Greetings conversationalists all across the fruited plain, it is I your personal Harvester of Sorrow the one and only Phantom Lord and this is the all mighty Rant Of The Week. As always I am coming to you from my above ground bunker in the rotten apple that is Brooklyn, New York. I must say the heat seems to be getting worse this summer if that is all possible. To make things even more fun, Mother Nature is screwing with the New York City area. There have been many big thunderstorms over the last couple of weeks and 95% of them some how managed to miss the city all together. But I am making the most of what I have to keep cool. I do my part for the city’s way over burdened electrical grid and I keep my AC off during the day.
Now you might be asking yourself what the heck does any of this have to do with what’s going on in the WWE or TNA? Well nothing really. This is my column and I just like to blow off some steam in the opening tirade. Besides with the headache that is TNA it’s best I release my built up anger in small doses rather then go thermonuclear all at once. Though there is a good chance that might happen especially with this “ECW but we can’t call it ECW” invasion they are doing.
But before I get to that there is some other stuff of interest going on in the world of wrestling.
In an interview with the San Diego Union-Tribune, former wrestling champion Bill Goldberg said he wants one final wrestling match because he wants his family to see him wrestle live. "If the money was right, I'd go out there and do it in two seconds," Goldberg said. "I'd have to be totally prepared for it, because I wouldn't want to tarnish my image, but I'd like to be in the ring one more time so that my wife and my son can see me wrestle live." He also discussed his love/hate relationship with the wrestling industry in the interview. "I don't ever want to say that I miss anything about the wrestling business," Goldberg said. "I miss the ability to put a smile on a kid's face, more than one at a time. That was a true charge for me."
Credit to NoDQ for posting this
I have to admit that I did laugh when I read, “I don’t want to tarnish my image”. What image would that exactly be Bill? The one where you were so sloppy in the ring that you destroyed the career of Bret Hart in an instant? Well at least he isn’t bullshitting anyone when he says he’d only do it for the money. To be honest I’d love to see Goldberg come back and spear some people but I doubt it will ever happen. McMahon probably wouldn’t give Goldberg the absurd amount of money he thinks he’s worth. And TNA couldn’t afford what Goldberg thinks he’s worth. Some Japanese promotion probably would shell out a close to seven figure deal for him though so if Goldberg ever wrestled again odds are it would be in Japan before anywhere else in the world.
Maybe Bill should finally try his hand at MMA. Who wouldn’t love to see Goldberg vs. Batista? He could easily get a shit load of money from Strikeforce for that train wreck. It would be way better then the possible Batista/Lashley match in the future if Batista takes the MMA plunge. Though part of me wants to see Goldberg vs. Cena at Wrestlemania. Say it happened next year in Atlanta. The old WCW faithful would boo Cena and his wannabe jarhead act right out of the Georgia Dome if he were facing Goldberg. While a Japanese promotion could easily give Goldberg the money he wants, Goldberg vs. Cena would do an insane buyrate. It would probably be worth the $54.95 to see Goldberg spear the fuck out of Cena and then Jackhammer him. That wouldn’t happen, but it would be fun to see.
Speaking of Cena, there are rumors on the Internet that the WWE might finally be willing to turn him heel. Only instead of him going heel in the way we want him to (i.e. ripping on everyone for turning on him when he went all corporate) it would be him being revealed to be the leader of The Nexus. Now Nexus is doing pretty well for it self right now so I don’t see how Cena being the mastermind behind it all would exactly work.
For Summerslam Cena has put together a team of guys to take on The Nexus. It’s going to be him, Jericho, Edge, Morrison, Truth, Khali, and Bret Hart as the final man on the team. Most people think Ricky Steamboat would have been the final man had he not suffered a burst capillary on his brain (the WWE still refuses to admit it was probably one of the moves he took in the Nexus beating that caused it). I think it’s fairly obvious that they are setting up for a huge swerve in this match where the real Nexus leader will be revealed. Bret Hart makes the most logical sense for him to be the one leading them. Bret held a grudge for all those years. You really didn’t think him beating the piss out of Vince would be the end of it. Of course a lot can happen between now and then. We all know how Vince has his mood swings and what was written in stone ends up getting torn up and they start over from scratch.
Congratulations go out to Bret Hart as he tied the knot for the third time over the weekend as he married a 27-year-old woman by the name of Stephanie Washington of San Francisco. Bret’s had a lot of up’s and down’s over the last decade and he’s come back from every last one of them. So as a life long fan of The Hitman I can only wish the happy couple all the best. What ever happens at Summerslam it should be interesting to see Bret’s involvement in the match since it’s now a 7 on 7 Elimination match. I’m going to guess it will come down to Bret and Cena vs. The Nexus since Cena will no doubt try to over come the odds. I’ll be the happiest person in the world if Bret kicks Cena in the balls and then locks on the Sharpshooter after The Nexus have beaten him silly.
The only other interesting match at the moment that has been announced for Summerslam is Sheamus vs. Randy Orton. Orton has been on FIRE lately as the crowds are going apeshit for him. The RKO was always a cool move, but now it’s really the new Stone Cold Stunner. It can come out of nowhere and when he hits it everyone goes insane. I’m really torn on whom to support in this match because on the one hand Orton is great. But on the other so is Sheamus. I just love it when he calls people FELLA. The X factor in this match is how The Miz will be involved as for the last two weeks he’s been itching to cash in his MITB briefcase only for it to be foiled each time.
