wrestling / Columns

The Wrestling Sandwich 12.03.11

December 3, 2011 | Posted by Wes Kirk

Things are looking clearer for the December schedule of the Wrestling Sandwich. Next week, I will be presenting the one award nobody wants to win when we have our first yearly Nugget Awards! As the name implies it will be a very special lumpy substance presented to individuals, federations, and groups that deserve it. Those of you who read the half-year awards can expect to see twenty yearly awards next week to be presented for various categories that you may have seen in the half-year preview in June, so keep your eyes peeled. Also, on the last Saturday of the month we’ll be putting together the special Best Of edition in which all the wacky and crazy antics of the Wrestling Sandwich from the 3 16 11 commercial to the latest edition will be shown! The best of both current and older segments of the Sandwich will be featured and I’d be totally remiss if I didn’t invite Steve Cook to join us as well! So keep your eyes open this month, next week for the Golden Nuggets and the end of the month for the Wrestling Sandwich Best Of holiday special.

Obviously with the biggest holiday of all coming up we’re all getting busy at 411, and not just with our Christmas shopping. A lot of exciting things happen around this time of year and we’ll be working behind the scenes on that as well and hopefully you will enjoy what is being planned, and what I can tell you is that it will be some excellent stuff later on in the month. Whether you are part of the WWE Universe or a fan of professional wrestling, you’ll like it!

There is obviously still a conspiracy going on to keep the Sandwich out of the spotlight. Not the tinfoil hat Alex Jones style conspiracies but a true, actual conspiracy dammit. When a few old pictures of Layla the Troll get put over a Sandwich mention you know something is amiss, and perhaps Chris Jericho was right about the management trying to keep the obviously brilliant young talent that draws well down for the same old same old! DOWN WITH THE MAN, UP WITH THE SANDWICH SPOTLIGHT BABY!

Speaking of Jericho, the latest rumor making the rounds is that the social media link that has some apocalyptic themed promos is advertising the return of Chris Jericho to the WWE. The one problem with that argument is that Jericho already had “the second coming” in 2007 in case you forgot about that. People are arguing that it fits because Y2J matches the date: The year is 2012, the day is 2, and the month begins with J so it has to be him. However, my theory is that it isn’t about Jericho at all. My belief is that on that particular day, the Undertaker will emerge on RAW for the first time in nearly a year with his old classic gimmick for his final WrestleMania battle with Paul Bearer and the urn in tow. To make sure it is truly memorable, this is also the time Kane will once again don the mask and join Undertaker… as the Brothers of Destruction. Certainly fits the theme, does it not? Also, for those with short attention spans the staticy television with odd symbols, images, words, and so on is a staple in Undertaker’s return promos. Frankly, I’m all for it since it might actually boost ratings for a while and give a much needed nostalgia push to two characters that seem to have run out of steam and are both on the edge of retirement. And now to the news, and it is short this week for some reason.

Top Stories of the Week!

1. Weekly Ratings Roundup

TNA Impact on Thanksgiving – 0.99, 1.4 million viewers (down slightly due to Thanksgiving holiday)
WWE Smackdown on Friday – 1.8, 2.9 million viewers (down 0.1 from last week)
WWE RAW – 3.2, 4.4 million viewers. Hour 1 scored 3.33, Hour 2 dropped to 3.07 (down slightly from last week)
WWE Smackdown Live Special – 2.0, 3 million viewers (up from Smackdown Friday, but lower than the last live special)

We have ourselves a bad week in terms of television ratings, but Thursday and Friday were expected to be a little lower. However, there is no reason for the two live WWE shows after Thanksgiving to have slipped.

TNA Impact scored 0.99 in total for the Thanksgiving edition, and considering it was taped and shown on a holiday where most people were off for early Black Friday sales that’s a good rating. Smackdown on Friday scored a 1.8 rating which is down from the previous week, understandable due to Black Friday again. Fast-forward to Monday and you get the live RAW coming in at a 3.2, which is down from last week but only slightly, although the second hour took a horrendous dive from 3.33 to 3.07! WWE’s Smackdown Live Special holiday edition only came in at 2.0; under the 2.11 it had received on August 30th earlier this year on the last live special but higher than Friday night. Considering the main event, Mick Foley being advertised, and the fact there was no significant competition it has to be a disappointment.

Smackdown’s live special was indicative of other problems as well according to two live reports of the show:

“Entire upper deck was tarped off. 2 years ago when Raw was here, the entire arena was filled. Not sure if Smackdown being the ‘B’ show it draws a smaller crowd, or the economy is tough, or if people just attend less events.”

“The crowd was way down from the Smackdown taping they held immediately after Mania. While that looked to be close to a sell out, this event was probably half full with significant portions tarped off and the hard camera side with relatively few people seated.”

Now, do you really wonder why they consider Smackdown to be the B Show? With reports like this and the ratings they have, I can’t blame the WWE a single bit. Personally I loved the festive holiday spirit, although it would have worked better if they actually held the Christmas special in the month Christmas is in.

2. TNA Impact Quick Recap

Results:

1. Tag Team Title #1 Contenders Three-Way Match: Pope and Devon defeated Ink Inc and Mexican America when Devon pinned Jesse Neal after a spinebuster **
2. Street Fight: Mickie James defeats ODB with a roundhouse kick to the chair into ODB’s face. **1/4
3. TV Title: Robbie E. defeats Rob Van Dam when Christopher Daniels hits the Angels Wings on Van Dam and Robbie covers him. *
4. Non-Title Triple Threat: Bobby Roode defeated Jeff Hardy and AJ Styles when Roode pinned Hardy after Jarrett crotched him in the ropes. ***

Best Booking of the Night: Knockouts Street Fight!

Worst Booking of the Night: RVD Loses To Robbie E

A lot was actually covered tonight on several different fronts including the Immortal vs. Garret Bischoff feud, Knockouts and Karen Angle, Bully Ray attempting to get Abyss back in Immortal, the Hardy/Jarrett feud, Tag Title contenders, Roode being built like a classic old school heel, and so much more.

