Professional wrestling thread

Cornette has legit heat with Russo too, but that didn't stop them from bringing him in. Honestly, if I had to choose between Heyman and Cornette, considering all they're doing with Cornette is making him an inept authority figure, I'd go with Heyman in a heartbeat. Cornette should go back to being a loudmouth manager of a good tag team that could use the help on the mic -- like the Motor City Machine Gunns (wasn't Kevin Nash their manager? are they heel or face? does anyone know what anyone is in TNA anymore?)

 

I'd like to see TNA be completely reset when the two-hour show starts. It's a real chance to explain the personalities on the show. If they do that well, then I can also see them being able to maintain the taping schedule they've already got in place.

 

This is another Russo fingerprint.

But my understanding is Russo is a "creative consultant" with Mantell doing the bulk of the booking.

And as big of a fan as I am of Double J, I agree he should really only be used to put people over now. I think that's precisely what he wants to do, judging by how he put over Robert Roode and gave a rub to Eric Young during his brief comeback before the death of his wife.

 

Friend who got a copy of this week's Torch said it could be some time before JJ returns to the ring. Between helping his kids cope with the loss of their mom and the backstage stuff, he hasn't shown any interest in wrestling. And speaking of TNA, Kurt Angle was not happy with the way Jay Lethal got booked after he put him over, having him get thrown around by Samoa Joe later in the PPV as though he were a jobber and then *SPOILER* losing a non-title match to Christopher Daniels. Angle fought to put him over clean -- bookers wanted interference to be the cause of the win.

Also, in an App St.-level upset, apparently Pacman Jones is getting along pretty well in the backstage. No entourage, asks a lot of questions, seems happy to be there.

 

Good for Pacman, but to have a guy win a tag title without wrestling (yeah, I know the Titans have the agreement that he can't wrestle and risk injury) is another Russo-esque move. What's next, Don West wins a title? Oops.

 

I think that's an excellent idea. As people have said, it's nearly impossible to track the heels and faces in the company.

 

Resets sound good in theory, but has it ever worked? WCW did it to mark Russo's return and was looking to do it again with a new owner before it got shut down. It was pretty absymal as I recall.

What they need is a reset of the booking committee. Get Dutch out of there yesterday; keep Russo around as an idea guy because he HAS had some decent ones before, he just needs to be tempered. Heyman running the show on the surface seems ideal, but I keep waiting for another 1997 era ECW, and it's not going to happen.

Two hours should (emphasis on should) give them more time to develop characters and not try to zip through everything to get it to fit. Maybe react to some big beatdown or turn instead of jumping to the next thing.

 

Tim Dahlberg has a pretty good column on concussions and rasslin'. He talked to Lance Storm for it. I read it on the wire earlier, not sure if it's out on sites yet.

 

Saw it. Lance (Evers) Storm is pretty good when it comes to straight shooting on the biz.

 

Fixed.

 

ESPN has a great article about Lex Luger and the abuse of drugs in wrestling:

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=3016179

EDIT:

And another about Johnny Grunge

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=3014744

 

I hope AP will do a story when the next Cauliflower Alley Club has their annual party in Las Vegas. They can talk with the old-timers about the last generation of great pro wrestling.