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Column: TNA Weekly
News Headlines TNAWrestling.com announced that on Monday, Kaz requested his release from the company and was granted it. Kaz will finish up his dates with TNA including being the special guest for the premiere episode of “Karen’s Angle”. Any “smarks” who actually believed or still believes this story to be true needs to ram themselves into a steel chair then have your brain checked, the doctor will confirm that you’re indeed brain damaged. Two major things tell me that this story is false. 1) TNA usually never announces releases on their website. (with the momentary exception of Chris Harris) and 2) The timeline of this news story. Kaz requested his release from TNA this Monday (TNA wouldn’t have announced that) but he will be appearing on “Karen’s Angle” (taped last week) to discuss it. Could it be true that Karen knew Kaz was requesting his release before Kaz knew? Tune into impact to prove my point. Recently there has been a new vote of confidence for Vince Russo, while it is no guarantee that he will receive more booking power within the company, the past few episodes of iMPACT have shown otherwise. The reason the new vote of confidence for Russo is there is because of the TV Ratings increase. (more on that later). iMPACT has shown many traits of Russo’s writing and booking, one which I am fond of and one which I loath. The question remains is if it is Russo’s product that draws in more fans. Midway, the creators of TNA iMPACT the Videogame announced earlier this week that the Los Angeles branch will combine with the San Diego branch. I have been told this is for the benefit of TNA iMPACT Series and will not hurt the release date for the videogame. As an avid video gamer, the first time I read this headliner, I was concerned for the video game. I later learned that this is all to help the TNA Series which Midway is putting in the frontlines of their company alongside Mortal Kombat vs DC and the mysterious mega game they will soon be announcing. The talk now is that Samoa Joe vs Sting will headline the October Bound for Glory PPV in Chicago. Joe vs Nash was originally scheduled for this event but it has either been pushed forward a month to No Surrender or back a month to Genesis. Management did this because they aren't 100% confident in Nash's in ring ability at this point and they feel that having him main event their biggest show would be a huge risk at this point. If Joe vs Sting does go down at BFG it will be the third year in a row that Sting has main evented TNA's biggest event of the year. Good decision by Management because I know and everyone else knows that Nash isn’t what he used to be. The storyline will save the reason for a PPV Main Event match but Nash vs Joe isn’t a good marquis match for BFG. The three major Matches I was thinking of was Samoa Joe vs Sting, Samoa Joe vs AJ Styles and Kurt Angle vs Jeff Jarrett. Frank Trigg should be making his in ring debut soon. I am told that it will be in the next month or so at the earliest but most likely some time in the fall. I am excited about this because of the rumors I have heard about Trigg’s Raw talent. Trigg has good mic skills and has a history in MMA. If TNA has a star in the making with Trigg they should jump on it. The good news is he might form a team with Kurt Angle. TNA was very unhappy with the reaction that Taylor Wilde got during the Victory Road PPV in Houston. Most fans seemed to have no idea who she was and even though Kong is a heel she was getting a bulk of the cheers. Jeff Jarrett is the person behind her big push and there is some talk backstage that maybe they shot her to the top just a little bit too fast. I discussed this with a reader who will remain nameless this past weekend. A better approach in my opinion was not to give her the Knockouts Title but just the 25,000 dollars. That way you have a chase storyline with Taylor Wilde. Two notes on that was that TNA already announced that the winner of the challenge would receive the Knockouts Championship and two, Taylor just single handedly shook up the Knockouts Division. She is the better booked version of CM Punk right now, the underdog champion who has a long list of challengers with credentials saying they can be the next champion. iMPACT’s rating last week was a 1.05 which is up from 1.0 from the week before. ECW hit a 1.5 this week as well. I think that the fans are returning in masses to watch wrestling for the Summer. This could be could for TNA as they might eventually pass that 1.2 rating height. I pray (I am not religious) to see