First thing I want to point out is the excellent video package involving Roode’s family in which basically they all talk about how much he’s changed and how different he is since winning the title. This is just classic heel buildup and it works well every time, and you can tell the family is likely having a blast behind the scenes planning what to say. Roode continues to be built well as a heel and is basically the top one in the company whereas at the end of October he was the biggest face in the company and that takes quite a bit of work.

Women wrestlers take note once again that the Knockouts match was a Street Fight and was more physical and hardcore than the Orton/Otunga match, and also better, from the Super Smackdown street fight. Both women got seven minutes to compete in a one on one match and I’d like to see the Divas get even one-quarter of that on WWE TV if they can handle it, but obviously most of them cannot handle that style. The angle with the Knockouts having to clean cars in bikinis is obviously leading to Karen getting hers, possibly with Traci replacing her since even the heel girls were pissed during this segment. Think about that, all the girls in the company have a storyline now!

The main event was easily the best part of the show and overall it was a solid card and the segments did well, but of course all the trolls jumped in to vote “horrible” for it even though the people voting likely never even saw it. I frankly question the wisdom of putting up a TNA poll in the news section to begin with; instead of just the TNA live report since it invites the trolls to skew the poll every week.

Skew away though, because as you can see people are starting to take TNA seriously and more people are interested in jumping ship!

Smartest Thing of the Week: The Knockouts Street Fight

The reason this is the smartest thing of the week is mostly as a message to the female wrestlers who might be undecided about trying out for either TNA or WWE. Firstly, you saw Mickie James taking on a very unusual looking girl in ODB, who is anything but a prim and proper Diva with a bikini body and a model smile. Secondly, the match went seven minutes long. Thirdly, the match actually had good wrestling and psychology throughout. The message here is obviously a simple one: Women wrestle here, and they will hire anybody who can compete and contribute positively to the product. The angle with Karen trying to turn the Knockouts division into the WWE Divas division of years past is just a likely poke at WWE’s treatment of the female performers over the years, making Karen the female equivalent of Vince McMahon and Madison like a Johnny Laurinitis character except with charisma. If you are a woman wrestler wondering which company would give you the best chance to be noticed, TNA stepped it up big time in making you think about them exclusively with the match and storyline shown on Thursday.

Dumbest Thing of the Week: The Smackdown Street Fight

WWE’s Super Smackdown version of a street fight was everything wrong with the company right now in a nutshell. First, you have Randy Orton who isn’t exactly the greatest in-ring tactician going up against Harvard dropout David Otunga (remember his NXT promo about quitting Harvard to join NXT? WWE doesn’t!) and the weapons? Oversized candy Singapore canes, Christmas trees, garland, and that plastic top to the announcing booth. You had interference that still led to the face winning anyway, and a basic formulaic match that had the heel get some shots in, the face get some shots in, and eventually the face hits their finisher for a victory. Meanwhile on Impact, the girls wrestled a much more physical contest and made use of the stipulation, fighting all the way through the back, through the fans, and back to the ring again and used real weapons like steel stairs, posts, steel chairs, and walls. In fact, the finish of the match used the street fight stipulation allowing Mickie to kick a chair into ODB’s face! The two street fights this week could not have been more different and WWE looks like the loser in this one, because the girls of TNA outdid the guys of WWE in a big way.

OLD SCHOOL WRESTLER OF THE WEEK

The Magnificent Muraco

One of the top midcard wrestlers in the 1980’s WWF was the Magnificent One himself Don Muraco, who was successful with the managerial skill of last week’s spotlighted Old Schooler Mr. Fuji all the way to the Intercontinental Championship. At the time, the IC title was second only to the WWF Championship and many top stars not only held the title but also defended it, and Muraco was one of them. The legendary Superfly Leap wouldn’t have happened without him to take it, and Muraco filled the role of a top villain quite well in the 80’s WWF for years.

Muraco first experienced wrestling in the amateur divisions in Hawaii, starting in 1967 when he became state champion. He began learning professional wrestling in Vancouver, Oregon, Florida, and Los Angeles before taking an offer to work in the Minneapolis based AWA owned by Verne Gagne. Muraco had tag team title success there along with none other than Jimmy Snuka himself, and faced off with Larry “The Axe” Hennig and Dusty Rhodes before heading over to San Francisco, tiring of city life.

Muraco would bounce around territories from San Francisco to Championship Wrestling from Florida, where he became famous for the first time. After comparisons were made to NWA Champion Jack Brisco, Muraco was put into a match with him and reversed Brisco’s figure four leg lock at one point, losing eventually by disqualification but his performance made him a star. He’d head to California in 1975 to become the NWA Americas Heavyweight Champion and co-held the San Francisco NWA World Tag title before learning to become an effective villain from promoter Roy Shire.

Between 1977 and 1981, Muraco worked in different territories from Florida, California, and Hawaii. His biggest angle in Florida involved Muraco under a mask known as “The Magnificent M” and he was unmasked and revealed to have a completely bald head. Muraco would garner publicity for a piledriver on Barry Windham on the concrete floor in 1980, but the ensuing matches turned Windham into a star and one of the top feuds in the history of the promotion. Obviously by that time, as you know by now in these retrospectives, a certain New York company made a phone call.

Don Muraco entered the WWF in 1981 and was managed by the Grand Wizard himself. He captured the Intercontinental title on June 20, 1981 from Pedro Morales and lost it five months later to Pedro in a Texas Death match. He also faced off with Bob Backlund who was the WWF Champion at the time in several 60-minute draws, even two in one day! Muraco spent some time away in Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling where he partnered with Roddy Piper and then returned to the WWF in fall 1982.

Muraco’s return saw a new manager, this time Captain Lou Albano. Morales would lose the title to Muraco again on January 22, 1983 and saw Muraco begin a feud with former Albano protégé “Superfly” Jimmy Snuka. Obviously, as we all know, the most famous moment of the feud was on October 17, 1983 after Snuka had lost a cage match at Madison Square Garden to Muraco. Snuka attacked Muraco, laid him out in the ring, and jumped off with the Superfly Splash from the top of the cage, which at the time had never been done and was not a routine spot.

