TNA News & Notes from the 10/04 Observer

[Enigma 0]

Jerry Jarrett was hospitalized over the weekend with an irregular heartbeat. He had a similar escapade where he slumped into a chair at a Nashville show and was rushed to the hospital, and needed triple bypass surgery. There were people who remarked of late that he rushed getting back in the swing of things and were worried about his health.

 

The decision was made to hold the Victory Road PPV on 11/7 in Orlando, which makes for easier travel with the taping two nights later in the same city.

 

Internally, people are talking about the new TV time slots as being something that will happen, but not right away. For the present time, the two things being talked about are trying to get a midnight Friday night replay time slot for Impact as well as negotiations for a two-hour prime-time special with a Halloween theme. The working idea, if it can get approved, would be doing a tie-in with "Best Damn Sports Show Period," and it would be used as a Clash of the Champions type show to shoot the major angles for the PPV.

 

Andy Douglas and Johnny Devine both ended up in the hospital after being stabbed in an early morning of 9/26 night club fight. The two were leaving the Mix Factory Night club in Nashville, and got into a fight with several people. One had a knife, with Douglas getting stabbed in the thigh and Devine in the stomach. Douglas needed stitches and was released, and was wrestling a few days later. Devine underwent several hours of surgery on 9/26, due to internal injuries, which resulted in his gall bladder having to be removed. He's been told he has to rest four to six weeks before he can start training to get back in shape for a comeback. The men who attacked the wrestlers fled the scene and local police officers are investigating.

 

There is definitely the idea to increase the star power starting with 11/7, with Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, Sean Waltman, and Roddy Piper scheduled and they're going to attempt to bring in Sting as well. Piper was announced as returning at the 10/5 Impact tapings. Because of that type of negotiating, that may lead to being late in putting together matches.

 

Right now the idea is they will have a tournament with first round matches of Monty Brown vs. Raven and Abyss vs. Jeff Hardy on 10/5 to determine who gets the shot at Jeff Jarrett. Petey Williams vs. A.J. Styles for the X title is decided. They are strongly hinting that the Outsiders will be coming in to align with Jarrett, which probably means they aren't.

 

Sean Waltman & Joanie Laurer are back together. Laurer has been trying to peddle her sex tape to a known distributor but thus far has gotten no offers.

 

The IWA/TNA deal seems to have been finalized. Jerry Jarrett and Savio Vega did most of the talking. Dutch Mantel was the big problem in the finalization, as Vega and Victor Quinones didn't want Mantel involved, to the point Vega wouldn't even allow Mantel into the talks. However, Jerry was insistent that Mantel be cut into the deal, as apparently he was adamant about making sure since they were cutting Mantel out of his WWC deal, that he got a new deal. IWA was resistant, but ultimately, the agreement was that Mantel would get paid for occasional trips in and helping book, but he'd only be used when Jeff was brought in. Konnan, Michael Shane and Hotstuff Hernandez will be sent to IWA from 10/14 to 10/17, including the Loubriel Stadium show with the Ray Gonzalez vs. Apolo main event.

 

Some time back, Terry Funk and Raven had wanted to work a program, but it fell on deaf ears.

 

A.J. Styles earned the X title match winning a six-way over Alex Shelley, Kid Kash, Amazing Red, Frankie Kazarian, and Chris Sabin when Styles pinned Shelley with a Styles clash in a hot match.

 

Russ Rollins of the local Monsters of the Midway morning show debuted teaming with Johnny B. Badd beating Bruce Steele & Rod Steel in what was apparently a dark match. The crowd was way up from recent weeks due to Rollins, who had a section of fans called the "Monster mafia." They didn't put him on until after Impact was over, and when his match was over and before Xplosion started, most of the fans that came because he was there went home. Everything Rollins did go over. They even set up Jarrett and Rollins having a square-off. Badd, Rollins' trainer, got Jarrett's guitar, and if you know swerve booking that everyone sees coming, of course, Badd hit Rollins and left with Jarrett.

 

Jerry Lynn just had shoulder surgery.

 

All of the talent is being asked to arrive on Monday to Orlando, even though TV isn't until Tuesday. This past week, Jeff Hardy was the only one who didn't come a day early.

 

Jonny Fairplay wasn't there, and the feeling was negative toward him being on the PPV, although the Monsters local radio show is building up something locally on 10/9 where Fairplay will wrestle women.

 

Jimmy Hart was on the radio on 9/28, plugging the show that night and saying he would unveil the new Hart Foundation. And that didn't happen either, unless the new Hart Foundation is simply Fairplay who he'll manage in that appearance.

 

There is also legit heat between Vince Russo and Jerry Jarrett. When it comes to those two, you always have to be suspicious of a work, I guess. Jarrett wrote something in his new book (I haven't read it yet, but probably will within a week or two) about reading some of Russo's early scripts and saying they looked like something put together by someone on LSD. Russo found out and was upset, both publicly, responding saying that shows why he thinks the wrestling business is the worst business in the world. He also wrote a private e-mail to Jerry, saying he couldn't understand how one Christian could do that to another Christian. B.G. James missed the 9/21 show because of problems with his home in Pensacola from the hurricane.

 

Larry Zbyszko was used as the authority figure on the 9/21 show because Russo wasn't there. Russo had made family plans on that day before the schedule had changed.

 

Goldylocks is done for now, if not for good. The 9/8 deal with Abyss was scheduled to be her blow-off to begin with, but then she got on everyone's bad side because she refused to do much of anything in the blow off. She refused to take a choke slam, a black hole slam or a rack drop, and they finally got her to agree to take a weak looking backbreaker, a hold that hadn't been put over. There is a possibility she'll be brought back for a new role, but everyone was talking about it like that was the end for her.

