Strummer Posted February 18, 2006 Report Share Posted February 18, 2006 from DVDVR Bret has mainly been talking to Kevin Dunn about the HOF ceremony. Meltzer thinks it's a way for Bret to say goodbye to his fans. They are going to beg him to work the PPV but Dave doesn't believe Bret will bite. Lots of heat on Vince and Steph for the Eddie angle. The creative team was against it but Steph insisted they go that direction. Vince approved. Vince's reply when someone question's him is "Look at the big picture". Morale is at an all time low and it's going to be interesting when contract renewals come up. Jarrett believed that Bret was never going to work for TNA and thought he would go back to Vince. When the HOF announcement was made he said "I told you so" In an interview Jackie Gayda said she was fired because she turned down Playboy in 2004. Her and Stacy were asked to pose together but both turned it down. The issue went to Sable and Torrie instead. As revenge, Vince booked the storyline where Jackie and Stacy were jealous of Torrie and Sable. I'm assuming more later Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sek69 Posted February 18, 2006 Report Share Posted February 18, 2006 More Tommy Dreamer told CM Punk that he could work ROH's date last Sat. with the conditions of he couldn't be advertised, he couldn't job, he couldn't wrestle or be involved with anyone from TNA, and it could only be a one time thing. From there Dreamer left to do an indie date in England. He didn't tell anyone else in WWE that he gave Punk permission including Johnny Ace. Meltzer said the situation "exploded" at Raw on Monday. Vince and Steph went up to Ace and gave him a bunch of heat asking him why he let a member of WWE appear on a show with "so many TNA stars". Even though a lot of the wrestlers by this time knew that Punk did the ROH show (as well as it being on the net), Meltzer said Ace was "blindsided" by the McMahon's appoarch. All the heat then went to Punk and he told them Dreamer approved of it, so then Dreamer got the final heat. Meltzer said from day one guys like HHH, HBK, Hayes, and even Arn Anderson have been all over Punk about his work rate. Anderson goes along with HHH and says that Punk "copies" a lot of popular moves from Japan. Meltzer also added that Punk's relationship with Maria "doesn't help matters". He didn't go into detail and I'm really curious as to what he meant. Possible big news in TNA is that Goldberg seems really interested in maybe doing a few dates down the line. He said he wants to prove himself before retiring from wrestling because his WM match with Brock isn't how he wants to end it. Also Meltzer says he is interested in helping TNA grow a bit because he hates Vince McMahon so much that he won't even say his name. (That's pretty bad and adds to everything else about McMahon in this issue.) No one really knows what WWE's meeting with Simon Inoki was about but it probably had a lot to do with Brock's situation. Meltzer said at one point WWE was even thinking about going as far as suing New Japan to stop Brock around the world. However that has cooled and they would have a hardtime doing it since NJPW is Tokyo based. They put Simon's picture up on WWE.com in order to mess with TNA since they had a working agreement with NJPW. So it's clear with this and the ROH show that WWE is growing concerned about TNA. There won't be Taboo Tuesday this year because of low buy rate but the same style of event will be on Sunday Nov. 5 and they are calling it "Cyber Sunday". (I can just see the WWE ads for that one with that kind of title. A tease of a guy getting turned on in front of his computer and it cuts to him watching matches or something) The whole Punk deal is such a hilarious clusterfuck. I bet it all boils down to people being mad he's banging Maria. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mad Dog Posted February 18, 2006 Report Share Posted February 18, 2006 In fairness to the WWF on the Punk stuff. He's been absolutely awful in OVW except for a couple of carry jobs by Brent Albright. He also hasn't helped his case with his attitude. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Spaceman Spiff Posted February 18, 2006 Report Share Posted February 18, 2006 Lots of heat on Vince and Steph for the Eddie angle. The creative team was against it but Steph insisted they go that direction. Vince approved. Vince's reply when someone question's him is "Look at the big picture". Morale is at an all time low and it's going to be interesting when contract renewals come up. Now that's funny. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest CanadianChick Posted February 19, 2006 Report Share Posted February 19, 2006 In fairness to the WWF on the Punk stuff. He's been absolutely awful in OVW except for a couple of carry jobs by Brent Albright. He also hasn't helped his case with his attitude. I haven't seen very many of his matches, except for the mentioned Albright ones, but I have seen a couple promos of his, and I'm surprised WWE is all over him for those. He seems very comfortable doing stuff like that. I was impressed with his acting, expressions, etc., actually. And really, in WWE, isn't that what really counts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strummer Posted February 19, 2006 Author Report Share Posted February 19, 2006 Meltzer also added that Punk's relationship with Maria "doesn't help matters". He didn't go into detail and I'm really curious as to what he meant. I'm assuming he means that the company likes Maria and doesn't want Punk to fill her head with his old school "wrasslin'" approach to the business. They want to teach her the "WWE way" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marty Posted February 19, 2006 Report Share Posted February 19, 2006 Meltzer also added that Punk's relationship with Maria "doesn't help matters". He didn't go into detail and I'm really curious as to what he meant. I'm assuming he means that the company likes Maria and doesn't want Punk to fill her head with his old school "wrasslin'" approach to the business. They want to teach her the "WWE way" The real irony of that is: Doesn't HHH have an "old school wrasslin'" approach to the business? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sek69 Posted February 19, 2006 Report Share Posted February 19, 2006 I'd bet no one in WWE knows what Straight Edge is, and they look at Punk and see all his tats and assume he's some sort of drinking/drugging miscreant who's only going to lead Maria down the road to Sunnyville. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Thread Killer Posted February 19, 2006 Report Share Posted February 19, 2006 You know, I think Punk is a big mouth jackass a lot of the time, and if (or maybe I should say when) he gets buried by the WWE, it's not going to surprise me, or anybody, and it shouldn't even surprise him. Having said that, I still mark out for good wrestling. Having watched Joe vs. Punk I and II recently (still haven't gotten around to III) I have to laugh at the whole "doesn't know how to work" theory. Triple H should have to sit down and watch those two matches. I defy anybody who has seen Joe vs. Punk I and II to name any match that Triple H has been in since his comeback from the quad injury that are as good as those matches. I don't think any such Triple H matches exist. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted February 19, 2006 Report Share Posted February 19, 2006 Not that I'm siding with WWE, but are there examples out there of Punk having good matches that don't last an hour and aren't against top-level talent? The only way Punk is going to forge ahead in WWE is to master working 5 minute matches where he hits all of his signature spots and does a lot of playing to the crowd. Once he gets over, he may start getting more time, and he'll just be doing the same formula but filling more space. I don't think Punk is long for WWE, though; I think the absolute best level of success he can hope for in the company is along the lines of an Edge or Christian, and even that may be stretching things. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
World's Worst Man Posted February 19, 2006 Report Share Posted February 19, 2006 Just "good" matches? He's had a few good singles matches with Aries and Shelley. He was also in some really good/excellent tag matches with Cabana against the Briscoes. Punk isn't a godly worker, but he's a fair bit better than a huge chunk of the WWE roster, including the guys who are burying him. I don't think this story is much of a surprise though. I think even if guys like Samoa Joe or Bryan Danielson were signed to developmental deals, you'd have the same old WWE boys claiming they can't work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Thread Killer Posted February 19, 2006 Report Share Posted February 19, 2006 Not that I'm siding with WWE, but are there examples out there of Punk having good matches that don't last an hour and aren't against top-level talent? Actually Loss, I don't think that Punk is great all the time. From a storyline perspective I liked his ROH feud with Raven, but the matches were pretty awful and you can't blame all of that on Raven. It's just that Punk has had better matches than I've EVER seen Triple H have, at least since his quad injury. Punk isn't a godly worker, but he's a fair bit better than a huge chunk of the WWE roster, including the guys who are burying him. Yeah, I agree 100%. That was my point