Hunter's Torn Quad

Even if you did bring Sable back, or Sunny in her prime for that matter, they wouldn't get over a whole lot, because there are so many faceless nameless women on TV already. One hot woman stands out, a million of them, and they all blend in together, and none of them stand out from the rest.

Even if you did bring Sable back, or Sunny in her prime for that matter, they wouldn't get over a whole lot, because there are so many faceless nameless women on TV already. One hot woman stands out, a million of them, and they all blend in together, and none of them stand out from the rest.

Even if you did bring Sable back, or Sunny in her prime for that matter, they wouldn't get over a whole lot, because there are so many faceless nameless women on TV already. One hot woman stands out, a million of them, and they all blend in together, and none of them stand out from the rest.

There is a difference between getting people to hate you, and getting people to pay to hate you.

They probably booked that finish for the same reason that WCW put Benoit over Sid for their World title, even after Benoit made it clear he was leaving. They assumed that by giving the guy the win, they'd be placating him enough that he'd change his mind.

With much of the talent recognizing the straits the company is really in, the TNA promotion pulled off one of the best PPV shows in wrestling history on 12/5 in Orlando, paced by an off-the-charts cage match with AMW vs. XXX wife the losing team having to break up. The show featured a spot that I pray is never done again, but will be perhaps the most memorable spot of the year, when Elix Skipper walked the top of the cage and gave a hurracanrana to Chris Harris back into the ring. What was scariest of all is that Skipper stumbled and had a hard time getting balance on top of the cage before he did the tightrope walk. He's done the rope walk hurracanrana in the past, but has slipped doing it on occasion. Even on the top rope, a slip to the floor has its risks. On the top of the cage, a slip could have meant paralysis or death, and it’s just not worth it. Apparently the wrestlers had talked about the spot beforehand, and it was tentatively in the match, but there was talk of not doing it, both due to risk, and if Skipper felt he was tired from 20 minutes of wrestling to where it wouldn't be a good idea. Rhodes booked the match for 25:00 (it actually went 21:01), and noted that it would be either be a classic or a disaster, and it was sink or swim for four guys who had a bad match on the PPV a month earlier. Fans live at Universal Studios gave both teams a lengthy standing ovation after a match that actually lived up to the standards set in the most famous match ever with the same stipulations, the 1983 Ricky Steamboat & Jay Youngblood win over Sgt. Slaughter & Don Kernodle for the NWA tag team titles, which was one of the biggest matches in the history of Carolinas wrestling. But it was hardly a one-match show, as there were only two bad matches. Unfortunately, the worst was the main event. In what turned out to be the smartest move of the night, new booker Dusty Rhodes put the cage match on last, as reversing it would have led to a flat finish of the show. The 1-2 punch of the cage match and the Petey Williams vs. Chris Sabin X Division match and this one were every bit as good as the top two matches at Backlash for WWE in April (Mick Foley vs. Randy Orton hardcore match and HHH vs. Shawn Michaels vs. Chris Benoit rematch). And this show blew away every PPV offering WWE has done since that time. While Rhodes' first show as head booker, if that s even the correct title, was a success, it was also noted that this show itself, as far as The key matches, were all booked by Dutch Mantel and Jeff Jarrett before The change. Right now there is an interesting company dynamic because Jarrett is already back as a key player in booking, if he ever really left. While Rhodes is the boss, and made it clear to everyone, Jarrett and Mantel are still in the game, and allies with each other. There was second-guessing of future plans, in particular Rhodes' idea to change the 1/16 main event from Jarrett defending against DDP to Jarrett against Randy Savage. The arguments, naturally, are that Savage is a far bigger name than DDP so it should draw more. The negative is the company was aware just how much of a joke Savage is at this stage, to the point they hid him with a kidnapping angle and only had him run-in for the finish, in street clothes including a long sleeve shirt. He's so physically limited that his pinfall over Jarrett to earn the title shot was on a blocked sunset flip, and simply, one punch from that position. To anyone who saw the show, even with Mike Tenay emphasizing that he pinned the champ and deserved the next shot, the idea of a Jarrett vs. Savage main event (which Jarrett himself was originally