TNA’s Ranking System

It’s been hyped for a few weeks and finally on Monday, Eric Bischoff revealed that TNA’s new ranking system – likely used to determine championship contenders – would involve fan interaction.  I headed over to TNAWrestling.com and checked out what the hullabaloo was about and discovered a link to a ‘Create a Survey’ site.  On it, I could vote for 10 contenders:

1. Kurt Angle
2. Jeff Hardy
3. Mr. Anderson
4. D’Angelo Dinero
5. Sting
6. Jeff Jarrett
7. Abyss
8. Rob Terry
9. Desmond Wolfe
10. AJ Styles

The first thing that jumped out at me was the #1 pick on the ballot was Kurt Angle who just a week ago announced that he would be taking time off.  Therefore, what happens if the fans turn out in droves for him and he wins heavily?  The possibility has led me to vote for Angle about 5 times now, and I heartily recommend anyone reading this to do the same.

The second thing I noticed was that this is kind of a weak ranking system.  Mr. Anderson has been losing to Kurt Angle for a while now and Desmond Wolfe loses to pretty much everyone.  If this is a ‘ranking’ rather than ‘a popularity contest’ then why wouldn’t Matt Morgan, who’s been on quite a roll as of late, be included?  What about Kazarian or either member of Beer Money, Inc?  How about the recently returned Samoa Joe?

If there’s more to the ranking system than just this, we haven’t learned of it yet.  Much like Sting’s heel turn, I have a feeling it was announced long before TNA had any idea just what it was and therefore are making it up as they go along.  The rankings will likely be completely storyline based and I have a feeling the fan vote is going to be rigged to put whomever they want into the title picture, especially with Angle on the ballot.  And frankly, I can’t blame them if they do.  Fan votes, while often predictable, can occasionally throw a wrench into the gears.  My thought?  You’re going to get Jeff Hardy as the heavy winner (despite my Angle efforts) and we get a rather bland face vs. face program that leads to an exciting match we already saw on TV.

And as for the ranking system?  It’ll be gone by Slammiversary.

Seal The Deal – NXT 4/27/10

This weeks challenge was Seal The Deal. The objective: sell merchandise. So throughout the night each Rookie went out into the crowd and sold programs at $15 a pop. Due to the somewhat uneventfulness of this challenge I’ll hit the main points.

Justin Gabriel did pretty well by simply asking the fans for help, Daniel Bryan’s not a capitalist so he just gave them away for free, Heath Slater can’t hold money, Matt Striker scared Darren Young, Wade Barrett took the money and left, Skip Sheffield yelled a lot and Michael Tarver refused to participate…again.

The winner was David Otunga who was above manual labor being a celebrity and utilized to young fans as assistants. It not only proved smart but effective as he managed to sell $315 worth of merchandise. His prize: Main event next week against a Pro of his choosing.

Who’d he choose you ask? His own Pro R-Truth due to a backstage disagreement about his loss last week.

As for the rest of the show…

The War of the Rings: TNA Impact 4/26/10

Last week saw a change for TNA as Rob Van Dam defeated AJ Styles for the TNA championship.  So, of course, the show opened with Hulk Hogan bragging about it, bringing out Rob Van Dam then AJ Styles and Ric Flair.  Many ‘high’ references were made (because RVD smokes a lot of pot, get it?) and AJ demanded a rematch rather than the tag match he was forced into.  It was not in the cards, though, as there were bigger things at stake than RVD’s pathetic little TNA World Championship.  That’s right – both Ric Flair and Hulk Hogan’s (WWE) Hall of Fame rings were on the line when Abyss took on Ric Flair in the main event!

After numerous segments of Flair rambling and Abyss admitting that Hogan’s ring gave confidence rather than magical powers (biggest letdown EVER), the match got underway.  There was eye pokes, old men being flung from the top rope, a referee bump, and all the other classic Flair match bits you’ve come to know, love, get tired of, miss, then love again.  At the end, with the ref down, Flair nailed Abyss with brass knuckles in the face and ‘lower region’, woke the ref and got the win.  Finally, Team Flair gets a victory over Team Hogan.

No, just kidding.

When Flair had his hand raised, the knuckles fell to the mat and the outraged ref restarted the match.  A boot and Black Hole Slam later, and Flair had shown that he truly belongs amongst his followers…with his shoulders on the mat.  Hulk Hogan, of course, came out to close the show, removing Flair’s (WWE) ring and the two good guys stood triumphant, as only Hulk Hogan can on the final segment of an episode of Impact (no one else is allowed to).

As for the rest of the show…

Draft Day: Raw 4/26/10

It’s Draft night on Raw.  This post will cover what happened on Raw, but check out our post on the Draft for the full results.

Sheamus and Randy Orton argued over who is more deserving of getting a shot at the WWE title.  Sheamus’ argument was that he actually won at Extreme Rules.  Randy Orton’s argument was that he is, well, Randy Orton.  Sans guest host, the duty of naming a #1 contender for the WWE title was left to the champ, John Cena.  So, he decided the main event of the night would be Sheamus versus Randy Orton for the #1 contender spot.

