Scripted Through Sin 4.22.08: A Viral Clash of Styles

Posted by Jarrod Westerfeld on 04.22.2008

More is better, as this edition clashes the styles of Viral Dose of Reality with Scripted Through Sin. This week we sit down to talk about the WWE tag team scene, the issues with TNA and iMPACT!’s crowning of new X Division Champion, the problems with ROHbots, what role Jericho is playing now, and much, much more. Read here to get to full scoop.




If you haven't caught onto the fact that I'm an indecisive person, then this will come as a shock as this entire article picks up a new look and feel and tries to incorporate a blending of Scripted Through Sin, the article that looks to serve as an outlet for Total Extreme Wrestling junkies who like to play armchair booker for any and all wrestling companies, and Your Viral Dose of Reality, the article that tried very hard to tell it like it is without any nonsense. So for the most part, readers with slow internet connection are going to start to hate my articles even more than possibly did before. So with that, we try out a new format – this one more colorful and pretty than the others I've tried.

Weekly Scriptures: The Status of TNA Revised

Weekly Scriptures: The State of WWE Tag Team Wrestling

Weekly Scriptures: The General Consensus of TNA

Weekly Scriptures: The General Consensus of ROH fans

Focusing on… ROH: Reestablishing Meaning to Titles

Focusing on… ROH: Fall Out of the Age of the Fall

Focusing on… WWE: Damned WWE – Making Me Look a Fool

Focusing on… WWE: Finding Direction For the Punk

Focusing on… TNA: Illogical Booking Leads to Illogical Decisions

Mass Scriptures: A TNA Fan Books Sacrifice

The Status of TNA Revised

For those of you who have been following this article for a good long while, you already know of my project, TNA Revised, and know that I get a lot of contributing notes from reader Steveo Lavender. Well, as much as I enjoy doing the project, it has eaten away at a lot of space in these articles and leaves me with little time to get to the other portions of the article I really want to get to. More often than not, the project has stepped on my want and need to get to other things. Not wanting to kill it, however, left me wondering what to do about all of this until I realized I have a perfectly good blogging section that I can post all of the project episodes and notes from Steveo, all without cutting too much into this article. So from hence forth, my 411 Blog Section will be dedicated every Saturday to TNA Revised, as well as other random thoughts that I feel need expressing outside of this article.

You can read the third episode of TNA Revised here on the blog section of my profile here on the site.

The State of WWE Tag Team Wrestling

First off, before I start getting into the festive mood of being viral against a slew of things, I'd like to keep up a positive streak here by congratulating W.S. Thomason for getting a top billing on the front page of the wrestling section, with his article The Wrestling Doctor 4.15.08: The WWE Tag Team Scene. It's cool to see someone who has just started with the site get a big nod by having their article pretty much be the first thing you see on the front page, especially someone of his talents. Though he was off to a rocky start with his The Wrestling Doctor 4.08.08: Examining TNA, especially considering some of his solutions to the ailments were kind of hard to agree with.

There's about two ways I could go on this: talking about the lack of Eric Gargiulo on his list of fixes to the TNA commentary, or picking up on his chatter about the tag team division in the WWE. I guess I can hit both real quick by stating that while it's a pipe dream [that may be coming true sooner than we all thought] for TNA to get Joey Styles, the suggestion of Scott Hudson, or even Tony Schiavone without even a mention of Eric Gargiulo is kind of bothersome. I get that he's not a high commodity in the field compared to the more established and known guys of Hudson and Schiavone. I also understand that he's not as good as Joey Styles, but he's the poor man's version of Styles, only minus the personality that makes Joey stand out that much more.

But that's neither here nor there, as the topic I'd really like to touch up on is the WWE's tag team division and some of the ideas W.S. threw out there.

The concept of returning the Tag Team Turmoil match is a welcomed idea, and it would serve to easily reestablish the presence of the tag team division on the brands. The first step to going about it, however, is rebuilding the divisions themselves and whiles his suggestions of teaming up Carlito with Chavo Guerrero (Jr.) and Paul Burchill teaming up with D.H. Smith are interesting, I don't see how effective these units could work out. After all, I'm having a hard time buying John Morrison and The Miz as a tag team rather than just singles competitors thrown together to help out a flailing division that was sinking under the spotlight of a singles division that grew to be more important.

