Mad Dog Posted July 9, 2012 Report Share Posted July 9, 2012 Wow, TNA legit surprised me tonight. Austin Aries... the new TNA Champion. I guess I'm going to start watching again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dylan Waco Posted July 9, 2012 Report Share Posted July 9, 2012 I think it was the right move, but I do wonder if they will keep the belt on him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mad Dog Posted July 9, 2012 Report Share Posted July 9, 2012 TNA seems to do longer title reigns these days. I think he'll probably last until Bound for Glory unless ratings were to totally tank. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NintendoLogic Posted July 9, 2012 Report Share Posted July 9, 2012 I feel like TNA put itself in a position where all its options were suboptimal. They pretty much had to put the belt on Aries the way they built it up, but it kind of takes the steam out of the Storm/Roode program. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FLIK Posted July 9, 2012 Report Share Posted July 9, 2012 Even though it'd prob lead to a ton of bitching online, i'd totally book Roode to win it right back on Impact this week Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Victator Posted July 9, 2012 Report Share Posted July 9, 2012 I wrote this at DVDVR. They should do the rematch on Impact. But have Roode be attacked by Storm and have him do a promo saying "I might not of taken the belt from you, but I can make sure you never win it again." I don't think Storm/Roode needs the belt at this point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NintendoLogic Posted July 9, 2012 Report Share Posted July 9, 2012 I think talking about a feud needing the belt is backwards thinking. The primary goal of a promotion should be to get its titles over, and removing the TNA world title from its centerpiece feud does the opposite. Personally, I would've liked a Savage/Steamboat deal where Storm gets back at Roode by taking the one thing that means the most to him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KrisZ Posted July 9, 2012 Report Share Posted July 9, 2012 WWE signing PAC & Sara del Rey in just a few hour difference is interesting considering what they look for in wrestlers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cox Posted July 9, 2012 Report Share Posted July 9, 2012 I'm guessing that Hero and Claudio got Del Ray in. She's based out of Tampa, so I'm guessing she lives with one of them and they were able to get her a contract. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coffey Posted July 9, 2012 Report Share Posted July 9, 2012 TNA is so good right now, it's scary. It's not perfect by any means but by comparison to, say, WWE or ROH, it's ridiculous. The PPV last night was real good to me. A.J. Styles, Austin Aries & Samoa Joe all had good showings. Now I wake up and hear WWE have signed both PAC and Sara Del Rey. Plus they're ready to call up Dean Ambrose and they still have Claudio & Hero. Meanwhile C.M. Punk & American Dragon are floating around the upper card. Old School ROH is taking over the wrestling world! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hollinger. Posted July 9, 2012 Report Share Posted July 9, 2012 Last night's PPV was a lot of fun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FLIK Posted July 9, 2012 Report Share Posted July 9, 2012 I'm guessing that Hero and Claudio got Del Ray in. She's based out of Tampa, so I'm guessing she lives with one of them and they were able to get her a contract. She's Claudio's girl friend (according to Tracey Smothers) but Sara's had a lot of ppl on the roster pushing for her for a while. From what a few of the former writers who've done podcast have said, Vince flip flops a lot on whether he wants the women's division to be focused on girls who can do good matches or girls who're just T&A so maybe he just woke up on the right side of the bed for Sara Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NintendoLogic Posted July 9, 2012 Report Share Posted July 9, 2012 I do think we're seeing a gradual shift in the philosophy behind the women's division. Filling the division with bikini models when you can do Playboy shoots and swimsuit videos is one thing. But when the product is PG and none of them can work, what is there for them to do besides host Kiss Cam segments during commercial breaks? And the WWE schedule is a huge pain in the ass if you don't have a passion for the business. So the Maxines and Bellas of the world are increasingly deciding it's not worth the hassle and walking away. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coffey Posted July 9, 2012 Report Share Posted July 9, 2012 They're just going to try to rebuild the Divas division into a wrestling division, re-establish credibility to the title over the next several years, so that Triple H's daughter can win it and become the youngest female champion ever. Then they'll retire the belt, kill the division and call her the best ever. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Victator Posted July 9, 2012 Report Share Posted July 9, 2012 As long as its dead... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Evans Posted July 9, 2012 Report Share Posted July 9, 2012 Should be interesting seeing Sara do bikini contests or dancing with kids and fat chicks at the FCW Slamarama shows. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdw Posted July 9, 2012 Report Share Posted July 9, 2012 Suspect since it's the WWE, the pressure will be there for Sara to drop weight / muscle up / get a more "fit" look. I.E. the PED's that the rest of the fitness model Divas take to look cut. John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coffey Posted July 9, 2012 Report Share Posted July 9, 2012 Or she'll just never get called up from FCW, which seems more likely to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FLIK Posted July 10, 2012 Report Share Posted July 10, 2012 K, i've watched 37 Volk Han matches over the course of the last 6 days and I don't get the hype at all. Well, I do but I disagree. At his best, working with someone equally or atleast almost as talented, doing the type of match he was best at full of flashy back & forth submission work he was an amazingly talented guy capable of great, exciting matches. I don't think he'd have worked out anywhear else under any other circumstances but for the time frame he was around, the promotion he was in and the fans he was in front of he was a perfect fit. At his worst however, when he couldn't/wouldn't do his "Russian Spider Man" act and had to do matches based around more traditonal mat work or strikes or wasn't working with top lvl talent it equaled a lot of average at best matches and ocasionally some really boring ones. Tho I will admit that I found the matches whear he gets gut punched to death by giant foreign mountain men pretty hilarious & entertaining in an unintentional way. He also tended to gas really easily too making me glad they kept him under 15 mins 97% of the time. I wasn't able to get a hold of a few of his more pimped matches, couldn't find anything vs Naruse, thought he had OK chemistry with Maeda but only saw 3 of their 9 matches, etc... but of the footage I watched, there's only really about 5 matches i've seen that i'd call great and maybe another 10 or 11 i'd lable really good. And for a guy who's talked up the way he is and who only has a tiny amount of matches to begin with I was hoping he'd have a higher % of worthwhile stuff to be considered an all time great or HoF worthy guy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sek69 Posted July 10, 2012 Report Share Posted July 10, 2012 Or she'll just never get called up from FCW, which seems more likely to me. I think they will at least call her up, I just wonder if/when they do she'll get the Molly Holly treatment and have the announcers talk about her granny panties. I suspect if WWE wants to keep having women wrestling, they will have to start going back to women who can actually work a match. Like what was stated earlier, the model types are starting to get to the point where it's not worth the hassle anymore. Not only did Maxine and the Bellas leave, Kelly Kelly is on that Stacy Keibler-esque long term leave that doesn't appear she'll ever come back from anytime soon. They're going to have to start hiring women who actually want to be in wrestling, and they're going to have to come to terms with those who want to be there not always looking like Vince's ideal wank fantasy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdw Posted July 10, 2012 Report Share Posted July 10, 2012 At his best, working with someone equally or atleast almost as talented, doing the type of match he was best at full of flashy back & forth submission work he was an amazingly talented guy capable of great, exciting matches. I don't think he'd have worked out anywhear else under any other circumstances but for the time frame he was around, the promotion he was in and the fans he was in front of he was a perfect fit. He could have fit into UWF 2.0, UWFi or PWFG equally as well... given some of his theatricality, perhaps even better. I also could swear I've seen him in with lesser workers and made them look great. Like the Ilioukhine match to set Ilioukhine up for Tamura. The stamina comment is interesting since I never really noticed it. I think if you go here: http://prowrestlinghistory.com/shoot/rings/ringsindex.html And start with 1992 (when Volk debuted), you'll find three things: * 97% is too high, especially early when Rings still worked some longer matches * Rings didn't work as long of matches up and down the cards in Han's prime as other UWF-style promotions * Han typically worked in the longest or one of the longest matches on the cards By 1997 it gets a little hard to track as they'd have "vale tudo" matches on the undercards, and also some shooty/sparing/shoot things where you'd need to watch the whole cards to figure out what was standard Rings variation UWF-style, and what was other stuff. They did go into a stretch with the Tamura-Yamamoto draw being well received that they rolled out others like it. But the promotion was morphing a bit by then. From the most part from 1992-96, Han didn't work short in the promotion relative to others. John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chess Knight Posted July 10, 2012 Report Share Posted July 10, 2012 I also could swear I've seen him in with lesser workers and made them look great. Like the Ilioukhine match to set Ilioukhine up for Tamura. I've got this on every Han v Dude I Don't Like match I've watched. There's been some guys I've seen him up against that annoyed the living shit out of me that I thought Han totally carried them to what was usually a very good and competitive match. I got the impression these other guys would be the kind of shoot wrestlers to lay on the floor with an armbar doing nothing if Han wasn't literally as good at making the match look legit as any wrestler I'll ever see. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdw Posted July 10, 2012 Report Share Posted July 10, 2012 That was the general impression that Yohe got, and he watched all those 1991-98 Rings cards top to bottom. So he's see someone having mediocre matches for several cards before having an entertaining one with Han. Not sure if Best Of or just watching the Han Matches gets that across. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ohtani's jacket Posted July 10, 2012 Report Share Posted July 10, 2012 At his worst however, when he couldn't/wouldn't do his "Russian Spider Man" act and had to do matches based around more traditonal mat work or strikes or wasn't working with top lvl talent it equaled a lot of average at best matches and ocasionally some really boring ones. Tho I will admit that I found the matches whear he gets gut punched to death by giant foreign mountain men pretty hilarious & entertaining in an unintentional way. He also tended to gas really easily too making me glad they kept him under 15 mins 97% of the time. . It sounds like you went back and forth between early RINGS and the later more Pancrase influenced stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FLIK Posted July 10, 2012 Report Share Posted July 10, 2012 He could have fit into UWF 2.0, UWFi or PWFG equally as well... given some of his theatricality, perhaps even better. Well, okay, any other non shoot style setting I should say. Like I said, the matches of his I tended to like the most were against the guys that came from those feds. Really dug his exhibition with Fujiwara in 01, kinda pissed that didn't air in full. I also could swear I've seen him in with lesser workers and made them look great. Like the Ilioukhine match to set Ilioukhine up for Tamura. Didn't get that myself. I saw a # of so so matches against lesser guys whear maybe the only interesting thing that happened was Han getting in an ocasional cool move and a lot of average matches whear if the guy was good enough to go with the flo Han could put on his flashy show. But yeah, didn't see much that gave me the impression that his opponent was the one looking better then normal because of Han. I've got a # of other RINGS stuff that i'll get to eventually so maybe i'll change my mind. A lot of Tamura matches since that's what Ditch was hosting so I just went through and grabed all the RINGS stuff he had. Then, on my own on Youtube after watching them vs Han I went and tracked down some Willie Williams who I allready knew of and what I was getting before hand, some Grom Zaza and some Andrei Kopylov the latter two i'd never seen/heard of before. Kopy had one of the more interesting series with Han I thought actually. 7/92 which I thought was thier best match that they equally looked good in 3/93 which I thought Kopy stunk in and was one of the worst Han matches I saw 10/94 liked a lot, thought Han was the one who stunk it up and Kopy turned in a much better performance then him Thinking about it I should probably track down some Nikolai Zouev too since I thought he had an awesome match with Han in 93 & a pretty good one again in 95. The stamina comment is interesting since I never really noticed it. Yeah, usually around the 8 or 9 min mark he'd start sucking wind. Off the top of my head I thought the 8/96 Kohsaka match was a good example of one whear he really gassed out (didn't really care for their series of matches). Notcible in one of the Maeda matches too whear near the end Han just stops fighting for some reason and puts his hands on his knees to rest so Maeda just spin kicks him in the face for giving him the opening Course, actual mat/amature/shoot/whatever style wrestling is one of the more physically taxing things you can do since it requires constant energry as opposed to striking or doing suplexes & other moves so I don't mean it as a major knock against the guy. Looking at it in the context of RINGS itself whear most stuff was kept shorter it's not so bad I guess but when comparing it to other places it's still not impressive either. It sounds like you went back and forth between early RINGS and the later more Pancrase influenced stuff. Yeah, since he wrestled the same guys over and over again (would be surprised if he faced more then 20-25 opponents total in his career) I watched all the matches in a certain feud in a row before moving on to something else so a lot of jumping around timeline wise. Even though his best matches I saw were in 96, I thought he looked most consistently good in mid 92 through mid 93 and late 94 through mid 95. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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