them get about a 1.5 by the year’s end. Alex Koslov received rave reviews and TNA Management was extremely impressed, however TNA will likely not sign him since he is a CMLL talent and TNA has struck up an extremely lucrative deal that has yet to be announced. Alex Koslov was a shining star for the World’s X Cup along with Speed Muscle. I am extremely impressed with Koslov even though that wasn’t the case early on. I just got hooked on his style and character later on and hope that through TNA and CMLL’s partnership, the fans of TNA can see Koslov on their TV’s more. Outside booking within TNA is being re-evaluated. The reason wrestlers were allowed to book shows outside of TNA was mostly due to financial reasons. Now that TNA has increased its number of House Shows per month it allows wrestlers to earn more money. With that option being available it appears booking wrestlers with other promotions will be heavily reduced and eventually eliminated. It appears the only promotions who will be allowed TNA talent to work with are the ones who have partnerships with TNA such as CMLL, New Japan and PWA. Outside booking hurts TNA in the end. Both Kurt Angle’s neck injury and Moose’s injury happened on non-TNA shows. While some wrestlers won’t like not being allowed to wrestle for companies like ROH, this is a good business decision for TNA. There appears to be nothing imminent about Jeff Jarrett’s return. Aside from a few dates he is working in January on the UK Tour there is nothing in the books for him to become a full-time active wrestler again. Eventually it will be time for TNA to see the return of Jeff Jarrett as he could be a very major character as long as he stays out of the World Title picture. Over the next year TNA needs to begin phasing out the older wrestlers such as Sting, Kevin Nash and Scott Steiner and elevate a new breed of main eventer. TNA has James Storm, Robert Roode, Tomko, Matt Morgan, Eric Young, Kaz, Jay Lethal, Lance Hoyt, Hernandez and even Fallen Angel in the wings ready to be in the spotlight. This has always been a major problem that TNA needs to fix. TNA and Tristar have been very thrilled with the sales of their first trading card line and a second series is planned for a late fall release. I have the first pack of cards from Tristar and think they are well designed. I am excited for the “Cross the Line” Trading Cards to be released this fall. The Best of the Bloodiest Brawls: Scars and Stitches DVD is planned for an early August Release. I will be buying this because of the lineup of matches it has including James Storm vs Chris Harris from Sacrifice, Barbed Wire Massacre II, the Dream Match of the Decade, Last Rites and so many more. Viewer discretion is advised. Monty Brown AKA Marcus Cor Von recently appeared at a wrestling show Pouncing one of the promotions major stars. I hope this means Brown is back and hopefully back in TNA. This goes into the whole new breed of main event. Brown has so many big time matches left for TNA such as against Abyss, Samoa Joe, AJ Styles, Rhino and Kurt Angle. I hope that by this time in 2009 we have the main event filled with TNA Homegrown talent. House Show Results- All the same results for three days TNA House Show Results - 7/18/08 Tyler, Texas - "Black Machismo" Jay Lethal defeated Sonjay Dutt. - Eric Young/Super Eric defeated James Storm. - Roxxi & ODB defeated The Beautiful People (Angelina Love & Velvet Sky). - TNA X Division Champion Petey Williams defeated Kaz. - TNA World Tag Team Champions LAX defeated The Motor City Machineguns. - Christian Cage defeated Tomko. - AJ Styles defeated Kurt Angle. TNA House Show Results - 7/19/08 Monroe, Louisiana - "Black Machismo" Jay Lethal defeated Sonjay Dutt. - Roxxi & ODB defeated The Beautiful People (Angelina Love & Velvet Sky). - James Storm defeated Eric Young. - TNA X Division Champion Petey Williams defeated Kaz. - TNA World Tag Team Champions LAX defeated The Motor City Machineguns. - Christian Cage defeated Tomko. - AJ Styles defeated Kurt Angle. TNA House Show Results - 7/20/08 North Little Rock, Arkansas - "Black Machismo" Jay Lethal defeated Sonjay Dutt. - Christian Cage defeated Tomko. - Roxxi & ODB defeated The Beautiful People (Angelina Love & Velvet Sky). - TNA X Division Champion Petey Williams defeated Kaz. - TNA World Tag Team Champions LAX defeated The Motor City Machineguns. - James Storm defeated Eric Young. - AJ Styles defeated Kurt Angle. iMPACT Thoughts 7/24/08 “Now you see him now you don’t” -The opening segment could have been eliminated completely and it wouldn’t have affected the show besides for perhaps opening