May 25, 2010

QCWradio episode 81

Episode 81 is now available for download.

This week's topics include:

-an exclusive interview with indie wrestling star, Danny Danger.
-Raw & iMPACT discussion.
-reviewing WWE Over The Limit.
-Wrestlebreak: Foolkiller's rant on the series finale of Lost.
-roundtable discussion: booking the WWE version of the New Blood vs. the Millionaire's Club.

-also, promo of the week, and much, much more.

Special guest: Danny Danger

May 18, 2010

the Month in Review 4/19/10-Sacrifice

4/19/10 iMPACT

KNOCKOUT TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH:
DAFFNEY & ODB vs. THE BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE (c) (w/ MADISON RAYNE)

-No entrance for Daffney & ODB? Gee, I wonder if they're going to lose this match...

-ODB has been off TV for months and she's still one of the most over people on the roster. Wow.

-So... Daffney's a face now? Whatever. It makes about as much sense as anything else on this show.

-What did Daffney & ODB do to earn a title match?

-Wait... WHAT? Madison gave Lacey her tag title? WHY?! WHAT THE HELL IS THIS GARBAGE?! DOES TNA ACTUALLY WANT THOSE BELTS TO MEAN NOTHING?! And the announcers don't even acknowledge it! What in God's name is going on?

-Yeah, Velvet & Lacey's offense is butt ugly, so by all means, let's have them on the offense for most of the match, because that won't make the match horrible or anything. Oh, wait... it will.

-The former singles champ, ODB, gets pinned by Velvet Sky. I think the same thing happened to her the last time she on the show too. Ouch. But hey, at least she was on TV for the first time in who knows how long. I suppose that's a step up.

-Where the hell are Sarita & Taylor? With all the recent departures, they're probably the only tandem of Knockouts left that can carry TBP to a good match... unless the writers wanted to do something with Hamada, which they clearly don't.

-And the match is over almost as soon as it begins. Though considering Lacey was in it, that was probably for the best. There was no part of this that didn't suck.


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4/26/10 iMPACT


-Well, here's some unfortunate news. According to Dixie Carter's twitter page, Daffney and Angelina Love were both injured at the TV tapings last week. Daffney suffered a concussion, a bruised sternum and a severe stinger and Angelina partially tore her bicep. Ouch. I heard Daffney's injury was a pretty scary moment. I don't doubt that if it was anything like when Chris Sabin suffered a stinger in a match with Team 3D a few months ago. Thankfully, reports say that neither woman should be on the shelf for too long, though it does make me wonder what the hell the writers are going to do with the Knockouts while those two are laid up. Could we see a return to TV for Sarita & Taylor Wilde? Damn, I hope so. TBP are terribly exposed right now without Saritaylor to carry them in the ring.


BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE BACKSTAGE SEGMENT
-Short and to the point. It set up Madison's first title defense and it looks like there won't be any stupid gimmicks tonight. That's something, I guess.


KNOCKOUT'S TITLE MATCH:
ANGELINA LOVE vs. TARA vs. MADISON RAYNE (c) (w/ VELVET SKY & LACEY VON ERICH)

-It's strange to hear the announcers acknowledge that Madison won the singles title without pinning the champion. That's really not something you want to remind people of. You might as well have Madison just stand next a huge neon sign that reads "NO CREDIBILITY HERE!"

-Before the match, Slick Johnson sends Velvet & Lacey to the back. Looks like the storyline with him and Madison is dead thankfully. I just wish there was some rhyme or reason to when referees send people to the back and when they don't. It seems to be totally random.

-Unsurprisingly, this was short (I don't count the stuff that happens during commercials), but what we got was pretty decent. Madison was the least impressive competitor in the match, but she won, and she did it without any stupid gimmicks, heel tactics or outside interference, so at least she has a shred of credibility now. This was the first competently booked Knockouts match in weeks.

-The brawl between Tara & Angelina was well done, but why in God's name are they doing this feud again when their first feud last summer was so lousy?
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5/03/10 iMPACT


-Here's some more disturbing information. According to diva-dirt.com, Taylor Wilde's contract is expiring soon and there's talk in the company of not renewing it. Taylor has since refuted this on her twitter page, saying that reports of her leaving the company were false and that her contract was not up, but Roxxi's contract wasn't expiring this time last year either and that certainly didn't stop them from getting rid of her. While I would hate it if there were any truth to this rumor ( I love Taylor), it wouldn't surprise me if there were. This new creative regime just doesn't seem to have any plans for her for reasons I can't figure out. But IMO, it would be really unwise to let Taylor get away right now because...

