Hunter's Torn Quad

Why would you put me through something like that?

Dave will never remove his tongue from Flair's ass/ Except the match with Show was shockingly good, and I'd be willing to bet that it was the highest rated segment of the show.

From the latest WO.com update: --Super Crazy was originally booked to face Gregory Helms yesterday as most expected. Crazy has also been taken off the active roster due to health reasons stemming from liver issues. Kid Kash is expected to be suspended after tomorrow's tapings. --Fit Finlay will be turning face due to the numbers game with so many people out of action. This is not the end of it. --Kristal Marshall was hospitalized after the bra & panties match last night but we didn't get word as to the nature of the injury --Mr. Kennedy did not blade last night. If you didn't see the show, he was drenched in blood by the end of the match after Batista rammed his head into the corner of the ring steps and I believe there was a second cut after he went into the post right before the finish.

I'd put Nick Patrick's bump last night in the main event in a similar category. He got grazed in the shoulder by Rey and practically did cartwheels across the ring, dragged himself to the floor and then did a handstands along the ground before falling flat on his face and laying there supposedly unconscious.

What's the story behind this, if anyone cares to explain? Thanks in advance. Fujita was still doing MMA and the best finish they could get him, and his people, to agree to was Fujita getting Sasaki in a sleeper and falling on his back, essentially pinning himself.

