July 30, 2010
July 27, 2010
QCWradio episode 90: QCW Idol 2 Spectacular!
Episode 90 is now available for download.
-Raw, Smackdown & iMPACT discussion.
-QCW Idol 2.
-also, promo of the week and much, much more.
Special guest: the Quintastic One
-Raw, Smackdown & iMPACT discussion.
-QCW Idol 2.
-also, promo of the week and much, much more.
Special guest: the Quintastic One
July 24, 2010
July 20, 2010
QCWradio episode 89
Episode 89 is now available for download.
This week's topics include:
-Raw & iMPACT discussion.
-reviewing WWE Money In The Bank.
-Wrestlebreak: the Star Wars edition. Reviewing Episode 2: Attack of the Clones.
-we create our own Top 10 TNA rankings.
-and much, much more.
This week's topics include:
-Raw & iMPACT discussion.
-reviewing WWE Money In The Bank.
-Wrestlebreak: the Star Wars edition. Reviewing Episode 2: Attack of the Clones.
-we create our own Top 10 TNA rankings.
-and much, much more.
July 17, 2010
July 13, 2010
the Month In Review 6/17/10-Victory Road
6/17/10 iMPACT
-Well, here's some not-so-surprising news to start off the month. According to ODB's twitter page, she asked for and has been given her release from the company. If you've been paying attention then you're probably about as surprised by this as I am (not very). I can't even remember the last time she was used on TV, and last we heard from her, she was lamenting the current crappy state of the Knockout division on her facebook page, so this hardly comes as a shock.
-Not to sound cold or anything, but I'm not going to lose much sleep over this one. I'm not one of these internet marks who hate ODB or anything (though there are quite a few of them out there), but ODB didn't really do much for me as a wrestler. She could be entertaining in small doses, but I think the writers had long since run out of things to do with her. There really didn't seem to be anywhere left for her character to go and it's not like she had been prominently featured in the last six months. Although, it is troubling that one of the only really over female babyfaces the company had left is now gone.
-I imagine this means we're going to see yet another push for Angelina as we wait out the clock until Mickie James's 90 day no compete clause expires. Oooh, pinch me.
ANGELINA LOVE PRE-MATCH PROMO
-Angelina's been out for weeks and she doesn't even get her entrance shown on her first night back? That's just ridiculous.
-I like that they announced the match for Victory Road as early possible, but Angelina has been out for a while with an injury, so what did she do to earn a title shot?
ANGELINA LOVE vs. LACEY VON ERICH (c)
-Lacey Von Erich in a singles match? For one night, the ridiculously short matches the Knockouts get these days turned out to be a blessing. Lacey's matches should be kept as short as possible for obvious reasons.
-Mercifully short and Angelina gets herself DQed with a DDT to Lacey on a chair. Intriguing finish. This could turn out to be interesting if they play it like Angelina cares more about hurting TBP than beating them or it could turn into some really stupid angle that results in us never getting a clean finish to her matches. I'll forgive it this time since it was Lacey and she's awful, but I hope they won't try for a finish like this when Angelina gets Madison in the ring with the title on the line.
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6/24/10 iMPACT
-There's news going around that Tara may be returning to the company soon. Um... what? Didn't she just lose a match where the stipulation was that her career is over if she loses? Maybe they worked out a new deal, but if there was a chance of that happening, why do the "career ending" stipulation in the first place? If they bring someone back just a couple months after she lost a match with her career on the line, it's just going to look stupid.
-Disagree with me all you want, but I hope Tara doesn't come back. Her first run in TNA was extremely underwhelming and I really have no desire to see her again. I might feel differently if she had delivered on a level proportionate to the push she received, but she didn't. She never really had any standout matches. Even the cage match with Awesome Kong wasn't that great. The only reason that match was memorable was because of the cool finish with her diving off the top of the cage -- take away that finish and the rest of the match really wasn't anything to write home about, just like her entire run in the company. I'd much rather they have kept Roxxi around instead.
BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE BACKSTAGE SEGMENT
-Some interesting things going on in this segment. Madison making a crack about the absent Lacey and, more interestingly, Madison seeming cocky and unconcerned about Angelina while Velvet was clearly on edge. Madison even started bossing Velvet around. Did Madison become the leader of TBP and forget to tell anyone?
ANGELINA LOVE vs. VELVET SKY (c). MADISON RAYNE TAUNTS ANGELINA POST-MATCH
-Nice touch with Velvet selling her concern by not doing her usual entrance.
-I like this gimmick of Angelina being more concerned with hurting TBP than getting wins over them. If that leads to TBP being off TV while they sell the injuries, then more power to her. TBP are ridiculously overexposed at this point and they need to get some of the other women some screen time already.
-Not a great match, but it was passible, I suppose, and that's about the best you can ask for from a Velvet Sky singles match. But I'm just so tired of TBP that it's hard to drum up any enthusiasm. This faction is so damn stale right now, it's not even funny.
-----
7/01/10 iMPACT
TAYLOR WILDE vs. MADISON RAYNE (c). ANGELINA LOVE ATTACKS MADISON POST-MATCH
-Once again, Taylor doesn't get an entrance. I know a lot of people haven't been getting their entrances shown tonight, but still, this really bugs me.
-A typical Madison Rayne match. She gets outwrestled by her opponent, then wins in unconvincing fashion. I really don't understand why she's getting pushed so much. Based on the crowd tonight, she hasn't gotten over at all as a singles competitor. Take away the other members of TBP and you only shine a light on how generic a character and wrestler Madison really is.
-They were actually having a pretty good match, but unfortunately the whole thing ended up playing second fiddle to the ECW guys showing up in the crowd, distracting from the in-ring action. For the record, I would have complained about this no matter what match it happened during. It's just typical Russo booking with the wrestling being the least important thing about the show.
-Forgive me, but I couldn't care less about an old school ECW faction in 2010. Yes, ECW was great in its day, but the company has been dead for a decade now. For God's sake, why can't people stop raping its corpse and just let it die? The only chance this would have of being any good whatsoever is if Paul Heyman were booking it, which seems pretty damn unlikely even if TNA is actively trying to sign him. Be honest -- does ANYONE want to see an original ECW faction booked by Vince Russo, or worse, Kevin Sullivan? Yeah, I thought not.
SARITA & TAYLOR WILDE BACKSTAGE SEGMENT
-Sarita attacks Taylor... What the... WHERE THE HELL DID THIS COME FROM?! They never teased this! They never alluded to this! This was completely unprovoked! This made no damn sense!
-According to the announcers, this break up was teased on Xplosion. Well, someone should tell TNA that Xplosion DOESN'T AIR IN AMERICA (not yet anyway)! Why the hell are they trying to pay off angles that only air on a show that no one in this country has seen? What kind of sense does that make? NONE!
-This just goes to show how absolutely meaningless the Knockout tag team titles are now because TNA just broke up the only team TBP had to feud with, and no other makeshift team the writers could put together from the women they have is going to be anywhere near as good together as Taylor & Sarita... unless it's Sarita & Hamada, but that would require Hamada actually getting TV time and it doesn't seem like that's going to happen. This is absolute horse shit.
-I suppose there is one saving grace here. If you'll remember, when these two were originally teamed together, I said that the only downside to it was that we wouldn't get to see the matches they could have against each other. I assume that match will happen now, but it will most likely happen on Xplosion, which means we won't even get to see it, so the whole thing is entirely pointless! What a God damn waste.
-Well, at least the writers are actually doing something with Sarita & Taylor now. Sure, it's frustrating as hell, but at least it's something. And if they're feuding with each other, it means that at least one of them will actually get to win a damn match.
-If this segment was any indication, Sarita should make a great heel. Hopefully, this will lead to her getting more TV time. I really doubt it, since Angelina and TBP are the only women TNA seems to give a rat's ass about anymore, but there's always hope, I guess.
-----
7/08/10 iMPACT
DAFFNEY vs. ANGELINA LOVE
-Daffney doesn't get her entrance shown and Angelina has a title match at the PPV this Sunday. Gee, I wonder who's going to win this match... [/sarcasm]
-Surprisingly, Daffney actually seems to be more over as a face than Angelina. Her crowd pops/chants were much louder.
