Impact taped two episodes on the road in Huntsville, Alabama, this week. Tonight we will be watching the wrestlers perform outside of the Impact Zone, which should make for a hot crowd… one not as jaded, ignorant, or just those who like to chant nonsense to hear themselves. If nothing else, at least I can say I made one positive observation… let’s get to it, shall we?
Destination X, is about two weeks away. Two more three way tournaments to go through, leading to the four man Ultimate X match for a contract with the company. So far, I beg for Austin Aries to win because I like his personality. Which means he has one akin to Kendrick,Kaz,Gen-Max and I think Robbie E.
How the mighty division has fallen from its peak in 2005 at Unbreakable, with the classic match between Samoa Joe vs Daniels vs Styles. Now we have to fight for scraps between Amazing Red dressed as a K-mart brand Mexican Luchador (racist much!)* to destroying a tag team to get a member over only for them to vanish a few weeks later.**
I pray that Destination X is good, and lord willing I will be watching it on July 10th since it’s on a day before my birthday. I could only wish that its worth the last couple months of watching Abyss carrying around his make shift Art of War, quoting verses like a traveling preacher at a revival.
What I wouldn’t give to see something other than nostalgia but a new chapter debuting that will signal the return of a once great division that took the tradition of the WCW cruiser-weights and expanded on it.
Introducing the “X” factor that TNA was missing since late 2009, will definitely bring relief to those long time fans that have given up on the product when Hogan and his regime came aboard more concerned with the main event picture which was doing just fine (my opinion) before they ever stepped foot into the company. But after watching the Before the Bell program detailing the resurrection of the X Division, the upcoming matches in no particular order are: (Spoiler)
Ultimate X: Austin Aries vs Ion vs ?? vs ?? for a TNA contract
Kazarian vs Samoa Joe
AJ Styles vs Christopher Daniels
RVD vs Jerry Lynn
Abyss (c) vs Brian Kendrick
So far decent nothing to write home about, staring nostalgia in the face right now. Hopefully the next two winners of the X division tournament can hang with Aries and prove they have what it takes to move into the company and creating a buzz.
I know I’m wishing for a lot when it comes to July 10th with Destination X, but give an old TNA head something to look forward to in Impact Wrestling’s future other than more Hogan and Bischoff spouting about how great they once were.
* Amazing Red is Puerto Rican not Mexican
** Generation Me.
Last week, wrestling mattered. Or so we were told. Did it? Are you sure? I’m not convinced. While I liked the facelift of the iMPACT zone… Then sadly, the next day we found out that Randy Savage had tragically passed away. He will be missed. I don’t know if iMPACT matters, but there is no doubt that to wrestling, Savage mattered. They taped this episode last week, so I am unsure if there will be much mention of the Madness’ legacy although he appeared there briefly in 2004. I’m more interested in tonight, to see if they do anything about that. (more…)
The news has been hitting the fan for weeks and now it was finally confirmed on May 12th. TNA is now Impact Wrestling. Watching the event unfold before my eyes as The Network, Mick Foley proclaimed “Impact is wrestling” telling Hogan and his cohorts that the politics have ended. I smiled as I thought of a happier time in TNA history. The year was 2006, as I was streaming through all the on demand selections skimming the porn and sport selections, I was stopped in my tracks by a wrestling event called TNA: No Surrender. What could this be? And better yet how much would this cost?
Well folks for $24.99, I watched a company impress. Jackass antics aside TNA gave me some intriguing matches. LAX w/ Konnan vs AJ Styles/Christopher Daniels, Senshi vs Chris Sabin and the wrestler who left a impressive mark…Eric Young. Wearing his white tights with a censorship bar over the word “Fire”. It would continue to impress next month when I watched Bound for Glory. Eric Young was there so was Daniels/AJ, LAX and the match of the night Chris Sabin vs Senshi. A four star match that left both men forever immortalized in my brain.