WWE television in Canada: When talking with TSN, WWE were unhappy with the prospect of never airing live and tried to force TSM to choose between Raw or Monday Night Football. It was an easy choice, as getting MNF was considered a big deal for TSN and Canadian ratings for Raw have been declining. Officially, TSN cancelled Raw due to sliding ratings and issues over content, with Live Audio Wrestling reporting that two specific angles TSN took issue with were the Edge and Lita live sex show and the skit where HHH and Candice Michelle were supposed to be getting blowjobs while they were talking. Some shows had been in the 4.4 range, but the 6/26 show got a 7.5 rating, which is considered very impressive for a cable show, and so the claim over ratings being the issue appears to be a cover for WWE having problems with not airing on Monday’s during Fall. TSN reaches 8 million homes while The Score reaches 5 million. WWE were happy to get the new deal, because after cancellation there was real fear of not being to get a new deal on such short notice. Both TSN and The Score do a Sports Center-like show, and the ratings for the TSN version are 323% higher, which is pretty much how it is for all programming. Most systems have TSN on a primary tier with The Score being secondary, though most dish packages have them together. Dave says that means being live on The Score is probably more negative than being on tape on TSN, but it was an example of WWE ego because Raw was moved around on TSN while it will be catered to on The Score, despite reaching far less homes. Saturday Night’s Main Event: Said if the first SNME was a ratings disaster, this one could be called a ratings nuclear holocaust. The show did a final rating of 2.56, which is 4.13 million viewers. That is down 18% in homes and 19% in viewers from the first SNME. While summer can somewhat be attributed as cause of the ratings slide, that is still misleading because a lot of the viewers back then were people watching the NCAA tournament and fresher programming. The lack of competition should have, if anything, seen ratings stay near to the level of the first one. SNME did a 1.8 in Males ages 18-34, which is what a strong Impact can get. The highest rated demo was male teens, with a 2.4. The show finished last for the night, and the 2.5 rating was almost exactly the same rating that NBC got for reruns in the same timeslot the week before. Just about the lone bragging right is that the second hour was the highest rated hour in prime time on all four networks in the 18-49 age group, but that’s not really something to brag about as most viewers on Saturday night are older and none of the competition was first run. WWE are privately putting the blame on NBC for not promoting the show enough, because they barely promoted the show after the first one performed so terribly, but a lot of prime time shows on NBC don’t get promoted well and they never do a 2.5. The contract between WWE and NBC calls for at least four more specials by October 2008, but with how the first show did, NBC are considered to be chalking things up to simply fulfilling the contract and no more. Dave says the real reason for the failure of the show is simply overexposure of the product; with there already being five hours of first run programming in the week, two more hours doesn’t seem special at all, even with the return of Hulk Hogan in what was clearly going to be an angle to get up his latest coming out of retirement. It’s clear the general public has no interest in wrestling and that the business is surviving on its core fans, who it is risking burning out. Hogan’s coming back meant less than Austin’s coming back four months ago, which could be down to him having just appeared at the HOF ceremony and his ‘reality’ show, because there is no curiosity to what he looks like or what he is up to. It could also be because people are resenting how blatantly obvious it is that Hogan is out there just to promote his daughter. The show did draw a legit sellout, with about 14,500 paid. The commercials were noticeably low-rent, with most of them being for NBC programs or Raw or ECW next week. Said there was nothing that bad about the show, other than “the watered down DX interview and a Spirit Squad burial beyond belief”. Said it more like a Smackdown than a Raw, but it had less time devoted to wrestling than Smackdown does. There were no matches that were good, mostly due to the ones that looked good on paper getting rushed. Said the show was overbooked to give as many people as possible exposure on NBC, when they probably get more exposure on Raw. All three announce teams got to announce at least one match, which was good to get them over as personalities, but was probably a major distraction for the average viewer. Rough estimates as far as each segment goes: The Smackdown match lost about 322,000 viewers from the Hogan segment. Vince and DX skit + Carlito/Trish vs. Nitro/Melina gained about 322,000 viewers. The beginning of DX vs. The Spirit Squad lost 161,000 viewers. The end of DX vs. The Spirit Squad + the Undertaker/Khali/Show angle gained about 644,000 viewers. The ending of the Undertaker angle, from the point he got physical to getting laid out, + Sabu vs. Richards + the Hogan/Orton parking lot angle gained about 161,000 viewers. The bronco bull showdown lost 161,000 viewers. Cena vs. Edge gained about 322,000 viewers. The show appeared to be written with the idea of appealing to a lot of people who never watch wrestling, with all the introductory like promos and announcing, which probably wasn’t necessary. There were a lot of statements made that Dave likened to “we changed the rules and got it regulated when we bought it in 2001”, statements, (This is in reference to Dana White’s press interviews about the UFC where he claims credit for a bunch of changes to UFC that happened long before Zuffa took the company over) such as; Raw being the highest rated show in cable, when it’s very rarely ever the case. ECW bragging being the highest rated cable show on Tuesdays, which is also not true. The claim that with 686 weekly episodes Raw had more episodes than any television show in history. Kevin Dunn first contacted Kevin Von Erich to come in for an angle where he would get laid out by Edge. Von Erich said he had no interest in doing that and that he’d on vacation with his family in id-July and wouldn’t even be in Dallas. Vince then called Von Erich up, apologized for Dunn, and was eventually able to convince Von Erich to make the taped appearance we saw on the show. Said Hogan didn’t get a bad reaction but that it was nothing like he usually gets, especially with him being the first one out on the