Snuka notwithstanding, Muraco also feuded with Backlund as well as Tony Atlas and Rocky Johnson. At one time he’d even bring a submarine sandwich to the ring and eat it while wrestling, demanding respect from the fans while believing he was above everybody else in terms of ring skill. He often dedicated his match ending piledriver to a heel commentator or whomever he feuded with as a further way to get heat from the fans. In return, the fans began a famous “beach bum” chant aimed at his surfer lifestyle and hobby of surfing in Hawaii.

February 11, 1984 saw the title change hands when Muraco lost to Tito Santana, an up and coming fan favorite. Santana was successful in several rematches, and then Muraco took a little time off before returning in 1985 with Mr. Fuji as his manager. Muraco immediately got into title matches with Hulk Hogan after the first WrestleMania had ended, three consecutive headline shows with Hogan getting the victories as usual.

The real trivia moment of Muraco’s career came on July 8, 1985 when Don Muraco became the first ever King of the Ring tournament champion. Most fans remember the KOTR as having begun in 1993, but that is simply when it was broadcast on PPV. Muraco, Ted Dibiase, Randy Savage, and Bret Hart all won KOTR tournaments before the PPV ever started. Muraco would feud with Ricky Steamboat and also showed his acting skills with the Fuji Vice clip from last week and of course this week’s Fuji General, a mockery of General Hospital.

Muraco joined up with Adrian Adonis and Cowboy Bob Orton against Roddy Piper in 1986. Orton and Muraco became a regular tag team until a falling out caused Muraco becoming a face in July 1987 and feuded with his ex-partner. Later that November, Muraco came to the rescue of “Superstar” Billy Graham who was being assaulted by Slick and his stable. Graham became his new manager since his comeback had kayfabe wise been cut short by the attacks. Muraco would feud with men such as the One Man Gang and Greg Valentine after Valentine ended up assaulting Graham and using his “heartbreaker” shin guard to damage Graham to the point he was forced to remain at commentary and could no longer manage. This was the time when Muraco began adopting tye-dye shirts and changed his name to “The Rock” which, of course, became popular years later with a certain Dwayne Johnson.

Unfortunately the face years didn’t do much for Muraco, as he would basically do nothing outside of reach the quarterfinals in the WWF Title tournament in WrestleMania IV, ultimately won by Randy Savage. Muraco feuded with Valentine and then lost to Dino Bravo in the very first Summerslam before ending up fired in late 1988.

Don Muraco would go on to the UWF, however, and feud with a certain individual known as Cactus Jack to try and reinvent his career. He also had defeated Makhan Singh in Stampede to become that company’s world champion and also dabbled in the AWA, but then headed to Eastern Championship Wrestling. That’s right, Don Muraco was one of the first ECW champions before the company was known as Extreme Championship Wrestling and feuded with Snuka and Tito Santana there. One other interesting fact about Muraco is that his finishing maneuver just so happened to be a reverse piledriver known now as the Tombstone Piledriver although it was called the Muraco Hammer.

Muraco retired from the ring shortly afterward, and returned to Hawaii. In 2003, he was co-founder of Hawaii Championship Wrestling along with Linda Bade. He served as the on-screen commissioner and also worked as a longshoreman. In 2004, Mick Foley inducted him into the Hall of Fame along with many other famous enemies of Hulk Hogan. Perhaps his best accomplishment overall was the fact he earned Heel of the Year in 1981 by Wrestling Observer Newsletter, considering the competition he was up against.

And now, what you really came here to see! This is Magnificent Muraco along with his manager Mr. Fuji in the infamous Fuji General skit!

Take 5

Wrestler To Watch: Cody Rhodes

Cody Rhodes has been on a major roll lately and putting on great performances against various wrestlers, even pinning one of the WWE’s top guys Randy Orton! The Intercontinental Champion received his second makeover of the year when he ditched the mask for a more aggressive, disturbed version of his pre-psychosomatic disfigured character and he seems like a natural to get the job done, no pun intended. Booker T has been the designated “wrestler who comes out of retirement to wrestle the cocky young heel” and help Cody get over but frankly, he doesn’t even need it because he has done so well lately on his own. The one thing that would help is if he put the Intercontinental Title on the line more often, but Cody has been pretty busy with pinning Orton, being one of only two survivors on Team Barrett, and also attacking Booker T to setup what is likely to be a quick feud with Cody likely getting big victories on his way to the main event scene. Keep your eyes on this man, folks, he’s headed for something big.

Promo of the Week: Eric Bischoff Shoots On Vince McMahon and Vince Russo

In a nutshell, he describes McMahon’s creative vision and other shortcomings in the WWE environment and also takes on Vince Russo’s particular vision and “creativity” which is interesting to listen to. I think it is a pretty straightforward look at two of the most well known creative minds in wrestling from yet another creative mind that has worked with both men on multiple occasions in his career. The basic criticism of McMahon isn’t anything more than just about everybody says about him with the complete lack of vision outside his own little world and yes men and for a short clip, this pretty much tells you a lot.

Babe To Watch: Mickie James

Hardcore Country gets the number one contendership on Impact and is headed towards what will likely be one of the top female matches of the year when she faces off with a resurrected Gail Kim at Final Resolution. Both Mickie and Gail have had their careers returned to significance in TNA and are both not only hot but also good wrestlers, which could make for a very good match indeed. Mickie has come a long way since being the Beautiful People Ripoff’s punching bag in the Diva Joke division in WWE and Gail wants to keep hold of the Knockouts Title she was the first to ever win so it should be interesting. What is even more interesting in this special tribute to Mickie James, who will forever be Hardcore Country!

Match of the Week To Watch: TNA Destination X Qualifier: Jack Evans vs. Tony Nese vs. Jesse Sorensen

This was the match that allowed Jack Evans to advance to the four-way match on Destination X and it is joined in progress from TNA’s YouTube channel as posted. I’d like to take this moment also to say that Evans belongs in the X-Division and I hope they consider hiring him very soon as I think he and Aries could put on some clinics in the ring, and add Low-Ki to the mixture and it’ll be one hell of a great three-way feud! Here’s Evans waiting for the right moment to throw his 630 Splash and amaze the fans! This is the second in a continuing series showcasing the best X-Division moments from the past several years.

Mystery Section to Watch: Melina’s Signature and Finishing Moves

Since Melina is likely appearing sooner rather than later on TNA television, it is time to revisit exactly what the A-List beauty is able to provide for her fans. With an unbelievable flexibility and creative move set, Melina has a lot of deadly moves she can perform for the TNA fans and one look at this video should dispel any doubts about whether or not she can wrestle, because she most certainly can.

The Good, The Bad, and The… WTF?

The Good

“Wes the first thing I want to say in my meaningless comment is that I have thoroughly enjoyed your column the last month or so. Although I was never one of those that venomously hated it, I did find myself silently disagreeing with it a lot. I think a lot of it had to do with how I perceived it to be so unbalanced towards TNA. Which is your right as it is your column. However, I have really enjoyed that you are showing how much of a supporter to TNA that you are, but in a more balanced way.

Everyone loves to say that you are a WWE hater, but you readily admit how much of a fan of theirs you used to be. What I think is failing to be realized by many of the anti Kirk readers that you have, which is strange that they hate you and yet still read, is that you are still a supporter of the WWE. It’s just that in it’s current state you are no longer enjoying it, and have this found an alternative to your dissatisfaction.

Myself, I am a WWE, but I tend to DVR the show and find myself fast forwarding through a lot of the show nowadays. There are some parts that I really do enjoy, and others that just don’t click with me. Now I have tried watching Impact on thursdays, but for whatever reason it’s not clicking with me that much. I do find somethings that I do like from the show and others that I don’t.

The thing I have noticed that bugs me the most, and it used to bug me with WCW as well, is the production values, there seems to be something lacking in it that I can’t put my finger on. Wes is this something you have heard from other people that have watched Impact, that the production just seems off?

I’m going to be one of the rare posters that watches both shows and say something positive about it to balance out what I feel is a negative. I do like the fact that TNA seems to let there wrestlers cut loose and perform more of the moves that you don’t see in the WWE very often. That to me does add an element of enjoyment for me. And also that the women’s division is taken more seriously.

Kudos on actually presenting a good factual argument for why Obama sucks as president. IMO, Reagan was the last great president.

In closing, keep up the good work Wes, your column is now becoming a must read for me, and not just because of the flaming, but because of the content.

Posted By: Wayne (Guest) on November 26, 2011 at 03:29 AM”

The production values are something brought up a lot by people who decided to go with WWE over TNA.

See, I’m of a much different mindset although I know most people think differently on this matter. To me, if you have a big budget production with tons of A-List talent and the worst possible writing, you can make a successful movie like Avatar and people will go and see it simply because of the millions upon millions spent on making it look pretty. I prefer the type of movie that makes you think, has intelligent twists, has unknowns and indy movie veterans working as good to great actors with good to great writing. If it costs ten dollars to shoot, I don’t care as long as the writing is good.

WWE takes the approach of making everything look as good as possible and have the highest production values of any wrestling company, and even did against WCW. My opinion on it is you can spray perfume on a turd, but it is still a turd. You can wrap it up in a nice gold box with a big red bow, but it’s still a turd. If the match quality sucks, you can’t hide it with millions of dollars of production fees. Avatar had probably the lamest and most predictable plot in modern memory but it grossed billions of dollars because of the CGI effects. A movie like Requiem for a Dream, which should be required viewing in high school, was produced on a much lower budget but delivered a powerful message that will stick with viewers probably forever. It was well written, multiple stories entwined together as one, and it broadcast a message that would help people in the long run. These days, however, the big budget production gets all the acclaim and awards that “matter” according to the usual suspects.

Reagan was indeed our last great President. Did you know he had a worse misery index coming into 1980 and by 1983 he cut it nearly in half? Obama’s three years ADDED to the index. Stats like that just make it look worse every day. Also, it cuts out the argument of “Well he’s only had three years” because Reagan did it under much worse conditions with nuclear arms aimed at our country the entire time by Russia as well.

“I’m somewhat disturbed that 19 of the first 20 comments appear to be by the same panty-sniffing John Morrison obsessive. Can you not filter these awful tards out of existence Wes? We need objective commentary here, not mindless drivel.

Posted By: Cremaster Cycle (Guest) on November 26, 2011 at 08:08 AM”

No, I can’t Cremaster. The moderating team is supposed to do that from the discussion software we use on 411 but they pretty much let anything go outside of racist comments and a couple of other no-nos from what I heard. Even then, some get through! I’m pretty sure the first few comments were the same guy but I rather not have free speech abolished to be honest with you because I can handle myself.

“The idea of you reading The Guardian made me laugh Wes, it’s a fairly left-wing paper (you’d probably consider it’s edatorial stance close to communist). I’m presuming you just got the TNA schedule from it though.

Thanks for the Fuji bit. I hated him so much when I was a kid watching the Hearts or Bulldogs and Demolition go at it (which means he was doing a damn fine job).

Posted By: Major Tom (Guest) on November 26, 2011 at 11:50 AM”

I know, I’ve seen a few of their articles and quickly printed them out in case I ran out of toilet paper. So yes, I just got the schedule from it. I wanted to get something accurate from an actual paper in England although there seem to be people telling me that I have confused the five-hour time difference. From what I do know, 21:00 to 23:00 would be equivalent to 9 pm – 11 pm and I simply dropped five hours, as in the Northeastern US 9 pm in the United Kingdom is 4 PM here. You crazy Europeans and your wacky metrics and time zones!

I actually loved watching Fuji as a manager. I always cheered the heels as a kid if they were interesting enough, although I ALWAYS was a fan of Macho Man Randy Savage, Roddy Piper, and Ultimate Warrior regardless of alignment. Whenever Fuji would get a good cane shot in on Hogan or one of his buddies it always got me cheering!

“Tremendous column as always. Nice to see an unbiased report.

Cue all the blind hate mail…

Posted By: Guest#8919 (Guest) on November 26, 2011 at 11:50 AM”

Always plenty of that, believe me! Some people can’t stand the truth and will resort to anything including the wish for me to drop dead in the comments last week and the whole “shoot that prick” comment to avoid actually having to believe something they don’t like. We call those people liberals.

