Hunter's Torn Quad

Thinks Thursday’s IMPACT will do a .9. Says the final quarter should be up from what it usually is. Bryan referenced the Jarrett/Steiner vs. Cage/Sting deal to being similar to the old Horseman teases, where Sting’s partner would turn on him and join the Horseman. Dave said that TNA has it’s timetable for everything, and everything is booked out to February. Bryan asked Dave about TNA’s booking, saying that he heard they had everything booked out for the year at the start of the year, and presumes they didn’t have it set for Christian to drop the NWA belt in June. Dave confirmed that, and said that, while they have their plans set out, they can change if things don’t work out. Dave thinks the bottle thrown at Jarrett turned out to be good heat because they got the two biggest audiences for TV the next two weeks. When Jarrett held the title the last time and fans hated it, TNA knew it was the wrong kind of heat, but this time they feel it’s the right kind of heat. Bryan likened it to a DX skit that starts out funny, then it gets bad and is bad for so long that turns funny. Says that Jarrett started off with heat, then it turned into the “go away” heat, and he had that heat for so long that it turned into the good heat. Dave comments that if you’re on top for so long that, even if fans hate you being on top, you end up getting accepted on top.

Kurt Angle has to want to get better. Getting his release might wake Angle up, but with his mindset, Angle is just as likely to find somewhere else he can wrestle as he is to get better. This release by no means guarantee Angle sorting himself out.

As Mod of the apparent problem forum, I've had one PM in the last six months making any kind of complaint, and it wasn't even regarding something in the WWE forum.

If Hogan is physically capable of truly putting someone over, and the right wrestler comes along, he should do it. It's called doing what's right for business.

You are a fucking moron. And you need to calm down. No need for flaming here.

It was a fluke pin and Hurricane sprinted to the back before anyone could blink. The only one put over in that match was Steve Austin for causing Rock to lose. That was just a job, not Hurricane being put over.

I love how people think Hogan put Goldberg and Rock over. Hogan did a job for Goldberg, but where were they both after that? Goldberg was stuck in the semi-main, and sometimes not even on a PPV, while Hogan was still in the main event and the focal point of virtually everything. The idea that Hogan put Rock over at WM 18 is laughable though I’m not surprised that some people either cannot or will not see through it. Hogan did the job, but where was all the focus in the post-match? It wasn’t on Rock for beating Hogan. It was on Hogan for being such a gracious and humble loser and being all respectful. Hogan did the job but once again masterfully stole the spotlight in such a way that some people still can’t see it. People are, again, confusing doing a job for someone with putting them over. They are not always the same thing. Rock did a job for Hurricane, but Hurricane wasn’t put over a lick from that. Nash did a clean job for Rey Mysterio, but I defy anyone to say that Mysterio got anything from it. Doing a job for someone that actually puts them over means they get the spotlight, they get the focus and they get elevated. It isn’t losing to someone and keeping the spotlight, staying the main focus and the winner staying on the same level they were before. Hogan’s jobs for Goldberg and Rock were classic examples; Hogan kept the spotlight, Hogan remained the focus, and neither guy got elevated from the win because of where the spotlight and focus remained.

And when they did do it with one of them, Undertaker, it was for someone that anyone with a brain knew had zero upside (Khali).

I think of those three, Austin would be the most willing to put someone over.

There's more than a touch of irony in WWE naming their next 'ECW' PPV after one of the few ECW Arena cards never to get released on video.

They used to in WWE, but after Madusa dumped her title belt in the bin on a live Nitro, they got paranoid about it happening again and so the belt stays with someone else, usually a road agent, in between events. They can still get lost from time to time, though. Edge said when he won the IC title in 99, he set it on top of the TV in his hotel room and stared at it. I'm sure they got less worried about a Madusa repeat once it became clear that WCW was somewhere nobody wanted to go anymore. The funny thing is that WWE didn't even bother doing anything as revenge when they brought back Haku while Haku was still the WCW Hardcore champion and he still had the belt.

Hoyt was over with the ringsiders because he always went to the bar and drank with them after all the shows. I don't think anyone in TNA fooled themselves into thinking Hoyt got pops from them for any other reason. Hoyt isn't that bad, but he's nothing more than midcard material at best, and that might be a stretch.

