Is TNA the worst wrestling promotion in history?

[Matt D]

Well regarded by like three guys on WKO is not the same as well regarded in general.

He was in Phil and Eric's #2 match of the year last year too. WKO + SC + Finlay feels like a pretty good cross-section to me (but maybe I'm biased).

[Laz]

What I don't get is when it happened, reports from the tapings were something like the bat bounced off the chair and hit him, but it looks like he hit him right in the face. How does that even happen when you're supposed to be aiming at a chair placed on his chest? Either Sami is like Stan Hansen levels of poor eyesight or has zero depth perception.

It clips the chair and rolls off because the chair started falling and Eddie held it.

 

Sami deserves all the shit he can get for screwing that up, and the company deserves shit for 1) allowing it to happen and 2) not gimmicking the bat. Hindsight, sure, but to start acting like a guy who's been featured prominently on the indies for the last 7-8 years without real incident is worthless now seems preposterous to me.

[Phil Schneider]

Obviously the blown spot was bad, but he is a heel, of course he isnt going to act contrite and apologize on Twitter. I can just imagine bed wetter wining about Owen Harts I broke your neck T-Shirt too

[Johnny Sorrow]

The thing I take away, as Laz brought up, is ,"Gimmick the fucking bat!" It was clearly an accident that has nothing to do with training or anything Cornette is saying to leach on to an accident so he has Twitter content.

[NintendoLogic]

Honestly, the Owen situation was far worse. Taking years off a guy's career, never apologizing even in private, and using his catchphrase to try to get yourself over is really shitty.

[Bix]

This came up in a conversation with a wrestler friend earlier today and the thing that had us both stumped was what Callihan was even trying to do. If he was trying to just hit the chair, then his aim was so bad that it makes you wonder how it even happened. If he was trying to use the chair to "trap" Edwards (in Kayfabe) while actually having it there to have something to make a noise, then that had such a small margin of error that it read clearly a bad idea. As in: Was he trying to skip the bat off the chair en route to hitting the mat or pulling the shot or something? It looks more like that, but I can't possibly imagine how they thought they could pull it off if that's the case.

[Phil Schneider]

It looks like Callihan was supposed to hit the chair and smash it into Edwards throat, but Edwards was moving the chair. I am pretty sure I have see Callihan do that spot before

[Johnny Sorrow]

Honestly, the Owen situation was far worse. Taking years off a guy's career, never apologizing even in private, and using his catchphrase to try to get yourself over is really shitty.

To be honest, I loved the t shirt. Im pretty sure Owen didnt, though.

[fxnj]

If you watch the replay in slow motion it looks like Sami was aiming for the middle of the chair at first but Eddie moving the chair led to him hitting the top part before the bat quickly bounced off and hit Eddie in the head. A poorly thought out and unnecessarily dangerous spot, but I don't think Sami deserves the heat for it.

[shodate]

It looks like Callihan was supposed to hit the chair and smash it into Edwards throat, but Edwards was moving the chair. I am pretty sure I have see Callihan do that spot before

did asutin ever say sorry to chono then agin chono afther the same injury had 20 years active time note ot was the same injury

[MikeCampbell]

did asutin ever say sorry to chono then agin chono afther the same injury had 20 years active time note ot was the same injury

 

The Chono incident was the reason why Austin apparently didn't want Owen to do the sitdown tombstone, and wanted him to drop to his knees like UT's version.

 

RE: Eddie/Sami, I don't have anything to add that wasn't already said by other people in the threat. It was a stupid spot to begin with, and Sami looked sloppy as fuck. The chair they used was also rather questionable, which makes me wonder if Don Callis and co. knew what they planned on doing. The thing that drive me crazy though is the defense of "Accidents happen." No shit, nobody thinks Sami clocked him on purpose. But, people are still at fault when an accident happens. And, yes, with the half-assed way the chair was set up, and the swing he took. Sami is at fault.

[Victator]

Honestly, the Owen situation was far worse. Taking years off a guy's career, never apologizing even in private, and using his catchphrase to try to get yourself over is really shitty.

