Hunter's Torn Quad

The Dome event has been officially announced as being a live PPV in Japan, but the US version, if there ever is one, will obviously be delayed. If Lesnar is confirmed as taking part, then I'll be looking to get this from one of the usual places as soon as possible.

Great booking there WWE. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Fans should bring their own tap-out clocks so they can let everyone know when they tap out watching this crap.

The worst employer to have is one who hired you only because the other guys wanted you. He has no incentive to push you, because he didn't want you to begin with, and only hired you to keep you out of the hands of the competition. If anything, he might resent you because, in his mind, you forced him to hire you.

If he's smart, Lesnar will stick to New Japan. It's just much less stressful than WWE, and he'd never have to worry about revenge booking. Even if Vince does take him because he gets desperate, sooner or later Vince will try to embarrass Lesnar to pay him back for walking out.

It's remarkable of the three primary wrestling promotions in North America; Only one has any idea what they are doing and that's the company with the most impossible to please fanbase. I think that could be down to ROH;s fanbase not being too big or expansive enough to have to worry about too many places. They don't have so many things to have to worry about, and so they can concentrate more on the little things. Of course, pleasing fans is not a little thing, but you'd think it was given the behavior of WWE and TNA. Clearly, by the WWE and TNA fanbases, the expectations are drastically low. What happens? Each promotion stays conservative and cater to the low expectations. These fans need a kick in the ass. WWE is the biggest promotion in the world. Standards should be a lot higher than being 'tolerable'. TNA were getting there, but they squashed all that momentum by putting the NWA belt back on Jarrett. Meanwhile Ring of Honor, highly pressured by it's smaller yet more intensely vocal fanbase is forced to meet HIGH expecations and delivers with exceptional results thus only raising the expecations higher, eventually that will come to haunt ROH but that's not in the near future. I think it's because the fanbase is smaller that ROH are putting the effort into pleasing them. They can concentrate on one style of fan, and don't have to worry about the wasting time on the casual or fly-by-night fans. Why is it that WWE and TNA's fanbases aren't willing to raise the expecations? Because they are lazy ass fucks who can't be bothered to put effort into anything, much less wanting something above tolerable out of a wrestling promotion. The fans don't give a shit, so WWE doesn't give a shit, so the fans don't give a shit, and so on and so forth. That's the ultimate reason either company is willing to grow as a product. In fact, WWE is regressing as a product. Everything is recycled. Exactly. The fans are too dumb, stupid or lazy to care that they are being fed the same stale crap from 1998, so the promotion makes no effort to try anything new. There's nothing new to add to the tremendous stupidity of placing the title on Jeff Jarrett but it's just another aspect of how mind boggling it is to see a company on the verge of breaking out, basically settle for what it is now and not intend to expand because it won't expand under the umbrella of Jeff Jarrett. What makes it so sad and maddening is that TNA were on the verge of becoming something special. They were right there at the door of opportunity, and proceeded to nail wooden boards over it. Once again, Dixie Carter and Vince McMahon are simply willing to settle for low expectations. Which is killing professional wrestling on a mainstream level. It's more than that. They're settling for what they themselves are happy with, not the fans, which results in a product that I'm sure is getting their rocks off, but it doesn't give the fans much to get excited over. Not that they care either way. Ring of Honor simply refuses to insult their fanbase and even though sometimes Gabe will making booking decisions that leave fans disapointed or confused or even downright angry...An actual response is created and unlike in TNA or WWE, it's not an response of apathy. Say what you will about some aspects of the portions of the ROH fanbase, but at least they care enough to give a shit. WWE have run off the fans who cared enough to criticise it, and those are some of the most die-hard fans you get. If run off fans who want to complain, then you've really fucked up. "The American Dragon" will be a fine champion and I'm fairly confident that he'll get a proper reign if only to please that fanbase that actually takes value in the title itself. I don't personally believe the title was "hot shoted" over the last few months but some core fans do and Gabe is bound to give Danielson the proper reign he richly deserves anyways along with pleasing that fanbase. I think Danielson is in for a long reign, and he should get one, if only to restore some major stability to the belt. Brock Lesnar's saga could have been really interesting to follow but as I expected, Brock Lesnar (or rather, his lawyers) found the loophole to get out of that stupid lockdown. You'd have to wonder if Vince McMahon would begin to panic at the possibility of Brock Lesnar becoming successful on his own without the Vince McMahon promotional machine and cave in? I expect Vince to try and recreate Lesnar in some fashion to try and prove that anyone could have done what Lesnar did. It'll fail miserably, of course. Brock Lesnar getting work from NJPW could be a great negotiational tool and you have to wonder if Brock would rather ply his trade in America again if he can get his demands met or is the appeal of a less demanding schedule and the appeal of a new crowd and the freedom that much more attractive for Brock Lesnar? New Japan: Solid money, but less than WWE. Less travel, less political bullshit to deal with. A real chance to move up the card and become a superstar. WWE: More money then New Japan. More travel. Political bullshit to deal with. Revenge booking to look out for. Lesnar has smartened up a lot in the past year or so. He'll pick New Japan.

