Mad Scientist

I'm getting confused...Hornswoggle is strangely over as a face right now. He's getting face pops for all the stuff he's doing with Noble. Yet Finlay is obviously staying heel...how are they working this? On the plus side, this has led to more Noble matches. I love that Fireman's Double Knee Gutbuster he's doing as a finisher. This angle with Hornswoggle does piss all over the CW Championship, but it is damn funny to watch. Noble's expressions are great. He's no William Regal, but he's a reasonable substitute.

And don't forget that dog!

If TNA drops the X Division, then that will free up an hour of my Thursday night. I guess I should plan to DVR something else now. When are they going to understand that they can't compete with WWE by hiring people fired by the E? They can't compete at all; when you're up against something the scale of the WWE, you don't go blow-for-blow, you play a different game altogether. The X Division was TNA's game - a division of mostly smaller, more athletic, and generally better wrestlers to provide fast-paced, high impact matches. WWE had nothing to compete with it, thus that allowed TNA to be some sort of success. Drop the X, and TNA will go the way of other direct competitors to the E...become part of it or be destroyed. I wonder if I can get those upcoming ROH PPVs on DirecTV?

The problem is that Lashley spent months selling moves by Finlay, Booker, and other folks from midcards everywhere. He sold for RVD, a smaller wrestler than Kennedy. Goldberg began and ended with no-selling most moves. You can't create that kind of character with someone that everyone without ADHD remembers jobbing to Finlay only a year ago.

I dunno. I think Ed Begley Jr. has to be involved in that somehow. There's obviously some history there we need to hear about. Great matches all around, I thought.

Umaga as a face? Are they going to do that George "The Animal" Steele thing and book him to have some sort of puppy love thing with Sharmelle? I can't really conceive how that would work based on their prior work with him.

I'll go even further. This is the best build to any wrestling match involving any cephalopod. EVAR.

I'm in like Flynn.

A match would be good for me too.

Not unless we book a main event that involves some brutal neck bump finishers.

Well, there we go. I didn't watch the Bash, so that's why I missed that end of things. Well, again, if they're going to push him as a powerhouse, he needs to start trotting out some nasty-looking power moves, darn it. His current moveset in the power category don't cut it. Either that, or unleash him as this amateur wrestling machine that barrels through everyone. Just pick a direction for him other than large, slow heavyweight punching machine. We have Henry, Snitsky, and company for that, dammit.

Then they're in even worse shape than I thought. They get no real benefits other than salary from the contract, which sucks as TNA could actually ruin their ability to get jobs later on with the crappy booking and devaluation of the characters/personas of the wrestlers involved. For instance, it's going to be tough for a Lance Hoyt to get over as a monster heel somewhere else when lots of people have seen him job like a madman to Mr. Ass on national TV. Unless he dons a mask or adds face paint and gets a new haircut. Also, he would have to lose the "tramp stamp."

Well, in this case they're contract employees, not just at-will employees. In fact, they may be independent contractors. Either way, they are bound by a contract. What the guys are asking for, if the rumors are true, is to be "released" from their contracts, meaning they get to break the contract without suffering any of the contractual penalties (non-compete clauses, etc.). In that case, TNA is just saying that they will not relinquish their rights under the contract to enforce the penalties or consequences of a breach by the wrestler. The wrestlers can just walk away like anyone else, but they may be subject to legal penalties due to the contractual relationship.

If you'll look at Joe's and Abyss' records, you'll notice fairly common jobs to Sting, Angle, and Christian. It's tough to get a consistent or serious push when you job to people clean as often as not. The only people that have gotten consistent and serious pushes in TNA are Sting, Angle, and Christian. The only reason that Abyss and Joe don't look like total losers is because they both are really big guys who give off an aura of "badass" or "psycho" that at this point seems to transcend their clean jobs to various other competitors (notably Sting, Christian to some extent, and Angle).

Please change that icon. Nancy Grace scares me. Homegrown talent is all well and good, but how to bring the homegrown folks back now that they have been jobbed out worse than Al Snow in the 1990s? How do you recover booking credibility after that? I like the idea of TNA using more homegrown talent in the title picture...especially Tag Team and Word titles, since they've got some good stuff to work with. I can understand that they may want to include a more visible, famous guy in the mix (Angle, Sting, Christian) to liven things up, but the dropouts, retirees and rejects from other wrestling companies have been booked to dominate all the local talent to the point of ridiculousness. How do they fix this situation in any way that does not basically admit the way they've buggered up their booking over the past couple of years? Joe or anyone as triple-crown champion makes the rest of their roster look awful...especially since Joe is basically a face, so it's not like he can cheat it up a la Lance Storm's triple crown reign in WCW with the original Team Canada (Saskatchewan Hardcore International Title was the greatest name for a hardcore title EVAR). How are you supposed to get your local talent any heat or pop when they have to cleanly job to Joe or whoever you're giving the monster build to over and over and over?

