Kev, Couldnt agree with you more on how TNA have destroyed Joe over the past few years going from the brilliant bada-- of the X Divison to the whining crybaby babyface, Knife wielding thug and MEM flunky and everything in between in a series of pointless, unexplained turns. Hopefully the time away might repair some of the damage but 'they' could be a reference to the ill fated Nation of Violence (whatever its meant to be). Spot on with the Angle Nash finger point thing, your take makes hell lot more sense than Taz's take on it

No. No. No. So many have it all wrong. Pope is more channeling the Bernie mac character from the movie "Friday". Check it out. You're welcome.

"Internet Wrestling Community" is only slightly more annoying than "WWE Universe" or "(insert sports team of your choice) Nation."

After seeing Shawn Michaels leave with dignity and at the top of his game, when will people like Foley, Hall, Nash, Flair, Hogan, and Sting realize it is time to go?

I think wrestlers do drugs to get over the amount of pain that they have to go through to do great at there job and make fans happy! I think people put a lot of pressure on wrestlers today and then they result to drugs to try to meet the "needs"! People need to lay off wrestlers because all their doing is trying to make you all happy so what if they have to do drugs to meet that goal i'm not saying i'ts right, but to cut them a break and let them do what they have to do to be great at there job!

You are dead right about the "Black Machismo"! I was truly entertained by his act and match, and think he deserves a regular spot. I've got a question for you Kev....What do you feel will be the angle used with Sting turning heel & "seeming" to be with "Team Flair"? As a long time NWA/WCW fan I have enjoyed Both Sting & Flair for 25,35 years respectively. If you'll recall several weeks ago when sting took out Hogan and Abyss in the Match with Ric &AJ, Flair cut a promo saying..."Sting finally came to his senses, thank god", and "I always knew I owned you Sting". Then a couple weeks ago Sting appeared when Hogan got Handcuffed to the ropes but left just in time for Ric and AJ To get a beat down? What's your take on Sting and Flair.
thanks and I enjoy your blog.

RESPONSE FROM KE: Honestly, I have no clue. That's why I can't wait to hear Sting explain.

I am with you Kev, Bubba is on, the channel is flipped or if DVR'ing its fast forwarded from this point on.

So, Bubba calls the fans "Marks". Well Bubba, a quick revelation, without us "Marks" your buddy Hulk Hogan isn't in a position to have hanger on's like you.

AND, Bubba, nice use of the "wrasslin' vernacular". I guess its all still Kayfabe to all of us " marks" huh? Since you are such an insider of the sport, I guess it gives you the right to use the language.

Bubba I would rather be a "Mark" than a Hulk Hogan jock sniffer anyday! and when you define "marks", I say the listeners of your show fit the description much more than wrestling fans.

Randy Savage is my favorite living wrestler and as such Jay Lethal is at the top of my list too. I can never understand why Jay doesn't get more air time.

Call me crazy, because I usually hate TNA, but I enjoyed this show. Now it wasn't as good as RAW this week, but it was still decent. I think they key was featuring little of the obnoxious Bischoff and Hogan and no Nasty Boys. They made Eric Young look like a star the way he stood up to The Band and dove off the cage for the win. Jay Lethal also got a nice rub as well and they had a good Jarrett/Styles match.

One of the things I'm critical about is Dinero is feuding with Styles for the belt, yet was preoccupied with Wolfe and Chelsea. That doesn't make much sense to me and the buildup has been lackluster at best. Anyway, I liked the Wolfe/Dinero match. And what was up with the creepy Orlando Jordan segment? I can't say I'm interested to see where this is headed.

Please Kevin, please stop saying "Chubba Sponge". It's so terrible and brings down the entire blog.

Speaking of explanations for turning heel, does Sting have one? ...

Yeah it's so Hogan can get a win over one of the few people he has beaten but lost to in singles action! All the while looking like a glorified tattooed all American bad a-- hero!

I for one don't think Orlando Jordan is the right guy to do something like a bi-sexual gimmick. Goldust got over because he is charismatic dude and makes people interested in what he is doing. Jordan is about as charismatic as a bag of hammers and seems to be doing this just to have a gimmick that will get him on TV. TNA was actually pretty entertaining. Chubba can be left off the show..he came out and cut a heel promo the way someone does when they cut one the way they think a heel would do as opposed to cutting one as a heel. I hope the 0.6 rating opened some eyes and there will be some changes in the writing/creative staff. TNA has all the right talent there to put on a competitive show-entertainment wise- but it seems like they have the maestro leading the band(no pun intended).

Could Hogan saying he has business in "New York" be a little jab to bloggers and insiders?? I know in the 90s people called WWE, "New York", so maybe they are teasing another former star like Helms coming to TNA...

