Why?

Hello all

This week as I watched wrestling, I had a visitor, my wife. She is not the wrestling watcher, so for her to sit down and watch it with me was a treat. As we watched the shows this week, she noticed there was a difference. She noticed as we watched Impact Wrestling this week that something was missing. Her exact words were “Is this the minor leagues”? I said “No this is TNA”. “Oh this is TNA. This is so much different than the other one you watch. Why is it so different”? I have a few theories that I will discuss today.

1st, I think a lot of the writing could use an update. A lot of times when I watch TNA, I feel like I am watching USWA wrestling, AWA, or Jim Crockett Promotions (the old WCW). It feels like old archaic wrestling. Back in those days in JCP (Jim Crockett Promotions), and even in the early days of WCW, Dusty Rhodes had a long stint as the head booker. This basically means Dusty was in charge of deciding who was going to win and how. During these times Dusty would always have the heels win by using some kind of foreign object. He’d hit the baby face in the head, then throw it out of the ring, and would always win the match. This was awfully predictable, and boring (if you ask me). This would be known as the Dusty Finish. I am noticing this same pattern in TNA. During the match we were watching, the heel hit the face with something (that did not look that big or heavy) that knocked him out cold, and of course, the heel won. To me this is a big reason why they are different, the Dusty Finish.

The next thing that I think makes a difference is the fact that TNA’s tag line is “This is where wrestling matters,” but I see more cutaways from the action than I would expect in a show that claims to be all about the wrestling. Everyone who reads my blog knows I am not doing this to kill anyone, or to act like I could do better, I just have opinions and want to put them out there for others to read. Anyway, I know that cutaways, run INS, and promos are all a part of pro wrestling, but I would think that they would want to focus more on the wrestling than the buildup. They have a lot of good wrestlers, why try to make them characters, or even superstars. That is not what you do. That is not what is going to make you catch up to WWE. You have to focus on your strengths, and their strengths are wrestling.

Lastly to me one of the main problems at TNA is the matches. I have to admit, the matches on Impact Wrestling every week leave a lot to be desired. In fact I have to say there are matches every week that I wonder why they are even having them. Who cares about them? This past week, 2 matches stood out to me. The 1st one was Gunner vs. Garrett Bischoff, yes Eric’s son, and no he is not a wrestler. He was a referee. No he does not look or seem like a wrestler, but for some reason they decided this would be their next to last match. That is a spot that reserved for good matches. And to top it all off, the former ref who can’t weigh more than 150 pounds, beat Gunner, a former TV champ, and someone in the “Bound for Glory” tournament. He was in the running to be a main eventer. But that is not the worst part. The worst part is the main event of the evening was an elimination tag team match. To be honest, I can’t tell you all of the participants in the match. And the thing that confused me the most was, if you are going to have an elimination match, shouldn’t there be something that the winner gets? A title shot? A chance to choose the stipulations of the next match? Even a chance to choose your next opponent? I just didn’t understand the point behind the main event. This makes me not care to watch TNA at all.

All and all there are a lot of things about Impact Wrestling that makes the show unwatchable. These past few things I listed were just the tip of the iceberg. I could go on and on. With that being said, I think there are a lot of things they do right. But there are things that they do that make them look amateur. This past episode was a small sampling of what happens when all of that talent goes to waste, when people don’t know what to do, with everything they have. I know they are trying to compete with the big dog, but if they focus on what they do best, they can rise above where they are now……A distant second.

AND THAT'S THE BOTTOM LLLLLLIIIIINNNNNNEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Foley is reading it.....shouldn't you be?!

Hello all

So this past week I was watching RAW and they had a very clever angle. They brought back Mick Foley for one of the most successful segments to ever be on RAW, “This is your life”. The original segment was on RAW in 1999 (which still is the highest segment of RAW ever). Foley was excited about him and the Rock winning the World Tag Team championships, and was showing his appreciation to the Rock for being his partner and his “friend”.

