Welcome one and all to this special addition of The Wrestling Sandwich! My name is Aaron Frame, if you didn’t realize by now, and I’m filling in for Scott Rutherford as he takes care of his family. Here’s hoping that everything goes well with the birth of his child.

This is pretty new venture for me, so I’m going to try my best not to screw it up. Then again, how hard can it be to write about whatever is on my mind? Couldn’t possibly screw this up, right? With that being said, I guess, let’s get to it.

I’ll start things off with talking about TNA’s Lockdown PPV from last Sunday. I have to say that I was generally surprised by how well the card went. Not that I didn’t think it wasn’t going to be as good as it was, but I just didn’t know if they would have pulled it off as well as they did.

Having them start everything off with Team Garret vs. Team Eric was the right call in my opinion. I was afraid they were going to put it closer to the main event. Actually, I was afraid they were going to make it the main event. I’m sure that people share the same sentiment that Garrett Bischoff is getting the David Flair treatment and it needs not happen. Not saying the guy doesn’t have the talent to be a star, but he needs to get some experience. Hey, maybe he’ll learn something by having the fans reject him. He could go down the route Rocky went. Fans hate him? Fine, he’ll go and turn on the fans. But I won’t hold my breath. The match itself was okay, nothing spectacular. Probably the tamest Lethal Lockdown match I’ve seen. Hopefully with Garrett’s win we can move on from watching his daddy issues unfold.

I’m really, really happy they didn’t immediately put the titles on MCMG. As much of a fan of MCMG that I am, I’m enjoying watching Joe and Magnus do their thing. They’ve evolved in to quite the tag team. At first I wasn’t that big of a fan of that wildcard tag team stuff, but seeing as they’ve turned out two entertaining tag teams from it, both championship teams, I think they did something right with it. This match was absolutely the runner-up for match of the night. MCMG and Joe & Magnus had some fantastic chemistry and they gave the fans one hell of a match. Let’s hope that TNA can give us more outstanding tag team wrestling since WWE doesn’t seem like they want to. I think some prestige was added to the tag titles this night. However…

They continue to crap on the TV Title. Where do I start? Do they not know what to do with this title? Are they content with just making it a jobber title or what? Having it on Devon isn’t so bad. I’ll back that up. Devon is a veteran who has some credibility. Yes, I’m aware there are more deserving people who could do better things with it, but I’m actually trying to defend their decision. But it’s ridiculously hard to do so when they have like a 4 minute match at the PPV. This match made me care less about 1) the TV Title, 2) Devon as the champion, and 3) Robbie E & T in any regard. They could have easily taken a few minutes off of Lethal Lockdown to let Devon and Robbie T do there thing a little longer. Maybe they would have had a better match. A less important Crimson/Matt Morgan feud match got a little over 7 minutes… They could have done better.

The Knockouts continue to impress me with their work. They may not be the best women’s wrestling out there, but they’re the best women’s wrestling on national television. Gail Kim has always been one of the better “mainstream” women’s wrestlers. When she’s motivated to do good work, she does great work. She really brought her A game for this match. And so did Velvet. I usually don’t care much for her matches, but she did pretty damn well here. Good match that gave the Knockouts title some credibility in my eyes.

Did…did they really build to a future Hogan/Flair match? I have a hope that that is NOT what they’re doing, but I have a feeling I’m wrong. I understand the thought behind building a match between Flair and Hogan since they’re humongous names. Anyone and everyone who is a wrestling fan should know who these guys are. But they are kind of past their primes. By about 30 years. This is NOT what TNA needs.

Crimson and Matt Morgan had a match. And it had a predictable outcome. It’s a boring feud. This was a boring match. Oh, and both men are pretty damn boring. I really want to like Matt Morgan, but I just can’t get behind him. When I see him, I expect to see at least some wrestling ability. I want to see him move like a wrestler, not move like a Big Show. He has potential, but he fails every time to show that he can expand upon that. And Crimson? Crimson just doesn’t show any promise to me. He seems like that same act every time. Of course, if I were him, I wouldn’t put out a whole lot if I were going to just be pushed to the stars anyhow. When is his winning streak that no one actually cares about going to end? I didn’t feel for one second that Morgan was going to be the guy to give Crimson his first loss. I don’t think Morgan is going to be the guy to do that. I may be getting picky, but I just don’t care for this feud at all.

This was the other runner-up to match of the night. Hardy and Angle put on one hell of a match proving that they can still go. I’ve always been a huge Angle fan and it’s still awesome to see him wrestle every time. This was no exception. Hardy is another guy that always brings something different to the table. Between the two, this match was damn cool and damn exciting. But that’s just one man’s opinion.

