The Wrestling News Experience: 03.08.10
Posted by Stephen Randle on 03.08.2010
In this Experience, we have previews for Raw and the newly-moved Impact, as the Monday Night Wars begin and we've got all sorts of theories on what might go down. Plus, a legend passes away, a Diva escapes injury, and we talk DVD releases. It's all inside!
Monday, March 8th, 2010
From 411Mania's Canadian offices in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, this is The Wrestling News Experience, with Stephen Randle!
Icky Icky Icky Icky Kapang Zoop Boing
Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Experience. I'm Stephen Randle, and after the last week of work, the only reason I'm still upright…well, sitting upright, anyway…is the knowledge of two things: I get paid tomorrow, and Final Fantasy XIII comes out the next day. Which reminds me, my other 411 obligation, the Games Zone, would like to cordially invite you to Final Fantasy Theme Week this week, in honour of the latest release, where nearly every column will have something FF-related.
The best part of the hockey trade deadline? Watching Brian Burke answer media questions with sarcasm. "Do you think he'll do well at the NHL level?" "No, I think he'll struggle horribly. Next question."
Don't know who won Oscars, don't care. I think I only saw 1 of the nominated Best Pictures this year. Which is actually an increase from most years. Don't you judge me.
Wrestling stuff now? Why don't we?
Tonight's Host: This Was The Most Normal Picture I Could Find
Last week, Bret Hart and Vince McMahon finally agreed to a match between each other at WrestleMania. It's a match twelve years in the making, but will Bret be recovered from his leg injury in time for the big show? In the meantime, Mr. McMahon announced that he would be facing Bret Hart's biggest supporter, John Cena, on Raw tonight. In such an obvious imbalance of talent, does Vince McMahon, or Cena's Mania opponent, Batista, have something up his sleeve?
Plus, after last week's one-on-one confrontation ended in outside interference, this week Randy Orton will try to take out his frustrations on both members of Legacy in a handicap match. Facing the two men he had taken under his wing for so long, has the Legend Killer bitten off more than he can chew?
Meanwhile, as Raw went off the air, Triple H watched his best friend, Shawn Michaels, head off on his own path to WrestleMania and a date with The Undertaker. HHH didn't have long to contemplate his future, however, as he was quickly jumped from behind by the Celtic Warrior Sheamus and left laying. Has Triple H found his opponent for WrestleMania?
And there is one spot left in Money in the Bank, and one would suspect that would be filled tonight. With many potential contenders, who will secure his chance at a guaranteed World title shot any time in the next year?
We're into the final weeks before WrestleMania, and the action is heating up, tonight at 9 pm!
Tonight, TNA makes a permanent move to Monday nights, and they have been promoting the hell out of that fact. In addition, video is making the rounds suggesting that the first five minutes of Impact will be something worth watching.
The only match currently announced for tonight's Impact is a big one, as Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair will both be making their returns to televised in-ring competition, as Hogan will tag with Abyss to face Flair and his partner, the TNA World Champion AJ Styles. With Hogan's Hall of Fame ring providing focus for Abyss, will the monster regain his missing confidence and blaze a path of destruction? Or will the Nature Boy and his protégé be too much for Hogan and his new Hulkamaniac?
Plus, Mr. Anderson has been talking a lot of smack about Olympic gold medallist and American hero Kurt Angle (seriously, Ken Anderson mocking somebody for being injury-prone?), and continues to maintain the upper hand in their feud. Will this week be the week that Angle regains momentum?
Meanwhile, there seems to be dissension between the TNA Tag Team Champions, Matt Morgan and Hernandez, and at the worst possible time, too, as both men must prepare to defend their belts against Beer Money, Inc. at Destination X. Can the champs come together in time, or will they continue to splinter?
And since breaking with the British Invasion, Rob Terry has been on a roll, even defeating his former partner and X Division Champion Doug Williams last Impact. Will the Invasion have more in store for their former compatriot tonight?
And you never know just who might show up in the Impact Zone tonight, as Impact emanates from its new home, tonight starting at 9!
That's right, wrestling fans, it is time. Today, on Monday, March the 8th, 2010, a new challenger emerged from the mists to go up against the incumbent champion. And when the stakes are this high, there's only one way to settle things. Two promotions enter, only one leaves. Welcome to Thunderdome. Welcome to…
Yes, and as mentioned, TNA has been crowing that the first five minutes of tonight's show will be must-watch television. I wonder if they've taken into account places like, say, Canada, which airs Raw fifteen minutes later and can watch those first five minutes without missing Raw? Probably not. One would also hope that they had some good stuff planned for the other 115 minutes, as well.