If you said a few years ago that The Miz would be a potential WWE Champion I think everyone would have said you are crazy. Now he’s a cashing in moment away from that happening. There was a report that The Miz is in the good graces of those who matter in the WWE because he has been doing everything John Cena did to get where he is now. Basically The Miz makes every corporate appearance he can for the WWE, does a lot of publicity, and kisses the ass of the right people. Hey I’m not going to complain about that because The Miz really is a Goldmine waiting to be tapped so I am glad he is getting this chance to shine. It would be awesome if The Miz cashed at Summerslam but I think it depends on who wins the match. If Sheamus some how beats Orton it’s got to be almost a lock that The Miz will finally cash in and win the title. If he cashes in on Orton he’ll be the first person to lose when cashing in. Either way it should be fun to see what happens.
Over on Smackdown Kane is finally having a long over due run as World Champion. While the whole “who attacked the Undertaker” story is getting a bit silly since it’s obvious Kane is going to say “IT WAS ME” at some point, I’m glad Kane shocked the world and won MITB. Honestly with Kane in that match I figured he would come close but end up losing to Drew McIntyre. It was fun to see him cash in on Rey Mysterio later that night. Kane has been around for so long and he’s always been one of the most reliable guys in the WWE. So to see him finally get a real run as champion is great. Plus Kane is a fighting Libertarian. He was on Freedom Watch with Judge Andrew Napolitano on Fox Business over the weekend. I think it honestly shocks people how intelligent he is. Outside of wrestling, Kane has been blogging under the name of Citizen X for a while. Kane really has come a long way from being that guy with the stupid voice box. I just hope he gets a lengthy title run.
Check out http://www.adventuresofcitizenx.com
Of course Kane’s title run hinges on how long The Undertaker is out of action. When I said the whole who attacked The Undertaker story was silly, I was really referring to the whole “vegetative state” part of it. In the real world the longer one is in a vegetative state the less hope there is for that person to come out of it. It will be amusing if it does come out that Kane did it all along. I’d love to see Matt Striker explain how Kane was the Claus Von Bulow of the WWE. It’s going to be dumb when it happens but it should be at least amusing to watch. Personally I’m holding out hope for The Biker Taker coming back but I doubt he will.
Moving along to TNA, right now they are doing an ECW invasion because apparently the corpse of ECW still had a little bit of blood to be sucked out of it. As a fan watching TNA do an ECW invasion is really maddening to watch. TNA first off is dancing a fine legal line because the WWE owns all the trademarks and copyrights for ECW so TNA can’t even use the name ECW. I’m sure Vince if he wanted he could file a cease and desist the week before the PPV but right now I don’t think they really care enough to do so. TNA really is that person who exists just in the hope they can get the cool persons attention but they never do. So here they are being a full blown nostalgia promotion and don’t get me wrong, I love nostalgia as much as the next person. But like so many classic rock bands who still record great new music I would rather see Tommy Dreamer, Raven, and the others do something new then just take an easy paycheck and rehash something that’s been rehashed all ready.
Apparently Tommy Dreamer is booking this whole thing and I’ll give Tommy some credit. Despite all the bullshit he still cuts some of the best baby face promos. After watching Tommy break down on Impact and do a really good Glenn Beck impersonation, despite all my reservations for why this is such a horrible idea the fan in me was like GO GET EM TOMMY. I can’t explain it but for probably many others and me Tommy has this ability to connect on a personal level with the fans. If you are a fan of his you want to see him overcome the odds. Tommy can take a beating better then anyone else and he can just draw you into the match as you root for him. That’s what wrestling needs. It needs people you can get behind to root for. But this whole ECW thing is just such a bad sign of desperation on TNA’s part. I hope it’s somewhat of a success for TNA because if it is then maybe Tommy can do some more booking on the show. Some people shit on Tommy’s booking abilities based on his stint in OVW. I never saw that stuff but you know what…what TNA is doing now is not working. It hasn’t been working for a long time now. A desperate change is needed and I’d rather see Tommy get a shot then them just stay with what they are doing now.
I know it will never happen and Dixie is as stubborn as Vince McMahon. But one can hope and dream. TNA landing Paul Heyman will probably not happen because Dixie refuses to give Heyman the power to fire people from the last reports on the situation. Now maybe something has changed between then and now, but at the moment it looks like the messiah of extreme won’t be crossing the line.
Hey that was a nice one liner. I do surprise myself sometimes.
Heyman was right in his criticism of TNA in that their biggest problem is not creative but the fact no one knows whom the hell they are. Look at TNA’s buyrates. Allegedly the last few ppv’s have been doing UNDER 10,000 buys. Apparently things are so bad that there isn’t even that many people bothering to stream them for free. I think that should be huge alarm bells that if people can’t even be bothered to basically steal the broadcast that it tells you what the interest level in the product really is.
TNA’s Nielsen ratings are usually between 0.9 and 1.15 give or take. About one and a half million people watch Impact every week. For a network like Spike that’s actually a pretty respectable number. But the problem is TNA gives people no reason what so ever to want to fork over $34.95 for a PPV. They give everything away for free on television and when they do that they don’t even bother hyping it. If the numbers are correct then this means less the 1% of the TNA viewing audience bothers to order a TNA PPV.
Dixie and company must be certifiably insane or perhaps on drugs or both if they think their current business model is a good one. It really is like a broken record because a lot of us on the net have been saying this stuff over and over and over and over and over and BAH GAWD OVER. But the people in charge of TNA are content in continuing to drive the company right into the ground. Sure they do something’s right, but most of it is just so idiotic.