Before the main event, Batista comes out and demands a rematch.  Sheamus and Orton come out and argue with him.  Cena comes out and makes the match a triple threat match.  The match is a fine triple threat match, lasting for around 15 minutes.  At the end, with Randy Orton having taken down Batista and Sheamus, Edge runs in and hits Orton with the Spear.  Batista throws an arm over Orton and gets the win.

2010 WWE Draft Results

John Morrison R-Truth Edge Chris Jericho The Great Khali Ranjin Singh Natalya Ezekiel Jackson Goldust Hart Dynasty	Kelly Kelly Big Show Kofi Kingston Christian Chavo Guerrero Cody Rhodes Chris Masters Hornswoggle Rosa Mendes MVP

The Champs Remain: WWE Extreme Rules 2010

The odds were stacked against both WWE Champion John Cena and World Heavyweight Champion Jack Swagger as they went into Extreme Rules, but both managed to escape the event with their titles, overcoming their challengers of Batista and Randy Orton.

For Swagger, he had been suffering loss after loss since upsetting Chris Jericho for his title, and it seemed almost a sure bet that Randy Orton would be leaving the event as the new World Heavyweight Champion.  A little too obvious, in fact.  Using the Extreme Rules stipulation to try to cement his victory, Randy Orton set up a chair in the middle of the ring, planning to RKO Swagger’s face directly through it.  Swagger was ready for the move, however, pushing Orton out of his move, landing him back first directly on the steel.  Swagger followed up with his gutwrench powerbomb and remained champion for another day.

Cena had defeated Batista at WrestleMania, but going into a Last Man Standing match certainly seemed to favor the more powerful Animal.  Both men took substantial abuse from the other, managing to rise from finishers and weapon attacks before the referee could make the ten count to end the match.  Finally, Cena decided to outsmart Batista, ramming him into the ringpost then using a roll of duct tape to tape Batista’s legs to the corner.  Unable to break the substantial amount of tape used, Batista could not answer the ten-count, and that was that.  The champ is still here.

As for the rest of the show…

Preview – WWE Extreme Rules

Ah, Extreme Rules – our last little bit of ECW legacy.  Originally titled ‘One Night Stand’, it served for two years as an ECW reunion show before the launch of the ECW brand.  Last year, it was retitled Extreme Rules and featured only one ECW match on it.  Now, it has taken the place of the traditional May PPV Backlash and is basically an excuse to use random ‘hard hitting’ gimmick matches.

Four of the seven matches are rematches from WrestleMania with stipulations tossed in to match the PPV’s title.  As is the case with all of these themed shows, each of the stipulations seem shoehorned in rather than a natural progression of the storyline.  But enough speculating on the lame PPV themes.  Let’s hit the card!

Extreme Rules Match for the World Heavyweight Championship
Jack Swagger vs. Randy Orton
With a PPV this summer named ‘Money in the Bank’ it was well speculated that Jack Swagger would be cashing his Money in the Bank case sooner than later, but it came as a pretty big shock to have him upset Chris Jericho for the World Heavyweight championship.  Randy Orton has also been a pretty big surprise, coming out of his feud against former Legacy stablemates Ted DiBiase and Cody Rhodes as a fan favorite, despite having left his character pretty much unchanged.

Since winning the title, Swagger has lost a whole lot.  Losing to Orton twice is what got us this match.  In fact, Swagger lost to Undertaker on Raw, then to John Morrison this past Friday on Smackdown – cleanly.  He’s obviously not meant to be taken seriously as a champion and therefore is almost certain to lose the belt to Randy Orton.  If not, then I have no idea what they’re doing with Swagger.  The whole thing seems like a huge waste.

One point worth mentioning is that with winning the World Championship, Swagger seems to have jumped brands from Raw to Smackdown.  This was not the case with Batista after winning the WWE Championship at Elimination Chamber.  theoretically, if both Swagger and Batista win, both world titles will be on Smackdown.  Likewise with Orton and John Cena.  If either of those happen, look for one of the champions to get moved on Monday’s draft.

WWE releases six superstars

It has been announced that six WWE superstars have been ‘future endeavored’: Slam Master J, Kung Fu Naki, Katie Lea Burchill and Jimmy Wang Yang should come as no surprise.  Mickie James and Shelton Benjamin?  Now that’s pretty shocking.

Slam Master J, Jimmy Wang Yang and Kung Fu Naki haven’t been used on TV in quite some time.  With no crusierweight division, there was very little they could do on whatever show they were on, especially since ECW ended.  Katie Lea seemed to have some chance once her “brother” Paul Burchill was released, but for whatever reason, WWE seemed never to have anything to do with her.

Now Shelton Benjamin and Mickie James were decent level performers.  Both had matches at WrestleMania.  This is quite a surprise.  Of course, there had been rumors going around that Charlie Haas was asking Shelton to not renew his contract (set to end sometime soon) and jump with him to TNA.  Mickie James has been stuck in an insulting feud with Michelle McCool and Layla in which she’s been called fat.  She finally got the victory in the feud, only to lose back to McCool two weeks later.  Perhaps that was the writing on the wall.

