The Wrestling Sandwich 08.27.11

Ah, the summer of discontent was never on display like last week when everybody began absolutely raging over the things that were said in the column. Now, perhaps we can understand each other: The reason I purposely interjected politics and such into the column was payback for the petitions and other garbage you tried to put me through. So, perhaps we can settle into a more civilized routine? As a token of good faith, I’ll be keeping politics out of this column outside of the answer to one or two questions in the Good/Bad/WTF section and those will be at the start of “The Bad” so you don’t have to read if you don’t wish to. If we end up with more bad behavior I might have to bring it back, although truth be told I really don’t want to. So now that I consider us all even, let us go on to our normal routine.

By the way, I do apologize about the ROH spoiler last week. I don’t watch ROH and I did not know it aired after the column was published, so I’d like to apologize to anybody who got the news too early. I’ll make sure to keep all the spoilers under wraps from now on. Of course, I won’t apologize to anybody who said they aren’t reading the column anymore since I’ll just see you again this week saying the same thing.

Top Stories of the Week!

1. Did You Know…SmackDown WASN’T The Most Watched Cable Show On Friday?

Like any good investigative journalist I did a little research into the claim on RAW that SmackDown was the most viewed show on cable. What I found was actually pretty disgusting and shows how low the marketing “wizards” will go.

The most watched cable show on Friday night was Wizards of Waverly Place on Disney, with 3.6 million viewers, which just so happens to air at 8 PM! Also, American Dad scored a slightly higher 18-49 audience than SmackDown and was a REPEAT which is just plain sad. Don’t take my word for it, check the page at TVByTheNumbers right Here and you’ll see for yourself.

Perhaps the WWE should just not air those ridiculous Did You Know? segments anymore because nobody cares and worse, they are untruthful.

2. Matt Hardy Will…NOT…BE…SANE!

You know, I called this situation many years ago. I said that Matt was a boring, uncharismatic nobody without his brother and yet fanboys went nuts when he came to the ring as Matt Hardy V1. As he’s fallen year after year and his problems increased, finally people began to see what I did years earlier and began asking why the hell he was hired in the first place. After pulling massively unusual behavior in WWE including filming Rey Mysterio unmasked and begging to get fired, Matt was granted his release and went to TNA. It only took eight months for TNA to can him after he was late to the shows, tazed his girlfriend on a video he posted online, and generally was involved with some bizarre behavior and videos again. His girlfriend Reby Sky tweeted that she was getting tired of enablers, and that she was the only thing keeping Matt alive right now. Shortly after that, Matt was sent to the emergency room after a fall in his home that is quite unusual considering Matt isn’t an 80-year-old invalid.

The decline of Matt Hardy’s stock has not come as a surprise to me but a lot of people seemed shocked that anything like this could happen to somebody. Fame does weird things to people, making them forget who they were before the cameras and spotlights. As far as Matt goes, he really has nobody to blame but himself. Asking to get fired, disobeying orders, showing up to events late, and possibly “enabling” his brother is unprofessional and immoral to the highest degree. Frankly, I’d be surprised if even some of the top indy promotions would book him at this point in his life. Matt, if you are reading this, please go get the help you need before something really terrible happens to you that can’t be fixed with a firing or a hospital visit. Seriously, don’t be a statistic.

3. WWE House Show Circuit Doing Poorly

WWE has been having some serious problems filling out house shows in Missouri, as evidenced when they cancelled the August 29th show at the Civic Arena for the THIRD time. One reason why?

“According to the Civic Arena, “All purchased tickets are available for refund at point of purchase. Please call 816-271-4717 for further questions.” This is the third time the WWE has cancelled in that market. Normally this means the advance was poor.”

I thought WWE was on a huge roll right now according to all the ETards? Well, this isn’t the first house show they have cancelled. Two more SmackDown shows were cancelled: Monday, October 10th in Tyler, Texas and Monday, December 5th in Albany, Georgia. The Tyler show has been postponed while the other simply isn’t listed any longer. In Kamloops, Canada the Sunday August 21st show was cancelled late last week following a cancellation there of a RAW house show as well. Anybody with a brain and an open mind can figure out something is going on and it isn’t good for the WWE.

Most people probably won’t even mention all these cancelled shows because they have an agenda to push involving WWE and as I’m fond of pointing out, here at the Sandwich WWE is given the same scrutiny as any other company and no free passes are issued to them. Obviously the economy is bad, but this is a brand new trend of multiple shows for both brands in two countries! Somebody should probably see if the issue was poor advances there as well or if something else was going on if they want to really report what’s going on with the WWE.

4. Ratings Roundup

It is that time again! So, let’s take a look at the week in review and keep in mind SmackDown and Impact ratings are from the week earlier and not the last two days.

