Hunter's Torn Quad

It was Brian Christopher who was stripped, tied up and stuck in the shower. An understandable reaction if you've spent more than five minutes with the guy.

For those of you unfamiliar with the concept, the Guest Booker DVD series is an idea from KayfabeCommentaries.com where a famous wrestling booker is given the task of booking a promotion or territory form a particular point in time with the idea that things didn’t go exactly as they did in real life and this is their chance to show us what they would have done were they the booker at the time. The first DVD featured Kevin Sullivan booking the WWF from the beginning of 1984 but without Hulk Hogan, who, for whatever reason, never made the big jump from the AWA. It’s a very interesting DVD, and while some of Sullivan’s ideas seem a little out of place, it still gives a lot of insight into the mechanics of booking and you still learn a lot of things about the art of booking that you probably won’t learn anywhere else. With the concept explained, I shall set out the premise for this version of ‘Guest Booker’; In late 1989, the NWA and Ric Flair were making a play to bring Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard back to the company, but there was also talk of other names being courted to jump to the NWA, specifically Ted DiBiase, Curt Hennig, Bret Hart, The Rockers, Roddy Piper and Randy Savage. Of course, we know that the only name of all of those to jump was Arn Anderson; Blanchard would have jumped back too but Jim Herd withdrew his contract offer when Blanchard failed a drug test for cocaine, which coincided with his decision to leave the WWF. But what if Tully and Arn had returned together? And what if those other big names had made the history altering decision to jump to the NWA as well? How would things have changed? Well, this is where Guest Booker comes in, and I book the NWA in the 18-month period from August of 1989 to the end of 1990. There will be six main parts: NWA World Heavyweight title US Heavyweight title World Tag Team titles US Tag Team Titles World TV Title New Arrivals (with each one talked about individually) It wound up being a pretty long deal, so I'll be posting it in sections to make it easier to digest. Constructive comment and debate over the decisions made is welcome.

TNA found a way to officially fuck up the Knockouts division. It gets worse.

From PWI Impact: *Booker T calls out Sting and apologizes to him for disrespecting him last week. Robert Roode and James Storm get involved and it ends up becoming a tag match main event later in the show. *Jim Cornette announces there will be a "Deuces Wild" tournament for the held-up TNA Tag Team championships that will culminate at the Sacrifice PPV. Four teams will meet over the next two weeks and eight singles competitors will also be paired up at random as well. Very confusing. *Deuces Wild Qualification: Team 3D defeated Black Reign & Rellik. 3D were playing babyface roles. *Backstage, Jim Cornette tells all the TNA Knockouts to meet him in the ring. *It appears the tournament is 8 teams win qualifying rounds then face 4 teams comprised of randomly selected singles competitors. *Deuces Wild Qualification: Christian Cage and Rhino defeat the Motor City Machineguns in a good match. *The TNA Knockouts come to the ring. Jim Cornette announces a "Makeover Battle Royal" for the Sacrifice PPV. The last two competitors will compete right then in a Ladder Match. The winner is the person who grabs a Knockouts title shot contract from above the Ring. The loser will have their head shaved in a "Britney Spears Makeover." *Booker T and Sting defeated Robert Roode and James Storm. *TNA champion Samoa Joe defeated Kurt Angle after Scott Steiner hit Angle with a pipe after a referee bump. Jim Cornette announced there would be a three-way at Sacrifice. Xplosion: *Jay Lethal and Sonjay Dutt defeated Johnny Devine & Petey Williams.

Because it is on Raw and not PPV, it does leave open the possibility of a winner that you wouldn't normally expect; you can use a bunch of different screwjobs and non-finishes to eliminate the top names, and not worry about pissing off any paying customers over a lack of clean finishes. I'd expect whoever wins to get a short term push and, unless it takes, be used as a stop-gap challenger to the champion of whichever brand he's on.

It's worth noting that the Raw rating is usually a .3 or so off the real number, because a decent amount of people don't watch Raw live, and so their viewership doesn't make it into that rating; case in point being that the 2/25 Raw did a 3.47 live rating but when you added in the number of people who watched it within a week via DVR the rating was a 3.79. But this all comes from websites and newsletters, and they can never be trusted, so take all this with a grain of salt.