I'll assume that Wolfe and Flair/Styles are aligned in a four horsemen type angle, and thus Chelsea is assistant to their whole crew.

RESPONSE FROM KE: You might be right, but wouldn't it be nice if TNA made that clear. I mean, they seem unable to grasp even the most basic things. BTW, before Wolfe ever aligned himself with Flair of Styles (and before Morgan turned heel), I wrote that a good lineup for a new Horsemen would be Styles, Wolfe, Morgan and Roode, with Flair in the J.J. Dillon role.

"On a side note, Hardy helping Young cover Waltman was silly and took away from Young’s moment"

I noticed that too. I think there RVD and Hardy were supposed to cover Nash and Hall for a triple-pinfall type of thing because the ref looked confused and took a while to start Young's count on Waltman and RVD sort dove to cover Nash during the count. I wonder why RVD and Hardy couldn't remember that spot? (These jokes never get old.)

Daffney was face-down for a while before getting hit with the toolbox. It could have been fake blood, but it seems Daffney would be willing to juice. After all, she has taken thumbtacks and many other nasty bumps. She probably just bladed cautiously, unlike Flair who slices away with reckless abandon.

I know your not always up to date with pop culture, but all the people I watched Impact with thought that Orlando Jordan was imitating the singer, fashion designer, and alleged trasvestite Lady Gaga.

this is the kind of stuff that makes tna so painful for me to watch now. if u want the fans to care about ur show, they have to care about ur performers. tna has no truly compelling characters and they dont seem to put any importance on character development or story. the 2 characters tna fans cared about the most and had the strongest connection with, aj and joe, have been turned into cartoons. it seems like the wrestlers have little input into their characters and when they arent invested in their character the fans arent gonna be either. heel/face turns have absolutely no impact if the fans dont care about the character to start with.
i dont know whos to blame, if its the wrestlers not being creative and taking the initiative, or upper management for not listening and not encouraging new ideas, or if its hogan/bischoff/russo being egotistical and trying to prove they know whats best , but its gotta stop or tna could be dead relatively soon.

...while tired acts such as The Nasty Boys and Sean Morley were able to get on camera.

The word from other wrestling blogs is that the Nasty Boys have been released from TNA. I'm surprised you didn't mention this, at least in passing.

RESPONSE FROM KE: I have heard the same thing -- also heard Hall and Waltman are close to being let go,as well -- but as of right now it's all rumor. I haven't seen any site that I trust reporting it. The Nasty Boys are still on TNA's web site.

mrejr8234, you may still be right about him not being able to make the character interesting, but Jordan IS bi-sexual in real life.

Also, I asked this previously and did see it, but Hall is getting back into shape. Still haven't seen him do more than trade punches and stomp in the ring though.

I have come to the conclusion that Eric Bischoff is one of the best on screen characters in the wrestling business right now. He's just a great actor.

Nash turned on Young because Young got over on him at Bound For Glory. Remember, Young and Nash were supposed to work together to beat Hernandez, but Young turned on Nash and beat him for the Global title? I guess Nash invited him to join the Band because they are now even, and remember how he said he respected Young after he double crossed him at BFG? That's why they started teaming together. So he turned on Young just to show him who the master was.

As far as Nash and Angle doing the Wolfpac finger-touch thing, Mike Tenay commented on it right after they did it. It was a respect gesture. They were both in the Main Event Mafia, remember?

Chelsea is Wolfe's valet. At Destination X, Flair mentioned how Wolfe had basically loaned her services to him. It makes since because Wolfe is always helping Flair and Styles beat down Abyss. And I heard a rumor they are going to start a Four Horsemen-like stable and Wolfe will probably be in it if they go that route.

This weeks show was a mixed bag for me. My biggest gripe is the lack of storytelling. Just like WCW did in the past, storylines are one week on and then one week off. This week we didn’t get much of a follow up on Matt Morgan and we didn’t hear much about Sting. I wouldn’t be surprised if next week there is absolutely no follow up to the Orlando Jordan segment.
I enjoyed the X-Division tag match, Brian Kendrick took a nasty bump on his neck and he took a sweet looking neck breaker for the finisher. I liked how Taz put over Doug Williams as a ground and pound X-Division guy.
That sure sounded like the original Wolfpack song minus the lyrics. Although Nash’s career peaked years ago, I think joining “The Band” is a step backwards for him. Scott Hall is one of my favorites but he needs to show more effort if he’s going to wrestle. You don’t whip a guy into the turnbuckle by simply nudging his shoulder. I hope when the smoke clears 6-Pac will have a consistent spot in the X-Division. Speaking of Pac, he nailed RVD flush with a spin kick. I thought it was kind of funny that JJ used a Pedigree on AJ. Seeing RVD and Jeff Hardy in action reminded me of two things, both are great in the ring and both suck on the mic.

that episode was highly entertaining, especially in the first hour.

that, of course, means that since TNA will be on unopposed by WWE this monday at 8, that the first hour will feature only 45+ year old performers.