1. WWE RAW, 2.97 with 4.6 million viewers
2. WWE SmackDown, 1.86 with 2.9 million viewers
3. TNA Impact, 1.05 with 1.4 million viewers

All the shows saw a decline this past week although the really scary one was the drop in RAW’s rating this week. Now, since they did NOT receive a 3.0 and it was rounded up to look better in some reports, I’ll give you the hourly ratings and you can average it for yourself: 2.93 and 3.01. The worst part is that the show only rose .08 after the announcement of Punk vs. Cena III, which shows as I’ve said all along it isn’t drawing. Alberto Del Rio will likely shoulder some of the blame since he is the champion as well. In other ratings news SmackDown fell short of 3 million viewers and showed a slight improvement from last week, while TNA Impact dropped .02 from the last week’s edition. Impact obviously lost the least viewers despite being up against Jersey Shore and NFL pre-season football, and RAW doesn’t get that excuse because they have been on the air for 18 years against NFL football games. Traditionally, starting with the first actual season game on Mondays RAW begins a several month slump and if 2.97 is the pre-slump rating I’d not be very pleased if I was in the USA corporate office.

UK Ratings

UK Ratings were unavailable at the time of this filing but an announcement was made on Impact thanking the UK fans for giving TNA their highest ratings yet in the UK and Ireland. Obviously as soon as some figures come in, we’ll update the section for next week. Good news for TNA and obviously not so good for WWE, but then again WWE is on a pay channel and blah blah blah, insert excuse here.

Australian Ratings

METRO REGIONAL

#30 – WWE RAW, 76,000 viewers

METRO AVERAGE

#60 – WWE RAW, 29,000 viewers
#80 – WWE SmackDown, 24,000 viewers

And you thought the US ratings were bad!

RAW was defeated in the Regionals this week by a Simpsons rerun, Dora the Explorer, and a NRL Pre-Game Show. SmackDown was beaten in the average ratings by Tough Nuts: Australia’s Hardest Criminals, a live golf game, a live cricket game, and Autopsy. Yes, more people watched a show about criminal investigation autopsies than Smackdown down under. So much for a global phenomenon.

WWE Money In The Bank buyrate is reported to be 265,000, which is up exactly 100,000 from last year’s debut show. Obviously this is a good number although also of note this was the first time wrestling fans had a break from the overactive PPV schedule. In April, fans had WrestleMania, which had a higher PPV price tag. In May, there were two PPV’s within weeks of each other followed by Capitol Punishment. In July, fans have had time to actually sit back and make some money to spend which explains why the buyrate is higher than the last three events. Whether or not the trend will continue with SummerSlam we will find out next month.

5. TNA Bound For Glory Standings

Here’s the latest standings following TNA Impact:

1. Crimson 50 pts – POSSIBLY INJURED BY ANGRY SAMOAN
2. Bully Ray 49 pts
3. Bobby Roode 42 pts
4. James Storm 40 pts
5. Gunner 35 pts
5. RVD 35 pts
6. Devon 30 pts – *INJURED BY ANGRY SAMOAN*
7. AJ Styles 24 pts
8. Scott Steiner 21 pts
9. The Pope 17 pts – POSSIBLY INJURED BY ANGRY SAMOAN
10. Samoa Joe -10 pts
Matt Morgan *INJURED* – 24 pts

Oh wow, Joe had his biggest Impact on the BFGS so far when he took out three guys in the course of two weeks. Thanks to the attacks by Joe, it appears that Crimson, Devon, and the Pope are out of the competition due to Joe’s assaults. Crimson, if he is able, will top the series at #1 next week. Bully Ray takes a big victory in the six-man falls count anywhere match to take 49 points and the #2 slot. Bobby Roode slides in #3, while his partner Storm is in at #4 and two less points. Gunner and RVD share #5, and Devon seems to be on the disabled list. AJ Styles remains at #7, Steiner at #8, and Pope with #9 has apparently also been injured. Joe, however, has done nothing in the series matches except get disqualified and remains in last place with negative ten. Morgan, of course, was injured early in the series.

Outlook: Joe is on the warpath and with one more week to go in the Series, we’re in big trouble. At this point in time, your top four seem to be Crimson, Bully Ray, and Beer Money but after Joe attacks and several more matches anything could change. Right now it might be more like Bully Ray, Beer Money, and Gunner in the series although RVD is not out of it yet, but one more disqualification and he’s finished. AJ Styles would need a big victory or an injury to one of the top guys to take one of the four slots. Next week we’ll be determining our finals so stay tuned everybody!

6. TNA Impact Quick Recap

1. Velvet Sky, ODB, and Jackie defeated Sarita, Rosita, and Angelina Love when Sky pinned Love after a double team by ODB and Jackie. **
2. X-Division Match: Kid Kash defeated Jesse Sorenson with a roll-up with the tights pulled. **1/4
3. Bound For Glory Series match: RVD submitted The Pope with a Mexican Surfboard **1/2
4. Bound For Glory Series match with falls counting anywhere, only the winner receives points: Bully Ray, Gunner, and Scott Steiner defeated AJ Styles and Beer Money when Bully pinned AJ after a Bubba Bomb. ***
5. Crimson defeated Kurt Angle via Samoa Joe interference leading to a DQ. ***

Best Booking Decision of the Night: Crimson’s streak remains intact.

Worst Booking Decision of the Night: AJ Styles takes yet another fall to Bully Ray

Sting has gotten under the skin of Ric Flair with his crazy antics and now, Flair is set for battle with Sting’s career and a shot at Hulk Hogan both on the line at No Surrender. Should Sting take the victory, Hogan MUST wrestle Sting at Bound For Glory. If Flair wins, Sting must retire from TNA. Obviously this is leading towards the Hogan turn with Flair several times shoving Hogan during the confrontation and disobeying his orders not to talk to Sting.