I became a fanatic. I bought “The Best of the X Division” 2 pack, watched TNA Impact on Spike, where Christian was speared through a steel cage by Rhyno. Mouth dropped as I watched the end of a feud that left Christian victorious albeit Rhyno was avenged. Then after a year I went away every once in a while I’d stop in to see how the program was progressing. And then 2010 happened and I see Hogan on my screen in a four sided ring telling the audience that big changes are about to unfold. I was unimpressed. All I saw was old dudes (ea friends of Hogan collecting a paycheck) I lost faith and didn’t look back for about six months or so. When I returned all was the same except some of the old dudes remained. Namely Hogan and a Silver haired Bischoff. Now TNA had become WCW: 2010 with endless promos to open the show followed by two minute matches then right behind that would be more promos and another five minute match. The endless cycle was monotonous. That is also when I became a devotee to the Internet Wrestling Community. Reading how much folks would argue with one another over what was the definition of TNA or how whether or not the veterans were either hurting or bettering the product was astonishing. I didn’t know how to respond, depending on what site you’re on it could be the difference from being called a troll or mark. People attitudes were as intense as the old comic book argument of who was faster Superman or the Flash.
Now here we are in May, TNA has decided to push wrestling over promos. What went through my head was all the talent that are on the roster and all the epic matches and smaller lead ins using the reaction cam could bring to the overall product. Taking the best of 2002-2009 and mixing it with what was decent or innovative about 2010-2011(so far).
Here’s where my wrestling theory kicks in.
After Sacrifice and Slammiversary, iMPACT Wrestling should start building up the future while deconstructing the past year and change. First should come the end of Immortal. Not right away but with Hogan’s power null in void we can watch as the group slowly implodes. Leading to either Hogan or Flair taking on Impact caretaker Sting. In a loser leaves Impact Wrestling at Bound for Glory.
That is the end result of Bischoff/ Hogan regime, but before that in the three months leading up to that landmark moment we should see the X division wrestlers get their revenge on Bischoff. July 10th is Destination X. We should see the division rise from the ashes like a phoenix. Led in part by Max Buck and Brian Kendrick, who documented performance in the ring and outside of it has shown that they could definitely steer the course of the next generation of talent. This of course could allow Kaz to get back into heel territory were he does his best work.
Kaz as a man surrounded, relentlessly holding on to the X gold . Kendrick, The Bucks, Sangrieto and Suicide all jockeying for his title. By giving these characters personalities the fans will care. Bring in Traci Brooks as his right hand woman snagging him victories against them. Use the Reaction Cam in short (and by short i mean two to three minutes) explaining their reasons for participating in the X division using each wrestlers personality to showcase how they differ from each other. This would add to the importance of the belt. More could be added with the World X Cup. More on that on another article. This of course is a small sample of the thoughts running through my mind. But then it jumped to Orlando Jordan.
Orlando Jordan. Yes, that Orlando Jordan. When he first debuted he represented someone different than the stereotypical “black” wrestler, he wasn’t a gang banger,pimp or extremist militant. He was instead a bi-sexual male who wanted to wrestler and be accepted by his peers. At first he was entertaining and then became a joke of epic proportions. With his brain damaged partner/lover? Eric Young he has become one half of a dreaded jobber team. There for simple entertainment. Nothing much else. I’m more offended by this then by John Cena’s playful middle school comments. Here is someone who came in with an original idea for a wrestler and has been given squat. Instead what they should do is put him in singles territory with a female valet. What has So Cal Val been up to in the past two plus years? Secondly have Bully Ray make Orlando Jordan’s life miserable which leads to a feud for acceptance. The simplest promoter could conceive this.
And then it touched on Eric Young. Again. Here is a man who when presented with a gimmick he takes it and runs with it. No matter how asinine. He is a good little soldier and follows orders. But where has that positioned him? Earlier in 2009-2010 he was being pushed as a leader. A heel leader in charge of World Elite. You couldn’t help but think of a man who would of brought great feuds to the forefront. Especially against former tag partner Robert Roode. Then he fell off the turnbuckle onto the floor below and now we have “Idiot Savant” Eric Young. The dream had been crushed. Where can he go from here? Simple. Last Thursday, Eric Young stole Gunner’s Television title. I could see a swift kick in the head would straighten Eric out to fight for the former Global title. Maybe even a three way between him, Gunner and Daniels. The thoughts ceased for a bit.
What was presented was this somewhat garbled article that I hope to continue in a serial format. Giving you sneak peeks into my brain in regards to the Television, tag team and World title picture. Even the Knockouts brought something to mind. But for now I better slow down before I have a novella on my hands.
Part 2 should be on its way soon.
