Wrestling Thread Nov 7-13 | 11/13 TNA Turning Point - Roode vs Styles, Jarrett vs Hardy

[veintisiete]

^

Delightful.

 

[6 Rings G.O.A.T.]

Nash is full of it. .

 

[T0INE]

That last Layla pic hombre posted in that spoiler.

*insert LAWD baby gif*

 @ those WWE 12 custom covers.

My interest for Survivor Series has waned tremendously.

Raw has been horrible the last few weeks, hopefully the upcoming Rock Appreciation Raw changes that.

 

[biff lawson]

Originally Posted by jdcurt2

I was contemplating selling my ticket to Survivor Series to someone else on here.
Don't know if it will be worth my time and money going to New York to see a garbage show.

will gladly buy if u got a pair

 

[illoquent aka dsk]

Originally Posted by GotHolesInMySocks

u guys better be careful what u say about cena, dsk is lurking

*crickets*

I'd tell you to stick to your sorry #%$ predictions but we "no sell" that too...*shrugs*

I'll be back in a few minutes...

 

[Bend_The_Knee]

^^^and u call *crickets* to what i said!!!???

sheesh, somebody's gotten soft since his "departure"

 

[Bend_The_Knee]

Originally Posted by theDEEK

Originally Posted by GotHolesInMySocks

how much y'all wanna bet she smashed the camera guy at the photoshoot.



wwe '12 lookin

.



i will take off ortons pic off my copy.


can anyone here creata a cover for me? i'll pay.

PM me for paypal information.

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[illoquent aka dsk]

News & Notes - Part 1

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Part 1 consists of stuff you may or may not have read about. It's the +### I would've made sure been posted had I been active.


How we got PUNKed with the biggest storyline of the summer.

A reliable source has "confirmed no matter what anyone says" that CM Punk's WWE contract was not scheduled to expire until September 2011; even though the company did a great job of disguising it with even those very close to Vince McMahon believing his contract was up in July. The source reports the entire CM Punk angle with John Cena that included the shoot promo was a way to write him off TV for some time off before the two sides began discussing a new contract in the fall.

According to those close to McMahon's thinking, Punk was originally going to lose against Cena at Money in the Bank and return in September. When the angle started to gain so much steam, McMahon began to go back and forth almost daily regarding the finish. The weekend of the show Punk was told that if he was willing to cut his break short, they would put the title on him at the pay-per-view and have him main event SummerSlam (which includes a large payoff).

The original plan for Punk at SummerSlam was to program him against Triple H which is why WWE did the angle at the San Diego Comic-Con (remember there was even talk about adding Hunter as a competitor to the bout against Cena). Plans changed and WWE switched it to Punk vs. Cena and Punk was offered the biggest pay day of his life to come back to headline SummerSlam and it caused him to agree to a new contract.

The WWE writing team was said to be "going nuts" having to constantly re-write WWE Raw every week because Vince kept them in the dark about Punk.


The internal civil war in TNA; Team Jarrett/Russo vs. Team Hogan/Bischoff with Dixie in the middle.

It would be a tremendous understatement to report there are very serious and real problems going on in TNA Wrestling. While behind-the-scenes jockeying in any business, especially in professional wrestling, isn't anything out of the ordinary I'm told things in TNA are teetering on a "full-blown civil war." The two sides in the battle are Jeff Jarrett & Vince Russo vs. Hulk Hogan & Eric Bischoff (I will refer to each camp as Team Jarrett/Russo and Team Hogan/Bischoff for the sake of simplicity). Dixie Carter is described to me as a "deer in the headlights" who is unknowingly "caught in the middle" with the ultimate prize being a Spike TV contract which is "dangling" above both camps. One source joked TNA could be easily mistaken for a ballet company with the amount of tiptoeing going on. Team Jarrett/Russo and Team Hogan/Bischoff are building allies for the ultimate showdown after a year of passive-aggressive politics with things just about to reach the boiling point.