Eric Young pinned Scott Baio to remain the television champion of the universe, just so you know. I actually was hoping there would be a couple extra moments in the segment since it was teased for three or four weeks but ah well.

Mr. Anderson returned and assaulted Immortal, leaving Gunner and Steiner beaten and unconscious. Bully Ray ran away before he could be attacked, but man that guy is just making friends everywhere!

Solid show tonight, some good angle advancement and I’m looking forward to next week!

7. MVP Is Not A Sports Entertainer

When asked recently about his exit from WWE, MVP had this to say:

“I just saw some things coming that just didn’t feel right; it started to feel like a job, I felt like I was coming to work. I respect Vince’s vision, but it just wasn’t what I wanted. I didn’t want to be a television soap-opera superstar, I wanted to be a professional wrestler. I always wanted to wrestle in Japan, it was always a dream of mine, and I just wasn’t happy.”

Obviously things have gone well for MVP since leaving the WWE as he’s become quite the hot topic in Japan and the very first IWGP Intercontinental Champion. As my favorite promotion loves to say, wrestling matters!

Smartest Thing of the Week: TNA Releases Matt Hardy After Incoherent Rambling And Arrest

It took the WWE around fourteen years to realize Matt Hardy was not worth employing on his own. It took TNA only eight months to figure out the exact same thing.

Matt Hardy lit up the dirt sheets when it was revealed he was arrested for suspicion of DUI that may or may not include drugs other than alcohol. He was already on thin ice with TNA for showing up late to several shows as he did in WWE, and also his infamous video in which he tazed Reby Sky. Why the hell she’d allow him to do that, or even date a loser like that, is of course beyond me. TNA suspended Hardy and now Matt goes and gets himself fired after his little joyride gone wrong which proves once again that for all the heat they get, TNA will fire somebody if they screw their life up. They gave up a Hardy reunion at Bound For Glory that would likely have gotten some attention and ratings but guess what? They chose to release a problematic wrestler instead of keeping him employed. Hopefully, TNA will continue the common sense and toss Jeff out the door next until he straightens himself out.

Dumbest Thing of the Week: TNA Brings Back Jeff Hardy

I call it like I see it and quite honestly, firing Matt for his problems while bringing back Jeff is just the dumbest thing they could have done when handling these two idiots. Jeff has shown he is no professional, he’s a drug addict, and he refuses to control himself and his vices as evidenced at Victory Road. I take great exception to somebody like Jeff getting a spot on the roster when more talented and much more deserving wrestlers are waiting desperately to get called into the big time where they can make a name for themselves but somebody like this burnt out addict gets eight million chances. This happened in WWE, and it is happening in TNA, and I don’t like it one single bit. Come on guys, send the moron home with his brother so they can eat grapes and post wacky YouTube videos on their own dime. And feeding Matt must involve many a dime!

OLD SCHOOL WRESTLER OF THE WEEK

Owen Hart

Did you know Owen Hart actually was the WWF Champion for a brief moment in time? Read on and you’ll find that out along with several other little known facts about Owen.

Owen Hart originally had no plans to be a professional wrestler, and actually was more interested in the amateur style than professional, and he actually met his wife Martha in high school while competing in the amateurs. Owen wasn’t able to find the success he wanted with other jobs, and reluctantly entered his father’s promotion of Stampede Wrestling in 1986. Owen would hone his skills and team with a man named Ben Bassarab to win the Stampede International Tag Team Championship, and would perform so well he won the PWI Rookie of the Year award in 1987. Owen visited NJPW in 1987, and competed against Jushin “Thunder” Liger both with and without his mask, as well as capturing the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title, which was no small feat since he had to defeat Hiroshi Hase. Stampede and the WWF had a good working relationship, and after noticing Owen’s performance Vince gave him a chance in the big leagues.

Hart entered the company originally with a different gimmick, namely the Blue Angel. Yes, you read that correctly. In August 1988 he competed for the first time as The Blue Angel in the Los Angeles Sports Arena simply with a mask on. The character of the Blue Blazer was crafted for Owen so that he was not identified as Bret Hart’s younger brother, giving him a chance to make it on his own. Owen really didn’t have very much luck at first as he was eliminated in the first Survivor Series he took part in and beaten by Mr. Perfect at WrestleMania V. It was at this point that Owen would leave to resume touring around the world.

The first stop was back in Canada to work for Stampede once again until it closed down in December 1989. He would tour Japan and also Mexico, where he lost his mask to El Canek and therefore ended the Blue Blazer gimmick. Owen would enter WCW in 1991, primarily tagging with Ricky Morton and competing on various programs although he never did much of any value while working there. Since Owen was not officially signed to a full time deal, he returned back to the WWF as Owen did not want to move to Atlanta where the company was located. The first thing that was done was putting former Hart Foundation member Jim “The Anvil” Neidhart with Owen Hart as The New Foundation shortly after the Hart Foundation split up.

