wrestling / Columns
The Wrestling Sandwich 12.17.11
Hello and welcome to the Wrestling Sandwich once again! In column related news, once again this week we’ll have to push Old School to the side because the feedback from the week before wasn’t included in the Golden Nuggets due to the size limitations on the column posting. Therefore, we’ll include that and a more limited version from this past week in this edition. This is also because it is the holidays and frankly I have enough work to do around here considering I’ll spend an hour or two getting all the research done for a bunch of John Cena marks to scroll past to get to the part where they can spew hate speech at me all week. Not exactly a reward for hard work, so why waste my time? It’ll come back when I’m damn good and ready to bring it back.
The Slammy Awards from RAW may very well have been the definition of “mixed bag” as we saw the good, the bad, and the HORRIBLE. For one thing, the whole Cole/JR segment just is the absolute epitome of useless television. Then we had good matches with Punk/Orton vs. Del Rio/Miz and the fatal four-way for “top trending superstar” when whoever won the match didn’t matter because the person who wins is the person who trends on Twitter first during the match… and they say TNA is confusing and makes no sense. Then we had SNOOKI of all people show up via satellite to accept her award for doing a two-minute match! We had the excellent return of masked Kane, the ridiculousness of the Sheamus/Mahal “match”, and then again we’d go into weird territory. RAW had a bit of everything this time around and as a result, it made it extremely hard to rate the show as a whole.
Wrestler of the Week was a travesty of justice as TNA got jobbed out of just about every top position despite putting on a solid PPV that was easily the best PPV they have put on in months. Because half the idiots voting do not even watch TNA, they didn’t vote for any of the guys who worked their asses off and put on a hell of an entertaining night for the fans. Roode and AJ got screwed out a rightful top three position and it SUCKS! The only reason people able to vote wrestler of the week do not have to WATCH THE PRODUCT would be to cement the WWE as their top company. Also, it is interesting to note that the “year” ends at WrestleMania and not by New Year’s Day since that again will show bias for WWE. You guys think I’m biased with TNA? Look at the bullshit Wrestler of the Week voting! I at least give credit to WWE guys when they do something big, but that was just a joke of a vote. Too bad I can’t put all my votes into one single wrestler or else I’d make sure one of TNA’s wrestlers got in next week when it is likely going to be WWE only in the final five.
Top Stories of the Week!
1. Weekly Ratings Roundup
TNA Impact Wrestling – 1.0, 1.4 million viewers (down slightly from last week)
WWE Smackdown – 2.2, 3.2 million viewers (up decently from last week)
WWE RAW – 2.8, 4.1 million viewers for all three hours (overall down from last week, the two-hour regular timeslot would be up a scant 0.01)
WWE Tribute to the Troops – 1.9, 2.7 million viewers (down from last year)
Impact stayed steady with a 1 on Thursday, although it was down slightly. Smackdown actually did something right because it went up and a good-sized increase at that to 2.2! Obviously, we’ll see if a trend develops or not this next week. RAW scored the lowest three-hour show score in two years with a 2.8 overall and compared to last year, it also lost 550,000 viewers too:
12/13/10 (Slammys): 4.65 million viewers (1H – 4.12, 2H – 4.91, 3H – 4.92)
12/12/11 (Slammys): 4.10 million viewers (1H – 3.63, 2H – 4.49, 3H – 4.16)
As expected this year the final hour lost viewers while the opening hour was dreadful compared to the 2010 opening hour. Not a very inspiring week to be a WWE fan, was it? It gets worse!
UK Ratings
TNA Impact (December 1) – 222,000 viewers
(Nov 24) – 135,000 viewers
(Nov 17) – 154,000 viewers
(Nov 10) – 140,000 viewers
TNA Turning Point broadcast – 157,000 viewers
WWE RAW (Nov 28) – 102,000 viewers
(Nov 21) – 124,000 viewers
(Nov 14) – 146,000 viewers
(Nov 7) – 119,000 viewers
WWE Smackdown (Nov 29) – 82,000 viewers (replays delivered 58,000 on its usual slot and earlier airings combined)
(Nov 25) – 78,000 viewers
(Nov 18) – 83,000 viewers
(Nov 11) – 111,000 viewers
I only have one thing to say to people who claim the WWE UK ratings do not matter for whatever reason:
2. TNA Impact and Final Resolution Recap
TNA Final Resolution Results:
1. RVD defeated Christopher Daniels with the Five Star Frog Splash ***
2. TV Title: Robbie E. retained over Eric Young via the Lung Blower *1/2
3. TNA Tag Titles: Crimson and Matt Morgan retained over Pope and Devon when Crimson pinned Devon after a double chokeslam **
4. X-Division Championship: Austin Aries retains against Kid Kash with the brainbuster ***1/4
5. Knockouts Championship: Gail Kim defeated Mickie James with a through-the-ropes Eat Defeat ***
6. James Storm defeated Kurt Angle with the Last Call superkick ***1/2
7. Steel Cage Match: Jeff Hardy defeated Jeff Jarrett with the Twist of Fate which now means one of the Jarretts will be fired on Impact and Hardy will face the TNA Champion at Genesis ***
8. TNA Championship Ironman Match: Robert Roode and AJ Styles went to a 3-3 draw; Roode retains the title as a result of a draw. ****
Best Booking of the Night: Letting the Knockouts Wrestle
Worst Booking of the Night: Pope and Devon – End it Already!
Excellent performance by TNA with Final Resolution being a solid card from top to bottom with only one very weak match in the TV championship and perhaps the tag team championship but otherwise, it delivered on every level.
The Knockouts continue to show the women of the WWE how wrestling is properly done. Gail and Mickie together were able to string together a very good match that was miles above one of their encounters in WWE when Gail actually knocked herself out during the match. In this updated version, we saw both women battling and clawing to be number one until of course Madison Rayne got involved and Gail ended up taking the win off a distraction. Both women received eight minutes not including entrances and exits which is a significant number as we’ll discuss later on.