-Decent action while it lasted, but once again, just way too damn short to mean anything.
ANGELINA & MADISON RAYNE POST-MATCH PROMO
-Madison challenges Angelina to put her career on the line this Sunday and Angelina inexplicably agrees to it. Um... what? Again with this crap? How the hell does Madison keep convincing her opponents to do this when they don't have to and why in God's name do they keep agreeing to it when they have everything to lose and nothing to gain by doing so? All this does is make the babyface Knockouts look like a bunch of idiots. Angelina apparently anticipated this and was ready with a stipulation of her own, but it doesn't make her any less of a dumbass for agreeing to this. I have no problem with the 'wrestler puts their career on the line' stipulation as long as it makes sense, but this does not.
-Since Angelina isn't leaving the company and has a contract good for another couple years, I guess this means we'll have a new singles champion after Victory Road. I really wish they would get behind Sarita or Hamada like this, but Angelina is certainly a step up from Madison at this point.
-If Velvet and/or Lacey are going to turn on Madison at Victory Road, they just completely telegraphed that swerve with this stip of an automatic title change if they interfere.
-At least they put importance on the title by having Angelina say she wants to be the first ever 4-time singles champion. Putting importance on championships isn't something you normally see on a show written by Vince Russo.
-----
7/11/10 Victory Road
KNOCKOUTS TITLE vs. CAREER:
ANGELINA LOVE vs. MADISON RAYNE (c)
-Wow. Both women actually got their entrances shown. I guess that can only happen on PPV these days.
-The match was okay at best, not PPV quality due to not getting enough time and the stupid finish certainly didn't help.
-The way the title changed hands was asinine, but at least they finally got the belt off of Madison Rayne. This business of pushing her as some kind of badass career killer wasn't working and it was never going to work. She just isn't equipped to pull off that kind of gimmick. No one was buying into it and she shouldn't have won the title in the first place. She was booked as a jobber for over a year prior to becoming champion and then they tried to make her credible afterward. It just doesn't work that way.
-It was confirmed almost immediately that the mystery woman who tried to help Madison was Tara, which really doesn't interest me at all and frankly, it doesn't make any sense either after Madison "ended her career" a few months ago. Tara has underperformed since the day she walked into this company and I really have no desire to see her anymore. I'd much rather see Roxxi or Alissa Flash be brought back or a new signee get a shot. Seriously, was her previous stint in TNA not boring enough? Did they have to bring her back just so she can cut more horribly acted promos and have another 10,000 lackluster matches with Angelina? Ugh...
-I can't believe that the last three Knockouts title changes in a row have happened without the champion getting pinned or submitted. It's like they actually WANT that belt to be worthless.
-Angelina is now the first ever 4-time Knockouts champion. Sadly, that means very little at this point, especially when the title changes hands in such a screwy, gimmicky fashion.
-Well, here's some not-so-surprising news to start off the month. According to ODB's twitter page, she asked for and has been given her release from the company. If you've been paying attention then you're probably about as surprised by this as I am (not very). I can't even remember the last time she was used on TV, and last we heard from her, she was lamenting the current crappy state of the Knockout division on her facebook page, so this hardly comes as a shock.
-Not to sound cold or anything, but I'm not going to lose much sleep over this one. I'm not one of these internet marks who hate ODB or anything (though there are quite a few of them out there), but ODB didn't really do much for me as a wrestler. She could be entertaining in small doses, but I think the writers had long since run out of things to do with her. There really didn't seem to be anywhere left for her character to go and it's not like she had been prominently featured in the last six months. Although, it is troubling that one of the only really over female babyfaces the company had left is now gone.
-I imagine this means we're going to see yet another push for Angelina as we wait out the clock until Mickie James's 90 day no compete clause expires. Oooh, pinch me.
ANGELINA LOVE PRE-MATCH PROMO
-Angelina's been out for weeks and she doesn't even get her entrance shown on her first night back? That's just ridiculous.
