The Triple Threat Column 5.24.09: The 141st Edition - TNA's Sacrifice, WWE vs. NBA, Submission PPV's, More

Posted by David Martell on 05.24.2009

Its that time again... This week we preview TNA's Sacrifice. We also talk about the WWE/Denver Nuggets debacle, WWE having a submission PPV and plenty more.

Welcome back to the Triple Threat Column. This week we preview TNA's Sacrifice, we talk about the WWE/Denver Nuggets debacle, a WWE submission PPV, Shawn Michaels possibly returning as late as next year, and Samoa Joe having his own stable. Charlie Haas is our superstar highlight so please enjoy!

Topic # 1 TNA‘s Sacrifice is this Sunday. What are your thoughts on the card?

David Martell: I do not care about this PPV at all. The card isn't very good and the storylines are awful. First off we have Kevin Nash vs. Samoa Joe. Kevin Nash is a shell of what he use to be and it is kind of hard watching him wrestle. He is so slow now. Joe is going to murder him here. I love Kevin Nash, but he should stop wrestling. Daffney vs. Taylor Wilde in a monsters ball match could be interesting and I am hoping Daffney gets the win here. Not to long ago I was watching Daffney wrestle an indy show so I am happy that she is making it once again. Booker T vs. AJ Styles in an I Quit Match could be fun but I am kind of burnt out on this feud. I hope AJ wins here and moves on to someone else. The X-Division Title match is what I am looking forward to the most. I am hoping that this leads to the demasking of Suicide. I never really liked the character but none the less, this should be a good match. Angelina Love vs. Awesome Kong for the Knockouts title should be awful. I have a feeling Love will keep it here although I think that Kong should hold the belt for eternity. This would be a good piss break. Beer Money vs. the British Invasion should be fun and I hope who ever wins this takes the belts off of team 3D. I am sure that's the whole point of this tournament anyways. Glad to see that tag team wrestling is alive in TNA, it is one of the few bright spots TNA has going for it right now. The TNA world title match should be good but I hate the whole story around it. I personally hope Angle gets the title back. In fact, I don't care who wins as long as Foley loses the belt. Overall this PPV looks pretty lame and I definitely don't recommend buying it.

Alex Mattis: PPV madness!!! They just keep coming rapid fire. This doesn't give oneself enough time to prepare for the next one. And this is TNA PPV looks like it would need some serious preparing for. The main event should be some wild and crazy antics but I expect the title to stay in the same place, for better or for worse. Joe will go over Nash in what is a pretty pointless match for Joe. AJ and Booker will go at it again and what should be a solid match should end with AJ holding on the "Legends" title. Against all odd the Beer Money Inc. Vs. British Invasion match should be one of the best on the card. Also due to my intense crush on Daffeney I'm really looking forward to her match with Taylor Wilde. The other matches on the card shouldn't be great but certainly won't be awful. All in all it should be a typical TNA PPV; some solid action but will ultimately leave you scratching your head.

Zach Brown: I am not at all excited about TNA Sacrifice. It has one of the worst builds that TNA has had to a PPV in a long time. For God's sake, Mick Foley wrestled a cardboard cutout of Rocky Balboa this past week on Impact. It was the most horrendous segment I had ever seen. And Kurt Angle putting his "Godfather status" on the line? Who cares? It's just a pointless moniker! The only thing that remotely interests me about this PPV is the fact that this could be Sting's last match in TNA. And if that's the case, Sting is better off, considering the state that TNA is in right now. As for the card itself, it's nothing to write home about. Suicide vs. Daniels will most likely be ridiculous, if it even happens at all. If the match is to happen, I guess Kaz is back to playing Suicide. But at least it looks like Daniels will be dropping Suicide for good, which I like. Nash vs. Samoa Joe should be pretty awful for me because I can't stand Nash in the ring anymore. Angelina Love vs. Awesome Kong could be one of the best matches on the card, but I'm not sure how Love will even stand a chance against Kong. A.J. Styles vs. Booker T could be a sleeper hit of the night if done correctly, but I expect Samoa Joe to cause a DQ since it looks like him and AJ have a feud brewing. Beer Money vs. The British Invasion looks like the best match on the card in my honest opinion. Hopefully they will give this match time because it's very solid. Daffney vs. Taylor Wilde is unpredictable in terms of quality, but hopefully good ‘ol Daffney will make it worthwhile. And lastly, I am not excited for the main event one bit. On paper, this match looks great, but it's just going to be stupid in my opinion. First of all, this match only exists to cloak the fact that Mick can't cut it in the ring anymore. So if he divides the work load between three other guys, he doesn't look nearly as bad. Unfortunately, I think Foley will retain, which is what makes the match a complete joke to me. The match could be a four star match, but I simply don't like it since it's all ex-WWE/WCW guys. But if I had to pick one winner, I'd want Jeff Jarrett to win because it seems like he's one of the only characters in TNA making any sense right now. All in all, Sacrifice is almost a complete no-buy, but people will unfortunately tune in to see if it is indeed Sting's final match. And that shouldn't be why you buy a PPV.

