The Wrestling Sandwich 02.04.12

Posted by Wes Kirk on 02.04.2012

Thoughts on Chris Jericho being passed over to win the Royal Rumble in favor of Sheamus, TNA's London episode of Impact, the latest predictions for WrestleMania 28's card, preliminary buyrates for WWE TLC, a retrospective of the Junkyard Dog and more!



We've had an eventful week here in the wrestling world with the Royal Rumble once again going to somebody who never won the event before and all the weekly action that followed, but I would like to point one thing out. I believe that WWE seriously made a mistake allowing Mark Henry to compete injured because as we all know by now, last week on Smackdown he hurt his knee trying to throw a punch due to the fact he's already working through a groin injury. I've often said I am a fan of safety first and that wrestlers shouldn't work while hurt and the fact he got injured working with an injury already is more proof that the WWE schedule is too rigorous. One look at the injury list in Randle's column shows a good number of people out for legitimate problems whereas with TNA there are fewer despite the higher risk style. Mark Henry, Alberto Del Rio, Christian, Rey Mysterio, Sin Cara, and Ted Dibiase are all injured at the present time while on TNA the injury list basically reads Chris Sabin for full time performers, and Flair and Sting are both day-to-day with a shoulder and heel injury respectively. Odd, for a company that puts on the safest wrestling on the planet more of their guys are hurt than the people who risk their life and limb every week with amazing high-risk moves such as the X-Division guys! Maybe there is something after all to that whole two-day schedule that, you know, lets people get healed up? Mark Henry really needs a few months off and frankly he deserves it, although I may not be a fan of his work he shouldn't have to work with TWO injuries at his size and age period. Sheamus was the original pick of the Sandwich to win the Rumble, although in the Roundtable I chose Chris Jericho so WWE could drop the ball on him yet again by having him come in at #29 and lose. In Fact or Fiction I had Randy Orton picked unless he was hurt, and it appears he isn't quite 100%, as he didn't last too long in the Rumble.

Some Royal Rumble stats for you interested:

Rumble IronMan: The Miz (a bit over 45 minutes)
Most Eliminations: Mick Foley and Cody Rhodes
A. Foley eliminated Primo, co-eliminated Justin Gabriel, Epico, and Santino. Yep, Foley tossed both tag team champions.
B. Cody Rhodes eliminated Mick Foley, Jerry Lawler, Hacksaw Jim Duggan, and both Khali and Booker with assistance from Miz.

So, based on those numbers, Cody Rhodes is the man with the Most Eliminations with Mick Foley in second place.

The larger men didn't do all that well in this Rumble. Big Show only had three eliminations and Khali only had two! Meanwhile Cody had what you could call four eliminations (three and one-half for both Khali and Booker make four) and even Santino got an elimination, tossing Ricardo Rodriguez. The men with no eliminations in the match include Alex Riley, R-Truth, Primo, Epico, Justin Gabriel, Ricardo Rodriguez, all three announcers, Jinder Mahal, Ezekiel Jackson, Hacksaw Jim Duggan, Road Dogg, Hunico, Kofi Kingston, Jey Uso, David Otunga, and Jack Swagger. So in essence 18 men couldn't eliminate anybody but Mick Foley in 2012 gets credited with three and a half eliminations including both tag team champions. Lovely!

Winning number: 22 (Sheamus)

Runner-up number: 29 (Jericho)

Final Four: Big Show, Randy Orton, Chris Jericho, and Sheamus. Orton came in at #28 and only lasted a few minutes, which may be an indication he is yet to be 100% healed or just a victim of the Hometown Loser Syndrome in which everybody loses in their hometown because it is good for business.

RAW was pretty hilarious to watch as a lot of people thought it was a massively good show, which featured the following booking stupidity:

- During the Orton/Ziggler match, most of the time was spent showing a split-screen with Josh Mathews asking questions to Wade Barrett.
- John Laurinitis presumably remains GM for the time being but it was a waste of time to not have a definitive answer before UT came down to the ring to challenge that gutless son-in-law-from-Hell
- Eve got killed with one wrestling move after having pinned both Natalya and Beth multiple times. Yep, makes a lot of sense that somebody who is not emotionally right in the head would lose to one single move after getting angry.
- Jericho ends a match by causing Bryan to win by DQ and hits Punk with a Codebreaker, despite the fact he's already in the Elimination Chamber. So, this was what he came back for? So far there is no real payoff.

Because of this, the lovely WWE fans here at 411 went absolutely bonkers for the show and Acero appeared to have a heart attack while hitting the * button for every match on the show repeatedly outside Eve vs. Beth. Nope, no bias on this site! Odd, Larry ranked Genesis and the Rumble both a 5 out of 10 although in my view Genesis was underrated by several points. I agree with him 100% on the Rumble as I did decide to watch it after all and well, I wasn't happy I did.

Last week some readers poured in with information in regards to global warming and how it is real and how we're causing all this and that but something rather interesting happened on the night of the Royal Rumble: Numbers were released by East Anglia University's CRU department and the U.K's Met Office that proved out of 30,000 temperature stations all across the world, the last fifteen years saw NO GLOBAL WARMING WHATSOEVER. While the Met Office has since claimed that is not true, the data from their site and from the CRU show definitely that no warming has occurred since 1997 and therefore, the theory is dead. You guys hear me? 15 years of no warming globally. That means that the very people you thought would find proof for it now officially DEBUNK your THEORY! Sorry kids, you backed the wrong horse. Therefore, all the mail received about global warming that I originally had replied to is no longer on the table since the theory has been disproved. Check it out, idiots:













Top Stories of the Week!