Robbie E is likely to job the title to his next challenger, and Eric Young will hopefully get pushed as a more serious wrestler since he can wrestle although Robbie E is still too green to make a decent showing. Tag scene is pretty stagnant right now but hopefully it will pick up soon! X-Division continues to be a shining beacon of hope for those wrestlers who know they have more talent than the WWE’s main event scene but won’t get a chance there to prove it, the Storm/Angle match has helped put Storm on the map as a man who can handle himself in top matches, and Roode/Styles really delivered a strong performance with the Iron man Match as opposed to the traditional get gassed ten minutes in and do rest holds, finisher, reverse to your finisher, kickout and so on. Seriously how many of WWE matches are just reversing finishers and kicking out and yet that’s considered great? Roode didn’t win this match, he PURPOSELY took a draw to avoid wrestling AJ Styles and possibly losing the match and that’s a good thing for a selfish, cowardly heel to do. Styles also remains in the title picture because technically he didn’t lose, now did he? That leaves three possible contenders in the months to come without any of them losing momentum at all in Styles, Hardy, and eventually Storm.
TNA Impact Quick Review
1. Five More Minutes: TNA Champion Robert Roode defeated AJ Styles with a modified one-legged Boston Crab to retain his championship ***
2. Wild Card Tournament: Scott Steiner and Abyss defeated Hernandez and Rob Terry when Steiner pinned Terry *1/2
3. Best of Three Match 1: Zema Ion pinned Tony Nese with a 450 Splash ***
4. Jesse Neal defeated Gunner by disqualification when Gunner attacked the referee and then hit a DDT on Jesse on the concrete ½*
5. Samoa Joe and Magnus defeated Robbie E and Douglas Williams when Samoa Joe pinned Williams after a Muscle Buster **
6. Madison Rayne defeated Traci Brooks after a wicked running boot to the face *1/2
7. Jeff Hardy defeated Bully Ray after a second Twist of Fate **1/4
Best Booking of the Night: Keeping Heel Roode Strong
Worst Booking of the Night: Neal and Gunner’s “match”
Very good edition tonight of Impact considering everybody involved and how the matches went. Only a couple of matches were rather short, the rest got enough time to do what needed to be done and that is one thing that TNA does so well: When they have a match you never really know when it will end, whereas WWE will provide a match and you know certain ones will go 15-20 minutes but that doesn’t guarantee good quality. That “it can end at any time” feel is what I like about a company to help add more realism to the match as here faces DO submit and heels DO win matches without cheating.
Jarretts both end up fired, Neal has been effectively written off of TNA broadcasts, and we’ve seen another solid four-minute woman’s wrestling match with the Knockouts and X-Division having two of the better matches on the show. Good stuff all around and unfortunately that’s it for the recap to make the posting limit!
3. WWE Not Having A Good Week
There was a rather interesting story from earlier in the week:
“SyFy has issued a press release promoting the fact that 2011 will be their best year ever, though they don’t mention WWE Smackdown among the series that helped it attain it’s highest viewership to date.”
Ouch, sounds like somebody isn’t very pleased for whatever reason with Smackdown. RAW was mentioned for USA, but SyFy apparently is still not pleased that the WWE programming was placed there from years ago.
The Wrestling Sandwich called it:
“AT&T sent out postcards to subscribers of WWE Classics On Demand, saying that on January 1, 2012, WWE will be discontinuing the service.
Despite this statement, the WWE Classics section is still running a preview video for January, which focuses on rebellious wrestling personalities such as Roddy Piper and Steve Austin.
There is speculation that WWE is discontinuing this service to focus on the launch of the WWE Network in April.”
Tuesday night this came out:
“- WWE has confirmed to staff members that the WWE Classics on Demand service will indeed be shutting down completely as of January 1, 2012. This is being done to give strength to the WWE Network when it debuts in April. At this time, WWE has not made an official announcement to subscribers, although some cable providers have begun informing subscribers.”
The cancellation of the service is absolutely no surprise. One major reason why? This is the revenue generated by WWE Classics On Demand in the past few years:
WWE Classics On Demand Service
2007 – $4.9 million
2008 – $6.3 million
2009 – $5.4 million
2010 – $4.6 million
So what these numbers seem to be telling people is that when the economy got out of a recession the numbers tanked worse. Why people aren’t tuning into the service is a big question, and also should raise some eyebrows in the WWE management offices since WWE Network will be powered almost entirely by the old footage that is provided through WWE Classics On Demand. Original programming is also present, and seems to make no considerable difference even with the addition of PPV’s several months earlier in their entirety and in segments. If On Demand, which made a profit, was considered so economically unfeasible to continue how the hell is the WWE Network supposed to do better with LESS market penetration and potential subscribers? And now they cancelled one of the only things about the company I actually loved: Old Nitros!
Well, dammit, I guess we’ll never find out if Goldberg ever lost his undefeated streak!
Just for the record, WWE Studios/Films/Whatever it is this week is also reporting impairment charges and decreased revenue, as is WWE Magazine, which should come to no surprise to fans of this column as we’ve said that for the entire year. However, what if I told you the top movie draws in the past four years from WWE Films happened to be Ted Dibiase and Mr. Anderson? Guess what: THEY ARE!
In the quarterly release, the WWE also put information regarding the revenue of each film and the profit or loss they took on it. The astounding results so far are below and include theatrical, DVD/Blu-Ray, and rental:
See No Evil – Grossed $7 million, lost 1.7 million overall (Star: Kane)
The Marine – Grossed $37.2 million, gained $14.6 million total (Star: John Cena)
The Condemned – Grossed $10.8 million, lost $6.6 million total (Star: Stone Cold Steve Austin)
Behind Enemy Lines: Columbia – Grossed $2.2 million, gained $0.1 million (Star: Mr. Anderson)
12 Rounds – Grossed $9 million, lost $2.6 million (Star: John Cena)
Marine 2 – Grossed $2 million, gained $0.6 million (Star: Ted Dibiase)
Legendary – Grossed $6 million, lost $1.8 million (Star: John Cena)
Knucklehead – Grossed $3.8 million, lost $2.6 million (Star: Big Show)
The Chaperone – Grossed $4 million, lost $2.9 million (Star: Triple H)
That’s What I Am – Grossed $1.2 million, lost $4.7 million (Star: Randy Orton)
Inside Out – Grossed $1 million, lost $3.4 million (Star: Triple H)
Although John Cena brought in the highest profit in 2006 with the Marine, afterwards the WWE Films project became the Titanic and hit the iceberg of reality that most people could care less about WWE wrestlers appearing in films about anything not involving wrestling. The two notable exceptions, of course, would be Mr. Anderson from TNA who was then known as Mr. Kennedy and Ted Dibiase being the ONLY TWO INDIVIDUALS IN RECENT YEARS TO GAIN PROFIT ON THEIR MOVIES! Currently, Anderson is in TNA and Dibiase is resurrecting his career on Smackdown slowly but that should give him some motivation. I think maybe the next time they make a movie they should ask Ted or re-hire Anderson for the star role given these numbers!
