TNA's present arc can be traced to Magnus as Champion Photo Credit: ImpactWrestling.com

Despite what my twitter followers might think, I’m incredibly positive when it comes to professional wrestling. I just expect a lot better than what we get on a weekly basis, on both bigger and smaller stages. I truly believe that wrestling, when it’s good, is the best art form ever.

My relationship with TNA is a weird one. Living near Orlando I’ve had friends who worked for and went to TNA shows regularly, but I’ve never felt an incredible urge to view it. This was during what I refer to has The Hogan Era and I’m not the biggest Hulk Hogan fan so there was no real nostalgia push for me to check it out, and I only recently really got into indie wrestling so there was no drive to check out the indie guys who wound up in TNA. I’ve only in the last year decided to check out the OTHER wrestling on TV.

I suspect that most of the people who are reading this might not have much or any familiarity with TNA, and since I’d like to discuss each episode as it happens without diving into the history of the company to bring people up to speed, so without further ado: the history of TNA, sort of.

In many ways TNA is a company born from failure. Created by Jeff Jarrett, TNA was created to fill the gaping hole in televised wrestling left by the demise of WCW. Some of TNA’s early roster was poached from another failed fill-in for WCW, Xcitement Wrestling Federation. Oddly enough, XWF was formed by Hulk Hogan and several other WCW cast-offs in the wake of their former company closing and was filmed in the same location that would later become the infamous Impact Zone, the home of TNA in Orlando at Universal Studios. XWF’s roster was composed of older legends and younger indie wrestlers (including AJ Styles), a formula TNA carries on to this day.

TNA transitioned from live wrestling to televised wrestling in 2004, when it started broadcasting on the Fox Sports Network. Focusing on the sports element of wrestling, TNA aimed to differentiate itself from WWE by being “real”, which is almost always the worst thing a wrestling promotion can do. They cluttered the web with videos and reality show-esque segments portraying the “real” lives of their wrestlers in order to build up storylines. In theory many of the things TNA was doing to differentiate itself from WWE could have been interesting, but they just never really worked. TNA continued to toil on as the scrappy underdog to WWE’s behemoth multi-million dollar enterprise.

Then in 2010, TNA made an “unprecedented” move in hiring Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff. The news was huge both because Hulk Hogan was a huge megastar name and because it seemed pretty obvious no one told whoever hired them that while Bischoff and Hogan were big names that were part of the biggest competition to WWE during the peak years, they were also more likely than not responsible for the demise of WCW. Their failure came in large part because of what they ended up doing to TNA as well; They hiredg their friends who were a part of WWE to large contracts, and they booked those friends to win titles at the expense of younger more-talented wrestlers. Granted, again, older guys had been a part of the company up until this point but had never really required a hefty contract up until now.

Proving that history is always bound to repeat itself, at the time (from 2008 on) TNA reran several angles that were hot in WCW, including a rehashed nWo, a rehashed Four Horseman, and whatever Immortal was supposed to be (nWo again?). Guys like Rob van Dam, whom Hogan had brought in, floundered while taking up significant funds.

Hogan also pushed for TNA to get rid of the six-sided ring that had become synonymous with its product, which is the only thing I will give him credit for during his time in TNA. Apparently that thing was painful to bump on, and it looked like a toy. Along with the cosmetic changes, Hogan pushed to take TNA on the road and to start broadcasting the show on Monday nights against WWE programming. Also under Bischoff/Hogan’s reign, the X-Division (think cruiserweights but much more of a focal point) and Knockout Division (TNA’s women’s division but again more of a focal point) were slowly dismantled to the point where TNA now only has nine female wrestlers working for them. These decisions took a toll on the company both financially and critically.

Things were looking dire.

Then in 2013, contract negotiations between Hogan and Dixie Carter (the legitimate owner of TNA) broke down. Most of the guys Hogan had brought in had left. The money had dried up. And so the Hulkster left, but not before humiliating his now-former boss on television.

Thus ended the Hogan Era and begun the Dixieland Era, with TNA in financial straits and its main authority figure left to look the fool. With Hogan left Jeff Jarrett and later AJ Styles, who was the reigning TNA Champion at the time. In a weird blending of reality and fiction that felt awfully familiar, during the contract negotiations with Styles TNA ran an angle where Styles left with the belt to defend it at independent promotions around the world. Back in TNA, Dixie ran a tournament to crown a new champion, which Magnus, a British-born wrestler who also worked for TNA-run Indian wrestling promotion Ring Ka King, won due to interference. Non-clean finishes would become a heavy theme going forward for TNA. Magnus then turned heel on his opponent Jeff Hardy before joining the Dixie Administration. Styles returned to challenge Magnus, who again won due to insane interference. Sting later left the company as well, losing a match to Magnus on the way out due to similarly insane interference.

That brings us almost to today. In recent months TNA has seen the departure of perennial TNA wrestlers such as the tag team Bad Influence (Christopher Daniels and Kazarian) and Chris Sabin and the entrance of new indie guys like The American Wolves (Eddie Edwards and Davey Richards) and Ethan Carter III (formerly Derrick Bateman and legitimately one of the few good things about current TNA) and even more ex-WWE guys with MVP and Bobby Lashley. Those two would become the new heel authority stable. Oh and Kurt Angle is still around and bound and determined to die in the ring. Oh and Jeff Hardy went insane and is an evil(?) clown fairy king named Willow. And they have a serial killer working for them. Oh and the new champion is a bearded guy who used to tag team with a masked guy and they were best friends, and he’s now currently feuding with said evil authority figure over what’s best for the wrestling business. Oh boy.

Like many wrestling fans I’d really like there to be an alternative to or competition for WWE. I’ve been scouring indie wrestling and have found a few promotions I really like, but let’s face it: wrestling DVDs can be expensive and sometimes it’s nice to be able to turn on the TV on a given night and watch some wrestling. Do I think TNA is an actual good alternative to WWE? No, or at least not anymore. Do I think the ship can be righted? It’d take a lot of fixing but it’s possible. I hope to explore what is and isn’t working on TNA’s weekly programming, and possibly how they can fix things before it’s too late, and I hope you come on this journey with me. Please.

(You can follow me on twitter @dan_spaceman)

One of the ripple effects of our main man D-Bry's injury is the fact there's the possibility with the upcoming Money in the Bank match for the Unified Championship that darkness -- maybe even an Authority-endorsed iteration of the same -- may rule again over the landscape where the Summer of Yes! was supposed to go.

It's tragic and entirely possible everybody's pet goat may be remembered by pro graps historians the way the '86 Rockets are recalled by pro ball historians of the Western Conference - an intriguing anomaly that briefly shook up a timeline that sputtered out due to reasons both in and beyond their control.  That said, with three slots remaining for the opportunity to make history come the end of the month and Orton having already being (rightfully, it must be said) gifted entryway into the match, it sure would be nice for the Authoritah to have some sort of high profile insurance plan going into it and holy crap look at the smug look on this guy's bleeping face I hope Roman Reigns punches him so hard it knocks the streak out of his greasy hair.

The show started improbably with the dulcet tones of Motörhead and ended predictably, at least to the 48 people who still follow Smackdown.  However, in the interim, Triple H smugged his way through getting what he wanted in the Unified Championship situation before introducing his latest corporate sycophant, the ex-Architect.  Rollins, like Triple H before him, proved that power corrupts absolutely and spoke of being connected to it in a way that confirmed Kanye West's chorus with the only person who could even possibly hope to relate at this point being the COO.  Certainly not his ex-"business associates", which made them Just Like Each And Every One Of You.  (You can tell he's a WWE heel now when that phrase comes a cropper.)  Dolph Ziggler came out with a rebuttal, and said all the right things: self-centered, scumbag, traitor, et al.; but having just failed in this attempt on SmackDown it was going to be hard convincing someone that he was really going to win to close out the show considering two years ago for similar reasons to Daniel's that he'd fallen off the rocket that Seth had just cashed out to get onto.

So the Showoff/Sellout main event was set, but you could see any traction the wheels on the Ziggler winning bandwagon might've had dwindling towards nothingness when he went Full Ziggler into the corner and over and out to the floor to punctuate going to the last commercial break.  Most of the match's tail end was Seth taunting Ziggler with "playful" slaps and short kicks, with the crowd trying to rally Dolph at a few points before he went down to a turnbuckle powerbomb ^ Curb Stomp combo.  It seems only logical given his own propensities for aerial derring-do and (in-character) ((??)) Triple H's propensity to have his fingerprints all over everything to the point that his backup plans have backup plans that Rollins could have a major role to play and as improbable as it may've seemed on the first of the month that he may be the new golden boy of the company.  Of course, how that'd play with his ex-brothers in black in a no-disqualification situation, let alone the fact Orton never got pinned or tapped out to lose the belts in the first place or ever got a rematch in the second place, well -- it is not a flawless option, by any means.  But Plan C may already be in the works; just keep your eyes peeled for that.

The rest of the show wasn't much besides recaps, sorry to say.  Jimmy Uso and Luke Harper had a fun little sprint of a match, but given how many times we've seen both teams they represent go after each other in hard-hitting tags getting under five minutes and ending with a surprise rollup off a superkick couldn't help but disappointed.  Kofi Kingston went after Ruseahahaahahahahahahahahaahahaha. Sorry.  At this point the retrofitted Russian by way of Bulgaria is worse for black people than sickle cell anemia and Tyler Perry's continued existence combined, and the only difference between Kofi and Zach Ryder at this point is the seasonal battle royal highspot the former gets.  And the less said about Layla jumping Summer Rae with a box of kitty litter before pouring it on her and receipting her milk bath from Monday night, the better.  That's probably a conversation for the Pornhub forums and not the Bias.

That silliness aside, for everything everyone around him's been doing lately, it was interesting to see the one trope Rollins didn't give into through the night: looking overhead where the belts of WWE hung in the balance.  It was almost as if somehow he'd gotten it into his head when they finally landed they'd be in his hands anyway, and good things come to those who stab their friends in the back.

Weird.

Would this development make Dusty Rhodes the son of a plumber AND the father of a baby deliverer? Photo Credit: WWe.com

Don't look now, but Cody Rhodes may have a second career if this whole wrestling thing doesn't pan out for him. Renee Young sent this tweet just a few hours ago:

You guys, @CodyRhodesWWE almost delivered a baby on our flight today. A modern day George Clooney from ER.
— Renee Young (@ReneeYoungWWE) June 11, 2014

Firstly, I wonder why a pregnant person was flying when she was that pregnant. I thought doctors disallowed that sort of thing? Then again, maybe the baby was premature, in which case my best vibes go out to both mama and child. Secondly, how does one "almost" deliver a child? My guess is that either Rhodes was the first guy off the bench in case a doctor wasn't on the flight, or he started in on the delivery process and was either interrupted by landing or by the fact that it was a false alarm. Either way, the fact that he was in the position to deliver a baby makes him all the more admirable.

As fate would turn out, he isn't the only former member of Rhodes Scholars to have an interesting addendum to his name. Apparently, Damien Sandow is an honest-to-God Kentucky Colonel, much in the same way that Harland Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken fame was. If this whole "random cosplay" gimmick that Sandow has fails him or needs a change, Col. Sandow might not be the worst thing in the world for him to fall back upon, especially as an evolution or hybridization of his former "intellectual savior of the masses" deal he back to the main roster on.

I think my allegiance to professional wrestling started with video games. It's a pretty well-worn story for a lot of gaming obsessives. Their sibling or cousin buys a game console, a Nintendo 64 in this instance, and picks up a wrestling game along with the system. That game was WCW vs. nWo - World Tour, a game that began a four game lifespan as deserving of its reputation as the best run of professional wrestling games in history. This led me to pro wrestling's altar of which I can safely say I am a devoted fan in that community. But it took a bit more to keep me there.

Around 11 years ago, I began to realize my fandom to professional wrestling wasn't going away and decided to go into pure nerddom about the thing. Of course, the WWE product has always been a mixed bag, which actually helped in this instance. The PC wares scene was starting to really take off at the start of the 2000s since internet downloads were far more convenient ways to access a game than a mail-in order to receive the full copy of a game. They also enhanced creativity, as young coders released wonderful text simulations for free of charge. And while the general crack about text sims is the correct realization that they are basically playable spreadsheets, the idea of booking a professional wrestling promotion seemed electric to me.

At that time, there were two rather popular freeware text sims around the subject of booking a pro wrestling promotion. The first was Extreme Warfare Revenge, a game we'll talk about in the future as the franchise has expanded to be the Football Manager type of the genre in that it is undisputedly the gold standard in simulating pro wrestling and its booking. The second, and the subject of today's piece, was a bit more forgotten and left in the dust as a sort of artifact of 2002 pro wrestling simulation. That game is Promotion Wars.

