The Official TNA / Impact / GFW Discussion Thread

[jesterx7769]

http://pwinsider.com/article/45748/chris-jericho-shoots-on-how-tna-booked-rob-van-dam-last-night.html?p=1

 

Poor RVD didnt even get to finish his thumbs

[Tempest Kane]

after reading your post... jesterx7769... maybe wrestling isnt for you?

 

how about volly ball?

 

And as for how they booked RVD, he got a clean win over Sting in a short match that both made him look like a huge star and protected Sting who... if anyone can remmber a few months ago with AJ can barely work a match over 5mins anymore without getting confused and lost...

 

He then was used to establish Sting as a legitimate heel, Hello... nobody has been able to succesfuly book Sting heel in ... well.. ever. It always fails. This looked like it worked.

 

And to top it off... it setup 2 big money matchs.

 

RVD vs Sting @ Lockdown... and more importantly... Hogan vs Sting for Bound for Glory.

 

Get with the program people, RVD is booked weak on a debut? lol no... your far too inpatient ... he is the whole f'in show and this was a great use of him to set things in motion and despite what the people crying are saying.. in the end, it wont hurt him a single bit.

 

As for Jericho... seems like someone is talking about the competition a bit more than Vinny Mac would like, i expect him to be Joey Styles'd shortly re:twitter.

[jesterx7769]

I actually gave Impact an 8 last week when I did that review pages back.

 

Nice edit

 

I didnt say we wont get good things in the future but that post was about last nights impact and judging it for what it was, like I have been doing. I would also argue about RVD's win being clean, it was pretty tainted. He ambushed him off the turnbuckle and got a quick pin not even giving Sting time to take off his trench coat. I def. hope we get to see Sting/RVD in a real match but thats what I thought we were getting last night, instead we saw more of a Hogan/Sting feud

[Self]

Didn't watch last night (either show) but I'm pretty sure Pope is still getting a title shot at Lockdown. I think that was the plan, they just decided to shove an AJ-Abyss feud in the middle of the AJ-Pope thing. Bit convoluted for my tastes, but there you go.

 

Pope's selling the Pillman-ising more than most folks in modern renditions, but it's a bit ridiculous to hamper one of the few babyfaces who can 'go' with a worked injury. I assume they're trying to give Pope 'sympathy' but Pope was getting over just being Pope

[jesterx7769]

Pope's selling the Pillman-ising more than most folks in modern renditions, but it's a bit ridiculous to hamper one of the few babyfaces who can 'go' with a worked injury. I assume they're trying to give Pope 'sympathy' but Pope was getting over just being Pope

 

That's why I get upset over Pope, as you said he was getting over, Pope cutting good angles made people cheer and now he's in this big mess of getting his ankle/leg broken every other week.

 

I admit I'm harsh about last night but its b/c i was expecting great things and didn't see them, I said I marked out for Sting/RVD but just by having them on the show doesn't make the show as a whole good. We were teased two PPV quality matches and didn't get them (Pope/Wolfe, Sting/RVD) and instead saw two joke matches (JJ's and Young/Waltman) and saw Hogan on TV for an hour out of the two hours.

 

I guess a good question to cheer me up would be what did the people that liked the show like about it specifically to help me look at the positive and get my TNA hope back?

[justtxyank]

Can someone clear something up for me...

 

Why is Abyss getting the title shot at DX instead of Pope?

[MattitudeV2]

Can someone clear something up for me...

 

Why is Abyss getting the title shot at DX instead of Pope?

 

Cause pope's title shot is for Lockdown!

[jesterx7769]

B/c Pope is injured and for some reason when Pope won his title shot it was for Lockdown (which doesnt make sense b/c when you win a title shot, isnt it for the next PPV? unless its the RR of course)

 

yeah I dont have a straight answer for you, I've been trying to justify everything in my head. Next week they better explain it, just have Bischoff say "Since you broke Pope's leg you will now be facing Abyss!" they kinda skipped that step

 

edit: BTW the Ultimate X card does look sweet. Too bad i dont order them hopefully next week has some good set up matches/angles

[Self]

I believe it's always been Lockdown. When Pope won the tournament, they said Lockdown. I was actually shocked that Lockdown wasn't the next PPV on the schedule, but there you go. Nothing changed. The injury, as far as I can tell, has nothing to do with when he's getting his shot. I presume its just a way to get him out of the title picture while Hogan and his special sidekick take center stage.