The New Foundation wasn’t exactly a rousing success as their first feud was with the Beverly Brothers and they had only one PPV match, beating the Orient Express at Royal Rumble 1992. Neidhart would take off and Owen became a singles wrestler, engaged in a short feud with Skinner before moving on to the next tag team of his career, known of course as High Energy with Koko B. Ware. And this is the part where I have to point out that Koko is a Hall of Famer and Owen still hasn’t been put in the Hall of Fame, which is just absolute bullshit.

The team did about as well as anything else Koko did since they had one single PPV match as well and lost to the Headshrinkers at Survivor Series in the same year. Starting in early 1993, Owen went on to start his singles career and helped Bret out with his feud against Jerry Lawler in the USWA. Owen took the USWA title from Papa Shango, but suffered a knee injury in the summer of 1993 and had to take time off from the feud. He returned in the fall of the same year, and the seeds of discontent were sown when Owen accidentally bumped into Bret during the Knights vs. Harts Survivor Series match and argued after the match with him. His mother began crying and Owen walked out to a series of boos.

On the next night, Owen sported the pink and black and sunglasses look like Bret and also began using the Sharpshooter submission. Owen challenged Bret to a match but Bret declined, saying he never wanted to fight his brother. Owen and Bret then were claimed to have “made peace” during the holiday season as they entered 1994, and took on the Quebecers for the tag team championship at the Royal Rumble. Unfortunately, because of Bret’s knee injury he would sustain in the match as part of the storyline, the ref stopped the match, which angered Owen and led to a confrontation. Owen attacked Bret’s knee and delivered the famous “I kicked the leg out of your leg” line backstage and began talking about how great it was to beat up his brother. As part of the Bret/Luger/Yokozuna triangle at WrestleMania X, Owen was booked to face Bret and the two put on possibly the best opening match in WrestleMania history and it ended when Bret went for a victory roll but Owen stopped, planted his arms across Bret’s legs and held him for a shocking three! Bret would go on to win the title and Owen seethed with jealousy as he watched from the aisle way, pointing out afterward that he should have had the title shot since he pinned Bret.

At the King of the Ring tournament in 1994, Owen had a little assistance from Jim Neidhart to propel him to victory when Neidhart turned heel. The British Bulldog joined up with Bret and the two clashed as singles and tag teams during the summer, culminating in one of the best steel cage matches ever when they had their SummerSlam steel cage match, earning a coveted five-star rating from Dave Meltzer. On August 17, 1994 the two had another singles match and this time Owen actually WON the contest and the title in a lumberjack match, although the match ended up restarted due to interference with Bret taking the victory. This was only visible on the Wham Bam Bodyslam VHS as a bonus.

Survivor Series 1994 would see the original Bret screw job when Bret took on Mr. Bob Backlund for the WWF Championship in an I Quit match that could only end if the corner man for the competitor threw in the towel. Owen was in Backlund’s corner, and Davey Boy was in Bret’s. After Owen tricked Davey and took him out on the outside, Owen watched as Backlund locked the famous cross face chicken wing on Bret and held it for over a minute, Owen suddenly seeming to get worried and then rush to Stu and Helen at ringside crying and begging for them to throw in the towel and save Bret. Helen got so upset she threw the towel in and suddenly Owen began jumping and screaming happily as Backlund was announced the new WWF Champion due to the action and it was all shown to be a ruse. After Diesel’s quick victory over Backlund the next night, Owen would ensure Diesel kept the title when he interfered in a match with Bret and Diesel at the 1995 Royal Rumble. Bret would finally soundly defeat Owen and move on, but Owen had plans as well.

At WrestleMania XI, Owen and a mystery partner were booked to face the Smoking Gunns for the tag titles. The six hundred pound Yokozuna was the partner and the two took the tag titles, with Owen accepting Mr. Fuji and Jim Cornette as his managers. They would lose the titles to Diesel and Shawn Michaels during their “Two Dudes With Attitudes” team and due to the two holding every single title; Owen and Yokozuna would get the belts back only to lose them again to the Gunns. Davey Boy Smith would eventually join the faction and teamed with Owen as well, and Vader who Cornette had brought to the WWF would sometimes join them. Owen wore a cast for months claiming he was injured only to use it as a weapon time and time again, and this time Bulldog and Owen were able to beat the Gunns and take the tag belts home at the 10th In Your House. Clarence Mason also became their new manager as Cornette was conned into signing over his talent to him after an attack, but dissent once again showed its head when Owen eliminated Bulldog at the Royal Rumble in 1997. Bulldog fired Mason, and Owen was upset about the decision as well as Bulldog becoming the very first European Champion against Owen.

Bulldog and Owen would retain the belts against the Headbangers on the March 24, 1997 edition of RAW but would ultimately dissolve into a fight and a challenge for Owen to take on Bulldog for the European title. The two would go at it pretty violently until Bret came in the ring and suddenly began calling for a truce between all the family members, citing that the people wanted to see all of them fight and hurt each other. Bret told Owen he loved him and Owen returned the favor as they all hugged to a chorus of boos and formed a new Hart Foundation with Brian Pillman and Jim Neidhart. Owen was the man who beat Rocky Maivia for the IC Championship during his first reign, although he and Bulldog would lose their tag belts to Stone Cold and Shawn Michaels in May. HBK would be out with an injury, leading to Owen feuding with Stone Cold and then challenging for the tag titles again but this time Dude Love appeared as Austin’s unwanted partner and helped retain the gold. Owen decided on a special stipulation at SummerSlam 1997, putting his title up but if Austin lost the match he had to kiss Owen’s bare ass on national television.