Topic # 2 How do you feel about the WWE/Denver Nuggets debacle?

David Martell: WWE did get a lot of good publicity out of this and Vince is in the right. I think it is stupid how they kicked them out of the Pepsi Center when WWE booked the building almost a year in advanced. The only problem I have with this from the WWE's side is this upcoming RAW. RAW has already been bad the last few weeks and this is just going to make it worse. I mean seriously, does Vince really have to blow this out of proportion? Yeah it sucks and you probably lost some money but you got a lot of good publicity so you should just end it with that. Having a fake Stan Kroenke come out just so Vince can pick fun and beat up the guy is just lame. I should expect these type of things.

Alex Mattis: Classic Vince! It's as simple as that. Say what you will about the guy but Vince can find a way to take something small and fairly common like this and turn it into a big shabang. Stuff like this happens all the time and yeah it sucks but nothing to get all up in arms about, but Vince took this situation and ran with it an scored big time. Now he's got a huge venue to host in, The Staples Center, and has got an ass-ton of publicity out of this and is probably going to keep running with it. I may have my varying opinions on Vince but I give him some props for pulling this whole thing off.

Zach Brown: Ok, so the Denver Nuggets kicked WWE out of the Pepsi Center. That's not cool. Why didn't the Nuggets just move to another stadium? That would have been the respectable thing to do considering that WWE booked the event months ago, and Stan Kroenke definitely didn't book his team for a home game in the playoffs. I expected Vince to sue Stan somehow, but he is actually taking a pretty good route. He's choosing to embarrass Kroenke, and that could be much more damaging to his image and that of the Denver Nuggets. The winner will of course be Vince because not only does he get loads of publicity for this, but WWE will of course win the ratings battle. All in all, it's unfortunate that this happened, but it seems to be working out well for Vince.

Topic # 3 What are your thoughts about WWE having an all submission match PPV?

David Martell: There are pros and cons for this type of PPV. One thing that would be great about this is the fact that wrestlers would start using submission holds. Off the top of my head, I can only name four wrestlers in the WWE that use submission holds on a normal basis: John Cena using the STF (or the best version of it that he can pull off), Edge using the sharp shooter, The Undertaker using "Hell's Gate" and Chris Jericho using the Walls of Jericho. Submissions always bring intensity to matches. Is the guy going to get to the rope or is he going to tap? Most of the time this is fun but having a PPV dedicated to submission matches could be over kill. There are a lot of PPVs that are built around a gimmick match such as Lockdown, Royal Rumble and No Way Out but having matches that are the same type back to back and get old quick. Lockdown has this problem already. If the main event matches were submission matches and nothing else, this could be a lot of fun. That is the only way this idea would work.

Alex Mattis: Seriously? This would literally be the WWE's version of LockDown and people would complain about gimmick over-kill and what not. Especially in this case it would be strange as almost no one in the E focuses on submission wrestling, nor has the E really put over submissions in awhile, probably since Kurt Angle. I mean there is a the STFU and the Wall's of Jericho but it's not like those moves are constantly winning matches and are put over like instant death. So with that being said an all submission PPV right now in the E would be a serious gamble and I have no idea how the audience would react to it or even buy into it. Plus these names for the event that are circling around are brutal would need some serious work.