From PWI Impact: *Impact opens with TNA champion Samoa Joe dedicating his title win and reign to the fans. Scott Steiner comes out and awards Petey Williams his X-Division title shot, then starts ripping on Joe about Sacrifice. Kurt Angle comes out and announces that he is going to use his rematch clause on next week's Impact. *In a backstage segment, Rhino and Christian Cage arrive at the Impact Zone. Team 3D show up and try to plant the seed in Rhino's head that he can't trust Cage. It ends up with Team 3D, James Storm and Robert Roode all attacking them and laying them out. *TNA X-Division champion Jay Lethal pinned Johnny Devine. Petey Williams attacked Lethal and nailed a tornado DDT onto the title shot briefcase. Williams opened the briefcase and slammed Lethal's head inside it. He announces he is taking his title shot now, nails the Canadian Destroyer and pins Lethal for the belt. New X-Division champion. *Matt Morgan comes to the ring and cuts a promo on the sacrifices he made for Jim Cornette, only to be dismissed as part of TNA management. Morgan promised to be a "Blueprint" (his OVW nickname) for giants in professional wrestling. *Kaz and Super Eric capture the TNA Tag Team championships, defeated AJ Styles & Tomko and LAX in a Three-Way bout when Eric pinned Styles *Backstage, AJ Style protested to Jim Cornette that Super Eric and Eric Young are two different people (as they were supposed to defend against Eric Young, NOT Super Eric..anyone else have a Midnight Rider sized headache, yet?). AJ demands Cornette ask Young if he knows Super Eric and if he doesn't, then they deserve the titles back. Cornette agrees just to get them out of the office. *Rhino and Christian defeated Team 3D. Rhino accidentally gored Cage but then Devon accidentally clotheslined Ray and Rhino scored the pin. Afterwards, 3D got into it with each other and security separated them. *Jim Cornette, AJ Styles and Tomko come to the ring to resolve the Tag Team championship issue. Kaz and Super Eric come out and Super Eric acts as if he doesn't know who Eric Young is. Jim Cornette strips them of the tag titles, but won't give the belts back to Styles and Tomko. He says he will make an official decision next week. *TNA Knockout champ Awesome Kong defeated Roxxi. *Booker T & Sting & BG James defeated Robert Roode & James Storm & Kip James after Matt Morgan interfered. Booker gets upset Morgan got involved and has words with him and Sting. **** Note from Mike: If we are understanding the tag title situation correctly, Eric Young just gave up the World Tag Team titles because he wouldn't unmask when there was NO reason for him not to unmask? REALLY?! Wow. That is BEYOND LAME. Why wouldn't Kaz just tear the mask off his partner? Why would wrestling purist Cornette even partake in such shenanigans? You know the conspiracy theorists will be hoping Cornette was shooting on the mic. This doesn't sound good at all.

The Billy Silverman one springs to mind, which resulted in him quitting the company. His crime was upgrading his plane ticket to first class, and his punishment was being forced to serve drinks to everyone later on another trip. There was another one involving the Dicks (John Toland and Chad Wicks) that might have been called because Wick was complaining about getting ribbed. The end result saw the two get into a fight over it a short time later during a tour of Mexico, and they were soon let go.

I thought the main event was really good. My only criticism of it, and it's mild, is that I'd have preferred it if they had kept the match submission based and not done any pinfalls. I think it took away from the kind of aura they were going for, and had achieved, when they started going for covers. I think if they had kept it reminiscent of the Vader vs. Shamrock match from 1997 it would have been excellent. It's also a shame that crowd didn't appreciate the match more, because for what they were trying to do, both guys worked hard and I thought it was easily the best match of the night. MOTY? No, not even close. But still very good, and one of the better TNA PPV main events in a while. And Frank Trigg was excellent on commentary, and if TNA are going to stay with the serious nature of their PPV main events, they should bring Trigg in to commentate on them. Lethal Lockdown was ok, but it was lacking any real intensity or emotion, and it featured some puzzling booking in parts. The X-Divsion cage match was good, but they seemed to be rushing things in order to fit in the pointless multi-woman match later on. James vs. James was unexciting, and who didn't see the turn of Kip James coming? Apparently, via Alvarez, Russo was smiling/grinning from ear-to-ear when the turn happened, presumably because he thought people were surprised over the turn.