-It looks like Tara will be leaving soon! She recently posted the following on her MySpace page:

"It appears that I'm winding down at TNA... I came to TNA last year because I still had a lot of wrestling left in me. I was paid a fraction of what I thought I deserved. But I wanted to show I was still at the top of my game. Now my contract is up in May. I want a modest pay increase. They don't want to pay me what I think is fair. I have no problem going my own way."

-Now that one I did not see coming. Once again, pay issues lead to another top Knockout leaving the company. TNA need to wake up and realize that they're probably not going to be able to hold on to former WWE Divas if they don't open up their wallet more than they do. Those women are accustomed to making a hell of a lot more money in WWE and they're probably not used to being stiffed like this. It's really strange that the Knockouts continue to draw ratings for TNA and yet the company seems to hold them in such low regard these days.

-Without Tara, who is one of the only women TNA seems to want to feature on a regular basis right now, it really makes me wonder what they're going to do to fix this. I would think there would be an aggressive effort to sign recently released WWE Diva, Mickie James. But if they can't get Mickie, I just hope to God that they won't get desperate and go after that idiot, Maria Kanellis (I heard a rumor that they were). That would be horrible.

-I won't particularly miss Tara if/when she leaves as she never really clicked with me and her run in TNA has been pretty underwhelming, but Taylor Wilde leaving would break my heart. If both women leave, I'm not sure what would happen. Maybe they would sign some new women or maybe they just wouldn't care enough to do anything about the situation. With the current regime, it's hard to tell. There are some women from the indies that I would love to see TNA bring in, but since Hogan & Bischoff took over, I've pretty much given up any and all hope that TNA will ever sign Sara Del Rey. As great a wrestler as she is, she probably doesn't have the look they want; by that I mean she looks like an athlete, not a bikini model.

-I suppose the silver lining here, if you want to see it, is that if the Knockouts keep getting injured and/or leaving the company, then pretty soon, TNA will have no choice but to put Sarita & Taylor Wilde back on TV, just by process of elimination.

-And now for some good news... Following yet another one of his verbal diatribes on Awesome Kong -- this one containing a number of racial slurs -- when he ambushed her during an interview, Bubba the Love Sponge has been fired from TNA. THANK GOD! That racist, white trash dirtbag deserves a hell of a lot worse. You've got no one to blame but yourself this time, Bubba. Don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out and never darken my TV screen again, you repugnant lowlife.


BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE BACKSTAGE SEGMENT
-I like Madison a little more after she pointed out the ridiculous stipulation of having all the titles on the line in a 6-woman tag. Why do the writers like doing that so much?

-Short segment that set up the match for later in the night. Fine for what it needed to do.


ALL TITLES ON THE LINE:
TAYLOR WILDE, SARITA & TARA vs. THE BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE (c)

-Saritaylor! Finally!

-Sarita & Taylor's first appearance on iMPACT in who knows how long and they don't even get their awesome entrance shown (Booo!). Neither did Tara for that matter. Naturally, TBP got their entrance. Ugh...

-Even though this match was blink-and-you-miss-it short, there were still noticeable botches from Lacey, Velvet, and Lacey & Velvet together. Neither of those women should be allowed to execute a DDT ever again. Why do these idiots continue to get pushed? They're AWFUL!

-Some really brief action that was more of an angle about Tara acting like an ass to her partners. I really don't understand that. It makes sense that she'd be angry at Angelina and about how she lost the title, but she has no reason to be pissed at Sarita & Taylor. It also makes no sense for Sarita to get pinned when Tara is the one who's leaving the company soon. Why not just have Tara eat the pin? She has nothing to lose by doing the job at this point.

-Booking like this pisses me off. I know Sarita & Taylor aren't being pushed or even used right now, but they ARE former champions and they deserve a little more respect than to be used as nothing but fodder for Tara who, as I just pointed out, is LEAVING THE COMPANY in a few weeks!

-Why was Tara so pissed off at Sarita & Taylor for the loss when she was the one who caused them to lose the match? For that matter, why would she do everything possible to piss off her partners if she's supposed to be so obsessed with getting the title back? This whole thing was a mess.




