Rasslin'

[Colossal Spoons]

God, the last time Benoit was a heel was when he, Malenko, Guerrero, and Saturn first came to WWF right?

 

[TheVileOne]

Wrong.

He came back from his 1 year neck injury as a heel. He pretty much stayed heel up until around Survivor Series 2002. Pretty much after that he was a face. He and Angle started as a heel tag team, and Benoit just kind of grew into face out of that.

He's stayed as a face pretty consistently for over 4 years though.

 

[nite-owl]

http://wrestling.insidepulse.com/ar...ormer-world-champion--star-heel-quit-tna.html

WrestlingObserver.com and PWTorch.com have reported that Ron "The Truth" Killings and Konnan have "quit TNA" before today's TNA tapings.

According to the Torch, Konnan was upset that TNA didn't support his health problems to the capacity he had hoped and Killings was upset about "his pay and status." Rumors about Konnan's quitting were swirling prior to Sunday's Slammiversary PPV, and we have reported several times in the past that Killings had been unhappy going back to the break-up of 3LK.

Killings and Konnan will reportedly work for AAA in Mexico.

Hopefully Aries can escape the clutches of TNA soon.

 

[The Sage]

Wrong.

He came back from his 1 year neck injury as a heel. He pretty much stayed heel up until around Survivor Series 2005. Pretty much after that he was a face. He and Angle started as a heel tag team, and Benoit just kind of grew into face out of that.

He's stayed as a face pretty consistently for over 4 years though.

Survivor Series 2002, my friend, during the God's Team stuff with Angle. Then they started building towards Angle/Benoit at the Rumble in 2003, effectively turning him face and getting him really over.

 

[Max J Power]

I want Benoit to win the ECW title at Vengeance, but I eventually want him to lose it to Punk and put him over. In a 20-minute submission match. One of them would probably have to be a heel, but I can't decide whether I would prefer bully Benoit or "Straight Edge means I'm better than you" CM Punk. Either way, it could be a fantastic feud.

As for the TNA X-Division Title situation:

Spoiler

I think it's crap that after building up Lethal for a couple months, he's going to lose the title after having it for five days. Why do that to the guy? Why move Joe out of the main title scene? TNA's booking confounds me sometimes.

 

[TheVileOne]

Oops, yeah 02 is what I meant not 05, little typo there.

 

[DX]

I thought we were gonna have a fatal 4 way for the ECW title at Vengeance.


Not that I have a problem with Benoit vs Punk I just thought it would be cool to see Burke and Cor Von in the match too.

 

[PyroChamber]

Whoa...

There are rumblings in WWE that Kristal may be the next diva to appear in Playboy. I don't even need to comment.

Source: F4Wonline.com

 

[Hunter Rider]

Benoit/Punk at Vengeance? Best match on the card so far.

i agree although i think MVP/flair will be great as well

Krital in playboy is cool although there are others i'd prefer

 

[Hunter Rider]

I'm pleased for you guys going to Vengeance that you got Punk/Benoit,i think it's a little soon but hopefully it will turn into a series like Punk/Joe

 

[Prognosticator]

I don't understand the Cena Superman comparsions. I mean at least Superman put over Batman and Doomsday. Cena's more like Spawn pushed down our throughts to be the best thing ever.

Now THAT's clever! LOL man!! LOL

 

[Hunter Rider]

Vince McMahon had ordered that Chris Masters be buried, but he changed his tune on him when he started to regain his muscle mass. Unfortunately for him, he's been typecast on Raw ever since last fall when DX made him look like a fool in a backstage segment by making fun of his decreased size He desperately needed a change, and that's why he was moved to SmackDown, to get a fresh start. The move to SmackDown reunites him JBL, who often harassed him on overseas tours and made him look bad in front of his peers. Regarding the past relationship between the two, one top star said, "I've never seen a guy so big and strong back down and do absolutely nothing and just let a guy bully him..."

 

[Hunter Rider]

Source - CNBC.com

Darren Rovell a reporter for CNBC called WWE headquarters yesterday and asked them whether they were irresponsible in issuing a news release that “Mr. McMahon” was “presumed dead” after his limo was blown up last Monday.

WWE released the following statement to Mr. Rovell:
To date, World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. has not received a single inquiry from a shareholder regarding the alleged demise of “Mr. McMahon.”