1. Weekly Ratings Roundup

TNA Impact Wrestling - 1.1, 1.5 million viewers - (same rating, slightly less viewership)
WWE Smackdown - 2.1, 3.1 million viewers - (down from last week slightly)
WWE RAW - 3.5, 5.2 million viewers - Hour 2 dropped again (Significantly up from last week)

TNA Impact Wrestling was able to retain the same rating although only a little less viewership than the week before, while Smackdown had a small drop as well with the main event of Big Show vs. Mark Henry that lasted all of fifteen seconds. RAW was the big ratings winner with a 3.5 and an average of around 5.2 million viewers for the two hours although this was the second worst post-Rumble rating in six years and viewers continued to abandon the show in the second hour:

1/29/07 Raw - 4.17 rating, 5.45 million viewers
1/28/08 Raw - 3.87 rating, 5.71 million viewers
1/26/09 Raw - 3.60 rating, 5.17 million viewers
2/1/10 Raw - 3.63 rating, 5.29 million viewers
1/31/11 Raw - 3.48 rating, 5.28 million viewers
1/30/12 Raw - 3.55 rating, 5.22 million viewers

The 2012 post-Rumble RAW was the second lowest in the last six years, with the lowest rating being the year before. Numbers don't lie, people do! The list clearly shows a drop in both viewership and ratings over the years with the worst viewership being in 2009 after Randy Orton's Rumble victory and the worst rating being a 3.48 in 2011 after Alberto Del Rio's Rumble victory. Undertaker's Rumble win pulled in the highest rating with a 4.17 while the most viewers tuned in after John Cena's surprise 2008 Rumble entry and win. Overall a good weekly rating but poor compared to the other five entries on that particular list. The real test will be what does RAW have to do to score a consistent 3.4 or 3.5 average in the weeks to come? And could the hype actually end up driving people away if it is overdone? Only the next few weeks can determine that.

WWE Inbox, the newest "WWE Original Show" on YouTube, has drawn only 32,372 views on its debut episode as of Wednesday night. Oh, you want more ratings?

WWE Download with Dolph Ziggler - 4,400 views as of Feb 2nd, 2012
Santino Marella's "Foreign Exchange" - 11,864 views as of Feb 2nd, 2012
Outside The Ring featuring the Uso's cooking a Samoan meal (ripoff of a Tuesday Night Titans skit) - 3,867 views
WWE NXT for Jan 25, 2012 - 18,336 views

WWE YouTube Total Subscribers: 351,778 (as of Feb 2nd, 2012)

Other notable YouTube videos:

Street Dancer vs. Baby Mortal Kombat video: 1,482,377 views
Ke$ha Tick Tock cover by an obese girl - 740,321 views
Fat Gay Guy Singing Tick Tock - 184,181 views

...Perhaps WWE might not be doing as well as it thinks it is. Ah, but the good news is that at least it beats Connie Chung's interview with Newt Gingrich's mother right?

Connie Chung Interview With Newt Gingrich's Mother: 28,680 views (beating all but WWE Inbox)

What do you know, I guess we finally found something that WWE can attempt to compete with on YouTube!




PPV News:

- WWE's TLC PPV is estimated at 182,000 buys. That number, if accurate, is down from 2010's 195,000 buys which itself was down from 2009's 228,000.

Not good news for TLC or the WWE but it is hardly a surprise as the show quality has been downhill for years. The interesting fact is that in 2009 the recession was hitting everybody hard and yet almost 230,000 people shelled out money for the show but not anymore! But of course, the economy is doing oh so much better with Kodak and American Airlines filing for bankruptcy recently, right? Gotta love election year spin.

Another unfortunate situation for WWE PPV's is that Buffalo Wild Wings restaurants will not be showing them anymore unless individual franchises wish to pay the brand new cost for a PPV license per show. WWE has decided in these difficult times to raise the price from $200 to an incredible $700 per PPV per store! The chain is dropping the PPV license as a result and only individual stores can choose on their own expense if they wish to show the events. See how that one RAW rating means shit in the total grand scheme of things?




2. TNA Impact Quick Recap

1. Buckingham Rules (Non-Title, winning team has both men in the ring at all times while losing team of a coin toss must tag in traditionally) Samoa Joe and Magnus defeated Crimson and Matt Morgan when Magnus pinned Morgan after the snap-mare into a second rope elbow drop. ***
2. Non-Title: Austin Aries defeats Mark Haskins via submission by the Last Chancery (bridging front facelock with arm-trap) ***
3. Robert Roode defeated James Storm with a spear ***1/2
4. Non-Title: Tara defeated Gail Kim with the Widow's Peak ***
4. James Storm defeated Bully Ray with the Last Call superkick ***

Best Booking of the Night: Overall, this show was just on big time!

Worst Booking of the Night: None.

My colleague Greg DeMarco said it best that TNA hit a home run with this particular show in London because it was really fun to watch and a lot of old-school psychology and techniques were used tonight in addition to some nostalgia and of course the traditional great wrestling that TNA Impact provides every week.

You could tell the fans were legitimately pleased to be there and the wrestlers had a little extra motivation, because things were going well from the opening segment all the way to the end. Rather than having piped in crowd noise throughout half the show, the fans were reacting to everything and believing the near-falls time after time like a good crowd usually does. In the past I've criticized WWE for having crowds that sit on their hands and the difference of this crowd against the average Smackdown crowd is absolutely stunning in how interactive the England crowd was for their #1 rated wrestling show, Impact!

I agree, also, with DeMarco that Impact needs more shows on the road with live crowds, although I'd recommend a healthy amount of "at-home" shows as well while expanding outward. They seem to be headed in that direction and I'd recommend going live in traditional wrestling hotspot cities that usually have excellent reactions. Tonight felt a lot different and it wasn't just the set of the cameras following from the side as wrestlers walked down the aisle, it simply seemed that people were on their game a lot more. Hulk Hogan also gave TNA a massive endorsement by saying nothing is going to stop it from being the top wrestling company ever when he made his return.

I like the concept of Buckingham Rules as I think it has the potential if used here and there to revitalize some of the same old spots in tag team wrestling and spice things up. The idea is that both teams have a coin toss and whoever loses that coin toss ends up facing BOTH guys in the ring at once while having to tag with their partner the traditional way. This means two-on-one is legal, and can really change the dynamic. The two teams worked the rules out well and the heels took great advantage and put this concept out there as a possible gimmick match to be worked again and again through the years.

The Knockouts, our highest rated segment of the show usually, hit another home run with Tara and Gail Kim getting time to put on a better wrestling match than most of the men from their competition. We found out tonight that there is indeed a Fatal Fourway involving Roode, Bully Ray, Storm, and Jeff Hardy for Against All Odds, which once again is going to be a huge test for Bobby Roode. Storm's wrestling two very good matches in one night and going a total distance of at least TWENTY-EIGHT MINUTES during the broadcast shows he's a prime time player. Samoa Joe and Magnus have their title shot, Roode has three opponents, Austin Aries and Alex Shelley both got to show off their skill in the ring in two good matches the last two weeks, and frankly the show is looking good.