While in many regards Team Hogan/Bischoff have not gotten their way in recent battles with Team Jarrett/Russo, they did somewhat win their very heated fight to change the name of the company to Impact Wrestling. However, according to a source I spoke to, their true motives for the name change are quite interesting. One of the reasons they were so in favor of it was the same reason Team Jarrett/Russo were so against it: Dixie Carter has a very strong emotional attachment to the TNA brand and her "TNA family." The only reason she bought the company (with money from Panda Energy) was so that many of her "family members" would not find themselves out of work. She has remained extremely loyal to key office people, including Vince Russo, who worked in the early days of the company. From the day Hogan and Bischoff arrived on the scene, there's been a concerted effort to cut the emotional ties to the Nashville days and try to eliminate the few that remain from early on in the company's history. The thinking of Hogan and Bischoff is simple - the less connected Dixie feels to the way things were before they got there, the better chance they have at eliminating the Team Jarrett/Russo stumbling block that so many have failed to remove.

Another reason for the change though is one I'm not sure Team Jarrett/Russo suspected. Prior to coming to TNA, Team Hogan/Bischoff had approached Spike TV several times about launching a new wrestling project. The response from Spike was usually the same. Spike had already invested millions of dollars to build the TNA brand and wasn't interested in starting from scratch. If Team Hogan/Bischoff wanted to work with Spike TV, they would have to work with TNA. While Bischoff would insist a new show in the same time slot would suffer no drop off despite the lack of TNA branding Spike had poured millions into, Spike would have none of it.

Now there is a situation where the name of the show has changed and yet viewership remained virtually identical, proving the point Eric Bischoff had tried to make in vain years earlier and thus, the hurdle of Spike TV fearing replacing the TNA brand has been slyly eliminated (TNA Impact to Impact Wrestling). However, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Team Jarrett/Russo are still desperately attempting to remain in favor with Dixie Carter while Team Hogan/Bischoff are trying to slowly arrange the pieces to put themselves in a position to land a deal with Spike if a major network shake-up takes place.

Obviously there is no telling how all this will end; however, I'm told if the action in the ring was half as compelling as what has been going on behind-the-scenes, perhaps Impact Wrestling would matter enough to bring ratings above the stagnant 1.1 or 1.2 cable ratings the show has been drawing before big money was spent on bringing in Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff in the first place.


Why The Rock approached Vince with his decision to wrestle at Survivor Series; another match at Royal Rumble?

The word going around backstage in WWE is Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson actually approached Vince McMahon about wrestling at Survivor Series this November.

One source close to the situation told me Rock didn't want to set into the ring at Wrestlemania XXVIII having not wrestled in over eight years. He wants the opportunity to work off any accumulated ring rust and the assurance of feeling a little more comfortable before taking center stage next year.

The Rock has been working close with McMahon about the booking of his role at Survivor Series with things been kept quiet from most people backstage.

There's a possibility of The Rock doing something at Royal Rumble but he wants to see how he feels after Survivor Series and decide if he feels he needs another match before Wrestlemania or if one was enough to brush up on his skills.


How Tough Enough's inability to produce new stars indirectly lead to Mark Henry's monster push.

It's no secret Vince McMahon has been disappointed with how poor of a job Tough Enough did to produce new marketable talent. McMahon's disappointment made him "slightly second guess" whether there should be such an overwhelming emphasis on top talent being part of the "youth movement" the company has focused on for nearly two years. This has played a major part in WWE getting "behind" recognizable names and is even more clear given the recent push of Mark Henry.

Adjustments are being made to push some reliable veterans with new refined gimmicks rather than focusing completely on building new stars from the ground up.


What put a halt to Desmond Wolfe's career in TNA and why some in TNA are concerned.

Sources close to the TNA locker room tell me that Desmond Wolfe was not able to wrestle because he has hepatitis and that has kept him from being medically cleared to compete. I'm told this is also why Wolfe's deal with WWE fell through in October 2009 as it was discovered the former Ring of Honor champion had the disease during a physical he took shortly after signing with the company.

There are people in TNA that are upset Wolfe was able to work as long as he was, especially considering the fact that he failed WWE's pre-screening physical. This isn't the first case of a worker in TNA being able to compete despite having hepatitis. Sean Waltman worked for TNA last year even though WWE won't use him because he has tested positive for the disease. Part of the reason Lacey Von Erich left TNA is because she also has hepatitis.

Several workers currently on the TNA Wrestling roster feel the company is not doing enough to protect their talent from infectious diseases. While management will likely point out their testing found these issues and the aforementioned workers were removed from the ring, other workers are upset they were able to get cleared in the first place. One source close to numerous wrestlers in TNA tells me it shows how "bush league" TNA is because the workers were able to work matches when WWE found out before they were ever allowed in the ring.


Kevin Nash was to be revealed as Anonymous RAW GM at Summerslam?