Speaking of which, the Immortal One, Hulk Hogan, was on the radio and seemed to suggest that Jeff Hardy would be coming to Impact tonight. In addition, Hogan indicated that Mr. One Shot Deal himself, RVD, might be in attendance. Of course, he did so by doing RVD's famous "thumbs" pose, which would have made more sense if he hadn't been, you know, on the radio. "Homer, Mr. Burns can't see you winking."
Dixie Carter was also doing promotion for the show, and revealed that Sting, last seen in the rafters again, has re-upped with TNA and will be appearing tonight. Oh, I do hope he appears in the ring and points at someone with a black baseball bat. That never gets old.
And surprisingly, morale backstage at TNA was reportedly low following Thursday's airing of Impact, which did not exactly draw a strong rating, and in fact decreased as the show went on, dropping below a 1.0 before the end. I suppose it could be worse, they could have been kidnapped mysteriously, with the commentary team still unsure if anyone's actually looking for them.
In sad news, legendary promoter Angelo Poffo passed away this past week at the age of 84. Poffo was known for running International Championship Wrestling out of Kentucky during the territory days, and is perhaps most famous for his progeny: Leaping Lanny Poffo and, of course, Randy "Macho Man" Savage. The thoughts and prayers of everyone here at the Experience are with the family and friends of Angelo Poffo.
It's funny, during last week's Raw, Lansdell and I were discussing the fact that at least nobody could possibly get hurt during a Pillow Fight match (which reminds me, what happened to the Raw Divas being all about putting on quality matches?), which would be a plus when dealing with many of WWE's Divas and their alleged ability to wrestle. Then news surfaced that Gail Kim may have been injured during the match, which put our clever words to the lie. Eventually, however, Gail Kim posted on her blog that she was not, in fact, injured, and is perfectly healthy and ready to go tonight. So, this isn't really so much a story as an anecdote about what I do when I'm attempting to watch Diva matches on Raw. Or, rather, attempting not to watch them.
And WWE has announced that they will be putting out another Undertaker DVD, titled "Undertaker's Most Dangerous Matches". In case anyone was keeping track, that would make seven DVDs specifically related to the Undertaker, and zero for current World Heavyweight Champion Chris Jericho. At this rate, we'll see the complete history of the Abraham Washington show before Y2J gets his career DVD due.
Meanwhile, the Hart Family DVD set is about to be released as well, containing one of the greatest matches to take place on Canadian soil, the ten-man Canadian Stampede match, as well as a previously unreleased classic match featuring Owen and Bret Hart against the pre-Poppa Pump Steiner Brothers, which I believe took place somewhere between Survivor Series 1993 and the Owen kicking Bret's leg out from under his leg at the 1994 Rumble. I'm told this match by itself is worth the purchase, but it's not like I needed a lot of convincing.
Inactive List as of 03.01.10
WWE Raw
- Melina, out indefinitely as of January 4th (torn ACL)
WWE SmackDown
- Jim Ross, out until March 2010 as of October 20th (Bell's Palsy)
TNA
- Roxxi, out indefinitely as of December 21st (broken ankle)
Transactions
- Awesome Kong, TNA, may or may not have been released from her contract, who even knows anymore
- Ezekial Jackson, ECW, moved to Smackdown
- Roxxi, TNA, released from her contract
Maybe third time's the charm?
- Sean Morley, TNA, released from his contract
So, apparently working in Mexico is preferable to making the move to Monday nights. Oh yeah, they'll be fine. Good thing he got a win over Jeff Jarrett on the way out.
- Sting, TNA, re-signed with TNA for another year
Let the countdown to the next Sting "retirement" match begin again!
