I remember a situation just before the re-formation of the Hart Foundation. Owen Hart and Davey Boy Smith were feuding. They had a match in England. It was a fantastic match. Probably better than the one you linked to. Again, almost no punching. Then they had a rematch. But the rematch was live on Raw in the US. And it was crap. All punching and kicking and topped off by Bret running in, stopping the match and reforming the Hart Foundation. As much as I loved the Hart Foundation/Austin feud, those two matches back to back epitomizes how WWE dumbed down wrestling for North American audiences.

Its official. Lashley has signed with TNA and is expected to debut at Victory Road on Sunday.

The advisor to Joe is going to be there:


Also whilst not signed, Umaga doesnt have a none compete clause and TNA is in early talks for signing him.

Exciting times for TNA

Angelina Love is all I need.

Meh, Wilde>Sky>Love.

Something about how Taylor Wilde runs when she goes rope to rope is awesome due to how petite she is it looks like she is working overtime. Also, she has had some really good matches, esp the Monster's Ball mixed tag at Slammiversary. Id overlook the Canadianness

I marked out so hard when Angelina took the widows peak to drop the title last week. The upcoming Tara v Kong work is going to be soooooo good.

Which is why im not that high on Angelina, she was never a believable champion and it just felt like an insult to me as a fan when she won it in a triple threat (whilst being concussed at the time, lol) but especially when she defended it against Kong and then defeated Tara at Slammiversary (which makes it so illogical she then dropped the title to Tara at an Impact show three weeks later in TV time).

Is it just me or is the line up of Victory Road amazingly terrible, yet with who is due to make their debut its actually quite exciting to see how they are going to take it.

I am convinced that even if the Rock and Steve Austin signs with TNA it will do nothing for TNA. Vince Russo is completely awful, I have completely boycotted that program. I will never forgive them for what they have done to AJ Styles and Samoa Joe. They have taken 2 blue chip prospects and have made them completely irrelevant.

BTW, I love Velvet Sky. The beautiful people are the best thing about TNA.

LOL @ wondering why Jamie Noble and Jimmy Wang Yang don't get pushed. Really?

I totally skipped RAW this week, looks like I missed absolutely nothing, but is Miz still active? He goes from trading verbal jabs with Cena to being the sidebar to the Primo/Carlito feud? This is what I was talking about. They gave Miz all that mic time, he did tremendous work, then he jobs to Cena twice, albeit at least the 2nd time he wasn't treated like a complete joke, then see ya. All that work for nothing.

Sad thing is, AJ Styles and Samoa Joe know they'd never do crap in WWE either, just would be wasted in the midcard.

Man I was pissed when she lost the strap. Yah maybe I overrate her physically; I'm sure her gimmick of shaking her ass and being a bitch is part of what does it for me.

As for being an unbelievable champion, meh, there's similar complaints here about making Orton look weak, but really it's just standard champion heel stuff. I mean go back to HHH's 99-03 heel run there's all kinds of lol crap.

Had no idea Tara is slated to face Kong. Does that mean Kong is heel again or was she ever face or just a "Big Show" tweener that nobody cares about?

Also lol @ us discussing the TNA's women division seriously.

Not true. AJ Styles and Samoa Joe were bigger prospects than CM Punk before he joined WWE. Look what WWE has been able to do with CM Punk.
Sometimes your talent is so unbelievable they just can't keep you down no matter how hard they try. AJ Styles is so unbelievably phenomanol that he would've been over very much like Rey Mysterio when he first came to WWE.
His talents are so wasted on TNA that it's mind boggling.

I think it's true: AJ Styles was aggressively pursued to sign with WWE a few years ago and turned it down because he was worried he wasn't going to get pushed while TNA was promising him at the time (I think 05' or 06') he'd be in the main event picture.

I don't CM Punk has really got a fair shake up until now, and thank goodness for Smackdown! I definitely don't call his World Championship reign last year a success, as he was crapped on by Batista, not taken seriously, lost the belt, never even had a proper feud with Randy Orton, and floated around mid-card until he won MITB again.

I'm afraid WWE would tell Samoa Joe to lose weight and wrestle a more basic style, and just bury him. I still think Vince holds a grudge against TNA talent, so I mean it's better for Styles and Joe to stay there anyway until we see someone like Christian actually do something after his TNA run.

The thing with Tna signing on new talent is that thier existing roster gets pushed further down and same thing starts happening there as WCW.

They need to make new superstars and they cant if they keep pushing the same old faces for main events. Tna's PPVs from 2005/06 were so awesome.

Vince holds a grudge against all talent from other wrestling promotions. The great talent his promotion has buried is too much to count and too sad to name. It is like an unwritten rule that the only way to get to the top is to get big muscle because that is how Vince likes it. Look at youtube videos of old school eddie and benoit from wcw, at their purest and no roids. Would they have gotten ahead in Vince's company if they had not started taking roids?