According to the creator's Geocities page (yes, I know how hilarious this is to use as a source), Promotion Wars began development as Wrestling Federation Manager in late 1999. As expected, the actual Promotion Wars concept was inspired by EWR's predecessor Extreme Warfare Deluxe, a game which asserted the idea of a battleground between two promotions instead of a more deep experience like Championship Manager. The most popular of these particular installments was PW 1.2e, which could then be updated and modded with current rosters. I used PWAdditions for the purpose of playing through this, as it still hosts the files for 1.0 and 1.2e as well as a pretty insane modding community for the time. Ah, 12 years ago.

Promotion Wars' charm comes from how archaic it is. This is a genuine sample of internet opinion around 2002 in game form. Admittedly, it's not particularly realistic. The earlier builds of the game (I played 1.2e to more accurately recollect the game that I played around 02/03) centered around choosing one promotion or the other. In this case, it was WWF vs. WCW, albeit the WCW that was sputtering towards the end of its life. However, by 2001, the purchase of WCW and ECW left the game with a massive hole. My file chose the #2 promotion as the porn producer-owned XPW, which just feels very icky. However, I remember files that had the #2 promotion be as diverse as the Jimmy Hart owned XWF to the early days of TNA. The game never really had a proper answer to simulate the independent wrestling world, but it was never about that. Promotion Wars ran on a Monday Night Wars model of success. Get better ratings than your competition at all costs. Do you give away a big main event? Yeah, probably. For a long time, sims never really reprimanded you for giving away a big match.

Anyways, this is a bizarre little wrestling world inside Promotion Wars. The two elements that are most important to building your promotion are the stats of "drawing power" and "entertainment." Go figure, when you boot up the game, Steve Austin and The Rock (both still in WWF/E at the time) have 99 ratings in that drawing power stat. But in a bit of a commentary, Austin has a 73 and Rock has a 74 in general entertainment. Entertainment encompasses ringwork, essentially. Rob Van Dam has a 96 in entertainment and so does the wrestler Blitzkrieg. Anybody who was a big man would get a lower mark. Speaking of Marks, Mark Henry is more entertaining than The Rock, which I don't think was true until about 2008 or so, and even then, that is a tough argument to make.

Naturally, Promotion Wars is a bit wonky in that extent. Marko Sparko 69 (the roster creator as according to the title screen) seems to like a lot of stuff that smarks would like circa 2002. I did download an update that gives me a little more of what I want to do. I am playing as the XWF starting in May 2002. In the next update, I'll show you what I've been up to with some familiar names attached. I'll give you a hint, one of them might be attached above.

Will the Red Dead Depression continue their march towards Inspire Pro domination? Photo Credit: Kelly Kyle/Texas Anarchy

It’s fitting that the newest addition to the National Wrestling Alliance would name their signature event “CLASH AT THE BASH”. As someone who did not watch NWA/WCW-pre-Hogan, except for Saturday Night and Clash of the Champions, growing up and have been catching up through the WWE Network, I must say that Inspire Pro is the perfect fit for the NWA.

ELEVEN big matches have been announced and nearly every single match has a story behind it (there are a couple exceptions), which is what I love about Inspire Pro. Typically, all the matches booked have something behind it, tying it to previous events. They don't just throw two (or three or four) teams or wrestlers out there all willy-nilly, no rhyme or reason. There's a purpose for everything happening from show to show, which makes following the company so fun and interesting. There are stakes, no matter how minor they may be sometimes, giving you a reason to want to watch and follow along. Everything has a consequence, and I love it.

For the show this Sunday (see the end of the preview for all the important info), this is what they have going down:

DAVEY VEGA vs THOMAS SHIRE

The last time we saw the incomparable Davey Vega, at THE ECSTACY OF GOLD in January, he was firstly showing disrespect to Chris Hero and then falling short of becoming the inaugural Inspire Pro Champion in the main event to “One Man” Mike Dell. I hope we can get Hero back to Austin to see the two men face off. I know it happened in St. Louis Anarchy, but I don't live in Kentucky anymore, so I couldn't make the trip to see that one. Sigh. At any rate, I can't think objectively when it comes to Vega, because he is, without a doubt, my absolute favorite wrestler. Although, is there a difference between my subjective opinion and an objective view of Davey Vega? I don't think there are too many people out there who don't realize how amazing he is at this wrestling thing.

Thomas Shire is coming off a tremendous couple of months, in my book, across multiple promotions. But what he does elsewhere really has no bearing on what he's done in Inspire. He's come a long way since losing to The Great Depression at WIRED FOR WAR in September of last year. At April's NO ROOM TO DIE, Shire met Scot Summers in a battle for the World Class Championship. A pure wrestling title, for pure wrestlers. It was a beautiful display by the two men, and while Thomas came up a hair short, I think he caught the attention of a lot of people.

There may not really be anything at stake in this matchup beyond pride and each man wanting to show their abilities, but it has me exceptionally excited, and there is virtually no way this could disappoint.

RED DEAD DEPRESSION (The Great Depression and The Red Scare) vs THE HOLLYWOOD KNIVES (Stevo Reno and Bradley Axel Dawson)

Last month's IN THEIR BLOOD saw the debut of Stevo Reno and Bradley Axel Dawson's team, The Hollywood Knives. They were victorious over the arguing team of Jodon and Erik Shadows (why they were even a team is a discussion for another time), despite Dawson spending 90% of the match lying unconscious on the ring apron. Still, Stevo was able to keep things together 2-on-1 and they came out on top. Since that was their debut, they have not crossed paths with The Great Depression and The Red Scare.

Red Dead Depression have only competed in one tag team match thus far, losing to Frankie Fisher and Steve Kirby at NO ROOM TO DIE in April, but that was only because The Red Scare decided to Ace Crush The Great Depression. So… yeah, to say I have absolutely no idea what they were doing with this team is an understatement. The Great Depression began his career in Inspire Pro as this lumbering giant who would sit in any empty seat he could find and peruse Paige Turner's book table. He was an odd bird to be sure, but since the inclusion of The Red Scare, I can't say I follow what's happening. (Not to mention the on-again, off-again appearances of Penny Arcade.)

The match should, at the least, be interesting, because seldom is something dull in Inspire Pro, but I would like to see something further from Red Dead Depression to get a better understanding of what they're doing and where they're going. While I enjoy reading the pieces they put on the website, I shouldn't need to find answers on anything but the show.

Sidenote: Every time I type their tag team name, I have to delete "Redemption". Such a good game, though. Where's the sequel, Rockstar!?

Sidenote, Part II: Electric Boogaloo: It's surprising to me that Inspire went with the J-Crown as a secondary title (only with a crown instead of a belt) before they created a Tag Team Championship. Will there ever be one? Does their new alliance with the NWA mean we'll be seeing some NWA Tag Team Titles defended? So many questions!

"Chi-Town's Finest" MR. B vs "That Guy" SCOTTY SANTIAGO

"That Guy" Scotty Santiago has been a huge fan favorite since THE BEGINNING, scoring an upset victory over Carson. He went on to have a feud with the World Class Syndicate, never getting to have his name announced, but always managing to pull out the victories, until Carson downed him in a six-man tag at LIGHT THE FUSE in January. The last time we saw Scotty, he was a contestant in the J-Crown Gauntlet Match, looking mighty impressive, but falling short. During the match, however, he crossed paths with Mr. B, and eliminated him. "Chi-Town's Finest" was less than pleased with that result, and busted Scotty open with a chair.

Scotty will be looking to exact some revenge as both men attempt to put on a good showing and impress the Inspire Pro decision makers. I'll admit that this isn't too high on my list of things I'm looking forward to, but as long as Mr. B keeps the "I like white girls" in ACW (or get rid of it completely), this should be decent enough. He isn't incompetent in the ring, and Scotty has grown exponentially in this last year I've seen him here and ACW. He just needs to show a bit more personality (doesn't have Steve to carry that load here), but he's very talented otherwise.

CHRIS TREW.BIZ BATTLE ROYALE

FOCUS UUUUUUUUPPPP!

I am an unabashed Chris Trew fan, from when The Business were heels in ACW to his Air Sex Championship to here, at Inspire Pro with his New Movement. Plus, I've been to so many shows now, he always says "hi", even at the Meet Me There world premiere in New Orleans during Wrestlemania weekend.

Humblebrag: I watched a movie with Dusty and Dustin Rhodes.

As for this match, Chris Trew is looking to add a third member to the New Movement after having added Cherry Ramone at NO ROOM TO DIE and the delightful Delilah Doom at IN THEIR BLOOD. They haven't had much success yet, Ramone losing in the J-Crown Gauntlet and Doom falling to the just-returned-from-Japan Jessica James.

No participants have been announced yet, so there's no way to know how this will go. I'm looking forward to it all the same. Chris Trew might be down now, but the "Pro Wrestling Manager of the Decade" won't stay there for long. This could be the piece he's missing, he just needs to #focusup and make it happen.

THE AMERICAN EAGLE vs “The Bionic Beast” "The Bionic Beast" FRANCO D’ANGELO

If you took away all the muscles, Franco D'Angelo would look exactly like my sister-in-law's boyfriend. It's uncanny.

As for the match, this will be Franco's first match since his failure to capture the Inspire Pro Championship from Mike Dell at LIGHT THE FUSE in January. I believe he also suffered an injury at ACW's show that month keeping him out of action.

That didn't stop him from making his presence felt, however, accompanying Matthew Palmer to the ring last month against "Jiggle-O" James Johnson. Before any more real damage could be inflicted upon Jiggle-O post-match, The American Eagle put a stop to it, running the two members of Center of Perfection off.

The American Eagle made his debut at NO ROOM TO DIE in the J-Crown Gauntlet, where he was eliminated by Cherry Ramone. But now he has something to fight for and against, that being the unseemly post-match beat down.

The Eagle will be up for the task, despite his distinct size disadvantage. The guy under the mask was instantly one of my favorites and I've been waiting for a breakout moment from him. Maybe this will be it?

“The Texas Lion” "The Texas Lion" CARSON vs "Cowboy" JAMES CLAXTON

Since disposing of That Guy nuisance, Carson has seemingly been edging his way towards the Inspire Pro Championship. Which is where these two men's paths in Inspire have crossed.

At NO ROOM TO DIE, James Claxton (friend of Mike Dell), attempted to even the odds as Dell defended his title against Gregory James, who was getting assistance from Morbidus. He got black most in his eyes for his trouble.

With "The Cowboy" incapacitated, Carson made his presence known, super kicking James' lackey, giving Dell the breathing room he needed to put down Gregory and retain.

After the match, Carson went to congratulate Dell, but Claxton rebuffed him. Carson is/was a member of the World Class Syndicate, so who knows what his intentions were. Claxton, at least, did not believe them to be pure.

This is a big match for both men and could inch either of them closer to a possible title challenge. For his role in the Dell-James match, Carson got a one-on-one match against the previously undefeated "Unholy One" at IN THEIR BLOOD, emerging victorious.

"The Cowboy," meanwhile, has been impressive, winning the Pump Patrol Invitational Battle Royal at LIGHT THE FUSE. (He also had a HELLACIOUS match against Ricky Starks that resulted in him passing out in a submission. He lost in the record books, but won evenso.) At NO ROOM TO DIE, he picked up a win in a brutally stuff war with Jake Dirden.

This will be a hard-hitting affair that could go either way.

"The Ultraviolent Beast" MASADA vs “Unholy” "Unholy" GREGORY JAMES

"Unholy" Gregory James began his Inspire Pro career undefeated, earning himself a shot at Mike Dell and the Inspire Pro Championship at NO ROOM TO DIE. He lost, but showed he deserved the opportunity. He followed that up at IN THEIR BLOOD with another loss, that one to Carson.

He's in a bit of a downward spiral. Picking up a win over the debuting Masada would put James back on track for another title shot.

Easier said than done. All I know of Masada has been his matches the last few months in ACW. He is not to be taken lightly, and I would advise any fan to relinquish their seat if the action spills outside. That's true of anyone, but especially so Masada.

Things don't get TOO chaotic in Inspire Pro, so I'm interested to see how this plays out.

WORLD CLASS CHAMPIONSHIP, NO HOLDS BARRED/NO ROPE BREAKS - SCOT SUMMERS vs “Absolute” "Absolute" RICKY STARKS

This match had been in the making since THE BEGINNING, but had to be cancelled at LIGHT THE FUSE due to an injury Scot Summers suffered.

The wait will have been worth it once the bell rings on this No Holds Barred/No Rope Breaks Match for the World Class Championship.

From the very start, it felt as though Ricky Starks was being positioned as, maybe not the face of Inspire Pro (but what a handsome face it would be), but as one of the top stars. Whatever it is that you need to have "it", Ricky has it. I noticed that at my very first ACW show over a year ago. (Sadly, he isn't as featured there as he should have been.)

