did it..." debates, but I don't get why it's so unprofessional in Shawn's case while Perfect gets a free pass on that stuff. Perfect took similar bumps, and I know the bump he did that I'm sure is the one you're thinking of, but he never did bumps like that. Perfect did his to get over the strength of his opponent and were done to make the other guy look good. Shawn's, in that match, were done purely to make the match into a joke because he was upset over having to do the job. Perfect never did that, which is where the difference is.

It's almost like people are proud of the idea of destroying Andre's reputation. I wouldn't know firsthand of course, but I imagine there's a difference between prime Andre and the guy who was a shell of his former abilities by 1986. Andre's rep for being a tough guy was down to his size and strength, which doesn't always equate into being able to handle yourself in a fight. Such was the mystique around Andre that virtually all of the US wrestlers and journalists around for the Maeda-Andre deal were convinced it was a work because they simply could not accept that Andre was unable to beat up Maeda.

The ratings mean nothing if PPV buys don't go up, because that's where the money is made. The December PPV was back down to normal TNA levels, and Sunday's PPV might have even gone down from that. Big ratings are great, but they don't mean anything if those high ratings aren't translating into increased PPV buys.

Yeah, I watched this match last night to see if HBK really was overselling, and I wouldn't say it was that bad. He flops around like a fish out of water after taking the big boot, but that's about it as far as I can see. Shawn took a ridiculous bump off of getting his head rammed into the turnbuckle. He decided to sell it by jumping onto the second turnbuckle and doing a rolling senton. That was way over the top. Wasn't Akira Maeda the guy that decided to shoot on Andre the Giant in a match? Andre was visibly confused and yelling at the referee after taking a million stiff kicks to the legs. IIRC, Andre never wrestled in Japan again after that. The story behind that was Maede wasn't popular with a lot of people in New Japan, so they talked Andre into no-selling everything Maeda did, and, believing Andre's rep, figured he would take care of Madea with ease. Unfortunately, Andre's rep for toughness was more reputation than reality, because while he could no-sell Maeda's offense that was about all he could do, and it wasn't long before Andre was prone on the mat from taking so many kicks.

Before Russo took over the book, Berlyn's only losses, that I can find, were DQ losses to Buff Bagwell on house shows. Berlyn was unbeaten on TV. While Russo's first Nitro saw Berlyn beat Rick Steiner, it was the job to Armstrong that was Berlyn's first pinfall loss, a clean one, and one that made zero sense and seemed to be done just to surprise.

The finish to Raw makes me think they're laying the groundwork for Shawn to win the Rumble, and then the WWE Title at WM. And Shawn not needing anyone to handle RKO might also be a prelude to his turning on Hunter, as per the scenario I laid out in the Rumble thread; Shawn wins the title and then turns on Hunter, only now the catalyst is going to be Shawn realizing that he doesn't need Hunter.

What sense does it make for Cena to lay Umaga out now, on free TV, when that's the very thing meant to be the lure into making us want to pay for it? Once Cena knocked Umaga down, I don't think we saw Umaga again in that segment. It was certainly longer than a ten count from the time Cena left Umaga laying than when Cena FU'd AAA and paraded around triumphant. And why does HBK need Hunter? Shawn had both of Rated RKO down and out, ran Edge off like a scared puppy and left Orton a mess, and this was after taking a 2-on-1 beating. If Shawn can do that on his own, why does he need Hunter?

Would it have been a 'smark' crowd if it was at TV taping? What does it matter if the crowd were 'smarks' or not? Punk got a big reaction. He's been getting consistent reactions week to week. It's not something fans of his are making up.

Wrestlemag And with a PPV rematch on free TV, it'll be the free TV that gets the clean finish.

Surprised, given that both would still have been under contract after that year was up. Even if you buy the argument that they had to get to the feud right away, for whatever reason, there were far better ways to do it that wouldn't have wound up doing less and less business each time out and turned both guys from being something special into being just two more guys on the roster.

Russo has been so 'good' that he ran through Joe vs. Angle in three months, with decreasing interest as the weeks went buy and now neither man is special anymore. To take a real dream feud like Joe vs. Angle and to not only have finished it in just three months but also end up making it completely uninteresting takes talent.

Luger didn't make Liz mix drink and drugs. I'm not a fan of Lex at all, but Liz died of her own hand, and it's not as if she's the first person to ever mix drink and drugs with fatal consequences.

Shouldn't a Last Man Standing match be a feud ender? Instead of being the blow off to the feud, it's just another match in the feud? Where else can they go with AJ and Rhino? Have you noticed that Russo only seems to know one finish to three-way X-Division title matches, and that's the champion loses the belt but doesn't get pinned? If Backlund isn't coming back, why was he treating Starr like a jobber and having to be pulled off of him? Starr should be throwing Backlund off. Is Starr going to get any kind of payback for that? For what was built up like a grudge match, the Iron Man match was wrestled very sedately. You'd think Joe would be going nuts on Angle, and vice versa considering Angle has been acting like a madman in a bunch of segments, but instead it was like just another match. Not to mention it never really decided who the best man was. Angle won the match, but he was tapping out right at the bell. It didn't elevate either man.

Give it up. The company was fucked before Russo came back. I disagree. The dildo was only tapping TNA lightly on the ass cheeks before Russo came in. Instead of pulling it back, Russo just rammed that baby right up TNA's ass. Now, they might actually be fucked.

Just reading what happened gives you a headache. Are TNA really going to let this kind of stuff go on? What is it going to take for TNA to realize or accept that Russo needs to be removed?