The Wrestling Sandwich 08.20.11

Just like Johnny Curtis’s theme song goes, I Told You So! I knew the WWE couldn’t resist the chance to have another McMahon power angle going on, and when I started to see the pieces come together I knew it would end up being more about HHH and Vince than Punk and Cena. Now that SummerSlam is in the books all of you who thought Punk was going to destroy Cena and walk out with this huge victory got to see what I’ve been telling you about HHH all along. Want to review what happened? Too bad, we’re doing it anyway.

Punk gets an unclean pin on Cena because his foot was on the ropes and HHH didn’t see it.

Kevin Nash attacks Punk out of literally nowhere and Jack-Knife Powerbombs him flat on his back. HHH looks shocked. Hmm, he does have a wife who has power in the company…

Alberto Del Rio cashes in and beats Punk in five seconds to become the new champion. Add two more title changes for the WWE belt in the books. And you know what that means, right?

It means I’m downgrading the WWE Title like anybody with a brain would downgrade US Debt! I like to use championship title wins and losses as ways to vote in Wrestler of the Week, and prior to SummerSlam the title rankings were WWE Title at the top, TNA Championship at second, World Championship at third, IWGP at fourth, GHC at fifth, ROH at sixth and on it went. As a result of what I’m about to show you, I now count the TNA Championship as the most valuable. Here’s the reason for the downgrade:

WWE Title Changes in 2011:

Over The Limit – From Miz to Cena
Money In The Bank – From Cena to Punk
WWE RAW two weeks after MITB – Rey wins vacant title, followed by Cena beating Rey and CM Punk returns and is recognized as the champion as well.
SummerSlam – CM Punk defeats Cena but Alberto Del Rio cashes in and becomes the new champion, #43 on the list.

Six times since May and it isn’t even the end of August. TNA in comparison had Hardy lose to Anderson, Anderson loses to Hardy, Hardy loses to Sting, Sting loses to Anderson, Sting beat Anderson, and then Angle beat Sting. Four people, six title changes, EIGHT MONTHS. WWE title: Six changes, five people, three months. From this point on, I’ll be regarding any/all TNA Championship title changes as the most important title in wrestling.

Oh, by the way, you probably are all in a frenzy about the politics and such in the column too. I did say I wouldn’t put politics in the column and honestly, most of the time I’m not going to. However, when you put up a petition trying to get me fired, trying to raise money to get me fired, and try to report me to the SEC, IRS, and any other alphabet soup agency I changed my mind because after all, this is my column. It is amazing the sense of entitlement you morons have, you know that? One person out of fifteen disagrees with the WWE view and you pour on them like fire ants screeching and shouting and demanding. I especially liked the guy talking about the first amendment and then requesting I get fired for speaking my opinion! You are all in a frenzy because I’m proven right time after time and you can’t stand it. You say I’m “cracking” and my column is doing terrible and you actually make allegations up and say it so often around the site you believe it. I guess it bears repeating that unlike any and all of you libiots, I do not give up. I am glad to pay my fair share of taxes every year even though most of you cretins don’t give up a penny. You hate the rich so much but yet my percentile helps pay 95% of the revenue that comes in from taxes? You should kiss our feet! But you are so upset; so outraged that somebody dares question WWE and its storylines that you don’t even want me to speak on this site. You squeal and cry and run to Larry to get him to fire me, but if I report a columnist for taking cheap shots at me in my comments section you say I can’t fight my own battles. What do you call running to Larry with that petition? That’s mass cowardice. While you have ol’ Mr. Ronnie (Herbert) running around in his ice cream truck looking for classes letting out at the kindergarten and blasting me for daring to speak my opinion, you guys get pissed off that I don’t let you just call me a name and not respond back. Other columnists may have been scared to lose readers but I’m not. And if you go, that’ll just give my spell-checker a break. I mean, I could go the lazy route and take two weeks to write who I think was overrated and underrated fifteen years ago but instead I actually provide you with a career retrospective, reviews, ratings, top five, respond to mail, and so much more every week. So let me just seal the deal here, okay? I’m not going anywhere unless Larry fires my ass. If you raise money, I’ll offer more. If you offer to give me money to leave the site, you better raise a hell of a lot of it for me to even consider the offer. Since most of you are on some form of government assistance, I doubt you can. You’re losing the country, you’re losing in the polls, and you’re losing a mass war against me. Time to try dealing with it.

Top Stories of the Week!

1. Sorry Kid, You’re Just Not Tough Enough!

The news around the locker rooms and websites currently report that not only did WWE referee Mike Chioda get suspended for a violation of the WWE Wellness Plan but also Andy Leavine, the winner of the 2011 Tough Enough relaunch. It appears “Big Andy” was indeed the wrong choice for the victory as I said months ago, and if this is true then Andy’s career is already in serious jeopardy. As of press time it has not yet been publicly confirmed on WWE’s website as Chioda’s was.

Tough Enough has been just like the previous version in that it appears to be an abject failure outside one or two success stories. With the revelations of numerous contestants already having developmental deals and competing with people who were just trying for a spot to questionable calls by the judges with people such as Rima Fakih who was obviously coddled throughout, the addition of these potential drug violations taint the season even more. Frankly, this may be construed as a sign that WWE doesn’t need any more new people taking up the spot when they have nothing for 60% of the wrestlers working for them now and an overcrowded developmental system. And as I said, they made the wrong choice.

