Ziggler gets a Wrestling Thread...It's About Damn Time!!!

[Wheels]

Angelina Love just announced on her twitter that she has been granted her release by TNA

Wonder if WWE would consider signing her? The divas roster is in bad shape.

 

[Benstamania]

She's probably too old for Vince's taste.

 

[Spider Edge]

He should keep that look.

BTW welcome to The Wrestling Thread

Rey should be back soon, and Bourne suffered a serious ankle or foot injury I believe. His career could be over.

thanks.

sucks about Bourne, though.

 

[Anno_Domini]

The Peoples Elbow and the 5 Knuckle Shuffle are up there with "The Hogan Legdrop" with ridiculousness. I think every generation has to have one...

It'll go full circle, err...square, if the next "big guy" does something like a legdrop.

 

[TX85]

Better for Love to leave TNA since she likely wouldn't be used much any time soon anyway!

 

[NDX]

ROH: The Decline and Fall

by
Mark Madden

ROH came to Pittsburgh. I didn’t go. Most people didn’t. Attendance was estimated at 500. How that can be rated a success on any level, I’ve got no idea. But they’ll try. It’s nice to know Bruno Sammartino’s audience has finally died out.

ROH did a mini-angle in Pittsburgh involving Arena Football players. Free advice: Don’t mix bush-league genres. It’s like blending rotgut scotch with mud. Bad goes to worse.

Checked out ROH TV again. Crap production aside, it’s good. Episodic. Action-packed. Identifiable storylines. Subtle threads intermingled to make you think. Kevin Kelly excellent on PbP.

ROH has arrived as a legit third promotion. Thing is, you can’t be third. When was the last time a third promotion survived for any length of time? We tend to think ECW was around longer than it actually was because WWE absorbed it as a brand. But the Extreme version of ECW existed from 1994-2001. Not that long.

Not enough trickles down to No. 3. Casual fans and the mainstream media just never find out. No. 3 can fit into a marketable niche, but not a profitable niche. As good as ECW under Paul Heyman was, it went broke. Bankrupt. For a No. 3 promotion, there simply aren’t enough dollars to go around.

The word is that Jim Cornette sees the end coming, and is brooding because of it. Hey, no one knows better what the end looks like. Cornette knows that a small promotion can only exist so long without turning a corner. Then returns quickly diminish. You lose top talent, you get desperate, you compromise. Bad goes to worse. It happened in Smoky Mountain. It would have happened in OVW without WWE (now TNA) backing.

ROH has lost top talent. Right now, there’s little talent worth poaching. ROH does some dumb stuff - like involving local DJs in feuds for house-show purposes; the ‘70s are over! - but nothing crippling. There doesn’t seem to be a relationship with WWE or TNA, so there’s no temptation to bring in wrestlers from those companies to be “the real stars” on selected shows. Cornette damaged Smoky Mountain by going that route.

Right now ROH seems set to slowly peter out. Fade away. Never mind the product. Nothing about the business model suggests ROH is going in the right direction.

Note to ROH fans: I understand how much you love ROH. I appreciate the product, too. It’s relatively pure. It’s wrestling the way you like it. Wrestling the way it used to be. (Now where have I heard that before?) The loyalty of the fans is impressive.

But there just aren’t enough of you.

If/when ROH folds, does it damage Cornette’s legacy? He’s one of the best managers and talkers ever. He’s supposed to be this great wrestling mind. But whenever that great wrestling mind gets in charge of something, it goes belly-up. Cornette has long been stuck in a time warp, though several of his innovations in ROH have served the promotion well, like using graphics to educate fans about wrestlers and rules. That gives ROH more of an MMA/“real sports” feel than most fake wrestling.

Cornette needs ROH, that’s for sure. His behavior has made him totally unemployable by a big company. You can’t slap an employee or beat up a Burger King and expect to work for a major corporation. That’s what WWE & TNA are, major corporations – though Vince and Dixie certainly do their best to compromise that credibility behind the scenes. But owners can do what they want.

It would be a shame to see Cornette disappear into the indy scene, and I mean that sincerely. At this point in his life, he should be booking WWE, not scrambling for $50. But Cornette is one bankruptcy away from that happening.