“Keep up the great work Wes, no wonder the usa has all the problems they do, all the whiny internet dweebs are bitching on your column. At least here in the UK the liberals do something besides whine. They need to get a bloody life.

Posted By: Guest#0493 (Guest) on November 26, 2011 at 02:20 PM”

I do not envy you one bit considering the massive crisis going on in the European markets right now. If it is any consolation, people here are learning from what was used in the UK, Germany, Greece, and so forth and trying to avoid making the same mistakes with try being the keyword there.

“I wonder. . .if cena gets injured before WM, would Vinny Mac even consider Punk vs. Rock for the Title.
Hmmmm

Posted By: He’s Coming (Guest) on November 26, 2011 at 04:10 PM”

You should work for WWE Creative because I LOVE that match idea! The best part would be leading up to WrestleMania with the battle on the mic between those two!

“Oh boy are you correct on TNA/WWE bias or what.

Lets see ODB and Jackie attack the pretty women of TNA. Beth and Nataly does the same. Nothing.

ADr wins the Rumble loses to Edge at Mania. Nothing but Robert Rode losing at BFG people were ready to write TNA off for good.

How about Christian’s week long title reign vs James Storm 3 week title reign?

Hell imagine if TNA had the finish to Henry vs Show from the last 2 PPVs? My God the iWC would’implode on itself

Posted By: Guest#8803 (Guest) on November 27, 2011 at 10:02 PM”

Exactly the point I try to make about the coverage of TNA and WWE here and elsewhere. Thanks for your insight!

“First off Wes, fine post Thanksgiving Turkey leftover Sandwich.

Random thoughts:

It’s funny how good Jeff Jarrett’s parody skills are. I remember one parody he did of Dusty Rhodes during the final days of WCW that was also very good. Maybe the last truly entertaining thing that aired on Nitro.

That Hogan botch was pretty hilarious, I still remember Rumble 91 when he’s trying to cut a patriotic promo on turncoat Slaughter who just became WWE champion and he forgot Sadaam Hussein’s name in mid promo.

Good old Mr. Fuji, First time I really saw Fuji was also Rumble 91 during an awesome Rockers-Orient Express opener and I hated Fuji so much for hitting Shawn Michaels in the throat with his cane. Good times, his promos during the event center were fun too.

Sin Cara has been a pretty big fail, I had high hopes after reading for years about Mistico. Since about 2006 I had been hoping TNA would sign him but it wasn’t meant to be. Maybe for the best. Huge draw in Mexico but obviously wasn’t ready for the spot he was given. In hindsight a year in Developmental would have been best.

Matt Hardy is just getting ridiculous. I give up. I had high hopes for him, years ago. There was even a time I saw more potential in him than his flake brother. You know your a fuck up when Jeff Hardy becomes the dependable one.

Big props on your fair and balanced reporting in regards to TNA, I’ve never understood people’s out and out hatred of TNA. Everyone says WWE having a monopoly is bad and yet they continue to bash and hate on the only company even close to competing with Vince and this company arguably has a better roster, a better TV show, and usually puts on better PPV’s not to mention their house shows are super fun and worth every penny while WWE’s house shows feel like a huge pain to even sit through.

WWE’s refusal to give their audience what they want has become a big problem. It’s always been there, Vince always thought he knew better but now it’s just getting crazy. It’s not like he knows a better way and just isn’t giving in out of distain or has a Heyman or Russo esque creative mind waiting to be unleashed to fix everything. Even if that mind popped up he wouldn’t listen. Vince is truly lost and doesn’t know any better. WWE creatively is doomed and this network is only going to make things worse. This truly feels like the beginning of the end but at least there’s still TNA to enjoy and who at least try to earn my money.

And with that I am out, Take care Wes. Kirk Nation Stand Up!

Posted By: Mister Mike (Guest) on November 26, 2011 at 02:04 AM”

Thanks as always Mike, always good to hear from the more literate posters like yourself, Spencer, Fuj, Jesuszilla, and of course Lisa!

Jarrett was always underrated because he was the son of a promoter and Russo had a hard-on for him. Even as the founder of the company the man puts people over in TNA like so few others do. Can you imagine HHH ever doing three jobs in the same night to make Jeff Hardy look good?

I felt bad for Hulk watching that promo, BROTHER!

I didn’t like Fuji hitting HBK or a few other wrestlers but anytime he wanted to open up a CANE of whoop-ass on somebody like Hacksaw Jim Duggan or Tito Santana I was all for it!

Yeah, Sin Cara isn’t able to adapt successfully to the style here in the States and if at twenty-six years old or twenty-seven he’s already having problems with his legs and is a known Wellness violator I’d cut my losses on that one. I’m not sure if he’s ever coming back, but I can tell you that HHH is probably the subject of quite a few chuckles backstage these days.

I never saw Matt Hardy as special, that’s just me being honest. You’ll see more of my opinion on that in an upcoming work on 411, I guarantee it will be thought provoking.

You know, I actually did go to pick up WWE ’12 so I could make all the TNA wrestlers win all the belts and I got into a conversation with a guy who was there to pick up Skyrim and he asked if I watched Survivor Series. I said no and he said he didn’t watch it either, I said I only watch TNA nowadays and he said, “Me too!” and told me how much better he liked the wrestlers there. I’m finding more and more people lately who honestly can’t stand the product being put out now and while I don’t think TNA will jump to a 5.0 rating in the next month or two I do believe people are fed up with WWE to the point they might just stop watching all wrestling. I also hope TNA puts out a good video game soon so we can ditch WWE and have a really fun game! Here’s a spoiler alert for the game: If you pick the season mode I hope you really love playing John Cena and/or Sheamus. See you next week Mike!

“Wes keeps it real yo. starting to like him more every week and want to say again good job on that Bret Hart overrated column. you nailed it right on the head. keep u good work

Posted By: flair fan (Guest) on November 27, 2011 at 03:09 PM”

As I said in the column I do not think Bret is a bad guy or a bad wrestler at all, I just think he isn’t the best ever. Some people act like I just killed the Pope in cold blood for daring to utter that sentence by the reaction.