He has gotten the most mic time, been absolutely ruthless in his matches, losing a couple just because he refused to let go of his submissions (hence the stop for this match).

The added bonus is that Starks eliminated Summers' chances of fighting for the Inspire Pro Championship, pinning him in a triple threat qualifier.

Since, Summers has introduced the World Class Championship amid his beef with Chairman Greg Symonds, retaining it against Thomas Shire at NO ROOM TO DIE. Scot also has an impressive win over Ray Rowe before his injury.

Since the aborted match in February, Ricky Starks has been impressive, but seemingly treading water. In place of Scot, Starks faced off with James Claxton, forcing him into unconsciousness for the victory. It was a brutal affair, to be sure. At NO ROOM TO DIE, Starks won the J-Crown Gauntlet, pinning Sammy Guevara (who I am sad will likely not be on this show) and Barrett Brown simultaneously.

He would promptly lose it in a words-cannot-describe Triple Threat Ladder Match to the aforementioned Guevara. While it was SO GOOD, YOU GUYS, it felt like it was just something for him to do until he could get back to Summers and ultimately the main event.

I have high hopes for this one, and no doubt they will not disappoint.

NINE INCH MALES (“Dirty” "Dirty" Andy Dalton and Jordan Jensen) vs JOJO BRAVO and “Infamous” "Infamous" SHAWN VEXX

I know nothing of the pasts of Jojo Bravo and Jordan Jensen, just their mentions of being former friends and tag team partners. So, when Jensen attacked Jojo after his match at THE BEGINNING, it did not mean much to me. But I love Jojo, and I don't like him getting attacked, so I wanted Jensen to die. He has yet to do so.

After his attack on Jojo, Jordan was given the chance to earn a roster spot. Not only did e manage to do so, he found himself in the main event of THE ECSTACY OF GOLD, battling to become the inaugural Inspire Pro Champion.

Instead, he was fired.

Per the stips of the match, if Andy Dalton appeared within a certain number of feet to the ring, he would lose his job. Ricky Starks carried an unconscious Dalton out, getting Jensen eliminated both from the match and his job.

Some viewed it as unfair, a loophole in the terminology, and Jordan was given the opportunity to be reinstated if he went to sensitivity training. See, because Jordan used some racial slurs that were not well received, as you might imagine.

He returned at NO ROOM TO DIE making amends with those he hurt. Buuuuut it was all a ruse. He had not changed, even enlisting the help of one JT Lamotta, whom had been retired by Andy Dalton in a crazy street fight at THE QUICK AND THE DEAD.

Quick tangent: If Jordan's reinstatement was predicated on him going to "Jensentivity" training, and he shows he has not changed or learned, couldn't he just been fired on the spot? Unless it's a semantics debate like when he was previously fired. He just had to go, not grow. Just something that has irked me, because it stands out from Inspire's usually flawless storytelling.

Whilst that was happening, Jojo was growing into a but of an under the radar ace. Baller matches with Robert Evans, Matthew Palmer, and Tadasuke could be put on a tape, sent to Titan Towers, and get Jojo a one-way flight to Orlando to begin his NXT career. They were that good.

His partner, meanwhile, "Infamous" Shawn Vexx took umbrage of Jordan's use of the dreaded n-word, jumping out of his seat in the second row (beside me!), and charging into the ring to put a stop to the Bravo beat down at NO ROOM TO DIE. He also encourage the crowd to say that word, but thankfully the 94% white crowd opted to respectfully decline participation.

And what of "Dirty" Andy Dalton? Well, he is truly one of the few true heels in Inspire (Jensen and Sammy Guevara being the others). You just want to punch him in the face. Thing is, Daltin can bring it in the ring. The Street Fight with Lamotta was brutal and he had a great tremendous match with Takaaki Watanabe.

This is going to be an intense fight, that's for sure.

NUMBER ONE CONTENDERSHIP FOR THE INSPIRE PRO CHAMPIONSHIP -"Centerfold" MATTHEW PALMER vs RAY "Death" ROWE

The funny thing about Matthew Palmer demanding a title shot last month, because he IS undefeated, is that he had the opportunity to earn one at THE ECSTACY OF GOLD when he was under the mask of Void.

Instead, he clocked Jojo Bravo with the ring beel, disqualifying himself, and gifting the contendership to Franco D'Angelo, with whom he formed The Center of Perfection (along with Robert Evans).

So, he really only has himself to blame.

But watching Palmer in Inspire has been a revelation. I had only seen him previously in ACW, where he reigned as Hardcore Champ for something like two years, and featured in mostly those kinds of contests. He was really good at them, but, scarily, he's been even better with Inspire Pro.

His match with Jojo Bravo is one of my favs from the first seven shows. As it is, he does deserve a chance at a title shot.

His opponent is the very guy who deserves to be a big star somewhere. All the way to the top if they'll have him. (Not that Palmer doesn't also deserve that, cause he does.) Ray "Death" Rowe is legit. Size, strength, skill. He's got it all.

And he has proven that in Inspire. He lost a close battle with Scot Summers, defeated eventual Champion Mike Dell (handily I might add, making Dell's eventual crowning all the more strange to me), bested Chris Hero in a Match of the Year candidate (SO GOOD!) at THE ECSTACY OF GOLD, and followed it up with a loss (via shenanigans) to Robert Evans.

He is finally back and I am eagerly awaiting this match. And it could really go either way.

INSPIRE PRO CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH - "One Man" MIKE DELL vs. "The American Psycho" LANCE HOYT

Let's just get this out of the way at the jump, OK? I am not a Mike Dell fan. It's nothing personal, I don't think he's a BAD wrestler, it's just... he gets winded walking to the ring for a promo. That's a legit thing that happened.

I expect better cardio from my champions. Also, his match against Ray Rowe was an absolute drubbing. He looked out of it, sucking for air, and just being thoroughly dismantled. He just looked overmatched. Ricky Starks was right to question his inclusion in the Triple Threat for the Title after that match.

I know he was a big deal before, as he was given a big ovation when he won his match as the first Void to earn a place in the Championship Match and unmasked. Being new to the Texas wrestling scene left me to just stare at him and go "who?"

He also reminds me of Buff Bagwell. I can't see how that's a good thing.

It hasn't helped that each time he's headlined a show, there have been one or two other matches that have completely overshadowed his. It was like his matches were apart of a completely different show.

Not having a strong story hasn't helped. His first defense against Franco D'Angelo had a solid story, but felt rushed. It had a long history behind it, but it was over after one show to set it up and one to have the match. Seemed it could have spanned more shows. His second was against Gregory James, which really had no story beyond James being undefeated and earning a shot. That match helped set more things up in the future than anything, which probably should have put it in the mid card and not the main event.

And this match, headlining the signature event, does technically have a build from an early show when Franco named off his best friends (Palmer, Hoyt, Claxton; the first two sides with Franco, the latter Dell), but makes the story less between Franco and Dell (as it was set up to be) and more all of them against "One Man" (since Palmer is going after a shot, too).

This will also mark the first title match where someone hasn't earned a shot. Lance Hoyt (who legit kinda scares me), debuted at NO ROOM TO DIE, and teamed with Palmer to defeat Jojo and Tadasuke. Hoyt is a large man, making a lot of the Inspire guys look tiny in comparison.

I think this could be good, but it's going to have to follow ten other matches. A near five hour show, likely (most shows last about three, give it take a little bit over), if it runs until 10pm. Will the crowd be burned out. It's not like sitting through a show to see Daniel Bryan overcome the odds and have that glorious Mania Moment.

It feels underwhelming and I don't want it to be. ACW has the issue sometimes where the main event just leaves you meh. I don't want that for either place, but especially not Inspire on their signature event.

I hope Dell and Hoyt can bring something special to the table. If not, put the belt on Sammy Guevara, let him dick it up like only he can, and let Ricky Starks give chase.

For those that did not want to read all that:

FULL CLASH AT THE BASH CARD:

1. DAVEY VEGA versus THOMAS SHIRE

2. RED DEAD DEPRESSION (The Great Depression and The Red Scare) versus THE HOLLYWOOD KNIVES (Stevo Reno and Bradley Axel Dawson)

3. “Chi-Town’s Finest” MR. B versus “That Guy” SCOTTY SANTIAGO

4. CHRIS TREW.BIZ STAR SEARCH BATTLE ROYAL

5. “The Texas Lion” CARSON versus “The Cowboy” JAMES CLAXTON

6. “The Bionic Freak” FRANCO D’ANGELO versus THE AMERICAN EAGLE

7. “The Ultraviolent Beast” MASADA versus “Unholy” GREGORY JAMES

8. NO HOLDS BARRED/NO ROPES BREAK for the WORLD CLASS CHAMPIONSHIP: SCOT SUMMERS versus “Absolute” RICKY STARKS

9. NINE-INCH MALES (“Dirty” Andy Dalton and Jordan Jensen) versus “The Heaviest Sumo In The Land” JOJO BRAVO and “The Infamous” SHAWN VEXX

10. NUMBER ONE CONTENDERSHIP: “Centerfold” MATTHEW PALMER versus RAY “Death” ROWE

11. INSPIRE PRO CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH: “One Man” MIKE DELL © versus “The American Psycho” LANCE HOYT

Doors to the Marchesa Hall in Austin, TX will open promptly at 5PM (an hour earlier than usual) and the action will begin at 5:30PM. Tickets are a steal, at only $12 for General Admission (which can be purchased online or at the door), and if you want reserved front row (only 50 seats available), it’s only $15. If you’re in Dallas or Houston or anywhere that’s less than a four hour drive from Austin, there is absolutely no reason for you to miss this show. Plus, it’ll make a great Father’s Day gift for the man who brought you into this world!

Check inspireprowrestling.com for more details!

Do not mess with any mother, let alone THIS mother Photo Credit: Scott Finkelstein

The cycle is familiar. A wrestling journalist will publish a report, whether based in something that actually happened like the Sin Cara/Sheamus brawl, or something that someone within the company is rumored to be thinking or some other vague bullshit. Someone associated with the event, whether directly or indirectly, will come out in public and call the dirtsheets bullshit for reporting erroneous news. The tale is one as old as wrestling newsletters themselves, and this time around, it involves the tempestuous Sweet Saraya Knight coming home to roost in defense of her daughter, the WWE Divas Champion Paige:

So the dirt sheets says Vince doesn't like Paige hahahahahahahahahahaha ok lets believe that because it must be... http://t.co/jg1lxLOxQV
— Saraya Knight (@SarayaKnight) June 12, 2014

Knight's umbrage stems from a report on what Vince McMahon "thinks" about her daughter, i.e. the latter of the two scenarios laid out in the lede. To be fair, she did not cite the report that "broke" this "news." Whether or not it was reported by a Dave Meltzer or Mike Johnson first and passed along, or was bastardized in an out-of-context fashion by something one of them said is unknown. I don't begrudge Knight for what she's feeling regardless of source because a mother's natural instinct is to protect the young ones, no matter whether they've left the nest or not.

But regardless of who reported what, the practice of reporting "how people feel" within a given company is the dirt-worst mode of reporting news out there, especially when the feelings in question belong to Vince McMahon, who is reputed to be a madman anyway. If the reports about how flighty and fickle McMahon is are true, then he's the epitome of an unreliable actor, right? Reports on "feelings" seem to be the ones that would most likely be those leaks fucking with reporters. Being a news reporter in an industry built on lies and subterfuge is tricky work, but I think a lot of the guesswork can be removed by recognizing and eliminating the leaks that bring tidings of uncertainty or opinion of individual WWE board members, writers, or bookers.

Bourne officially among the released today Photo Credit: WWE.com

Via WWE.com

WWE has engaged in a mass layoff of superstars not seen in at least three years. The list of releases numbers ten this time around: Aksana, Brodus Clay, Camacho, Curt Hawkins, Drew McIntyre, Evan Bourne, Jinder Mahal, Marc Harris (a referee), Teddy Long, and Yoshi Tatsu. Of the nine, Mahal and McIntyre come as the biggest surprises. 3MB has been one of the staple acts on RAW in the last couple of years, even if they were just time-fillers and enhancement talent. The other names aren't as shocking, but any time a wrestler loses his or her job with WWE, it's not cause for celebration unless they have connections with better paying companies in Japan. WWE is the only well-paying gig in American wrestling right now, and a lot of really talented people lost jobs with it. I don't necessarily think anyone of the above will be out of a job for too long, even if the benefits and salary end up being paltry in comparison. The following are predictions based mostly on gut feelings and past history. I don't have any projections on Harris, because WWE refs outside of Charles Robinson, Scott Armstrong, and Drake Wuertz (Younger) all seem to blend together for me.

