Professional wrestling thread

Ron Killings and Konnan quit TNA before tonight's TV tapings to work in AAA (the Mexican wrestling group, not the guys who do TripTiks ... I think). Killings was an important part of early TNA, but they've done nothing with him since breaking up 3 Live Kru. Konnan leaving greatly hurts LAX's chances of getting over, though at this point that's probably not even an issue anyway. What had been the hottest heel act of the last year, or at least on a short list with Edge, has been diminished with losses and subsequent moves down the card, to the point that they lost to a makeshift team (Senshi and Rhyno) at the last PPV.

 

Killings should go to ECW and hang with Burke and CorVon, but didn't Cena and Killings get into some kind of real argument at an airport or something recently?

As for the Benoit-Punk match, I hope it is given a chance to be something special. It's the only title that will definitely crown a new champion on the PPV. This being WWECW, I'm not banking on it completely, in fact, I think Burke and CorVon will do run-ins during the match to get back at both contenders for the wins on Tuesday.

 

It's amazing how the-WWE-power-that-be can piss money down the drain. When RVD debuted during the Invasion angle, he was SO over. The fans were behind him. They wanted him the cocky, ECW RVD to win the strap. He was guaranteed money. So, they jobbed him out the main eventers. Makes all the sense in the world.

Punk was so over when he debuted. The Hammerstein Ballroom crowd was chanting his name in his first match. The Philly crowd popped huge when he was introduced at Summerslam. There was guaranteed money for the undefeated Punk in feuds with RVD, Sandman, Tommy Dreamer. And they jobbed him out to Bob Holly. Mind boggling.

 

Punk made the mistake of being over without the WWE machine behind him. He must fail!

 

Samoa Joe wins X Division title, but then he had to in order to help Jay Lethal hopefully drop the STUPID Savage ripoff gimmick. Lethal, by the way, won the X Division title on TNA's PPV on Sunday, but drops it two days later without getting pinned (Sabin was in the three-way match on Impact tonight and was pinned by Joe).

Victory Road main event -- All TNA champs are in one match (trying to one up the WWE's night of champions concept) Team 3-D, Angle and now Joe are the title holders right now.

Next week is Angle vs. Cage vs. Rhino with the winner going into the main event on July 15. I guess Team 3-D will have a match the following week.

The concept of the PPV match is if Angle pins Devon, he wins the tag titles and can chose a partner. If Devon pins Angle, Devon would be the TNA champ, etc.

Looks like they're also building an undercard involving Cage vs. Chris Harris and Abyss vs. Jim Mitchell's new guy (supposed to be someone from Wrestling Society X). Not sure what Sting will be doing yet or Daniels, or Styles but there's still time. Looks like they also want to break out Frankie Kazarian from the horrible Serotonin angle, but he'll first have to battle Raven, a guy who should just manage and stay out of the ring. Great on the mic, but awful in the ring.

 

I don't dislike Black Machismo as a character. Jay Lethal sounds and acts enough like him to make the illusion passable, what with his being black and all. I don't like how Nash suddenly dumps him and Sonjay Dutt for Shelley and Sabin, when he abruptly dumped Shelley and the suspended Austin Starr for Dutt and Lethal in the first place.

The "all titles in the same match" match sucks. Like anyone thinks Bubba Brother Ray or D-Von will win.

They've majorly fucked up Abyss's coming back. His return should have been a big deal, and he should have beaten the fuck out of Cage in his first match. Instead, he went 50-50 with him and the crowd didn't care at all. The guy from Wrestling Society X is Ricky Banderas, who beat Vampiro for the WSX title. He got the show thrown off the air for a week (possibly setting the stage for its permanent departure) when he threw a fireball at Vampiro and the network kvetched.

The Frankie Kazarian/Raven angle underlines what's wrong with TNA right now. The "Raven underling rebels against his master" angle is old had. Stevie Richards played that role, Billy Kidman played that role, probably at least six others have done it. So in theory, even if all they did was rehash one of those storylines, it'd at least be coherent and interesting. But Raven and Serotonin have been so marginalized from the word go that a breakup angle would be about as compelling as Eugene and Jim Duggan's. Too bad they had to pull Johnny Devine from a decent setup as the junior member of Papparazi Productions to be one of the Grand Slam of Fail.

 

Grand Slam of Fail -- sounds like a new TNA match concept.

Good points on the other stuff. I knew it was Banderas, but I thought I'd keep a little suspense for anyone else on this thread. No biggie.

 

Sorry. Didn't think about it that way. I know Meltzer has said it was Banderas. Wasn't he a WCW jobber once upon a time?

One other issue: they don't have many likable stars. Angle has apparently turned heel. So have Styles and Cage and Daniels. Joe gets cheered but can't really be considered a face, at least in the traditional sense. Rhino became the latest in a long line of good guys who goe berzerk when he loses too much. Abyss in theory is a sympathetic character, but it's not coming off like that at all. All this heeldom makes no sense except ... oh right, Jeff Jarrett's a face now, isn't he. Suddenly everything clicks into place. The only main event name he's not likely to face is Sting, and they already had their feud.

 

What I wonder for TNA is what tag team will face the Dudleys in their "qualifying match"

Bashams? VKM? LAX (w/out Konnan now who quit this week)? the Road Steiners (ugh)? A thrown together Tomko/Styles (double ugh). Storm and Roode look like they could be OK, but it's still a thrown together team.

Borash also mentioned the dreaded "TNA is in negotiations with a top star" bit for their mobile service. I have to think it is Sabu and I don't think it will be RVD.

 

That Victory Road main event is beyond awful. At this rate, TNA won't last another 5 years...

Their in-ring product is usually very solid, especially when there are no ridiculous gimmicks involved. The booking on the other hand is laughable and makes the WWE crew (who are not perfect by no means but know what they are doing) look like geniuses. I mean how many faces-heel turns can one company have?

 

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I'm going to a TNA house show on Sunday. First time they've come to my neck of the woods as far as i know (NH). WWE usually comes to this venue once a summer (hampton beach casino ballroom, about 10 minutes from cena's home) but i guess they are being replaced, at least this year, by TNA.

main event is angle versus christian.