lazorbeak

Um, what? Christian was a 3 time IC Champ and 9 time tag team champion who was riding a big wave of momentum and was getting big reactions despite not getting a push the last six months of his first WWE run. Conversely, Kennedy won Money in the Bank in 2007, got hurt, went to Raw, feuded with HBK, got hurt, got suspended for wellness policy violations, was a terrible babyface, and got fired 7 months ago. So no, that's not just not true, that is DRASTICALLY untrue.

Wouldn't Mark Jindrak be the more obvious parallel? I guess he started in CMLL, but still, the opportunities for parallels to questionable drug use and anatomical impossibilities are tremendous. Also it kind of hurts the idea that Hall and Waltman have anything to contribute at all when neither wants to actually get in the ring and wrestle somebody. Both are still total disasters backstage and probably both need to be released sooner rather than later. I didn't watch Impact last week, but are they really teasing some sort of ongoing program between Jarrett and Hogan? If so, in God's name, why? I know Hogan has said he doesn't want to get back in the ring, but if he does, it needs to be against somebody who isn't a 40 year old career midcarder. Under the right circumstances, I'd watch Hogan/Joe or Hogan/Styles or even Hogan/Angle (just because I know Angle could protect Hogan and still have a pretty decent match), but Hogan/Jarrett would be absolutely pointless.

But what are the damages? Why should the DA take the case? Because they love pointless headaches involving minor celebrities with expensive attorneys?

Did a lot of research before this post, huh? You're 100% wrong, Dwayne Johnson owns "The Rock" trademark. He stopped using it because he wanted to re-invent himself without the stigma the name carried over in mainstream and family friendly movies, which is what he is doing now (and is making far more money doing). Note that Vince McMahon was not an executive producer on Doom, Be Cool, the Gridiron Gang, or the Gameplan, all of which credited either "The Rock" or Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. Johnson bought the trademark sometime after the Rundown, which was 2003.

That Miz promo was flat out incredible. I don't see Miz as ever being a world champion and still think he's the "Christian" to Morrison's "Edge," but that promo was seriously the best thing I've ever seen him do. His improvement by year has been nothing short of meteoric.

Peter Hilton, you are exactly right in your analysis. It's not about how good you are about throwing in a bunch of moves together or how many stars you get on some Canadian's blog, it's about getting people to buy tickets, period. As far as the age-old arguments about "watering down" talent, I can tell you from my own acting experience that working in a black box-style theater is completely different from an audience of over a thousand. In the smaller venue, you can do a lot more subtle emotional beats, and basically get away with film acting- acting with your head only, speaking in your normal voice. At a big venue though, you have to deal with the fact that not everyone can see or hear what you're doing: you have to cheat out more, you have to act with your whole body, you have to project your voice to where everyone can hear you; basically you have to add a lot of unnatural things that "water down" your performance so that people know what the heck is going on. I think in wrestling it's a similar phenomena: you really can't have CM Punk singling out one person in the audience the way he could in a crowd of 500. You can't have an entire match based around mat-wrestling because some fans can barely see what is going on. You have to "cheat out" so the fans can recognize what you are doing while you fake fight somebody. As far as WWE's tendency to bring in their own guys, I think that has a lot to do with the fact that when you train your own people they don't come in with as many bad habits and excess baggage as some indy guys. Again using the film/stage actors analogy, when you've got a non-actor, it's pretty easy to teach them film acting. With someone with stage experience, you basically have to teach them to stop doing things they have been doing unconsciously for years, or you end up with something that looks incredibly stagey/hammy/bad. With the exception of guys that have had runs in the past and guys that have worked in Japan, nobody in the current indy pool today has any real experience working in front of crowds like the WWE's, but some Indy guys get it in their heads that WWE=crap and that they shouldn't have to re-learn things they already know how to do.

Yeah, but look at his debut? He's STILL doing a gimmick that was tired when he went back to it for nostalgia in what, 2004? Six years ago? And the debut didn't showcase his wrestling skills, it basically showed that he has Cute Kip's old job, a guy that was basically a non-speaking manager to a stable of women. I mean, it didn't get Shawn Stasiak a main event push, did it? If you gave Morley a new character, and had him show up and pick up a win over someone on the roster that isn't a jobber, then you'd say "hey, finally Sean Morley is getting a chance to do something different." Instead you've got him debuting in a non-wrestling role doing 13 year old shtick.

I'll see you that and raise you this: This comes from 1996, 14 years ago. Seriously.