There was once a "loose plan" for the past couple months to reveal Kevin Nash as the Anonymous Raw General Manager at WWE SummerSlam. The plans for the main event scene on WWE Raw have been chaotic lately so when the dust settled, some people on the WWE creative team felt the General Manager gimmick needed to be quietly dropped so it wouldn't distract from Triple H's role as the on-screen Chief Operating Officer and it went on so long there is no way to pay it off without a letdown. It should be noted that other writers feel the company should explain the gimmick because of its lengthy duration.

It's one of those situations where no one wants to politically risk putting their foot down and give the "go ahead" either way.

Meanwhile, Kevin Nash had been patiently waiting to return to WWE television since Royal Rumble. He's in a great situation politically because he is close friends with Triple H. When it was discussed the Raw General Manager could be done away with, the creative team was told to still come up with an angle for Kevin Nash to have a meaningful return at SummerSlam.

Nash had been ready and in shape, basically "just waiting" even with creative going back in forth on what to do about the General Manager gimmick. The company did a good job of keeping it under wraps without it leaking online to detract from the surprise.


Triple H flexes backstage power for Sean Waltman.

There has been a lot of internal chatter about Triple H continuing the process of slowly taking over the reins from Vince McMahon, since Triple H is already exercising his power.

Sean Waltman has had involvement helping out at Florida Championship Wrestling. The general feeling backstage is that Waltman returning to the company is something that would have never happened. Waltman was essentially blacklisted from the company once they found out he had hepatitis. The company felt that Waltman had known about it and had been hiding it.

A comparable situation would be the situation with "Cowboy" Bob Orton years ago. Waltman keeping his hepatitis a secret was considered pretty unforgivable by the company, not only for putting others at risk, but also for putting the company at risk for being liable if a performer were to contract the disease in the ring.

Waltman has been in a pretty rough spot since losing his TNA gig last year, so Triple H has been trying to find something for him to do. Triple H's increase in backstage power has also played a role in Kevin Nash getting a great deal to essentially do nothing more than sit at home until recently.


The resilient Executive Vice President of Talent Relations and Interim General Manager of Monday Night RAW.

There's been some of talk lately about how resilient WWE Executive Vice President of Talent Relations John Laurinaitis has been. I'm told Triple H and Stephanie McMahon "really have it out for him" and plan on trying to squeeze him out of the company but he still somehow managed to get on television with Vince McMahon during the CM Punk angle. Hunter and Stephanie have never meshed with Laurinaitis and he is seen as one of "Vince's guys".

Laurinaitis reportedly knows his days as the EVP of Talent Relations could be numbered but he felt getting on TV would somehow help his standing.


Why TNA fired Matt Hardy but brought Jeff Hardy back; the major difference in philosophies between Dixie Carter and Vince McMahon.

A lot of people are wondering why TNA fired Matt Hardy yet is bringing Jeff Hardy back to television next week.

To shed some light on Dixie Carter's mentality with the Hardy Boyz, one thing people have to understand is the majority of the TNA higher-ups are born-again Christians and very big on forgiveness. There is a strong religious influence in how things are handled by Dixie, Vince Russo and others. While both Matt and Jeff were suspended, Jeff had been very remorseful since the debacle at Victory Road in March while Matt was more in "denial" and "insistent" that he hadn't done anything that warranted a suspension.

While many have been highly critical of TNA bringing back Jeff, the mentality amongst those in charge is influenced by the idea that Jeff was sorry for his mistakes while Matt refused to own up.

It is tricky as both Matt and Jeff have been asked to go to rehab and both refused. The difference, however, was that while Jeff insisted he would overcome his problems, was sorry and wanted to come back - Matt would insist there was no problem to begin with.

One of my sources indicated to me the major difference in the way Vince McMahon and Dixie Carter hire and fire talent in their respective companies is because of Carter's religious beliefs. Dixie puts her beliefs in front of what is always "better for business" and decided to forgive Jeff. It's not that TNA officials are oblivious to the fact that Jeff is a risk but Dixie wants to give him another chance because of his remorse and desire to be forgiven.


Why WWE parted ways with The Great Khali and how it correlates with their slowing down of expansion plans.

The Great Khali was booked on Smackdown last month under the assumption he is gone from WWE. Khali's WWE contract is coming up soon as he had been negotiating for a new deal for several months. Talks ended up breaking down and now it looks like he will not be returning to the company.