show. Smackdown six-man tag: **. Little Bastard was called Damn Troll because they couldn’t use the LB name on NBC. Said the DX/Vince skit was doubly lame, because they not only had to say “spank their bottoms” and because these “40-year-old guys acting like high school cool guys making fun of teacher visually gets worse by the day. It really emphasizes more how uncool the product is. Carlito/Trish vs. Nitro/Melina: n/a DX vs. The Spirit Squad: *. Said SS came across like 80s jobbers, with almost no offense and the match was mostly comedy spots with them playing the fools. Said there was nothing to the match at all, and that SS were on the verge of being hot when the feud started and now nobody takes them seriously, and the match only got a reaction for comedy spots or finishing moves. Undertaker/Khali/Show angle: Said it looked better on paper than it came out and that Khali didn’t look impressive when next to Show. Sabu vs. Steven Richards: ¼*. Said them calling Sabu “ECW’s Evil Knievel” made him cringe and he called it lame. Said the Orton-Hogan angle in the parking lot came off better than it read and was probably the best piece of business on the show. John Cena vs. Edge: *1/4. Said live reports had Cena getting 70% cheers and Edge getting 50% cheers. Said apart from the good final scene, the match was bad. Other news: The Spirit Squad were told at Raw they were being broken up. They’ll probably drop the tag belts to the Highlanders on the 7/24 Raw. Ken Doane is the only one with a solid new direction, but that is in doubt. The original plan was for him to get a strong push as a heel in ECW, but he’s been pushing to stay on Raw due to his relationship with Mickie James (they are engaged) and right now it’s better than 50/50 that that will happen. Dave said it’s sad because, despite the gimmick, they managed to get over to a degree and were a solid heel act but after the one-sided feud with DX and the total squashing at SNME it was felt the group had no heat left and had to be broken up. Johnny Jeter might not be safe due to his size. Mondo seems set for a Crash Holly-like role. Lashley was set for a much longer run as US Champion. The title change was punishment for something and it was described as precautionary measure. Lashley was said to be unhappy with the decision. Summerslam looks like: Hogan vs. Orton, Edge vs. Cena for the WWE Title, possibly Booker vs. Batista for the World Title (more on this later), Foley vs. Flair under hardcore rules, possibly Nitro vs. Carlito for the IC Title, maybe Show vs. RVD for the ECW Title and DX vs. Vince and Shane. Undertaker and Khali may get one final blow off match. Thinks Matt Striker should be retooled as a heel manager because he’s a main event talker, but he’s not physically imposing and he doesn’t have the talent to overcome it. Dave was told there is no plan for a Batista vs. Booker vs. Rey three-way at Summerslam. The plan was for Booker to get the World title at the Bash PPV, but the plan was changed last weekend to him winning the belt shortly after at a Smackdown. It could also change again before Sunday. John Laurinaitis is on a two-week vacation in the Bahamas, which might not be the best of ideas given that Vince never takes time off. Michael Cole’s mood and attitude is said to have improved lately, which is being attributed to not being around Tazz anymore. Joey Styles is said to recognize that how he was taught to announce and what he did in the past is not what they are looking for and he now just does what he is told. The Miz got a lot of heat over his performance on the 7/10 Raw. The belief was that Miz was so intent on getting himself over that he forgot the stuff he was meant to push, such as the code number he had written down and even the website address (wwe.com). They had done a run-through earlier in the day and he had done fine there. The feeling was he a had a bad night. Melina, who had a lot of heat with a lot of people, raised her rep after her performance on the 7/10 Raw. The DX stuff has been toned down because Shawn has said that he doesn’t want to be a part of anything with sexual content. Many in creative want some sort of timeframe for the DX to end, with the belief that any more after Summerslam and it’ll get too old, but Stephanie is insisting on them being the focal point of things until at least Fall. The 7/10 Raw went long, with the main victim being Orton; his match against Val Venis was meant to be a proper match but had to be cut to 13 seconds. His promo also had to be cut down. Vince has ordered the merchandise department to stop selling the “EC F’n W” t-shirt. He said he found the shirt “low road” and “crass”, and that it would be a negative if advertisers found they were selling something like that. The reason for this is Dodge place an add on the 7/10 Raw, which is big deal as car companies had always avoided WWE programming because of the stigma. While WWE make no money from the ad and it was USA who sold the ad, it was considered a big deal perception-wise. Vince is now paranoid that someone will see the things they’ve been doing and they’ll lose a breakthrough like that and it’ll strengthen the negative perception the advertising community holds. The DQ in the Sabu vs. Justin Credible match was done to show there are now rules in regular ECW matches, and was more of the mentality of rubbing things in the faces of fans who chant negative things during the show. It was Flair’s idea to bump in the thumbtacks, as he thought it would help sell his Summerslam match with Foley because the two are meant to tear the house down in their hardcore match. Flair taped a comeback promo on Foley on 7/10, for the one that aired that night, and Flair was said to be very excited about it because he had more feeling in it that anything he’d done in a long time. The line Foley used about imaginary tough guys was to set up Flair talking about Bruiser Brody and Stan Hansen, which garnered a negative reaction from Brian Gewirtz because he had no idea who Flair was talking about. This frustrated Flair. And after all that, it never aired on 7/17 as planned. The plan is to introduce Harry Smith into the Orton/Hogan program with the Hogan Knows Best episode where he dates Brooke. It may have been why they Haas/Viscera/Garcia angle was dropped, because it was too similar to this one. Dreamer got a ton of real heat over his website comments concerning ECW, and how he was fed up about it and would get in trouble if he said what he was really thinking. He claimed it was pure storyline but nobody believed him on that. He’s now not allowed to write anything else on the site. In Austin at the ECW show, Fertig had “Taker ripoff” chants directed at him.

