Yo! Sup everybody? This is Scott Sumner, here with TN-Analysis week # 4. It really seems like I’ve been doing this for longer than I have but what do I know? I’m not father time. Last week I tried desperate measures to get emails, and boy did it work. I got a TON of email in just one day, and it just keeps coming. As long as you guys keep sending it, I’ll keep reading and giving you reasons to send more. I think I’ve finally found a good formula. I’m gonna try ending my columns with 3 questions, and filling the rest of it with YOUR emails, and MY replies to them. It seems alot better than the “random opinions” thing that I’ve been doing. Let me know how you like it.
We’re gonna kick this off with an email that I got from Chuck Betress.
Hey. Pretty good column you got here. Here are some answers.
1. I know Red hasn’t been appearing in Zero-One Max nor All Japan Pro Wrestling as of late, so I will just asume he is either injured or just going around in the indies. JAPW.com has a profile on him (nothing on it, just stating that he’s there) so I will assume that he will debut for them sometime in the future.
2. First NWA: TNA heavyweight champ was Ken Shamrock. He won a gauntlet match and then defeated Malice for the belt.
3. It would be weird for Dustin to bring the Goldust character to TNA. But since WWE owns the copyright, and Dustin has clearly stated in the past that he hates the gimmick, it will never happen.
Cheers,
Thanks. I appreciate the praise, and ego boost. I’m going to go ahead and clarify something about the questions that I asked. The question that I asked about the Amazing Red was because I have no clue, the 2nd one was to test the fan knowledge by asking a simple question, and the 3rd was to get some opinions. I think I’m going to follow this structure every week, and see how things come along. The answers that I got for the 1st question, were sort of split, but the one you gave me was the one that more people gave me, so I’d lean towards that being correct. The first NWA: TNA champion was indeed Ken Shamrock who one the gauntlet for the gold match. I can see where you’re coming from with the Goldust answer, but I can’t exactly say that I agree, however, it was an opinion question, and I’m glad to see that you have one.
This next one comes from Joe Selders.
Hey I read your column most of the time figured I throw out some answers to your questoins.
1) I think Red is dead or in Japan or something who knows for sure.
2) Ken Shamrock was the first TNA World Champ he won that gaunlet for the gold thing.
3) Dustin already kind of does the Goldust thing just without the gold jumpsuit. Every now and then he’ll throw out a movie quote, or do the heavy breathing crap and he still uses the shattered dream from time to time. Instead of gay gold guy now he is just a big gay Texan.
Anyway keep up the entertaining columns.
Again, thanks for the praise, it’s all very much appreciated. I don’t think that Red is dead (although it does make a funny, yet ironic rhyme), but being in Japan is an answer that I got frequently, so you get partial credit. Yes, Shamrock was the first TNA world champ. I never really thought about how he acts a little like Goldust, but now that you bring it to my attention, I have to agree. Dustin Rhodes = big gay Texan.
This one’s from Douglas Kalish.
I like TNA, so keep trying with the column. find your identity, because just sharing your opinions isn’t too much different than a message board. if it’s going to be fantasy booking, then do that, but figure out a way to make it interesting. pictures or nice formatting or book the next card or something. Ok, on to your questions… 1) I don’t know what happened to the Amazing Red. But if he comes back, hopefully he’ll have time to show a personality and not just be a guy a who flies around. 2) 1st NWA champ in TNA? Don’t be lazy. http://www.tnawrestling.com/information/heavy_history.shtml 3) Bring in CM Punk and let him wrestle Golddust. That might be an interesting mix of styles. Raven does need something to do. I say build him up, have him beat Jarrett for the belt, make friends with Christopher Daniels, and start a cool stable. When you have good bad guys, it’s easy to make superstar good guys. Hello AJ and Monty! Takes them up a level when they have the major feud in the TNA. Good luck with the column.
I appreciate the feedback, Doug. Finding my identity within the large market of internet wrestling journalism is difficult, but I believe that with my kick-ass personality, and dead sexy appearance I can create a distinct one. I agree, I’d like to see some personality from Red, but I’m not very sure that he had one. His wrestling ability was great, but he did seem to “borrow” alot of Rey Mysterio Jr.’s offense…I think he also borrowed his skin-tone from Kane because DAMN that kid was white. I appreciate you giving me the link, but come on, I’m writing a TNA column. OF COURSE I know who the first TNA champ was, I was testing YOUR knowledge. The CM Punk idea is original, and alot diffrent from the other answers I got. I loved CM Punk when he was in TNA a while back, and I’ve heard he’s doing great things in ROH, but I’m not sure that he’d be used against Goldust…It WOULD be interesting though. A Raven/Christopher Daniels stable would be awesome, GREAT idea. You have officially made me write 5 words in all caps, good job!
Next up, we have an email from Mike Sharn.