Zach Brown: I flat out hate this idea. Leave the all-gimmick PPV for TNA. Forcing every match to end in submission is downright stupid. If you want to put more emphasis on submissions, just tell the wrestlers to end more matches by submission! That's how you make submissions mean something. Just simply end more matches like that anyway. Don't build an entire PPV around that type of match finish. Or how about you make the guys that don't use any submissions adopt some sort of submission finisher? That would be a lot better. I mean let's say this show does take place. How would guys like Batista, Randy Orton, Triple H, Jeff Hardy, Kofi Kingston, John Morrison, Rey Mysterio, or Christian even win their matches? How would it even be believable that they stand a chance of winning their match? I mean have any of those guys even concentrated on submissions for any part of their careers? That's a big chunk of the WWE roster, and that's only a handful of the wrestlers that concentrate on high impact finishers and pinfalls. I'd even be willing to bet that a few wrestlers in WWE have never won a single match by submission in the first place. So if this PPV happened, these guys would have to either not compete, lose their matches, adopt some sort of new submission or bust out something they haven't used in a long time. And on the flip side, this PPV would make it completely obvious who will win their matches, such as John Cena and Chris Jericho. It's just a ridiculous concept in my opinion. And I don't care if they come up with a cool name such as "Breaking Point" or "Submission Sunday" or whatever else. A cool sounding name doesn't cover up a stupid concept.

Topic # 4 It is rumored that Shawn Michaels might not return until next year. What do you think about this?

David Martell: Well this sucks. RAW has been awful the past few weeks and to me Shawn Michaels is always fresh. I much rather see Shawn vs. Orton instead of Orton vs. Batista. I wont be selfish though, Shawn is getting older and his kids are growing up. He wants to rest up and spend time with his children and there is nothing wrong with that. As long as he come back to a good feud that ends up giving us a great Mania match, I am happy. The guys is one of the best wrestlers of all time in my book and still one of the best today. Give credit where credit is due.

Alex Mattis: I guess I really haven't been paying really close attention, I haven't really noticed a void where Shawn would go nor has the E drawn attention to the fact that he is gone. I think some time off could be very beneficial to Shawn right now to take some time off, rehab his body and mind and come back in top shape for one last, great run. He has to be nearing the end of his career pretty soon, so after a very serious series of very physical months and matches I think a bit of time off could be good. Not to mention how much the E could hype his return and make bank off of it. All in all this could be a very good thing.

Zach Brown: If you wanted more proof that Raw is in an inescapable hole right now, take the most recent case of Shawn Michaels not coming back for a while. I understand the guy has a family to take care of and he's got his own life outside of wrestling. But knowing the state that Raw is in right now, we need Shawn more than ever. He's been the only face on Raw for the last 9 months that I can even tolerate. Raw is just downright awful right now. It's nowhere near as bad as TNA is, but it's definitely a bad show when you compare it to Smackdown or even ECW. It just sucks because I want Shawn back, and I wouldn't mind him having another run with the title either. When you think about the other main event faces such as Batista, John Cena, HHH, and Big Show, Shawn Michaels seems like a ray of sunshine on a dark and stormy day. For the past few weeks, I've been anxiously waiting for HBK to come back and save Raw from the awful state it's in. And now those dreams are gone; at least for several months. When HBK does come back, I will be ecstatic. But for now, I can only hope that WWE moves some mid-carders up to the main event because things are as stale as ever right now.

Topic # 5 What are your thoughts about Samoa Joes possible Nation of Violence stable?

David Martell: TNA seems to be going stable crazy. Joe has really fallen off the map in the last few months and I just can't stand his gimmick. I heard that his stable would consist of old ECW guys so I don't care about this at all. The more factions we have with old guys who cant stay out of the spot light, the more I stay away from watching TNA. I really do try to give TNA a chance but the show is so terribly put together that it hurts to watch. It is sad to say but I would rather watch RAW in state it is in now instead of watching the current TNA product. This possible new stable means nothing. They will just feud with MEM and that's it. Nothing of true importance will come out of this and frankly I don't care to see what happens.