Vince holds a grudge against all talent from other promotions and the smaller wrestlers (unless they get the roids). His policies are what killed Eddie and Benoit.

*rant over*

Bolded part is sooooooo wrong.

Eddie died from heart complications from too many years of being a junkie.

Benoit died(taking the whole suicide aspect out) as a result of brain trauma from too many concussions. The guy had serious brain damage.

Steroids prob had as much to do with their deaths as they did with Michael Jackson's.

Jim Cornette brought up a good point on a youtubue shoot. Smart thing for Vince to do would've been to push the hell outta Christian. Then he could've gotten other TNA talent hopes up and buried them.

Yeah, Russo, Jarret, recently that woman who represents the energy company and whoever else is making creative decisions has made a habit of somehow burying the guys who are TNA.

Oh, and releasing Petey. Such a terrible creative decision - they "had nothing for him" - so beyond wrong.

Whenever a guy like Joe gets some traction they take him off in a weird way. I mean he was top of the world when he was champ last year, then the MEM/NWO rehash story comes down and he is lost. Then after coming back looking all indy he somehow gains momentum going into Slammiversary and then boom, he is working with Angle and MEM and he is dropped back down the ladder.

AJ on the other hand hasnt been anywhere since Joe came into the company, later followed by Christian and then Angle. The dude is my fave wrestler right now across all companies - i mean he is the only guy to win all the belts on TNA (except the knock outs belt of course), he was the first guy to win the triple crown and the only guy to do that three times, but he hasnt actually held the TNA WHC belt ever - he was only a champ back in the old NWA belt days.

My basic hope is that when Steiner and Nash eventually decide putting on subpar matches isnt the best way to end their career TNA can spring forward. But meh. I honestly think the best thing they could do as a company is to make a second show, esp if they dedicate it to the X Div belt, run the WHC belt out of the Impact show and spread the tag and womens matches between the two. Right now they are suffering from too much top talent and they are focussing short term on the big names with the shortest career span - Angle, Foley, Jarret and Sting - and to a lesser degree Nash, Steiner and Booker.

Its hard to judge. I think he would be an insta fan fave of the smarks like RVD was when he came to the company, but i can understand him not wanting to go to WWE in this era. Being the Legends champ (lol, prop belt) and getting to work every PPV even if it is against guys like Booker whilst struggling to make them look good is much better than being a nobody like Shelton who is capable of putting on grade A matches but is constantly held back where he is forced to not make the other guy look bad in a match.

I think a better example of wasted talent is Daniels. Curryman and Suicide. I think ive covered it all. Oh and you have to mention Kaz whilst we are on Suicide.

Btw, to whoever said Punk had a bad year last year - in one year he managed to win MITB at WM, he won the WHC belt, the IC belt and one of the Tag belts. I agree with the notion he didnt get quite what they could have given him, but i dont think any wrestler would pass up such a "poor year" as he had last year. And now he doesnt have to deal with Roidista begging to take the belt off him this year he will cement himself as a top worker.

Its easy as fans of the guy to look at his reign in the context of the type of reigns that Cena has. Instead its better to compare him to Jeff Hardy - arguably the most over person who has had one reign in like a billion years with the company that lasted one month.

She isnt slated to face Kong yet - but thats the clear way this will go given she is being used as a Gail Kim replacement. Kong imo has always been a tweener. She just got more heel heat when she faced Kim and ODB because they were so over as faces. Them working together is mainly a case of my enemy's enemy is my friend in my mind.

Fwiw, the TNA women's div deserves serious consideration right now. I remember when an womens match was the main event of an Impact (one of the Kong/Kim matches iirc) - TNA has been willing to give the women a fair shake and with the current roster they are building they can do sooooo much better than the BS that WWE puts out with its Diva matches.

I mean the only reason Kong signed with TNA over WWE (taking a LOT less money) was they would take womens wrestling serious. The last few months since Kim left has been a low point but with Tara, Kong, ODB, Sarita and it seems Saieed is now working as an Alissa Flash gimmick they have a lot of world class talent, backed up by some very good talent in Wilde, Love and Daffney along with some good enhancement talent like Sojo, Rayne, Hemme and Sky. I mean i still think they are missing Roxxi (still hate that decision to release her) but thats one hell of a roster they have. They also have a huge advantage that the guys dont have - Russo isnt the head writer and booker for the Knock Outs.

Just saw Impact on youtube. Angelina's getting the belt back imo. She's been getting pwn3d too much in this feud not to.

I think this is only partially correct. AJ talked about the contract that wwe offered him originally at the time and it was only a developmental contract paying $500/week. This didn't make it feasible for someone like AJ styles who would've made more doing TNA and still working independant dates. When he signed with TNA, TNA was just getting off the ground and there was no guarantee that TNA would survive as a company. They lost millions year after year and the company would've folded had Panda Energy not stepped in and bailed them out. It was only very recently that TNA actually turned a profit.
Had WWE offered AJ Styles a six figure contract like what they are offering Gail Kim right now, AJ would've joined WWE in a heartbeat.