As reported in pretty much every other column everywhere, former WWE star and Slammy Awards presenter Lita was arrested for exceeding the speed limit and driving with a suspended license. Despite being arrested recently, WWE brought Lita back to present the Divalicious award on Monday night. Absolutely the smartest thing a publicly owned company could do!
Oh yeah, about the Slammy Awards:
“According to Pwinsider.com, former WWE Women’s Champion Trish Stratus declined an invitation to present the Divalicious Moment of the Year Slammy alongside Lita on Monday. A source stated that Stratus didn’t want to do the travel involved from Toronto to Virginia for just a short cameo.”
Ouch. Did she also wish the WWE well in their future endeavors?
Speaking of the ladies, I decided to conduct a quick experiment in terms of how long the women have gotten to wrestle in the past few weeks. So, every female match aired on WWE Smackdown, RAW, and TNA Impact will count towards the total and any shows not on television do not count.
TNA Impact Wrestling – Dec 8th: Mickie James and Madison Rayne – 4 minutes. Traci Brooks vs. Gail Kim – 2 minutes
TNA Final Resolution PPV Dec 11th: Gail Kim and Mickie James – 8 minutes
WWE Friday Night Smackdown – Dec 9th: No female wrestling
WWE RAW Slammy Three-Hour Special Dec 12: No female wrestling
Still not convinced? Okay, let’s go back another two weeks or so…
TNA Impact Wrestling – 12/01: ODB vs. Mickie James – 7 minutes
WWE RAW – 12/05: Kelly Kelly and Eve vs. Pinup Strong – Less than one minute
WWE RAW – 11/28: Kelly Kelly and Alicia Fox vs. Bella Twins – Less than one minute
WWE Smackdown live holiday special 11/29: Mistletoe on a Pole Match – Eight Divas, 54 seconds from bell to bell.
WWE Smackdown 11/25: Divas Tag Team Match – Beth Phoenix and Natalya vs. AJ and Kaitlyn – 1 minute, 8 seconds.
TNA Impact Wrestling Thanksgiving Thong Thunder 11/24: Velvet Sky, Brooke Tessmacher, Tara vs. Angelina Love, Winter, and Madison Rayne – 13 minutes
Now we have two Impacts, two Smackdowns, and two RAW’s from November into December. ONLY adding from 11/24 to 12/01 we get:
TNA – 20 minutes of women’s wrestling
WWE – 4 minutes, two seconds
And if we add all the shows listed above?
TNA – 34 minutes of women’s wrestling
WWE – 4 minutes, two seconds
So which company do you think women would prefer to work for if they want to be known as wrestlers? Hint: It airs on Thursday night!
3. TNA India Project Update
The following people are confirmed names for the TNA India project TV Taping for the Colors Network:
Harry Smith, Luke Gallows, Chris Masters, Nick Dinsmore, Jimmy Rave, Joey Ryan, Shawn Daivari, Sonjay Dutt, Zema Ion, and Brutus Magnus.
I do hope out of the bunch they make a few hirings for Impact in the form of Masters, Gallows, and perhaps Rave as well. As usual, more when we have it!
Smartest Thing of the Week: Final Resolution Delivers
One of the biggest complaints about wrestling PPV’s would be that they don’t deliver anywhere near the price tag in terms of quality. Honestly, it is hard to justify pricing any event for three hours at around $40 or $50 in these tough times and sadly enough a lot of people don’t even care if the show has a chance to deliver quality entertainment but plop down cash if they can, and if they can’t they simply watch elsewhere when they can. TNA Final Resolution was priced at $39.99 and delivered in terms of the number of high-quality wrestling matches that you can expect from a PPV event. While credit for the hard work of those professionals was not given by the bulkateers who handled WOTW (look bulkateer up because it describes what happened EXACTLY) except for two of us, the fact is they delivered a show that would make you want to purchase the next TNA event. That’s what is most important right now, delivering a quality product that people actually are happy with. If in this economy people can say they are satisfied with your company’s performance you definitely have what it takes to succeed.
Dumbest Thing of the Week: Tell Me I Didn’t Just See That…REALLY!
Very few events can summarize the epitome of pathetic but the excuse for the JR/Cole segment we had on RAW would do an excellent job. This was about fifteen minutes of wasted, pathetic crap that had just about everything from horrible fake hip-hop to brain farts to bad dancing and horrible announcing. Cole was so over the top nobody knew what the hell he was going on about half the time, Booker didn’t make sense as usual, and JR forgot his lines which isn’t a good sign since there were only two according to the JR tweet. I’ll give you a quick rap to summarize the entire thing: Monday Night RAW started off absolutely pathetic, JR danced like a one legged man with a new prosthetic, Cole has no clue what a heel is supposed to do, I wouldn’t wish this segment on any one of you, so follow the advice from Hammerstein Ballroom’s example, next Monday Night just “CHANGE THE CHANNEL! (clap clap clap clap)”
Good/Bad/WTF: Two Weeks Ago Edition!
Not enough room for everything, so here’s the Good. Bad/WTF will be included next week in the Three Weeks Ago edition… I’m getting lazy.
The Good
“This week, WWE had a double whammy of bad news on the PPV business front. As reported in the latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter by Dave Meltzer, the Hell In A Cell PPV did 172,000 total buys, 93,000 of which were from North America. That would be down 18% in total and 15% domestically, continuing a very worrying downward trend in B-show PPV business that only this year’s Money In The Bank PPV has managed to buck and even that show should have done better off the back of CM Punk’s infamous “shoot” promo. The short two or three week build, together with the lack of blood and failing to time a hot program to peak for the show, has killed the marketability of the Cell gimmick match, which used to be good for at least 185,000 buys in North America alone.