“”You asked about how Obama was the worst President ever and I will post the proof next week because it was too large for this edition. It appears people will do absolutely anything to avoid admitting they made a huge mistake in 2008 at all.”

As I said last week, people will always bitch and complain about how bad certain presidents are when they are in the White House. But I would argue that you can’t really be a judge of a president and his legacy until he is out of the White House.

“No other President has allowed such a disgrace and a travesty to occur on his watch, not even Buchanan.”

Right…he just sat there (figuratively speaking, not literally of course) while our country became even more and more divided and did little to nothing about it. He failed to deal with the coming secession in this country. He alienated both the North and South with his actions.

But oh in Wes Kirk’s warped mind Obama is worse. Get real. God, you’re exactly one of these conservative wackos that listen to and believe 99.99999% of what Glenn Beck spouts. It’s because of idiots like you and your ignorant views that our country is going right straight down the crapper. If it wasn’t for such partisanship in this country, we probably wouldn’t be in the mess we’re in right now.

Posted By: The Hodge (Guest) on November 26, 2011 at 01:42 AM

I cannot stand Rush Limbaugh or Glenn Beck. I especially cannot stand whining liberals like this poster. No one cares about Buchanan. Obama is not a good president get your head out of your butt. I voted for Obama and I regret it everyday. He went from a leader for change to now having an approval rating lower than Bush.

Posted By: Guest#9170 (Guest) on November 26, 2011 at 12:29 PM”

Didn’t Glenn Beck say earlier this year that we’d have protests and riots in the streets with class warfare going on all around us? And didn’t that HAPPEN with Occupy protests all around the country? Gee, why would anybody want to listen to a guy who has said so many things that actually happened?

And there really is no partisanship because the economy polls all show Obama in the dumps. He has nothing to run on, nothing to stand on, and that one billion dollars that would have fed 3,333 people for a full year going to his campaign is going to be for nothing. Don’t spend what you don’t have, that’s the rule with a credit card and the rule with any money that isn’t yours. As far as voting for him, I honestly don’t blame you. The hype machine was so huge it was difficult to see through it. We all make mistakes!

“Great column as always.

It’s funny that Obama kept talking about change, because that’s what Americans are scrambling for now under his run as president. Change under the cushion, in a pay phone, on the sidewalk… Obamas term is playing out like an Adam Sandler movie with a numb nuts who somehow gets in office. Keep the change.

And here’s an idea.. Seeing as The Rock HAS to be on the juice, couldn’t he be suspended via wellness policy? How great would it be to suggest that to the Feds (or hell, TMZ) to where he’d take and fail a drug test, then have to pull out of the biggest match of EntertainmentMania.
Much like the dipshits occupying on Wall street rather than working a job (I guess they’re too good for McDonalds, that won’t pay their iPhone bill) I’m going to occupy W_E until they test and publicly show Dwayne Johnson’s results. If they carry on with this match, the Wellness policy is a fucking sham.

Posted By: Spencer Mallard (Guest) on November 26, 2011 at 11:19 PM”

Spencer, always good to hear from you!

I was thinking it is more like Idiocracy, Spence. The dumb leading the dumber that elected them, remember that movie?

The one snag you have, though, is that The Rock is not a full time performer for the WWE and probably works one single date at a time. By virtue of that part-time work he doesn’t have to be tested for anything. The whole problem is the separation of “independent contractor” and “employee” but more so when the Rock is taken into consideration because he has shown up to take part in only one actual match thus far. It is likely Rock is working under a very special custom contract that gives him all the benefits of a part time worker and none of the drawbacks. Under the contract WWE wrestlers have, they must consent to the Wellness tests but Rock is obviously a special case given special compensation and extra bonuses for a single night’s work. This is why WWE loves using that contractor status; it allows them infinite loopholes in everything.

I think McDonalds is too a good job for our Occupy friends. They should guard our troops and tanks in Operation Human Shield when we send them anywhere because those tanks cost money.

“I agree with you 100% about obama & the wall street crap! hell that occupy wall street is such a joke…

has anyone seen the murder & rape rate at their protests? its ridiculus! its disgusting! the media would have you believe the tea party is evil but look at the facts, the tea party had none of the disgusting acts! and their arrest rate was no where near the astronomical numbers these wall street chumps have!

I also agree with you about the joke that the wwe wellness policy is…

but… i disagree 100% about the rock… i have no reason to believe hes using anything, nor that hes ever used anything… hes a genuinely good guy & I am one of the millions of his fans even though i hated him throught the nation and for sometime afterwards… he grew on me just like angle did!

Posted By: Guest#7986 (Guest) on November 27, 2011 at 07:33 AM”

I have a graphic actually that you might be interested in.

Yep, and that was before the major violence and hell broke loose!

I support Rock against Cena because Rock represents my generation. Cena represents the selfish millenials who deserve to get their asses kicked. Also it is funny because whenever Vince needs a ratings boost he calls Rock on the phone instead of his so-called top guy! As far as the steroids and such go, I can understand why people would think he is on substances but honestly, we don’t know so why bother speculating?

The Bad

We begin with a comment I couldn’t fit into last week’s column due to the size limitations!

“I don’t know how anyone could rationally state that Obama is the worst president of all time, not when you have Nixon, a president who was so corrupt he had to resign before they threw him out–not when you have GW Bush, who started a war with a country that had nothing to do with Al Queda, and pretty much ignored the impact of Katrina until his own advisers sat him down with a DVD and showed him how desparate things were getting–and not when you have Carter, who couldn’t do anything about Iran or the economy and whose energy policy simply consisted of “wear sweaters indoors.”

Obama has a achieved quite a lot in his first three years, and if he is known for nothing else, he will be the president who gave the go-ahead order for the mission that ended bin Ladin. You can say that it was all due to the military, but he chose the option that would be the most effective and the greatest chance of success (though at potential risk to the US military). It worked–bin Ladin is dead–and still he doesn’t get the credit for that he deserves. You can better believe that if GW Bush had done a similar thing 4 years ago, you wouldn’t stop hearing the conservatives crowing about it well until the end of his presidency and beyond–and you wouldn’t be able to remove the smirk from Bush’s face with a jackhammer.