Alex Mattis: WE ARE THE NATION... Of Violence. Does not have the same ring to it as other nation's have. But seriously this whole Nation of Violence thing wasn't working from the start, so draggin more innocent people into this gimmick that is spiraling downward. I mean a cool, dominant stable in TNA is needed right now and could really work well but Joe's gimmick hasn't really gone caught on yet so I don't know why they would potential make it worse. But then again with TNA right now any change is welcome and could be beneficial.

Zach Brown: I really don't care what Samoa Joe does right now. His character has taken a turn for the worst, and I fear that we may never get the old Joe back. What happened to the Samoan Submission Machine? Now we get this weird jerk with a machete and a curved penis on his face. The only character that Joe ever needed was a guy that killed bitches left and right with his awesome wrestling skills. What we have now is just terrible. And now he gets his own stable? The members of it are just awful. Balls Mahoney, Tazz, Spike Dudley, Stevie Richards, and Bobby Lashley? That's his Nation of Violence? Who thought this was a good idea? Balls Mahoney is a joke, Tazz has no place in TNA, Spike Dudley is also a joke, Stevie Richards isn't over, and Bobby Lashley is still super green. Joke, joke, and double joke. I won't be able to take this stable seriously, plain and simple. Are they supposed to compete with the Main Event Mafia? They simply won't stand a chance if that's the case. The only people in this stable that would seem like any credibly threat in TNA are Joe and Lashley, and they alone can't make a stable worth watching. It's just a terribly assembled team, and it's not worth anyone's time.



Superstar Highlight

Charlie Haas


Our thoughts on Charlie Haas.

David Martell: Charlie Haas is a damn good wrestler and I am glad he is finally getting some attention. His whole gimmick of being everyone's gimmick was funny for a short amount of time but eventually he just looked like a joke. Charlie Haas needs to just stick to wrestling and that's it. I like the fact that he is currently pairing with his former tag partner Shelton. I like it because they are still singles competitors just working together as friends. It also helps out the up and coming tag division that WWE seems to slowly putting together. I hope in due time that Haas gets his chance at the intercontinental title. He deserves it. He has worked hard for the WWE for the past several years and he has kept his spot for the most part, minus the time he actually got the axe. I hope he continues to be showcased on Smackdown.

Alex Mattis: I've always been a fan of in-ring Charlie, never dug him on the mic or as a character. He has always been a great wrestler and always someone who was a pleasure to watch in the ring but anytime he tries to talk or act it makes me cringe. Which leads to the interesting question of "what is his place in the world of professional wrestling?" Well the past showed us that he is perfect in the role of teammate who does not speak. His role in Team Angle and the World's Greatest Tag Team was outstanding and is something they should try to recreate. Charlie knows what it takes to be a great in the ring, but hasn't quite gotten what it takes outside of it. So for the time being I will petition for the WGTT to be put together I think that would be the best spot for Haas right now.

Zach Brown: Man can this guy wrestle. I've always thought that Haas was a great wrestler. But through some combination of not having the right look or WWE not using him correctly, he just hasn't achieved the greatness that he deserves. It's unfortunate that there is even a term called the "Haas Pop," which basically means Charlie gets zero crowd reaction. It's too bad that such a great wrestler gets such a lukewarm response. The World's Greatest Tag Team isn't quite what the name implies for me personally, but it comes pretty damn close in my book. Charlie and Shelton are great together, and even though Shelton gets more opportunity to shine, Haas does a great job as well. The only thing I haven't cared for in Charlie's career was when he did all those impersonations. Sure it was hilarious, and I was entertained each week. But in the long run, it was a waste of a talented wrestler. Save that impersonation crap for someone like Santino. For the guys that can actually do great things in the ring, don't give them stupid stuff like that to do. But that's a minor complaint. Haas is back to what he does best. He shows no ring rust, and he looks better than ever. Take the opening match of Smackdown from two weeks ago. They gave Haas the ball, and he definitely ran with it. He tossed around CM Punk like nobody's business, and it was absolutely impressive. Hopefully, Haas can continue to shine on Smackdown. I'd love to see him get a run as the Intercontinental Champ or the US Champ. All in all, I hope WWE continues to give him more time in the spotlight, because I have faith that Charlie will deliver if given the opportunity.


That is all for this week. Feel free to leave comments at the bottom of the page and have a great week in wrestling.