How old are you?
January Wrasslin |OT| Every Mark For Himself
- Thread starter Mr. Sam
- Start date
- Status
How old are you?
I liked Tyler Black as champ, I thought Lynn holding the belt was worse but yeah, Strong was bad. I quit watching for a while when he held the belt.
British Monsoon
Member
They waited too long to pull the trigger on Tyler Black, he should have beaten Nigel in January '09 when the fans were behind him. Instead, they gave us a Jerry Lynn title run no one wanted, failed to pull the trigger again in June '09, instead giving the belt to Aries, and once more didn't pull the trigger at Final Battle that year. By the time Tyler won in February '10, the fans had turned on him. Even so, his title run wasn't all that memorable, although I enjoyed his defence against Hero iirc.
FallingEdge
Member
I always found Strong to be a boring character. He just seemed generic in every sort of way.
I still secretly hope for a Jimmy Rave or Jimmy Jacobs title run. And I'm glad that Kingston is the CHIKARA champ. Seriously, I have so much love for that guy. Always delivers in the ring or on the mic.
I still secretly hope for a Jimmy Rave or Jimmy Jacobs title run. And I'm glad that Kingston is the CHIKARA champ. Seriously, I have so much love for that guy. Always delivers in the ring or on the mic.
Liquidsnake
Banned
I want to post this in case I get banned. Ill miss you all hopefully it isn't permanent. I hope If I did get banned, you guys would miss me. I hope you would.
Why would you get banned?
Carnby
Member
For being creepy?
Liquidsnake
Banned
Defending Tebow.
I love how Jeakwon pops in every two weeks and contributes "creepy" to this thread. Bro you are acting creepy by not letting that shit go, and kind of post stalking. No?
Carnby
Member
Post stalking? I'm in this thread every day and I'm sorry to damage your ego, but you are not the reason. After you made a giant ass out of yourself in the "should I leave my girlfriend" thread, many of us will always be here to remind you that you are a creep.
Mr. Enigma
Member
27. Now, how is my age relevant to that opinion?
ViewtifulJC
Banned
Liquidsnake accusing others of being creepy/stalkerish
There aren't enough black kettle and pot jokes to go around today. G-Fex, squash this shit, please. Make it a tag-team match, playa
There aren't enough black kettle and pot jokes to go around today. G-Fex, squash this shit, please. Make it a tag-team match, playa
D
Deleted member 47027
Unconfirmed Member
This is seriously one of the best things I've seen from both The Genius and Huk Hogins. Really excellent on both parts.
bean breath
Member
Cena's popularity is at an all-time high. Yes! suck it, Cena haters!
Unlike Punk, There's never any doubt that Cena's won a match.
Unlike Punk, There's never any doubt that Cena's won a match.
Mr. Enigma
Member
Here's the scoop on Flair/WWE.
Perspicacity
Banned
Oh god, I'd repressed the Jerry Lynn run, but yeah he was probably worse than Black as well, wasn't that them trying to cash in on The Wrestler?
That would have been such a godawful string of champions if they didn't have Aries right in the middle
canadian crowe
Member
To be fair, Arda Ocal did create that and he's seems to love Cena quite a lot.
FallingEdge
Member
LOL. I too forgot about the Lynn run. Wow.
At least it wasn't as bad as Xavier. And speaking of random wrestlers, does anyone know what happened to "The Fake Ass Rocky" Sonny Siaki? I loved that guy.
At least it wasn't as bad as Xavier. And speaking of random wrestlers, does anyone know what happened to "The Fake Ass Rocky" Sonny Siaki? I loved that guy.
Mr. Enigma
Member
He retired from wrestling in 2008 after donating a kidney to his brother.
FallingEdge
Member
Damn. Well, good for him on that part. Hope he is doing well. Speaking of missing wrestlers, I wish Lacey would come back <3
sf2fanatic
Member
Took this from another post
Favorite 3 wrestlers of all time:
Dino Bravo
Rick Rude
AE Cena
Close ones being: Mr Wonderful, Mr. Perfect, Randy Savage, Steiner, DDP
Current Fave Five:
1. Cody Rhodes
2. KANE
3. Bobby Roode
4. AJ Styles
5. Scorpio Sky
HM: Cena
Earliest wrasslin' memory?
Every Saturday watching Superstars... Anyone remember Sean Mooney? LOL
Favorite promo, or promos?
Cena/Angle-
Jake/Martel- Martel spraying Roberts
Rock/Foley
Funniest wrasslin' memory?
Taker with Kamala and Yoko..How them two were always scared when Taker theme was played
Favorite finisher?
Dr Death
Steiner Recliner
Doomsday Device-LOD
Favorite Tag Teams?
Demolition
LOD
Hart
Brain Busters
Dudleys
Were too many to chose from but
Favorite 3 wrestlers of all time:
Dino Bravo
Rick Rude
AE Cena
Close ones being: Mr Wonderful, Mr. Perfect, Randy Savage, Steiner, DDP
Current Fave Five:
1. Cody Rhodes
2. KANE
3. Bobby Roode
4. AJ Styles
5. Scorpio Sky
HM: Cena
Earliest wrasslin' memory?
Every Saturday watching Superstars... Anyone remember Sean Mooney? LOL
Favorite promo, or promos?
Cena/Angle-
Jake/Martel- Martel spraying Roberts
Rock/Foley
Funniest wrasslin' memory?
Taker with Kamala and Yoko..How them two were always scared when Taker theme was played
Favorite finisher?
Dr Death
Steiner Recliner
Doomsday Device-LOD
Favorite Tag Teams?
Demolition
LOD
Hart
Brain Busters
Dudleys
Were too many to chose from but
Professor Beef
Banned
Every time I hear Tyler Black, I think of Tyler Reks, and I get extraordinarily pissed off.
I think I remember hearing she left ROH to enter college, she was waifu material.
bean breath
Member
It's a great match, with wonderful commentary.
Someone should sit Michael Cole down and force him to watch this match so he can learn what being an announcer is all about.
bean breath
Member
Biggest-Geek-Ever
Member
bean breath
Member
Sometimes the WWE's mandate for a name change can be a good thing then.
canadian crowe
Member
I'm not sure if it's Kane or Ryder who is the ratings killer. I'm leaning towards Kane. Masked Kane has been a huge bust for me so far.
Mr. Enigma
Member
The segment was advertised as Eve vs. Beth Phoenix. And they put it out there at 10:50. Blame people not wanting to see a Diva match 10 minutes before the show ended.
D
Deleted member 47027
Unconfirmed Member
Took this from another post
Favorite 3 wrestlers of all time:
Dino Bravo
Rick Rude
AE Cena
Close ones being: Mr Wonderful, Mr. Perfect, Randy Savage, Steiner, DDP
Current Fave Five:
1. Cody Rhodes
2. KANE
3. Bobby Roode
4. AJ Styles
5. Scorpio Sky
HM: Cena
Earliest wrasslin' memory?
Every Saturday watching Superstars... Anyone remember Sean Mooney? LOL
Favorite promo, or promos?
Cena/Angle-
Jake/Martel- Martel spraying Roberts
Rock/Foley
Funniest wrasslin' memory?
Taker with Kamala and Yoko..How them two were always scared when Taker theme was played
Favorite finisher?
Dr Death
Steiner Recliner
Doomsday Device-LOD
Favorite Tag Teams?
Demolition
LOD
Hart
Brain Busters
Dudleys
Were too many to chose from but
Lots of good stuff here. Loved The Model! Now regarding Mr. Wonderful...did it break your heart, his last match? It even upset me, I don't like him much.
It reminds me of when they had Kane vs Mason Ryan as the "main event" of Raw.
bean breath
Member
Favorite 3 wrestlers of all time:
1. Bret Hart
2. Ricky Steamboat
3. CM Punk
Current Fave Five:
1. Punk
2. Jericho
3. Bryan
4. R-Truth
5. Phoenix
Earliest wrasslin' memory? - The intermission promos of the 1992 Royal Rumble.
Favorite promo, or promos? - Paul Heyman tearing Vince McMahon a new asshole on the last Smackdown before Survivor Series 2001.
Funniest wrasslin' memory? - The "Lie, Cheat and Steal" skits. "Eh... gimme two."
Favorite finisher? - The Owen Driver '97 or the Burning Hammer.
1. Bret Hart
2. Ricky Steamboat
3. CM Punk
Current Fave Five:
1. Punk
2. Jericho
3. Bryan
4. R-Truth
5. Phoenix
Earliest wrasslin' memory? - The intermission promos of the 1992 Royal Rumble.
Favorite promo, or promos? - Paul Heyman tearing Vince McMahon a new asshole on the last Smackdown before Survivor Series 2001.
Funniest wrasslin' memory? - The "Lie, Cheat and Steal" skits. "Eh... gimme two."
Favorite finisher? - The Owen Driver '97 or the Burning Hammer.
dream
Member
The first inductees to the 2012 Hall of Fame class will be Edge and The Four Horsemen, which is a unique issue because that is headed by Ric Flair.
That means that as of right now, they are giving people the impression that a TNA contracted talent will be one of the major draws for a WWE live event, as tickets go on sale soon, with Edge and Flair as the two biggest draws up to this point.
Mil Mascaras was announced in Mexico months ago and should be announced on TV shortly in the U.S. While there are probably four or five more names to be announced over the next few months, that would indicate that The Rock, who most figured would go in since its in Miami, one of his home towns (he lives in both South Florida and Los Angeles), wont be going in. It is still possible for Randy Savage, but that would almost overload it, as it would make Edge and the Horsemen come off as secondary.
