The NEW wrestling thread

[Cyber Burn]

Yep, puked a little in my mouth when I read this. Can you imagine AJ Styles or Samoa Joe having to job to the slowest leg drop in the world?

Hogan was entertaining in his prime, but unfortunately, that was probably before any of the current generation of wrestlers were even born.

[captmorgan72]

I have recently become interested in wrestling again after watching Rourke in The Wrestler. Problem is, I stopped watching it around when Stone Cold Steve Austin left. I caught a episode of Raw and didn't recognize anyone. I was like who the hell are these guys? So what is the best way to be acclimated back into wrestling?

[Ares_God_of_War]

It looks like Umaga has passed away from a heart attack.

[thalaw2]

   He was one of my favorites!  Always so sad to hear such news when they are so young.

[Mr. Hamrick]

I have recently become interested in wrestling again after watching Rourke in The Wrestler. Problem is, I stopped watching it around when Stone Cold Steve Austin left. I caught a episode of Raw and didn't recognize anyone. I was like who the hell are these guys? So what is the best way to be acclimated back into wrestling?

My advice to you is if you got interested in wrestling again after seeing "The Wrestler" then turn over to TNA which is on Thursday nights on Spike.  Or better yet, watch Ring of Honor on HDnet.  Ring of Honor was actually one of the promotions featured in The Wrestler.  TNA recently acquired Nigel McGuiness and has him working under the name Desmond Wolfe.  Nigel had a cameo in The Wrestler.    Ok, there were a lot of cameos in The Wrestler by wrestlers who are of note.

TNA also has Kurt Angle, The Dudley Boys, Jeff Jarrett, Mick Foley, Kevin Nash, and some guy named Hulk Hogan is reported coming in.  (Hulk Hogan recently became partners with TNA owner Dixie Carter.)  TNA also has several younger talent worth watching: AJ Styles, Christopher Daniels, Samoa Joe, The Motor City Machine Guns.  They also have the better women's division than WWE... and I am not saying that because I am acquainted with 1/3 or so of their women's division. 

Oh and TNA's booking is just as screwed up as WWE's so you won't be trading anything off there.

As for WWE...

I can understand not recognizing many of the names on RAW.  The only people still vaguely recognizable on RAW from the Austin years are John Cena and Randy Orton (and both were just getting started toward the end of Austin's era), Mark Henry, Shawn Michaels, Big Show, and Triple H.  There's a few others probably but those are your major names.  Keep an eye out for Kori Kingston and Sheamus as both are getting huge pushes right now.

On Smackdown, you still have The Undertaker, Edge (who in on the injury list), Chris Jericho (who is on RAW too because he is one half of the unified tag champs with Big Show), Batista, Kane, Rey Mysterio (who dropped the Jr. from his name and is on the injury list), and Matt Hardy.  You also have CM Punk and John Morrison there who both put on really good matches are a very entertaining promo when they are given the mic.  The Hart Dynasty is also working on Smackdown.  They are Tyson Kidd (the last graduate of The Hart Dungeon, aka my good friend TJ Wilson), David Hart Smith (son of The British Bulldog Davey Boy Smith, and another friend of mine) and Natalya Neidhart (daughter of Jim Neidhart, and yeah a friend of mine as well)

Gregory Helms (who is also known as The Hurricane), William Regal, Shelton Benjamin, and Christian are on ECW.  ECW is basically being used to bring in new talent before moving them to RAW or Smackdown though.

Personally, I prefer TNA.  This is despite having a few good friends working on both the Raw and Smackdown rosters.  This is the bad part about having friends in both promotion.

[GhostMachine]

Hulk Hogan is actually going to be Dixie Carter's boss. Her father is the actual owner, not her, and Hogan will only have to answer to him. Eric Bischoff is apparently also coming in along with Hogan, and Hogan will more or less be running things and probably not wrestling much. (He's in too bad a shape to wrestle on a regular basis) He's currently doing a tour of Australia with other wrestlers - including Ric Flair, who he IS wrestling against.

