Stennick

This argument has come up before about if someone can be the best and yet not be with the WWE or maybe even TNA. I hear all the time that this guy in ROH is charasmatic, entertaining, he can work any style he's just great. Thats usually just smark talk for "my favorite wrestler is so and so" If the Masked Mauler is the that great that he's got buckets of charisma, he's entertaining and he can work any match known to man then why is he in a bingo hall with a 100 guys? Why isn't this one man wrestling show pulling that promotion up by its bootstraps? Even if he's not on t.v why isn't this guy selling out everywhere he goes? You go see the Masked Mauler and he's the greatest enbodyment of a wrestler going today thats kinda how things work. In every type of company in the world there have been small struggling promotions that have an employee or an idea that strikes at the right time and it rises them above everybody else seemingly coming from nowhere. Wrestling is the same way it doesn't matter how big or small you are. If you have a great worker and entertaining product people WILL tune in. WCW was a joke in 1993 giving us things like the White Castle of Fear and the Evil Midget, Robocop, the Shockmaster etc. Less than two years later Eric Bischoff got the idea of Monday Nitro and from there the nWo and they went on to have monsterious success. Vince was nearly bankrupt and ratings were at less than a third of what they get today and then he hit on a storyline with a guy by the name of "Stone Cold" Steve Austin and that storyline single handedly tuned people in. When they tuned in for the Austin/McMahon stuff they saw the likes of Triple H, Foley, etc and stayed tuned in. My point is that if I'm a football player I want to make it to the NFL, if I'm a wrestler I want to make it to the WWE. There is a reason that even guys in TNA who get t.v exposure, have the lightest schedules of any national promotion in history and can pretty much do whatever they want. We've seen it countless times that they will leave that place in a heartbeat to get back into the WWE. Some guys out there aren't cut out for the WWE sure, I've been around the indy scene in about seven different states in the last 12 years or so and I've not met one worker who wouldn't give his kidnney to work with Vince. Being a pro wrestler is about the spotlight, you're in that ring and whether its 20 or 20,000 people their all watching literally every move you're doing. You can't say you dont' crave the spotlight and call yourself a pro wrestler. Who wouldn't want that biggest, brightest spotlight in the world on them. Its nice to think that there are guys out there that the WWE couldn't get if they wanted or that there are guys out there right now working PWG, ROH, IWA, FIP, NWA, TNA that we all see as great potentials but they don't. I think thats mostly a fantasy a way of saying "who cares if you're the biggest and the baddest the best guys are right here" when in reality thats not the case 99 percent of the time. Everybody from music artists, to athletes to pro wrestlers slip through the cracks and have real talent and never get to display it just like some people with no talent make a boat load of money. At the end of the day though if you're a talented guy, especially in a place like ROH the WWE has proven they pay attention. Daniel Bryan, Matt Sydal, CM Punk, Nigel McGuinnes, Joe, Claudio, Kendrick, London, they clearly have a guy out there paying attention and if someone was the end all be all like some people want to believe he'd have a contract offer. I don't care how good of a QB I am in Hight School or in the Arena league until I step foot on the NFL field and throw a pass against an NFL defense I cannot be considered the best. Same goes for pro wrestling, doesn't matter how well you do in front of the local bingo halls until you get there with a camera focused on you while millions are hanging on your every move and word you can't call yourself the best. Until you have passed that test you can't be mentioned with Hogan, Flare, Andre, Rock, Austin, Sting, Shawn Michaels, Bret Hart etc. Until you reach that level you can't call yourself the best. You can say your the best "indy" guy or "the best unsigned talent" but the best in the world? Not a chance.

If its all the same to everyone else I'll be perfectly content with the best player of the last ten years staying in St. Louis for the rest of his career

Countdown you're from St. Louis? Ya learn somethin new every day. I'm fairly certain he stays, he's got a ton of respect for everything to do with St. Louis baseball and I think as long as he gets paid he's staying.

Albert's three run blast tonight had him pass Eddie Matthews with 371 home runs the most by any player in his first ten seasons in the big leagues. Pujols has a good shot at being the first player to be at 400 home runs the same year he becomes eligible for the Hall of Fame. I'm not a home run guy but thats pretty damn impressive.