While both tandems [Chavo and Carlito, Burchill and Smith] strike me as randomly combined, I actually prefer the teaming of the second generation superstars to the teaming of the "British" young bloods. Something about it could work out better given the current storylines than trying to find a justification for Smith to be teamed up with a practicing incestuous couple in Burchill and Lea. To pull off this tandem, I feel, you'd have to repackage Smith or Burchill, and neither seems to be an answer that the WWE would be fond of in order to pull off such a pairing. Burchill's character seems to be more of a loner type who would prefer the company of someone close than to socializing with others that he may not be comfortable in dealing with. To team him up with another worker, outside of his family, would require some sort of explaining of his character and the relationship his new found teammate have with one another, again answers I don't think the WWE are interested in.

Also, the concept of returning the ancient Survivor Series All Tag Team match would require a huge reconstruction of the tag team divisions to successfully pull it off with all 10 tag teams involvement. But you have a lot of time to build into such a match that you can easily introduce and build teams up before hand, which helps out this idea to look that much better for when you pull it off to the fullest. If both Raw and SmackDown! can build up their divisions to house at least 7 healthy tag teams that are committed to this, and only this division, we might have something rolling that might get people to stop talking about or overly praising the Attitude Era tag team division and focus more on the good going on in there currently.

In due time, you could create something strong and meaningful, and if you need to partner up guys who are sinking as singles superstars that would mesh well with one another, then it's probably best you avoid the Cody Rhodes/Hardcore Holly route, as that is possibly the blandest union I've seen since Jennifer Anniston rebounded with Vince Vaughn – and it's not even thin Vince, which makes that pairing even that more bland.

The General Consensus of TNA

No matter what, I can't win here. And while I do have a header for focusing primarily on companies, this is going to fall under general thoughts as I don't want to be constructive about TNA's iMPACT! last week. But I don't want to rant, either, as it seems that's far too easy to do. But let's get one thing straight – the general consensus around this show is easy and simple to understand, and that consensus is people will hate TNA more often than they will like it.

Some of the hate around TNA is ignorant. Some of it, like my gripes, is legitimate. I'd love to see this company get over that hurdle and draw in a bigger audience and start doing shows that every fan can find some enjoyment out of – though I'd prefer if they were enjoying it for the right reasons than the wrong, as some people now seem to enjoy the rapidly crashing ECW programming thanks to the commentary of insipidly horrible Mike Adamle. I'd rather people come on here singing praise of TNA for the rights it does rather than the wrong it constantly commits.

But I also understand I'm of the minority when I complain about stuff like Samoa Joe's build to the championship being almost meaningless and playing second fiddle to the friction between Kurt Angle and AJ Styles as provoked by the relationship they share with Karen Angle. I understand that I'm the minority on the front that Joe's title victory and reign leaves me feeling empty on the inside thus making it a meaningless title exchange, but I'll be damned if I'm going to sit and listen to everyone spout off at the mouth about how great this company is when numbers show otherwise, and while this company continues to crash and burn.

A company whose television show pulls in around, roughly, 1.3 million viewers a week can only manage to get for their "better" pay-per-views 50,000 (estimated) buys? Shouldn't that, alone, send off a warning signal that something might not be good? Shouldn't the fans start thinking that this nationally syndicated promotion isn't doing a good enough job of getting them to buy their pay-per-views? And aren't most fans screaming for younger blood in the main event and a strong focus and emphasis on the X-Division wrestling? But yet, it seems that its fans are just complacent with accepting the product that they're given rather than really fighting for the product they want. I couldn't imagine the fans of the WWF pulling this shit back around 1994 and just being complacent with a run of champions they weren't interested in, but because it was "better" than the alternative, kept buying it instead of really voicing out their true wants and desire of the product by NOT buying the product under any circumstance.