TNA has decent wrestling, but its currently being booked by Vince Russo, which should raise a red flag to any fans aware of how he ran WCW. Fortunately, this time he has stayed off camera. Their current champ is AJ Styles, which proves they're not totally stupid. Styles rocks. They also have one heck of a women's division - aside from Lacey Von Erich, who is more or less eye candy and an airhead (NOT a gimmick, sadly; she's legit dumb). (And yes, she's Kerry's daughter) If you follow the indies or followed WWE's old developmental fed Deep South Wrestling, they have Cheerleader Melissa (wrestling as Alissa Flash) and Shantelle Taylor (wrestling as Taylor Wilde) on their roster. And unlike the WWE, most of their female wrestlers actually ARE wrestlers. They also brought in Ayako Hamada recently, which is awesome.

The WWE will supposedly be dumping ECW sometime early next year, possibly replacing it with a show that actually only has younger talent. Sort of a step between developmental and the main shows.

RAW also has the Miz and Evan Bourne (previously known as Matt Sydal in the indies and Wrestling Society X). Evan Bourne is the closest thing to a luchadore RAW has, and uses a Shooting Star Press as his finisher. The Miz is still a heel, while over on Smackdown Morrison is a face. Miz sadly dropped his unique look for trunks so he now looks like most of the other wrestlers and has a new finisher with a lame name: the Skull Crushing Finale, which is the same move as Jeff Jarrett's Stroke, but executed better: a Forward Russian Leg Sweep. (I'm a fan of the Miz, but don't care for his new look)

Chris Jericho changed his gimmick a while back and is now completely serious, rather than a goofball. He also wears trunks instead of tights, and has a finisher called the Codebreaker, which is more or less a forward facing version of Carlito's Backstabber, so basically something like a facebuster onto the attacker's knees. He still uses the Walls of Jericho, but it never gets the job done any more.

[Ares_God_of_War]

So that Hogan stuff about him actually being in power is true? That makes me sad. I love Hogan and all but I really don't want to see TNA become WCW.

[Mr. Hamrick]

Hogan is only part owner of TNA along with Dixie Carter in her role as President of the Company.  Dixie's father, Robert Carter, is the owner of Panda Energy which bought a majority of the TNA shares from The Jarrett family.  However, Dixie runs TNA not Robert Carter.  If you want to get really technical, a guy named Kevin Day is the CEO of TNA Entertainment which is the limited liability company created to manage TNA while, again, Dixie serves as President of the company.

The question I have out of all of this is rather Hogan's part ownership will be strictly to TNA as a promotion or the limited liability company TNA Entertainment.

Now having said that, I think the only serious risk of TNA turning into WCW comes from some of the same talent being being on the roster.  And there is not that much.  WCW had a parent company that gradually removed its support for them.  By time Russo jumped to WCW, Time Warner had merged with Turner, sold off bits and pieces of Turner's properties back to him and then some.  They had effectively quit supporting WCW as a company and pretty let the inmates run the asylum.  I don't see that happening with TNA in the near future. 

Additionally, I think Hogan has some added incentive to help with the development of "younger talent" given his assorted issues with Vince McMahon.  Hogan has already mentioned that he is high on AJ Styles so that is a plus.

[Marmeille]

How can TNA ever become WCW, they don't have the kind of money Turner had to offer those silly up-one manship garanteed contracts that made too many big name stars become lazy as hell because their spots and big checks were not going anywhere, thus making the product boring as hell lol.

That's not gonna happen to TNA, now I'm not saying TNA's future is not in jeopardy though, they are going live against RAW on monday January 4th when Hogan makes his big TNA debut (yawn), so they either put up or shut up, I hope they don't flop miserably but I know I'm still gonna watch RAW that night and catch TNA Impact! online or something later (I'm canadian anyway so my rating don't matter, RAW is on The Score here and I don't have Spike in HD so there). Rumors has it that The Rock is guest hosting that first RAW of 2010 too, so if that's the case TNA won't do as good as they think for sure.

This is interesting time indeed though for wrestling fans, I just hope WWE wakes up and start being less predictable and I also hope Hogan and co can really make TNA better, because right now TNA is a real snooze fest, I've never fast fowarded so much stuff while watching Impact! than I've been doing recently.

R.I.P. Eki "Umaga" Fatu

[Ares_God_of_War]

Honestly I only ever watch TNA for Raven when he makes his appearences there but there was some radio intervier where Hogan wanted to bring in a few people like Knobs and Savage. The only name he mentioned that I would have been interested in was RVD. A side note I thought Savage and Hogan didn't get along so well recently when was that patched up enough for Hogan to want to bring him to TNA?

[GhostMachine]

Hogan and Savage apparently made up but I'm not exactly sure when that happened. I think its a given that he'll be bringing Ed "Brutus Beefcake/nWo Disciple" Leslie and Brian Knobs with him. If I remember right, Jerry Saggs is in shape (he's definitely gotta be in better shape than Knobs from the pics I've seen recently) and on the Australian tour Hogan has been doing, so that could mean the return of the Nasty Boys. And I have to admit the Nasty Boys vs. Team 3D is a match I wouldn't mind seeing.

TNA going up against the WWE will bomb. TNA is practically WCW in every way except the two that matter most: money and popularity. If the Rock hosts RAW that night, Hogan showing up on Impact won't mean much. Especially since Impact is re-aired and RAW isn't.

I just don't see TNA ever being a serious threat to the WWE....unless Vince retires or dies and Stephanie and Triple-H run it into the ground.

What I'd like to see TNA do is not only use their connections with New Japan more, but also form an alliance with CMLL in Mexico (No way they could align with AAA because Konnan is running AAA and left TNA on bad terms). I'd love to see Yuji Nagata or Masa Chono wrestle in the U.S. again, and at one point it was rumored they might bring in Great Muta for a match but that never happened and I'd die if it actually did. (Muta is with All Japan, not New Japan,  but still.....) And I want La Parka back on tv!

Unfortunately, one of my favorite Japanese promotions has folded. No more HUSTLE.

[Mr. Hamrick]

TNA going up against the WWE will bomb. TNA is practically WCW in every way except the two that matter most: money and popularity. If the Rock hosts RAW that night, Hogan showing up on Impact won't mean much. Especially since Impact is re-aired and RAW isn't.

I strongly disagree that TNA is WCW in every way.  The only ways that TNA remotely resembles WCW is
a) that Russo is heading creative which he did for WCW and WWE. 
b) they've utilized more than just their main event and upper mid-card guys.

TNA has done several things better than WCW was able to do (for a variety of reasons).  Such as:

• Elevating new stars.  TNA has done it.  WCW tried it and failed with "The New Blood" angle and WWE is just now trying to elevate new talent in a serious manner.  TNA has been a lot more open with that talent elevation as well.  For every guy that WWE has elevated into the Main Event, TNA has elevated two into the upper midcard or Main Event picture.  Despite everyone having a seemingly negative opinion of The Main Event Mafia on the internet, it served its purpose of elevating younger talent up the roster and even took a (much needed) swipe at the closed main event picture that both WCW and WWE are known to do.
• TNA is better at utilizing their whole roster.  Yes, WCW often made an effort to utilize their roster.  WWE makes a halfhearted effort periodically.  TNA does it fairly consistently.  Practically everyone on the TNA roster has been involved on some sort of angle.  Even the guys that came in for a short stint then left.
• The Women's Division...  WWE has never been able to do much with their women's division.  The creative team doesn't seem allowed to do much with them.   In short, the only time you are going to women in a feud in the WWE (especially recently) is relating to a title. (See Michelle McCool vs. Mickie James and Melina vs. Maryse).  With TNA, you have at least five feuds involving the TNA Knockouts right now.  Granted, a few of those feuds seem to overlap.  And only one of them is currently for the title.  (those feuds are ODB vs. Tara, Alyssa Flash vs. Traci Brooks, Hamada vs. Alyssa Flash (though this is not a "major feud", I don't think), Kong vs. Tara (might've been resolved), Hamada vs. Sarita and Tayor Wylde (I suspect Hamada will be getting a tag partner), The Beautiful People were finishing up a feud with Sarita and Wylde as well.  Daffney is not feuding with anyone because she is recovering from a legit concussion.  The Beautiful People probably won't be involved with any serious feuds until matters with certain talent are resolved.  And there is another Knockout who is waiting to be medically cleared to return to the ring.  (One who I want to see feud with Hamada BADLY!)  TNA utilizes all of their women's division as often as they can and in actual wrestling matches. 

As far as Hogan coming, I have mixed feelings.  I love the idea of The Nasty Boys vs. Team 3D in a serious feud.  Even better... BEER MONEY vs. The Nasty Boys.  That's two feuds that would great if done right.  Heck, even The Motor City Machine Guns would be interesting to see against The Nasty Boys due to the contrast in styles.

Brutus Beefcake?  He'd be great to have come in and help put over some of the guys like Hernandez and Suicide and D'Angelo Dinero. 

As for other guys that worked the Australian tour...
well there was Mr. Anderson (formerly Kennedy) but he is supposedly entertaining acting role more than wrestling jobs.  Though, I think if Hogan made him an offer that he'd take it.  There was also had a guy called The Black Pearl who would be interesting to see in TNA.  Sean Morely could show up and that wouldn't be a bad thing.  There are others, too.  And then of course, you had the late Eddie "Umaga" Fatu.  Oh, Rikishi, and Vampire Warrior of whom probably won't come back to TNA.

Nevertheless, TNA is not WCW.  People say that to merely try to dismiss TNA or because they miss WCW.  Granted, TNA is no Ring of Honor either though there were more along that line at one point.

[Ares_God_of_War]

"The New Blood" angle and "Millionaire's Club" reminded me of the Main Event Mafia deal as well. The reason one works and the other didnt is by the time WCW really attempted to elevate new people singlely other than Goldberg they jumped to WWE and at the same time when they tried the whole "New Blood" thing no one really cared about WCW. It was a sinking ship that Time Warner had already given up on. Basically the "Finger poke of Doom" and blabbing about Foley winning the title in the same night were the mortal wound for WCW and it basically bleed itself to death from then on.

[thanoson]

I personally don't want the Nasty Boys or Ed "that's my bag of coke" Leslie on my screen. These guys are way out of their prime wrestling years. Just because you're best friends with somebody doesn't mean you get to ride everywhere with them. I want new, younger faces. We already have Kevin "Father Time" Nash, Scott "destroyer of the english language" Steiner, and the Great Albino Klingon Hulk Hogan in TNA.

My question is, what about Russo? KOKE KOGANS!!!! last appearance on Nitro wasn't the best send off for his new boss. What happens now?

[Marmeille]

Well it's official now (not just rumors)...

http://www.wwe.com/shows/raw/special/allspecialguesthosts/brethartreturns



Bret "The Hit Man" Hart is back in the WWE!!!!



I'm so pumped for this, I've been excited ever since Dennis Miller mentioned Bret's name to Vince two weeks ago during RAW's Slammy Award show, then the internet rumors of an alledged WWE contract signed by Bret Hart (supposed to last up to Wrestlemania), then what's-his-face-baseball-player-guest-host asked Vince about those rumors last week and now tonight Vince cut a pretty nice promo with HBK involved (haha) and now it's official, Bret is guest hosting RAW next week, right against TNA live Impact Hulk Hogan's big return (yawns - lol).

The pink and black attack is back baby!

[thanoson]

Yep, I'm much more excited about Brett's return than Hogan's. Though, I will be flipping between both.

[herodad1]

hulks wrestling? i thought he could barely walk and lived off pain medicine? ive been a hulka-maniac since the 80's but come on...hang it up hulk. your rich!