2. Ratings Roundup

We start with a mixed bag for Monday Night RAW as the rating gave both positive and negative analytics. Despite the fact I have never said WWE is dying and say instead their profit is going down which is accurate, people still seem to think a slight rise means the WWE is doing unbelievably well. Lets take a peek from 411 news:

WWE Raw on August 15th did a 3.29 rating with 5,055,000 viewers, which is an increase from recent weeks. However, the first hour did a 3.4 rating with 5,248,000 viewers whereas the second hour did a 3.18 rating with 4,861,000. WWE does not to see hour two drop.

WWE RAW: 3.29, 5.0 million viewers
WWE SmackDown: 1.83, 2.6 million viewers
TNA Impact Wrestling: 1.07, 1.5 million viewers

During the summer, ratings are supposed to go up. That is when people have the most time to watch television because of vacations and the lack of original programming that generally starts up in September. The fact WWE is struggling to earn a 3.29 is not a good sign. They did break five million viewers, but they dropped in the second hour, which nearly never happens, and is a sign people turned on the TV, watched, and clicked off because they were not interested. It remains to be seen who will be blamed for that. Oh, read it and weep:

August 16, 2010: 3.3
August 17, 2009: 3.3
August 18, 2008: 3.3
August 13, 2007: 3.8
August 14, 2006: 4.1
August 15, 2005: 3.8
August 16, 2004: 3.4
August 18, 2003: 4.0
August 12, 2002: 3.9 – Generation Mediocrity Era *Begins May 6, 2002*
August 13, 2001: 5.2 – Attitude Era
August 14, 2000: 5.9 – Attitude Era
August 16, 1999: 6.6 – Attitude Era

During the late years of the Attitude Era, WWE was doing terrific. Ratings dropped starting in 2002, dipped further in 2004, and from 2008 on have been generally poor. Even if you say 6,600,000 viewers watched on August 16, 1999 that is still more viewers than August 15, 2011. Generation Mediocrity, which we are currently in, is the only ten-year period with no boom and began when the WWF had to change its name to WWE thanks to the Wildlife Fund lawsuit. This is the first year since the early days of RAW that the rating was below a 3.3 total. All of a sudden that rating doesn’t seem so good, does it?

TNA, however, had a record setting release from the United Kingdom:

– The following are the UK ratings for the last few weeks for TNA and WWE. TNA’s first Impact on the list set a record for its all-time viewing high in the country, a record that they broke two weeks later.

Top Rated UK Shows:
July 14 Impact (airing on July 19) – 282,000 viewers – First record breaker.
July 28 Impact (airing on August 2) – 297,000 viewers – Second record breaker.
July 21 Impact (airing July 26) – 231,000 viewers
RAW July 25 – 156,000 viewers
RAW August 1 – 129,000 viewers
Smackdown July 29 – 128,000 viewers
Smackdown August 5 – 126,000 viewers

RAW July 18 and Smackdown July 22 had no ratings available at the time.

Full story available: Here

Australia Pay TV Metro Regional Ratings:

#33 – WWE RAW, 66,000 viewers

Australia Pay TV Metro Average Ratings:

#49 – WWE RAW, 27,000 viewers

Defeating WWE RAW in the regionals were a repeat of the Simpsons with 93,000 viewers, Falling Skies with 81,000 viewers, and The AFL Saturday Pre Game Show with 69,000 viewers. Yes, the pre-game show. On the average, the top rated program in Australian Pay TV is the National Rugby League live viewings, followed by Midsomer Murders and Australia’s Next Top Model which both defeated RAW.

TNA Impact Wrestling on August 11 scored a 1.07 with 1.5 million viewers, up against Jersey Shore and the NFL pre-season games. Spike officials are happy with the rating considering how much it did not drop against that competition.

A lot of you still write in with the term “boom period” in expectation that one is going to show up. I’m sorry to disappoint you but with the changes in technology and television and the new trend in sports, there won’t be another boom period like we had. I go into detail about that in a previous Sandwich column but the bottom line is that from 2002-2011 we have had no boom and it doesn’t appear to be changing anytime soon as buyrates, ratings, and overall mainstream interest remains low. Sure, the wrestlers go on talk shows and the like but everybody goes on those shows. But how many wrestlers get acting jobs outside the USA network? How many are successful?

In other ratings news, President Obama hit a new low with 39% of the nation approving of his performance. Most of those individuals approving of the job the President is doing are currently watching WWE like our good friend Little Mikey here:

I GET A TINGLE IN MY SPECIAL PLACE WHEN MR. PRESIDENT TAKES AWAY THE RICH PEOPLES MONEY! YAYYYYYY WELFARE!

That’s right, Little Mikey. Now you can sit on your fat ass and watch John Cena all day on other people’s hard earned tax dollars! As always, we’ll continue to feature Little Mikey as needed since he seems to resemble 90% of the commenters on this board: A hyperactive, overweight virgin who votes Democrat and jizzes himself on the sight of the WWE logo. Keep on believing the lies, kids.

3. ROH Crowns New TV Champion In Jay Lethal

Congratulations to former TNA X-Division champion Jay Lethal as he takes a huge victory in becoming the brand new ROH Television Champion! Lethal defeated El Generico, which was no small feat to take the next step in his career after leaving TNA. Lethal is most known for his “Black Machismo” imitation of Randy Savage, which was hilarious and showcased his humorous side as well as his wrestling skill.

4. Bound For Glory Series Standings

And after your August 18th Impact, here are the brand new BFGS standings!