3. WrestleMania Card Predictions

1. WWE Title: CM Punk vs. Chris Jericho
2. World Title: Daniel Bryan vs. Sheamus
3. IC Championship: Cody Rhodes vs. Goldust
4. Streak on the line: Undertaker vs. Triple H for a third time
5. The Rock vs. John Cena
6. MITB interbrand match
7. Diva's Championship: Beth Phoenix vs. Kharma

With the loss of the MITB bank in the list of PPV shows recently released it appears as if there will likely be another MITB match at WrestleMania involving three or four guys from each of the two brands that aren't really brands anymore. Kharma's return makes a match against Phoenix likely as all hell for WrestleMania, Rock/Cena are already slated since last year and Sheamus is guaranteed a main event shot, HHH/UT is based off of RAW's staredown and Cody/Dustin is still being built. Jericho and Punk got started also on Monday although it was one hell of a stupid way to make Jericho look like a threat when he could have won the Rumble. I guess he's winning the title at Mania! Looks like a big time pass on this show because frankly the only match of remote interest would be Rock and Cena and only because we all want Cena to turn heel and Rock to kick his ass. Jericho/Punk looks like the pick for singles match of the night and MITB will likely rate highly as well.

4. WWE Lies Keep On Comin'

John Laurinitis stated that Monday Night RAW's ratings for 2012 were up from last year (2011) and that is fact. Lawler agreed on commentary and it appeared this was supposed to be a legitimate comment. Well, bullshit as usual.

2011 First Four RAW's

Jan 3-7: 3.08
Jan 10-14: 3.07
Jan 17-21: 3.28
Jan 24-28: 3.29

Average: 3.179

2012's First Four RAW's

Jan 2-6: 3.11
Jan 9-13: 2.86
Jan 16-20: 3.0
Jan 23-27: 3.17

Average: 3.034








Smartest Thing of the Week: TNA Goes To England For Maximum Heat

One of the things that truly stands out from the usual Thursday night wrestling show is this particular edition of Impact from London, England, which is traditionally a great wrestling city that appreciates good matches. A lot of people complain that the Orlando crowd seems bored and generally not too pleased to be there, but the London crowd was hot all night long and interested in being seen and heard throughout the night. TNA played to an audience they are #1 in right now and got a great show and great crowd out of it, and it definitely looked like a better pitch to the casual fan than the crowd from the last few weeks. TNA does need to get out more, so to speak, and be seen in other countries and also in parts of the United States that have very few shows, if any, for maximum effect. It seemed that everything was on this week and everything that could go right for TNA did on this night.





Dumbest Thing of the Week: Sheamus Wins The Royal Rumble Over Jericho


Really? This was the best you could do? You had the chance to catapult somebody such as Chris Jericho to the Royal Rumble victory that they have been denied their entire career and you choose HHH's workout buddy to take home the win instead, a man who already has had two heavyweight title runs and has already been in the big matches for over two years? Personally, I think Jericho deserves it more since this may be one of his final Rumbles before retirement but whatever. Sheamus is actually an entertaining guy but I hate the fact he's basically gotten as far as he has thanks to HHH's influence backstage rather than working his ass off his entire career like Jericho to get noticed. Sheamus as the winner only shows the world the message that homegrown WWE stars will always do better in the end than anybody part of a different company for a significant length of time, even if that person jumped ship to join up with WWF/WWE. The last time somebody not heavily involved with the company from day one won the Rumble was Rey Mysterio in 2006, prior to that it was Chris Benoit in 2004 and Lex Luger co-winning in 1994. Three people, two who switched companies and one who joined after WCW was bought out (Mysterio) by WWE. Good job, guys.



OLD SCHOOL WRESTLER OF THE WEEK

The Junkyard Dog

The Junkyard Dog was one of the most recognizable figures in the WWF for years, paving the way for African-American wrestlers with his unique style and world famous finishing move known as The Thump as well as being one of the first wrestlers to sing his own theme song on Piledriver: The Wrestling Album.

The Junkyard Dog, born Sylvester Ritter, did not start out as a wrestler when he began his athletic career. He actually was a football player from Fayetteville State University and a member of their Sports Hall of Fame with two All-American honorable mentions and graduated with a political science degree. The Green Bay Packers selected him to play in the NFL, but knee and back surgeries ended his career before it really got started. JYD decided to attempt his skill in wrestling instead and began working in the Tennessee territory under Jerry Jarrett.

After working for Nick Gulas, he changed his ring name to Leroy Rochester before going to Stampede Wrestling as "Big Daddy" Ritter where he won the North American Heavyweight Championship twice, deciding to move on again to the Mid-South Wrestling region where "Cowboy" Bill Watts gave him the name of Junkyard Dog. He would have the trademark steel chain with a dog collar and white boots, but at first he also pushed a junk cart to the ring and lost matches as an enhancement talent before catching on with the fans and became a top face, even feuding with such groups as the Fabulous Freebirds who once blinded him with hair cream! At the time, JYD's wife was legitimately giving birth and the storyline included JYD being unable to see his new daughter, which caused the Freebirds to require police escorts from the angry fans. JYD also would feud with Kamala, Ted Dibiase, King Kong Bundy, and Butch Reed although his feud with Dibiase was the most notable as it revolved around a Dibiase heel turn on JYD and beating him in a loser-leaves-town match with a loaded glove that Dibiase used to use in his matches. Naturally enough he returned under a mask as Stagger Lee and nobody could prove who was under the mask, and when the stipulation time had expired JYD came back and became the North American Heavyweight Champion. He would also feud with Butch Reed as Reed was his protégé who turned on him, starting a series of "ghetto street fights" and dog collar matches as well as two-out-of-three falls matches and even the occasional steel cage. While still in a heavy feud with Reed, the WWF came calling and JYD headed up north.