Vengeance did even worse, which should be no surprise coming after the tone deaf payoff of the Triple H walkout angle, which saw Triple H fired as onscreen COO, replaced by John Laurinatis and become bosom buddies with arch enemy CM Punk. No-one wanted to pay to see Punk team as friends with Triple H against anybody, yet alone those jokesters Miz and R-Truth, so it should come as little surprise that Vengeance drew the second lowest WWE domestic PPV number dating back to the mid ’80s. It is estimated to have done 130,000 worldwide and 70,000 domestic, only down very slightly from last year’s Bragging Rights PPV, but that was the day after UFC 121 – Brock Lesnar vs. Cain Velasquez, the last UFC PPV to break the million buy barrier, so it’s not really a fair comparison. Without that extenuating factor, WWE’s second October PPV would also have been down 15% from last year.
Posted By: Guest#3936 (Guest) on December 04, 2011 at 12:13 AM”
Very informative and factual, 3936.
The domestic numbers continue to be worrisome as a long time ago the entire number was basically ALL domestic buys, and partly international. Now it is a combination of both and without the international buys most WWE events wouldn’t even hit 100,000! Hell In A Cell is a gimmick match meant for a feud ender, complete with blood and potential injuries as well as one or more wrestlers being out for a while to sell said injuries. Now, it is a bigger steel cage and that’s it. People who watched the original Hell In A Cell match understand how the cell should be used, and compare that to today and you’ll understand why so many people are scratching their heads.
My guess would be if Survivor Series drops below 300k in buys this year with The Rock’s first match in seven years then it is time for Vince to start slashing prices, cutting the number of PPV’s, and frankly thinking about improving the product considerably. I’d keep a lookout later this month for the SS estimate just to see what will be going through the minds in Stamford, if anything.
“I have read a Wes Kirk column for the first time and I think that he has the best gimmick in wrestling!!
You found your niche Wes, well done!
P.S Dixie should put you on the payroll, you advertise TNA more than any of the employees do when they have opportunity to do so. I’m looking at you Hogan and every talkshow/radio appearance you make!!
Posted By: Best Gimmick on 411 (Guest) on December 03, 2011 at 07:55 PM”
It isn’t a gimmick, I happen to like TNA and therefore try and expose as many people as possible to the product so they can see it isn’t all WWE or nothing. And I do agree with you that Dixie should hire me, but that decision isn’t mine to make. If TNA workers or agents are looking for website writers, however, they know where to find me!
“that graphic of wall street vs tea party is kind of disturbing…
whats wrong with those wall street people? doesnt obama openly support their cause? if so that would mean our president supports rape? whats happening to our country?
The liberals try to censor America one step at a time, they try to take away competitive sports in schools, and they spend so much time and taxpayer dollars on pointless things…
they are the group responsible for the occupy wall street and the disgusting acts, yet the public still blindly supports them, and practically supports the fall of our great country…
how did they brain wash everyone and tear our country apart? and why do we continue to allow it?
Posted By: Guest#4037 (Guest) on December 03, 2011 at 06:08 PM”
The most disturbing part of that graphic would have to be that it took place before the mass rapes and women getting their own tents. So, pretty much the new and improved graphic would have a lot more arrests, rapes, and cost to the taxpayer.
They brainwashed people from back in the day of Woodrow Wilson, 4037. He began this Progressive movement to start a prototype United Nations known as the League of Nations and also wanted us to become more like Europe. He was a professor, and often looked down at people… sound familiar yet? Wilson was also the man you can blame for paying taxes every year, as he passed the Income Tax Act in 1913 establishing the yearly taxing and the IRS to enforce payment. Pretty much all the bad started with him and the fellow Progressives who generously took ideas from Karl Marx and communist leaders across the world, as well as the tenets of socialism. It took a long time to wear America down enough to get much of their agenda even put on the table, and we need to fight these liberals as hard as we fought the British army to get our independence.
I don’t know about you but I don’t continue to allow it. Whatever I can do that is legal, I do. The best things you can do are keeping people from forgetting the terrible things like the rapes in Occupy Wall Street, reminding people of the atrocities committed by Obama, and showing the solutions Republicans offer that cut taxes on businesses and people. Beyond that, we can’t go in the voting room with people so we just have to hope they make the right decision. Based on the intelligence I’ve encountered here, I’m really skeptical that will work so tell Randle to move over because Canada would make a good new America!
“I wish thate tha peepel wuuld chear WWE lik mi. I represenst the avarage WWE Phan.
Posted By: Guest#6256 (Guest) on December 03, 2011 at 04:49 PM”
No, you have to wish me dead and tell me how much I suck as a writer and how you are never reading the column again and show up week after week saying the exact same thing with easily disprovable points in order to do that, but good try!
“Regarding Obama, if someone wants to support him, they will. Despite the proof that not only has he not improved this country but has caused it to get WORSE in the last three years, despite the fact he has literally LIED during speeches, despite the face the numbers, which can’t be desputed (although the obama sheep do anyway) show he has causes the economy to dip…if people WANT to follow him, they will. Sad, but ignorance is bliss, and there are some REALLY happy people walking around that will vote for him again.
Posted By: REALITY (Guest) on December 03, 2011 at 11:50 AM”
The reason that happens, my friend, is because people don’t give a damn about politics. They could care less; they want everything done for them with no time on their part to research the people and the policies. I know people who go to the polls even in these times clicking their vote for the same person every single election because that is whom they are used to voting for! Then they complain when that person does something they don’t like. It’s crazy!
However, one thing that generally makes apathetic people wake up is losing their house, job, money, etc. I think very soon people will realize that nest egg is mostly gone and see Obama in the position of power that he is in and put the blame where it belongs and come November 2012 we’ll be seeing a 45th President.
“WWE’s Vengeance pay-per-view event on October 23, 2011 garnered 130,000 buys overall-70,000 in North America and 60,000 overseas.
With the exception of the disastrous December to Dismember pay-per-view event in 2006, Vengeance is the lowest-selling domestic pay-per-view event in WWE history-dating back to the infancy of pay-per-view in the 1980s. December to Dismember, which was branded as an ECW event, drew 55,000 buys in North America.