Last week Foley tried to do the same thing for John Cena. This segment was not quite as funny, but still entertaining. Foley brought out a few people from Cena’s life. But the friends and family that Foley brought out did not show the same respect for Cena. The thing that got my attention was something Foley said in the beginning of the segment. In the beginning, Foley said John Cena may be the best WWE superstar of today. He said he was one of the most well respected men in the business. From the main eventers to the jobbers (guys who always lose), Cena shows every man the same respect. But it was what he said earlier that caught my attention. When he said Cena has had some of the best matches he has seen. Does that sound familiar to any of you? For those of you who have read my blog (which I hope is a lot more than 5), you will remember that I wrote a blog about how great Cena has been on Pay Per View. So that tells me one thing, Mick Foley is reading my blog. Shouldn’t you be? Mick Foley will be the blog topic today.

Foley started out as a wrestling fan, who famously hitchhiked to Madison Square Garden to see a Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka, steel cage match. He began training in 1983, working in a lot of the small promotions for almost an entire decade. Then in 1991, he made his debut in WCW. He started as Cactus Jack and had a few epic matches with Sting. He was the original extreme wrestlers. Back in WCW he would do a lot of work outside of the ring. He would drop flying elbows on wrestlers (including Sting) outside the ring, on the concrete. Foley had a pretty good run with WCW, then he went to ECW. In ECW, Foley got his chance to really get extreme, and help popularize the extreme movement that was ECW. But Foley did not get much of a run in ECW. So he left there and went to Japan, before he got his chance at the big time.

In 1996, Foley made it to the WWE. In the early part of his WWE career, he was not as big of a star as I’m sure Vince McMahon thought he would be when he brought him in. Foley started out as “Mankind”, I guess a take off of the Hannibal Lecter character from “Silence of the Lambs”. Mankind would have a few good matches, battling Vader, and even fighting Shawn Michaels for the WWE championship, but he still not did not get the respect he deserved. Foley would go back and forth as this character, Cactus Jack, and a 3rd Dude Love. Foley seemed destined to be a mid-carder until the match that changed his life. In 1998 Foley finished a feud with the Undertaker. They had every kind of match you could imagine. So what match would they have to end it all? Hell in the Cell. This is the famous Cell match where Taker throws Foley off the top of the cage. 16 feet in the air, on to an announce table. But that was not the end of the match. Later in the match, somehow Foley got back on top of the cage, only to get choke slammed through it by Taker.

After this you would have thought Foley was done with wrestling, but no. As a matter of fact, this was the beginning of Foley’s rise in popularity. Fans were starting to make signs that read “Foley is God”. And they would all rush to their feet when his music would play. And while doing this, Foley’s character became more of a baby-faced character. He would get on the mic, and speak. He would do segments that really showcased his personality. McMahon even came up with a title for him, and made him the 1st Hardcore Champion. This did not satisfy Foley because he set his sights on the WWE title. After he got screwed out of the WWE title by the Rock and McMahon, he made it his mission to win the title. On an episode of RAW that aired on January 4th 1999, Foley defeated the Rock for the WWE title. During an episode of Monday Nitro, which was WCW’s rival show, the announcer gave away the surprise that Foley would win. Instead of it making more people stay, it made everyone tune in to RAW and watch Foley win the WWE title. Foley would go on to become a 3 time WWE champion and would have a long run with the company, until he left for what seemed like greener pastures at TNA.

After arriving in TNA, Foley hit the ground running. He joined the company in 2008, and got involved in a big storyline between Jeff Jarrett and Kurt Angle. Foley also stared working with “the monster” Abyss. Abyss seemed to have a lot in common with Foley, and Foley was acting as his mentor, coming out to the ring with Abyss and even giving him his signature look, the plaid lumberjack shirt. Later with that company, Foley became the top guy, defeating Sting (déjà vu), to win the TNA World Heavyweight Championship. After losing the title to Angle, Foley helped bring some of the former ECW guys to the company, and even helped them have their own ppv named “Hardcore Justice”. After bringing all of the old guys back to TNA for another shot at glory, Foley was used sparingly on TV until he asked for and was granted his release from the company the past summer.

