The Official WWE/TNA thread

[retro]

Oh yeah Cole was pretty good too. Him and JR on commentary could work if they play it right. Maybe Cole just leaving halfway through some shows through sheer anger. Zack Ryder on raw was awesome too. This man is great too. Seemed pretty happy about it on Twitter too.

All I know is that I'm ecstatic to see JR back on PbP... he's the best, bar none.

You know what I think I hate the most about Cole? It's not his character or anything like that... it's the fact that he completely butchers calling moves by what they actually are. It's like... why even bother with it if you're just gonna fuck it up? The one that drives me the most insane is when he calls Orton's powerslam a "scoop slam". It's technically a scoop powerslam, but a scoop slam is something completely different.

 

[Springsteen]

Oh Lawler's the worst for that, the absolute worst.

I like Cole....well, not like him, but I don't hate him. What I will say is he's always worked to the level of his partner, when he was with Dok Hendrix he wasn't that good but I attribute that to being green a little, yeah he was on Raw in 98 but it wasn't all the time. Same with Lawler to a point, though this was over a longer period. He improved immeasurably with Tazz because I think Tazz having more recent ring experience helped him. Same with JBL, though JBl had a much better style for announcing than Tazz did. Then he had a couple of partners who took him back a lot before moving to Raw and......I don't know what it is. It's a combination of Lawler getting worse and Cole never being able to improve himself. And I think that's the main reason JR is known as the best, because he's always been great whoever his partner is because he's been able to work well despite the quality of whoever is beside him.

 

[retro]

Oh, and aside from JR's return, the best part of last night was Morrison coming back to kick R-Truth's ass.

 

[retro]

Oh Lawler's the worst for that, the absolute worst.

I like Cole....well, not like him, but I don't hate him. What I will say is he's always worked to the level of his partner, when he was with Dok Hendrix he wasn't that good but I attribute that to being green a little, yeah he was on Raw in 98 but it wasn't all the time. Same with Lawler to a point, though this was over a longer period. He improved immeasurably with Tazz because I think Tazz having more recent ring experience helped him. Same with JBL, though JBl had a much better style for announcing than Tazz did. Then he had a couple of partners who took him back a lot before moving to Raw and......I don't know what it is. It's a combination of Lawler getting worse and Cole never being able to improve himself. And I think that's the main reason JR is known as the best, because he's always been great whoever his partner is because he's been able to work well despite the quality of whoever is beside him.

I pretty much agree with all of that. I think Lawler suffers from a similar problem, he works down to the level of whoever he's paired with. Plus when he's with JR, he has someone that'll correct him or gloss over his mistakes like it wasn't even an issue... correct him without it seeming like that's what he's doing. Cole can't do any of that unfortunately. I'd love to see JBL come back to Smackdown and do color commentary there along with Cole. Hell, then move Booker over to RAW... I love him, he's so bad that he's awesome. Then have a 3-man booth on Smackdown of Cole, JBL, and Matthews.

Unfortunately, I think that JBL is perfectly happy with his life outside of wrestling... so that'll never actually happen.

 

[Springsteen]

My favourite parts of JBL on commentary were those occasions where he put guys over. Like London and Kendrick, He made them seem important because they genuinely could work and excite a crowd. He even went as far to say they could be World Champions, ultimately that didn't happen and the move to Raw killed them in the end, but for that little period on Smackdown, they were made to look big. Same with MVP, though MVP was more successful with more elevated feuds. Yeah 2007 Smackdown was awesome with JBL on commentary. On par with 2009 Smackdown and just below the Smackdown Six era.

 

[Springsteen]

Some news from Meltzer~

-- One of the original plans for Raw, and there were six scripts, was for HHH to bring out CM Punk, pedigree him and have Del Rio cash in the MITB briefcase to set up Del Rio vs. Cena at Summerslam.

-- CM Punk was on the firing line after Paul Heyman left the company, with agents vying to get his fired. It wasn't until a booking meeting where Shawn Michaels chimed in with "if you don't like him so much, why not try to help him instead of killing him? I won't be around forever, and guys like him are gonna be the next stars." And that pretty much saved his job.

