Hunter's Torn Quad

Are you picks going up anytime soon?

Where did you hear this? Show got the belt when did because Austin went down and they wanted both to send the fans home happy and justify his near $1m per-year contract. I don't think I've heard anyone put forward the story that Show had some kind of penalty clause in his contract.

In his shoot interview with RF, Konnan claims that, amongst other things promised to him in order to get him and the rest of the Mexican wrestlers, he was promised a run tagging with Hogan. He might have been promised a US title run, but if he was, I think it was about the only thing promised to him that actually happened. Nope.

He was very serious. Then he went and trained with the wrestlers who were competing to be on the Olympic squad, and realized how far behind he was.

Non-finish.

Bravo was involved in illegal cigarette smuggling; it is, or was, a very lucrative business. As I understand it, an operation that Bravo was part of went wrong, and a large shipment for cigarettes were confiscated, by the RCMP. This obviously upset a lot of dangerous people, and Bravo apparently fell foul of them. Evidence suggests that Bravo not only knew his killers but was comfortable being around them; there was no sign of forced entry, and Bravo was killed while sitting down and watching hockey on TV. Nobody has been charged in the crime, and likely never will be.

I don't believe any wrestler, including Hogan, has had a guaranteed title run written into their contract. No promoter would lock themselves into something like that. Hogan didn't really need such a clause anyway; his creative control meant that, title or not, he'd always be on top.

Nakanishi pinning Tanahashi was no surprise considering Nakanishi had yet to win a match so far, though Yano beating Nakamura was a bit of an upset. Block A: 1. Shinjiro Otani [6] 2. Manabu Nakanishi [4] - Togi Makabe [4] - Giant Bernard [4] - Satoshi Kojima [4] 6. Hiroshi Tanahashi [2] 7. Wataru Inoue [0] Block B: 1. Shinsuke Nakamura [6] 2. Yuji Nagata [4] - Toru Yano [4] - Toshiaki Kawada [4] - Yutaka Yoshie [4] 6. Hiroyoshi Tenzan [2] - Hirooki Goto [2] It looks like wins for Kojima (not necessarily a safe bet), Kawada, Nakanishi, Tanahashi, Nakamura (I hope) and Tenzan. I really hope Goto beats Nakamura, but I think New Japan will consider Goto's win over Tenzan enough for him this G1.

My next pick is another Japanese wrestler who's heel antics I feel would translate well with a North American audience. Of course, he'd be a more serious wrestler in Japan, so I feel I'm getting the best of both worlds. My next pick is... Katsuyori Shibata!

Punk vs. Batista might have been one of the main events, but for interest and business it didn't actually mean a whole lot, hence not a lot of outrage over doing a rematch the next night. AJ vs. Kurt, for TNA, is a match that can draw interest and do business, so naturally when the match gets rematched four days later there is going to be frustration. People keep 'shitting on TNA' for the same mistakes over and over again because TNA makes the same mistakes over and over again. If WWE keep doing the same mistakes over and over again people will be just as critical of WWE as they are of TNA. It's just that WWE, usually, don't let things slide that far.

CM Punk vs. Batista isn't a match that could mean something, right now, on PPV, so it's not quite so bad to rematch it the next night on free TV. And I don't recall anyone suggesting TNA is the only company to do this.

The problem was that all of that was known and Hunter still wanted to go 18 minutes. Logic says with a guy in the condition of Steiner, to get the most out of him in the condition he was in, you don't go 18 minutes and expose his flaws. You're meant to work around flaws to get the most out of the worker, not use those flaws as an excuse to not even try.

Even if you don't agree with the idea of putting the match on PPV, it deserves more than 90 minutes of build.

Doesn't a match where Kurt puts his medals on the line sound like something you'd put on PPV? And if it's with AJ, why not have it where Kurt wants another match with AJ, but AJ will only agree if Kurt puts the medals up? Maybe even throw in another Sting appearance to screw AJ out of the win?

Heck of a way to piss off the fans who paid to see them wrestle on the PPV, and then get it for free four days later. That is the idea, yes.

Lesner vs. Herring (Round Three) Get it while you can.

It really is a thing of beauty seeing a LOT of people on the MMA boards get, quite literally, worked into a frenzy.

That is just about the only saving grace for IWA MS, the TPI. It usually is a damn good two-day event.

Sid could only do the enforcer role for so long before having to work a match, at which point it'll all be over and whatever luster he's kept will be gone when people see what he looks like now on the big stage.

He has to see Lesnar's antics right at the bell, though. Sheer brilliance.

I'm surprised that one wasn't mentioned already. Yeah, Jericho was outright sabotaged by Triple H when he arrived. It's been long documented, which is why I'm surprised it took this long to come up, but the Jericho one ranks up there.

Otani appears to be getting the outsider push this year, and Bernard or, more likely, Tanahashi look to be the New Japan wrestler who'll be the one to finally beat him. It'll probably be Tanahashi, as the next G1 card sees him take on Nakanishi, and Nakanishi is due for a win having lost both his matches so far. Block B looks set to feature someone spoiling Nakamura's hopes of making it to the final, and I'm hoping it'll be Hirooki Goto. NJPW, 8/13/08 (Samurai! TV) Tokyo Korakuen Hall 1. G1 Climax Special Tag: Tomohiro Ishii & Tomoaki Honma vs. Satoshi Kojima All Japan & Milano Collection AT 2. G1 Climax Special Tag: Tiger Mask & Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Toshiaki Kawada & Taichi Ishikari 3. G1 Climax - Block A: Wataru Inoue vs. Togi Makabe 4. G1 Climax - Block B: Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Toru Yano 5. G1 Climax - Block A:: Giant Bernard vs. Shinjiro Otani (ZERO1-MAX) 6. G1 Climax - Block B: Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Hirooki Goto 7. G1 Climax - Block B:Yuji Nagata vs. Yutaka Yoshie (DRADITION) 8. G1 Climax - Block A: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Manabu Nakanishi

It's time for my commentator. He's a very good one, and I think he's probably the best-kept secret in pro-wrestling announcing, as all the talk about announcing always surrounds Solie, Ross, etc. The commentator for my promotion is going to be... Les Thatcher!

A couple of notes from last night's Observer radio shows on F4W regarding Brock's taunting, next opponent and Mark Coleman: Coleman doesn't want the fight against Lesnar. The idea is for Brock to next face Cheick Kongo, but he might not want to fighter Lesnar either. Brock and Cain Velasquez are the two that people are not wanting to face right now, Cain more than Lesnar. The reason being that beating Lesnar gets notoriety and a good chance of a title shot, but beating Cain, if they can even do it, doesn't have a lot of upside to it. Lesnar's taunting of Herring was down to comments Herring and his camp had made privately about Lesnar. They considered Lesnar a joke (a 'fake pro wrestler' is how Dave described it) and felt disrespected about putting a real fighter against someone like Lesnar. This sort of talk was going on all week long, and when Lesnar heard about it, it obviously didn't sit well.

He was, though DarKnight has the timeline off. The pot incident occurred about a month or so before Wrestlemania, hence Rey being added to the match.