Phantom Lord

So watching this show it honestly felt like I was watching a greatest bits show. It's like they went through years and years worth of scripts and copy and pasted the "best bits" from them and made that into this show. This is the WWE's biggest problem in a nutshell. They refuse to do anything new and fresh. They always go back to the wheelhouse and just do stuff that they've been doing for literally the last 15 years. Cena did make me laugh though when he said if the fired superstars aren't hired back, he's gonna win the title and go home. What position would that put the WWE in? Oh I don't know...where its been the last three months or so with Brock doing the same thing? Honestly I believe the days of the champion having to defend at least every 30 days are long gone. I liked how things were going with Brock only showing up when it was something important. It made the champion a big deal again. Hogan wasn't on every episode of Superstars back in the day. As for Roman Reigns...please stop making him talk. Just have him punch people and spear em. The more he talks the more he goes down in flames. I mean tonight Fairy Tale Reigns was horrible. I understand his fan base is mostly women but I am pretty sure they are not listening to him. I'm amazed at how much they have fucked up The Acension. I wasn't that impressed with them in NXT but they are a nice enough throw back to a team from the 80's. Man JBL buried the fuck out of them on commentary. They went from being something interesting in NXT to a joke on RAW in a span of two weeks. That's got to have everyone down in NXT fearing their eventual call up. As for the contract signing, I had this feeling that maybe Rollins would cash in. I think they missed a big chance here to do it. Brock just does not want to be there. I'm sure he would have been all for getting out of the match at the Rumble. Ah well after seeing that German that Seth took it's going to be fun to see Brock fling him around.

I still remember that goofy Hogan cross arm-breaker he pulled against Bret once on Nitro. Hogan anytime he actually wrestled and did actual wrestling moves was always weird. It's like you can see him counting the steps in his head. ONE...TWO...THREE...ARMBAR BROTHER. Hogan also always had the weirdest figure four. It was kind like Dusty's in that he would just cross the legs and step down on it. But thinking of Hogan doing a cross arm breaker I'm thinking WCW missed a gem around that time he was doing the whole FUR&B thing when he had to wrestle as Terry Bollea. Shooter Hogan could have been so awesome. Him trying to "break" peoples legs like Matsuda did to him. Now I want to see this.

Has to be Robbie E. He stopped short of saying he was only back because he didn't win the Amazing Race. They would probably fire Aries though because why not.

I like how they have some Boot camp guy randomly jump through the crowd like we're supposed to know who he is. Why not save that for oh I don't know THE TAPINGS IN ENGLAND WHERE PEOPLE KNOW WHO IN THEORY HE IS???

So I finished the show. Great to see Kong back. I hope it's for a long run. I suspect Terryn and her could have some fun matches like Kong/Kim. Would make more sense for Havok to be champion though and Kong challenging her but lets not get into a logic and TNA debate. On second thought...I can almost understand Low Ki and Joe teaming up with MVP and Kenny King as this low rent strong style group (MVP busting out those submissions was pretty cool). But Eric Young joining them is so damn random. Okay lets say EY is pissed at Roode for taking his spot at the top. Why does he join with MVP to play fifth wheel? Now we're gonna get SRS BUSINESS Eric Young and Eric all serious is just so bland unless he becomes Terry Funk which might not be so bad. Overall not a bad debut but man they got a shitload to work on. New channel...same shitty production team who miss everything. Also bleeping the crowd is gonna get dumb fast. Maybe tell the crowd "please dont curse" before the show if its gonna be an issue.

That Wrestling with Death show looks awesome. Sucks I don't have WGN America. I swear I saw a commercial for it during Impact so TNA should sign them. Crazy Steve's family. BOOM.

I'm working my way through the show on the dvr right now. Man EC3 is such an intollerable asshole and if this were another company he would be generating some huge riots. I can't wait for the eventual blow off match which I assume has to be hair vs. hair now. Spud going all apeshit and beating EC3 into a bloody mess would be amazing television. But since this is TNA, EC3 would somehow win in the end.

Didn't take too long for them to job out Barrett since he won the title back. What is it with them and doing that.

