Impact spoilers

[Jingus 0]

The Karen Angle stuff is really, really weird. The sad part of it is that since this is Russo I know exactly where it is going. At the PPV Karen will be there seemingly to support Joe, but then turns on Joe to rejoin Kurt and Angle wins all the gold. Is there ANYONE who read those spoilers that didn't think this immediately?

A pro wrestlers wife threatens to leave him and take the kids, and he goes all crazy on her. Didn't something like that happen in the news recently?

...holy shit you're right. Didn't even think about that. CLASSY.

[Star Ocean 3 0]

An obscure connection that I didn't even think of on my own further lowers my opinion of the company!

[RedJed 0]

The Karen Angle stuff is really, really weird. The sad part of it is that since this is Russo I know exactly where it is going. At the PPV Karen will be there seemingly to support Joe, but then turns on Joe to rejoin Kurt and Angle wins all the gold. Is there ANYONE who read those spoilers that didn't think this immediately?

A pro wrestlers wife threatens to leave him and take the kids, and he goes all crazy on her. Didn't something like that happen in the news recently?

...holy shit you're right. Didn't even think about that. CLASSY.

 

I think you're drawing too close of a parallal there, guys. Its an obscure connection for a reason. I can give shit to the company just as much as the next guy, but cmon.

 

Whatever the case, the results sound a bit like shit, but I think the ppv has a much stronger lineup than I expected. Test coming in is (SHIT) is balanced by Matt Morgan arriving (POTENTIAL). All for now....

[cabbageboy 0]

Eh, I'm not going to give TNA a trashing over the Karen Angle thing since nobody really is sure about Nancy Benoit taking Daniel and leaving, etc. It's a police theory, maybe a good one, but not concrete.

 

Besides, as I noted Karen is likely to just reveal it's a ruse and turn on Joe.

[AlaskanHero 0]

Of course she's gonna turn on Joe. Anyone with some half-functioning brain cells could probably see that coming. The swerve would be if she -didn't- turn on Joe.

[Zack Malibu 0]

What would that stable of guys do that would be of any use? Morgan is okay, haven't seen enough of his work to really know what he can do (I wasn't watching OVW during his run). I did actually meet the guy at a Hooters though, along with Shannon Moore and Luther Reigns, haha.

 

The problem that a lot of these ex OVW guys have in TNA is that they are such unspectacular workers in a promotion where you either need to be a well known WWE (or WCW, ECW) guy or an awesome in ring talent. Guys like Doug Basham, Rob Conway....they're just bland as fuck and bring little to the table.

 

This statement is actually pretty far from the truth. I'm not sure how much OVW you've seen, but there was a point where Basham and Damaja were the highlight of the promotion, and this is when it still had guys like Orton, Cena, ex WCWers like O'Haire, etc. involved. I can't stress enough how much people need to see the Loser Leaves OVW match they had back in '03...if you're judging them based soley on their WWE/TNA work, it'd be like you were watching two different people. Phenomenal match.

 

Morgan was still a bit green last I saw him (due to no one in WWE listening when Cornette said to just hold off). He's very good on the mic as well, but we never got to see him speak without a stutter.

 

Conway is a good hand in the ring, and has good charisma, he just got stuck having a streak of shitty gimmicks. WWE has a habit of trying to polish the turds (re: pushing guys like Masters) while shitting on those who could actually do better than what they're given (see the aforementioned OVW talent, Brent Albright, and countless others).

[dubq 0]

Conway is a good hand in the ring, and has good charisma, he just got stuck having a streak of shitty gimmicks. WWE has a habit of trying to polish the turds (re: pushing guys like Masters) while shitting on those who could actually do better than what they're given (see the aforementioned OVW talent, Brent Albright, and countless others).

 

Conway actually had a good tag team thing going on with Nick 'Eugene' Dinsmore back in OVW, as well.

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

Eh, I'm not going to give TNA a trashing over the Karen Angle thing since nobody really is sure about Nancy Benoit taking Daniel and leaving, etc. It's a police theory, maybe a good one, but not concrete.

It's still considered the most likely reason for setting Benoit off. The last thing I'd book for a wrestling show at the moment is an angle where the wife of a top star threatens to leave him and take the kids, regardless of the fact that will likely turn out to be a swerve.

 

Re: Basham, Damaja, etc. Meltzer made a good point in the latest Observer where he likened them to other wrestlers who had the confidence and charisma beaten out of them and they wound up feeling worthless and working below their actual talent level. It happened with a lot of the Mexican wrestlers in WCW; they were treated as glorified jobbers and you had some amazing talents like Psicosis who lost all their heart and passion from being mistreated.

