TNA
Raven: "Chairshots to the head should only be banned if you don't know how to throw one properly."
by Bix on Sep 2, 2010 7:15 PM EDT
in TNA
9 comments
At his official website, Raven put up a rather interesting blog post where he talks about chairshots to the head, steroids, booking logic, and more as part of a "current wrestling pet peeves" list:
I would like to point out a few of my current wrestling pet peeves. It could be written more clearly and concisely but I dont have much time before I have to go out of town but I wanted to get them off my chest.
A) Chairshots to the head should only be banned if you dont know how to throw one properly. A suplex can be deadly in the wrong hands. If you throw a chair shot correctly, or know how to bump so the chair shot only grazes you hard enough to make a noise, they are fine. It is idiots who swing for the fences or morons who dont bump with them that should be banned.
B) I guarantee you that more concussions are had by wrestlers from endless nonsensical high spots that the sheets promote as making a better match than chair shots to the head.
C) I guarantee you that more concussions are had by wrestlers from working strong style that the sheets promote as making a better match than chair shots to the head.
After the jump, we'll look at the rest of Raven's list and Dave Meltzer's reply.
[Spoilers] - Can the TNA bookers be any more shameless about treating their owners as dumb, fame hungry, money marks?
by kjh on Aug 25, 2010 7:43 PM EDT
in TNA
4 comments
If you thought the lowest Vince Russo, Tommy Dreamer, Eric Bischoff, Hulk Hogan et al. could go was making Dixie Carter the real star of their ECW nostalgia show, Hardcore Justice, then you were sadly mistaken. Tomorrow night's Impact sees the TNA bookers stoop to their most shameless act yet in treating their owners as dumb, fame hungry, money marks. Spoilers after the jump.
4 comments | 1 recs |
The madness of TNA's King Mick Foley
by kjh on Aug 24, 2010 3:12 PM EDT
in TNA
4 comments
Mick Foley is mad, mad at Dave Meltzer, so mad that he wrote a 4,442 word rambling rant designed to bury Meltzer for the TNA website, while also teasing his latest book Countdown to Lockdown: A Hardcore Journal. That Foley would be so mad at Meltzer is astonishing given that Foley is one of the Observer's sacred cows who is handled with kid gloves. Indeed, Meltzer has been largely positive of Foley's TNA work in angles, skits and interviews even going so far as to call him still "one of the two or three best promo guys in the business" in the April 1st 2009 Wrestling Observer Newsletter. So what on earth could have caused Foley to turn on Meltzer?
I think I've found the offending quotes. It all started badly when Meltzer didn't gush over his majesty's TNA debut in the October 13th 2008 Observer, instead criticising the booking and scripting of the show for making the company look minor league:
I wouldn't call it a bad show, but it was missing what the previous shows had and there was a huge problem in that when it was over, TNA made itself feel minor league on its own show.... But there is a context issue that TNA faces in that withthe current product and the setting, it feels like a stage play and you don't get that intensity needed. I saw the same thing in the Foley debut. The crowd went nuts for him, as expected since it happens with every big star having a debut. He delivered a good promo with some funny lines, but something was definitely missing and it was the setting. The other problem with the show, and this also hurt both promos, is when both were over, and the single lasting message when you watched this week's show, was that Vince McMahon was the king of wrestling and all these stars are in TNA more because they couldn't get along with Vince than because TNA is the best place to be.
This theme reoccurred in the November 5th 2008 Observer when Meltzer reviewed the over-hyped one off live Impact taping from the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas where Foley had a major announcement that would change the face of wrestling forever:
And they were back to making the entire business feel like a nostalgia act that is ten years past its peak when Foley talked about how it felt when he and Angle were at the cusp of something exploding when WWE got really popular, basically saying wrestling no longer is popular. Granted, it no longer is anywhere near that level, but I don't think you go on television and tell people that this was a business that peaked ten years ago.
And reared its ugly head most recently when Meltzer reviewed Tommy Dreamer's TNA debut crying promo in the August 2nd 2010 Observer:
Having said all that, there were aspects of the segment that really bothered me. There is nothing worse that TNA does than make themselves out to be the minor leagues on their own show. Dreamer being out there talking about how people had talked with him for years about coming to TNA but he had a family to think of right there says two things, 1) Either Dreamer isn't much of a star if he had to worry about supporting his family going to TNA; or 2) TNA doesn't pay anywhere close to as well as WWE in that a guy spent years being miserable, so he says, even though on their TV that entire time on ECW he never acted like he was complaining, because the difference in pay is that big. The worst thing you can do is tell people on your own show that you are the minor league. When Crockett was fighting tooth-and-nail with Vince in the late 80s on a town-by-town basis, and losing most places outside the core territory, when somebody quit Vince for whatever reason and came back, they didn't go and say how they were making more money but were unhappy. You didn't see Flair going on TV in 1987 or 1989 and talking about his glory days being 12 years earlier, even though to some older fans in some of the cities, they would have thought that way since that was their wrestling and their childhood, let alone have some old guy like Ivan Koloff cut promos about his feud with Bruno. They were attempting to create the illusion they were No. 1, even if they weren't, so at least their fans could argue the point. TNA doesn't even allow its fans to argue the point that their more athletic wrestlers are better because they are constantly stuck in 1997, right down to Earl Hebner on the house shows acting like his main claim to fame was screwing Bret when he's been a TNA ref for seven years, or Team 3-D, Raven or Rhino who all spent far more years in TNA than they ever spent in ECW, being categorized as primarily ECW guys.
