Hunter's Torn Quad

HTQ has acquired Hiro Matsuda and Verne Gagne King Kamala has acquired The Blonde Bombers

And is it five picks total or five wrestlers total?

F4W

The just-posted Observer says that Tomko isn't back full-time. He was just brought in as a name for Joe to beat, and that that's likely to be his role in the future, someone brought in when they need a jobber with name value. His main deal remains the IGF.

Something of interest regarding the CSAC: F4W Nick Diaz can't be happy.

Hogan and the rest of the top heels were getting cheered all the time in 1999. They all either had booking power or heavy influence over those who did, and made themselves out to be cool heels, while the babyfaces were made out to be impotent, ineffective and as pathetic as possible. Why wouldn't the heels get cheered?

A more judicious use of Foley would be to limit his programs to people like Joe and Styles, who need all the elevation they can get, and when it comes to working with Foley, the best use of him is to get people over. With a limited number of matches he can do a year, something Foley himself admits, it's best to use those rare matches against people who need to be built up. Angle, Jarrett and Sting are already there, and really have nothing to gain by working with Foley. Joe and Styles, however, can gain a great deal by working with Foley. Whatever rub Foley is able to give in TNA is best used by being limited to guys like Joe and Styles.

Jake Roberts DDT'ing the Dirty White Girl in SMW.

I'm open to the idea of trading The Blonde Bombers (Patterson and Stevens) and The Lords of the Ring (Dinsmore and Conway) As far as the 24-hour scramble goes, is it five picks total, or five wrestlers total?

That was the problem with Dusty booking. It had nothing to do with power plays or heels refusing to job. It was simply that Dusty was booking a national promotion with a regional mindset. Dusty was big on keeping the heels strong, with the theory that it makes the babyfaces playing off them even stronger. The problem with doing that on a national level, at least on top for any length of time, is that you send too many fan bases home unhappy. Compare the WWF and the NWA during the 80s. While the NWA had the better wrestling and had better angles for the most part, with the WWF, the fans were always sent home happy because they had a babyface on top who always won. In the NWA, you had a combination of the heel world champions always walking out of the shows with the belt and the immense dissatisfaction of nonstop screwjobs to get there.

On a similar note about saving time, Brock Lesnar and Samoa Joe are not open to be traded. The rest of my roster does have a price, but that price rises as you move up the food chain.

