Wrestling Thread v.4 - WELCOME BACK AMERICAN DRAGON!

ViciousSLASH · August 31, 2009, 4:42am

How are they going to expand to their own shows? A whole show of Knockouts?

A whole show of X division? TNA used to be like ALL X Division.

I like the knockouts, but I don’t want to see a whole show of them unless they start doing really hardcore shimmer crazy shit. Like womans only finisher shit.

Just do another Taping a week and put it on Mondays and get real with it.

Stuart_Hayden · August 31, 2009, 4:44am

My only complaints about Matt Morgan:
Dude talks too fast. He could give decent promo’s if he didn’t think he had to deliver multiple paragraphs of dialog in one breath.

He has shitty finishers, though the Hellevator is better than a Chokeslam/bomb, Powerbomb or Sit out Pump Handle slam like most big men have. I’m not saying he should be like some random AAA nigga and do a 450 splash or something. :lol: Just something more legit I guess.

He hasn’t been in a legit feud for people to care about. The Morgan/Sting feud could have been really good but they ended it after like 3 weeks for no real reason. And this tweener bullshit with the Mafia is boring.

maxx · August 31, 2009, 4:45am

i agree totally.

japan will always be fine because for w/e reason wwe has never really had that great experience wit japanese wrestlers. the ones who have survived have been in the us for a long while. straight from japan guys never last.

mexico also has been a hit or miss. but i think because wwe seriously misses the boat on the guys they have.

indies are already back at square 1 mainly cuz only two indy promotions are really ahead of the pack roh and pwg imo. everyone else is decades behind in promotion/production…in it all. they just emulate those two unless ur chikara and those guys will never blow up…not because their not good…they are but their such a niche crowd its not even funny.

Slide · August 31, 2009, 4:45am

All I know is I tuned in to TNA a couple weeks back, and Matt Morgan was on there, and I was entertained.

I also didn’t expect much, and that last hour of TNA I had watched was entertaining as hell, it was the one right before that last PPV, where Foley threw himself through the table.

Stuart_Hayden · August 31, 2009, 4:50am

The indies in general are going to hurt because of the loss of Bryan Danielson. FIP, PWG, Dragon Gate and US all had him on their roster and a lot of people went to indie shows just to see The Worlds Greatest! so, that’s going to be a big blow to the indie scene.

Not to mention WWE said they were interested in 4 other wrestlers in ROH? That could be a lot of different people but likely top carders like McGuinness, Aries and others.

system · August 31, 2009, 4:56am

To a certain extent, I do agree that a women only show might not have much steam to ride on…but at the very least they always just compact it on impact and just leave the x-division show solo.

Slide · August 31, 2009, 5:06am

There was an all women’s wrestling show that used to come on saturday afternoons back in the day.

Shit was trash.

Zulu · August 31, 2009, 5:10am

Regarding Matt Morgan: I liked him more when he was on Tough Enough. I don’t dislike him at all. He can do a lot for a man who’s 7 feet tall. I guess seeing him in WWE with his bullshit stuttering gimmick left a bad taste in my mouth.

DA_GAME · August 31, 2009, 5:34am

Owen Hart vs.Bulldog 8-19-96
[media=youtube]xANXPhjjx0E&feature=rec-HM-fresh+div[/media]

ReiGun · August 31, 2009, 5:35am

I remember that. It was called WOW (women of wrestling). The only thing I really remember about it was that there was some black convict tag team that used the 3-D as their finisher. That pissed me off as a kid.

Zulu · August 31, 2009, 5:36am

They’re both ALIVE?!

Dumehra · August 31, 2009, 6:03am

I wish they were. Sometimes I wonder how far they would go if they were alive and with the wwe. I heard from interviews that these 2 guys weren’t pushy enough in their quest for the wwe title. They were also satisfied with the money they make instead of going to the top. I have a feeling they might end up like regal or maybe even like chavo if they were alive.