in favor of, for obvious reasons, since in his eyes, he gets a win over Savage provided Savage is agreeable to that finish) is nothing anyone would want to see., and the thought of Jarrett having to carry him to a credible world title match is a scary thought. Jarrett vs. DDP has no box office either, but at least it would be a good match. Of course, what ended up happening made it a moot point, as Savage once again walked out of the tapings on 12/7 in Orlando, where an angle was scheduled with Jarrett, Savage and Rhodes where Rhodes would announce the main event. The word was, when talking over the idea of the 1/16 title match, Savage refused to do the job when he found out that was the plan, and left again. Quite frankly, it serves them right because the result of the title match should have been told to Savage, and they should have something on paper with him so they could take legal recourse for screwing up their storylines, before they ever put him over on the show. Savage is not the bad guy here because he made it clear when he first was coming in that he wasn't going to put Jarrett over. Then, they booked his win knowing he'd already made that clear, and then were mad when he said it again. Instead, Jarrett and Rhodes did a confrontation, but Savage's name was never mentioned, nor was a main event announced, probably to avoid them committing to something in case Savage had a change of heart like the last time he walked out of a taping, and was back in the fold a few days later. There was no indication they'd come up with a new direction, although Hector Garza got a surprising megapush, pinning A.J. Styles on one hour of TV7 and then having Jarrett beat when Hall & Nash interfered on the second hour. They also could have gone to the Monty Brown, who was the idea for the main event on the December and January shows in booking plans a few-months ago, since DDP was already programmed for 1/16 with Erik Watts. Also planned for 1/16 are Harris & Storm challenging new NWA tag champs Eric Young & Bobby Roode of Team Canada. When Harris & Storm signed their new contract, one of the things promised them was a tag title run in the near future. Apparently they were led to believe they'd also get the title win over Scott Hall & Kevin Nash, who would beat 3 Live Kru. As it turned out, that isn’t what happened, and it would have been hard to believe it would turn out like that. There will also be an Ultimate X match with champ Petey Williams against A.J. Styles and Chris Sabin. While Ultimate X is TNA's best invention, they are coming off doing one on 11/10 on the BDSSP special. The match will be great but they've destroyed the novelty of the match by doing it so often. The show drew 650-700 fans. It looked full on television, except in the comers. The company was expecting 500 troops to come in from MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, and fill out the other 200 slots with the local die-hards. The company never pushed the PPV locally or even that hard at the tapings because they figured they would have to turn people away even without promotion, due to limited availability. Unlike the Victory Road show four weeks earlier, this was a free ticket. The bomb dropped was when only 40 or so troops ended up coming, but they were lucky that enough fans came, and those who came were super enthusiastic. In many ways, this PPV was reminiscent of The legend of ECW, with the small but rabid fan base, and the wrestlers who knew the company was in trouble and went that extra length to put on memorable matches. Our response level was down 29% from the Victory Road show four weeks earlier. If that show did 35,000 buys, which is the current estimate, then you could probably make an early prediction in the 25,000 range for this show. The show was also filled with comedy knocks at WWE. They had a guy (ring announcer Tim Welch) dressed up as Vince McMahon, coming in a limo with a supposed HHH (Johnny Devine of Team Canada) with a wig and sledge hammer. These were reminiscent of the Billionaire Ted skits that WWE put on its show when it was losing the TV wrestling war to WCW. They had Abyss bring the supposed Vince, called Vince McDaddy, with the water spitting guy using an HHH voice as his useless son. They had the Vince character wanting to see Dusty Rhodes immediately, but Rhodes blowing him off. It ended up with the HHH character getting a videotape and smashing it with his sledge hammer, only to find out it was a "Best of D-Ray 3000"tape. Vince later was mad there wasn't catered food, saying he needed protein every three hours, meat, fish, lobster, and then got mad when Tracy Brooks brought him a batch of cookies, and threw them on the floor. The skits concluded with Teo the midget beating up Vince, who aghast screamed that he would sue and as he was writhing in pain, said, "Where's my son-in-law, that idiot." He ended up