The Wrestling Sandwich 11.19.11

Welcome again to the Wrestling Sandwich, and thank you for the astoundingly positive reaction overall to the article last week. I really appreciate that a lot of you recognized the research and time put into that special edition so thank you again!

Did any of you hear the reactions on Monday’s three-hour RAW? If so you probably realized something that might be considered disturbing to more modern fans: The stars of yesteryear got the better reaction by far. Names such as The Rock, Jim Ross, Mick Foley, and Kevin Nash definitely outshined the reactions of everybody else including Cena and Orton. The Rock is one of a kind and people simply won’t find another Rock anytime this decade, that’s pretty much what you can take to the bank. As far as if Rock once again rocked the ratings, you’ll have to see later on in the column!

Survivor Series is coming up on Sunday night and obviously I won’t be watching it but some people will be purchasing the event so they can watch The Rock wrestle for the first time in seven years. Unfortunately, they probably forgot that The Great One is much better on the mic than he is in the ring but that’s not my problem! It is sad, though, to see the only reason people even bother to buy Survivor Series is to see the stars of yesteryear rather than looking forward to the new stars of today. As I mentioned, the top pops on RAW came for the older era stars while the ones of today received basically a mild reaction in comparison. It was also great that back then Survivor Series teams actually had names other than the last name of the captain as we’ve seen seeing! Instead of Team Orton vs. Team Barrett, what would you think of The Vipers vs. The Barrage? That’s just one of the possible names that could be used. It seems lazy to not even give a unique name to your team and I hate that the Survivor Series has turned into just another PPV when in the past it was one of the must-see events no matter what.

Now, onto the news!

Top Stories of the Week!

1. Weekly Ratings Roundup

TNA Impact – 1.22 rating overall, 1.7 million viewers – down 0.07 from last week
WWE Smackdown – 1.97 rating overall, 2.9 million viewers – down 0.22 from last week
WWE RAW – 3.25 rating overall, approx 4.7 million viewers overall: Hour 1 had 4.31 million viewers, Hour 2 had 5.0 million viewers, and Hour 3 had 4.9 million viewers. – Up 0.4 from last week’s 2.8

TNA Impact continues with higher, steady ratings in the 1.2 region, only dropping 0.07 points and maintaining the usual 1.0-1.3 range it has been drawing. WWE Smackdown officially loses any trend it was starting as it dropped down under 2 once again to a 1.9 and lost 300,000 viewers compared to the week before when it had 3.2 million viewers. WWE RAW has to be considered a disappointment with the three-hour average coming in at 3.25 featuring The Rock’s big return live, and losing viewers in the third hour! Last week’s scary 2.88 rose up but nowhere near as much as it should with The Rock being featured, as the first hour only pulled in 4.3 million viewers before gaining in hour two with The Rock’s first appearance attacking Mick Foley. After that, around 100,000 viewers tuned out of RAW and didn’t bother to watch to the end dropping the third hour from 5 million to 4.9 million. The last RAW featuring The Rock was his birthday celebration and it was a two-hour show, featuring a 3.45 rating. This week’s edition in the regular two-hour time slot only received a 3.3 for the two normal RAW hours. Unfortunately it appears as if The Rock’s impact on ratings is slowing down and WWE must consider this rating a disappointment considering the number of weeks it was promoted, and ended up losing viewers in the final hour again.

United Kingdom Ratings Estimates

TNA Impact – 197,000 viewers
TNA Impact prior week replay – 124,000 viewers
WWE Smackdown – 124,000 viewers
WWE RAW – 116,000 viewers

No real surprise here as UK and Northern Ireland continue to support TNA above all other promotions. TNA Impact’s two-week-old replay was able to tie Smackdown and beat RAW, while the first run edition of Impact for the past week scored nearly 200,000 viewers! Despite some early ratings setbacks on its new time slot, Impact is killing the competition yet again. TNA continues to be the top watched pro wrestling program in ten years in the U.K and has defeated RAW and Smackdown almost every week this year. At press time, estimates were available only and we printed those up for you although the finals usually do not change much if at all.

Some of you may also be wondering about what programming is available in the UK for the WWE. Well, here’s the list of shows airing in the UK and Northern Ireland:

WWE Raw
WWE Smackdown
WWE Afterburn
WWE Experience
WWE NXT
WWE Bottom Line
WWE Vintage
Show replays
PPV airings

So, TNA’s one program is kicking all of their asses. And remember folks, the WWE REQUESTED this particular paid package so they would get more money while TNA took the option to be seen on free television; It should be obvious TNA are accomplishing more overseas than here in the US for now, and aren’t as dumb as people claim them to be. Overseas WWE is diminished considerably and TNA is gaining ground.

Australian Pay TV ratings remain unavailable when I checked, and have been for some time now. Apparently there is some kind of shakeup going on with Pay TV and competitors, including free to air television, and when more ratings news comes in we shall publish those numbers.

Interesting news, by the way, when I did a little search to see how WWE was possibly doing in China. Apparently the estimated number of people who have access to digital television programs in China is around 160 million! And they are cracking down on the American programs for content issues as well. WWE keeps claiming over 500 million people see them every week and that number is growing more and more doubtful every second.

