Hunter's Torn Quad

My last(?) pick is someone who fits the style of my promotion, serious wrestling, but also adds personality and entertainment, which is important when we go to North America. He's primarily noted for his MMA career, with wins over Frank and Ken Shamrock, and also being a former UFC Heavyweight champion. However, he's also worked for New Japan a number of times, which is where he becomes eligible. His style and personality make him a perfect fit for my promotion, with his wit and charisma making him a great choice for those all important promotional appearances. For my next pick I'm going 100% Guapo... Bas Rutten!

Edge vs. Undertaker (Hell in a Cell Match) Undertaker wins here. And I don't see Edge taking a 'Mick Foley bump'. WWE have gone away from that sort of thing for a long time now, and even if they were to go back to it, I don't see them doing so with someone who is both a franchise player and a little injury prone. WWE Champion Triple H vs. The Great Khali Triple H wins, but I wouldn't be surprised to see a DQ win. Smackdown has a dearth of people they can headline with, so I think they'll use the fact the HIAC is going last to go with a non-finish here and extend the program a little more. World Heavyweight Champion CM Punk vs. JBL CM Punk retains, but it'll be another finish where he pulls the win out of nowhere, rather than the more decisive major win he really needs. ECW Champion Mark Henry vs. Matt Hardy Henry retains here, but they'll keep the program going because there isn't really anyone else on ECW who can 'main event' John Cena vs. Batista I don't see a finish here, and if they have one, no matter who is involved, it'll be even more stupid than having the match take place this quickly with so little build. I think we'll see the match start out clean and then tempers will flare and it'll become a total brawl. The match will wind up in a double disqualification but eventually both guys will calm down and we might even see a show of mutual respect. I think it's clear Batista is turning heel at some point, but I don't think it's now. I think we'll see it a little later in the year, maybe in time for both men to captain opposing teams at Survivor Series. Montel Vontavious Porter vs. Jeff Hardy MVP seems to be the whipping boy of the Matt Hardy, and it'll probably be no different here. Kofi Kingston & Women’s Champion Mickie James vs. Santino Marella & Beth Phoenix in a winner take all match Don't care.

Then it's my turn, and I'm choosing a second announcer. As announcers go, he's a very good one, and his style of announcing fits in perfectly with my promotion. My next pick is... Mauro Ranallo!

Are you picks going up anytime soon?

Where did you hear this? Show got the belt when did because Austin went down and they wanted both to send the fans home happy and justify his near $1m per-year contract. I don't think I've heard anyone put forward the story that Show had some kind of penalty clause in his contract.

In his shoot interview with RF, Konnan claims that, amongst other things promised to him in order to get him and the rest of the Mexican wrestlers, he was promised a run tagging with Hogan. He might have been promised a US title run, but if he was, I think it was about the only thing promised to him that actually happened. Nope.

He was very serious. Then he went and trained with the wrestlers who were competing to be on the Olympic squad, and realized how far behind he was.

Non-finish.

Bravo was involved in illegal cigarette smuggling; it is, or was, a very lucrative business. As I understand it, an operation that Bravo was part of went wrong, and a large shipment for cigarettes were confiscated, by the RCMP. This obviously upset a lot of dangerous people, and Bravo apparently fell foul of them. Evidence suggests that Bravo not only knew his killers but was comfortable being around them; there was no sign of forced entry, and Bravo was killed while sitting down and watching hockey on TV. Nobody has been charged in the crime, and likely never will be.

I don't believe any wrestler, including Hogan, has had a guaranteed title run written into their contract. No promoter would lock themselves into something like that. Hogan didn't really need such a clause anyway; his creative control meant that, title or not, he'd always be on top.

Nakanishi pinning Tanahashi was no surprise considering Nakanishi had yet to win a match so far, though Yano beating Nakamura was a bit of an upset. Block A: 1. Shinjiro Otani [6] 2. Manabu Nakanishi [4] - Togi Makabe [4] - Giant Bernard [4] - Satoshi Kojima [4] 6. Hiroshi Tanahashi [2] 7. Wataru Inoue [0] Block B: 1. Shinsuke Nakamura [6] 2. Yuji Nagata [4] - Toru Yano [4] - Toshiaki Kawada [4] - Yutaka Yoshie [4] 6. Hiroyoshi Tenzan [2] - Hirooki Goto [2] It looks like wins for Kojima (not necessarily a safe bet), Kawada, Nakanishi, Tanahashi, Nakamura (I hope) and Tenzan. I really hope Goto beats Nakamura, but I think New Japan will consider Goto's win over Tenzan enough for him this G1.

