So you remember how Eric Bischoff was cocking off about his book a few weeks ago, and how it was still making him thousands of dollars in royalties? So WWE decided to drop the price to $1.98? Bischoff strikes back. Via Facebook:
Just received 1,000 copies of Controversy Creates Cash from WWE! $1.98 AND THEY PAID SHIPPING! That is frigging awesome. I'm going to autograph the first 100 sell for 20.00 with preceeds going to support the Upper Banch Mine Fund that TNA raised money for. Details to follow in the next day or two. Spread the word!
You know what? Good for him, and good for TNA for doing so much to help the unfortunate victims of last week's West Virginia mining accident. They also held some house shows this weekend with proceeds going to the same cause. According to Jeff Jarrett's twitter, they had a largely successful turnout for those shows. And Kurt Angle himself even offered to match the donations made at Saturday's show in Corbin, KY.
Say what you will about TNA's product, but from all outward appearances (which, I know, can be deceiving), they seem to be a nice little close-knit family who support each other, their company, their industry, and the world around them. That's the kind of people I cheer on.
*frustrated sigh* Well, it's back to updating my MySpace again...
After working a dark match for TNA against Homicide as part of a tryout deal, the company that apparently has a recruiting truck outside of the Madison House Assisted Living Facility has decided not to take on the the former Spirit Squad member Kenny Dykstra (wrestling under his real name, Kenn Doane) as a permanent fixture for the company. Doane, obviously upset that a man of his caliber didn't cut the mustard in WWE's biggest competitor had this little humble nugget to say on his Twitter page:
"Just got word that TNA won't be bringing me back 3/22. And plans have fallen through. Most Talented Free Agent, still on the market."
He followed up with a kind message to Dixie Carter:
"Great meeting you and thanks for taking a look at the Most Talented Free Agent in Pro Wrestling today ~Kenn Doane"
And I thought Bill Goldberg was full of himself. Don't worry Kenn, try again when you've aged about 25 more years and they will pull out all the stops to get you on the program and in the main event.
Following last month's stellar Against All Odds pay-per-view, TNA brings us Destination X 2010 tonight, live from the fabulous Impact Zone! As Cenanuff's TNA division, I'm going to run through tonight's card and give you my take on the matches, and what I'd do if given the book.
TNA Global Championship Rob Terry (c) vs Brutus Magnus To be honest, I've been trying to care about these British Invasion guys and I just can't. It's not about being British, as I absolutely love Desmond Wolfe and Katie Lea and some of the others -- but Magnus, Terry, Doug Williams (whom we'll get to later), I just don't care. I'll guess that Magnus gets the win here, though I wish upon a faraway star that they'd either rebrand the belt again or return it to the "Legends" gimmick. "Global" just means "World," doesn't it? What makes it any different from the World Title?
TNA Women's Knockout Championship Tara (c) vs Daffney This is one of those matches that many of us old-schoolers have been wanting to see for a long time. Victoria was always WWE, Daffney was always WCW. Finally, we get a battle of the crazies! "Zombie Hot" Daffney kind of gets the edge for me here, but mostly because of the comedy that could ensue with her heading to the back and meeting up with Dr. Stevie and Raven (is this stable still together?), and showing off like she's better than both of them. Bonus points if she points at Dr. Stevie and screams "I SHOWED YOU!.... YOU SAW!"
Ladder Match for X-Division #1 Contendership Kazarian vs Daniels vs Amazing Red vs Brian Kendrick When they originally stated that Destination X would be an all-X-Division PPV, this is the kind of match we thought we'd see 8 times. In a way, I'm glad they scaled it back and decided to feature the entire roster, because while I love these X-Division spotfests, it could get really old seeing it all night long. This match has the potential to do just what Daniels said in his promo, and that's to take the X-Division to new heights. I don't think there are any losers in this matchup either -- I'd be happy for any one of the four to win. I'd like to see Daniels get the push, but I somehow see Kaz winning it. Kendrick could be a dark horse favorite.