Take for example this “PPV Quality TV Special” planned for the Impact after the Hardcore Justice PPV on August 8th.
According to prowrestling.net, there are plans to tape a special edition of TNA Impact the night after the Hardcore Justice PPV. Essentially, the idea is that it will be a "free PPV" event. The working title is "The Whole Fn' Show" and all the matches will be PPV-quality with no storylines/skits.
You really can’t make this sort of stuff up when it comes to TNA.
WHAT IS THE FUCKING POINT OF DOING A PPV IF YOU ARE GOING TO ESSENTIALLY DO ONE FOR FREE A COUPLE OF NIGHTS LATER???
The best part about this mess is this show will be headlined by RVD vs. Abyss in a “Stairway To Janet” match. In case you’ve missed it, over the last month or so Abyss has been carrying around a 2x4 covered in nails that he calls Janet. So far Janet has lost to the ring canvas, the turnbuckles, and a side of beef. It’s basically the old Stairway to Hell match from ECW. I really hate Abyss right now. There was a time when it could be argued he was actually one of the best big men in wrestling. Now he’s a fucking parody of a joke. I really hope Abyss loses this match so he can just go far far FAR away. Abyss being this gigantic psycho retard is just horrible and the whole Janice think makes him look even more stupid if that is even possible.
I just still can’t believe they are doing this show a couple of days after the PPV. Granted it could be a test run for possible Clash Of The Champions shows in the future but like they say, timing is everything and this timing just sucks. The one thing that annoys me about this TNA ECW thing is it is doing NOTHING to build up people in TNA. The good thing about ECW was you would always get a couple of show case matches on the card. Where the hell is that for this show? Why isn’t Samoa Joe who is clearly the new Taz on this show? Why isn’t Homicide who clearly would be the new New Jack on it? If Sabu were on the show I’d love to see him take on Jeff Hardy. I’m glad some of the old ECW guys are getting a much-needed paycheck but Jesus you could easily do some ECW/TNA matches here.
See it’s stuff like this I’m sure they didn’t even think about. Well I’m sure they thought about it but someone probably said it wouldn’t work so they said the hell with it.
Dixie seriously. What ever Paul Heyman wants I can do it for half the price and I can do it a hell of a lot quicker. TNA has my contact information buried somewhere so I’m just putting it out there in case this doesn’t work.
There is a lot of stuff I am not covering simply because it hasn’t aired yet. I really wish TNA would move to doing shows live on Thursday nights. I know a lot of people probably base their decision to watch TNA solely on how the spoilers look.
Well the wrestling fan part of my brain is willing to give all of this a chance. But the cynical jilted part of it is realistic and odds are this might be a disaster. The only match announced at the moment for the PPV is RVD vs. Jerry Lynn in a non-title bout. That should at least be a good match because Jerry can still go and RVD always had some of his best matches against him. Apparently TNA will be announcing on the website after Impact some of the names that will be on the show. It’s not like that should be on television or anything.
I mean seriously could you imagine the WWE even for a weak PPV telling people “oh by the way go to WWE.com to find out who’s going to be on this thing…”. It would NEVER happen. The Internet is a good marketing tool but it’s nothing compared to the power of television. And they wonder why no one bothers to order the PPV’s. Paul if you do get an offer you cannot refuse you really have your work cut out for you to clean up this mess.
On that note I think I am done for this week. I’m a depressed enough person as it is and thinking about TNA honestly depresses me even more.
Before I go I want to share a link with you my loyal readers. My friend Trin has a page on the art site RedBubble. http://www.redbubble.com/people/rushingtide
She is an amazing writer and artist with photography and photo manipulation. She has some amazing art pieces for sale on this site, so maybe if you see something you think is really cool then place an order. I personally bought a copy of her piece called “Bleeding Me”. Metallica song titles are a recurring theme in her art pieces. You can’t go wrong with that.
So until next time remember someone has to give you this information and it DAMN well has got to be
You can click here to send me any and all feedback at phantomlordnyc@yahoo.com or leave me some feedback on my Facebook page under my given name http://www.facebook.com/josephrd
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Tuesday, July 06, 2010
The Rant Of The Week: Paul Heyman's Midas Touch
Greetings conversationalists all across the fruited plain, it is I your personal Harvester of Sorrow the one and only Phantom Lord and this is The Rant Of The Week. There’s a lot of stuff going on in the world of wrestling so you can imagine I will have plenty to say. First summer is officially here and the Big Apple is the Baked Apple right now. Summer is here and good lord is it hot.
First off congratulations are in order to Brock Lesnar as he defeated Shane Carwin by submission (yes you read that right) to become the UNDISPUTED UFC Heavyweight Champion of the world. It was a hell of a fight as Carwin beat the living shit out of Brock in the first round, but since Shane hasn’t gone past the first round in any fight Brock may have gambled with the biggest game of rope a dope ever. Shane was clearly gassed and Brock got a take down and eventually he locked in an arm choke. Shane Carwin tapped just as his head started going from red to purple.
For a minute, Dana White probably was biting his nails as Brock was getting the bejesus beaten out of him. Brock is the UFC’s golden boy and for a couple of minutes in round one it looked like karma was coming back to Dana for mocking Strikeforce after Fedor’s loss last week. But all is well in the UFC as Brock is back. He recovered from an illness that almost killed him and he reclaimed his throne. See now that is what we call compelling television. I guarantee Vince McMahon was probably watching the PPV or has by this point because he knows even though he claims there is no competition (ITS TWO DIFFERENT THINGS DAMN IT), UFC is the reason all the adult male fans are leaving wrestling in droves. Well that and booking things for kids and watering everything down to the point where even the most die hard of fans says this is stupid.