In late 1984, JYD entered the WWF as a face. JYD began dancing with the kids in the crowds, which got him over pretty well with the fans. The very first WWF pay-per-view that year, The Wrestling Classic, featured JYD winning over "Macho Man" Randy Savage to take the victory in a tournament. He would go on to feud with several wrestlers such as King Harley Race, The Funks, Adrian Adonis, Greg Valentine, and also against "Outlaw" Ron Bass when Bass choked him out with Miss Betsy, his whip, after JYD threatened him with a steel chain. The two wouldn't battle very long, however, as JYD was on his way out to the NWA. Beforehand, however, JYD would record the famous song "Grab Them Cakes" as his theme song, replacing Queen's "Another One Bites The Dust" that he'd used prior. JYD never became a champion in the WWF and seeing his chances for a title were pretty much gone, he went to the NWA.

In 1990, JYD competed with Ric Flair over the NWA World Championship belt and was also a member of the Six-Man Tag Team Champions with Tommy Rich and Ricky Morton. JYD wouldn't find any singles success in terms of championship belts, however, and he'd basically be used primarily as a veteran to mentor younger wrestlers and job to the more established talents. JYD decided to call it a career in 1993 and retired from the top leagues although he would remain active in the independents and also trained Rodney Mack and Jazz.

On June 2nd, 1998, Sylvester Ritter was found dead in a single-car accident from falling asleep at the wheel the same night as his daughter's high school graduation. He would be posthumously inducted into the WWE Hall Of Fame on March 13, 2004 with his daughter LaToya and sister Christine accepting on his behalf and Ernie Ladd inducting the Dog.

My Memories

I was never a huge fan of the Junkyard Dog as at the time I was more interested in the antics of Randy Savage and Roddy Piper but the Dog was pretty over in the WWF and a lot of people were interested in his career. I remember seeing JYD on Hulk Hogan's Rock'N'Wrestling every weekend around Superstars time and of course in the ring against various opponents through the years, and later on in the NWA I recall he was involved in a few angles but they were mostly forgettable. I think it is a shame he never won a title in the WWF or was allowed to finish his career there, but JYD seemed to be more interested in entertaining the people than winning a title belt. I remember him beating the hell out of Harley Race and stealing his crown and cape in the WWF, but that was about the only real success he had outside of his Wrestling Classic tournament victory.

Speaking of that particular win, let us relive the moment with the 1984 Wrestling Classic tournament final featuring the Junkyard Dog taking on "Macho Man" Randy Savage!

Part 1:

Part 2:







The Good, The Bad, and The… WTF?

The Good

"Wes, I do have to admit that I did agree with you on the WWE's misleading on the did you know claim. While I love watching smackdown, there's no way that they could have had better ratings, even total ratings, than the NBA doubleheader that night of Lakers-Magic and T'wolves-Clippers. I normally don't agree with you on a lot of WWE ratings stuff but even I found that a bit odd when the WWE posted that.

Now I will admit that TNA does go up against some tough competition on Thursdays but most of those shows you mentioned, including Jersey Shore, are not TNA's competition for a good chunk of the year. Especially when those shows are either in reruns or their seasons are over. I would still contend that the WWE has stiffer competition for ratings, especially on Mondays with Raw.

Posted By: The Hodge (Guest) on January 28, 2012 at 02:03 AM"

Hodge, basically the WWE is one of those companies who will use various tidbits to promote themselves even if it is straight out lying. That's what lawyers are for, to find ways to word things so they can lie on television and get away with it. Most people don't even bother thinking about it anymore, but I don't like companies that lie. TNA doesn't say they are bigger than Jesus or talk about how much better their ratings are than WWE, they just stick to the product and let the fans make their own judgment.

TNA does have stiff competition Hodge but most of the real problem is the fact SpikeTV is seen by so few people and it almost never ranks in the top 25 networks. To be #1 on a network with around 1.6 million viewers is not the way to get your name out there. When I was watching various shows this past week WWE had ads EVERYWHERE for the Royal Rumble. TNA almost never has an ad outside of SpikeTV and frankly, the faster they bolt out of Spike and to a network that gets watched more often the better.


"I agree with you Wes, this year we really need to support our favorite wrestling companies. The industry has sucked since wcw went out of business. I think Impact since after Bound for Glory has been lights out great. What do you think?

Also what do you think of Brutus Beefcakes recent comments

"He was trying to help them. In my opinion, they seemed to want to make a difference at first, but then it seemed like they just didn't want to win. Hulk's a guy who wants to make a difference and wants to win, you know? And once he realized that they didn't want to win, and all they want to do is make an event and have a little piece of the little corner of the market and be satisfied with that, he's just had to say "Okay, if that's what you want then that's what you're gonna get." It doesn't look good, but I wish him the best."

Posted By: The Man (Guest) on January 28, 2012 at 08:17 AM"

I think TNA has been listening to the fans because lately we've been getting a lot more wrestling and a lot less talk. Frankly, Smackdown is de-evolving into the show people accuse Impact of being and Impact is becoming known as "the wrestling show" especially for women and the X-Division. It is interesting how the main complaint was not enough wrestling and now every week they are throwing up 15-20 minute matches!

Unfortunately I'm not able to read Dixie Carter's mind, and it might be possible that TNA doesn't want to be too big too fast because some companies die under the pressure. I think TNA is of the opinion they will not top WWE soon unless WWE loses enough viewers, so right now they are focusing on building awareness and interest in the product. I have very rarely found Hulk Hogan's comments lately to have much truth to them, he is known for spinning a few yarns so I'd take what Brutus said as well with a grain of salt or two. You don't go against WWE head-to-head now, what you do is you build a base and get interest in your product and start hitting them overseas (which is what they are doing) and then negotiate a good deal with a better network once your ratings hit around Smackdown level and go direct against Smackdown LIVE each week. After a couple of years of that, if your audience is big enough you hit back against WWE RAW live every week like with the Monday Night War. But all of these things won't happen for years to come, so right now we need everybody to support TNA and even WWE if you really like it and keep wrestling alive and perhaps we'll have a supercard someday!


"Best column on the 411, you and Bill O'reilly are great, tell the truth with Balance

Posted By: Guest#3691 (Guest) on January 28, 2012 at 08:28 AM"

That's actually a very nice compliment to be compared to Bill O'Reilly, and for that you are a perspicacious individual!

"Wes, let's face reality - in order for a WWE-TNA invasion angle to work, both companies would have to be portrayed on equal footing with each other. If Vince wouldn't do that for WCW, a company that was around almost as long as WWE was, do you really think he'll do that for a company that's been around for only a decade?

Posted By: abwiz74 (Guest) on January 28, 2012 at 12:20 PM"

I actually LOVE this question and that's why I put it in The Good section.

