2011 Pro Wrestling Thread

Just finished watching a YouTube clip of Sting/Hardy. Man, that was painful to watch.

Hardy took more time teasing his T-shirt toss than actually wrestling.

Someone on Youtube commented that maybe TNA is trying to do a spoof of Charlie Sheen.

 

Well, it's an organization that has Bischoff and Russo on the payroll, so you can't dismiss the idea that it's a worked shoot. Of course, why you'd enrage the few people loyal enough to shell out $45 for an 88-second main event is anyone's guess, but it's entirely possible.

They could do an art-imitating-life-imitating-art thing and make Hardy pick up some Sheen mannerisms. But personal demon angles parroting real-life issues don't have much of a track record (Hawk, Scott Hall)

 

The link to the Hardy-Sting match by way of Kevin Eck's blog on the Baltimore Sun site, though Eck warned it could be taken down at any time. Hardy definitely looked like he was in the influence of something. I read reports about Sting mouthing "I agree! I agree," when the fans were chanting bullshit; in actuality, you could hear him saying it clear as a bell at the very end of the clip.

 

just watched it online. just going by their body actions, i wouldn't be stunned if it was scripted, and this sets up a storyline of born-again sting attempting to rehab jeff hardy and save his soul, etc.

or not. and I don't think it would be wise or fruitful. but it's certainly possible.

 

Wrestling Observer reports that Hardy won't be at the TV tapings tonight or Tuesday.

Oh and Drew Carey is getting inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. F'real.

 

I know Carey was in a Royal Rumble one year, and did some other mini-appearances, but why bother? Heck, induct Cyndi Lauper. She had a much bigger impact on the business than Drew Carey.

And expounding on my previous thought, why do I have this nagging suspicion that the next PPV main event will be another Sting/Hardy, only Charlie Sheen will be in Hardy's corner?

 

From what I read, Bischoff came out to tell Sting and Hardy of the new 88-second matchplan, using the no-DQ announcement as a cover for his being out there. I guess there's a chance that Sting went into business for himself and shut the match down rather than work with Hardy, who appeared to be well under the influence. But that doesn't seem Sting's style. Hardy tried to kick out at 2, but Sting was using his entire body weight to hold him down. Or maybe that's what they want us to think. Who knows?

The other thing is, in December there were questions before that PPV that Hardy wasn't in condition to compete. They almost pulled him from the show and stripped the title from him, but they decided to let him out there, and kept the belt on him too. You'd think they'd have a Plan B for Hardy-related issues after that experience. If they knew how bad it was, then they could have easily had RVD or Anderson beat the hell out of Hardy, put him out of the match, and Bischoff (using "the network" again as the deus ex machina) having a three-way dance with Sting, RVD and Anderson. But I guess that lends credence to the worked shoot idea, since there's no way they didn't realize how bad off he was until he came out. But I guess it's TNA, so that's possible. Ow my head.

 

I am intrigued by your ideas, and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.

Really, though, how A.J. Styles *isn't* the face of the company is beyond me. What Bischoff/Russo/et al haven't seemed to notice is people will pay good money to watch A.J. Styles wrestle.

I completely agree on the PPVs. I'm someone who will pay a considerable amount of money to watch wrestling, and I had bought basically every PPV (TNA and WWE) for over a year. With WWE, it's still essential to buy/watch them because that's when things happen; that's when the best show of the month will be. TNA puts on at least one (sometimes two) better shows on Impact every single month. I didn't buy Victory Road, and I'm damn sure glad I didn't.

 

I was thinking about this last night. If TNA really wanted to save itself, the only way to do it is to blow everything up and start from scratch.

My idea? Hire a handful of WWE/TNA/ROH rejects who were let go and/or never really given their true chance to shine. The ideal candidate for something like this (In my mind) is Shelton Benjamin.

You have Shelton Benjamin run in at the end of a PPV, wearing a mask so that you don't know who he is. He decimates whatever pathetic old timer is in the ring and you never hear from that person again. This goes on for a couple of weeks. He takes out Flair, the next week someone else wearing a mask takes out Hogan, the next week someone else takes out Bischoff.

This goes on for a couple weeks and, eventually, you reveal them all under the guise of a new faction called something along the lines of "The Forgotten". They talk about how they have legitimate talent, legitimate abilities and they were never given their proper chance because of guys like Hogan and Flair refusing to let go.

Give it a big build of these guys (Hell, throw Styles in the mix since he doesn't get his proper respect), build it up as an Invasion-type angle and have them win.

That faction slowly takes over all the power positions in the company and gives rise to a new crop of superstars who fans don't know but would be intrigued to know. In the meantime, you put a special emphasis on the current generation of TNA-built stars and pay special attention to the Knockouts and X-Divisions.

Give it six months and you've reinvented your company.

Or, you know, you can just have Jeff Hardy shit all over your fans instead.

Whatever works.

 

You can defintely see Bischoff tell Hardy this when he comes out:

 

To add onto that, do you think Sting is regretting going back to TNA and passing on any offer WWE may have had in front of him?

At his age (and after all he's accomplished), I'd rather go out with the promotion that's on top, even if that means a reduced role, than continue to deal with this B.S.

 

Sting may never have been offered anything, though. Everyone got excited about the prospect of Sting being the man behind the 2-21-11 promos, but I don't think the two ever got past feeling-out discussions.

Of course, if McMahon were to offer above asking price now to have Sting do the Hall of Fame and a WCW Legends match with Kevin Nash at WM, that would be a deliciously trolltastic move.