 

P.S. I'm not a huge Pope fan, but I sure get a kick out of calling him Pope/

[pate]

There was a point during the show were I was expecting Joe's abductor to be revealed as Sting, and then Joe to come out in similar paint. I am very glad this did not happen.

[LoganRodzen]

I could seriously watch The Beautiful People all night I think. Seems like the biggest complaint from everyone is the Knockout tag match. I'm just weak when it comes to three blondies I guess. I've only watched TNA during the live shows they've put on... basically to bring me back to that warm and fuzzy Monday night wrestling feeling, but I know enough that women's tag team titles shouldn't exist in a 'mainstream' company.

 

I noticed that the camera angles seemed way better than the Jan. 4th show. Like I said, I'm not a regular viewer so maybe that's been changed up for a while, but that was always my biggest pet-peeve about TNA. Their production (not talking pyro or other cosmetics) always seems to lack. It didn't as much last night.

[Tempest Kane]

The Pope @ Lockdown thing is real simple... Pope might have been getting over on his own, but i think we can all agree he isnt their YET.

 

So you have him win the title shot, you put it 2 months ahead and you now have time to build this guy, do i agree with how they are doing so? maybe not, but i do agree with why they are doing it. Desmond wolfe is a strong enough heel at this point in the upper midcard that he can get Pope were he needs to be... (if enough screen time is directed at this now side project build).

 

The Pope is pretty unlikely to even go over at Lockdown, but that isnt the point of the the whole situation to start with, the money isnt in the face getting the title, its in the heel holding and the face chasing the strap... but the real point here is to make Pope seem like a legitimate contender in his own right without the need for a plot device like a tourny every time they want him to co-headline a ppv.

 

Pope now needs a month of solid matchs under him with Desmond and a varity of additional fly by night heel debuts over the next few impacts to just put him in the right spot for Lockdown, he then likely needs to heel turn again after lockdown and get a decent run under him of atleast 6-8 months.... and by the time he turns face again, THEN he will be ready.

 

But again too much impatience. Pope isnt their yet. He isnt even close... this isnt the end of the story... this is page one for him... stop trying to skip to the end people

 

EDIT: BTW... About RVD again, by the sounds of his recent blog on what it would take for him to sign with a company, the guy atleast has some percentage of control of his character and use, i wont go as far as to say he has creative control... but he wouldnt let himself be used in any way that didnt make him feel comfotable, bare that in mind folks.

[djthefunkchris]

EDIT: BTW... About RVD again, by the sounds of his recent blog on what it would take for him to sign with a company, the guy atleast has some percentage of control of his character and use, i wont go as far as to say he has creative control... but he wouldnt let himself be used in any way that didnt make him feel comfotable, bare that in mind folks.

 

That really wouldn't change anyone's opinion on anything... except on how smart they think RVD is.

[dcxbox]

i loved the main event, rvd had an awesome debut which instantly sets up rvd sting, and also pushes sting as a heel (finally i love heel sting, this is his first real heal run since hot stuff international in uwf, jcp ) hogan sting seems like may happen, that will prob be on ppv, but i hope they build it for tv. tna can afford to give big matches away right now, as ppvs aren't making a lot for them, and they need to get more viewers .

 

each week its looking like we will see a new horsemen group. flair, aj style wolfe, i hope maybe beer money is added.

[Fleisch]

Now i have been a big fan of TNA since day 1 and have wanted to see them succeed (I still do) but if last nights Impact is the best they can do, forget it. I am so sick of every 5 minutes Hulk Hogan appearing on screen. It isn't needed and I don't care what anyone else says. AJ Styles looks like a bag of crap champion. He doesn't NEED Flair. Oh Flair and Hogan are legends, there's no mistake, thing about legEND. Who didn't see the Hogan/Abyss v Flair/AJ match ending up as the main event? Yeah they opened the show... spent an hour during the rest of the show involved somehow and then bam! Main Event match as well. Seriously. Hogan is full of crap if he expects anyone to think he has TNA's best interests at heart. Hogan cares about Hogan, period. I know the argument is always gonna be "TNA needs Hogan/Flair/Nash/Angle etc.... to succeed". Well sorry but after 7+ years if you've not been able to get any of your other stars over by that time, give up. AJ has beaten Angle, Sting etc, he's a great talent and was building his character and reputation, now he's "A Nature Boy"? Please. Like AJ needs Flair to get over. Bottom line is this... if TNA had the exposure of WWE (which on Spike it never will) then they have the better talent pool and would stand a chance when it comes time to go head to head with WWE, but they don't and not 90 minutes of Hogan bumbling about like a geriatric without his walking stick or the eccentric grandaddy Flair is going to mask that fact. Blading is becoming retarded, I don't need to see a near 60 year old man bleed to make me think "wow... I gotta watch next week to see what happens" it makes me think "well that sucked. Screw watching it next week".