There is a topic that I need to talk about, but I will start by talking about something not so incredible. Raw last night was pretty bad. It was centered around somebody who wasn’t a major character-The Rock. All it does is show the wrestling world how little they have in John Cena. There were some good moments. Kharma (“Awesome Kong”) is money for the WWE if they do it right. The feud is ready-made with her and Kelly Kelly. And while I still think of Kelly Kelly as the girl who couldn’t unhook her bra on the first ECW on Sci-Fi show, it should be a really strong feud. Mason Ryan (“Matista”) looked like a million bucks last night. I see him being money; just don’t ask him to take a piss test. Great Khali in the tooth fairy outfit was awesome. This is entertainment. If you want to see pure wrestling, go find Ring of Honor, Dragon Gate USA or some other promotion.
I hated the show centering around The Rock’s birthday. While I did like the VKM, appearance, the rest of the celebrities were just WWE getting to brag they were on their show. (And I hate to say it, but with the exception of Ellen, none of them were funny.) I hated the finish of the Miz/Cena match. The Pied Piper needs to come along and take all the Cena fans somewhere so we can get him off our tv. And I hated the WWE doing their 9/13 retrospective. At least they didn’t show Stephanie comparing 9/11 to when her dad got indicted for steroids.
The more and more I think about it, the Raw wasn’t horrible, it just wasn’t “incredible.”
Now onto the meat of my rant: Dallas/Fort Worth has a lot of good wrestling promotions. I enjoy going to MPX. I know there’s LWA, NAWA, TWE, CWF, (Sorry if I forgot anybody) and the victim of today’s rant, Pro Wrestling Onslaught. I really wish I could go to all of them, but I have a wife and 2-year-old daughter. I can get my wife to do an MPX show once in a while (and the Christian Wrestling Federation once when AJ Styles worked), but I seriously thought about going to PWO. I casually know some of the guys who work there. My mother who is a teacher has worked really hard this year, and we love going to wrestling together, and I thought about taking her to celebrate all the work she’s put in this year. My mom and I used to go to indy wrestling together back in the day, so it was kind of a no-brainer.
You see, PWO was advertising the former Portuguese Man-o-War, Justin Credible. I’m a total ECW mark. So here was one of the main eventers in ECW’s dying days. Hello, why not? I found my Justin Credible action figure (yes, I still have all my olf ECW action figures). People I respect in the industry said it was a really well-run show. I was ready to go.
Then life happened. Work was brutal, and I just needed to rest after the week that had been. My grandfather was injured and my mom needed to take care of him. My daughter suffered a concussion, and we spent most of Saturday in the hospital. (Thanks to Joe for his well-wishes for my daughter.) I felt really bad about not going.
Well, it turns out I’m not the only one who didn’t show up. The namesake of the show, Justin Credible, didn’t show up. I don’t know why he didn’t. I was not privy to the conversations or the details of his life. What I know is that according to the wrestlers that worked that night, he no-showed. It’s one thing for a wrestler to cancel at the last minute. While not optimal, it’s still good business to notify them through some method somehow. There’s emails, phone calls, text messages, the list goes on. It’s 2011. You have no excuse for no-showing.
So fans, understand, if you see Justin Credible advertised, understand that there is a distinct possibility you won’t see him that night. Fans, promoters, wrestlers, take this into consideration before you book Justin Credible.
Kudos should still be given to PWO. I heard that they had a strong main event nonetheless and brought home a very solid show.
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We’re hot off the heels of last Sunday’s Lockdown PPV, one that featured some decent matches (and Kurt Angle almost killing himself, again). What will Wayne Arnold and the crew serve up tonight?
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Fresh out of the IWC voting ballot box, comes the Power Poll for the fallout from WrestleMania 27. We take into account the build prior the showcase of the immortals, but more importantly, rank the wrestlers based on their performance and storyline outcomes from WrestleMania itself. And while we’ve seen some development on RAW last Monday… we will just pretend it didn’t happen, ok?
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As we end the week long Celebration of Professional Wrestling at both Bored Wrestling Fan and Wonderpod-Online, we need to take a moment to look at our standings for wrestlers going into the biggest event of the year!
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As we enter the final week of hype and promotion leading up to WrestleMania 27, it’s time to see where the Power Poll ranks our beloved wrestlers. It’s been an odd week in wrestling, and much like the past few weeks, there has been lots of movement. While the power poll is a regular feature here, this smark is getting even more excited for A Celebration of Professional Wrestling that will be going down at both the Bored Wrestling Fan and Wonderpod-Online. Stay tuned for more details… but until then…
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When you’re on the road to WrestleMania, things are going to get shaken up on a weekly basis. And it should come as no surprise that this is what indeed happened this week.
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