The Wrestling Sandwich 01.21.12

Posted by Wes Kirk on 01.21.2012

Thoughts on CM Punk being prevented from cornering Chael Sonnen at UFC on FOX 2, TNA's international television deals, Evan Bourne being suspended again, the feud between Alex Shelly and Austin Aries and more!



This portion of the intro I am writing after RAW and I have to say it was a pretty poor event tonight. The main event "match" was mainly around to advance the storylines and frankly if they are working a story around Mick Foley that's just ridiculous since the guy was obviously not in shape to go Monday and probably not anytime in the near future. In booking people would be up in arms about regarding TNA the WWE decided to have a tag match turn into a six-man match featuring Punk, Jericho, and Bryan against the team of Otunga, Henry, and Ziggler. Jericho does his little routine of not doing anything and leaving the match so Foley runs down and claims the GM allowed him in. After he wins, the match result is thrown out because the GM DIDN'T let him in and the heels are declared winners. Punk rants on Laurinitis, and Laurinitis ends up hitting Foley with a microphone and leaves after declaring he is tired of being disrespected. Oh and earlier in the show we got to crown a new US champion in Jack Swagger who needed THREE GUTWRENCH POWERBOMBS to beat a non-medically cleared Zack Ryder. Laurinitis claimed he didn't know about Ryder not being cleared even though Ryder said it in the hallway with Eve. After finding out he wasn't cleared, he didn't change the result like he did with Bryan/Henry but instead let the decision stand and gave Swagger a second match against John Cena, in which Cena brutally destroyed him with no ending other than Cena staring at the Tron Kane had been on laughing at Cena's newfound brutality and hate.

...People say TNA doesn't make any fucking sense? And WWE wonders why their ratings are down? Let's break the main event down really quickly. Why is David Otunga in the six-man match in the first place against Jericho when Jericho seemed so chummy with Laurinitis when he came to his office? I can understand holding off on Jericho attacking Punk until after the Royal Rumble, but he just does nothing again? Couldn't he at least have hit a few moves and then left after the crowd started a chant for him? I just don't understand some of the logic around here, since the match ended with a guy not even in the match pinning the GM's lawyer. If TNA put this same type of match on Impact you people would shit all over it and don't lie and say it isn't true! As far as RAW goes, Epico and Primo got their signing bonus of the WWE Tag Titles (everybody seems to get the title at some point) and kept the belts while Ryder lost his to Swagger and it appears Bryan may be losing his soon. I think CM Punk better hold on to that picture of all the champions together because it appears as if things are going to get worse for the Internet's Favorite Championship Roster in the future.

Speaking of the Internet, I think it is time that all of you who complain how terrible my column is (yet come read and comment on it every week) find out just what it is like to actually write a column in something that has never been done on 411 and probably never will be done again. Ready for the fun details?

In a couple of weeks, I am going to host the Great Guest Experiment. All of you who think you can do oh so much better than me will have the opportunity to make posts right in the comment thread for the following items:

- Your Smartest and Dumbest things of the week
- Wrestler to Watch, Babe to Watch
- Old School wrestler you want to have profiled who has not already been featured in the section (with a mini biography in the comment section)
- Views on the top news stories and ratings of the week

In return for your generous contributions, things will be tallied up and your winners will be featured in the next week of the Sandwich...but with a twist. You see, the same way you all like to make little comments about the writers in the comment area? The Good/Bad/WTF of the week will be replaced that week by a special table of wrestling writers who will review your work! It will include writers to be named at a later date and myself. The deadline for your submissions and work will be Thursday night by 11:30 PM EST and you will be expected to check grammar and spelling as well as all facts submitted yourselves. If anything is wrong, it gets posted anyway! I'll post the general schedule of when to expect ratings reports as well as other weekly events soon and we'll get this thing underway. Please note that THIS IS NOT TAKING PLACE JUST YET, BUT SOON. I'll alert you when two weeks remains and then post the schedule of ratings releases and such to comment on. The smartest among you will realize that you probably should prepare everything before TNA Impact and then briefly write comments about Impact as well before submitting your completed work in the commentary section.

So for one week, you guys write the Sandwich since you all think you know so much more about wrestling than I do and have such great and wonderful ideas. The wrestling writers you mock so often will be your critics, and everything is reversed just for that week. I think the results will be vastly amusing, so get familiar real fast with Microsoft Word or any other program you wish to use and get cracking! For one, make sure you don't go over the 2800 character limit unless you make it a multi-part comment...yes, 2800 characters is the limit for guests. Post 3 or 4 full boxes to get everything in if you must. Already not sounding so easy right? Too bad.

Oh yeah, and if you do not decide to participate in this I'll just take the entire column to talk about any damn thing I want for that week and it doesn't even have to be about wrestling. This is YOUR CHANCE to show me how smart you really are and how talented all of you really are, and there will be a prize. Whoever has the best material as chosen by the writer panel will get to co-write this column for a forthcoming issue with me! So, prepare well because the time to back up the shit is coming very shortly. Did I mention I'm looking forward to this? Heh heh. Now to the news!






Top Stories of the Week!

1. Weekly Ratings Roundup!

TNA Impact Wrestling - 1.1 rating, 1.6 million viewers - even with last week
WWE Smackdown - 2.1 rating, 3.1 million viewers - up decently from last week
WWE RAW - 3.0, 4.2 million viewers - Up from last week: Hour 1 4.32 million viewers Hour 2 4.28 million viewers

Impact begins the Sandwich ratings week with an even rating from last week, pretty much coming in exactly the same in viewership and ratings. Smackdown saw a nice bounce in ratings up nearly to 2.2 actually, with over 3 million viewers for the first time in some time. RAW also rose, but much less significantly to 3.0 with 4.2 million viewers and as the trend continues the second hour featured less viewers than the first. Most importantly, this is traditionally the time where WWE prepares their build for WrestleMania and usually gets the highest ratings of the year from Jan-April, and unfortunately it isn't off to a good start. McMahon has to be pissed that the second hour keeps dropping no matter what he does.