Earlier this year WWE had decided to make expanding the Indian market a priority. At that time, re-signing Khali was considered to be important, Jinder Mahal was in line for a push and the company was doing extensive scouting for more Indian talent. A name we mentioned WWE was considering at the time was Sonjay Dutt, who ended up not being available. During this time, negotiations with Khali went back and forth with Khali wanting a lot of days off. WWE was originally open to granting his request because of how high of a priority it was to re-sign him.

As is often the case with many things in WWE, something that Vince McMahon considered to be an urgent priority quickly became another forgotten/delayed project. In recent months, it's been decided that WWE's expansion plans in India were too aggressive and so many resources should not be poured into trying to expand a market that is already beginning to soften. Once this became the case, the priority to re-sign The Great Khali was much lower. Many in the company felt his character had ran its course and they had done all they could with it.

Khali was informed by WWE management he required too many days off and the decision was made not to re-sign him. He was told after he had some time off to return home to India, they would be open to exploring a new deal in the future. While financial terms of Khali's deal were not disclosed to me, I'm told it wasn't cheap and didn't make sense with the Indian expansion plans grinding to a halt.

While WWE has slowed on their expansion of India, I'm told TNA Impact Wrestling is suddenly very interested in expanding into the country. One observer commented how they always seem to be one or two steps behind WWE in all regards. Perhaps in a few months they too will decide to cool their jets when it comes to India, but in the meantime, I'm told they're exploring launching a new India-only TV show starring Sonjay Dutt. TNA hopes to find other Indian wrestlers as well for the new show although I'm sure they'll soon find out like WWE did there are not many options.


Triple H responsible for new philosophy on RAW and SmackDown shows; no plans to end brand extension (for now).

While Triple H is the "boss" on-screen in WWE, he continues to slowly gain more responsibilities in the company behind-the-scenes. One of the biggest changes he has brought on is a new emphasis on some sort of flow each week from Raw to Smackdown and Smackdown to Raw.

Hunter wants at least the top talent from each brand to appear periodically on the other brand to try and set up an angle for that talent's upcoming show. One source with knowledge of Triple H's thinking tells me that he feels there isn't enough being done for fans that just watch one show or the other to get them to tune into the other brand (with the company looking to carry more of Raw's audience to Smackdown rather than vice versa). Triple H also feels if a worker is being elevated, their push has a better chance of sticking if they get double exposure which will condition the audience to understand that worker is of great importance.

Coincidentally, most of theses "crossover" angles have almost entirely involved Triple H, which is something that has caused more than one person to roll their eyes backstage.

- When WWE decided to go with the Raw Supershow tapings, speculation has begun to run rampant that the brand extension is on its way out of the company. While unification ideas have been pitched since the inception of the brand extension, that is not the idea with the latest round of Supershow tapings.

Obviously it is possible this is WWE's attempt to "muddy the waters" to see how combining the roster works, but right now they especially want top Smackdown talent on Raw so when Smackdown tours, fans are more familiar with the talent. I'm told WWE officials seem to be "determined" to keep two separate touring rosters. I was also assured the Raw Supershows are going to continue for the time being to accomplish this goal.

One observer commented how they are interested to see how this will turn out because it might actually hurt Smackdown rather than help it. For example, if a fan watches to see Randy Orton but already saw him on WWE Raw on Monday, will they still tune in on Friday for Smackdown? This is how the philosophy that is being implemented to increase the viewership of Smackdown could actually backfire.


SmackDown Diva keeps "oral" agreement for employment?

Recently released WWE star Chris Masters posted a blind item on his Twitter account (twitter.com/wwemasterp) alleging that a female member of the SmackDown roster maintains sexual relations with head creative writer Michael Hayes in order to keep her job.

He wrote, “So if I had to tell you one smackdown diva who gave freebird hayes an “Oral

 

[4wrestling]

 

[Bend_The_Knee]

**NTWEF NEWS & NOTES**
--------------------------------

1. As you may or may not have known, the NTWEF released CelticsPride. Although they saw potential in him, they felt he wasn't responsible enough and felt he was "dead weight". Regarding the rest of the roster, there are reports that there may be atleast 2 more cuts before the end of the month.

2. The NTWEF has trademarked the terms "dead weight", "bedlam", "get the iss out'' and "NobleHymens".

3. There have been talks of giving a big push to HombreLobo, although as of right now, there is no confirmation as to when the push may come.