This also would seem to indicate Toronto wont be the home of next years WrestleMania. Toronto at one point was scheduled for the 2012 Mania, but Miami made a better choice because The Rock was headlining, and it is a strong tourist destination, although nowhere near as historically strong a wrestling market as Toronto. There has also been talk of 2013 being at Cowboys Stadium, using Steve Austin and Brock Lesnar, and perhaps the idea of Undertakers retirement, as big outside draws. It was considered a given that if Toronto was getting Mania that Edge and Trish Stratus, who are both from that area, would have been the key inductees.
This would be the first time WWE has ever inducted someone contracted to a rival promotion into the Hall of Fame. Plus, it was a decision WWE made, based on all we can tell, without negotiating or working out any kind of an agreement with TNA before making the announcement.
Based on the chronology of events the way it was explained to us, HHH called Ric Flair on 1/9, before it aired. Flair was at the TNA tapings working. HHH told him they were inducting the Horsemen and it would be announced later in the night.
It doesnt appear the key people in TNA were aware of it until it aired on television. Flair and Vince McMahon do talk and I would suspect the subject was broached about a Four Horsemen in the Hall of Fame, because Ive heard it discussed over the last year or two, ever since they made amends with J.J. Dillon. Arn Anderson was always someone considered. Arn Anderson was expected for last year in Atlanta, but I guess the idea was the Horsemen as a group, and at that point, with Flair far more prominent and still wrestling on TNA television, not to do so at that time.
Nobody from TNA as of 1/10 had said anything to Flair about it, perhaps because they havent figured out how they are going to react to it.
There are the a few viewpoints about this one. There is the romantic fan viewpoint that wants to believe this Hall of Fame is like a real Hall of Fame (and there are wrestlers who believe it to be and others who dont, usually depending upon the age of the wrestler, the older they are, the less likely they see it as anything but business) and TNA would be Scrooges to not let him go.
There are those who believe WWE is using a TNA contracted talent to help sell its event, draw ratings on its TV and help sell DVDs, since at the end of the day the Hall of Fame is purely a marketing device and most in WWE willfully will admit that.
They could also look at it like it only makes their guy look like a big star and its welcome publicity. And theres a lot of truth to that, but it also makes TNA come across as minor league, but the argument is, everyone sees things that way anyhow.
Another situation is WWE does want Flair back in the fold, particularly when the network launches, since hes featured in so much of the old footage. And really, Flair isnt a key guy in TNA storylines right now, doing nothing but managing Gunner, although at one point they were building to a Flair vs. Garett Bischoff program.
Based on what Im told, it was a really ballsy move by WWE in the sense that TNA comes across second-rate no matter how they play this, particularly since if it comes down to a fight and Flair goes against orders, he comes across as a hero. If Flair doesnt go because they wont let him and they treat it like hed be violating his contract, TNA also looks bad.
WWE has not outright said Flair will be there, so at this point they havent done anything wrong. They have the right to induct anyone they want into their Hall of Fame and the right to use any of the footage they own in marketing.
But they do want Flair there. And Flair wants to be there. Flair was going to go this year to sit in the crowd, even though TNA probably wasnt thrilled about it, if they were inducting people he knew like Edge and Arn Anderson, and he went last year when Shawn Michaels was inducted which WWE pushed hard on its web site. But its a different thing from a contract issue to go and sit in a crowd at an event and another to be one of the featured performers.
So right now the situation is to see how TNA reacts to this, if they just let it go, or make it an issue with Flair, or an issue with WWE.
The group being inducted will be the third version of the Horsemen, consisting of Flair, Arn Anderson, Tully Blanchard, Barry Windham and J.J. Dillon. As far as working went, they were the best version, four of the top wrestlers in the world in that period. You could argue strongly that Flair and Windham, when that foursome was together, were the two best wrestlers in North America. You could argue that Blanchard & Anderson were the best tag team at that time, although in their case, there would be a much stronger debate because the scene was loaded with great tag teams. But whether they were the best tag team, they were in the debate for the best tag team.
The original version of the Horseman (November 1985 to March 1987) had Ole Anderson in the Windham spot. Ole in the WWE Hall of Fame would be difficult as I wouldnt think hed participate, plus there is heat between he and several other members of the group, most notably Flair.
Back in the 80s, Ole and Vince McMahon had their court fight over Vince buying a majority interest in Georgia Championship Wrestling. McMahon bought the promotion to get the TBS time slot. Ole was running the company and had no idea of the sale until it went through, and only then he found out his business partners all went behind his back and sold their stock, which amounted to more than 50%, a majority interest, to McMahon, who essentially closed down the company. Ole said some really nasty things to Linda McMahon at the time. Because of that, Vince told him that he would never work for WWF.
Decades later, when they were doing the Horsemen DVD and wanted Ole to participate, Ole wouldnt do it and actually said that his reason was that Vince told him hed never do anything with WWF and he didnt want Vince to prove to be a liar. I dont think Ole was considered but most figure if he was asked he would turn it down anyway.
The second version of the Horsemen (February 1987, as there was an overlap when Luger started and Ole was turned on, through the end of 1987) was with Lex Luger, but there was bitterness of how Luger walked out on WWF without telling anyone and showed up on the first Nitro in 1996, resulting in at least Vince attempting and threatening to sue but it went nowhere. At one point it would have been considered impossible for Luger to be in the WWF Hall of Fame, but since Lugers major health issues, a lot of the bitterness is likely gone.
The Windham group was from January 1987 to September 1988. From a business standpoint, the first version was by far the most successful. By 1987, Crockett business was struggling because booker Dusty Rhodes went with a pat hand too young.
Business picked up in 1988, but that wasnt because of the Horsemen, but because Luger turned face and got hot, and Luger vs. Flair in the aftermath of the Great American Bash PPV that year drew big for a while, but Crockett was so deep in debt that he still had to sell. Blanchard & Anderson quit Crockett promotions in September 1988, just before the sale went through, because they were fed up with Rhodes as booker. The key was that when the Turner people took over, they interviewed people in the company asking what the problems were. The interviews were all supposed to be kept confidential. Blanchard in particular buried the job Rhodes was doing as booker, but Rhodes found out and his attitude toward Blanchard changed greatly.
Blanchard & Anderson then signed to go to WWF, which was funny because Rhodes was replaced as booker a couple of months later, then eventually fired and he ended up in WWF with them. Flair, Windham and Dillon remained aligned in WCW until Dillon took a front office job as the Head of Talent Relations for Vince, which ended the Horsemen name, as Flair and Windham were kept together in a group called the Yamazaki Corporation, with the idea that rich Japanese businessmen led by Hiro Matsuda had purchased the American institution of the Four Horsemen. That angle got over about as good as it sounds.
They were going to bring the name back at the end of 1989, with Flair, Ole Anderson, Arn Anderson and Blanchard, but not Dillon, when Flair, booking at the time in WCW, put together a deal to get Anderson & Blanchard back at $250,000 per year, which was more than they were making in WWF as tag team champions. However, right after Blanchard & Arn Anderson gave notice, Blanchard failed a WWF drug test for cocaine and was fired.
Jim Herd, running WCW, then overruled Flair and rescinded the offer to Blanchard, saying they werent going to hire someone just fired over cocaine by the opposition. While Blanchard wrestled for several more years mostly in a minor league capacity, that pretty much spelled the end of his career as a major performer and he became a religious speaker.
Flair, Ole, Arn and Sting instead became the babyface Four Horsemen, but they quickly turned on Sting, with the idea of building Sting to beat Flair, going back heel, to win the NWA title. But Sting blew out his knee in the angle that turned them heel and that delayed the title change by almost five months as he needed reconstructive surgery.
Ole then retired and in May 1990, the new Horsemen were Flair, Arn, a returning Windham (who had also had an unsuccessful WWF run) and Sid Vicious, with Ole as manager. That fell apart in 1991 when Vicious and Flair both went to WWF.
The name was brought back from May to December 1993 with Flair, Arn, Ole (as a manager) and Paul Roma. There was an attempt to get Blanchard back in the group, but Blanchard and WCW ended up being far apart on money terms and he wouldnt sign.
In late 1995, a new group formed with Flair, Arn, Brian Pillman and Chris Benoit. The plan was for them to break up into two groups, with the Flair & Arn group of the Original Horsemen feuding with the Pillman & Benoit group, the new Horsemen of the Apocalypse. But that never happened.
But Pillman did his Loose Cannon gimmick and the idea fell through.
The next version was Flair, Arn, Benoit and Steve McMichael starting in the summer of 1996. Anderson retired due to problems stemming from a herniated disc in his neck dating back years earlier and worsening, in the summer of 1997, and Curt Hennig was in his spot, but he turned on Flair a month later. Jeff Jarrett was also in the Horsemen for a time.
In September 1998, in one of the most memorable moments in TV wrestling history, Flair returned after a series of lawsuits back and forth with WCW. The new group, starting out as faces, had Arn as the manager of a group of Flair, Benoit, Dean Malenko and McMichael. McMichael ended up being fired by WCW and Flair, Benoit and Malenko went heel in 1999. The final incarnation ended in May 1999 when Benoit & Malenko left the group and broke away from Flair.
With this, Flair is the first person in the WWE Hall of Fame to be inducted twice.
With Edge, they are planning on doing some major marketing of him around that time, with a DVD that they have been working on that will be released in April, as well as a WWE movie, Breaking the Rules, that will be released at the same time.
