The Greatest Promotion That Never Happened

(Jimmy Jacobs, MMWA Play by Play man Dod March, and Jimmy Shawlin)

It has been a long time since I pulled out the digital quill and ink. I guess there are two reasons for this.

One, pro wrestling has sucked lately. Oh how bad has it sucked. I don't even watch regularly. When I do tune in I find myself tuning out minutes later. It just sucks. No need to mince words. Sucks pretty much covers it all.

That goes for both WWE and TNA. I don't get RoH in my television area, and don't have the attention span to watch on the internet without surfing over to other sites minutes later. This means the world of televised wrestling as a whole is just a big ball of suck.

The other reason I haven't written is in June my mom lost her battle with cancer. I guess it is hard to be creative when your heart isn't into it. I have put a lot on hold the past few months as I took time to grieve. I think now it is time to be gettin' on with life. I would say my creative fire finally got it's pilot light ignited again.

I don't know if this happens for everyone, but during this time I took a look back at life. The good, the bad, and the shitty. One of the times I looked back on was my days in pro wrestling. Talk about a time full of accomplishments and regrets. My time with the MMWA was full of both.

I've been thinking about this time a lot, and I think I want to do a detailed shoot interview going over this time. Indy wrestling fans seem to enjoy seeing the behind the scenes stuff even if it isn't WWE. It'll be good for my soul to tell these tales.

I am currently working with the people who own the footage for the MMWA because I don't want to just release a shoot interview of me on a couch talking wrestling for two hours. I want to put together a package that includes the final MMWA show that features Raven, AJ Styles, Jimmy Jacobs, Petey Williams, Joe Legend, and many more. I also want to put together a best of DVD to go with it that shows all the great talent and matches the promotion had like Chris Hero, Chris Sabin, Monty Brown, Jerry Lynn, etc.

I hope this happens but right now it is too early in the process to give any updates. I literally just facebooked the people involved last week with this simple message, "Hey, I've got an idea". There is of course money involved and the fact that most of the people had checked out of the world of wrestling years ago.

Fingers crossed kids.

May 1st, 2014 will be the ten year anniversary of the last show that the MMWA ran. It originally was going to be a TV taping for MMWA Rampage, but ended up being the swan song show that we sold as a stand alone DVD called Kalkaska Karnage.

I was the head booker at the time of this event. It was my second show where I was leading things for the MMWA creative team. I was 23 and looking to make my mark on the scene with this promotion. Jim Hall had handed the reigns over to me after the January show and I thought I could put out all the fires that had popped up.

The thing is I should have been putting out these fires in August, not when I took over in January.

I'll cover all of this in the DVD set. I want to tell the story from the start. From when I walked in the door. Go from being put on the booking team to heading it up to the plans I had post May 1st. There is a lot of behind the scenes stuff that never made the light of day. A lot of blame to go around for everyone involved, myself included.

To me there were three things that could have changed the outcome of the MMWA. I'll give you a taste of what will be on the DVD with these.

1. Should Have Taken The Money

MMWA Rampage was on Fox 33. That station covered all of Northern MI from Mt. Pleasant to the bridge. A lot of people don't know that we were offered two options when it came to MMWA Rampage. The first option was that we got to sell our own ads. The second was that the television station was going to offer us $150 per episode and they would handle ads. It's a basic syndication deal.

Of course you can make more money if you're selling the ads, but there is a lot more work involved. The owner at the time had sales experience and thought he could make a mint on ad space. Turns out it was like pulling teeth. Instead, if you do the math on how much money we made in ads vs. money that could have been made on a 13 episode syndication run, we ended up losing money.

The thing is we still could have sold advertising on the TV while taking the $150 per episode, just not in the traditional sense. We had a great segment with Mt. Dew called the "Mt. Dew Slam Of The Week". Also there was an interview area that could have been sponsored. These types of ads wouldn't have violated our deal and would have given us the chance to make more cash on our TV deal.

