WON News + Notes, January 22nd Issue

[The Decemberists 0]

Final Resolution Star Ratings

 

1) Rhino vs AJ = ***

2) Sabin vs Lynn vs Daniels = ***1/4

3) Shelley vs Starr = **

4) Storm vs Petey = **1/4

5) LAX vs 3D = 3/4*

6) Joe vs Angle = ***1/2

7) Sting vs Xtian vs Abyss = ***1/4

 

 

News

 

Usual TNA PPV. Mostly good matches but nothing great. Big problem is they come across as a minor league promotion desperatly trying to get attention and get one more shot at the big time.

 

What seem to sum up TNA is that in the VKM segment at the PPV they mocked WWE for having people chanting "TNA" during the Rosie/Donald skit, but later in the same segment they had their own fans chanting "We Want Wrestling".

 

Angle suffered a concussion at the 8:00 mark in the Iron Man Match. Angle always calls his own matches, but from that moment on the match was called by Joe and Earl Hebner.

 

Incase anyone's been wondering and doesn't know, TNA's 'Big Fat Oily Guy' is Tiny the Timekeeper from the Nashville days.

 

The angle where Gail Kim has to stick with James Storm or she'll lose her job as TNA doesn't have a woman's divsion is carny for we're adding a woman's division. More evidence that Russo and company are determined to pretend it's still 1998 and are happy to ignore the way ratings drop drasticly in WWE for woman's segments.

 

Konnan had his hip operation on 1/11. Just the fact he had it is very good news as they felt he was healthy enough to survive the surgery thanks to the dialysis he's been on. The doctors have told him that in four to six months he'll be moving better than he has in years. He'll be back home in San Diego on 1/17 and there has even been talk of him being back on the 1/29 tapings.

 

As things stand TNA is to have a special airing on 2/12 when Raw is pre-empted for the Westminster Dog Show. It's not 100% yet and no one's sure if it'll be a one or two-hour show. With a PPV on 2/11 the show is almost going to have to be either live or on a two-hour tape delay as TNA won't want to pre-record the show in order not to give away the PPV results. The special would then be repeated on the Thursday in the regular time slot.

 

The booking team is trying to come up a shoot concept to be different to WWE. The vague idea is to have all X Division matches have time limits but have real judges deciding the outcome based on who gave the best performance in the match. Again, this would be a shoot decision. This is not a completely new idea, but no one in the past has ever worked out a way to get it to work. Bischoff talked to Meltzer about it after WCW went down and even Nick Bockwinkel has talked about this idea in the past. The problem with it is that you'd get wrestlers working selfishly and possibly even going out of their way to make their opponents look bad.

 

More office cut backs - staff have been told to either double up at the Doubletree hotel or stay at a cheaper hotel as long as TNA continues to pay.

 

Angle was on the George Michael Sports Show. He was described as the TNA heavyweight champion. He said no one in TNA tells him what to do, he calls his matches, wrestles them how he wants and tries to make them as real as possible. He also claimed again he wants to do an MMA fight. Which he doesn't really based on how much money he's turned down for doing one.

 

The UWF group on 2/3 has a Team 3D vs Steiner Brothers match booked. This is something that TNA have been wanting to do for a long time, but due to Scott's contract issues the timing's never worked out.

 

Kevin Nash is claiming he's the reason Jeremy Borash is back doing the interviews. Nash was fed with interviews having to be done over and over again as Leticia Crana didn't know what she was doing. Nash made a remark along the lines of asking if her boobs were good enough to justify hanging round till 1am doing the same interview over and over.

 

 

 

HTQ can C&P with credit elsewhere.

[BruiserKC 0]

Thanks for posting these.

 

Konnan might have been overexposed back in WCW, but he has always been a solid wrestler and could always cut an above-average promo. Hopefully he won't be away too long...the LAX storyline is a good one and he really helps put them over as heels.

 

TNA could pull off a women's division if it was focused on the wrestling and not on stupid shit like pillow fights and softcore porn that Vince gives us. They could utilize their agreement with New Japan and bring in some of their wrestlers as well.