There was a Knockouts tag team title match.

Roode and Storm’s match caused a little controversy. A lot of people thought that this was going to be Storm’s match. I was among those who thought for sure that Storm was finally going to win and get the title and be the champion like he rightly deserves to be. Well, TNA had different ideas. Roode walked away with the title after being kicked out of the cage by Storm. I can’t say I don’t like that, actually. I’ve thought on it, and I think it really works. It makes me want to watch for when Storm will get another chance to kick Roode’s teeth in and get the title victory.

Overall, the PPV wasn’t too bad. A few things I would have done differently, but I think TNA did deliver with Lockdown. What do you guys think?

Last year kicked off the beginning of a small rash of old stars returning. The Rock came back to host WrestleMania 27 which lead in to a main event match with John Cena at WrestleMania 28. That was okay. I didn’t mind that much. I thought it was an interesting idea to have Rock and Cena’s match built for an entire year. And I feel that they did a good job in the build even though the match felt flat to me.

But the RAW immediately after WM28, we get another old star who returns and takes a shot at Cena. That being, of course, Brock Lesnar. Lesnar is back and he’s been going after John Cena like he kicked his dog. Every time Cena turns around. Lesnar is there to attack him. I’m not trying to say that this is bad or I don’t enjoy seeing it, but it’s just kind of odd. Do they really have nobody else to send after Cena? So they have to bring in someone from the days of old to do the job because, apparently, they have no one else.

Oh, right, Tensai is also another guy who just made a return. This one is a little different to me, though. He’s not coming back as the same guy he was before. Yes, they aren’t trying to completely insult our intelligence by saying that he was in WWE once upon a time, but they’re not making any mention of his past character. To me, that’s both good and bad. Good because it’s their attempt to get his new Japanese gimmick over. A gimmick in which I absolutely love. It’s bad because they’ve already gone out of their way to hide, for lack of better term, that he was Prince Albert/Albert/A-Train. Did I also mention that he has also had dealings with Cena? Yeah, he beat Cena in an Extreme Rules match.

So, what’s the trend here? The trend is that all of the old stars are coming back and have put their hands on Cena. This leads me to believe that WWE doesn’t feel that anybody on the current WWE roster is on Cena’s level. Is that sad? Does anyone else feel that? WWE really continue to put Cena on the pedestal as the greatest wrestler EVER sometimes. Sometimes. But he’s not as good as guys that were there before him. I’m not trying to hate on Cena because I actually like the guy and the wrestling character CAN be entertaining. I just don’t like how the WWE tends to make Cena look like he’s head and shoulders above everyone else, yet he’s only good enough to job to the older guys. What do you guys think?

By now everyone knows about the GREATEST chant to ever hit the WWE Universe. And I can’t believe I actually used “WWE Universe.” I try not say that as it sounds stupid to me. As I was saying, everybody knows about the “Yes!” chant made famous by Daniel Bryan.

If you’re like me, you’re a huge fan of Daniel Bryan. You’re optimistic about him becoming a huge name someday, but you’re also a bit pessimistic about his chances. I’m honest enough to admit that Bryan was floundering for the longest time. He wasn’t a very entertaining character until he won the WHC and became the awesome heel that he is now. But Bryan now has a factor that most wrestlers that become legendary (in whatever sense, good or bad) has had in the past. He has a personal chant.

The “Yes!” thing started off as one of his little annoying heel schticks. At first, I never once thought that it was going to become a chant used by crowds world wide. It wasn’t until the Miami crowd after WM28 that the “Yes!” chant really took off. Now you’ve got crowds all over the world chanting “Yes! Yes! Yes!” for Daniel Bryan and I couldn’t be happier. Even if he never evolves past this, I’ll be happy that Daniel Bryan finally became the big name that he is. People know who Daniel Bryan is now. And as a long time fan of the America Dragon, I’m elated to see this happening.

What do you think? Do you like the “Yes!” chants? Do you think they’re going to stick around as the new “What?”

Douche Bag of the Week goes to Sean Hayes. For this reason:

-Sean Hayes, who plays Larry in The Three Stooges, appeared on Conan this week where he said he was embarrassed to be on the program. He added that he would never attend a WWE event.

Obviously the guy thinks he’s “too good” for professional wrestling. I think CM Punk pretty much summed it up quite nicely.

