sek69

The smart heel turn on Daniels occured right around the time it became clear TNA was his primary fed. Maybe it is just a co-incedence, but somehow I doubt it.

Maybe if Joe signs with WWE, he can be the token fat cheerleader the rest of the squad makes fun of but keeps around to make themselves feel better.

Vince's new moneymaking idea for the new guys coming up is "Team Spirit", a stable of male cheerleaders. Ken Doane apparently has been doing the gimmick in houseshows, Elijah Burke has already asked out of it. Surely this will turn things around in 2006.

Because Jesus saves. I wonder what the point was when they end up re-signing guys they released. They must have felt they weren't worth their contracts then, what makes them worth it to Vince now unless its just so TNA won't get them.

Joe should be pissed at Spike rather than TNA. Spike's the ones who said TNA needed to sign someone like Sting to give them star power, which I saw as a pretty big (if unintentional) slap in the face of their talent roster. If he's trying to send a message to TNA, it doesn't help that he's been fairly vocal about not really having a lot of interest in WWE until this latest hoo-ha.

I really hope Joe realizes that signing with WWE is pretty much the biggest mistake he could make at this point. I can just imagine all the stereotype laden gimmicks they have waiting for him. I also heard that Joe is pissed that TNA signed Sting, so maybe this is his way of letting them know to not fuck around with him.

My concern is that at his age, groin injuries take forever to heal properly and you know he's not going to take the proper amount of time off let that happen. I have a bad feeling that instead of letting it heal, he's going to try to work throught and risk this being a career ending injury.

It was pretty much Vince jerking off in everyone's face (again) with Shawn playing the role of the Voice of the Fans telling Vince to get over it. No word on if pieces from the broken Irony-O-Meter hurt anyone backstage.

Kurt Angle: Seriously overrated as a worker, almost all of it seems to be due to Meltz's hard-on for "real". He's been wasted in silly angles and gimmicks, and he's too deteriorated now for him to be a top level performer. Shawn Michaels: Call me cynical, but I don't believe his whole born-again good guy act, for no other reason than everything the guy's said for the last 15 years ended up bullshit. The marine story, Survivor Series, losing his smile, he's just told too many tall tales for me to believe he's suddenly a boy scout. He should be putting over the next generation at this stage of his career, but the only guy he gives a rub to is HHH. AJ Styles: Not the best promo guy, but he gets the points across he needs to. He gets spotty with the X matches, but then that's usually what the matches are booked to be anyway. He can tone the spots down when the match calls for it. If TNA could pry one of WWE's great promo guys they currently have as agents, Styles could become the complete package. Christopher Daniels: He was the Hot Indy Guy for years, then all of a sudden the smart crowd started to turn on him when TNA was starting to take off. In a division where the wrestlers tend to blend together, Daniels stands out as a worker and as a character. My only worry is TNA wants to make him the face in his feud with Joe, but the fans aren't gonna buy Joe as heel so they might not try to make Daniels a face. Kenta Kobashi: I was fearing the worst when I got my copy of his match with Joe. I was expecting to see someone barely mobile after years of headdroppery. He's obviously lost a step, but he can still hold his own. He's not going to be able to recapture the 90s, but he's not embarrassing himself either. John Bradshaw Layfield: The bastard won me over. He's become a solid brawler and a good promo guy. He can't be thrown in there with just anyone yet, but he's made amazing progress in a short period of time. Necro Butcher: Never seen anything by the guy. I'm not a fan of deathmatches so I doubt I ever will.

From WO:

I'll add more later, but I just want to say that Styles and Daniels seem to be baring the brunt of anti-TNA sentiment on the net that seems to grow in a ratio to their mainstream appeal. Before TNA, Daniels was every smark's fantasy, but now he's shit because he's focusing on TNA instead of smart fan wank groups like ROH.

Hogan was a big draw in the AWA and Japan, and had a big role in Rocky III, all before Hulkamania ran wild for Vincent K.

There were episodes of Nitro back when the nWo was at its peak that seemed to be them beating up everyone in sight.

Sting-Hogan was probably my favorite wrestling angle of the last 10 years until they horribly botched the payoff. I think that gets overlooked when people try to pinpoint the exact time WCW went over the barrel, I put my money right there. Nothing says "fuck you" to the fans more than a year long program getting the blowoff changed because of ego and/or politics.