The note about them becoming more profitable is nice, but the fans love to strip the context and meaning behind such reports to the bare words just so they have a slogan to chant and campaign. The very notion that the excess of finances this company draws now has to go to paying off their debt to Panda Enery is something we can easily erase because no one cares for little details that stick to the graw of their slogan. The fact that it's been noted, time and time again, that this company could make more money off of their pay-per-views if they simply had stronger writing and booking leading into said shows, along with the fact that they should have long since established the entire Atlantic coast as their territory about 2 years ago so they can now think about touring west of the Mississippi more frequently are things easily dismissible because it steps on the nifty chant of "TNA is growing". How about seeing some real growth so you have something to chant about? Remember when TNA was boasting about 2 to 7.5 percentile increases in their pay-per-view buys when they first aired on Spike TV? What happened to that exponential growth? Suddenly now they're complacent with being stagnate, and their fans still love to hold onto that former marching tune of "TNA is growing" when the last sign of growth this company had was almost 2 years ago!

I'll admit to this truth: I don't enjoy reading this site sometimes. I especially detest having to rummage through the comments section of articles I do sit down with as I see a sea of people complaining, bitching, moaning and flame baiting their way around the topic of WWE vs. TNA. As if there's anything to be gained on the fans part to see one company crumble while the other strives forward as a success – we all lose if that happens again. We, as fans, gain nothing seeing two "competing" companies' battle with one another to the point that one is financially crippled and credibly destroyed as was evidenced with ECW and WCW's fallings. What did we get from that? A monopoly company that can mold and create their new fanbase to which to cater to leaving you and the rest of us sitting on the outside looking in, feeling distanced and unwanted.

TNA, you cannot dethrone the multi-themed corporation and conglomerate that is the WWE. TNA fans, you have no realistic chance of seeing your company overthrow or destroy the WWE. You also have nothing to gain from it as, much like with any company that feels like a monopoly in a field of service; they'll feel obligated to doing what they want rather than what you'd like to see.

Seeing the WWE go out of business is nothing more than a pipe dream as they've become a multinational success through all sorts of ventures outside of wrestling and has probably become more profitable in their last 2 years than they've ever been during their "glory days" of the Attitude Era. Trust me when I say this, it's best to leave that dream in a dark alley, or ditch, suffering a cold, lonely death. We'll never get to experience a wrestling world without the WWE, and honestly I've grown to accept this reality, so should you.

And while I hate reading some of the comments on most articles I read, I hate even more, with a deep seeded venomous hatred, surfing through the message boards here. The only comfort zone I have is the writer's section of the forums, hidden from the prying eyes of readers and those not affiliated with this site as a contributor to its main page. At least I can sit through the threads there, get in a good laugh, and not have to worry about flame baiting trolls who lavish in trying to start up arguments they have no real intention on sticking with or actually trying to defend intelligently or articulately. It's a general hatred for the internet but the anonymity this contraption allows is fucking annoying as you have so many dickheads just trying to start up stress inducing arguments because it gets their rocks off.

The General Consensus of ROH fans

The same could also be said of the ROH message boards, though. While that place is clearly exclusive to the elites and snobs who enjoy the same product as I, I notice a lot of hatred stems on that forum as well, and most of it is childish screaming and bullshit. The same old nonsense about "I hate this guy because [ insert stupid, inane complaint that is clearly flame bait here]" or "this guy should be [insert random ROH, or any other wrestling company championship here]". Before there was praise of the Briscoes, but recently I've noted how a lot of these same snobbish, spoiled, bratty fans are now complaining about the Briscoes and their work ethic in the same light they've complained about Nigel McGuinness and his current string of success.

Hey, ROH fans, your shit stinks just as bad as any other company's fans and fanboys. In fact, many of you ROHbots are worse than the Puro marks, and it's really fucking hard to contend with the likes of those elitist fucks, so you know you must be fucking up horribly so that you're getting everyone to hate you just as much, if not more, than those guys. Maybe you should pull it back on "dickheaded"ness some and realize that people will hate on the company just because of idiots, such as you, who associate with the image of the company. I guarantee most fans would get into this product a lot more if they didn't have to company themselves up with the likes of you twats at shows, or have to deal with your snooty attitudes on message boards as you look down upon them for being "noobs".