 

There has been no talk of late regarding either Spanky or Jim Mitchell. Mitchell's contract expired this past week and is now a free agent. WWE run must have done a number on Spanky when it comes to the business, as he went from a guy who drove non-stop once from Cincinnati to Los Angeles to win a jr. title at the last minute when the guy scheduled to win pulled out (which got him his original spot in Zero-One) and a guy who was working his ass off on independent shows to a guy who seems to have lost interest in doing much of anything outside of Zero-One. The story is he was the one who lost interest in TNA, even though he lives near Atlanta and it's only one day a week right now, and would somewhat keep his name alive in the U.S. He's done virtually no independent dates either. One of the issues with TNA and the Zero-One guys is Zero-One doesn't contact guys about dates until the last minute, as compared to All Japan, New Japan and NOAH, where guys know their schedules usually far enough ahead of time that booking plans can be made. Low Ki switching to NOAH should have made things easier, but he wasn't willing to sign a TNA contract.

 

Jerry Jarrett, who never appeared on TV for TNA, was already on TV for Bert Prentice's group which got the Xplosion time slot in Nashville. They talked about them bringing wrestling back to the Fairgrounds on 10/2. It was funny because they were knocking TNA. Prentice emphasized that this is old-school, rock-em, sock-em rasslin' and they weren't giving tickets away for free. Jarrett pushed his book and then they showed a trailer of the Sting movie, since Prentice has a small role in it and is in the trailer.

[Guest The Last Free Voice]

Sucks about Low Ki still not being interested despite teh switch to NOAH. Spanky not being interested in the US is somewhat suprising. But (from what I understand) he's gettin pretty big in japan, so good for him. Everything else, meh.

[Guest Staravenger]

There is definitely the idea to increase the star power starting with 11/7, with Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, Sean Waltman, and Roddy Piper scheduled and they're going to attempt to bring in Sting as well. Piper was announced as returning at the 10/5 Impact tapings. Because of that type of negotiating, that may lead to being late in putting together matches.

 

Sean Waltman & Joanie Laurer are back together. Laurer has been trying to peddle her sex tape to a known distributor but thus far has gotten no offers.

I won't bother with elaborate C&P and quoting, so I'll just do it the easy way.

 

1st one: Hall & Sting are fine. Waltman...eh. Nash...HELL NO! At least Hall & Sting look SOMEWHAT motivated in their appearences. Waltman I have no idea, I haven't seen him in months, and Nash hasn't had a good match in 6 years.

 

2nd one: I guess the world is still crying over that. [/sarcasm]

[TNABaddboi 0]

The Halloween special is the best news there, IMO. That would be a great opportunity for them to really sell Victory Road and do like a Saturday Night's Main Event type deal with matches between the stars who aren't necessarily feuding, that way they can play it up like what implications will this have on Victory Road, for instance. (They could also do this with Impact, but for right now, it seems they are more content just running angles there). If they can work this out...I think it's something they should do by every PPV, kind of like a final sell. And if they draw a decent primetime rating, they can use that as leverage for a permenent move.

 

Also, if they're going to get a midnight replay of Impact, they should definitely just make that the new slot. I think they'll do better that way, even though a lot of people won't be home, I still think there's a bigger potential audience than Friday afternoons.

[Guest whitemilesdavis]

Internally, people are talking about the new TV time slots as being something that will happen, but not right away. For the present time, the two things being talked about are trying to get a midnight Friday night replay time slot for Impact as well as negotiations for a two-hour prime-time special with a Halloween theme. The working idea, if it can get approved, would be doing a tie-in with "Best Damn Sports Show Period," and it would be used as a Clash of the Champions type show to shoot the major angles for the PPV.

 

Both of these are great ideas. I think midnight on Friday could give it that little edge of "Late night TV" that Friday afternoon doesn't hold.

 

The Halloween idea is great. They could really push this as a pay-per-view quality show, and the co-promotion on BDSSP would be nice.

 

That being said, I don't expect TNA to go through with either idea, and if they did, that still doesn't make up for the fact that their product must vastly improve.

[Mecha Mummy 0]

1st one: Hall & Sting are fine. Waltman...eh. Nash...HELL NO! At least Hall & Sting look SOMEWHAT motivated in their appearences. Waltman I have no idea, I haven't seen him in months, and Nash hasn't had a good match in 6 years.

 

Of the lot of them, Waltman seems the most capable of being in a good match judging by his match against Styles and the standing ovation he got at an Inoki Dojo show.

[Guest Duncan Eternia]

1st one: Hall & Sting are fine. Waltman...eh. Nash...HELL NO! At least Hall & Sting look SOMEWHAT motivated in their appearences. Waltman I have no idea, I haven't seen him in months, and Nash hasn't had a good match in 6 years.

 

Of the lot of them, Waltman seems the most capable of being in a good match judging by his match against Styles and the standing ovation he got at an Inoki Dojo show.

Yeah...when Waltman is motivated can can easily be a *** worker.

[TheBigSwigg 0]

They are strongly hinting that the Outsiders will be coming in to align with Jarrett, which probably means they aren't.

 

HAHAHAHA! That's funny.

 

They are strongly hinting that the Outsiders will be coming in to align with Jarrett, which probably means they aren't.

 

Damn you, Dutch Mantel. Damn you too, Jeff Jarrett.

 

He also wrote a private e-mail to Jerry, saying he couldn't understand how one Christian could do that to another Christian.

 

Wow, he IS new to Christianity. I say in a few months he renounces his Christianity because of hypocrisy. What a noob.