But Vince will never buy that. The people that kiss his ass under him will continue to say “Oh well its two different audiences…no need to worry about those 1 Million buys boss”. It’s amazing how even a bad throw away UFC PPV out does most WWE PPV’s by a wide margin. The WWE’s solution to everything being bland is MORE GIMMICKS. Another cookie cutter PPV is coming up this time in the form of Money In The Bank. I guess the train wreck spot at Wrestlemania is now gone for the guys who would otherwise never get on the PPV because the WWE has decided to do a PPV with not one but TWO in the same night.
Does the word burnout not even mean anything to these people? A match that was actually interesting and worth the wait till Wrestlemania now will happen twice in one night. It’s no wonder no one actually orders PPV’s anymore. They keep jacking up the price but not the effort in making one want to actually pay to see it.
Paul Heyman gave a pretty good interview to Fight Magazine after the Lesnar/Carwin fight where he noted that Pro Wrestling fans are now UFC fans.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDOcy7GlhYQ
UFC is the WWE and Strikeforce is TNA. UFC is the multi million-dollar giant and Strikeforce is the well-funded yet seemingly inept competition. UFC has the dominant place in the market and Strikeforce is doing everything they can to get a foot in the door. He said in another interview with www.mmafighting.com that UFC did more PPV buys domestically then all of Professional Wrestling did world wide. It’s not hard to understand why. But I am sure there are people all over the wrestling industry who still don’t get it and it’s only a passing fad. I know Ric Flair said as much in an interview from a couple of weeks ago. Then again Flair probably only said that because some guys in the UFC make a fight what he used to in a year. With three divorces and alimony’s to pay, he is a tad bitter.
Speaking of Paul Heyman, right now TNA is betting everything on an ECW invasion angle in the hopes that Paul Heyman will come to TNA and save them from the fate of WCW before them.
TNA officials have gotten more aggressive over the past week or two when it comes to signing Paul Heyman. As noted before, Heyman has been offered the head of TNA creative job but Heyman wants a role where he’s the guy running everything, something similar to Dana White in UFC. It was also noted that he sees the creative side of things as a problem but not the biggest problem.
Credit: F4WOnline.com
If Paul wants the keys to the TNA kingdom then HAND THEM TO HIM. Paul should make it Iron Clad where no one can under cut you or sabotage his work. But as bad as TNA’s creative team is, it’s not the biggest problem there is. The biggest problem TNA has is no one knows whom the fuck they are. TNA has some of the worst promotion, which is amazing considering they have a great TV Pitchman in Don West on the payroll. How many people bought Mark McGwire rookie cards because of him? Are you telling me he can’t be on television at least shilling matches and up coming events?
TNA relies heavily on the Internet, which is nice, but the Internet only goes so far and I’m pretty sure this is what is meant by “not the biggest problem” or at least one of them. TNA does these great Before The Bell specials sort of like UFC’s Countdown To shows but unlike the UFC ones, Before The Bell ends up on Youtube and not on Spike where it should be.
Before a PPV why isn’t there at least a special on Spike to entice people to order the show? Well I know one reason why. It’s because TNA thinks TV Ratings are more important then PPV buys. See it’s that kind of thinking that if Paul Heyman does sign with TNA needs to be the first thing to go.
I could list a whole bunch of things wrong with TNA just from a production standpoint. I am sure Paul has these very things down on a list and if he does sign they will be first things addressed. Anyway you look at it, Paul knows rebuilding TNA from the inside out won’t be an overnight thing. If he were to take on such a thing, he has made it clear it has to be worth the sacrifice to his family. It could possibly be a five-year project to turn TNA in a company that is worth a damn…much less one that is making money and lots of it.
On Friday night TNA held a show here in Brooklyn at MCU Park where the Brooklyn Cyclones play and they drew their biggest North American paid attendance with between 5,500 and 6,000 fans. I was in attendance and I have to say the difference between the television shows and these house shows is astounding.
I have said a lot of horrible things about Jeff Jarrett over the years and I think I would like to take some of them back right now. Jarrett books the house shows and from top to bottom it was pretty damn good. No bullshit angles, no nonsense, and no nothing usually associated with TNA. It was a good old fashion professional wrestling card top to bottom. It’s such a novel concept to do pro wrestling that it could just work for them if they tried it.
Despite what you might think given my generally negative attitude towards TNA, I want to see them succeed. Obviously there are 6,000 other people here in the New York City area that wants to see them succeed as well.
Just a sample of the pics from the show that I personally took with my vastly outdated Nikon Coolpix 885. I pushed the limits of the ZOOM to its breaking point. If you are inclined to, on Facebook I have more photos from the show.
But look at that crowd. There is a fan base and it is willing to continue to support TNA. Now I don’t know if Paul Heyman will be the Messiah some make him out to be. Does he have the Midas touch to turn everything into Gold? I don’t know. But one thing is for sure here. What TNA is doing right now is not working. What TNA has been doing for the last eight damn years has not worked and it will continue not to work. TNA has the wrestlers with the talent to pull things off. TNA is like a gigantic ship that is loaded to the gills right now. But it has no one at the wheel and its just going in circles over and over and over. People in TNA who probably read this column know that is a fact.