TARA BACKSTAGE INTERVIEW
-She challenges Madison Rayne to a Title vs. Career match at Sacrifice, which is just a few days before her contract expires. I guess that's how they're writing her off the show. That should be a good credibility-building win for Madison. And since Tara's leaving the company, there will no reason at all why Madison can't win the match clean. Having said that, I'm sure she won't.
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5/13/10 iMPACT


-Taylor Wilde has a singles match with Tara tonight. As thrilled as I am that Taylor will be in the ring again this week, the current booking philosophy with the Knockouts does not have me holding out hope for good things here. Tara's about to leave the company, so it would make sense to have Taylor go over, but TNA seems to have some strange aversion to doing things that make sense these days.


BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE BACKSTAGE INTERVIEW
-Nice interview. Good to see Madison not get overshadowed on the mic by Velvet for a change.

-It could be worth noting that Velvet seems frustrated with Lacey's stupidity lately. That could be going somewhere. If this leads to an angle where Lacey is kicked out of the group, it can't come soon enough.


TAYLOR WILDE (w/ SARITA) vs. TARA. TARA BEATS TAYLOR DOWN POST-MATCH. SARITA MAKES THE SAVE
-Saritaylor get their entrance! Yes! That entrance is way too hot to be cut for time. It must always be shown. Always.

-Nice intensity from Taylor in this match. Too bad she wasn't in control of the action for very long.

-I was right to not hope for much from this match. For crying out loud, they gave it less than ninety seconds! What a waste.

-Well, they certainly did their best to bury Taylor here. And, yes, doing so made absolutely no sense. Taylor will be in TNA after Sacrifice; Tara will not. So why in the world have Tara not only beat Taylor so easily, but destroy her like this? What is the damn point of giving Tara extra momentum when she's about to leave the company?




BACKSTAGE SEGMENT: LACEY VON ERICH GIVES HULK HOGAN VIDEO FOOTAGE FROM HER IPHONE
-I doubt they're involving Lacey in this angle with Abyss/Wolfe/Chelsea. This probably wasn't about anything more than what we saw.


BACKSTAGE SEGMENT: BISCHOFF PUTS TARA IN A MATCH WITH SARITA
-Tara gets pissed off when Bischoff calls her disrespectful. Why are they doing this with Tara? This angle isn't making me root for her. All it's doing is making me want to see her get beat at Sacrifice.


SARITA vs. TARA
-Both women get their entrances. That's a good sign. This match could be really good if they give it some time, which I'm sure they won't.

-Well, it went slightly longer than the earlier match and it was good while it lasted. Sarita looked strong until the knee brace shot at the end. Still, it's just baffling that the writers are pushing Tara harder than ever when she's about to LEAVE THE DAMN COMPANY! Shouldn't it be the other way around? Shouldn't they be deemphasizing her and having her put over some of the girls that will still be there after Sacrifice?

-Seriously, why are they doing this? What purpose does it serve to have a woman whose contract is expiring squash two former champions on her way out the door? All it does is make said former champs look like crap without giving them any chance to get their heat back because the woman who beat them will be gone in a few days.

-Something else I can't figure out is why on earth they're trying to make Tara a heel when she's facing another heel this Sunday at Sacrifice. Wouldn't a better idea be to try to get the fans to rally behind Tara, rather than turn her into an unlikeable bitch when she's about to put her career on the line against the heel Madison Rayne? Do they want to turn Madison into a babyface when she wins that match? I officially have no damn clue what's going on here.


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5/16/10 Sacrifice


-It seems TNA has signed the woman who injured Daffney in a dark match a few weeks ago. I know very little about her, but she's a former student from Team 3D's wrestling school. I just looked at some pictures of her and color me surprised! Given Hogan & Bischoff's mindset about pushing the model-type Knockouts to the moon at the expense of all the other women, I never thought they would consider someone like this.

-My guess? They're looking for someone to replace Awesome Kong. It can't be a coincidence that Kong leaves the company and not long after, they sign a woman with a similar body type. Memo to TNA: you can't replace Awesome Kong with just anyone. I'm not saying this girl isn't talented; I don't know enough about her to be able to say that. But if TNA were looking for someone to replace Kong, they should've put Hamada in that spot. Or they could have signed Sara Del Rey and let her be that person, because I guarantee you, no matter how good this woman is, she's nowhere near as good as Death Rey.

-For a taste of what we're in for, here's a match she had with Kong on the indies:



TITLE vs. CAREER:
TARA vs. MADISON RAYNE (c)

-Interesting fact -- Tara's first match in TNA was against Madison Rayne. Now her last match will be too. There's some fitting symmetry in that.