Thats it I knew I was missing something you can own another team as long as there isn't an NFL team in that city. I'm thinking Kroenke will "sell" his sports teams to his son to move up to the NFL but we'll see.

Here's a link to a local columist running down the Kroenke deal nothing official but I wouldn't think he'd be publishing something and he's been publishing similar things for months now if he was wrong but anyway heres the news from our side of things. http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/sports/columnists.nsf/berniemiklasz/story/7885D078C9C26572862577040014B682?OpenDocument

I don't know the logistics of the rule but I'm quite certain you can't be the primary owner of both an NFL franchise and another. You can be a MINORITY in one or the other but not the MAJORITY in both. Kroenke would be the majority in both if he were to take over the Rams. Also it might only be MLB, NBA, NHL I don't think over seas or soccer teams count but I might be wrong in that regard to. Which means that Kroenke who also has a bid to buy an English football team would be even more interesting.

WHOA! So Shandid Khan an Urbana IL guy (a few hours away from STL) had entered into an ageement pending his finances to buy 60 percent of the team that Chip and Linda inherited from their mother Georgia. Well Stan Kroenke who is a Denver NBA and NHL owner also of fame for double booking his venue for the NBA playoffs and the WWE RAW in which Vince openly mocked him for. He's the owner of the other 40 perecent. Over the last 60 days Stan has flown Khan out to Denver to attend NHL and NBA games, they've been to each other homes. It looked like Stan was bonding with the future majority owner of the Rams. Well league rule states that other owners have sixty days to declare their intentions after another bid to buy the team has been made. League rules also state that you CAN NOT own another sports team in another city and be the majority owner of an NFL Franchise. A few weeks ago Goodell had said that he would not be willing to change these rules for Kroenke. Long story short today Kroenke announced his intention to buy the 60 percent of the Rams that Khan had been trying to buy. So now if Goodell holds true to his world which he almost has to if he wants to maintain the "exclusive" feel of the NFL owners. Can you imagine how many other sports owners would throw their hat into the ring? At any rate so either Goodell makes special treatment for Stan which is highly unlikely. Or Kroenke puts his Denver teams up for sale. If he does that how long does he get to sell his teams? The other rumor popping up is that Stan's son may "buy" the other teams from Stan allowing him to then buy the Rams. This could get complicated just when it looked like we were going to get involved, secure ownership for the first time in a very long time things seem to be an even bigger mess. Everyone in the ST. Louis media thought Khan being paraded around Denver by STan was Stans way of showing support for Khan, in reality it was his way to get close and decide if he wanted to pull the rug out from under him. Very interesting business that could effect a lot more than just the Rams is going under way here.

So when I think about the TNA scene I wonder who's going to take the title away from AJ. I don't see The Pope doing that this Sunday. I'm sure it'll be RVD or Hardy when the time is right. However I don't think Hardy or RVD need or would even benefit from the championship. I'm more looking at who's young, who's talented, who's marketable. Who's going to be their "homegrown" star. Guys I see that are fairly young (in TNA's case under 40) that have the look, the talent and the last ability to be TNA's "franchise" aside from AJ are Matt Morgan (good look, great size, he can talk), Mr. Anderson not home grown but he's still fairly young, his promos are improving and he's good a good look. Desmond Wolfe he's already shown he can work with the likes of Angle, he's original on the mic and of course young. The Pope the Impact Zone is really getting into this guy I'd like to see how people outside of Orlando react to him so when I'm at the ppv in St. Louis I'll be paying attention to see if his "Pope is Pimpin" spiel is over. So basically TNA's future main even scene meaning guys that could stay in or be at the main event title scene successfully. Styles, Matt Morgan, Mr. Anderson, Desmond Wolfe and The Pope. These guys can talk, work, and have something original about their look or personality. Joe can work but honestly his mic work bores me and when I see him in the ring I don't say "wow that guys got a great champion look" I see "hey theres a pudgy guy submitting people" he's not menacing in the least, his mic work is uninspiring and I just don't see him being able to be a draw. Now obviously in wrestling you never know but in my opinion the guys "star quality" would be low. Guys like RVD and Hardy should be used as fodder to be getting these other guys over. They might have a good run left in 'em but I'm certainly not basing my promotion around a guy like RVD's thats mostly over for his innovative offense when he'll be pushing 40 and Hardy well he's been in the promotion about three different times before leaving for a variety of reasons and possibly the most recent could be drug charges so yeah not exactly the guy to plan for the future with. Roode I like and I think he'll be a good upper mid carder but again not that great of a promo, his look is uninspiring, he's a good worker but nothing unique about him. I used to think Alex Shelly was going to be a huge breakout star but after spending the last 4 years in a tag team that frequently disappears from television I don't see TNA or him resurrecting what could have been. He's a mid card tag team jobber these days and I don't see that changing. Eric Young I've said it before the guy is versatile he's played several different characters well but I just don't think he's got the size/look to be something unique and special. Upper mid card guy and maybe do the whole underdog inspiring world title shot story with but not a guy thats going to be a franchise. Kazarian was a good worker and entertaining seven years ago but honestly now he's bland and he's gone through so many different character changes. I'm of the belief you only get so many failed characters in pro wrestling before its just hard to look at you as a credible guy. He had a good thing going as "the future" but its hard to go back to a gimmick you had seven years ago especially since this IS the future his gimmick talked about then. He's gone on to be an occult lackey for Raven in one of the strangest gimmick pairings ever since not once has the guy ever looked like he would be something like that. Then they stuck him under a mask, and now he's just Kazarian I don't even know what his character is. So yeah TNA has a lot of "talent" as far as in ring goes but I don't see many of them as future "franchise world champions". If even one or two of those guys breaks out though thats enough to elevate everyone else on the roster look at WWF in 1998.