- Traci Brooks, TNA, released from her contract
- Zach Ryder, ECW, moved to Raw
Probably not a good sign for your future when your first match back is a ten-second squash against MVP
WWE
WWE Champion: Batista
- 15 day reign, defeated John Cena on February 21st (Elimination Chamber PPV)
- Next title defense: vs John Cena, WrestleMania XXVI
Top 5 Contenders
1. John Cena
2. Sheamus
3. Triple H
4. Randy Orton
5. The Miz - Technically, he's on a pretty impressive win streak
World Heavyweight Champion: Chris Jericho
- 15 day reign, defeated former champion The Undertaker, CM Punk, R-Truth, John Morrison, and Rey Mysterio in an Elimination Chamber Match on February 21st (Elimination Chamber PPV)
- Next title defense: vs Edge, WrestleMania XXVI
Top 5 Contenders
1. Edge
2. The Undertaker
3. Rey Mysterio
4. John Morrison
5. CM Punk
WWE Intercontinental Champion: Drew McIntyre
- 85 day reign, defeated John Morrison on December 13th (TLC PPV)
Top 5 Contenders
1. Kane
2. R-Truth
3. John Morrison
4. Matt Hardy - Gains a non-title win over the now twice-defeated champion
5. Shelton Benjamin
WWE United States Champion: The Miz
- 155 day reign, defeated Kofi Kingston on October 5th (Raw)
Top 5 Contenders
1. Daniel Bryan - The day where Bryan slaps Miz back is approaching…
2. Kofi Kingston - Relegated to Superstars, hopefully he'll make it into MITB
3. Mark Henry
4. Ted DiBiase
5. Cody Rhodes
WWE Undisputed Tag Team Champions: ShowMiz
- 28 day reign, defeated former champions D-Generation X and The Straight Edge Society in a Triple Threat Elimination Tag Match on February 8th (Raw)
- Next title defense: vs John Morrison and R-Truth, WrestleMania XXVI
Top 3 Contenders
1. John Morrison and R-Truth
2. The Hart Dynasty
3. Straight Edge Society
WWE Women's Champion: Michelle McCool
- 10 day reign, defeated Mickie James on February 26th (Smackdown)
Top 3 Contenders
1. Beth Phoenix
2. Mickie James
3. Natalya
Divas Champion: Maryse
- 14 day reign, defeated Gail Kim on February 22nd (Raw) to win the vacant title
1. Gail Kim
2. Eve Torres
3. Alicia Fox
TNA
TNA Heavyweight Champion: AJ Styles
- 169 day reign, defeated former champion Kurt Angle, Matt Morgan, Hernandez, and Sting in a Five-Way Match on September 20th (No Surrender PPV)
Top 5 Contenders
1. Abyss
2. Kurt Angle
3. Mr. Anderson
4. The Pope - Did the clean job last Thursday. Given the interference that followed, was that necessary?
5. Desmond Wolfe
TNA Tag Team Champions: Hernandez and Matt Morgan
- 57 day reign, defeated The British Invasion on January 17th (Genesis PPV)
- Next title defense: vs Beer Money, Inc., Destination X PPV
Top 3 Contenders
1. Beer Money, Inc.
2. Team 3D
3. Generation Me
TNA X-Division Champion: Doug Williams
- 39 day reign, defeated Amazing Red on January 28th (Impact)
Top 3 Contenders
1. Kazarian
2. Rob Terry - Hey, he squashed the champ in a minute. Shame it's a cruiser belt now
3. Amazing Red
TNA Knockouts Champion: Tara
- 57 day reign, defeated ODB in a 2/3 Falls Match on January 17th (Genesis PPV)
Top 3 Contenders
1. Daffney
2. Angelina Love
3. Hamada
TNA Knockouts Tag Team Champions: Awesome Kong and Hamada
- 63 day reign, defeated Taylor Wilde and Sarita on January 4th (Impact)
TNA Global Champion: Rob Terry
- 40 day reign, defeated Eric Young on January 27th (UK house show)
411 will have live coverage of Raw tonight starting at 9 pm EST.
From our promotional department, I've been informed that if you really do like 411Mania and all it provides, or even just me (and really, who doesn't like me), don't forget to bookmark the site in your browser or make 411 your homepage, and tell all your friends about how awesome 411 is.
And don't forget, you can follow all the everyday goings on in 411 on Twitter.
That's our show, Small is in tomorrow, I'll be back next week, and don't forget to look for me this Tuesday in the Games Zone for a Final Fantasy Theme Week edition of Four Player Co-op.
Here it is, your Moment of Buddy.
Buddy Is Funnier Than Kayfabesbook, And With 1/10 The Effort Required
Posted By: EXCLUSIVE (Guest) on March 08, 2010 at 12:57 AM
Like the rest of the world, I will be watching RAW live, and then will watch iMPACT (no flipping back and forth) afterwards.
Much easier that way, no fuss about missing anything with changing between shows and I imagine I will fast forward through TNA's trash, more than I would WWE's.
Posted By: Kimmy Gibler (Guest) on March 08, 2010 at 01:04 AM
I don't like how they jobbed Ryder to MVP like that. MVP is a big ball of lame.
Posted By: joe (Guest) on March 08, 2010 at 01:06 AM
The cat lies!
Posted By: Guest#6156 (Guest) on March 08, 2010 at 01:31 AM
"4. The Pope - Did the clean job last Thursday. Given the interference that followed, was that necessary?"
Hardly a clean loss - after all, he went into the match with an "injured leg" and "against doctor's orders" which, as I vaguely recall, was exactly the reason for his loss.