Had this been the way we went I believe MMWA could have survived. It would have freed up the owner from the pressure of chasing advertisers, brought in a steady cash flow, and established a successful model to pitch to other networks to expand the brand. We did our own video in house from taping to editing. It was at a professional level by 2003 standards.

2. Book A Different Building

In January the MMWA ran a building in Cadillac that the WWE runs when it does house shows. I should have stood up against this. Some people wanted to be big fish in small ponds and decided running a local armory or high school gym wasn't good enough. They needed to have the MMWA name up on the same marquee as the WWE. In the end it probably cost the company everything.

I don't know what the rent was for the arena. I wasn't privy to financials at that time. I mean it is the same exact arena the WWE runs. There were cheaper venues by far. If these venues would have been used then not only would it have saved the promotion money, but probably wouldn't have put the MMWA in a deep debt that it couldn't escape.

On that same show we booked Shane Douglas as the headliner. I gave this the thumbs up. Knowing what I know now this was a waste of money. Not to say Shane wasn't great to have, but Northern MI is an old school area. We would have been better served paying half the price of Shane for an old WWF name like Greg Valentine or Big Boss Man (who passed suddenly 9 months later).

The same building problem goes for the final show in Kalkaska. We ran this huge ice arena and used maybe 1/6 of the space. It could hold thousands of people, and we didn't need that many. The thing about this show is we had a local business man helping us out. He was connected to everyone. We had access to a smaller gym that would have been dirt cheap to rent. Had we run this gym, and not this massive arena, it would have made a four figure difference in the final tally. As the head booker that is on me for not drawing a line in the sand on the arena choice. I should have known it would put us behind the 8 ball.

Put both of those building decisions together and maybe the MMWA is here today. Add it in with 600 dollars in syndication money each event would have been worth (4 shows tape per event), and maybe the MMWA is actually making money monthly. Again I don't know for sure.

3. The Territories Aren't Dead

In wrestling most people run one town once a month. In Northern MI this couldn't happen. Most people up north aren't shelling out the money to take their family to wrestling each month. I grew up in that kind of area. When something rolls around once a year then you come out cause it's a unique event. Think about local carnivals coming in the spring/summer, would they make money if they came to the same town every month? Probably not. Wrestling in Northern Michigan is the same way.

When I took over booking, I was pushing for a new territory model to the MMWA. Thanks to the TV coverage on Fox 33 we had a huge area of potential markets. I was putting together a touring schedule that would have taken the MMWA to at least 14 different cities during the calendar year including the large four in the TV area: Cadillac, Traverse City, Mt. Pleasant, and Big Rapids.

We could have popped each town then let it simmer for the year while watching our TV and then come back again a year later to pop them again. Rinse, repeat.

I was even working on booking Rick Steiner for a loop run with us. Most promotions couldn't bring in big names for 4-5 straight shows. The allure of the name usually wears off in a market after the first appearance. Yet with the touring territory model it would have been his first appearance at each show. It also would have allowed for our TV to have the presence of Rick Steiner as an MMWA regular. I wanted him to feud with Conrad Kennedy III (most know him as Krimson now).

I believed this model of touring would have kept attendance numbers up but the challenge would have been getting a building in each city, selling sponsorships, and getting the word out.

If we could have put all three together: TV money, booking proper buildings, and a touring schedule. Then I believe that the MMWA would have stayed in business. This didn't happen because of a lot of people, but it was also because of me. I let these mistakes happen. I'm as much to blame as anyone else.

It is things like this and other stories that I want to tell on the DVD. I want to talk about how we got Raven for Kalkaska on a sweet deal. I'm talking bargain basement cheap.

I'll let you know more as it builds. I hope this project comes together.

TNA Impact Wrestling: Rollercoaster Wrasslin’

TNA has been up and down lately; usually in the same episode. Last night was a step in the right direction. The go home show before Destination X put the finishing touches on what should be an entertaining Pay Per View. Also having a current Ring of Honor champion wrestle on the show created a buzz on the internet, and creating a buzz is never a bad thing. It wasn’t all peaches and cream as there were some road bumps, but compared to last week this was a step up.