My father's been watching since the 70's and tonight between all the stuff that happened at the start of the show and Ambrose losing he said the hell with it. It's just not worth watching anymore. The WWE goes out of their way to piss so many loyal fans off. But what really annoyed me at least from a creative standpoint it just how horrible the show is actually written. The main problem is the only person on the entire roster with any kind of balls is John Cena. Everyone else has been castrated as mentioned in previous posts. Only John Cena can stand up for the locker room. Well time and time again its been shown that he doesn't care about the locker room. So why does anyone in the locker room stand with him anyway? The worst part of all of this is Dolph Ziggler will probably be out until Wrestlemania when this current story probably is wrapped up. Well I guess people will have no choice but to root for Roman Reigns if they get rid of anyone else the crowd likes.

Speaking of RAW tonight, commentary might he be even worse with Lawler in the hospital. Booker T is taking his place tonight. HA HA MAGGLE. SHUCKY DUCKY QUACK QUACK.

I remember reading that workout book Triple H put out and he also told stories about his career up to that point and he said WCW wanted him to be a French aristocrat. With a French sounding last name they just assumed he was French (or maybe French Canadian) and could speak it. So he was like "the last name Levesque is common up there...like Smith". So they had to improvise on the character. So that's how he ended up with Regal as a blue blood. Totally WCW type deal. Like how Dusty made Marc Mero into Little Richard because he looked a lot like him.

It's usually buried in between stuff like FYI, Cooking Channel, DYI and other channels like that at least on my cable system. I'm quietly optimistic for TNA. They've been given a chance here that ECW and WCW were not in their dying days. Question is will they try to make something of it or will they continue doing the same old same old or will they give it the college try and make something of it. Even if they are able to pull in their peak Spike TV numbers that would be like quadruple what DA's best shows have to pull in with viewers. So at least they'll be a success in that regard.

You speak the truth. As much as I love Bret and Shawn respectively, the WM 12 Iron Man Match is so damn boring for the first 45 minutes. They would have been better off just doing 2/3 falls with them splitting the first two going to a draw (countout or something) for the third and then Bret being forced into overtime. At least we would have had actually falls in that match.

Dixie wasn't even there yet. Panda bought into TNA in 2003 so she was there for the majority of the weekly PPV era. So, TNA is on life support since 2003...wow. You have to admire the Carter's and how they'll blindly just throw millions of dollars away and not expect to make anything back in return. I know it's been said that TNA is the worlds largest tax write off but you'd think maybe just making a little money would be nice.

I don't think Lesnar will be in the WWE post Rumble. Look at him on Monday night. He looked like "it doesn't matter how much they are paying me...I'm done with this shit" especially at the end of the show when they had him stand in the corner of the stage for no real reason. Cena wins at the Rumble and then Rollins does the cash in leading Rollins as WWE Champion. Vince is probably dead set on strapping a rocket to Reigns and forcing him down everyone this year. Before Bryan said he was coming back my honest alternative pick to Reigns would have been Ziggler. I can see the rumble coming down to Reigns/Ziggler/Bryan now (assuming they don't do some bs next week removing Bryan from the Rumble just to screw with us). Ambrose should be in the mix but they really screwed him over the last couple of months. If he wins the ambulance match on Monday Night I'll see that as a sign of hope that he could be the forth guy in the final four of the Rumble. But rumors are if they do Bray/Taker they don't want Bray losing anything so Ambrose would be once again screwed.

Saw this on NoDQ per Da Meltz I still will never understand how legally the WWE can get away with stuff like that. I can understand the 90 day deal because they don't want Lex Luger/Rick Rude situations happening (not that there's anywhere for it to happen). But a year off just seems so harsh. I wonder how long until this is changed for all contracts including run of the mill releases.

Just like Elvis. It's from a Doctor. It has to be good.

Oh it is. There's only a small elevator up to the seventh floor where the Manhattan Center is. I doubt TNA pays their ring crew enough to carry stuff up all those stairs. They did manage to take down one of the chandelier's and hang the tag titles off of it for the three way ladder match. But yeah no way they can lower the cage lid.

That must have been one hell of a blood soaked brawl not to mention the riot that probably broke out after Heenan probably tossed brass knucks or something.

