Amazing Red defeats a debuting Brian Kendrick Sean Morley defeats Daniels. Crowd did NOT like this. Tara beats ODB two pinfalls to zero. Morgan and Hernandez defeats British Invasion for the Tag Titles. Desmond Wolfe defeats The Pope Beer Money defeats Waltman and Nash Abyss loses to Ken Anderson (replacing Bobby Lashley) via brass knuckles punch AJ Styles defeats Angle with help from Ric Flair. AJ Seems to have gone full heel.
Just an absolutely horrible show. The four sided ring got booed, Hogan and Bischoff gets booed, they turn AJ heel for no real reason.
That just fucking sucked. Good Lord help me now, why the fuck did I get dragged back to this, what a shit, underwhelming show, and the big suprise was that guy, fuck off. Hall shoulda wrestled, full bullshit, pissed about that and no fucking survey, main reason I watched was for a fucking survey. Actually I did find the main event decent, which was suprising cuz I was fucking mad and drunk by the time it got going. Overall im mad about football, this crap, and no fucking animation domination tonight. Call up Kanyon cuz this is fucking Gay
Four-sided ring?! Someone joked that this was gonna happen with the Hogan invasion, I felt in my heart of hearts that the idea was not so unbelievable.
To quote Gob Bluth on this for a sec......."COME ON!!"
Quick correction, Stagger -- Anderson beat Abyss after the Brass Knux punch.
I wouldn't call the show "horrible," but I would call it dull and depressing.
It felt like a PPV specifically designed to push away long-term fans -- starting with the four-sided ring. Eric Bischoff and Hulk Hogan started the show in said ring (complete with WCW's old elevated, parallel ramp) and mocked the crowd while the crowd chanted "we want six sides."
I get the feeling the wrestlers were told to slow things down in the ring, which sometimes worked but often made things feel like they were plodding and disjointed. Pope vs. Wolfe was disappointing for this reason -- still good, but more "interesting" than "exciting."
Sean Morley showed me nothing, running through all his old moves like he was back on Heat, except he actually won this time.
Angle vs. Styles was good, but not better than other stuff they've done. No bars were raised here in any way. Heel turn is silly -- it never works with AJ, anyway.
One interesting part was the substitutions -- was Scott Hall in "no condition to perform"? Did Bobby Lashley decide that he wanted to "save himself" for his MMA fights?
Other news: There's a new ring girl; So Cal Val is nowhere to be seen. Desmond Wolfe also has a new valet -- totally generic girl, not introduced in any way. Finally, Jeremy Borash has been pulled off TV "indefinitely" by Bischoff. ***EDIT: oh, no Don West as Red's manager, either.
So, yeah. Lousy show. If it was designed to push away the faithful -- and the crowd, totally dead for most of the night, sure seemed to feel that way -- well, I'm awfully tempted myself.
--K
(edited by Karlos the Jackal on 17.1.10 2045)
(edited by Karlos the Jackal on 17.1.10 2059) Last 5 movies seen: The Exiles *** - Moon ****1/2 - Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs ****1/2 - 9 *** - Fantastic Mr. Fox ****1/2
OOOPS, thanks for reminding me Karlos, yes Anderson won.
Yes the four sided ring made a return. And, according to some of the sheets, the ring set up was already done when the talent arrived, and none of them had been told previously that the change was being made.
Hogan and Bischof gets booed in the opening segment. Brooke gets booed. (Gee, maybe nobody wants to see your gigantor daughter brother! )
The "big surprise" was a guy who hurts people and can't stay healthy?
The only thing I see that they did that made sense was keep Hall out of the match in favor of Waltman.
This just looks like NOBODY knows WTF they are doing. It seems rushed like the old Nitro's used to be. Totally booked on the fly feel here.
Originally posted by thecubsfanAfter this show, ECW is never going to run the Hammerstein Ballroom again.
On one hand, it couldn't have happened to a nicer set of douchebags who are convinced they're part of the show; on the other hand, is there ANYBODY to root for in this conflict? Plus, I'm pretty sure they don't have another venue set up, so that should be awfully interesting. But not really.
DISCLAIMER: I didn't watch, don't plan to watch, but read the WO recap. I'm pretty sure I got the gestalt.
I guess who you REALLY have to feel sorry for are whoever was dumb enough to drop the cash on this PPV.