Aksana: I doubt she'll continue on as an active wrestler. She may hit the convention circuit, but much like released Divas such as Kelly Kelly, Maxine, and Kaitlyn, her calling will more than likely be outside of a wrestling ring.

Brodus Clay: Of all the releases, he's the one I'm having the most trouble projecting for the future. My guess is he'll end up fluttering off to TNA, although I wouldn't be surprised if he had a gig outside of wrestling as well. He seems to be on the weight-loss train, and he actually has looked a lot more slimmed down in his NXT appearances as of late.

Camacho: He's young and has a potential-laden future ahead of him. I see one of two paths. The one I initially went with was that he'd join Barri "Mason Ryan" Griffiths in Pro Wrestling Syndicate and build his indie career from there. One that was pointed out to me on Twitter is New Japan Pro Wrestling. His brother Tama Tonga is currently working there as a member of the Bullet Club (hail Hydra). Family ties could end up getting him work in what is now the second biggest wrestling company in the world.

Curt Hawkins: Hawkins feels like he'll follow his fellow Long Island WWE expat Trent? (Barretta) in a residence on the indies. He has a wrestling school open as well, one which will have a feature match on the next Beyond Wrestling show. He may be the next "big" name to start wrestling the Biff Busicks and Chris Dickinsons of the world at the big Fete Music shows.

Drew McIntyre: My gut tells me he'll head back to the burgeoning English/Scottish wrestling scene, but I wouldn't be surprised if he did some dates for major American indies or even went to TNA.

Evan Bourne: Bourne had the biggest career pre-WWE of all the releases as Matt Sydal. I think he'll get the Chris Hero/AJ Styles victory lap around the indies before settling back to Dragon Gate, both US and Japan. With Ricochet as the Open the Dream Gate Champion AND the new NJPW Best of the Super Juniors Champion, Sydal has a golden entree back into his old stomping grounds for a major, headline feud.

Jinder Mahal: Out of everyone released, Mahal seems like the most likely to head to TNA, or at least lay low on the indies until Global Force Wrestling starts up.

Teddy Long: After the smoke clears, I imagine he'll sign a Legends deal and settle into retired life.

Yoshi Tatsu: Tatsu came from NJPW, and if I had to guess, he'll return there as well.

Still, I'm not happy that anyone got released. The mass releases in conjunction with the repetitive booking WWE tends to implement with matches on television feels like the company failed those wrestlers. Granted, Bourne may have signed his own release with his affinity towards marijuana, and I'm glad WWE kept him during his recovery so he COULD heal up from his multiple injuries that have kept him out for two-plus years. But does any reason exist why WWE has to throw Antonio Cesaro vs. Rob van Dam every week when they had a young, improving, hungry guy like Camacho waiting in the wings ready to throw hands with the Swiss Superman?

The booking patterns just don't make sense, even if the fiscal reasoning for their releases might end up being a stark reminder that cash rule everything around me, CREAM get the money, dolla dolla bill y'all. The WWE Network numbers haven't been great so far, which might have put some writing on the wall for the lowest guys on the totem pole. Either way, today absolutely sucks.

ETA: JTG has also been released today. He was the subject of a recurring and quite frankly annoying meme asking how he was still employed despite lack of television time. His former partner, Shad Gaspard, has been active in the indies out west, specifically for the International Wrestling Federation in Arizona. I smell a possible Cryme Tyme reunion in the works, and I would find it both hilarious and awesome at the same time if they got themselves booked for PWG's DDT4 tournament in 2015.

You're gonna remember Ambrose's promo Monday for a long time Photo Credit: WWE.com

It's Twitter Request Line time, everyone! I take to Twitter to get questions about issues in wrestling, past and present, and answer them on here because 140 characters can't restrain me, fool! If you don't know already, follow me @tholzerman, and wait for the call on Wednesday to ask your questions. Hash-tag your questions #TweetBag, and look for the bag to drop Thursday morning. Without further ado, here are your questions and my answers!

@tholzerman YES ALRIGHT. Where did Ambrose’s promo on Monday rank among his 10 best Ambrose/Moxley promos? #TweetBag#tcot#TrueDetectiveSea
— Bill (@bflip33) June 11, 2014

Confession time - I haven't seen many of Ambrose's promos as Jon Moxley on the indies. I wasn't really watching Combat Zone Wrestling when he was there, and, well, my history with Gabe Sapolsky's promotions has been spotty to say the least. However, my one friend Thomas AK has said to me repeatedly that Ambrose is the only guy whom he's gone down YouTube rabbit holes just to watch promos. That statement is a hella cool endorsement.

But I'm dodging the question. Knee-jerk reaction, yes, I do think that spot has been Ambrose's best so far in WWE. I will further say that even if Ambrose cuts better promos in the future, his spot Monday will end up being his most memorable, most famous one. He put every one of his strengths together into one package - the fierce oratory, the crazy eyes, grotesque imagery - and he did so to get a positive reaction from the crowd. Imagine if Heath Ledger's Joker were to come out and promo on Batman to the roar of the Gotham City public. Dean Ambrose was the Joker. Sure, Seth Rollins may not be a true Batman in this scenario, although I'm sure someone can and will compare Batman to a fascist pig who helps the police keep martial control over the city. But that's fodder for another post at another time.

@tholzerman Design your own Russo match! Who would be the competitors and what would be the stipulations? #TweetBag
— The Masked Lutefisk (@MaskedLutefisk) June 11, 2014

Since the time frame was not specified, I am going to work with the 1998 WWF roster in a fantasy scenario. 8-Ball and Chainz vs. Faarooq and D'Lo Brown vs. Savio Vega and Jose Estrada vs. Mosh and Thrasher in a "Don't Touch the Floor Because It's Lava" match. If you touched the ground, you were eliminated but your partner wasn't. After three minutes, Jeff Jarrett would pin Al Snow, but it would be waved off as it was discovered that Mark Henry grabbed the Jade Monkey off the pole before the next full moon. In the confusion, Naked Mideon would be awarded the European Championship, mainly as a way to cover his shame.

@tholzerman Why do they bother going through the hassle of making distinctive entrance music, even to the point of "Rock-ifying" them, 1/2
— Frank (@gvntofly1021) June 11, 2014

@tholzerman just to have Lillian or Justin announce someone & then hit the theme? Annoying. just play the song, dorks! why they do this? 2/2
— Frank (@gvntofly1021) June 11, 2014

The secret correct answer is that WWE's production values during live shows are a mess. For all the plaudits the team gets for its brilliant recap packages and music videos, the live show seems to be fraught with disorganization, time mismanagement, and bad camerawork. Personally, I'm with you in that I like how the title matches and pay-per-view main events are set up. The wrestlers get their theme songs played and a full entrance, and then the ring announcer doesn't introduce them until everyone's in the ring. Do that for every match, especially for the wrestlers whom WWE wants to get over huge. A boss entrance for a nascent superstar at a live show or a pay-per-view can mean the world.

@tholzerman who should be the third member of the shield? #TweetBag
— Joe (@jkearns4949) June 11, 2014

My official platform for NEXT SHIELD MEMBER is that Solomon Crowe should get the callup (READ IT HERE, N00BS). However, for completism's sake, I will list a few more believable, acceptable members of The Shield going forward:

Kassius Ohno - Worked-shoot fodder with Triple H? Check. Indie cred? Check. Cerebral wrestler who can replace the "brains" of The Shield? Check. I would love to see him rehired and paired with Ambrose and Roman Reigns.

Dolph Ziggler - On the surface, he might be a misfit for the trio, but he also has heat with The Authority, and he would replace the prop bumping element in the group.

Batista - Boring predictable choice is boring and predictable, but in terms of hilarity, I would love to see Batista come down the arena steps wearing something that doesn't match the black flak jackets and military cargo pants.

Adrian Neville - He's a prop-bumper like Rollins, and he'll need some help to get a crowd reaction despite his wide array of high-flying moves. I want to see him succeed, and putting him with The Shield would be a great way to give him a head start

@tholzerman what do you think the wwe is going to look like when Steph and Trips are running the show? how will it be different than today?
— rowdy ryan petzar (@petzrawr) June 11, 2014

I think they have a hand in running the show right now. As as Vince McMahon isn't non compos mentis or dead, he'll always have a say in how things are run. The thing is that I'm not sure how much different the children's philosophy is from the parent's in terms of what the flavor of the show will be. NXT is rumored to be Triple H's baby in terms of both talent that goes there and how the stories are told. While the show is improved in a few categories over RAW (namely in the treatment of women), some of the problems that plague RAW trickle down into developmental. Also, NXT is one hour and taped sometimes a month in advance of airing. RAW is a three hour show live nearly every week. In short, maybe some things will get better, but I doubt RAW and WWE on the whole will change drastically with Trips and Steph in charge.

@tholzerman I saw Hulk Hogan beat Mr Perfect live then the next Saturday they were still calling him Mr Perfect despite the loss WTF?
— Zoo With Roy (@zoowithroy) June 11, 2014

I believe those losses have been expunged from the books pending an investigation into Hogan's PED usage. At least that's the story the Hennig camp is going with. You may continue to call him Mr. Perfect until a time in the future when this whole mess is cleared up.

@tholzerman Which WWF/WCW wrestling act was worst conceived & executed? Which bad character idea best defied the odds of success? #TweetBag
— Star of Savage (@StarOfSavage) June 11, 2014

The worst-conceived act, no questions asked, was Beaver Cleavage. He was a pun-based, misogynistic gimmick that had no shelflife beyond the utterance of his name. Unless the goal was to be a gimmick SO gross and stupid that it would elicit the infamous "Chaz" worked-shoot promo almost literally a week after its debut, then it epitomized the absurdity and excess of the Attitude Era. The worst character idea that actually got over was probably Brodus Clay's Funkasaurus act. Even though I dug its kitsch upon debut, I didn't think a dancing dinosaur doing a Stepin Fetchit act would catch on with the crowd. Oh, how I was mistaken.

@tholzerman How amazed are you that Dean Ambrose is such a great babyface?
— Ultimo Mateo (@TheUltimateMatt) June 11, 2014

I don't think he's really a great babyface right now. Getting cheered by the crowd doesn't mean you're a babyface, especially in the antihero-crazy environment that most wrestling crowds seem to provide nowadays. Ambrose is an electric personality with oodles of charisma who was betrayed by a longtime teammate of his to join the most hated character in WWE right now whose name isn't Brock Lesnar. OF COURSE he's going to get cheered. Graphically describing how gruesome he'd make Rollins' face in their eventual meeting is not exactly peak good guy behavior, no matter how popular it may seem.

@tholzerman Which gimmicks should the WWE bring back for their Special Events? Battlebowl? I think it should be Battlebowl #tweetBag
— Duje Silver Dekan (@thegnc) June 11, 2014

As tempting as bringing the BATTLEBOWL RING back into circulation is, the one gimmick I'd love to see brought back to a WWE ring would be the one-night, round-robin tournament that happened at Starrcade '89. I wouldn't want it at a MAJOR event the way WCW put it at its signature show, but a special event focusing on who the best wrestler and tag team were respectively, especially if each tournament featured at least one or two participants who could use a major rub, would be pretty nice.

@tholzerman Okay, screw it, going off-topic this week: DuckTales or Rescue Rangers? XD
— Complete Shot! (@Complete_Shot) June 11, 2014

DuckTales in a walk. Sure, it doesn't have a religion based on its female lead like Gadget does in Russia. Hell, I'm not sure DT HAD any major female characters. However, I watched it a lot more, and the video game was actually among the most fun games I've ever played for the original NES.

@tholzerman Mike or Joel?
— bd (@IHatebd) June 11, 2014

Embarrassing confession time again: I've only ever seen Joel episodes, so he's my answer by default.

@tholzerman#tweetbag Dream Cibernetico match?
— Okori Wadsworth (@OkoriWadsworth) June 11, 2014

RUDOS
Eddie Guerrero (captain)
Chris Jericho
Randy Savage
Mark Henry
Kevin Steen
Bull Nakano
Roddy Piper
Brock Lesnar

TECNICOS
Rey Mysterio (captain)
Daniel Bryan/Bryan Danielson
Rachel Summerlyn
ACH
El Generico
Sara del Rey
Ricky Steamboat
Kenta Kobashi

The tecnicos would win with Kobashi and Bryan surviving, and then they'd go about 20 more minutes before deciding the winner. As much as I'd like to put Bryan over here, Kobashi no-sold cancer. He wins.