With ROH in danger – and it is; anytime you draw a “crowd” of 500, your promotion is in danger – it’s time to look back through the annals of ROH and pick the company’s No. 1 wrestler ever.

You can make an argument for Samoa Joe. He was ROH’s longest-reigning champ, and his attitude and style gave ROH a different look, a nastiness, a perverse credibility. Nigel McGuinness and Bryan Danielson (bka Daniel Bryan) each had 38 title defenses. Their in-ring work was impeccable and Danielson, in particular, set a new standard. His reputation has been further burnished by what he’s done in WWE, tough turf for a guy his size. Same thing with CM Punk: His character development carried ROH, and his feud with Joe might be the company’s most memorable. Three words: FIVE-STAR MATCH. I still think Kevin Steen looks like a fan who won a contest, and he’ll never make the big time, but I include him out of respect to current ROH fans.

But my pick for ROH’s top wrestler of all-time is DAVEY RICHARDS. Richards, you see, knows when to get out.

Davey sees the end of days coming, so he’s looking for other work. He’s going to be a fireman, I’m told. Escaping a burning building, escaping a dying promotion/business: both heroic acts. If he’s not ROH’s best wrestler, he’s certainly its smartest.

http://www.wrestlezone.com/editorials/257187-roh-the-decline-and-fall

Can't argue with much of this. From personal experience, to what I've read, it seems about right. Just at the last show it felt like it was on its last legs. Doesn't feel it has the star power it's had in the past, indy wise.

I still think Kevin Steen looks like a fan who won a contest, and he’ll never make the big time...

 

[Hunter Rider]

Angelina Love just announced on her twitter that she has been granted her release by TNA

I can't see WWE going for her, she looks older than she is and isn't model pretty or unique.

Yeah, that was sick. Regal was really putting over Ambrose's toughness on commentary. I can't wait for Regal vs Ambrose 2, which will be on the last episode of FCW.

I loved Regal's commentary on that match, the way he talked about Ambrose is the kind of thing needed to embed these young guys in the mind of of the audience. Is the Regal vs Ambrose match going to be up later today?

 

[NDX]

Angelina Love just announced on her twitter that she has been granted her release by TNA

No loss there.

i need a new wrestling news site. 411mania is a bigger joke than smackdown after 2004 and rajah is constantly being hijacked

PW247.net

 

[TripleR]

One thing I'll give ROH that ECW didn't have is that their product is way more acceptable to people outside of their niche audience. What killed ECW was that it was way too extreme to ever really take off, a lot of the stuff they did was just unacceptable to anyone outside of their demographic. When it had the popularity to really take off, that held it back, and if they changed or got softer, it would have alienated the fans keeping it alive.

ROH can still grow and could become bigger than ECW was because it doesn't have that holding it back. It just has to find and develop more guys like Joe, Bryan, and Punk, and then lock them down instead of letting them get snatched up by the bigger companies.

 

[Wheels]

I loved Regal's commentary on that match, the way he talked about Ambrose is the kind of thing needed to embed these young guys in the mind of of the audience. Is the Regal vs Ambrose match going to be up later today?

No I thimk we have two more episodes before the final episode.

 

[Incrediblejeff]

The Peoples Elbow and the 5 Knuckle Shuffle are up there with "The Hogan Legdrop" with ridiculousness. I think every generation has to have one...

Not too fond of gimmick moves?

[YT]ar7vkKi6Obk[/YT]
[YT]o0x_oOa9WvE[/YT]
[YT]1GGwOxhkoP4[/YT]

Spoiler

Yea,Me neither.

 

[The Apocalypse]

The Bronco Buster was great.

 

[Wheels]

^At least some of those moves require effort, unlike the claw.

It's like "Awww **** it. I'm just gonna put my hand on my opponent's forehead, squeeze down a little bit, then let the opponent sell it."

 

[TX85]

Reading the preview for Raw and so Brock might actually&finally appear?I'd mark and even more since I'll be at the show..Although Vince will likely have him come off as even more of a p***y&a loser and even pedigreed!

I'm a Triple H mark But I want to see Brock F5 Trips&going ape sh** in the ring&ring side!