DA_GAME · August 31, 2009, 6:09am

Surfer Sting stayed injured when he won the WCW Title.Crow Sting won the belt but had to play second fiddle afterwords.

Luc · August 31, 2009, 6:19am

http://www.wweshop.com/product_detail.asp?CAT=TOPTEN&productId=50-05299

Rise and Fall of WCW DVD/NWO shirt bundle for $27. Hell of a deal considering most shirts cost $25. I picked that shit right up.

mr.hadoken · August 31, 2009, 6:21am

[media=youtube]nf-kiUcAdVI&feature=related[/media]

maxx · August 31, 2009, 7:13am

wow is still around along wit glow.

Stuart_Hayden · August 31, 2009, 7:23am

Ahahaa, I remember WOW. I saw that YEARS and years ago.

umthrfkr · August 31, 2009, 7:34am

yeah i saw WOW a couple of times. didnt really catch my attention.

Lantis · August 31, 2009, 8:00am

TNA doing the right thing?

Don’t worry, come No Surrender, they’ll fuck it up again.

Like having Krazy Kurt retain the WHC.

And on the topic of Lashley, WHY put him in a match with Rhino? Not that I care too much about Rhino, but isn’t he in a feud with that bogus fuck Jesse Neal and/or Team 3D right now? Don’t they have enough jobbers to feed to Lashley? It just doesn’t make sense at all…

Knockouts/X-Division shows? Haven’t they been promising that shit for like 2-3 years now? Yeah, they have cool matches, but not something I can see having their own shows.

Stuart_Hayden · August 31, 2009, 8:32am

Way to say everything I said yesterday PWI guy.

By Richard Trionfo on 2009-08-31 07:00:00
I will be the first person to admit that I have been critical of the product that Total Nonstop Action Wrestling presents each week on Impact and in their pay per views, and probably a bit more harsh than I am with WWE. I was one of the regulars in the Impact Zone during the period when TNA was presenting weekly television viewers some of the best in ring product during 2005 and 2006. While most people say that Smackdown is the top wrestling show on television, I would say that Impact appears to be in the process of making people reconsider that assessment. I want to provide a few reasons why I have been enjoying Impact over the last few weeks. These opinions are solely mine and feel free to send feedback and comments explaining why you do or do not watch Impact.

The Announcing

Ever since Don West started his heel turn after he blamed Mike Tenay for not being on his side in a meeting, I have thought that the announcing has improved a lot. One criticism that people made about the team of Don and Mike was that there never seemed to be a time when someone wasn?t talking. Over the last few weeks, Don and Mike were allowing the action to tell the story and treat the fans like they can digest what they are seeing without someone telling the viewers what is going on.

Because you have the ?face? announcer in Mike Tenay as well as the ?heel? announcer in Don West, you had the opportunity for some good back and forth banter where Don would talk about his association with the heels. Don gave a good explanation of this in his recent interview with Mike Johnson, which I highly recommend listening to if you have not already done so. Another thing that Don was doing was pointing out things that were logical. One of my favorite Donisms before leaving the announce table was when he pointed out that the fans in the Impact Zone were chanting ?USA? during a match involving a British and Mexican wrestler. Those subtle things enhance the program and shows that the fans who notice this aren?t the only ones who are talking about some inconsistencies.

You can add me in the group of people who enjoyed Don West as an announcer during his time with Mike Tenay. He was a good counter to Mike Tenay?s knowledge of the business and he provided an enthusiasm for the product to make you care. Because of the things that I mentioned above, I was a bit disappointed when I heard that Taz was going to take over his position on camera. However, if Don is going to be able to devote more time to build the merchandise segment of the company, it is probably the best thing for the company with the signing of Taz.

Now that Taz is at the announce table, it allows Mike and Taz to build on what we saw over the last few months. Both men are very knowledgeable about the business and they both provide excellent insight into the product. Even though Taz has been affiliated with the Main Event Mafia and Samoa Joe, Taz has not shown any apparent biases in his commentary so it looks like we are going to get an honest commentary instead of a shill for one group or wrestler. If they need that, they can add someone to come out who is scouting a match or a partner of one of the wrestlers in the match.