And no, not everyone thinks the same way as you for a good reason – most of you come up with asinine bullshit reasons to hate the product now just because you jerked off to Joe vs. Kobashi and every other appraised show from the "glory days" of 2005. "Oh, ROH is becoming Dragon Gate USA," boo-fucking-hoo. You hate the idea of a company trying to build bonds and relationships between likeminded characters? You hate the concept of people forming stables to maintain advantages in situations where they're outnumbered? Tough fucking shit.

It seems as though people hated on Faction Warfare more for the fact that there were "too many stables" running around, rather than hating the idea of Gabe building up a storyline that relied too much on so many variable characters and things to fall into the right place. I'm sorry, but like I said last week, the problem, and it being the only problem with this storyline was that it required too many things to be just right for it to truly, ever work out. It couldn't succeed because it required too many key players who were unavailable for various reasons, and required too many people to remain healthy while still working their usual dates and shows. It was doomed to fail for those reasons, and only those. But leave it to the elitist twats to interject their own contagion of nonsense and bullshit, such as hatred of Pearce's unit of Brent Albright, BJ Whitmer and Shane Hagadorn to form, what some called a "dumb name", The Hangm3n. Was it perfect? Hell no, but then again nothing in this, or any other industry for that matter, truly ever is. But it did its job of revamping BJ's character and giving him a new direction that would drive fans to *GASP* care about Whitmer once more. I think Gabe didn't want another Chad Collyer on his hands, though BJ had been over at one point with this crowd and was considered "one of their guys" for such a long time. Heaven forbid they do what was naturally going to come of this relationship and build upon it just because some of you snobs don't like the name of the unit. Would it have made it more tolerable if they went with no name?

This brings me to something veering off the tangent of ROHbot bashing: I had just finished reading the first article I've ever read of Bayani Domingo's, Truth B Told 4.17.08: Righting the ContenderShip, and most everything in there, if not all of it, I agree with.

Reestablishing Meaning to the Titles

I've said it before on the 411's PPV Roundtable Preview: TNA Against All Odds 2008, and Bayani certainly echoes that sentiment about a million times better – the role of number one contender to any title, especially in ROH, is almost meaningless.

Jarrod Westerfeld: Wait, was there even build for this or is this a title match for the sake of having a title match? This is like the booking of the ROH World Title – a guy wins a shot at the champion, but gets no build into that title match, and the only thing you remember that match by was that it was fun, and well performed in the ring. This is that match, and the only thing I'll care about this thing is that this build could lead us to Tomko entering the fray, slowly moving Cage into an actual direction for his character that is genuine: a face Cage acting heelish doesn't work for me, he needs to be heel and that's all. I could care for this match – but it's certainly not Tomko vs. Angle … I just had to throw that in.
~ Posted on 411's PPV Roundtable Preview: TNA Against All Odds 2008

Yes, it's nice to know that the ROH roster is so competitive that anyone could battle the champion and possibly win one over the champion, as was demonstrated with Xavier defeating Low-Ki, or when Austin Aries dethroned Samoa Joe, but the role of number one contender seems to go by the lifestyle of any Hollywood starlet whore who jumps from companion to companion almost like a parasitic virus. You might as well just nickname the number one contenders to any, and all titles in the company "herpes" because at some point everyone gets it, and surprisingly enough it's not originated from Lacey or Tammy Sytch.

I've been sitting on this thought for a bit for so long, and now that I'm cooling off and getting back into the spirit of playing armchair booker again, I'd like to share it all with you now: ROH should bring back the field of honor.

I know, some will say this strikes of irony – I just finished ranting about how elitist fans aren't happy with the direction the company is taking only to turn around and voice something that suggests I'm unhappy with the direction the company is undertaking. But trust me, I'm not saying this because the direction they're in now is bad, or horrid, only that it needs clarification as to who is entitled what and when.

