Main Event Mafia vs The TNA Frontline

[DarKnight 0]

"See I come from a higher educated university, so when I come out and beat this white trash, I gotta dumb myself down!"

 

It is quotes like this that keeps Steiner employed! Another quote I loved from that time, was when he called Tomko a redneck, and told him to get his bags!

[Grungy Punk 0]

I like the way Scott Steiner talks trash about others. I laugh when he's talking bad about Samoa Joe. I'm like DAMN! I can't believe he just said that.

[The Buzz 0]

If Steiner never sustained that major nerve injury to his foot, I think he'd still be a bigger force than he is now.

[Toxxic 0]

My favourite Steiner quote was when he responded to a question with 'Are you on crack?' We laughed so hard we missed the rest of the promo and had to rewind it. Pure, pure random abuse from Scotty.

[luke-o 0]

I like the way Scott Steiner talks trash about others. I laugh when he's talking bad about Samoa Joe. I'm like DAMN! I can't believe he just said that.

 

(Pointing to his arm) "You see that there? That's a vein, something you haven't got ya fat bastard!"

[cd213 0]

One of Steiner's best was when he was doing the math equation about how he had the best chance of winning the title in the three-way with Angle and Joe.

[CaptainCoop 0]

Could TNA have come up with a lamer name than "Frontline" for the face stable? I vote no, it was not possible.

 

Ugh. They're really stacking the deck against these guys; they have almost no chance to get over.

[The Buzz 0]

The person who's come out the best so far from this whole deal is the guy retiring at the end of next year, Sting. Styles is only better off due to the fact that hes not a comedy mid-carder anymore, and is back clawing at the main event.

[The Ghost of bps21 0]

Rhino's in a better spot than he's been in in years...and the Guns are getting TV time (Shelly especially).

[LuckyLopez 0]

I think you can argue that all the X guys gain SOMETHING from this just because it gives them a purpose beyond serving as bodies in multi-way X Division openers with no story. Young is the most obvious of the bunch. He's dumped the comedy gimmick, ditched Super Eric/Prince Justice Brotherhood, had a fake out for his first singles title in TNA, and has generally been getting his first even remotely serious push in TNA. Even if they do nothing with him from here on out he's arguably just better off for no longer being a cartoon, and it seems like he's seriously in the X Title mix for the first time in his career. (And I say all of this as someone who hates Young and wishes some one else was getting the time he's been getting.)

 

Creed probably just benefits from being something other than a face in the crowd. He got that "push" but couldn't win the title in multiple attempts so just getting attention outside the X Division is probably something. Even if he's gone from being a face in the X crowd to to a face in the Frontline, its still a marginal step forward in exposure. Lethal might be a harder sell because he's gotten pushes and presence outside the X Division in the past but he's probably better off at least temporarily for being involved in something serious that doesn't include Val and Dutt.

 

Really, the B Team of the Frontline are probably all better off simply because they were all in crappy positions before this. Sting and Rhino are both benefiting at least a little. Joe, AJ, the Dudleyz, and the rest of MEM seem to be where they were before it but ultimately no one strikes me as being worse off by this. Obviously when this progresses some more the story should benefit some people in notably ways but about 6 weeks in it doesn't seem horrible that no one has managed to make a substantial jump in their worth.

 

And the Guns really are getting to at least show off character in a way they haven't since the Dudley feud. Shelley being allowed to talk weekly is a good thing.

[Golgo 13 0]

I haven't been following this shit, but how does the Dudleys with Frontline make any sense? They seem like the antithesis of everything Frontline stands for.

[LuckyLopez 0]

They do but I also think the idea of the "Frontline" and the "Main Event Mafia" has gotten twisted. And TNA is largely responsible for that for calling them the "TNA Originals" before they realized their mistake.

 

It LOOKS like a WCW/WWE vs TNA war but that hasn't been the idea behind it. The idea has been that the Main Event Mafia or obnoxious heel main eventers who refuse to make room for the new guys. Its not that they aren't TNA Originals or that they're old, its that they don't think Joe and AJ are deserving of respect because they don't think they've done anything. The Frontline is about guys getting chances and not needing tenure to move up the ladder. That's why Foley and Jarrett can support them because they feel that the future of the company is with them, not the Mafia. The Mafia insist that they are the present and future and are what Jarrett/TNA/Foley should be banking on.

