Zakk_Sabbath

The old man has the best skullet this side of Hogan

While the last few episodes of Impact haven't been eye-clawingly bad, if you want to look at the whole 12 year run... Yeah, I'd rather watch that lady who eats chalk and shit

I don't know, though, dude. They at least have a track record. If you plucked a bunch of people off the street to do word association, and gave them wrestling, I guarentee the top responses would be "WWF", "WWE", "Hulk Hogan" or "Stone Cold." After the usual pejoratives, anyway. For 12 years, people have been saying how TNA is the absolute worst name for a promotion ever-- there are so many jokes about it in the TMZ comments. Ed Ferarra made a fucking T&A joke about one minute into the first PPV in 2002. They never fully committed to Impact Wrestling as a name, their marketing sucked, and as others in the thread have said, even with Hogan, Sting, Hardy, Angle, Flair, Foley, Christian, Booker, and a slew of others, they did not make a dent in the public consciousness. Yeah, WWE has made some "questionable decisions" recently. But even if the gamble on the Network doesn't work out or anything, at least it was a gamble on positive growth and revenue, and not a gamble on hiding the employment of Vince Russo, of all people.

I'm more interested in the big ol' woman who kissed Borash in the video than I am with the "ongoing Spike negotiations." I likes 'em thick.

Caught that as well. Is Valiant smoking a cigarette in that shot or are my eyes decieving me?

Coming soon........... I honestly don't know how Vince would approach it if they bought TNA. Sure, at first glance, it would seem in his nature to gloat about it, but it's not like TNA was WCW. TNA never beat them, or was close to beating them, or was legitimate competition in any way. I kinda feel like Vince would no-sell the whole buyout. I think the closest thing we'd get to an acknowledgement is a couple bonus matches on the Sting DVD, and maybe you'd see some familiar faces doing jobs in NXT. I actually wonder if we'd get a TNA DVD or documentary on The Network. The TNA story is interesting and even now, WWE employs enough people to actually tell its story. I wonder what Dutch has to say about his time there. I dunno man, do you think there's a demand for it? My knee jerk reaction is this: If people wanted to see TNA related stuff, then TNA themselves would have a bigger audience and we wouldn't even be having this conversation, y'know? I agree entirely. And even as far as the library, I don't think we would get an Impact archive on the network, or a DVD treatment like WCCW, WCW, or ECW. I honestly think the only value in the library would be having another place from which to cull matches for retrospectives on individual WWE stars who had spent time there.

Coming soon........... I honestly don't know how Vince would approach it if they bought TNA. Sure, at first glance, it would seem in his nature to gloat about it, but it's not like TNA reached the success of WCW when they were hot. TNA never beat them, or was close to beating them, or was legitimate competition in any way. I kinda feel like Vince would no-sell the whole buyout. I think the closest thing we'd get to an acknowledgement is a quick blurb on WWE.com, a couple bonus matches on the Sting DVD, and maybe some familiar faces doing jobs in NXT.

Wait, people STILL aren't over that? Really? It was kind of the straw-breaks-camel moment where people said, "Okay, we tolerated this Load shit because you guys were so good in the 80s and the Black Album really wasn't all that bad, but no more." It solidified them culturally as awful people who do awful things and make awful music. There was some Mogwai quote where their drummer said Metallica were "shite" that I got a good laugh about. When they played Bonnaroo, when 'Roo still had a personality, and I skipped out for similar reasons all the Glastonbury folks were complaining about. Though Jay-Z coming out to Wonderwall and a prop guitar at Glasto was kind of awesome. Also, Fozzy is so awful. I remember getting kind of sad when I first heard them all those years ago. Jay-Z's black album smokes anything he's done since, and I'm not even really a hip hop guy. And really, the guy from Mogwai talking shit about Metallica is like Chip Minton taking shots at Steve Austin

Katie is like "who the hell are these people?" I've seen HHH and Stephanie at two Metallica shows, so I'm guessing this was Steph's receipt to HHH for dragging her to those

Nope, just lost in Cleveland with amnesia again. Sad to hear about the Bryan/Brie robbery. I hope he can get past the ulnar nerve issues he described in the video-- it is, on some level, nice to know exactly what's going on injury-wise. Seems like a pretty cool dude in real life. It was a burglary, not a robbery. I misspoke, thanks for the correction dude That actually makes quite a bit of sense. I almost hate to say it, but sticking Heyman with RybAxel might have been a better idea given the circumstances.