I've always felt it was insane when WWE raised the price of their ppvs up to $35. What other business model allows you to charge more when your product is noticably lesser in quality? I think more people would buy ppv if the price was about $20-25. That's about what a DVD goes for, and more people would be willing to risk a shitty card for that amount.

Yeah, Bill seems like a guy who's probably no stranger to the N-word, but him turning JYD into a top draw has to go down as one of the biggest booking miracles of all time.

I was going to check WO.com last night, but I figured he wouldn't have a new show on Christmas. Apparently I chose.......POORLY.

DiBiase was supposed to win the belt at Wrestlemania IV, but politics got in the way. Thinking about it, the one part I'd argue is that by 1988-89 it was obvious that Hulk was starting to lose some of his luster with the fans and they really should have had a heel run with the title for a few months to give people reason to root for Hogan again. I think keeping him invincible for so long only wore his welcome out with the fans faster.

I'd have to say that's probably true. Wrestling had never seen before (or it could be argued, since) charisma like Hogan brought to the table. If Vince would have plugged anyone else in that role, it probably would have been *almost* as big but not *as* big as Hogan. Hell, that's why he's been able to hang on for so long after his prime. He knows that there won't be another source of charisma like that in wrestling, and he'd be great in a non-wrestling role if he could ever resist the urge to put himself over the young talent.

I've thought for years they should have someone completely random win the Royal Rumble, like Funaki or Lance Cade, just to get back that "Anything Can Happen" atmosphere WWF used to have.

I think the whole Bil Watts = racist thing is somewhat misunderstood. I'm sure the Cowboy isn't the most progressive guy in the world, but he seemed to be better at pushing black wrestlers than any other territory booker I can think of with the possible exception of the World Class crew.

This is exactly what I was going for, not so much the mark vs smart angle, but when you find out someone you like is an asshole. I've always been a fan of Randy Savage, and I still am. It's hard to look at him the same way once you find out he was a crazy, paranoid asshole who abuses women. The same thing happens with movies too. I never had an opinion on Tom Cruise before, but now when I see one of his flicks I think "there's that asshole who believes in aliens and jumped like a loon on Oprah's couch".

Well there's no doubt that Stephanie's "Billion Dollar Princess" character owes a debt to Missy Hyatt. All Steph was missing was the Gucci bag to hit people with.

Poor Tatum, he got forgotten in real life and in storylines. Now he's running a state fair according to obsessedwithwrestling. He's probably one of the saddest stories in wrestling that isn't directly drug and/or alcohol related as he ended up not only second fiddle to his wife but having to have his breakup turned into a wrestling angle.

I was watching the Looney Tunes Golden Collection 3 today, listening to the commentary tracks and learning about the history behind the cartoons we all grew up with. One of the things you learn is that Bob Clampett (director of some of the early Bugs Bunny cartoons, among others) claimed he was the sole creator of Bugs Bunny, much to the chagrin of the other famous directors who had more of a hand in the creation. Fast forward to today and there's a group of people like Ren and Stimpy creator John K who worship the ground Clampett walks on and takes the time on his commentary on the Golden Collection to bash other directors at every opportunity. Why? Mainly because history's shown Clampett was a dick and a lot of the people who worked with him have gone on the record saying so over the last 50 years. You may be wondering where the wrestling tie-in comes in, and it's here: Some folks, after learning the behind the scenes stories, no longer feel the same way about the cartoons they grew up watching as a kid and I wonder if that doesn't happen with wrestling as well. An unfortunate part of the smartening up process is an awareness of the politics and other assorted bullshit that goes into what ends up shown on TV every week. I know every one of us has had their enjoyment of a show or match ruined just a little knowing that in a match between A and B, B is going to win because there's no way he'd agree to job for A. Things like that take you out of the atmosphere the workers are trying to create, and it ends up making fans more cynical and jaded. I know there's times where I wish I didn't know so much about the inner workings of the business, and I wonder what it would be like watching the last decade or so of wrestling through the eyes of someone not so "aware". Not someone who thinks everything's legit, just someone who doesn't read the sheets or go to message boards and websites. Nothing symbolizes this feeling as much as the last episode of Nitro. I knew from reading websites that Vince bought WCW and would probably appear on the last episode. Had I not known that, that show would have taken on a much different tone for me. As such, I pretty much knew what to expect and when it happened I was just "meh" instead of marking out. So I guess my question is this: Would you trade the "insider" knowledge you've gained for the ability to watch wrestling the way you did before you knew about politics and such?