Again from the Observer: The live attendance announced as 74,635 sounds legitimate based on what Meltzer was told going in, that it would be in that range. They were heavily papering during the final few days, and was the first WM since IX not to sell out in advance. The paid attendance, based on the gate, appears to be in the 64,000 range.

Battle Royal: * JBL vs. Finlay: **1/4 MitB: ***1/4 Batista vs. Umaga: *1/4 Kane vs. Chavo: n/a Michaels vs. Flair: ***1/2 Women's match: 1/4* Three-Way: ***1/2 Mayweather vs. Show: *** Undertaker vs. Edge: ****1/4

They already ruined that part of the deal anyway; he showed up a couple of weeks ago, despite vowing never to do so until he won the world title. If Joe simply said he was taking a break from wrestling to train for the match at Lockdown, and then Kurt challenged him to show up, that would have been fine because then you wouldn't have had your top babyface making a vow and then breaking it two weeks later. Who books their top babyface to make a vow and then has him break it two weeks later? It's not just TNA's disregard for stipulations that has people thinking Kurt might win. It's also the fact that TNA PPV main events, with few exceptions, are all based around run-ins and screwjobs. It's never about if one guy is better than his opponent; it's always about whether a third party is going to go screw someone over. Yes, with the build up to Joe vs. Angle at Lockdown, they've seemed to make it clear that it's just about Joe and Angle. But TNA have been doing pointless swerves and screwjobs in their main events for almost two years straight. It's going to take a lot more than a few weeks of hype for people to stop worrying that a PPV main event is going to end up with some kind of run-in, pointless swerve or screwjob.

What makes anyone think Karen Angle isn't going to get involved with something at Lockdown?

From the Observer: The numerous traffic violations he's racked up might help with making it stand. So might him being arrested last year just after leaving TNA and being charged with a misdemeanor DUI with property damage or personal injury. That ended up with him getting a fined and having his license suspended.

In a similar vein, I'd like to have seen Joe face Shinya Hashimoto or Toshiaki Kawada in their respective primes.

The latest Observer has the viewing figures for the 4/3 Impact, and the notable numbers are the MCMG and LAX vs. Hoyt, Rave, Rellik and Reign losing 338,000 viewers, and the Sting vs James Storm main event losing 12,000 viewers. I think that first number is the biggest drop ever in viewership for a match or segment on Impact.

For the main event, I'll pick Joe to win after Karen Angle interferes. She won't necessarily be helping Joe as much as hurting Kurt. It won't make any sense, it won't add anything to match, and it will end up hurting the match, but things like that don't seem to matter to TNA. As for the Lethal Lockdown match, with the babyfaces coming out on top so much on TV leading up to the PPV, that would suggest the heels are winning. So, while I will pick the heels to win, I'll add the TNA trademark of the pointless swerve, and say that we'll see a heel turn to set up Team Tomko's win. Who'll turn heel? Nash or Morgan. Or maybe both.

A real gem:

The one thing I still remember from Lockdown in 2005 is the inexplicable decision for Waltman to pin Monty Brown. Brown was still red hot; even though he turned heel, which was just as inexplicable, a month or two before, he was still massively over with the fans. And then he gets pinned clean by Waltman. Why? Why not beat Jarrett to set up an NWA Title match? Why not beat Kip James who doesn't need protecting? As for Lockdown this year, I'm sufficiently interested in the main event that I'll avoid spoilers until I'm able to download it. The rest of the card, even the Lethal Lockdown match, does nothing for me.

