Hunter's Torn Quad

If TNA stumble into doing something right, Roode should be a bona fide major league singles heel by the end of the year. Down the line, I can see BMI splitting with Roode staying heel and Storm evolving into an ass kicking babyface, and the two having a major feud in 2010.

I've been there for about the same length of time, but I avoid the actual message board. It's really, really bad.

It was a really diehard fan who gets a lot of grief on their board for going to great lengths to defend TNA. The best part was when the fan said that he had purchased every TNA PPV since they went monthly in November of 2004 but that he didn't get Against All Odds as things were just too bad even for him. It's quite a feat to turn off a fan who defends you at every turn and has paid money to you on a monthly basis for over four years.

I would agree. As long as TNA do decent ratings, Jarrett and company will be able to keep the gravy train going, and TNA will still be around, but they'll be doing nothing more than treading water. Unless a miracle happens and either Jarrett comes to his senses or someone clues in Dixie, then TNA will be stick around to provide a woeful product that diehards will watch for free but an ever decreasing amount of them will actually pay for.

According to the latest Observer:

You used to get people who were so angry about TNA fucking things up left and right, which wasn't that bad of a sign because it showed that there was still a strong desire there to see things turn around and succeed. Now people don't even care enough about TNA to get angry. They just shake their heads and wonder how people who should have some kind of clue about wrestling booking can get things so gloriously wrong.

And kept it a great secret by having Matt help his brother into the main event and then keeping the interference out of the match that lead him to winning the WWE title. Just brilliant misdirection! When he was attacked in the motel, Matt found him. When he was ran off the road, he was leaving Matt's house. Then there was that episode on Smackdown, where Matt "accidently" yanked his arm, after it had been injured the previous match. They can easily explain Matt attacking Kozlov, was simply, because Kozlove beat him the earlier that night. Or they could say, Matt "helped" Jeff, because he knew Jeff would chopke ;ike he did, in every other title match he had. WWE never gave any kind of hint that Christian was the one attacking Jeff, people just made that up in their own mind an fooled themselves. He helped him win the fucking WWE title. You're trying to paint that as making sense is almost as nonsensical. So he was so consumed with hurting his brother that he attacked him and cost him a title shot one month...and then the next month decided to help him get into a title match... But he hates him so much that he'd run him off the road...and yet he's more angry with Kozlov beating him in a nontitle match...even though he'd cost his brother the title the next month and never really have anything to do with Kozlov again? That's what you're going with? You do realize who you're arguing with, right? If it's a 'leap' to have assumed Christian was the attacker, which was the plan, then it's a leap of monumental proportions to think it was always going to be Matt. Even WWE wouldn't have had a storyline with such huge gaps in logic if it was intended to be Matt as the attacker. Which, by the way, he hasn't even admitted to. If it was meant to be Matt as the attacker, wouldn't he admit to it so as to get even more heat?

Was it ever proven that the kid in question was really his and the girl wasn't just full of shit?

GLOW 2K.

That crowd was more than pretty solidly behind Goldberg; they were going nuts for him. That crowd was ready to explode and were primed for Goldberg to win. Instead, we got the same, lame Game finish with the sledgehammer. I don't think I've ever seen a crowd get so badly deflated. That's one of the few match finishes to actively get me angry because that night you had the feeling of something really special, something really big that you very rarely get, and it was all flushed away because of ego and politics.

That's been my biggest problem with this whole storyline, that it's not the Frontline bring down the MEM, but the MEM themselves. The only non-MEM people to really get one up on them are either Foley, Cornette or Jarrett. Anyone else gets only the briefest of hope spots before being beaten down and treated like garbage. The only real exception was Team 3D beating Angle and Sting at the last tapings, but even then it was a banana peel finish and after that the focus was on the MEM fighting amongst themselves rather than on the fact that the Frontline got a win over a former TNA champion.

The Bam Bam story that springs to mind for me is his refusal to lose to Taiyo Kea on some charity wrestling show held, I think, at the ECW Arena. Vampiro talked about it in his shoot, and was understandably critical of Bigelow for it. Bigelow talked about it in his shoot too, and even said that from that point on, his stance on jobs was that he wasn't doing any more of them for anyone.

I would imagine that to be the TNA mindset; dismiss it as the crowd being collective smartasses and ignore that they might simply be registering dislike of something.

