Professional Wrestling (WWE, TNA, ROH, etc)

[Andrew]

Good point, they could always go that route. Hopefully he can not only get over with the crowd but also the right people backstage as well. Keeping on HHH's good side wouldn't hurt.

[JaoSming]

this is what i hate about raw.....we've seen the HBK/Taker promo 3 times in the first hour. One decent match ended by DQ (Cody didnt even hit Randy, Orton attacked the interfree which in the past doesnt warrant a DQ win) with a commercial break at a turning point for Teddy boy and a squash match. The rest just comedy bits.

I can't wait for next week when impact comes back to Monday nights....at least then I can swap between the two and skip the pointless WWE comedy and go nowhere promos and TNA's Double J hazing and Hogan awesomeness.

[Andrew]

I find I'm back to mostly reading the spoilers/recaps online these days, only bothering to catch bits and pieces if I hear a match is good or something particularly interesting/entertaining happens. I am looking forward to Wrestlemania though, seems they're going ahead with Bret vs Vince.

[JaoSming]

I mean next week is Cena vs Vince

(Very Sarcastic) Like that is actually going to happen


I've just had enough of it, Cena v Batista doesnt have that much of a fued, they should have started this build up a month or 2 ago, Vince & Bret will be interesting but nothing on Raw leading up to WM will be worth watching with those two since neither can traditionally wrestle or get hit, MITB is set so no more stories with that, looks like we get Shaemus and HHH which felt kinda thrown together with the run-in last night, and the HBK v Taker match is just going to play on sympathy for HBK being desperate until WM. I don't do sympathy for wrestling....it's too soap opera-y.

[Lean]

I'm still looking forward to 'Mania XXVI just because of the 'Taker-HBK match. And a Bret entrance on the PPV would be explosive.

EDIT: IMO, HHH-Sheamus is pretty random. Plus I think there will be a Legacy-Orton handicap at WrestleMania.

[Andrew]

I kind of hope they don't go with Legacy vs Orton in a handicap match as I have a feeling they'd put Orton over, dealing a serious blow to the pushes of Dibiase and Rhodes and essentially waste the whole build. A three-way match would be better, with either Dibiase or Rhodes getting the pinfall over Orton but we'll see how it plays out.

[NovU]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zayeuiUkjqs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZYN85DPTPA
MMA fighters in wrestling match.

[JaoSming]

Rob Van Dam is now signed to TNA

It will be interesting to see what he has left in the tank. I'm hoping he somehow gets into the Ultimate X match at Destination X, that would be sick.

[Andrew]

Seems it was only a matter of time. Meanwhile Awesome Kong has been released, presumably over the heat with Bubba the Love Sponge. I think that's a sign that Hogan is still the politician that he always has been and in the long run, I think that's going to hurt TNA.

[JaoSming]

So, end of Monday Night Wars v2? Night 1? impressions


Overall I thought TNA brought the more entertaining product. TNA's Knockouts 3 team tag team match had some decent spots, even though it was plagued by screaming jackals, but it was 10x better than that 6 Diva tag team match. Raw really lost me by sticking 2 commercial breaks in the Orton handicap match....fucking hate that. TNA didn't do that at all tonight thankfully.

Spoilers for surprises now for Impact
started off with the hogan/abyss v flair/AJ match which was a surprise, return of Sting, bigger surprise, heel turn for sting on his late career return? huge surprise, i was pretty shocked.

triple thread X-division match was awesome, a lot of "double pins" which were cool. nice promo right before it to let the newbies know who is face/heel/and just there because he's the champ. Setup a nice X-division feud and Moore's shot at the PPV.....bye bye kendrick, lol

Sting vs ????????

RVD, man, I was pumped for that, saw it coming, crowd did too, they started chanting RVD RVD RVD before he even made his surprise appearance (thanks to Spike letting the cat out of the bag for more ratings) surprise squash 20 second match but decent job forcing the fact that sting was heel down everyone's throat....people were still cheering him despite fucking hogan and abyss up (i'd cheer too, sting is awesome)

The Angle/US Army segment was awesome IMO. I loved every bit about it especially when the Army guys started beating on Anderson, didnt think they would move, just be intimidating. That was very well done.