As noted before, besides the bad blood between Vince McMahon and Savage, Lanny Poffo said that Randys wishes when it came to the WWE Hall of Fame is that the Poffo family (Lanny, Randy and Angelo) go in as a group like the Von Erichs, all or nothing. I guess well see. Edge, who is 38, would be the youngest person ever to be inducted. If Chris Adkisson (Chris Von Erich) was still alive, hed have been 39 when he was inducted, and even more than the limo driver, he would be the single strangest person to be in the Hall of Fame, given he had a very only one year in the business, never worked outside of one territory, a very minor territory at the time, and was really never pushed there past the idea of doing gimmick matches with heel managers.
Edge said that if he did have the choice, and he thinks he will, that hed like Christian to induct him. He said he was told he was voted unanimously. They actually do not have an official voting process, but take votes from inner circle people, but in the end, Vinces vote counts as 51% and everyone elses counts as 49%.
Edge said that eventually he is going to need another neck surgery but wants to avoid it, noting that he went to the dentist recently and then couldnt move his head for two days, and that any plane ride that goes past two hours is difficult for him. He also said he would be doing season three of the Syfy network TV show Haven this year.
New Japan Pro Wrestlings 40th anniversary year opened with its biggest show of the year, the annual 1/4 Wrestle Kingdom show at the Tokyo Dome, the Japanese equivalent to WrestleMania.
IWGP champion Hiroshi Tanahashi, on the one-year anniversary of his starting his current title reign by beating Satoshi Kojima at the Dome, set the companys all-time record with his 11th title defense, pinning Minoru Suzuki in the main event before 23,000 fans (announced as 43,000). The show in many ways is like a WrestleMania where there are so many big matches that top guys end up getting limited time, and in many ways, the match caliber isnt as good as a lot of the major arena shows during the year.
But even so, this was a good show. The crowd was far from the near sellouts that were almost automatic from the companys second event at the Tokyo Dome in 1990 until business really started falling in 2002. But it was the third best crowd of the companys last eight shows at the Dome. With the exception of the 2009 show where Tanahashi represented New Japan in chasing All Japans legendary Keiji Muto, who had a long run with New Japans IWGP title, a far stronger main event storyline than anything this year, it was the best crowd since 2006. And that crowd for a show headlined by Brock Lesnar vs. Shinsuke Nakamura was heavily papered.
Not everything worked. Kazuchika Okada was sent to TNA to gain international experience, and then largely forgotten past a brief angle as Samoa Joes sidekick. In that one, he dressed up like Kato from the Green Hornet cartoons, was given the name Okato, and was involved in a terrible angle with The Pope. He returned, with bleached blond hair, doing a playboy gimmick as Rainmaker Kazuchika Okada, with the idea in a battle of returnees, hed quickly squash Yoshi-Hashi (Nobuo Yoshihashi, who has been in CMLL actually wrestling a full schedule and getting better). He did beat Yoshi-Hashi quickly, but did not look impressive in doing so. At the end of the show, after Tanahashi beat Suzuki, he came out and issued a challenge for a title match. Because of how unimpressive he had looked in his return, the people booed the angle and werent accepting of it at all. Okadas dye job looked amateur, and he was completely unconvincing as this new cocky playboy. When he mocked Tanahashis winning pose, it got little heat. He was booed on the way out, but it didnt feel like the right kind of heat.
Both tag team titles changed hands. As expected, Satoshi Kojima & Hiroyoshi Tenzan ended the long reign of Giant Bernard & Karl Anderson as IWGP tag team champions, which dated back to June 19, 2010. The 564-day reign was the longest in the history of the championship. Kojima & Tenzan were the companys hottest tag team before Kojima left the promotion to join All Japan. In fact, their July 21, 2000 to September 23, 2001, title reign of 430 days was the record setter at the time, and still the third longest in history (Tenzan & Masahiro Chono broke the record at 446 days in 2002-03). When Kojima returned for his big singles run in 2010, the Kojima vs. Tenzan feud seemed like a natural, as did making up and reforming their team.
The other title change saw Prince Devitt & Ryusuke Taguchi win the IWGP jr. tag titles for the fourth time, beating Davey Richards & Rocky Romero. Devitt & Taguchi tied Gedo & Jado for the most title reigns in history.
But the main theme of the show was New Japan vs. Outsiders. Suzuki was a free agent who they gave a winning streak to, the shooting pioneer who beat one person after another with his Karl Gotch piledriver. Tetsuya Naito, New Japans hope to be the next Tanahashi, lost to Muto in what was billed as Wrestling Genius vs. Wrestling Genius, in the sense it was pushed as the smartest in-ring worker of the young generation against the smartest of the old generation.
Pro Wrestling NOAHs combination of GHC champion Go Shiozaki & Naomichi Marufuji beat New Japan s Shinsuke Nakamura & Toru Yano. The match was a disappointment, missing something, but they pushed the idea of a Nakamura vs. Marufuji program for this year.
Togi Makabe, New Japans top brawler, beat free agent Yoshihiro Takayama, who is a regular with NOAH. New Japans Hirooki Goto beat All Japans Takashi Sugiura in a stiff match.
And in a match that ended up in a disaster, All Japans MMA combination of Masakatsu Funaki & Masayuki Kono beat New Japans Yuji Nagata & Wataru Inoue. The idea was to start a Funaki vs. Nagata series. However, during the match, when Nagata delivered a running knee into the corner, he landed way too stiff, breaking not only Funakis left orbital bone, but his nose and other bones, crushing the left side of his face. Funaki needs surgery and will be out of action for six months. This is a major blow, as it not only delays that program, but will force All Japan into making major changes for this year, as Funaki was a key part of their plans, in particular the Champion Carnival tournament in April.
While most sports are declining in popularity in Japan, New Japan Pro Wrestling has started making small steps in growing over the past three years, with Tanahashi bringing in a new audience. Tanahashi has the aura of a top guy when you see him on New Japan shows, but more like a Bret Hart or a John Cena, as opposed to a Ric Flair or a Hulk Hogan or a Mitsuharu Misawa, Muto or Kenta Kobashi. But in the ring he delivers the long world title match at the end of every PPV show, usually four stars or better, although he will be hard pressed next time.
The next PPV show will be on 2/12 from Osaka Furitsu Gym, with Tanahashi vs. Okada for the title as the main event, plus rematches of both tag title bouts, with Tenzan & Kojima vs. Bernard & Anderson and Devitt & Taguchi vs. Romero & Richards. In addition, Masato Tanaka defends the IC title against Goto.
That means that as of right now, they are giving people the impression that a TNA contracted talent will be one of the major draws for a WWE live event, as tickets go on sale soon, with Edge and Flair as the two biggest draws up to this point.
Mil Mascaras was announced in Mexico months ago and should be announced on TV shortly in the U.S. While there are probably four or five more names to be announced over the next few months, that would indicate that The Rock, who most figured would go in since its in Miami, one of his home towns (he lives in both South Florida and Los Angeles), wont be going in. It is still possible for Randy Savage, but that would almost overload it, as it would make Edge and the Horsemen come off as secondary.
This also would seem to indicate Toronto wont be the home of next years WrestleMania. Toronto at one point was scheduled for the 2012 Mania, but Miami made a better choice because The Rock was headlining, and it is a strong tourist destination, although nowhere near as historically strong a wrestling market as Toronto. There has also been talk of 2013 being at Cowboys Stadium, using Steve Austin and Brock Lesnar, and perhaps the idea of Undertakers retirement, as big outside draws. It was considered a given that if Toronto was getting Mania that Edge and Trish Stratus, who are both from that area, would have been the key inductees.
This would be the first time WWE has ever inducted someone contracted to a rival promotion into the Hall of Fame. Plus, it was a decision WWE made, based on all we can tell, without negotiating or working out any kind of an agreement with TNA before making the announcement.
Based on the chronology of events the way it was explained to us, HHH called Ric Flair on 1/9, before it aired. Flair was at the TNA tapings working. HHH told him they were inducting the Horsemen and it would be announced later in the night.
It doesnt appear the key people in TNA were aware of it until it aired on television. Flair and Vince McMahon do talk and I would suspect the subject was broached about a Four Horsemen in the Hall of Fame, because Ive heard it discussed over the last year or two, ever since they made amends with J.J. Dillon. Arn Anderson was always someone considered. Arn Anderson was expected for last year in Atlanta, but I guess the idea was the Horsemen as a group, and at that point, with Flair far more prominent and still wrestling on TNA television, not to do so at that time.
Nobody from TNA as of 1/10 had said anything to Flair about it, perhaps because they havent figured out how they are going to react to it.
There are the a few viewpoints about this one. There is the romantic fan viewpoint that wants to believe this Hall of Fame is like a real Hall of Fame (and there are wrestlers who believe it to be and others who dont, usually depending upon the age of the wrestler, the older they are, the less likely they see it as anything but business) and TNA would be Scrooges to not let him go.
There are those who believe WWE is using a TNA contracted talent to help sell its event, draw ratings on its TV and help sell DVDs, since at the end of the day the Hall of Fame is purely a marketing device and most in WWE willfully will admit that.
They could also look at it like it only makes their guy look like a big star and its welcome publicity. And theres a lot of truth to that, but it also makes TNA come across as minor league, but the argument is, everyone sees things that way anyhow.
Another situation is WWE does want Flair back in the fold, particularly when the network launches, since hes featured in so much of the old footage. And really, Flair isnt a key guy in TNA storylines right now, doing nothing but managing Gunner, although at one point they were building to a Flair vs. Garett Bischoff program.
