Hunter's Torn Quad

Yea, Though I Walk Through The Valley Of Suck – Part 4 Scott Hall v Roddy Piper – Superbrawl IX This match was for the US Heavyweight Title, and was originally set to have Bret Hart defend against Hall, but shortly before Superbrawl he dropped the belt to Piper, thanks to the interference of Will Sasso from MAD TV. Hart and Sasso had a ‘feud’ going due to Bret ‘shooting’ while on MAD TV, and berating everyone there. It was as stupid as it sounds, and it should also be mentioned that the primary booker at this point was Kevin Nash, who was determined to bury Hart, hence the beyond stupid feud with Sasso and Hart dropping the belt to Piper for no real reason, when the match with Hall had been fairly built up. Hall, despite being a heel, was over as a babyface, due to the Wolfpac being presented as cool heels, and every other regular babyface being portrayed as terribly uncool, making it impossible for anyone to get behind them. Hall was ushered into the arena by Disco Inferno, who was doing a Wolfpac pledge gimmick, like Louie Spicolli was doing before his untimely death. This was actually Hall’s second match of the night, having teamed with Kevin Nash earlier in the night, taking the place of an injured Lex Luger, to beat Rey Mysterio Jr and Konnan, in a match that saw Rey lose his mask. Piper comes out to a mixed reaction, with the boos pretty noticeable, due to the aforementioned habit of booking the babyfaces in WCW in a manner that ensured them being seen as incompetent or uncool, thus ensuring they barely got over. Once the match actually started, whatever heat was there for the entrances vanished, and the crowd was quiet for most of this slipshod affair. The action began with Piper throwing his kilt over Hall’s face, and attacking him with his usual offence of lame looking punches, the ear-clap thing (which Piper managed to botch) and an eye poke or two. Disco hopped up on to the ring apron, and Piper saw him off by ruffling his hair (seriously), and got back to attacking Hall before Hall grabbed Piper by the trunks and pulled him to the floor. Well, he was meant to do that, but Piper hit the ropes chest first instead, so Piper had to just roll to the floor instead. Disco’s attempt to interfere was foiled with an eye poke, but it allowed Hall to sneak up and attack Piper from behind, before he threw Piper back into the ring. After some leisurely executed offence from Hall, both men hit each other with low blows right in front of the referee, but he does nothing about it, even though the match isn’t under any special rules. There was some crowd reaction when Hall tied Piper up in a corner in the tree of woe, and Disco was able to interfere while Hall distracted the referee, but that didn’t last, and even when Hall put Piper in an abdominal stretch, with Disco helping Hall from the outside, there wasn’t much of a reaction from the crowd, who sat there in apathetic silence. Piper did fight back, to a round of apathy, and applied a sleeper Hall, which saw Disco hit the ring. Now, as I said before, this was a regular match, but for some reason the referee never called for the disqualification, despite Disco interfering right in front of him. If you listen very carefully, you can actually hear the credibility of this company slowly seep out of it like blood from a gut wound. At this point, Kevin Nash slowly clambers onto the ring apron, being careful not to tear anything because of how fragile he is, and he tries to interfere, again right in front of the referee, who again does nothing about it. Piper kicks at the ropes as Nash is straddling them, but that has no effect, because Nash has nothing between his legs that can get hurt. Nash drops to the floor, and while the referee is presumably distracted, Hall sweeps Piper up by the legs, cradles him, puts his feet high on the second rope, which the referee would have to be blind not to see, and gets the three count to win the US Title. After the three count, Piper grabs the US Title belt, and a struggle ensues, which winds up with Hall and Nash cornering Piper in the ring. So, what does Piper do ? Like any good babyface, he runs away, naturally. Thoughts: This match was the living embodiment of the phrase “going through the motions”, because neither Hall nor Piper put any effort into this dire affair. If it was a house how, you could at least understand why they might be taking things easy, but on a PPV, you expect a little effort to be put in by those wrestling. Well, not in this match, because nobody was working hard here. Throughout the match, Tony Schiavone talked about the Wolfpac having the numbers advantage all night, and how that overwhelmed Piper. Well, where the fuck were the other babyfaces ? Where the hell were the rest of the babyfaces as the Wolfpac steamrolled over everyone with the numbers advantage ? If a babyface is so uncared about that nobody comes to his aid when he’s being outnumbered and double-teamed into the ground, why should the fans care about them ? This happened almost non-stop once the N WO angle began, most notably at Fall Brawl in 1996, where the heels would gang up on the outnumbered babyfaces, but despite there being a locker room filled with people who would want to get there hands on the N WO, nobody came out to help. The other major flaw of this match was how there was so much interference right in front of the referee and he did nothing about it. Was it that hard to have someone distract the referee so he at least couldn’t see the heels cheating ? Was it really necessary to make the referee’s look just as incompetent as the babyfaces and the announcers ? Well ? Was it ? This was a total shambles, in both execution and booking, and was just a terrible indictment of how badly WCW was being run at the time. Ranking: General Suck

How are they immature? She's gushing over him like an infatuated teenager. Seriously, if you can't see it then maybe you're blind. So maybe she's not sleeping with him, but she's SURELY a JJ mark thenand that's just as bad (And says even less about her if she is) <{POST_SNAPBACK}> We have a winner. With the way Dixie is talking about Jeff, she's either infatuated with him to a CarnivalizComing-like degree, or has totally fallen for Jerry and Jeff's bullshit.