Ah well we shall see what happens. There is a rumor floating around that Hulk Hogan is pushing for Abyss to win the TNA title at Victory Road so he can face him for it at Bound For Glory.
I don’t want to get all conspiratorial here; but the show was rumored to be in Charlotte and built around Flair suddenly gets moved to Tampa and Hogan is pushing for a title shot.
Well I’d probably order the PPV just to see it. There would be a lot of betting pools on how many bumps Hogan takes before his back finally breaks into a million pieces. Hogan doing a thumbtack bump is an amusing thought. Who would have ever guessed when Hogan was bullshitting about being up for the role of Randy The Ram that it would actually come true? Hogan’s back is seriously messed up and he has to be INSANE to think this would possibly work. Well we know he’s all ready insane, but there’s different levels of insanity and he’s going off the deep end if he thinks this is a good idea assuming the rumor is true.
But then again it wouldn’t surprise me if it were. I mean you really didn’t think Hogan was putting over Abyss with out thinking of himself in the long run did you? Hulk Hogan only puts someone over so long as it makes him look better in the long run. We shall see what happens. I really hope TNA doesn’t do something that stupid but knowing them will.
That would be a fun question to ask Paul Heyman. Say he does get an offer he cant refuse from TNA and he comes in just as Hogan is crowned champion. How in the hell does he fix that kind of mess?
In case you haven’t noticed, TNA has been using the likes of Tommy Dreamer, Raven, and Stevie Richards as part of some sort of angle where they just show up in the crowd and watch a match and then disappear. Apparently a few months ago TNA had some sort of focus group do market research and the one thing that came back in unison was people liked ECW.
Well no shit. Everyone loved ECW. But its 2010 and while we still love Tommy Dreamer, Raven, Stevie, and the others…I don’t want to see a rehash of a rehash of a rehashed angle.
See what people liked was the ECW show it self. Lots of wrestling and minimal bullshit. Anything that happened of importance happened inside the ring and not in some pre-taped sketch in the back. Hell I would take Mid 80’s Memphis Wrestling over ECW. It’s not that hard to figure out what works and what does not. It’s all about the build to the big match. You have to get us emotionally invested into wanting to see say Jay Lethal overcome weeks and weeks of punishment to get the big win and revenge over Fortune.
TNA would end up doing something that could last weeks in one or two shows and that is the problem.
ECW was old school in the sense it was all about the build to the big ECW Arena show. Sure there was more violence but there was plenty of old school stuff to tug on the old heartstrings. That is what TNA needs to do in a nutshell.
Abyss keeps referring to “THEY”. Well I hope “they” turn out to be the ECW guys and “they” end up beating the crap out of him. Abyss would have never been worth a damn in the real ECW. What he needs to do is just go to Japan or CZW all ready and win some deathmatch stuff. I’d rather see a Youtube clip of Abyss taking a swan dive into a pile of light tubes in some parking lot then it happening on Impact.
Moving along to the more ridiculous stuff in the news, this one really made me laugh when I read it. Read it yourselves and I’m sure you’ll have the same reaction.
The Wrestling Observer is reporting that Vince McMahon has banned the "knife edge" chop from use in WWE matches. The chop, which was made famous by Ric Flair, generally gets a "woo" reaction from the crowd after it's used by a wrestler, and Vince does not want the crowd woo'ing as it of course reminds them of Flair, who works for TNA right now. It should be noted that straight down chops like the ones used by The Great Khali and Big Show are still being allowed as they don't draw a "woo" reaction from the fans.
Vince McMahon might be the best promoter in all of wrestling, but he really is a schmuck sometimes and this is one of those times. What is next? Do you ban punches because it might remind someone of Hogan or someone else who’s on the McMahon shitlist? Though apparently this rule has been in place for a while now but only Flair and Shawn Michaels were allowed to do them.
There is a solution though for this. I suggest everyone who is reading this column who is going to some sort of WWE event in the future, anytime Show or anyone else does an open hand slap you have to do a WOOOOOOOOOOOOO. Hell you should just do it at random times to really drive them nuts. It’s always fun to screw with the audio and make them dump out entire sections of the crowd if they aren’t reacting the way they want to.
The Nexus Angle continues to be the best thing the WWE has going right now even though it almost got cut off at the knees last week when Wade Barrett had a visa issue to be worked out. The Nexus rookies ended up beating up Arn Anderson, Dean Malenko, Jerry Lawler, Michael Hayes, Mike Rotunda, and Ricky Steamboat in an awesome angle. Steamboat is in the hospital for real due to a broken blood vessel in his brain (not an aneurism as initially feared).
Right now they are playing it as the heels of RAW are ganging up on the good guys who are trying to take out the Nexus. Arn Anderson did a rambling but still damn good promo on RAW last night where he told Sheamus that he’s basically gonna get his ass kicked by them in the end. I know people complain about old guys who hang around way past their prime (cough Hogan cough) but you know what, I wanted to see The Nexus take on some of the Legends in a street fight. During RAW last week when all the legends formed a circle and rolled up their sleeves you knew that it was going down. Who wouldn’t love to see Arn get some revenge with a tire iron along with Barry, Mike, Sgt Slaughter, and other old timers? Dust off Tony Garera and whatever corner he’s been hiding in and have him be part of it. A good old fashion eight-man tag would be awesome.
See now I would want to see the legends come out of retirement for a shot at revenge at the young punks. Nexus in a no holds barred fight against the legends would do way more for the angle then lame talking segments.