Any word on if Lesnar will be able to work for groups like TNA or would WWE just try to settle by allowing him to work in Japan, but still keep him out of U.S. groups that want to compete? Also, anything on him ever returning to WWE? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> He'd only be allowed to work in Japan. Will he return to WWE? If things work out for him in New Japan, then that would get more unlikely the longer he stays in New Japan.

If Masters could work a lick, that would help. I think the fans would be more forgiving of a guy who hasn't, in their eyes, paid his dues, if the guy was a great worker, or even a good one.

That would be the funniest thing ever. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Only to any 8-year old kids watching. Kind of explains who proposed the idea, though.

I would imagine that Lesnar's match would be blacked out in the US version of this event. The same thing happened when Vader worked for UWF-I in Japan back in 1993; when the show aired in the US, his match was taken off the PPV.

The first Baldur's Gate game seems so pedestrian after you've played the sequel. It doesn't help that there were some gameplay quirks in it that BG 2 doesn't have that make it the sequel much more enjoyable.

Eminem has credibility?

Goldberg was tremendously underrated as a worker. And even though he was never a great worker, he was still tons better than Warrior ever was.

The funniest one was back in 2003 when they held a meeting and said they wanted the guys to tone down the risky stuff and to not damage their bodies so much. The punchline? Two days later they announce the Los Guerrros vs. Team Angle Ladder match for Judgment Day.

On The LAW last night, Meltzer thinks that WWE legal have got word that they'll probably lose the case, so they're trying to settle the case in a manner that doesn't damage the strength of the non-compete clause in their contracts so that wrestlers can't leave WWE and then go straight to another company in the future. Meltzer thinks the match is going to happen.

Yeah, but did your scenario set up a potential MOTY of Cena v Bischoff?

It's the 'joke network' that rules Monday nights on cable. UFC also does big numbers for gates and merch on their bigger PPV's, which in some cases outdraw WWE or at least give it stiff competition.

That is one way of looking at it, but it's still crazy to put something like this out and not give it any pub at all. You'd think they'd at least advertise it to MMA fans in some form. Spike is definitely taking this seriously, or they wouldn't have scrambled so quickly to put the special together. They didn't even think to try this until UF beat Raw in the ratings in the 24-35 demographic.

But he's right about it having no pub. The special is meant to be this big attempt by Spike at keeping their status as top dog on cable on Mondays, but it's had no publicity. It does make no sense for it be this big weapon in Spike's arsenal, and for them to give it zero pub.

Thanks for clearing that up... <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Maybe JoeJoe can explain himself on this one now. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> dude, you really WANT him to? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I just want to get a laugh out of how he explains himsef being so terribly wrong. Not that anyone should be surprised JoeJoe was wrong.

Danielson is a great wrestler, who has probably peaked as far as his career goes. He doesn't have the size and physique that could get him into WWE, nor can he talk the way they want their wrestlers to talk. If he did a Kidman and juiced himself up to pack on the mass then he might get a look in, but then he'd become Danielson-lite, because he'd have too much mass and it would drag him down. For whatever reason, New Japan seem to have given up on Danielson, even though he seemed to be getting a push of sorts last year. TNA have shown no real interest in him for a while, which in turn means WWE haven't, because there was an edict out to sign him if TNA were interested in him. Danielson has probably gone as far as he will go in terms of career, which is good news for those who like to watch Danielson work at his best, but not good news for his bank account.

Thanks for clearing that up... <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Maybe JoeJoe can explain himself on this one now.

Masters is like Matt Morgan. They both got called up way too soon because they had the 'look' that Vince salivates over, and were promptly exposed before they were anywhere near ready for a national audience. They both could have been players, Morgan far more so than Masters, but whatever level they could have reached is now out of reach, because the people have seen them for too long as these big green hosses who are terrible in the ring.

To the casual audience drawn in the the first season of UF he is.

From Meltzer