2. TNA Turning Point and Impact Quick Recaps

TNA Turning Point Results:

1. TNA TV Championship: Robbie E. pinned Eric Young after Robbie T. tripped Young on the apron to become the new TV champion. *1/4
2. TNA Tag Team Championship: Mexican America defeated Ink Inc and Toxxin when Sarita pinned Toxin after a title belt shot to the spine. **1/4
3. TNA X-Division Championship: Austin Aries retained over Kid Kash and Jesse Sorensen when he rolled up Kash. ***
4. NO DISQUALIFICATION: RVD defeated Christopher Daniels with the Five-Star Frog Splash. ***1/4
5. Crimson and Matt Morgan fought to a no-contest when both men were disqualified. *
6. Mr. Anderson and Abyss defeated Bully Ray and Scott Steiner when Abyss pinned Steiner after a Black Hole Slam **
7. TNA Knockouts Championship: Gail Kim defeated Velvet Sky to become the NEW Knockouts Champion with Eat Defeat. **
8. Jeff Hardy defeated Jeff Jarrett three times. The original match was a Twist of Fate win for Jeff in five seconds, the second was the longest part of the match and ended with a Hardy inside cradle out of a figure four attempt, and the third was a crucifix rollup pin by Hardy on Jarrett. **
9. TNA World Championship: Robert Roode retained when he pinned AJ Styles and hooked the tights ***1/4

Best Booking Decision of the Night: Roode Retains

Worst Booking Decision of the Night: Giving Crimson and Morgan a bullshit finish to a crappy match/Velvet Sky Losing The Championship

Turning Point featured a lot of wrestling, and longer matches as well as some interesting twists that we haven’t seen in a while. The Jarrett/Hardy match was booked in a unique way, with a quick win followed by a re-start and another victory after about five minutes, and then a THIRD time followed by another victory by the original guy. I think it went one fall too much, but the booking was solid enough. I wouldn’t mind seeing a squash followed by a lengthy fall with the same winner now and then just to give people a different match structure now and again.

Crimson and Morgan were the lowlight of the night to me. It was a chore to get through that match and frankly I was disappointed as hell not only in the match quality but the decision of a double DQ. I really hope these guys find the right chemistry in the rematch, but at least Crimson keeps his streak intact.

Velvet Sky losing the title was something I hated to see, but I understand why they did this for Kim. Considering all the hell Gail Kim went through from the WWE I honestly do not blame TNA for allowing her to be the champion so quickly, although Velvet looks like shit as a result of this match even with the interference. Gail Kim, however, is really proving to be an asset and I think WWE is regretting letting this one go considering how quickly she’s gotten all her heat back and then some in the wrestling world. Gail Kim matters again!

What can be said about the X-Division match besides it was booked very well? All the characters were played perfectly, with Sorensen trying to do anything to prove himself while Kash goes in to destroy him over winning the belt, and Aries is the scheming manipulator who figures out how to save his title and pit the other two against each other the whole match. Daniels/RVD was a very interesting change on NO DQ matches in which it came into play only for the finish, and I did enjoy what happened to Daniels for threatening to use the screwdriver, which is continuity to the AJ/Daniels mini-feud. Roode/Styles delivered as much as it could considering AJ was wrestling hurt and STILL looked better than 95% of the WWE roster while doing it. Try and find that kind of skill in the Big Slow vs. Big Drippy match Sunday night!

I think what needs to be in the future is Velvet Sky becoming champion again against all the odds and this time keeping the belt a while. And when she does win the title again, perhaps this time she’ll be blindsided by her next challenger…Melina! It could work! Velvet may not be on the same level as Kim but she has improved in the last four years without a doubt.

The show was overall slower paced than the last few PPV’s and more focused on psychology which can be a good thing from time to time after something like a Destination X or a Bound for Glory when everybody brings their best. In the end, I spent forty dollars for the PPV and I feel like I made the best decision of the two offerings this month.

TNA Impact Quick Review
1. TNA TV championship: Robbie E. retains over Devon when he rolled him up for a pin during Devon being distracted by his kids
2. Jesse Sorensen and Brian Kendrick defeated Austin Aries and Kid Kash when Sorensen pinned Kash after his Reign of Terror neck breaker when Aries walked out on Kash
3. TNA Knockouts #1 Contendership Gauntlet Match:
A. Velvet Sky defeats Rosita with the sitout Pedigree quickly
B. Velvet Sky defeats Miss Tessmacher with a running bulldog
C. Angelina Love defeats Velvet Sky with the roll-up of DOOM~!
D. Mickie James defeats Angelina Love with the Mick Kick
E. Mickie James defeats Sarita with the Mickie-D-T
F. Mickie James defeats Tara with the Mickie-D-T
G. Mickie James defeats Winter with the Mick Kick
H. Mickie James defeats ODB with the top rope Thesz Press/Pie in the Sky
I. FINAL: Mickie James pins Madison Rayne with the rollup of DOOM~! to win the #1 contendership
4. TNA Tag Titles: Crimson and Matt Morgan defeat Mexican America when Morgan pins Anarquia with the Carbon Footprint to win the titles
5. Garret Bischoff defeats Gunner with a jumping DDT

Best Booking Decision of the Night: Mickie James Looks Like A Serious Threat (15+ minute match)

Worst Booking Decision of the Night: End The Devon/Pope Feud Already!

Ladies of wrestling take note: The ten female gauntlet match was over fifteen minutes long. You don’t even see ten diva battle royals in WWE go ten, never mind fifteen minutes. Also, the structure was very well done so that Mickie James beats top talent, is so exhausted it seems she’s unable to get up, but then uses her veteran skills to dupe Madison into believing she’s easy pickings and gets the victory quickly. This is why people like Buggy want to go into TNA, and not WWE. THIS is where the women’s wrestling is, brother! Mickie immediately looks ready to go and a credible threat to Gail Kim’s title.

Jesse Sorensen continues to look good, while Austin Aries continues to garner heat and look excellent in his X-Division title reign. I think Aries being rehired was one of the better decisions TNA has made, as the guy has been awesome in his role thus far.

I’m sick and tired of the Devon and Pope situation with Devon’s kids, seriously. Okay, we all know that the storyline is Pope is corrupting them and they rather be around him than their strict daddy but nobody cares. I think we should just get it over with and have Pope end up using the kids to win a match, Devon gets pissed off, and Pope attacks Devon. The kids come to help their dad, he beats them up too. Then they have a stipulation match and Devon beats Pope. Is that so hard?

Also what the hell is with all the roll-up finishes tonight and on Sunday? I really dislike roll-ups being used to finish anybody off outside the women’s division but if you overuse it in the women’s division it gets absolutely annoying fast.

Crimson and Morgan are now tag team champions, proving that Crimson is indeed one of the future top stars in TNA by capturing his first title belt while maintaining an eleven-month undefeated streak. Crimson also has some good moves, he just needs to change the pace of his matches a bit and he’ll be good to go. Morgan continues to be impressive considering his size and he’s actually agile as hell.