@tholzerman which WWE wrestler in the Undercard Muck had the best change to break out? #tweetbag
— Rich Thomas (@earthdog) June 11, 2014

Muck is the right word for it now. Once you are plunged out of the main event, you cannot get back up into it. Poor Kofi Kingston and Dolph Ziggler were derailed and now are in that limbo area where they're too popular to leave off the show, but damaged enough goods that I doubt WWE will ever push them seriously again. @PureGristle on Twitter suggested Titus O'Neil as his answer. He hasn't been touched by a failed main event push yet, he's been getting better in the ring by working Superstars every week, and he's perhaps the most magnetic personality on the roster. I find it hard to disagree with that choice. A secondary answer would be Heath Slater as Clem Layfield. RED BELLY Wade Barrett got new life by using his character from the JBL and Cole Show, and the fans have gotten behind him solidly. Slater is a solid performer whose alter ego is getting some traction online. Since Barrett seems to be the only guy JBL supports on a regular basis in the broadcast booth, trying to catch lightning in a bottle again might not be the worst idea.

@tholzerman What's your #KingOfTweeTrios team's theme song?
— Antonio Cesausage (@NielJacoby) June 11, 2014

A little background here, King of TweeTrios is the brainchild of Jessica Hudnall on Twitter. She's organized a 32-team tournament where people, including myself, drafted an ideal Trios team with a manager. My team is named THE MOST SERIOUS TEAM IN THE WORLD, and it consists of Andy Kaufman, Archibald Peck, and Bob Sapp, with the Swagger Soaring Eagle as the manager/mascot. Two out of the three on the team have recorded songs, and Peck is The Leader of The Band. With that in mind, my team's official theme song is this:

@tholzerman can I kick it?
— That Enrico Palazzo (@Enrico_Palazzo_) June 12, 2014

For the last time, Jim, I'm a blogger, not a scientist.

@tholzerman if Steen has, indeed, signed with WWE, what are his best/worst case scenarios? #tweetbag
— David Kincannon (@dwkii) June 12, 2014

I really want to say his best case scenario is main-eventing WrestleMania, I really do. However, I just can't get over the apparent bias WWE has against fat dudes. It's not so much that I think WWE only looks for chiseled Adonis types. Daniel Bryan just finished getting the mother of all rockets shoved up his ass at Mania XXX. But when was the last time a fat guy got a push in WWE? Mark Henry comes to mind, but he's more the barrel-chested super muscular strongman competition build, and thus is the exception. His worst case scenario, with that in mind, is that he gets released within a year because he and Triple H clash about something stupid like gym time or weight loss. The best case scenario is that he becomes the best fat guy WWE has on its roster and changes opinions on body types in the mainstream so that wrestling goes back to a simpler time, when it didn't matter how your body looked as long as you were a master showman in the ring.

@tholzerman who is gonna win #KingOfTweeTrios and why is it obviously gonna be my team?
— Head Bee Guy (@Tvs_Tim_Biewald) June 12, 2014

C'mon, do you REALLY think I'm going to pick against my own team? It has Andy Kaufman on it, for crying out loud! And Bob Sapp! AND MARCHIE FREAKIN' ARCHIE! AND THE SWAGGER SOARING EAGLE ON THE OUTSIDE! Anyway, if you want to make your own judgment/predictions, go here and take a gander at the brackets and teams. DO IT.

@tholzerman Which WWE wrestler do you think could best help their nation win the World Cup if called upon?
— Mike Pankowski (@mikepankowski) June 12, 2014

John Cena pretty much is the LeBron James of pro wrestling, right? Or would that be Daniel Bryan? Either way, assuming both would be healthy, I would pick them to lead the United States over the rest of the world. While Japan or Mexico (or even England) might have a deeper, more well-rounded pool of talent to pick from, Cena (from a booking standpoint) and Bryan (from an ability standpoint) would be the rocks upon which Team USA would anchor a huge run.

If you're talking from an obscure country that would make a Cinderella run, however, the only answer would be Great Power Uti for Nigeria. I don't need to explain this.

@tholzerman will there come a day where every wrestler has a podcast? "My name's Jey and welcome to the U.S.O. show" for example.
— David Jackson (@RTVWOW) June 12, 2014

Pretty soon, Podcast One is just going to flood the market, and the only wrestler whose podcasts it won't have under its umbrella would be Colt Cabana's and Zack Ryder's. The former would be because Cabana really doesn't need to be on that network for success, and the latter because lol, it would be funny for Podcast One to reject Ryder.

@tholzerman as great as the Bo Dallas gimmick is, is this just an awesome example of HHH trolling to prove that John Cena is already a heel?
— The Chairman (@TheREALjKAM) June 12, 2014

I never really thought of Dallas' arrival and new character in that way. I always saw it as more a knock on Tim Tebow more than anything else, especially since he's now made Tebowing a part of his shtick. I can see how Dallas COULD be a rib on the fans that want Cena to turn heel, but I don't really think his callup is that sophisticated to be honest. Dallas has been in developmental forever, much like Leo Kruger/Adam Rose was, and this gimmick felt like something unique enough to try on the main roster.

Once upon a time, the World's Strongest Man wasn't an angry black fella from Silsby, TX, but a stocky French Canadian dude with blonde locks and the Mouth of the South for a manager. In his running feud with the Ultimate Warrior, Dino Bravo challenged him to a pushup competition with the fattest dude in the crowd sitting upon their backs. While Jesse "The Body" Ventura was sure the sitter would be a woman because West Virginia had its fair share of them according to him, Jimmy Hart selected a rather rotund guy with a beard and a skullet from the crowd. Of course, that man would turn out to be Earthquake, and this whole competition was just a setup for Bravo to get some licks in on Warrior before they went and did battle on the house show circuit. It's sad to think that of the five guys in the ring during this vignette, the only two who are still alive are the NPC/manager characters. Earthquake fell victim to cancer, Bravo was murdered by organized crime syndicates in Quebec, and Warrior recently passed this year. Wrestling is a hell of a business.


This week's video brought to us by @anthonytaylor_, a gaming enthusiast and someone who really wanted to see Dino Bravo this week, for some reason.

New Japan Pro Wrestling has long prided itself on its popular and highly successful junior heavyweight division. From its illustrious J-Crown days to helping to launch the careers of several high profile American wrestlers to the legendary Super J Cup, the weight class has carved out an everlasting legacy for itself. However in recent years the company has been paying less and less attention to the division that was once its pride and joy. With much of the focus going towards the acclaimed heavyweight scene the juniors have been languishing in a lukewarm state since Wrestle Kingdom 7. At that event 18 months ago, Prince Devitt regained the title from Low Ki. After that Devitt turned heel, set his sights on the Heavyweight Championship and never defended the belt he did have. That was the state of the title for all of 2013. In fact, that year's Best of the Super Juniors  saw Devitt win, and so he never had the traditional "Champion vs BOSJ winner" match.

After Wrestle Kingdom 8, the company breathed a little bit of life into the division with a couple of new additions and a fighting Champion in Kota Ibushi. This year's BOSJ brackets were interesting in that they featured a number of tag teams that could have produced some fantastic "partner vs partner" matches. Also of note was the lack of Ibushi in the tournament, which guaranteed us a new contender to the title. Unfortunately, a couple of injuries early on denied us of what were probably the most anticipated matches this year and led to some iffy reshuffling of the deck. At this point, on day eight the final four were Kushida, Taichi, Ryusuke Taguchi and Ricochet.  Lets have a look at what went down.

1) Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Satoshi Kojima, Bushi, and Kenny Omega vs. Jushin Thunder Liger, Mascara Don, Mascara Dorada, and Tiger Mask IV:
New Japan often opens shows with multi-man tag matches featuring guys who are too old/unimportant to be featured in singles matches. They also usually include Tiger Mask, Jushin Liger, and Manabu Nakanashi. This one had a couple of guys who were eliminated from the tournament and Ten-Koji thrown in for good measure. Nakanashi wrestled under a luchador gimmick and dominated a lot of the early goings on throwing some lariats and drop kicks, but the man is just too stiff and immobile for any of his stuff to be effective visually. You just get the sense that these guys could run rings around him and yet here he is flooring Kojima with only slightly more force than I could deliver. Once Nakanashi got out I expected the match to get better but it didn't. Kenny Omega and Dorada filled up the rest of the running time with a few high spots, a couple of which were botched before Omega got the win with a German suplex.

2) Rocky Romero and Gedo vs. El Desperado and Kota Ibushi:
With an increased amount of time this could have been spectacular. Seeing as they were only given a few minutes, there wasn't a whole lot they could do. To their credit though, they did pack in as much action into this as they could, and there's no scenario on Earth where Ibushi isn't fun to watch. Rocky Romero, to my surprise got the win over Desperado with a modified Tombstone Piledriver. This is notable because A) he now technically owns a win over the Champ and B) Gedo wins his first match in I can't remember how long.

3) Captain New Japan and Yuji Nagata vs. Hirooki Goto and Katsuyori Shibata:
Christ! Captain New Japan is a fish out of water in this match. Let's examine the participants here. Hirooki Goto has been around for years and is known for his especially hard hitting offense. Yuji Nagata, despite his laughable MMA attempts, is 46 years old and can still dish it out and take it as well as anyone. Katsuyori Shibita is the man for whom the term "strong-style" was coined. So you've got arguably the three toughest shit-kickers in the company going at it and one comedy mascot whose probably just hoping to get out of this with his spleen intact. Shibata in an unusual display of mercy went easy on him and only really got serious when he was in the ring with Nagata. Those two had a game of slaps post-match so hopefully it'll lead to a singles bout between the two. That is definitely something I'd pay to see. After getting in a few unexpected nearfalls, Goto put away Captain NJ with the Shouten.

4) Kushida vs. Taichi :
Alex Shelley, despite winning his block, injured his shoulder and had to pull out of the semifinals. This, crushingly meant that we would not get to see Time Splitters, Shelley and Kushida "explode." Taichi was the replacement, and I can't decide if the booking was supposed to make him look credible or look like a piece of shit. You see, Taichi is more or less the Japanese equivalent of Heath Slater and only wins matches when somebody gets injured. So with that in mind, the decision to have 95% of the bout consist of Taichi cheating could have been to convince the fans into thinking he had a chance or to punish him for his extramarital affair scandal. Either way he looked like the biggest goober on the planet after being submitted by Kushida despite controlling nearly the entirety of the match.

5) Ricochet vs. Ryusuke Taguchi:
This was another potentially great match given only a few minutes. You could tell that this was going to be a short one as they skipped the early grappling/feeling out process and went straight for the big moves, after which Ricochet won with a kick to the head.

6) Minoru Suzuki and Takashi Iizuka (Suzuki-gun) vs. Jado and Toru Yano (Chaos)
This was garbage and the worst match of the night by far. Basically it was the latest chapter in the never ending faction war between Chaos and Suzuki-gun. In puroresu, stables don't tend to break up like they do in the States. If someone leaves, the group usually stays together until everyone's gone, an example of this is Great Bash Heel which at one point had nearly a dozen members but today consists only of Togi Makabe and Tomoaki Honma. Until a group definitively disbands, their feuds just go on and on and on. This brings me back to Chaos vs Suzuki-gun who've been feuding on and off for years.

The latest twist in the story rivalry no one cares about is that long time Chaos member Iizuka turned on his tag team partner, Yano and jumped ship to the other team. I think It's pretty reasonable to describe Iizuka as the Japanese Scott Steiner, in that he was once a guy who was athletic and exciting, turned heel, shaved his head and adopted a half crazy gimmick. He also put on a ton of upper body muscle and is now completely immobile and useless. Even his pants are similar now that I think about it.

Anyway he worked over Yano for the majority of the match and it was wretched. Using a tried and true combination of crappy stomps and chokeholds, he somehow managed to do as little as possible but still keep the crowd interested. I don't know why they made as much noise as they did but the audience should probably be awarded some sort of honorary Championship for it. Suzuki and Iizuka eventually picked up the win and did a post-match beat down on their opponents before being chased off by Kazushi Sakuraba who I assume will now feud with those two. That is like cleaning up a piss stain with more piss.

It was at this point that I wondered if this show should be called "Best of the Insubstantial Throwaway Tag Matches" because they've devoted infinitely more time to the filler as opposed to the pairings that this PPV was being sold on. Oh well, at least from here on the show picked up a little bit.

7) Tama Tonga, Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson vs. Tomoaki Honma, Tetsuya Naito and Hiroshi Tanahashi:
This was 3 guys I love versus 3 guys I hate. On one hand you have the real Best in the World, Hiroshi Tanahashi, with two of the most under-appreciated workers in the business in Honma and Naito. On the other you have Tama Tonga, the even less well known son of Haku, Doc Gallows whose career highlights are recording a funny podcast once and CM Punk mentioning him on Raw, and Karl "Machine Gun" Anderson who is so incredibly dull on his own he always needs to be a part of some gigantic stable to hide his lack of star power. They're all a part of the top heel group in New Japan, The Bullet Club who've been delivering generic shouty promos and underwhelming, interference ridden matches for over a year. They mostly consist of ex-TNA guys and guys who couldn't make it on their own but at least here they were going up against the best possible competition. In the end the face team won a pretty fun match that at least featured "never winning but always hitting" Tomoaki Honma being instrumental in the finish.