Ultimately, two weeks ago was a horrible ratings week for wrestling but this past week improved things. The one thing to watch is whether or not RAW goes up from Feb-April or if it remains mostly quagmired in between high 2's and a very low 3 number constantly. Rock already did his return after seven years LAST YEAR, which means the ratings will likely not equal the initial boost he gave WWE in 2011. They need something big to pop the viewers this year, but how do you top The Rock's return? Yeah, thought that might be a problem...


2. TNA Impact Quick Recap

1. Gunner defeated AJ Styles with a DDT ***
2. Crimson defeated Magnus with the Red Sky(Lo-Down) out of nowhere *1/2
3. Steel Cage Match: Mickie James defeated Madison Rayne with the Mickie-D-T ***
4. Angelina Love and Eric Young went to a NO CONTEST when Angelina kicked Young in the yam bag region and things quickly degenerated. DUD
5. #1 Contendership: James Storm and Jeff Hardy went to a NO CONTEST when Bully Ray attacked all the referees and Bobby Roode announced himself the winner. ***1/4

Best Booking of the Week: Knockouts Cage Match

Worst Booking of the Week: Eric Young and Angelina Love, by far!

Three good matches with a dud and a low ranked match give this edition of Impact Wrestling a lesser average score than the matches in the past two weeks, but the Cage Match and the #1 Contendership match were probably enough to salvage the show for most people who keep an open mind. I will say I find the two no contest finishes on a single show a bit much especially when they were one after the other.

The important part, however, is the actual wrestling and the build to each storyline. Outside of Young/ODB and Winter/Love, there really was nothing that shouldn't have been on the show. Roode and Bully Ray continue to dominate the faces, Mickie James finally got her revenge on Madison Rayne, the tag team title situation was advanced with the champions and the challengers through a singles match ending in a beatdown, and Gunner's push continues along with the AJ/Kaz/Daniels storyline. Again, I hope that ends with a three-way ladder match at some point!

Eat your heart out Divas; the Knockouts cage match received 12:22 of the time in this broadcast. That's right, almost twelve and a half minutes for two women to wrestle and they DID IT WELL! Once again, the two things TNA Impact really has going for it are the Knockouts and the X-Division by far. Their main event scene is looking pretty good as well, and we need more tag teams to get a better division going like we had in 2010. Overall, however, a solid showing that was less stellar than the past two weeks but overall still better than RAW or Smackdown!

3. Newsbytes of the Week

- "TNA has announced a list of international TV licensees who recently renewed their TV distribution contracts. Here's the list:

* U.K.'s Challenge TV (Impact, Xplosion, and PPVs) a
* U.K.'s BT Vision (Impact, Greatest Matches, and PPVs)
* Germany's Sky Deutschland (Impact & PPVs)
* Turkey's Beyaz TV (Impact)
* Thailand's GMM Grammy (Impact, Xplosion, and PPVs)
* France's Ma Chaine Sports (Impact & PPVs)
* Middle East's FX (Xplosion)
* Israel's Ego total (Impact & PPVs)
* Australia's Fuel TV (Impact, Xplosion, and Greatest Matches)
* New Zealand's Sky Network (Impact & PPVs)"

TNA also added a brand new deal with Africa recently and this simply gives TNA much more exposure to all of the world markets. A very good decision and hopefully they will be able to capitalize on the wrestling interest that exists around the world and in locations that usually do not get much wrestling outside of anything local.

- "Many backstage in WWE are shaking their heads at Vince McMahon's decision to not allow CM Punk to appear on UFC On FOX on January 28th. The feeling among many is that Punk appearing on a UFC show would create buzz and get people talking about WWE. One person in WWE joked that "Vince seems to have forgotten the reaction to Brock Lesnar and Undertaker staring at each other already." "

And once again, the ego prevents McMahon from doing the right thing. Rumors are that McMahon isn't too pleased with the UFC being so much higher up on the food chain than WWE and doesn't want to give them CM Punk to accompany a fighter because he doesn't understand that in UFC, champions and main event fighters usually coach and accompany the lesser known talents to the ring because, uh, it kind of helps get the audience behind them like a good manager does in wrestling. McMahon sees it as a step down for his precious sports entertainers, and acted stupidly in a situation that he could have capitalized on. Big surprise right?

"Stephanie McMahon shared some details on WWE's writing team in her interview with Entertainment Weekly. She said WWE has 16 writers, plus Vince McMahon, and that Vince always has final say.

"Vince is very open to listening and discussing different ideas, but once he makes his final decision, he's the boss."

"Stephanie McMahon told Entertainment Weekly that she gets a report after each TV show/taping about WWE's social media activity during the show and fan response to it. Here is what she said about a typical Wednesday morning after a Smackdown taping.

"I had to catch up on last night's show, and went back and forth with some of the writers about what worked, what didn't work, what deviated from the script, and why. I also get a Trendrr report about what reactions were like on social networks and the Web." "

"WWE RAW was #4 on the Trendrr.TV chart of most socially active cable TV shows on Monday night. The Republican debate on FOX News was #1, Pretty Little Liars on ABC Family was #2, followed by Love & Hip-Hop on VH1."

OUCH STEPH! I guess that report of your socially active TV shows is not going to include anything you can use in the weekly Did You Know? segment that is gaining less credibility and also less material by the moment, eh?

Sixteen writers. That means sixteen separate visions of what the WWE should be doing and one guy who can squelch even all sixteen people unanimously with one single vote! The majority opinion is likely the one people should be going with, but in this case everybody could pitch an idea and it gets shot down. Now, given that Stephanie McMahon is trying to make Rock vs. Cena like... Edward and Jacob from Twilight, you can tell two things right off the bat: She's a complete twit who is totally out of touch with the WRESTLING WORLD, and she has absolutely no clue what the hell this business is really all about. The day McMahon cedes all control to her and HHH is likely the last day the company makes a single dollar of profit if this is going to be the new direction going on.

The last thing you utilize to focus your company is resort to the IWC on Twitter. You've seen what trends and usually why it trends, and sometimes things trend as a joke or to point out something that is an "epic fail" which means they don't like it, Stephie! If the IWC is 15% of your base audience, why the hell are you catering to them and not the other 85% that will have no clue who those guys are? We listened to the IWC and look what happened with ratings and buyrates dropping as their favorites got championship belts and top-notch feuds! A business should cater to the majority of its customers in order to get the best possible numbers, but apparently Stephanie missed that class in whatever education she received.

