StretchMediatedHypertrophy

He has a 'big' show in Scotland the Friday before and then the Saturday after. With ICW getting attention plus Grado and the returning Drew Galloway, Scottish Indy wrestling is on the up. That said, if you can pick up some of the right TNA footage on sale and offer to resell it to Vince - then you can probably have Grado go over Cesaro on Main Event next week.

Heaven help me!

Noone is bulletproof.

Spike might just be thinking that they can pay some production company to put a show together. That is essentially what Wrestling Society X was after all, and there's enough decent free agents without even necessarily having to pick the bones of TNA. That said, you know Eric Bischoff is putting something together.

Yes. Roy and Zak - 'The UK Hooligans'. Roy has been in jail which makes a work permit really tough. Zak appeared in a Big Show handicap squash and was well liked by teh boys, but probably doesn't have the look for the majors. I think they're still hoping that they'll be called for by WWE, so might resist TNA overtures - or at least the prospect of being a TNA reject.

Jim Cornette was being flippant to an insincere, condescending douchebag.

As funny as this stuff is, it should be recognised that Vince McMahon has made some questionable decisions recently which has lead to people questioning his suitability to run the company. Essentially, we have watched WWE slowly kill itself - this has been masked by international expansion, but it is important to remember that it is also essentially a basket case operation just like TNA.

Indeed. Although I'm still not sure moving the belt from Young to Lashley was smart, this ECW redux part 735 thing isn't coming off too badly.

I'm not really sure Viktor is good enough; there's a period in that squash where he just looks lost. I actually think it should be Neville as the 2nd Ascension member.

That's the first one that came to my mind as well. At the least they recognized the problem and didnt let it go on long. I'm not a regular follower of TNA, and it seems like they always get a lot of hate, some deserved, some not. That being said, I've always felt like they did the best thing possible in that situation. They delivered a match, somewhat, so as to avoid being accused of bait and switch, and ensured that it was as short as possible, and managed to reasonably maintain order at the same time. The sad thing was that there were three matches on that PPV that were worse. "Restart the match" - "NO!" has got to be the greatest duelling chant ever.

BLUETISTA~! action figure.

It was scrappy but I didn't think it was terrible. If anyone was exposed it was Summer Rae.

I think here is the basic problem; CM Punk didn't do half the shit Cena does and he still got burnt out. Vince knows he probably doesn't have another guy like that and will be loathe to drop him. I am a bit burnt out at the moment. I'm going to Copenhagen to work for a few months, the hotel I'm in apparently has crappy wifi and so I might not be watching so much for a while (plus lots of hot women in that city). Stuff like HHH trolling the smarks about continuing to watch whatever they do also gave me pause.

Donington mate. Or Knebworth. Maybe even Reading/Leeds. But Fozzy haven't had a sniff of Glasto, and won't. There was a shitstorm about Metallica playing this year*, and they're an actual famous band that people like. * There was a shitstorm about Jay Z playing a few years ago too. This was reported as a Race thing. It wasn't. It was a 'Who the fuck is this Jay Zed guy?' thing. His last hit song in Britain before he headlined Glasto was Hard Knock Life, ffs. (Obv this is a tangent). You are forgetting Bonnie & Clyde was a number two hit in the UK. It wasn't a race thing, but it was a smug cultural hegemonic thing. People going to Glasto knew damn well who 'Jay Z' was, it's just that a few blowhards like Noel Gallagher didn't think he was the right fit for their idea of what should headline the main stage. Metallica resistance seems to have been a similar thing ('That's what Donnington and Reading are for'), but with added animal rights protests and an extended bad taste in the mouth from the Napster stuff. I doubt Fozzy will ever play Glastonbury, though I hope for Michael Eavis to troll the attendees by billing Devin Townsend as a headliner for the final Glastonbury.