With Jarrett winning Dixie Carter over in his favor along with the booking comittee, Jarrett will once again be plastered all over Impact shows and burying challengers on PPV along the way, leading to many fans refusing to watch Impact on Spike TV. This will obviously result in low ratings and cause Spike TV to cancel Impact sometime later. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Still, you've got to admire the quality post PR made to make his point. It's sad, but it's true. With Jarrett at the helm, what little chance TNA has of making it is gone. Jarrett on top might not make TNA die, but it won't make them grow either.

True, but Cena is their golden boy right now. Also, even if Angle does lose, he can get his back and then some by beating Cena up so bad he has to get stretchered out. They could even have Cena be medically barred from wrestling until TT.

I see people celebrating, "And I didn't order this shit"

You make a good argument for your position Rudo, but I still don't see it happening. I think we'll get something closer to what I think will happen.

I agree completely, unless you can follow that DQ with some super hot post-match segment where fans can neglect the match ended in a DQ, it's a risky move to make unless you are certain you have a hot follow-up to it. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Smart booking can get you around the 'need' for a DQ finish. You can have a pinfall and still get to where you want to go without having to resort to a DQ.

The problem with ending a PPV with a DQ is that you piss off the fans who purchased the PPV. People don't pay $34.95 to see a PPV with a DQ finish in the main event.

Why wouldn't the title change hands if Cena passes out? I still don't see Cena losing the belt, even if it is only because the title is suspended.

Well, this IS the Ultimate Warrior. Even without the burial, it's hard to not make this guy look like an ass. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Very true. Even if people were being unbiased, you still couldn't make a DVD that didn't portray Warrior as a nutcase. He was. He still is. The scary thing is that as crazy as he seems now, Warrior is more sane now then when he was wrestling.

Meltzer gave this three-way the rare ***** rating, and called it the best match in TNA history.

Dixie lost me when she called Vince Russo a creative genius. She really lost me when she said Jarrett can take a wrestler who is not that great and make him shine.

Thanks for clearing that up... <{POST_SNAPBACK}> It can be fun reading the posts of people who think they know what they are talking about, can't it? I don't see Cena losing the belt to Angle at Unforgiven just to drop it back to Cena at TT. Not only shouldn't Cena be losing to belt at this point in time, and especially not to Angle who isn't ready for a title reign, even a transitional one, but when Cena does lose the belt he's going to have a chase to get the belt back. The most likely scenario for Cena when he does drop the belt is to have him lose it at the Raw January PPV if they have one, enter the Rumble and win it to get the WM 22 title shot, and for them to build towards Cena regaining the belt. Cena is the guy they see as their next big thing, and they won't spoil that with a lame transitional title reign scenario. I think what will happen is that Cena will beat Angle at Unforgiven, either by pinfall or disqualification, and that Angle will lay Cena out afterwards. The selling point behind TT, which is supposed to be the built around the fans choices, is that Cena will get the crowd behind him by letting them choose how he gets his revenge on Kurt Angle. The fans will choose a big stip, Cena will beat Angle into a mess to get his revenge, and the fans feel like they had a hand in the top babyface getting his big revenge, and feel more compelled to vote and pay to see the next TT PPV.

I don't think that was them. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Go back and watch the tape. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> "What are you? Drunk?"