Stephanie should study the Republican debate because you can see what makes the Republican base happy by the audience reaction to the answers given. Here's another thing: If you actually have to pump in crowd noise in segments to make it appear people give a damn, it isn't working. I go by what I like to call the "theme factor" in which I try to make out the theme song somebody is coming to the ring with. If I can barely hear it over the roar of the crowd, that's a very good thing. If you can hear an ant fart in the arena during their entrance, they aren't over at all. TNA Impact may have smaller crowds, but they are a LOT more engaged in the action and you can see it, as it makes for a more visually pleasing image to see a thousand or so folks jumping around excited as opposed to ten thousand people literally sitting and staring blankly at a ring. In short, if you see what makes the crowd respond happily... DO IT MORE OFTEN, IDIOT! Ugh.

"Evan Bourne has been suspended for 60 days due to his second violation of the WWE Wellness Policy"

That explains the house show title change and the RAW jobbing. But, uh, interestingly enough before he got added back to the long list of 12-16 month offenders of the Wellness Policy he and Kofi remained champions... and R-Truth, who also was suspended, was suspended after Survivor Series and not beforehand. So I guess the lesson here is that if you are a main eventer or given a top slot on a PPV, you can do whatever the hell you want and pay for it after but if you are just a regular guy, you get slammed immediately. WWE, either follow the policy for all of your performers equally or just give up any pretense of not playing favorites! You can't do both! As usual I hope Bourne gets help and off whatever he's on but I feel no sympathy for a drug addict.


4. Bobby Roode Screwed Again in WOTW

In the WWE dominated bias that is the Wrestler of the Week voting, Bobby Roode once again got hammered right out of the top five in favor of Flash Funk and PN News's love child Brodus Clay and some lesser-known talent. Although Storm and Roode were my top two choices, nobody else really gave them anywhere near the deserved recognition and therefore once again Roode is not set to be anywhere near the top three by WrestleMania time which means another WWE victory.

The only good news that comes out of this is that all of you paid attention to the obvious screwjobs going on and complained loudly. I for one am going to make an official request that certain people who do not watch TNA at all and who constantly vote against them not be allowed to vote in the WOTW until they can contain their obvious biased nature. Until the WOTW section once again reflects a balanced view of ALL companies large and small around the world, just make sure you voice your complaints and e-mail those involved in management level to let them know you are SICK of TNA being treated like shit in the voting and allowing people who hate TNA to have control over who gets an award on the site. This is something, unfortunately, you guys have to do and I can't do more than support you in it 100%, which is exactly what I shall do.




Smartest Thing of the Week: Showcasing The X-Division Beyond In-Ring Skills

When we saw the segment between Austin Aries and Alex Shelley, it wasn't just a segment to build to a new match for Aries with an opponent he hadn't defeated one-on-one. What we actually ended up getting was a good back and forth promo between two guys who can work in the ring and can go on the microphone at the same rate as the main eventers. The simple fact of the matter is that the X-Division is one of the greatest things Impact Wrestling has to lure in new viewers from the fact these guys can wrestle and they can talk up a good battle as well. Similar to how the Knockouts can talk and wrestle as well, the cruiserweight style wrestlers in TNA are capable of holding their own and delivering fantastic matches with very good promos that keep you tuning in for more. It is because of steady segments like this that the Division will continue to get noticed and earn new names and make far more memorable moments, even if people thought it would be dead in a month after last year's angle with Bischoff. How's that working out for you guys? LOL!





Dumbest Thing of the Week: Jack Swagger Gets Buried By John Cena

Just when it appeared that Swagger was finally about to gain some much-needed credibility, it appears as if they went far and beyond the usual methods on RAW to make him and others look like complete fools. Swagger ends up going against the US Champion Zack Ryder, who is injured and not cleared to compete. Despite that it takes Swagger THREE uses of his pinning finishing move, the Gutwrench Powerbomb, to claim a pinfall in what should have been a much easier match for him. As if that wasn't enough, they sent him out again to fight John Cena in a non-title match and Cena just beats the ever loving hell out of him and makes him look like one of the weakest wrestlers on the roster... the only good thing that came out of this was that the bell never rang and it was never considered an actual match. However, when your US champion requires three uses of his finisher to win the title from an injured opponent and then gets beaten unconscious by another wrestler within minutes that pretty much isn't the way to make him look like a credible champion. I almost added the RAW main event to this, but Swagger got hurt a lot more than anybody in that clusterfuck and therefore his treatment gets the nod here.





OLD SCHOOL WRESTLER OF THE WEEK

Barry Horowitz

This week we take a look at one of the most famous jobbers of all time, Barry Horowitz, and his impact in the World Wrestling Federation as well as several other companies through his career. You might be surprised to find out that Horowitz himself was able to become a champion, but where? Read on, fair reader.

Barry Horowitz began his wrestling life in college at Florida State University, studying sports nutrition while competing in various wrestling events. He was trained by the great Boris Malenko, Dean Malenko's late father, and put into the Florida independent circuit after an eighteen-month training period. His debut year was 1979, and he competed not only in Florida but also Canada and Puerto Rico as well.

Horowitz joined the Florida Championship Wrestling company as "Jack Hart" and defeated Mike Graham to become the NWA Florida Heavyweight Champion. He would lose it four months later to Kendall Windham, and would remain in FCW for two years while being managed by the future Paul Bearer himself Percy Pringle and Sir Oliver Humperdink. He would add the nickname "Stretcher" and compete in the Memphis territory, in which he'd basically use submission holds to "stretch" his opponents and put them in immense pain. After seeing tapes of his performances, he was brought into the WWF in 1987 with a new gimmick of wearing suspenders and a vest with a handprint on the back for him to pat himself at various times before and during matches, but rarely after!