[detourne_me]

No Way! Bret Hart? My all time fave!

[Failed_Hero]

Bret Hart returning will prove interesting.  I loved Bret as a competitor, but he does not need to wrestle given his health.  I'd love to see him come in some kind of management capacity whether as a GM or mouth piece for a group or guy who is an excellent wrestler but has no luck getting over (that is just my nostalgia for the likes of The Brain and the Grand Wizard)

I am concerned for the direction that Hogan will be taking TNA particularly with rumors of Hogan being viewed as the benevolent savior of the TNA.  I am concerned that Jeff Jarrett is going to run out of the company he built on a rail because of Hogan and Bishoff. The last thing we need is the WCW type booking between Bishoff, Hogan, Nash (and possibly Hall).  The old school glad handing I thought was the very reason Jarret worked so hard to make TNA unqiue. Which I think it is.  It has sense of the old school over the top characters, but in this surreal alternate reality.  WWE did too much in 90's to rumor the stigma of trying to bring the real world into wreslting, they have recovered from this by poking fun itself with the guest hosts on Raw and allowing for some more over the edge gimmicks I.e. the Return of the Hurricane, Jillian Hall, the mainstreaming of John Cena as basically the golden boy. (Alot of similarities in my opinion to the Cena/Orton feud and Superman/Lexs Luthor.)  At most I am spot viewing fan keeping up occasionally, but I am excited to see these Icons return. 

[RTTingle]

Aw man...

..."Dr Death" Steve Williams lost his fight with cancer.  One of my all time favorites in the sport, he was ferocious.

RTT

[Xenolith]

I don't watch wrestling anymore, but I did until WCW was bought by WWE.  I picked up the Hisotry of the WCW video a few months ago and it was an incredible story.  I'd say any company that has Jarrett, Bischoff, Hogan, Nash, and Hall is doomed to failure because of ineptness, corruption, bad judgement, bad writing, bad booking, and bad wrestling.

Maybe they've learned from their mistakes?

[Mr. Hamrick]

I don't watch wrestling anymore, but I did until WCW was bought by WWE.  I picked up the Hisotry of the WCW video a few months ago and it was an incredible story.  I'd say any company that has Jarrett, Bischoff, Hogan, Nash, and Hall is doomed to failure because of ineptness, corruption, bad judgement, bad writing, bad booking, and bad wrestling.

Maybe they've learned from their mistakes?

I've said this before and I will say this again.  Don't judge everything that happened with WCW solely based on the "History of WCW" DVD or the reputation of any one person.  For a while, several of those names you mentioned were behind the most success that WCW ever had.  Starting with the NWO angle, the reinvention of Sting (and betting of his character in the long run), and several other successful and ingenious things that were done under the direction of Bischoff.  What killed WCW primarily was the meddling of both Turner Sports and Time Warner.  Especially toward the end.  Granted there were things that were done by Hogan, Bischoff and Nash that definitely made the problems worse but they do not deserve the sole blame.  All three men have a good mind and arguably great mind for the business side of the wrestling industry.

The problem is that much of Hogan's mind for the business stems from the mid to late 80s era of wrestling.  If he can update his mode of thinking to what works now instead of what worked 20-25 years ago then TNA will benefit from Hogan being on the creative team.  And that will be Hogan's primary role in the company: Head of Creative.

As for Bischoff, I can't think of anyone better to help Dixie Carter raise the bar in TNA and be seen as a legitimate alternative and even competition to WWE.  He worked wonders turning WCW around and was even beating WWE in the ratings until Turner started messing with the product.  Hall and Nash?  Personally, I would love to see them team against Beer Money, The British Invasion, and Team 3-D.  I'd rather see them team then Eric Young and Kevin Nash.

As for any of those guys being willing to elevate talent, the only guys working in the ring on any sort of regular basis will be Hall and Nash.  Nash has done everything he could to elevate the talent he has worked with on any sort of serious program.  See Eric Young, Abyss, and even Jay Lethal.  All three of them immediately come to mind when thinking of guys that Kevin Nash has directly helped.