Personally, I'm waiting for them to get rid of the US title as well. One world title, the IC title and the tag team titles. To me, that's the perfect setup. Of course, then you'd have to have good characters and storylines to make everything else interesting, and I'm not sure the current bookers are up to that. I'm not sure any bookers are up to that really. They have over 6 hours a week plus 'special events', and two touring rosters. And John Cena. Having no separate World Heavyweight Title has been a DISASTER. Bootista happened because there was only 1 main belt. Otherwise they could have put the World Heavyweight Title on Daniel Bryan and the fans would have lived with it. As is they had to rebook themselves out of a corner, only for Daniel Bryan to get injured. Guys like Cesaro, Wyatt, ADR, Show, Sheamus, Jericho, Ryback (he's still quite over) really need that WHT to feud over. Without a World Heavyweight Title, there is no Mark Henry title reign, no Edge Hall of Fame career, no Undertaker 'holy grail' era, possibly no 'Yes!' for Daniel Bryan (lest we forget), no CM Punk World Heavyweight Title reigns, probably no CM Punk 1+ year reign as WWE Champion, no King Booker Title reign.......I mean that's just crazy talk. I admit I'm from the 'belts are props' school of thinking. The Attitude era had World, IC, Euro, Hardcore and Light-Heavyweight Titles (admittedly the Euro and LH Title had inactive periods) - it seemed to work quite well. I don't think having less titles necessarily makes them worth more. I'd rather run the risk of having two 'poorly booked' titles than one, if it means cool ADR vs Christian and Sheamus vs Show title matches that mean something. As is we have Cena feuding with Randy Orton and Kane on top. No ta.

Gave up on the PPV at some point. The biggest mistake they made was uniting the two main belts. Noone wants to hear this, because they like the *idea* of there only being one World Title and having two when there's no brand split *makes no sense*. I get that, but there's a whole bunch of guys who are just drowning without that belt to fight over. The midcard titles have not been elevated. I was surprised to see Lana mention the plane, and implicitly comparing the death count to those in some other recentish conflicts was some next-level heeling. They gave Swagger a lot out there, and obviously decided to be non-committal regarding Rusevs push. One would have expected Rusev to feud with Cena ultimately, but that doesn't seem to be where they are going soon and I am sure there will be discussions at WWE HQ about how much they can/should do with this stuff in 2014 - especially when PPV draw is no longer a priority.

Agreed.

Battleground looks potentially very decent, despite a weak main-event where noone is buying a title change and a Jericho/Wyatt match that lacks interest because Wyatt gains nothing by beating Jericho and noone wants to see Y2J win this match. But AJ vs Naomi delivered last month, so there's at least a possibility of two strong Divas matches tonight (though Naomi/Cameron will likely go short, especially if it remains on the pre-show now that Fandango vs Adam Rose has been added. Throw in a IC Title Battle Royale with no really obvious winner (Cesaro, Miz or Bo in that order think the bookies - but they had a bad night a few weeks ago) and an appearance from BNB, a Rusev/Swagger match with topical intrigue, a 2/3 falls Wyatts vs Usos and AMBROSE vs ROLLINS. If the aforementioned title matches and Jericho/Wyatt hold up, this could yet be a classic. Not sure I'll stay up to the wee London hours, but look forward to seeing it soon enough.

The original entrance was cool but would have gotten old in time - I think the gimmick tweak was correct. Kenneth Cameron/Bram has signed a multi-year deal with TNA, but I still expect him to get resigned by WWE in 2 years. Connor could still be in developmental!

This took me in the gym this evening. Chorus is massive, but I like what they do around it too.

Exact same story for both turns by the Disasters and the Nasties. Hart gave the Disasters a title shot that was supposed to belong to the Nasties, and then did the same to the Disasters for Money Inc, iirc. Not quite. Money Inc. got a title shot supposedly meant for the Disasters (though I believe they helped Money Inc to go over). Disasters turned face and eventually beat Money Inc. for the titles. Money Inc. got a title shot that was maybe meant for the Nasty Boys, Nasty Buys turned face by beating up Jimmy Hart, but Money Inc won the belts back with some help from the Headshrinkers. Nasty Boys and Disasters were soon gone though, replaced by The MegaManiacs and then The Steiners.

Emma steals one!

That's kinda my point though; Heyman probably owing him money is the elephant in the room.