Official WWE/TNA Wrestling Thread

Ric Flair is the only one that was technically still active when he was inducted. Of course, it was one of those foregone conclusions that he was going to be retired the next night by HBK.

Nonetheless, the precedant was set with him.

Arn Anderson is another great candidate. Okay assuming Stu Hart is a legit candidate to get in this year, here is who I would put in:

Stu Hart (legendary promotor/wrestler of Stampede Wrestling)

Bob Backlund (Two time WWE champion)

Arn Anderson (Former WWE Tag team champion, 4 Horsemen)

Ted Dibiase (Legendary performer, Former Tag team Champion)

Sunny (Was most downloaded women on internet, set the standard for today's divas)

Road Warriors/Legion of Doom (multi time tag champs)

Rick Rude (Former IC champ)

"Hacksaw" Jim Duggan (First winner of Royal Rumble)

Ultimate Warrior (Former WWE Champ + the marquee speech for this year's event)

For television, I show Warrior's speech, Dibiase's speech and Arn Anderson's/Sunny's.

 

I can't argue with any of that. I could certainly see DiBiase getting in this year, with Ted Jr. getting a pretty serious push right now.

 

Vince did say, during his back and forth with Bret that he would "like to nominate Stu" for the WWE HOF last week.

i would like to see Bob Backlund in both for his wrestling, as well as to hear the speech he would give. that would be classic!

 

Backlund will get in, and yes his sppech will be great. I had the chance to meet him back in 1999/2000ish when he was running for office in CT. He randomly showed up at a baseball game I was playing in. After the game a few teammates and I went up to him and one of them asked for an autograph and he told him only if he could name the 41 Presidents of the United States. No one was sure if he was joking or not and he never did get the autograph but he was a nice guy and even put another player on my team in the crossface chicken wing.

 

Ludvig Borga apparently died yesterday apparently. He had a brief run in the WWF late in 1993, appeared in Summer Slam and Survivor Series PPVs. According to him, he was booked to win the WWF title sometime in 1994 and then lose the belt to Lex Luger at WM10. He was suppose to wrestle Tatanka and be in the Rumble '94 but he injuried his ankle in Dec/Jan and was never seen again.

 

Borga holds a special place with me and my best friend as I think this might have been one of the first gimmicks that we just **** all over for being stupid. A evil foreigner gimmick...from Finland?

It always seemed so...stupid. But nevertheless we had inside jokes that surrounded Borga up until today when I broke the news to him that he died.

Borga has an S.S. tattoo on his leg apparently. Always a crowd pleaser...

 

Yeah the evil Fin gimmick was pretty dumb, but was it anymore dumb than an evil Japanese man or evil Samoans in 1993? But that's wrestling for you. Borga did look legit tough (although I always thought his entrance music and ring gear was kind of lame for a tough guy) and I always loved when he whole throw a wrestler up in the air and punch his stomach on the way down. If he debuted in 2003 he might have been over due to his MMA style of fighting. I do remember him beating Tatanka and ending his undefeated streak, it was really shocking at the time.

 

What did everyone think of RAW last night? I wasn't home so I TiVo'ed it and 'watched' the whole show in about 30 minutes. The Tyson turn was pretty obvious, it's funny that Jericho is banned from RAW yet is still showing up each week. According to the WWE front office, he can't draw yet he's always a focus point, interesting.

I'm very surprised they're going with a Sheamus/Orton title match at the Rumble. But the Rumble match itself is always the main selling point of the PPV. It will be interesting to see if they keep the belt on him for WM.

Right now the Rumble match itself should be interesting because I'm not sure where the WWE is going now in terms of WM matches. I think the rumors of a Cena/Batista, Triple H/Sheamus, HBK/Undertaker matches might be true. They wouldn't be my pick for matches.

And I thought they were pushing Kofi not punishing him. Maybe he doesn't know how to work the WWE main event style yet. Oh well.

 

I'm such a sucker for Mike Tyson, that Raw was once again required viewing. The promo with him and Hornswoggle was downright epic.

I thought Swagger might be getting pushed again, but turns out, they buried him further. Kofi by all accounts, looked a tad nervous out there withthe "big boys," but I imagine he is still in the good graces. Just because you lose doesn't mean you are being depushed, so to speak.

Orton-Sheamus is odd as they are both heels. I have a feeling something else is going to be added to this. Either a person or a stipulation.