8) Shinuske Nakamura, Kazuchika Okada, YOSHI-HASHI and Tomohiro Ishii vs. Bad Luck Fale, Nick Jackson, Matt Jackson and Yujiro Takahashi:
This was another Bullet Club versus everyone match, and like the last one, it was fine but was absolutely unremarkable. DA CLUB was again taking on some serious players with three of their opponents being arguably the most popular performers in the company right now. The thing I remember most about this was how much time everyone spent making YOSHI look good. Seriously, this is a guy who regularly gets trounced by dudes in a couple of minutes and here he was kicking out of finishers and nearly getting the three count against Bad Luck Fale. Anyway after several minutes of getting their asses handed to them, the mega heels finally got the upset(?) win over YOSHI fucking HASHI.

Ricochet vs. Kushida:
This was the exciting, high flying match we'd been waiting all show to see. And while it couldn't make up for everything that came before it, it was really great. What I liked most was that it felt like two athletes really competing over a coveted prize. This is opposed more show boaty, overly choreographed juniors matches where it looks like they're co-operating with each other to pull off phony looking sequences. Which of course they always do but they hid it well here by having all the counters and reversals seem natural and spontaneous. There was even a bit were it looked like they were gonna do that Lets Run Off The Same Rope For No Reason thing but they subverted it nicely by Ricochet kicking Kushida in the gut when he wasn't looking.

Also if you ever wanted a reason why Japanese crowds are the best in wresting this is it. The bout was in its final stretch, and the two wrestlers were slugging it out. Ricochet faltered slightly, and the crowd went fucking nuts. The fact that they were able to pick up and react to a momentary display of fatigue added a whole new dimension to the match. It went from "these guys are doing cool moves" to "these guys are doing cool moves and one of them is about to die". Because really if the crowd doesn't respond to something, it doesn't feel important. If Ricochet stumbled and no one noticed that would be that and it would matter to the story but they did respond and it made the match even more awesome. In the end Ricochet won with a swinging kick to the head in what was easily the match of the night. Afterwards he was congratulated/confronted by the current Champ, Ibushi.

Overall Thoughts: 
A really disappointing and at times tedious show that was thankfully capped off by a great main event. Although the tournament itself was underwhelming, at least Ibushi now has a strong contender to his title.

Yoshi Tatsu in New Japan... you dig? Photo Credit: WWE.com

Welcome to this week's Polling Place, where I ask the questions and you vote on the answers. Kicking off is WWE's mass layoff of talent yesterday. The stark reality for those released is that they lost a job with the most lucrative wrestling company in the world. However, those who will continue their wrestling careers have options ahead of them. Whether they go back to former haunts like Matt Sydal (Evan Bourne) and Dragon Gate and Yoshi Tatsu and New Japan Pro Wrestling, or whether they stomp new grounds, the potential for fresh and exciting matches and stories exist in spades. My question, what pairing of wrestler and company(ies) would you like to see most?


Second, Pat Patterson officially came out of the closet and confirmed his homosexuality on the season finale of Legends House last night. Patterson's sexuality has been the worst kept secret in pro wrestling for the last 30 years, but the fact that he decided to come out in the open is commendable and should be lauded. He is the second WWE employee to come out of the closet in the last year, as Darren Young famously revealed his sexuality in August last year. Are wrestling personalities able to come out more easily because the art is more showbiz than sport? Is wrestling the friendliest of the sports and sports-style entertainments for the LGBT community?


Finally, the World Cup, the most-expansive sporting tournament in the world, has gotten underway in the host country, Brazil. The field is competitive, but a few favorites exist in the field. Who do you think will win the Cup and take home international bragging rights in soccer for the next four years?

Will Jeremy Wyatt be defending the Metro Pro Title as a rebirth, or as a swan song? Photo Credit: Kelly Kyle/Texas Anarchy

Metro Pro Wrestling returns to the Turner Rec Center in Kansas City, KS. The show has been in the works for awhile now, and everyone knows the drill by now. The wrestling starts at 6 PM local time, and afterwards, the documentary Wrestless will premiere. The show will be taped for television, and a good portion of Metro Pro regulars will be on-hand (the Iowa regulars will not be there, sadly). All in all, the show sounds like a formula for a successful return to business, doesn't it?

Except that it might not be a permanent return. I've heard rumblings that this show may only be a one-shot deal, a situation that I find paradoxical with everything I've read and seen announced. Returning to television, bringing in all the Champions (including International Dance Champ Iceman!), pairing up with United Wrestling TV... it just doesn't make sense that this show would be a last hurrah.

Then again, the promotion did go under last year due to turbulence with the cable network on which it was aired. Television can be a finicky mistress. Promoter Chris Gough has said that he doesn't want to do Metro Pro if he can't do it his way, and I couldn't imagine watching episodes on YouTube without ACH, without the Submission Squad, without the Monster of the Month coming in and having big matches with Jeremy Wyatt, without the full complement of regulars coming in on a consistent basis.

So if this show is a welcome back, then it will be a grand return. If it's a finale, then however bittersweet it will turn out to be, it will be fitting. Two tried-and-true Metro originals in Wyatt and Derek Stone will get showcase matches against Ace Steel and Stevie Richards, respectively. ACH and Mark Sterling will bring the house down if the Kobra Kai Dojo (Davey Vega and Mat Fitchett) and the Commission (Pierre Abernathy and Evan Gelistico) don't beat them to it. Top to bottom, this show will be part of one of the strongest weekends in the indies this year (along with Inspire Pro's show Sunday, and the IWC Super Indy tournament going on concurrently).

Who knows, maybe the announcement will drop that Metro Pro is coming back for good, and everything will be right in the world again. Another great weekly show will be back on YouTube, and the Midwest/Central States will be represented again with regular broadcasting. But even if it isn't, this final show will be historic, monumental, and downright fun. If you're near Kansas City, you need to be at Turner Rec.

Pictured: MVP showing how much TOUGHER he is than Eric Young Photo Credit: Impact Wrestling.com

In the fictional reality of Impact Wrestling, TNA must be the worst place to work. Everyone is screaming about how tough they are and threatening to murder each other over their perceived toughness. In this episode alone we get the Unstoppable Alliance of MVP, Bobby Lashley and Kenny King about how Eric Young isn’t tough enough to be Champion, Ethan Carter III and Bully Ray arguing over how rough and tumble they are, Magnus and Bram claiming to be ferocious enough to beat a clearly deranged man and his imaginary friend. Samoa Joe is famous for threatening to kill people to prove his toughness. Walking in the dark dank Impact Zone must be an OSHA violation, what with the crazy killer clown faction, separate evil fairy clown Willow, and Literal Serial Killer Samuel Shaw on the payroll. Plus you’ve got that alcoholic cowboy superkicking everyone in sight. Everybody is selfish and nobody is on your side in the Impact Zone. It’s the screwy inconsistent motivations that frustrated me the most this week.

The angle with MVP started with him coming in to take over TNA from Dixie Carter because she didn’t know wrestling, was abusing power and was running things unfairly. Only a few months after this does he turn heel in order to abuse power and run things unfairly. The “boys in the back” defend him and fight back against Carter but when he shows his true colors they just… do the same thing they were doing before, really. I mean Eric Young is the champ now and gets the crap beaten out of him at every turn, but no one really defends him or complains the same as they did when Magnus was beating all challengers through massive interference. Just what is going on here?

The biggest gripe I have when it comes to screwy motivations is aimed at Bully Ray. He spent the better part of the past six months threatening to put Dixie Carter through a table for seemingly no real reason. Because she cost him a match? It’s really unclear other than the fact that he hates the Carters. Other than one overture towards going after the MVP Regime and sticking up for Eric Young, he’s mostly focused on this one thing. Now as we head into Slammiversary he’s busted open EC3’s perfect forehead and challenged him to a Texas Death Match for no obvious reason other than to threaten Dixie some more. Yet she already has enough on her plate with MVP taking over her show.

Why wouldn’t Bully use MVP to get to Carter? It’d have made for a more interesting show both this week and last week. Last week’s episode ended with an eight-man first blood tag match that had Bully Ray teaming with Eric Young, Samoa Joe and Austin Aries against MVP’s Alliance and EC3. Do you see what’s so confusing about that? Ethan is a Carter, why is he teaming with the people that put his aunt out of the company other than Bully wanted that to happen so he could bust him open? Bully Ray’s overtures as a face squaring off against the Carters make no sense because DIXIE LOST. Wouldn’t he want to team with the man who caused his mortal enemy to lose face? It’d have made the match alone more interesting as well because it’d FORCE THE FACES TO ACTUALLY ACT LIKE FACES and team up with someone they may not trust in order to help the greater good.

The ending of last week forced us into the worst segment possible this week, where EC3 and his assistant Rockstar Spud berated a returning Brooke Tessmacher (former girlfriend of Bully Ray) for no reason other than to piss Bully off. They attempted to force her to admit that there was some dirty secret Bully was hiding, that they had a kid together. However, it made no sense and only serves to summon Bully Ray, make him look like THE GOOD GUY sticking up for Brooke and calling EC3 out for the Texas Death Match at Slammiversary where it’s heavily implied that Bully will put Dixie Carter through a table if EC3 loses. I get that EC3 is supposed to be a heel but he doesn’t have to be a blatant dick to a woman for no reason; however Bully Ray is supposed to be THE GOOD GUY in this storyline, and he never comes off as such.

Last week we also got the forced match-up of Davey Richards vs Eddie Edwards, the current tag team champions formerly known as The American Wolves. Nothing interesting came out of this this week; however at Slammiversary these two will face each other again, in a ladder match for the X Division Title, against current champ Tigre Uno, a returning Manik, Sanada and dark horse for new champ Crazzy Steve (he’s crazy!). I don’t know if TNA would break up their Tag Champs already, but considering in their match they decided to stay friends and not kill each other, wrestling a more technical match than these two have probably ever done before, chances are slim. Then again this is TNA, next Thursday Eddie might have threatened to chop Davey up with a machete to prove he has bigger balls or something.

The only consistent character development we get this week is my favorite thing to happen in wrestling this week and the most positive thing I can end this review on: Robbie E still being afraid of clowns. Somehow Robbie E sells being terrified of The Menagerie better than Eric Young sells having his back injured in 3 matches. #RobbieEForTNAChamp

Rest in power, Emerald Destiny Photo Credit: Online World of Wrestling

Five years ago today, Mitsuharu Misawa passed away in a Hiroshima hospital after losing consciousness at a Pro Wrestling NOAH show. He took a sharp-angle back suplex Akitoshi Saito and never regained his senses. The official cause of death was never released at the request of Misawa's family, but it has been suspected the bump he took was the last straw in a career where he took calculated risks with the various falls and strikes he'd take in the ring. He was 46 years old at the time of his passing.

I won't sugarcoat the circumstances around his death as "doing something he loved," mainly because I didn't know the man or know his mindset at the time of his passing. However, his death has left an immeasurable void in wrestling rings all around the world. He was the ace of All-Japan Pro Wrestling during a time when it was the biggest promotion in the country with perhaps the best roster of any wrestling company in history. The Japanese fans and American/European tape traders who watched him tangle with Toshiaki Kawada, Kenta Kobashi, and the rest of that roster were influenced immensely into a new way of thinking about how pro wrestling could be. No wrestling ring in America or Japan is free from his touch.

If you're unfamiliar with his work, do a simple YouTube search for him. Footage exists, whether full matches or clips of his most famous moves. Check out the Misawa Week tag for a start into what he was all about from my perspective as well. But even if you don't have any interested in puroresu at all, realize that without Misawa, the indies are drastically different, Chris Hero and other wrestlers have far divergent styles, and wrestling as everyone knows it perhaps goes down a different path. Rest in peace, Misawa Mitsuharu.

More of this, less of the recaps, please Photo Credit: WWE.com

I have a question for you, WWE. I’m a regular viewer of your programming. It’s very rare that I miss Raw or one of your special events or whatever you’re calling pay-per-views now. I spend a fair amount of my time watching the Network. I’ve even watched that little ‘This Week in WWE’ show you’ve got on there. As I watched Superstars last night, I couldn’t help but wonder why half this show is recaps. Hell, they had a recap of a recap they showed earlier. At one point, they teased the reveal of a recap. What? I watch Raw. I know what’s going on there. It’s your main show. Why are you cliffhanging a recap?! Why are you showing me the last five minutes of the Raw main event? Again, I watched Raw, and I have to assume that everyone else tuning into your C programming watched it too.

