Moe Hunter

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="LordJaguar" data-cite="LordJaguar" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="25170" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>If I remember right, Booker was being turned into the WCW Rock prior to being bought by WWF...</div></blockquote><p> Indeed, they proceeded to feud over what their finisher was called: Rock Bottom or Book End.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="-laz-" data-cite="-laz-" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="25170" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>Turning Point was just a mess i miss the old TNA</div></blockquote><p> When has TNA ever NOT been a mess?</p>

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="Jaysin" data-cite="Jaysin" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="25170" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>I know in one interview, a comment The Rock made to Booker T backstage was something that rubbed Sting the wrong way. Something like Rock looking at Booker going "Who the hell are you?". <p> </p><p> I'm not saying that's why he didn't go to WWE, I'm just saying that's one of the things Sting said in an interview a few years ago.</p></div></blockquote><p> </p><p> It wasn't backstage. It was a scripted segment we all saw. Sting saw it on TV like the rest of us. Hell, two of The Rock's catchphrases were "Who in the Blue Hell are you?" and "It doesn't matter what your name is". Sting apparently didn't understand that, and thought that he would be "buried" if he went to WWE.</p>

I don't recall the idea being that "kids love Cena and parents HATE Cena", just "kids love Cena, adult male wrestling fans generally don't like him". So the vast majority of parents, realistically aren't wrestling fans, and just buy their kid whatever it is they're into. Even so I'm sure my mum wasn't crazy about plenty of the stuff I liked as a kid. Didn't stop her buying merch for me.

How over do you think "Windham Rotunda" would really get? TNA also changed Low Ki's name to Senshi. I think "AJ Styles" carries as much weight as "CM Punk" in terms of branding.

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="djthefunkchris" data-cite="djthefunkchris" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="25169" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>Now... To me he was never as popular as a heel. I can't remember a time when he was an actual single wrestler when he was heel.</div></blockquote><p> His run on Raw after Mercury got fired, where he was Johnny Nitro and feuding with Jeff Hardy over the IC Title, through his move to ECW and transformation into John Morrison, all the way up until he started teaming with Miz. He had a decent length of singles heelship. Definitely more popular when he was with The Miz though, it allowed him to properly develop a character.</p>

Translation: VAGUE!!! "Something might happen, but it might not. And if it does happen, it could be at any time". Can you imagine *actual* news sites reporting BS like this? Honestly. This is the easiest crap to come up with.

Maybe I didn't read that right, but I think Bischoff may be the only person whom one might call "talent" who LIKES the network TV process! Focus groups, network notes, constant re-writes... Everyone else who has to deal with those things absolutely hate it, but not EB? Of course his political views seem well blown out of proportion, so maybe that's part of his pathos.

Huh, I wonder how Burke explains that he used to have a blog on WWE.com where he frequently referred to himself as The Black Pope...

Matt Morgan doesn't get to be "7ft Tall". We've seen him many times standing right next to the Big Show, and he is not that tall. But I guess this is TNA, where Abyss is supposedly some giant.

I'll have to check out The Green Room, that combo alone sounds fantastic. I think Zack Ryder tweeted in lament about the costume change. It would be nice to see him thrown in to a Midcard title mix, but I don't know if short pants is his ticket.

Absolutely. I watched Shaq Vs on Youtube since I couldn't find it any other way, and I've got the whole series of Bull's *clap* hit (as they used to say on the radio show). Just phenominal. Also, if you haven't seen The Aristocrats yet, check it out - it's a doco that Penn directed along with Paul Provenza about the world's oldest/dirtiest joke, featuring over 100 comedians and their take on it. Gilbert Gottfried is king!

A couple of quick comments on the latest discussions: 1. As for trending topics on Twitter, #RandyOrton seems to pop up quite often, especially after he hit the AiRKO on Bourne a couple of months back. 2. The "News" of a potential big star turn leading through WM is about the most vague thing anyone could possibly post as an article. Gee, I wonder if maybe they'll put a title on the line at some stage too? But what I really want to talk about... Penn & Teller! They managed to still be good on Muppets Tonight, hopefully Raw won't tone them down too much!

Sadly though, as much as Sting and Hogan might "put over" Abyss, *getting* him over is pretty much impossible, so they could have spent their resources on better endeavours.

Gomenasai. Wakarimasen ga?

