Strummer

People at TSM are still bitching that Jerry Lawler didn't put Tazz over in their program. Just to clarify: Jerry Lawler is so much more important in wrestling history than Tazz that it's an insult to Lawler to compare the two. ECW marks strike again.

via 411: - Vince McMahon has told his staff that from this point forward, John Cena is the future and that he should be protected as if he were Hulk Hogan or Steve Austin. - The plan is for Big Show to end up as ECW's top heel. Many of ECW's upper card spots will be given to newcomers that will be introduced in the coming weeks. - Tazz and Lawler were both unhappy trying to work out their match. Tazz no longer wants to wrestle, and did not want to have a wrestling match. This upset the King, who then thought that if Tazz is no longer going to wrestle, then Tazz should have jobbed. Lawler agreed to lose as long as he didn't have to actually tap out (his arm was lifted three times by the ref instead), and wanted to lose to the choke so he could play up the notion that chokes are illegal in wrestling. - Jon Bolen, a wrestler who won TNA's "gut check" talent search competition and was only used by TNA once or twice, is close to be signing a WWE developmental deal. TV Central put out a list of shows most recorded by people who use digital recorders like TiVo. UFC actually beat wrestling, coming in at #20. Raw was listed as the 25th most-recorded show. - TNA had been hoping that the Sting vs. Steiner match would be their highest-rated segment, but it came up short. However, the Samoa Joe/Steiner confrontation drew their highest second quarter hour rating ever. - TNA referee Mark "Slick" Johnson is said to be getting so much TV time because he's good friends with Jeff Jarrett. Johnson wears shorts because he had wanted to do a soccer ref gimmick where he hands out red and yellow penalty cards. The idea was rejected, but the shorts remain. Johnson is now trying to convince TNA staff to make him a heel manager.

BTW, I've had it with all these people who keep saying "ECW was all about the wrestling" These people must not have watched the same shows I was watching from 1995-1997. Paul Heyman must be a great promoter because he's convinced the mutants or whatever you call them that ECW had all this non-stop bell to bell in ring action and no "Sports Entertainment" whatsover. It's just great to have all these high and mighty ECW marks back!

Vince McMahon is a big fan of Sabu: PWI: No wonder Sabu gets a PPV match with Vince's Golden boy.

I can't believe this, but I think Scott Keith summed it up quite nicely in his review:

Just a note. People need to remember that ECW didn't really have long matches on their shows until 99 when Paul ran out of ideas and changed to a more wrestling centered product (basically as a plea to smarks). There was lots of talking and angles during the 95-97 glory years

The lack of heat for RVD was quite scary as supposedly he will be the center piece of the brand.

I will point out again that a lot of fans are hypocrites. They criticize WWE for having bad matches (and wrestlers) but let the ECW bad wrestling slide. They are held to different standards. That is my main problem with the mutants.

Jim Cornette is engaged to OVW star Synn. Yikes.

I love how I' m called a "jaded smark" at TSM for daring to say that Tazz came off weak in that segment tonight. Yes, me, I'm that stereotypical jaded smark talking about star ratings, generalizing and making fun of marks. Yup that really describes me to the tee as a poster. I tried giving TSM a second chance, don't know why.

Yup according to TSM ,there's nothing special about that punch and Tazz's reputation and credibility weren't hurt at all.

Jerry Lawler just killed Tazz's 11 year old built up gimmick in about 30 seconds. Awesome

It's amazing to me to see all the ECW marks come out of the mothballs and start badmouthing the PPV on Sunday. This was talked about ad naseum a few months ago, but from a quality perspective, ECW does not hold up at all (it does from a presentation perspective). So of course now you see people getting all excited to see Balls Mahoney, Sandman, Axl Rotten etc, when the same people are constantly criticizing WWE for pushing bad in ring workers. So Randy Orton sucks and shouldn't be on the PPV, but Ballz Mahoney is okay? I wouldn't mind that if these people were consistent and would lay off the poor in ring work in WWE.

I see over at TSM that HTQ and several other posters are still pushing Meltzer's "the fans turned against Cena because he sucks in the ring" mantra. I thought we were over that. It's been said several times by Loss and others on this board, but his talent in the ring has nothing to do with the booing. I give up.

Back in 2000, when Perry Saturn first joined the WWF, he was doing commentaries/ Q and A on his website. One question asked about what kind of women he liked. He responded by saying that he liked body building type women with a hard non-feminine look (Saturn dated Chyna in the early 90s). As an aside, he said HHH liked the same type of women (Saturn and HHH were friends on the New England indepedent circuit in the early 90s). Stephanie looked very feminine from 99-2002 and started to obviously bulk up in 03 to please Hunter.

*Update* According to Meltzer, he was traveling with an underage boy. When the company found out, good bye.

Jordan was not so subtle about the fact that he was gay backstage. I don't think he was fired because of it because why would they wait this long? He was generally well liked and was friends with JBL, so he had political allies. I think it was constant breaking of WWE policy (both written and "understood" lockeroom criteria) that did him in.

Orlando Jordan has been released.

My God, they just had Khali squash the Undertaker at the PPV. He pinned him with one foot on his chest. I NEVER thought I'd see this day. WOW. Vince must really be a Dalip fan.

I was just reading a Figure 4 Weekly Flashback and can anyone tell me why Alvarez hates Mark Jindrak so much? That is such a random guy to constantly shit on.

Via DVDVR:

Bret said something to the effect of Mexican wrestlers "working soft" in the build up to WM 12. That was a pretty big breach of kayfabe for 1996 and honestly the comment went over my head as a mark at the time.

Watching Tommy Dreamer get absolutely NO reaction tonight was kind of sad and doesn't bode well for the ECW angle. Dreamer was buried too much over the past 5 years to expect the crowd to treat him like a star. I assume this sets up Foley and Edge v Funk and Dreamer at ONS 2.

PWI:

During the match with Mickie James tonight. MRI pending. The women's division is all but dead now.