Mike Tenay's column up on NWATNA.com

[LucharesuFan619 0]

CREDIT: NWATNA.com

 

05.13.04 | The toughest test of A.J. Styles's second reign as NWA Worlds Heavyweight Champion will be Wednesday's (5/19/04) Deadly Draw match with three challengers in one night for the fighting champion. NWA Director Of Authority Vince Russo's solution to end the chaos revolving around Style's title is an innovative bout where Raven, Ron "The Truth" Killings and "Wildcat" Chris Harris will draw numbers one through three. The wrestler who draws number one faces A.J. for five minutes. If there isn't a winner, wrestler number two makes it a three way match and potentially we could see a four way bout with the NWA Championship up for grabs. The American Dream Dusty Rhodes makes his in-ring return by joining James Storm in a Bunkhouse Brawl against Kid Kash and Dallas. The best of three series pitting Sonjay Dutt and Amazing Red concludes with the winner getting an X Division Title shot at Frankie Kazarian. We'll preview the May 26th World X Cup with Team AAA from Mexico facing Team Japan in a 6 man tag team match. And, Team NWA captain Jerry Lynn puts his captaincy and team position at stake against Bobby Rude. If Lynn wins, he gets 5 minutes with Team Canada's leader Scott D'Amore, but if he loses he's off the X Cup squad.

 

We invite your questions and comments for Mike Tenay at [email protected]. Please include your hometown and state (and country if outside the U.S.). The volume of mail doesn't allow us to answer each question or reply personally. Click on "Interactive" at the top of our home page to access previous "Ask The Professor" columns. Let's go to the electronic mailbag:

 

 

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FROM: GARY MARCUM

Where are Steve Corino and Mike Awesome? Who was El Leon?

 

ANSWER: Corino just wrestled on the May 8th Hustle III event at the Yokohama Arena in Japan in a loss to Dusty Rhodes. Awesome is scheduled to appear for Jersey All Pro Wrestling on June 5 as Vader's tag partner against Samoa Joe and Dan Maff in Rahway, New Jersey. El Leon unmasked on the TNA PPV as Apollo.

 

 

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FROM: SHAWN (GILBERTVILLE, MASS.)

Will your TV deal with FoxSportsNet be a two hour or one hour show?

 

ANSWER: As we announced Wednesday (5/12/04) on the PPV, Impact, our new one hour show debuts Friday, June 4, on FoxSportsNet at 3 p.m.

 

 

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FROM: TIM SMART (ST. LOUIS, MO.)

Will TNA ever do a national tour. It would be my dream to see TNA live.

 

ANSWER: No dates to announce yet, but I hear that live arena events are a possiblity for later this year. Stay tuned.

 

 

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FROM: SIMON ATKINS (NSW, AUSTRALIA)

What's the relationship between TNA's Amazing Red and WWE's Rey Misterio? I see them both do each others moves.

 

ANSWER: Yes, it's pretty obvious that Red's in-ring style is heavily influenced by Misterio. But they aren't related. A very similiar question was asked by RCHASE619.

 

 

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FROM: JEREMY PEATROSS

I'm really interested in who the members of Team Japan will be for the World X Cup?

 

ANSWER: It's primarily a team from All Japan with Mitsu Hirai Jr. (Nobukazu Hirai), Taichi Ishikari and Ryuji Hijikata joining Nosawa.

 

 

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FROM: MATT WEINSTEIN (NEW YORK CITY, N.Y.)

Was there a wrestler named Moondog Moretti? Was he one of the Moondogs?

 

ANSWER: Yes and no. Ed Moretti was recently honored at the Cauliflower Alley Club banquet in Las Vegas, Nevada. He grew up in the Bay Area as a huge fan of Roy Shires Cow Palace Wrestling. He was a solid performer in Northern California and the Pacific Northwest. He paid tribute to his idol Lonnie Mayne by choosing the nickname "Moondog". Moretti is still involved in the business with Portland Wrestling in Oregon. But, no he was not part of the Moondogs tag team.

 

 

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FROM: ALDRICH (CALIFORNIA)

When will Impact air on the West Coast?

 

ANSWER: 3 p.m. every Friday on FoxSportsNet.

 

 

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FROM: TYLER JENNE

Where is Sean O'Haire?

 

ANSWER: O'Haire lost to Hiroshi Tanahashi on New Japan's May 3rd Tokyo Dome event. Similiar question from RYAN (ABBOTSFORD, B.C. CANADA).

 

 

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FROM: DIEGO SANCHEZ (SANTIAGO DE COIMPOSTELA, SPAIN)

I just want to tell you how great the TNA product is. I have read every single one of your columns on the website and I'm a big fan of your announcing work. Why does everyone keep calling CMLL by the name EMLL. CMLL stands for CONSEJO MUNDIAL de LUCHA LIBRE.

 

ANSWER: EMLL stands for EMPRESSA MEXICANA de la LUCHA LIBRE and is basically interchangeable with CMLL.

 

 

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FROM: MIKE (NEW YORK)

Can you rattle off the names of some of the Doink The Clowns?

 

ANSWER: Matt Borne, Steve Keirn, Steve Lombardi and Ray Apolo among others.

 

 

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FROM: MICHAEL MCCARTHY

Did Abyss wrestle under any other names in WWE or WCW?

 

ANSWER: No.