The best part of the night: there was no Boobs Hogan. The Hulkster’s spawn didn’t make it on TV this week, and that made the episode better. Absence makes the heart grow fonder … of not having her on my TV. Not to say the Knockouts didn’t have their own dumbass moments.

Madison Rayne has been swooning over a mystery man for weeks. This week we found out the payoff for this storyline was elderly referee Earl Hebner. The man who screwed Brett, is now the man who wants to screw Madison. Angles involving refs are moronic, especially ones with this much build. How does this help build characters? Where does it really go from here? Does it help bring in ratings watching grandpa make out with a fake beauty queen? It is wasted television time, and wasted talent. Let your refs call the matches, and let your wrestlers handle the stories. They missed a golden opportunity to elevate two male talents using Madison Rayne as the middle piece of a twisted love triangle.

Here let me book this on the fly for you. Madison falls for guy X, then guy Y thinks it should be him who she goes for. Guy X isn’t as into Madison as Guy Y, but being hard to get makes Madison want Guy X more, which pisses off Guy Y. Guy X and Guy Y fight. Madison, being an egomaniac, loves the attention. Eventually Guy X falls for Madison and defeats Guy Y, leaving the door open for a variety of angles such as Madison not wanting Guy X anymore in favor of Guy Y, Madison screwing both of them over by debuting Guy Z, Madison celebrating that Guy X loves her back, etc. Now we just have Madison & one half of the grumpy old men. This is a prime example of why TNA falls on their face.

Another head scratch moment was when Gail Kim used her lawyers to get her out of a Knockouts Title match this week, and she’s not the champion. So she doesn’t want to wrestle for the title? Who waits a week for their shot at the strap? And why make it next Thursday and not this Sunday at the PPV? The tag match between the Knockouts was good for what it was. They kept Gail and Tessmacher apart during the finish to protect their future match up. I still don’t see why Gail Kim gave up a title shot, especially against somebody like Brooke Tessmacher, who isn’t exactly the most threatening champion in the world.

Speaking of Lawyers, I really dig Joseph Park. Having met Abyss when TNA was running the Nashville fairgrounds on Wednesday nights, it really is cool to see him evolve as an all-around worker. Plus I think Bully Ray is the bee’s knees. His persona, mic work, and physical style make him an asset to the company. Nothing against the two, but I hope this feud ends soon so Bully can make his way into the main event picture against somebody like an Austin Aries. He is that damn good.

The restraining order came off a little low rent. Who goes to jail for life for violating a restraining order? I don’t mind the use of the restraining order to keep “Abyss” out of the match, but put some reality into it. It’s a minor hiccup, and as good as these two are, it really doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things.

What does matter in the grand scheme of things is the wrestling. Devon and Crimson had a good match, but it seemed really rushed. It felt like an enhancement match more than a TV title match. Also why does Crimson get a title match when he lost at the last PPV to James Storm? Then again he was undefeated for 18 months so one loss shouldn’t drop you to the bottom of the basement.

Storm vs. Hardy was a really good match that had the crowd going nuts. I can’t deny that both are over like Grover with the fans. I still can’t stand the Bound for Glory series. I have said that it is over booked wrestling, but it does give good matchups every week. Who knows it might actually grow on me, until I am forced to do math, then I will hate it again.

The X-division tournament was two totally different matches. Flip Cassanova & Dumbshit Darsow should never come back to TNA. That was the sloppiest spot fest I have seen since that movie the backyard. Darsow is lucky he only walked away with a broken nose. Flip has a good look but he is dangerous in the ring. He will hurt somebody in a real bad way if he keeps wrestling like that. Just awful stuff.

On the other hand Kenny King delivered on all fronts. In the ring he looked crisp, and light years ahead of the three other x-division workers tonight. Add in the fact that he is one half of the current Ring of Honor tag team champions, and his debut had tons of sizzle. He got to cut a promo after, plus a backstage segment. I’m not a betting man, but I think KK will be in the Ultimate X match finals on Sunday. Hell, I think he is my pick to win it all.