Superstars is hardly the only show that’s guilty of this, but I’ve got to ask. Why does all your programming assume your viewers have a two second memory or don’t pay attention to your other shows?

Why can’t these B and C level shows work to help the overall narrative? Take our first match of the evening. A very enthusiastic Dolph Ziggler wrestling a disinterested Titus O’Neil. It was a fine match, but nothing special. I do really appreciate Ziggler’s ability to get the crowd involved during the match. The man’s always enjoyable. O'Neil had his good points too, but he moves to the center of the ring no matter what kind of move his doing. There’s wasn’t a lot of fluidity, just stepping from one spot to the next. I know these are just dark matches from the beginning of Raw, but give them a purpose.

Same went for Adam Rose and Heath Slater. Perfectly cromulent wrestling match, but give it some weight! These characters seem ready made to feud over something stupid. The party all the time newcomer against the original one man band (RIP 3MB)! Slater invented partying! Let him take Rose to task for doing it wrong! GIVE ME SOMETHING!

Here’s the thing. Why not use your secondary shows to set up feuds for these guys? How would that hurt? How could story and purpose be bad for your shows? Or what about new content that bolsters whatever SUPER IMPORTANT feuds you have on Raw? Cole loves to do those two chair interviews. Throw one together for Superstars! Or here’s a thought: how about another wrestling match? Instead of showing me all the recaps from Raw, throw two other guys into the ring and let ‘em fight for ten!

Random Thoughts

• Highlight of the Authority recap from Raw? The VERY REAL orthopedist with the spine laying across his bookcase, as if to say ‘What diploma? I have a spine right here, yo! I’m obviously a real back guy!’
• What was the point of breaking up the Prime Time Players if there were no plans for either of them?
• I might need a pharaoh hat to party in. Tut looked like he was having a blast out there.
• I have no idea what the deal is with the guy in the pink bunny suit in the front row during the show, but I have to applaud his commitment to looking like an idiot on TV.

The good news for Tyson Kidd after this week's episode of NXT is that his life is like a song; the bad news is that said tune is probably Linkin Park's "One Step Closer".

Say this for the former coholder of the WWE Tag Team Championship - he left nearly no stone unturned in his effort to gain the Big X and followed up a fine performance against Adrian Neville two weeks ago at Takeover with an even better one in a rematch that surpassed an already strong original. (It's almost uncanny how often that happens down Full Sail way, isn't it?)

He might've started out on the receiving end of some Nattie's Husband chants, especially since she escorted him down to the ring and was in his corner for the match. But the crowd had also seemed to mostly forgive the douchery of a fortnight ago with his apology coming just last week, and Kidd seemed to take the support as fuel for the opening chunk of the match. Whereas in the first installment the ground game and counterwrestling was a coin flip this time Tyson was pretty dominant and made chain wrestling look pretty in doing so. He seemed to have a counter for whatever work Adrian could throw at him, up to and including some nifty rerereversals. Counters to the counter to the counter, kids. You think this is easy? Try it. But then Neville got a little separation, which in NXT in 2014 was pretty akin to handing a pyromaniac a little container of gasoline. How much damage could they even do? The thing's barely even half full!

A handless Asai suicida later and Neville was in control for a moment. Back from break Tyson came back with a series of nearfalls, subtly escalating the situation. Been quite a while since we've seen him apply a modified dragon sleeper, or hit his formerly signature inside-out slingshot legdrop. He'd counter a sunset flip with a basement dropkick, and throw a wicked Saito suplex. Neville kicked out of everything. Sure, Neville would get in a few shots: an Alicia-worthy Aurora Borealis, and a step-up Owenzuigiri ^ standing Shooting Star Press combo. But when Tyson blocked a Neville attempt at a gamengiri only to absolutely DRILL the Champion with one of his own, you could see the machinery start to turn. So he followed it up with a sweet rope-hung dropkick to the chest and then followed it off the top with the Harlem Hangover. One, two, three. Just like that, Tyson Kidd had become the NXT Champion. For a second.

Neville's foot on the rope was there at 2.8 but not noticed until 3.1. The ref would audibly admit he messed up as Tyson was disgruntled without being fully upset, but you could smell defeat just by his body language. It was as transparent as cleaned glass: he'd done everything he'd supposed to do, he'd heard a three count, and just like that his first singles Championship had been yanked out of his grasp before he could even get a hand on it. Even that, though, wasn't enough to deter him: he just mentioned to the referee (not even that snidely, considering) that he thought he'd already had this thing won as he basement dropkicked Neville in a Tree of Woe before locking him down with the Sharpshooter. Okay, a pinfall by the ropes comes with some dangers and in the moment he'd lost sight of that. Not awesome, but moving on and wrestling like a Champion? Bang on. Hell, awesome as the Hangover was, that wasn't even really his move, y'know?

But now--now in the middle of the ring with the Sharpshooter applied? It wasn't a matter of if, but when. At least for a few seconds. Neville gutted out a crawl to the ropes, and Tyson couldn't say a word. He didn't have to: in a fine piece of camera work he looked gutted and ready to announce this match was brought to you by the letter F, and the letters I and T. From there his situation went from sweater to unmade thread in sections. Formerly wrestling a borderline perfect match, he walked into a small package and then missed a corner charge. When the latter got him a huge kick in the back of the head, it looked like he was about to fall victim again to the fickle Red Arrow of fate. And yet.

And yet he survived, cutting off the Jumping Geordie and sending him sprawling into the ring. They're called finishers for a reason, hehn? So let's do this -- Blockbuster off the top. Nope. Neville surviving to the roar of the crowd. Yeah, fine: springboard elbow drop. Consecutive finishers, unleashing old and new...this had to get it done, right? Nope. For a moment he seemed to be lost in prayer, and the wrestling gods answered him in kind. He went to get a chair. Forget the ensuing cutoff by his wife or the superkick ^ Best Red Arrow In NXT History combo that literally ended the MOTYHMC; this is where the match ended. Having failed with his arsenal, Tyson went from wanting to win the Championship to just wanting to win. You could even see the justification if you had the empathy: for the referee it was a mistake, for him it was his career. And what could've possibly motivated that little elf-looking uggo to survive four damn finishers? Why, it was the same thing that could've saved him from the chants he'd heard at the beginning. It was easy for Nattie to console him after the fact and admonishing him with "You're better than that" before disposing of the chair and keeping her Lawful Good alignment; the fact somebody survived every bomb he could throw at them and the fact he couldn't even land a chair shot proved that he wasn't.

It was such a packed episode -- in contention for best "regular" hour of NXT's 2014 -- that the goodness of the main event overshadowed a stellar opener with the BFFs taking on Bayley, Emma and Paige. Since no portmanteaus seem to be able to get rejiggered into something catchy and punful, let's just call them Team Awesome. That's what made the difference, after all. Considering how disparate the good girls were, they still managed to form a unit ready to take down the pains in their collective asses for the better part of the past two years while the resident Plastics couldn't even make their way down to the ring without there being multiple passive-aggressive instances of each one trying to upstage the other. You'd think having gotten the color coordination right in Niner red and gold they could've been more supportive of each other, but they apparently could only unify on one thing: let's beat up on Emma. For an entire segment, Emma caught a beatdown and extensive tours of the Bad Part Of Town while Charlotte and Sasha did the work much to the disgruntledness of the former Queen of NXT and future movie star Ms. Rae. Both Charlotte and Summer (once she finally got in in the second segger) proved their scuminess by mocking the Emma Dance, but unfortunately for Emma these were brief respites from them doing things like choking her and locking her up with a figure 4 headlock.

For a while they looked like the female iteration of the Ascension with everybody on the team getting in a few licks in in under 60 seconds with rapid tags. For those who wonder if Summer's gotten too Hollywood in her absence, why would she take a picture with a front row fan while the match was going on if she was? But when Emma finally got free she got in Bayley, who immediately went after the NXT Women's Champion. Bayley even debuted a really swank modified EXPLOIDAH~! that brought back warm fuzzies of the AWOL Master Regal, and to the surprise of absolutely no one ever a Pier 6 broke out. Last week, Charlotte was able to ignore Summer and made Bayley Bow Down; this week she was annoyed enough by the shenanigans to boot her own partner out of the ring and get rolled up as a result. That's right: the winners had the reigning Divas Champion in their corner and essentially won a handicap match because they were a unit and the Biffles weren't. While Summer Rae was angrily flipping her hair in Charlotte's face, because, she, like, invented you two, you know what I mean? Paige was busy hugging Bayley so hard she lifted her off the ground. No, really. That's right, not kneeing somebody in the face or screaming at it or hugging them so hard their eyeballs popped out of their head and she won the match Celebrity Deathmatch style, but just sheer unvarnished joy; the kind of joy only Bayley can bring, really. It was so weird. For a second there she looked like a 21-year-old happy for her friend instead of a comelier version of a tornado.

Coming in the bronze medal portion of the show is kind of like being the third hottest Playmate at the Mansion, but Sami Zayn got a win over the "debuting" Mr. NXT in another show highlight. This seems to be a grand opening grand closing situation, as the "newcomer" looked quite familiar, wore all white, and had really nice teeth. Perhaps he was meant to invoke El Santo and that level of purity and heroism but it couldn't be helped by anybody with a decent sense of history (read: pretty much every NXTer ever, let alone Sami Zayn in this instance) that this Mr. NXT fellow bo more than a passing resemblance to a former roster member, especially when he took a prematch moment to have a brief contemplative prayer. The Bo, Leave chants started almost immediately as Zayn had a look that on a family friendly website can only be described as "this [matriarch fornicator] right here]". It was astounding he didn't have to go on the injured reserve list for throwing out his everything considering he was casting aspersions on somebody else for wearing a red cape and mask and pretending to be a luchador; it'd be like if you saw Zooey Deschanel call somebody out for being too twee and adorable. Maybe moreso. Perhaps Señor Everything But The E shouldn't've celebrated with his hands in the air and a familiar-sounding "Yeah, baby!" after trucking Sami off the ropes. Especially since he'd fall victim to an armdrag flight and get mocked for it pretty hard by Sami. The announcing was on point, as A-Ry did his lone good work of the show making a bevy of excuses while Rich slowly came around to what the crowd was throwing out and if Renee's tongue had gotten any more firmly in her cheek she would've picked up lockjaw. Suddenly Mr. NXT unmasked as...

...well, maybe you should be sitting down for this.

We'll give you a moment to collect yourself.

...it was Bo Dallas. I know, I'm shocked, too. He responded as if his tights had came off instead of his horrible disguise and a Helluva Boot later he was disposed of. Sure, Bo and Sami could've had an awesome match, but they decided to have a hilarious one instead. Sami called campus security on Bo, touching off an even more hilarious sequence that really was only missing Yakety Sax as they chased Bo around the ring on a few laps and Dallas getting desperate -- well, even moreso -- as he clapsed onto the ring ropes and then the ringpost wailing about how he couldn't leave and NXT needed him. Even getting him in the back of the paddywagon (read: campus security cart) turned into another hilarious debacle around Full Sail. Admit it: now that the idea of Yakety Sax is in your head, you can't help but hear it now, yes?

Say what you will about this NXT, let alone the debut of a deaf-mute strongman Simon Gotch to pick up Aiden English's spirits after he'd been knocked so low he was singing plantation classics in the back to nobody but himself, but it was far from a debacle. The Fastest 60 Minutes In Sports Entertainment lived up to both ends of the buzzphrase, and was absolutely delicious from front to back.

We can only hope that next week we'll get a ten-second segment of JBL ripping up Mr. NXT's contract while sadly shaking his head.

So, do you want to see a match between the COO of WWE and a current official for the company from 20 years ago in WCW? OF COURSE YOU DO! Hard to believe that Jean-Paul Levesque would rise from the ranks of WCW curtain-jerker to Ol' Wolf Dick himself, Triple H, but at least he was able to use his real name here and not the awful "Terra Ryzing" pun name he had for awhile. I find Armstrong not really panning out as a wrestler and instead becoming a referee a bit easier to swallow, but hey, at least his career as a wrestler gave us this oddity of a pairing.

Enemies, or passionate lovers in waiting? Photo Credit: WWE.com

What's the most magical part of watching professional wrestling? Friendship, of course! But seriously, think about it; friendship matters. Why do we all currently hate that vile traitor, Seth Rollins? Because he didn't just back-stab anyone; he back-stabbed his VERY BESTEST FRIENDS. While most wrestling friendships must inevitably end in stunning yet predictable betrayal, we can still enjoy the heartwarming bonds of fellowship while they last. A good friendship and a good friendship-gone bad make for a more compelling narrative. It means we're not JUST watching a load of improbably fit people in strange attire pretending to fight each other; we're watching a load of improbably fit people in strange attire pretending to fight each other AND having relationships and, therefore, stakes that matter. Thus I present Smackdown reviewed according to the most sacred categories of friendship.