 

So Christian and Rhino fit with the Frontline despite not being "TNA Originals" because they support their efforts to move up the ladder. Despite being former World Champions who made their names in other companies they don't feel that puts them above the TNA guys like Joe and AJ. Their resumes may fit the Mafia but their philosophies fit the Frontline. But obviously TNA confused this issue and fed the "WCW/WWE vs TNA" feel by labeling them "TNA Originals."

 

The Dudleyz certainly don't seem to fit with the Frontline and would seem more likely to fit with the Mafia's philosophy. Rhino appealed to them on the grounds that all 3 had once been the guys in the fledgling promotion fighting to make names for themselves. The Mafia tried to appeal to their basic greed and lust for power. The Dudleyz have basically walked the line, agreeing with the general idea that kids are punks but also thinking the Mafia are being over the top and doing things wrong. So in theory Rhino simply got through to them and appealed to their ECW pride and desire to see others get a chance. Of course I think most of us agree that that doesn't feel quite right for the Dudleyz. Which is why most of us seem to expect them to turn on the Frontline.

[Timmy8271 0]

The only one that really looks bad in the Frontline is Joe. I mean he's a former champion and now he's pushed to 5th in line behind AJ, Rhino and Team 3d. Plus they book him so horribly that he looks like a cry baby.

 

If TNA really wants to push Eric Young, they should have given him the X division title and not stripped him the next week. Bashir means nothing now and it would help the Frontline.

[cd213 0]

I don't get how people keep saying that Joe looks like a crybaby. He hasn't looked like that since he had the title. Right now he is acting more of the old badass that he was. It's not as much as it was when he first arrived in TNA, but he's stopped "crying" about things since he dropped the title.

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

He should take his locker room back from Booker T if he's a bad ass.

[The Ghost of bps21 0]

That would make him an inidian giver...

[LuckyLopez 0]

Besides, Booker gave it to the Beautiful People. It gets around.

[MadManOnTheWater 0]

Could TNA have come up with a lamer name than "Frontline" for the face stable? I vote no, it was not possible.

 

Considering that supposedly Vince Russo was pushing for the name Team X-stasy, my vote is yes.

[CubbyBr 0]

Considering that supposedly Vince Russo was pushing for the name Team X-stasy, my vote is yes.

 

Oh jeez....where exactly does it say that Vince Russo was pushing for the X-Stasy name?

 

It doesn't say that anywhere. So quit trying to blame the guy for any stupid idea that TNA might be considering doing. It's getting pretty old.

[LuckyLopez 0]

I was worried about being called a TNA apologist if I weighed in on that discussion. The little note seemed like it could have been interpreted a lot of ways. From some idiot suggesting the name idea and not realizing what it would sound like to someone making a bad pun on the X Division and them all having a laugh to them seriously considering the name. But everyone was happy to assume that not only was Russo behind it but that it was a serious idea that people had to be talked out of. Which is certainly possible but is pretty much just a giant assumption based on this:

 

There was talk at first of doing a name based on “X” for Xtreme except for the DX connotations. At one point the idea was Team Xtacy, seriously, until someone realized that could be a bad idea.

 

Which to me sounds more like them trying to incorporate the X, tossing names around, and taking a minute to realize how bad Team Xtacy would actually be. Not "Russo had to be talked out of calling them Team Xtacy."

 

EDIT: Which is not to say that I don't see how one would think that what with "Moose Knuckles" and other stuff, but still. Its just the web taking a note, making a bunch of assumptions to flesh out the story, and then repeating it as "the" story.

[DarKnight 0]

The Team X-Tacy name is not only bad because its a horrible pun on the X-Division, but also because they would have been making an obvious drug reference that probably someone only like Russo would find funny.

[CubbyBr 0]

The Team X-Tacy name is not only bad because its a horrible pun on the X-Division, but also because they would have been making an obvious drug reference that probably someone only like Russo would find funny.

 

Yeah because you know the type of sense of humor that everyone involved in TNA creative has right? You know that there is no way Jeremy Borash could find something like that funny right?