Garret Bischoff has some talent! He looked a little unsure during the DDT spot but I think if this kid gets enough time and enough training he could be a force to be reckoned with, depending how much he cares about wrestling. I saw some glimpses in that match with Gunner that he could very well turn out to be a talented competitor in due time, especially considering the trainers Bischoff has access to.

Smartest Thing of the Week: James Storm Feuds With Kurt Angle

Okay so we all know Angle can basically bring anybody to a good match, but put him in the ring with a good wrestler and they can usually have a great match. Now, with James Storm and Kurt Angle embroiled in a feud after Angle was revealed as the man who blindsided Storm and concussed him, this allows Storm to move on to face Angle and build momentum as a face challenger before going on to challenge Robert Roode and try to get his revenge and his title back. Against Angle, Storm will have to bring his “A” game at all times and the two could put on some excellent matches in the next few months. Kudos to TNA for making sure Storm starts off with the one guy who can make him look like a million bucks without even trying!

Dumbest Thing of the Week: The Michael Cole Challenge

All right, so let me get this straight because this ridiculous crap has been pushed on us for the last month and finally happened on Monday night. Michael Cole challenges JR to take this Michael Cole challenge and won’t tell us what it is, and JR declines and then agrees and shows up on RAW. They don’t air the segment because of time constraints but they have time to talk about JR’s anal surgeries. Then, when they finally do have the segment it kills a good fifteen minutes of time with three “contests” that were an arm wrestling match, a dance-off, and finally a “Who Weighs Less” challenge. Are you serious? Why the hell would JR even bother getting on a scale when we all know the result? More importantly, why didn’t JR try and get Cole distracted and switch the scale to Kilograms so he’d weigh less? That at least would make some sense. Instead, all this segment ended up being was a ridiculous train wreck in which the number of viewers for this hour was the lowest rated of all three RAW hours Monday night and JR got shown up again and then did about ten minutes of commentary before being tossed for Cole again. Nothing was resolved, nothing was accomplished, and frankly it was the dumbest thing in possibly the entire year.

OLD SCHOOL WRESTLER OF THE WEEK

Bad News Brown

One of the most famous heels in the 1980’s to work in the WWF and not have a manager, Bad News Brown definitely was a unique character in many ways. Most fans remember him as being a menacing looking figure who loved to hurt anybody he wrestled and especially enjoyed sneak attacks from behind, and possessing an undefeated streak for quite some time in an era where the streak was not often handed out. At one point, Bad News Brown was even supposed to be the heavyweight champion of the WWF, but it didn’t turn out too well. Let’s get to his story, but unfortunately due to various things the story isn’t anywhere near as long as it should be.

Allen Coage was born in the United States but actually grew up in Canada during his formative years and found martial arts to be his calling at first. For two decades the eventual Bad News Brown learned judo and trained extensively for competitions across various countries, even moving to Japan in poverty just to learn from the top masters of the sport. With the assistance of Yoshisada Yonezuka, Brown would go on to the Winnipeg Pan American games in 1967 and take the gold medal as a heavyweight in Judo, and then the Mexico City Pan-Am Games in 1975 and once again take the gold. In Montreal during the 1976 Olympic Games, Brown took home the bronze medal in judo as a heavyweight and began considering life outside of the judo circuit. In 1978, Brown began training for wrestling under the tutelage of renowned martial artist and wrestler Antonio Inoki.

Brown began his career working in New Japan Pro Wrestling and then headed over to the World Wide Wrestling Federation as well in the late 1970’s. He found his permanent home for six years in Stampede Wrestling starting in 1982 and competed against men such as Dynamite Kid and Bret Hart while being trained by Bret’s father Stu Hart as well to improve in the sport. Brown used to refer to himself as the “Ultimate Warrior” in promos, which later would be the name of another 1980’s superstar we all know and love!

In 1988, the world began to see a pot-bellied angry man telling them all that “bad news” was coming to the WWF. And indeed, the world was about to see the return of Bad News Brown to the WWF he’d wrestled for a decade earlier, this time as a higher ranked singles performer. Bad News Brown immediately made an impact by compiling a winning streak utilizing his favorite maneuver, the Ghetto blaster, which was actually a form of a judo kick. The enzuigiri is similar to the Ghetto blaster, but Brown’s move was performed behind a dazed opponent with both legs free. A thing of beauty, it usually knocked out whomever it connected with and as a kid I even used it a few times in a few “matches” of my own after jiu-jitsu class or school. Bad News was a loner, he didn’t respect or care about anybody and didn’t require a heel manager which was rare in the 1980’s in and of itself. Also, Brown would develop into both a cowardly heel and a tough guy who loved a good fight, as sometimes he would take on big name guys and show no fear, then later during the match beg off and ask for mercy before trying a cheap shot. Most of the time, he simply showed his tough side and abandoned the two Survivor Series teams he was a part of in 1988 and 1989 since he frankly didn’t care about anybody but himself. It was during 1988 that Bad News won the WrestleMania II twenty-man battle royal when he convinced Bret Hart the two were splitting the prize, and then Ghetto blasted him from behind and threw him out, taking the trophy and the full amount of money. Bret turned face that moment, heading back in the ring and attacking Bad News before destroying his trophy. Bad News would plow through just about everybody before coming into the main event scene briefly when he began declaring that Miss Elizabeth did favors for Jack Tunney to keep Bad News from getting a title shot, insinuating the champion was scared of him. On the Brother Love show, Bad News appeared to talk to Jack Tunney and again told him he was getting favors from Elizabeth before choking him out by his tie at a time when physicality against authority figures was almost never displayed.

Bad News wouldn’t even end up scared of Damien, Jake Roberts’ pet snake. He would end up bringing a giant sewer rat with him to fight off the snake, claiming he obtained it from his home of Harlem, New York to eat the snake for a brief period. However, something was promised to Bad News that ultimately would lead to him leaving the company in 1990, and that was the alleged promise of being the first black heavyweight champion.