It's the same issue I have with TNA's usage of number one contenders only to miss out on actually using those contenders fight for the title they worked so hard to earn a right against, and the WWE's completely lack of a field, or even logic, to determine their own contenders. But with ROH it's an easy and simple fix, and it further demonstrates how much different this company, and their product, is from practically everyone else. Bayani was so spot on with this assessment that I can't believe I hadn't heard more talk about this on the ROH message boards.

The execution for why it would be reestablished is even simpler than one would think as you have the Age of the Fall basically being the outcast group within this company that feels wronged while the darling Briscoes continue to be handed opportunity and spotlights to shine under. And nothing could spell this out better than the latest of viral videos from the Age of the Fall here:


Slow building into the Age of the Fall threatening to destroy this company if they aren't treated with the same treatment and opportunities as others could force the company to reestablish the only fair system that may appease their aggressing attackers. It also helps now that ROH has to counter the growing strength of Sweet n' Sour Inc.. ROH and their officials [Gabe] could see this as their way of preventing Larry Sweeney from stealing up the company's gold for the sole purpose of inflating the stock value of his workers to push over on Connecticut.

The outs this creates is no more questions as to who gets a title shot and when, and it helps to eliminate the need to have a title match at every show. I'm sorry, but I don't need a title match every show to keep my interest in a company, and I doubt it helps maintain the idea that the title is any more credible than if it was simply defended against the visibly top contender to the championship at the appropriate shows.

This also serves as a means to pull back on the idea of Nigel having to further destroy himself every night just to hold onto a title that we all, at one point or another, bought into him deserving. Seeing as Gabe is going to continue to try and appease the minority of the fans with Nigel's heel run, we might as well build up more of a reason to protect him. Hell, Nigel can jump on the bandwagon with the Age of the Fall in the crusade to reestablish this ranking system as it benefits him tremendously. He certainly doesn't feel it is in his, or the company's, best interest to have to defend the title so often on shows that aren't as important as the pay-per-view tapings. You add more heel heat upon him and you establish a more competitive field for title bouts. Everyone wins, barring those whiners who need to see the title defended at every show but then again they're a minority so you can easily dismiss their crying – though that will be hard for Gabe considering he had to try and appease that same minority by turning Nigel heel.

Fall Out of the Age of the Fall

So as the above video showcased, there really was something in the works for the Age of the Fall, but apparently it's leading to Jimmy Jacobs breaking down and willing to go through hell, once more, to fight for the love of a woman who is proving to be untrustworthy. This sort of leads me to believe that my writing above is in jeopardy, but there is a way to work around it as Tyler Black is still the focused member of the group and is just as capable of speaking out against this company the way Jacobs was.

But that aside, we now dive into the thought of where we go from here with Lace, Aries and Jacobs as all three are now involved in a triangle love story. This seems to be the topic of writing as of late, as TNA teased this concept Christy Hemme, Lance Hoyt and Jimmy Rave, are committing to it with SoCal Val, Jay Lethal and Sonjay Dutt, and Karen Angle with AJ Styles and Kurt Angle. This is also the second time around that Jacobs is fighting for Lacey's love, and though the opponents have changed, nothing else seems to, or so it would appear.

Jacobs's demeanor is darker now – far more brooding and methodic. He's grown into a man that is filled with ideologies that he is willing to fight, kill and die for; beliefs that build his character and strengthen his resolve as a human being. Aries was to be the crowning jewel in the Age of the Fall and show the strength of their unity and appeal of their cause. AotF was to be the crutch to help carry Aries through these dark times as he tries to find himself and rebuild himself as the strong willed being he once was. This was to be the change to Aries' character, to help form him to life after TNA as things in ROH had changed enough to leave him out of the loop of being a champion. Now, instead the change is in Jacobs who is clearly off his game – he was so secure in himself only because he had the love of the woman of his dreams and now that has been destroyed. His trust was betrayed by the woman he loves, but one can only wonder if he sees it that way or if he will be blaming Austin for this betrayal instead.