Best Friends

A tie between the Usos and Luke Harper and Erick Rowan. Jey Uso and Rowan had a disappointingly short match that honestly took the wind out of my sails after the great opening number put on by Reigns and Barrett. However, it remains clear that the members of both teams reinforce and care about one another. While the Usos are more visibly affectionate, the silent support that Harper and Rowan give to each other is equally inspiring.

Worst Friend

Alicia Fox. She clearly has no regrets about betraying Aksana and ruining the only enduring friendship in the Divas division. It's a shame that Aksana's last appearance occurred without either reconciliation or revenge. Side note: Michael Cole referred to Alicia as being “bipolar.” Don't do that. Bipolar disorder is a real thing and it is not shorthand for “LOL women and their mood swings, amirite?”

Most in Need of a Friend

Bad News Barrett. Roman Reigns and BNB had a pretty rad match to start off Smackdown. And JBL and Cole would not shut the fuck up about Triple H throughout the entirety of Barrett's early onslaught. The guy's out there putting on a great show and doesn't get a word said about him. Of course, once Roman's renaissance kicked in, they talked about HIM, but Barrett could have been any old schmo, for all they cared. Considering that he's been one of the best parts of The JBL and Cole Show for ages, you'd think they'd show him some respect. Barrett needs a friend who will sing his praises when he earns them.

Most Devastating Friendship Break-Up

3MB. I mean, they didn't break up on air, but valiantly throwing themselves at Roman Reigns and then being viciously speared by him was their last appearance together on WWE TV, since Jinder Mahal and Drew McIntyre have now been released. It's a sad day both for music and friendship lovers.

Does Not Deserve a Friend EVER

VILE TRAITOR SETH ROLLINS. There were Bray Wyatt and Dean Ambrose having a perfectly lovely match, making me just want to watch the two of them go at it forever and ever (and take breaks to deliver promos every now and then). Basically, their match was going straight into the “Should Be Friends” category because who knows? Maybe Dean's and Bray's particular eccentricities would have complemented each other. But then Rollins had to come along and remind us why he deserves to be FOREVER ALONE AND FRIENDLESS.

Should Be Friends

Fandango and Adam Rose. These two should be friends because it makes no sense for them to fight. They are both fabulous men who love to dance. Their differing dance styles would only complement each other. Also, Layla and Summer Rae. Please give me LayCool Part Two. These friendships have no downsides. If Summer and Layla are friends we don't have to listen to obnoxious commentary about boyfriend stealing and women being cray-cray, while if Adam Rose and Fandango are friends we DO get to listen to JBL and Cole squirm while desperately trying to not expose their homophobia on air.

Should Be More Than Friends

Cesaro and Sheamus. These two had a pretty enjoyable match that was underscored by their obvious relationship potential. I mean, they fight like two guys who either hate each other or are secretly in love. Seriously, there's, like, regular manly aggression and then there is DEEPLY MEANINGFUL manly aggression. This is totally the latter. Watch Cesaro, standing on the apron, gaze down at Sheamus, helpless on the ground, before hauling him back into the ring. Watch Sheamus get fired up the more Cesaro hits him. Yes, you can say that Sheamus always thrives on combat, but I swear there is more going on here. And Cesaro winning with the VERY SAME small package that he complained about Sheamus using? Malicious irony, or symbol of unacknowledged love? YOU BE THE JUDGE. Actually, no. Let me be the judge. It's unacknowledged love. When Sheamus watches Cesaro walk back up the ramp... those are some hungry eyes, yo. This feud is going to end with them getting hammered together in a pub one night, starting a bar fight, and finally realizing and proclaiming their love over the smashed skulls of unfortunate bar patrons.

Friends in Danger of Breaking Up

Jack Swagger and Zeb Colter. Swagger and Big E also had a disappointingly short match. Colter didn't even get any mic time before the match, and then Swagger lost after Zeb went to have words with Lana. Swagger's loss was possibly due to his being distracted by Colter, who was distracting Lana from her own distraction. Apart from being dreadfully confusing, could this mean trouble between Swagger and Colter?

Couldn't Get a Friend if He Tried

Bo Dallas. I mean, obviously. Even though him dancing along to R-Truth's theme was fucking ADORABLE, as was “Green Bay! What's going on?!,” R-Truth refused to do anything but dance inappropriately at him and refuse to extend the hand of friendship. Side note about Bo: I agree with those who say that he needs to be more aggressive during his matches and less of a cowardly weenie? That would make his shtick outside the ring far less adorable and far more subtly menacing, as it should be.

Throughout my years of wrestling fanaticism, I have only focused on the big company up north. The WWE started becoming a part of my life in my tweens, and the show that got me to care was a wonderful monstrosity called Shotgun Saturday Night. Those shows usually featured lower mid-card matches and recaps of what occurred that week on RAW (much like Main Event is now for WWE). It was staying up late at night in my room watching a TV that only got basic channels while my mom assumed that I was asleep that was the highlight of my early years of wrestling watching.

I provide this small anecdote about how my love of this crazy art form began because Ring of Honor recently started showing its hour-long weekly show, ROH TV, here in Portland, OR this year and, it comes on at 1:05 AM Sunday morning. Staying up and watching this show brings me back to those times that I first got into WWE and how I became a fan of that wrestling organization by watching a show that while still good, didn't exactly shed light on its best stories and matches. The biggest difference between my experiences with these shows is that I'm usually a few shots deep when I watch ROH.

TH has been kind enough to give me an opportunity to write about ROH TV for you, the wrestling consumer, and I will do so at the expense of my non-existent social life. As you will see, I am a fan of the unintentional comedy of the cheaper production values (ESPECIALLY the local commercials that they have the wrestlers do with the ROH background) and the brutality of the move sets. I will also present my thoughts in a semi-bulletpointed (is that even a word) format. Let's get into it.

On tonight's episode, ROH went back to their Global Wars event that happened in Toronto, ON on May 10. Since it has a big Pay Per View coming up (Best In The World), this episode was a bit promo heavy but still quite entertaining. We got two matches from the Global Wars card, including Cedric Alexander vs. Roderick Strong and a ROH Championship match between Adam Cole and Kevin Steen. Tonight's promos for their upcoming PPV included one for the Television Championship match between Matt Taven and Jay Lethal and another for a tag match between the Briscoes and Matt Hardy and Mike Bennett.

Alexander vs. Strong
This match began with a recap of why they were battling in the first place, basically coming down to Alexander using a finisher that is very similar to Strong's finisher. Honestly, I've seen dumber reasons for a fight to happen, so no problems here. Of course, the feud escalated when Strong's stable, "The Decade", beat up Alexander and brought up his wife and kid. ROH loves to go that route (see the recent developments in the Cole/Elgin saga), and it's understandable because its effective. As Alexander came spoiling for a fight, not even waiting for the streamers to unfurl. Rather they started mauling each other, and Alexander hit a sick looking suicide dive between the bottom and middle rope.

Later in the match, Alexander hit Strong with a Michinoku Driver and only got a two count. Much like the fisherman's suplex, I HATE that this move is only a two count maneuver. They should always and forever be finishers. Still, it looked damn good, as did the incredibly high superplex that Strong delivered to Alexander.

Toward the end of the match, the two men just began to slap each other in the face until Alexander returned a slap by spitting in Strong's eye. Even if this sequence was booked, it looked very real and was well done. It also led to a blindingly fast sequence of kicks and elbows and punches that were way too fast to keep up with.

The finish to the match involved a counter into a small package for Alexander for the 1-2-3. Alexander "earned the respect of Strong" until "The Decade" came out and beat the hell out of him, finishing with a uranage slam through two set-up chairs. It was a very brutal spot, highlighted by the reactions of Jimmy Jacobs and BJ Whitmer. They each grabbed a chair that was used for the slam, sit in it, and menacingly stare at Alexander in the ring until the refs showed up. It was a very nice visual to end a very good match.

Commercial and Promos
This week's local commercial promo was brought to us by The Briscoes. Their manic delivery only intensified the comedy that is watching them shill for a local Portland furniture store. The Briscoes were green-screened over the wide selection of furniture from "City Liquidtors" while they yell "WHY WOULD YOU SHOP ANYWHERE ELSE?!" Mark Briscoe yelled something at the very end regarding the store and I'm still not sure what exactly he said and that commercial was shown at least five different times. That and their promo regarding their tag match at Best In The World, in which Mark kept yelling "IT'S GON BE VIOLENT" over Jay Briscoe's attempts at stating his intentions for that match, were absolute gold. That team is a horribly intolerant treasure.

There was also a video package regarding Matt Taven and Jay Lethal's match at Best In The World. While both men are serviceable on the mic (Lethal much more so than Taven), the real star of the promo was the man seconding Lethal here, Truth Martini. That guy consistently entertains me, and I love his look. He has to be my favorite indie manager going today (followed by Mister Ooh La La who is a local manager that I worked in a food service place with in college and whose real name is ACTUALLY Mister Ooh La La). I'd love to see what he could do in the WWE.

Adam Cole vs. Kevin Steen
The final match of the night between Adam Cole and Kevin Steen was just as professional and entertaining as you would expect from these two men. Steen, wrestling in his home country, came out with a Canadian flag and got an even larger pop then he would have already received otherwise, while Cole provided his smug look and general assholishness (definitely not a word) to the ring. The two work well together, and the crowd stayed with the match the whole way. The pace was a bit slow as Cole is a methodical wrestler and Steen is a large man, but they brought the ruckus. Steen broke out a brainbuster to the turnbuckle, a Sharpshooter, and a Figure Four. Steve Corino even adds a bit on commentary by stating "Look at that sinister look on Adam Cole... that sexy, sinister look on Adam Cole."

The finish of the match left something to be desired, though.  Michael Bennett ran in to receive a package piledriver from Steen for his troubles. Cole and Steen exchanged moves until another package piledriver is countered into a superkick for a three count. This finish provided my biggest qualm with Cole. He has all the tools at the very young age of 25, but he needs a legitimate finisher. The Florida Keys and a Superkick are not enough to definitively end a match, in my opinion. Once he has a real finisher, then Cole will have it all.

And so ends this episode of ROH TV. You can find me on Twitter @DirtyRasslin.

We all know about the recent releases that have swept through WWE. Some of them make sense. Some make you scratch your head, and some never really had a chance. Whose fault is it: the performer, Creative, all of the above, or none of them? It’s a hard call, because you could make an argument for every single one of them. The usual answer is “getting over;” either you do or you don’t. Getting over will make a lesser wrestler, and failing to do so will break a fantastic in-ring performer. It’s nothing new, you the educated reader understand this well. It’s also been in the news recently.

Two of the newest WWE “stars” have been getting criticized for their gimmicks not getting over, or rather let’s say, not getting over enough. Bo Dallas and Adam Rose both premiered on the main roster a couple of months ago and a few weeks ago respectively, with differing success. Neither really took off like I’m sure the WWE was hoping. It’s only been a short time, but the WWE audience is a fickle beast. I present Fandango as prosecution’s exhibit A. He was wildly over and then, just like David Copperfield, poof. He’s gone, well gone from the heights of beating Chris Jericho at WrestleMania to having Summer Rae and Layla fight over him. Don’t get me wrong, I’d love for two beautiful women fight over me too, but this storyline is more about them than him.

Therein lies the problem and my solution, at least my idea for a solution. Not everyone in the world has the WWE Network yet, including my household. So far, it's only an American release anyway; the rest of the globe won't get it until early next year. Anyways, NXT isn’t seen on the same scale as RAW and Smackdown. Having Adam Rose and Bo Dallas over in NXT is great. Being over anywhere is an achievement in pro wrestling, especially now. The problem I see is whenever a wrestler makes the jump to the main roster, he/she still comes in cold as ice. For most of the people, the average viewer, they have no clue who these people are, except for some vignettes that could hurt their chances if they suck.

So, what’s the answer?  I think it's an annual tournament to promote the next wrestler to the main roster. Tournaments work to push workers in nearly every promotion worldwide. New Japan just finished their Best of the Super Juniors event, now their fan base has been introduced to the next challenger for the Junior Heavyweight Championship, Ricochet. PWG’s Battle of Los Angeles is a good indicator of who is in the plans to challenge the World Champ. ECWA’s Super 8 has helped many careers over the years go from independent to major wrestling success.

These are just a couple of examples and there are many more we could talk about. WWE should promote a tournament of NXT stars on its main programs. The tourney should be between four and eight wrestlers large, and WWE should put its full promotion machine behind it. Let them run the final as the opener on a special event. This way the winner and maybe even the loser could both be given main roster contracts. The winner comes onto RAW/Smackdown with momentum, having already been introduced previously to the audience. Sounds like a solution to me.