Horowitz competed as an enhancement talent against a variety of competitors although primarily working as a heel against Jake Roberts, Bret Hart, Don Muraco, and many other current and future stars of the era. In 1990, Horowitz sustained a neck injury and was sidelined for a good ten months which set him back significantly but allowed him to enter the new Global Wrestling Federation in Texas, the same company where Sean Waltman would become famous and eventually get signed as the 1-2-3 Kid due to his work there. Now known as Barry "The Winner" Horowitz, he would actually compete in the light-heavyweight division and win time after time, including a victory over Jerry Lynn to become the GWF Light-Heavyweight Champion, lose the belt, but then win it back before losing it again. He stuck around until the GWF declared bankruptcy in 1992, although also he got his job back in the WWF working as an enhancement talent starting in 1991, and even competed in the 1993 Survivor Series as the Red Knight on Shawn Michaels' team.

In 1995, they finally decided to use Barry Horowitz beyond enhancement capability. At the time, the Bodydonnas were considered a tough heel tag team and Skip was an arrogant member of the group who just so happened to also be dating the gorgeous Sunny behind the scenes. Skip was put into a singles match against Horowitz, and on July 9, 1995 Horowitz actually would pin Skip to the shock of the crowd and Jim Ross, who began screaming, "Horowitz wins!" repeatedly. He would go on to pin Skip again at SummerSlam 1995, and became a lower card talent teaming with the newly face Hakushi and trying to Americanize him as best as possible. Horowitz came to the ring to a reworked version of the Jewish folk song "Hava Nagila" and would even join the Survivor Series again in 1995 in a losing effort along with Hakushi, Marty Jannetty, and Bob Holly to Skip, Rad Radford, Tom Pritchard, and the 1-2-3 Kid. Although he got over decently enough with the fans, he didn't win enough matches to catch any legitimate staying power and the company opted not to renew his contract in 1997, which took Horowitz along with many other stars at the time to WCW.

Horowitz really didn't accomplish anything in WCW, although he was there probably being paid an enormous sum of money for two years before leaving in the year 2000 to return to the independent wrestling scene. Yes, he actually quit WCW and was not fired by them! Horowitz began work as a nutritionist in 2005 and wrestles now and then on various wrestling cards in Florida and the nearby indy circuits. Horowitz was featured in a special article by WWE.COM on October 22, 2008 and even had a song made about him by rapper Action Bronson.

My Memories

Horowitz was never going to actually amount to anything, but he was the prototype for the more average wrestling star rather than the over-the-top muscle-bound powerhouse like a Hulk Hogan or Ultimate Warrior. At the time, Horowitz really stood out as a regular, average person with no special technical skill like Bret Hart had or that flamboyant showmanship that Shawn Michaels was able to use; he was simply a regular guy who tried his best and if he won, he won, but he usually ended up losing. The gimmick was never going to get over big time with anybody, and the WWF probably knew that but didn't care to try and adjust his run one bit.

A while ago on this particular site there was a Hidden Highlights column which used to run various special little kayfabe shout-outs during matches by specific wrestlers just to go above and beyond their duty in the ring. My Hidden Highlight of the Horowitz career was probably the moment I'd term "The Glasses" in which Horowitz was given a copy of a WWF contract to sign as a real competitor for the first time in his life. When he received it, he took out a small glasses case and put the glasses on to read the contract and it stuck in my head because usually, wrestlers at the time big or small were always portrayed as larger than life and better than the average human being. Horowitz using a pair of glasses like anybody else would have put him in a league of his own as just a regular person and sadly, his career went about as well as any regular person's career would go with almost no wins in the entirety of it. Horowitz was the first real attempt at an average joe wrestler with no chance of it succeeding, as everybody these days is a "Superstar" and has all these different moves and fancy techniques to win a match. Horowitz didn't, he was a simple man and he lost more than he won and thus he was more like an average fan than a wrestler, but that didn't resonate one bit with the fans as it might have hit too close to home. Dusty Rhodes might have been a "common man" but he was also around 6'2 and 300 lbs with a knockout elbow and could seemingly absorb endless amounts of punishment. Horowitz was the most realistic average wrestler ever because he *was* just the average wrestler, despite knowing a bit more than most of some good technical maneuvers. His finishers, mostly seen in the GWF, consisted of a bridging Northern Lights Suplex known as the "WinnerPlex" as well as a Texas Cloverleaf, a DDT, and a three-quarter nelson cradle which actually was taught very often in the 1910's and 1920's in catch wrestling training. As anybody who has ever competed in the amateur ranks can tell you, a three-quarter nelson is a legitimately painful move and can roll you up fast for a pinfall. While Horowitz had some good moves, he just didn't have anything special about him that stood out enough to make him a true WWF superstar.

And in a lot of ways, that's what made him special.

Take a look at Barry Horowitz in action, as he steps into the ring against the Blue Blazer during the beginning of Owen's first run in the company. Not only do they have a decent match but also you can see the value of having good commentators like Vince and Jesse there to call the action for you!







Take 5 will not be seen this week because of a special public service announcement that needs to be made.

Do you see that lovely picture up above? That is a sign that could very well appear not only on 411 but also on every website across America and throughout the world if a bill like the Stop Online Piracy Act passes Congress. I'm well aware a Republican brought the bill to the table but the Republicans have bad apples too just like the Democrats. For every Ronald Reagan there is a Lamar Smith, just like for every JFK there is an Anthony Weiner. Putting the partisan matters away for a minute, we need to remember just how important this situation is and how it can effect all of our lives.

Nobody should EVER have the power to regulate the Internet, under any circumstances whatsoever. What happens on the Internet is what happens regardless or perhaps because of everything in the real world that usually drives our thoughts and actions online. All of you who cry for me to get fired or die in the comments section deserve to make those statements because you truly feel that way, just like I'm allowed to make the retorts in the Good/Bad/WTF segment that I want to make because I feel that way. All of us deserve to have a place where we can sit and voice our true opinions without any interference from anybody, especially from politicians who barely even understand much about the Internet and seem to have forgotten that the digital age has already happened and they can't exactly roll back time no matter how powerful they deem themselves.