being taken to the hospital. HHH wasn’t there, because he was at the gym. They eventually showed the relatively innocuous and almost useless footage they took a few weeks back when WWE shot its Royal Rumble commercial at Universal Studios in Orlando. Luckily, due to 3 Live Kru making jokes about stealing the WWE's catered Mahi-Mahi, it wasn’t a complete dud. They digitised the faces out, to avoid the threatened lawsuit, of bo1h Luther Reigns and Rev Mysterio. Mysterio and Konnan have been best friends dating back to the late 80s when they trained together under Mysterio's uncle in Tijuana, and were acting like best friends while B.G. James joked that Mysterio being nice to them is a firing offence. While Reigns' voice was a giveaway, ifs doubtful almost anyone would know he was there. With Mysterio, with his voice, and his arm tattoo, let alone how many 5-2 wrestlers there are in WWE, it was obvious. Overall, the skits were a lot funnier than most of the Billionaire Ted stuff, and even much of the ECW parodies on the big companies that were done in the 90s. When it was over, Mike Tenay made a joke about the threatened lawsuit saying ifs not like we brought a tank to their headquarters (in reference to DX coming to the WCW' headquarters in Smyrna, GA, and to CNN Center in 1998 skits). A: Andy Douglas & Chase Stevens beat Mikey Batts & Jerrelle Clark in a dark match when Batts was pinned after the Natural Disaster. 1) Eric Young & Bobby Roode as Team Canada beat B.G. James & Ron Killings, as 3 Live Kru (Konnan was working the AAA big show at the same time in Naucalpan, Mexico) to win the NWA tag titles in 8:30. Team Canada did a good job of bumping here. Most of the match was getting heat on Killings to set up James for the hot tag. He had the match won, but Scott D'Amore distracted ref Rudy Charles, who missed the count. With the ref distracted. Johnny Devine returned and hit James with a hockey stick and Roode got the pin. Fast-paced match. **1/4 2) Hector Garza & Sonny Siaki & Sonjay Dutt beat Michael Shane & Frankie Kazarian & Kid Kash in 11:01. This match was a total sprint of high spots, but it's what people wanted out of the match. Smartly, Siaki did almost nothing. Garza tried a monkey flip, slipped, and nearly landed on his head. That was the big snafu and brought brief you f-d up chants from what was clearly an ECW/ROH inspired crowd. It’s great because it meant the enthusiasm was so high, but bad because it also meant casual fans don’t have interest or knowledge of the product. Most of the match saw the heels work on Dutt’s injured left elbow. Garza got the hot tag and did a picture perfect moonsault on Kazarian for a near fall. About the only thing Siaki did was throw Dutt over the top for him to do a flip dive on the floor. Garza pinned Kazarian after a tornillo. ***l/4 3) Monty Brown beat Abyss in 12:17 in a Serengeti Survival match. Rules were you could win via pin, submission, or slamming your opponent into thumb tacks. Brown in a promo called Abyss, "Obese." Abyss went for an Earthquake sitting splash on Brown, who was laying on a chair, but Brown got the chair and smashed it to Abyss' groin. I wonder if TNA folds, if John Laurinaitis even has a clue who Brown is. Brown used an Oklahoma stampede on a chair. Abyss side stepped the pounce period, and used a black hole slam, but Brown kicked out. Brown ended up giving Abyss the pounce period sending him to the floor. Brown set up a table, but ended up going through it when Abyss sidestepped him. Abyss and Brown each pulled out bags of thumb tacks at the same time and filled the ring. Abyss then took off his leather vest, revealing his physique, and if you saw this, you'd realize he just took $80,000 off his annual WWE downside guarantee by trying to prove to people that he'd take the thumb tacks on his back rather than throw his shirt. His physique looked like a guy who had never trained a day in his life. Not that it should matter, but his possible next employers are such marks for bodies, and we are years past anyone giving a rat’s ass about being tough enough to take a slam on thumb tacks. Brown blocked Abyss and slammed him down with a spinebuster to win. **3/4 4) Johnny B. Badd & Pat Kenney beat Glenn Gilberti & Johnny Swinger in 7:50. Remember when Kenney, Gilberti and Swinger were all taken off TV to be repackaged? So they came back, as the exact same people except they gave Kenney an "Empire Saint" nickname that they do nothing to push him as being different(not even a new costume, for God's sake) instead of making him the brunt of third grade Irish jokes. This was supposed to be a six-person tag with Jacqueline Moore and Trinity and was not advertised on the show, so nobody cared about it. They hadn’t even run any angles to set these four up in a program and Moore hadn’t done any TV since the last PPV. Trinity called a few days before the show and told the