Daniel Bryan Danielson fired for choking some guy…

I wake up this morning and I find out that Daniel Bryan Danielson has been fired because he choked WWE announcer Justin Roberts with his tie during that whole skit. Yeah, that’s got to be the stupidest thing I’ve heard all day. Really, if the crack WWE management found some guy getting choked with his tie to be graphically violent, then they wouldn’t have spent a whole five seconds watching the guy get choked. They would have cut to something else. Instead, they lose one of the better workers in that whole NXT faction.

Remember that feeling I had about how WWE was going to somehow fuck up this goldmine they have going on? Well, this isn’t exactly that, but it’s a possible sign that they may very neuter this Invasion. It’s unfortunate that such a realistic (read: compelling) angle had to be toned down because someone might not be . And yet twelve years ago, WCW will pull off similar stuff without much repercussion and that was also something of a PG product.

Oh wait…

More Hyperbole from Dixie

TNA President Dixie Carter left the following on her Twitter:

“It’s 6:30 am. Been up for hours. So excited I can’t sleep. TNA’s about to change forever. Can’t wait to share it w/you, my staff, the talent” 

Uh-huh… yeah, sure. I’ve heard THAT one before. The next great experiment that will garner that 1.0 rating that you guys are so used to.

Still, you can’t fault her for trying. And people seem to attain some remote interest in what may change TNA forever… even if that promise has been made countless times before, giving the phrase even less weight than before each time it’s pulled out of the gutter.

Maybe I’ll be surprised, who knows? Or maybe I won’t care because WWE actually DID surprise me on Monday.

Oh wait, TNA has a PPV this coming Sunday? Yep, time for predictions as soon as I get the full rundown on the PPV.

PLEASE Don't TRY THIS AT HOME + Cena FUs the Invasion

Somehow, I had this idea to combine bits and clips of the NXT Invasion from this past Monday’s RAW with the audio track for one of those WWE PSAs (the clips where a superstar informs viewers not to try this at home). I lucked out in finding one with John Cena… and so here we go.

Before anyone brings it up, yes, I included the spit. Also, I liked the dramatic music piece that they used for the original PSA. It works nicely with the clipshow actually.

Speaking of Cena, here’s a snippet of his Twitter in giant Twitter type:

CeNation. Sorry for delay. Checked out fine. Mild concussion and some back and hip trouble, but I am in 1 piece. Thank u for your concern.


Yep. Eight guys beat the crap out of you and you ONLY suffer a mild concussion and some back/hip problems… and you’ll be going on RAW this coming Monday, jumping all about as if nothing’s ever happened… because that’s your thing.

John? Yeah, I know we don’t see eye-to-eye and I know you enjoy doing all that Superman bullshit that you do every single night. But please do me a favor and SELL the injuries. I know it’s difficult, but you’ve had two movies under your belt to pretend you’re somewhat hurt. You have that experience. Use it… because all the NXT Invasion storyline depends greatly on this ability. Thanks.

Scott Hall Arrested for being drunk… good times.

If you’re looking for more means of supporting the theory of TNA slowly becoming WCW, here’s more substantial evidence.
According to this online newspaper article, Scott Hall was arrested and charged with disorderly intoxication. I guess he was drun… um, I mean, “battling personal demons” again. Hall, I may remind you, is currently one-third of TNA’s World Tag-Team Champions, with partners Kevin Nash and Eric Young under Freebird rules. (To anyone who is confused by that statement, it basically means that any two of the three men can defend the titles in a match. This dates back to the Fabulous Freebirds team who first pulled this off.)
Sadly, it only makes WWE look good when they let someone go and then that someone gets busted for, as was the case with Jeff Hardy. It wasn’t like any of their champions were busted for having pot in their car trunk or went crazy and killed his whole family.
Oh wait.