If legislation like SOPA passes, you might see that lovely picture across sites like Facebook, Google, Twitter, CNBC, FOX Television, ABC, NBC, CBS, CW, YouTube, and so many others. The crime could be a simple link to a site deemed as pirates by Congress and without due process, the site is taken down and anything linking to it is also taken down and a sign similar to that is put in its place. In fact, in a short period of time, that sign will probably be up on over 90% of the Internet sites because we ALL are guilty. You simply can't have a site that is all text because it is boring as hell to most of the Internet, and therefore we rely on pictures and videos to help entertain our readers. What if CBS linked to a site for a contest that had a link to one of those "pirate sites" operating offshore? All three get shut down. What if 411 uses a picture that a fan drew specifically for a 411 contest and then the fan goes to the court and says we used their picture unfairly? 411 goes down without due process and we can get sued for copyright infringement. Hell, I could claim somebody used a picture I used and without verifying it, the site will get shut down in a second. This is not the world I grew up in and I'm sure it isn't the world any of you want to grow up in either.

It is time to tell those Hollywood assholes and those greedy music industry pricks to shove it up their ass. They do not get to dictate to us how we see movies and how we listen to music. Even with the digital changes of $7 MP3 playlists instead of a $17 CD in a store or a $2.99 FIOS movie rental instead of paying $30 for a DVD, they still make hundreds of millions of dollars. In fact, they probably would make even more if they embraced the digital era and the Internet but instead, they don't want to change and it is costing them a lot of support. When the Wednesday SOPA protests took place, just about all the Republicans who had any support or sponsorship on SOPA and/or PIPA withdrew their support immediately. Several Democrats joined them, and as bad as I may view Obama even he refuses to support this legislation.

What can we all do to make sure these bills stay dead with no support? Keep your Congressmen's emails handy in case the discussion starts back up. Make sure you and your friends keep an eye on the headlines. Support anti-censorship measures around the country like the voluntary blackouts we saw on Wednesday. Anybody who supports the idea should lose your vote and your monetary support IMMEDIATELY. Also, if there is a "protest Hollywood" or "protest the music industry" day take part in it and skip giving money to the bastards as long as they continue to be unreasonable. Remember that big fuss about the light bulbs? The Republicans got us until October 1st this year to keep buying regular light bulbs and we may even see the act repealed outright or another extension granted. If both parties unite against SOPA and PIPA and anything like it, they don't stand a chance of advancing anywhere. One day made a world of difference, make sure if it happens again that all of you stand up and protest the way you did Wednesday.

If we don't, we may wake up one day to find that horrible sign on every site that we love and visit daily and letting that legislation get through without doing anything at all to stop it would be on our conscience forever.

And now, back to your regularly scheduled Sandwich. In order to restore our site, we're going to need somebody to overrule the United States government... Oh, wait; I know who can do that.



Thanks Eric! By the power vested in pop culture icons fictional and real alike, we return to the Sandwich!





The Good, The Bad, and The… WTF?

The Good

"Nice stuff Wes!

I could do without the conservative stuff, but whatever floats your boat.

Just a small point about UK TNA/WWE rating.

The claim that TNA only does higher numbers because it's on a more accessible channel is revealing in and of itself.

Why is WWE on a channel that does not get many viewers?

If WWE is so popular why wouldn't a channel that gets more viewers and more ad revenue from having more viewers pick up RAW?

WWE can't even claim that Raw is a relatively new show and are working on getting new viewers. Raw is almost 20 years old...Impact is a baby at 8 1/2.

Posted By: Babaloo (Guest) on January 14, 2012 at 12:10 AM"

Babaloo, as usual the answer is MONEY.

WWE wanted to be on a channel that ensured they would have the most revenue coming in in exchange for hours and hours of their programming. They signed the deal but the only time slot available was relatively late at night and therefore, the number of fans who could and WOULD stay up to watch their programming ended up low. In contrast, TNA took a free channel with a popular timeslot so more people could see them at the time most are already watching television. In the end, WWE wanted the money over the extra ratings while TNA is getting the extra ratings and the exposure to further deals down the line. Another brilliant move by the bean counters at the 'E, wouldn't you say?

This was commented on by Ronnie, who is no stranger to the column:

"This is a valid point.

Here's another one:

If TNA only gets more viewers in the UK because it's on a network that gets more viewers then I guess WWE only gets more viewers in the US because it's on a network that gets more viewers.

You have to be consistent.

So if TNA's higher ratings are due solely to being on a more watched network, then wouldn't WWE owes it's numbers to USA?

In 2010 (latest stats I could find in a cursory google search), USA was no. 1 in prime time basic cable ...Spike was no. 20.

Posted By: Ronnie (Guest) on January 14, 2012 at 02:29 AM"

Absolutely a valid point when discussing the ratings game. If you are on a poor quality network you can be #1 but it won't mean much of anything since nobody really watches it. TNA requires the brand awareness that can only come with years of experience and a good marketing team that thinks outside the box.

"Wes, I understand your reasoning about just looking at the ratings and comparing but you can't just look at the viewers and go off of that (actually, I guess you could do anything you want). Viewership went up for TNA and down for WWE but that's like saying the Pats went down from 15 wins to 11 and the Bucs went up from 2 wins to 6. Would you say the Bucs had a better year because they increased their record by 4 wins? That's the flaw that I see in your reasoning.

Posted By: The Big Fat F*g (Guest) on January 14, 2012 at 07:15 PM


Actually I think the flaw is in your reasoning. If Wes said the Bucs had more wins/TNA higher ratings then you would have a point. But that's not the case.

In business of any stripe, you look at trends as an indication of future performance. I'm not suggesting TNA is poised to surpass WWE anytime soon, but one cannot look at WWE's number and continue to believe that their outlook is what it once was. And TNA for all their problems, from a business standpoint, is consistently moving upward.

Maybe Wes is more strident than you or I would like, but the underlying reality is WWE is sliding backwards and TNA is slowly moving upwards. Based on the trend lines, I think that within 5-10 years TNA will be where WCW was in 1995, pulling even in ratings.

Posted By: Guest#3923 (Guest) on January 14, 2012 at 10:13 PM"

You both make some interesting points, so I included both.

TNA does not get higher ratings, but their viewership and ratings overall has increased over the last five years. WWE gets higher ratings, but their viewership and ratings both have decreased over the last five years. Again we're speaking solely at this point about the business behind "the business" and simply put TNA has a better resume on paper at the current time for having advancing ratings rather than declining ones. TNA may have many issues, but the fact they can claim to have gained in viewers and ratings when WWE cannot is a big deal to some networks, and might even be the ultimate reason TNA gets a better deal with a network in the top 10 someday!