 

 

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FROM: ARBOK947

Where is Mickey Jay? Where was the first TNA PPV?

 

ANSWER: I just saw the former WCW referee at last month's Cauliflower Alley event. He lives in Key West, Florida and occasionally referees. His most recent work was with MLW. The first TNA PPV was June 19, 2002, in Huntsville, Alabama.

 

 

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FROM: CHRIS (SPOKANE, WASHINGTON)

I haven't missed one single TNA show. What happened to Steve "Mongo" McMichael?

 

ANSWER: McMichael is a radio broadcaster for his former team the NFL Chicago Bears.

[Astro101 0]

So West Coasters will get to see Impact at 3pm...not at noon.

[Michrome 0]

That's the biggest news out of this. It's still a death slot, but there is actually hope, as opposed to 12pm which was suicidal.

[Guest The Last Free Voice]

Wasn't there a DIFFERENT Team Japan announced a few weeks (month or so maybe) ago? With Tumeric Storm and two others?

[Guest Dynamite Kido]

Wasn't there a DIFFERENT Team Japan announced a few weeks (month or so maybe) ago? With Tumeric Storm and two others?

This has been changing ever since they wanted to have a Team Japan come in. I'm sure it will still change 50 times before it happens.

[Corey_Lazarus 0]

...WHY NOSAWA?! He's SHIT in the ring, has NO uniqe characteristics or abilities, and his entire offense is BASEMENT DROPKICKS! FUCK NOSAWA.

[Guest The Last Free Voice]

Wow, Laz, I don't think NOSAWA is THAT bad... But I was hoping for Tumeric Storm again. Their match at FB03 was great.

[LucharesuFan619 0]

Nosawa is fantastic. You really gotta get a hold of his MLW, XPW, and FMW work, and also his CZW work, to appreciate him fully. His TNA stuff doesn't do him justice.

[Guest Donners]

It's possible Tumeric Storm could be coming in separate to Team Japan as part of a larger deal with AJPW. I couldn't really imagine them against X wrestlers, but I would love to see them against Monty Brown and Abyss.

[Corey_Lazarus 0]

Nosawa is fantastic. You really gotta get a hold of his MLW, XPW, and FMW work, and also his CZW work, to appreciate him fully. His TNA stuff doesn't do him justice.

I saw one XPW match of his from Go Funk Yourself against Pogo...it was terrible, and it didn't seem to be because of that worthless sack of shit Pogo either. Sure, he dragged down the rating, but all Nosawa did was...guess. Yep, that's right...DROPKICKS!

 

If the man is this great worker that you claim him to be, then why doesn't he do at least something OTHER than a fucking basement dropkick or a knife-edge chop in TNA?

[Michrome 0]

I haven't seen Nosawa on TNA, so I can't comment on that, but just about every worker in TNA has better matches elsewhere for all sorts of reasons. Chris Daniels is asked not to do any technical/story matches, and instead rely on spots. The same goes for almost all the X Division guys. Many workers are asked to work certain styles for various reasons, and if you ask some workers, they'll tell you it's to protect some guy on top who is still working WWE 99 main event style.

[Guest The Last Free Voice]

I saw alot of NOSAWA's MLW work and it was average. Same as his TNA work in My Opinion. He's just a low level Tajiri knock off.

[LucharesuFan619 0]

Nosawa is fantastic. You really gotta get a hold of his MLW, XPW, and FMW work, and also his CZW work, to appreciate him fully. His TNA stuff doesn't do him justice.

I saw one XPW match of his from Go Funk Yourself against Pogo...it was terrible, and it didn't seem to be because of that worthless sack of shit Pogo either. Sure, he dragged down the rating, but all Nosawa did was...guess. Yep, that's right...DROPKICKS!

 

If the man is this great worker that you claim him to be, then why doesn't he do at least something OTHER than a fucking basement dropkick or a knife-edge chop in TNA?

Ya, the Pogo match was crappy. Hell, it sucked, like you said. However, if I were to pick his worst match ever in XPW, that was definitely it. Almost any other match he had in XPW I can recommend checking out. Kaos blew up with him at Free Fall, but it was still a solid match, IMO. He and Kaos and Psychosis had a slow-paced, but solid match at NYR2. I really liked his match w/ Ebessan vs. Mexico's Most Wanted at Rapture and his King of the Death Match Tournament 2001 match vs. Johnny Webb. He had a pretty good match with Dynamite D at Redemption, too. His CZW match with Nick Berk was pretty good, also. But the Pogo match was definitely his worst match ever in XPW. I'm actually talking to Pogo later tonight for an interview, and I'll ask him what it was like working with Nosawa, since they speak different languages.

 

I haven't seen much of his TNA work, beyond the Super X Cup matches he had. I don't know - maybe he's dumb and doesn't realize the exposure he can get if he works hard on TNA shows. He seems the opposite of Juvi. Works hard on other shows but sucks on TNA, whereas Juvi mails it in most of the time on other shows but works well in TNA.

 

If you want a Best of Comp of Nosawa and Mitsunobu Kikuzawa's (Ebessan) best matches in Japan, PM me I can hook you up with someone who sells them for a good price.

 

EDIT: He also had a really good match with Tracy Smothers in XPW, which had ungodly heat thanks to Smothers. It's ultra hard to find, though, so don't even bother looking.

[Open the Muggy Gate 0]

Yeah the match sucked... but Pogo was in it... so there you go.