-- The Rock was the most searched wrestling/MMA/boxing personality on Google in America so far this year, with Randy Savage #2, Manny Pacquiao #3 and John Cena #4 (#1 for the last two years). Hogan was the highest ranked TNA name at #13, just below Christian at #12. CM Punk was #17, and not a single TNA home-made name made the top 75. The only TNA names in the list were Hogan, Angle, Sting, Flair and the Hardys.

-- John Cena was #1 on worldwide searches, with GSP #2, Edge #3, The Rock #4, and Sin Cara #5. CM Punk was #18, ahead of Hulk Hogan at #22, whilst Jeff Hardy was #12 (down from #4 last year). Even though Sin Cara was fifth, the name Mistico was actually #27, so he had a very good year for name value.

-- Early estimates for the Destination X PPV buyrate are around 8,000 buys, down from the estimated 8,500 Slammiversary. The reason TNA buyrates are usually estimates rather than officially released figures is because they're often too low for people to bother tracking.

-- RVD interview from last week, claiming he enjoyed his Jerry Lynn match but isn't to ohappy with how he has been used. Also isn't happy with the TNA brand recognition, saying he gets fans every day coming up to him asking him where he's been and why he retired.

-- The Rock will return at the Survivor Series at MSG in November. There is a UFC show the day before, which usually harms the buyrate, but The Rock should help in that regard and make SS one of the more bought in recent years. He'll be back around the Royal Rumble too, to start Wrestlemania build.

-- Big Show is going to be rotated in and out at this stage, to keep him healthy and as fresh as possible. A similar deal may happen with Kane.

-- Shane McMahon's wife, Marissa, is financing a film called "Go Down Together: The True, Untold Story of Bonnie and Clyde." Her production company is called Kamala Films.

-- At a recent SmackDown taping, a guy got his blank sign confiscated by security.

-- The Miz has landed a guest starring role on the USA Network detective comedy-drama series Psych. The former WWE Champion plays Mario, who is described as a "bros before hoes" type of gentleman.

- It was noted that CM Punk got Vince McMahon to do something he has had a policy against doing in most cases - pay royalty rights to use popular songs instead of WWE-created music, as Punk used Living Colour's "Cult of Personality" on Monday's RAW.

 

[Peter Parka]

-- Early estimates for the Destination X PPV buyrate are around 8,000 buys, down from the estimated 8,500 Slammiversary. The reason TNA buyrates are usually estimates rather than officially released figures is because they're often too low for people to bother tracking.

I'm guessing that the fact that it was free on Challenge was a major factor.

 

[Springsteen]

No they only ever count USA buyrates in the factroing thingy. It's because TNA aren't a PLC so don't legally have to release anything, it's just there are certain leaks in TNA who Dave pays to leak buyrates and such. It's also because you'd have to be crazy to buy a PPV in 2011. It's not that the PPV's aren't good, the majority are, it's just that they aren't worth paying $35-$40 a pop.

 

[Peter Parka]

Overlooked, hilarious moment from Hogan on impact this week - :24:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25W3wDveviY

 

[retro]

404 - Funny Not Found

 

[retro]

Lets see... Morrison comes back, and promptly loses to Christian, a tag match with Orton to Christian and R-Truth (not involved in the decision), and now to R-Truth. Looks like typical WWE booking... hype a guy coming back, and then squash him when he does.

 

[Peter Parka]

Fuck that! How could Devon lose to the Pope? Devon is the best thing in wrestling today by miles! Devon pisses all overCM Punk! :thumbup

Good to see Kurt Angle as champ, at least it means the dreadful Sting v Hogan crap isn't likely to be for the title.

 

[Springsteen]

Punk was top notch on Raw again. I mean, at the very highest level. He told John Laurinaitis what for. Insider terms are making this feud better, not so much from Cena because it's not something a face does, but a heel sounds really convincing when doing it, Punk is that man. The fans were shocked and like "Man you broke the fourth wall" and it was something which worked so well. In comedy parts, this exchange between Punk and Triple H worked.