King appearing on the show and the PPV this Sunday won’t help the rumors going around the internet that Ring of Honor is going out of business. Mark Madden, former WCW announcer, has been leading the charge that RoH is on their last leg. The promotion just cancelled a whole run of shows in the Carolinas. Now one of their champions appears on the competitors show only weeks after winning the belt. No matter the truth, this is a dark time for Ring of Honor.

The darkest time is what has happened to AJ Styles and Christopher Daniels … I can’t even talk about this. Pregnancy angles never work in wrestling. Mae Young giving birth to a hand thinks this storyline is stupid. The only excuse for this is if later it comes out the whole storyline was written by a mentally handicapped child as part of a make-a-wish, but that can’t be it because even the mentally handicapped community thinks this angle is retarded.

The exact opposite of Styles & Daniels is the world title match at Destination X. Robert Roode and Austin Aries is going to be so good. They have done a great job of building to this match. Roode abusing Sabin, and kicking a cripple cemented him as king asshole in TNA. It also allowed for Aries to get the upper hand at the end of the show, and not make it feel like AA was dominating the night. The two have been booked to seem neck & neck, which makes Sunday a toss-up. That helps a buy rate, which is the reason TNA is in business.

The shot of Aries and Hogan at the end with both titles raised high is a great closing moment. Hulk Hogan has really embraced this back seat role. It looks like it may not last with the playing cards & sting’s attackers beginning soon. I hope Hogan realizes less is more in the coming weeks. 10 minutes of the Hulkster is good, and 40 minutes of Hulk is bad.

Impact Wrestling was an entertaining show this week with ups and downs like a rollercoaster. In the end I almost a puked a few times, but when it was done I was glad I went along for the ride.

One Wild Week

Talk about a crazy week. When last we ranted Ring of Honor was coming off a great iPPV and Monday Night RAW was ramping up. Then the rollercoaster began. I moved this week from my shoe box apartment to a deluxe apartment in the sky. Ok, a nice townhouse in the burbs, but still feeling like George Jefferson. That meant I lost my internet for the week because I had to switch providers. Hoping Xfinity is as a good as Cox, which shouldn’t be hard because Cox sucked.

Then when I got my Internet on Friday, the worst storm outside of a hurricane in Virginia’s history came busting through the state like Shockmaster goes through a brick wall. In short, it was a big disaster. We lost power until the end of the weekend. Now it looks like things are back to normal. Just in time for a new Monday Night Raw tonight.

Instead of writing a ton about old news, I figured I would do a week in review to get everyone caught up in the wacky world of wrasslin’. Monday Night Raw was one of the best episodes in months. TNA again goes up and down with great moves and boneheaded decisions. Plus the spirit of ECW won’t die.

First, Vickie Guerrero should be the GM of RAW and Smackdown after her showing last week. I missed Smackdown due to the storm, but RAW was hands down one of the best episodes in months. The beginning talk was limited to five minutes, and the opening three way dance was off the charts good. Again if CM Punk and Daniel Bryan wrestled for all three hours every week, the WWE couldn’t go wrong. They are hands down the two best talents in professional wrestling today. There is nobody who is even in their league. Then Austin Aries right behind them.

No better example of this is Kane. Do you remember the last time Kane looked this good? How about never! I think you could put the Great Khali in a feud with Bryan & Punk, and he would look like a stud. That’s literally possessing the ability to have a great match with a broom.

The match set the whole tone for the show, and it seemed like the rest of the talents felt the need to step things up. When Ziggler turns face, I really hope Albert Del Rio is in his future. The two could have some great mid-card matches that would add to any pay per view. The hot potato gimmick at the end of their match was a little bit of stretch, but they made it work.

Sheamus being excited about defending his belt in a triple threat is a little stupid. Who gets excited about defending a title in a match where you can lose your belt without being beaten? I guess ginger the moron ghost does. Then again he probably saw the booking sheet, and realized no champion gets beat on a taped show.

Even John Cena’s promo was good. I’m a Star Wars geek, and Cena had me cracking up. I might be biased, but his Yoda was sweet. It was a good moment to showcase the WWE title contract ladder match for Money In The Bank, which is making the PPV tip towards the “buy list”.