Bad News took on Randy Savage several times, but had no luck taking home the gold belt. He would eventually go on to feud with “Rowdy” Roddy Piper which resulted in Piper painting himself half-black during a promo at WrestleMania VI before beating on Brown, and Bad News even did face Hogan for the WWF championship but Vince supposedly revoked his promise to make him the champion and allowed Hogan to win like he always did. Brown would leave the company after SummerSlam.

One of the interesting accounts from Dynamite Kid about Bad News was that one time he and Andre the Giant had an altercation. While on a tour bus during time in New Japan Pro Wrestling, Andre made a racist comment that Brown overheard and told the driver to stop the bus immediately and went outside, challenging the Giant to a fight. Andre actually refused to get out of the bus and apologized to Brown for what happened, which is very similar to other allegations that Andre was often a bigot and a drunk on tour and backstage. Hulk Hogan claimed what really happened was that Andre made a joke, Brown went to reach into a bag, and Andre told him if he pulled anything on him he would “end” Brown. Obviously, given the source, I’m going with Dynamite Kid.

Brown was a legitimate tough man if you haven’t figured that out already and competed in a shoot-wrestling promotion in Japan known as UWFi before retiring in 1999 due to knee damage throughout his career. He would work a couple of shows here and there on the indy circuit while also working as a mall cop in Airdrie, Alberta Canada and teaching wrestling along with Canadian wrestler Leo Jean to newcomers.

Unfortunately on the morning of March 6, 2007 Brown would get rushed to the hospital complaining of chest pains and die shortly thereafter of a heart attack. He remains the only American wrestler to have won an Olympic medal in Judo as well as compete in professional wrestling.

By now you are probably curious to find out who the first man was to actually pin Bad News Brown, since his streak would last quite a while before seemingly vanishing. Well, that man would be none other than Hulk Hogan himself but not in the way you might expect. McMahon and Hogan came up with the idea of a “Hulk Hogan Fist Helmet” that he wore at the time, and in a match with Brown he would clock Bad News with a head butt while wearing the helmet before dropping the famous leg and pinning him. What did it look like?

Now ladies and gentlemen, take a look at that picture. The same guy who brought you some of the greatest ideas in wrestling and the biggest boom periods in wrestling history thought that monstrosity on Hogan’s head was a good idea to promote. It is amazing how sometimes Vince looks like the smartest guy in the room and other times he can’t even afford to buy a clue he’s so stupid. This was obviously a ridiculous idea that failed very fast and thankfully it did. Imagine getting that for your birthday or Christmas? Sheesh.

Well, enough of bad news about Bad News. Instead, let us take a look at a classic Bad News moment when he confronts Jack Tunney on the Brother Love Show!

Take 5

Wrestler To Watch: The Rock

Sure, he didn’t actually wrestle at any point on Monday but he is going to be competing Sunday night, and the simple fact is just by showing up to Monday Night RAW he was able to bring in an overall higher rating, although perhaps not as high as the WWE wanted. The Rock has been looking good in his brief executions of the Rock Bottom but working a full match after seven years off is not going to be easy and hopefully he’s been practicing and training like hell for this one. Thanks to The Rock, more people watched RAW than the week before and more people will probably buy Survivor Series as well and that drawing power allows The Rock to be this week’s Wrestler To Watch as in the upcoming months we’ll be seeing a lot more of the Great One before his WrestleMania match with John Cena.

Promo of the Week: Kurt Angle Performs “Sexy Kurt”

Kurt Angle wanted to do anything he could to get under Shawn Michaels’ skin in the weeks preceding their match at WrestleMania way back in 2005. Angle began trying to do everything Shawn did in order to prove he could not only do it, but also do it better. He wrestled Marty Jannetty, he won a ladder match against a jobber, and now he wanted to prove he was a better entertainer too! So, with that in mind, I present to you Sensational Sherri and Kurt Angle debuting the, uh, never used version of Kurt Angle’s theme music and as DDP would say? That’s…a good thing!

Babe To Watch: Kaitlyn

Kaitlyn was once a professional fitness model under the rather awkward name of Celeste Bonin, but in the WWE she’s simply known as that chick who won NXT Season 3 because the seven foot woman got canned before the show started due to an association with porn. Kaitlyn is one of those girls who you either think is hot or you think is a total dog, no real middle ground to work with. When she was on NXT Season 3, Vickie Guerrero was her Pro and it just so happened that Kaitlyn decided to show off one of her talents in executing this absolutely awesome imitation of Vickie in the ring during the Costume Contest segment. Let us find out which is the best Vickie in this video…

Match of the Week To Watch: Austin Aries vs. Kid Kash vs. Jimmy Rave for a Destination X slot

I’ve been showcasing some older matches and some classics, but this week I’m focusing on TNA’s awesome X-Division. This particular match was the qualifier to find out which one of the former X-Division stars ended up in the Destination X four-way for the TNA contract. Austin Aries would obviously go on to win this match and the contract several months ago but it is worth watching again just for some of the moments in this second half of the match, which came to us courtesy of the excellent folks at Impactwrestling.com’s YouTube channel. Aries also pulls off an awesome heel twist at the end when a little kid reaches out and you will have to see for yourself!

Mystery Section to Watch: Move of the Week!

Although known in Mexico and Japan a lot more than in the United States, the rocking horse submission is actually a pretty simple and very effective hold stretching a wrestler out to the point of unimaginable pain. The Rocking Horse is set up much like a Boston Crab only the arms are trapped underneath the calves of the wrestler and then they are swung back and forth underneath the legs of an opponent, helpless. The Hurricane decided to try his own version of the Rocking Horse submission, and found something else to make it even more painful to Tajiri and funny to watch as well!

The Good, The Bad, and The… WTF?

The Good

“Great write-up Wes! I love the new changes to the layout. It’s a nice new addition.

Thank you for show showcasing Big John Studd. And laying out the numbers will be good for the WWE fans who need a little explanation.