Victory Road: Thumbs up: 50 (54.9%) Thumbs down: 27 (29.7%) Thumbs in the middle: 14 (15.4%) Dave called VR a mediocre PPV “from a promotion that can’t gain position in the crowd PPV marketplace producing anything less than very good to excellent”. Says TNA has changed from a promotion that made its name by consistently putting on the best PPV matches anywhere to being more personality and storyline based, with almost no booking done based on whether the match produced will be anything above average. Dave says that generally the storyline and personality stuff is what draws, but doing that makes the promotion seem like WWE with lesser stars and there are three WWE brands. Dave says TNA has lost their niche. Dave said that apart from the LAX tag match unexpectedly stealing the show, there was nothing memorable about it. Said the crowd was once again burned out from having to wait so long in the sun to get in. A lot of the regular fans didn’t go because they used to get a special line and the best seats, but that got taken away, so most of the people are park guests. One person there said that the lines to get in were the shortest for any PPV in a long time. In regard to the main event and Sting’s big comeback, he said the lack of reaction to his return and his big win was depressing. He called Joe the crowd favorite and that they appeared to see Sting winning as “Joe not winning”. Dave points out that Sting’s deal has not got long to go, and with them building to Sting vs. Jarrett all year then the time to go to it is now. Says Joe has more time and the more they build to his title run the more it will mean. Said there was no real storyline for Joe, and said he came across as an afterthought, when the fans reacted to him as the biggest star on the show. Says that after the lengthy build up, now they are hitting the singles match program with Sting and Jarrett, that there doesn’t appear to be any interest in it. The feedback to the Observer, which has been very consistently matched how TNA’s PPV’s have wound up drawing, was down 23% on the very low levels it had already reached as of late, and is less than half the level it was at when Sting first arrived. Dave thinks a lot of it is down to TNA no longer ending PPV’s with a MOTY-level bout, which was their lone calling card in getting people to pay for a PPV in an already crowded market. Dave thinks a lot of it is also down to the amount of competition, and that competition among viewers with similar interests for more high profile seemingly more important events. Dave says he can’t think of a single category where a TNA PPV delivers better than anything a bigger promotion does. Dave was also bothered to a degree about the lack of instant replays. He said there a lot of high risk moves on the PPV, and showing them again not only gets the spots over but the wrestlers over too, and with the lack of replays, he doesn’t know if anybody got over with them. The PPV drew the usual full house of 900 fans. Right now, Hard Justice will see: Sting vs. Jarrett for the NWA Title most likely with Christian and Scott Steiner in their respective corners, Styles and Daniels vs. Homicide and Hernandez for the tag titles, Joe vs. Rhino vs. Monty Brown, Sirelda vs. Gail Kim and Kevin Nash vs. Chris Sabin, but Dave says that may be changed to a tag match involving Jerry Lynn because Sabin ‘shockingly’ hasn’t gotten over a bit in this angle, which was meant to be for him). There might also be something with the James Gang as faces against AMW and Sen Shi against Dutt or Lethal and possible The Naturals against Shelly and Devine. Naturals vs. Skipper and Diamond: *. Called Shane Douglas’s insulting of Flair bad timing with Flair having just popped a rating and tearing the house down five nights before. Rhino vs. Monty Brown: *1/4. Says it was clear they were going to start a win streak for Brown so they likely changed the finish from him going over to a DDQ as Rhino got himself over with fans and management with his anti-ECW promo’s, and this was not the time to beat him. Homicide and Hernandez vs. Sonjay Dutt and Ron Killings: ***1/2. Said instead of dropping Dutt down Hernandez “just heaved him halfway to Tampa”. Said the segment with Team Canada was good but that it went too long. Also said that Young was acting a lot like Eugene and “I already saw Eugene and how nuts everyone was for him and how well that played out”. Sen Shi vs. Frankie Kazarian: **1/2. Incognito was meant to be in the match but TNA couldn’t contact him for some reason. Called the match cold because Kazarian did nothing to be the babyface and didn’t do much in the comeback. Raven vs. Zbyszko: DUD. Said Larry has gained 30lbs since Morphoplex went out of business but luckily his stall doesn’t need good cardio. On the Nash promo, Dave said the only memorable thing was Nash using a line from Seinfeld 14 years ago. Dave also said Nash was mocking Hogan’s promo’s to try and be cool. “As if we don’t get enough DX for one week with 40-year-olds trying to act like high schoolers that TNA copies it with someone closing in on 50. Well, at least Nash looks younger than his age, which can’t be said for the other two. Chris Sabin and Jay Lethal vs. Kevin Nash and Alex Shelley: *1/2. “Nash was either trying to sell and doing it in a most unbelievable fashion or was trying to sell in a most unbelievable fashion.” Said the idea of the program was to get Sabin over as an X-Division star, but to no shock at all he’s just gotten buried and for all the reason everybody knew about going in. James Gang and Abyss vs. Team 3D and Brother Runt: **3/4. Penzer got ‘reamed out’ for announcing Abyss at 248. Styles and Daniels and Sirelda vs. AMW and Gail Kim: **3/4. Said the match wasn’t bad but not as good as it’s been the last few months. Said the first half was mostly comedy and that the momentum was killed whenever Sirelda was in. Dave called the second half of the match very good. Sting vs. Samoa Joe vs. Christian vs. Scott Steiner: **1/4. Said the problem with the match was Steiner being the focal point after Sting got taken out and that he was struggling very badly, and the most noticeable since joining. Said the crowd wasn’t into the match at all. Said Joe and Christian were both good. Other News: James Mitchell is under contract until May and says he’s very happy in TNA. He said there was no contact between him and WWE. There is heat amongst the wrestlers over Andy Douglas getting out of cutting his hair. The story is that Bob Ryder, who has almost no respect anymore, convinced Jeff Jarrett that the hair cut wasn’t needed. The booking committee wanted to give them a new push with a new look. They had minor haircuts as a concession but they look almost the same as before. (From me: Yes, the booking committee decided what they wanted happening but Jeff decided to change it. It might have been something minor, but if Jeff is willing to step in on something like a haircut, just think what he’ll be like when the committee make the call to have Jarrett put over Joe for the title) Some of those at TV looking for work were Brian Lee, Sean Waltman and Lance Hoyt. Joe was unhappy at the tapings. He had a large welt under his eye from a potato shot from Steiner. He was arguing with D’Amore about something in front of the wrestlers, D’Amore was on at Joe for something else and Joe was yelling back. Eventually, they calmed things down and D’Amore apologized. Monty Brown and Sen Shi have not signed new deals, but with Brown it might not even be considered a big issue. With Sen Shi, there was something in the deal he did not agree to. He was also unhappy at TV. He wasn’t happy about his PPV match not getting advertised and that he apparently only found about the match on the internet. He was also unhappy about, not only just working an Xplosion match at the TV taping, but also having to put over Sonjay Dutt. A rep from ESPN India was at the taping interviewing wrestlers for the station. He said ratings for TNA on the station are huge, and talked about TNA maybe touring there. Vignettes start soon for the Bobby Roode singles push. The angle will be that all the top managers are after him. Team 3D won’t be used for a while as their contract is running low on dates. The story behind the James Gang taking Eric Young under their wing is that they want the James Gang as faces and because they are the highest paid they need them over. In actuality, apparently, the hope is that it’s Young who gives them a rub from being so over himself.