Now Jacobs will be forcing himself to battle a man who's just as dangerous as he's ever been. That cloud of doubt around Aries will be lifted in this feud as he will claim certain victories, but perhaps the real strategy of Jacobs, in taking those losses, will be to build up Aries and his self worth and confidence before bringing him to the crashing, destructive reality – Jacobs has grown to be so much better and so much meaner than he's ever been and that he's grown to be that much more determined and focused. Perhaps this will be the time that Jacobs will turn on Lacey, noting she's not worth all of this pain and aggravation as he pushes her out of his life.

This could then lead to Jacobs being established as the new rising star of ROH and being the man that takes advantage of the field to become the man who would dethrone the champion of Nigel McGuinness. Only time will tell as to who will suffer the fall and who will rise to the occasion and opportunity of being the crown jewel of this company.

Damned WWE – Making Me Look a Fool

This requires you to have read my article last week, Scripted Through Sin 4.15.08: What's With All the Negatives?, but the summation of it is basic – my article has a deadline of every Monday night at 11pm Eastern time, which means the second Raw goes off the air for me, my article has to already be in the system for editing and approving. And in my genius, I figured I'd spend a good portion of my article, last week, touching up on some things I've love to see the WWE build into leading us to Backlash. Unfortunately, the WWE threw me a curve ball as Chris Jericho involved himself in the storyline with Shawn Michaels and Batista, once more, this time provoking both Michaels, on Raw, and Batista, on SmackDown! So the WWE not only systematically shat on my call to see Jericho involve himself in a serious feud with Money in the Bank CM Punk, but rubbed it in my face, once more, how badly they fucked up with the Devil's Advocate, Sean O'Haire.

Sean O'Haire in Wallop Fight Gear t-shirt on seansational.com

If you look at Jericho's interaction with Michaels and Batista you can easily see him playing both sides of the coin – one being a reprisal of his role almost 5 years ago in which he used in his feud against Shawn Michaels. This is pretty reminiscent of what kind of character Sean O'Haire once had within this company before being assassinated by creative's need to give him, an already accomplished athlete with the gift of gab, a mouth piece in Roddy Piper. It also didn't help that O'Haire had to carry the brunt of Piper's old baggage feud with Jimmy Snuka, and one of his distant cousins, or something, Rikishi (Fatu). I still scratch my head in wonderment as to how the company managed to fuck up, colossally, this character that basically wrote itself. Maybe it was ahead of its time considering we never got a role in which to really get a tweener out in the middle and really pull at both the good and evil and showcase that similarities of the two, much like we have here with Michaels and Batista's feud, as you have the two characters, both of whom were faces, struggling to maintain their fanfare and their stance in this argument that their side is right while their opponent's is wrong. Maybe it wasn't so apparent to the WWE and creative just how good with his words O'Haire was, scripted or not. His delivery of the devil's advocate stance came off as legitimate. He had a persuasive delivery to his lines though it didn't force you into the idea one way or the other. He's about as underrated for his talents as Brother (Bubba) Ray, and that's a shame that he falls into that category considering Sean had the look of a superstar and the ability to pull off some fun looking bouts that could give the fans the type of fast paced action they seek from the main event, something that Brother (Bubba) Ray obviously lacked. This character rounded him out nicely, as many had drawn themselves too him because of his athletic bouts in WCW. This was a defining presence that brought him full circle, and much like with Matt Morgan, the WWE dropped the ball on this big man, leading to the question of "why".

To see Jericho basically playing a role that I feel would've easily gone to Sean had he still be around, with that gimmick, assuming of course he survived the annual cut-backs and layoffs every season since his debut under this tutelage. It really leaves me to wonder what could have been for Sean. I may not have been a fan of his prior to this devil's advocate gimmick, but I'll be damned if that wasn't some impressive writing to create a character and try something different from the usual mold of heels who simply just try to beat up on guys because it suits their needs and demands.