-A lot of dueling chants for both women. That could be a sign that Madison is starting to catch on as the champ. Or it could just be a case of the crowd not knowing who to cheer for since Tara turned heel a few weeks prior to the match for some reason.

-There was a point where Madison seemed like she was trying to get the fans behind her. The announcers even put over the heart she was showing, which seemed strange to me. I kind of doubt it will happen, but I heard a rumor that the writers were toying with the idea of turning TBP face. Stay tuned on that one.

-Good match that got some decent time to tell a story for once. It's just sad that this kind of competent booking is a rarity in the Knockout division these days.

-I'll be damned... Madison wins clean -- exactly what needed to happen. She even sent Velvet & Lacey to the back before the match. Welcome to credibility, Madison. This could be a big break out match for her if they follow it up the right way. Unfortunately, the TNA writers have a really terrible track record of doing that.

-So Madison get validated as the champ and Tara gets a show of respect from the fans as she leaves. Nice.

-If the writers are smart, they'll have Madison milk the hell out of being the one who ended Tara's career. She should be able to get a lot of heat from that. This isn't something to just be swept under the rug and forgotten about.

-This was about as good as we could've hoped for. Well done to all those involved. It will be interesting to see what they do with the Knockouts now that Tara's gone. I expect we'll be seeing the new signee debut before too long.

Sacrifice

QCWradio episode 80. The Quintastic Reunion!

Episode 80 is now available for download.

This week's topics include:

-Raw & iMPACT discussion.
-reviewing TNA Sacrifice.
-does John Cena have Hall of Fame credentials?
-Wrestlebreak: what restaurant has the best fast food in America?
-roundtable discussion: what if WCW had won the Monday Night Wars?

-also, the week in wrestling, mail bag, and much, much more.

Special guest: the Quintastic One

May 15, 2010

TNA Insider Spin Cycle

A few days ago, I was asked by Talon Thorne to take part in my second TNA Insider Spin Cycle. Below is my contribution to the column.


1. In your opinion, was the experiment on Mondays a good risk or did it hurt the product in the long run?

Probably both. Ratings-wise, money-wise, it was a colossal failure that definitely hurt and embarrassed the company, and no one can deny that -- not even TNA themselves, no matter how much they try to. However, it may have been worth it in the long run as it was an excellent sobering experience that may serve them well as a cautionary tale in the future. Now they know that just because Hogan & Bischoff want the company to do something, it doesn't necessarily mean it's a good idea and it doesn't mean it will be automatically successful. Hopefully, this will be a wakeup call for Dixie Carter, who seemed to think these guys had the Midas Touch up until now. If the Monday Night Experiment proved anything, it's that that is indeed NOT the case.
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2. TNA has had 4 PPVs with one more this week. What PPV did you think held up best and overall has TNA’s PPV experience been a success in 2010?

Good grief, that's like asking which half-rotten fruit I was able to keep down the longest without puking. Of the 4 we've seen, Lockdown was the best, which is not to say it was a great show. None of them have been particularly great, but Lockdown probably had the most good on it, despite having a lot of crap thrown in as well. Angle/Anderson, AJ/Pope, 2 X-division matches and Lethal Lockdown until the horrible finish were enough to offset the terrible Knockouts match, the Hogan/Flair/Bischoff crap and the abortion of booking logic that forced us to endure a 50-year-old Kevin Nash wrestling not once, but TWICE.

Has TNA's PPV experience in 2010 been a success? Um... NO! For all the proof you need, just look at the last 2 PPVs before Hogan & Bischoff took over. Turning Point & Final Resolution both had better booking, much better cards and overall had better matches than anything these guys have produced.
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3. What are your top 3 favorite moments/matches from TNA in 2010?

1. SARITA & TAYLOR WILDE (c) vs. AWESOME KONG & HAMADA
-- iMPACT, 1/04/10.

The first and unfortunately last truly great Knockouts match of the Hogan/Bischoff era and a sad glimmer of what the Knockout tag team division could have and should have been before the entire women's roster devolved into a tits & ass sideshow which pushed the Beautiful People and Tara to the moon at the expense of every other woman in the company.

2. ULTIMATE-X: MCMG vs. GENERATION ME
-- Destination-X.

Probably one of the most well-booked and exciting Ultimate-X matches in TNA history and a reminder of how great a feud between these teams COULD be if the writers had actually let them have more than 2 freaking matches before ending it for some insane reason.