Based on what Im told, it was a really ballsy move by WWE in the sense that TNA comes across second-rate no matter how they play this, particularly since if it comes down to a fight and Flair goes against orders, he comes across as a hero. If Flair doesnt go because they wont let him and they treat it like hed be violating his contract, TNA also looks bad.
WWE has not outright said Flair will be there, so at this point they havent done anything wrong. They have the right to induct anyone they want into their Hall of Fame and the right to use any of the footage they own in marketing.
But they do want Flair there. And Flair wants to be there. Flair was going to go this year to sit in the crowd, even though TNA probably wasnt thrilled about it, if they were inducting people he knew like Edge and Arn Anderson, and he went last year when Shawn Michaels was inducted which WWE pushed hard on its web site. But its a different thing from a contract issue to go and sit in a crowd at an event and another to be one of the featured performers.
So right now the situation is to see how TNA reacts to this, if they just let it go, or make it an issue with Flair, or an issue with WWE.
The group being inducted will be the third version of the Horsemen, consisting of Flair, Arn Anderson, Tully Blanchard, Barry Windham and J.J. Dillon. As far as working went, they were the best version, four of the top wrestlers in the world in that period. You could argue strongly that Flair and Windham, when that foursome was together, were the two best wrestlers in North America. You could argue that Blanchard & Anderson were the best tag team at that time, although in their case, there would be a much stronger debate because the scene was loaded with great tag teams. But whether they were the best tag team, they were in the debate for the best tag team.
The original version of the Horseman (November 1985 to March 1987) had Ole Anderson in the Windham spot. Ole in the WWE Hall of Fame would be difficult as I wouldnt think hed participate, plus there is heat between he and several other members of the group, most notably Flair.
Back in the 80s, Ole and Vince McMahon had their court fight over Vince buying a majority interest in Georgia Championship Wrestling. McMahon bought the promotion to get the TBS time slot. Ole was running the company and had no idea of the sale until it went through, and only then he found out his business partners all went behind his back and sold their stock, which amounted to more than 50%, a majority interest, to McMahon, who essentially closed down the company. Ole said some really nasty things to Linda McMahon at the time. Because of that, Vince told him that he would never work for WWF.
Decades later, when they were doing the Horsemen DVD and wanted Ole to participate, Ole wouldnt do it and actually said that his reason was that Vince told him hed never do anything with WWF and he didnt want Vince to prove to be a liar. I dont think Ole was considered but most figure if he was asked he would turn it down anyway.
The second version of the Horsemen (February 1987, as there was an overlap when Luger started and Ole was turned on, through the end of 1987) was with Lex Luger, but there was bitterness of how Luger walked out on WWF without telling anyone and showed up on the first Nitro in 1996, resulting in at least Vince attempting and threatening to sue but it went nowhere. At one point it would have been considered impossible for Luger to be in the WWF Hall of Fame, but since Lugers major health issues, a lot of the bitterness is likely gone.
The Windham group was from January 1987 to September 1988. From a business standpoint, the first version was by far the most successful. By 1987, Crockett business was struggling because booker Dusty Rhodes went with a pat hand too young.
Business picked up in 1988, but that wasnt because of the Horsemen, but because Luger turned face and got hot, and Luger vs. Flair in the aftermath of the Great American Bash PPV that year drew big for a while, but Crockett was so deep in debt that he still had to sell. Blanchard & Anderson quit Crockett promotions in September 1988, just before the sale went through, because they were fed up with Rhodes as booker. The key was that when the Turner people took over, they interviewed people in the company asking what the problems were. The interviews were all supposed to be kept confidential. Blanchard in particular buried the job Rhodes was doing as booker, but Rhodes found out and his attitude toward Blanchard changed greatly.
Blanchard & Anderson then signed to go to WWF, which was funny because Rhodes was replaced as booker a couple of months later, then eventually fired and he ended up in WWF with them. Flair, Windham and Dillon remained aligned in WCW until Dillon took a front office job as the Head of Talent Relations for Vince, which ended the Horsemen name, as Flair and Windham were kept together in a group called the Yamazaki Corporation, with the idea that rich Japanese businessmen led by Hiro Matsuda had purchased the American institution of the Four Horsemen. That angle got over about as good as it sounds.
They were going to bring the name back at the end of 1989, with Flair, Ole Anderson, Arn Anderson and Blanchard, but not Dillon, when Flair, booking at the time in WCW, put together a deal to get Anderson & Blanchard back at $250,000 per year, which was more than they were making in WWF as tag team champions. However, right after Blanchard & Arn Anderson gave notice, Blanchard failed a WWF drug test for cocaine and was fired.
Jim Herd, running WCW, then overruled Flair and rescinded the offer to Blanchard, saying they werent going to hire someone just fired over cocaine by the opposition. While Blanchard wrestled for several more years mostly in a minor league capacity, that pretty much spelled the end of his career as a major performer and he became a religious speaker.
Flair, Ole, Arn and Sting instead became the babyface Four Horsemen, but they quickly turned on Sting, with the idea of building Sting to beat Flair, going back heel, to win the NWA title. But Sting blew out his knee in the angle that turned them heel and that delayed the title change by almost five months as he needed reconstructive surgery.
Ole then retired and in May 1990, the new Horsemen were Flair, Arn, a returning Windham (who had also had an unsuccessful WWF run) and Sid Vicious, with Ole as manager. That fell apart in 1991 when Vicious and Flair both went to WWF.
The name was brought back from May to December 1993 with Flair, Arn, Ole (as a manager) and Paul Roma. There was an attempt to get Blanchard back in the group, but Blanchard and WCW ended up being far apart on money terms and he wouldnt sign.
In late 1995, a new group formed with Flair, Arn, Brian Pillman and Chris Benoit. The plan was for them to break up into two groups, with the Flair & Arn group of the Original Horsemen feuding with the Pillman & Benoit group, the new Horsemen of the Apocalypse. But that never happened.
But Pillman did his Loose Cannon gimmick and the idea fell through.
The next version was Flair, Arn, Benoit and Steve McMichael starting in the summer of 1996. Anderson retired due to problems stemming from a herniated disc in his neck dating back years earlier and worsening, in the summer of 1997, and Curt Hennig was in his spot, but he turned on Flair a month later. Jeff Jarrett was also in the Horsemen for a time.
In September 1998, in one of the most memorable moments in TV wrestling history, Flair returned after a series of lawsuits back and forth with WCW. The new group, starting out as faces, had Arn as the manager of a group of Flair, Benoit, Dean Malenko and McMichael. McMichael ended up being fired by WCW and Flair, Benoit and Malenko went heel in 1999. The final incarnation ended in May 1999 when Benoit & Malenko left the group and broke away from Flair.
With this, Flair is the first person in the WWE Hall of Fame to be inducted twice.
With Edge, they are planning on doing some major marketing of him around that time, with a DVD that they have been working on that will be released in April, as well as a WWE movie, Breaking the Rules, that will be released at the same time.
As noted before, besides the bad blood between Vince McMahon and Savage, Lanny Poffo said that Randys wishes when it came to the WWE Hall of Fame is that the Poffo family (Lanny, Randy and Angelo) go in as a group like the Von Erichs, all or nothing. I guess well see. Edge, who is 38, would be the youngest person ever to be inducted. If Chris Adkisson (Chris Von Erich) was still alive, hed have been 39 when he was inducted, and even more than the limo driver, he would be the single strangest person to be in the Hall of Fame, given he had a very only one year in the business, never worked outside of one territory, a very minor territory at the time, and was really never pushed there past the idea of doing gimmick matches with heel managers.
Edge said that if he did have the choice, and he thinks he will, that hed like Christian to induct him. He said he was told he was voted unanimously. They actually do not have an official voting process, but take votes from inner circle people, but in the end, Vinces vote counts as 51% and everyone elses counts as 49%.
Edge said that eventually he is going to need another neck surgery but wants to avoid it, noting that he went to the dentist recently and then couldnt move his head for two days, and that any plane ride that goes past two hours is difficult for him. He also said he would be doing season three of the Syfy network TV show Haven this year.
New Japan Pro Wrestlings 40th anniversary year opened with its biggest show of the year, the annual 1/4 Wrestle Kingdom show at the Tokyo Dome, the Japanese equivalent to WrestleMania.
IWGP champion Hiroshi Tanahashi, on the one-year anniversary of his starting his current title reign by beating Satoshi Kojima at the Dome, set the companys all-time record with his 11th title defense, pinning Minoru Suzuki in the main event before 23,000 fans (announced as 43,000). The show in many ways is like a WrestleMania where there are so many big matches that top guys end up getting limited time, and in many ways, the match caliber isnt as good as a lot of the major arena shows during the year.
But even so, this was a good show. The crowd was far from the near sellouts that were almost automatic from the companys second event at the Tokyo Dome in 1990 until business really started falling in 2002. But it was the third best crowd of the companys last eight shows at the Dome. With the exception of the 2009 show where Tanahashi represented New Japan in chasing All Japans legendary Keiji Muto, who had a long run with New Japans IWGP title, a far stronger main event storyline than anything this year, it was the best crowd since 2006. And that crowd for a show headlined by Brock Lesnar vs. Shinsuke Nakamura was heavily papered.