TNA World Tag Team Championship Matt Morgan & Hernandez (c) vs Beer Money Boy... it sure sucks that those damn Nasty Boys are taking all the spotlight away from the TNA Homegrown guys, eh? I think it's a foregone conclusion that Beer Money takes the straps here, and Morgan/Hernandi continue to split. Especially if the rumors of TNA sending SuperMex back home to Mexico for some recruitment trips or whatever it was. Beer! MONEY!
TNA X-Division Championship Match Doug Williams (c) vs Shannon Moore I understand that many internet fans don't like Shannon Moore, for some odd reason. The good news is, he's not here to impress the internet. I know I'm biased when it comes to Shannon, but I think he has to win this. Eating a clean loss would immediately kill off any hint of credibility he might have, and I don't want to see that happen. I don't know if he's "deserving" of a push like that off the bang, but did Santino "deserve" to win the IC title when he came out of the Italian crowd as a "fan?" The belt could really propel the guy, and I hope upon hope that he takes it. That, and I still uncare about Doug Williams or anything he does.
Ultimate X #1 Contenders To The Tag Team Titles Motor City Machine Guns vs Generation Me All I can say is, it's about damn time the Guns got a match on a pay-per-view again. GAWD. And I'd love to see them get the win and the push, obviously, but with Beer Money almost obviously winning the titles, and this being for the #1 contendership, I could see Generation Bucks getting that push. MCMG are still heels, I guess, whenever they actually get on TV, so it'd be kinda hard to push a "heel vs heel" tag title feud when the fans want to cheer for both teams. Regardless, this ought to be another fantastic spotty match, and the two teams have been working with each other quite a bit on the house show circuit, so it almost certainly promises to tear the house down (if Sabin's feeling ok - word last night was he was puking his guts out.)
Hall & Waltman's Contracts On The Line! Kevin Nash & Eric Young vs Scott Hall & Sean Waltman No brainer -- Nash turns on EY, and the Wolfpac is reborn again. While I know Ben Nichols will jizz himself for it, I don't know if I'm really behind the idea. What I WOULD like to see is for the Wolfpac to reform, only to haul in a few new kids and push them to the moon as the sort of "next generation" of Outsiders. This is mostly because I can do without seeing Hall hobble around the ring, though Waltman seems to be in pretty decent shape. Either way, this whole thing kind of bores me this time around. I'm usually a nostalgia mark, but there's so much incredible young talent on this roster that could be using the spot.
Grudge Match Kurt Angle vs Mr. Anderson Great build, and TNA has quickly made Anderson into a much better character than he ever was in WWE. He's finally living up to his potential, and I couldn't be happier for the guy. And while I love me some Angle, and kind of tire of him always ending up putting the other guy over, I think Anderson needs to win this. Anderson can easily slip into a sort of "Triple H Reign of Terror" role, where he's the smarmy jackass that you just can't beat and that makes you hate him even more. Angle winning would be the feel-good story of the year, but I don't want to see Anderson losing his heat.
TNA World Heavyweight Championship A.J. Styles vs Abyss This one is kind of hard to read. Abyssamania is running wild, and he's finally getting a decent push again, showing shades of the old Monster, but Flair and AJ running around with no belt almost seems pointless. I'd be all for another Abyss run at this point -- especially after Anderson wins the last match, it would kind of suck to send the fans home doubly disappointed. Assuming no Flair/Hogan shenanigans, I'm just gonna say it -- Abyss walks out with the title. UNLESS... Hogan turns on him. I could do without seeing that, but I would not be a bit surprised.
All in all, I forsee a pay-per-view with buttloads of potential. And while the weekly Impacts have been hit-or-miss, I have to hold out hope that they can book another PPV as solidly as Against All Odds. I hate that I'll be at work tonight, but hopefully those of you who get to watch it won't be disappointed. And if the rest of the show is nearly as good as the opening, we're all in for one hell of a show.
A few notes from the world of TNA Wrestling today:
After having previously cancelled the Impact replay on Thursday nights, Spike TV made the call to bring it back this week due to strong numbers on the replay last week -- Monday night's Impact will again air tonight. No word on how long-term this will be.