Posted By: Michael L (Guest) on November 19, 2011 at 09:45 AM”

You know Michael, watching something other than MS-NBC might give you the facts you desperately need about the man and his administration. I will repost something from an older Sandwich about the true story regarding his “victory” with bin Laden that you can fact check yourself.

How can I rationally state he’s the worst of all time? I’ll give you an eye-opening fifteen reasons why.

1. President Obama is the first and only President to have the United States AAA+ credit rating downgraded on his watch.
2. President Obama has allowed foreign leaders such as Felipe Calderon from Mexico and Chinese President Hu Jintao to bash the United States people on our very own soil. Oh, and we paid for the tab for this simple little meal that was given to Jintao who currently owns 43 cents of every dollar we spend. Not exactly a bologna sandwich, is it?
3. President Obama is the first and only President to refuse to follow the law and recognize the Defense of Marriage act, actually stating his administration will not enforce it.
4. President Obama and his Congress have drawn up over six billion dollars in debt in less than four years, the highest of all the Presidents in our history. Obama is also spending the most of any President in history, to the tune of $4.1 billion dollars a DAY!
5. President Obama has hired known criminals and tax cheats to his cabinet and was advised by Bill Ayers, the Pentagon bomber.
6. President Obama has promised openness and transparency and had most of his meetings blocked off, including the health care debate, from the public and television cameras breaking his campaign promise.
7. President Obama has done more to destroy the American dollar’s value than any President in history, and it is now worth over 20% less than it was in 2001.
8. President Obama has cut NASA’s shuttle program, the organization that has launched hundreds of innovations changing our lives for the better since its inception, and cost thousands of jobs while leaving us reliant on Russia to go into space.
9. President Obama has taken the most expensive and lavish vacations outside of our country than any other President before him, and more of them, during economic recession and turmoil in the streets.
10. The current economic recovery under President Obama is the worst in the history of our country in comparison to recoveries from every other recession, and a chance at double-dip recession is very possible.
11. For the first time in history, states and cities are declaring bankruptcy en masse due to the failures of his administration.
12. Obama’s first three years in office have not ended up with us improving by one single job over 2007’s labor statistics, in fact over the last three years we have lost more jobs than any time since the Depression.
13. The housing market is actually valued at this time as worse than the Great Depression, and the worst in United States history.
14. President Obama has alienated Israel, insulted the Indian government by being the only President to ever use a teleprompter when speaking in their parliament, given the Queen of England an iPod of his speeches as a birthday present and then the next year gave her a gift on the wrong day, and in general has done more to alienate the world from us than any other President.
15. President Obama is now presiding over the largest number of welfare and food stamp recipients in the history of the United States.

You can say what you want of the other Presidents, but they didn’t sit back and let foreign leaders stand on the White House lawn and bash our people, bash our country, and bash our way of life. Buchanan may have done nothing, but he never allowed a nuclear bomb to be built in a hostile country. The unemployment rate and underemployment rate of college graduates is at one of its highest levels ever! And with all these problems facing us, he had time to set a record for most rounds of golf played and it has only been three years. I don’t know what else I have to say to convince you the guy is the absolute worst. Oh, and here’s that statement from the Sandwich’s October 1st edition:

“Actually, Navy Seal Team Six killed Osama Bin Laden. This information used by Navy Seal Team Six was obtained through intelligence gathering started by the Bush administration utilizing water boarding in Gitmo and then verified for accuracy. It is worth noting that our own ally Pakistan was harboring bin Laden and that the attack had to be conducted in secret, approved by Obama after waiting an entire sixteen hours on giving the order to take him out. While it was conducted, the chopper was damaged and secret technology was stolen by Pakistan and then China took some as well, and shortly after it was conducted Joe Biden revealed the name of the commander who started the operation during a Democratic fundraiser, which then leaked out into Al-Jazeera and other news networks. Obama gave the order to have Osama buried with full Muslim ceremony and honors despite masterminding the deaths of thousands of Americans, Canadians, and every other country with representatives in the Twin Towers that day. To top it all off, they used Biden’s gaffe to take down one of our helicopters they weren’t supposed to know was flying overhead and killed dozens of Seals with the information obtained. And just to add one other comment to that, Pakistan is now threatening to remove itself as our ally and instead join up with the other Muslim countries and regard us as a full enemy.”

Suddenly it doesn’t look all that good, does it? Oh, but it gets worse. Check out the numbers here and try not to throw up.

“Shitty article. You whine about the site’s WWE bias? How about your blatant TNA bias? Makes you NO better.

Oh and that reply you sent to that asswipe Spencer’s comment? Yea, how about we get a TNA star on a radio show so we can call them and ask them why they only had 16 minutes of wrestling on a TWO HOUR SHOW as well as why they allowed someone that was hopped up on who knows how many drugs to MAIN EVENT A PPV THAT PEOPLE PAID FOR just to see a 2 minute match? Hmmm?

I bet you won’t answer this due to your retarded bias.

TNA can afford 4 DVDs and a shirt for 20 bucks because they know few people would buy any of their shit so the money they lose would be minimal.

Posted By: Once again… (Guest) on November 26, 2011 at 01:10 AM”

And yes, once again we point out that just about every other column is anti-TNA or at the very least not quick to praise TNA if they do something great, and much more likely to bash them half the column for a slip-up while allowing the other company to get away with anything.

TNA already publicly admitted the situation with Jeff Hardy and Victory Road, they suspended him and they gave people six months of TNA On Demand who purchased the event as a result. I wouldn’t be surprised if they took some of Jeff’s salary to fund a few of those On Demand subscriptions either. Yeah, 16 minutes of wrestling on a show but have you ever stopped to think that just because WWE puts on a 15-20 minute match it doesn’t mean it will be a good one? I’ve seen plenty of 15-20 minute WWE cookie-cutter formula matches that deserved two stars and got almost four…why? Because they went 15-20 minutes. Worse, if WWE has a two-three minute match sometimes reviewers will give it two to three stars while if the same situation took place in TNA they’d give it a “DUD” rating and bitch about it endlessly.