"
At this point I am convinced that there is nothing TNA can do to get positive press on this website.

TNA has been really good since September during the finals matches of the BFG series and hasn't done anything stupid and BFG was great with the last few PPVs being good (even though FR and Genesis had bad endings they do fit Roode's character very well). So I'm confused on why people still hate TNA. Hell even Impact is 10Xs better than when most of 2010 and most of 2009. The matches are longer, TNA has been having great main event matches and I have to give Bruce Prichard props as TNA seems to be very cohesive at the moment.

So when people bash Impact every week I'm left wondering why? Is it because it's not the WWE? I just don't get it.

Let me segway into Wes Kirk. While I don't agree with the way Wes goes about everything in his column, I at least appreciate that he's given TNA a fair chance and doesn't go for the automatic TNA bashing literally every other writer on this site goes to (except for maybe Colin Reinhart)

He is like everyone that's on the TNA fan site I go to where he says what he likes, express what he doesn't but doesn't go on a bashing fest when TNA books something the way HE wants it to be booked. I like that.

I also like that he calls out people's bullshit and the guy gets a lot of bullshit on this site. Again I don't see the point in being passive when he gets crpaped on EVERY SINGLE WEEK. At some point I expect and person with a backbone to stand up and say "Hey fuck you this is my opinion column, I also have facts to back up my claims, so put up or shut up"

Now while if this were a political column me and Kirk would probably go back and forth all day over our differing views but as a fellow TNA fan I enjoy your column. Keep doing what no writer on this site does, give TNA a fair chance.

And if you don't think TNA is shitted on on this site understand that in wrestler of the week at least 2 writers don't watch TNA. Or that every year TNA is voted worst promotion off the bat. Or even more illogical that the 10 year old company is graded much, much harder than the 60 year old company that has went through 2 of the biggest booms in wrestling and has currently been on the decline for at least 5 years.

Posted By: Guest#1285 (Guest) on January 14, 2012 at 03:02 PM"

You have no idea how bad the anti-TNA sentiment around here really is, but the biggest number of all 1285 is that this column is regularly the top weekend column and, honestly, most weekdays as well. The anti-TNA columns draw far less, and this pro-TNA column draws far more. Why? Variety, my friend. To have more than one viewpoint on things is essential to have balance, and although you will disagree with me FOX News has both conservatives and liberals talking about the same issues while the other stations just have liberals and moderate liberals. FOX is #1 in the ratings, and the Sandwich is #1 in the ratings. Why? Because you get to see my point of view in addition to the usual anti-TNA crap that I try and dissect every week.

Most of the guys who rate the wrestler of the week DO NOT watch TNA regularly and some do not watch it at all and refuse to cover it no matter what. That is why the year-end awards will always have that massive bias because I am one man with one vote, ultimately. This is why the awards sometimes show WWE up on top then on bottom in another category that is similar, sometimes you see indy stars winning over the top two, and you see TNA crapped on endlessly. There is a very eclectic mixture of writers here although most don't care for and/or do not watch TNA on the regular basis like I do.

Unlike most, I do have a backbone and will fight back. How many other people can handle just what I went through in the last 9 months? The fact that I'm right more than I'm wrong makes the haters even angrier. That's how some people do things, they just try and attack the person because they can't attack the facts.




"I don't understand the deal about the Spike TV/low TNA ratings. I am not from North America, but explain one thing to me. When WWE was in TNN/Spike TV, it drew routinely over 3-3.5 even after the Monday Night Wars, so wrestling fans do have access to Spike TV. So how come now all of a sudden "potential wrestling fans don't want Spike TV and hence this is hurting TNA's ratings" things coming up from?

Posted By: Matthew (Guest) on January 14, 2012 at 09:27 AM


Some of it is the UK debate. WWE defenders say TNA only beats WWE because it's on a channel that gets more viewers. But if you apply the same logic in the US then WWE only beats TNA because it's on a channel that gets more viewers.

The reality is WWE and TNA benefit/suffer from the networks that broadcast their programs.

I think it's safe to say that WWE and TNA are at a point where they are only getting the hardcore fan who will continue to watch, no matter how good/bad the show, simply out of habit or because wrestling is in the title.

Since WWE is on USA, one of the most watched basic cable channels, one could argue that they have maximized their potential and will only increase viewership with improved programming.

TNA on the other hand is on Spike, one of the lower rated basic cable channels, so it could be argued that being on a network with greater exposure to the casual/lapsed fan, could lead to higher ratings.

It would be fair to say that TNA has much higher potential for growth than WWE, simply because they have not achieved full exposure to the market.

This is purely anecdotal (something more people on this website need to take in to account when spewing "facts"), but in a recent interview, Kevin Nash was relating how during his stint in TNA, people would approach him, assuming he had retired from wrestling.

Now many, including Nash, use this as proof of TNA being shit...but what it really proves is that TNA needs to be focused on brand awareness.

TNA's ratings are not necessarily a sole reflection on the quality of Impact, but rather the lack of brand recognition for TNA.

This is marketing 101...

Posted By: Douchy McDouchebag (Guest) on January 14, 2012 at 02:22 PM"

Very good, somebody else on this site took marketing classes!

SpikeTV can claim penetration in 95 million households but the most popular show (Impact Wrestling) is viewed by on average around 1.4 million people every week. USA actually numbers less, but draws higher ratings overall across the board. I'm not the first person to bring up how SpikeTV is actually hurting TNA with the lack of exposure outside of the channel, I'm just noticing that there's a pretty big trend of Spike doing poorly and people not watching any of its programming while USA has many shows that draw well.

I don't claim that if you put TNA on FOX, for example, you will automatically get a 4.0 every week with 5.5 million viewers but just remember when TNA went against WWE and it was advertised for January 4th, 2010 they received a 1.7 hourly rating which remains the record for hourly ratings on Impact. TNA lost in the ratings but with the marketing and publicity mostly generated by Hulk Hogan they drew their highest hourly number, showing that maybe 1.7 might be the MAXIMUM you can draw on Spike. I never see TNA commercials on channels other than Spike except maybe one or two times a year, how about anybody else? Same thing? That's why I say their marketing team needs to be fired and replaced with people who know something about it!