Posted By: The Ogre (Guest) on March 08, 2010 at 02:26 AM
give us kayfabesbook bitch!
Posted By: Guest#4433 (Guest) on March 08, 2010 at 02:52 AM
Kofi Kingston - Relegated to Superstars, hopefully he'll make it into MITB
thanks to orton.
Posted By: Guest#9570 (Guest) on March 08, 2010 at 04:33 AM
Hey. Cheers for this dude. Well laid out and to the point.
Dazza
Posted By: Darryl Jones (Guest) on March 08, 2010 at 09:07 AM
To be fair, Jericho did get a VHS tape already, but he does need a DVD
Posted By: Matthew M (Guest) on March 08, 2010 at 10:06 AM
Unless it is a gold medal hockey match WITHIN Canadian boundires I thought everything started 15 minutes later up there? even if it is 'live'.
But tonight should be interesting.
I like the fact that TNA is perhaps unscripted and they are going to play it off the cuff. Or they think that having one announced match and a bunch of innuendo is enough to get people to tune in and be interested.
Bottomline for now (before MNF starts again) Mondays are wrestling nights. So regardless of what the smarks on here want to type or all the lame coments from WWE and/or TNA fanboys all sides will be flipping back and forth and watching both shows. TNA has nothing to lose. Especially since their ratings on Thursdays had been dropping. I was sure Bish would cite American Idol for the reason there. Which would probably be semi valid.
But now the excuses are over. While you don't have a 'captive' audience you d have the cross over effect. The secret being to get enough of those box holders to tune into your show enough times and for a long enough duration to actually register. Which I am sure they will.
If TNA can do it now, right before WM, then I am sure once WWE stops caring even a little bit, TNA will be fine. I mean WWE is gearing up for WM and they are barely watchable now.
The next step for TNA is to get a legit wrestling show on another night, obviously Thursday again would make some sense, but they may not have the money for two shows right now. They certainly have the roster for it. or they might try to squeeze a 3 hour show thereby getting at least an extra hour and also getting an uncontested hour. But someone somewhere with a marketing degrees thinks that 3 hours is more time than most will sit and watch a single show.
But ultimately I am not sure if ratings are the end all be all. I think as long as they make a profit and more than they have in the past then ratings might be secondary. And I am not sure just how much ratings effect that profit. Because even with RAW, more than half their commercials are either WWE owned products/movies/shows, or direct sponsors of them already, or previews for shows that run on that station (psych, Burn Notice, In Plain Sight etc). So they prob get a tax write off for their own advertisements and sponsors get a reduced rate. So the WWEs independant advertisers (who pay more for better rated shows) are pretty slim. But since most peopel DVR stuff these days advertising gets adjusted even more, that is why I think TNA will just be happy in seeing an increase in profits anywhere they can get them. Which may or may not come down to PPVs eventually.
I just know TNa has better talent, they just have to get them out there in te right situations.
Posted By: Rich (Guest) on March 08, 2010 at 10:49 AM
no reason to watch wwe its been the same show for about the past 5 years now.ill be watching TNA!!
Posted By: uglyhead (Guest) on March 08, 2010 at 11:14 AM
OK seriously Kayfabesbook is the main reason I click on this column. The rest of the column is just hype for tonights show.
Posted By: stronelis (Guest) on March 08, 2010 at 11:41 AM
Hardly a clean loss - after all, he went into the match with an "injured leg" and "against doctor's orders" which, as I vaguely recall, was exactly the reason for his loss.
Posted By: The Ogre (Guest) on March 08, 2010 at 02:26 AM
________________________________________
Well, to further elaborate on your point, Ogre, the exact reason for his loss was that he:
1) Went into the match with an injured ankle
2) ...'Against doctor's orders'
Oh, and...
3) Flair repeatedly smashed his ankle with a chair.
4) ...that was then capitalised on by AJ putting Pope into a prolonged Figure Four, eventually proving too much for Pope, 'cleanly losing' due to the ref's judgment.
Randle, as I said last time, don't attack it until you've actually seen the fucking show. You just end up, as shown once again here, looking like a resentful, petty moron.
Had you seen the show, you'd realise that Pope started the match hobbling, participated, in Kayfabe terms, *valiantly* throughout, only to lose to the heel antics of Flair and AJ capitalising on the injury that was put over constantly by Tenay, Taz and Dinero himself.
There was nothing unnecessary about it.
What would have been unnecessary would be to have him NOT built up as a credible threat for the duration of the match even when injured; to NOT be the guy who has to be repeatedly hit with a chair to the ankle to succumb to defeat; to NOT be the guy forced into the figure-four leglock who bravely tries to fight the pain for an extended amount of time before the ref concedes defeat on his behalf; or to NOT be involved in the finishing sequence whatsoever.