 

 

[2GOLD 0]

 

Seeing Basham and Damaja called up to be the whipping boys for Shaniqua was the most depressing call-up I can ever remember. Way to take two guys with amazing ability and charisma and team them with a woman who had neither. Then what do you do? Make HER the talker when she wasn't able to talk. God, everything about that was horrible.

 

I thought they would get a second chance to shine with TNA but I guess the passion was crushed out of them by bad booking on both sides. Wasted talent to the extreme.

[Obi Chris Kenobi 0]

Have to say, I'm totally disappointed with how this VKM fued has panned out. All that time, all the build up and for what? Christy Hemme's bad acting and Lance Hoyt's, erm, worse acting? No thanks.

[Exslade ZX 0]

Alright yea...may be just me, but I'm totally loving this these Angle segments lol

[cabbageboy 0]

Yeah, the Angle stuff is so absurd and tongue in cheek (especially Dr. Nash) that I don't really take offense to it. It's going to end up making Joe look like Sting circa 1990 in terms of being a fool though.

 

As far as OVW goes, I tune in and out of it at certain points. I enjoyed Conway and Dinsmore as a tag team, though I always thought Dinsmore was the worker of the two. See, the reason OVW booked around guys like Conway and the Bashams is that they were the guys WWE took forever to call up and only did it because they HAD to at some point. Guys like Orton and Cena were destined to be called up promptly, so OVW wouldn't book shows around them as much.

 

It's hard to put it totally into words, but it was the same thing with USWA. I would see guys that I enjoyed a lot like Lawler, Dundee, Jarrett, Billy Travis, etc. But their acts were all very regional and couldn't get over as well in a national promotion (and no, Lawler hasn't been over as much beyond a chickenshit heel on a national level).

 

Let's face it, how are guys like the Bashams going to get over in TNA? Fans view them as jobbers and they aren't going to get 20 mins. to work a crowd and get them interested. I'm not even sure they could get anyone interested if they HAD 20 mins. Hell, I remember an OVW episode from 2003 or so where Benoit came down to face Doug Basham and they hyped the hell out of this match, saying Basham was this mega talent who would take Benoit to the limit. Then what does he do? A bunch of Memphis heel stalling and bullshit and eventually got DQed. The dude had a crap match with Benoit, a hyped one at that.

[razazteca 0]

the Angle stuff is so absurd and tongue in cheek (especially Dr. Nash)

It crossed the line when it lowered the standard to elementary level humor. The development of this Kurt Angle character as the "out of touch" egomaniac lost all of its momentum when he said the words "Are you looking at my/his package".

[USC Wuz Robbed! 0]

So what happened to Kurt wanting to be this badass wrestling machine gimmick that he couldn't be in WWE?

[Obi Chris Kenobi 0]

So what happened to Kurt wanting to be this badass wrestling machine gimmick that he couldn't be in WWE?

 

I was thinking the same thing...

[luke-o 0]

They tried it when he debuted. It was boring.

[razazteca 0]

At least he isn't singing.

[dubq 0]

Let's face it, how are guys like the Bashams going to get over in TNA? Fans view them as jobbers and they aren't going to get 20 mins. to work a crowd and get them interested. I'm not even sure they could get anyone interested if they HAD 20 mins. Hell, I remember an OVW episode from 2003 or so where Benoit came down to face Doug Basham and they hyped the hell out of this match, saying Basham was this mega talent who would take Benoit to the limit. Then what does he do? A bunch of Memphis heel stalling and bullshit and eventually got DQed. The dude had a crap match with Benoit, a hyped one at that.

 

Basham and Damaja should've been completely repackaged into a New Church style tag team or something similar where the casual fans wouldn't recognize them as the former Basham Brothers. I actually long for the days of a new Road Warriors / Demolition style team. Haven't had a successful "new generation" team of that ilk in a while.

[Corey_Lazarus 0]

I think the closest thing to a new tag team that totally kicked ass was AMW. And then they broke them up, decided to push the lesser-talented of the two (I'm not saying Harris isn't good, he's just not AS good as Storm), and then decided to not even really push him either. AMW's heel turn was magnificent, and their breakup - I felt - should have been bigger. But alas.

 

The Angle skit at the food stand was great, though. That was pure fucking heel genius. That's the only part I saw of it, though, because me and my girlfriend were tired and wanted to go to bed.

[luke-o 0]

At least he isn't singing.

 

His cover of Jimmy Crack Corn was all kinds of excellence.