-I like that they announced the match for Victory Road as early possible, but Angelina has been out for a while with an injury, so what did she do to earn a title shot?
ANGELINA LOVE vs. LACEY VON ERICH (c)
-Lacey Von Erich in a singles match? For one night, the ridiculously short matches the Knockouts get these days turned out to be a blessing. Lacey's matches should be kept as short as possible for obvious reasons.
-Mercifully short and Angelina gets herself DQed with a DDT to Lacey on a chair. Intriguing finish. This could turn out to be interesting if they play it like Angelina cares more about hurting TBP than beating them or it could turn into some really stupid angle that results in us never getting a clean finish to her matches. I'll forgive it this time since it was Lacey and she's awful, but I hope they won't try for a finish like this when Angelina gets Madison in the ring with the title on the line.
-----
6/24/10 iMPACT
-There's news going around that Tara may be returning to the company soon. Um... what? Didn't she just lose a match where the stipulation was that her career is over if she loses? Maybe they worked out a new deal, but if there was a chance of that happening, why do the "career ending" stipulation in the first place? If they bring someone back just a couple months after she lost a match with her career on the line, it's just going to look stupid.
-Disagree with me all you want, but I hope Tara doesn't come back. Her first run in TNA was extremely underwhelming and I really have no desire to see her again. I might feel differently if she had delivered on a level proportionate to the push she received, but she didn't. She never really had any standout matches. Even the cage match with Awesome Kong wasn't that great. The only reason that match was memorable was because of the cool finish with her diving off the top of the cage -- take away that finish and the rest of the match really wasn't anything to write home about, just like her entire run in the company. I'd much rather they have kept Roxxi around instead.
BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE BACKSTAGE SEGMENT
-Some interesting things going on in this segment. Madison making a crack about the absent Lacey and, more interestingly, Madison seeming cocky and unconcerned about Angelina while Velvet was clearly on edge. Madison even started bossing Velvet around. Did Madison become the leader of TBP and forget to tell anyone?
ANGELINA LOVE vs. VELVET SKY (c). MADISON RAYNE TAUNTS ANGELINA POST-MATCH
-Nice touch with Velvet selling her concern by not doing her usual entrance.
-I like this gimmick of Angelina being more concerned with hurting TBP than getting wins over them. If that leads to TBP being off TV while they sell the injuries, then more power to her. TBP are ridiculously overexposed at this point and they need to get some of the other women some screen time already.
-Not a great match, but it was passible, I suppose, and that's about the best you can ask for from a Velvet Sky singles match. But I'm just so tired of TBP that it's hard to drum up any enthusiasm. This faction is so damn stale right now, it's not even funny.
-----
7/01/10 iMPACT
TAYLOR WILDE vs. MADISON RAYNE (c). ANGELINA LOVE ATTACKS MADISON POST-MATCH
-Once again, Taylor doesn't get an entrance. I know a lot of people haven't been getting their entrances shown tonight, but still, this really bugs me.
-A typical Madison Rayne match. She gets outwrestled by her opponent, then wins in unconvincing fashion. I really don't understand why she's getting pushed so much. Based on the crowd tonight, she hasn't gotten over at all as a singles competitor. Take away the other members of TBP and you only shine a light on how generic a character and wrestler Madison really is.
-They were actually having a pretty good match, but unfortunately the whole thing ended up playing second fiddle to the ECW guys showing up in the crowd, distracting from the in-ring action. For the record, I would have complained about this no matter what match it happened during. It's just typical Russo booking with the wrestling being the least important thing about the show.
-Forgive me, but I couldn't care less about an old school ECW faction in 2010. Yes, ECW was great in its day, but the company has been dead for a decade now. For God's sake, why can't people stop raping its corpse and just let it die? The only chance this would have of being any good whatsoever is if Paul Heyman were booking it, which seems pretty damn unlikely even if TNA is actively trying to sign him. Be honest -- does ANYONE want to see an original ECW faction booked by Vince Russo, or worse, Kevin Sullivan? Yeah, I thought not.