The biggest problem with TNA is that what they say they want to be directly contradicts the product they present. You can't trot out Hogan and Bischoff and have them talk about how it's supposed to be WRESTLING and not SPORTS ENTERTAINMENT and then immediately trot out Sean Morley doing his "Val Venis Lite" gimmick in the very next segment. They go out of their to talk about how stupid the idea of sports entertainment is and then they proceed to put on sports entertainment. It's insulting to the intelligence of any fan.
Tonight highlighted more than anything why they need to try and expand away from their usual crowd. No matter how bad some of their ideas are, they get made glaringly worse in front of a TNA crowd that's been trained for years to accept what was done in the past. Putting Sean Morley over Daniels is a colossally stupid idea, but it's comes across as even moreso when you put the idea in front of the usual TNA crowd that's followed Daniels for years and was trained to think of Morley as a WWE caricature.
The booking decisions were moronic, plain and simple. Let's have the guy who was just in a PPV main event a month ago job to said WWE caricature. Let's advertise Scott Hall and then sub him out for no particular reason. Let's advertise a major impact player debuting and then trot out a never-was like Ken Anderson. And let's set up that debut by taking a guy you were marketing as an MMA monster and having him get knocked unconscious in an inconsequential backstage skit. And let's take the guy who defines TNA and has been there since the very first show and turn him heel so that they have a top heel to feed to Hulk Hogan later down the line.
Just incredible.
"What'cha gonna do, Vince McMahon..."
Dude, Vince McMahon ain't watching and he doesn't really need to concern himself with a product this shoddy.
EDIT: Oh, and how'd that Jeff Hardy pickup turn out?
(edited by It's False on 18.1.10 0048)
MacGruber! Making life-saving inventions out of household materials! MacGruber! Getting in and out of ultra-sticky situations! MacGruber! The guy's a freakin' genius! MACGRUBER!
Good luck getting that theme song out of your head
I get the whole wanting to go back to a 4 sided ring, but lets wait until after a PPV to make the switch, not spring it on the guys the night of...I seem to remember WCW guys going to WWE and having to relearn the ring, because of the dimensions being different, so I can only imagine it's even more tricky when you change the shapes. I did see pictures, and it looks like they brought the WCW style catwalk back, the walkway that extends all the way to the ring apron.
Wow....Scott Hall replaced....NO one saw that coming.
TNA is revamping the "Vince bringing in the NWO to kill the company", and based on two weeks, looks like they are doing a way better job with it than Vince ever did...hey they did beat WWE at something!
I didnt watch, but did Kennedy..errrr Anderson at least keep the mic from the rafters gimmick?
AJ strutting down the ring with Flair was well worth the buy. I actually know people who hate TNA due to the six sided ring and to some degree the four sided ring made them look less bush league. The problem with the new ring is the lack of room on the outside. Someone is going to get a knee busted on the outside. They need to remove the ramp and move the ring back to give the wrestlers some extra room. The problem for the PPV was starting with Kendrick who at first was well received then got boring chants much like Anderson. Red did a good job with someone who I think is vastly overrated. Then following it up with Morley/Daniels, a match that the fans turned on. After that, the PPV went pretty while. It might have been smarter to do the Knockouts match first let it go 3 pins and cut Red/BK down a few minutes or just have Daniels destroy Morley instead of having a match.
As much as people bitch about all of Hogan's new people coming in, only two of them went over Anderson and Morley. Abyss has become the Kane of TNA who is a monster, but finds ways to lose. Anderson has a ton of charisma and is going to a throne in the side of the fans which needs to be done. It might not have been the greatest PPV to start the Hogan era, but considering the lack of advertising for it as well as the card itself, it was good.
I am fairly sure that TNA could put on a three-hour show consisting of nothing but Hulk Hogan kicking Chris Daniels in the nuts and you would still give it a thumbs-up.
@JeremyBorash: "Someday I'm gonna host a show where young, semi-exciting television talent is appreciated. Like NBC."
So... with having not seen the PPV, did they work the Borash thing into a storyline and it's a work, or is this a legitimate squabble with management? Borash is TNA's head cheerleader, if you lose his faith in the product, then you KNOW you're jading a lot of people.
I didn't say it was the greatest PPV of the year, but I didn't feel I wasted too much on it. I am a moments' guy. You give me a holy shit! moment or two and I am good. Also, AJ's turn was hinted since Flair came on, so its not out of nowhere.