"How's that film you made?"

"It went straight to DVD like yours"

Anyway yeah these two (Punk/Cena) gel well together. I don't think any other two wrestlers in WWE could reach that level, and it has to be Punk vs Cena. It couldn't be Punk vs Daniel Bryan, it couldn't be Punk vs John Morrison. It has to be John Cena, because he plays his role so well. Regardless of how this feud ends it will have benefited from these two being in it. The match will absolutely deliver because of those two as well. Triple H being the referee doesn't bother me either. I'm not that convinced it adds too much, but it doesn't harm it either.

Raw was good on the whole. The match quality was much higher than previous weeks and it was a very positive thing.

 

[retro]

Cena's promo last night was the best I've seen him in a long, long time. I hated how they finished off the PPV as well... Kevin Nash, wtf? With the addition of Stephanie to programming, I'm willing to bet that the "text" that Nash got was from Stephanie. I thought the PPV went from great to, meh with that one jackknife powerbomb. Del Rio cashing in the MITB at that point made sense, but it further diluted what was an amazing match between Punk and Cena.

 

[retro]

Oh, and on another note... I loved JR last night. During one of the matches last night (I think it was the Riley/Swagger match) Cole called a spinebuster a "slam", and JR comes out with, "that was a spinebuster by the way". I'm loving the subtle jabs that JR takes at Cole. :24:

 

[Springsteen]

I like the basis of the Nash angle. Where it's going is interesting enough.

Someone mentioned that Nash may have got the text from Vince and invading the WWE for revenge against Triple H, which would make some sense, but then someone else said Triple H is behind it all, which is also plausible. In theory now you have two main angles (Del Rio/Cena and Nash/HHH/Punk) which also kinda mix with each other, makes it interesting. I've always liked Nash as an on screen character, just not as a wrestler because he can barely work, and certainly hasn't been able to to a barely passable level since he left WCW.

Summerslam was a really good PPV which i felt a bit guilty about watching online. Christian/Orton was brutally great.

 

[retro]

I downloaded it, and didn't feel guilty about it at all.

I love Nash's mic work, and he was in top form in that area last night; but you're very correct... the man simply can't work. Vince could certainly be involved, and it could've all been HHH. My money is on Stephanie though, since she just appeared out of nowhere on the PPV, had the confrontation with Punk, etc. Though hell, it could be Johnny Ace acting on Vince's behalf. I like the way that it's going, I just hated seeing the Punk/Cena match crapped over the way that it was.

Christian/Orton was great... I just despise how they've buried Christian and made him into a whiny bitch. Hell, they brought Edge back in order to bury him further. I liked what they did with Henry/Sheamus... as it continues their feud since a count out victory doesn't really count in the eyes of the fans. I'd expect to see a no holds barred or at least no count out match between the two at the next PPV. Bryan/Barrett was a really good match, but I hate seeing Bryan lose at all... especially as the MITB winner. I hated the Divas match, and the six-man tag was good for what it was I guess.

I'm was glad to see Morrison get one over on Truth last night, and they'll probably have some special stipulation match at the PPV. I'm trying to figure out what they're planning on doing with Rey... he's kinda floating around right now. They could pair him with Miz for a while I guess, but there isn't really a lot between them except that Rey beat him for the title and Miz smashed him into the stage the next week.

 

[Joey]

Yeh... it's great to have Kevin Nash back! I was wondering what angle they were going to use him in after his return at the Royal Rumble... dont think he appeared again since then has he? None the less, thats the 4th or 5th good PPV in a row in my opinion!

 

[Peter Parka]

Del Rio as champion? Oh dear.

 

[retro]

Del Rio as champion? Oh dear.

So who is the TNA Champion right now? Oh that's right, the walking train wreck himself... Kurt Angle. Whose substance abuse problems are probably only overshadowed by those of Jeff Hardy. :24: