justtxyank

Well let's be honest here. Hogan has made a fundamental mistake. His run in the E was awesome when he returned, largely because he was given in limited doses. WCW taught us that Hogan was played out as a heel and a face. He just couldn't carry a show anymore. He still had relevance and people still liked him, they just didn't care to see him as their focus. I foolishly believed that HOgan was going to come to TNA and play an authority role and limit himself. Instead he's been the entire focus of the company, involved in nearly every storyline. That makes it hard to get any enjoyment out of the show. It makes the RVD vs Sting storyline that is about to happen worthless to me because it's going to be all about Hogan. UGH!

I think TNA's problem is they are not grabbing any new audience right now. They have to hope that as time goes on they grab new fans because right now it seems their base hasn't expanded in a long time. It just ebbs and flows. To me the largest problem facing TNA is that this is not the 90s. Wrestling is not cool or hip. Very few people who aren't socially awkward are willing to talk about wrestling anymore. It has lost the mainstream appeal it used to have. The market that exists is really not a rabid fanbase, it's just a fanbase. I mean good luck getting WWE fans to switch over to TNA when they barely care beyond the surface about WWE! I think there is this myth that there is this huge audience out there not being catered to, the audience that loved WCW and/or ECW. I just don't believe that to be the case. That audience is gone.

Where is Rhyno? I always really enjoyed his intensity.

I don't think the majority of people who say TNA is like WCW actually watched WCW. They aren't really similar at all to be honest. As for TNA, I hate it. I want to like it because I can't stand the E and TNA has a lot of people I like but...I just can't. I DVRd it last night and I could barely stomach watching it. 1) The Nasty Boys need to be off tv. I gave TNA the benefit of the doubt with them, but it's awful. They can't wrestle, the crowd hates them, the IWC hates them, and to top it off, they are actually WINNING their matches. It's a joke. I do love Jimmy Hart and wouldn't really be opposed to him being back at ringside, but not with the Nasties. 2) Look, Ric Flair is a legend. Even though he appears to be a pretty bad human being, he's a great in the business. But dude...it's time. It was a time a long time ago. He's an old man, and he looks older than he is. Watching him gushing blood last night was disturbing. At first it was kind of cool, but then I thought, man, are they sure Flair isn't going to die out there? Having him as a manager is great, but it needs to be more like Harley Race with Vader as opposed to Flair with Evolution. As crazy at it sounds, Evolution was nearly a decade ago. 3) I like Hulk Hogan. I really do. I think him as an authority figure has a lot of potential. GET HIM OFF MY TELEVISION! I'm already burnt out on Hogan. Every story has to involve Hogan in some way and he ends up taking away from them. It's awful. I'm tired of him getting so much air time and having his hand in every matter. 4) Yawn. Wake me up when Foley/Jarrett/Bischoff is over. Jarrett has never been over with anyone other than TNA faithful who thank him for giving them the company. He was a good heel midcard act, never anything more than that. Foley reminds me of later WCW Roddy Piper. Entertaining when given in small doses, but way overexposed. When do we get a Foley vs Bischoff with Jarrett on a pole match? 5) I love Rob Van Dam and Sting. I will keep DVRing TNA if only to see RVD and Sting. I hope they get a chance to work a real feud that isn't centered around whether Hogan is going to come back to the ring again. Get Hogan out of that feud and let Sting and RVD work together. This is a dream match for me as they are two of my favorite wrestlers ever. 6) When will Abyss start carrying a bunny rabbit to the ring? And shouldn't he be going by Ssyba? This is pure wrestlecrap. It was wrestlecrap when Dave Sullivan did the exact same stupid stuff, but it worked then as it was a different era. The Abyss character is almost as ruined as Kane. Almost. 7) I hate Jeff Hardy using the face paint. 8) At least the X-Division still looks cool. I guess as long as they get their 10 minutes once a week TNA can still claim to have something different. 9) Turn Scott Hall into an announcer and never let him wrestle again. Sean Waltman on the other hand still has ring time left in him. 10) Seems like TNA is going to give me at least 45 minutes of some combination of Hogan/Flair/Bischoff every week. Unfortunately for them this will guarantee that I will never watch the show live because I can't stomach TNA without my DVR fast forward button.

Anyone mention the Impact replay rating scored a 1.0 as well? That's impressive.

I'm not sure there are that many at all to be honest. Outside of legends, who in the entire business can an ultimate babyface that is a legend himself like Sting beat up that will turn him? Even in the E.

While I see what you are saying,the reason the Sting heel turn worked yesterday was because of RVD.

Are you serious? If TNA does a brand split I'll quit watching.

So he should just wrestle meaningless matches and be involved in no angles?

Yeah I know that, it just seems silly. I don't mean to imply he was "weakly pushed" prior to the ECW relaunch run, but he had been with the company for a while and had never been pushed as a serious world title threat despite being one of the company's most over workers. I don't get why RVD wasn't headlining for the E.