 

You don't know any of that but just because some people on this board have a huge hard-on for Russo, he'll always be blamed for any bad idea they come up with. It's getting to the point of hilarious.

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

Team Xtacy isn't a bad name in itself, it just doesn't fit a main event babyface group. It's the kind of name you'd give to a tag team of young punks doing a gimmick where they party all the time and do things that suggest drug use. Frontline sounds like something you give to your pet to stop it getting fleas. If the idea of the babyface group is to represent those who the old guard are stopping from being elevated, I'd have stayed away from the Team...related name, and gone with something like The New Horizon. They could do promo's talking about the sun setting on the careers of the old guard and rising to show the new horizon of the TNA landscape.

[DarKnight 0]

Yeah because you know the type of sense of humor that everyone involved in TNA creative has right? You know that there is no way Jeremy Borash could find something like that funny right?

 

You don't know any of that but just because some people on this board have a huge hard-on for Russo, he'll always be blamed for any bad idea they come up with. It's getting to the point of hilarious.

 

Well, I'm pretty sure others in TNA are to blame too for dumb creative things, but having Russo employed in their company does automatically make him the guilty party for the bad creative ideas. About the only awful creative idea that I think Russo wasn't involved in the past 2 years or so, was maybe the Pacman Jones stuff. I think that was actually Jarrett's idea. But that Sting/Abyss feud HAD to be Russo. It was too bizarre and silly for anyone else to come up with.

[CubbyBr 0]

Well, I'm pretty sure others in TNA are to blame too for dumb creative things, but having Russo employed in their company does automatically make him the guilty party for the bad creative ideas. About the only awful creative idea that I think Russo wasn't involved in the past 2 years or so, was maybe the Pacman Jones stuff. I think that was actually Jarrett's idea. But that Sting/Abyss feud HAD to be Russo. It was too bizarre and silly for anyone else to come up with.

 

Really? Isn't Jeff Jarrett, the owner of the company, and someone who was coming up with crap (Dupp Cup, Rainbow Express, etc) in TNA way before Russo came in, the guilty party for bad creative ideas?

[Scroby 0]

That would make him an inidian giver...

That made me laugh!

[King Cucaracha 0]

Yeah because you know the type of sense of humor that everyone involved in TNA creative has right? You know that there is no way Jeremy Borash could find something like that funny right?

 

You don't know any of that but just because some people on this board have a huge hard-on for Russo, he'll always be blamed for any bad idea they come up with. It's getting to the point of hilarious.

 

Well, I'm pretty sure others in TNA are to blame too for dumb creative things, but having Russo employed in their company does automatically make him the guilty party for the bad creative ideas.

 

It doesn't 'automatically' make him the guilty party at all. It makes him the automatic assumption, sure. Other than that, he's only 'guilty' because of popular opinion, not neccessarily facts.

 

About the only awful creative idea that I think Russo wasn't involved in the past 2 years or so, was maybe the Pacman Jones stuff.

 

Source plz.

[DarKnight 0]

Really? Isn't Jeff Jarrett, the owner of the company, and someone who was coming up with crap (Dupp Cup, Rainbow Express, etc) in TNA way before Russo came in, the guilty party for bad creative ideas?

 

Yeah, Jarrett is to blame on quite a bit of stuff, I guess. I don't know if it was fact that Jarrett was the one responsible for Pacman Jones coming in, but it seems pretty likely, since he's friends with the Titans, and he may have set up the ring in Pacman's backyard.

 

 

[Broward83 0]

Figured I'd put it here, since it pertains to the MEM / TNA FL fued..if not, someone can merge it into CWDWAT

 

source: Lords of Pain via Wrestling Observer Newsletter

 

-- Former WCW wrestler Masahiro Chono, 45, said he wants to team up with Kevin Nash at New Japan Pro Wrestling's annual Tokyo Dome show next month. He also said he wants to join TNA to be a member of the Main Event Mafia. Chono was a member of the "nWo Japan" faction during the group's glory days.

[USC Wuz Robbed! 0]

If they put Chono in the MEM (which they really shouldn't), they could do a natural move by adding Tanahashi to the Frontline group, so they can continue the feud sorta somehow in Japan.