Awesome Kong appears to finally be done with the company. After having her profile pulled from the site (TNA's way of announcing departures since they don't address them directly), then re-added, and now removed again, sources are saying it's final. Then again, it was "final" last time, so who really knows?
Ric Flair has been telling people he's fully enjoying his role in TNA because he missed playing a heel. Says he thinks he has one last big match left in him, and has hinted that he'd like it to be against Kurt Angle. In related news, Ric's son Reid Flair is reportedly going to be backstage at some upcoming Impact tapings. No word on whether he'll be used on screen or if he's just there learning the ropes.
As one could imagine, the Hulkster's back has been in much pain since his attempt at wrestling on the big Monday debut show. As of now, there are no more plans for him to get back into the ring.
And finally, those fantastic mysterious "sources" are saying that TNA has scaled back on its scripting of promos for some of their top stars like Hogan, Angle, Anderson, Flair, etc., choosing rather to just give them bullet points to cover and let them fill in the blanks themselves. This would probably explain Hogan's incoherent babbling as of late.
I've been waiting for this day for a long, long time.
Hi. My name is Brian, and I'm one third of the blogging team here at Cena Nuff. If the posts on this blog seem a bit disjointed at times, like opinions change, it's because there are three of us with three distinct personalities and opinion sets who report on each news item from our own perspectives.
I've always been the pro-TNA guy. Even from the day I heard they existed, when I saw pay-per-views on my digital cable that included Jeff Jarrett, Scott Hall, and a handful of other names I'd been wondering about since the demise hostile corporate takeover of WCW. And with some names of other guys that I'd never heard of (America's Most Wanted?!, The Naturals?!), I was intrigued. I never had the money to order the weekly pay-per-views back then, but once I heard they had a TV deal with Fox Sports Net, I was glued to my TV as soon as the show was on. And when that deal ended, and they went to web shows, I was on it. All the way to the Spike deal, from Saturdays to Thursdays, from one hour to two hours, and now... from taped Thursdays to live Mondays. TNA has always been the little engine that could. The underdog. And I always root for the underdog.
To be honest, I can't really explain my fascination with TNA. I know some of the booking is nonsensical. I get royally cheesed off (if I can say that on a family-oriented blog like this) when TNA sits on one of the best tag teams in the world (the Motor City Machineguns) and barely ever uses them. I've been annoyed with the camerawork, I hated Don West (till he turned heel), and I got VERY tired of Jeff Jarrett's nepotistic main event spot. But at the end of the day, I was still right there chanting "TNA! TNA! TNA!"
Now let's get one thing straight - I'm not anti-WWE. It may seem that way at times, but really, I'm just calling a spade a spade. After having lived through the Monday Night Wars era, having seen the pure unadulterated awesomeness that was Stone Cold, The Rock, The Three Faces of Foley, the rise of "Mr. McMahon," The McMahon-Helmsley era, the original formation of Degeneration X as an angsty youth-in-revolt angle... well... it makes SuperCena and a leprechaun a little tough to swallow. Are we all clear on that? They've booked this guy as a leprechaun. Not a tongue-in-cheek "haha, we all know this is just a little person but we're pretending he's a leprechaun," but a REAL LIFE LE-FUCKING-GITIMATE LEPRECHAUN. There's a figment of our imagination running around creating portals to other worlds under the ring. Now, I know that pro wrestling has always been about suspension of disbelief, but there's usually some kind of coherent world that the disbelief clings to. I'm also giving the Undertaker and his occasional "otherworldlyness" a free pass based on the fact that he was established back in the pre-Attitudes, and is allowed to grandfather in his old character. But don't give me this world -- *ahem* excuse me, Universe, wherein 95% of the people are just regular guys with full names in plain old trunks and boots who hold storylines based on each other, and then throw in this leprechaun to appease the kiddies and sell merchandise. If I wanted to watch cartoons, I'd watch cartoons. If I want to watch pro wrestling, I'll watch pro wrestling.