1. Crimson: 50 points – 7 wins, 0 losses
2. Bully Ray: 42 points – 6 wins, 7 losses
3. Robert Roode: 35 points – 5 wins, 2 losses
4. James Storm: 33 points – 5 wins, 2 losses
5. Brother Devon: 30 points – 4 wins, 10 losses
6. Gunner: 28 points – 4 wins, 11 losses
7. A.J. Styles: 24 points – 4 wins, 6 losses
8. Scott Steiner: 21 points – 3 wins, 6 losses
9. The Pope: 17 points – 3 wins, 9 losses
10. Rob Van Dam: 15 points – 5 wins, 4 losses (2 by DQ)
11. Samoa Joe: -10 points – 0 wins, 10 losses (1 by DQ)
OUT INJURED: Matt Morgan.

Crimson remains undefeated in the tournament and overall in TNA as he leads by a slim eight point margin over new #2 Bully Ray, who can overtake Crimson with two more victories as long as one is a pinfall. Robert Roode checks in with #3 at 35 points and Storm at #4 with 33, virtually neck-and-neck. Brother Devon remains at #5 with only 30 points, and Gunner stays at #6 with 28. AJ Styles gains three for 24 points at #7, and Scott Steiner saw a pinfall victory elevate him to 21 points and #8 in rank. The Pope remains #9 with no movement, and RVD took a massive loss when Lynn cost him a second DQ, dropping him from 25 to 15 and #10 in the ranks. Samoa Joe remains the only negative point competitor and Matt Morgan is injured and thus out of competition.

Outlook: TNA announced there are three more weeks in the series before the top contenders face off at No Surrender, and with three weeks to go Samoa Joe will need to score six submission victories in a row to match Crimson at #1. At this point in time it appears that the final four will be Crimson, Bully Ray, Robert Roode, and James Storm although AJ Styles, Gunner, and Devon are in striking distance of taking the #4 rank. Samoa Joe and Rob Van Dam are likely way too far behind to catch up, the same going for The Pope and Scott Steiner who have too little too late.

5. Impact Quick Review

Quick Ratings:

1. BFG Series Match: Scott Steiner defeated Brother Devon with his feet on the ropes for seven points. DUD
2. Eight-Man X-Division Gauntlet For A Title Shot: ***3/4 overall
A. Mark Haskins defeated Alex Shelley with a variation of the Go 2 Sleep
B. Mark Haskins defeated Robbie E. via roll-up pinfall when Cookie and Robbie were arguing
C. Zema Ion pinned Mark Haskins with the 450 Splash
D. Jesse Sorenson pinned Zema Ion with a modified Cross Rhodes (snapping the opponent to the left instead of the right under his arm)
E. Jesse Sorenson pinned Tony Nese with the same modified Cross Rhodes.
F. Jesse Sorenson pinned Kid Kash with a countered rollup to the Moneymaker.
G. Austin Aries pins Jesse Sorensen after hitting the Brainbuster after interference and a Moneymaker by Kid Kash unseen by the referee – WINNER
3. Mickie James pinned ODB with the MickiE-D-T. **
4. BFG Series Match: AJ Styles defeated RVD via Disqualification when Jerry Lynn got involved and pulled the referee out of the ring. This costs RVD another ten points and gives AJ three. ***
5. TNA World Tag Team Championship: Mexican America defeated Beer Money to become the NEW TNA Tag Team Champions when Hernandez clobbered Robert Roode with Jeff Jarrett’s Immortal World Championship unseen by the referee. **1/4

Best Booking Decision: Giving Jesse Sorensen a good run in the gauntlet match, which will establish him as a threat immediately to the title.

Worst Booking Decision: No announcement of when Sting/Flair will take place.

Some people will be bitching as loud as possible about the fact Sting and Flair will wrestle again in a match. To some, they are just old guys who are staying around too long and overstayed their welcome. WRONG. These are two men who need money to make a living just like everybody else, and let us not forget that. The economy is about to dip into a recession again and people are feeling the pain everywhere, so just because they are stepping into the ring doesn’t mean they necessarily want to as much as may have no choice if they want to provide for their families. Ric Flair is well known to have money problems and Sting honestly can still go to an extent so I don’t see the issue.

The Angle/Crimson confrontation is going to be interesting. Angle wants to take out the young guys as a way to give a middle finger to Dixie Carter for hiding the affair from him, so Crimson is the target because he’s undefeated and #1 in the BFG series standings. Crimson wants Angle so he can say he beat the champion and can earn a title shot, as well as revenge for the assault the past week. I think Crimson did a good job with his promo, speaking rather quietly and more focused than before and respecting Angle while at the same time making sure he didn’t mistake Crimson’s kindness for weakness. How does this lead to the whole situation with Hogan and Sting? Obviously, Ric Flair enters the picture taking a little offense to Hogan being called the greatest wrestler. Hogan doesn’t want to wrestle, and Flair is taking liberties with giving Hogan up on a silver platter, which immediately starts adding to the slow burn of a face turn for Hulk. Angle isn’t working with Immortal and he needs to establish his dominance as champion so they are putting him against the top new guy they have so he can make his point. This isn’t rocket science, folks. This is just a series of angles that intertwine and will likely peak at Bound For Glory. I’m sorry if this “complicated” arrangement is too much for the ETards to process since it is more than just “Cena loses title, Cena cuts same old shit promo, Cena wins title back” but this actually makes sense:

Hogan doesn’t want to fight Sting, and Flair is pushing him into a match after Flair heard Sting say Hogan was the best wrestler and not Flair. This creates some tension with Flair and Hogan, and allows Sting to face a long time enemy one more time for a chance at Hogan.