Thats how Ankeil landed a deal. His numbers while hitting as a CF were better than when he played right or left field so Boras marketing him as the best CENTER fielder in the draft playing up just his CF numbers so these things can be twisted in either way.

Yeah Cinemax past like 10 p.m is all nudity. Thus the name skinemax

That wind must have really been carrying, Albert's second and Yadi's Grand Slam both didn't look like they were gonna get out. Colby with an awesome catch to go with that homerun and Carp didn't have a bad outing and picked up a win.

Woot Go Cards, if any opening day should be a national holiday it should be the St. Louis Cardinals opening day

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="tristram" data-cite="tristram" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="25169" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div> Shawn Michaels being dubbed "Mr Wrestlemania", when his record was like 6-10. I guess if they were being realistic about it, he probably wouldn't get that title.</div></blockquote><p> </p><p> He was Mr. Wrestlemania for "stealing the show" at Mania. Nearly every year he was involved in Wrestlemania he had the best match on the card so they were playing up the fact that nobody had more "classic" matches at Mania than Shawn Michaels. True or not it had nothing to do with his record thats what they had Taker for. It was the Most Dominant Wrestlemania worker against the greatest wrestlemania performer</p>

I disagree with EB being a one trick pony. Eric did exactly what Vince did he looked at ECW and took things from it. Eric took the high impact, high octane cruiserweight/lucha wrestling Vince took harcore wrestling (toned down), edgy characters/storylines, etc. For the record he turned a profit in 1994 before there was even such a thing as "winning the ratings" or before he was even close to being the biggest promotion in the world popularity wise. Eric made them a profit so the argument that Eric took Ted's money is false. Eric was making a profit before he brought in Hogan. Then he brought in Macho, Hogan, etc. and was making an even bigger profit which is exactly what you'd want to see from a company aspect. Make us money on a small level, we'll then give you money to up your level and we expect you to make more money and he did that. He brought WCW from Saturday night evening slot far far away from anything Vince was doing to running right at him in Monday nights. Vince had a two year head start in monday night wrestling and Eric's first night head to head he either beat Vince or came close to it. Not only that he did smart things like stagger his commercial breaks differently than Vince's so when RAW was on commerical Eric was in the middle of a match or an angle or something of that nature. He KNEW Vince was on commercial because he'd comment on it. Eric did a TON to revolutionize the business in 1995/96 he created the multiple PPV months, Thunder was before Smackdown so he created the "two A Shows" theory. He gave guys like Sullivan and Taylor the book for the under card while he booked the main event. For the first three years doing this it worked. It gave us undercard feuds for guys like Jericho, Guerrero, etc. it gave us awesome crusierweight action as well as gave Eric the chance to run the hottest angle in pro wrestling history. Was it perfect? Of course not it was highly flawed and when it came time to give it up the people Eric was working with didn't want to . Eric made money for a company that had never made money in its entire existence before he was in charge. He created the hottest angle in the history of pro wrestling, ARGUABLLY the most famous stable in pro wrestling history, as well as being the only man to beat Vince McMahon in any real victory in pro wrestling. Eric did a lot of things right. Did he take some things from other places? He sure did but a worker by the name of Ric Flair borrowed a few things, Vince borrowed a few things. Wrestling like any other form of enteraintment takes things and either makes them better or worsens them. What allowed Eric to do a lot of the things he did was the exact same thing that did him in. He was able to beat Vince by having guys like Hogan, Hall, Nash, etc. He was able to get them by giving them very expensive contracts that on top of that gave them creative control. I'm not saying I enjoy what Eric's doing today or that he's a god in pro wrestling but you can't discredit everything he did by saying it was JUST the nWo he was winning in the ratings before Hall and Nash showed up.