And that right there is the major difference between WWE and TNA. Vince McMahon has made "wrestling" a dirty word. (Forgive me if this sounds like an oft-repeated Jim Cornette or Paul E. rant, but it's still true and relevant.) WWE's announcers aren't allowed to refer to the talent as "wrestlers," they're "superstars" or "sports entertainers." Vince has engrained into our heads that it's not okay to like "wrestling." Lingerie pillow fights? Big Show punching out a mechanical bull? THIS is what Lou Thesz, Harley Race, Terry Funk, Ric Flair, and a host of others sacrificed their bodies and probably 20 years off each of their lives for?
I'll give WWE credit where it's due. I thought CM Punk as a heel in the scope of the WWE Universe would flop miserably, but the Straight Edge Society is one of the best things going today. I don't know how they pulled off Edge turning face after everything he's done in the last few years, but he's done it. The slow burn implosion of Legacy is going to turn Orton face as well, which is good because I don't want the WWE Regime to take away my "Randy is God" sign whenever I make it to another live event. But for every good thing they have going, they throw us twice as much crap - i.e. devoting 20 minutes of your go-home show for the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view (oh, don't even get me started on these ridiculous match-themed ppvs) to a Jerry Springer skit that went absolutely nowhere. But you know what? It's Monday Night, and that's why I watch.
And this is exactly why the TNA jump to Mondays is a good thing. Many people seem to think they'll just get crushed by the WWE Juggernaut, lose their current fans, and go out of business or move back to Thursdays with their tail tucked. I don't see it that way. I can't be that atypical of wrestling fans, so I have to believe that there are hosts of others out there who only bother watching Raw because "it's Monday night," and Monday = wrestling day. Even at its worst, I find myself making the pavlovian trip to the TV on Mondays to watch Raw. I don't do that with ECW/NXT, I just catch it whenever I can. I don't do that with Smackdown even though it's clearly the superior of the WWE brands. I DO do it for TNA Impact on Thursdays, but only because I've been that loyal TNA fanboy that followed from FSN to every timeslot under the sun that Spike has given them.
So, come Monday night, there will be an alternative. It's "wrestling night," and once again, there are two shows to choose from. You can choose the spoonfed Cena/Orton/HHH power struggle, with almost no focus on the midcard, with guys like Khali, Kofi, and soon to be Sheamus given a short main event thrust followed by a steep descent back to mid-card/curtain jerk purgatory, or you can choose to watch a program that actually pushes younger guys and makes new stars. A program where an entire pay-per-view can be devoted to a tournament in which Mr. Anderson and "The Pope" D'Angelo Dinero tear the house down, before the world title match between AJ Styles and Samoa Joe. A program where guys LIKE The Pope are given room to shine, room for their character to breathe and develop into quite possibly the most entertaining guy on the mic this side of The Rock, rather than just being "that one black guy, Elijah Burke." In just a few short weeks, they've made Mr. Anderson relevant, and have him in a heated, emotional feud with Kurt Angle. You have Hulk Hogan finally giving Abyss a reason to exist again. You have AJ Styles, who's always been famous simply for being AJ Styles, paired up with one of the most recognizable names in all of wrestling history, becoming "the new Nature Boy." It's not campy, it's not cartoony, it's just Flair once again being the dirtiest player in the game (and being better on the mic than he ever was in WWE), and AJ finally having some kind of personality. Yeah, there may be some crap mired in there as well, but every wrestling show is bound to have that. And for my money, I'd rather have a little bit of crap on a wrestling show than a whole lot of it on a "sports entertainment" longest running weekly episodic blah blah catch phrase blah blah vintage whatever.
So, come Monday night, I'll be ready. I can't speak for Ashlee or Cory, and I'm sure they have their own fairly-based opinions on TNA and WWE, and they're entitled to like what they like, and I'm entitled to like what I like. As are all of you, the internet wrestling community members who now have a Monday night choice. If you dig the big flashy corporate WWE envivornment, more power to ya. But if you're like me and you're sick of all the stuff that Vince and company force down our throats, and you want to see something new and exciting but just haven't bothered watching TNA based on laziness, or being busy on Thursdays, or you just "don't think about it," well... here's your chance. Finally, you once again have the choice. You can continue to feed McMahon's ego, or you can "Make The Change."