Angle wants to hurt Dixie Carter, so he attacks her top young talent as payback for not informing him about her knowledge of Karen’s affair with Jeff. Sting, who had been the champion leading the charge for Dixie to get her company back, was knocked off by Angle due to his hatred of Dixie for what she did. Now, Crimson and Angle will wrestle because Angle attacked Crimson and Crimson wants to beat Angle for a title shot and for some revenge.

See, that wasn’t so difficult now was it?

6. Karma’s A Bitch – Not THAT One!

Anybody else remember that TNA once employed Jimmy Yang for more than one single match? Well, as it turns out there may be a lot of reason for TNA to have a small “error” with their payroll:

“Regarding the Jimmy Yang situation:

ALLEGEDLY, TNA is not paying him on time on purpose as a way of revenge. Here’s why:

Back in 2005, while Yang was still working for TNA, he was supposed to show up to work for TNA on the first BFG ppv, but he did not show up or even bother to call TNA because as it turns out, Yang had just signed with the WWE but he left TNA in the dust and they had to scramble to find a replacement.

That could be TNA’s way of Karma getting back at Yang for that move which is why his paycheck has not arrived.

Think about it:

Is Jack Evans complaining about his check?
Has low ki complained?
Has Dakota Darsow complained?

Do the research.

Posted By: The Newsman (Guest) on August 18, 2011 at 11:29 AM”

As of my count, nobody but Yang is complaining about the pay. In retrospect, I think TNA is simply handing him a receipt for the poor professional performance that he showed them in 2005. It certainly explains why nobody but Jimmy Yang is complaining about paychecks, and frankly if this is payback he deserves it. You never burn your bridges with companies that have a good memory, folks.

Smartest Thing of the Week: The Return of Ric Flair

Like him or not, Flair is a draw. In fact, Ric is one of the biggest draws across the South, which happens to be where TNA has their headquarters. TNA were able to bring back the Nature Boy out of nowhere and put him immediately into the Hogan vs. Sting rivalry that is going on, ensuring that no matter what southern viewers will tune in due to Flair’s name recognition and their fierce loyalty to the Horsemen days. Having Flair on TV is never a bad thing, as he sells extremely well and can cut some of the best promos in the world today.

Dumbest Thing of the Week: Did You Really Believe CM Punk Was Walking Out Champion?

Come on people. This is a company that has screwed up more attempts to push somebody than any other on the planet, and still gets a free pass every single time they do it. One way or another Punk was not heading out of SummerSlam as the champion and thanks to Kevin Nash he did not. The simple fact of the matter is we already know due to a news item that Nash will be feuding with Punk while Cena goes on to fight for the championship against Del Rio. Sorry kids, you drank the Kool-Aid just like Vince made you drink last year with the Nexus and probably next year with the next attempt at the “big new summer angle” that always seems to fizzle out and die in favor of a John Cena title run. And you fall for it every single time! The dumbest thing of the week is believing that WWE was going to make Punk their new top guy, and that is on those of you who did.

OLD SCHOOL WRESTLER OF THE WEEK

Paul Roma

Yes, that actually is an old WWF collector’s card with Paul Roma on it. It was the most successful phase of his wrestling career, a career that to this day is mentioned by all the massive Paul Roma mentions in the comments section and especially as replies to Sforcina’s Your Turn, Smart Guy! section in Ask 411. Let us take a look down memory lane at a man who began life as a jobber to the stars, became a little higher on the card, and ended up a jobber again.

Paul actually started his career as a professional bodybuilder in the early 1980’s, although things obviously didn’t go as well as he’d hoped. In 1985, he began his career and was signed by the WWF as he lived in the territory area, being used mostly as a jobber until 1987, when he was teamed up with fellow newcomer Jim Powers as the Young Stallions! Vince McMahon actually didn’t know what to call them and one day just mentioned they were “a couple of young stallions” and the phrase caught on. One of the unique things about the Stallions is that they entered the ring to “Crank It Up” which was performed by the heel manager Jimmy Hart on the Piledriver cassette tape. The Stallions had a kayfabe article in WWF Magazine about liking the song and using it but having no interest in being managed by Jimmy, which turned out to be a big mistake. Their biggest victory was a DQ win over the Hart Foundation, who were tag team champions at the time. They began to take on other teams such as the Killer Bees, The Conquistadors, Powers of Pain, Demolition, and the Fabulous Rougeau Brothers before real life problems started to end the team, namely that the two didn’t get along. It was March 19, 1989 when Paul Roma and Jim Powers had the official split after a loss to Demolition on Wrestling Challenge and argued, but were not split up on camera or given an explanation why suddenly they no longer teamed together. Oddly, they teamed up in June only to once again part ways in August to become singles wrestlers.

Paul Roma’s big contribution in the year 1989 was his victory over Boris Zukhov during the dark match of WWF Survivor Series, and he began 1990 by doing what most wrestlers did when they first entered the company and pinned Steve Lombardi at the Royal Rumble in another dark match, and WrestleMania would feature a repeat of that. He was given televised wins over Boris Zukhov and “Playboy” Buddy Rose but then lost to pretty much everybody else such as Bad News Brown and Ted Dibiase. It was in May of that year that Hercules, another singles wrestler finding limited success, would team with Roma against Ken Johnson and Buddy Rose and a new concept had begun in the brain trust of the WWF.