SARITA & TAYLOR WILDE BACKSTAGE SEGMENT
-Sarita attacks Taylor... What the... WHERE THE HELL DID THIS COME FROM?! They never teased this! They never alluded to this! This was completely unprovoked! This made no damn sense!
-According to the announcers, this break up was teased on Xplosion. Well, someone should tell TNA that Xplosion DOESN'T AIR IN AMERICA (not yet anyway)! Why the hell are they trying to pay off angles that only air on a show that no one in this country has seen? What kind of sense does that make? NONE!
-This just goes to show how absolutely meaningless the Knockout tag team titles are now because TNA just broke up the only team TBP had to feud with, and no other makeshift team the writers could put together from the women they have is going to be anywhere near as good together as Taylor & Sarita... unless it's Sarita & Hamada, but that would require Hamada actually getting TV time and it doesn't seem like that's going to happen. This is absolute horse shit.
-I suppose there is one saving grace here. If you'll remember, when these two were originally teamed together, I said that the only downside to it was that we wouldn't get to see the matches they could have against each other. I assume that match will happen now, but it will most likely happen on Xplosion, which means we won't even get to see it, so the whole thing is entirely pointless! What a God damn waste.
-Well, at least the writers are actually doing something with Sarita & Taylor now. Sure, it's frustrating as hell, but at least it's something. And if they're feuding with each other, it means that at least one of them will actually get to win a damn match.
-If this segment was any indication, Sarita should make a great heel. Hopefully, this will lead to her getting more TV time. I really doubt it, since Angelina and TBP are the only women TNA seems to give a rat's ass about anymore, but there's always hope, I guess.
-----
7/08/10 iMPACT
DAFFNEY vs. ANGELINA LOVE
-Daffney doesn't get her entrance shown and Angelina has a title match at the PPV this Sunday. Gee, I wonder who's going to win this match... [/sarcasm]
-Surprisingly, Daffney actually seems to be more over as a face than Angelina. Her crowd pops/chants were much louder.
-Decent action while it lasted, but once again, just way too damn short to mean anything.
ANGELINA & MADISON RAYNE POST-MATCH PROMO
-Madison challenges Angelina to put her career on the line this Sunday and Angelina inexplicably agrees to it. Um... what? Again with this crap? How the hell does Madison keep convincing her opponents to do this when they don't have to and why in God's name do they keep agreeing to it when they have everything to lose and nothing to gain by doing so? All this does is make the babyface Knockouts look like a bunch of idiots. Angelina apparently anticipated this and was ready with a stipulation of her own, but it doesn't make her any less of a dumbass for agreeing to this. I have no problem with the 'wrestler puts their career on the line' stipulation as long as it makes sense, but this does not.
-Since Angelina isn't leaving the company and has a contract good for another couple years, I guess this means we'll have a new singles champion after Victory Road. I really wish they would get behind Sarita or Hamada like this, but Angelina is certainly a step up from Madison at this point.
-If Velvet and/or Lacey are going to turn on Madison at Victory Road, they just completely telegraphed that swerve with this stip of an automatic title change if they interfere.
-At least they put importance on the title by having Angelina say she wants to be the first ever 4-time singles champion. Putting importance on championships isn't something you normally see on a show written by Vince Russo.
-----
7/11/10 Victory Road
KNOCKOUTS TITLE vs. CAREER:
ANGELINA LOVE vs. MADISON RAYNE (c)
-Wow. Both women actually got their entrances shown. I guess that can only happen on PPV these days.
-The match was okay at best, not PPV quality due to not getting enough time and the stupid finish certainly didn't help.
-The way the title changed hands was asinine, but at least they finally got the belt off of Madison Rayne. This business of pushing her as some kind of badass career killer wasn't working and it was never going to work. She just isn't equipped to pull off that kind of gimmick. No one was buying into it and she shouldn't have won the title in the first place. She was booked as a jobber for over a year prior to becoming champion and then they tried to make her credible afterward. It just doesn't work that way.