More after the jump.
TNA Has Locker Room Problems and RVD is Full of Himself
by Geno Mrosko on Aug 23, 2010 4:27 PM EDT
in TNA
22 comments
TNA has shown that they can put on an entertaining product. Even with the roster they have, they've put on a good show or two. They chugged right along for quite a while just doing their thing. They got the idea that they wanted to compete with Vince and they brought in a few big names to see if they could get TNA over. They failed miserably when they tried to move to Monday night's directly opposite Raw and now word comes down that they've got a ton of problems in the back. The Wrestling Observer via Wrestling Inc:
There is said to be a lot of divisiveness within the TNA locker room between talent who have been there for years and those new to the roster. One exception is Ric Flair who has been described as getting along with just about everyone on both sides. Hulk Hogan is not overly disliked, but many feel they brought him in with high hopes, hasn't improved business and isn't very dedicated to TNA.
Not even a little bit surprising. Everyone loves Flair and doesn't like Hogan. That's only because he isn't actively wrestling because if he was, he would have buried the whole roster by now. He came in and kept talking about change and how it was the young guys time now and all that so I guess they don't hate him too much. The rest of it sounds like typical pro wrestling attitude. The guys who've put time in at TNA think that they've paid their dues and they should be the top guys and the new guys coming in, no matter how big they've been anywhere else, need to pay their dues before they get a big push. This of course, totally ignores what makes the most money which is the whole reason to do all this anyway. That's always been the problem with pro wrestling.
As to all this talk RVD had some choice things to say about it:
"I'd imagine a lot of the old TNA guys are feeling like they're taking a back seat. The thing is..you can't argue with numbers. Last week TNA broke new all-time records for ratings! TNA needed a change. The 6-sided ring and the great technical wrestlers–that nobody knew–wasn't working. TNA brought in two rock stars, and look at the company now! Dixie often points out how hiring Jeff Hardy and RVD started a whole new era, why do some of the wrestlers not see it? Too young, too green, too selfish to have the correct perspective. Whereas some of the TNA `stars' are lucky to get recognized walking around the studios, Jeff and myself live like actual celebrities, signing autographs and taking pictures EVERYWHERE we go. Without experiencing this, it's probably hard to imagine. In fact, very few wrestlers stick out in people's minds the way that Jeff and I do. WE love our fans and we love their love. TNA is blowing up. Good things will come our way and I see it all happening now. This is a very exciting time. More people watching TNA means more people exposed to the other wrestlers on the card too...as long as they're good enough to hang around with the rising standards."
That's golden right there. He completely buries everybody on the roster while calling himself and Jeff Hardy rock stars. Admittedly enough, RVD and Hardy are more popular than AJ Styles for instance but that does not in any way qualify them as rock stars. If you are being lax with your standards then maybe you could give that distinction to Hardy but there is no way you can do the same for Van Dam. He seems to have the idea that the ratings have gone through the roof and it's all because of him and Jeff. He couldn't be more wrong. The ratings have been at a standstill and show no signs of improving.
The other issue with him saying these things is the timing. He gets put out of action for a while in an injury angle and now he says all this. The same guys that he is burying are the guys that are going to be putting him over when he gets back. How will that work out? I guess we'll see when he returns. These are the same kind of problems we always heard about with WCW. Eventually the whole stack of cards comes tumbling down.
Jeff Hardy Fulfills a Young Boy's Wish
by Geno Mrosko on Aug 18, 2010 7:45 PM EDT
in TNA
0 comments
Real nice video of Jeff Hardy fulfilling a wish for a young cancer survivor. For as bad of a rap as Hardy as gotten throughout his career as being a drug addict and all that, he really seems to be a good guy. Enjoy.
Paul Heyman Says TNA Isn't Ready for Him to Come in Yet
by Geno Mrosko on Aug 16, 2010 5:00 PM EDT
in TNA
7 comments
Bix touched on a little bit of what Paul Heyman said in his interview on the MMA Live Hour in this article. What he didn't touch on were a few of the things that Heyman said regarding his alleged interest in TNA and their confirmed interest in him.
