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Sorry Bix. It's pasted below, highlights are bolded. Updated Wednesday, November 8, 9:24 p.m. Memo to Daniel Puder: I guess I can't blame you for trying to extend your 15 minutes of fame, but please don't fool yourself into thinking that anyone one outside the world of mixed martial arts and a small percentage of the wrestling fan base remembers your grand moment on Tough Enough. Great, you caught Kurt Angle in a submission hold. Congratulations. The truth is that fans who didn't know what to look for had no idea you had flustered Angle momentarily. And as I recall, Angle escaped the hold in a matter of seconds and then thoroughly dominated you on the mat. I'm sure there must be plenty of MMA fighters who caught the great Randy Couture in a submission hold during a practice session and you don't hear them trying to make a career out of it years later. Honestly, I was surprised to hear that UFC promoter Dana White actually expressed interest in promoting a match between you and Angle. After all, it's not like UFC is on good enough terms with WWE to obtain access to the footage of your one shining moment. And without that footage, there's not much to promote. I just pray that TNA isn't gullible enough to buy into the hype you're trying to create for yourself because a worked match between you and Angle would have no appeal to 99 percent of the pro wrestling audience. Perhaps TNA could generate interest with the right storyline, but the truth is that TNA could execute a similar storyline for an actual pro wrestler and create just as much interest without you. Move on with your life, Daniel. Go win an actual fight against an opponent with some name value so that you can hang your hat on something other than those few fluky seconds you had Angle in a submission move. Updated Thursday, November 9, 7:06 p.m. Yesterday I wrote a memo to Daniel Puder in which I erroneously recalled Kurt Angle breaking out of his submission hold and dominating him on the mat during their "Tough Enough" segment. Therefore, I think it's only appropriate to start off today with the follwing note to self: "Do some research, slacker. Your memory sucks. I'm not sure if it was all of the prescribed medication that followed your back problems or if it's attributable to those recreational habits from your younger years, but your memory is shot. You can't remember what happened on Raw last month, let alone a Tough Enough segment from 2004, so take advantage of online tools such as YouTube or you'll make yourself look like an idiot again." Fortunately, most of you have better memories than I do, and one of our readers pointed out my errors in the VIP Forum this morning. A second reader posted a link to video footage of the Puder vs. Angle incident, so now I am up to speed. Although I was definitely wrong in saying that Angle escaped the hold and dominated Puder on the mat, I stand by my opinion that TNA could create a similar storyline for one of their wrestlers and generate just as much interest. And I am still surprised that Dana White expressed interest in promoting a fight between Puder and Angle. According to the story Angle has told, White wanted that match to be Kurt's one and only UFC match. Personally, I believe Angle could take on just about any UFC fighter in his first MMA match and it would sell just as many pay-per-views as a fight with Puder. The hook would be Angle in his first MMA match, not who he's fighting.

You mean this thread: http://nmblues.thelevel-x.net/index.php?topic=3027.0 Speaking of Torch idiocy: Jason Powell admits he's an idiot.

I have to wonder how TNA can possibly be successful with Vince Russo steering the ship, because it's already perfectly obvious that he doesn't even realise the mistakes he made in his previous booking runs, yet alone learnt from them. You also would have thought that if Angle was going to be the difference maker TNA needs him to be, he would have already shown some signs of boosting business through higher TV ratings, but that hasn't happened yet. Still, as long as Spike TV is happy with them, TNA will be fine in the short term at least.

That PPV was the first one Vince Russo booked after jumping ship to WCW just a few weeks earlier. It was one of his beloved worked shoot angles that was done to get Hogan off TV for at least 2 months. The next day Ric Flair was similarly written out of the storylines when he was buried in the desert by the Filthy Animals. Booking genius Russo didn't need those proven ratings draws to turn business around. Of course, Russo was fired before either of those angles could be paid off, because his inept booking made business even worse.

TNA's DVDs tend to sell well in the first week, but sales tend to drop off very quickly afterwards, so I doubt they're making a ton of money off them. I know they stemmed a lot of the bleeding by moving from FSN to Spike TV, but my gut feeling is they're still losing a ton of money. You don't bring in a hotshot booker like Russo unless you're really desperate and need to turn around business in short order.

Yeah, but Kurt doesn't realise he would almost certainly lose. He probably thinks that with some submission avoidance training he could own him through his superior wrestling skills alone. And as you say Kurt is obsessed with his legacy. So, of course, he wants to prove that him being embarrased by some young no name punk was a complete and utter fluke.

That whole match was hilariously unprofessional on both men's part. Hogan's before the match and HBK's during and after it. I'm not sure how Hogan was unprofessional before the match given that he had the contractual right to dictate how the feud played out. Nobody gets over when the prima donnas on top always need to get their jobs back so their feelings aren't hurt. And poor Kurt, Puder owning him again would send him even further over the edge. I can't wait for the Rise And Fall Of An Olympic Hero DVD WWE is probably planning as I type.