-It was confirmed almost immediately that the mystery woman who tried to help Madison was Tara, which really doesn't interest me at all and frankly, it doesn't make any sense either after Madison "ended her career" a few months ago. Tara has underperformed since the day she walked into this company and I really have no desire to see her anymore. I'd much rather see Roxxi or Alissa Flash be brought back or a new signee get a shot. Seriously, was her previous stint in TNA not boring enough? Did they have to bring her back just so she can cut more horribly acted promos and have another 10,000 lackluster matches with Angelina? Ugh...
-I can't believe that the last three Knockouts title changes in a row have happened without the champion getting pinned or submitted. It's like they actually WANT that belt to be worthless.
-Angelina is now the first ever 4-time Knockouts champion. Sadly, that means very little at this point, especially when the title changes hands in such a screwy, gimmicky fashion.
QCWradio episode 88
Episode 88 is now available for download.
This week's topics include:
-Raw discussion.
-TNA Victory Road review.
-TNA's ECW invasion angle.
-roundtable discussion: 3 questions we would ask Vince Mcmahon.
-also, promo of the week and much, much more.
This week's topics include:
-Raw discussion.
-TNA Victory Road review.
-TNA's ECW invasion angle.
-roundtable discussion: 3 questions we would ask Vince Mcmahon.
-also, promo of the week and much, much more.
July 12, 2010
July 08, 2010
Previewing Victory Road 2010
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Brother Ray vs. Brother Devon vs. Jesse Neal
Wow. So I guess it's finally official; TNA have completely run out of things to do with Team 3D. The fact that they're feuding against each other now is uninteresting enough, but the fact that they're feuding because of Brother Ray's treatment of Jesse Neal only raises my disinterest to atmospheric heights.
I keep asking this question and no one has been able to give me an answer: what in the world does TNA see in Jesse Neal? He won't be the worst worker on the roster as long as idiots like Orlando Jordan and Rob Terry are still there, but in a locker room full of amazing young talent, he hardly stands out as a guy deserving of a push like this. I appreciate 3D being so willing to put over young guys, but Neal is just the wrong person to be getting this rub, especially when infinitely more talented stars like Amazing Red and Generation Me are sitting on the bench doing nothing.
I really don't care about this match at all and I'm not expecting it to be particularly good either. How weird is it that in a feud between Team 3D & Ink Inc, the best worker of the group, Shannon Moore, is the one guy who isn't in this match? Whatever. The saving grace of this feud is that it's keeping both teams away from the tag titles.
Who should win: Jesse Neal. I may not see anything in him, but Ray & Devon have been doing everything they can to get this guy over, and who am I to discourage veterans from putting over a young star? Here's hoping this will be the end of this program and 3D can move on to feuding with a more deserving team like Generation Me.
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Ric Flair vs. Jay Lethal
This has been one of the better feuds on the show lately, but the match itself is academic. One man is a hot, young rising star, the other is over 60 and already "retired" a couple years ago. I don't care if Ric Flair is a legend and I don't care how many world championships he's amassed. The bottom line is it's a young man's business and it hurts me to watch Ric Flair still trying to compete in the ring.
Who should win: There's only one way this match should end. Flair would gain nothing from beating Lethal, but Lethal would gain a lot from beating Flair. If Jay Lethal DOESN'T win this match, then there is something horribly and fundamentally wrong with this company.
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STEEL CAGE MATCH
Matt Morgan vs. Hernandez
Does anyone have any idea why this is a steel cage match? They haven't even had a regular match yet! The feud has been fine, but to put them in a cage this early is just stupid because it leaves them with nowhere to go afterward unless they plan on reuniting LAX and having them feud with Morgan and a new partner. I say yes to the former and no to the latter. Morgan should be getting a singles push and Hernandez was more over when he was teaming with Homicide.
Then there's the issue of there also being an Ultimate-X on this PPV. Having this match in addition to that one dilutes the importance of both IMO. This really should not be a cage match.
Who should win: Hernandez. Supermex just recently returned from his "injury" and he needs some momentum. Morgan could really use this win too, but I think Hernandez needs it a little more, especially if this match is going to end the feud.