office 1hat she had gotten a movie role (doing stunts for Steven Spielberg's remake of "War of the World's") and couldn’t do the PPV. Since the show was already written, They were pissed at her for the decision. The instructions were to act as if she didn’t exist, and at this point there are no plans to use her again. Moore ended up being the ref, wearing her old WWE ref outfit. Finish saw Jacqueline bodyslam Gilberti and Badd pin him after a TKO. *1/4 5) DDP pinned Raven in some sort of a no DQ match, since there was interference everywhere and nothing was called in 12:03. They had a good match, but in their fear of not having one, so badly overbooked it that they took a lot away from it at the finish. At one point, DDP nailed ref Rudy Charles with a high kick. They went outside the ring with Page hitting Raven with a garbage can and a lid. Raven came back with a shot with his war helmet for a near fall and his drop toe hold on the chair spot. Raven used a low blow and small package for a near fell. Raven kicked out of the diamond cutter. Two masked guys in hoods came out. Erik Watts, who was doing commentary as a babyface, protested it was unfair. He choke slammed bo1h,and then, naturally, and this was so pathetic because it was a needless swerve that everyone in the building could see, turned on DDP and clotheslined him. He went for the choke slam, but DDP gave him a low blow. So not only was the turn transparent, but it made no difference because it didn’t even cost DDP the match. DDP used a diamond cutter on Watts, another low blow to Raven, and a third diamond cutter to win the match. The bout was considerably better than it reads, as it was Raven's best match in a long time until they got so cute that the finish was one of those fuzzy things that meant nothing. ***1/4 6) Petey Williams retained the X Title pinning Chris Sabin in 18:11. Just a super match with off the charts heat. People were screaming "Let's go Sabin" alternated with "Lets go Petey." Williams did a plancha into a hurracanrana on the floor. Sabin power bombed Williams into the guard rail. I hope they retire that spot. Big moves, near falls and innovative spots like Williams doing a mid-air spin into a Russian leg sweep. Sabin did a flip dive. They even did the Frye-Takayama holding and punching spot. Scott D’Amore kept interfering. With D'Amore distracting the ref, Williams pulled out Brass Knux for the pin. **** 7) Jeff Hardy & A. J. Styles & Randy Savage beat Kevin Nash & Scott Hall & Jeff Jarrett in 17:52. Nash & Hall & Jarrett before the show, being that they’re the Kings of Wrestling, dressed up like Elvis in jumpsuits and Elvis wigs. They also did this angle where a car drove away, and they acted as if they had beaten up Savage, threw him in a car and he was kidnapped. It was actually because Savage couldn't wrestle and they were trying to hide the fact. So when the match began, it was a 2-on-3. Hall & Nash wore the jumpsuits. So they looked like giant clowns. The jumpsuits were to hide their physiques (although Nash is in great cosmetic shape for his age), but it couldn’t hide their faces, as both, particularly Hall, have aged greatly. Hall looked like an aging wino, which is what he is. Nash, because of his grey hair, looked like a 55-year-old former NBA player like Phil Jackson or someone. They even came out to the old Flying Elvises theme music. Hall tried, but it was like an out of shape guy trying to keep up. Jarrett and Styles were there to carry the match. Styles worked for five people, but that wasn’t enough, although the match was more than decent when he was in, and that was most of the way. He made a cold tag to Hardy and the match fell apart from there. Hardy had Hall pinned when Nash pulled ref Andrew Thomas out of the ring. Hall hit Hardy with a guitar shot. Savage finally showed up and he made Hall & Nash look youthful. Backstage I was told Savage looked 100 years old. I thought on TV he didn't look more than a day over 60, although he did look older then Lou Thesz did when I saw him at a show in 1996 when Lou was 80. Savage threw a few punches and put Jarrett in a sleeper. Jarrett tried a sunset flip; Savage blocked it, punched Jarrett to the head, and got the pin. * 8) Chris Harris & James Storm beat Elix Skipper & Christopher Daniels in a losing team must split up forever "Six Sides of Steel" cage match in 21:01. Daniels juiced heavy after being slingshotted into me cage. They got handcuffs on Harris and proceeded to beat the hell out of Storm. XXX used the old Demolition finish on Storm for a near fall. Storm got the key and unlocked his partner. Harris juiced. AMW did 80s WWF tag team finishes like the Rockerplex and the Hart attack. XXX used AMW’s death sentence on Harris for a near fall. Storm power bombed Skipper while standing on the top rope while Skipper was sitting on the cage. There was a tower of doom spot where