 

[chamber-music]

I hate the Cobra.

 

[Wheels]

FCW 7/1/12

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f31ouh7z4e4

 

[Metallo]

I hate when I find myself agreeing with Madden. He is 100% correct here.

It never gets recognized, but TNA has done something ECW never did and that was stay in business for 10 years and become profitable.

I don't agree with everything he says and I'm not sure ROH's almost out of gas but he makes some good points. They got a TV deal which is good but it doesn't seem to be making a huge difference. A lot of it depends on how much they are spending but they don't really seem to be growing but like any relatively new wrestling company today growth is slow.

ROH's big problem is the roster. Its the same problem every company has had when they were on the decline. They keep getting stripmined of their homegrown talent and can't make new stars fast enough. I don't even know who most of the top guys there now are.

Cornettes best use now would be paired up with another mind who thinks modern. He'd have to kiss some major a** to get back in WWE or TNA and you know he would hate being back in WWE.

As for TNA even Madden said that creatively WWE and TNA are about on the same level right now and he HATES TNA. Obviously TNA is doing some things right right now.

Angelina Love just announced on her twitter that she has been granted her release by TNA

So she asked? Guess she was tired of not being on tv. She's a good wrestler but it seems like she wasn't being used very much. Winter an a few others have the same problem right now. But Love was a mainstay for a long time. I guess they didn't see it as a big loss. They could have used her by feeding her to Tessmacher because they need as many experienced wrestlers they can to help her improve.

 

[Superark]

Credit www.PWInsider.com

-Rob Van Dam is currently auctioning off a singlet he wore in WWE featuring airbrushed artwork of a ball and chain at this link to help a friend pay off some of his medical bills from a fight with cancer.

-Tammy Sytch and Diamond Dallas Page are among those who WWE have reached out to in the last week about making appearances building to or for the 1000th Raw.

-RAW SPOILER FOR TONIGHT

Spoiler

Dallas Page is teasing on his Twitter account that he will be on Raw tonight. I heard from someone who told me that work at American Airlines and that Page was on flight 3355 that landed in Laredo earlier today.

 

[Superark]

credit www.PWInisder.com

NINE REASONS IMPACT WRESTLING HAS BECOME A SHOW EVERY TRUE WRESTLING FAN NEEDS TO WATCH
by Stuart Carapola @ 11:48 AM on 7/2/2012

I think a lot of people have this notion about TNA that it's a mismanaged hellhole that has repeatedly dropped the ball despite having every resource imaginable available to them. A lot of comparisons are made to WCW, which makes sense since many of the people who helped cause the demise of that company are in positions of power in TNA today. To be honest, those people weren't too far off the mark if that's how they looked at the first two years or so of the Hogan Era of TNA, because there are a lot of examples of them throwing away opportunity after opportunity for no other reason than apparent, sheer incompetence. I know this is how people feel, because I get a lot of email from folks who take TNA to task for every bad move they make, and then finish by telling me that this is why they don't watch TNA. While I appreciate the spirit of what they're saying, the part where they mention that they don't watch TNA anymore makes me think two things. First, saying that when you're talking about how bad the company is kind of shoots your argument in the foot for the same reason it would if you said you don't like a food you haven't tried. But the other thing is that TNA has actually been really good for a solid eight or nine months now. No, everything doesn't always click as well as they probably hoped it would when they wrote it, but I really look forward to doing the Impact Wrestling report every week, and that's not something I could have said a year ago. When I watch them now, I see a company that's working really hard to make itself something true wrestling fans want to watch, and I think they're largely succeeding at that.

In fact, I think there's so much good stuff happening in TNA right now that you're really doing yourself a disservice if you refuse to watch TNA because you believe they can't do anything right. If you're still not convinced, let me tell you some of the reasons I like watching and think you would too:

Impact Wrestling is now live every week: At least until the end of the summer, anyway. Though this may seem trivial to some, the fact is that a lot of people thought of Impact as second rate because it was taped instead of being aired live. Also, a lot of people would read spoilers and either feel like they didn't need to watch because they knew what was going to happen, or would pass judgment on the storylines without actually seeing how they play out live. Because of this, they're also now able to spring things on the fans that they simply wouldn't be able to do if the show were taped and everybody knew about the new wrestler or storyline twist that would air on Thursday night. This freedom is also key to the success of other areas, such as the fact that...