 

I wonder if Mike Tyson will be inducted into the WWE HoF soon. If someone like Pete Rose or William Perry are in, Tyson certainly should be. He did help save the WWE in '98.

Kofi hasn't won a match since November though, at least that's what it feels like. He beat Orton once on RAW and then has been jobbing since the December PPV.

Agreed about Swagger, I was happy that they gave him some mike time and then he gets buried, no good. I thought his match with Cena a while back might have changed some minds about him. Oh well.

I actually hope it stays Orton/Sheamus, I'm tired of all of the overkill triple threat matches. I know heel vs. heel isn't always the best idea but the WWE has the Rumble match with guys like Cena, Triple H, HBK etc in it which they can really push to sell.

 

Sounds good to me

 

It will be interesting to see how TNA will follow up their last Monday show, I'm assuming they won't have any more surprise appearances this time, so the focus needs to be built around the in ring product.

Also Vince Russo held a Facebook chat last week and made a comment about how the 6 sided ring might be retired soon.

 

But I'd be heavily surprised if it does stay that way. I'm almost certain that Cena will be added to the match somehow.

 

if they added kofi thatd be epic.

 

Oh I'd agree with you. It's just wishful thinking on my part. I'm just sick of having triple threat matches in general. It seems like we get one at least once or twice a month, sometimes two triple threat matches at the same PPV. It's just overkill to me.

 

on the subject of Tony Halme... i think he also had one UFC fight, which he lost to Randy Couture, in Randy's first fight for UFC. they played up Halme as both a WWE wrestler and a guy who trained MMA back then on the PPV as i recall.

 

I read somewhere that there is at least 2 more to pop up in the next few weeks.

 

I'm expecting Mr. Anderson (Kennedy) to show up at some point.

And I kind of had the six sided ring grow on me. Made them stand out. I think it is wrong to get rid of it.

Sheamus vs. Orton is weird in that it is heel vs. heel. The last time I can think of one that was on a major PPV was Rick Martel vs. HBK in a match where they were barred from hitting each other in the face (and it was for the services of Sherri, who...was the sister of Rick which was kind of odd).

And another live Impact on Monday doesn't surprise me. Hogan was stumping for it almost directly after the first one. However, if it IS to be next Monday, they better start promoting it...NOW. You need to let people know it will be there on Monday, which happens to be the day after their PPV as well.

 

Yes I hope they dont add anything to the match,for once that is an interesting match with Sheamus vs Orton. The thing is with that match it can have a ton of options with the buildup but if they add Cena or something to the match it will become like any other match again

In regards to last night's RAW it was just ok and it was predictable that Tyson would turn on Jericho the minute the match was announced.

 

Yeah the Tyson "turn" was pretty damned obvious, and it didn't help that the WWE filmed him up close as he walked out, showing that he had a shirt underneath the top one.

The funny thing about Jericho is that the WWE seems to not have faith in him carrying a show, yet he is the only one who is on both shows each week. In many ways, he is the MVP of the WWE over the last few years.

And Angle vs. HHH at the Royal Rumble from a few years ago was a heel vs. heel matchup too, so it isn't unprecedented for them to go with Sheamus vs. Orton. The problem is, I don't think I can picture a scenario where Sheamus walks out with a clean victory. Perhaps Dibiase screwing things up for Orton, leading Randy to turn his attention on his own protege while Sheamus moves on, bragging about toppling both Cena AND Orton.

 

Yeah I think I commented on the Jericho situation and how the WWE has zero faith in him yet he's always on every show. Of course he jobs to Triple H every week but still it's funny. He's the best heel the WWE has right now. He should be carrying a World Title around with him. I still can't get over how the WWE won't even make a DVD set for him because they don't think it will sell yet they're releasing a John Morrison one in Feb. I love Morrison but what has he done to deserve one so quickly. OH well I'm just glad the Batista DVD tanked big time.

I was going to 'calling you out' for missing the Triple H/Angle match up. And yea I think the obvious ending of the title match will be DiBiase costing Orton the title and Orton eliminating DiBiase from the Rumble as pay back. If that does happen I hope DiBiase is at least one of the final four in the ring so the elimination would mean more instead of it happening in the middle of the Rumble match, that way they can really play up the costing the title for both sides.

