The Wrestling Videos Thread

[Chris Lionheart]

Fancy that, turns out Super Crazy was in WWF before ECW?

[Chris Lionheart]

Steiner: "I was at WCW, they weren't there, who did they beat for the titles?"
Borash: "Technically it was WWE's representation"
Steiner: "Exactly!"
Damn, that's so true!



WOW! Scott Steiner tells it like it is!
*Marks out*



Listen to what Steiner says to BG James. Just as true as what he said to Team3D about their ''WCW'' Tag Team title reigns about a month back.

I really like where this is heading: VKM (WWF), Team3D (ECW), SteinerBros (WCW) and LAX (TNA) war.

... Apparently Dixie got hot about the references to the other companies... somehow I think that news report was false given TNA's track record.


My thoughts from back then:

- Many members of the Roster are confused as to why the interview segment between VKM, Steiners and Team 3D went the way it did. Many in the back are angered that during that segment they put over the WWE Tag Titles, WCW Tag Titles and ECW Tag Titles and not one time during the coarse of the segment did they mention the NWA or TNA Titles. In fact, TNA wasn't mentioned at all during the promo.
This action made some of the talent uneasy because it made TNA seem insignificant. It gave many an insight to the way TNA views itself and perhaps even more unsettling is that they are more interested in trying to promote and build their company up using old "name" talent than promoting their own X Division which is what made TNA a force to begin with. It also alarmed some in the back that the references made during their promos took place 7-10 years ago devaluing the name sake of the talent bragging about their accomplishments. It would be similar to if someone like Joe Montana cutting down the accomplishments of Dan Marino during their run in the NFL while they are both playing Arena Football.

Gerweck.net

A number of people on the TNA roster are confused to why the segment with VKM, Steiners, and Team 3d went the way it did. Many of the people backstage have been angered. That segment seemed to have put over the WWE/WCW/ECW Tag Titles and not one time during the segment did they bring up NWA or TNA. In actuality TNA was never brought up at all.

- It solidified the Steiner's as faces, I believe this was their first appearance on TV since before Victory Road, and the last time they'd been seen they were heels.
- Similarly it solidified Team3D as heels to make sure people understood the double turn had taken place. Those that aren't too quick on their feet may have seen Victory Road and just thought Rick was attacking Team3D, not starting a face turn for the Steiner Bros.
- Gave VKM something more to do than piss around with Christy Hemme. Now that Hemme is managing Hoyt, perhaps VKM can move away from that horrible storyline all together.
- When a worker is open about leaving TNA company for AAA, can anyone realistically expect LAX to get a push on Konnan's way out? Point In Fact that LAX is getting a renewed push as faces now that Konnan is gone from the company. I cant blame TNA for not paying Konnan. They didn't pay Sabu's medical bills, and let him go to WWECW to get the money to pay those. They didn't pay for Sonjay Dutt's recent medical bills either. They did loan Konnan money though, and he quit or whatever on the company without paying it back fully.
- LAX represented the TNA part of the 'tag team war', although this wasn't said on air it would have been redundant to do so anyway. The ECW, WCW, WWF name dropping added excitement to the top tier tag teams. Made it seem like there is some real tension there. And that's good, considering how god-awful TNA's tag team division was just a few short months ago. It's certainly on the mend.
- This 'who's the best tag team' storyline is great filler until Angle/Joe and Partner drop the tag team titles back to an actual tag team.


This action made some of the talent feel like TNA was not significant and that this was how TNA viewed themselves. It also gave many the idea that they are using older talent to promote their X Division. In doing so they would be devaluing their previous accomplishments. It would be something similar to David Beckham coming out bragging about his accomplishments while playing for an indoor soccer league.

Talent backstage have talked to writers in hope that they will lessen the "flash backs" to other wrestling promotions. stead they want TNA to promote their wrestlers instead of using titles from other companies to help build their X Division.

Christopher Daniels, although not nearing the main event, has reformed Triple X, and they're being played as calculating bad asses. They look to be heading into a feud with Motor City Machine Guns who're the 'cool guys'. I say that's a pretty good tag team feud focused solely on what many would consider TNA's younger guys. Two more feathers in the cap of a tag team division going through a resurgence.

TNA look to be gearing up for 2 hours (and realistically getting it in the Fall too), so it make sense for them to get recognisable names that casual fans (the ones who might only know WWE/ECWWE or XWS *which was on MTV remember* wrestlers) or older fans (from the old WCW and ECW viewer ship that WWE never gained) might tune in to see). Not everyone knows who Sonjay Dutt and Petey Williams are afterall - So basically, it makes sense from a business point of view. It just seems to me that the 'TNA originals' can't seem to think about the greater good of the company. Like when WWF wrestlers didn't want to work with WCW and ECW guys in 2001, if they had only realised that if everyone worked together the whole company would be better.