Question: are you still doing the nugget awards? And if so, any idea on when it’ll be posted? You should give an award to the worst troll you have to deal with as well. Lord knows Darth Mortis and Chucky are two shitheads I have to deal with on a regular basis. Ignorant assholes.

Anyway, keep up the great work! And just remember, this time next year we’ll have a new President-elect!!

Posted By: Guest#0772 (Guest) on November 12, 2011 at 09:09 AM”

The layout was a special Factor edition that will be done once a year in November, although I might do a new layout as well for the Best Of and Anniversary editions in December and March respectively. Thank you for the comment though!

Unfortunately even with the numbers they still choose to believe whatever they want if you saw the comments.

The Golden Nuggets will be presented towards the last week in December. The reason they are going to be somewhat late would have to do with 411’s Year End Awards being first in the priority list because everybody tries to participate as much as possible and the Nugget Awards come in with twenty winners as a replacement to Old School and part of the Good/Bad/WTF for one issue. I would give an award for that except trolls are evil and you aren’t supposed to egg them on, am I right? Damned trolls. Darth Mortis doesn’t visit this column as far as I know outside one or two times he wrote a couple crappy comments and vanished because he couldn’t handle it being dismantled instead of praised blindly.

Yes sir we will! I’m still evaluating all the candidates but I have a favorite and I’ll honestly vote for any of them over the idiot we have right now.

“the republican party is a mess. looks like obama will be a 8 year president. take that wes kirk you douche. rick perry your hero is a dumb idiot….

Posted By: Guest#9721 (Guest) on November 12, 2011 at 12:18 AM

“…when you do decide to write or leave comments try your absolute best not to be gormless when writing!”

^This.

Posted By: Dave^G (Guest) on November 12, 2011 at 07:54 AM”

Dave is, of course, perspicacious for that particular observation!

“the republican party is a mess. looks like obama will be a 8 year president. take that wes kirk you douche. rick perry your hero is a dumb idiot…. “

Typical Liberal Bias/internet dweeb. So much for liberal tolerance of other viewpoints and beliefs. Obama will be remembered as one of the worst presidents ever. Jimmy Carter is licking his chops that he is no longer going to be the worst president ever anymore. Obama is going to be soundly defeated.

Posted By: guest 187 (Guest) on November 12, 2011 at 04:53 AM”

In my view he already is the worst President ever, actually. Even Carter didn’t try to create a tax on the very air we breathe and force us to pay for health insurance while allowing the premiums to go up so high people rather serve jail time than pay them! Also, that particular person was a moron for believing Rick Perry is my favorite candidate. The Sandwich has yet to endorse anybody for the 2012 race although I wish Donald Trump were in it, and five words why I’d vote for him as the CEO of the country: Net Worth: Seven Billion Dollars.

“Strange–you write a great column a few weeks in a row, showing that there’s more to you and your writing than just being a troll…and your column is shunted down the Wrestling page? Granted, the Turning Point roundtable deserves the top spot, but if the Wrestling 5 & 1 gets a spot near the top of the page, your column should be up there as well. And I say that as someone who vehemently disagrees with almost everything you say.

Posted By: John Downey (Registered) on November 12, 2011 at 09:53 AM”

Thanks John for your kind comment, even if you disagree.

The truth of the matter is that there is a place for people who bring the hits, but ultimately the management picks what they want to be a top story, spotlighted, or what is first on any page. I’ve seen my column get 100 comments and the next week when it comes out it shows up 3rd in the list with the spotlight on a pod cast, a Heat Check, a story about some indy wrestler ten people know, etc. Wrestling 5&1 is a news report, actually, and therefore it gets different treatment than a column, which goes in a specific section. See, it is very strange how no matter what there’s always something getting a spotlight over this column, especially if it is WWE related. I think the political and wrestling beliefs of the management are extremely well known, so don’t expect to see the Sandwich given the same treatment as the “favorites” of the bosses even if we get 1,000 comments every week for a month straight, it is just how life is.

“Wes, great article. I do have a few questions about where TNA is going based on what happened at Turning Point:

1) Gail Kim coming in and immediately winning the Knockouts title. Yes, it was through nefarious means, but doesn’t it send the usual message of “former WWE wrestlers get pushed immediately over TNA superstars”? Especially after Velvet Sky had the long term build to get the title in the first place?

2) What do you think TNA should do about the tag team title situation?

3) What will they ever do about the TV title? Someone out there who’s not a comedy midcarder has to be a legit contender.

Posted By: JR (Guest) on November 14, 2011 at 11:34 AM”

Okay good ol’ JR I’m going to try and help you out here as best I can…

1. Yes, it does. However, there is a little back-story to this one as Gail Kim was the very first Knockouts Championship and it was her stellar work in TNA that brought her back to WWE in the first place. After realizing what they had lost, WWE brought Kim back and then had no plans to actually do anything with her, so it ended with her rolling out of a battle royal unnoticed and that was the end of it. When Vince had WCW competing with WWF, he used to give his new signings some quick victories as well in order to put them over just like WCW did with WWF stars, that’s just how the business works.

2. Glad you asked me this one. I’d go out and find the absolute best four to five tag teams in the country right now from independents to major companies and hire them to come to the tag division. I’d also attempt a relationship with NJPW and DGUSA to get some of their teams in as well. And finally I’d try and have a couple of IWGP Tag Championship matches on Impact to help put over the importance of all the titles involved, the wrestlers skills, and of course the fact that TNA could be using all of these tools to build an incredible tag division as they had two years ago.

3. I’m not sure they really need a TV title at this point. Frankly they should cut the TV title and Knockouts Tag titles and stick with World, X-Division, Tag, and Knockouts. If they decide to use the TV title and keep it around, it should become the secondary title in the vain of the Intercontinental or United States championships and give it to guys on the cusp of becoming main eventers as WWF used to do with the IC title. Right now, I’d have Robbie E. destroyed by somebody like AJ Styles and then have Styles defend it against the best heel workers for a few months to give the belt much needed credibility and then move on with Styles and give somebody else, possibly Crimson, a run with the gold.

