Darn that Traci Brooks and Salinas .

I don't watch TNA, and from what I've read in your blog, it seems like WCW was after the inital bang they created with the NWO.... no coherent story lines and lots of angles that make no sense at all. Nothing I've read will make me turn it on... But I have to ask you Kevin.... How does your wife put up with you never missing ANY wrestling? I have friday afternoon off and she doesn't so that's when I watch the taped Raw or Smackdown and I watch PPV only when they come out on DVD. I can't imagine her putting up with me watching live raw, smackdown ecw, tna AND every live PPV!!! She must be a saint!! (Or a wrestling fan herself!)

On the lots of wrestling to watch note, I think there are too many PPV's these days. Getting the matches together for them seems rushed. I think they should space them out to at least 6 weeks.

RESPONSE FROM KEVIN ECK: As I have said before, my wife tolerates my wrestling habit, but she certainly wouldn't be upset if I never watched it again.

Here's a quick funny story: When my wife and I were dating, she really wanted us to go on a cruise. So I took her on the WCW Bruise Cruise (which actually led to me getting a job with WCW).

Kevin,

I understand your point, but come on, what do you think will sell more DVDs and promote TNA better to newcomers?

Who has more mass appeal? Karen Angle or ODB?

And since when is any wrestling organization more interested in principles than promotion?

Wrestling is what it is so no sense getting too bent out of shape over these things. Just take it for what its worth.

RESPONSE FROM KEVIN ECK: I'm really not bent out of shape about it. I just think it's ironic that they make fun of the Divas and push their women as serious wrestlers, and then they use Karen Angle and Christy Hemme to sell it. To quote Hurricane Helms: "I'm just sayin.' "

TNA is also the same company that tried to pay Gail Kim pennies and Vince Russo recently said on Spin Cycle that he wanted Sarah Palin to clean his toilets, so its not shocking to me that they would rather have a piece of eye candy on the front of their DVD then an actual competitor. Its just part of a continuous cycle with them.

It's funny how this gets you irritated yet you happily promote an organization whose workers drop dead at an alarming rate due to being run into the ground by a lawbreaking hypocrite boss who as Bret Hart correctly points out, basically takes them out back and shoots them when they've outlived their usefullness. Just sayin'

It seems clear that TNA has big plans for the Knockouts. They feature them prominently and in spots where women simply haven't been featured before (main events on Impact!, Awesome Kong was part of the Deuces Wild tag tournament) in wrestling.

The Knockouts division is just one of the many ways TNA has attempted to position itself as deliberately different than WWE. Kevin is right when he suggests that TNA is working against its own interests here. Karen's simply not the right person to sell that specific product.

If the TNA locker room was bothered by the Gail Kim contract just imagine how much grief there was when Karen showed up on this cover...

TP

Speaking of TNA merchandise, how is the video game selling?

It seems like Karen Angle is in the same category as Mike Adamle. They're paying her a lot of money, so they need to use her for something. She doesn't fit into a storyline with Kurt Angle or Aj Styles anymore, so they have her doing an interview segment every week.

I do agree with you about Angelina Love. I saw her and ODB on an indie show I attended recently and they both blew me away with their skill.

btw... ODB actually had alcohol in her flask. She poured some into the mouth of this big fat redneck at the show and he commented to us that it was the real deal. She was drinking it before the match while signing autographs and several times during the match to help her "hulk up," so to speak.

"It's funny how this gets you irritated yet you happily promote an organization whose workers drop dead at an alarming rate due to being run into the ground by a lawbreaking hypocrite boss who as Bret Hart correctly points out, basically takes them out back and shoots them when they've outlived their usefullness. Just sayin'"

How is that funny, logical, or even at all relevant to what Kevin was talking about? Terrible post/response.

Kevin was saying TNA promotes their female talent as being true wrestlers. Yet they promote their DVD that promotes that message with no-talent females who are no better than all of the WWE divas.

What's so hard to understand about that?

Once again a superb review of a product that a lot of people hopefully will buy not so much for that cover, but for all the goodies inside including the "bonus" disc of Gail Kim's goodbye message and her final match with TNA. I am still not convinced that Ms. Kim has gone anywhere, but that is a story for another day. It would have been so perfect to have real women wrestlers on that cover, but then that too might happen with TNA's next Knockout DVD.

@christopher:

the game was highly anticipated and took over 2 years to make but it is very disapointing for the following reasons:

1.when you do a finisher on a chair it doesn't affect the damage you suffer

2 the only real new things are the ultimate x-match , new wrestlers and the fact that they reveal it is fake in the game

3.i would rather use the game as a glass coaster or a friz-b rather than waste my time playing it

my main point is that the game stinks and no one should waste 50 bucks on the piece of trash!

Kev, regarding your earlier comments about your cruise , - you are a hopeless romantic you are.

wow, i couldnt have imagined christy hemme or salinas ever laughing at any of the wwe divas...

well i guess thats another reason why tna is a no name company.

yes, i said no-name, because to be honest besides us dedicated wrestling fans, people dont have a clue what tna even means.

Thanks, Tito.

I had never planned to buy the game, I thought the commercial for it was pretty entertaining, so I was a bit curious.