Not everything worked. Kazuchika Okada was sent to TNA to gain international experience, and then largely forgotten past a brief angle as Samoa Joes sidekick. In that one, he dressed up like Kato from the Green Hornet cartoons, was given the name Okato, and was involved in a terrible angle with The Pope. He returned, with bleached blond hair, doing a playboy gimmick as Rainmaker Kazuchika Okada, with the idea in a battle of returnees, hed quickly squash Yoshi-Hashi (Nobuo Yoshihashi, who has been in CMLL actually wrestling a full schedule and getting better). He did beat Yoshi-Hashi quickly, but did not look impressive in doing so. At the end of the show, after Tanahashi beat Suzuki, he came out and issued a challenge for a title match. Because of how unimpressive he had looked in his return, the people booed the angle and werent accepting of it at all. Okadas dye job looked amateur, and he was completely unconvincing as this new cocky playboy. When he mocked Tanahashis winning pose, it got little heat. He was booed on the way out, but it didnt feel like the right kind of heat.
Both tag team titles changed hands. As expected, Satoshi Kojima & Hiroyoshi Tenzan ended the long reign of Giant Bernard & Karl Anderson as IWGP tag team champions, which dated back to June 19, 2010. The 564-day reign was the longest in the history of the championship. Kojima & Tenzan were the companys hottest tag team before Kojima left the promotion to join All Japan. In fact, their July 21, 2000 to September 23, 2001, title reign of 430 days was the record setter at the time, and still the third longest in history (Tenzan & Masahiro Chono broke the record at 446 days in 2002-03). When Kojima returned for his big singles run in 2010, the Kojima vs. Tenzan feud seemed like a natural, as did making up and reforming their team.
The other title change saw Prince Devitt & Ryusuke Taguchi win the IWGP jr. tag titles for the fourth time, beating Davey Richards & Rocky Romero. Devitt & Taguchi tied Gedo & Jado for the most title reigns in history.
But the main theme of the show was New Japan vs. Outsiders. Suzuki was a free agent who they gave a winning streak to, the shooting pioneer who beat one person after another with his Karl Gotch piledriver. Tetsuya Naito, New Japans hope to be the next Tanahashi, lost to Muto in what was billed as Wrestling Genius vs. Wrestling Genius, in the sense it was pushed as the smartest in-ring worker of the young generation against the smartest of the old generation.
Pro Wrestling NOAHs combination of GHC champion Go Shiozaki & Naomichi Marufuji beat New Japan s Shinsuke Nakamura & Toru Yano. The match was a disappointment, missing something, but they pushed the idea of a Nakamura vs. Marufuji program for this year.
Togi Makabe, New Japans top brawler, beat free agent Yoshihiro Takayama, who is a regular with NOAH. New Japans Hirooki Goto beat All Japans Takashi Sugiura in a stiff match.
And in a match that ended up in a disaster, All Japans MMA combination of Masakatsu Funaki & Masayuki Kono beat New Japans Yuji Nagata & Wataru Inoue. The idea was to start a Funaki vs. Nagata series. However, during the match, when Nagata delivered a running knee into the corner, he landed way too stiff, breaking not only Funakis left orbital bone, but his nose and other bones, crushing the left side of his face. Funaki needs surgery and will be out of action for six months. This is a major blow, as it not only delays that program, but will force All Japan into making major changes for this year, as Funaki was a key part of their plans, in particular the Champion Carnival tournament in April.
While most sports are declining in popularity in Japan, New Japan Pro Wrestling has started making small steps in growing over the past three years, with Tanahashi bringing in a new audience. Tanahashi has the aura of a top guy when you see him on New Japan shows, but more like a Bret Hart or a John Cena, as opposed to a Ric Flair or a Hulk Hogan or a Mitsuharu Misawa, Muto or Kenta Kobashi. But in the ring he delivers the long world title match at the end of every PPV show, usually four stars or better, although he will be hard pressed next time.
The next PPV show will be on 2/12 from Osaka Furitsu Gym, with Tanahashi vs. Okada for the title as the main event, plus rematches of both tag title bouts, with Tenzan & Kojima vs. Bernard & Anderson and Devitt & Taguchi vs. Romero & Richards. In addition, Masato Tanaka defends the IC title against Goto.
dream
Member
Bull Nakano, a Hall of Famer who is probably one of the six or seven greatest woman pro wrestlers who ever lived, had her retirement ceremony and wedding ceremony together on 1/8.
Nakano, in many ways considered the female equivalent of Jumbo Tsuruta, a legendary Japanese wrestler, both because she was big and an excellent worker, and also because she was the main bridge between the two glory eras of womens pro wrestling in Japan.
A teenage Nakano was a pro wrestling prodigy, a name at 16, the Japanese womans wrestling champion at 17, and held the WWWA world title, at the time the biggest and most important championship in womens wrestling, for just shy of three consecutive years, the longest in the history of that championship and in the history of the All Japan Womens Wrestling Association.
As the junior member of a tag team with Dump Matsumoto, she headlined during the heyday of the Crush Gals as a 17-year-old. At 19, she was the top heel in the promotion, and she won the world title one week before her 22nd birthday.
From January 1, 1990, when she won the world title after the retirement of Crush Gals star Lioness Asuka, and held it until losing to Aja Kong on November 26, 1992, she was the top star of the promotion as it rebounded by providing the best wrestling on the planet, the era of Kong, Manami Toyota, Akira Hokuto, Kyoko Inoue and countless others.
The show, said by one person who has been going to wrestling all over the world for more than 30 years, to be the greatest retirement show he had ever seen, was on Nakanos 44th birthday.
It was held at the Tokyo Dome City Hall before a sellout of 3,000 fans, with very high ticket prices ($350, $300 and $250). Nakano, who started at 15 and wrestled from 1983 to 1997, including a run as WWF womens champion, winning it on November 27, 1994, before 42,500 fans at the Tokyo Dome, the largest crowd ever to attend a predominately womens combat sports entertainment event in history. She had left pro wrestling behind in 1997 and worked as a golf pro in Florida and had tried getting on the LPGA tour and the Japanese version of that tour.
Because she had quietly left wrestling, she never had a retirement match. Months back, when he made the announcement, it was noted that to get to look like Nakano, she was going to have to go in reverse, as shed cut down to about 135 pounds and felt to play her role she would have to get back to 220 pounds.
She didnt do a match, but came out in a theatrical stage going over three of her famous matches, Nakano & Dump Matsumoto vs. Crush Gals, Nakano vs. Shinobu Kandori in a chain match and Nakano vs. Aja Kong in a cage match.
First, Nakano & Matsumoto came to the ring. Neither of the Crush Gals were on the show so they had two women dressed up like the 80s Crash Gals in costume. They rang the bell, turned off the lights and showed highlights of their 1985 match on the screen. Nakano then came back out, dressed as 1992 Nakano with her ring outfit and hairdo. Kandori came out dressed like 1992 Kandori and they had a staredown. The lights went off and then they showed highlights on the screen of the chain match. After showing the finish, the two were in the ring embracing. Nakano then came out dressed as 1990 Nakano, with the real Kong coming out. They did do some physical contact and hit each other with objects a little. She then climbed to the top of a small cage. The lights went off and they showed the Nakano legdrop off the top of the super high cage (which probably explains why her back was in such bad shape at a young age) from that match. The lights went on and the two hugged each other, just as they were shown doing at the finish of the cage match.
In the final segment, a man came to the ring, who many know as her longtime boyfriend, Daisuke Aoki. Then they introduced Keiko Nakano (her real name) and she came out with the wedding song playing, wearing a white wedding dress. None of the fans had any idea this was happening.
Everyone who wrestled on the show came out and they had a big wedding celebration. The place was filled with older fans, mostly from the 80s and early 90s. Most no longer follow wrestling.
Many of the top women wrestlers of the last 30 years were on the show including Kong, Ayako Hamada, Jaguar Yokota (now 50, who came in the era before Nakano), Yumiko Hotta, Takako Inoue, Mayumi Ozaki, Mima Shimoda, Manami Toyota, Kaoru Ito, Kyoko Inoue, Matsumoto, Nanae Takahashi and Meiko Satomura.
Nakano herself put together the matches on the show. She handpicked every wrestler on the show and had matches to showcase the younger stars who are still trying to keep womens wrestling alive but have gotten little publicity like Yuzuki Aikawa and Yoshiko of the Stardom promotion, Hikari Shida of Ice Ribbon, Kana of SMASH, Kagetsu of Sendai Girls Pro Wrestling and Hiroyo Matsumoto. She went against the conventional wisdom of putting the main stars on top, although her ceremony was the real main event, headlining with Aikawa vs. Shida, to showcase the next generation of stars.
The show featured a Battle Royal that had stars from the 90s as well as current stars. There was a special mens match, featuring Shinjiro Otani & Ikuto Hidaka & Daichi Hashimoto beating Osamu Nishimura & Hakushi (Jinsei Shinzaki) & Super Delfin which was symbolic of the 90s, when womens matches used to appear as special attractions on some mens shows, and it was those matches that expanded their audience and really made a new generation of stars like Kong, Akira Hokuto and Toyota. She also had a five vs. five tag match with each team having one wrestler in their 50s (Yokota and Matsumoto), one in their 40s (Kyoko Inoue and Toyota), one in their 30s, one in their 20s and one in their teens.
Nakano now owns and runs a bar and grill restaurant in the Nakano section of Tokyo and is there at the restaurant every night. They are looking to do something to give her a permanent affiliation with pro wrestling as the commissioner who oversees all the womens groups, with the idea shell be the go-to person as far as a face trying to promote an attempt to revive interest.