Paul Roma would turn heel, as would Hercules, after a match in June 1990 when Paul was once again defeated by Dino Bravo and the Rockers came to help after Bravo assaulted him, but Paul began arguing and Hercules came out of nowhere to blindside the Rockers as well, forming the new team Power and Glory. Acquiring the services of Slick as their manager, they went on to feud with The Rockers and actually got several important victories over them including on PPV. During the SummerSlam event, Shawn Michaels had been “injured” by Power and Glory before their scheduled match and then, Jannetty ended up taking on both men and lost. The team went on to challenge for the tag team titles and unfortunately came up short. Even worse, the Legion of Doom beat them in under a minute at WrestleMania VII! This was not exactly the most comforting sign for their long-term future.

They would continue to compete in matches along with The Warlord, who was managed as well by Slick. Their final PPV outing was a loss when Roma, Hercules, and Warlord lost to Ricky Steamboat, Kerry Von Erich, and Davey Boy Smith during SummerSlam 1991. Shortly after they lost their last match as a team to the Legion of Doom once again. This, of course, is where things got a little interesting!

During that period, WCW was attempting to put together the original Four Horsemen. They had every intention of delivering except that Tully Blanchard had flunked a drug test, so they decided to add a brand new younger member to the team in the form of… “Pretty” Paul Roma. In fact, when Roma came out the crowd openly booed the hell out of him and Flair tried to save things by talking him up. Ole Anderson became the advisor to the group, which was mostly considered “The Three Horsemen” and the weakest incarnation ever. After the Arn Anderson stabbing incident with Sid Vicious, the Horsemen dissipated for a moment and Roma ended up turning on Erik Watts during a match to join forces with Paul Orndorff and call themselves “Pretty Wonderful” as a new tag team. Yes, folks, Paul actually turned on the Horsemen but yet Sting never saw Flair’s backstabs coming. Pretty Wonderful took the tag team titles from Cactus Jack and Kevin Sullivan and they fended off the Nasty Boys, but ultimately lost to the Stars and Stripes team of Marcus Bagwell and The Patriot. They would lose, regain the belts, and then lose again in a final chance in which the Patriot had to put his mask on the line to secure the title shot. Roma continued to job to the stars and eventually got canned for kicking out early during a match with Alex Wright at SuperBrawl V.

In 1997, Roma attempted to make his WWF comeback with a wrestler named Alex Roma under the management of Mr. Fuji and were dubbed The Pretty Primos. The reason you probably never heard of this is because they had all of one match during a house show and the WWF were not impressed, leaving Roma no real option but to retire from wrestling.

Paul Roma took on a new life as a boxer, and had a grand total of three boxing matches. His very first was after he left the WWF on March 6, 1992 where he lost via TKO to Jerry Arentzen when his trainer threw in the towel. He got a victory on April 1, 1992 and then defeated another man as well, but those turned out to be the only time either guy ever boxed. Realizing he had no chance in the sport he’d retire from this as well and join WCW.

Paul was seen again on the wrestling scene in 2006, as commissioner of the indy fed Connecticut Championship Wrestling and made a brief reunion with Paul Orndorff in the tag team scene. The biggest victory in his career came in 2006 when Paul Roma won the IAW Heavyweight Championship from Brian Costello in front of about ten people at a nearby high school gym. He’d lose the belt a little under a year later. So, following the old adage of “those who can do, those who can’t teach” Roma went on to open up a wrestling school where he teaches in Bridgeport, CT.

And now all of you have a question to stump your friends! It goes like this:

This wrestler was known for being mostly a tag team man although he was largely unsuccessful despite being part of at least two separate teams. He worked in the WWF and WCW during two separate decades and received his only heavyweight title in an independent company in 2006. During one of those tag teams he came to the ring as a face to a song written and performed by a heel. He was also partnered with a WWE Hall of Fame main eventer. He was part of a famous group for a brief period of time, and despite being a face was booed heavily by the fans on his joining this group. Who is he?

To finish things up, here’s a look at that match with Alex Wright from SuperBrawl V. Watch Roma no-sell every arm-bar applied and then sandbag Wright repeatedly:

Part 1:

Part 2 and final:

Take 5

Wrestler To Watch: Kevin Nash

After dropping CM Punk with a devastating Jack-Knife Powerbomb and walking out of SummerSlam 2011 as the most talked about surprise of the night, Kevin Nash has returned home truly to the WWE. Without naming himself Diesel again, Nash has begun his participation in the CM Punk/HHH angle by claiming HHH told him to drop Punk but of course, that seems a little farfetched considering Stephanie McMahon was around as well. Is HHH responsible? Did Vince pull the trigger? Or maybe Stephanie was the one? No matter who actually sent a message to Nash, Nash sent his own at SummerSlam that he is once again back in the company that made him a huge star.

Promo of the Week: Vince McMahon Brings Back The New World Order

This is the famous promo in which Vince McMahon had just lost to Ric Flair at the 2002 Royal Rumble, keeping him as 50% owner of the WWF. McMahon was absolutely furious about the idea that Ric Flair was going to control his company at all so he decided to do the only thing he knew was best: Kill his own creation with a lethal injection of poison. And there was only one group that could possibly get the job done the way it needed to be! McMahon goes insane during this promo and reveals that he’s bringing back the powerful New World Order to destroy the WWF as they had tried to do years earlier. Interesting, as now he’s lost his power again and Kevin Nash suddenly appeared to attack CM Punk… Naw, they wouldn’t. Would they?