--Some more WWE DVD news. The Hogan DVD will be called the "Ultimate Anthology," The Piper DVD will be called "Born to Controversy" and the Brian Pillman DVD will be called "Loose Cannon." --The Pillman DVD will be a 95 minute documentary on his career in football, Stampede Wrestling, Hollywood Blonds, Four Horseman, ECW, car accident Hart Foundation and more. The match list is: *Bruce Hart & Brian Pillman vs. Midnight Cowboys 4/23/88 for International tag team titles *Pillman vs. Lex Luger 10/28/89 Halloween Havoc *Pillman & Tom Zenk vs. Michael Hayes & Jimmy Garvin 2/12/90 *Pillman & Austin doing "A Flare for the Old" segment on WCW TV *War Games 1991 with Pillman & Sting & Steiners vs. Four Horsemen *Pillman vs. Ricky Morton 10/27/91 *Pillman & El Gigante vs. Barry Windham & Arn Anderson 6/12/91 loser leaves town match to lead to the Yellow Dog angle *Pillman & Windham vs. Johnny Gunn & Zenk 12/26/92 *Pillman & Austin vs. Ricky Steamboat & Shane Douglas 5/23/93 *WCW Thundercage with Pillman & Sting & Dustin Rhodes vs. Paul Orndorff & Austin & rick Rude *Pillman vs. Jushin Liger from the first mach of the very first episode of Nitro *Pillman vs. Dean Malenko 1/22/96 Nitro *Pillman vs. Eddie Guerrero 1/23/96 Clash of Champions (where Pillmans scared Bobby Heenan half to death) *Pillman vs. Austin 6/16/97 Raw *7/6/97 Calgary Stampede Hart Foundation vs. Austin & Shamrock & LOD & Goldust (I can tell you from talking to Pillman right after this match ended that this match was the personal highlight of his career) *Pillman vs. Goldust 9/7/97 *Pillman vs. Liger 2/22/92 SuperBrawl from Milwaukee These are the dates WWE has listed. I know off the top of my head the SuperBrawl was 2/29/92 so others may be off as well

--ECW last night did a 2.3 rating. And I think Jingus makes a lot of valid points, and presented them well. If you dislike what he said that much Downhome, try countering them.

The problem is that you've got someone who was on the lowest rung of the ladder on Raw going to ECW and getting what will likely be a strong push. It doesn't make ECW look that good when they get given the dregs of Raw as their 'stars'. It's almost the same with Holly. Holly might not be the worst worker in the world, but he's been midcard for so long, how does it make ECW look when someone like that gets put in ECW and pushed immediately to the top?

-Raw got a 4.1 --Funny backstage story at the Raw tapings today. Apparently the management mindset is how HHH and Michaels got the better of Hogan, apparently the joke is how HHH is bragging "I got three words for you...Suck it brother." I didn't see it that way. Looked to me that Hogan did the crotch chop and got a big rise, and HHH did the ear cupping and couldn't get close to the reaction Hogan got earlier, and it showed in his face. According to one person, Hogan punked them out and HHH, Shawn or the braintrust can't accept it.