Of course, we all know what happened next. During a botched piledriver attempt Owen delivered the injury to Austin’s neck that nearly ended his career, although Austin still won the title that night. Owen had won the belt after it was vacated and proudly wore a t-shirt proclaiming Owen 3:16 along with “I just broke your neck” as well, although he only won because Austin had interfered to help him so he could ensure he got Owen and beat him for the belt and the injury he caused him. During the infamous Survivor Series that year, Austin would defeat Hart and take the gold as the Montreal Screwjob took place later on in the evening. Bret, Bulldog, and Neidhart headed to the WCW as a result of the aftermath but Owen stayed mostly due to the fact Bischoff didn’t want to match Owen’s WWF contract money and was skeptical of how they would use him.

Part 2 of this story will continue next week with the final years of Owen’s life and the tragic accident at Over The Edge 1999 that stunned the wrestling world. Now, let us take a look at the five-star match that took place at WrestleMania X with Owen vs. Bret!

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3 and FINAL:

Take 5

Wrestler To Watch: Kurt Angle

After being a baby face for perhaps too long, Angle has once again emerged as the vicious heel we all know he can be. The man nicknamed The Blue-Eyed Wrestling Demon has gotten himself in a mess with Crimson although so far, he’s promised to end his streak and if anybody can end an undefeated streak, it would be Kurt. Just ask Samoa Joe whom his first defeat was at the hands of! Angle still has an incredible ability in the ring and at this point in time, it would be ridiculous not to see him compete in the main event while he can work with the top younger talent in the business today as well as the established main eventers. Oh, and when he’s not busting his ass for TNA he is training to win our country another Olympic gold medal in wrestling next year! Definitely somebody to keep your eye on in the coming months.

Promo of the Week: 2004 RAW Diva Search – Diss The Diva

Little did Stacy Keibler know what she was getting into when the original Diva Search had a seemingly boring segment called Diss the Diva, where the girls would likely haul generic insults at each other. However, on this night Joy Giovanni, Amy Weber, Carmella Decesare and of course the eventual winner Christy Hemme got together and put on one of the greatest three minutes of WWE TV that year when they literally cursed up a storm at each other, although mostly at Carmella. Half of it ended up bleeped out and Stacy had absolutely no control over the situation and it showed, although the fans probably enjoyed this segment the most that year! If there was one good thing about the 2004 Diva Search, it was this segment right here that no Diss the Diva will EVER beat.

Babe To Watch: Maxine

The “ice queen” of WWE and especially NXT has impressed pretty much nobody with her in-ring skill although she’s gotten quite a few looks for her rather awesome body. So, rather than subject you to actually watching her attempt to wrestle in a match, I’ll simply give you this short video showing some of her sexier pictures as of late and hope that we get an update for the next time she is featured in this section a while from now!

Match of the Week To Watch: MVP and Taichi vs. Togi Makabe and Tomoaki Honma

Earlier on in the column I mentioned how MVP was doing very well for himself in Japan including getting a tournament win to become the first ever IWGP Intercontinental Champion. Well, in this tag team match he accomplished another milestone as well and you’ll have to see the match to know what it is. Check out his new submission maneuver at the end as it is definitely something that I want to see more of by wrestlers here in the US!

Mystery Section to Watch: YouTube’s BIG Hit

While randomly searching for exactly what to torture you guys with this week I saw one wacky video with over 30 MILLION hits. It is funny and pathetic at the same time, much like the people who comment here except for the funny part. So take a look at this big fat guy dancing to Fergie and enjoy!

The Good, The Bad, and The… WTF?

Let’s see what we got this week. First, of course, is…

The Good

“The only column other than Ask 411 Wrestling/Games worth reading on this site. Thank you Wes, for telling it like it is. Unlike 95% of the commmenters, I understand that it is better to have an alternative (even if you don’t like what they present) rather than none at all. As it happens, I agree with almost all of what you write, which is refreshing because I was thisclose to abandoning this site. I really don’t understand these people here. If Wes goes, then what? We have WWE monopoly…greattt. It’s the same as when you people wish death on TNA just because you don’t like it…yeah, eliminating TNA..THAT’LL help business! Right. And WWE is not getting good again. If you people want something that resembles the wrestling you grew up with, watch TNA with an open mind. It might be weird at first, since you’ll be seeing ACTUAL WRESTLING, the X-division, women’s feuds that mean something and have compelling characters, a logical (BFG) series that puts meaning on wins and losses, etc. But once you get used to an actual wrestling show, it’s worth it! Keep up the great work Kirk.