<p>As amazing as those championships are I have no doubt that if Reap inflated all of this there would be a TON of details we don't notice when their shrunk down to size. </p><p> </p><p> I think this is just the next step in an already healthy mod community. I don't know of another computer game that has the dedicated graphic volunteers that this game has so keep up the good work everybody.</p>

I agree with all of this television numbers can't be compared in the UK. I was trying to find attendance numbers for the WWE's UK DX Invasion House Show tour but I couldn't find any.

UK t.v ratings are tough because like you said you have to pay a suscription fee for some of WWE's programming as well as of putting time slots, etc. I have no doubt that the WWE could fill a 40,000 seat stadium for a pay per view in the UK, TNA I would find it hard to believe could do 10,000. Again I don't live in the UK but I think saying their on par popularity wise is inaccurate. Their ratings may be similar but in the case of the UK and the "second hand" programming and the bad time slots as well as the WWE being on a pay channel on top of TNA ppv's being free all of those things would severely distort it. The only way to judge over seas pop is by live attendance figures and Vince would murder TNA in that stat.

It depends on which way you look at it. Of the three "main events" only Cena winning was predictable I'd say. Edge vs. Jericho was a surprise and who knew about UT vs. Shawn. I do get your point where right now the faces are the "dominant" guys. I think your looking for that dominating heel that guys like Trips usually play

March 8th Hogan/Abyss vs. AJ/Flair Daniels vs. Kaz vs. Williams Sarita/Taylor Wilde vs. BP Beer Money Inc vs. Jeff Jarett Styles/Flair vs. Abyss Hogan March 17th Nasties/Jimmy Hart vs. Team 3D/Brother Runt Angle/Wolfe vs. Dinero/Anderson (match was 3 minutes and 38 secs) Angelina Love vs. Daffney (match was 1:19) Hall vs. Nash Beer Money vs. Hernandez AJ Style vs. Jeff Hardy So in these first two weeks tell me where are the MCMG matches? Where are the X Division matches? I count MAYBE two decent matches in the first two weeks of Impact. So yeah I'd like you to point out the superior in ring matches in the very first two weeks of Impact. Where are those Joe matches? Those MCMG matchse? Those Homicide matches? I keep hearing about how we're supposed to be looking at TNA now and not in the past. Where are these classic in ring matches? Where is the in ring product in those matches? The Nasties have had more in ring time than Kurt Angle. Flair and Hogan have had more in ring time than Homicide and the MCMG. So yeah I'm telling you with that line up Trips is better than 90 percent of it. Why would I contribute to a faulty product? There is some false notion by TNA fans that I need to support and contribute to something for the better of wrestling even if I hate it. I hate it and don't like what their doing why would I encourage it? So I can watch FOUR hours of horrible wrestling instead of two? Their job is to make me WANT to contribute. Its not my job to blindly contribute and support them, its their job to make me WANT to support and contribute. The argument that I should support them no matter what or contribute for the sake of contributing isn't worth the amount of time I just spent on it. Trust me when laughing at TNA's bumbling ways I have more than enough to laugh at without trying to worry about things such as how Hogan got free. For all I know Abyss gave him his super ring and Hogan busted out of them. Wait Abyss did that a few weeks ago while Tenay said it was "the power of that ring". This gives me hope that you do recognize that TNA's attempts at "storytelling" is a whole lot worse than WWE and thats really saying something with the state of the "E" these days. I just showed you that it doesn't matter how much "talent" they have. That talent is being left off the television shows. Where is Joe? MCMG? Homicide? Daniels? Kurt Angle? these guys either aren't featured at all or aren't featured in the ring? It doesn't matter if they bring in every talented guy in the world when Hogan, Abyss, Flair, Handicap matches, WolfPac and the Nasties are taking up the match time on TNA Impact.