1. What ever happened to The Amazing Red? – I read that his contract ran out and he is going to compete in Jersey All Pro, Ring of Honor, and Japan which he did prior to TNA. 2. Who was the first NWA-TNA heavyweight champion? – Ken Shamrock; Ken would later return I believe around the second anniversary and joined up with Jarrett as a heel, though quickly was gone after that and returned to UFC. 3. How f*cked up would it be if Dustin Rhodes did his “Goldust” character in TNA? Not very because with Billy Gunn and X-Pac in TNA; if Rhodes started doing the Goldust character, it would be 1998 even more than before. Interesting column…
Your Amazing Red answer seems to be sort of consistent with the others so far, so give yourself a hand. Ken Shamrock was the first TNA champ, and you’re correct, Shamrock did return for another brief stint before returning to UFC. Very good answer about Goldust. 1998 was a great year for wrestling, unfortunately some of the best characters from that year never seemed to change. It’s a shame. I’m glad that you think of my column as interesting…but then again, even a dead rodent would be interesting through the right (or wrong) eyes, so I’m not sure if that’s a compliment or not.
This next one comes from the man they call Steve.
Hi there,
You seemed so desperate for mail that I thought I’d help you out!!
I should probably start off by saying that I live in the UK so I don’t get much of a chance to see any TNA at all, but I do read the reports and download the odd match as well as owning the Best of AJ DVD. In response to your questions, as far as I can remember Ken Shamrock was the first NWA:TNA champ. I may well be wrong, but some type of gauntlet match springs to mind.
As for Amazing Red, I think he just came back too soon from an injury and f*cked himself up even more. It’s a shame that he’s completely disappeared from TNA as he helped to set the tone for the X-Division. Seeing Goldust in TNA would be really weird, and I can’t believe that Dusty would be too keen on his son painted up like a freak and acting ambiguously.
I was wondering what you think that TNA will do with Monty Brown now that they’ve turned him? He seemed like the obvious person to take the title from Jeff Jarrett. With him out of the way, who do you think will be the person to do that? I’ve got a feeling that Monty will turn back again in a few months time, once they realise that they’ve missed the boat.
Anyway, thanks for writing a good column and covering something other than the WWE, and I hope this helps.
Hey! I’m not desperate, I’m just…Ok, Ok, I’m desperate. *cries* See what you’ve done? I’m glad to see that even fans that normally couldn’t see TNA, care enough to check it out over the internet. So even the UK guy knew the Ken Shamrock answer, maybe I should’ve asked something harder? A semi-new answer about Red, I’ll have to look into that one. I have only one thing to say about Dusty not wanting his son to be a big, gold fag on TV….Dusty was a big, polka dotted one for years on WWF TV. Thanks for the feedback, it always helps. Very much appreciated.
This one comes from my homie Vin Truncellito.
Yo, Bro!
It’s your man Vin Tastic.
Good column. I’d love to see Raven build a new “Flock”…
I believe Ken Shamrock was the first NWA:TNA World Champion…
Peace…
Glad to see you liked the column. You’re correct, Shammy-rock was the first TNA world champ.
This one is from Jonah Sperber.
1. He left TNA and was in talks with the WWE
2.Pretty sure it was Ken Shamrock
3. it would be pretty f*cked up but its chance of happening is basically nil since WWE owns the Golddust character and would never give another company permission to use it.
WHAT!? He left TNA and talked w/ WWE? Damn! I’m gonna have to look that one up as well. Yep you’re right. Yes, I agree…WWE wouldn’t let it happen.
This one’s from Darius Purse.
1. What ever happened to The Amazing Red? His contract with TNA was up and Dusty was not a big supporter of his, so he wasn’t going to be used and left. There were rumors he was trying to land a WWE development deal with his cousins the SAT. I don’t know why TNA would let talent like Red, Dutt, Kazarian, Swinger/Diamond , Shelley go unused or walk away, yet they have room for Trytan, David Young, DOD, and Phi Delta Slam. 2. Who was the first NWA-TNA heavyweight champion? I’m pretty sure it was Ken Shamrock 3. How f*cked up would it be if Dustin Rhodes did his “Goldust” character in TNA? I wish he could, that was the only time he was entertaining to me. I have to agree with you about Destination X, outside of Hardy vs Abyss and the Ultimate X Challenge it was really mediocre. The last couple of TNA ppvs have been average, hopefully Lockdown will change that. I think Christopher Daniels is a great X-Division champ and hopefully he will have the belt for a long time and if rumors are true A.J. Styles could be returning to the heavyweight division.
Your Red answer sounds about right…and yes, TNA is letting go of alot of good talent for some odd reason. You’re right, Kenny was the first. Se7en had an entertaining entrance…but Goldust really was the only entertaining version of Dustin Rhodes that I can think of. Thanks for the feedback.