Posted By: My last two words rhymed. (Guest) on August 20, 2011 at 11:04 AM”

Well it doesn’t take much to be smarter than 95% of the people who comment here, that’s for sure. Competition is vital to business, as Microsoft and Apple can vouch for. A long time ago, Apple computers were getting popular because the Microsoft OS was mostly a complicated text command language whereas any moron could use the GUI interface the Mac put out. To counteract that, Windows was created and put up against the Mac OS. Then, as Microsoft was getting bigger again Apple put up upgrades that increased the security of their systems and prevented around 99.9% of any virus infestation. Microsoft countered with the Windows 95/98, Apple countered with iPods. Now the two companies are still going at it, and despite having less users than Microsoft’s systems Apple has the most cash of any company in the world on hand. Microsoft is putting their Windows 7 and Windows phones up against Apple’s iPod, iTunes, and iPad products and it just keeps on going with each company trying to outdo the other every year. If there was no competition, we might all be using either the original Mac software or the old MS-DOS system.

With wrestling, we all can see the only time Vince really brings it is when he is challenged by competition. Whether it is the NWA, AWA, or WCW. Competition brings out the best in the products, in general, and although some stinkers get through the products have to be generally better and better or else the customers turn to the alternative. When there is no alternative, that’s when the business will suffer untold harm. WWE matches also tend to have a VERY predictable formula of armbar, chinlock, counter the guy’s finisher and hit yours, pin, etc. In TNA they do have some shorter matches but who wants to actually watch Steiner and Devon wrestle for 25 minutes either? Plus the X-Division keeps me glued to the seat every week. Good stuff!

“Wes Kirk is the CM Punk of 411. The voice of the voiceless.

Posted By: The Big Fat F*g (Guest) on August 20, 2011 at 11:41 AM”

Around here being a TNA fan is indeed like having no voice. If you want proof just read the wrestler and match of the week columns. About 40 out of 52 weeks it is DOMINATED by WWE matches and TNA is just left off. I came to give a voice to the TNA fans who had none, so thanks for realizing that.

“I’m mainly here to point out the foundation of all left wing beliefs is liberalism. Those of you telling Wes off for being conservative are basically the collosal hypocrites that many claim that Mr Kirk is. Personally I disagree with many points he makes, but that’s cool, I’m sure he’d disagree with me on many things. You keep doing your thing Mr Kirk, marking for TNA and ripping WWE. Enough people do the reverse for similar (frankly silly) reasons, but if you folks don’t like it, then leave and don’t give him the attention you say he craves… cos that’d be feeding the proverbial troll, right?

Hang, let me get my angry smark hat on…

ZOMG XDIVSION SPOTFEST SAME LEVEL AS PUNKCENA OMGWTF etc…

X-Division 4 Way: ****
Punk/Cena: ****1/2

I personally enjoy storytelling over nutty spots, but no denying the X-Division match was fun. And Austin Aries is great whichever show he’s on.

Posted By: TheKenwyne (Guest) on August 20, 2011 at 12:35 PM”

Exactly the point. The gutless millenials are so pissed off that somebody dares to say something they don’t agree with they screech and whine for me to get fired over it. So much for the liberal belief of diversity, right? TNA fans deserve coverage of the Bound For Glory series, they deserve more news reports and columns mentioning the good that TNA does rather than just the bad, and I’ll do what I can to make sure people get to hear the other side of TNA that most of the site won’t let you hear.

And, it is just personal preference. The problem is that most of the people who write here prefer the WWE product because like me, we all grew up with it. There’s no balance if you have twelve columnists bashing TNA and zero defending it, so I’ll put myself on the line and take the jokes and insults and defend it. Why? Because somebody needs to.

One final one this week that I thought was nice:

“Another week, another round of bitching and bellyaching from the kiddE nation. Down grading the WWE title makes sense, too many hot shots and the fact that they can create a champ anytime they want. I swear this whole thing is leading up to Vince/HHH at WM.

Kind of surprised that Wes didn’t bag on the E for all the commercials and plugs during the PPV. I spent way too much money on that crappy show to see Kwik Trip commercials.

Posted By: Guest#2019 (Guest) on August 20, 2011 at 01:53 PM”

Well, the reason I didn’t go after them for the commercials is because I didn’t BUY the PPV! Outside of WrestleMania, which I regret purchasing, I’ve only ordered TNA PPV’s this year or nothing at all. Commercials on PPV along with a Cee Lo Green concert? Yeah, TNA is ten bucks cheaper and ten times more entertaining too.

As far as HHH/Vince, I’m not sure if they will compete but I do believe Vince will be involved in the storyline against HHH for costing him his job and bringing Punk back. Notice how it is always Punk who gets attacked by Nash? How Stephanie and HHH have been throwing a few comments at Punk? Seems like they are booking Punk so that it is revealed Vince is behind all of this and HHH goes after him and Punk gets lost in the shuffle again. WWE – Where New Stars Are made Buried!

The Bad

So many choices. Since this week broke the comments record for the column, I’ll pick five comments to respond to.

SPOILER WARNING: The first few comments involve POLITICS~! As I told you in the introduction section so feel free to skim past the first three.

“>”You know nothing of real writing.”

Oh Jesus my sides. The irony of someone who- based solely on his incoherent sub-reaganite political screeching and ‘angry autist’ style of writing- I can only assume is a subnormal that dropped out on his senior year of highschool, writing such a smug, hubristastic accusation on a fucking WRESTLING column of all things…Well Hell it basically knocked me on the ass through it’s sheer lack of self-awareness.

Thanks though for writing a ten-thousand word novella about how you much you like tongueing the taint of alternately TNA and Dick Cheney so I could skim it for the .gifs and then make fun of you for having aspergers on the comment section.

