cabbageboy

I've quite enjoyed these Ortonless Raws of late and I am glad to (hopefully) not have to see him for another 3 months. Given what they did with Cena at the Rumble though I don't really 100% trust this story though.

Someone please explain how exactly WWE's ringwork is better than TNA's. Watch a typical Smackdown sometime...every match is the same boring as shit story being told, nothing but the heel dominating with working an arm or headlocks on the mat, just stuff that doesn't engage me as a viewer. TNA's wrestlers move much more in the ring, there is more motion, a better variety of moves and holds used, and so on. I can see the argument that TNA's booking sucks, that is obvious.

I'm amazed that anyone thinks Dark Knight will possibly be #1 next week....if anything it will fall to #3 behind both Tropic Thunder and Clone Wars. In reality TDK finished behind Pineapple Express from the Wed.-Sun. total, but Express was released early due to the Olympics. Next week will be interesting though for TDK. If it can seriously hold nearly its audience to about 20 million that would be quite the feat for this late in its run.

I demand to see these AWA shows from 1989. They haven't touched on that era at all, yet I want to see the meltdown post SuperClash III and see the company really spiral out of control. And yes, I want the turkey match.

You know, the minute Angle went down with the "injury" vs. Styles I figured that had to mean Jarrett was coming back. It's like those guys can't exist on the roster together, as though they think the awesomeness of both guys is just too much for us to handle at once. If JJ is coming back to help get some guys over then I'm okay with it. If he's there to be the Savior of TNA and take out Joe and win the belt, then this will suck. After tonight I can safely say that they have wrecked Joe's title run. That match with Booker had zero heat of a positive nature, and the crowd turned on both men (or just didn't react). The rest of the show was very good though aside from the Dutt/Lethal fiasco, but I assumed that would suck going in. Overall TNA has much better actual ringwork than WWE, but that has never been their problem.

How about this idea for tonight's main event: Booker actually pins Joe to become champion, but then Joe steals the belt himself and holds it hostage. Then he can feud with Nash over the "possession" of the belt, while Booker and, oh I dunno, AJ Styles can feud over who is the champion. Then Booker can run in on that Joe/Nash main event and steal back the belt while Tenay exclaims "Damn you Booker for running in and taking your actual property!" That was a sarcastic post by the way.

I don't think Russo actually was the one who turned Sting heel in WCW. This was at Fall Brawl 1999 or so and was the last stuff WCW did before Russo joined the company. If anything Russo went away from that bizarre Sting heel stuff....or maybe he didn't. In fact I don't really recall exactly what Sting was from Oct.-Dec. 1999. Maybe just tweener, but eventually just went face again. Anyone else find it odd that WCW tried turning not one but TWO WCW mainstays heel on Hogan in 1999? They attempted it with Flair at Uncensored but that was really confusing and weird, and besides given the awful things Hogan and the NWO had done to Flair I didn't blame Flair for screwing Hogan six ways from Sunday. And then they tried turning Sting heel on Hogan as well, even though it was too fresh in the fans' minds all the crap Hogan had done to Sting over the past 2 years.

Bob, which version of Walk Hard have you seen? All I've seen is the unedited director's cut DVD which I found really long and draggy. It's kinda like "Dewey is popular, then he has a fall from grace, then he marries another woman, then gets popular, etc." They did the same character arc about 3 times in that version. They could have edited that down a bit.

Yeah, cause Diesel and Shawn were such a "real tag team" in 1994. I don't recall them ever working more than a few tag matches and had never been in contention. In Foley's book he mentioned the SS 99 main event and said they added him because Austin was banged up and felt he could help carry the load. Also Jesse didn't want to raise the hand of the heel HHH, or maybe WWE didn't want that (or maybe both).

Foley isn't a huge loss really. Taz was already put back in his spot on SD and anyone can show up and do ECW. Matt Striker did fine the other night.