"They're not ready for me. They're not there yet. I kind of have self-justified my own interest in TNA as a network of stock and ownership. I left pro wrestling in December 2006 and I haven't done one shoot DVD, one convention appearance, one cameo. I haven't done anything on wrestling."
He's not being entirely honest here. I know he did an interview with Dave Meltzer following UFC 116 and he discussed a lot of these subjects there. Just because he hasn't been on TV doesn't mean he hasn't been involved. He talked a lot about what he sees are the problems that TNA is currently having; mainly that they are pushing the wrong guys.
"If you were over 40, I'd chop your f-cking head off. I want a guy who is entering the prime of his career and shape him and mold him. Imagine if all they did the entire show was promote the Beer Money vs. Motor City Machineguns match and had Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan and the ECW guys saying they needed to see that match and said these guys are the future now. Then, if you put that match in the main event - as opposed to the middle of the card with no follow-up - and produce and present them as the main event. Then, if 'you buy this product, this is the progressive type of presentation we are going to present to you.' Instead, you have Hulk Hogan in his 50s thanking ECW guys in their 40s before the ECW guys are beat up by a group led by Ric Flair in his 60s."
It's really hard to disagree with him here but look at the roster that TNA currently has. A lot of those cats are over 40 or approaching it. I think if you talked to Hogan or Bischoff then they would both tell you that they are doing what Heyman is talking about. And maybe they had that intention but it's not what they are doing. They probably came in and thought that they would use their names to draw viewers to the product and the young guys would get over carrying the show but what ended up happening was they just totally hi-jacked the product. Many of the talent at TNA have discussed their displeasure with these events but what can they do? Complain loud enough and they get suspended.
Heyman presents a hope for the young guys who need to be pushed as the future but for that very reason he will never be brought on because too many of the old guard are around that want to keep their power. This angle between EV2 and Fortune has the potential to put some young guys over big if booked correctly. Problem with that is there is zero confidence in that happening. Will Heyman eventually make his way into TNA? Yes, but only if they are in a last ditch effort to save the promotion. So basically, not anytime soon.
TNA Impact! Preview and Bound for Glory Promo
by Geno Mrosko on Aug 16, 2010 4:28 PM EDT
in TNA
0 comments
Here is a preview for this week's TNA Impact! and an early promo for Bound for Glory. Despite the fact that the Fortune vs EV2 angle is absurdly similar to the WWE vs Nexus angle the personalities involved in each makes it fresh, at least for me.
TNA Impact! Delivers Its Best Show In a Long While
by Geno Mrosko on Aug 13, 2010 12:26 AM EDT
in TNA
8 comments
I'm sure jlamb will be covering Impact! with his Good, Bad and Ugly series but I just wanted to throw a few thoughts out there regarding tonight's show.
- That was one of the better pro wrestling shows that I have seen in a long time. From top to bottom it was an entertaining night. Evenly paced, with a mix of great matches and the crowd was really hot for the entire night. Reports were suggesting as much but you never know how that will translate to TV. Well, it translated very well.
- They finally decided to go without the ramp leading up to the ring and that was a damn good decision. That ramp just looked horrible and they needed to dump it. Good on them for actually doing it and hopefully this sticks.
- AJ and Kurt did what they've done a billion times before it seems like; had a great match. The fact that they opened the show with it was a nice touch.
- Shannon Moore doesn't add much to the TNA roster although he did manage to have a decent match with Jeff Hardy. One wonders how much of that has to do with Hardy though. We'll see how this plays out but don't expect much.
- Going into tonight all the talk was that the Motor City Machineguns and Beer Money had a Match of the Year candidate. I didn't expect it to be that great but they seriously delivered. They were hitting every spot and the crowd was insane for the match the whole way through. Easily the best free TV match so far this year and probably the best match overall.
- RVD-Abyss wasn't the worst thing but it wasn't as good as advertised. Abyss took a few hardcore shots that just didn't look good enough to make it worthwhile. When I say hardcore shots I mean the stock barbed wire boards, and thumb tacks and all that. It was essentially just a lead in to the Fortune vs EV2 angle that was also much talked about. It didn't get a lot of screen time on the initial show but they covered it quite a bit in the reaction show immediately after. It was well shot and well executed by all involved. This is the kind of thing that's easy to mess up with so many people out there flying around but they did really well. Having Flair screaming at Dixie that it was all her fault was really a nice touch.
It was a great show and I'd love to see them keep this momentum going. Curious to see how it will have done in the ratings. It was almost weird how much better the show was with the lack of backstage segments and interviews clouding everything and taking up all the screen time. These guys delivered tonight.
Showing 1 - 8 of 107 Older
Certain photos copyright © 2010 by Associated Press or Getty Images. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of Associated Press and Getty Images is strictly prohibited.