Posted By: REALITY (Guest) on December 03, 2011 at 11:54 AM”
The sad thing is The Hardys vs. MNM was the only real advertised match for the ECW PPV which was at the time a match that would draw big time under usual circumstances. Anybody who thinks ECW was so awesome need only look at the failure it was from back then and also the fact that Heyman was working in the creative department at that particular time, and it was that show that became so horrendous he quit over it.
Also, you won’t find that buyrate listed on any Did You Know? segments!
“Guest#3746
Funny you write about TNA trolls when WWE trolls are just as bad. Oh you have never read random “TNA sucks” comments?
And how is Wes biased? He’s literally the only person on this site that defends TNA. While everyone has the same opinions likes the sale wrestlers etc, Wes comes from left field saying “hey here are some facts about TNA the IWC seems to ignore.”
Look I’m not trying to ride Wes nuts but his column is a fine one that doesn’t warrent the hate any more.
I ask you this why do you pull for WWE for such a stupid reason? Did you not watch this weeks smackdown that wasn’t a fun show it was down right insulting. Hornswaggle eliminating Sheamus, that poor excuse of a street fight, Kofi’s match having some stupid reindeer thing. You should he outraged WWE considers that entertainment.
Wrestling fans deserve better after going through guest host nonsense in 09, Vince bastard son, Vince being better than God, Vince dying only fr it to back fire due to a real tragedy. Yes most of those are old storylines but they were so bad that they turned one of WWE biggest fans into their biggest hater.
WWE has the production but has guys like David Otunga, Michael McGillicutty, Trent Baretta, Daniel Bryan and a bunch of wrestlers with no personality that no one cares about.
Posted By: Guest#8453 (Guest) on December 03, 2011 at 12:41 AM
Could not agree more, it looks like a bunch of 5 to 7 year olds defending John Cena..It their hero. Vanilla Ice on steroids..Yeah..
Posted By: Guest#6528 (Guest) on December 03, 2011 at 11:20 AM”
Hilarious and so true at the same time. I disagree on Bryan because he has a following and has proven he can wrestle much better than the other three you mentioned combined, although there is no doubt the company will continue to promote them as “superstars” and “top talent” in stories.
And when Vince decided to do that whole mocking God thing, that’s when the ratings really started tanking. That year is also when the ECW PPV did the lowest buyrate in WWE history. That same year was also the time RVD and Sabu got caught doing drugs in a car when RVD was both ECW and WWE Champion too. Somebody has an excellent sense of humor…
“Interesting read as always, big fan. I can respect your opinion on Politics even though im a Progressive Democrat myself(although my proffesor sais im a Liberal-its cool im a Democrat/Obama supporter), im sure we would argue all day on that one.
First im just going to ask if you can run some commentary on TNA’s India Project, so far I know Chris Masters will be over there along with a few Indy Stars so some info on that would be awesome.
2nd I wanted to ask do you think it may be another reason for Eric Young having the Old TNA World Heavyweight Championship and would it be a good idea to revive it and perhaps split the roster as WWE has done since 02-05 when it was still good? Seems like they could support another show for the states to assist impact or maybe just alternate the rosters, they have the talent to do it.
3rd, do you have any clue when the lease on the impact zone expires due to the fact that impact on the road is alot more energetic.
Lastly keep up the good work, see ya next thursday where its at. Kirk FN Nation, Rep.
Posted By: sTiNgfAn1985 (Guest) on December 04, 2011 at 07:02 PM”
Believe it or not, I don’t hate people due to their political beliefs StingFan. I just try and steer the topic to something else if it comes up and I know it’d be a massive fight.
Much more on the TNA India project is listed in the top stories section! My belief is that this might be a way to test the waters of India’s ratings for wrestling shows without giving too much away, and also to scout those particular people signed for TNA as well. India is a top emerging market and with around a billion people, it is a good thing to start getting exposure there as they become more involved in the global economy and thus have money to spend.
It isn’t the reason Eric Young has that old world title, though. Frankly, I’m totally against a brand split because we’ve seen how badly it failed in WWE. Now, it is at the point there is a brand split but yet RAW has both rosters every week and Smackdown usually has at least 2 or 3 RAW guys too! My belief is simply that we need Xplosion to be put on US television so that the low-to-midcard guys have a show to work with alongside some of the main eventers, and the rest work Impact so all the talent is paid and gets to appear doing something.
As far as the lease and such, it isn’t really a matter of being forced to work only in the Impact zone as much as it is economically easier to tape multiple shows in one building constantly. The problem with that is in this day and age results, videos, and so forth are on the Internet within five minutes of the show ending! I’ve always talked about how taped shows regularly draw less viewers than live shows, and going on the road would be a good idea more often IF they can sell the tickets and make money. If not, they should stay in Orlando until they can make it profitable and just use house shows for the time being.
“nice article, your work is always good, but what puts this article over the top is reading all the ridiculas comments from wwe fans and retards!
i swear they dont even read your column, they just show up to bash you and leave stupid comments…
can you say no life?
Posted By: Guest#1079 (Guest) on December 04, 2011 at 08:28 PM”
Isn’t it amazing? These people actually live and breathe among us despite asphyxiation from their own mental diarrhea. What makes it more amusing is the lengths they go to for a wrestling column opinion!
“As if things couldn’t get any better.. My birthday is next Saturday and I’ll start it off right by reading the 1st annual Nugget Awards when I wake up!
This is going to be classic!!
Well I finally got my copy of WWE ’12 from Sirius/XM in the mail and I took your advice about adding TNA talent. The thing I find hilarious is when you log in to the community creations, it’s 95% TNA CAW’s! The impact ring/ arena is pretty sweet. The only drawback being the server is down 9 out of 10 times.
Anyway, keep up the great work! Counting the days till the Nugget Awards!
Posted By: Spencer Mallard (Guest) on December 04, 2011 at 11:28 AM”
You know I’ve heard those servers are down almost non-stop from a lot of people, which makes me happy I don’t bother to actually use the game online outside of redeeming Rock’s code. After seeing the rather uncreative and boring story mode, I’m gonna blow an extra dollar to unlock everything rather than be forced to play John Cena and Sheamus. I’m going to make a custom Impact and Bound for Glory arena at some point!