There were no official tags, but they said it was like Lucha rules which basically means they guy has to leave the ring before one of his partners can come in. If the heels keep a babyface from leaving the ring, to allow a partner in, it's as good as preventing the tag. The crowd were incredible too. I know they get knocked by the misinformed, but they were great here. They had some familiarity with CIMA and possibly knew Dragon Kid but they didn't know anything about the rest of the wrestlers, but by the 15-minute mark they were going insane and were even chanting "please don't stop" as the wrestlers were building to the finish. You cannot buy passion like that.

I watched Supercard of Honor from ROH, and it really is a must-see show. The overall card just blows away anything WWE or TNA have done this year. From top to bottom you've got great angles and great matches. The two most talked about matches are the Dragon's Gate trios match and Bryan Danielson vs. Roderick Strong. Dave Meltzer gave the DG match ***** and it more than deserves it. It starts off slow and builds to a tremendous climax with one incredible spot after the other. The match has timing, teamwork and, and I know some people will refuse to accept this, great psychology. This is one match you really have to see. Danielson/Strong goes 56 minutes and while not quite as good as the DG match it's still really great. It's such a change from the mainstream to watch two guys go out there and just wrestle.

Why? Is it really that hard to believe?

Two titbits from Da Meltz's appearance on F4 Daily a few days ago: Ric Flair taped what was called a great comeback promo against Mick Foley on 7/10 to air the next week, but it got nixed because Brian Gewirtz hated it due to Flair talking about wrestling history and Gewirtz had no idea what he was talking about. Flair only does short promo’s, when he does them at all, because while the writers think he’s a great performer they don’t think he can talk. When Johnny Nitro interrupted him on Raw, the idea was for Nitro to carry the mic work.

On his recent F4 Daily appearance, DM said there really was a visa problem, but that isn't what caused the break up. Whatever it is, people aren't talking about it, so it sounds big.

Sounds like the infamous Kennel from Hell match. And we all know how that one turned out.

So was he really nuts and had to be restrained by five guards or just percieved to be nuts? I think the five guards deal was myth. But he wasn't really nuts at all. It was something he went along with because the rep made people leave him alone.