I kinda like The Texas Hangmen, though they don't seem a particularly good fit in the AWA. They should have been in World Class or the USWA. In fact I think they were the USWA tag champs at one point. Wow, on that recent show Jonnie Stewart had a match with Slaughter and he did a really hilarious 3rd rate Flair wannabe schtick. He did almost all of Flair's spots, trademarks, etc. I say 3rd rate because Buddy Landell is the 2nd rate Flair.

I think Franco could have played the Dale role well enough, but Rogen as Saul? That just doesn't work for me at all. I can't see him so much as the hippie pot dealer. He's too much the "regular guy who gets stoned sometimes" type. Here's one part that I found funny as hell:

See, personally I never liked the ONS 06 finish. I feared it would end up being some lame Dusty Finish type deal where RVD would have to relinquish the belt, so WWE managed to take the one thing I had wanted to see as a long time RVD fan and managed to make it dubious. SummerSlam 1992 has my favorite ending ever to a PPV.

Please, no more Mabel. How many chances does a guy get? We know he's just going to suck again. Personally I would have kept James Curtis and ditched Braden Walker. At least Curtis showed some flashes of heel personality down in OVW.

I am glad someone did this because I have thought for years that the whole "independent contractor" thing with WWE was complete bullshit. These guys have contracts with just WWE. This isn't the territory days where someone wrestles for a few months in the WWWF, then moves on to the AWA, or goes to Crockett, etc. Right now when you sign with Vince, you can't just go and work for TNA....you are an employee of WWE only. In other words I think Raven and Co. have a real serious shot of winning this lawsuit.

Nick Patrick's release seems more like a medical release due to his back rather than them being pissed at him. The rest won't especially be missed, though I would have thought Guido would have been a decent trainer in developmental.

This was funny stuff, definitely got better as it went along. What was the last thing Rosie Perez was in? I can't think of the last thing I saw her in, but she hasn't changed much. Question for those who have seen:

Perfection, I agree. I've never understood people who get married multiple times. I can see twice since the first marriage might not work out and someone might want to try again. But once Beth divorced him Flair should have just dated young, hot chicks and stayed single. I think even Lawler has figured this out.

Haha, that Aronofsky script sounds like an Iron Man storyline I read about where Tony Stark lost his fortune or something and ended up as a homeless bum for a while until Jim Rhodes helped him out.

Is Abyss doing random run ins though? This is the 2nd time he's run in on Kong, so I truly fear that they are going to serious feud those two. How could that possibly work? If Abyss beats Kong, so what? If he jobs out to Kong it does jack shit to help her since it's a dead end angle putting her against men and it buried Abyss. How are we supposed to buy Kong remotely facing off with Abyss when she can't even beat a 5 ft. blonde of late?

Someone should post all the pre surgery pics of Jillian from 2004 when she was in OVW. It was like seeing a completely different chick.

I don't think Storm was carrying Harris in TNA, at least not wrestling wise. Maybe on the mic he carried that team, but if you watch the best of their matches either as a team or as opponents then you would see that Harris wasn't really being carried. I'd like to see Storm try to carry Braden Walker though. That would prove interesting.

Angle is nuts for taking that crazy ladder spot, he was gushing blood there. I too wondered why in the hell they would have these guys wrestling in a gimmick style match a few days before doing a PPV with a gimmick match. Booker/Joe also wrestled a bit. And Tomko is leaving the company? You wouldn't know it, the guy lasted till the end when Joe beat him. Why not put him in one last PPV to do a mega job to Matt Morgan?

One thing jumps to mind out of all the PPVs I've seen: "Where to, Stephanie???" Backlash 1999.

This is the least shocking news I've heard all week. The guy was utterly horrible in his 2 ECW matches, looking out of shape and uninspired against Armando the first time and phoned it in so bad against James Curtis that I wondered how he ever got called up from developmental. What happened to this guy? I always thought Harris would be a TNA worker most likely to make it in WWE with his solid size and ability. Seriously go back and watch his street fight with James Storm or his various AMW tag matches over the years and tell me that's the same guy.