You realize that even when the WWF was caving in around itself in 1996 and bankrupcty looked like a forgone conclusion that to the "mainstream" the WWF was STILL wrestling. WCW packed 50,000 people into an arena for Monday Nitro, set record ratings, pay per view buyrate records and yet the WWF was still seen as pro wrestling to the main stream media. Tack that on with WCW being percieved as a complete joke in 1993 when Bischoff took over and you have basically the same forumla as you have with TNA. The situations are very similar. WCW was operating out of Disney Studios, struggling to pull any sort of real audience what so ever after several regime changes while the WWF was coming off of an incredibly successful decade and was starting to fade a bit. Sound like anything you've heard before? It should because thats exactly whats going on today. TNA is packed in a small production studio trying to revive a product few know about and even fewer respect while the WWE is coming off of the Attitude era with "high" numbers but less than half of what they were doing ten years ago. You say the WWE has better in ring action than TNA? I say how do you figure? Because they put on ONE good match a show? Where is their X Division, where are their top "wrestling" stars. Where is Joe, where is the X Division? Instead we got Hogan vs. Flair in the MAIN EVENT in 2010 your argument for better in ring talent is a false one. The WWE has plenty of guys that have some in ring talent. HHH would wrestle CIRCLES around 90 percent of TNA's roster. If TNA folded today I would say it had flashes of potential in its eight year history surrounded by utter failure at every level. TNA has provided nothing that other promotions have not provided and better. If I cared about in ring action I'd watch ROH, if I want storytelling I watch WWE, TNA on very few occasions put the two together and when they did their peak was much lower than the WWE's. AJ Styles vs. Kurt Angle never would be compared to Shawn vs. Taker of last year, or even Shawn vs. Flair from the year before. TNA put on some good wrestling matches that I couldn't ever be bothered to watch because the "story" for those matches happening was to mind numbingly stupid. If you "get it" because you're way ahead of your time as a wrestling fan and TNA is offering a product that will be the future of wrestling as you suggest then sometime between now and then I will be referring to myself as a FORMER wrestling fan.

Yeah he answered that just four hours ago.

Gorgeous George, his wife whoever bumped over Bob Uecker? I found his wife pretty damn entertaini thought Stu Hart was the "main event" entrant this year. I would have liked to see George, Ted and Stu as the three featured.

That isn't his best "promo". None the less thats when New Jack was still somewhat sane and roughly 12 years ago. I think New Jack had a place and I could appreciate him but the guy isn't nearly stable enough to be involved with any major wrestling promotion and I certainly wouldn't book him as a manger. None the less New Jack was entertaining for what he was. This promo went on way too long and would have been more effective if they would have walked down a block or what not instead of just standing in once place cursing at people saying "when I'm done here I'm done, F those guys that went on. Then he proceeded to "move on" even pitching an idea to be the one that "stabbed" John Cena during his Carlito feud.

You think Angelina Love is unattractive? Yet you'd keep Lacey Von Erich who is not as attractive (IMO and about a hundred times less talented?) The Briscoes are just as bland as everyone else you were releasing? Seriously what would be the difference between them and any other indy tag team? Also why in the WORLD would you choose a hardcore wrestling "street gangsta" to manage the Briscoe Brothers? Also since when did New Jack have anything in the way of charisma other than jumping off of high things, threatening to kill people and bleeding? Candice Michelle is prego so she won't be available for quite some time. Too Cool? These guys haven't even been a tag team in what NINE years? Seriously we're talking of cutting dead weight and you want Too Cool brought in? I'm lost on the obvious reasons to bring in Matt Hardy? Because of his brother Jeff? Because other than that Hardy is pretty much a waste at this point. He's not over, he's not getting any younger and would demand a HUGE paycheck from TNA just for showing up.