It is well known to our shareholders and our viewers that “Mr. McMahon” is a character portrayed by Vincent Kennedy McMahon, the founder and Chairman of World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc.

As far as speculation as to who may have committed this heinous act against “Mr. McMahon,” the WWE has not ruled out any suspects, including CNBC sports business reporter Darren Rovell. The WWE would like to thank CNBC for its concern over the “Mr. McMahon” mystery and we would like to remind your viewers to continue to tune into WWE’s Monday Night RAW, cable’s top rated program on USA Network (a division of NBCU), to keep abreast of the latest developments in this ongoing situation.

WWE clearly admits that Vince’s “death” is a storyline and that there is a big difference between Mr. McMahon the character and Vincent Kennedy McMahon the found and Chairman of WWE.

 

[LastSunrise1981]

Source - CNBC.com

Darren Rovell a reporter for CNBC called WWE headquarters yesterday and asked them whether they were irresponsible in issuing a news release that “Mr. McMahon” was “presumed dead” after his limo was blown up last Monday.

WWE released the following statement to Mr. Rovell:
To date, World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. has not received a single inquiry from a shareholder regarding the alleged demise of “Mr. McMahon.”

It is well known to our shareholders and our viewers that “Mr. McMahon” is a character portrayed by Vincent Kennedy McMahon, the founder and Chairman of World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc.

As far as speculation as to who may have committed this heinous act against “Mr. McMahon,” the WWE has not ruled out any suspects, including CNBC sports business reporter Darren Rovell. The WWE would like to thank CNBC for its concern over the “Mr. McMahon” mystery and we would like to remind your viewers to continue to tune into WWE’s Monday Night RAW, cable’s top rated program on USA Network (a division of NBCU), to keep abreast of the latest developments in this ongoing situation.

WWE clearly admits that Vince’s “death” is a storyline and that there is a big difference between Mr. McMahon the character and Vincent Kennedy McMahon the found and Chairman of WWE.

Oh for the love of God.

Does it still make it right or good? It's still in bad taste and makes a mockery out of Owen, Eddie, and Sherri's death.

 

[Hunter Rider]

Eric Bischoff Shoots Hard On TNA Wrestling


06/20/2007 by Ryan Clark

Eric said on the World Wrestling Insanity radio show that he gets many questions on his website about TNA. Many fans want to know if they're the next WCW or if he'll ever go to work for them. Here is what he had to say:

"They have not done anything yet and I don’t even know any of those people except maybe Jeff Jarrett and a handful of talent working there. I don't know anyone behind the (scenes). I don't know Dixie Carter. If she showed up in my driveway, I wouldn't recognize her. I don't know anyone over there. I don't know who's doing what. I really don't care. So it's nothing personal here. I'd like to see them succeed…But the truth is, from what I've seen of their product, no one there really gets it. They're a small independent company that's been getting a 1.0 rating for the last five years. ..They keep trying to pull rabbits out of their hat with talent. 'Oh we're gonna bring in Sting and that's gonna turn the business around! ' Well, they brought in Sting, who's obviously a great talent, and guess what? Nothing happened. And then 'We're gonna bring in Christian Cage. It's a big surprise. He's hot in WWE and we got him and it's gonna turn things around.' Guess what? Nothing happened. Then 'We're gonna bring in Kurt Angle and he's the real deal. Things are gonna turn around!' Guess what? Nothing happened. Nothing's ever gonna happen until they get it."

 

[LastSunrise1981]

Eric Bischoff Shoots Hard On TNA Wrestling


06/20/2007 by Ryan Clark

Eric said on the World Wrestling Insanity radio show that he gets many questions on his website about TNA. Many fans want to know if they're the next WCW or if he'll ever go to work for them. Here is what he had to say:

"They have not done anything yet and I don’t even know any of those people except maybe Jeff Jarrett and a handful of talent working there. I don't know anyone behind the (scenes). I don't know Dixie Carter. If she showed up in my driveway, I wouldn't recognize her. I don't know anyone over there. I don't know who's doing what. I really don't care. So it's nothing personal here. I'd like to see them succeed…But the truth is, from what I've seen of their product, no one there really gets it. They're a small independent company that's been getting a 1.0 rating for the last five years. ..They keep trying to pull rabbits out of their hat with talent. 'Oh we're gonna bring in Sting and that's gonna turn the business around! ' Well, they brought in Sting, who's obviously a great talent, and guess what? Nothing happened. And then 'We're gonna bring in Christian Cage. It's a big surprise. He's hot in WWE and we got him and it's gonna turn things around.' Guess what? Nothing happened. Then 'We're gonna bring in Kurt Angle and he's the real deal. Things are gonna turn around!' Guess what? Nothing happened. Nothing's ever gonna happen until they get it."