Owen didn't write any of it. He did not seem comfortable with doing any of it on TV either.

 

Callihan talking about how much money he makes referring to a TNA Twitch taping he worked for free (or at best very little) is the only funny thing here.

[NintendoLogic]

It recently occurred to me that TNA's most lasting legacy will almost certainly be the "this is awesome" chant.

[shodate]

 

did asutin ever say sorry to chono then agin chono afther the same injury had 20 years active time note ot was the same injury

 

The Chono incident was the reason why Austin apparently didn't want Owen to do the sitdown tombstone, and wanted him to drop to his knees like UT's version.

 

RE: Eddie/Sami, I don't have anything to add that wasn't already said by other people in the threat. It was a stupid spot to begin with, and Sami looked sloppy as fuck. The chair they used was also rather questionable, which makes me wonder if Don Callis and co. knew what they planned on doing. The thing that drive me crazy though is the defense of "Accidents happen." No shit, nobody thinks Sami clocked him on purpose. But, people are still at fault when an accident happens. And, yes, with the half-assed way the chair was set up, and the swing he took. Sami is at fault.

 

same injury same move asutin wirked 3 years if that full time but chono worked 20 years most of them working with guys wrking that new japan style or some stime kings road while wwe main evemt style is about 20 times as soft like new japan or all japan work 1/20 the dates of wwf also new japan and all japan never soften up there Rings thye use rings a hard as boxing rings like what wwe did before 1995 outside of ddt still use less padded rings ie harder rings i idlsiek this just ot say but tye still od it

[Laz]

The thing that drive me crazy though is the defense of "Accidents happen." No shit, nobody thinks Sami clocked him on purpose. But, people are still at fault when an accident happens. And, yes, with the half-assed way the chair was set up, and the swing he took. Sami is at fault.

1. People were legitimately treating this as if Sami intentionally walloped Eddie, at first. Then it became a question of how safe Sami is as a worker, because going his entire career (most of it in CZW) without seriously injuring others hasn't been a testament.

2. Sami is as much at fault as Eddie, who repositioned the chair.

[El-P]

This is fascinating to watch Jim Cornette in 2008, especially after the great build to Lockdown, shoot-trying to make sense of Russo's idiotic twists, turns and gimmick matches on TV and acting/actually going nuts because of the company. It's kinda like after such a successful PPV, Russo tried his best to fuck things up with his retarded ideas and hotshotting (Angle vs Joe on free TV two weeks after their most successful PPV) and Cornette's frustration actually made its way onto the screen. Since Corny is so great, he makes it work of course.

[El-P]

So, Sacrifice 2008 has the second very loud "Fire Russo" chant, during Roxxi Laveaux getting her head shaved. That was quite the moment, as the entire PPV (and build) reeked of Russo bullshit and tropes (the crappy gimmick tournament, partners not getting along, swerve and swerve teases, dangerous gimmick matches). The "loser gets his head shaven" after the women's Ladder match (which followed a Battle Royal, of course) wasn't a doing of the heels in storylines, it came from the office (aka Cornette). So even though the Beautiful People, who are finally named as such, are doing an excellent job trying to get heat on themselves (which was the idea that should have been worked in), the audience just reacted like the head shaving was simply Russo booking the humiliation of a women for no purpose. Hence, "Fire Russo" and "bullshit" chants. Well, "This is awesome" may be an annoying chant (moreso in today's wrestling when idiots chants it all the time), but those TNA fans had it right also at points.

 

The segment itself was very well done, with the other women staying close from Roxxi while the Beautiful People were just harrassing her. The ladder match was actually quite brutal in a good way, Gail and Roxxy really beat the shit out of each other with the Beautiful People running in and out to prevent Love from getting her own head shaved (yeah, over complicated gimmick, as Gail had "immunity" so she couldn't lose her hair).

 

The fans did chant "Roxxi" after the deed was done, but you can feel she got sympathy against the "writer" and not the heels. It also kinda killed the PPV atmospshere, which also had Kurt Angle not working because of a new neck injury. After the great build to Lockdown the month prior, this was Russo having his ways and fucking up the entire momentum of the company again. 2008 is quite the interesting year.