The major difference is that WCW tried to kill off WWF and put them out of business. TNA is not trying to end the existence of the WWE; they are trying to provide an alternative to the show. Dixie Carter probably does not wake up with notes around her computer reading "KILL WWE!" or anything personal against Vince, so I think honestly a lot of the reason WCW was so badly buried was the massive ego of McMahon had to get even once he bought the company and don't think he didn't make a beeline for that phone when he found out WCW needed a buyer so fast he set a land speed record. McMahon is very well known for letting emotions get in the way of common sense time after time.

Dory Funk Jr. used to have a saying in regards to promos that you always talked up your adversary because if you make them look good in a promo and beat them in a match you accomplished something. If you make your opponent sound like a worthless bum, all you do is beat a worthless bum! There is money to be made if WWE were to take TNA seriously and promote them as a serious threat unlike with WCW. Frankly, with how poor the business is these days McMahon should seriously consider the Flair/HOF situation as a starting point to work with TNA and produce an angle where TNA challenges WWE on their own television shows for the status of best wrestling company in the world. If done properly, they could spread out matches on three events such as WrestleMania, Bound for Glory, and a special one time only PPV featuring WWE vs. TNA matches to decide the winner definitely. This would make numbers for both companies go up, the profit to increase, and the fans to have something better to watch.

...But if you book TNA as a bunch of bums in the minor leagues who get fluke victories if any, then the idea is dead as soon as it begins. At this point, if you want to make money in wrestling better than slightly less than the year before as WWE is getting it is time to break out the big guns and make an offer to people in Orlando, putting your ego aside because everybody will benefit from that.


"Nice column, time for some more friendly words from Europe.

This marks maybe the best column i've ever read from you, the State of Wrestling was inspirational, even though I find myself repeatedly skipping the Ratings and the "Did you know?" - part, not because of your writing, but because:
a) ratings aren't as important in Germany, so I tend not to care
b) whoever thinks there is one ounce of truth in DYK?-skits should really take care not to buy any magic beans from strangers (That, however, holds true for 90% of everything ever written about a company by itself)

On the political side, you might remember that I share a lot of respect for every kind of conservative lifestyle, even though i tend to vote for more socially engaged parties, because the approach is a logical one: if something has worked once as a way of dealing with problems, it will probably work again. Now, if you have a lot to lose should said problems not be fixed, you tend to be really, REALLY careful with trying something new, as opposed to all those people who don't have anything to lose and can demand all kinds of crazy stuff. Some random views to what's on tab this week:

I do believe in fair taxation, you seem pretty annoyed by overpaid athletes, so I'm pretty sure you wouldn't want to cut their taxes, right? (I shouldn't go overboard on US taxes though, not really an expert...)

We just got a tax cut in Germany and people are offended because we are facing financial collapse, not really an opportune moment for such stuff. And now hold on and guess which bunch of jackasses damanded said idiotic tax cut? Our very own LIBERALS, voted into our government with over 15% (that's pretty much around here) and now resting at 2-3% approval (that's abysmal around here).

If you think global warming fans are annoying, try talking about that in europe, where BS like that has made it into common pseudo-knowledge, and even the most diehard-conservatives aknowledge it. We just got a huge train station delayed because of that useless-safe-the-nature actionism, suffice to say that stuff like that costs billions...

Random thought: Could PG be the reason for the second-hour RAW drops? If you make television for 12-year-olds, you shouldn't complain about them having to go to bed, right?

Random question: Why precisely do you label the dumbest thing of the week with a picture of randy orton? granted, headlocks are dumb, but i think orton came to his senses some time around the christian-feud... maybe you should update it to zack ryder and the tire or the cole challenge?

As always, apologies for typos, looking forward to the writing contest, i'm a sucker for watching disasters unfold ;-)

Keep it up, I'm rooting for you

Posted By: Matt86 (Guest) on January 28, 2012 at 03:59 PM"

Danke sehr, Matt! Public relations are pretty much a huge joke around here as every company makes you think they are the best company ever made if you listen to their crap. Domino's was the first to really break out and say they did something wrong and it was so refreshing it really got noticed around the world. WWE could use a little humble pie.

While I do not have great respect for the idea that somebody can work half a year and get paid 50 million dollars to throw and catch a ball, in America if you are able to get a job and you legitimately earn your money by working hard at what you do that is your money. I have no beef with those who are better off than me because in this country I have an opportunity to become as rich as they are, thankfully. As I outlined last week my main concern is in repealing ridiculous job-killing legislation and taxing everybody fairly, because if anything the rich pay TOO much in taxes here. When a low single digit percentage of the population is paying more than half the collected tax revenue, that's just not right and it isn't fair for those who worked hard to get it.

I do not know the major economic situation in Germany but I do know that under Merkel your country is one of the few to be spared the major problems of the other European nations. Germany is still a stable economy and might have to bail out the whole EU eventually! The only people who should get tax breaks in a bad economy are the job creators, and that's about it. Lower taxes and lower "punishment for success" will result in them putting in millions whereas before they would sit on their hands like they are doing now in America.

Global warming is one of the great myths that sit around as proof because people say it is proof. The real situation is that we don't have any conclusive evidence man causes temperatures to rise or lower, and many do not want to believe that. I stand by my belief that things right now are part of the natural climate cycles that our planet goes through all the time unless those "models" are proven correct, and I doubt they will be since so far they haven't been able to reproduce them in the real world.

The second hour drop could be that, but in all likelihood it is the product. The reason is the second hour hasn't dropped before recently and now it is nearly every single week, which indicates lowered interest, as do the ratings. Around this time in 2010 RAW was doing better with viewership and ratings, and in 2009 as well, and so on it goes.

The Randy Orton "STUPID" picture is part of a situation that happened on RAW a while back when Randy Orton was still a heel and he was wrestling Kofi Kingston. Kofi screwed up a move and Orton yelled "STUPID, STUPID, STUPID!" at him so loud cameras picked it up. Because of that, it pretty much has been the picture since the column came to be in March 2011. I might update it this March with a picture of the XFL!

Stay tuned for that writing contest Matt. It is win/win for Sandwich fans, believe me.