Now, I do agree with Eric on that. TNA hasn't done anything worthwhile with their product and it shows with the television ratings and the PPV's. In order to compete with the WWE and establish themselves as a legitimate contender, they need to get rid of Russo, hire a writer who understands wrestling and talent, get rid of Jeff Jarrett, and concentrate on their own product rather than trying to rip into the WWE.

They have great talent and can be successful if they were smart. As much as I hate Vince, he's thinking to himself why should he improve his product? The next "competition" isn't doing anything worth a damn.

 

[The Sage]

i agree although i think MVP/flair will be great as well

Krital in playboy is cool although there are others i'd prefer

Kristal's in playboy?

 

[The Sage]

http://wrestling.insidepulse.com/ar...gate-referee-policy-wrestlemania-24-news.html

Dave Meltzer has more on the limo explosion angle in the latest issue of the Wrestling Observer. It seems that it was indeed a direct response to Bonnie Hammer of the USA Network pressuring WWE into returning to the soap opera and shock tactics that proved successful in the Attitude years. The idea of killing the Mr McMahon character was first pitched a year ago but not taken seriously at the time. The decision to actually go ahead with it was made only about four weeks before it happened. It was, however, in February 2005 that the idea of someone being killed-off in a limo explosion was first pitched. David Lagana came up with the storyline, which would have had Carlito using underworld connections to make Teddy Long's life miserable. At the time Carlito had gotten his friend Jesus to stab John Cena (who needed time off to film The Marine). He would have gotten someone to put a bomb in Teddy's limo, which would have gone off as Teddy opened the door at the end of Smackdown. Brian Gerwitz said the storyline was too far-fetched, Stephanie McMahon agreed and the idea was nixed before it ever reached Vince. Of course, Gerwitz is now head writer on Raw and all three of them went along with it.

More news on the WWE's referee policy. It seems that any referees who violate the new policy of officiating matches as though they were real get fined. Fines have already been given in a couple of instances for not doing consistent counts and for allowing a heel tag team to get away with too much.

WWE was planning to go for John Cena vs either Triple H or Batista and The Undertaker vs Edge as the two top matches at WrestleMania 24. With the recent injury scares, draft lottery and Vince craziness, they are no longer talking about any specific matches for the show.

Credit: Wrestling Observer Newsletter, 18th June 2007 (click here for subscription information)

 

[The Sage]

More news, and quite possibly some of the most disrespectful ever.

http://www.pwpix.net/headlines/184373266.php

Posted by PWPIX on 06/20/2007

source: www.f4wonline.com

There was very serious talk Friday evening about ending the Vince McMahon murder mystery angle once Sherri Martel died. In the end, it wasn't done, but there were some people lobbying for the angle to come to a quick conclusion.

Over the weekend, the decision was made to go full-bore with Sherri death coverage and tributes on the company website, and keep the McMahon angle strong on television. Come Monday, WWE television producer Kevin Dunn made the decision to not have her passing mentioned on Raw. His reasoning behind this is because he thought the reality of Sherri's death would disconnect fans from the storyline of Vince McMahon's death. A lot of people were lobbying all day for him to change his decision. In a very last-minute decision, a compromise was made to put up a graphic an hour and 20 minutes into the show, just prior to the diva's match. A number of road agents who were very close to her lobbied hard all afternoon and finally managed to get it done. Michael Hayes spearheaded the movement, and since he has the most power of any of the agents these days (and is also the head Smackdown writer), it got done.

Another person who didn't want WWE to mention Martel's death on Monday night was Head Raw writer Brian Gewirtz. He fought hard for it to not happen, but in the end he lost out.