3. KURT ANGLE vs. MR. ANDERSON
-- Lockdown.

A fantastic match of the year candidate, which helped elevate what had been a disappointing show up until that point, turning it into something that was actually worth paying money to see.
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4. Do you see Tara’s departure from the company as a good or bad thing for TNA?

Both. It's bad because she was inexplicably one of the only women that the writers seemed to genuinely want to devote TV time to, without whom the division may become even more of an afterthought than it is now. On the other hand, it's a good thing because Tara's entire run in TNA was pretty underwhelming, and with her gone, it may force the writers to finally do something with the other women who have been sitting on the sidelines for months while Tara got all the spotlight despite not delivering well enough to deserve it. Sarita/Taylor Wilde/Hamada > Tara
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5. Out of the recently released wrestlers from WWE, which one do you see having the most potential and why?

Mickie James. She was the top Diva, the most popular woman in WWE for years and was fired in a way that pissed a lot of her fans off. More than any of the others, Mickie is the person that could make the biggest splash in TNA. The Knockouts just lost the woman the whole division was built around (again). Imagine if Tara left, and then all of a sudden, Mickie showed up to fill the void; fans would go nuts for that! I would still prefer they refocus and make better use of the girls they already have, but I wouldn't fault them for signing Mickie as bringing her in would make a lot of sense, unlike some of those others.

The only other recent release I could see doing well in TNA is Shelton Benjamin and even he's kind of iffy at this point. Call me crazy if you want, but I think the ship has sailed with that guy. Incredible athlete? Sure. But does he have anything else to offer? Not really. He was in WWE for years, flirted with the main event at times, but never rose higher than midcard status. If you can score multiple wins over HHH and afterward sink right back to where you were before, there's something wrong with that. Frankly, there isn't really anything Shelton can do that others in TNA can't do along with a lot of other stuff.
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6. What are your thoughts on the Bischoff and Hogan regime so far?

Well, let's see...

-Knockout division -- turned into a carbon copy of the WWE Divas division.

-X-division -- almost an afterthought despite Bischoff's claims that he loves it.

-Tag Team division -- nearly buried by Matt Morgan and the current champions are 2 fat, half-crippled senior citizens (Hall & Nash).

-Abyss, the one young guy on the roster that has had a strong, sustained (if idiotic) push, has been a complete failure if his continued placement in the rock bottom spot on TNA's heavyweight ranking poll is any indication, while the guy who routinely comes in #1 on the poll by a huge margin, Desmond Wolfe, has gone from hot rising star to glorified enhancement talent disguised as a main eventer.

-The top 5 heels in the company recently beat up all the top faces on the show, only to then get their collective asses kicked by Hulk Hogan all by himself, showing every fan watching that a broken down 60-year-old man > every member of the TNA roster combined.

-They gave Rob Van Dam the world title as a ratings stunt and one week later, iMPACT scored the lowest rating in its entire history, prompting SpikeTV to move the show back to Thursdays immediately.

-A no-talent piece of garbage with an offensive, exploitatively gay gimmick is now feuding with a no-talent 'roid-monkey who botches every 5 seconds over a championship that was literally created as a joke.

I could go on, but I think my point has been made.

My opinion of the Hogan/Bischoff regime so far: IT SUCKS!
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Hope you guys enjoyed it. You can read what 404, Jonfostersucks and Talon had to say by clicking here.

May 14, 2010

iMPACT 5/13/10

Previewing Sacrifice 2010

Once again, Chessarmy will not be joining me as I preview TNA's latest PPV offering. I feel like I'm doing him a favor by not asking him to add his thoughts because with the way Chessarmy feels about TNA right now, his contribution to this blog would probably consist of nothing but 4 letter words. I can't say I blame him for that either. The TV show is a crowded, overbooked, gimmicky mess, and Sacrifice looks like... well...


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KNOCKOUTS TITLE vs. CAREER
Tara vs. Madison Rayne (c)


Tara has made it known on her MySpace page that her contract is expiring at the end of the month and that she and TNA have not been able to agree to a new one due to -- you guessed it -- money issues. Given the stipulation, this will most likely be her last match in the company and that's just fine with me. The writers inexplicably tried to turn her into a heel in the weeks leading up to this match against also-heel, Madison Rayne, and then during what was probably her last iMPACT, they had her squash Taylor Wilde AND Sarita in 2 separate matches which, considering she's leaving the company in a few days, makes about as much sense as the now-infamous lockbox title change did -- NONE! Anyway, unless Tara and management come to terms on a new contract, which seems unlikely given what we now know about the situation, it's not a question of if Tara will do the job here, but how.