They're working hard to develop new ideas: Just in the last three months, we've been introduced to Open Fight Night, the Gut Check tryout system has been made a monthly segment on Open Fight Night, and now we've got a new rule where the X Division Champion can turn in their title for a shot at the World Title shot every year at Destination X. I'm a fan of all three of these, the Open Fight Night dynamic allows for a more impromptu feel to the show, the Gut Check takes the Tough Enough/NXT model and strips away all the bloat to constantly introduce us to new talent in a pure "yes or no" type of scenario, and the Destination X rule makes the X Division Title a much more important thing to have than when it was just the flippy dippy title. It can now serve as something equivalent to a Money In The Bank win, and make it something that young wrestlers chase all year long. This brings me to the next point...

Coherent, long term storylines: I think the best example of how well TNA has been booking long term storylines and sticking with them is the James Storm-Bobby Roode feud that looks to play out over the course of a full year. Here you have this team that's been together forever, but then Bobby Roode becomes so jealous that Storm won the TNA World Title after Roode couldn't, that Roode was willing to throw away their friendship and burn damn near every bridge he had just to be the champion. They spent six months building to Storm and Roode in a cage, but Storm costs himself the match because he's more worried about hurting Roode than beating him. He goes home to reconsider his life for a month or two, and now he comes back and appears headed to a final showdown with Roode at Bound For Glory. In the meantime, Roode has become the longest-reigning TNA World Champion in history and has fulfilled the destiny everyone expected of him from the beginning. The only thing he fears at this point is getting back into the ring with Storm, and he's doing everything he can to avoid that.

That's just one example of an angle that played out over the course of several months, others include Roode-Sting and Bully Ray-Abyss. On the flipside, we don't see any more nonsensical turns coming out of the blue, no more "Pope is trying to steal Devon's sons", and no more "we're going to push Doug Williams to the moon and then suddenly we don't see him on TV for five months", either. Not every storyline has hit on all cylinders, but they've stuck to their plans and it makes TNA a much easier show to follow.

The titles mean something: With WWE treating every title but the one around CM Punk's waist like an afterthought, TNA goes in the opposite direction by treating all of its titles with respect. Titles are supposed to be the reasons everyone is there, and everybody in the company from Bobby Roode on down to Robbie E is clear that the desire to become or stay a champion is what drives them. Bobby Roode was willing to leave James Storm for dead to win the title and will do anything to keep it, while everyone else will do anything to be the guy to take the title from him. The X Division Title just became a steppingstone to a World Title shot in addition to being the centerpiece of the division TNA identified itself by. Devon has been a World Tag Team Champion over 20 times, but he still takes defending the lowest ranking title in the company as seriously as anything. When Brooke Tessmacher won the Knockouts Title, she reacted like it meant more to her than anything in the world. Winning the TNA World Tag Team Title revitalized Samoa Joe and Brutus Magnus, and they quickly went from not even wanting to know each other to developing great chemistry and teamwork once they realized they had a real shot at winning the title. Even Eric Young was thrilled winning the Knockouts Tag Team Title with ODB.

You look up and down that roster, and you do not see one person who is there for any reason other than to be a champion. No Santino Marella showing up to act like a dumbass and do the Cobra, no Brodus Clay showing up to dance and have a good time, no Damien Sandow trying to save anyone's intellect, and no David Otunga being a pain in the ass lawyer. TNA has wrestlers trying to win enough matches to get title shots, so they can try and win those too and become a champion. In fact, people are willing to go to some great length to get that title shot, such as...

The Bound For Glory Series: This is one of the greatest things TNA has ever done, and I'm glad they brought it back to hopefully make it an annual tradition. Bound For Glory is TNA's biggest show of the year, so it makes sense that they wouldn't give just anyone a title shot there. In order to make sure the most deserving person gets to challenge for the TNA World Title at Bound For Glory, they set up a THREE MONTH LONG tournament that includes twelve top contenders. Every win and loss affects the participants' scores, and then the four men with the highest scores go to the September PPV to determine the Bound for Glory Series winner, and then the winner of that goes to Bound For Glory to MAYBE win the TNA World Title. In a company where titles are the goal, and the title shot at Bound For Glory the TNA equivalent of the main event of Wrestlemania, it makes sense that someone would want to win the Bound For Glory Series (a big deal in and of itself) just to get into the most important TNA match of the year.