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KNOCKOUTS TITLE vs. CAREER
Angelina Love vs. Madison Rayne (c)
How many times have I called Madison Rayne a lame duck champion by now? I've lost count. She hasn't impressed in the ring, she hasn't really gotten over unless the other members of TBP are standing next to her. About the only thing she's succeeded at is inexplicably being able to get her challengers to put their careers on the line despite them having absolutely no reason to do so. Unfortunately, that has less to do with her and more to do with the writers not taking the time to get her title matches to make sense.
I'm not sure what Angelina did to become #1 contender, but beggers can't be choosers at this point. Madison as the champion hasn't worked because she's just not an alpha; she doesn't have the tools to be the top woman in the company and everyone knows it. Angelina's previous title reigns were pretty lackluster thanks to bad booking, but she's the lesser of 2 evils in this situation. They need a woman that they genuinely want to devote TV time to to be the focal point, and of the 4 women the writers seem to feel that way about, Angelina is the only one who should be wearing a title belt under any circumstances.
Who should win: Angelina Love
-----
ULTIMATE-X
X-DIVISION TITLE: win by either submission or claiming the title belt
Brian Kendrick vs. Douglas Williams (c)
A match that heavily favors the high flyer between 2 guys who are not high flyers. Only in TNA, folks.
Seriously, I have a bad feeling about this one. It could potentially be good, but this is just a really awkward pairing of guys to put in an Ultimate-X, and the submission stipulation absolutely reeks of Overbooking 101: the Russo edition.
Part of me finds it incredibly refreshing to see an Ultimate-X with just 2 guys in a feud rather than 10 guys in a random match with no story attached, but I can still see dark clouds hovering over this one. Even if the submission stip was not included, it would still feel like a bad idea to me.
They need at least one high flyer to make this match worth doing IMO. Since Jeremy Buck got the non-title win over Williams in the ladder match on the go-home show, they have a perfect excuse to add him to the match. If he's not getting the next title shot, then he absolutely should be included here (unless GenMe are AJ & Kazarian's opponents), otherwise the champion will look weak when he's finally started to gain momentum. Hopefully the writers will get a clue and consider this option.
Who should win: Douglas Williams. TNA may have something with this technical wrestling vs. glorified acrobats feud, and what better way to put the champion over the top as a heel than to have him beat the high flyers at their own game? Now if only his opponent in this match was actually a high flyer...
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AJ Styles & Kazarian vs. ????
I'm not exactly sure why this match is taking place on Victory Road when AJ vs. Kazarian was on iMPACT. Maybe that will be made clear at the PPV or maybe it was just more of Russo's bass-ackwards booking. Either way, without knowing who their opponents are, it's impossible to theorize how the match will go. If Jeremy Buck isn't added to the Ultimate-X match, then Generation Me should be the opponents -- that match up would be awesome. Come to think of it, GenMe may be the only tag team on the roster that isn't already booked for this PPV, so that would make perfect sense.
Who should win: The mystery opponents. The tension between AJ & Kazarian has only been escalating, so I guess this all depends on how long the writers want to draw this out. I'd say they should lose this match by having one of them accidentally causing the other to get pinned due to a miscommunication.
Who should be the mystery opponents: Generation Me
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TAG TEAM TITLES: winners become the new titleholders
Beer Money vs. Motor City Machine Guns
I will never NOT support Sabin & Shelley in a tag team title match until such time that they finally win those God damn belts. They've been a team in TNA for 3+ years and are looooooooong overdue for a title reign. Granted, after their numerous losses recently, Beer Money could really use a boost right now too, but they don't need it as much. They're still aligned with Ric Flair (I think), so even if they're not the champions, they've still got the Nature Boy talking them up. They also have several previous title reigns to their credit. Storm & Roode would certainly benefit from having the tag titles, but not nearly as much as the MCMG would. It's high time the Guns got a chance to run with the ball -- they should've been tag team champions a long time ago and the writers need to pull their heads out of their asses and finally make this right.