up more time for the matches. By the way I don’t like seeing TNA treat the TNA PPV Buyers as stupid with the whole Sting angle. Everyone who ordered Victory Road knows that Sting was disrespected by Samoa Joe and responded with action. -The 4-Way X Division Match was okay. I miss the tag format rule for these as it instills order. All X Division matches are the same to me (I will discuss this more in my column next week). I am a fan of Consequences Creed and it is good to see him get that victory. -It feels like Abyss has no direction. When he originally returned I was expecting a bad/good guy who took out everyone. Now he seems neutered just like LAX does. I do like his fear of weapons though, however that will likely change at Monster’s Ball. -The star of the night to me was Alex Shelley. The Motor City Machine Guns delivered an excellent promo and had an entertaining strap match. Hopefully they are out of the dog house because this night they were on fire. -Velvet Sky was a good first title defense(s) for Taylor Wilde because the fans know she isn’t on the level of Kong, Kim, ODB, Roxxi or Angelina Love. -I enjoyed the Elimination Tables match but where was Sting. The bad guys advertised him all night but he didn’t show up whatsoever. -The Samoa Joe/Booker T confrontation to end the show was entertaining. I liked the jokes Booker and Joe exchanged only to see them ruined by the nonstop talking announcers. I was intrigued by the whole “lights going out to see Joe unconscious with Booker standing over him with a bat” deal. Why would anybody question if Sting did it when Booker was the obvious first choice? Overall: Good show, one of the better ones. I am excited for Hard Justice. The problems of this show have been seen throughout the past two years in TNA so nothing is new on that account. I was entertained thoroughly so THUMBS UP Talon’s Notebook -While everyone else is complaining about it, I love the look of the new ECW Championship. It is obvious that the WWE is trying to split itself from the original ECW and aside from name and Tommy Dreamer they have done just that. Now they are no longer the land of extreme but now the third brand of the WWE. Good move on their part. -WWE continues to prove my point that CM Punk isn’t as good as a champion as Samoa Joe is. Let’s run down Punk’s recent World Title activity. Defeated a beaten down Edge with the Money in the Bank opportunity, defeated JBL after a distraction, cleanly defeated midcarders Snitsky, defeated Kane by countout, went to a Double Disqualification with Batista at the Great American Bash and lost to Batista via DQ on Raw. Can anyone please explain to me how this helps CM Punk in any way shape or form and why this proves he is a better champion than Samoa Joe? -I have been informed that the TerrorDome match has been re-christened the “Steel Asylum”. This fact was proven on iMPACT when they addressed it as that. -Since Jim Ross talked about it in his blog I have decided to touch on it in my column as well and that is the subject of the Seattle Sonics moving to Oklahoma City. Many know that JR is from Oklahoma and many less know that I am from Washington so the subject is very important to me. I think the whole situation is a load of crap not to blame the OKC Fans but rather to blame Clay Bennett. Interesting enough that Mr. Bennett was paying off all the NBA owners to vote in favor of moving the Sonics to OKC while the only owner with balls was Mark Cuban. It is truly fair to the city of Seattle to see all their achievements for their basketball team move to another city who did nothing to earn them. At least Seattle kept Squatch! -I will be out late next week due to a family outing therefore my weekly “TNA Weekly” column will not be returning for a few weeks. I don’t know when I will be back but I do know it will be before Hard Justice in August. I will be writing a TNA 101 Column that should be up sometime next week which is indeed a double feature. In that column I will be speaking about two subjects on TNA Wrestling. “Has the TNA Product been oversaturated?” and the concept of “TNA TV Time Limits” -My original plan was to write a TNA 101 Column previewing TNA iMPACT the videogame that would have been up in late August. I have opted to instead write a review on the game in early September. This is due to the fact that I like have confirmed info at my disposal and not blow the proverbial smoke where the sun don’t shine. Written by Talon Thorne Writer of TNA 101 and TNA Weekly Talon_DR@yahoo.com This article has been viewed 567 times.
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