Another reason he was an easy target: he’s Marty Frickin’ Jannetty. It’s not like they fired Lou Thesz or anything.
If you go to TNA’s Web site, they have a .torrent of their live show every week. Be warned though, I downloaded one and it’s got some crazy flash player that you need to run it through (comes with the download) but damned if I could get it to work. That and the seeds seem to disappear the day after.
Or you can watch it online: http://www.tnawrestling.com/index2.html
Brain You think Flair would have let Thesz in in the first place?
Tonight on Smackdown:
The Blue Meanie vs. JBL
Everyone here familiar with that situation?
Other news: The Dudleys should get to keep their names.
No new firings as of 3:15pm EDT.
No WAY.
I figured it’d trun into a work when I heard Heyman doing his “ECW would put that match on anytime, anywhere” schtick, but I really didn’t think that enough people would go for it.
I bet the jackass doesn’t put the Meanie over.
But it’d be awesome if he did.
I hate JBL. With a passion.
Unbelievable. Talk about bad timing; I’m sure this isn’t showing in the UK. Not that this tired angle was ever any good, considering current events, but the timing (remembering it was filmed Monday) is just terrible.
In other (lighter) news, the Blue Meanie pins JBL. HSHP gets his wish.
Daivari, that poor bastard.
And I’m sorry, but I’m bigger than Daivari and I’m 170. If he’s 200, I’ll eat my boots.
Does anybody else think it’s awesome that Captain Charisma is calling his peeps the “Christian Coalition?”
The Dudleys (all 3 of them) own their gimmicks. Supposedly, that’s why the Dudleys quit wearing the tie-dye, since Vince would have had to cut them in on the shirts.
The U.K. version of Smackdown had the Undertaker bit cut, according to Inside Pulse. I’m a bit surprised that Vince let the Meanie get a shot at JBL, but I have a feeling it was to keep Meanie from trying to sue.
The web guys at WWE.com have removed the ECW and (defunct) WCW title histories, although there are some references to the ECW straps in the trivia boxes, and the current WCW belts in use still include their history.
I don’t ‘follow’ pro-wrestling.
But I have to let you all know that Tatanka (Chris Chavis) is a friend of mine. Known him since junior high school.
Matter of fact, another guy and I used to call him “Wahoo” (as a joking reference to Chief Ed ‘Wahoo’ McDaniel).
JBL was perfectly safe. It’s not like JBL has anything to fear from him. While a bully, JBL, I understand, is a legit tough guy, and Meanie just isn’t in that class. [All wrestlers are tough in my book, so I’m talking about by wrestler standards.]
Poor Chavis. Had a decent WWWF run back in the day, but like so many other Native American wrestlers, he was saddled with a lame gimmick that he couldn’t overcome.
The Meanie can’t work. Loved to see him get some back, but the flailing punches and keeping his head down the whole time leads me to believe that an actual fight wouldn’t go so well for him.
Although the moonsault surprised me. I don’t think I could do one.
I didn’t think in a million years that JBL would put the Meanie over clean (the win looked like it was shoehorned into a likely pre-existing buildup to JBL-Batista), but I think the juicing was a bit conciliatory.
And the Christian-Batista match was a good one, at least from the Christian end. The kid knows what he’s doing. I like Batista, but the old sell-and-squash was Hogan’s routine, and, although Batista sells better than Hogan, I still think that a dude that quick ought to have more in his arsenal than press-slams and powerbombs.
What say you guys?
Batista: Promising or peaked? And why?
I still think he is promising. He is young, in good shape, surprisingly fast for his size, he doesn’t mind selling, and has lots of potential to get better, especially if carried by better wrestlers. Plus, I like his personality. Sort of a laid-back, cool guy, with touches of RVD and The Rock. There are already enough monster heels, so I was glad they made Batista into a face. I think he is already a better wrestler than John Cena.
Agree with BBCL. Batista’s in-ring work is better than Cena, but Cena, at this time, is better at hyping a crowd (although I find his mic work juvenile, his delivery is spot-on). Both have huge upside potential. When Orton returns, they really need to develop his smarminess, as he’s a better ring worker than both.
Meanie has always finished with moonsaults. That and run away are the only things he does well. Hollywood Nova and Big Stevie Cool were the wrestlers. At the beginning, it was just Nova, as Stevie wasn’t that good either. Stevie was tutored by Raven, though, and really got better over time.
I never followed ECW back in the day, so what was Nova’s deal? Wasn’t he a masked superhero at some point? When they brought him into WWE from OVW, I was really hoping they would keep that persona, as a counterpoint for Hurricane (either an ally or an arch-enemy), but instead they introduced him as the Simon Dean character. I’m glad he is back as Nova, but what are his strengths and weaknesses as a character and as a wrestler?
He had no strengths as a character, but was a good ring talent. Simon Dean’s inability to get over was not a fluke. Only Steve Richards had any personality and charisma. As for gimmicks, he had several, easily forgettable ones. One may have been a superhero. He worked really well with Little Guido (Nunzio). They had good in-ring chemistry, and Guido could build the crowd heat for Nova.
Nova/Dean is the kind of guy you need on the roster to feed to your up and coming monsters - a jobber who’ll get in some shots (as opposed to a total squash). Nova is the type of wrestler who can make a Cena look better than he is. To show my age and how long I’ve been watching wrestling, I remember when Curt Hennig was in that role!
Too bad the WWE just fired a lot of people who were perfect in that role (Kidman, Moore, Akio, and Spike Dudley in particular).
Speaking of firings…
That’s because he got physical with another worker, almost immediately after coming off of an administrative leave. Man’s got a temper. This isn’t the tennis racquet-waving Cornette managing the Midnight Express anymore.
Holy crap, they canned Cornette? It’s almost like Vince is intentionally trying to drive the company in the ground. Cornette is the reason that OVW is almost more popular than WWE (at least in this area) and is one of the best people to be teaching young guys how to cut promos.
This makes the list of guys TNA needs to sign pretty large:
The Dudleys
Spike Dudley
Jim Cornette (let him announce, manage, book, anything)
Kidman, Shannon Moore and Akio (for the X Division)
The CoinStar machines at grocery stores across Orlando will be busy today.
I don’t get it. Do you mean TNA will be cashing in all their loose change?
Sadly, I’ve lived in Orlando since December and haven’t made it to a TNA taping yet. I fully intend to rectify this in August.
Don’t remember if it has been mentioned, but unlike most of the released talent (buyouts with 90-day no-compete clauses), the Dudleys contract is up in about a month. D-Von can be getting tables real soon!
On another note, Matt Hardy’s no-compete is up and he’s starting indie shows next weekend.