IMPACT SPOILERS: Back To Thursdays

I’ve yet to see the final Monday show and I’m discussing the Impact tapings for their grand return to Thursday. If you don’t want to get spoiled, don’t click this post. For the rest, my thoughts after the commercial break.

So Eric Bischoff declares that Jeff Hardy is leading fan polls at the moment… hey, wait a minute. Didn’t you already have a World Title match between RVD and Nigel Mc… er, Desmond Wolfe on your live show? Oh right, it was only three minutes or something. Anyway. rather than have RVD/Hardy II before Hardy goes back on trial and faces fourteen years in jail, AJ Styles somehow gets involved and we have a three-way booked for the show.
The Outside… er, I mean, DA BAND comprising Hall and Nash win the TNA World Tag Titles. Um, okay. I guess it’s better than Matt Morgan and… Matt Morgan.
Oh yeah, AJ wins the three way, Hogan comes out, Jeff does a Swanton. I lose interest before the show even AIRS.
Oh yeah, guys. That’s real smart booking.
Bite me.

Austin 3:16 Watches IMPACT So We Don’t Have To.

You can never go wrong with live Twitter updates on the recent episode of TNA Impact, especially when it comes from Stone Cold Steve Austin… so we know who NOT to thank for RAW’s 3.1 rating.

For those who want to read clean text, here’re the tweets that he wrote.

“Great promo from Ric Flair!!!! The greatest professional wrestler that ever lived!! And thats the bottom line cause SCSA said so…”

“on another note–Jay Lethal kills me with his Randy Savage inspired promos…very entertaining!”

“i love the Shark Boy gimmick…highly entertaining and a good worker too.”

“Flair with the brassnucks to the balls…truly the dirtiest player in the game…still. Hogan to the ring…time to change the channel.” (No joke, he actually wrote that.)

“to those that asked…of course im going to watch WWE next…i have many friends at TNA. and lots of memories with WWE…my home.”

For the record, I’m going to be watching both shows and posting musings on them later… god knows why.

Needs More RAW Emotion In Your RAW Show

I’ve been reading Steve Austin’s book, The Stone Cold Truth, and found a chapter that was pretty interesting. The chapter – Stone Cold’s Bottom Line on the Wrestling Business – basically outlines some of the things Austin would do if he ran WWE. It’s actually a pretty decent read (along with the rest of the book, mind you)

One of the things that Austin mentions (and teases constantly throughout the book) is that he believes performers should go back to doing unscripted promos and coming up with their own ideas. Just a couple points here and there to cover, the rest is up to you, champ. That’s one of the reasons why I don’t find the current product appealing – everyone is simply following a script or regurgitating what’s been fed to them. I honestly feel that nobody in WWE, outside of the guys still around from the Attitude Era and maybe a couple other exceptions, are particularly noteworthy and can be easily interchanged at random without anyone noticing the difference.

But if you just let these guys cut their own promos – give them a couple points and go from there – they might either surprise you with a good idea or they may fade away. I’m not exactly saying that they should just say whatever they want or anything, but suffice it to say, backstage writers would have never come up with Austin 3:16… crap, they couldn’t even come up with a good name for the guy.

I liked RAW better when it was RAW. Anyone remember the original premise of RAW; uncooked, unscripted, uncensored, or whatever that dumb slogan was. And that was still during the relatively PG-esque early-1990s before the Monday Night Wars when everything turned into Crash TV. In the words of Stone Cold, “RAW is so damn slick right now, it ain’t even raw.”

I have to agree.

This mentality applies to one time Stone Cold Steve Austin’s speech on Mr McMahon Appreciation Night was completely ad-libbed by him as he rejected the script Brian Gerwitz had written for him. God forbid Austin follows a script supplied by Brian Gerwitz or anybody else.  Then again, given the scripts Brian usually writes, it’s probably a good thing Stone Cold came up with his own words. Much more effective.

WWE's Top 25 Impactful Women

Interesting choice of words? Impactful… even when you’re trying to avoid TNA, you fuck up.

