Nah, they aren’t together anymore.
Blake knocked up the winner of Tough Enough and got suuuuper fat. We saw him at a house show a handful of months ago. Murph hasn’t been seen in ages either. He’s presumably just living off of Alexa Bliss’s money.
No wonder you’re being pitted…
btw; I loved the Street Profits v Lars Sullivan/Silvio match. That was fun. 
Not so much the Ruby Riot v Big Lips Billy Kay. Too clunky and when I watch Ruby Riot run at BK and intentionally slow down to a near stop before ‘crashing’ into BK or hitting her, it is just way too fakey/staged.
*BAHWANNGGAAAHHHH
BANNNHHH*
Backstage, where the locker rooms have been tagged with barrio spray paint, Catrina confronts Cage as he’s working out, Gauntlet of Doom nearby. She tells him the gauntlet is not for him, but belongs to the bringer of death. He snorts in disagreement as the gauntlet materializes on his hand. He tries to sucker-punch Catrina, but she vanishes in thin air. So, Cage goes looking for a more solid target.
Cueto Cup tournament Semifinal: Prince Puma vs Fenix
I think these guys actually spend more time in the air than on the ground. Maybe the old-schoolers object to the fast pace and flippy dippery, but damn if it don’t look exciting. Fenix’s love interest Melissa Santos looks on with intent, then Marty the Moth sneaks up behind her and tries to snog her. She warns him to go away, which is audible over her mic, so Fenix hears and gets distracted. Prince Puma takes advantage and takes him out with the 630.
Backstage, the locker room vibrates with a constant pounding. Sexy Star sees her water cup shake. Dario Cueto feels the earth move in his office. Mil Muertes is seen pounding a punching bag with utter rage. He does not notice Cage sneaking behind him. Cage has a barbell plate which he conks on top of MM’s head. MM goes down, and Cage attacks his ribs with the plate and leaves him gasping in pain. Catrina arrives and uses the magic rock to revive Mil, but he’s still not well.
Cueto Cup tournament Semifinal: Pentagon Dark vs Mil Muertes
With Mil at a disadvantage, Pent gets in most of the offense, but Mil can still withstand the attacks and fight back. Pent however, is relentless and eventually takes down the monster for the win. Pent then attempts to break Mil’s arm, but the Demigod of Death hulks up and throws him away with one arm.
In the final segment, Dario Cueto takes the mic and says he wants Rey Misterio and Johnny Mundo to face each other before their match next week, because “if there’s anything I love, it’s for my luchadors to TALK SHIT TO EACH OTHER!”
Rey comes out to cheers. Mundo emerges with 4 guys wearing SECURITY shirts. Mundo takes the mic and tells Rey “Gee, your son is a big guy. How tall is he, six-one? Six-two? Doesn’t take after you at all. In fact, I wonder if you’re really his father!” Incensed, Rey jumps over the Security squad and mauls Mundo. Security tries to control him, but Rey superkicks and disposes them out of the ring. However, Mundo’s cronies of the Worldwide Underground come to his rescue and soon have Rey eating the canvas. Rey’s friends El Dragon Azteca Jr, the Mack, and Prince Puma run in to fight off his attackers. Eventually, the entire LU roster arrives to participate in the mayhem. The luchadors brawl all over the temple, while The Rabbit Tribe sit on a rafter and eat carrots. Dante Fox also watches from a ledge, but he gets attacked by Killshot and they brawl. Dario is grinning lasciviously and loves the chaos.
*BAHWANNGGAAAHHHH
BANNNHHH*
Corbin was pushed too fast. He’s got the potential to be a great heel, he’s been getting better, but there’s no place for him as a solo act. I’d like to see the Blackjacks get reworked using him and Big Ass.
Seamus and Cesaro vs. Rollins and Ambrose could be one of the greatest tag team matches in history if they let these guys do their own thing. More likely we’ll get some over choreographed nonsense with a stupid ending but they did ok with the Hardy’s vs. Seamus and Cesaro so there’s a chance for something good.