everyone took a huge bump that had the crowd going crazy. There was Skipper doing the ropewalk hurracanrana off the top of the cage. The crowd started chanting "Best match ever" while Mike Tenay acted like we were seeing history in one of the greatest cage matches of all-time, and that wasn't even a stretch by this point. The match ended with AMW putting Daniels in handcuffs and doing the powerplex XXX finisher on Daniels and Storm got the pin. The crowd gave both teams a standing ovation at the finish for several minutes. The heel dressing room then came out and gave a standing ovation to XXX as they got up to leave. This match blew away the match they had 17 months ago, and that may have been the best match in TNA history. There is little question in my mind this match now has those honors. ****3/4 ---- ---- ---- Jerry Jarrett and Bob Carter met in Nashville this past week with Jarrett trying to propose a new budget that would greatly cut back on costs in order to convince Carter to say in for the long haul. The company was happy with how the PPV did, which was a positive. They are claiming they have confirmed agreements for $3 million in ad sales for 2005, which, with other cutbacks, could see the company break even at 45,000 to 50,000 PPV buys per month, although that’s still going to be a very difficult figure for them to average monthly. But a $3 million figure sounds suspiciously unrealistic, like the ad revenue companies like World Class, Crockett and Watts expected to be able to sell given their ratings, but later found out that because they were wrestling, they couldn’t get ad buyers to pay the rates their ratings would seem to deserve, and ended up getting deep in debt because they were expecting that revenue. Most syndicated TV shows really cant make big money in ad sales until they hit the 2.0 rating mark. ECW didn’t make one-fifth of that in ad sales, and they had far stronger syndication and roughly five times the cable ratings of TNA. WWE will do maybe $40 million in ad sales this year. TNA's ad sales up to this point have been negligible. While they don’t get to sell Smackdown because of the UPN contract, that's still Raw, Velocity, Experience, Heat and syndication which combine to 6.14 ratings points last week not including syndication(admittedly that was a better man usual week, but 5.2 plus whatever syndication brings is a low end average). TNA right now averages about a 0.18, plus whatever Xplosion brings in (probably next to nothing) or maybe 30 times lower, plus WWE is a marquee name brand and TNA is unproven. While TNA wont be getting the 8pm. Monday night BDSSP weekly tie-in show they were hoping for, since the ratings didn’t come in they needed, they are talking with Fox Sports Net about doing some prime time specials on the show. Even with the exposure coming out of the first show, the buy rate appears to be, well down for the second show, and that’s with a good first Sunday PPV. The January show will be interesting because you really can't expect to ever have a better PPV show then they did this past weekend. If buys don’t increase, then good quality PPV shows cant save the company by itself. Among the things being talked about now are to move the Friday Impact show from 3 p.m. to 4pm., which is slightly better, but really only slightly, as well as adding a Saturday midnight replay show, and adding Xplosion in a weekday afternoon time slot. If FSN gives them the slots, they are okay, but if they are paying extra for the additional slots, and I'm presuming that would be the case, the extra expense is nothing they are going to make back through advertising. They are also trying to come up with celebrity involvement ideas, since WWE was put on the mainstream map by Mr. T and Cyndi Lauper, and Mike Tyson was the catalyst of its biggest period in history. Of course, celebrities also in the long run hurt WCW more than helped them, so ifs hardly a guarantee. . . A funny story is, DDP is earning more money with TNA than he ever earned in WWE. . . Larry Zbyszko was upset because he wasn’t booked for either the PPV or TV taping this week. While he hasn't been on TV every show, he had been booked regularly since he lives in Jacksonville and ifs an easy drive. If you remember back to the interview in Orlando when Rhodes & Zbyszko were together and Zbyszko did a far better promo, upstaged him, and Rhodes pitched a fit about it, well if Zbyszko knew Rhodes would be booker in a few months, I guess he could have tanked his promo. For whatever this is worth, Rhodes was told he has six months to turn things around. Jeff Jarrett did one hell of a job in his TV bout for the NWA title with Monty Brown. It was the best match I've ever seen Brown in, and while Brown deserves the credit, you could really see Jarrett’s ability here, as they went 13:02, and if anything, it was too short rather than too long, and that’s saying