The hope, of course, is that once TNA get 2 hours they can start giving focus and devoting attention across the board to everyone simply 'because' they have more time to play with. But I personally think they're doing a pretty good job right now, and if I remember correctly, aren't the ratings generally higher now than they were before (even if only slightly)?.

Overall I think that TNA is doing a good job in promoting it's own home-grown talent alongside it's bigger, more well known WCW/WWF main eventers:
- Chris Harris, Rhino, James Storm, Robert Rude, AJ Styles are all getting the rub from Christian Cage's star power in some way or another as either a face or heel.
- Abyss, Andrew Martin and Eric Young (soon to be Ricky Banderez too) are getting the rub from Sting and James Mitchell.
- Kaz is feuding with Serotonin.
- Samoa Joe is being built up and being given the rub from Kurt Angle's in what looks like a serious push with the focus clearly on Samoa Joe and the TNA World Title, without anyone else claiming stake to it this time around.

I'd say the only people not getting any sort of meaningful push right now are (bearing in mind I don't watch TNA Today or Xplosion, so I dunno if these guys are on there or not):
Brother Runt
Jay Lethal
Jeff Jarrett
Sonjay Dutt
Jerry Lynn
Mr. Backlund
Ron Killings (why's he still listed?)
Shark Boy

But really, some of those are just jobber fodder. All feds need jobbers...

[Chris Lionheart]

I was hoping for something... well not Black Reign anyway!

[Chris Lionheart]

Samoa Joe's Turning Point 07 Shoot
... and my thoughts from the time on it.

First of all, I don't like that Samoa Joe went into business for himself.. because I don't think he was correct with what he was saying. First of all, I don't think that Nash should be held responsible for Hall's actions (assuming Hall was just being unreliable and he didn't legitimately have food poisoning like he said, or that it wasn't a work in the first place.) Especially since a) Nash is one of the key people who pushed hard for an extended period of time to get TNA management to take interest in signing Joe when Nash was a big fan of Joe's ROH matches he saw on DVD. And b) Nash has been used in a non-wrestling entertainment role for ages, and hasn't taken the spotlight from anyone.

As much as I like TNA, they're still not breaking the 1.0/1.1 ratings mark. But that's better than the 0.x's that they were getting without the 'big names' that Joe went off on. Did anyone else notice when Angle was pissed off and mouthed 'you mean me?'. Being able to sign big names is what made/makes SpikeTV take more of a chance on TNA and give them more advantages, like prime time and 2 hours in the first place. You need name wrestlers to bring the fans in. Yes it's a combination of good storylines and the athletics of the younger guys which keep the fans once they're there but most of the [casual] fans wouldn't be there to begin with if it wasn't for the names. This is true for TNA at least, because they're not on a good TV station which widely promotes them in my opinion, and WWE basically already has the market. It's not like they have a large platform to build from in order to make big names themselves - chances are only people who already watch TNA will know who they are.

For the record, I think that Joe's spot in the main event scene this month, opposing Angle's Alliance, could have gone to most any mid-carders anyway. It could have been just Kevin Nash alone to capitalize off the Angle/Nash tension that's been building up. It could have just been The Outsiders, Sting could have taken Joe's place since a while back everyone was so sure we'd see some kind of nWo wolfpack ressurgence with Sting/Nash against Angle. Kaz could have taken Joe's place which would havecapitalized on his push and continued on from his high profile matches at Genesis against Christian and iMPACT against Angle. Speaking of Christian, he could have taken that spot to really speed up his face turn against AJ/Tomko... TNA could have quite easily have had Booker T walk into that position to capitalize on his debut, the fact that Angle 'rubbed him the wrong way', and Sharmell/Karen's catfight.. I could go on and on...

Samoa Joe.. well at Genesis Joe was in the middle of fighting with Roode. Never the less, Joe was in the main event scene teaming against Angle anyway, so why he's whining I don't know. Seems to me TNA were still keeping him strong as a main eventer instead of pushing him down to mid-card for anything other than trying to give Roode the rub, because Joe is over and Roode needs to get over as a heel. Furthermore, I think TNA has started to do an OK job of mixing the older talent with the younger talent. Sting gave Abyss backstory and a world title run, instead of him being a typical non-speaking monster. Kurt Angle made Samoa Joe into a main eventer again, throughout their feud, with their ongoing feud, and Joe's still a strong main eventer even now. Christian and Angle are doing a lot to help guys like AJ (improve his mic skills) and Kaz (get over with the fans), and so's Booker T (jobbing to Roode) even though he's just debuted...

[Chris Lionheart]

[Chris Lionheart]

[DANGEROUS]

The greatest old school persona ever created.

[Chris Lionheart]

[Chris Lionheart]

[Chris Lionheart]

[Chris Lionheart]

Looking back, with all the build-up between HHH and Austin, the 2Man Power Trip was kinda a piss take.

[Sentoryu]

love this attire on Wrath. looks like WWE attempted it with a mix of the sultan with Tensai.

[Lucy Youngblood]