Nope, just lost in Cleveland with amnesia again. Sad to hear about the Bryan/Brie robbery. I hope he can get past the ulnar nerve issues he described in the video-- it is, on some level, nice to know exactly what's going on injury-wise. Seems like a pretty cool dude in real life.

I've been watching a lot of mid-'90s WWF lately, and I could probably go without seeing any Doink matches for awhile. I don't legitimately hate him, but it just seems like I see him on SO many more shows than Bret, Shawn, Hall, Nash, 123 Kid, 'Taker, Bigelow etc.

Just flipped on Impact in the middle of a Aries/Angle/MVP/Lashley promo that's doing more for my sleep cycle than the 10 beers and 4 Simply Sleep I've had, but I have to give credit where credit is due: the overall aesthetic of the show from the Manhattan Center is actually pretty rad.

That's generally how I find myself feeling about '90's All-Japan (and the later ROH that everyone loved) and I lived through watching that back when it was current. I recognize a lot of it as excellent matches, but I just don't care in a sense. I'm curious (and not in a sarcastic way): does ANY wrestling match work only in a vacuum? Some random lucha? NJPW juniors from the '90's? Bizarre WAR six-mans? Battlarts? Lebell's Monster? I mean, there has to be SOME connection for it to work, even beyond the greatest match ever between Wrestler A and Wrestler B, doesn't there? If someone loves Flair/Steamboat, it's because they know Ric Flair and Ricky Steamboat and feel some sort of association with them, isn't it? I think the biggest test of whether or not a particular match works in a vacuum is to ask yourself this: would I show this to a non-fan or casual viewer as a good example of everything I love about the genre of pro wrestling? WCW cruiser matches circa 96-99 always seem to go over well. 80s stuff is always good as a Tim & Eric-type goof for people who are unaquainted, but it doesn't necessarily have the same impact athletically, or on any sort of "serious" level. It's a tricky thing. I think we, as hardcore, smart fans, sometimes overestimate the value of emotional investment. Even after having seen hours, and hours, and hours of matches and angles, we still remember what it was like to be in that place where you're ten years old and every ounce of being in your body wants to see Hogan beat Sting like your life depends on it (or pick your angle du jour, depending on age). We understand the emotional investment. But the older we've gotten, and the smarter we've become to the different facets of things, I think it busts certain doors down because we are capable enough to understand things on a different level. I very, very rarely watch lucha, but if I catch CMLL or AAA on the Spanish channel at 2 AM on a Saturday, you better believe it's staying put. But that has nothing to do with whether or not the MATCH works in a vacuum-- it's because the genre itself works in a vacuum. I have no idea who these guys are, or what the angle is, but I can understand that the dude getting in the old lady's face at ringside, and trying to rip off the other dude's mask is a heel. Thats my two cents on it

as long as they don't run an angle where Rusev beats up a bunch of fans he confused for the Ukrainian military, they should be fine I get that the Hassan example may have been a little extreme, but I was thinking along the lines of them possibly trying to play it safe for the sponsors and stockholders. I don't know that anyone would be truly, deeply offended besides families directly affected by the tragedy, who I obviously feel for. It was just a thought I had.

With the emerging details of this Malaysian Airlines crash, anyone else worried that Lana/Rusev might get Mohammed Hassan'ed right off TV?