While Jericho pulls this off well, it does leave me to wonder where he'll fall in the mix of this bout between Michaels and Batista. Could the works of a rekindling to their 2003 bout be on the horizon, pulling Michaels further away from the wholesome image that Shawn's been trying to portray, once again, since the fallout with Flair? Or could we see Jericho once again clashing with Batista, only this time in an actual singles program? And as interesting as either option is, both lead to an inevitable heel turn that many will probably welcome as many view Jericho to be a better heel character than a face. My only complaint now is what the hell do you do with CM Punk to establish him as a credible threat with Money in the Bank? Got any other straggling main eventers who need a match for Backlash that you can seriously build a feud around the two? If not, then you done fucked up a chance to really build up a new star, and this one didn't need to hit the brick-like glass ceiling of a certain someone, just the moving of Dusty off of the ECW programming – how ironic.

Finding Direction For the Punk

Well, seeing as Jericho is out of the question for Backlash, that leaves Punk directionless at the moment unless the WWE figures they're just going to throw him up in there against Elijah Burke for the millionth time, or in a program against Shelton Benjamin that won't benefit Punk to look like a main event threat as Shelton isn't a main event player himself, yet. You would think the easy out here would be a program with Jericho that leads to the two trading off victories and even trading off the Money in the Bank and Intercontinental Championship. Even if the goal wasn't to trade off the Money in the Bank to help reestablish a reason for Jericho being in the main event later, but at least giving Punk a stage to work on where he fights for a title that means a little more, and in a division where he can easily rebuild the integrity of the division and the championship would have been productive.

I've said it before but Punk win the title off of his Money in the Bank contract, just so long as you establish him as a threat to the champion and a threat to the main event. Just centering the mid card on him would be an accomplishment in and of itself. The easy out here would have been the Intercontinental Championship, but seeing as that's out of the question now, we're going to need a new out and what better out than moving him to SmackDown! to fight in the US Championship division along with a slew of contenders in Chuck Palumbo, Jamie Noble, Kenny Dykstra, Matt Hardy, the returning Rey Mysterio, and M.V.P. Just looking at this roster you can see that Punk would easily add to the division and help it out tremendously.

Punk in SmackDown! is an easy fix for the time being, as that brand has always been the better show to build new stars on. Just think about the roster that has come from SmackDown! over the past few years – guys like Mr. Kennedy, Carlito, John Cena, Booker T was rebuilt as a main eventer after a flop run on Raw prior, and the same was done with Randy Orton on this show. Punk could use this brand as his springboard to superstardom the same way this show established Edge as a main eventer the first time around, only for Raw to break him down and bill him as a heel. The problem was he couldn't play that role as effectively as his face role on SmackDown!, that his heel initially garnered almost no reaction until he got his crutch in Lita. Now on SmackDown!, Edge is allowed to really showcase himself as a true heel main eventer that doesn't have to rely too much on his crutch in Vickie Guerrero, or even on the Edge Entourage of Ryder and Hawkins.

With Punk on SmackDown! you don't have to worry about him being lost in the shuffle of the show as that show is overloaded with superstars and big names. Featuring him in the US Championship division, as well, helps to add some credibility to the title and establish that it's just as important as the IC title once was.

But that still leaves Punk without direction heading into Backlash and you can't afford to have your yearlong number one contender not appear on the pay-per-view, especially seeing as he's a huge draw. The easy fix here if you go the route of planting him on SmackDown! would easily be establishing a feud during the King of the Ring tournament, possibly, and carrying over onto SmackDown! when they make some moves – a feud with Mr. Kennedy.

You could establish this simply the same way you had Jericho and Shelton target Punk – the Money in the Bank ladder match. Simply allowing Kennedy and Punk to cut a promo for their respective matches in the King of the Ring tournament, with the two meeting up in a later round, if possible, Kennedy should take the initiative to point out that he'll be the one to put an end to the roll of a certain Punk. With Punk going over, you could have Kennedy easily attack Punk at the end, spoiling his moment and possibly weakening him for the finals to lose to the eventual King of the Ring. This could be played up further on ECW before both are drafted to SmackDown! where they can seriously help out that roster and brand.

Illogical Booking Leads to Illogical Decisions

Just how is it that TNA opted to book the X Division Title match, and title change on iMPACT! when it could have helped out the card of Lockdown and could've been done in a way that makes sense, pulling Lethal out of the Xscape match, slotting in the idea of the rebuilding of the X Division as that match becomes a number one contenders bout with another X Division worker taking the slot of Lethal. Instead we get the Xscape match for the X Title, it doesn't progress the Dutt storyline any further though it built the idea of Devine being credible as a contender to the title. Instead we get Petey getting the case after Lockdown, cashing in the chance on that iMPACT! and becoming the new X Division Champion.