 

Speaking of the Royal Rumble,who do you all think is going to win it this year?

 

TNA is just coming on and I was hoping to see some more strip poaker from the 3 blonde ladies that were on last week ( I think it was the beautiful people).hey have some hott bodies on them ;-)

 

Well Hall and Nash will be debuting Sunday at Genesis against beer money.

 

The huge debut in TNA this weekend at Genesis....

They say it is going to be a game changer. IMO, that rules out Ken Anderson. Rumors are saying that The Master and Ruler of the World...Sid Vicious could be signing and he has put a TNA logo on his Myspace. But that to me isn't something that would set the world on fire. That leaves Stone Cold. Well, forget about that because he is going to be a guest host of Raw in March. So who else could it be?

IYAM...none other than R...V...D!

 

....and just as I say that, this comes out:

The TNAWrestlingNews.com website is now confirming that former WWE performer Ken Anderson (a/k/a Mr. Kennedy) will be debuting with TNA Wrestling next week, according to company sources.

According to the TNAWrestlingNews.com source, Anderson will either debut at Sunday's Genesis as the 'Major TNA Wrestling Superstar Acquisition' teased on Thursday's iMPACT!, or he will debut at the following night's television taping.

Current plans call for Anderson to debut at Genesis, but should the company decide to hold out, he will debut at the following evening's television tapings.

Either way, Anderson will debut with TNA next week.

 

Anderson is no surprise...and wrestling always overstates the debuts of wrestlers.

Also of note...the six sided ring is gone. I think that that is a mistake, personally.

 

The traditional ring will benefit the bigger guys, but it will kill the X-division. They flourished in part because of the 6 sided ring. It really helped showcase their talent and in them telling the story.

 

I just watched the debut match of Generation Me (Young Bucks) against the Motor City Machine Guns. Great match. I think the MCMG should have won the match though. I think G.M. would have gotten the rub from the story that, the MCMG took them for granted and pushed them to the limit.

But it is a small complaint, here is hoping both of these teams have a series of matches with one another. Great match.

 

Yeah, iyam, there should have been a MMG win on Impact with GM getting the win in an opening bout rematch tonight.

btw...looks like Brian Kendrick will be facing Amazing Red tonight. Mistake again, imo. Should have been Shannon Moore. Why use him on the live show and then do nothing since?

also, more on Anderson:

Source: The Wrestling Observer

According to a source, there is scheduled to be an angle tonight at Genesis where the Bobby Lashley vs. Abyss match gets replaced by Abyss vs. Ken Anderson.

Abyss will lay out Lashley during the angle.

 

Also Scott Hall pleaded to get out of his match because he felt he looked out of shape in his tights yet. I guess xpac and hall are on thin ice sadly.

 

Speaking of looking bad in their tights, Tomko looked bloated and saggy on Thursday when he faced AJ. Its unfortunate as he is a big man who can move and had a nice look to him. But, unless he can whip himself back into shape, I see him hitting the unemployment line sooner, rather than later.

And Hall is pushing 300 pounds, it can't be a surprise to him that he looks bad in his old get up. It is asking a lot to have Nash carry the team. Waltman looks to be in decent shape, it is probably for the best to have him suit up instead of Hall. Just call it a Freebird type situation where you never know which members of "The Band" you will face.

Kendrick debuting tonight is a little intriguing. I have always liked Spanky's work and he is a nice addition to the X Division. It has been a long time since I have seen him work a style that wasn't "WWE," so I am interested to see what he can still do. And I bet he wins as Amazing Red's cinderella story seems to be coming to an end.

And not sure what people want Shannon Moore to do. He has never been consistantly over anywhere he has been and his work has always been somewhat sloppy to me. I like him, but don't expect him to be anything more than a bit player.

 

The problem with Hall is that not only is he out of shape...he is 50 years old and out of shape. That is a huge problem. Look at his work on Impact. He threw weak punches and labored around the ring. I figured that "The Band" would just wrestle in jeans and t-shirts.

The problem with Moore in the WWE was Moore. He was a mental case and his heart wasn't into it. He then went to TNA and looked prime for a run there, until the WWE came back with more money to get him back. He made the mistake and took the money. That then put him in a negative light. Thing was, he was doing a lot of high flying moves at a time a lot of players weren't. So at times it did come off as sloppy. He is tailor made for the X-Division, if his head is in the game. I think going on the Australian tour with Hogan let him see what it could be like again if he busted his ***.