Yeah, the constant clean jobbing of Punk really leaves a blank and heatless title picture in ECW. Unless CorVon is going after it? I'd mark for a Pounce on Nitro/Morrison.

I seem to recall Lashley starting to showcase a bit during his feuds and matches with some of the Smackdown technical guys like Finlay and Benoit. Not a lot mind you, as they still wanted him classified and pushed as a powerhouse; you can still tell the push type by the commentary putting Lashley over. They hardly ever mention his background anymore...just how strong and big he is. Sad, really.

This could be a very good thing. The downside is that we see even less of Noble in the ring.

This is T...N...A! You know they can't do anything logically when it comes to their title picture. Nor can they push seriously and consistently push anyone now who isn't a WWE outcast or a WCW retiree. Their whole roster other than Abyss, Sting, Angle, and Joe look like a bunch of complete and total losers. Hell, Angle and Sting are your only consistently pushed people on even that short list. I mean, the last X Division champ lasted what...four days before Joe stomped him and another former X Division champ in a triple threat match?

It could be...I wouldn't put it past WWE to dictate such a style requirement. What exactly sets him apart from the 10-20 powerhouse wrestlers currently employed by the E? Not a damn thing he just looks like, acts like, works like the basic generic WWE Hoss BAWH GAWD! If Bobby Lashley has the so called "amature" skills then let him use them. In the past the smaller wrestlers were called "vanilla midgets" well Bobby Lashley is a "chocolate hershey bar" available at the low low cost of 2 for a dollar at Walmart. Seriously why is there a need for Lashley to work this style when Batista is the same damn thing but better at it.....he looks good in shades and wears a fancy suit! There is no need for Lashley to work that style, but there's no need for anybody to work that style, since it sucks. The only reason anybody should ever work that style is because they can't do anything else (like say, Batista, Snitsky, Khali). And then you have the question, why have anybody on the roster who can only work the giant slug style? WWE's static answer is usually as follows: "Big men sell more tickets than little ones, whether they have ability or not. Why have a big man waste his time on silly amateur moves and holds, when we have the cruiserweights and light heavyweights for that? We want the big man to toss people and around and be, well, BIG. And stuff."

It could be...I wouldn't put it past WWE to dictate such a style requirement.

I'm with you here. Lance Storm claims to have trained this guy somewhat, and raves about his ability. I haven't seen anything to warrant that kind of praise. If Lashley started really showing this kind of style...amateur-style takedowns, some decent suplexes, and a technical hold or two, it'd be a godsend to his credibility as this amateur champion. Then add on the raw power moves I mentioned above, or something similar to make him a scary powerhouse wrestler. Combining those movesets would make for some great matches, if not with Cena, then with somebody. I don't know if the WWE is forcing him into this lazy slug style or if it's his own lack of ability. He doesn't even do a decent "explosive powerhouse" due to his lack of good power moves. The only people he's even press slammed are managers or McMahons...hell, Snitsky is a better powerhouse wrestler. And that's just sad if Lashley has the ability that Lance Storm believes he does or if he has those awesome amateur credentials they keep touting to push him.

In Sledgehammer's defense, he did only use the word "awesome" to describe Cena's PPV matches, not his wrestling in general. I don't necessarily agree with the sentiment, but let's get his context right.

This is a perennial problem nowadays...the WWE has so many damn PPVs that the concept has been watered down. Most of the title changes seem to happen on their free shows. The only reason to generally get the PPVs is the spotfests and crossbrand matchups (although these are showing up more on free TV now too). Honestly, the PPVs are a worse deal than they have ever been. Your results are typically "Cena retains 'against all odds' and some other matches occur." Honestly, their PPVs are not appreciably better shows than their TV presentations most of the time now. Not a great business model, I'd think, but hey, they're still making money, even if their PPV buyrates are down (I really don't keep up with this, but I've heard this **ALERT** on the internet **ALERT**, so take it with a grain of salt).

Well, you all want something, in this case the tag titles, only two of you can have them, and you don't really care for each other all that much. Thus, you fight over it, both in matches and in promos. In wrestling, that's all you need for a feud as far as I can see. Feuds can be simpler; you could just fight because you can't stand each other, or you could just fight about the titles with no real animosity or attacks.