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HandofFate

The REAL TNA booker

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So I am reading online that it has been revealed that Dutch Mantell is booking the TV shows and PPVs while Vince Russo is in more of a consultant. I'm not a Russo lover or apologist, but will anybody who has been badmouthing Vince on here as being the head booker admit they were wrong?

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I remember reading it on wrestleview.com or lordsofpain.net. I'll look for the article and post a link and quote from it. I NEVER once blamed Russo for the shows sucking, in fact I was one of the few people that enjoyed the shows. I have bought EVER PPV since they went monthly with the exception of like 2 or 3 for various reasons. As long as TNA is around I will not be watching WWE again (I haven't watched RAW in 8 months and Smack!Down in over a year.)

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Here you go:

 

http://www.wrestleview.com/news2006/1174467888.shtml

 

According to a new report by The Pro Wrestling Torch, Dutch Mantel is still writing all TNA television shows, while Jeff Jarrett has the final approval. Vince Russo, who is often pegged by the internet wrestling community as the "booker" of TNA, simply contributes his ideas. Russo's current "pet projects" include Ron "The Truth" Killings, Voodoo Kin Mafia and Christy Hemme. Mantel's "pet projects" continue to be Abyss, Eric Young and Robert Roode.

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VKM = crap

Christy = scat

Ron Killings = deserves better

Abyss = don't like the direction it is going

Eric Young & Roode = compared to the rest looks ok

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What are they even doing with Killings? I don't recall seeing him in the spoilers or anything.

 

He does dumb skits where he is doing knockoffs of certain movies basically, in fact half of the time they arent even skits more than just a "movie poster" with him in it. Very puzzling way to "get him over."

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I just don't believe it. The whole promotion has Russo's fingerprints all over it and has done since he returned.

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Thats what i was thinking, but, as i recall, there was never a report to say that russo WAS booking was there? Wasn't just us (HTQ in particular) speculating due to the incriminating evidence against him?

 

Stupid gimmick matches

Religious Undertones?

"something" on a pole match?

 

Does this not sound like Russo?

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Actually...I can believe it. I always knew Dirty Dutch was still on, I just didn't know he was still calling the shots. Makes sense, actually. Dirty Dutch, when he was brought in, booked the company to the point where the Asylum was half-empty every week (a big reason for the move to Orlando) due to his horrible Russo-like ideas that were executed half-assed (if you're going to do crashTV, do crashTV and stop pretending that you're making episodic television). All of the top guys were reduced to boring, one-dimensional characters, gimmick matches were even more overused than they were before, and heatless workers were pushed waaaaaay too high up the card (not so much a problem now because most of the roster has heat, but hey).

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There is no way I can believe this. Maybe it's because I didnt' see that late era Nashville stuff that Mantell booked, but TNA's shows seem like a total Russo experience.

 

Here's the way I've heard it goes in TNA from sites like PWInsider.com: Russo, Jarrett, and Mantell are the main bookers and Russo tosses out all his ideas and scripts the shows, while Mantell and Jarrett read over it and toss out the highly stupid stuff (which is saying something) and add their own slant as well.

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Doesn't bother me in the least, but as long as they keep putting out a crap product on TV each week, some weeks worse than WWE, I'll continue bashing TNA. The best wrestling show on TV right now is Smackdown.

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The best one hour wrestling program today is CMLL on FSNe from Arena Coliseo. Its 2 matches, 1 interview, and a few 30 second vignettes before commercials.

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Guest LividLiquid
Doesn't bother me in the least, but as long as they keep putting out a crap product on TV each week, some weeks worse than WWE, I'll continue bashing TNA. The best wrestling show on TV right now is Smackdown.

I really hate to agree with this, as TNA at this time last year was doing incredibly well in my opinion in regards to storyline and in-ring product. Smackdown probably is the best wrestling on free television at the moment. Sadly, the main event scene is a little stale and boring.

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Every time I've watched, Kennedy has been on, and I've been mesmerized at how SMART of a worker (either through his own ringwork or from the agents/bookers telling him precisely what to do) he comes off as. He's not using psychology to the nth degree, where even a rake to the eyes means something more than "he needed a cheap way to get the advantage," but it's solid enough where it's hard to not be into the match, even when he's doing nothing but armlocks.

 

Then, conversely, there was that awful Raven/Harris match from...I wanna say either February or March of '04 where it was 20 minutes of Raven DESTROYING Harris' left arm (his main arm, since he's a Southpaw), only for Harris to mount some minor offense ALL WITH HIS LEFT ARM to get the win (which he did by pinning Raven while HOOKING THE LEG WITH HIS LEFT ARM). TNA in late '03/'04 = worse than now.

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TNA in late '03/'04 = worse than now.

 

Lex Luger. Carl Oulette (who's fine as a power wrestling) inexplicably in the X Division. Michael Shane's ungodly long title reign. AJ Styles as an opening act. Ya know, this statement's actually pretty accurate.

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And the worst part is? Michael Shane was actually becoming a competent worker and an over heel...AFTER he lost the X-Division title and stopped getting a push. And don't forget how, for a full month, the only interesting thing on the whole show was ICP vs. Glenn Gilberit/Kid Kash (which, also, led to the re-introduction of Monty Brown).

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TNA in late '03/'04 = worse than now.

 

Lex Luger. Carl Oulette (who's fine as a power wrestling) inexplicably in the X Division. Michael Shane's ungodly long title reign. AJ Styles as an opening act. Ya know, this statement's actually pretty accurate.

 

For the record... I really liked Carl in the X-Division. He was big and powerful, yes, but he was crisp with his moves and still did some flying. His Package Piledriver was wicked too.

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I'm glad I stopped getting the weekly PPVs at that point in time from what I'm hearing. TNA's best stuff in my view was the initial Lynn/Styles/Lo-Ki feud in the X Division and the Raven vs. New Church feud.

 

TNA's most disappointing match ever was an early title match between Shamrock and Sabu. I was quite looking forward to that one, and it had a unique ladder vs. submissions stip in it. It was a weak match though and had Malice or someone interfere so nobody won (a ladder match???). I was looking forward to all sorts of cool spots where Shamrock used the ladder with his submissions, Sabu tried to climb it, and maybe a finish of Sabu tapping out on top of the ladder within inches of reaching the belt.

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From the latest Observer:

 

The booking team is Russo, Mantel and Jarrett, with Jarrett steering things and Russo and Mantel pitching ideas. The TV is written by Russo, with Mantel helping. The idea of Russo merely being a 'consultant' has turned into a joke, with Mantel calling Russo "consultant" as a rib.

 

Bryan Alvarez pointed out on one of his radio shows that if it looks Southern then Jarrett probably booked it, if it looks like something that would happen in Puerto Rico then Mantel probably booked it (a lot, but not all, of the Abyss storyline Mantel did with Abyss in Puerto Rico), and if it makes no sense at all, then Russo probably booked it.

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