Austin Aries: Anybody who has seen Aries working in ROH and elsewhere on the independents has known for a long time how good he is, but probably also doubted that he'd ever make it on a higher level because he's too small for WWE and hasn't had the best relationship with TNA in the past. Aries has proven all those doubters wrong in his most recent run in TNA, far exceeding the expectations many had of him. In one year, Aries has become the longest reigning X Division Champion in company history, defeating literally every other top star in the division. His success in the X Division led to him getting increasingly loud reactions from the crowd, prompting TNA to give him opportunities to move up the card and work programs with Bully Ray and Samoa Joe, two large brawlers who would test whether Aries could adapt to working with men of their style as opposed to smaller high flyers. He came through once again, and now will be main eventing Destination X by challenging Bobby Roode for the TNA World Title. He rarely has a bad match, and is such a complete package at this point in his career that there was no holding him back in a company without a glass ceiling. He's a great example of somebody who the company had no choice but to make into a star because the fans had spoken. If current trends are any indication, others will get a similar opportunity, because...

There's a renewed focus on pushing younger wrestlers: Just in the last year, we've seen Crimson, Zema Ion, Jesse Sorensen, Austin Aries, and Brooke Tessmacher come into the company and take advantage of opportunities to make names for themselves. The Gut Check has become a monthly event, and has led to Alex Silva and Taeler Hendrix getting full time deals with the company, with Joey Ryan presumably not far behind them. Now we have a tournament to crown a new X Division Champion at Destination X, which will give new wrestlers from the independents the very same platform to make a name for themselves that Aries took advantage of last year, and will also give former X Division stars the chance to prove that they still belong in the mix. No other company in North America is giving young, up-and-coming wrestlers the kinds of opportunities that TNA is, and that stands out even more when you consider that...

The middle-aged main eventers who wouldn't go away went away: With TNA earning a reputation for many years as somewhere that WWE castoffs and old WCW wrestlers come to die, note that Booker T, Kevin Nash, Ric Flair, and Scott Steiner have all left the company. Eric Bischoff has been banned from TV in storylines and doesn't seem likely to return anytime soon, Jeff Jarrett rarely appears on TV anymore, and while Rob Van Dam, Jeff Hardy, and Ken Anderson all float in and out of upper card storylines, none of them has been focused on as heavily as the homegrown TNA main eventers like Bobby Roode, James Storm, and AJ Styles. Team 3D are still around, but Bubba has worked his ass off to earn a main event singles run, while Devon has been put in a position as TV Champion to work with younger wrestlers on a weekly basis. Even Sting has been used more wisely since Bound For Glory, being presented as the first Commissioner/GM-type figure for as long as I can remember who wasn't sputteringly crooked, and then when he left that role to get back in the ring, it was to put the World Champion over. Oh, and there's one other guy I need to mention...

Hulk Hogan has finally grasped what his place is in today's wrestling business: We all had our doubts when he came in, especially when he had Eric Bischoff in tow. Sure enough, it didn't take long for Hogan to prove that those doubts were well founded, as TNA became a 100% retread of late-era WCW, complete with Hogan and Eric Bischoff as the stars of the show, taking upwards of a half hour of promo time on some episodes of Impact, with their nWo clone Immortal backing them up and all the homegrown stars who spent a decade building the company being either pushed to the back or released outright.

That all came to an end at Bound For Glory, and the company slowly started to rebuild itself with Hogan gone and Sting in an entirely new role. I'll be the first to admit that after months of Sting being the best GM the wrestling business had seen in years, I really thought that all the excellence TNA had accomplished in 2012 would be flushed down the toilet when Hogan was put back into power by Dixie Carter. Thankfully, not only have we not been subjected to the nonstop Hoganfests we got for two years after he first joined the company, but there are weeks you barely know he's there. Just this past week, Hogan spent a grand total of MAYBE three minutes on screen, all of which were in backstage promo segments that focused on other people. This is what Hogan should have been doing all along, and his willingness to finally step to the side and let the stars of today break through has helped the company immeasurably.

