Hunter's Torn Quad

One of those matches doesn't fit. I'm picking Tanahashi, Angle, Nakanishi and RISE to win.

At 40 from a heart attack brought on by a drugs overdose.

The referee messed up in the women's match when he counted a fall that wasn't meant to be one.

I agree with this philosophy to a point, though certainly not to that extent. Unless you're going to move a wrestler down the card, why make them look weak? Quitting DOES make a wrestler look weak. Can't use the "passed out due to the pain of the hold" finish too often, honestly, I think it sucks outside of 1 or 2 special instances. By that logic, you couldn't use submission holds on top guys to get the hold over, because you're not moving the top guy down the card. If submission holds are used to get wins, even over top guys who aren't moving down the card, it educates the fans into accepting those holds as potential match finishes, and allows for a more dramatic match. Otherwise, when a guy goes for a submission hold, you'll get nothing but silence because the fans don't buy it can be a finish.

By way of the Torch, so proceed with caution:

Where did you hear this?

In something straight out of WCW:

The fact you think the fans feeling ripped off isn't a bad thing just about says it all really.

You're missing the point entirely. It wasn't about the finish ruining a 'workrate spectacle', or paying attention to character development, psychology or storytelling. It was the fact that for the fans live, and for a lot of fans at home, that finish ruined the match. Yes, the finish, on paper, makes perfect sense from a booking standpoint to keep the feud going, and it's one that I might have booked myself. But matches, and finishes, don't play out on paper. And on that night, that finish to that match ruined the match for a lot of fans. It wasn't because they weren't 'paying attention' to character development or anything else to do with those other buzzwords you threw out. It was because those fans were so into the match, something you can't always do when you're trying to pay attention to other things, that when the finish played out, they felt ripped off that after spending twenty minutes getting emotionally invested into a fantastic match, that investment was paid off by a total screwjob. It didn't matter to those fans if the finish played into 'character development' or any of that, or if the finish made sense on paper. What mattered is the fans that night were so into the match that a screwjob finish ruined it for them. It doesn't matter if the next day, the next week or the next month they paid attention to things like 'character development' or whatever. On that night, at that moment, the fans HATED that finish to the match, and not in a good way, and that's why it left a sour taste with people. When the fans feel ripped off when the match finishes, regardless of how the finish itself looks on paper, that is NOT a good thing. It's hard to overcome a feeling like that, even if the finish itself makes sense.

Shawn superkicking Bret out of the chair did make it to air at some point, just not live. They definitely aired it on the weekend shows, and they probably also aired it the following week.

- Chris Sabin defeated Abyss and Brother Devon in a Triple Threat Match. - Samoa Joe defeated Johnny Devine and Kip James in a Triple Threat Match. - AJ Styles defeated Jay Lethal and Christian Cage in a Triple Threat Match. - ODB defeated Velvet Sky (Talia Madison) and Angelina Love (Angel Williams) in a Triple Threat Match. - Booker T came out to cut a promo, but was interrupted by Robert Roode, who issued a challenge for later tonight. - Eric Young & Gail Kim defeated Jimmy Rave & Christy Hemme. - James Storm and Eric Young had their second beer drinking contest. Eric won, but got laid out by Storm afterwards, who bloodied him. - Team 3D defeated Sonjay Dutt & Jay Lethal in a Street Fight. - Rhino defeated Rellik (although yesterday it sounded like Riddick, it was Rellik tonight). - Booker T defeated Robert Roode. After the match, Christian attacked Booker T along with Roode, but Kaz made the save. - Kaz, Abyss, Scott Steiner & Samoa Joe defeated AJ Styles, Tomko, Kurt Angle & Christian when Joe pinned Christian. - In a match taped for Xplosion, Johnny Devine defeated Petey Williams.

Meltzer says the Raw rating was a 3.5.

It pissed people off in the wrong way. They weren't mad at the heel and wanting to see him get his ass kicked. They were mad at the promotion for having a bullshit finish to a match that was all kinds of awesome before the finish.

The latest Observer says that 'several sources have corroborated' that Smith's last drugs test was on September 13th and it was that one that he failed, for steroids. Dave said the only conclusion anyone has been able to come to, including people internally, is that Smith got his initial push so WWE could show that they were willing to suspend a guy they had just started pushing. However, the decision to bring Smith up and push him came after they had received his test results.

The Kaz title shot is premature, at least for having the maximum effect when it comes to elevating him, because it’s the final chapter of a story without them having bothered with the middle of the book. Presumably, the idea was for Kaz to be elevated from opening match geek with Raven to credible mid-to-upper midcarder. The first part of the story, breaking Kaz away from Raven’s group went fine. They did the angle that broke them up, Kaz beat Raven at Hard Justice, and it was firmly established that Kaz was no longer part of the opening match act and was on his own. The second part, and this is key, is establishing Kaz as his own person and a guy in the midcard who the people should get start to take seriously. This is accomplished by Kaz looking strong in a feud against a guy, Bobby Roode, who is established at a level above him. Kaz doesn’t even have to win the feud, because just by looking strong against a guy above his level, Kaz gets elevated. The problem with this part of the story, and it’s probably the most important part, is that they dropped it altogether and went straight to the third and final chapter of the story of Kaz’s elevation. They skipped over the most important part of the story, because Kaz didn’t get the credibility of being established as someone to take seriously at the level they’ve put him in. Sure, Kaz looks good because he hung in there with, and beat, Christian in the final of the Fight for the Right tournament, but think how much better it would have played out if Kaz had first been firmly established as a midcarder to take seriously. Not only that, by putting Kaz’s title match on TV, in detracts from the impact of Kaz’s accomplishment because it’s been portrayed as something that’s not important enough for people to have to pay to see. Think about how much Kaz would have been elevated simply by having his match with Kurt be in the semi-main event of a PPV. Putting on PPV alone would have made Kaz look good, and it would have made the Fight for the Right tournament mean something, because the winner actually got his big prize, a TNA title shot, on PPV. On PPV, the match could have gone 15 minutes, Kurt and Kaz could have torn the house down, and even in defeat they could have portrayed it as Kaz proving to the world that he really does belong in the ring with the TNA world champion and the focus would have firmly been on Kaz. As it is, it’s going to be a shorter match on TV that probably won’t be as good, and instead of the focus being on Kaz and how he’s proven he belongs on the ring with the TNA champion, the focus appears to remain on the already established main event talent because they immediately did a run-in angle for the next PPV and Kaz is a mere afterthought, if he’s even going to get mentioned at all. This isn’t the same deal is what happened with Jay Lethal situation, because with Jay, the NWA title shot was clearly the first part in the story of the elevation of Lethal, and so putting it out there with no real build was acceptable because it was the first chapter of the story rather than the climax. Second, Lethal hadn’t just gone through this big, company wide tournament for a title shot, where giving that title shot away in Impact dilutes the impact of winning the tournament.