 

To ANYONE who thinks TNA are going to catch WWE, you're dreaming... and that's coming from someone who can't stand the WWE product. well quite frankly I can't stand either company at the minute which is a shame because i was really entertained when I tuned into Impact. I'm no "smark" so don't even pull that card on me because I'll just chuck it back at you with an "idiot card" as a bonus, I'm not a mark either. I'm a fan of wrestling who has had enough of being fed nothing but **** for the past 2 or 3 months. Wouldn't surprise me if Hogan and Flair were on the WWE payroll to ensure TNA doesn't succeed (ok so thats doubtful but you get the feeling when Hogan tells you the TNA product now is better than it was before he turned up. That's BS.)

 

The above is my opinion. I don't expect you to agree, everyone is entitled to their opinion.

[jesterx7769]

I dont think last night hurt RVD's image, Sting is one of top wrestlers over the past 20 years and the biggest modern age star not to be in the 'E, and it may build to something in the future. But personally I watched it live (instead of DVR'ing so I can skip commercials like usual) was to see Sting and RVD debut, and you have to admit it wasn't the best way to debut the hottest free agent in your first live Monday show going to head to head. And actually what really killed it for me was Hogan coming in b/c it made it a Sting/Hogan feud instead of a RVD/Sting feud, if Sting beats up RVD then walks away, we have "why did Sting beat up RVD? Will RVD get revenge?" now its why did Sting attack Hogan, and oh yeah, the hottest free agent has been lying in the ring for 10 minutes, welcome to TNA!

 

I agree with you on the Pope thing though since I didnt think he deserved to be the #1 contender yet either, but kinda like you said, its a bit odd how they've gone about getting him over by having him break his ankle twice, and I think if they just would have had Wolfe/Pope feud for the past months would have worked better. As I said, it just upsets they make him the #1 contender, let him do a great in ring promo against Flair, then never mention it again while Abyss gets pushed to the moon

 

EDIT: Fleisch, as you can see by my previous page post I agree with you!

[TommyDreamerFan]

Going back to what I said earlier, about Sting/RVD being equals in terms of name value. I mean it's not like they did the same angle and fed RVD to Samoa Joe. Both wrestlers are known to the casual fan, and thats the important thing.

 

Also stop bitching that RVD got beaten down for ten minutes. There is no shame in getting beaten down by Sting!

 

I figure after Destination-X, Abyss will be pushed off to the side for the moment and Pope will be thrust out into the spotlight.

 

Also, and this is something I humbly believe in, is that with the wrestling product you can't look into it as deeply as we all do. We're die hards, we're watching this show like "omg how are they gonna pull this off? What's happening here? What competeing with this on the other show?" and I honestly don't believe the main-fanbase, the casual wrestling fan cares at all about that. Their sheep in fact! I don't think they tune into the WWE for any other reason then the fact the WWE's name is on it.

 

Literally all TNA has to do to catch up to the WWE is stick around long enough and get the WWESheep to be interested. They have RVD, Jeff Hardy, Hulk Hogan, Kurt Angle, Mr. Kennedy.... That really a creme de la creme of names and talent. Its just a matter of getting them to flick over to Spike.

[Hyde Hill]

That really wouldn't change anyone's opinion on anything... except on how smart they think RVD is.

 

He got into a program with TNA's second/third biggest known mainstream name. Who has a boatload of heat of a heel turn right of the bat. If I am RVD I am happy. With Angle and AJ occupied and Hogan being a face this is great for him. Now the execution could have been better but it was good for what it was.

[dvdWarrior]

I thought the show was pretty darn good myself, (of course TNA hasn't really set too high of a bar in recent years). To me, they've done a good job at creating some believable heat between a few wrestlers, and that's step one on the road to greatness. My first guess is that Sting is still upset at the thought that WCW brought in Hogan way back when and that Hogan essentially took his spot, and now Dixie's brought Hogan into TNA so that history can repeat itself. That's the impression I got from that particular angle anyway, it may pan out that I'm wrong, but if I'm right, then it sounds pretty believable to me.

 

Hope I got all that out all right - I typed it in kind of a hurry.

 

Anywho, I think they created some pretty good heat for some characters last night, and I'm happy with that.