The JJ handicap match did nothing for me, I like Beer Money Inc, that is an awesome finisher BTW, but it didnt need to happen

Now the worst part of the night was the whole Flair/Hogan bit in its entirety. Flair took 1 bump in the first match and botched it, Woooooo.

The whole "This has to be the last time" shit for Hogan was terrible....just terrible, along with that, the Abyss screaming "Why Sting Why?" thing was turrible as well.

But they saved it, Jeff Hardy at the end cleaning house was cool to see.

With TNA, they obviously have the inferior product. The production value of the show is pretty bad.....but with the rise in popularity of botchamania (at least for me) it makes it more interesting to watch.

So ya, TNA was a lot more entertaining than RAW this evening but I do see them as a minor minor league when compared to the WWE right now....no matter who is wrestling for them they really need to hit the road, stop planting signs, and get in arenas (if they can sell them)

[Andrew]

TNA's long term success is going to depend on Hogan's ability to raise the company's profile with his own popularity/"prestige" while continuing to build home grown TNA talent then deftly and seamlessly step aside and let them carry the company. That remains to be seen, after all in his own words he was coming in to "run the company" and not be the show, yet he's very much a big part of the show. That probably needs to be the case initially, just to get the buzz going, but at some point he'll probably have to settle back into a backstage role or else it'll be overkill on the same old stuff. Hogan said that the fans go where he goes, but they also start tuning out when they remember why they're sick of him in the first place. If Hogan and Bischoff have learned from their past mistakes, that transition will have to happen at some point in the future, before it's too late and actions must speak louder than words. They're saying the right things, but they need to do the right things too. Otherwise, it's going to be WCW all over again and that hasn't helped the industry following the botched Invasion angle.

From the WWE's perspective, they need TNA to take away from their audience, enough of it to realise that pandering to the kiddies isn't going to cut it. It's one thing to be as family friendly as possible and avoid outright sleaze, it's not about doing stuff that alienates or isn't appropriate for the younger audience because they are an important demographic too, but if you're going to make it family orientated then the whole family and all age groups should be able to like and appreciate it...not just the kids and the parents who have to take them along. It doesn't have to be a choice between filth and kiddie crap, there's plenty of ground in between that they can work with.

I think WWE is eventually going to win here or at least stay on top if TNA doesn't go out of business, simply due to deeper pockets and McMahon not being quite as dumb as people like to make him out to be (and Bischoff, particularly with Hogan part of the creative proceedings, tends to get too much credit for a guy who made some foolish decisions while in control of a company that eventually went out of business), but I hope TNA gives them a scare and forces them to re-think the current approach.

[JaoSming]

i think it is silly to think that TNA would overtake WWE in ratings ever. I could see WWE losing a point (down to ~3.0) and TNA gaining up to a 2.0 (impact is usually ~1.2) but not much more of a change than that.

Honestly, I dont care. I just want a choice right now as I am watching wrestling again and TNA is filling the void better right now. I am still loving switching the channels between the two though. I really do hope that last night was the last time Hogan is wrestling (even though we didnt get a leg drop ) and same with Flair....too many nut shots from him. AJ shouldnt be heel anymore, he is an awesome wrestler with a lot of talent as seen on the 1/4 show but as a Flair heel, seeing him back down from fights just sucks..

What I think would work for TNA for a schedule would be holding their normal Live/taping/Live (or even Live/taping/taping) schedule at the impact zone, then on the Monday before a PPV, go out to an arena somewhere and do that one Live and put on a good show to hype the PPV and have the PPV in or near that arena that weekend. Or if it's more logical have the PPV at an arena, have impact the next night there and then go back to the impact zone for tapings to give the wrestlers 2 weeks off.

[J@3]

I like the idea of what TNA is starting to do, at least from the Impact results I read. It reminds me of back in the old days where you could tune in and genuinely didn't know how things were going to pan out or what was going to happen. The WWE now is about as predictable as humanly possible, even if the actual match results always aren't their biggest "surprises" are just bringing injured guys back early. I think that's why I like NXT because really we have little idea of who they are pushing (aside from Bryan) and even he got beaten on the last episode. It is the least predictable of all the WWE brands, but still somewhat predictable (Bryan will win after he realizes his ways and starts showing respect to the locker room, Regal and his guy will begin to work together, the black John Cena looking guy will become straight edge etc).