* * *

It's funny how after the many resets, new eras, and new directions TNA has proclaimed over the years, the one that worked the best was the one they never said was happening. They didn't come out of Bound For Glory yelling that everything was changing, they didn't drill down our throats that the company was being saved, they just made the changes they needed to make and let their work speak for itself. Everyone in TNA has worked their asses off and done a great job turning around what many people thought was a lost cause,and I have no problem saying I enjoy watching Impact a lot more than I enjoy watching Raw or Smackdown these days. Don't believe me? Watch Impact one of these days and see what I mean.

 

[Hunter Rider]

I agree with some of the article and disagree with other parts, for instance I'm not a fan of the BFG series and I don't see why he's taking a shot at Sandow, the guy is establishing a character and generating heat, that a part of wrestling.

He also could have picked a better time to write the article since while WWE right now is limping along on Cena overkill, it doesn't have two terrible time consuming angles like Bully Ray/Parks and the dreadful Crack addict angle that is getting the main event focus and isn't even being used to get over a hot new heel, the match at the center of the whole tacky mess is one between two guys who have wrestled dozens of times and features a 41 year old mid carder for life.

 

[Superark]

So she asked? Guess she was tired of not being on tv. She's a good wrestler but it seems like she wasn't being used very much. Winter an a few others have the same problem right now. But Love was a mainstay for a long time. I guess they didn't see it as a big loss. They could have used her by feeding her to Tessmacher because they need as many experienced wrestlers they can to help her improve.

She lost much of her momentum once she left the company before and was pushed against the BP (Velvet, Madison, Von Eric) upon her return. She still was an important piece to the KO division and pushed hard, but she never took off as a face in the way she got over as a heel with Velvet.

The Winter angle practically killed her as a character.

She was one of the better wrestlers in the KO Division, but her looks continue to fade (along with her weight) and she's not someone you can push as the center of your division unless you make her a ***** heel. TNA already has that in Madison.

I cannot see WWE signing her.

 

[The Batman]

Watching that Jeff Hardy shoot on CM Punk...I think there's is some truth in what Jeff's saying,its just ruined by the fact that he's strung out on drugs, lol.

Matt however...no, lol.

 

[Hunter Rider]

There's a Jeff Hardy shoot? What was he saying about Punk?

 

[vantheman77]

This was writing on the wall for Angelina Love, who has held every Knockouts title and there isn't much left for her, except a potential dream match with Gail Kim.

I can't see her going to WWE due to legal issues as well as looking similar to one of the WWE Divas.

I agree with the article about the reasons to watch TNA Impact as it took 2 years for Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff to get a grasp of the TNA Universe after restarts and mishaps.

Also, it's no coincidence that in comes Taeler Hendrix and out goes Angelina Love.

 

[bullets]

I've always felt it was ridiculous that guys would take a spinebuster and lay there seemingly forever waiting for Rock to go through his routine before he hit the people's elbow. Why not just pin the guy if he is that stunned? Like I said, a stupid move.

The Rock's promo skills are vastly overrated IMO. He has put on several memorable promos and I have enjoyed some of them, but more often than not I wanted him to hurry up and finish his promo. Same stuff and I felt bored.

Rock could put on an entertaining and energetic promo but he always felt like he was playing a character. He never made me "believe" in his promos the way guys like Austin, Flair, Piper, HBK could. Even Hulk Hogan, whose promo were all about the character, could cut a believable serious promo from time to time.

Yeah , Rock's always been more of a caricature. I'm not the biggest Cena fan but he brought more realism into their feud and I found myself rooting for him. Rock just never sold the importance of the match to him. I thought most of his stuff was funny but didn't realize it would be like that until the last week heading in.


The finishing move is ridiculous. Your just waiting for the guy on the mat to sit up or roll out of the way. I've never been a big fan of that move or Cena's five knuckle shuffle ( plays peek a boo , runs across the ring , then punches the mat) .