a lot when we’ve never seen Brown in a good match past 7:00. Perhaps removing all the stress and time from booking and running things will get his work back to what it once was. He still needs to lose the title far worse than he can understand, but that’s a different issue. Crowd heat was tremendous, although that was a hot crowd even for a lousy Scott Hall vs. A.J. Styles match the week before, and the freebies in Orlando are getting very ROHish as in this match there were the alternating "Let's Go Jarrett" and "Let1 s Go Monty" chants, just like last week. The problem, and this won't be solved because Rhodes is the booker and people are so entrenched with how they used to do things to not realize people groan at the overdone stuff that used to work, is the match was just awesome until the ref bump. Then you had Jarrett use a guitar shot that Brown no-sold, which was a great spot because people are sick of the guitar finish. Then, Brown kicked out of the stroke and gave Hall the pounce. But that gave Jarrett the chance to hit Brown with a hard chair to the back and another to the head and get the pin. That finish undid his no selling of the guitar, which should have been an angle onto itself. Plus, when it was over, instead of having the emotion of it being a great match, that emotion was killed the minute the ref went down from the awful bump, and the emotion was "same old, same old" non-creative rerun. There is still talk of putting the title on Brown, as Rhodes likes him, and possibly going with Jarrett vs. Brown in February. But Jarrett and Brown had built such a hot crowd and damn good match where people actually cared about the title, and then they ruined it and in the end it had no impact other than a lot of insiders raised their stock on Brown quite a bit as far as future potential... The plan for Jim Mitchell and Abyss, which appears to be out the window again, was for Mitchell to play the role of a 60s circus carnival barker with a top hat and cane having a booth with "The Monster Abyss" all chained up behind the curtain. The idea was silly enough to promote as a new heel in the 80s for Hulk Hogan, but if s pretty much ludicrous for a character who has been a part of the TV show two years. That was largely the consensus among people who saw the top hat he was told to buy and he was asking around if it looked too campy. Mitchell told people he couldn’t understand why he couldn’t just manage Abyss as himself. At the last taping, with Rhodes having taken over as booker, Mitchell was told there were no plans for him. He wasn’t happy since he took a day off of work to come to the taping and then didn’t get paid since he wasn’t used. So the angle started looks to have already been dropped. The big emotional high coming off the PPV was already gone in a lot of wrestlers by the 12/7 tapings. A lot of wrestlers are coming to grips with the idea there is a solid chance this thing may not be around much longer. What hit home was doing two weeks of TV, and to save money, key people like 3 Live Kru, Sabin (who was scheduled for one of the big matches on the show), Sonjay Dutt, Pat Kenney and Abyss were all flown home, even though they wouldn't even have to fly them in, since there were either no plans for them or to cut costs. There were people, like Johnny Devine, Eric Young and Petey Williams, who also weren't booked to wrestle on TV, but at least stayed to do promos. We didn’t get much info at press time on the tapings, other than they had about 500 or so people there for the first hour, but lots of people left early. There were tons of empties sections right in front of the cameras by the second show, and they didn’t even take the time to move the crowd around so it would look good, which even WCW used to do. Besides the Garza push, to nobody's surprise, Dustin Rhodes was in with a big push. That led to a funny store that wouldn’t be evident. Rhodes was doing an interview and went way long. The woman floor director was giving him the signal to wrap it up, since it was going forever and he wasn’t saying much. He wasn’t wrapping it up and she was very expressive behind the camera that he should. Jeremy Borash ran out and told the floor director that this was the hooker's son and if he wants to go long, you don’t distract him. Spanky was also there, but wasn't used. Swinger and Gilberti were used as singles jobbers for Dustin Rhodes and Monty Brown respectively. Brown pounced Gilbert in seconds. . . Johnny Devine is back in the ring as well after being stabbed, with his first match back scheduled for 12/8 in Nashville working for USA Championship Wrestling in Nashville, as a tag team with Cassidy Reilly as the new Hotshots. . . Regarding Petey Williams and the Canadian Destroyer move, Amazing Red actually did a running version of the move on a 2002 ROH show is Wakefield, MA, so he did use it before Williams came to TNA.