Who should win: Madison Rayne. Madison is a lame duck champion right now and we all know it. She desperately needs some credibility to prove that she was given the title for reasons other than her looks. Beating Tara clean could do that. I know there's this baffling booking philosophy among this creative team that heels can never win matches clean, but since Tara is leaving, there's no reason on earth why that can't happen here, and it would be the best thing they could do for the champion.
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TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH
Ink Inc. vs. the Band (c) (ugh)

Stop me if you've heard this one. You create a new tag team, give them a title shot on PPV, and then at the 11th hour, you take the titles off the guy they were feuding with and give them to 2 fat, half-crippled senior citizens so that your tag team championship match that you want fans to pay money to see now has absolutely no build up whatsoever. Only in TNA, folks.

For Christ's sake, it's a tag team that hasn't even had time to get over yet vs. 2 guys that are so old, they shouldn't even be in the ring. Have I mentioned yet that I am NOT going to order this PPV?

Who should win: I suppose whichever team wins the titles from Hall & Nash could get some kind of rub, maybe. But that rub would be absolutely wasted on the mohawk boys who, BTW, have been a tag team for all of 5 minutes and haven't even proved that they deserve a title shot much less a title run. To have those 2 poseurs with the tag team belts when Sabin & Shelley have been a team in TNA for over 3 years and STILL haven't won them would make me sick. God help me, but... Hall & Nash should retain, but ONLY until a worthy team can earn a shot against them. And for the record, by "worthy team" I mean the MOTOR CITY MACHINE GUNS, GOD DAMN IT!
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#1 CONTENDERSHIP TO THE TAG TEAM TITLES
Beer Money Inc. vs. Motor City Machine Guns vs. Team 3D


Yeah, I'm putting this ahead of the tag title match because, hell, this is going to be a much better match and we all know it. Hall & Nash can barely move and it's going to take more than what Moore & Neal have got to carry them to something watchable. This on the other hand, should be very good if it gets any real time. Beer Money are always great, 3D can still go when they want to and the Machine Guns are physically incapable of having a bad match. Damn, what does it say about a PPV when a match with no build up that was added at the last second looks like one of the best matches on the card?

Who should win: The Guns & Beer Money have a DVD of their greatest matches coming out soon. Simple common sense would tell us that either of those teams should win the title shot, go on to win the tag titles and then feud over them with the other team to get fans excited for that DVD and drive up sales when it's released. But as we've learned by now, the TNA writers don't seem to have the capacity to understand common sense anymore.

The way this was set up, it looks like Ink Inc. may win the titles and 3D may go over here setting up a student vs. teacher feud with Neal and 3D, and if I cared about Jesse Neal or his tag team at all, that might interest me. But it doesn't, and it certainly doesn't outweigh the benefits of doing MCMG vs. Beer Money for the titles to boost those DVD sales.

The smart thing would be to have 3D do the job to either of the young teams, which probably means the writers will throw logic and good business sense to the wind and have 3D win the title shot. Having said that, I will say that Sabin & Shelley should win it because they've been waiting for a title run for over 3 years and they @#$%ing deserve it a hell of a lot more than Shannon Moore & Jesse Neal.
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GLOBAL TITLE MATCH
Orlando Jordan (SHOOT ME!) vs. Rob Terry (c)


God help us all... It's the walking insomnia cure vs. the human piss break. If you think for one second that I'm even going to discuss this feud, you can kiss both sides of my ass. I absolutely refuse to watch anything involving Orlando Jordan. As a straight person, I find his gimmick to be offensive and exploitative, and I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one. I can only imagine what gay wrestling fans out there are feeling when they're asked to boo a character because he's gay and shoves his gayness in people's faces. Plus, there's the unfortunate fact that Jordan has no talent as a wrestler, and for that matter, neither does his opponent. Leave it to TNA to book a match between a horribly offensive walking stereotype and a 'roid monkey, neither of whom are over or can wrestle, and then ask us to choose which guy to support based on who sucks less.

Who should win: I would like to go on the record saying that I am NOT going to watch this match. When this match comes on, I'm going to run to the bathroom and take a giant crap, which I imagine is what most of the fans in the iMPACT Zone will be doing as well.