I expect to see Shelton in TNA (where he’ll be utterly wasted), and possibly Mickie as well.  Jimmy Wang Yang might end up in Ring of Honor.  As for the others?  Your guess is as good as mine.

EDIT: Mike Knox was also released.  Make that seven.

Lemonade out of Lemons: Raw 4/19/10

Triple H opened the show by explaining for those not in the know, that most of the Raw roster was stuck in Ireland due to the Icelandic volcano.  You know which I’m talking about.  So, Triple H talks about his upcoming match with Sheamus, and is eventually interrupted by CM Punk and his Straight Edge Society.  The go back and forth until the SES attacks Triple H.  They get the better of him, and are about to shave his head when Rey Mysterio comes out for the save.  Triple H and Rey hold Punk down and cut off a bit of his hair.  This leads to the main event of the night:  Triple H, Mysterio & Edge vs. CM Punk, Luke Gallows & Chris Jericho.

The match went off smoothly enough.  Triple H and Mysterio did most of the action for the faces, as Edge was “sporting” a limp from Smackdown.  There was a bit of a close call when Triple H backbody dropped Rey over the ropes and to the outside.  He threw Rey a bit too far, nearly over-shooting the SES.  In the end, Triple H picked up the pinfall over CM Punk after a combination of the 619 from Rey, and a Pedigree.

Also running through the show was the cast of the movie MacGruber.  MacGruber is an SNL skit that features Kristen Wiig and whoever it is that plays MacGruber.  I don’t know, I don’t watch SNL.  Koslov came out, and had Lawler read a prepared statement about wanting a challenge, mocking MacGruber, and the state of New Jersey.  MacGruber comes out and announces a handicap match between himself and R-Truth versus Koslov.  Unfortunately, R-Truth was blown up on the stage, leaving a smoking pair of shoes.

Backstage, MacGruber is trying to escape when Triple H spots him.  In another segment, Jericho (who is also in the movie) gives him some advice on how to deal with Koslov.  In the match itself, MacGruber tried Jericho’s advice and slapped Koslov.  Of course that backfired.  After a few headbutts to the chest, Ryan Phillipe came out, and announced that MacGruber did have a partner, Khaluber (The Great Khali, wink).  Khaluber made quick work of Koslov to pick up the win.

Rest of the show.

• Undertaker def. Jack Swagger by pinfall.  A decent match.  Sure, it would have been nice if Swagger had won, but losing a long match to the Undertaker does not diminish anyone.
• Drew McIntyre def. Matt Hardy by pinfall.  Decent enough match.  Nothing really to report.  These two have been going at it for a while on Smackdown.  It did offer an opportunity to plug next week’s draft.
• There were also taped interviews from Ireland with John Cena and Randy Orton

Closing Thoughts.

Nothing much to say here.  For having to plan this show at the last minute, it wasn’t bad.  I laughed longer than I should have at the thought of R-Truth getting blown up, and leaving his smoldering shoes.  There weren’t many matches, but what did happen lasted longer than matches have been on Raw.  Don’t feel like actually getting the time.  I didn’t have a problem with Khali coming back quickly from “time off” to make this appearance since it was an emergency deal.  The Draft is next week.

TNA looking at three well-known talents

Hitting the rumor mill again.  It’s being thrown about that TNA is interested in the services of Jim Ross, Paul Heyman and Tommy Dreamer.  Whether possible or not, I like the thought of all of these guys in TNA.

Jim Ross, it should go without saying, is simply the best play-by-play announcer in the business.  For whatever reason, the WWE has been trying to get him off of TV for years.  Anyone remember the Jerry Lawler/Mike Adamle commentary team?  With the help of a third case of Bell’s Palsy, WWE set their commentary teams without him, and it looks like if he resigns with the company it will be in an off-camera role.

TNA’s commentary has been a low point of the presentation.  Mike Tenay is an almanac of wrestling knowledge, but he’s lacking in play-by-play skills.  Taz lacks whatever discipline he had in the WWE.  Together, they do not add anything to the presentation, and often confuse parts of the show with their babbling.  A pro like Jim Ross would work well with either talent, though I wouldn’t advise a three-man team…but it might work.

If TNA could ditch Vince Russo as its head writer and bring in Paul Heyman, it might actually fix its biggest problem – horrid writing.  TNA will NEVER get better unless its writing improves – that is a simple fact.  I watched Paul Heyman come into OVW (when it was still WWE developmental) and make a weekly must-see program out of the show.  With TNA’s talent, the show could become much, much better.  But what would do to Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff?  Certainly, they would need their roles reduced to let the younger talent of TNA shine.  But what could they lose from it?  Hulk Hogan is certainly not the sure bet that TNA seemed to think he would be…brother.

Tommy Dreamer is a decent talent and quite popular with the fans.  He’s definitely good to have on the midcard, and apparently he’s not too bad to have backstage either.  He won’t be TNA champion, but he’d definitely work well besides the likes of Jeff Hardy and Rob Van Dam.  Compared to the likes of Scott Hall and Tomko, he wouldn’t be the worst worker they had.

So will any of the three of them sign with TNA?  Who knows?  But we can hope, my friends.  We can definitely hope.