but you made it better than I. I think even if guys like Samoa Joe or Bryan Danielson were signed to developmental deals, you'd have the same old WWE boys claiming they can't work. I wonder if it's true that one of the reasons Samoa Joe didn't sign with WWE is because he knew they'd have no idea how to book him, and end up making him into some sort of Kamala type character or something. You KNOW that there is no way they'd allow him to work the style he does in ROH and TNA. Not WWE style. Too stiff. Regardless of what people want to say about TNA, I daresay they can't argue with the way Joe has been booked. And with Danielson? FORGET IT. His promos are weak, and in my opinion, he needs longer matches to get in his best work. Both Joe and Danielson would never get over in the WWE. Hell, they had Danielson jobbing on Velocity, didn't they? Then again, for Punk TNA wasn't really an option. They had him and didn't do squat with him. He's a great promo guy and they had him saying "yes boss" to Raven for 3 months. I hear his best fight in TNA was with Teddy Hart in the parking lot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sek69 Posted February 19, 2006 Report Share Posted February 19, 2006 Didn't WWE want to sign Joe because they thought he could be the heel they tried to make Rikishi into? I think that's all he needed to hear. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sek69 Posted February 19, 2006 Report Share Posted February 19, 2006 Meltzer reported that at Eddie's funeral, everyone was kissing Vince's ass. He is still so powerful that everyone is fearful of him and they try to suck up at all times."Superstar" Billy Graham spoke and told Eddie's wife (about Vince) "this man is a marketing genius".He brought up royalities from his book and DVD to try and comfort her that she'd be taken care of with any Eddie deals. Hector Guerrero was in tears and told Vince "My family is so sorry for any bad publicity this may have brought to your family." When Mando was asked about the angle by people he said "That's just how the business operates. I have no problem with it at all. All of this makes me want to throw up, but especially the Hector quote. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bravesfan Posted February 19, 2006 Report Share Posted February 19, 2006 Didn't WWE want to sign Joe because they thought he could be the heel they tried to make Rikishi into? I think that's all he needed to hear.That was the second push they made for him, and it was Laurinitis saying he was "the main-event heel that Rikishi couldn't' be". Take that for what it's worth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mad Dog Posted February 19, 2006 Report Share Posted February 19, 2006 Then again, for Punk TNA wasn't really an option. They had him and didn't do squat with him. He's a great promo guy and they had him saying "yes boss" to Raven for 3 months. I hear his best fight in TNA was with Teddy Hart in the parking lot. Yeah but he lost that fight so I don't know how good it really was. He didn't do anything terribly memorable in TNA. None of his matches were that good and when they were finally going to start pushing the guy he went and started a public brawl with another wrestler on the roster. He can really only blame his TNA run on himself. Not that I'm siding with WWE, but are there examples out there of Punk having good matches that don't last an hour and aren't against top-level talent? Only if he knows them really well like Colt Cabana but even then I've never seen him in a good match that's under 15 minutes. I've also seen him in absolute disasters of matches with inferior workers in shorter matches. So far his only good OVW work has all been 20 minutes or so and with the best worker there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sek69 Posted February 19, 2006 Report Share Posted February 19, 2006 In happier news, Meltz says TNA is giving Christian a chance to run with the ball and right now there's no set end to his title run. He said at this point it could be two months or the rest of the year. Everyone was worried about him getting the Rhino treatment, but it looks like he's holding the belt at least till Sting come back and probably much longer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest savagerulz Posted February 19, 2006 Report Share Posted February 19, 2006 Christian's promo last night was decent, but I'm still waiting for him to really "shine" in TNA with a killer promo (aside from his debut) and a good match. I just hope someday he has a good opponent where he can prove once and for all whether or not he has "it", as we can't use his opponent as an excuse if the match sucks. Matches with Bobby Roode, Jeff Jarrett, and Monty Brown are not a