The WWE got lucky at the end of RAW when John Cena beat the living shit out of Black Cena Darren Young. That was the first time in years that John Cena didn’t look lame to all the men in the crowd. Usually I laugh at Cena when he’s doing his “I’m quiet so it means I’m serious” then “GRRRRR I’M ANGRY” schitck, but last night it worked big time. I am looking forward to see what happened next as Cena will be in a Overcoming The Odds 7 (well I guess 6 now) on 1 match next week. There really is so much that still can be done with this but I fear they are barely scratching the surface on purpose. I say go all out and bring back the unpredictability factor to RAW. That was the one good thing about the Attitude era. You didn’t know what would happen next. At any given moment all hell could break loose. The Nexus angle is bringing that back. Someone being left in a pool of blood couldn’t hurt either.
There is just one small thing that I don’t like about The Nexus. Can we please have them wear some clothes? They aren’t wrestling so why are they in their full gear? Have them all dress up in matches black jeans and shirts with giant N’s on them. It just looks weird when these guys who up all dressed to wrestle even though we know they aren’t going to. Just put some damn pants on them…please.
Other then that the only thing of interest over the last few days was last week The Undertaker made it official with his Old Lady Michelle McCool. She officially became the new Mrs. Undertaker and we can all expect her to run the WWE Women’s division with an iron fist as long as she is. We used to joke that Triple H and Stephanie’s daughter Aurora would someday break Moolah’s record as longest reigning Women’s Champion. Well it looks like she has some competition now. Though with RAW having a Divas title and Smackdown having a Women’s championship in theory both of them could have record breaking runs.
I can’t hate on McCool though. Right now the FLAWLESS LayCool team is tremendous on Smackdown. People hate Layla but she really has improved so much since just being a diva search winner. I look forward to the day when they break up because McCool wants her belt back. That will be a fun feud even though we know who will win in the end.
On that note I am done for this week. It’s way too hot here to continue. I mean I could, but right now I think I’ve covered all the bases for this week. It will be interesting to see how many buys Lesnar’s fight did and how many combined WWE PPV numbers it equals.
Well until next time keep cool and remember someone has to give you this information and it DAMN well has got to be me.
You can click here to send me any and all feedback at phantomlordnyc@yahoo.com or leave me some feedback on my Facebook page under my given name http://www.facebook.com/josephrd
First off congratulations are in order to Brock Lesnar as he defeated Shane Carwin by submission (yes you read that right) to become the UNDISPUTED UFC Heavyweight Champion of the world. It was a hell of a fight as Carwin beat the living shit out of Brock in the first round, but since Shane hasn’t gone past the first round in any fight Brock may have gambled with the biggest game of rope a dope ever. Shane was clearly gassed and Brock got a take down and eventually he locked in an arm choke. Shane Carwin tapped just as his head started going from red to purple.
For a minute, Dana White probably was biting his nails as Brock was getting the bejesus beaten out of him. Brock is the UFC’s golden boy and for a couple of minutes in round one it looked like karma was coming back to Dana for mocking Strikeforce after Fedor’s loss last week. But all is well in the UFC as Brock is back. He recovered from an illness that almost killed him and he reclaimed his throne. See now that is what we call compelling television. I guarantee Vince McMahon was probably watching the PPV or has by this point because he knows even though he claims there is no competition (ITS TWO DIFFERENT THINGS DAMN IT), UFC is the reason all the adult male fans are leaving wrestling in droves. Well that and booking things for kids and watering everything down to the point where even the most die hard of fans says this is stupid.
But Vince will never buy that. The people that kiss his ass under him will continue to say “Oh well its two different audiences…no need to worry about those 1 Million buys boss”. It’s amazing how even a bad throw away UFC PPV out does most WWE PPV’s by a wide margin. The WWE’s solution to everything being bland is MORE GIMMICKS. Another cookie cutter PPV is coming up this time in the form of Money In The Bank. I guess the train wreck spot at Wrestlemania is now gone for the guys who would otherwise never get on the PPV because the WWE has decided to do a PPV with not one but TWO in the same night.
Does the word burnout not even mean anything to these people? A match that was actually interesting and worth the wait till Wrestlemania now will happen twice in one night. It’s no wonder no one actually orders PPV’s anymore. They keep jacking up the price but not the effort in making one want to actually pay to see it.
Paul Heyman gave a pretty good interview to Fight Magazine after the Lesnar/Carwin fight where he noted that Pro Wrestling fans are now UFC fans.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDOcy7GlhYQ
UFC is the WWE and Strikeforce is TNA. UFC is the multi million-dollar giant and Strikeforce is the well-funded yet seemingly inept competition. UFC has the dominant place in the market and Strikeforce is doing everything they can to get a foot in the door. He said in another interview with www.mmafighting.com that UFC did more PPV buys domestically then all of Professional Wrestling did world wide. It’s not hard to understand why. But I am sure there are people all over the wrestling industry who still don’t get it and it’s only a passing fad. I know Ric Flair said as much in an interview from a couple of weeks ago. Then again Flair probably only said that because some guys in the UFC make a fight what he used to in a year. With three divorces and alimony’s to pay, he is a tad bitter.
Speaking of Paul Heyman, right now TNA is betting everything on an ECW invasion angle in the hopes that Paul Heyman will come to TNA and save them from the fate of WCW before them.
TNA officials have gotten more aggressive over the past week or two when it comes to signing Paul Heyman. As noted before, Heyman has been offered the head of TNA creative job but Heyman wants a role where he’s the guy running everything, something similar to Dana White in UFC. It was also noted that he sees the creative side of things as a problem but not the biggest problem.