I implore you to tune in to Spike TV this week on Monday night. Watch TNA Impact. Give the "new flavor" a chance, and help keep the spirit of pro wrestling alive. I'm Brian Thompson, proud member of the "TNAtion," and I approve this message.
On his facebook update this morning, Bret Hart addressed the rumors that swirled when Jeremy Borash posted this picture from his Twitter after Monday's meeting between the old WCW alumni. Bret had this to say:
"It was nice seeing Jeremy Borash, a longtime friend of mine, from TNA while I was in Nashville. He hung out with me and we never once talked wrestling. Some feeble minded idiot who saw us in plain view tried to start the rumour that I might be heading to TNA next; although why anyone would ever think I'd let Hogan and Bischoff anywhere near my Hitman persona again is truly beyond me."
So I guess that's that? Although any talk of Bret and WCW is an excuse to post this, one of the all-time classic promos. Who are you to doubt El Dandy?
Sue me for the spanish, I needed a before and after 10 years of McDonalds picture.
Word 'round the campfire is that Scott Hall and Sean Waltman are doing an incredibly poor job of impressing the TNA brass. Reports went so far as to say that most people even expected that Hall wouldn't last very long, but they were surprised that Waltman didn't attempt to make a better showing, since he's done a pretty efficient job burning his bridges in the good ole US of A.
I guess it's pretty hard to be 51 years old and an impressive in ring athlete, especially if you're Scott Hall and you look like you've stuffed doughnuts in your cheeks to get you through the winter.
In response to swirling rumors that Eric Bischoff and Hulk Hogan were interested in bringing the Honky Tonk Man aboard the sinking TNA ship, Bischoff politely suggest that he would rather drive a rusty icepick through his thigh than work with Honky Tonk Man. Bischoff went on to say that Honky "couldn't draw flies if he were rolled in horse shit." That's a direct quote, folks.
So, apparently when the official Honky Tonk Man website posted this little blurb:
"Honky Tonk Man is very close to signing a deal with TNA! HTM has been in contact with TNA since early December. More on this breaking news coming in the next few days."
As a hardcore shameless TNA apologist, I've been trying for hours to find a way to justify this. And I just can't. The only thing missing from this speech is a "know your role and shut your mouth."
Look, I get that you're trying to put forth a product and tell a story to the people at home. I get that you need the crowd to react a certain way in order to tell that story. But if the crowd isn't reacting the way you want them to, then maybe this isn't a story you should be telling, huh? Sean Morley (who's been off of TV for how many years now?) going over one of your own home grown cornerstones? Brian Kendrick coming out of nowhere to get an X-Division title shot in his first appearance in the company rather than some of the guys who have busted their tails for years (Shelley, Sabin, Lethal, Kaz) for your company?
I understand you're trying to go in a new direction. But when you're fixing a car, you don't tear out all the parts that are still good and replace them with broken down rusty parts out of a junkyard, you replace the stuff that DOESN'T work. 8-man X-Division spotfests are the kind of thing that sets TNA apart from WWE, and that seems to be your main thrust in this whole thing. So why in the green hell are you tearing down everything that DID set you apart (6-sided ring included, even though I do like the return of the squared circle) and just turning yourself into WWE lite?!
Sigh. I hoped for the best here, but just a few weeks in, and Hogan's already flushing TNA down the crapper. Are we sure he's not Vince's hired gun?
Hogan dropped that a BIG name would be debuting at TNA Genesis at the end of this month. Rumors had been circulating that it might be RVD, and rampant speculation that Scott Hall is trying to get Sid Vicious hired. (This isn't related, but I just found out Sid Vicious is still alive.)
All the word from TNA "insiders" seem to be pointing to the artist formerly known as Mr. Kennedy - Ken Anderson.
This is getting out of hand. With the help of Bischoff, TNA MIGHT do something right, but... I'm a Ken Anderson fan. I quiet enjoy some Jeff Hardy, Alex Shelley, Chris Sabin, Eric Young.... ummm...oh, who else? SHANNON MOORE! I can't stand watching them be misused though... Go away. I have some tough decisions to make.