By the way, I have been an enormous mark for RVD since his days in ECW and I remember being devastated when he got hurt and didn't go get the ECW World Title. That said, man it's crazy how over he is. LOL. The E blew it with him for so many years, I just don't get it. From day one when he jumped to the E people swooned for RVD. Everybody loves him. Does he not draw well despite his popularity? I know he's not a great talker, but so what? If the E could push Jeff Hardy as big as they did, it sucks that RVD never got that run. I'm so glad he's back and I will commit to watching TNA as long as he is around. Another thing I want to say about last night, I love Scott Hall. He just cracks me up every time. "Hogan's not the one running the Shizzow." LOL "I'll be the one that looks like Elvis." HA! He's just got such great delivery. I hope he makes a real effort this time, because while he can't give much as an in ring worker at this point, I think if TNA gives him a shot to become an announcer like he wants he could be a valuable asset. Sting vs RVD at Lockdown should be a lot of fun. Sting vs Hogan at Bound for Glory seems like a lock to me at this point.

Finally watched it last night. I have to say, I LOVED the Sting heel turn. I loved the segment with him beating the crap out of RVD and I don't think it hurt RVD at all. It was totally understandable that he took that beating after being cheap shotted repeatedly. In fact, I thought RVD came out of it looking good because everytime Sting gave him a chance to breathe he got up and tried to defend himself. Even the segment with Sting putting his hand on Dixie's throat was masterful at making him a heel, though I am STUNNED that Sting agreed to do that. This is the first attempt at turning Sting that I think actually worked and I hope they book him well going forward. So what didn't I like about that part? Why in the world would security be holding Hogan back while Sting beat on RVD? Why wouldn't they go stop Sting? Also, Hogan took two bat shots to the midsection after RVD got walloped repeatedly in the stomach, legs, back throat, etc., so were security and medical personnel worried about Hogan instead? I hate Abyssamania. So dumb. But I thought Hogan had a lot more energy in the ring then I remember from his last few matches. He and Flair didn't embarrass themselves.

LOL It's just a rip off of Hogan/Evad from WCW circa 1995.

Can someone clear something up for me... Why is Abyss getting the title shot at DX instead of Pope?

Yep. It's probably just a coincidence that after TNA has been hyping their "first 5 minutes" (LOL TNA) WWE sends out Mobile Alerts and updates their webpage to let everyone know that Undertaker will open the Raw broadcast.

So for those who still believe that TNA is not on the radar of the WWE, they have announced that Undertaker will be on Raw tonight to open the show.

Even though I think Thommohawk is kind of a fool, he does have one point. In the 90s I would have told you there was no way Bret Hart would go to WCW. There was just no way. He and Vince were tight, he was the flagship of the company, etc. In 1990 I think you would have said Hulk Hogan would never be in WCW either. I think it is incredibly unlikely that HBK or Taker ever work for someone else, but you never know. With HBK it is even more unlikely because of HHH. The biggest thing with Taker is that the E is willing to keep him around in whatever role for as long he wants. It's not the E that takes him off tv or talks about his retirement.

I'm so excited RVD is back! I will definitely watch TNA on Monday.

I think people are unfair to Russo. By the time he got there, WCW wasn't just a sinking ship, it was the Titanic after it had already gone vertical, preparing to split in half. He was in a tough spot. They wanted him to radically change things to right the ship so he tried. Another think people forget is that network executives really put the pressure on Bischoff to tame the product in like 1998 I think.

The contracts are what led to it being cancelled. They were losing so much money because they had way overinvested into their workers. I think Greg Valentine was still earning decent money until like 2000. They had tons of workers under good money contracts despite not using half of them. If that weren't the case, even with their decreased ratings, they still would have been a good entity to have around.

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="Hyde Hill" data-cite="Hyde Hill" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="25170" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>Lol am I really the only guy that watches TNA and has a good memory lol joke o course I understand my rep.<p> </p><p> And yes he does he sneaked the win in the 3 vs 3 match with him and the Guns on one side and The Bucks and Red on the other side.</p><p> </p><p> Also I don't think he was brought in as a "pure" jobber ala shark boy but as another good hand for the X-Division.</p></div></blockquote><p> </p><p> I like Kendrick a lot. It disappoints me that he has been losing like he has. I guess this is TNA doing a little WWE though. Kendrick was pretty high up on the card for a stint there with The E, so the new regime is probably not wanting to push the idea that ANYONE who comes from WWE is a star in TNA.</p>

I always heard that the Yakuza was pretty involved in Puro and that they were in bed with Inoki.

Jericho switched because the real Walls of Jericho actually hurt. WWE went all low impact on their moves. The Walls of Jericho strains even when it isn't being done "for real" if it you do it in at least a half believable manner. None of the submission moves in the E are done in a way that causes and strain on the body anymore and that includes the (lol?) Boston Crab that Jericho does now that is really more of a "constipated squat leg hold."

I would actually love to see this. One fight per card of older fighters would be nice. Good legacy matches. All this is true. Like I said, the only way I see Nog getting a title shot now is if Dana thinks it will sell big to match Nog and Brock.

All that seems logical. I honestly don't see him getting another title shot before retirement with the UFC. Next up for Brock is Mir/Carwin. If it is Mir, Carwin will then drop to 3rd on the pecking order and might get a match with Cain. After Mir it is Cain. Brock has said he wants to fight Couture again and that fight might happen. The only reason Brock/Nog might happen is because it is still a "money" fight. Dana might protect Nog and give him two solid wins and then if Brock is still standing after Mir and Cain, give Nog that last shot.