Babe To Watch: MsChif

Although she won’t appeal to everybody and likely will scare a few men away with her bizarre style of dress and her banshee shriek, MsChif is not only sexy but also one hell of a great female wrestler. Utilizing different techniques from all across the world from the green mist to torturous lucha libre style stretches and submissions, MsChif is one of the more talented women in the business and has been a showcase of SHIMMER, Chikara, and various companies since her debut. Seriously, check out her top ten moves! She’s like a female Great Muta!

Match of the Week To Watch: 2011 MOTY: Destination X Fatal Fourway for a TNA Contract

You all claim that John Cena vs. CM Punk at MITB was a classic match. This match blew that pile of crap out of the water considering none of these guys have anywhere near the name value of John Cena or the massive cult following of CM Punk. Yet these four mostly unknown guys tore the ROOF off of Destination X and put on a real Match of the Year candidate as they competed for the chance to be part of TNA. If they wrestle this hard just to work for the company, it makes you think how well they will perform in it!

Mystery Section to Watch: Peter Griffin sings “Can’t Touch Me!”

What the hell, I’ll give you all a break this week. This is a clip from YouTube of Peter singing the “Can’t Touch Me” diplomatic immunity song with a good custom video and after that, a short segment in which he sings the “Ding Fries Are Done” to the tune of Carol of the Bells. If you like Family Guy you probably already own the DVD but hey, this guy did put together a pretty cool video!

The Good, The Bad, and The… WTF?

Dipping into the comments section, we find a few interesting opinion pieces and the rest is pretty much just mind-numbing stupidity from the usual bunch. We’ll start with something good.

The Good

“To be honest with CM Punk becoming entrenched now is the time to go a new direction with the WWE back when Austin eclipsed Hart. I really believe Summerslam should be booked as face versus face. Is Cena ever going to turn? Not with their audience and merchandise so I say book them as two faces, make it a personal, rivalry based fight and Punk needs to go over clean.

Do you think a well done face vs face program could work in wrestling? Even if we cast heels on the side as supporting players?

Posted By: weesel (Guest) on August 13, 2011 at 10:06 AM”

Of course a well-done face vs. face program could work. It is not often done, but the ability to create a program is there if you can see it. One popular program was Warrior vs. Hogan although it was ultimately just about one match. A lot of times fans will deviate from the script so that both or neither guy ends up the face, and it makes things a little confusing. Remember Rock/Hogan? The fans reversed that match and they had to add the nWo separation at the end to make Hogan a face, as they were demanding.

One example of a possible face vs. face program in WWE would be John Cena vs. Randy Orton. Both men are champions, we could start with that by having the announcement of an award to the winner of a series of matches between the two brand champions and the first two Draft picks for 2012 go to the winner’s brand. Cena and Orton then could work a best of five series while also fending off challenges, perhaps even helping each other against heel opponents, and even taking a few cheap shots at each other. Definitely could work and the mainstream fans would love to see which champion is “the best” of the two. In TNA, we already have the seeds of Styles/Daniels although it is likely Daniels is turning heel. However, it would be easy to see something like AJ vs. Kazarian for “best wrestler in Fortune” or like we saw as well the Beer Money/Motor City Machineguns who mostly wrestled to see who was the best tag team more than anything at the end. Beer Money were heels, but the reaction ultimately led to the decision to turn them face. So, the program could work but as you point out it would have to be WELL DONE and I don’t mean Steven and Timothy. Kudos to the two people who might get that.

“I’d just like to say there’s no better way to start off Saturdays than reading your column, Wes. Great job once again.

In a way, you’re like Roddy Piper in “They Live”. You can see the bullshit (without the sunglasses) while the majority of wrestling fans troll over their shitty product and if you disagree with them… they spew violent rants towards you. (Very grown up, by the way).

If I were to say that Wes was fair and balanced (no relation to Fox news), everyone would tear me apart. But who else on 411 calls it like they see it? Wes doesnt favor one product over another. He favors a good product over the other. If the WWE changed it up a little (or a LOT depending on how you see things), Wes would surely point out the positives there as well. But sadly, the WWE just isnt up to par right now.

And enough with the terms “troll” and “butt hurt”. You all sound like HUGE douchebags whenever you type that. HUGE. But I guess that’s what’s big on the middle school circuit these days. Kids are fucking idiots. If you’re going to “troll”, troll about how both TNA and ROH both started up around 2002 and TNA has the television deal, video games, legendary headliners, endorsements, and so on and on… Meanwhile ROH has SHIT.

If you’re going to point out how TNA’s ratings are lower than the (established for over 50 years) WWE, dont be an ignorant asshole and forget about ROH!

Hey, I enjoy ROH on occasion. I’m just stating the facts.

Wes, keep ignoring the haters. Have you seen the movie “Private Parts”? They say people who loved AND HATED him tuned in just to see what he’d say next. That sums up your column. The haters CAN NOT ignore your column (no matter what they might say) and sure enough, they’ll be coming back week after week after week.

That sir, makes you the greatest ever.

*Any further posts under the “Spencer Mallard” name from this point on are NOT written by me.

Posted By: Spencer Mallard (Guest) on August 13, 2011 at 11:56 AM”

I loved Piper in that movie, Spencer. He’s a highly underrated actor although he has a few new B-movies out that actually aren’t so bad.