An interesting note is that Shingo Takagi, Suwama of All Japan, Go Shiozaki of NOAH and Kota Ibushi all started their careers at the same time (2004ish) and all know each other. They are trying to put something together where they do a big program together with the idea they can elevate all of them as the big modern stars with these matches. Nobody said Super Six (I know its four guys), but that sounds like the idea.
I wouldnt take this too seriously right now, but Simon Kelly Inoki said he was trying to put together a Brock Lesnar vs. Fedor Emelianenko match. Only it would be a pro wrestling match between the two. Inoki said they are looking at getting Lesnar to wrestle in the IGF, and talked about potential matches with Kazuyuki Fujita, Jerome LeBanner and Emelianenko, who he said they are also trying to get to debut in pro wrestling. I dont see either Lesnar or Emelianenko doing any pro wrestling with the IGF because the asking price for Lesnar is going to be ridiculously high, and I dont see Emelianenkos people letting him do it until after his fighting career is over. Given what IGF pays, I cant see either Lesnar nor Emelianenko being interested. Its more for kickboxing legends like LeBanner and Peter Aerts who have nowhere to fight and make big money anymore to make some money, or for a guy like Josh Barnett who clearly loves pro wrestling and it allows him to do the style he likes and keep his foot in the door while maintaining his MMA career.
OVW drew nearly 500 fans, its biggest crowd in a long time, for the culmination of a program with Michael Hayes, a one legged Iraq war hero, facing Mohamed Ali Vaez in a cage match on 1/7 in Louisville, where Hayes would retire if he lost. They had been feuding for seven months. Hayes tends to bring in casual fans who are very passionate for his big matches. They did the 1982 Flair vs. Kerry Von Erich finish, where Christian Mascagni, a local lawyer who had appeared on ROH television, slammed the door onto Hayes face and Vaez pinned him. Plus they added a post-match beating, with Mascagnis heel group coming from under the ring to make it 5 on 1. The only TNA guys in Louisville right now are Jessie Godderz and Low Rider (known in TNA as Anarquia). Rob Terry will be back at some point soon.
Due to trying to hold down on costs, a lot of regulars will not be on the tapings as well as most in production. Velvet Sky and Scott Steiner we know are not appearing and I think Mexican America is not appearing. Steiner and Rosita are both still scheduled for the WrestleReunion convention in Los Angeles that weekend.
Kurt Angle has now guaranteed he will either make the Olympic team, or at least be an alternate and be sent to London for the games. Not happening. Angle claimed that in 2000, he couldnt go back because he was new to the business, that in 2004 he broke his neck (he was interested in 2003, and talked to Brock Lesnar about both training together and going for it but Lesnar had no interest going back to amateur wrestling) and in 2008 he was going through a divorce. He claimed his body and his neck are fine. Do-or-die for him is the Olympic qualifying tournament in April. In reality, Angle has next to no chance with his age and injuries, plus unless Jake Varner gets hurt, youre talking about a guy who is in his prime and placed second in the world championships and has a legit shot at a medal in the 211 pound weight class. In a New York Post interview he complained about WWE guys stealing his moves, Swagger doing the ankle lock and Orton doing the Olympic slam. Keep this man away from tapes of Takashi Sugiura. He said that Ken Shamrock did the ankle lock before he did, but he didnt do it until Shamrock was out of the business.
Foxsports.com had a good article on Angle. They talked to Dave Hawk, Angles business manager and good friend, who said, Its this crisis in his mind thinking, `Im not Kurt Angle anymore. Im Kurt Angle, this character on TV. But Kurt Angle was real once. He needs to prove it not only to the world but to himself. He wants to regain his youth, prove hes still there and still has it. While Angle claimed to others that he guaranteed hed make the team or be an alternate, in this article he spoke differently. Do I still have a shot? Yeah, but its a long shot. These guys are younger, quicker, but I might be smarter. When I show up at the trials, people will say, `Holy (crap), he showed up. If I do well, itll be `Holy (crap), he did well. USA Wrestling is insisting Angle come to Colorado and train with the Olympic wrestlers because they dont want to be part of a carnival side show if Angle doesnt belong in the trials.
Angle was in Sirius XM on 1/9 and must have taken some brutally honest pills because he said he thought 2011 was a subpar year for the company, and said the biggest problem was the lack of communication between the writing team and the creative team. He said he knows that the scripts are done, but ten everyone starts changing things and the end result is a direction that the writers never intended in the first place. He said Vince Russo writes the shows, but Hogan and Bischoff and others change things at the last minute. He said hes not against the changes and backed Hogan 100%, but felt this should be done a week before the shows and not at the last second. He noted Hogan changing the result of the Bound for Glory main event the night of the show. He noted that it worked out for the better, but he didnt like that he and Roode found out at the last minute when he was trying to work a match with a torn hamstring and shouldnt have been wrestling in the first place. He also said they havent done Samoa Joe justice.
In an interview with Alex Marvez, Abyss said he was interested in dropping the mask. He said hes not pushing for it, but would do it if it would result in more of a push, but doesnt want to do it if its one of those things they just do in TNA as one of a million things and isnt strongly focused on after. The circumstances would need to be right and something thats impactful, he said. It would be a big deal to me for (the mask) to come off and not something I take lightly. But on the flip side, if its going to evolve the character and further enhance it, its something Im up for. He noted dropping the barbed wire, thumb tacks and broken glass bumps, noting, I was pigeonholed just doing hardcore wrestling. That was my staple throughout the years and Im very proud of that. On the other hand, I wanted to let people know and show the fans that I can wrestle, too. Unless theyve got a really great storyline to lead to it and a great idea why, Id be against the move even though the same thing worked well for Mick Foley and helped Kane in the short-run. If it results in an idea leading to a monster opportunity, sure, but so often these changes are made just for something to do on TV and go nowhere.
A funny story regarding the Genesis PPV. During the show, Jeff Jarrett was tweeting. What he was tweeting about, however was not the PPV but the Steelers game and the TV show Desperate Housewives.
Nakano, in many ways considered the female equivalent of Jumbo Tsuruta, a legendary Japanese wrestler, both because she was big and an excellent worker, and also because she was the main bridge between the two glory eras of womens pro wrestling in Japan.
A teenage Nakano was a pro wrestling prodigy, a name at 16, the Japanese womans wrestling champion at 17, and held the WWWA world title, at the time the biggest and most important championship in womens wrestling, for just shy of three consecutive years, the longest in the history of that championship and in the history of the All Japan Womens Wrestling Association.
As the junior member of a tag team with Dump Matsumoto, she headlined during the heyday of the Crush Gals as a 17-year-old. At 19, she was the top heel in the promotion, and she won the world title one week before her 22nd birthday.
From January 1, 1990, when she won the world title after the retirement of Crush Gals star Lioness Asuka, and held it until losing to Aja Kong on November 26, 1992, she was the top star of the promotion as it rebounded by providing the best wrestling on the planet, the era of Kong, Manami Toyota, Akira Hokuto, Kyoko Inoue and countless others.
The show, said by one person who has been going to wrestling all over the world for more than 30 years, to be the greatest retirement show he had ever seen, was on Nakanos 44th birthday.
It was held at the Tokyo Dome City Hall before a sellout of 3,000 fans, with very high ticket prices ($350, $300 and $250). Nakano, who started at 15 and wrestled from 1983 to 1997, including a run as WWF womens champion, winning it on November 27, 1994, before 42,500 fans at the Tokyo Dome, the largest crowd ever to attend a predominately womens combat sports entertainment event in history. She had left pro wrestling behind in 1997 and worked as a golf pro in Florida and had tried getting on the LPGA tour and the Japanese version of that tour.
Because she had quietly left wrestling, she never had a retirement match. Months back, when he made the announcement, it was noted that to get to look like Nakano, she was going to have to go in reverse, as shed cut down to about 135 pounds and felt to play her role she would have to get back to 220 pounds.
She didnt do a match, but came out in a theatrical stage going over three of her famous matches, Nakano & Dump Matsumoto vs. Crush Gals, Nakano vs. Shinobu Kandori in a chain match and Nakano vs. Aja Kong in a cage match.
First, Nakano & Matsumoto came to the ring. Neither of the Crush Gals were on the show so they had two women dressed up like the 80s Crash Gals in costume. They rang the bell, turned off the lights and showed highlights of their 1985 match on the screen. Nakano then came back out, dressed as 1992 Nakano with her ring outfit and hairdo. Kandori came out dressed like 1992 Kandori and they had a staredown. The lights went off and then they showed highlights on the screen of the chain match. After showing the finish, the two were in the ring embracing. Nakano then came out dressed as 1990 Nakano, with the real Kong coming out. They did do some physical contact and hit each other with objects a little. She then climbed to the top of a small cage. The lights went off and they showed the Nakano legdrop off the top of the super high cage (which probably explains why her back was in such bad shape at a young age) from that match. The lights went on and the two hugged each other, just as they were shown doing at the finish of the cage match.
In the final segment, a man came to the ring, who many know as her longtime boyfriend, Daisuke Aoki. Then they introduced Keiko Nakano (her real name) and she came out with the wedding song playing, wearing a white wedding dress. None of the fans had any idea this was happening.
Everyone who wrestled on the show came out and they had a big wedding celebration. The place was filled with older fans, mostly from the 80s and early 90s. Most no longer follow wrestling.
Many of the top women wrestlers of the last 30 years were on the show including Kong, Ayako Hamada, Jaguar Yokota (now 50, who came in the era before Nakano), Yumiko Hotta, Takako Inoue, Mayumi Ozaki, Mima Shimoda, Manami Toyota, Kaoru Ito, Kyoko Inoue, Matsumoto, Nanae Takahashi and Meiko Satomura.