At the end of the day Monday Night Raw had good matches, some storyline advancements, and set up the pay per view with interesting tid bits. It did everything a free wrestling television show is supposed to do.

Bryan pinned Punk, so now we have them wrestling for the title at the PPV. It makes sense, and on Smackdown we found out AJ will be the ref. That makes even more sense. The former WWE champs compete in the ladder match, and that gives viewers an All Star cast who don’t usually wrestle in these danger matches. Plus I wouldn’t be surprised for a Rey Mysterio inclusion this week. Finally new talent is getting highlighted with the World title ladder match. Yup this was a good week for the WWE.

On the other hand TNA continued its rocky boat ride. The Gut Check segment last week was a highlight, but having Taeler Hendrix win this week ruined it all. Her showing was subpar at best. Her look isn’t that good. It just screamed, “This is a huge work”. She didn’t cut the mustard, yet TNA gave her a contract. It just took a giant dump on the whole angle. These judges were worse than the blind mice scoring the Bradley vs. Pacquiao fight. It ruined an entire angle that I will have a hard time taking serious in the future.

On the bright side the X-division tournament is a great idea. Using current TNA wrestlers and outside talent is another awesome way to show all the promising young talent on the indie circuit. There is potential for unique matches that bring a new perspective to the X-division. This has me excited to see the Destination X PPV that already has promise with Austin Aries & Robert Roode.

The Bound for Glory series is still going on. It’s still over complicated. It still makes no sense. Does the booking committee get ten points for making me tap out and change the channel when they start talking about the ins and outs of this convoluted brain child? If so then they’re on their way to 100, and quick.

Oh and Boobs Hogan had more camera time. Anyone else notice her face is what Hulk Hogan would like if he wasn’t going bald? Yeah that’s what I found out when I put it on mute. Poor Knockouts have to pretend they care what she has to say. No wonder Angelina Love left the company.

I refuse to talk about the AJ and Dixie segments. That’s talent abuse. AJ needs to be in one of those Sarah Mclachlan SPCA commercials after this whole angle is done. Just show his face in black and white with a sad song in the background. Then we can donate money so TNA never does this again.

TNA needs to figure out a lot before they commit too much to going down the over booked bad segment trail. This week’s episode was not going in the right direction. Just like Extreme Rising.

For those that don’t follow the indie scene, then you might not know about the ECW bastard child known as Exteme Rising. It is a cash grab by Shane Douglas to squeeze what is left out of the beaten corpse of ECW. After the first show that ended up being a trainwreck, they had round two over the weekend. It was two shows in New York City and Philly.

The concept is to take old ECW stars and mix them with new stars. This weekend was a positive start in rebuilding from the flaming crap storm that was their initial show. Yet this need to somehow associate the promotion with ECW only hamstrings how the shows will be seen. It will always be compared to ECW, and that won’t help the promotion. ECW was not as amazing as people remember, because like when people die, nobody remembers how big a douche bag they really were, but only the good moments. The same can be said for ECW.

Don’t get me wrong, I loved ECW. It was one of the reasons I got into wrestling. Yet people today seem to forget that ECW had its bumps. It had its failings. Anyone remember their deal with TNT? Yet now it is thought of as this promotion that did no wrong, and having Extreme Rising live in that shadow is going to make fans hold this new promotion to an unreachable standard.

I think that covers the week that was. I’m looking forward to RAW tonight, but history doesn’t look favorable as pre-holiday shows usually tread water instead of advancing storylines. Then again Punk & Bryan will deliver, and Jericho is back. Plus we should get some Ziggler love. All that is a good base for a quality RAW, and that is all I can ask for. That and AJ Styles getting traded to the WWE for Tensai. That should be part of the lawsuit settlement between TNA and the WWE.

