Dangerous A

If that rumor of TNA being in the middle of bookends like Stern and UFC are true, then I agree, it's worth the gamble to get your name out there. One thing of note is they've really got to push the X Division. I'm not saying they have to make them Main Event or anything yet, but they have to at least protect them (and the tag team division as well) since those 2 things are the pluses TNA has over the WWE. Accentuate the positives, hide the negatives.

Hopefully this week's Observer will have how much TNA is paying Spike for the slot as well as how long they have this deal for. Hopefully it's around the same price or cheaper than what they were paying Fox Sports. (which I believe was around $20-$30,000 a week) At least Spike is a better network to be on as opposed to FSN. Hopefully they can build up their brand and get some ratings going so that, at some point, Spike would be willing to pay them for the show. From a business standpoint, If I were TNA, I'd seriously look at stopping monthly ppv's and maybe going to a ppv every two months or so. Just because WWE can do it doesn't mean you have to. The costs for producing ppv is high and while the Carters aren't shy about losing money (22 million and counting) they should look to stop the bleeding somewhere. Figure that more people might buy a well built 2 month culmination of storylines as opposed to stuff put together sloppily (think Sacrifice) just for the sake of having something to put on ppv. Just my $0.02

You've got to be kidding, right? Tell me you're kidding. Please.

RIP I used to watch him with Gorilla Monsoon and Vince McMahon during the early days of Prime Time Wrestling on USA. He was fun to watch and just seemed to relish his character. There was a very funny segment back in the day where Lord Alfred had a tea party with Mr Fuji and Afa and Sika where it was supposed to be civilized, but ended up turning into a food fight.

This means Hassan will definitely be champ now.

While Stephen A. Smith is bad and shouldn't have his own show, they could've done worse and given Lebatard his own show.

Not if they want to stay on national TV.

Do you know what company you are watching? This is WWE. They will push people who have no business in the ring for the simple fact that they are muscular and/or tall. Being good in the ring doesn't equal push in Vince's world. Shit, Hassan can't do A through D either and they will probrably put the belt on him at Summerslam just so Vince can thumb his nose at the media for making a big stink about the whole terrorism bit.

Basically, Carlito is like Cena-lite. All mic work, no in ring work. Personally I think his selling and bump timing isn't terrible, but he has zero offense to speak of.

Being a huge Whedon fan, I am looking to view this to set up the movie coming out this Sept. I am banking on your guys recommendation, so this set better be worth my money.

If RVD and Shelton were to start off face v. face, I think Shelton would end up being turned. The one thing (possibly the only thing) RVD has over Shelton is RVD connects with the crowd a lot better. This is why Shelton has been getting booed during his matches with Carlito and Jericho. They connect with the audience on some level, while Shelton does not. Matter of fact, I think Shelton's lack of connection with the fans is a huge factor in why he isn't as big a player as he should be. In Shelton's defense, WWE hasn't presented him that many chances to connect or even shape his character more. The time or two he has been given mic time that I've seen, he gets cut off and made to look like what he has to say is not important.

Sorry, but HBK is the heel here, no doubt about it. Marks don't know or care who held who down 10 or so years ago. They know now, and about 3 weeks ago, HBK superkicked Hogan Pearl Harbor style. That makes him a heel by default.

I went with Bottle Rocket, but the 3 I have seen (havent' gotten around to Life Aquatic yet) are all very well done.

Sounds like a stupid reason to want to see a match. Personally, I'd want to see a match take place between RVD and Shelton so that they, oh, I don't know, put on the best match they can? Being a wrestling fan, I'm funny like that sometimes. If anything, their athleticism and one upsmanship would hopefully bring out the best in both men and in the end, I'd like to see both men come out of a potential feud or series better off than they started. It'd also be a nice starting point for one of them to start a heel turn in that they could both start out as faces and then one of them goes to shortcuts to go over, etching a line that distinguishes who is heel and who is face.

You have to pull his profession away from the person. As an agent, I think Rosenhaus is scum. I can't stand him from that perspective. However, he is a good human being outside of being a sports agent because it takes motherfuckin balls to administer CPR to a limp child who might die. Most of you would crumble or freeze up if put in the same position. Give the man some credit for doing something good and keep the real person away from "Arliss".

Only problem with this particular finish is it makes Batista look weak and makes the champion second fiddle to the Taker/Orton issue a la HHH/Benoit Iron Man match from a year ago that made Benoit look secondary to HHH/Eugene's issue.

I also fear overrating Eddie/Benoit. Just because it's those two, a lot of the IWC will tack on 2 snowflakes automatically and work their way up from there. One of the reasons they don't want to do Batista/Taker yet is they can't control the crowd reactions because of the face vs face dynamic. With Batista still having legs as a champion, you don't want him in a position to where the audience won't want to see him win. It's called protecting your guys. If they were to do Batista/Taker, they'd have to turn one of them before the program got started.

It appears that TNA is spinning it's wheels in the mud until TV starts back up in October, which is why things appear weak right now in terms of storylines and such. Another thing with that is October is when the 90 day no-compete clauses expire for the newly released WWE'ers. One problem I have is them doing the Super X Cup right now. The X Divsion is one of the few things that distinguish TNA from WWE that is a positive and this tournament should be done at the launch of the new Spike TV show, not now. Bad move IMO. Super X should be used to hook in the newer fans who will tune into the TV show as opposed to only being available for download for the hardcore fans who are already on board and know what the X Division is all about.

Note to self: AVOID THIS SHOW AT ALL COSTS!!!!!

If you want off the wall, crazy ass humor, watch Wonder Showzen. It's better.

It's really kind of hard to predict, but off the top I don't think it'd be very good. The only favorable things going for it would be Ray Lewis was in way better physical condition in 2000-01 than LT was when he did his match and HHH was at the stage in his career where he was having pretty good matches, although most of them versus workers who were his equal or better. It's hard to tell whether Lewis would pick up the intracacies of wrestling like timing and such to have a halfway decent match with HHH. In hindsight, I am also glad it fell through, but wonder what history would be like if HBK was able to go and they went with HBK/HHH a year and a half earlier than they did?

WWE was trying to put together a Ray Lewis v. HHH match for WMX7 because Lewis was hot off of the stabbing controversy from the Super Bowl of 2000 and winning the Super Bowl and being named MVP in 2001. Ray Lewis is a big wrestling fan and Vince was negotiating for him to do a wrestler v. football player match for that WM, but the deal fell through. HHH had HBK in mind if Ray Lewis didn't pan out, but then HBK showed up "in no condition" to perform and consequently was sent home. Enter Undertaker and the rest is history.

He's already said that he'd bring it back if it consisted of himself, Triple H, Shawn, and Angle (which I wouldn't care for at all)--so apparently he DOESN'T have the decency to let it rest in peace. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Then curses on Ric Flair then.

Actually, Shawn had the Texas Wrestling Academy thing going on for a year or so after the surgery where he helped train American Dragon, Spanky, Paul London, Michael Shane, etc. I'm not sure of the year HBK got out of TWA, but he was doing that during part of his 4 year sabbatical.

The 4 Horsemen should NEVER be resurrected again in any way shape or form. While I wasn't a fan of Evolution, at least they didn't call themselves the Horsemen. The Horsemen died with WCW and shouldn't be brought back, even if Flair was involved. I'd like to think Flair would have the decency to let the Horsemen legacy just stay down as opposed to bringing it back for a cheap, WWE run.