“

I know I’m supposed to be Frame’s attack dog and I have engendered to attack you personally in the past….but I have to give credit when it is due.

Excellent column this week…

Posted By: Ronnie (Guest) on November 12, 2011 at 12:28 AM”

Honestly Ronnie, thank you very much for the praise. I’m glad sometimes people can put aside their differences especially around this time of year. Plus, Frame and I haven’t been really getting along but we haven’t been fighting anymore so perhaps the mood is lightening up around here!

“WTF Wes!!!

I miss a few weeks and now I’m back ready to take some shots and what do you do?

You go and right a thoughtful, intelligent column?

Damn you, Kirk….Damn you!!!!

Posted By: The Real Barry O (Guest) on November 12, 2011 at 12:45 AM”

Totally my fault, Barry. I was going to do a very special sarcastic WWE column with over-praising everything they did and reviewing RAW and Smackdown giving every match five stars, but I realized some people would actually have believed that was legit so I decided not to do it. Honestly, I’ve had this idea since March to try out a more news and research based column once a year on very important factors involving wrestling and last week was it. But, just to warn everybody, when Republicans win the Presidency next year I’ll be celebrating that whole damn column! Also, if you enjoyed the article you will likely enjoy the Nugget awards next month along with a special year-end Best Of issue of the Sandwich, all coming your way in December!

“Good Column Wes, really enjoyed the business breakdowns with WrestleMania, the ratings, and the earnings.

Few things for me to comment on:

I think your right about Vince being clueless even about things that made him money. I remember RVD saying Vince thought he made ECW popular by educating his audience to chant ECW. Yeah, Vince reminds me of Mr. Burns from that episode of The Simpsons where he loses all his money because he was surrounded by yes men and was continuing to invest in stocks that were SEVERELY outdated.

I’ve heard people compare Rosita to Trish and I don’t really see it but the first time I saw her I did say “Wow, she’s hot.”

The sad truth is Vince COULD have a number of breakout talents if he pushed them right. The Miz and Cody Rhodes in particular.

Yes, I do get the Fringe reference. Good show. My only complaint is the girl is a little wooden sometimes.

LOL at Vince saying NXT and Superstars being internet only in the states was some kind of business move. The ratings sucked and no networks were interested. I mean Superstars was nearly cancelled from the Internet and NXT has been having an unending season That no one seems to care about.

WWE should probably just dump the Magazine and film divisions. No one really reads magazines anymore in the internet age as for the movie studio. The movies suck and overall are pulling down the bottom line. They were better off when they partnered with Fox.

I liked your Cena heel turn idea referencing the DVD, reminds me of 2003 when Rock turned heel and referenced Austin winning Superstar of the decade on the Raw 10th Anniversary special.

I too am a big Quack fan, too bad he never got chances to advance nationally. I don’t buy the DVD’s but I do watch Chikara’s weekly podcast. Fun stuff, better than most of WWE’s weekly offerings.

Loved the HBK promo, it shows even though Shawn may be a born again; you screw with him and he will bury you HARD. I love the Hulkster but he really did bring it on himself, BROTHER.

Take care Wes, KIRK NATION STAND UP!

Posted By: Mister Mike (Guest) on November 12, 2011 at 01:30 AM”

Glad you liked it Mike. I was preparing the ratings research for a few weeks beforehand and pretty surprised myself when I saw how Smackdown lost over 50% of their ratings in nine years and RAW around 25% as well.

I remember that episode very well! And in the end Burns gets all his money back and things return to normal. As I recall, Burns ends up losing so much money he has to sell the nuclear plant to the Germans and it is in such terrible condition he ends up buying it back at the end of the show for a fraction of what he spent because of the repairs required. Scary fact: Vince dropped from a billionaire to around $150 million in the past few years, that’s a frightening amount to lose. Vince is a successful person because he’s a smart businessman and promoter, but he often has no idea why certain angles and storylines do so well. He got Hulkamania because it was a big strongman beating all the big guys up, but he has no idea why anybody would want to beat the hell out of their boss and people cheer it because he never worked for anybody outside his Dad. Vince’s upbringing prevents him from thinking as a regular person due to being a millionaire from birth, and he likes to only hire people who totally agree with everything he says. As any businessman will tell you, that’s going to bring you down fast.

I think the picture I posted of Rosita was the best I’ve seen of her so far, definitely cute.

I agree on Cody Rhodes and Miz, the two have the ability to be more than midcarders or even upper carders. The one thing about Miz is that this kid worked his way up from coming in second to Daniel Puder in the 2004 Tough Enough and earned anything he got, hate him or not. Cody had a bit more help in his path to the WWE through his father and brother but in the end, he’s been working very hard too. Unfortunately, I don’t see either guy as a mainstream breakout.

If you mean Anna Torv, I think she’s actually a lot like a friend of mine as far as her character goes. Olivia is curious and very introverted, and my friend is much the same way and also scared of the same thing Olivia is with relationships. I’m not sure if she’s wooden as much as playing the character in that manner, I’d have to see her in some different roles before I can say for sure. Do love the new season though!

I think WWE decided canceling the two shows on the WWE.COM page would reflect extremely bad on the countries still airing the shows, so they decided to let them stay even if ten people and the 411 recapper are the only ones reviewing them. Vince could get away with that statement only to non-wrestling fans.

WWE Magazine actually can be a pretty nice read, but again WWE is charging ridiculous fees at the newsstand so people tend not to buy it or go with a subscription. In an economy like this most people don’t plop down six or seven dollars for a magazine with little to no useful information compared to the Internet! The Studios division is probably just a write-off to get hit with fewer taxes, it is a tactic some businesses do on purpose but in this case, it wasn’t anything purposeful at all. They really believed Cena would take off in 2006 with The Marine.

Cena’s heel turn should involve him turning because the company doesn’t respect him. He’s said too many times he’s not bothered by the fans, so it should involve his view of the WWE’s opinion of his body of work and his usefulness to the company.

I think TNA should pick up Quackenbush for the X-Division. Simply put, if they get a few more guys like him and Evans and Low-Ki every week we’d get a hell of a great free match.