The question isn’t if TNA can afford the deal but the question was why couldn’t WWE make a deal like that? The truth of the matter is they just want your money and TNA gives the fans BETTER DEALS. You can’t argue the point because TNA always runs tons of sales while WWE charges more and more. WrestleMania tickets went up for 2012, who’s to say 2013 won’t be $2,000 front row tickets on eBay? Really caring people during our current economy.

“horrible article. one of the worst, most infuriating writers on this website. go kill yourself wes.

Posted By: Guest#1022 (Guest) on November 26, 2011 at 04:05 AM”

Thanks for writing in Mom.

“I love how easy it is to rebut Wes’s biased pro-TNA arguments by simply using his equally sad anti-WWE rantings:

Wes Kirk – “Do you know WHY the show seemed to go off a cliff for September? … THEY DROPPED BECAUSE TNA WENT TO A LATE EVENING TIME SLOT IN SEPTEMBER!”

Wes Kirk, later in the same column “Excuses, excuses. When I was a kid I stayed up till 1 am to watch Saturday Nights Main Event, because I enjoyed it that much, and prior to that when I was really young I had it watched and taped so I could watch it the next morning by a family member. Bottom line: If it is good, people will go out of their way to see it.”

In his defence, in the same column, Wes did give quite an accurate assessment of his own pro-TNA and anti-WWE position – “The bias is honestly getting ridiculous”.

Posted By: Guest#4181 (Guest) on November 26, 2011 at 04:35 AM”

You know, your argument would have worked if not for the fact that the people are NOT going out of their way to watch WWE programming despite the hour. IF WWE is so much better than TNA, people would stay up to watch it on their channel. The fact they do not is just indicative of how bad the product really is. TNA may have switched time slots, but their numbers did start to go up again before the change back to a good time slot.

People did NOT go out of their way to see WWE, rendering your attempt at a retort null and void. If you recall, SNME actually had very high ratings in the 1980’s despite its very late time slot. WWE has no excuse outside of the product sucks for why people do not go out of their way to watch it.

“No, not mad bro, just deeply satisfied that the only thing handed to you was your ass and you couldn’t even construct a valid argument in response.

Posted By: The Boss (Guest) on November 26, 2011 at 08:02 AM”

Sorry but the only thing handed in by requesting I be murdered in cold blood is your sociopathic personality. You cannot win a verbal argument with somebody by hoping for his or her death. You use facts, and debunk the other person with facts and statistics and prove your own point as well. If you want to try again go right ahead, but this time drop all the ad-hominems and we’ll see if you have -anything- intellectually to offer. My guess is hell no.

“Now, I don’t have an issue with people in the news reports and columns bashing TNA as much because it is mostly opinion and analysis and it doesn’t have anything to do with hard news. But when the hard news stories start to be posted with incomplete information or even flat out lies, that’s when the reporting takes a trip to MS-NBC territory.”

Biased, much?

Posted By: Ha! (Guest) on November 26, 2011 at 07:54 PM”

The Wrestling Sandwich is an opinion column, in case you don’t know the difference. Hard news is what is posted in the appropriately titled “NEWS” section as opposed to “COLUMNS” my good friend. Sorry…about your damn illiteracy.

“Jesus Christ you are stupid. Do you realize how few people actually have NFL Network, the network that showed the Jets-Broncos game? If you’re trying to make comparisons to Raw going against Monday Night Football on ESPN, just stop now.

Not “giving the fans what they want” is not a new concept. There’s always been the “oh you’ll get your match…next week/at the next PPV/if you can beat…” since I have watched wrestling. Ric Flair and Honky Tonk Man used to pull this all the time. WWE is still doing it with Laurinaitis. As they did with Vince, Bischoff, HHH/Steph, the computer, and everyone else who has ever been in charge of Raw. It may be stale, but its a tactic that has been used for years.

Angelina Love is fucking ugly. I mean, she’s not the UGLIEST chick in the bar, but she’s a definite butter face. Yes, I have nailed hotter broads than her. Not because I’m a pimp, but because she’s just not that attractive.

Posted By: Guest#3856 (Guest) on November 27, 2011 at 11:23 AM”

Yeah, I am making comparisons to it because of the numbers that game drew. Do you even know how many people watched it?

The NFL Broncos/Jets game was seen in 7,225,000 viewers that Thursday night. That fact is available right here so now that point is debunked.

It is a stale tactic and the problem is we’ve been waiting around what, two months for Ziggler vs. Ryder with the belt on the line that ends with Ryder’s victory? What the hell is the holdup?

If you nailed anybody even remotely resembling Angelina Love, it was in the backseat of a hearse pal and you weren’t the stiffest one that day.

“/facepalm

The main reason I see many people click on your link, Wes, is that they like to see a train wreck. Your column is just plain bad. I can only hope that people choose to ignore it so that it will eventually just fade away.

Posted By: Just…horrid… (Guest) on November 27, 2011 at 07:14 PM”

So terrible that once again it is the number one weekend column on 411! Thanks!

“I wonder how much of “column” that Wesley would have if he didn’t devote so much of its content to political garbage and addressing the comments section.

But that would mean he’d have to actually write about WRESTLING and we all know that he doesn’t know too much about that…

Posted By: Ice Dagger (Guest) on November 27, 2011 at 09:48 PM”

Yeah, what would I know about wrestling considering I probably have watched matches since before your drunk daddy got a gleam in his eye from too much Jim Beam and Quaaludes while your mother complimented him with a hearty, “You’re the best brother I ever had!” while the trailer rocked like a baby crib on PCP? If you want a challenge one-on-one in wrestling trivia, it can be arranged. E-mail me and remember to put 411 in the subject line so we can get it set up.

The WTF

“Wes likes his politics but he’s very uninformed. It’s well documented amongst in-the-know economists that the national debt is heading towards $200 trillion and the US is bankrupt. Alex Jones is also a deeply suspicious character, positing himself as the figurehead of the truth movement whilst fraternising with known Zionists and well-connected Jewish socialites. I don’t mind political comment in this column because it adds a topical slant but please be accurate with your information.

Posted By: Piracy Theorist (Guest) on November 26, 2011 at 03:11 PM”

Only one thing can describe this.