It really doesn't matter what happens here because regardless of who wins, the fans lose. But if I have to pick the lesser of 2 evils, I'll go with Terry. Damn you, TNA; I don't know how it came to this, but you actually have me hoping for Rob Terry to win a match. It's almost as if you WANT me to give up on your company.
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X-DIVISION TITLE MATCH
Douglas Williams vs Kazarian (c)


While I agree that this match needed to happen, the fact that Williams refuses to relinquish the title belt is pretty stupid. He doesn't get to make that decision. Why doesn't company management just force him to give up the belt? Yes, he got screwed over when he was stripped of it for missing Lockdown due to travel conditions beyond his control, yes, he should be pissed off about it, yes, he is entitled to a chance to win it back, but the fact that he's still walking around with the belt and no one, not even the current champion, is even addressing the issue is just dumb. It should be a fine match though.

Who should win: Kazarian
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CHELSEA vs. RING
Desmond Wolfe vs Abyss


Every week, when iMPACT comes on, I ask myself why the longest running storyline on this show revolves around a WWE Hall of Fame ring. And every time, I'm forced to remind myself that the reason is because this is TNA and apparently it's just not meant to make sense anymore.

When the fans were allowed to vote for who they wanted to get a world title shot, Wolfe came in first in the poll, and Abyss, the man Hogan anointed as 'TNA's John Cena,' came in dead last. The exact same thing happened in the second poll TNA put up. That's a pretty good indicator that people are about as taken with this Abyssamania crap as I am (not very). The fans have spoken, and according to them, Desmond Wolfe is the man and Abyss is the stain on the darkest part of Wolfe's underwear. And yet, for the last several months, Abyss has been pushed as a force, and Wolfe like a curtain jerker disguised as an upper midcarder. This needs to end. Now.

Who should win: Desmond Wolfe goes over, takes the WWE Hall of Fame ring and does exactly what any self-respecting TNA star SHOULD have done with it in the first place -- he throws it in the trash, because this is TNA, not WWE, God damn it.
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Sting vs. Jeff Jarrett


What is the point? Seriously, what is the point of doing this match? If these guys absolutely have to be in the ring at all, they should be facing the young talent and putting them over. Sting vs. Jarret isn't going to do anything to benefit the company long term. We've already seen this match before, the fan votes in TNA's heavyweight ranking poll indicate that overall interest in both of these guys is pretty low, any intrigue in the mystery of why Sting turned heel was pissed away by the writers waiting way too long to give the explanation, and considering how much Sting has declined as a performer in the last few years, it's probably going to take a better worker than Jeff Jarret to carry him in the ring. So again, I ask you: why is this match happening?

Who should win: Sting. Frankly, I really don't care who goes over in this match. But since pretty much all the top heels in the company have been Hogan's bitches for months, they really need to start getting their heat back.
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Mr. Anderson vs. Jeff Hardy

Gosh, let me think about this one for a minute. One of these guys easily ranks among the most entertaining stars on this show, has a lot of momentum and just came off a hot-as-hell match with Kurt Angle at Lockdown. The other is borderline-incoherent, has shown himself to be unreliable in the past, is about to go before a jury on drug trafficking charges and could be looking at some serious jail time in the near future. Hmmm... Yeah, this is a tough one.

Who should win: Mr. Anderson. If I were Hardy right now, I'd be a little less concerned with not dropping the ball in this match and a little more concerned with not dropping the soap in the shower. He's only filling this spot until the Pope heals up from his shoulder injury anyway, so there's no reason to derail Anderson until then.
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WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH
AJ Styles vs. Rob Van Dam (c)


It's pretty clear that TNA put the title on Van Dam as a ratings stunt. One week later, iMPACT scored a 0.5 and now the show is going back to Thursday with the company's tail wedged firmly between it's legs. So, I guess that ratings stunt didn't work out so well, huh?

Van Dam's terrible promos lately are reason enough why he shouldn't be the champion, IMO. Plus, they made AJ look weak by having him lose the title the way he did. Hogan's boys have the rule of the roost right now, while Flair's team, comprised of all the top young heels in the company, has largely been turned into the job squad. That doesn't make for compelling TV. The heels have GOT to gain some ground here and that starts by taking the world title back from a man who has been in the company for all of 2 months.