Prefer to be given only finish and call everything else in the ring ? Lay the entire match out beforehand ? If possible, I’d prefer to call everything in the ring. If a big spot is required for the continuation of a storyline, then I’d be ok with laying that out beforehand. Other than that, I’d want to call it all in the ring. Like to have your promo's scripted ? Or just be given a couple of bullet points, and wing the rest ? Just give me a few bullet points, if needed, and I’ll wing the rest. It’s more natural if it seems like you’re speaking as yourself, and not reading from a script you’ve memorized. Blade often ? Only on occasion ? Would you rather never blade at all ? I’d rather only blade on rare occasions, so that when I do, I could bleed profusely, ala Eddie Guerrero at Judgement Day this year. If I’m going to blade, then I want to be able to bleed buckets, and that would mean a lot more if I were someone who almost never bleeds. What style would you like to wrestle ? Why would you prefer to employ that particular style over others ? I’d wrestle a technical style, something like Ricky Steamboat. I’d infrequently go to the top rope, and even then it would only be something as complicated as a high crossbody or a karate chop. Refuse to take certain moves ? Only take them when working with certain wrestlers ? I would refuse to take something like a burning hammer or a ganso bomb, or anything where I’m dropped vertically down on my head. In the case of DDT or piledriver like moves, I’d make sure I took the bump in such a manner that I’m not coming straight down. No RVD-like head bumps for me. Are there any match types you'd like to wrestle in a lot ? Some match types you'd rather never have to work in ? I’d like to wrestle in Iron Man or 2/3 falls matches. Something where the nature of the match means you’re looking at a 25 minute affair, at least. I would refuse to wrestle a scaffold match, especially if they even hint at me taking a bump off of there. What style of normal match would you like to do the most ? Would you prefer to sell or to dominate ? Would you like to do long matches ? I’d like to wrestle a nice even match, with plenty of back and forth action. I’d prefer to sell mostly, but I would want to make sure I get in enough offence to where I’m not seen as inferior. I’d much prefer long matches, in the 25-30 minute range at least Would you like to have a manager or valet to work spots with, or would you rather just do it all yourself ? If I were a heel, I’d prefer to have someone at ringside with me, because then I can work a lot more heel spots then. Are there some types of angles that you would refuse to do ? Some types of angles that you'd love to do ? I’d refuse to do anything overtly sexual, no affair angles, etc. If I was in a relationship with a woman in real life, I’d point blank refuse to do any kind of angle that saw us break up, or saw one of us cheat on the other. I’d also refuse to do anything racial. Angles I’d love to do would be the kind where I’m playing off of someone whose character is the exact opposite of mine, or something where a friend and I are both going for a title, and we’re trying not to let that get in the way of our friendship, and one of us could play the subtle heel. What promotion would you like to work for the most ? What promotion would you hate to work for ? In America, I’d prefer to work for ROH, and would hate working in WWE, and I’d only ever go there if I literally had no other choice. For Japan, I’d prefer New Japan. Any wrestlers today that you'd like to work against ? Any you would avoid working against at all costs ? I’d like to work against Kenta Kobashi, though I’d like to avoid taking any head drops if possible. I’d like to work 60 minute matches with Osamu Nishimura or Yuji Nagata. I’d like to work with most of the New Japan roster, especially those whose styles are likely to complement mine. For America, I’d like to work with CM Punk, Bryan Danielson, Nigel McGuinness, or anyone else who wrestles a technical style. The WWE guys I’d care to wrestle would be Benoit, Jericho, Guerrero Angle, Regal and Benjamin. Everyone else, I’d pass on. What wrestlers from the past would you like to work against ? What wrestlers from the past would you not want to work against ? I’d like to have worked a program with Ricky Steamboat that would see a series of time limit draws, first 20 minutes, then 30, then 45, then 60, before finally culminating in matches with 90 minute time limits, with both of us exchanging wins, with matches going 70 minutes or so. If possible, I’d like to see it run as a house show program, with the 20 minute draws running the loop, then the 30 minute draws, and so on. If I had the right tag team partner, I’d like to have worked a program with both versions of the Midnight Express managed by Cornette, as well as The Rock and Roll Express.