 

[Donnie Darko]

Eric Bischoff Shoots Hard On TNA Wrestling


06/20/2007 by Ryan Clark

Eric said on the World Wrestling Insanity radio show that he gets many questions on his website about TNA. Many fans want to know if they're the next WCW or if he'll ever go to work for them. Here is what he had to say:

"They have not done anything yet and I don’t even know any of those people except maybe Jeff Jarrett and a handful of talent working there. I don't know anyone behind the (scenes). I don't know Dixie Carter. If she showed up in my driveway, I wouldn't recognize her. I don't know anyone over there. I don't know who's doing what. I really don't care. So it's nothing personal here. I'd like to see them succeed…But the truth is, from what I've seen of their product, no one there really gets it. They're a small independent company that's been getting a 1.0 rating for the last five years. ..They keep trying to pull rabbits out of their hat with talent. 'Oh we're gonna bring in Sting and that's gonna turn the business around! ' Well, they brought in Sting, who's obviously a great talent, and guess what? Nothing happened. And then 'We're gonna bring in Christian Cage. It's a big surprise. He's hot in WWE and we got him and it's gonna turn things around.' Guess what? Nothing happened. Then 'We're gonna bring in Kurt Angle and he's the real deal. Things are gonna turn around!' Guess what? Nothing happened. Nothing's ever gonna happen until they get it."

Eric is right. TNA needs to get off WWE/ECW's nuts and come up with their own product. Instead of relying on bringing in talent from WWE/WCW fame, they really needed to concentrate on making their own stars household names. Samoa Joe, AJ Styles, LAX, the X-Division, etc. should be their top priorities, not Sting, Angle, Steiner, etc. Christian Cage was a great addition and could have mixed really well with TNA-grown talent. Instead, they concentrate so much on guys like Sting, who nobody cares about anymore.

 

[LastSunrise1981]

Eric is right. TNA needs to get off WWE/ECW's nuts and come up with their own product. Instead of relying on bringing in talent from WWE/WCW fame, they really needed to concentrate on making their own stars household names. Samoa Joe, AJ Styles, LAX, the X-Division, etc. should be their top priorities, not Sting, Angle, Steiner, etc. Christian Cage was a great addition and could have mixed really well with TNA-grown talent. Instead, they concentrate so much on guys like Sting, who nobody cares about anymore.

Exactly. If TNA continues going the way they've been going for a while they'll end up like WCW and ECW. I want TNA to succeed, hell, just for competition and a revival of Monday Night Wars I'm sure others want it to succeed.

The signings of Angle, Sting, Russo, and Steiner really brought the product down in my opinion. Cage was a great addition and he could've brought something new, exciting, and original to the fold.

 

[LastSunrise1981]

More news, and quite possibly some of the most disrespectful ever.

http://www.pwpix.net/headlines/184373266.php

Posted by PWPIX on 06/20/2007

source: www.f4wonline.com

There was very serious talk Friday evening about ending the Vince McMahon murder mystery angle once Sherri Martel died. In the end, it wasn't done, but there were some people lobbying for the angle to come to a quick conclusion.

Over the weekend, the decision was made to go full-bore with Sherri death coverage and tributes on the company website, and keep the McMahon angle strong on television. Come Monday, WWE television producer Kevin Dunn made the decision to not have her passing mentioned on Raw. His reasoning behind this is because he thought the reality of Sherri's death would disconnect fans from the storyline of Vince McMahon's death. A lot of people were lobbying all day for him to change his decision. In a very last-minute decision, a compromise was made to put up a graphic an hour and 20 minutes into the show, just prior to the diva's match. A number of road agents who were very close to her lobbied hard all afternoon and finally managed to get it done. Michael Hayes spearheaded the movement, and since he has the most power of any of the agents these days (and is also the head Smackdown writer), it got done.

Another person who didn't want WWE to mention Martel's death on Monday night was Head Raw writer Brian Gewirtz. He fought hard for it to not happen, but in the end he lost out.

It still wasn't enough though. She's a legend and a Hall of Famer, she should've had one of those montages at the beginning of the show.