Who should win: AJ Styles
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FINAL THOUGHTS:
Good Lord, this card is depressing. This has to be one of the most uninspired cards TNA has put together in recent memory. Jordan vs. Terry and the Band vs. Ink Inc. are enough to convince me to save my money and download this thing on Monday. But then you add a Knockouts match wherein the feud has been booked completely ass-backwards, and Sting vs. Jarret, which doesn't interest me at all at this point, and that's enough to offset any enjoyment that could be derived from everything else on this show. The fact that there are now 9 matches booked means that some of them are probably not going to get enough time, though in the cases of the global and tag title matches, that's probably a good thing. Even the main event, which should be great, doesn't hold much intrigue because the TNA writers, in their infinite wisdom, decided to give that match away for free on iMPACT a few weeks ago and now expect us to pay $35.00 to see it a second time. Um... why?

To be honest, I hope the buyrate for this PPV tanks horribly. Maybe that will force TNA to get it through their heads that they need to try a lot harder if they want people to actually shell out money for this stuff.

May 11, 2010

QCWradio episode 79

Episode 79 is now available for download.

This week's topics include:

-Raw discussion.
-previewing TNA Sacrifice.
-Wrestlebreak: Chessarmy reviews Total Extreme Wrestling 2010.
-steroid use in pro sports: living longer and healthier vs. dying young and wealthy.

-also, the week in wrestling, mail bag, and much, much more.

May 05, 2010

iMPACT 5/03/10

QCWradio episode 78

Episode 78 is now available for download.

This week's topics include:

-Raw & iMPACT discussion.
-Jim Ross not returning to the WWE announce booth.
-TNA's horrible 0.5 rating and iMPACT moving back to Thursday.
-booking women's wrestling: real wrestlers vs. T & A.

-also, the week in wrestling, mail bag, promo of the week and much, much more.

May 03, 2010

Generic, Thy Name Is Madison

At Lockdown, Beautiful People member, Madison Rayne, won the Knockout's championship. It was a move greeted with skepticism by some, ambivalence by others. There were people like me who thought that putting the belt on her at that time and under those circumstances was absolutely idiotic.

There were also some people who were apparently intrigued by the title change and thought Madison Rayne as the champion could be a good thing.

Now read on as I completely PWN those people.

First, I will give one positive about this situation. Madison is a first-time singles champion so, regardless of how any of us feel about it, this is a new direction that they're going in. And a new direction was badly needed with Angelina and Tara seemingly having a stranglehold on the top of the Knockout food chain for months.

Yes, they needed to add some new blood to the singles title picture, especially given the breaking news that Tara will probably be leaving the company soon. But they picked the wrong woman to do it with and that's the problem.

Let me show you what I mean by briefly examining each member of the current Knockout roster:

-DAFFNEY- the crazy goth.

-TARA- the MMA-trained former Diva.

-SARITA- the Candian-born, Mexican-bred lucha libre high flier.

-ODB- the beer-swilling party animal.

-HAMADA- the hardcore Japanese import.

-ANGELINA LOVE- the hot blonde with great mic skills and a vendetta against the Beautiful People.

-VELVET SKY- the hot blonde (also with great mic skills) who hates Angelina and leads the Beautiful People.

-LACEY VON ERICH- the hot blonde exhibitionist who is really stupid.

-TAYLOR WILDE- the hot blonde super athlete who can really wrestle.

Which leaves us with...

-MADISON RAYNE- the hot blonde who lacks Velvet's strong mic skills and Lacey's willingness to take her clothes off for ratings, who can wrestle, but not as well as Angelina and nowhere near as well as Taylor.

See what I mean? I don't know how TNA's decision-making process lead them to this, but somehow, someway, in their efforts to push the Beautiful People harder than ever, they have managed to put the Knockout singles title on the most generic woman in the entire company. Just look at that list! Madison Rayne is literally the only Knockout on the current roster that doesn't stand out in some way.

All the others -- love them or hate them -- each have something about them that is unique. Madison doesn't; she just fades into the crowd which, if you'll recall, was a concern I had about her back when she was originally hired. She's not bad on the mic, but she's not great. She's not bad in the ring, but she's not great. Her character is essentially Velvet Sky without the luster. There is simply nothing about Madison Rayne that is special. Then there's the little fact that she hardly ever won matches prior to winning the title and was used primarily as enhancement talent, now making her the least credible woman to ever hold that belt.

Not that I'm suggesting that putting the title on Velvet or Lacey would have been a better choice; God no! As I said, Madison can wrestle decently, which puts her firmly ahead of Velvet and Lacey in my book. But in terms of pure uniqueness, Madison Rayne is at the bottom of the Knockout ladder. This, combined with her complete lack of credibility, IMO, makes her an unfit champion.

I just thought that needed pointing out.