August 21st No new deal for ECW TV has been signed yet, but it’s expected to be signed eventually. Vince wants “significant” rights fees; the original deal was dirt cheap as they needed to get on TV, but now the ratings are so much higher than predicted, Vince is playing hardball. NBC turned down Vince’s demand for a raise in rights fees, claiming there is no money in the Sci-Fi budget for that expense. NBC Universal wants the mobile phone rights, which Vince isn’t willing to give up. Both sides have agreed to repeat showings, but WWE want more pay for that. With no US deal, WWE hasn’t done a production budget for shows after 8/22. WWE pulled Great Khali off of Summerslam because the house show matches were so terrible they weren’t going to risk putting it on live TV. They put it on Smackdown so they would have plenty of time to edit the match so that it could be aired. Apparently, what you see of Khali on Smackdown is so heavily edited that there are a lot of bad things you never get to see. There was an argument to keep the match on the PPV because they had advertised it, but the majority argument, that the match would be so bad why ruin a good show, won out. The feeling is that they can something out of Khali because of his size, but they cannot risk doing anything with him on live broadcasts. Dave pointed out that they’ve put some “rank amateurs”, like Zeus (albeit in a tag match) on PPV before, but this guy was so bad they got scared off of putting him out there. The talk among the wrestlers is that the only drug you can get away with doing is pot. While some have beaten the testing, many guys, maybe even most, are getting off steroids. Though, there will always be exceptions. As things stand, Mysterio will be working wit Chavo until their program ends at which point he’ll be taking time off for major knee surgery that he has needed for some time. Mysterio is believe to knee full reconstructive knee surgery, so he’ll be out at least six months. The angle, and it may be it at Summerslam, as that Chavo is coming out of retirement for one match. Kurt Angle is working on a bad groin muscle, and it’s an injury he suffered before suspension. There has also been a drop in the level of respect towards Angle buy the wrestlers. At ECW shows, he’s always going to Dean Malenko with ideas to change things, not just for himself but for other people. People are talking openly about it, in a negative way, and Angle is being told to not make it so obvious what he’s doing for his own political good. The 12/3 ECW PPV was moved from Chicago to Augusta, GA. The Hammerstein Ballroom crowd on 8/1 led to the change, even though some were outwardly saying the reaction was great. Four new writers were hired, one of whom, John Carle, is described as knowing absolutely nothing about wrestling. The segments with Vickie Guerrero, Chavo and Rey on Smackdown were Vince’s idea. Dean Malenko was the agent for the angles, and while they were going over it, Malenko was nodding and approving it and told Vince that Eddie would have loved it. All of the ECW originals who were brought in for the project are considered to be tenuous at best, with the one closest to getting let go Francine, as Vince doesn’t think she is up to WWE standards; at the ONS PPV Vince went up to Laurinitis and asked who hired someone who looked like that (Francine). The only thing keeping here around is they need someone to lose to Kelly in the Bikini contests, but once those are done with she’s likely gone. The page on the WWE website detailing the steroid policy has been removed. The original wording had it that a positive test meant an immediate suspension, but now the policy is to keep them around to tie up loose ends and doing TV jobs before suspending them. There is talk among the wrestlers of reforming Too Cool, with Rikishi and Brian Christopher coming back, and possibly adding Ron Killings to the mix. Christopher was backstage at Memphis talking to John Laurinitis about coming back, but was said to have done himself no favors has his behavior has not changed from the last time he was there, when he lasted about a week before getting fired. There has been interest express in Killings, but nothing can be done due to his TNA contract. Killings has been unhappy with his push lately, especially at the last tapings when he was asked to put over A1 and almost quit over it. It was readily admitted internally that Sabu botched a lot of the spots in his 8/8 match with Angle. Sabu was telling people he was knocked silly from an early suplex and was going on fumes. Court TV will be covering the hearings regarding Ric Flair’s alimony to his ex-wife Beth. She currently receives $275,000 a year in alimony from Ric, but wants a lot more. Sean O’Haire has been trying to get back in the company. Johnny Fairplay and his girlfriend were set to have a second meeting with John Laurinitis this past weekend about coming in. His girlfriend is said to look like Lita, which might help her chances, but Fairplay didn’t help his cause the first time when he was asked what brand he wanted to be on and said “ECW”, which saw him labeled as a “mark”, because you’re meant to say you want to be on Raw, as it’s considered the top brand. Mysterio did an autograph session Mexico on 8/11 that drew 5,000 people to a shopping mall. He only signed for about half the people before getting rushed out, and the people turned away trashed the mall. Robert Brisko, a referee, and Eric Langley, a trainer, have quit OVW and it’s now said to be total chaos down there. Not from WON but the latest Figure Four Weekly: The demotion of Tommy Dreamer apparently came at a great time, because Danny Davis, who owns and runs OVW, was on the verge of ending things with WWE. August 23rd Internally, Kurt Angle is severely downplaying how badly injured his groin is (possibly torn), one friend has said that it’s pretty bad. The feeling was that with his mentality and the injury that he had to be pulled from the ladder match for his own good. Angle’s physical problems are not helped by his turbulent personal life, as he and his wife are divorcing after splitting and reuniting and also she is now pregnant with his first son. Angle is insisting to people he is not falling apart and wants to get in the ring to prove it. Foley got his angle in ECW changed, as the original plan was for Foley, Knox and Test to beat down Flair and Dreamer and Sandman would make the save. The storyline is controversial internally, because Foley ha creative control and isn’t doing anything he doesn’t want to. Also, some were questioning the ECW angle because Foley did the babyface promo and Flair did the heel attack. Some Summerslam notes: (written before the PPV) Vickie Guerrero is going to turn on Rey and manage Chavo, the Rey vs. Chavo blowoff is set for NO Mercy which will be Rey’s last date before knee surgery, and the DX/McMahon stuff will not be ending at Summerslam. Lita winning the women’s title was to set up a title match with Trish Stratus on Stratus’ last night, and was done because they have history of feuding and it never really hit its stride due to injuries. While you’d expect Trish to get humiliated on her way out, there is a good chance that she’ll get a happy ending and giving her a positive sendoff. Chris Masters has left rehab for his painkiller addiction and should be back on the road soon. Khali’s Last Man Standing match was a temporary blowoff as he is getting knee surgery. Called the Sabu/RVD ladder match a complete disaster.

That its more entertaining than Raw. I've had bowel movements more entertaining than Raw.

Wrestling is at it's best when you can be watching it when people come into the room and not hurry to change channel. WWE have gone so far in the other direction it's not even funny.

When the best you can say about ECW is "for WWE , it's not that bad", what does that say about the real quality of the product?

Is ECW TV not the best wrestling show on TV then?

Scotsman did one fake column purely to fool Scherer, but he had nothing to do with the real 'Willie'.

Roode is close to Scott D'Amore.

It was Van Dam.

I don't see another boom period happening while the usual suspects are around. If anyone gets hot they almost always get buried, either by design or stupidity. It's going to take a complete overhaul of the 'creative' mindset at WWE for the necessary intangibles for a wrestling boom to remain in place without being tampered with and rendered useless.