Credit: F4WOnline.com
If Paul wants the keys to the TNA kingdom then HAND THEM TO HIM. Paul should make it Iron Clad where no one can under cut you or sabotage his work. But as bad as TNA’s creative team is, it’s not the biggest problem there is. The biggest problem TNA has is no one knows whom the fuck they are. TNA has some of the worst promotion, which is amazing considering they have a great TV Pitchman in Don West on the payroll. How many people bought Mark McGwire rookie cards because of him? Are you telling me he can’t be on television at least shilling matches and up coming events?
TNA relies heavily on the Internet, which is nice, but the Internet only goes so far and I’m pretty sure this is what is meant by “not the biggest problem” or at least one of them. TNA does these great Before The Bell specials sort of like UFC’s Countdown To shows but unlike the UFC ones, Before The Bell ends up on Youtube and not on Spike where it should be.
Before a PPV why isn’t there at least a special on Spike to entice people to order the show? Well I know one reason why. It’s because TNA thinks TV Ratings are more important then PPV buys. See it’s that kind of thinking that if Paul Heyman does sign with TNA needs to be the first thing to go.
I could list a whole bunch of things wrong with TNA just from a production standpoint. I am sure Paul has these very things down on a list and if he does sign they will be first things addressed. Anyway you look at it, Paul knows rebuilding TNA from the inside out won’t be an overnight thing. If he were to take on such a thing, he has made it clear it has to be worth the sacrifice to his family. It could possibly be a five-year project to turn TNA in a company that is worth a damn…much less one that is making money and lots of it.
On Friday night TNA held a show here in Brooklyn at MCU Park where the Brooklyn Cyclones play and they drew their biggest North American paid attendance with between 5,500 and 6,000 fans. I was in attendance and I have to say the difference between the television shows and these house shows is astounding.
I have said a lot of horrible things about Jeff Jarrett over the years and I think I would like to take some of them back right now. Jarrett books the house shows and from top to bottom it was pretty damn good. No bullshit angles, no nonsense, and no nothing usually associated with TNA. It was a good old fashion professional wrestling card top to bottom. It’s such a novel concept to do pro wrestling that it could just work for them if they tried it.
Despite what you might think given my generally negative attitude towards TNA, I want to see them succeed. Obviously there are 6,000 other people here in the New York City area that wants to see them succeed as well.
Just a sample of the pics from the show that I personally took with my vastly outdated Nikon Coolpix 885. I pushed the limits of the ZOOM to its breaking point. If you are inclined to, on Facebook I have more photos from the show.
But look at that crowd. There is a fan base and it is willing to continue to support TNA. Now I don’t know if Paul Heyman will be the Messiah some make him out to be. Does he have the Midas touch to turn everything into Gold? I don’t know. But one thing is for sure here. What TNA is doing right now is not working. What TNA has been doing for the last eight damn years has not worked and it will continue not to work. TNA has the wrestlers with the talent to pull things off. TNA is like a gigantic ship that is loaded to the gills right now. But it has no one at the wheel and its just going in circles over and over and over. People in TNA who probably read this column know that is a fact.
Ah well we shall see what happens. There is a rumor floating around that Hulk Hogan is pushing for Abyss to win the TNA title at Victory Road so he can face him for it at Bound For Glory.
I don’t want to get all conspiratorial here; but the show was rumored to be in Charlotte and built around Flair suddenly gets moved to Tampa and Hogan is pushing for a title shot.
Well I’d probably order the PPV just to see it. There would be a lot of betting pools on how many bumps Hogan takes before his back finally breaks into a million pieces. Hogan doing a thumbtack bump is an amusing thought. Who would have ever guessed when Hogan was bullshitting about being up for the role of Randy The Ram that it would actually come true? Hogan’s back is seriously messed up and he has to be INSANE to think this would possibly work. Well we know he’s all ready insane, but there’s different levels of insanity and he’s going off the deep end if he thinks this is a good idea assuming the rumor is true.
But then again it wouldn’t surprise me if it were. I mean you really didn’t think Hogan was putting over Abyss with out thinking of himself in the long run did you? Hulk Hogan only puts someone over so long as it makes him look better in the long run. We shall see what happens. I really hope TNA doesn’t do something that stupid but knowing them will.
That would be a fun question to ask Paul Heyman. Say he does get an offer he cant refuse from TNA and he comes in just as Hogan is crowned champion. How in the hell does he fix that kind of mess?
In case you haven’t noticed, TNA has been using the likes of Tommy Dreamer, Raven, and Stevie Richards as part of some sort of angle where they just show up in the crowd and watch a match and then disappear. Apparently a few months ago TNA had some sort of focus group do market research and the one thing that came back in unison was people liked ECW.
Well no shit. Everyone loved ECW. But its 2010 and while we still love Tommy Dreamer, Raven, Stevie, and the others…I don’t want to see a rehash of a rehash of a rehashed angle.
See what people liked was the ECW show it self. Lots of wrestling and minimal bullshit. Anything that happened of importance happened inside the ring and not in some pre-taped sketch in the back. Hell I would take Mid 80’s Memphis Wrestling over ECW. It’s not that hard to figure out what works and what does not. It’s all about the build to the big match. You have to get us emotionally invested into wanting to see say Jay Lethal overcome weeks and weeks of punishment to get the big win and revenge over Fortune.
TNA would end up doing something that could last weeks in one or two shows and that is the problem.