Sounds like Ric Flair is in bad shape. He was one of my all time favorites, incredibly tough, endless stamina, a great athlete, entertainer, and promoter. He copied his style from an earlier Nature Boy, Buddy Rogers, and did him proud, he had all of Buddy’s ego but he was a much better wrestler. I really hope he pulls through, he’s had a self-imposed tough life from all of his partying that remarkably wore down his body more than the wrestling he did. He probably took more bumps in more matches than any wrestler alive now, maybe ever. His love of that lifestyle may have denied him a chance to make a lot more money as a wrestler working for Vince but I can understand he wanted to be that long term champion with the freedom to do it his own way. He did a couple of shows with Vince against Bob Backlund in the 80s and I wish I’d had a chance to see those two. I don’t know how good the matches were but those would have been two of the most athletic World Champions to meet in the ring. By the time he finally inked a contract with Vince for a full time deal he was an old wrestler but still making his mark in the ring. Old debts left him broke and he had to keep on wrestling wherever he could, which was said to see as he declined, still better than a lot of younger guys, but a shadow of his former self. He ended up financially better of in retirement from selling pictures and autographs than he did in all those years of wrestling where he burned the money he made, when he did manage to get paid by crooked promoters world-wide.
I first saw the Ric Flair on an episode of Championship Wrestling from Florida with Gordon Solie. That show was dominated by Dusty Rhodes, Buddy Colt, the Briscos and Mike and Eddie Graham at the time but Ric showed up and grabbed the spotlight in his great style. He was obviously on steroids then, a 70s body-builder’s physique, he bragged that he had a body that could have been carved by Michaelangelo, and he referred to the shows other stars as ‘fair wrestlers’ while proclaiming that he was more of a man than all of them put together. Shortly after that he was off the scene for a while due to injuries sustained in a plane crash. Announcers would say that doctors would tell him he would never walk again, Flair himself says the doctors told him he would never wrestle again, but either way they were wrong. He would take on the best in wrestlers in the NWA, win title after title, and stay at the top of the game for years. He was a generous wrestler also, he’d take on the top guys in every territory to give them a pay day, and sometimes let them hold the title for a few days, while making little for his efforts. He was willing to show up in the smallest and largest venues anywhere in the world to promote himself and promote wrestling.
His day and age has gone. I consider Ric to be the best of his era, a long time champion who walked the walk and talked the talk. He made the game better.
I was introduced to Ric Flair even before we had cable and TBS. I knew his name from the magazines (which I would read at the store because no way pre-teen me could actually afford one). One day while flipping channels I found Florida Championship Wrestling on one of the Spanish channels. It was the first wrestling show I would ever see that wasn’t WWWF. What a change of pace! The first Flair TV feud I remember (though maybe not the first I saw…gimme a break, it was ~40 years ago) was Flair versus Hacksaw Butch Reed in FCW. Watching only TV WWWF, which was almost nothing but jobber matches back then, I got to see a real championship match. They went to a time-limit draw. Ric begged for more time to finish off Butch and was granted 5 more minutes, but Butch won. Of course, the extra-time was not sanctioned, therefore the championship didn’t change hands. For me, that was the first time I saw that finish. Still remember it. A few years later, we got cable TV and got to regularly see Ric Flair (and Roddy Piper) promos that were night and day better than anything happening in the WWF.
You know, of all the ways I’ve heard or thought about how to make GFW/TNA a better product, I don’t know that “Let’s make Jim Cornette the onscreen authority figure!” was ever mentioned.
As for Flair, yeah, that’s a real bummer, whatever is going on doesn’t sound real good. I used to watch WCCW when I was a kid–I know my dad took me to one of the Wrestling Star Wars events, and I think he was there, but I’ve never been able to be sure which one it was–live and TV events all blend together in my mind.
I cannot disagree enough because that was the most entertaining half hour of Impact wrestling I’ve ever seen…probably because 90% of it was a shoot.
So, if you couldn’t tell, it was a night of live wrestling for the Cups household as we were able to see not only Destination X live, but also the 20 man “gauntlet” to determine the champ.
As for the show, it was better than Battleground, but not Impact’s best. The women’s match was a damn train wreck, the X Division match was extremely disappointing IMO because I know Trevor Lee has way more in him than what he showed, Lashley and Matt Sydel was good though.