Posted By: Vallejo (Guest) on August 20, 2011 at 12:07 AM”

You have to love those liberals. They preach tolerance and respect and then say I’m retarded and make fun of it just because it is something they don’t like.

Do you know what a run-on sentence is? Actually, do you realize that when you say it’s that particular contraction is used for “it is” which means you make no sense? You say I can’t write and you put up that rambling diatribe probably written in crayon for a rough draft in the midst of a crystal meth and Cold Duck rage? I’ll tell you what, when you can write something that isn’t rife with spelling and grammatical errors calling me a bad writer I’ll take you seriously. Until then please try to do something productive with your life like charity work or something that doesn’t require you to use your brain, like running on the Democratic ticket!

“Wow, what wry and poignant political commentary, and coming from a guy who writes a column about a fake sport for free. Color me dazzled. Say Wes, why not save the diatribes for the Politics section; that is, if you think you can hang with such heavyweights as Enrique. On second thought, maybe you should stick to the bus leagues for now. I doubt creative has anything for you right now anyway.

Posted By: o convivado (Guest) on August 20, 2011 at 01:39 AM”

I believe you mean the bush leagues but hey, why bother with spell check if you are going to insult somebody on their intelligence right?

The politics section. That, in itself, is a joke. Not counting Ashish who just posts news articles I’ve seen articles from a scant four people the last two months. In two months (June 23, 2011 to August 23, 2011) the total number of articles written is an astounding 21 with the number of authors coming in at 5. Most of those are from Ashish posting news bytes or Enrique the godless Libertarian. Enrique wouldn’t be a challenge and frankly, I’d be happy to take him on in a fact-or-fiction although as we all know, the commenters would be against anything I say from the start and rule him the winner via argumentum ad populum, which means “he wins because he is more popular, not because he is better.”

Let me tell you a short story about my trip to 411 Politics months ago. I was set to face a liberal in the fact or fiction when the guy who was supposedly in charge back then e-mailed me and told me that the person was suddenly unavailable. Instead, I would be competing against the man’s father. Keep in mind during this time I was trying to get a writing position in the political section as well, okay? Now, we have this little fact or fiction debate and basically, the guy offers up pretty much five sentences with no proof of anything. I throw in thorough answers and links to everything to back up what I said and the dude said he’d put me on the FOF rotation and a planned roundtable on global warming. Well, I don’t know what happened after that behind closed doors but apparently the idea of a REAL conservative and not a token one on the political blogs was too much for them to bear so I never heard back. And then the guy in charge of that section seems to have quit months ago as well! So now you have Ashish posting news to TRY and get people talking, you have a libertarian, you have one token conservative who doesn’t have any faith in God and believes in abortion, which makes him a RINO, and you have two liberals. Wow, that’s a hell of a diverse group there and explains why it is a ghost town, too.

I’d love to go and post a few columns representing the other side but apparently they only want one. Hey, that’s fine with me either way because if they don’t have real conservatives the section will be viewed as the joke it is, and if they do have me post now and then they will FINALLY have an actual Republican with real conservative values representing our views. I don’t blame 411 management up top, as I know Larry and Ashish are good people, my belief is that they just don’t have a lot of people willing to sign up and fight it out with the massive liberal crowd. Guess what? I AM willing. If you need a section leader, I’m willing to lead as well and hire a few conservatives so we can have two sides to every story. We’ll see what happens.

“Ok then idiot, let me explain something to you. The rich do not have far too much taken off them in taxes, in fact quite the opposite. The Bush tax cuts copst the US economy over $1.2 TRILLION DOLLARS and are a large cause of the financial mess the US is in.

Like any Tea Party fool or general conservative, you know nothing about Politics. I’d say stick to the Wrestling but you know nothing about that either.

I’m not a Republican or Democrat btw.

Posted By: Spencer Mallard is a tool (Guest) on August 20, 2011 at 01:07 PM”

Oh no, they “copst” the economy? You don’t say.

In the last year, the top 3% of income earners paid 95% of all tax revenue that was received by the federal government. If the United States taxed everybody 100% if they are earning $200,000 or above in one year the entire amount would come out to $1.53 trillion dollars, or a bit above 10% of our debt. As of 2007, the top 1% of income earners paid more than the bottom 95% of earners! That one percent of the very rich paid a little over 40% of the ENTIRE tax revenue collected by the government that year. It is estimated that the top 3% in the country pay around 99% of all taxes collected. So, you are telling me that we need to pay EVEN MORE? We already pay for over 95% of all collected tax revenue! And somebody in your neighborhood of income I’d estimate to be in the bottom 50% of taxpayers, which amounts to over 69 million Americans. Your share of income taxes in 2008 was a lousy 2.7% while anybody making over ten million dollars per year paid 97.3% and it gets worse. The average tax rate for those in your income bracket paid 2.59% while those in the top 1% paid a tax of 23.27% on average. Yeah, almost ten times what you pay. You do know what the tea stands for, don’t you? TAXED ENOUGH ALREADY. And in your case, you don’t even pay shit to begin with! The reason we’re in a giant mess is because the Democrats promised everybody Fannie and Freddie were just fine and then forgot to pass budgets, spent tons of money, and from 2007 onward when Democrats controlled every branch of federal government the bill got larger and larger until last year we finally got the House back. Now it is just one-half of one-third of the government controlled by people with a brain against the rest of it that believes food stamps are a form of employment. Do me a favor, don’t reproduce.