I'd say the real scumbags are the McMahons for asking them to do this in the first place. Who's more scummy - the pimps or the prostitutes, Smoove? That said, it's highly ironic that in a sport that promotes machismo in the storylines, most wrestlers behind the scenes have not enough balls to stand up and say no when they are being exploited.

When Batista had his backstage fight with Booker, which was rumoured to stem from the problems Melina had with Sharmell on the Australian tour, reading between the lines I thought that Batista must be having an affair with Melina, which is why she had to be sent to Raw. Or maybe they really were just close friends.

But most of Piper's matches in WCW sucked.

Would have lost the World title to Kurt Angle if Mark Henry hadn't attacked Angle on the April 28th Smackdown, lost to Mark Henry cleanly on May 5th, completely squashed by Great Khali on May 12th, laid out by Kane on May 19th, lost to Kurt Angle by count out on June 2nd, lost to Finlay fairly cleanly on June 9th and laid out by Mark Henry on June 30th and July 7th. Basically being made to look like a complete jobber who is lucky to even have the title.

This isn't as bad as bringing back Scott Hall as a main eventer in 2002.

That isn't really that surprising given that he doesn't watch Shimmer or joshi. I'd agree if I thought the criticism was malicious, but I think people are reading too much into a throwaway remark in his daily update.

Dave Meltzer posted about this incident over at Wrestling Classics a few months ago. Here's what he had to say about it: "I think I've told the story before, but I'll tell it again. That match was the second of two matches they had. There may have been a few others scheduled that week but Luger left the territory a few days earlier then planned. I don't recall if Brody was staying past the two days. Luger was leaving for the Crockett territory at the end of the week. Brody was just starting out in the territory. The promotion wanted Brody to go over strong in both matches because that's how business was done. Luger said since he was going to Crockett, he couldn't do it. I don't recall what the finish was the first night, but do recall it wasn't the finish the office wanted, with Matsuda telling Brody that Luger wouldn't put him over. Luger and Brody had breakfast the morning of the match in question. This is not meant as a defense of Brody's actions, just his reasoning. Luger was telling Brody he signed a $350,000 per year contract and couldn't put him over. That was Brody's motivation. Afterwards, when Luger climbed out and left the building, Matsuda was going crazy in a positive way telling Ron Simmons and Dewey Forte, who were just breaking in, "That's what happens to a football player who thinks he's above the sport." Matsuda didn't tell Brody what to do, but he was 100% behind him for doing it. Doesn't make it right. And he didn't have any razor blades. His words the next day were he was going to stand there until Luger blew up throwing punches, saying it wouldn't be long, because "that guy is so filled with steroids he's gassing out in two minutes," and then he won't know what to do. Crockett then called up Matsuda and was screaming at him for putting the next Hulk Hogan in a position where he could have gotten hurt. For sure, because Brody was a babyface in Texas at the time had nothing to do with it because he never said anything like that at the time it happened. Luger's attitude is what pissed Brody and the office off."

If only Shawn had passed on his faith in Jesus to Triple H.

New Japan shouldn't have been daft enough to offer it to him in the first place.

I'd bring back Giant Bernard.

I'm sure he's not the only one, as pre existing knowledge of wrestling is frowned down upon in new TV writers. We wouldn't want them coming in with false preconceived notions like Triple H is overpushed or Stephanie is an incompetent fool or Vince McMahon is going insane or...

Much more important to ROH than that is their independence. Being forced to use and push wrestlers that ROH's fanbase are unlikely to accept (Jarrett, Monty Brown, Team 3D, James Gang, Ron Killings etc) over their homegrown stars (Danielson, Briscoes, Cabana, Rave, etc) would be highly detrimental to them.

I can't see how it would benefit either company other than possibly giving them both a hot inter-promotional feud, but the politics involved would screw that up.

The WWF lost Hulk Hogan, Jake Roberts and Sid Justice after WrestleMania 8 with the Road Warriors, Ultimate Warrior and British Bulldog leaving not long after. History is just repeating itself.

If that does happen, I can see someone else taking credit for it.

sek69 > Wade "Just look at one online source" Keller.

Fans always pop initially for big surprises and returns though, Loss. I'm not really sure what there is to be annoyed by. Wrestling promotions aren't a charity, if they are losing a ton of money they are doing their jobs badly.

A national promotion can't exist on a small, loyal, vocal cult following alone. ECW's failure wasn't due to their core fanbase that loved the promotion not supporting it enough, but their inability to create new PPV viewers and arena ticket buyers when they got national TV, partly because the big two had stripped them of most of their best talent and had stolen their vision.