Jones did an interview where he said he had the rep and he just went along with it so he'd have an easier time in prison. He figured if people thought he really was that nuts they'd leave him alone.

I think it's easier legally to just to take them off the PPV.

The Giant falling off of the roof of the Cobo Arena.

Dusty's run in WWF had nothing to do with Vince not liking him. It was Vince trying to humiliate Dusty purely for running the competition. It wasn't personal.

If you're talking prestige on a worldwide basis, then I guess the WWE Title is the most important title to casual wrestling fans. If you're talking from a booking perspective, then the ROH Title is the only one that gets booked like the old NWA World Title was, in that it does get defended in different countries against wrestlers from different promotions. Prestige aside, it's the only title that gets handled like a world title should be.

If they are being punished for something then taking them off the PPV also means taking away their PPV payoff.

Bobby Heenan came up with the name as a rib.

It needs to be Joe vs. Sting at BFG. Joe beating Sting will mean more than Joe beating Jarrett, whether it’s for the title or not. The fans have twice seen someone beat Jarrett for the title and then Jarrett wind up getting the belt back relatively quickly. Having Joe beat Jarrett for the belt runs a very real risk of people thinking that they’re going to see the same thing again, with Joe getting the belt for a few months before it goes back to Jarrett again. What the fans have not seen before is Joe beating Sting. Joe vs. Sting makes sense because they have still to resolve the issue of Joe shaking Sting’s hand at Sacrifice only to leave him to get laid out by Jarrett and Steiner. After Joe beats Sting for the title, the next night on Impact they can have Joe shake Sting’s hand, before teasing Joe leaving Sting to get another beatdown from Jarrett and Steiner, only for Joe to finally make the save. Joe can then tell Sting he’s earned his respect at last because he finally faced him in the ring, while Sting can tell Joe, and the fans, that Joe has proven he’s the man and that he is the man to carry TNA. This can bring out Jarrett and Steiner, they can go back and forth to set up Sting/Joe vs. Jarrett/Steiner as the main event that night, and they can run an angle at the end of the match to set up Joe vs. Jarrett as the main event of the next PPV. Samoa Joe beating Sting for the belt means people will see Joe beating a guy who was seen as one of the top names from wrestling’s boom period, and that alone means Joe’s big World title win will mean far more if it’s against Sting than Jarrett. It will not just be Joe winning the World title, but it will be the rubber-stamping of the new face of wrestling, Joe, beating the old face of wrestling, Sting, and that will do wonders for the perception that TNA is about the new rather than the old.

The latest F4W says that Booker and Rey were told, before Mark got injured, that it would a three-way at Summerslam.

According to the latest F4W, much of the reason the SS are being split is because they're getting blamed for DX not getting good ratings.

I'll repost this here because it might generate more reaction. This is why I think it has to be Joe vs. Sting at Bound For Glory and not Joe vs. Jarrett; Joe beating Sting will mean more than Joe beating Jarrett, whether it’s for the title or not. The fans have twice seen someone beat Jarrett for the title and then Jarrett wind up getting the belt back relatively quickly. Having Joe beat Jarrett for the belt runs a very real risk of people thinking that they’re going to see the same thing again, with Joe getting the belt for a few months before it goes back to Jarrett again. What the fans have not seen before is Joe beating Sting. Joe vs. Sting makes sense because they have still to resolve the issue of Joe shaking Sting’s hand at Sacrifice only to leave him to get laid out by Jarrett and Steiner. After Joe beats Sting for the title, the next night on Impact they can have Joe shake Sting’s hand, before teasing Joe leaving Sting to get another beatdown from Jarrett and Steiner, only for Joe to finally make the save. Joe can then tell Sting he’s earned his respect at last because he finally faced him in the ring, while Sting can tell Joe, and the fans, that Joe has proven he’s the man and that he is the man to carry TNA. This can bring out Jarrett and Steiner, they can go back and forth to set up Sting/Joe vs. Jarrett/Steiner as the main event that night, and they can run an angle at the end of the match to set up Joe vs. Jarrett as the main event of the next PPV. Samoa Joe beating Sting for the belt means people will see Joe beating a guy who was seen as one of the top names from wrestling’s boom period, and that alone means Joe’s big World title win will mean far more if it’s against Sting than Jarrett. It will not just be Joe winning the World title, but it will be the rubber-stamping of the new face of wrestling, Joe, beating the old face of wrestling, Sting, and that will do wonders for the perception that TNA is about the new rather than the old.