Whether AJ would've been a star or be buried in WWE is debatable. In my opinion I would put AJ in the same class as someone like RVD, Jeff Hardy and Rey Mysterio. RVD, and Mysterio were continually held back by WWE but their talents and the fan support helped made them stars. I would say AJ Styles has even more star potential and more talented than RVD and Jeff Hardy. AJ Styles is so great that I put him on another level altogether. I truly believed he would've been a star in WWE no matter what. Someone as talented as AJ only comes around maybe once every decade.

I also disagree with CM Punk's title run in 2008 as being unsuccessful. Not many people get to accomplish as much as CM Punk did. If you recall when guys like Edge was still a midcarder and then he won money in the bank and eventually the title, Edge was booked very much the same way at first. They give the fans time to accept him as a maineventer. They are doing the same with Punk right now, this time they are going full force with it like they did with Edge eventually.

They just dusted off The Brian Kendrick just to have him job to Jerry Lawler? **** this show.

That's b/c The Brian Kendrick sucks and doesn't deserve to be on TV.

He needs to be wished well on his future endeavors.

Lawler over Kendrick, Hornswoggle over Chavo again, the triple threat build-up for the PPV being entirely boring...

I'm really not sure what keeps me tuning into this show. I should just stick to Smackdown, and maybe the SD match on Superstars, until this thread starts telling me that Raw is getting better.

Kendrick is fantastic and is the kind of guy that should be pushed too the moon if Vince didn't have a big man fetish.

On the plus side there's a solid AWA 6man tag on classic now.

I'm the same way. I'm sitting in front of my computer with usually Raw in the background while grinding. After Raw started with the usual horrific promo by Cena and Orton taking the 25 mins to walk to the ring, I immediately turned off the television. Seriously I cannot take another Cena promo, he has the absolute worst promo in the industry, he's talking like he's 5 yrs old. I am completely done with Raw until someone in this thread tells me it's good again. It is so bad, how can anyone watch this crap? It's the same show week after week with the same guys on top. Horrific show.

Shaq is hosting next week, at least they'll have someone with mic skills/personality doing it for once (in terms of non-wrestlers)

I sit through RAW for the occasional Jericho segment. ZZ Top were terrible, Cena/HHH v. Legacy is so played out, the US Title picture is just a mess of superstars lost in the shuffle, and Hornswoggle/Chavo do not deserve fifteen minutes each week.

Maybe after Night of Champions, with Swagger as the U.S. Champ, Cena as the WWE Champ, and Jericho/Christian as Unified Tag Champs they can put together a decent show with Shaq as the special guest host.

The card I'd book for next week, assuming who I think wins the important matches at NoC:

9:00-9:15 Jericho/Christian come out, run their mouths, let Christian talk and establish himself as a heel.

Shaq comes out and tells them they're going to defend their titles again tonight. Books a rematch in a steel cage as the main event. Announcers mention HHH won't be here tonight.

9:15-9:30 After commercial The Brian Kendrick comes out and starts trash talking Lawler again, Lawler says he found someone backstage more TBK's speed and Evan Bourne comes out. Give them a bunch of time and give TBK a dirty win, tights, ropes, steel chair, exposed turnbuckle, don't really care.

9:30-9:35 Shaq backstage with Kofi, Kofi wants his rematch with Swagger tonight, Shaq grants, it's next! Swagger can get his face in this segment too perhaps.

9:35-9:45 Kofi comes out, Swagger comes out. They wrestle, Swagger retains, probably clean.

9:45-9:50 Santino and Rosa Mendez making fun of Maryse for whatever reason, Maryse overhears and smacks Rosa. Santino gets involved and the Miz owns him.

9:50-9:55 Big Show backstage with Shaq, Shaq puts him in match with Mark Henry.

9:55-10:10 Cena comes out gets big pop, gives stupid promo, Randy interrupts, yawn. Title rematch next week.

10:10-10:25 Maryse comes out, The Miz comes out, then Rosa and Santino come out. They wrestle a mixed tag match, the Miz tries to cheat and gets thwarted or ends up accidentally hitting Maryse, Rosa gets the pin. Maryse upset. Oh we're making Rosa face even though she was heel last week if that's not clear.

10:25-10:35 Show comes out, Henry comes out, they wrestle, Henry picks up the win, preferably by pinfall. Maybe in some sort of wtf manner like a roll up, who knows.

10:35-10:40 Night of Champion highlights.

10:40-11:05 Legacy come out, Jericho/Christian come out, they put on a good main event in a steel cage. Jericho/Christian retain.

MVP and Primo team up versus Carlito and Chavo on Superstars, where Chavo gets the pin on MVP leading to a match on RAW next week.