Nakano herself put together the matches on the show. She handpicked every wrestler on the show and had matches to showcase the younger stars who are still trying to keep womens wrestling alive but have gotten little publicity like Yuzuki Aikawa and Yoshiko of the Stardom promotion, Hikari Shida of Ice Ribbon, Kana of SMASH, Kagetsu of Sendai Girls Pro Wrestling and Hiroyo Matsumoto. She went against the conventional wisdom of putting the main stars on top, although her ceremony was the real main event, headlining with Aikawa vs. Shida, to showcase the next generation of stars.
The show featured a Battle Royal that had stars from the 90s as well as current stars. There was a special mens match, featuring Shinjiro Otani & Ikuto Hidaka & Daichi Hashimoto beating Osamu Nishimura & Hakushi (Jinsei Shinzaki) & Super Delfin which was symbolic of the 90s, when womens matches used to appear as special attractions on some mens shows, and it was those matches that expanded their audience and really made a new generation of stars like Kong, Akira Hokuto and Toyota. She also had a five vs. five tag match with each team having one wrestler in their 50s (Yokota and Matsumoto), one in their 40s (Kyoko Inoue and Toyota), one in their 30s, one in their 20s and one in their teens.
Nakano now owns and runs a bar and grill restaurant in the Nakano section of Tokyo and is there at the restaurant every night. They are looking to do something to give her a permanent affiliation with pro wrestling as the commissioner who oversees all the womens groups, with the idea shell be the go-to person as far as a face trying to promote an attempt to revive interest.
An interesting note is that Shingo Takagi, Suwama of All Japan, Go Shiozaki of NOAH and Kota Ibushi all started their careers at the same time (2004ish) and all know each other. They are trying to put something together where they do a big program together with the idea they can elevate all of them as the big modern stars with these matches. Nobody said Super Six (I know its four guys), but that sounds like the idea.
I wouldnt take this too seriously right now, but Simon Kelly Inoki said he was trying to put together a Brock Lesnar vs. Fedor Emelianenko match. Only it would be a pro wrestling match between the two. Inoki said they are looking at getting Lesnar to wrestle in the IGF, and talked about potential matches with Kazuyuki Fujita, Jerome LeBanner and Emelianenko, who he said they are also trying to get to debut in pro wrestling. I dont see either Lesnar or Emelianenko doing any pro wrestling with the IGF because the asking price for Lesnar is going to be ridiculously high, and I dont see Emelianenkos people letting him do it until after his fighting career is over. Given what IGF pays, I cant see either Lesnar nor Emelianenko being interested. Its more for kickboxing legends like LeBanner and Peter Aerts who have nowhere to fight and make big money anymore to make some money, or for a guy like Josh Barnett who clearly loves pro wrestling and it allows him to do the style he likes and keep his foot in the door while maintaining his MMA career.
OVW drew nearly 500 fans, its biggest crowd in a long time, for the culmination of a program with Michael Hayes, a one legged Iraq war hero, facing Mohamed Ali Vaez in a cage match on 1/7 in Louisville, where Hayes would retire if he lost. They had been feuding for seven months. Hayes tends to bring in casual fans who are very passionate for his big matches. They did the 1982 Flair vs. Kerry Von Erich finish, where Christian Mascagni, a local lawyer who had appeared on ROH television, slammed the door onto Hayes face and Vaez pinned him. Plus they added a post-match beating, with Mascagnis heel group coming from under the ring to make it 5 on 1. The only TNA guys in Louisville right now are Jessie Godderz and Low Rider (known in TNA as Anarquia). Rob Terry will be back at some point soon.
Due to trying to hold down on costs, a lot of regulars will not be on the tapings as well as most in production. Velvet Sky and Scott Steiner we know are not appearing and I think Mexican America is not appearing. Steiner and Rosita are both still scheduled for the WrestleReunion convention in Los Angeles that weekend.
Kurt Angle has now guaranteed he will either make the Olympic team, or at least be an alternate and be sent to London for the games. Not happening. Angle claimed that in 2000, he couldnt go back because he was new to the business, that in 2004 he broke his neck (he was interested in 2003, and talked to Brock Lesnar about both training together and going for it but Lesnar had no interest going back to amateur wrestling) and in 2008 he was going through a divorce. He claimed his body and his neck are fine. Do-or-die for him is the Olympic qualifying tournament in April. In reality, Angle has next to no chance with his age and injuries, plus unless Jake Varner gets hurt, youre talking about a guy who is in his prime and placed second in the world championships and has a legit shot at a medal in the 211 pound weight class. In a New York Post interview he complained about WWE guys stealing his moves, Swagger doing the ankle lock and Orton doing the Olympic slam. Keep this man away from tapes of Takashi Sugiura. He said that Ken Shamrock did the ankle lock before he did, but he didnt do it until Shamrock was out of the business.
Foxsports.com had a good article on Angle. They talked to Dave Hawk, Angles business manager and good friend, who said, Its this crisis in his mind thinking, `Im not Kurt Angle anymore. Im Kurt Angle, this character on TV. But Kurt Angle was real once. He needs to prove it not only to the world but to himself. He wants to regain his youth, prove hes still there and still has it. While Angle claimed to others that he guaranteed hed make the team or be an alternate, in this article he spoke differently. Do I still have a shot? Yeah, but its a long shot. These guys are younger, quicker, but I might be smarter. When I show up at the trials, people will say, `Holy (crap), he showed up. If I do well, itll be `Holy (crap), he did well. USA Wrestling is insisting Angle come to Colorado and train with the Olympic wrestlers because they dont want to be part of a carnival side show if Angle doesnt belong in the trials.
Angle was in Sirius XM on 1/9 and must have taken some brutally honest pills because he said he thought 2011 was a subpar year for the company, and said the biggest problem was the lack of communication between the writing team and the creative team. He said he knows that the scripts are done, but ten everyone starts changing things and the end result is a direction that the writers never intended in the first place. He said Vince Russo writes the shows, but Hogan and Bischoff and others change things at the last minute. He said hes not against the changes and backed Hogan 100%, but felt this should be done a week before the shows and not at the last second. He noted Hogan changing the result of the Bound for Glory main event the night of the show. He noted that it worked out for the better, but he didnt like that he and Roode found out at the last minute when he was trying to work a match with a torn hamstring and shouldnt have been wrestling in the first place. He also said they havent done Samoa Joe justice.
In an interview with Alex Marvez, Abyss said he was interested in dropping the mask. He said hes not pushing for it, but would do it if it would result in more of a push, but doesnt want to do it if its one of those things they just do in TNA as one of a million things and isnt strongly focused on after. The circumstances would need to be right and something thats impactful, he said. It would be a big deal to me for (the mask) to come off and not something I take lightly. But on the flip side, if its going to evolve the character and further enhance it, its something Im up for. He noted dropping the barbed wire, thumb tacks and broken glass bumps, noting, I was pigeonholed just doing hardcore wrestling. That was my staple throughout the years and Im very proud of that. On the other hand, I wanted to let people know and show the fans that I can wrestle, too. Unless theyve got a really great storyline to lead to it and a great idea why, Id be against the move even though the same thing worked well for Mick Foley and helped Kane in the short-run. If it results in an idea leading to a monster opportunity, sure, but so often these changes are made just for something to do on TV and go nowhere.
A funny story regarding the Genesis PPV. During the show, Jeff Jarrett was tweeting. What he was tweeting about, however was not the PPV but the Steelers game and the TV show Desperate Housewives.
dream
Member
The WWE Network debut has been delayed, which is a key factor when it comes to the booking of WrestleMania. About a week ago, the word was that everyone was supposed to remove all references to 4/1 as the debut date of the network in promotions. At the time, it was a sign, even though it was not official it was delayed. Over the past few days, several key people have been told that it will not debut on 4/1. Scott Criscuolo of The Place to Be, a podcast, said he works at one of the transmission centers in Stamford that will be used for the channel and said he received an email saying the launch would be delayed. He said he didnt know the new launch date. According to some sources, there is no new launch date other than they are targeting the fall. The deal is that were 80 days away and they have one show they are starting to film, and the plan was for four hours a day of Scott Sanford doing a call-in show reminiscent of Live Wire with the idea of pushing that it was a heavy interactive show. But they didnt want to start a network with nothing but two shows and archival footage, because of the feeling it would start out not being what the vision is and you dont want to start off in this television environment without a full battle plan. There are now a lot of lower level positions filled, but few high level positions including leaders filled. As noted, people who would fill the top positions seem to not be interested (weve talked with a few) because of the idea that nobody wants to be associated with what people perceive will be a failure. One of the things Vince McMahon is wanting to do is lock up more legends of the sport and get them involved with the network and theyve reached out to people who in the past they wouldnt. In addition, despite claiming they have 40 million homes cleared, the process of clearing cable companies has been tough in this environment.
There is talk this week of someone other than Orton winning the Rumble. Given Jericho is likely to be challenging Punk for the title, that would put him in the running to possibly win.
Shaquille ONeal is said to be either very close or a done deal for Mania. Creative has been told to come up with ideas for him. As far as Brock Lesnar goes, creative has not been told anything about him other than one person asked Vince McMahon that if Lesnar was coming, would Paul Heyman be part of the package? Vince was he wouldnt. The feeling is any talks being done, if there are any, would be kept quiet and creative wont be in the loop until or unless a deal is done.