[Victator]

Did you hear Cornette go into more detail on his podcast about this period. He was working as an agent and with the production truck since Russo could or would not explain how the matches were suppose to go or even the promos. So Cornette and the talent had to make sense of it. He was also trying to make Russo's stuff more palpable in writing meetings.

Then Jarrett is kicked out and Russo gets Dixie to fire Dutch and Cornette so he has no filter and we start the road to Impact on Twitch.

[El-P]

Yes, I heard Cornette and Dutch talk about it. Apparently Jarrett asked Dutch to try and keep Russo under control once he would be gone, but it took a few weeks before he managed to have Dutch fired, then Corny. It's crazy how Dixie got manipulated by this guy to the point she would rehire him secretly later.

 

You can feel Corny trying to make sense ouf of the stupid booking and gimmicks on iMPACT like I said, it's kinda fascinating to watch.

 

Quite fun/interesting to binge watch TNA 07/08 thus far, despite Russo there is quite a lot of good stuff, and you can really manage to see what Dutch for responsible for (the good stuff that made sense) as opposed to Russo usual bullshit (gimmick match overload, hotshotting, swerve, misogynic stuff, WWE references and copycat angles/characters). I wonder how long the balance will work out before Dutch gets fired. The build to Lockdown 2008 was clearly mostly Dutch while the Sacrifice stuff, which was mostly terrible, was typical Russo.

[oldbirds]

In this week's Impact, there was an unbelievable great segment between Austin Aries and Del Rio. It was so freaking good. Think old school Memphis, only with modern themes such as veganism (!). Both looked like a million bucks, everything was well made, great acting, you could cut the tension in the air, and in the end it's type of segment that makes me love pro-wrestling. Amazing.

 

 

Edit: found the segment on YT, if anyone wants to see it:

[El-P]

Another proof that WWE's writing and directing style is the worst, since both these guys comes off better than they ever did at any point in WWE, and this segment murders anything on WWE TV. It's simple, they talk like real people, they don't do awkward pauses, etc. It feels "real", or at the very least, organic.

[Alucard]

Thirding the love for the Aries/Alberto segment, great stuff!

 

So, Sacrifice 2008 has the second very loud "Fire Russo" chant, during Roxxi Laveaux getting her head shaved. That was quite the moment, as the entire PPV (and build) reeked of Russo bullshit and tropes (the crappy gimmick tournament, partners not getting along, swerve and swerve teases, dangerous gimmick matches).

 

It also kinda killed the PPV atmospshere, which also had Kurt Angle not working because of a new neck injury. After the great build to Lockdown the month prior, this was Russo having his ways and fucking up the entire momentum of the company again. 2008 is quite the interesting year.

 

"See, the 3 way at Sacrifice, you got a 33 1/3 chance of winning but I, I've got 66 2/3 chance of winning!"

[The Thread Killer]

When Anthem hired Scott D'Amore and Don Callis, I was cautiously optimistic that good things might happen for Impact after the new team was in place and got their feet under them. Then the infamous Callahan/Edwards bat incident happened, and I was discouraged. Now, I am wondering if these guys might actually be able to pull something off and make Impact compelling again. They definitely have the brains and experience to do it...I'm still not sure if they will. But stuff like this is a good sign and is the kind of stuff I was hoping to see once they got settled.

[FMKK]

Oh wow, that really was something. Excellent performances and the tension was really ramped up. I half expected Alberto to beat him down and stuff his mouth full of steak haha.

[El-P]

"See, the 3 way at Sacrifice, you got a 33 1/3 chance of winning but I, I've got 66 2/3 chance of winning!"

 

Well that was pretty funny. Scott Steiner usually is, and I find old-sunken chest Big Poppa Pump to be quite a decent worker considering his limitations.

 

Also, that Kurt Angle "My apologies to Karen" promo on iMPACT following Sacrifice was a legit laugh out loud moment for me, and it very seldom happens in pro-wrestling. In what should be referred as "scripted promos" era (basically the 00's and forward), Angle has to be considered one of the best mic worker. He was absolutely brillant here.