TNA's Impact Wrestling: A Mixed Bag Of Nuts

(Courtesy of TNA)

It’s a rough day today at Grass Roots of Wrestling. It’s no secret that I’m a huge Oklahoma City Thunder fan. I have been since they were known as the Seattle Supersonics. Last night the young Thunder got knocked out of the NBA finals by the NBA’s version of the Mega Bucks. It was a great season for the Thunder, and I look forward to seeing what they do with the 28^th pick in the NBA Draft. This is the deepest draft in a decade.

I’m hoping All American Draymond Green from Michigan State University, who is a jack of all trades type of player, is available at the end of the first round. For a team not looking to shake up the first 8 players in their rotation, Green would fit well as the 9^th man on the bench because of his ability to bring a variety of basketball options to the team including passing, rebounding, and an extremely high basketball IQ. With a team that’s core group of players is around 23 years old collectively, I know the Oklahoma City Thunder are going to be a force in the years to come. This isn’t the end, just the beginning.

After the game I settled in to watch TNA’s Impact Wrestling on the DVR. I will have to admit I haven’t watched much TNA over the past year because every time I do I usually end up regretting what I am seeing. I think the frustrating part about TNA is that they have some of the most talented wrestlers in the business, but usually the promotion ends up dropping the ball with the misuse of talent, diluted storylines with too many twists as if the writers are trying to prove they’re smarter than the fans, or they try too hard to be a wrestling show pretending to be a reality show. You’re not the WWE, you’re Total Non-Stop Action. Highlight your athletic roster and stop trying to be another show on VH1.

Last night was another mixed bag of nuts on Impact Wrestling. First off, Austin Aries should be called “The Mint” because he prints money. His look, his mic skills, and his persona are better than almost anything in pro wrestling today. Then add in the fact he is one of the top five wrestlers walking the planet today, and you have a true bona fide star. I loved the opening segment because it helped elevate the X-division, it showed AA isn’t a moron because who turns down a shot at the world title, and it was a good use of Hulk Hogan to help get a star over instead of himself. Robert Roode vs. Austin Aries will probably be the best wrestling match on PPV in July for any company, WWE included.

The decision to make it that every year the X-division champion can trade the title for a world title shot at Destination X is a really good idea. The title already had importance, but now it will have more importance around TNA’s biggest time of the year, Slammiversary. If you are the X-champ after that PPV then you are guaranteed a title shot at the next PPV. It just adds more heat to any title bout. A big thumbs-up to TNA on elevating one of their second tier belts, unlike what the WWE has done with theirs. Who’s the US champ, and does anyone care?

The Bound for Glory series is another over thinker moment in TNA. I didn’t like it last year, and I don’t like it again this year. I guess it is for the stat nerds. If this happens then this can happen, blah blah blah. Why is a submission victory more important that a pinfall? Kurt Angle gets an Ankle Lock & its 10 points. Jeff Hardy nearly cripples RVD with a KO neck snapping twist of fate & its 7 points. It doesn’t make sense.

Also having Robbie E in the series makes no sense at all either. Crimson has lost one match in his TNA career and he is somehow out of it. What about Sting? He was in the Slammiversary main event a couple weeks back & now he can’t get into the Bound for Glory series. Yet Robbie E is out there getting torn apart by Kurt Angle. Also the Pope has been out for a bit, and he returns to a spot in the series. Maybe I missed something, but shouldn’t the guys who have been on TV be in the series, not a Jersey Shore midcarder & a dude straight off the shelf. Plus why do I care about Magnus? He’s an ok talent, but what about Kazarian? AJ & Angle are in the tournament, why not Daniels’ partner?

This Bound for Glory Series is another over thought angle that has too many holes in its logic. The six matches were ok, but nothing to write home about. The ten minute time limit puts restrictions on the talents to tell a story. There is just so much you can do in 6-8 minutes. How is this going to play on PPV, where 15-20 minute matches can do more to flesh out the feuds & characters? Until I see something special from this idea, it will continue to be a failure by TNA & a waste of talent.

Another waste of my time is Dixie Carter. I was lucky enough to marry a beautiful Indian woman. Her Grandma came to America from India years ago. When I hang out with Nani, we watch Indian soap operas on Zee TV. It’s how I am learning to speak Hindi. Anytime Dixie Carter is on my TV it looks like an Indian soap opera. She is over the top emotional for everything. On top of that she somehow sucks three of the best talents (AJ Styles, Christopher Daniels, and Frankie Kazarian) into her web of soap opera suck.