 

Dunno about replacing Kaz in the X-Title match at 'Designation-X' with Shannon Moore though. I like Moore, but I'm not sure putting a guy who's won like 5 matches in the last 10 years, (or so it seems), in the number one contender's spot is the best spotlight for the division.

 

Think that's about all I have for now.

[TheOmniWarrior]

Abyss needs to crawl into a corner and die.

TNA has Mick Foley they dont need a parody of Mankind with a ring that gives him super powers.

[dvdWarrior]

TNA has Mick Foley they dont need a parody of Mankind with a ring that gives him super powers.

 

I was actually thinking the ring thing might be step one of a long-range masterplan - Hogan gave his HOF ring to Abyss, Flair could give his ring to AJ Styles, if Macho Man ever gets into the HOF, they'll bring him in to give his ring to Black Machismo, Stone Cold will join TNA and give his ring to Shark Boy, and, (if The Steiners ever get into the Hall), Scott Steiner can give his ring to a returning Little Petey Pump.

 

It's all part of an incredible Captain Planet-style storyline that will catapult TNA to insurmountable ratings dominance.

 

"By Your Powers Combined, I AM THE ULTIMATE WARRIOR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

 

No?

 

[justtxyank]

LOL

 

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

[TheOmniWarrior]

They need to have Christopher Daniels suddenly obsessed with unmasking Shark Boy... or Suicide

[sebsplex]

For all of the hype around what Hogan was going to bring to TNA, it still lacks one of the WWE's main strengths. A really simple one.

 

Focus.

 

Seriously, I've watched every edition of Impact since Hogan's arrival was announced (and how ever many before that) and the focus is still all over the place. Storylines that start, disappear, reappear 3 weeks later, have a big setpiece, have no conclusion, no payoff, etc. Characters who seem to change personalities as if some has hit a switch in between segments. For as much as the WWE can deservedly be criticised for a lot of it's repetitive, paint-by-numbers, style of booking. They keep it simple and consistent. Most feuds and storyline have some sort of place or plot point each week. TNA is still all over the shop, whether it be the pointless pseudo-shoot Bobby Lashley "I want to quit, I'll beat up everyone if you don't let me quit, actually I don't want to quit, but now I'm fired anyway" story or AJ's 'mystery' attacker turns out to be Tomko pre-loaded with taped video segments from Tomko saying he was the masked attacker before their 'impromtu' match booked the same night... it just seems such on-the-fly booking.

 

Take the Orlando Screwjob that meant virtually nothing a whole week later and the only thing it achieved was a reason to keep Earl Hebner off TV and make Hogan (eventually) trusted to Kurt. Kurt doesn't trust Hogan, Kurt thinks Hogan had Pac and Hall attack him, Kurt hates Hogan, Hogan tells Kurt he can trust him, Hogan 'screws' Kurt, Kurt forgives him, Hogan beats up The Band, The Band don't really seem to care afterwards, Kurt starts feud with Anderson, Hogan befriends Abyss... that's a lot of work to establish so little.

 

I like RVD, I like Hardy, heck I even like Moore, but where the heck do they all go? TNA can't even give half their roster TV-time at the moment, yet they just keep packing the names in there and it's hurting their momentum (too much TEW, I know). For instance, 2 weeks ago The Band take out Nash and EY. The following week, we get 'hype' to tune in next week to see what Nash and EY's 'thoughts' are on the subject!? MCMG lose to Generation Me, then don't show up for what, 2 weeks? Kendrick debuts and then isn't seen again until a six man tag match weeks later, then disappears for another week or so, etc, etc.

 

I could ramble more, but I won't. I like TNA and generally I'm enjoying it far more than the WWE in the past year, but I struggle to see them reeling in and keeping so many casual viewers with shows that sometimes feel like they barely follow on from one another.

 

I also agree that Flair really isn't bringing much to AJ. He was a far stronger character and champion before his heel turn. If anything, Flair would have been more use to Daniels.

[jesterx7769]

While I have calmed down and tried to be more optimistic this just made me laugh. I go to pwinsider for news and I read the guys article on Impact. he starts it by saying how it was the best impact since the new year and before that, yet he goes on to not like 9 of the segments, likes 4 of them, and says 2 are okay, lol is that really a "best show"? I think someone is overusing best

 

edit: I emailed him and he emailed back saying he didn't like 90% of the past Impacts and it was his favorite since the Nash books Impact episode. So it seems someone doesn't like TNA