"Nice work Wes, on to my thoughts.

People actually think the Jericho return was awesome? the E-sheep will literally praise anything. Right Brodus? I feel Jericho's return so far has been pointless. What's a major return supposed to be? a major event, an impactful moment and so far Jericho's return hasn't been that. They say it's building to something, really? that sounds like an excuse.

Then we have Brodus, after 3 months of failing to deliver advertised debuts, he finally appears not as a prime monster as he was slated by a bad comedy character. I've even seen E-sheep say we're wrong for hating this shitty idea, WWE is trying something different, this is a good thing, WWE swerved us. Ha. Ha.

But I guarantee if TNA had done either of these concepts, TNA would have been shit on and the general feeling would have been TNA just set wrestling back 10 years. Biased much, people?

WWE Network: I wish WWE would just drop the whole idea, because WHEN this thing fails and it will fail, it's going to give WWE such a black eye it will take years for the stigma to be forgotten. Seriously how long did we have to listen to XFL jokes after that that shit the bed.

Agreed on Mark Henry, not a draw. He's a monster, monsters in general have never been draws. Monsters are built up to be served to the draws.

The thing that bothers me about some Impact reviews lately is that people proclaim giving away PPV rematches the show after a PPV is bad for business. Where was that claim during the Attitude Era when it was done quite often to great ratings success. Oh yeah, it was WWE and it was the most successful period ever. Anyone knocking that move would look like an idiot. Guess what people your still idiots.

Ah Mike Sharpe, my memories of Mike is him never shutting up during his matches :) and his arm brace. I wonder who had the slower healing injury Iron Mike Sharpe or Cowboy Bob Orton?

Ted DiBiase: I'm hoping Junior can gain some momentum in the E I like him. He has a better chance now not that he's not stuck with Cody Rhodes paperbagging him on a weekly basis.

That Dusty Rhodes, hard times promo is a real gem. I've seen it so many times now thanks to the greatest DVD set ever released: Ultimate Ric Flair Collection.

Masison Rayne: hot, talented, and hot. I'd be happy to "watch" her anytime.

Hogan & Sharpe in Japan! Japan was this odd bizzaro world where Hogan actually had work rate. I'd like to suggest the Hogan-Stan Hansen match from Japan. One of the wildest matches I've ever seen. It was like ECW way before ECW.

I'd also suggest a Motor City Machine Guns-American Wolves tag match from indy 2CW that was quite excellent.

PAC is awesome!

The exiting photo was FUCKING DISGUSTING.

Anyway Wes, take care and Kirk Nation stand up!

Posted By: Mister Mike (Guest) on January 14, 2012 at 04:59 AM"

Mike the proof is in the ratings that Jericho had an unsuccessful return. The past two weeks he appeared for the first two times since 2010 ratings for the second hour lost over 200,000 viewers. Brodus Clay is considered a massive failure by the average fans and they had to pipe in crowd noise for him on Smackdown. The only thing WWE swerved was the idiot fans that will pay money to McMahon even if he had a turd festering on a toilet bowl for two hours on television because they don't know anything else.

If TNA did it there'd be ten thousand articles about it and all the readers agreeing like the sheep they are. WWE does it, IT'S ORIGINAL AND THEREFORE ALWAYS A GOOD IDEA!

WWE Network is going to cost the WWE a significant amount of money unless they can manage to really get a solid group of subscribers who do not remove the network after a few months. Since they decided to push it back to the fall as they aren't even READY to put the network on, I'm predicting this thing won't last very long because McMahon has the same stubborn mindset as he did when he went through with WBF and XFL and we saw how that turned out. Vince, if OPRAH WINFREY failed at this you are likely going to fail as well!

Exactly the point. Henry is meant to be served up to the top face, not to become the top guy on the roster because he was employed for fifteen years and did nothing of note. So the World Title is a signing bonus if you stick around long enough?

WWE also has tons of rematches of a PPV match the next night. Nobody says a word! TNA does it and they have no idea how to run a business. Odd, the last five years have shown TNA gaining ratings and viewers while WWE has lost both in the last five years so I'm wondering which one really knows how to run a business.

I think the slowest healing rate is in the Orton family after seeing how fragile Randy turned out to be. Sharpe is a close second though!

Dibiase has a chance at being a breakout star and potential main eventer, I can see he has some significant skill but his charisma is a little lacking right now, although he seems to be getting more comfortable away from his father's gimmick. We shall see if things work out for him or not soon enough.

ECW took everything they had from Japan, my friend. It is well documented that ECW stole a lot of concepts and match ideas from Frontier Martial Arts Wrestling, or FMW, which was run by a man who learned about hardcore style wrestling from Jim Cornette after going overseas to America. Hayabusa, who ended up running FMW in the style of hardcore fights from the more over-the-top Southern brawling matches but even worse, was the original and ECW years later would basically not only use the same ideas but even bring in Hayabusa and some of the wrestlers to work matches. Whatever they did, Japan did it first and better.

You know who those two lovely rotund ladies were? The fuel behind the wet dreams of 90% of the people commenting here. The sad fact? They couldn't even date those two porkers if they tried!








The Bad

"This used to be a pretty annoying column, but its turned into one of the most consistantly entertaining self parody pieces on the site. It's so entertaining to watch you get so butthurt and angry and defensive whiel trying to overrate TNA and undercut WWE at every turn. It's pretty hilarious the way you get annoyed at anyone (vultures i think you call them) has an opinion against TNA funny stuff man keep it up.

Oh and if you changed channels during the jericho return, then you are an absolute liar, no one in their rigth mind changed channels, they wanted to see what was going ot happen, if you changed channels its because you wanted to just to spite wwe. it ses alot about wwe that even the biggest wwe hater will watch it, while most people hardly watch tna out of pure disinterest.

Posted By: gooched (Guest) on January 14, 2012 at 08:44 AM"

No one in their right mind would switch during Jericho's return? On both his actual return and the week after for the advertised follow-up, ratings dropped by over 200,000 viewers. That's a statistic and on the books whether you like it or not. This is an example of what I'm talking about when you have these people who will just say ANYTHING even if it is completely crap. Speaking of complete crap...