Now on to the “gauntlet”. I use the quotes because aren’t gauntlets determined by pinfall? This was definitely just a rumble. Lotta guys came out, but I’ll type the best part in a spoiler box because…well…I dunno, no one watches Impact…
It’s the on-screen debut of Johnny [del]mundo[/del][del]nitro[/del] Impact!
That’s right, one of only two of our favorite wrestlers that we haven’t seen in person,
and we got to see him! There as a small part of me that was hoping he would be here for the tapings this week, and when Jeremy “backstage passes” Borash announced an entrant for the “gauntlet” that had never stepped foot into the ring before, I just knew. We were so excited! Unfortunately, he lost. But the good news is the new champ is one E-LI DRAKE, who definitely deserves it. Regardless, I’m super excited to see Mundo in person, now all we have to see is Ricochet…
I don’t think we’ll make it to tomorrow’s taping, but we have definite plans to go to Saturday’s. Here’s to hoping it’s a fun one!
He’s been an authority figure there before and worked on production. He ended up leaving because he was tired of producing the shit Vince Russo was writing.
I just listened to the special edition of his podcast that he did to address the issue. It was partially a work, but he essentially said that he hasn’t signed a full-time contract, that they came to him about making a comeback, and that he may or may not come back after the current set of tapings.
I know he considers Bruce Prichard and Dutch Mantell to be good friends, so he may just be doing them a solid now that Dixie and Russo are gone.
I did like the way they hinted that Cornette was old school and out of touch in Eli’s promo, kinda shootish. Cornette’s words didn’t exactly “feel” like his usual voice to me, maybe because I’m so used to him as a heel. He needs to get Kenny Bolin to be his on-air marketing guru.
What’s going to happen to Tyrus now? He hasn’t been in a match in ages and was relegated to being Pritchard’s bodyguard. I’m wondering if his appearances on Fox & Friends are giving him backstage heat, especially with the white supremacy issue, which I hope to Og they don’t develop into an angle. They aren’t even spotlighting his appearance on GLOW, much less Awesome Kong’s.
This trophy thing GFW gives to tournament winners strikes me as kind of cheap. They can get trophies online for $10. Grats newcomer, we won’t have you win a belt yet, but here’s a nice trophy to show we’re thinking of you. You can put it next to your bowling trophies. Won’t that be nice?
Tyrus has also appeared as the silent Hell Guard in Season 2 of Preacher.
Oh yes, I’ve been watching since the Impact on Fox days–I just don’t know that anyone was thinking that the best way to fix/improve/move forward Impact was viaa the addition of Cornette.
He’s certainly provides good entertainment value, but developing it into “competing authority figures” is something I don’t want to see, and if he’s not on a firm deal, showing up for a cheap surprise and never reappearing isn’t real good either. But we shall see.
It probably doesn’t help that with the long times between taping, every taping session starts with several “Surprise Debuts/Returns” and several others vanish–it’s like they have to reset every 6 weeks. (Cornette, Petey Williams, Teryn Terrell all returned in one episode, plus Johnny Mundo/Impact was announced. That’s a lot for one 2-hour show)
Oh, in other news, WWE posted another season of Southpaw Regional Wrestling today. This set of discovered tapes is from the previous year.
In other news, it’s been reported that the Undertaker has been spotted boarding a flight from Texas to NYC, suggesting he might be involved at Summerslam in some capacity.
If he shows up in the ME to attack Roman Reigns and cost him the match I will be pleased as punch.
Yes, it does seem like GFW is rotating past stars in and out like Matt Morgan, Magnus, and whoever wears the Suicide body suit. Why not bring back Russo and not tell Cornette? That would make for some nuclear shoot heat.
NXT puts on far better marquee shows than the main roster shows. Just wrestling, no trying to sell a match one has already shown up to watch.
Solid show so far. reDRagon showing up to attack Sanity was an unexpected surprise.
Kinda had to figure the end of the Asuka-Ember Moon match since it didn’t go on last, but dayum, that was a helluva match.
So was the Black-Itami match.
And with that, Heath Slater becomes the only member of 3MB not to have been world champion.
ETA: ADAM COLE, BAY-BAY!
I think the tag titles he won with Rhino is the only title he’s ever held. Probably the only title he’s likely to ever hold too.
According to Wiki, he was also a three-time tag champion with Justin Gabriel, and held the FCW championship before it became NXT.