Shawn did the right thing there, Mike. Hogan agreed originally to the idea of three matches but he didn’t want to job to Michaels so the whole thing turned into a short feud with one match at SummerSlam with Hogan going over. Michaels did his best to make it an ordeal Hogan would never forget, and the next year Hogan got invited back again to beat Randy Orton. This is why many feel Hogan is the smartest man in wrestling, although I put him as second smartest since HHH is inheriting the entire company.

“

Ahh..I just love reading the columns on here. Wes…you do entertain me. I think maybe cause I’m such a fan of Fox’s Red Eye, and know that you have to be able to have a sense of humor when also giving out such business advise about such sports entertainment, otherwise, you know it would drive you mad. LOL. I adore reading your work. Hehe. Keep it up, you are so adorable, Hello Kitty has posters of you on her wall. 🙂 Little Red Eye roundtable inside joke. Hehe.

Posted By: LitasRevenge (Guest) on November 14, 2011 at 07:33 PM”

Aw, thank you once again Lisa. Always great to see one of your comments.

Yeah, you can also catch Greg on “Dumbest Things of the Week” on the O’Reilly Factor on Friday nights. He is only on towards the end of the show but he’s usually bringing it when he does show up. If you like Dennis Miller, he generally has a spot on O’Reilly Wednesday nights as well. Excellent comedian! And yes, a sense of humor is important when you work with people who truly believe our country is better off if it was like Greece.

…This just in: Greece is bankrupt. See?

The Bad

“

“The Death of the Boom-Bust Period”

Focusing on the ratings share isn’t all that helpful with comparing now and then. You need the actual audience numbers (both for the show and total) in order to make the comparison meaningful. After all, as the total potential audience goes up and the number of potential viewing choices for that audience also increases, the share numbers will go down.

Posted By: The Ogre (Guest) on November 12, 2011 at 01:29 AM”

Ogre, the ratings then had less people watching than now since the census numbers reflect tens of millions of new people in the US in 2010 than 2000, and from 1990-2000 as well. The number of people with televisions and Internet increases every year, so technically right now there is no reason the audience size couldn’t be larger outside of the reasons I gave. I can give you this information, however: During 2000, The Monday Night Wars drew twelve and a half million wrestling fans on average. Currently, RAW brings in about 4.1 million fans. You mention the share numbers but I’m speaking of overall viewers and Nielsens: Wrestling is generally viewed negatively by most mainstream folks outside of the late 1980’s and the late 1990’s boom periods, but those are to be no more for the reasons I laid out. By the way, your comment isn’t bad but I had nowhere else to put it. I think I might need to put in a new section!

”

“The only thing we can do now as fans is support our federation of choice”

wes, please explain why you have to pick one? i neither hate nor love either wwe or tna, i want them both to succeed, thus improving the standard of product both companies put out. this isn’t a sport where you’re often bound to a team because of where you’re from. sadly, the whole of the iwc appears to be overrun by idiots who feel like they have to pick a company, and then troll these comment sections with risible memes and inane, retarted comments they must fart out in a stupour (a trend you yourself contribute to, and seemingly encourage).

you make some very good points at times wes, but its unfortunately overshadowed by your desire to, shall we say, ‘put yourself over’. frustrating column as always.

Posted By: ****** (Guest) on November 12, 2011 at 06:03 AM”

Most people these days have a specific federation they prefer more than any other. I’m sure you yourself have a favorite federation even if it is an indy company that isn’t on TV. That’s the reason these companies do well: You have competition, and the competition makes people choose which product they want to support. That is why the companies have to do well and come up with new, interesting products and creativity to keep the crowd. The only way they will improve the product is if they, like many American companies, must compete with other companies or go bankrupt. WWE has a massive monopoly on wrestling and as long as nobody can challenge their ratings in the wrestling world, it will never change unless Vince feels like changing it.

I honestly was not trying to put myself over last week, as much as point out some truth that people ignore because they refuse to see anything outside their own little world. I don’t encourage my readers to post stupidity, and lately we’ve been getting better readership in truth! I do try and promote TNA as much as possible, and because TNA gets positive press here we’re the top weekend column because we investigate and use numbers and facts over rumor and dogma.

By the way, sir, if you wish to say anything of mine is retarded please spell the word correctly at least.

”

How pathetic Troll Kirk is! Making it sound as if buying Wrestlemania tixkets for profits is a BAD THING! WWE wins either way. The original buyer has already paid the full price for the ticket. The next buyer who will will actually be at the event will most likely spend some money(especially if they have kids) on a souvenir/program.

Either way, you have proven once again, your stupidity by posting that drivel! I will say it again so MAYBE you will understand – WWE HAS ALREADY GOTTEN THE MONEY FOR THOSE SEATS! In reality, that is what matters. When the lights go up at WM 28, there will be butts in those seats, no matter how the tickets were aquired.

Og, and I was so close to being right about this, it is scary! I posted a comment on the original story on the WM tickets that Troll Kirk would post 6 paragraphs telling us why this was a failure! Sadly, he let me down – we only got 5 🙁 LMAO!

Posted By: WWE Wins Everytime! (Guest) on November 12, 2011 at 09:34 AM”

Boy, they sure do put something in the water other than fluoride…

The point is that if they are selling the tickets on eBay they don’t WANT THEM. They just want to profit. The people may not buy those tickets depending on whether or not the economy improves enough. WWE does have the money for the tickets and my point is they only can discuss record-breaking sales because THEY RAISED THE PRICE. The event did not sell out, despite the so-called dream match with Rock vs. Cena. They sold fewer tickets for higher prices, that’s not a good thing!

I would do the same thing actually. I’d put a $1,500 ticket up for about $2,000 in January and somebody like you would pay for it and I’d make five hundred bucks for doing five minutes of work and you can go watch some special WrestleMania moment like Mae Young beating Beth Phoenix or Hornswoggle Raps, Part Deux. I actually feel bad for the people thinking this will be a special night.

It isn’t a failure from a profit standpoint, but it is a failure if they need to raise the ticket prices to get enough sales to brag about it. Wouldn’t it have been better if they said they sold ten million in tickets and sold the event out legitimately because they cut ticket prices so people could afford them?

“Wes I’m the one who wrote about how you’re butt hurt about Obama. Number one polls are deceiving and tend to translate into nothing, allegedly George Bush had the “lowest approval rating of all time” and STILL got re-elected! Honestly government won’t solve anything in the long run, nor will a republican president! Only God can save the human race now and you being a conservative republican ( I assume) should know this! As for making money off of stupid people lol… Good luck with that! Can’t take riches with you and in the end all we really are, are human beings with opinions. Peace!

Posted By: Ben (Guest) on November 12, 2011 at 10:52 AM”

I agree with you that the polls at this point in time generally mean nothing, but the main reason Bush beat Kerry in 2004 was because Kerry was very weak and had no support from the independent voters like he thought he did. Also for all the people bashing the guy, Bush never had a Misery Index rating as high as Obama and he never brought the country into a credit downgrade either. In the end, Ben, people are apathetic about voting unless something significant results in them losing money and/or benefits in which case people like Obama will find themselves on permanent vacation from politics.

I agree God can save the human race but he probably wants us to save ourselves, don’t you? Sometimes the best thing to do with great power is not to use it. And no, you can’t take your riches with you but you certainly can use them to live a happy life until that day comes.

By the way, there was a guy in the 1970’s named Gary Dahl who came up with the idea to sell a regular ordinary rock as a “pet” and guess what? It made him a MILLIONAIRE. In 2009 the pet rock concept was sold for millions of dollars to the Mego Corporation to manufacture brand new pet rocks all across the world. When I say people can’t go broke underestimating how stupid people really are, this is one of the examples. I think it is time to sell some Bottled Air! Don’t laugh, people would buy it.

“

“Only 35 comments? Looks like people are growing bored of Wes’s shitty fake troll gimmick.

Posted By: Guest#3422 (Guest) on November 06, 2011 at 10:45 AM”

…Did you fail math? Look again idiot.”

I went back and looked at this comment… erm, you got 55 comments for your column last week, but obviously when that comment was posted you would have had about 35. So it looks like you’ve failed math, moron. On a different note, I’ve just noticed how quickly Wes has lost his readers over the last few weeks. The amount of comments his weekend column gets has plummeted, which would suggest people have grown tired of his boring anti-WWE shtick and obviously false “rich, successful, conservative businessman who bangs hot chicks” character, when everyone knows he is just some lonely virgin who fixes computers with the Geek Squad for a living.

Posted By: Guest#3770 (Guest) on November 14, 2011 at 10:13 AM”

Yeah, things just aren’t going oh so well for me lately…How is your column doing? Oh wait…

First off, you have to be somewhat of an idiot to post anything about the number of comments about 12 hours in. 35 comments in 12 hours is actually quite good if you’ve seen all the other columns around here, and that’s not bragging as much as that is simply the truth. As far as the comments go, I actually am happy I’m being left with around 45-60 comments a week because the majority of the ones the past few weeks have been interesting and offered constructive criticism as opposed to simply posting the same old one liner of “YOU SUCK” or “YOU’RE A TROLL” and what not. I’ve noticed people with brains have begun reading and also responding to the Sandwich, with you as an exception of course.

And on your last remark I’d never waste my time working for what Best Buy pays their team members. My rate for an on location computer repair begins at $150 per hour for labor alone, and I have a feeling you don’t see that much money in a week outside the food stamps you so desperately do not need.

“Evan Bourne is a drug addict for smoking synthetic weed last week….Kurt Angle is an angel though? his track record with alcahol abuse is well documented. Wes kirk….tna is soon out of business…

Posted By: Seriously? (Guest) on November 12, 2011 at 02:32 AM”

English isn’t your first language, is it?

Kurt Angle was not found guilty of drunken driving earlier last week, so that statement is idiotic. I simply am pointing out the man has given considerably to charity, won a gold medal for our country, and performed at far less than 100% to give the fans their money’s worth so we shouldn’t be so hard on the guy. Have you ever won a gold medal in anything worldwide? No? There you go. As far as Evan goes, yes he is a drug addict because it was posted that he violated the Wellness agreement right on the front page of WWE.COM and he was using WHILE A CHAMPION IN THE COMPANY DURING A PUSH. That’s why they call it dope, DOPE!

The WTF

“Usually I ignore the shit sandwhich column but decided to read this trainwreck. Sure, WWE numbers are down, but they still sell out everywhere they go raking millions and millions, not too shabby eh? But continue to be bitter that TNA will never see WWE-type numbers while your butt-buddy Spencer consoles you.

Posted By: WWELives (Guest) on November 12, 2011 at 03:35 PM”

If you actually bothered to have somebody read you the “trainwreck” you would have known that they do NOT sell out everywhere they go and they did not make as much as you think they did, but that would require a little something called BRAINS. Jesus Christ some of the fucking idiots on this site just make me shake my head and think we’re all doomed within two hundred years from people like this procreating.

Sforcina as usual has the answers when you Ask 411 Wrestling

Steve Cook gets a plug despite being a bit mean to TNA Impact this week since he was my 411 Pro so take a look at News From Cook’s Corner

Stephen Randle brings you the Canadian perspective on wrestling news from the land Jack Tunney was born in with The Wrestling News Experience

Greg DeMarco reads the Wrestling Sandwich as evidenced by his usage of my signature “u mad bro?” with a little twist so be sure and read The Wrestling 5&1

We actually have a female wrestler handling some column duty these days so check out Terra Calaway’s column The Hot Stuff when you get a chance. Don’t mouth off to her, I’ve seen her finishers!

And that ends this edition of the Wrestling Sandwich. For you vocabulary buffs out there, I have a good one for you this week! You won’t find this pretty much anywhere outside very obscure places so if anybody knows what it means, tell me where you found out! Do not be acrasial if you plan to write to me.

If you email, remember to put 411 in the subject or it goes in the junk. First person to e-mail me with what that word means gets mentioned next week!