Anyway, it’s a list I’ve come across through a secondary source… primarily an online article that features Lisa Marie (aka Victoria in WWE and Tara in TNA) being snubbed from the list. Yes, despite being a fairly talented woman wrestler and making more of an impact than a good chunk of the current Divas, ol’ Lisa Marie is snubbed because she’s in TNA. Someone commented that it was bound to happen… why else would Jeff Hardy not be listed on WWE.com? You don’t think it has anything to do with the drug-related charges and court issues he’s having right now, would it?

Oh… oh, right. The list. So here’s the list, along with my thoughts on each entry.

25 – Torrie Wilson
She brought a puppy to the ring which gave Jerry Lawler a distraction from her other “puppies” so to speak. She was hot and I guess she made somewhat of an impact.

24 – Bull Nakano
Really? Surprised you didn’t mention Bertha Faye… Honestly, I never saw Bull Nakano in the ring outside of a Survivor’s Series match, so I guess I can take your word for it.

23 – Ivory
Ivory was a former GLOW girl, you know. That isn’t exactly impactful, but damn she could put out a good match… even through those terrible RTC months where she’s wearing the granny get-up. So yeah, impact indeed.

22 – Kelly Kelly
What?… What?… Really? Kelly Kelly? Really? Kelly Kelly? Maybe if it was Kevin Kelly, but… Kelly Kelly? Really?… Boy, this list is going downhill already, isn’t it?

21 – Jacqueline
I don’t know. Don’t get me wrong. She’s a fairly competent wrestler and has great form. But I don’t know if you consider her impactful… unless showing off your boobs to a U.K. crowd is considered impactful. If that were the case, we might as well toss Miss Kitty on the list for the same reason. But instead we get…

20 – Vickie Guerrero
You’re kidding, right? What was her impact? Eddiesploitation? So Lisa Marie got snubbed for Vickie? Seriously? Look, I’m not going poke at her physical stature or anything (because people higher on this list look far worse), but what impact has Vickie ever done to deserve a spot on this prestigious list of respectable… oh who am I kidding? NEXT!

19 – Molly Holly
Started off as a Macho Man valet during the Macho Roid year of 1999 before becoming a Holly cousin, getting her head shaved bald, and making an impact with her big fat ass that was neither big or fat. Those kooky WWE writers… it’s probably a good thing that they have all these interchangeable Barbie dolls, because if a talented and gorgeous woman like Nora was around, they’d have no clue what to do with her.

18 – Stacy Keibler
Last seen Dancing With The Stars. Stacy was known for her long, juicy legs… so there’s your impact, so to speak. I guess anything would be better than being David Flair’s on-screen boyfriend, getting pregnant and losing the fetus in a mud wrestling match… sad that I actually remember this. See? Now THAT’s making an impact.

17 – Beth Phoenix
Unlike Beth Phoenix, whose only impact was that she gave Santino something to do. Um… yeah. It’s not all bad, though. Beth’s a toughie, for sure. I barely remember her first stint before she got sidelined with a broken jaw and she’s actually a fairly competent wrestler. But impactful? Only in Santino’s pants, I’m sure.

16 – Luna Vachon
If impactful means being the first female to be playable in a 16-bit WWF video game, then yeah. I guess you could say that. Then again, she’s another tough cookie that could make an impact in your skull… with her fist. Outside of her brief feud with Sable in 98, I haven’t seen enough of Luna to be mindful… so again, I’ll take your word for it.

15 – Miss Elizabeth
The First Lady of Wrestling… deserves to be much higher than this. Not too high considering she didn’t really do much, but higher than some of the higher ups.

14 – Melina
I guess she made somewhat of an impact. I sort of see Melina as the Latina equivalent of Trish-lite; began her WWE stint as manager of the tag-team MNM, guiding them to multiple tag-team championships, before becoming a wrestler herself and garnering multiple titles. She’s seemed to have regressed a bit though. I guess that’s what happens when you’re surrounded by Barbies.