Bret Hart: With Steamboat and Luger having a lengthy feud off of their match at the Bash, and Sting getting drawn into the mix, Luger says that he needs to find a tag team partner to take on Sting and Steamboat at Starrcade. They can tease who this partner is in the lead-up to Starrcade, and the week before on TV, they can heavily hint as to who it is in such a fashion that people will expect it to be Bret. Come Starrcade, and it's Sting and Steamboat versus Luger and his partner, he can bring out Bret Hart. The match can go about 15-minutes, with Sting and Luger fighting to the back, which will allow them to segue into a new feud, and the finish can be Bret using a roll-up plus a big handful of tights to get the pin Steamboat, and they can segue into their feud. First off, we have a rematch at Clash X which is set up at set of TV. Bret talks about how all he's ever heard when it comes to technical wrestling is Ricky Steamboat this, and Ricky Steamboat that. Bret says he is tired of that kind of talk, and that he's come to where the wrestlers are, the NWA, for one reason, and that is show Ricky Steamboat that when it comes to wrestling, there is nobody better than Bret Hart. Steamboat responds by talking about how is aware of Bret's heritage, and that he respects the Hart name and what it means, but Steamboat tells Bret that he is going about this all wrong, and that if he wanted to prove something to him, then Bret should have tried to settle things like a man. Meanwhile, Luger and Sting go back and forth as well, with Luger telling Sting he had no right to interfere in his match with Steamboat, and that now he's made an enemy in Lex Luger. Sting fires back that while he considered Lex a friend at one time, he doesn't anymore, and that it saddens him to someone so physically gifted throw it all away by breaking the rules when he doesn't have to, but that when he gets his hands on Luger, he'll teach him a lesson. At Clash X, it's a Starrcade rematch, with Sting and Steamboat vs. Luger and Hart. A shorter match this time around, going about 10-minutes, with Sting and Luger fighting on the floor, Bret undoes a turnbuckle pad, and when Steamboat applies a sleeper hold, Bret rushes to that corner of the ring, ducks, and Steamboat goes face first into the exposed steel, knocking himself silly, and Bret covers to get the pin. With the inevitable singles match between Bret and Steamboat set for WrestleWar, it’s time to hype it up a little with Steamboat telling Bret that deep down he knows that he can't beat Steamboat fairly, and that at Wrestle War he is going to prove it in front of the whole world. Bret meanwhile brags about beating Steamboat twice in a row and that’ll make it three at Wrestle War. Wrestle War comes around and it’s the first time ever match in the NWA of Ricky Steamboat and Bret Hart. It’s a great pure wrestling match, with Bret playing the subtle heel for most of it but then getting more aggressive as the match goes on. With both guys going at it at their very best it’s seems like nothing can separate them and nothing does as the match goes to a 30:00 draw. The feud must continue and it’s time to hit the house shows with it for a couple of months, with each run of matches going to a time limit draw and the time limit getting extended each time. First run would see 30:00 draws, second run would see 45:00 draws and the third run would see 60:00 draws. They’d split off around May with Steamboat and Ted DiBiase getting a house show program, to set up their title program down the road, and Bret going against Terry Funk. The issue would be kept alive on TV, and we’d finally see the conclusion to the feud at the Bash in July with Steamboat finally getting the win over Bret, something he hasn’t been able to do all year. Bret simmers for a while after this, not happy about losing to Steamboat, until he starts his new feud with Brian Pillman around September time. The first match at Clash XIII in November sees Bret cheat to win, with Pillman winning the rematch at Starrcade, to seemingly end things between the two… Clash XIV rolls around in January of 1991, and one of the matches is Brian Pillman taking on Butch Reed. Ron Simmons is at ringside and keeps interfering, so Pillman says something to the referee and walks to the back. Doom think they’ve won and start celebrating, but then Pillman comes back out and he’s not alone. Bret Hart is with him and it’s clear they’re on the same page. An impromptu tag match unfolds and it ends with Pillman and Hart getting simultaneous pinfalls on Doom and a top babyface tag team is born. Summary: I don’t want to push Bret towards the NWA title scene just yet, as I want some NWA regulars to be in the picture, but I still want Bret to get a good push so he and Pillman are going to be the #2 or #3 babyface tag team, behind the Rockers and alternating with The Road Warriors for the second spot. I see them working great against the Steiner Brothers in a US tag title program and possibly against the Rockers in a rare babyface vs. babyface series over the World tag titles. After about a year, I would consider either turning Bret heel or turning both Bret and Brian heel, possibly putting them over the Rockers for the World tag titles. Before that, though, you’ve got Bret and Brian against the Midnight’s, the Steiners, Arn and Tully, and others for what are sure to be some fantastic matches.

I can see it happening to Kendrick, as they likely have no serious plans for him and so it won't hurt him to have a cup of coffee with the belt.

Dusty gets the crap for good reason. And yes, Dusty booked those finishes of his own volition.

Given the manner Joe has been booked, if he claims Jeff Jarrett is 'for sure' showing up the PPV, then nobody would buy it, so it probably does something for Joe that, for once, he's shown to have some kind clue. Jeff is still going to get a big pop for doing whatever he's going to do at the PPV. The problem I have is that the "We haven't seen Jarrett in months" aspect has been removed, because we just saw him on Impact. It doesn't matter that it was for two seconds. They could have easily done something to make it clear Jarrett would be at the PPV without having him show up at all. They could just have done the deal where we hear Jarrett's voice over the PA, saying a few words about how he's going to be at the PPV and things will be made clear about where he stands. You get the assurance of his first appearance in months at the PPV, while saving that first appearance for when it will mean the most.

