Hunter's Torn Quad

Where exactly have you been for the last year? HHH has had one of the best years of his career because he's been so busy helping new guys get over. Sure he's had the title for most of the year, but Raw needs HHH as champion to keep the gears turning towards the future. In what his father-in-law's company billed as the largest Wrestlemania of all time, HHH tapped out to Chris Benoit in the center of the ring in Madison Square Garden, and you're kidding yourself if you think that The Rock, Steve Austin or Hogan would even consider doing that in the last match at Wrestlemania. The Undertaker won't even agree to lose in the undercard. HHH put Shelton Benjamin over twice and made him look like a star. HHH has made Randy Orton, and he's making his own character look like a sniveling pussy around big Dave to get Batista over. To say that HHH is burying people left in right in insanity when you look at the track record of almost every other long term World Champion of the last 10 years. What more can you possibly ask from the guy that wouldn't weaken his character and destroy his ability to get these young guys over? There hasn't been a bigger team player than HHH in the last 12 months. So he didn't put over Booker T? You know why that was? Because Booker T is mediocre in the ring, unintelligable on the mic and no longer a big fish in a small pond like he was in WCW. Smart fans really are on a witch hunt to knock HHH in any way possible, and there hardons for The Rock and Steve Austin blind them to the fact that both guys were every bit as bad as HHH at times, if not worse in Austin's case. Watching the results of the previous 3 years worth of cutting the legs off nearly every guy who could have become a superstar. Who did he get over ? Benoit, the guy who he never lost cleanly to outside of WM XX ? Benjamin, the guy whose challenge for a rematch he laughed off as if Benjamin was nothing ? Eugene, the babyface who he treated like crap in the cage match ? And I wonder how they've come to have to rely on HHH so heavily. Rock would absolutely have done it, and to say otherwise is beyond silly. Austin probably would have done it, if after some talking to. Hogan for sure wouldn't have done it without going into business for himself to steal the spotlight. And, if you think Hunter did the tap out purely out of the goodness of his heart, it's you who is kidding themselves. And what exactly would Kane beating Undi have acheived ? Better that the guy who ends the streak, if it ever does get ended, be someone who can really use the boost. Granted, Hunter waved the wand over Benjamin in their first singles match, but by blowing him off the way he did when Benjamin asked for a rematch, he let everyone know that he didn't take Benjamin seriously. And if the top star doesn't take someone seriously, why should anyone else ? That's a good one. Of course he is. He's got to make the guy he's going to beat for World Title #11 or whatever look good, so he looks good. Hunter makes people for one reason; so it means someone when he beats them, and sends them on their way to Midcard Town. Hunter has buried tons of people over the last five years or so, and if you don't see that, then you're blinkers must be on too tight. Hunter can't get to that magic 17th reign without dropping the belt a few more times. Every time Hunter has dropped the belt, it's been to get it back as and when he wants to, so he can beat Flair's record. He hasn't done it to be any kind of team player. How about stepping down from the main event scene for a year or so, and letting others have a go with the ball ? 4 years of burying > 1 year of being a team player. Booker T isn't the best in the ring, but he's far above being mediocre. His mic work is pretty decent too. He's by no means the gibbering idiot you think he is. If Hunter didn't give people reason to knock him, they wouldn't. Those that did would soon fall off the wayside. The only one with a hardon for anyone is you for Triple H. How many guys has Rock buried six-feet deep ? As for Austin, yeah, he's been guilty of guzzling people at times, but to compare him to Hunter is absurd.

I could buy Triple H loving the business if he wasn't so intent on burying people. Someone who genuinely loved the business would try and make as many people as they could, not bury as many people as they could. As for his tired and cliched line about the internet, yeah, there are some 'reporters' on the internet who don't know what they're talking about, but you can say the same thing for any form of media.

Once again Triple H groups everyone under the same radar... It makes it easier for him to avoid having to make a good argument that way. Call everyone on the internet 12-year old kids, brush them off as wannabe's, and quickly move on without having to properly discuss the issue at hand. I would have asked Hunter why his bodybuilding book completely avoids talk about steroids.

I think he may be talking about how ROH handled the Feinstein situation.

Bryan Alvarez made a good point in this week's F4W that TNA have such a repuation for putting out crap, that, even though they've been putting out strong PPV's, nobody is interested, because they associate TNA with bad wrestling.