 

A live show would be tremendous for TNA...especially if they have a chance to win some new fans. Yes, there will always be the Kool-Aid drinking fans that think Vince is perfect and can't do anything wrong, but they have a chance to get some new fans on the 2/12 Impact. Maybe TNA can turn those events into something like the old Clash of the Champions.

[Insanity 0]

Kevin Nash using his political powers..for the forces of GOOD?!

 

Thanks once again for posting these.

[dubq 0]

More and more, as the weeks go by I have to question if Angle is even good for TNA, and not vice-versa. The guy just comes off as a completely overhyped selfish asshole. You'd think he was Hulk Hogan, the way he talks about himself.

 

PS - thx for the updates D!

[Timmy8271 0]

Thanks for these.

 

It's pretty obvious that TNA's women's division is probably going to be like WWE's. But without the models. I don't see how they can book this serious and make the X division look like a joke.

[pochorenella 0]

There's no star rating for Sting vs Abyss vs Christian.

 

Thanks for the post.

[Twisted Intestine 0]

I actually love the idea of a shoot division. As long as the judges are smart and know what they're looking for. I don't think it should be a problem with wrestlers trying to make each other look bad. If the judges are good enough they should be able to tell which wrestler is making the other look good/bad and give/subtract points that way. Also, you can penalise wrestlers if it becomes obvious that they're intentionally making their opponents look bad.

[hyperchord24 0]

I actually love the idea of a shoot division. As long as the judges are smart and know what they're looking for. I don't think it should be a problem with wrestlers trying to make each other look bad. If the judges are good enough they should be able to tell which wrestler is making the other look good/bad and give/subtract points that way. Also, you can penalise wrestlers if it becomes obvious that they're intentionally making their opponents look bad.

I think you're right about subtracting points, but I have a feeling that the workers making eachother look bad could come off poorly on TV and expose the business.

 

Plus, I think the booking team would be too tempted to make it gimmicky and lose the shoot feel with heel and face judges, judges purposely not callingit down the middle.

[Dobbs 3K 0]

Shoot judges for kayfabe matches? Sounds like trouble waiting to happen.

[MillenniumMan831 0]

Thanks for the posting these.

[razazteca 0]

I actually love the idea of a shoot division. As long as the judges are smart and know what they're looking for. I don't think it should be a problem with wrestlers trying to make each other look bad. If the judges are good enough they should be able to tell which wrestler is making the other look good/bad and give/subtract points that way. Also, you can penalise wrestlers if it becomes obvious that they're intentionally making their opponents look bad.

I think you're right about subtracting points, but I have a feeling that the workers making eachother look bad could come off poorly on TV and expose the business.

 

Plus, I think the booking team would be too tempted to make it gimmicky and lose the shoot feel with heel and face judges, judges purposely not callingit down the middle.

Sounds like a comedy act to me are they going to bring in a british judge who will be rude to everybody, a model that loves everybody, a neutral judge that talks only in slang, and Abismal Negro who will give everybody a negative score?

[Man Who Sold The World 0]

Or we could call it Brawl For All and have them wear boxing gloves.

[razazteca 0]

Or they can make Lockdown a MMA card.

[k thx 0]

I actually love the idea of a shoot division. As long as the judges are smart and know what they're looking for. I don't think it should be a problem with wrestlers trying to make each other look bad. If the judges are good enough they should be able to tell which wrestler is making the other look good/bad and give/subtract points that way. Also, you can penalise wrestlers if it becomes obvious that they're intentionally making their opponents look bad.

I think you're right about subtracting points, but I have a feeling that the workers making eachother look bad could come off poorly on TV and expose the business.

 

Plus, I think the booking team would be too tempted to make it gimmicky and lose the shoot feel with heel and face judges, judges purposely not callingit down the middle.

Sounds like a comedy act to me are they going to bring in a british judge who will be rude to everybody, a model that loves everybody, a neutral judge that talks only in slang, and Abismal Negro who will give everybody a negative score?

If only William Regal were available...

[luke-o 0]

Thanks for posting these.

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

How do they explain the premise of the 'shoot' X-Division matches in a way that gets over the idea behind the concept, without suggesting that the rest of the matches on the show, which are meant to be real, are in fact worked? Can you even work the matches in such a manner that can both work within the concept of both guys trying to 'score points' to win and also not expose the rest of the matches on the card? Mixing works and shoots, or even works and worked shoots or whatever this 'shoot' X-Division deal is meant to be, is never a good idea for the US. Did nobody learn from the Brawl-For-All disaster??