"my rumble thoughts...cant wait to see your breakdown...

the show was such a disappointment! the cage match was ok, but the rest was terrible, sure their were some really nice moments in the punk/ziggler match, but it was overbooked, and it left ziggler looking pathetic...on top of that the recent punk/ziggler raw match was way better...so everything up to the rumble felt like it should have been on raw, not on a $50 ppv! now on to the rumble, it was just so boring... it was full of a bunch of midcarders & nobodys, their were almost no credible contenders...and most of the match was more of a bad comedy act than a fun rumble match...you know its bad when king, jim duggan, & road dogg get the biggest reactions in 2012...(and im not one to hate on aged talent, to me some of them still have a place on wrestling shows, just not full time) and why have the whole announce table in the match? there were just so many fillers and not enough main event talent that it makes the winner not look anywhere as good as previous winners...now i will say i really enjoyed the final 4 and the jericho/shemus ending, and i think its good a young talent won...but the rest was bad, well aside from kofi's epic handstand...

then to top all this off, jericho does a promo about the world ending at the rumble, and nothing happens...that was a big letdown, well jerichos whole return has been a letdown, and it sucks because hes definitely one of my favorites!

this show was easily a 4/10...one of the worst rumble matches ive ever seen!!! and as far as your attempt to get the impact analysis, just point out that uphoff gets to review wwe shows...have you seen his rumble ratings? their beyond ridiculas! uphoff is a great example of how pro wwe this site is... he clearly overrates everything... i bet he was one of the people that voted that joke, brotus clay WOTW!
(i dont see what the excitement over clay is... hes just a rikishi ripoff... and not a good one...)

Posted By: Guest#4256 (Guest) on January 30, 2012 at 05:08 PM"

I had to add your sentences together for a bit, there, in order to have enough room so I apologize for that but yes, you made too many good points not to add.

You want my breakdown of the Rumble? Glad ya asked! I have watched the entire Rumble with a friend, although he paid for it because he wanted me to "see how great WWE was" and basically the whole night was me laughing my head off while he just looked at the ground. When I was done he told me he's watching TNA from now on! WWE PPVs = best advertisement for TNA possible, apparently!

1. World Championship Triple Threat: Bryan vs. Henry vs. Show: **1/2
2. Diva's Eight-Woman Tag Match: Eve/Kelly Kelly/Alicia/Tamina vs. Phoenix/Natalya/Bella Twins *
3. John Cena vs. Kane - **1/2
4. Squash Match: Brodus Clay vs. Drew McIntyre 1/2*
5. WWE Championship Match: CM Punk vs. Dolph "Overrated" Ziggler w/Johnny Ace as ref: *** (3 and a half if not for the way Ziggler looked like a total jobber the final two minutes of the match)
6. Royal Rumble won by Sheamus - **1/2

The fact that the older stars got the biggest pop is telling that WWE is not making very many new stars that catch on with the public. When Hogan and Austin used to come out for their matches, the roof popped off the building but today when the top guys come to the ring the fans barely give a damn. Pretty lousy Rumble in which so many people didn't even get an elimination and the tag champions were thrown out by a mostly retired 45+ Mick Foley. Yeah, the TAG TEAM CHAMPIONS! Frankly we don't have enough column space to cover the whole thing.

Larry Csonka rated the Rumble 5/10 and my agreement is with that particular rating. It is telling that Genesis is slightly higher on his list than the Rumble, perhaps there's a TNA fan left in the big man after all.

I did see the Analysis, actually, and saw Uphoff obviously experienced the nirvana of mediocrity watching the Rumble while jabbing at the asterisk button on his keyboard excitedly in-between switching his ringtones to the current entering wrestler's theme from the Rumble. In all fairness though, everybody picks who they want to pick and enjoys different things so frankly, is it worth it to even bother? We all know a WWE guy is winning WOTW nearly every week and for the year most of the time, we know WWE places high in the Year End Awards all the time, should we be surprised? Just because fifty people say something is true doesn't make it true, you know.

Brodus Clay was a letdown in terms of what I expected from him after all that hype but he is a great advertisement to turn to TNA wrestling. Now, if they only put him over an IWC favorite to see how the ETards react to him then. When you need to mix PN News, Ernest "The Cat" Miller, and Flash Funk to create a new gimmick you know you've reached creative burnout. Brodus is funny to watch but obviously, he's going nowhere and the gimmick isn't worth the time and money invested in it.


The Bad

"
"Evolution is real it is a done deal there is evidence to support this but there is zero evidence behind a god putting it into place so you cant really destroy anyone with something that has no evidence to support it. evolution is naturalistic IE it doesn't require the supernatural to occur. Maybe a creator did this; maybe not. It's not a question science can deal with. Simply, saying "God did it" is not an explanation. And besides Wes we don't have to explain why it is wrong. You assert the claim, you must provide the evidence.

Posted By: Fakesagan (Guest) on January 28, 2012 at 12:35 AM"

Alright, but there is one problem with what you are saying: I'm not in court so I don't have to defend myself by proving anything. But you want evidence?

One of the personal pieces of evidence I have is what happened with my uncle. He was dying from leukemia and the doctors gave him about a month to live. My uncle, like me, is a devout conservative Christian and prayed... the only thing he did differently was pray. All of us did... and 11 years after he was told he'd live only a month he continues to live with the entire illness in remission and no scientist able to explain how it happened.

Scientists still cannot definitively explain evolution due to the "missing link" and cannot explain exactly how the mutations occurred that brought humanity out from primates. Scientists have no idea how some people are still alive, people who claim that they had prayers answered by God and the only commonality any of them shared was belief in God.

I do believe in BOTH theories of how we came to be intertwined. However, my opinion of God is that he is so much more advanced than anything we know or anything we can understand it is purposeful that nobody has definite evidence of him. Faith is a matter of believing in something you cannot prove, no matter what.

Remember, scientists said nothing occurring naturally could break the speed of light but they found a particle that can break the speed of light just recently. The bottom line is that there is a lot left to learn about our world and ourselves and frankly, writing off God is considerably premature.

Religion isn't just about the "invisible man in the sky" as much as it is about being good to your fellow man and living a productive life according to common sense rules. Don't kill, don't screw your neighbor's wife, don't steal, and basically treat people as you wish them to treat you. Is it really so bad to believe in that?


"What Wes Kirk fails to recognise is that criticism of people in the public eye is a natural thing.