Did you like how his "retirement" was handled? It was very well done, and even though it was nice to see him back for one last match at Wrestlemania, I'd have preferred it if his match at No Way Out was the last one of his full-time run. How'd you like his run as commissioner? It was fun for a while, but it lost a lot of steam near the end. Did you like his short run with Randy Orton in 2004? Yes. The 3-on-2 match at Wrestlemania was ok, but the match at Backlash was really good, and the promo he did in the lead up to it where he was holding the barbed wire baseball bat, was incredible. Did you enjoy his 2006 work? The stuff with Flair was great, but the ECW stuff did nothing for me. Would you be interested in a more serious Foley if he wanted to come back ever full-time or close to it? No. He has nothing left to offer, no 'rub' to give. His time is over, and he needs to stay home.

I guess New Japan are pulling out all the stops to get Nakamura over. A high profile win over Muto should do wonders.

Brian Kendrick battle raps with John Cena This was from 2003. I think it shows Kendrick can deliver on the mic when given the chance, and be very funny.

The obvious results would see Suwama get the pin in the six-man, and give a good showing in the title match before ultimately falling to defeat.

I think it would have been interesting to see what would have happened if WWE had got behind Christian when the fans did and given him a strong push. It's possible that he would have been one of those guys who the fans get behind in wanting them to reach the top but when they get there, the support drops off, for whatever reason. Whatever would have happened can be speculated on, but we'll never really know. At the very least, I think he'd have ensured a strong upper midcard position where he could slip into the top level mix when needed. As for Christian's talent and ability, I don't see him as main event player. I see him as a better version of Jeff Jarrett, where he's good at everything, sometimes really good, but not at the main event level on any of it, at least at the major league level. He's the utility guy who stays strong near the top of the card, usually beats the guys below him but puts them over when they're en route to the top level. He'll be over enough where he's a good opponent for a top face in the TV main event, but rarely in a main event match on PPV; when it happens, it'll be to make up for the shortcomings of whoever else is in the match, and to carry the workload. In WWE, he'd be Umaga, who's kept strong unless it's against the real top guys or next hot thing, when his role would be to ultimately put the other guy over. Which I'd peg as the right spot for Christian.

4/7 Results by Irving AJPW, 4/7/08 (GAORA TV) Tokyo Korakuen Hall 1,700 Fans 1. Ryuji Hijikata & Katsuhiko Nakajima beat Nobutaka Araya & Nobukazu Hirai (10:48) when Nakajima used a face kick on Araya. 2. Hiroshi Yamato & KAI beat Kaz Hayashi & Hajime Suruga (10:22) when KAI used the splash plancha on Suruga. 3. Satoshi Kojima, TARU, Shuji Kondo & Silver King beat Osamu Nishimura, T28, Seiya Sanada & Manabu Soya (11:50) when Kojima used a lariat on Sanada. 4. Champion Carnival - Block B: Kensuke Sasaki [4] beat Joe Doering [4] (8:01) with a lariat. 5. Champion Carnival - Block A: Toshiaki Kawada [2] beat Taiyo Kea [0] (13:35) with an enzui knee attack. 6. Champion Carnival - Block B: Minoru Suzuki [2] beat Suwama [1] (9:31) with a sleeper hold. 7. Champion Carnival - Block A: Keiji Muto [5] vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi [3] (30:00) ended in a time limit draw. BLOCK A 1. Keiji Muto [5] 2. Hiroshi Tanahashi [3] 3. Satoshi Kojima [2] - Toshiaki Kawada [2] 4. Taiyo Kea [0] BLOCK B 1. Kensuke Sasaki [4] - Joe Doering [4] 3. Minoru Suzuki [2] 4. Suwama [1] 5. Osamu Nishimura [0] Not surprised by how Block A is going, but Doering doing so well in block B does raise an eyebrow, mostly because you've got former TC champion Suzuki and newly joined Nishimura in there. I hope Nishimura beats Suwama, or even draws, because I'd hate to think of Nishimura being the designated jobber of his group. The big loser of Block A is Kea, but he'll probably get points against Kojima so as to keep Muto and Tanahashi the two strongest in that Block.