I do love that movie, actually. I’m not misunderstood, though, just hated by people for speaking the truth as I see it instead of sugarcoated bullcrap. Unlike Prag I analyze financials according to what I see and not tow a company line because I like the company, that’s not how you handle financials. I know a certain recapper who did everything in his power not to mention Swagger botched his gut-wrench power bomb even though it was obvious, mentioning it was showing off Swagger’s strength. Right. See, I never enjoyed obvious lies. No matter where it was, people always pushed their agenda and hard at that and I just got to the point where I don’t believe the snake oil salesmen. The haters always come here because this is the only column that says WWE is not perfect, TNA is very good, and if you don’t like me go fuck yourselves. The only one.

”
“I don’t strive to be popular as you can tell by my comments each and every week but that’s simply the way it is.”

Wise man once said: “It’s better to be hated then ignored.”

Posted By: Joey Nic (Guest) on August 13, 2011 at 01:33 PM”

Exactly. You can tell a lot about a man by his enemies, Joey. Donald Trump’s enemies are mostly uneducated liberals who get all their money off the government and hate the fact the man became a billionaire by being motivated, educated, and using his brain. That tells me that Donald’s the kind of man I’d hang around with because he doesn’t get brainwashed by the bull either. For me, my enemies are uneducated Cena fans who can’t deal with one columnist out of about twenty in the wrestling section speaking his mind and have to post threats, start petitions, and in general act like people starved for genuine human interaction.

After SummerSlam aired, I got this one in:

“Wes Kirk is from the freakin FUTURE! Because one great moment in the WWE’s ‘holding pattern of mediocrity’ sent fans and fanboys in a tizzy, it went straight into the shitter the worst way it could have after that Summerslam main event.

You, sir, should play chess, this WWE angle started Hot, then involved McMahon, then involved Triple (sponge) H, then involved his buddies, congrats!!

Everyone, your new playground for HHH and his buddies, the WWE, they all get movie deals and ignore what you want as fans. You clowns can defend that all you want, Wes Kirk called the BS a mile away.

Posted By: Orc Jock Strap (Guest) on August 15, 2011 at 12:43 AM”

You know it brother. I knew this was going to be about the power struggle for the company and as of RAW, it appears Stephanie and Nash are likely working in conjunction with each other although I think HHH will “oppose” them and ultimately down the line Vince himself will be involved. Stephanie didn’t just randomly appear for any reason. HHH and Nash are the smartest men backstage because they knew just how to ensure they’d have a job whenever they needed it, and they are playing people for fools if they think anybody gets over on HHH’s watch without his explicit endorsement. So, after RAW it looks like Nash vs. Punk and Cena vs. Del Rio for the belt? Ah well, I’ve already seen the attempts to make THAT look good! This won’t end well for fans of CM Punk.

And as far as chess goes, it is a good game but I prefer poker as you can call people on their bluff and win money for it.

The Bad

“I find it extremely difficult to believe somebody who was able to pass Marine training and duty has to attack a guy writing a wrestling column in the cheapest way possible. If I attack somebody, at least I put it in the column and don’t rail on him or her in the comments section to hide behind that. I didn’t come to 411 to fight with people who have issues with contrarian opinions, this was and still is a respected website and just needed a little TNA positivity. I didn’t come here to be defamed by fellow staffers who need to resort to the cheapest possible attacks to hide the fact their column is about 15 sentences long about things that stopped being relevant in the Clinton administration.-Kirk

And yet your response was NOT to confront Frame with whatever it was that offended your childish, petty, insecure sensibilities, be it publicly or private, like a man.

Your response was to run to Csonka to fight your battle for you…and take your little cheap shots afterwards as evidenced above.

Explain to me why you claim to pick fights with readers…but are afraid to fight another columnist?

Maybe you can’t handle somebody with an equal platform?

Maybe you’re just a chickenhawk that’s terrified of a real hawk?

Just when I thought you couldn’t be anymore pathetic…you go and write something like this…and totally prove me wrong.

I did enjoy the child molester analogy, though…good times!

Stay classy!

Posted By: Ronnie (Guest) on August 13, 2011 at 01:08 AM”

Ol’ Mr. Herbert strikes again. Anybody who would enjoy being compared to a child molester has issues I’m not licensed to handle, isn’t that right Ronnie?

Back to your “good times” you go, and probably jail for 25-to-life.

“You know, it is comments like this that make me just laugh at how stupid people really are.

The keywords are MASS PRODUCTION. They create plastic with artwork on it! The solution is as simple as having a drawing made for Punk’s cup while releasing a statement that “due to popular demand, we are producing a CM Punk collector cup that will be available very soon!” and after approving the graphic they add it to the machines. This is not a BRAND NEW PRODUCT being added, it is a ninth artwork template to the eight cups already out there. The little action figure on the top doesn’t take a year to create and mass-produce! “
——————————
Listen, John Maynard Keynes, I never disputed that it COULD happen, obviously if any corporation devotes enough resources and money they could make just about anything happen…but you’re assuming that the rush to mass produce cups to the 8,000 stores, i.e., production/shipping/ is going to result in some MASSIVE profit that they’d be morons not to do. You are looking at an expense of thousands upon thousands of dollars, for what?? a $3 plastic cup?? There’s NO way people would purchase that many $3 cups to make it financially worthwhile. You’re not going to see lines outside 7-11’s across America once these new “coming soon CM Punk collectors cups” get released. They are not sitting on a license to print money.

