Professional Wrestling (WWE, TNA, ROH, etc)

[buzzy]

Oh to hell with those illegal .. masks!

[shadowgrin]

lol. Enjoyed Striker's work during TLC. Not bad, not amazing, just decent.
lol also at Jericho's speech in accepting their slammy? award.

[Andrew]

I'm still not a fan of Striker's commentary. It reminds me a lot of JBL's commentary, which always seemed to get rave reviews but I never really got what was so great about it.

[Lean]

I actually enjoy Striker as a commentator. Brings back the days that there were heel commentators. Not that he's heel, but it's pretty obvious that he's biased.

[Andrew]

That's one of the things I don't like about his commentary, nor JBL's a couple of years ago. Half the time, they don't seem to know whether they're a heel or face commentator, flip-flopping between the two multiple times during one segment (let alone one show).

[Al Ka Pwn]

I like that the language he uses. He also seems to put in effort in coming up with nicknames and talking in a not by the numbers way.

[JaoSming]

I've decided that Sheamus needs a manager to talk for him

[J@3]

He needs a fucking tan, how can anyone take that guy seriously? He looks like a giant leprechaun.

[Al Ka Pwn]

I can't wait for the number raw did.

[Andrew]

Perhaps I'd appreciate it more to watch, but this week's RAW sounded pretty awful with another Bret Hart name drop being the most interesting part. Here's hoping TNA can compete and Bischoff won't just rehash mid-90s WCW.

[koberulz]

Well TNA are off to a great start, they just canceled their Australian tour because they can't get anyone to care.

Why Hogan thinks he's going to show up and suddenly make it the best promotion in the world is beyond me.

[Andrew]

True, it remains to be seen how much drawing power he still has, though we can't really judge that until he makes his live debut on TNA television. If the efforts so far are any indication of what he and Bischoff have in store, it should be worrying. Bold proclamations and talking shit about WWE was edgy in the mid-90s but these days it just comes off as trite and bush league. Still, getting Russo out of there (as seems likely) can't be too bad a move.

[koberulz]

If it means giving Hogan creative control, then yes, yes it can. It hasn't been all that bad recently, but if it becomes the Hogan/Foley/Sting/Nash/Hall/X-Pac show, then I for one won't be watching.

How well promoted has this been, anyway? Other than the internet and those already following TNA (though those in category two are probably also in category one anyway), does anyone even know? It doesn't matter what his drawing power is if nobody knows he's there.

TNA got hugely popular when they were everything WWE wasn't. Styles, Joe, Daniels, the X Division, etc. They've gotten further and further away from that in their attempts to garner more popularity. They need to be less like WWE if they want people to switch over, and try worrying about their own product rather than competing with WWE all the damn time. When I heard Hogan was coming in, I wasn't all that fussed. However, now that he's talking about firing creative, going against RAW and becoming the number one company within a year, I'm just not sure I want to actually follow this company anymore. I've been watching them rather than WWE simply because it's only two hours a week, rather than six, but if it's a completely unwatchable product, I'll head back over to WWE.

Also, I watched Hulk Hogan's match in Perth last month, and the guy can't go. At all. If TNA put him in the ring, even as a one-off, it's going to be an absolute disaster.

[Andrew]

Apparently they've been splashing out considerable money on advertising in the States, so they're probably doing as good a job as they can to promote Hogan's arrival/the head-to-head with RAW.

Hogan in creative might not be much better than Russo if at all, but I doubt it could be worse especially if Eric Bischoff is there as well. I tend to think he's a bit overrated though, especially by the "Vince McMahon is just lucky" crowd. At the very least, McMahon has had the sense to see a wrestler like The Rock or Austin getting over and run with it, whereas Bischoff's downfall in WCW is that he'd see someone like Chris Jericho get over and pull the rug out from underneath them, lest Hogan and co be required to step aside. So in that respect, I do agree that Hogan's arrival along with Bischoff might fail to raise TNA's profile, though under Russo it's pretty much been the Foley/Sting/Nash etc show with cameos from the likes of AJ Styles and Samoa Joe (to an extent) so I'm still not sure it can get much worse in that regard. Well, a lengthy title run for Hogan I suppose.

I guess it depends on whether Bischoff learned from his mistakes or not.

[koberulz]

TNA's actually been really good of late. iMPACT!'s sort of come to a screaming halt as they wait for the Jan. 4 show to actually progress storyline's but they've been putting on some incredible matches and two of the best PPVs of the year according to many.

The thing that really worries me? Kevin Nash having a tag team title shot. Say what you want about the current product, the nWo will be far worse.

[Andrew]

Absolutely, if Bischoff ends up re-hashing what he did in the mid-90s I think it will bomb. Perhaps not straight away, but sooner or later. TNA kind of already did their nWo angle with the Main Event Mafia anyway.

[Al Ka Pwn]

I don't think they need hogan in any other way than a spokesperson plugging tna. The wrestling they have been putting on is good enough.

[koberulz]

TNA has officially signed Scott Hall. Guess I'll need to make some effort to clear up enough time to watch WWE.

[Andrew]

Sid Vicious can't be far behind.

[koberulz]

What's sad is that in the past couple of months AJ, Daniels, Desmond Wolfe, etc have all been given huge pushes, and they were starting to move in the right direction. Now, barring a miracle, they're not even back to square one, they're further back than that.

What I really can't believe are all the people that think this is a good thing.

[Andrew]

I think people are just hoping that TNA will be able to compete with WWE which in turn will force WWE to do a better job than they are right now.

[koberulz]

Well, it being January WWE are probably going to improve their product significantly anyway.

Either way, if you were going to get overhyped about TNA's possible success, it would have made more sense to do it a month ago, when they were heading in the right direction and Hulk Hogan wasn't coming out and acting like he ran the company. Now, it's pretty clear nobody's learned a damn thing from WCW.

Let's just hope WWE runs the inevitable Invasion angle better than last time.

[Andrew]

I'm not saying TNA will blitz WWE. I think we're a long way off that. I just wish they were providing more competition so that WWE lift their game and it'd be nice if the buzz Hogan's arrival in TNA caused ends up benefitting the company. However, it hardly seems a lock.

[JaoSming]

have you guys seen the new WWE intro with the Hogan part removed yet?

phpBB [video]

lol

[Andrew]

I don't notice during RAW or Smackdown this week, though they often take a while to update such things on the Australian broadcasts. They were using one of the old "Don't try this at home" intros with Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit for quite a while after the former's departure and possibly for a little while beyond the latter's murder-suicide. Doesn't surprise me, they hardly want to give Hogan and TNA free publicity.