[JaoSming]

http://www.wrestlezone.com/editorials/a ... dden-97805

Mark Madden's review of impact, pretty hilarious

*It’s bad when you don’t recognize half the people in the opening montage.
*Ric Flair becomes the first 61-year-old in space. No one ever took a backdrop better.
*Was Jennifer preparing to nurse Brooke Hogan?
*Who's the Brit? What's that belt? Did I click over to ROH by mistake?
*"The X Division is the adrenaline of TNA." -- Eric Bischoff, 2010.
*"F*** the cruiserweights." -- Eric Bischoff, 1995-99.
*Shannon Moore hits the ring to mass indifference. "I know! If we give Shannon the X Division belt, maybe Jeff will feel obligated to show up more, and not high."
*MY GOD, IT'S ROB VAN DAM! MY GOD! IT'S RVD! Wait a minute...why would Sting be scared of Rob Van Dam? I bet Vince McMahon isn't.
*Why would a babyface come through the crowd and attack a heel from behind?
*Is RVD badly hurt, or just really wasted?
*Wrestling SAT question: Kevin Nash, Sean Waltman, Scott Hall, Eric Young. Which doesn't belong?
*Hall got short of breath during his interview. How's he going to wrestle?
*Hall and Waltman are risking their careers? That's like playing blackjack at the $1 table.
*"They chose to leave their family and loved ones behind." OK, enough about Karen Angle.

[buzzy]

Anyone else thinking that TNA needs to get some better entrance songs? They all virtually sound the same to me, aside from a few (like AJ) I can't even differentiate between most of the songs.
From the fanboy side of me, I think a good return of a wrestler simply needs to have a song with opening seconds that everyone immediatly recognizes. I know they can't use WWE's songs, but they need to establish some different kind of songs.
You can't top an RVD return (debut actually) with 'One of a kind' resounding through the arenas.

Right now, I woulnd't be able to tell if Jeff Hardy, RVD or Hogan is entering the ring.

[J@3]

RVD's new entrance music, if this video is right, is fucking terrible...

phpBB [video]

[JaoSming]

they've been doing a good job of showing the jumbotron on screen which tells you who it is at least

Abyss (before Hogan), AJ, and Angle IMO have the best music in TNA.

[Andrew]

What I think would work for TNA for a schedule would be holding their normal Live/taping/Live (or even Live/taping/taping) schedule at the impact zone, then on the Monday before a PPV, go out to an arena somewhere and do that one Live and put on a good show to hype the PPV and have the PPV in or near that arena that weekend. Or if it's more logical have the PPV at an arena, have impact the next night there and then go back to the impact zone for tapings to give the wrestlers 2 weeks off.

I can see them doing that eventually. It might be a tougher sell to Panda Energy because they don't have Ted Turner's money which facilitated the risks that paid off for WCW in the early days, but if they continue to grow then I think Hogan and Bischoff will be pushing for it and it can work.

EDIT: Ratings for RAW and Impact are in.

RAW: 3.4
Impact: 1.0 (rounded up from 0.98)

Wow...I bet Hogan and Bischoff's jaws hit the floor when the numbers came in. Not a great start for the permanent move.

[JaoSming]

yea that sucks

hopefully they realize it was because of hogan/flair in the ring

really, just pass the freaking torch already

[JaoSming]

double post for funny thing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=st7AwZPXtg4#t=6m40s

[Andrew]

Well worth it, good stuff.

[J@3]

I love Botchamania

[buzzy]

FOX took it down?!


@ TNA's ratings though

[Andrew]

I'm surprised too. It implies Fox actually cares about Futurama.

[Klayface]

TNA is relying too much on old WWE talent and its only hurting them. They seem so desperate to sign established names, in other words has beens, rather than build their own talent. Heres a good read about the whole "war" going on between TNA and WWE.