The current storyline is that somehow Dixie & AJ are doing unspeakable deeds behind closed doors as Daniels & Kaz would have us all believe. Yet it isn’t that they are committing adultery, but helping a pregnant addict that they both know somehow. Are you kidding me? I hate when they bring addiction & this type of stuff into wrestling. So for the past few weeks AJ has been protecting the secret of an addict and letting his & Dixie’s names be dragged through the mud, including letting talents call them home wreckers. Now we just need an evil auntie with an oversized bindi, and this would be classic Indian soap opera.

There are too many non-wrestling, non-manager characters on the TNA roster. Hogan is the GM, Dixie is the owner, and Brooke Hogan is the Knockout Commish. Is Nick Hogan going to be the food & beverage manager next?

What does Brooke Hogan bring to the table? Just because Ivanka Trump is on the apprentice doesn’t mean Hulk’s kid has to be in TNA. The group meeting in multiple segments was a waste of time. A title match is on the line and everybody is just chillin’ like it’s a slumber party, catty comments & all. The Knockouts are leaps & bounds better in the ring than the WWE Divas, but their segments behind the scenes are just the pits.

“Let’s pow wow for a bit girls so I can get to know you”, hey Brooke how about you watch the product before you take the job! How does anyone get a job running a division in any business & have no idea about what makes up the division? If Brooke’s work was her boyfriend, it would cheat on her for being this horrible. The capper was having Velvet Sky & Mickie James together backstage as she made her decision, and there wasn’t much of a fight from Sky when Brooke picked James. She just hugs Mickie. I guess that title isn’t that important.

One Segment that is really original is the TNA Gut Check. The idea is great & it lets the audience see some of the amazing talent on the independent circuit. Each time Gut Check comes around I will tune in because I want to see fresh faces, and this is a perfect way to do it without taking away from your established talent. It makes the crowd care about somebody who will probably job out to an established talent.

Taeler Hendrix, this week’s Gut Checker, had a nice piece on her. Giving her a backstory like being a cancer survivor, and showing footage from some of her indie matches, helps develop why the fans should care about her. In the ring she was ok. She didn’t screw anything up, but there wasn’t any moment that popped out that made me want to see her again. Her look doesn’t set her apart from the other knockouts, and the way she took Tara’s finisher didn’t do much to help elevate the established veteran. I would be shocked if Ms. Hendrix survives her Gut Check. Good try, but better luck next time.

Bully Ray is another bright spot for the company. The former Dudley is probably the best heel in the company. On the mic he can get the crowd to riot. In the ring he is so physical. I hope he can get out of this Abyss feud soon, and move on to the title picture, especially if AA wins at Destination X. An undersized champ and a brutish bully, it writes itself. More Bully Ray, More Austin Aries, Less Boobs Hogan; That’s a recipe for success.

Again TNA’s Impact Wrestling was another episode of highs and lows. As one segment would make you want to keep watching, there was equally another segment that made you want to change the channel. The matches didn’t really move the needle as most looked to be more angle driven than anything. Again the 10 minute time limit forces too many matches to have the out of nowhere finish feeling. It is handcuffing TNAs ability to set themselves apart from the WWE, where the 6-8 minute match is their bread & butter.

This show, and the promotion overall, is a big mixed bag of nuts, which probably explains why they drive me crazy. Cut the crap, stop trying to be a full contact soap opera, and start being the action packed promotion you can be. I like the way Hulk Hogan is used. I like a lot of the wrestlers. The Knockouts can wrestle. Just stop trying to be a reality show with situational drama & out of the box concepts that water down the actual product. I don’t care about the backstage meetings & hug fests going on. Make me believe these people want to tear each other apart in & out of the ring. This is Pro Wrestling, not a Boy Scout camping trip. Less weenie roasting, and more action! There are too many lulls for this to be called Non-stop.