People posting negative comments regarding your writing skills without ever writing a column of their own is no different than your own negative comments aimed towards those who own/write/perform on wrestling shows.

Just as those who comment on your shortcomings have never written for a website, you have never been in the position of those you decide to criticise.

Posted By: The Harbinger of Truth (Guest) on January 28, 2012 at 09:11 AM"

Interesting point. I'll have to take slight issue with it, though.

Firstly, the people who comment about me haven't been in my position but I HAVE been in theirs. I was a reader first, a guest/commenter second, and a writer third. I can call them out because I know how many people just like to play around in the section under anonymous protection and can't really do a thing outside of complain.

Secondly, I may not be able to put myself in the shoes of Vince McMahon or any wrestler but I do own my own business and as an owner of said business, it is my job to handle finances and advertising. If I criticize anybody for those two things, it is because I have real world experience with those two things. As a writer, I realize that we don't always come up with home run hits every time we pitch an idea but it depends on the writers as well as the editors. Vince McMahon has made it quite public he is the final word on everything and no matter how good the idea seems to be or what support it has, if he doesn't like it it doesn't happen. I can defend or criticize writers because I -have- written in the past for other websites, and I have been published as well outside of wrestling in a few areas here and there. Like Vince McMahon I own a company although mine will never be the size of his, so I can point out something if I wish about his ownership skills because I know the burden it is owning your own business.

The only thing I haven't done is wrestle, and as you know my policy is NEVER to blame the wrestlers for the situations they are put in in terms of storylines and the like. I may not -like- John Cena, but I respect what he did for the business. I may think Dolph Ziggler is boring and overrated as all hell, but I respect him always trying to improve and become better. However, sometimes things just need to be said because the people in charge are not getting it and they frankly need to hear the perspective from their customers. I always listen to the people who come in even if their ideas are far out there because these people pay my salary and I'd be a fool to think I can't learn something from everybody. Keeping an open mind in business helps you stay alive, my friend, and Vince needs to let a few things that he normally would put the kibosh on get a chance just to TRY.



""1. Anybody receiving welfare or government assistance (including food stamps) is cut off after 52 weeks (one year) unless they are disabled, in which case they will continue receiving benefits but must submit to drug testing. If found to be using drugs, all of their benefits will be cut except for the absolute basic requirements to survive."

Ah yes the old...let's throw everyone not as fortunate as me out on the street theory!

I got mine why can't these people get there's right? They ALL must be on drugs of some kind because that is the only reason because American is AWESOME!

Forget about all the people with a college education who have been out of work for over a year, forget about all the families who are trying to work hard (both parents working for minimum wage) who STILL cannot afford to pay the rent, yeah screw them, I don't want my extra $5 a week in taxes that pays for that stuff to come out of my paycheck...I need to save for the next TNA PPV!

Oh wait the money we save in cutting the program to 52 weeks will be then spent to give everyone a drug test paid for by the federal government...that makes ALOT of sense huh?

Posted By: Guest#1956 (Guest) on January 28, 2012 at 01:37 PM"

I really don't care if you want to make excuses for yourself. You don't have to settle for anything you don't want and your parents don't have to work for minimum wage. There are community colleges for free all of you can get a degree in and get paid more each year. There are better jobs if you work hard enough and don't screw up. Being fortunate doesn't play anywhere near as much a role as you think, because if you educate yourself you can find a lot more opportunities waiting for you and be able to take advantage of them.

While you come across as massively angry about the state things are in, you are yelling at the wrong person. You should be directing your issue to Obama and the Democrats who made sure people like you are suffering and pitting you against people like me because we're well off. Look, I work to make my money too. I'm sure many of the rich people you probably yell at and despise have a job and they work hard as well to make jobs for people and give them a paycheck rather than a food stamp. If you want things to change, vote GOP in November... because the last three years sure as hell isn't our fault. Perhaps the place you are staying is out of your means, so you might be better served moving somewhere else where all of you can afford to pay the rent. Not everybody gets a nice house because they WANT it and that is a fact of life. You think I wouldn't want to live in some 40 million dollar mansion? Unlike other people, I'm content with my home. If I wanted a mansion I'd have to find ways to make money to afford it in something I am good at, that's where job skills come in handy.

Do yourself a favor my friend... don't blame me. Don't blame the rich, and don't blame the Republicans. What you should do is contact Job Corps and get some training for a better career than you have now. Your parents, if they make minimum wage, can benefit from the programs here too. You can sit here and choose to feel sorry for yourself and hate those who have money or you can go make that money. Give it a shot, I'm serious too! What do you have to lose?

Also your logic on that last thing is actually pretty poor. The only people receiving welfare under my system would be those who are disabled, which means of the over 40 million people receiving government assistance at the current time there would be a LOT fewer, such as around 5 million tops. There is MORE than enough money from cuts in the system, as a lot of drug tests do not cost as much money as you think.

I went online to check a few drug testing places and a kit to test for SIX types of drugs costs eight dollars. 1 million people being drug tested would cost eight million dollars, whereas most people receive over one BILLION dollars a day spent for benefits. Hmm, would I prefer in a bad economy to have around $24 million to test 3 million people or spend a billion dollars or more every day in welfare assistance for 40 million people? I might not be a math wizard but $24 million once every four or so months compared to $1 billion a day sounds better!



"Wes must be a troll because 1/2 the comments here are politcal comments on a column that is supposed to bne about wrestling.

Nothing else to call it but trolling. If he had any guts he would do something in the political section here, but chances are he would just be ripped apart by nearlly every commentator there.

Or he could even do something like this on a forum like politico, but again he would be laughed out of the place, so he hides it here in the wrestling section....trolling.

Posted By: ugg (Guest) on January 29, 2012 at 12:54 PM"

I'd love to comment on 411's politics section but unfortunately I can't because the last time I appeared there (and the only time as a Fact or Fiction participant) I destroyed the liberal I was up against. The fact is 411 wants moderates and liberals in the politics section and that's fine, that's why the same ten people post all the time over there. Put a conservative behind a column and we'll see if that is still the truth. What do you want me to do? They are the ones afraid of me! Maybe you should bother dealing in facts first, idiot.

"Wes, you claim WWE is lying? you should take a look in the mirror.

You claim the last episode of Impact! did a 1.2 rating when in-fact it did a 1.17 and you rounded it up. Moreover it actually was down from the previous week.