13 – Alundra Blayze (a.k.a. Madusa)
Nice to know that Madusa is represented… even after she literally trashed the WWF Women’s title on live television. Again, haven’t seen enough of her to judge.

12 – Mae Young
If I’m going by what I’ve seen of her lately, then… I’d agree. Her appearance at the 2000 Royal Rumble is a highlight deserved to be seen by all. But I’m assuming that this is based on her earlier exploits as a wrestler and not the person who gave birth to Mark Henry’s hand. No, I’m not making this up. This actually happened… and this was after Vince Russo jumped ship to WCW.

11 – Wendi Richter
The one ended Fabolous Moolah’s reign on top and was part of that whole Rock N Wrestling movement. Haven’t seen her stuff outside of her one match at Wrestlemania I… the one that started in 1984 or something. At least according to the WWE braintrust who thought it appropriate to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Wrestlemania last year. (For those who still don’t get it, THIS YEAR marks the 25th anniversary proper of Wrestlemania.)

10 – Michelle McCool
Impactful? Only in Mean Mark’s pants… and that’s possibly the only reason she’s this high on the list. I’d tend to underestimate the current crop of Divas, but only because they give me no reason to overestimate. I look at Michelle McCool and I ask “Who’s this chick? They all look the same.” That’s not exactly the impact you’re looking for.

9 – Sunny
The original WWF Diva (so to speak) and the one to thank (or blame) for providing the current template… again, deserves to be higher than this. Damn, she was hot back in the day. Nowadays… I honestly don’t know. What? I don’t.

8 – Lita
High-flying Diva who got involved in a live-sex show (and brought in ratings) who later decided to retire and sing with Luchagores… What an impact (and what a woman… back then. Not so sure about now.) But perhaps the biggest impact she made in recent years… was not going to the Diva Battle Royal at Wrestlemania 25. Now that’s something you have to respect.

7 – Mickie James
Startred off as Trish Stratus’ psychotic fan who went down there at Mania 22 to claim her first Women’s title… the only other competent WWE Diva who could actually wrestle a good match. And she sings country music too.

6 – Sable (a.k.a. Rena Mero)
The other Diva that contributed to the current template and thus deserves your thanks (or blame) on the matter. Started off as a valet, then became a wrestler, then became a Playboy bunny, then became Vince McMahon’s plaything (lawsuit? What lawsuit), then dumped Marc Mero for Brock Lesnar. A Sable Bomb indeed.

5 – Stephanie McMahon
This is a surprise. Stephanie only on Number 5… I’d expected her to top the list based solely on her last name. Maybe this is a impartial list after all. And yes, she was a former Women’s Champion… but you’d never know because she never did anything with it until dropping it to Number 8.

4 – Sensational Sherri Martel
Sherri did it all… manager, wrestler, Hall of Famer… but did she do Playboy? Okay, that was dirty, I apologize. But still, Sherri did it all… and did it well.

3 – Chyna
Known for becoming the first women to hold the IC title by beating TNA founder Jeff Jarrett in a good housekeeping match. This is probably the only period in time that you’d want to remember Chyna by and not… whatever she’s doing right now.

2 – Fabulous Moolah
Big surprise. Moolah’s Number 2… wait, that didn’t sound right. Moolah’s on the second spot? That’s better. Well played; her 28+ year reign as Women’s Champion will never be topped… certainly not by the current crop of Divas.

1 – Trish Stratus
Trish tops it off and for good reason, starting off as a manager (and I even remember her from her appearances on that TSN show with some guy named Lansberg… it’s a Canadian issue), Trish eventually became a 7-time Women’s champion for good reason; she was one of the few Divas who could actually wrestle and do a damn good job of it.

So that was the list… meh, it was alright. A couple questionable choices here and there, but otherwise, it was okay.

But yeah, I agree. Victoria got snubbed.