I like Daniels, but next to Morley the size difference was obvious. The problem with TNA is that people like Ken Anderson, Morley and even Scott Hall look huge next to AJ, Daniels and others. I am not saying their talented as Daniels or AJ which they are obviously not, but its going to be a tough sell to new fans why they should care about TNA home grown when they look like dwarfs to the other wrestlers. Its a shitty argument and the same one Too Tall Jerry Lawler made about ECW, but he was partially right. TNA is a niche product like ECW and the only way to make it appeal to the masses. What the masses want is rarely what the internet fanboys want, but time will tell.
Originally posted by Packman V2I get the whole wanting to go back to a 4 sided ring, but lets wait until after a PPV to make the switch, not spring it on the guys the night of...
Actually, I would have preferred a set-up much like that one episode of Smackdown, where Brock Lesnar gave Big show a superplex, and the ring collapsed. Then, they would have a reason to switch to the four sided ring. Doing it now, without any real reasoning (Hulk's opinion nonwithstanding) is terrible.
TNA is now officially WCW. Wonder if they can buy the initials from Vince?
Oh, and the way JB is being treated is horseshit. Yes, it's probably an angle. BUT...he's very good at his job, he's exceptionally fan friendly, and he's been there since day one. He deserves better.
If this was the first time I ever read about TNA I would have thought it was one of the greatest wrestling companies of all time instead of some disjointed mess that totally changes course on a quarterly basis.
I'm not saying that this is the way to go. This feels like a desperate grab at some mainstream attention, it wouldn't totally shock me to see Leno back out there at some point.
TNA has always been a disaster, and if you didn't see Hogan coming in and this playing out like the WCW/WWE Invasion angle, well then you either haven't been paying attention or haven't been around long enough. If you really were a fan of the old TNA product now is the time to look away or buy some old DVDs, because that ship is sailing away awfully fast.
Originally posted by lotjx I like Daniels, but next to Morley the size difference was obvious. The problem with TNA is that people like Ken Anderson, Morley and even Scott Hall look huge next to AJ, Daniels and others.
If you replaced Anderson, Morley and Hall with The Rock, John Cena and Triple H then I would see how you have a point. But this isn't the Rock, Cena and Triple H. Anderson, Morley and Hall's sizes are irrelevant because they shouldn't even BE there.
Originally posted by Oliver
Originally posted by Packman V2I get the whole wanting to go back to a 4 sided ring, but lets wait until after a PPV to make the switch, not spring it on the guys the night of...
Actually, I would have preferred a set-up much like that one episode of Smackdown, where Brock Lesnar gave Big show a superplex, and the ring collapsed. Then, they would have a reason to switch to the four sided ring. Doing it now, without any real reasoning (Hulk's opinion nonwithstanding) is terrible.
One of the rumors going around the net was there was going to be an angle where they set the six-sided ring on fire for some reason. Would've been a nice visual but I'm sure whatever storyline they had to set it on fire was lame.
Originally posted by Spank ESo what's the over/under on the "Rise and Fall of TNA Wrestling" 3 disc set? 2014?
I think the "Rise" part actually has to occur at some point for them to make that DVD.
Originally posted by Packman V2 I didnt watch, but did Kennedy..errrr Anderson at least keep the mic from the rafters gimmick?
I assume Sting lowers it down for him now. Then if they start feuding Sting could cut the wire every time Kuh-Anderson tries to introduce himself. I can't wait.
Originally posted by CRZDISCLAIMER: I didn't watch, don't plan to watch, but read the WO recap. I'm pretty sure I got the gestalt.
I guess who you REALLY have to feel sorry for are whoever was dumb enough to drop the cash on this PPV.
Same disclaimer for me...
In the Great NBC Late Night Debacle, I feel bad for Conan's "people". Similarly, who I feel bad for here are the talent (& probably other staff) who left WWE with sincere hopes of having a job to go to, at least for a while.
Are we totally sure that Vince hasn't actually bought TNA, & the whole thing is a mega-version of the WCW-takeover angle?
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Well, it's a big pretty white plane with a red stripe, curtains at the windows, wheels, and it just looks like a big Tylenol! Steph P.S. Sorry, CRZ, but there were these "Airplane!" quotes here, and they just drew me in...