I hope you enjoyed the Nuggets! Let me know if you get a good couple hundred for that CM Punk autograph too! Along with Undertaker, he’s the only current guy I’d be interested in having an autograph from. Plenty of room on eBay too, right next to all the WrestleMania tickets people only bought to sell for an even higher price to morons who would pay 2 grand for a seat to view four hours of that shit! LOL!
Take 5
Wrestler To Watch: Garett Bischoff
This is definitely somebody to watch and the quarterly hour breakdowns available for Impact showed that consistently the Knockouts have been the biggest draws and now Garett Bischoff has enough people interested in him that he ended up in the top rated segment of the night! Bischoff is not new to the business as he was trained by Ernest “The Cat” Miller from WCW days for karate and obviously his father brought him around now and then when he was the top executive of WCW. Garett had the advantage of growing up around names such as Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, Dean Malenko, Arn Anderson, Jeff Jarrett, Sting, and many others as his father prepared him for what was to come in his life, and the training seems to have paid off enough to make people think enough of Garett already that they tune in to see what he is up to. Hogan makes a valid point about being able to connect with the crowd and apparently anybody who ever had issues with their father can sympathize with Garett in his storyline, but it appears that in the future Garett could be a good contender for a title as well! We’re keeping our eye on Garett through 2012 and hope for the best from Easy G!
Promo of the Week: Diva Search 2004 Girls Seduce Kamala
This is one example of what not to put on television because not only is the following segment not funny but also shows off a complete lack of presence and charisma on behalf of every one of the girls involved. I don’t expect lingerie models and Barbie dolls to come into a wrestling company knowing what to do immediately but having them do something like this right off the bat was absolutely stupid and the entire thing is such a train wreck I decided to post it as the major “don’t” for promo 101 students: Never go through with something that you KNOW the fans are going to hate.
Babe To Watch: Madison Rayne
Whether she’s a blonde or a brunette, a Beautiful Person or a Killa Queen, a Knockouts champion or a tag team champion, Madison Rayne is definitely somebody worth watching and not just for a terrific body. Madison is an established wrestler by now and a multi-time champion who happens to play her role very well, can take hits as well as give them in brutal fashion, and of course it doesn’t hurt that she’s happy to be a TNA Knockout and often brags about her job. I present to you all a tribute TNATron made by a random YouTube personality to the one and only Madison Rayne!
Match of the Week To Watch: TNA’s First X-Division Title Match
This is the very first X-Division Championship match involving some of the more recognizable talents of TNA including AJ Styles as one of today’s big stars as well as Low-Ki, Psychosis, and Jerry Lynn still in his prime. This took place in June 2002 and refereed by Ricky Steamboat among others. In fact, just watch this match, as words will not do it justice!
Mystery Section to Watch: Finisher of the Week!
One of my all-time favorite finishing maneuvers is showcased here tonight in the form of Chuck Taylor’s Awful Waffle, which might surprise some people because they probably don’t think I watch indy wrestlers very often. Well, I don’t watch often but when I can I catch whoever is being talked about by any reliable sources and with Taylor they were right on target. Take a look at this!
The Good, The Bad, and The… WTF?
Going to have to trim down the comments for this week to fit everything in. Let me handle the most common complaints first before we continue:
– Call me the worst writer all you want; I write the column, you read it every week. Point for me.
– Call this the worst column all you want – #1 column on the weekends. Point for me.
– Yes, Sin Cara was injured attempting to run to do his plancha. Research, kids.
– I can’t take my political stuff to the politics forum – After I destroyed the liberal I was up against in Fact or Fiction they refused to let me post a conservative point of view. They want joke conservatives who don’t even believe in God to represent “the conservative base” which is a friggin’ joke. Competition is bad, which is why ten people read the damn section to begin with.
– Yes, there were two worst gimmicks. One was the Red Rooster for a regular wrestler (Curtis) while the other was the Ding Dongs Award for the Worst Believable Gimmick (Hornswoggle) as Red Rooster wasn’t as unbelievable as “The New Breed” who claimed to be from the future or Papa Shango the voodoo priest who couldn’t buy a win half the time. If you’ve never seen the Ding Dongs, be happy. The concept was beyond stupid!
Also a few posters decided to use massive profanity in the comments to try and get their point across. If you cannot post an intelligent response with a minimum of profanity, you won’t get your comment printed. Seriously, when I didn’t do a reader mail segment last week my spell-checker showed massive improvement in both grammar and spelling because I didn’t have to post all of your garbage “as is” which ruined the readability factors.
The Good
“great column Raw is boring dreadful and needs some serious work. Get howdy doody (john cena) off the show, seriously how many 3 to 5 years olds which are his fan base make up the show
Posted By: Guest#2959 (Guest) on December 09, 2011 at 11:22 PM”
Hah, a Howdy Doody reference! Awesome, considering Bob Backlund had many of the same problems as John Cena although Cena is a lot edgier than Backlund, which isn’t really saying much for Bobby. You know, when I went to junior high people dressed just like John Cena during his rapper phase so I can understand why so many little kids love him: He basically is an older version of a white wannabe gangsta junior high student. Kinda sad…
“lol heath slater was the top trending topic on twitter tonight. you cant even get a top TNA star to trend on twitter. WWE stars all over twitter tonight.
Posted By: Guest#9279 (Guest) on December 09, 2011 at 11:12 PM
Is trending on Twitter even supposed to mean anything? It’s a useless site for useless people that WWE plugs on a regular basis. TNA doesn’t need to stoop to such levels.
Posted By: Guest#8046 (Guest) on December 10, 2011 at 01:33 AM”
Twitter is such a huge standard to reach that it is an honor for WWE wrestlers to be “top trending” like such awesome things as “RIP JUSTIN BIEBER” and “#TheBiggestThingIHateAboutWomen” and all the other irrelevant junk that is passed through the system. Twitter means nothing as you have said, 8046, and frankly who cares if WWE has 42 million Facebook followers? If you lose an amount of profit twelve quarters in a row I’d be more concerned about the business model than making sure I got a “Like” on Facebook or had my wrestler’s names trending. Priorities are important things.
“Wes, another great column. Really refreshing way of doing the tired annual awards concept too. I think it’s entirely fair to say that, in time, you’ll be noted alongside Hyatte, Scooter, Eric S et al as one of the greatest pro wrestling writers ever to grace 411.