[LucharesuFan619 0]

Thanks for posting these Decembrists, but am I the only one who is totally confused by the Joe/Angle/concussion tidbit? How would Joe call a match with a concussion?

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

Thanks for posting these Decembrists, but am I the only one who is totally confused by the Joe/Angle/concussion tidbit? How would Joe call a match with a concussion?

Angle had the concussion. It's just a typo.

[LucharesuFan619 0]

That's kinda what I figured, thanks for clarifying.

[Wyld Cannon 0]

How do they explain the premise of the 'shoot' X-Division matches in a way that gets over the idea behind the concept, without suggesting that the rest of the matches on the show, which are meant to be real, are in fact worked? Can you even work the matches in such a manner that can both work within the concept of both guys trying to 'score points' to win and also not expose the rest of the matches on the card? Mixing works and shoots, or even works and worked shoots or whatever this 'shoot' X-Division deal is meant to be, is never a good idea for the US. Did nobody learn from the Brawl-For-All disaster??

 

AHH I'VE BEEN SHWOORK'T

[Dobbs 3K 0]

Didn't they already have judges on the FSN episodes as well? I don't remember that really going anywhere.

[Scroby 0]

The angle where Gail Kim has to stick with James Storm or she'll lose her job as TNA doesn't have a woman's divsion is carny for we're adding a woman's division.

Well duh.

 

Didn't they already have judges on the FSN episodes as well? I don't remember that really going anywhere.

 

Kinda...I think it was that if any match came to a time limit draw, then a judge (More often Larry Z) came out and said who the winner was.

[The Decemberists 0]

Title match snowflakes added and Joe/Angle typo fixed.

 

I've not had much sleep recently is my excuse.

[Special K 0]

UWFi had some good worked shoots back in the day. But having both on the card is just weird. Reminds me of Russo-era WCW when Goldberg 'wouldn't follow the script'.

[Corkscrew_Senton 0]

Since having shoot fights on the card worked so well for NJPW a few years ago

 

Russo's a jackass. Imagine if the writers of The Office continued to normal storylines, but then started focusing on Steve Carrell rather than the character Michael Scott. That's how I look at his writing.

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

UWFi had some good worked shoots back in the day. But having both on the card is just weird.

These won't even be worked shoots in the sense of trying to make it look like a real fight. I think the idea is the wrestlers try to be as spectacular as they can in order to score points and when the time is up the judges decide who wins based on their points. I think. It's just a nonsensical idea to begin with.

[Twisted Intestine 0]

Yeah, you're right about it exposing the other matches. I still like the idea though.. I guess it would work best in its own federation that didn't need to hide the fact that wrestling is fake.

 

As for wrestlers trying to make each other look bad, that's why you punish them for it. If a wrestler starts to do that repeatedly, give him a fine, or a suspension, and it will stop. I don't know if wrestlers would enjoy being in those type of matches, as we're basically talking about a different type of entertainment all together.. one that's actually all "Sport". But if you found a good group of people willing to do it, as well as enforced the rules, it'd be interesting.

 

I guess it is hard for the wrestlers to work together, and still try to upstage one and other though. I can also see that leading to alot of injuries, as I'm sure alot of wrestlers would do crazy shit in an attempt to win the belt.

 

Yeah, the more I think about it, the less it could work.

 

Damn.

[I like Forums 0]

Spot-Fu Division? Return of the Amazing Red to TNA~?!

[razazteca 0]

You can't get a better spot-fu match than Amazing Red vs Extreme Tiger! The only way I can see this "shoot division" working is if they have Senshi emulate Tony Jaa letting him use stiff kicks, knees, elbows and head bumps.

[Ginger Snaps 0]

Kevin Nash is claiming he's the reason Jeremy Borash is back doing the interviews. Nash was fed with interviews having to be done over and over again as Leticia Crana didn't know what she was doing. Nash made a remark along the lines of asking if her boobs were good enough to justify hanging round till 1am doing the same interview over and over.

 

I Nash.