But he *was* built as a credible threat, he *did* put up a fight despite his injury, he *tried* to fight the pain of the figure four after numerous chair shots to the leg, and his story *was* the focal point of the match.
Had you watched it, you'd have realised the writers did a great job of putting Pope over despite the 'clean loss'. That kind of match booking on Smackdown, say with John Morrison, would have been lauded for how well they made him seem heroic in defeat.
But it happened on Impact, a tree fell in the woods, so all we hear are snide little remarks such as 'was that necessary?'
Seriously, this site needs some fucking sensible writers who don't ascribe to inane fanboy associations. Christ, just having writers who watch the damn shows before commenting on them would be a start!
If you don't want to watch the show, if your time is too valuable (taking pictures of cats just eats away those hours!), then cool, you don't have to watch. But officially recognise this as the WWE fanboy column it is, and stop making baseless, unsubstantiated, ultimately ignorant, attacks on TNA. You only serve to popularise such inanity.
Posted By: Chungles (Guest) on March 08, 2010 at 12:14 PM
OK seriously Kayfabesbook is the main reason I click on this column. The rest of the column is just hype for tonights show.
Posted By: stronelis (Guest) on March 08, 2010 at 11:41 AM
Uh, Randle doesn't do Kayfabesbook. That's Meehan.
Posted By: Mr C (Guest) on March 08, 2010 at 01:06 PM
Let's see....5 minutes:
1 min on the usual video package of them self glossing all of the steps they made for the past 8 years.
1 min on the actual new intro, pyro, & welcoming to this historical edition of Monday Night Impact
1 min flashing back to what happened last week
30 seconds showing Hardy's ferrari pull up w/either helms or other dork
30 seconds showing Hogans limo pulling up
15 seconds panning to Sting in rafters
30 second intro for Flair & AJ
15 seconds for him to throw his WWE HoF Ring into the trash can ala Medusa/Alundra Blaze on 1st episode of Nitro with WWF Womens belt.
Got it, epic 5 minutes.
Both shows are DVR'd, so in 2010 I don't think there's going to be a lot of channel flipping. That will happen in Sept when MNF is back
Posted By: Byzdalmyt (Guest) on March 08, 2010 at 01:38 PM
What is it about today's television market anymore that the key to successful acting is how much of an asshole you can be on reality TV. Hell, Miz got his start that way!!
I can be an asshole... Just show up!!
Now THAT'S real entertainment!
Posted By: Ben (Guest) on March 08, 2010 at 02:59 PM
WWE did do a Y2J DVD before, it was the lowest selling WWE DVD in history, that's why they didn't do another one.
Posted By: Guest#3704 (Guest) on March 08, 2010 at 04:29 PM
The Harts-Steiner match has been released on vhs. The tape is Wrestlefest 93. It is one of my favorite matches of all time.
Posted By: socalstrongstyle (Guest) on March 08, 2010 at 05:39 PM
this isn't a permanent move to monday night, they will be back on thursday by end of the year
Posted By: trapbowski (Guest) on March 08, 2010 at 08:22 PM
wasn't Jericho's dvd/vhs called break the walls down or something? i think it sold 5 copies ten years ago. Who cares about thes "suprises" that impact will have? I mean they already have revealed them so how are the suprises? TNA really knows how to overstaff their roster with junkies and has beens.RVD hasn't been relevent in about 5 or 6 years and Hardy will never even have a match in TNA again.Oh well at least they have a main event with two guys that can barely move,one guy that has a magical ring and let's not forget the AJ the ONLY one with any talent in the match.I bet we will get 3D vs the nasties again and sting will come down from the rafters to point his little black bat at hogan,I tell ya that's MUST see tv.Let's not forget more Mick Foley "how to be a gentlemen" segments.Not to mention the EY and Nash promo,hmm I wonder if desmond wolfe will actually win a match tonight or be on the show at all? How about beer money? I doubt it.The show will be filled of obvious "suprises",lousy promos,even worse 3 minute matches,and feeble attempts at swerves.At least TNA will be dead and gone soon enough,we all know they are on the right track.
Posted By: TNARIP (Guest) on March 08, 2010 at 08:37 PM
Randle, ignore chungles. I really don't think he knows any better. It just isn't a Monday without my moment of Buddy! That may just be the best picture yet.
Posted By: Buddy > Chungles (Guest) on March 08, 2010 at 11:26 PM
Copyright � 2011 411mania.com, LLC. All rights reserved.
Click here for our privacy policy. Please help us serve you better, fill out our survey.
Use of this site signifies your agreement to our terms of use.