Here’s what Richard had to say.
Good to see another quality TNA column. You’re dead on regarding Daniels as X-Division champ– he’s the right champion, though I wish they’d put other guys in line for number one contender status. And they won’t want to keep two heel champions very long, even though it would be very successful.
Answers:
1) A string of great indy matches, a Japan trip, a double knee injury, I think. Isn’t he just in a long post-surgical rehabilitation of some kind?
2) Ron Killings, the Suntanned Superman.
3) Extremely. Unless he brought back Old School Goldust, humping and kissing defeated foes. Creepy bondage mask Goldust would be great in TNA! His interviews/promos with Dusty would rule!
I’m not too sure, but I’ll be sure to look around and find out. Wow…you’re so wrong that it actually makes my asshole kind of hurt. Old School Goldust owned…even though he was really really really gay…that was weird.
Here’s one from my boy, Gary.
Dude, i dont ever want to see goldust ever agian. Unless hes on the recieving end of a seroius ass whoopin from Abyss and lots of other big scary mean people. Or maybe like you said, Raven can brainwash lots of little jobbers and have them stomp a mudhole in his goldusted ass and walk it dry.
I can’t disagree with the fact that Abyss kicking the hell out of Goldust would be hilarious. You seem to have a very strong vendetta against Goldustin…does he make you anal? Wow…that sounded all kinds of wrong.
And last but not least, this one is from The Phenominal Philipino/Puma/Brian…he’s got the Mick Foley-3 names thing going on here…
1. Amazing Red’s contract ran out and decided to do some work in Japan.
2. Ken Shamrock
3. He kind of is by the way his promos sound, doing all the weird little things he does.
I hope you’ll post this. Here is my full predicitions for LOCKDOWN
Six Sides of Wargames: Jeff Jarrett, Outlaw and Monty Brown vs. DDP, Nash and Waltman
Winners: DDP, Nash and Waltman; DDP will pin either Brown or Outlaw and setting up the revenge match: DDP vs. Monty Brown at Hard Justice, hence the name “HARD JUSTICE”, come on people, there is a reason for these PPV names.
Six Sides of Steel: AJ Styles vs. Abyss
Winner: AJ Styles by an awesome spot move and thus propelling him to the main event spot at Slamiversary to win the title from Jarrett.
X-Division Title: Christopher Daniels vs. Elix Skipper
Winner: Christopher Daniels; Long term champions equals a high quality champion. Afterthis, bring on Sabin and Michael Shane.
World Tag Team Titles: AMW vs. Team Canada (Probably Devine and Williams)
Winners: AMW; finally putting an end to their great feud and moving on to better things. Possibly a tag team dream match coming up: AMW vs. The New Age Outlaws?….
Canada vs. Texas: Dustin Rhodes vs. Bobby Roode
Winner: Bobby Roode via interference by my Canadian twin, Scott D.M. Bobby Roode is being groomed for the heavyweight division.
Jeff Hardy vs. Raven
Winner: Raven; Raven needs a good win over a popular face. I hope this match gets a good 12-15 minutes to give it some time to work.
Apollo vs. Lance Hoyt
Winner: Apollo; Another guy being groomed for an upper-mid carder status. I’d personally like to see Apollo vs. Monty Brown in a good power match up.
Predicted Match:
Chris Sabin vs. Michael Shane
Winner: Michael Shane; Shane needs a singles push b/c Kazarian left him hanging. I wish Kazarian would have stayed a little longer, I’d damn sure have like to seen AMW vs. Kazarian and Shane. But anyway, it gives Michael Shane some time to shine alone again.
Predicted Match:
Sonny Siaki vs. Kid Kash
Winner: Kid Kash; From watching impact, these two have a good feud brewing. Kash will win it anyway because Kash is the most undrated X-Division wrestler in my opinion.
There, I wrote half your coloumn for you. Maybe if things go right, we could be co-writers….maybe.
Ok..this one’s long. *cracks knuckles*. All of your answers sound about right, so I’m not gonna get into that. What I WILL get into however, is your PPV predictions. *gets lazy* You know…I’m not gonna run down the entire thing, because it really sounds like a solid card. Unfortunately, I have a strong feeling that TNA wouldn’t deliver the way that you predicte…there’s gotta be a lot of crap in there.
Well, that’s about it for this week, I got a ton of mail from last week, so let’s keep it up. I’m gonna try this new style, so let me know how u think it’s working, and keep in mind that in order for this to work, I’m going to need YOUR emails. Now, here’s your 3 questions.
1. “Because I have no clue” – What was the very first NWA-TNA match?
2. “To test your knowledge” – How many former NWO members have shown up in TNA?
3. “Voice your opinion” – Tell me in 200 words or less, what your favorite TNA match is, and why.