“Wow, so TNA hires Yang just to then stiff him on pay as revenge-and you think this is a good thing? Are you fucking retarded? This is just YET ANOTHER black eye on TNA, from a business perspective. Do you not get that?

Posted By: Guest#9058 (Guest) on August 20, 2011 at 01:42 AM”

I never defended the action as a smart business move by TNA, I just mentioned that it was karma coming to bite him on the ass. By the way, the situation is moot as they did indeed send him his check and it was likely just a clerical error. If you paid attention the last few columns I have said the marketing and creative aspects of TNA need to go because of the lack of good, solid business decisions to grow the company thus far. Do your homework.

“I’m glad that you are assuming that “confronting” means “threatened with violence” and not simply “calling someone out on their bullshit” to their face as opposed to over the radio, or an internet column.

So, I’m now going to assume that you are the same type of weasel as the original kid in question since judging by your response, it sounds like a personal nerve was struck. I’m willing to bet your four years of high school weren’t so good, were they? Were you the 115 pound kid in high school that always ran his mouth like a big shot and then hid because you assumed everyone was going to beat the shit out of you?

Is this the Wes Kirk Story? Picked on all throughout high school, couldn’t get a look from the school librarian, much less the star cheerleader? And now that you’ve graduated, you’re gonna take on the world, show up those “bullies,” and let your voice be heard!! School’s out, son, if you let it go maybe you wouldn’t be so hateful to everything or everyone.

Oh, and pointing out “beating poorer teams with weaker rosters” would be a factually-based argument, something I’ve rarely seen from any of your articles.

Posted By: Class of ’99 (Guest) on August 20, 2011 at 01:32 AM”

And then we get this clown.

Dude, first things first: It is 2011. Let that date sink into your feeble little mind for a moment. 1999 was twelve years ago, and it might have been your best year but that was a long time past. Allow me, however, to tell you about *my* time in school.

Since I am a genius and obviously aced everything because it was easy to me, I certainly had to deal with people either hating me for being smarter than they were or responding to the twenty-something students asking for answers on any given assignment. My solution was to find the three toughest, roughest, and most dangerous kids in my class and paying them to take out the trash. If I wanted to say something, I said it and if anybody had a problem with it they could talk to my help. If somebody like you, sir, decided to try and bully me because you were an athlete and I was the nerd you would find three people on you like a swarm of bees keeping you out of the season with the beating they delivered. I remember one time one of the football guys trying to start with me and oh, the joys of seeing him out the entire football season because they broke his leg. As far as the hottest girls in school? I didn’t have any problem because when you are rich and smart you get what you want. Somebody like you was hot in 1999, but today you are probably thirty pounds too fat and failed whatever sport you tried to go pro in and settled for a miserable life with a hefty, screeching shrew of a wife and two kids that redefine Dumb and Dumber. You come here last week mouthing off, memorizing the name of the bane of your existence during the Clinton years, and expect what? If you hate that guy so much, go look him up. Then again, he might be a lot bigger than you are. In high school I was about average height or a tad shorter but after senior year, I shot up to Randy Orton’s height. Maybe that guy you talked about is really 6’5, 270 and a MMA fighter for all you know. In which case I really would love to see -that- reunion.

So you admit the only reason your team won was beating poor teams with bad rosters? Okay, a little credit for that. Keep on partying like its 1999 because in your world, apparently it always is.

The WTF

This one is more like a facepalm worthy moment because somebody couldn’t be bothered to do ten seconds of research.

“I always thought crank it up was by rick derringer…but if that’s Jimmy Hart how unexpected.

Posted By: hmm (Guest) on August 20, 2011 at 07:16 PM”

Seriously? In the age of the Internet you can’t even go check out the Piledriver track listing on Wikipedia from 1987? Derringer performed “Real American” on the Wrestling Album and Demolition’s theme song on Piledriver. Jimmy Hart wrote and sang “Crank It Up” which, again, is an astounding thing since it would take ten seconds to google this. Now people are too lazy to use a search engine? Unbelievable.

Avril Lavigne shows her body and new clothing line together because Avril Lavigne Is Punk Sexy

Check out one of the lovely videos available when Sara Jen Underwood Has A Sexy Photo Shoot

Steve Cook actually had something kind about me to say for a change, which is why I’m letting you know you can read it and much more at News From Cook’s Corner

Sforcina brings you the mysteries of wrestling solved with another edition of the Ask 411 Wrestling. This week’s answer is Mario Mancini!

My Canadian friend brings a unique viewpoint to The Wrestling News Experience. Seriously, how hot are those Canadian crowds? They MADE Raw Monday night!

Spencer Baum returns with more of One Fall and this week, Jade needs help with her 1040 itemized deductions while Joey battles early signs of male pattern baldness! Oh, fine, that’s all false.

And that ends this edition of the Wrestling Sandwich. I’ll see you next week and remember to tune into TNA Impact each and every week on Thursday night!