TNA, what is the priority here? What is more important? The pay-per-views or your episodic weekly television shows? What is paying your bills and getting you more money? Shouldn't that be where you focus the title changes? And would it have helped push the title as being important if you established Scott as trusting of Petey, giving him the case, and allowing him a chance to take Lethal out of the element by announcing that the match he's been "training" for was now being removed from that bout and had to take on a man he had figured he was done with? Wouldn't it have also helped add credibility to the title by making it seem as though Petey went through all that he did to get that shot back from Scott?

I know some will like this decision as it makes the show just as important as their pay-per-views, but seeing as this company isn't getting enough people to buy their pay-per-views, they should make their pay-per-views feel that much more special and that much more important by progressing stories on iMPACT! and selling them the title matches that could see new champions crowned in the pay-per-views. While everyone is going to cry that TNA gives to their fans, how about the fans start giving back by buying and actually supporting this company? After all, they're still sitting in debt to Panda Energy, and this company could still be more profitable if they simply sold more pay-per-views while they still build up on their house show touring schedule. If the fans really want to chant about this company being profitable, why don't they, as a whole unit, step up and make it so? Actually helping this company make up some huge funds to pay off their debt faster and actually get to sit upon the excess finances they make so they can focus it on other things that they see fit in paying for – such as upgrading their sets or lighting fixtures.

And what did Petey's title win on iMPACT! accomplish? Besides the concept that the show is just as important as their pay-per-views for all the cheap bastard fans out there?

For more of my thoughts on last week's iMPACT! show, be sure to check out my blog on this site, here.

A TNA Fan books TNA Sacrifice 2008

This is the section of the article I really need help in, and the only people capable of helping out are you, the readers of this column. This is your section of my humble abode here on this web page, 411mania, and it's your forum as much as it is mine. So crack out your thinking hats, grab yourself a Red Bull and get yourself to churning out some armchair booking – give me your ideas, your dream matches, or fantasy cards, anything that would qualify as reason for ridicule or praise for your writing abilities.

To get things really rolling, however, I figured I'd snag up a video from a YouTube wrestling vlogger, or "shooter" as they're so called for various retarded reasons by actual retards – well, not really, if you're going to stick to some strict definition that the actual handicapped are retards instead of just any random idiot who happens to fit the mold of what you'd expect from a retard. Arman10701 features a wide array of fantasy cards for upcoming pay-per-views from the WWE and TNA, and this week he already managed out a card for TNA's inbound event, Sacrifice.

Last Team Standing Match: Robert Roode and Kip James vs. Booker T and BG James Six Man Tag Team Match: Team 3D and James Storm vs. Kevin Nash, Rhino and Sting Triple Threat TNA World Tag Team Championship Match: L.A.X. © vs. The Rock and Rave Infection vs. Motor City Machine Guns TNA Knockouts Championship: Awesome Kong © vs. Roxxi Laveaux Six Person Tag Team Match: Johnny Devine, Velvet Sky and Angelina Love vs. Jay Lethal, Tracy Brooks and O.D.B. Tomko vs. Christian Cage Kurt Angle vs. AJ Styles TNA World Championship Match: Samoa Joe © vs. Scott Steiner

Think you can top that card? If so, let's hear it – write it, film it, air it, whatever. Let me see you say something. Voice out your own fantasy bookings and share them for the whole world here, on Scripted Through Sin.

And that'll do it for this week's edition of Scripted Through Sin. Be sure to keep an eye out for my blogs here on this site as in addition to TNA Revised being posted up every Saturday (at 11pm Eastern), I'll be posting up my thoughts on all weekly television shows (except NWA Wrestling Showcase). Also check out some of my videos on YouTube as I continue to discuss even more wrestling related topics. Until next week, keep tuned to 411mania and be sure to read some of the columns from some of the other writers around.