Haha I guess calling out completely obvious cheerleading makes me an auto-hater? Seriously, where do you get off? I actually liked some of what I saw of the show, in that train-wreck, these guys need practice, what the hell is going to go wrong now sort of way. It's unpredictable, and that's a good thing. So seriously, stop for just a minute in your pro-TNA trolling and THINK about the things you post. You didn't ask for an opinion, because you don't want a conversation. I'm sure you're aware of the problems TNA has, but calling people that point out their issues a hater just makes your opinion infinitely less valuable on any topic. If you're not interested in conversation, and if you think any criticism at all is bashing, don't contribute. Just put your fingers in your ears and keep your comments to yourself. But I don't need to be told what I like based on an objective post I make in response to blind fanboy-ism.

WWE has always tried to make the first show of the year into a big deal. Why you would equate that with some sort of fear of TNA would be a mystery if you weren't such a giant TNA mark. Seriously, Big Show losing the title to Triple H in WWF's first show of the year 10 years ago could ONLY mean they were terrified of WCW's upcoming Medusa vs. Oklahoma match at that month's Souled Out, right? Seriously correlation =/ causation. If there had been any "swerve" booking, big-time announcements other than what was advertised, or even some casual references or insults of Hogan, I could maybe see some support, but "they put on a good show" really isn't any justification at all.

Yes, yes you are. We've all read your rants about Hardy and they are just as irrelevant now as they ever were. Just let it go. Hey, here is an idea: let him debut against someone that matters even a little bit, to start up a feud? Let him face Morgan, or Lashley, or Steiner, or someone with some small level of main event credibility? Nah, let's have him punk out freaking Homicide on a show that everyone is watching to see Hulk Hogan. Doesn't feel special at all, and it looks like Jeff gets to play in the minor leagues while Hogan does some "which side will he join" shtick where he has to decide which senior citizens' group is right for him. Have people? Has the x-division ever had any fans other than "indy" fans who love spot after meaningless spot thrown together haphazardly? I don't know, I'd just scrap the division and keep the strong tag and knockout divisions, but that's just me. And, as-stated, Hardy's 2009 style is not the X-division style, and if he changes to fit the division it will basically be wiping away 5 years of in-ring improvement to be a 30-some year old spot monkey.

I like the idea of generating interest NOW. The build is good and all but they're not Live often. Obviously they need the practice. Honestly, I love this. I miss train-wreck TV. One of my biggest issues with WWE is everything is too easy to predict. How much you wanna bet Hardy hasn't even signed a contract and/or never wrestles for TNA? It had a lot more to do with the disastrous AOL/Time Warner Merger than the personal preference of Ted Turner. But even then they were bleeding tons of cash, had lost ratings, and were paying a bunch of guys to stay at home. Also why would you automatically assume Lashley is gone? He said he was asking for his release, and did it on TV.

Yeah I guess that's why the crowd was so over and Evan Bourne got probably the biggest pops of his career. Your definition of "no one caring" is certainly an interesting one. Yeah I have to admit I pay a lot more attention to story mechanics and directorial choices than the average movie-goer, but I don't really complain about it the way smarks take issue with every little thing. Also movies aren't a great analogy because they're not episodic the way wrestling is. I don't know many people who watch soaps with the same hyper-critical lens to make sure that the soap stays true to every soap cliche the way wrestling fans demand they see nothing new (and then complain about seeing nothing new).

This would make sense if he were talking about not being critical at all, but I don't think that's what he's saying here. It's not about being bad, it's about applying arbitrary terms you learned in a computer game or on the internet as if they should have some value. "Is Sheamus a main eventer?" "Was the push rushed?" etc. are questions that aren't about the overall quality of the story, they're about how people who know enough to think they know how a business runs can reverse engineer what should have happened. Does this happen in other media? Do crowds at the multi-plex 1) spoil the plot for themselves beforehand and then 2) use their own knowledge of how Hollywood works to say why the movie was bad? And of course, not bad on its own terms, but bad according to an arbitrary set of rules? Even better, do they watch the first quarter of the story, go "this is stupid," and then go on about how they could come up with a better opening act? There's being critical and there's being a smark, and one is not dependent on the other. On the other hand, evaluating the show as a piece of entertainment, listening to the crowd, and ignoring whatever rumor you read in one of wrestling's many illegitimate news source allows you to look at the show for what it is. As far as the show itself, the Little People's Court was a bad idea a few weeks ago, and it was a bad idea now. I gotta give HBK credit for making it at least bearable with some of his reactions and his prat-fall when he was almost pulled under the ring. And really, thatoneguy, worst Raw of the year? Really? Did you miss Verne Troyer's guest-host bit? Jeremy Pivven and Dr. Ken? I mean yeah, Damon was lame, but you still got two great matches out of the show. Cena vs. Swagger was the best Swagger's looked since he was drafted, and the 6 man tag match was excellent, especially Bourne just looking like he was being turned inside-out. [smark]Cena vs. Swagger should've been the main event, instead of the first hour main event.[/smark]

I think a D+ star quality is probably close to being right on for Haas, but Benjamin is easily around a C+. He's obviously flashier and was from the beginning the one that was seen as the star of the team. I'm not saying he should get a great grade or whatever but as a billion time US/Intercontinental champion WWE obviously sees some star quality in him. I think somewhere between B- and C+ sounds about right. My comment on cappyboy's admittedly uninformed opinion is that I disagree mightily. Tajiri's WWE run was phenomenal and he brought fantastic TV matches out of everyone from the Hurricane to Jamie Noble to Test to Goldust. I don't think he'd be particularly necessary in TNA, but they have loads of unnecessary talent already so why not?