TNA was so, so close to overtaking WWE as my preferred company, even with the horrid MEM bookings, but they have taken a huge step back.

"Perhaps I haven’t been paying close enough attention, but has Nash explained why he turned on Young and rejoined his Band mates? He said it was business, not personal, but what does that mean? Was he duping Young all along or did he decide to double-cross him on the spur of the moment? And how does it make sense that after turning on Young he then invites Young to join The Band? ..."

I wish Nash had elaborated on that too. I think that part of Russo's problem is that he believes his audience will be able to read between the lines and that he need only make cryptic references to the reason something happened instead of actually spelling it out.

But here's what I think Nash meant:

"EY, believe me, I didn't like double-crossing you like that. I still consider you a friend, but me and these guys go way back and I wanted to help them get TNA contracts so it'd be just like old times with the three of us working together.

"I'm sorry that I had to power-bomb you so that they could win and get those contracts, man, but it was the only way. But that's the past. Let's start with a clean slate. Scott's my friend, Sean's my friend, you're my friend. I don't like seeing my friends at each other's throats like this. I don't like having to choose. So Eric, to make amends, we're offering to let you join The Band. C'mon man, what do you say? It'll be great."

There'd still be plenty of unanswered questions: why didn't Nash just lie down and let them pin him, why didn't he let EY in on the plan, was he working with them from the beginninng or was he legit fighting them for a while and had a change of heart at some point...but it would still make more sense.

"Didn’t Nash’s buddies Hall and Waltman attack Angle last month?"

Yeah, that made me roll my eyes too. I'm glad to see Hardy and RVD in action, but when you come right down to it they have no beef with The Band or any real reason to want to get involved (apart from maybe just being nice guys). What would make more sense would be to keep Foley around, and have him and Angle team up with EY to feud with The Band. All three of those guys had been beaten down by The Band at different times, and all three of them have reason to want payback.

"More on Chelsea: I still don’t know why she accompanies Desmond Wolfe to the ring but also hangs out with Flair."

Well, there's a rumor that TNA wants to create a Four Horsemen stable. We may be seeing the beginnings of that with the formation of Team Flair. If that rumor is true, it seems to be a sure thing that the stable will include Wolfe considering how many times Wolfe has helped out Styles and Flair. So Wolfe has probably loaned Chelsea's services to Flair. (Feel free to interpret that however you like. :p )

Far be it from me to complain about the Nasties being shown the door, but... didn't they go over 3D in their last appearance? What was the point of that? At least allow the Dudleys the chance to kick them out the door.

"I for one don't think Orlando Jordan is the right guy to do something like a bi-sexual gimmick."

It's not really a gimmick. This is from his wikipedia page: "Jordan is openly bisexual." "Before his [WWE] firing, there were plans for Jordan to be repackaged with a bisexual gimmick in a storyline that would have involved Trinity and a friend of Jordan's with no wrestling background, considered in some circles to be taboo in wrestling, but was passed for Jordan since it is his real-life lifestyle. The storyline was Jordan's idea, because the WWE creative team had no plans for him."

Couldn't agree more with you about Bubba. Look I'm a wrestling heel, I'm wearing a black leather jacket. I do the same thing on my ride home from work when the Stern replay ends and I hear Hendrix's music (Hogan's old entrance music, whose the real mark?) the station gets changed pronto.

I liked Machismo's card better. I'd mark out like crazy if I saw Slick pimpstrolling down the aisle!

How does a company with a roster this talented keep screwing things up so badly? It's not rocket science people, just tell a good story. Stop trying to shock us with left field swerves and focus on character and story development (we could also do without the trip down memory lane with the geriatric band). Also what's the deal with having no 1 contenders already decided 2 and occaisionally 3 PPVs out? How are we supposed to care about that, especially when they've done nothing to develop heat between the contender and champ? I really want to see TNA develop into something that challenges WWE, if only to see WWE lift their game. They've got the wrestlers to do it but they just don't seem to have a clue what they're doing. Sorry for the rant but it annoys me.

Yeah, that made me roll my eyes too. I'm glad to see Hardy and RVD in action, but when you come right down to it they have no beef with The Band or any real reason to want to get involved (apart from maybe just being nice guys).