good start for anyone. While on the subject of TNA, I was a little suprised about the announcement of Daniels vs Styles vs Joe in the Ultimate X Match. I'm thinking it's very likely that Samoa Joe will lose his title in that match, but I'm not sure if they'll consider that an end to his winning streak. Assuming that a winning streak only ends when the person on the streak is pinned or made to submit/pass out, his streak should remain intact even if he isn't the one who climbs across those ropes and grabs that cheesy big red X. Usually I hate run-ins, but the Samoa Joe and A.J. run-ins on Impact were great. A.J. was good on the mic too, I guess because he only said one sentence, and Joe continues to be a natural on the mic. I love the continuity in the feud- I guess I'm so enthusiastic about it because it's been so long since I've seen a solid long-running midcard feud between excellent wrestlers. The E certainly hasn't done that in awhile. It's too bad Aries and Daniels didn't get to have a full match, because I think they're talented enough to have a good one if given the time, but if that possibility had to be sacrificed for run-ins, the run-ins could not have been done better and were worth cutting the match off for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Cam Chaos Posted February 19, 2006 Report Share Posted February 19, 2006 Christian I doubt will ever put on a classic singles match, but he's charismatic and is capable enough to entertain so I think he's not going to blow anyone anyway any time soon, but it's still better than Jarrett. I think the belt will actually be suspended above the X since it's a title match, not just an Ultimate X match, and after the crap withe the belt and red X falling down from the X strands in previous bouts I believe that's now the policy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mad Dog Posted February 19, 2006 Report Share Posted February 19, 2006 The belt usually gets buckled together like it normally does on the actual X. The red X is usually a problem not the belt. I imagine they work it so the buckles are really hard to pull apart. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Cooke Posted February 19, 2006 Report Share Posted February 19, 2006 Shorter Punk matches include: vs. Jimmy Rave (2/26/05 - 25 minutes) vs. Jimmy Rave (05/14/05 - Cage - 30 minutes) He hasn't worked a lot of short matches that are excellent. Punk has the advantage though because he can adapt. In 2001-2002 in IWA-MS, he would pull out flying spots that didn't look good. When he got to ROH, he dropped a lot of those silly spots. While the Raven feud didn't do anything for me, Punk was able to adapt to work with Raven. His sloppiness is always brought up but he has always found ways around it by working stories into his matches and generally working a smart style. 2005 saw him work as a lead babyface and then as a cowardly heel champion. My favorite thing about Punk in 2005 was his ability to go from working a main event program with Joe to working an upper mid card feud with a nobody in Jimmy Rave, getting him over and making him a better worker in the matter of months. His heel turn and title run just capped things off. Tim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mad Dog Posted February 19, 2006 Report Share Posted February 19, 2006 His Heat match with Val Venis was decent. Probably the best sub 10 minute match I've ever seen Punk in. But then I'm not huge on Punk. He's had too many matches like his one vs. CW Anderson in RoH. I think he needs a superior worker to reign him in for his better matches. Not that that's a bad thing or anything. As far as OVW he's probably the 3rd best worker there. Brent Albright is miles ahead of him and all but the elite of the WWF roster and Ken Doane is marginally better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sek69 Posted February 19, 2006 Report Share Posted February 19, 2006 Is WWE ever going to do anything with Albright, or is he just there to be a measuring stick for the guys they do want to call up? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mad Dog Posted February 19, 2006 Report Share Posted February 19, 2006 I have no clue. You'd think they'd be all over someone as talented as him but he's sat there while slugs like Masters and the Boogeyman have gotten calls before him. Maybe they haven't thought up the right gimmick to bury him yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sek69 Posted February 20, 2006 Report Share Posted February 20, 2006 I always thought he'd be good in a stable with Benoit and Finlay, they'd just go around killing people because they can. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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