You mean it's a good idea for Jarrett's big return to be a two-second appearance at the end of Impact, rather than using it as a tool to try and get people to buy the PPV? Jarrett can only make his big return once and, given that he's meant to be one of the major names in the upcoming feud between the young guys and the old guard, would it not make sense to make it a big deal going into the PPV, that you're going to see the big return of someone who is supposedly one of the company's top stars, and is going to be leading the babyface faction? And if people, TNA fans specifically, wouldn't get a PPV to see Jarrett's return, why make him the focus of anything? If someone is going to be a top guy in the upcoming feud, the lead babyface in fact, he should be someone who is going to draw people in. If, as you say, people wouldn't pay to see Jarrett's big return, then he shouldn't be in the spot at all.

I agree that it's low on the list, if it even belongs on there. But the idea that WWE swayed some votes with the knocking of Gore isn't improbable given WWE's ability to convince their fans up into doing stupid things by riling them up against a perceived enemy.

Something in the just-posted Observer regarding the Smackdown Scramble: The working plan, which could change, is for the winner to defend the title later that night against the Undertaker, with the idea being Vickie Guerrero gave him the title shot as a peace offering.

That would put Foley, who will be a major babyface, on what is meant to be the heel side. Which is completely nonsensical, so I expect that to be the route TNA take.

Jeff's return is being presented as this major deal. Major deals are usually best served as climaxing PPV's, so they can make the company some money because, in theory, the fanbase will pay money to see that climax. If Jarrett's return isn't going to draw anything on PPV, even by TNA's pitiful standards, why not put the creative effort into something that actually will? And if they do have Mick Foley coming in for the PPV, TNA better start getting the word out come 9/1, because Foley debuting on PPV might actually draw something with the TNA fanbase.

You don't listen to/read Meltzer all that closely do you? Something funny from last week's Observer regarding the Sting run-in at Hard Justice. The reason Sting attacked AJ instead of Joe is that they felt confident Sting would be booed if he attacked Styles, but that if Sting, the heel, attacked Joe, the face, he would be cheered.

Given the margin of 'victory' in the election and the fact that WWE fans are usually easily swayed, it's not that improbable that Lawler's constant burial of Gore got some of the more easily riled up fans out there vote for Bush out of spite. While it is very unlikely that enough fans voted to change the course of the election, the premise is still very sound. Quite why someone espousing such a premise is to be hated is another matter entirely.

Who is left to make a pick in the scavenger round?

An American wrestler who has been working in Puerto Rico for a long time, so Dutch probably got him in. And I see TNA have kept up their usual pattern of building up something big for a PPV, in this case the return of Jeff Jarrett, only to give it away on TV instead.

Curt Hennig: After a series of vignettes during December, with Hennig saying that he is going to bring a sense of perfection to the NWA, Tom Zenk speaks out against Hennig during an interview, and says that he knows Hennig from their past, and that it sickens him to see what Hennig has turned into. Hennig responds to this by saying Zenk shouldn't worry about the past, and that he is going to face Zenk at the Clash in January, and give him a reminder of why he really will bring a sense of perfection to the NWA. Their match at the Clash is a mostly clean affair, with Hennig playing it a little arrogant, and Zenk firing back hard. In the end, Hennig would duck an attempt at a flying body press, and quickly follow up with a cradle suplex to get the win. In interviews after the Clash, Hennig would put Zenk down, and he would also fire a few shots towards Brian Pillman, criticizing Pillman for teaming with Zenk. Pillman would respond by telling Hennig that if he has problems with him, they can settle things in the ring, and a match between the two would be set for Wrestle War. Hennig wins, clean, and then is set to challenge The Great Muta for the TV title at Capitol Combat. Hennig wins, and then we'd get the TV title scenario laid out previously. Summary: I have plans for Hennig in 1991, so 1990 is the year he gets built up. High-profile wins over Zenk and Pillman start that off and then it kicks into gear with a rare clean defeat of Muta to win the TV title. Hennig gets a good five month reign with the TV title, only dropping it to Terry Funk to build up the main event of Starrcade. For 1991, I’d have Hennig get the belt back early in the year for another run with the belt, this time probably longer as to lead into his challenge for the NWA Title which would be held by Sting by May or July, so you’ve got four to six months with Hennig on TV getting a strong push to lead into his program with Sting.