I DON'T KNOW!?!?! And this shirt is too tight! It would make sese - a few years ago he was out of the company but fairly usable as he's clearly a talent but was getting messed around in storylines with Rico, then forgotten about. I think he has more value now, since Benjamin's also out of a gig, but I can see why they wouldn't want to take on more people at this stage.

I do believe Kurt has been in the process of shooting a film lately (he tweeted it's the reason he's growing his hair out again). Don't know anything about the project, hopefully something worth watching!

I don't expect a revolution from Heyman. Just solid booking that makes sense. It's something TNA lacks, and something Heyman can do. All the question of whether he can set the wrestling world on fire, or run a company, doesn't matter to me. There's so much talent in TNA and I just want to be able to watch it regularly without having to skip over hours of Hogan or Jarrett or Abyss. Without all the rapid-fire and impactless turns. Without criminally short matches that go nowhere. IMO Awareness won't do anything if the product is subpar. Book well, then invite people over.

I don't get the distrust for Heyman. He doesn't need to bring some in-ring innovation to be successful. He has proven time and again that he has a solid booking base - stories that make sense, giving the mic to the right guys for the right reasons. Building characters that people should give a crap about, and not forgetting about them a few weeks later. IMO he has the ability to fill all the holes in TNA's booking, if he's allowed to run with his plans. If they don't give him full control, they won't get full results.

Booked at clubs... to do what? That's something I don't understand.

And it was an ECW House Show match against RVD where Kurt Angle tore three muscles that led to his departure from WWE in the first place! I believe that in the same interview, Angle said that RVD absolutely admits to not knowing how to wrestle, and appreciates guys like Angle who can carry him through a match between spots.

So I finally watched a full Smackdown for the first time since Taker ruined CM Punk's title reign. Kane proved that even if he wasn't a giant monster type guy, he could have easily gotten over as a promo guy (which I already figured having seen him give a Libertarian speech a while ago). Just dynamite. Rey has never impressed me on the mic, and partly by association that made me less than impressed by Del Rio. Awful script for their interaction, so bland. By the way, would the crowd EVER put up with two Japanese workers using as much Japanese in their promo as these two did with Spanish? Very cold start to the show for me. CM Punk's latest look is awesome! Short cropped hair and the pointy beard - he's gone from looking like Jesus to looking like Satan. Very cool. Mercury doesn't seem nearly as dopey live as he did in some of the photos I'd seen previously. Can someone fill me in what they mean (not from this show, but previously) when they say Sarena "fell off the wagon"? I know what the expression means, but are they saying she was a total addict before? How deep was her addiction, and to what, and how much of a setback did she take? If it was just that she was a casual drinker, and had one drink so can't be called "Straight Edge", it's not exactly serious. Overall a pretty slow show, really.

Yeah, that's the point. Tornado's a comedy wrestler through and through. Balls of steel, pimp slaps, moves like the Pounce, where his opponent sells as though hit by a truck... It's all gold!

The Tag match (as well as Angle vs AJ and even to some extent the Triple Threat) really made things seem important. Tag belts are something to FIGHT for. It's not just thrown together, cookie-cutter "hot tag" BS like WWE. I don't know what TNA's "rules" are on illegal guys staying in the ring forever, but it does allow for some amazing action. The rankings are made to seem like they matter. Angle working his way up, them mentioning who's what rank while they're out there. Seriously, how long have we heard abot "#1 Contender"s with there being no meaning other than "he's the guy we've decided gets a shot"? Now there's rhyme and reason to it. The Mystery GM can say "Orton goes to the back of the line", but it doesn't mean anything. How many guys is he behind? How does he progress? In TNA we can see how it all works. Really not a fan of this EV2 crap. RVD vs Abyss was exactly what I expected of it, which is to say I enjoyed it less than every other match besides the KOs. Hogan needs to GTFO of the ring, he adds nothing. Really, what does he have to do with EV2? Why should we care that he's out there? Give the spotlight to those who can shine in it!

Two things to remember: *TNA has the same crowd week in week out forever, so absolutely they have a greater need to not see some guys for a while. *Guys like Jeff Jarrett never get fresh! I think maybe Abyss could do with a break Clearly he's not "TNA's John Cena" like they were planning.

Makes me wonder why they never let him talk. He has a similar voice to CM Punk even. Obviously not as good a promo guy as Punk but I definitely think he should have been given a mic from time to time, instead of letting Cole tell his story all the time.