That is basic economics, if something is not financially viable, you typically do not do it…and providing the yearning public with CM Punk cups is not some grand act of good will that will make them all warm and fuzzy when recounting their quarterly losses.

Posted By: Money Management (Guest) on August 13, 2011 at 01:56 AM”

This is where you can tell who understands a business and who understands THE BUSINESS.

Ultimately, what you want to do is make sure the customers are happy. If you are going to lose around $5 million but your profit is over $50 million why not please the people? When you do something good for your customers they remember you for it and they come back. Sometimes you think of the money while other times you have to look outside the box and think, as they had a good opportunity with Good Humor refusing to make the ice cream bars. Please the people and they will please your pockets. Oh and by the way, Keynes is a complete and utter failure of an economist but we’re discussing business marketing which is a whole different ballgame, idiot.

“yet after we all told you, you did not took out the stupid political comments of a wrestling column…you are not Hyatte (he laughs at you, come see…ups, sorry you will never be invited to his blog) you are not Scott Keith, you are a sad stupid troll…

Posted By: u mad bro? (Guest) on August 13, 2011 at 02:57 AM”

How do you know I’ve never been invited to his blog? Then again from what I’ve heard Hyatte was played for a fool several times by “insiders” he thought he was talking to and ended up leaving with his little private blog because he’d become a laughingstock. And yeah, I’m not Keith either. I’m better!

One final comment:

“You know, back in high school, we used to have a kid named Matt Grothe do morning radio. He would give our sports’ teams results and every now and then he would drop some snide personal opinion when we’d lose (which was not often for a Pennsylvania AAAA school). He had his occasional cronies who he’d bring on-air, and they thought he was the greatest thing since Don Imus.

However, despite him thinking he was hot shit, our entire graduating class despised his holier-than-thou, drunk-on-miniscule-amount-of-power ass. When confronted by the athletes about his derogatory statements, he didn’t retaliate…he ran and told his staff advisor and principal about being “threatened.”

I can’t help but be struck by the parallels here (Grothe = Wes Kirk, Mindless Cronies = Spencer/Fuj, Graduating Class who Despised Him = People with Common Sense, Athletes Who Stood up for Themselves = Frame, Principal = Csonka).

Posted By: Class of ’99 (Guest) on August 13, 2011 at 02:37 PM”

Sir, did it ever occur to you that maybe your team simply sucked and he was pointing out you were beating poor teams with horrible rosters only? Because it sounds to me like you guys lost a lot more than you are willing to admit and hate the guy who just rubbed your face in it to try and motivate you to do a better job. Sounds like he did the right thing by making sure your threats were taken care of, because nobody likes bullies. You guys probably were twice his size and think picking on him made you big men, right? Big tough guys, you admitted it was multiple people against one guy and if that one guy was able to beat you, no wonder you guys lost so much. Suck it up, shut it up, and get over it.

I also wanted to say to the person who discussed the favored nations contracts: I think there should be a point, obviously, where the money does not exceed what a company needs to take in to survive. WWE is the prime example of a company that pays good money but their roster still isn’t really motivated, and do you know why? No competition. During the Attitude Era, both companies had to work for a Monday night audience EVERY SINGLE WEEK and the wrestlers had to perform or else they were history. Fans had a choice, wrestlers had a choice, and it benefited everybody. I’ve seen TNA matches and WWE matches and it is obvious that outside of a few people in WWE the rest just mail it in. The question was theoretical as people have learned from certain mistakes in the past and won’t allow it to happen again.

The WTF

This one I had a little bit of fun with.

“On a final note, the United States was downgraded on its credit rating, as I’m sure all of you know by now. While there’s tons of finger pointing (mainly by Democrats at the rating agency itself since of course all the debt was caused by the agency and not spending trillions of dollars or anything) going on, I’d once again like to remind the 53% of you who voted for the idiot in charge that… well, you voted for him and you deserve it.- Kirk

If you knew how to read, the S&P report was pretty clear that the tea party intransigence on dealing with the debt issue was the cause of the downgrade.

I can’t wait to see you brag about your investment expertise when the SEC, FINRA, NASD, and State Securities agencies come calling.

I forwarded your investment strategy columns to their enforcement departments.

They tend to frown on unlicensed people offering investment advice.

Good luck…you’re gonna need it.

Posted By: Guest#2312 (Guest) on August 13, 2011 at 12:52 AM”

Hercules was right, you really do need some time off the Internet.

Yeah, that’s the kind of pathetic ass-kissing loser that goes off on me. LOL!

One of my all time favorite actresses Summer Glau shows off the curves in a performance that will terminate your boredom at Summer Glau’s FHM Photoshoot

Check out a lingerie photoshoot starring Lily Aldridge because Lily Aldridge Looks Amazing In Lingerie!

Sforcina has the Ask 411 for you. The answer to the question is Rusty Shackleford.

Steve Cook bashes the hell out of TNA at News From Cook’s Corner yet apparently he finds CM Punk going from a championship run to fighting Kevin Nash on PPV a good thing.

Spencer Baum’s characters have a huge announcement in the latest edition of One Fall. The announcement is that they saved 15% on their car insurance by switching to Geico! Oh, wait, there’s another one.

DeMarco gives us possibly the easiest VS. EVER IN HISTORY when he puts my Beautiful People against some broads from down under. And one look at those faces makes me think they should stay there too. Check it out at The Wrestling 5&1 and Velvet, get the bags!