"lol @ Little Wesley totally backing down again.

He's so scared, it's gotten to the point that he's begging 411 Moderators to not even print my comments.

Posted By: Ice Dagger (Guest) on January 14, 2012 at 02:07 AM"

Ice, did you get in the lead paint chips again this morning? I don't even know who moderates the comments section because it is done for THE ENTIRE SITE, which means every news piece and every opinion column. If I were afraid of you why would I post your comments and make you out to be the idiot you are every single week? You provide me with amusement. I proved you factually wrong on two occasions and look forward to the third, my very unfortunate little dunderhead.

"Hey Wes. The college game was to blame, because it was the college national title game, LSU VS. Alabama. It was a big deal, the biggest college game of the year, and the last of the season. I bet that more people watched that game than the typical Monday Night Football NFL game. So yes, you very much showed your ignorance with that comment, Sir.

Posted By: Andis (Guest) on January 14, 2012 at 11:34 AM"

Who gives a crap? WWE will say ANYTHING that beats them is the reason their ratings went down. If everything makes you ratings go down, how good can you possibly be? They blame NFL, they blame college football, they blame this, they blame that, at what point will the WWE head office acknowledge it is their lack of a quality product that makes people tune out week after week with second hour losses? "the game is to blame" is the type of thought process that makes people believe they are just entitled to anything they want and if it goes wrong, it isn't their fault. They should start by looking inward.


The WTF

"We need to keep the government out of our private lives -- unless that means forcing women to have rape babies and outlawing contraception.

God wants us to be free -- that's why he gives us so many instructions on how to keep and punish our slaves.

Protesting Obama for bailing out Wallstreet is Patriotic -- protesting Wall Street makes you a filthy Marxist.

We need to stop all the big government spending -- unless its used to fight endless wars against -- both against foriegn nations and pot-smokers.

Global warming is just a myth propogated by the lamesteam media, there is NO evidence for it.

Tim Tebow threw for 316 yards -- this proves that the bible was written by an invisible man in the sky who will subject you to an eternity in flames if you don't obey him.

Individual states should have the rights and freedoms to deny individuals their rights and freedoms.

Wallstreet didn't create the recession by betting against America -- it was all those "blah people" and their desire to own homes.

MSNBC, PBS, CBS, ABC, BBC, NBC, CNN, C-SPAN, and NPR are all biased against me.

Posted By: REAL conservative (Guest) on January 14, 2012 at 11:39 AM"

Nice attempt at being a conservative, but you really have it all wrong.

I agree that women should be allowed to abort babies born out of rape or incest or if the child's birth endangers the life of one or both. Girls who just want to party at age 16 and don't want a kid shouldn't have had sex in the first place because it is about personal responsibility.

The Bible is not a manual for slavery. We are taught that whatever we do for the LEAST of our brethren we do for Jesus. I'd say most of the people on this site are the LEAST of any brethren. Seriously now, slaves?

Wall Street is all about the idea that if you are successful you get rewarded; if you fail you lose everything. That is how the real world works in capitalism. I don't agree with the bailouts, I do not agree with "too big to fail", and if Obama really had a spine he'd not have bailed out anybody on Wall Street since he seems to agree with his law-breaking friends the Occupy movement.

If we don't stop Iran from building a nuclear bomb (which is only invented for one reason: To use on somebody else in an act of war) either Israel or the US will probably be hit by one. You want to die that way because you wanted to protect the rights of a violent administration hell-bent on sending all of us to die because we're free Americans? People can smoke pot all they want, if they get caught they go to jail.

There really is no evidence for global warming, which is a gigantic myth perpetrated by climate change idiots who have conspired to prevent actual research and stop the publishing of counter-claims of a natural climate cycle, which makes more sense. See ClimateGate and the recent ClimateGate 2.0 for proof of that.

Tim Tebow is a great man, with values everybody should follow. However, Tom Brady is a great quarterback. Tim Tebow has class, but Tom Brady has style. That's why style wins, because nice guys finish last. And you only go to hell if you aren't sorry for the sins you commit, you should read more.

It isn't a freedom to be able to do drugs or commit prostitution in your own house. That's just unlawful period.

People don't get to own a house because they want one. If you are too stupid to handle the paperwork and the procedures, you shouldn't own a home. This country guarantees you certain things at birth and opportunities, as you get older, that's all that there should be. If you fail, it is your fault and you can live with an apartment instead of a house. Living beyond your means is the real reason people fell into this mess.

Yeah, how are the ratings for all those companies doing against FOX again? Oh, sorry, didn't want to put salt in the wound too deeply there.

Hey here's a list for a "real liberal" too:

- Promoting diversity is the right thing to do, even if we have to force schools and businesses to take in people of a certain ethnic background regardless of ability after the evil Republicans stopped people from being hired of a certain ethnic background regardless of ability.

- If you can't attack the argument a person puts up with facts, just call him every name in the book and a few that didn't make it in. If he does the same, cry "racist!"

- Slavery is all the fault of the Republican party, even though they actually were the only party to protect African-Americans and ended slavery under their first President Abraham Lincoln.

- Running places like California with our methods got us bankrupt, but it is the fault of the very society we bash and trash every single day to provide us with money all the time for anything we want because we live here.

- We believe 1% of the entire population of this country has the power to control 99% of the country and it is perfectly acceptable to try and dictate how that 1% of the country should live the way we accuse them of dictating how the 99% of people in this country live.

- Global warming exists because we say it does, and if you challenge us we'll show our facts and figures by having you banned from publishing anything against our theory or discredit you as a human being instead of fighting the facts.

- Even though solar and wind have been proven abysmal failures, the government owes it to us to keep funding it despite the fact it has been proven an abysmal failure.

- Electric cars are way better than gas cars even if electric cars catch on fire and end up using gas just as much as a regular car.

- Our style of government has been used for 500 years and failed in every single case, which is why America needs to become socialist to prove the last 500 years was just a big fluke.

Sound about right?








Randle pontificates in The Wrestling News Experience

Cook bloviates in News From Cook's Corner

See you next week, if you're lucky!