Ignore the haters, please. The WES KIRK SUCKS comments (I’m guessing all posted by one guy) are getting really boring and I honestly don’t think you need to defend your writing against a sad old troll with nothing better to do.
Posted By: Hyde (Guest) on December 10, 2011 at 08:36 AM”
Hyde, thank you very much for an informed and extremely flattering opinion. I do hope someday people will put my name along with Hyatte and Keith as well as Eric S and Scooter as that’s pretty much been my goal all along. Their style is what interested me in writing here during the big 90’s boom.
The Wes Kirk comments are generally the same two or three people that post every week. You have one guy who has to use a profane four-letter word in reference to Dixie Carter and now me that thinks he’s oh so wonderful, another guy who has been trying to get me to post his comments for eight months now, and the usual fire wes kirk guy who posts at least ten different times on the comments. You guys really think we can’t tell if you are the same person? It is called an IP address!
The Golden Nuggets, by the way, are mostly inspired by the work of WrestleCrap although I thought they needed to do a FULL year-end award ceremony instead of just having the Gooker. I was considering adding the Art Donovan Guest Commentator of the Year but so many announcers suck these days it would be liking shooting fish in a barrel with unlimited ammo.
“nobody cares what wes kirk says..
Posted By: Guest#0395 (Guest) on December 10, 2011 at 12:57 AM
Wes Kirk is a moron. fire wes kirk already!
Posted By: Guest#3051 (Guest) on December 10, 2011 at 12:57 AM
Wow your parents let you stay up after 10pm, you must have been hiding the laptop under the sheets.
Wes love the column the best one on 411wrestling.com keep up the good work. Cannot wait till next week.
Posted By: Guest#1834 (Guest) on December 10, 2011 at 08:52 AM”
The funniest part is how you posted the date and time showing it was the same idiot posting twice. I just am amazed anybody that stupid could type that fast, and if nobody cares what I say why did he bother posting twice about what I do say? Logic escapes most people around here. Thanks for the great comment!
The Bad
“TNT was only an hour long. And you’re complaining about commenters not doing their research?
Posted By: abwiz74 (Guest) on December 09, 2011 at 11:54 PM”
Oh, you must have thought you were a smart guy because you caught some of the last episodes of it on WWE 24/7. Sorry to break it to you but TNT actually ran over two hours from its inception in 1984 until early 1985 when it was dropped to a one-hour format. Perhaps if you actually saw the show online or on WWE 24/7 the past year and a half you would have known that.
“While I agree with your politics, your wrestling analysis is clearly biased. Although on this site, you’re just the anti-thesis
Those comments right there sum it all up perfectly. Holy bias Batman!
A 90 second main event, on a show that people paid money to see is a better match than Cole and Lawler? Are you out of your fucking mind?
Cole and Lawler sucked terribly, no denying it, but I think you did that just so your whole “Worst of” awards would be 98% WWE.
How in the hell is Garrett Bischoff not the worst worker? Or fatt matt “I tazer my girlfriend and think it’s funny” Hardy. Give me a break.
Kirk, I know you have a little gimmick that you try to do, but the bias is absurd here. Really wayyyy too obvious.
Posted By: Baboon (Guest) on December 11, 2011 at 01:14 AM”
Hm, the user name fits…
Yes, Hardy vs. Sting was better because it wasn’t a main event on the top PPV of the year that people paid over $60 to see. Michael Cole working 14 minutes against Jerry Lawler is never a good thing, especially since some people traveled thousands of miles to watch that garbage. The simple fact is that I could barely sit through the 14 minutes while at least Hardy got pinned and put out of his misery quickly. If Hardy vs. Sting was at Bound for Glory and the same result happened, then it would have won over Cole vs. Lawler. The only reason it didn’t was because Cole/Lawler was at WrestleMania, supposedly the number one wrestling show of the year.
Garett Bischoff (one r) is not the worst worker simply because he wrestled about two matches and so far he’s done everything decent to well, even taking a piledriver on concrete. What has Mason Ryan done? He’s botched moves and has absolutely no charisma while Garett already has more charisma than 65% of the WWE roster!
You actually aren’t thinking things through since I’m not having a second awards section. We’ll just do the Nuggets every year, so Cook and I will handle our predictions and so on that we made from March – It actually is a “best of” of the Sandwich itself, not wrestling, as 411 has the year end awards dedicated entirely to that Cook and I will be participating in.
“I tried to stand up for you countless times against what some of the morons say on this site but my efforts were futile. As a man that believes in what he says I see that you find it easy to simply ignore what most of these children have to say.
It seems to me that this persona you have taken on with this column and constantly having to defend yourself as a TNA fan has made you quite bitter towards WWE. This column was incredibly biased. More so than any previous I have read from you. There’s nothing wrong with not enjoying some of the programming that they have put out, and if so then shit don’t watch, but you nit picking everything they do and blasting the concept of a network is just borderline ridiculous. Its pretty clear you don’t enjoy wrestling anymore and you have “crossed the line” over to internet critic. Thats too bad Mr. Kirk.
Posted By: Tommy Hobbs (Guest) on December 10, 2011 at 01:28 AM”
Well, first off let me say that I’m sorry the column wasn’t to your liking as I was attempting to give a solid reasoning for every pick I chose.
You don’t have to stand up for me – Most of those people can’t even comment without using profanity every other word or issue death threats of proclamations of hoping I die so frankly they aren’t worth the fuss.
I blast the concept of a network because of the enormous responsibilities involved in new, original programming and the fact that right now the country’s financial situation is in dire straits and potentially headed to another recession. Oprah Winfrey, the most successful female talk show host of all time, launched a network and it is in serious trouble and people LOVE her. Oprah has a lot more fans than the WWE does, and she’s barely able to keep any of them! In addition, the original programming is so cliché and horrid and likely PG rated nobody CARES. Why would you pay $10 a month or whatever the rate will be to see what you see anyway on Monday or Friday? I stand by my assertion the network is a very stupid idea as either WWE Classics 24/7 will go out of business or WWE Network will because they will show the same exact things. You really think a market penetration of 45 million is a good thing? Here’s a hint, SpikeTV is shown in 95 million homes and TNA gets between a 1.0 and a 1.3 so do the math my friend! Also, SpikeTV is included in any cable package so it isn’t an extra $10 or so a month.