Now there is Jarrett.  Jeff Jarrett was never in any sort of serious position of power in WCW.  Did he have some "stroke" in WCW? Yes.  However, he actually founded TNA along with his father.  He has been the minority owner of TNA though for several years now.  He has had more of a backstage role since his wife died.  He has also not had any sort of major ownership in the company.  Yes, he has been back in the ring recently.  However, even that as been complicated by the whole Karen Angle situation.  He will do what is right for the success and continued existence of the company he founded.  If that includes letting Hogan take over the reigns of creative for a while then so be it.

Aw man...

..."Dr Death" Steve Williams lost his fight with cancer.  One of my all time favorites in the sport, he was ferocious.

RTT

Bummer.  I still have a couple of fond memories of Dr. Death from his Varsity Club days.

Well it's official now (not just rumors)...

http://www.wwe.com/shows/raw/special/allspecialguesthosts/brethartreturns



Bret "The Hit Man" Hart is back in the WWE!!!!



The pink and black attack is back baby!

I'll do you one better.  Bret is not only back but

Spoiler

will be working with The Hart Dynasty.  TJ and Harry are prepping for RAW in Ohio right now.

[Xenolith]

You are a glass half full person, Mr. Hamrick.     I had my suspicions about WCW while those guys were running the show, and the DVD backed up my thoughts.  You are right though, they did bring a lot to the table at the beginnnig, but man, they really messed stuff up.  The AWA DVD was also very interesting.

[thanoson]

If only Paul Heyman could get signed on. Between Russo, Bischoff and Heyman, I believe TNA would have the makings of a serious threat to WWE. The talent that TNA has and underutilizes is astounding. Their womens division is so much better than the strippers WWE pulls out of the clubs. Only Mickie James, Beth Phoenix and Natalya could stand up to the roster of TNA. I'd say Gail Kim as well, but her last outings on tv have been horrible. The guys that have a lot of talent on WWE but are too small for their image (WWE) are the Bournes, Kingstons and Yangs. These guys are great but will never get to shine and move up; with the exception of Kingston. SOmehow he lucked out and got the push. STill, the other guys need a break as well. Problem is, these guys are more suited to cruiserweight or tag team titles. The unified Tag belts is killing the opportunity for other teams to get a shot. And the lack of a cruiserweight title makes these normally tiny guys have to go through the Icopro infused genetic freaks that Vince loves so much. The guys they rarely win against. Yeah, I know, Rey Misterio won the title. He was probably treated worse as a champion than Jericho was when he was the undisputed champ. Rey lost every match as a champion. Jericho had to carry stephanies dog and walk it. This doesn't bode well for the Bournes of Raw. Give him a belt he can win.

Anyways, I'll be watching tonight.

[Mr. Hamrick]

You are a glass half full person, Mr. Hamrick.     I had my suspicions about WCW while those guys were running the show, and the DVD backed up my thoughts.  You are right though, they did bring a lot to the table at the beginnnig, but man, they really messed stuff up.  The AWA DVD was also very interesting.

The problem is that the DVD you are referring to is not an completely honest and accurate portrayal of everything that went on that led to the downfall of WCW.  I wouldn't call myself a glass half full type of person.  I am merely being honest.  I have some various opinions of Scott Hall and Sean Waltman that mostly negative.  However, I can see some benefit of a short term deal with TNA that would allow them to play off the history they have with Hogan.  I don't see it being more than a short term deal.  Especially with the assortment of issues with those two.  Nash? He has been with TNA a while and has been somewhere between being a mostly good thing for the company and mostly harmless.  I love the idea of Eric Bischoff being there because he knows the wrestling business.  And I think Hogan and company are well aware of their reputation (especially in regards to their WCW antics) and are playing it up as evident by what happened on TNA last night.