I know Foley is not exactly reading my blog, but he should be. There is great stuff here. But on a more serious note, Foley is one of the innovators in this business. He ushered in the Hardcore Era. All of the stuff that Jeff Hardy, Dudley Boys, Edge did when he was popularizing the TLC match, even fans of the ECW movement, owe a debt of gratitude to Mick Foley. He was the common man, who worked his tail off, and rose to the greatest of heights in this business, becoming a multiple WWE champion. Not because he was a good politician, but because he gave everything he had in that ring, and in doing so he captured the hearts of millions. And in the process lost a few teeth, brain cells, and part of his ear.

AND THAT'S THE BOTTOM LLLLIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNNEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!

You again?

Hello all

This past week as I watched wrestling I noticed something that has bothered me for a long time. It may not mean much to any of you out there, but it is starting to annoy me just a bit. Three weeks ago, after Bobby Roode was unsuccessful at the “Bound for Glory” Pay per view, on the following episode of Impact wresting, James Storm, Roode’s tag team partner, won the TNA World title. After that win, many of us thought Storm would have a decent run with the title; maybe have a return match with Kurt Angle, then fight someone else, before dropping the belt to the person we all knew would have the belt anyway, Bobby Roode.

This however was not the way things turned out. Roode and Samoa Joe fought to find out who would be the #1 contender. Roode won and had a match with his partner and friend the next week. Roode would go on to win the match and the title. I don’t have a problem with Roode winning the belt (if you remember from a previous blog, I said he would be TNA champion), I do however have a problem with him winning it from James Storm.

Why not have Roode win the title at the Bound for Glory ppv? Why have all of that build up, to have him lose the match. Then after that, you would have another wrestler beat Kurt Angle and he beat him in less than 6 minutes. I just don’t understand why you had to have an in-between champion.

I know that in this business there are guys who refuse to lose to other guys. Brett Hart believes that the infamous Shawn Michaels “I’ve lost my smile speech”, and subsequent vacating of the WWE title was because Michael’s did not want to drop the belt to Hart, thus fueling their rivalry.

But I am just getting sick of seeing guys win the belt, just to drop it to a new guy a week later. Or worse drop the belt to the same person they just won it from.

As much as I love Stone Cold Steve Austin, during his title reigns, he would win the belt from someone, hold the belt for a month or 2, lose the belt to someone, and less than a month later he would win it right back. In his 5th reign, he lost the belt to Kurt Angle, only to win it back a month later. In his 3rd, he lost to the Undertaker, to win it back in a little over a month. And in his 1st reign he lost the belt to Kane, and won it back the very next night. I just don’t get it.

Triple H is another who has padded his number of times being champion with very short title reigns by his opponents. There are way too many for us to go through, but think about these few examples. Triple H lost the WWE title to the Rock at one ppv, just to win it back from him at the very next ppv. This next example isn’t necessarly a Triple H problem, but he was involved. Randy Orton won the World title, and didn’t even hold it a whole month before Triple H was made champion again. And in my last example, in the matter of a month(not even a whole month), Triple H lost the belt to Vince McMahon, Chairman of WWE, Vince would vacate the belt the following week, for Triple H to win it back in the last week of that month. Just unecessary.

And the person who lately has done this more often than needed, John Cena. Cena held the WWE title for the exact amount of time as JBL, who had the longest title reign in more than a decade, to that point. Then he lost the belt to Edge, only to win it back in 21 days. Then at the World Heavyweight Championship, he lost the belt to Edge at the “No Way Out” PPV, just to win it back at WrestleMania 25. There is another example that does not work in Cena’s favor, but he is involved in it. During Randy Orton’s title reign of 2009, Cena defeated Orton at the “Breaking Point” PPV, lost the belt in 21 days to Orton.

I know this has been happening for a long time in wrestling, and with more titles comes more of an opportunity to panic if someone does not show the ability to sell out arenas like the champion is supposed to, but I think it is a bit of laziness for all of these title changes to happen so fast. We don’t give the champion time to establish them. I know Vince had a plan for Hogan, and that lasted from before the 1st Mania, to a little before Mania 4. Can we have some faith in our newer stars? Just because a guy does not start out setting the world on fire as champ, doesn’t mean we need to put the belt on someone else in less than a month.