I do enjoy wrestling, which is why Thursday nights are now my main wrestling night. I can’t enjoy the crap that I see on RAW or Smackdown because I’ve seen so much better with WWF in the past, and so much better now on TNA. When the WWE starts becoming fun and interesting again I’ll not be as harsh on it, but as I said so many people are praising WWE no matter what even if they do something idiotic that people should be pissed about. Also, the reason I am doing a worst of column and not the best of is because 411 presents the best of at the end of every year and a few worst awards as well. Obviously WWE will likely get massive votes just because it is WWE, and TNA will likely take worst fed because it is TNA, but the one area I can actually say what I truly feel is my column and that’s why I wrote those twenty up.
“The War on Christmas?
Really Wes? Really?
You should have wrote about how every GOP candidate has given your hero, Donald Trump, the proverbial finger in response to invitations to his debate.
The GOP is the comedy gift that keeps on giving the whole year round…
Posted By: Guest#0550 (Guest) on December 10, 2011 at 03:13 AM”
Actually, a few of the people have given Trump the proverbial finger. A finger given to a man who has over seven billion dollars and a lot of influence along with the ability to give tens of millions of people the chance to hear what you have to say. Most of the people who are not attending are also not winning in the polls, now are they? The people who jump at the chance are the frontrunner and one of the guys in last place realizing any chance to talk and get your name out there is better than none. Why is Gingrich doing so well? He takes any opportunity he can find. The smart move is to take the debate, get hammered by Trump and show you can take it! That’ll raise people’s opinion of you, as the opinion now is people are scared they might get some tough questions. Gingrich proposed Lincoln/Douglas style debates against Obama and that got a lot of people pleased as that is what they want, and Cain gave into the media smearing him and gave the people what they DID NOT want to see and as a result plummeted when it became obvious the situation was not going away and Cain began underperforming in the debates. The fact is if you have between 1-3% of a vote you need to debate, and if you are the frontrunner you need to debate to stay there. To make fun of Donald Trump is just ridiculous since he’ll be worth more than you ever will even see in your lifetime.
The War on Christmas is real, and people who think it isn’t need to explain to the moron in charge of my state why the “holiday tree” is only put up during Christmas. PC liberals seriously need to move out somewhere more their style, like Iran.
The WTF
“War on christmas really? you realize that christmas is basicaly a ripoff from a pagan holiday and that it has no real value behind it other then to celebrate something just for the sake of celebrating it. When I say happy holidays, I mean “Merry Christmas and a Happy Newyear”. If you want to fill that in with some other holiday as well, fine, I don’t care. No one cared about people saying “Happy Holidays” when I grew up, it was completely interchangeable with Merry Christmas or Happy Newyear or both. People started caring when that moron Bill O’Reilly got on the air and declared there was a war on Christmas. All of this is one thing only: extreme butthurt. Remedy: grow thicker skin. And who says that putting up a tree has to be confined by one holiday to begin with? The tree is symbolic to the holiday itself same with the holiday tree being a symbol to all holidays during this season. America is a secular nation after all.
Posted By: fakesagan (Guest) on December 10, 2011 at 08:16 AM”
Ah, here we go again with the ill-informed ilk that thinks their holidays are so great they should overshadow Christmas.
Let me explain this to you: How many gifts did people WORLDWIDE purchase for Yule, or any other pagan holiday? Tell me how many records on Black Friday Kwanzaa set. Oh wait, none? So in other words the one holiday everybody spends money on and looks forward to every year is Christmas? That’s why they should call it Christmas.
Christmas was indeed based off a pagan holiday but the fact is, there are two Christmas days. One is the religious version celebrating Jesus Christ’s birth, and the second is the secular one involving Santa Claus and the mystical gift giving to everybody in the world in one night. Christmas is also about something that most of you libiots don’t understand: The moral of being good to people and having a good spirit. Christmas is the one time the worries are able to melt away and you enjoy quality time with your loved ones and friends and have a big celebration, and worry about everything else in your life another day. Frankly, people have said Merry Christmas for years until YOUR ILK got butt hurt to the extreme and demanded recognition for other holidays.
America is a CHRISTIAN nation at the beginning, the Founders used the Judeo-Christian rules to help draft our government. John Adams actually saw this current moral crisis coming:
“While our country remains untainted with the principles and manners which are now producing desolation in so many parts of the world; while she continues sincere, and incapable of insidious and impious policy, we shall have the strongest reason to rejoice in the local destination assigned us by Providence. But should the people of America once become capable of that deep simulation towards one another, and towards foreign nations, which assumes the language of justice and moderation, while it is practising iniquity and extravagance, and displays in the most captivating manner the charming pictures of candour, frankness, and sincerity, while it is rioting in rapine and insolence, this country will be the most miserable habitation in the world. Because we have no government, armed with power, capable of contending with human passions, unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge and licentiousness would break the strongest cords of our Constitution, as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other. Oaths in this country are as yet universally considered as sacred obligations. That which you have taken, and so solemnly repeated on that venerable ground, is an ample pledge of your sincerity and devotion to your country and its government.”
John Adams was a prophet, wasn’t he? The insolence and entitlement senses that we have now have turned this country into a miserable habitation because government cannot control people. People control themselves with the moral and ethical code that Adams discusses and proves that indeed the Founders used their religion to found this country and base our laws on ethical and moral background. When one is an atheist, for example, they have nobody to answer to when they die and that is why they can live with making massively disgusting choices.
But, the good news is I have the solution to our problem! I’m sending the solution to several members of Congress as well as Bill O’Reilly because I think they are going to love it. To solve the war on Christmas, we simply pass a law that any place of business that uses Christmas symbols, carols, and traditions to sell merchandise but refuses to refer to the celebration as Christmas and instead “holiday” or “holidays” will officially be banned from being able to profit from a day they refuse to acknowledge. Therefore, it would be illegal to use the images and songs of Christmas to make money when you call it a “holiday” and nothing else. How fast do you think places will suddenly start showing some Christmas spirit then, huh? If it is just “some holiday” then what’s the problem calling it by its name?
Not a lot of room this week, so READ EVERYBODY ON THE SITE!
See you all next week for the Christmas Eve edition!