Because no one wants to see that. I agree that The Ascension are not the guys to put in the match, but I do think this gentleman is on the right track. I think a Sting/Taker tag pairing would probably protect their shortcomings a lot more than versus each other in a one on one match. HHH/Brock would be a pretty complimentary team for them to lock up with. Cena and someone else would be another good pick. They could even put Hogan in as a special referee if the timing is right to pimp Nitro and/or the Monday Night War show on the Network. Flair would be another good choice for a special ref or corner man role given his storied history with Sting. I'm trying to get hyped stay hyped about Sting's involvement, but I can't help but wonder what might have been if he bit the bullet and came in a few years earlier. Sting heading the Invasion, Sting vs. the NWO in early 2002, Sting vs. Austin, Sting vs. Rock, Sting vs. Shawn, Sting vs. Angle, Sting ending HHH/Evolution's reign of terror on Raw in 2002-2005. It can still be something special if they play their cards right, but WWE's track record in this type of scenario isn't exactly stellar.

They mentioned TNA a lot in that Industry News section they had going for a while on the site, along with ROH and probably some other things I'm forgetting.

I've only been posting for this past year (my attempts to create an account on the old boards were never, ever approved, despite my hundreds of protest e-mails) but I've been lurking since high school. it's been really nice getting to participate and get to know everyone. I always thought that this place had the most "sophisticated" taste, and a lot of my opinions have been shaped by the dudes here. I mean, I'm 26-- I was a kid who got AOL in '97 as a 9 year old, that grew up on Dave Scherer, Scott Keith, and phrases like "MOVEZ~!" It's a miracle I'm not a fucking asshole with my opinions, and I think that this place has a LOT to do with that. So thanks fellas, and happy birthday!

I think guys like AJ, Daniels, maybe even Joe if he can ever get out of his deal, would make great NXT mainstays. Like what Benoit's role on WWECW was supposed to be before he fucked up real bad that time. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see them on Monday nights, but at 35-40 years old or whatever, I can't see them investing much in guys like that. Especially with DB's injuries. But this would be a cool way to get them a WWE gig. Heck, there are tons of WWE "castoffs" that you could plug into roles like that. Guys like Shelton Benjamin, John Morrison, London & Kendrick (though I doubt they'd go back). Actually, I have a question: why has there never been any interest from WWE in the MCMGs? That TNA stank?

If I were a betting man, I'd say IF Sting is on TV, he's likely going to use the Crow-era theme since 1) it's a Jimmy Hart/Howard Helm written, non-soundalike, non-stock song that they probably own the rights to through the WCW sale, and 2) that casting call a few weeks ago looking for orchestra people to wear face paint. Of course, they might always just come up with their own original piece. I'd be amped if they used the version from the Ready To Rumble soundtrack, honestly:

I would ignore 5) and 6). The feud there was Austin vs. HHH. Foley was only stuck in there at the last minute so Jesse could raise a face's hand. If you can find them, I'd replace them with the Rock/Mankind "loser gets fired" RAW match that restarted the HHH feud from 12/27/99 and the DX vs. Rock/Mankind/Acolytes RAW match from 1/10/00 where HHH just DESTROYS Foley to set up the Rumble match. Not sure if you're doing angles or just matches, but I'd make a case for including the big Cactus Jack reveal on Smackdown prior to the Rumble match where he takes off the Mankind mask and does the Superman shirt rip. Something about that always stuck with me for some reason. I again ask that you please stop spying on my EWR shit.

I saw Gaslight in Atlantic City at Orion two years ago. I never heard them before and didn't really know what to expect, so I thought they played a great set. I've tried to go back and listen to their stuff, but it all seems a little sterile after having been introduced to the material in a live setting. The singer seemed to have a nice array of Telecasters. They were better than Modest Mouse, who just seemed like they would rather have been anywhere else in the world but on stage, playing. Metallica whipped all they asses though.

I'm hearing rumblings that word going around is that sources have said that Santino may have retired in Toronto last night