Dusty actually does expect JJJ v Nash to draw.

If Nash or Hardy could draw any significant number of fans, Vince would have them under contract right now.

If Nash or Hardy could draw any significant number of fans, Vince would have them under contract right now.

I wouldn't call Hogan v Andre a program in the traditional sense of the word. I don't think they wrestled enough times. One of Hogan's most successful programs was definitely with Bossman. Usually, a Hogan house show program would do well on the first run, but the second and/or third match didn't draw as well. With Bossman, the second match in the program actually saw business increase.

He needed neck surgery, which I think was related to his arm injury. He wasn't looking to retire, but it pretty much turned out that way.

That's not a bad line-up, actually. And I imagine the Cena glut will coincide with a super push.

I believe Orndorff was making around $30,000 per week in his program with Hogan.

Do TNA even have any non-internet fans ?

That was the plan if Andre wasn't able to wrestle at WM III.

And those hardcore fans make up 99.99% of the TNA audience.

Joey Styles lost what little credibility he had with me when he claimed Coach could draw money if he was trained as a wrestler.

"Home Of Jeff Jarrett: Still not over after 19 inglorious years" for the TNA Folder

Larry Zbyszko = Larry Whistler Makes me think of the first Trancers movie.

There should be something there, even it's just generic. It looks wrong to have nothing there.

Last I heard, he was going to go by the name Asai, which is his real last name.

From the bastard stepchild of 1pop-ups.bullshit.con, under the heading "THE WHOLE TRUTH ON THE UPN-SMACKDOWN SITUATION WITH NEW FACTS "

He'll be meeting with John Laurinaitis when WWE go to Japan in February. Right now, he has not been given a start date.

Smackdown would never be live, at least every week, anyway. It's too much hassle logistically.

Yutaka Yoshie signed his new contract today, and it took him just 10 minutes to get through negotiations and sign five separate forms. Yoshie explained his quick signing, saying he had missed breakfast, and his hunger took priority over negotiations over insignificant things like money! A distressed Yoshie (see above) said all he could think about while talking with President Kusama was food, and as soon as he left the negotiating room, he rushed off to find something to eat. Chairman of the wrestlers, Takashi Iizuka, put pen to paper, signing a new contract. May, 2005, will be the 20th anniversary since Iizuka joined New Japan's dojo, and the submission master has never left the promotion since. Iizuka announced plans to be persistent and chase who he called "The World's Worst Man", Minoru Suzuki. The old rivals met at the Tokyo Dome, with Suzuki scraping through and coming out on top. As wrestler chairman, Iizuka wants to build strong relationships with wrestlers, and also announced that he wants to be a wall for young generation members like Tanahashi and Nakamura this year. He wants to win his first IWGP belt since 1996, and also avenge his loss to Suzuki by beating the Pancrase Mission star with a sleeper hold. Koji Kanemoto announced in his online diary at his official site today that he renewed his contract with New Japan earlier, after first stage talks ended in a stalemate. Kanemoto was holding out for more money again, so Kusama said to him, "If you don't like your deal, you may leave." Kanemoto apologized to Kusama today, and admitted he never planned to leave New Japan. Kanemoto said he loves New Japan and will continue to be a leader in the junior division this year. Chono and Nakanishi signed their contracts quietly on Friday. Those who have yet to sign publically are Liger (possibly today), Hiro & Goto (I'm not sure if they have the same contracts anymore, as they do a lot of out-of-ring duties), El Samurai, and Shibata (the only one who seems in danger of leaving, besides Yasuda, who was fired). Some reports are saying that Nakamura didn't actually sign his contract last time, but will during his next talks with Kusama.

Uhhh, genius. UPN and Spike TV are owned by the same company. Spike would want SmackDown because it'd get higher ratings than whatever they'd be showing instead of it. And if not, another channel (USA or FX spring to mind) would. They might be owned by the same company, but they are still different networks, who clearly have their own separate identities. The fact that the company are ok with wrestling being on one of their networks but not the other shows that. Which is why it is in Vince's best interests to have his prime time shows on different networks, regardless of whether they are owned by the same company. He can still play them off of each other, especially if one network needs a boost, by pushing his highly rated television show as what they need to help the flagging network out. If he's got both shows on the same network, he loses that leverage.