4. As reported a few months back, there are reports indicating that officials want to create a stable. No word on who or how many members, but we have been told that the ideal number is 5 members. The stable would appear on both brands.

5. Officials are reportedly very high on Peep_Game and TheDeek. There was some talk over the weekend about them becoming a tag team.

6. Early reports regarding NTRumble are that there will be 4 matchs at the event. There is a report that one official knows who is already penciled in to win the NTRumble.

7. There may be some big news regarding NTMania II in the coming weeks. Reports are that there may be a match announced for the big event soon.

 

[Bend_The_Knee]

veintisiete, u have to announce the final member of your NTSeries team or the final member will be chosen for u.

 

[chino905]

DSK back with the news and notes. Good read

 

[veintisiete]

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Veintisiete chooses BKMac as the final NTDown team member

 

[grimey]

Swag

 

[hombrelobo]

Originally Posted by chino905

DSK back with the news and notes. Good read

Wondering who the SmackDown Diva with an "Oral" contract is?

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[bkmac]

Originally Posted by VeintiSiete

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Veintisiete chooses BKMac as the final NTDown team member

And of course

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Celebratory promo coming later tonight.

 

[shaunhillftw49]

Originally Posted by theDEEK

Remember, once you become a face in the WWE, you don't have to earn your title shots anymore. Just get the heel to piss off teddy long or something and bam, you're in.

Yeah Punk is threatening to out duel him on the mic.

  They're both pretty stale now. Thing is ADR doesnt give Punk any ammo like Cena or Trips. I mean he's still relatively new.

 

[noblekane]

wow punk, beth phoenix??? out of all the women in wrestling you pick that monster beast???

 

[The_Isomotion31]

Man.....I havent watch RAW in 3 weeks now, just keeping up with it through the weekly threads and I'm still disappointed...Sucks

 

[robpzee612]

 

[hymen man]

Originally Posted by GotHolesInMySocks



2. The NTWEF has trademarked the term "NobleHymens".

We want our own private jet, our faces on collector cups, movie roles and most importantly.. bring back NTWE Ice Cream Bars, or we walk.

 

[4wrestling]

Smackdown Spoilers from Liverpool

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Randy Orton came out to start the show, plugging Team Orton vs. Team Barrett at Survivor Series.  Barrett and Christian came out, leading to Sheamus coming out to even the odds.  Teddy Long came out next and announced Orton vs. Barrett and Christian vs. Sheamus on today's show.

Sheamus b Christian clean with the Celtic cross in a good match

Daniel Bryan was talking with A.J. and Kaitlyn about how he was about to cash in the Money In the Bank briefcase.  Henry heard that, was none too happy, and threatened to tear his guts out in their match later in the show.

Ted DiBiase b Jinder Mahal in a squash

Mark Henry b Daniel Bryan clean with the World's Strongest Slam.  Henry brought in a chair, but Bryan got the chair adn hit Henry with it.  Henry no sold the chair shot and hit him with another slam.  And then another.  Then he put the chair around Bryan's leg but Big Show made the save.

But Henry still managed to crack the chair over Bryan's back.

Big Show beat three guys while Henry did a promo from standing on the ramp.  He botched his lines.

Alicia Fox b Tamina

Hunico & Epico b Usos.  Primo is part of their heel group and they did a three-on-two on the Usos after the match.  Hunico then did a promo in Spanish.

Wade Barrett b Randy Orton by poking Orton in the eye and rolling him up.

 

[4wrestling]

Raw did a 2.9, and more importantly, they were barely trending on Twitter. Major changes are a comin....

 

[Peep Game]

Those WWE/TNA news & notes

@ Rosa being mentioned. Wouldn't be surprised cause she is pretty useless. Stick her with
Hunicide & Epico like somebody said and you have something.

So "Tough Enough" failing to produce stars is the reason for Mark Henry's push....? No mad at all, if the WWE were to start developing people who've been stale/languishing on the roster, they wouldn't
have to force themselves to try to create new stars. I'm not saying that JTG, Yoshi Tatsu, Trent Baretta, and other guys like that will be megastars, but if you actually make the crowd connect to them,
they'd have more people to cheer. I mean, Too Cool, APA, The Godfather, and Crash Holly made people care about them. Even Steve Blackman at one point

So it could work today too.

TNA getting stuff stolen backstage, that was probably common knowledge.

 

[3dgarfly23]

Barrett bout to get that push

and lol at the wwe12 covers few pages back