Probably just because a really basic match like this shouldn't even have been booked on the ppv. The problem with "Fire Russo" having become the TNA fans all purpose chant for something they don't like, is that TNA management, instead of taking on board that the fans aren't liking what's going on and correcting it, instead dismiss them as idiots for not knowing Russo didn't have anything to do with the segment at hand and accordingly dismiss their dislike as the reaction of people who don't know what they're talking about. While the chant was funny at first, now it just enables TNA to dismiss a negative reaction to something they do and convince themselves a bomb of a segment was really a success. Back when this first started happening with the chants, that definately was the case, but that was a good while ago.....I'd like to think by now, the company gets it more when the Fire Russo chant happens. It's clearly directed to make a point that they aren't liking what they are seeing, just the same thing as a boring chant or bullshit chant or whatnot. I don't know how anyone who has followed TNA as long as you have can give them the benefit of the doubt on something like acknowledging their mistakes.

Probably just because a really basic match like this shouldn't even have been booked on the ppv. The problem with "Fire Russo" having become the TNA fans all purpose chant for something they don't like, is that TNA management, instead of taking on board that the fans aren't liking what's going on and correcting it, instead dismiss them as idiots for not knowing Russo didn't have anything to do with the segment at hand and accordingly dismiss their dislike as the reaction of people who don't know what they're talking about. While the chant was funny at first, now it just enables TNA to dismiss a negative reaction to something they do and convince themselves a bomb of a segment was really a success.

I believe that's one of the top buyrates ever, and that's for a show as awfully booked as that one. Now imagine a show with WCW guys people cared about. It was the best number of non-WM buys the company ever did. Though, apparently adding a number of top stars wouldn't have meant that much more... Hall and Nash had stopped drawing a dime in the WWF, and some would say had never even started drawing to begin with, when Vince let them go. Hulk Hogan's drawing power in the WWF had waned considerably when he was let go, both on PPV and at the house shows. Randy Savage had long since stopped meaning anything in the WWF by the time 1994 rolled around. Yet all four did big business for WCW when they jumped. One could also point out that Chris Jericho was never pushed as anything special in WCW, was mired in the midcard for the first couple of months of 1999, and wasn't even on TV from April of that year. Yet the moment he walked onto Raw he was treated like a superstar by the crowd. There are countless examples of a wrestler having run out of drawing power in one territory or promotion and moving to another group and promptly meaning something at the gate. Because he owned the company now?

Impact As Dave Penzer was getting the crowd propped for the show, the Main Event Mafia of Scott Steiner, Kevin Nash & Booker T come down to the ring. Nash & Booker kick Tenay & West from the broadcast position and Steiner makes Penzer leave the ring. Nash & Booker are on commentary and Scott Steiner is the ring announcer. Backstage, Kurt Angle has taken off Jeff Jarrett's office. Jim Cornette comes in and says he cannot hijack the TV show. Angle says no one can stop him, Jarrett is still home nursing his injuries. Sharmell is now the backstage interviewer and is with ODB. She'll talks about her match with Kong, Raisha Saaeed, Sojourner Bolt & Rhaka Khan Sharmell says that MEM security escorted Taylor Wilde & Roxxi 4 on 1 Handicapped Match Awesome Kong & the Kongtourage defeated ODB. Scott Steiner is absolutely hysterical "ring announcing" when Kong pinned ODB following an Implant Buster. Back in "Angle's" office. JB is trying to get Angle to drop this and not to hurt people. He said he's got Sting vs. Team 3D in a handicap match. JB said he's got it on good authority that Mick Foley is on his way here. Angle asks him who's side is he on. Kurt then gives JB a stack of MEM shirts to go and sell at the merchandise stand. And he better not pocket any of the money. He sends it back to Booker. Sharmell is in the back with Rudy Charles, Andrew Thomas and Earl Hebner. She asks Charles & Thomas what are they gonna do for a living after Booker cripples them in the next match. Thomas says he's not a wrestler...yet Rudy says he's an accomplished amateur wrestler. Booker T def Andrew Thomas & Rudy Charles when Booker pinned Thomas following a Book End. Total squash, Booker hit all his trademark moves on both refs. He continuously yelled at Hebner telling him to do his job & that this had nothing to do with him. Post match, Booker got in Hebner's face and bullied him until Shane Sewell ran in and attacked Booker. He got in a few hits & chops, but Booker wound up hitting him with a scissor kick. Back with Angle ...Sting shows up and is like..you gotta be kidding me in regards to the handicap match against 3D. Sharmell in the back with Matt Morgan. She says he's in for the toughest match of his life as he takes on Petey Williams, who has to have one hand tied behind his back. He says he's got sympathy for no one and for Abyss who is at home to watch this. Between matches, Jeremy Borash is out selling t-shirts and questioning the actions of the MEM. Matt Morgan def Petey Williams (Williams must have one arm tied behind his back) Scott Steiner says :"I'd like to send a message to Barack Obama right now. Instead of building a wall to keep those Mexicans out, you should make a wall to keep those a****e Canadians from getting in." Steiner even took a fan's Canadian flag from ringside and said he wipes his a&** with it. He remained at ringside as Morgan just dominated Williams and instructed him during each pinfall to lift him up and punish him. Slick Johnson untied Williams while Morgan was distracted by Steiner. Postmatch, Steiner got in the ring and instructed Morgan "to finish him" he wound up giving him a Hellavator and Steiner put him in the Steiner Recliner until Eric Young, Consequences Creed & Jay Lethal come in. Booker T then runs in with a microphone and continues commentary while beating on the fallen members of the Frontline. Sharmell is in the back with the Motor City Machineguns. Sharmell mentions that members of the Frontline were getting beatdown but they were nowhere to be found, Shelley says they couldn't tear themselves from their high def plasma TVs. Team 3D defeated Sting by DQ. Pre-match, Brother Ray takes the mic and says he feels bad for Sting. That this beating is going to be nothing compared to what his MEM brothers did to him 7 or 8 weeks ago. Scott Steiner attempts to announce but Brother Ray keeps interrupting him yelling Blah every time he tries to talk. Steiner announces 3D from Dunkin Donuts from the great state of Obesity. Angle, Steiner and Booker all got involved. LAX, Mick Foley and Abyss all came down to even the odds. Foley said that this experiment is over. Since Steiner likes to play with weapons, he'll have a weapons match against Abyss and tonight will also be a handicapped match with Kurt Angle taking on both members of LAX. Don West, Mike Tenay & David Penzer all returned to their regular duties. Jim Cornette announces at Against All Odds its going to be Booker T taking on Shane Sewell. Abyss defeated Scott Steiner by DQ Weapons are only legal for Abyss. Steiner was DQ'd when Abyss went to hit Steiner with the ring bell and he hit Abyss with the lead pipe. Postmatch, Steiner was beating down on Abyss when Suicide made his entrance and helped Abyss before disappearing into the darkness. Lauren is backstage with stars of a new show on Spike called Toughest cowboy and a live bull. Beer Money, Inc shows up and James Storm says he's the toughest cowboy. Kurt Angle defeated LAX when Angle pinned Homicide following an Olympic Slam. Explosion Brutus Magnus def Eric Young