Actually I'd argue she had improved significantly during her time in TNA and the indies, but she still wasn't exactly going to get a push ahead of the rest of the Knockouts. Also considering this is presumably related to her knee injury, if she stays in the business for awhile I wouldn't be surprised if she came back. Remember how long LuFisto stayed retired? Not saying it's the same situation, but it wouldn't surprise me to see her come back to the ring considering her age.

This whole discussion is completely a moot point since Jim Ross commented on the "news" with the following: "Crazy email....CM Punk lost the World's Title because of a "dress code" violation. Please, stop the pain."

Uh, what? How is Sheamus similar to Benoit and Mysterio, and not, say.... CM Punk? Remember how he won the title, main evented zero pay per views, but came away looking like a legit main eventer anyway? Mysterio and Benoit both had other problems, namely they didn't look like champions and couldn't cut promos.

On Superstars four months ago. Pretty sure he lost a match or two in his career. The point is, he hasn't lost to any of the big names on Raw, whereas Miz, Legacy, and even Swagger had been on the roster long enough to lose matches to everyone from Kofi Kingston to MVP to Evan Bourne.

I don't think they're finished building him. As I said earlier, it gives WWE an opportunity to do something new with Cena, which is face an opponent he has never been able to beat. I honestly can't relate to anyone who doesn't enjoy Dennis Miller. He's hilarious, his delivery is great, and his jokes are typically packed with references. I felt like he was bringing out some of his B-list material but that's only natural since he can't swear and he's talking to a younger demographic: so you can obtuse references to Kanye instead of 19th Century drama. Also it seemed like everybody else stepped up their comedy game this week. I loved Striker's delivery of "I have seven sisters" and Carlito and Masters' segment was surprisingly excellent. How about a babyface push for Masters? Change his secondary finish to a leaping pectoral press or something. Big Dick Johnson's reading glasses and faux-accent were pretty funny, too. Also I haven't watched Smackdown in awhile, but it seems CM Punk's evil is so great that even a beard cannot contain it.

To use the game's terms, I don't think anyone on ECW would fit into WWE's definition of a "main eventer" with the possible exception of Christian, and even then, he'd be one of the very bottom "main event" guys. WWE's main event right now is basically Cena, Orton, DX, Big Show, Jericho, Punk, Undertaker, Batista, and Mysterio. I'm probably leaving someone out and Edge is likely a main eventer when he gets back, but those are the guys that you see main eventing pay per views, headlining shows, etc. Kofi and Morrison are both very close to that point, and Legacy were on the cusp during their feud with DX. Sheamus hasn't been treated as a main eventer, but it'll be interesting to see how long he holds the title.

If the script had called for it? Yes. I didn't see the match but I figure it was probably more to sell the shock of the moment than an unexpected finish.

I guess I don't understand this. He is a monster heel. Of course he doesn't sell merch (even if he wasn't a monster heel who's only been on the roster for a few months). And I don't even know what you mean by 'works as hard.' What do you want him to do? For those saying a short title reign like this should've gone to Ted DiBiase or someone else who has been around the roster for a few years, I think you're missing the point: Sheamus got the title because he hasn't ever lost to Cena (or anybody on the main roster, as far as I know). This way you can set up a storyline they've never been able to set up before, which is Cena trying to beat a guy that he's never beaten before (although I don't think he ever pinned Undertaker). Part of the common complaint about the Raw title picture is all these guys have faced off before: Cena's beaten Orton and Orton's beaten him, he's beaten Triple H and HBK repeatedly, so while they're all "big" names, it stops being as interesting each month. Now you've got a guy he's had exactly one match with that he hasn't ever beaten. That seems like compelling television to me.

I predict JBL 2.0, only Irish. 10 month reign, here we come! Seriously it's a really good "shock" move by the WWE. I'm definitely going to watch Raw for the first time since MSG.

Please ignore any whooshing sound you may hear passing overhead. No I didn't. I just pointed out that you're making a tired and horribly dated argument. Tell that to Chris Benoit, Rey Mysterio, and all the other one time champions who were such disasterously poor draws that they never got near a world title again. If you think "anyone" can be a draw, you're the one that's ignorant of what being a "draw" actually means. Hint: it doesn't mean that you're pushed into the main event.