My next pick is another Japanese wrestler who's heel antics I feel would translate well with a North American audience. Of course, he'd be a more serious wrestler in Japan, so I feel I'm getting the best of both worlds. My next pick is... Katsuyori Shibata!

Punk vs. Batista might have been one of the main events, but for interest and business it didn't actually mean a whole lot, hence not a lot of outrage over doing a rematch the next night. AJ vs. Kurt, for TNA, is a match that can draw interest and do business, so naturally when the match gets rematched four days later there is going to be frustration. People keep 'shitting on TNA' for the same mistakes over and over again because TNA makes the same mistakes over and over again. If WWE keep doing the same mistakes over and over again people will be just as critical of WWE as they are of TNA. It's just that WWE, usually, don't let things slide that far.

CM Punk vs. Batista isn't a match that could mean something, right now, on PPV, so it's not quite so bad to rematch it the next night on free TV. And I don't recall anyone suggesting TNA is the only company to do this.

The problem was that all of that was known and Hunter still wanted to go 18 minutes. Logic says with a guy in the condition of Steiner, to get the most out of him in the condition he was in, you don't go 18 minutes and expose his flaws. You're meant to work around flaws to get the most out of the worker, not use those flaws as an excuse to not even try.

Even if you don't agree with the idea of putting the match on PPV, it deserves more than 90 minutes of build.

Doesn't a match where Kurt puts his medals on the line sound like something you'd put on PPV? And if it's with AJ, why not have it where Kurt wants another match with AJ, but AJ will only agree if Kurt puts the medals up? Maybe even throw in another Sting appearance to screw AJ out of the win?

Heck of a way to piss off the fans who paid to see them wrestle on the PPV, and then get it for free four days later. That is the idea, yes.

Lesner vs. Herring (Round Three) Get it while you can.

It really is a thing of beauty seeing a LOT of people on the MMA boards get, quite literally, worked into a frenzy.

That is just about the only saving grace for IWA MS, the TPI. It usually is a damn good two-day event.

Sid could only do the enforcer role for so long before having to work a match, at which point it'll all be over and whatever luster he's kept will be gone when people see what he looks like now on the big stage.

He has to see Lesnar's antics right at the bell, though. Sheer brilliance.

I'm surprised that one wasn't mentioned already. Yeah, Jericho was outright sabotaged by Triple H when he arrived. It's been long documented, which is why I'm surprised it took this long to come up, but the Jericho one ranks up there.

Otani appears to be getting the outsider push this year, and Bernard or, more likely, Tanahashi look to be the New Japan wrestler who'll be the one to finally beat him. It'll probably be Tanahashi, as the next G1 card sees him take on Nakanishi, and Nakanishi is due for a win having lost both his matches so far. Block B looks set to feature someone spoiling Nakamura's hopes of making it to the final, and I'm hoping it'll be Hirooki Goto. NJPW, 8/13/08 (Samurai! TV) Tokyo Korakuen Hall 1. G1 Climax Special Tag: Tomohiro Ishii & Tomoaki Honma vs. Satoshi Kojima All Japan & Milano Collection AT 2. G1 Climax Special Tag: Tiger Mask & Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Toshiaki Kawada & Taichi Ishikari 3. G1 Climax - Block A: Wataru Inoue vs. Togi Makabe 4. G1 Climax - Block B: Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Toru Yano 5. G1 Climax - Block A:: Giant Bernard vs. Shinjiro Otani (ZERO1-MAX) 6. G1 Climax - Block B: Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Hirooki Goto 7. G1 Climax - Block B:Yuji Nagata vs. Yutaka Yoshie (DRADITION) 8. G1 Climax - Block A: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Manabu Nakanishi