Who should win: MCMG
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CONTENDERS BATTLE
#10 Kurt Angle VS #8 D'Angelo Dinero
It's a credit to both men that after one promo segment this was already one of my most anticipated matches for this PPV. There isn't much of a storyline, but in this case, there really doesn't need to be. They both want to be the world champion and want to work their way through the top 10 ranked heavyweights to earn a shot at the title. It's simple and yet more effective than a lot of other things TNA are doing right now. That and the fact that this match is happening on PPV (like Angle's match w/ Desmond Wolfe should have) makes it, and the world title, feel important. If only the writers applied this philosophy to more of the show...
Who should win: Kurt Angle. The Pope really shouldn't be losing matches this soon after his return, but as we saw with Kazarian last month, a wrestler doesn't have to win the match to get put over when his opponent is Kurt Angle.
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WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE
Mr. Anderson vs. Jeff Hardy vs. Abyss vs. Rob Van Dam (c)
Based on the build up for this, it's not really a question of who the champion will be after this match, but whether that champion will be Rob Van Dam or Abyss. Abyss's character rehabilitation has been going better than I would've expected since he ditched the magic ring nonsense and returned to his monster persona and he probably has the most momentum out of these 4 guys, but it remains to be seen if that will last. He's had trouble in the past with maintaining his crowd heat for extended periods (mostly due to bad booking) and I'd like to see them keep him away from championships until he proves that he can get over and stay over. Besides, if there is even a sliver of truth to that horrifying rumor that Hogan is pushing for Abyss to go over here so their planned match at Bound For Glory would be for the world title, Abyss becoming world champion is the LAST THING IN THE WORLD that should happen.
Who should win: Rob Van Dam. If we're thinking about the Bound for Glory Main event, TNA's best bet at this point is to slowly build up to RVD defending against Kurt Angle.
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FINAL THOUGHTS: There are a few more hiccups on this card than I would like, but on paper this looks like a really good PPV -- certainly better than Slammiversary looked this time last month. However, I still reserve the right to bitch if it doesn't turn out well.
The card is more well thought out than many of TNA's recent ones and surprisingly, the build up has been much improved as well, which has definitely helped. As of right now, I think this could potentially be a really solid show or a really mediocre show depending on the execution. Considering how all the other PPV offerings of the Hogan/Bischoff regime have gone, I'm guessing it will be the latter when it's all said and done, but there's reason to be hopeful if the rumors are true about Tommy Dreamer being added to the creative team.
If they pull it off as it is right now, this could very well turn out to be the best PPV of the new regime so far. But if they try to get unnecessarily creative with the finishes or add new matches, new stipulations or new gimmicks at the last minute as Russo is so fond of doing, we could be in for more of the same old crap.
We shall see...
July 06, 2010
QCW finds a new home!
As many of you know (those of you that care anyway), QCWradio left the Angry Marks podcast network a few months ago due to creative differences with Stevie J. Since then, we've been limited to blogtalkradio.com without a site to host us.
Well, it was announced just last night on QCWradio episode 87 that the show has found a new home at superfriendsuniverse. This site is the brain child of Chessarmy & Big_D and has been in the works for quite a while, though they did neglect to inform me that they were working on it (grrrrr).
So starting right now you can listen to and download QCWradio at our new home, superfriendsuniverse.com, soon to be the most kick-ass podcasting website in all the interwebs!
Well, it was announced just last night on QCWradio episode 87 that the show has found a new home at superfriendsuniverse. This site is the brain child of Chessarmy & Big_D and has been in the works for quite a while, though they did neglect to inform me that they were working on it (grrrrr).
So starting right now you can listen to and download QCWradio at our new home, superfriendsuniverse.com, soon to be the most kick-ass podcasting website in all the interwebs!
QCWradio episode 87
Episode 87 is now available for download.
This week's topics include:
-Raw & iMPACT discussion.
-the chances of Paul Heyman coming to TNA.
-previewing TNA Victory Road.
-Emperor Big_D delivers an epic announcement.
-also, mail bag, promo of the week and much, much more.
This week's topics include:
-Raw & iMPACT discussion.
-the chances of Paul Heyman coming to TNA.
-previewing TNA Victory Road.
-Emperor Big_D delivers an epic announcement.
-also, mail bag, promo of the week and much, much more.
July 03, 2010
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