2011 Pro Wrestling Thread

Dixie Carter's looking not too shabby on this Impact......

 

Impact is so difficult to watch, largely because of the piped in crowd noise. Can hardly hear what they are saying at times.

 

How To Improve TNA, Chapter 32....

Get rid of Karen Jarrett.

 

The other thing that struck me about this is Stephanie talking about how everyone is always a member of the WWE family. Give me a break. They've only been helping out the wrestlers after being shamed into doing so because of all the scrutiny following Benoit. For years, they would always point out how any wrestler who died wasn't a current member of their organization. NOW, they're members of the family? Please.

And I highly doubt they would have been so willing to spend six figures on rehab for a guy if he wasn't a buddy of her husband.

 

The website of Boston's TD Garden has this:

Mick Foley back in the WWE.

 

No real surprise. Foley already has confirmed he's returning. I hope he can do something good, and if a few rumors that I've seen are true, he'll do a helluva job building himself up for Undertaker at WM, but in a way, it's pretty sad that the WWE has to rely on a guy who's 10 years past his prime to give the company a boost.

 

So the spoiler thing from earlier: James Storm won the TNA title from Kurt Angle in a 1-minute match to cap a particularly wretched Impact. Only seven minutes of wrestling on the whole damn show? I understand they had big news to deal with after Bound For Glory, and Angle's injury kept him from doing much in the ring, but they could have done the opening segment in half the time.

Plus the crowd sweetening is utterly minor-league. Dear TNA: Even sellout crowds in the height of the Attitude era kept their yaps shut every once in a while, so you don't need to turn canned cheering into white noise. Plus despite your, ahem, "best" efforts with camera cuts, it was painfully obvious that most people in the Impact Zone were sitting on their hands for most of the show. And the few times they showed any life, you couldn't tell if it was them or the piped-in cheers. It's bad enough when WWE does it, but this is graceless and sad and doesn't really fool anyone.

As for Foley in WWE, it'll generate a bit of interest early, and he's good at getting the cheap pops in YOUR CITY, YOUR STATE *thumbs up*. But I don't know how they should use him. We've already seen him as a GM and that was OK but not great. His in-ring days really should be behind him, and he's going to have to hustle to get into any respectable shape if the Undertaker at WM rumors are true.

Which I hope to God they aren't. More than likely, Taker won't wrestle at all until then, and while he's a veteran and all, the worst thing would be putting him in the ring with someone who hasn't wrestled a legitimate match in forever. Triple H is different because he was still an active competitor a year before the Taker match and he stayed in good shape throughout. Plus they'll be telegraphing the result if it's Foley-Taker because there's no way in hell Taker's losing the streak there.

As for Hall: I'll give WWE a bit of slack here in that I think they wouldn't want the negative publicity of OKing one person's rehab but not the other's. They spent more on Hall probably because he was (is) the most far gone of those who took their deal. That said, if he dies a month from now, they probably won't mention it on Raw in the way they distanced themselves from Umaga's death.

Speaking of Hall: TMZ reporting that whatever feel-good you got from the end of the E:60 piece is shot to hell -- Cody and Scott are estranged again because Scott verbally abused him during relapses, and now he's given up wrestling and moved in with Dana. http://www.tmz.com/2011/10/20/wrestling-legend-scott-hall-son-cody-reunion-espn-documentary/?adid=hero4

 

Anyone else knew that Tamina and Troy Polamalu are brother and sister? Or am I just living under a big rock?

 

Now I *will* say that I like giving the title to James Storm. He's a 21st century Michael P.S. Hayes with better workrate, plus he's one of the few guys TNA can say are absolutely theirs. Roode is the better worker of the two, but Storm is more entertaining and better suited for the top face role. It's just too bad Storm, and not Roode, got the epic build leading into BFG. Roode will probably turn heel and feud with Storm, and that's probably a better place for Roode anyway.

 

Guess that keeps my streak of learning something new each day intact.

 

You mean Roode got the build and not Storm?

Also, this is just kind of weird...build up Roode like it's a sure thing he'll be the next champ, have him job to Angle on the biggest PPV of the year, then give the title to his tag team partner out of the blue on free TV. I shouldn't be surprised, since it *is* TNA, but still.