As ECW was growing so was the voice of the internet, and back then the internet was filled almost exclusively with hardcore fans who hated WCW and the WWF, so they ate up everything Shane said when he knocked Flair. I've always said that Shane Douglas is a Jeff Jarrett like wrestler, who is good enough at everything to be a great utility wrestler, but lacking that something that could see him reasonably fit into the main event scene. His interviews could be really good at times, but more often than not they were adequate enough to get the job done and no more. Shane did rely on swearing far too much and doing so, especially outside of ECW, made him come off like the very cartoon character, albeit an adult orientated one, he decried in ECW.

Next week, Rey Mysterio should start attacking John Cena and they can going into this heated feud, and not bother with promos or angles telling people why it's happening. After all, we can just assume something happened backstage and that's why Rey is gunning for Cena.

If the WWF had had those names then, providing the booking had been even half decent, Team WCW would have won the match because the feud would still be red hot. You could have even kept it going until Mania, with the idea going in of WCW threatening to kill the WWF at the biggest event of the year.

True, but that's before they've aired and the rantings are in the context of how things come across on paper. Once the show has aired, though, and we've had the chance to see how things come across on television, if you're going to complain about it you should at least watch it, because occasionally things come across a lot different on television than they did on paper, and if there's a disparity between the two, you'd be looking at things wrong if you've not seen the television product. Bottom line is, if you're wanting to give an accurate assessment of how you think things came across on television, you have to watch the show. Otherwise, you get the hardcore defenders dismissing what you have to say, regardless of how accurate it is. Then again, as this forum continues to show, even if you do watch something before commenting on it, those some people simply resort to telling you not to watch it if you don't like it, before sticking their fingers in their ears and ignoring the actual points made.

Hogan, Hall, Nash, etc were still huge names at the time. Remember the reaction they got during the Hogan nWo vs. Rock feud? And that was a full year later. Your're telling me that if Hogan, Hall, Nash, Goldberg, Sting, Flair, Steiner, Jarret, and DDP all came in at once, as one group, and feuded with Austin, Angle, Undertaker, Rock, Big Show, Foley, Dudley Boys, etc that wouldn't have drawn? Goldberg vs. Undertaker at the time wouldn't draw? How about Austin vs. Flair or Hall/Nash vs. Dudleys? These guys were still huge names and, if put in the right situation, could have drawn huge money. Sure, guys like Hall/Nash wouldn't have lasted long but if they capatilized on them right off the bat they could have drawn. I usually don't agree with you, CubbyBr, but this time you're right on the money.

It's hard to make an assessment of a show without watching it. If people said they didn't watch the show and then ranted about, he'd have bitched about that, too. In any event, few people would have watched that show wiithout ranting about it to some degree.