I’ll never get how Jeff Jarrett can legitimately be classified as the biggest star TNA has. That’s probably down the Jerry Jarrett’s influence. As the guy Panda Energy bought TNA from, and with someone who still has a significant amount of stock in the company, Jerry has pull. And he’s using that pull to push for Jeff to get a God Push. His tenure as the main headliner of WCW was during it’s absolute worst (quality and ratings/buy rate wise) and a amusing yet cheap heel mid-card gimmick in WWF that relied heavily on those cheap tactics to get any sort of heat (from portraying an over-protective jerk when it came to Debra and her desire to expose her “puppies”, his catchphrase that was all sorts of lame and oh yes, the always reliable woman hating shtick, which is always a haven for creative brilliance) and to top it off? He jobbed out to Chyna. Cheap heat is the only kind of heat Jeff can get. He doesn’t have the ability to really connect with the crowd, so he has to use any kind of crutch he can to get some kind, any kind, of crowd response. Jeff Jarrett, in the eyes of the casual fans? Didn’t even get to come work for WWE. Further creating the impression that Jarrett wasn’t worth anything if WWE didn’t bother to hire him as they did the other WCW headliners of the time… But how fun was it to see Jeff get fired on live television? So I’m struggling to discover this supposed star power that Jeff Jarrett wields. It’s all down to Jeff and Jerry’s politicking. Nobody outside of the Jarrett family, and a certain blind beyond belief Jarrett mark, considers Jeff a star. Jeff Hardy…For all his inconsistencies as a performer and as an employee, he was always clearly an star in WWE. His unique image, mind-blowing popularity with the female crowd and was even over with the crucial male demographic due to his outrageous persona and awe-inspiring bump style. Jeff Hardy has tons more charisma and personality than Jarrett has. He’s got that ‘X-Factor’ that makes him stand out from the crowd. Jeff Jarrett couldn’t stand out if he took two steps forward. Spike TV is also to fault for this horrible regression TNA took here by tossing Raven’s reign aside for another pointless and ill-fated (for the company) reign for Jarrett as it approaches it’s biggest stage yet…and after looking so strong after Sacrifice and Unbreakable…it appears to be sputtering again. All it took was ONE swift movement like this to derail all positive momentum As I mentioned in the NWA Title thread, I asked Dave Meltzer about this, and he said Spike had nothing to do with the decision, and that it was all down to the committee. What message does this send to those fans who stuck through with TNA the last 3 years and more importantly, to the workers in the back? “Welcome to the Jeff Jarrett Show. Get ready to have the most bland and unexciting world champion of the modern era get shoved down your throats” I really had good hopes for TNA and to an extent I still do. It still has a great roster of talent that can make TNA stand out and I’d hate to dismiss TNA’s chances of survival already just because Jeff Jarrett weaseled his way into the world title scene again but I fail to find hope in a world of Jeff Jarrett leading a national promotion…It didn’t work in WCW. It didn’t work when TNA had it’s FSN timeslot… I had high hopes for TNA too, which makes this news all the more depressing. Jeff Jarrett is not the man to lead a promotion to national glory. He never has been, and he never will be. TNA are as good as dead with Jeff weighing them down.

Stu on SSS says there is a rumor going around the Japanese message boards that Lesnar has signed a 1-year $1m contract with New Japan with a view to having him tour and get a serious push. Unless Lesnar and WWE have settled their lawsuit and it hasn't come out, then Lesnar hasn't signed any contract. Then again, he's officially been announced as taking part at the Dome show next month, so I guess New Japan could at least be under the impression they've signed him for a year. Whether McDevitt has anything to say about this remains to be seen.

The problem is that Jarrett will insist on winning a KotM match. He got taken off their last PPV that had a KotM because he refused to lose.

The buy rate for Massacre, according to WIA, was 0.98. Starrcade got a 0.11. The Starrcade number isn't in dispute. WCW got some miserable numbers that year. Even if Massacre didn't reach 0.98, it still had to beat out Starrcade. Why does anyone still bother with what Mike has to say about ECW?

In fact, asides the obvious WMX match, what else of note did Shawn do in ring that year? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> There was that overrated Clique tag match from the Action Zone.

Did Meltzer ever find out if that rating for Massacre on 34th Street was the REAL rating? I don't see how that almost broke a 1.0 when they only had Hardcore TV at the time, regardless of the weekend it fell on. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I don't know, but I would think that something like that would have been corrected, if it was indeed wrong, long before now.

Squash matches don't necessarily make for bad television. A good wrestler or tag team can have an entertaining squash match.

Someone should point out that ECW's Living Dangerously almost doubled the buy rate of WCW's PPV that month, Uncensored, and that ECW's Massacre on 34th Street got almost nine times the buy rate of that month's Starrcade.

Is this more of a positive fact or negative fact that it was the booking team's call? Meaning is there more or less of a chance that this is just a very short term reign to put over either Raven or Brown at BFG? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> As I've said before, I will be surprised if Jeff drops the belt anytime soon. Even if he does drop the belt, he'll still be the most pushed guy in TNA, and they won't get anywhere with Jeff as the focus of things.

I asked Dave Meltzer about Spike's apparent involvement in this. He said they had nothing to do with it, and that the booking commitee made the call.

CRZ Don't know anything about them beyond seeing them in the EWR game. Bruce Pritchard I hated Brother Love, and not the way you're meant to. The worst half of the Pritchard brothers. Dave Lagana Not impressed with his 'work'. Seems more focused on being a yes-man to Stephanie. Brian Gewirtz Super Dweeb. Shane Helms Helms is a great talent hidden beneath a silly gimmick that will at least ensure his continued employment due to merch sales. Career-wise, his best days are behind him because of that. Shannon Moore Moore is a great flyer, but he lacks the foundation to back it up into being a good all-round worker.