The Women?s Division

At the end of 2005, I wrote a column talking about the X Division, the different levels of the wrestlers in the division, and what needed to be done to help build that division beyond the top wrestlers. I think there is a similar structure in the women?s division, but because you are only going to see one or two matches at most, you only need to have four or five strong wrestlers to keep the division viable while continuing to build the division.

While I might not be the biggest fan of what they are doing with the women?s title at this time, the title matches are not the only thing that needs to be utilized. If they save the title matches for the pay per views but build up the contenders for the title on Impact, you add the possibility of more credible challengers for the title instead of seeing the same two or three people every month doing the same match.

The recent influx of talent into the division has breathed some new life. The recent addition of Sarita and Hamada to the roster has already paid off with good matches. Alissa Flash has also been a good addition and I thought she outwrestled Sarita in her debut and flew a bit under the radar since they were hyping Sarita. When you add those three women to Tara, Awesome Kong, Raisha Saeed, you have six women who you can rotate over the next few months and have top quality matches. Then when you add Traci Brooks, ODB, Daffney, Velvet Sky, Angelina Love, Christy Hemme, Madison Rayne, and the rest of the women you have more than a dozen women to use.

Now that there is a tag title for the women, TNA can pair one of the stronger performers with someone who might not be as technically sound to accentuate the positives within the team. Last week on Impact, you had a tag tournament match as well as a good match involving Hamada and Daffney so the women?s division was well represented and Tara was not even on the show so they are able to try to establish new stars in addition to someone who might have made their name working in other companies with weekly television.

The Tournament for the Main Event at No Surrender

We found out on Thursday night that Kurt Angle will be defending the title in another multi-man match and this time it will be a Four Way Match. While a multi-man match is not always the best match in the ring, it is going to be interesting to see who will join Matt Morgan and Kurt Angle in this match. The brackets for the other two spots were announced after Impact, and thinking of the possibilities had me looking forward to the next few weeks of television leading up to the pay per view.

We will see the following matches to help us find out who those two men are: Sting versus Rhino; Homicide versus Hernandez; A.J. Styles versus Chris Sabin; and Suicide versus Doug Williams.

The first round match that intrigues me the most is Hernandez versus Homicide because of the history they had in LAX and the fact that they have been getting singles pushes with Homicide briefly holding the X Division title and Hernandez?s quest for the TNA Title since he got his briefcase back.

The other bracket can provide us with interesting second round matches. It is possible to have Chris Sabin versus Suicide which would bring us back to the feud that existed when Suicide debuted when Sabin, Shelley, and others thought that Daniels and Suicide were the same person. You could also see Doug Williams versus A.J. Styles which has the potential to be an amazing match if they are given enough time.

Spreading the Wealth on Television

One thing that affects my enjoyment of any show is when they try to hammer something down your throat to the point that if you like what they are showing, you start to sour; or if you did not like it, you dislike it even more. For a while, Impact felt like it should have been called the Main Event Mafia Show because it seemed like every segment involved the Main Event Mafia whether it be in the ring, in their locker room, or with their opponents on the pay per view. With so many members and matches on pay per views involving this group, it is understandable, but I thought it was over saturation.

One of the things that I have liked about the last few episodes of Impact is the pacing of the show. The show moved at a pace that was not too fast that you missed things that were important and progressed in a way that built throughout the show. Last week, you had the opening match that saw interference and was turned into a tag match. You also had Matt Morgan with the Main Event Mafia early in the show to build the six man tag match at the end of the night.

If the television is flowing at a better pace, then it might be able to get people to buy the pay per views if they are on the fence because they are given a reason to want to see what happens next.

Again, these are simply a few things that Total Nonstop Action Wrestling has done to enhance my enjoyment of their weekly show.