TNA news from the Observer

[Guest HTQ]

Final Resolution Star Ratings

 

1) Rhino vs AJ = ***

2) Sabin vs Lynn vs Daniels = ***1/4

3) Shelley vs Starr = **

4) Storm vs Petey = **1/4

5) LAX vs 3D = 3/4*

6) Joe vs Angle = ***1/2

7) Sting vs. Cage vs. Abyss = ***1/4

 

News

 

Usual TNA PPV. Mostly good matches but nothing great. Big problem is they come across as a minor league promotion desperatly trying to get attention and get one more shot at the big time.

 

What seem to sum up TNA is that in the VKM segment at the PPV they mocked WWE for having people chanting "TNA" during the Rosie/Donald skit, but later in the same segment they had their own fans chanting "We Want Wrestling".

 

Angle suffered a concussion at the 8:00 mark in the Iron Man Match. Angle always calls his own matches, but from that moment on the match was called by Joe and Earl Hebner.

 

Incase anyone's been wondering and doesn't know, TNA's 'Big Fat Oily Guy' is Tiny the Timekeeper from the Nashville days.

 

The angle where Gail Kim has to stick with James Storm or she'll lose her job as TNA doesn't have a woman's divsion is carny for we're adding a woman's division. More evidence that Russo and company are determined to pretend it's still 1998 and are happy to ignore the way ratings drop drasticly in WWE for woman's segments.

 

Konnan had his hip operation on 1/11. Just the fact he had it is very good news as they felt he was healthy enough to survive the surgery thanks to the dialysis he's been on. The doctors have told him that in four to six months he'll be moving better than he has in years. He'll be back home in San Diego on 1/17 and there has even been talk of him being back on the 1/29 tapings.

 

As things stand TNA is to have a special airing on 2/12 when Raw is pre-empted for the Westminster Dog Show. It's not 100% yet and no one's sure if it'll be a one or two-hour show. With a PPV on 2/11 the show is almost going to have to be either live or on a two-hour tape delay as TNA won't want to pre-record the show in order not to give away the PPV results. The special would then be repeated on the Thursday in the regular time slot.

 

The booking team is trying to come up a shoot concept to be different to WWE. The vague idea is to have all X Division matches have time limits but have real judges deciding the outcome based on who gave the best performance in the match. Again, this would be a shoot decision. This is not a completely new idea, but no one in the past has ever worked out a way to get it to work. Bischoff talked to Meltzer about it after WCW went down and even Nick Bockwinkel has talked about this idea in the past. The problem with it is that you'd get wrestlers working selfishly and possibly even going out of their way to make their opponents look bad.

 

More office cut backs - staff have been told to either double up at the Doubletree hotel or stay at a cheaper hotel as long as TNA continues to pay.

 

Angle was on the George Michael Sports Show. He was described as the TNA heavyweight champion. He said no one in TNA tells him what to do, he calls his matches, wrestles them how he wants and tries to make them as real as possible. He also claimed again he wants to do an MMA fight. Which he doesn't really based on how much money he's turned down for doing one.

 

The UWF group on 2/3 has a Team 3D vs Steiner Brothers match booked. This is something that TNA have been wanting to do for a long time, but due to Scott's contract issues the timing's never worked out.

 

Kevin Nash is claiming he's the reason Jeremy Borash is back doing the interviews. Nash was fed with interviews having to be done over and over again as Leticia Crana didn't know what she was doing. Nash made a remark along the lines of asking if her boobs were good enough to justify hanging round till 1am doing the same interview over and over.

Credit for the typing out goes to The Decemberists.

 

The idea for 'shoot' X-Division matches is one of those ideas that's creative just to be creative. I don't see how it can work within a regular wrestling promotion. It would be one thing if it was a promotional concept and all the matches were like that, but mixing 'shoots' with works almost never ends up well.

[Guest TheShawshankRudotion]

Because of all the things to take from MMA, judging is the one that is obviously most welcomed by the fans.

[Bix]

TNA is so much fun as self-parody that I pray the shoot X division happens.

[Guest Lennie]

It's just so stupid. Wrestling is a collaborative art form. You could have judges score each match on a card, but shoot judging winners and losers is just silly.

 

Of course, it's TNA, so part of me really wants to see this happen.

[gordi]

Wrestling is a collaborative art form.

 

Absolutely.

 

If I'm in a match being judged on who gives the best performance, what is to keep me from sandbagging the guy that's in there with me, or screwing up my positioning so that it looks like he's blowing spots? It's an unworkable idea.

 

Oh the humanity!