ECW was old school in the sense it was all about the build to the big ECW Arena show. Sure there was more violence but there was plenty of old school stuff to tug on the old heartstrings. That is what TNA needs to do in a nutshell.
Abyss keeps referring to “THEY”. Well I hope “they” turn out to be the ECW guys and “they” end up beating the crap out of him. Abyss would have never been worth a damn in the real ECW. What he needs to do is just go to Japan or CZW all ready and win some deathmatch stuff. I’d rather see a Youtube clip of Abyss taking a swan dive into a pile of light tubes in some parking lot then it happening on Impact.
Moving along to the more ridiculous stuff in the news, this one really made me laugh when I read it. Read it yourselves and I’m sure you’ll have the same reaction.
The Wrestling Observer is reporting that Vince McMahon has banned the "knife edge" chop from use in WWE matches. The chop, which was made famous by Ric Flair, generally gets a "woo" reaction from the crowd after it's used by a wrestler, and Vince does not want the crowd woo'ing as it of course reminds them of Flair, who works for TNA right now. It should be noted that straight down chops like the ones used by The Great Khali and Big Show are still being allowed as they don't draw a "woo" reaction from the fans.
Vince McMahon might be the best promoter in all of wrestling, but he really is a schmuck sometimes and this is one of those times. What is next? Do you ban punches because it might remind someone of Hogan or someone else who’s on the McMahon shitlist? Though apparently this rule has been in place for a while now but only Flair and Shawn Michaels were allowed to do them.
There is a solution though for this. I suggest everyone who is reading this column who is going to some sort of WWE event in the future, anytime Show or anyone else does an open hand slap you have to do a WOOOOOOOOOOOOO. Hell you should just do it at random times to really drive them nuts. It’s always fun to screw with the audio and make them dump out entire sections of the crowd if they aren’t reacting the way they want to.
The Nexus Angle continues to be the best thing the WWE has going right now even though it almost got cut off at the knees last week when Wade Barrett had a visa issue to be worked out. The Nexus rookies ended up beating up Arn Anderson, Dean Malenko, Jerry Lawler, Michael Hayes, Mike Rotunda, and Ricky Steamboat in an awesome angle. Steamboat is in the hospital for real due to a broken blood vessel in his brain (not an aneurism as initially feared).
Right now they are playing it as the heels of RAW are ganging up on the good guys who are trying to take out the Nexus. Arn Anderson did a rambling but still damn good promo on RAW last night where he told Sheamus that he’s basically gonna get his ass kicked by them in the end. I know people complain about old guys who hang around way past their prime (cough Hogan cough) but you know what, I wanted to see The Nexus take on some of the Legends in a street fight. During RAW last week when all the legends formed a circle and rolled up their sleeves you knew that it was going down. Who wouldn’t love to see Arn get some revenge with a tire iron along with Barry, Mike, Sgt Slaughter, and other old timers? Dust off Tony Garera and whatever corner he’s been hiding in and have him be part of it. A good old fashion eight-man tag would be awesome.
See now I would want to see the legends come out of retirement for a shot at revenge at the young punks. Nexus in a no holds barred fight against the legends would do way more for the angle then lame talking segments.
The WWE got lucky at the end of RAW when John Cena beat the living shit out of Black Cena Darren Young. That was the first time in years that John Cena didn’t look lame to all the men in the crowd. Usually I laugh at Cena when he’s doing his “I’m quiet so it means I’m serious” then “GRRRRR I’M ANGRY” schitck, but last night it worked big time. I am looking forward to see what happened next as Cena will be in a Overcoming The Odds 7 (well I guess 6 now) on 1 match next week. There really is so much that still can be done with this but I fear they are barely scratching the surface on purpose. I say go all out and bring back the unpredictability factor to RAW. That was the one good thing about the Attitude era. You didn’t know what would happen next. At any given moment all hell could break loose. The Nexus angle is bringing that back. Someone being left in a pool of blood couldn’t hurt either.
There is just one small thing that I don’t like about The Nexus. Can we please have them wear some clothes? They aren’t wrestling so why are they in their full gear? Have them all dress up in matches black jeans and shirts with giant N’s on them. It just looks weird when these guys who up all dressed to wrestle even though we know they aren’t going to. Just put some damn pants on them…please.
Other then that the only thing of interest over the last few days was last week The Undertaker made it official with his Old Lady Michelle McCool. She officially became the new Mrs. Undertaker and we can all expect her to run the WWE Women’s division with an iron fist as long as she is. We used to joke that Triple H and Stephanie’s daughter Aurora would someday break Moolah’s record as longest reigning Women’s Champion. Well it looks like she has some competition now. Though with RAW having a Divas title and Smackdown having a Women’s championship in theory both of them could have record breaking runs.
I can’t hate on McCool though. Right now the FLAWLESS LayCool team is tremendous on Smackdown. People hate Layla but she really has improved so much since just being a diva search winner. I look forward to the day when they break up because McCool wants her belt back. That will be a fun feud even though we know who will win in the end.
On that note I am done for this week. It’s way too hot here to continue. I mean I could, but right now I think I’ve covered all the bases for this week. It will be interesting to see how many buys Lesnar’s fight did and how many combined WWE PPV numbers it equals.
Well until next time keep cool and remember someone has to give you this information and it DAMN well has got to be me.
You can click here to send me any and all feedback at phantomlordnyc@yahoo.com or leave me some feedback on my Facebook page under my given name http://www.facebook.com/josephrd
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