Hunter's Torn Quad

Apart from John Cena, who didn't spend half as much time in UPW as he did in OVW, where he got the majority of his training, what big name players have come from UPW? Heidenreich? Nathan Jones?

You mean when they had different attitude towards their future superstars than they do now?

Austin was definitely getting the title at WM 14, but not necessarily from Bret. It wasn't set in stone that Bret would hold the title until Mania, or that he'd have the title by then. With Shawn and DX catching fire, it's likely Shawn would have got a run with the title, even if relations between Bret, Shawn and the WWF remained amicable.

UFC 80 will be on PPV, with a 3pm EST start time.

This weeks episode was fun, and next weeks looks like it could be all kinds of awesome.

So, you not only want WWE to get out of teaching their future superstars the way they like their wrestlers to work and act, but you want those future superstars to work in places (Indies) where they'll learn a style that is counter to everything WWE likes, thus getting them tagged as 'not knowing how to work' when they get brought up, which will then see them either let go or, if the company feels like it, WWE sending them to school anyway, so they can get taught to work and act the way WWE wants.

Someone should have reminded the Nasty Boys that they're not stars anymore.

*Impact opened with TNA champion Kurt Angle coming out to the ring with TNA Tag Team champions AJ Styles and Tomko. He thanked them for helping him at Genesis and announced they were forming the "Angle Alliance." Kevin Nash comes out and is attacked by all three with a number of babyfaces coming out break it up. *Lance Hoyt and Jimmy Rave defeated LAX. After the match, the female member of the Latino Nation (the still unidentified Shelley Martinez) hit Christy Hemme with a slapjack. *Team 3D, holding the X-Division championship, cut a promo backstage with a list of demands. They had an "X-Division wrestler" held hostage with a bag over his head. *Team 3D come to the ring with the hostage and called out the Motor City Machineguns. The Guns come out with Jay Lethal and they go back and forth on the mic until a group of X-Division wrestlers attack 3D. Lethal frees the hostage, who turns out to be Havoc, but Havoc grabs his kendo stick and attacks the other X-Division wrestlers. *Kevin Nash and Scott Hall come to the ring and announce they will face the Angle Alliance at Turning Point, promising to reveal their mystery partner by the end of Impact. *Robert Roode and Ms. Brooks defeated TNA Women's champion Gail Kim and Chris Harris after Roode drilled Harris with a chair. Brooks got into a catfight with Roode's "ringside fan." *Abyss defeated Riddick (the masked Johnny Stamboli, with a new name in his second appearance) and Black Reign in a Three-Way. After the bout, Jim Mitchell's charges were beating on Abyss and Rhino hit the ring for the save. *Booker T and Sharmell come to the ring for their official TNA contract signing. Christian Cage comes out and cuts a promo. He calls Sharmell a "nappy headed ho" and gets laid out by Booker. *TNA champion Kurt Angle defeated Kaz in a good match. After the match, Kevin Nash and Scott Hall attacked Angle. The Angle Alliance attack them. Samoa Joe makes the save, so apparently he's the mystery partner. *They announced Samoa Joe vs. AJ Styles vs. Chris Sabin in a Loser Wears a Turkey suit for the Thanksgiving Impact. Xplosion: *Eric Young defeated James Storm in a comedy match.

All those babyfaces had the size and/or aura to look credible while doing so. Shawn had neither of that, which is why it looks bad when he does it.

I don't think people are trying to Shawn isn't a great performer. Just that he isn't as flawless as some make him out to be.

Even when making a comeback, the babyface should still sell the the effects of the beating so it comes across like he's heroically fighting through the pain. The problem Shawn has had is that he'd often act like there was nothing wrong with him, which doesn't make for quite the heroic fightback.

Welcome to TSM Mr Keller.

Next week looks like it could be the best episode of the season.

It wasn't great, but calling it bad is a huge stretch. And you don't think the booking, with all the rule changes and everything in mid-match, had anything to do with that? And Orton can be? Did you see that horrible match with Cena at Unforgiven?

TNA just hired Johnny the Bull. If they hired him, they'll surely bring in Carlito. There are many 'last things' TNA need to do, but the almost always end up doing them anyway.

Over on Wrestling Classics, Meltzer has talked in-depth about this, including Hunter's burying of Jericho when Jericho first came in, which was basically down to Hunter feeling it was his time to be on top and he wasn't about to let anyone else who could rival him become any kind of threat, hence Jericho's treatment. As for Hunter feeling 'threatened' by other people when he has ho real need to be, it was ascribed to Hunter wanting to be the single top star rather than one of a group of top stars. While that seems to make little sense on the surface, because a group of top stars means the company makes more money than if it has just one top star, the reasons why a person in a position of power should feel threatened often don't make sense. Did he ever try to stop Brock's mega push? Nothing major as far as I'm aware, but it was Hunter's idea for Brock to stop winnings his matches by TKO. That had nothing to do with Jericho and everything to do with Rock vs. Hogan being the real main event. You seem to have forgotten the numerous carry jobs Jericho has done over the years, including Hogan and Steiner, as well as getting a legit *** match out of Viscera of all people.

Over on Wrestling Classics, Meltzer has talked in-depth about this, including Hunter's burying of Jericho when Jericho first came in, which was basically down to Hunter feeling it was his time to be on top and he wasn't about to let anyone else who could rival him become any kind of threat, hence Jericho's treatment. As for Hunter feeling 'threatened' by other people when he has ho real need to be, it was ascribed to Hunter wanting to be the single top star rather than one of a group of top stars. While that seems to make little sense on the surface, because a group of top stars means the company makes more money than if it has just one top star, the reasons why a person in a position of power should feel threatened often don't make sense.

Jericho's return didn't exactly light the world on fire after the initial pop, but to be fair, he wasn't exactly playing off of a captivating personality or someone with great mic skills. I also think they deflated some of the impact by showing him on camera before he actually came out in the arena. Jericho's return definitely didn't have the bang it could have had, but it's early days yet. It should hopefully be better next week.

True but I never took Angle's group seriously. So with Ric Flair back, what does he do? World Title contender? He left on bad terms, so the must've promised him something. The only promise they should have made is they won't sue his old ass for breach of contract if he returns. Plus, there has been reports that Vince paid off Flair's debt to the IRS. Flair owes Vince at this point. Vince loaned Flair the money, which he's still paying back.

At one point, there was an idea for Edge and Val to debut as the New Midnight Express, with Edge getting a name like Adorable Adam. I don't remember what Val was going to be called.

Vince interferes, Shawn hits him with SCM, and then pins Orton with a cradle. Shawn celebrates, but then Vince announces that because Shawn used SCM, even though it was on Vince and not Orton, Shawn is DQ'd, and Orton is still champion.

HBK turning heel with the aid of Vince would flop badly. People would be happy he won and happier that Orton lost.

Flair would have dropped the title to Luger and won it right back when Luger flopped. After that, probably the same deal with Sting before finally losing it to Vader for Vader to get his long run as champion.

Shawn not doing house shows means he's unlikely to get the title. Michaels can lose via Montreal Finish, and the feud can still keep going. We might not get the MF tonight, but I don't see the Orton/Michaels feud ending tonight and I don't see Shawn winning the title, which means screwjob.