Kendrick can be great, but not as a heel. He bombed as The Brian Kendrick and just has that Spanky look that kills any heat he can garner as a heel. Thing with tonight...Red is way over, so Kendrick is coming in as a heel. Not good.

 

I dont know if anyone posted it yet or not but they are going to a squared circle tonight.
No more six sided ring from TNA.

 

yep....already posted.

 

...and no surprise, Scott Hall pulls out of the match. I actually didn't even think he would show up.

---
According to a source within TNA, Scott Hall is saying he has a groin injury and that's why he won't wrestle tonight at Genesis. However, in reality, Hall recently put on trunks for the first time in a long time and was concerned that his body did not appear to be in ring shape. Therefore, when Hall begged to be taken off the card, Sean Waltman was put in the tag match with Nash for tonight, but even Waltman is said to be begging off the card as well. It is not known at this time why Waltman feels uncomfortable wrestling, so as a precaution, Eric Young will be at the pay-per-view and will serve as Nash's partner if Waltman no-shows or is "unable" to wrestle.

Despite reported TNA satisfaction with Hall and Waltman, both are said to be constantly wrecked on pills and will not last long. Nash did not vouch for Hall and Waltman prior to or at the beginning of their employment by TNA, and has made it very plain that they are not his responsibility, so there is no heat on Nash as far as TNA management is concerned.

 

TNA's new ring - PHOTO

and the tunnels are gone.

 

Waltman looked fine in the ring to me. Looks to have lost a bit of weight, so maybe that was his concern in wrestling? That perhaps he wouldn't look believable. But I always thought he was better while thinner.

A couple of really good matches tonight with the Main Event still to go. The British Invasion-Hernandez/Morgan matchup was very well done. Kudos to everyone for that. And the Wolfe-Pope match was stellar. I really enjoyed that and the psychology involved.

As expected, Mr. Anderson debuted...and got ridiculed by the fans, which made me laugh as he always struck me as a bomafied douche.

Speaking of which, the crowd TORE into Hogan at the start of the PPV regarding the ring. While I like the new ramp, I thought that the 6-sided ring helped differentiate them from everyone else. But if the quality of matches is there, then it won't matter.

No Samoa Joe is pretty alarming, as was no Sting. But then again no Nasty Boys or Team 3-D, so maybe it is a fair trade.

 

I figured at the end of the show we would see Sting in the rafters...but no. Kinda glad about that.

Prediction...we are going to see a new 4 Horseman with Flair as manager. Get ready for AJ, Daniels, Joe and one other to round it out.

 

This exact thought crossed my mind as well. I tend to shy away from screwy finishes, but this one seemed to work and wasn't too over the top. I was a little turned off by how quickly AJ's demeanor changed after using the belt. I think it would have been cool to see him use it and still have a little bit of confliction in him, but have that seep away over the course of a few weeks on Impact as he grows increasingly more shallow and lets Flair's ideas and opinions take hold of him. But as it stood, it was another great match from those two and a good PPV effort overall.

As for the Horsemen idea, as I said, it crosed my mind as well, and I dread it. First off, they wouldn'tbe able to be called the Horsemen since the WWE owns that name now. Second, it would seem pretty forced in my opinion. I do like the idea of Flair being AJ's manager however and I think they should keep it to that.

I am intrigued by the idea of seeing someone like Pope team up with Christopher Daniels though. They don't have much in common and seem to be on the opposite sides of one another in terms of fan reaction, but I have a feeling they would work well together because of it. Perhaps just an extended program where they work against each other is better.

I am also curious as to where they go from here. This show was pretty much a huge reset button. A lot of issues were resolved and it appears as though AJ Styles will need a new foil, as will the tag champs, X Division and Knockouts division.

I don't know where they are going to go with Angle, although I could see him screaming about being screwed, and Hogan telling him it is what it is and he has to prove himself, like everyone else. Or perhaps Daniels/Pope can fued with him? Not sure. It appears that Daniels has fallen out of favor a little bit (losing to Val Venis at this stage is never a good sign), so he won't be in a real high profile feud I imagine.

And Scott Steiner, Sting andSamoaJoe are all just kind of sitting out there with nothing to do. Me thinks they will be involved as early as the next Impact.