More notes on the deal on 1/28 where Punk will be in Chael Sonnens corner when he faces Mark Munoz in Chicago, the night before the Rumble in St. Louis. Punk invited Sonnen to a show a few months back and he met everyone. But it was Sonnen who came up with the idea of asking Punk to come out to the ring with him. Its really not that big of a deal, as wrestlers have been in MMA fighters corners and boxers corners before and nobody calls any attention to it. Punk isnt scheduled to be in the corner, just walking to the ring. No word if hell even be identified. UFC often doesnt identify celebrities in the corner of fighters. For example, if Punk was in the crowd at a show, I think it would be less than a 50/50 that hed be shown on camera and identified.
Those close to Bourne say that the story here regarding anything he did in talking about R-Truth to anyone isnt true, that his drug test failure and R-Truths were unrelated, not at the same place, and he never spoke to anyone about R-Truth. The claim is also that it was Bourne who went to HHH at TV when he returned to apologize for failing the drug test and not HHH going to him, that the conversation was positive except his saying that the stories going around werent true. They also said Bourne never said anything resembling being frustrated with the company on twitter. His remark about wondering if the next WWE video game would come with constant references in commentary to twitter was meant completely as a joke. The claim was he wrote that as a way to promote the video game. R-Truths failure was at about the same time (all in mid-October) and his suspension was delayed, and many were aware of this for weeks before R-Truth was suspended, and a number of people during that time were wondering how two people could do the same thing at the same time, one test positive and the other not test positive, and there was an explanation going around that made no sense about how the pot positive may have covered up the spice positive.
There was talk this past week of creating a Divas tag team championship, but the last word we got is that the decision was made not to do it. It was for the Bellas, who creative has been told to devote more TV time to, and not for Phoenix & Natalya, who havent been together as much lately.
This doesnt sound like an angle at all, but Im sure WWE would love for it to be since Chelsea Handler is a popular comedian. She had made a joke about womens wrestling, saying she has no idea what it is, which led to Phoenix on twitter inviting her to come to the Staples Center in Los Angeles to show her what it is or get in the ring with her, come to the ring, or just come to a show. Later, Handler acknowledged the tweet, responding, No thanks, I dont know who you people are, or who you want to wrestle, but Im scared of you, and I dont like wrestling for men, I dont like wrestling for women and I still dont know what the fuck you do. It was a lot funnier in the delivery. Actually, most of Handlers comedy is in the delivery.
Punk was banged up in his Jan. 2 match with Ziggler on the messed up hotshot spot. Ziggler was supposed to deliver the move where hed drop Punk throat first on the top rope. But Ziggler was too far from the ropes and when he dropped Punk, he missed the top rope and instead, as he fell, the middle rope nailed him in the face. You could injure your neck really bad due to the whiplash effect.
Brodus Clay actually was scheduled on the Jan. 2 Raw show, but as has been the case a few times, as they continually re-wrote the script for the show, his segment was pulled. He was set to destroy someone.
After Jim Ross answered a question regarding the possibility of Lesnar vs. Goldberg (Bill, not Mike) at Mania 29 saying it was highly unlikely, Goldberg wrote that he would agree to come back to WWE for such a match. If I was WWE and I had one or two matches with Lesnar for big money, Goldberg would not be at the top of the list. For some reason I dont think a Goldberg return, as big as he was, would be that big of a deal, but when it comes to guys returning after years for the first time, sometimes you get really surprised, both good and bad, regarding the momentum from fans.
Brodus Clay debuted. This was different. Different in this day and age is good. He came out doing this giant dancing gimmick with Trinity McCray and Ariane Andrews as his dancers. McCray was Naomi from NXT, the best athletic woman theyve probably ever had, and thus, never used. Andrews, also known as Cameron Lynn, is the woman from Tough Enough who was the first person cut from the show, and when asked by Austin what the best wrestling match she ever saw was, said Melina vs. Alicia Fox. Yes, Luke Robinson cant even get a developmental deal. Jeremiah Riggs with all his obvious potential cant get a deal (granted, he was his own worst enemy, but they got better reactions from the crowd than half the roster). And she not only got signed, but is now a few months later on the main roster. He came out to Ernest Millers old music, was a cross between the Akeem character One Man Gang played, with a little Miller, Flash Funk and Godfather. At least hes different, but this also means hes unlikely to be a heel headliner in this role. To Clays credit, he did the role as good as possible and seemed like he was getting a kick out of it.
There is talk this week of someone other than Orton winning the Rumble. Given Jericho is likely to be challenging Punk for the title, that would put him in the running to possibly win.
Shaquille ONeal is said to be either very close or a done deal for Mania. Creative has been told to come up with ideas for him. As far as Brock Lesnar goes, creative has not been told anything about him other than one person asked Vince McMahon that if Lesnar was coming, would Paul Heyman be part of the package? Vince was he wouldnt. The feeling is any talks being done, if there are any, would be kept quiet and creative wont be in the loop until or unless a deal is done.
More notes on the deal on 1/28 where Punk will be in Chael Sonnens corner when he faces Mark Munoz in Chicago, the night before the Rumble in St. Louis. Punk invited Sonnen to a show a few months back and he met everyone. But it was Sonnen who came up with the idea of asking Punk to come out to the ring with him. Its really not that big of a deal, as wrestlers have been in MMA fighters corners and boxers corners before and nobody calls any attention to it. Punk isnt scheduled to be in the corner, just walking to the ring. No word if hell even be identified. UFC often doesnt identify celebrities in the corner of fighters. For example, if Punk was in the crowd at a show, I think it would be less than a 50/50 that hed be shown on camera and identified.
Those close to Bourne say that the story here regarding anything he did in talking about R-Truth to anyone isnt true, that his drug test failure and R-Truths were unrelated, not at the same place, and he never spoke to anyone about R-Truth. The claim is also that it was Bourne who went to HHH at TV when he returned to apologize for failing the drug test and not HHH going to him, that the conversation was positive except his saying that the stories going around werent true. They also said Bourne never said anything resembling being frustrated with the company on twitter. His remark about wondering if the next WWE video game would come with constant references in commentary to twitter was meant completely as a joke. The claim was he wrote that as a way to promote the video game. R-Truths failure was at about the same time (all in mid-October) and his suspension was delayed, and many were aware of this for weeks before R-Truth was suspended, and a number of people during that time were wondering how two people could do the same thing at the same time, one test positive and the other not test positive, and there was an explanation going around that made no sense about how the pot positive may have covered up the spice positive.
There was talk this past week of creating a Divas tag team championship, but the last word we got is that the decision was made not to do it. It was for the Bellas, who creative has been told to devote more TV time to, and not for Phoenix & Natalya, who havent been together as much lately.
This doesnt sound like an angle at all, but Im sure WWE would love for it to be since Chelsea Handler is a popular comedian. She had made a joke about womens wrestling, saying she has no idea what it is, which led to Phoenix on twitter inviting her to come to the Staples Center in Los Angeles to show her what it is or get in the ring with her, come to the ring, or just come to a show. Later, Handler acknowledged the tweet, responding, No thanks, I dont know who you people are, or who you want to wrestle, but Im scared of you, and I dont like wrestling for men, I dont like wrestling for women and I still dont know what the fuck you do. It was a lot funnier in the delivery. Actually, most of Handlers comedy is in the delivery.
Punk was banged up in his Jan. 2 match with Ziggler on the messed up hotshot spot. Ziggler was supposed to deliver the move where hed drop Punk throat first on the top rope. But Ziggler was too far from the ropes and when he dropped Punk, he missed the top rope and instead, as he fell, the middle rope nailed him in the face. You could injure your neck really bad due to the whiplash effect.
Brodus Clay actually was scheduled on the Jan. 2 Raw show, but as has been the case a few times, as they continually re-wrote the script for the show, his segment was pulled. He was set to destroy someone.
After Jim Ross answered a question regarding the possibility of Lesnar vs. Goldberg (Bill, not Mike) at Mania 29 saying it was highly unlikely, Goldberg wrote that he would agree to come back to WWE for such a match. If I was WWE and I had one or two matches with Lesnar for big money, Goldberg would not be at the top of the list. For some reason I dont think a Goldberg return, as big as he was, would be that big of a deal, but when it comes to guys returning after years for the first time, sometimes you get really surprised, both good and bad, regarding the momentum from fans.
Brodus Clay debuted. This was different. Different in this day and age is good. He came out doing this giant dancing gimmick with Trinity McCray and Ariane Andrews as his dancers. McCray was Naomi from NXT, the best athletic woman theyve probably ever had, and thus, never used. Andrews, also known as Cameron Lynn, is the woman from Tough Enough who was the first person cut from the show, and when asked by Austin what the best wrestling match she ever saw was, said Melina vs. Alicia Fox. Yes, Luke Robinson cant even get a developmental deal. Jeremiah Riggs with all his obvious potential cant get a deal (granted, he was his own worst enemy, but they got better reactions from the crowd than half the roster). And she not only got signed, but is now a few months later on the main roster. He came out to Ernest Millers old music, was a cross between the Akeem character One Man Gang played, with a little Miller, Flash Funk and Godfather. At least hes different, but this also means hes unlikely to be a heel headliner in this role. To Clays credit, he did the role as good as possible and seemed like he was getting a kick out of it.
It's neither. It's the divas match. Most people probably thought it was a divas match, and the moment they saw Eve in the ring, they changed the channel.
You shouldn't have a supposed Divas match before the ME, which gained ratings, so the angle seems to be doing well (or at least, better than what was doing in the ratings before it).
bean breath
Member
- Status