Work out a deal with Bill Eadie so they can get the Demolition name back (it's some weird deal where he has the trademark/license up until one day after his death). The Acension are the demon spawn of Demolition. But if they are gonna use Total Elimination as a finisher they really need to learn how to do it first. Oh yeah that whole Ryback:This is Da Big Guy's Life speech was so weird. It was like they planned to do a video for him when he was coming back and then scrapped it and today found the script and was like go do this live.

have we had much trash throwing since WCW crushed the interest of their fans in 1999? Trash throwing always seemed like more of a Southern WCW crowd thing than a thing that happens in WWE shows or amongst European Wrestling tourist fans I can't remember the last time trash was thrown in mass at the ring like it was during the birth of the NWO. Philly is the kinda town the riots in their sporting venues. I could see a gassed Roman Reigns winning the rumble and someone hurls a chair from the fifth row into the ring while Roman tries to do the stupid point to the WM sign thing. This was a great show until the end. Daniel Bryan's announcement should have closed the show. It would have gotten some positive press for the WWE. Instead the show goes right off a cliff with The Acension debut falling flat and then the whole cutting edge thing. I figured Edge was going to use the one last bump he had in him so he could finally go away and never have to come back (it would be like when Tully beat up a crippled Magnum T.A.). Instead we get Cena with his bullshit "well he's a friend but let me just see how far they're willing to go to hurt him" act. I did laugh at Seth taking a shot at Cena being Mr. Make A Wish. I knew The Authority had to come back. But they could have at least milked it for a little while longer. Well I guess its better they come back next week rather than against the Football National Championship game on the 12th. I'd personally would have loved to of seen the WWE spin with them thinking the solution to low ratings is The Authority and they come back and get killed against the National Title game.

With school out for the month, I can afford to watch some movies for enjoyment and not just because I have to write a paper on them. Hercules (The Rock's version) I watched this on blu ray. I really enjoyed it. I assume I watched the extended version since I think I clicked on it (but my bluray remote can be a lil wonky). Anyway the visuals in this were really good. I liked the general idea which I assume is from the graphic novel that the Hercules stories are really trumped up myths. Herc and his band of mercinaries were great. Ian McShane was the best of them all. His whole I'm ready to die thing was great. Also The Rock had a great deadpan oneliner that should have been the tag line of the movie. They left it off for a sequel and I hope they do one because Ian McShane needs scenes with his chariot of death. A Million Ways To Die In The West I liked it. Only complaint I would have is there was so much cursing for the sake of cursing. Hey it's an R rated movie so lets just keep saying fuck. Seth really needs to step out of his wheelhouse though. This movie was basically him doing stuff he can't do on family guy. Aside from that I thought it was funny. Seth shouldn't have cast himself as the lead though. I think the role would have worked a lot better if it were anyone but him. Switching Channels One of my favorite movies from the 80's and having just watched "His Girl Friday" on Monday night since RAW was so terrible, it was fun seeing the updated parrells in this movie. I actually bought the movie on laserdisc off Amazon. Did you know Amazon had people who sold laserdiscs? Well you do now. Anyway I couldn't really appreciate Burt Reynolds doing his best Cary Grant immitation when I was like 7 years old when this movie came out. Reynolds screwing with Kathleen Turner to ruin her attempted marriage to Blane (Christopher Reeve playing Ralph Belamy only less dense and more of an asshole) and keep her working at the news station was great. "6,660 no shows at O'Haire for flights earlier tonight..." The best part of the movie is the stuff with Ike Roscoe hiding in the copier. A great homage to the roll top desk scene but instead of drama its straight up slapstick. The stuff with the media is so relevant today. You can just imagine a newsroom with reporters bullshitting a story to make it sound more impressive.

Mike looks like has a softball sized wad of chewing tobacco inside his mouth in that pic. But I keep saying Kevin Sullivan did something to the souls of that family in the feud with Blackjack. He couldn't beat Mulligan...but he got his grandkids.

And then it's time for the finish and....(bell rings) Time Limit Draw

You know just thinking about it, Wrestling needs a new Valentine. Does Greg have any kids or nephews that wrestle? They can redo the whole "he's his brother...no wait son" gimmick Greg had with his Dad in the early 70's. Also after being off the net for the last half day it's really infuriating reading that rumblings about Cena/Lesnar at the Rumble. Don't these people realize the money is to be made with Lesnar losing at Wrestlemania? I don't even care about Cena matching and than beating Flair's record. Cena beating Brock only to lose to Seth is just stupid. If you're gonna have Seth cash in, have him cash in on who ever beats Brock at WM.