Vince definitely has held, and still holds, grudges against people. If he thinks he can make money with that person, he'll happily put the grudge to one side. Of course, once he's made all the money off of that person he can, he'll get his digs in for sure.

I presume it never happened because of the mindset that fans wouldn't be interested in such a long match.

The SD6 payoff, or at least the climax of it, was going to be a 60:00 minute match involving all three teams. Not sure whether it was going to be an Iron Team match of some sort, or just a three-way 60:00 draw, but that was the match it was eventually going to build to.

He used it at Armageddon as well. Best guess is that they're laying the foundations for a match with Lesnar if/when he returns, and the fact they are beginning to hint at it suggests that they are fairly sure Lesnar is returning soon.

It's nice how almost everybody who gets banned from anywhere never seem to think they did anything wrong. And if he hadn't earned his way into the Whiny Bitches before, he sure did in this thread.

Does Eugene count ?

They are really missing the boat on Funaki. Maybe it's just me, but I really think he could be a big hit with the younger fans. He's small enough that the young fans can better relate to him because he looks about their size. He's almost childlike, in that he seems completely uncomplicated, and, again, something they can relate to. Add to that the loveable underdog vibe that he exudes in spades, and you've got someone that I think really could be a hit with the younger fans.

Instead of lots of complaining and moaning about someone else's selections, how about providing some of your own ? You know, since that is the point of the thread after all. As for matches I'd recommend seeing, I'd go with Cobra v Black Tiger, from MSG in January 1984. It's on the undercard of Hogan beating the Iron Sheik. It gets overlooked a lot, which is criminal. It's got some really great wrestling, a few hot aerial moves, which the crowd pop for, commentators putting both men over, and a clean finish.

For Reigns and Jindrak to get anywhere near 'over', they're going to have to get some sort of personality. Right now, they're just a pair of generic looking tall guys with good bodies, who follow Kurt Angle around. They have no distinctive personality or persona at all, and there is nothing about them whatsoever that makes them leap off the screen.

If they were all smart fans well aware of the news, a lot more people would have been making that chant to begin with. The fact that it started out small, and then grew big is a pretty good indication that the bulk of those chanting were just joining in. Why not ? Why don’t you think that smart fans make up such a tiny percentage of WWE’s audience ? Because the product, as a whole, just isn’t anywhere near as good as it used to be. If you want to get smart fans, or any fans back, you have to put on a quality product. However, you shouldn’t focus a whole lot on doing something specifically aimed at smart fans, or craft an angle designed purely for smart fans, because the audience you might get back just isn’t worth the time and effort. It’s a whole lot better to come up with an angle designed for a wrestling fan, because, at heart, that is what everyone is, be they casual or smart, and the dividends are very likely to be that much greater. A minor angle aimed at a niche segment of your audience is fine every once in a while, but it is foolish to pull something major aimed at said niche segment, because you’re trying to pull in a very small segment of your audience, who will likely tune in anyway. As I stated above, a minor angle aimed at a small section of your audience is fine once in a while, but it’s stupid to do something major for that same small niche, because the rewards just aren’t worth it. And instead of looking at the audience as casual fans, smart fans, smark fans or whatever, try looking at them as wrestling fans. Regardless of their level of inside knowledge, or ‘smartness’, they are still wrestling fans at heart, and they all want to be wrestling fans. Treating them as such, and giving them what they want, would go a long way to turning things around. You know what will generate interest among ‘smart’ fans ? Not trying to make them guess if something is a shoot or not, which is pointless and serves no real purpose, but putting on a good wrestling product. Not an SE product, but a wrestling product. And no, I’m not talking about wall-to-wall wrestling, as those who like to attack the ‘IWC’ in general without any real foundation to their argument like to keep insisting is all they want. I’m talking letting the wrestlers wrestle, and letting them be themselves, and keeping the convoluted SE bullshit out if it.

That's what happens when you let guys wrestle balls to the wall.

Well, that's what you get when you can't work 'main event style'.

Danny Basham.

If you're talking in terms of purely aerial moves, then the best of those are in Dragon's Gate, formerly known as T2P. Those guys do some sweet high flying moves, as well as some wacky submission holds. If you're talking about the smaller wrestlers who are overall the most talented, then New Japan guys like Liger, Kanemoto, Gedo and Jado (purely for their heel tactics), as well as the latest crop of New Japan rookies, are the ones I think you should watch.

Less of the pissing contest, more of the educating the guy who wants to learn.

I'm a fair bit behind on OVW, but I've watched their TV up until around April of this year. One of the most underrated matches all year in 2002 was a Kanyon v Damaja TV match in the summer. This match was ****1/2 easy, and blew away almost everything in WWE that year. It was excellent stuff, with great near falls, the crowd going crazy, top-notch commentary; it had the whole ball of wax. For 2003, the best episodes were the ones with the Dinsmore v Machine 2/3 falls match, that is one of the best matches of the year, and the episode built around the Damaja v Doug Basham Loser Leaves Town match. If you watch those matches, or any of their matches or mic work in OVW, you'll see just how neutered the WWE versions of both guys are. The same can be said of Nick Dinsmore. His talents are being wasted with the Eugene gimmick, and while not as good on the mic as Damaja or Basham, he's better wrestler.

That was Masato Yakushuji, and he retired a few years ago because of injuries.

He wrestled Booker T on Raw in Tacoma, in a match so bad that it caused Vince to change the course of the whole Invasion angle.