TNA was really well put together last night other than a few minor flubs.  Most of those flubs were most on the production truck in than anything that happened in the ring.  (And may have been just my cable provider, I'm not sure.)

Oh, and just one last note.  You know Bischoff's cousin, well second cousin, use to frequent these boards, right?  She use to come on here as Lady_Angel100 back when we dated.  LOL!

[thanoson]

So, I found that when Bret Came out to open the show, I didn't give a rats arse what Hogan had to say. It was good to see the Hitman again, though he hasnt aged very well. He looks like he's still got a fight or two left in his well fit body, but he looks sad in the face. The HBK and him stuff worked really good. However, it was the closer that topped it off. I already knew that Vince was gonna sucker shot him, but for a 2nd there I almost believed that Bret was gonna get the closure right there. Till Vince stepped away. DOOOMMMM!!!!!! Should be an interesting program with those two. Vince will stack the cards in his favor month after month. Brett will eventually overcome and get his rub.

Over on TNA. Man, Vince had to be fuming over all the ingrates. Hardy, Flair, Mick, Val (don't say old names) Venis? I had a friend over who doesn't follow wrestling that much and I kept having to say, WWE made that person a star, and that one, and that one. Must have said it at least 15 times. Wow, you're in tight with Hogan and you are set for life. He got all of his boys jobs. SUprised Bootiesharkbarberzodiacdisciple wasnt there. Brian Knobbs looks horrible. And I just knew they were gonna fued with the Dudleys. sigh. Even Bubba the Sponge off of Hogan's sack got a job. Guess it pays to be loyal huh? It was nice comparing the 2 womens matches with the Maryse/ Bella match. One match was doing hair tosses, the other was doing top rope missile dropkick/Awesome Bombs. It's sad, as before the Diva contest, WWE had Victoria, Molly Holly, Jazz, Trish, Lita, Miss Jackie, and the RTC girl I cant remember at this time. They would have all given the Knockouts competition. Now, nothing. ANyways, I saw of old WCW gimmicks being used. Sting in the rafters, unknown assailents, and people trying to get in. meh.

[Ares_God_of_War]

wasnt Val Venis fired anyway? I dont see him as an ingrate but the others I can sort of see.

[GhostMachine]

Yep. Val was released. Read spoilers for next week's IMPACT, and he's going to be going by his real name, Sean Morley. "Your Feature Presentation" Seam Morley, apparently. Sadly it looks like its going to be crap next week except for the Knockouts Tag Title match and Dinero vs. Joe. That, and Angelina Love's return is next week. Will be skipping it, even if I do love me some Hamada.

Oh, and the masked man who tried to interfere in the Styles-Angle match unmasks next week. Don't want to get anyone's hopes up, so I'll spoil it since his eventual return is already well known to be happening:

Spoiler

Its Tomko, and he attacks AJ Styles.

TNA has proven time and again that they can't do anything right; the Jeff Jarrett-Hulk Hogan segment, both were supposed to come off as faces, with Hogan pointing out that the younger talent hasn't been pushed properly, but the crowd was booing Hogan and cheering Jarrett. The end of the show with Foley being beaten up really screwed things up, if you ask me. But it looks like Bischoff is definitely a heel according to the spoilers for next week, and so are Nash, Hall and Waltman. (Who I jokingly call `the nWnoHogan') So I guess plans changed, or they royally screwed things up.

[Mr. Hamrick]

the situation between Hogan and Jarrett couldn't have been been predicted, though.  The plan was for Hogan to out babyface Jarrett.  Hogan was shocked that it didn't work as were several others. 

I think what that boils down to though is a loyalty to Jarrett by the longtime TNA fans.  Just like many Hogan fans feel he can do know wrong.

And just like many critics of TNA feel that they can do no right.

Personally, I thought TNA's Monday broadcast came off rather well.  I know several friends in the business who agree with that.  Even though it was not perfect, it was much better than expected by many in the business.

[Ares_God_of_War]

All in all I do hope they can compete. I want to see them both raise their game a little.