 

[Fading]

Eric Bischoff Shoots Hard On TNA Wrestling


06/20/2007 by Ryan Clark

Eric said on the World Wrestling Insanity radio show that he gets many questions on his website about TNA. Many fans want to know if they're the next WCW or if he'll ever go to work for them. Here is what he had to say:

"They have not done anything yet and I don’t even know any of those people except maybe Jeff Jarrett and a handful of talent working there. I don't know anyone behind the (scenes). I don't know Dixie Carter. If she showed up in my driveway, I wouldn't recognize her. I don't know anyone over there. I don't know who's doing what. I really don't care. So it's nothing personal here. I'd like to see them succeed…But the truth is, from what I've seen of their product, no one there really gets it. They're a small independent company that's been getting a 1.0 rating for the last five years. ..They keep trying to pull rabbits out of their hat with talent. 'Oh we're gonna bring in Sting and that's gonna turn the business around! ' Well, they brought in Sting, who's obviously a great talent, and guess what? Nothing happened. And then 'We're gonna bring in Christian Cage. It's a big surprise. He's hot in WWE and we got him and it's gonna turn things around.' Guess what? Nothing happened. Then 'We're gonna bring in Kurt Angle and he's the real deal. Things are gonna turn around!' Guess what? Nothing happened. Nothing's ever gonna happen until they get it."

I agree that TNA's missing a big something, and gotten worse since going to a prime time hour. However the "I don't know anyone, no one knows who TNA's stars are" is just such a stupid line IMO. Just because someone doesn't know who a TNA wrestler is, doesn't mean they're nobodies. When I first started watching TNA I wanted to see what ppl thought about it and constantly this would pop up on forums, "Dude TNA sux!!! NO one knows who the wrestlers are. WWE rules and has the real stars!!!". The thought that some wrestling fans think mainstream non-wrestling fans know who Chris Masters is more than Joe is funny to me. WWE may be the king of mainstream wrestling, but outside of wrestling fans most ppl probably don't know any of the current roster and just the former wrestlers like the Hogan and Rocks. Samoa Joe, Fallen Angel, AJ and others all could be big in WWE if they were there, their just not as well known amongst WWE fans who refuse to watch TNA. Tho I have a bad feeling WWE would probably put face paint on Joe and play him off as a monster .

TNA having the same rating for so long is a bad sign, it means that they just have their core base and can't pick up anymore. Part of that is the WWE loyalist crowd who refuse to watch any other wrestling show that isn't produced by a Mcmahon. Part of that is that they put on a series of so-so shows, then one good one, then a bunch of mediocre ones. If they could be consistent and put on constant good shows their ratings might go up.

My other problem is with TNA itself. They have all these stars that want to be on the show every week and threaten to walk if they aren't. With an hour show you just can't get that many stars on. TNA just needs to go with 3 matches a show, and not cut any of them short, if some stars ***** about it then let them. I agree some stars are very misused, but you have to build up a solid show and following before you can go 2 hours which would give you more time to show all the stars who want on. Then theres the way that Russo seems to be digging into the WWE style stories lately. Many of their recent stories have reminded me of former WWF/WCW story lines, and they only started happening after Russo signed on, atleast the majority of them.

 

[Fading]

More news, and quite possibly some of the most disrespectful ever.

http://www.pwpix.net/headlines/184373266.php

Posted by PWPIX on 06/20/2007

source: www.f4wonline.com

There was very serious talk Friday evening about ending the Vince McMahon murder mystery angle once Sherri Martel died. In the end, it wasn't done, but there were some people lobbying for the angle to come to a quick conclusion.

Over the weekend, the decision was made to go full-bore with Sherri death coverage and tributes on the company website, and keep the McMahon angle strong on television. Come Monday, WWE television producer Kevin Dunn made the decision to not have her passing mentioned on Raw. His reasoning behind this is because he thought the reality of Sherri's death would disconnect fans from the storyline of Vince McMahon's death. A lot of people were lobbying all day for him to change his decision. In a very last-minute decision, a compromise was made to put up a graphic an hour and 20 minutes into the show, just prior to the diva's match. A number of road agents who were very close to her lobbied hard all afternoon and finally managed to get it done. Michael Hayes spearheaded the movement, and since he has the most power of any of the agents these days (and is also the head Smackdown writer), it got done.

Another person who didn't want WWE to mention Martel's death on Monday night was Head Raw writer Brian Gewirtz. He fought hard for it to not happen, but in the end he lost out.

It's sad that there were ppl pushing hard for her not to be mentioned because it would interfere with a story...

 

[Assassin]

I wonder if hooters still has WWE PPV?