CM Punk posted on Twitter in response to Sean Hayes slamming his appearance on RAW. Punk wrote: “Holy crap, so the douche who’s playing Larry in the stooges movie says he was embarrassed to be on raw? But he’s in the stooges movie?!!??”

I’m as much of a Three Stooges fan as the next guy or gal, but to go out and say that you’re embarrassed to be on a professional wrestling show is kind of dumb. You’re playing a main character in a wacky, slap-stick comedy that is pretty much on the same level as professional wrestling. I’ll be honest that I’ve never heard of Sean Hayes before he showed up in Three Stooges. Apparently he was on Will & Grace which I didn’t care to even watch. I’m not even going to say if it was good or not or whether he’s a good actor or not, you know, because I’ve never seen it or him. But I don’t really care for the guy because he just came off like a stuck up douche bag. I don’t care if I sound like a bitter, basement-dwelling wrestling nerd from all of this, I really don’t. I have pride in being a fan even if the product may come off as embarrassing. I’m not saying professional wrestling is prestigious or anything and that the wrestlers should be considered high profile celebrities, but don’t be a douche and pretty much say you’re above it.

The other day I got to thinking to myself, “when did ratings become the end all be all of whether a professional wrestling show is good or not?” Wasn’t a hard question to answer because it’s obvious it was during the Monday Night Wars. But who’s to really credit for the TV ratings being so important? I’d have to say none other than Eric Bischoff.

Bischoff took a lot of pride in his ratings. He was so enthralled with Monday Nitro beating Monday Night RAW that he did everything he could to make it happen and make it be known that his ratings were higher. In my opinion, I think the ratings war was just as bad for business as it was good. Looking back on a lot of the product from those days, it wasn’t that great. Don’t get me wrong, there was a lot of great and memorable stuff, but there was just as much garbage as well. Not to mention that everything you could think of was done during this era.

Now, what do we have to look forward to? There’s what we, the IWC, want, I guess. But what truly hasn’t been done already? The business was saturated with “over creativity” and we’ve seen a creative slump because there’s not a whole lot that could or can top that boom period. There’s constant bitching and moaning about the current product, but is it really about the stories or about the wrestler’s in the stories? Do we want to forever live in the past without focusing on the now and future?

The point is that I think people are taking ratings WAY too seriously than they should be taken. So what if RAW has gone from mid-3’s to low-3’s? Who cares if TNA has gone from over 1.0 to just under 1.0? Does that REALLY mean that the product sucks? Does that REALLY dictate whether you will watch or not? I see a lot of shots at either company from fanboys/fangirls of the opposing company centered around ratings. Let’s not let the future of wrestling be dictated on ratings.

What do you think? Do ratings matter?

So, I’ve ranted quite a bit here, so I’m going to end it all off with some hilarity. Or try at least.

I’ve never been big on the whole Twitter thing, but I’ve enjoyed it for the entertainment value that it brings at times. And who’s been the best entertainment on Twitter recently? None other than Scott Steiner!

Big Poppa Pump has taken shots at Hogan, Pritchard, and both Bischoffs. He’s clearly not happy with the way that TNA is being ran. The hilarity comes in the form of his near unintelligible rants on Twitter. I understand the use of shot hand on Twitter since you only have so many characters that you can use per post, but if you’re going to put up many posts, why not use proper grammar? And it’s also quite hilarious, to me anyhow, some of the things he says. Taking shots at all those guys and just coming off as a pissed off, and possibly bitter, ex-employee makes me chuckle.

On the other hand, the guy has been speaking the truth. He’s pretty much saying what most everyone is thinking and not caring if he comes off bitter or like a lonely loser. He’s airing the dirty laundry that I think needs to be made public. I’m hoping that one of the Carter’s will see his crazy rants and take heed what he’s saying and not listen to Hogan, Bisch, or Pritchard. I’m not saying that I know everything there is about the business and know it better than these guys, but with evidence to support that these dudes are doing more harm than good and have done it before in the past…someone has to take notice of it all. But I’ll still watch TNA and see what happens.

Meanwhile, I’m following Big Poppa Pump and I’m going to continue to look out for more hilarious rants about his former employers. And wonder if there is some possible way this might just be a damn work. Since, you know, everything in the business is a work, supposedly.

And that’ll do it for me. I’ve enjoyed being the guest writer for the Sandwich and I hope you’ve enjoyed reading the crap that’s in my head. All I ask is that you be gentle, it’s my first time.

411 On Twitter

http://twitter.com/#!/411mma
http://twitter.com/#!/411games
http://twitter.com/#!/411music
http://twitter.com/#!/411moviestv
http://twitter.com/#!/411wrestling