*Impact opened with TNA champion Kurt Angle coming out to the ring with TNA Tag Team champions AJ Styles and Tomko. He thanked them for helping him at Genesis and announced they were forming the "Angle Alliance." Kevin Nash comes out and is attacked by all three with a number of babyfaces coming out break it up. *Lance Hoyt and Jimmy Rave defeated LAX. After the match, the female member of the Latino Nation (the still unidentified Shelley Martinez) hit Christy Hemme with a slapjack. *Team 3D, holding the X-Division championship, cut a promo backstage with a list of demands. They had an "X-Division wrestler" held hostage with a bag over his head. *Team 3D come to the ring with the hostage and called out the Motor City Machineguns. The Guns come out with Jay Lethal and they go back and forth on the mic until a group of X-Division wrestlers attack 3D. Lethal frees the hostage, who turns out to be Havoc, but Havoc grabs his kendo stick and attacks the other X-Division wrestlers. *Kevin Nash and Scott Hall come to the ring and announce they will face the Angle Alliance at Turning Point, promising to reveal their mystery partner by the end of Impact. *Robert Roode and Ms. Brooks defeated TNA Women's champion Gail Kim and Chris Harris after Roode drilled Harris with a chair. Brooks got into a catfight with Roode's "ringside fan." *Abyss defeated Riddick (the masked Johnny Stamboli, with a new name in his second appearance) and Black Reign in a Three-Way. After the bout, Jim Mitchell's charges were beating on Abyss and Rhino hit the ring for the save. *Booker T and Sharmell come to the ring for their official TNA contract signing. Christian Cage comes out and cuts a promo. He calls Sharmell a "nappy headed ho" and gets laid out by Booker. *TNA champion Kurt Angle defeated Kaz in a good match. After the match, Kevin Nash and Scott Hall attacked Angle. The Angle Alliance attack them. Samoa Joe makes the save, so apparently he's the mystery partner. *They announced Samoa Joe vs. AJ Styles vs. Chris Sabin in a Loser Wears a Turkey suit for the Thanksgiving Impact. Xplosion: *Eric Young defeated James Storm in a comedy match.

Only if by 'old school', you mean the likes of Sunny and Sable.

It's a good idea to build up new talent, but they haven't really built Kaz up for the position they've put him in. He went from opening match act with Raven to a midcard feud with Bobby Roode that got dropped abruptly, and is now all of a sudden challenging for the TNA Title on three days notice. It would have been better, and more effective, if they'd let the feud with Roode keep going and concluded before putting Kaz in a storyline to build for a TNA title match. Sure, he'll probably get a rub from the match with Angle, but it won't do anything like it could have done for Kaz if they'd have taken their time and not rushed it. The Fight for the Right was another good idea in theory, but executed poorly; not only is one of the finalists someone who wasn't even entered in the tournament to begin with, but the big prize of it all, a TNA title shot, is put on TV and not PPV. Shouldn't a shot at the company's biggest title be something worthy of PPV? If the winner of the tournament isn't worthy of having his title match on PPV, then he shouldn't have won the thing in the first place. Would it not have made sense to put Booker T with Kurt, so he doesn't lose on his first night in the company? You can do that sort of thing with a midcarder like Rikishi, but for a major name like Booker T? How does that make sense? At the very least, with putting Booker with Kurt and Nash with Sting they could have talked the match up as featuring teams who don't get along, which is something you'd think TNA would have gone for as they have that same angle going with just about every team in the company. Like TNABadbboi, I'll watch it again to get a better feel, but the bad booking of a lot of stuff really stood out.

That was the first match that came to mind for me. That match was on course for being a MOTY, and if Rock had tapped out clean in the middle, that place would have exploded, Jericho would have been made a star and it would for sure have been the best US match of the year. But it was all ruined with a terrible finish that took the wind out of the crowd, and took the edge of what should have been a major win for Jericho.

From Meltzer at WC: No 'likely' about it.

Bryan Alvarez has said it isn't Lance Storm, and on Thursday's Figure Four Daily, Meltzer said he's pretty sure he knows who it is, and it's someone everybody would know but nobody would care about. As for CNN's editing of what Cena said, it's a shame because it tarnishes what was otherwise a very good piece. WWE were right to put out the unedited version of what Cena said, but at the same time, they don't come across very well with how combative they worded the statement they put on their site.

Watts did cut expenses. Trouble was, he cut morale far worse and was woefully behind the times..

In the ten years since Montreal, I don't recall Vince ever using as his defense that idea that Bret is lying, and the finish that went down is the one they agreed to.