Then you go on to claim RAW did a 3.1 rating when in fact it did a 3.18 and you rounded it down! A perfect illustration of you being a troll.

I found out all of this info by checking this websites own news columns! Maybe you shoud do the same.

Posted By: Super Blizzard (Guest) on January 31, 2012 at 09:59 AM"

The answer to this is actually pretty simple: I don't round. Whatever numbers are on the site, I copy the first one and the one after the decimal point and that's what I put the numbers at.

You were referring to the Impact rating the day I post my article. Here's the deal idiot; I post the article on Thursday night and include the previous week's Impact rating in as the Impact rating comes in on Fridays and the article is already being prepared for publication that day. So the rating you read is the week prior's rating, which was indeed 1.2 exactly. The Jan 26th, 2012 edition of Impact received a 1.17 in total and will reflect a 1.1 rating. Is this really so difficult to comprehend?

"Since you brought it up, have to deal with the politics before the wrestling ....

Here's my critique of the 5 point plan:
1) The sticky point with your drug testing bit is what constitutes "enough to live"; getting over uneasiness with the hypothesized drug screeing of EVERYONE, with emphasis, without probable cause, giving someone enough money to afford 2 meals, per day, from McDonald's menu, to me, isn't really living.

2) Knocking the corporate tax rate all the down to 18%, though far lower than it ought to be, is something that I could stomach, if it also came with the full elimination of ALL corporate tax subsidies, to level the field for every company. If eliminating the capital gains tax leads to those very proceeds being treated as income, I'd support that move. I see nothing wrong with the estate tax, or 'death tax', as polling has found folks to have the most negative inclination for, and I can't fathom anything that changes that opinion. Sarbanes-Oxley and Dodd-Frank were both reactions, the scope and direction you can determine for yourself, to blatant and wholesale failures by the financials industry; if you have a better way to deal with those resulted problems, bring the idea forward. And for the "50% of people who paid no taxes" on the federal level, it's about time that folks, who seek to argue this point, finally acknowledge that many of those same people, once you factor in sales and local taxes, state taxes, property taxes, payroll taxes, and the countless fees that are paid, have % tax burdens that equal, and often exceed, the actual tax burdens of the folks who pay "all of the federal taxes". If the feds have to "put a foot on the scale", to try and massage that percentage, so be it.

3) There's not enough oil in all the country's land, and we can't get to it in timely enough a manner, to have the effort make all that much actual impact on the cost of energy. Natural gas is a promising bridge measure, and I'd support it, as long as folks disclose, to the public, without giving up "recipes", that the levels of stuff, being pumped into the ground, aren't toxic.

4) Right to Work is foolish, on it's face, because it has the unions negotiating a wage standard, that unaffiliated workers can take advantage of, without having to negotiate for, on their own behalf.

5) The moment that the scientific community, writ large, came to the 95% consensus on the matter, to me, global warming was no longer worth arguing.

Posted By: scipio2009 (Guest) on January 31, 2012 at 08:59 AM"

I'm just putting this in this section because I'm assuming you are opposed to the plan.

#1: Enough to live on will be the average American salary with exceptions for those who require more care. The reason we will be able to afford this is because nobody can stay on welfare beyond 52 weeks, and if anybody is on welfare they will be tested for substances several random times a year. If they fail, all benefits are cut for at least three months before a second test. A second positive test results in benefits cut for 5 years, and a third is for good. If you can't afford to pay for a house, you shouldn't buy drugs!

#2: I agree with closing loopholes and ending subsidies of ALL kinds. Capital gains will be tax-free because we are trying to ENCOURAGE people to invest in our country and our land, remember? Death/estate tax has absolutely no place in this country as if you make 100 million dollars you can't leave more than 65 million to your children? Worse, that 100 million WAS ALREADY TAXED when you were alive! Not going to happen. Ways to counteract those particular issues can be negotiated like any good leader would do; I'm not going to lecture anybody, I'll sit down and talk to them and see what is reasonable and what can be agreed upon. And by the way, all the people paying sales taxes, property taxes, payroll taxes, and so on are also the rich so why should the poor pay one set of taxes and then not get charged for their yearly income? If they don't spend it on booze and drugs and government guaranteed cars and cell-phones they'd be fine.

#3: I'd be fine with admission of the formulas being used for the fracking, but there is a lot of oil here. Some estimates put as around #2 or #3 in the entire world if we bothered drilling for it.

#4: Right To Work allows people to negotiate directly with the management for a salary and get it without being forced to participate in ANY political movements directed by the unions. Union labor means they get paid what they want or they don't work! The compromises and benefits given to unions over the years is incredible and needs to come to an end. It had a great beginning for a good cause but it became corrupt and needs to die.

#5: I've yet to see a consensus on anything involving global warming despite it continuing to be a hot button topic with sixteen scientists recently releasing information discrediting it in addition to the East Anglia CRU and Met Office document dumps that prove there has been no warming for fifteen years globally. They CLAIM there is a "pause" in the warming right now, yet the actual data constantly comes in below "Scenario C" for Hansen and his idiot team at NASA. Want to know why? You can't even predict the temperature five days ahead of time accurately, never mind five to ten years! Too many variables we underestimate and/or do not yet know about. Thankfully, last week proved that theory to be crap.

And one last thing on the topic of global warming: Science is meant to be challenged, it is meant to be repeated by objective observers without bias, and it is meant to be contested to ensure accuracy and reliability in the work completed. Nobody should take anybody's word for something as important as global temperature without attempting to replicate the results through unbiased, objective scientists. This is why it was exposed as a fraud, even though people still refuse to believe the ACTUAL data.


The WTF

"When Wes Kirk boils potatoes to make mashed potatoes he doesn't put enough salt in the water and he also lets them boil too rapidly so that water spills out onto the top of the cooker and leaves a black burnt-on stain.

Posted By: KirkHater (Guest) on January 28, 2012 at 01:45 AM"

How ridiculous. I pay people to do that shit!













Sforcina brings you Ask 411 Wrestling and this week it involves discussion of nudity! Nudity = hits

Steve Cook breaks down the Rumble and more with this edition of News From Cook's Corner

Randle discusses the best Canadian moose recipes in The Wrestling News Experience although I might have imagined that.

Bye y'all